♪ >> hello, everyone. welcome to "live from paris." your are the headlines at this hour. celebrations in kabul as taliban claim they had taken over the last holdout in afghanistan, but the reports remain unconfirmed. as several u.s. states continue the cleanup operation after hurricane ida, joe biden has flown to louisiana to tour storm damage there. and the major conference kicks off in marseille.

french president emmanuel macron morning that the fight against climate change is also a fight against the loss of biodiversity. we begin with news out of afghanistan. taliban sources claim the last part of afghanistan not under their control has now fallen. for days, there have been intense battles in the tangier valley with the taliban resistance fro. for the latest,et's go live to islamabad. those are unconfirmed reports, but what more can you tell us? >> the ground situation seems to be quite confusing for now.

there were claimthe taliban had taken over the valley, the last bastion of the taliban in afghanistan. a few moments ago, the former president of afghanistan who claims to be the acting president sent a message out saying the fighting between resistance forces and taliban has intensified. in the past weeks, the taliban took over couple -- coue -- kabul. in the last two days, heavy

fighting started in the taliban. the situation since yesterday is that the taliban have tan over all the provinces aund. we have heard reports of the taliban not letting foodnd medical supplies through. >> obviously, there has been a lot of focus on the pangaea valley because of what is going on in the rest o the country, but there has been riding there for years. >> it has been going on since the 1990's. the current leader is the son of a man who was considered a hero in this fight.

he fought the taliban for many years. to attack the valley is quite difficult. it is a never rope surrounded by high mountains, and anyone trying to enter the valley will be faced by fighters, snipers, and heavy artillery. since the taliban took control of kabul, several thousands of ghters and soldiers from the country's x armed forces have joined. >> thank you very much. six people were hurt when an man believed to be inspired by the islamic state group went on a knife attack in new zealand friday afternoon. the incident occurred at a

supermarket in auckland. three of the injured are in critical condition. police say the man, a sri lankan national, was deemed a threat by authorities, which was why police were following him. >> what is normally a quiet auckland suburb was friday the scene of a terror attack. police say a man entered ts supermarket just after 2:30 p.m. before obtaining a knife within the store and attacking six people. officers intervened within 60 seconds. >> technical operators moved to his location and engaged him. he was shot and killed. >> authorities said the terrorist was a sri lankan national who arrived 10 years ago. he was flagged as a national security risk in 2016 and was

under 24-hour surveillance. police said there was no indication the attacker was planning anything other than a normal shopping trip, and officers needed to maintain a distance to be effective. >> what happened today was despicable. it was hateful. it was wrong. it was carried out by an individual, not a faith, not a culture, not an ethnicity, but an individual person who was gripped by ideology that is not supported here. >> until friday, the men had not committed any offenses that would lead to arrest or detention. >> parts of the northeast of the united states are still reeling from the damage of ida, which dumped historic amounts of rain and spread tornadoes tuesday. much of the damage occurred in the new york city metropolitan

area, and authorities are acknowledging that the region's infrastructure is woefully unprepared for disasters of ida 's magnitude. 13-year-old valentina among the many who have lost so much. >> the is still a lot of water around. emergency services are trying to pump it all out, but there's just too much. many homes and businesse have been entirely destroyed, but these piles of belongings you can see behind me on this residential street, a working-class neighborhood just north of new york city, are commonplace here. basically, everyone has had to remove most of the contents of their homes and havead to throw it out on the streets, so sanitation will be very busy here. as an assist have been hit hard.

they lost a lo of their produce, and some people have found themselves homeless, including the people who live in this house behind me. i'm joined by valentina. she's 13 years old, going to the local high school. tell me what your family has been going through. >> we are going through a lot right now because of the flood. everything we lost, our whole basement, our first floor, it was submerged. our living room is gone. there is nothing in there. it is sewer water, really. it really jus un-sanitized everything it touched. our landlord came by 10 minutes ago and said it is unsafe. the insulation in the basement is falling, and the house is unlivable. we don't have anywhere else to

go. we went to sleep hoping maybe it would go down. it did not. it went down maybe two inches. if anything, it oup. we are homeless now because they are telling us we might have to go and we have nowhere to go. we have lost our cars in this flood. >> who do you blame for this situation? what caused this? >> honestly, the last time the flood was this bad was before i was born. i have to say global warming. >> how do you feel about that? >> honestly, it is not fair that us normal people have to bear the brunt. it is horrible. i have to lose everything because of something that is not even my fault. >> thank you. i wish you the best of luck. the situation for locals here is just appalling.

new york governor kathy hochul has just been down here in a locals. solidarity for the she said mother nature has changed becae of what manas done, and that is certainly a feeling here. they have never seen foding like this before, despite this being in a flood zone. houses that had never been inundated with water before were hit this time. >> before dumping huge amounts of rain on the u.s. northeast, ida, of course, struck louisiana coast as a category four hurricane. more than 800,000 people are still without power. thousands of others have lost their homes. president biden is in louisiana this friday observing some of the damage. he's expected to speak with victims, first responders, and fly over some of the hardest hit

communities. meanwhile, german chancellor angela merkel had good news for the deadly floods in july. she also toured damage friday. communities are still picking up the pieces following damaging flooding. she said the government would provide as much money as needed to repair damage and rebuild. >> we will not forget you. the new german government will take this over and continue our work. if 30 billion art enough, than any new german government and any new state government will say we will have to do more. do not be afraid. >> french president emmanuel macron is in marseille tonight as he kicks off the international nature conference. it focuses othe urgent need to preserve wildlife.

>> time is running out for the world to safeguard biodiversity in a some of the world's most fragile ecosystems. that is the main message here in marseille amid a sense of urgency to build momentum for greater action on biodiversity. emmanuel macron giving a speech here today at the opening ceremony, urging world leaders to build greater connections, greater synergies between climate action and to limit the loss of biodiversity. over the course of the next few days, countries will have to come up with a strategy, a clear plan with the ambitious objective to restore and preserve 40% of the world's land and oceans by 2030, compared to just 15% for the land and 8% of

oceans today. countries have already adopted hundreds of resolutions to protect biodiversity, but over the course of the congress, they will be debating dozens of other motions. activists are hoping this conference will become a launchpad for even more negotiations that will lead up to the united nations biodiversity summit that will be taking place in china next year. >> earlier friday, mccrone -- emmanuel macron toward -- toward -- emmanuel macron toured an area just off the coast of marseille, no stranger to environmental problems. the water is filled with pollutants and plastic waste, which scientists say could be avoided if people change their habits or cut down that -- cut

down on their use of plastics. >> these fish may think this is what the seabed is supposed to look like, covered with plastic waste. these images were filmed in the mediterranean abo 2200 meters deep. >> the waste has piled up for years. it could end up in the deepest part of the sea, and since there is so little light at the bottom, the waste grades slowly, stagnating over decades. -- the waste degrades slowly. >> it has deteriorated life, killing many animals. >> there could be objects once used for fishing. when they are thrown out d lost at sea, they still trap and kill animals.

>> it is believed that 95% of the plastic waste at sea will sink to areas almost impossible to reach, which no one is currently planning to clean. one way to limit this pollution is by alerting people on the damage that has been done, how dropping bad habits can bring change. >> the paralympics are now well under way in tokyo. the past 10 days, athletes have helped spread awareness of disabilities, particularly among young people. in host nation japan, about half of all people with a disability do not participate in sports, compared with a quarter of non-disabled people. >> this 15-year-old had his leg amputated when he was a few months old and now practices is

sprinting several times a week on this tokyo rooftop. >> this is a child's cap and this is the cap of an athlete. there is a lot of work to be done. >> his coach also makes prostatic limbs. over the last 35 years, he has helped several japanese athletes win medals and transform their lives. >> i usedo be ashamed of my prosthetic limb, and i had trouble making friends. i wasn't very positive. meeting him has encouraged me to show off my prosthetic leg. >> this state-of-the-art equipment is too expensive for most athletes and people living with disabilities. these running blades cost between 7000 and 10,000 euros each. most athletes can only afford them with help from grants and

sponsorship, as with the case of this athlete with a hereditary bone disease who played tennis when she lost the use of her feet. earlier this year, she caused a stir when she played against nondisabled competitors at a tournament. she won the first and second rounds but was knocked out in the third. >> now i would like to win a medal at the paralympic games in paris by playing tennis. i want to encourage children who don't dare to take on the challenge. >> while japan has a long way to go in encouraging people with disabilities to take up sports, these two have given hope to the

country's budding disabled athletes three years before the paris games. >> time now for a look at the day's top business news. start us off with the u.s. jobs report, which has underperformed, and experts are blaming the delta variant. >> indeed, a sharp drop in new hires for august amid the delta variant surge. america added 295,000 nonfarm payrolls in august. experts had predicted roughly 700,000. compared with the number in july, you see why officials are disappointed. on the bright side, the official unemplment rate ticked down slightly to 5.2%, while hourly earnings were up. the hospitality sector saw effectively zero growth while restaurants and retailers each lost around 30,000 to 40,000

jobs. 503 million more americans are currently out of work than in february 2020 just before the pandemic hit. president biden says the u.s. recovery remains a durable but there is more work to be done. he called on congress to quickly pass his infrastructure proposal. >> we are going to create millions of good paying jobs, ease inflationary pressure, allow us to win the competition of the 21st century in alobal economy where our competition has become more intense. this is about it-paying jobs for ordinary people, blue-collar workers. >> wall street losing some ground amid those disappointing numbers. not too much, though. investors seeing it as a sign that the u.s. federal reserve is now probably less likely to begin winding down its massive stimulus program. the dow and s&p 500 finishing the day in the red. the nasdaq barely in positive

territory at the closing bell. european investors took in that jobs report. eurozone activity staying quite robust in august. to germany next where environmental groups are threatening lawsuits against the country's top carmakers as well as a major oil and gas firm, whose groups demand the german company do more to reduce carbon emissions, including phasing out production of combustion engines by the end of the decade. carmakers are saying they are already doing what they can, but environmentalists have the wind at their backs. >> these groups have written to major car manufacturers. >> it is high time to hold those

accountable who have been responsible for billions of tons of greenhouse gas over the previous decades, and that is exactly what we are doing today. we know how desperately >> specifically, the groups want automakers bmw, daimler, and volkswagen to stop producing combustion engines by 2030, five years earlier than an effective been proposed by the eu. dismissing the cease and dest letter, daimler and bmw have already reiterated their commitments to the 2015 paris climate accord while vw pointed to 25 billion euros of investment in its bid to bome a world leader in electric vehicles. however, coming just months after a dutch court ordered oil giant shell to cut emissions by

2030, the groups feel they have momentum on their side. >> we are of the opinion that a serious disssion can and should take place. if no satisfactory declaration is issued accordingly, we will file a lawsuit. >> in munich, climate campaigners have promised action, threatening protests to disrupt the event. >> the eu has reached a deal to end its legal battle with astrazeneca. the pharmaceutical giant had contracted with the european commission to deliver 300 million jobs by june 2021. its failure to meet the deadline sparked a political crisis as europe's vaccination drive struggled to get in gear. eu officials accused the drugmaker of prioritizing u.k. deliveries. under the new deal, astrazeneca

will deliver 200 million doses by early 2022. >> this will bring the total number of delivery to 300 million, as was agreed in the original purchasers thing -- the original purchasing agreement. >> let's take a look at more of the day's top is in his headlines we are following at this hour. general motors is idling eight of its north american factories as a semiconductor shortage continues to hobble car production worldwide. 4 u.s. plants, three in mexico, and one will canada will close. chinese real estate giant evergrande group friday -- grew

friday. one investors of default. the company is china's most indebted developer and one of its biggest borrowers on foreign markets. i had, apple says it will delay the implementation of a controversial system that would imagesf cld exploation.es for it drew fire from privacy and human rights campaigners for its potential to be abused by oppressive regimes. apple has made user privacy and linchpin of its branding strategy in recent years. finally, for investors wondering how to maximize the value of their portfolio, have you tried sending it through the shredder? itself partially after beingded

sold at auction for just over half a million pounds. it is going back on the block us of the beast in october. it's second optn is projected to fetch between million and 6 million pounds. that is attributed to banksy's growing fame in recent years, no doubt helped along by that 2018 prank. that seems a pretty good investment. >> the story that keeps on giving. what are they going to do to it next? maybe set it on their. ask probably. because the story happened before covid, it feels like a decade old. we will be back and tell you all about it right here on france 24. brian quinn with the business.

thank you very much. we will be right back. stay with us. ♪ >> france 24, every art form. >> liberte, egalite, actualite. ♪

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09/03/21 09/03/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. biden: the past few days of hurricane ida and the wildfires under the west and the unprecedented flash floods in new york and new jersey is yet another reminder of these extreme storms in that climate crisis are here. we need to be better prepared. we need to act. amy: as the death toll climbs