China on Tuesday rejected an accusation by Washington and its Western allies that Beijing is to blame for a hack of the Microsoft Exchange email system and complained Chinese entities are victims of damaging U.S. cyberattacks.

While there is still some farming and ranching in the far West Texas community of Van Horn, and a talc mine still operates near the edge of town, there’s another booming business in its midst: space tourism.

President Joe Biden tempered his assessment that social media giants are “killing people” by hosting misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines on their platforms, saying Monday that he hoped they would not take it “personally” and instead would act to save lives.

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The overwhelming majority of Americans — about 8 in 10 — favor plans to increase funding for roads, bridges and ports and for pipes that supply drinking water. But that's about as far as Democrats and Republicans intersect on infrastructure, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The United States and Germany have announced a deal to allow the completion of a controversial Russian gas pipeline to Europe without the imposition of further U.S. sanctions. The agreement aims to stanch fears about European dependence on Russian energy, but it was immediately assailed by critics who said it doesn't go far enough. Under the terms of the deal Wednesday, the U.S. and Germany committed to countering any Russian attempt to use the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as a political weapon. And, they agreed to support Ukraine and Poland, both of which are bypassed by the project and fear Russia's intentions, by funding alternative energy and development projects.

The simple act of taking a knee felt like something more monumental when it happened on Olympic soccer pitches in Japan on the opening night of action. Players from the United States, Sweden, Chile, Britain and New Zealand women's teams went to a knee before their games Wednesday night, anti-racism gestures the likes of which had not been seen before on the Olympic stage. They figured to be the first of many of these sort of demonstrations over the three-week stay in Tokyo. How have protests and demonstrations at the Games evolved over the years? Here's a brief rundown.

With “Welcome” messages in multiple languages, the Eiffel Tower greeted tourists Friday for the first time in nearly nine months, reopening to the public even as France introduces new virus rules aimed at taming the fast-spreading delta variant. Smiles were broad and emotions palpable as the first masked visitors mounted the elevators heading to the top of the Paris monument.

Smoke and heat from a massive wildfire in southeastern Oregon are creating giant “fire clouds” over the blaze — dangerous columns of smoke and ash that can reach up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) in the sky and are visible from more than 100 miles away. Authorities have put these clouds at the top of the list of the extreme fire behavior they are seeing on the Bootleg Fire, the largest wildfire burning in the U.S.

Dutch Queen Maxima teamed up with a small robot Thursday to unveil a steel 3D-printed pedestrian bridge over a canal in the heart of Amsterdam's red light district. Maxima pushed a green button that set the robot's arm in motion to cut a ribbon across the bridge with a pair of scissors.

Thai police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons Sunday to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters who held a rally in Bangkok despite coronavirus restrictions banning gatherings of more than five people. The demonstrators were demanding Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's government step down, insisting the budget of the monarchy and the military be cut during the pandemic, and calling for the importing mRNA coronavirus vaccines that have yet to be brought to Thailand on a large scale to fight a growing surge of the virus.

At least 20 people have been killed in landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in the Indian city of Mumbai, officials said Sunday. India's National Disaster Response Force said 17 people were killed and two others were injured after a wall collapsed on several slum houses in the Mahul area of the city early Sunday.

Three of the Democratic state lawmakers who fled Texas to stymie a Republican-backed effort to impose broad new voting restrictions have tested positive for COVID-19 and are quarantined, the Texas House's Democratic Caucus director said Saturday. One lawmaker tested positive Friday and the other two did so on Saturday, according to caucus director Phillip Martin. All three were fully vaccinated against the disease.

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry called on China to join America in urgently cutting greenhouse gas emissions and described the international alliances that rebuilt Europe after World War II as a model for fighting against climate change. Kerry challenged global leaders to accelerate the actions needed to curb rising temperatures and pull the world back from the edge of the abyss.

The Mexican government officially abandoned the policy of maintaining a fishing-free zone around the last 10 or so remaining vaquita marina. The measure announced Wednesday replaces the fishing-free "zero tolerance" zone in the upper Gulf of California with a sliding scale of punishments if more than 60 boats are seen in the area on multiple occasions.

Smoke and heat from a massive wildfire in southeastern Oregon are creating giant “fire clouds” over the blaze — dangerous columns of smoke and ash that can reach up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) in the sky and are visible from more than 100 miles away. Authorities have put these clouds at the top of the list of the extreme fire behavior they are seeing on the Bootleg Fire, the largest wildfire burning in the U.S.

New York ended the first quarter of the fiscal year on a strong note as the monthly State Cash Report, published by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on Friday, showed tax receipts beating budget projections by nearly $5 billion.

With a 7.8 percent jobless rate as of May, New York ranked third worst among the 50 states and the District of Columbia for its unemployment recovery during the coronavirus pandemic, according to an analysis.

Embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is slated to meet with representatives from state Attorney General Letitia James’ office regarding the numerous sexual harassment allegations he faces, according to news reports.

President Joe Biden expressed pointed frustration over the slowing COVID-19 vaccination rate in the U.S. and pleaded that it's "gigantically important” for Americans to step up and get inoculated against the virus as it surges once again. Biden, speaking Wednesday night at a televised town hall in Cincinnati, said the public health crisis has turned largely into a plight of the unvaccinated as the spread of the delta variant has led to a surge in infections around the country.

The COVID-19 pandemic is slamming Cuba like never before, even as the country races to roll out its homegrown vaccines — the only locally developed shots being widely used in Latin America. The island had seen far fewer infections that most other Latin American nations over the first year or so of the disease, imposing strict quarantines, isolating the infected and shutting down its tourism industry despite devastating economic consequences.

India's excess deaths 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 the most comprehensive research yet on the ravages of the virus in the south Asian country. Most experts believe India's official toll of more than 414,000 dead is a vast undercount, but the government has dismissed those concerns as exaggerated and misleading.