Afghanistan: 100 days of Taliban rule

The spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in parts of the US is encouraging more people to get vaccinated, Dr Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer, at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, has said. He told BBC World News the past week had seen a slight increase in vaccinations. “We would like…

A Taliban spokesman has been asked if women and ethnic minorities will have a place in the new Afghan government. In an interview with BBC Pashto, the deputy head of the Taliban political office in Qatar said women could continue in their work but in the top posts or cabinet there “may not” be a…

Fifteen people from various backgrounds have recently left a cave in south-west France after 40 days underground. The experiment was designed to see how the absence of clocks, daylight and external communications would affect the participants’ sense of time. Project director Christian Clot and Marina Lançon, one of the volunteers in the study, told BBC…

Deaths from opioid use in the US have skyrocketed over the last year. Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that 88,000 people had died from drug overdoses in the 12 month period ending in August 2020 – an increase of 27% on the previous year. The US authorities say…

Younger people may be offered alternative vaccines to the AstraZeneca jab, says Prof Paul Hunter.

North Korea has announced it fired a new long-range cruise missile over the weekend. Despite international condemnation, the East Asian country keeps testing missiles, some of which are in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and have resulted in tough sanctions. Why does Pyongyang continue with these launches, if they come at such a hefty…