Fans of the beautiful game maybe haven’t been this universally angry since Diego Maradona scored that goal with his hand. Now, on the eve of the 2026 tournament, the soccer world’s outrage is aimed squarely at FIFA and its new pricing model, which has made tickets so expensive that thousands are still available.

According to the Financial Times:

• Nearly 180,000 World Cup tickets were still on FIFA’s official resale portal as of Monday.
• Around 4,400 of those were for the US team’s opening match against Paraguay this Friday in Los Angeles.

Put simply: “Had the tickets been priced more reasonably all along, they would all be sold out,” soccer reporter Henry Bushnell wrote for The Athletic. Instead, FIFA used dynamic pricing for the first time ever, making these the most expensive matches in World Cup history:

• From October 2025 (when tickets went on sale) to April, FIFA hiked ticket prices for the vast majority of games by an average of 35%, according to The Athletic.
• At the extreme end, the best tickets to the World Cup final tripled to ~$33,000 in May.
• But even the cheapest seats for the final and the group stage matches are more than three times as expensive as the cheapest Qatar 2022 tickets, according to The Economist.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has defended the sky-high prices as reflective of North American demand, but that argument appears to have some holes: Median prices on the FIFA resale portal’s plethora of tickets have fallen 20% since last month, and most resellers are set to lose money, the Financial Times reported.

Did FIFA’s plan backfire?

Maybe reputationally, but probably not financially: FIFA is projected to generate $11 billion in overall revenue from the 2026 World Cup, $3 billion of which would come from ticket sales. For context, ticket sales accounted for just ~$930 million of the 2022 World Cup’s $7.5 billion revenue.

But…FIFA could be in legal trouble. Several states have launched investigations into the governing body amid widespread allegations of artificial ticket scarcity and price deception.—ML

US strikes Iran in response to downed US helicopter. The US military launched “self defense strikes” against Iranian targets last night in retaliation for the downing of a US Army Apache helicopter, which was struck by an Iranian drone, officials said. Tehran said it would respond to the US’ strikes. Earlier in the week, President Trump said the downing of the Apache “wasn’t a big deal” and that its two crew members were safe and unhurt. The renewed tensions come as Trump insists that the US and Iran are close to ending the war, predicting that there could be a deal in “two or three days.” But hostilities in the Middle East are escalating. On Tuesday, Israel launched a new round of strikes on Lebanon, targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Anthropic releases “safe” version of Mythos AI model to public. The AI that Anthropic said was too powerful to be released to the public is now...being released to the public—but without the capabilities that made it so scary. Anthropic said that subscribers and enterprise customers can now access Claude Fable 5, a powerful Mythos-class model with guardrails that block dangerous queries. If a user asks about bioweapons or cybersecurity, for instance, they’ll be rerouted to a less-advanced model that won’t tell them how to commit crimes. Meanwhile, Anthropic is expanding the scarier version of Mythos to more companies to test it for security vulnerabilities.

NASA announces astronauts for Artemis III mission. Unfortunately, Major Tom didn’t make the cut. The US space agency said that Randy Bresnik (commander), Luca Parmitano (pilot), Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas will launch into Earth orbit next year as the crucial next step to putting humans back on the moon in 2028. The crew will test docking operations with two commercial lunar landers—one from SpaceX and the other from Blue Origin. But that’s only if they’re ready. Both companies are still building their respective landers, while Blue Origin suffered a major setback last month when one of its New Glenn rockets exploded on the launchpad.—AE

Push your mid-life crisis a few decades, you might be here awhile. Life Biosciences, a Boston-based longevity company, just started the first FDA-approved human clinical trial to turn back time on old cells. The trial is arguably the biggest tangible step yet for the longevity industry, which has historically failed to deliver on many of its life-extending promises.

How it works: Scientists injected their ER-100 drug into the eye of a patient suffering from glaucoma, attempting to rejuvenate cells in the optic nerve and restore sight. Life Biosciences is hoping to use this technology, known as cellular reprogramming, on other organs like the liver (and maybe someday the brain).

Don’t expect a pill to take you back to 21 any time soon. This trial is still in its beginning stages, and cellular reprogramming led to cancerous cells forming in some early research in mice. Plus, the company’s co-founder, Harvard geneticist David Sinclair, has a history of overhyping his longevity treatments.

Big picture: The long road to anti-aging isn’t stopping billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman, or Big Pharma companies like Eli Lilly and Merck, from dumping cash into other longevity startups.—MM

Construction of the church that’s taking longer than even your landlord’s effort to fix that leaky faucet is nearly finished. Pope Leo XIV is visiting Barcelona today to inaugurate the Sagrada Família’s 566-foot Tower ⁠of Jesus Christ, the completion of which recently made it the world’s tallest church.

Today’s date marks 100 years since the death of the mastermind behind the basilica’s funky design, the legendary Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. He took over the project shortly after construction began in 1882, envisioning its ornate towers with intricate sculptural compositions and natural motifs as a stone embodiment of the Bible.

After decades of construction delays due to the Spanish Civil War and funding shortfalls, it now stands as Spain’s most recognizable landmark, helping power the country’s tourism boom.

But there are earthly concerns

Not everyone thinks crowds of Gaudí-stanning gawkers are a godsend:

• Some locals complain that the surrounding neighborhood has become too touristy, while neighbors oppose a facade plan that would require the demolition of their homes.
• Sagrada Família hype comes amid a broader anti-tourism backlash blaming Barcelona’s hospitality industry for rising housing costs and for ruining the city’s character.

If you can’t make it to Barcelona in person…Lego is releasing a 12,060-piece version of the basilica, which hopefully will not take you 144 years to build.—SK

On Wednesdays, the Brew’s Sam Klebanov highlights a fascinating stock, commodity, or other asset that’s worth your attention.

A Latin American satellite maker’s stock is firing all engines. Shares of Satellogic are up 243% since the start of the year as it rides the Space X IPO hype just like its surveillance satellites ride atop SpaceX rockets into orbit.

Founded in Argentina and now based in Delaware, Satellogic competes on cost by producing its gizmos on the cheap in Uruguay:

• The company told Bloomberg that it's seeing growing interest from governments that want an affordable way to keep an eye on what’s happening around the world.
• Its satellites stand out by offering an ultra-granular view of the Earth, spotting details like cars and possibly even smoke from barbecues, according to its founder.

But…Satellogic has yet to have a profitable year. Its path to sustained profitability hinges on the success of its planned deployment of eight next-gen satellites beginning this fall.—SK