announcer: live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with robyn curnow. thanks so much for joining me this hour. there are certainly new fears the taliban could make moves against afghanistan s capital in just a matter of days. so far the militant group s advances are being met with little resistance. the taliban now control half the country s provincial capitals as you can see from this map, all taken, all taken within the past week. now the country s second largest city kandahar is among the latest to be captured. many observers see that as the beginning of the end for the country s u.s.-backed government. the u.s. embassy in kabul isn t taking any chances, staff are being told to destroy sensitive material while several thousand u.s. troops will be arriving to provide security and possibly evacuate personnel. the pentagon spokesman says afghan forces need to step up their response. take a listen. certainly deeply concerning the speed with which the taliban has bee
higher. we re getting video from the ground. look at this street filled with rubble and dust in the air. the man in the video you re seeing right now saying there are a lot of wounded people on the street. more images show destruction as a building was shaken off kilter. it must be all too familiar for so many haitians. they re still feeling the impact of a major earthquake in 2010 that killed at least 220,000 people. remember, this country is in the midst of another crisis. haiti s president was brutally assassinated in his bedroom last month in front of his wife. today s unfolding disaster could be compounded by this. tropical storm grace is expected to hit the area as soon as monday. it just doesn t stop for the people in haiti. cnn correspondent patrick oppmann joins me from havana, cuba. patrick, this is just another devastating blow to haiti. what are you learning about the extent of the damage right now? reporter: well, there are whole areas of this part of haiti whe
situation? reporter: as you mentioned, the haitian prime minister has confirmed that there are deaths, and we re expecting those deaths to be significant and casualties also to be significant. i spoke to people in port-au-prince earlier this morning and the person i spoke to did not report any damage from this earthquake, that he could see, whereas back in 2010, the damage in port-au-prince, the capital of haiti, was catastrophic. this earthquake hit further to the south. so there s at least hope that the human cost will not be as cataclysmic as it was back in 2010. this earthquake comes at a difficult time for haiti. last month the prime minister sorry, the president, the head of state, jovenel moise, was assassinated. foreign powers have selected the acting head of state, the prime minister, a core group led by the united states selected that prime minister. and joe biden has just been informed of the earthquake and he has authorized a humanitarian response to be headed
the biden administration is scrambling in the face of this stunningly fast unexpected fall after the u.s. withdrawal. u.s. at this point now sending some 3,000 troops to help safely evacuate staff from the u.s. embassy in kabul. that is where cnn s clarissa ward is joining us from this morning. this is, this is something to behold how swiftly this is moving, clarissa. reporter: it truly is. i don t think anyone could have predicted this in their wild imagination. and the thing that is so striking here on the ground in kabul, brianna, is the deafening silence from the afghan government. we haven t heard any from them anything from them literally as this country is unraveling. you mentioned all these provincial capitals have fallen. kandahar, the second largest city in the country, a city with huge strategic significance, huge spiritual symbolism for the taliban. that used to be the capital of their islamic emirate, and yet we are not hearing anything from the governmen
shots. nick watt is covering it all for us. some people with compromised immune systems are getting good news. they now have final approval to get a third dose of the vaccine. reporter: that s right, jim. and here s the deal. we have all heard the talk about break-through infections, people who have been vaccinated but catch covid anyway. well, today the cdc told us that immunocompromised people make up less than 3% of the u.s. population. but more than 30% of those break-through infections. so this is a big step towards dealing with that problem. an additional vac seep dose for the immunocompromised who might not have had a great response to two doses green lit by the fda last night. this afternoon, cdc vaccine advisers also voted in favor. 11 1 yes. 0 no. the is have it. it would have to be in an orderly fashion. so you would not want to say, okay, now everybody is going to go getting a third boost. it will be an orderly fashion, in a timely way. reporter: in florid