from berlin. tonight, a powerful explosion shakes central kabul, near the diplomatic closure. there are several casualties. we will bring you the latest from the city. also coming up, missing belarus ian activists found dead in ukraine. they say his murder was made

to look like suicide. and olympic sprinter krystsina tsimanouskaya is looking forward to reaching europe safely. and wildfires across southern europe. we will look at why this year's wildfire season has been so much more destructive. ♪ i'm brent goff. to our viewers watching on pbs, in the united states, and to all of you around the world, welcome. we begin with the explosions, multiple explosions in the afghan capital, reportedly inside the heavily fortified green zone of the city, home to government buildings, foreign embassies, and a busy market square. police say one of the explosions

was a caromb which was targeting the home of the country's defense minister. he was reportedly unharmed in the attack, however, several other people were injured and other -- in other smaller blasts. i'm joined by a journalist in kabul. what more can you tell us? reporter: the blast seemed to target the guesthouse of the current acting minister of defense. he was not home at the time. he shortly after the blast issued a statement online, saying he is fine, that everything is ok, that his family was not in the residence, but there was still gunfire, there are still explosion sounds, there's still smoke hours after the attack. and the attack was one of the rear evening attacks in the capital, and happened at 8:00 p.m. and so, it seems to have been

targeting the acting minister of defense. brent: do we know any word on who is likely responsible? reporter: no group has yet to claim responsibility. obviously, there are two major groups in afghanistan, the taliban and forces claiming allegiance to the so-called islamic state. but as of yet, both groups have remained quiet on the issue and have made no statements whatsoever. brent: you know this comes as foreign troops are being withdrawn from afghanistan. how is this impacting the security situation in the country? reporter: we have seen several major cities come under heavy attack. surrounded in the nearby districts. all me a week ago, the city in the west of the country -- nearly a week ago, the city in the west of the country came close to falling to the taliban.

the taliban made it within 10 kilometers of the main city. over the last two weeks, the southern city has had a very similar situation. currently, the capital of a province is also very much being targeted and is very much under threat of a brief takeover by the taliban. so for the government has responded, they've sent in commands and special forces. they have issued curfews in 31 of the 34 provinces. so they are trying to turn the tide. brent: what about the reports, these multiple explosions, that one of them or some of them are inside the city's heavily fortified green zone? that is something that doesn't happen every day. reporter: it doesn't, but i think green zone is a misnomer.

there's a residential area, there are markets, stores, people that live there, there are embassies and government officials that live there, but it's not as of that area is somehow extra barricaded, or somehow not open to the public. you know, i think green zone is just a term that people use, it's really not more fortified than anywhere else in the city. brent: the latest tonight from kabul. thank you. ebola rouge and activist has been found -- a belarus activist has been found dead a day after he was reported missing. vitaly shishov was today found hanged in one of the kyiv parks, not far from where he lived. the 26-year-old was the head of the kyiv-based belarusian house in ukraine, bdu, an organization that helps belarusians trying to flee persecution. reporter: vitaly shishov

left belarus last year after protests. he helped follow belarusians find work and housing. although he had gotten now, some who knew him say he still lived in fear. -- gotten out, some who knew him say he still lived in fear. he felt like he was being followed by strangers on his morning runs, which took him through this park in kyiv. his body was found hanging from a tree a day after he was reported missing. >> what i would like to outline for now, they repeatedly saw strangers watching them, him and his girlfriend, sometimes from inside cars. reporter: ukrainian police say they are investigating whether his death was a suicide or murder disguised to look like it. the head of the national police said shishov had scratches on his nose and body that could indicate a fall.

belarus' opposition leader is one of many awaiting the outcome of the investigations. >> i prefer to wait for the results of the investigation, because i cannot -- i understand the background of this death, i would say, it was primed, but i can't say that without any results of the investigation. reporter: alexanderukashenko's governme has shown it wl use force against its opponents. earlier this year, the belarusian president ordered the forced landing of a civilian flight in order to arrest a dissident journalist. in the past month, his government has carried out more than 200 raids on activists and journalists and arrested dozens. even outside of belarus, activists may have reason to fear for their safety. brent: belarusian athlete

krystsina tsimanouskaya says her decision to seek refuge was not politically motivated. in her first public statements since entering the embassy, the olympic sprinter has said she feared she would face punishment if she returned to belarus. her case has become the biggest political showdown of this year's olympic games. the international olympic committee has launched a formal investigation. reporter: security has been tightens outside the polish embassy in tokyo. inside, krystsina tsimanouskaya says her attempt a deportation of authorities left her little choice but to seek asylum. >> they made it clear that i would be punished when i returned to belarus. they also said that if i tried to stay and run the 200 meter, that they would firee from the team. and they also implied that that would not be the e of the story.

reporter: tsimauskaya had been the target of a media backlash in her country after she criticized team management for entering her in an event and short notice. she was also an athlete calling fothe release of belarusian opposition figures caught up in lukashenko's recent crackdown on pro-democracy testers. -- protesters. with her olympic dreams dashed for now, the runner says her priority is getting to europe. >> right now, i want to get to europe safely. i want to meet with people that can help me. and decide together what my next steps should be. reporter: tsimanouskaya is expected to remain in the polish embassy until she flies to warsaw later this week. brent: earlier today, poland's

deputy foreign minister told dw news why his country granted tsimanouskaya humanitarian visa. -- a humanitarian visa. >> it was a natural way for the democratic country, if you see a person who is in need, and this woman was in need, she was forced to leave tokyo, against her will, there was an attempt to take her back to belarus, probably to prison, so it was quite natural for us to help her, to support her, to give her opportunities, and that was the decision. and i think it was the right decision, to grant her a humanitarian visa and offer for her to continue her career in poland. brent: that was the polish foreign minister speaking with us earlier. let's get you up to speed with some of the other headlines around the world.

over and andrew cuomo has denied allegations of sexual misconduct that have been made against him. letitia james concluded in a report that governor cuomo broke federal and state laws my sexually harassing women who worked for him. he is now facing calls to resign. over 17,000 looted artifacts were recovered and handed over to the iraqi government, the largest ever collection to be returned. the majority of the artifact state back 4000 years. to ancient mesopotamia. i ran's new ultraconservative president has been inaugurated in a ceremony overseen metta supreme leader. president raisi said the government would seek to lift tyrannical u.s. sanctions and that it would not tie the nation's standard of living to the will of foreigners. australian airline qantas has for loaded 2500 staff for the

next two months, in response to following domestic passenger numbers -- following domestic passenger numbers. it is a country -- sydney and brisbane are and walk down because of growing clusters of the coronavirus kent varient. -- delta variant. germany's greens have put climate change at the center of their election campaign. the party wants to create a dedicated climate ministry in the government. other campaigning points for the september elections include speed limits on the autobahns, expanding renewable energy, and faster phaseout of fossil fuels. extreme heat is fueling wildfires in southern europe. dozens of blazes have broken out in greece, croatia, italy, and turkey, forcing evacuations. wildfires on turkey's southern coast have killed at least eight people. reporter: homes, forests,

and hold livelihoods have fallen prey to the flames. turkey's wildfires are the worst in living memory. >> the whole village burned down. our homes burned down. if there was a firefighting crew in our neighborhood, this wouldn't have happened. reporter: anger has turned towards the turkish government, that many feel is not doing enough to save its citizens. >> we called and called, there was no place we didn't call. no one came to cool down or water around our homes. th left us alone. reporter: not just turkey is affected, across the mediterranean region, countries are battling intense heat and large-scale wildfires. in greece, flames spread into suburbs of the capital, athens, causing widespread power cuts. in some places, local residents

were ordered to evacuate and left their homes and panic. authorities warned that scenes like these are the new summer normal. >> we are in a phase of absolute climate deregulation. we were for years concerned about the climate change to come. now we are no longer talking about climate change, but about a climate threat. reporter: this year's fire season has been one of the most destructive on record, according to eu data. the extraordinary fires testing the region's response to increasingly extreme conditions. brent: for more now, i'm joined by mark m., author and professor of climate change at the university of college london. good to have you on the program. the pictures we are seeing right now are apocalyptic, and turkey and greece. other regions are being hit with torrential rain and flooding. why have these weather patterns turned so extreme so quickly? >> i think that scientists

have been warning about climate change for a long time. and we've had extreme weather events in the past. what we are seeing now is a culnation of climate change. we are seeing it happen in one year. so we are seeing the floods in china, and germany, northern italy, london, a we are seeing extreme heat in canada. canada had temperatures fi degrees hotter than they have ever had before. have also had the heat waves in greece and italy, which are fueling wildfires. we have even had wildfires in siberia. brent: all of these changes are happening so quickly in such a short time span. is it possible that climate change is happening faster than you and your colleagues thought? >> well, i have to say, a lot of us have been taken by surise by these exeme events.

because these extreme events are not what we would expect for just 1.2 degrees warming. these seem tbe more extreme. we think that perhaps one of the confounding factors is that the arctic is warming three times faster tn the rest of the world. as that warms, it is changing the weather patterns that we see in the north. this is really compounded -- has really compounded the eves we've seen in the last month and a half. brent: it comes after last year, when we had the pandemic and basically the global economy was almost shut down. we saw co2 levels drop dramatically. that was a blimp on the radar, if you will, and that hasad no effect whatsoever, has it? >> unfortunately, theandemic, which was absolutel awful, really didn't reduce our carn emissions byuch. carbon emissions last year

were 97% then what they were in 2019. even though we stopped flyin driving, we seem to feel it we stopped doing evything. still, we had all these emissions. it's because most of the emissions come from making electricity and fling our industry and actually growing food. so we veo really think about how we change those, to ensure we can reducemissions globally, quickly, because again, this is the evince of climate change really starting to bite. brent: you wrote the book "how to save our planet." i'm going to ask you, what can we do individually to make a difference, to combat climate change? >> so i think the first thing to realize is, it is a collective. it is governments working together to try and actually help us reduce emissions. its companies getting on board

and understanding how to reduce their emissions and help us be sustainable. then it is people, individuals changing their lifestyle demanding change from both governmentnd cpanies. but i think the most important thing is that we actually start to talk about it. th is the greatest threat faci humanity. and we seem to be reluctant toalk about it it is great that the news and the media is not really talking about climate change. because the great thing is, all the technology exists, all the signs exists, we have fantastic entrepreneurs. what we need to actlly deal with climate change is policie and politians that understand all the positi win-win's we can do by dealing with clement change. -- climate change. brent: let's hope we get those politicians sooner than later. mark, we appreciate time and ur insights.

thank you. >> pleasure. brent: the chinese city of wuhan has begun testing aldi 11 million -- all the 11 million residents for the coronavirus despite rigorous precautions and domestic vaccines, china is facing its largest covid-19 outbreak in months, thanks to the delta variant. more than 400 new cases have been confirmed since mid july. reporter: an entire city, now in lockdown. under threat from the delta variant. across china, authorities are pushing a zero-tolerance strategy back into overdrive. the sueon staed in mid july, traced back airport cleaners. > most of the cases were found at or around the airport and were detected from high-risk figures that were placed under tight management. reporter: the virus has spread from then ching to around 20 other cities. including beijing, wuhan,

and a holiday hotspot. where people from the airport cluster attended performances at this theater. authorities launched a muscular tracing and testing operation, praised by tourists and state tv. >> is a tourist from outside the city, i feel at ease and reassured. but as of tuesday, the window to leave has closed. the city is now under total lockdown. meanwhile, the capital beijing has blocked summer tourists from entering. mass testing has returned, with strict rules for those who test positive. >> once a person has been confirmed as a close contact or secondary contact, that person will be quarantined. in addition, those who work and live with him or her should be subject to close looked management by their workplaces or local communities and to be banned from joining any

gatherings. reporter: in wuhan, where the disease first emerged, covid-19 is back. local cases have appeared more than a year after one indoor to 76 day lockdown to stamp out infectious. -- infections. they will test the entire publishing of 11 million to rid the city of the virus once again. brent: russia was the first country to approve a covid-19 vaccine. but its immunization campaigns have faltered, with less than 20% of the population fully vaccinated. many people are reluctant to get the shots, but for some groups, like the homeless, this question of access -- this is a question of access. we have reports tonight from st. petersburg on an initiative that is reaching out to people living on the streets. reporter: every morning, the job comes to the streets for

a hot meal. he is homeless and prefers not to give his full name. him and others without former shelter are getting their first dose of russia's vaccine against covid-19. there's a small gift, too, hygiene kits to take away as a thank you. >> the gift will eventually run out, but the vaccination will stay. reporter: a local charity organized the vaccination drive with a couple of st. petersburg doctors. they say it is longverdue. an estimated 60,000 peopleive on the streets of saint petersburg. a city of 5 million. the coronavirus is spreading fast. nearly 2000 new cases are registered here every day. the second highest rate in russia after moscow. all vaccinations in russia have to be officially registered. a challenge for authorities

is that some people here are without papers. so volunteers help establish people's identities. >> the situation with covid-19 mains that everyone in russia needs to get vaccinated, regardless of whether they have their id with them right now or not. reporter: it all takes a couple of hours. the vaccination is voluntary. the mo, relaxed >> it is good for me, and means i will not infect others. reporter: reporter: along with reporter: a vaccine, he is also that she has also received some lunch. in three weeks time, hand other people here can come ba for theirecond jab. ♪ [cheering] brent: to tokyo, and simone biles returns to competition

after pulling out of other lipid events citing her mental health, but she claimed the bronze medal in an emotional return to the olympic games would after her return to competition, biles has said she was happy to make it to the podium. >> i honestly was not even expecting to have a medal, just wanted to compete one more time that the olympic games because i qualified for all five finals and then i pulled out, so it sucked, but i was excited to be in the stands and tearing for team usa. brent: elaine thompson hera has made history by becoming the first woman to retain the sprint double victories at the rio games five years ago. after winning the 100 meters on saturday, the 29-year-old clock the second-fastest time ever in the 200 meter's final, winning in 21.53 seconds. she has a good chance of winning a fifth olympic gold this

weekend, as jamaica's favorite to take the four by 100 meter relay. norway's carsten v. shocked even himself, smashing the world record and taking gold, finishing in 45.94 seconds, shaving more than seven tense of a second off the previous record. in the women's long jump, the best for last, she added another gold for germany. she won the event on her sixth and final attempt. she nearly missed out on the metal in 2016 but one this time by three centimeters. and can women's cycling, germany took gold -- in women's cycling, germany took gold. the german team had already broken the world record twice in qualifying and they did it again in the final for the win. the u.s. took the bronze. now, an invasion of a major league baseball game.

the new york yankees against the baltimore orioles. the game, interrupted while officials dealt with the incident. ball. >> uh-oh. where did it go? >> yankees stadium has seen its fair share of drama. but it's not often that a cat takes center stage. on the field of dreams -- >> go catch that cat, will you? >> with the yankee's trailing visitors by a wide margin, they do not welcome distraction for the home crowd. officials do their best to end the hair-raising adventure. >> no chance. >> this cat is not kittening around. still, feline fine.

nowhere near ready for a timeout. unlike the yankee players. the final sprint down the line, and it is a homerun. truly a perfect performance. brent: they say three strikes, you are right, but a cat has nine lives. you're watching dw news. after a short break, i will be back to take you through "the day." stick around. we will be right back. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> the mysterious death of a belarusian activist in kiev. we will bring you all of the latest on that mysterious death in the ukrainian capital at the top of the bulletin. a potential hijack of a ship off of the coast of the united arab emirates. iran denies any responsibly. the british navy says the hijack is only a potential hijack for now. in china, the coronavirus pandemic still searching.