which is fitting, since he is the most tweeted-about elected official in the world. his twitter feet drove news coverage. whether he was telling nfl players to stand during the national anthem or coining nicknames for adversaries. trump dominated the news cycle for 2017 and brought politics into the social media realm in a whole new way. with no sign of curbing his twitter use, it seems likely that president trump will remain a big part of all the trending stories in 2018 and beyond. >> brooke, don't forget to ring in the new year with cnn. anderson cooper and andy cohen host the live event beginning at 8:00 p.m. tomorrow night. it's supposed to be one of the coldest any year's eaves on record. top of the hour, 6:00 p.m. eastern. 3:00 on the west coast. ear in the cnn news room, i'm

ana cabrera. breaking news, a bombshell report in "the new york times" revealing another piece ofs intelligence the fbi had when they began to investigate possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia. this man, george papadopoulos is at the center of today's report. how do you know him? he is the trump campaign aide who has since pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi and is now cooperating with special counsel robert mueller. according to the "new york times," papadopoulos was having a drink with a top australian diplomat in may of 2016. were in london, when he told this diplomat that russia had political dirt on hillary clinton. two months later when the dnc emails were leaked, australian officials told u.s. officials about that conversation with papadopoulos. this news indicates that additional intelligence separate from that dossier by a british spy on trump/russia ties, raising concern amongst security

officials. cnn white house correspondent sarah murray is joining us live in west palm beach where the president is spending new year's. sarah, what is the white house saying about the report? >> well remember how they referred to george papadopoulos before when it first became clear that he had pleaded guilty? they certainly went out of their way to try to minimize his role during the campaign deriding him. essentially a low-level volunteer. some even called him a coffee boy, look at how sarah sanders, the white house press secretary and campaign adviser responded at the time. >> can you explain what george papadopoulos' role with the campaign was? >> it was extremely limited. it was a volunteer position. and again. no activity was ever done in an official capacity. on behalf of the campaign. >> the guy was -- he was the coffee boy. i mean you might have called him, a foreign policy analyst that in fact you know if he was going to wear a wire, all we would know now is whether he

prefers a an espresso or a coffee. in conversations with his barista. he had nothing to do with the campaign. >> now the white house is taking a more careful approach to how they're responding to the latest use from "the new york times." ty cobb, the president's counsel put out a statement out of respect for the special counsel and his process, he's not commenting on matters such as this. we're continuing to cooperate with the special counsel in order to help complete their inquiry expeditiously. obviously when you look at "the new york times" story and see some of the revelations included in it, the notion that george papadopoulos weighed in on some of the president's foreign policy speeches when he was a candidate. two months before the election, pap tap louse helped facilitate a meeting between then-candidate trump and the egyptian president. these certainly seem like more important roles than you would expect to see from a low-level volunteer or a coffee boy. >> sarah murray in west palm beach, thanks.

i had a chance to speak with one of those "new york times" reporters who broke this story. mark masseti. i asked him why he believes that australian intelligence sat on the information for two months before telling their american counterparts. >> it is possible that the australian whose name is alexander downer, the top diplomat in the uk, heard the information. it was not considered urgent until two months later when we saw emails spilling out publicly that were damaging to hillary clinton's campaign. specifically the dnc emails. and after that, it became clear that this was what pap tap louse was talking about. and they put two and two together and urge lnt i went to the united states. that's some speculation, but it is possible. >> so what did the fbi do then after they got that information from australia? >> so what has been publicly and spoken of by senior officials is

in late july of 2016, the fbi opened a counterintelligence investigation, basically looking at what, what is behind this intelligence about contacts between the trump campaign and russians? what are they to make of it? they started the investigation. but it did not really go full tilt for some time. it wasn't really until the fall that they started really looking at these issues, particularly seriously. now at the same time, this is a month before the election. and there was concern in the fbi about a full-blown investigation, coloring the political sort of climate at the time, a month before the election. recall it was a time when there was concern that trump might lose and not accept the results of the elections. >> so let's bring in our panel. and really break this down. with us is former federal prosecutor renata mariani and former assistant secretary at

the department of homeland security, juliette kayyem. >> when it comes to the question of collusion, why? >> let's begin with where we aren't, we're so far away from the original explanation that there was no contacts with the russians. what "the new york times" story does today is it does two things. one it puts the dossier, which has sort of been this political flame-throwing thing, it puts it to the side. says look there was not a part of what motivated the fbi and that gets to the key point of the "new york times'" piece, which is pap tap louadopoulos w cooperating with robert mueller and his sort of clear access to key members of the trump team, including steven miller and the attorney general. so the "new york times" piece nicely puts together some

questions about how much did the trump team know beforehand. not just about the dnc hack. but specifically about hillary clinton and the john podesta emails? and that's a significant change. want to add one other thing. they knew it and they did not disclose it to the fbi. that's just something that we have to say that the trump team clearly knew it at this stage and did nothing. >> but at the same time i asked whether there was any evidence based on this report, with those sources, when i asked mark if we know whether or not papadopoulos shared the same information he may have shared with the australian officials with trump campaign officials and he said that was not known. just yet but renata, we do know that u.s. officials learned about papadopoulos' claim last july. a year and a half ago, that's how long the investigation has been going on and they haven't said publicly that there was criminal cooperation.

what does that tell you? >> well first of all. it doesn't, that alone, the fact that nothing has been announced doesn't tell me anything. because criminal investigations don't announce findings mid stream. what happens is you wait until the end of the investigation and either people are charged, like we have seen some people charged already. and then you get, you know you get to see what those charges are. or there are no announcements at all there are generally not announce thamts are given of findings and evidence unless there are charges. in terms of what was important in this story. a couple of things i thought were interesting, one of which is that attorney general sessions had indicated that he had told papadopoulos not to pursue contact with the russians and "the new york times" story today said in fact there are emails from papadopoulos in which he said that, that he had continued to pursue those contacts afterwards. which is an odd thing.

and in addition to that, juliette just said a minute ago and i thought she made a good point no one from the trump camp reported this to the fbi. it's interesting that the australians knew enough to report it to the u.s. intelligence, but no one in the trump camp was reporting these russian contacts. >> i want to read that part. it said if the campaign wanted mr. papadopoulos to stand down, previously undisclosed emails obtained by the "times" showed that he did not get the message or he failed to heed it. he continues for months it try to arrange some kind of meeting with russian representatives keeping senior campaign advisers abreast of his efforts. that's what you refer to after you talk about the initial meeting when we see sessions sitting around the table and papadopoulos is part of the meeting where he apparently reached out saying i can arrange an interview or some kind of meeting between president trump or then candidate trump and the president vladimir putin of russia. and sessions said he said no.

don't do that. he pushed back on that idea. that's where they're referencing what happened after that. so juliette, if this revelation by papadopoulos to an australian official was so significant and then when the u.s. learned about it, why did the fbi wait until january, before they interviewed papadopoulos and they waited again until the following july to actually arrest him? >> it's part of this just had to do with the pacing of the information that they were getting, the fbi will have to do an accounting, jim comey and others about why they were so public about the hillary clinton investigation and basically had the investigation or at least allegations that there was something going on between the trump campaign and russia. and did not announce it. that's going to come down to the fbi's protocols. i'm not too concerned about the pacing. we're always looking for eureka moments with this collusion case or potential collusion case. instead if we just put the pieces together, this is looking pretty bad for the trump white house, including getting very

close, if not collusion. and i say that because it defies logic at this stage to think that papadopoulos had the information that the russians had hillary clinton's emails and is casually at a bar, telling an australian diplomat about this and have not told anyone in the trump campaign? i mean that, that's either, that's too good to be true, if you are the trump white house at this stage and i suspect it is not true. remember, papadopoulos was arrested but we, the white house did not know about that for several months. we do not know what kind of emails he still retains. we don't know if he had conversations with people in the white house during that period, to help the fbi investigation, so i read this "new york times" piece as also a little bit of a hint to those within the trump white house, that, that mueller knows a lot more than you think he knows. and that if you actually did

know about the russian contacts, you should speak up. to me if you're in the trump white house at this stage, this is a very bad news story. >> renata, to that point, does this reporting shed any light on papadopoulos' plea deal? >> well we certainly knew, papadopoulos got a pretty good plea deal and he was obviously the first, it looks like the first person who has cooperated with mueller that we know of at least. so i think what it tells us, it gives us a window into what some of the things are that papadopoulos may have been telling mueller. who he is going to cooperate against. so you know not only i think there have been some speculation based on the plea deal that sam clovis who used tobacco chair of the trump transition team, was somebody that might be, you know somebody that papadopoulos was cooperating against. but now you know, for example, attorney general sessions might be one of those people given how the emails that were in the

story that you just referenced a moment ago, how those contradict at least appear to contradict what attorney general sessions said. so i think papadopoulos is definitely going to be a key figure here. -day agree with juliette that there's, there's definitely something to this investigation we all need to watch it very carefully. >> renata and juliette, good to see you and an early happy new year. still ahead this hour, live in the news room, the world is watching. those words from president trump, sending a warning to iran, as violent anti-government protests flare up in that country. plus presidential privacy? remember the white truck? that was serious white truck parked in front of news cameras at trump's golf course. today another attempt to stay out of sight. we'll explain. and a day ahead of new year's eve. cities are working to make sure celebrations will be safe.

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talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know. we're getting our first look at two suspected killers believed to be behind what police are calling an act of savagery, james white and justice mann were arraigned in connection with a brutal quadruple homicide in upstate new york this week. a property manager discovered four bodies, two of them children in a basement apartment a day after christmas, police officials are saying little about the slayings, only that they were unforgotably vicious. sthed killers each face one charge of first-degree murder and second-degree murder. the maximum penalties for their crimes is life in prison. president trump is closing out his holiday in florida. playing golf for the fifth straight day at his nearby trump international golf club. cnn cameras did not get any

video of president trump playing golf. where cnn cameras were once positioned, trees appeared, new trees are being planted there. earlier this week, a whi white truck parked in the same spot blocking the view. as the cnn cameras moved, the truck moved to block the picture. let's talk it over with our political commentators. democrat michael nutter, the former mayor of philadelphia. andre if you want to play golf, just golf, what's with the secrecy? >> i keep wait fogger my invite. i still haven't got tn to be down there with him. it's interesting and intriguing and keeps people guessing and keys us in the news. >> michael, your thoughts on this? >> well it's pretty silly, ana. as you said, you want to play golf? play golf. i said the other day, you can play badminton, do whatever you want to do. it's holiday time, take some time off.

there's nothing wrong with it. this is consistent with the pattern of donald trump, to say during the campaign, he was never going to play golf or criticize president obama and then he's virtually outstripped president obama's eight years in his first year as president playing golf it's consistent with his lying about things and doing something else. it's tragic, really. >> andre, president trump was very critical of obama's golf time when he was in office. how does that look now? >> well you know i don't know whether he's, i don't know what he's doing because we don't know, there's a truck there. is he playing golf? we don't know. >> we do know, we have seen him on the golf course. he's tried to walk it acouple of times. but he has been seen golfing. >> it's a knowable thing, audra. >> him criticizing the former president and then doing it clearly doesn't look as good as something else he could be

doing. >> let's move on. let's get past the golf because in the big pictures, it really doesn't matter. he's president and deserve as little bit of free time. probably good to get a little exercise. >> get away from the tweeting. >> let's talk about the tweeting, earlier this week he was talking about how cold it's going to be on the east coast for new year's eve. let me read the tweet in east it could be the coldest new year's eve on record perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old global warming that our country, but not other countries was going to pay trillions of dollars to protect against. bundle up! he's conflating that with climate change. but some republican pollsters says it's his attitude towards climate change that's helping to drive younger voters away from the republican party. what's your take in. >> i don't think that's what's driven voters away from the republican party we do as a party need to reach out and get young people. over history usually young people have deviated towards the

democratic party. as they got wiser, smarter and older, they deviated towards the democratic party. for decades, the younger people more than not have been engaged in the democratic party politics and i don't think that's a big issue for him. not that it's not an issue, but it's not one of the top issues for him. >> mayor you find that funny? >> no, it's hilarious. but the real thing which is very s serious, is donald trump conflating two different issues, not understanding the difference between weather and climate change and then more importantly, more seriously, not even understanding and taking the fact that the planet is being affected by human activity, and announcing summarily that we're going to you know pull out of the paris agreement. there's no mayor in the united states of america that's paying any attention to that. because mayors know whether you're in florida, with rising

seas, whether you're in other states, with wild temperature changes and severe weather events unlike we've seen in modern history, we know on the ground that these are real issues and donald trump just thinks that everything is a joke. >> i want to touch on the new report in "the new york times," george papadopoulos telling an australian diplomat that they had hillary clinton. for the fbi to launch their investigation. andre, how does this affect trump's white house view that this dossier prompted the fbi investigation? apparently that wasn't the case. >> well, you know, the president a long time ago said that trump tower was, had surveillance on it and everybody laughed at him. this has gone on now for almost a year. >> wrong. >> they've been looking in into russian meddling.

>> mayor, tell me that i'm wrong? >> the fbi said there was no surveillance. our fbi. >> we do now know that trump tower was surveilled, i mean how do you think they got information on manafort? >> the president said that donald trump said that president obama had his building wired. the fbi said that is not true, there's no evidence of it. look it up, andre, cut it out. >> we know they had surveillance of trump tower. anyway, andre, stick to the facts. >> they had surveillance on foreign leaders, because that's what we do. >> back to the question. andre. >> back -- >> you will get picked up on those tapes, if you talk to foreign leaders and spies. >> the question on the latest reporting. if indeed it was this papadopoulos revelation, which was flagged, by australian officials to u.s. officials that led them and created this investigation to begin, that

does fly in the face of what the narrative has been from a lot of republican lawmakers, and even presidents at times that this is all a hoax of an investigation sparked by a bogus dossier. >> all of this, this thing has gone on for a year and a half. i know a lot of people would like to see us get over it. they need to help the democrats raise money. we've got a tainted group of people doing the investigating. we know they're sending emails, they're impartial to donald trump. we know they've raised money for the democratic party. this is very clear. -- [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] >> counsel is because the president in his convoluted mind

fired the fbi director, because of russia. the -- andre, let me finish, let me finish, i didn't interrupt you. jeff sessions because he, jeff sessions because he didn't tell congress the truth under oath and had to go back, i think at least two other times, then ended up having to recuse himself because he suddenly forgot until he remembered that maybe he had some involvement with people in russia. rod rosenstein was appointed by donald trump and he's a republican. mr. rosenstein appointed mr. mueller, who is also a republican and he's in charge. all of this other lower-level nonsense about who's email and whom. democrats and republicans respect mr. mueller. he should not be interfered with. this is not a hoax, it is not fake news there are three different congressional committees investigating all of this nonsense, all of which are headed by republicans. because you control the house and the senate, the only person

who believes that there's nothing going on here is donald trump. and this entire administration is on the verge of collapse, that's what the facts are. >> we've got to leave it there. but i do want to point out that there was an interview that the president gave this week and he himself said now he believes that robert mueller will be fair in this investigation. andre bauer and michael nutter, thank you both for coming on for this spirited debate, i appreciate it. coming up, there's no shortage of people critical of president trump's handling of foreign policy. but my next guest says the president has scored quite a few successes. why he says this administration has helped speed up the demise of isis. you're live in the cnn news room.

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count is zero, but as it was in 20099 ahead of the presidential elections what we're seeing on social media. pictures of bloody demonstrators tells a different story. this woman confronting police shouting "death to khamenei" referring to iran's supreme leader and pleading the question, why did you do this? now some are suspecting that videos like this may stop trickling in as there are reports that internet access has now been blocked across some parts of iraq. president trump taking to twitter, with a warning to iran -- that the world is watching. the unfolding iran crisis is just another foreign policy challenge for president trump. and according to a new cnn op-ed from cnn national security analyst peter bergen he's scoring some significant wins.

peter, thank you for joining us. before i get to your op-ed. i have to ask you about this situation unfolding in iran and president trump's response. he tweeted this -- many reports of peaceful protests by iranian citizens fed up with regime's corruption and its squandering of the nation's wealth to fund terrorism abroad. iranian government should respect their people's rights, including right to express themselves. the world is watching. peter what do you make of president trump inserting himself squarely in these protests with this tweet? >> well i think ana, one of the criticisms of president obama between the revolution of 2009 is that he didn't do enough to insert himself and didn't side with the protesters enough vocally. we now know that the obama administration was beginning to secret negotiations to do the nuclear deal. and obviously when an american

president takes kind of a strong position, there are some risks, with the risk that the protesters may be stamped with a sort of pro american, pro trumpian stance. and that wouldn't be to their benefit. i mean after all, they're really protesting the nature of the iranian regime. so you know, president trump is obviously free to do whatever he wants. there are some risks in taking a strong position there are some risks in sort of saying nothing. and certainly that was the critique during the green revolution of 2009. that the obama administration wasn't clear enough on the side of the protesters. >> so in your op-ed you write about some of the other things that where you say trump scored some successes in foreign policy. tell us what are his biggest successes? >> i think really, ana, the biggest one is drawing a real red line after syria used sarin

nerve gas against its own people in april and u.s. cruise missile strikes against the syrian air field and the syrian regime has not used those weapons again. that's a very important national norm that was enforced by those strikes that regimes cannot use nerve agents against their own people. secondly i would say president trump has claimed without him, isis would, the defeat of isis is related to his presidency. that's an overblown claim. certainly the campaign against isis has been going on for years before trump took office. that said he did do two important things. one is arming the kurds fighting the isis in syria. and two, changing the rules, the rules of engagement. and letting commanders on the ground make decisions at a lower level. there was a feeling at the pentagon that military operations were micromanaged by

the obama white house. those two things sped up the demise of isis. i would add and by the way, i was in iraq just early this month and people in baghdad certainly feel that the situation is better as a result of isis. because it's a fragile peace, but certainly they feel the security situation is better. and finally, i think president trump was right to in august say that the commitment to afghanistan by the united states is a long-term one. several thousand more troops have gone in. but i think the obama administration had a sort of counterproductive approach, which was to announce withdrawal dates that the withdrawals you know, didn't happen in the way they were supposed to and i think by saying hey we have a long-term commitment. it's the right approach to afghanistan. so certainly i don't want to say that it's all been roses. i think moving the u.s. embassy to jerusalem probably is not, could be pretty counterproductive. pulling out of the trans-pacific

trade agreement which is designed to contain china as much as a trade agreement that may, historians may regard that as not a smart move. that said i think there have been successes and foreign policy successes are hard to get. you're dealing with a lot of, it's not like you're dealing with domestic politics. you're dealing with many actors outside your own country. so i think it's important to give credit where credit is due. >> we don't have much time. but we look back, what will you be looking at in the year ahead in terms of the biggest challenge maybe facing this president when it comes to foreign policy? >> well i think there's elections in iraq, next year, there's elections in afghanistan in 2019. if those if those could go well, then those countries will be on a good glide path if those elections don't go well, then you're looking at a much more sort of dire situation in both countries. >> peter bergen as always, thank you very much for joining us.

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cabre cabrera. police are taking security in new york's times square to a new level this new year's eve. fresh on the minds of law enforcement, two terror attacks within the last two months in new york. so an area roughly 22 city blocks long and three blocks wide will be sealed off from traffic with cement blocks and sand-filled garbage trucks and other vehicles blocking these streets. police say all 125 parking garages in the vicinity of times square will be emptied in advance of the celebration and sealed off. so no one can sneak in anything. despite the fact that the low temperature on new year's eve will be 8 degrees -- it will feel even colder, authorities are still anticipating more than one million people to cram into times square for this iconic celebration. now it's not just times square in a deep freeze, an arctic blast is sweeping much of the nation. so frigid in some places like cape cod that sharks are freezing to death.

the atlantic white shark conservancy says 14-foot sharks were so frozen they couldn't even attempt a necropsy. niagara falls is coated in ice. cnn's meteorologist takes a closer look at the forecast. allison? >> the best advice i can give of any folks have plans to go to new york city for new year's eve is to bundle up. wear as many layers as possible because some of the coldest days of the upcoming week in new york is going to be the transition from sunday into monday. where the temperatures for the high on sunday is still going to be about minus 8 to minus 9. but the feels-like temperature is likely going to be in the negative teens because of the wind that will be out there as well. however this is not the only spot across the u.s. that's going to be experiencing very cold temperatures, in fact we

have over 70 million people that are under a wind chill advisory, watch or even warning. to put this into perspective. because it's hard to understand where the cold would normally be this time of year, look at minneapolis for example, their high temperature today, minus 21, the average would have been minus 4. the chicago going to be minus 14, their average high is right at the freezing mark. but other cities, new york, boston, they're also going to be about 10 degrees below their average for celsius. the other thing to know is this cold air is not going away any time soon. by the time this first arctic wave pushes out, another one arrives just a few short days later on wednesday into thursday of the upcoming week, these next few waves of cold air are going to sink pretty far south. take for example dallas, texas. atlanta, georgia, even orlando, florida. are looking at temperatures about 10 to 15 degrees below average. >> all right. thank you, allison.

stay warm, bundle up or just watch from the comfort of your home. your warm home. our new year's eve celebration kicks off tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. anderson cooper and andy cohen. beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. still ahead, it is our job at cnn to take you to foreign shores. to the front lines and in 2017 this journey unveiled the unthinkable. up next, the stories that changed the world live in the cnn news room.

it's our job as cnn correspondents to take you to foreign shores. to front lines. we at cnn go there. and in 2017, that journey unveiled the unthinkable. ethnic cleansing, countries collapsing. human beings sold like commodities. these are the stories that changed the world.

>> the first story, a cnn expose. >> the crew travelled to libya to track down a dark secret and they found it. >> fleeing their homes, some of the most desperate people on earth think they've found a passage to safety but instead they find themselves in the hands of predators. >> captured and sold like cattle, as this man witnessed firsthand. >> 700. >> 700. >> 800. >> the numbers roll in. >> these men are sold. for 1200 libyan pounds, $400 apiece. >> the cnn report sparking self-reflection in europe and the u.s. about the west's own response to the migrant crisis. in saudi arabia, a powerful prince is shaking things up. bolstered by close relations

with the trump white house. 32-year-old mohammed bin salman, the prince known as mbs enbarking on a series of reforms, arresting many of his own cousins in a crackdown on corruption. >> he has swept away a while also taking on the kingdom's powerful clergy. >> there's only one country in the world where women can't drive and soon, there will be none. >> but as he tries to take on iran, things get complicated. >> the defense minister, he initiated air strikes on yemen. >> involvement in a war that has brought 8.4 million people to the brink of famine. it's not the bombs and the bullets that are killing the most people. it's the humanitarian crisis that is growing by the day as yemen edges closer to becoming a failed state.

in venezuela, a perfect storm of economic and political crisis. >> the president has finally admitted his government is can no longer afford to pay bills. >> venezuela may be hours away from more violence and chaos ahead of the election. >> his party wins the election. the opposition and the u.s. claim fraud. >> maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the venezuelan people. >> politicians who spoke out about against the current president were yanked out of their homes by authorities in midnight raids. >> a cnn team goes undercover and is stunned by what they find. >> this food truck breaking down for mere seconds before it was looted. >> basic food is scarce. virginia has been doing this for 18 months to feed her five kids.

>> moms bringing with them a war crime so sickening the it is difficult to put into words. from his rooftop, he quick hi sees this is no ordinary strike. i warn you, the pictures you are about to see are graphic. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> we are following breaking news. report of a gas or some kind of chemical attack in syria killing dozens. >> all around him, people are foaming at the mouth. convulsions racking their bodies. the horrifying scenes shock the world. victims, some of them just children, gasping for their final breaths. >> the syrian government had dropped a sarin bomb on its own people. >> chemical attack in the syrian

led to the first american military strikes against the regime of al assad. >> al assad remains defiant. in 2017, two words would shock the world. ethnic cleansing. armed government forces are attacking their own minority citizens. in southeast asia's myanmar, the unthinkable was happening. >> they are beating us, shooting at us and hacking our people to death. >> some 600,000 of them have fled to neighboring bangladesh. >> the crisis, raising question es about the country's de facto leader, who was accused of doing nothing to stop the violence. >> growing criticism of nld leader over her handling of human right abuses against the rohingya muslims. >> coming in at number two, the fall of isis. some three years after the terror group surged to infamy

with staggering contests across iraq and syria, its defeat came with a whimper, not a bang. >> officially declaring the terrorist's group capital of raqqa has been totally liberated. >> now, syrian and kurdish flags fly over the city replacing the black flag of terror. >> this his stork city where isis fighters were filmed destroying ancient artifacts reclaimed with the help of russia. in iraq, isis desperately tries to hold its ground in the country's second largest city of mosul. >> senior commanders take us in in the calm before the final storm. >> their ambitions to build a caliphate crumbling, as small pogts of isis militants are flushed out. >> the iraqi prime minister is

declaring full vuictory over iss and mosul saying the city has been liberated from terrorism. >> in 2017, isis loses all of its major strongholds. but beyond the borders of iraq and syria, lone wolf attacks in the name of isis ensure their global reign of the terror is still from from over. july 4th. u.s. independence day. north korea lights up the sky with its own frightening milestone. >> north korea releasing new video appear iing to show the successful launch of its first interkontinenal ballistic missile. >> nuclear capable, but not yet nuclear armed, but by september, kim jong-un's missile program reaches its final frontier. >> the "washington post" is now report that north korea has produced a miniaturized nuclear

warhead. that can fit inside its missi missiles. >> the stage is set for war. but for now, contained to a war of words. >> we can't have madmen out there shooting rockets all over the place. >> i will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged u.s. dotard with fire. >> but president trump replace ed the petty name calling with a more diplomatic tone. >> the weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer. >> the president continuing to push china to contain the north. >> the longer we wait, the greater the danger growing. and the few er the options become. >> and as the standoff continue, the question remains. will the next missile trigger a war?

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7:00 eastern. 4:00 out west. you are live in the cnn newsroom. so glad you could join us. we are following