captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the fall of afghanistan-- the taliban responds to protests with violence, forcefully quashing dissent and limiting airport access for afghans seeking to flee. then, the delta threat-- hospitalizations from covid-19 skyrocket in southern states, overwhelming already strained intensive care units. and, western wildfires-- over 35,000 people are forced from their homes in california, as crews struggle to contain the rapidly growing blazes. >> there are a lot of people reconsidering about where they want to live, but there are a lot of people who just want to rebuild. >> woodruff: all that and more

on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> at fidelity, changing plans is always part of the plan. >> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org.

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> thiprogram was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: more erican and allied flights are leaving kabul, as an ever-bigger sense

of panic starts to descend on the city; more american troops and marines landed, with more on the way. the taliban, despite u.s. efforts, are still hindering movement toward the airport, and thousands of civilians remain trapped as the militant group's control comes into force. again with the support of the pulitzer center, jane ferguson reports from kabul. >> reporter: demonstrators paraded a long afghan national flag through the streets of kabul today. a show of defiance against taliban rule as the country celebrated independence day-- the end of british control in 1919. sporadic anti-taliban protests spread to more cities. many were met with taliban gunfire to break up the crowds. taliban fighters reportedly fired on people waving the afghan flag at a rally in the eastern city of asadabad. witnesses said several people were killed.

gunfire also rang out for another day outside's kabul's international airport as crowds desperately tried to flee the country. for those who make it past the aliban check points and into the airport compound, life here is pretty rudimentary, thousands are sleeping outside, but the atmosphere is one of hope and relief. it may not be nato and taliban officials estimate at least a dozen people have been killed in and around the airport in recent days, either by gunshots or in stampedes. the taliban has even called on the country's imams to persuade their followers to stay in afghanistan, during friday prayers. the u.s. is urging people to get to the airport as soon as possible. but taliban fighters are preventing many from doing so, despite u.s. officials repeatedly saying they'd struck a deal with the taliban to allow passage. pentagon officials reported more than 7,000 people have been evacuated so far.

about 5,200 u.s. service members are involved in that operation. armed u.s. fighter jets are also flying overhead to maintain security. back in washington, the pentagon estimated between 5,000 and 9,000 people can be flown out daily, a number they are hoping to increase. >> we've got additional consular officers now at these additional gates with these additional troops helping the consular officers, and so i think we're poised to see an increase, but i want to be careful before i make predictions. what we're trying to do, what we want to drive is an increase. >> reporter: outside the airport's perimeter, taliban fighters patrolled the streets. one of the group's commanders vowed to restore peace. >> ( translated ): the market is very crowded, and people are very happy. a large number of people and residents of kabul are not afraid of us anymore. we will bring security to afghanistan and we will improve the economy and life. we will try to hand over the power to the people. >> reporter: meanwhile, in the western city of herat, a glimmer

of normay as girls returned to school to take their midterm exams. the militant group said they can continue their education as long as they wear their hijab head coverings. how long this continues remains an open, and urgent question. president biden said he wasn't convinced the taliban have changed their ways. he spoke in an exclusive interview with abc news' george stephanopolous. >> i think they're going through sort of an existential crisis about do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government. >> reporter: afghanistan is also facing a humanitarian crisis, with major food shortages and a drought that resulted in the loss of more than 40% of the country's crops. caroline van bur is with the united nations refugee agency in afghanistan. she warned the situation is especially dire now that tens of thousands of afghan people have been displaced. >> 80% of those forced to flee within the country are women and children. they need shelter, healthcare,

sanitation and other core relief items. most of all they need safety and stability. >> reporter: at the same time, afghanistan faces a potential currency collapse. the head of the afghan central bank warned its supply of u.s. dollars close to zero. the international monetary fund has also blocked the country from getting loans. >> woodruff: and jane joins again tonight, live from kabul. sojane, it was only, what, just a few days ago that the taliban was trying to say to the world, we're going to respect human rights, but now we see they are violently reacting to these protests. it didn't last long, did it? >> reporter: the reality, judy, of implementing any concept of human rights amongst your rank-and-file in the streets is clearly becoming difficult for the taliban. those words of wanting to give people rights and to

rule peacefully have not rung true at all whenever the realities of what they're seeing on the ground have played out. their foot soldiers have been opening fire on people. we have reports of journalists being intimidated and beaten up. and we've had reports of local journalists going into hiding because fighters have come and knocked on their door. there is a growing sense of panic that the old taliban is back. many of us are fielding calls from contacts and connections who feel panicked and are increasingly desperate to get out of the city. it is likely that the taliban leadership meant it to a certain degree, when they said they wanted to be seen as providing stability, because for them, whether or not they really believe in human rights, what they do believe in is not looking as though they can't control the situation, that they can basically display they're in charge and there is stability under their rule. whether or not they're able to controlheir rank-and-file going forward will be their biggest challenge. don't forget, these are

foot soldiers who are used to operating in rural areas, where they can show up at people's houses and demand to be fed and shelter for the night. now they're in cities, with modern, educated populations, who are not used to being told what to do, and that is a huge challenge for the taliban leadership. >> woodruff: and, jane, take us back to the situation at the airpo in kabul. has that improved at all? >> reporter: we're seeing flights going in and out. there has been a slight improvement on the situation on the run way. you might be able to hear helicopters behind me. they are shifting people basically from one place, to the runway and back. that has been a slight improvement. but the situation outside the airport, on the road, is getting dramatically worse. there is a growing sense of panic amongst the local population. and people who are coming and just getting through and into this airport area are telling us stories of increasingly violent intimidation, of being beaten by taliban members

at the checkpoints on the way here, of being verbally abused and having heavy, heavy gunfire fired over their heads, in scenes that are unbelievably violent. a lot of these people who are trying to get to the airport are families. they've got children with them. i spoke with young women who feel like they have been particurly singled out for a lot of the intimidation. and one young woman, who just made it to the airport today, told me the taliban figh fighters shouting at them and all of the women, we will not allow america to take our women. so there is this incredibly ustopian scenes at the airport. it is heartbreaking that people have to go through that just to try to make it on to a plane. >> woodruff: still remembering that woman doctor you spoke with last night, jane, such a moving portrait. and we know there are so many more like her. jane ferguson reporting live for us again tonight from kabul. thank you, and please stay safe.

>> reporter: thank you, judy. >> woodruff: >> woodruff: now, for the perspective on the afghan situation from the biden administration. jon finer is the deputy national security advisor. i spoke with him moments ago. jon finer, thank you for joining us. our reporter in kabul, jane ferguson, is describing for us panic in the streets of kabul. she is describing the taliban preventing most people from getting to the airport. are these evacuations going as the administration had hoped? >> so, judy, it is a very serious security situati in kabul, and we are well-aware of reports that people are having difficulty reachinthe airport. a lot of people are reaching the airport, in spite of those challenges, and the number of people we have been able to put on evacuation flights out of the afghanistan has increased steadily day by day, and we expect that to count. continue. i want to point out there is an extraordinary degree

of problem-solving work going on with our teens on the ground, both military personnel and diplomats, to facilitate people's access to the airport and get them out of the country. >> woodruff: we did hear president biden say yesterday in that abc interview, if americans are not all out by august 31st, the military will stay as long as necessary to get them and america's allies out. but how are you going to do that without putting more military force in there? >> judy, we do believe it is possible to get all americans in afghanistan who want to get out of the country out by that time. we have been communicating steadily with americans really from the moment this administration took office, and even before through our state department, which maintains a list of people who are residents in afghanistan over a period of time. we don't have exact counts because we don't track when people come and go, but we've been sending increasingly urgent

messages to those people they should leave afghanistan for their safety and security, even before the recent crisis. we offered in recent days and weeks to provide financial assistance for people who want to purchase flights out of afghanistan when the commercial system was up and running, and we're reaching out them to try to locate any americans who remained in the country to try to get out so we could help facilitate their departure. >> woodruff: does that include military escort? >> i'm not going to get into details, but we take very seriously the plight of the americans in afghanistan. >> woodruff: and how far is the administration prepared to go to extract those afghans who helped and supported the united states over the last 20 years? >> judy, as know, we have already evacuated more than 2,000 special immigrant visa applicants, afghans who worked on behalf of the u.s. mission in afghanistan, either with our diplomats or development professionals or our military officers. we have plans under way, and actually flights under

way, in realtime today, tomorrow, and going forward to evacuate what we hope will be thousands more of afghans who are in urgent need of getting out of the country. including people who worked on behalf of the united states and including other afghans who are at risk in special categories of concern. this is a high priority, and one that we are continuing to execute today, tomorrow, and going forward. >> woodruff: if necessary, is the u.s. prepared to send more troops in? >> we're not talking about more troops at this point. we have a significant troop presence at the airport in afghanistan. the military has told us they have what they need to keep that facility secure. i don't want to underestimate the threat picture that exists in afghanistan currently. it is a very serious security environment. the president has told the military they will have what they need, and they told us they have what they need to keep that facility secure. >> woodruff: do you have ongoing talks between the administration and the taliban in order to do everything you can to

provide safe passageway for these people? >> we've been in diplomatic conversations with the taliban for quite some sometime. they took place in doha, qatar, and we established it on the ground in kabul so for exactly those operational considerations, including safe passage to the airport, can be arranged based on the work of our commanding in the field, who have the clearest sense of the details on the ground and what we need to be able to accomplish that. >> woodruff: jon finer, i know you're aware of this, but there are not only republican but democratic members of congress and so many others who are criticizing the administration right now for not doing more earlier to move not just americans, but pecially those afghan allies who worked for the u.s. over the years, to get them safely out out of the country. we have members of the congress, including those appearing on this program, saying they pleaded with

the biden administration to move on this earlier, d their pleas were met with deaf ears. >> i think you heard, as i did, the directors of national intelligence and the central intelligence agency say yesterday that all of this transpired much faster than anyone internally and most people externally predicted it would. what you had was a country that affectively lost its governing authority and its armed forces within a matter of days. when that happened, there was guaranteed to be a degree of turbulence, especially in a place as politically as complex as afghanistan. but because we did take these reports as seriously as we did, we had forces pre-positioned in the region we were able to flow into the country very quickly. we were able to gain security control of the airport within a matter of days. we were able to close down our embassy and evacuate out diplomats without a major security situation involved in doing that. and we have now been able to start executing these flights to get people out of the country on an urgent basis. >> woodruff: you were

saying this happened much faster than anyone expected, and the president himself has said that. but were have top ci.a. officials from southwest and south asia saying that he advised your team -- he says he knows for a fact that the ultimate assessment from th intelligence community to the biden team was that afghan forces might capitulate within days in other words, this is something that the administration should have foreseen. >> all i can say about that, judy, i and my colleagues have read every piece of intelligence that is relevant, coming from afghanistan, going back since the very beginning of this administration. we take these assessments incredibly seriously. i would point you again to the comments yesterday by the directors of national intelligence and the central intelligence agency who said basically exactly what i just told you, that this all transpired much more quickly than was anticipated by them anyone

else. >> woodruff: we heard general milie saying it was known there could be a full collapse of the afghan adinistration? >> that was one of the possibilities. and because of that possibility, the president pre-positioned in the region so we could flow them into afghanistan very quickly, on a hair trigger, if the security environment began to deteriorate. that is exactly what we did. and because of that, we were able to draw our embassy down and begin these flights, evacuations, out of afghanistan ch more quickly. >> woodruff: one last question about that: should the united states have negotiated an exit that involved a larger footprint here at the embassy at the united states, so the united states is not encircled in its efforts to get people out of the country at one airport just outside kabul? >> the united states has a very significant security footprint in kabul and

afghanistan. our military commanders have told the president they have what they need to keep that facility safe and secure. the that changes, i guarantee the president will provide exactly what is required. for now, we think we've got what we need. >> woodruff: jon finer is the deputy national security advisor. thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: and joining us now >> woodruff: and joining us now for their views, are two lawmakers with experience in afghanistan. repuican congressman peter meijer of michigan is an iraq war veteran who worked in afghanistan as a cflict analyst from 2013-2015. democratic congressman jake auchincloss of massachusetts served as a marine infantry commander in afghanistan in 2012. and we welcome both of you to the newshour. congressman meijer, to you first, you listened to jon finer, the deputy white house national security advisor, what is your

assessment of how the administration handled this aftermath of the collapse of the afghan government? >> i have a lot of respect for jon. he has been involved with special visas for more than a decade. i think the issue is not some of the hard-working individuals who have been on this, but the fact that the problems start from the top. this is not an issue that president biden prioritized. going back to april, we were trying to raise the attention, in just the scenario we feared, to make sure we did everything we culd as soon as weould to get these special visa immigrants out. this is an issue that president biden didn't want to have to deal with, but you can only spin optics for so long. you can't spin away this reality we're facing today. >> woodruff: congressman auchincloss, do you see this spinning optics and the president didn't want to deal with this question of getting afghan

civilians and others out of the country? >> well, i agree with mr. meijer that this starts at the top. this president came into office and made a clear-eyed wrenching decision: it was either go big or go home. he had the integrity to tell the american people that an encounter insurgentcy could not succeed without a withdrawal. a withdrawal from a graveyard of empires is going to be rocky. we have security at the airport. we've got commercial and military evacuations, taking thousands out every day, and we have committed that american personnel are going to be secure. >> woodruff: and what about that, congressman meijer? we've heard from jon finer and others in the administration. we're watching this unfold. we're still in the middle of this evacuation. do you -- have you concluded already that it is going to be a failure?

>> i don't think you need to conclude that. i think it is readily apparent. i would respectfully tell my colleague that there is an arguable debate on the merits of withdrawal. the president biden spent the entire focus on monday defending the decision to withdraw. the decision doesn't come fr the decision to withdraw, but the way it was handled. the degree of cooperation with afghan government and security force areas, the way it didn't tie into the negotiations going on in doha, and the way we lost all of our leverage within the span of a week and a half that we spent 20 years building up. i agree that a negotiated political settlement is the way to go. but what we saw in august, how quickly this collapsed, it is an intelligence and strategic failure, and i think it is plainly evident by the images coming out of

afghantan. it was never going to be pretty, but we're in a nightmare scenario, and there were plenty of worlds in which this sad reality was not the conclusion. >> woodruff: congressman auchincloss, i'm specifically interested in your take on the intelligenceailures, the accusation that the administration didn't have the information it should have had on what was going on inside the afghan government and the afghan military? >> well, what i heard from mr. meijer here was this idea of a negotiated political settlement as the basis of a witrawal. the challenge here is that there was not a negotiated political settlement. the trump administration in doha with the taliban basically committed to a unilateral withdrawal, not a conditis-based withdrawal. a conditions-based withdrawal is what grants an administration the kind of leverage to use intelligence they have to adapt on the ground.

but a conditions-based withdrawal wasever going to work in afghanistan. conditions-based withdrawal works in a settlement like colombia, where you have an arms program that gives fighters avenues of economic employment, and victims can seek redress, and where low-level fighters are allowed to re-enter civil society. where you have a civil solution for problems like land use or voting or power-sharing in the government. none of that was in existence in afghanistan. the afghan president fled at the first sign of trouble. any kind of conditions-based withdrawal was simply not viable. >> woodruff: what about that, congressman meijer, the argument there never was going to be the conditions on the ground in afghanistan for there to be a satisfactory

conclusion here? >> i think if that was the case, then we wouldn't have seen all of the investments in diplomatic netiations that were started under the trump administration, but also were absolutely continued under the biden administration with master salihad in doha. there is not a lot i can discuss on this because of the nature of it, but there were certainly conditions, certainly ongoing negotiations. and the idea that if a conditions-based withdrawal doesn't work we should just withdraw unconditionally i find really hard to accept. we had leverage as long as there is an afghan military. we had leverage as long as there is an afghan government. the challenge was the erosion of those took place far more rapidly than anticipated. all of the intelligence assessments in july that were saying six to nine months, that was starting on august 31st, post-withdrawal. in the beginning of august, that was moved up

to 30 to 90 days. again, starting august 31st. we didn't even make it to august 15th. so, you know, there were clearly failures on that end, where all of these pieces that re intended to movin concert, that machine just broke down. >> woodruff: and, representative auchincloss, do you want to pick up on that? i'm interested to know whether you believe the administration could have foreseen what was going to happen? >> this was absolutely one of the scene knows mapped scenarios mappedout for the pre. a complete takeover of the country. a lot of focus has been put on the taliban horsepower, and more sealing it is the lack of afghan will power. the idea we had leverage with the afghan military or government has been pretty disapproved by watching them cave in a matter of days. these are frontline troops who i know from personal experience are good fighters, who care about

their homeland, but are watching the seniors and officials line their own pockets. that is a recipe for the frontline to crack. so we had no leverage in this. the pace of the taliban's advance here was less critically important than the fact there was not going to be a political counterpush to what the taliban were offering in this country. >> woodruff: congressman meijer, do you ■wat to respond? >> i would just say i'm by no means making the allegation that the afghan government was stronger than afghan military leaders -- they were weak. that is 100% the fault of the 20-year effort in that region. that's something we need to have a very indepth look at it. the challenge here is we did have leverage. we had forces that were there, and we were so set on not violating the conditions of the agreement that were struck, when we had arguably violations on the

taliban side where we did have recourse. this scnario, if this total taliban takeover and collapse was one of the contingencies that president biden that foreseen, then how come this plan went to success succed so incredibly rapidly. if this is the plan, god help us. >> woodruff: i want to ask you how well you think this process is going to work in getting the afghan allies, afghans who helped americans, out. what do you see coming, congressman auchincloss? >> i spoke with white house national security officials in the last 48 hours. and they have made clear mission one, two, and three are the military evacuations, first for american personnel, and afghan allies, women and girls, and those who interpreted or otherwise helped the u.s. we made promises and we intend to keep them. i want to close with a

quick look back and looking forward. looking back over the last 20 years, the legacy in afghanistan is complicated. literacy is twice what it was, and there are 10times as many kids in schools than 20 years ago. the taliban are taking over a very different country. it is my fervent hope they have to adapt to the progress that was made. it is going to be on members of congress, like peter and i, the next time a president tries to force its way, we're going to have to say no. >> woodruff: we're going to have to leave it there. congressman meijer and congressman auchincloss, wearied you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other newscovid vaccinations in the u.s. hit their highest levels in nearly seven weeks. more than a million doses were administered in the last 24 hours, and half were first-time

vaccinations. meanwhile, three u.s. senators whd been vaccinated, have tested positive. they are republican roger wicker of mississippi; democrat john hickenlooper of colorado, and independent angus king of maine. we'll focus on surging infections in low-vaccination areas, later in the program. hurricane "grace" struck mexico's yucatan peninsula today. it came ashore before dawn, with winds of 80 miles an hour and heavy rain in its wake, roads were covered with downed trees, wrecked cars and boats and other debris. the storm is expected to sweep across the gulf of mexico before hitting veracruz state late friday. in haiti, hospitals have reached a crisis point, five days after an earthquake that killed nearly 2,200 people and injured well over 12,000. aid workers appealed today for medical gear. so far, aid is only trickling

in. supplies arrived wednesday at the airport in hard-hit le kay, but quake victims said the help is not reaching them. >> ( translated ): people don't get any help. we have nothing. we are abandoned here. we are asking for aid for all the people who are here. i want to find some aid and get out of here. >> woodruff: one hospital in port-au-prince closed today, for two days, after two doctors were kidnapped. back in this country, northern california spent another long day facing wildfires, amid warnings of high winds and high heat. the "dixie" and "caldor" fires are still threatening thousands of homes and other buildings. a smaller fire destroyed a mobile home park on wednesday. we'll return to this, later in the program. a man parked his pickup truck on a sidewalk near the u.s. capitol today, claimed he had a bomb inside and forced evacuations of office buildings.

officials say floyd roseberry of north carona stayed in the truck, while bomb-sniffingogs and snipers took up positions. he surrendered after five hours, leaving police searching for answers. >> we do know that mr. roseberry has had some losses of family, i believe his mother recently passed away and we spoke with members of his family and there were other issues he was dealing with. there will be more on that before, at a later time. >> woodruff: for a time, roseberry live-streamed a video, criticizing president biden and saying, quote, "the revolution is on. i'm ready to die for the cause." this evening policsaid they found possible bomb-making materials but no bomb inside the truck. a judge in delaware agreed today to a state judge in delaware agreed today to let the boy scouts of

america proceed with an ageement to settle sexual abuse claims. the deal contributes $850 million to a fund for 70,000 men who say they were abused by scoutmasters and others. the judge refused to let the boy scouts pay millions in legal fees for the plaintiffs. the u.s. education department will forgive student loan debt for more than 300,000 disabled americans. today's announcement says the change affects people whare totally and permanently impaired, and cannot earn any significant income. it erases nearly $6 billion in debt. on wall street, the dow jones industrial average lost 66 points to close at 34,894. the nasdaq rose 15 points. the s&p 500 added five. and, the artist chuck close died today in oceanside, new york after suffering severe dementia. he gained renown in the 1970's and '80's for giant photo-

realist portraits of himself, family members and fellow artists. late in life, he was accused of sexually harassing women who posed for him. he said he'd meant no harm, and apologized. chuck close was 81 years old. still to come on the newshour: covid hospitalizations skyrocket in southern states, overwhelming already strained i.c.u.s. the struggle to contain wildfires burning hundreds of thousands of acres in california. renowned ballet collaborators share their brief but spectacular take on communicating through movement plus much more. >> woodruff: the delta variant

continues its spread, now accounting for more than 98% of new infections in the u.s. states, particularly those with low vaccination rates, are scrambling to care for an influx of sick patients in their intensive care wards. as william brangham reports, more texas hospitals are reporting a shortage of i.c.u. beds than at any point in the last 18 months. >> brangham: that's right judy. texas is experiencing its fourth covid surge, and this one could right now less than half of the people in texas are fully vaccinated 96 percent of i.c.u. beds are full, leaving just over 300 available across the entire state. the state's health department has had to recruit personnel from out of state to address staff shortages, and request additional mortuary trailers from fema, in anticipation of more lives lost. dr. joseph chang is one of the doctors dealing with this latest surge. he's the chief medical officer

for parkland health and hospital system in dallas, texas. dr. chang, very good to have you on the "news hour." thank you. i wonder if you can give us a sense of what it is like in your hospital right now? >> doctor: well, i mean the situation in the hospital right now is as serious as it has been in any part of this pandemic. the fatigue right now among our frontline care-givers, in terms of nurses, environmental text, doctors, is something i really can't adequately describe in words. >> brangham: and do you have enough staff? i know that the state has requested some sort of backup -- >> doctor: right. >> brangham: but were you okay staffing-wise rght now? >> no. we're in a dire shortage. in fact, we're about 450 full-time equivalent of nurses down from our optimal staffing level. we've had to transfer patients away from the hospital, where normally we are that city on the hill that accepts every else's patients. we've actually had to

transfer patients away. it is a serious situation here. and if we don't get some help in terms of less covid patients coming in, it is really going to cause a big problem. >> brangham: i understand that the vast mmajority of people in your i.c.u.s are people who are unvaccinated? >> >> doctor: absolutely. >> brangham: have you gotten of sense why they don't get vaccinated. >> doctor: most of them have an extreme amount of regret. what they will tell you is, i just didn't think it would be me. they just didn't think it could happen to them. i'll tell you, right now in the hospital, there are more than 40-year-olds in there right now than 70-year-olds. and that really reveals the problem. right now still the perception is hey, if i'm young and healthy, i can't get covi co covid, so they're nt getting out and getting vaccinated. with school starting up, i

really, really worry about what that means. >> brangham: do you find yourself and your staff find yourselves trying to persuade you're people, when you're done and you can get out of here, please get your vaccine? >> doctor: 100%. i do see it as my job, and a violent part of my job to educate the public on what these vaccines mean and what they can do. they are our only way out of this pandemic. they are our finest and really only real weapon against covid-19. i would remind everybody that is watching this program that when you get sick with covid and you are in my hospital, i have exactly zero treatments for you that can kill this virus, zero, nothing. we have discovered in the last 18 months in dealing with covid-19 can kill this virus. ly your immune system can. when you get here, i'm going to support your immune system as best i can, but i cannot take

this cross from your shoulders. your body is going to have to fight it yourself. so really, really what you've got to do is prevent yourself from getting it in the first place. and that, my friends, is the vaccine. remember, there are vulnerable portions of our population that cannot get vaccinated, or if they do get vaccinated, it is not going to be as affective for them. it behooves all of us and it is our public duty to go out and have compassion for those individuals and do our part to keep them well by getting ourselves vaccinated. >> brangham: there are some small hints that the vaccination rate is starting to pick up, maybe people are becoming terrified of the delta variant, but as you know half your state is not there. >> doctor: absolutely not. >> brangham: are you confident we'll get our hands around this on time? >> doctor: i'm not. i'm not confident. i said from the beginning this is going to be a race, a race between how

fast we get people vaccinated and how fast covid can mutate. we have seen one variant, the delta variant, show up that is getting ahold of all of our folks before we can get them vaccinated. again, i would remind people the reason we have variants is because we have ative infection. if we could stop active infection, i.e. with the vaccine, we would not be speaking about variants at all. there would be no threat to decreasing the effectiveness of our vaccines. so we must go out there and get people vaccinated. >> brangham: dr. joseph chang, chief medical officer of parkland health and hospital system in dallas, thank you very much. and best of luck to you. >> doctor: thanks a lot. i appreciate it. >> woodruff: hot, dry conditions are fueling more than a dozen wildfires in california, mostly in the northern part of the state. fire officials say they are

seeing a generational destruction of forests, and peak fire season has yet to begin. lisa desjardins explains. >> desjardins: dozens of homes reduced to ashes. burned out cars. firefighters sorting through the rubble. this is the devastation left after the "cache" fire tore through a mobile home park in clearlake, california yesterday. >> your house? >> it's gone. all gone. up here, it's ash. i don't even recognize it. >> desjardins: the historic drought and high winds are fueling more than 100 large wildfires across the american west. they have burned across some 2.5 million acres so far. in california, more than a dozen large fires are threatening tens of thousands of homes. in the north, the dixie and caldor fires are continuing to burn through forests and small, rural towns. >> nearly every acre of california has the potential to burn these days.

>> desjardins: daniel berlant from california's state fire agency says firefighrs are devoted but stretched. >> but many of them haven't seen their family in weeks. and so that takes an emotional toll on our firefighters. and the fact tt we're having this nonstop activity in july and august is going to be a major problem because this activity may not stop for many more months to come, at least until the rainy season starts, which based on drought conditions, may not come until december, january, february, if we're lucky. >> desjardins: the "dixie" fire, the largest single fire in california history, has been burning for more than a month. while climate change and other factors are making the state's wildfire season longer and more intense every year, the pace at which the dixie fire has spread is unprecedented, according to state officials. the fire has forced thousands of people to evacuate. and destroyed at least 1200 buildings so far.

>> it was a beautiful, close, small, vibrant community of and it's nothing now. >> we're talking about very fast moving fires, very unpredictable fires, very dangerous fires >> desjardins: jill tucker reports for the "san francisco chronicle," and has been speaking to those uprooted. some, like this couple, loaded what they could into their truck. >> one woman said she just didn't think this was going to ppen. so she didn't even bring clothes. and i had to break the news to her yesterday that her home was gone. all that was left was a little rock with a couple of cuddling turtles on top and everything else was mangled metal and ash. >> desjardins: everyone is unsure about the fure. >> where is it safe from rising sea levels or earthquakes or fires? do you move out of state? and then what do you face there, twin tornadoes or hurricanes? so i think that there are a lot of people reconsiderinabout where they want to live, but there are a lot of people who just want to rebuild.

>> desjardins: but for right now, the biggest challenge for fleeing residents is finding a safe place to stay. >> look at all these people that are misplaced now. where are ey going to go? >> desjardins: for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: and we'll be back shortly, with ballet dancer misty copeland and choreographer kyle abraham on communicating through dance. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which hps keep programs like ours on the air. >> woodruff: for those stations staying with us, re-visit the lethal legacy of land mines from conflicts around the world. special correspondent fred de

sam lazaro travelled to cambodia in 2019 where this danger is a daily part of life, and where an unlikely set of animals are making a difference. its a part of fred's series, agents for change. >> reporter: let's face it, rodents rarely trigger warm fuzzy feelings in most people. but, these african giant pouch rats, being gently awoken from their cages, are called hero rats by their halers. they have names like harry potter, godiva, and, er... frederick-- no relation. after getting sunscreened up, this "rat pack" of 11 animals is headed out before dawn to a former battlefield in rural cambodia. their task: sniff out landmines. >> everyone was surprised, even me. before i came to apopo, i hear that the rats were detecting landmines. it was like something unbelievable to me. >> reporter: mark shukuru is head rat trainer in cambodia for the belgian non-profit apopo.

he is from tanzania, where this species is also native, and he learned early that they have some of the most sensitive noses in the animal kingdom. each comes out of a rigorous program in tanzania, shown in this promotional video, that trains them to distinguish explosives from other scents. each time they sniff out t.n.t. buried in this test field, a trainer uses a clicker to make a distinct sound, and they get a treat. >> so, t.n.t. smell, clicker, food. t.n.t. smell, clicker, food. t.n.t. smell, clicker, food. >> reporter: the drill can take up to 12 months before handlers are confident that when the animal scratches in place, an explosive is buried below. >> we have never missed anything with the rats. so they're doing good. >> reporter: rats have a number of advantages compared to human de-miners, who must rely on metal detectors. they detect a lot of scrap metal-- these are, after all, old battlefields. they are litter, but they don't always contain explosives. whereas these guys are trained

to sniff out the t.n.t specifically, which is the explosive in most mines. since 2016, apopo's hero rats have found roughly 500 anti- personnel mines and more than 350 unexploded bombs in cambodia. they're the second animal to be deoyed in mine clearance. dogs were first. animals can work much faster than humans, although when the land is densely mined, metal detectors are considered more efficient. thuch ly, who leads the government's de-mining effort, says there's plenty of work to go around. the ministry has exhaustive maps of areas it calls "contaminated." >> we come out with the numbers that are around four to six million anti-personnel landmines in this country, so we still have a long way to go to clear all of them. >> reporter: that translates to a lot of contaminated land in this largely ruralgrarian country, an economic and existential threat. >> we have more than 26,000

people killed and injured over the years-- 30% of them are women and children. >> reporter: it's the legacy of three decades of conflict that ended in the late '90s. in cambodia's west, landmines were buried by the genocidal khmer rouge regime, and by the vietnamese army that drove them from power alongside the new cambodian army. in the east, near vietnam, lie millions of tons of unexploded american bombs dropped during the war. this may be the only country with a landmine museum. it was started by aki ra, who was conscripted as a child to fight for the khmer rouge. he laid mines himself, and has spent much of his adult life trying to remove them. he disarmed many of the devices on display here himself, and says his goal is to raise awareness of what mines can do. >> reporter: tens of thousands of cambodians live in close proximity to the dormant killers.

this school was just steps from the minefield we visited with the apopo rats. >> people are forced to enter these contaminated areas quite simply because they don't have a choice. because their livelihoods depend on it. >> reporter: rebecca letven works with the british mines advisory group, one of several aid agencies working in cambodia. 27 years into the collective effort, they've freed up some 18,000 acres. that's less than a tenth of the terrain considered contaminated. >> it's important that we don't forget what happed here in cambodia, and we don't forget that the country itself is still very heavily contaminated. >> reporter: this year's toll so at this regional prosthesis hospital, a steady stream of victims arrives each day to be fitted or refitted with artificial limbs. >> ( translated ): the old one was getting really tight, especially around my thigh. >> reporter: 39-year-old sna him

stepped on a landmine in 2002. like many patients here, he's a small farmer, growing rubber and cashew nuts with his wife and three children. >> ( translated ): i am always very careful when i walk in the fields, because i am worried it could happen to my other leg. i feel very upset that i lost a part of my body, because it prevents me from doing other activities that normal people are able to do. >> reporter: meanwhile, the various de-mining teams continue to inch forward with the tedious, dangerous work. there's little evidence anymore of the hostility that drove the shattering conflict. old combatants have moved on over time, but, minister thuch laments, so has the world's attention. >> i think there's a moral obligation for everybody involved in war in the past. i think that it was the cold war and then small nations like cambodia are the victims of this. >> reporter: apopo plans to bring in 40 more rats, to expand the force and replace retirees.

each animal works about eight years, and then lives out the rest of its days alongside fellow heroes. all, working toward the day when they can broadcast to the world that cambodia has destroyed the last unexploded bomb. the government wants that to its big task is to convince enough donors to help with the cause. ( three whistle blows ) ( explosion ) for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro, near siem reap, cambodia. >> woodruff: renowned ballet dancer misty copeland and choreographer kyle abraham share a deep connection that shines brightly through in their creative collaborations. tonight, they offer their brief but spectacular take on communicating through movement.

>> there's so much that goes into making a new work, especially in this capacity where i get to collaborate with misty. there's so much more to dance than just phrase making or the steps. what are you seeing and what are you feeling? it's really important when you're having a relationship with a choreographer and dancer to really talk about what the movement feels like. i'm not the one doing it. >> that's what's so beautiful about what we do. it's about our interpretation and how we make people feel. growing up in a single parent home, one of six children, ballet gave me a sense of freedom yet a sense of security as well as opportunity the more that i share my story and i'm actually in the communities that need to see people like me and people like kyle, i think that's one of the most important things for me to do at this point, in this stage in my career is to be accessible

and to give back what ballet has given to me. >> the joffrey ballet actually was the first dance performance i ever saw live. it just changed my life. so many people can relate to going into their room, catching all the feels and just letting it all out through movement. it didn't occur to me until i saw a ballet that there was so much more that we can do to express ourselves as movers or just as people in general. i think there are a lot of different expectations and assumptions when it comes to people seeing my work for the very first time. they don't know that i started out in classical music. and i think it's really doing a disservice to an audience, to a dancer, to a choreographer to make assumptions that we don't have interests that go beyond what's considered black music or music of a certain culture. >> especially i think for black people in dance because we're not given a voice and our stories are not being told, especially in classical works. as much as i love the hiory and tradition of classic

balletyou don't want to keep continuing on these stories that are, i don't even know how to put it. i don't want to play a slave girl anymore. i want to be able to, to do works that are going to move the art from forward. so for me when i think about those voices that aren't being heard or stories that aren't being told, it all relates back to who i'm doing this for and it's the next generation. it's the little brown girls, the little brown boys. dance is what ve me confidence. it's what gave me a voice and i think that's what it can do for other young people that feel like they don't know how to tell their stories or to communicate and express themselves. i'm misty copeland. >> i'm kyle abraham. >> and this is our brief but spectacular take on... >> communicating through movement. >> woodruff: you can watch all our brief but spectacular episodes at: pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.

join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> architect. bee-keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> our u.s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> the ford foundation.

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hello everyone and welcome to "amanpour & company." here is what's coming up. >> well, i help american down there in battlefield and now i need help. i need help as soon as possible. >> the race to evacuate desperate afghans. i speak to david miliband, head of the international rescue committee about urgent need for massive air lift. plus. >> pain and suffering. >> oscar winning film maker barry jenkins on his first emmy nomination for his epic "underground railroad". >> and this. >> this is a risi knew when --