so from pre-cooling our homes, to using less energy from 4-9pm, together, let's flex our power to save our power. sign up for flex alerts today. in the wake of president biden's revealing interview, new questions about the way forward in afghanistan and how many americans are escaping taliban rule to the latest information on the north carolina man who allegedly threatened to blowp the capitol, declaring he had a bomb in his pickup new covid cases pushing dozens of hospitals to the limit. as many states continue to see battles between politics and preventing new cases taking job security to new heights. how flight attendants are now preparing to better protect the

public and themselves. and our kate snow with the inspiring pro-hockey player making history by just being exactly who he is. it's friday, august 20th "early today" starts right now good morning, i'm phillip mena the chaos in afghanistan has become increasingly dire check out this video here. it appears to show a baby being handed off to troops and pulled to safety over a barbed wire the desperation there is reaching a breaking point. the checkpoint to enter kabul airport has turned into a gauntlet for thousands just trying to escape nbc's kelly o'donnell has the latest >> reporter: u.s. officials say another 6,000 people made it safely to the kabul airport awaiting evacuation. pressed repeatedly, officials at the departments of state and defense could not say how many americans still need to be rescued. >> i don't know with that level of detail. >> we're just not in a position to give a number right now >> reporter: in an interview

with abc, the president defended the evacuation mission despite chaos near the airport >> but no one's being killed right now. god forgive me if i'm wrong about that but no one's being killed right now >> reporter: among the most vulnerable, afghan women and girls fearful of taliban repression >> there are afghan women outside the planes, i said get them out, get their families out if you can >> reporter: the pentagon said it could airlift up to 9,000 a day, but only 2,000 were evacuated over 24 hours. >> this is all on president biden. there is no plan to get u.s. citizens outside of kabul into kabul. and once they get to kabul, there's no plan to make the taliban to let them through. >> reporter: the state department says it's doubling its staff, handling the processing of evacuation credentials. they're also sending a message to americans across afghanistan

to get to the kabul airport as quickly as possible. but americans must do that on their own. phillip? >> all right, kelly, thank you meanwhile, a man is in custody after a tense standoff nor the u.s. capitol police say the man drove his truck onto a sidewalk outside the library of congress and claimed to have a bomb nbc's pete williams has the play by play of what happened >> reporter: nearly five hours after he parked his pickup and claimed to have explosives, a 49-year-old man from north carolina gave up and followed instructions to crawl away ending a tense standoff. >> he got out of the vehicle and surrendered, and the tactical units that were close by took him into custody without incidents. >> reporter: capitol police say it all began a little after 9:00 a.m. when the man floyd ray roseberry parked his black pickup on the sidewalk of library of congress, called 9-1-1, and said he had about a bomb

nearby buildings were evacuated including the supreme court and the house of representatives office building. police and federal agents swarmed in including the fbi and atf and streets were shut down several blocks away. a massive response and the city still on high alert after the capitol riot and social media threats of further violence. at first police say roseberry communicated with them by writing notes on a dry-erase board. and as it began he was actually sending a live feed from inside the truck to his facebook page >> all right, guys, looks to me like i'm getting ready to make a phone call >> reporter: he then made a long series of anti-government statements a short time later facebook cut off the feed and took down his page, but while it was still active he showed glimpses of what looked like it could be a bomb and said he had potential explosive material in the bed of

the toolbox. police said a robot carrying a phone so they could negotiate with him, but they say he never used it and simply gave up police have now towed the pickup away, but before they did they thoroughly went through it, and agents say he never did have a viable bomb. he now faces a raft of federal charges. meanwhile, alabama congressman mo brooks is under fire from both sides of the aisle after releasing a statement that appeared to be sympathetic to the man arrested during yesterday's incident. he said, in part, although this terrorist's motivation is not yet publicly known, i understand citizenry anger directed at districtoral socialism and its threat to liberty, freedom, and the very fabric of american society. now to the latest on the pandemic more states are seeing their hospitals overrun by the delta variant. officials in alabama say that

icu beds there are completely full and two regions in georgia are reporting 100% capacity. but georgia governor has just signed an order from preventing local officials from imposing any restrictions on businesses texas had ordered a similar ban on mask mandates for schools >> reporter: most of the school districts across the texas region had been fighting that mandate from governor greg abbott they got support from the texas supreme court, which now says they may institute mask mandates in their schools, public schools, private schools, whatever in texas. the high court refusing to block a restraining order against governor greg abbott's mask mandates so that's the good news there. and there's some good news when it comes to vaccines the white house, for the first time in almost seven days, says the rate of vaccines are up

dramatically more than a million doses of covid vaccines were administered in a single day thursday that's a 31% week-over-week increase there so that's some great news. and finally "the washington post" is reporting this morning that u.s. officials are investigating the possibility that the moderna vaccine could, and again could, provide a higher risk of heart problems. two sources familiar with the review in that report say that the potential side effect is likely very uncommon but it's something they continue to look into phillip? >> all right, jay gray with the latest for us. thank you. the covid boost for jobless benefits is coming to an end in two and a half weeks the biden administration says it will not extend the $300 extra in unemployment payments past september 6th. however, states can continue doling out the benefits using their share of covid-19 rescue funds. the enhanced pay has come under

fire from republican lawmakers as well as some moderate democrats. they blame the benefits for the worker shortages that many businesses are facing right now. a new study has revealed a huge number of americans paid no federal income taxes in 2020 according to the urban brookings tax policy center, 61% of all taxpayers paid no federal income taxes last year. that's more than 100 million u.s. households. that number is up from 76 million in 2019. an official from the center said the main reason for the spike include high unemployment, large stimulus checks, and generous tax credit programs which he said will largely expire after 2022 wildfires are breaking records out west according to the director of the california department of forestry and fire protection, the massive dixie fire has become the first in recorded history to burn across the sierra nevada mountain range

and the caldor fire has now grown more than ten times in size since tuesday, charring nearly 65,000 acres. that fire is still 0% contained. millions of acres of national forest in northern california are being closed due to those dangerous fire conditions. and on the east coast we are keeping a very close eye on some developing weather nbc meteorologist janessa webb joining us now as we look forward to friday and the weekend. good morning, janessa. >> hi. good morning yes, looking forward to the weekend. but if you're across the east coast, man, it's going to be a soggy one. it's due to steal the leftovers of tropical storm fred now that is post-tropical. it's starting to make its way offshore but then we have an angry system that continues to really brew across the atlantic. it's sitting in some warm bath water, and it continues to gain

steam. tropical storm henri 525 miles southeast of cape hatteras, north carolina sustained winds of 65 miles per hour so if you're across wilmington all the way into killsdevil beach, you are seeing some high surf this morning. now, this storm system is very feisty, and i do think it gains more steam going into later today where it turns into a cat 1 hurricane. it will sit in this warm body of water and aims more to the north. and we're looking at a potential landfall sunday into monday across northern ne 80s ayou're across the deep south, it's steamy. and then that wildfire danger,

we still have the heat that's building across the pacific northwest. we'll talk about that coming up. >> janessa, thank you. hopefully it's not too hot in syracuse, new york, because that is where an 800-pound butter sculpture has just been revealed by the american dairy association northeast. that thing took 12 days to carve. and the theme is "back to school sports in play, you're going to need milk for that." it is at the new york state fair which kicks off today. up next, fight or flight how airline employees are preparing for unruly passengers. plus, here comes the bride, and there goes the husband the shocking moment colombian authorities crh asa cartel wedding. "early today" is back in two

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wendy's restaurant in new jersey the south brunswick police department released this video of the terrifying accident you see the woman's toyota corolla launching over a berm and flipping before careening into the fast food joint it crashed one table away from where a family was eating. police believe the woman suffered a medical emergency which led to that accident till jail to us part colombian authorities arrested a drug cartel member during his wedding this week. "machete" was a logistics and security coordinator for the cartel local media reported that he had been hiding out in a mountainous region of the country. authorities who had been on the hunt for santana since 2017 took that opportunity to apprehend him when he left the hideout to get married. so far this year, unruly airline passengers have racked up more than a million dollars in fines for bad behavior.

so, now more flight attends are taking self-defense training to protect against those violent passengers tom costello reports >> reporter: at an air martial training center in chicago, up close and personal self-defense tactics. a dozen flight attendants here on their own time as the faa reports nearly 3,900 cases of unruly behavior on board passenger planes just this year. passengers attacking crew members often drinking or angry about mask mandates. one flight attendant even losing two teeth after being punched. the faa now detailing dozens of cases. passengers fined up to $45,000 each under a zero-tolerance policy with total fines already surfacing a million dollars. >> every single day when flight attendants are putting on their

uniforms, they're saying is this the day that somebody punches me in the face. >> reporter: the voluntary self-defense training suspended during the pandemic now in high demand flight attendants don't sign up to get into a job for a fist fight, but if it becomes physical they're being told don't be timid >> if they are going after myself or anybody on the plane, it's you or me, right? so, i'm going to protect myself. >> if i'm a passenger and i'm coming at you with a fist -- >> you're going to block and sometimes it's going to be a very quick block glancing blow >> what have they thought you that you didn't know before? >> hands in self-defense just as this pivot, bring it back, turn making sure you bring your hands back to your face to protect yourself >> reporter: defending against a new reality in the skies tom costello, nbc news, chicago. still to come, the next generation of office space, facebook's vision for the future of work. plus, cnbc's steve sedgwick

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california! during a flex alert, let's keep our power up and running. set ac cooler and use big appliances before 4pm. then from 4-9pm reduce use and take it easy on our energy. sign up today. major league baseball is set to end a longstanding partnership with one of its biggest merchandisemakers. mlb is abandoning its relationship with the trading card company tops. that's a partnership that goes back to 1952

the league renewed its contract with tops in 2018, but that deal is set to expire in 2025 mlb is instead turning to fanatics as the exclusive license for trading cards. facebook's ceo mark zuckerberg unveiled the future of work-from-home. check it out it is a virtual reality office facebook is testing out this vr workspace called horizon work rooms. all you need is a headset and your avatar will instantly be transported to any meeting think of it kind of like the sims 2021 pandemic edition now to wall street actually main street where would-be car buyers might be in for the sticker shock of a lifetime steve sedgwick is here from cnbc >> it's an extraordinary situation. you and i have been talking about this chip shortage in the automobile sector pretty much all year but it doesn't seem to be getting better

in fact, it looks like it's getting worse. toyota, one of the largest manufacturers on the planet have just announced in the last 24 hours they're cutting global production in september by 40% now they had expected 900,000 vehicles to be made. now only 540,000 some of the other massive titles in the industry exactly the same problem. so very difficult getting your new car if you've ordered it it's going to be a much longer wait another story for you. now onlyfans which is a website which has been built on modeling they are phasing out, they say, sexually explicit content. this is apparently to appease their financial backers and the banks. but the question is what is explicit imagery and what constitutes nudity as well this is a huge website it's got 130 million users, 2 million creators, and $5 billion that has been paid out to performers over the last year or

so so a huge amount of money going to performers who just don't know where they're to be able to apply their trade, so to speak phillip, have a good day and a good weekend and i'll see you next week. bunehey're the ones who built the siss and made them that big. coming up, janessa webb has our weekend forecast lightweight. fragrance-free. 48 hour hydration. for that healthy skin glow. neutrogena®. for people with skin. we don't use just any wipe, we use dawn disinfecting wipes. for that healthy skin glow. they're tough enough to cut through greasy messes, yet gentle enough to clean the surfaces that matter most. all while killing 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. get the grease fighting power of dawn in a disinfecting wipe. make fitness routine with pure protein. high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good. high protein. low sugar. mmm, birthday cake. pure protein bars and shakes.

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mr. clean clean freak welcome to our new headquarters ♪ this is so cool. there's even a new and improved pup treat dispenser. [ singing >> what? it's a beautiful thing >> parents, brace yourself "paw patrol" is rolling onto the big screen this weekend. the movie adaptation of the toddler sensation is also on paramount plus and for the adults the hugh jackman sci fi thriller will hit

theaters today the 19-year-old came out as gay earlier this year and now he hopes to be the first openly gay player to hit the nhl this fall. >> reporter: last year the nashville predators selected luke prokop in the nhl draft out on the ice he was keeping a secret >> i had been dealing with this for probably three or four years where i truly knew who i was and i was hiding myself. >> reporter: this spring he came out to his sister, then other family this summer he told the world on instagram. >> i'm no longer scared to hide who i am today i am proud to publicly tell everyone that i'm gay it got to a point where i didn't really care about what anyone else would think i wanted to live my life the way i wanted to and not hide from anything >> the nhl, hockey, has a

reputation testosterone-fueled, fighting. do you worry about whether they will accept you? >> i think nowadays hockey in that sense has changed my generation, everyone that i've told, i haven't had a bad reaction yet >> reporter: prokop says living openly will make him a better player >> i can go to the gym and go to the rink and not have to care what anyone else thinks, don't have to wonder if anyone else is questioning who i am i can just be me >> reporter: he's at development camp in nashville now, and next year old enough to be called up to join the predators. kate snow, nbc news. >> can't wait to see him on the ice. let's celebrate some birthdays on this friday actor andrew garfield turns 38 amy adams is 48. red durst is 51.

nbc weatherman al roker is 67. and we are sending a whole lot of love out there to singer robert plant from led zeppelin, who turns 73 and finally infamous boxing promoter don king is faulconer.

right now at 4:30, wildfires raging across the state. more than a million acres burned in california and we're learning the cause of a fire that left nothing but rubble at a mobile home park north of the bay area. >> we've issued a microclimate weather alert. the bad air sticking around the bay this morning, but things may be changing soon. the updated timeline and when the smoke will move out of the way. >> hopefully making waves for our weekend. we're on the cusp this friday morning. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm kris sanchez. we have team coverage for you this