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Jacinda Ardern has called on the Taliban to allow the safe departure of Afghans attempting to flee the country and display humanity towards women and children. The terror group marched into Kabul on Sunday, the culmination of a rapid advance across the country which was left open by the sudden U.S. and Nato withdrawal after 20 years of fighting post-9/11.  The New Zealand prime minister said 'the whole world will be watching' the situation under the new regime and urged them to show mercy. 'The international community is calling on the Taliban to demonstrate a willingness to allow people to leave, and that includes foreign nationals,' Ardern said in a press conference in Wellington.   'Demonstrate that you are going to be an administration that takes into account the wellbeing of women and girls. 'The whole world will be watching. It's not a matter of trust, it's going to be all about the actions, not the words.'  Jacinda Ardern has called on the Tal

Good afternoon. I want to speak today to the unfolding situation in Afghanistan: the developments that have taken place in the last week and the steps we're taking to address the rapidly evolving events. My national security team and I have been closely monitoring the situation on the ground in Afghanistan and moving quickly to execute the plans we had put in place to respond to every constituency, including -- and contingency -- including the rapid collapse we're seeing now. I'll speak more in a moment about the specific steps we're taking, but I want to remind everyone how we got here and what America's interests are in Afghanistan. We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11th, 2001, and make sure al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. We did that. We severely degraded al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We never gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and we got him. That was a de

Victoria has recorded another 24 coronavirus cases on the first day of its hardest lockdown since its deadly second wave a year ago. Just 10 of the new cases were in isolation during their infectious period, and three were mystery cases not yet linked to known infections. They were diagnosed from 31,519 tests and 25,742 vaccine doses were administered on Monday.  Melburnians in the midst of their sixth Covid lockdown now face even harsher restrictions with the return of controversial curfew laws, despite virus experts and even the police union speaking out against the move.  The Victorian Government announced on Monday it would extend its lockdown until September 2 and introduce a 9pm to 5am curfew in Melbourne - despite no evidence it stops the virus spreading (pictured, a woman in locked down St Kilda on Monday) Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday announced the city's stay-at-home orders would be extended until at least September 2, with a 9pm to 5am curfew now in effect across Melb