Welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. In afghanistan, a development many people feared, and many predicted. Violence is on the rise since the us military withdrew from Bagram Airfield last week, and the taliban have seized more districts. This map from a us Defence Research think thank shows the areas now in taliban control they are the dark grey areas you see on the map. The contested areas are in red and areas controlled by the afghan government in light grey, almost whitish colour there. The claims about territory, are for the moment, impossible to verify. But the taliban says it has captured 150 out of 369 districts in the past two months of fighting. Afg hanistan� s Interior Ministry neither confirm or deny the claim saying, that though the taliban claim the districts, it does not mean all of them have completely fallen. More than 1,000 afghan government soldiers have fled across the border to tajikistan after clashes with the insurgents. The bbc� s Security Correspondent Frank Gardner reports. On their own now, but still fighting the taliban. Afghan security forces are in action this week without the us military Support Theyve relied on for the past 20 years. The strategic Air Base just north of kabul is an afghan the strategic bagram Air Base just north of kabul is an afghan government hands now. The americans pulled out last week, leaving behind a deeply unstable country. The former president blames the west. The entire mission with regard to the stated objective of the united states and its nato allies in defeating terrorism and defeating terrorism has failed. The Military Compartment that was intended to fight extremism and terrorism, that, rather than doing thejob correctly and where it was needed, began to hurt and harass and bomb and imprison afghans. Thats where it failed. Thats where our Failure Today is. 0thers blame endemic corruption, inefficiency and massive waste. The conflict has costed an estimated 1 Trillion and over 100,000 lives, and it could be about to get worse. Taliban insurgents are on the offensive. They reportedly control a quarter of afghanistans districts after overrunning several government outposts. They are insisting no western forces be left behind. All foreign forces should withdraw from the country whether they are contractor, adviser or trainers because they were part of the occupation. Thats a violation, we will react. But that reaction would be based on the decision of our leadership. In Kandahar Province the former Taliban Stronghold residents have been voicing their fears of what they think the return to power might mean. Translation the taliban dont want peace, the taliban want the whole government. The taliban are only killing. And theres another concern. 0sama Bin Laden may be dead, but his organisation, alqaeda, lives on. Many fear a return of the taliban means a return of alqaeda. A Nightmare Scenario not just for afghanistan, but for much of the world. Frank gardner, bbc news. The british prime Minister Borisjohnson has confirmed that he intends to lift all Coronavirus Restrictions in england in two weeks time, with a final decision taken next week. That would mean workers going back to the office and an end to social distancing. But it comes as cases across the country continue to rise. Theres been an average of more than 25,000 daily cases this week. The Uk Government says this is manageable because hospitalisations are under control and deaths are comparitively low. With the Delta Variant, it is growing rapidly but this graph shows another story, that current hospitalisations are lagging far behind the second wave. They are still on the up but at a much slower pace and a similar pattern can be seen in the statistics for actual deaths, you can see far fewer than in the previous wave. Mrjohnson has warned that covid and actions across the uk across the uk were predicted to rise to 50,000 a day by later in the month. 0ur political correspondent Vicki Young has this report. All around us signs of life interrupted by a pandemic. Instructions about where we can go, who we can see even in our own home and how far apart we must stand, but in two weeks things could change. Covid has not gone but most restrictions in england are likely to disappear. Restaurants and pubs can open normally and theatres and cinemas can fill every seat. The Prime Minister put the emphasis on personal responsibility instead of government orders. I want to stress from the outset that this pandemic is far from over. And we must reconcile ourselves sadly to more deaths from covid. Theres only one reason why we can contemplate going ahead to step four in circumstances where we would normally be locking down further and that is because of the continuing effectiveness of the Vaccine Roll out. And in bristol, people are starting to contemplate life with fewer rules. Personally i think its better to be safe than sorry, but just like every normal person i welcome the change. Its the wrong thing, wrong decision. Reporter why . Because cases are going up. At least give it a go and then if anything gets worse you can always go back. I think we just have to live with it. You cant keep living your life being told what to do. People are now afraid even to Go Out, some people. For some, the Face Mask has become a hated symbol of intrusive government. It will still be recommended in hospitals and enclosed Public Spaces but the legal requirement to wear a Face Covering will go. Unions say that will put workers at risk. The days of hundreds of pages of rules and regulations to follow will soon be gone and instead the government is asking us to use a Common Sense and make personal decisions about how we stay safe. Its a big shift in approach but comes at a time when cases are rising. The Prime Minister has been marking the nhss birthday, and making sure hospitals can cope has been at the heart of his covid strategy. Can you tell us how bad you expect it to get . Obviously we have to be cautious and we will continue to look at all the data as we progress. If we dont go ahead now when the Summer Fire Break is coming up, the school holidays, all the advantages that should give us in fighting the virus, the question is when would be go ahead. What the modelling would imply is we will reach that peak before we get to The Point where we have the kind of pressures that we saw in january for example this year. Labour says some will need more support. To throw off all protections at the same time when the Infection Rate is still going up is reckless. We need a balanced approach and need to keep Key Protections in place including masks, ventilation and crucially on something weve asked for during the pandemic, Proper Payment for those who need to self isolate. Later in the week we will find out about Government Plans for foreign travel and when we come into a positive case what will happen. In schools, whole classes or bubbles wont be sent home. For 16 months weve lived under restrictions that we could not have imagined. Today, Boris Johnson signalled it is time to get back to normal. Vicki young, bbc news, westminster. That signal has had some mixed responses. Ive been speaking to Eric Feigl Ding, an epidemiologist and senior fellow at the federation of american scientists. I asked if the government had made the right decision. This is absolutely the wrong time and the wrong decision, period. All i can say is its a horrible, terrible, no good decision. The Delta Variant is not your normal variant. The Delta Variant is the most contagious, fastest transmitting variant, more than weve ever seen before, it is much more severe, it is 11 5 times greater risk of hospitalisation than the old strain, and also it is vaccine somewhat attenuating and evasive, so one dose is not enough and we know that with two doses, in Israel Weve seen the Efficacy Drop from the 90s to 64 , it is the wrong time. Eric, you are absolutely clear on that. Isnt The Point, though, that vaccinations in the uk are at a pretty high level . I know you mentioned israel there. And that whilst it is easily transmissible, it is not as virulent as previous strains have proved to be. So that is a complete misinformation and completely false. That data was. You are comparing apples and oranges. The fact is the Delta Variant is way more severe, way more virulent, it causes severe disease and greater risk of hospitalisation by 4 to 5 fold according to the studies, Peer Reviews and also according to government data. It is completely fals to say it is less severe. What would you say then to the Prime Minister when he says, look, if we dont go ahead now, when do we go ahead . What is your message there . Hes framing it as, 0h, we dont want to live under look, this is not a choice between lockdowns or reopening. If you want to avoid Lockdowns Everyone wants to avoid lockdown, nobody wanted lockdown if you want to avoid a lockdown, the path to do that is not the one he chose, the path to do that is more masks, ventilation, air our Hospital Beds are not empty, that is just complete dereliction of any public health and ethical measures, especially as a government. A pretty clear Critique Therefrom Eric Feigl Ding on borisjohnson� s therefrom Eric Feigl Ding on Boris Johnsons latest pronouncements. Stay with us on bbc news. Still to come a russian gang behind a huge Cyber Attack demands 70 a ransom from a swathe of different companies. Central london has been rocked by a series of terrorist attacks. Police say there have been many casualties and there is growing speculation that alqaeda was responsible. Germany will be the hosts of the 2006 football world cup. They pipped the favourite South Africa by a single vote. In South Africa the possibility of losing hadnt even been complimented. Celebration parties were cancelled. A man entered the palace to a downstairs window i and made his way to the queens private bedroom, he asked her for a cigarette and under a pretext of arranging for some to be bought, some footmen on duty took the man away. I cheering and applause. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. This is bbc news. Iam david eades. The latest headlines us troops are heading for the exit in afghanistan as the taliban continues to seize more districts and more than 1,000 afghan soldiers have been said to have fled the country. In the uk, as coronavirus cases rise rapidly, the Prime Minister announces plans to scrap most remaining restrictions in two weeks time. Gunmen in North West Nigeria have targeted a hospital, a school and a Police Station in less than 2a hours. 140 students were taken from the a Baptist School in the early hours of monday morning. It follows an attack on a nearby hospital, where at least eight people were abducted. This is a scene outside a school where families are waiting for news. 0ur nigeria correspondent, mayenijones, has more. Nigerias Kidnapping Crisis is spiralling fast. Weve just heard of a kidnapping that took place at a Hospital On Sunday in the town of zaria. Now it seems another kidnapping has happened at a school in the Northern State of kaduna. We spoke to a parent who told us that in the early hours of monday morning, around 2am, a number of armed gunmen stormed a Baptist School in kaduna, they came into the back, they knocked down a fence. A mother we spoke to said there was as many as 60 gunmen, and they abducted the students with them. This is happening at a time when kidnapping is at an increasing right across nigeria. There is an economic crisis here brought on by The Fall and the price of Oil And Lockdown during the covid 19 pandemic, unemployment has risen, the price of food is rising, and many criminals are turning to kidnapping as a way of making money, which we have seen in North Western nigeria, in particular, the Mass Kidnapping of students. Since december, there have been more than 1,000 students abducted. Nine of them were unfortunately killed. 200 students are still missing. Unicef say some of them are as young as three years old. This latest kidnapping will be a headache for the governor of Kaduna State whos vowed not to negotiate with criminals because he says it incentivises them. Unfortunately, this meant that a number of kidnappers have come to Kaduna State and are carrying out attacks with increasing frequency. With the economy doing as bad as it is and with security forces unable to stop more attacks from happening, its difficult to see how this crisis is going to end. Mayenijones there. A russian based Hacking Group known as revil has compromised the Computer Systems of up to something like 1,000 businesses worldwide by targeting an american It Provider that writes and updates their software. One of those affected is swedens co op supermarket, which has had to close some 500 outlets thats more than half its stores because tills and Self Service checkouts had stopped working. Revil has tailored its ransom demands to the size of each respective company, but then on sunday said it would settle the lot for 70 Million if someone were prepared to pay it. Earlier, i spoke to jon bateman, a fellow in the cyber Policy Initiative of the technology and international Affairs Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for international peace, and is a former Intelligence Analyst for the us government. What were seeing here with this hack is really the combination of two things that happened before, but rarely together. One is a supply chain compromise, whereby hackers gain access to one victim and then use that to then get a Follow On Access to many, many other victims. The other is ransomware, where a companys data is held hostage unless they pay cryptocurrency. But again, both of these things are increasingly common, but this is one of the most expansive hacks that combines both techniques together, and that is why people are calling this the biggest Ransomware Attack of all time, although it is still a bit early to quantify the impact. Yeah, Ijust Wonder what you make of this � job lot� approach, saying, give us 70 Million and well clear everybody . I mean, these are all completely separate businesses . Its fascinating and we havent seen that before. Some people theorise its actually just too many victims for the Ransomware Gang to process. Keep in mind these Ransomware Gangs operate much like businesses. They have a Customer Service Line and there are people who are paid primarily to negotiate and interact with victims. But another possibility is that the Ransomware Gang involved here realised that they had done a bit more damage than they had intended and the level of Law Enforcement and Intelligence Scrutiny could be beyond what they anticipated. Right. These are just two theories. Yeah. You call it a Ransomware Gang. I mean, any idea on how many are involved in this sort of thing . I think we recognise it may not be the work of a state, but how many people does it take to form a gang like an revil . Its hard to say, because most of them operate now on an Affiliate Or Franchise model, whereby one set of people develops the malware and another set of people Go Out and gain access to victims and installs that malware. And then there may be a third set of people that actually does the negotiations and payment processing. But its likely that this was the responsibility of russian cyber criminals and not something specifically ordered by the russian state. But its also important to realise that is somewhat beside The Point, because moscow has a Long Standing Governmental Policy Of Tolerating and legally protecting these sorts of gangs. So, ultimately, Vladimir Putin is culpable for such attacks. Jon bateman. There have been homophobic attacks by nationalists. That you call it Manic Monday in wimbledon. They do call it. Novak djokovic is through, so as roger federer. The former womens champions league, Angelique Kerber defeated coco gauff. The most manic moment was reserved unfortunately for the last remaining british pair in the singles, Amber Rudd Khan who had to retire for good reasons. As i am going to show you here, she has become a feature of the Headline Writers at all the papers, and this is the front page of the times. She bowed out in the fourth round. And this is the front page of the daily telegraph. Ben rothenberg as a writer for the New York Times and hosts the no challenges remaining podcast. Yeah, very abrupt, mysterious, disappointing, for sure. She was playing well and second set seem to have Breathing Difficulties and left court for treatment and did not come back. Its very unusual for a player to sort of retire from a match or abandon a match without coming back on the court to shake the opponents and in that sort of thing. It was concerning for her that she was able to make it back. She was doing well. There hasnt been much information from the Tournament Orfrom her about how she is doing more the official reason for her withdrawal being her Breathing Difficulties. Speculation there. One very excited teenager does Go Out. She hadnt made a grand Slam Quarterfinal even since winning wimbledon in 2018, her last of her three major titles, but shes really growing in confidence. I think she is a player who builds on that confidence really well and she is someone known remaining in the draw will want to be across the net. She is also the only former champion left in the side in this final eight. And we are still in that bizarre era in womens tennis, arent we, where no one is establishing themselves, even serena williams, lets be honest, is struggling to maintain her prowess, if you like, on the court. And i think you were pointing out something like there have been 22 different womens names in the quarterfinals for the slams this year, out of 2a possible places . Yeah. No, its been really remarkable and a completely new slate of players compared to the final eight in paris. So, already complete 100 turnover. And Ash Barty, the Number One ranked player, i think she has a chance of solidifying herself as being a force if she goes on a good run here. Maybe she will add a little bit of stability for the title. And Naomi 0saka when she comes back, someone who is still very competitive there. It might look random at a casual glance, but certainly nowhere near the stability of the Mens Side with Novak Djokovic. We have an australian producer working on this story, ben, it is an all australia quarterfinal. Ash barty against either tom, who basically had that win. It shows how late it is there do you think Ash Barty could emerge as the winner in the woMens Side . Yeah absolutely she is comfortable on grass, no one doubts after she recovered from that hip injury. And she is basically doing 0k, and herwins were convincing so far. She should probably be favourite. Quick word about the men. No surprises, djokovic is through. Federer is through but it wasnt easy, but straight sets in The End . But there is no one but Novak Djokovic for the mens to win the mens singles, is there . I think if Novak Djokovic loses, it will likely be due to himself. There are some capable players in the final that are still there. The winner of Queens Club is emerging as a solid player on grass. But i think Novak Djokovic is still ahead of the field and pulling his way over christian Goring Today was very convincing. Not many signs of slowing down at this point in the tournament. Shares in a russian Wine Maker have soared in response to a new law thats making french Champagne Makers describe their product as sparkling wine. The law approved by President Putin dictates that russian producers can call their bubbly shampanskoye, the russian word for champagne. I cant imagine that the vineyards in this Champagne Region are going to be too impressed by this. President putins main critic in exile, mikhail khodorkovsky, said the law was another an example of the kremlin� s incomprehensible whims. Hello there. Monday was drierfor a while across england and wales, but we certainly saw the weather going down hill from the south. This rain here is marching its way northwards across the uk up into Northern England and scotland, where already in the past few days in edinburgh, we have had a Months Worth of rain. Now that early rain is moving away, but this area of low pressure is taking a band of Rain Heavy At Times Northwards Up Towards Scotland and Northern England with blustery showers following to the south. For a while, we will have some unseasonably windy weather along the coast of england all the way from dorset across to suffolk, gusts of 50 mph in the morning. It wont be as windy in the afternoon, but there will be some heavy showers around, and we have still got this more persistent rain, never really clearing away from Northern England, pushing into eastern scotland. Elsewhere, some brightness and maybe some sunshine. The showers are never too far away, and they may well be heavy as well. Generally, temperatures a bit lower on tuesday, 18 19 typically, could be chillier than that where it stays wet in Northern England and eastern scotland. And as we have seen, there are some showers around, they could well affect wimbledon once again. Its going to be another day where we may well have the covers on and off. Those showers will probably tend to ease off though during the evening and into the night. More places become dry, still got some wetter weather towards the North East of scotland. The breeze tends to ease down a little bit, and we will find temperatures typically again around 12 13 degrees. Now, its low pressure thats brought all the rain over recent days, in the centre of the low pressure, by the time we get to wednesday, its close to the North East of scotland. So theres more Cloud Rolling in here and some patchy rain around too. Elsewhere, there may well be some sunshine, but we are going to find showers breaking out, and those could turn heavy and thundery come the afternoon, particularly across wales, the midlands, across to lincolnshire as well. Temperatures may be a notch higher on friday, still no better than 20 21 celsius. Lets end with a glimmer of hope, because the low pressure is trying to move away. This is where high pressure is, dry weather, and this is trying to nudge up from the South West across the uk. So during thursday and friday, the winds wont be as strong, and for more places, it will be dry. Some sunshine, although still rather cloudy for scotland and northern ireland. Temperatures should be a little bit higher. This is bbc news. Im david eades. Our top stories russia, Iran And Taking suspend officers after A Thousand afghan soldiers roughly across the border of afghanistan. More abductions in nigeria as Gunmen Kidnap at least 140 schoolchildren in the North West of the country. 26 children were rescued. More than A Thousand students have been seized for ransom. Nine have been killed and more than 200 is still missing. England . Covid lockdown will and in two weeks despite scientists urging caution as a number of cases are still rising. The premise that it are still rising. The Premise Thatitis are still rising. The premise that it is possible because 86 of adults have been vaccinated