US celebrates July Fourth with parades, picnics, fireworks

Americans are celebrating their country's 241st birthday with big-time fireworks, small-town parades and the quirky spectacle of competitive hot dog eating. Tuesday's festivities stretch from a baseball home run derby in London to a picnic at the White House to a Utah ski town where residents initially weren't even sure they'd be home for Independence Day after recent wildfires.

Mandela, Gorbachev in quirky baseball autograph collection

In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 30, 2016, Randy Kaplan stands in front of some of the autographed baseballs he has collected over the past 20 years from world leaders, including current and former U.S. presidents, prime ministers and others, in Garden City, N.Y. The baseballs and other memorabilia is on display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island through next month's election.

Gary Johnson’s Supporters Aren’t Worried About His Aleppo Gaffe

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party's quirky nominee for president, opened his speech at a New York City rally Saturday with an unusual statement for a politician: an apology. During a disastrous appearance two days earlier on MSNBC , the former New Mexico governor had replied to a question about Aleppo, Syria - a besieged city that has been devastated by the country's five-year civil war - by asking, "What is Aleppo?" Johnson later claimed that he had simply " blanked ," but the comment went viral, making the candidate appear uninformed.