The World Cup group stage entered its final showdown, Venezuela was hit by strong quakes, and the Strait of Hormuz saw fresh turbulence

Over the past 24 hours, Brazil, Mexico, and Morocco reached the World Cup knockouts, while South Africa entered the last 32 for the first time. Venezuela suffered powerful earthquakes, a cargo ship was attacked near Oman, Europe endured record heat, Congo tightened Ebola travel rules, Anthropic accused an Alibaba-linked team of extracting Claude capabilities, Micron surged on AI memory demand, and Kenyan protesters were dispersed again.