Good morning from the Financial Times, today is Wednesday, August 25th, and this is your FT News Briefing.

Joe Biden won't budge on the deadline to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan,

and the UK is rolling out new rules to try to protect children's data online.

Plus, we'll look at a lawsuit over the explosion at the port of Beirut that killed more than 200

people. It's been a year and there is still no clarity around the situation really.

I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day.

Joe Biden is sticking to his plan to pull American troops out of Afghanistan by August 31st.

The president did so despite pressure from key allies to extend the deadline. He repeated his

decision yesterday. Each day of operations brings at risk to our troops, but the completion

of August 31st depends upon the Taliban continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport

for those who were transporting out. Now, some suggest that Biden doesn't want an extension

because he'd have to negotiate that with the Taliban and that could make him look weak.

Here's the FT's Amy Williams on what the administration is saying to that.

There are responses that it's not a sign of weakness. The Taliban have control of Kabul.

Those are the facts on the ground that cooperating with the Taliban and they want out,

but they also reiterate if the Taliban use force, then US forces will respond as they're allowed

to do in self-defense. They're quite sensitive to the suggestion that it's a weak posture,

but it does seem to be true that they are relying on the Taliban's cooperation at this time for sure.

So Amy, let's switch gears to what is considered a pretty contentious issue and that's

refugees coming out of Afghanistan. Biden touched on that a bit in his White House press conference

yesterday. What did he have to say? Well, he reiterated something he said actually on Sunday when he

spoke from the White House as well, which is that he feels the US is a duty to take in Afghans who

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