Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared he will run for vice president next year to continue his "crusade" against drugs and insurgents -- a move critics said was a "smokescreen" and driven by fear of criminal charges.

Duterte, who was elected in 2016 and is barred under the constitution from seeking another term, has previously flagged the possibility of contesting the country's second-highest office.

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he aims to have all US forces out of Afghanistan by August 31, ending a massive two-week airlift from the country at the risk of leaving potential evacuees behind.

How was August 31 set?

Former president Donald Trump set an agreement with the Taliban insurgents in February 2020 that all US forces would withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1 this year.

News footage of thousands of Afghans desperate to leave their country as it is overrun by the Taliban evokes painful memories for Phat Bui, who remembers the horror of his 1975 flight from Saigon.

Bui and his family -- parents and eight siblings -- fled the advancing Vietcong with just two changes of clothes.

British drummer Charlie Watts, who died on Tuesday at 80, was known as the quiet man of the scandal-soaked Rolling Stones, keeping the beat for the legendary rock group in his own steady style.

Watts' deadpan expression and metronomic rhythms formed an integral part of the band's classic performances, counterbalancing the onstage energy and charisma of singer Mick Jagger and the goofing about between guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood.

A Republican lobbyist who served as an unpaid campaign adviser to Donald Trump is under investigation for an alleged lobbying scheme involving Qatar.

Barry Bennett founded the lobbying firm Avenue Strategies shortly after Trump won the 2016 election and agreed to represent Qatar a few months later, according to federal disclosure records, and the tiny Arabian Gulf nation paid the firm $3 million between July 2017 and July 2018 to develop closer ties with the U.S., reported the Wall Street Journal.

US Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns held a secret meeting in Kabul with Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The Monday meeting, which if confirmed will have been the highest-level encounter between the Islamist group and the Biden administration since the militants' return to power, came as efforts to evacuate thousands of people from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan became increasingly urgent.

The Tokyo Paralympics begin on Tuesday after a year's pandemic delay.

Here, AFP Sport picks out five athletes hoping to make an impact:

US Vice President Kamala Harris accused Beijing on Tuesday of intimidation in hotly disputed waters as she sought to rally Asian allies against China and shore up US credibility in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Her comments in Singapore came as Washington seeks to reset relations in Asia after the turbulent Donald Trump era and build a bulwark against the rising might of Beijing.

United States immigration and naturalization history is one of grouping people into "desirable" and "undesirable" immigrants. There was a short period after 1967 when the US accepted refugees outside of this "desirability" framework based on humanitarian concerns. Until the Trump administration, the US was considered a leader in accepting refugees, many years accepting more than all other nations combined. That changed with Trump policies in 2017. Reversing immigration and refugee restrictions should have been an easy decision for the Biden administration, but unfortunately asylum seekers are still facing obstacles to admittance justified through claims of covid safety protocols, and therefore making refugees "undesirable" based on incorrect understandings of disease spread. With our withdrawing from Afghanistan, the issue of refugee admittance has taken on new urgency. We have a general moral duty to accept refugees, but we owe even more to the Afghan refugees who worked with the US military forces and journalists for the last 20 years.

During the Trump administration, refugees and asylum seekers were conflated with undocumented immigrants to the point that people assumed those who crossed the border as asylum seekers were doing so illegally. In order to seek asylum a person must cross the border and claim asylum status within a year of entering. Many held in detention camps crossed the border legally to claim asylum but were held, and separated from their children, while awaiting a hearing. This was a change in policy from earlier administrations when those held while waiting could remain with family and often could be released with the assumption they would return for their court date. Similarly, the past administration contributed to the idea that refugees, any person applying for refugee status must be located outside of the US, were unvetted and the refugee program was a way for criminals or terrorists, or disease carriers, to sneak into the country. Therefore refugees were automatically associated with other "undesirables."