eli: breaking news just in from the white house as we track the latest escalations in the russia-ukraine crisis. it is the first reaction now from the biden administration to what we saw unfold at the kremlin with rush president putin making moves to formalize the russian-backed pro-separatist russian regions in eastern ukraine. jen psaki in a statement saying in part we have anticipated a move like this from russia and are ready to respond immediately and saying that president biden will be issuing an executive order in responsible soon essentially looking to have putin and russia pay an economic price and adding that these measures, she says, are separate from and would be addition to more severe economic measures. i want to bring in nbc s peter alexander who has raced back, courtney cubii, andrea mitchell and former deputy national security adviser ben williams-rhodes and msnbc
fear for their own safety. the list is now including thousands of afghan interpreter and including those working for u.s. contract programs, and u.s. media, and governmental programs and it extends to the spouses and children, and a few hundred afghan interpreters and families are already here, and they arrived at fort lee in early afghanistan. the fear is real with the taliban targeting major cities and exacting revenge on the suspected enemies. we bring in courtney cubii and host of the nightline podcast matt zeller. he is embedded combat adviser with the afghan forces. he is also author of officer without ties.
list to kill these people. there are not flights between the afghan cities anymore. they are all shutdown other than mogshariv to kabul. and so it is clear there is a sustained pipeline of fighters streaming in from pakistan uninterrupt and with that odds against them and the fact that we are going to stop bombing from the 31st of august, i don t know how we save these people s lives unless we do something bold like go in to get them ourselves. a dire situation indeed. matt zeller thank you for sharing the story and courtney cubii, we appreciate your great reporting as always. turning to the headlines coming out of the tokyo olympic, and today, they are not about medals and results a. 24-year-old sprinter sought
so, starting with courtney, what do with know about the changes of the program, and is this an admission by the biden administration that the people are facing growing danger as the taliban is retaking territory? in making the announcement to open up the new category of visas and they are called the priority-2 or p-2, the biden administration is acknowledging tens of thousands of people who are in grave danger as the taliban are making an offensive all over the country, geoff. but there is a big difference between the special immigrant visas that we have been talking about for several weeks now, and this new p-2 category. the sivs who came in, and the first group came in last week, and another group this morning to fort lee, and now hundreds of the afghans here in virginia being processed. this next p-2 category however, they are individuals who have to get themselves out of afghanistan on their own, and then begin the process of
and we have new developments this afternoon in that deadly condo collapse in surfside, florida, that killed at least 97 people. a judge ruled today that victims and family members who suffered losses will receive a minimum settlement of $150 million. and that s just to start. that s only initial compensation. that number doesn t include any proceeds that could come from multiple lawsuits that have been filed in connection with that building collapse. and turning now to that smoke from western wild fires that has spread across the country, haze is blanketing eastern skies, causing vibrant red sunsets, but as stunning as some of the images are, the smoke is triggering air quality alerts and putting vulnerable communities at risk. nbc news correspondent kerry sanders in charlotte, north carolina, with more. reporter: jeff, the air