this comes less than a week before american forces are due to exit. pentagon spokesperson john kirby says a number of u.s. and civilian casualties were cost by one blast outside the gates used by people looking to flee afghanistan a telegram pokes person says more than 50 other people were injured, and a statement from the taliban condemns the bombing outside kabul airport, saying it happened in an area controlled by u.s. forces. also at a news conference, german chancellor angela merkel called the attack "malicious." here is what we know confirmed by the pentagon. the first explosion occurred in a large crowd near the airport. the second glass was confirmed to have happened at or near the baron hotel, not are from the airport. president biden has been briefed in the white house situation room. the white house has released a statement, saying the president has met with his national security team including

secretary of state antony blinken, secretary of defense lloyd austin, general mark milley, and commanders on the ground, and that he will continue to be briefed throughout the day. concerning the twin explosions, and gone spokesperson john kirby said we can confirm the explosion at the abbey gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of u.s. and civilian casualties. we can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the baron hotel, a short distance from abdicate. we will continue to update. dow jones is reporting the u.s. ambassador in kabul has called -- told staff that four marines have been killed. global news 24 hours a day, on-air, and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg.

alix: i'm alix steel. welcome to bloomberg's commodities edge. let's get right to data dig, the top market stories of the week. crude got a relief rally when the oil inventory numbers helped on wednesday. stockpiles dropping to pre-pandemic levels, the lowest since january of 2020. a big decline in padd 3, and gasoline demand was strong. fertilizer prices near decade highs. demand is fierce. farmers are putting more fertilizer onto their fields to get bigger yields. prices are so high now we could be at a tipping point where farmers may need to curb their purchases.

one other topic this week throughout the market, supply shortages. whether you are looking at things like milkshakes, labor. these are spot rates from china to the u.s., and china to europe. operations are not back to normal yet in china. the take away, your christmas shells may not be fully stocked and you better order early. let's get into the ring with brent versus wti. joining us now is fernando valle. why the underperformance now from wti? >> a couple of aspects. we are still seeing rigs being added to u.s. shale. production has been fairly resilient.

all of that has brought some concern. the biggest slowdown so far has been i one of the main consumers for brent is reducing their acquisition pace. on the u.s. side of equation, starting to come down to pre-pandemic levels although relatively at the high side compared to the five-your average. alix: does this incentivize buying of wti when you have such a discount? at what point does it get to that? >> the difficulty is it has to find new markets. we are still running our refineries at lower levels in pre-pandemic. we had several closures refining capacity since 2020. that wti needs to find another home outside of the u.s. exports have to move that way.

i think we will have near-term support. you will not see a ton of wti moving to china and the far east because they are curtailing purchases. as you mention as well with the container issues, shipping itself could be impacted in the demand for diesel. alix: great insight, thank you. time now for commodity in chief, where we talk to one executive in the commodity world. today is bob patel. let's focus on one of the company's key areas, plastics. the more stuff we buy, the more plastic we use. for example, polyethylene is the most widely produced plastic in the world. demand grew 4.5% in 2021.

that is outpacing gdp as plastics keep replacing things like paperbacks, steel, and glass. it is one of the largest plastic any chemical refinery companies in the world. it produces basic chemicals like ethylene and propylene which goes into making things like makeup, skincare, furniture. it also makes residents -- r esins. it has one of the biggest refineries in the u.s. in houston which can process to hunt at 68,000 barrels a day. it also had a solid second quarter. $1.9 billion in cash from operations. but how do you green the plastic supply chain? as much as we need plastic, it has become a dirty word, especially in developed markets. but the company has a plan. we use it and use ways to

chemically recycle. take renewable feedstocks like cooking oil and make plastics. i recently sat down with bob patel and asked if plastic was not a dirty word. >> plastic waste is a dirty word. that is what we have to address, plastic waste. what we are doing as a company, recently we introduced our brand of products that have three different types of products, circulate recover, circulate revive, and renew. recover is mechanical recycling. we have been doing this for a while, a joint venture in europe is growing rapidly. we take waste and convert that through mechanical grinding and a melting process if you will to make new recycle product. alix: taking old plastic to make new plastic. >> exactly. that is recover. revive, we are endeavoring

through our research and develop it work, to take plastic waste and convert back to a feedstock. imagine if we use renewable energy to do that. there is very little new carbon input to make more plastic, which enables everyday life. we are very close to developing this technology now. my hope is that we can build an industrial scale plant perhaps even starting next year. it will take a couple years to build. renew is all about using renewable feedstocks like used cooking oil, things like that, to make plastics feeling eventually the goal is to use less and less carbon to produce the plastics that enable everyday life. alix: let's unpack that. in terms of getting the recycling plastic to make new plastic, what is the biggest hurdle in getting that to scale? >> getting the waste out of the landfills, collecting the waste. about 400 million tons of

plastics are consumed every year. only 70% of that plastic is recovered. 30% ends up in the environment. on acceptable. we have to get that collected. we don't want that in the ocean. of that 70% collected, only 15% is recycled. that is our opportunity. if we can recycle more of what is already collected, get it out of these landfills and into these recycling plants, whether mechanical recycling or molecular recycling, both are needed to create the circular model long-term. alix: let's go to that third pillar, using waste materials, which would lessen the need for new hydrocarbons. what is the outlay for that, how expensive is it to do that? >> we can actually use the same equipment we use today to process. the key is collection. just like getting plastic waste out of the landfills.

it is more about getting these renewable feedstocks or the waste to a recycling plant, or to one of our units where we produce ethylene and poly propylene, polyethylene. for collection, more supply, we are ready to go. alix: overall in terms of the money you have to spend to make these three pillars happen, what are you looking at? >> it is hundreds of billions of dollars, not billions. over the next five years, if we were to build a molecular recycling plant and continue our recycling footprint growth, over five years, we may spend $500 million. it is not billions of dollars. i think where the investment needs to take place is upstream in the collection of the waste and in the sortation of the waste, and recycling plants, globally. alix: if you are pushing it back upstream, do you feel the money and the will is there to make

those investments? >> absolutely. ultimately, the brands have to pull the recycle product. consumers are demanding more recycled content. brands are willing to pay more to it and sent the investment. what we are seeing in the last two years is a significant push to more recycled content packaging. alix: that was my interview with the ceo of lyondellbasell, bob patel. that does it for me here on commodities edge. catch us every thursday at 1:00 new york time. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> welcome to bloomberg markets. i am matt miller. we continue to follow the developing story out of afghanistan where there have been at least two explosions in kabul and the u.s. government, pentagon have confirmed u.s. service members have been killed. for more, we will come retired u.s. retired brigadier general mark commit. clearly a tragedy no matter how you look at it, who is responsible. what kind of response, though, should the u.s. be prepared to give? >> i think we know what president biden wants to do. he is having a national security meeting now and he has to make the decision whether he wants to say this is over, let's finish the mission and not put anybody else at risk, or if he wants to

say we made a pledge to the american citizens and the siv holders that we will get them out, so that may cause us to extend mission. matt: how important is it to get our afghan allies out? we confirmed yesterday there were about 1500 americans in afghanistan, but we have heard there could be many thousands more afghan citizens who have worked for and were loyal to the u.s. war effort and government over the past decades. mark: soldiers do not leave fellow soldiers on the battlefield, it is that simple. these afghan interpreters are the same. they were with us on the battlefield, no different from any other soldier in that squad, full tune, company. we have a moral obligation to get as many of them out as possible. we know what their fate will be under the taliban. matt: how is it possible to do

that after the taliban has taken over the entire country, including u.s. military bases, and taken possession of u.s. weapons, technology? you have people in kabul but also people in all of the other provinces spread out across the country. it seems to me it would be tough without accepting more casualties. mark: it will certainly require more resources. candidly, it will require a lot of bravery on the part of those american troops that are going into get them. i don't know an american troop that has told me they are not willing to take that risk. matt: how long do you think this will last? i know the president wanted to pull out by august 31, allies were asking him to push that deadline back. this afternoon, i heard suggestions that we could will that forward.

germany, for example, chancellor merkel, says that the germans are done, evacuation flights are ending today. mark: first of all, we should not compare what we do with our allies peaked those are sovereign nations that can make decisions for themselves. if you ask any current or retired service military member, they would say let's do it until it is done. i know it sounds dramatic, but there is this underground railroad, this digital dunkirk being done by retirees and former soldiers serving in afghanistan saying we are not going to stop trying to get these people out. we are not just talking about evacuating by air assets. they have told the people to take land routes two to she could stand, uzbekistan. i don't think that we can just

cut and run and leave those people behind. we have a moral obligation to help them, do everything we can to honor their service to us. it is time for us to do service to them. matt: we even saw a couple congressman, one from each side of the aisle, which was interesting, who went back to kabul to assess the situation on the ground themselves. the administration and the media widely criticized that trip. what is your judgment of those gentlemen going back to see what they could do? mark: it is a political rampage here inside the beltway, but if you ask the troops on the ground, even the commander on the ground, if two congressmen show up, can you take them around? the commander probably said sure. i think those young troops probably appreciated the fact that congressman and war veterans were coming over to pat them on the back.

congress has an oversight responsibility. congress need to get in there and see if the executive branch and military is doing what they say they are doing. i am not as harsh on these two congressman. in fact, i almost want to pat them on the back or their creativity. they certainly didn't take any seats coming in. as i understand, they took crew seats coming out, so i'm a little more sympathetic and the blob has been on this. matt: i want to ask about your concerns in afghanistan for the future. of course, it's been widely reported that the taliban also considers isis an enemy, but that hasn't stopped them from working together. are you worried that they will harbor terrorists and we will see the results of that in the medium to near-term? mark: i am concerned that we

will see terrorist camps start setting up again inside afghanistan. they are able to find sanctuary and safe haven inside afghanistan. whether the taliban are doing that willingly or are unable to stop these camps from being set up, i don't think it makes a difference. what does make a difference is what the world community does about it when they see this happening. are we going to sit by and watch this happen as we did pre-9/11, or robbie going to take this every actions to go after those camps when we see it happening now? matt: what about the refugee situation? i know it is a very political issue, certainly has been here in germany, i assume in the u.s. as well. do we have that moral spots ability and obligation to accept and support refugees from this tragedy? mark: we have always used as a

principal for asylum cases that they have a reasonable fear of persecution. that has allowed many from south and central america to come into america, to claim asylum and then go to an asylum court to stay or be sent back to their countries. that same standard should apply to these people as well. if they have a reasonable fear of persecution, they are allowed to stay in the countries where they go. if they are economic refugees, that's a different story. if they have a reasonable fear of persecution, most nations understand that and grant asylum as a result. matt: appreciate your time, retired brigadier general, mark kimmitt on this developing story. we will continue to cover the tragedies unfolding in afghanistan throughout the hour. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. a headline we got in the last hour, bank of america announcing its chief operating officer thomas montag will retire at the end of the year. let's bring in our finance editor for more. a couple of big-name staff members stepping down. why are they leaving now? >> the news broke 30 minutes ago. we're also trying to figure out why now and the timing. these executives have been long tenured at bank of america. it is not all that a surprise. this is about the time they would consider leaving but why bank of america put out the news bid market today when the decision is not even happening until the end of the year is still unclear. like you say, these are two big

moves. tom montag was instrumental in helping the revival of bank of america's investment bank. beasley started his career at goldman sachs, then went to merrill lynch before it was bought by bank of america. in the last 10 years, has steered the success of its investment bank, finding good footing. through 2020, they had record revenues. he was undoubtedly a large personality out there. it will be a bit of a shock in the ranks. matt: anne finucane also has a long and storied career, served on many boards, cvs, university of new hampshire. what do we know about her? >> she came in from fleet financial, the same place where

ryan moynihan came from. she was a big time ceo whisper river, advising him on important issues, navigating the political channels. she was a key link in that process. she was the head of marketing at bank of america over the last couple of years. she was more of a esg evangelist and playing a big role in repositioning bank of america from a strategy perspective and how it was perceived in the public eye. matt: thanks very much for joining us on this breaking story from bank of america. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: i'm mark crumpton with bloomberg first word news. and a number of other military

members were wounded after two explosions occurred outside of kabul's international airport. a taliban spokesperson says 13 afghans were killed and 52 others wounded in the blast and a number of casualties could increase. here is what we know confirmed by the pentagon. the first explosion occurred in a large crowd near the airport. the second last happened at or near the baron hotel, not far from abby gate at the airport. president biden has been believed in the white house situation room. the white house released a statement saying the president has met with his national security team including secretary of state antony blinken, secretary of defense lloyd austin, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley, and commanders on the ground, and that he will continue to be briefed throughout the day. the statement from taliban condemns the bombing outside of kabul airport saying it happened in an area controlled by u.s. forces. also at a news conference,

german chancellor angela merkel called the attack "malicious" and said that those who are not evacuated from afghanistan would not be forgotten. global news 24 hours a day, on-air, and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ matt: i'm matt miller. welcome to bloomberg markets. greg: i'm greg bonnell. let's get a check on the markets. we are one day i from hearing from jerome powell, we have had some hawkish commentary from the fed, and we have this tragic situation in kabul. taking a look at the markets, they are under pressure.

we are seeing an uptick in the yield as well. perhaps a haven play out there considering the geopolitical strife. the u.s. dollar moving higher against a basket of international currencies. the vix jumping higher as well. catching the attention of the global community. let's get more on what is happening, go to the white house with our white house correspondent annmarie hordern. what is the latest? >> the latest statement from the pentagon that a number of servicemen and marines were killed due to these two explosions, one outside the abby gate of the kabul airport, another just about one mile away at a hotel, the baron hotel. we are still waiting for the pentagon to give us an exact number about who was killed, the casualties in terms of who was injured and fatally killed in these two explosions. the dow jones reporting it was

four marine but we are waiting for the pentagon to confirm that. as we are trying to figure out from officials what is going on, we cannot forget the human toll. this is a terrible tragedy, given these potential servicemember deaths as well as afghans. a taliban spokesperson saying they know of 13 afghans that were killed in this explosion. matt: the whole situation has been tragic, people have lost their lives today, but also on other days as grounds around the airport pushed in. last friday, president biden said "we made clear to the taliban that any attack on our forces or disruption of our operations at the airport will be met with swift and forceful response." i realize that this attack is being blamed on isis, but do we expect a statement from the

president? annmarie: we don't know yet. the president was in the situation room with a national security team. the entire agenda has been up in the air today. cancellations of meetings. he was supposed to meet with the prime minister of israel, naftali bennett. you saw the is really journalists leaving the white house, unsure if that meeting would take ice. i imagine, after we hear from the pentagon, the numbers of what is going on at kabul airport and in the outskirts, that the president would likely want to address the american people. he said on tuesday the reason he did not want to extend the withdrawal past is 31 was because of security reasons, especially from the likes of isis-k. antony blinken reiterating that yesterday. we need to wait from the pentagon to know who is responsible this but there have been worries about isis-k. they are an adversarial group to

the taliban for the most part, so we have to wait to see who was responsible for these exclusions. officials leading up to this worried about a potential attack from isis-k. in the middle of the night kabul time, they were telling u.s. citizens to leave the airport. if you are near any of the gates, please evacuate. there was concern of these potential threats. greg: i could think of what they are trying to think about in the situation room. what do you tell the american people considering there is several days to go before the deadline? we know there are people desperate to leave the country. this is only compounding the situation around the airport. annmarie: yesterday, we learned from the state department, at least 1500 american citizens. they say these are blue passport holders. what about those that have green cards or rights to access the u.s.? on top of that, you throw in the

thousands of afghan translators, cleaners, individuals who worked alongside america for two decades. on top of that, vulnerable groups, especially women and girls, which we know do not have the same rights, even close to the same rights as men, under the taliban. these individuals were hoping to seek refuge around western countries around the world. right now, flights are stopping because of this. u.k. prime minister says he wants to continue going in. you heard from chancellor merkel saying today they have to stop because there are security concerns. the pentagon says there are a number of servicemen that had died due to these explosions. are there other threats potentially? does the u.s. need to send in back up? these are questions we are waiting for officials to address. matt: thanks very much, annmarie

hordern, reporting live from the white house. let's turn away from pennsylvania avenue and back to the fed. we should be paying close attention to what comes out of jackson hole tomorrow, we're chairman powell will make his remarks virtually. mike mckee had a chance to catch up with kansas city fed mr. george who struck a hawkish tone. >> it is important to center on when we believe the progress in the economy is sufficient to start that process. that is where i'm focused. in that sense, we should get started this year so that we can begin to pair back the amount of accommodation, watch to see how the economy unfolds after that. matt: george was not the only one to speak out about tapering at the federal reserve. the bank of dallas federal reserve president robert kaplan

and st. louis's james bullard urged policymakers to move quickly to slow asset purchases. let's welcome in lindsey piegza from steeple. what do you expect to hear from the fed tomorrow, how do you think markets are going to react? the chairman will strike an optimistic tone, highlighting the improvement we have seen in the economy, particularly noting the strong employment games we have seen with the backdrop of the july nonfarm payrolls, adding one million jobs. continued strong activity in manufacturing, services, a housing market that is very solid, all translating into a very strong gdp profile over 6.5%. first and foremost, the chairman will focus on the improvement we have seen. that being said, i think he will also highlight the need for further improvement, particularly in the labor

market. as he pointed out many times, some of the subgroups of the labor market have lagged behind the national average. from a monetary policy standpoint, he will be very clear that risks remain. yes, we have seen a lot of progress, yes, we are seeing strong growth, but that does not mean that we will continue at this trend. risks remain particularly as we see a reemergence of the delta variant. the chairman is likely to pronounce the need for further accommodation. at the same time, i think the fed chairman will look back at the improvements we have seen and suggest some sort of hint or outline that if we are able to overcome the risk, looking out to the end of the year, it may be appropriate to begin to take the foot off the gas and remove accommodation via a slower pace of asset purchases as we turned

the corner into 2022. not a specific announcement, the market is not expecting that by any means, but investors are expecting some sort of outline as to the time when we can expect the fed to begin to roll back some of these extraordinary measures. greg: when it comes to the fed speakers we heard from today, i know they are not voting members, noted hwaks to begin with, but when you listen to their argument of pushing for a taper sooner rather than later, is there merit in the argument? lindsey: absolutely. the one question you could ask the chairman is what problem are we trying to solve in the economy by continuing at these accommodative levels? the labor market is strong. inflationary levels, depending on what industry you are following, is two or three times what the fed is targeting in terms of the long-term average of 2%. there are a number of fed presidents that are being vocal.

right now, these policies are no longer eating the recovery but could actually be creating unintended consequences for the recovery going forward, as we have heard from some point out, further growth in asset bubbles, housing prices over 717% on an -- 17%, creating potential pitfalls. there is concern that while these policies may have been necessary at the onset when we were falling into double-digit negative territory, at this point, the fed should be loosening that accommodation and allowing organic metrics to come back into the market. with strength returning, there is no further need, according to the hawkish argument, or the fed to maintain these levels. matt: thanks for joining us, lindsey piegza. much more on jackson hole, what is expected as we head toward

that meeting, speech tomorrow. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. let's turn to the latest, back to the latest in afghanistan. a developing story, lots of moving parts. we are still waiting to hear from the pentagon and the white house. let's get to emily wilkins of bloomberg government, covering the story for us. we do expect to hear at least

from the pentagon. we are not clear whether or not the biden administration will make a statement. emily: we are still trying to get more details at this point, as we wait for statements from the white house, as well as from the pentagon, from the department of defense secretary. they addressed reporters in recent days about the situation coming out of afghanistan. we know there were two explosions outside of kabul's international airport, causing 13 deaths, some american troops, who do dozens of others. this came after the u.s. mourned american citizens and allies to stay away from the air, worried about potential data -- danger. it comes as many are still trying to get on planes to get out of the country. greg: this has been a chaotic situation, even before the tragedy of today and the two explosions and the loss of life.

you have to imagine the administration is trying to figure out how these final days play out in terms of getting people out of the country and wrapping up this operation. emily: that is a really big question. the way this needs to go, those who are left in afghanistan need to get out in the next couple of days. they don't have at august 31 deadline. what needs to happen, first, they need to get the american citizens and afghan allies out, and that the military out. to do all of that by august 31 means that you are really looking at the next 72 hours or so to get out american citizens, as well as afghanistan allies. they reported yesterday, secretary of state antony blinken said about 1500 american citizens remained in the country, were in contact with 500 of them. we also noted some that have american citizenship may have dual citizenship and may not all be looking to leave afghanistan at this time.

matt: what kind of reaction are you hearing from congressmen and congresswomen, senators? at least we saw one from each side of the aisle go to kabul to check what is happening on the ground. it seems there are concerns on both sides. emily: definitely concern on both sides of the aisle. you talk to republicans and democrats, all of them are trying to work with their teams to make sure they are processing applicants, doing what they can to get american citizens back, as well as afghanistan allies. i will say tensions are high. the two congressmen are facing a high level of criticism from their colleagues, saying this is an operation that needed to go on. you did not need to be over there. you're coming back home took up seats. this was not the time to go over there and play hero.

this is a time to buckle down and get things done. there are lots of tensions on capitol hill. you are also hearing republican house leader kevin mccarthy go ahead and call for speaker pelosi to bring congress back before august 30 so they can be briefed by the administration and prohibit the withdrawal of troops until every american is safely out of the country. matt: emily wilkins, thank you very much. we will bring you any additional comments, if we get them from the white house. you are looking at a live shot. or from the pentagon. this is bloomberg. ♪

greg: this is bloomberg markets. i'm greg bonnell. many governments including the bonded administration has some pretty aggressive targets when it comes to electric vehicles.

david westin spoke with general motors chair mary barra about these. >> for us, it is making sure we have a full folio of electric vehicles. it starts in the fall with the gmc hummer ev. we have vehicles coming between now and 2025 across many segments. we also talked about the chevrolet silverado electric truck. i cannot wait as we show more and more of the portfolio. making sure we have vehicles that customers want to buy is important to reaching the goals that he set. >> i was going to ask you about the silverado. a lot of gm's success has been from the full-size pickup trucks. when will we see an electric version of the silverado? >> in the not-too-distant future, we have not announced timing yet, but i cannot wait to share the vehicle with the world. this truck really takes advantage of our platform, how we can provide capability that you cannot do if you are trying to retrofit an existing ice

vehicle or truck today. >> when we make this conversion from internal combustion trick -- engine vehicles to electric vehicles, there is a long way. you have said there will be a lot of conversion. what is the pace of that, back and loaded? take the 2025 date that you put out there. how much will we see by 2025, 2030? >> we will have the portfolio and we have the manufacturing capability where we can build. we are planning for contingencies if adoption happens more quickly. getting the infrastructure right will be key. we need to earn back customers who only has one vehicle and needed to get to work every day. it also has to be affordable. customers have told us it is a beautifully designed vehicle with about 300 miles of range and priced appropriately, they are all in. matt: that was mary barra,

general motors chair and ceo speaking to david westin on his detroit special. since the onset of the pandemic, alternative data from open table reservations to tsa traveler numbers have been used to track the economic recovery. at the start of the summer, the data saw an upshot as vaccinations increased, but that data is not rolling over after concern of the delta variant, keeping more people at home. let's welcome and frederic lalonde, ceo of hopper. i guess this would be the fourth wave of covid-19 playing out. frederic: on our side, there are two parts. hopper is a mobile app. 60 million users in north america. we are seeing some of our

strongest numbers since the beginning of the year. in terms of recovery, we are twice as high in terms of transactions, airfare, hotel, then we were before the pandemic. another interesting aspect, hopper sees all the shopping demand. that is how we create our price reduction that has made us so popular. we are starting to see a small decrease of about 10% in shopping demand, which is usually a leading indicator to bookings. before the surge of holidays, which happens in the last quarter, we expect an 11% dip. for the first time since the beginning of the recovery -- going back almost a year -- we have started to see prices go down. airfare has dipped a little bit, car rental prices are down. delta has had an impact, especially in the sun belt markets. however, the demand remains super resilient. we think travel is in a two-your

super cycle. customers have savings and have not traveled in a while, so they'll be showing up. greg: i just want to ask you, looking at next year based on demand, if restrictions are lifted, looks good? frederic: one thing we have learned, the general leisure population is not really afraid of the virus. what is preventing people from traveling are the restrictions. canada recovered from an 80% drop to 100% in six weeks once the european restrictions were lifted. matt: thanks very much. so we had such a short time with you. frederic lalonde is the cofounder of hopper, an app which predicts prices for things like airfare. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: two explosions outside of couples international air port today because 13 debts, including some american troops. in a tweet, pentagon spokesperson john kirby said we can confirm that a number of service members were killed in today's complex attack at kabul airport. another number are being treated for wounds. we also know a number of afghans fell victim to this heinous attack. a taliban spokesperson said a number of afghans were killed and more than 50 others were wounded in the blast. a statement from the taliban condemned the attack, saying it happened in an area controlled by u.s. forces. also, german chancellor angela merkel called the attack "in her words -- attack in her words "malicious." >> we know that the window of time is close and and 10,000

people could b