US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in South Africa yesterday, kicking off a three-nation African visit as Washington scales up diplomacy to counter Russian influence on the continent.

A Texas jury ordered US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Friday to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages for falsely claiming that the deadly 2012 Sandy Hook elementary shooting was a “hoax.”

Major flooding in California’s Death Valley on Friday stranded approximately 1,000 people, buried cars and shut down all roads into and out of the famously parched national park.

Tensions over developments in Taiwan overshadowed an Asian meeting of foreign ministers yesterday, diverting attention at a forum that had been expected to focus on efforts to end the crisis in Myanmar among other issues.

US President Joe Biden’s government on Thursday declared monkeypox a public health emergency, a move that should free up new funds, assist in data gathering and allow the deployment of additional personnel in the fight against the disease.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has provoked Beijing’s ire -- and brought into focus Washington’s deliberately ambiguous foreign policy stance toward the democratic, self-ruled island.

China has decided to sanction US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family in response to her "vicious" and "provocative" actions, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her South Korean counterpart yesterday vowed to support deterrence against North Korea and achieve its denuclearisation.

President Joe Biden has continued to test positive for Covid-19, his White House doctor said Tuesday, and is experiencing a return of at least one symptom, described as a “loose cough.” After previously suggesting that Biden was symptom free since coming down with a “rebound” case of Covid,

United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan yesterday evening, defying a string of increasingly stark warnings and threats from China that have sent tensions between the world’s two superpowers soaring.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday night, becoming the highest-ranking American official to visit the self-ruled island that is claimed by China in 25 years.

The polio virus was present in wastewater in a New York City suburb a month before health officials there announced a confirmed case of the disease last month, state health officials said on Monday, urging residents to be sure they have been vaccinated.

President Joe Biden yesterday called on Russia and China to enter nuclear arms control talks, saying that Moscow in particular has a duty to show responsibility after its invasion of Ukraine.

A Chinese booster rocket made an uncontrolled return to Earth yesterday, leading US officials to chide Beijing for not sharing information about the potentially hazardous object’s descent.

The United States’ quest to dominate the oceans and Nato’s expansion are the biggest threats facing Russia, according to a new Russian naval doctrine signed by President Vladimir Putin yesterday.

US President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19 again on Saturday in what the White House doctor described as a “rebound” case seen in a small percentage of patients who take the antiviral drug Paxlovid.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi starts a tour of four Asian countries yesterday, her office said, without mentioning Taiwan amid intense speculation she might visit the self-ruled island claimed by China.

President Joe Biden’s administration yesterday tried to defuse heated Chinese warnings against a possible trip to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as Beijing announced live-fire military drills in the Taiwan Strait.

The US House of Representatives, spurred by a series of horrific mass shootings, passed a bill on Friday that would ban assault weapons for the first time in decades.

The top diplomats of the United States and Russia spoke Friday for the first time since the Ukraine war, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken describing a “frank” exchange as he pushed to free two Americans.