Presidency of Donald Trump

The Taliban warned the United States not to "destabilize" the regime on Oct. 9 during their first face-to-face talks since the U.S. withdrawal, as a deadly sectarian bombing raised further questions about their grip on power.

Turkey conveyed its condolences after a deadly blast on Oct. 3 at a mosque in the Afghan capital.

At least eight people were killed and 20 others wounded when a bomb went off near the entrance of the Eidgah Mosque in Kabul.

Senior Pentagon officials said on Sept. 29 the collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces in August could be traced to a 2020 U.S. agreement with the Taliban that promised a complete U.S. troop withdrawal.

The top U.S. military officer called the 20-year war in Afghanistan a "strategic failure" and acknowledged to Congress that he had favored keeping several thousand troops in the country to prevent a collapse of the U.S.-supported Kabul government and a rapid takeover by the Taliban.

The United States placed Bulgaria and Norway in the last, fourth category, with a very high risk of travel due to the new coronavirus, informs CNN.

So far, both countries have been in the penultimate, third category.

Fourth category are countries with more than 500 coronavirus cases per 100,000 population in the last 28 days.

North Korea is willing to consider another summit with South Korea if mutual respect between the neighbors can be assured, state news agency KCNA said on Sept. 25, citing Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the North's leader Kim Jong Un.

A prominent leader of the Taliban has said the group will reintroduce punishments such as amputations and executions for criminals, though perhaps not publicly.

One of the founders of the Taliban and the chief enforcer of its harsh interpretation of Islamic law when they last ruled Afghanistan said the hard-line movement will once again carry out executions and amputations of hands, though perhaps not in public.

The top U.S. military officers from United States and Russia held six hours of talks in Helsinki on Wednesday, in the first face-to-face meeting between them since 2019 as both nations adjust to the U.S. pullout and Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

Ahead of a one-on-one meeting on Sept. 21 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, the U.S. and Turkey's top diplomats said they would continue to work on Afghanistan.