president biden set to meet with chinese president xi jinping as he tries to prevent tensions from spiraling. and we are about to find out how retail sales that been faring leading up to the crucial holiday season. much more ahead. this hour of cnn this morning now. israeli troops carrying out an operation inside gaza s largest hospital, al shifa. a palestinian official says the soldiers entered the basement and ground floor of the surgery building and interrogated medical staff. the idf releasing video claiming to show troops dropping off aid. cnn cannot independently verify that and has not been able to reach the hospital for confirmation. the idf accused hamas of running a command center beneath the hospital and using civilians above as human shields had. the israeli military is calling this a precise and targeted operation based on their intelligence. we will be joined by a spokesperson for the idf in minutes. meanwhile, fbi director christopher wray is about to
role at the republican national convention? i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin with mitt romney s preparations for what may be the most crucial week of his presidential campaign. with several new polls out including our own showing him losing ground to president obama, romney begins a bus tour on saturday through four swing states he absolutely needs to win. but he s still traveling without a running mate. dana bash is here in the situation room taking a closer look. these are going to be huge days the next week. look, the day is young traveling without a running mate as we speak. you never know what s going to happen. regardless, mitt romney is going to have several vp-buzz generating news with him. but the campaign knows it first has to do some refining about the man on the top of the ticket, romney himself. oh beautiful, for spacious skies. reporter: if you turned on your television last month, there s a good chance you saw this brutal att
killing three soldiers in the country s southern helmand province. cnn s chris lawrence is live from the pentagon. what are your sources telling you about this attack this morning? well, john, they say they are still trying to figure out whether this was actually a true afghan police officer or someone just wearing the uniform. although the taliban is claiming that this was an actual afghan policeman who lured these three soldiers to his residence or to a party and had planned to kill them for some time. u.s. military officials are now confirming that part of the detail. but again, it speaks to a larger issue, which is trust in the fact that if this is a so-called green on blue attack, where afghan troops turn on their american allies, it would be the third time just this week. in fact, in the big picture, there have been more attacks already this year of that kind than all of last year, john. all right, chris lawrence at the pentagon. the story developing at this momen
entire professional career covering her as an olympian. that s an amazing story to cover. good morning to you. thank you for being with us. hi, everybody, nice to have you with us. we re bring you the news from a to z, it s 5:00 eastern. let s get right to it, shall we? this is unbelievable, unrelenting, unforgiving, it is a heat wave, and it is devastating from k.c. to d.c. and it s going to continue today too, tomorrow, as well. all the way through the july 4th holiday. in some places, it s going to feel like 115 degrees, particularly in parts of the midwest today. and for millions of people without power, sorry to report this, there is not a whole lot of relief coming your way. at least 19 people now have died in the last week after deadly storms swept through the nation. about 1.7 million people still haven t gotten any power. this is days after the storms went through. many expect possibly it s going to take until friday to get their power restored. take a look at th
let s go outfront. i m erin burnett. out front tonight, herman cain s pain. dropping 11 points in the past month after four women claimed he sexually harassed them. he s now polling at 14% among republicans, down from 25%. that is pain. and his pain was not mitt romney s gain. romney also dropped 2 percentage points, although he s still in the lead. the man who s getting the game, newt gingrich. he is the only candidate up and it is big time. it s better than when i was at 4. this is the most volatile race of my lifetime. you can say that again. gingrich went on to say, who knows what the polls are going to be two months from now. and there s something to that. before there was cain, there was rick, who dropped from 32% to 12. a drop of 20 percentage points. and before there was rick, there was michele. she dropped from 14 to 6. tonight, herman cain is betting that someone he s known for 46 years can turn it around for him. that s his wife. to hear such graphic alle