The delayed Taliban press conference has now begun in Kabul - we'll bring you any news lines as they develop.

Wearing a bulletproof vest, an Italian diplomat has been pictured plucking a frightened Afghan child from a crowd at Kabul airport.

Standing on a wall, Tommaso Claudi appears to pass the child to a soldier in the dramatic picture, which has been shared widely on social media.

He has been involved in evacuating Italians and Afghans on flights from Kabul since the Taliban takeover.

In a Facebook post, external, Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Claudi is working until the last second to help the Afghan people.

“We are all proud of you, for the work you are doing relentlessly, with love and dedication,” Di Maio writes.

On Sunday, Di Maio said Italy had so far evacuated about 1,600 Afghan civilians, including those who had helped foreign forces and their family members. He said Italy would aim to evacuate a further 900 people.

While we wait for the Taliban press conference in Kabul, here's some insight from the BBC's Secunder Kermani.

He spoke to women in Afghanistan about the group's takeover and how it's affecting their daily lives.

You can watch his report in the video below.

A Taliban press conference is scheduled to happen at 13:30 BST (17:00 local time) at the media center in Kabul, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

Journalists and media representatives are being told they can attend.

You can read more about Mujahid, the Taliban's media representative, here.

US military flights have evacuated around 12,700 people from Kabul airport since Monday morning, a White House official has said.

Meanwhile, flights operated by other coalition nations carried an additional 8,900 people to safety.

Thousands still remain at Kabul airport hoping to board evacuation flights before the 31 August, however - when the US is currently scheduled to pull its troops out of Afghanistan.

Satellite photos show large groups of people waiting on the tarmac.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to push President Biden to keep US troops at the airport past 31 August at today's meeting of G7 leaders - but the Taliban have warned of "consequences" if foreign forces remain.

Image source, Reuters

It's been another busy day of developments in Afghanistan as countries rush to evacuate their citizens, as well as thousands of fleeing Afghans following the Taliban takeover. Here's the latest:

• Foreign forces are facing a looming 31 August deadline to get all troops out of the country - including the remaining US forces that are currently controlling Kabul airport
• But the US is being pressed by allies to delay its withdrawal so more people can be evacuated. The UK is hosting a virtual summit this afternoon to discuss the evacuation effort with other Western countries
• At the G7 summit, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to urge world leaders to increase their support for Afghan refugees and will call for an increase in aid
• Some allies of the US, including the UK and Spain, have already warned they will have to leave some Afghans behind owing to the situation on the ground and the impending deadline
• The Taliban say any delay or extension would cross a "red line" and they have warned of consequences if foreign troops are not withdrawn by the agreed deadline
• Meanwhile, the UN has urged the Taliban to respect the rights of women and minority groups. Its rights chief says the treatment of women and girls is a "fundamental red line"
• And thousands remain camped outside Kabul airport hoping to leave. A Nato official has told Reuters the evacuation operation is being conducted on a "war footing"

Image source, Reuters

The World Health Organization (WHO) only has enough medical supplies in Afghanistan to last for a week, a senior regional official says.

Deliveries of more than 500 tonnes of supplies, including surgical equipment and severe malnutrition kits, have been held up by restrictions at Kabul airport, the official tells a briefing.

The supplies are stuck in Dubai - and the WHO is calling for empty evacuation planes to divert there to collect them on the way to Afghanistan.

The WHO also says 95% of health facilities in Afghanistan remain operational, but some female staff have not returned to their posts, and some female patients are afraid to leave their homes following the Taliban takeover.

Ione Wells
Westminster Correspondent, BBC News

Last week President Biden said if there were any US citizens left in Afghanistan at the end of the month: "We're going to stay until we get them all out."

Some took this as a hint that he could be prepared to extend his 31 August deadline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

Now, the chances of fellow G7 leaders convincing Biden to delay this afternoon seem low.

Why does this matter? Without the US, which currently secures and operates the international airport in Kabul, evacuations from the airport can't feasibly continue - and there are still thousands of British citizens and Afghans eligible for resettlement in the UK to get out.

After a call between the president and Boris Johnson last night, No10 spoke of the need to come up with a plan to help Afghans “including after the initial phase of the evacuation has ended” - suggesting they are still preparing for that deadline in a week's time to go ahead.

Pressure now builds on the prime minister this afternoon to use the UK's G7 presidency to come up with a united international plan for what happens after that.

Almost 8,500 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan as part of the British Army's Operation Pitting since 13 August, according to the UK's Ministry of Defence.

That number includes more than 5,000 Afghans applying to the Afghan Relocation and Assistance scheme.

The Washington Post is reporting that CIA director William Burns held a secret meeting in Kabul on Monday, external with the Taliban’s de facto leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The newspaper says that according to US officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the talks probably involved the 31 August deadline for the US military to finish its airlift of US citizens and Afghan allies.

The CIA has declined to comment on the report.

It comes as a G-7 summit is set to hear allies - including the UK - press President Joe Biden to delay the withdrawal of US forces beyond the end of August.

The allies warn they will not be able to evacuate all Afghans fleeing the Taliban by then, but the Taliban have warned of consequences if the deadline is not met.

Afghan photographer, Fatimah Hossaini, has spoken to BBC News about just how quickly life in Kabul changed as the Taliban rapidly approached the city.

"Just the night before the Taliban took over Kabul we were with friends in cafes. I went shopping and life was normal."

"I was on my way to a PCR test because I had a flight on Monday to Turkey... People were running, they told me 'go home the Taliban are coming'."

Hossaini, who fled to Paris and has worked for a variety of Western media organisations, told the BBC's Dan Walker how she feared an interview she had given to the BBC World Service days before the fall of Kabul made her "a double target".

China has criticised the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, accusing Washington of having "selfish" foreign policy priorities.

It said the US had used the rhetoric of a rules-based global order to defend its own "bullying, hegemonic behaviour".

"The US can wantonly conduct military intervention in a sovereign country and does not need to be responsible for the suffering of the people in that country," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a press briefing.

"The US can arbitrarily smear, suppress, coerce and bully other countries without paying any price," he added.

The Afghanistan exit has been a golden opportunity for China to convince the Asian public that the US cannot be trusted, experts say.

Meanwhile, China has called at that meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for the US, UK, and other countries to "be held accountable for the violation of human rights committed by their military in Afghanistan".

You can read more about how the pullout is being viewed in Asia here.

Malik Mudassir
BBC News, Kabul

We headed to the north gate of Kabul airport, where Afghan forces are stationed, and a long line of vehicles appeared. There was traffic for probably about three kilometres.

As we approached the airport, the sounds of gunfire grew louder.

When we tried to talk to people, the Afghan forces sternly told us to leave. The soldiers were very angry. They had something like a whip in their hand, and they even hit us twice. Later they checked our press card and let us go.

Four flights took off today but no answer had yet been found as to why Pakistan's PIA airline had to cancel its flight.

Those trying to leave are families who have somehow worked with foreigners in the media or as interpreters.

There were shadows of sadness on their faces, as if someone was forcibly evicting them from their home country and there was no way left for them.

When we returned to our hotel, there was a crowd waiting for special immigration visas. Qatari guards were now in control of hotel security.

Online home rental platform Airbnb has said it will house 20,000 Afghan refugees at no charge to help them resettle across the world.

The company's boss said the move was in response to "one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time".

He said the firm felt a responsibility to step up.

Chief executive Brian Chesky added: "I hope this inspires other business leaders to do the same. There's no time to waste."

Thousands of people are trying to flee Afghanistan, while 3.5 million people have been left homeless within its borders as a result of ongoing conflict and political instability.

Read more here.

The Taliban control all the main land crossing points with Afghanistan's neighbours, and the militants have said they do not want Afghans to leave.

But some refugees have managed to find a way out, while thousands of Afghans are also gathered at the country's only functioning airport in Kabul in the hope of boarding a flight out.

The map below illustrates how few options Afghans hoping to flee have.

Even before the Taliban retook control, more than 550,000 people had been forced to flee their homes this year due to fighting, according to the UNHCR.

That means an estimated 3.5 million Afghans are currently internally displaced within the country.

Neighbouring countries Pakistan and Iran saw the highest numbers of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers last year.

Almost 1.5 million fled to Pakistan in 2020, while Iran hosted 780,000, according to UNHCR figures.

Image source, Reuters

The UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, has urged the Taliban to respect the rights of women as well as ethnic and religious minorities.

"A fundamental red line will be the Taliban's treatment of women and girls," she told an emergency session on Afghanistan.

This included "respect for their rights to liberty, freedom of movement, education, self expression and employment".

Rights groups fear women's freedoms could be eroded under the rule of the Islamist group.

And in a press conference last week, the Taliban said women's rights would be respected "within the framework of Islamic law".

Bachelet also voiced concerns that her office has received credible reports of serious human rights violations in places that have been under Taliban control, including summary executions, restrictions of women's rights and recruitment of child soldiers.

Five Afghans who were evacuated from Kabul to France have been placed under surveillance over suspected links to the Taliban, the French interior minister has said.

Gerald Darmanin told Franceinfo radio that among the thousand or so Afghans evacuated to France, "one was supposedly - and I do say supposedly - linked with the Taliban".

"But he helped a lot, the French army, French citizens, journalists," Darmanin added. "We put him and his friends under surveillance on their arrival in France to clear up any doubt."

He said that one of the five left the place they'd been asked to stay in: "He was taken into custody yesterday, which shows the security services are closely monitoring those individuals."

AFP news agency reports that a French ministerial document says the man admitted his membership of the Taliban and said he'd worked as the armed head of a Taliban checkpoint in Kabul.

Spain has warned it will not be able to evacuate all Afghans who served Spanish missions or worked with its government due to the "dramatic" situation on the ground.

"We will evacuate as many people as possible but there are people who will stay behind for reasons that do not depend on us, but on the situation there," Defence Minister Margarita Robles said during an interview with radio Cadena Ser.

It comes after her UK counterpart Ben Wallace issued a similar warning, telling the BBC that not everyone would be evacuated before the 31 August deadline agreed with the Taliban.

Image source, MOD

As we just reported, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has told the BBC that he doesn't believe deploying more British troops to protect Kabul airport is a solution to the ongoing situation there.

He said the troops would be forced to engage in a military fight with the Taliban.

The US is providing the bulk of the troops to keep the airport secure and is running many of its facilities - including air traffic control.

And General Sir Richard Barrons, commander Joint Forces Command from 2013 until 2016, has said carrying out evacuations without US support would be extremely difficult.

The RAF's limited number of transport aircraft also means the UK does not have the capability "to conduct an effective evacuation by itself, especially not under time pressure", Nick Reynolds of the Royal United Services Institute think tank said.

You can read more here.

Ros Atkins has been taking a look at how the US and the Taliban agreed on a 31 August deadline for foreign forces to leave Afghanistan. Watch his video here: