Latest news with #250thAnniversary
Reuters
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
New York governor says World Cup prime target for drone attacks
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - New York Governor Kathy Hochul called on Monday for President Donald Trump to boost federal defenses against drone attacks, saying events like the World Cup and the U.S. 250th anniversary celebrations are "prime targets." She noted that next summer, "the New York area will be the epicenter for multiple high-profile events, including the World Cup, the flotilla of Tall Ships, International Naval Review, the largest ever Macy's fireworks show, and America's 250th birthday celebration, which will present prime targets." "We need a comprehensive federal strategy that not only dramatically improves drone detection capabilities nationally but also provides robust, multi-layered mitigation measures," Hochul said in a letter to Trump released on Monday. She said the government needed to do a better job of protecting "critical infrastructure like population centers, utilities, and military assets." Hochul urged the White House to take action, citing a series of incidents last year and the mounting use of drones in the war in Ukraine and other trouble spots around the world. The White House did not immediately comment. Last month, Trump established a federal task force to ensure U.S. control over American skies, expand restrictions over sensitive sites, expand federal use of technology to detect drones in real time and provide assistance to state and local law enforcement. The FIFA World Cup final will be held on July 19, 2026, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, about 13 miles from New York City. "An attack against strategic military and critical infrastructure in New York poses an urgent danger to the United States," Hochul said. "The reality is that the federal government is unprepared and poorly postured to detect and mitigate (drone) threats and states are hamstrung by a lack of legislative authority and action by the Federal Aviation Administration." Last month, Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said Trump also aims to address the "growing threat of criminal terrorists and foreign misuse of drones in U.S. airspace." He said the country was "securing our borders from national security threats, including in the air, with large-scale public events such as the Olympics and the World Cup on the horizon." Los Angeles will host the Olympics in the summer of 2028.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Taxpayers Are Supposed To Shell Out $150 Million for Next Year's July 4th Celebrations
Consumer spending on 2025 Fourth of July celebrations is expected to reach $8.9 billion, according to the National Retail Federation—a slight decrease from previous years, but still well above pre-pandemic level spending. Next year, taxpayers can expect to pay even more for Independence Day festivities, albeit indirectly. On Friday, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. Tucked away in the sprawling 870-page tax and spending bill is a section that allocates $150 million for "events, celebrations, and activities surrounding the observance and commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States." The funding, which will be appropriated to the Interior Department, shall remain available through FY 2028. Appropriately, Trump signed the bill—which is expected to add nearly $4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade—at a Fourth of July celebration on the White House South Lawn, complete with fireworks and a B-2 jet flyover. Commemorating America's 250th birthday has been a quiet priority of the second Trump administration. In January, the president signed an executive order that established the White House Task Force on Celebrating America's 250th Birthday. The task force, which is housed in the defense department, will coordinate with federal agencies "to plan, organize, and execute an extraordinary celebration of the 250th Anniversary of American Independence and shall coordinate agencies' communications with the United States Semiquincentennial Commission." (The White House has since launched a website that includes a countdown to next year's festivities.) This order also reinstated two executive orders signed during the first Trump administration, which had been rescinded by President Joe Biden, to establish a National Garden of American Heroes. In April, the National Endowment for the Arts began accepting applications from sculptors for the garden, reports Reason's Joe Lancaster. However, the garden faces several roadblocks to its planned opening of July 4, 2026, including a lack of quality sculptures and a designated location. It is unclear exactly how the $150 million included in the bill will be spent, but the cost is exorbitant, even by Trump's standards. In 2019, the president hosted the "Salute to America" event to celebrate that year's July Fourth, which included a grandiose display of America's military power and several flyovers of multiple stealth aircraft that ended up costing American taxpayers more than $13 million, "well above the $6 million to $7 million that had been spent in the previous three years," The Washington Post reported at the time. The following year, Trump held two Independence Day celebrations—one in Washington, D.C., and one at Mount Rushmore on July 3—which drew a price tag of $14,573,608, per Newsweek. More recently, Trump hosted a military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Army (which fell on his 79th birthday) that included M1 Abrams main battle tanks, over 6,000 marching soldiers, and (yes) more aircraft flyovers. With an estimated cost of $25 million to $45 million, the parade cost taxpayers "$277,778–$500,000 per minute," Reason's Billy Binnion reported. The fact that America is on track to see its 250th anniversary is certainly worth celebrating. However, a state-sponsored celebration that saddles taxpayers with even more debt is the type of event that the founders would diametrically oppose. Lawmakers still have time to rescind the wasteful spending of "big, beautiful bill," but given Trump's hold on the Republican party, and Democrats' penchant for government spending themselves, it is unlikely. For now, taxpayers can look forward to once again financing the federal government's celebration of Independence Day, only this time at a much higher price tag. The post Taxpayers Are Supposed To Shell Out $150 Million for Next Year's July 4th Celebrations appeared first on
The Sun
04-07-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Trump reveals plan to host UFC title fight at WHITE HOUSE in front of 20,000 fans to celebrate America's 250th birthday
DONALD Trump has revealed plans to host the UFC title fight at the White House next year to celebrate America's 250th birthday. The"championship" punch up could take place on the presidential lawn and draw over 20,000 fans. 5 5 Trump, 79, who is pally with UFC president Dana White and a big UFC fan, announced his ambitious plan at an event in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday. It comes just weeks after the president was pictured at the UFC 316 in New Jersey. Speaking emphatically to the crowd, he called on White to help organise the fight, which he said could take place at the White House because there is "a lot of land". He said: "Does anybody watch UFC? The great Dana White? "We're going to have a UFC fight. We're going to have a UFC fight - think of this - on the grounds of the White House. "We have a lot of land there, we're going to build a little — we're not, Dana is going to do it. "Dana is great, one of a kind — going to be UFC fight, championship fight, full fight, like 20,000 to 25,000 people, and we're going to do that as part of '250.'" White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later confirmed the plans on X, adding that the president is "dead serious". The announcement marks the start of a whole year's worth of festivities to celebrate 250 years since American gained independence from the British. Trump's connections with the UFC date back over two decades, while his relationship with White has always been strong. The UFC boss backed the president's political career from the start, calling Trump a "fighter" and endorsing his presidential bid in 2016. Donald Trump plots shock UFC title fight at the White House as Dana White 'confirms' plan for 2026 When Trump survived a failed assassination attempt the White declared the president a "tough guy". He later called the 79-year-old "the legitimate, ultimate, American badass of all time". Later, in an interview with Tucker Carlson at Fox News, he touched on the pair's strong relationship, calling Trump "great" and a "good friend". He said: "This guy has been so good to me it's unexplainable. "He's been a very good friend to me since the day I met him. "When we bought this company it had such a bad stigma attached to it and the sport that we couldn't even get into venues, they didn't want us. "Donald Trump saw that this thing could possibly be big. "Plus he's a sports guy who loves sports, and he offered us to come do the event at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. "He cut us a very fair deal and we went down there and did two events with him where he showed up for the first fight and stayed until the last fight. "Imagine back then; Trump brand is way up, UFC brand is way down, but he took us in and he was great." 5 5
Travel Weekly
04-07-2025
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Tour operators and destinations begin preparations now for America's 250th birthday
Tour operators and tourism boards are gearing up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America's founding in 2026, with trips and events that focus on history and inspiration. While cities and states around the nation are partaking in the party, destinations along the Eastern Seaboard are expecting to draw huge crowds for the semiquincentennial, with storytelling about the nation's founding at the heart of their celebrations. Both tour operators and destination management organizations said they hope the stories of resilience will inspire unity. "There's no greater story than this one about our country ... and there's no bigger time than right now to tell and understand the story and for us all to embrace it," said Steve Born, chief marketing officer for the Globus family of brands. Globus unveiled Celebrating America: 250 Years Strong, a 10-day tour from Boston to Washington that will visit some of the nation's most historic cities while putting history into context, Born said. "This package is all about not just seeing these cities and hearing about the history and hitting all the must-see sites but having a layer in each city of our history, and how that's living history, and the effect that it has on our country, not only then but now," he said. Collette is offering an itinerary to celebrate the semiquincentennial, including a visit to Mount Vernon in Virginia. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Collette Collette will operate a nine-day Celebrating America's 250th Anniversary itinerary, also starting in Boston and ending in Washington. The idea is to start the trip where the American Revolution began and end in the nation's capital, said Diana Ditto, Collette's product marketing and growth strategy vice president. "A psychographic insight we have on our travelers is that they like to be inside the story, inside history," she said. "Our travelers do consider themselves, many of them, history buffs. ... They like to be walking in history." Some departure dates are already sold out, Ditto said, while Born said Globus has seen "good traction ... right away." American Cruise Lines also unveiled an itinerary to ring in America's milestone birthday, a 52-day trip from Oregon to Boston that includes three cruises, ending with a New England sailing and Independence Day in Boston. The river line will also operate a 32-day Revolutionary War trip, combining three sailings starting in Albany, N.Y., and ending in Washington. Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Visit Philadelphia is projecting increased visitor spend for the 250th anniversary of America's founding. Photo Credit: J. Fusco for Visit Philadelphia Cities step up Prominently featured on all of these itineraries are the cities where the country's founding history was made: the start of the revolution, the development of America's cultural and financial hubs, the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Tourism boards are not celebrating the semiquincentennial on just one day: They are stretching the festivities across 2026 with sporting events, art shows and festivals. New York will start the party early by celebrating the 400th anniversary of its founding in 2025 as a lead-up to next year. New York City Tourism + Conventions partnered with the city to launch "Founded By NYC," a campaign that focuses not only on the city's history but on its present and future. "It really does give us an opportunity to highlight the achievements in terms of the creativity and the resilience of our city and its people," said Julie Coker, CEO of the DMO. "What we would say is, 'Come see the New York that you may not know': We'll be creating different itineraries for those [stories] to be highlighted." Destination DC expects 2026 to bring record visitors to the nation's capital, said CEO Elliott Ferguson, who added that the organization is promoting its events to international visitors who are coming for the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament. The anniversary creates an opportunity to highlight untold stories of the nation's history, he said. For example, a tour hosted by the nonprofit 51 Steps to Freedom features 300 stories from "hidden figures" in D.C. history and features lesser-known burial grounds, enslavement quarters and civil rights sites. Visit Philadelphia also expects its events related to America's 250th to draw major crowds, said CEO Angela Val, as the city was where the Declaration of Independence was drafted and signed, marking the nation's birth. Visit Philadelphia anticipates additional visitor spend of up to $1.6 billion in 2026, a figure that includes the impact from World Cup matches in the city, including one that will be held on the Fourth of July. The opportunity to use the semiquincentennial as a unifier for Americans and as a draw for international visitors to the city is also on the minds of planners, Val said. "Our core value is brotherly love and making sure that Philadelphia is seen as a welcoming place," she said. "We're America's birthplace. We're the birthplace of modern-day democracy. ... You have an opportunity here to be yourself and have a sense of belonging."
Wall Street Journal
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Thomas Sully's Philadelphians' Review: A City in Portraiture
Next year—2026—may mark the 250th anniversary of America's founding, but for New Englanders, 2025 is the real quarter millennial of the nation's independence. The soldier who fired 'the shot heard round the world,' as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, did so on April 19, 1775. Just as skirmishes between minutemen and redcoats in Concord and Lexington, Mass., led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence at the Pennsylvania State House, 2025 commemorations in New England will migrate in 2026 to Philadelphia. The city founded by William Penn not only had facilities—the State House (later Independence Hall) and Carpenters' Hall—large enough to accommodate the Continental Congress and afterward the United States government. At the time, Philadelphia was also the Athens of North America, home to many of America's best minds, elite cultural institutions and distinguished architecture. Peter Conn's book on the Philadelphia subjects of the artist Thomas Sully captures the aristocratic element of the city's early history. W.C. Fields once joked (though the line may be apocryphal) that spending a day in Philadelphia felt like a week. In 1800, a day in Philadelphia would have been too short to enjoy its charms. Mr. Conn, a retired professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, enlists Sully to highlight the city that hosted the nation's origins partly because the artist, one of America's greatest portraitists, captured what the Founding Fathers saw. He was born in 1783 in Horcastle, England. In 1792 Sully's parents and their nine children emigrated to America, where Thomas followed a circuitous route both to painting and Philadelphia. He lived and worked in the city for more than 60 years. Sully started with historical subjects—he was the first to depict George Washington's 'Passage of the Delaware' (1819). Soon he pivoted to portraits, a reliable way to support himself since he lacked a patron. Sully kept meticulous records—Benjamin Franklin would have been proud. His register lists all of his more than 2,000 paintings. Extant papers also reveal that he asked $80 for a head painting, $300 for a waist-up or 'half-length' portrait and $600 for a full-length portrait. An obsession with finances and finding clients did not hinder his talent. Sully's work led to commissions from Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. Mr. Conn says little about the presidents Sully painted, giving attention instead to the artist's urban surroundings. Two hundred and fifty years removed, some of Sully's neighbors are little remembered today but once held great importance. One such was William Henry Furness (1832), a Unitarian minister, childhood friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson and one of Philadelphia's leading abolitionists.
