>> this is "dw news" live from berlin. food is running short in afghanistan and the taliban are looking for help from abroad. with millions at risk of starvation, the country's acting minister is looking -- asking the united nations to restart deliveries that have been frozen since the taliban takeover. and the secretary of state grilled again. a defiant anthony blinken

defending the withdrawal to a bipartisan group of angry u.s. senators. and the european parliament steps of pressure to countries with laws that discriminate against lgbtq parents and their children. i'm brent goff. two viewers watching in the united states and all around the world, welcome. we start with the taliban looking to build legitimacy as they they say looming humanitarian crisis. the country's acting foreign minister thanked the world for pleasuring hundreds of millions of u.s. dollars in emergency aid to afghanistan yesterday, but it remains unclear how much will reach hungry afghans. many organizations are still

reluctant to deal with the taliban. >> afghanistan's new government has begun the monumental task of convincing the world to work with the taliban. the foreign minister stressed taliban will keep their promises but also warned foreign powers to stay out of afghan affairs. "we want good relations with the international community. we want relations based on mutual agreement. we ask the international community not to put any further pressure on afghans. the policy of aggression has not yielded any results in 20 years and will not do so in the future. while help from the international community is vital, getting afghans on board is crucial. many afghans are urging the taliban to focus on creating

results. "i am a butcher. i sell chicken. currently, we have good security and we don't have income. we have bad times now. we demand that the taliban government provide us job security. the taliban leadership has promised to spend any aid money prioritizing those in need, eliminating the economic hardship faced by afghans will be one of the major hurdles in the taliban's quest for legitimacy abroad and at home. : i'm joined tonight by a journalist in kabul tonight. it is good to see you. the taliban want foreign aid to restart but do not want any strings attached. that is a lot of wishful thinking, it seems. what are the taliban offering in

return? >> this is not necessarily what the taliban are asking for in return. the money they are asking for belongs to the government, and at this point, they are the afghan government. we have to remember that the u.s. struck a deal with them in 2020. germany has been meeting with them since 2011, as have other countries. they were all here when they came to power. they laid the situation down when they came to power. then they all of a sudden cut off the footing. it is not the taliban leaders that are suffering. everyone is suffering. just like the former leader did not suffer from cutting off funding. in the end, it is the afghan people suffering. it is the afghan people who are hungry. ironic that these countries were willg to meet with the taliban for years and sit down with them and make agreements with them and seek their help in pulling

out citizens, but cut off funding once they come into power. brent: what about foreign aid associations not linked to any governments? they are reluctant to go back in because of the lack of guarantees that their people will be safe on the ground. are you seeing any indication the taliban will keep their promise to guarantee the safety of these aid worrs? >> well, they have not been, you know, unsafe up until now in the last month or so, and other aid agencies are continuing their work. a lot of these aid agencies have continued their work throughout conflict, throughout difficulties in this country. somewhere here during the civil war, some were here during the

soviet occupation, so that is not, unfortunately, something new in afghanistan, but, yes, it will be up to the taliban to reassure these aid agencies that their staff will be safe. brent: there have also been reports of a power struge within the taliban movement. what have you heard? >> these have been going on actually since the taliban arrived. there's a struggle between the much more hard-line, more brutal, more forceful and aggressive and vindictive part of the taliban, and then the rest of the taliban, especially the political leadership, that are seen to be more like what the foreign minister is saying we want the world to engage with us and we want assurances, and these rifts have been around at least in's 2015.

even then, if you look up the makeup of the current cabinet, it is very similar to the old structure of the old taliban. it was established to very -- it was very carefully crafted to appease all of the parties within the taliban. now when they come to power, they are acing the same issues every other government in this party has faced for the last however many years in that they realize power corrupts and power divides and power brings up rivalries among people and makes people much worse, and now they see themselves -- for all their criticisms of the former government or former governments, they a facing these realities themselves, so they have to come together to try to lead the country according to all these promises they have been making but have yet to act out on.

brent: thank you. the united states' chaotic withdrawal from afghanistan is under scrutiny once again tonight in a second round of congressional hearings. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken was heavily criticized by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. they questioned if a complete departure was truly necessary and why the biden administration did not act fast enough after the taliban took over the country. many american citizens and afghans who helped american forces over the last decades were left behind. so far, blinken is defending the decision to leave the country, calling it the right thing to do. >> president biden immediately faced the choice between ending the war or escalating on taking office. had he not followed through on his predecessor's commitment, et al. -- attacks would have escalated in the taliban's

assault on major cities would have commenced. that would have required sending substantial u.s. forces into afghanistan, taking casualties and with it, the prospect of restoring a stalemate and being stuck in afghanistan indefinitely. brett: we bring in the representative from the embassy for responsible statecraft. we heard the secretary of state saying basically it was former u.s. president trump's agreement with the taliban to withdraw that left president biden no room. is that a correct assessment of the situation? >> i think it is, unfortunately, because at the end of the day, the fact that if the biden administration wanted to

renegotiate a deal, they would need another agreement with the taliban to do that and there was no indication that an agreement with the taliban could be done. at the same time, i think it has to be said that that secretary blinken would point t that they inherited this decision from trump, it should also be noted that widen himself in the campaign made a promise that he would withdraw troops from afghanistan because overwhelmingly, this is a very popular decision in the united states. many wanted to leave a long time ago, so ending the war is not necessarily something the biden administration could disagree with, but i suspect blinken felt the need to remind members of congress the decision had

actually been done by a different president, and it was a republican president. brent: blinken was also asked about the frenzied evacuation of u.s. citizens but also afghan citizens. i want you to listen to part of what he had to say. >> that emergency evacuation was sparked by the collapse of the afghan security forces and government. throughout the year, we were constantly assessing our staying power and considering multiple scenarios. even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that the government forces in kabul would collapse while u.s. forces remained. they were focused on what would happen after the united states was through, from september onward. as the general chiefs of staff has said, "nothing i or anyone else saw indicated the collapse of this army and this government in 11 days." brent: the secretary of state basically saying it was impossible to predict the rapid

collapse of the afghan military and government. that is one way of looking at it, but if you have been in the country for 20 years, is it possible that your intelligence could be so wrong? >> one of the characteristics of this 20 year war, we have been lied to by the government for 20 years about how well the war was going and how close they were to rning th corner. to see that r 20 years and to have the assumption that the government was secure was not true. the united states' occupation and involvement in afghanistan

and the building of the afghan forces seems to have almost been designed to make the afgn government depended on the united states -- depended on the united states and that the original plan s to never leave at all, but as a result, the army was designed in such a way that i would collapse because it was not trained in the right way. it was given high-technology equipment and did not have the ability to sustain such equipment if the united states was not there, which is to say at the end of the day, the occupation of the state we should be focusing on is not what happened in the last month but what happened in the last 20 years. brent: i know president biden's poll numbers have dropped because of what happened in the airport in kabul, but moving forward, will this hurt his

administration at all? >> i don't think it will. even the drop of the numbers does not necessarily be tied to the decision to withdraw. it may be tied more to how the withdrawal took place. the -- the decision to withdraw still has the support of % of the public. i think if biden had not withdrawn and would have been forced to put more troops in afghanistan, that would have hurt him much more in the polls in november 2022 and the decision to withdraw -- then the decision to withdraw. >> from the quincy institute of responsible statecraft, as always, we appreciate you joining us tonight. thank you. >> thank you so much. appreciate it. brent: let's take a look now at the stories we are following this hour. in the united states, tropical storm nicholas has better louisiana and other states. it made landfall as a category

one hurricane with wind up to 120 miles per hour. authorities are wanting -- warning of flash floods and high waters hitting coastal cities. the syrian leader has met the russian president in moscow. pugin criticized the presence of foreign forces in syria without a united nations mandate. russia is syria's most powerful ally. both turkey and the u.s. have soldiers in the north and east of the country. guinea's military rulers have opened talks with military and business leaders. the talks are aimed at solidifying power after the military took hold. traffic has been disrupted in some cities and weather warnings remain in effect. about 800 rescue workers have been deployed. authorities say one person is

missing. in germany, voters go to -- go to the polls in less than two weeks. the big question -- who will succeed angela merkel as the next german chancellor? her conservative cdu party is still trailing the social democrats in the polls, and in some regions, conservatives are losing ground to the extreme right. that is the case in a bavarian town where the cdu's sister party is usually the strongest party. now the far-right a t -- afd is gaining ground. we met with one politician who is trying to hold on to hold onto the conservative heartland. >> it is market day. the conservative csu politician is hoping to be reelected into germany's parliament. on the campaign trail, discussion has become heated. >> 80% of the so-called corroded

deaths are people who would have died anyway because they were seriously ill. >> are you telling me that coronavirus is harmless and that the long-term effects of the vaccination are more important than the long-term consequences of the disease itself? >> opinions are becoming increasingly unforgiving -- unforgiving. the far-right alternative for germany won almost 1% of the vote in the federal election, around 7% more than the national average. the key issue for voters th was migration as thousands of asylum-seekers arrived in germany in 2015. emergency reception status was set up here. >> i think the region was particularly challenged by the migrant crisis. but i also think the afd benefited from mobilizing people who had not previously paid much

attention to politics or felt much of it. >> who wants to win some of these voters back. the refugee crisis no longer really plays a role in this village. what these people want is a digital connection to the rest of the world. >> what bothers me is we have been fighting for years for a proper mobile phone tower. then i read in the newspaper that 5g is supposed to come by 2025, but we don't even have a functional cell phone network. >> infrastructure is definitely an important topic we still need to work on. >> ts is also a task for local politics, but explaining germany's complex national politics here is also proving to be a challenge.

this army reserve club is celebrating its success in the annual shooting tournament. >> watching the news and politics gives you stomach ulcers. all politicians, no matter what their party, lacked the ability to get things done in my opinion. >> many here feel the federal government has failed to address the issues important to them, and the csu party has been part of the last four governments. >> it would be presumptuous to say that i somehow have the answer to everything, but of course, i tried to show that i care and that i tried to solve things. >> despite the grievances in the constituency, there is still time for a friendly beer. >> you are a great guy. i'm just not interested i your party politics. >> it's all good.

brent: i'm joined now by our political correspondent. four years ago in the last election, we were talking a lot of the far-right afd party making inroads, especially into parliament here in berlin. are we seeing that this time? >> well, at the moment, as -- polls currently suggest the afd is expected to win around 11% of the vote, so that is two percentage points down from the 2017 elections, and they are expected to do especially well in their strongholds in parts of eastern germany. what is interesting, though, is that they are not expected to win over the cdu/csu voters. we have to remember that numbers are dropping to record lows. some analysts say it is because

migration, the one topic the afd was able to capitalize on in the last election, is not as present this time around. second, the party has -- some of the members are under germany's intelligence agency surveillance, and that increases hurdles to them. brent: in the last election, as you said, the refugee crisis was one big reason we saw an increase in voter support for the far-right. is there anything, though, that is analogous to that this time around? >> not to the same extent, but the one topic they are trying to get out and capitalize on is the handling of it. one of the major points in their

program as they want to get rid of all pandemic restrictions. some of the party leaders are openly flirting with the anti-vaccine here in germany. a former lead candidate is very vocal about the fact that she has not been vaccinated yet, and she and her party want to sort of present themselves as the defenders of the rights of the unvaccinated. what is also interesting is that the afd politicians are the only party that have been frequently present and held speeches at the organizers of these mast protests, where amongst others, far-right speakers and conspiracy theorists were in attendance.

brent: thank you. the u.k. parliament is stepping up pressure on hungary, parliament, and romania for discriminating against lgbtq parliament. they are calling for same-sex marriages in one european country to be recognized in all european countries. members of parliament said this year has seen the erosion of lgbtq rights in some parts of europe. poland was singled out for creating what is being called lgbt free zones in some cities. hungary is criticized for its law banning material that "promotes gender change and homosexuality to people under the age of 18. we met one young transgender boy trying to cope with increasing hostility fostered by the change of government policy and the change of government rhetoric.

>> he wants to grow facial hair. >> i want a beard. >> the treatment is actually for men with hair loss. he was born a girl. i have been a tomboy -- >> i have been a tomboy since i was a child. from the age of five, my hair was this long. then short. now i see a 17-year-old boy in the mirror. >> this is where he feels secure enough to tell his father about what he endures. >> recently, someone insulted him in a supermarket, calling him terrible names. i was wondering if i should go there, but that would not change anything. >> his father is angry and feels powerless. >> i clench my fist, but then i let it go. >> a teenage boy in the biological body of a girl.

but he doesn't mind being transgender, despite the name-calling and the looks he gets. he would love to change his girls name, which he does not want to share yet. he recently started and ask -- an internship at a foster home, an exception. prior to that, he was rejected by many others. i like the government's stance that people like him spread propaganda, he works with children for another reason, he says. >> i go there to play with them, to read stories to them, but of course, my presence also teaches them that there are different rules -- different roles. not all boys are alike, nor girls. they are diverse. >> it is not an easy task for him because every day, he is made to feel that being transgender makes him an outsider, just like many in the

lgbtq community. he does not see his future in hungary. brent: as we mentioned earlier, germans had to the polls in less than two weeks, and that means angela merkel's time as chancellor is quickly coming to an end. if you are looking for a souvenir of her 16 years in office, this bavarian convention or has got you covered. it is a limited edition. there will only be 500 produced. i have a shelf life of two years. good news for fans who want to see her go, and if you are not a fan, you might get one for a chance to really take a bite out of the chancellor for the next two years. here's a reminder of the top story we are following for you in this hour. in afghanistan, and international donors conference raised more than $1 billion in

pledges yesterday, but governments are divided over delivery of the aid without a government in place. we will be back to take you through "the day." tonight, why the california recall vote reaches all the way to the white house. we will be right back.

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>> a very warm welcome back to the france 24 newsroom, i am thomas waterhouse and these are the latest headlines forou at 10:00 p.m. paris time. haiti's prime minister should be charged. he allegedly played in the killing of the president. so says the chief prosecutor, who claims he s firm evidence from the night of jovenel moise he's assassination puts ariel henry in the frame. the u.s. secretary of state response to senators' questions, with