the nearest city to where the epicenter of the earthquake was is a haitian city called la kai and there was extensive building damage there. a huge hotel collapsed, rubble all over the street, bodies in the street, and the prime minister has just declared a state of emergency that's going to be lasting for a month. he has called on the international community for solidarity at this traumatic time for haitians. >> all right, ed, thank you so much. joining us now gary pierre pierre of "the haitian times" on the ground for us as well. gary, tell us about the area where this quake hit and how populated it is. >> reporter: well, thank you for having me, richard. the area is fairly populated. right now we are looking at about 2.1 million people who are being affected in this earthquake. this is, as your reporter just

said, much bigger than the 7.0 earthquake of 2010. the problem right now is they don't have equipment nearby, rescue equipment that is sorely needed, and the prime minister has called a state of emergency, but i'm not quite sure how quickly they can get the resources out to people to help save some lives. right now they are releasing -- they are confirming 29 dead, but i'm afraid that that toll is going to rise rather dramatically in the next few days. >> gary, something you know so well. 2010, and you just mentioned the number of casualties, that the numbers will probably grow. you remember how the big problem was rescue and hospital resources being mobilized? that was a big cause of 300,000 people being lost in 2010. how are those specific resources today in 2021? >> reporter: well, not much. a lot of the rescue is done by

international community, the u.s., canada and other countries sending help. since then, unfortunately, haiti has not really shored its emergency preparedness. as you know, richard, just last month we had another catastrophe in haiti, the assassination of the president. the government is very porous though they're trying to do their best, though the system is not in place to get to the people in need. we have to assess what the damage is first of all. we still haven't gotten that because the government is not functioning at its peak right now. >> another big question as you have been reporting obviously on haiti is the way the buildings are built. when i was there after the first major earthquake in 2010, they were building basically buildings out of metal sheeting. how are they built now in the 2020s, if you will, because that's a major concern because it can cause a lot of death if it is made of concrete and

masonry? >> reporter: unfortunately, like i mentioned earlier, not much had changed. haiti went from one crisis after another. they never really shore up the building requirements. >> yeah. >> reporter: people, in fact, what happened is from 2010, a lot of the buildings were just cemented over and people resumed their lives inside buildings that were damaged by the earthquake. so, you know, the only positive thing here is that in the south region it is less densely populated. otherwise the capability of the government is not reassuring. >> yeah, the pictures we are seeing on the left-hand side of our screen right now definitely show us a similarity from ten years ago. who have you been speaking with on the ground there in haiti, your sources, and how are they saying they're searching and rescuing people right now? they're doing it by hand? >> reporter: yeah, essentially, and a lot of s.o.s.. people are saying the situation is dire and they need help. there are some people, of course, who are still alive, but

it is becoming more difficult to rescue folks because they don't have the equipment. it is about a four-and-a-half to five-hour drive south of port-au-prince, the capital, and it will take some time to get there. also, too, richard, haiti is again in a situation, again that controls the arteries that take you in and outside of the capital city and there were a lot of fears of traveling. i'm hoping as a result of this, that it is a humanitarian issue, that the gangs will let the authorities and people who want to go there and help. we have people in the diaspora who are organizing relief efforts, and i'm not sure if even that can come to haiti. president biden has dominated samantha power, the u.n. ambassador, to be the lead coordinator on the haiti earthquake, this haiti earthquake relief effort. i'm hoping that they can marshal

resources as soon as possible to get to the southern part of haiti because the situation, like i said again, is dire and desperate. >> you are really underlining the key role of leadership during catastrophes. have policies changed, the way things are done to prepare for earthquakes in haiti? have they improved? you come from an earthquake region, i do too, and laws are always changing to try to save people. has anything evolved in the ways they drill or build things, anything of that sort? i know you mentioned in terms of building standards they haven't changed much. >> reporter: no, they haven't. again, the laws on the books, the enforcement of the laws, and, unfortunately, none of that has been happening. we have had, you know, minor earthquakes, if you can call an earthquake minor, but over the years since 2010, but there hasn't been any effort to even educate people on woo to do during an earthquake. in 2010 part of the reasons why the casualties were so high is people didn't know what to do.

they all ran into the building, particularly the churches thinking that, you know, god would protect them inside churches and a lot of people unfortunately lost their lives. this time, it is still early to know what has happened, what was the reaction so far, how did people react to the earthquake when they felt the tremors. so there's not much that's been enforced. this something, you know, we have to take a really serious look at and keep the government honest in terms of, you know, applying laws that are on the books and making sure that building codes are followed because the situation is serious. it is not something that's going to happen once every century, as we know. now it is once every 11 years, it has been 11 years since the last one. >> gary, thank you so much. gary pierre-pierre from "the haitian times." obviously a lot of hearts and minds thinking about haiti right now. thank you so much for the update. now to the day's other big developing story. alarming numbers in the coronavirus pandemic.

the u.s. is reporting a rate of new cases not seen since november of last year with the current seven-day average of 140,000 cases a day over a two-week period. almost every state has seen a significant increase in infections. no states are experiencing a decline in new cases right now. now, new numbers are showing vaccinations though are trending up. almost 1 million americans were vaccinated thursday, the most in a 24-hour period since before july 4th according to the white house. more than 500,000 of those were first doses. americans who are immunocompromised can now get a booster shot as soon as today. the cdc recommending a third shot of the pfizer or moderna vaccine for roughly 3% of the population with weakened immune systems. in florida, new concerns today about the surge of covid cases there. the state's average of new infections shot up to 21,000 cases a day compared to 2,000 in early july. in just the last week officials

reporting 151,000 new cases. let's go to nbc's stephanie stanton in tampa, florida. scott cohn in hayward, california. stephanie, we will go to you first. there in florida, what are you hearing from officials with those numbers? >> reporter: yeah, richard, you talked about the huge increase in covid cases. you know, as we are now this week seeing millions of florida school children return to their classrooms, so are the rising cases of covid-19 not only among children but across the board. people are very concerned for the safety of not only children but teachers. i am here outside roosevelt elementary in south tampa, it is hillsborough county. we understand that 13 employees of this school have tested positive for covid-19 and are now under quarantine. it is unclear how many of those are teachers, but it does highlight the concern for safety. further south in broward county just outside of miami, some very sad news coming in.

there are reports that three educators from the broward county school district have died in the past week of covid-19. we understand that they are all women, two teachers and a teaching assistant, all of them were unvaccinated. now, just this last hour on msnbc we did interview a board member, a school board member in broward county, and she talked about how these deaths, obviously very sad, but how they highlight the need for not only mask mandates but also vaccinations. take a listen. >> we have to get vaccinated. that's the measure that we can use to protect ourselves. and in school environments it is imperative that everyone wear a mask. our children that are 12 and under, they don't have an option for vaccination. >> reporter: certainly, yes. >> so the mask is a tool that we can use to help them and we must use it. >> reporter: and in broward county, that county, of course, defying governor desantis by

keeping a mask mandate in place for students in broward county. again, some very sad news coming out of broward county as cases here in florida continue to surge. richard. >> stephanie stanton , thank you for the report. i want to bring in dr. bernard ashby, a cardiologist and the florida state lead on the committee to protect health care. doctor, what are we seeing happening here, what is your reaction to what is going on in florida and how is the surge impacting hospitals in terms of what you are hearing? >> good afternoon. pleasure to be here. well, i said it multiple times. i mean we are back to where we started last year and in a number of way things are worse, meaning that we reach our highest rate of infections, we reach our highest rate of hospitalizations and now we're seeing school start with a governor that's actually

preventing us from implementing the mitigation strategies that will help prevent further spread. now, what people aren't talking enough about is the collateral damage that something like this does to the health care system when hospitals have to delay or cancel elective surgeries and procedures, that impacts chronic medical illnesses and other issues that will likely cause death and harm in the future. so what we're trying to communicate with our leaders is that we need to be proactive, we need to take measures that will help us decrease the capacity on the hospitals, but also decrease the impact it is having on our population. >> what are your biggest concerns right now in terms of the latest spike in infections, especially after summer that some had certainly hoped to be

getting back to normal? what are the key factors that you are watching right now, doctor? >> so the key factor that i'm looking at are hospitalizations. i'm also looking at the actual positivity rate and the general infection rate and also what variants are the predominant strain because we do know that delta is a game changer, essentially given the high viral load and the increased transmissibility we are having more superspreader events. if we look at other countries like the uk, like india, like the netherlands, there were a lot of similarities. a lot of differences. a lot of similarities to help us understand when we will reach the peak as pertains to florida. what the other countries have shown is you reach the peak and then there's a quick drop-off, because, again, the virus spreads so fast if you are not immune it eventually runs out of hosts to infect. i'm hoping that we reach that

point relatively soon. well, not -- not through the natural immunity. obviously everyone should get vaccinated, but what i mean is i hope we reach the peak and decrease the capacity and burden of the disease on the country. >> to get past the hump. back to what you are alluding to here, you are one of 800 florida physicians who sent an open letter to governor desantis calling for him to repeal the anti-mask law and protect children. it reads in part, as the virus burns through florida, health care providers feel we are fighting this fire without any leadership from governor ron desantis, blocking communities from making local decisions to protect themselves with his top-down, one-size-fits-all edict will only make matters worse. now, doctor, you were alluding to this earlier. add to your comments earlier, what has it been like to fight this fire without any leadership as the words were in the letter and how serious is the threat right now as we look at students specifically, and we are showing a lot of pictures of that, as they go back to the classroom?

>> well, what i would give just to have a meeting with ron desantis and try to pick his brain and see exactly where his head is at. i mean we physicians, as you can see, we've been advocating, you know, speaking loudly and doing whatever we could, can to get this governor to just treat this as a public health emergency that it is, and yet he just refuses to budge. now, recently he started the mobile monoclonal antibody units and this is something we have been advocating for for weeks. this is something that should have been implemented a long time ago and the government has already subsidized these therapies and it is only effective or mostly effective when given in the first week and earlier. the earlier you give it, the better it is. so we hope that he continues that, but it needs to be a more comprehensive approach. unfortunately, he's basically taken a political stance and hasn't been proactive on taking any of the comprehensive measures and treated this,

again, as, you know, campaigning opportunity. you know, he is against mask mandates. okay, i got that. he is against other things. but tell us what you are for because, you know, we can do things that can actually impact and protect our community without, you know, violating some of his stances. instead, he is just not doing anything until the recent monoclonal antibody push that, again, we've been advocating for for a while. >> you said what you would do for that meeting with the governor. if you get it, call the alex witt team, is that a deal, dr. ashby? >> deal, deal. >> thank you so much, sir. always appreciate your expertise. you know, move-in day for thousands of college students will look different this year as covid cases surge across the country. let's go now to nbc's scott cohn at california state university east bay in hayward. scott, how you doing? what protocols are they doing there as kids get back to campus? >> reporter: there's quite a

bit, richard. this is one of a couple dozen campuses in the cal state system, which is the largest university system in the country with about half a million students. they were also among the first, the system was, to put in place a vaccine mandate for this fall semester. they only did it a couple of weeks ago, and so it doesn't officially go into effect until september 15th. ahead of that, a lot of precautions particularly on move-in day. you have to have a negative covid test less than 72 hours old to get in here in the first place. if not, if you don't have one, well, they will provide one for you. you can see they're set up to do that and there are, indeed, a number of cars set to do that. once you get through that, then you can go ahead and start to move into the dorms. everyone has an appointment. everyone has to wear a mask to be in the dorms. they've also cut capacity by about 15% from the normal 1,300 or so students to maybe about 800 or so. all to keep it safe, but they also want to make sure that they

give students that whole college experience. many of them haven't experienced it yet even though they already spent a year in college. so far, at least, students seem to be taking it in stride. >> i feel like it is a lot, but i feel like it is definitely something that we need. you know, i want to make sure not only myself, my peers as well are all safe, faculty as well. we just have to make sure we're all good and i have to do my part. >> we know that students around the country, their mental health suffered during the period when everything was remote, and that connection is important. and keeping them on track to earn that degree is really vital. it is vital for them, for their families. it is vital for the local economy to have an educated workforce. >> reporter: nationwide according to "the chronicle of higher education" some 700 schools now have instituted vaccine mandates. that is likely to be a very dynamic situation. even here they know if the delta variant really takes off, they may have to go fully remote

again, unfortunately. they're used to it. richard. >> thank you so much, scott cone there in hayward, california, for us this afternoon. next, the breaking situation in afghanistan. the taliban takes over yet another city and the questions plaguing the white house now about how things turned so bad so quickly. down to our appliance superstore where we've got the best deals on refrigerators, microwaves, gas ranges and grills. and if you're looking for... ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete! with 30 grams of protein.

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taliban fighters in afghanistan. mazar-i-sharif is the latest territory to fall, a key commercial hub in the country. now as of the count, at least 20 of afghanistan's capitals believed to be in the hands of taliban fighters. as u.s. forces are arriving in kabul with taliban fighters setting their sights on the capital city now, police are tightening security on the streets there and in the skies above. the afghan ambassador to the u.s. says the troop withdrawal took away key support for afghan government forces. >> all security forces, and i think it was given and it was very clear, that they were highly dependent on u.s. close air support. so there are multiplying effects. >> afghans and foreign nationals are flocking to the kabul airport, desperately trying to secure flights out of the country, but concerns are growing among many who work as translators for the u.s.

military but still have not received visas to travel. >> it is our turn to be helped. we helped them, you know. we saved their lives. we were the people who communicate with two cultures. otherwise without interpreters they did nothing. >> reporter: so now you are abandoned and scared? >> yes. >> and as taliban fighters hoist their flags in kandahar and other major cities, a refugee crisis looming. women are fleeing homes with their children, some settling for now in had this park in kabul. we are now following this with our team of correspondents and analysts. first to nbc correspondent meagan fitzgerald in london. what can you tell us about the latest taliban takeover? >> reporter: richard, i can tell you this is an incredibly significant development here. we are talking about the last northern stronghold to fall to the taliban. as you mention, this was a commercial hub. this is the fourth largest city in afghanistan, and you can get

a grasp of just how quickly the taliban is accelerating. just yesterday they seized control of the second and the third largest city. rye now as it stands they have occupied more than two-thirds of the entire country. nbc news speaking with one of the taliban members who is not an official diplomat but said to us that they have confidence in the fact that they would be able to take over that capital of kabul. of course, we are seeing thousands of people flocking to kabul, which at the moment relatively speaking is the safest place to be. we did hear today from the president of the country who says that he is trying to prevent future and further blood shed from happening. he has deployed, reactivated rather the security forces to try and secure kabul, but this is why you are seeing a worldwide scramble. the u.s., of course, and the uk sending in troops to try to secure the departure of

personnel at the embassies there. we are seeing, you know, canada as well as switzerland, norway, germany, all doing the same, either closing their embassies or significantly reducing the amount of people inside because this is a vastly changing and quickly evolving situation on the ground there that is quickly becoming dire by the day, really by the hour as afghanistan is on the brink of what could be a humanitarian crisis, richard. >> your description of that picture saying everything. nbc's meagan fitzgerald. thank you so much. let's get over to shannon pettypiece at the white house. shannon, with everything that is going on and meagan describing what we are seeing in terms of the president, the leader out of afghanistan and what he is saying, is president biden having second thoughts about the decision to withdraw the u.s. from afghanistan and the timing around it? >> reporter: we know the president was briefed today. we have not heard from him directly on this issue in several days, but the white

house did put out a statement yesterday essentially saying that, no, the president is not having any regrets. he is not having any second thoughts, and the u.s. is staying the course. the focus, the white house says, of the president right now is on getting embassy personnel out of the country and ensuring that those thousands of u.s. troops who have been sent back in to help with the extraction of those embassy workers are protected. you know, of course the images are very concerning and this is not how the administration or the president had predicted this would go just a few months ago. here is what the pentagon spokesman had to say about the current situation. >> if there is an attack upon our forces, our commanders have now and always have had the right and responsibility to defend themselves, and any attack on our forces in afghanistan will be met swiftly with a forceful and appropriate response. we understand what we're facing right now. we are taking the risks very, very seriously, and our troops

and their leaders will have all of the rights and responsibilities that they need to protect themselves and their comrades. >> reporter: and administration officials maintain that they do not believe there is a military solution in afghanistan. they are hoping there is a diplomatic one, though that seems like a long shot at this point. they say that we'll continue to provide aid to the afghan government, but that a military intervention, sending troops back in, that is not going to be the long-term solution and that that is not the place of the u.s. military. the place of the u.s. military is to defend america's national interests, and this president does not feel it is in america's national security interests to have military troops going back into afghanistan, at least at this point. >> nbc's senior white house reporter shannon pettypiece. thank you so much, shannon. i appreciate that. let's go to nevada congresswoman dina titus, a democratic member of the house transportation and infrastructure, foreign affairs and homeland security

committees. representative, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> representative, what do you make of the latest pieces of information, the reporting we just heard about coming out of afghanistan, 20 of the 34 provinces at least now in control of the taliban, a complete switch in just one week? >> well, i serve on the house foreign affairs committee, and we've long been worried about this. you know, it is not anything new. this is our longest war, and i support the president's decision because the majority of the people think we need to end this war. you know, back in george bush's time he said it was our greatest nation-building mission. it is very difficult to build a nation after thousands of years of culture to the contrary. regional divisions, terrible geography for infrastructure, religious differences, ethnic differences. nobody thought it would fall this fast, but it is really not surprising. now, i think our obligation is to keep those soldiers safe, get our folks out, help those who

helped us, have a policy china the war to be over. those who were coming home othe get out safely. we sent a number of national guard folks. we have nellis here that has participated in the war at different times. so there is a real commitment, of course, to protecting our embassy, our troops and our friends, those who helped us with interpreting, translating, all of the different roles that the afghan civilians played in support of our effort there for

so many years. >> as you sit, as you were saying on the foreign afarps committee, what is one of the thoughts when it comes to this question, which is was it inevitable it would end this way? >> maybe not inevitable but certainly not surprising. we've heard so much about the corruption in the government, all of the shadow or ghost soldiers where a lot of the money and the equipment wasn't really going for an army as we think of it to fight the forces of the taliban. i have met with women negotiators for the peace process who had a little taste of freedom and were part of the new parliament. i am so worried about what happens to girls who suddenly were able to go to school and now probably won't be able to. those are the kinds of things we are going to have to focus on because that's a moral imperative and a responsibility that we have. >> well, drill down on that a little bit more if you can,

representative. what specifically can be done for the issue of women and girls in afghanistan, so were reported over the last 20 years about what they suffer day to day. >> well, a number of the families will be brought out. we will have to work with our allies and with refugees. we know canada is going to take some, europe is going to take some, we are going to take some, many are going to pakistan to make sure humanitarian efforts reach those women and girls and they're protected. we have usaid efforts in many of the countries. hopefully if we can come with some kind of cease-fire and a new government there will be some negotiating there, but we can't let it fall through the cracks. >> did the president move too fast? >> no, i don't think it would have made a difference if he did it now or did it two months from now. at a certain point we just have to draw a line, and he made that decision. it was the right one. the public supports that.

but now you have to deal with what comes next. >> i want to move over to another big topic for members on the hill. nine moderate house democrats signing a letter urging speaker pelosi to hold an immediate vote on the bipartisan bill. dozens of house progressives threatening to withhold their support for that bill unless it is linked to the budget reconciliation package. what do you think here, representative? where do you stand on that? how do you want this to all play out in the end? >> well, i'm a member of the transportation committee. first, let me say never underestimate nancy pelosi and her ability to get this done. i support the position that we shouldn't move the infrastructure bill that deals with physical infrastructure without moving the rest of the agenda which deals with human infrastructure. our committee worked very hard on the house side to get a good infrastructure bill. the one that came out of the senate that was negotiated by a group of non-partisan folks, that's fine, but they really

aren't the transportation committee or experts in the senate. it is pretty much a status quo-invest-in-highways kind of bill. our bill had much more for mass transit. it dealt with the green investments in our railroads and in our electric stations, charging on highways. it had a lot more for super speed trains and it had investments in different districts that members wanted to see done working with their local governments. i think our bill was better. now if we go forward, maybe we can add some amendments, maybe we can do it through conference, but it needs to go at the same time as the human infrastructure, which includes the daycare and family leave and expansion of medicaid, medicare, all of those things are part of how we build back better. >> thank you so much. democratic representative dina titus from nevada. appreciate your time. the code red for humanity,

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new census numbers are out and they're showing an increasingly diverse country. more than just who we are, the 2020 census is showing where we're choosing to live and it could have big implications for who gets control of congress next year. nbc's steve kornacki takes us through the numbers. the headline, as you mention, the 2020 census numbers. look at this. the white population of the united states came under 60% for the first time, down to 57.8%. rising hispanic population now getting close to 20%. the asian population up to nearly 6%. so, yes, a lot more diversity in the population for the country, but redistricting, you see, that's the big question. next year's congressional elections, remember, next year the house is so narrowly divided right now, five seats, five seats are all that separate the

republicans from getting the majority in the house in next year's election. five seats is what the democrats have to keep the republicans from getting. so what do all of the numbers have to say about the congressional redistricting situation? well, first of all, these are the states that are gaining the most population. they are gaining congressional seats. texas is going to gain two of them, red state. florida is going to gain a seat. north carolina is going to gain a seat so republicans could get some advantage just because a lot of red states are gaining seats. a lot of blue states are losing seats. california, not a lot of population increase in california. first-time ever california is going to lose one of its congressional seats. new york, illinois, pennsylvania, some long-term trends here that are just continuing in terms of the states that are losing in the population race. so the redistricting that's going to play out, all of this data, the states are going to use to redraw their congressional maps. what you see here, if you see red, red states are where

republicans have control over the map drawing process. we just mentioned texas is going to have 38 congressional seats and republicans get to control how those lines are drawn. so, again, if republicans are trying to gain five congressional seats to get the majority, they could get a lot of the way there just through drawing favorable lines in texas. they also get to do it in florida, in carolina, in georgia. if democrats want to do the same thing and try to offset it at all they have two options really, illinois and new york, where they could draw their own favorable lines. you can see the redistricting could tip things alone in favor of the republicans. >> all right. steve kornacki, thank you for that. now to a stunning headline that's emerging in the past 24 hours. july was the hottest month in recorded human history. it comes on the heels of the blistering report by the u.n. on climate change which concluded human behavior is accelerating global warming. joining us now is nbc science

reporting denise chow. good to see you. let's talk about july, let's talk about the headline we just saw, hottest ever. we saw abnormally high temperatures in the northwest along with other places throughout the country and the world. what is the impact and why are we seeing this? >> yeah, absolutely. so this is something that was announced yesterday, july was 1.67 farenheit over the 20th century highest, making it the hottest in recorded history. anybody who has been paying attention knows we have had a sweltering month. there have been heat waves across north america, across europe and even northern africa, while it is playing out across the backdrop of stunning climate news we have seen. >> more to the report on earlier this week, certainly at least when you read the adjectives, dire. the u.s. secretary general antonio guterres said the findings were a code red for

humanity. what could happen if no changes are made based on what the secretary general was saying there? >> well, what i think is kind of stunning about this report was that the urgency that was used in the language to describe some of these findings, and i think that's going to galvanize a lot of countries that have been feeling some of the effects of climate change in recent years. there's been flooding last month in europe. the wildfires in the west. mega drought. there's just no shortage of examples of how the planet is really being impacted by global warming. >> you know, denise, in your latest article as you look through it you write climate change is intensifying, occurring at an accelerated pace and is already affecting every region of the planet. what changes need to be made today in the u.s. to stall climate change or slow it? >> well, the biggest thing that needs to happen is there needs to be really deep cuts in emissions. so green house gas emissions have been rising. they've been stalling out in certain places, but what really needs to happen to sort of hit the targets to make sure we don't go above 2 degrees of

warming is to really be aggressive in our climate goals. this report is coming less than three months before a very big climate conference that's going to be happening in scotland, and what that is part of the paris climate agreement. a lot of countries and world leaders are going to come together and strengthen their goals for 2030, make sure they have aggressive targets to hit. all of this is really important, as i said, just because of the urgency of the situation. it is really a matter of running out of time. >> well you know the way it is going to work, denise. they're going to come together, these different countries in different ways. you look at the united states and you may look at western countries versus, say, china, the number one manufacturer in the world, they may have decide as they've done so far is to continue to use a lot of coal and burning it in their manufacturing processes. >> yeah, you're absolutely right, richard. you know, the u.s. being the second biggest emitter of green house gases, the actions that the u.s. take matters and it

will make a difference just because of the amount of green house gas emissions that they do contribute. the wonderful thing and the power of something like the paris climate accord is that countries can exert influence on other countries, and especially among the world's biggest emitters. if the eu and if the u.s. is taking really aggressive action, that could put pressure on china to step up its game. what we know so far about china is that they have signalled that they want to take aggressive action on climate. last year president xi jinping said that he is -- the country is planning to reach peak emissions before 2030 rather than by 2030. this is all sort of on a path to be carbon neutral by 2060. this is a really aggressive and quite a big target for china. like you said, you know, it is a country that is very reliant on coal. of course, words are very different from actions, but what we'll see in november i think will be really key to how some of these countries are going to respond >> all right. nbc science reporter denise chow.

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to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging. now back to our breaking news story that 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit western haiti. at least 29 people have died. this is new video we are just getting in to msnbc. it was verified by the "miami herald" but not by nbc news yet. the prime minister there declaring a one-month state of emergency there for the whole country. joining us nbc meteorologist janessa webb. what can you tell us about the earthquake? >> you know, it is unfolding as an enormous crisis, and the infrastructure that was already really damaged from the 2010 earthquake that was 7.0 in magnitude, and so this was definitely stronger than that earthquake and very much on the shallow side, which sparked a

tsunami warning just about an hour after the earthquake. so what we're dealing with right now is i've counted about 15 aftershocks, the largest one 5.2 in magnitude and even portions of puerto rico dealing with the aftershocks. we will continue to watch that potentially for the next 24 hours, but we've seen with these major earthquakes sometimes these aftershocks continue for weeks. so we'll watch that, and also tsunami warning have expired across the coastline of haiti, so it is better news but, unfortunately, we're going to continue to watch even storm systems make their way across this area. richard. >> janessa, talk about that. tropical storm season, right? as well as the history of haiti and it facing tropical storms and hurricanes, remnants of fred, for instance, tropical storm grace. dig into that for a little bit. >> yeah, we have been dealing

with a series of tropical waves that have continued to go in the same direction. so we first dealt with elsa, then we've dealt with fred, and even haiti was impacted by those storm systems. now we have a larger one that is really starting to come together, tropical storm grace. right now the national hurricane center has issued tropical storm warning across puerto rico, dominican republic. i'm forecasting by tomorrow afternoon those tropical storm warning go into the haiti area. the reason for that, you have a well-organized tropical storm right now with sustained winds of 45 miles per hour, and the movement is very quick out of the west at 23 miles per hour. so the latest track is really important because you start to see this storm system still as a tropical storm heading to the haiti area, going into monday evening all the way into tuesday. i'm going to say haiti starts to

really see some effects with more cloud coverage, even bans of rain as early as monday morning. so we're talking about a 12-hour event with strong winds that will damage infrastructure. also torrential rain, forecasting 8 to 12 inches in that area. so there's just not enough time that we're going to be dealing with a clean-up in that area. now, you can see the national hurricane center still has that center of the system, continues to make its way back into open water so plenty of time to watch tropical storm grace. you can see the bullseye right now still aiming towards florida. richard. >> boy, janessa, if that happens there, as we all know, mud and making rescue efforts as they try to dig through all of that masonry and sand and dirt is going to be very, very tough. janessa webb, thank you so much for the latest on that. former attorney general eric holder weighs in on the new census numbers and he has both a positive and somewhat negative take. the negative part has to do with

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had to say. >> yeah, i mean, look, he is spot on, as he always is on these issues. what you really see happening is that the republican party under trump, and it is still very much captive to trump's movement, has decided that it is better to, frankly, suppress the votes of people of color, minimize their influence in politics, cram them into super districts that, you know, frankly are unfair, and silence their voices rather than cater to their votes, rather than moderate their politics, rather than try to actually compete for them. they've decided to cheat and to suppress voters. >> you know, one of the thoughts another we look back just one year here, ben, is how the census, how it affects the power of minority voters and the outcomes. when you look at the numbers somehow, and i will go back to the point that's been made, the numbers have gone up for people of color than the number of whites in america has gone down. it doesn't come together for us i think in many ways when it

comes to arithmetic. >> no, that's right. games have been played with the census historically. for instance, in new york i think it was just ten years ago they passed a law that inmates would be counted as being where they're from rather than being counted in the county where the prison was. you had these counties that were enriching themselves where there were more cows than people except for at the prison, but suddenly they were getting monies for the schools and for their roads as if the inmates were on the streets going to school, driving, when really they were being kept in boxes. meanwhile, their communities back, you know, typically in the five boroughs of new york most often were being starved and did not have the money to deal with things and the children who were left behind and so forth. so, you know, this is a game. it is a pretty ruthless game, and right now it does feel like there is a white supremacist

tinge to the politics of the republican party. >> looking at that concern of white supremacy, one of the concerns if you were watching the census in 2020 was that people of color would not show up for the census. they wouldn't tick the box. they were afraid of being counted in the wrong way, and especially when it comes to latino and hispanic american communities. >> yeah, look, and there were folks who were actually spreading disinformation online, trying to make sure that there was, you know, not a good count. president trump notoriously mismanaged the count, tried to cut it short when it was clear there was more counting that needed to be done. this is part of the ruthless game of a country that's in transition where, quite frankly, we need to have courage and embrace the fact we have always been a very diverse country and we are better off when we count all of us, when we serve all of us, when we make sure that

everybody's community is well funded and everybody's child goes to a school that's well funded. >> a topic very adjacent to the voting rights. were you disappointed the senate left town without even a debate on voting rights? >> very much so. very much so. you know, this country has never been about sort of just providing people good jobs, building the economy and denying them their rights, right? that would define us at our worst, not our best. and yet i worry, i worry that president biden thinks that he needs to be like fdr in this moment and lead in the economy when he really needs to be like president johnson and lead on the economy and also on voting rights. president biden is a master of the senate. he knows how to put pressure on the senate and he knows what the obstacles are. it is time for him to come out and call on the senate to get rid of the filibuster so we can get these voting rights laws

passed. >> you know, senator manchin has said he is for the john lewis act here, ben, but he and senator sinema have opposed changing the filibuster as you were alluding to right now to get anything passed. so what do you think the reality of getting voting rights through is? >> i think what is going to be required is a compromise bill, and that is i think not something to be feared, something to be embraced. there is a lot that we can agree on here, and what we know is that there are key parts of the for the people act that will put out the fires burning in our country right now as far as the state level assaults on voting rights, and that the whole purpose of the john lewis bill is to restore preclearance so we can stop bad laws before they go into effect. we need to both put out the fires and prevent them when it comes to, quite frankly, this gop assault on voting rights across the country. >> ben, always good to see you. ben jealous, president of people

for the american way, and people for the american way foundation. thank you, sir. >> thank you. a new development in the saga of new york's soon-to-be ex-governor. the details next. the details next ™ at subway®. it's so much new there's no time for serena! wait, what?! sorry, we don't even have time to say they were created by world class bakers! oh, guess we did! seriously?! my bad. cookies and breyers. that's like getting two desserts! wait... do we have to thank our moms twice? i don't know... (laughs) breyers. 100% grade a milk and cream, and loaded with delicious cookie pieces. better starts with breyers. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! [sighs wearily] here, i'll take that! woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and now with two new flavors!

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the democrat denied any wrongdoing and maintained yesterday he would win his impeachment trial and make legislators look like fools. that's a moot point it seems since the state assembly speaker yesterday announced the impeachment probe was being dropped. that's despite what he called credible evidence related to allegations against the governor. critics blasted that decision. also reacting -- >> his playbook is to claim his innocence, blame the victims and exit without admitting to doing anything wrong with zero accountability, and that is not good enough. >> also reacting, former cuomo aide, lindsey boylan, the first of nearly a dozen women who accused cuomo of sexual harassment. she called the move an unjust cop-out and said his victims deserve justice. with impeachment tabled cuomo still has the option to run for state office again if he wants. that will do it for us, this edition of "alex witt reports." my friend joe fryer continues

our coverage. ♪ ♪ good afternoon, i'm joe fryer in for yas man vossoughian. today three majors stories we are following. massive earthquake hits haiti, which never fully recovered from a quake a decade ago. the united states scrambles to get our personnel and allies out of harm's way in a race against time in afghanistan. we are following new developments in the dangerous ride in covid cases across the country. hospitals are overwhelmed in the hardest hit states leading to a chilling warning from texas. >> if your child has a heart, congenital heart defect or something, needs an icu bed, more than likely if they have covid and need an ic