Johnny Rotten, former Sex Pistols frontman, said he refused to allow God Save the Queen to be included in the Netflix drama because the scripted version of history “never happened”.

As the insurgency takes control of more than half the country and most of its borders, Afghan interpreters are fleeing for Kabul hoping to evacuate.

More than 500 were pulled to safety after a subway tunnel flooded, state media reported, as dozens are reported dead in the Chinese region’s record deluge.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

Across India, vigilante groups have created a vast network of local informers who tip off the police to planned interfaith marriages.

A 21-year-old Ohio man who was part of the incel subculture has been arrested on charges related to plans to kill sorority members at a local university.

An 11-year Oxford study of 82,000 people over 60 found links between dementia and the inability to detect speech in a crowded setting.

The deal was the second-largest cash settlement ever, after the 1998 $US246 billion tobacco agreement, though the companies still deny they flooded the market.

The two rejected Republican congressmen voted to challenge certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory on the day of the attack on the Capitol.

Scientists created rainstorms in the United Arab Emirates by launching drones, which then zapped clouds with electricity to make it rain.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

Could waiting in line and isolating for swab tests be replaced some day soon by simply breathing into a machine for fast results?

The Murdoch-controlled channel has come under increasing criticism for promoting resistance to the vaccines among its viewers.

The strong reaction reflected concerns in Israel that the ice-cream maker’s decision could lead other companies to follow suit.

Co-chairs of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), which seeks to take a tougher line on China, were the specific targets.

Long before he transformed the way people bought everything from books to baby wipes, Jeff Bezos was a space nut. Now the billionaire has fulfilled his dream.

Tom Barrack was among three men charged in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, with conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates.

New York prison officials have handed over convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein for transport to California to face additional sexual assault charges, ending the former movie producer’s protracted fight to delay his extradition.

The founder of Amazon became the second billionaire in just over a week to ride his own rocket and landed safely about 10 minutes after take off.

Among 50,000 phone numbers, the Pegasus Project found those of hundreds of public officials, including French President Emmanuel Macron.

Excess deaths in India during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, likely making it modern India’s worst human tragedy, according to new research.

As Australia’s security environment shifts, it needs to get serious about cyberspace.

Three weeks after it outlined its much-publicised road map for living with COVID-19, the city-state is on the defensive again.

Australia’s Trade Minister says a US plan to impose a carbon border tax would first require an emissions trading scheme, so is not an issue “for the foreseeable future”.

The NSW state government recommended the far-right media personality and other Big Brother contestants be allowed in on an employer-sponsored visa.

The British Prime Minister also joked that the elderly could “get COVID and live longer”, the PM’s former adviser alleges.

Political outsider and teacher Pedro Castillo has been elected President of a nation with the worst per-capita death toll of the pandemic.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

Mounting COVID-19 anxiety compounded by bureaucratic delays and tech malfunctions has turned travel to the Olympics into an endurance event.

More than 100,000 anti-vaxxers wearing yellow stars and comparing themselves to persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany marched around France to protest vaccine rules.

The Royals were given little notice about the announcement that Harry was writing the first family memoir since the Duke of Windsor published A King’s Story in 1951.

In another report of violence ahead of a Muslim holiday, a suicide bomber killed dozens in a crowded market in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad.

An initiative by the online porn giant to bring to life, with the help of pornographic stars, a collection of celebrated artworks has provoked the ire of museums around the world. 

Over half a million people in England and Wales have been pinged in the past week, removing many of them from the economy and forcing businesses to close.

NSO Group’s spyware was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists around the world,

A friendly voice from across the Sea of Japan last week threatened a nuclear attack on the Olympic host country.

As governments across Europe push to get everyday life back to normal, the carrot-and-stick approach to inoculations is shifting more to the latter.

Australia joined Britain, Canada, the EU, Japan and New Zealand in the condemnation of China in the first such statement from NATO publicly targeting Beijing for cybercrimes.

Carlos Ghosn escaped to Lebanon via Turkey to avoid a criminal trial in Tokyo that he said would be unfair.

The split between the Sussexes and the House of Windsor has sparked a PR battle between the duelling duchesses.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

As demonstrators demanded the Thai Prime Minister resign, Australians were told whether they had been successful in a lucky dip for leftover vaccines.

Canada has now fully vaccinated about half its adult population, marking a rapid turnaround from a rate of just 3 per cent in mid May.

The former adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi has developed cold and flu symptoms inside a Myanmar prison where COVID-19 is spreading.

Turkish coast guard officials invited journalists to witness what they say are illegal pushbacks by Greece.

The assassination of Haiti’s president has swung the spotlight on the demand for Colombia’s US-trained veterans as guns-for-hire at less than $5000 a month.

Clubbers have flocked back to rule-free live music events, dancing through the night and rejoicing in human interaction as England lifted most COVID restrictions at midnight.

Among those hacked by Israeli-based spyware were the fiancee of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and journalists from AP, Reuters, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde and The Financial Times.

While trying to combat the raging virus, this potential Indonesian presidential candidate is working with Australian companies to improve a buckling health system.

The German government is readying more than $478 million in immediate relief and billions more as part of a reconstruction plan following catastrophic floods.