captioning sponsored by wnet on this edition for sunday, july 9: after a nine month siege, iraq defeats isis in mosul. and in our signature segment, a humanitarian crisis in venezuelan leads thousands to flee across the border to colombia. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter, in memory of abby m. o'neill. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company.

additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. after a nine-month offensive, the american-backed iraqi army won the battle for mosul today. they ousted isis fighters from the city it had held for three years. soldiers waved iraqi flags and celebrated in the streets, even though sporadic resistance by cornered isis militans continues. it was safe enough for iraq's prime minister haider al-abadi to go to mosul and announce its liberation and congratulate troops on their victory. this victory has had its costs. iraqi army casualties were high: the army won't reveal figures, but the pentagon has said the elite unit that spearheaded the offensive suffered 40% losses.

in addition, thousands of iraqi civilians died, so many trapped in what was iraq's second most populous city. an estimated 900-thousand iraqi civilians have been displaced, and most of mosul has been reduced to rubble. just over three years ago, isis leader abu bakr al-baghdadi ascended the pulpit of mosul's grand mosque and proclaimed an isis "caliphate," or "islamic state," stretching from iraq to syria. now that mosque lies in ruins, and isis's stronghold in syria, the city of raqqa, is under siege by american-backed militias. reuters reporter stephen kalin is in mosul and joins me now via skype how significant was this moment? >> very significant. this is we're getting very close to the end of nearly nine month battle. there are still a small pocket ofñi mosul islamic state contro, but we really expect that to be

findly done tomorrow. >> sreenivasan: what happens now? >> now, in mosul, theñi city has to start rebuilding. a lot of the city has been destroyed. i tal few days ago, and they told me that just the initial stages of rebuilding getting public infrastructure working again, which will take about a year and cost more than $1 billion. and on top of that i mean there's much more long term reconstruction that has to happen. the -- all the five bridges inside mosul are destroyed. most of the old city is in ruins. and other parts of the city are heavily damaged. people's homes are destroyed and people have been living three years un2 brutal rule so they have to really you know readjust to being back part of the rock. >> sreenivasan: even if you rebuild all the infrastructure what about tall people who have left? >> there are a lotñr of people o

have fled. when i.s.i.s. came a few hundred thousand people left the city. before they sort of shut down any avenue to escape, so when the battle began nine months ago, there were we estimated about one and a half million people inside the city. of that 900,000 people were displaced. about a third of that was to camps outside of theñi city. the rest were to other house he, relatives5a homes, friends homs inside the city. so most of the population actually stayed inside the city but now they're going to have to find way to rebuild their homes that were destroyed and get back to a normal life. >> sreenivasan: while a big city this is just onity there are still lots of other cities that are under i.s.i.s. control, smaller ones. >> yes, there are a number of smaller cities to the south and west of mosul and we're

expecting that the military campaign will continue with the help of the u.s. led coalition. the battle is not over against i.s.i.s. by any stretch in iraq. and in addition to those cities, we expect that there will be an are insurgency, that there will be asymmetrical terrorist attacks in mosul and other parts of iraq. so it's -- really stabilizing iraq will continue to be an important mission for the security forces. >> sreenivasan: all right, stephen kalin from reuters, joining us thank you so much. >> sreenivasan: in neighboring syria, a cease-fire appears to be holding today in the southwestern part of the country, according to the syrian observatory for human rights and rebel leaders. it was brokered by the united states, russia, and jordan. the sides report no significant fighting in the cease-fire zone. russia says the zone covers three syrian provinces near jordan, but does not include the

areas around raqqa in the north, where some of the heaviest fighting is taking place. the deal was announced during the g-20 summit in germany, and in a tweet today, president trump said, "we negotiated a cease-fire in parts of syria which will save lives. now it is time to move forward in working constructively with russia!" the cease-fire represents the first joint peacekeeping effort in syria by the u.s. and russia, which have supported opposing sides in the six-year civil war. secretary of state rex tillerson pressed russia today to stop the violence in eastern ukraine. while visiting ukrainian president petro poroshenko in the country's capital of kiev, tillerson said ukraine must regain control of two provinces from separatists he described as russian "proxies." >> it is necessary for russia to take the first steps to deescalate the situation in the eastern part of ukraine, in particular by respecting the cease-fire, by pulling back the heavy weapons, and allowing the >> sreenivasan: president poroshenko said tillerson told him the u.s. supports the return of crimea to ukraine, which russia annexed in 2014. meanwhile president trump today

defended his friday meeting with russian president vladimir putin at the g-20 summit in germany. in statements on twitter, he said, "i strongly pressed president putin twice about russian meddling in our election. he vehemently denied it. i've already given my opinion..... putin & i discussed forming an impenetrable cyber security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded. sanctions were not discussed at my meeting with president putin. nothing will be done until the ukrainian & syrian problems are solved! president obama's director of the cia-- one of the multiple agencies that concluded russia tried to hack the election-- said today mister trump's tone with mister putin was off. >> right before he met with mr. putin and talked with him at some length, which i'm glad he did, he said it's an honor to meet president putin. an honor to meet the individual who carried out the assault against our election? to me, it was a dishonorable thing to say. >> sreenivasan: white house

chief of staff reince priebus said today president trump did not believe putin's denials of meddling. united nations ambassador nikki haley added, "mister trump admonished the russian president by telling him, 'we know you did and don't do it again.'" >> everybody knows that russia meddled in our elections. everybody knows that they're not just meddling in the united states' election. they're doing this across multiple continents, and they're doing this in a way that they're trying to cause chaos within the countries. >> sreenivasan: that's why republican senators john mccain and lindsey graham said today there should be new sanctions imposed on russia. a bipartisan bill that passed the senate last month is stalled in the house of representatives. >> i am intent on punishing the russians for interfering in our election. they did it in france, they're gonna do it in germany. they're doing it all over the world. they're doing it in the baltics, balkan states, their neighbors, so i want to a clear message that you will pay the price for undercutting democracy. see a new art exhibit that documents the private lives of

people with aids and hiv from the 1980s to the present. visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: this weekend in indianapolis, the national association of secretaries of state is holding its annual meeting. those are the officials who oversee elections in all 50 states it's usually not a meeting that garners a lot of attention, but two things make this gathering more important this year. one: just recently a new election integrity commission created by president trump requested all 50 states to provide detailed, personal voter information to figure out, they say, how to protect the integrity of the vote from fraud. most states are refusing to comply either partially or completely, because handing over some of this information violates some privacy laws. the other reason we're paying attention to what secretaries of states do is the specter of russian hacking. the former secretary of homeland security testified to congress under oath last month the russians did indeed attempt to hack voter registration software during this past election.

joining me now from indianapolis to discuss this is denise merrill, president of the national association and connecticut's secretary of state. thanks for joining us. from every indication, it seems that president trump believes putin if his denial that the -- in his denial that the russians melded in the election. does the secretary of state believe the are department of homeland security? >> we don't know what the evidence is? we don't have security cleerntion so wee are -- clearance so we are kind of the last to know and lot of this we read in the paper. >> sreenivasan: the secretary of state is reading this about the time we are. you don't have a hot line saying hey we think you've been hacked. >> that's been sort of the problem. alt 50 states do all kinds of you know scans of their voter files and let me be clear: the

only thing really at risk here is the voter file. the registry of all the voters in each state and they're kept on a statewide basis. but none of the actual election equipment is ever touched. it's not on the internet. >> sreenivasan: as some of the reporting earl yer pointed out the damage -- earlier pointed out, the confusion that can cause delays at the polls can create disincentives for people to show up. >> indeed it could. the biggest damage cosh the quooufertion that would result. although we all have paper backups of all these lists. so the real damage is more to i guess would you say the integrity of the vote, the confidence that people have that their vote's being counted is the biggest loser in this whole thing. >> sreenivasan: you had closed door meetings with the department of homeland security, with the fbi, would the informational they present to you now are you confident that

all our systems are secureñi thi russia and other countries cannot do this to us again? >> i think we're as secureñii] e can be. we are in the strong age, noñi e is entirely safe. we have lots of users of these systems. the local systems are the ones that actually keep the list and they log on to these systems. but i guess the best defense of this is they are being kept in 50 states in 50 different databases and the results are tallied locally. it is an extremely decentralized system and that's a blessing i think in the end. >> sreenivasan: turning to the voter commission, rooting out fraud in the system seems the thrust of why the commission was set up. do secretary of states of state believe thatñi 3 million fraudulent votes were cast to his opponent? >> i would say of course that differs state by state but every state that i have seen statements from, have said no. they do not believe that there's

anywhere near that number. republicans and democrats alike have said that yes, does fraud occurs kare occasionally in ther state? yes, but not anywhere near the number they are talking about. it's a very yoafe overstated nu. >> sreenivasan: the faculty that it's decentralized, are you dhearnd a centralized voter file in essence what would happen if the administration got all this information from all of these states, could be heldñrñi secur? >> i'm deeply concerned about that personally. aand i don't speak now for every secretary of state as you said. it's very decentralized. but i'm deeply concerned about that. it seems like a very odd moment when we are talking about the dangers of cyber security, to be centralizing somehow, that is on the computer at the white house,

that does not fill me with confidence. >> sreenivasan: denise merrill, president of the association of secretary of states of state, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: despite the largest oil reserves in the world, venezuela's economy is in a free-fall. it has triple-digit inflation, and everything has become scarce, including food and medicine. for months, protesters have taken to the streets in the capital of caracas. they have tried to change the direction of the government of president nicolas maduro . now, more and more venezuelans are deciding it's better to leave their homeland, with tens of thousands trying to resettle in neighboring colombia. in tonight's signature segment, with support from the pulitzer center on crisis reporting, special correspondent nadja drost and videographer bruno federico report on the exodus from venezuela. >> reporter: in the border town of san antonio de táchira, venezuelans fed up with their

hardships are fleeing their country every day, by foot, for colombia. they exit cars and buses suitcases in hand, and walk toward the simón bolivar international bridge and cross into the town of cúcuta. some are heading off into the uncertain world of those who emigrate without a work visa. venezuelan luisa gomez arrived two months ago. a single mother, she tries to support her five children, grandchild, and mother by selling toothbrushes and toothpaste on public buses. >> ( translated ): it's difficult, there's some drivers who don't let you work, because so many venezuelans have arrived, there's a lot of vendors. >> reporter: gomez is on the move from dawn till dusk seven days a week. after tipping drivers who let her on, gomez netted two dollars yesterday. today she went home with $13-- barely enough to feed her kids. >> ( translated ): when i enter this door, the first thing they

ask me is, "mama, what did you bring me?" and it's sad to arrive at home without anything. >> reporter: home for now is a bare bones house that a local church member has let her live in rent-free until november. she's already behind on utility bills. >> ( translated ): if i don't even have $35 to pay for the gas, how am i going to pay for rent? i don't know what i'm going to do. this is distressing. >> reporter: gomez hopes she can get a work permit and her kids could be eligible for schools here-- whatever she can do to avoid going back to venezuela. >> ( translated ): if god permits that things get settled, i'll stay here in colombia, trying to raise my kids. it's difficult to start with zero and sleeping on a mattress on the floor. >> reporter: with colombia's 50- year civil war having reached a truce last year, many venezuelans see colombia as a safer bet than staying put. for decades, colombians fleeing the armed conflict crossed this

bridge in droves into neighboring venezuela to seek refuge. but now the traffic is going the other way. every day, tens of thousands of venezuelans walk this bridge to cross into colombia-- to seek medical attention, buying basic goods, like flour and toilet paper, or to move their entire lives across the bridge and try to start new ones in colombia. on the colombian side of the bridge, vendors and small shops have popped up next to money- changers, where venezuelans exchange wages paid in their devalued currency-- a week's worth of wages gets them a few bags of cornmeal, rice and bars of soap. a few minutes walk from the bridge, there's a line down the block for a soup kitchen run by a local church. it opened in march to respond to the influx of hungry venezuelans. it serves 500 to 800 lunches a day.

>> for cash. carrying suitcases with my kid what i make with that is for food for the house. >> colombia has become a colombia has become a lifeline for venezuelans, not only for food and supplies, but also medical services currently unavailable or unaffordable in venezuela. venezuelans have discovered-- one way to access colombia's health care system is through hospital emergency rooms. at the main hospital in cucutá, dr. andres galvis says e.r. admissions of women and children have jumped 50% in the past year. >> they are patients who have no, no, no resources, none. they arrive here in really bad shape. children who often require dialysis, with severely infected kidneys. everyone injured by firearms or in traffic accidents, all classes of trauma. >> reporter: dr. galvis says with dire hospital conditions in

venezuela, many expecting mothers flock to colombia to give birth. his maternity ward traffic is up 100% this year. >> ( translated ): the patient arrives when she's already in labor, in pain. they wait until they're in labor, the water's broken, and whoosh, you attend to them. >> reporter: johanna sanchez left venezuela when she was four-months pregnant. >> ( translated ): with the situation there, i couldn't return. i had a baby last year, and it died on me. >> reporter: she says her last birth had complications, and the baby required an operation. afterwards, she says, the venezuelan hospital didn't have a catheter that was the right size. >> ( translated ): they found a different one, but it was thicker, too thick for the baby's vein. it leaked, there were complications. he lasted 19 days. >> reporter: in venezuela, william bayona supports his family with the little money he makes driving kids to school in his van. but now he needs cataract

surgery. >> ( translated ): the doctor prohibited me from driving, but i can't let myself stop, because who's going to support my family and me? >> reporter: born in colombia, william is a bit luckier than most venezuelans migrants: he's a dual citizen who qualifies for free, government-provided health care in colombia. he crossed the border with his cousin, on his way to get cataract surgery. >> we're in colombia! >> one couldn't even think about it without a colombian id; there's no insurance. >> reporter: he's come to this clinic in cúcuta, because cataract surgery in venezuela is available only at private clinics he can't afford. >> ( translated ): it's too expensive. to get that kind of money, you'd have to work for a year. >> reporter: with limited colombian government support, a catholic mission in cucuta has come to the aid of venezuelan migrants-- providing lunch programs for children, workshops

for mothers to start micro- enterprises, and helping families find homes. father francesco bortignon runs it, and wants colombian authorities to be more responsive to the migrants. >> ( translated ): what is important for us is that the state opens its eyes and sees that there is already a significant number of people with very specific needs, for whom the state is doing nothing, because the only ones doing anything are us humanitarian organizations. >> reporter: without legal status or work permits, many venezuelans get pushed to the margins of colombian society. some, like maria rivera, live in neighborhoods like this one, squatting on land by a creek full of raw sewage. after emigrating, rivera lived in a better house with her husband and their five-year-old son. but her husband's sporadic work as a day laborer can't cover their rent and utilities. >> ( translated ): he's earning very little now, about $40 a week, and with that we have to

pay the rent. that's why i'm moving, because the rent's got me up to here. >> reporter: they're moving here, where there's no rent, into a one-room shack with a dirt floor. her husband built it with plastic tarps and second-hand planks of wood. >> ( translated ): this is where the kitchen will be, there'll be a little table and the two- burner stove. >> reporter: rivera's neighbors, who also fled venezuela's' hardships, are struggling in colombia. their husbands are out looking for work. >> ( translated ): if they get work, they don't pay them as they should. they pay very little. my husband works in a hardware store, but they don't pay him the correct wage. >> ( translated ): a colombian's day wage is between $10-13. that's the minimum. for a venezuelan, they give $5, $7 dollars a day. >> reporter: some colombian employers take advantage of these venezuelans living in the shadows. others businesses won't hire venezuelans without work permits for fear of government fines.

as a result, venezuelan migrants are pushed into precarious jobs, selling their wares in the streets for tiny amounts of cash. even children sell goods off the back of their bicycles. >> says the influx of vernzian migrants willing to work for less is make it harder for his constituents to find jobs. >> ( translated ): i'm worried about the lack of work opportunities in my city. for whom? for my citizens, for those who live in cúcuta. but if there's an exodus of 200 or 300-thousand venezuelans, well, unemployment is going to rise in our city. >> reporter: in expectation of an even greater influx from venezuela, should the government of president nicolas maduro collapse. mayor rojas says, regional and national authorities are making emergency plans. >> ( translated ): we don't know how many people we'll be able to

receive. we have arenas ready for whatever moment there's an avalanche of venezuelans, if there's a coup d'etat, we'll be on the alert. but i can't say that i'm going to build shelters for refugees. i can't be irresponsible saying that. >> with our are or without a warm welcome. the venezuelaians keep congress. estimating100,000 have settled in colombia this year. are. >> donald trump jr. says a russian lawyer who has advocated for the kremlin used a false pretext to meet him in trump tower last june. president's son, tells the new york times the lawyer claims she had damaging information on hillary clinton. trump junior says the woman stated she had information that

individuals connected to clinton, statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. no supporting information was provided or offered. it was clear she had no meaningful information. he also said the meeting then towrnd an american law that punishes american civil rights buysers. trump campaign chairman paul manafort to the meeting, both of whom have where disclosed it in documents. begin a six part series starting tomorrow, inside putin's russia as reported by" inside putin's russia" is reported by special correspondent nick schifrin and producer zach fannin. here's a preview. that's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter, in memory of abby m. o'neill. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more, pbs.

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