Today's five.

FIFA suspended a red card ban without explanation the day after the U.S. president personally called FIFA's president about it, which is a sequence of events FIFA would very much like you not to connect. Balogun — the team's leading scorer with three goals — stepped on an opponent's foot in Wednesday's win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, got a red card, and was facing a one-game suspension. Now he's playing Belgium on Monday. FIFA's statement offered a probationary period and zero reasoning. NPR and GPB led with the Trump call; the Las Vegas Review-Journal led with the ruling itself. The committee did not explain. It never does.

Trump Called FIFA About a Soccer Game and FIFA Blinked

FIFA's disciplinary committee overturned Folarin Balogun's red card suspension hours after Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to discuss it, which is not how soccer is supposed to work. Balogun — Team USA's lead scorer with three goals — was sent off for an awkward challenge against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Infantino told Trump the committee would look into it. They looked into it. The Guardian noted Trump had been conspicuously quiet about the tournament until the reversal came through, at which point he was on Truth Social thanking FIFA for correcting "a great injustice." Belgium, who plays the US on Monday, criticized the decision.

Quoting a man's beliefs back at him after he dies turns out to be a fireable offense, at least in Oglethorpe County. Georgia teacher Michelle Mickens was suspended — then pushed toward resignation — for sharing a Charlie Kirk quote about gun deaths on her private Facebook page after Kirk's assassination. The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the school district for constitutional violations. The district settled Wednesday for nearly $300,000: $270,420 for emotional distress, $17,000 in attorney's fees. Daily Mail called the payout "staggering." Fox led with the dollar amount. Nobody led with the irony of a Second Amendment quote becoming a First Amendment lawsuit.

A sitting president made three phone calls to FIFA and got a World Cup suspension overturned, which is not a sentence that appears anywhere in the rulebook. Balogun's red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina earned him an automatic one-game ban — standard procedure. Then it wasn't. FIFA announced Sunday that Balogun is available for Monday's round of 16 clash against Belgium in Seattle. The Guardian put the call count at three, starting Wednesday. The Hill confirmed the calls happened. The Belgian FA described itself as "astonished." The last time FIFA nullified a red card suspension during a World Cup was 1962.

The country threw itself a birthday party in what was reportedly one of the hottest spots on the globe that day, because America does not reschedule. Record heat baked a large portion of the country on the Fourth, and some major events were canceled — the ones run by organizers who check weather forecasts. Washington held on, with Trump scheduled for a nighttime speech and a fireworks display large enough to justify the sweat. The heat wasn't a metaphor. It was just very hot. Two hundred and fifty years old and still doing things the hard way.