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Platner Pressured To Drop Out, NATO Summit In Turkey, US Out Of World Cup

Platner Pressured To Drop Out, NATO Summit In Turkey, US Out Of World Cup

Up First from NPR
Jul 7, 2026 14 min
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About this episode

Maine Democrat Graham Platner is facing growing calls to drop out of his Senate race after Politico published a former girlfriend's allegation of sexual assault, which he denies, in a blow to a party that saw the seat as key to retaking the Senate. <br>NATO leaders are gathering in Turkey with President Trump among them, as he presses allies to spend more on their own defense while they look for reassurance that the U.S. still stands behind the alliance. <br>And the U.S. men’s team’s World Cup run is over after a 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16, capping Team USA's tournament full of promise and political controversy.<br/><br/><em>Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? </em><a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/news"target="_blank" >Subscribe</a><em> to the Up First newsletter.</em><br/><br/>Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Tina Kraja, Jason Breslow, Russell Lewis, Alice Woelfle, and Mohamed ElBardicy<br/><br/>It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas<br/><br/>Our director is Christopher Thomas.<br/><br/>We get engineering support from Eowyn Fain. Our technical director is Damian Herring.<br/><br/>And our Supervising Senior Producer is Vince Pearson.<br/><br/>(0:00) Introduction<br>(01:51) Platner Pressured To Drop Out<br>(05:54) NATO Summit In Turkey<br>(09:34) US Out Of World Cup<br/><br/>See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

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