Reuters World News Summary

'unwavering' in Afghanistan evacuations, Biden says; Taliban beat back crowd at airport The United States has an "unwavering commitment" to get U.S. citizens and at-risk Afghans to safety out of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said, as Taliban fighters beat back thousands desperate to flee outside Kabul airport on Sunday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

'Everyone was crying': Grieving Haitians bury their dead a week after quake

Families gathered in villages in southwestern Haiti this weekend for church and funeral services a week after an earthquake battered the region, killing more than 2,200 people and destroying tens of thousands of buildings. The collapse of churches in some of the worst-affected towns and villages of the impoverished Caribbean nation left residents to grieve in open fields.

Ukraine sanctions lawmaker accused of meddling in U.S. election

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday signed a decree imposing sanctions on Andriy Derkach, the Ukrainian lawmaker accused by the United States of being a Russian agent and interfering in U.S. elections, the presidential office said.

The sanctions include an asset freeze, a ban on capital withdrawals, the revocation of Derkach's licences, restrictions on him transferring resources of any kind and other measures.

Egypt to close Rafah crossing with Gaza from Monday

Egypt is to close the Rafah crossing on its border with the Gaza Strip until further notice on Monday, Egyptian security sources said. Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls Gaza, said it had been informed by Egypt of the decision to shut the crossing in both directions, without giving details.

In Spain, Afghan basketball star fears for the country she has left

As she started a new life in Spain after escaping the chaos of Kabul, Nilofar Bayat said on Sunday she could not live under the Taliban, who she fears will reverse all the achievements Afghanistan has made over the past 20 years. The captain of the Afghan women's wheelchair basketball team arrived in Madrid on Friday on a flight from Kabul with her husband Ramesh Naik Zai, 27, and over 100 other refugees.

U.S. recruits commercial airlines to help move Afghanistan evacuees

The United States has enlisted the help of six commercial airlines to help transport people after their evacuation from Afghanistan as Washington seeks to step up the pace of departures of Americans and at-risk Afghans from Kabul. The Pentagon said on Sunday it called up 18 civilian aircraft from United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air and others to carry people from temporary locations after they landed on flights from Afghanistan, leaning on the industry it last called on during the Iraq War in 2003.

Anti-Taliban leader Massoud wants to talk but ready to fight

Ahmad Massoud, leader of Afghanistan's last major outpost of anti-Taliban resistance, said on Sunday he hoped to hold peaceful talks with the Islamist movement that seized power in Kabul a week ago but that his forces were ready to fight. "We want to make the Taliban realise that the only way forward is through negotiation," he told Reuters by telephone from his stronghold in the Panjshir valley northwest of Kabul, where he has gathered forces made up of remnants of regular army units and special forces as well as local militia fighters.

Rising prices, shuttered banks add to misery for Kabul

A week after the Taliban's lightning seizure of Kabul, growing numbers of people in the Afghan capital are facing a daily struggle to get by with their jobs gone, banks still shuttered and food prices soaring. The thousands crowded outside the airport entry points and fighting for seats on flights out of Kabul have provided the starkest image of the turmoil in the city since the Western-backed government collapsed.

Kamala Harris visits Singapore to deepen ties, counter China's influence

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will meet Singapore's leaders on Monday on the first working day of a trip to Southeast Asia aimed at bolstering ties as part of Washington's efforts to counter China's growing influence. Harris will meet Singapore's President Halimah Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and later visit the Changi Naval Base and tour the USS Tulsa - a combat ship of the U.S. Navy.

Turkey reinforces border to block any Afghan migrant wave

Afghans who manage to make the weeks-long journey through Iran on foot to the Turkish border face a three-metre high wall, ditches or barbed wire as Turkish authorities step up efforts to block any refugee influx into the country. The beefed up border measures in Turkey, which already hosts nearly 4 million Syrian refugees and is a staging post for many migrants trying to reach Europe, began as the Taliban started advancing in Afghanistan and took over Kabul last week.

U.S. 'unwavering' in Afghanistan evacuations, Biden says; Taliban beat back crowd at airport

The United States has an "unwavering commitment" to get U.S. citizens and at-risk Afghans to safety out of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said, as Taliban fighters beat back thousands desperate to flee outside Kabul airport on Sunday. Biden said the security situation in Afghanistan was changing rapidly and his administration was under no illusions about the threat from Islamic State militants in Afghanistan known as ISIS-K (for Khorasan).

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)