
Foreign ticket holders from World Cup teams' countries won't have to pay bonds to enter U.S.
Good news for World Cup fans: U.S. suspends bond requirement for ticket holders!

Drug overdose deaths in the United States decreased by nearly 14% in 2025, marking the third consecutive year of decline. The CDC reported nearly 70,000 predicted overdose deaths, down from over 81,000 in 2024.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released data showing that deaths from drug overdoses fell by nearly 14 percent in 2025, continuing a third consecutive year of decline.
The data released on Wednesday shows that the US saw nearly 70,000 predicted overdose deaths in 2025, down from more than 81,000 in 2024.
The downward trend has been welcomed in the US, which has struggled with a devastating overdose crisis fuelled largely by synthetic opioids.
Overdose deaths peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 110,000 recorded in 2022, a surge associated with social isolation and obstacles to accessing treatment services.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that this represents really a fundamental change in the arc of the overdose crisis,” Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends, told The Associated Press news service.
Experts have attributed the decline to various factors, such as wider availability of the overdose treatment naloxone, commonly sold under the brand Narcan.
Testing strips that can detect fentanyl are also more common now, and regulatory changes in China have limited access to the chemicals used to manufacture the drug.
While overdose deaths declined in most US states in 2025, seven states saw increases. In Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, overdose deaths increased by 10 percent or more.
The administration of President Donald Trump, however, has pointed to the decrease overall as validation of its crackdown on drug trafficking. In a statement earlier this month, the White House said that drug overdoses continue to be one of the country’s “most urgent public health challenges”.
That theme was reprised on Wednesday by Kash Patel, Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
In a social media post, Patel asserted that his agency has seized enough fentanyl to kill more than 200 million Americans in 2025 and 2026. That sum amounts to more than half of the country’s population.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi previously stated that, during Trump’s first 100 days in office, the government had saved the lives of 119 million people through drug seizures. Bondi later increased the estimate up to as many as 258 million lives. Experts have widely panned such claims as overblown.
In 2025, the US saw nearly 70,000 predicted overdose deaths, a decrease from more than 81,000 in 2024.
Drug overdose deaths have declined for three consecutive years, with a nearly 14% drop reported in 2025.
The decline is seen as a positive shift in the overdose crisis, which was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic by social isolation and treatment access issues.

Good news for World Cup fans: U.S. suspends bond requirement for ticket holders!

Republican senators join Democrats, but Senate fails to curb Trump's Iran war powers.

Senate votes down seventh war powers resolution as GOP Senators break ranks.

Missouri man charged for posting bomb-making tutorials linked to New Orleans attack

Elias Calocane shares feelings of powerlessness over brother's mental health before tragic attack.

Netanyahu secretly visited the UAE amid the Iran conflict, achieving a diplomatic breakthrough.
See every story in News — including breaking news and analysis.
The Trump administration has cut government programmes aimed at preventing overdoses, prompting criticism from activists.
Last month, for instance, the administration announced that the government would no longer pay for testing strips that help drug users ensure that illicit substances are not tainted with fentanyl.