President Trump on Tuesday slammed the Democrats' impeachment inquiry, claiming the process resembled a "coup" against him as elected president and US citizens’ constitutional rights.

Emmanuel Hantobolo is standing on the barren field behind his farmstead, looking resignedly at the corn stalks lying on the hard, dust-dry ground. "The last harvest was a catastrophe," says the small farmer. "The corn is normally two-and-a-half meters (8 feet) tall, but this time, the biggest plants only reached my waist. Most withered."

The latest US sanctions against Russia over alleged 2016 election meddling has triggered an angry response in Moscow, which dismissed them as a reflection of a political crisis in Washington. A fresh batch of restrictions was unveiled Monday by the US Treasury Department, which invoked President Donald Trump’s executive order about election interference for the first time. Russian nationals Denis Kuzmin and Igor Nesterov were targeted over “links” to the Internet Research Agency – alleged to be the notorious “troll farm” used for meddling.

This cyclone, whose winds far exceed 200kmh, is considered the most powerful ever observed in this eastern part of the Atlantic.

It is considered the most intense hurricane ever observed in the northeastern Atlantic basin according to Keraunos ... Hurricane Lorenzo, ranked in category 5, has formed in recent days over the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Caribbean and is now approaching Europe's shores.

Benjamin Netanyahu could inform Israel’s president that he is unable to form a government as early as this week after unity talks with rival politicians broke down at the weekend, his Likud party said.