New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) called on Americans to confront the nation’s flaws rather than ignore them on the eve of the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, framing “righteous dissent” as core to the country’s founding ideals.
“This will be no ordinary day of celebration,” he said. “Two hundred fifty years presents a rare opportunity for more than 340 million people to turn together, both toward one another and toward ourselves, to take measure of who we are as a nation.”
Speaking from former President George Washington’s desk at New York City Hall, the first-term mayor reflected on the resilience of American revolutionaries who sought to free themselves from the British “yoke of oppression” in pursuit of a “grand experiment in self-governance.”
He recounted New York City’s role as the symbolic gateway to the nation, tracing the struggles and triumphs of enslaved Africans through the generations of immigrants who came in search of greater opportunity.



A Princess Cruises cruise ship docked in San Francisco has seen an outbreak of
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called protesters "ingrates" on Thursday, July 2, as he and other top members of the Trump administration praised the National Guard's work during a D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force event.
At least two people were killed and 16 others injured, including medical workers, after a barrage of Russian drones and ballistic missiles struck Kyiv early Thursday, city officials said.
Two people were arrested following an apparent marriage proposal atop the Empire State Building’s spire on Wednesday, after they climbed to the very pinnacle of the New York City landmark – well above the level open to the public.
It took Omar Qalib more than a decade to finish his family’s three-story house in Jouret al-Dahab, a neighborhood in the heart of the Jenin refugee camp. A construction worker, he built it himself, brick by brick. But it was worth it, he thought. The property fell within Area A, a zone within the occupied West Bank where the Palestinian Authority nominally controls both civil and security affairs.





























