Afghans who fled after the Taliban seized power appealed Wednesday to U.S. President Donald Trump to exempt them from an order suspending the relocation of refugees to the United States, some saying they risked their lives to support U.

Thousands of refugees attempting to escape the Taliban's rule could be left unaided due to President Trump's executive order enforcing a 90-day ban.

An Afghan police official says a Chinese citizen has been killed in the country's northeast. The killing of foreigners is rare in Afghanistan, especially since the withdrawal of foreign troops in 2021.

In the very last hours of President Joe Biden’s time in office, a prisoner exchange years in the making was finally struck: the Taliban agreed to swap two Americans being held in Afghanistan for one Taliban member serving a life sentence in a US prison.

Americans Ryan Corbett and William W. McKenty III were freed, their families said. The Taliban said Khan Mohammed, an Afghan serving a life sentence in California, was released.

A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.

After more than two years of being detained by the Taliban, Western New Yorker Ryan Corbett is finally coming home after being freed. Corbett will soon be reunited with his wife and their three children.

The family thanked both the Biden and Trump administrations for "countless hours of negotiations, unwavering support, and determination."

Democratic-led states and civil rights groups filed a slew of lawsuits challenging U.S. President Donald Trump's bid to roll back birthright citizenship on Tuesday in an early bid by his opponents to block his agenda in court.

The deal was struck for Khan Mohammad, a member of the Taliban serving two life sentences in a U.S. prison on "narco-terrorism charges."

The Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister called on his senior leadership to open schools for Afghan girls, among the strongest public rebukes of a policy that has contributed to the international isolation of its rulers.