with just five days until the pullout deadline, warnings of a possible terror threat at kabul airport complicate the frantic evacuation efrforts. why a u.s. report is angering china before it is even published. plus -- coming here, and it is war. it is sometimes chaos. >> overworked and overwhelmed, nurses quitting amid the grueling pressures of caring for so many covid patients. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, well do to all of you watching us here in the

united states, canada and around the world, i'm kim brunhuber, this is "cnn newsroom."watching states, canada and around the world, i'm kim brunhuber, this is "cnn newsroom." in respect . fears of a potential terror attack at the airport in kabul have uk warning citizens to stay away. the concerns are based on a very specific threat stream from an isis offshoot known as isis-k. and the uk foreign office cited a high threat of terrorist attack. >> there is now very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack and hence why the foreign office advice was changed last nirght. the people should not come to kabul airport, they should move to a safe place.

>> thousands of afghans are crowded around the airport hoping for a flight out of the country before the u.s. military's mission ends next week. and the state department says about 1500 americans still may be in afghanistan. it has made contact with about 500 of them with specific instructions on how to get to the airport safely. >> there is no deadline on our work to henlp any remaining citizens who decide to leave do so along with the many afghans who have stood byis and want to leave and have been unable to do so. that effort will continue every day past august 31. the taliban have made public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for americans, third country nationals and 56 afghans past august 31. the expectation is that people who want to leave afghanistan after the u.s. military departs

should be able to do so. >> so who is this isis-k group that is threatening people in afghanistan? the k stands for an area around the pakistani border. experts say they are mostly veteran jihadists from syria and elsewhere, some recently released from afghan prisons. >> isis-k has the ability to strike at will in kabul. they have carried out attacks that have killed dozens including girls, they certainly have the capacity to carry it out an attack at kabul airport. they certainly probably have the intent since it is a group that is very anti-american. and the estimates i've seen are 1,000 to 2,000 fighters. they have taken some hits in recent years. there has been very strong military operations against them. the taliban has folded them but they are not out of commission.

there are about 10,000 foreign fighters in afghanistan, but it doesn't mean isis is 10,000 foreign fighters, but there are a lot of foreign fighters. and i think a key here is when the taliban rolled in to places like bagram air base or the prison, every prisoner got released. that means isis-k, al qaeda, the taliban, all the ranks were replenished by these presumptive nominee they prisoner releases. >> and many afghans are trying to keep the airport at great personal risk. in a video a man says he was beaten by the taliban while attempting to get to the airport. he can be heard saying they hit me bad. but despite these reports of violence, threats and beatings, thousands of afghans are persistent. sam kiley reports from the kabul airport. >> reporter: in the closing moments of america's longest war, a desperate legacy. a day after the taliban announced that they would stop

afghans getting into kabul airport, these are the scenes at its walls. they wade through sewage and breathtaking heat, waving their documents, desperate for escape. beyond these barriers, plane after plane carrying thousands to freedom. but here there is fast fading hope that they will get to safety before america and its allies leave in a few days time. the process taking an added urgency with what u.s. intelligence have described as a very specific threat against crowds gathering outside the airport. we've also had a number of reports of afghans stuck in pockets around the town desperately sending out signals to america to try to get them out, particularly people who have been working with the united states. we've heard from one group whose identity we're keeping secret that fear that they will not survive the coming days if they can't get to this airport. 19,000 people have been evacuated the last 24 hours. but with the taliban blocking

refugees from getting to the airport, the numbers here are down. there will be a day maybe two before the military effort will have to focus on its own withdrawal. amid detailed threats from isis-k who sources tell cnn have the capacity and plans to commit and you trocities against despe afghan crowds. such fears are now behind those. on the plane, relief. this u.s. citizen with his family of six, he was able to make it through the taliban blocks. >> nobody want to leave their home easily. but there are a lot of challenges around. >> reporter: landing in doha, a muted joy. now they are safe, but on a long journey into the unknown. sam kiley, cnn, kabul international airport. as we heard some afghans are going to extraordinary lengths just to get into the kabul airport. one woman and her two children

had tried almost a dozen times to get in so they could catch a flight and join her husband in the u.s. they finally made it through after she dressed her baby in this yellow outfit and sent a photo to u.s. marines. they spotted the baby in the crowd and the family finally made it. for many evacuees, one of the main stop overpoints is the air base in ramstein, germany. thousands are taking shelter there stretching the military base to capacity. atika shubert is there. resources are stretched to say the least. how are the authorities trying to cope with the demands and how are the afghans themselves coping with the challenging conditions there? >> reporter: what they have really done is created a temporary refuge within the air base that involves hundreds of these military tents. it is really a kind of a tent city. every time a c-13 arrives here, the evacuees disembark, get screened, security screened,

medical screened, and then they get placed in one of these tents. it is very basic shelter essentially you know, when it rains, it is not that comfortable but it is safe and secure and they are getting three hot meals a day. the most difficult part for evacuees from my understanding is the fact that they have told me that they have to wait and they don't know when they will get on a flight to the united states. and for them, the hardest part is not being able to communicate with other parts of their family. they have no connection to the internet. their phones only work at certain times. so they are very worried about family members they have left behind. some even can't communicate with other family members who are actually in ramstein air base but other parts of the camp. the good news is that those flights taking them to the u.s. have dramatically increased. in fact they have more than doubled and they have now been able to get more than 2500 of these evacuees to the u.s., to dulles airport, mostly with

commercial carriers such as delta air lines. so the system does now seem to be picking up some speed getting them to the u.s., but it has been slow going at first. hopefully that means that they will pick up some pace. >> all right. thank you so much, atika shubert. appreciate it. the number of covid patients admitted to u.s. hospitals as nearly tripled in the past month straining health care systems nationwide. more than 100,000 americans are now in hospital with the virus according to the u.s. health tent department, and hospital rates honk children are the heist they have ever been. meanwhile intensive care units are also filling up. some of the states with the worst are the ones with the lowest vaccination rates and that includes parts of florida which have some of the worst vaccination rates in the country and are running out of hospital beds.

one doctor was forced to make an agonizing decision. >> i'm a third generation oncologist. the one principle that my family had built is that we would never turn away a patient regardless of whether they could pay or not and for the first time in 60 years of my family's history of treating cancer, we had to turn someone away because we didn't have a bed. there was simply no room in the hospital to treat the patient. what we're seeing is a tremendous amount of patients coming in, the other day our emergency room had a 12 hour wait almost every hospital in the city is on the verge of -- they don't have room to take transfer patients, patients who need complex care simply can't access it. this is something we've never seen before. >> with infections surging, a plan to offer booster shots is shaping up in the u.s. pfizer is seeking approval for a third dose and johnson & johnson says early trial data is promising for its booster shot. dr. sanjay gupta explains.

>> there are three authorized vaccines in the united states and now there is discussion about a third shot for the pfizer and moderna vaccines, these mrna vaccines. there are still steps to go through. the fda and cdc have to officially weigh in, authorize it and formally recommend a third shot. and there will be meetings this week about that. so far some data has been presented, but in addition to showing the data around antibodies, which is a term most people know how to, these proteins that help fight infections, they also want to know is there evidence that the third shot actually offers more protection, not just more antibodies, but more protection. and that is part of what the discussion will be around johnson & johnson as well. keep in mind as i show you this data that the johnson & johnson vaccine was authorized in the united states in s months after moderna and pfizer and there is 14 million people who received a shot, a much

smaller number than with the moderna and pfizer vaccines, so you have less data. but what they found is that people who received the booster six months after the first shot did have antibodies increase nine-fold. so that is pretty significant. it is a small study, it still needs to be peer reviewed and published, but if that holds up, that would be significant. but in order to authorize a booster, the cdc is probably going to want to know is there evidence that another shot will actually be of benefit to these patients, should that shot be another johnson & johnson shot, should it be a different vaccine. sometimes mix and match can be even more effective. all of that to say that there is still more data that needs to be presented, more homework that needs to be done before any of these shots get formally recommended as boosters no matter the vaccine. as we get more information, we'll certainly bring to you.

delta air lines isn't forcing its current u.s. employees to get vaccinated but it is making it clear that if they refuse, it will cost them. 25% of staff who are unvaccinated will pay an extra $200 a month for a company health insurance come november, that is to offset soaring hospital costs. delta says it has paid on average $50,000 for each patient's hospital stay. unvaccinated employees will also be subject to weekly covid tests starting next month. >> i think these added voluntary steps short of mandating a vaccine will get us as close to 100% as we can. we have over 80% of our crews are already vaccinated. so i think that this last step just short of a mandate i think will work for us. meanwhile disney world has reached a deal with two unions that will mandate vaccinations for many of its florida employees. they will require tens of

thousands of staff members to show proof of vaccination by late october. it does allow exemptions for those with medical conditions and certain religious beliefs. all right. coming up on "cnn newsroom," the u.s. review of the origins of covid-19 is now complete. but china is slamming the report and the motives behind it. policelus, lawmakers step u probe into what led on the insurrection on january 6. they want information can conversations held behind the scenes this donald trump's white house. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. call coventry direct to learn more. we thought we had planned carefully for our

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china is slamming the u.s. over its now completed intelligence report on the origins of covid-19 which could be released as early as this week. but sources suggest the 90 day review ordered by president biden is largely a dud. and that the intelligence community still has little confidence in either of the origin theories. cnn spoke to a senior fellow at the atlantic council about what needs to happen next. >> now we need a full investigation to get to the

bottom of this, there is a lot of evidence that is fully available and should be available in china, but even if the chinese government continues to not participate and prevent any kind of investigation inside of china, there are many other resources which we need access to and that is why this is the first step, we need to authorize a continuation of this biden intelligence review, we need national covid commission, a bipartisan commission, and we need to ramp up international efforts to have the kind of full investigation that never to date has been mandated. >> will ripley is following the story from hong kong. will, it doesn't sound as though this report will have accomplished much except maybe anger china. what can you tell us? >> reporter: that is a very good point. i remember we were talking about this three months ago when president biden ordered this report because remember, there was the intelligence that, you

know, researchers at the wuhan institute of virology in 2019 had to go to the hospital because they came down with some sort of flu-like illness. excuse me as i wipe my nose here. not covid, i just tested about ten minute s ago. but there were a lot of things going on that this they could have had. but it was that nugget of information that caused president biden to say i want a full review. questionable whether whether 90 days is even time to go through all the data. also they had another look at intelligence, they looked at intercepted communications and satellite imagery. and now 90 days later, they still have no conclusive evidence of either pre-dominant theory. could it have been the lab leak theory, could it have naturally emerged through animal and human interaction? we're just pretty much at the same place today that we were three months ago. and that is what is so

frustrating. we're fast approaching the two year mark of this pandemic. and we don't know how it started. and if you don't know how it started, scientists say how can you possibly learn from it and prevent the next one. but in beijing, they are just digging in their heels and it is this almost schoolyard tit for tat. they say that this unscientific report as they call it is only going to cause interference and damage to international phrase abi trace ability. they say it is not based on facts which in some ways is true in that a lot of the facts were blocked by china initially according to the u.s. and allies around the world who said that china lacked transparency and basically tried to block international researchers from getting in and having actual access to samples. they had conversations with chinese researchers, but did they actually have access to samples. a lot of the samples have been thrown out. what even exists now in terms of physical evidence. they say the united states is doing this report because of its

own as they put guilty conscience for its failures to properly handle the covid-19 pandemic. and they say the u.s. avoids answers, keeps secrets and constantly sets up oobstacles. china accusing the united states of what the united states has been accusing china of doing basically from the early months of this pandemic. >> yeah, and experts say time is running out if we're to get to the bottom of this as evidence phasfades fades as you said there. will ripley, get better. >> i'm okay, promise, just a stuffy nose. here in the u.s. former president trump is threatening to invoke executive privilege to block a congressional probe into the final weeks of his presidency but unclear how he would do that because the current president joe biden has final say over the matter. a congressional select committee is looking for a massive amount

of documents to help find out what was happening behind closed doors as mr. trump was trying to hold on to his presidency. jessica schneider reports. >> reporter: the select committee blasting out a sweeping demand for documents, hoping to find out the conversations inside the white house and among former president trump's allies and advisers related to the false claims of election fraud and capitol attack on january 6. committee chairman signaling this will be a sprawling probe. >> several hundred people that make up the list of individuals we plan to contact. >> reporter: the initial wave of requests sent to eight government agencies including the department of justice, the fbi and national archives. the archives could be key since it has legal custody of all the presidential records from donald trump's time in office. the committee has sent that agency 12 pages of demands, including for white house records relating to trump's family like the call logs and

schedules for melania trump, jared kushner and his three eldest children. they are also seeking communications from key white house staffers like chief of staff mark meadows who pushed the justice department to investigate baseless claims of fraud already released documents show and white house council pat cipollone who cnn reported pushed back. plus the committee wants the archives to hand over evidence of any efforts to delay the electoral count including communications involving sid any powell and rudy giuliani, trump lawyers, who persist entsly pushed false claims of fraud. >> all i want to do is this, i just want to find 11,780 votes which is one more than we have. >> reporter: trump's pressure campaign on georgia officials to overturn the results also a target of the mass receive records request. but all the white house requests will be subject to executive

privilege if the current president chooses to fassert it. and if he chooses not to, trump could wage a long ranging legal fight. they plan to send notices to various communication companies requesting that they preserve phone records of several people including members of congress. >> in terms of the telephone companies, they are the ones that pretty much already know, social media platforms, those kind of things. we'll do what is required to get the information. >> reporter: the select committee also wants to know who stood up to the former president. they have asked for a paper trail about whether anyone defied any orders from trump and the committee is asking for all of this information before september 9, that is in just two weeks. jessica schneider, cnn, washington. some of the trump attorneys mentioned in that report now face sanctions in the state of

michigan. they include sydney powell, lynn wood and several other lawyers. a federal judge in michigan concluded that the lawsuits were privilege frivolous. at least three other attorneys have already been slapped with legal penalties for pushing trump's election lies including rudy giuliani who has temporarily lost his law license in his home state and in washington. it is a race against time in afghanistan. with just days until the u.s. withdraws its troops from the kabul airport, crowds are braving desperate and dangerous conditions as officials warn of an imminent terror attack. stay with us.

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welcome back to all of you watching us here in the united states, canada and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber, this is "cnn newsroom." it is 1:00 in the afternoon at the kabul airport in afghanistan where the evacuation push is being hampered by a terror threat by a group known as isis-k. u.s., uk and australia are warning citizens to avoid traveling to the airport. concerns are based on a very specific threat stream from the terror group against crowds that have gathered there and just a couple hours ago, a british official says there is now credible reporting that an attack could be imminent. all this amid a race to evacuate as many people as possible ahead of the august 31 deadline. cnn's oren liebermann has

details. >> reporter: in the span of ten days, the u.s. and its allies have moved nearly the equivalent of a packed giant stadium out of afghanistan. flights leaving kabul international airport every 39 minutes. but there are possibly as many as 1500 americans who remain in the country. the biden administration still working to keep its solemn promise to evacuate every american who wants out. but also saying it is difficult to track in real time every u.s. citizen in afghanistan. but how the u.s. will ensure passage for afghans after the last u.s. plane leaves remains a question. >> they will not be forgotten. we certainly have points of incentive and points of leverage with a future afghan government to help make sure that that happens. but i can tell you, again, from my perspective, from the president's perspective, this .

i take responsibility. i know the president has said that he takes responsibility. there will be plenty of time to look back at the last six or seven months, to look back at the last 20 years, and to look to see what we might have done differently. >> reporter: the taliban now imposing even tighter restrictions on afghanistan. one day after warning it wouldn't allow afghans to reach the airport. in this video shared on social media, this man says he was beaten by the taliban, his face bloodied, he says they hit me bad and it happened when i was crossing to the airport. thousand taliban telling working women to stay home, their fighters don't know how to treat women yet. >> translator: they want to make sure women are not treated in a disrespectful way or god forbid hurt, so we would like them to stay at home until ask usecurit them is in place. >> reporter: and a school

burning school records for her students' protection. she fled with her students to rwanda. in the crowds outside the airport, one afghan woman tried about a dozen times to get through so she could join her husband in the united states. finally she dressed her baby in yellow and managed to send a photo through to marines who were able to spot the baby in the crowd. the family made it in. on tuesday, the first u.s. troops began leaving afghanistan, a mix of headquarters staff and main na nance no longer required. >> in those last couple days, we will begin to prioritize military resources to move out. >> reporter: for now the mission remains focused on the evacuation, but with time racing down, it will soon transition to the wall of u.s. forces and equipment before the august 31 deadline. joining me now live from kabul is our los angeles bureau chief. thank you for being with you.

i want to start with the terror threat from isis-k, what more can you tell us about that, and i'm wondering all those people lining up outside the airport and those dense crowds, are they aware that they might be in danger here? >> they have been in danger for these last weeks really. every every day you have shootings, you have beatings, and of course there is a risk of -- you are talking about thousands of people. people were contending with taliban guards shooting in the air all the time and you also had sewage water. so a terrible situation made even worse. so, yes, it is very credible that you could have a threat like this and it would be easy for an isis-k fighter to come in with a suicide vest and blow himself up. and it is worth noting that the isis is an enemy of the taliban and would happily create chaos

and stability even more so than there is already. >> with people being warned away from the airport, is that slowing down the evacuation process? i'm wondering from what you are seeing on the ground what are the chances that the u.s. will fulfill their promises to get everyone out by that deadline. >> it is worth noting that there are also a lot of people inside the airport, so a few stages that you have to go through before you are processed by western troops. so there is already a huge number of people there. when we were there, you saw just really hundreds lining up, a closed base and of course all these barriers and all the troops from germany, from the u.s., from ireland, from poland, all of them trying to help. but fact of the matter is you are talking about a deluge of people, it will take ages do this and fact of the matter, i don't know if they will finish in time. >> we heard the taliban saying they don't want afghans leaving the country. we saw the video just now of

that man who said that he was beaten while trying to get to the airport. how difficult is it for afghans to get to the airport let alone get on a plane? >> there has been a lack of clarity about that particular point. i spoke to officials yesterday and they insisted that actually afghans if they have a valid visa, they could go through. but with that being said, you are talking about massive crowds. and so i mean, the average taliban fighter is going to hit or shoot first and ask questions later. so by the time that you can show you have valid documents, you might have already been beaten. so fact of the matter is right now there is just a lack of clarity of what will happen in that situation. but i can tell you in terms of just the chaos around, it is there. >> you've been documenting some of that days on schaos around airport. and one of the gates where the taliban were lined up guarding it, even though you must be used

to seeing the taliban in kabul by now, it must be surreal as an experience to see that they are there providing security ostensibly protecting the crowds against a terror attack. >> i must admit i'm not used to it, its completely surreal. you can see the taliban flag flying. and so the fact of the matter is no, it is still very much an unusual sight. yes, you are seeing them with the various weapons lining up. it really is surreal, that is the best way to describe it. >> well, listen, stay safe there. really appreciate you joining us. >> thank you for having me. two u.s. congressmen who made an unauthorized trip to afghanistan this week are facing criticism from lawmakers in both parties. democratic representative seth

moulton and republican peter meijer announced that they had secretly flown to afghanistan to see the situation for themselves. meijer insists their trip didn't interfere in any way with the u.s. mission there. >> we did fly in a military plane on the way out at the k encouragement of individuals that were there. we waited for a plane that had open seats to make sure that we didn't take anything away from individuals who needed it and went several hours out of our way. >> the democratic speaker of the house nancy pelosi and republican house minority leader kevin mccarthy found themselves in rare agreement, the trip wasn't a good idea. let's listen. >> it is not just about them going to afghanistan. even going to the region because there is a call on our resources dip low 459 particularly, militarily and the rest in the region as well. so this is deadly serious. we do not want members to go. >> any member that i've heard that might go, i explain to them

that i don't think they should. i think it creates a greater risk. you've got enough americans over there that could be held hostage, they could make a point out of a member of congress. i think that you take military away from doing their job of getting as many americans out we can. disturbing video has just surfaced of a louisiana police officer beating a black man during a traffic stop two years ago. the body camera footage shows the driver being hit several times with what appears to be a flas flashlight. some of the images are difficult to watch. ryan young has the story. >> i haven't did nothing. >> reporter: another black man beaten during a traffic stop. this body camera footage from may 2019 appears to show now former louisiana state police officer jacob brown beating aaron larry bowen as other

officers hold him down. trooper brown is seen swinging what appears to be a flash flight repeatedly striking bowen while he is face down with his hands behind his head. bowen's attorney saying brown hit their client 18 times in just 24 seconds. >> i haven't did nothing, man. >> fighting us ain't going to help you, bud. >> i ain't fighting you. >> you are. >> reporter: bowen saying it hurt me. he was left with multiple lacerations, a fractured arm and broken ribs according to court documents. this video is from more than two years ago but just recently turned over to bowman's attorneys. state police releasing a statement saying a detailed search of body camera video revealed the incident was intentionally mislabeled and brown was involved and detectives concluded that brown engaged in excessive and unjustifiable actions and failed

to report the use of force to his supervisors. brown was charged with aggravated second degree battery and malfeasance in office in december. but the incident is part of a bigger issue the decision of louisiana state police where brown worked, troop f, is under federal investigation for potential abuses committed by troopers against black motorists. >> the troop is notorious and they have left a lot of victims and families in their wake. >> reporter: the troop f investigation started following the death of ronald green, a black man who died after he was beaten an tased during a traffic stop also in may of 2019. green's family say they were told by louisiana state police that green died in a car crash following a chase. but nine body camera and dash camera videos tell a different story of what happened that

night. >> now will the leadership be stirred in to action to hold the officers accountable and address the policies that allow this to go forward, to allow the coverup from the prosecutors on down. >> reporter: ryan young, cnn, atlanta, georgia. hospitals in the pandemic hot spot of mississippi are seeing nurses resigning in droves. we'll get the inside story on why so many have reached their breaking point. >> we have had situations in here where covid, with people that is critical, where two people start to go bad at once and you have to decide which room you run to. it is a hard decision to make. a. it's a simple fact: it even kills the covid-19 virus. science supports these simple facts. there's only one true lysol. lysol. what it takes to protect.

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oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. the state of mississippi has at least 2,000 fewer nurses than

it did at the beginning of the year. many are resigning worn down by the stress of working in hospitals who have been pushed to the brink by covid. erica hill has the story. >> reporter: in ocean springs, mississippi, the icu is full. every patient here battling covid. every one of them on a ventilator. 15 miles east, it is the same story. the nursing staff at a breaking point. >> i come in here and it is war. it is sometimes chaos. >> reporter: just 38% of mississippi's population is fully vaccinated. along the gulf coast, it is even worse. hovering around 30%, pushing new cases and hospitalizations higher. officials warn there aren't enough beds but on the front lines, the focus isn't space. it is staff.

>> there is not a bed shortage, there is a nursing shortage. >> we've had situations in here with covid, with people that is critical, where two people start to go bad at once and you have to decide which room you run to. it's a hard decision to make. >> reporter: the stress of those decisions, the growing number of young covid patients and pre preventable death brought nicole to a breaking point. you made the decision to resign. why? >> sometimes it feels like we're fighting a losing battle. >> reporter: yet a week after that conversation,nicole was still in the icu. >> i realized as i was saying good-bye to these nurses here that i couldn't leave them in the middle of this. >> reporter: any dnicole is cut back her hours. but for thousan tr now her resi

on hold. >> you don't want to see your co-workers suffer as much as you don't want to see a patient suffer. >> reporter: while it helps, one nurse choosing to stay isn't enough. mississippi has at least 2,000 fewer nurses than it did at the beginning of the year. >> it looks heroic and it looks -- but that is not what it is. it is sweaty and hard and chaotic. and bloody. >> i didn't even know really what burnout meant as a nurse until i hit covid. >> reporter: melissa davis has worked in the icu for 17 years. it has never been this bad. >> i have seen a turnover in nurses i never would have thought would have turned over because they can't take it no more. >> reporter: do you feel that you are close to a breaking point? >> i think that we already broke. >> reporter: burnout, stress, grueling hours. there are multiple reasons career nurses are choosing to leave. >> we've been seeing it probably hit a peak recently, we have

over 120 nursing vacancies open right now. >> reporter: when they do, that experience is also lost. >> it takes years of training to get to the point where you can actually take care of a covid patient. this is nothing like we've seen before. >> reporter: the head of this hospital system is urging the state to use some of its $1.8 billion in covid relief funding for retention bonuses. >> we need to give them an incentive to want to stay and continue to be a nurse. i think ever little bit helps. will it fix the problem? a lot of nurses have told me it is not about the money, it is about i need to recharge my battery. >> reporter: yet with fewer staff and a surge in patients, that chance to recharge increasingly difficult to find. >> it is hard to see a 34-ye 34-year-old, the family, not make it. you can't describe that.

to have friends, colleagues, understand that, it is the only way we're getting through this is because we have each other. >> reporter: on tuesday, mississippi governor tate reeves announced more than 1,000 health care personnel would be coming to the state to help fill the void. and the hospital system tells me the state has committed 59 nurses and 18 respiratory therapists to its three hospitals. they will be on 60 day contracts and the hope is that the first could arrive as soon as friday. in new york, i'm erica hill, cnn. you're watching "cnn newsroom." we'll be right back. and let me tell you something, i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. it's just a loan designed for older homeowners, and, it's helped over a million americans. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home.

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hello, colonial penn? an imminent champions league and more tennis stars dropping out of the next grand slam. don riddell has our minute in sports. >> u.s. tennis tournament starts on monday, but it will be without some of the biggest stars and it is starting to feel like the end of an era. roger federer and rafael nadal had already withdrawn. wednesday we learned that both serena and venus williams will be out as well. both are suffering hamstring injuries.

it means that for the first time since 1996, the open will be without federer and nadal and both williams sisters. the draw for the champions league stage is coming up, and on wednesday the last three teams secured their qualification. and the first team from maldova qualified. and a hat trick stole the show. and a good night with the all-star game, winning on a penalty shoot-out, pepi scoring the decisive kick. and that is your minute in sports. back to you, kim. >> thanks. two decades after creating one of the most recognize only album covers in rock music, nirvana is being sued for what is on it. the cover of the 1991 album, never mind, features a naked baby in a pool appearing to swim

toward a dollar bill. and that bill is now 30 years old and suing the band. he says it is child pornography. the lawsuit alleges that he was sexualized because they made it resemble a sex worker. and he claims he has suffered life long damages. he is seeking $150,000 from each surviving band member and others. cnn has reached out for comment to those who he is suing. that wraps this hour. i'm kim brunhuber. "early start" is next. ♪ ♪ ♪

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good morning, it is thursday, august 26. it is 5:00 a.m. here in new york. thanks for getting an early start with us. i'm laura jarrett. >> and i'm christine romans. we begin with breaking news, the historic evacuation from afghanistan in its final stretch expected now to wrap up in the next 36 hours or so. a final chance for americans and afghan allies to get out. the vice president just spoke about the efforts a short time ago in vietnam. >> our highest priorit