Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron joined Boris Johnson in blaming the US for the fall of Kabul but Joe Biden doubled down on his decision to withdraw.

Zarifa Ghafari has survived three assassination attempts but has never felt as much despair as now.

“We are better to start high [with restrictions] and be cautious,” PM Jacinda Ardern said. “We only need to look at Australia to see the alternative.”

The price of Chinese cooperation and economic investment is for an Islamist Afghanistan to remain silent on the plight of more than 1 million Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.

One of the river’s dams is just a few metres away from having its hydroelectric shut off. “What we hoped we’d never see is here,” said an official.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

The “key to NYC” program will make vaccination a condition of entry to cultural venues as well as bars and gyms.

It was once a stop on the hippie trail and inspiration for the Lonely Planet guidebooks. So how did Afghanistan come to be defined by war and terrorism?

After two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, the Taliban has seized power again for the first time since 2001. But what does the fundamentalist force want?

The contract is one of the most significant NASA programs in some time and has been a target for Blue Origin for years.

Carrying what is believed to be among the most people flown in a C-17 Globemaster, the US Air Force transport plane departed Kabul on Monday for Qatar.

Afghans attempt to flee the country as Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace

China and Russia have cultivated contacts with the Taliban, who in turn have been careful to reassure them that the group is a friendly force. 

Dr Zhang Wenhong was criticised on social media for “pandering to foreigners” and shunning China’s way of dealing with the pandemic for a Western one.

Biden was speaking as chaotic scenes unfolded at the US-controlled Kabul international airport as thousands of Afghans tried to flee the country.

While ‘black sites’ are common in China, a 26-year-old woman’s account is the only testimony known to experts that Beijing has set one up in another country.

With the Taliban taking over their homeland, Afghan refugees stranded in Indonesia are contemplating travelling illegally to Australia.

Thousands of Afghans tried to flee the country, with several people clinging to the outside of a US military plane as it took off and plunging to their deaths, officials say.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had sought to cling to power, but the withdrawal of support from coalition MPs sealed his fate.

The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, promising to run an inclusive government two decades after being ousted from Kabul by the United States.

The least Australia can do now is to make good on our vague promises to join the rescue mission and evacuate the Afghans stuck in Kabul .

An entire generation of Afghans raised on hopes of building a modern, democratic state have seen their dreams seem to melt away.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

Local leaders I met didn’t understand why we were still in their country.

When Joe Biden fronts the nation to speak about Afghanistan this week, he will need to choose harsh realism over false optimism.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken conceded that the Taliban were able to take control of the country far more quickly than the White House had predicted.

Eurico Guterres was once indicted by the UN for crimes against humanity in East Timor. Now he has received one of Indonesia’s top awards from President Joko Widodo.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is betting that high COVID-19 vaccination rates and a post-pandemic economic rebound will help him strengthen his grip on power.

The death toll from a devastating earthquake in Haiti rose on Sunday as rescue workers scrambled to find survivors before a tropical storm hit.

The insurgents ordered its fighters to refrain from violence as they negotiate “a peaceful transfer of Kabul city” into their hands after 20 years.

There’s only one way out for those fleeing the endgame of the Afghan war, and tickets on the last planes out of Kabul are almost gone.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

While children under 12 are not eligible for vaccinations, children now make up about 24 per cent of the nation’s COVID-19 hospitalisations.

A major earthquake reduced buildings to rubble and sent shock waves across the Caribbean, where people fled their homes for fear they might collapse.

France is planning a sporting extravaganza like no other with much of it outdoors and open to the public.

Lebanon’s central bank governor said nobody was running the country as he defended his decision to halt fuel subsidies that have drained currency reserves, saying the government could resolve the problem quickly by passing necessary legislation.

The Duke of York can no longer ignore Virginia Roberts Giuffre and her accusations.

Embassy management asked staff to destroy anything with US logos, flags as the insurgents captured a province just south of the capital.

A five-year political impasse has locked the country in a crisis that has generated an exodus of about 7 million people, the largest in the world.

MPs and relatives questioned how the gunman was able to legally hold a pump action shotgun despite mental health problems and a series of videos he posted online.

Researchers publishing their study in The Lancet said an urgent investigation was needed to identify and promote best infection control practices.

The month ranked in the top 10 warmest for North America, South America, Africa and Oceania, says the US-based NOAA.

Rather than a considered exit, America’s departure is a demoralising moment and another blow to its prestige.

Once a faceless bureaucrat, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian is delivering a different kind of aggression from his chosen battleground: Twitter.

New figures show 68 Australian-Japanese children have been caught up in international child abductions and custody disputes.

A young man who killed five people, including his mother, in Britain’s first mass shooting in over a decade had complained online about difficulties meeting women and being “beaten down” by life.

The Taliban now controls more than two-thirds of the country just weeks before the US plans to withdraw its last troops.

“The country is going back to the 1990s,” said Noor Agha, 26, who fled to Kabul from Kunduz on Sunday. “We’re in another civil war now.”

While the Taliban have said they’re open to “political solutions” in the peace talks, they have captured at least 13 provincial capitals in little over a week.

When the time comes, and when it’s safe to do so, let’s all reclaim the art of doing things. It’s the least we can do once the pandemic is over.