We will have the latest on the cities effort to curb the from nbc news world headquarters in new york, i m joshua johnston. Welcome to the week. We begin tonight with evacuations from afghanistan. By all accounts, it is chaotic outside the airport in kabul. Thousands of people are desperate to flee the country, as the taliban consolidate power. The british military said today that seven people were killed in a stampede of people who were trying to get into the airport. The biden administration has come under fire for how it has handled these evacuations. The situation could be hurting the presidents performance with voters too. A new nbc poll out today shows the president s approval rating has dipped low 50% for the first time in his presidency. Today, he acknowledged the realities on the ground, but defended his administration s handling of the situation. Let me be clear, evacuation of thousands of people from kabul is going to be hard and painful no matter when it started, when we be
Joshua johnson? welcome to the week. The sun is working. It s infrastructure weekend on capitol hill, we heard from kristen cinema of arizona and rob portman of ohio. They just gave short speeches on the senate floor. They have been among those leading the negotiations on this bill. Now we still don t have the final text, but the plan is to file that bill is a substitute amendment tonight. The current bill is just over 2700 pages long. So far. The senate will then move to the amendment process, where we are told this should be completed in a matter of days. But the bipartisan bill is just half of the story. Majority leader chuck schumer promise once that legislation has passed, he will mediately move to the budget reconciliation instructions. Those blue principle at the senate begin working on a 3. 5 trillion dollar social health and environmental bill. Sometimes we ve called it the human infrastructure bill. Using reconciliation to pass that, one would allow for a simple majority vote
Eighties. Do you remember the movie the princess bride? and billy crystal s character, miracle max? he came to mind for some of us when we were thinking about the few days in congress. Especially with infrastructure. We could soon know if the bipartisan deal is alive or dead or maybe, as lyrical max would say, it s only mostly dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. Senators from both parties say that they re close to finalizing a deal, maybe as soon as tomorrow. We are down to the last couple of items and i think you re gonna see a bill monday afternoon. We re about 90% of the way there were kind of legislative language with colleagues and with staff and i feel good about getting it done this week. We have one issue outstanding. But that outstanding issue is big. How much to spend on transportation projects. Democrats want to follow what s known as the 80 20 rule. 20% will go to public transit and 80% would go to highways but many republican senators are advocating for a smaller share to
Also, to be able to track these immigrants and if they don t qualify for asylum, they will be swiftly deported. That is a very big shift from the way this has been handled thus far. Thank you, julia. That s nbc s julia ainsley with the latest on the situation at the southern border tonight. Well, it is the top of the hour and it s very good to be with you tonight. We are waiting to learn the next steps for the house select committee that s investigating january 6th. Lawmakers huddled behind closed doors last night, after some emotional testimony this week. Simone biles is out for at least two of the four individual competitions in the olympic finals, after sparking a big conversation about mental health. Hers is just one big story this week about the ways we show up for each other. To give a teammate a break, to defend democracy, to stop a pandemic, or anything else that matters to us. From nbc news world headquarters in new york, i m joshua johnson. Welcome to the week. The working we
Immigrants and if they don t qualify for asylum, they will be swiftly deported. That is a very big shift from the way this has been handled thus far. Thank you, julia. That s nbc s julia ainsley with the latest on the situation at the southern border tonight. Well, it is the top of the hour and it s very good to be with you tonight. We are waiting to learn the next steps for the house select committee that s investigating january 6th. Lawmakers huddled behind closed doors last night, after some emotional testimony this week. Simone biles is out for at least two of the four individual competitions in the olympic finals, after sparking pa big conversation about mental health. Hers is just one big story this week about the ways we show up for each other. To give a teammate a break, to defend democracy, to stop a pandemic, or anything else that matters to us. From nbc news world headquarters in new york, i m joshua johnson. Welcome to the week. The working weekend on capitol hill tonight a