US

Blinken said the Taliban have made a commitment to allow American citizens and at-risk Afghans to leave the country after 31 August evacuation deadline. He stressed that US efforts to help people who wanted to leave would not end on that date.

The secretary of state said that up to 1,000 US nationals - possibly more - could still be in Afghanistan and the administration was making exhaustive efforts to trace them.

Asked by a reporter why the US should do what the Taliban want, Blinken said the focus was on getting US citizens and others to safety.

Eighteen aircraft will transfer people to third countries from safe sites outside Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.

Many thousands of Afghans are crowded outside Kabul airport, desperate to flee the country after the Taliban swept to power on 15 August.

President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the US had evacuated nearly 28,000 people in the past week.

"There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and the heart-breaking images you see," Mr Biden told reporters at the White House, adding: "We have a long way to go and a lot can still go wrong."

A sufficient percentage of Americans have now been vaccinated to avoid lockdowns, Fauci said on ABC's "This Week".

"Not enough to crush the outbreak, but I believe enough to not allow us to get into the situation we were in last winter," he said.

The average number of new coronavirus cases reported nationwide has nearly doubled in the past 10 days, according to a Reuters analysis.

Even if states do not resort to lockdowns again, the spread of the Delta variant could still threaten the economy.

Dr Anthony Fauci said the Delta variant of Covid-19 was driving the spike in areas with low vaccination rates.

He said health officials were considering revising mask guidance for vaccinated Americans to curb cases.

Offering booster jabs to vulnerable people was also under review, he said.

The coronavirus situation in the US is becoming "a pandemic among the unvaccinated", Dr Fauci, the chief medical adviser to US President Joe Biden, told broadcaster CNN on Sunday.

The US National Weather Service (NWS) has issued excessive heat warnings and watches across nearly all of Washington and Oregon state. Parts of California and Idaho are also affected.

Multnomah county, in Oregon, has warned of "life-threatening" heat.

Some cities have opened cooling centres, where residents can escape the heat in air-conditioned buildings.

The soaring temperatures are due to a dome of high pressure hovering over northwestern United States and Canada.

Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock has said the children's ages ranged from nine months to 17 years old.

He said the vehicles were likely to have hydroplaned on the wet roads and lost control.

Tropical Depression Claudette has caused flash flooding and tornadoes, destroying dozens of homes in Alabama.

Mr Garlock said a father and nine-month-old girl died in one of the cars.

The other eight victims were in a bus belonging to the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch, a foster home for abandoned, neglected or abused girls. The youngest was four years old.

Antony Blinken told a virtual summit of leaders and delegates from 11 Pacific countries that economic coercion across the region was on the rise.

While making no specific mention of China, he also spoke of threats to order in the region.

"The United States is all for more development and investments in the Islands, but that investment should adhere to international standards for environmentally and socially sustainable development, and should be pursued transparently, with public consultation.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen Mark Milley said a "significant" number of interpreters and other employees could be targeted by Taliban militants.

As many as 18,000 Afghan nationals have applied for US visas to immigrate to the US under a special programme.

But the scheme has been hit by delays, with applicants waiting for years.

"We recognise that there are a significant amount of Afghans that supported the United States and supported the coalition, and that they could be at risk," Gen Milley said in remarks his office released on Thursday.

The winning SuperLotto Plus ticket was sold at a convenience store in the Los Angeles suburb of Norwalk in November.

The woman, who has not been named, was reportedly captured by CCTV purchasing a ticket at the store at the time.

But a deadline set for claiming the substantial prize passed on Thursday.

Lottery organisers say the win must be redeemed within 180 days of the draw, which took place on 14 November.

Target, which has over 1,900 outlets in the US, made the decision after a man drew a gun in a fight over trading cards outside a store in Wisconsin.

"The safety of our guests and our team is our top priority," the company said in a statement to US media.

Sales of trading cards have rocketed amid the pandemic.

The suspension of in-store sales is temporary, the company said, adding that online sales are not effected.

Walmart, a top competitor to Target, says they have also seen increasing demand, but do not currently have plans to block sales.