US Vice-President Kamala Harris has used her first visit to south-east Asia to reiterate the superpower’s commitment to security partners following the fall of Kabul.

The 65-year-old was among the first celebrity cricketers of the modern era and was appointed to the House of Lords last year as Baron Botham of Ravensworth.

Conditions had grown increasingly dire as thousands of arrivals accumulated in sweltering hangars without adequate toilets and showers.

Auckland will be kept on the high restrictions until August 31, PM Jacinda Ardern announced a week after the first case of Delta variant prompted a national lockdown.

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

Mississippi’s health department said that more than 70 per cent of recent calls to the state’s poison centre came after people took ivermectin bought at livestock supply centres.

From the Taliban retaking control of Afghanistan to continued wildfires in Europe and North America, these are the best photos from around the world in the past week, as chosen by The Age's photo editors.

“When the ships don’t move, the poop piles up,” a representative of the firm that uncovered the trend in satellite imagery, told an audience.

One British government source said the US was “in listening mode rather than making any commitments”. He added: “Biden seems pretty dug in”.

The US departure from Afghanistan reduces Washington’s influence in a region near China. However, it’s not clear how much Beijing will benefit.

The American-born icon will be laid to rest at the Paris monument which houses the remains of scientist Marie Curie, French philosopher Voltaire, writer Victor Hugo and other French luminaries.

The US ordered six commercial airlines to help transport people out of Afghanistan as dozens have died in the past seven days in and around the airport.

The collapse of churches in some of the worst-affected towns and villages left many residents to grieve in open fields.

As a result of human action, over the past half century the Atlantic Ocean has been relentlessly consuming Atafona, a town 250km from Rio de Janeiro.

He taught young chefs to distinguish between Parmesan cheeses of different ages — and between milk extracted at different altitudes. Then one day, his sense of smell vanished.

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

Facebook has faced a torrent of criticism from US President Joe Biden and others who have alleged that the company has allowed misinformation about coronavirus vaccines to flourish.

The media mogul who founded Afghanistan’s first 24-hour news channel said executives were already drawing up plans to run broadcasts from outside the country.

The nation is under a strict lockdown amid an outbreak that has widened beyond Auckland and Wellington.

Long COVID – severe fatigue, brain fog, headache, muscle pain and sleep problems – can persist for weeks or months after the active infection has ended.

The Alabama doctor says at least three unvaccinated patients have asked him where they could get a vaccine since he made the announcement.

Blair who sent British troops into Afghanistan in 2001, said the decision to withdraw was “tragic, dangerous, unnecessary, not in their interests and not in ours”.

Photographer Paula Bronstein has long documented life in Afghanistan.

The chaotic scenes in Kabul prompted one key Pacific ally of the US to say that her people would not “rely only on the protection of others”.

The Indonesian counter-terrorism police, Detachment 88, escalated a crackdown against Islamist terror suspects in the past week.

The United States has evacuated 2,500 Americans from Kabul over the past week, senior US officials said on Saturday.

Tensions in Haiti were rising on Saturday over a lack of aid to remote areas hardest hit by last week’s devastating earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people in the impoverished Caribbean country.

Paula Bronstein knows Afghanistan so well that she wrote a book about it. Now, having left Kabul a day before its invasion, she is already planning her return.

Ahmad Massoud is faced with a group that has just inherited military hardware from the US, but he’s drawing from his father’s old template.

The law created a new category of workers granting them limited benefits while maintaining they were not employees of technology platforms like Uber and Lyft.

The attack happened near the port of Gwadar which is part of a $84 billion Chinese investment program in the country.

New data suggested more than 6000 cases can be traced back to the month-long event, with 3404 people contracting the coronavirus at the final alone.

“That’s not a healthy sign for an ice sheet,” said an expert. “Water on ice is bad.”

The sites previously had protection from Cloudflare, a San Francisco-based company that helps websites deliver content and defend against cyber attacks.

New Zealand has recorded 21 new positive COVID-19 cases in the community. There are now 51 total cases associated with the Auckland outbreak.

“I have demanded once again from the President to release [Alexei] Navalny and I have made it clear that we will remain on the case,” she said.

The US President rejected criticism of his handling of the chaotic US pullout from Afghanistan, and promised Americans there that “we will get you home”.

Scenes of chaos at the airport were very real. They also provided a powerful metaphor for the haphazard and humiliating end to the US-led war in Afghanistan.

The Taliban has responded violently as Afghan protests defied the regime for a second day, amid growing challenges to their rule.

Artists say the star is providing “soft propaganda” as she skips quarantine to film Expats, a “Sex in the City meets Lost in Translation” series for Amazon.

The US Vice-President is embarking on a visit to Singapore and Vietnam that aims to counter China’s growing influence.

The Ministry of Health has confirmed the first cases of the new wave recorded outside of Auckland.

Despite calmer winds and cooler weather, the fire has forced thousands to flee and ravaged woodlands raged for a fourth day.

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

A “close source” suggested the couple were unimpressed by the Queen’s claim that “recollections may vary” in response to their allegations of racism.

The United Arab Emirates announced it had accepted hosting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his family, citing humanitarian grounds. He’s not the first leader to surface there.

About 36 per cent of Mississippi is fully vaccinated, the second-worst vaccination rate in the country, above only Alabama

Crowds of people seeking to flee Afghanistan have thronged the airport since Taliban insurgents swept to power on Sunday, with some seen falling from airborne planes.

There has been an outpouring of support for David Lidstone since he was jailed on July 15 and accused of squatting for nearly 30 years on someone else’s property. 

Makoto Nagamine said Japan also has serious concerns about human rights violations in Xinjiang as calls for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics mount.