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Cases Among Unvaccinated Overwhelming Some U.S. Hospitals; Hurricane Ida Heads Into Gulf of Mexico, Takes Aim At New Orleans; U.S. Military Conducts Airstrike Against ISIS-K Terror Group; U.S. Intelligence Report On COVID-19 Origins Inconclusive; Taliban Vowed To Govern According To Sharia Law; U.S. Evacuation From Afghanistan Now In Final Phase; Ronaldo Returning To Manchester United; Parole Recommended For Robert Kennedy Assassin Sirhan Sirhan. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired August 28, 2021 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): After hammering Cuba, hurricane Ida is now heading toward the United States. It could become a monster category 4 storm before making landfall.

The U.S. strikes back: we'll look at how the American military took aim at the group behind the Kabul airport bombing.

And the fight over face masks: American courts are weighing in.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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BRUNHUBER: Hurricane Ida is barreling towards the United States, gaining strength as it churns northward, right now through the Gulf of Mexico. The storm whipped western Cuba as a category 1 hurricane on Friday. It's expected to become a dangerous category 3 or 4 this weekend, putting the northern Gulf Coast states on high alert.

Hurricane warnings are now posted for much of the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts and evacuations are underway. Forecasters say Ida will likely slam into New Orleans on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, the U.S. is beginning to make good on its promise to strike back against ISIS-K, as Tuesday's deadline to exit the country nears. The U.S. military said it struck and killed a member of the terror group in an eastern province.

ISIS-K is believed to be behind the Kabul airport attack that killed at least 170 Afghans, 13 American troops and 2 British citizens. And new terror threats are complicating the final days of evacuations. The U.S. embassy is warning that all Americans waiting outside the

gates should leave immediately. The White House says another attack in Kabul is likely.

Meanwhile, France is the latest NATO member to announce its evacuation efforts have already come to an end. It wrapped things up on Friday, saying it airlifted about 4,500 people out of Afghanistan, including some before the Taliban took Kabul.

CNN international security editor, Nick Paton Walsh joins me now from Doha, Qatar.

Let's start with that U.S. airstrike.

What more can you tell us?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: There is very limited information at this point.

[04:05:00]

WALSH: In fact, the CENTCOM statement refers to an over the horizon unmanned strike, that suggests a drone flying at some distance that hit an ISIS-K planner; not the ISIS-K planner of the airport attack, they're not saying that.

But this is what many had anticipated we would see in the days after the attack on the airport. Attacks like this, strikes like this against key ISIS figures, something that the U.S. frankly has been doing over the past years on opportunity.

But the tempo has varied at time. This appears to have hit somewhere in the Nangarhar province. That's out to the east, an area where ISIS- Khorasan have been known to have a significant presence over the past years.

But they've often faced pressure from the former Afghan government and pressure from the Taliban, as well. More details may emerge on the ground as to precisely what the target was here.

CENTCOM says they believe they killed the person they were trying to hit and there were no civilian casualties as a result of the strike. But this is essentially what President Biden said would occur.

And it comes at a time of heightened threat around the airport. U.S. citizens told to leave the area immediately, because of continued threat from another ISIS-K attack. The satellite images we saw taken yesterday suggested a significant drop in the number of people around that airport, Kim.

So this is obviously a fast-moving situation. We reported yesterday that, as of this weekend, at some point, there will be a significant drop in the number of U.S. diplomats on that airfield moving forward.

That will significantly change their ability to process the thousands of evacuees that we've seen coming off the airport in the past days. We are awaiting in the next hours, the latest update as to how many were managed to take away yesterday. Their task is changing, the evacuation, it seems.

The local embassy Afghan staff who were a priority for them to remove, we're told by a spokesperson, Ned Price at the State Department, that the vast majority of them are taken away.

I was told from a source that they were expected to get pretty much all of them on the airport or off yesterday; American citizens, there appear to be 500 or so of some concern.

It is extremely hard to know what these 500 Americans are still doing in American if they have not taken advantage of the opportunity presented over the last 10 days to leave.

That figure may alter, depending on their desire to leave, depending on their circumstances. So we are now looking at the clock as this operation begins, it's fair to say, to shift from the mass scale of evacuations we've seen, to more about the military focus and their withdrawal.

But the security situation makes two things harder. The actual act of getting people on to the airport to evacuate them and the capacity, too, for those operations to continue at scale in safety, as well.

The U.S. has been at pains to point out, though, they will evacuate until the last minute. But we will obviously have to wait and see how viable that is, given the difficulties of getting people on the airport and how their capacity to go out and get them will slowly drop over time.

Yesterday's major problem was trying to get the remaining special access groups. That's people who have an arrangement with the Taliban and with the U.S. to get themselves on to the airport.

There were buses, stories of buses, people circulating around the airport, unable to find a slot to get in. That may or may not have been resolved. We are now looking at an operation, racing against the clock, with the background threat of ISIS still there.

BRUNHUBER: So many moving pieces. Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much.

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BRUNHUBER: CNN military analyst and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, retired General Wesley Clark joins me now.

Thanks so much for being with us. I want to start with just what more can you tell us about this reprisal attack and the intelligence needed to carry it out so quickly.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, we must have been tracking the threat. And a threat like this doesn't just emerge out of nowhere. There always has to be communications.

And I'm sure this ISIS-K group has been tracked for a while by U.S. intelligence. It may be that we're pretty close to having targeting information on some members of the group before.

And maybe there was a sense that, OK, let's not strike and restart military actions there until we're finished with the evacuation. But once they struck us, yes, the gloves came off. There's no point in holding back.

What we don't know is whether the ISIS-K group that we struck or an individual that we struck had anything to do with the attack on the airfield yesterday. And we don't know whether it will prevent future attacks. But we've got to take the intelligence we have that's available and use it.

BRUNHUBER: What does it say about our capabilities for these over the horizon attacks, after the U.S. troops leave?

CLARK: Well, we've always had these capabilities, for the last 20 years, really, since we armed the predators.

[04:10:00]

CLARK: The question is not, can we strike?

The question is, do we have the actionable intelligence to be able to strike and strike accurately?

In this case, it seems that we do. And one thing is for sure. We've spent 20 years worrying about terrorists, their networks, how they communicate and building our ability, not only to defend but to strike back.

So we're a lot different force than we were when we went into Afghanistan 20 years ago. I think this strike might show some of that.

BRUNHUBER: Well, we already know there's been another warning about an imminent attack at the airport, similar to the one we saw before the first attack.

Do you think the reprisal attack by the U.S. will mean possibly even more danger for the troops that are still there, from a revenge attack?

CLARK: I don't think so. I don't think that ISIS-K, if it thought it could come after the U.S. troops at the airport would hold back, in hopes we wouldn't strike them. They would come at us with everything they've got, because we're the best target they've got, the most accessible target they've got for the next three days.

So if they've got the ability to strike again, they'll certainly do it. Our best hope for security is to strike them with as much as we have, with the best intelligence we can gather, as rapidly as we can during this period.

That's what will increase the security for our troops in addition to whatever defensive measures we may take, possibly coordinating with Taliban.

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BRUNHUBER: Let me jump in and ask you about those defensive capabilities. The White House has said that they're taking "maximum force protection" efforts at the airport.

Are they doing anything differently now than they were before?

CLARK: It's always a balance between mission accomplishment and risk. There were so many people trying to get in, we were working so hard to do the evacuations, it seemed the only way we could do this was to go out with the crowds and do the final inspections, both the physical security and also of the documents.

And that's what was being done. It seems now that we've pulled back. We're not admitting the same numbers of people. We've slowed the pace. We've, in coordination with the Taliban, spread out the defensive perimeter around the airport. We're opening and closing the gates, apparently, at random, rather than keeping them open.

So there's a lot of changes. It's a balance between getting the job done and minimizing risks. And we've waited more toward force protection at this point.

BRUNHUBER: Well, finally, I want to end on this, as we're learning more about the service members who gave their lives in the service of their country in that attack. I wanted to get your reflections on the sacrifices of these brave Americans, who, you know, it has been said, were in the act of helping others gain their freedom.

CLARK: It was a noble mission. It was a dangerous mission. They knew it was dangerous. They probably didn't know exactly how dangerous it was. The ones who were left behind, still working, they now know. So it's even tougher on them.

But I want to talk about the families because the families are the ones who support these men and women in uniform. Those who were at the airfield, those who are in the Gulf, those who are in training at bases in the United States, all of those families understand that there are risks when their sons and daughters go into the service.

And yet, they're there. They're sacrificing their most precious, beloved possessions, their most beloved people, on behalf of this country, if necessary. I think it's the families that deserve special recognition at this time. And my heart goes out to them, deepest sympathy and greatest respect.

BRUNHUBER: Well, said, General. And our prayers go towards those families. Thank you so much for being us, CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Army General, Wesley Clark. Appreciate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: I want to take you to Washington now. CNN White House reporter Jasmine Wright joins us.

So we just heard about the human cost of this attack there. Let's pivot now to the political cost.

President Biden had been facing plenty of criticism on both sides of the aisle after the disastrous drawdown, which grew even louder after that suicide attack, some Republicans even calling for his resignation.

Will the fact that Biden acted so quickly on his promise to hunt down those responsible, will that calm some of the criticism that's been aimed at him in the wake of this tragedy?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, we don't know yet what the political impact of this strike will be.

[04:15:00]

WRIGHT: But you're right, it is no coincidence that President Biden acted so quickly as he tries to send a message to folks abroad on the ground in Afghanistan but also potentially to critics back here at home, that his administration will not stop at taking action, trying to defend the troops and retaliate against anyone who comes in their way.

But there are a few things that we don't know about this mission, as Nick and the general were just talking about, including whether or not the target that was killed by the strike on Friday night is actually the person directly responsible for the -- who took the -- who actually perpetrated that attack that left 13 service members dead.

The one thing that we can deduce is, if this drone strike is successful, that over the horizon strike they said, potentially more that will follow, if those are successful, this will be a model for the Biden administration.

Remember, President Biden says that one of the reasons why they felt comfortable about withdrawing from Afghanistan is because of their over the horizon capabilities, which would say that they can attack, keep their pulse on any threats coming out of Afghanistan from abroad and stop them from hurting anything here in the homeland.

But listen, this puts the president and the administration and those on the ground in kind of a precarious situation, as we know that things on the ground there are not necessarily stable.

And after President Biden and the vice president received that national security briefing on Friday, that said that there were likely more attacks coming in Kabul and saying that this was the most dangerous part of the mission, the evacuation and the Pentagon spokesperson said Friday that there were still about 5,000 troops still on the ground.

And they were working with 500 Americans, trying to get them out by that August 31st deadline. So we will see what happens in the next few days. And any additional attack on Americans could potentially have dire consequences for the president. But he said that, though this is a dangerous mission on Friday, he called it a worthy mission -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Jasmine Wright in Washington, thanks so much.

Well, hurricane Ida is gaining strength over the Gulf of Mexico. Later, we'll look at what may be in store for the U.S. Gulf Coast.

And the governor of Florida is facing a new challenge to enforcing his mask ban in schools. Why a judge acted to block it. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: COVID cases and hospitalizations are skyrocketing in many places across the U.S. Florida reported more cases during the past week than during any other seven-day period since the pandemic began. And its governor is fighting mask mandates in schools. But as CNN's Nick Watt explains, school districts and now the courts are pushing back.

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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): And these school districts are saying no.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A slap to the often un-masked face of Governor Ron DeSantis. A Florida judge just ruled his office cannot outlaw school mask mandates.

JUDGE JOHN COOPER, SECOND JUDICIAL CIRCUIT COURT, LEON COUNTY: They simply do not have that authority.

WATT: Many districts were defying the ban, enforcing mask mandates as, nationwide, a record number of children are in the hospital with COVID-19.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: occurring now in the context of not following these layered prevention strategies.

WATT: Like masks.

This week, Missouri's attorney general sued a school district over its mask requirement. The lawsuit states, the cure should not be worse than the disease. It's not. One thousand two hundred ninety-two people were reported killed by COVID-19 yesterday. No one reported killed by a mask.

In San Antonio, Texas, the school district wants a mask mandate. The governor does not. That state's supreme court just backed him.

Just outside Austin at a school board meeting this week, this happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At work, they make me wear this jacket. I hate it.

WATT: A parent got nearly naked to make a pro-mask mandate point. Here go his pants.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's simple protocol, people. We follow certain rules for a very good reason.

WATT: Pants for decency. Masks for safety.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. We appreciate that.

WATT (on camera): In Florida, governor Ron DeSantis calling the judge's ruling incoherent, saying that he will appeal immediately.

Meantime, more than 16,000 Floridians are in the hospital, fighting COVID-19. That is near an all-time record high.

Over in Alabama, they are deploying freezer trucks to morgues for the first time in the pandemic.

In Texas, they are deploying an extra 2.5 thousand staff to hospitals and nursing homes.

But there is a ray of sunshine and hope here in California where officials tell us that after the Delta driven surge, they are hopeful the cases are now plateauing -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. Let's take a look at the COVID situation around the world.

Norway is seeing a dramatic spike in cases in recent weeks. For the third day in a row, the country reported more than 1,000 cases. They have been surging there since mid July, when Norway was only reporting about 200 per day.

Canadian health officials have authorized the use of the Moderna shot in children, ages 12, to 17. The vaccine was previously authorized, only for adults.

And, in Australia, New South Wales, reporting more than 1,000 new community cases in the state's highest caseload so far in the pandemic and it comes as Sydney has spent 9 weeks in lockdown.

A long-awaited report from the U.S. intelligence community is shedding little light on the origins of the COVID-19 virus. CNN's Alex Marquardt has more on the unclassified findings that were just released.

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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. intelligence community, saying that it has not come to a conclusion about the origins of the COVID-19 virus.

On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a brief summary of the key findings of a classified report.

[04:25:00]

MARQUARDT (voice-over): That was ordered back in May by President Biden.

The intelligence community had 90 days to pore over all the intelligence they could find, as well as work with outside experts and foreign partners to try to answer the vital question of where the virus originated.

But they came to no conclusion, instead saying only that they all agreed that there are two possibilities: that the virus leaked from the lab in Wuhan, China, or that it naturally jumped from an animal to a human in the wild.

Four U.S. agencies supporting the hypothesis, with a low level of confidence, that it was naturally occurring in the wild; while one intelligence agency had a moderate level of confidence that it leaked from the lab.

Other agencies felt they didn't have enough information. What we got on Friday from the intelligence community was barely two pages of an unclassified summary of those key findings of the classified report.

One thing they did assess was that the virus was not a Chinese bioweapon and that most of the U.S. intelligence agencies agree that the virus had not been genetically modified.

But, they said, without more cooperation from China and without more information from Beijing, the intelligence community says it won't be able to provide a more definitive explanation -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: As you can imagine, this isn't going over well in China. So for more on that, let's bring in CNN's David Culver, joining us from Beijing.

David, before the report was made public, China was discounting and criticizing it.

What's China saying now?

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Same thing, Kim. Yes. That's been going on now for several months. And they've been trying to craft this narrative and push it relentlessly through propaganda efforts that, likewise, have ramped up and are continuing at this hour.

It's interesting that Alex points out there that the full declassified version of that report, the unclassified of what came out from the intel community review, a page and maybe a third, the rebuttal from the Chinese embassy in Washington, well over two pages.

So they had a lot to say and push back, quite, I would say, with a lot of determination to say that China really has done everything they can to be open and transparent.

But what you have to look at here are those two likely possibilities, the one that it jumped from animals to humans in the so-called natural origins. And then you have the lab leak theory.

Given that they couldn't come to a conclusive, definitive answer as to what exactly sparked COVID-19, experts point out to me that this does not totally vindicate the Chinese. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREGORY POLING, SENIOR FELLOW FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Setting aside any conspiracy theories about labs in Wuhan, the fact that China will not allow a second WHO investigation to find out how the virus likely jumped from animals to humans is problematic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CULVER: And that is exactly the point that is brought up in this intelligence community review and even the unclassified version of that; it's the lack of transparency here. For its part, I want to read you a portion of what the China embassy in Washington had to say.

They say, "Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has taken an open, transparent and responsible attitude. We have released information, shared the genome sequencing of the virus and carried out international cooperation to fight the disease, all done at the earliest possible time."

Kim, the problem with that is that's not entirely true. And our early reporting pokes a lot of holes in this. We saw the cover-up and the silencing of whistleblowers and have since saw the delays in allowing international experts to come in.

Yes, the WHO had a field team come in this past January; that was 12 months after the initial outbreak. So experts who were even on that team have told us, they didn't get access to several pieces of clinical data -- some of the early epidemiological reports, things that they believe to be crucial in determining how this virus started.

And that it's very unlikely they'll get that going forward, especially given, Kim, China has said, as recently as the past few weeks, that they will not allow a second phase II, as they put it, of the WHO field studies to come back into the People's Republic of China.

BRUNHUBER: There you have it. David Culver in Beijing for us. Appreciate it.

Hurricane Ida is heading towards America's Gulf Coast. There's a bull's-eye on Louisiana on the anniversary of hurricane Katrina. We'll have the latest.

And we'll look at what the Taliban's interpretation of Islam could mean for women in Afghanistan. That's ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Category 1 hurricane Ida is gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico. It's expected to become a category 3. Hurricane warnings are posted for much of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi, including New Orleans. Emergency officials are already preparing by pre-positioning crews and supplies in the region.

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BRUNHUBER: Now we want to go back to Afghanistan and a promise of payback made good by the United States.

The U.S. says it conducted an airstrike against ISIS-K in an area east of Kabul, killing the intended target. The terror group claimed responsibility for Thursday's horrific airport bombing that killed at least 170 Afghans, two British citizens and 13 U.S. service members.

[04:35:00]

BRUNHUBER: It comes as the U.S. embassy in Kabul is once again warning its citizens to stay away from the airport and its gates. On Friday, President Biden was warned by his national security that another terror attack is likely.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military and NATO allies have evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan over the past two weeks but those evacuations are winding down ahead of America's August 31st deadline, with France and Italy now saying they've now ended their evacuation efforts.

When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the group said their government would respect women's rights, within the limits of sharia or Islamic law, except sharia isn't a set of codified laws and it varies greatly across the diverse communities of the Muslim world. Salma Abdelaziz joins us live now from London with more.

Salma, so much talk of implementing sharia law. As I said, it means different things to different people. We've been looking into this.

What can you tell us?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And as we approach the August 31st deadline, the Taliban will shift their focus from evacuation efforts to one of an emergency situation, to forming a government in Afghanistan. That is a massive task.

I think a lot of analysts and observers will tell you that the Taliban took control of the country quicker than expected. So there's going to be a lot of questions about what kind of government will be formed. And again, going back to the facts of their first press conference,

the Taliban saying they'll form a government based on sharia. But sharia is human interpretation of divine law -- human interpretation there being the key part.

So that ultimately means what that looks like is up to the Taliban themselves. Take a look.

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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): After takeover, the Taliban vowed to govern Afghanistan by sharia. When asked how that would differ from the group's rule two decades ago, this was the answer.

"If this question is based on thoughts, ideology, beliefs, then there is no difference. We have the same beliefs," the group spokesman said.

The Taliban says it is forming an inclusive government that will ensure women's rights within an Islamic framework. But because sharia is not a codified system of laws, what that means is entirely up to the Taliban themselves, says Professor Hasham Hallyer (ph).

PROFESSOR HASHAM HALLYER (PH): When we talk about sharia in a public context, then, again, interpretations for how that is applied as Islamic law, they differ tremendously across the board.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The group's record is bleak. The Taliban's draconian regime from 1996 to 2001 was widely criticized by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. And modern legislative applications of sharia by other Muslim majority states provide little comfort.

Take for example, Iran, a country ruled by strict Shia interpretation of Islam. There, the morality police subject women and girls to daily harassment and violent attacks, says Amnesty International.

In Qatar, women are denied the right to make key decisions about their lives, from marriage to work, without a male relative, Human Rights Watch reports.

And under Saudi's male guardianship system, women must obtain permission for some of their most basic rights. Men can even file cases for disobedience, rights groups say.

But there has been a recent shift in the kingdom. A driving ban was reversed and travel restrictions on females eased in recent years.

HALLYER (PH): There are certain interpretations that are held up and then there are other interpretations that are equally valid in Islamic law that are not.

Why?

That is a public policy decision.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): And that is exactly where the Taliban say they are changing. They want to engage on a global stage. HALLYER (PH): They also have to take into account relationships that

they have with powerful actors outside of the country.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): That leaves the U.S. and its allies with one key piece of leverage: international recognition and legitimacy. Hanging in the balance, the 20 years of gains and rights and liberties for the women and girls of Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Kim, as you know, this is not just about what women are allowed to wear or how thick the hijab is or what type of veil is required. These laws and rules, whatever is formed, will affect women and girls from cradle to grave.

It will cover everything from education. But not just are they going to school to learn Quran and Islamic studies but will they be allowed to learn science, math, literature?

It will affect higher education, who you can marry, what the marriage rules are, how you have access to children.

[04:40:00]

ABDELAZIZ: What financial rights and obligations there are. And I also want to point out, the Taliban is not a monolith, Kim.

Will the Taliban in the central government actually impose these rules on its own fighters in other districts?

What rules will there be for fighters that don't respect those rules?

I'll give you an example right now. The Taliban has called on women, working women, not to go to their jobs. They say there are not security procedures in place. They even went so far to say their fighters are not trained to allow women to go to work. And they were concerned about the possibility that fighters could disrespect women or engage with women in a way that would harass them on the streets.

So already indications there that trying to trickle down these rules from the very top of government to the bottom, that's going to be a challenge.

What do these rules look like for women and girls in Afghanistan and how will they affect them from cradle to grave?

Again, regardless, Kim, I think we can all agree, that path of progress now is cut, if not reversed -- Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Yes, as you say, so much at stake. And so little known yet. Have to see how it plays out. Salma Abdelaziz in London, thank you so much.

Coming up, the refugee crisis that's fast approaching in Afghanistan, why the U.N. Is urging countries to keep their borders open. Stay with us. (MUSIC PLAYING)

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BRUNHUBER: New terror threats are complicating the final days of the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan. The U.S. embassy is warning that all Americans waiting outside the gates should leave immediately. The White House says another attack in Kabul is likely.

Well, that massive airlift will end Tuesday with the final U.S. military withdrawal. After that, Afghans who want to leave will have to look for other ways out. The U.N. says more than half a million people could flee to neighboring countries by the end of this year. Michael Holmes has that story.

[04:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Carrying all they have left, weary Afghans walk across the border into neighboring Pakistan.

"We went to the Kabul airport," says one refugee, who had hoped to leave in the U.S.-led airlift out of the Afghan capital.

"We stayed there for 2, 3 days but the situation worsened," he says.

Finally, he left in search of another way out, before Thursday's twin bombings added to the panic, while evacuations draw to a close.

As the security situation deteriorates, more Afghan refugees are fleeing to the country's main border crossings since the Taliban takeover. Soon, their numbers may swell.

KELLY CLEMENTS, DEPUTY, U.N. HIGH COMMISIONER FOR REFUGEES: UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While we have not seen large outflows of Afghans, at this point, the situation inside of Afghanistan has evolved, more rapidly, than anyone expected.

In terms of numbers, we are preparing for 500,000 new refugees in the region. This is a worst-case scenario.

HOLMES (voice-over): So far, the U.S. and allies, have evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan, since August 14. But as they scramble to help those desperate to leave, an August 31 deadline is fast approaching.

In the months that follow, the UNHCR predicts that refugees will flow into neighboring Iran, Pakistan and other nations in central Asia. The refugee agency urging them to keep borders open.

But some may have little bandwidth for the influx, in particular Pakistan, where and estimated 2.4 million Afghan refugees, already, reside, according to the Center for Global Development. Thousands more may soon arrive, desperately, searching for safety as the crisis in Afghanistan continues to unfold -- Michael Holmes, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right. Let's bring in Atika Shubert at Ramstein air base in Germany, which has seen nearly 20,000 evacuees from Afghanistan.

Atika, what's the latest on the conditions in that massive tent city?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the tent city continues to grow. With each new planeload, they have to add more tents. And it's just a huge operation.

It spreads right across the tarmac at the air base, hundreds of tents, 40 people to a tent. Men live on the side with the tents and women and children actually sleep in cots inside those giant airplane hangers.

The conditions are very basic. You know, it's simply a shelter. There are toilets and washing stations but really no showers. Three hot meals a day are served. And there is very intermittent connection for phones.

And this is, when I speak to evacuees, the thing that they miss most is being able communicate with family. This is the thing they want to see most of all.

The other thing they want to see is getting on a flight to the United States. And there is some positive news there. What we are seeing is that more of those departing commercial flights are heading to the United States.

So I believe more than 5,000 by now should have already departed for the United States. They usually board commercial airliners, such as Delta Air Lines. We had a chance to talk to one crew, who was flying them out. And the process is now picking up.

But as you point out, still more are expected to come. So the base has been incredibly busy dealing with all of that. And while that's happening, they've also received a number of those wounded at the airport attack in Kabul. Ramstein air base has become a critical point for this entire evacuation, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Atika Shubert, thanks so much for that.

And you can learn how you can help Afghan refugees by going to a special section of our website, cnn.com/impact.

All right. Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, the man convicted of assassinating RFK could soon be a free man. How some of Kennedy's own children support the release of their father's killer. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: A former Manchester United great is returning to the club. Cristiano Ronaldo has agreed to sign with the team after he expressed interest in leaving his current team Juventus.

The 36-year-old striker played for Man U from 2003 to 2009, scoring more than 100 goals in Spain. He was rumored to be signing with rival Manchester City before agreeing to return to Old Trafford.

Well, a man convicted of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 was recommended for parole on Friday. Sirhan Sirhan spent the past 53 years in prison and had some unlikely supporters for his release. CNN's Natasha Chen has details.

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NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was the 16th time Sirhan Sirhan had been considered for parole.

But this time it was different, because the Los Angeles County prosecutor, elected late last year, has a new directive for his office, not to attend parole hearings.

In talking with the prosecutor George Gascon's (ph) office, we learned that this is an efforts to allow the parole board to make an objective decision based on the inmate's actions since the crime, not just on the fact of the crime itself.

The parole board did spend time asking Sirhan about his remorse, his rehabilitation and seeing whether and how he had changed over the course of 53 years in prison.

Sirhan says he does take responsibility for what happened, saying, quote, "Every day that I am alive, that is all I think about."

His original death sentence was commuted to life in prison in the early '70s when the California Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. Two children of Robert F. Kennedy also openly supported his release.

Douglas Kennedy was present for the hearing and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote a letter, saying, in part, that Sirhan should be released and he would offer to be a guiding friend for him.

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CHEN: Quote, "While nobody can speak definitively on behalf of my father, I firmly believe that, based on his own consuming commitment to fairness and justice, that he would strongly encourage this board to release Mr. Sirhan because of Sirhan's impressive record of rehabilitation."

Sirhan's attorney told CNN the panel made the right decision by keeping the politics out and following the law.

This proposed grant of release now goes through a review process. Ultimately, the governor has the ability to reverse the decision if he chooses to do so. But governor Gavin Newsom's office did not offer any statement on the decision -- back to you.

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And in just the past few hours, six of Robert Kennedy's children issued a blistering statement about the parole board's recommendation. They wrote this.

"Today's decision by a two-member parole board has inflicted enormous pain but beyond just us, Sirhan Sirhan committed a crime against our nation and its people. We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release. It is a recommendation we intend to challenge every step of the way."

Well. I'm Kim Brunhuber and I'll have a new update on hurricane Ida and the latest from Afghanistan in just a moment when CNN NEWSROOM continues. Please do stay with us.