NPR News: 07-04-2026 2PM EDT

Jeanine Herbst· Host0:01

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jeanine Hurst. Ukraine launched another wave of drones against Russia overnight. This as Moscow and Kyiv offered competing claims over whose forces held a key eastern Ukrainian city. NPR's Charles Maynes has more.

Charles Maynes0:16

The governor of Russia's former imperial capital, St. Petersburg, said city air defenses had fended off a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack even as he reported damage to the city's main oil terminal and a nearby port. Russia's defense ministry said Ukraine fired nearly four hundred drones into some eighteen regions of Russia and its occupied territories in all. Meanwhile, on the front lines, Russia's top brass informed President Vladimir Putin its troops had seized the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, an outpost long sought by the Kremlin in its quest to take the entirety of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. Yet Zelensky later called that claim a Russian lie and said Ukrainian forces remain in the city. Charles Maynes, NPR News, Moscow.

Jeanine Herbst· Host0:58

This Fourth of July, some Americans think the nation is on the wrong track, but the majority say they're proud or very proud to be an American, according to the latest NPR PBS News Marist poll. NPR's Maham Javaid, Javaid rather, has more.

Maham Javaid1:13

American feelings about the country appear to be divided along partisan lines. Republicans are the most proud at ninety-three percent. Independents are at sixty-one percent. And the least proud are Democrats at forty-five percent. Christopher James, a Democrat