Storms force evacuation of July 4 celebrations in Washington

{"text":[[{"start":8.75,"text":"Organisers of an event on the National Mall to mark America’s 250th birthday have ordered visitors to evacuate and seek shelter in nearby buildings as severe thunderstorms approach the Washington DC area. "}],[{"start":21.55,"text":"Security screening to enter the venue has been temporarily suspended, the Secret Service announced on Saturday evening, citing “dangerous storms”. "}],[{"start":30.1,"text":"In a post on social media, the law enforcement body urged people to seek shelter in nearby museums and government agencies. "}],[{"start":39.2,"text":"US President Donald Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech at the Lincoln Memorial later in the evening, capping off days of festivities orchestrated by the White House to mark the anniversary of America’s independence."}],[{"start":50.800000000000004,"text":"“We will wait it out, I don’t care if it’s 2:00 O’Clock in the morning, or in one hour from now,” Trump posted on Truth Social."}],[{"start":58.6,"text":"“I’m not going to let some rain stop our 250th.”"}],[{"start":62.1,"text":"The anniversary events have mixed traditional expressions of US patriotism with self-aggrandising attempts by the president to burnish his own legacy and celebrate his Maga movement. "}],[{"start":72.8,"text":"On Friday, Trump made a trip to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, where the faces of previous presidents including founding fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are etched into the granite. Facing lacklustre polling four months before the midterm elections, Trump used the opportunity to warn Americans that a “communist menace” was facing the country, previewing a central campaign argument against the Democrats. "}],[{"start":98,"text":"Back in Washington, Independence Day had earlier been marked by extreme heat, which forced the cancellation of local parades and events associated with the holiday, as well as the temporary closure of the “Great American State Fair” — a jamboree championed by Trump on the other end of the Mall. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":116.1,"text":"But Trump proceeded with much of his plan, including hours of military flyovers over the US capital. A massive fireworks display is expected to follow his speech on Saturday night. "}],[{"start":128.25,"text":"Just days before he plans to travel to Ankara, Turkey, for next week’s Nato summit, the US president also chose to bash his transatlantic allies over their immigration policies in a mid-afternoon Truth Social post. "}],[{"start":140.95,"text":"“Europe is learning that when you take in Third World criminals, you become a Third World Country. It happens quickly, in just a blink of the eye. I was elected just in time!!! President DJT,” he wrote. "}],[{"start":153.35,"text":"Speaking from a US Navy ship in New York harbour on Saturday, JD Vance also blasted America’s critics. "}],[{"start":160.15,"text":"“You will hear a couple small but loud voices today speak obsessively not of our national greatness, but of our national imperfections,” Vance said, accusing them of misunderstanding “the essence of America”."}],[{"start":174,"text":"Earlier in the day, dozens of masked demonstrators chanting white nationalist slogans and carrying both US and Confederate flags marched through the streets of Washington DC. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":185.25,"text":"Reuters reported that they were members of the Patriot Front, which George Washington University extremism experts describes as espousing an “ultranationalist ideology centered on the idea of creating a white ethnostate in the United States, rejecting multiculturalism and diversity”. "}],[{"start":201.6,"text":"Meanwhile, Democrats delivered their own messages about America’s 250th anniversary. "}],[{"start":207.45,"text":"“America is a constant work in progress. Every generation must take up the unfinished work of the last and carry it further — protecting what’s right, fixing what’s wrong, and making our union a little more perfect. 250 years later, that’s more important than ever,” Barack Obama, the former president, wrote on X. "}],[{"start":233.34999999999997,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1783222477_3036.mp3"}