Up First from NPR - Holiday Weekend Politics, Iran Mourns Supreme Leader, US Vs Belgium World Cup Drama

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

America celebrated its 250th birthday against a backdrop of deep division, with white nationalists marching in Washington DC, counter protesters filling the Mall, and President Trump delivering a speech attacking Democrats as communists. Huge crowds are marching through Tehran for the funeral of Iran's former supreme leader as U.S.-Iran talks sit frozen until the mourning ends, while Israel's prime minister heads to Washington to talk with President Trump about Iran and the shaky ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza. And the U.S. faces Belgium tonight in the World Cup, but the bigger story is off the field, after President Trump called FIFA's president about a red card and the American player's suspension was suddenly lifted.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Tina Kraja, Russell Lewis, Mohamed ElBardicy and Lindsay Totty.It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Ben Abrams.Our director is Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott and Eowyn Fain. Our technical director is Damian Herring.(0:00) Introduction(01:55) Holiday Weekend Politics(06:47) Iran Mourns Supreme Leader(10:27) US Vs Belgium World Cup Drama See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

What could be more American than dueling points of view? President Trump marked Independence Day by talking about communists. New York's mayor gave his speech among naturalized citizens and spoke of immigrant contributions to America. I'm Michelle Martin. That's Steven Skipe. And this is up first from NPR News. Coming up, Israel wants to know where it fits into a U.S. agreement with Iran. Our colleague in Tel Aviv reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

has been seeking a meeting with President Trump. Also, the U.S. plays Belgium tonight in the World Cup with all of their top players available. Team USA's top score in the tournament received a red card, which would have meant his suspension tonight. And then FIFA, the soccer authority, suspended the suspension. Was there political interference? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. Americans celebrated the 4th of July in all kinds of ways. It was the 250th anniversary of the United States.

New York had so many fireworks, they set the Brooklyn Bridge on final. Other cities dodged extreme heat or thunderstorms and celebrated anyway. In Washington, a white nationalist group marched through the city, as did counter-protesters, while military jets flew over the city for much of the day. I think, Michelle, you were watching and listening to that as we went through the day. The D.C. fireworks began very late, delayed by a thunderstorm, and by a speech by the president, who started after 11 o'clock. Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world,

only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. The weekend offered contrasting views of America, and NPR's Mara Liason was watching and listening to much of it. Mara, good morning. Good morning, Steve. What was your impression of the president's speech? The president's speech was overtly political. Just like his speech on Friday at Mount Rushmore,

he excoriated Democrats using his latest epithet for them, communists. He's trying to use to his advantage the fact that a handful of members of the Democratic Socialists of America won some primaries, which in deep blue districts in places like New York City may not matter that much, since the districts are likely to elect a Democrat in the general election.

But there are many Democrats who are worried that in some swing states and districts, they could be nominating candidates who are too far to the left to win. So the president and the Republicans are trying to take advantage of this, and they're using the communist label, as well as some of the positions found

on the Democratic Socialist for America website, like defund the police, abolish ICE, free all incarcerated individuals, and they're trying to paint the entire Democratic Party as too far to the left and as communists. Well, the highest profile person on the left in the United States right now is probably Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City,

who was focused in his own public presentations on practical governance in New York, and he certainly hasn't been shy about the spotlight, gave his own speech over this holiday weekend. How different was his view of America? It was very different. Mamdani gave a speech on July 3rd at New York City's City Hall to a group of newly naturalized citizens. And his speech really was the opposite of Donald Trump's. He criticized the constant denigration of immigrants. Here's what Mamdani said. American exceptionalism, the conventional wisdom tells us,

makes our freedom a little more free. Is how we dug the Erie Canal and irrigated the West. Is why children in faraway lands grow up dreaming of one day moving here. And yet the irony is that the story of America, has so often been written by those who were told by others with power and influence and wealth, that they were anything but exceptional. Mamdani said that instead America should continue to be a place of asylum for the persecuted, and he described a kind of patriotism that sees the nation's flaws and embraces dissent. Mara, listening to you, you noted that's the alternative view, the alternative view to the administration.

But in many of the decades of politics that you've covered, I think that would have been the normal bipartisan view of America, that it's a nation of immigrants, that we work on our flaws. Right, absolutely. It's almost a nostalgic view, a kind of retro view of what makes America great. But in this case, standing up for immigrants and talking about how they are great contributions to America and actually made America great is now considered the opposition viewpoint. Mara, the president moves on, of course, as I guess we all must.

He's heading to a NATO meeting this week. What do you expect? That's right. Since Trump came into office for a second term, he has continued to attack NATO allies. He's complained that NATO doesn't do enough to help the United States. He's reduced the number of U.S. troops stationed in Europe. He's threatened to take Greenland by force. He's also threatened to make Canada the 51st state.

And he has repeatedly called into question America's, commitment to Article 5, which of course is the beating heart of NATO. It says an attack on one is an attack on all. So the Europeans are now pretty desperate trying to figure out how they can predict themselves against potential Russian aggression without the United States. And the summit will tell us how far apart the U.S. and its European allies are on the war in Ukraine. Russian news outlets reported that Trump and Putin spoke for about 90 minutes this weekend, but the White House has not confirmed that. Of course, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have had many conversations over the years that produce little or no movement on the Ukraine war. And Piersmar Elias, and thanks so

much. You're welcome. Huge crowds are following the funeral procession for Iran's former Supreme Leader Ali Hamenei through the streets of Tehran today. Hamine was killed on the first day of the U.S. Israeli war on Iran, so were four of his family members, and their caskets are also in the procession. A shaky truce remains in place between the U.S. and Iran, and Israel is still trying to find its place within a ceasefire. It did not negotiate and did not approve. NPR's Carrie Khan is covering all this from Tel Aviv. Hi, Carrie. Hi, good morning. What does the funeral look like in Tehran? Well, we're watching it on state media, and we see these large crowds surrounding this huge semi-truck, and it's adorned in white paneling, and it's carrying the caskets of the former

Supreme Leader and his family members. Iranian officials say they had to wait months. for the funeral because of the, quote, war conditions. They were afraid of attacks possibly on such a large public crowd. Key mediators in the war sent officials there, Pakistan's prime ministers there, and Qatar sent a delegation as well as Saudi Arabia, long-time rival of Iran. Meanwhile, indirect talks in Doha to hash out the details to end the war between the U.S. and Iran are on hold. That's according to Qatar's foreign minister, and that's until the funeral ends in a few days. as you know very well, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is not part of those talks that you mentioned. How is Israel's prime minister trying to get back in the game here? A source familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly about the visit

tells NPR that Netanyahu has been asking Trump for a face-to-face meeting for some time, but was repeatedly turned down until now. He wants to talk about Iran and looking for U.S. approval for potential Israeli military action against Iran. Iran, if, quote, that becomes necessary. Netanyahu has been on the defensive here about that interim deal. It's very unpopular in Israel. It's seen as being too lenient to Iran. And the prime minister who faces elections this fall has had to defend his relationship with Trump. Here he is on Fox News yesterday. Our alliance has been a terrific one. And it'll continue to the extent that I have anything to do with it and the people of Israel who are unabashedly pro-American. We're not

sure exactly when Netanyahu will meet with Trump at the White House. First, Trump will attend the NATO summit this week in Turkey. But remember, too, that that 60-day deadline to hash out the details of the preliminary peace plan to end the war, it's about a month away now. You mentioned that Israelis do not like the terms with Iran. They seem especially not to like the idea that they would be limited in their actions in Lebanon. How is the ceasefire there going? We still see near daily strikes in Lebanon, which Israel insists are defensive tactics that they have to use to stop Hezbollah militants there. Lebanon's president, though, yesterday defended the U.S. brokered ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. He said, look, it has its flaws, but for now

it's the best that will, quote, get us out of wars. His government is getting a lot of heat this weekend, too, Steve, these bright electronic billboards projecting huge American flags and saying, Happy Fourth of July led up highways and roads around Beirut. Many took to social media to condemn them, saying, remember, it's U.S. weapons Israel uses to attack Hezbollah that, according to Lebanese authorities, have killed more than 4,000 people there and displaced more than a million. Really interesting. In Pierce, Kerry Khan in Tel Aviv. Thanks so much. You're welcome. The U.S. faces its toughest World Cup matchup tonight, Belgium. The winner goes to the quarterfirm.

The match is still hours away, but controversy off the pitch has already kicked off. It's the news that President Trump spoke directly to FIFA's president about a red card given to an American player. NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan is in Seattle for today's game and is with us now to tell us about this whole thing. So Becky, fill us in on this whole thing. Yeah, Michelle, this is a wild one. I mean, so this all started last week when the U.S. striker, Falarn, Baligan, was shown a red card in the American's game against Bosnia, Herzegovina. Of course, a red card automatically comes with the one game suspension in the following game. That's supposed to be today.

But now we've learned that after that game last week, President Trump called FIFA President Johnny Infantino directly to ask about the red card desk why the suspension was necessary. That's according to an official with knowledge of the conversation who spoke to NPR and condition of anonymity to discuss this private conversation. Then yesterday, a FIFA disciplinary committee made this very bare bones announcement saying that they were going to suspend Balagan's suspension. by a year, basically allowing him to play against Belgium. So the fact of this phone call, coupled with FIFA's highly unusual decision to allow Balagan to play, has the soccer world just totally up in arms. You say it's highly unusual. Like, what did FIFA say about why they're letting Balagan play?

I mean, I think that's the thing. They said very little about why they are making this decision, which is adding to the controversy, I think, especially because this was just a challenging red card from the very start. It wasn't a clear, obvious foul. the contact looked very much unintentional. And in fact, the referee on the field didn't even give a foul initially. The red card came only after a video replay review of the play in slow motion.

There's questions about whether slow-mo review was even appropriate on that kind of play. And then also similar contact between players and other games in this tournament have gone unpunished. And yet this got a red card. And so, you know, clearly there's questions, but FIFA has not been transparent about answering them, this whole process by which they have reached this result. I think raises a lot of questions. and it's not the first time that FIFA has been criticized for a lack of transparent explanation for a red card decision even at this World Cup because FIFA allowed Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo

to play in the first two games of the World Cup despite having been given his own suspension for three games in a qualifying match last fall for elbowing a player. He should have sat out those first two games, but FIFA made the exception. And so it's just been tremendously messy. What's the U.S. team saying about this? You know, they said in a statement that they are pleased about the decision. The players themselves found out on the team bus yesterday morning, actually, as they were on their way to training. They arrived right before talking to the media. And so these guys came out and just immediately gave us their fresh reactions.

And so here, Starwinger, Christian Policic reacting to the news. Yeah, it was extremely harsh. So if you want to call it justice, you want to call whatever. I mean, we were prepared to play without him. We've been granted this now opportunity to have him, which is great for us. I'm mostly just happy for him. I've seen that smile on his face. He deserves to be playing in this game.

And coach Maricio Poitino said he thought that FIFA had made the fair decision because he thought it should have never been a red card at all. Okay. What about other teams? Are other teams commenting on this? Yeah. I mean, well, certainly the Belgian Football Federation is against it. They said in a statement that they were astonished by the decision. They said they were going to pursue all potential avenues for recourse, you know, in a press conference and just the routine pregame press conference, the Belgian coach, Rudy Garcia said that he felt like April Fool's Day and said that, you know, you know, with its pursuit of recourse, that the Belgian Football Federation wasn't just defending the national team, but that they were defending all of football, the integrity, the ethics of the game. Some coaches of other teams that played on Sunday were asked about this whole situation and they had strong words. And one of the things that they asked was, you know, what

happens with the next red card? What happens with the next yellow card? What happens then? Are those going to be reviewed a similar way, you know, Norway's coach just said this was a bad decision that's going to hurt the World Cup. That's NPR's Becky Sullivan. Becky, thank you. You're welcome. Although it's Monday, we would invite you to tune in to the Sunday story here in the Up First podcast feed. For decades, Chicago has dominated Illinois politics,

and now rural residents say they've had enough. There comes a time of reckoning, and we're getting very close. On the Sunday story, Secession is brewing in the land of Lincoln, who had an opinion about secession, as I recall. You can listen to the Sunday story now right here in the Up First podcast. from NPR News. And that's up first for this Monday, July 6th. I'm Steve Inskeep.

And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snill, Tina Kriya, Russell Lewis, Mohamed Elberdisi, and Lindsay Toddy. It was produced by Zia Butch and Ben Abrams. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott and Aowin Fain. Our technical director is Damian Herring. Join us again tomorrow.