Category World News

Qatar are the headline news in the latest group of confirmed entrants for next year’s FIFA 2026 World Cup following the most recent round of qualifying matches.

The hosts of the 2022 edition of the global showpiece event reached the finals for the first time through the qualification route, when they beat the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.

South Africa also clinched a tight group, with fellow African giants Nigeria pushed to the playoffs, on a tense final day of group stage qualifiers on the continent. This came a day after Cape Verde’s first qualification for the World Cup finals.

The European teams still have some way to go to finish their qualifying groups, but the picture has become far clearer with some progress already made.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a close look at how the qualifying process stands around the globe:

Which teams are in the FIFA World Cup 2026?

After the latest round of qualifying matches, here is a breakdown of the confirmed contenders from each of the six regions:

Hosts: Canada, Mexico, United States

Asia: Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uzbekistan

Africa: Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia

Europe: England

Oceania: New Zealand

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay

Who can still qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026?

Africa: Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Nigeria will play off for the final intercontinental spot from the continent. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has yet to announce the dates for those matches.

Asia: The UAE and Iraq will vie for one intercontinental playoffs spot when they compete over two legs in the final stage of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers in November.

Europe: 53 of the 54 European teams vying for 16 qualification spots can still confirm their berths, alongside England, as their first-round matches will run until November 18.

North, Central America and the Caribbean: With the World Cup host nations taking three spots, only three are left up for grabs. They will be decided on November 18. Bermuda, Costa Rica, Curacao, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have all advanced to the third round. The three second-placed teams from each group will then fight for the intercontinental playoffs spot.

Oceania: New Caledonia have qualified for the intercontinental playoffs.

South America: Bolivia have qualified for the intercontinental playoffs, having missed out on one of the six automatic qualifying positions.

28/48 ✅@Aramco | #WeAre26 pic.twitter.com/eaksBnrBYM

Which major teams have been eliminated from qualification?

Peru and Chile, who were third-place finishers in 1962, were the biggest names to miss out from the South America qualifiers, where Venezuela were also eliminated.

Although not considered a powerhouse in Asia, China will be disappointed not to reach their first finals since 2002.

Angola, Libya, Mali and Namibia will be among those disappointed to be eliminated from the African qualification.

Indonesia were hoping to reach only a second World Cup, and made a valiant run to the fourth round of AFC qualification. But they will be disappointed not to have gone one step further following their Dutch recruitment drive, which included their coach, Patrick Kluivert.

Bahrain, who topped their 2023 AFC Asian Cup group stage ahead of South Korea, only to be eliminated by Japan in the round of 16, will be deflated to have missed out on the chance to showcase their skills on the global stage. Palestine were only seconds away from reaching the fourth round of the AFC qualifier and, following their historic run to the knockout stage of the last Asian Cup, will also be disappointed not to have at least gone one step further in their continental qualifiers.

When will all the teams for the FIFA World Cup 2026 be confirmed?

European qualification rounds stretch beyond the current group stages to March, while the intercontinental playoff final is scheduled for the same month, so the final 48 teams for the World Cup will not be known until less than three months before the tournament. March 31, 2026, is when all qualification will come to an end.

When and where is the draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026?

The World Cup draw, as revealed by US President Donald Trump in August, will take place on December 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

“It’s the biggest, probably the biggest event in sports, I guess,” said Trump, who made the announcement in an Oval Office event where he was joined by Vice President JD Vance and FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Trump also did not rule out overseeing the draw himself.

When is the FIFA World Cup 2026 scheduled?

The United States and China have started charging additional port fees on ocean shipping firms that move everything from holiday toys to crude oil, making the high seas a key front in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

A return to an all-out trade war appeared imminent last week, after China announced a major expansion of its rare earths export controls, and US President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to triple digits.

But after the weekend, both sides sought to reassure traders and investors, highlighting cooperation between their negotiating teams and the possibility they could find a way forward.

China said it had started to collect the special charges on US-owned, operated, built or flagged vessels, but it clarified that Chinese-built ships would be exempted from the levies.

In details published by state broadcaster CCTV, China spelled out specific provisions on exemptions, which also include empty ships entering Chinese shipyards for repair.

Similar to the US plan, the new China-imposed fees would be collected at the first port of entry on a single voyage or for the first five voyages within a year.

“This tit-for-tat symmetry locks both economies into a spiral of maritime taxation that risks distorting global freight flows,” Athens-based Xclusiv Shipbrokers said in a research note.

Early this year, the Trump administration announced plans to levy the fees on China-linked ships to loosen the country’s grip on the global maritime industry and bolster US shipbuilding.

An investigation during the administration of former US President Joe Biden concluded that China uses unfair policies and practices to dominate the global maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors, clearing the way for those penalties.

China hit back last week, saying it would impose its own port fees on US-linked vessels from the same day the US fees took effect.

“We are in the hectic stage of the disruption, where everyone is quietly trying to improvise workarounds, with varying degrees of success,” said independent dry bulk shipping analyst Ed Finley-Richardson. He said he has heard reports of US shipowners with non-Chinese vessels trying to sell their cargoes to other countries while en route, so the vessels can divert.

The Reuters news agency was not immediately able to confirm this.

Tit-for-tat moves

Analysts expect China-owned container carrier COSCO to be the most affected by the US fees, shouldering nearly half of that segment’s expected $3.2bn cost from the fees in 2026.

Major container lines, including Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM, slashed their exposure by switching China-linked ships out of their US shipping lanes. Trade officials there reduced fees from initially proposed levels, and exempted a broad swath of vessels after heavy pushback from the agriculture, energy and US shipping industries.

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

China’s Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday said, “If the US chooses confrontation, China will see it through to the end; if it chooses dialogue, China’s door remains open.”

In a related move, Beijing also imposed sanctions on Tuesday against five US-linked subsidiaries of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, which it said had “assisted and supported” a US probe into Chinese trade practices.

Hanwha, one of the world’s largest shipbuilders, owns Philly Shipyard in the US and has won contracts to repair and overhaul US Navy ships. Its entities will also build a US-flagged LNG carrier.

Hanwha said it is aware of the announcement and is closely monitoring the potential business impact. Hanwha Ocean’s shares sank by nearly 6 percent.

China also launched an investigation into how the US probe affected its shipping and shipbuilding industries.

A Shanghai-based trade consultant said the new fees may not cause significant upheaval.

“What are we going to do? Stop shipping? Trade is already pretty disrupted with the US, but companies are finding a way,” the consultant told Reuters, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the media.

The US announced last Friday a carve-out for long-term charterers of China-operated vessels carrying US ethane and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), deferring the port fees for them through December 10.

Meanwhile, ship-tracking company Vortexa identified 45 LPG-carrying VLGCs — an acronym for very large gas carriers, a type of vessel — that would be subject to China’s port fee. That amounts to 11 percent of the total fleet.

Clarksons Research said in a report that China’s new port fees could affect oil tankers accounting for 15 percent of global capacity.

Meanwhile, Omar Nokta, an analyst at the financial firm Jefferies, estimated that 13 percent of crude tankers and 11 percent of container ships in the global fleet would be affected.

Trade war embroils environmental policy

In a reprisal against China curbing exports of critical minerals, Trump on Friday threatened to slap additional 100 percent tariffs on goods from China and put new export controls on “any and all critical software” by November 1.

Administration officials, hours later, warned that countries voting this week in favour of a plan by the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from ocean shipping could face sanctions, port bans, or punitive vessel charges.

China has publicly supported the IMO plan.

The US President has urged leaders in the Middle East to move past conflict.

United States President Donald Trump has pledged to boost Argentina’s economy with a $20bn currency swap — but only if the South American country’s right-wing president prevails in the upcoming elections.

That president, the self-described anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei, was in Washington, DC, on Tuesday for his latest visit to the White House.

“We think he’s going to win. He should win. And if he does win, we’re going to be very helpful,” Trump said. “And if he doesn’t win, we’re not going to waste our time, because you have somebody whose philosophy has no chance of making Argentina great again.”

Since taking office in December 2023, Milei has made at least a dozen trips to the US, including to attend Trump’s second inauguration. The two leaders share a strong public bond.

But Milei’s latest meeting with Trump comes as his political coalition, La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances), faces a series of scandals heading into Argentina’s midterm elections on October 26.

Trump appeared eager to help Milei overcome his drooping poll numbers on Tuesday, as he hosted the Argentinian leader in the White House’s cabinet room.

He explained to reporters that the economic safety net that the US was giving to Argentina was his way of “helping a great philosophy take over a great country”.

“ You’re going to win the election,” Trump told Milei. “We’re going to endorse you. I’m going to endorse you today, fully endorse you. People in Argentina like me. A lot of people like me.”

A conditional bailout

The conditional nature of the Argentinian bailout, however, has raised questions about Trump’s commitment to propping up Argentina’s ailing economy.

Milei’s surprise victory in the 2023 presidential election was widely seen as a backlash against the previous left-wing government of Alberto Fernandez, under whose leadership inflation spiralled to more than 200 percent.

However, while Milei has reduced inflation, the value of the Argentinian peso remains low, and critics have accused the South American president of slashing government programmes for low-income residents, exacerbating poverty.

One reporter on Tuesday asked Trump outright if the US’s support for Argentina depended on a win for La Libertad Avanza in the upcoming elections.

“ Well, I think if they don’t do that, we’re not going to be around very long,” Trump replied.

The US president then mused about a potential loss for Milei’s party. “We would not be generous with Argentina if that happened. If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina.”

Trump also alluded to the potential for further economic turmoil should Milei’s “extremely far-left” rival prevail, though it was unclear which opposition figure he was referring to.

Milei himself is not on the ballot on October 26, but his party, La Libertad Avanza, will be competing for half the seats in Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies and a third in its Senate.

Control of Argentina’s National Congress will determine whether Milei can continue to carry out his wide-reaching austerity measures, among them a push to overhaul the federal government.

Milei himself has illustrated the dramatic nature of his cost-cutting campaign by turning to props: He was known for wielding a chainsaw on stage during his presidential bid and whacking piñatas emblazoned with the name of Argentina’s Central Bank.

Backlash to Milei

But while Milei’s victory in the 2023 presidential race was a strong rebuke to Argentina’s left wing, more recent races have shown public support for his agenda cooling.

On September 7, the province of Buenos Aires, where the capital is located, held elections for its congressional seats, and La Libertad Avanza was trounced by a rival coalition, the left-wing Justicialist Party.

That party took more than 46 percent of the vote, compared with La Libertad Avanza’s 34 percent.

Also that month, Milei suffered a personal scandal when his sister and close associate, Karina Milei, was implicated in a case of alleged bribery.

Karina Milei serves as secretary-general to the presidency, and leaked audio released to Argentinian media appears to show the then-head of the National Disability Agency accusing her of accepting kickbacks in exchange for government contracts.

Both of the Milei siblings have denied the charges, and so far, Javier has stood by his sister. The resulting scandal, however, has cast a stark spotlight on Milei’s actions as president.

Milei had vetoed congressional legislation that would have increased benefits for people with disabilities, but in September, Argentina’s Congress pushed back, forming an overwhelming supermajority to overturn his veto, by a vote of 63 to seven.

It has since repeated the feat, overriding Milei’s vetoes to restore congressional funding for universities and paediatric healthcare.

Still, despite the setbacks, Trump and his officials used Tuesday’s meeting as a platform to promote Milei’s agenda and project confidence in his party’s midterm prospects.

“We think he’s going to do quite well and then continue his reform agenda,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent told reporters.

Projecting confidence

Like Trump, Bessent underscored that the $20bn promised to Argentina was hinged on Milei’s electoral successes.

A return to the left-wing Peronist policies of the previous administration, with its emphasis on social justice, would not be tolerated, he added.

“We’re confident that the president’s party will — and the coalition will — do well in the election, and this aid is predicated on robust policies,” Bessent said. “Going back to the failed Peronist policies would cause a US rethink.”

Trump, meanwhile, acknowledged that Argentinian voters may be experiencing “some pain” as a result of Milei’s economic reform.

But he defended Milei, arguing that “Argentina would be lost if he wasn’t there”.

When asked what his advice would be to the South American leader, Trump used the question to blame the news media for presenting Milei in a bad light.

“My advice is to hold strong to his principles, because he’s right, and he’s proving that he is right. He’s got one problem. He’s got people that are giving him tremendously bad press,” Trump said.

“Everybody knows he’s doing the right thing. But you have a radical-left sick culture that’s a very dangerous group of people, and they’re trying to make him look bad.”

The remarks were a reflection of Trump’s own adversarial relationship with the press. During his appearance with Milei, Trump once again took the opportunity to slam domestic journalism outlets like ABC News, labelling the channel “fake news”.

Trump, who campaigned on an “America First” platform, has faced scrutiny over his outreach to Argentina.

The $20bn currency swap — wherein US dollars will be sent to Argentina in exchange for pesos to help boost their value — comes after Bessent said he would take “exceptional measures” to stabilise the South American country.

That includes withdrawing from the Exchange Stabilization Fund, an emergency fund that falls under the Treasury’s authority.

On Tuesday, Trump even joked that he was willing to send missiles to Argentina to help Milei combat his opposition.

“Do you need any Tomahawks in Argentina?” Trump quipped, to polite chuckles. “You need them for your opposition, I guess.”