Holiday Weekend Politics, Iran Mourns Supreme Leader, US Vs Belgium World Cup Drama
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 6 July 2026
⏱️ 15 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Summary
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.
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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
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What could be more American than dueling points of view? |
| 0:05.2 | President Trump marked Independence Day by talking about communists. |
| 0:08.6 | New York's mayor gave his speech among naturalized citizens and spoke of immigrant contributions to America. |
| 0:14.6 | I'm Michelle Martin. |
| 0:15.6 | That's Steven Skipe, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:18.5 | Coming up, Israel wants to know where it fits into a U.S. agreement with Iran. This is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:24.9 | Coming up, Israel wants to know where it fits into a U.S. agreement with Iran. |
| 0:30.1 | Our colleague in Tel Aviv reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been seeking a meeting with President Trump. |
| 0:34.7 | Also, the U.S. plays Belgium tonight in the World Cup with all of their top players available. |
| 0:38.1 | Team USA's top score in the tournament received a red card, |
| 0:42.9 | which would have meant his suspension tonight, and then FIFA, the soccer authority, suspended. |
| 0:46.0 | The suspension. Was there political interference? |
| 0:49.5 | 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. |
| 0:58.9 | It was the 250th anniversary of the United States. |
| 1:01.9 | New York had so many fireworks, they set the Brooklyn Bridge on fire. |
| 1:05.3 | Other cities dodged extreme heat or thunderstorms and celebrated anyway. |
| 1:09.0 | In Washington, a white nationalist group marched through |
| 1:11.8 | the city, as did counter-protesters, while military jets flew over the city for much of the day. |
| 1:17.4 | I think, Michelle, you were watching and listening to that as we went through the day. |
| 1:20.5 | The D.C. fireworks began very late, delayed by a thunderstorm, and by a speech by the president |
| 1:26.4 | who started after 11 o'clock. |
| 1:28.5 | Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace |
... |
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