[clock ticking]
[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: A lot of international news
to catch you up on as we start the week.
I'm Carl Azuz.
Welcome to the show.
First, we're reporting on an incident
that the US military is calling a, quote,
"horrible tragedy of war."
On August 6th, as American combat troops were winding down
their withdrawal from Afghanistan,
a terrorist attack killed more than 170 people at an airport
in the Afghan capital.
Among the victims were 13 US service members.
A terrorist group called ISIS-K said it was
responsible for the bombings.
Three days after that, the US military
said it had launched a strike against a suspected
member of ISIS-K. An American drone destroyed a car.
US officials said they believed a terrorist bomber
and explosives were inside it.
The witnesses said civilians were killed in the strike.
Now, American military officials are
apologizing for the drone strike and calling it
a horrible mistake.
An investigation has revealed that instead of a terrorist,
the attack killed an aid worker and nine other civilians.
Lawmakers in the US government say
they plan to find out what mistakes were made
in the lead-up to this strike.
And the Biden administration is reportedly
trying to determine how it can continue
to target terrorists in Afghanistan
without making similar mistakes.
The US government says it does have the tools
for successful strike missions.
But intelligence and military officials
say they're infinitely harder without US troops
on the ground in Afghanistan.
The US intelligence community and the military
have worked together for years to take out terror groups.
But it appears that a CIA warning
about this particular incident came too late.
[whooshing sound]
ALEXANDER MARQUARDT: On the heels of the Pentagon admitting
on Friday to a tragic mistake that
left 10 Afghan civilians dead in a drone strike in Kabul
last month-- [chatter]
ALEXANDER MARQUARDT: We are now learning
that in the final seconds before the Hellfire--
[car honking]
ALEXANDER MARQUARDT: --missile from a drone tore through
the car of an aid worker--
[shouting]
ALEXANDER MARQUARDT: --the CIA issued a warning that civilians
were likely in the area, including possibly
children inside the vehicle.
That's according to three sources speaking with CNN.
It was the military that was in charge of the strike.
And it's unclear whether the CIA knew that the military had
decided to pull the trigger, a miscommunication adding
to the intelligence failure of this operation that led
to the deaths of 10 people from a single family
that the top US general had called a righteous strike.
On Friday, the head of central command,
General Frank McKenzie, which oversaw the war in Afghanistan
admitted that the civilians were not connected to ISIS,
calling the strike a tragic mistake.
This is what General McKenzie told CNN
when asked how it went from righteous strike
to what we know now.
GEN. FRANK MCKENZIE: We knew from the very beginning,
there was a possibility of civilian casualties.
I think we still thought we had good reason
to have taken that strike.
And it took us gathering the facts to change that.
We took-- we didn't think--
as you understand and appreciate,
we didn't take the strike because we
thought we were wrong.
We took the strike because we thought we had a good target.
It takes a little while to uncover some of those things.
ALEXANDER MARQUARDT: General McKenzie
said that they had intelligence that a white Toyota Corolla
would be involved in an imminent ISIS attack.
When they tracked the White Toyota Corolla
of 43-year-old aid worker Zamarai Ahmadi
to the compound where he lived near the airport,
that's when the strike happened.
Almost three weeks later, the US military
now apologizing and saying it's considering paying reparations
to the family, as it reviews how future strikes will
be carried out.
[whooshing sound]
CARL AZUZ: At part of America's southern border with Mexico,
there's been a surge in the number of people who've entered
the United States illegally.
Over the weekend officials counted more than 14,000
people at a makeshift camp at the Del
Rio international bridge.
It connects Mexico with the US state of Texas.
But most of the undocumented migrants
who've gathered on the Texas side are from Haiti.
The Caribbean island nation is the poorest country
in the Western Hemisphere.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration
announced that Haitians would have temporary protected status
in the United States.
What that does is allow people to legally work in the US
if their home countries have experienced armed conflict
or natural disasters.
Haiti has seen its share of disasters.
An earthquake that struck there in 2010
was estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands
of people.
In July of this year, Haiti's president was assassinated.
And in August, a new earthquake struck the country,
killing more than 2000 people.
Shortly afterward, the Biden administration
temporarily suspended deportation flights to Haiti.
It stopped sending many Haitians who'd illegally entered the US
back to their home country.
Critics say news of that, in addition to
the temporary protected status of Haitians,
contributed to the increase of illegal crossings into Texas.
The Biden administration says it has resumed and will increase
the number of deportation flights to Haiti
and that America's borders are not open.
But the situation at the Del Rio bridge
has added to what critics call a crisis of undocumented migrants
at the US border with Mexico.
[whooshing sound]
[beep]
- Sky condition clear.
- Trailing DPS helicopter at 116.
I'll be taking off from the North ramp.
ROSA FLORES: So all of these people just crossed?
- Yep.
ROSA FLORES: I mean, this is hundreds of people.
- Oh, it's not hundreds.
It's thousands.
ROSA FLORES: This stretch of the US southern border
is raising eyebrows.
Have you ever seen anything like this?
- Nothing.
This far exceeds anything we've ever seen down here.
ROSA FLORES: Migrants, mostly Haitians,
say officials, crossing the Rio Grande into Del
Rio, Texas from Mexico.
We can see at least three different spots
where migrants are crossing over into the United States.
Men, women, children flocking to the area
under the International bridge that connects Texas to Mexico,
where more than 12,000 migrants are waiting to get processed
by federal immigration authorities,
according to the Del Rio mayor.
MAYOR BRUNO LOZANO: This is setting
the nuclear bomb alarm that this is no longer
sustainable, acceptable--
ROSA FLORES: The local mayor, a Democrat,
pleading for the Biden administration
to boost resources, saying that at the current rate,
it will take two weeks to process these migrants.
And signs they're having to settle in
are visible from the air.
A makeshift camp is going up.
And the mayor says at least one woman has given birth.
Most of the migrants will be expelled or placed
in removal proceedings, say federal authorities,
who also say more resources are coming
and that it's already providing water,
towels, and portable toilets.
Buses like this one with dozens of people
are dropped off at this migrant shelter every day.
- [non-english speech]
ROSA FLORES: This group is asked if they're
vaccinated against COVID.
About half the adults raise their hands,
some holding proof they got the shots.
All this as the Department of Homeland Security
faces a series of challenges, including more than 200,000
migrant encounters last month, the abrupt resignation of two
top DHS officials, the Afghan resettlement effort,
and now this sudden spike of migrants in Del Rio--
SHERIFF JOE MARTINEZ: These people are desperate,
they're determined, and they're determined to get here.
ROSA FLORES: --has a humanitarian crisis
unfolding at the southern border of the United States.
To better understand what's going on under the bridge,
I requested an interview and a ride-along
with Customs and Border Protection.
Those requests were denied.
Rosa Flores, CNN, Del Rio, Texas.
[whooshing sound]
CARL AZUZ: After three days in orbit at an altitude of about
350 miles over our heads, four non-astronauts
splashed back down to Earth on Saturday evening.
It was the first time an entire crew
went to space without a professional on board.
There wasn't much they had to do flight-wise.
Their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule was fully autonomous.
So the civilians passed the time listening to music,
observing how their bodies responded to space,
phoning home to their families, and watching the Earth go by.
There were a couple of technical problems
that had to be addressed with a temperature sensor
and a waste management fan.
The trip likely cost more than $200 million.
It was funded by one of the passengers,
a 38-year-old billionaire who also helped
raise a similar amount of money for St.
Jude Children's Hospital.
[music playing]
10 second trivia-- which of these European landmarks
was completed the most recently?
Brandenburg Gate, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Arc de Triomphe,
or St. Basil's Cathedral?
[beeping]
[whooshing sound]
The Arc de Triomphe in Paris was completed
in 1836, making it the youngest landmark on this list.
[music playing]
The extraordinary arch has seen a lot over the past 185 years.
But we're pretty sure this is the first time
it's been draped in silver blue plastic fabric and red ropes.
It took several months, $16.5 million,
and 270,000 square feet of polypropylene.
And the arch will stay wrapped for two weeks.
But why?
This is the vision of and a tribute to two famous artists
who specialized in large scale events
that interrupted everyday life.
So now that that's all wrapped up,
was the artwork worth the effort?
It sure took a lot of Monet, it wasn't Matisse,
and we don't know if it'll ever happen Gaugin.
But if you're the type who's Degas to make
a statement in every Cezanne, maybe that
is your Art of Triumph.
We've told you how the only way to get your school mentioned
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Tate's Creek High School knows all about it.
Shout out to our viewers in Lexington, Kentucky.
I'm Carl Azuz.