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The US has warned American citizens to avoid Kabul airport because of security threats, just hours after secretary of state Antony Blinken urged the Taliban to ensure “safe passage” for people seeking to flee Afghanistan. The deteriorating security situation at the airport has been a mounting concern for US and western officials trying to evacuate

Delta Air Lines said it would start charging unvaccinated employees enrolled in its healthcare plan an additional $200 a month, becoming the latest US company to cajole workers into having the Covid-19 jab. The first fully-fledged approval of a vaccine this week by the US Food and Drug Administration, which gave a green light to

Joe Biden is sticking by his plan to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by the end of the month, defying international pressure, including from key European allies, to allow more time for evacuations. The US president’s decision caps days of uncertainty about the fate of the August 31 deadline for the final pullout of American

US president Joe Biden urged employers to require workers to get vaccinated against Covid-19 after the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the BioNTech/Pfizer jab. “If you’re a business leader, a non-profit leader, the state and local leader, who has been waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccinations. I’m calling on you

Seven Afghan civilians have been killed around Kabul international airport as chaos continued to hamper western efforts to evacuate people from the country, one week after the Taliban retook control. Confirming the civilian deaths, the UK defence ministry acknowledged on Sunday that “conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging”, as the US warned its citizens

The brother of slain Afghan warlord Ahmad Shah Massoud has called on the Taliban to form an inclusive government following their recapture of the country, and warned of resistance if they refused. Ahmad Wali Massoud, one of a band of leaders holding out against the Taliban from their base in the Panjshir valley, raised the

Joe Biden pledged to evacuate every American trying to leave Afghanistan and insisted the botched US airlift was making “significant progress”, dismissing suggestions his administration had ignored warnings the Taliban would conquer Kabul at lightning speed. “This is one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history,” said Biden in a televised address to the

The US Federal Trade Commission has refiled its antitrust complaint against Facebook, doubling down on its accusations that the social media group maintains monopoly power and uses a “buy or bury” strategy to neutralise competitors. Initially filed in December, the original lawsuit accused Facebook of conducting a “years-long course of anti-competitive conduct”, as it sought

The Taliban is rushing to work out how to govern Afghanistan after the militant Islamist group’s exiled leaders came back to a country that has changed profoundly since it was driven from power 20 years ago. While the Taliban has been setting up shadow governors and administrators to rule its conquered territory, the US has

The Biden administration scrambled to put a botched evacuation of Afghanistan back on track on Tuesday as it admitted its original plans needed to be changed following a day of chaos and violence at Kabul’s international airport. In an attempt to project competence after the Taliban swiftly took control of the country in the face

Afghans were bracing themselves for life under strict Islamic rule on Monday after the Taliban drove the US-backed government of Ashraf Ghani from power to establish control of Kabul. Thousands of residents filled the airport and throngs of people tried to push their way on to planes in a desperate effort to flee after the

Britain’s defence secretary has warned that Afghanistan risks descending into civil war and becoming a failed state as the Taliban captures large cities and gains ground in the wake of the hasty US troop withdrawal. The Islamist militia is now in control of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-biggest city, and Lashkar Gah in Helmand province after weeks

The US and UK will deploy troops to help evacuate staff from their embassies in Kabul as the Taliban continues its lightning rout of provincial capitals in Afghanistan following president Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw American troops. The Pentagon said it was sending 3,000 troops to Kabul in the next 24-48 hours to help with

The Federal Reserve could start dialling back its ultra-accommodative monetary stimulus by the end of the year, given the strength of the economic rebound, according to a top official at the US central bank. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mary Daly, president of the San Francisco Fed, expressed confidence that the robust recovery

The market for outsourced investment teams is “red-hot” thanks to the darkening outlook for future returns, with allocators of capital increasingly delegating entire multibillion-dollar mandates to outside money managers. Big corporate or public pension plans, endowments and foundations usually have in-house investment divisions, and only hand out specific mandates to external money managers. However, smaller

The US Senate is set to pass a $1tn package to invest in America’s crumbling infrastructure with significant Republican support, a bipartisan vote that will be seen as a major legislative achievement of Joe Biden’s young presidency. Senators voted 68-29 late on Sunday to end the debate on the infrastructure bill, setting up a final

Beijing’s regulatory assault on China’s technology industry has lopped $87bn off the net worth of the sector’s wealthiest tycoons since the start of July, hitting the fortunes of magnates such as Tencent’s Pony Ma and Pinduoduo’s Colin Huang. The combined net worth of the two dozen Chinese billionaires in tech and biotechnology whose holdings are

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reported a 7 per cent increase in profits in the second quarter, with many of the companies owned by the sprawling conglomerate benefiting from the economic recovery. The investment company disclosed on Saturday that it had earned $28.1bn, or $18,488 per class A share, in the three months to the end

WhatsApp has condemned Apple’s new child safety tools as a “very concerning . . . surveillance system”, even as governments around the world have cheered the decision to proactively search for illegal photos of child sexual abuse. The stand-off sets up a battle between other tech platforms and officials calling for them to adopt similar tools. An Indian government

Apple intends to install software on American iPhones to scan for child abuse imagery, according to people briefed on its plans, raising alarm among security researchers who warn that it could open the door to surveillance of millions of people’s personal devices. Apple detailed its proposed system — known as “neuralMatch” — to some US