The short-handed United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) will attempt to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time in more than two decades when it faces Belgium on Monday. Team USA has not advanced beyond the Round of 16 at a World Cup since 2002. They are coming off their dominant 2-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which saw Folarin Balogun extend his lead in goals for the United States. However, he will not suit up for the red, white, and blue against Belgium. Balogun picked up a controversial red card in the second half of the Round of 32 game after scoring a goal in the first 45 minutes. After Team USA was unable to appeal the red card, they will be forced to play without him in the upcoming game. The USMNT will look past the controversial decision and will lean on players such as Christian Pulisic, Malik Tillman, and Weston McKennie. Belgium, on the other hand, is coming off one of the craziest comebacks in the history of the World Cup. In their first knockout-stage game against Senegal, they were down 2-0 in the 85th minute. All-time leading goal scorer for the country, Romelu Lukaku, scored in the following minute, and was followed two minutes later by Youri Tielemans’ tying goal. After advancing to extra time, Tielemans scored the latest goal in World Cup history, converting a penalty in the fifth minute of stoppage time after the 120 mark. The USMNT will also be seeking a measure of revenge against the Belgians after they eliminated the United States from the 2014 World Cup with a 2-1 extra-time win. Despite the loss, legendary goalkeeper Tim Howard had a historic match, setting the record for most saves in a single game with 16. The two Belgian goal scorers from that match, Kevin De Bruyne and Lukaku, are both expected to face the United States again on Monday. If Team USA advances, it will face Spain or the winner of Thursday’s Croatia-Portugal match in the quarterfinals.    

Ten Tennessee teenagers were arrested and face criminal charges in connection with a viral TikTok door-kicking challenge. The “Door Kick Challenge” is a controversial social media trend in which individuals—typically young people—kick residential front doors, often at night, and quickly flee the area.  KNOCK IT OFF: Police are warning residents about a viral TikTok trend known as the “door kick” or “door knock challenge” after three Florida teenagers were arrested for allegedly kicking a homeowner’s door. pic.twitter.com/CSNJFqv88Q — Seattle Smith

There isn’t a breeze in sight. The air is stuffy, muggy, thick enough to chew. Lady Liberty still looks beautiful with the sun on her copper facade, and I won’t complain about a sunny day, no matter how hot it gets. But today there’s something heavier than the humidity hanging over the city. For some New Yorkers, there’s a looming, crushing sense of guilt, stickier than the air itself. Because they haven’t turned their AC up to 78 degrees. Why would anyone willingly suffer through a muggy apartment when they could enjoy the start of Fourth of July weekend in a crisp 68-degree living room? Because the socialist, terror-sympathizing, former-failed-rapper mayor of New York City told them not to. For the good of the very warm collective. “Set your AC to 78 degrees,” he says. Because “a stable grid means the AC stays on, and lives are saved,” he says. Translation: sweat now, comrade, so YOU [insert Sophia Cunningham pointing meme] don’t overheat the cooling system and kill grandma. That’s eerily reminiscent of French health officials last week, instructing the elderly and sick to essentially stick their heads in ice buckets and sip cold soup rather than run an air conditioner. I made fun of France for sounding like the third world. I didn’t expect the third world to make it to New York City this fast. It’s the same degrowth logic wearing a different accent. Paris told its sick and elderly to suffer through the heat for the sake of the planet. Mamdani is telling everyone else to suffer through it for the sake of the grid. Different continent, same underlying belief: your comfort is negotiable, and someone else always gets to decide the terms. Today it’s your thermostat. Tomorrow it’s your grocery cart, your car, your lightbulbs. The mask doesn’t come off all at once. It slips one degree at a time. Last week, I went nine days without AC. It hovered between 78 and 80 degrees, and it was unbearable. Now the mayor of a city of eight million residents is scolding those same residents into voluntary suffering and harm, fresh off a campaign that promised prosperity, rainbows, and abundance for all. Nothing to see here, folks. Just a full-fledged Islamic socialist chipping away at the freedoms and comforts we hold dear, one thermostat at a time. Utopia was supposed to be air-conditioned. Mamdani blames the power grid, apparently so fragile that if all eight million New Yorkers don’t sweat through their Alo yoga pants and Wall Street suits in togethership, the whole system goes dark. And what made the grid so fragile in the first place? Horrendous Democrat energy policy, three decades in the making. New York banned hydraulic fracking despite sitting on massive Marcellus Shale reserves, in the name of eliminating gas use. It didn’t eliminate anything. It just made the state import the energy it refuses to drill for itself. Environmentalists celebrated the closure of Indian Point, a nuclear plant that once supplied roughly 25% of New York City’s electricity. The grid never recovered. Then came the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, mandating 70% renewable energy by 2030 and leaning on unreliable sources like solar and wind. Less efficient. More expensive. Exactly the recipe for a grid that buckles the moment July shows up. Naturally, the socialist mayor isn’t offering practical fixes like drilling, fracking, coal, or nuclear power. That would be radical. Instead, he’s threatening you with thermostat mandates and doubling down even when his proletariat complains. A commenter on my recent video mocking Mamdani for this wisecracked that Texas has also asked residents to set their AC to 78 during extreme heat waves. Sure. But Texas asks because it regularly hits triple-digit heat that sends demand through the roof, even with a grid that actually builds power plants and lets markets work. Mamdani is asking because years of green policy, championed by his side, shuttered reliable nuclear capacity and choked off gas, leaving the grid with paper-thin margins. Now ordinary New Yorkers get to roast while the system he inherited, and never intends to fix, tries to catch up. Mamdani handed us this layup himself the moment he swore to strip away your individuality in exchange for warm, collective security. That cozy collectivism now looks like a forced, hellish scarcity. The cozy collectivism he promised now looks a lot like forced, hellish scarcity. That’s the trick with socialism. It’s always sold as a group hug and delivered as a group sweat. You can’t say every wise soul in history didn’t warn you. “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy,” said Winston Churchill. That quote could be on a welcome mat outside Mamdani’s front door. A door I’d bet good money leads to a home that isn’t sitting at 78 degrees.

A heavily armed man was arrested earlier this week outside a North Carolina church after authorities found an arsenal of weapons, including two flamethrowers, in his truck.  On Sunday morning during a service, a caller reported that an armed man wearing camouflage clothing was sitting in his truck in the parking lot of Wesley Memorial Methodist Church. Authorities responded to the call and arrested 44-year-old William S. Milliken III, charging him with possession of a weapon of mass destruction, impersonation of a law enforcement officer, and possession of a controlled substance, according to the High Point Police Department. Milliken was wearing body armor during his arrest and was disarmed by officers. He was taken into custody without incident and is currently being held at Guilford County Jail. After Milliken’s arrest, the officers searched his truck and discovered several weapons, including a CO2-powered launcher made to resemble a handgun, two flamethrowers, two crossbows, more than 500 rounds of ammunition, rolls of black duct tape, three knives, and Oxycodone pills, according to police. WFMY reported that court documents revealed Milliken had a history of mental health issues. He possessed GPS coordinates, body armor, radios with police scanners, handcuff keys, an enlarged map of North Carolina, and a notebook with addresses of other churches, schools, and public buildings. “Thanks to the quick action of our officers, a man armed with weapons was taken into custody before anyone was hurt,” Chief Curtis Cheeks III said. “The officers prevented a potentially dangerous situation from escalating and helped ensure everyone attending church services could return home safely. “We also want to thank the community members who recognized a potential danger and had the courage to speak up. As we work to keep High Point safe, it is crucial that we continue to look out for each other,” Cheeks said. Mayor Cyril Jefferson of High Point also spoke out about the incident. “Most importantly, no one was hurt,” Jefferson said. “Hundreds of people who had gathered to worship were able to return home safely to their families.”

A 31-year-old novice climber is lucky to be alive after falling 1,500 feet down California’s Mount Shasta.  The female climber suffered a serious fall while ascending the Left of Heart variation, a steeper section of the Avalanche Gulch route on Mount Shasta, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Mount Shasta is the second-highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth-highest in the Golden State.  The woman, who has not been publicly identified, was with three novice climbers when she plunged 1,500 vertical feet—from an elevation of about 13,000 feet to approximately 11,500 feet—before coming to rest on the mountain. Moments later, three U.S. Forest Service Climbing Rangers, with assistance from the California Highway Patrol, launched a rescue response. Due to heavy cloud cover, Climbing Ranger Falconer left the helicopter and continued the rescue on foot to reach the injured woman, aided by one member of her party, who helped carry rescue equipment.  “The patient was found alert, in good spirits, and suffering from a suspected fractured right ankle along with additional injuries consistent with the significant fall,” the U.S. Forest Service said in a social media post. “After being stabilized and packaged in a SKED rescue litter, Climbing Rangers Falconer, Jordan, and MacArthur, along with members of the climbing party, carefully lowered the patient to Lake Helen.”  Later that evening, rescuers evacuated the woman from Lake Helen before she was transported to Mercy Medical Center in Mount Shasta for further treatment. The route the woman and her group were climbing is considered “steep and rigorous,” requiring climbers to carry specialized gear—including crampons, an ice axe, and a helmet—as well as possess basic snow travel skills, according to the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center. “Don’t consider this route as a cakewalk,” the center said. “Though not an overly technical route, it does follow a 7,000 vertical foot ascent that exposes the climber to steep snow and ice, rock fall, and weather extremes.”    Over the decades, nearly 50 people have died on Mount Shasta since recordkeeping began in 1916.  “This incident serves as an important reminder that Mount Shasta is a high-altitude mountaineering environment, not a hike,” the Forest Service said. “Even experienced climbers can encounter rapidly changing weather, steep snow and ice, rockfall, and hazardous fall conditions.”