maybe we're going to talk to heidi joe castro, because heidi to the us secretary of state anthony blinking has been speaking. was he been saying that's our peter. he's been speaking on the morning talk shows here defending the administration's actions, even as they are ongoing. calling the u. s. evacuation of the embassy and cobble ordered and deliberate pushing back on the concerns. and the criticism that you has us has, has been directed toward it, that this has been a chaotic process with helicopters, transporting personnel to account power within the international airport for their security. he did confirm that's happening. he said that the, the embassy staff, which is both civilian diplomatic, is be moved to ensure they can operate safely and securely. and he says that the u . s. has told the taliban that there would be a swift and decisive response.

well, let's get the reaction i'd over us now with heidi joe castro and washington d. c. heidi just give us an update on the situation from the us perspective. how are those evacuations progressing? and is there a plan to get more people in the short about a time that remains shore secretary lincoln speaking with fox news, who the, he's a secretary of state said that over the last 24 hours, there were $8000.00 more evacuations. from cobble. this is as the as the, the defense department has activated the civilian reserve air fleet. c which common dears, in a sense, 18 commercial air craft to assist in this operation. those commercial aircraft coming from united american and several other carriers will not be flying to cobble. rather, they will be taking evacuation on the 2nd leg of their journey if you will, taking them out of the bases and the other staging areas in cutter and other surrounding places where they have escaped to now wide off. and the secretary of defense was on a b c. news this morning saying that the u. s. is looking at quote, creative ways to reach tra

let's head across the us now we can speak with heidi joe castro in washington, d. c. i d let. let's start off with this evacuation mission, because mathematically, it is a challenge to get tens of thousands of people and the few days that are remaining has there been any development there on how america's plumbing to get all of the people they've promised to take out of the country yes, this morning, the defense department activated the civilian reserve air fleet. now what this means is that in addition to the 150 u. s. military aircraft that have been taking americans and refugees out of cobble . now that will be augmented by an additional 18 commercial aircraft. they will not be flying into cobble itself. rather they will be helping passengers get through the 2nd leg of their journey, which is from those safe havens. the staging areas where they've been immediately put after escaping cobble. now these are again 18 commercial aircraft. they're from united airlines, american and for other smaller us airliners. and this will aid in what the us have said are the 17000. some peop

we can speak with heidi joe castro, she joins from washington, d. c. i d, joe biden. last long to saying that's going to be no circumstance, you see people being lifted off the roof of the embassy if the united states from afghanistan. how is the point host explaining to the scenes in campbell with some very taurus tortured messaging as you can expect? it we had underneath blink in the u. s. secretary of state. speaking with us media, calling this evacuation of the u. s. embassy, ordered and deliberate. was saying that the comparisons between this and the fall of saigon are completely inaccurate. and that's just by giving orders to embassy staff in the us, civilians and, and diplomats to destroy property there before they leave the building, including us flags to avoid their use as probably propaganda when they inevitably fall into the hands of the taliban. and also now the decision to leave this embassy completely empty. they're not saying that the embassy has fallen. however, blink and did say that now, all of the staff, the remaining core diplomats will continue to

for now we're going to head across to heidi joe castro. she joins us live from washington, d. c. hygiene years watching this earlier in the day will live gasping for breath, the sights of helicopters, the air lifting us embassy star 1st. certainly when that was specifically probably wouldn't happen by the us president. i'm are those stuff. are they safe? what is the state of the us embassy, right? know, in afghanistan, all in fact the u. s. embassy in cobbler has just issued a security alert saying that the security situation is in couple is changing quickly, including at the airport. their reports of the airport taking fire, it reads, therefore, the embassy is instructing us citizens to shelter in place. now this security alert does not confirm that the, the reports of fire on the report on the airport in fact happened. but they are cautioning us citizens to take this measure. and yes, throughout the last few hours we have seen helicopter, after a helicopter, evacuating the civilian in dip. diplomatic staff, the u. s. citizens from the u. s. embassy to a more secure what is a

the challenge will be convincing those who refused vaccines even for themselves. heidi joe castro al jazeera new orleans, louisiana. ah, hello, i'm emily anglin, with the headlines on al jazeera, joe biden says the us, he's on track to complete evacuations from cobble by the august 31 deadline. but he's asked the pentagon and state department to prepay contingency plans, in case it needs to be extended. we are currently on a pace to finish by august the 31st. the sooner we can finish the better each day of operation is brings at risk to our troops. but the completion bog is 31st depends upon the tale bond. continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport for those who are trans, we're transporting out no disruption to our operation. earlier the taliban said it will not allow western troops to remain beyond the august 31 deadline. the group also said it is now stopping afghan from going to campbell airport. that will bank has suspended aid to afghan, has done signing deep concerns about the situation name. it is provided $5300000000.00 to the country since 2002 and has $27.00 o

now to heidi joe castro, who's been following the story for us from washington d. c. so he, what more do we know at this point? has them the 1st government update has just wrapped up from haiti in which they did confirm the 29 dead. the prime minister ariel henry has said that medical team have been dispatched to the south and he's declaring a state of emergency for the country for at least one months. now, $29.00 is the death toll, but the fear is that it will grow dramatically. the us geological survey has issued a red alert for the italy saying high number of deaths is probable and that the damage is widespread. now this earthquake hit at 8 30 in the morning, haiti local time, which was about 4 and a half hours ago. so this information is still coming in as we receive images from the local media and a social media of people desperately trying to dig their loved ones out of the rubble. the epa center was petite, tro denique, which is again about 160 kilometers west of the capital. and this was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, which is larger than the other, distract disa

well, i've got some reaction from the united states, heidi joe castro jones to fly for washington. d. c. i see what more can you tell us about the situation at the u. s. embassy, which we understand is no operating out of kopel airport. that's our holla. and we are hearing reports that the american flag over the embassy building, which has been evacuated, has been lowered. and that the us ambassador to afghan is dan, has been evacuated along with the staff to the more secure count pound within the international airport. but at the same time, the embassy has issued a security alert that all us citizens should shelter in place due to reports of the airport itself. taking fire. now antony anthony blink in the us, secretary of state, has said that the u. s. has issued a strong warning to tolerant fighters that if this evacuation of us personnel means any interference by the taliban, that there would be a swift and decisive response from the us soldiers who are guarding the airport. 5000 troops recently redeployed to cobble in order to secure the airport, as well as secure this evacuati

a week after the school's reopened heidi joe castro has more. the singing river hospital in gulfport, mississippi is bursting at the seams. the waiting room is full. well, yeah. brought back. haitians are being treated in hallways and hospital administrator. tiffany murdock is just trying to make it work a couple of hours before we can take the state of mississippi is reporting some 3500 new code cases a day. it's the biggest surge since the start of the pandemic. only 36 percent of residents are fully vaccinated and it's the unvaccinated now filling hospital it frustrating period yet, but towards the individual personal patient. no, because we're at work and look at them as they're coming in. they have a problem, we have to fix it. we're going to take care of you, no matter. right. but now you're like learning your science from facebook, and that's frustrating with the regular and has a overflow with the patient a hospital 3 weeks ago created. second, i see you room used to be for people recovering from surgery. the fact that we've been sick, v

to be disturbing. heidi joe castro reports now. the 1st aurora cannon is 3 and battling cove it inside in oklahoma hospital. her mother is a nurse who says she likely pass the virus to her daughter from an unvaccinated patient. the mother posted these videos on social media to show the world the price her young child is paying. writing. if you choose not to be vaccinated, you've made a choice for my daughter to your choice lead to my innocent child being hospitalized . pediatric intensive care units across the southern us are filling with children, diagnosed with cove. it who are too young to be vaccinated themselves. these patients sometimes can't breathe and we have to help them. we have to help breathe for them. since the delta vary and took hold, it's been dizzy here at children's hospital, new orleans and louisiana. a state where vaccinations are among the countries lowest. oftentimes we get to work and before we can even put our bags down, we hit the ground running for the day, and we're in and out of rooms all day, resuscita

u beds occupied heidi joe castro reports from baton rouge, louisiana, one of the worst effect and staying up a little bit 62 year old bobby burdette has just emerged from the coven intensive care unit at our lady of the lake hospital in baton rouge, louisiana staff have nicknamed him there miracle patient. most havent been leaving the i see you alive. i feel really well my breathing has really gotten under control. burdette was never vaccinated and says he still has no regrets. his wife also tested positive. they're part of the dramatic surgeon co good cases in louisiana. only 39 percent of the state is fully vaccinated. strictly individual decision, the governments and anybody else. but there's, according to the louisiana health department, the unvaccinated make up more than 90 percent of hospitalized cove at patients. on 3 nurse, laurie douglas has been carrying for them, many of whom are young and otherwise healthy. she says most do tell her they wish they'd gotten, the vaccine is to know that this was preventable and that this didn't need to happen. and that, you know, there's a girl

on friday. heidi joe caster has more from washington d. c. this potentially opens up thousands more afghans to qualify. they are people who have a us affiliation. that means they may have worked for n g o z or received us government funding, other government groups, contractors, employees of those contractors and employees of us based media organizations. then and all of their immediate family, not a specific number given by the state department at this point, but they do say this will be thousands. now this is the program that is in addition to what we already have, which is the special immigrant visa program that specifically was for afghans who worked for the us, military translators, drivers, it cetera. and just last friday, the 1st evacuation flight carrying some 220 people who qualified with that visa arrived in the united states. they are now at 40 military base where they're getting health screenings before they'll be resettled elsewhere in the country. but that one flight, which is the only one we know of thus far, was a mere drop in

all right, and i'm and joe castro live 1st there in washington. thanks heidi now, victoria fontaine is a professor, a piece studies at the american university of afghanistan. she left the country in the past few days and joins us now from paris. thank you very much for being with us. so talk to us 1st of all about your experience there and did the struggles when you went through to, to get out of the country. well, i've been trying to get to the airport on those sunday sunday, the 16th i believe, of august. it was impossible to get to the airport on that day because of the knocks and the preparations of the us saw me to actually a present the evacuation that on tuesday morning. we were put on the house arrest by the colored by the local taliban commander who threatened to arrest us if we were to leave the compound where we were. and so it took us 2 days to negotiate our exits. there were large sums of money exchanged and, and through a large amount, all of the equipment left behind in order for us to be able to leave for the airport. what, when you say equipme

they want president joe biden to release documents long held from public view. that may implicate high ranking heidi officials profiles reports now from washington. d. c. some family members of the nearly 3000 people killed in the september 11th 2001 attacks on new york. the pentagon and pennsylvania say president joe biden should stay away from the 20th anniversary memorial observances. unless he agrees to declassify documents, they believe may show links between the attackers and the saudi arabian government, brett eagle, since father bruce was killed in the world trade center attack. 20 years is far too long for anybody to wait for information on murder of loved ones. the united states government has documents. they admit that they have documents, which show complicity on behalf of the kingdom of saudi arabia. the ice is garret has gone to great lengths and great extent to keep this information buried from public. the classified materials they are demanding include an unrestricted version of the f. b i's report on weather. saudi nationals living in the u. s. provided help to the 911 hijackers und

peter, heidi, as soon as you know, any more information do come right back to us, but in the meantime, thank you very much. hi, joe castro, the reporting on that breaking story out of a t v. a washington o at the taliban take city to city and f canister on the president and frank ghani has made his 1st public comment. in days he appeared in a brief video filled in kabul. which being encircled by taliban fighters, defiant donnie bout not to give up on what his country has achieved in the past 20 years to an accident. i am not going to allow this imposed war now, nation to lead, to more bloodshed, and to losing the gains of our last 2 decades and damages to our public goods and infrastructure. because of this, i've carried out widespread comprehensive consultations with representatives of the people and leaders by hand without international partner, in consultation to be carried out in a speedy manner. well sherona cobble is one of 2 provincial capitals to fall as of saturday, making 20 in all over the past week taliban video does appear to show inmates been released from a shower in a prison with offensive grinding

heidi, you've been following the president as he was leaving the white house earlier today. is there a sense from within the white house about how heavily this is weighing on president joe biden and the first lady. >> i think it's fair to say incredibly, we're not just in a mourning phase but an active phase of angst awaiting whether we will get our people out without additional casualties. it's fair to say this president is in an immediate phase here where he has to figure out what the tactical strategy is for getting out our people without more casualties and whether it's going be on the same time frame we have given the american people which is tuesday given that we know, according to the most recent figures there's 250 american who is are still there. we don't know if they are in the airport, outside the airport. all the afghan allies who we will be leaving behind just as polling is now rolling in, it shows that 71% of the american people don't want us to leave them behind even though that will be a necessity based on how this is being executed. then there's the longer term conversation that this white house is preparing for. a lot of these men and women who are coming ba