"Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our Founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities", US President Donald Trump said at a pre-July 4 event on Friday night at South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore Memorial. His speech, often interrupted by applause, was devoted to the protest movements across the US, whose participants are destroying monuments to historical figures.

In the month of June alone, almost 2,250 separate fires were recorded in the Amazon rainforest – up from around 1,900 fires detected in the same period last year.

The US headed into the Fourth of July weekend with many parades and fireworks displays canceled, beaches and bars closed, and health authorities warning that this will be a crucial test of Americans’ self-control that could determine the trajectory of the surging coronavirus outbreak.

The United States reported more than 55,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the largest daily increase any country has ever reported, according to a Reuters tally.

The US recorded 52,000 new cases on Wednesday according to Johns Hopkins figures, a new all-time daily high as Donald Trump has said he believes the coronavirus will “just disappear”.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a coronavirus resolution on Wednesday, after more than three months of deadlock over a response to the crisis, dpa reports. The text backs UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' 23 March call for a global ceasefire so that the world can concentrate on tackling the outbreak.

The US has bought nearly the entire world's supply of remdesivir, one of just two drugs proven to treat Covid-19, news wires reported. US authorities secured more than 500,000 treatment courses of the drug through September, which "represents 100% of Gilead's projected production for July, 90% of production in August, and 90% of production in September," the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a statement.

The US economy started to rebound earlier than expected, but the recovery will depend on containing the coronavirus and on government efforts to provide support, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday.

The United States said it was ending the export of sensitive military items to Hong Kong, no longer treating the financial hub separately from China.

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro on Monday gave the head of the European Union mission in Caracas, Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa, 72 hours to leave the country after the bloc announced sanctions against 11 Venezuelan officials.