President Donald Trump wanted to sell Puerto Rico or swap it for Greenland because he viewed the US territory as dirty and poor, a former senior administration official said Wednesday.

Popular Google services including Gmail, Docs and Drive were down for many users around the world yesterday, but were restored after a few hours, the US technology giant said.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will activate a controversial mechanism aimed at reimposing UN sanctions on Iran, escalating a row with European allies that has huge repercussions for the Iranian nuclear deal.

US Senator Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president on Wednesday, imploring Americans to elect Joe Biden in November and accusing President Donald Trump of failed leadership that had cost lives and livelihoods during a pandemic.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday slapped down Donald Trump’s talk of an out-of-control coronavirus “surge” in New Zealand as “patently wrong”.

Experts agree that the elderly are at greater risk of dying from the coronavirus, but in Mexico dozens of centenarians have beaten the odds and overcome the disease, authorities say.

An internal probe has cleared US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of wrongdoing in a disputed arms sale to Saudi Arabia, a senior State Department official said Monday, although the report on the investigation has not yet been released.

US Secret Service agents shot and wounded a man who was apparently armed outside the White House on Monday, President Donald Trump said, after being briefly whisked away in the middle of a press conference.

Health experts have determined that face coverings are a vital tool in reducing the spread of coronavirus -- but little research has been done into how different kinds of masks compare.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday offered a $10 million reward aimed at preventing foreign interference in the November election, as the State Department accused Russia of waging an increasingly sophisticated disinformation campaign.

The US is expanding its China-targeted Clean Network program to include Chinese-made cellphone apps and cloud computing services that it claims are security risks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday.

A US court of appeals on Wednesday ruled that actress Ashley Judd has the right to pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, overturning a lower court’s decision.

Nasa’s latest Mars rover Perseverance launched yesterday on an astrobiology mission to look for signs of ancient microbial life -- and to fly a helicopter-drone on another world for the first time.

Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook are too powerful and will likely emerge from the coronavirus pandemic even stronger, the head of a US congressional antitrust committee said Wednesday.

President Donald Trump on Monday filed a new challenge to the Manhattan District Attorney’s subpoena for his tax returns, weeks after the US Supreme Court said the president was not immune from state criminal probes.

President Donald Trump mounted a strident defense of his wavering reelection bid with less than 100 days to go in a campaign that has seen him underwater in the polls -- and banking on the “silent majority” he vowed will bring him victory.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Thursday pushed back against some of the conspiracy theories spreading online accusing him of creating the coronavirus outbreak.

Two US jets flew dangerously close to an Iranian passenger plane over war-torn Syria, forcing the pilot to take emergency action and sparking panic on board, Iranian authorities said yesterday.

President Donald Trump told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday that he hopes to avoid an “expensive” US arms race with Russia and China, the White House said.

The US on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Venezuelan Chief Justice Maikel Moreno and announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction for allegedly participating in transnational organized crime.