Here are the top updates from Thursday:

  1. The United States, Australia and the United Kingdom have issued three separate warnings about a threat of an attack by an affiliate of terrorist group Islamic State at the Kabul airport, Al Jazeera reported. Diplomatic and foreign offices of the three countries have urged people to evacuate the airport.
  2. French Prime Minister Jean Castex said his country would no longer be able to evacuate people from the Kabul airport after Friday night, AP reported. Meanwhile, Denmark Defence Minister Trine Bramsen warned that it was no longer safe to fly in or out of Kabul. The announcements came ahead of the August 31 deadline for the exit of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
  3. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that the insurgent group considered Pakistan as their second home. In an interview to Pakistani TV channel ARY News, Mujahid said that the Taliban would not allow any activity in Afghanistan that could go against Pakistan’s interests.
  4. Ziar Khan Yaad, a journalist working with Afghan news channel TOLO News, alleged that he was beaten by the Taliban while on an assignment in Kabul. Yaad, however, denied news reports about his death which were circulating on social media.
  5. In an all-party meeting on the Afghanistan crisis, Union Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar said that the Indian government’s top priority was to evacuate the country’s personnel stranded in Afghanistan.