Latest United States News

Mountainside Fitness posts their safety guidelines as the facility remains open even as Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has issued an executive order for all gyms to close due to the surge in coronavirus cases in Arizona Thursday, July 2, 2020, in Phoenix. For the third straight day, several health clubs in metro Phoenix were defying Ducey's 30-day shutdown order to close gyms, bars, water park and tubing businesses, raising questions about whether officials who have been criticized for responding indecisively to the pandemic will be effective in shutting down the clubs. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

The Latest: Hot-spot Arizona reaches ICU capacity of 91%

Jul. 3, 2020 4:04 PM EDT

PHOENIX — Arizona has reached new peaks in hospitalizations and emergency room visits, indicating the state is only intensifying as a coronavirus hot spot. State health officials say the capacity of hospital intensive care units is at an all-time high of 91%. The number of people hospitalized Thursday due...

FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2009, file photo, former hostages, from left, Tom Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell pose for a portrait in New York. The American defense contractors held for years by leftist rebels in Colombia moved closer to collecting on a $318 million judgment against their former captors after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal by a sanctioned Venezuelan businessman whose assets they were seeking to claim. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

US victims of FARC rebels win claim to Venezuelan's fortune

Jul. 3, 2020 3:33 PM EDT

MIAMI (AP) — Three American defense contractors held for five years by leftist rebels in Colombia moved closer to collecting on a $318 million judgment against their former captors when a U.S. Supreme Court justice rebuffed an appeal by a sanctioned Venezuelan businessman whose assets they seek to claim. ...

People wearing protective face masks walk past a closed entrance to the beach during the new coronavirus pandemic, Friday, July 3, 2020, in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Fla. Beaches throughout South Florida are closed for the busy Fourth of July weekend to avoid further spread of the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

`Huge bummer': July Fourth will test Americans' discipline

Jul. 3, 2020 3:12 PM EDT

The U.S. headed into the Fourth of July weekend with many parades and fireworks displays canceled, beaches and bars closed, and health authorities warning that this will be a crucial test of Americans' self-control that could determine the trajectory of the surging coronavirus outbreak. With confirmed cases...

FILE - In this Oct. 7, 2015, file photo, Toronto Blue Jays Russell Martin, center, and Troy Tulowitzki, left, prepare to take batting practice during a team workout at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. All 30 Major League Baseball teams will train at their regular-season ballparks for the pandemic-shortened season after the Blue Jays received a Canadian federal government exemption on Thursday, July 2, 2020, to work out at Rogers Centre. Toronto will move camp from its spring training complex in Dunedin, Fla., where players reported for intake testing. The Blue Jays will create a quarantine environment at Rogers Centre and the adjoining Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel which overlooks the field. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Canada health official says MLB season exemption not assured

Jul. 3, 2020 2:04 PM EDT

TORONTO (AP) — A top Canadian government health official says the Toronto Blue Jays aren’t guaranteed to get an exemption for the regular season. The Blue Jays got clearance to hold training camp in Toronto starting this week. But the regular season will require players to frequently travel back and...

This Friday, July 3, 2020 satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. that has been annotated by experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies shows a damaged building after a fire and explosion at Iran's Natanz nuclear site. An online video and messages purportedly claiming responsibility for a fire that analysts say damaged a centrifuge assembly plant at Iran's underground Natanz nuclear site deepened the mystery Friday around the incident — even as Tehran insisted it knew the cause but would not make it public due to

Iran declines to disclose cause of mysterious nuke site fire

Jul. 3, 2020 1:55 PM EDT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An online video and messages purportedly claiming responsibility for a fire that analysts say damaged a centrifuge assembly plant at Iran's underground Natanz nuclear site deepened the mystery Friday around the incident — even as Tehran insisted it knew the cause...

FILE - In this June 28, 2020 file photo, armed homeowners Mark and Patricia McCloskey confront protesters marching to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson's house in the Central West End of St. Louis. On Friday, July 3, 2020, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly asserting the homeowners were aiming a handgun at an armed protester in front their mansion in St. Louis. The protester at right is holding a video camera and microphone, not a gun. (Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week

Jul. 3, 2020 1:48 PM EDT

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts: ___ CLAIM: Photo shows homeowner aiming a handgun at an armed protester in front of...

FILE - In this Monday, June 8, 2020 file photo, passengers wearing face masks arrive at London's Heathrow Airport. The British government said Friday, July 3, 2020, it is scrapping a 14-day quarantine rule for arrivals from about 60 countries deemed “lower risk” for the coronavirus, including France, Spain, Germany and Italy — but not the United States. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

UK scraps quarantine for some visitors as pubs set to reopen

Jul. 3, 2020 12:50 PM EDT

LONDON (AP) — Boris Johnson wants a haircut and a beer. Like millions of other Britons, the prime minister will be able to have a trim and a tipple on Saturday, when the country takes its biggest step yet out of coronavirus lockdown with the reopening in England of restaurants, pubs and hairdressers,...

A man looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo Friday, July 3, 2020. Markets advanced in Asia on Friday following a Wall Street rally driven by strong jobs data. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

World stocks mostly dip with US closed for holiday

Jul. 3, 2020 12:47 PM EDT

World stock markets fell slightly in Europe on Friday after gains in Asia, with trading somewhat subdued by a long holiday weekend in the U.S. With Wall Street remaining closed in observance of Independence Day, Germany's DAX edged 0.6% lower to 12,528.18. The CAC 40 in Paris dropped 0.8% to 5,007.14, while...

A seagull flies past the statue of Christopher Columbus in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, July 2, 2020. Unlike in the United States, Britain and Belgium, statues of colonial-era figures have not become a major source of protests in Spain, which once ruled over one of the largest empires in history after conquering much of the Americas. Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau is one of the few public officials who say Spain must revisit its colonial legacy - though she is against timid calls to remove the city’s monument to Christopher Columbus. Instead, she tells The Associated Press that she encourages a public discussion about the Italian explorer whose landing in the Caribbean in 1492 gave birth to Spain’s overseas empire. (AP Photo/Renata Brito)

AP Interview: Barcelona mayor wants Columbus statue debate

Jul. 3, 2020 6:35 AM EDT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Christopher Columbus has been decapitated, defaced, or quietly removed for his own good from pedestals across the United States in the wake of the protests for racial justice sweeping the country. In Spain, however, he is still safe atop his many perches. Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau...

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, June 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

US jobs surge: Trump sees sunshine, Biden 'no victory yet'

Jul. 3, 2020 6:05 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. economy just posted its best single-month job gain in history. U.S. unemployment is at one of its worst points since the Great Depression. Both are true. As Republicans and Democrats fought to spin Thursday's jobs numbers to their advantage, both sides face tremendous political...

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