our own martha raddatz pressing defense secretary lloyd austin on american operations there. tens of thousands still desperate to get out of the country. flights resuming today under heavy security. u.s. officials saying 3,800 evacuees removed in afghanistan in 24 hours. 17,000 in the last week. here's abc's julia macfarlane with the fast-moving developments. >> reporter: tonight, chaos in kabul. scenes outside the airport reaching breaking point. the uk ministry of defense confirming that seven afghan civilians were killed today in the crowds. heartbreaking images showing bodies covered in white tarps. soldiers struggling to keep the terrified crowds calm and hydrated in the brutal heat. [ crying ] >> reporter: desperation growing as thousands more arrive each day. nato troops trying to keep the airport secure. >> stay there! stay there! >> reporter: the u.s. embassy warning u.s. citizens not to make the hazardous journey to kabul airport unless they have individual instructions from a u.s. government representative. on thursday, three u.s. chinook helicopters airlifting ame

hospitalizations soaring, and covid-19 deaths once again on the rise on monday, defense secreta lloyd austin said all u. militaryersonnelould be reired to t vaccined septemb 15th or earlr, if e fda gran final proval tthe pfiz vaine befo then. pentagonpokeerson john kirburged mitary memrs to get shots immediately. >> this isn't just about you. it is about your ship, your

martha raddatz's exclusive interview with defense secretary lloyd austin. >> we'll look at every means possible to get american citizens, third country nationals into the airfield. >> the latest from the ground in kabul. >>> staff shortages. hospitals sounding the alarm as they battle the surge in covid cases and icus fill up. plus, jesse jackson and his wife hospitalized with breakthrough cases. the new guidance from the cdc. what to know before you book your next cruise. >>> stretching the dollar. the reason more americans are turning to dollar stores and what they're finding. >>> in the record books. wnba's diana taurasi making league history. her slam-dunk performance assisting on the court. >>> good morning. henri is churning and closer. dangerous conditions already hitting parts of the northeast. >> some of the most densely populated areas are in the crosshairs. tropical storm and hurricane warnings are up from new jersey to cape cod, massachusetts. authorities warning of inland flooding as the storm moves straight up through new england. >> transportation already affected as amt

we know that lloyd austin, who is the defense secretary, has been with joe biden. he was in this situation room at the white house. they were talking to commanders on the ground. also there was anthony blinking, who is the secretary of state, and then lloyd austin went back to the pentagon. they will be looking at how they carry out operations from now on in certainly, 24 hours ago. the pentagon was saying that there was the potential that troops may well be used in the capital itself to go and get americans who are stranded, given that the information coming from the embassy capital is for americans to stay away from the airport. stay away from the gate because they were aware that this potential attack could actually happen. it means that that is more likely to be the way that the us conduct their operations from no one in that job bite. for contingency plans, if this operation were to extend beyond the 31st of guess it's a fluid situation contingency plans continue to be updated and we can guess that that's exactly what's happening at the moment. alan fish there

as we come on the air, we are awaiting a joint news conference from secretary of defense lloyd austin joint chiefs chairman mark milley and the first joint press conference since the fall of kabul, and the evacuation of the americans and allies in that country, and keep it here for that, and we are also awaiting an address to the nation from president biden about the recommendation from the covid task force for a booster shot for all americans ages 12 and older. >> we know that the highly effective vaccines are less effective over time, and that is why today we are announcing the plan to stay ahead of the virus by being prepared to over covid-19 booster shots to vaccinated adults 18 years and older and prepared for the booster shot eight months after receiving the second dose of the moderna or the pfizer dose. we plan to start this september 2021. >> three points are clear. vaccine protection against the sars covid-19 protection begins to decrease over time. and second the vaccine effectiveness against the severe disease and hospitalization and death remains relatively high. and third

what should we expect to hear from lloyd austin and mark milley? >> well, i think you're going to hear them tell us that the situation is more under control than it has been 40 hours ago, that they have backed, you know, a relatively clear, crisp operation going in terms of evacuating more americans and afghans, burks of course, they will have to answer a lot of questions, questions about what they told the white house and when. what advice they gave. reports have come out, of course, that general milley and secretary austin warned president biden even before he made his decision to withdraw in april that there could be, you know, consequences to it, that there would be unpleasant consequences along the lines of what we've been seeing we they will be asked why the execution of it, even if the policy was the right choice, why the execution of it seems to have been so flawed. why if the contingency planning that was done in advance of these final days of the afghan government didn't prepare the forces on the ground to be ready to get out the people w

so lloyd austin in bite and they want to blame the afghans, the african corrupt puppet government wants to blame the u. s. the fact of the matter is the war was illegal. it was unpopular. the afghan people might hate the taliban and they shed their reactionary government. but they also don't want to live under the care of being bomb, being drone being occupied for the last 20 years. and again, by a corrupt government, that was the stand in for america. i mean, now of course, a lot of video just saw a thing of bite and saying, we're not going to see anything that happened like was inside gone, no helicopters hovering above the u. s embassy. lo and behold, that's pretty much exactly what happened on sunday. in kabul. do you think there are any comparisons that? yeah, i mean, it's virtually the same. the o. s was routed from south vietnam at the end of april 975. the u. s. chaotically left saigon and that's exactly what's happening today in afghanistan. and again, when you look at the past, 50 years of american military intervention, one colossal disaster, one miscalculation after another,

defense secretary lloyd austin says the u. s military is doing everything it can to evacuate americans and vulnerable afghans, people that are in the special immigrant visa program are very, very important to us. and these would be the, uh the interpreters and many of the staff that supported our embassy. uh and other embassies by the way. we want to evacuate them as well. secretary austin says the target date for the u. s military to withdraw from afghanistan august 31st could be pushed back depending on how the situation evolves over the coming days and earlier today on warnings on two i spoke with stephen zunes, professor of politics and international studies at usf. he talked about the international community and how they are reacting to the situation in afghanistan. the decision to withdraw itself is not a sign of weakness. i think in the eyes of most of our allies and others, it's a sign of realism that in effect that we without the government was incapable of continuing on its own, and that it was it was asking too much

you've been watching a lot of briefing from the pentagon by the us defense secretary lloyd austin, who said that lines of communication are strategically open with the taliban. as the u. s. continues it's evacuation of us, possible holders concerns though, for the many thousands of africans who have worked alongside the us. over the past 20 years, 22000 afghans are apparently applied for special visas concerns so that they may not be able to reach the apple because of taliban checkpoints. hundreds of us soldiers, he said, have arrived in the last 24 hours. more than 500000 afghans have been internally displaced since the beginning of the year. young eglinton, the secretary general of the legion refugee council. he says his main concern is for those people who will not be able to leave the country, our focus is on the internally displaced the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of on top of the millions before this latest emergency in the country. i mean, the international airport, which has all eyes on it now, will be organized by american forces is a lot of attention on what's happenin

president joe biden and defense secretary lloyd austin sent in another 3,000, 2,000 marines and 1,000 soerlds, to help secure the airport. but they had about 3,500 or 4,000 on stand-by in kuwait. this 1,000 comes from that group. they will go directly to kabul to secure the airport and that gives you a sense of how quickly this is evolving and how quickly the response is coming from the pentagon, that is the situation is deteriorating incredibly rapidly. it looks disastrous from this end and they are sending in more and more troops to make sure we can tget out quickly. there are 2,500 more troops on stand-by in kuwait. we will keep an eye to see if those are send in as well. that would be another indication this is going worse and worse. >> the taliban said that they want this potential transition of power to be peaceful. do we know an assessment of the likelihood that american troops might be involved in any sort of combat while they are on this mission? >> well, the pentagon has been clear it's very aware that american troops are going into a combat zone, fully kitted out, body armo

and so even though the secretary of defense lloyd austin, has suggested that the time is not yet right to have that discussion with the president who would have to authorize that extension. no one in the u. s. government is taking that possibility off the table. what has not been addressed is whether this matter has come up directly between the taller bond and us officials, particularly the special envoy, so many little thought who has been engaged in political discussions with the taller bon leadership. certainly this is really right now, a matter of someone making an announcement on television and another person on television making a counter or response to that announcement. all right, thanks so much. rosalind jordan, a group of african refugees have arrived in northern virginia as part of the u. s. evacuation operation. the evacuees are being temporarily. how's that the dulles expo center in chantilly before they've taken fully taken to military basis? some critics of raise concerns about homeland security and the swift vetting process. go live now to phil laval. he's at that dulle

we can confirm. 2 where he met with his secretary of state, his defense secretary, lloyd austin, also the vice president of the united states, returning to the us from her tour in asia, comalla harris, aboard air force to was also participating in those briefings. virtually this is so that they could assess the intelligence that has been coming in since these 2 reported blasts. and of course, there are concerns that there could be more and as a result, the united states interacting with the commanders on the ground in the cobble and around afghanistan in order to try and coordinate the next step. now, officially, b u. s. president and the white house still sticking with that august. 31st withdrawl date for the us troops to leave afghanistan. but the you are the president. we're here now. dave said it was contingent on the taliban assurance that the evacuation could continue and that there would continue to be safe passage to and from the cobbler airport. but obviously that has not been the case. now. we have not had full claims of responsibility for these attacks, but already i can te

we know that lloyd austin, who is the secretary of defense, has been with joe biden in the situation room over the last couple of hours, you know, back in his office at the pentagon. one of the things the me, well have been discussing is what happens now. joe biden had said they can get out by the 31st of august as long as essentially saying if nothing gummed up the we'll suddenly this is changed all the equations. and it may well be that they're looking at their options in a new contingency plan. one thing that maybe being considered, and it was joint kirby, the pentagon press spokesman, who said this on wednesday. there is the potential, the us troops could go into cabal and extract americans who were stuck. greer, if they are telling americans to stay away from the airport, this may become much more common. we know that over the last week or so, the united states and germany have done that. they've told their nationals to go to one fixed point. they then st helicopters and to carry them direct to the airport that me know become the standard operating procedure for the united state

and the secretary of defense, lloyd austin on this exact topic, but they were waiting to see if that approval would come before that. so this is a fatigue rating. so we would like for the service members to be vaccinated four to six weeks from now which of course is the time we know it takes for them to be fully effective in terms of immunity. it was the white house just a couple weeks ago that laid out these new rules for federal workers and the civilians more than two million of them that have to get the vaccination or submit to rigorous testing. this would be a different step, it appears and we're waiting for confer ration at our team for all of the details on how this would work. this is something we believed was coming down the pipe we heard the president talk about it. he has been monitoring the rise in covid cases all weekend long from his home here in wilmington. and he is trying to separate it out as two different thing. looking for a major new challenge, garrett. >> i don't know how many people are going to see that level of nuance there. >> joining me now with his medical

with his national security team including secretary of state antony blinken, secretary of defense lloyd austin, general mark milley, and commanders on the ground, and that he will continue to be briefed throughout the day. concerning the twin explosions, and gone spokesperson john kirby said we can confirm the explosion at the abbey gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of u.s. and civilian casualties. we can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the baron hotel, a short distance from abdicate. we will continue to update. dow jones is reporting the u.s. ambassador in kabul has called -- told staff that four marines have been killed. global news 24 hours a day, on-air, and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. alix: i'm alix steel. welcome to bloomberg's commodities edge. let's get right to data dig, the top market stories of the week. crude got a relief rally when the oil inventory numbers helped on wednesday. stockpiles dropping to pre-pandemic levels, t

lloyd austin and mark milley arrived at the white house. they're scheduled to brief the press.reporting that the intel community had warned of an afghan collapse even as the president was reassuring the american people. what exactly did the biden administration know and when? >> if you think back to the spring when president biden was making this decision about the pullout, the intelligence community put an estimate of about a year and a half to two years that the government, the military could potentially survive after the u.s. leaves. now, of course, that's after 20 years and billions of dollars spent on training the military. that's not particularly an optimistic assessment. then once the pullout commences, may and june, it starts raising greater warnings about the potential for the afghan military to collapse and even po potentially for the government to collapse. these warnings start becoming more dire and the timeline collapses about when the potential might be for the military to collapse. by july, around the time that president biden kind of famously gave a pretty optim

i mean, secretary of defense lloyd austin wanted to wait for fda approval, full foreign policy -- fdapproval. but the delta variant has changed things and i talked -- the people at the pentagon they've talked to say they expect a decision in days, certainly not weeks, possibly by the end of this week and it looks like he's leaning in that direction. it's actually a bigger deal, i think, for the 1.3 million activity duty military troops to get vaccinated than it would seem on the surface, in part because our military comes from all over the country, including a lot of the states where there's been more vaccine hesitancy. and so there's also a hope among some people within the biden administration that if you can get the military members, service members all over the country from small towns vaccinated, they could serve as an example to people, other people in those towns, friends and family members are going to see they got vaccinated, nothing happened to them, they didn't get killed, and maybe might follow suit. that's why it's a big deal for the military to have this vaccine mandate.

listen to what secretary of defense lloyd austin actually said earlier today. >> he have the capability to out and collect americans. >> we don't have the capability to collect large numbers of people. it's obviously and not close to where we want to be in terms of getting numbers through so we will work that 24 hours a day and seven days a week. we will get everyone that we can possibly evacuate, evacuated. and i will do that as long as we possibly can until the clock runs out or we will run out of capability. >> this is insane, no capability whatsoever? we are doing everything within our power to help our fellow americans did you not plan for this lloyd austin? apparently not. the situation tonight is dire and the taliban knows the truth. they are brutal, they are evil, they are terrorists. by the way, the viewer a warning and what we are about to show you is graphic. the afghan woman pictured here was reportedly murdered by the taliban while she was not wearing a head covering. another woman had her eyes gouged out. why? for having a job as a police officer. taliban fighters cut off

mike: participating in the dignified transfers president joe biden, first lady jill biden, lloyd austin, mark millie joint chief of staff general david h berger, james mcconnell chief of staff at the united states army, admiral michael gill day chief of operations into public or commander of the air force march await affairs operations and they are on hand at dover to greet the family members of the fallen service members that were lost this week. jacqui: there for the dignified transfers secretary of state anthony blinken deputy secretary of defense kathleen hicks, chief master sgt ramon lopez senior advisor to the joint chief of staff. christine warmath secretary of the army . jacqui: continuing to watch dignified transfer of the 13 fallen service members at dover air force base. mike, i recall the images that we have seen of these heroes over the last few days as we begun to learn their names, how young they are, one image that stands out to me a young woman cradling a baby posted to her instagram a few days before she was killed i love my job. mike: heartbreaking. one young man abou

the biden demonstrations national security establishment ran by lloyd austin, antony blinken, sullivanl of them, they are part of the culture that believes america is a power in descent and we are not unique nation nation or an important nation that culture has echoed throughout the national security apparatus and now we are prioritizing getting afghans out of the country and the only reason that i can think of to get all of these unvented afghans out as fast as we are trying to get them out is to pump even more refugees into the heartland of this country. that seems to be the top priority of this admin's ration and again, it's a complete and total disgrace and it's completely and totally reckless. >> tucker: so you're part of the despised groups that actually fights our words, working-class kids from the pacific northwest, you joined young, got married, your wife was killed fighting one of these wars. i mean, how much of their contempt do you feel personally as you watch them make these decisions? >> i feel an incredible amount of contempt and resentment. so my wife was killed about a

did you not plan for this, lloyd austin? apparently not. the situation tonight is dire and the taliban knows the truth. they are brutal, they are evil, they are terrorists. by the way, the viewer a warning and what we are about to show you is graphic. the afghan woman pictured here was reportedly murdered by the taliban while she was not wearing a head covering. another woman had her eyes gouged out. why? for having a job as a police officer. taliban fighters cut off this woman's ears and her nose after she attempted to flee from her husband who she was forced to marry when she was only a child. and as we speak, taliban fighters are now going door to door forcing young women and little girls to be their sex slaves and to marry their "fighters." they are now being executed. some are being hung, some dismembered, some shot and some beheaded. and more scenes of carnage. women and children, beaten, shot and stabbed, where we can't guarantee a safe passage but we urge you to go to. one taliban fighter was sure to whipping people trying to get to

. >> reporter: secretary of defense lloyd austin announcing all military members will be required toaccinated by september 15th. so far, 237,000 troops have received one vaccine dote while 1 million troops are fully vaccinated. in a memo to troops, austin said the date could move up sooner if the fda grants full approval of the pfizer vaccine by the end of the month. todd: as alejandro mayorkas heads to the border, he needs to be pressed not only on the humanitarian crisis but also the covid crisis. it. is stark. it is real. it is scary. take a look at the numbers from nbc news. 18% of migrant families and 20% of unaccompanied children are testing positive with covid. jillian: it's really unbelievable when you look at those numbers and just the fact that you think once people who are covid positive cross into the united states, a lot of them are just in some instances free to go where wherefore they want -- wherever they want as we reported earlier. an area in new mexico is reporting that uber and lyft drivers are called to pick up some of these migrants and they're disbursed in some

that is what is so offensive about this and other press conference like i heard yesterday with lloyd austin and mark millie, getting so much criticism this morning. here's a piece of it. listen. >> we don't have capability to collect large numbers of people, working hard to get as many people through as possible. it is obvious we are not close to where we want to be in terms of getting numbers through. we work that 24 hours a day 7 days a week. todd: every statement is internally inconsistent, that window different and it is chilling because it is creating lack of confidence in those watching trying to fight for survival and according to military personnel we've heard from it is also incorrect. we do have the capacity to do these withdrawals, we know how to do them and one final note, in the 4:00 am hour, all this blaming of intelligent services is a lie, the insult was there, we knew what could happen, they chose to ignore it for political purposes. jillian: on "fox and friends" yesterday an american trapped in afghanistan his family was there, he went to care for a sick family member. let

the secretary of defense lloyd austin is expected to take a major step toward mandating covid vaccinationor all active duty u.s. military troops. our chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins is joining us right now. kaitlan, what can you tell us? >> reporter: wolf, cnn is now learning that defense secretary austin is expected to seek authorization to make these coronavirus vaccines mandatory for all active duty troops. a defense official told my colleague barbara starr who broke this news that that decision could come as soon as this week. and the defense secretary is leaning towards mandating these vaccines for active duty troops. of course, wolf, if he does decide to make that decision, make that recommendation, he could go to president biden for a presidential waiver so then they could actually put this mandate into effect for these active duty troops, given right now they had said they were going to wait on full approval from the fda instead of just that emergency authorization that the vaccines have right now. but clearly they are applying a sense of urgency to this situation.

these are virtual briefings with the defense secretary lloyd austin. the secretary of state, anthony blinken and general milly. the house briefing we're told is happening as we speak. it has been somewhat contentious with lawmakers, republican and democrat pressing the top leadership of the biden administration looking for answers as to what went wrong in afghanistan and this in particular we're getting reports of the defense secretary lloyd austin himself saying he has heard of reports of americans that were beaten by the taliban by this withdrawal process. he told lawmakers that he felt that that was unacceptable. for the most part, though, victor, this is an unclassified briefing. so, the administration officials are not going into great detail about what they know about this particular situation. that could happen next week. there will be a series of classified in-person briefings that will happen here on capitol hill, including on tuesday at 10:30 with members of the house. definitely a lot of concern from lawmakers on capitol hill about this situ

. >> this morning tough questions for defense secretary lloyd austin. was the pentagon prepared and will the mission expand? >>> lplus, reaction from republican senator joni ernst. >>> fall booster. the cdc recommends a third shot for all vaccinated americans. >> the vaccine is starting to wane in its effectiveness against infection. >> surgeon general vivek murthy joins us live. >>> all that, plus our powerhouse round table on the political fallout of president biden's first foreign policy crisis. >> announcer: here now co-anchor, martha raddatz. >>> good morning. welcome to "this week." it has been exactly one week since the fall of afghanistan. a swift, stunning outcome that has created a political crisis for the biden administration and a desperate humanitarian mission. there is chaos in kabul and renewed urgency to rescue some 15,000 americans on the ground and the tens of thousands of afghan allies. those that remain are facing increasingly dangerous conditions. gunfire erupting above swarming crowds outside the airport where stampedes have left s

lloyd austin welcomed qatar. he said qatar always answers when the u.s. needs support. yesterday austin made in frank admission about the limits of the u.s. military's ability to rescue americans trapped in downtown kabul. >> we don't have the ability to get large numbers of people. >> so sounds like you're saying this depends on diplomacy with the taliban? that's the only option of getting them to agree to do this? >> let me add something here. we have a couple of entry control points set up, a north one, east one and a third one at the abby gate. >> right now there's 5,000 troops sleeping on the ground at the kabul airport. the only thing that they have to eat is what is in their backpacks. >> martha: thanks, lucas. joining me now senior strategic analyst, retired four-star general jack keane. so much to talk about with each passing hour we're learning more here. let's start with the military situation. you heard lucas talking about the troops, sleeping on the floor at the afghan airport with whatever they had hahn their backs. how do you think this is going today? >>

the defense secretary lloyd austin sharing that information with u.s. lawmakers.nn crews have also witnessed taliban violence escalating in the afghan capital, making a desperate situation worse by the hour. our correspondents and analysts are standing by covering every angle of this breaking story. first, let's go to jeremy diamond over at the white house. je jeremy, the president made very specific promises today about the evacuation. >> that's right, wolf. five days after the taliban took control of kabul, president biden clearly trying to show he is getting the situation under control, also showing some more of his trademark empathy, talking about those gut wrenching images that he has seen of afghans desperately trying to get out of afghanistan. and, wolf, the president also committing to not only get every american who wants to get out of afghanistan out of the country but also saying that that commitment extends to those afghans who helped the u.s. >> let me be clear. any american who wants to come home, we will get you home. >> reporter: tonight president

the new york times is reporting that the defense secretary lloyd austin will make his recommendation few days. joining us now is courtney kelly, and paul reich off, the founder of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, host of the independent american's podcast. it's great to see you both. courtney, tell me first where this stands and if you have any tea leaves that you can read, about what the defense secretary lloyd austin is inclined to recommend. >> he's inclined to make this mandatory for u.s. service members, and i think we will see this in the next couple of days, that that announcement will come out. he's already telegraphed that by the way. and president biden said last week, he wanted the defense department to look at this. you mentioned that the d.o.d. has a complicated history, and that's the deal with the issue, the crux of the issue. we have been hearing from people close to secretary austin that they did not want to make this mandatory, because of the military's history with these mandatory vaccines, like the anthrax vaccine. there has been reticence to make thi

lloyd austin and this millie guy?y are just politicians now trying to keep their jobs and kissing but. that's about all i got to say. host: do you think military service should be a requirement of being able to run for president? caller: it sure is an asset. without a military mind you don't understand how to treat the people or what they think. host: family members of veterans out of magnolia, texas. candy, good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i have half of my family is military and him to pull out the did is ridiculous. he doesn't know what he's doing. first you take out the people that actually helped the army. you take them out first. and then after that you go in you take all of the supplies that we have their. then you take out the military. to do it this way, he just at thousands of people killed for no reason. this guy does not know what he's doing. he never has for 50 years. that's all i have to say. innocent people are dying because of him. joe biden. horrible president. host: that is

they haven't been able to get in kabul through the airport. >> that's not what defense secretary lloyd austintanding by the president's side when he made that statement told house lawmakers on a call about a half hour later. multiple lawmakers on the call tell fox austin said there have, in fact, been reports of americans beaten by the taliban in kabul. the president also claims there has been no challenge to america's credibility on the world stage. >> as a matter of fact, the exact opposite i have got. the exact opposite thing is we are acting with dispatch. we are acting, committing to what we said we would do. >> the u.k.'s daily telegraph reads parliament model the president in contempt, condemning the dishonor of biden's withdrawal. still, biden took responsibility for his decision admitting he took action based on what he called consensus opinion despite warnings, including the confidential state department dissent cable in july telling of a potential rapid collapse. >> i made the decision the buck stops with me. i took the consensus opinion. >> finally the president said when the miss

now, this is video of defense secretary lloyd austin and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general mark milley arriving at the white house today. we understand that they met with president biden. >> the administration is aiming to evacuate tens of thousands of people from afghanistan by august 31st. but there appears to be a major disconnect between the stated u.s. evacuation plan and what's actually happening on the streets of kabul. okay, so what you're hearing are these pops of gunfire used to control the crowds. these are crowds of civilians trying to get inside the airport in kabul. >> a warning, these pictures we're about to show you are graphic. a photographer for "the l.a. times" captured this. you see these are children, one of them at least, people being beaten with whips and sticks and what that photographer described as taliban violence. the pentagon says that it is aware of this, quote, harassment and that u.s. military leaders are communicating with the taliban in kabul. now, the pentagon says in the last 24 hours, 18 military planes have flown roughly 2,000 passenger

today lloyd austin did not reveal what he advised the president but he said he supports his decision. >> i would just tell you that like everyone else, the president listened to our input. again, he conducted a very rigorous and thoughtful process and he made a decision and i support that decision. >> reporter: the last time the president spoke, he said that he was not aware of any instances where americans were having trouble with the taliban as they tried to get to the airport but a half hour later after the statement, secretary austin undercut that claim on a call with house lawmakers. yesterday americans were told not to travel to the airport because it was too dangerous. and as reports come out telling of afghans who died in in the crush of people flooding the gates, the administration is acknowledging the rescue is being hampered by a terror threat. >> you know, chuck, i know that the scenes around the airport are heart-breaking, large crowds of people wanting to leave. i know that there is complexity and there is turbulence on the ground in kabul and it's very risky and dangero

now we've just learned defense secretary lloyd austin has approved sending 1,000 additional troops to the country for a total of 6,000. more than double that were on the ground when the drawdown started. all day, americans have been ferried aboard choppers. those that haven't made it to safety yet are being told to shelter in place. the afghan president has already fled the country. other afghans are trying to do the same right now. they're filling up their cars and lining up at banks to grab any cash that they can before fleeing. the u.s. embassy is shuttered, and we're told the american flag has been lowered and removed. it will likely be replaced with a taliban banner in the coming days, a humiliating symbol of two decades of american and coalition sacrifice that now appear to have been in vain. security editor for us, nick paton walsh, is live in kabul, nick, we just learned that the presidential palace was officially handed over to the taliban. just remarkable images coming in all day long of this transfer of power, which has happened so quickly. what more can you tell us? >> rep

. >>> tomorrow afternoon, the secretary of defense lloyd austin, and general mark milley are set to deliverks about the end of the war in afghanistan. we'll have full coverage on that tomorrow night on the news on cnbc >>> while thousands who want to leave are still trapped inside the country, two paralympic athletes who escaped from kabul compete at the games this week in tokyo a sprinter for afghanistan missed his primary event last week but competed today in the long jump. his teammate will take part in tae kwon do competition later this week. she will become afghanistan's first woman athlete to participate as a paralympic games since athens in '04. paralympic officials originally said afghan athletes wouldn't be able to attend the games but the two-person team was able to get out of afghanistan last week as the story goes, they flew to paris, then to tokyo, where they landed on saturday paralympic officials say their participation will, and i quote, call for hope, peace and solidarity for the people of afghanistan and the world. >>> new dna technology could soon help identify the remain

. >> and listen to the nation's top defense headers, defense secretary lloyd austin and the chairman of the joint chiefs general mark milly today were clear there was no indication they said that the afghan government and military would collapse in 11 days. >> the intelligence clearly ind katde -- indicated multiple scenarios were possible. the collapse was estimated and range from weeks to months and even years. following or departure. there was nothing that i or anyone else say that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 111 days. >> so was it an intelligence failure? the intelligence ignored or the failure simply in the execution? those are some of the pressing questions for the biden administration tonight as it continues to try to explain the situation unfolding in afghanistan to the american people and the people of afghanistan. we're continuing this story and we'll be covering it from the white house to afghanistan now. i want to start with kaitlan collins. she's "outfront" live at the white house. kaitlan, the president was defensive tonight. >> reporter: he

some combo haven't met their targets. lloyd austin says american troops don't have the capacity to extend beyond the comp will therefore perimeter to help get more people of a canister on the international monetary funds. withholding $460000000.00 fullness . galveston. so i think a lack of clarity over government recognition. the u. s. has also for $9500000000.00 of africa and government assets, the entire reserve of its central bank. rescuers and hazy you're calling virgin supplies. as the humanitarian situation grows, more desperate survivors of saturday's earthquake of resorted to waiting at the airport to demand foods and aids. president joe biden says he disagrees with the world health organizations warning against giving true vice. this to show hasn't been plans to offer them from september. they stay with us. witness this next. oh, we understand the differences of conscious across the world that i'm taking out here. we're bringing the news and current affairs, entity, ah, era. let me get the last young ida bit upon finance, eminent and politic young jeff calling guy liberal 9 me ma

amid reports the taliban are blocking access to kabul airport , lloyd austin said the u.s. expects the militants to allow those with the right credentials to depart safely. the eu foreign policy chief has said that it will be necessary to talk to the taliban to secure the evacuation of foreign nationals and afghans who have worked with nato forces. this is part of efforts by the insurgents to set up a government. the british government says it will welcome up to 5000 afghan refugees. let's take a look at some other headlines around the world at this hour. police in hong kong have arrested for university students under the chinese territory's controversial national security law. they say the students were paying tribute to a pro-democracy advocate who stabbed a police officer and then killed himself. authorities have previously cautioned people against morning the attacker, describing it as tantamount to terrorism. the death toll from saturday's massive earthquake in haiti has risen to nearly 2000 people. emergency crews are searching for survivors. rescue efforts are being

lloyd austin wants president biden's approval or as soon as the fda makes it approvaled. >>> canada opened its borders to fully-vaccinated u.s. citizens and permanent residents going forward. they need their passport and evidence of vaccination or pcr test within 72 hours. if it's vaccination, you need to submit that 72 hours before arriving in the country. unvaccinated children 12 and under can enter with a vaccinated u.s. >>> no pass, no service. today france extended its covid-19 health pass to include restaurants, trains and commercial centers, requiring them to check for proof of vaccination before allowing people in. health passes are also required at hospitals, pools, museums and nightclubs in france. over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of people protested across the country, accusing french president macron of treating citizens unequally. vaccinations rose after his plans were announced last month. >>> a preliminary study from israel, it started to offer booster shots already to those over the age of 60. 4500 people were studied nearly a week after they received the third boost

as we mentioned, defense secretary lloyd austin announced today that all members of the u.s. military will be required to get the covid-19 vaccine no later than mid september. the deadline could be moved up if the fda gives the full approval of fuser vaccine. to visit canada, as long as you're fully vaccinated and tested negative within three days of the visit. and a federal judge in florida issued an order sunday that would allow norwegian cruise lines to require passengers to provide proof of vaccination. joining me now on both of these many more of these stories from two of the biggest covid hot spots in the country, nbc news reporter mara barrett in memphis, tennessee and ron hilliard in tallahassee, florida. i understand you got some breaking news on some of the developments taking place there in florida. tell us what you have learned in the last couple minutes. >> yeah. there are seven states in which the governors of the states have banned school districts from requiring their students to wear masks. florida is one of them. governor ron desantis even threatened to cut

officials, including defense secretary lloyd austin and secretary of state antony blinken, and it was after that video conference that the president authorized the deployment much an additional 1,000 troops to afghanistan bringing the total who are expected to be there to 5,000 as they are trying to pursue what he has described as an orderly and safe drawdown. not just of american personnel in the country, but also trying to help evacuate those afghan allies who aided the u.s. military over the course of that 20-year presence in the country. now, this planning for the evacuation had been underway since may. it was part of the overall planning over at the pentagon for this eventual drawdown. secretary of defense lloyd austin ordered two weeks ago some tabletop exercise toz go through what a potential evacuation would look like. the president in a statement yesterday said that the u.s. has made clear to the taliban that any action taken on the ground by them, that would put americans in danger and at risk, would be met with a swift and strong military response. so that is something to w

we just learned defense secretary lloyd austin and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, mark milley, will be briefing reporters this afternoon. this will be the first time we've heard from them since the taliban seized control of afghanistan. this comes as we get a new and clearer view of desperate afghans trying to get out of the country and a faltering u.s. response despite evacuation flights resuming at kabul's airport. reports of taliban fighters opening fire to disperse large crowds. witnesses reporting protesters being beaten by taliban fighters as well. cnn's clarissa ward is on the ground with reporting on the mayhem on the streets near kabul's airport. we'll bring that to you in just a moment. >>> we are moments away from a big announcement from president biden's covid response scene, that booster shots will be recommended for the general public. third doses could begin as soon as next month. dr. sanjay gupta has learned officials will be releasing data showing waning immunity among vaccinated americans. president biden will be speaking to all of this -- about all of this a

. >>> top of a new ew hour, and a moment now, we expect to hear from defense secretary lloyd austin and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general mark mi milley. they will given a update about the administration's plan to evacuate tens of thousands of people, americans and afghans, out of afghanistan by august 31. >> and there is chaos outside of the airport in kabul. you see here crowds of people coming to the airport, desperate to get a flight out on a u.s. military plane. but last hour the u.s. embassy in kabul which has now moved to the airport sent out a security alert saying that the u.s. can not ensure safe passage to the airport. >> with us now is our white house reporter and also oren liebermann. natasha, what are we learning about this security alert from the u.s. embassy? >> yeah, so this just out within the last hour, the state department is now telling u.s. citizens that they should consider traveling to kabul airport. this coming after yesterday officials were signaling that they should shelter in place. so a bit of a reversal there. but they are saying even if they do

the defense secretary from qatar met with lloyd austin. we know that visit happened. right now the flights have resumed. they're not growing to qatar. they're going to europe, ramstein in germany. so this mission is expanding away from the middle east, neil. >> neil: so lucas, if you can help me. my skull is thick. something gets through. one thing is the role of our military folks within the airport itself. that they do not go to that perimeter and that essentially seems like the marching orders for now. do you know that if americans are having difficulty getting to that perimeter let alone through it that that will change? that the move that we've seen out of countries out of germany, england and france to do just that, that we would do as well. we're just not doing it yet. >> neil, we've seen the reports and a video of a chaotic scene outside the airport. there's 6,000 troops on the ground, paratroopers. general milley said there's special operations forces on the ground as well and of course u.s. embassy personnel trying to process the afghans. we've heard reports

and they thought -- lloyd austin did try to fight back. you know that.n of 2009 who is the only one in the national security team who didn't want the surge and bob gates criticized him in his book about it. he now says i knew better. >> david axelrod nailed this in friday's "new york times" when he said this, the way it's ending, at least thus far, is more problematic and cuts against some of the core perceived strengths, competence, mastery of foreign policy, supreme empathy. it's as if his eagerness to end the war over ran the planning and execution. >> i think that's why this sticks. we should also note, this is a dangerous moment. you have people talking about the haqqani network. al qaeda-linked haqqanis taking security in kabul. it could get worse quickly. >> american publ not seeing it ♪♪ things you start when you're 45. coaching. new workouts. and screening for colon cancer. yep. the american cancer society recommends screening starting at age 45, instead of 50, since colon cancer is increasing in younger adults. i'm cologuard®. i'm convenient an

they are calling on defense secretary lloyd austin and chair of the joint chiefs mark milley to resignligence surrounding the disastrous withdrawal in afghanistan. here now congressman mike gallagher. congressman, welcome aboard. i know there is some -- okay. we can't hear him. now, if he was irish, is he irish, we should be able to here an irishman anywhere even if he has a microphone. we will get sound from him in a moment. also former -- well, he is the former marine counterintelligence officer and armed service committee member. maybe also now we need him to be an expert on it issues. oh, we do. so fixed it, right? we got him? all right. we have gallagher. thank you, sir, thank you for joining me tonight and especially, especially on this kind of an evening where we are still kind of stunned, i think it's safe to say that the american people are in shock because there is no matter what they hear from the president, it gets worse. we always expect maybe other times are just awful and he's going to be better this time. now we are genuinely in an emergency situation where we really ha

the silence from lloyd austin and joints chief chairman milley has been notable. as we get more warnings that the white house reportedly received ahead of the troop withdrawal. many military planners were not in favor of any of this. still, multiple officials tell nbc news that top military officials are furious at biden's national security team because they wanted to start evacuating vulnerable afghans as early as may but were not allowed to do so. here at nbc, as well as other news outlets new reporting that the intelligence community warned the white house of a potential collapse and that those warnings were ignored. of course, all of this is somewhat subjective. what one person thinks they brief and what another person think they heard for what it's worth. the white house will not confirm whether president biden received such a dire forecast from his national security team, but a senior intelligence official just released a statement which seems to be the first official acknowledgment from the administration that there was information and the possibility of a