Of stars and stripes: US Embassy celebrates 249th anniversary of American independence in New Delhi
US Chargé d'Affaires, Jorgan K Andrews, who is celebrating his first Fourth of July in India, shared his excitement and said, 'For Americans, the Fourth of July is very much a summertime holiday. A holiday of unity, great food, music, and a chance to connect socially but it's also a moment that reminds us of our country's values.'
He also added, 'I'm very excited to be able to celebrate here in the world's largest democracy, as we mark the birthday of the world's oldest democracy. For Americans, the Fourth of July is very much a summertime holiday. It's an outdoor celebration — picnics, barbecues, family, community, friends — really a celebration of togetherness.'
Chief guest of the evening, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India, said, 'We stand here today commemorating the birth of a nation whose spirit of freedom, democracy, and innovation has inspired generations across the world.'
The culinary spread paid tribute to classic American delights like jambalaya rice, mac and cheese to apple pies. Adding a fun, viral twist was the popular BYOC (Bring Your Own Chip) station, where attendees customised chip bags with an array of toppings and sauces — a social media food trend brought to life.
The celebration also featured interactive games like life-size Jenga and cornhole, keeping guests entertained in true backyard barbecue fashion.
A filmi tribute to friendship
The US Chargé d'Affaires shares the song that describes India-US friendship: 'I'd choose Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire, 2008) because it's dynamic, exciting, and filled with enthusiasm and joy.'
Adding the American songs he would choose, Andrews says, 'I'd pick two iconic classics. First, Born in the USA (1984) by Bruce Springsteen — it has that energy and exuberance, and it captures a celebratory mood while also acknowledging that life can be tough. The second would have to be Jimi Hendrix's rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner (1967) because Jimi taught us that we can all celebrate the Fourth of July in our own unique way, and still be one nation.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
Threat to humanity: Trump threatens to revoke Rosie O'Donnell's US citizenship
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he may revoke talk show host Rosie O'Donnell's citizenship following her criticism of his administration's response to the deadly Texas floods, escalating the long-running feud between the two public figures.'Because of the fact that Rosie O'Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,' Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. He referenced a deportation argument similar to one used by his administration against foreign-born is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!' he added. Trump's remarks appeared to be a direct reaction to a TikTok video O'Donnell released earlier this month. In the video, she grieved the 119 lives lost during the July 4 floods in Texas and criticised the Trump administration for previously slashing funds to government agencies responsible for environmental monitoring and disaster forecasting.'What a horror story in Texas,' O'Donnell said in the video. 'And you know, when the president guts all the early warning systems and the weather forecast abilities of the government, these are the results that we're gonna start to see on a daily basis.'The Trump administration, along with state and local officials, has come under growing scrutiny over whether more preventive actions could have been taken ahead of the devastating flash floods, which struck during the early hours of Independence Day and killed at least 120 people, including several visited Texas on Friday and defended the federal response, stating his agencies 'did an incredible job under the circumstances.'However, under US law, a president does not have the authority to revoke the citizenship of a natural-born American. Rosie O'Donnell was born in New York. Despite this, O'Donnell relocated to Ireland earlier this year with her 12-year-old son, citing safety concerns for marginalized groups in a March TikTok video, she said she would consider returning to the US 'when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America.'O'Donnell responded to Trump's latest comments in two Instagram posts, asserting that his animosity stems from the fact that she 'stands in direct opposition with all he represents.'Their public feud began in 2006 when O'Donnell, then a host on The View, mocked Trump's handling of a scandal involving a Miss USA pageant winner, a contest Trump then owned.- EndsWith inputs from ReutersTune InMust Watch
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Judge Blocks ICE From Racial Profiling in LA Migrant Sweeps
(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge in Los Angeles issued an order temporarily blocking US authorities from using racial or ethnic profiling during immigration sweeps in the region and requiring that detainees get access to lawyers. The order Friday by US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong is the latest fallout from the Trump administration's controversial crackdown on migrants in California and across the US. It came in a lawsuit by a group of Southern California residents, workers and advocacy groups who accused President Donald Trump's administration of terrorizing the population with heavy handed and unconstitutional tactics. 'Today's historic ruling means the federal government cannot fence off the Constitution from Los Angeles and surrounding communities,' said Mark Rosenbaum, a senior lawyer at Public Counsel, which represents the plaintiffs. 'The question now for our federal government is whether it is prepared to conduct its operations under the rule of law. To date, the answer has been no.' The judge said she will hold a hearing later on the groups' request for a longer-lasting preliminary injunction that would block the alleged conduct while the lawsuit proceeds, which could take months or longer. The judge barred agents in the Los Angeles area from stopping and questioning individuals without reasonable suspicion that they're in the US illegally. The order forbids the agents from basing their suspicion on race, ethnicity, speaking Spanish, speaking English with an accent, the type of the work they do or where they are located. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said 'a district judge is undermining the will of the American people.' 'America's brave men and women are removing murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, rapists — truly the worst of the worst — from Golden State communities,' she said in an emailed statement. 'Law and order will prevail.' The government didn't provide evidence in the case that the people being detained in the area had committed such crimes. The order by Frimpong, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, is a rebuke to the administration's raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in public spaces to make mass arrests. It comes as a wide swath of the most populous state's Democratic elected officials, from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to Governor Gavin Newsom, have slammed the Trump administration over its alleged conduct. The disputed tactics include using National Guard troops to protect ICE agents during immigration sweeps and deploying US Marines in downtown Los Angeles to help quell protests, both of which triggered separate lawsuits. But the targeting of suspected migrants by masked and armed immigration agents has been a focal point of Democratic criticism. 'Armed to the hilt, masked, and driving unmarked cars, they have adopted a central strategy of grabbing people first and asking questions later,' the groups said in their request for a restraining order. Trump has argued that his tactics are in line with the president's constitutional authority to carry out immigration policy and that voters elected him to follow through on his vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Trump has frequently portrayed migrants as criminals who pose a threat to Americans, but court records show many law-abiding noncitizens have been swept up across the country. The groups that sued in Los Angeles, the second-largest US metropolitan area and a focal point of Trump's effort, argued in court filings that federal immigration agents are violating the Constitution by conducting stops 'without reasonable suspicion' that the individuals were in the US illegally. The agents are trying to meet 'an arbitrary quota for 3,000 daily arrests imposed by the White House,' the groups said. 'But while defendants may believe that immigration enforcement can be a numbers game, the Fourth Amendment requires that seizures be reasonable,' they said in a filing. The filings cite detailed examples of alleged wrongdoing by federal agents, including a man who says he was 'grabbed' at a car wash and interrogated by agents who knew 'nothing more at the time than that he had brown skin and was present at the car wash.' Another man, a plaintiff in the suit, was detained at a tow yard where he was working on his car. 'He told them he was American, but they violently persisted in their questioning, demanding that he tell him what hospital he was born in, and only let him go after he showed them his Real ID, for which they had not even asked,' according to the filing. The plaintiffs argue that 'roving patrols' targeting day laborers, street vendors, farm workers and other were 'expressly directed' by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who told high level officials at ICE to 'just go out there and arrest' unauthorized noncitizens by rounding them up in public spaces like 'Home Depot' and '7-Eleven' stores, according to court filings. The groups allege that similar racial profiling has been underway at raids in agricultural sites, bus stops, packing houses and churches. Newsom praised Friday's ruling, saying 'justice prevailed,' while Bass said it affirms 'the Constitution, American values and decency.' --With assistance from Robert Burnson and Anthony Aarons. (Updates with comments by plaintiffs starting in third paragraph) More stories like this are available on
Deccan Herald
2 hours ago
- Deccan Herald
Rising South: An order rebalanced
US President Donald Trump has, in his inimitable style, once again taken to social media to issue a threat to the BRICS countries huddled together to devise strategies against the US tariff attacks. 'Any country aligning with the anti-American policies of BRICS will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10 per cent tariff,' he said, hours after the BRICS finance ministers issued a statement that criticised the tariffs, calling them a threat to the global virtually to the BRICS gathering, Russian President Putin reiterated his suggestion of greater financial independence from the US dollar in international trade settlements. Trump is understandably annoyed at the revival of this narrative of criticising Trump's use of tariffs as a coercive policy to force countries to enter bilateral trade deals that favour the US, the BRICS summit proposed a series of reforms in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its currency valuation methods. According to the BRICS economic advocacy group, in the current economic uncertainty, the IMF needs to embrace urgent reforms in the quota system to increase the representation and voting power of developing countries, as the present system promotes dominance of advanced economies. The BRICS nations are also calling for an end to the 'gentlemen's agreement' which has historically favoured European countries in the IMF's leadership financial institutions, especially the two Bretton Woods institutions – the IMF and the World Bank (WB) – did play a significant role in the international financial architecture for some years. But they could not prevent the financial crisis nor bail the developed economies out of the crisis, much of which was their own creation. It has also been noted that their working and decision-making process continued to be greatly influenced by the developed 'North' and less relevant to the developing or underdeveloped 'South'. The last two or three decades have seen the global growth engine shift from the North to the South, which now houses three of the world's largest economies. Meanwhile, groupings such as BIMSTEC, BRICS, ASEAN, and SCO have added tremendous muscle to the emerging South-South countries add up to represent about 49% of the world's population, 39% of the global GDP, and 23% of international trade. In a changing geopolitical and geo-economic setting, when the US under Trump's administration is looking to withdraw from global institutions and looking more inwards in its quest for Making America Great Again (MAGA), the post-World War II economic institutions cannot expect to be relevant and succeed in their original objectives by remaining within a seven decades-old organisational structure. They must either reinvent themselves or face the possibility of paling into BRICS financial institutions and efforts under the South-South Cooperation (SSC) are assured signs of a collective leadership that is aligned with a multilateral world order – these are realities of the present era. The rise of the South, the emerging economies, and India's leadership role in SSC promise an alternative to archaic perceptions that are far removed from ground realities, and to the North and its tired leadership. Blocking the progress of BRICS will serve no real purpose for America or the attempts to create roadblocks for BRICS are born out of apprehensions of a challenge to the America-led world order, which is creaking under its own weight of contradictions. The independent non-dollar trade settlement system, which the BRICS is considering, may not be a reality soon, but it is born out of necessity, from the dollar's failure to meet the challenges and needs of the present era. The bilateral and multilateral economic, security, and strategic arrangements under the BRICS agenda need not necessarily hurt the interests of the US or any other grouping unless there is an established clash of interests, which in a highly globalised world would be detrimental for everyone play an important role in understanding the geopolitical and geo-economic dynamics of any given time. The decisions, economic or otherwise, the interpretations of meetings and events, and policy formulations made on flawed perceptions will lead to detrimental results. America and the rest of the Western world have to learn from past errors of judgement and look at the emerging institutions of the South, such as BRICS, from a new perspective. The shift is real – looking away cannot alter that reality.
