August 12, 2021

The Taliban have taken control of Herat, Afghanistan’s third largest city, just moments after they charged into its second largest, Kandahar, where local officials say there is ongoing fighting in the streets. It’s another day of major gains for the extremist group. Barnett Rubin and Ahmed Rashid join the program to assess the latest.

For the latest from Kabul, we turn to correspondent Clarissa Ward, who’s reporting from the ground.

This week a bipartisan group passed a trillion dollar bill through the Senate; hot on its heels was an additional $3.5 trillion budget blueprint. The latter, however, is a lot more partisan, and Democrats are hoping to push it through via a process known as reconciliation. Former Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp joins the program to explain what these bills would mean for the U.S.

"Frightening.” That’s how Senator Dick Durbin described the testimony of former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. Rosen testified over the weekend about what happened at the Justice Department during the waning days of the Trump administration. Former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara says the revelations are pretty stunning, and explains why – and reacts to Governor Cuomo’s resignation.

California is battling its second largest wildfire ever, with firefighters exhausted and traumatized as they try and stop the blazes that are devastating the land and destroying homes. Oscar-nominated director Lucy Walker saw this up close when she embedded with a group of firefighters during the megafires of 2018, as she depicts in her new documentary.