we know who did this to pravin. that's all i needed to know. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. new info on gabby petito's boyfriend and his family the trip they took just revealed today. i'm shepard smith. this is the news on cnbc. >> it is obvious the war in afghanistan did not end on the terms we wanted. >> top defense officials grilled by lawmakers for the first time about the withdrawal from afghanistan. the tough questions asked and the strategic failures revealed. gabby petito's family addressing the public. >> it's an emotional roller coaster. >> demanding brian laundrie turn

himself in. >> they did not help find gabby. they're sure not going to help us find brian. covid shots for kids one step closer to fda approval. >> hopefully they'll give the okay so we can start vaccinating children. >> what we know about pfizer's trial and the initial results. the brand new amazon robot what it can do for your family why you'll need an invitation to buy it and privacy concerns, as it patrols your home. simone biles' emotional new video. not your parents' cruise ship. and the gang of otters that suddenly attacks >> announcer: live from cnbc, the facts, the truth, the news with shepard smith good evening america's longest war and the way it ended was a strategic failure. that admission from america's top general as pentagon leaders testify before congress about the chaotic and deadly

withdrawal from afghanistan. the u.s. military's top brass told lawmakers they still don't know if terrorists will once again be able to use the country to launch terror attacks >> are you confident that we can deny organizations like al qaeda and isis the ability to use afghanistan as a launch pad for terrorist activity >> i think that's yet to be seen. >> are we at a greater or lesser risk of terror attack from afghanistan as a result of our withdrawal >> too early to austin, testified the rapid and utter collapse of the afghan military in just 11 days came as a surprise. >> we helped build a state, mr. chairman, but we could not forge a nation the fact that the afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise. we certainly did not plan against a collapse of a government in 11 days. >> despite all the chaos, joint

chiefs of staff chairman, general mark milley called the evacuation from kabul a logistical success he testified u.s. troops would have gone back to war with the taliban had they stayed there any longer and secretary austin said that american soldiers were facing grave and growing threats of another isis terror attack cnbc's senior washington correspondent eamon javers on the top story tonight. eamon? >> an issue in a way i've never seen debated on capitol hill was the core principle of civilian control over the military. what they are debating today is who has the ultimate responsibility for military action that shapes the rise and fall of countries and even nuclear confrontation that could extinguish millions of lives general mark milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, was asked whether his handling of nuclear weapons procedures in the final days of the trump administration was appropriate. milley's critics say he stretched the bounds of civilian control of the military when he

told generals to alert him if trump tried to launch nuclear weapons and in a conversation he had with speaker nancy pelosi about whether the president was mentally fit to authorize a nuclear strike >> i explained to her that the president is the sole nuclear launch authority and he doesn't launch them alone and that i am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the united states >> but milley's critics also suggested that he was too deferential to civilian control of military when president biden moved to withdraw troops from afghanistan even though milley and others advised that some should stay. >> if all this is true, general milley, why haven't you resigned >> it would be an incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to just resign because my advice is not taken. this country doesn't want generals figuring out what orders we are going to accept and do or not. that's not our job

>> shep, milley told the senators his fathers didn't have a chance to resign at iwo jima and the young americans killed at the abbey gate last month didn't either. he said if he receives an illegal order, we're in a different place but if the order is legal, he intends to carry it out. >> we learned in the new woodward/costa book that general milley placed direct calls for the chinese military to tell them president trump was not going to attack china. how did he explain those calls today? >> he said the calls were totally appropriate. he splanexplained the chinese h their own intelligence that trump might lash out at them and it was his job to tell the chinese that wasn't true he also said all the correct people in government and at the white house were aware of those calls at the time so he argued he was being faithful to trump's intent and didn't violate civilian control of the military. the taliban has now banned women from kabul university.

they can't study there they can't teach there this is one of the biggest blows yet to women's rights in afghanistan since the taliban reseized power after two decades. it's also the latest sign that the taliban really has not changed much since it was in control of the country in the '90s when women were not allowed to go to school. back then the taliban would beat women if they went out in public alone without a male relative as a chaperone. vaccines for kids. new today pfizer submitted data to the fda showing its covid shot is both safe and effective for children age 5 to 11 next step, officials at pfizer say they plan to ask the agency for emergency use authorization coming up here in the coming weeks. the fda signalled that it will review the data as quickly as possible here's dr. fauci >> the fda takes very seriously the importance of getting vaccines shown to be safe and

effective in children. i would imagine in the next few weeks they will examine that data and hopefully they'll give the okay so that we can start vaccinating children, hopefully before the end of october. >> that from "morning joe" this morning. the american acandidate me of pediatrics reports covid cases among kids have dleclined slightly over the past month but the data shows children account for nearly one-quarter of all new infections worldwide meg tirrell covers science and medicine for us. meg, break down the pfizer data, and where does it go from here >> shep, pfizer and its barn, biontech, tested a lower dose for kids 5 to 12 it's a third the dose adults and kids over 12 receive what they foundin is that the vaccine generated an immune response at this lower dose that's comparable to people 16 to 25 at the higher dose they also said the vaccine appeared to be safe and well tolerated in kids with side effects generally similar to

what you'd see in that older age group. now, the next step is the full submission for emergency use authorization and then we'll hear from the fda about when they plan a meeting of their outside advisers a key question is what the uptake in this age group will look like. 12 to 17-year-olds currently have the lowest vaccination rate of any age group with 54% having had their first shot a poll earlier this month found just more than half of kids 5 to 11 said they don't plan to get them vaccinated. many pediatricians emphasize a vaccine for kids is needed because they can experience severe disease too even though they're at lower risk than adults pfizer expects results for even younger kids before the end of the year shep. >> meg, on boosters, where do things stand for people who got moderna and johnson & johnson? >> so we got a little more information on that today from dr. fauci. he said at a white house covid briefing that results from an nih trial mixing and matching

boosters are starting to come in results as moderna as a boost for yourself and the other vaccines are already available results on j&j will be ready within a week and on pfizer the first two weeks of october what do the results show we don't know yet. the nit say the data has been shared to cdc and fda but not available to the public. as for pfizer's boosters, more than 400,000 americans got their third shots at pharmacies over the weekend and almost a million people are scheduled to get them in the coming weeks. that's out of about 20 million total who are currently eligible shep. lebron james confirmed today he's vaccinated. but the basketball star admits he will not be an advocate for covid shots. lebron says he won't take a public stand on the vaccine. not my job, he said, to speak out on such an issue back in may lebron declined to say whether he was vaccinated but today he told reporters he

and his family got the shot after they did their own research. more u.s. adults say the information they have seen about boosters is helpful rather than confusing. that's according to a new study by the kaiser family foundation on vaccine attitudes the delta variant is the leading reason that people decided to get vaccinated over the summer other major factors include concerns about hospitals filling up and having somebody you know get seriously sick or die from covid. vaccine incentives and mandates didn't appear to have as much sway another key takeaway from part of the survey, eight in ten americans say covid is something the nation will learn to deal with in the years ahead. few say it will be eradicated in the u.s. like polio, for example, and there's still a clear political divide in vaccination rates. 90% of democrats surveyed say they received at least one dose. just 58% of republicans. ivermectin is not a

treatment for covid. health experts have been saying that for months, but as more people turn to the unproven and potentially dangerous drug, it's having a real effect on americans who rely on ivermectin for one of its actual purposes, killing pair sirasites in livesk demand for the medicine has skyrocketed. a farm store in vegas started selling it only to customers who can prove they have a horse. a drug supplier recently told a rancher in california that she was the 600th person in line for the next shipment. researchers say the run on ivermectin underscores the real world effect of misinformation again, both the cdc and fda warn americans, do not use ivermectin to treat covid. new clues today about brian laundrie's movements in the days after he returned to florida as his family responds to dog, the bounty hunter, and the tips

he says he's received. the disgraced south carolina attorney who confessed to hiring a hit man to kill him. well, he's now in more legal trouble. why he could be on the hook for millions of dollars. and a major sell-off rocks wall street today. tech stocks with a nosedive into a sea of red the stocks that felt the most pain and why ♪ ♪ train your mind. ♪ ♪ train your game. because your only limits... ♪ ♪ are the ones you put on yourself. ♪ ♪

today we got brand new details about brian laundrie's whereabouts after he returned from a cross-country road trip without his girlfriend, gabby petito the family attorney said they were at ft. de soto park in florida from september 6 to september 7 and all, meaning all three of them, left the campground together. remember, police say the van he

was driving returned home to north port, florida, on september the 1st. the reason they emphasize all left the campground is likely that dog, the bounty hunter, says he's investigating a tip. dog said yesterday that the laundries made a trip to that same park about an hour's drive from their home, but not once, twice. dog, the bounty hunter, says september the 1st to the 3rd and september 6th to the 8th dog the bounty hunter claims on his last trip three people went into the park and just two left. the information about the trip to this park hadn't been public before the statement and the petito family attorney said today he's skeptical that the laundrie family will be any help in finding brian. >> they did not help us find gabby. they're sure not going to help us find brian. >> that came during a news conference from the petito family they announced the formation of

a foundation in gabby's name to help other families in similar situations and to carry on gabby's legacy. >> we're just hoping that through our tragedy with losing gabby that in the future that some good can come out of it that we can help other people. >> family members also revealed they all got matching tattoos last night with the words "let it be" just like gabby had on her arm. gabby's mother showing off the tattoo of a bouquet of flowers see there? she said it's a design that gabby drew herself >> i wanted to have her with me all the time, so -- i feel that this helps that. >> the fbi is still leading the weeks-long manhunt for brian laundrie though they haven't reported any success thus far. brian's family says he was last seen two weeks ago. >> we are looking for you. we are coming for you. you keep holding on. please hold on for us. we're coming. >> that plea from mia mercano's

cousin family members are organizing their own search separate from law enforcement for the missing 19-year-old. she was last seen on friday near the arden villas apartment complex in orlando the family revealed they were able to get into the apartment after investigators were there and saw what looked to them like signs of a struggle, blood on the pillow and jewelry that they say she never takes off broken on the floor yesterday officials announced a person of interest in her case had killed himself a maintenance worker, this man named armando cabarillo. friends say he was in love with her and texted her excessively even though she told him don't do that. local coverage now from nbc 6 miami and their reporter juliely nardy who's live in longwood, florida. julie? >> reporter: yeah, shep. investigators were here all day

long zeroing in on this area behind me. this is the apartment complex where he took his own life on monday this afternoon last check with police, no word if they're able to find anything at all in their search >> we're not going to stop until we find her. >> miya. >> reporter: the search for 19-year-old miya marcano continues on foot. family members looking on foot behind the condos from armando was found dead. >> if you're here, say her name, knock door to are doo. this guy is a maintenance guy. >> reporter: miya has been missing since friday her family rushing to central florida from broward county saturday miya's aunt simone shares the chilling encounter she had with him. >> he said are you looking for miya i said who are you he said i'm the maintenance guy. i heard you're looking for me. >> reporter: and the disturbing

twists and turns continue. this video shared with nbc 6 shows a man matching his descr description. he's holding her pink fleece blanket in the video. >> i don't even have words. >> reporter: two maintenance works here found him dead in a garage on monday. >> miya, baby girl, if you can hear me, if you're seeing me, we're here we're coming hold on. >> reporter: now right now that family is down in orlando holding a candlelight vigil. obviously they're hoping miya will be found alive. >> thanks. if you have any information on miya marcano call the orange county sheriff's office at 407-836-4357 a development now in the murder mystery in south carolina that we've been following for a

long time now. the family of alex murdaugh's dead housekeeper is accusing him of embezzling millions of dollars in settlement money. he is the disgraced attorney who confessed to hiring a hit man to shoot and kill him following the unsolved murders of his wife and son. his lawyers say he was in a massive depression about their deaths and wanted his surviving son to collect millions of dollars in life insurance money. the bizarre legal drama brought renewed scrutiny on the mysterious trip and fall death of his family housekeeper back in 2018. they didn't do an autopsy back then the housekeeper's son says they were entitled to nearly $3 million in settlement money but that they never saw a dime they're accusing murdaugh of keeping the money. life behind bars without the possibility for parole that sentence handed down today

to this man who shot and killed five people during an attack on a maryland newspaper in june of 2018 officials say the gunman approached the building with a pump action shotgun, shot out the doors, then turned his gun on the people inside a capital gazette photographer says he narrowly avoided a shotgun blast of his own as he ran out of the newsroom. he says he will never forget that day. >> i don't think there's ever going to be any closure. i lost five of my family members and was almost killed myself it's something that haunts me every day. i think about this and what happened to me and my capital gazette family. >> one year later the gunman pleaded guilty to all 23 accounts against him but he said he was not criminally responsible, which is essentially maryland's version of an insanity plea. a jury disagreed, found him criminally responsible the judge says the gunman showed a complete disregard for human life during the trial, defense

attorneys argued the shooter became obsessed with the idea that the newspaper ruined his life it happened after the paper published an article about the gunman pleading guilty to harassing a high school classmate. prosecutors said he planned the attack and executed revenge on innocent victims the maryland governor, larry hogan, proclaimed june the 28th freedom of the press day in memory of those killed more details from simone biles on the run-up to the olympics the gymnast now says she should have quit before tokyo and she shares the video diary she made while she was struggling with mental health issues and whether to pull out of the games higher prices and swift sales. the housing market is not slowing down, and fit-me

simone biles opening up about her mental health struggles during the summer olympics in a candid interview with "new

york" magazine she reveals that she really should have quit a long time before going to tokyo. back in july, simone biles shocked the world when she pulled out of five olympic events, including the women's team final she said physically she was fine but mentally she really wasn't in the right head space. she later returned to win the bronze on the balance beam event. in the interview, biles reveals that the burden of being a victim of sexual abuse made it difficult to compete in tokyo. here's nbc's kristen dahlgren. >> we are just being told by the officials that simone biles is out of the competition tonight. >> reporter: for weeks, simone biles has been replaying that moment, telling "new york" magazine of her sudden decision to withdraw from competition it's like i jumped out of a moving train but looking back, simone says, she should have stopped competing long before that morning in tokyo if you looked at everything i've gone through for the past seven years, i should have never made

another olympic team i should have quit way before tokyo. when larry nassar was in the media for two years. it was too much. nassar is the former team doctor sentenced to life in prison after being accused of sexually abusing hundreds of gymnasts this month she gave searing testimony to the u.s. senate. >> i blame larry nassar and i also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse. >> reporter: but ahead of tokyo, like she'd done time and time again, simone pushed through, telling hoda before the games she felt she needed to be there, to speak out for survivors >> i just feel like everything that happened had to come back to the sport to be a voice, to have change happen because i feel like if there weren't a remaining survivor in the sport, they would have just brushed it to the side. since i'm still here and i have quite a social media presence

and platform, they have to do something. >> reporter: simone's struggle in tokyo evident in video diaries she recorded inside her hotel room >> i just feel like mentally i'm shriveling. >> reporter: now part of the facebook watched docuseries, simone versus herself. the gymnastics frustrated practicing skills on her bed simone says she's now back in therapy, trying to heal from this turbulent period of her life, calling it a work in progress for the news, i'm kristin dahlgren. greek life at northwestern university is under major fire tonight. all fraternity events suspended. the alleged events at recent parties that have people calling for the whole greek system to be shut down. rivers of lava flowing dangerously close to the ocean, and scientists sounding the alarm about toxic gases.

now a new disaster declaration as the seismic activity picks up the chair of the federal reserve and the treasury secretary both on the hill the warning to lawmakers on how long the government can be funded and the sharp words that followed that's next, as we approach the bottom of the hour and the top of the news from cnbc.

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carnage in the tech sector that's what's topping cnbc's on the money. the biggest names in tech took a big hit today. microsoft, facebook, alphabet, all down by more than 3.5% those followed by amazon, apple and tesla. part of the reason for today's tumble a rise in the yield on the 10-year treasury note. that hits the market leaders that benefit from low rates. big losses across the board. the dow off 569. s&p down 90. nasdaq down 423, nearly 3% its worst day since march. home prices surged almost 20% on an annual basis in july that's according to the case schiller property value index. it's the fourth consecutive month of record gains and the biggest jump in more than 30 years. the housing supply is very low so buyers are bidding up rising prices making it harder for first-time buyers to get a

home. and it's almost. general motors commercial electric vehicle business called brightdrop set to add a second van to its lieneup the first customer is expected to be verizon communications i'm shepard smith on cnbc. it's the bottom of the hour, time for the top of the news calls to shut down all sororities and fraternities for good at one of the nation's top universities the disturbing allegations fueling the protests straight out of the jetsons. amazon unveils its first-ever at-home robot. what it can do and is it worth the price? but first, america's top economic officials deliver a stern warning to congress. >> the fed chair, jerome powell, and the treasury secretary, janet yellen, telling lawmakers today you have just 20 days to either raise or suspend the debt

ceiling. if you don't do that, america could face an economic crisis. >> it would be disastrous for the american economy, for global financial markets, and for millions of families and workers whose financial security would be jeopardized by delayed payments. >> secretary yellen added that a failure to raise the debt ceiling could halt child tax credits for 30 million families, delay social security payments for 50 million seniors and result in a spike in unemployment time is running out for democrats and republicans to come to an agreement they have until the 18th of october to raise the debt ceiling. on a separate issue, they have only until this thursday at midnight to fund the government. nbc's leigh ann caldwell on the political fight on the hill. first steve liesman on today's economic warning steve? >> shep, thanks. the treasury secretary saying

failing to raise the debt limit would deliver a 1-2 punch to the u.s. economy, a financial panic and a recession if that weren't enough, yellen said it would do long-term damage to the premiere status of the dollar in the global economy and undermine the faith and credit of the u.s. government now, you could yawn and say treasury secretaries always serve up these kind of warnings in the final days before the government runs out of cash except for one thing economically these dire predictions are probably right the government cougffers run dr october 17th the delta variant is slowing the economic recovery. yellen noted the economic recovery was fragile but rapid and that the delta variant was suppressing the speed of the rebound. on inflation, powell saying the effects were larger and longer lasting than anticipated but would begin to fall back yellen saying in her view inflation at the end of the year would probably be 4% or double

what the fed is looking for. >> steve, senator elizabeth warren really laid into chairman powell today >> yeah, elizabeth warren is known for not mincing her words but she surprised some in her own party today on what she said on the issue of banking regulation. >> over and over you have acted to make our banking system less safe, and that makes you a dangerous man to head up the fed and it's why i will oppose your renomination >> warren accused powell of weakening new rules put in place after the financial crisis to avoid future taxpayer bailouts powell disputed the charge and pointed out banks have more money while essentially in the bank and are safer than they have been in history back to the original dangerous man, shep. >> capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell where are we on debt ceiling negotiations, leigh ann?

>> there's two separate things, debt ceiling negotiations and then government funding. democrats have tried to link the two together and that's where we've gotten into problems because republicans have said they are not going to vote on anything, including a government funding bill, if a debt limit increase is included so what senate majority leader chuck schumer did today is say, okay, republicans, allow us the to vote to lift the debt limit with just the 50-vote threshold instead of the 60-vote threshold that would need 10 republicans in order for it to pass but republicans blocked that as well and so the senate is stuck on how to lift this debt limit. meanwhile, on the government funding front, there is a little bit of a breakthrough there. democratic leaders are trying to extend a clean government funding bill through december 3rd. we'll see where that goes, if they're actually able to even bring that up for a vote

but that does not solve the problem of a suspension or lifting the debt limit, which needs to happen before october 18th, shep. >> leigh ann, what about this other fight on infrastructure? >> yeah. this is also complicated so the debt limit and government funding is what democrats have to do. the infrastructure fight is what democrats want to do and that is also where they have focused their attention. speaker pelosi says she is going to hold a vote tomorrow on this bipartisan traditional infrastructure bill, but progressives are balking they say that is a break in the deal we are supposed to also vote on this multi trillion human safety net infrastructure bill at the same time, but that bill is far from being done and now the house progressives have a key ally, senator bernie sanders, who said this about it today >> if we just pass that

infrastructure bill alone, i think it takes away leverage to do what has to be done for working families and for climate change in the reconciliation bill. >> so progressives are withholding their votes on the bipartisan bill. where this goes, we don't know, but we know that president biden cancelled his trip to chicago yesterday to stay in town to continue negotiations, shep. >> leigh ann caldwell, thank you. northwestern university has suspended all fraternity events, and now the school is facing calls to completely abolish greek life it comes after multiple students came forward and claimed they were drugged at two different fraternity houses on campus. cnbc's perry russom is here. they're actively investigating these right now. >> yeah, shep. police have been looking sense someone told them they were drugged at sae the night before. the police said there are other reports they are looking at as well ae pi says our understanding is

that the people responsible are not and have never been members. a spokesman says these allegations do not represent the fraternity's values as determined by our creed, the true gentlemen sae has been in trouble before at northwestern. back in 2017 the chapter was suspended for a year for giving alcohol to kids under the age of 21 students on campus have been protesting, say more has to be done than just temporary punishment some calling for an end to greek life. >> i think this is a good first step to getting them off campus entirely. >> really important to believe the victims and the students that have experienced these. >> so as a result of all this, there will be no social events or recruitment activities at frats until at least october 17th. there's also an update on the death of adam oaks who police say was the victim of hazing. >> 11 men have been charged for

this in connection with his death. they are between the ages of 19 and 22 all 11 have been charged with unlawful hazing of a student and then six of the 11 are also facing a charge for buying and giving alcohol to someone younger than 21. they did not give a plea adam oaks was a student at vcu he was 19 when he was found dead six months ago after a frat party at delta chi his family says he drank a large bottle of whiskey in an hour as a part of initiation a bottle of whiskey in an hour passed out they found him dead the next morning, shep. >> perry russom, newest member of our expanding team. happy to have you at cnbc. >> happy to be here. new action tonight in the volcano eruption in spain. officials there declaring la palma a disaster zone. that will help bring financial aid to the island where the volcanic eruption has caused chaos over the past nine days. the lava is picking up pace now.

it's within 900 yards of the shore. scientists warn if it starts spilling into the ocean water, that could create clouds of toxic gases and explosions the lava has already swallowed up 600 buildings and 300 miles of road. it's forced nearly 7,000 people to evacuate. officials say the aftermath could last up to three months. the last volcanic eruption on that island was 50 years ago setting sail on the high seas, but this one is not your grandma's idea of a good time. seema mody on the new offering for cruises for younger people, but no kids. >> richard branson looking to shake up the $100 billion cruise industry, offering creative experiences, including a tattoo parlor the question is will it be enough to attract the younger customer that story next. and workers in boston bringing in the heavy equipment for a problem they never thought they'd see >> outside like this, this is --

i mean

cruise ships, they're for families and grandparents and people looking for a solid buffet, right? well, now one company is working to destroy those stereotypes and attract a whole different crowd. behold virgin voyages new ship, the scarlet lady, they call it it's branded as an edgy, high-class playground for adults only for example, if you want to blow off some steam, head over to the boxing ring. jonesing for a tattoo? there's a parlor onboard and every cabin comes equipped with a fanciful box of sex toys. cnbc's seema mody got an inside look at the ship aiming to change the way people think about cruises. >> from virgin atlantic to virgin galactic, richard branson now has his eyes on the high seas, looking to shake up the

multi billion dollar cruise industry >> we want to try to attract a lot of people who would never dream of going on a cruise ship. it's just going to be a fun ship for adults no kids allowed onboard. i think people will have a great time. >> reporter: branson's ploy to get younger customers on board, get the virgin touch art deck owe design throughout the ship your father's buffet gone. instead, six restaurants offering differing cuisines. late night cabaret, a tattoo parlor is that what it takes to get millenials onboard >> we want young at heart people so i don't want to exclude myself from being onboard but we want it to be a fun ship we want people of all ages to come on the ship and have a great time. >> reporter: despite his optimism, ceos of the two largest cruise lines, carnival and royal caribbean, say they're not worried about the competition. >> it's important to look at the industry and say that new players are actually a benefit to us because they attract

attention. >> listen to your prospective guests and listen to the travel agent professionals that you're working with. >> reporter: attracting younger customers has long been a struggle for the cruise lines. while the average age of u.s. passengers has gone down to 49, a recent survey found that only 13% of millenials plan to cruise this past summer. >> cruises are not really my thing. maybe it's a generational thing. i know my parents love it. >> once we get to the herd immunity where most people are vaccinated, then i wolf more comfortable being around so many people. >> i'll get on a cruise ship depending how safe it is. >> reporter: but the industry's turn-around is far from guaranteed as the delta variant continues to challenge the big cruise operators on this ship both a covid-19 vaccine and a negative covid test are required to get onboard. branson looking to set sail on october 6th. shep. >> seema mody live in miami. thanks luxurious artisan fresh made salads they became synonymous with city

office jobs, especially for workers who really didn't have time for a lunch break but could shell out $15 for a quick meal that was in the before times no more in many cities so many employees still working from home that those desk salads are now making their way to the burbs. some restaurants are cashing in for sure here's cnbc's kate rogers. >> reporter: the lunch hour was a break, a beacon of freedom on a long, busy day at the office but since the pandemic, lunch has lost its luster. after 18 months of working from home, workers around the country are reclaiming that midday break. >> there would be opportunities, you know, to meet up with co-workers and go out for lunch, where at home it's just me and my cat. >> i normally go out to some places like this where i can get a quick meal and head on back. >> reporter: data show lunch traffic has been gaining over 2020 levels this summer but it well below pre-pandemic levels it's also making up the largest segment of dining out, with 40%

of traffic during the day over the last few months. consumers also say they're most likely to dine out for lunch while locations in dense office centers may be slowing down, those outside of cities are faring better. for companies like cava, the focus on on suburban expansion to capture a new consumer, a strategy that's paid off as workers have yet to return to office. >> we knew from day one that lunch isn't only served in the city 85% of our restaurants at cava are in the suburbs as we've seen throughout the pandemic and people shift more to hybrid living and hybrid work, our lunch lines in the suburbs have continued to grow. >> reporter: some bigger restaurant chains have noted lunch bumps in recent months mcdonald's is seeing larger order sizes coming through the drive-through. chipotle noted a bounce-back in both dine-in and lunch business but as the delta variant has

continued to spread, those trends have reversed somewhat. shep. >> thanks. a violent gang of otters seems to be taking over anchorage, alaska. they have attacked pets, a woman and even injured a 9-year-old child. here's the damage. the kid is going to be fine, he's okay now, but his mom did take him to the e.r. for a rabies shot. the boy said he was just watching this group of otters when one of them broke away from the pack and started to attack wildlife officials say all of the incidents reported so far have come from one or one group of about four or five otters now they're on the hunt for the offenders and warning people to be extra careful around rivers and lakes. officials say it's unlikely that multiple groups of otters would team up and attack together. they say they plan to find and remove the otter gang as soon as they can. and speaking of finding and removing vicious creatures, check out what was hanging underneath a roof in boston. this massive beehive, home to

what we're told are more than 100,000 bees the experts bringing in the heavy duty equipment, climbing 50 feet and sucking up the little stingers while keeping as many of them alive as possible the honeybees put into cages the crew says the plan is to relocate them so they can continue to make honey, pollinate and do all the good things bees are supposed to do. we've met george jetson, is boy elroy. now amazon unleashing its dog into your home actually it's a robot. it will follow you around the house and do all kinds of things we'll break down the list of its futures and the cost

favorite news of the daytime now. amazon just unveiled a fleet of shiny new gadgets at its fall product event. included here, a smart thermostat to compete with google's nest. an echo device that will hang on the wall called the echo show 15 a video calling device called the amazon glow. and a fitness focused smart watch called the halo view but the real showstopper straight out of hollywood. a tiny roomba looking robot with a tablet of sorts on top, about the size of a small dog our reporter says, but likely capable of much, much less

it's the amazon astro. kinda like an alexa on wheels that can follow you around the house. so instead of yelling for the weather across the room you can just talk to the little gadget, a robot with eyes by your feet you can have it spy on the kids or the dogs in a specific room and see the live stream all on your phone it can play movies or video call, though your best angle might not be from two feet off the floor. and, no, it cannot climb stairs. but it has an arm with a famcamera that extends up about four feet to look at things from a normal height and a little cup holder so you can literally tell alexa to hold your beer. not exactly the jetsons but still maybe a step forward for home monitoring technology and get this, it can recognize faces, so you can tell it go find david, and it will. or take this drink to jeremy radical. all for $1,000 though for now, you'll have to have a special invitation from

amazon just to buy it. cnbc's technology product editor, todd hazelton, with us now. you got to play with this thing, i'm told. >> i did, shep >> worth the hype? >> it's a two-part answer. yes, it's worth the hype in the sense that, okay, when you have a big company like amazon announce a product that we haven't seen before like this from any other company, deserves some discussion. but i want to rain on the parade a little bit you went over some of the features that sound pretty cool and that's exactly what i saw and it worked in a controlled demo but the point is it was a controlled demo. that means i was with amazon executives in a meeting where the robot was trained to work around them. i don't know how this works, say, in my home, in anybody else's home, how it does with stairs, will it just fall down the stairs as some reports have suggested. so i think there's some skepticism here. especially as you mentioned it's

invite only so that means it's a day one product. that means people can sign up to buy the robot and amazon invites you to buy it. they have a very small amount of people or limited batch of people that are using it and they can learn what the people like or don't like it's very much like they're beta testers. so, yes, it's worth the hype in the sense that amazon made a home robot everybody talks about home robots from the jetsons. when are we going to get one here it is. >> okay, todd. so the thing wanders around the house. presumably it sees and knows everything but will it sheare? steve covac now. steve, a lot of data. >> yeah, that's right. if you're like me you might be a little freaked out with a little two-foot robot connected to the internet with cameras and microphones following you all around but amazon got ahead with these privacy things and built in features to make sure it doesn't freak you out. for example, you can turn off the cameras, you can turn off

the microphones whenever you want they literally shut off and stop recording. the other great feature is since this thing can recognize faces, it processes all that data on the device instead of on amazon's internet-connected servers, so that should make you feel good. all your face data is living right there in the robot if i say, hey, bring shep a beer, it's going to just process that on the device without talking to amazon's internet. >> will it do that will it bring me a beer? >> it will bring you a beer, as long as it knows your face. >> i have to have this now why do we need an invitation to get it like putting a line outside a club but there's nobody in there? >> like todd was just saying, this is them testing it's a brand new product and brand new product category six or seven years ago when they first came out with echo speaker devices that everyone has in their homes now, that was invite only too they want to see if people are interested in this, if they use it, and then they'll expand it more. >> my understanding is it maps

your whole house so it knows where everything in your house is and then when you're away, it will watch for people coming in the door who maybe you don't know that's a lot of stuff. even if it's not connected to the internet, somebody gets ahold of that, they have got a lot. >> yeah, that's right. if someone actually steals the unit and figure out how to hack it, maybe they have a map of your house what's also cool from your mapping technology is you can block it off a room. i don't want it going in my bedroom. you can tell it not to do that if you physically put it in your be bedroom, it will walk right now. >> when will we get it >> later this year, which will mean december 31st. >> all right, thanks a lot amazon robot. critics of modern art say at its most abstract, it's more junk than art. the famed danish conceptua artist honing would likely agree. a museum in denmark recently

gave him $80,000 to reproduce an old sculpture. when they finally got the product, this is what they found. two empty frames the artist titled them take the money and run. he told danish radio, the work is that i have taken their money. the museum is going along with the stunt, at least for now. its director says he'll get the money back by mid-january or he'll file charges tomorrow is a big day here at cnbc. first in business worldwide, the delivering alpha conference is back for its 11th year and you can still attend virtually it's all about maximizing returns during a new era of opportunity. you can join some of the biggest names in investing for an unparalleled insight in investment strategies my friends on daytime tell me you can register now at deliveringalpha.com. 60 seconds left on a race to the finish pentagon leaders testifying before congress on that chaotic

and deadly withdrawal from afghanistan. america's top general said the war and the way it ended was a strategic failure, but he called the evacuation a logistical success. pfizer claims its covid vaccine is indeed safe and effective for kids ages 5 to 11. the company submitted data from a clinical trial to the fda today as it seeks authorization. and the treasury secretary, januet yellen, is warning of catastrophic economic consequences if congress doesn't raise the debt limit by october 18th and now you know the news of this tuesday, september 28th, 2021 i'm shepard smith. follow us on instagram and twitter @theneonbcnd cck

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