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tv   CNN Newsroom Live  CNN  August 18, 2021 1:00am-2:00am PDT

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welcome to our viewers joining us here in the grunited states and around the world. i'm rosemary church. just ahead, afghan airlift, the u.s. ramps up its efforts to fly thousands out of afghanistan by the end of the month. greg abbott becomes a victim of his own war on masking. the texas governor says he has covid. and at the epicenter of haiti's earthquake, hospital workers struggle with a massive influx of patients.
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good to have you with us. the man who may become afghanistan's new ruler has returned from a 20 year exile. baradar was cheered by the taliban as he arrived tuesday. he co-founded the militant group almost three decades ago and looks said to take charge again. the taliban have been settling into kabul after taking the capital, and this comes as the u.s. tries to cut off their access to cash. officials say the bulk of assets at the afghan central bank, billions of dollars, are not even in afghanistan. and the u.s. treasury is working to effectively freeze them. meantime with thousands of
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people still trying to escape at the airport in kabul, u.s. officials are in talks with the taliban. pentagon spokesman john kirby was asked about that on tuesday. >> do the discussions include talk about allowing americans or afghans through some of the taliban checkpoints or potentially expanding the perimeter around the airport so more people can get there safely? that is one of the things that we're hearing, that people can't get through the taliban checkpoints. >> without going into the details of the communications of which i'm not a part, as i said, there are interactions down at the local level and as the general said, we are processing american citizens to get out. >> so the question that remains is whether that process can move fast enough. thousands of americans and afghan allies are still in afghanistan. and if the u.s. sticks to its deadline, there is less than two
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weeks to get them all out. oren liebermann has more. >> reporter: kabul's international airport is in a more secure stable situation than it was 24 or 48 hours ago, but the u.s. is still unable to move 5,000 to 9,000 people a day out of the airport. that is what the mipentagon is trying to hit with cargo aircraft moving people out of the country, but that number still very far away from it. according to an update from the state department, the u.s. moved about 1,000 out tuesday including 300 or so americans. that brings the total number of people moved over the last few days to some 3,000, but that number well short of what it will have to be on a daily basis to really start getting u.s. citizens as well as afghan interpreters and their families out of the country. the potential number that have to be moved, tens of thousands. and that right now seems like a daunting task although that is an effort that the u.s. pentagon
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hopes to hit. the ability to move thousands a day in the coming days. meanwhile national security adviser jake sullivan says the u.s. has assurances from the taliban that u.s. citizens will have free passage to get to the airport. the challenge here, not all of those citizens that america is trying to evacuate are in kabul. travel throughout the rest of the country incredibly difficult if not impossible. the logistical difficulties ahead, many it seems have still not been solved. as the hours tick away, the effort to get everybody out still aiming for an august 31 deadline that is approaching very quickly. oren liebermann, cnn, the pentagon. women, girls and religious minorities have very good reasons to fear a return to taliban rule. so do afghans who worked for the
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u.s. and its allies. but the militants say they want peace and won't hurt women. here is what a taliban spokesman said at their news conference. >> translator: we don't want afghanistan to be a battlefield. today the fighting is over. whoever was against the opposition has been given blanket amnesty. the fighting should not be repeated. >> cnn's anna coren has reported from afghanistan for years, including on a recent trip there. she is with us now from hong kong for the latest on the taliban takeover. good to see you. so what do you make of the taliban's efforts to convince the world that they have changed and will now support the rights of women and that are of a begans saying about all of this? >> reporter: certainly they are trying to say all the right things such as women will still be allowed to go to work, they will only have to wear the
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hijab. but it is up to their interpretation. there was no clarification on what that really meant. and the fear for women in particular in afghanistan who if they were around for the taliban rule back in 1996 to 2001 was that it was absolutely brutal. these women were basically prisoners in their own home. they are only allowed to go outside wearing a burqa and chaperoned by a male relative. now they are saying we want you part of the workforce but within this framework. i was speaking to a 25-year-old woman a little bit earlier, she has worked for an international company in kabul.
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she said she is terrified, she has not left her home since sunday. she said we wake up with this nightmare every single day with the taliban on our streets, patrolling, you know, the checkpoints. she said i will not go outside. my heart bleeds for my homeland. she has two younger sisters and she said will they be married off to taliban fighters, which is what we were seeing up in certain provinces during the fighting of the last few months. so these are the sort of concerns. and she is doing her mba, she is somebody who wants a future. and so many young women, millions and millions of women, have gone to school, gone to university, and were part of that future of a democratic afghanistan. and that has vanished overnight. they are now living with this reality. they know that they have no future in afghanistan despite what the taliban is saying to
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them and they are looking for a way out. you know, i'm getting messages constantly, how can i get out of this country, can you get me on a list. a state department list. and you heard then from the state department saying, well, at the moment we're just getting american citizens out. what happens to all those afghan interpreters, all those activists, all those journalists who are now fearing for their lives. they have two weeks to get them out. >> it is just a terrifying situation for all of those people. and that core ren, many thanks to bringing us up-to-date with all of that. appreciate it. in the coming hours, job is expected to speak to the american people about the need for covid booster shots. covid hospitalizations have doubled over the last three weeks as the delta variant surges through the country. the u.s. health department data shows more than 83,000 people are hospitalized this week alone
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straining health care systems. although officials previously held off calling for a booster shot, it appears that they now believe that it is necessary. >> they are doing something smart i think, they have learned a lesson that you have to lay the groundwork when you are going to make a big change. so what they have done in the last couple weeks by saying, hey, we're going to need them in the future, we might need them, looks like we'll need them, at some point we're going to need them, is better than where they have been criticized for before, which is just coming out with a change without making people aware that it was going to come. not everybody pays equal attention, but what i think that they will say tomorrow when they announce this is that we are getting ahead of the problem. we're trying to prevent the problem from becoming worse, we've studied the data, hopefully they will share the data. they have told me they will share the data, which will tell people, hey, here is what we're seeing and because ear seeing this, here is what we're
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recommending. and we should look long and hard at that. >> the administration is considering a plan for boosters eight months after full vaccination, but the world health organization wants wealthy countries to delay booster doses. >> this is a dsis a global pandd we need global solutions. what our recommendation is, all of the world's most vulnerable and those most at risk, health workers, need to receive their first and second doses before large proportions of the population or all of the population in some countries receive that third dose. >> the u.s. transportation security administration will extend its mask mandate on planes, trains and buses into january. the mandate was set to expire in september, but officials say it needs to stay due to the skyrocketing covid cases and the highly transmissible delta variant. a flight attendants union praised the extension of the
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mask mandate. flight attendants and airline workers have been on the front leans o lines of enforcing the mask rules and there have been nearly 3,000 incidents of passengers violating the mask mandate this year. meantime the governor of texas who has been a staunch opponent of mask mandates has now tested positive for covid-19. greg abbott's office revealed his diagnosis on tuesday. but the governor also posting a video to social media about how he's feeling. >> i test myself every day and today is the first day i tested positive. the good news is that my wife continues to test negative. and i have received the covid-19 vaccine and that may be one reason why i'm really not feeling any symptoms right now. i have no fever, no aches and pains, no other symptoms. >> abbott is now isolating at the governor's mansion while receiving antibody treatments.
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rosa flores has more on how this could affect the rest of the state. >> reporter: his press office also saying that everyone who has been in close contact with the governor has been contacted. now, that might include the people in these pictures. take a look. governor greg abbott tweeting these monday night showing his attendance at a mostly maskless rally in collin county. governor abbott now a part of the alarming statistics in this state, the growing number of people who have tested positive for covid-19. all of this happening at a time when his attorneys are arguing in courts across this state against mask mandates in schools at a time when the state of texas leads the nation in the number of children who are hospitalized with covid-19. will his infection change his mind on mask mandates? we don't know that.
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that we do know is that the legal battle over mask mandates in this state continues. in florida, the state board of education is targeting two school districts over mask mandates. the board voted unanimously that the two counties be investigated for apparently tdefying the ordr against masks. the school districts could face funding and salary cuts and removal of officers. the board says the man daetdate violate state law because they don't include opt out provisions for parents. and in arizona, the republican governor doug ducey is escalating his efforts to prohibit mask mandates in schools. he said the state would use federal covid relief money to increase funding available to public school districts only if they are open for in-person learning and don't require masks. u.s. house lawmaker greg
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stanton and arizona democrat, said that move is illegal and he is now urging the u.s. treasury to withhold those funds from his home state. in kentucky, there has been an explosion of pediatric covid cases. the number of infected children has soared more than 400% in just one month and the governor's office warns that children are at greater risk from the virus than ever before. and in alabama, the covid situation has gotten so bad that hospitals have run out of icu beds. the alabama hospital association told local media that nearly 1600 patients were in need of intensive care and they were about 11 beds short. one doctor says the shortages are emotionally devastating and staff have been holding one another and crying. just extraordinary. still to come, the british prime minister will be speaking about the chaos in afghanistan. we'll bring you details of what
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he says. plus, the death toll from the devastating earthquake in haiti keeps climbing. a cnn crew is in one of the hardest hit cities and we'll take you there next. tony here from creditrepair.com taking to the streets to talk about credit. can you repair your credit yourself? yes. -great. how? uhhh... how long does credit repair take? i don't know, like 10 years. what? are you insane? what's a good credit score? go. 600. maybe if you're trying to pay thousands extra
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days after the taliban took control of kabul, british prime minister boris johnson will address parliament later this morning on the situation in afghanistan. salma abdelaziz is in london. what is the british prime minister expected to say? >> reporter: boris johnson will be speaking to the house of commons midday today. this is rather rare because this is august, but it shows just how important it is to the members of government here to have this session. he will be facing criticism, that is absolutely going to happen. members of parliament will be asking the prime minister how did this happen so quickly, how did everything unfold so dramatically, so drastically in just a matter of days in afghanistan, was he aware, did he have security briefings necessary, what was his coordination with the united states, all of these questions will be asked because
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fundamentally there are still several thousand british nationals inside afghanistan needing evacuation. and of course britain's long standing dedication to this war. so real questions about what is the purpose, what is happening, what is the future. boris johnson will of course be expected to defend what has taken place over the last few days. he has already spoken to the press in the past saying that it was essentially inevitable that at some point troops would have to pull out and the afghan people wiould be left to their own devices. so you do expect him to gave some sort of response to those questions. but the other matter we're also expecting from boris johnson is the announcement of a resettlement scheme. potentially thousands of afghan nationals will be provided asylum here in the uk, in the first years expected to bring in
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5,000 afghan nationals over the long term, potentially 20,000. priority will be given to women and girls and people from minorities of course being the most vulnerable groups there. so that will be one way in which the british prime minister shows his obligation and dedication to the afghan people is through this resettlement scheme. but a lot of questions will be asked here. there is a little bit of kicking the can down the road, there is a g7 summit next week. so boris johnson can say i need to speak to our allies before we have a coordinated and clear strategy on the future of afghanistan. but for right now, we need to focus on the evacuations, so that is what he will be discussing, how do you pull out the last british nationals an coordinate the full wrauithdraw of british troops. >> salma abdelaziz, many thanks. we're getting a clearer picture of the devastation left behind after the earthquake in haiti. the death toll has now jumped to over 1900 people, hospitals are inundated with victims. and heavy rain from tropical
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storm grace is further complicating relief efforts. many injured survivors are stuck in remote areas huddled together under make shift tents or with no shelter at all. getting aid to them is slow going and leading to growing frustrations. here is what one victim told us. >> we have been promised medicine. i went to look for it and i was told to wait. yesterday they distributed aid but i wasn't able to get anything. it rained a lot at night. we could not sleep. we have nothing to eat. we have nothing. >> matt rivers is near the epicenter of the quake will health care workers at one hospital are overwhelmed with patients. here is his report. >> reporter: as soon as we arrived to the hospital, so did this man on a stretcher. first responders brought him to the main hospital, a facility that in reality has no room for him.
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inside haitian doctors and nurses are doing what they can to manage an influx of earthquake victims. so many have come in, every single bed is full, so some are simply laid on the floor. there are broken arms and legs, crush wounds from falling debris. and in the case of this 22 month old, a shattered femur. my daughter is suffering, her dad says, and i don't want her to lose her leg. i'm so sad she's going through this. he said he pulled her out of the rubble himself. i love my daughter very much, and i almost lost her. i'm very grateful to these doctors working with their bare hands. it is horrific for everyone. not far from the hospital, there is destruction on every block. here ordinary people are clearing the debris because underneath was a grocery store. food supplies are thin, so anything they can find will help. hundreds have died here.
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many remain missing and thousands were injured, far more than the small health system can handle. at the hospital, there is only on so much these doctors and nurses can do. on a normal day, officials say they treat ten people here. when we were there, 84 people were waiting for treatment and more were coming in. we are totally overwhelmed, says the hospital direct tore. t we don't have the means to take care of them all. a doctor on scene told us at least a third need to be moved to better equipped facilities. if not, it could lead to everything from losing limbs to losing lives. this dad is doing it best to just keep it together because he doesn't know what else to do. >> for more on how you can help the people of haiti, go to cnn.cocnn d cnn cnn.com/impact. and we're tracking three
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powerful storms right now, a flash flood threat continues from the mid-atlantic through the northeast from former tropical storm fred while tropical storm grace takes aim at the yucatan. pedram javaheri has the details. >> good morning, rosemary. yes, we're watching parts of three storms here. what is left of what was once tropical storm fred, fred really left a mess across the southern united states. look at portions of the panhandle into northern georgia, into the carolinas, that is widespread coverage of 3 to 4 inches of rainfall that came down in the past 24 hours. and we do have flood alerts extending into the northeast and we think the storm will eventually rain itself out across this region with another round of 3 to 4 inches. so essential will i wly what pl in the south will play out in the northeast the next 36 hours. tropical storm grace still there, very slow moving exiting
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out of jamaica into portions of the day cayman islands. potential another landfall over cozumel, restrengthen back up to a category 1 making another landfall into northern mexico. so watch this over the next several days with multiple impact points before it is all said and done. widespread coverage of the u.s., we've talked about the excessive heat and also the fire weather risks, and that is once again back at play there across parts of the western u.s. very strong winds with the potent frontal boundary pushing through the region. so expect the winds to howl. back behind the front, look at those temperatures, cream contours we have not seen in some time. 20 to 30 fwlee degrees below wh they were yesterday.
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even a possibility of wintry weather in the higher elevations of the rockies. and firefighters are working around the clock in california right now, the caldor fire expanded dramatically going from 6,000 acres burned to now more than 30,000 with containment at 0%. evacuation orders are in place for some areas and thousands of residents have already fled. officials say the flames have destroyed scores of buildings, including an elementary school. and at least two people have been injured. still to come, u.s. troops have secured kabul's airport restoring order after chaos erupted just a few days ago. but that sense of calm extends only as far as the gates where crowds of panicked afghans are still desperately trying to find a way out. plus, it is an image that drives home just how dire the situation is for so many
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afghans. hundreds of people cramming on to a u.s. military plane escaping thanks to one one split second decision. why choose proven quality sleep from sleep number? because a quality night's sleep is scientifically proven to help increase energy and improve recovery. and it keeps you at your best all day long. the new sleep number 360 smart bed is temperature balancing. and it helps keep you asleep by sensing your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. the sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now during our biggest sale of the year.
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word. >> like i said all along, this is not about trust. this is about verify. and we'll see what the taliban end up doing in the days and weeks ahead. >> the uncertainty and fear over what lies ahead has many waiting at the kabul airport in hopes of leaving the country. on tuesday, u.s. military flights evacuated more than 1,000 people including hundreds of nonu.s. citizens. the u.s. expects the number of flights out of kabul to pick up in the days ahead. and i spoke just a short time ago with retired general wesley clark about the situation at the kabul airport and why the evacuation plan wasn't put in motion a lot earlier. >> i think there is good reasons why it wasn't conducted earlier, because once you started this, you would have triggered the very thing that happened. and it would have been our blame for having started this.
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now, will they all get out? first of all, it is not just americans. there are other nationalities there and there are afghans who work with those nationalities also, not just the ones who work with the americans. so this really is an international effort to pull out the people who consider themselves and are considered to be most at risk by the taliban. and so there are many, many thousands trying to get in, they have to be identified, checked in some what i, they have to have visas to go somewhere and they have to have and he were tickets commercial or they have to be on somebody's list to get a military flight. >> and the biden administration have set themselves a deadline for the end of august. can it be done? >> it is possible mechanically that you could get the aircraft there. and if you can pull out 9,000 a day, and you've got another 10, 12 days, you bring out over
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100,000. that seems like that is all. i'm getting calls from people as you probably are too, every which way they are trying to get out to pakistan, going over the border, paying bribes. there is a real sense of foreboding about this. no matter what the taliban say, no one expects to last. this is like a 90%-10%. 90% they will go back to sharia law, they will seek revenge, they will replace the people who worked so hard in the government, they will put their own people in, and they will deal sharia justice. >> general wesley clark there. scenes desperation and panic outside the airport gates are a stark contrast to the situation
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inside kabul's airport right now where thousands of u.s. troops have secured the area creating an almost surreal sense of calm. nick paton walsh is there. >> reporter: around the airport, lives spared or spoiled. at one gate i was caught in the crush, shots in the air. afghan soldiers let us in through a hole in the fence. inside, a few lucky afghans still with steps to go. and sleepless u.s. marines. some not born before 9/11 whose first glimpse of afghanistan here was the same as so many before them. except this time they were truly encircled by taliban just outside and they were leaving. 20 years of trying was everywhere. vehicles that may be left
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behind. and then the afghans who won't be, we're blurring their faces to protect them, lucky enough to get on a flight, but not as huge a number as those who swamped the airfield before. people relieved to be inside but still chaos. flights picked up as evening fell, urgency, but a strange disconnect to the chaos that was swirling around the airport. people inside the airport simply did not know what was happening outside. and inside, they were headed in one direction. at airport security the country's new rulers were giving their first press conference on a t vv. they sit and wait to be called to a new life in the land of plenty where they will land with only what they can carry.
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nick paton walsh, cnn, kabul, afghanistan. the u.s. air force is investigating the discovery of human remains found in the wheel well of the c-17 aircraft that took off from kabul. dozens of afghans desperately clung to the outside of the plane on monday in an attempt to escape the region, some later falling from the plane in midair. crews found the remains after landing in qatar. the c-17 is currently impounded pending an inspection. one of the images that is driving home the reality in afghanistan is this one, 640 people packed on to an american c-17, a different flight from the one we just mentioned, with the situation at kabul's airport so unstable, the crew of this plane made the quick decision to take off. and when you hear the air dr traffic controller side of the conversation, you see there was
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no time to count just how many were on board. they just knew a lot of people needed help. >> how many people do you think are on your jet? 800 people on your jet? holy cow. >> the senior pentagon reporter for defense one broke the story of that packed flight. >> their back door was partly open and a crowd of afghans started to crowd the airplane and load themselves on, pull themselves up, and then pull others up. and this small crew had to make a quick decision. did they follow the regs and did they push back and tell the afghans don't board the plane. they made a decision as a crew to load up as many people as they could and take off as quickly as they could. so it is a very, very different
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situation. these aircraft as you mentioned normally can carry about 300 when there is a seat or bench configura configuration. and what they did here, they had everyone sit on the floor in a floor loading configuration. the only other time i've seen this happen was in 2013 in a typhoon rescue. but even then, it was more orderly where there were cargo straps across so everyone could hold on to the cargo straps. this was just everyone taking every available space they could. and once they had their full load, they took off and just -- what i've learned since my initial story came out is the crew decided to just kind of sort it out in the air. that aircraft, the destination was qatar. and that country did not anticipate that many evacuees landing either. so surprise on both ends and it was a complete judgment call by this crew to help save those lives. >> u.s. central command says the security environment in kabul made the crew's quick decision
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necessary. still to come, women and girls across afghanistan are fearing for their future as the taliban take control. why activists say the taliban's promises to uphold women's rights can't be trusted. can you repair your credit yourself? yes. -great. how? uhhh... how long does credit repair take? i don't know, like 10 years. what? are you insane? what's a good credit score? go. 600. maybe if you're trying to pay thousands extra in interest rates. cut the confusion, get started with a free credit evaluation at creditrepair.com.
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these entrepreneurs have a fierce work ethic and drive to achieve - to change the game and inspire the team of tomorrow. . we're taking a look now at live pictures from the uk parliament, you can see there british prime minister boris johnson speaking. mps are debating how to handle the crisis in afghanistan. let's have a quick listen there. >> o >> -- for two decades. happy to give way. >> can i just take him back to his remarks in the house of july 8th when he referred to the assessment that he'd made. there has clearly been a catastrophic failure of our intelligence or our assessment of the intelligence because of the speed that this has caught us unawares. can the prime minister set out
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for the house how we may -- >> the united kingdom says that it will welcome as many as 20,000 afghans into the country in the coming years under a new resettlement program with priority being given to women, girls and religious minorities. of course as you hear there, they are talking more about the intelligence at this stage. this debate will continue of course. fear is setting in for women across afghanistan as many face an uncertain future under taliban control. many women are worried two decades of progress could be wiped away. but taliban officials are trying to reassure them that their rights will remain intact despite the group's history of harsh oppression. >> there will be no violence against women, no discrimination against women. of course within the framework of the islamic law our sisters and mothers which have been set in the sharia law which is our
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value, which woman is an important tenant of our society. >> but many are deeply skeptical of the taliban's claims. malala yousafza has faced their brutality first time. she was shot in the head by a taliban gunman back in 2012 after she campaigned for girls rights to education. she said she fears for the women and girls left behind writing this the "new york times," she says afghan girls and young women are once again where i have been, in despair over the thought that they might never be allowed to see a classroom or hold a book again. some members of the taliban say they will not deny women and girls education or the right to work, but given the taliban's history of violently suppressing women's rights, afghan women's fears are real. for some, those fears are turning into reality.
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cnn's clarissa ward is in kabul with a look at how some women are bracing for life under taliban rule. >> reporter: at the central kabul market, stores were open and people were back on the streets. or at least some people. it was impossible not to notice that women here seem to have largely melted away. one store was doing better business than usual. for more than a decade, mohammed has been selling burqas, the head to toe covering once imposed by the taliban. business was good but now even better, he tells us. more sales. why do you think you're selling more burqas right now? because the taliban took over and all the women are afraid, he says. so that is why they are all coming in and buying burqas. do you feel abandoned? >> yeah, exactly. >> reporter: in an apartment downtown, we saw that fear
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firsthand. until last week, this woman was working for the u.n. that isis -- she asked we not s he show her face. she said she has not gone outside since she arrived in kabul. you look very frightened. >> exactly. it is not easy for a person to work a lot with international organization having more than ten years experience of working with international and now no one of them help me. just send me a different organization to work with you, but, no, no response. >> are you angry? >> no, i'm not angry, but as a person that who worked with them, now i need these efforts. it is not fair. >> you look very emotional as well. >> yeah. because i'm thinking about my future, my daughters.
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what will happen to them. if they kill me, would two daug without mother. >> reporter: taliban says that women's rights will be protected. but many fear million afghan women remain to be persuaded. we're on the way to the home of a prominent female afghan politician, she told me that there are taliban fighters outside her front door so she's asked that i go in alone. this is one of the afghan government negotiators during peace talks with the taliban and has dealt with the group a lot. she said promising change is not enough. >> they have to really prove it in the province across afghanistan. they have to show it by example. it is very easy to issue statements, but people need to see that in practice. >> reporter: she has every reason not to trust. last year she was shot by
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unknown gunmen. the taliban deny that they were behind the attack. >> you have children. are they here? >> i have two daughters. they are in kabul. >> are you concerned for them? >> i'm concerned for my daughters and all the girls of afghanistan. i don't want history to repeat itself on them very brutally. >> reporter: 20 years of progress for women in afghanistan now hangs by a thread. clarissa ward, cnn, kabul. and at times journalists and filmmakers get front row seats to the brutal experiences troops face on the front lines. coming up here, we'll hear what one filmmaker of the afghanistan war thinks about how it all ended up. it's a simple fact: it even kills the covid-19 virus. science supports these simplee facts. there's only one trurue lyso. lysol. what it takes to o prote.
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custom gear from custom ink can help make the most of these moments. we've developed new tools to make it easy for you. custom ink has hundreds of products to help you feel connected. upload your logo or start your design today at customink.com many who have served in the u.s. military are voicing their frustration about how things have fallen apart in afghanistan. one veteran tells cnn, quote, all the friends i lost in afghanistan, what were their deaths for. some journalists and filmmakers were able to record their experiences. a 2010 documentary chronicles a
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year with one battalion in an isolated outpost in afghanistan. here is a clip of that film and a warning, you may find this disturbing.
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anderson cooper spoke to one of the filmmakers behind this. >> i think some are like you know, it has gone on long enough, no one else should die over there, the afghans aren't appreciating us, time to leave. there is a lot of that. but then there is also a lot of what was it all for. i think that there are tentative answers about what it was all for, but those answers i'm not sure will emotionally satisfy people that have suffered in combat. >> were you surprised the speed with which things fell apart? >> no, i mean i was there in 1996 when the taliban took over initially. and i was in jalalabad and staying at the one hotel in town, and the taliban delegation was across the breakfast room sort of glaring at me suspiciously and they were
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negotiating the handover of jalalabad and it happened very quickly. so they didn't fight their way across afghanistan except for a few locations. it was all negotiated and the afghan soldiers who weren't supplied with ammunition or even food or salaries because all that stuff was getting stolen by commanders, they were told by the taliban, look, if you give up, we won't kill you. so of course they did. it totally makes sense. so, no, it didn't surprise me at all. and once they were outside kabul, there was rioting and looting and taliban went into keep order. people say they took kabul. it wasn't being defended. they really didn't take it in that sense. >> so bastion junger speaking to cnn earlier. be sure to connect with me on twitter @rosemarycnn. "early start" is next.
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welcome to our viewers in united states and all around the world. i'm laura jarrett. christine is off today. it is wednesday, august 18, it is 5:00 a.m. here in new york. 20 years after storming in to afghanistan to drive the taliban out, the u.s. is now left with little choice but to rely on that same group to allow americans out. the white house says the taliban have agreed to provide safe passage to kabul's airport for civilians with the right to live in the u.s., but how long will that coopera

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