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Intel Officials Brief Biden On 90-Day Review Of COVID Origins; As 11 Wildfires Rage, Biden Approves CA Disaster Declaration; Taliban Orders Banks To Reopen As Afghanistan On Brink Of Economic Collapse; OpenTable & Clear Team Up To Help Restaurants Verify Vaccine Status. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 25, 2021 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:30:00]

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: One thing is clear, which, again, is according to our sources, which is that the Chinese government does have a lot of blame, according to the intelligence officials, when it comes to suppressing early efforts to get to the bottom of what actually caused the pandemic.

So what the report will say is that the suppression of information after the pandemic, kind of started there, has significantly hamstrung efforts to get to the bottom of it.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Natasha, appreciate it. Thank you.

We have some breaking news coming in right now to CNN. A source telling CNN's Jake Tapper that in a briefing to congressional staff the State Department said 4,100 American citizens are still actively seeking escape from Afghanistan.

Now that source adding not all of those Americans are in or around Kabul. And evacuating this last group of Americans will be more challenging.

We will have much more ahead after quick break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:35:45]

HILL: Eleven large wildfires now raging across California. Firefighters say the Caldor Fire in El Dorado County is their top priority. It is getting dangerously close to populated areas around Lake Tahoe.

Meteorologist Tom Sater joining us now.

Tom, it's not just the flames that are causing concerns. There's the smoke, obviously, too.

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You're right, Erica. It's all relative to where the winds are blowing. Really if you even think about the fires across the U.S., as the

drought out west has been inching eastward, the fire showing up eastward. We've got them in South Dakota. We've got them in the area around Minnesota.

When you break this down, it is poor air quality. No double about it.

Typically, when you think of poor air quality around the globe, it's Beijing, China, or New Delhi in India. How about Tahoe?

Of course, Carson City, you can see Reno. Reno for two days in a row now has broken the record for the worst air quality for them.

When you look at these colors, you want to have green. On a chart, that's a number of 50 or below. And 150 is unhealthy, 200 is very unhealthy. Reno is at 291, which is on the verge of hazardous.

Again, as you mentioned, the Caldor Fire a big concern because as it's east of Sacramento and winds are pushing those flames eastward, it's now putting 17,000 homes in harm.

Firefighters really aggressively hitting that eastern and southeastern flank.

You can watch the forecast where the winds will go and get an idea of what they're thinking where they have to battle these blazes.

Again, we don't even have enough colors on this chart to show you how bad it is.

Then, up to the north, things are going to get worse again, where some numbers in air quality are up to 800. Think about that. That's worse than what you see around the globe.

The winds are really picking up. Again, not only is the smoke going to travel in many locations but we're going to have problems with more fires.

If you look at last year compared with this year, Erica, we've seen less numbers of fires from last year but we scorched more land.

Any way you look at it, it's about two and a half times more activity than the five-year average.

HILL: Tough stuff there.

Tom Sater, appreciate it. Thank you.

Afghanistan on the brink of economic collapse. What does that mean for the Afghan people? And how can it impact Taliban rule? That's next.

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[13:42:52]

HILL: By order of the Taliban, banks in Kabul have been told to reopen for the first time in more than a week, getting much needed cash increasingly urgent for people in the city.

Just a few days ago, we saw long lines ATMs. The value in Afghanistan has been dropping.

And compounding all of this misery, the World Bank announcing it will half financial aid over concerns about the fate of women under Taliban rule.

CNN business reporter, Matt Egan, is joining us now.

Matt, what does the World Bank halting financial support mean for the Afghan people?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Erica, this is yet another blow for the people of Afghanistan. Their economy is disintegrating right before their eyes.

The World Bank freezing financial support. Let me read to you the statement explaining this decision.

They said, "We are deeply concerned about the situation in Afghanistan and the impact on the country's development prospects, especially for women."

The World Bank says it is exploring ways to remain engaged in Afghanistan.

This is a huge deal because Afghanistan's economy is very much dependent on foreign aid. A staggering 75 percent of public spending is financed through international aid grants.

And the World Bank alone has committed more than $5 billion for development projects in Afghanistan. That is now in doubt with the Taliban under control.

The other risk here is inflation, set off by the fact that the currency plunged to record lows. That raises the specter of much higher food prices, which would hit the country's poorest the hardest.

I spoke to Afghan's former head of the central bank. He told me he thinks the Taliban faces a situation of economic hardship, rising prices and cash shortages.

Erica, clearly, if the economy in Afghanistan collapses, that is going to pose an immediate challenge to the Taliban. It could force it to work with other groups.

HILL: Yes, that's a major concern.

You touched on those cash shortages, which I also mentioned as we were getting into your report there. Where is that cash shortage coming from? Is it just the fact that the banks were shut down for a period of time or is there more to it?

[13:45:06] EGAN: So there's more to it. The banks were supposed to open. The Taliban ordered they would be reopened by the end of today. But we're hearing from colleagues in Kabul that that has not happened. They say they have not seen one bank that is open.

The problem here is that, as the Taliban was approaching Kabul, a lot of people were taking money out of banks because they were concerned.

Then the chaos and the violence in the country halted some of these really badly needed U.S. shipments of dollars. That has created a situation where they don't have enough hard currency, especially U.S. dollars.

Erica, I think the big question is whether or not we see banks reopen tomorrow. But it's easy to see why the Taliban would be reluctant to do that if they're not confident the banks actually have the cash.

HILL: Yes, absolutely.

Matt Egan, great reporting. Thank you.

Show us the proof. More restaurants requiring diners be vaccinated or bring a negative COVID test with them to dinner. Now the reservation service, OpenTable, is jumping in to make that process perhaps a bit more clear.

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[13:50:15]

HILL: Delta Airlines just put its unvaccinated employees on notice: Get your shot or pay up. Among the possible penalties is a $200 a month surcharge for those enrolled in the airline's health care plan.

Delta still isn't mandating vaccines, although more companies are. And some major cities, San Franciso, New York and New Orleans have also made vaccination a requirement for indoor dining.

Now OpenTable is teaming up with the biometric security firm, Clear, to give diners an easier way to show proof if they are, in fact, vaccinated.

Debby Soo is CEO of OpenTable and joins me now.

Debby, good to have you with us.

We heard so many stories about how difficult mask enforcement was at this time last year in some cases. It was a real struggle.

Is this help with vaccine requirements something that restaurants were asking for?

DEBBY SOO, CEO, OPENTABLE: Thanks for having me. And great to be here, Erica.

The response from restaurants or the impetus behind this has been very varied. The restaurants we've talked to, we've had restaurants who are thrilled about this and were pushing for this.

On the other side of the spectrum, you have restaurants who are not happy about this at all, on the operational and logistical headache it requires.

So it really runs the gamut of various restaurants and their varied responses.

HILL: But in terms of this Clear option, is this something that you were hearing from restaurants that because it does run the gamut, the reaction to dealing with a vaccine requirement, is this something they were actively looking for, some sort of a solution to make it easier on their employees.

SOO: Yes. So restaurants have been asking since the beginning of the pandemic and needing various tools to help make the running of the restaurant easier.

As you can imagine providing good hospitality is a challenge during normal times, but during the pandemic and various stages of the pandemic, it's been incredibly hard to keep abreast of all the changes, pivoting.

And now for restaurants in some cities like New York and San Francisco requiring proof of vaccination.

So OpenTable has at the request of our restaurants offered a variety of different tools to help restaurants get through this, like we have during the height of the pandemic.

We launched this partnership with Clear. That makes it really easy for diners to upload a digital or create a digital vaccination card that they can easily show to restaurants.

We also launched a tag that restaurants can enter into their OpenTable software system that shows, hey, this diner that's coming in, we've verified them for entry. So the next time that diner comes in, they don't have to go through the whole song and dance again.

So we've launched many, many features and the Clear partnership is one of them.

HILL: Is one of them. We should point out, you don't have to be an existing Clear member. Some people have it at the airport or at sporting events and that will pop up on OpenTable, is my understanding.

As we look at what you're learning about dining right now, because we're still in a pandemic, I know you have data that shows "seated diners" are down.

When you say, "seated diners," does that mean people who are making reservations and going in to eat? Everybody that's going into a restaurant? Why do you think that's happening?

SOO: It's both. It's people who are making reservations and then it's also people who are actually seating or getting seated for the reservations they have made. In both cases, numbers are down.

Even if you look at from this month to last month, we're seeing an 11 percent decrease in the U.S. We're 10 percent or 11 percent down compared to pre-pandemic times.

So in June and July, the numbers were looking really promising, especially here in North America. Now with the rise of Delta and the rise of cases, we've seen those numbers start coming down again.

[13:55:04]

HILL: Yes, another reminder restaurants could get hit hard again.

Debby Soo, appreciate you taking the time to join us today. Thank you.

SOO: Thank you.

HILL: Thanks to all of you for joining me this hour. I'll see you back here tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

Stay tuned. The news continues next with Alisyn and Victor at the top of the hour.

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[14:00:09]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us. I'm Alisyn Camerota.