NYC offers 1,000 World Cup tickets at $50

May 22, 2026

Summary

New York City will offer 1,000 $50 World Cup tickets to residents through a lottery for seven matches at MetLife Stadium.

Why this matters

The move provides limited lower-cost access to World Cup matches for New York City residents amid concern over ticket prices. It also shows how host cities can use their ticket allotments to shape local access to major events.

New York City will offer 1,000 World Cup tickets at $50 to city residents for seven of the eight matches at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Thursday.

The tickets will not be available for the July 19 final, where some seats are costing nearly $33,000. The 82,000-seat stadium, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, will host five group-stage matches and two knockout games, in addition to the final.

The $50 tickets will include free round-trip bus transportation to the stadium and will be distributed through a lottery starting May 25.

Mamdani said the city would seek to ensure the tickets go to New York City residents and are not resold on the secondary market. He said the tickets will be nontransferable, with city officials using a “variety of ways” to verify residency. They will be handed directly to fans as they board buses on game day.

During his campaign, Mamdani called on FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, to reserve 15% of tickets at discounted prices for New Yorkers. He also launched a petition urging FIFA to reverse its plan to set ticket prices based on demand.

According to the mayor’s office, the $50 tickets will come not from FIFA, but from the allotment given to the New York-New Jersey host committee.

FIFA previously made some $60 tickets available for every match in the 2026 tournament in North America after criticism over high prices. Those tickets went to the national federations of participating teams, which decided how to distribute them to fans who had attended previous home and away matches.

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Disneyland faces suit over facial recognition use

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A Riverside County visitor filed a $5 million lawsuit against Disneyland, alleging the resort failed to properly disclose its use of facial-recognition technology and collected biometric data without adequate consent.

Summer Christine Duffield filed the lawsuit on May 15 in U.S. District Court in New York after visiting Disneyland and Disney California Adventure on May 10. The suit alleged Disney violated privacy and consumer protection laws by collecting visitors’ biometric data.

“Disney does not adequately disclose the use of their biometric collection, so consumers — which almost always include children — have no idea that Disney is collecting this highly sensitive data,” the plaintiff said in the lawsuit. “Guests should be able to expressly opt in to this type of sensitive facial recognition technology with written consent — the onus of privacy rights should not be on the victim.”

Disney’s privacy policy said identifiers created for identification are deleted within 30 days unless they must be kept for legal or fraud-prevention purposes.

Guests who do not want to use the technology can enter through a separate entrance marked with a silhouette of a head and shoulders with a slash through it. During an April visit, however, only four of the dozens of entry lines at Disneyland and California Adventure did not use facial recognition.

A sign at security checkpoint entrances said, “Use of this technology is optional.” Disney said on its website, “This technology facilitates ease of reentry into our parks and helps prevent fraud.”
Latin America

U.S. charges Raúl Castro, 5 pilots in 1996 downings

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U.S. authorities charged former Cuban President Raúl Castro and five fighter pilots in the 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue.

The indictment, announced Wednesday, accused Castro and the pilots of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals in the Feb. 24, 1996, attack, which prosecutors said occurred in international airspace and killed four Americans. Castro, now 94, was Cuba’s defense minister at the time.

According to the indictment, pilots in Cuba’s Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force carried out training missions around February 1996 “to find, track, pursue and intercept” aircraft off Cuba’s coast in anticipation of Brothers to the Rescue flights. Prosecutors said the training took place at Castro’s command and under the direction of an uncharged co-conspirator.

The five pilots were identified as Lt. Col. Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Lt. Col. Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, Emilio José Palacio Blanco, and Raúl Simanca Cárdenas.

The indictment alleged that Pérez-Pérez and an uncharged pilot shot down the two planes. Days later, Pérez-Pérez told Cuban state television that he had intercepted the first aircraft and warned it on orders from controllers, but that it did not comply.

Prosecutors said Castro authorized deadly force after Brothers to the Rescue planes dropped pro-democracy leaflets over Cuba in January 1996, and that he and Fidel Castro, then Cuba’s president, made the final decision on orders to kill.

Pérez-Pérez was previously indicted in the United States in August 2003 on murder, aircraft destruction, and conspiracy charges.

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Paris school abuse probe widens, 16 detained

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French police detained 16 people Wednesday in an investigation into suspected child abuse at nursery schools in central Paris, expanding a case that has raised scrutiny of the city’s after-school care system.

Several had already been suspended after abuse reports and a documentary that included hidden-camera footage of violence.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Sunday that investigators were examining allegations involving non-teaching staff at 84 nursery schools and about 20 primary schools across all 20 districts of the capital.

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Russia and Belarus held the final stage of joint nuclear drills Thursday, with road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles moving through forested areas, nuclear-powered submarines leaving Arctic and Pacific ports, and military crews deploying to warplanes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the exercises in a video call with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

“The use of nuclear weapons is an extreme, exceptional measure for ensuring the national security of our states,” Putin said.

Lukashenko earlier inspected Russian short-range, nuclear-capable Iskander ballistic missiles at a unit involved in the drills and said: “I dreamed about this machine a long time ago.”

The three-day exercise began Tuesday as Ukrainian drone strikes increased, including attacks on Moscow’s suburbs that killed three people and damaged buildings and industrial facilities.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the drills involved 64,000 troops, more than 200 missile launchers, more than 140 aircraft, 73 surface warships, and 13 submarines, including eight armed with nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The drills also practiced coordination with Belarus, which hosts Russian nuclear weapons, including the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system. Along with ground- and submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, the exercise included short- and medium-range weapons.

The Defense Ministry said Russian forces test-fired Yars and Sineva intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as sea-launched Zircon and air-launched Kinzhal missiles, and that all struck their designated targets. Belarusian troops test-fired a short-range Iskander missile inside Russia.

Putin has repeatedly highlighted Russia’s nuclear arsenal since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022. In 2024, the Kremlin adopted a revised nuclear doctrine saying a conventional attack on Russia backed by a nuclear power would be treated as a joint attack. The doctrine also extended Russia’s nuclear umbrella to Belarus.

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U.S. stocks reversed earlier losses and turned higher Thursday after reports said a U.S.-Iran agreement had been reached with Pakistani mediation, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there were “some good signs” that a deal to end the war in Iran could be near.

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Brent crude fell back to $104 per barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate dropped below $100. Expectations for an end to the war increased after Iranian media reported that a finalized deal, which would guarantee passage through the Strait of Hormuz and implement a ceasefire, would be announced imminently.

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The filing pointed to a target valuation of $1.5 trillion, with some market participants projecting $1.75 trillion. Polymarket as pricing a 70% chance that the valuation would exceed $2 trillion.

Based on 2025 revenue of $18.5 billion, the implied valuation was about 94 times sales. The average space company traded at about four times sales, while Nvidia reached about 30 times sales at the peak of the artificial intelligence boom.

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The settlement fully resolved the case brought by Breathitt County School District, according to a court filing. Co-defendants Alphabet’s YouTube, Snap, and TikTok had reached earlier settlements. The case had been set for a June 15 trial in federal court in Oakland, California.

“We’ve resolved this case amicably and remain focused on our longstanding work to build protections like Teen Accounts that help teens stay safe online, while giving parents simple controls to support their families,” a Meta spokesperson said.

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Gasoline prices in all 50 states, including along the Gulf Coast and in the Permian Basin region, were above $4 a gallon as drivers prepared for Memorial Day weekend.

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California, which relies heavily on fuel imports and has high taxes and fees, topped $6 a gallon. Other Western states remained well above the national average, while Gulf Coast states also moved above $4.

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An American doctor infected with Ebola said he was “cautiously optimistic” as he received treatment in Germany, though colleagues said he remained critically ill.

Dr. Peter Stafford contracted the disease while treating patients in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was evacuated to Charite University Hospital in Berlin.

“Before I was evacuated I was feeling really concerned I wasn’t going to make it, and now I’m cautiously optimistic,” Stafford said in a press release from Serge, the Christian missionary organization that employs him.

Dr. Scott Myhre, Serge’s area director for East and Central Africa, said Stafford was feeling better than he did Wednesday and was able to eat small amounts of food. Stafford first had fever, aches, and fatigue, but later developed vomiting and diarrhea. Myhre said his laboratory results were “trending slightly in the right direction.”

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