World Cup kickoff in NJ: The 48-team FIFA World Cup starts June 11, with the final set for MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey on July 19—plus a full schedule release and a reminder that costs and congestion are already driving debate across the region. Security and immigration pressure: Federal and local officials are ramping up national security for the tournament, while immigration enforcement concerns are spilling into fan travel plans, including reports of high-profile entry denials. Ticket access fight in the Garden State: Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced a deal to provide free World Cup tickets for NJ residents, aiming to address earlier complaints that New Jersey wasn’t getting the same opportunities as New York. Local governance and oversight: The Delaware River Port Authority and the NJ comptroller’s office reached an agreement to settle a subpoena dispute, ending a bistate watchdog standoff. Public safety leadership: Bayonne mayor-elect Sharon Ashe Nadrowski named her brother, longtime Bayonne police officer James Ashe, as public safety director. Business/tech in Princeton: Neurealm launched GovernOps, an AI-powered cloud governance and operations offering built with CoreStack. Science win: Rutgers physicist Eva Andrei became the first Rutgers professor to earn the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience.