Thursday morning news - September 9, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Blinken: Taliban blocking charter flights out of Afghanistan » Secretary of State Tony Blinken confirmed on Wednesday that the Taliban is blocking Americans and others from leaving Afghanistan.

BLINKEN: As of now, the Taliban are not allowing the charter flights to depart.

Blinken said Taliban officials claim that some of the passengers don’t have the proper documents.

BLINKEN: While there are limits to what we can do without a presence on the ground, without an airport without normal security procedures in place, we are working to do everything in our power.

After leaving Americans behind, the Biden administration is now heavily dependent on the Taliban’s cooperation for the safe return of U.S. citizens and allies.

At a joint press conference with Germany’s foreign minister on Wednesday, Blinken added that if the Taliban wants legitimacy or international support, it will have to earn it. And in the eyes of the West, it’s not off to a good start.

The new Afghan government is stacked with veterans of the Taliban's hard-line rule from the 1990s. The announcement of a new government came hours after Taliban fired their guns into the air to disperse protesters in Kabul and arrested several journalists.

Another record for US job openings; 10.9 million in July » U.S. employers hung up more help wanted signs than ever before in the month of July. That according to a new Labor Dept report. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Job openings set a new record for the second straight month, rising to about 10.9 million in July. That was up from the previous record of 10.2 million.

But layoffs actually rose slightly to 1.3 million. And nearly 4 million people quit their jobs, just shy of a record set in April. That suggests many Americans are confident enough in their job prospects to quit and seek something new.

Employers continue to struggle finding enough workers. Some are hopeful that the expiration of the enhanced unemployment benefits program, which ended nationwide this week, may push more people back into the workforce.

But the COVID-19 delta variant is also putting a dent in America’s economic rebound. The Labor Department reported Friday that the economy generated a disappointing 235,000 jobs last month — about a third what economists had expected.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Confederate statue comes down in Richmond, Va. » Crowds cheered, sang, and chanted in Richmond, Va. Wednesday as workers hoisted a 21-foot-tall Confederate statue off of its granite pedestal.

The monument depicting Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on horseback has stood on Richmond’s Monument Avenue since 1890.

Workers lowered the statue to the ground and cut it into sections before hauling it away on a flatbed truck. For now, it will sit in storage.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam …

NORTHAM: Remnant like this that glorifies the lost cause of the Civil War, it needs to come down. And this is hopefully part of a new day, a new era.

Northam ordered its removal last summer during anti-racism and anti-police protests across the nation. Residents opposed to the removal filed lawsuits citing 1887 and 1890 agreements to preserve the statue. But earlier this month, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that those obligations no longer applied.

Hong Kong police arrest pro-democracy activists » The Chinese government dealt another blow to democracy in Hong Kong Wednesday, arresting organizers of a Tiananmen Square vigil.

For the past two years, the government has banned the annual gatherings to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Police arrested four people with one of the last pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong, claiming they refused to cooperate in a national security probe. They’re being investigated for allegedly colluding with foreign governments.

One of the four arrested, Chow Hang-tung, told reporters earlier this week…

TUNG: There’s no single reason or evidence saying why they can accuse us of being a foreign agent.

But under the government’s new so-called national security law, which China’s communist government imposed on Hong Kong last year, they don’t need a reason.

The government has used that law to crack down on liberties in what used to be a semi-independent territory.

Mexican Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion » Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled this week that it is unconstitutional to punish abortion. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has that story.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The decision will immediately affect only the northern border state Coahuila, which had made abortion a criminal act.

But it will also establish legal precedent and—quote—“obligatory criteria for all of the country’s judges.” That according to court President Arturo Zaldívar.

Mexico is a heavily Roman Catholic country, and the topic remains highly controversial.

Only four Mexican states now allow abortion in most circumstances. The other 28 states have at least some protections for the unborn.

There are currently no women imprisoned for abortions in Mexico.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.