The Albany Gazette - News from Albany, New York and the whole world

Washington's envoy to the UK said Thursday it would be a "big mistake" to cancel King Charles III's planned state visit to the US, following calls to abandon the trip over the Middle East war.

The International Olympic Committee's announcement on Thursday that it is reintroducing gender testing to protect the female category, after it was last used at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, raises practical, legal, ethical and scientific questions.

Ilia Malinin pulled off a stunning short programme a month after his Winter Olympics collapse, finishing his routine with a smile on Thursday as a third consecutive world figure skating gold beckons.

Doctors at Cuba's main pediatric heart hospital face wrenching decisions as a US fuel blockade further strains an already fragile health system: which children receive life-saving treatment first -- and which must wait longer.

Oil prices jumped and equities slid Thursday as hopes for a peace deal between the US and Iran wavered after Tehran rejected Washington's bid to wind down the nearly four-week war.

Nepal's rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, set to be sworn in as the new prime minister, issued his first post-election message via a rap song on Thursday, urging unity.

British sprinter Ethan Vernon won stage four of the Tour of Catalonia on Thursday after a high wind warning in the mountains caused a hasty switch from a summit finish to a flat one.

OpenAI's GPT models can often be fooled into declaring that "pseudo-literary" nonsense is great, a German researcher has found.

British pop legend and former Beatle Paul McCartney on Thursday released a new single and announced his first album in over five years, examining his life in Liverpool before global stardom.

A newly discovered hat believed to have been worn by Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile on the island of Saint Helena is set to go on display outside Paris later this year, historians said on Thursday.

Scientists have used a tiny plastic "obstacle course" to test how much sperm would struggle to navigate during sex in the weightlessness of space.

European and allied nations on Thursday looked for ways to narrow differences with the United States on the Middle East war as a two-day meeting of G7 foreign ministers got underway outside Paris.

The International Olympic Committee's announcement on Thursday that it is reintroducing gender testing to protect the female category, after last being used at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, raises practical, legal, ethical and scientific questions.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that the Iran war was "extremely" ahead of schedule, as he pushed Tehran to make a deal at his first cabinet meeting since the conflict began nearly a month ago.

Here are facts and figures about the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a crucial passage into the Red Sea that Iran has threatened to target if US forces launch a ground assault on its territory.

Abdul Hai Hamidi gently opened each of the dozens of coffins, hoping to recognise one of his relatives who was killed in a Pakistani strike on a Kabul drug treatment centre.

Portuguese police have arrested a former French police officer suspected of killing his partner and his ex-girlfriend after kidnapping them and their children.

Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was back in a New York court Thursday for his second appearance since his capture by US forces in an extraordinary nighttime raid.

Senegal football boss Abdoulaye Fall on Thursday labelled the decision to strip the country of its 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title the "most blatant administrative scam in the history of our sport".

Spanish Olympic badminton gold medal winner Carolina Marin retired from the sport on Thursday after a long struggle with a knee injury.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday it was re-introducing testing for gender to determine eligibility to compete in the female category, preventing transgender women from competing.

African countries are taking a stand at the World Trade Organization to bolster their cotton sector, launching a platform tasked with mobilising investment to transform the cotton, textile and clothing value chain.

For a decade or more, "America First" has been a rallying cry against foreign wars. But as US bombs fall on Iran, many of President Donald Trump's supporters are embracing a muscular campaign abroad -- and insisting it still fits the doctrine.

Diplomatic efforts to end the war in Iran are gathering pace, even though Tehran continues to insist talks with the United States are not happening.

The World Trade Organization's ministerial conference opened Thursday against a backdrop of heightened trade tensions and global economic turmoil linked to the Middle East war.

US trade policy is a "corrective response" to the unbalanced rules of the World Trade Organization, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said as the WTO's ministerial conference opened Thursday.

The German government and the country's chemical industry on Thursday presented a sweeping plan to help the ailing sector as it faces new headwinds from the Middle East war energy shock.

UK leader Keir Starmer said Thursday he was "very keen" to tackle addictive features on social media following a landmark US ruling that found Meta and YouTube liable for harming a young woman.

The United States put pressure on France to disinvite the South African president to the G7 summit in the French town of Evian in June, the South Africsan presidency told AFP Thursday.

The European Parliament on Thursday approved a ban on artificial intelligence systems generating sexualised deepfakes, following global outrage over non-consensual nudes produced by Elon Musk's chatbot Grok.

France on Thursday bid farewell to former prime minister Lionel Jospin, with President Emmanuel Macron leading a national tribute to the influential left‑wing statesman credited with major welfare reforms.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko gifted Kim Jong Un an automatic rifle during his maiden visit to Pyongyang, joking that the North Korean leader may need it "in case enemies appear", state media said Thursday.