>> five, four, three, two, one, we're up. ♪ it is q4:00 fm in the eastern time zone, welcome everyone, i'm tony harris. escalating political crisis in egypt. president obama is meeting with national security advisors to review usa to the country. shots fired at an elementary school near atlanta, georgia. dozens of wildfires burning across the western united states, thousands of people are forced from their homes. and ready for traffic, we go inside the new span of the san francisco oakland bay bridge as it prepares to open.

♪ and our top story the president has convened his top security and defense officials in the white house. at the top of the agenda, what to do about egypt? at steak? u.s. aid to egypt, and an alliance that is one of the most important in the far east. egypt is consolidating its crackdown on a deeply divided country. the top leader of the muslim brotherhood has been arrested. separately, judicial officials say a court will review a

petition to release hosni mubarak. he has been in jail for more than two years now. meanwhile, anti-military protesters continue to stage rallies across egypt, including here south of cairo. demonstrators wave flags, and demonstrat demonstrato demonstrators, and more than 600 civilians have been killed over the past week. we have team coverage in turmoil in egypt. mike? >> even as reports were circulating all day that the white house had already decided to suspend that aid, which has become so controversial, tony, the president's spokesperson

appeared before camera and shot that down. he said it is not correct, and he said in the face of all of the carnage and chaos, the president has started his review, but u.s. aid has continued to flow even since. $1.3 billion in raid goes every year to egypt, and that's already out the door this year, only about $580 million is left. and if you ask officials why they are resisting to cut off that aid, they simply say it's complicated. not only is the relationship long standing with the egyptian government and egyptian people, there are a host of regional security concerns ranging from the suez canal, there is also

the relationship with egypt in 1979, the three leaders, were on this lawn right behind me, signing the accord of camp david, so that meeting is going on right now. the review is still going on. the white house officials at pains this hour to say there has been no decision made. >> mike, i'm wondering what the white house is saying about the arrest of the muslim brotherhood spiritual leader. >> they are concerned. they say it is a violation of the standards of -- international standards of human rights, of course you are referring to mohammed b badie. but this is gotten beyond the

simple geopoliticians of the situation. the senate has already had this on the table before they left for recess for the summer. they didn't want to have to do it, but you get the sense that that tide is turning. >> mike, let's talk now to david jackson. david is in cairo for us. same question that i posed to mike just a moment ago. what is the reaction among egyptians to the arrest of the muslim brotherhood spiritual leader? it probably depends on who you are speaking to? >> two distinct reactions to that capture and arrest of mohammed badie. on the one hand you have the formal reaction which is spoken through cairo's media, which is essentially a mouthpiece for this government.

and they are openly joyous that he was captured. they view that as a victory for the government. the muslim brotherhood is vowing to fight back. they have now elevated their right hand man, who is now in charge of the muslim brotherhood, and they are also saying that the muslim brotherhood is not backing down from this in any way, shape, or form, they are going to respond. they said that they will respond to what has happened in terms of him being arrested. >> david his arrest wasn't the only development here, mohammed baredy is also facing charges. >> yes, they issued a warrant, basically for his arrest. he resigned the post of vice president last week because of

the violence that took place in the streets. the charge against him is breech of national trust. oddly enough in that charge, regarding that charge, that is a technical misdemeanor in this country, so to vacation the vice presidentsy is a misdemeanor, and he faces a charge of having to pay a fine. so it's a little bit of a technicality, but it's a statement against him for leaving his post essentially. >> david jackson reporting on events from inside egypt. david appreciate it. thank you. we will bring you any new developments as they happen. and you can get the latest from our website, there it is. aljazeera.com.

the school year gets off to a violent start in georgia. an elementary school was the scene of shooting. it happened in decatur. no students were injured. the superintendent says police have a suspect in custody. all students are accounted for, and there are no reports of injuries. we are told the suspect was dressed in all black, and had an assault rifle. this is just the second week of the new school year >> the parents are back with theirer children. the situation is contained. the suspect in custody. there were no injuries. the children is safe. the faculty is safe, law enforcement is safe, and the

suspect was taken with no incident. right now the children are being taken to a staging area which is approximately a mile away from the school to be reunited with their parents. nearly 50 wildfires are causing evacuations across the western us. thousands of persons are working to bring the wide-spread flames under control right now. today fires were contained in colorado, bringing the number of states involved to ten. one of the worst is in idaho where more than 200,000 acres have hance to spend some

time with the people and machines who are fighting this fire from the air. if this plane is lifting off, chances are a wildfire is raging nearby. with fire season in full swing throughout the west. these c130 air tankers are in high demand. they are called are modular

airborne fire fighting systems. they can drop their entire payload of fire retardant in just five seconds. as fires raged across the west this summer, we flew to boise, idaho, and caught up with two tankers. the captain gave us a tour during a rare moment of downtime. >> constantly briefing. constantly updating. constantly -- everybody is pointing out things so the pilot can sit there and fly. >> for weeks they have been flying almost daily to fight fires that have charred hundreds of thousands of acres around the region. what we're seeing now called a load and return. this plane just came back from a fire from dropping that retar

retardiretar retardant. it is a joint program. >> so you are essentially air traffic control? is that one of the ones sitting on the roadway here? >> sitting there active. >> we have been using them all summer to support our large air tanker fleet. they are good. they are professional. they do a great job for us. >> the missions are critical in the bone-dry west. they are also dangerous. >> the smoke, the flames, exploding trees. so it is -- it is a very dangerous environment. >> reporter: last year a c130 from the captain's unit crashed in south dakota. the first fatalities in the program's 40-year history. >> friends and brothers that pass away. >> >> reporter: last year they

flew a record 10,000 drops. they are on pace to set a new record this season. all right. paul. we have you there in smelly, an beautiful. tony? >> all right. thank you, paul. let let's find out if the worth will help the firefighting effort. >> we had calmer winds and humidity moving in, but that is going to be changing. the red dots are indicating heat

signatures, and as we focus in on two complex fires, what we're concerned about is how these are creeping and moving as the fire picks up speed with these thunderstorms and gusty winds, we're going to be very concerned about the fire jumping from the crown of the tree to the next crown of the tree and continuing the pattern. we'll be monitoring this. plenty of dry fuels out there, and also air quality concerns as smoke is filtering down into the valleys overnight tonight. folks sensitive to air quality will have some concerns. we'll talk about the fire, where it's going to move, and where those thunderstorms are right now. rebecca thank you. four state department officials who were put on leave after the attack on the us consulate on in

benghazi have returned to work. 14 people died. a new wring until the edward snowden's secret leak scandal has more. glen greenwald says he is ready to fight back. >> reporter: just hours after arriving back home in brazil, the young man held in the british airport had to go to court to change the detention. >> i stayed in a room with six different agents. they spoke to me asking me questions about my whole life. they took everything. >> reporter: his partner is glen

greenwald. he has published details of american and british intelligence surveillance methods, which we got from edward snowden, the former employee of the american national security agency. >> they didn't know what was it -- whatever it was that miranda was care rig. and what they have done is toal lied journalism and terrorism, and i think this is why this has caused outcry around the world, they have used a bit of the law, made solely to stop terrorists and used it on miranda. >> reporter: the british police here say their decision to detain david miranda under the terrorism act were legally sound. and that is lawyer at tended.

meanwhile in washington. >> there was a head's up that was provided by the british government. so, again, this is something that we had an indication was likely to occur, but it's not something that we have requested. >> reporter: david miranda will now try to stop the british police from examining information they took from his compute ere and mobile phone. glenn greenwald said he won't be intimidated. barnaby phillips, al jazeera. a hunger strike in california prisons enters its seventh week. and we will tell you how bankrupt kodak is planning to make a big come back.

>> al jazeera america, a new voice in american journalism. introduces america tonight. >> in egypt police fired tear gas -- >> a fresh take on the stories that connect to you. >> they risk never returning to the united states. >> we spent time with some members of the gangster disciples. jazeera america. >> i'm kim bondy, growing up in news

was always important. you have this great product that you are ready to share with the country. i'm a part of a team that is moving in the same direction. welcome back everyone, in california a federal judge has issued a ruling to effectively put an end to the state's prison hunger strike. when the strike began nearly 30,000 prisoners refused food. and while that number has dropped dramatically, officials are worried for those still on strike. >> reporter: in prisons across california, some 130 inmates still refuse to eat. now seven laters after the hunger strike began, a federal

judge has cleared the way to begin force feeding the inmates. they are protesting overcrowding, poor conditions, and the use of solitary confinement. earlier this week, family members rallied to demand change in a prison system they believe is torture. >> our faith cannot support indefinite detention in solitary confineme confinement. >> reporter: the hunger strike is focused at prisons like pelican bay. irene's husband is one of the strikers. >> what he had said to me, of course nobody wants to die, but living in that cement tomb for all of these years, they are already dead. so what options do they have left? >> reporter: inmates put into solitary confinement can sometimes stay there for years

on end. earnest sheperd served a 45-year sentence for murder, more than half of it in isolation. >> most of the people that i was with didn't make it. most of my peers didn't make it. you know? so i have to be here. >> reporter: this is the longest prison hunger strike in the state's history. lasting twice as long as a similar protest in 2011. jennifer london, al jazeera, los angeles. jcpenney is still hemorrhaging money. ali velshi is here with that story for us. a business that has been dwen ling for years, and so they decided to bring in ron johnson. the problem is jcpenney isn't

apple.k to their baseline and then try to grow and compete. >> are there any signs of a tur

serious pessimistics and worri? i'm going to discuss that tonight. >> good to be with you again. ali velshi. thank you, sir. >> all right. and a brighter future perhaps for another iconic american company. a federal judge has allowed kodak to go into bankruptcy

protection. >> reporter: kodak is most famous for pioneering consumer photography. manies of people around the world have recorded their own kodak moment? but a snapshot of the recent past shows a company trying to catchup with the digital world. in 1975 one of the engineers invented digital photography, but management failed to spot the significance. >> they didn't recognize that digital was going to come into the market and replace film, figuring that we don't want to hurt the film business, which is where they make their money. it was just devastating. >> reporter: but the time they realized asian competitors had already cornered the market. when they finally turned digital, it was too late. and kodak struggled in the face of stiff competition.

to survive they laid off over that than 130,000 employees worldwide, and demolished buildings. last year, kodak filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. as part of the company's reorganization, kodak sold more than 1,000 of it's patents. and began repositioning it's a as a commercial imaging and printing company. the chemicals used to make film are very similar to printer's ink. experts say the swap is a stretch, and profits may be slow to return. >> they are going to go into the commercial printing business which is high i will fragmented and highly competitive, so it's not going to be that easy for them to compete in. >> kodak's fall from grace has hurt a lot of its retirees.

a lot is riding on kodak shooting a new beginning. to sports now, where yankees alstar alex rodriguez continues to make news off of the field. michael eves has that story. >> alex rodriguez is now taking aim at his own team. attorneys for rodriguez are preparing a malpractice suit against the yankees team doctor claiming he miss diagnosed a-rod's hip injury. meanwhile a former teammate feels as if he should have banned from baseball. gary sheffield says any player who uses a needle to inject themselves are steroids does not deserve to play baseball. and mike vick officially named the starter for philly when they

start their season. we'll be more coming up in sports in about 20 minutes. ♪

♪ welcome back everyone. i'm tony harris, you watching al jazeera. nearly 50 wildfires are causing evacuations across ten western states. the largest is in central idaho. that fire involves over 100,000 acres. in egypt, muslim brotherhood

leader, mohammed badie was arrested on charges of inciting violence. this comes while the u.s. is still deciding whether to give millions of dollars in military aid to egypt. >> what i said yesterday is true today. the president is conducting a review of the assistance that we provide to egypt. that review that the president ordered in early july has not concluded. as the u.s. government at leaders overseas try to pressure egypt's military to end its violent crackdown, all eyes are focused on el-sisi. he is a familiar but unpredictable figure to the administration. david joins us now with our insider report. >> reporter: the most direct information the united states

has about general sisi comes from chuck hagel. he has been speaking with sisi nearly every day for weeks, and yet he defied requests to respect opposition protests. this weekend he said he was acting on behalf of the majority of egyptians. >> the honor of protecting the will of the people is more valuable to us and to me personally than the honor of ruli ruling egypt. i swear to god on this. >> the general is 58 years old, was born in cairo, and has four children. he wrote an academic paper, saying that islam is as much of a cornerstone for democracy as

christianity. shortly after morsi became president, he remained commander and chief of the military. when morsi's regime became increasingly more unpopular. sisi began to distance himself from the president. by all accounts sisi is exceptionally shrewd and chal -- calculating, but when it comes to american reactions to egyptian decisions, sisi remains unconcerned. it has been a tough journey for egypt since the revolution that tommed mubarak. stephanie decker takes us through egypt's two-year turmoil. >> president mohammed hosni mubarak has decided to wave the office of the president of the republic. >> reporter: after 18 days of

protests and almost 30 years in power, hosni mubarak steps down as the president of egypt, february 11th, 2011. behind the scenes egypt's powerful military plays a hand in mubarak's departure. and the tanks stand by and allow hundreds of thousands to demand he leave. the military takes immediate control. applauded by millions of egyptians, the army declares it's a the protector of the revolution. but the love begins to fade. there is a growing belief that the army is reluctant to hand over power to civilian rule. that changes with the first democratic election in june of this year. morsi wins by a narrow margin ore his opponent. many accuse morsi of using his position to consolidate muslim

brotherhood control across the country. millions take to the streets calling for him to go. morsi's supporters also come out in force. and for the second time in three years the military has the final say. they announce that morsi is removed from power and under arrest. and whereas the move is welcomed by many, morsi's supporters stage sit-ins in cairo and call for their leader to bereinstated. six weeks later, morsi remains detained and the army says enough. the bodies pile up. both sides accuse the other of using live ammunition. the euphoria of the revolution is long gone. egypt is violently divided. a national reconciliation, now

more important and challenging than ever. stephanie decker, a relationship, we turn to a professor from cambridge. i'm going to get to that relationship in just a moment, but you have called what is happening in egypt right now a triumph ofo a military

regime. >> so where does that leave 80 million or so egyptians right now who want probably nothing more than for a the country going again. >> unfortunately what history warns us is that processes like this take a long time to work itself out. even if the military is able to reassert control, eventually get a new constitution, get some semblance of civilian government back, it's not clear that they know how to make the egyptian economy work any better. >> professor, i want to broaden the conversation just a bit here, in my hometown of baltimore, i know many are

wondering how important is egypt really to america and america's interest? and maybe if you can put that in the contextway. >> stephen appreciate it. thank you. a pakistani court charged

pervez musharraf today. >> reporter: chaotic court appearances are nothing new for pervez. but this time it was different. a judge formally indicted the former president and army chief who came into power during a coup. the crimes he is accused of are serious. they include the murder and conspiracy to commit the murder of pakistan's first female prime minister. >> the president denies the charges. he is not involved in the case at all. i don't know how these proceedings are being carried out against him. >> reporter: this is the moment that bhutto was assassinated. she was killed six years ago in

a bomb and suicide attack. musharraf was president at the time, and is accused with not providing sufficient security. he was first indicted over his suspected involvement in her killing in 2011. the court sentence him until he returns to pakistan from exile. he was arrested in relation to this case in april and granted bail the following month, but remains under house arrest. >> to think that musharraf will be sentenced in near future is very, very premature. >> reporter: in june after coming under pressure from the

supreme court, it was announced they were pursue treason charges against musharraf. s shareef also is going to explore the ways he ignored the constitution. it could take months if not years to pursue the formal charges. pakistan has been ruled by the military for nearly after of his history, but the sight of a once untouchable leader being held to account, has sent the message that the top generals are subject to the law at least for now. many believe that musharraf will eventually leave pakistan before ever being convicted of his aledged crimes.

80,000 gallons of radioactive water is leaking from a plant in japan. authorities are afraid that the toxic -- it is clear that the problems aren't going away any time soon. in fact some scientists are finding that radiation has been detected in fish off of the california coast. dan is a scientist in new york. his research has found that populations of tuna can be linked to the meltdown. what are you finding? >> the same radio active isotop

and will be doing it again in 2013. >> at this point i think it's pretty clear that this has been carried across the pacific ocean to california. in what amounts? and how much actually -- how much is dangerous?i apologize w

time. we'll have you back on and give you more time to explain. all right. beloved crime novelelest has died. he was known for his movies such as get shorty, he was a winner of the honorary book award. i'm in california where the san francisco bay bridge is

finally about to open. and later in sports, just how long baseball intends to suspend players using steroids. some say it isn't going far enough.

my name's nicole deford and i'm a senior product manager in digital for al jazeera america. i was born in thailand, grew up in hong kong and singapore and graduated high school there. i think the most rigorous assignment i've ever been a part of is actually what we're doing right now. they're building a network from

the ground up, and al jazeera is a really great place to be right now. there are a lot of stories out there that are under-covered that people really want to see in the news. we're going to tell stories in a new and different, exciting way, and i think people are going to be really surprised and impressed with what they see. the san francisco oakland bay bridge was damaged by a earthquake. and now it is due to reopen again in just a few weeks. the city has spent a whopping $6.3 billion to rebuild the bridge. when it reopens it will run ten lanes wide, and at its highest point it will stand 255 feet over the water. as melissa chen reports the project has had its share of

challenges. >> reporter: the view from the east at sundown as you approach san francisco, and the beautiful bay bridge. residents will soon start driving down the new span in what has become one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in the country. the journey to arrive at this moment has hardly been smooth. two major fault lines cut through this area. >> a section has collapsed. >> reporter: in the 1989 earthquake, the one that broke the bridge, remains strong in many san francisco-ans minds. this is built to withstand the largest earthquake expected. it has been engineered to last a century. getting an infrastructure

project of this size off of the ground takes years. there have been mayoral and state-level battles over controversy over safety, and then there's the cost. two years ago al jazeera visited the steel producer in shanghai that built the deck materials for the bay bridge. at the time we spoke to the head of the bay area toll authority. he had told us the product being delivered was so solid that if there was an earthquake, he would want to be on the bridge. meeting him again, i asked him if he still feels the same way? >> sure i do. we're two years closer to an earthquake, that bridge will do just fine. >> reporter: in the end it wasn't steel from china that

caused problems, steel bolts from ohio were the problem. with three independent investigations experts gave the go-ahead for the bridge's opening. >> about the broken bolts and stuff like that, i mean i'm not so sure. >> you just never know these days, you know. people rush through to get things done. >> reporter: but officials say the science is solid, the repairs more than sufficient. >> i think they should be reassured. there have been a lot of news stories about the new span, but none of them have produced credible evidence that it is less safe than the old bridge, and in fact it is orders of magnitude safer. it is built to modern seismic standards. >> reporter: for more than 20 years drivers have crossed this bridge.

for 20 years every time someone made this commute they knew they might be taking a risk. finally the new bridge is here, for better or worse, but certainly iconic. melissa chan joins us live now from san francisco. look intohy do transportation the matter of the broken bolts, and the temporary fix and the conclusion of each team was that we need to get this bridge open. one thing we have been hearing is the fact that the old bridge is just not safe, so even if you have a new bridge with a temporary fix, this new bridge isnately saver than

the old bridge. >> all right. melissa thank you. in sports michael eaves can we go a way without a story about alex rodriguez? >> seemingly not. you can now consider the season over, the league fining dempster for an undisclosed amount. a-rod's attorneys are preparing a malpractice suit against the team doctor. rodriguez end went surgery in january and missed the first four month of this season. gary sheffield played 22 years in majority leader, three

as a teammate of rodriguez. >> reporter: gary sheffield was a threat every time he stepped up to the plate. he drove in 1,676 runs during his impressive 22-year career. now re tired from the game he chimed in on alex rodriguez. >> my whole take is that it's a process, and that's what i had to learn is that no matter what people think, you guilty or not guilty, there is a process that has to take place, and when a-rod first got caught with ped's my first initial reaction was wow. after all of these years, i'm thinking you are this kind of player, but you had to resort to this to be that player. it seems to me that he is not respecting the system.

they have a system in place, and if you fail once and you are still doing it after that, that means you are not suspecting the system, and you just feel like you can't play without it. >> reporter: if you were the commissioner of baseball, how would you handle that alex rodriguez situation? >> if you are injecting yourself with something and it is a straight steroid, you are ban for life. if they are taking a prescription, you have to take their word for it if they don't have the paperwork. but if you don't and you are injecting yourself to enhance yourself, that should be a ban for life. >> reporter: how much anger average did you have when you were linked to the mitchell report and the aledged steroid report? >> they still to this day can't tell you what i did. they still say he did this or he

did that? what do you mean? my wife wrote a check for some vitamins, and they raided. >> because you are open about it. >> yes, exactly. >> reporter: they put some cream on your knee because they said it would make you stronger. >> i had two leg surgeries on both of my knees, and when i squatted like three days after surgery, my stitches burst, both legs, so i put this on my legs to get to the hospital, and when i got to the hospital, they restitched me, and never used nothing else in my life. so why would i put something on my leg to go to the hospital to hit home runs? it makes no sense. >> reporter: now sheffield spends most of his time raising his family. he admits he doesn't watch much

baseball these days. some very honest words from sheffield about himselves and other players. >> all right. rebecca is back with a check of weather right after this.

♪ for the month of july we had over 8 inches of rainfall in the southeast. it's no wonder we're getting quite a bit of wildfires in the west. lightning strikes are our biggest concern because they will start new fires. we'll keep you up to date through the night tonight on these in-coming thunderstorms, and where they are expected to hit. ♪

hello again everyone, i'm tony harris, here is the latest from al jazeera. in egypt, mohammed badie was arrested on charges of inciting violence. this comes as the u.s. is still deciding whether to give millions of dollars in military aid to egypt. >> what i said yesterday is true today. which is that in early july, the president of the united states directed his security team to conduct a review of the assistance and aid that reprovide to egypt. this is part of a complex and brood relationship we have with the egyptians. that review has not