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Biden to Publicly Address Afghan Crisis on Friday; Chaotic Scenes at Kabul Airport; Haitian Medical Crews Scramble to Evacuate Injured Survivors. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired August 20, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:03]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm John Vause. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Coming up this hour:
As the Taliban tightened their grip around Kabul's effort, the U.S. works to increase the pace of evacuations. But officials admit some flights are leaving with more empty seats than passengers.
It's raining in Greenland where it has never rained before. Another dangerous sign of the impact of a warming climate.
And Australia's biggest star Nicole Kidman causing outrage in Hong Kong, after officials allowed her to skip quarantine because, you know, she's Nicole Kidman.
(MUSIC)
VAUSE: We will hear directly from the U.S. president in the coming hours when he speaks from the White House about the chaos in Afghanistan caused by the rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Just two weeks ago, the first provincial capital fell to the Taliban. The rest fell like dominoes. Most of barely a shot fired. Afghanistan marked Independence Day on Thursday, a celebration dating back to the end of British rule more than a century ago. The response from the Taliban whips to disperse the crowd. And local reports claimed a number of protesters were shot and killed.
The harsh crackdown to peaceful demonstration explains the desperation and chaos at Kabul's airport. The number of Afghans hoping to leave is in the thousands and growing by the day. And the images of children being handed from the crowd to U.S. soldiers on the other side speaks to the fears so many have for the future if they cannot leave.
And here is the sad reality: just last month more than a dozen U.S. diplomats warned the Biden administration this could happen. And now as the U.S. military scrambles to airlift Americans and Afghan allies to safety, those giant C-17 cargo planes and others are leaving Kabul with empty seats.
CNN correspondents across the region right now to report the very latest in the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan. In the past five days, the U.S. military has evacuated just 7,000 people from Kabul, less than 2,000 a day which makes it hard to see how the Pentagon will reach its goal of 9,000 airlifted each day. That's because it's the Taliban for the train fighting force of no more than 75,000 and not the U.S. with the world's most powerful military are the ones deciding who gets into the airport and who is turned away.
Here is CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: It's America's final act in Afghanistan, longest war, and it involves getting many Americans, many Afghans loyal to America to run it kind of got much from the center of Kabul up to the main airport, where they hope to get flights to the United States, maybe elsewhere, and start a new life in safety. And for that, they must go through an extraordinary challenge.
What should be the easiest drive in Kabul is the reason the city is on edge. The main airport road since Monday when I drove it when you run into the Taliban, then they were beating people back, perhaps to clear the civilian runway crowded with desperate people then.
By Wednesday, it had gotten worse when they were clearly stopping people from using their escape to America, and a costing CNN.
Taliban control that road the entrance at the end of it and the road to the left. Now many are trying to get in from the north road but that has led to devastating scenes at the north gate.
When I was there the crush was dangerous and the numbers just growing further still.
At night, stunned grenades have been thrown when huge crowds still brave roaming Taliban in the dark, in the hope the numbers at the gate have dropped. In the, day it got nastier still. There were moments of hope but they carry risk when people see one success they might want to try the same thing on mass. Later in the day, because troops had to repel the crowd.
Another gateway seems to be British soldiers struggled to push back crowds and huge queues are formed blocking the streets. America has a numbers problem getting enough people on, but also claiming huge progress well not really knowing how many priority cases they are really seeking.
REPORTER: How many Americans -- American citizens remain in Afghanistan?
JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: I don't know.
NED PRICE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: What we do know is that 6,000 people are now at the airport, 6,000 people have been able to make it have made it through the processing and as of a couple hours ago, we received only a small handful of reports otherwise from the Americans.
WALSH: Inside, it is messy. But there are flights often many of them where lives are walked onto and it's changed forever when the doors close.
The story of the airport the last place America controls in Afghanistan where the chaos outside the wire means the promises inside fall perilously short.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:05:06]
WALSH (on camera): Now, the U.S. talked of lofty goals, of trying to get 5,000 to 9,000 people flown out every day, and they claimed that they have now on their airport, 6,000 people processed and ready to get on aircraft. That will be extraordinary if that had indeed occurred. They also admit as you heard there that they don't know how many Americans are out there in Afghanistan, hoping to get out.
Extraordinary not to have that basic number there to quantify how big a task is ahead. So, for the days ahead, there are concerns that once again in Afghanistan, the reality of the ground those terrifying scenes outside the airport even today are simply not matched or recognized by the statements from American officials.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Doha.
VAUSE: Afghans who managed to board a flight out of facing uncertain futures. Governments worldwide finalizing details of which countries will host refugees, an issue which will likely be discussed at an emerging emergency minute maid of ministers in the coming hours.
Melissa Bell is following European efforts to aid evacuations while Eleni Giokos reports from an airport in Dubai where refugees have been arriving, but first we hear from Melissa Bell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A dire warning from Europe's top diplomat about the dire situation around Kabul airport. Josep Borrell described as catastrophic with some 300 Afghan Asheville's who've helped European delegations along the years, unable to get into the airport and therefore on the aircraft that might bring them back to the safety of Europe.
Josep Borrell also warning that group would simply not be able to take all Afghans out of the country. It comes as the G7 ministers met today virtually head of a G7 meeting next week that is being held to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan. They called on the Taliban to respect their commitments, to protect civilians, but also to allow the safe passage of those who needed to get there to Kabul airport.
One of those foreign ministers, Dominic Raab, the British foreign secretary, now in trouble in the United Kingdom. The British press calling for his resignation, he was on holiday as the catastrophe unfolded last week. It was a junior foreign minister who made contact with his Afghan counterpart British press says leading to the delay of the evacuation of British nationals and those Afghans who would help them.
The longer term problem for Europeans is very much what it will mean for migration. Beyond the immediate question of how to get European nationals and those who helped them out, what happens over the coming weeks and months? With 18 million Afghans understood to be in need of humanitarian aid, that's according to the United Nations.
The European Union is still reeling from the migrant crisis of 2015, the political consequences of that continue to be felt in so many European countries. Six years on from the 2015 migrant crisis, a common coordinated policy for how to arrange for the safe arrival of migrants and fairly distribute them around the European Union has yet to be found, even as a fresh migrant crisis looms.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORREPSONDENT: This Royal Air Force aircraft carrying passengers from Kabul just landing here in Dubai World Center.
Now, according to officials, around 1,600 evacuees from Afghanistan. These are eligible Afghans with paperwork and visas, as well as British citizens have been evacuated over the last 4 days, and coming here to the UAE.
Upon arrival, these people, passengers, are given medical assistance. They're tested for COVID and given, of course food, and much-needed water. If you look at the expression on the passenger's faces, you see almost pain and numbness and a sense of trauma.
And one needs to reflect on the chaotic scenes around Kabul airport. Just getting to the airport was a herculean task, trying to get through those Taliban checkpoints and trying to get through the air point checkpoints to finally get on aircraft leaving Kabul and come to an airport like this, where you are seeing assistants all around.
Some people carrying just plastic bags with their belongings, some just carrying garbage bags. Others being able to take some of their belongings, and we are seeing luggage being carried out.
You've got to remember, this is a military aircraft. This wasn't made to handle passengers. You, know for a long flight. So, you can only imagine what the experience must be like.
But the only semblance of hope I can say, and just normalcy I've seen, as when you see toddlers and children that are accompanying these very traumatized adults, running around, and playing, and smiling, and it kind of gives you a sense these people escaped a very hopeless situation. [01:10:04]
Eleni Giokos, CNN, Dubai.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is live in Istanbul for this hour.
And, Jomana, we have heard from the U.S. government and the rest military that there is actually an agreement in place on the ground in Kabul to allow safe access and easy access to the airport for anyone who wants to leave.
It does seem like a committee Afghan, the Taliban fighters rather certainly aren't keeping and does not bode well for the future.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, John. I mean, we've known the United States and its diplomats have been in direct contact with the Taliban for quite some time. In those negotiations that have been taken place in Doha over the past year or so. But what's really remarkable right now is that you've got the U.S. military in direct constant contact with the Taliban to try and ensure that there is operation at the airport continues, if he is guaranteed around the airport. We are hearing from U.S. officials that the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is a constant direct negotiation with his Taliban counterpart.
As they have described it to ensure that the airport remains safe for people to get there and to get on these flights out. And while there have been, obviously, these evacuation flights happening, taking off from their. U.S. officials have said that these talks and negotiations have produced mixed results, at best, as they've described it. One of the reasons, John, is because we you know, commanders are talking to Taliban commanders, they don't really know half of that is filtering down to the fighters on the ground.
And we have seen over the past few days, the reporting from our team, Clarissa Ward and her team on the ground, the dangers that people are facing to try and get to the airport. We have gotten some nightmare stories of people who are not getting that safe passage to the airport arriving traumatized, bloodied to get on evacuations lights if they are lucky to get through those layers and layers that they have to go through to get to the airport.
One problem with all of this, John, while the U.S. is focused on the operation at the airport and these evacuations and ensuring that continues, they say that is all they can do. They don't have the capability to go out, get people, and get them out of the country safely and we continue to see these scenes of chaos at the airport, this race against time, because people feel, especially Afghans, that the message coming from the U.S. is that it is Americans first and then they are not a priority.
So, I mean, really desperate situation, we will have to wait and see what day 5 looks like -- John.
VAUSE: Yeah, Jomana, absolutely. Jomana Karadsheh there live for us in Istanbul -- thank you.
To Washington now and Nadia Hashimi, an Afghan American novelist who also also sits on the U.S. Afghan Women's Council.
Nadia, thank you for being with us. We appreciate your time.
NADIA HASHIMI, AFGHAN-AMERICAN NOVELIST: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: OK. So, each passing day there seems to be in new reports that this really is the old Taliban, not a new one. "The Wall Street Journal" reporting Taliban government dragged a female doctor out of her taxi, whipped her for feeling the chaos surrounding evacuations of Kabul airport. "The Journal" also notes scenarios which fell early far beyond Kabul. Some commanders demanded families handover unmarried women to marry their fighters.
"The Washington Post" notes militants in the north have told some people a place of the country's largest bank to leave and go home.
And there's also now this collective impact from each atrocities, word gets out, and we're seeing that women in Afghanistan are fading from public view. There are some exceptions but for the most part, they are afraid to leave their homes, or just because. This is happening incredibly quickly.
What is the overall impact from this?
HASHIMI: It's chilling. I think the population in general, a lot of the younger people in Afghanistan have inherited the stories of what it was like between '96 and '01 to live under the Taliban's strict and brutal ideology and you've got a generation who has grown up living life in a country that's been rocked by violence, led by this insurgent group.
And so, you know, this is a terrorist group and what terrorist groups is terrorize, and that's what they've done. They've terrorized the communities, and let them know that there is a danger.
Outwardly, in the past year and a half or so, the Taliban have promised to the world that they are evolved, reform, they're a 2.0, and few people within the Afghan community have ever trusted them or taken them at their word because there is that memory and because we have not really seen anything to prove that they have evolved. There are no women in the Taliban are presentation, and they've not been able to articulate any specific rights that women would hold under the regime.
[01:15:06]
VAUSE: And just as a reminder of what life was like, under the first Taliban regime, where women were prevented from working or going to school, restrictions on behavior, dress and movement, were forced by the morality police, who drove in pickup trucks, publicly humiliating and whipping women who did not appear to their rules.
In 1996, a woman had her thumb cut off partially for wearing nail polish. That's according to Amnesty International. A woman accused of adultery were stoned to death.
You mentioned this. There's this whole generation of young women who have grown up knowing nothing about that. They did not experience with their mothers and grandmothers went through, and it seems they're the ones who will find life under the Taliban incredibly difficult.
HASHIMI: It's very true. And, you know, this is a generation that has fought so hard to advance the cause of women but also to advance the society, they are entrepreneurs, judges. They are journalists, they are educators, they are artists, and in all of these fields they have made tremendous gains.
When you hear about women, as I'm hearing about women, from women who are hearing about this right now, there is a feeling of imprisonment, even down to the young generation, girls of -- as young as 12 are now concerned about their safety, venturing into the streets, because they have a group there that has a whole different set of beliefs about what they are entitled to.
VAUSE: They are entitled to marry girls of 12 years of age, right?
HASHIMI: That's their belief. But again, you know, they don't really articulate very much. And on one hand, they swear that things will not come to pass, but look at the reports we are getting at this time. This is the honeymoon period. This is the time when the Taliban understands that the world's eyes, the world's attention is on the Taliban specifically.
But what's happening in the provinces is very telling. I think they understand and are banking on the world's attention span being narrow and our bandwidth being small, and they know that we will not be able to keep our eyes on them, things will change in a month or 6 months. I think the situation may be a lot of worse for women in Afghanistan.
VAUSE: On Thursday, Kabul airport saw some real acts of desperation's, and on a number of occasions children were lifted up over security wall, handed to U.S. soldiers. One video it appeared that there was a little girl who was being handed over. Women also climbed over this wall as well.
And this comes a day after the U.S. president said this to ABC News. Listen to Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They are Afghan women outside the gate, I told them, get them on the plane, get them out. Get their families out, if you can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: On the one hand, that seems positive, that the U.S. will evacuate women desperate to leave, that is, if they can get to the airport and handed over a security they are here. It seems kind of an everyone for themselves approach. HASHIMI: The whole situation, the entire rollout has been a travesty,
unfortunately. People getting to the airport, that's a huge security concern. We've gotten reports from people close to us, talking about the Taliban kicking, shooting at people who are on their way to the airport. They're really trying to deter people away from the airport.
The situation within the airport is also rather chaotic. They are limited resources, people don't know where to go, people with documents, I'm hearing, are being turned away.
And so, you know, all of this is really creating a climate of confusion, of chaos and one that really looks truly negatively for the American withdrawal, because it's one thing to say that there will be a military withdrawal from the country, but at this particular moment there is so much that we could be doing to save people who worked alongside Americans, people to whom we made promises, looking them in the eye and making these promises that we would maintain their safety. And at this critical moment, it's absolute chaos.
VAUSE: Nadia Hashimi, I cannot imagine what it must be like watching from afar as all this unfolds. These must be incredibly difficult days for you. So thank you for being with us.
HASHIMI: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: One of the pioneers of women sport in Afghanistan has an urgent message for her fellow female athletes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHALIDA POPAL, FORMER TEAM CAPTAIN: Burned down your uniform. Remove anything that you have from the national team.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: After the break, Khalida Popal explains why she fears the most for members of the national female soccer team.
Also ahead, tropical storm Grace taking a second run at Mexico, expected to make landfall again in the coming hours, the very latest when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:21:43]
VAUSE: Hurricane warnings are in effect for parts of Mexico's gulf coast as tropical storm Grace takes aim at the country for a second time. After hitting the Yucatan Peninsula, Grace weakened to a tropical storm, but it's now back over water and strengthening with sustained winds over 100 kilometers an hour. It could make landfall as a hurricane for second time late Friday, maybe early Saturday.
Before hitting Mexico, Grace dumped heavy rains over Haiti, slowing down a deliveries almost a week after a devastating earthquake. Hospitals in affected areas are now overwhelmed with far more patients than they can treat.
But as Joe Johns reports, medical evacuations are picking up speed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The helicopter convoy bringing the most seriously injured from the earthquake zone to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, running from sun up to sun down. Today, they are greeted by a surgeon, a broken bone specialist who quickly evaluates their condition.
The 7.2 magnitude earthquake left more than 2,000 people dead and over 12,000 people injured, causing hospitals in Haiti to be completely overwhelmed. A short distance by air from Les Cayes to Port-au-Prince, but getting here can be a slow process. This 23-month-old girl suffered a laceration running from thigh to ankle in Saturday's earthquake. When she was finally flown into the capital, her leg was badly infected. It took a long time to get her hair.
DR. JEAN WILDRIC HIPPOLYTE, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: So it's about 3 days. The facilities are pretty good over there. It's an issue that they are dealing with in the countryside.
JOHNS: Many of the patients coming in our children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As I was sleeping, the bed was shaking, and then Iran. And there was a brick in front of me that fell on my feet.
JOHNS: From the airport, ambulances fan out across the city, taking the patients to hospitals that should best suit their needs. Here at the hospital run by doctors without porters, on the west side of town, where the staff have been dealing with more than just the rapidly filling beds.
DR. JOHANNE PAUL, PHYSICIAN, MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES (through translator): The hardest part is when a staff member knows or receives a patient whom they may be related to. It's tougher for them.
JOHNS: The stories of the patients are heart wrenching.
My first son died next to me, this mother of four says. She lost not one but two sons in the earthquake, both dying right next to her, when their house collapsed on top of them. She was pinned in the rubble for hours before being rescued.
GLADYS CASIMIR, LOST TWO SONS IN EARTHQUAKE (through translator): When I started digging and made a whole, I grabbed one of the people's feet so I knew they knew I was alive.
JOHNS: After being pulled from the rubble, her right leg was amputated, but she says her spirit is unbroken.
CASIMIR: I have a sister and mother who are living in the states. I want them to know to stay strong, because God has given, God will take away.
JOHNS: Joe Johns, CNN, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Journalist Jonathan M. Katz has been covering Haiti for more than a decade.
[01:25:03]
He's also author of "The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster".
He's with us this hour from Charlottesville in Virginia.
Jonathan, it's good to see you. It's been a very long time.
JONATHAN M. KATZ, JOURNALIST: Good to see you.
VAUSE: Coming up to a week. We see aid trickling in, it's been arriving for a few days. Now as it anywhere close for being enough for half 1 million people who Doctors Without Borders says are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance right now.
KATZ: Well, the thing is, that in any situation like this, you have to ask, it's not this just catch all category of aid. It's to figure out what people specifically need. People need different things in different places. So, you know, I have heard, and I have journalist friends of mine, people on the ground who have talked about people needing water filtration in one city. In another place, you know, there may still be people trapped in the rubble.
It depends on the place. So you can't necessarily quantify aid as the sort of catch all category. You really have to be very specific about what you are talking about.
VAUSE: And so, with that in mind, that means that you need a functioning government, one which is on the scene, making requests for this very specific aid. That doesn't seem to be the case in Haiti.
KATZ: Yeah. Well, I mean, just to take your viewers back, it's only been a couple of weeks since the president of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in his home, the first Haitian president to be assassinated in over a century. The government is essentially nonexistent. Moise didn't hold a single election, his entire presidency, his predecessor, Michel Martelly, only held one, which the one that elected his handpicked successor, Jovenel Moise. So there are no handpicked elected officials, where the earthquake struck.
So, yeah, in order for aid to be done in any way that's helpful at all, it has to be coordinated at a national or local level. Unfortunately, people seem to be on their own, although the one thing I can say about Haiti, I've spent a lot of time there, is that people have a very hard won and deep reserve of self sufficiency. If you talk to them, they can tell you specifically what they need and that is probably the most important thing to do.
VAUSE: Yeah, they have been hardened by experience over many, many years. Haiti's prime minister, who also inherited position, he makes a lot of promises. He has a tweet saying that the government will work to repeat what happened back in 2010, when there is vast mismanagement of international assistance. So, I guess, you know, from what we've been saying, that seems to be a nonstarter. I mean, there is no way that he can guarantee that, right?
KATZ: I mean, look, it's a different situation than it was in 2010. That earthquake, even though it was about the same magnitude and even a bit smaller, it was much closer to the capital, Port-au-Prince, home to a 3rd of the population. And so there was just a much larger number of people who, at least at first blush, seem to be immediately affected.
We don't know how many small towns have been affected by landslides and you have villages that are very hard to reach. But the thing is that, yeah, the government -- to government is not really in a position to oversee the aid that is coming in. The one thing that I hope is done better than was done in 2010 is that this response effort is going to be -- I hope it is done with the people who were affected and not to them, that it isn't a talk down response that has most of the money spent on things like a U.S. military response that was completely unnecessary to prevent an outbreak of violence that wasn't on the offing and 2010.
So I do hope that people have learned their lessons in some ways, from what happened in 2010, but, to put it bluntly, there are new challenges that remain, especially with this one being in a more remote part of the country.
VAUSE: And the sad reality is that for Haiti, disaster seems to be heaped onto disaster. On earthquake, a storm, cholera, and the storm has restricted access around the quake zone. I'm told that there is ongoing fallout from the assassination, the economy has tanked, there's the pandemic. It seems the breaking point may have been reached a long time ago.
KATZ: Yeah, look, I mean, this is the effective poverty. Anybody even on a personal level who has been poor can tell you that things that don't -- things that happen to wealthier people or wealthier countries are a much bigger deal if you don't have the resources to deal with them. So yes, I mean these things -- you know, there isn't any great mystery to why these things happen to people in a country that has as much rampant poverty as Haiti.
You know, you brought up the cholera example. That wasn't an accident either. Or it was an accident, but it wasn't a natural process, it was the result of the United Nations peacekeepers, you know, who dumped their waste in a river in central Haiti. And the U.N. still hasn't made compensation for what they did and the number of people they killed and the number of people who suffered from that.
There are a lot of examples like that. I mean it's really important. And I think, you know, in the medium and long the term, the biggest thing is just get money in people's hands. Just give money and put it in the hands of, you know, earthquake survivors, hurricane survivors and just, you know, people in Haiti in general, so that they can make decisions to make their own lives better.
It's the only way. Because doing it to them, doing it around them, you know, doing things that, you know, intentionally often weaken Haitian government, that just has never worked in the past. And it's put people in the position that they are right now.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Jonathan, you've great insights about Haiti, you spent a lot of time reporting the story and we really appreciate you being with us. So thank you.
KATZ: Thank you.
VAUSE: Many nations are concerned about the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. China? Not so much. A look at how Beijing views the militants in Kabul and the unlikely partnership it is now seeking.
Also ahead --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was pretty blown away at $2,000 from friends and family. And the CNN story aired, and it, you know, hit 10, 13, 18.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A former U.S. Marine stepping in to help an Afghan ally who is desperate to escape and running out of options.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone.
I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
About 12 hours from now, the U.S. president is scheduled to deliver remarks on the ongoing evacuation of U.S. citizens from Afghanistan as well as American allies and vulnerable Afghans.
Thousands of people are waiting at the Kabul airport for a chance to escape while others are still struggling to simply get there. The Biden administration says it's ramping up efforts to process the influx of applications.
The U.S. military says it's been in constant communication with the Taliban over airport security. This, as the U.N. chief urges the international community to stay on the same page when it comes to dealing with the militant group.
[01:34:55]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: It's very important for the international community to be united, for all members of the Council but in general for the international community to be united to use the only leverage that exists, which is the interest of the Taliban for legitimacy, for recognition.
And for that to be possible I think it's important that the international community is speaking one single voice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: But China would like to believe that this is not the same Taliban that ruled so brutally the first time around. Beijing is even going so far as to say the Taliban are, quote, "sober and rational".
With a close eye on how events are unfolding on its far western border, China is likely to take a very different approach than other countries.
Here is CNN's David Culver.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Just weeks before the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, China made a very public display of growing closer to the group's leadership.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi meeting a Taliban delegation in northern China in July giving legitimacy and perhaps confidence to the militant group long regarded with fear and suspicion by the rest of the world.
As many global powers now rush to escape Afghanistan, China claims it remains one of the few countries to retain its embassy in the capital.
But China's support for the Taliban comes with strings attached. China's help with reconstruction in exchange for the Taliban assuring regional stability.
HUA CHUNYING, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON: They will never allow any forces to use Afghan territory to endanger China.
CULVER: A deal brokered between awkward allies. A militant group representing hardline Islam and a Chinese government accused of cultural genocide against and mass detainment of its Muslim minorities at home. But China's relationship with the Taliban goes back a long way.
SEAN ROBERTS, AUTHOR, "THE WAR ON THE UYGHURS": It established relations with the Taliban already in 1999 at the encouragement of Pakistan, which is one of China's closest allies.
CULVER: The relationship was seen as pragmatism to manage a potential threat, as China shares a small border with Afghanistan, through the Wakhan Corridor. And China's multibillion dollar belt and road investments in neighboring Pakistan are at stake.
HENRY STOREY, POLITICAL RISK ANALYST: I think they are very wary to get involved militarily, and so at this stage, I think trying to cultivate the talk around to the Taliban promised lots of foreign aid and investments. That is really the least worst option at the moment. CULVER: The Taliban for its part has not spoken out publicly against
China's crackdown on its Uyghurs Muslim population in Xinjiang. A silence replicated by many other Muslim majority countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The Chinese government defends its Xinjiang policy and says it's trying to stamp out terrorism. After several attacks which it blamed on a group called the East Turkestan Islamic movement, or ETIM, a tiny fringe group that began to dissolve when its leader was killed by the Pakistani military in 2003.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On my orders --
CULVER: Sean Roberts, author of "The War on the Uyghurs" says the Chinese government used George W. Bush war on terror to justify its harsh policies targeting the ethnic Muslim minorities.
ROBERTS: I think that shielded China from a lot of criticism for some of the draconian policies, it carried out against Uyghurs.
CULVER: But other groups who could use the plight of the Uyghurs cause to recruit jihadis, a concern for Asia's superpower as it tries to navigate the new political reality on his doorstep.
David Culver, CNN -- Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The former captain of Afghans women's football team knows firsthand how dangerous the Taliban can be. Khalida Popal is deathly afraid for the female athletes who are in Afghanistan right now and she spoke to World Sport's Amanda Davies earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KHALIDA POPAL, FORMER CAPTAIN, AFGHAN WOMEN'S FOOTBALL TEAM: I remember my childhood at the age of 8, 9 years old, when Taliban took over the country, when they started like killing and putting people in prison because they have been active.
And remembering my father and family being so scared, sitting at home, waiting that anytime the door would be knocked and they will be taken by Taliban.
And I remember my family being beaten by Taliban. Some family members have been (INAUDIBLE) by Taliban. We had to escape as refugees, seeking for protection for our lives.
But everything -- everything was forgotten. When we returned back in 2001 with a lot of great hope for a future, when all the international community into the country, with the words -- with big sentences -- words defending the rights of women of Afghanistan. We will not let the women of Afghanistan to live in darkness of Taliban again.
[01:39:50] AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: So, the people that you are speaking to, your friends, your family, your fellow footballers. What are they saying do you about how they are feeling?
POPAL: Especially, like the players -- I would say that everybody is afraid. Everybody is worried. But what's especially our players are saying is that we have done everything possible to bring the pride -- the national pride for our country.
We have really fought so hard to earn the name on the jersey, and earn the badge on our chest, and wear the uniform of the national team and represent our country in the international level.
It has taken from me. Now, we are afraid of having that uniform at home.
What hurts me the most is when I have been, in the past few days, I have been calling them and telling them to burn down your uniform. Try to remove anything that you have from the national team so they don't identify if they come to your house.
Take down your social medias. Try to be silent. Try to hide your identity and remove your identity.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The U.S. says thousands at Kabul Airport have been fully processed and will soon be able to board planes. It's hoped an Afghan interpreter who worked alongside U.S. forces will be among them. And a former marine is making sure he can get out, driven by commitment to leave no man behind.
CNN's Cyril Vanier has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On the other side of this crowd, the only way out of Afghanistan -- Kabul International Airport.
Families, women and children, thousands rushed here to be evacuated after the Taliban's sudden takeover of the country. Some are being turned away, it seems. Others are settling in for a long wait.
The man who shot this video Haji. His identity protected for fear of retribution.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take cover, take cover.
VANIER: Haji's journey to the airport really started here, 10 years ago. Helmand Province, the heart of the Taliban insurgency. Haji sided with the Americans, a translator for the U.S. Marine Corps.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At least one of those kids is a fighter. Would you agree?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Definitely they are. They bring weapons here, definitely they bring IED here.
VANIER: The Taliban never forgave him. He's been on the run with his wife and young children for 5 years. This is what Haji said to CNN only a few weeks ago.
HAJI: If they found me, they'd kill me and they'd kill my family. Because I was an interpreter with the U.S. Marines.
VANIER: Denied a special immigrant visa for the U.S. twice, Haji was running out of options when a former platoon mate stepped in.
LANCE CORPORAL JIMMY HURLEY, U.S. MARINE CORPS: I kind of had a moment where I realized that he would not be able to do this by himself, at all. And I felt like if I didn't see it through, there was zero chance of him getting out.
VANIER: From half a world away, former Lance Corporal Jimmy Hurley applied for a new visa and a few days ago started crowdfunding, anticipating hard times ahead.
HURLEY: I'm really fighting not to get emotional here, but I was pretty blown away at $2,000 from friends and family. And then the CNN story aired, and it, you know, hit 10, 13, 18.
How quickly it grew has been really, really cool -- really overwhelming.
VANIER: But the Taliban's lightning advance forced some difficult decisions. "Haji you 100 percent need to get to Kabul," Jimmy writes. "Have you gotten the money?"
Hours go by, and finally this from Haji. "Getting to Kabul, walking, running, hiding, walk in mountain and in forest."
Haji and his family taking every risk, skirting Taliban checkpoints including this one and rushing to the airport. Gambling that their visa application would be enough to get them to safety.
(on camera): What happened when you try to get to the gate?
HAJI: We tried to go in. I told them, I've got documents. They said no. You have to have someone inside this airport. They come out for you, they will take you inside.
VANIER (voice over): So, Haji waits for an elusive email, crowds now looking like this outside the airport. The Taliban biding their time as the U.S. improvises a mass evacuation.
Haji's life in the hands of the Americans for whom a decade ago he risked his own.
Cyril Vanier, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: When we come back, Hong Kong has some of the strictest COVID quarantine measures in the world. But they don't apply to everyone. How one A-list celebrity was given a free pass.
[01:44:49]
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VAUSE: New Zealand is extending a nationwide lockdown until midnight Tuesday night. It began earlier this week just hours after confirming the first COVID-19 case in almost six months.
Manisha Tank is live this hour with more on the situation in New Zealand. You know, one case -- nationwide lockdown? I think they've had what -- a few dozen cases reported since then?
But they're taking this very seriously, and very quick action.
MANISHA TANK, JOURNALIST: Yes, that's right. Very seriously indeed, John, and quick action as you say. 11 new cases reported from that one case which is -- it's now emerged is believed to have come from a traveler who'd come in from Sydney.
Meanwhile, I can tell you that on Monday, we may get another announcement that will reevaluate the timeframe around this for the lockdown.
New Zealand has taken a very, very strong approach to controlling COVID-19 in the country. It's the zero COVID policy. And we are seeing a real split developing, aren't we, between those countries that choose not to do that -- I'm sitting in Singapore which has decided that it is beginning to open up, it has very a high vaccination rate.
New Zealand has talked about opening up come early next year but vaccination rates are still very low which is why lockdowns like this are necessary if it is to maintain that strategy. So even though it's zero COVID right now, there is a plan in place for it to open up but not at the level of vaccination that New Zealand has seen so far.
Now, I told you that that case had come in from Australia where in Sydney now, we're getting reports from the state of New South Wales, the capital which is Sydney, 10,582 cases there now.
And there are many states around Australia that are trying to put blocks in place at their borders to stop people coming in or to quarantine those coming in from New South Wales, where again, vaccination rates are running at just over 20 percent in Australia. And it is too low for this country to open up as well.
So all eyes on New Zealand. What will they do next? So far, New Zealand has managed to limit the number of COVID-19 cases. Just a week ago it still stood at 2,500. That of course, has gone up slightly. And the loss of life due to COVID-19 still relatively low in comparison to other countries -- just 26. Any loss of life, of course, is a sad story to report.
But yes, the extension of this lockdown, and we will get further information on Monday, John, as to how long this could go on lengthwise. VAUSE: Manisha, thank you. Manisha Tank there with the very latest
live from Singapore.
Well, American-born Australian actress Nicole Kidman has sparked anger in Hong Kong after officials allowed her to skip a 7-day quarantine re quired for all international arrivals. Kidman is filming a TV series there for Amazon.
CNN international correspondent Will Ripley joins me now from quarantine. Clearly, you are not an A-list star. You had to do the quarantine.
Nicole Kidman gets away with it because she's Nicole Kidman.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, I asked for the Nicole Kidman treatment when I arrived at the Hong Kong Airport last night and instead I was put in line and waiting for about five hours to get a COVID test, sit in the desks that kind of looks like you are in detention for hours, waiting for the result.
[01:49:59]
RIPLEY: Then you have to get in another line to get on the bus to get to your quarantine hotel. And by the way, that 7-day quarantine you mentioned for Nicole Kidman, had she had to go through one, is actually lucky, because as of today, there are new rules in effect.
So the country that I was traveling from I would have had to go into 21 days of quarantine. But because I cut my trip short by two weeks, scramble to rebook flights, rebook hotels, hotels and get back to Hong Kong just hours before the new rules kicked in, I am now stuck in this room for only 14 days.
Whereas Nicole Kidman, she flew by private jet, from Sidney which is in the middle of a COVID outbreak of the delta variant she didn't have to isolate. She's not staying in a quarantine hotel. In fact, she was spotted shopping just two days after arriving in Hong Kong in the densely packed central area of the city. And of course, she has also been seen shooting her series.
So yes, of course there is this question, you know, this unfair treatment of people who are actually able to travel. But you know, there's also the fact that she is here shooting a program about wealthy ex pat Americans.
The privileged few in Hong Kong who can actually afford this BS of the hotel stays in the flights and all that. What about the people here in Hong Kong who have lower wage jobs who cannot afford to leave, some of whom haven't been able to leave the city for nearly two years, who might have aging parents, who they're trying to visit, they miss terribly, who they can't visit because they can't afford a one week or two week or three-week mandatory quarantine?
How do they feel about a Hollywood star flying in here, being exempt from quarantine, walking through the city, flouting the guidelines that have made life pretty miserable for those who are able to travel and pretty isolated for those who are not able to travel.
VAUSE: Well, we can confirm that you are not Nicole Kidman.
Will Ripley in Hong Kong.
Thank you.
Well Britney Spears is being accused of striking one of her employees. There are few details, police say they are investigating the incident, which happened at the popstar's home in California on Monday.
Her attorney says it involves a cellphone from "which fabricated accusations that amounts to overblown, sensational tabloid fodder," quote unquote.
Spears is in middle of a legal battle to end her court-ordered conservatorship.
Well, where there was once snow, there is now record setting rain. The latest warning about climate change -- that story and what it means for our planet in just a moment.
[01:52:16]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: For the first time on record, it rained at the summit of Greenland's ice sheet. The summit is three kilometers above sea level and any precipitation has always fallen as snow.
The rain this past Saturday lasted for hours. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam has more now on what this rainfall actually means, what it means for the planet. Of course it is a result, it seems, of global warming.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes well here's that exact moment, John. The moment it rained on the highest point within the Greenland summit. This is significant, I cannot overstate the significance of this because we should be seeing snow draped across these windows at the Mobile Environmental Laboratory based at the highest point in Greenland. But of course, this time, the warm air that funnels into the area, the third time, in the last decade where temperatures actually rose above freezing.
It helped fuel this significant extreme rain event. In fact over 7 billion tons of water was deposited onto the ice sheet within Greenland. That causes additional melting.
[01:54:57[
VAN DAM: This was enough water from this rain event to fill the reflection pool at the National Mall in the nation's capital of Washington D.C. over 250,000 times. Let that sink in. That's a significant amount of water.
This is normal to see a melting event occur. It's just the frequency and the extreme events that are occurring that is raising alarm bells for scientists and environmentalists.
Now, the melting season occurs in Greenland between June to August. But back in 2019 the entire season actually deposited 532 billion tons of ice melt into the ocean. So that permanently rose the world's ocean level by 1.5 millimeters. That is the direct cause of sea level rise across the planet.
So what you are looking at this past July was significant -- they consider it an extreme melting event. 18.4 billion tons just in one week alone -- we highlighted that in special reporting three weeks ago.
In one day alone they had over 8 billion tons that melted into the oceans. That was enough to cover the state of Florida with 5 centimeters of water. This is significant and it's again, raising alarm bells.
What happened here. Well, we've got low pressure that formed across Baffling Island (ph) in Canada, high pressure to the south and east of Greenland. This works together to help fuel that warm air to the north.
And that sent temperatures rising. In fact it spiked to 10 even upwards of 15 degrees above where it should be this time of year at the highest point of the Greenland ice sheet.
The ice loss was significant. It melted inland as well over that three-day period. So why am I talking about this? Well, because the melt water from Greenland is actually the largest contributor to sea level rise. We talked about that just a moment ago.
If all of Greenland was to melt at once, we would have seven meters of sea level rise. So what we are seeing here is human-caused climate change, warming the planet, rapidly increasing our ice melts. In fact, since the 1990s we have actually lost 28 trillion tons of ice melt into the ocean.
So we do not want to see these events to occur at this frequency and this severity as well, John.
VAUSE: Derek, thank you. Derek Van Dam there with some insight and some pretty bad news. Thank you, Derek.
I'm John Vause. Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Michael Holmes takes over after a very short break. And I'll see you next week. Have a good weekend.
[01:57:20]
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