next time.

>> making the case for war. senior politicians arrive at the prime minister's residence to give a briefing. it was a tough sell.

the evidence we have gathered allows us to -- cannot remain unanswered. >> the government gave a nine-page report to support its case, the document gives key points. in the area to remove evidence of chemical weapons. but they're unconvinced. >> you know, where are our allies. there are no european allies. at this stage.

>> france is still talking about trying to assemble a coalition of thing will, but the uk parliament says it won't take part. germany and canada have ruled themselves. >> the response to what has happened in syria were to be a military operation, i would envision, there will be no vote on military action.

that decision lies with the present. right now, he looks like a leader who is paralyzed. aljazeera, paris. >> well, the conflict in syria also on thursday, peter sharp explains why moscow is not likely to change its position on the crisis. >> as president obama is saying that more evidence comes out about the attack, this would somehow change russia's stance on syria, russia remains steadfast on president assad and really has been since the facts were carried out on the 21st, and the attacks were carried out actually by the rebels in an attempt to drag western nations like america and britton into the war. and this is going to talk to the

prime minister, and the evidence they have been given on the attack is inclusive. there are no dates or times. so in st. petersburg, when 20 countries gather for the meeting, a meeting that's basically going to be looking at economic matters, but of course on the sidelines where the news will come, bilateral meetings, with one debate. and that's syria. >> sarin is a nerve agent. it was originally developed in 1938 in germany as a pesticide. it's a clear, tasteless liquid and it can evaporate and spread into the environment. symptoms will appear in a few seconds after exposure to the vapor and minutes to hours after contact with liquid. if a person is exposed to sarin,

it hinders the switch in the body that's an off-switch. without the switch, the muscles are overworked, leading to exhaustion, difficulty breathing and even deaths. a person can die within minutes after inhaling a high dose. as thousands of refugees leave syria, one seattle, washington woman is making her way into the heart of the war. the mission is risking her life. >> my name is rita, and i'm headed out to jordan and syria on wednesday. i'm taking a medical mission over we have syringes, gauze, and these are medicines that we got donated from different families here. on this particular mission, we're having 1500 pounds of

medicine being sent over by royal jordanian airlines free on-air cargo. and we have different specialists that go in. and we have it set up which field hospitals we'll go into it. and we're being told by different people where new injuries come in, so we can take care of this. i believe in the people, i'm a humanitarian. you see those kids and you listen to those stories, and it's way had -- you can't turn your back on it. you're in a city that's dead. that's it. i mean, people that are scared, people that will just don't know what's actually happening all around them. you don't know from one day to the next or one hour to the next if you're still going to be alive. i think i'm making somewhat of a difference. i mean anything, when you can bring if any medicine or help

people in any way possible. or just listening to their stories. they want people to know, there are people out there that really care. sorry. i know there's an enemy out there, there are people shooting, but i think there's someone looking after me because i believe in what i'm doing. >> stay with alamed aljazeera. good evening, i'm going to take you to the western pacific. this one is just about to make landfall in parts of japan, the southern part of the island. and what we're going to see right now, very close to the island.

and the actual feeder bands are going to bring in severe rains in the next couple of hours. the track of the storm is supposed to make two landfalls, going into central japan, and back up here to the northern part of japan. so we're going to be watching it closely in the next day. down towards our neck of the woods, not a lot of activity. but the national hurricane center is watching the lesser antilles for development over the next day. this is possibly 20% right here, but there are a few showers, and we'll be seeing a lot of localized flooding, as well as over here to the yucatan, 20% chance of development. and very heavy rains over the next day. and we'll be watching ta in the forecast as well as the flooding situation in the northeastern part of the united states. >> kevin, thank you very much. atlantic city, one of the gambling capitals of the east coast has been dealing with a losing streak in the last few

years, in 2008, and last year, the city was battered by hurricane sandy, but it's all in for revival. >> they are truly cathedrals to gambling. >> gambling is a blessing if you win. >> he worked for the giant casinos, but he was laid off. and now he runs a chain of ladies fashion shops. mohammed was forced to tap into his pension and close an ira account just to keep going. >> . >> more ira retirement, in the store. >> he says things are so slow after the hurricane, he and his wife often stay open all night, just to try to make ends meet. >> sandy caused damage up and down the coastline. here there was flooding and the

historic part of the boardwalk was swept away. it went out and atlantic city is closed for business permanently. >> in fact, they were open in a week, and is the revenue was down. but atlantic city is used to rolling with the punches. it had entertainment and kept it's boardwalk packed. then came the 2008 global financial collapse, and stiff competition from nearby states that legalized gambling. >> first pennsylvania, delmas, maryland, and now you have new york city taking some of the business from markets from atlantic city. >> they're enacting new laws allowing gamblers to place bets from home. it's a desperate bid to prevent further layoffs in atlantic city. >> it will be a significant boost to atlantic city, and

hopefully in the end, sports betting, which would mean a big, big win. >> the sports betting is sports action, but it could fill with caesar. they are talking about broadening the city's appeal, way beyond the casinos. >> the natural environment, we have the boardwalk and the restaurants. it's a tourist destination that has so many things for people to do. >> back in his boutique, he's hoping that it pays off. with his savings all but gone and his pension depleted, he's literally betting his life on it. >> taking full responsibility. there's an app to make sure that

people don't wind updating their relatives.

>> firefighters battling the massive wildfire burning in parts of california's yosemite national park with making headway. crews have been working for two weeks to put you on the so-called rim fire. and 2/3 of the fire are under control. it could take until september 20th until the wildfire is completely out. >> it's one of the biggest deals in telecom history. verizon has agreed to buy out its partner, vota phone have been partners.

>> they have been partners, and it has been a sporadic relationship, under the deal, verizon will pay vodafone $130 billion, the biggest cash payment in history, almost $60 billion. it results in faster mobile networks. that will help verizon to hold it's own in a competitive u.s. market where it controls 1/3 of the market share. it's also good for british vodafone holders. they will collect no taxes from its rich cash haul. >> it's going to have to a go back to the country, an enormous amount of debt. >> at the moment, it's all about shareholders, and very little about consumers. but if the voice networks are improved, it should mean that

customers get a better deal. >> the deal is set for approval my u.s. regulators, but since verizon already controls the business, it's unlikely to meet resistance. the standoff between cbs and time-warner is over. cbs is back on time-warner cable. some customers have been without time-warner for a month. they have agreed to end the blackout in new york and dallas, and it affected over 3 million homes. >> and ross is here to talk about the red kins. good news. >> cleared for takeoff. the head coach, mike shanahan, and the red sox take on the eagles monday night. coming off of reconstructive knee surgery, the redskins have

been very careful with their player, and come monday night, rg three will be released ifism. >> a shocker tonight, roger federer committed 43 unforced errors. it's his earliest exit from the u.s. open since 2003. and adolf turned it on and he went on to win it in four sets. he's moving on, and federer is out. >> all right, ross, thank you very much. and we'll see you later. iceland, in a country where everyone is distantly related. that means that entering a relationship can be risky business, but a new app is giving answers to important questions. >> edmond >> in a country of 203,000

people, you'll run into someone to whom you're related. perhaps closely. >> by simply bumping two phones together, can you find out exactly how closely you're related and avoid potentially embarrassing situations. the app was created by three university of iceland students, and it emits a warning if you're about to commit a social blunder. >> you're able to see how you are related to people that you meet. like if you have a new friend, and you find out you're fifth cousins. >> the app taps into a database of residents and their family trees, going back 1,200 years. so how close is he to one of the inventors? it turns back that their first shared ancestry goes back to the

1690s. it was first developed by an icelandicbaia tech company. and it has huge potential. >> it allows people to have access, not just genealogy, but history through the smart phones. this is accessing data in the future. >> this really is a case of ancient icelandic saga meets science without embarrassment. >> on this labor day, millions of americans are working for minimum wage, and in is a it's not enough. coming up on aljazeera, what would han if the minute wage went up.

>> welcome back to aljazeera, and here's a look at the headlines. level of radiation is spreading at the fukushima plant. 64-year-old diana nyad completed her 110 miles. she's the second person to swim

the distance, and the first to do it without a shark cage. and i. >> the debate on whether the u.s. should attack syria, the congressional hearings begin, and two of the top leaders met with president obama this afternoon. john mccain and lindsey graham have pushed for a stronger stance against syria. bashar al-assad said that neither the united states nor france has any evidence that the syrian military was behind the weapons attack that killed 1400 people. let's look at what's ahead for the obama administration and the push on syria. what the white house is calling the flood the zone strategy. tuesday morning, the president will meet with john boehner and nancy pelosi and six top security committees in both houses.

in the afternoon, john kerry, john hagel and joint chiefs of staff, martin dempsey, will head to washington to testify before the foreign relations committee. and this time they will hear from secretary kerry, behind closed doors, and james clapper. earlier today, senators mccain and graham laid out what's at stake for the vote on syria. >> if the congress were to reject a resolution like this, after the president of the united states has already committed to action, the consequences would be catastrophic, in that the credibility of this country, with friends and the adversaries, not only for this presidency, but for future president sees as well. >> the president in many ways

has no one to blame but himself about the lack of public understanding of what'sas stake in syria. two years ago, we had the opportunity to sought out when there were dozens of al-qaeda in syria, and now there are thousands. two years ago, there were 6,000 refugees in jordan. and time is not on our side. we urge the president to up his game. >> be sure to stay with us. aljazeera will have live coverage in washington. our coverage gets underway at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon. giving victims of the shooting a purple heart and making them eligible for military benefits. they classified the 2009 shooting as a terrorist attack. right now, it's labeled workplace violence. and that means that the victims

and their families. >> fast food employees have been staging strikes for higher wages. some wanted double the minimum wage. an employee who works full-time of the current rate makes about $15,000 a year. the minimum wage is lower for waiters and waitresses. $2.15 an hour. if they raise it to inflation, it will not $10.54. let's bring in from the metropolitan college of new york. it's good to see you tonight. what would it mean if the minimum wage went up? >> today mean that a lot of people would have more disposable income, and be able to support their families, and be able to pump more money into

the economy. and so there are some good effects for having a higher minimum wage. >> and would it mean that products or fast food would cost more? >> it could conceivably mean that, but if you consider that studies were done in the '90s, in the fast food industry, and they showed that when the minimum wage occurred, employment increased in those fast food establishments, and the reason for that, the fast food industry is labor monotony, and that means they're primary purchasers of low wage labor. so they're the biggest purchaser of low wage labor. and because the minimum wage is so far below the market clearing widge.

>> why is it so low? >> because it has not kept pace with inflation. there were long periods of time where there were no increases in the minimum wage. organized labor was constituents. and as labor has declined in its membership, there has not been that consistency. from 1991 to 1999, the minimum wage did not rise at all. and that was the biggest decline in organized labor. so you had a period of great stagnation in the minimum wage. in the late 1960s, for example, the minimum wage was 106% of the poverty level. and now it's below 50% of the poverty level. looking at 2012 data, medium wages for individuals, it's $14.90 an hour. so the minimum wage is 50% of what it was in 2011. >> businesses say that it's

going to hurt businesses if you raise the minimum wage! other >> reporter: they say that, but the data shows that there have not been any real serious employment affects. of course the question of how you define employment. >> well, if they raise the minimum wage, they say they might have to fire people, yes. >> there's no data that suggests that people have been fired for raising the minimum wage. >> they can't make as much money. >> yes, but if it goes up a few dollars, you're still blow market wage. if you raise it to 15, you may reach a tipping point. that's the question. >> i'm not arguing, but the question is, is the minimum wage, shouldn't it just be what the market can bear or not? >> how do we know what the market can bear when you talk

about workers who basically have no market power? so basically, the minimum wage was meant to redress the a symmetrical power between the marketplace and the employees, and people not covered by unions had no one to parking o bargainr behalf. the minimum wage was designed to give voice to those who have no voice. >> the question is if the people with no voice o or powerless can affect change in our system. in mexico, thousands of teachers are striking outside of the presidential palace, and it's difficult to navigate the streets. mexico's president was forced to give his first address at home. lucia newman has it. >> there was confusion on the streets of mexico's capital as

he prepared it give his first state of the nation address. >> if i see any changes, so far no results. >> nine months after taking office, he insists that his policies will reduce organized crime and widespread science. >> -- violence. >> the government of this prebblrepublic will not tolerat. >> another indication of his ability to reduce lawlessness and murder. the president spoke of prosperity. but unemployment is at the highest. and the economy is at a standstill. after weeks of havoc brought on by angry demonstrations against his education reforms. he decided to deliver a speech

from the presidential palace. there has been some, particularly working with opposition parties to end years of gridlock in congress, but the real struggle to reform mexico begins now. >> with my energy proposal, we have the opportunity to take advantage of our vast resources, which we haven't had the technology to exploit. >> but the ability to tap into mexico's oil company will meet resistance, warning for oil companies to stay away. if i i asked the would-be foreign investors, the owners of multinationals. will they risk coming here, knowing that in 2015, a new congress could reverse these romps? >> mexico city's mayor says that he's taking measures, and he

will not be swayed from structural reforms that will change the face of mexico. >> jappa's government said today going to be much more involved with the cleanup of the fukushima nuclear plant. the radiation has soared to lethal levels, and there are growing concerns over the plant's operator to deal with the crisis. in the last hour, the government said it's prepared to spend $500 million on the cleanup. >> japan's regulation authority said there's no evidence that there are new leaks at the fukushima nuclear plant. the radiation readings were higher than two weeks ago because they have been using more sophisticated machines to detect it. the previous machines could only

read up to 10,000 an hour. but the embarrassing revelation has forced the government to take a direct approach in handling the crisis. >> we are take charge, not just delivering, we'll deal with this so not to repeat such an incident. >> the prime minister is due to chair another session of the luke lar response meeting on tuesday, so the details of the plan can be revealed on tuesday. we don't yet know what it will include, but it will have to deal with this very immediate problem of how do you store the contaminated water at the plant. the chairman of the nuclear regulation authority has reiterated that they have no choice but to discharge some of the water into the ocean, but they will make sure that

whatever is discharged meets the regulatory thresholds. >> when she walked onto the beach at key west, diana nyad had tried five times, but she finally conquered the florida straits.

>> we have some breaking business news tonight. microsoft is purchasing nokia's mobile phone business for $7.2 billion. they teamed up in 2012 and use the microsoft smart phones to power. the deal could be subject to approval by shareholders and regulators! >> today, one woman is giving

new meaning to the saying, if at first you don't succeed, try again. on the fifth try, 64-year-old diana nyad was the first to swim from cuba to florida without a shark came. we have more on her historic swim. >> reporter: 64-year-old diana nyad wanted to prove that it's not too late to chase your dream. riving on the shores of key west, florida, she finally succeeded after five attempts. spectators cheered her on. >> i have three messages. one is, we should never ever give up. [ cheers and applause ] two is, you never are too old to chase your dreams. three is, it looks like a

solitary sport, but it's a team. >> 53 hours after beginning in havana, with a 35 person support team helping her along the way, nyad completed the journey, without using a shark cage, wetsuit or flippers. >> adios! >> she started in 1978, but she was defeated by severe weather, jellyfish stings and exhaustion. but today she triumphed over that which seemed just out of her reach. >> a little earlier, i had the chance to speak with the editor of popular science, and jacob ward, i asked him where the feat ranks in the history of all sports? >> i think it is right up there with some of the greats. the kind of torture that she was subjected to over the course of

53 hours of continuous time in the water is pretty unparalleled. it really has to be, some of michael jordern's greatest performances, and some of the amazing things that happened in the tour de france, but some of the pain and torture in this must have been unbelievable. >> how many calories do you burn in 53 hours of swim something. >> if you consider that an nfl player burns 600 calories in a game, she burns 6,000 calories. and it's more than she can take in, so she's running on fumes. >> she has done it before, but how does she prepare? >> her experience of being a marathon swimmer puts her in a very different category than what other athletes do to prepare. she has been in the isolation tanks, but she has also taken acid to prepare for the

hallucinations that one undergoes for those intense periods of hardship. >> of course not every athlete can do this, but who is better to pull off a swim like this? a swimmer, a golfer, you think of people that are built and have big muscles and are slim, when you think about an incredible athlete, she doesn't always if i want those categories. >> what's amazing about long distance swimmers, if you look at them on the street, you wouldn't necessarily think that they were high level athletes. the attributes make you mean and muscular, and those are things that make you sink. you need a layer of subtaneous fat to be bouyant. and that's what she has going for her. in her case, she's built perfectly for this, one of the

hardest sports that she can do. >> she has tried four times before. and failed, though i wouldn't call it a failure, and now she has made it. and when you look back, you talked about some of the ways that she dealt with the mental challenges, but what else has she done to cope with the mental difficulty? >> what i find so fascinating about her story, she's truly one of the most focused athletes that you can imagine. the experience of being a long distance swimmer is being blind in a medium that's trying to kill you. she calls it primal conflict against an unfathomable foe. the sharks and the jellyfish, you have to focus on putting one arm in front of the other for 53 hours. she describes al you sa hallucis going back to her childhood.

and it has to be like a bruising hit on the gridiron or a car crash. >> jake ward, editor of popular science, we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. good to see you. >> thank you very much. >> here it talk about sports, i suspect that diana nyad is hurting tonight. >> good for her, 53 hours in the water, and unbelievable. in tennis, roger federer, he's young, paired to 64, but in tennis, that's considered the backside of your career. the seven time grand slam champion, this match is delayed by four hours because of the rain. and federer probably wished that it kept on raining. federer in the far court continued to struggle.

remember he got bounced from the second round of wimbledon, and tonight he committed 43 errors. after the match, federer admitted that he self-destructed. >> i think i started badly but i was able to come back on that one, but it's true, i started throughout, which is not very satisfying to be honest. but he told me to keep the ball in play, coming off the opportunities, and i was off, and it's going to be difficult, you know? >> the number two seed, rafael nadal was on the alert. he lost, but after that, he was smashing. the 12 time grand champion has been silky smooth. with a perfect 19 and 0 record. and he has been playing with a lot of confidence.

nadal advances to the quarter finals, and now will face instead of federer, tommy. are you ready for football? coach mike shanahan has been $40ing him back all summer until today. shanahan said that griffin will start against the eagles monday. the redskins have been very careful with their franchise player because griffin didn't play a single snap in the preseason. but dig this, after being cleared by the head coach, there were concerns about the knee, and shanahan discussed those concerns with griffin over the weekend. and so what were those concerns in. >> i don't share those conversations, and you'll have to trust us that the packer field is bunt at. regardless of what the concerns are. and i'm trying to be honest with you, but we have these conversations and i don't share.

there are certain conversations that stay between a doctor and player or coach and player. we feel like rob of the is full go, and he's ready to play, if we didn't, h be playing in this game. we believe that he can do everything that a quarterback is asked to do. >> the l.a. dodgers with the second best record in all of baseball behind the atlanta braves. and the kid is off and running. he appears to tweak his right now. puig, would later score on a sacrifice slide, but he has a strained knee. the dodgers say that the strained knee will rest tomorrow. and they have a 12-and-a-half game lead in the west. >> . >> tiger woods right here, his daughter, sam, on the golf course, cheering for daddy. you got to love it.

big cat had issues at the deutsche bank championship. and said it wasn't his week. for the second straight week, he described his play as blah. he finished 18 shots back. and the super swede had it going on from the beach. he gets it to go in for the birdie. stetson would go on to win the tournament and is having quite the day, quite the weekend. with him sitting on top of the stands, with two remaining. tiger guaranteed a spot in the top five, and that's huge, because the winner of the cup will get a $10 million payday. if i. >> sad news in boxing. former heavyweight champ, tommy morrison passed away last night at 40 year young. the cause of death has not been released.

he was diagnosed with hiv in 1996. he was best-known for his best appearance in rocky five. the big news tonight, roger federer losing straight sets at the u.s. open. maybe he was looking forward, and look ahead. >> i miss this match. thank you very much. and kevin corbit is next with weather. ç]

>> well, for the last official day of summer for the northeast, it was a good one. we had a lot of rain in the forecast. and it was still there for many locations. what we see is a cold front making its way across the region. you can see showers in new hampshire, southern new york, and pennsylvania, and once this comes through completely, then things will get better. we're going to be watching this, but unfortunately, we're seeing a lot of taj in terms of hail and flooding. we got the majority of damage in the last hour, in terms of hail

and wind there. as we go to the next couple of hours, we're still watching in new hampshire and maine for flooding, because this has been going on for their hours. some roads are washed out in the area, and down to massachusetts. what we're going to see in the next day, much better. tuesday morning, it's going to be raining and improving, and then for the rest of the week in new york, things will look nice. up in the northwest, rain coming into parts of idaho, as well as oregon. we're looking at flash flooding, also a problem in the region, and where it's not raining, red flag warnings, and fire danger in parts of washington. and down to the south, dallas, you look nice for the next day.

>> welcome to aljazeera, and here are the headlines. debate over whether the u.s. should head to syria on tuesday afternoon. and two top republican leaders met with president obama on monday. senators john mccain and lindsey graham are pushing for a firmer stance on syria. if. >> microsoft is purchasing nokia knowns. they use their software to power their smart phones.