purpose, the state of alaska is enormous. the state capital is marked in red way down there in the southeast corner of the state. it's still the opposite northern canada. still really far up there. but as alaska goes, juneau is way down there. the largest city is anchorage which is northwest of juneau, south central alaska. if you want to go way up, the biggest city in interior alaska, way up north is fairbanks. but if fairbanks isn't enough for you, if you really want to go to the tip-top, the end of the road and beyond and america's great northern frontier, keep going and keep going further than that you will eventually get to a place they named in such a way to try to convince you to not go there. the name of the place is deadhorse.

prudho ebay. there is a maddow show viewer who sent this picture from there. she said as the only store in town the general store is the backdrop for most anyone who has been through deadhorse. this is a large oil field where big oil companies send people to work for weeks at a time. working there means big money for the workers. it is their livelihood and safe to say they support the oil industry. she explained that not only in prudho ebay but alaska generally she doesn't know many liberals. the main news channel everybody watches up there is fox. hello! she headed to the general store and needed to get supplies. when she got to the store she got a pleasant liberal surprise. we have to zoom in to see it. can we zoom in? what's that?

ta-da! bernie sanders for president. she wrote bernie appeared in the most unexpected of places and it made my day. bernie sanders, the independent socialist from vermont making his mark in deadhorse at the end of the dalton highway in the northern most reaches of oil town red state alaska. send it to rachel.com, the website if you want to send us stuff. people first started realizing that something special, something unexpect was going on with the bernie sanders campaign when he turned out unusually large crowds in liberal strong holds like madison, wisconsin. this is a madison rally. turned out 11,000 people. in denver, colorado, he turned out between 5,000 and 6,000 people. they had to do an overflow room. in portland, maine, 8,000 people.

they had to move the venue from a nice little waterfront spot to the hockey arena in town. when sanders announced his presidential run in burlington, vermont, there were 5,000 people there. that's a lot of people anywhere. no other candidate, democrat or republican turned out a crowd that size even once this year. but 5,000. consider this. that town that bernie announced in only has a population of 40,000 people. 5,000 of them came out to see him announce. that's a significant chunk of the city. people first started realizing something was going on with the unusually large crowds. outsized crowds compared to the rest of the presidential field. people that were turning out to see bernie in liberal strong holds. but then that script got flipped on its head. bernie sanders wasn't just going to liberal strong holds. he went to, let's say, phoenix, arizona. red state phoenix, arizona. bernie sanders turned out 11,000 people to see him in conservative phoenix, arizona.

he then went to houston, texas. and 5,000 people turned out to see him in houston. he went to dallas, texas. another 8,000 people turned out to see him in dallas. nobody will call dallas, texas, a liberal strong hold. right? now bernie sanders iced the cake. last night he went to louisiana. he went to the pontchartrain center in louisiana and nobody knew whether he could turn out another one of his bernie-sized, giant crowds in the deep south. right? not just the deep red state but in the deepest teep south. but hours before bernie sanders was due to speak in louisiana people started lining up. by the time he was red ti to start speaking in the state where president obama lost to mitt romney by 18 points. by the time he was red ti to speak there were between 4,000 and 5,000 people in louisiana. to see a liberal, 73-year-old independent socialist from vermont.

they were there to cheer their guts out for him. [ cheers and applause ] >> i don't know that we can squeeze any more people in here. thank you very much for coming out. people told me louisiana was a conservative state. guess not. [ cheers and applause ] which leads me to why i am here in louisiana tonight. i'll tell you why. let me begin by just telling you. that i think my colleagues in the democratic party have made a serious mistake. and that is they have kind of written off half of america

including louisiana. [ cheers and applause ] and i'm here to tell you that the time is now for us to fight in 50 states in the country. [ cheers and applause ] bernie sanders building a one-man 50-state strategy for the democratic party, appearing before a huge crowd between 4,000 and 5,000 people this weekend in deep red state louisiana. you know, he's doing this deliberately. not like he's following his nose and going places that he's interested in appearing. before he declared for pally that he was running senator sanders did events in south carolina, alabama, mississippi, north carolina, georgia, just in the last two weeks he's been to

arizona, texas, and now louisiana. he's running -- it's not a red state campaign specifically. he's running an all-state campaign. it is one thing to think of it as a waste of time for democratic candidates. so states as a whole will never go for a democratic candidate in a general election except in extreme circumstances. but before you get to the general election you have to win the nomination. even red states hold democratic primaries. whether or not these red state appearances where he's turning out thousands of people to come see him, whether or not these huge appearances in the red states help him compete in the primaries in those states when it comes time for democratic primaries, whether or not he wins those states ultimately, what bernie sanders is doing and the way he's campaigning is blowing everybody's minds that he's turning out that many people anywhere in the country to cheer for that unpoll jet tick liberal message. the belt it is way isn't used to this. that many liberals can fill a room anywhere let alone a red state? yes, there are. but if that room he was speaking in there in louisiana looked familiar to you, if that's the camera angle and the look there that's tingle your politics spied spidey sense that's the same building which bernie

sanders had 5,000 cheering liberals in louisiana last night. that's the same place where bobby jindal, governor of louisiana held his presidential announcement a few weeks ago. but when bobby jindal was there he only turned out 1,000 people. bernie sanders turned out a crowd between four and five times that size. did i mention he's from vermont? the bernie sanders phenomenon is befuddling. totally befuddling for the belt way press. i believe that anything that spoils the common wisdom that spectacularly has to be good for us as a country. shakes i up a little bit. whatever caused the common whiz tom needs to be changed because the common wisdom is wrong and

the sanders phenomenon isn't a flash in the pan. it's been going on for months now. the latest marist polling shows hillary clinton has a very big lead in iowa. but in new hampshire, look. sanders is polling within seven points of hillary clinton. it is the unlikeliest of events. liberals aren't only alive. they are making themselves known in giant numbers in unexpected places. it's confusing even in politics. very exciting. common wisdom has no idea anymore. that's not only true on the liberal side or the democratic side. it's true in a very different way on the republican side. >> it's a terrific place, iowa. terrific. we just got in. i was triefg driving through the beautiful fields. i wanted to grab that corn. so rich and beautiful. even the republican guys i'm

running against. they protect each other. they say that could be them, that could be this, i have to take it easy. i don't care. i say the truth. [ cheers and applause ] >> he wants to grab the corn how? trump speaking in iowa this weekend held what he called a trump family picnic. in iowa. i don't think the trump family was there. i think it was a trump picnic for your family. but it was a picnic. they served a lot of food. donald trump got a lot of people to turn out. part of the common wisdom, the smart belt it is way take on the donald trump candidacy on the republican side is that his bluster, celebrity swagger might have some superficial national appeal. gives them a ton of name recognition. but, you know, people of iowa, the republicans of the good state of iowa wouldn't like that

brashness. they would see right through it. they see him as superficial and uncouth. they wouldn't like it. iowa likes nice. they wouldn't like trump. that's wrong. trump is doing well in iowa. he's doing well there at the direct expense of the other candidates. >> i will tell you. i'm on the plane and i see this -- because i have been nice to scott walker. he came to my office three, four months ago and presented me with a plaque. i helped with his election. i didn't know what he was toing but he was fighting and i like a fighter. does that make sense? i was nice. he brings me a beautiful plaque. i don't know who pays for it. tuz he pay for that or does wisconsin? i don't know. it's beautiful. i was nice to him. today i read a horrible statement from his fund-raiser about trump. i said, oh, finally, i can say tack. [ laughter ] finally. except wisconsin is doing

terribly. first of all it's in turmoil. the roads are a disaster. they are borrowing money like crazy. they projected a $1 billion surplus. i wrote it all town. i don't need it because i have a good memory. it turns out to be a testify sit of $2.2 billion. and money all over the place. the schools are a disaster. they are fighting like crazy. there is no money for the schools. the hospitals and education is a disaster. he's the only guy that's ahead of me. i can't believe i'm in second place. folks, please put me in first place so i feel better. [ cheers and applause ] >> donald trump speaking this weekend. apparently brought a note.

he had something to read. speaking at something called the trump family picnic the iowa. he turned out 1300 people for that trump event. if that were bernie sanders that would be a disappointment. for any republican candidate including donald trump, 1300 people counts as a mob scene. that little salvo against scott walker appears to be the signal that scott walker will be the republican candidate who trump feuds with this week. last week it was with rick perry and lindsey graham. >> i was coming up and i see your senator. what a stiff. what a stiff. lindsey graham. [ laughter ] by the way, he's registered 0 in the polls. he's on television all the time. then i see rick perry the other day. he's so -- you know, he's doing poorly in the polls. he put on glasses so people will think he's smart. it just doesn't work. people can see through the glasses. he has the glasses, the whole

deal. these politicians run and run and win and sometimes they lose. they keep running. all they do is run. most of them don't know what they are doing. they just run. like you wind them up and they run for office. they don't do anything when they get there. i know them better than anybody. they say they didn't like the way that, you know, i'm a little loud. i'm a little too strong. they don't like it. then i watch this idiot lindsey graham on television today and he calls me a jack ass. he's a jack ass. >> is there more? here's another way the common wisdom is wrong this year. donald trump ahead in the polls and the media being more interested in what he has to say than oh candidates, the common wisdom is one of the few remaining paths to success for

the lesser known republican candidates would be for them to pick a fight with trump. at least their name might sneak into the donald trump media coverage. rick perry and lindsey graham played it to the hilt last week after donald trump went after them. they did what they could to hype their feuding with trump and play it up. turns out neither rick perry nor lindsey graham appears to have been helped by having fights with mr. trump. mr. trump's numbers continue to rise. theirs do not. neither of them seems on track to be making the debate next week. national poll numbers should not be important at this point in the presidential race but they will be enough to effectively end some big name republican presidential candidacies by next week because fox news decided national polling is how they will te side who to let on stage next week and who will not debate. we don't know which polls they will count because fox isn't saying but our best guess, when

we build our own who is allowed to compete cable news derived random number generator, averaging the last five national tolls neither rick perry nor lipds gram is on track to make it in the debate though they picked a fight with donald trump and everybody said it would be their ticket to name i.d., getting mentioned more by people who when they are contacted by pollsters, it didn't work. common wisdom said trump's comments about john mccain's war record would hurt him, end his presidential candidacy. that was also proven wrong. since he made the remarks mr. trump is not only still in first place in national polling his support has risen by six points. in the cnn national poll which came out yesterday. in the new msnbc marist poll out

of new hampshire, donald trump is down a little bit in that poll. he's still in first place in new hampshire. in iowa the nbc marist poll has him in second place to scott walker. his numbers are on the rise. the idea that the john mccain comments would hurt him has been utterly disproven. belt it is way common wisdom is donald trump would be a flash in the pan. that he would fade. it was an embarrassing phase. none of that's true. the beltway common wisdom said the party would outmaneuver him, figure out a way to keep him out of the debate so they could show case the real debates and keep it from being a circus act.

the beltway common wisdom has been wrong, wrong, wrong. headed into the republican debate which is are about to start, the clear front runner for the presidential nomination is trump. it really looks like the governor of texas, new jersey, louisiana and the governor of ohio either definitely will not be allowed to debate or they are on the bubble and we can't tell from here. we have now, because of that tipped over into the republican establishment and the beltway press, realizing that they have been wrong about how this was going to play out. something happened this weekend. we have now tipped over into them realizing the common wisdom about what would happen here has been wrong. this is happening. they have started to freak out. saying this debate will be the end of some republican candidates next week. a lot of them will have their campaigns over and done next week. talking about the debate, if you're not on stage, you are irrelevant. you don't matter. unless you have serious ad dollars it's not a glass ceiling. it is a concrete ceiling. republican strat zwris david payne telling the hill, quote, we have never seen anything like this. republican strategist ron von

jean said if you are not at the first debate it's out of sight, out of mind for voters. there is an aspect to this that's not getting covered so far. it's the dirty little secret of what fox news is going to do to republican party involving a little bit of math and the end of some of the most promising republican political careers in the country. that's next. cry-proof, stay-proof look? neutrogena® makeup remover does. it erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. need any more proof than that? neutrogena. progressive insurance here and i'm a box who thrives on the unexpected. ha-ha! shall we dine? [ chuckle ] you wouldn't expect an insurance company to show you their rates and their competitors' rates but that's precisely what we do. going up! nope, coming down. and if you switch to progressive today you could save an average of over 500 bucks.

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wf a world champion. richard francis. close actually counts for something. what alan francis is the world champion of is horseshoes. alan francis won his 20th world horseshoes title this weekend in topeka, kansas. he's so good that 88% of the time he threw a horseshoe in this competition, 88% of the time he got a ringer. his ringer percentage, nearly 8 percentage points closer to

perfection than the runner-up. in horseshoes, close is awesome. close is everything in horseshoes. the closer the better. but close really tuz only count in horseshoes and hand grenades. close is a real headache in politics right now. there is closeness of a very unkfbl comfortable and consequential kind. that story is next. stay with us.

okay. the first part you know. the first republican debate next week the fox news channel will allow only ten to debate. they are allowing on stage

candidates in the top ten in an average of five recent national polls as selected by fox news. if the debate were held tonight averaging out the last five national polls as selected by me, this is who i think might be on that stage. donald trump, scott walker, jeb bush, marco rubio, ben carson, rand paul, mike huckabee, ted cruz, chris christie, john kasich, a bit of a squeaker at the end. the candidates left off right now would be both ricks, rick perry and rick santorum, car bobby jindal, lindsey graham, george pitaki and carly fiorina. look at the cut off line. in that difference john kasich would be at 2.6%. he would be in while rick perry at 2.2% would be out. it seems scientific when you include the decimal pointings

line them up. john kasich polling better than rick perry. all of the also rans are within two percentage points of each other. the margin of error in the polls is somewhere between 3 to 4.5%. when you take that into account your poll averages look something like this. george pitaki polling at an average of .4%. if you factor in a best case scenario for him with the margin of error maybe he's at more like 3.4% putting him above chris christie and john kasich. that puts him on stage. with the margin of error, a worst case for ted cruz his 4.4% could be below 2% which would mean he wouldn't be on stage. when you start saying all the candidates are polling somewhere in the vicinity and we'll draw the line, hmm, here. it starts to sound less scientific and more totally arbitrary. close your eyes and pick a spot. this is just an approximation.

this is an approximation based on what we can tell and what we know about polls. i'm not a pollster. but i can do the math. i can read the polls and you can too. we tonight know how the folks at fox news will be making their calculations and who is allowed to round and be said to be in a tie. there is no actual voting to decide who can participate in the debate to become the republican nominee for president of the united states. fox news decided there are imperfect national polls and a bunch of candidates and that pesky margin of error. they will drop the guillotine somewhere in the middle of the list. i'm not a pollster but we have one here to tell me if it's as random and crazy as it seems. joining me the director of the

marist poll dr. lee miring it is off. >> it is as crazy as you said. >> when i compared the margin of error to the margin of difference among candidates it looks like nonsense to draw a dividing line. >> these are meaningless decimal points. i agree with 99.03% of what you just said. what's the margin of error? all polls are within a range. if i tell you president obama in the latest poll is approval rate of 46% plus or minus 3 that's a range. 43 to 49. when you identify in these polls a mar you margin of plus three or four percent you can draw a circle around tons of candidates. some will make it into the debate. some aren't. there is a science to polling and an art to it. not all five polls that will be averaged ask questions the same way. they don't necessarily do likely voters, registered voters,

undecided whether they are leaning. there are things that make poll a different from from b. the quality isn't the same. that makes it even more of a judgment and interpretation. i guess the bottom line is do we really want public polls affecting the process that we are measuring and do we want the media affecting that which they are supposed to be covering? when you have polls determining eligibility you are doing that and the campaigns are reacting because they have to get a bump up or not make the out off. >> it's opposite. the polls are supposed to reflect and give us a picture of what's happening in the campaign. you are not supposed to campaign in order to change the polls. >> that's correct. that's what they are doing. thai coming up with it shall hitting golf -- you know, cell phones. >> cell phone with a putter. >> chainsaws with the tax code and things to get a little attention when trump is getting so much. the best plans of the fwop to have donald trump will now be in the middle of the debate with jeb bush on one side and scott walker on the other side.

this is the last thing the republicans want. to say you are being inclusive as a party when you knocked out perhaps the governor of the state where it will be occurring. this is a .2 in but maybe .2 out and maybe the only ticket he gets is to sit in the front row. the whole thing is a bad use of public polls. i don't know if we want pollsters affecting the process as much as this is. particularly the first debate when people should have a chance. there are other ways they can do this. >> it is a scene setting debate. this is your menu of options. if you're not on the mean menu you're out. how should we think about polls with a margin of error of 3 or 4% and let's say half the

candidates in that polling result actually have a lower number as their result. then the margin of error -- >> technically -- and i want to give you a three credit course here in survey research. it's tone at the 50% mark. it isn't even the 3-point whatever percent you have been talking about it. it's not that precise. it doesn't stay constant. you don't have to know it to be a participating member of the democracy but pollsters and the media should be wary that this is how it's being used. sometimes candidates don't do well in national polls. sometimes they do. last time in 2012, gingrich was ahead at one point. romney of course was ahead.

cain was ahead. >> bachmann maybe? >> the national polls are now determining who will be around the table for what are the iowa caucus and new hampshire primaries. much more important than perhaps the national toss-ups. those are the events to shape who gets -- how many tickets out of iowa and continues to south carolina. that's different than the national polling. >> seeing this on pollsters and how uncomfortable pollsters are with this responsibility ought to be sober enough that they should pitch the idea. there is still time. they could pitch the idea. >> i think it shall how about one hour? eight people. another hour, eight other people chosen at random. >> that's what iowa, south carolina and new hampshire republicans suggested to the rnc. the rnc has given the one-finger salute so far. >> this? >> i'll show you later when you're older. great to have you here. >> appreciate it. >> lots more ahead including richard engel live with us tonight. stay with us.

one way to do something controversial that may upset people is to try to hide what you are doing under cover of darkness. do it at night without an announcement so nobody can see what's going on. sometimes that works. sometimes the sun comes up and everybody is able to see what you were trying to be secretly up to. literally the sun saves the day. there is a remarkable story in today's news out of portland, oregon. a story that became news, came to light at day break literally. it's an amazing story. we have the details coming up. stay with us.

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remember make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom? that was from al qaeda's weird glossy broken english propaganda magazine called "inspire." that was the same issue of where they had the article about how to turn a pickup truck into a

big death tractor. al qaeda has used inspire magazine to put out wanted posters of people they want to kill around the world. they do bomb recipes, inspiring end of the world sermons. al qaeda has done 13 issues of the magazine inspire. an american guy named adam gadan was thought to be a key player in producing the magazine for al qaeda, making sure it had international english language appeal. but president obama announced in april that he was killed in a u.s. drone strike. since then there has not been another issue of inspire. last one came out in december. now of course times are tichbt. in apocalyptic death cult terrorist circles al qaeda is oldle hat. the new up start is isis. if you want an understanding of the different appeal being made by isis versus al qaeda consider

that al qaeda called its magazine "inspire." isis calls its magazine "armageddon." dabiq is not a literal translation but basically the same idea. armageddon is supposed to be the final battle between christ and the anti-christ. armageddon comes from a specific place called atelmagedo, a hill in israel. in terms of bibly ral prophecy that's supposed to be where the final battle happens to bring about the end of the worldful it is armageddon. in muslim apocalyptic mythology the rough equivalent to armageddon, the literal place where the final battle is supposed to happen between muslims and their enemies at the end of the world, the equivalent

place is dabiq. like armageddon which refers to a specific place in israel, dabiq isn't just an idea about the end of the world. it is a specific place you can find on a map. a place where people live. the town of dabiq has 3,000 people inside syria. about six miles from the turkish border in northern syria. there is nothing particularly notable about dabiq as a town except for the symbolic roll in end of the world muslim mythology. but that's enough to get isis to name their magazine after it. isis has gone out of their way to stage a bunch of propaganda videos in dabiq including the murder video of peter kasig. one of the terrorists says, here we are burying the first american crusader in dabiq, eagerly waiting for the remainder of your armies to arrive. isis ends a bunch of their propaganda videos with footage of a guy walking with the isis flag over a landscape that

appears to be in dabiq. they play an audio track promising that isis will burn the crusader armys in dabiq. this little town in syria just happens to be totally central to isis's end of the world apocalyptic appeal. it's hugely, symbolically important to them. that same town happens to be smack dab in the middle of what the u.s. government has just said is about to become an isis-free zone. isis occupies dabiq and a swath of syria around it. but the u.s. government said they will clear them out of there. there is a lot going on in american news. the president is on a trip to african, 2016 presidential politics in full swing. congress had to be in session over the weekend. the iran deal. there is a lot going on. a lot to fight about.

in the middle of all that we have apparently agreed without any political discussion at all, apparently agreed without a fight domestically at all, we have agreed thomas sievely escalate the war that the u.s. military is fighting in syria. the u.s. government confirming today they are starting a new effort to clear a big swath of syria that stretches 60 miles of the border between turkey and syria. a big area currently controlled by isis. they want to clear it out and make it an isis-free zone. 60 miles wide, 25 miles deep from the turkish border down into syria. at some abstract level think of the numbers. 60 miles wide, 20 miles deep, sounds easy. we have one area to clear out and make safe. we'll shoe isis away from this patch of land, clear them out. but, hey, that's a big piece of land. isis occupies it now, strategically they were able to.

in the center of that happens to be dabiq, the geographic heart of what isis claims as its radical sud theological end of the world reason for being. think they will give it up? nato is holding a meeting about this plan tomorrow. this is only the fifth time in over 60 years they have had an emergency meeting for a security emergency. what apparently will result from the meeting is a big new escalation and effectively a big new expansion of the war. in a place where it looks like it is not going to be easy. richard engel joins us live next.

so there has not been one peep of political argument about it in washington, but it is now being reported that the pentagon has come to an agreement with our nato partnering and coalition partners in this

undeclared war in syria. they've come to an agreement that the u.s. military will participate in a campaign to clear a swath of syria along the border with turkey. the u.s. military will now participate in a new offensive to clear that whole area as basically an isis-free zone in syria, along the turkish border, working most closely with turkish forces. joining us is richard engel. thanks for being here, my friend. >> reporter: i just got a brief from a senior u.s. official who confirmed this news. a new phase of this war is about to begin. turkey is about to become a major staging ground for u.s. drones, u.s. aircraft launching from turkey to attack targets in this isis-free zone.

previously, and the reason this is significant is previously, u.s. aircraft and drones had to leave from the gulf and travel about 1,000 miles from kuwait or from aircraft carrier to attack targeting in syria, and then return back to their bases. now, with the access to these turkish bases, fighter jets and drones will be just 100, 200 miles away from their targets. they'll be able to stage in a much more massive way, carry out much more frequent operations. so i think it could be quite a significant development. >> how do-able is this plan? looking at that part of syria that they say they want to turn into an isis-free zone, it's a pretty large chunk of land and a place where isis is pretty well dug in. how do-able is this? >> reporter: you know what? everything in the middle east is do-able.

the part that isn't do-able is the "what's next "? and can the u.s. bomb isis with turkish help right now to bomb isis out of this area in probably. and i think we're going to see a lot more activity from the air in the coming, really in the coming weeks, but then who controls this area? and why? and what are the ramifications for turkey and the kurds and the u.s. and iran and syria? so a lot of unanswered questions, and the shape of this agreement is still not, not final. according to this u.s. official i just spoke to, yes, there has been an agreement that turkey finally is going to cooperate more and allow the use of its territory for attacks against isis, but ha happens in that territory going forward is still very much an open question. >> richard, there's going to be this closed-door meeting, nato meeting. there's only been five of these meetings of this type in the

60-plus year history of nato. are we going to have some sort of formal announcement about this escalation? some sort of formal commitment of more resources to this fight tomorrow? >> reporter: we are expected to have a press conference tomorrow after that meeting in which the nato members will come out and express messages of solidarity, of concern, that this should be limited in focus, but yes, i think we're going to hear a lot more explanation. for about a year now, the u.s. has been really pressuring turkey to stop allowing isis fighters to transit through this country, and of those 20,000 or so foreign fighters who are now with isis in syria, a very large percentage of them came right through turkey, and the turkish government for a long time was turning a blind eye. didn't want to get involved.

didn't want to pick a fight with isis. thought it was better just to pretend the problem would maybe go away. and turkey was insisting that it would only do more to tackle isis if the u.s. got more serious about toppling bashar al assad. and there's been this back and forth debate and tension between the u.s. and turkey and reasoning's at some stage were pretty tense. then a week ago there was a major bombing inside turkey, in which 30 civilians were killed. it was what horrific suicide bombing carried out by isis on turkish territory. and that was one factor that was a huge wake-up call for the turks, and after so much american pressure, the turks finally rolled over and said fine, we will allow you to do this. but there is another question that i'm hoping you ask me and it involves the kurds and is central to all of this. >> obviously, turkey wanting to fight the kurds as much as it wanting to fight isis.

the kurds are the helpmeets for america against isis. >> reporter: there is a map. and if you pull up that map, it shows a lot of things. that map shows the different sections of syria controlled by isis, by various rebel groups, by the syrian regime. if you notice in the top, there are two green sections right along the turkish border. those are areas controlled by the kurds, and those areas have been growing, because as the u.s. was pressuring turkey to do more, to close its border and turkey wasn't cooperating, the u.s. started to help the kurds on the other side of the border. if the turks don't do it, we

will get the kurds to do it for us. the turks hate that. they see it as a strategic threat. now look where that safe zone is going. right between those two green turk/kurdish pieces. it is an isis-free zone designed specifically to prevent the kurds to have a stretch of territory that would span all across the border. so for turkey, this is a way to push back isis and to prevent the kurds from having too much authority, too much power, too much power, too much land. >> and it puts american planes in the middle of that turkish strategic calculation. thank you. it's a pleasure to have you. >> reporter: always a pleasure to talk to you. >> more ahead. stay with us. neutrogena® makeup remover does. it erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. need any more proof than that? neutrogena. that's it. whoa! what are you guys doing? we're making sure nothing sticks. otherwise we gotta scrub all this stuff off. dish issues?

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told you a moment ago that we have a story in which the sun plays a key role as the most important detective in the story. that's out of portland, oregon. stay with us.

this sort of grainy image was taken off the waters of portland, oregon. that's a ship trying to sneak into portland without being noticed. trying to slip under the radar, because when day broke on saturday, the presence of that ship drew a crowd. the ship that was coming in that night was the blue ship, it's an icebreaker.

you see the protesters who gathered on kayak to welcome that icebreaker to portland. earlier this month, that icebreaker suffered a major accident off the coast of alaska. the ship sprung a three-foot-long leak in its hull. shell cannot start drilling without that ship present. and it's not like shell has all the time in the world. they have a small window in which they can drill up there. and that time is getting busted up as that icebreaker gets repairs. it arrived about midnight on saturday, almost immediately, the protests started. dozens of kayakers pulling up, and they essentially surrounded it and parked themselves there. shell really can't start drilling for oil until that icebreaker gets fixed and makes the 12-day-long journey back to alaska. what do you think is going to happen when that ship is fixed up and tries to leave to go back to alaska? this is an absolute mess for one of the biggest companies in the

world, and it is only getting worse. watch this space. we'll see you again tomorrow. biggest companies in the world and only getting worse. "first look" is up next. it's tuesday, july 28. right now on "first look," day four of the desperate search for two teenage boys lost at sea off the florida coast. their parents remain hopeful. >> i want him home. i know he's coming home. i want him home now. mike huckabee refuses to back down from comments made comparing nuclear deal to holocaust. the father who took the rap for his son's hit and run. and this discovered on the florida coast. that and more on this tuesday. hello everybody. i'm betty nguyen. thanks for waking up with