it will be very worse for indonesia. >> schifrin: dr.mizi is the spokesperson for indonesia's vaccine program. >> we think if we don't have any protection with the vaccine, for example, if we need to wait until mrna vaccine available in our country, it's more we will have been facing a problem worse than the condition. at least there is still protection. >> the united states will purchase a half a billion doses. >> schifrin: but sinovac's lower efficacy created a diplomatic opening. in june, the u.s. donated 500 million doses to covax, including the million to indonesia. last month, dr. irawany received a moderna booster. others have received pfizer. >> schifrin: but vaccine diplomacy remains a competition. last month, on her first trip to southeast asia, vice president kamala harris planned to announce the u.s. would donate one million vaccines to vietnam. but during a three-hour flight delay, china stepped in and announced it would donate two million of i own vaccines. and today, most of indonesia still only has access to sinovac. >> s

nick schifrin has e story. >> schifrin: in the senate committee responsible for military oversight, the military's leaders today said that earlier this year, after 20 years of war in afghanistan, they advised it was not time to withdraw. central command chief general frank mckenzie: >> 2,500 was an appropriate number to remain, and if we went below that number, we would probably witness the collapse of the afghan government, and the afghan military. >> schifrin: that refutes president biden's august statement to abc news' george stephanopoulos that the military supported the withdrawal. >> they didn't argue against that. >> your military advisors did not tell you, "no, we should just 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. >> was that a false statement by the president of the united states? remember, you do not have to duty to cover for a president when he is not telling the truth. >> schifrin: republicans seized on the president's having rejected military a

nick schifrin spoke to him before the u.s. troop withdrawal about sacrifice and families' grief. >> schifrin: in the last 20 years, more than 7,000 american men and women have died in afghanistan, iraq, and fighting the global war on terror. nearly all of them are flown home through dover airorce base. throughout, there's been one chaplain at dover: minister david sparks. david sparks, welcome to the newshour. >> thank you for inviting me. >> schifrin: thank you for being here how do you measure the sacrifice of the last 20 years? >> it's a sacrifice that goes forever for the families who have lost their loved one, whether that's their son or daughter or parent. i have said to thousands of family members, we thank you for, and honor the sacrifice of your son or daughter, but we also honor your sacrifice, which goes on forever. mostly at the point at which i am conveying that to them, they don't say anything. they listen intently. and-- and by and large, they're somewhere between tears and sobbing. >> schifrin: do you try and c

its rivals. >> schifrin: in russia's far east today, it looked like a parliamentary election.dates on a poster. voting booths. ballot boxes. in moscow, the patriarch considered his options, and used a ballot box for one. even president putin himself voted from his office. but what preceded today? months of unprecedented crackdown. the authoritarian state targeted dissent, banned protests, and labeled the chief opposition party, led by alexei navalny, the "equivalent of al qaeda." to evade government censorship, navalny's campaign created an app that endorsed independent candidates. but today, apple and google removed the app from their russian stores. the kremlin had pressured the companies and labeled the app“ extremist,” as the leader of the pro-kremlin liberal democratic party said today: >> diktat. extremism. >> ( translated ): it's dictatorship and extremism. they don't have a right to interfere. it's a manipulation. you violate the democracy, you should be arrested. >> we've been very disappointed. and indeed, i have to admit that it's quite a blow to-- to our campaign.

nick schifrin is in new york tonight. >> schifrin: in the largest international summit in two years,dent biden said he was launching a new era of american diplomacy. >> i stand here for the first time in 20 years, the united states not at war. as we look ahead, we will lead, on all the greatest challenges of our time: from covid to climate, peace and security, human dignity and human rights. but we will not go it alone. >> schifrin: and the president tried to reassure a skeptical world that american democracy was reliable. >> the authoritarians of the world, may seek to proclaim the end of the age of democracy. but they're wrong. the truth is, the democratic world is everywhere. democracy remains the best tool we have to unleash our full human potential. >> schifrin: but today, the decidedly-undemocratic taliban control afghanistan, and many senior western europeans say the u.s. isn't listening to its allies-- over afghanistan, covid vaccine intellectual property, trump-era tariffs still in place, and last week's announcement the u.s. and u.k. would provide nuclear-propelled submarin

nick schifrin tells us more. >> schifrin: the mission was occupy: evergrande.untry where protest is often prohibited, earlier this month evergrande's investors filled the company's lobby to chant “give us our money back.” they direct their fury at an evergrande manager. his solution is rejected, and he's dejected next to a woman who speaks for the crowd. >> ( translated ): if they don't give me my money back then i'll jump off a tall building. they've cheated me out of all of my money. i have nothing left. >> schifrin: evergrande built itself and helped china build extraordinary growth thanks to tall buildings. this promotional clip shows evergrande apartments for china's booming upper middle class. evergrande became the country's largest real estate developer by building apartments across 8,000 sites, and pre-selling them before they were done. that means half built apartments remain unfinished, even though people like fan wanting already paid. >> ( translated ): we definitely hope that the government will come out and give us an assurance. we still have to pa

foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin reports. >> schifrin: today in a kabul market where the taliban flag flies, where fighters are traffic cops, the furniture's on sale, so families can avoid starvation. >> ( translated ): i brought my household items here for sale because there's no job. how will we eat? we sold these today. what will we sell tomorrow? >> schifrin: afghanistan's economic crisis continues to push afghans to flee. thousands tried to cross the friendship gate along the southern border with pakistan. afghans say pakistan hasn't been very friendly, but today, allowed more refugees entry. for afghan health care, the crisis is acute. most hospitals are propped up by international organizations that have now frozen $600 million. 31 of afghanistan's 34 provinces are at risk of losing health services entirely. and afghan officials fear a fourth covid wave, as only 1.5% of people have been fully vaccinated. today i spoke with dr. wahid majrooh, afghanistan's minister of public health during the previous government, who stayed on after the taliban took over. >> approximately 1

nick schifrin. ♪ amna: -- >> i'm stephanie sy with newshour west.n to the full shot the latest headlines. a "qatar airways" flight left kabul with more than 170 people on board -- including american citizens. it's the third such flight sinc the u-s-led airlift ended at the afghan capital. meanwhile, the taliban ordered classes to resume for grades 6 through 12 but only for boys and male teachers. workers also hung a banner renaming the women's ministry as the new home of the morals police. former female employees of the ministry said they have been locked out. france is recalling its ambassadors from the u-s and australia in a fury over a submarine deal. australia has canceled a huge contract for french subs in favor of nuclear-powered subs built in the u-s. it's part of a new pacific alliance involving the u-s, britain and australia. late today the white house announced the u.s. will try to resolve differences with friends. the biden administration announced late today is planning massive movements of haitian migrants who have congregated at the de

nick schifrin explores how the u.s.ts allies are trying to achieve vaccine inroads in china's backyard. >> in indonesia's newly doug covid cemeteries the grievers , are barely old enough to wear a mask. row after row, column upon column, from the air, all symmetrical, as if pre-planned. but on the ground, these graves were dug so quickly, the names are written in pen. the flowers and the heart are fresh. at the pandemic's peak this summer, grave diggers in head to toe ppe buried more than two hundred bodies here, a day. across the country, the daily death tl was 3000. at first, the medical savior was china. indonesia was the first country to approve sinovac outside of china. china sent indonesia its first sinovac shipment in december 2020. in january, president joko widodo received the vaccine on live television. it is a pattern repeated worldwide. china exported nearly one billion sinovac doses to more than 100 countries. it has created sinovac plants in 15 countries. indonesia has bought 120 5 million doses. but then,

nick schifrin sits down with the envoys for their first joint interview. >> schifrin: the climate crisis is here. you can see it in the extreme weather, from floods to fire. and you can see it in the data: the u.n. warns that unless the world acts faster than it's already promised, temperatures will rise to catastrophic, irreversible levels. the u.s. calls the upcoming climate summit the last chance for the world to avoid disaster. for more on that, i'm joined by john kerry, the president's special envoy on climate, and his european counterpart, frans timmermans, executive vice president of the european commission. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> to the newshour. john kerry, let me start with you. there have been three decades of negotiations on climate change, and the bottom line is emissions have gone up. does that suggest, at the end of the day, the world has approached this in the wrong way? >> yes. it has not raised the ambitions of the level that we need to. the sifts are clear. the scientists are clear now. we have a certain period of time this decade within which we have

nick schifrin reporting on all that. our yamiche alcindor was at the white house, in the room where the president spoke, and she joins me now. so how does this announcement, this set of steps feeding with all the other international challenges the president is facing right now, in particular, afghanistan? yamiche: at the president is facing challenges on the foreign and domestic front. he had the spirit of optimism, this idea that this new agreement would be him turning the page and focusing on what he wants to talk about, which is working with u.s. allies. he didn't mention china, as nick just said. and also focusing on how to compete better with china. that said, afghanistan did not come up, but there were questions shouted as president biden walked away. so it tells you that while the president wants to talk about this new agreement with lyrica and australia, chief in people's minds is still of canister and and the chaos. on the domestic front, the president also sat down with the two senators who democrats are eyeing

our foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin is here with me now.nick, tell us what it was that the president and the two prime ministers announced. >> reporter: this is what they called a landmark defense and security partnership known as aukus, australia, u.k., u.s. this is about sharing technology, sharing defense industries and cooperating militarily. they talked about defending shared interests but as you just said, they didn't mention china. but this is about defending shared interests against a rising china. take a listen to president biden and australian prime minister scott morrison who appeared at the white house virtually. >> our nations will update and enhance our shareability to take on the threats to have the 21st century just as we did in the 20th century, together. our nations and our brave fighting forces have stood shoulder to shoulder for literally more than 100 years through the trench fighting in world war i, the island hopping in world war ii during the frigid winters in korea and the scorching heat to have the persian gulf. >>

are white house correspondent yamiche alcindor and foreign affairs and defense correspondent nick schifrin. so, nick, to you first, what steps have you learned that the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, jr. mark milley, took around the time of the election? >> in january, chairman chief of staff called his counterpath, chung, a picture of thein beijing years before. what i'm about to report is from three former senior defense officials, a former trump administration official and a senior congressional official. at the time, milley was extremely concerned about what president trump was capable of, esper had been terminated. the january 6th attack had just occurred and senior pentagon officials replaced with trump loyalist it is. milley talked every day with secretary of state mike pompeo. they worked together to try to ensure there was continuity right at the end of the trump administration and truly no surprises on national security, and part of that was reassuring adversaries that there was going to be continuity from trump to biden. that call was what milley made to general lee that