cautious about this. they are saying they are working to verify that information that he may have been killed. of course, there have been numerous reports in the past about al baghdadi's possible death thatturned out not to be . in the report about this they mention the fact that american media has in the past reported baghdad's death and it turned out not to be true. so i think the russians are working to caveat any announcement by saying, you know, this is still unconfirmed. but if it is true, it would, of course, be a very significant event that the leader of isis was killed and it would, of course, also be a major propaganda victory for the russians. now what state media are saying is that there was a meeting of so-called isis military council south of the city of raqqah to

try and organize an escape route for isis fighters out of raqqah. the city which used to be the stronghold of isis in syria, has been squeezed by coalition troops, also by russian and syrian troops in the last few months, and isis are very much on the backfoot there. so the reporting is that there was this council meeting which the russians hit and that al baghdadi may have been one of those who were killed. and this may just be a case, if it is, indeed, confirmed, that the russians are getting lucky, that they may never have known that al baghdadi was part of the group. of course who's to say that al baghdadi was actually there and it will depend on what evidence the russians are able to supply as to whether they can definitively prove that he was, indeed, killed as part of this air strike. >> u.s. officials cannot confirm these reports. they have told cnn no confirmation on these russian state media reports that al baghdadi has been killed. how significant, though, would it be, diana, if it were russian

air strikes that killed the leader of isis, given the questions many have had as to whose side they are on in the war in syria and given their role of spreading fake news around the world? >> well, i suppose there are two things to think about in terms of syria. first of all, the civil war in syria and the fight against isis in syria, and al nusra, other terrorist groups, also, and, of course, russia would like to claim victory on both since the stall of peace talks of announcement of deescalation zones which has been on the russian initiative, the russian line is they have effectively brought the civil war to some kind of peaceful conclusion and that now their focus is on fighting isis, al nusra, in the sort of vast, very -- less

populated areas in the northeast of the country. and their line at the moment is that they have been more focused on battling isis, indeed, than the coalition has. now that fits very well as a line for the russian public, if you look at the amount of air strikes by coalition forces and the push on raqqah and the effective way they have managed to push isis out of raqqah, that may not, indeed, be the case. but russia has always said, actually, we should all unite in the fight against terrorism and it certainly would be a major propaganda victory for them to claim al baghdadi's scalp, rather than the americans. >> all right. diana, for us, thank you so much for that from moscow. keep us posted if there are any new developments there. joining us to discuss all of this morning, cnn political analyst and columnist for "the washington post" josh roben, good to have you sir. >> good morning. >> talk about the breaking news,

al baghdadi, how significant would this be if the leader of isis was killed? why is he believed to be, arguably, the most dangerous man in the world? >> well, it would be a huge symbolic event in the war against the islamic state if abu bakr al baghdadi were, in fact, killed. a big note of caution here, he's very careful about his security, very rarely participates in these kinds of large meetings with military councils, so it's -- we have to take that into account as we evaluate these russian claims. but at the same time, this would simply be a blow to the ideological underpinning that isis bases its global efforts. would it actually stop what has been an ongoing expansion of the islamic state's reach all over the world, i mean when abu bakr al baghdadi was really growing isis at its height it was an effort to take territory in iraq and syria, that phase is now

largely over and now the effort by isis is to develop what they call provinces or outposts and they're in dozens of countries around the world, and that will go on whether or not abu bakr al baghdadi is alive or dead. so in a sense, his mission to establish isis as the preeminent and most powerful and most dangerous terrorist group in the world, will survive him. >> sure. >> if he is, in fact, dead. i think the point that you -- the reporter just made right now is exactly right, it would be a huge propaganda victory for the russians, who for all of this time have been supporting the assad regime and the iranians and would be able to i think falsely claim that they're the ones fighting the terrorists, not the u.s. coalition. >> that's my question about the russian angle. i mean, i'm reading sputnik here which is, you know, an english language, russian state, russian sponsored news agency, but i was also reading it during the

french elections and there was all kind of garbage on there that wasn't true, talk about fake news, that was a lot of fake news. i question i guess the credibility -- >> the qatar, injecting fake news right there. >> the u.s. officials are telling us at cnn they can't confirm them at this point. >> yeah, i don't know that it's going to be easy for anyone to confirm this for days, for weeks, if not ever. how do you confirm that he's not around, he's not -- this is a guy who never speaks in public, who -- >> already basically a ghost. >> exactly. but let's look at these claims in the context of russian claims over the syria war, you know, according to u.s. intelligence officials and the u.s. government, russia has been engaged in a campaign of, you know, indiscriminate bombing, complicity and atrocities in syria, targeting of hospitals, targeting of aid convoys, very literally been, you know, killing innocent civilians on behalf of the assad regime for

over two years. so now the russian contribution to the war against the islamic state is not nothing, but it's their secondary goal, and their first goal is to bolster the assad regime. the context here is very clear, what's true is isis is getting pushed out of raqqah and there's a huge battle going on in the south of syria. the iranians are flooding in. you remember we struck pro-assad forces twice in the last month. it's a pretty krazy, vol -- crazy volatile situation. what i see coming out of russian press, here's a pretext for russia to vastly increase its operations in this region, which is now the center of the war and the crisis in syria. you know, whether or not we ever confirm that abu bakr al baghdadi is alive or dead, now the russians have a very good story to tell, if they drastically expand their strikes in this place, which is really not about abu bakr al baghdadi or isis, it's about control of the bread basket of syria and the future of the region and the

access of the syrian/iraqi border. >> josh, their statement made no mention and they specifically -- no mention of any coordination of foreign forces in the strike, so they want sole credit if, in fact, they did kill al baghdadi. we want to turn now to the latest in the russian investigation though, the special counsel, the latest developments there, that they're at least asking questions about obstruction of justice, that they are looking into the finances of jared kushner. but i want to get your reaction to a statement from rod rosenstein, the number two at the state -- at the justice department, and this statement in wake of those developments, quote, americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous officials, particularly when they do not identify the country, let alone the branch or agency of government with which the alleged sources supposedly are affiliated. josh, what do you make of that statement, the word country, and the timing of it? >> unprecedented.

i've really never seen anything like it. why the deputy attorney general is -- seems to be sub-statement, sub-tweeting an article in "the washington post" criticizing its sourcing is beyond me. it doesn't really seem like that's his role. at the same time, you know, there's like a hypocrisy here because, of course, the administration is talking on backgrounds to journalists and officials all the time. i guess this was meant to address "the washington post's" reporting that now that obstruction of justice is a subject of the mueller investigation, there's no way to know for sure because it wasn't specified in the statement, you know, but what's going on here is that the administration wants to sort of say, you know, do as i say, but not as i do. you know, that's been their stance and nothing in that statement and nothing in that sort of what seemed to be kind of a denial but not actually a denial, while refusing to issue a denial, none of that is going

to change the work that reporters are doing, which is using whatever access and research tools they have to get the best sourcing they can possibly use to bring important information to the people. i mean if we didn't have background sources, we would just be reporting on the record statements, we would be living in a world of spin and that would not serve the american people. >> we would be a state sponsored media. >> exactly. >> it would be like, you know, the very -- the very -- >> like russia. >> the credibility that we question here. yesterday there was this moment of unity. i'm looking at pictures of nancy pelosi sitting next to paul ryan and you saw, you know, republicans and -- >> smiling. >> in the dugout. >> smiling, touching one another. there was a moment of unity in the congressional baseball game. the president stood before the cameras and sounded presidential and talked about unity and then revealed his true obsession with russia and the -- and hillary clinton again via twitter. you know, so there was sort of this split screen moment for the president.

i want to read what he said. why is that hillary clinton's family and dems dealing with russia are not looked at but my nondealings are. crooked "h" destroyed phones with hammer, bleached e-mail, and had husband meet with ag days before she was cleared and they talk about obstruction. the president's obsession with the russian investigation has hurt him and made the russia investigation continue. i mean that's the irony here. his obsession with getting rid of the russian investigation has only, you know, blown oxygen on the flames of the russian investigation. >> yeah, right. i mean those tweets, two reactions, one, of course, they -- the fbi did look into hillary for all of these things. that's how we know about them, right. she was thoroughly investigated. james comey made the decision there wasn't enough evidence to bring charges, but history will debate that. but it's not correct that the -- the president is not correct to say it was never looked at, it was looked at. the second thing, i don't think the sort of pivot to hillary is

really going to work for the president going forward. i mean, the biggest difference being that she was not the president of the united states, okay, and he doesn't seem to sort of acknowledge that since he has taken the oath of office, he, has a fiduciary responsibility to act differently and do things differently and he doesn't seem to believe that or act that way. that is hurting him. you know, i agree with lindsey graham on this, he's much better -- he might get cleared, let's just say that, there might not be any evidence of collusion that we ever see, so why is he making this so much harder on himself. nobody can figure that out. the journalists, his aides, you know, nobody really understand. is it just a lack of self-control, lack of self-discipline, or is it, you know -- or bad strategy that he's getting? it's really hard to tell. >> three-dimensional chess, maybe it could be three-dimensional chess. >> the least likely possibility, i guess. >> marco rubio and john thune saying this is not a witch hunt,

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>> this is the first major without both tiger woods and phil mickelson since 1994. perfect timing for one of golf's young stars to go out and put on a show and that's what rickie fowler did, conquering the waist-high rough at erin hills. he scored a record-tying 7 under par 65. some say fowler is the best player in the world without a major championship. maybe that title goes away this weekend. some of the best players in the world may not be sticking around long. dustin johnson, rory mcilroy and jason day all in danger of missing the cut today. in the meantime a blimp pilot is recovering from serious burns after his airship crashed and burst into flames near the course. investigators say the blimp may have had mechanical problems. now the pilot was trying to return to an airstrip when he went down in a field about a half mile away from the u.s. open. no one else was hurt in the crash. louisville's basketball team could lose its 2013 national championship in the wake of an alleged sex scandal involving

prostitutes. the ncaa says the team must vacate all records from december 2010 to july of 2014 where ineligible players competed. coach pitino will be suspended for the first five conference games next season. >> not only is it unjust, unfair, over-the-top severe, but i've lost personally lost a lot of faith in the ncaa and everything i've stood for for the last 35 years. >> louisville is appealing, calling all of it excessive. if the cardinals lose this appeal they will become the first program ever to have to take down a basketball championship banner. finally the warriors celebrated the nba title with a parade yesterday. check out draymond gray's t-shirt. he was trolling the cavs wearing a shirt that said quickie on it. the cavs' home arena is the q. he said he won that shirt because after winning last year lebron wore a t-shirt with

ultimate warrior. you see it on the left. lebron on instagram made fun of draymond's quickie shirt. draymond went back at him posting -- re posting lebron's video saying the warriors finally made him go bald. guys, i got to tell you, lebron's instagram was kind of just a sad place yesterday. it was almost like he was trying to convince everyone that he's not upset by losing the nba finals to the warriors. >> draymond is such a troll. i mean, he's such a troll. great player, but -- rickie fowler, top five in all four majors of 2014, will he get it done? >> you know what, maybe this is the year where the number one player without a major keeps winning. he saw sergio win the masters. >> sergio got it. >> hopefully rickie fowler gets it done this weekend. i would like to see it. >> andy scholes, thank you, sir. "early start" continues right now. this is cnn breaking news. >> breaking news this morning,

has the leader of isis been killed in a russian airstrike? that is what moscow is investigating. we are there live with what state media in moscow is reporting. welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. 26 minutes past the hour. breaking news this morning, isis leader abu bakr al baghdadi may have been killed in a russian airstrike. russian state media says moscow is investigating that possibility. >> the reports say al baghdadi seen here in one of the rare video clips of him in mosul in july 2014, may have been killed in a russian airstrike last month. cnn correspondent diana magnay live in moscow with us with the breaking details. this is russian state media saying they're investigating whether he was with a group of 300 terrorists targeted by russian air strikes may 28th? >> right. and that defense ministry is looking into information that would suggest that he was

amongst those who were killed in the big russian airstrike which supposedly happened in the evening of may the 28th. now we don't know whether they were specifically out to get al baghdadi in that strike. we do know that syrian ground troops, with the help of russian air support, have been trying to battle isis in that region and particularly with heavy russian air strikes so it may have been, if it was al baghdadi who was killed, that the russians got lucky. but it will, of course, depend on the kind of evidence that they can present especially if that number of iraqi operatives were killed in this air strike. the fact of the matter is, christine, that there have been many rumors and reports of al baghdadi's death before and then he has appeared back again and wasn't killed. i think what raises the bar here is that russian state media have acknowledged that. they say, you know, in the past

the u.s. has claimed that baghdadi has died. this time, we are looking into reports that he has been killed. of course, if it is russian air power that has killed the most wanted terrorist in the world, then that would, of course, be a major propaganda victory for the russian president. christine? >> u.s. officials tell us at cnn that they cannot confirm the death of al baghdadi. we should also issue a word of warning with anything ever coming out of russian state media, the same actors that attempted to interfere in the united states elections and the french elections, that injected fake news that may have started the qatar blockade, but if this is, indeed, true, diana, how significant would it be for the war on terror? how brutal has his reign been atop isis? >> well, symbolically, it will matter, but in practical terms,

isis is, you know, in its last legs in terms of what it was, a terrorist group that had a huge amount of territory through iraq and syria. that has absolutely been crushed by the coalition and iraqi ground forces and various different syrian forces, crushing isis both in iraq and syria. and also there has been various isis leaders killed in the last few months. so really, the organization has unraveled and is very much on the back foot. so al baghdadi's death, yes, will matter symbolically and it is very, very unclear who might assume the leadership, whether there are people who can step into his shoes, i mean, all that is a matter of speculation, if, indeed, of course he was killed, which is not confirmed at this stage.

but if you look at his power, he built isis into this group, this incredibly brutal terrorist organization. it was his culture which permeated the organization. he had, you know -- we have reports of the american aide worker he personally was supposed to have raped over and over again and this is a methodology which he has permeated amongst his fighters. look at the plight of the yazidi people, enslavement of whole populations, and that was all done at his command. but his death, yes, it would matter symbolically, but at this stage, isis is so much on the backfoot, turning once again from an organization that has held a huge amount of territory to something that is going back to being the underground terror group that it originated as, actually in practical terms, what difference will it make, perhaps not all that much. and again with the caveat we don't know if he was killed.

>> i'm glad you mentioned that american aide worker, just a horrific story. this is a man whose penchant for torture, rape, public executions, crucifixions, spread through social media and the internet and just -- just found these willing and eager adherens to isis. we know you say they're on their backfoot, we know that, you know, they've been -- they've really been squeezed into just a very few places. we know also that al baghdadi, we haven't seen him really in public, it would be unlikely we think that he would be, you know, with a big military council, a council of fighters, because he is the most wanted man in the world, but there really aren't a lot of places for him to hide anymore, right? >> absolutely. and there are so many different theories as to where he might be in those areas of iraq and

syria. i mean, it would seem unlikely that he would have been close to raqqah, given the fact that raqqah is absolutely the focus of coalition air strikes and, you know, that the city is effectively encircled. what russian state media is saying is that has happened this military council meeting was at a command post south of raqqah. now we don't know how far south that was. is it a location he might have thought it safe to be, especially with 330 other iraqi -- sorry, isis militants who russian state media say were also killed in that attack? it all begs a lot of questions, and it will all depend on the kind of evidence that russia is able to produce. >> okay. >> into how compelling their argument is that he was, in fact, killed. >> dana, thank you so much for breaking that down for us.

keep us posted on any new developments from the defense ministry there in moscow. let's discuss this more with cnn political analyst and columnist for "the washington post" josh rogin. lot to get to this morning. this al baghdadi report, the list of his atrocities is too long to list right here. do we trust the russians that they got him? >> no. listen, let's look at the russian track record and when talking about syria. this is a government that has aligned with the assad regime, defending the assad regime, denying that they're committing mass atrocities which they are. the russians have been involved in their own atrocities in syria targeting hospitals, according to aid groups, the u.s. intelligence and the community, the russian record in syria is an atrocious one. it's true that at times the russians have targeted isis, but overall their drive has been to

target the syrian opposition and the syrian rebels and to protect the assad regime and to protect their interests in syria. what's so interesting about this latest claim and i think, diana alluded to this, is that the russians are expanding their efforts in syria into this very region, right in between raqqah and the city below it, that's where the action is. iranians are pouring thousands of fighters into that area. the u.s. has clashed with the regime twice in the last three weeks. i mean, we went six years without hitting the regime and now we've hit them three times in the last few months. so there's a battle going on for control of this exact area and a claim like this would be a perfect pretext for the russians to drastically increase their operations in the area south of raqqah which will be the main battle space for the next few months at least. that's the huge story in syria. of course if it's true that russians killed abu bakr al

baghdadi that's great. you know, the guy deserved that fate. but we shouldn't lose sight of the larger sort of tactical and also strategic dynamics going on here in eastern and south, southern syria because the russian game is surely being played on more than one level. >> yeah. to that point, "the new york times" account of this says the russian military does not draw a sharp separation between its psychological warfare operations and its state media. just to give you some context on how skeptical to be of these reports. but, do you agree with diana that this is more symbolic in terms of if it was, in fact, true that on may 28th he was killed in a russian air strike, because the fact that syria is in your estimation too, are they on their heels at this juncture? >> yeah, no, i agree it would be a huge symbolic thing. i don't necessarily agree that isis is on its heels. what we see is a transformation of the group, okay. yes, they're losing territory in

iraq and syria, but at the same time they're expanding to literally dozens of countries around the world. southeast asia, north africa, you name it, there are now isis chapters everywhere. we heard last week that isis took over tora bora, that mountain enclave, cave network in the -- on the afghan/pakistan border. you know, think about that. so, you know, what we have is a me tsaization of isis that will continue whether or not al baghdadi is alive or dead. now he was the spiritual head of the group, but, you know, it's unclear how much he was really running day-to-day operations. you know, we just don't know. and, you know, now what they've done is they've franchised and all these various isis affiliated groups and all of these countries, will be fine to operate with or without abu bakr al baghdadi in a sense his mission to establish isis as the most powerful and most dangerous terrorist organization in the world has succeeded, even -- and

will outlive him one way or the other. >> let's talk about the number two department of justice rod rosenstein issued a statement yesterday in response to some of these latest developments, latest reporting from "the washington post" in particular, jared kushner's finances under the microscope in this russia probe. there have been a lot of unnamed sources used in a lot of these stories by a lot of news organizations, quite frankly, and then this, rod rosenstein issues this, americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous officials, particularly when they do not identify the country, let alone the branch or agency of government, with which the alleged sources supposedly are affiliated, this from the deputy attorney general. the use of the word "country" really struck me there. what do you make of this statement? >> yeah, well first of all i should say i work at the

"washington post" but i wasn't involved in any of the reporting of the stories that rod rosenstein seems to be talking about here. but right, it's -- is he suggesting that the articles to source to foreign officials. that doesn't seem to apply to the most recent "washington post" report because that was updated to clarify it was u.s. officials being quoted. is he suggesting that there's going to be some more stories coming out that are going to be sourced to foreign intelligence organizations? we know that a lot of the russia allegations have been supported by some collection from some foreign intelligence agencies, although it's unclear where the lines are. overall, it's just a very weird and cryptic statement and very, very unusual. i mean, we know that the u.s. government uses the cloak of anonymity to talk to reporters all the time. white house officials do it literally all day every day. and we also know that, you know, the process of reporting these stories, especially on sensitive and classified topics, requires

the use of anonymous sources, right. it's important to remind people because if we were only limiting ourselves to reporting what government officials were willing to say on the record, which means they would never say anything that contradicted the official line, we would be living in a world of spin and the government would have complete control over our understanding of their actions and that's a recipe for disaster. >> and that statement particularly unusual for a guy perceived as apolitical, a justice official highly respected on both sides of the aisle. >> is he? >> i don't know, we shall see, given how the comey firing played out. let's turn to the unity we saw in washington in the nation's capital last night, in particular at that congressional baseball game. yeah, democrats won the game, but they want the trophy to go in steve scalise's office. both teams joined on the field in prayer. the first ever interview jake tapper conducted with nancy pelosi and paul ryan, a moment of unity for sure.

they laughed, they joked, they smiled. that was nice to see. but what proceeded all that is the number of tweets from the president, in particular, i bring your attention no this one about the witch hunt. you are witnessing the single greatest witch hunt in american political history. this from the president. led by some here's the key, very bad and conflicted people, presumably talking about bob mueller's counsel team. how do we achieve unity with tweets like that, josh? >> yeah. it's a good sign and a good thing that nancy pelosi and paul ryan have decided to put aside their differences in order to mark this sort of horrible and sad event. you know, it doesn't seem like there's going to be a lot of follow-up, it doesn't seem like it's going to stick and that's a shame because, you know, there's -- this references an opportunity to sort of take a step back and take a deep breath and realize that there should be

some sort of, you know, limits to what's permissible in not only political discourse but in civic, you know, action related to our political discourse and then realize that, you know, our leaderses and the media and everyone else who the public turns to for information and guidance, has a responsibility to uphold that sort of civic spirit. you know, the president of the united states has never been one to really emphasize that. i don't think his tweets are related to that. you know, i'm -- i don't think that he -- that he's necessarily responding to one thing or the other. but what we've seen is a pattern of actions and statements by the president, you know, that are prioritized, self-defense and sort of going on offense against his enemies above sort of finding some sort of common ground. that's not likely to change any time soon. >> josh rogin, have a great weekend. nice to see you this morning. >> thank you, you too. >> great to him on board in

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megan's smile is getting a lot because she uses act® mouthwash. act® strengthens enamel, protects teeth from harmful acids, and helps prevent cavities. go beyond brushing with act®. time for a look at what's coming up on "new day." chris cuomo joining us on a big breaking news friday. hey, chris. >> good morning, my good-looking friends. we do have breaking news in the fight against isis. we are taking it very slowly on this reporting, but russia is investigating whether it has killed the leader of isis in an airstrike in syria. but even russia is being very careful about the wording. they're saying in an air strike in late may, they may have taken out al baghdadi. now, this was not a concerted action with allied forces,

certainly with the united states, so what does this mean? how does it get verified? we are pressing u.s. military sources and governmental sources for any information. it is unconfirmed at this point, but what would it mean? we have reports from cnn senior international correspondent clarissa ward and cnn's barbara starr at the pentagon. we're following the latest out of the white house. president trump lashing out on twitter, once again, so much for a new spirit of unity, and once again, it is personal, about special counsel robert mueller. calling it once again a witch hunt, calling the people involved in this bad, but there was a big moment of unity in washington, that congressional baseball game went on and the teams came together in a way that was beautiful. it was played in honor of their colleague congressman steve scalise. scalise is still in a big fight in the hospital after that

shooting on wednesday. so, that was beautiful to see. the democrats won, but gave the trophy to the gop to put in the office of the house whip steve scalise. that was beautiful. and they raised more money than ever for needy kids. >> yeah. it's cool to see, you know, see the minutia of ivanka trump in the dugout for the democrats, bipartisan. >> $50,000 check. >> chris, thanks. we'll see you in a bit. again that condition steve scalise still in critical condition, not out of the woods yet. see you in a bit. president trump says american business is booming. >> job enthusiasm and manufacturing, business enthusiasm is at record levels, never been higher. >> but some of america's top ceos give his presidency a failing grade. check this out. a stunning 50% of business executives grade him an "f" for his first 130 days. that's according to a survey at the annual yale ceo summit. just 1% gave him an "a."

there's some pretty big names surveyed including blackstone's ceo schwartzman and ibm's ginni rometty. the survey's overarching message, stop distracting from the economic agenda, especially tax reform. the investor class is doing very well, of course, under president trump. look at the stock market to see that. stocks and corporate profits are at highs. former labor secretary robert reich says he's actually failing the working class. >> the working class, particularly the white working class that supported donald trump, they don't want wall street to run rampant again and they don't want to lose their medicaid, they don't want to lose their health insurance. you know, a lot of people are going to suffer because of the tax cuts and the dodd/frank watering down and also the repeal of the affordable care act and they are donald trump voters. >> he also said turning back regulations on things like

overtime pay directly hurts the president's base. and it will be fascinating to see how that plays out. robert reich, no fan of donald trump and i'm sure donald trump no fan of robert reich. but he does -- robert reich says there's one thing he agrees with donald trump on. donald trump this week said he thought the health care bill was mean, he said yes, i agree with donald trump it's mean. >> there's common ground. >> that community, business community, wants to see tax reform. >> they want tax reform. >> will we get it? >> i don't know. the clock is ticking on that. they got to move quickly on that. >> ahead, the jury in the bill cosby trial says it's deadlocked, but still going back to work today. can they reach a consensus after the judge said to keep on trying? that's next on "early start." [vo] what made secretariat the greatest racehorse

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trial set to return for another day of deliberations although they are deadlocked. they were ordered to continue after 40 hours of deliberations. there is no limit how many times the judge can ask the jury to reach a verdict. the comedian pleaded not guilty for the drugging of andrea constand in 2004. global stocks are higher in cnn money stream. tech stocks fell. tech had been on a tear driving the markets with an 18% spike. investors were worried. we saw fullbaacebook and amazon. that dragged the three lower. you will see a bounceback. facebook is under intense pressure to not be a safe haven for terrorist ideology. the job at facebook now is counterterrorism specialist.

facebook expanded the team. the mix of jobs includes 150 academics and analysts. facebook using cutting edge like artificial intelligence to mine the data to find this stuff. the company has said it wants to be hostile to terrorist content. a lot of complaints that facebook is too slow to take propaganda down and the terrorists can hide conversations. a lot of the social media companies have been under fire for law enforcement because this is how terrorists talk. via social media. it is all part of the story. speaking of terrorism. "new day" has reports that the leader of isis killed in the may 28th russian air strike. alisyn camerota and chris cuomo have the latest. we want to welcome viewers in the united states and around

the world. you are watching "new day." it is friday. june 16th. russia claims it may have killed one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. isis leader abu bakr al bagdadi. russia defense ministry says it is investigating whether an air strike killed al bagdadi in syria. >> we are going slow on the reporting. even russia is going slow on this. multiple reports of al bagdadi's death that turned out to be untrue. whereabouts have been unknown for some time. if the death is confirmed, it is a huge blow against the terror group. let's begin with cnn's international correspondent clarissa ward live in london. she has reported from war-torn syria and other war theaters. what would this news mean, clarissa? >> reporter: chris, if indeed abu bakr al bagdadi has been killed in a russian air strike, it would be a huge coup against

the russians who have not focused on isis, but focused on the opposition fighting assad. at this stage, that is a really big if. let's take a look at what we're hearing from the russians. defense ministry is investigating the possibility that abu bakr al bagdadi was killed. there was an air strike carried out on may 28th in the evening that targeted south of raqqah a military isis council meeting. 300 isis soldiers at the meeting and 30 isis senior leaders and according to various channels, they also believe that abu bakr al bagdadi was at the meeting too. this raises a few red flags, chris. simply put, abu bakr al bagdadi takes security seriously. he does not move around in large groups like that. it will be unusual for the leader of isis to be attending a

meeting with 300 isis soldiers. even senior isis personnel do not meet in large groups because of drone strikes. the russians are saying they are still investigating here and trying to get more information. we have not heard anything from isis. i would just say if he has been killed, of course, it would deal a big blow to the group. let's look at the past few weeks. major terror attacks in london and baghdad and tehran and can pull and kabul. a lot of questions. we are trying to get more answers. alisyn. >> thank you, clarissa. we have more from the pentagon and barbara starr with the reaction. >> alisyn, the u.s. military and