World

US President Joe Biden has said that it would be "tough" to meet the deadline to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan by May 1, as agreed with the Taliban in a deal secured under Donald Trump.

The Taliban insurgents have largely stuck to a promise not to attack US or other foreign troops since the agreement was struck in February last year, but they say the date to end America's longest war is inflexible.

The coronavirus situation is worsening in the greater Paris region where hospitals are under immense strain, the director general of the AP-HP Paris hospitals organization, Martin Hirsch, said on Wednesday.

Hirsch told RTL radio there were two options to contain the disease - a local weekend lockdown, already in place in other parts of the country, or a broader lockdown in the region.

Uber on Tuesday said it is granting its UK drivers employee status, with benefits including a minimum wage -- a world first for the US ride-hailing giant.

Weeks after a top court ruling that could shake up Britain's wider "gig economy" of 5.5 million people, Uber said its drivers would also get holiday pay and a pension.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China on Tuesday against using "coercion and aggression" as he sought to use his first trip abroad to shore up Asian alliances in the face of growing assertiveness by Beijing.

China's extensive territorial claims in the East and South China Seas have become a priority issue in an increasingly testy Sino-U.S. relationship and are an important security concern for Japan.

Max Boot, a Russian-American author and historian and a fellow on the Council on Foreign Relations, says the U.S. Intel Community's just-released report on Russia's attack on the 2020 presidential election is "evidence of cooperation" – at least – between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

The report details that Russian President Vladimir Putin once again interfered in the election, again to help President Donald Trump, and to hurt now-President Joe Biden.

Prince Harry has spoken to his father and brother after he and his wife Meghan Markle raised allegations of racism in the royal family during an explosive TV interview, a friend said Tuesday.

In the interview, Harry said that his father Prince Charles had cut him off financially and at one point stopped taking his calls, and he also described his damaged relationship with Prince William.

Supporters of former President Donald Trump are flocking to a new chat app that has ties to the shady Falun Gong spiritual movement that has been called a cult by critics.

Politico reports that mobile application SafeChat, which Trump supporters have started using in greater numbers as alternatives to major social media networks Facebook and Twitter, is linked to the Falon Gong movement, which staunchly supported Trump because of his confrontational attitude toward the Chinese government.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reached a content-supply deal with Facebook Inc in Australia, the companies said on Tuesday, a step toward settling a dispute that saw the social media giant briefly shut down thousands of pages in the country.

The agreement, terms of which were not disclosed, makes News Corp the first major media outlet to strike a Facebook deal under controversial new laws that let an Australian government-appointed arbitrator set fees if companies fail to do so.

Deadly small particle pollution in four of five nations exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations last year despite Covid lockdowns, according to a report released Tuesday.

The partial or complete shutdown of transport and industry for months at a time in 2020 reduced average levels of so-called PM2.5 pollution across the world, including in major cities, the IQAir quality report found.

American pharmaceutical companies Gilead and Merck announced Monday they have partnered to develop a new HIV therapy that could see daily medications replaced by a treatment that can be taken at longer intervals.

The companies aim to combine two of their existing medications to "provide new, meaningful treatment options for people living with HIV," the virus that causes AIDS, the companies said in a statement.

France will return a masterpiece by Gustav Klimt to the heirs of its owner more than 80 years after she was forced to sell it in the Nazi era, Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot said on Monday.

The original owner – Nora Stiasny, from a well-known Austrian Jewish family – had to sell the painting "Rosiers sous les Arbres" ("Rosebushes under the Trees") at a knock-down price to survive financially after the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Bachelot said.

After 20 years of continuous habitation, the International Space Station has entered its "Golden Age" and is abuzz with activity -- thanks in large part to the return of US rocket launches via commercial partner SpaceX.

But though the near- future of this symbol of post-Cold War cooperation is assured, NASA wants to begin disengaging by the end of the decade, leaving a gap that the private sector and China hope to fill.