is "cnn newsroom." ♪ u.s. president joe biden will soon be on his way here to atlanta, georgia, just days after eight people were killed in a shooting rampage at a local spas, six of them were asian women. biden was supposed to promote his huge coronavirus relief package, but will now instead offer his support to the community. he will be meeting with the mayor as well as state officials and asian-american leaders. vice president kamala harris who is a black asian-american is also on the trip. police say it's too soon to tell if the shootings were racially motivated about you that doesn't mean this had nothing to do with race as cnn's amara walker reports. >> our investigation is looking at everything, so nothing is off the table. >> reporter: as investigators take a hard look into what motivated the suspect to go on a mass shooting spree in the atlanta area that left eight dead including six asian women, comments and actions from the captain of the cherokee county sheriff's department are creating backlash. the spoekts man allegedly posted an image of this racist shirt last april on a facebook page that's since been deleted encouraging people to buy the shirt that reads "covid-19 imported virus from china." he also made these controversial remarks at a press difference wednesday. >> he understood the gravity of it and he was pretty much fed up, had been kind of at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. >> reporter: the cherokee county sheriff's department releasing this statement expressing regret and saying in part the captain did not intend to express empathy or imp thee for the suspects. baker has been removed as a spokesperson in the case. some in the asian community angry that a law enforcement official would diminish the dee prafty of a suspect's killing spree. >> he sounds like a spokesperson for the killer. this is something where we should not be trying to try to down play what happened, we should be speaking about it with the rawness of which it is, which is a mass murder. >> reporter: at the same press conference baker saying the suspect indicated he had a sex addiction, claiming the attacks were not racially motivated. >> the fact that he is characterizing it as eliminating some sort of sex addiction problem is dehumanizing and directed at the women that worked in this industry. >> but we also need to look at these incidents and crimes with a wider lens and a wider perspective. we hope that law enforcement are doing due diligence. >> reporter: on capitol hill today republicans, mostly silent on the wave of recent attacks against asian-americans. at a previously scheduled hearing on anti-asian hate today republican chip roy claimed members of congress were trying to police free speech. >> i'm not going to be ashamed of saying i oppose the chi coms, i opposed the chinese communist party. we shouldn't be worried about having a committee of members of congress policing our rhetoric because some evil doers go engage in some evil activity as occurred in atlanta, georgia. >> reporter: meanwhile, the investigation continues. authorities have not ruled out hate crime charges. long remains behind bars without bound in a cherokee county jail. in a statement his lawyer said the alleged shooter waived his right to a first court appearance. the fear among those in the asian community is palpable, some u.s. cities have ramped up patrolling areas in new york and seattle. the south korean consulate in atlanta issuing warnings for koreans to take extra caution due to the attacks. >> i am very cautious, but i am more concerned about my niece and my nephew and of course my parents, they're elderly. i tell them, don't go out unless you need to, call me, i will run the errands for you. >> and that report was from cnn's amara walker. we're getting some details on those killed in the cherokee county shooting. 33-year-old delaina yaun was one of them. her sister spoke to cnn. >> she was a family-going person, she liked to -- her family came first. everything was her family. she had such a wonderful, happy, upbeat personality. we were planning the summer and doing some fun activities and now i don't get to do that with her and it's extremely hard to even think b i'm waiting for her to come walking through the door and to not get that phone call, it's devastating. >> yaun was the mother of two kids including an eight-year-old daughter. her sister said she and her husband went to the spa together. her husband survived. the u.s. found itself in a two-front diplomatic war of words thursday with china, its modern economic rifle and with russia it's old cold far foe. russian president vladimir putin is responding furiously after mr. biden agreed that he was a killer. he wished mr. biden good health and challenged him to a live debate. we will have more on that in a moment. thursday saw a chilly start to face-to-face meetings in alaska between u.s. and chinese officials. normally bland introductory statements ended up as an exchange of diplomatic barbs. the u.s. secretary of state vowed to pursue a variety of issues. >> we will also discuss our deep concerns with actions by china including in hong kong, taiwan, cyber attacks on the united states, economic coercion toward our allies. each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains local stability. that's why they're not merely internal matters and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today. >> later u.s. officials described the first closed-door talks as substantive, but on camera there was a chain of rebuttals as each side responded to the other's remarks. >> -- reminded the u.s. side of paying attention to its tone and -- [ speaking foreign language ] >> the chinese side felt compelled to make this speech because of the tone of the u.s. side. [ speaking foreign language ] >> translator: isn't this the intention of the united states judging from what -- or the way that you have laid your opening remarks, that it wants to speak to china in a condescending way from a position of strength. >> all right. for more on all this let's bring in kristie lu stout in hong kong. not the smoothest start there, each blaming the other for starting all of this. what's your take on this bizarre back and forth. >> this is two days of talks and the first session wrapped up a few hours ago. we heard from a senior biden administration official saying that that round of talks was substantive, it was serious and it was direct, but, boy, it did get off with this very rocky start. opening remarks in this high-level dialogue between u.s. and china in alaska descending into this rather heated confrontation and it was all caught on cam ration but it's not really a surprise. look, we know that the u.s. and china are locked in this very complicated frenemy relationship, this is a moment of unprecedented tension between these two world powers on a variety of fronts from the tech war, trade war, fate and future of taiwan, democracy in hong kong, human rights in kpin i don't think. now, biden and it's administration they have sigg ld that they have continue with trump era pressure on china, especially in regards to trade, but a key difference is this, both sides are talking right now. last month in february chinese presid president xi jinping. there are many points of contention between u.s. and chois but there are areas of cooperation like pandemic response and climate change. we have to see what happens day two of the meeting which commences tomorrow. >> thank you so much. christy lou stout in hong kong. tension right side rising between the u.s. and russia as the kremlin fires back at scathing comments from president joe biden. vladimir putin is challenging him to hold online talks in the next few days, something the white house seems to be pouring cold water on. cnn's matthew chance has more on their deteriorating diplomatic relationship. >> i know you and you know me. >> reporter: this is the moment u.s. russian ties fraught by fresh allegations of the election meddling and the poisoning of a key russian opposition figure plunged to a new low. >> do you think he is a kill. >> reporter: >> uh-huh. i do. >> reporter: just a few words president biden signaled his intolerance of russian misdeeds and unlike his predecessor who faund over the russian leader vladimir putin, a willingness to call out the kremlin strong man. he looks relaxed, marking the seventh anniversary of the russia's annexation of crimea but putin is clearly furious, facing the promise of yet more painful u.s. sanctions in the weeks ahead. he's recalling russia's ambassador from washington for consultations, first time that's happened in decades. and issuing a snide response to the killer insult. i wish him well and good health and i mean that without any joking or irony, putin said of biden, via videoconference. some cast it as a veiled threat from a leader who kills his critics. but it looks more like a wink to rampant speculation on russian state tv alleging that biden's mental health is faltering due to old age. maybe he just forgot to take his pills, one state anchor jokes, about the biden remarks. it's age-related dementia says another, a triumph, but political insanity. putin also trolled biden by citing an old russian children's joke to deflect the killer tag. you are what you call others, he says. it takes one to know one, in other words. the playground retort that sums up the worst diplomatic spat between these nuclear rivals for years. it was a falling out waiting to happen when biden first met putin as u.s. vice president in 2011 he says he told him he didn't think he had a soul and warned the russian leader not to run for another kremlin term. ten years on with fewer than 100 days in office president biden has toughened his russian stance even more. matthew chance, cnn, moscow. italy, france and cyprus say they will resume using the astrazeneca vaccine as early as today. germany, spain and the netherlands will also say they begin giving astrazeneca shots again, this after a safety review by european regulators found no evidence the drug caused blood clots, but the european medicines agency didn't completely rule it out. the medical experts concluded astrazeneca is safe and effective and that the risk of serious side effects was extremely low. the question now is whether skeptical europeans can be won over. we begin our coverage with melissa bell in rome and fred pleitgen in berlin. fred, massively important decision for germany and the rest of the eu. take us through what this means. >> reporter: well, it is indeed a massively important decision because the ast zep can a vaccine is so key within the european unions and the country schemes to get their vaccine rollout moving faster. if you look at germany, for instance, they were starting a massive rollout of the astrazeneca vaccine and it was key to germany's strategy to get that campaign going even faster than before was to try to administer the astrazeneca vaccine because of course it's very easy to store and also to transport in general practitioners' offices. they were hoping for a boost in vaccinations in this country. all of that was put on hold when the astrazeneca vaccine itself was put on hold. now what a lot of these german states, german cities are doing is they're trying to get that vaccination campaign on track again as fast as possible. we spoke to two states here in germany, one being the state the brandenburg. they say because they've canceled so many appointments where people were supposed to get astrazeneca, they believe they can start administering that vaccine starting on monday. berlin they say they want to do that today, they want to get it going as fast as possible. they believe there might be queues at these vaccine center. because of the fast rising covid numbers in germany and other countries around europe as well the european nation are saying they believe right now it's paramount to vaccinate as many people as possible as fast as possible and astrazeneca very key to that for these european countries. >> absolutely. let's go to melissa now. italy will also restart with astrazeneca. i understand you're waiting for a press conference from the health minister. what are you expect to go hear? >> reporter: that's right, kim. what we expect it to hear from the health minister and the head of italy's national agency and it's going to be all about confidence. that's what european authorities are really worried about. the rollout may have picked up again but are happy going to be happy to take it give it you will all the doubts we've seen these last few days. european are naturally a skeptical bunch, there were fears even before all of this when the pandemic first began and the question of vaccines first raised its head that there would be an issue with enough people getting them. we know that one poll has shown in france that the raw of the last few days has left 22% of the population having enough confidence in the vaccine and here in italy as well, we were at a vaccination center on monday when they announced the stopping of the rollout and the people turned away. we said if the advice changes and rollout picks up will you come back and get it and they said not the astrazeneca one. you can imagine for authorities to convince people they need to come and get it it's going to be tough. it's crucial. we're talking about here in italy a covid-19 third wave that continues to bear down hard, it is day five of a lockdown that concerns more than half of italy's regions. for the time being those covid-19 figures stubbornly high the number of new cases above 20,000 every day and that hasn't changed since the start of the week. it is crucial that italian authorities can see through that vaccination campaign they promised. >> as you say an uphill battle to restore confidence there. thank you so much, melissa bell in rome. more than a dozen regions across france including paris and nice will soon begin covid restrictions as the country face has third wave of the virus the last at least four weeks. starting friday nonessential businesses will close and people will have to stay within six miles of their home. schools will stay open as these measures are less restrictive than earlier ones. france reported 35,000 new infections thursday, up more than 20% from last week and hospitalizations are also on the riz. the prime minister says across the country one person is being admitted to intensive care with covid every four minutes. the u.s. is on track to vaccinate 100 million people in the very near future, so why are new cases suddenly skyrocketing in many parts of the country? we will explain right after the break. stay with us. do you have a life 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[ ding ] you got paid! that means adding people to the payroll. hi mom. that means... best burger ever. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. after weeks of encouraging trends new cases of covid-19 are surging again in more than a dozen u.s. states. one factor is the emergence of new variants that spread more quickly, the other is the lifting or relaxing of restrictions in many places. as cnn's nick watt reports, health experts fear the country is on the brink of a new wave of infections. >> i think it's pretty clear that there are some states now that are pulling back, i believe, a bit more prematurely than they should. >> reporter: a couple weeks ago alabama eased some restrictions. >> we are definitely -- indication that we are moving in the right direction. >> reporter: not anymore. alabama's average daily case count just climbed 90% in a week. in michigan up 50%, while hotels prep for spring breakers. >> a lot of the restaurants of course are available for seated dining again. >> reporter: average daily case counts now rising in 17 states. >> i think that we are on the cusp of a fourth surge right now. >> reporter: meanwhile, on the hill, they're arguing over guidance that the vaccinated still wear masks. >> you want people to wear masks for another couple years. >> no. >> you've been vaccinated and you parade around in two masks for show. >> no. masks are not theater. masks are fro tech testify. >> every day that goes by where the entire population hasn't been vaccinated, you know, you worry. >> reporter: it's a race. the virus and its variants versus vaccines. >> a little brick. >> reporter: about one in eight americans are now fully vaccinated. the president promised 100 million shots in 100 days, just might meet that day 58. >> we have got to get the schools reopened. >> reporter: a quarter of parents with kids in online school reported harm to their kids' mental and emotional health, also mitigation measures can, even in high schools, significantly slow spread. all this according to cdc reports. >> when we discussed this issue recently i really detected a lack of a sense of urgency on your part. >> we are actively looking at our guidance to update it to address that science. >> reporter: the cdc now expected to announce that in the classroom three feet of social distance not six will work. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. the fbi has released new video clips showing how brutally violent the attack on the u.s. capitol was on january 6th. the rioters targeted police. cnn's brian todd has the details. we want to warn you his report contains images that some viewers may find disturbing. >> reporter: as a crutch and other heavy objects are thrown at police, look at the man in the spot shadow, wielding a large club he starts mercilessly swinging at officers. a slow motion shot shows the same man the fbi says now he's wearing a red hat, ferociously swinging the club at an officer's head. the fbi believes he is the man in the picture on the left side of the screen. this is one of several video clips of the january 6th assault on the capitol just released by the fbi, specifically showing rioters attacks on police officers. >> you will see officers being punched, beaten with sticks, flag poles and their own shields. as well as being sprayed with a variety of unknown substances. >> reporter: like what this rioter is doing from the top of a grandstand he unleashes an unknown spray at several officers below, causing them to disperse. another clip shows him praying down at officers from a different location nearby on that grandstand. on the left side and then full screen you get a good look at the young man's face. the fbi is asking for the public's help in identifying ten suspects its showing in these videos. several of them with their faces clearly visible. >> the fbi and law enforcement as a rule has access to a variety of different facial recognition tools. what that allows law enforcement to do is find other photographs of that person, it might be a driver's license photo which clearly identifies them with name, address, date of birth or everything or social media posts. >> reporter: some clips show rioters at reverse angles like this man in the checked jacket beating police with a club. and this man spraying officers then throwing his canister at them. at a reverse angle he's seen swinging a police shield at officers. this man is shown at two angles pounding his fist into an officer's face shield. this clip shows the brutality of somt attacksers, a rioters pulling at the gas mask of d.c. metropolitan police officer daniel hodges who was also crushed in the doorway. >> there was a guy ripping my mask off, he was able to rip away my baton, beat me with it. he was practically foaming at the mouth. so just these people were true believers in the worst way. >> reporter: that day black police officers also had brutal racial slurs hurled at them. u.s. capitol police officer harry dunn told cnn he was called the "n" word several times and relayed what happened to a fellow black officer who was carrying a long gun. >> a group of terrorists came to him and said, you think you're a tough "n" word with that gun. put that gun down and we'll show you what type of "n" word you really are. >> reporter: acting capitol hill police officer yogananda pittman said after speaking with several officers in the field that day many are suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. she has asked congress for help in providing them ongoing care. brian todd, cnn, washington. and former president george w. bush has told the texas tribune how deeply disturbed he was by the mob attack. >> i was sick to my stomach and then to see our nation's capitol being stormed by hostile forces and it really disturbed me to the point where i did put out a statement and i'm still disturbed when i think about it. it undermines rule of law and, you know, the ability to express yourself in peaceful ways in a public square. this was an expression that was not peaceful. >> right after the rampage bush and the three other living former u.s. presidents condemned it. he said, quote, this is how election results are disputed in a banana republic, not our democratic republic. thousands of migrants, many of them children without their parents, are trying to get into the u.s. just ahead, cnn joins a group of them at the end of their long journey. stay with us. welcome back to all of you watching us in the united states, canada and around the world, i'm kim brunhuber and you're watching "cnn newsroom." the biden administration isn't calling it a crisis, but thousands of desperate migrants are trying to get into the united states through the border with mexico. the u.s. border patrol says its encountered 32 large groups of migrants there since october and cnn has learned more than 4,500 migrant children are now in u.s. custody. cnn's rosa flores joined one group for the end of their dangerous journey. >> reporter: these are the south texas trails used by thousands of migrants like these unaccompanied teenagers from guatemala to make their way into the u.s. and sometimes they encounter deputy constable dan broils as he patrols the border with mexico. 16-year-old kevin gets emotional as he shares that he's been traveling for a month, sometimes without food or water. his father waits for him in pennsylvania. 17-year-old alan's voice breaks as he explains his grandma who takes care of him stayed behind in his gang ridden neighborhood. border authorities in the rio grande valley are encountering about 1,000 migrants a day according to a federal source, many of them unaccompanied minors. evidence mothers and children are on the trail litter of landscape, diapers, children's clothing and masks. documents left behind by some of the migrants tell part of their story, in this case it looks like a 34-year-old mom from honduras and her two-year-old son they both tested for covid before leaving their country and tested negative. >> what do you look for when you patrol? >> well, what i'm looking for is flashes of color. >> reporter: he also looks down the paths that lead to the river for signs of life. >> this is an indication sign. >> reporter: and he shows us the arrows posted by border authorities. >> as you can see that's a homeland security bag. >> reporter: and this one that reads asylum. walk to the bridge, 2 kilometers? >> yeah. >> reporter: the bridge near the rio grand where immigration processing begins. this is as close as our cameras can get, border control is not granting media access but from constables -- >> the precinct 3 constable office is in charge of 22 miles of the international border. >> we got our eyes and ears on the ground. this team says he paid a smul letter after a recent hurricane flooded his single-mom's home. how much did you pay? about $2,500. >> how did you get the money? was it a loan? >> reporter: o boil's job ends here when he sends the teams off to border patrol. for the teens it's just another step in an already uncertain journey. among the banks of the rio grand the land mass that you see behind me is mexico. the man in charge of this portion of the border is precinct 3 constable larry guardo. he said downriver the smuggling of people, up river the smuggling of drugs and the border patrol chief tweeting there is no end in sight, rosa flores, along the u.s./mexico bo border. joining me now is the deputy head of regional mission for mexico and central america from doctors without borders. the biden administration says more than 14,000 migrant children are in custody right now. there's been such a surge of unaccompanied minors. do you have any insight into what's behind the surge of kids coming across? >> well, today what we see is actually a massive surge. we don't necessarily see it from exclusively children going to the border, we're seeing it from -- we've been seeing it already for several months of people going -- leaving from honduras where we are present, we see it they're actually in -- we see it directly at the border. shelters are -- right now they're completely full, especially like in matamoris. we've seen a lot of people that have been waiting for a long while that have lost hope and now with their families and everything they've tried to get across any means possible. >> the reason behind so many people are coming, many migrants openly say they're hoping a friendly biden administration will let them in. we've seen even some people wearing biden t-shirts, obviously the president telling them not to come now isn't going to do anything to stop them, right? texas congressman, a democrat, recently visited a shelter to speak with the migrants. listen to this. >> i asked them specifically about the messaging and i said has anybody heard the white house say don't come? nope. not a single hand. and i had 20 16, 17 year olds with me. i said what about messaging from your friends and family? almost everybody raised their hand they said, yeah, we've heard from our family members or friends come over. come over. >> so come over. i mean, that's the message they're getting. how does one counter this to ease the pressure on all those facilities that you've been talking about on both sides of the board. >> reporter: >> yes, actually it's one of the concerns that the whole community has been living since the beginning of the -- lifting the camp and the whole dismantling of the mbp program. from our side we have constantly been sharing this information with everyone that we've been working with saying, guys, you still have to be a bit more patient. they are going step by step and just try to be patient. but patience has been -- but they've lost hope. they've lost this patience. >> i want to get the bigger picture here as to what can be done. i've been to the border many times, most of the migrants i met wouldn't qualify for asylum under any traditional definition or at least the one we have now, they're fleeing poverty, the effects of natural disasters, gang violence, they want a better safer life here in the u.s. which you can understand, but surely more needs to be done in these countries before they get here. >> yes, indeed. i mean, that's part of the thing that's -- we also are advocating for is to make sure that the root causes are also addressed and that's some of the things we see when we're working in honduras, for instance, we're working with victims of sexual violence and the lack of proper protocols that allow them to be properly served, treated and so on makes it really difficult. we have been responding to hurricanes and since then, i mean, we saw it was a time bomb to say in the sense that we through that people that had been -- that had completely lost everything that their community had been erased by the tides and by the rain and everything, well, they had no choice. most of them they have families or acquaintances that have been living in the u.s. and of course they hear this voice come over, come over, but definitely the conditions are not there. >> yeah, it's a terrible situation and hopefully politicians will be able to find solutions on both sides of the border there and in so many of those countries. marcos, thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much, kim. a fourth election and a new unlikely tactic by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. he's now courting votes from a group he's da meend in the past, israeli arabs. a live report from jerusalem coming up. day with us. proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. my plaque psoriasis... ...the itching ...the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen... painful. emerge tremfyant™ with 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( horn blaring ) israelis head to the polls next tuesday for their fourth gem election in two years. with another tight race looming prime minister benjamin netanyahu is courting votes from a group that he has partially criticized in the past, arab voters, but his strategic thinking may be working here. we are in jerusalem. so netanyahu historically not the most arab friendly historically, i guess. what's led him to change his tune now? >> reporter: well, kim, it all comes down to israeli politics are rather quirky and it's sort of like a puzzle. there's thousands of pieces but only one or two really will unlock that path to power. because the polls are so tight right now in israel benjamin netanyahu needs any votes, any seats he can get to help him get over that 61-seat majority and that's why we're seeing him turn to thesis really arab voters. this is a group that netanyahu and his likud party had previously been accused of trying to suppress. just last year a campaign video like this from benjamin netanyahu would have been unthinkable. literally the father of an arabic language way of embracing the israeli prime minister. contrast that with this video from 2015 stoking fear of israel's 20% arab minority to scare his likud party base to get out and vote. >> translator: the rule of the right is in danger. arab voters are moving in droves to the polling stations, left wing organization right side busing them in. >> reporter: this election is expected to be so close that one or two seats could determine who will be the next prime minister. that's why you're seeing a possibly surprising sight from benjamin netanyahu, campaigning amongst an electorate he was previously accused of dee riding. netanyahu's likud party has new promises to these voters, peace agreements with regional allies and a cabinet position for a specimen ster of arab affairs. >> we are surprised to see that it's working, it's effective. they really believe in cooperation with the likud, so we went on with this strategy and so far so good. >> reporter: it may be working, a recent poll by tel aviv university found nearly 25% of israeli arab voters think netanyahu is the best candidate for prime minister. in the village of tibai the tension ahead of the election is evident on the streets where jewish israeli protesters try to convince locals to vote against the prime minister. one of them yelled that netanyahu is a liar and they need to kick him up but she's interrupted by a local man who says there's know one like bibi, bibi netanyahu, there's no one stronger than him. not everyone here is a fan but for some -- this man says for the first time in his life he may leave his ballot blank. >> translator: you don't have to be very smart to see that we are disappointed. first of all, violence, crimes, murder, the murder of also women and children. second thing, infrastructure. third thing, all the unemployed people. you know what, i am at home all the time because i don't feel secure. shouldn't they care about me? >> reporter: a veteran of israeli politics, a member of parliament for more than 20 years, he says it's foolish for an arab voter to think that by voting for netanyahu will give them power to address issues. >> netanyahu is the problem not the solution. he is the right rightest. right ideology. he is rightest. >> reporter: in such a small country netanyahu's success play hinge on whether he can convince enough of these voters to forget the past. four days to go until this unprecedented election but we still might not actually have a clear answer because there are sp parties right now who could win representation and the real question will be as it has been here over the past few years is which of these parties will be able to form an actual functioning coalition. kim? >> all right. we will be covering it. thank you so much, hadas gold from jerusalem. coming up, the escalating humanitarian crisis in ethiopia where there are grave concerns about conditions in the warn torn region of tigray. the u.s. is sending an envoy and millions of dollars. these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the services of the post office plus ups only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/now and never go to the post office again. rely on the experts at 1800petmeds for the same medications as the vet, but for less with fast free shipping. visit petmeds.com today. the u.s. defense official says the biden administration is considering a six-month extension for american troops in afghanistan. that's even though president trump had negotiated a may 1st deadline with the taliban to withdraw all u.s. forces from the country. oren liebermann is following this story for us. >> reporter: just weeks before a may 1st deadline to withdraw the remaining troops from afghanistan the biden administration is considering a six-month extension for the presence of troops there as the administration tries to figure out how to end a 20-year war. that would mean troops would be there until sometime in november. that according to a defense official who stressed that the decision isn't final and there are other options being considered. an administration official said no decision has been made yet. that may 1st deadline comes from a doha agreement with the trump administration and the taliban that calls for an a reduction in troop levels to end on may 1st with the withdrawal of remaining troops. president joe biden criticized that agreement saying it was poorly negotiated. he has made it clear he still would like to withdraw troops from the country, he says may 1st would be tough to make that happen but also said it wouldn't take that much longer he believed. at this point the u.s. administration is having conversations with its allies and interagency discussions to figure out what options are available. the influential afghanistan study group led by the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff joseph dunford has said the timeline should be reworked not based on dates but based on conditions, crucially among those a reduction in taliban violence. officials say they have seen a reduction in violence against u.s. troops but an increase in violence against afghan forces and afghan society. that would need to be reduced that is correct would need to come down for the u.s. to move forward with a full withdrawal according to the afghanistan study group and according to other officials. one of the thorny issues here is that it's more than just 2,500 troops in afghanistan, there are also special operations force there is and any number of options could force the biden administration to acknowledge that presence and put out more information about it when it's already thorny at this point. oren liebermann, cnn, at the pentagon. ethiopia is also on the u.s. president's foreign policy agenda right now. joe biden is sending one of his top congressional allies to meet the country's prime minister to discuss the crisis in the northern tig gray region. they have discussed the violence as ethnic cleansing. millions of people there are need in assistance. david mackenzie is in johannesburg with more. the u.s. is sending a senator and millions of dollars in aid. what if anything are they expecting in return from ethiopia? >> reporter: well, the u.s. has put in, kim, some very specific demands, they want the cessation of hostilities, they want the fighting in tigray to stop, they want to allow unfettered access of humanitarian aid groups to help some 4.5 million people who require assistance right now in tigray and they also want the regional forces to be withdrawn. now, you can sort of a carrot stick approach. they're giving this aid but are also sending a powerful senator there to try to negotiate potentially with prime minister abe. just a few weeks ago a team was in tigray and recorded these scenes of the anguish people are going through, their sons and daughters killed they say in this conflict. prime minister abe said that the conflict watts over in late november. here is what a doctor had to say to that team. >> that would be a joke to me. that would be a joke because we are constantly receiving patients who are injured by the war. they are all civilians. they are all civilians and we are constantly receiving patients who are injured. if somebody says i don't care whoever it is -- if somebody says there is no war this tigray, that would be a joke for m me. >> the u.s. also has to weigh out the regional political situation in that region despite the suffering of people in tigray, ethiopia has long been a close ally of the u.s. and receiver of a great deal of aid, but it is also the case that the biden administration is pushing hard on these issues of human rights and humanitarian access unlike the predecessor in the white house. kim? >> all right. thank you so much, cnn's david mckenzie in johannesburg. appreciate it. and that wraps this hour of "cnn newsroom." i'm kim brunhuber. 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( horn blaring ) ♪ today president biden and vice president harris head to georgia to console a grieving community there and across the nation. the biden administration locks horns with china and russia. why the president suddenly facing off against two adversaries at once. and health experiments hope more vaccines will catch up to the virus soon as more of the country starts to reopen. welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is "early start," i'm laura jarrett. >> i'm christine romans. it is friday, march 19th. happy friday. it is exactly 5:00 a.m. in new york and this morning president biden and vice president harris head to georgia to reassure the asian-american community there and across the country, a community frightened after eight people were shot dead at three atlanta massage parlours. police aren't able to release the names of some victim, they are work to go verify their identities and notify their families. >> across the country an outpouring of support for the victims and their families