ah, washington ah ah, this is al jazeera. ah, hello, i'm norton taylor. this is the engineer news life on the coming off. the taliban is relentless march across afghanistan got me and her rock acclaimed by the fighters. kandahar is under threat, and us troops dispatched to campbell, high voter turnout across the country decides on its president post say the election is too close to cold, nearly 70 dead. and now jerry, as far emergency as the nation begins 3 days this morning, and a fresh wave of us co infection is ignored by the thousands attending the iowa

state fair. and i'm leo harding and doha was supporters. chelsea have secured belgium striker rama, little cock. you for a club record transfer fee, and leonor messy has trained with his new p s u teammates. for the 1st time he was put through its paces after a few weeks away from football awe. it's been a dramatic day and i've kind of stone with the taliban capturing yet more major target. the city of gafney, which is just 3 hours from the capital and the taliban. the most significant prize . so for her at the countries 3rd largest city. now there's fighting enough kind of songs. second city kandahar, 11 provincial capitals have fallen in the past week. and the advance seems to be heading inevitably towards cobble. also, the u. k. a u. s. dispatching troops to campbell to help pull out embassy, staff, and civilians. we begin our coverage with charlotte barris in couple

we can confirmed here that herat has fallen this evening residence there. we took about half a dozen people who also the same thing that they would tell yvonne in all the streets in the center of town that they had come into town this afternoon. pushed through, they had been trying to get into the city for about a month, but they made a breakthrough cross through the front line this afternoon and they broke into the prison. they got into the police compound. they got into the governor's compound, they released all the prisoners residents telling us that that they had prison is one man said my relatives when the prison another in my health. and they could hear gunfire. but they said, driving through town, that gunfire is not coming from flashes from security force. it is, is, it is celebrate to read on fire coming from the telephone. they said, from what they could say that security does seem to give up without a fight. now it is a huge price, as you said,

for the taliban and the biggest city in afghanistan and a huge loss for the government. biggest city in the west. and they had tried very, very hard to hold onto it. they could empower the former gulf there. her name is male han to create local uprising movement who had with the special forces using is trying to keep the come on out. but the taliban breaking through this evening. it is not the only place that the taliban claiming this evening. they have also claimed a province near that. in the west school bag geese was taught to local journalist beer that said, heavy fighting has been ongoing in that province. that they are a police and intelligence compounds have been captured, but there is some heavy fighting. and the governors compound, there's not entirely captured by the taliban, but certainly on the cost of going there is also heavy fighting in kansas city. now that is incredibly important because it is the 2nd biggest city in afghanistan. it is the birthplace of the telephone. they have been fighting incredibly hard to get

and the government has seen a lot of the most elite special forces to keep the taliban us is trying to be ongoing there to, to try and push the taliban out for at least a month. but they, they managed to get into the heart of the city today. we saw the videos of it thought communications are very poor, so it's incredibly hard to stand up exactly where they're at. now i talked to someone at the short time ago who said he'd be fighting is ongoing, but it's hard to tell exactly what the telephone now controlled in kandahar city was communications down. not earlier today, the province of gods and he fell gods, nice city. it's just 150 kilometers from cobble with the closest city to cobble that they had captured his report on that. professor taliban fi, she's overlooking then that would soon be the is the group tried to take me 3 years ago, but failed this time it had control. in a matter of hours you can see our fighters with tanks from the city

were doing an operation heading towards the police headquarters. there was a prison break and the prisoners were released. the taliban are here and we're moving forward to capture more places. keep watching us the governor, governor dowd le money is accused of doing a deal with the telephone, the safe passage to escape to cobbles about these telephone yell. the governor has run away, flaunting trucks and equipment claimed in recent conquests. the tele bomb was seen escorting the governor through its new territory, as can police arrested him shortly after, for surrendering without a fight. gaffney is the chain to prevent you capital to fall in 7 days. prior to this week, the last time the taliban had held a provincial capital was 5 years ago and that was only for a matter of days. its location is also significant as

a gateway to the south of the provincial capital that have fallen golf news the closest to cobble just 150 kilometers away. the telephone now hold about 2 thirds of the country, including much of northern afghanistan provinces in the west and rural areas in the self. all now leverage they taking into negotiations with the afghan government. they've got what they will take from the dual process. they've got us to withdraw me the nature of truth with ro. i can't see why they would at this stage compromise. they think they can take up kind of stand by force, and that's what they're going to try and do over the next few months. here in the capital, concern is growing about the possibility of a telephone takeover about a machine. we worry a lot when we see the taliban capturing the provinces. it's natural for us to worry about. it was always get shut off. i don't know, we are asking the telephone not to destroy city. they should do

a peace agreement. they should agree to a government, they can be in power and we can power together on that. and the government is bringing some special forces back to cobble to bokes to security. it means risking the loss of more provinces to the telephone. there is heavy fighting on going in for other provinces. so this is not stopping the telephone and not stopping yet . they are turning their attention now that they've claims these other provinces, they turning their attention to others to night i'm told that heavy fighting has ruptured in logo, sorry, absorb packed in home, and they say that they think they are making inroads in the cut provincial capital . of flesh cargo, which is essentially been on the sea for about 2 weeks. but of all of these places they are fighting. the most attention will be on can to ha city the 2nd biggest city, hundreds of thousands of people bear the birthplace of the taliban. it would be a huge morale boost for the taliban to get it, and the government of fighting is very hard to keep it international invoice. at

the intro, afghanistan piece talks in doha released a final statement, ma'am. and jim drew ms live from the country capital. what are we hearing now? those talks of concluded well, lauren, this was a final statement that was issued a not for the inter afghan p stocks or rather for these international talks that have been taking place over the course of the past 3 days. here in doha now, one of the things that the envoys who were here wanted to see as a result of these talks is to see the inter afghan piece effort put back on track. of course the inter app can piece talk started here in doha last september. the last meeting that took place in that process was in mid july and it ended without there being much momentum as far as to take the process any further. and the diplomats who were here kept saying the past 3 days that they really wanted to see that inter african piece process put back on track. but it appears that has not

happened. there was a final statement issued by all of the envoys present, all of the participants and delegations, and i'm just going to read a few portions of the statement to you. it says participants agreed that the peace process needs to be accelerated as a matter of great urgency. on the basis of the negotiations of concrete proposals from both sides. participants called for a stop to violence and attacks immediately in and against provincial capital and other cities. and i've kind of done. and another point is participants reaffirmed. they will not recognize any government and i can't stand that is imposed through the use of military force. now there's really nothing to regulatory in this statement. frankly, it really is as it was expected to be. it doesn't seem that there was any major breakthrough that happened over the course of these past 3 days. i will tell you, having attended these talks, they all happened behind closed doors. of all of the participants were loath to speak to the press on the record about what was going on. and there wasn't much

concrete information that was given about how the discussions were going. we know that today there was a meeting that took place between the envoys and the app and government delegation that lasted for about an hour and a half. and then there was a separate meeting, a little bit later in the afternoon between the envoys and members of the taliban delegation. but when those meetings ended, we simply saw the participants leave. there were no press statements. there was no information given as to how the talks were proceeding. and it did seem throughout the course of the 3 days that the diplomats, that were present felt a real sense of frustration because there was a great push to really get something going when it comes to the deteriorating situation in afghanistan. to really seem to get the peace process back on track. and at the end of the day that just didn't happen. there had been some speculation earlier in the day that perhaps there would be a 4th day of talks. this though,

what we're seeing now, which was just issued in the last hour and a half, the final statement indicates there will be no 4th day. this is the final statement and it doesn't seem as though there has been any great breakthrough. at this stage, lauren signed him. thank you very much. following developments in afghanistan, the u. s. is moving 3000 more troops to campbell. let's go to mike canada. in washington, d. c. might tell us about the u. s. plan. well, it's a rather massive plan, and just a man of the opposite commanding of gun is done, came back here. the mission was a clump pitched, it would appear now. thousands of us troops are being re deployed back into a san, basically to break it down. 3 battalions are going to go into protect the couple port to marine brigades and an army brigade. another battalion is going to go and be stationed in a way to operate as a quick reaction force. and yet another deployment of some, 1000 forces,

is being sent to kata. to process the non, the immigrant visas for africa. nationals who the u. s. is evacuating, so the situation of massive ramping up, often american presence. but the state department says that this does not mean that a full scale evacuation for the embassy and couple is being planned. this is what the state department spokesman at to say. that's not true. this is not a full evacuation. this is not where we are, and i think it's a very important distinction between planning and contingency planning. right now, we are, the embassy remains open. we will continue to have a diplomatic presence on the ground to fulfill these important functions. now, of course, the safety, the security, the welfare, the well being of american citizen serving overseas is of the utmost priority to

this president. so of course, we are undertaking prudent contingency planning. that's precisely what we did to lead us here today. now, the defense department spokesman makes very clear that this is a mission with wise. he puts a narrow focus. the forces are going in simply to supervise the faith evacuation of american personnel and american civilians. that being said, the only military aid that may still be on offer is, is support. at the time of the beginning of the us, the, the role the you were saying that it had a enough forces in the area to be able to as back up to the african forces. this is clearly no longer the case. president biden saying in the last 24 hours that this is not a us problem. it is at this moment, the problem of the afghan government, my kind of thank you very much indeed. well, her son of us is a professor of international relations at the near east south asia center for

strategic studies and author of the taliban revival. he joins us by skype from washington. d. c. thanks very much. indeed for being with us. i want to ask you, 1st of all we're having we've got a report just in the last few minutes from the a p news agency saying that african officials who said that taliban have taken the southern city of kandahar. and that would be the 12 provincial capital out of $34.00 to $4.00 to the tell about, i'm not sure if you've heard anything about that. but if, if you have perhaps you can confirm that for us. but also that the significance of kind of home, why that would be so important. this is, so this is what we're heading from social media also. either it has fallen or it is on the verge of falling. and that's not very surprising. the reason being hot is the bush don't heartland come to heart. is the logical capital of taliban. that's the place from where taliban had developed the momentum a 20 years ago, 25 years ago. so conduct is extremely important. it's a cultural hubble. so like cut off, it is also a economic hub,

and that's where from where i live on, draw the mainstream. that is where below much the, the founder of taliban had stood up on the top of a building, reading the clock of the prophet bomb, a pc upon him. and that had led to in his eyes and his supporters abuse is legitimacy. so come to har. we'll give a huge boost to the, to the taliban without a dog. so this, i mean, herancha kandahar both cities that were quite strongly fought for and defended. and what happened in the end, you think that the forces just surrendered all. what was your impression of how it played out there? i think a combination of factors. one is of course this momentum that alabama able to gain . secondly, it's a lot about leadership in carbon. and if, because president rodney has smarties, he was a scholar, come political leader, and i think well, meaning, but he failed to bring everyone together and he was not alone in this

a little below are the leaders also try bit best, but there's no common strategy that we saw and i think the absence of leadership and then of course withdraw the us forces because everyone knows the security forces might not be able to get this salaries next month. so there's a lack of coordination. there's lack of gaming perhaps, and there's a di modernization also that had set in so combination of these factors i think and, and last but not the least at those doha leaders who we see on the table. i seriously doubt and i've been seeing in your program, so quite a while back. apparently they are not in control of the field commanders and the field commanders, the mostly on thing a to able to learn some of the other valuable leaders. what i'm going to be shoveled fund, i'm kind of somebody region. so they are better than hierarchy constructors. we don't know who's on thing. who these are the shades of taliban and we don't know

which shade of taliban will ultimately be emergent. i mean, these are the complexities and one of what goes on with what the us saying. we're going to send troops back into the airport to, to manage the evacuation of some embassy stuff, u. k. also sending troops in for those kind of purposes. and the tongue about a page of taking gafney which is heading towards cobble. how quickly do you think cobble could fall? i mean, really hitting intelligence reports being talked about from 30 days to 90 days. i still have a feeling that security forces and gobble are going to put up a strong the distance i, i don't know, it is my hope of it is my, my analysis at this point. but i think this is a backup plan. this is a contingency plan, and this is a plan just to be sure that us diplomats invest in diplomats and gobble are not 2nd and be they've,

they will have some but he to take care of them and rescue them if there's a crisis so that i not read that much into it, it's not an attempt to go back in or something like that. it is just a 50 and measured and it's a precaution. but it tells you that us and other diplomats in cobble are no more trusting the local. hon forces also because those are on forces or maybe feeling betrayed. they're feeling that the western forces and everyone is leaving a bible. they stand and defend the vest and embassies. i think that that scare of crisis is also playing up. what is your forecast for how events will unfold? michael casias is so clear that taliban in some shape or form of a very be a dominant force and a better this is yet to be seen. whether they would like to go back to their own very conservative tribals understanding of if i make sure. yeah. whether they will

go for that doesn't matter. because the kind of atrocity they're committing tells us they have not learned anything. or maybe that, that the i leadership who will love other yesterday made a lot of sense of kind of rational arguments. maybe baby land in, in carbon. oh. and they will go and take the leadership. and they will tell everyone beneath international community and some support from the international net. and they will try to prevail in a sense that they will bring some sense to the ski oss. so it's very hard to predict. but one thing is for sure, dollar bon and the future one is bond looked kind of intertwined kind of very much linked and that's what scaring people all those will store for different regional one is bon, are now running for their lives. and it's, it's a terrible crisis, hopelessness, fear panic in upon his bomb. and that's a tragedy. that's a terrible scene to see. after 2530 years of western and international involvement,

trillions of dollars gone in for the port of hans. nothing has changed. it seems hassan of us. thank you very much. and with her sharing your notes, just thank you. thank you. but was still ahead on the out there and use our shooting another month with reco numbers and migrants trying to enter the u. s. we report on the crisis along the border with mexico was less than a day to go until the premier league kicks off. why campaign is according for an end to one of the games, the biggest sponsors, the japanese mer, who bit off more than he could chew, damaging and the limpid gold medal format, national sport. ah, samuel voted for a new leader, an election showdown between president edgar lou and main opposition rival. okay, to hit you. lemme extremely tight. the result is expected within 3 days, or which assa has more from your soccer. more than 7000000 people

were registered to vote in them because presidential and parliamentary elections. there were long keys and the high turn out polling stations in the capital, lusaka, and other parts of the country in an election unless they will be very close to the high cost of living poverty and unemployment. a big concern for many voters. 0, one thing that you were raving, this son. everything else to come under the houston port so that we should be head if you're not working, it's quite difficult to cope with the standard of life now. yes, everything is become very expensive. so it's quite challenging. there are 16 presidential candidates, but the main content is, are the incumbent president, it the longer. and this man opposition leader has. lemme, who's challenging longer. i suppose that the majority of registered voters in this election, a young people in the last 5 years or so. the people of them have seen life get

more difficult. jobs are more difficult to be to obtain. business is more difficult to do. that's been contraction of economic activity and the contraction of opportunities for young people. so this, it appears that the youth have been putting a lot more time and energy to coming, registering as vote to them coming to vote, because they want to be able to vote for the future that they think will be driven by the candidates that they choose the president is accused of borrowing from international creditors to find the various building projects. and critic said that is unsustainable. zambia was more than $12000000000.00 takes dental companies. and lyndon president, it was council and winning based on the floor plan infrastructure, including roads and power station. but it's main. why will, businessman guy in the city is a good track record in finance and his confidence he can attract investment and

better manage the economy, zambia, the electoral commission. people official results are expected by sunday if there are no delays. but it's what happens after that, that as many people worried how to my daughter algebra, the southern algeria is observing 3 days of morning after the number of people killed and wildfires rose to at least 69. the government is appealed to international help to tackle the blazes. the jury and president says most of the fires were manmade and 22 people have been arrested junior wolf report. the jury a continues to battle these region wildfires and a lot of ration is underway on the ground. and from this guys we're watching the fire to try to prevent it from spreading further. but it seems to be impossible and now reached our own emergency crews and villagers are doing

everything they can with what little they have. using buckets of water, hoses and branches. the desperation is clear as people raise to save more homes from burning to the ground. and prevent further loss of life. people have died. schools and houses have been down the villages of left their homes, take refuge in communal who missed. the hardest hit area is a mountainous region of ca beale, east of the gere and capital as many as 18 provinces and total are affected. and if there is a lot of damage, some of lost their homes, lots of things. nature will not recover soon. given that the people here live off their olive groves, this is only the beginning of the disaster. the government has deployed the army by dozens of soldiers were among those who died during a rescue operation. and the government is now calling for international help. the european union is lending its plains that were used to battle the wildfires in greece. algeria prime minister has visited to the issue one of the effected regions

announcing the president's plans to compensate those who have been effected as a country enters the 3 days of national morning. post disaster relief operations are already underway with residents teaming up with charity organizations to collect necessities for the that are injured and the hundreds of families left homeless. we responded to an announcement asking to collect donations and medicines and that's what we did. but i make here another urgent announcement to all pharmacies and algeria, we need medicine here. i'll tyria is just one of several nations battling wildfires as record breaking temperatures spark widespread devastation. but authorities here believe many of the flames were deliberately lift. gillian wolf, al jazeera brain has brought some much needed relief to firefighters and recall in the area of scorched the northern half of the island. most of the places that have

now subsided the countries prime minister called the destruction the greatest ecological catastrophe. greece had seen in decades 3 echoes. mr. tuck is blamed a climate crisis and says he's ready to make those changes. the u. s. was once leading the curve 19 vaccine race at one point and not creating the 2000000 people a day. but rates are plummeted since then, despite americans being offered incentives, including free bid donuts and even lottery tickets. when here's what numbers tell us a week ago, the u. s. reported that 70 percent of adults have had at least one day. so the vaccine missing president jo biden's target by a month more than half of american adults have had both doses. but this isn't evenly spread out across the country. in 5 southern states, arkansas or louisiana, wyoming, mississippi, and alabama. few of them 40 percent of people have been fully vaccinated. arkansas, louisiana, and florida have reported record covered 19 hospitalizations in recent days,

new infections and now numbering about 10800008 day, the highest since february. and about 500 people are dying from covered 19 every day. when you surgeon, fatalities and cases is down to the delta varied. but vaccinations are picking up again. rising 250-0000 people daily this week. part of the reason may be compulsion . as more states government agencies and businesses make the job of compulsory. despite those numbers, the iowa state fair, one of the largest annual gatherings in the u. s. has opened, was forced into hire just last year because of the coven 19 pandemic. and last time it was on more than a 1000000 people attended. it really is under has more from de moines. it's part of a state fair season here in the united states at the opening day of this 1111 day state fair. this has been going on for over a 160 years. so it's just full of all sorts of tradition. and last year, as we know, it was cancelled because of the corona virus pandemic this year,

against the advice of many health officials, they decided to hold the event and the repair. and it really couldn't come at a worse time given it in the last couple of weeks. the delta, very inches arrived here in iowa. and we're starting to see the beginnings of another. corona virus serge here in the state. the number of positive cases has gone up 50 percent just in the last week here in iowa. and just in the last week, more than 600 people were confirmed to be positive with the virus that's the most since february. so there are a lot of concerns. nevertheless, there is no mask mandate whatsoever here at the fair or really anywhere in iowa. you're free pretty much to do whatever you want. most people hear that we've spoken to re spoken of many of them. they say many say we've been vaccinated, we feel that we're safe. others say it's just personal responsibility that people need to take. others are telling us as well. they feel that they feel that sense. a

lot of this is held outdoors, which it is, as you can see, there's a lot of natural social distance and that's why i'm not wearing a mask because no one's within about 10 feet of me right now. what's going on there? live from london still ahead. flash floods in northern turkey, killed several people just as wildfires in the south abroad under control, plus with 3 months to go before the cop $26.00 climate conference in glasgow. i'm joe here in edinburgh, where the creative arts just emerging from the pandemic are turning their attention towards the next big crisis of our time. and his for his belgian strike, he becomes the 2nd most expensive player in premier in the history or details nature of ah, ah, hello there, it's all about the extreme heat across the southern europe and northern parts of

africa and with those hot and dry conditions and high temperatures, those wild fires are continuing to burn across the region. now we've had reco temperatures across southern parts of it to the those are going to continue over the next few days. but up in the north, it is looking cooler and wet. if we take a closer look, we've got temperatures here where we expect them to be is wet and windy weather for the british isles on the weekend. it's going to get particularly heavy that rain in ireland as we go into saturday. and much of scandinavia is going to be a cooler and wet picture, so severe thunderstorms affecting parts of western russia and the baltic states. but for the really wet weather we have to move to the black sea. we've got severe thunderstorms rolling in across southwestern areas of russia, georgia and parts of turkey. we have seen flash flooding.