World Cup: Mexico fans make excessive noise outside Ecuador's hotel to prevent team from sleeping before match

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Chris CwikContributing writerTue, June 30, 2026 at 5:48 PM UTC·1 min read

How badly do Mexico's fans want their team to win the 2026 World Cup? Bad enough that they are willing to sacrifice their short-term well being as long as it hurts Team Ecuador.

Ahead of Mexico's game against Ecuador in the Round of 32 on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET, Fox), fans of Team Mexico took to the street overnight to loudly make noise just outside the hotel at which Ecuador was staying.

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The goal? Make sure players on Team Ecuador could not get a good night's sleep.

If videos from the evening are any indication, the gambit may have worked. Mexico's fans — who showed up between midnight and the early hours of the morning, per the Associated Press — were certainly loud, potentially even loud enough for players on Team Ecuador to hear cheers from their hotel rooms. Whether those cheers were loud enough to keep Ecuadorian players awake through the night remains to be seen. And even if that were the case, it's tough to imagine Team Ecuador would admit it before or after Tuesday's game.

The tactic — which was apparently organized by Team Mexico fans on social media — is not unusual in Latin America, per the AP.

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Because of that, it's possible Team Ecuador came prepared ahead of Tuesday's game. Maybe some ear plugs or white noise machines were enough to drown out the noise from the boisterous and highly motived fans of Team Mexico.

The only true way to know whether the tactic worked will be during Tuesday's game. If Team Ecuador comes out looking sluggish, fans of Mexico will know their efforts were not in vain.

Ford's AI experiment backfires as car giant rehires humans

Ford has admitted its push to rely heavily on AI fell short, revealing it has hired hundreds of veteran engineers after concluding the technology alone could not deliver the quality improvements it expected.

The US automaker has hired more than 350 veteran engineers over the past three years to help address quality problems that have cost the company billions of dollars.

Ford, however, insisted it is not abandoning AI and said the improvements have come from combining the technology with decades of engineering expertise.

'This reorg allowed us to look at the entire lifecycle of a vehicle – from software development to suppliers on our plant floor - as one continuous and collaborative flow,' a Ford spokesperson told the Daily Mail.

'At the same time, we have rallied the whole company around a clear vision: Quality Comes First. We've built a culture of relentless problem-solving and recognizing our teams when they prevent issues from reaching customers.

'Using AI is just a small part of this. One tool in a toolbox and culture that relies on experience and expertise as it does modern manufacturing tools.'

The so-called 'gray beard' engineers - many of them former Ford employees or recruits from suppliers - were brought in to reprogram the company's AI tools and tackle quality problems that have cost Ford billions of dollars.

'Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it's only as good as the information you use to train it,' Charles Poon, Ford's vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told Bloomberg and other reporters on a call Wednesday.

Ford has admitted its push to rely heavily on AI fell short, revealing it has hired hundreds of veteran engineers after concluding the technology alone could not deliver the quality improvements it expected

Chief operating officer Kumar Galhotra told the outlet the company implemented mandatory meetings to troubleshoot quality issues and reprogrammed AI tools to identify glitches before they occur

The US automaker has hired more than 350 veteran engineers over the past three years to help address quality problems that have cost the company billions of dollars

'Over prior years, we didn't pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles.'

Chief operating officer Kumar Galhotra told the outlet the company implemented mandatory meetings to troubleshoot quality issues and reprogrammed AI tools to identify glitches before they occur.

Galhotra acknowledged Ford's reliance on automated quality systems alone did not produce the 'desired results,' prompting the automaker to bring back technical specialists to 'hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor.'

Ford says pairing experienced engineers with its AI tools has helped improve vehicle quality.

'We're seeing our warranty coverages come down. We're seeing our recall costs come down,' Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley said Thursday on Bloomberg TV.

'These are all contributing to literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of a tailwind for Ford on cost.'

The company also remains on track to achieve its goal of cutting $1 billion in costs this year.

Ford learned that AI could not replace the expertise accumulated by longtime engineers.

Ford says pairing experienced engineers with its AI tools has helped improve vehicle quality

Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley said the company is seeing warranty and recall costs decline, helping drive hundreds of millions of dollars in savings

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'Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product,' Poon said.

He added that the only way to get the most out of the company's automation, machine learning and AI tools is to ensure 'they were trained by the most experienced individuals.'

The strategy appears to have paid off. Ford climbed to the top of J.D. Power's closely watched Initial Quality Study among mainstream brands, finishing ahead of rivals Toyota and Honda and behind only luxury brands Porsche and Genesis overall.

The result marked a significant turnaround after Ford ranked 10th among mainstream brands and below the industry average in last year's survey.

Three Ford models - the F-150 pickup, Super Duty truck and Mustang sports car - ranked highest in their respective categories.

Ford nevertheless remains the most recalled automaker in the US despite the improved quality rankings. The company said it expects about $1 billion in warranty and material costs this year.

Galhotra said recalls are a 'lagging indicator' of vehicle quality and predicted they would decline as newer models reach customers.

By focusing on preventing issues 'upfront,' he said Ford expects recall numbers to 'steadily come down with the newer vehicles.'

Kaley Cuoco Cried Filming ‘Big Bang Theory’ Breakup Scene Weeks After Real-Life Johnny Galecki Split

Kaley Cuoco had an emotional reaction to filming a breakup scene in The Big Bang Theory weeks after she and costar Johnny Galecki split in real life.

While appearing on the Monday, June 29, episode of “The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast,” director Anthony Rich recalled his first day on set which happened to be while filming the end of season 3. Rich, now 58, directed the episode “The Spaghetti Catalyst” which followed the aftermath of the breakup between Penny and Leonard, played by Cuoco and Galecki, respectively. The character’s split came shortly after the actors called it quits.

“There was a lot going on that week,” Rich joked, explaining that Cuoco and Galecki dated for “about two years” and split “four to six weeks earlier.”

Host Jessica Radloff added that Cuoco and Galecki handled the change in their personal lives “beautifully” as it was a “really difficult” situation.

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“So now their characters are breaking up, and this is just hitting a little too close to home,” she said.

Rich recalled while filming the post-breakup scenes for Penny and Leonard, both Cuoco and Galecki felt like the script was “not giving proper attention to the demise of the relationship.” Rich explained that the writers did not want to give fans a “real sad breakup episode.”

“People don’t wanna watch that. They’re here to laugh,” he said.

Rich also shared that when it was time for Galecki and Cuoco to reunite in front of the cameras “it was hard for them to even get through it.” Rich claimed that Cuoco “started sobbing” and went off stage to collect herself. When Rich went to check on her, they had a sweet heart-to-heart.

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“She goes, ‘I thought I could handle it, but it’s kinda catching up to me.’ And then she looks at me and she’s like, ‘And I’m ruining your episode.’ I was like, ‘You’re not ruining my episode,’” he recalled.

After the pep talk, Cuoco returned to film with Galecki. Rich praised both Cuoco and Galecki for being “such pros” during that time.

While Cuoco and Galecki’s characters ultimately got back together on The Big Bang Theory, the pair’s love story didn’t have the same ending in real-life. Cuoco found love with actor Tom Pelphrey whom she started dating in 2022. The couple share daughter Matilda, 2, and are currently expecting baby No. 2. In 2024, Johnny revealed he married wife Morgan Galecki and they quietly welcomed daughter Oona.

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