WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump used an elaborate fireworks display and Air Force One flyover at Mount Rushmore on Friday night to rally his base, ushering in Fourth of July celebrations a day early with accusations that a "new far-left fascism" is part of "a merciless campaign to wipe out our history."

The combative address in South ...Read more

MELBOURNE, Australia -- The U.S. is sending the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz aircraft carriers to the South China Sea for military exercises as China ramps up its own drills in the area, drawing protests from Washington.

Dual carrier operations and exercises are being conducted in "international waters of the South China Sea to support a ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- An 8-year-old boy was killed and three others injured in a shooting at a shopping mall in the U.S. state of Alabama on Friday, local police said.

Several shots were reported near the food hall at the Riverchase Galleria in the afternoon, Hoover police said in a statement.

A young girl and two adults were injured in the incident. ...Read more

LONDON -- Britain will exempt travelers from Germany, France, Spain and Italy from its coronavirus quarantine rule for international arrivals, the government said on Friday.

They are among 59 countries and territories with which Britain has agreed "air bridges" of mutual exemption from quarantine requirements.

Greece and Turkey were also on ...Read more

GALVESTON, Texas -- As COVID-19 infections spiked in South Texas, officials closed beaches and the governor ordered the wearing of masks, but crowds still descended on Galveston's restaurants and Pleasure Pier amusement park on Friday.

At The Spot, a popular three-story beachfront restaurant on Seawall Boulevard, signs warned that patrons had ...Read more

DETROIT -- A Clarkston couple were charged Thursday with felonious assault, a day after two racially charged videos of the same incident clearly show a white woman pointing a gun at a Black mother and her two daughters outside an Orion Township eatery.

Jillian Wuestenberg, 32, and Eric Wuestenberg, 42, were each charged with one count of ...Read more

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in shook up his security team and appointed veterans in North Korea relations after Kim Jung Un's regime blew up a joint liaison that once served as a symbol of his rapprochement toward Pyongyang.

Moon named Park Jie-won as the new head of the National Intelligence Service, his office said Friday. Park helped ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The cumulative number of North Carolinians infected with the novel coronavirus is nearing half a million, according to one group of researchers, more than seven times the number of positive tests.

The estimate of 483,156 people infected may seem large, but it means less than 5% of the state's population has been infected, and ...Read more

Israel is fortifying its national survey of exposure to the coronavirus as a second wave of infections threatens to plunge the country back into lockdown.

The buttressed program will begin rechecking positive results for antibodies to the pathogen, helping researchers understand the depth and duration of immunity, according to Yair Schindel, a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- California is entering a perilous Fourth of July holiday weekend: Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are continuing to surge even as officials beg the public to avoid crowds and keep physical distancing in hopes of preventing more outbreaks that could overwhelm the state's hospitals.

Californians who hoped the Independence ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Pastor Curtis Farrar didn't want to build his church at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue.

There was a building he liked further south at the time. But this one was available, so at the southwest corner he opened Worldwide Outreach for Christ, where he has led services for the last 38 years.

Now Farrar believes it was divine ...Read more

LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. -- After months of diligently isolating, truck driver Tommy Macias, 51, made one error that cost him his life. He went to a barbecue party with some friends.

He didn't know that someone who had tested positive for COVID-19, but showed no symptoms, also was there.

"It was all preventable," said Gustavo Lopez, Macias' 52-...Read more

SEATTLE -- This week's outbreak at several University of Washington fraternities has hinted at just how hard it's going to be to keep COVID-19 from spreading when college students return to campus this fall -- especially since those students are eager to be around other young people after months of lockdowns and living at home.

As of Friday, ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Two environmental groups have filed a petition with the state asking it to provide more protection for a once-abundant butterfly that has seen its numbers fall precipitously in San Diego County and elsewhere in recent decades.

The tiny Quino checkerspot should be added to California's list of endangered species because its ...Read more

HONG KONG -- A Hong Kong medic has become the first person to be charged under a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on the territory earlier this week.

The defendant, 23-year-old Tong Ying-kit, has been charged by police with inciting others "with a view to committing secession or undermining national unification" as well as "...Read more

WASHINGTON -- A Democratic senator is asking Attorney General William Barr whether "political pressure" is limiting a probe into the hacking of environmental groups in light of Barr's ouster of the chief U.S. prosecutor in Manhattan.

"The risk is obvious that the investigation will be slow-walked or curtailed" because of President Donald Trump'...Read more

A day after Russians approved an effectual ban on gay marriage as part of sweeping amendments to the constitution, Vladimir Putin signaled to supporters it was open season on the rainbow.

The Russian president met with the authors of the amendments Friday and one of them, a former senator, appealed to him to take one step further and limit the ...Read more