Afghan Government Retakes Kunduz; Trump Continues to Lead in Polls, Jeb Bush Falls
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Thanks for staying with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.</s>SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour, U.S. and Russian military officials could meet as soon as Thursday to talk about how to stay out of each other's way while carrying out air strikes in Syria. Russian fighter jets began bombing targets on Wednesday after giving the U.S. just one hour's notice. Russia says it's hitting ISIS targets. U.S. officials say Russia is actually hit Syrian opposition groups.</s>VAUSE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday. He's slamming Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, for his U.N. speech. Mr. Abbas says his group will no longer be bound by the Oslo Peace Accords signed with Israel in 1993.</s>SESAY: Three more women have come forward accusing actor Bill Cosby of sexually inappropriate behavior. They held a news conference with their lawyer, Gloria Allred, on Wednesday. Cosby has denied the allegations against him, and he has not been charged with any crime.</s>VAUSE: After a humiliating defeat and days of fierce fighting, Afghan officials say government forces are back in control of Kunduz. The Taliban seized the key northern city on Monday.</s>SESAY: The U.S. conducted air strikes and NATO forces supported Afghan soldiers on the ground. The interior ministry said there were heavy Taliban casualties. And a local police spokesman says a senior Taliban commander was killed in an air strike, though the Taliban denied that. Well, Sune Engel Rasmussen is a reporter with the U.K.'s "The Guardian" newspaper. He's in Kabul and he joins us now. Sune, we're hearing Kunduz has been retaken by Afghan government forces but the key question is, can they hold on to it?</s>SUNE ENGEL RASMUSSEN, REPORTER, THE GUARDIAN: Yeah, that is the key question. Not only can they hold on to the city but can they also clear the suburbs of the city? Can they clear the districts around Kunduz? And can they maintain a presence and also support for the government forces among the local population? One of the big problems in Kunduz, and which also created fertile ground for the Taliban in the first place, is that there is immense public discontent with the government and with the local security forces in Kunduz. This has been going on for a long time. And it's not just Kunduz city that was taken. There was also a lot of districts that were under Taliban control as of last night. According to the police spokesman in Kunduz, only two districts now remain in Taliban control, but that doesn't mean that the Taliban are not there, influencing and not able to launch an attack at a later stage. So this is really up to the government now to make a thorough cleaning operation and a more long- term solution for stability in the area.</s>SESAY: Yes, indeed. And these nearby areas where the Taliban is also pressing forward, what are we hearing about fighting there?</s>RASMUSSEN: It seems like there hasn't been that much fighting to date, not that I'm aware of at least. It seems like the airport is a great district north of Kunduz which was taken last night, has fallen back into government control, but as I mentioned, this is a place where fighting can flare up pretty quickly and assault this week on Kunduz had been planned for a long time, for several years foreign fighters have streamed into Kunduz, and the Taliban have one their own sort of hearts and minds campaign in the area. So even though there's no fighting now, it can flare up again pretty rapidly.</s>SESAY: Many questions being asked, as you well know. How it's possible that the Taliban, who -- which numbered a couple of hundred, were able to take Kunduz when on the ground there were some thousands of Afghan forces, Afghan government forces. Are we getting a clear explanation as to how this all went down on Monday?</s>RASMUSSEN: Without getting an official explanation, but there's a lot of guesses as to how this can happen. One reason was when the Taliban advanced, thousands of security forces simply fled the city, leaving it open for Taliban to overrun it. Then reinforcements came in from Kabul, from neighboring provinces including Special Forces, including U.S. air strikes as well, which helped retake the province. But low fighting morale among the security forces is one reason but also because of when the Taliban advanced, a lot of civilians seemed to pick up weapons to fight alongside the insurgents. That doesn't mean that they outnumbered the security forces. Far from it. But there is a lack of coordination in security forces and a lack of fighting morale, which is also a challenge now for the security forces as they move forward.</s>SESAY: Many, many problems to contend with. Sune Engel Rasmussen joining us from Kabul in Afghanistan. We appreciate it. Thank you.</s>VAUSE: We move on now to American politics. And Republican presidential contender, Donald Trump, says he has no problem with Russia's military involvement with Syria. Moscow claims it's targeting ISIS with its latest air strikes but U.S. officials warn the blasts will inflame Syria's civil war.</s>SESAY: Trump is also taking a hard-line stance against Syrian refugees seeking asylum here in the United States.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This migration, this big migration, where now they're talking about bringing 200,000 people into the United States, and I will tell you, if I win, I'm going to say it right now, and I'll say it to you, those 200,000 people -- and they have to know this and the world will hear it -- are going back. We're not going to accept 200,000 people. That may be ISIS. You know, when you look at the migration, there's so many men, and there's so many men that look strong to me. I'm pretty good at analyzing things. I say, where are all the women? You see so few women. And they look strong. And they're young. Number one, why aren't they fighting for their country? Number two, what's going on? Why are we accepting all of these thousands -- now that I've heard a number today, 200,000. That's almost like, are they bringing -- are these people ISIS? We have no idea who they are. We have no idea where they come from.</s>VAUSE: Well, a new poll shows Donald Trump continues to lead the Republican race for the White House. The Suffolk University/"USA Today" poll of almost 400 likely Republican primary voters shows Trump has 23 percent support nationally.</s>SESAY: Trump leads rivals Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, who tied at 13 percent. Marco Rubio comes in at fourth at 9 percent. Jeb Bush, though, right down there on 8 percent, still doing better than a lot of others who are in the race. Jeb Bush's poll numbers, though, have taken quite a hit since he did start this run for the White House. In an interview with CNN's Dana Bash, he says he will make voters make up their own minds by focusing on his political record.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You entered this race as a front-runner. And in just three months you've lost more than 50 percent of your support. You went from double digits to single digits. What do you think changed?</s>JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, first of all, I never considered myself a front-runner --</s>BASH: You were ahead in the polls.</s>BUSH: I knew I had to overcome perceptions related to people that don't know me. So if you're in New Hampshire, if there's a television on, hopefully you'll see an ad that we put up and the Right to Rise PAC has put up ads as well, talking about my records. So as I get to talk about how I cut taxes, reduced the size of government, created the most ambitious school choice programs in the country, turned the whole system upside down as a disruptor. I can tell that story and lay out my plans for what I would do in Washington. And over time, I think that's what people are going to decide.</s>SESAY: Well, Jeb Bush also mentioned John McCain's comeback in the 2008 race when McCain won the Republican nomination.</s>VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, a new test for Ebola, faster and cheaper, and developed by a high school student.