NPR tweets on July 4 confuse some
Compiled from news services
WASHINGTON— National Public Radio marked the Fourth of July by tweeting the entire Declaration of Independence, but it seems some Twitter users didn’t recognize what they were reading.
The broadcaster tweeted out the words of the declaration line-by-line Tuesday. Some of the founders’ criticisms of King George III were met with angry responses from supporters of President Donald Trump, who seemed to believe the tweets were a reference to his presidency.
One tweet read, “A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
Another said: “and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.”
A Twitter user accused NPR of condoning violence while trying to sound patriotic. The user apologized after the misunderstanding was pointed out.
Chicago death toll rises
CHICAGO— Chicago saw one of its most violent Fourth of July weekends in recent years: At least 101 people were shot between Friday afternoon and early Wednesday. Fourteen of the wounded died.
The last time the Fourth holiday spanned four full days was in 2013, when July 4 fell on a Thursday and many people had Friday off. At least 74 people were shot between Wednesday evening and early Monday that year, and 12 of them died, according to Chicago Tribune data.
The youngest person shot over the weekend was a 13year-old boy in Gage Park on Friday night. The oldest person shot was a 60-year-old man in the Lawndale neighborhood.
The weekend violence brings the total number of people shot in Chicago this year to more than 1,800, still below the 2,035 recorded at this time last year, according to Chicago Tribune data.
Tropical storm possibility
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — There’s a good chance a tropical cyclone will form over a far-off area of the Atlantic Ocean later this week, say forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
As far as whether the potential system would affect Florida at all, it was “way too soon to say,” said John Cangialosi, a hurricane specialist.
But it was still far off — about 800 miles southwest of the Cape Verde islands and 2,000 miles away from the eastern-most Caribbean islands, according to the hurricane center’s 2 p.m. Tuesday update.
Congressman under fire
LOUISIANA — A Louisiana congressman has come under fire for a video he filmed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in which he used footage of the former extermination camp as a backdrop to illustrate his sentiment that the American military “must be invincible.”
The memorial’s official Twitter account on Wednesday chastised the Republican, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, writing: “Everyone has the right to personal reflections. However, inside a former gas chamber, there should be mournful silence. It’s not a stage.”
International travel to U.S.
NEW YORK— International travel to the U.S. grew bymore than 5 percent in May compared with data for May2016, according to the Travel Trends Index report released Wednesday by the U.S. Travel Association.
The strong showing contradicted fears that tourism from abroad would slow in reaction to U.S. policies and rhetoric, including President Donald Trump’s travel ban.