Taliban declare ‘war is over’ as Kabul falls | First Thing

Desperate crowds converge on airport in Afghanistan's capital, plus how the 1996 Olympics inspired a generation of female athletes

Good morning.

The final collapse of the 20-year western mission to Afghanistan took only a single day as Taliban gunmen entered the capital, Kabul, on Sunday, President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and the US and other coalition countries abandoned their embassies in panic.