The United States celebrates 250 years

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The United States is about to mark its 250th anniversary. And so on the Global Story podcast from the BBC, we're telling surprising tales of American influence on the world stage and in ordinary people's lives all across the globe. We have this ability to export our story and a lot of people have bought it. I feel like the American dream is alive but not well. From the BBC, it's the United States at 2.50. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:41Hello to you. Welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. We're coming live from London. I'm Sean Lay. And we begin with the events in the United States, this day of celebrations. Not quite the official party the Trump administration had been hoping for. Officials have delayed opening the gates for the public to be on the National Mall at the heart of Washington, D.C. until later on Saturday because of the high temperatures. The brutal heat and associated humidity have forced the cancellation of Independence Day parades in both Washington and Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed 250 years ago today.

1:20F-15 and F-16 fighter planes, though, don't melt in the summer heat and carried out their flypast in the skies over Washington to schedule.

1:34Another military vehicle was in the vanguard of New York celebrations with Vice President J.D. Vance aboard an amphibious assault vessel in the harbour which greeted millions of immigrants in the 19th and 20th century. What the poet Emma Lazarus in words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty as you're tired, you're poor, you're huddled masses yearning to breathe three, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. A fitting description of the Europeans escaping persecution or simply seeking a new life in the new world. J.D. Vance was speaking at a flotilla of 60 tall ships and naval vessels. When we won our independence, we were led by General Washington to liberty and greatness, But marching ahead of him were thousands of boys from all over the new nation who gave Washington's military genius, its foundation and its firepower.

2:26And all of us will need to do our part to create the next 250 years of American greatness. Well, his boss Donald Trump's Fourth of July performance will come later on Saturday, followed by a climactic fireworks display. He set the scene for the weekend in South Dakota on Friday night, where he spoke in the shadow of Mount Rushmore, below the granny's impressions of four of his most consequential predecessors, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. If monuments could speak. For a quarter of a millennium, liberty, justice, equality, self-government and unmatched prosperity have flourished here as they have never flourished anywhere before.

3:11there is nothing like what we are doing.

3:18The birth and survival of the American nation under God is quite simply the best and most incredible thing ever to happen on this planet by human hands ever. That is ever, ever, ever. Well, President Trump then got political, warning about forces endangering the Union by bringing from abroad ideas alien to the nation's founding. Yet as we approach this magnificent anniversary, we see our American identity under a renewed attack, a generation after we fought and won the Cold War against the menace of communism. there is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success.

4:06These are not mere political disagreements like differences over taxes or regulations. Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty. President Trump speaking last night. Well, let's go live now to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. And sweltering in the heat is our correspondent, Peter Bowes. And I can see Peter wisely with a baseball cap on your head. Just how hot is it and what impact is it having on the planned events today? It is extremely hot, probably the hottest condition I've ever experienced. It's hovering around 40 Celsius. And there's a possibility, actually, of a thunderstorm in the next few hours, which would be not necessarily good news for the crowd, but good news in terms of the temperature.

4:54So the weather is fluctuating, but it's swelteringly hot. It doesn't seem to have put off anyone coming down here. There's a long, long line of people, essentially between Capitol Hill and the White House here, getting to the venue where they suit to America. Celebration is due to start in a couple of hours' time, and people are just queuing right along Constitution Avenue in very good spirits. No one that I've spoken to is really particularly upset by the weather. They're all looking forward to this momentous 250th celebration of the country. And pressed on the politics of the situation, people were quite dismissive, saying that they're not really thinking about the politics today.

5:31They just want to celebrate this country's independence. The president will speak later. What sort of message are people expecting from him? Well, I think it's a wait and see. With Donald Trump, you can never quite predict what sort of tone he is going to adopt, but I think most people are expecting him to talk about the significance of today, 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That was in 1776 in Philadelphia. What it means to perhaps him as a president and indeed the country as it finds itself now. But as you've just been reporting, the president has been striking, some would say quite a divisive tone in the last 24 hours in one of his previous speeches, one he made last night.

6:17So I think it remains to be seen in terms of what direction he goes here but I've also got to say that I think the vast majority of people here are mostly looking forward to what follows the President and that is we're told to expect a spectacular fireworks display. The organisers say that the biggest fireworks display ever, at least in this city. Peter Bowes thank you very much and apologies there for the technical quality of the line. Well, official events in Washington may have been affected by the oppressive weather, but there are celebrations across the entire Union, all 50 states. Here are some people enjoying the day in what's known as the Garden State, New Jersey, and in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was first promulgated.

6:59With America's 250th birthday, I wanted to come to where it all started, so here I am, I'm just living the dream today. I had actually more ridiculous outfits than even this, but I decided to go with this one today.

7:15It's really, really fun because we get to make memories and share the moment. Her first 4th July, what a special time to have it, so we're just enjoying the heat. We are here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where in 1776 our independence became a reality. What do you bring over to your children these days? You know, I want to impress upon them that, you know, we have a lot of freedoms here in America, and those are important. Well, the people may be united, their leaders are not. Bipartisanship working across the Ireland Congress is now something of a dirty word in Washington. Democrats, the opposition party in the US right now, say the present president has done the opposite of uniting the nation for this celebration.

8:03Joining me now to explain, Congressman Jim Himes, who represents a district in Connecticut, which of course was one of the 13 colonies, original colonies, which went on to form the United States of America. Congressman Himes, happy 4th of July to you, and thank you for breaking away from your celebrations. What is it about the way these events have been organised that makes you feel that the president is squeezing out the opposition? Well, to be clear, and because Congress is out of session, we're all out in our constituencies. And I, in fact, spent the first half of the day today at a variety of parades and readings of the Declaration of Independence.

8:39By the way, we're sorry about that. But it's been – but there's just a stunning contrast between the – even in these intense polarized times between the remarkable feelings of pride and unity and patriotism that I certainly experienced throughout my constituency. and the language that the president uses. Yeah, you know, we know Donald Trump well enough to know that there is precisely zero chance that he will do anything other than revert to his always game plan, which is to try to create fear of communists and to say divisive things. Well, you know, it's just unfortunate in the context of what I suspect that all 535 members of the Congress are experiencing right now, which is a huge sigh of relief that we get to celebrate this national holiday and maybe set politics aside for a moment.

9:23So speaking as a Brit, thank you for your apology. I think, to be fair, we may have provoked you, but we'll leave that for historians to argue. You had it coming. Quartering troops in our home. Shame on you. Yes. Let's not fight our battles on this day of commemoration and celebration. Even the king sent a message talking about U.S. and British shared values. More seriously, though, we heard in the president's speech in South Dakota at Mount Rushmore on Friday. I mean, this remark about communism rearing its head, I mean, pretty directly aimed at the Democrats, wasn't it? And to be fair, some Democrats are themselves worried about a shift to the left towards those who style themselves progressives.

10:35Yeah, yeah. The core idea of the United States is that people from all over the globe and ideas from all over the globe, good and bad, good and bad, come together here and are considered in a democratic context. And one hopes that the bad ones are rejected. Communism and fascism come to mind and that we craft through our democratic process the right answer. But that right answer relies on all sorts of ideas. And that, of course, and the president has no understanding of this, is why in our very First Amendment, in our Bill of Rights to the Constitution, we guarantee the right of free speech, of the press and of association, because our core notion is that lots of ideas come together here.

11:14And in a democratic process, we carve them into an optimal set of ideas for the country. Are you hoping the ideas of democratic socialism will be defeated too? I mean, they've done quite well in the party thus far, winning the Colorado primary, ousting a 15-term House veteran there, similarly two long-serving members of the New York congressional delegation last week. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, you know, so now we'll have a, you know, a democratic political conversation, which is entirely appropriate. There are obviously people who support because they, in fact, did get elected in primary elections.

11:46Those those those philosophies. I mean, if you're interested in my own view, I actually think that's largely a reaction to the economic pain that many people in America feel. So when you have a democratic socialist candidate saying, I'm going to figure out a way to make our buses free and to control the rent, as Zoran Mamdani, now the mayor of New York, did say, that obviously has a lot of appeal. And frankly, I understand that. Now, when you get to the fringes, and I might offer up some of the anti-Semitism that we're seeing from the extreme left, something, of course, that through Jeremy Corbyn, the United Kingdom is not unfamiliar with.

12:16That I think is – He's always denied being an anti-Semite, but I understand the point you're making. I mean, again, another argument to be had there. But my point is that there is a line and there's both a line in terms of, you know, is your language bigoted? That's not acceptable. Is your language uncivil? There we can have a debate. But my point is that you can't simply label democratic socialist communists and dismiss them as unworthy of being part of the conversation in our democracy. Do you share the view of some that the revolution is unfinished business in the United States, that it's still striving for that more perfect union?

12:52Oh, without question. And you ran the key line there, a more perfect union. The founders, Jefferson, Madison, they could have written a perfect union, but they understood. They had a suspicion for at least two reasons. Number one, they created a democracy, which in 1787, when the Constitution was signed, really only allowed white men of property to vote. And I suspect that they, in their heart of hearts, knew that that was not ideal. And of course, the country at the time had slavery. So, you know, and most importantly, of course, when they crafted that Constitution, they said, and we hope you will amend it.

13:26That's probably the best evidence we had that they understood that it would be evolved over time. We will have to leave it there. Thank you very much. You're listening to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. Coming up, a US doctor and his wife, also a doctor, tell us how he contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and how they initially treated him at home. The safest thing for Peter and the safest thing for other patients and hospital staff was for Peter to stay at home. So we chose for him to isolate in our bedroom, which had an attached bathroom. So that became kind of our Ebola isolation centre.

14:03Our headlines, the United States is celebrating 250th anniversary of declaring independence from Britain. Some events have been cancelled due to a heat wave. And Russia has promised to respond to the latest Ukrainian attacks which caused fires at an important oil terminal in St. Petersburg. Morocco have become the first team to make it through to the World Cup quarterfinals.

14:31This is Sean Lay, live in London, with NewsHour from the BBC World Service. Let's stay with the World Cup, and Morocco has defeated Canada 3-0. We'll talk about that result in a moment, but many this weekend are looking back and marvelling at the result of one of Friday's games. Cape Verde weren't, in the end, giant killers, but they came within 10 minutes of forcing Argentina, the current title holders, into penalties. In the end, it finished 3-2, a more than respectable position from which to bow out. The relative success of Cape Verde, an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean located off the coast of West Africa, isn't without precedent.

15:06A decade ago, it was Africa's leading football nation. The BBC's Paul Engier watched the match in Cape Verde where fans have been celebrating the taking part. It's often said that every good story must come to an end. Unfortunately, this is the end of the road for the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde. They fought hard against the current world champions, Argentina. They played really, really well, as many people here have said. There is bewilderment. There is shock. Most people would have seen them going far, but the Blue Sharks were unable to go ahead. Argentina came here as the favourite. They might have won, but to these people, Cape Verde has won the hearts of many around the world.

15:47Paul Njia. Well, let's go live now to New Jersey. and Celestine Karané, reporter with BBC Africa Sport. Celestine, thanks so much for being with us. Why was Cape Verde's progress in the tournament such a shock, do you think? I think it was really a shock because people felt like, Sean, that they came out of nowhere. But I think, for me, what I've been trying to tell people as an African journalist is that the correct way to put it is they came outside the attention of mainstream football audiences because you're looking at a country whose main players come out of lower leagues in probably Portugal, France, Belgium, Netherlands.

16:29So these are players that people really maybe don't identify with or watch day in and day out as well. For example, if you think about Roberto Lopez, he is from Shamrock Rovers. He's a captain. He was born in Ireland, captain of Shamrock Rovers. you know. How have they managed to bond as a single unit given that they've come from all over the globe? Well so what they do Sean is they don't when the team when the players rather come into the team the coach Bobista said that he wants his players to identify with the people and so because a lot of players don't speak the local language Creole most of them will probably speak the French or Portuguese so in training and during when you're in team camp you speak Creole so even Lopez, who comes from Ireland, said he had to learn the local language.

17:17And then before they played their final qualifier at home in Praia, in the capital, they went to the local market, to the city market, to meet people, to greet them, because they don't live in the country. They went to some of the islands, about five islands. The country is made up of about 10 individual islands. And so they make an effort to connect with people. When they came to the U.S., They had a friendly in Boston. Boston has the largest diaspora of Cape Verdeans outside the country. So they take time to know who are these, who are our people and, you know, to connect with them. And I think that has really helped them to bond as a unit, Sean.

17:56Celestine, one quick last question in the last 30 seconds or so. Canada out, the first of the host nations to be exiting from the World Cup. Yes, look, it was always going to be an uphill task. they were facing a Morocco side that, look, we are looking at a semi-finalist from 2022 and they've looked really good Morocco. They have, you know, they look like they could go into the final, if I can say so myself as an African journalist. Celestine Carine, I think you can because you speak with authority. Egypt and Morocco still in the World Cup.

18:34Now, 10 days after the twin earthquakes in Venezuela and tens of thousands of people are still missing, their families waiting in desperation and fear. The last person found alive was rescued two days ago. This man had been to a makeshift morgue to try and find a missing relative. My name is Luis Velasquez and my aunt is Elba Marquez, looking for the body for my aunt. And nobody can recognise it, but I saw the bags and it's not her. I'm still waiting for her body to show. I saw a lot of dead, a lot of corpses. It's horrible. The death toll stands at almost 3 ,000, with more than 12 ,000 people injured.

19:12A team from UK Med, a medical charity based in the English city of Manchester, has been in Venezuela for over a week now. It's setting up an emergency field hospital to help treat some of the injured in La Guara, a coastal region which was hit hardest. Dr. Ram Vardy, health director at UK Med, has been telling me what they've been seeing. Just to say that there's been quite a large amount of destruction. Numerous buildings have been destroyed, healthcare facilities as well, community centres. I've worked in several earthquake zones around the world, including in Turkey and in Myanmar last year, and this is some of the strongest devastation that I've seen.

19:47Unfortunately, at the time that it occurred on June 24th in the evening, it was a national holiday, and many people were in their homes, also watching a FIFA World Cup football match. So we've seen heavy amounts of destruction, many people sleeping outside in tents due to the instability of the buildings and feeling unsafe in their buildings. So one of the reasons we are planning to respond immediately and set up a field hospital in La Guaira itself. What sort of injuries are you expecting to have to treat? We've seen lots of injuries, many life-changing procedures that have had to have been done.

20:17Many people will have lost their medications in the crisis. They will have ongoing requirements for rehabilitation from the injuries sustained during the earthquake, and that's something that we're also looking to support with here. But equally, healthcare centres are gone, and healthcare workers have gone or even had to leave the area. So the impacts will be felt not only immediately, but for some time, and why we are planning to immediately support. You've been there eight days. Are you still getting tremors and aftershocks in the region? Absolutely. Just before we started this recording, there was a small tremor here.

20:47So we've been feeling tremors for quite some days. Many people scurry from the buildings, and we've had to do the same last few days as well. It must put people on edge. Absolutely. Even for people that have worked in these environments, it's always different. It's very hard to adjust to something so rapidly and with such a dynamic situation, particularly when it's linked to an earthquake and we have no control of when the tremors will appear. Have you seen any examples that have struck you of sort of voluntary efforts of people trying to help one another? I've been amazed on a daily basis by the amount of community efforts that have been here.

21:18A lot of the communities have set up kitchens and water distribution points for the responders that are all coming through community donations. There are people going around to provide support and translation services to all of us that are coming that perhaps don't speak Spanish. So there's been a huge amount of community effort from across the country. Donations that have come in, clothing, food, water, books for children. It's been an enormous national effort. I'm going to ask this question because I think in a sense it's something we don't talk about, but we probably should. how do you and those not just those who are working to help people but those who are living they've survived how do you cope with the smell it's not easy i'll say it's definitely not easy for the people who have had to live here and had their lives changed by this event and it's not easy for the people that have come out newly and had to respond but at the end of the day i think like many of the circumstances here we are here to provide support to people that have drastically been affected by as a severe life-changing event and we prepare ourselves to deal with that and we are able to respond and deal with things like the smell and the lack of water and supplies, et cetera, that we're bringing in and national authorities have been helping with.

22:27But we find all methods to be able to provide care. That is Dr. Ram Vardy, Health Director at UK Med in La Guarquia, Venezuela.

22:43How has America shaped the world? I'm Asma Khaled, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. As the United States marks its 250-year anniversary, we've been exploring the surprising and often hidden ways the U.S. has shaped the modern world. And today on the show, we answer your questions about this moment and what to expect in the years to come. From the BBC, it's the United States at 2.50. Listen to the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

23:18Welcome back to NewsHour. For generations, fishing has been a way of life for Palestinians in the tiny coastal strip that is Gaza. Since the war broke out between Hamas and Israel in 2023, around 70 Palestinian fishermen have been killed by the military. Israel tightened its fishing restrictions on the occupied territory after the Hamas attack on Israel. Despite a ceasefire greed between the two sides, attacks on fishermen have continued. Israel does not allow international journalists to operate freely in Gaza. Our correspondent John Donner some reports from Jerusalem with the help of a local team in Gaza.

23:52Standing atop a small skiff, Youssef al-Najjar paddles to the shore, a web of nets at his feet. The best fisherman in Gaza, his friend cries out. At least he was. Youssef is now in hospital, deep scars over his body and heavily wrapped in bandages after he and his boat were shot up by the Israeli Navy.

24:24I tried to escape, but in vain, the 25-year-old tells us. But they kept firing. Shells were landing from above and from the side. Youssef knows he's lucky to be alive. The Fishermen's Union in Gaza says around 70 of its members have been killed at sea by Israel in the last three years. Gunfire off the coast earlier this year. Mobile phone video shows two fishermen on a tiny boat. An Israeli navy ship opens fire with shelling and then with machine guns.