Its economy crippled, ad Climate Change. And the tragic result is pakistan. The perfect storm. Im bring dolphin berlin. This is the day. Ah, no problem. What can i do except crying . I dont know where to go. In the front line off the grounds you of this crisis. Im helpless. This is the full page of Climate Change. So it is becoming more extreme than if we have nothing to eat. My son is 2nd. People have actually lost the companys lively or not. I have to take care of my children and my grandchildren. Access to assistance is difficult. We have no refund. I had left me that nearly 1000000 homes have been damaged. I have no one that gone in to help them with. Also coming up one year ago today, u. S. Troops withdrew from afghanistan for many, the trauma of that moment. It hasnt gone anywhere. I think everybody say, hey, we went all the battles, but we lost the war. But i think its more that the lack of that was fell flat on our word. Our nation acted in a dishonorable way. And the generals and the senior Staff Officers and all the people in the white house and theyre the ones who made those decisions. And i dont know a Service Member that just doesnt absolutely abhor them. Which of our viewers watching on p b. S. In the United States into all of you around the world. Welcome. We begin the day surveying the worst flooding in the history of pakistan. It is difficult to describe the extent of destruction caused by a combination of severe drought followed by monster monsoon reigns to night. A 3rd of pakistan is submerged. 33000000 people are now in need of shelter. Food and medicine of this map shows the vast areas impacted by the floods stretching across the entire length of the country in the south. Much of pakistans bread, basket provinces. Well, they are now under water hopes of any harvest or drowning in growing fears of food shortages, a village underwater in pakistan, sind province, one of several key agricultural regions that now resemble small oceans. Many people here were poor before the floods came. Now theyve lost almost everything in those areas that are dry, makeshift camps. Hows those displaced by the water and farmers salvage what they can from their fields . Pakistans climate minister says the flooding is apocalyptic, and that her country is bearing the brunt of Climate Change caused by more develop nations. Because then is less than one percent in the global emissions up by if you like a. We hardly contribute any of emissions to the broader emission blanket that makes so for Greenhouse Gases to turn our climates into a living hill. In the northern pakistani city of la horror, the effects of the floods are being felt in soaring prices for food and other basic goods. Philip cures, if prices of increased a lot because of the floods while it is thank if goods cant be transported from baluchistan, the roads are close it my, our business here is almost slow to a stop bodies that are built while people cant feed their children, cant pay their rent, so got there. Can even pay electricity bill should i have the old prices of w. I back got a sec. Theyre supposed double mendera the floods could not have come at a worse time for pakistan where the economy was already in crisis. Now the government says it needs more than 10000000000. 00 to recover from this latest climate catastrophe. Ah, to day one year ago, the last u. S. Military plane departed afghanistan, ending americas longest war. The withdrawal was sudden, just like the surrender of the entire afghan army to the taliban are in the chaotic weeks of early august, u. S. Troop numbers had dwindled and the taliban, they were closing in the u. S. Military flu, more than a 100000 people out of the country in what became the largest air lift in history. You may remember this is the last american soldier to leave afghanistan boarding a flight that carried military personnel as well as the u. S. Ambassador. The taliban quickly took over the airport after that plane took off the pirated equipment that had been left behind by the americans and their nato allies. Much of that equipment, of course, had been destroyed to make sure that the tele bond would never use it. The events of one year ago, especially those horrific scenes at the cobble airport. They still haunt many former u. S. Military personnel. D. W. s stefan simons, is in seattle, washington. Tonight he brings us the story of to us veterans who served in the afghan war u. S. Army ranger veteran Matthew Griffin doesnt need visual reminders of what transpired in august last year. C the images of desperate afghans that cobble airports trying to flee their country as taliban fighters took over or burned in his memory and carved into his conscience. He says that moment it broke me. And i had to reach out to a couple friends, a local small business. They offered up a board room, which we set up a command center and i had army rangers, navy seals green to raise and a bunch of civilians come in and we set up a full on command center. Griff, as everybody calls him, his friends and comrades went into overdrive, trying to help bring as many afghans out as possible. People they had worked with, fought with, bled full, cried and laughed with griffith. And many others are still upset about how the u. S. Conducted their withdrawal from afghanistan, i dont know a Service Member that isnt are set. And its not that the law. I mean, i mean, everybody say hey, we won all the battles, but we lost the war. But i think its more that the lack of that which fell flat on our word arc nation, acted in a dishonorable way. And the gen roles and the senior Staff Officers and all the people in the white house. And theyre the ones who made those decisions. And i dont know a Service Member that just doesnt absolutely abhor them, period filled with frustration. Griff offers his perspective and a reality check. You know, we have a lot of friends there who are hurting who are suffering. And there is no way out for them. No one is coming, its up to them, theyre trapped. They need to figure out wife moving forward. Whether they decide to ron or whether they decide to stay or whether they decide to fight, its their decision. Theres nothing that the everyday citizen like you and i can do to support them anymore. Still grief and others continue their efforts to help, even though they cant send money or goods into afghanistan. They cant get anybody out any more, but they can still help afghans who made it into the u. S. Meet jimmy, settle a former air force per a rescue man and friend of griff. He managers, the local african refugees Assistance Center is mission. Now, helping afghans to get a foothold in their new home america, thats my, thats the, to my heart. I welcome them with the open arms. And because my folks, my family, at some point in history, were immigrants here in the u. S. And it be hypocritical to deny them the same opportunities. Jimmy and griff are just 2 of thousands of us veterans who served in afghanistan, who are still trying to support afghans in any way possible each in their own way. Im join nell by omar. Some on he was once the afghan ambassador to france as well as canada. He is now with the Global Affairs thinktank, the Atlantic Council in washington, dc. Ambassador, its good to have you with us. It has been a year since thats traumatic and chaotic departure of us and nato forces from afghanistan. The helpers, the afghan helpers who were left behind have they been forgotten by washington. Sh. But i dont think that they have been forgotten. I think that the situation is such that, that they were not able to either be, did want to or some would prevent it for various reasons. I think that the policy has been to evacuate as many as possible, not just the u. S. Late many others as well and grew germany. And i think they did the best job under the circumstances because you look it up in the said, there are 3 ways of looking at it. You look at the last 20 years of the intervention, some people called occupation. If you look at the year that just passed, as you said, it look at what has happened to the African People since then. What are the talking about doing . What is International Community doing and reaction to all of that . And then you look at the microcosm of those 2 weeks where the focus was on so many people wanting to leave and evacuation and how things may have gone wrong. And some people think that did it the best on the circumstances. And what about what has happened in this past year . The International Community does not recognize the tale. Bon, im as the official, the leadership in government of afghanistan. As a result, you dont have foreign aid money going into the country. The you win now says that may be as many of 6000000 afghans could go hungry every day, or these sanctions are they actually doing more harm than good . So if you ask, after youre doing more than good, again, it was a recipient of billions of dollars of money, most of which was wasted. Unfortunately, a lot of it was put into pockets and they fled. Those people fled the country. I yes it african. No perfect. And many others do to those tools will come out, wendy, but since then its the african population, 35. 00 plus 1000000 people who are paying the price for a dysfunctional government flight, the country and the International Community, especially on friends. Those who served as the report set and wanted to see Something Better and for a lot of different reasons, we couldnt fix that again, its that we thought that you could fix the country by imposing models that didnt work very well. So there are a lot of lessons to learn from that, but now we have to deal with the situation and, and as you said, 6000000 people facing fab any credit. 1000000000. 00 children will be die within the next year. 2024 me to people who have nobody. They are living under the line of poverty and almost 30000000 people who are worse off. Its because of the sanctions. Its because of the money that are in proven. Its also because of the fact that talk about happy to transient in responding in kind to some of the issues, the ambassador. Unfortunately, were out of time, but we certainly do appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us on this one Year Anniversary of the withdrawal. Omar. So, thank you. Ah, we have reported extensively on alleged human rights abuses committed by Russian Forces during the invasion of ukraine. It is just one piece of a larger picture of people on the planet to were in peril. Human rights watch exposes violations of human rights and it pushes to hold those offenders accountable for the past 3 decades, kenneth roth have stood at the helm of Human Rights Watch this week. He is stepping down and tonight hes joining us. Can its good to have you on the program as it is it, as it is in the News Business we, we have breaking news and we need to report and were getting reports. Now out of russia that former soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has died. I, i dont know if youve heard that, but we just got the report and i wanted to ask you, he was seen at least in the west as a symbol of, of hope in change for more human rights behind the iron curtain. Your thoughts on the news of his passing he was really a visionary leader. Im his so called gloss represented a 1st and foremost that he, he really began across is free speech that i think ultimately led to the end of the soviet union. In that, together with his perestroika, which was his economic liberation from the state control, the communist control of the economy really began a transformation process which, you know, ended with the split of the soviet union into its 15 constituent parts. And frankly, thats a big part of what is motivating proven today. As he and bates, ukraine. Hes never accepted the break up of the soviet union. He still thinks that, you know, ukraine and valor, bruce and parts of context and are really just bullshitting creations that he is entitled to resurrect. Because there are some ethnic russian speakers there. So, you know, gorbachev was a, an amazing. But of course, you know that the Ripple Effect of his leadership is still being felt today. Some positive in some way. Is that the era gorbachev . 30 years ago, it seems like a world away. And that was the world in which you began your time at Human Rights Watch. Talk to me a little bit, compare for me if you can. What your scope of work it has been, but it is changed compared to 30 years ago. And what its like today with Human Rights Watch actually began as an effort to protect the human rights defenders in some loc, who had done their work with horns. 1975, and were happy suppressed. And so helsinki rock, which is the precursor of Human Rights Watch, was really an effort to protect them. And that, you know, spoke to an era where being a human rights activist was still relatively rare. There were activists around the world, but they were a week in battle bunch. And i think the biggest evolution ive seen in the 3 plus decades that ive been involved in the Human Rights Movement is that today there are human rights defenders in almost every country. You know, maybe the most repressive ones, like north korea, theres no one who can survive there, but even in that case operate an exile. And so we are, we have a movement that really is able to push back against this inevitable tendency of governments to, by winning wise when you couple that with the fact that today its very difficult for governments to hide their progression. You know, there are smartphones and access to social media virtually every place on it does mean that the Human Rights Movement is able to generate very significant pressure on government supply with human rights. We dont always win by any means, but there is a hostage rise by lesions and we were able to, i mean, posts. What worries you the most can when you, when you think about the present and the future of human rights in our world, will say there really is a global contrast between democracy and government. Are with theory built around respected lights. And those that are go merrily about tension on, you know, in some sense this is playing out in ukraine. But i think in many ways, the most dangerous threat to the Global Defense of human rights is china. Because, you know, nobody wakes up in the morning, wants to live in putins craft a credit or see. But the Chinese Government does present itself as a supposedly superior model to mars. One that, you know, isnt, im impeded by the messiness of democracy. One that can think longer term, but of course, you know, any autocracy and because its not answerable to its people primarily serves itself. And were seeing this today where the Chinese Communist party is, you know, it is pursuing a series of policies, you know, economic hope in the like, which is really about retaining power. The what worries me, its the Chinese Government, you know, has both the logical inclination and the economic power to try to persuade, or course governments around the world to defend itself. And in that, i think today is, is perhaps the biggest battle that the Human Rights Movement face the new york times. Emma has called you the godfather of human rights work. And that speaks to the enormous respect that youve earned in your career. Obviously youve attracted criticism as well. Im thinking about Human Rights Watch equating israels policy towards the palestinians with the concept of apartheid. The Jerusalem Post recently quoted india monitor president Gerald Steinberg as saying that in his 30 year reign is head of Human Rights Watch. Can roth has obsessively distorted and exploited human rights to demonize israel . Whats your take on that yet . I mean, youve had years to, to try to find a solution to this. Have you been able to change minds there . First, i should say the guy you just quoted and its about higher, you are criticizing anybody, you criticize israel in his ear, these are, every government is never in history, the world committed to human rights violations. So, you know, this is not a credible source, but Human Rights Watch applies the same fact. Find the same standards to his rule as we do every place else. In the case of israel, we applied the International Legal definition of apartheid is contained in 2 treatments. And if you look at the fact, its not even close, you know, when human rights what you should report, hes really governed, couldnt find anything wrong. You know, they just resorted to name calling certain decided. But you know, we get this all the time. Governments, when they cant defend their record, try to attack the messenger and human rights rush tries to be extremely careful. We are objective and meticulous in our fact finding in that as carefully in as principal way as possible. We apply human rights for governments dont like that. Were checking, ive been personally sanctioned by the chinese and the russian governments. You know, were attacked by the, were one of the b o b i go, i dont know, thats just what happens. And governments have nothing to say for themselves. They attacking rights. In speaking of china today, the Chinese Foreign ministry had some words. It offered some words of advice for the United States regarding gun violence and human rights to listen to what was it may huh. In terms of the us needs