clarissa ward, sana safi and alex sheppard. thank you for watching here on bbc news.ual time next week. till then, bye from me and the team. hello. wednesday was a really pleasant day across a greater part of england and wales, but quite a different story across scotland and northern ireland, and it's going to be a wild and woolly start to the new day. across the north—eastern quarter of scotland, gusts of wind of 70mph or so, taking time to get the showers away from here. all the while, through the day, western scotland will see a fair amount of cloud, with bits and pieces of rain, maybe rain too across wales and south—west england. the old weather front here just clouding things up, until the afternoon when we get some decent sunshine through the midlands, wales and east anglia, pushing temperatures to around 23. coolish sort of start for england and wales on friday, but another decent day — more cloud across western scotland and north—west england. the odd spot of rain here, but i suspect many areas are in fact going to stay dry, and again with a bit of sunshine ac

clarissa ward, sana safi and alex sheppard. thank you for watching here on bbc news.time next week. till then, bye from me and the team. hello there. we've done pretty well with the sunshine today, plenty of areas were dry, fine, quite warm for central, southern, eastern england, but we'll continue to see the chance of heavy showers and thunderstorms through the midlands this evening and into the first part of the night. it's not been sunny everywhere, we have had this weak weather front bringing more cloud to southern scotland, northern england, wales and the south—west. these weather fronts will start to reinvigorate as we move through the night. the showers and storms through the midlands fade away, but it is out west where we see to see these weather fronts bringing more persistent and at times heavy rain, but the eastern side of england will stay dry, quite mild and muggy here, but further north a bit fresher, particularly where we have any clear spells across the far north of scotland. so for part two of the weekend, we have more weather fronts round, so it's go

clarissa ward, sana safi and alex sheppard. thank you for watching here on bbc news.e usual time next week. till then, bye from me and the team. hello there. for central and southern parts of the uk this week, it's not looking that bad at all. with high pressure always nearby, it'll be dry, quite warm with plenty of sunshine. but we'll start to see some changes from wednesday onwards across the north of the uk, more especially for scotland, where it will turn windier with some rain at times and it will feel cooler. so, a bit more of an autumnal feel there. high pressure, though, dominates the scene into tuesday, many places starting dry. there will be some mist and fog around, some dense patches across east anglia and the southeast which will tend to dissipate through the day. bit of mist and fog to start the day for scotland and northern ireland, and then it'll turn cloudier and windier for western scotland, perhaps western northern ireland, with some light and patchy rain here. but eastern scotland, eastern northern ireland, most of england and wales, fine and dry w

cnn's chief international correspondent clarissa ward live in kabul. if you can hear me, we've been having issues with your signal. hopefully it'll stay up. give us a sense of what you're seeing on the ground now. >> reporter: hi, john. yeah, apology for those technical difficulties. basically, it looks different from when we were last here. the taliban has a much lighter footprint. we're seeing far fewer taliban fighters out on the ground. the ones that we do see tend to be manning checkpoints. now, many of them are wearing uniforms. a lot of those, john, u.s. issued uniforms. the purpose of that is to try to look professional but also to try to avoid situations where isis fighters could potentially infiltrate and pretend to be the taliban. the taliban definitely wants to show the world they've adapted a -- things are a little bit -- there's a lot of -- you don't see them on every street corner. >> you know what, we're going to pause as we try to clean up the signal with clarissa and listen as we do to some of the sound c she has gathered this morning.

clarissa ward, sana safi and alex sheppard. thank you for watching here on bbc news.iest weather for central and eastern england, that's where we're going to have the highest temperatures — up to 23. it should be a brighter kind of day across west scotland and northern ireland. here, though, a fresherfeel to the weather with highs of between 17—19 degrees celsius. saturday night sees outbreaks of rain and thunderstorms start to develop across wales, moving northwards to northern england and into scotland. and then, through sunday, this area of heavy, thundery rain starts to push its way eastwards. it becomes really slow—moving across parts of central and eastern england. in the wettest areas, we could see 30—40 mm of rain, enough to cause some localised surface water flooding. but in the west, it turns drier and a bit sunnier as well. that's your latest weather, bye—bye. this is bbc news — i'm lucy grey. our top stories. the us military admits one of its drone strikes in afghanistan killed ten innocent civilians — including seven children. we now assess that it is unl

. >>> let's speak to cnn chief political correspondent clarissa ward and retired general mark hertlingrissa, i want to begin with you. one of the most remarkable moments from tuesday's testimony and today, you have the president's senior most military leader, the chairman of the joint chiefs, calling the withdrawal from afghanistan a strategic fail your, whereas the president and his advisers have talked about the extraordinary success. really they're focusing on the evacuation there when they say it. you have a senior military leader saying, listen, this withdrawal is a fail your. i'm wondering what you see on the ground there. is that how afghans see it? >> reporter: it's interesting, jim. it doesn't matter who you talk to, whether it's people who support the taliban and were delighted to see the back of the u.s., or whether it's people who actually felt the u.s. presence made dramatic improvements to their quality of life. both sides of this divide tend to see the u.s.'s withdrawal. i'm not talking about the evacuation. i'm talking about the broader withdrawal, the last couple years

ros: in 2019, clarissa ward reported on taliban fighters as they took on the afghan military.ience dealing with a group. clarissa: there was a process and when you did have a guarantee of protection from the taliban, you could be reasonably secure knowing that you weren't at risk at least of being kidnapped on the trip, and that you would be given access to what y had been promised. so, there was a mechanism for dealing with them. and from what we are seeing on the ground now, that mechanism still exists. there is a department you go to come up t -- you go to, paperwork that you sign. the problem is now that your dealings with the rank-and-file on the street are not necessarily the same as your dealings with the upper edge along of the top -- up or at salon -- upper echelon of the taliban. you have to go into it with your eyes open and you have to know the way i am treated is not the way another local journalists will be treated. so, when you are looking at the professionalism or savvy of the taliban, you have to understand it in its context, that it is largely transactional f

he�*s also reported in kabul, as has cnn�*s chief international correspondent clarissa ward. t. go back to 2019, and clarissa ward also reported on taliban fighters as they took on the afghan military. this is her experience of dealing with the group. there was a process, and when you have a guarantee of protection - and you did have the sign—off. from the taliban, you could be reasonably secure knowing that you weren't at risk at least - of being kidnapped on the trip - and that you would be given access to what you had been promised. so, there was a mechanism for dealing with them. - and from what we're seeing on the ground now, that. mechanism still exists. you know, there's a department that you go to, there's paperwork- that's signed off on. the problem becomes now particularly that your dealings with the rank - and file on the street are not necessarily the same - as your dealings with the sort. of upper echelons of the taliban and the presidential palace. and it can be very difficult no - matter how much you wag that piece of paper in front of someone - on the street to

clarissa ward is live on the ground in kabul.the finger pointing from the pentagon to the state department? >> reporter: well, it's interesting. because the reason that had been given by the white house as to why they didn't start those evacuations earlier was that the government of the former president ashraf ghani had repeatedly begged the u.s. not to start evacuations too early because there was a real concern that would look back, it would impact morale, that it would seem the taliban was already winning. you have to remember, ashraf ghani, one week before the fall of kabul, was talking about hydrodam projects. u.s. officials had been talking for a long time whether or not he was fit competent. there were serious doubts about his ability to lead the country through this turbulent time. one does ask the question that given the fact that the taliban was moving so quickly in its offensive and given the fact that it was very clear that the government of ashraf ghani was unable to adequately respond to the situation should then a

cnn's la clarissa ward is live kabul. c clarissa, what have you been seeing?> reporter: we have been talking about the social crisis here in regards to women who feel and see their rights being sub you gated in realtime and a return to medieval justice with some of those these horrendous sights, bodies being hung as a warning to anyone telling them not to commit crimes. but the other real crisis facing afghans right now, brianna, is an economic crisis. and make no mistake about it. this country is on the precipice of a massive and severe economic recession fpt we're not just talking about purse strings being tightened. we are talking about starvation and hunger. what's happened is there is a total liquidity crisis. there is no cash coming in to afghanistan. the central bank has been effectively frozen. people can only take out about 200 u.s. dollars a week. there are long, long lines outside every bank inside the city. in this market where we are, we have been talking to people who are all complaining about the prices. 30% rise we're hearing in food prices. 40

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cnn's clarissa ward is live in kabul. general milley stood by his prediction that al qaeda and/or isis would reconstitute themselves in afghanistan within the next 6 to 36 months. give us a reality check. >> i have to say that was pretty sobering to hear, jake, because most analysts have put the sort of timeline somewhere closer to about five years. listen, we know al qaeda is present on the ground. we know isis-k has a presence on the ground. we were able to meet with a senior isis-k commander here in kabul at a hotel just days before the taliban took power. so we know they have a presence. when we interviewed that commander, he did not show any interest at the moment in transnational attacks. but, of course, the real concern is that can change very quickly, particularly once the taliban is not the primary enemy anymore. they might start looking outward, and the concern, of course, as well, is with the over the horizon capabilities. it makes it much more difficult to track their activities. as we saw with that drone stri

military analyst, retired air force colonel cedric leighton and chief international correspondent clarissa ward who is back in kabul, afghanistan, for the perspective from there. great to have all of you. colonel, i want to start with you because you just heard him lay out that it was not only general mckenzie who said he suggested leaving 2,500 troops. it was also general austin who said that advice was given to president biden, but here's what president biden said about that to george stephanopoulos on august 19th. >> so no one -- your military advisors did not tell you, no, we should keep 2,500 troops, it's been a stable situation for the last several years, we can do that, we can continue to do that. >> no, no one said that to me that i can recall. >> colonel, how do we square that discrepancy? >> that's a pretty hard one to square, isn't it, alisyn? i think what you're looking at here is the president may have wanted to hear certain things and maybe he wasn't prepared to indicate that there was dissension within his administration. you know, you're getting into the realm of speculation her

you had cnn's clayly say ward -- clarissa ward, richard engle.chaos, was disaster, was absolute insan sigh, especially when they report r&d that state department and military officials kept americans from getting through the checkpoints and getting on airplanes to get them the heck out of afghanistan when they really wanted to be. howie: i praised them as well, including fox's jennifer griffin. always good to see you, governor mike huckabee. thanks for coming by. >> you bet. howie: still to come, why mike richards can no longer produce jeopardy, al roker and he'd asner, that's coming up on the buzz meter (vo) unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so you can focus on what matters most. that's how we've become the leader in 5g. #1 in customer satisfaction. and a partner who includes 5g in every plan, so you get it all. a lot of snacks are packed with air but not planters nuts. our dry roasted peanuts have an incredible ratio of size to substance a delicious, salty, crunchy ratio. planters. a nut above. howie: see if i can beat th

joining us now, to discuss, chief political correspondent dana bash and clarissa ward live from kabul and with us brigadier general mark himet. >> dana, why don't we begin with you on the question of china here. there is a legitimate question as to what exactly former president trump was planning or considering during the final days of his presidency here. i know the focus has been on general milley perhaps planning to defy an order from the president for military action that he did not want to carry out. but there was a separate question here knowing what the president seemed to be willing to do to overturn an election, was he willing to start a crisis to somehow stay in office? >> could be, and it is going to be the first time that anybody had been able to ask general milley that very question. and others. the bulk of this hearing is going to be on the 20-year war that ended in afghanistan. but i have been in touch with some sources, some committee sources, and one said to me the following on china, most wars start by accident, miscalculation or misunderstanding, preventing that is

also with us from kabul, cnn chief international correspondent clarissa ward. i'll start with you. one things afghans were asking, ahead of the rounds of hearing, why wasn't there more of a plan to get people out? why were so many people left behind? do you think they got an answer from top military officials on this? >> reporter: i think the military leaders were actually pretty candid about some of the failing or some of the underestimations, particularly with regards to the collapse of afghan forces, talking about how the doha agreements which was essentially the deal brokered by the trump administration to begin the u.s. withdrawal, how that really negatively impacted morale on the ground here in afghanistan with those afghan forces, also talking about intelligence failures but also pointing to the fact that u.s. military advisers had not been iembedded with the afghan army for three years. general milley had a very striking line, i'm paraphrasing here, you can count the number of weapons you have, you can count the number of soldiers and have all this info

cnn's chief international correspondent clarissa ward was on the ground during those tense and violentus from london. clarissa, great to see you. the world was gripped by your coverage from afghanistan. tell us what it felt like on the ground. what was the desperation like in the air? >> it was horrifying. it was just a crush of humanity, pushing, shoving, biting, screaming, shouting, anything they can do to try to get in the airport, try to get their children into the airport. when we were able to get in, we were surrounded by babies. >> we watched some of the videos from back here in the u.s. and awesome of the kids being passed over. and there is always the stories of humanity. what did you see on the ground of people who were trying to help others? >> the situation around the airport was chaotic, i was dangerous and we have seen it again and again, alisyn. they don't appear on the evening news, and they want to remain anonymous. but i saw networks emerging of former soldiers and civilians on the ground, afghan women helping others that were still stuck inside the country, trying to

so let's bring in cnn chief international correspondent clarissa ward, she is in kabul there on the groundig picture. tell us about the changes you have seen since you were last there? >> i think there's no question, alisyn, it does feel different on the ground. it's less fraud, it'sl less chaotic, less kinetic of violent activity but there is tension under pinning it all. a lot of people in kabul believe this is a lull, a transitional period where the taliban wants to show the international community it can be more pragmatic, it's keen to be integrated and accepted by the international community, and it's desperate to make sure that funding and aid that has been frozen by the world bank, by the imf, by the u.s. is unfrozen because this country is also dealing with a major liquidity crisis. a huge economic bomb shell, poised to explode here, alisyn, with teachers' salaries not getting paid. health care salaries not getting paid. food prices rising. fuel prices rising, and people waiting in line for often six hours to try to take out their weekly $200 from the bank. so there is a serious ec

let's start with cnn's clarissa ward live in kabul. how does what you heard from american military leaders today square with what you witnessed during the withdrawal on the ground in afghanistan? >> well, i think there was a lot of candor that we heard today, jake. i was struck by general milley's description of it as a logistical success, but a strategic failure. we saw the success on the ground. we saw the enormity, the scale of this airlift. the largest in u.s. history. we saw the fact the u.s. went from fighting the taliban to cooperating with them in a matter of hours. it wasn't a perfect agreement, but the taliban were there kind of holding the front line, the perimeter of the airport trying to keep the crowds back. we also heard a concession that at certain stages, they were overwhelmed by the scale, particularly in smrth basis outside of afghanistan. we saw the knock-on effect of that firsthand. planes stopped for more than eight hours carrying evacuees out on u.s. planes. and that, of course, meant there was a backlog. chaotic

and we just had our chief international correspondent clarissa ward live for us from kabul.nd we asked her, you know, what kind of question would you want to ask of general mark milley and so i'm just curious, are you curious, are you going to ask anything like what she suggested, which was why wasn't there more preparation in place to make a less chaotic withdraw? she said knowing the u.s. had to get out of afghanistan, that's not really in the question, why wasn't there more preparation in place? >> well, absolutely. i heard that interview and i think that's a great question. and certainly is going to be one of my questions, although i suspect it is going to be asked by practically everybody. there are a whole series of questions, but what is really important about this hearing is that this is the first time the public will have a chance to hear from these officials about why they left bagram, why august 31st, was there adequate preparation, what was the intelligence on the likelihood of the fall of the afghan government, all of those questions. i should mention we have ha

cnn's clarissa ward, i think did a phenomenal job talked about a family from texas all with u.s. passports who were also unable to escape. a three year old american boy from sack meant offensive line california couldn't also get out, also trapped tonight. and last night, an interview with an american woman named sarah, who is also desperate to get out herself. you know what? you don't think this could have gone any better, joe? you don't think that doing this in may, june, july? we show you the map every night. we give you the dates and the time and the quick geographical possession of the taliban. you knew they were on the march. now the intel community is releasing information because they're not going to take blame for your mistake. you really think anyone's going to buy your lies from today? do you think we're that dumb? are you that dumb? this evacuation could not have been any worse, and it's going to get worse. but, get this. according to joe, we're all just overreacting. americans behind enemy lines, we left them behind, something i never thought i'd see in my lifetime, a

our chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto, our chief international correspondent, clarissa ward. she's in kabul. our special correspondent, jamie gangel, and mark kimmitt, the former assistant secretary of state for political military affairs. jim, what do you make of the level of candor we heard from the top pentagon officials. >> at times biting candor to the point they're willing to contradict the tale, the telling of this withdrawal as told by the white house and the president. now, i reached out to the white house today to ask them how they square that circle. their story is when biden said that no general recommended 2500 troops, in effect, he was saying that no general had the position or military leader that those 2500 troops would stabilize the country for the long term. the fact is, though, we have listened to a lot of comments from the president and this administration over the last several months that projected unanimity on thisdi decision th was not there. you heard from milley and mckenzie say that. we recommended 2500, the president did not accept that recommendat

let's bring in our chief international correspondent clarissa ward, our chief national affairs analysts kasie hunt and our contributor and author of the brand-new very important, very timely book entitled "wildland, the making of america's furry." casey, this could be the democrats' last chance to enact the type of transformative legislation that president biden has promised. no one knows how this will play out over the next couple of days, but does that motivate the different factions of this party, because it's very much up in the air right now. >> it is up in the air, and, wolf, the white house is counting on that very message to get that across the finish line. they are essentially saying that this is too big to fail for the democratic party, that doing this is so important that if they can't get it done and then they face voters in 2022, it's going to be very, very bad for the party as a whole and so even though they may not be entirely happy with what's on the table they really need to figure out how to get to this place. i've certainly talked to some congressional democrats who w