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NPR News: 07-04-2026 5AM EDT

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EN

Live from NPR news in Washington, I'm Windsor, Johnston.

President Trump kicked off the nation's 250th birthday celebration with the speech beneath

Mount Rushmore in South Dakota last night.

We stand beneath the monument of these heroes, a true group of unbelievable people, and we re-dedicate ourselves to being a nation as big, bold, noble, and as great as these American giants. The celebration moves to Washington D.C. today where crowds are expected on the National Mall for concerts, military flyovers, and the annual 4th of July fireworks.

The president is scheduled to address the crowd as part of the administration's freedom to 50 celebration, which includes the Great American State Fair on the National Mall. NPR's Frank Lankford reports the event is getting mixed reviews. Many of the fairer Trump supporters in the like the event, joined Lieberman, Fluent from California, enjoyed the exhibits from different states.

It's a privilege to live in this country, and then to be able to celebrate it in such a great way. I just, I wanted to be in the middle of it. Others see the fair as an extension of Trump, who is a 10-per-moting Trump investment account, and a faith and family pavilion filled with conservative Christian groups, Robert

Chase teaches history at Stony Brook University.

I think Donald Trump has tried to associate himself with this event, and to associate

dislike with him with dissent and unpatriotic acts. That's kind of problematic. Chase says that's one reason why attendance at the fair has been so thin. Frank Lankford and P.R. News, Washington. A wild fire burning southwest of Denver has four thousands of people from their homes and

destroyed more than 160 structures. It's one of roughly 40 large wildfires burning across the west, fueled by months of dry conditions. Four months after the Iranian Supreme Leader was killed in U.S. Israeli air strikes, his funeral ceremonies began in Tehran today, and P.R.s Hadil Al-Shalci reports the funeral

comes amid a fragil sea spire between the U.S. Israel and Iran. Iranian state media showed huge crowds gathered at a prayer complex into Tehran, waving

red flags, symbolizing revenge, and chanting mournful songs.

Women wept openly in black-clad men beat their chests in unison, a tradition, and she a funeral.

It was the first in a series of ceremonies and processions for the funeral of Ayatolladi

Hamanai, who was killed in U.S. Israeli strikes in February. World and religious leaders attended a funeral ceremony yesterday, the Pakistani Prime Minister, the President of Iraq, and a delegation from the Palestinian group Hamas were all in attendance. Hamanai will be buried in his birthplace of Meshhad next Thursday. Hadil Al-Shalci NPR News is stable.

This is NPR News. Recovery efforts are entering as second week in Venezuela where thousands of people remain displaced in search and rescue teams are still coming through the rubble. Chef Jose Andres is the founder of the World Central Kitchen. He's leading his team of volunteers to help feed first responders and survivors.

We're going to be here many weeks, probably many months, but the local and use, many of them, are doing an exceptional job, and those are the type of organizations, all of us are going to have to keep supporting for the long run. The death toll from the twin earthquakes has climbed to more than 2600 as emergency crews continue searching for survivors.

Pope Leo praised America's founding principles and its welcoming of immigrants touring in awards ceremony on Friday, Mayor Rindi from Member Station, W.H.Y. in Philadelphia reports. Pope Leo received the Liberty Medal from Philadelphia's National Constitution Center for his work defending religious liberty and freedom of conscience and expression. In a live speech from the Vatican, he said the principles of the Declaration of Independence

had inspired people around the world. It was the firm resolved to achieve the noble vision the nation's founders that made America a byword for freedom, as the country opened its doors to successive ways of immigrants. Leo was the first ever U.S. born pope and is a graduate of Villanova University outside Philadelphia.

For NPR News, I'm Mayor Rindi in Philadelphia. I'm Winter Johnson and PR News in Washington.

250 years ago, the nation's founders considered a free press, a critical protection for

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