it's gonna sound north with exclusive interviews, and in depth report, mice and ball way is full of hope. you had on the ground. there's no infrastructure to deal with the human way and toxic chemicals to bring you more award winning documentaries and live on air. and don't mind me . ready this is al jazeera. ah, hello and welcome. i'm pete adobe. you're watching the news hour life from coming up in the next 60 minutes. yet another provincial capital falls, the taliban in afghanistan. we go to

a part of hillman province that's under taliban control to see what life is like there now. in an exclusive al jazeera report, i wildfires ripped 3 pants of greece for 6 straight day in the middle of the worth heap waving more than 30 years of cheerful farewell. lionel messy leaves fcc ball saloon are off to the club, said it couldn't afford him any longer. i'm sure i guess roscoe with the thoughts of more than 2 weeks, a competition that took care olympics have come to a close. i'll have the best of the final inspection from japan. ah, the afghan taliban is claiming control of a 5th provincial capital in the space of just 3 days beyond group says it now has

telecom, the main city in the province of tech are now earlier. it, spite of the fact condos in the north taking the city after intense street to st. battles afghanistan's defense ministry says government forces will fight to get it back. now here you can see how conduce built on rapid taliban gains in recent days . that ranch original capital in the south is also now in taliban control. and 3 other provinces we find lighted there in grey the taliban claims to have seized the capitals ship, a gun study pool and telecom. while in the southern provinces of hillman and kandaher, government forces have been backed up by us air strikes against the taliban advance . charlotte bellis has more now from cobble. we've just been told by the taliban that they have taken this provincial capital of telecom. it is the provincial capital to ha, in the north we just talked just got off the phone to some resident to confirm that

yes, the telephone have taken over government buildings and they are in control of this city. earlier today, sarah poll and conduce fell to the taliban, they put out a statement. we got hold of residence. the phone lines were down for a while, but eventually when we got through they confirmed was that yes, they were on the streets are in control of the government, buildings and condos. they had raised the flags laying claim to the city of condos . condos, of all of the cities is the most significant. it is a large city, is the gateway to the north. the taliban have wanted the city for a very long time. they briefly held it in 20152016 until they were kicked out by us special forces. the ministry of defense tells us this is not be in. they are planning operations. they have started some clearing operations. they are trying to push television out of the cities, but of course, a very hard undertaking to try to do 3 to 3 battles. and now, so many different places. we had a meeting with the interior minister earlier today who's in charge of the police

forces. as we got through his office, he quickly rushed away. just before we arrived for an emergency meeting with the defense minister, he apologized and said, look, this is an emergency time. and we try to come up with a strategy as these provinces fooling. well, if the tele and takes more regions, we went to the province of hell, man, there taliban fighters control the majority of territory. wealthiest fighting continues for the capital, laska gar, unit site. you're seen as this exclusive report from the district of garish. i mean, while there has been fight in lasker god, in the recent days or the parts of the hillman province, are firmly and totally been controlled. only 20 kilometers, separate the city of kandahar from the stronghold of the taliban withdrawals plus signs of recent battle. i arrive in, in the town of british,

the 20 bon fighter asks us to get out of our car. at 1st sight. things here do not look different from the government control areas. but then you see the tiny ben fighters, the only ones allowed to use radio handsets or escort kill us. there is no telephone service or internet for security reasons. in the town you see tiny bit flags everywhere. shopkeepers say it's a sign of their legions to the movement so that we noticed a clear change before the villagers could not come to the market. now they can on the markets, a crowded women can shop and there's nothing to both of them. we spoke to one of the shot customers as well. what was that on the 1st before the taliban it was difficult for us to live under the authority of the government. now we are free.

our children feed us and we are safe families. throughout our visit were quoted by tiny ben preventatives. the older people we spoke to tend to praise a tiny band and its role in providing security. they will come implementation of a stomach close in the very conservative southern part is done but away from the camera. some young men did not hide their resentment, absence of telephone and internet services and their fear of a lack of a freedom in the future. at the district hospital, it is business. as usual. in this war, $600.00 babies were born during last month. the period that the taliban has been in control. eventually, since the arrival of the taliban there has been no change in our plans. we were received by the health officials and they told me not to change anything. there was a unified health law and we were asked to abide by as of this year.

i don't see that a district point and the points like it, the tiny band controls things on the ground. tell them why little they are going to government rules the skies and why the tiny been sees it once, and even 16. it's fighters said they are ready for all possibility of doing a pick up with an estimate at for now they are conducting police and duties. but do you know, and your battle could below me was this the, the fact that we prefer that they'd be a peaceful solution to the conflict and the current crisis and have gone to some if the government side insists on fighting and does not commit to reconciliation, the next step will be to attack the state capital. the electricity in the area is provided by this nearby down built by the soviets and restored by the americans. like everything else in this town of 70000 people. for now, it's run by the taliban in a city major 0. gosh kilman robins, understand?

sure, jamal is head of international affairs canister office of the national security council. he says taliban fighters are making gains, at least in part, thanks to support from neighboring pakistan. a truth is that the taliban have received men, weapons and explosives, but also direction from across our southern frontier, which is focused on that is why they're able to put us a step resistance across the country. if you focused on a given sliver of time at any given moment, a problem may have fallen under the telephone control, but i think the situation remains completely fluid. which means that as we are speaking, ask a national defense and security forces are actually rallying and pushing on out of the problems. could be similar actually happening and shiver, phone and similar action is also happening instead of to be other problems as you listed as having fallen in the cell. well,

we also interviewed to hail shaheen. the televisions international media spokesman . he says they do want peace, but government aggression has forced them to fight. our response is clear. we want a peaceful solution of the issue. the problem that we we waited for for the last one year. but unfortunately, you may have seen that the, the head of the college ministration and the fee that he announced military strategy for 3 months and 6 months. and after that, they started ban bangor, cities, hospitals, clinics, schools of, well, the us government watchdog for afghanistan is calling the taliban advance an existential crisis for the government says latest report says afghan security

forces, quotes appeared, surprised, and, and ready. foreign forces withdrew the agency has been tracking us 2 trillion dollars of us taxpayer money spent. during the conflict, we're talking about a period of 20 years. hundreds of billions have been spent to train and equip afghans security forces. which number around 300000. but experts say that figure is inflated because of corruption and absenteeism and huge stockpiles of weapons of ended up in the hands of the taliban. un monitors estimate the taliban has 75000 faces and has made significant profits from controlling the heroine trade that sold out to david this ross, she's professor of national defense university and he served in afghanistan. he joins us on skype from washington. david, good to have your thoughts here on the news are again, if the warlord being the distracted from the equation that was afghanistan, say, 10 or 20 years ago, would what we're seeing today not be happening. i think that's

a good, good question. and i think that's the nub of it. so i served in afghan, sent 2000 to 2003 on the civil affairs task force. and quite frankly, what i saw was a, a military effort that was focused on cobble with very little done in the provinces . and basically the warlords retained a lot of power even while the central government sought to move out there. i think part of the reason why the situation looks so bad is that the warlords, who really have a lot of the fighting power in these provinces, are stepping back, waiting for the central government to reach a point of crisis, where they empower the individual warlords and then they'll move in. i think that's probably the case in conduce, in, sorry, paul and taluk one. the taliban is clearly playing to strength if you will, in its heart land, in the bits of afghanistan that we've associated the pallet bandwidth in the context that i've got to stand for what more than

a generation. but it's also taking other areas. apparently, that's what we're seeing, unfolding almost hour to hour. how much of a surprise is that? well, so it's not a surprise that lasker gall, and is, you know, kind of under talent, that's always been hard core taliban lam. when you look at the raj province, you know, that's blue and durante pack tunes, the taliban is overwhelmingly patched to movement. and so areas that have large passion populations like conduce province, you know, you can see them active there, but it's also important to bear in mind the taliban is not as unitary as we think it is. everybody who has a beef with the central government and f janice and calls themselves taliban to get attention and to quite frankly, frightened, demoralize their opponents. so i think that a lot of this success we're seeing here for the taliban will be fleeting. will be very hard to sustain basically what they're doing right now is disrupting and

attacking an over extended central government force. and i think that once there's a little bit of a consolidation in counter attacks, we'll see the taliban sort of move into its heart lands on the pakistan border areas. and in the past 2 in heartlands does what you've just said. david therefore, partly explain the relationship where it is at the moment between the pakistani taliban and the african taliban. because my understanding of the pakistani taliban was it was distinctly a different organization under operating under the same name. but if the pakistani taliban is giving the african taliban either real or tacit support, doesn't that mean that the african taliban is in effect opening that border. but it controls between afghanistan and pakistan to allow pakistani taliban fighters to cross. and to work with the afghan taliban. that's a really good question. so the amount of pack standing influence in afghanistan is something that we've never quite put our finger on. you know, there's,

there's clearly, you know, in the early days you saw people coming out of pac sending me addresses fighting in afghanistan. and lord knows, you know, also like exiled whose back militant organizations, things of that nature. i think that so all things being equal, the taliban, whether they're afghan or pakistan, you know, these are people who oppose central government in either country and are happy to capitalize off an opportunity. i don't think that there's a formal command control structure. i think it's a transactional relationship, and i think that right now, there's also, you know, the, the ability to see customers revenues and to control the narcotics traits. so there's a lot of input as for people to attack the afghans central government right now. but i don't think it's the basis of a lasting military like organization. afghanistan fell to the taliban in 1996 after 20 years of war and conflict. when there was a vacuum, a different kind of vacuum, but the vacuum. all the same. we seen that happening again. well,

let me qualify your your question or to take to speak with it. not all of afghanistan felt. so the pen series. who speaks, tasha oppose them. and you know, they never had full control of all of it. they did have control over all of the passion regions of afghanistan. i think what we're going to see my worst case scenario is not. this is not the north vietnamese army marching in the south vietnam in the seventy's. this is we're going to see civil war and i think it will roughly be patched to areas versus other areas. that's the worst case scenario. david, always so good to get your finessed experience of this complex then story on the output. really good talk to you. thanks so much for joining us here on the news. david just raw x peter joining us from washington. talk you soon. thank you. loss will still come for you here on the knees. are including a month after he's. he's president, was fascinated. we look at what happened with the investigation schools are opening

up again in the us, but not all parents are happy about sending their children back to the classroom. and she will have the best of the action from the final day as metal took took you a lympics that's coming up in about 30 minutes. ah, top story out of europe here on the news crews numbering in the hundreds are fighting for out of control. wildfires across greece and what the prime minister is calling a nightmarish summer. the worst at the moment is on the 2nd biggest island of area . the flames have cut right across it from coast to coast, isolating a section to the north. elsewhere, thousands of people have been evacuated from villages. north of athens were crews of managed to control fires, but they're worried about the weather. once again, whipping up the flames out there was a bus. rob is in more than athens, where he's been surveying the extent of the damage. one woman we spoke to described,

it is feeling like her country was under attack from every direction. and we're seeing under dramatic circumstances, thousands of people being displaced from their communities, from their homes and seems like this are everywhere. definitely here in the north of athens, but also repeated in numerous locations darting the country. now if you look around, you'll see this is the town of very bobby, it is one of the most acutely affected places, if not the most acutely affected town in north of athens and there's entire areas completely charred and entire destruction by these wildfires. a police are not allowing residents back in there was a reprieve for awhile where people could come and check on their homes and their businesses. but that's all come to a close now because of what you see in front of me. large forested areas completely blackened by the fire. these trees are still standing,

but police told us the big problem now is the, the threat from tree fall. a lot of the branches have been coming down, but large trees are still posing a threat to many of the residents in this area. so what the police have been telling us now is that these forests now pose a threat to residents that might be returning to these areas. the prime minister greece is prime minister, has promised to replant every tree that's been affected by the wildfire to rehabilitate every forest. that's gone through something like this, but we're talking about rehabilitating vast areas of land all over the country. and environmental groups are now criticizing politicians across the political spectrum for speaking wonderful words now for a lot of political rhetoric now during the height of a crisis. but not doing enough ahead of time, not doing enough when they had the chance to legislate good environmental policy

and try to keep an extreme climate event like this from being so severe and happening in the 1st place. well thing in that part, the world's heavy rain has brought with it some relief for the emergency crews battling wildfires in neighboring turkey. but for the most part its been falling in the wrong places. fires have been burning through vast areas of forest across its southern region. for 12 days now, tens of thousands of people have fled their homes. more than 200 fires have now been brought under control. at least 8 people are missing in the u. s. state of california as the so called dixie wildfires burned largely out of control. 5 of them from greenville, the historic gold mining town that was devastated last week. these are some of the homes and other buildings destroyed by the fire. smoke has blanketed parts of northern california and nevada, and triggered air quality warnings as far away as colorado. more than $200.00 people were killed in germany and belgium last month and some of the worst flooding the countries have seen now across the border in the netherlands,

the river defense system kept times mostly safe and dry, but a step vast nor reports from van. so the changing climates is forcing a rethink about those flood defenses. the river most once again, flows calmly through the dutch landscape, only mud colored land, and they, bree remain after dangerously high water levels, threatened throbbing towns and villages just 2 weeks ago. those flat waters to the village of out there into an island. once again, the head of our children asked mom does you really want to stay? you really want to do that? yes, you're saying we're not going anywhere. beat bon, yay state. because he feel safe behind a new dike that was constructed following the last major flap 25 years ago. as a volunteer. he patrol throughout the night to make sure the high water did not cause any correct. it was a close call for people in the south of the netherlands, while hundreds died in germany and belgium. these dikes did what they had to do.

they kept the water out. but the question is, can the dodge keep up with the pace at which the climate is changing? climate scientists say the average temperature in the netherlands has risen by one and a half degrees in the past 50 years, causing at least 10 percent more rainfall and more extreme weather patterns. what verse is that? the speed of climate change is lashelle. and of course we are, course is, is we article so that's not notified with the speed. so yeah, one and we don't know the future temperature. exactly. it depends much of our behavior across the border in germany and belgium, and equivalent of 18 buckets of water fell in one square meter in 3 days, causing destruction on a scale not seen in years. the southern part of the netherlands avoid that fate. thanks to this flap prevention project, what we did was to create space for the river. so we removed hesitation and revived a 1000 year olds, river arm of the most villages we protected by building dikes around to this all

lowered water level. so it's $35.00 centimeters, which is a lot if you know that a difference of a few centimeters can cause large damage to achieved in a century. old city hall was demolished, and its power turned into a monument designed to show future generations. the interventions made to keep the town dry by the extreme rainfall also exposed problems in the dutch defenses, which were muddled and flap. addictions made 4 years ago that led to flooding into tourists found a falcon book, which could not be projected when a small stream turned into a swirling river. but all crowds asked, still big so even so predictions might have changed, which he would finish 1st. what we have promised to make adjustments along the way, even though the river has retreated and the dangerous subsided, he hopes the flats will be awake up calls for the government to take action against the false change in climate steadfast and al jazeera once um,

in the south of the natalie and now they took 2020 olympics, have come to a close after 2 weeks of competition in front of nearly empty stadiums. the pandemic made it a very different games to previous olympics. asset base, no reports the fireworks mark the end of what has been a challenging olympic gain. the covey 19 pandemic has meant no fans inside stadiums or other venues. the model and strict health conditions for athletes to stop any potential spread of the virus. despite these measures, there were more than $400.00 infections related to the games. i think we can already now say with confidence that we have experienced a very successful all of the games considering all the uncertainties that we have over the last 2 years with these olympic games.

whether we could make that happen at all. but they weren't without controversy. one of the games biggest stars, us gymnast simone biles pulled out of several events, citing her mental health. she returned to in a bronze medal. yeah, well, to bring the topic of mental health, i think it should be talked about a lot more, especially with athletes because i know some of us are going through the same things and we're always told to push through it. but we're all a little bit older now. we could kind of speak for ourselves, but at the end of the day, we're not just entertainment. we're human. there was also a podium protest by us chuck put her raven saunders the ex symbol. i think what she said was the intersection were old people who are oppressed, meet the u. s. top the middle table with 39 goals ahead of china. but japan got a record to middle whole ranking. 3rd, russia was banned from the games for breaking anti doping rules, but it's athletes competed under the russian olympic committee. they came 5th. the

limpid flag was handed over to paris with the hope. the next olympics in 3 years will be pandemic free. i said big algebra. well, philip crowther is the a p correspondence in tokyo. he says, these olympics will go down in history as the pandemic gains probably closing ceremony, unlike any other as well. very subdued, much like the opening ceremony was as well. we just had a very, very short fireworks display, as was to be expected from a closing ceremony. that wasn't really a celebration of what had gone before is a little bit more reflective and was very respectful actually towards the athletes . because after all, the athletes were pretty much the only people inside of this lympics stadium alongside some officials and journalists of course, the athletes who were remaining here in tokyo. and there weren't that many because most of them had to leave tokyo after 2 days after the competitions. well, they got together on the field of play here in the olympic stadium. and they were

essentially feeling the gratitude from organizers for turning up and performing these olympic games in token will always be marked by the corona virus pandemic. first of all, simply because we had an olympic games here called toko 2020 taking place in the year 2021. they were postponed, of course, by a whole year and that still didn't really do it because not a single person. not a single spectator was allowed to enter a vessel and pick stadium or any other sporting venue here in japan, in the end that a limping bubble as it is cold, that a group of athletes, coaches, officials, and journalists who are not supposed to have any contact really with the local population that the limpid bubble appears to remain intact. there was no major outbreak new outbreak. i should say of positive cove in 1900 cases though they have been going up steadily here in tokyo with that very much the backdrop. if not the centerpiece of these olympic games here in tokyo. well, thousands of people gathered in paris today as the focus turned to the next summer

games in 3 years time delivery plank was passed on to the city's mayor as part of the handle. the ceremony near the eiffel tower line, all messy, broke down in tears at a news conference to day. as he confirmed that he is leaving barcelona after more than 2 decades, he's not in talks with terry centureman, but nothing has been finalized yet. his david stokes you know, messy, started crying before he even started speaking, get his farewell ceremony. 3 days after barcelona said they can no longer afford to keep him. he confirmed, he was leaving and was given a standing ovation by the media and several of his teammates, past and present do up and on these last few days i was thinking about what i would say to day. but to be honest, i couldn't come up with anything. i was blocked like i am right now. i was convinced that would stay thousands of fans gathered at barcelona stadium to say

good bye to the hero who joined them 21 years ago. at the age of 13, since then, each $135.00 titles, go to club record $682.00 goals and has been crowned the world's best player. an unprecedented 6 times. the messy had agreed to take a pay cut to stay, but barcelona still can't make it work. they say, because of salary cat rules in the spanish league. no say we don't go to college and see. i cannot talk for the club. the president says they cannot renew my contract due to legal. i can only say that i did everything possible to stay here. now without a club or a contract, messy is currently the most sought after free agent in history. paris centureman, one of the few clubs who can afford him and our favorites to sign him for reported $35000000.00 a season. one french newspapers saying he's in paris for a medical within 48 hours. when i, when i was, he said i'm in the p. s g as a possibility. there's not have anything arranged with anybody though. i'd call him

several clubs, but nothings confirmed. it's certainly the end of an era, but not the end of message career. the 34 year old argentinian said he's going to carry on competing for as long as he can. they've stokes al jazeera still to come here on the news for you refugees from ethiopia, northern to cry, region, and their stories of atrocities on all sides. and stranded refugees and migrant to celebrate the need to be able to eat columbia. but a dangerous journey lies ahead and the cyclists becomes perkins most successful olympian on the final day of the games that's coming up with joe in sports. when we come back, i

hello, here's the situation. weatherwise across the middle east. we are tapping into a bit of a sham all down the golf at times. so for joe, we'll see that when northwest, but also shifts toward the northeast. when it is the northwest, when it's dryer, so usually by the morning and by night you'll really feel that humidity ramp up. 43 degrees will be the high look at this 46 on wednesday, while above the average. next stop we're going to pakistan and the winds have died down for southern areas of karachi. so i southern areas of pakistan including karachi. so that means our risk of sand and dust arms starts to peel back as well, but don't get used to it because in the days ahead we will see those when a wrap up as well off to turkey, where crews are battling fires for the 12th day in a row, a bit of rain rolling through, but look at this, this is concerning toward the black sea region. we do have forest fires, but we've also had flooding there for places like our hobby. and that is certainly not good news. talking about a lot of what weather for bungie, 50 millimeters of rain over the past 24 hours. seen those big storms pop up through

the p. o. p in highlands. pushing into south sit down further to the south.