US President Donald Trump has defended his much-criticised trade policy, saying ‘tariff’ is his favourite word in the English dictionary and credited it for making America ‘rich’.

At least 91 students remain trapped in concrete rubble almost two days after an Islamic school building collapsed on them, authorities said after reviewing attendance records and reports from anxious families of those missing.

The US federal government has shut down, the first in nearly seven years, after Senate Democrats blocked a Republican funding bill. This impasse, driven by deep partisan divisions over spending and healthcare, leaves hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed and disrupts many government operations, with significant economic and public impacts.