NPR News: 07-04-2026 8PM EDT

Dan Ronan· Host0:00

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. On this Fourth of July, Washington, D.C. officials are closely watching the weather. People on the National Mall are being told to evacuate because of the possibility of thunderstorms before tonight's big fireworks demonstration. NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reports.

Geoff Brumfiel0:20

Temperatures topped one hundred degrees as fighter jets flew over the National Mall. [jet flying] Watching was Patricia Smedley. She was visiting from England.

Patricia Smedley· Soundbite0:30

I'm not used to this sort of heat coming from the UK.

Geoff Brumfiel0:33

Smedley has been visiting the US for decades. She doesn't begrudge Americans at all for that little war they fought with her country way back when.

Patricia Smedley· Soundbite0:41

No, you'd made the right decision in seventeen seventy-six, believe me.

Geoff Brumfiel0:44

[laughs] Many others told NPR they were excited to be there witnessing America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. Geoff Brumfiel, NPR News.

Dan Ronan· Host0:54

Concerns over lethal injection methods are mounting in Tennessee, where state corrections officials failed to execute a man in May. Tony Gonzalez with member station WPLN reports high-ranking Republicans in the state want an independent investigation.

Tony Gonzalez1:11

Medical contractors couldn't establish an IV into the arms or chest of Tony Carruthers. After about an hour, Governor Bill Lee called off the execution on May twentieth. The man's death row attorneys had been warning about inadequate training. Now, a group of state senators, all Republicans who say they support the death penalty, have written to the governor