course they observe the hijab, that is it. helicopters ferry us diplomats from their embassy but the us secretary of state says the two decade long us military operation it is up to the afghans themselves, it is up to the afghan government, the taliban, to decide the way forward for the country, including kabul. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. taliban forces have entered the afghan capital, making their takeover of the country 20 years after being ousted from power all but complete. president ashraf ghani has fled reportedly to tajikistan. in a statement on facebook ashraf ghani has said he left the country in order to avoid bloodshed. it s his first comments since leaving. meanwhile this picture has emerged and it s believed to be of the taliban inside the presidential palace in kabul. the remaining staff of the us embassy have been operating from kabul airport but even there the security situation is said to have been deteriorating. it s
next. pain and regret. hospitals are running out of beds. plus new era. new york will welcome its first female governor after andrew cuomo resigns in disgrace. no one will ever describe my administration as a toxic work environment. what is her plan to clean up new york politics? new york s lieutenant governor kathy hochul joins me ahead. hello. i m jack tapper in washington with the state of our union watching a tragic foreign policy disaster unfold before our eyes. weeks before the anniversary of 9/11 and the deadline of president biden s complete withdrawal of u.s. troops in afghanistan, the taliban having seized much of that country they re now at the gates of the capital city of kabul. their representatives are meeting with leadership inside the afghan presidential palace. the rapid crumbling of the country has caught the biden white house flat footed. on saturday after pulling out almost all of the 2500 service members there when he took office, president biden
sources tell cnn that president ashraf gone any has fled his country, and in desperation, long lines of afghan citizens are trying to withdraw cash from atms and, if they can, trying to seek flights out of the country. as all of this unfolds, the u.s. is sending more u.s. troops into afghanistan, 5,000 total, to ensure that president biden calls an orderly and safe drawdown. when the president came to office, he had a decision to make. the previous administration negotiated an agreement with the taliban that said that our forces, our remaining forces, only about 2,500, would be out of the country on may 1st. the idea that the status quo could have been maintained by keeping our forces there i think is simply wrong. we have team coverage on the ground in afghanistan and across the globe to bring you all the breaking developments. cnn s nick paton walsh is in kabul. describe what you re seeing as the taliban enters that capital city. reporter: well, again, after hearing t
last stronghold of the afghan government. afghan president ghani has now fled the country. taliban fighters have entered the capital city of kabul where the american flag has been taken down from the u.s. embassy as the u.s. undertakes an urgent evacuation of american personnel. the rapid crumbling of the country shocked the u.s. and u.s. allies and caught the biden white house flat-footed on saturday. after pulling out almost all of the 2,500 troops when he took office, he s deploying troops back to get americans safely out of kabul, warning of a swift u.s. response if the taliban inte interfered. sources tell cnn the majority of the u.s. embassy staff are now out of the embassy compound. that s a sharp tsharound when president biden called it highly unlikely the taliban would overrun the country, at the time striking many experts in his own administration as unrealistic and prompting questions as to whether biden was cherry-picking intelligence or indifferent to it. as amer