senior international correspondent nick paton walsh live for us in beirut. mosque is so significant symbolically. >> reporter: for isis, it is really the symbolic seat of their leader, baghdady. he announced their leadership of the caliphate. it holds a holy place in the islamic faith, dating to the 12th century. the actual destruction appears on one of the holiest nights in the holy month of ramadan. who's behind this? the fog of war at play, but the preponderance suggests that maybe isis did it themselves in all truth given the number of explosives that have been seen being moved around the compound in the past weeks or so and, frankly, the unlikelihood of the u.s. choosing this moment and not one in the months past to deliver the air strike they're accused of by isis. isis having a bad record in telling the truth. what does it mean for the terror group? it's a phenomenal admission of defeat frankly. saying this is an announcement of their defeat. it's them engaging in the scorched earth policy, destroying their most valuable symbol to prevent them from fa

nick paton walsh, cnn, mosul, iraq. >> amazing pictures there and access. just so grateful for our team to be able to get in safely. >> yeah. nick paton walsh, terrific job. good to see continued progress. >>> 25 minutes past the hour. travel ban 2.0 will be in effect tonight. it comes as new airport security measures are implemented around the world. we'll tell you what those are next. >>> the president's travel ban takes effect tonight. in a few hours, the new guidelines lay out who can and can't return to the u.s. only certain family members will make the cut. >>> a top aide to the pope will face sex charges. the cardinal facing accusations before heading home to face a judge. >>> and president trump -- >> working along very well. you could have a big surprise with a great health care package. >> as president trump trying to rally the republican troops on health care, can he get the senate on the same page despite a massive idea long cal divide? welcome back to "early start." i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. nice to be back with you today. >> gr

cnn international correspondent nick paton walsh has more of the cnn exclusive. nick, good morning to you, sir. >> reporter: extraordinary image. we've seen occasional glimpses of life inside raqqa. now over two years under the control of isis. we haven't really had the ability for this activist cameraman whose footage we obtained it to move, it seems, so freely. he's seen filming isis fighters. some talking in russian about how they've lost radios and they're worried about air strikes. others searching for people. another man trying on different types of trousers in a market. it's part, i think, it's fair to say, of the crumbling group isis has on the street. they've lined the streets with sandbags, covered them with canopies to try and keep coalitions away. they have drones waiting for the american-backed forces. here's what one resistance activist said amongst the population, attacking or leaving threats for those who inform for isis. >> translator: we can only get to them by leaving messages on their door like, "we know who you are." this soon stops them. and

winning the peace, not so much. >> exactly. >> thanks to nick paton walsh and to you. >>> another story, after losing her 8-year-old son to leukemia, this week's cnn hero transformed her heartbreak into action using 21st century technology to keep kids battling life threatening illnesses connected to their everyday lives. >> it's really difficult for kids to spend a lot of time in the hospital. they get so disconnected from their family and friends, and schools, and when we bring them this technology, we're able to dial in and be right in the classroom. >> hello, phillip! >> all: hi, phillip! >> you can just see their face light right up. it brings them such joy. >> a beautiful effort to make their lives about more than just their illness. to see leslie's full story go to cnn heroes dot com and while there nominate someone who you think deserves to be a cnn hero. >>> coming up, cnn's "united shades of america" tackling misconceptions about chinese americans. joined with kamel bell live. that's next. ♪ ♪ (vo) you can pass down a subaru forester. (dad) she's all yours. (vo) but you get to

nick paton walsh is there on the front lines.want to warn you, some of what you see you may find disturbing. >> reporter: the end is near for isis, you feel it. springing back out of these pancake buildings, yet turn one corner in mosul toward its old city and the very final chapter in this war emerges. liberation leaves little for life behind. bodies still where they fell in the scorching heat. senior commanders take us in in the calm before their final storm to wipe isis off the map. how many more days do you think is isis have in mosul and in iraq? >> some days. >> reporter: three, two? brigadier general beckons us on to see that prize. these are the last rooftops isis own in mosul. barely hundreds to go now in the distant left, the riverbank marking where isis' world ends and in the dust, ruchb ruins of sacred mosque. is isis blew it up rather than have to be can captured. militants held underground as human shields. distant target for iraqi security forces but now they're literally able to see it from rooftops. took us into

nick paton walsh live for us in iraq. thank you. >>> let's look at your money. day of the first half of the year. global markets mostly lower after the blistering sell-off in tech stocks. names like apple, google parent alphabet, microsoft, lower, pushing the dow down 168. nasdaq down 1.5. what is going on? the dollar had the worst quarter in seven years. and bond yields are rising. bond yields are rising, there's a global expectation the central banks will raise rates. that as investors selling to big dividend tech plays and moving things to bank stocks, banks in particular, because they will be able to give big dividend payouts because they passed their stress tests. a great year for stocks. the dow and s&p 500 up 8% this year. the nasdaq is up 14%. look at that. right now, futures, though, flat again on the last trading day of the first half of the year. >>> if you live in one of these places, you may start earning a little more. maryland, oregon, and at least five cities are hiking their minimum wages tomorrow. this follows 17 states in the beginning of the

nick paton walsh takes us inside the fight. >> reporter: the end is near for isis. and normal life is springing out. yet, turn one corner in mosul towards its old city and the very final chapter in this war emerges. liberation leads little life behind. bodies still where they fell in the scorching heat. senior commanders take us in in the calm before their final storm to wipe isis off the map. and how many more days do you think isis have in mosul and in iraq? >> three, four. >> reporter: the general beckens us on to see their prize. these are the last rooftops isis own in mosul. barely runs of meters to go now. isis blew it up, rather let it to be captured. a terrifying omen for civilians held under ground. now they are able to see it from neighboring rooftops. they took us into mosul eight months ago, and now he's here to see the end. >> what are we seeing on the screen? >> try to recon the enemy and we try to find where is the kri va villains are. they saw many different houses. many families in one house. >> reporter: are you getting enough help from the america

nick paton walsh, cnn, erbil, northern iraq.nearly encircled raqqah with syrian and kurdish militants backed with an awful lot of american firepower and guidance on the ground. almost complete about a kilometer away on the south until there's a court order put in place. it could be a fight, it is moving faster it seems, certainly than the fight of liberated mosul in iraq in its eighth month. when raqqah feels the pressure you'll see fighting intense in the streets, the sandbags laid out in defensive positions for isis but a much weakened force. >> a brilliant job of isolating just a main ingredient to peace there, which is resolve among that indigenous population to take control of its own community. thanks to nick. >>> so whether it is the situation of the united states in raqqah or in syria at large or in iraq or just in what people feel about this world, how is that reflected in a new poll? what does the world think of our new president in the united states? we'll debate it, next. i want someone that makes it easy to find wha

senior international correspondent nick paton walsh with more of this exclusive. fact, on their heels? >> reporter: interestingly, it's actually how the filming takes place that gives you the best insight into how the grip on that city is crumbling. in the past they've tightly controlled their own propaganda of life in there. we've got the occasional snatched single frame of life inside the capital, what they call their caliphate. now their grip is crumbling. activists are more relaxed about filming. in our images, they show sandbags lining the streets for shelter from bombing or potential pe stre-- potential st fighting. russians speaking, militants talking about how they've lost radios or fear air strikes. an egyptian walking around with the military police and a belgian fighter trying to choose what kind of pants he wants to wear to the front line. the broader question is how is the internal resistance to how this is shaping up. we know around the city the siege called on, put in place by syrian and kurdish fighters where support is nearly complete. inside, too

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our nick paton walsh is there on the front lines.ee, you may find disturbing. >> reporter: the end is near for isis. you can feel it. turn one corner in mosul told its old city, and the very final chapter of this war e mermergem. bodies still where they fell in the scorching heat. senior commanders take us in, in the calm before their final storm, to wipe isis off the map. >> how many more days do you think isis have in mosul and in iraq? >> three, two. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: brigadier general assaddy beckons us on to see their prize. these are the last rooftops isis owned in mosul. barely hundreds of meters to go now in h. in the distant left, the river bank marking where isis' world ends. and in the dust, the ruins of the sacred al nuri mosque. isis blew it up rather than let it be captured. a terrifying omen. now they literally are able to see it from neighboring rooftops. >> we're at the beginning and now we're at the end of it all. what are we seeing on the screen? >> we try to find to know where is the civilian also. nobody s

cnn senior international correspondent nick paton walsh is there, live. nick, what are we going to see here and what is the relevance to the ongoing struggle? >> reporter: chris, the images you're seeing now have been attacken the last few days of the final chapter, really, of ridding isis in iraq. the major battle now is the old city, part of the major northern city of mosul, as isis took nearly three years ago now and is down to street-to-street fighting. dense, narrow alleyways. isis are using human shields, civilians, tens of thousands of them. they often emerge from gaps in the rubble, desperate for food and water. the destruction is remarkable, u.s. official telling me there could be as little as 200 or so isis fighters left in this area. the progress by iraqi special forces, coalition fire power backing them up has been pretty fast in the last couple of days. isis has blown up a key monument for themselves, the mosque image, devastating destruction here now. the question is, how fast can they bring this nasty, bloody chapter to an end? one official

cnn's senior international correspondent, nick paton walsh, has more from erbil, iraq. >> reporter: the major issue with the announcement from the iraqi prime minister that they have taken the al nouri mosque from isis and effectively liberated mosul from the terror group is that as far as we could see late until yesterday afternoon, that isn't really true. the forces we were with, have been with the last couple of days, have been fighting hard to get their vehicles to encircle that mosque. they hadn't managed to do it. there is nobody, as far as we understand, inside the mosque compound because it may still be booby trapped, but because it's empty doesn't mean they control it. they themselves accepted that. we're into political territory here. iraq's government desperate for rhetoric that makes it sound like they're winning at this point. the problem is, there are still thousands of civilians trapped in parts of the old city, with isis frankly willing to die simply to make the most amount of bloodshed possible and to make life as hard as possible for iraqi special forces. there's still

and nick paton walsh is joining me. the fight in that region far from over?y, the victory and celebrating seems to some degree, as of 3:00 this afternoon when we were still there, forces leading the charge against al nuri mosque, they were far have having recaptured it. really, the announcement we've heard today is political, i pose you can pass the statement from the iraqi command saying really given the fact that no one can get into the movlg morph because it's been laden with booby traps. this marks effectively, the symbolic fall of mosul from isis' grip and therefore defeated isis more broadly. the problem is, frankly, this is a much more complex tank than simply declaring victory and moving on to the next thing. there are still thousands of civilians in the part of the old city still held by isis and extraordinary deep rift in society between the she that that run the government and the sunni that used to, and now finding the extremist branch. but the fighting is continuing, jake. >> nick, cnn, you have been alongside forces fighting isis in mosul for a

nick paton walsh, cnn, iraq. >> it's been three years since isis took over mosul, a city that once had a population of nearly a million. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. erin burnett "out front" starts right now. >> up next, breaking news. president trump about to arrive at his first re-election fundraiser tonight. check the date. it's still 2017. and one of his own hotels, the media invited and then uninvited. plus, first on cnn, a top intelligence official telling lawmakers he still can't convince trump that russia meddled in the election. and the president teases a quote, unquote great surprise with the health care bill. is he turning this into a reality tv show? let's go out front. >> good eve innievening. the president about to arrive at a mega million dollar fundraiser. here is what you need to know. $35,000 a plate. it is for his own re-election campaign for president and it is being held at his own hotel in washington. wow. he's only been on the top for five months. the 2020 presidential election is about 40 months away. let me just say that again. 40 months awa

nick paton walsh, thanks very much. >>> and meanwhile, president trump spent much of his 2016 presidential talking about russian president vladimir putin and what their potential relationship would look like. he will soon find out. the kremlin announced today the two leaders will finally meet on the sidelines of the g-20 summit at the end of next week. let's discuss with retired rear admiral john kirby and diplomatic analyst, served with the state and the pentagon, press secretary, also our cnn global affairs correspondent elise lavert. if this meeting takes place between president trump and putin could be significant? >> could be. i hope the white house sees it as way to shape the relationship going forward and bullish, frankly, with all the areas we have with russia. an opportunity to lay markers down with the president in a way he hasn't done. >> before and will the president do in this meeting, do you bl , believe what he did do with meeting wit russian ambassador a few weeks ago in the oval office, raise russian interference, meddling, in the u.s. presidential election, and tell the r