every one ah, ah . cobble whole glass, be taliban take over, got his dawns presidential palace just hours earlier president after i've gone a stop at that same desk, assuring citizens of safety now fled to exile in a 2nd on ah . hello, i money side. this is al jazeera life from home. also coming up, a taliban spokesman tells al jazeera, those who worked with the government and military will be offered amnesty. and in the news rescue team, they have to look for survivors off the powerful earthquake killed almost 1500

people. ah, i spent a day off extraordinary scenes and fast moving developments in afghanistan. the government supported and nurtured by the united states and other western countries for nearly 2 decades has collapsed in just a matter of days. is the combination of a week that saw the taliban take one provincial capital, often another. moving with increasing speed. and as night fell in the afghan that capital taliban fighters entered the presidential palace, rolling up the national flag and posing for pictures behind president obstruct donnie's desk. how the villa human appointed him miss mila rough manner of him. we have come to our victory. we'd like to assure our residence names have been given to us. we would like to ensure the security of the people that god himself fled the

country. a few hours earlier flying to neighboring is becca stone. in a statement he said he left to spare the country further bloodshed. well now the taliban are in effective control of the capital and virtually the entire country. the u. s. and other foreign forces are still at couple airport working to evacuate both phone citizens and gowns who have supported them. charlotte bellis begins all coverage from couple a little after 20 years. it was a hostile departure for the united states from its cobble embassy. as the taliban reached the city limits helicopters very staff to cobble international airport. those who remained bern sensitive documents. while black hawks and apache helicopters circled the capital monitoring for telephone flights on the ground

as they released heat flame over the green zone, president shrug connie was recording what would be his final statement. he and his cool team flayed the country shortly after. that was their clear need that the national director of security alongside the police and the gun army take responsibility for the security of all citizens. i have asked the difference minister and into the minister to convey that message. anyone who disturbing the law and order of looting should be confronted with full force before gone lift. cobble. the afghan government had been negotiating with the taliban for a political settlement, but its leverage had weakened with every loss on the battlefield. either way, in just 9 days, the telephone took control of every major city except cobble, by sunday morning, its fight who surrounded the capital, holding districts inside cobble province. so it is a popular uprising and all the prob,

probably in his order with us. so they should understand and know the ground realities and the set in the to submit the cell to the will of the people. there will be a government which will be acceptable to all as the telephone prison still around the outskirts of cobble beyond groups. military commission sent this message to its fighters. smith, landra, monterey. congratulations to your room, but no one should in to cobble. you do not have permission to enter. if someone enters, you cannot plead ignorance. yet by sunset, the taliban flag was raised inside. cobbled city. tell a bonfire who was seen driving around on motor bikes and pickup trucks and humvees greasing the people the afghanistan from terry ministry carried on. undeterred, stating it remains in charge of the city security. the security of the city is

guaranteed and it is not going to be attacked. the agreement is that there is going to be a peaceful transfer of power to a transitional. government do not be influenced by any propaganda. couple is safe, rest assured that will not be any problem and cobbled yet, but after the tele bonds rapid march across afghan stone, that was not a chance for us. or it would seem. president ghani, was willing to take charlotte bellis al jazeera cobble. rob mcbride is in cobble with more the reaction to the televisions take over. it has been an incredible day after what's been incredible, a few weeks in the complete transformation of africa. this done, i mean, the day began with the city basically being under siege. your people knew that we were heading in that direction since the fall of all of these provinces, we saw the build up of this momentum. as the taliban seem to get the support of the

various factions, of which there are many in afghanistan, we saw them grabbing equipment and brand new humvees and vehicles. we saw them opening up prisons, but letting out taliban prisoners who then apparently joined the cause, joined by other people who seem to switch side so they get it with david. this has been building on people here in cobble. i've been watching all of this with growing on ease and that it's sort of culminated with the beginning of this sunday looking at the city on the siege and then report starting to emerge of taliban fight is actually coming into the city itself. and you could sense that kind of a palpable increase in the level of tension. we were out in the streets watching people drawing money out of atm that were empty or trying to get into banks and get money out. i didn't increase the amount of clamor to try to get hold of us dollars and they simply, in most cases were non or people who are going out to stores to buy things. suddenly it increased their pay. so we'd increase the whole tension level

throughout the day. and gradually into this evening, we have now seen taliban figures and characters out on the st. all the taliban says it's holding talks to form what it calls an open, inclusive islam at government. now we don't know what structure that will take, but a spokesman says certain policies have already been agreed. but taliban has said the rights of women will be respected. they will have access to education and will be allowed to work as long as they where the job people will be able to criticize whoever they want media freedoms will be tolerated with limits on quote, character assassination. and in terms of islamic law, the group says punishments like executions and stoning will be decided by the courts. well, the us secretary of state antony blinkin says his country has achieved its mission in afghanistan and rejects comparison to the fall of saigon in 1975 in what was

then south vietnam. let's take a step back. this is manifestly not saigon. the fact the matter is this, we went to afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind, and that was the deal with the people who attacked us on 911. and that mission has been successful. we brought a lot to justice a decade ago. our k to the group that attacked us has been vastly diminished. its capacity to attack us again from afghanistan has been right now, does not exist. and we're going to make sure that we keep in place in the region. the capacity, the forces necessary to see any re emergence of the terrorist threat and to be able to deal with it. so in terms of what we set out to do and f canister and we've done it, well, let's get reaction from the states. my kind of joins us live from washington, d. c. mike has been notably quiet from the white house today, apart from that statement from antony lincoln. to be extraordinary events we've seen today, and i've kind of stone. are we expect to hear from president biden?

well, president biden is that can david for the weekend, there was one release from the white house and that was a photograph of president biden. holding a video conference. he was dressed in casual clothes. he was the only person in the room in front of him, a massive screen, not a wall of screams among the people you can see in the wall of the vice president, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the u. s. represented to, to have gone the son who is the president in doha, but no put the statements coming out of the white house in the course of the day in terms of a formal response to the activities going on. president binded himself has said recently that he does not regret going ahead with the us withdrawal. however, the numbers that have now been assembled and send to help with the evacuation of us nationals and other personnel. in a couple, a clear indication that the biden administration grossly underestimated the speed

with which taliban would take over the country. as you say, it was only on friday we had from president biden's saying that he didn't expect the taliban to enter the country. and to couple anytime soon, a lot of questions now being asked about whether this was a failure of intelligence or logistics. what is the view from the white house right now? well, the white house argues very strongly that it was always expected that eventually tyler bond was going to take over large parts of the country. but what was not expected clearly was the speed with which that would happen. president biden has been on the record even before he took office of one team to get out of a county on his argument. made both privately and publicly is that it was only a matter of time before taliban took over and whether or not us forces all there is not going to affect that very much. so president invited was insistent,

but at the same time, his administration is throwing the play method were on that decision taken by then president trump in may last year to sign a piece deal with the taliban in terms of which trump agreed to withdraw by may the see of all us forces in return for the stations about a unified government. obviously, those negotiations have not happened. did any real way president by didn't saying that he was in effect painted into a corner by that decision, by donald trump. his only way to try and get the orderly more, what's the role was to extend that deadline from the end of may to the end of all this, all of that being said, you've now got a scenario where the administration has deployed some 6000 and forces to couple alone in all in theater, given the quick reaction force that stationed in kuwait, the 1000 soldiers have gone to do hard to hope with, with the visas. this is more than 10000 troops,

a massive number of troops having been deployed. many thanks for that, mike hannah, that 1st live in washington dc. let's get a bit of a history lesson now. an look back had america's forever war, which began nearly 20 years ago. after $911.00 us president george w bush launched a global war on terror. and within weeks, american and british forces invaded afghanistan and toppled the taliban for providing safe haven for al qaeda and osama bin louden. it was in march 2003 when the u. s invaded iraq and the focus shifted from afghanistan. and in may, the u. s. declared an end to major combat activity. the taliban took that time to regroup, and by the end of 2007, there were 25000 us troops that an american casualties were mounting. so president bark obama shifted focus back to afghanistan, announced

a troop serge. and the number of troops then rose 280-0000. and may 2011 us special forces killed a sama ban loudon in neighboring pockets. don, as will continue diplomatic efforts to reach a settlement intensified the taliban opened an office here in katara at the u. s. is request and formal peace talks began in 2018 and the peace deal was reached in 2020, under the trump administration. well, by the struck to that agreement and ordered a full withdrawal of us troops. let's get more on this. we can speak to michael o'hanlon, who is a senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the brookings institution. he joins us on skype from bethesda in maryland. many thanks for joining the program. let me 1st get you reaction to some of the startling images that we're seeing this evening of the taliban. taking control of the presidential

palace posing at opera. i struck donny's desk after he fled the country looking confident and com. i know you haven't been very optimistic about the conflict in recent weeks, but did you expect this? no, it was a far faster transformation and take over than i expected. but you mentioned the images and you know, most of your viewers, i'm sure i've been glued to their screens much of the day just as we have here in the state and around the world. and. and i would say one thing that is ever so slightly hopeful after a very top tragic day. and you, you mentioned it yourself, is that the taliban fighters almost seemed calm. in some of these government facilities they had taken and their strategy as much as i despise. that's all a bond. let me be clear. but their strategy was relatively spark. and they did not decide to go out and immediately seek vengeance on the streets of cobbler for all the world to see now it's possible that they still be coming. i don't want to

engage in happy talk, but there is a possibility as well. the taliban is trying to, to some extent, legitimated self in the eyes of the world as a government that can run afghanistan and deal with the world. to the extent that is possible, then we still have some degree of hope. but of course, that's going to have to be our only remaining hope because any notion of the government holding onto a part or all the country clearly evaporated before our eyes in the last few days. i'll pick you up on that because as you say, there's been a great deal of consent of what the taliban next steps are going to be. how it's likely how they likely impact on women. will they be allowed to go to work? would they be allowed to go to school and we know from the past that the taliban has have craved that legitimacy from the international community. given that to what extent do you think this will influence that actions going forward?

there is a chance, you know, i guess one thing i would say is my crystal ball on afghanistan not very good. and if i thought i had one, i recognized the limits of my own pression on this subject. but i realized as well that we only have one option left. well, i guess we have to write one is to try to induce better behavior from the taliban. and the 2nd is to punish them if and when they engage in extreme behavior. but the latter is not very appealing, because what it really means is we're not going to be able to save afghans themselves. we're just going to be able to prevent the emergence of terror sanctuary and go and, and go after some of the taliban fighters, headquarters, main true concentrations that may develop in coming weeks and months. so it's not a very appealing prospect. it would be much better if we could somehow use the prospect of limited engagement, some degree of diplomacy, some amount of at least humanitarian aid, in a way to try to steer the taller bond towards at least a tolerably moderate form of governance. i think we have to be completely realistic

about the group we're dealing with. and this is not going to be a happy relationship, but some outcomes are much worse than others. and that's what we've got to focus on since the buys and administration have anticipated how quickly the taliban would take over a couple. was this misjudgments, was this an intelligence failure? who do we blame this president biden pay? yeah, he has to own this decision. you know, he didn't have to get out because president trump steel from last year was contingent on the taller bond breaking ties with al qaeda, which they never did. it was contingent also as i read the accord on the taliban, engaging and serious power sharing negotiations with the gaudy government, which they never did. so it was president biden's decision and it was also his decision to get out so fast. people say, how can you call it fast after 20 years? well, he made the announcement in april and here we are in august, only 4 months later, there was no time to develop a campaign plan,

going forward for the afghan military and therefore no opportunity to create confidence in the ranks of the african security forces that they could somehow hold together at least part of the country. that's why we've seen this ripple effect of collapse and snowballing desertion, and compromises and you know, defections as surrender in the last few days. and that's a result of the rapidity of president biden's decision to leave within a few short months of the announcement to do so. so i really think he has to own this decision. and by the way, whether it was going to be august or october or december, you know, i'm not sure even how much that matters. and so i think it was a mistake in the 1st place to leave when we had a stalemate that was essentially tolerable. and may have given peace a chance down the road. so even though i'm a general supporter, president biden's foreign policy, i'm pretty stern critic of his afghanistan approach. money. thanks for your time. michael o'hanlon, senior fellow in direct research and foreign policy at the brookings institution.

thank you. phil, i had on algebra with k often couple, we'll look at the hopes fears of residence as the taliban takes over. also update you on some of the days, all the news including there were hundreds, gather there right next to the tank. god only knows what happened to them. yet another tragedy 11 on dozens killed in a fuel tank explosion. the hello there july was the hottest month on record across the world, according to us scientists. and for north america. much of that heat has continued into august. but temperatures hadn't been as high as before, them last month. but on monday, for those north western states, we are going to see temperatures fit in the mid thirty's before they dip down on

tuesday. and as welcome, wet weather on the way for western parts of canada, where wildfires have been raging now was he moved to the east coast is going to be more wet weather, which seeing severe storms rolling all the way from the mid atlantic down to the deep south, continuing on to some of those south western states where we have seen flash flooding. but for the really wet weather we have to look to those gulf states. we've got tropical storm fred, moving in land. it's going to bring some of that really wet and windy weather with it. we could see up to a $150.00 millimeters of rain fall in parts of florida. now behind that we've got tropical storm grace. it's moving over his spun yo la and into the caribbean. we're likely to see some really powerful winds and heavy rains across the dominican republic and haiti on monday as it moves its way towards cuba on tuesday, and will keep an eye on that storm that sir update. the

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a mind of our top stories this our the taliban has taken over the presidential palace and the gun capital couple. it comes at the end of a surprisingly quick offensive during which the find has took over most of the country. the taliban says it wants a peaceful transfer of power. president awestruck, gone and fled the country, and they were cable sixteens, a couple of others also trying to leave the u. s. and the nation still have for working to evacuate the citizens as well as afghans who have supported them. accountable says it's holding talks to form what it calls an open, inclusive islamic government spokesman says group will respect women's rights, allowing them to work, i'm guessing education as long as they wear a job. while despite those promises the taliban advanced on couple caused panic in the city when he crowded of the banks, rob mcbride has more than that. i'm

a dash ref says he has been trying for 3 days to withdraw his money. he's from the northern city of political rate that fell to the taliban last week. can it be on the banks and all the province is captured by the taliban and not giving out any money. among the panda customers, or many government employees and police officers, some of whom haven't been paid for months. this officer told us even the cash machines warranty, don't push on us on. everyone is very tense and everyone now is looking at the banks to get them money out and there's no money. prices for all basics, from fuel to food, have been climbing steadily for months. as afghanistan has been sinking further into conflict, now the sky rocketing while increasing numbers of carbon residents who have the means and the passport have been looking for a way out the cost of an airline see to shut up on that. if you can get one, a one way ticket to with dumble has gone up by more than 5 time to $2400.00. while

another line doesn't give a price on its website, but asks you to call for a quote. this is a city that is experienced decades of trauma. i did now being tested once more. robert bride al jazeera couple turning now to some of the days of the news. haiti's government says the death toll from saturday that quake has now risen to more than 1200 people. hospitals overwhelmed and rescue teams are desperately trying to search for survivors. gotcha, lopez heard a young had the latest in mountains of rubble, patients look for survivors. within moments, businesses, homes, and lives all shattered by the magnitude 7.2 earthquakes. the damage is devastating, especially in a country that's already suffered so much from the last earthquake in 2010. and its

recent political and security breakdown with hospitals overwhelmed and hearted cities, legitimacy in the key. some victims were taken to the capital, puerto prints for medical assistance rescue team c. there has been unforeseen challenges. a landslide triggered by the earthquake blog, major roads, and humanitarian work received gang activity. just west of the capital is also complicating efforts by the f and a lot of damage was caused by the earthquake people in the capital. don't know what is happening in the city of la k. it is devastate. exactly. the lady is still struggling to come to terms with the assassination of his president last month and a worsening cove at $1000.00 pandemic. the prime minister says he is rushing aid to the affected areas of the, the city where cooling for a lot of solidarity. but it needs to be highly structured. so that won't be experienced in 2010 is not repeated more than 200000 people were killed in the 2010

earthquake. and now more than a decade later, saturday's tremor is bringing back painful memories that i was leaving my business and i felt the movement. it felt like the earth was moving. i saw that everything was fooling when i got home. i saw the extent of the damage the government has declared a 11 state of emergency, as a tries to find out the extent of the damage. castillo priscilla, young algebra era. and these 28 people have been killed in a fuel tank explosion and northern lebanon. it happened near syria's border as the army distributed illegally stored petrol to locals. i've been on a suffering severe fuel shortages, juicer, economic crisis alley, has some reports from southern lebanon. and others, some off agony 11. the explosion of

a fuel tank in the northern town of plain has added to an already 10 situation. for millions of beneath people are in this field. write, i consider the spy roots sickened. explosion. what happened is not small. people have been incinerated, some are still missing. god knows how many. this is a crime and i think every criminal, every smuggler is a traitor. we're all full and i wanted to run away. there were hundreds, gather there right next to the tank. god only knows what happened to them. the explosion happened when lebanese army personnel were distributing fuel. after discovering a hidden fuel tanker that contained thousands of medical teams in the area have been overwhelmed. most of the injured had to be transferred to neighboring cities for treatment. and the country with no functioning government and the state economy and a di health situation. if your prices is now leading to hours of waiting,

got metro stations. i've been here for a couple of hours. i'll probably stay for 3 or 4 hours in order to fill my bag with foam petrol. i'm the only one you're thousands of thought. not just where i am everywhere, living on our queue in front of petrol stations to get a basic commodity that no one can reach out there. i've been waiting for 2 hours. i'm not even sure whether i'll be able to get petrol or not. i've been here for 5 hours. look, it's empty. i might wait another 3 or 4 hours every month, i go through this 5 or 4 times. love, it has been through challenges in the past. but many say what they're experiencing, no political economy can, social invest would be difficult to actually start solving savvy as main opposition leaders had in closer to victory in the presidential

election. okay. in day he dilemma is hundreds of thousands of votes ahead of the incumbent leader. and colombo, well, okay, and his dilemma supporters happens celebrating in the capital of soccer. the final results of thursdays presidential election are expected in the coming days. how remote tulsa is in the socket, explains why counting is taking so long resolve from some of the other constituencies are being a now on sunday and people are being told just wait and see, because these are the results come in. it could hit the balance president who has said he felt that the electrons are free and in 3 provinces, even opposition from some people would tag by the off of the shed, at least one person was killed. i think that voting had to be just dropped to come senior official, the governing party came out and could also remember that these are just 3 provinces. we say, but probably confident that knew who will win the election international observe as

a vote. and they was like, vp for the problem with doing campaigning we. they say that opposition party weren't allowed to save some part of the country outside the opposition party. some of the people who support a neighbor are confident that he is going with the additional fit that they'll carry on county. they hope to consult my son's a if it could be monday or maybe even tuesday is the reason why it's taking so long because manual counting, want to make sure everything is done properly. they've said they don't want to turn around and say that the commission is uh, the reason why zambia was sick on fire do they didn't do their job properly. ah.