Image source, Reuters

During an interview with a Spanish radio network about Afghanistan, Pope Francis appears to have made an error on a quote.

He paraphrased into Spanish a quote saying: "It is necessary to put an end to the irresponsible policy of intervening from outside and building democracy in other countries, ignoring the traditions of the peoples."

It came after he introduced it referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as “one of the world’s greatest political figures”.

But the words were actually used by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Mrs Merkel last month as he condemned Western policies.

The Pope was discussing the situation in Afghanistan on Spanish radio network COPE on Wednesday.

During the interview the Pope also said the West's withdrawal from Afghanistan was "legitimate" but supported some criticism of its involvement there.

We've also been hearing from the State Department on the situation in Afghanistan.

Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said around 100-200 Americans remained in Afghanistan who may be seeking to leave the country.

When asked about plans to evacuate those left behind, she said: "These efforts did not end on 31 August and they will not end until we have secured the evacuation of any American citizens and LPRs [Green Card holders] and folks who worked with us to serve the American people, and who want to get out.

"So we've been in contact with them in the last 24 hours to tell them that we are looking at all possible options - air routes, land routes," she said, noting that work was still under way to identify those who want to leave, any dependents they may have and possible routes out of the country.

"We're also working intensively with countries on the ground who are trying to get the civilian airport open," she added.

"But we're also conveying to them that their safety and security is of paramount concern to us."

The US is working to create capacity for up to 50,000 Afghan refugees at military bases, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has said.

She said those arriving at the bases will receive medical care and assistance until they can be resettled, adding that about 20,000 Afghans have already entered the country.

"I can absolutely assure you that no-one is coming into the United States of America who has not been through a thorough screening and background check process," she said.

Those who have still not been processed were sent to third countries until all checks could be completed.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Arefa Shafaei and her sister escaped Afghanistan from Kabul airport before American forces withdrew from the country.

Speaking to the BBC, she said “physically I’m safe, but mentally I’m not in a good state".

Arefa is set to begin a degree in international human rights law in the UK this September, having previously run a company in Afghanistan which supports people, especially women, who need help.

She said she was still haunted by a desperate call from a mother saying her 14-year-old daughter had been taken as a wife by Taliban fighters.

Listen to 5 Live on the free BBC Sounds app.

The parents of a seven-month-old baby who is stranded in Kabul without them say they are losing hope that they will be able to get her to the UK.

They say a five-month delay in receiving their baby's British passport means their daughter is stuck in Afghanistan with grandparents.

The mother and British father say they had no choice but to return to the UK in May to retain the mother's UK visa.

The government said it would do all it could to help British nationals.

The baby's mother, an Afghan national, travelled to Afghanistan in September last year to see family. She says she lost her UK ID card during her trip, and because of this, she was unable to return to the UK before her baby was born.

Her partner joined her in December, and their daughter was born in Kabul in January.

The parents only received their baby's passport on Wednesday.

"I beg the government to please help us bring my baby and family back to me," says the mother.

Read more here

Fewer than 100 of the 700 women journalists in Kabul before the Taliban takeover are still formally working, a report has found.

Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) and the Centre for the Protection of Afghan Women Journalists said that "women journalists are in the process of disappearing from the capital".

Immediately following the militants' advance, a small number of women continued to appear on air, but others faced harassment or were told to stop working.

“Taliban respect for the fundamental right of women, including women journalists, to work and to practise their profession is a key issue,” said the RSF's secretary-general, Christophe Deloire, external.

"We urge the Taliban leadership to provide immediate guarantees for the freedom and safety of women journalists."

Outside of Kabul, the situation is even bleaker, as most women have stopped working after the closure of almost all privately owned media in other Afghan provinces, according to the report.

The US military has just put out pictures, external of some of the last US troops to depart Afghanistan.

A video accompanying the night-time photos shows troops fist-bumping and backslapping as they depart Kabul.

According to a statement, the troops flew on a Globemaster III plane to Kuwait after leaving Kabul's Hamid Karzai international airport.

Image source, Dvidshub

Image source, Dvidshub

Image source, Dvidshub

Image source, Dvidshub

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has been speaking today, defending the White House against criticism over Americans being left behind in Afghanistan.

He says that 19 separate messages were left with Americans - starting back in March, and that financial assistance was offered to help get them out.

According to Sullivan, 97% of those contacted were evacuated as part of the airlift, but there were a “variety of reasons” that some chose to stay behind.

"Some changed their mind at the last minute,” he told the Hill. “Some wanted to bring very large extended family who were not Americans, who couldn't get through checkpoints."

He adds that he and the US general overseeing the airlift are both “not familiar” with reports of “anyone being turned away at the gate” to Kabul airport.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Michael Semple, a professor at Queen's University in Belfast and an expert on Afghanistan, has been talking to the BBC about the Taliban's ability to rule.

When I talk to people on the ground in Afghanistan, including people who’ve a long history with the Taliban movement, they stress the point that there is nothing really resembling a government in place yet and that - although the Taliban have physically taken over the institution - the people who are practically in charge have no notion of governing in a way that we would recognise.

So I think that the reassurances from people like deputy of the [Taliban's] political commission [in Doha, Sher Mohammad] Abbas Stanikzai - we shouldn't believe them until we see the reality. I don't think that we should expect to see a normal government to emerge anytime soon.

I've been actually talking with Taliban who are in charge of airports around the country and some of them are literally crying at the chaos which they have helped create and now inherited, and they are daunted by the task of reopening the civil aviation sector

This is a revolution and the people who drove the revolution were not the spokesmen or the diplomats – they were the Taliban military. The Taliban military doesn't have the slightest intention of reforming the movement or complying with human rights standards, they want power and rewards and they also want to be seen to be implementing their version of Islam.

That’s got nothing to do with the story of a reformed and moderate Taliban. I think the word we should be using is tyranny.

You can find the full episode here.

BBC OS

Horla, an Afghan who managed to flee from the airport has successfully reached the US, she told the BBC's OS.

She told the programme that she was now in Washington DC.

Horla, who has changed her name for security purposes, travelled from Kabul to Doha and then onwards to Washington.

“In Doha we had to stay for 2-3 days in a very bad condition,” she told BBC OS. “There were around 2,000-3,000 people staying in the same place, in the same room.

“It was horrible but we made it at last,” she added.

But even from America, she has had phone calls from the Taliban.

“Four days ago at four in the morning, I got three phone calls from the Taliban threatening me,” Horla said.

Horla is now focused on getting friends and family out of Afghanistan. She says she has been talking to them every day to try to give them some comfort.

“We have been searching other ways such as going by land but it’s risky because the Taliban are everywhere, every street, every highway that goes to the border,” she said.

“I think we need to take the risk and take them out”.

Image source, Reuters

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley is asked if he is feeling "pain and anger" over the outcome of the 20-year war.

"My pain and anger comes from the same as the grieving families - the same as those soldiers that are on the ground," says Gen Milley, adding that he visited wounded US troops at a military hospital in Washington on Tuesday.

"This is tough stuff. War is hard,” Gen Milley says. "It's vicious and brutal and unforgiving. And yes we all have pain and anger."

He goes on to note that 242 soldiers under his direct command were killed in action in Afghanistan.

"But I'm a professional soldier. I'm going to contain my pain and anger and continue to execute my mission," he says, as the press conference ends.

More now from the Pentagon.

The top military brass have been asked about the drone strike in Kabul which, US officials say, killed an Islamic State "planner".

Gen Milley said secondary explosions were detected, meaning the US was confident that the car struck was carrying explosive materials.

"The procedures were correctly followed. It was a righteous strike," he said, adding that an investigation was ongoing.

According to reports, multiple young children were killed. Gen Milley accepted there were other deaths and said they were still being investigated.

Image source, Getty Images

Asked about the future of the Taliban, both top US military leaders refuse to speculate.

Noting that they both served in Afghanistan, Gen Milley says: "This is a ruthless group from the past. And whether anything has changed with them remains to be seen."

Defence Secretary Austin adds that the US will "remain focused on IS-K". He did not deny the possibility that the US may co-ordinate with the Taliban in the future regarding efforts to retaliate against the Islamic State group for its the attack on Kabul airport.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley says that overall, 778 sorties were flown to evacuate 124,334 people.

Almost 6,000 Americans were flown out, he says.

"We will continue to evacuate American civilians under the leadership of the Department of State as this mission has now transferred from a military mission to diplomatic mission."

He goes on to praise the 13 US troops that were killed at the airport in the final days of the evacuation.

"They literally gave their tomorrows for the tomorrows of people they never knew," he says.

He adds that "feelings of pain and sadness" will always accompany the "pride" that US soldiers who served in Afghanistan will feel for the rest of their lives.

"Your service mattered. It was not in vain," Gen Milley concludes.

Secretary Austin adds that he plans to visit the Gulf next week "to thank our partners there who have done so much to help save and shelter Afghan civilians".

He goes on to praise everyone who fought in the war over 20 years, saying: "The war has ended but our gratitude never will."

Gen Mark Milley, the top officer in the US military, is now speaking.

Image source, Reuters

Pushing back against conservatives who have criticised the rush to bring Afghan refugees to the US - including those who fought alongside US troops for years - Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin says this:

"They and their families have more than earned their places in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

"And welcoming those Afghans isn't just about what they've done, but about who we are," he adds.

Defence Secretary Austin goes on to note that the Kabul airlift was the largest ever completed by the US military.

"It was heroic. It was historic," he says, praising US troops for their fearlessness, selfishness and "grit".

Six thousand US citizens were evacuated, as well as 124,000 civilians, he says.

"They got plane after plane after plane into the sky," he says of the US forces and diplomats that conducted airlift operations at the airport.

Austin goes on to praise the 13 US soldiers who died while helping rescue people at the Kabul airport in an attack that also killed nearly 200 Afghans.

"We mourn with their families and we owe them support through the days and years ahead," he says.

A Pentagon briefing is just beginning, with the top two leaders of the US military speaking now.

This is the first press event featuring US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to be held since the formal end of the 20-year Afghan war.

"It's been a busy time," begins Austin. "A proud one and a solemn one too," he adds.

He goes on to send good wishes to US soldiers, allies, and everyone "whose lives were changed forever over 20 years of war".

Image source, PA Wire

In the lead up to the withdrawal of US and UK forces, there were chaotic scenes at Kabul airport as desperate people tried to flee Afghanistan.

The UK government has announced a scheme to resettle Afghans - but have these schemes worked in the past and how many Afghans are set to come to the UK?

Read more about the Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme here.

The Taliban have paraded military equipment, captured during their takeover of Afghanistan, through the streets of the southern city of Kandahar - the group's spiritual home.

The event comes after US troops left Afghanistan on Monday, ending more than two decades of military presence in the country.