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General U.S. News1h ago

In Mount Rushmore speech, Trump veers from U.S. exceptionalism to warnings about communism

President Trump gestures after speaking at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Friday, July 3, 2026, near Keystone, S.D. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ushered in the 250th anniversary of American independence on Friday with soaring rhetoric about American exceptionalism before veering into a darkly political speech with warnings about a sinister threat of communism that evoked one of the country's ugliest chapters. "Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty," he said from Mount Rushmore. "It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor or even 9/11." While the language was similar to several other speeches Trump has given in recent days, it was notable for being delivered in a national park that commemorates some of America's most prominent presidents. And it swerved from the typically apolitical, unifying speeches past presidents like Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan have delivered during earlier high-profile Independence Day celebrations. Indeed, Trump's language evoked the Red Scare of the 1950s, when alleged communists were persecuted and blacklisted from jobs across America, from Washington to Hollywood. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, delivered his own address that cast America as a nation of contradictions "working each day towards the perfection in which it was conceived." The president's speech capped an Independence Day eve that was otherwise most notable for a brutal heat wave the gripped much of the eastern portion of the country. Officials have warned those celebrating the holiday to stay hydrated and take air-conditioned breaks as needed. Philadelphia canceled its Salute to Independence parade Friday. "Those ideals upon which our nation was built — they are strong enough to endure any authoritarian regime, but only if we reach for them." Freedom 250, an organization aligned with the White House, has come to rival America250, a bipartisan group founded by Congress a decade ago.

General U.S. News2h ago

A politically charged holiday: The US celebrates its 250th anniversary

In many ways, Saturday was a typical July 4 holiday in the United States. The country marked the anniversary of its Declaration of Independence with hotdog-eating contests, parades, fireworks and baseball games. But this Independence Day was different, not least because it marked the country’s semiquincentennial: the 250th year since the US’s founding. It also was one of the most politically charged Independence Day celebrations in recent memory. President Donald Trump is expected to speak this evening from the National Mall in Washington, DC, right before what has been billed as the “world’s largest fireworks display”. More than 850,000 fireworks are expected to launch from barges in the Potomac River, lighting up the sky above the capital. But while Independence Day festivities have long been billed as non-partisan events, Trump has pledged to make the night’s celebration “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all”. The event comes as Trump’s Republican Party seeks to defend its control of Congress in November’s midterm elections, with a heated primary season already under way. On January 29, 2025 — just nine days into his second term as president — Trump issued an executive order establishing a White House task force to oversee celebrations for the 250th anniversary. It also alleges that Freedom 250 has been “operating outside the transparency and accountability requirements” Congress imposes on such celebrations — and that it may even have committed wire fraud by redirecting “unsuspecting donors” away from America250 and towards its own programmes. “Under President Donald Trump, this anniversary has been hijacked and perverted into a hotbed of corruption and self-enrichment,” the report reads.

aljazeera.com Read ↗

General U.S. News3h ago

Three language policy is dangerous, says

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription Published - July 05, 2026 12:26 am IST - Chennai Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president Manickam Tagore on Saturday said the Centre’s three-language policy was “dangerous” and would undermine the country’s integrity, social justice, and secular fabric. “If the Centre imposes Hindi or Sanskrit in the name of the three-language policy, it will have to pay a heavy political price,” he said in a statement. Urging the Union government to withdraw the compulsory implementation of the three-language policy in CBSE schools, Mr. Tagore said education should be moved from the concurrent list to the State list. “Only State governments can understand the aspirations of local people and frame a curriculum that reflects their needs,” Mr. Tagore said. The Congress MP, who was recently appointed the TNCC president, described as “deception” the argument that if non-Hindi-speaking States taught Hindi, Hindi-speaking States could, in turn, teach languages such as Tamil. “There is neither the infrastructure nor the necessary facilities to teach non-Hindi languages in most Hindi-speaking States. But the three-language policy will disproportionately affect non-Hindi-speaking States,” he said. Tagore said that while learning foreign languages such as German and French opened up employment opportunities, making an Indian language compulsory as a third language would, in practice, pave the way for the imposition of Hindi or Sanskrit.

thehindu.com Read ↗

12k pilgrims visit Amarnath; 3rd batch of 4.8k leave for ice Shivling darshan

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More in General U.S. News

In Mount Rushmore speech, Trump veers from U.S. exceptionalism to warnings about communism

A politically charged holiday: The US celebrates its 250th anniversary

Three language policy is dangerous, says