Images from the ground show hundreds if not thousands of Afghans crowding the airport, including the tarmac, in an apparent attempt to flee the country.

Speaking about the Taliban's ousting of the U.S.-backed Afghan government, Biden acknowledged, "The truth is this did unfold more quickly than we anticipated."

NPR speaks with John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, about how the U.S. military and Afghan government arrived at this point.

In another sign of the dramatic change wrought by the Taliban's sudden takeover, Paralympic athletes now have no way to travel to Japan.