[000:00:00;00] the tragic news from russia. one woman dies and 18 other people are injured in a bus, in an explosion on a bus in the russian town of veronica. we have some eye witnesses saying the blast hit extremely hard and the explosion was very loud. so loud i was deaf and for some time and the blood pressure was so high that my car was almost pushed to the other side of the road. one of the taliban says it has seized afghanistan, 2nd and 3rd largest cities, kandahar and iraq with the militants. wrapping up their countrywide offensive, amid the u. s. troop withdrawal and firefighters and volunteers. battle huge wildfires and rushes far east, where

a state of emergency is enforced. smoking ash have coated a huge areas. our correspondence is in the thick of it. 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, broadcast unless direct from our studios in moscow. this is art international. i'm john thomas. certainly glad to have you with us. we're going to start with breaking news from the western russian city of varnish, where an explosion has taken place on a bus, injuring 18 people. one woman later died of her injuries and another person remains in a very serious condition. a bit of a warning viewers may find the following images distressing. this was taken moments before the explosion and there you can see it happening,

debris flying from all sides. then a fire vehicle was carrying 30 to 35 passengers, and some of those still able to move fled in seconds and more disturbing images of the explosion. an injured person lying on the ground among the debris. a number of explanations for the blasts are being looked at by officials and i witness told us what he thought i was driving towards the south west market place and drove by the bus. a black suddenly happened, my car was shaken. i looked in the rearview mirror and saw that my vehicle had been passed by an explosion. i stopped. the buses, roof is blown away. people start arriving, emergency services please. simon. someone was taken away with their legs blown off, of us had severe abrasions. the explosion was very loud, so loud i was deafening for some time. and the blood pressure was so high that my call was almost pushed to the other side of the road. all right,

we are now joined live in the studio by our correspondent. you're going to start off when situations like this happened chaotic moments at the beginning, and then the bigger picture starts to unfold. what do we know so far? well, you're absolutely right. this is a very delicate time and we should tread very carefully. he has to because all sorts of versions of flying around basically the most concrete and well statement we've had, we've had, is from russia's anti terrorist committee, or rather, russia's investigative committee, i should say, the version of a terrorist attack. this is something that has been on everybody's minds on everybody's lips because russia is no stranger to such attacks by slamming radicals, according to them, this version is not completely ruled out, but the, this, it is not, it is definitely not the primary one. they are essentially treating this as a very tragic accident, and there is suspecting that the operator of the bus talk that it was, well, it was negligent when it came to the safety of transportation. and that there,

suspecting the maybe they had like a gas cylinder installed and that was something that went off another version. and another aspect of this suspicion is that some of the passengers might have had something in the luggage. again, like a gas leak or something, there was no malice, no bad in time to wasn't and well it wasn't the wasn't a an attack. so there was again, there was no malice intended. but they just happened to have something that went off. we do know for a fact that the investigators they are checking the whole bus pog, perhaps suspecting that maybe one vehicle had something like that installed which should have be in there. because according to all documentation, this bus was diesel powered. of course you can marry diesel and gas, but i mean that would go very much against any will any safety of transportation. so they're taking the whole pox to see that if other buses have something like that installed, then the possibility that the bus in question that the vehicle in question also had

this device there. well, it grows exponentially. and so also another thing that is pointing against the version of a terrorist attack is, well, a witness account over the source in police of an r t source within the law enforcement. who have said that basically the aftermath of the explosion says simply, doesn't look like the one you see after a terrorist bloss have a listen project such as pieces. so when nails things usually used in exposes devices were not found. those injured were mostly calmed by fragments of flank less. however, the chance that it could be an explosive device can still not be ruled out. so what they're talking about that is a very common and well world by practice used by world terrorists. they do not just hope or the do not pin the hold on the blast wave on the damage done by the blast

wave. but rather they stuff for the id with all sorts of little sharp metal objects like bolts nuts and wires and so on. and so forth, so that when this device goes off, it's not just the last week, but also these pieces of metal is going through the flesh through the bodies. and it just multiply. the may have that the device can well can, can, can wreak the, all the, all the havoc. so this is what they're doing and well. so this is not what the investigators are apparently seeing on the site. but nonetheless, the blast was still very, very powerful from the video is quite disturbing, by the way of view. discretion is advised as of us watching this program, basically something went off in the rear left side of the bus. something went off and you can see there, you see, there you go, there it goes off in the rail, left part of the bus. you can see the explosion very clearly. there it is again. and so the left even, even, even if you look at the pictures,

the left side of the bus is completely destroyed and the right one, even though it is severely damaged, it is still while it is still quite batted and decimated. but according to the bus driver who is fine and who was in the front part of the bus, here's what happened on that vehicle. as it was, while waiting at the bus stop, was diana and we were still people were getting on the bus, the traffic light turned red. people got them from the cross walk. i started driving off then the last happened, broken glass smoke. i couldn't understand what happened. people helped to evacuate others. there are people who are seriously injured. so again, the authorities are, of course, looking into all versions into possibilities. like again, i've already told about how old the bus park will all be the entirety of the bus part will be checked for anything for any equipment, for any dangerous and volatile equipment that really should really have been there

in the 1st place. this is what they will be looking at very thing today they will be looking at throughout the night and tomorrow morning. but also in parallel to this, the governor has announced, and he's that he's urged all citizens to be extra vigilant tomorrow for any on an unattended packages, any unattended items, like well, bags and so on and so forth. so just to just so, so that the people remain vigilant just in case the raises someone out there who wants to hurt people of veronica. and of course, hopefully the list of wounded and killed does not grow any further. indeed. and as they say, if you see something, say something, we know there's this story developed, you'll stay on top of it for us. thanks. it was done off for us on this story. she did and now to afghanistan where the telephone says it has seized the countries 2nd and 3rd largest cities, kandahar and her art. on verified video is circulating on social media, purportedly showing african security forces, clean kind of harm,

just half an hour before the tele bonds announcement. us embassy in couple is urging all americans to leave afghanistan, immediately. going so far as to offer loans to those unable to afford plane tickets . home media reports, claim embassy. staff will also be evacuated by the u. s. military cobble journalist told my colleague colon bray earlier about the deteriorating national security situation. what more do you know about the capture of kandahar as the taliban claims? according to some icons, the governor of the province is only lyft with a 6 or 7 of his body guards refusing to leave here from the har. we heard reports of heavy fighting between the taliban and members of the con, the harp police inside the police headquarters. we have to really remember that kandahar is the home of senior, all of our leaders and commanders. this is where this 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 does not have a credible piece process or a comprehensive and permanency side, there was the american officials, you know, and other wisdom officials publicly, priding on the fact that the top to bottom, we're not to do this the thought about, we're not to do that in this, and now the african people are left extremely vulnerable. that is not to say that the african government was not incompetent. that is not to say that i've gotten politicians in africa and government failed to put the country before that own political interest in 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 i've gotten 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 sorted out. do you now see, judging by what you just said,

that that hope is somewhat futile? well, i ones do speak to the americans from a band full 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, you know, what has been dubbed time. and again, by western increase in every other country as be stalks. these are efforts to start be stuck to these talks have not resulted, and 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 their homes that harvest that cause their businesses and the situation could actually get worse. there could be

a domino impact on provinces in and around. cobble in cobble itself does face a massive risk, just how significant is monetary and crisis in afghanistan. right now, i've won 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. and these major urban centers who fled, who have been displaced over the years in these districts in these provinces. and now they have got nowhere to go. and those who have been able to come to cobble few 1000, they've only been able to basically bring with themselves a pair of clothes. the united states has told all american citizens and at the embassy that they should leave afghanistan for their 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 start a safe and only recently they have stopped at process temporarily. at least you know. so a couple does face the risk of taliban attacks. large scale attacks because the districts of cobbled province are not secure the provinces in and around carbon like low, but in water that i've seen a lot of tyler bond advances and i'm afraid, you know, this is a very psychological fear. now among ones, when you hear such big names, kandahar, hey, rod mazata. when you hear one official surrendering and making their own ideas, it is ought to have a very destructive and negative impact on the psyche and confidence of the african

people and cobbled with the telephone, taking hold of multiple provinces in a single day. the us state department says it will dramatically reduce its embassy staff in cobble with american troops sent in to help. and although this may look like an evacuation something akin to the 1975 saigon airlift. the state department tried to strike an optimistic note. this is not abandonment. this is not an evacuation. this is not the wholesale. busy withdrawl, what this is, is a reduction in the size of our civilian footprint. this is a draw down of civilian americans. there are 3000 us military personnel headed for afghanistan to secure what it's calling a safe, draw down of american civilian personnel. basically, u. s embassy, staff, and others are going to be a score to the out of the country by the military. the military will be there to

make sure that they are not harmed in the process. now we do know at this point that the taliban after receiving, receiving and seizing several provinces in a single day, is now engine closer to the capital city of cobble. but on tuesday, joe biden made clear that washington is not going to step in to rescue cobble in this situation. african leaders have to come together. we lost thousands at last death and injury. thousands of american personnel got a fight for themselves. now, 3000 u. s. military personnel are there to oversee the evacuation of the embassy staff. this is in process, but when asked the us state department made pretty clear that they do not intend to leave them there. this is not taking away from the timeline for withdrawal from

afghanistan that joe biden established. this is not the reintroduction of military forces to pursue the mission that they were pursuing prior to may 1. now september 11th is the deadline that joe biden set for which the us forces will be withdrawn from the country. however, us officials continue to make clear that despite pulling all us forces out of the country, they intend to still offer support to the afghan government in the face of the onslaught of the taliban. now how exactly the support will be offered was something that john kirby representing the pentagon refused to clarify. here's what happened when he was asked about it. does this mean the u. s. military withdrawl is not going to be complete by august 31st. again, what i said was, we're aiming to facilitate the reduction of the civilian personnel by august 31st. so it's all lining up on the same timeline. i won't speculate about what the footprints gonna look like post august 31st because there's this additional mission set of,

of helping process special immigrants. so we're just gonna have to wait and see, but the drop down itself is still on track to be complete by august 31st. that makes no sense. john, i know i know what your troops, i know what you're saying, lucas. i'm saying of the of the original footprint plans that still continuing, but yes, we are adding additional troops for this specific and narrow focus and we're hoping to get them all out by the end of the month. i'm not going to speculate beyond august 31st. now it's important to note the united states has maintained a military presence in afghanistan over 18 years. and during that time, the country has not become any more stable the role of the drug lord than the poppy field has certainly expanded in the country. different terrorist groups and warlords of battled for control. the taliban remained intact with different parts of territory and such. and now after 18 years of the united states, not having success. when it came to the stabilisation of afghanistan,

we had the united states set to leave the country. and despite the taliban marching ahead, an engine closer to cobble. those plans to withdraw from afghanistan seemed to be in full effect. meanwhile, a number of u. s. news outlet side, an undisclosed intelligence official saying that the capital couple could fall to the taliban within 90 days. here's the situation right now on the ground. the militants control about 2 thirds of the country seen here in red. no leaving after the government forces. here in the green, just in that central area with much diminished territory. the rest are currently confess, like contested regents actually these the must have taken hold of some districts in close proximity to the capital. now the telephone ramped up it's offensive in april following us president jo biden's announcement that he was pulling american troops out at the time, islam this group held less than a 5th of the countries territory. now that control more than half,

it is seen afghan government controlled area shrink from about 30 percent of the country to just 16 percent now. now, with the hostilities showing no sign of abating enough can stand the u. s. has warned that nearly 400000 people had to leave their homes since the start of the year with a huge spike. since may you and says, this place people are heading to cobble in search of safety. here are just some of the heart wrenching stories that refugees have to tell. i mean, just from telecom, the telephone 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 class has broke out and we were taken hostage in the fighting, went on for about 6 to 7 days, and we couldn't go outside to do anything we managed to escape. and now we're

displeased right earlier my colleague collin bray spoke to fucking guy lonnie who was involved in the african governments official negotiations with the taliban in the tare capital. doha. she told us these talks could be the last chance for peace . we are down by the us, we are let down by the whole world. you will track in this war 43 years ago and it's going on and on the countries burning non stop. we saw just few years of comparatively 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 lives together. politically, i saw that i saw what is happening to go on inside or the side of our sites. we should look to the eye of those people who are this place. i do see that they are

hurting and told them that we have still an opportunity will side of the negotiation table in the because they will side one side. and that's my side is the people of mine is done. 2 when is after short break, this is our international the driven by a dreamer shaped by those in me dares

things we dare to ask me. ah, crap trillions of dollars that they send to chinese workers and chinese factory owners who make the world goods that they shipping containers into amazon warehouses in wal mart stores where millions and millions of americans work at a less than survivor will minimum wage and are for the 1st time in america, life expectancy is going down. the welcome back. this is rti international know 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 moon me and eastern russia is one of the areas devastated. almost 5000 people are fighting the flames in the huge your could your region with 700 pieces of equipment deployed there as well? 6 moke has forced airports to cancel flights. officials have confirmed permissible exposure limits for toxic smog have been breached with residents complaining of shortness of breath and dry eyes. a state of emergency has been enforced in the

area from where dmitri polk sends us this report. me who i. 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. phoenix location is a lake covered and smoke a red sky above it. and over 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

me. if you're wondering what the raj, all these places looked like, something like this, the lose . the last step when you full of fire is the most difficult as it encompasses enlarge area. the minimalized area has been created there along the perimeter, and that area has now been dug up from there today. so we just arrived at one of the locations where the 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. also, this area has obviously been burned off,

which is one of the ways the 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, the emergency situation, everyone, his 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

news . so we've traveled back to your 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 reach it. 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 that was taking its whole 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 chaos call of this can be. i have information about our t developments in the conservative talk show host tucker carlson's claims that the american government was spying on him. as the u. s. national security agency now says it will conduct an internal investigation. carlson claimed, in june that informant had said that the agency was spying on him in an effort to derail his show. on sunday, we heard from a whistleblower within the u. s. government, someone's direct knowledge. who warned us at the essay was reading our electronic communications or e mails and tax and was planning to leak them selectively in an effort to hurt us. at the time, the se abruptly denied carlson's accusations saying it had no plans to sabotage his

program. it was a rare response from the traditionally reclusive agency and fellow journalists from rival media outlets mark the fox news host, suggesting that he might have simply made up the claims. if you want to believe the n s a is reading your favorite tv star, the mails go right ahead. he claims it's true. carlson is a conspiracy monger law enforcement about to expose you for doing something really bad been doing in tucker carlson. but now it appears not so far fetched with report saying that carlson's personal information was illegally passed around the intelligence community when possible. reason for the alleged surveillance was reportedly that he was trying to arrange an interview with the letting me put in journalist and commentator chadwick more says, it is odd that the story has been largely ignored by the u. s. media. what's interesting, what was telling of the state of journalism in this country is that when tougher

calls and birth came out with these allegations, you would think that journalists across the country would pay attention that they would be concerned that you story. this is something that affects them personally that could end up with them. it's something that certainly affects their industry affect the integrity of the profession, the integrity of american journalism. so you think that if a journalist for doing something, an innocent and rightful as requesting an interview with a world leaders and then made that person a target of fighting and perhaps political retaliation by the n. a say you would think media across the board would be very concerned and interested in this. instead, what happens is you add mainstream corporate media roundly, either ignoring it or mocking tucker calls and ridicule again. and suggesting here is some sort of conspiracy theorists. and that he was paranoid and, and now it turns out he was probably correct that these things were going back to going on. that's news for tonight. i'll be back in about 29 minutes with another

full fresh look. this is our to national say with us