NPR News: 07-31-2026 8PM EDT
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. FIFA is abandoning a controversial plan to sell stakes of the World Cup to private investors after opposition from European countries. The private investors included a firm run by Joshua Kushner, brother of President Trump's son-in-law. It's a stunning defeat for FIFA president Gianni Infantino, a Trump ally just weeks after the lucrative Men's World Cup.
Why did FIFA abandon the plan to sell World Cup stakes to private investors?
Some EU countries are calling for Spain's borders to be closed as the country tries to deal with an influx of tens of thousands of migrants from Morocco. Terry Schultz reports the EU Commission chief calls the situation unacceptable.
Spanish authorities say they've turned back roughly half the people who arrived in the tiny Spanish town of Ceuta by land or sea from Morocco. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen says she's assigned officials to help Spain manage the situation, insisting the crossings must stop immediately and that smuggling networks must be dismantled. She underscores that people entering the block must be returned quickly. Several EU governments have called for the suspension of Spanish participation in the passport-free Schengen system so that the migrants cannot travel on into other countries. The Italian government says it's temporarily closed its air and sea borders with Spain, and France announced it will step up controls at the Spanish border.
For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels.
Major oil companies reported massive profits while fighting between Iran and the U.S. drove up the price of oil. ExxonMobil and Chevron both more than doubled their profits in the second quarter. Some lawmakers have proposed taxing oil producers for war-related windfalls, as NPR's Camilla Dominovsky reports.
We've seen Democrats in Congress and some leaders in Europe call for windfall taxes on oil. These are special taxes on unusually high profits. The logic being that these companies didn't make so much money by innovating. It was because of this geopolitical crisis that was outside of their control that made the thing they sell a lot more valuable, right? Europe had a windfall tax after prices spiked back when Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Unsurprisingly, this is something that oil companies oppose.
NPR's Camilla Dominovsky reporting. New York is suing the prediction market company, Kalshi, calling it an illegal gambling operation. As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, the Trump administration is backing the controversial industry.
What are EU countries demanding as Spain faces a migrant influx from Morocco?
New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit seeks to have the country's biggest prediction market company banned. The suit is also asking a court to force Kalshi to forfeit all of its billions of dollars in profits to the state. It's the latest legal showdown between states and the prediction market industry led by PolyMarket and Kalshi. 44 states recently wrote the Trump administration asking that the booming companies be regulated like any other gambling operation. But the industry has the support of the White House, which argues the federal government should oversee the sector. In New York, legal online gambling is subject to a 51% tax rate. Kalshi, as a prediction market company, avoids that altogether.
Bobby Allen, NPR News.
This is NPR. Hungary's only nuclear power plant is shutting down for the first time due to record low water levels on the Danube River. The plant uses river water to cool its reactors and it's operating at less than half capacity. Hungary has been experiencing a prolonged drought. Most kids in the U.S. are getting a daily dose of caffeine. A new National Center for Health Statistics report looks into how much and where it's coming from. NPR's Ping Huang has more.
More than 60 percent of U.S. youth consume caffeine on a given day. Younger kids ages 2 to 11 are getting it from sweet bakery products like those made with chocolate or coffee powder and candy, flavored milk and other beverages. Adolescents ages 12 to 19 are getting caffeine from soda, those bakery products and tea or coffee.
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