Image source, Reuters

A head teacher in Nottingham, who has been trying to help get two of her pupils out of Afghanistan, has said she's hopeful they will be back home in the next few days.

Amanda Dawson told BBC's Today programme she's been "absolutely frantic" about the eight and five-year-old siblings, who had travelled to Afghanistan with their mother to visit sick relatives.

She said she had been sent "heartbreaking" videos and voice messages by the children's older sister while they'd been stuck there.

"They were terrified: watching shooting, watching people being assaulted and just the chaos outside that airport compound was really traumatising for anybody but particularly for young children."

But she said she understood the children were safe and would be leaving the country soon.

"They are still at the airport waiting for their repatriation flights, firstly to Dubai - I think there is a military flight to Dubai and then a connecting commercial flight back to the UK.

"But they are safe, they are in the airport and, unless the airport falls of course, they are safe and we are expecting them to be home in the next couple of days."

As we mentioned earlier, US President Joe Biden spoke on Friday about the evacuation efforts in Afghanistan.

He said the US had rescued 13,000 people to date in "one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history", while warning that the operation was "not without risk of loss".

But he said: "Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home."

He added that the US military would make the "same commitment" to 50,000-65,000 Afghan allies hoping to leave.

Image source, Reuters

As US and European governments raced to get their citizens and Afghan colleagues out of Kabul this week, Russia was one of very few countries not visibly alarmed by the Taliban takeover.

Russian diplomats described the Taliban as "normal guys" and argued that the capital was safer now than before.

And on Friday, President Vladimir Putin said the Taliban's takeover was a reality they had to work with.

It is all a far cry from the disastrous nine-year war in Afghanistan that many Russians remember from propping up Kabul's communist government in the 1980s.

You can read more about Russia's relationship with Afghanistan and the Taliban here.

Image source, Nowzad

Pen Farthing, a former UK Royal Marine and founder of the animal rescue charity Nowzad, has been talking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme about his efforts to get himself, his staff and their families out of Kabul.

He said he received an email offering him repatriation. But he insists he will not leave without his staff.

"I’ve got women and young children here. Right now they’re absolutely terrified. They’ve got no assurances… that they’re going to be OK if they stay here," he said.

Asked if he was also afraid, he said: "I don’t have time to be frightened at the minute, because that just confuses things.

"We don’t have time here, we are literally trying to plan how we are going to break into Kabul airport."

He added that the biggest problem in Kabul at the moment was the closure of the banks, which had been shut for five or six days.

"I can’t draw money out of the banks, I can’t pay my staff salaries, nobody can buy food. This is just turning into a disaster upon a disaster.

"The humanitarian crisis here is getting out of control and I don’t see anybody doing anything about it."

Read more on Pen Farthing here

Bahrain has announced that it is allowing flights to make use of its transit facilities amid evacuations from Afghanistan.

The statement from the Gulf nation came after the US faced issues on Friday, with an air base in Qatar becoming too full to accept any more people, leaving Washington scrambling to find other countries to accept arrivals.

The United Arab Emirates also said it would host 5,000 Afghan nationals "on a temporary basis, after which time they would travel on to other nations", according to state news agency WAM.

It added that the UAE had already "facilitated" the evacuation of around 8,500 foreign nationals.

Image source, Reuters

The US military has resumed evacuations from Kabul after major delays on Friday.

US flights out of Kabul airport were temporarily halted after processing facilities in Qatar - where many were headed - reached capacity.

Senior US military officials told the Associated Press news agency that the processing of passengers inside the airport had resumed, but noted that the backlog could take hours to clear.

Thousands of people are still desperately waiting outside the airport in Kabul, with some of those who are eligible to leave unable to reach their flights.

Image source, Getty Images

BBC Radio 4's Today programme has been hearing from a teacher who's currently in hiding in Kabul.

Asked how life has changed since the Taliban seized Kabul, she said every aspect was different.

"We are trapped at home. We are like prisoners. We cannot go out. We cannot go to banks, hospitals, universities, schools, everything is just shut down.

"I had a job, I was going to university but it closed everything so now I'm at home and it's very hard to suffer this thing."

Asked what it's like for women who do decide to leave home and go out on the street, she said one of her friends who went out in Kabul was shouted at by the Taliban.

They were asking her why she was out without a spouse, or father or brother, and why was she not wearing her complete hijab, she said.

Looking to the future, she said it was as though they were back in 2001 again and expected things to only get worse.

"I'm worried about my goals, dreams and ambitions - I guess they are all done."

Given the chance, she said she would to leave the country because she had "no other way left" but felt time was running out.

Image source, Reuters

As we've reported this morning, Greece has installed a 40km (25-mile) fence and surveillance system on its border with Turkey, amid concern over a surge of migrants from Afghanistan.

"We cannot wait, passively, for the possible impact," Greece's Citizens' Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis said. "Our borders will remain inviolable."

His comments came as Turkey called on European countries to take responsibility for Afghan migrants.

In a telephone conversation with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a sharp increase in people leaving Afghanistan could pose "a serious challenge for everyone".

Greece, which was on the frontline of the 2015 migrant crisis when more than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East crossed from Turkey into the EU, has said it may send back any Afghans that arrive illegally through the country.

You can read more on this here

Image source, Reuters

BBC correspondent Secunder Kermani has been speaking to people trying to flee Afghanistan. This was the scene near the airport on Friday:

A desperate crowd is hoping to be evacuated. British soldiers push them back.

Some have been told to come here by the UK embassy, many others have just pitched up.

An interpreter, who worked for the British army in Helmand, says there's a rumour that 90% of those there have no documentation. He says he has received an email but he's worried. He says he and his children have been living on the road for four days and it's "very, very dangerous".

"If they [the Taliban] catch us, they check our documents and maybe they just create a big problem for us," he says.

A few thousand people are camped out by the entrance to the compound where those being flown out by the British authorities are taken.

There are even more at gates manned by US soldiers and outside the airport's main entrance, where Taliban fighters routinely fire into the air as the crowd tries to surge in.

So many people here are at a total loss as to what to do. They keep coming up to us asking: "How can we get inside? How can we get a response from the British or the Americans?"

One woman, with no promise of being evacuated, says the problem is that she has worked with foreigners. She says the Taliban are searching house to house for anyone like that - and are then punishing them.

The military insist they've granted an amnesty to all those linked to the government but even if other parts of Kabul appear outwardly calm, the large crowd at the airport show many Afghans are deeply anxious about the prospect of life under their rule.

You can read more from Secunder here

US military helicopters transported 169 US citizens to Kabul airport on Thursday as international evacuations out of the city continued, a Pentagon official has confirmed.

President Joe Biden mentioned that US citizens had been brought in from outside the airport's perimeter during a speech on Friday evening, but gave no details.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the group had gathered at the nearby Baron Hotel but were flown to the airport due to the large crowds outside the gates.

Since the Taliban took control of the country last weekend and closed land border crossings, Kabul's airport has become the only way out of the country for many people.

However, scenes outside the airport have become increasingly desperate.

• Danger lies on Kabul's airport road to freedom

Image source, Getty Images

As we mentioned in our last post, the Taliban's co-founder and deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has arrived in the Afghan capital Kabul.

A senior Taliban official told AFP news agency that Baradar would meet "jihadi leaders and politicians for an inclusive government set-up".

Baradar, who is also the head of the group's political office in Doha, arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday - touching down in the city of Kandahar.

He is the most senior Taliban leader now in the country and is likely to become a leading figure in any Taliban-led government.

Here's what you need to know about him:

• Baradar is one of four men who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994
• He became a key member of the insurgency after the Taliban were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.
• He was captured in a joint US-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010, before being released as part of a plan to facilitate the peace process eight years later
• Last year, he became the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump
• Before that, Baradar signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban

Find out more about Baradar and other Taliban leaders here

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage. We'll be bringing you the latest news from Afghanistan throughout the day.

In the latest developments:

• The Taliban's co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has arrived in Kabul, where he is set to join talks on establishing a new government
• US flights have resumed from Kabul airport following a seven-hour pause
• US President Joe Biden has vowed to bring home all Americans and the Afghans who helped them, while acknowledging that the evacuation is "not without risk of loss"

• Greece has installed a fence and surveillance system on its border with Turkey amid concern over a surge of migrants from Afghanistan
• Bahrain has said it is allowing flights to make use of its transit facilities amid the evacuations of Afghanistan

We are now pausing today's live updates on the crisis in Afghanistan - thank you for joining us. You can follow any further developments in Afghanistan in our top story here. Meanwhile, here is a reminder of some of the key events of the past few hours:

• US President Joe Biden has pledged to evacuate all Americans from Afghanistan who wish to leave
• He strikes a compassionate tone after coming under intense criticism for his handling of the evacuation
• Thousands of Afghans are still crowded outside the airport in Kabul, trying to seek a route out of the country
• Taliban fighters are checking the papers of people arriving, but insist they are letting through those with visas to leave the country
• An Afghan interpreter for British forces says the UK has rejected his application for a visa, and told the BBC: “I know I will be killed”
• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he has full confidence in Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab who is facing heavy criticism for not calling Afghan ministers over evacuating translators

Image source, Getty Images

Uzbekistan's foreign ministry is reported to have sent 150 refugees back to Afghanistan as part of an agreement with the Taliban.

Russian news agency Tass quoted the foreign ministry saying the refugees had been given security guarantees, according to Reuters.

It was reported earlier this month, external that hundreds of Afghan soldiers had fled to Uzbekistan. The country is understood, external to be wary of taking refugees from its neighbour.

Image source, RAF/PA Wire

The UK government has said £5m will be made available to local councils in England, Scotland and Wales that are offering to house Afghans who worked for the UK and now face threats from the Taliban.

The money will be used to provide support, including housing, to those who have worked for the government, for example as translators, and are coming to the UK under the Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).

The refugees will also be offered a first dose of a Covid vaccine and access to mental health support.

The scheme was launched earlier this year after the government announced it was withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. Since Saturday, 1,615 people have been evacuated to the UK - including 402 Afghan nationals who are under the ARAP programme.

A separate resettlement scheme has been set up to relocate up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghan nationals.

A report by human rights group Amnesty International says the Taliban recently “massacred" and brutally tortured several members of the Hazara minority - Afghanistan's third largest ethnic group.

The Taliban have said that there would be "no revenge" following their takeover of Kabul.

But Amnesty International’s Brian Castner told the BBC there was a disconnect between “what a spokesman or leader might say and what an 18-year-old with a Kalashnikov is going to do”.

The US evacuation from Kabul was paused on Friday, due to overcrowding in Qatar where many of the evacuees are being transferred.

In his address minutes ago, President Joe Biden acknowledged the pause of “a few hours”, adding: "Our commander in Kabul has already given the order for outbound flights to resume."

The processing facility in Qatar has been described as hot, increasingly tense, and a "developing humanitarian crisis,” officials told CBS News, the BBC’s partner in the US.

Also on Friday, the United Arab Emirates announced that it would host 5,000 Afghan citizens for 10 days until they can be re-located to a third country.

"The evacuees will travel to the UAE from the Afghan capital of Kabul on US aircraft in the coming days," the UAE’s foreign ministry said, adding that it was at the request of the US.

So far, the UAE has extracted 8,500 people from Afghanistan, according to Reuters.

BBC OS

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC's OS on World Service radio has been speaking to Afghan sportswomen as they reflect on the Taliban's takeover of their country.

Two footballers, Khalida Popal, a former captain, and Shabnam Mobarez, the current captain of the women's national football team, discuss the future of women's sport in Afghanistan. Both women are no longer in Afghanistan:

Khalida: Unfortunately the past few days have been very difficult for me and for everybody.

The women of Afghanistan have been very scared and still I have fear for our players in Afghanistan, for all those women who are left alone without any protection and safety, who have been very vocal, who have been very active, who use football as a tool to empower and also as a means of activism, who stood up.

Taliban is the enemy of Afghanistan, Taliban is the enemy of women.

Shabnam: My concerns are that [the players] are not safe in Afghanistan right now. So what I really want everybody to do is to actually help us get those players out. That's my priority. I really wish to see my teammates in safety.

I am connected with some of our players in Kabul and they are fearing for their lives. They are hiding in their relatives' homes. They cannot step out of their house because they have been told if you go out and we see you outside on the street, you will be killed.

A lot of dreams have been turning into nightmares.

Listen to the interviews in full here.

Image source, EPA

A Taliban official has denied that the group's fighters are stopping people from leaving the country at Kabul airport.

"We are only pushing (away) those who have no legal papers to travel, but who are adding to the chaos at Kabul airport gate," he told Reuters news agency.

There have been reports of heavily-armed Taliban fighters patrolling the airport's perimeter, and shots have been heard.

Tara McKelvey
BBC News, Washington

Joe Biden struck a note of compassion during his speech, and said he did not think anyone could “see those pictures and not feel pain”.

He was referring to the horrifying images of people trying to flee Afghanistan. His remarks sounded like the old Biden, the leader who was known for his empathy.

It was different from the remarks that he made earlier in the week, when he struck a defiant tone about his decision to withdraw the troops. People here have been appalled by the aftermath of his decision, and how he has tried to defend his actions.

Voters - both Democrats and Republicans - wonder about his strategy, and resent the way that he blamed others, whether Donald Trump or the Afghan army, for the catastrophe.

His approval rating is now at its lowest point - 49% - since taking office, according to the poll tracker FiveThirtyEight, showing many people have misgivings about his leadership.

The man in the White House, they say, is not the man they thought they knew. The president is trying to win them back, but for many, his efforts are too little, too late.