05/07/2026

theSun on Sunday JULY 5, 2026

WORLD 8

US turns 250 Trump warns of ‘attack’ on American identity

star Jason Kelce, was best man, the statement said. The bride and groom wore looks created by Christian Dior and Swift chose jewellery by Cartier, according to the statement. No photos were released. Stars including Jennifer Lopez, Ed Sheeran, Jimmy Fallon and Abby Wambach were spotted entering the Garden on a sweltering day when temperatures topped 38º Celsius. Hugh Grant, Jason Sudeikis and Ethan Hawke also walked into the venue. Onlookers including fans known as “Swifties” strained to catch a glimpse of the celebrity crowd at the event dubbed “America’s royal wedding” and held amid heavy security at a site that sits atop one of New York’s major transit hubs. – Reuters Mass protests in Germany ERFURT: Thousands a German city yesterday, blocking major roads and disrupting public transport, in a bid to shut down the annual congress of the far-right AfD party. About 20,000 people flocked to Erfurt, in Thuringia state, according to police, to protest against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party that tops national opinion polls. The protesters, led by an alliance dubbed “Resistance”, blocked routes into the city, with some abseiling from a motorway bridge. Several groups staged sit-in blockades around the city centre. But most AfD delegates managed to reach the conference centre where the congress began on time. “It’s important to send a signal against the shift to the right,” said demonstrator Lene Krug, 19, from Gera, east of Erfurt. “The AfD is an anti democratic party that spreads hate.” The AfD’s rapid rise has unnerved many Germans, who feel they have a special duty to fight far-right politics given Germany’s dark Nazi past. Some have seen a deliberate provocation in the AfD holding its Erfurt conference on the 100th anniversary of a Nazi conference in nearby Weimar, a charge the AfD denies. But Tino Chrupalla, one of the AfD’s co-leaders, lashed out at the protesters, saying they had been “carted in here from all over the country by the establishment parties in trucks”. This year the AfD is eyeing power for the first time as state elections loom in Germany’s ex-communist east, its electoral heartland. Polls indicate it could win an absolute majority in September polls in Saxony-Anhalt state. – AFP of demonstrators flooded

Democratic Party carried a string of US primary victories. The president has cast the rise of the left ahead of November’s midterm elections as “communists” on the rampage, posing a major “threat” to the country. On Friday, Trump said there has been an attempt to “beat the American spirit out of us, alienate us from our history” in recent years. While his language fell short of the more violent anti immigrant rhetoric he has wielded in past speeches, the underlying message was clear. “You do not have to be born here, but you do have to love what we have built,” he said. The location of Trump’s speech was a fitting backdrop for a president who views

himself as one of the greats. Trump’s supporters have even introduced legislation to have his likeness chiselled beside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. For Americans, the 250th festivities offer a moment for reflection as well as celebration. After two and a half centuries of triumphs and tragedies, slavery and freedom, civil war and world wars, surveys indicate a nation divided. A Quinnipiac University Poll showed 61% of Americans thought the US was not living up to the ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence – though even opinion on that was divided, with most Republicans thinking it did, and most Democrats thinking it didn’t. “There’s too many people that hate each other, steal from each other. They don’t love each other,” said Los Angeles-based artist Johnny Presley. “I’m sick of the way this country treats people. I’m sick of the way this country treats its foreign neighbours.” For others, like American Iranian Karisa Tavassoli, an educator in Atlanta, the basics of the American dream still ring true. “I have safety, I have freedom of speech, I have freedom of religion, I can wear whatever I want as a woman,” she said. “There are many flaws here, but we have something very special that’s worthy of protecting,” she said. Alonzo Coby, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, is grateful to be able to celebrate 250 years of the United States. “But I want people to remember that Native Americans have been here a lot longer,” he said. – AFP

WASHINGTON: America turned 250 yesterday – a landmark birthday that coincides with a time of deep national division and a president determined to seize the festive centre stage. The independence anniversary also comes in the middle of a brutal heatwave that has placed some 160 million Americans under major or extreme heat warnings, playing havoc with planned parades and block parties in towns and cities across much of the country. But the searing temperatures have done little to deter President Donald Trump, who has gone to great lengths to ensure the event becomes, in

large part, a celebration of himself. Late on Friday, the president visited the Mount Rushmore national monument for an address under the gaze of the giant granite heads of four of his legendary predecessors. While he lauded American exceptionalism and praised the country’s past leaders, he said that the American identity was “under a renewed attack”. Taking aim at domestic “radicals and extremists”, he charged that there was “a resurgence of the communist menace in our land”. It is a theme that Trump has repeatedly hammered home in recent weeks, as the anti establishment left of the

Soldiers cutting a cake on Friday during the Three Armored Corps and Central Texas Freedom Ball at the Killeen Civic and Conference Center in Killeen, Texas. – BRANDON BELL/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFPPIC

Welcome migrants, Pope urges leaders LAMPEDUSA: Pope Leo marked the 250th anniversary of US independence yesterday with an appeal to Americans to welcome and protect not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human,” he told the United States. Lampedusa, which lies manner, integrating immediate relief efforts into a long-term strategic plan capable of receiving, protecting, supporting and integrating migrants”.

Swift, Kelce tie the knot NEW YORK: Pop music megastar Taylor Swift and football player Travis Kelce are married, the singer’s publicist announced on Friday as guests attended a star studded celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York that capped a three-year love story. “JUST&T MARRIED!” flashed on giant screens on the exterior of the Manhattan sports arena. Swift’s publicist confirmed via email that the Grammy-winning musician had wed the Kansas City Chiefs star.

He also called on them to help improve conditions in migrants’ home countries so that fewer people feel compelled to leave. “The pope’s visit speaks to every one of us,” said Kandeh Abdourahman, a migrant who arrived in Lampedusa in 2015 after travelling across five African countries, the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean. It is “a reminder that our stories are seen, that welcome is not just a word but an act of humanity”, said Abdourahman, now a cultural mediator with the International Rescue Committee. – Reuters

between Tunisia, Malta and Sicily, sits on one of the deadliest migration routes. Many migrants arrive after crossing the Mediterranean in overcrowded boats. Among those gathered near Italy’s southernmost port to see the pope were newly arrived migrants, Italian Coast Guard rescue officials and aid groups. Leo told them he had come to show that the pope “continues to accompany you, support you and encourage you”. The pope also called on European leaders to tackle migration “in a comprehensive

immigrants, in a letter sent to his home country as he visited Italy’s migrant frontline island of Lampedusa. Leo also urged the world to become “more human” and to help those fleeing war and poverty. He urged European leaders to do more to help arrivals, which have topped 7,000 this year. In an appeal sent to the US, Leo said the Catholic value of defending life includes “welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants”. “To receive (immigrants) with compassion and generosity is

Comedian Adam Sandler officiated the ceremony, said the publicist’s statement under the headline “Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce Are Married!” The statement described Sandler as a friend of the couple. Swift’s brother, Austin Swift, served as “man of honour” and Kelce’s brother, retired football