it may be too late now. >> there you see him, david culver is here, he joins me from beijing. you. fascinating reporting. not only is china pushing back on this investigation, it's also blaming america for everything from afghanistan to global cyber attacks. how serious are tensions with beijing right now? >> reporter: hey there, don, good to be with you. you're right, this is not just about the covid origins. this goes well beyond that. and what we're seeing play out is not just something between beijing and the trump administration. now we're in the biden administration. this is so much bigger. and that is really what's at play. so you look at the covid origins and you say, do we really need to know how this all started? you talk to experts from a scientific perspective, yeah, it could help in preventing another pandemic, a repeat of what we've been living through. beyond that, it's also about challenging this narrative that beijing is really getting the upper hand right now because this relentless propaganda campaign is starting to find a lot of success not only domesticall

>> thanks to david culver in beijing. >>> next, governor cuomo's accusers react to his define in the wake of a damning report that found he sexually harassed 11 women. i'll speak to a new york state senator. >>> plus, a trump republican and moderate democrat wins two special elections in ohio. >>> and simone biles speaking out what's next for her and if she's closing the door on competing in the 2024 olympics. we'll have that. ♪ usaa is made for the safe pilots. like mac. who can come to a stop with barely a bobble. with usaa safepilot, when you drive safe... ...you can save up to 30% on your auto insurance. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. get a quote today. as i observe investors balance risk and reward, i see one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. your strategic advantage. there comes a time, when every hand must choose: accept life as it is. ♪ or grab a groupon experience. that hand-grabs your soul. ♪ grab a drumstick. grab a paint brush. grab a concert. grab a back wax. grab anything. everything. that laser thing. hands of america, grab life by the gro

david culver for us in china, thank you. >> let's go now to fred pleitgen in moscow.giving take ta tacet approval if you will. and saying kabul actually seems safer since the taliban took tr control. so how is this actually helping vladimir putin? >> reporter: i think the russians believe that they will be able to deal with the taliban a lot better than they had been with the ghani government. the special enjoy called the ghani government a puppet government and he believes right now stability is actually coming back to kabul. so one of the things that the russians have been doing for years is they have been cultivating ties with the taliban. they say currently they are in touch with all the factions inside afghanistan with all those who hold any sort of power inside afghanistan. so they believe that they are in a fairly comfortable position at this point in time. their embassy is staying open and continuing to work. at the same time the russians are saying that they want to take sort of a wait and see approach to see whether or not they are actually going to recogniz

david culver is live in beijing with the details. what do we know about the report's conclusions?reporter: it seems like even those waiting for a few days to see what comes out of this aren't going to get much because it sounds according to white house officials that this was in- in-conclusive. you have to remember this was a decision from president biden who was facing a lot of pressure as to what started covid-19 to look at two likely scenarios in particular. one, that it was a natural origin theory going there animals to humans, the other, that lab leak in wuhan, something china has refuted repeatedly. it seems like there is evidence on both sides that is mostly circumstantial. there is no so-called smoking gun. now, this according to white house officials was such an issue in trying to decide how much evidence mounted on each side that they were going back and forth as recently as this past friday. so that tells you that they are not confident enough to move forward with any sort of o what started this outbreak. meantime here in china, they are playing off this saying it is al

let's bring isn't cnn's david culver in beijing.lic, china was discounting it, what's china saying now? >> reporter: right. it seem this have a very lengthy response to go to this unclassified version. it came out of washington who says their response is longer than the unclassified report about a page, maybe a third. it it's not very long and doesn't bring us any closer really to how that virus started. not that smoking gun evidence, right, kim, that suggests that the virus was in the what about before this outbreak, or perhaps that host an pal that suggests it went from a bat to that host animal and then spread to humans. none of that has been found. what we have is a bunch of circumstantial evidence. and it doesn't say for certain what exactly caused this outbreak. and you have now this inclusion, this inclusive result. that does not totally exonerate beijing. one pert hexpert had this to sae a listen. >> setting aside from conspiracy theories about labs in wuhan, the fact that china will not allow a second w.h.o. investigation t

cnn's david culver is joining us live from beijing right now. ina has been openly critical of this entire u.s. investigation. what are they saying now? >> reporter: they've been incredibly critical, and that is continuing. in fact, wolf, it's ramped up. there is a relentless propaganda campaign under way. they're going forward to say, don't come into china to investigate. go to the u.s. they're pushing this conspiracy theory that the virus may have started in fora fort outside of where you are in d.c. there is no evidence of that. it seems to be having success, as they're pushing that narrative. i want to go back to the report you mentioned. as you pointed out, the two scenario scenarios, the natural origins this jumped from animals to humans, or this lab leak theory, perhaps it got on a worker and spread through wuhan, both of those still being considered. you may say, that's where we were 90 days ago when this started, and that's our reality. it didn't bring us any closer to finding a definitive answer as to what started covid-19. one thing tha

david culver, cnn beijing. >>> and back to our top story.u.s. gulf coast. and just in to us now, news that it is officially a category 3 hurricane. it could make landfall as a category 4 along louisiana's coast in the coming hours which is, of course, the 16th anniversary of katrina's catastrophic siege of the area. now, forecasters say a storm surge of up to 15 feet expected in some areas. winds of 150 miles an hour. and these latest alert calls it an extremely dangerous, major hurricane. take care, everyone, in that part of the country. thanks for spending part of your day with me. i'm michael holmes. you can follow me on twitter and instagram at holmes cnn. don't go anywhere, though. my colleague, robyn curnow, is up after a short break to continue our breaking-news coverage. can your longwear do this? superstay active wear foundation from maybelline new york. defies transfer... and water... full coverage. up to 30hr wear superstay foundation maybelline new york. your skin isn't just skin, it's a beautiful reflection of everything you've

cnn's david culver joins me from beijing. no closer to a definitive answer.o an answer? >> reporter: for folks who were hoping that this might be what brings this all to some sort of conclusion, we're not there. it's not looking like that's likely in the knee futures. scientists say it's so heavily politicized now -- on both sides but i would say mostly from beijing, it's unlikely we'll get to the truth soon, at least from a scientific perspective. you have lawmakers that will be briefed on the findings of this intel community review. we expect some of the information to be declassified and released to the public. in the midst of that, nothing that will indicate anything of a smoking gun evidence, if you will. so what are we looking for if you're talking about that one piece of evidence that would say this, in fact, jumped from animals to humans. for that, scientists say you need the one animal that initially carried it. that's going to be tough to find because you need to be on the ground to find that. same thing with the lab. you need to be on the ground an

cnn's david culver is live in beijing. david, good to have you.ifically credible. what do we know about the validity of this report? >> reporter: and christi and phil, they go on to say this is the political maneuvering and all by the u.s. they've been pushing back for several months now. they've got this relentless campaign in which they're putting out their own narrative trying to make sure what stick is infliction of blame and sowing of doubt. they're even suggested that it should be the u.s. that is investigated. they point to ft. dietrich. there's no evidence of a lab leak there. nonetheless, it's something that you'll hear more and more to investigate the united states. take a step back. look at this 90-day report. there's a hope maybe this will bring that smoking gun, that one piece of evidence that will tell us how the virus started. not the case. we're still where we were 90 days ago. i think the thing that stands out to me about this unclassified portion which was a page, and the third of a second page. is that they do not believe it was

david culver is live in beijing. is it here we go again, david?nd when you think about the games coming up in less than six months, well china thought they would be dealing with geopolitical issues which are still there as well as allegations of human rights abuses. they thought as far as covid, that it was buttoned up and taken care of it. they have a zero policy approach in terms of how they handle it. they are now in triple-digit when you look at the rest of the world, it may not seem that bad. but not here. in fact, some of the officials who oversee certain jurisdictions with just double-digit new cases, they've been punished and they've been fired. we're seeing the extreme targeted lockdowns in places like beijing. people in their residential communities, if you have one person that lives nearby, well teps of thousands of people are locked down if that individual tested positive. and that is the case that is playing out right now. not ome here in beijing, but across china. so you have the travel restrictions in place to protect the capital an

so for more let's bring in david culver, joining us from beijing. david, already before the report was even made public, china was discounting and criticizing it. so what's china saying now? >> reporter: same thing, kim. yeah. and that's been going on now for several months. they've been trying to craft this narrative and push it relentlessly through propaganda efforts that likewise have ramped up and are continuing at this hour. it's interesting that alex points out there that the full declassified version of that report, the unclassified of what came out from the review, a page and maybe a third, the rebuttal from the chinese embassy in washington, well over two pages. so nay had a lot to say and pushed back quite i would say with a lot of determination to say that china really has done everything they can to be open and transparent. but what you have to look at here are those two likely possibilities. the one that it jumped from animals to humans, the so-called natural origins, and then you have the lab leak theory. given that they couldn't come t

david culver just told us they've got some covid outbreaks there that they are dealing with, some ofnce the start of the pandemic in more than a year. what's your degree of confidence that the winter team usa will be safe as we head into the next games? >> the one thing about what we're seeing with covid is it's unfortunate that we don't have everyone on the same page. i was so happy to work with the university of houston and those athletes. they got vaccinated, they were in line and they're doing their best. but i think we have to be realistic. we're going to be dealing with covid for years now. so we're going to be, whether it's 2021 -- or '22 rather. even through 2024 i think we'll still have these issues because we're not having everyone on the same page, especially here in america. number two, you have so many countries that are going to take a long time to get vaccinated. so i think what we need to do is just understand that and say, okay, what do we need to do to make it as safe as possible, assuming that we're going to have to deal with this in the future? >> carl lewis, than

david culver is live for us in beijing. david, good morning. what is beijing's motivation here?they are clearly making this a very public move to show their support and willingness to cooperate with the taliban. in fact from the foreign ministry, we heard that they said that the taliban is more so sober and rational than before and they are not expected to repeat past history. no matter how you look at this, it makes for awkward allies. just weeks before the taliban seized power in afghanistan, china made a very public display of growing closer to the group's leadership. chinese foreign minister meeting a taliban delegation in northern china in july giving legitimacy and perhaps confidence to the militant group long regarded with fear and suspicion by the rest of the word. and china remains one of the few to retain its embassy in the capital. but china's support for the taliban comes with strings attached. cho china's help with reconstruction in exchange for stability. >> they will never allow afghan territories to enter into china. >> reporter: a deal brokered between awkward a

david culver reports beijing is likely to take a very different approach from the west. >> reporter:ore the taliban seized power in afghanistan, china made a very public display of growing closer to the group's leadership. chinese foreign minister meeting a taliban delegation in northern china in july giving legitimacy and perhaps confidence to the militant group long regarded with fear and suspicion by the rest of the world. as many global powers now rush to escape afghanistan, china claims it remains one of the few to retain its embassy in the capital but china's support for the taliban comes with strings attached. china's help with reconstruction in exchange for the taliban assuring regional stability. >> translator: they will never allow any forces to use afghan territory to enter into china. >> reporter: a deal brokered between awkward allies, a militant group representing hard line islam and a chinese government accused of cultural again size against and mass containment of muslim minorities at home. but china's relationship with the taliban goes back a long way. >> it establis

cnn's david culver digs into the unlikely partnership between one nation that wants its citizens to embracembs in concentration camps and what the u.s. state department has called a genocide. >> reporter: just weeks before the taliban seized power in afghanistan, china made a very public display of growing closer to the group's leadership. chinese foreign minister yi meeting a taliban delegation in northern china in july, giving legitimacy and perhaps confidence that the militant group long regarded with fear and suspicion by the rest of the world. as many global powers now rush to escape afghanistan, china claims it remains one of the few countries to retain its embassy in the capital, but china's support for the taliban comes with strings attached. china's help with reconstruction in exchange for the taliban assuring regional stability. >> translator: they will never allow any forces to use afghan territory to endanger china. >> reporter: a deal brokered between awkward allies, a militant group representing hardline islam and a chinese government accused of cultural genocide against isthm