New wave: what will mass evacuations from Afghanistan lead to?

Germany is looking at ways of evacuating people from Afghanistan after the August 31 deadline when Americans are set to leave Kabul airport, Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

"We are working on ways to get people out of the country beyond the end of the military #evacuation operation. To make sure that the end of the military evacuation does not mean the end of the effort to get people out of Afghanistan," the ministry wrote on Twitter.

Maas noted that they need to talk to the Taliban, because the alternative would be to abandon these people. "And we are not willing to do that," he stressed.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to decide in the next 24 hours on whether to extend an August 31 deadline to airlift Americans and their allies to safety.

Earlier on Monday, the Taliban warned that delaying the departure would have "consequences."

Despite that threat, a US administration official told Reuters that Biden is still considering an extension in order to give the Pentagon time to prepare.