breaking overnight the taliban controls afghanistan as security crumbles in kabul. panic grips residents as they rush to flee the city. the u.s. sending in up to 6,000 troops to ensure swift extraction of our diplomatic team it's those who are left behind, specifically women who fear for their lives with a return to the brutality of the past. in haiti a storm is causing chaos as they search for those who may be alive following saturday morning's 7.2 magnitude

earthquake. many hospital icus are filling to capacity as covid cases surge and many schools open. the story of how one cancer patient received a window of hope from a simple gesture it's monday, august 16th "early today" starts right now glad you can be with us. i'm frances rivera after 20 years, a trillion dollars and thousands of lives lost, the american presence comes to a chaotic end taliban fighters poured into the capitol of kabul stealing the control of the entire country. molly hunter joins us from london it took ten days for the taliban to take over what's the state of the country right now? >> reporter: frances, good morning. the state of the country is chaotic. there's no one in charge of the security of kabul in the capitol and the taliban is in control. take a look at these pictures.

these are the defining pictures of yesterday the taliban is inside the presidential palace. the equivalent of that country's oval office. it's empty aside from a guy in a western suit it is empty because the president, the u.s.-backed president who was very unpopular fled the country earlier that kay. working backwards, frances, the day started with the taliban fighters saying they will wait for a transition of power later that day after they went on rt richard engel reported that afghan security officials and police started fleeing the city as the taliban started going in all of that happened people heard rumors and started panicking and overhead, helicopters started shuttling back and forth between the diplomatic missions including the very large u.s. embassy and airport to start getting

americans out of the country a lot more people wanted to get out of the country, desperate to get out of the country. >> talk about the u.s. involvement. will there still be an american diplomatic presence in the country? >> reporter: we don't know, frances. overnight we did see, again, lots more evacuations. we know the u.s. military has secured the perimeter of the airport. they are running air traffic control. we've been told there have been additional troops sent in to make sure the evacuations go smoothly we're seeing chaotic scenes from the airport. it's not going smoothly. we can confirm that the safe evacuation of all embassy personnel is complete. all embassy personnel are located on the premises of the airport whose perimeter is secured by u.s. military now if anyone will stay around to help process visas, to help continue that evacuation over

the days and weeks, we don't know what that time line is like, frances. >> the insecurity of the afghan people you can't help but think of afghan women and girls, too. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. that's one of the biggest questions. the taliban in control of afghanistan was brutal women weren't allowed to go to school, become lawyers, judges, politicians. in the last 20 years women have done all of those things my colleague kelly cobiella has been in afghanistan speaking with women. >> women in afghanistan are the most at danger, at risk. by those upset with women becoming powerful in the last 20 years. >> reporter: now the taliban says they will not roll back all the progress of the last 20 years. a lot of people for very good reason frances

there is a little bit of hope that a lot of these girls and women, young women who have only known the freedoms and opportunities of the last 20 years may not go down without a fight. >> certainly that is the hope. molly, thank you. let's turn to the response in washington, d.c top officials admitted they were caught off guard by how quickly the taliban made gains the president is facing fierce criticism over the withdrawal of the troops jay gray, what are we hearing? >> reporter: not a lot from the white house. nothing public on the calendar from president biden camp david getting constant updates from his defense team, national security team, from the pentagon trying to assess the situation on the ground there in afghanistan and working to make sure that americans stay safe. more troops have been diverted to the region. they are there in a security force role and we're being told by the military there have been no interactions between tall ri

ban forces and the u.s. military though there are many critical of the administration's handling of this situation, taking shots at the white house right now >> there's still no strategy other than race to the airport and evacuate as many people as you can. >> so everybody who has been saying america needs to withdraw america needs to retreat, we are getting a devastating, catastrophic real-time lesson of what that means. >> the fact that we would sign up for another 5, 10, 20 years, that is the hard decision the president made. >> reporter: the u.n. security council will have a meeting later this morning we're not clear how many americans remain on the ground or how long it will take to get them evacuated the death toll in haiti has

climbed to 1300. gabe gutierrez joins us from haiti. good morning, gabe. >> reporter: frances, good morning. it is an increasingly desperate situation from haiti as the country awaits the potential landfall of a tropical storm just days after a powerful earthquake some of the survivors hk flown here to port au prince to be treated. a frantic search for survivors after a massive earthquake tropical storm grace is barrelling towards the country. >> a lot of damages. a lot of -- a lot of dead and injured people and for the moment, you know, it's really hard for the haitian people. >> the death toll here tripling skyrocketing to the thousands. u.s. search and rescue teams and the coast guard are rushing in

supplies as the haitian government declares a state of emergency. >> a lot of help is needed the worker says. >> haiti was already reeling from the assassination of its president last month and a spiraling economic crisis. the 7.2 magnitude quake was stronger than the 7.0 quake in 2010 this epicenter was not as close to the capitol there are fears the death toll could keep rising. >> it was unbelievable and then people just started screaming everywhere on the streets and just out of, you know, panic and fear. >> reporter: heddy lives in jeremy >> for people that have limited

resources, have houses that aren't well-constructed and knowing full well that there is a tropical storm coming in the next three days. >> reporter: the biden administration had just placed u.s. i.d. chair in response. they'll come with specialized equipment to help with the search for survivors frances? >> jay, thank you. remington is now offering the families of victims of the sandy hook shooting a possible settlement of nearly $33 million. remington's bushmaster ar 15 style rifle was used to murder people at the school the marketing of the gun inspired the killer's actions and inspired him to maximize the mayhem he could inflict. remington's lawyers have denied

the allegations in court. the canyon wildfire rages near salt lake city. it's scorched thousands of acres. it's 10% contained crews report from wildfire duties in other areas to help fight fast-moving flames. janessa webb pulled do you believe duty as she is tracking three big storms janessa, good morning. >> hi, good morning. a ton going on throughout the weekend we saw tropical storm fred get its act together now it is. impacting southwest of florida the trajectory of this storm system is now making its way east but it will soon make its way north. that's why we have the florida panhandle on its way for

possible landfall tonight. tropical storm fred will be ready tuesday, wednesday, thursday afternoon because it's colliding with a front it will cause moisture eved we later this week. now tropical depression grace that really was strong as it started to form, it's interacting with some land and that's why we're starting to see it lose its force. the problem is this will be a big-time rain maker for puerto rico all the way into the dominican republic where tropical storm alerts are extending into haiti as well this storm system will sag into the south. we're going to watch our eye because it goes back into warm water and it heads back to the gulf tropical dep shall

increasing cool, comfortable temperatures across the northeast and then i have warm air making its way in the pacific northwest increasing fire danger we'll talk about that coming up. >> thank you, janessa. "early today" is back in 2 with a new wave of vaccine mandates as hospitals are pushed to the brink with the latest surge in covid cases i'll get it. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ ♪ whoa. here you go. (in unison) thank you mckayla! dude, get it. i'm not getting it, you get it. you threw it. it's your frisbee. geico. switch today and see all the ways you could save. start your day with crest 3d white

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tennis star naomi donate hs from the western and southern opening in cincinnati to victims of the earthquake in haiti it has killed nearly 1300 people osaka, who is of haitian and japanese descent tweeted in part, really hurts to see the devastation going on in haiti. she ended the tweet in haiti i know our ancestors blood is strong and we'll keep driving. wall street is taking a close look at the repercussions of the united states and around the globe. cnbc's steve sedgwick has an early read on what's going on today. good morning >> reporter: yeah, thanks. very interesting seeing the reaction of global markets overnight to that extraordinary news out of afghanistan. the speed with which the taliban has occupied kabul the nikkei, the japanese blue

chips are down 1.6%. we saw other markets down 1% over in europe the ftse 100, 8.8. the european futures -- u.s. markets closed at record levels on friday once again for the nasdaq, the dow and the s&p pretty much seem small down at the start of trading down 63 points for the dow s&p down 7 points. they're reacting to the weakest chinese data out of the chinese economy today. lots of news later in the week including tomorrow retail sales, that's a key figure there oil prices very quickly, gasoline prices continue to rise $3.25 is the national average now. bigregional variations san francisco bay area, always the highest, frances, $4.50 a gallon baton rouge at $2.74 there could be hope the fact that oil prices are lower and

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when you l'eggo with eggo. hope can appear in the most unusual cplaces even at the wort time a friendship crafted one sticky note at a time >> reporter: 5-year-old myer mixdorf is a fighter he's just conquered cancer but the past few months are not easy. >> i'm going to show you my room. >> reporter: in may when he was undergoing treatments for a brain tumor at children's mercy kansas city, his parents helped him find new ways to pass time. >> to lift his spirits we just for fun put a smiley state

post-it note on the window >> the next day, a surprise? >> yes the next day there was a winky face. >> what did you think when you saw that winky face? >> it made me go like happy. >> the mysterious message appearing on another hospital window right across the street it was the handiwork of medical staff coordinator johnna shingle beck i thought that's cute. maybe i should put something back. >> i have a window buddy. >> for myers parents, it was a sign of hope during a desperately uncertain zbliem when we saw the response, it was another thing to make the day a little bit better. >> it's mayo over there. >> that was only the beginning for months the stranger kept it up, spider man, batman, even super mario, the game becoming a life line for myer the images taking on a new

meaning when johnna realized this was a cancer patient. >> i thought this was a child, a family that was facing something and it was touching them so we have to keep this going. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: and they did finally meeting in person last month after myer's last day of treatment. >> it was really good to see myer up and out and about and to see liz and get to hug her we both kind of had tears and felt the love and friendship. >> reporter: a simple show of support. >> hi, johnna. >> hi, myer. >> reporter: making a life changing impact. i'm wondering if there's a bigger reslesson here? >> it's important to see the people in the hallway, give them a smile. you don't know what's going on and everybody needs it >> a perfect ending to that sticky note art knowing, hey, he's out of the hospital hope he stays healthy. what a sweet story thanks for sharing we thank you for starting

your week with us here on "early today. i'm frances rivera have a great monday. be sure to follow us on facebook, twitter, instagram @nbcearlytoday have a great monday. see you back here early tomorrow.

right now at 4:30, crisis in afghanistan. the country taken over by the taliban just weeks after u.s. troops pull out. the latest developments from overnight. plus, back to school, thousands of kids across the bay area are headed back to the classroom in person for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. what is happening to keep students safe amid a surge in new child cases. this is "today in the bay." and a very good morning to you. i'm kris sanchez. we're going to get a quick look