Heat, Heroes, and Headlines: America Turns 250

MayaMorning, everybody. Happy almost Fourth of July.

DavidHappy Fourth. Yeah, I hope you've got the AC cranking because it is brutal out there.

MayaSeriously, we're talking parades canceled in D.C. and Philly because of the heat and President Trump's heading to Mount Rushmore tonight for fireworks.

DavidOh, and get this. NPR ran a poll and a ton of Americans can't even say what the 250th is actually celebrating.

MayaWait, really? We'll get into that.

DavidThen we're jumping overseas. Russia's claiming a major battlefield win in eastern Ukraine. Right as Kyiv is burying people from its worst strike of the year.

MayaHeavy stuff, but Ukraine's not sitting still either. There's a whole campaign happening in Crimea we'll touch on.

DavidPlus Iran laying Khamenei to rest with huge crowds in Tehran.

MayaAnd then some fun. Egypt just knocked out Australia on penalties, so now it's Salah versus Messi.

DavidAnd Cape Verde almost ended Argentina's whole World Cup run.

MayaWild morning. Let's get moving, starting with the heat wave back home. Come. Happy 4th, everybody! Though I gotta say, D.C. is not having the best birthday morning.

DavidYeah, what happened?

MayaSo WJLA's Robert Locklear reported the Independence Day parade in Washington just got canceled. Straight up canceled because of the heat.

DavidWait, the actual parade on the actual 4th?

MayaYep. And CBS News out of Baltimore says it's not just D.C. Triple-digit highs across Maryland today and tomorrow. First Alert Weather days. Plus a real chance of storms rolling in this weekend.

DavidThat's brutal. So basically half the East Coast is grilling indoors this year.

MayaI'm sitting here with iced coffee just sweating through the cup and I feel that in my soul. Philly pulled their Salute to Independence Parade too, according to the AP.

DavidOkay, so it's not just one city being cautious, that's a pattern.

MayaRight. Meanwhile, the show's still going on elsewhere. Trump's heading to Mount Rushmore tonight for a speech and fireworks. That's... That's from the AP's Steven Sloan and Steve Peoples.

DavidAnd they're doing a ball drop at Times Square at midnight, too, which is such a weird flex for July.

MayaIt is like New Year's Eve but sweaty.

DavidI mean, credit to the country for pushing through a heat dome to mark 250 years, but here's the thing, though. Do people actually know what they're celebrating?

MayaWhat do you mean?

DavidNPR's Chloe Veltman covered a new poll, and it found nearly half of Americans surveyed can't say what America 250 actually commemorates. Rates.

MayaWait, really? Half?

DavidYeah, not the parade, not the fireworks, the actual anniversary, the Declaration of Independence, 1776, the thing we're all standing in the heat for.

MayaThat's wild, right? I mean, we know the vibes, flags, cookouts, but the substance kind of slips.

DavidAnd I don't think that's a gotcha on anybody, it's more like a chance to say it out loud. 250 years since a bunch of colonies told the most powerful empire on Earth, no thanks, we'll govern ourselves.

MayaWhen you put it that way, it hits different than a hot dog eating contest. test.

DavidSure, keep the hot dogs, but maybe read one paragraph of the Declaration between fireworks.

MayaHomework on a holiday. Love that for us.

DavidI'm just saying, the poll's a decent excuse.

MayaFair. So, heat records, parades getting scrapped, a President in South Dakota and a country that loves the party more than the syllabus.

DavidAnd honestly, while we're out here grilling and watching fireworks, there's a lot happening overseas that's not getting the holiday off.

MayaYeah. What's going on? Okay, so while we're sweating out parade heat here, over in Ukraine the ground actually shifted this week.

DavidYeah, Russia's defense ministry told Putin directly they've taken Kostiantynivka. Reuters reported that today.

MayaWait, that's a real city, not just some village?

DavidIt's been a target for Moscow and Donetsk for a long time, so this is nothing.

MayaAnd while that's happening, Kyiv's mourning something awful. Reuters says it's the deadliest strike of the year.

DavidThe AP put a number on it, at least 30 killed Thursday. day rescuers are still going through the rubble and

MayaThirty people on a random Thursday morning.

Davidthat's just the headline number Reuters called it the deadliest attack on Kyiv all year flat out and

MayaYeah,

David:

Mayathat's a low bar nobody wants to clear.

Davidhere's what I keep asking why escalate now when Russia's own fuel supply is falling apart the

MayaDidn't Putin say something about that?

DavidAP quotes him calling the shortages not critical meanwhile Ukraine's hit Russian refineries 50 times since March March for that same reporting.

Maya50 times?

David50 plus. That's the other half of the story. Ukraine's not displaying defense anymore.

MayaYeah, I saw the New York Times piece on that. Marc Santora and his team are calling it a real campaign in Crimea.

DavidAir defenses, supply lines, the energy grid, fuel depots.

MayaWow.

DavidThey're going after all of it.

MayaSo Ukraine's actually taking the fight somewhere Russia thought was safe.

DavidBasically. Crimea's been Russian-controlled since 2014. Not exactly stable ground for Putin's forces anymore.

MayaSo the map's actually changing here, not just the death toll.

DavidWorth noting, analysts quoted in that AP piece say Russian ground troops have stalled for months, so Putin's making up for it with strikes on cities instead of gains on a map.

MayaWhich means more nights like Thursday for Kyiv.

DavidAnd taxpayers here should care too. Every aid package, every shipment, that's real money with no clean end date attached.

MayaAlso worth saying, none of that support has stopped strikes like Thursday's from happening.

DavidNo, it hasn't. That's the uncomfortable part nobody likes saying out loud.

MayaFair. Nobody's pretending this is cheap or simple.

DavidNope. Just asking what winning even looks like for anybody at this point.

MayaOne more heavy one before we lighten up. Ron.

DavidYeah, they buried Ayatollah Khamenei this week.

MayaThe BBC's Aleks Phillips reported huge crowds gathering in Tehran. on his body lying in state at the Grand Mosalla.

DavidIt's supposed to travel through Iran and into Iraq after, per that same report.

MayaJust a lot of grief piling up in one week, honestly.

DavidYeah.

MayaOkay, on a totally different note, speaking of extreme heat messing with plans, it's not just our holiday parades.

DavidOh yeah, the World Cup's dealing with it too.

MayaFIFA is actually talking about moving kickoff times because of it.

DavidAll right, let's dig into that next. Stadium Heat's already producing some wild soccer anyway.

MayaOkay, shifting gears completely, we need to talk about this World Cup weekend because it delivered.

DavidPlease, yes, give me something fun after that.

MayaSo, Egypt takes on Australia one-one after extra time and it goes to penalties. Al Jazeera's got Hossam Abdelmaguid scoring the winning penalty as Egypt beat Australia four-two on penalties.

DavidAnd Salah didn't even need to be the hero, right? I heard he was off his game.

MayaTotally. Algeria hauled him off color, wasted the easy chances.

Speaker 3Didn't matter. Egypt threw anyway.

DavidSo who do they get next?

Speaker 3Argentina. Messi. That's the matchup everybody wants now.

DavidWait, Argentina almost didn't get there either, right?

Speaker 3Oh my gosh, yes. Cape Verde. First ever World Cup appearance and they take Messi's team to extra time.

DavidGasp! How close?

Speaker 3Argentina needed an extra time own goal to beat Cape Verde 3-2 according to Al Jazeera. Cape Verde came from a goal down twice in front of a crowd of 64,478.

DavidFor a team playing their first World Cup ever? That's absurd!

Speaker 3NPR had this detail I loved. Cape Verde's goalkeeper, Vozinha, just wanted his mom to see him play. He got a lot more than that.

DavidThat's a nice one to hold onto this Morning.

Speaker 3Right? And there's another layer to the Egypt win. Their coach, Hossam Abdelmaguid, dedicated it to Palestine.

DavidAl Jazeera covered that too, fans in Gaza watching the match on screening set up against bombed buildings, celebrating anyway.

Speaker 3It's Wild how Football still cuts through everything else going on.

DavidIt does—Football doesn't fix a war, but for ninety minutes people got to feel something else.

Speaker 3So next up: Salah versus Messi in the last sixteen, assuming Argentina gets past their next test.

DavidAnd don't sleep on the schedule drama either—the Athletic reported FIFA was considering moving kickoff times for Mexico-England and Brazil-Norway.

Speaker 3Because of weather, right?

DavidYeah, flooding concerns at Estadio Azteca. They ended up keeping the original time, though.

Speaker 3Either way, we've got Salah versus Messi on the horizon and a bracket that's already been chaos all weekend.

DavidShould be a wild one to watch play out.

MayaBefore we sign off, that poll about America 250 really got me thinking.

DavidYeah, nearly half of Americans surveyed couldn't say what it actually commemorates.

MayaAnd I loved how you framed it, more like a chance to say it out loud.

DavidExactly. Meanwhile, Kostiantynivka falling to Russian forces is a story we'll keep watching.

MayaHeavy stuff alongside the fireworks today.

DavidIf you like the show, subscribe and leave us a review. It really helps us out.

MayaThanks for hanging out this morning.

DavidCatch you tomorrow.

MayaStay cool out there.