>> this is dw news, live from berlin. who will account for the surge of the taliban in afghanistan? a growing number of warlords and militia groups are taking up arms against the insurgents. also coming up, mandatory testing could be a requirement for travelers coming to germany. the government is looking into making covid-19 testing compulsory for anyone entering the country by land, air or sea.

they are blamed for causing taxpayers millions of euros. simone biles withdraws from the individual all-around finals at elevates, putting the spotlight on mental health. i am brent goff. to our viewers watching in pbs and all of the viewers watching around the world, welcome. we begin in afghanistan with the worsening security crisis. in many cases, government security forces seemed incapable of stopping the insurgen

--insurgents. they are mobilizing to counter taliban takeover. >> dozens of fighters guard this house, it is the house of autumn the most powerful warlords in afghanistan. for decades he has fought the taliban. now he leads the armed resistance in this province. the government did not want to hear any of our advice. more and more districts felts the telegram and we had to act. when we saw the taliban was growing stronger, i knew it was time to take matters into our own hands. after international troops withdrew, the overlords started seeing a security vacuum. here, they are defending the two districts the taliban does not yet control. >> all of the fighters in the

region have joined forces. if we were not here, the districts would have fell to the taliban long ago. it would have happened the first night the taliban attacked here. afghanistan is largely under control of the taliban. they claim to have taken back 85% of the country but the actual balance of power is difficult to ascertain. the militias have teamed up with the afghan army to fight the telegram together. it is true that the telegram have control of almost all districts. now we are defending ourselves. we will defend the remaining districts at all costs. many provincial capitals are still seeing -- seen as safe havens. in the last 20 years, he has not had to fear for his life. over the last few weeks, this has changed dramatically.

when the foreign troops were still here, we did not worry about our safety, the people were happy but now everything is fragile. the taliban keep getting stronger and are gradually taking back power. by now, most of the international soldiers have widrawn. they leave behind a country on the brink of civil war. the international troops were in afghanistan for 20 years. how much longer should they have stayed? if we failed to end the war, our future looks bleak. after decades of war, that hope could be elusive. brent: the growing violence in afghanistan and withdrawal of international troops is probably more and more desperate afghans to make the decision no one ever wants to make, to flee their own

country. most are headed west, crossing into iran. from there, some are continuing into turkey and some into europe. police in turkey arrested 200 afghan migrants today alone. with you geez -- refugees worldwide pace similar struggles the landmark treaty seeks to protect those fleeing violent persecution. that treaty took effect 70 years ago today. for more, i am joined by the organization for policy research and development studies. that is a pro-democracy think tank in kabul. we saw people were trying to leave afghanistan as the taliban advances.

how dire is the situation in the country tonight? >> aut three days ago, the government imposed a curfew on all cities. that is as a result of the intensity of the conflict. it has reached unprecedented levels in the past few months. that coupled with the slow pace of talks at the peace table have given rise to the uncertainty many afghans are feeling. pushing some to leave the country. brent: we heard in our report that the telegram did take about 85% of the country -- taliban did take about 85% of the country. >> at the moment we have reports showing that half of the 421

districts in the country have fallen to the taliban. many of those districts are actually districts that have been contested. meaning rather the taliban nor the afghan government had control over those areas. this has been the case for a number of years. in terms of theatter and speed in which the taliban-controlled and started taking over districts in the north, it was quite unprecedented. the remaining districts are those that were contested. major cities have not been taken over. most importantly, not just to capture but to retain and govern those cities. i think at the present moment, the security situation is dire in many respects. i don't believe we are in a situation where the taliban are likely to take over the country. that would mean taking over the capital city. brent: what does this mean for

you? do you expect to be able to continue your work in the country >> absolutely. we will be continuing our work in the country as well many other civil society organizations and think tanks and those conducting humanitarian efforts. when the security situation tends to get this much worse, civil society organizations become innovative and the way they are able to pursue their work. many organizations have been hampered in areas controlled by the taliban and provinces wre there is heavy fighting. in major urban centers, the work does continue and they're trying to find alternative ways to ensure that they can reach their beneficiaries and get their work extended to those areas as well. brent: when you look at the

situation in afghanistan, the security situation is so unstable, you have had 20 years of the missi by u.s. and nato troops. now it is ending. do you find yourself asking if there was all for nothing? >> to answer that with just one word, no. i think what we are seeing right now in the country is a scenario that many had predicted two different degrees. especially with the withdrawal of nato troops. however, the gains of the last 20 years being the development of institutions, the development -- the root of element of an army, a police force, the rise of civil society organizations, i could give you an example of how far afghanistan has come.

they brought together rivers editors, businesswomen representing over 2000 formal businesses. they produce the communiqué in which they reiterated their commitme to continue their efforts in the countrynd continue their investment so they could ensure the jobs are create for men and women. they also called on both parties to ensure th these efforts continue. while ere is severe instability across the country with ongoing fighting intensifying, there are these various sectors that are going on out there and articulating their wishes and demands. they are going to continue these efforts because there has been tremendous gains in the past 20 years they do not want to see reversed.

>> it is important that you point those out, there are many people around the world that hope these positive developments stay just that, positive. we appreciate your time and your insight tonight. thank you. time for a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. more than 10,000 scientists say there has been this unprecedented surge in climate-related disasters in the past few years. in this article published wednesday, the group warned several laminate tipping points are imminent or have already been crossed. they say the government's business as usual approach must and. this comes less than two weeks after the authority declared him the wind of a contested runoff election in june.

the political novice faces a covid-19 crisis, tensions in his socialist party and we congressional support. germany is considering tightening is entry rules to require all travelers to present a negative covid-19 test. currently only air passengers and those entering from high-risk areas have to provide a negative coronavirus test but not if they are fully vaccinated or if they recovered from me on this. the change could come into effect in the next two weeks and it comes after studies show returning travelers are playing a significant role in rising infection numbers. >> it is summertime and many rmans eager for a break from -- they want to go to pces like spain and greece. they are facing surges in covid-19 cases.

>> only air passengers and those entering from high-risk areas need to present a negative coronavirus test. with exceptions for those fully vaccinated or recovered. that is about to change. >> the government has promised it will try to impose new rules starting august 1. i believe that makes it more understandable, clearer and safer. for now, there is no official confirmation. if it were up to the health ministry, these new rules would have come into effect long ago. if it happens at the beginning of august, we will welcome that. now the government is still

negotiating it. infections are already on the rise in germany so critics say the move comes to late. in some parts of the country, summer holidays are almost over. >> staying in germany, concerns are mounting that an explosion at an industrial park in this city may have released dangerous amounts of toxic gases. dw news has learned that tests are being carried out to assess the levels of dioxin and other natural toxins -- potential toxins. >> the black smoke hanging over the explosion site may have gone but the search for those missing continues, even if the company has all but given up hope. sadly we now have to assume that we are not going to find the missing people alive. the bodies of two people have been found, a plant employee and

a contractor. for many residents, the situation is worrying. the state environmental agency says it is trying to establish whether there were dangerous levels of this toxic compound. only testing will tell and that is expected to take a couple of days. don't eat anything that is covered insert. make sure -- courts they have released these images of the explosion site. we have not worked out what caused this yet because specialists have not been able to access the site. it is just too dangerous. police are expected to begin their investigation in the

coming days. >> now to a landmark ruling on what is being called the biggest tax heist ever. the top criminal court has outlawed the controversial trading practice. claiming rebates on taxes that had never been paid, costing taxpayers billions of euros. >> the federal court of justice just made it clear. those who get refunds for taxes they never paid online. many, to british bankers made a lot of money with these activities. they said they were sickly exploding a tax loophole which is not necessarily illegal. now they have lost their case and have been sentenced to probation. one of them has been ordered to pay back the 14 billion profit -- 14 million euros he had made in profit. the investors sold the shares to each other during the course of

the day. only one of the parties paid capital gains tax. those who paid no tax -- apply for refunds nonetheless. the authorities had no way of tracking the transactions. the schemes that were being run had neither to do with legal structures nor with simply exploiting a legal loophole. the legal situation was unambiguous. there was no loophole here. panelists expect many more prosecutions to follow across the entire financial sector and a range of renowned banks and

investors were involved in the tax theft which left the authorities simply overwhelmed for many years. brent: for more, i am joined by stephen from ew business. people see the story and asked themselves how the story went on for so long. >> this is something of a victimless crime. there is not one person or a group of victims that runs the police and says i have been defrauded and lost my money. that is a big your accuracy, it is monolithic, involves thousands of people working for it. it is even harder foan alarm to go off. especially for the second reason when this was so institutionalized. this involved banks, very large banks. it had this air of being something that was savvy, smart, a legal loophole. claiming rebates on taxes you never even paid, morally that seems clear but when it has that

institutional fog around it, that is different. this has become one of the greatest tax robbers across europe. 55 billion euros. if you look at germany, the 32 billion euros. investors lost a good bit. germany hit 32 billion euros. you did not have a whole group of shareholders screaming at the top. brent: when you talk about something this large, isn't that money worth going after for these governments? stephen: under this gray area, this was a tax matter. it already passed the statute of limitations. with this confirmation that this

was a criminal act and that it was illegal, that means they can go after these. the question is how will they go after it? it is very complicated but they can in theory go after that money. brent: what will put a stop to this? this is fraud. >> the legal loophole has been closed. this speaks to a broader crisis in german corporate governments and german business including some other recent scandals that has people shaking their heads and saying there is some sort of lack of moral oversight here in some of these cases that is really concerning. brent: stephen, as always, thank you. to the tokyo olympics now, simone biles has announced she will not defend her all-around individual title on thursday

while she works on her mental health. she made a mistake in the team final on tuesday and pulled out of the rest of the competition. she will now skip the all-around and is yet to decide on next week's individual events. she won 4 golds back in 2016. for more on how other olympian athletes feel about this, i am joined by max, a rower from the 2016 x -- olympics. what is your opinion on her withdrawing? >> on one hand, it is really sad and disappointing to hand, for -- from my perspective as an athlete, i can say this is a very nice decision from her and

toee that she speaks up for herself and takes her own response ability for her mental health and puts it in front of the sport, that is really good sign for the whole wld of sports. there is a lot of pressure as a spor fan. that is where i see it. brent: how has that pressure changed? you raced at the 2016 games. we know that since 2016, you had social media come on the scene big time. you had 1.5 years of the pandemic. >> there was a lot of pressure on it, a lot of stress forot only me but other athletes around me. it was a big factor, stress, having to train over and over again.

also, the social media thatas already there in 2016. on the other hand, maybe now thugh soal med theres also ahance to speak up a be open ando talkbout i also, from the athletes side. for me, personay after 26, i was super disappointed and i also struged with ntal health problems because of my experice at the limbi i know the pressure is always there and it was always there long before social media. brent: do you think the international olympic committee, do you think they are geared just for the victors and people such as yourself who don't win the gold, are they simply forgotten?

>> yes. that ia good question. when you look at the olympics, there a so my thousan of sportsmen in the whole world that want to go there. just a few of them reach that goal. only a little amount go to the only fix. for the people that go to the clippers, there is such a tiny amount of people that when a metal and all of us will be disappointed. being there in 2016, i experienced how it was to be there. of course, it is improving, getting better. we have good programs. all and all, there is a lot of room to improve. brent: we appreciate you sharing your story, max.

this is an important topic and it can't be discussed too much right now. >> thank you. brent: an olympic games without fans is not just a blow to the games, just ask the tour guides. they have come up with a plan to show tours around again remotely. >> these are tour guides in tokyo. they had been hoping for an influx of tourists during the olympics. but the pandemic and lockdowns brought their business close to collapse. no virtual tours have helped them survive. >> we do these tours online through resume so peopl can also book online and then we connect together and it is really fun because you can see

what is happening in real time. do you see how beautiful it is? >> they are holding olympics themed tours in the capital. they are hting the games for a second time after 1964. while one explains the current stop, ■the other rides ahead. this way they can virtually guide up to 300 people at a time. >> i think that in the future, we can keep using the same tool to present for people who cannot come here. courts the tools are tailored to various time zones across the world and the olympics are attracting virtual clientele from all over. courts know we can see the fire lit here and we can see how excited everybody is. there really is an olympic mood.

i hope it works well for everybody and we can be as safe as possible. >> for the foreseeable future, these tours will remain remote. >> you are watching dw news. after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. the troops are leaving afghanistan, the taliban is coming. we be right back.

♪ >> antony blinken voices concern over the fate of civilians in afghanistan at the hands of taliban. the secretary state was speaking as a emerged that have been more violent incidentss as china hosts the taliban delegation. macron promises transparency ov the effects of radiation poisoning for french polynesia. but the president stop short of a full apology for the nuclear testing france carried out from the mid- 1960'sto the mid 1990's. france is to cover