mr asfandyar mir, thank ou so literally. mr asfandyar mir, thank you so much _ literally.nk you so much on newsday - literally. mr asfandyar mir, thank you so much on newsday on - literally. mr asfandyar mir, thank you so much on newsday on that| literally. mr asfandyar mir, thank - you so much on newsday on that story —— if they come to power militarily. the us senate has passed a $1 trillion infrastructure plan after months of political wrangling. unusually in the divided political town of washington, the measure had bipartisan support — nearly 20 republicans joined democrats in voting for the bill. it now goes to the house of representatives, and if passed there would head to president biden's desk. let's look at what this bill would do. $550 billion in new money would be spent over five years. $110 billion will be invested in roads, bridges and dams. $66 billion will be spent on passenger and freight rail. and another $65 billion goes to expanding high—speed internet access. president biden praised the new legislation. i know compromise is hard for both sides. but it's

to find out more about the talbian advance, i've been been speaking to asfandyar mir, a senior expertaliban has been rampaging through multiple provinces. as your report noted, they have now taken eight provinces, eight out of 34. that is a substantial military momentum, and my sense is given how they're behaving in the peace talks in doha, they're in fact not negotiating there, they're refusing to put down any meaningful terms they want, that suggests that the taliban are gunning on a military takeover of the country. mr mir, the advance in afghanistan, i know, has raised concerns about how this might affect terrorist operations within the country and outside of it. what is your sense? look, the taliban still have robust relationships with a range ofjihadist groups with transnational ambitions, like al-qaeda, as well as more regional ambitions, such as the pakistani taliban, the turkistan islamic party, as well as a number of central asian jihadists. all these groups have bases inside afghanistan. and during the taliban's advance, the afghan forces are distracted, they're not able to

earlier i spoke to asfandyar mir, from the center for international security and cooperation at stanforded him what impact this strike could have against the terror group. the administration is claiming, that it has targeted a planner, but we really don't know that this person is and to what level this person was involved. i note that the us government over the last few years has cleared hundreds of isis—k fighters, mid—level operatives, sometimes even senior leaders. so this is not the first major strike against this particular group. so the administration has to, i think, provide a lot more information to convince us that the person they have taken out is someone of consequence. what might be the potential impact of this strike, and i'm conscious there are still us troops in the country. is there a risk that it might provoke the group further? there is. my concern, my fear is that in the short term it increases the risk of a terrorist attack against the airport, against us personnel, against afghan civilians who might be at the airport. look, this group is very hard to deter. it has be

asfandyar mir is from the center for international security and cooperation at stanford university.n't know who this person is and at what level this person was involved and i thought that the us government in the last few years has killed hundreds of isis—k fighters, mid—level operatives, sometimes even senior leaders so this is not the first major strike against this particular group so the administration has to, i think, provide a lot more information to convince us that the person they have taken out as someone... there is, my concern, my fear is that in the short term it increases the risk of terrorist attack against the airport, against us personnel, against unarmed civilians who might be at the airport. look, this group is very hard to deter. it has been targeted a lot notjust by the us but by the... government as well as the forces of the taliban but, you know, this group has proven that it can adapt, it is resilient, it is resolved in its fight, so i think there is a chance that this group, all the leaders of this group, try to help the us once again at the airport. we are