Donald Trump came face to face with hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico today after denouncing critics of the federal relief effort as "politically motivated ingrates" who need to step up their own response to the crisis.

Donald Trump is due to meet some of the 3.4 million Puerto Ricans struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria.

Early education is seen internationally as one of the keys to breaking the cycle of poverty — wouldn’t you think that a country that has one-in-nine of its children living in consistent poverty would finally start to put a value on the things that can break that cycle, writes Fergus Finlay.

The Trump administration has declared that its relief efforts in Puerto Rico are succeeding, but people on the island said help was scarce eight days after Hurricane Maria devastated the US territory.

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Lloyd’s of London expects net losses of $4.5bn (€3.8bn) from hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which analysts said would eat into the insurer’s capital and hit its profitability.

The US president waived US federal restrictions on foreign ships' transport of cargo to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.

Syria's foreign minister has told world leaders that his country is "marching steadily" toward the goal of rooting out terrorism and "victory is now within reach".

Puerto Rican officials could not reach more than half their towns amid a push to evacuate tens of thousands of people over a failing dam as the disaster wrought by Hurricane Maria becomes clear.

A failing dam has sparked emergency evacuations of two towns in north-west Puerto Rico as the US territory struggled with flooding, an island-wide blackout and other dangers in Hurricane Maria's wake.

More than 15 people are dead and 20 remain missing after Hurricane Maria's direct hit on Dominica, the prime minister has said.

The International Space Station's Joe Acaba, the first astronaut of Puerto Rican heritage, has been affected by two hurricanes - even in orbit.

Frightening.

Hurricane Maria has intensified into a "potentially catastrophic" category five storm as it continues on a collision course with Caribbean islands already battered by Irma.

Hurricane Maria which is heading towards the Caribbean has rapidly intensified, as a second major storm looks set to batter the region just days after Irma.

British overseas territories in the Caribbean face being lashed by another major hurricane as they attempt to recover from the deadly devastation unleashed by Irma.

Florida’s Atlantic coast braced for the arrival of a tropical storm today, two weeks after Hurricane Katrina first hit the state.

A huge stretch of Florida’s Atlantic coast was under a tropical storm warning today as a new system formed just offshore and threatened to dump up to 15 inches of rain in parts of the state.