What happened
President Donald Trump’s Domestic Policy Council late Saturday issued a report criticizing the leadership of the Smithsonian Institution, and especially the National Museum of American History, for allegedly painting an insufficiently positive and “patriotic” view of the U.S. and its founding. The Smithsonian leaders “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying and worthy of our great republic,” the report said. 

Who said what
The Smithsonian “has long been regarded as independent of the executive branch,” The New York Times said, but Trump has tried to exert control over the world’s largest museum institution for more than a year. The report “comes in the midst of Trump’s aggressive campaign to overhaul some of Washington’s most sacred cultural and historic institutions,” The Associated Press said, and it indicates he “may be preparing to install his own team.”

Lonnie Bunch (pictured above), the Smithsonian’s first Black leader, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday he was motivated by “the notion of being a more perfect union, not the perfect union,” and by the “responsibility to continue to make those aspirations available, accessible, meaningful to a whole range of people.”

What next?
“For more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so,” a Smithsonian spokesperson said in a statement.

What happened
FIFA yesterday lifted U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s one-game suspension from a red card he drew during last week’s 2-0 U.S. World Cup win over Bosnia-Herzegovina. The unusual decision means that Balogun, the top U.S. scorer in this tournament, can play in today’s knockout round-of-16 match against Belgium. Shortly after FIFA announced its decision, news organizations reported that President Donald Trump had called FIFA President Gianni Infantino (pictured above) following the match and asked him to review Balogun’s suspension. “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump said on social media yesterday. 

Who said what
Balogun’s red card was “one of the World Cup’s most controversial and consequential decisions,” The Associated Press said. But FIFA’s “extraordinary” decision to reverse it was “the first time since 1962 that a red card during a World Cup did not result in a suspension.” It is “highly unusual for a head of state to intervene in a soccer disciplinary matter with FIFA’s top official,” The Washington Post said. FIFA “insists that the decision was an independent one made by its 18-person disciplinary committee,” Politico said, though it didn’t say if there was a vote. 

What next?
Belgium’s soccer federation said it was “astonished” by FIFA’s apparent violation of its own rules and was “investigating all potential options” to “protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport.”

Scientists have discovered the fossils of 12 ancient bird species and four frog species in New Zealand’s ancient Moa Eggshell Cave. Of these fossils, “about 33% to 50% of species went extinct during the million years before humans arrived,” Christchurch’s Canterbury Museum said about the findings, published in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. The extinctions were likely driven by “relatively rapid climate shifts and cataclysmic volcanic eruptions.” 

The most surprising discovery is a parrot species, Strigops insulaborealis, that’s an ancient relative of the “critically endangered” kakapo, the “only flightless parrot in the world” and “heaviest parrot alive,” said The Economic Times. There are “only 235 known kakapos in existence, and all of them are on islands free of predators.” 

This is a “newly recognized avifauna for New Zealand,” said lead study author Trevor Worthy in the museum’s statement. The finding suggests “our ancient forests were once home to a diverse group of birds that did not survive the next million years,” helping fill in the missing pieces of a lesser-known period in New Zealand’s evolutionary history.

The fossils were found “trapped between two layers of volcanic ash,” said Earth.com. The older ash layer “fell during the Ngaroma eruption about 1.55 million years ago,” while the younger layer “came from the Kidnappers eruption right around 1 million years ago.” Having the two layers clearly defined in time gave the team “something rare: a fossil deposit with a firm age, pinned between two natural clocks.”