ah, ah headlining right now, and i'll say the taliban says it's going to sound 2nd largest city of kandahar without verified footage and legacy sharing security forces play in the city. so i had cobra vaccines from pfizer and dennis show us to be a drop in efficacy when faced with the delta vary according to a new american study. 5 fighters and volunteers battle huge wildfires in rushes far east. what a state of emergencies enforced smoke and ash coated huge areas of correspondent is in the 2nd. firefighters have now created this mineralized zone. this is basically the whole purpose of this is that the fire, if you can see it's still burning there, it will not be able to pass beyond the zone. ah,

hello, good happy with this this our, you're watching artsy international. i'm calling graham most goes thursday evening at 7 here in the russian capital. same time and i've kind of done. that's where we're starting and rapidly changing situation that starting with the breaking news that the taliban says it's seized. afghanistan's 2nd largest city kandahar on verified video is circulating like social media, purportedly showing africa security forces displaying the city just half an hour before the taliban. for now, within the past hours we reported to us embassy and cobble has urged all american citizens to leave afghanistan, immediately. going as far as to offer loans to americans unable to afford plane tickets. home cobble journalist bill also was described to the earlier the deteriorating security situation nationwide. what more do you know about the capture of kandahar as the taliban claims? according to some icons, the governor, the province,

is only left with the 6 or 7 of his body guards refusing to leave here from kandahar we heard reports of heavy fighting between the taliban and members of the con, the heart police inside listed quarters. we have to really remember that come to har, is the home of senior, all of our leaders in some monitors. this is where they started their movement in the 1990 s. i think it's also a very embarrassing scenario for the americans. the international community inital, when a place like cotton are falls in line and sign does not have a credible piece process or a comprehensive and permanency. it was the american officials and other western officials publicly. priding on the fact that the taliban was not to do this, the thought about were not to do that. and this and now the african people are left extremely vulnerable. that is not to say that the afghan government was not incompetent. that is not to say that i've gotten politicians in africa and

government felt to put the country before their own political interest and political bickering. and one really feel sorry for africa and soldiers, you know, like they've been bearing the brunt of this conflict. so many within the african military are now asking, why did we did? why so many sacrifices allow, the americans will say they put in the money they put in the effort. they've had significant losses themselves. and i've now pretty much said you're on the road and it's up to you to sort it out to you now say, judging by what you just said, that, that, that hope is somewhat futile. well, i once did speak to the americans from a very painful past when the russians are defeated. here the americans basically left there was nothing for them which led to the civil war. the rise of tyler bond in the 911 attacks. so many ones are saying fine, you're leaving, but leave responsibly, you know, leave what the peace process commit to that, you know, don't lit up on a stan fall back to the 1990 s the dynamics. so quite dangerous this time for the region for i want to sign in for the world. and let's also not forget to know what

has been dubbed time and again by western countries in every other country as be stalks. these are efforts to thought be stuck. these talks have not resulted an end to the bloodshed and suffering of the african people. and now we are looking at a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions where one's of lost homes that harvest the cops, their businesses, and the situation could actually get worse. there could be a domino impact on provinces in and around. cobble and cobble itself does face a massive risk just how significant. it's like you monetary and crisis in afghanistan. right now. i've one children continue to get killed in tragically, shockingly big numbers. we also know that their civilian casualties and fatalities, but remember, more than a 1000000 ones have been forced to leave that homes. a 1000000 more who are caught in the fighting. these major urban centers fled, who have been displaced over the years in these districts in these provinces. and

now they've got nowhere to go. and those who have been able to come to cobble few 1000. and they've only been able to basically bring with themselves a pair of clothes to be united states has told all american citizens and at the embassy that they should leave afghanistan for that safety and other american official earlier said he expected cobble to fall within 90 days. how well defended is cobble is 90 days optimistic? well these statements do cause psychological torture and turbulence among ones. but you know, we have to also remember that all of these countries, except for the united states and great britain, especially to keep deporting off once, give saying that i want to stay on the safe and only recently they have stopped that process temporarily. at least you know, so a couple does face the risk off taliban attacks. large scale attacks because the districts of cobbled province are not secure the provinces in an around carbon like

low but in water that i've seen a lot of taliban advances and i'm afraid, you know, this is a very psychological fear. now, among ones, when you hear such big names kinda hard here, odd mazata, when you hear one official surrendering and making their own deals, it is ought to have a very destructive and negative impact on the psyche and confidence. so the african people in cobb county has been sweeping through the country in recent weeks. now seizing nearly a dozen provinces, the mass offensive developed in the wake of the pentagon to withdraw the town about advance comes as talks. and cats are between half kind of a star. it is and the taliban failed to produce a peace deal. meanwhile, washington made it clear that it won't come to cobbles, rescue african leaders have to come together. we lost thousands at last death and injury. thousands of american personnel got to fight

for themselves. meantime, a number of news us news outlets have been citing, that undisclosed intelligence official claiming that the capital cobble could fall to the taliban within 90 days. but here's the situation right now. the militants control, 2 thirds of the country, which you can see here and read. that leaves. government forces with enclave as you can see them shaded in in green that but with a much reduced territory. the rest currently disputed regions which are on the brink right now, but the islamists have taken hold of some districts in close proximity to the capital. just look at how the numbers have changed in just a few months. the tunnel ramped up. it's offensive in april following us president jo biden's announcement that the u. s. was pulling its troops out, the taliban wasting no time at the time, no control belly, a face of the country's territory. now look at it in the middle of august. it's more than half it seen afghan government controlled area shrink from around 30 percent of the country down to 16 percent. now the pentagon, though it says that the fall of cobble is not necessarily on the cards. we are

certainly mindful of the advances that the taliban have made in terms of taking over yet an increased number of, of provincial capitals. other thing i'd say is that no potential outcome has to be inevitable, including the, the fall of cobble, which everybody seems to be reporting about. it doesn't have to be that way. so with the hostility showing no sign of a basic and afghan has done the new and warm that nearly 400000 people have had to leave the home since the start of the year with a huge spike since may the us and says that this place people are heading to cobbled in search of safety. i hear just some of the heart wrenching stories. the refugees have to tell. i have been just placed from telecom city. the taliban killed my son. they took all the belongings from my house and set fire to demonstrate the punch me in the mouth, causing my teeth to fall out. they demanded my son and i told them that he's a school teacher. she recently became

a teacher and had not even received his salary yet, had a class has broke out and we were taken hostage in the fighting, went on for about 6 to 7 days that we couldn't go outside to do anything we managed to escape. and now where displaced i left our i spoke to fatima galani, who's negotiating with the taliban for the african governments in catholic capital . doha, she's also a leading women's rights activist. she told me that these talks could be the last chance the piece. we're live down by the us, we are let down by the whole world. you will drag in this war 43 years ago and it's going on and on the countries burning non stop. we saw just few years, comparatively, a peace. and now it is growing again, we have to come to an understanding that this is the last opportunity and we have to go to change this country. i'm live together. politically,

i saw i saw what is happening to the government side or the thought of our sites. we should look to the eye of those people who are this place to the i oh those people that they are urging and told them that we have still an opportunity will side of the negotiation table, nit ended because they double side, there is a one side and that's one side is the people of mine is done rational, sorry, it is say a black sea oil spill has caused significant environmental damage. scientist warned that the scale of the disaster is much worse than initially reported really came as crude was being pumped into a terminal from a terminal into a greek flagged tanka. now it was initially claimed that just 12 cubic meters of oil spilled into the sea and that the leak didn't spread further. the offices of the company honing the terminal are now being searched amid an investigation into how the spill was allowed to spread russian. scientists analyzed satellite dates

from found the damage covered an area at 400000 times larger the mobile claim. marine experts wonder there is a significant threat to see life. let's talk about that more now with alexi commissioner called, who's head of the responsible industry program. at the worldwide fund for nature in russia, welcome to the program called the experts be right that this spell is unprecedented for the black c. so unfortunate where angel was bigger spiel about 15 years ago in a black sketch trade it was about or 4 long spilled. this spiel we can say this is the size. all assessment is about $100.00 or even a small spill is catastrophic. to see life that how much of it's under threat from this incident. yes, you will in this spiel had occur about 5 kilometers from the coast month. it is

quick to reach coastline and beaches. so this is very famous recreation area. and what is more important for us to double double live from those spill area? 10 kilometers to the load that has national reserves within schism 5 in the what important to us will flooring falling and that way all the red tech formation site. some pollution over in here, dodge, nicole slide. it's a race to try and get this clean up. salted sooner rather than later is enough being done to contain the spread. not really. as soon as the total total square, all the leak on almost a was about 95 kilometers. we can claim that

activity. just love to keep this spill near the facility. you failed and that's why we have so huge distribution off on the oil all around the area in we can say that it's about 200 kilometers in diameter on this leap. industrial responsibility is your speciality. why do you think the company originally underestimated the damage? so much i think this, this company already peroration was battling about 20 years and we can say that there were such, such spills that maybe they feel that they would, will happen in the future. and they start told, meanwhile, that activity just feel safe to say to and, and prevention measures. maybe that's the reason why the reason actually so rigid, 20 years old by,

by sole use time to talk to him the ation. that's the spiel. just show everybody that is time to doing prostate job this pipeline. i mean, is it largely down to, for instance, you hope that the technology will be better by 2021 and we'd start to see few spills as a result of this. but you're suggesting that infrastructure isn't being invested and is that because fossil fuels are increasingly regarded as yesterday's news for him? yes, yes, yes. i think that's, that's exactly that. as soon as the global demand for oil is, is decreasing, which i think about stopping them, where most skin russian like white lives and actually this pipeline, you know, the kid is area or the whole country is too risky. i think for, for, for before, for us to clean up works well and rapidly found out though alexi connection to come

from the worldwide fun for nature in russia. thank you. and your next worrying drop in advocacy for the pfizer unbidden a covey vaccines has been marked in a new american study showing that they did significantly against the delta strain off the 6 months corresponded. alien try and join me earlier to explain the findings. this is a so called 3 print study, which means that it hasn't gone through peer review yet, but the study contains numbers. the numbers outlined the trends and they are scary . they cannot be ignored, even though they only come from one state of minnesota. but there are about the efficacy and when it comes to preventing infection for the madera vaccine, the efficacy has dropped from 86 percent in january to 76 percent in july. however, with pfizer, it's been a real statistical nosedive because the efficacy has fallen from 76 percent in

january to 42 percent. and experts are linking all this with the spread of the delta various in the us. now i've said that this is a pre print study. however, the overall situation with corona virus in the u. s. is echoing these numbers and it does look scary, because if you look at the daily growth a bit more than a month ago, it was about plus $12000.00 new cases in one day. and you know what they registered on august. the 11th plus $155000.00 southern states are reporting that they are running out of intensive care units beds. and here's what we heard from one doctor who was working with corporate patients in the region. we're going back to when you to go, when you don't have the where you base i for the we have to put tens that work phone fan outside. they have to allow 2 people to come on

a while. the spread of the delta variant is clearly set to become a nightmare for. ready american officials, without full vaccination of a vast majority of the population, most likely new variance will keep appearing. and again, perhaps they will be more dangerous. and this is something that senior medical experts have been warning about for, while long as the virus continues to spread. you give it ample opportunity to mutate and when you give an ample opportunity to mutate, you may sooner relate a get another variance. and it is possible that that variant might be in some respects worse than the already very difficult, very, and we're dealing with now. so any thoughts reassurance from any officials on this well, so far, and it common to the outlet, the 1st reported on the minnesota study as senior joe biden, administration. officials said the following, literally, if that's not a wake up call, i don't know what is and perhaps at this point these guys aren't that key to

comment on that worsening situation because only a bit more than a month ago during the 4th of july celebrations. joe biden was more than just optimistic about if we gain the upper hand against this virus. we can live our lives. our kids can go back to school. our economy is rory back. well, this is what joe barton was saying a bit more than a month ago. now the situation is completely different and it could turn into a complete flow for the government trying to stay positive these, they don't, they need to, vaccines in the mix. how many others holding up? i'm going to give you 2 other names. and in that case, the situation is much more promising that is johnson and johnson and rushes sport make me now for the 1st one i mentioned, the efficacy against the delta variance is at 95 percent, which is impressive when it comes to rushes. sputnik fee, the efficacy drops,

just like in the case of but there are no. and pfizer, but it only dropped to 83 percent, which is still an impressive result compared to 42 percent of pfizer. so perhaps this is the reason why the developer of sputnik me suggested and proposed cooperation with pfizer. suggesting starting trials with sputnik as a booster jap. let's see what kind of response they're going to get. because we do remember that despite being allowed in dozens of countries, sputnik b as not yet been officially approved by the world health organization. and after i talked to british surgeon and physician, i'd run jude bry. he says that southern countries are cutting themselves off from scientific involved in advance is for political reasons. it, this whole pandemic really held a mirror to the world. it should have many uncomfortable truth about our political system, about health and equality, about inequality globally. and of course, about a political move servatius, which interfere with what,

what other like be strictly scientific and medical consideration. so for example, in, in britain, we have been point forward in making huge contracts with united states and other countries to buy their vaccines. but we have to just ignore the efficacy, both of the russian vaccine and of course of the chinese. and it does seem that we're going to suffer as a result of that. at the, at the sputnik 5 acting tickler was 1st to publish phase 3 results. and at that time showed in 96 percent efficacy was the most effective a lot of actually really and it doesn't the efficacy holding up very well. but we are cutting off of the political reasons from the scientific advances that are available in the world today. you know, without say on the way that the wildfires ravaging regents around the world, including here in russia. ah,

ah, ah, ah, ah, i use what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have. it's crazy plantation

let it be an arms race is often very dramatic. development only personally, i'm going to resist. i don't see how that strategy will be successful, a very critical time. time to sit down and talk the hello again from north africa to southern europe and beyond. months of wildfires are becoming a growing catastrophe firefighters and even the military are battling to bring the vast and deadly fires under control. the me

and these, the rushes, one of the areas devastated here most 5000 people, fighting the flames with 700 pieces of equipment deployed to the state of emergencies being declared to the huge cutie, a region where thick smoke is forced apples to cancel flights. dmitri poke, is there and sent this report. ah, ah, so we're still traveling for the village where we're expected to meet the firefighters that some of those we actually saw yesterday. but right now on the way, we couldn't help, but stop at this. scenic location is late covered and smoke a red sky above it. and all we're looking, all of this is a bunch of cows. some dogs, some people who live here,

this is their life. and now it's all covered in smoke. and we know how close the fires have gotten to this place specifically, but firefighters. there's a bunch of equipment. there's a lot of volunteers. so i think these guys are safe and these cows and these dogs definitely to now we're going to head back on the road to the village, which is now under threat of fire in a wondering what the raj, all these places look like. something like this. the lose, the last step is when you full of fire is the most difficult as it encompasses enlarge area. the mineral eyes area has been created along the perimeter and that area has now been

dug up from there to there. so we just arrived at one of the locations where the firefighters have now created this mineralized zone. this is basically a whole purpose of this, is that the fire, if you can see it's still burning there, it will not be able to pass beyond the zone. also this area has obviously been burned off, which is one of the ways they stop the fires. you know that a fire is coming from the direction so they burn everything off. so they make that trench the mineralized zone. then the started burn off. as you can see, the ground hears all ash, all of this is ash ah, the result of his employees from the ministry emergency situation. so everyone is head, plow, plough, manage, extinguish, saw. so while this fire does not represent any immediate threats,

any people but so it still feels just kind of good to have a part in extinguishing it. so now is just a bunch of smoke but there's no file. mm. ah . so we've traveled back to your going to the village that is currently being threatened by the wildfires. there is one coming from one side and the other. it's chaos right now. we tried to go to the fires, but this place is very big. and so we just didn't have enough time to recent, it's way too far away, and it's through very dense wilderness. the only thing that can get through there are things like this, but they're all packed with firefighters. but we did see the mineralized line that

they made. we saw the burn off, and the aftermath of that burn off the burns trees the burned ground. we walked to know for at least an hour through all of the we still couldn't reach the fire. we decided to head back, it was just too much blood, so we're thinking it's all on our eyes on our breath, on our lungs. very rough out there. the guys are, they're constantly. some of them have been there for 40 days already and even they are getting tired already. so i think at least now many people have gotten understanding of what it takes to battle these wildfires to battle nature and how chaotic all of this can be. i have been to me about her t i will after all that time for a laugh or maybe not. is counsel culture killing comedy, plenty of stand up. some comics seem to think so nowadays. they say the laughter business is under threat because offending the so called p. c mob could be career ending material in time please everyone, your please know one with comedy as well. you got,

i think you got deal with to booze and content issues and sometimes you did an irony, some people don't get, not when everybody gets safe and nobody tries anything. things get boring, right. moving. so i see a lot of unfunny comedians to unfunny tv shows, you know, it's hard to be a comedian as it is. and if you're going to muscle someone and they have to be careful what they say, it makes it that much more difficult. so we should the stand up, no censorship here and comedian should not be afraid. and they should not be attack by others who are the twitter police or, or the morality police. where do you draw the line of quite a few big name comedians. right now say they're self censoring avoiding topics about things like body, image, religion or other cultural differences, saying that they're becoming increasingly restrained by overly zealous social media uses to stay in a job many comics say they feel they've got to comply with

a more work agenda through like a 100 pounds overweight, i'm like, why don't you show some respect and lose a little weight. next time you have the middle seat on a flight, you won't be filling. literally the only thing a mold woman wearing a berg in an engine and comment is an order survive. they both need to be quiet. i dealt with the restaurants and that indian food, that indian cuisine, indian food, potatoes and poverty. but american comedian, actor and director seth rogan, has no troubles having the p c line saying comics criticism of it is to brush. and there are plenty of up and coming comedians happening to play it safe and to as today's edgy material becomes tomorrow's. unacceptable and out of touch gig, comedian, math or failure, whereas that increasing self censorship is troubling. trend. comedy is something that brings people together and why, why would you want to get rid of that?

yes, some people will be offended by some jokes. not everybody finds the same things funny, but the potential is there, like what brings people more than anything else? is comedy and, you know, i don't think it's just comedians, you know, people in general are certainly self censoring. they don't want to lose their job over something they said 10 years ago or just ever they don't want to get centered or lose their income for a joke. so of course people are self censoring. so there you go, you had it here comedy. no laughing matter, right, that's it for me. your next update from the new see here in moscow is with daniel hawkins and just under half an hour the.