Live updates: What to know as July Fourth long weekend begins

Blue Angels conclude air show rehearsal

The Blue Angels roared over Jones Beach Friday afternoon to conclude the rehearsal of the FourLeaf Airshow, wowing beach goers as they flew at low altitude as top speeds over the water.

As swimmers splashed in the surf and beachgoers lounged in the hot sun, the U.S. Navy A-18E/F Super Hornet jets flew in formation and titled sideways and upside down over the water.

Is traffic lightening up? Check this live map.

As of 3 p.m., live traffic maps showed lighter traffic to main beaches, but there were still some holdups across the Island.

7 things to know going into the weekend

Here are a few important and fun things to help you as you roll into July Fourth weekend:

• Gotta run to the store? Here's what's open and closed.
• Are you a Swiftie? We're following her wedding live, too.
• From fireworks to fairs, here are the big events happening this weekend.
• For Jones Beach-specific events, check out this guide.
• July Fourth is also the day the Trump Accounts program debuts. Here's how you set it up.
• In honor of the 250th, here are 25 times Long Island changed America, from Grumman and Gatsby to Sagamore and Sandy.
• The Bicentennial marked the year of "Dancing Queen" and "The Jeffersons." Here are other big pop culture moments from '76.

What we know about the suspected shark bite

Jones Beach and state park paramedics treated one person for a suspected shark bite Friday afternoon, a parks official told Newsday.

Lifeguards and paramedics treated the individual at about noon Friday near Jones Beach Field 6, the official said.

State park officials briefly suspended swimming near Field 6 and the Eastern Bathhouse. Swimmers were advised to remain closer to shore at about waist deep.

Read the developing story here.

Waiting for tall ships in NYC: 'It's gonna be fun to see'

Scattered along Manhattan's East River waterfront are spectators waiting for a tall ship parade, which is making its way south from the Hell Gate bridge towards the tip of the island and onward.

Rick Farmer, 59, of Kips Bay, rode the bus and then walked to a shaded spot in the Two Bridges neighborhood. He's only seen these sort of ships on TV and heard about the event on social media.

"It's fascinating to see, especially with the bridges in the background — the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge — with kind of old school, I guess, with some of the really tall ships that are 100 or more years old," said Farmer, who works in commercial real estate finance. "It's gonna be fun to see."

He'll also be going to the main event Saturday, to view from Governors Island: a parade of more and bigger ships.

Beaches? Packed. Traffic? Heavy. Temps? Still rising.

As temperatures continued to climb on Friday, beachgoers at Jones Beach looked upward to see part of the rehearsal for the weekend’s FourLeaf July Fourth fireworks and air show. Organizers delivered 1,776 red, white and blue cupcakes on the boardwalk to mark the Semiquincentennial.

"So we have a great crowd coming in here. So far, not overwhelming. We have a steady crowd," said George Gorman, state parks regional director for Long Island.

Parking lots remained about half full with large crowds on Jones Beach and the boardwalk.

Overhead, performers flew over the beach doing stunts and skywriting, including drawing a heart.

The U.S. Army Golden Knights and the U.K. Red Devils parachute regiment also jumped onto the beach carrying a 5,000 square-foot American flag.

17 NYS landmarks off Long Island to be illuminated for 250th

Across New York State, 17 landmarks will be illuminated Saturday evening in red, white and blue to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday.

None of the landmarks are on Long Island.

"America’s fight for independence was shaped by the critical role that New York played in our nation's founding," Hochul said in a statement. "We are excited to welcome the tens of thousands of people who will be visiting our state to celebrate this momentous occasion with us, and we look forward to writing the next chapter of our history together."

The landmarks are:

• 1 World Trade Center
• Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge
• Kosciuszko Bridge
• The H. Carl McCall SUNY Building
• State Education Building
• Alfred E. Smith State Office Building
• Empire State Plaza
• State Fairgrounds — Main Gate & Expo Center
• Niagara Falls
• The "Franklin D. Roosevelt" Mid-Hudson Bridge
• Grand Central Terminal — Pershing Square Viaduct
• Albany International Airport Gateway
• Lake Placid Olympic Center
• MTA LIRR — East End Gateway at Penn Station
• Fairport Lift Bridge over the Erie Canal
• Moynihan Train Hall
• Roosevelt Island Lighthouse

Mamdani: 'America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place'

Seated at George Washington's desk at City Hall, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday delivered a speech in which he marked the nation's 250th anniversary and defended immigrants' significant role in founding America.

In a 13-minute address, Mamdani decried wealthy and powerful forces who've insisted the nation's earliest new immigrants "were anything but exceptional."

Mamdani, surrounded by 10 immigrants who recently became naturalized citizens, sharply criticized "oligarchs who buy elections" and a "health insurance industry that exploits the sick." He condemned masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for "terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans."

The speech made no mention of President Donald Trump, whose administration has implemented mass deportations as part of a crackdown on those living in the country without legal authorization.

The mayor's speech appeared to draw parallels between the challenging paths immigrants faced after landing on the shores of America 250 years ago to those arriving today.

"For generation after generation, we have been told that when the world has sent its people to our shores, it has not sent its best," the mayor said. "It sent Puritans and Sikhs and Quakers and Muslims and Jewish people who were banished for praying the wrong way, worshiping the wrong Gods, angering the wrong people. It sent peasants and serfs from slums and shtetls who were treated as less because they hardly owned clothes, let alone land."

But Mamdani, who was born in Kampala, Uganda, argued America's exceptionalism comes not from its wealth, power or military strength.

"America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place," he said. "The frontier may be closed, we may have walked on the moon, but the work of fulfilling the values first enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, that work endures, and it belongs to us all."

Trump is scheduled to speak from Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on Friday at approximately 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

250 years ago, Washington ordered the Declaration to be read aloud for the first time in NYC

In 1776, on the grounds of what is now the New York City Hall complex, Gen. George Washington sat on horseback as his orders were carried out to read the Declaration of Independence aloud in lower Manhattan for the first time.

Later that night, 40 riled-up Colonial soldiers and sailors went to nearby Bowling Green to mutilate a statue of King George III and melt down its gold-gilded lead into munitions to attack the British.

On Friday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — a man born in a former British colony, Uganda — sat on the second floor of City Hall at Washington's desk to deliver an address marking 250 years of America. Looking west out the windows of the room where Mamdani read his speech, you can see where Washington oversaw the Declaration's reading.

FourLeaf airshow preview roaring in overhead

As crowds packed the boardwalk, a preview of FourLeaf's airshow was starting in the sky above Jones Beach.

An errant Blue Angel jet zoomed over the beach on Friday morning, seemingly at random. As beachgoers towed wagons and umbrellas, a jumbo C-130 flew above.

Helicopters also conducted a practice search and rescue operation, which will be part of the weekend airshow.

The air show is set to run on Sunday and Monday, though it could face delays or cancellation if rain or cloud cover develops.

From the air show to the fireworks, see what to expect this weekend at Jones Beach here.

'America's Block Party' begins with Times Square ball drop

Live stream coverage of America’s Block Party, a celebration of the country's 250th birthday, has begun with the first of eight ball drops in Times Square — one for each time zone in the U.S. and its commonwealths and properties across the globe.

At 10 a.m., the Times Square ball dropped as the clock struck midnight on July 4 in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, both American territories. However the stream, which showed residents of Guam counting down from midnight, never actually displayed the ball or its world famous drop.

The ball will drop seven more times in Manhattan through 7 a.m. on Saturday — midnight on Independence Day for American Samoa.

The America 250 show began streaming live from One Times Square with a pre-show at 9:45 a.m. although the site appeared to be glitchy, with the volume shutting off intermittently and videos of Americans discussing their journey and lifestyle stalling at random.

Throughout the day, the stream will feature performances leading up to the Ball Drop at midnight in New York to usher in the United States' semiquincentennial. However, the red, white and blue ball drop is not visible to the public from the street, as it typically would be on New Year's Eve.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles will host a benefit show streaming live beginning at 9:30 p.m. EST from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that will feature performances by Chris Stapleton, The Smashing Pumpkins, Chaka Khan and Anthony Ramos, and hosted by Queen Latifah.

Jones Beach starting to fill up

The sand and boardwalk are starting to fill up at Jones Beach.

Traffic heading there on the parkways was light at about 9 a.m. but backed up on Ocean Parkway near the Jones Beach tower and traffic circle.

Parking was still available at most parking fields.

The beach started filling up at 7:30 a.m. with radio stations playing music ahead of the FourLeaf Air Show. Stunt planes and performers including the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, planned to rehearse until 3 p.m.

It'll feel like 113 degrees in parts of Nassau today

A dangerous heat wave was expected to continue Friday into the Independence Day weekend on Long Island, with temperatures nearing triple digits and authorities warning of serious risks to seniors, people with health problems or those in homes without air conditioning.

Temperatures at the National Weather Service monitoring station in Islip were forecast to reach 98 degrees Friday, but the heat index — what it feels like when humidity is taken into account with temperature — was expected to spike to 107. It was predicted to hit 113 in Syosset and Stony Brook and 102 in Montauk.

"You know that energy we feel when we're going to get a hurricane around here?" said Carol Seitz-Cusack, CEO and president of Therm-A-Trol Heating and Air Conditioning Specialists in Blue Point. "I'm feeling it. I'm feeling everybody's just kind of waiting to see what happens. We're all going to be very busy."

Kerry O'Brien, the third-generation co-owner of heating and cooling company T.F. O'Brien & Co. in New Hyde Park, said he expects double or triple the normal number of calls during the heat wave. The most basic repairs for central air systems start at $300 and can quickly rise to $1,000 or more, he said.

Read the full story here.

'Stay in the shade': Bethpage parade kicks off in sweltering heat

“Stay in the shade, you're in a good spot,” said the driver of one of the vintage cars in the parade to a group set up on the sidewalk for Bethpage's parade marking the 250th.

While Friday was a day of celebration, it was also one of extreme heat.

Parade organizers handed out water bottles and onlookers gathered in shady areas to beat the heat on a day where temperatures are expected to break into the triple digits. Some children in the parade threw water balloons at residents watching from the sidewalk to help them keep cool.

Earlier, Greg Patsos, commissioner of the Bethpage Fire Department and an organizer of Friday's America 250 parade, said hundreds of marchers are expected to make their way from Bethpage High School down flag-lined streets for the celebration.

Classic car clubs, vehicles from the Museum of American Armor and multiple fire departments will take part in the procession, which will eventually wend down Broadway, where a street fair is set to be held.

"It's 250 years of the country," Patsos said at the staging area of the parade on Cherry Avenue. "We're very proud, we're very patriotic in this town."

Dave Schneider, superintendent of the Bethpage School District and an organizer of the event, said the parade committee urged people to wear sunscreen, hydrate and stay out of the sun for prolonged periods.

Ilze Pelkaus, of Bethpage, said she was taking precautions and making sure she hydrated during the parade.

“I'm an old lady, but I’m hanging in,” she said.

Pelkaus was worried about how hot it would get but said she was glad the parade started early.

“It's like 90 degrees, and the humidity, you gotta be careful for heat stroke,” Pelkaus said.

Lenard Mulqueen, the parade's grand marshal and a lifelong Bethpage resident, said he is representing the behind-the-scenes members of the community who don't often get recognition.

The parade will serve an important moment of reflection, he said.

"We live in the greatest, most charitable country on the world," said Mulqueen, 83. "You gotta be proud of that."

Maritza Lopez and her daughter, 6-year-old Cassandra, both of Bethpage, were braving the hot Friday morning with water bottles stuffed in a cooler bag.

Cassandra, a member of Girls Scout Troop 3137, is one of the marchers in Saturday's parade.

“It’s a special day for America,” said Maritza Lopez. “We get to celebrate more than usual.”

Driving a modified ATV that looks like a miniature tank, George Morrish, a volunteer with the Museum of American Armor, said he sees the American anniversary as an opportunity to build a sense of unity.

“I think it’s important that we get back to the way things used to be, at least as far as, we have have our differences, but coming together,” Morrish said.