at least 227 people have died in haiti after a powerful earthquake, measuring 7.2 magnitude. a state of emergency has been declared. in the uk, there are questions for police about why it chose to return a shotgun licence to the man who killed five people in the country's worst mass shooting since 2010. some clinically vulnerable children in england are struggling to get a covid vaccine, nearly four weeks after they were added to the roll—out. now on bbc news, our world. yalda hakim reports from afghanistan. 20 years since 911 and the invasion of afghanistan american troops are finally leaving.

but since news of the withdrawal, targeted killings and suicide attacks have increased. the taliban are back and rapidly gaining ground against government forces. many people fear there will be a return to the brutal regime of the �*90s. taliban leaders in doha say they have changed, and want to find a solution to the conflict. there was, in the past, some mistakes we have learned from. in this 2—part series i'll be trying to find out if they are serious about peace, and what is at stake for ordinary afghans. there is no way i can surrender to the taliban, none, no way.

i was born in afghanistan and have been reporting from the region for more than a decade. after two years away, i was on my way to meet with an old friend, the photojournalist massoud husseini. i was surprised to find out he was living in hiding, barely leaving his house. i am staying here, actually. here is just to show you where i live. here is my bed. i made it as a kitchen, and that's it. that's your life? yeah. all the time here, all the time. massoud's parents left afghanistan when he was a small child. after the us invasion in 2001,

he decided to return and take part in the rebuilding of the nation. one of my favourite pictures when i came to afghanistan, this is the second day, the morning of the second day that i arrived in kabul. and this picture gave me a lot of hope. i thought that we were going to be a normal country, normal society. girls can do this, they can come to the cultural events like this. but did your wishes come true, to some extent, coming back to afghanistan, being so active and involved? yeah, well, that is something that i felt as a responsibility to do for my country, you know? but i think that it never come true. in 2011, massoud photographed the suicide bombing of a shia shrine.

his photo was a stark warning to the world that the gains that had been made in afghanistan since 2001 could easily be wiped away. it still is too much painful. i mean, it's haunting, that image of the young girl amongst her family. mm. the same year massoud took that picture, president barack 0bama announced the withdrawal of tens of thousands of american troops from the country. over the next few years, the taliban gained in strength and influence. afghans like massoud started to see attacks against civilians become more common. in 2018, massoud narrowly avoided two assassination attempts on his life. in the first, his car was riddled with bullets. in the second attempt, a suicide bomber had targeted a group of journalists.

i was clicking, right, my camera. the explosion happened from left to right in my view of the camera, in my frame. massoud lost nine of his friends and colleagues in the blast. that attack was completely and exactly against journalists. the only chance in luck that i had, i was 10m away. that said, otherwise we were all being killed there. and because of remembering this time of my life, if i die or not, i kind of plant those trees for reminding this, whenever happens, these trees will be there. i find it extraordinary that you are saying, "whenever i die, this should remain a reminder," because you feel it's just something hanging over you.

well, i see this because those who i know, right, i knew, those journalists, and i knew about their dreams and their plans for their life, they've been killed so easily, so i will be another one, right? but i did my, i mean, responsibility for my own homeland. i was fall in love with afghanistan through my work, through photography and i did, i don't know how we can say english...speaks pashto. "you are loyal." i was loyal for my own country and i did my best. seeing massoud confined to four walls was a sign of the growing taliban resurgence. but it's notjustjournalists who feel threatened. with allied troops on their way

out and a taliban staging ever more brazen attacks, wide sectors of afghan society now fear for their lives. we saw an increase in attacks, religious scholars, journalists. human rights activists. they were notjust engaged in work, they were fighting for peace and they are being killed. shahrzad akbar is the chairperson of the afghan independent human rights commission which investigates human rights abuses in afghanistan. do you have anything you can do where you can relax or you just home in the office? home in the office maybe. dealing with my son. keeps you very busy? it keeps me injoy. i have one that is obsessed with trains. everything is about trains. as you say, they do bring a lot ofjoy, yes. but also, constant worry. yeah. you know?

yeah, i sometimesjoke, i am only a mum at home. he plays in front of the complex we live in every day. sometimes i arrive, he asks me to walk with him, he will cry if i go upstairs, and i just stay for a few minutes very nervously, wearing my mask, hoping people will see not him, but me. people know who i am, but i just don't want to know he is my son. if people know, they might hurt him. it's an incomplete experience. shahrzad's fears are justified. last summer, a bomb attack killed two of her colleagues, fatima khalil and jawad folad. when they were on their way to work, and explosion blew up and killed them both.

not instantly, i believe. i know that peace might come to afghanistan, i know it might come, insha'allah, but all these people have lost their children, their lives have changed forever, their lives have changed forever. i wonder, when you leave home every day, every morning, you say goodbye to your child. do you think, "i may not come back"? the field that i work in, it's notjust me, it's my colleagues as well and

every morning when they leave the home, they don't know they will be back. it's the same for me, when i leave in the morning, i don't know if i will see my family. since i became a mum, there is always this doubt. "do i have the right to do this?" because there is someone else�*s life at stake. targeted killings are part of a new form of warfare that has taken root in afghanistan. fatima and jawad were two of ove 700 people assassinated in 2020 across the country. every time we are stuck in traffic, there is a certain worry. it's so tense here. everything is on edge, that maybe the car in front of you might explode, next to you, or there might be some kind of targeted killing. it is an absolutely precarious and uncertain situation. i wanted to put some questions about the security situation directly to the government, as they seem to be struggling

to keep a hold of the security in the areas they control. i approach the vice—president, amrullah saleh, a man with a long and personal history with the taliban, having fought them directly in the �*90s, becoming intelligence chief in the early 20005. let me show you some of the pictures of my kids. when i was intelligence chief, i used to take them to the office with me. this is my son. who was in the car with you? my son. i said so we are alive and i am glad you are with me because this is patriotism, earned the hard way. one year ago, the vice president and his son narrowly avoided an attempt on his life after his convoy was struck by a roadside bomb.

not long after this, mr saleh set up daily security briefings at 6:30am each morning in a bid to stem the violence consuming kabul. these briefings have taken place every morning for the past 200 days. if you want you could join me. vice president saleh gave us rare access to attend one of the meetings. if you think about kabul city, i have come back after several years, people are saying to me they can't leave their house at night, women don't feel safe, people don't feel safe, there are different militia groups in the city. how has it come to this? those problems were there before the 6:30 meetings. have you thwarted many attacks as a result? we have foiled 850 attacks in 200 days. those that have gone off,

yes, failures, but 850 have been stopped. this is my chief of staff. nice meeting you. the first speaker at the security briefing was halima karimi, mp for the remote province of wolesijirga, who had come to demand answers from the security services following the murder of her brother. what i heard in the meeting was shocking.

the vice president was determined that i don'tjust

take his word for it. he arranged for us to get access to the prisons and speak directly with some of the recently detained taliban suspects. we have just arrived at the headquarters of the national directorate of security. we have been promised that we can meet some prisoners accused of being behind some of the targeted killings of civil society and journalists. you can't see it now, but we are in a heavily fortified area. once we had made it inside the compound, the prison guards presented us with a series of taliban recruits, who stood accused of committing attacks against a range of targets, from government officials, journalists, and even schoolgirls. can they not be standing there? can we shut the door? it was important that i spoke to the prisoners alone. could you please tell me why you are in this prison?

as the interviews went on, i realised these people were far from terrorist masterminds.

he was understandably keen to demonstrate the success his security forces were having in capturing taliban fighters. but it was hard for me to tell under such pressure from the guards whether or not the willingness of these three prisoners to speak with me was sincere, and if they could give me the whole story. one person who i wanted to speak to again was the mp halima karimi, who had spoken at the security meeting. the only woman in the room, she had come to the meeting to petition the vice president over the lack of investigation into her brother's murder.

in response to the mp's accusations, the amrullah saleh�*s office has said the investigation into the murder is still ongoing.

people here aren't asking for very much, they are asking for the basic human rights, to be able to leave their homes every morning and to know that they will return alive, to have dinner with their families, to be able to come to parks like this and have a picnic with their relatives and friends and family. and frankly, right now, that's a long way off. after my meeting with halima karimi, i got a call from massoud, saying he was at a rare outing to take photos at a local hilltop. there is no certainty at all, nothing basically, and everybody on the air now,

they don't know what to do. but you can't give up? it's one of those things were people have no choice. they can't give up because they don't have choice, that's true, but having no choice doesn't mean hope. they have to live in this situation, they have to. that's it. i have met with a wide range of afghans. human rights activist, journalists, government officials, and men suspected of killing for the taliban cause. i'm left with a sense that ordinary afghans are caught up in a war that nobody can hide from. somehow, there is still a glimmer of hope. in doha, talks are ongoing over a possible peace deal between the taliban and the government. next time, i will be meeting with senior taliban officials and commanders from the front line in a bid to understand

what lies ahead for afghanistan. are the taliban ready to compromise? or will they take the country by force? hello. the heatwave continues across southern europe with the potential that spain could break temperature records this weekend if we see temperatures getting above 48 celsius. no sign of any extreme heat in this long range forecast for the uk, and in the short term, we still have these slow—moving fronts to deal with on sunday, still bring in lots of cloud,

also some outbreaks of rain, chiefly light and patchy through the morning through parts of wales, south—west england, it should ease off through the afternoon. rain, too, across parts of north england, and may be pushing into northern ireland for a time, lots of showers across the far north of scotland. but elsewhere, it is mainly dry, a lot of cloud through the morning, but some spells of sunshine through the afternoon, quite warm again across east anglia and south england but a cool feeling day for the northern isles, also across the north of northern ireland. through sunday evening and into the early hours of monday, we lose most of the rain across england and wales, some showers sliding away south and eastwards across scotland, mostly becoming dry by dawn on monday but more cloud pushing back in to western areas and for most, it is another mild night with some clearer skies across parts of scotland, we could see temperatures getting down to single figures. so, the area of low pressure in the frontal system pushes away into scandinavia on monday. high pressure building from the west. notice the squeeze on the isobars, a fairly brisk north—westerly wind on monday, certainly a cooler feel to start the new week. also, plenty of cloud, particularly the further west you are,

the best of any sunshine will be for eastern counties of scotland and england. and maybe just the chance of one or two showers feeding in on that north—westerly wind, most will be dry but we will notice a drop in temperature, particularly across england and wales. so, on into tuesday and not much change in the pressure pattern. low pressure still across scandinavia, this area of high pressure building across the atlantic, still that cool north—westerly wind and a lot of cloud around on tuesday. now, it may thin and break through the afternoon but for most, i think the sunshine is going to be fairly limited, again we could see a few showers, it should be for most mainly dry day. temperatures, 16 to 20 celsius. it is a bit like groundhog day, really, because the middle of the week is very much the same. this area of low pressure still pushing its way slowly across scandinavia. high pressure trying to building from the south—west. if anything, the north—westerly winds will be slightly lighter on wednesday but it is a moist air flow so it's still a lot of cloud. a better chance, i think, through the middle part of the week, but in the morning we will see a bit of sunshine before the cloud

builds and then some late sunshine to end the day. again, the chance of a few showers almost anywhere. most will be dry, 16 to 21 celsius on wednesday, particularly if you do manage to see a bit more sunshine. so, enter thursday and the pressure pattern becomes quite slack so the winds will be very light on thursday, still this battle going on between low and high pressure. i'll come back to that injust a moment. for thursday, yes, it is more of the same. a mostly cloudy day, the chance of a few showers, most will be dry, there will be some bright or sunny spells coming through, and we are looking again at highs of 16 to 21 celsius. now, this battle between low pressure and high pressure is going to be tricky to get exactly right as we look ahead to next weekend and beyond. it looks like we keep the low pressure close by for a time through the weekend, still those north—westerly winds, chance of showers, but look at this area of high pressure trying to build in. so, there is a chance that as we head through the second half of the weekend and into the beginning

of the following week that things will start to warm up a little, particularly across the southern half of the uk. but for most, it is going to stay mainly dry, if rather cloudy. i'll be back tomorrow. bye—bye.

questions over why the gunman who shot dead five people in plymouth had a firearms licence. now the police watchdog investigates. tributes to the victims — who included a three—year—old girl — leaving the entire community in shock. she hasn't even started her life, she is so little and it's just, yeah, it's terrible. we are all really sad, especially for the family that are left behind as well. the gunman had his firearms permit revoked last year after being accused of assault, but it was then given back. we'll be asking why. also tonight... afghans who've fled their homes as the taliban now control a majority of the land and are nearing the capital, kabul. a powerful earthquake strikes haiti. latest reports say over 200 people have died and there is extensive damage.

and full capacity crowds greet the opening weekend of the premier league.