now on bbc news, dateline london. hello and welcome to dateline london. i m martine croxall. this week, we discuss the unfolding tragedy in afghanistan and we ask do extinction rebellion s two weeks of disruptive demonstrations here in london help or hinder the response to the climate crisis? our guests, the french journalist and commentator marc roche, the north american broadcaster and writer jeffrey kofman and with me in the studio, still suitably distance, is the bbc s chief environment correspondent justin rowlatt. now, justin covered afghanistan for almost four years of course as the bbc s south asia correspondent. he was in a mortar attack by the taliban, so he is well placed to talk to us about the events of this week. welcome to all of you. and so let s start with that then, shall we? on thursday, a suicide bomb attack at kabul airport targeted people desperate to flee the country after the taliban takeover. 90 people were killed, mostly afghan civilians, and 13 us m
hello and welcome to dateline london. i m martine croxall. this week, we discuss the unfolding tragedy in afghanistan and we ask do extinction rebellion s two weeks of disruptive demonstrations here in london help or hinder the response to the climate crisis? our guests, the french journalist and commentator marc roche, the north american broadcaster and writer jeffrey kofman and with me in the studio, still suitably distance, is the bbc s chief environment correspondentjustin rowlatt. now, justin covered afghanistan for almost four years of course as the bbc s south asia correspondent. he was in a mortar attack by the taliban, so he is well placed to talk to us about the events of this week. welcome to all of you. and so let s start with that then, shall we? on thursday, a suicide bomb attack at kabul airport targeted people desperate to flee the country after the taliban takeover. 90 people were killed, mostly afghan civilians, and 13 us military personnel. a local branch o
to dateline london. i m martine croxall. this week, we discuss the unfolding tragedy in afghanistan and we ask do extinction rebellion s two weeks of disruptive demonstrations here in london help or hinder the response to the climate crisis? our guests, the frenchjournalist and commentator marc roche, the north american broadcaster and writerjeffrey kofman and with me in the studio, still suitably distance, is the bbc s chief environment correspondentjustin rowlatt. now, justin covered afghanistan for almost four years of course as the bbc s south asia correspondent. he was in a mortar attack by the taliban, so he is well placed to talk to us about the events of this week. welcome to all of you. and so let s start with that then, shall we? on thursday, a suicide bomb attack at kabul airport targeted people desperate to flee the country after the taliban takeover. 90 people were killed, mostly afghan civilians, and 13 us military personnel. a local branch of islamic state call
after the taliban takeover. 90 people were killed, mostly afghan civilians, and 13 us military personnel. a local branch of islamic state called is k or isis k said they carried out that attack. throughout the week, about 100,000 people were evacuated but thousands more have been left behind. there is a huge refugee crisis in the making and a possible humanitarian disaster in afghanistan as money runs out and food disappears. it couldn t be much worse, or could it? justin, let s start with you. you know afghanistan well. you used to be in contact regular with the taliban. they are a highly organised group of people but to what extent was it inevitable that afghanistan would fall to them and fall so quickly? well, when i was covering afghanistan, the government held most of the urban centres and the taliban held most of the countryside. so if you just looked at the area of the country controlled by the taliban, it controlled more than the government. and this was in the period
a widow tells the bbc how her husband took his own life after relapsing into a gambling addiction. as all 16 and 17 year olds are offered their first coronavirus vaccine, a campaign is launched to encourage teenagers to getjabbed warning of the effects long covid. are you a young person suffering with long covid? tell me what it s been like for you by tweeting me or using the hashtag #bbcyourquestions. and the boxing olympic silver medallist ben whittaker achieves his dream becoming mayor of wolverhampton for a day. hello and welcome to bbc news. the prime minister is expected to ask president biden to delay withdrawing the last american forces from afghanistan to allow more time for the evacuation effort at kabul international airport. borisjohnson will make the request at an emergency meeting of leaders from the g7 countries tomorrow. us troops are due to leave kabul airport in just over week, but several thousand people remain there, desperate to flee the country and