the me ah, me. the taliban sees yet another provincial capital and i've got to stop this one just 3 hours south of couple. i'm sure the fellow with the scanner stones and harry, a minister who tell us how the government plans to fight back against a telephone, recent advance. ah, you're watching all your life from a headquarters and go home. teddy obligated also a heads, holes open and zombies, presidential on parliamentary elections during the worst economic crisis and

decades with a tight race expected for the top job. recent government pledges billions of dollars in aid and tax breaks for people who lost everything and ram pins. wildfires. new zealand sets out a roadmap to reopen its quarters but says the priority is completing its back seen rollout. ah hello, we begin and i've gone to start. that's where the taliban has captured yet another provincial capital in its sweeping advance across the country. the latest is the city of gas needs strategically located on the main road between kandahar and the national capital. it means that taliban has taken 10 provincial capitals in just the past week including polychrome re and phase about in the north and far a city in the south while fighting to control kandahar and to other provincial cat

volts, harris and lush. cargo continues and earlier a u. s. defense official told the reuters news agency, the taliban could sir on capital within a month, the afghan president has flown to the government last northern stronghold. i sure gun is trying to rally troops to defend the city of mazar e sharif. the biggest in northern afghanistan. we'll go live to bahama jump june, who's covering diplomatic talks here in the 1st? let's cross to rob mcbride, who will give us an update from cobbler robin. talk to us about guys and how significant it is. that's well, it's a blow to the government, certainly. and also a significant gain for the taliban. there's been fighting around the city of got the for some days now, but we've had confirmation that the governor and police were forced to flee the city, leaving the taliban in control. and we've seen the video being uploaded by the taliban showing at presumably taliban fighters giving us a guided tour if you'd like of the street. they now control of things being fairly

calm that but they very much in control of the place even showing us the police headquarters there. so it is significant. it's a fairly small provincial capital. but just like those at cities in the north that fell earlier this week, it brings the the presence of the taliban. they bring the fighting much closer to here a couple. so there is a psychological advantage if you like, as far as the taliban is concerned. also looking at the south, the country, this is a further connection with that strongholds down in the helmand in kandahar where a fighting still can all right, apologies. we seem to have lost our connection with rob mcbride. rob was updating us on the taliban gains now that they have taken guys in the city, which is just 3 hours south of capital. let's go to how much i'm doing. he's joining us from del, how, because of how much right here in delphi, they, 3 of international diplomatic talks to try and find

a way to end the fighting. and i've got a son. what can you tell us about how those are going? that's right. that's right. there in a flurry of diplomatic activity on day 3 of the app can talk here in doha, just last hour we saw the u. s. special envoys. i'll make wheels out as well as other special envoy doctrine with what was funny walk in to the conference area, which is just fine. my left shoulder that hall back there. here at this main menu for these international talks. the meetings have started. there are various diplomats and delegations who are here, the delegation we have not yet seen here today are the delegations for the african government and the delegation for the tall by now i spoke with a member of the african governments team here and they told me they expect to be here at this venue for meetings with the special envoys at around 2 pm local today, and they expect that those meetings will last a little over an hour. right now the mood is one of heightened concern all the diplomats that we've spoken with thus far during this 3 day process have said that

what they'd really like to see is they'd like to see a momentum gaining for intra african piece talks to try to start up again, of course the inter app can piece talks began last september, here in the last session was in mid july. and at that point, things really saw about it was at a deadlock. and since then we've seen the taller bond gain, a lot of momentum as they're taking over more and more of the country. and that's another reason why people here are so concerned that's for it's been very difficult to try to set out what exactly the afghan wants to see happen as a taliban rather wants to see happen in this process. and the diplomats are concerned about that. they don't really know what this point, how they are going to get things back on track. they don't yet know how they are going to come up with some type of joint response for the rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground in afghanistan. the fact that these talks are happening at

all really goes to show just how much concern this is. de one of these talks were hosted by foster yesterday. it was a separate meeting that happened on the sidelines of the fox. it was a meeting between the extended troy countries that comprised of russia, the us, china, and pakistan. and that is a group that meets intermittently in order to try to conduct consultations on how to get the piece process in ghana, stand back on track. today. this session of these talks is hosted once again by the authors government. great impetus, great stress on trying to ensure that the peace process can continue. but at this point, a very open question as to what exactly can be achieved so much. huh. just doing reporting from job. meanwhile, the interior minister has told al jazeera but afghan forces are also trying to secure and main highways, large cities. that's one of the border crossings to slow the taliban is rapid

advance. sure there bella has this exclusive reports. 5 weeks ago, general agile says most qual stepped into the role of it's going to stones. and terry administer in all he commands a force of 130000 people. today he is driving toward deck a province west of cobble, much of the provinces controlled by the taliban. government personnel travelling by road is rear and requires an escort official forces. in the last 3 months, a taliban has more than doubled its territory. and in the last week started to take provincial capitals. what's going through your head at the moment about those provinces? how? how worried you and how to use the room and look cool. we are working in 3 phases. the 1st is to stop the 2nd, the re gather our forces, security rings around the city and all those soldiers that abandoned their posts

were bringing them back to their post. the 3rd is to begin offensive operation with him and all these trips are about boosting morale. he admits that is suffered with the advances the taliban has made. also the telephone attempt to assassinate the defense minister and promised to target other government leaders. security around minutes to move, the quote has never been tied to a simple task of visiting checkpoints requires this many special forces. you survived multiple taliban assassination attempts, and his previous jobs as the governor of tuna and condos was. i'm a soldier, a soldier never gets frightened. when we wear the uniform, it means we are ready for death. i'm not worried about it. he says a lot of the governments losses are as a result of them losing control of roads and highways. many areas must be resupplied by air, and after the us withdrew they lost a lot of that type ability. but that's fun. it's unfortunately with their

withdrawal, the fighting started in $400.00 areas of the country and we have very limited air support. helicopters have been busy with moving supplies and evacuating our dead and injured force, and so they are delegating to local leaders, empowering them to recruit within the community to rise against the taliban. billy car, millions, fellow, mother. there are concerns from the international community about these uprising forces at the moment. all their members will eventually merge into the afghan national security forces. would ex governor says he already has 300 men fighting in one 4th, but he complained he could only provide weapons for 2 thirds the rest. he said he cannot provide with water, let alone money or arms. for the last few months, people are waiting for the weapons, but unfortunately the promises i made to these people were not fulfilled, but there is no doubt and a loyalty and desire to help outside the room. the minister's main wage

was at police and soldiers joined them. this talk of last night's gains and losses, where they may be st next and how the many injuries are healing. some briefly leave to push off taliban assaults. thousands of police officers have abandoned their posts in recent months. the interior ministry says they are returning and will be retrained. been sent back to the provinces. they say 5000 people have signed up for the police force and just the last 3 weeks with another 2000 graduating this weekend. ah, the government strategy is slowly becoming clear, but its implementation is still fraud and the stakes have never been higher. the telephone what. what would you say the relevant them to do? i know i'm asking the taliban to stop their brutality. leave killing. sit down with

love and we should find solution. i'm asking them not to destroy buildings or are cheap minutes and let's come and sit together and make a coalition. government is one that would be acceptable to all sides of the sooner we do this, the better yet they need leverage on the battlefield to force a group to make political compromises. and every day, with every loss that leverage weakens. charlotte bellis, osha, 0 water. afghanistan or people are voting in zombie as presidential and parliamentary elections. president ed darling, who is facing a strong challenge from his opposition rival, whose running against him for the 3rd time. it follows the campaign dominated by the struggling economy and the fight against corruption, or which also has the latest from a polling station in lusaka. with some elections when pulling stations open, you see the lions getting shorter and shorter and shorter, but not this one. people still keep dreaming in the lines of getting longer and

longer. most people who register to vote in the selection are young people under the age of about 34 more than 7000000 people have registered to vote. in the last mix you looking at about 4000000 people and the people who are voting, of course, the voting for different candidates. the ones of voting for the opposition, the that a and b you to say that he's a business man. he, the economist, he's a self made millionaire. they assume he knows a thing or 2 above the economy. he said he's going to reverse government policy of nationalizing state owned mind. they think he may be the best person to turn around the segment economy. those who are supporting the president say for example, they love the pro poor policy. they love the fact that he's going to try and lower taxes and they're saying that they really appreciate the infrastructure develop the thing so far. which of the public hospital, the road, the bridges,

etc. a lot of people are wondering will these elections briefly and fear opposition support to say the frustrated campaigns of law being banned in this country? partly because of covered 19 but the opposition feel that is the government's excuse to try and limit them from campaigning effectively across the country. the opposition of fear that some of the people has been beaten up while they're trying to put a post. but what they might be killed, the government responds like say, well, in these clash of ruling parties, which of also being killed and some of them have also revision. and they deny all of these allegations. we should get provisional results, possibly late friday afternoon to the evening. for the final result will only be in a few days time. and of course, the biggest worry people, vines of, if we ever loses, does accept the results. what are we the way for? what? for the country, fill ahead on al jazeera, our number one priority is to make sure our colleagues are safe, the news and entertainment in. i've got some feeling under threats

from a taliban takeover to jones or not to job white health workers in the us or at the center for the base over vaccine monday. ah, ah, it's time for the journey to winter sponsored by kettle airways. hello. good to see once again we're talking about a blast of heat through europe. this time on the southern italian island sicily. look at this 48.8 degrees. that is now good for the all time temperature record across europe. so likely no surprise and that southern areas of italy are under an excessive heat warning, a red weather alert. we refer to it as not only there, but also areas of croatia and northern spain as walls. so let's go to spain check

on the conditions there. a quarter, but 42 degrees on thursday, but by saturday you could be up to 47, crank up your temperature there, and that could be good enough for an all time temperature record. meantime, scenes of flooding for turkey's northeastern black sea region. we've got rescues going on there and this is all because if a disturbance over the black sea, almost like a tropical like psych loan, just throw in buckets of rain for places like our hobby on friday. meantime, for northwestern europe, we've got a disturbance moving over central in northern parts of the british shells. a mix of sun in cloud though, for london and unsettled for the baltic states, with some jolts and boards for western areas of russia. when this broadcast across the gulf of guinea, where we've got our storms going pretty good, and some storms for engine mina on thursday. that's your update. see you soon. sponsor cut on airways. joined the debate. do not have vaccines reaching those who

are most of the needs and amplify your voice. it allowed a diverse community and how in array of different story know topic it off the table . it's such a tough ethical debate where there is obvious discrimination and systematic discrimination of the play. people are thursdays for new boys. the stream where a global audience becomes a global community on al jazeera. oh, i hello again to tell stories on al jazeera, the sour people are voting and john the presidential on parliamentary elections. president john go seen voting right here. is expected to face

a strong challenge from his office and rifle facing him for the 3rd time. the child about his edging closer to the capital capital in its sweeping advance. the arm group had captured yet another city. this time it's got me and taken 10 provincial capitals. in the past week. we were speaking to rob mcbride a little while ago he was giving us an update on the situation in afghanistan. so robbie were telling us about how strategically important guys he is and what this means now that it's fall into the taliban. that's right. if they say it's a fairly small provincial capital, but gas the does bring the fighting closer to cobble itself. there are other cities held by the government, which increasingly feel as though they are under c, j a such as can last good guy in the south of the country in the west. and increasingly that the whole map of i'm going to start is looking more, more like an archipelago, if you like, of governments held cities and that centers still resisting the taliban. but yeah,

with huge waves of the country now in taliban hands in these places, seemingly more and more isolated where everyone is waiting to see what the government response will be. everyone is expecting this so called counter attacks and we are seeing a rallying if you like, with ash rep, county the president visiting bizarre, the sharif, the proceed city in the north of the country, meeting with local leaders and military leaders, promising a counter attack. we're also seeing marshall rashid duster now. he is a full, the vice president here in africa standard, a very influential figure in politics and also military whose influence goes back decades. he was resisted the title of under the 1990 and the roles of the country that the strong called. and he is promising to fight back with counter offensive saying that the north that the country may be easy to get into. but it is difficult

to get out of where we're also hearing a rally and call from the speaker of the afghan parliament calling on all african to support the security services. so it's all good fighting rhetoric, good fighting, talk we waiting to see just what action it's going to be backed up with and all the time. of course the taliban seems to be taking more and more territory. ok, thank you so much. rub my pride reporting from couple a helicopter with 16 people on board has crossed in russia. it came down in a nature reserve in the can check up, and it's yolanda far east. most of the passengers were tourists. of the 7 are feared missing, and local reports say 9 people have been rescued. an investigation is underway into the cause of that accident. algeria is beginning 3 days of morning after the number of people killed and wildfires rose to at least 69. the algeria and red crescent says more than a 1000 people have been injured and hundreds of families are homeless. a heat wave

has fueled the spread of the fires. the authorities believe that many were started deliberately greased since government has pledged billions of dollars in aid for people and forrest hit by the devastating wildfires. those who have lost homes will get cash payouts as well as tax exemptions. but his name is rob reports from every island. it may not be enough to dispel public discontent. they know who you got. let me know, my god. they're going to put the ball. there is anger and regret. and when wildfires began greece's prime minister kitty, accustomed to talk yes, said houses can be rebuilt. now is the time to save your lives where the fires have stopped on the island. there is a clear picture of the price people paid to heed his words give anything to be the case for beth. i want to see the government hanged from that pine tree and burning . that's it. that's what the government did. of a going to give me back the house as it was,

what i'm going through now. can they give everything back to me? my happiness, my joy. right now? no amount of money seems like enough compensation. most get us. i spoke to the law office to say, you bet and i'm going to tell you what the government's mistake was. they told us to evacuate the villages and towns, so there were no casualties. i remember in the past when there was a fire, the church bells would ring. all the people in the nearby towns and villages would go to the fire and put it out themselves with their own hands. men, young kids, so the fire doesn't spread mommy. now with the evacuation the people left, so there are no victims, and the evacuation was obligatory. whoever's homes were not burned, they saved their homes because they were hiding under their cars. so the police could not find them and tell them to leave these other people who saved their homes and the wildfires in heavier happened at the same time as the ones in the north of athens residence blamed the decision to divert rescue teams and water dropping

aircraft away from, for the severity of the fires. many who followed evacuation orders lost everything. one woman who was told help is on the way, said her form ended up burning down. and she is still waiting for the firefighters to show up the speed it will be to my house caught fire. everything was burned, detractors, agricultural equipment. animals are warehouses in food. that's what we lived off. yes, we ought to help and nobody offered it. my husband, we talked in the other villages to help fight fires. why now house burned down and what can i say? what else can i say? see at this church and community center in rob? yes, 8 has been coming in from all over the country, food, water, all kinds of other supplies. and it is available here for whoever needs it. the overwhelming message from the people that we've met here is it now is the time for solidarity. now is the time to help and support each other because of as many of

them have said to us, they feel there is no other help coming across greece. communities like this have had hard days and the road to recovery looks long. zane bus robbie: oh, jazeera grove, yes. village on greases area island. more than 100 wildfires are burning through the vast forests of cells the siberia, nearly 4000000 hector as if land have been damaged by the flames. hundreds of villages and 9 cities in the earth can you could hear regions have been covered in smoke forecasters in eastern italy. sicily have reported a temperature of 48.8 degrees as a heat way. fuels fires in the north which have destroyed homes on crops, and if confirmed it would be the highest temperature ever recorded on the entire european continent. heat wave also fanning wildfires and soon as he has western mountainous region temperatures on wednesday retires of 49 degrees celsius. the

demand for power to run air conditioning has led to electricity outages. in some parts of the country. at least 4 people have died in floods, and turkey is northern black sea provinces. the area was hit hard by heavy rains this week. several homes have been destroyed and vehicles are swept away. doesn't have been injured and at least one person is reported missing. recovery efforts are underway in zealand has outline plans to reopen its borders next year. but 1st, that wants to increase vaccination rates with just 26 cove deaths. new zealand has been widely praised for a handling of the pandemic, but a low vaccination rate and a highly infectious delta variance or cause and concern wayne hey reports. while the corona virus pandemic continues to affect many countries life and new zealand goes on largely as normal. there hasn't been

a case of cove at 19 transmitted in the community since february, thanks to the borders, staying closed. but from early next year, the government plans to reopen to vaccinated travelers from low risk countries. we cannot keep border restrictions on for ever and to be absolutely clear. we don't want to do that either. and neither did the experts we talked to. border closures were only ever temporary measure in order to keep cove it out before fixing was developed and administered. but just days before the announcement from the prime minister, new zealand is suffered, escape dozens of unvaccinated work is that the country's largest port were allowed onto a ship that had come from australia carrying cobra, positive crew. all the port workers tested negative, but it exposed a vulnerability in new zealand defense. new zealand has been able to stay cobit free for most of the panoramic because of good management and good luck. but what happened here is

a reminder of how quickly things could change. and when combined with a low vaccination rate, how dangerous it could be. just over 17 percent of vaccinated, one of the lowest rates in the developed world. you zealand prime minister says everyone will be offered a vaccine by the end of the year or had only had one. and then they don't. we don't neglect a round the world including you do the serious if there are further outbreaks of the virus, the government says it will move quickly with an aggressive locked down. the won't be 0 cases, but when there is one in the community we crushes. but while it's coded free and as many people as possible vaccinated, then you zealand international isolation, will come to a partial end next year. wayne, hey, al jazeera toner, new zealand,

australia capital has just gone into lockdown for a week after a single case of co with 1900 was detected camber. a resident can now only leave home for essential reasons. it's the 1st locally acquired case in the city since july last year. and the city joined sydney, melbourne, and several others which are in lockdown juicy cases of the delta variance is rule is reimpose and current of restrictions to curb surgeon infection fuel by the delta variance. the measures include a limit on mass gatherings and the implementation of a digital vaccine passports. the health ministry reported more than 5700 cases on wednesday. the highest daily increase since february. hospital workers across the us have found themselves of a center for national debate on cobra, 1900 vaccines. there are calls to make jobs mandatory for all health employees. many are refusing to get the vaccine while continuing to care for sick patients. john 100 reports from chicago to work at rush university medical center. there's

a new rule. get the jab or get another job. i think it's the right thing to do. we are in health care. we should be maintaining how and we shouldn't be putting our patients at risk. and even though the risk of transmitting covert from health care worker to a patient is low, it's not 0. there are strict exemptions or religious or medical reasons, but in general, health care workers are now required to practice what they preach about 70 percent of us adults, or at least partly vaccinated recovered 19. it's 60 percent if you include the children under 12 who are not eligible for health care workers. the numbers are similar though at rush they've now reached 85 percent. were trying to decrease transmission of the delta variance. so you come here and everybody's vaccinated. done. you're less likely to leave with the virus rush standard, the vanguard of

a growing movement. nearly 15000 hospitals about one in 4 across the us now require staffers to get the covert vaccine according to the american hospital association and states like new york, california and washington is issued vaccine mandates for health care workers like it or not. vaccine mandates work since chicago began requiring a vaccination or a negative test to attend most concert, more people who gotten vaccinated. and since france began requiring a similar help, fast food and bars, restaurants and most indoor venues, millions more people signed up to get the shot. and that's crucial to reach the kind of heard immunity that those new variance from popping up. still some are saying no to, we're not elation. and there have been protests across the country by thousands of vaccine wary health care workers. you have every right now to get vaccinated,

we're not gonna force you to get vaccinated, but you may have to find another place to work. that's exactly what happened to workers at our w. j. barn of his health in new jersey, which recently fired half a dozen senior employees for refusing to get vaccinated with more companies in and out of health care, requiring the vaccine to enter the office doors each day. that leaves anti vaccines with increasingly few options. john henry and al jazeera chicago. ah, hello again. the headlines on al jazeera, the taliban is edging closer to the capital capital in its sweeping advance. the arm group has captured yet another city. this time it guides me, which means it's taken 10 provincial capitals in the past week. rob mcbride has more from couple a blow to the government.