Mullah Baradar, the chief of the Taliban's political office, has arrived in Afghanistan's Kandahar region along with other senior figures.

Baradar is a co-founder of the Taliban and one of its most senior leaders.

It is not clear where they flew from but much of the leadership have been based in the Qatari capital Doha where they were negotiating with the US about the withdrawal of international forces.

Afghanistan's deposed Vice-President, Amrullah Saleh, has claimed to be the country's new caretaker president following the flight of former leader, Ashraf Ghani, into exile on Sunday.

He tweeted that he remained in the country and that he was "reaching out to all leaders to secure their support & consensus."

In a previous tweet he said that he hasn't "lost spirit" and called on Afghans to "join the resistance" against the Taliban in a defiant message.

A former director of the Afghan state intelligence agency, Mr Saleh had vowed on Sunday that "under no circumstances" would he surrender to the Taliban.

Image source, Getty Images

US forces are focused on evacuations, Marine Maj Gen William Taylor said at a US Department of Defense briefing.

The US mission to evacuate Americans and vulnerable Afghans will run until 31 August, Kirby said.

With the airfield in Kabul now secure, the US is planning for at least one evacuation flight to leave Kabul each hour, with up to 9,000 passengers departing Afghanistan per day.

But Kirby would not commit to a specific number of evacuations by the end of the month.

And Pentagon officials again dodged questions about whether the swift advance of the Taliban - and the chaos depicted at the airport - was a failure of intelligence or of planning.

A news conference is also happening at the US Department of Defense.

The Taliban has not interfered with the US evacuation efforts out of Kabul, spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

He said that "no hostile interactions" had occurred, following a meeting between Taliban leaders and the head of US Central Command in Doha on Sunday.

Operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport have been restored, said Marine Maj Gen William Taylor at the briefing.

"Now that the airfield is open, our goal is to keep it open," Taylor added.

An additional 2,500 US troops have been moved to Kabul in the last 72 hours, with up to 3,500 deployed by the end of the day.

Image source, PA Media

While we await the Taliban news conference, an update from Brussels, where Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has been speaking.

He said the Nato allies will send additional evacuation planes to Afghanistan and called on the Taliban to allow people to depart if they want to.

While he said that Nato forces "never intended to stay in Afghanistan forever" the speed at which the Taliban took control has surprised them.

Stoltenberg described it as a "failure of Afghan political leadership", but said that Nato also had lessons to be learned.

But he added that the mission was also a success and said that it had been two decades since an allied country was hit by a terror attack planned in Afghanistan.

"Those now in power have the responsibility to ensure that international terrorists do not gain a foothold," he said.

"The world will be watching and must continue to support a stable and peaceful Afghanistan."

In a few minutes, a Taliban spokesman is expected to give a news conference from the Afghan capital Kabul.

It is the first time the militants have addressed the Afghan people since taking control of the country, and also the first time the spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, has ever appeared in front of news cameras - many journalists who have interviewed him over the phone have never seen his face.

Here is a round up of what has been happening today:

• The Taliban is about to hold their first news conference since taking control of Afghanistan on Sunday
• US President Joe Biden has defended the decision to exit Afghanistan, saying that despite the "messy" pull-out, "there was never a good time to withdraw US forces"
• Kabul is reportedly much calmer after chaotic scenes at the city's international airport yesterday - which saw people clinging to a US plane as they sought to flee Afghanistan
• But militants are reported to be out in force, manning checkpoints across the city
• A Taliban leader has ordered fighters not to enter anyone's home and to avoid interfering with embassy vehicles after reports of looting

• The UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said his government will be looking at a "bespoke agreement" for those fleeing the country
• Meanwhile, European leaders have expressed concern about the possible influx of refugees, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying Europe must "protect ourselves against major irregular migratory flows"
• Germany's development minister says the country is halting development aid to Afghanistan

Image source, EPA

A Taliban spokesperson will hold a news conference in about 45 minutes.

It's the first time the group has given a public address to the people of Afghanistan since taking control of the country on Sunday.

Image source, Elchin family

US President Joe Biden described the Taliban's lightning-fast return to power as likely to be "gut-wrenching" to the many Americans with a profound connection to Afghanistan. We spent the day with military veterans who served - and lost loved ones - in the conflict, and with Afghans who now call the US home.

Despite the driving rain, dozens of people congregated outside the post office in Hookstown, Pennsylvania, as it was renamed after Staff Sgt Dylan Elchin, a son of the town killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

"He sacrificed everything for our country and I believe that we should all be honouring our military more - for what they do for not only the USA but for the entire world," Sgt Elchin's grandfather Ron Bogolea said.

Christian Easley, an Air Force recruiter who helped train Sgt Elchin, said that for him the current circumstances in Afghanistan had not changed his perspective.

"Dylan had to follow his orders to go accomplish his mission. He did everything that was asked of him and then some," he said.

"Regardless of what has happened during this past week I knew that Dylan did everything right."

Read more here.

Vice Adm Sir Ben Key, who is running the UK evacuation operation, tells the BBC the situation at Kabul airport is "much calmer" today.

He says there had been "distressing" scenes at the airport as Afghans faced "huge uncertainty" about their future.

Hundreds of Afghans were seen clinging to a US plane in an attempt to escape after the Taliban took the capital.

Gunfire was heard on Monday morning, and eyewitnesses told the BBC that civilians had been killed. US troops reportedly fired into the air to scatter the crowds.

Vice Adm Key says the evacuation programme has been working at "full pace", with three flights in today, and he says he is confident the airfield is "stable".

About 300 people have already been evacuated, and he believes they could get between 6000-7000 people out.

The Taliban are controlling the gates of Kabul airport and are having discussions with local commanders to allow people into the airport, he says.

Evacuation efforts will continue for as long as they are needed to meet demand, he says, or until the security situation means the operation no longer has consent.

He says it is a "dynamic political situation" in Kabul and the evacuation operation "can't afford to pause", adding that officials were "alive to the uncertainty".

The Taliban say they've ordered their fighters not to enter anyone's home and to avoid interfering with embassy vehicles, especially in Kabul.

The decree, sent by the group's deputy leader Molavi Yaqoub to fighters by voice note, came after reports that Taliban militants were involved in looting yesterday.

The Islamist insurgents are gradually asserting their authority in Afghanistan. All government employees have been asked to return to work and potential looters have been warned of severe punishments if caught. Bakeries and pharmacies have opened in parts of the capital today and there’s more traffic on the roads.

Elsewhere, a Taliban leader was interviewed by a female television presenter in Kabul, an unthinkable proposition when the hard-line Islamists were in power twenty years ago.

But there is no music playing in cafes or even in cars and pictures of women on advertising have been painted over.

Some senior Taliban leaders are expected to address a press conference in Kabul later today outlining their plans for the future of the country and the formation of a new government.

Image source, Reuters

Europe's political leaders have been expressing concern about a possible influx of refugees and migrants in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

In a TV address on Monday, France's President Emmanuel Macron said European nations “must anticipate and protect ourselves against major irregular migratory flows”.

“Europe alone cannot bear the consequences of the current situation,” he said.

The European Union would set up an initiative to prevent large migrant flows from Afghanistan, Macron said. EU foreign ministers are to discuss the situation today.

In Germany, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer was quoted as saying, external he expected up to five million people to flee Afghanistan.

Germany opened its borders to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution during Europe’s migrant crisis of 2015.

But in a tweet, external, German Christian Democrat leader and chancellor-hopeful Armin Laschet was adamant that “2015 should not be repeated”.

Similar sentiments were expressed by the migration minister of Greece, another country that bore the brunt of the migrant crisis.

The minister, Notis Mitarachi, said the Greek government's border protection was on standby to avoid another build-up of pressure.

Image source, Getty Images

Calm has returned to Kabul after chaotic scenes at the city's international airport yesterday, as hundreds of people attempted to leave Afghanistan.

According to local reports, the streets of the capital have remained quiet on the second full day of Taliban rule, although the militants maintain a strong presence.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

French troops stood guard at Kabul airport overnight ahead of the country's first evacuation flight to Abu Dhabi. Other countries have also continued their relocation programmes.

On Tuesday, others still waiting to leave Afghanistan gathered outside the French embassy in Kabul.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Germany is suspending development aid to Afghanistan, Development Minister Gerd Müller has announced.

Speaking to German news agency DPA and the Rheinische Post newspaper, Müller said that German and international employees of German state development organisation GIZ had already been evacuated.

"We are working flat out to get local staff from GIZ and aid organisations that work with us - and who want to do so - safely out of Afghanisation," he said.

Afghanistan was previously the top recipient of German aid, according to German media reports.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Ziauddin Yousafzai, children’s rights activist and father of Nobel laureate Malala, told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Mobeen Azhar that the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan was "the darkest day for human civilisation".

Ziauddin went on to criticise the rapid withdrawal of US troops from the country.

“I am not angry that they have withdrawn. A nation and a country should have its own army, its own people to protect its democracy, its human rights. I’m really angry about the way they withdrew from Afghanistan," he said.

He said his daughter Malala was equally shocked by events

"We have an experience of Taliban’s ideology and we know who the Taliban are. They say they are different people, we don’t know that.

"The Taliban I know...are the anthesis of human civilisation," he added.

Listen to 5 Live on the free BBC Sounds app.

David Cornock
Today in Parliament, BBC Radio 4

The UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has suggested his own family's experience as refugees offers evidence that the UK will help those fleeing Afghanistan.

Mr Raab's father, Peter, was a Czech Jewish refugee who came to England in 1938 at the age of six following the signing of the Munich Agreement that handed parts of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany.

He also cited the experience of Home Secretary Priti Patel, whose parents left Uganda for the UK in the 1960s before dictator Idi Amin's mass expulsion of Uganda Asians.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Raab said that the government would be looking at a "bespoke agreement" for those fleeing the Taliban.

"We're a big-hearted nation and we've always, as I know from my own history, as Priti knows from hers, always been a country that's provided safe haven for those fleeing persecution and I'm sure the home secretary and the prime minister will set out the details in due course."

Turkey has said it is in talks with "all sides" in the Afghan conflict, including the Taliban.

At a press conference in the Jordanian capital Amman, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara welcomed the Taliban's messages on diplomatic missions and Turkish nationals.

"I hope we will see this in their actions," he said, adding that Ankara would continue to support Afghanistan's economic development, stability and peace.

Mr Causoglu said Turkey is currently working to evacuate its citizens, and those of other countries.

Previously, Turkey had offered to keep its 600 troops in Kabul to guard and operate the airport after other Nato members withdrew. But since the Taliban takeover, it's unclear if this will happen.

Two unnamed sources have told Reuters news agency that these plans have been abandoned, but Turkey was willing to provide support if the Taliban asked for it.

Image source, EPA

The speed of the Taliban advance in Afghanistan have taken many by surprise. So how did a relatively small force make such rapid progress?

While many other internal and external elements came into play, the Taliban's advance was favoured by the following:

• They're a small, but effective force, with estimates suggesting a core strength of 60,000 fighters. With the addition of other militia groups and supporters, that number could exceed 200,000
• More recently they have seized weapons and equipment from the Afghan security forces - some of it provided by the US - including Humvees, night sights, machine guns, mortars and artillery
• Afghanistan was already awash with weapons after the Soviet invasion, and the Taliban have shown that even the crudest weapons can defeat a much more sophisticated force - for example, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) used against US and British forces
• Their local knowledge and understanding of the terrain have also been an advantage
• Despite the disparate nature of the Taliban, some see evidence of a co-ordinated plan in their recent advance: one academic points to their focus in the north and west, which are not their traditional southern strongholds, with successive regional capitals falling into their hands
• The Taliban have also captured key border crossings and checkpoints, funnelling off much needed customs revenue away from the cash-strapped government
• And they stepped up the targeted killings of key officials, human rights activists, and journalists - slowly but surely wiping out some of the small gains made over the last 20 years

Read more here.

Over in Russia, today's newspapers have been fiercely critical of the US for what's unfolding in Afghanistan, two days after the Taliban claimed victory.

In government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, foreign policy analyst Fyodor Lukyanov describes it as "a devastating fiasco".

"The pro-American regime collapsed like a house of cards," he adds. "America isn't going home, it's fleeing."

Our Moscow Correspondent Steve Rosenberg has been looking at these reactions and more.

Khaled Hosseini, author of the acclaimed novel The Kite Runner, has said the gains Afghan women have made over the last 20 years are now "up in the air".

The Afghan-American author was born in Kabul and told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "while the last 20 years have certainly been challenging and beset by missteps and tragedies, it is also true that there has been progress in Afghanistan".

He noted that the ability of women to serve in the Afghan parliament, to become police chiefs and join the workforce, and the return of girls to schools around the country had significantly improved the lives of millions of Afghans.

"Now all of that is up in the air and whether any of those gains will last remains to be seen," he said.

Image source, AFP