he now works for the nonprofit "no one left behind." to l tonight, the fall of afghanistan. president biden addressing the american people late today, defending the u.s. withdrawal, telling americans, quote, i stand firmly behind my decision. the searing images from kabul, with the taliban now in control of the country. afghan citizens racing to an american military plane, a c-17, heading down the runway for takeoff. reports people were killed falling from the plane. and that others died in the chaos. disturbing video showing people desperate to board planes. video showing a child being pulled aboard, clinging to a rope. the u.s. tonight now says it is preparing to air lift ousandof americaembassy staffnd afghan interpreters and their families. those who briefly worked with the americans over 20 years. now fearing for their lives.

tonight, there are now chilling new reports about abuses against women and girls. concerns about freedoms gained in the last 20 years will now be lost. president biden and what he said today amid so many questions -- how u.s. intelligence, how his national security team, how the pentagon did not predict that this would happen so quickly. all day today, the urgent efforts to secure the airport. tonight, ian pannell in kabul, the situation at the airport right now. the taliban guarding the only way in. stephanie ramos with late reporting from the white house. and martha raddatz standing by. also, as we come on the air tonight in this country, the tropical storm slamming into the u.s. today. winds 65 miles per hour, warnings now posted in several states. and the next tropical system now ul earthquake. rob marciano standing by. and matt gutman on the ground in haiti, where the death toll is rising tonight.

more than 1,400 lives lost. search and rescue teams looking for survivors of that horrific earthquake. the race against time for survivors, with that new storm now hitting. and the coronavirus here in the u.s., tonight more than 1 121,000 new covid cases just in children in a week. and the new numbers for the cdc tonight for americans 49 and under and what they're seeing. a special edition of "world news tonight" starts now. good evening and it's great to have you with us here on a monday night and we begin tonight with the stunning collapse in afghanistan and late today, for the first time, president biden addressing the american people, saying, i stand squarely beh mydecion but saying the truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we

military there collapsed. but tonight, major questions about how u.s. intelligence, how the president's national security team did not see this coming. the taliban in control of kabul taking a little more than just a week to seize several large cities and the country. thousands of afghans desperate to get out. some seen chasing a u.s. military plane, a c-17 as it was taxiing for takeoff. there are reports several people fell from the plane and that some did not survive. thousands more running toward the airport amid gun fire and tonight, the taliban now in control of the only road in. this family scaling the wall, climbing around the bashed wire, pulling up a little girl with her backpack. taliban fighters are now patrolling the streets of the capitol and in control of the presidential palance after afghanistan's president fled the country. president biden before the cameras, saying he is deeply saddened by the facts on the ground, the images the world is now seeing, but saying, i do not

regret my decision, asking how many more american lives, adding, i will not repeat the mistakes made in the past. saying the events on folding reinforce it was time to get out, adding, americans should not be fighting a war that the afghans aren't willing to fight themselves. but there remains so many questions, the u.s. military working throughout the day to secure the airport and with the u.s. promising to get tens of thousands out of that country, how will this happen? here's our senior foreign correspondent ian pannell leading us off tonight from kabul. >> reporter: tonight, the panic, chaos and desperation at the kabul airport, then forced to shut down. thousands of afghans crowding onto the runway, surrounding this massive c-17 military jet, some clinging to the sides of the fuselage. horrifying local reports saying people could be seen falling from the plane as it took off. the despair at the airport, overwhelming. throngs of people swarming up the walkway, trying to board one

flight. forcing themselves inside another. the pilots unable to take off in the chaos. this disturbing video even showing a child being pulled aboard, hanging by that rope. this image obtained by defense one showing hundreds of people packed inside one plane. bashed wire separating the airport from the desperate masses stranded outside. dozens climbing the walls onto the airfield. at least seven people killed in the chaos. at one point, gun fire erupting on the tarmac. officials confirming u.s. troops shot and killed at least two armed men as thousands streamed onto the runway and at least one u.s. military service member injured. u.s. troops forced to hold their ground at gun point. the taliban announcing they're now in full control. 20 years of american and nato-led gains collapsing in stunning fashion, in just a matter of days. armed checkpoints around the city, the taliban now separating

foreigners from locals. militants seizing control of the main route to the airport, only agnt ng foreiro co tib w ihdhere's tveunng everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. pressure, president biden today saying he stands by his decision. >> i stand squarely behind my decision. after 20 years, i've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw u.s. forces. the truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had iges now seen around the world, afghans holding onto that c-17, skafling the airport walls? the president acknowledged h >> i am president of the united states of america.

and the i'm deeply saddened by the facts we now face. but i do not regret my decision. american troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves. >> reporter: and this is the new reality tonight. images from al jazeera showing taliban fighters inside the presidential palace. triumphantly declaring the restoration of the islamic emirate of afghanistan. the militants sbeeping through major cities in a week. afghan president ghani, likely in an effort to save his own life, fleeing the country he vowed to protect. saying he wanted to save kabul from bloodshed. tonight, the president signing off on deploying at least 6,000 troops to the region, assisting the emergency evacuation who su

u.s.-led mission. for a time, black smoke seen rising from the u.s. embassy. embassy staffers ordered to destroy sensitive equipment and documents, especially those containing images of the american flag that could be used as propaganda. the t the taliban are out in force. we've been driving for five minutes and what's really noticeable, we haven't seen one woman out on the streets. tonight, already chilling new reports of mounting human rights abuses against women and girls. many concerned the freedoms gained over the last 20 years in education and the workplace now in jeopardy. we visited this school for girls in april. >> my wish is to rise the woman voice, what really i want is to be a very well-known journalist. i will go for interview in front of the boss and if he asks me that, what is the main reason,

what is the main wish that you have, i would tell him that i want to sit in that chair that right now you're sitting. i really want that. >> reporter: but tonight, in a country where women leaders have only just been welcomed, they now fear for their lives. >> for sure, i am afraid for myself, my life, my freedom to work and my freedom to speak up. these are the things that i'm afraid of losing. >> and these are very real fears tonight. ian with from kabul. and i want ed to go back to thee evacuations. we know there's only one main road to the airport. the u.s. says it's prepared to transport 30,000 people out of the country. american personnel, afghans that helped the united states. but how do you get these thousands of people past taliban checkpoints, can this be done safely and what is the status of the airport tonight? >> reporter: yeah, david, at the moment, i can't say i see a workable plan at all. many of those who risked their

lives to help are similarly afraid to go out,he's one road into the airport, there's a taliban checkpoint there. meanwhile, we can hear the planes back in the sky, the airport has reopened. but this is still far from over. david? >> all right, ian pannell leading us off from kabul. thank you. and late today, president biden, as you saw, before the american people, saying the utz spent more than a trillion dollars in afghanistan, trained hundreds of thousands of aftghan forces. but what about that point ian made about the afghans desperate to get out, hiding from the taliban? and major questions tonight from capitol hill, from democrats and republicans. stephanie ramos at the white house. >> reporter: tonight, with the world stunned by the images in kabul, and how swiftly afghanistan has fallen to the taliban, president biden pointing fingers at his predecessor, former president

trump, who had already negotiated a deal with the taliban, reducing the number of american troops from 15,000 to 2,500 by may 1st. >> it was only a cold reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and oo back into combat in afghanistan. lurching into the third decade of conflict. >> reporter: biden said he was unwilling to do that. >> how many more lives, american lives, is it worth? how many endless rows of headstones at arlington national cemetery? i'm clear on my answer. i will not repeat the mistakes we've made in the past. >> reporter: biden is the fourth president after two republicans and two democrats, to deal with the american toll of the war in afghanistan. >> i know my decision will be criticized. but i would rather take all that criticism then pass this

decision onto another president of the united states, yet another one, a fifth one. >> reporter: the cost, biden says, is too high. >> we spent over a trillion dollars. equipped an afghan military force with some 300,000 strong. here's what i believe to my core. it is wrong to order american troops to step up in aftghani afghanistan's own armed forces would not. >> reporter: he spoke of the men and women in uniform who served in afghanistan and the families who have lost loved ones there. >> for those who have lost loved ones in afghanistan and for americans who have fought and served in -- served our country in afghanistan, this is deeply, deeply personal. it is for me, as well. >> so many people thinking about the veterans and their families watching all of this unfold.

stephanie ramos live at the white house tonight. stephanie, we know reaction pouring from capitol hill, democrats and republicans. we know the senate intel chair calling the images coming out of afghanistan, devastating, sand saying it is time to ask questions about why the u.s. wasn't better prepared. and the republican minority leader go much further tonight. >> reporter: mitch mcconnell said today he's argued with previous presidents about troop withdrawal before but he had this to say about biden's decision. "i think the president felt strongly about this obviously. he overruled his own military leaders to do it and he owns it." david? >> stephanie ramos live at the white house tonight. stephanie, thank you. one of the most painful consequences, the thousands of afghans who did help the u.s. over the 20-year war, hoping to get out, but now fearing they've been left behind. martha raddatz tonight, who recently traveled to afghanis afghanistan, this evening, you will hear from the afghan people who helped the u.s. in their own

words now and their very real fears about what's coming. >> reporter: tonight, as thousands of afghans try desperately to leave the country, this afghan mechanic who worked with american forces in afghanistan watches anxiously from his new home here in the states, thankful he was able to get out just in time. >> this week, i came here and next friday, it was under the taliban control. >> reporter: but now, he worried about loved ones back home who have no way out. >> god save them. and they should save themselveses, they should hide themselves. will they start searching for them or putting them in prison or killing them? we don't know. >> reporter: we met an afghanfu before the taliban swept into kabul. >> i know that i will be killed by the taliban. i will continue this fight.

>> reporter: abdul now in hiding, his fears greater than ever. we also met camilla in kabul who built her own business there. at the time, she said she wanted to stay there, to fight for women's rights. >> i came here because this is the time to be here in afghanistan and afghanistan needs us. >> reporter: but tonight, with the taliban in full control, we learned camilla was able to escape, something so many others are still trying to do. >> that is the hope for so many others. martha, the world now watching, if the u.s. and allies can get others out of kabul safely. we'll be watching that. inwanted to ask you another question. we both have traveled to afghanistan, we witnessed this first-hand. the u.s. training of afghan forces. we saw the americans watching over the safghans, giving them the tools and the training. we witnessed their training on the ground there. i know you saw it, as well. but so many reports over the last 24 to 48 hours that the afghan forces, martha, simply stood down.

>> reporter: and they did, david. we have heard over the years, you heard it, too, the military touting the capability of the afghan forces, but after 20 years, $83 billion, they just laid down their rifles in many instances. this is something the u.s. is going to have to take a hard look at to see what was wrong with that training. david? >> martha raddatz with us all day long here. martha, ian, stephanie, thank you. and our coverage of afghanistan will continue on "nightline" and first thing in the morning on "good morning america." and president biden will sit down with george stephanopoulos this wobd for his first interview since his first withdrawal from afghanistan. in the meantime tonight, we move onto the other news this monday evening. the major tropical storm slamming into florida today. torm hitting haitierngthquake wel you the sne i. ahe i the u

strengthening all day before making landfall. mid-atlantic. let's go to rob marciano tracking it all tonight. rob? >> reporter: david, i can tell you, certainly felt like a hurricane coming ashore just a few hours ago. still a formidable storm to our north and east where damaging winds and tornadoes are a possibility over the next couple of hours. the watches remain up until 8:00 and the tropical rains, all of it, will be drifting north. the flood watches now into north carolina. this rain will get all the way up into the northeast. grace just south of haiti now. the next 12 hours will be difficult with flooding rains, potentially mudslides. into the gulf of mexico and mexico this weekend. david? >> rob marciano, thank you. and as rob just said, tropical depression grace now bearing down on haiti at this hour. more misery there after that 7.2

magnitude earthquake. thousands are now homeless. more than 1,400 are dead. hundreds more missing tonight. families desperately searching for survivors with little government help. foreign aid has begun to arrive, but it's just the beginning. the u.s. coast guard flying the critically injured out, but the need tonight is staggering. abc's matt gutman is in haiti tonight. >> reporter: in day here tonight, dimming hope in those mounds of pulverized concrete and increasingly scenes of anguish. hotels and churches crumbled. so many are dead here that caskets are being driven out on mopeds. the earthquake tore this voodoo temple right off the mountain. they believe there are more bodies in the rubble and this goes on for house after house. one of the houses here belonged to lucia. we arrived as the grave diggers were finishing their work. under the upturned earth, her

daughter. she says two of her daughters were killed, her son, badly injured. one of her survivingdaht ey received noughtee showed me y edar the u.s. coast guard evacuate as many as they could fit on those choppers. >> it's chaos right now. no coordination of resources. >> reporter: including the chaotic distribution of food and water. and with that tropical depression sweeping in, we asked lucia and her neighbors if dhail have to sleep outdoors tonight. all of them saying yes. david, that tropical depression means those u.s. coast guard helicopters we saw medevacing the injured will be grounded. that means search and rescue teams will be suspended ed and unimaginable night of misery for those trapped in the rubble. >> matt, thank you.

and back here at home now, and to the coronavirus, what the casein children since the vid-19apad acrhospdmissifr highest point in the pandemic. in alabama, florida, georgia, mississippi and texas, icus are at over 90% capacity. >> we have our nursing teams, our physician teams, getting stretched thinner and thinner to take care of all the covid patients that are throughout the hospital and our icus right now. >> reporter: and concern growing with the number of pediatric covid cases at the highest point of the pandemic -- 121,000 new cases reported in just the last week. this graph from the cdc showing the spike in new hospital admissions for children with covid, an increase of more and as students return to school

today, the debate over masks continues. one day after the texas supreme court upheld governor abbott's executive ban on mask mandates, dallas independent school district superintendent michael . >> we are going to ask them to comply and give them a mask. we're going to give them a little bit of time. if they don't, we'll ask them to leave and if they don't, then we will have a place for them separated from everyone else. >> reporter: david, today, pfizer and biontech submitted early day to the fda that shows a third dose of their vaccine appears to show immunity levels that are far greater, significantly greater than just two doses, but they have not yet sought authorization from the fda. david? >> we're going to be tracking that in the months ahead. marcus, thank you. when we come back, news on new york governor andrew cuomo tonight. what state lawmakers have now decided tonight. and for the first time ever, a water shortage declared for the colorado river, and what this means for several states tonight. ♪ when you have nausea, ♪ ♪ heartburn, ingestion, upset stomach... ♪

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building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. >> scenes of absolute chaos and terror, hundreds swarming planes in afghanistan, trying to escape. and today president biden addressed our nation. pres. biden: afghanistan leaders gave up and fed the country. american troops cannot and should not be fighting in the war and dying in a war that afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves. >> with that we say good afternoon and thanks for joining us. i am larry beil. kristen: and i am kristen sze. you are watching abc 7 at 4:00. larry: will begin in afghanistan. the taliban has taken over kabul, the capital city. at the airport, thousands desperately trying to flee the country. kristen: abc news reporter iq has the latest on the following afghanistan. ike: today, images emerging from

kabul. this video of afghans swarming a u.s. military plane leaving the airport. long lines filled with people trying to leave the country. helicopters flying away. the throng of people can be seen from satellite images. ian hamel on the ground in kabul. >> behind them, the sound of gunfire. [screaming]. ike: the united nations holding an emergency session to deal with afghanistan, and president biden coming back to the white house from camp david to address the nation. pres. biden: the truth is this did unfold more quickly than we anticipated. so, what has happened? afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country. that afghan military collapsed. sometime without even trying to fight. ike: u.n. secretary general antonio guterres telling the