To commemorate the US casualties from the war in Afghanistan, a US Marine Corps veteran has been tweeting the names of every fallen service member in chronological order.

James LaPorta, now an investigative reporter with the Associated Press, began his tribute at 01:18 EST (05:18 GMT) on 31 August by tweeting the name Evander Earl Andrews, a 36-year-old airman who died in Qatar on 10 October 2001 – three days after US forces began striking targets in Afghanistan.

Andrews, who died because of injuries sustained in an accident, is considered the first US military casualty of Operating Enduring Freedom.

As of Wednesday morning, LaPorta had reached Christopher Edward Kalafut, a 49-year-old sailor who died on 24 October 2014.

“I just started doing it because it felt like the right thing to do,” LaPorta was quoted as saying by Insider.

Guy De Launey, BBC Balkans Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

European Council President Charles Michel says the chaotic scenes in Afghanistan illustrate the need for the EU to embrace “greater decision-making autonomy and greater capacity for action in the world”.

The scramble to evacuate EU citizens from Kabul was dependent on - and frequently frustrated by - the US military, especially when it came to helping Afghan people who had worked with international organisations.

Speaking at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia, Michel said the EU should not have to rely on other powers in the future.

"Can Europe be content with a situation where we are unable to ensure, unassisted, the evacuations of our citizens and those under threat because they have helped us?”

Michel stopped short of calling for the creation of a unified EU military.

But from the same stage, the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, came close. "We need to establish a common defence policy. If we don’t do that now, when?" he asked.

Image source, PA Media

The UK’s foreign secretary is about to face questions over the government’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Dominic Raab will appear in front of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Raab has faced widespread criticism for not returning from a holiday abroad as the Taliban advanced across Afghanistan, as well as the chaotic nature of the evacuations.

But shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy said Raab had to answer for on "much more than the chaos of the last two weeks", describing the international withdrawal from Afghanistan as "the biggest foreign policy failing in a generation”.

The committee’s chair, Tom Tugendhat, said: "We never thought we would see the day Nato forces, led by the US, would turn their backs on the people of Afghanistan.

"How will we deal with the Taliban? How will Afghanistan shape our regional strategy? How will the government hold the Taliban to account for reverses in human rights?

"These questions, and so many others, will be put to the Foreign Secretary."

Read more: The questions facing Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab

Pictures of dogs left behind in cages after the US military left Hamid Karzai International Airport were widely circulated on social media, leaving the US Central Command to issue a statement.

Animal welfare groups - including the Kabul Small Animal Rescue (KSAR) - had been trying to evacuate dozens of dogs and cats from the Afghanistan.

"To correct erroneous reports, the US military did not leave any dogs in cages at Hamid Karzai International Airport," US Army Lt Col Karen Roxberry, a spokesperson for the US Central Command, said in a statement.

The photos circulating online were animals under the care of the Kabul Small Animal Rescue, she said.

"Despite an ongoing complicated and dangerous retrograde mission, US forces went to great lengths to assist the Kabul Small Animal Rescue as much as possible."

But the statement did not respond to allegations made by KSAR and other groups surrounding the fate of around 130 other dogs - which reportedly included former Afghan security forces working dogs - at the airport.

"In the end, the dogs and their caretakers were explicitly NOT allowed to board military aircraft, and numerous private charter aircraft were not granted access to the airport either," according to a statement by SPCA International, which cited information provided by KSAR founder Charlotte Maxwell-Jones.

"Charlotte was informed that most of the KSAR dogs had to be released into the airport on August 30 as the airport was evacuated – turning once rescued shelter dogs into homeless strays."

Image source, Getty Images

Thousands of Afghans have flocked to Kabul airport in the past two weeks in a desperate attempt to leave the country and escape the Taliban takeover.

The BBC spoke to one man who could not escape. He is now in hiding, so his real name has been changed to protect his identity.

After the Taliban took over Kabul, Nazeef, along with his wife and baby abandoned their home.

He has a long history with the Taliban, but it is his last role in government which he thinks makes him a prime target.

"I was in a very sensitive department managing service records of people. The Taliban know if they get hold of me, they can get the names and addresses of so many people they want to target."

He has heard from his neighbours that the Taliban came to his home at least three times in the past two weeks.

Nazeef fears he may not be able to move much once the Taliban increase their presence in Kabul. He is preparing to undertake the risky journey with his wife and child by paying money to people smugglers.

He knows it is a tough journey, in which many migrants have been killed and where women are especially vulnerable to sexual assault.

Nazeef says it will not be easy as "the Taliban have said they have sealed all the border crossings with neighbouring countries".

Yet, Nazeef is prepared to take the risk.

"They will never forgive me. If I remain in Kabul, the Taliban will kill me if they find me."

The deputy head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar has given an interview to BBC Pashto.

Sher Abbas Stanekzai said a Taliban government could be announced in the next two days and would be inclusive - with a role for women at lower levels but not in very high positions.

He also said those who served in government in the past two decades would not be included.

He said the recent chaos at Kabul airport was due to the mismanagement by the Americans, and $30m (£22m) was now needed for repairs.

He added that the airport would be ready to resume operations in two days.

A Qatar aircraft carrying technicians on Wednesday landed in Kabul, AFP quoted a source as saying.

The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet and her team visited the airport on Tuesday - shortly after it was taken under full control by the Taliban.

The BBC team filmed elite Taliban units armed with US weapons and wearing American uniforms now patrolling the grounds, as well as hangars and offices abandoned by the Americans just hours ago.

Below are short clips from the airport.

Image source, AFGHAN ISLAMIC PRESS

Taliban leaders held three days of meetings in the southern city of Kandahar that ended on Monday.

Hibatullah Akhundzada reportedly chaired the talks and had been expected to appear in public for the first time in years in the spiritual home of the Taliban - but he did not show up.

Akhundzada, who is believed to be in his 60s, became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016.

In the 1980s, he participated in the Islamist resistance against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan - but his reputation is more that of a religious leader than a military commander.

Akhundzada worked as head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s.

He is in charge of political, military and religious affairs.

Read more about who's who in the Taliban leadership

Image source, Alamy

The Taliban have called on fighters in the last major opposition stronghold - the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul - to lay down their weapons.

In an audio message on Twitter, senior Taliban official Amir Khan Muttaqi said talks had failed and he urged residents to persuade the fighters to give up.

But Afghanistan's ousted defence minister, Bismillah Mohammadi, said an overnight attack on Panjshir was repulsed, resulting in 34 Taliban deaths.

The Panjshir has immense symbolic value in Afghanistan as the area that has resisted occupation by invaders over many decades.

Several thousand anti-Taliban fighters are reported to be holding out in the remote valley with a narrow entrance - little more than 30 miles or so (50km) from the capital.

Read more here: The 'undefeated' Panjshir Valley - an hour from Kabul

In an interview with BBC Pashto, the deputy head of the Taliban political office in Qatar said women could continue in their work, including at "lower levels" of government, but in the top posts or cabinet there "may not" be a woman.

The Taliban are expected to form their new government in the coming days but questions remain about what their rule will look like and mean for Afghanistan.

A senior board member of Afghanistan's central bank is urging the US Treasury and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to take steps to provide the Taliban-led government some access to the country's reserves or risk economic disaster, Reuters news agency reports.

The Taliban took over Afghanistan with astonishing speed, but it appears unlikely that the militants will get quick access to most of the roughly $10bn (£7.2bn) held by Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), which are mostly outside of the country.

President Joe Biden's administration has said any central bank assets the Afghan government has in the US will not be made available to the Taliban, and the IMF has said the country will not have access to the lender's resources.

Shah Mehrabi, an economics professor at Montgomery College in Maryland and a member of the bank's board since 2002, told Reuters that Afghanistan faced an "inevitable economic and humanitarian crisis" if its international reserves remain frozen.

Image source, EPA

BBC OS

Two sisters who say they are stuck in Kabul against their wishes, have told the BBC how the Taliban takeover “fully changed” their lives.

The sisters, using the names Fatema and Maryam, to protect their real identities told the BBC’s OS radio programme that they haven’t left the house.

“I’m really scared of the Taliban,” Fatema said. “The worst part of my day is seeing the Taliban in our country and seeing them in the uniform of our police.

She said that her family is mainly women so they have to rely on her father and younger brother to go out to get supplies.

“We’ve lost everything in Afghanistan, especially girls. My only goal is to leave the country,” she said.

Maryam said being stuck in Afghanistan is “like a horror movie”.

“There’s nobody on the road. I just cry and I feel really bad”.

“I can’t go to work. I just want to go to work. My occupation is my love,” she said.

“I’ve contacted three embassies,” Maryam said. “They haven’t responded yet. I’m still waiting. What should we do?”

Afghans who worked for the British military and UK government will be able to move to the UK permanently, the Home Office has announced.

The department announced the decision on Wednesday as part of a plan called Operation Warm Welcome.

Those eligible will be given indefinite leave to remain, rather than the five years' residency previously offered.

And those already relocated in the UK can upgrade their status and seek permanent jobs.

The UK evacuated more than 8,000 people eligible for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy from 13 August.

Read more here

Finding out what has been going on in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan outside of the capital has been more difficult since the start of their lightning campaign that brought down the government.

Kandahar is the second-biggest city and was the founding place of the Taliban. An AFP journalist there says there was a parade of captured US military hardware on Wednesday.

Taliban leaders reclined on armchairs at Kandahar Cricket Ground, with hundreds of supporters in the terraces, the correspondent says, waiting for the parade to start.

Humvees and various multi-purpose trucks have been taken, and at least one Black Hawk helicopter has been seen flying over the city.

The weapons were seized after troops from the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces surrendered, one city after the other.

There were rumours the Taliban's supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, would show up for the parade but it was left to the new Taliban governor to address the crowd.

Read more: Black Hawks and Humvees - military kit now with the Taliban

Image source, EPA

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Image source, NurPhoto via Getty Images

A six-year-old Afghan boy evacuated from Kabul who became critically ill after eating highly poisonous wild mushrooms in Poland has undergone a liver transplant, Polish Health Minister Adam Niedzielski says.

"It is really a very complicated medical situation. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and wait to see what happens," Niedzielski told the RMF FM radio station.

The boy and his five-year-old brother are in a Warsaw children’s hospital after they mistakenly ate the mushrooms last week whilst staying in a migrants’ centre in a forested area outside the capital.

The five-year-old suffered irreversible brain damage and is unable to have a transplant. He is believed to be in a coma.

A 17-year-old Afghan girl, who also ate poisonous mushrooms at the centre is in a stable condition and her prognosis is quite good, doctors say.

Some media reports say the children ate the mushrooms because they were hungry - but the centre says all migrants there receive three meals a day.

Employees of migrant centres have been instructed to warn all foreigners not to eat wild mushrooms.

Poland has more than 250 species of poisonous mushrooms, some of which can be deadly.

Collecting wild mushrooms in the autumn is very popular in Poland, and every year some Poles are hospitalised after eating poisonous varieties.

Poland evacuated more than 1,000 Afghans who had worked with Nato forces in the country.

Reality Check

Government officials in Pakistan have played down suggestions there’s a growing refugee problem at one of the main border points with Afghanistan.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said: “Not a single person has been granted refugee status. Those [Afghans] who come from [the border town of] Chaman go back daily.”

He said that around 3,800 Afghans who’ve entered Pakistan have been granted visas for allowing them a limited stay.

The Chaman crossing with Afghanistan has always been an important trade and travel route. In 2017, around 25,000 to 30,000 people crossed on a daily basis, according to the International Organisation for Migration, external.

The numbers dropped due to Covid-19 restrictions and the border was partly closed earlier this year before re-opening again. The crossing then closed in August when the area was seized by the advancing Taliban. Some trade and travel have now resumed.

Pakistan’s National Security Adviser, Moeed Yusuf, told the BBC last week that the border saw 20,000 to 25,000 people going back and forth on a daily basis because it was a trade route.

But the evidence suggests many more people than usual have been gathering at the Chaman crossing in order to leave Afghanistan. Although we don’t have exact numbers, journalists who’ve been to the area recently have reported thousands of Afghans waiting to cross.

Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Wilmington

Image source, Getty Images

This was President Biden's most forceful defence yet of his decision to end America's longest war. He was intent on rejecting criticism on the final departure, saying after two decades of conflict it would have been chaotic even if it had taken place earlier. He called the airlift an extraordinary success, even though thousands of Afghans who tried to flee were left behind.

Biden again blamed his predecessor Donald Trump for making a deal with the Taliban that, he said, forced his hand on the timing of the exit. But he emphasised that the war had long ago achieved its purpose of defeating al-Qaeda and said its conclusion signalled a need for wider changes in US foreign policy.

Biden was talking about a shift away from the kind of costly military occupations - not only Afghanistan but also Iraq - that defined America's international role after 9/11.

Despite the president’s fiery defence, his Afghanistan problem is not over. He has to deal with the resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees, scrutiny from Congress over how the war ended, and Republicans determined to make him pay a political price.

But this is a decision that Joe Biden has wanted to make for a long time. He's convinced it’s the right one and he’s hoping that’s what most Americans will ultimately remember.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Conservative MP Nus Ghani is among MPs trying to help Afghans who need to leave the country. She spoke to the BBC about one female MP who fears for her life after speaking out against the Taliban in the past:

"She's been told she will be killed if the Taliban get hold of her. They've already raided her home, they've already hung her dog," Ms Ghani said.

"She's in her third safe place. They're desperately running out of food and money. She was a university teacher when the Taliban were last there. She was already brutalised by them once. She survived and went back to Afghanistan and helped rebuild the country.

"She's staying in a safe place separate from her children because she's anxious that if the Taliban come for her, then maybe her children can escape.

"They spent 17 hours at the airport the day the suicide bomb went off. They were on the phone to me - they were struggling with Taliban guards. They spent 23 hours at the airport before the Americans left because as well as reaching out to our government, they were reaching out to the French and American governments too. They were told they need visas.

"Of course, if she is stopped by one of those gun-toting Taliban on a journey anywhere, she knows that her life is at risk. When I spoke to her yesterday, the best outcome, she believed, if she is caught by the Taliban, is to be shot and killed. What she fears is being brutalised and her family being brutalised."

Image source, EPA

The Taliban have said Afghanistan's new government will be announced in a day or two.

The deputy head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, Sher Abbas Stanekzai, told BBC Pashto that those who had served in prior cabinets in the past 20 years would not be included.

He also said women would have a role - but not in very high positions such as ministers.

Sher Abbas Stanekzai was speaking after Taliban leaders ended three days of talks in the Afghan city of Kandahar.

While the Taliban celebrate a new era in Afghanistan, many people are in hiding and fear.

They say the words from the Taliban don’t reflect the realities on the ground - with reports of critics being attacked, and women and girls losing basic rights, the BBC's South Asia correspondent Rajini Vaidyanathan says.

Image source, Getty Images

Afghan evacuee Hossain Rasouli finally got his chance to compete at the Tokyo Paralympics - and his opponents "couldn't help but feel joy" as he lined up alongside them.

Rasouli was one of two Afghan athletes to be safely evacuated last week in a "major global operation".

They had been among thousands of people unable to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power.

The 26-year-old finished last in the T47 long jump final on Tuesday.

He had arrived in Tokyo on Sunday, too late to compete in his favoured 100m event.

Image source, Zakia Khudadadi via REUTERS

Rasouli's compatriot, Zakia Khudadadi, 23, will compete on Thursday in the women's K44 taekwondo -49kg weight category.

She will be the first woman ever to represent Afghanistan at the Paralympics.

Read our full story

Opening wallets, but not borderspublished at 10:04 British Summer Time 1 September 2021

10:04 BST 1 September 2021

Nick Beake
Brussels Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Members of the European Union met in Brussels to discuss proposals to help Afghans who've fled the Taliban. They're keen to avoid a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis.

As Syria crumbled and refugees looked to Europe for sanctuary, the EU's most powerful politician, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, declared: “We can do this.”

Six years on, as hundreds of thousands of Afghans now contemplate a new life abroad – the message from Europe is more like: “We can pay for someone else to do this."

It's a case of opening wallets, not borders. Mainstream politicians are frightened of another surge in support for anti-migrant parties.

Germany goes to the polls in less than a month and on Tuesday its interior minister, meeting his EU counterparts, said the bloc should avoid setting a target for the number of Afghans to be resettled, arguing it would serve as a magnet.

But the EU’s Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, said the union had to act to avoid a humanitarian crisis.

Brussels is now drafting proposals for an EU package for Afghanistan’s neighbours to accept refugees.

This could include funding for Pakistan, and potentially Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

There could be tense discussions about whether Iran, currently under international sanctions, also receives EU money. The plan has shades of the financial deal agreed with Turkey five years ago, which encouraged the country to take in refugees rather than allowing them to travel on to Europe.