Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst.
Thousands of people braved blistering heat to celebrate the 4th of July in the nation's
“capital, though the extreme weather forced a temporary evacuation before the celebration”
continued. And Pierce Jeff from Feel has more. Temperatures topped 100 degrees as fighter jets flew over to the National Mall. Watching was the precious medley she was visiting from England. I'm not used to this sort of heat coming from the UK.
Spendly has been visiting the US for decades. She doesn't begrudge Americans at all for that little war they fought with her country way back when. No, you'd made the right decision in 1776, but even me. Many others told NPR they were excited to be there witnessing America's 250th birthday.
Jeff from Feel and PR News. China and Russia are kicking off joint naval drills of the coast of Eastern China today. And Pierce Emily Fang reports the exercises demonstrate that the two countries are increasingly cooperating militarily.
“China and Russia have been holding joint naval exercises since the early 2000s and these”
naval drills were first held in 2012.
But the scope and frequency of these exercises have increased significantly since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And about a third of Russia, Chinese joint military drills taking place after Russia's leader Vladimir Putin visited China just over a month ago and he strengthened economic and political ties with Beijing since the Ukraine war.
This week a number of Chinese and Russian naval vessels gathered in China's eastern port of Qingdao. And the patrol, the Pacific Ocean together, to quote jointly respond to security challenges according to China's defense ministry. Emily Fang and Pyrnus.
The death toll in Venezuela has climbed nearly 3,000 nearly two weeks after back-to-back earthquakes. International aid is pouring into the country as survivors struggle to find food, shelter, and medical care. A federal appeals court clear the way for the Trump administration to replace the slavery
exhibit at George Washington's first presidential home in Philadelphia and Pierce Windsor Johnston reports the city says it plans to appeal. The exhibit has been the focus of a month-long legal battle over how the nation's founding should be presented at the site. Philadelphia's civil rights attorney, Michael Cord, says the exhibit should continue telling
the full history of slavery. "Well, we want is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to be told about the horrors of slavery in Philadelphia under George Washington at America's first White House." The exhibit has focused on the lives of the nine enslaved people who lived and worked at the site while George Washington served as president.
The Trump administration plans to replace it with a broader exhibit on the founding of the presidency. Windsor Johnston and P.R. News. You're listening to NPR News. Britain's National Health Service is banking on artificial intelligence to cut patients
waiting times and doctors' workloads. Bikubakra reports from London that other medical providers around the world will be watching closely.
For more than 41 million brits with smartphones, the NHS app is their first port of call
when making an appointment or ordering a prescription refill. Over the next 12 months, some 200,000 users will also get access to a new AI triage tool, which will ask a series of questions to direct them to the appropriate services. It will be available to all app users by mid-2028, an early trial showed at cut the number of patients sitting on hold by some 30%.
The NHS is also rolling out AI transcription tools after a major study found that freeing doctors from writing up their note allowed them to spend nearly a quarter more of their time with patients. For NPR News, I'm Vicky Barker in London. The food and drug administration has approved the first gene editing treatment for sickle
cell disease for younger children. The treatment uses the CRISPR gene editing technique and it used to be available for children 12 end up, but now the FDA has approved it for children as young as two years old. That makes more than 5,500 children eligible for the treatment in the United States. Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that causes devastating pain attacks
and eventually life-threatening complications. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News, in Washington.
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