>> now, abc 7 news at noon -- on your side. >> happening now, fourth of july capto these in the nation's -- festivities in the nation's capital. the parade has kicked off and a capital forth is tonight. headed our way. the big question, will it rain on our parade? josh is standing by with more on that. >> the timing for the parade and thunderstorms is not the

the timing for fireworks and thunderstorms might work out of cloud cover. at times, you see sunshine fighting through, but in general, more of a cloudy day. that keeps temperatures right around the 90 degree mark. .t's humid along with that, a chance of showers for today. let's talk about actual temperatures. upper 80's for most, feels like .2 in d c, 90 in fredericksburg a warm afternoon even without a whole lot of sunshine. showers popping up in prince william and fairfax county. i expect things to get going closer to 1:00. 1:00, more rain starting to fire up. at 2:30

moving across the district. by 4:30 p.m., things start to dry out. cover, but, cloud not a lot of rain. right in time for the fireworks, one area where we consistently see the rain is heading closer to i 70. good news for the mall. news for farther north. if you are going to be out all afternoon, expect to get wet at some point. we will talk more about your fireworks forecast and next weekend in just a little bit. >> sounds good. fourth of july festivities are underway. happening now, a big celebration on the mall. >> good afternoon. you can feel the excitement in the air along the national mall. take a look behind me. the fireworks don't startor

people behind me and security in place. --se see police and police district police and police from prince william's county, national park police, everyone is here to keep you safe. are coming to downtown washington, you should know that most of the roads around the area are closed to vehicular traffic. you should take metro. here's what you need to know. fireworks kickoff at the national mall at 909 tonight. checkpointssecurity will be in place roughly at 2:00. some open as early as 10:00. good spots are going fast. please do not bring your pets. no alcohol. no glass containers. no tents. no personal fireworks or firecrackers.

this is a drone free zone. reporting from the national mall, sam sweeney, abc 7 news. >> what smart american than baseball on july 4? the nationals are taking on the mets. fans are turning out in droves. is nothing more patriotic than a baseball game on the fourth of july and that's exactly what's going on here at nationals park. the gates opened at 9:00 this morning after a walkoff home run against the mets last night. the nats are back at it, one of six games they will play before the all-star break. includes ae performance by the golden knights and the world-famous rockettes. a huge crowd is expected for an event that is a tradition in the nation's capital. >> it's

that's america. >> this country is wonderful. celebrate with .merica's pastime is great it's absolutely great. >> last night's game was a with fans being treated to a fireworks display after the big win. at nationals park, suzanne kennedy, abc seven news. happening now, the national independence day parade is just getting underway in the district. it's a one mile route in celebration of the country's freedom. what's going on, adriana? the party is officially underway . we have bands, military units

patriotic than that. happy fourth of july, everybody. the people. can i get a cheer? [cheers] i met a man from the czech .epublic this is an international event. everyone is here to enjoy the fourth of july celebration. our country is 241 years old today. better place to celebrate than constitution avenue with all of these amazing people? the parade started at 11:45 a.m. and ends at 2:00 p.m. keep in mind that parking is terrible.

adriana: good news for metro riders today. off-peak fares will be in effect all day long. no track work scheduled. the rails are open and asked the half hour until midnight. half hour until midnight. we have a look at traffic. >> not too bad as long as you stay away from downtown, as we just mentioned. view ofstreet, a great the parade. we saw police go buy a moment ago, and the parade is underway. the national mall is to be avoided if you are driving, of course, that goes without saying. up on the wrapped bridge, already loin

. a little heavier in the third street tunnel the opposite way. let's take a look at the 4th street bridge. northbound is blocked off. on the outbound side. 95 in virginia will be wide open. a pretty good ride in both directions. the beltway looking great. that's all from the traffic center for now. adriana: still developing in prince george's county, police are trying to piece together what happened to a man in capitol heights. officers tell us they were called to the 800 block for a welfare check. when they got there, they found a man suffering from trauma to his body. he died. this is now being investigated as a homicide. police are asking anyone with information to call them.

at naples avenue, police are trying to figure out how a truck made it onto the track with out an access road. the company that owns the truck says a two-man crew was sent to the area. no one knows why the truck would be on the train track. north korea is celebrating after another missile launch. this time, the country claims they have the ability to reach the u.s. we have reaction across the globe. >> as americans are celebrating the fourth of july, new images out of north korea show kim jong-un celebrating his latest missile launch, one he claims could reach the u.s. >> this is the first time we are seeing a north korean weapon that could hit the united states, not the mainland, but

alaska is part of the united states, and this is a just houra representative from china said at the u.n. that his country wants to deescalate rising tension. >> sooner or later it will get out of control and the consequences will need disastrous. >> the russian and chinese ministries released a joint statement in response, or suggesting -- in response, suggesting a moratorium. twitter,ump took to suggesting china could end this nonsense once and for all. that tweet starkly different from two weeks ago when the president tweeted that china's efforts have not worked out. for months, trump has been trying to get china to intervene, going back and forth on how helpful the country might be. >>

on our own. on thes no one that islong death of a 22-year-old american college student after 17 months in captivity. janai norman, abc news, washington. >> still ahead, risking their lives to save the lives of others. to a ceremonyou honoring the officers who were hurt

havertys furniture helps even when life isn't.t are you sure you don't want me to call an exterminator? (muffled) aw, come on. it's just a raccoon that got in the attic. and there she is. oh, look. babies. [loud hissing.] darren! daddy! [crashing from above. loud and violent.] they're on the move! honey!?! what's going on? she's got me cornered. how big is she? make the call! save up to $1000 at the star spangled sale. havertys. life looks good.

at noon -- on >> the two capitoe officers credited with stopping a shooter at an alexandria-based all field were honored this mining. the d.c. sons of the american revolution presented them with a law-enforcement commendation medal. the two were injured last month at the park in alexandria in which a congressman and two others were hurt. special agent paley offering his best bailey -- special agent bailey offering his thanks for the honor. >> thank you. i am greatly honored to be here. thank you for the award. thank you. >> the other officer could not attend the ceremony, so her supervisor accepted the award on her behalf. donald trump and the first lady are having a picnic today with

night with fireworks. to he will meet with vladimir putin. he says syria is top of the agenda. then there is this. will we have a new hot dog eating contest winner this fourth of july? the reigning champions biggest challenger is chowing down as we speak. year, he devoured 70 hot dogs in 10 minutes. on the women's side, a returning champion was able to maintain her championship. 41 hot dogs in 10 minutes. wow. many will hang out on lands this fourth of july, others will hang out on a boat.

we have barbecues, picnics, nationals baseball and a crowd on the national mall. city, the beauty of our that we can do that. national resources and the coast guard will be out aggressively in force, making sure everyone is having a good time, but also playing nice, following the rules. first and foremost, make sure you have lifejackets. , but you haveaw to have it on the boat at all times. children do you have to have lifejackets on at all times. be mindful

the national mall. a no wake zone. you want to be mindful of that. on boats aredeaths alcohol-related. 70% of victims are not wearing life vest. remember, no dangling off the bow of the boat. the idea is to celebrate america, but be responsible. happy fourth of july, everybody. having a we are discussion on competitive eating, is it worth it? to be made,money but it's just a couple of people some money. make >> count me out. you be the scientist. i will be the anchor woman. are also anorms important place to

have some radar. ours is great. keep track of thingswe have winn change very quickly. here's another shot of the water. quite a bit of cloud cover hanging around the national harbor and that's the case for a lot of us. with cloudy skies, temperatures are already hitting 95 -- 94 degrees. mid 80's on the east side of town, largo and waldorf both that 86. cloud cover across the area blanketing the sky for us quite a bit. do farther north you go, you run into sunshine. i want to show you the bigger picture. we stay dry. overnight, this boundary sunk into our area, going right across the district. if you look closely, you

can see a counterclockwise rotation here. there is upper-level energy riding in at the same time. aose two together bring us chance of showers and thunderstorms throughout the afternoon. as we give it just another 45 minutes to an hour, we start to pop up some of this activity. i think for showers around the metro, 1:00-4:00 is the most likely timeframe. an umbrella, definitely have it ready to go. for the evening, not a whole lot showing up on futurecast. that's good news for that timeframe. for the fireworks, most of a czar looking like we are on the dry side. if you want to get the family to thatool, keep in mind early afternoon is the best chance for thunderstorms. we are looking for predominantly dry weather. storms not out of the question,

and friday, temperatures a little cooler with cloud cover and rain. 92 today. your fourth of july, early part of the afternoon, i expect looking at showers at some point. >> i like how saturday and sunday look. >> it's summertime in d.c.. >> coming up, on abc 7 news at noon -- >> i don't apologize for it. >> chris christie doubling down after being caught on a beach he announced was closed to the public.

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>> that is tennis star venus during abreaking down press conference after being asked about a deadly car crash police say she is responsible for. this is the first time she has spoken publicly about the accident. there are no words to describe how devastating and -- yeah. i am completely speechless, and it's just -- yeah. -- maybe i just should go. family has filed a wrongful death suit against williams, accusing her

of driving recklessly afterhe drove into an intersection when they had the right-of-way. she has not been charged or ticketed for the accident. the three-day government shutdown is over. chris christie announced a compromise has been reached. this means beaches are back open for the fourth of july. chris christie took heat for photos of him with his family on a beach that was closed. >> i'm sitting there in a baseball hat, shorts and a t-shirt talking to my wife and talking to a guest. i don't apologize for it. i don't back away from it, and i think my poll numbers show that i don't care about political optics. now, chris christie has an approval rating of just 15%.

>> typical summertime weather for the fourth of july. >> pop-up thunderstorms. the timing looks better for the fireworks. it's not out of the question that we still have a few thunderstorms, but i think most of them will be between 1:00-4:00. not great for the parade, but for the fireworks, things are looking good. keep the him bro a handy. -- keep e

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