hello everybody, and welcome to al jazeera. i'm david shuster in new york. here are the top stories we're following at this hour. >> hair samples and blood samples have tested positive for signatures of sarin. >> secretary of state john kerry says the case for military action against syria is getting stronger. nelson mandela is back home after spending three months in the hospital for a lung infection. the legacy of legendary journalist david frost. a closer look at his life and career.

we begin with the very latest developments in the crisis in syria. secretary of state john kerry went on all five sunday network talk shows today to say that preliminary tests prove deadly sarin gas was used to kill more than 1400 people in damascus. the arab league, a group of foreign ministers from several gulf countries, ended their meeting in cairo with a call for international effort to end the violence against the syrian people. meanwhile in washington, congressional leaders will hold hearings in the days ahead on president obama's request to launch a military attack. no votes are expected before september 9th. syria's opposition coalition says dictatorships like iran and north korea are watching closely to see how the free world responds. we've got more on all of this from al jazeera's jeanne meserve in washington. >> reporter: syrian president bashar al assad meaning with a prominent member of the iranian parliament says his country is cable of confronting external

aggression from the united states. the obama administration is pushing hard for military action. secretary of state john kerry appeared on all the sunday political talk shows claiming the u.s. now knows what chemical weapon was used in the attack. >> we now have samples back from first responders in east damascus. those samples of hair and blood have been tested, and they have reported positive for signatures of sarin. so we are now getting a stronger case each day. >> reporter: to persuade conk to authorize the use of military force, the administration held classified briefings sunday on capitol hill. when members emerged, there was largely skepticism about the impact of the limited military strikes proposed by the administration. >> i don't know if every member of congress is there yet. >> reporter: are you there yet? >> i'm not there yet. >> i can't tell you i'm

convinced that the time line that was outlined by the president yesterday is a valid one. >> reporter: secretary of state kerry says he believes congress will authorize the use of force, but if it doesn't he says the president has the authority to act on his own. mr. kerry refused to be pinned down on whether president obama would. jeanne meserve, al jazeera, washington. >> al jazeera's libby casey is live in washington with more congressional reaction to the president's request. members got the white house briefing today on the classified information about the chemical attack. what questions are lawmakers asking now? >> reporter: when is mission accomplished? i heard that from a couple of members who want to know, david, how far the president is willing to go and what they're signing off on if they support his authorization. if president assad is still in power after limited strikes, is the mission accomplished then, or does the united states have to go even farther?

democrats are also asking the white house to continue making their case. some members are saying, look, you've got to make a compelling case so that constituents in my district understand what we're really talking about here. they're very afraid of seeing american troops sent overseas with boots on the ground. then they're also asking, what happens if they vote no? if there's a no vote, how does it look on the international stage? >> it sounds like there's no doubt among congress that the syrian government is responsible for the chemical attack. the question is now what is the u.s. commitment going to be in all of this? how are the members leaning? >> reporter: well, they're really all over the place, but we are hearing a lot of skepticism. it's not just confined to republicans. we hear democrats as well who have deep questions and some big reservations. what we are hearing, david, is many members asking for a retooling, essentially a rewriting of the authorization that the president has asked for. they want to get their hands on

it, and they want to give it more limitation. they want to take what the president has suggested as the language that congress would sign off on, and they want to really rewrite it themselves. we're hearing this from both sides of the aisle from both the house and the senate. they want to limit this and really be much more specific about what the u.s. would be doing. >> libby, i want to play a couple of comments. first, democrat debbie wasserman schultz and republican senator tom cole. listen. >> this searing image as a mom of babies lined up dead, i -- as a mother, i would want, god forbid, in the suburbs that i represent, a tyrant went after our babies that a nation as strong as the united states would stand up for my children. >> the core of my concern is it's a civil war, and it's a religious war. i'm not sure it directly impacts the national security interests

of the united states. >> libby, we see the divide. we have democrats talking about to do something about these chemical weapons and republicans or at least people skeptical about whether or not it's the u.s.'s responsibility. is that a fair representation of where the politics is coming down? >> reporter: it is. we're seeing more divisions inside the parties internally. you really hit on it. moral obligation, what is the mobile obligation of the u.s. to act? what does it mean for u.s. defenses? for the safety of the american people? even on those two questions, there are a lot of different perspectives on how safe the u.s. is if president assad and syria have chemical weapons and if he's using them against his own people, what does that mean in terms of reverb ragss in the united states. it's not dividing completely along party lines. we'll see a lot of questions asked this week. the white house will meet with members to get more of their case and get feedback. we'll see this continued

conversation going on throughout the week. >> we saw john kerry make the administration's argument on terms most favorable to them talking about the evidence. where do they go next in terms of p.r. offenses and their lobbying efforts to get congress to do what they want? >> reporter: they need to rein in both some of the republican hawks like senator john mccain and lindsey graham of arizona and south carolina and bring them in closer to they are teams. those two senators want to see action, but the white house is doing symbolic talk. they're talking about a shot across the bow, and they say no, you have to be effective and do more than just minimal strikes. then the white house also has to pivot and keep making that moral case to bring more democrats on board as well. we heard that comment from congresswoman wasserman schultz. they have to strike that moral code for members of congress to take it back home to their c constituents saying we have to

act. >> libby thanks for the update. joins us now is robert hunter. he's a senior fellow at the center for trans-atlantic relations. you wrote a fascinating piece today in which you outlined this is a good thing that the president is going to congress and getting them more involved. explain why. >> i think it's about time that we move beyond the old cold war idea that presidents could really make war on their own and then only inform the congress afterwards or just consult with them. rather, i think it's important to get the congress on board. now, the case for doing something on moral grounds is very strong. we will accept, i think, the administration's view that this is the syrian government doing it, though they haven't yell fully proved that. but i think members of congress are very concerned that this not

go beyond that into some kind of uncontrollable circumstance in which we could see the syrian civil war not only get worse but spill over elsewhere in the middle east. >> i hear your point about being involved and putting control in the u.s. mission. congress, by most accounts, is a dysfunctional institution. if the president has made the decision there's a moral imperative to act, why is it helpful to the united states to, therefore, kick this over to a dysfunctional institution like congress? >> i think the president wants to make sure that if he takes a decision that is as controversial in this country as this will be. after all, we just went through two wars. the american people don't want another war. he wants to make sure that he has the people's representatives in congress as he put it yesterday. he wants to make sure he has them with him. now, there is a possibility congress will vote it down. i don't believe it in the final

analysis, but he wants to have them with it. there's another angle here that one has to consider. the president will see the president of russia later this week in st. petersburg. now, it is just possible that president obama could try to strike some kind of deal with president putin to see if it's possible to move this whole thing out of a question about war and peace. what do we do, what we don't do, into an area where we might finally start to get some diplomatic process that can try to bring this war to a halt without tearing the entire region to pieces. >> you said that you're confident congress will not vote this town. how come? >> because in the final analysis, i think members of congress are going to say, the president's got more information. he's got more responsibility. he's the one who will have to decide whether young men and women might at some point be engaged in this and risk their

lives. also, there's been a habit ever since the beginning of the cold war of deferring to the president. one of the striking things here -- >> ambassador hunter, this particular congress in terms of particularly the republicans and their relationship with this president is quite different than other congresses in terms of their relationships with previous presidents, right? >> as you pointed out already in your setup piece, there are divisions in both parties. it's one thing to take on the president domestically. it's another thing to take him on in foreign affairs. after all, when the united states decided to become sort of indirectliey engaged in topplin ga gaddafi in libya, there was broad bipartisan to do that. ten years ago there was broad bipartisan support to go into iraq. then people found out that the administration was lying to the american people. another reason i think the president wants to involve the congress is last week the country that was pushing the

united states hardest to do something, great britain, the british foreign secretary was out in front of everybody else in the world on this. yet, the british parliament turned down the british government's joining the united states. >> that humiliated the british government and essentially knocked down perhaps their authority around the world. what do you see happening? suppose a number of people are wrong and congress does vote it down. what does that do to american power, influence and prestige around the world? >> in the short term we take a knock for that, because the president did lock himself in. secretary kerry ain the two presentations he made last week was very emotional and very direct about it. however, i think any country out there that believes the united states won't defend its national interests is a country that's going to get itself in a very deep trouble. this is not something that applies directly to our national interests. it's a moral interest.

any country that is going to take us on somewhere else, i think they'd better beware. >> robert hunter, thanks for joining us. so good of you to be with us tonight. in the meantime egyptian state television is reporting that the country's ousted president mohamed morsi will stand trial. morsi is accused of inciting violence that led to the deaths of sevenle people outside the presidential palace last december. no trial date has been set yet. morsi's trial is the latest move by the interim government to crack down on politicians allied with the muslim brotherhood. morsi has been kept forcibly out of the public eye since july 3rd when the egyptian military removed him from office in a coup. back here in the united states in central california, firefighters battling the wildfire burning on the outskirts of yosemite national park say they are making progress. the flames are now 40% contained. a fleet of aircraft is dropping water and fire retardant

chemicals to stop the fire from spreading. so far the blaze on the northwest boundary of yosemite has burned through an area that measures 348 square miles. good evening. while the tropics in the atlantic and gulf of mexico have been fairly quiet, the tropics over here towards the west pacific are the opposite. we're on our 15th named storm. we'll go over here towards the island of taiwan. in the last seven days they saw 17 inches of rain. mudslides and landslides were a major problem. this house came down the mountain, as well as this next picture is showing a mudslide in action as a dash cam caught this going down the road. three people have died in this particular incident, and we had seen about $11 million worth of agricultural damage across the region. now, we have one more storm

here. this one is pulling out of the region, so taiwan is going to be okay. over the next couple takes we watch this for japan as well as south korea. they could see hefty rains as the storm is expected to intensify. later on in the hour when i see you, i'm going to tell you what's happening here across our tropics and what we can expect over the next couple of days. we have gone through august seeing no hurricane. this is only the sixth year in history that we have seen august with nothing in the sorts of the we had a tropical storm, but it looks like september has more to offer. thanks. justice ruth bader ginsberg officiated over a same-sex marriage. in june ginsburg -- ginsburg voted in favor of it. the troubles facing the city of detroit are well-toumedocume.

coming up in al jazeera, there's a local nonprofit in detroit that wants to show the other side of motown. legendary broadcaster sir david frost has passed away at the age of 74. we'll look at his remarkable career and life. that? next.

wouldn't believe there is a farm inside of it. legendary broadcaster david frost has died. he was 74 years old. his family released a statement saying he died of a heart attack this weekend on a cruise ship. frost gained international recognition 40 years ago for his revealing post-watergate interviews with president richard nixon. most recently frost hosted a

series of interviews for al jazeera. lawrence lee has more. >> hello. welcome to "frost over the world." >> reporter: by the time david frost arrived on screen on al jazeera, he achieved something no other television journalist ever did. he was a true global star, a man whom celebrities, world leaders and the rest actually wanted to be interviewed by, even if they knew it might be uncomfortable. >> so far it's been, you know, pretty much a disaster. >> it has. >> reporter: he was equally at home sitting opposite karzai as he was next to isabel. such was his charm and presence that he was impossible not to like. despite his fame he had as much time for a colleague in the core doer as he did a serving prime minister. >> amazing because of the amount of people he dealt with on a daily basis, people he knew by first-name terms, some of the top people in the world. statesmen, celebrities.

he knew them all, and yet he was still an ordinary guy and a really nice man. >> reporter: david cameron said, my heart goes out to corina and the family. sir david was an extraordinary man with charm, wit, talent, intelligence and warment warmth in equal measure. he made a huge impact. the nixon interviews were among the great broadcast moments. he could be and certainly was with me both a friend and fiercesome interviewer. after making his name in britain in the 1960s, he broke through in the u.s. with what mr. cameron alluded to, his most famous interview of richard nixon when the american president admitted he betrayed his people. that interview itself exposed something of frost's genius of understanding how people operate and then getting them to reveal themselves. >> one of the reasons he wasn't in touch with what people were thinking was he didn't like going out of his way to meet

people because he was awkward with people. that awkwardness and clumsiness is one of the things that closed him off from knowing what the public was really thinking. it's those personal flaws that come through. prime minister, thank you very much indeed. >> reporter: david frost's legacy is unique in television. a newsman and journalist who is also an entertainer known on both sides of the atlantic. anyone who is anyone is flattered to be offered a frost interview. hardly anyone in the history of tv can make that claim. lawrence lee, al jazeera, london. just last month the city of detroit became the largest city in the united states to declare bankruptcy, but now the motor city is getting some help from a group called hostile detroit. we report the local nonprofit is serving as an ambassador for those who want to see another side of the troubled city. >> reporter: amidst the decay, a local organization called hostile detroit is working to

change public perception and show tourists a great time. >> the mission of hostel detroit is that travelers have a cheap, affordable place to stay. when they come here, they have an experience that allows them to see detroit the way we see it. >> reporter: the keep concept is fairing volunteer ambassadors with visitors for free cultural tours of local art, architecture, music and the hidden gems of the motor city. but as the largest city in the country to declare bankruptcy, it takes some special locals to show visitors the bright side. the hostel has hosted over 2,000 people from 23 countries since opening in 2011. >> welcome. come take a look around. >> reporter: stops include the lincoln street art park, previously a burned-out lot revived by several local artists. the hidelburg project is a

youth-basted art installment covering two blocks of what was rubble, and the historic bell isle, a city park. >> our goal is to show people a great experience in detroit and change people's minds about detroit one person at a time. >> reporter: and their message has traveled halfway around the world attracting travelers from austria to australia. >> the ambassador program enables you to get to know people who are involved in the development of the city, and they provide you with a lot of information on how to discover the city on your own. >> it was like being with a friend, you know, driving around and showing them all the plays and stuff. >> reporter: showcasing street arts and other bright parts of culture around town. the am babassadors hope to leav better impression than that of a dying city. >> we really, really have the opportunity to take a lot of positive things happening and

really create a super, wonderful and vibrant city more wonderful and vibrant than it always is. we're right at the edge of that moment. >> reporter: despite bankruptcy, bad headlines and pictures of decay, hostel detroit is determined to do its part in reclaiming pride of place. reverend charles whim williams ii is the pastor in ann ar bore. anything wrong with groups showing off the culture, music and art in the city of detroit? >> no. i think showing off the culture and the art of the city of detroit is certainly a great tactic to make sure we draw some positive attention to the city of detroit. however, i must say that i do pastor the historic king solomon baptist church where martin luther king and malcolm x spoke.

it has its history. right around the corner from my church is motown where we heard the temptations and supremes. right between my church and motown, there's plenty of decay and there's plenty of problems that are rooted in the fact that we need jobs and we need urban reinvestment in the city of detroit. so as we show the good side, we cannot forget to show the bad side. we also must continue to advocate for those things that will make detroit all around a better place. >> do you wish that some groups encouraging tourists to come and look at art and music would spend more time focusing on the decay, as you point out? >> well, i think it's more so trying to figure out creative ways where people who come to the city of detroit can invest in detroit. we need jobs so much in detroit. we know that ford took a leap, and they're reinvesting and fweth more jobs in the city of detroit. we need other manufacturers like gm and chrysler not to buzz in

on private planes and buzz out but to make sure that they buzz in thousands of jobs with them. >> it sounds like in your view tourism alone is not going to do it. >> absolutely not. tourism alone will not just save detroit. certainly, those who decide to stay and those who decide to reinvest, i think one of the things we need to understand is we get thousands of people who come in and out of detroit for detroit red wing games and tiger games. that might be good for downtown and great for midtown, but what about the regular street? what about just uptown where there are many folks who live trying to get police, trying to make sure that we have fire. the only way we do that is we have to reinvest in detroit, and the biggest reinvestment we can make in detroit is getting jobs in the city of detroit. we would not be headed to bankruptcy by the dictator governor rick schneider and kevin orr. we would be headed to a flourishing city if we could get

jobs and education down in the city of detroit. >> why do you call the galvestonor -- governor the dictator? he's going to asia to increase tourism and trade. i get that. a lot of people believe he ought to be focused on bring more manufacturing to michigan. why do you call him the dictator? >> as we spread democracy across the world, even in syria, you know, right here in the city of detroit democracy has been dismissed. you know, i can vote for my city councilperson. i can vote for my mayor, but my city councilperson or mayor has absolutely no power at all taken over by the governor and the state of michigan, the city of detroit as well as seven or eight other cities across the state of michigan that just so happen to be minority-based cities. i mean, i think michigan and those who are under this emergency management are very clear that our governor has turned into a deck tart a-- dictator and democracy has been

dismissed in the city of detroit. >> reverend, thanks for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. you're welcome. on the eve of labor day, many americans are taking a closer look at unions in the united states. i recently got the opportunity to talk with richard trumka, the president of the aflcio about what he calls a labor crisis. overall, how big of a problem is it right now? are we at a chris cal mass for unions? >> i think we're in a crisis stage. wages are stagnant for workers. the benefits are disappearing, and unless unions can come back strong, i think you're going to see the economy continue to favor the 1% at the top and the other 99% will be left out in the cold or be so stagnant and so left behind that we won't recognize this country. the middle class in this country is under assault. it was a trade union movement, labor union movement that built the middle class, and we're going to rebuild it again.

>> some great back and forth in that interview and some tough questions. you can catch it all in two hours from now at 10:30 eastern time. more on al jazeera here after the break. "consider this" will be right back. >> "consider this" will be right back. ♪ ♪

welcome back to al jazeera. i'm david shuster. here are the top stories this hour. the tributes are pouring in for david frost. he was on a cruise ship this weekend when he apparently died of a heart attack. he'll be best remembered for his interviews with richard nixon after watergate. secretary of state john kerry says the case against the syrian government is growing stronger by the day. speaking on the sunday morning talk shows, kerry believes congress will not allow syrian president bashar al assad to quote gas people with impunity. they will hold hearing this tuesday on a possible u.s. response. former south african president nelson mandela is now back at home. this comes after spending three months in a hospital for a variety of illnesses. however, the 95-year-old remains in critical condition. tonya page reports from outside

the mandela residence in johannesburg. >> reporter: nelson mandela has moved to the comfort of his own home after nearly three months in hospital, but he's still in a critical condition and at times his health is unstable. so an ambulance is on standby just in case he deteriorates and has to be rushed back to hospital. he's receiving the best care possible. part of his johannesburg home has been converted into an intensive care unit. the medical team treating him in hospital have also relocated. >> a handful of doctors review his case every 12 hours. those are medical decisions they make, and we do not interfere with those decisions at all. they have decided that they have reconfigured the house so that he can receive proper intensive care just as he would receive in hospital. >> reporter: the news has been welcomed by many people here. >> i think it's not as worrying as him being at hospital because you know when you're around people that really love you,

people that really care you can kind of feel the attachment and the positive image is just flowing. >> he will recover if he's meant to recover. when the time comes, the time comes. there's nothing much you can do about it. >> if they think it's a good idea, let's see. i believe that we still need our hero alive. >> reporter: mandela's celebrated his 95th birthday last month, defying the odds and proving yet again his strength and resilience. he won the hearts of millions of people when he emerged from 27 years in prison wanting reconciliation, not revenge, to eventually become south africa's first black president. mandela's grandson says the family is celebrating his return home. they say they've been deeply touched by the outpouring of prayers and messages of support from all over the world. the move home may allow the family a little more privacy, but it will also reignite the intense level of interest in the

health of a man still gravely ill. mandela has not played any role in public life for over a decade. he is this country's moral compass. despite his fragile health, south africans draw strength from knowing he's still with them. tonya page, al jazeera, joe nan necessariburg. in japan there are new fears about the crippled fukushima nuclear plant. radiation levels are spiking up again, and inspectors say the levels are deadly, high enough to kill someone in a matter of hours who was exposed to the radiation. craig brings us more from hong kong. >> reporter: this is extraordinary news coming just one week after it was announced that they discovered 300 tons of radioactive water leaked from a storage tank. they measured the level on that at 100 millisieverts per hour. they found that those readings were incorrect. it's 18 times higher than that at 1,800 millisieverts per hour,

enough to kill someone within four hours standing near this radioactive water. also they've discovered that it's not the only leak at this point. they discovered a highly radioactive leaks from one of the pipes connecting two of the cooling tanks. the japanese government is now calling on international experts to step forward and to assist them with containment of this problem at fukushima. >> we will get an update later this evening when the japanese nuclear regulation authority chairman gives a briefing. we expect that to happen in about three hours at 11:30 p.m. eastern. al jazeera will bring it to you live. researchers are spending this weekend searching for evidence of past horrors at a notorious boys school in florida. they say dozens of boys were killed decades ago. >> reporter: there are bodies buried on the campus of dozier reform school for boys. bodies buried over the course of

60 years next to a garbage dump on the campus where the black boys lived. >> it's something the whole world needs to know. >> reporter: it was a place where the state put kids in trouble. arthur and richard huntley was sent there in the late 1950s. >> scary. you know, the whole world had deserted us. >> this is a form to me of slavery because they beat you to what they wanted you to be. >> they said they did back-breaking farm work. when they ran afoul of the school staff they ended up in the white house. >> i would call it a torture chamber, because here is where you got your mind right. if you didn't know how to pray, you learned pretty fast. >> reporter: even though no one knows who is buried here or how they died, the state isn't launching a criminal investigation. the attorney general says only one staffer is still alive and too old to be questioned.

still forensic anthropologists could determine if a boy died as a result of gunshot or blunt force trauma. searchers have found 50 bodies so far, and they've only just begun their work using ground-penetrating radar. it's the technology used to find mass graves in the former yugoslavia. researchers are hoping to identify the remains and finally return them to their loved ones. those they can't identify will be properly buried in marked graves on the campus cemetery. >> there's a legal obligation to return the remains to the families for proper burials, and some have argued there's a moral obligation the state has to do this. >> reporter: until then richard huntley will have to speak for the dead. >> our life was cut short and here we lay. free us, free us, let our bones go home. >> reporter: al jazeera, marian

that, florida. the florida a&m marching band returned to the field for the first time since one member died from an hazing incident. an incident in 2011 led to a death. the case led to criminal prous cushions and the resignation of the university president. on sunday at orlando's citrus bowl the marching 100 were back at florida a&m football team defeated mississippi state 27-10. the state of california is considering a change to who can serve on criminal juries. as it stands, legal immigrants are blocked even though they can own businesses and serve in most political offices. a new proposal is in the works, and like so much else involving immigrants in our society it's generating big controversy. jennifer london reports from los angeles. >> reporter: in california immigrants play a critical role. they serve as witnesses,

attorneys and judges. they can't serve as jurors. the state assembly is trying to change that saying there's a need to create juries that reflect wider society. >> you want the pool of people to consist of all elements of our community. we're at a time in california there's many noncitizens living here. i'm looking for ways to improve the delivery and access to justice for everybody who lives here. >> reporter: temporary visa holders and undocumented immigrants are still uneligible to serve. if governor brown signs this measure into law, it will open the jury box to more than 3 million potential jurors. potential jurors like anthony scorti. >> i think it's great we as green card holders should serve as jury members, because we pay taxes and we have to follow the laws. >> reporter: he left his home in london in the mid-'90s to pursue

an acting career in los angeles. while he's happy to have his rights expanded as an illegal immigrant, he's not looking forward to serving. >> because it takes time out of my day. you don't know how long a case could go on for, and i have other commitments, as everybody else does. >> reporter: aside from someone's personal feelings about serving, jo ellen, a leading jury consultant, says a matter of public policy allows noncitizens to sit on a jury is a bad idea. >> if you have somebody coming in who is not a citizen, they are going to have potentially a very difficult time understanding the norms, the various things that are important to us in our judicial system. so i'm saying that any defendant should have the opportunity to have somebody else who is a united states citizen to serve and decide their fate whether it's in a criminal case or a civil case. >> reporter: the majority of

republican lawmakers also oppose the measure. assemblyman rocky chavez argued his position on the assembly floor august 27th. >> where do we come upon imposing upon other people who are choosing to work here or go to school here the responsibility that a citizen has? you know, is there a problem with the judicial system? is there a shortage of having people offer citizens to come serve on juries? last year 9 million citizens in california showed up to serve on juries. only 165,000 of them actually served. so there's no problem about trying to get people to serve on juries. >> reporter: the complex question of whether legal immigrants should serve on juries may soon be answered quite simply. it could very well become law. jennifer london, al jazeera, los angeles. more than 1 million japanese took part in a nationwide drill this weekend to test that country's disaster preparedness.

prime minister shinzo abe led the drill. japan marks national disaster day every year on the anniversary of the great earthquake in 1923. this year it dealt with the scenario of a massive earthquake south of tokyo. a french company wants to begin extracting gold from a protected area of the amazon in south america. that has people living there in infuriated. the fight over the project in french guiana set off a debate on how france should protect its portion of the amazon. gabriel reports. >> reporter: for cedric, a walk deep into the jungle is not an exotic holiday. rather than for him the rain forest is a way of daily life and survival. >> translator: here in the jungle we go to hunt and fish. it's our culture. without this jungle, we have nothing here. >> reporter: he and 70 other people live in the village here deep in the jungles of french

guiana, making this europe's largest national park and it's only slice of the amazon. the residents of the village, a growing eco-tourist destination, have decided to protect the village from development for good reason. in only one hectare of forest here there are more plant and animal species than in the whole of europe. there's something else here, gold, and lots of it. that's why the government granted a small french mining company named rexma a five-year license to explore it against the wishes of the villagers. the area the company wants to explore has an estimated 8 tons of gold along the nearby river, the main water way for the village. back in the capital an investigation is under way allegations that rexma falsified documents submitted to government authorities, but they flatly denied any wrongdoing and says the whole controversy is overblown.

>> reporter: the area we're going to explore is only 12 hectares. 12 hectares. we're not going to destroy the world. these 12 hectares give the french guiana people wealth and jobs. >> reporter: they already have offices set up and even three pieces of heavy machinery ready to start digging as soon as they get final authorization. the issue with rexma has practical and symbolic significance. >> translator: if a world power like france or europe can't preserve a little piece of our own forest, how can we have the moral authority to tell other countries smaller than us to preserve their forests? >> reporter: as night falls residents continue to fear if the project is given the green light it will mean pollution to the river and an influx of illegal gold miners in the area. as they gather for their daily game, all they do is wait and see what government officials far away will decide to determine the future of their home in europe's part of this pristine amazon.

many of us go to google to search for information, view maps, read books and more. some of google's practices have been considered controversial with the company's 15th anniversary three days away, we bring you "google and the world brain." here's a preview of the documentary. >> nobody thinks that google -- people think that google try to roll out projects first and then to think about the consequences later. so you would often see them experiment with something that looks very cool. maybe the google project. >> it launched street view in 2007, part of the search engine's long-term goal to create a virtual 3d map of the whole planet right down to street level. investigations have revealed that their street view cars were collecting more than just photographs for their data banks. their antennas were hovering on

personal information from wifi networks. >> i think the case of google collecting wifi information, it reveals a complete lack of respect for privacy within the corporation. >> remember, you can watch "google and the world brain" tonight at 9:00 eastern in about 15 minutes right here on al jazeera america. in sports, serena williams in the spotlight in the u.s. open, but another american was trying to steal her thunder. we'll explain in just a bit. christopher reed.org. >> what happens when social media uncovered fascinating news stories. >> they share. >> social media isn't an after thought, i draws the discussion across america. >> the social media community, on t.v. and online. >> this is your outlet for those conversations. lap

the young folks. >> what are the laws going to begin to take effect? >> reporter: the laws do not go as the u.s. economy gains

steam, several industries and sectors are beginning to benefit. some people in our nation's farming community are taking advantage of a healthier cash flow by funneling cash into high-tech gadgets. as diane reports these good times might not last forever. >> reporter: farmer dave stuart wanders through the farm progress show through a kid in a candy shop. >> the blowers deliver seed here like a vacuum. >> reporter: in decatur, illinois, farmers are gawking at more fuel efficient combines costing more than a quarter mill dollars. troans that give a bird's-eye view of crops. >> you see hail damage, where that might have occurred. anything where you don't want to several yards out you can fly out there in a matter of minutes. >> reporter: and tractors with cruise control. >> you can dial this into 6 miles per hour. this will maintain that field speed with the proper gear

automatically, so we have to manual shift it depends on what you're in. >> reporter: in the past decade improved technology in virtually every aspect of farming from software, to equipment to seeds has helped farmers produce more food and make more money, and that's encouraged them to spend more on new pruoducts. some warn these boon times could go bust. they say biofuel production is now shrinking. at the same time crop production overseas is taking off. that combination could lead to lower grain prices and skimpier income for farmers. >> if the price of corn drops to $3 or $4 over the next couple of years with normal weather, farmers lose $1 to $1.50 a bushel. >> reporter: he thinks technology and equipment could be where farmers cut first. dave stuart replaced his planter and combine in the past year, but he's skeptical about making any new investments.

>> i'll be very conservative until i see how it shakes out in anticipation corn bean -- corn and beans will be lower than today. we have the sports. big day at the u.s. open. >> must-see tv. all eyes on the ladies this evening, but it was an epic battle between serena williams and sloane stephens who is considered the future of tennis. the 20-year-old stephens is one of three women to beat serena this year. they have a rocky relationship ever since she beat serena at the australian open. sloane stephens was in the far corner. serena hits the open set. serena has won 16 grand slam

titles. at 31 years young looky here. serena is making a statement. she can still cover the court running around with the youngster. she wins in a straight set 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals. she proves she's the queen of court. >> it feels like a really big match because sloane is a great player. how excited are we for the future of american tennis, right? she's such a good player. it felt like something bigger, but i had to stay focused on the moment. i don't know. the whole time i tried to do what i wanted to stay calm and relaxed and have fun and stay composed. thank you, guys, for cheering. i heard you. there's a lady over there that was cheering really hard. thank you very much. >> andy murray is also on center court today, and he sparkled against meyer. murray won the first tiebreaker, and then he would turn it on

winning in straight sets advancing to the round of 16. this is a very different andy murray, folks. winning two grand slam titles in the past year will give you some swagger. >> i decided expectations are higher, but there's not as much around me to win. i feel a lot more comfortable coming into the events than i did last year. hopefully i can have another good run. very tough conditions today, and he's a tricky opponent. you play a lot of strange shots, and he takes your time away. i'm really glad to win in three sets. >> speaking of confidence, tiger woods looking to get his mojo back at the deutsche banc championship. he wanted to play well, because hi daughter, sam, on the course watching daddy play. unfortunately, tiger admitted he didn't have it today. he had a bad day at the wrong time. tiger was 13 shots back of the leader. sergio garcia in attack mode.

on number 5, garcia carted seven birdies on the day. the shot of the day belonged to steve stricker. on the par 3 9th from 197 yards away with a 5 iron stricker to the green and looky here. oh, get in there! stricker almost gets a hole in one. that was definitely the shot of the day. all right. will it be a september to remember for the pittsburgh pirates? remember, they haven't won a playoff since 1992. yesterday pirates upgraded their roster by trading for former mvp justin morneau. today in the line-up 1 for 3 in the debut. pirates look to complete the sweep against the cardinals but the cardinals were like sweep this. st. louis wins it 7-2, and as as a result the cardinals are now tied with the pirates for first place in the n.l. central. over in the a.l. central, justin

verlander, the division-leading tigers have won seven straight ganls against cleveland. do i hear eight? things looking good early on as verlander struck out six batters. scoreless ball game into the ninth. indians had the bases loaded, and he can kiss that puppy good-bye. a grand slam for avilas. the indians win 4-0 against the tigers. on the college gridiron a lot of pipes surrounding louisville quarterback teddy bridgewater. tonight he shows us why. the junior gunslinger on target all night completing 23 of 28 passes worth 355 yards and racked up five touchdowns. yeah, there's a reason why he's being touted as a first round draft pick. he's lighting up the scoreboard and stat sheet as they spank the bobcats 49-7. that's your final. it's official, real amadrid as obtained the rights to

garrett bael for a record setting $132 million just to talk to him. real madrid acquired the former tottenham star. the $132 million transfer fee shattered the previous world record of 2009 when real madrid acquired renaldo from manchester united. now they'll be teammates for the champions. real madrid spending money like it's monopoly money. >> that's a lot of money. >> that's a lot of money. kevin is up next with the labor day forecast. care of our family, take care of our children and to get 7.35 raise up to 12.35 or 15.

hello again. earlier i said that august is going to be one of those months, one of the six months for august that has not seen a hurricane, so how do we expect to see the rest of this month? we're watching one particular storm. we'll show you that here on the satellite image. it is just to the east of the caribbean right here in the atlantic ocean. these areas right here is what

the national hurricane center is watching closely. some of the models are saying this is where the storm is going to go. up here towards the west-northwest, and i'm very concerned about what could happen here across the southern regions of haiti. anywhere a storm tracks, it's always the right-hand side of the storm or in this case the north part of the storm that has the most potential for damage as well as rain. so in this particular case, haiti could be a big problem or see a big problem there. then the storm could be heading towards cuba. we'll keep you informed there. the area has plenty of warm water here. we're talking about 85 degrees up to 86 degrees fahrenheit, so the fuel is there for potential development. we will keep you updated over the next couple days what will happen here. very quickly, thunderstorms are popping up across nevada. we expect to see flash flooding going on across this region down towards parts of arizona as well as up towards utah. have a great night everyone. your headlines are coming up right now.

welcome to al jazeera. i'm david shuster. here are tonight's top stories. secretary of state john kerry says the case against the syrian government is growing stronger by the day. speaking on a sunday morning network talk shows, kerry says he's convinced congress won't let assad quote gas people with impunity. hearing get under way on tuesday. egyptian state television is reporting morsi is ordered to stand trial. they're charging morsi with inciting deadly violence in the deaths of seven people. he's been held in custody ever since the egyptian military