Announcer this is cnn Breaking News. Good Monday Morning to you, im jim sciutto. Good news this morning, Breaking News, the fda has granted full approval to the pfizer Covid19 Vaccine. This is a key step in getting more americans vaccinated. It comes more than nine months after the first dose of the Pfizer Vaccine was administered in this country. The decision could motivate millions of americans who still have not received a vaccine to finally get the shot. The data is behind it. It saves lives. It keeps people out of the hospital. According to the Surgeon General, this could also open the door for businesses, universities, other institutions to impose or enforce vaccine requirements. This Breaking News about the Pfizer Vaccine comes as Vaccination Rates are slowly starting to tick up. Again, three days in a row of more than A Million vaccines in a day. Lets start with cnns senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen as well as dr. Paul sax, clinical director of the division of infec
Government collapsing swiftly after insurgents overranke provincial capitals over the span of the last week and this morning, commercial flights in and out of Kabuls Airport have been cancelled. The panic among afghans visible at the airport. People flooding the tarmac, desperate to flee the country. Embassy officials warning americans not to travel to Kabuls Airport because it is unsafe. The u. S. Rushing an additional 1,000 Combat Troops to secure the perimeter for evacuation sites. France, New Zealand are evacuating their embassy as the taliban claiming to control 90 of the government buildings In Kabul after afghan president fled the country. President biden is at Camp David and is still there and was briefed over the weekend. Now, whether or not one agrees with the president s decision to withdraw all u. S. Troops, theres no question the White House was wrong about the length of time they had. Wrong about the strength of the afghan military. Wrong about the reach of the taliban. N
Some lost their lives. People hearing gunshots around the airport as well. Cnn has just confirmed u. S. Troops on the ground in Kabul Shot and killed two armed men at the airport after they fired on u. S. Forces and a Defense Moofl said they believe this is a isolated since debit. They are temporarily suspending the airport after the afghans flooded it. The u. S. Has dispatched also an additional 1,000 Combat Troops now bringing the total up to 6,000 new troops in the country to secure the Airport Perimeter and help get american diplomatic personnel and others out safely. Lets begin with Nick Paton Walsh With Kabul with the situation at the airport. What we just saw was complete chaos. Anything but an orderly draw down. Reporter yeah, i have to tell you, Hamid Karzai International Airport is the symbol of The American presence, how to ferry in and out u. S. Diplomats over this 20 Year Presence and to see People Clamoring desperate to jump on to cargo aircraft, startling scenes and the
At that airport after they fired on american troops. The u. S. Believes it was an isolated incident. The situation in afghanistan spiraling so quickly that President Biden deployed an additional 1,000 troops to help evacuate americans and others. The total number is about 6,000 troops and we just got word that President Biden will speak this afternoon. The White House this morning defending the Exit Strategy from americas longest war. We went To Afghanistan for one reason, which is to get the people who attacked us on 9 11. A decade ago we got osama bin laden. We degraded al qaeda. We stop terrorists attacked against the united states from afghanistan for 20 years. But what the president not prepared to do was enter a third decade of conflict with thousand more troops which was his only other choice to fight in the middle of a Civil War that the afghan Army Wouldnt Fight for itself. That is the President S national Security Adviser this Morning And Cnn has learned that President Bidens
Im Pamela Brown in washington. You are in the Cnn Newsroom on a very busy saturday evening. Additional u. S. Troops heading to afghanistan this weekend, at the same time taliban militants there appear on track to retake the entire country. President biden is sending 5,000 more forces to afghanistan. He says the added troops are to ensure, quote, an orderly and safe drawdown as they help americans get out. But millions of afghans are desperate to escape the escalation of violence in their country. As the taliban take over more ground at a speed that has jolted officials in the biden administration, five more Capital Cities fell to the taliban in the last 24 hours. Now 22 of the countrys 34 provincial capitals are under taliban control. Only two major cities, kabul and jalalabad, remain under the afghan government. Take a look. This timelapse shows the speed the taliban gained territory. See the Red Spread Starting in midapril after the president announced the u. S. Withdrawal. Last hour