please go there al new mexico. >> these are some of the stories we are following at this hour. >> 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. >> striking airmail lance, key republican senators seek agreement over military action in syria. a just released u. n. report says the number of syrian refugees surpasses the 2 million mark. and japanning will invest almost half a billion dollars to send radio active water from the damaged fukushima plant. struggling for a larger share of the smart phone market,

microsoft purchases the knock kia line for about $5 billion. >> the tide of syrians threing shows no sign of slowing down. a u.n. report released just a few hours ago, says more than 2 million syrians have fled the country, most of them in the last year. lebanon and jordan have received between 515,000, and 720,000 refugees while egypt, turkey, and iraq have also seen an increase. more than half of them are children. a further 4348 people have been displaced inside the country, and all together more than 6 million syrians have been torn from their homes. the obama administration trying to convince congress to take action. the president will meet with top

lawmakers from both parties today. but as al jazeera reports, the president still has a lot of convincing to do. >> senators john mccain and lindsay graham to hear an appeal directly from president obama. they say his plan doesn't do far enough, and they want him to topple the assayed government. the president says that's not his plan. what he wants to do launch cruise missles at syrian targets sending a warning message. after the meeting the senator seemed to indicate they might vote for authorization. if the president agrees to give more lethal support to the opposition. >> i think it is encouraging, but we have to have concrete plans. we have to have concrete details and we have to be assured that this is a dramatic difference from the last two years of a policy of neglect which has led to the deaths of 100,000 people. >> to members of the congress, the bigger question seemed to be

should the u.s. do anything at all. >> one issue the evidence. they absolutely do not know anything from inside the regime. why did he invite in the chemical weapon inspectors? this doesn't hold together. >> another question, the impact. >> clearly he is someone who was functioning or i believe he is functioning in his own self interest, i don't see how that will change by this attack. >> other wonders what are the risks. >> not clear to me what we know what the results will be, meaning will it be effective. it isn't clear to me what response may be undertaken by iran, by the syrians against israel, against us. in the realm of terrorism. >> and the most common question, why should the u.s. get involved. >> what is the relationship two the united states. in other words, is there a let. >> many in congress say they agree with the president's reasoning. >> i think if this goes unchecked it will invite every

terrorist organization in the world to feel that they can use poison gas against their own people, with no rep precushions and i don't think that's something that we really want to have. >> some argue that's not credible because in the past when chemical weapons have been used and u.s. didn't intervene, there's also another issue before congress, and that is credible. the u.s. president promised to act, there are those that say if he does not, that more than anything will hurt u.s. national security in the long run. that is expected to be a big issue as congress begins debate on tuesday. al jazeera, washington. >> some american allies have also been building the case for mill dare intervention. jackie roll lynn reports on france's efforts to back up president obama. >> making the case for war. senior politicians arrive at the prime minister's resident to give a key briefing about french intelligence on syria.

the government wants to convince members of parliament from across the political spectrum that france should intervene. it's a tough sell. >> on the two of august, president's regime used chemical weapons to oppress the syrian people, nobody denies the reality. u.n. inspectors and the evidence this audible cannot remain unanswered. >> the government gave m.p.es a nine page report to support its case. the document make as number of key points. the report says that satellite imagery shows the chemical weapons were fired from government held territory. the attack was massive and coordinated, and the rebels would not have had the capacity to launch it. government forces bombed the area afterwards to remove evidence of chemical weapons. but some opposition politicians left the meeting unconvinced by

the government's argument. >> france is very isolated. where are our allies? there is no european allies at this stage to support our position on an international level. we should keep our position which is that of intervention. only justified within the united nations. >> france is still talking about trying to assemble a coalition of the willing. but the u.k. parliament says it won't take part, germany and canada have ruled themselves out, and we still don't know the position of the united states. it's hard to see right now who the other partners in a military intervention could be. >> and speaking in buts sells the secretary general of nato ruled out involvement of the alliance. >> if a response to what has happened in syria were to be a military operation, i would in

visits a very short, targeted operation. >> the french parliament will debate. but there will be no vote on military action. that decision lies with the president alone. and right now, he looks like a lead who is paralyzed. jackie roland, al jazeera, paris. >> the senate foreign relations committee will meet today as the administration continues its full on press for con depressional approval. joining us to assess congress' reaction to the vote on syria is stephen zunya. professor, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you. >> it's a pleasure to have you, but professor, the secretary of state john kerry and defense secretary are scheduled to testify today before the senate attorney relation committee, what can we expect in terms of talking points? >> i think they will really try

to push that they have actual intelligence that syria is responsible for the raid, and that killed so many people. and that u.s. credibility is at stake. the united states does not respond, it would give so called rogue states from iran, north korea, license to attack and go to all lengths to maintain their power and influence. whether congress will buy it or not is another question. >> now, you said that credibility is at stake, but is credibility also at stake internally? is there a political price? if obama is wrong or congress doesn't approve? >> very much so. we have seen the aspirations of john kerry as well as hillary clinton and others. dashed pause of their support for the bush administration's push for war. so there is a political rest each way.

one positive sign is that public opinion is zillion very much opposed to going to war and members of congress have been getting a lot of calls and emailing telling them not to support it. >> you mentioned public opinion, but there seems to be a lobbying blitz. do you think the president is gaining more or less domestic support so far? >> well, i think in initially he thought it would be a pretty easy sell. he has found a lot of push back in the last couple of days. as a result, they are all going all out. he has gotten heavy hitters like lindsay gram, but there is still pressure from the right and the left against his call for getting con gregal approval. >> if there's pressure from both the right and the left, what do you think opam ma is willing to wage tore make sure this goes through? >> it's hard to say. on the one hand, the republicans are pushing him to increase aid

to the rebels and really make a major strike whereas some democrats are nervous, especially because of consistent pressure and saying hey, make this as limited as possible. so it is hard to say what it is going to come down to, presumably what the pentagon recommends, but i find it quite interesting giving such an easy blank check to bush on iraq, that we are getting the kind of serious questions to an unprecedented degree on this request for authorization. >> you mentioned the serious questions but the big question is do you think that the president is likely to win the vote? >> i'm afraid so. i wish it wasn't the case, but think even though the not tough people have come officially to say they are going to sun port, he doesn't have the vote yet, when the push comes to shove, the president has a lot of clout in getting people on his side. he will push the issue of credibility and national

security, and he is doing to make it very difficult for a lot of members not to go and decide. >> credibility on national security, thank you professor of politics at the university of san francisco. firefighters are battling the massive wild fire blazing through yosemite national park, and they say they are finally making head way. crews have been working nonstop to put out the so called rim fire. fire officials say more than two-thirds of the fire is now under control. but it can still take more than two weeks to completely knock it out. ♪ . >> well, as we befin the new week here, some of you are going to stay quite wet in h terms of rain showers and the possibility of flooding. let's take a look at the northeast. we have a frontal boundary that is making its way through parts of vermont, as well as down here towards maryland. what is going to happen is this

front will go through, we will have flooding and severe weather with the front. by the time the front goes through, things will be much better on the back side, and cooler as well as drier. temperature wise it looks like this. we will see rainy conditions over here, and your temperatures are going to be cool tore the north, where montreal will get a high of 73, still quite warm down towards washington that is from the front has not gone through, with the high temperature there of 83. 86 in new york at 83 degrees. as we go through the next couple of days on friday, new york partly cloudy with a temperature of 77. now that same frontal boundary will also be making its way across the southeast, but lit be dissipating. a little rain will be a big problem, and also down here towards new orleans. high temperature, for tuesday 89-degrees in atlanta, and new orleans you are going to be seeing about 91. now rain showers will still be a problem on wednesday, for atlanta, but it will remain into

the mid 80's as we go towards the weekend. here in dallas, with he be seeing improving condition as those clouds and rain showers really begin to dissipate as we go towards the morning. maybe some rain shower for houston but won't be heavy at all. 97 degrees up towards oklahoma city, and down towards corpus christi about 92. as we go towards the next couple days unfortunately on wednesday, dallas will be making a triple digit temperature of 100, but coming down on thursday, to 97. >> next up, microsoft goes mobile. the windows giant make as $7 billion deal to buy it's closest smart phone partner. japan will spend nearly half a billion dollars to clean up contamination from the fukushima plant, how they plan to clean up leaks. christians in egypt have become the target of extremists.

how those attacks are hitting home for people here in the u.s.

components of the aljazz mission. >> there's more to america, more stories, more voices, more points of view. now there's are news channel with more of what americans want to know. >> i'm ali velshi and this is "real money." this is "america tonight."

sglovrjs our -- >> our news coverage reveal more of america's stories. >> "consider this" will be right back. ♪ ♪ the japanese government will now spent half a billion dollars cleaning up the plant. florence, what is the updated plan? >> the plan is essentially twofold, one is to deal with ground water that is seeping out, and contaminated that is flowing out to the ocean, and the other is deal with highly radiated water that is being

used to cool the plant. the plan to contain that is to build a wall constructed of frozen earth. so ground water doesn't come into contact, doesn't flow beneath the plant, and doesn't become contaminated before it flows out to the ocean. whether that will work or not, well, some scientists have said -- the technology has not been used on such a scale, and we don't know how the wall or frozen earth has to stay in place how long this wall has to stay in place. now in the second part of the plan, has to do with the highly radiated water. this is water that has been used to cool the melted nuclear reactor. and this is water that is accumulating daily at about 400-ton as day. ten that has to be stopped. what the government wants to do is remove some of the radiation from that water because it has already admitted that this may

have to be discharged into the ocean. the current processes the current technology that is available to them may not be sufficient, but they are trying to develop more efficient systems. >> now, florence, you said this wall of frozen earth, has this been done before. >> welt, this is technology that is apparently used to construct underground tunnels. but it has not been used on such a huge scale on what they have to do in fukushima. and also the we don't know how long it will take to decommission the plant, and to s long as 100ghly contaminated years. this means that this frozen wall has to stay in place for at least 100 years if it dares that long to decommission the plant. >> you said you aren't sure how long it would take, what can that mean for tokyo's olympic

bid? >> well, the government has at least japan's olympics committee is trying to reassure the international olympics committee that life in tokyo is not effected. as you know it is tokyo that's bidding to host the 2020 olympics bid, and it is considering the front runner ahead of cities like madrid and istanbul. this may reduce chances somewhat, so the committee is very keep to reassure the international olympics committee that life in tokyo is normal, and that radiation levels have not been spiked because of what has happened in fukushima. >> thank you so much. live in tokyo. microsoft is purchasing nowkhah's mobile phone business for $7.2 billion. the deal is subject to approval by nowkhah's shareholders. and speaking of mergers it is

one of the biggest deals in the telecom business. verizon has agreed to buy out its partner for $130 billion. why it is a major move in verizon's battle with other mobile carriers. >> verizon and vodofone have been partners for 14 years but it's been a rocky relationship. marked by docks over full control by verizon. verizon will pay vote phone a total of $130 billion. it includes the biggest cash pay out in acquisition history, almost $60 billion. it frees them to invest in faster mobile networks. that will help verse zone hold its own where it controls nearly a third of the market share. it's also a reward for vodafone shareholder ms. of them british pension funds. while vodafone will pay $5 billion to the u.s. treasurery, the u.k. government will collect no taxes from its

rich cash haul. >> it is going to have to go back into the company, they are going to have pay back a lot of debt. >> at the moment all the talk is about shareholders, but if the data networks are improved if the voice networks are improved that should means that customers get a better deal. >> the deal is still subject to approval, but since verizon already controls the business, it is unlikely to meet much resistence. al jazeera, washington. >> analysts say the two companies were close to a deal in april, but price was a dispute, and it was the main issue. speaking of disputes about price, back in business, the stand off between cbs and time warnser now over. cbs is back on time warner after a month long stand you have that effected 3 million homes. both sides have reached an agreement to end the blackout in new york, los angeles, and dallas. the dispute was over transmission fees. a 92-year-old former nazi was put on trial monday.

the trial takes place in germany where the man is charged with murdering a dutch resistence fighter. he already serves time for killing two dutch jews during the war. the trial comes as part of germany's new nazi era investigation. the turmoil in egypt is making waves half way across the world. there are nearly 180,000 egyptians living right here in the u.s., many of whom are continuic christians. now with their homeland in jeopardy, they are concerned for their friends, family, and the place they used to call home. ♪ oh lamb of god have mersion us ♪. >> the pews at st. mary's in queens no, are growing more crowded these days. around half the people filling them came from egypt in the past two years. many seeking safety, because as members of the country's

minority. he isability sure how long he will stay, that will depend partly on the situation back home. >> of course, egypt is not now in the best place to work. it is not stable. >> in the past two weeks dozens of churches and christian owned properties across egypt have been destroyed and at least seven christians killed. the military government and some human rights groups blame supporters of former president mo hamed morsy and the muslim brother hood. some of those have called for violence against christian chrid athem of having a role in the president's overthrow. the priest at saint mary and saint antonios he says it is too early to know who is behind the violence. >> what can assure you of it is not christians and it is people that christians bringing their

own churches and we completely reject that idea. >> the biggest mosque in h the area condemns the attacks. >> the muslim brotherhood long history has never targeted a church. >> around 1,000 people worship here, half are egyptian. he said many of them support the muslim brierhood and want morrissey back in office. just around the corner from the moss income the window of this restaurant is a very different picture. one of clear support for the general, who now rules egypt. >> owner was a continuic christian, his open support that replaced morsy has cost him customers. >> how much has it effected your business? >> between 30 and 50%, but it is okay. his clients still include egyptian christians and muslims and he hopes all egyptians can live side by side.

>> i pray that it can be peaceful as it used to be, and a place for people to be together. >> but many people here admit they don't know how or when that will happen. for now, they say, all they can do is hope and pray. roxannea al jazeera new york. >> members of congress want the fort hood shooting label add terrorist attack, how that would help the victims and their families. and if at first you don't succeed, swim, swim again. 64-year-old swimmer proves exactly what crow can accomplish if you never give up on your dreams. begin to take effect? >> reporter: the laws do not go

>> several members of congress are trying to help the 13 victims of the fort hood shooting. not only do they want do make them eligible for military benefits they also want to give them the purple heart. it would classify the november 2009 shooting as a terrorist attack. right now the rampage that killed 13 and injured 32 is labeled as workplace violence. that means the victims and their families are receiving reduced benefits.

south korean researchers may have come up with a solution of sorts for busy commuters. it is an electronic model of a car that folds in half for easier city parking. now the body can lift and slide to shareholder risk to less than 5 1/2 feet long. developers say the car has a maximum speed of about 40 miles per hour. and if at first you don't succeed, keep on trying. 64-year-old diana niad became the first person to swim from cuba to florida. making the 103-mile swim. more on the perseverance that paid. >> 64-year-old dianne in nyad wanted to prove it isn't too late to chase your dream. she finally succeeded. after five attempts. spectators cheered her on during the last 100 yards of her swim. i have three messages.

one is, we should never ever give up. two is, you they have 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, a wet suit, or flippers. her past attempt started back in 1978, but she was defeated by severe weather, jelly fish, and exhaustion. but today she vibramed over that which seemed just beyond her reach. >> i'm morgan radford.