at least temporarily council themselves. these are the two main players they will take it up on thursday. >> ambassador as always, we appreciate your insight, thank you. we hope to talk to you later. >> thank you. >> u. may up the state lawmakers have. plus, a look into the -- during the process of electing their next.

>> new york city voters are taking a big step recusing their next mayor. but polls in the democratic and republican will close at the top of the hour eastern time. was trailing in every survey prior to today's vote. the winner of the domic primary is likely to replace outgoing mayor michael bloomberg in the general election in november. nearly 900 miles away. gun control has taken center stage in two unusual recall elections. two colorado state lawmakers both determines face recall over their support of gun control legislation. the laws require universal checks and a limit of 15 rounds on all

ammunition clips. after shootings in aurora and new town connecticut, the races are the first in colorado's history. tomorrow ohio lawmakers are preparing to override their governors veto to nullify federal gun laws. al jazeera has more from jeffson city missouri. >> is aims at blocking federal gun laws in the show me state. republican representative is the representative. >> i don't want my rights taken away, because a few number of people choose to use firearms in an illegal way. >> he says recent national tragedies have triggered unnecessary calls in congress for more gun control. his bill would make it el legal to enforce federal gun laws in missouri. >> in missouri, we will

determine when our constitutional rights are being violated. >> jay nixon the state's democratic governor vetoed the legislation, but lawmakers are set to override him wednesday. critics say the bill is extreme, and unconstitutional, because local police will be responsible for arresting federal officials like fbi agents attempting to enforce federal laws in missouri. >> if you are a police officer in the city of st. louis, and the fbi show up and they are arresting somebody for violating a federal gun law, are you going to actually place a federal agent under arrest? local law enforcement are in my opinion, probably not going rush to do that. >> missouri's attorney general also has concerned about house bill, calling it flawed public policy, saying it can create an obvious safety risk if passed. >> jeffery died of injuries that he suffered. >> st. louis police chief says the danger is the bill might prevent

violent criminals from being prosecuted. >> we all know that federal prosecution, are sometimes much greater than state sentences. >> what it will do is put a big sign on missouri, and say okay, criminals it is okay to come do missouri and commit your crimes because there won't be the consequences in other states for people we arrest using guns. >> still, nullification efforts aren't new, more than 20 states have defied rules allowing medical marijuana, and several have considered bills against the affordable healthcare act. but missouri's measure is different. >> no, i absolutely believe lit stand up in court. >> he says lawmakers have a two-third maz jordy to override the governor's votto and enact the law. jonathan martin, jefferson city missouri. ♪ .

>> mike morgan is here with sports and an important announcement for the international olympic committee today. >> that's true. now the buck will stop with someone else, in fact thomas block of germany is the new president. now the 59-year-old box moved up from a vice president position, box won a gold medal himself in the team fencing event back in the 1976 games. he has degreed in law and politic which will likely hold him in good stead. he becomes the 9th president of the i. o.c. a report making scathing allegations. the article says players were paid, and there is evidence of academic fraud and sex and drugs were used in recruiting. now the timeframe of these alleged violations ranges from 2001 to 2011, spanning the time from former osu head coach less miles now with lsu,

and current head coach. eight players are on the record saying some stars were paid as much as $25,000 a year, current osu athletic director called the allegations very disturbing and said the university is investigating this matter. lions defensive tack salt lake once again in the crosshairs oif nfl front office. sioux was fined $100,000 today for this low hit on vikings center on sunday. sioux apologized to sullivan and to his own lions teammates. $2,100,000 penalty, the largest single fine for an on the field incident. he now has over $340,000 in fines during his four year nfl career. and that's it for sports headlines. >> mark, thank you very much. appealing to america, still ahead, we will have in half an hour, away from the president's address about the nation and syria. and the options.

new federal gun chews and new prices. that make the i-phone easier to buy and harder to steal.

>> and welcome back to al jazeera.

here are the top stories. syria says it has accepted a russian deal to give up their chemical weapons to try to avoided a confrontation with the u.s. military. but russia and the u.s. are not in total agreement over the proposal. russians president says the plan can succeed but only if washington and its allies rule out military action. >> as part of a push for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, secretary of state john kerry is headed to switzerland to speak to russians foreign minister the two leaders are expected to meet in geneva on thursday. at the top of the hour, the president will address the nation. the president to explain why it is in national security interest for syria to face consequences for chemical weapons use. stay with us for special coverage of the president's speech. earlier tonight we spoke with thomas pickering, who served as u.s. ambassador to russia and the united nations, and he told us the proposal

to have syria turn over its weapons indicates that russias feared intervention. on the other side of the ledger, the russians are not looking at this as a situation that is evolving to their benefit. my own sense is that the president is right. in continuing to seek authority from the congress, i think he needs to have the capability to move. there are only two options here. either the russians come through on the proposals and they full fit it, i will be difficult, but in my view not impossible to do that, and you want to have the option to use military force in the event that they fail. if they do fail, it may well take us back to the situation beforehand, and he will then have the option to use the military force he planned. >> let's go back to richer butler life. what is your reaction to his excepts.

>> well, i admire, tommies great ex-personal, in both russia and the united nations. and i think what he said is substantially correct. i said earlier on, we couldn't be quite sure the ebb tent to which the force and russian influence went about this decision by syria, to reveal publicly that it has chemical weapons. i guess it's been a combination of boat. tom's take on russian's recognizing they had something to lose here, is probably very very found. the point i would want to make is this idea that the united states has to take off the tables so to speak, the possible use of force, is -- it is just a game. it is illusory. what worries me is the possibility that we won't get the job done, in the way that russia has proposed and that syria now says lit agree to.

bring out the chemical weapons in full view, work on getting rid of them, and let's not play games about who or -- won't use force in the eveep this doesn't work, let's do a serious decision of the security council with a serious plan, to identify verify and destroy those weapons. if that is done, we will be a whole lot better off, and all this talk of use and force will become academic. >> how long would it take to cut that kind of deal. >> the resolution and the security council will take two or three weeks. it shouldn't take more, because we have been there before. we know precisely what needs to be in that resolution. as far as facilitating the destruction of the weapons is concerned. what may take longer is to get the job done. if job is started completely, we have plenty of capable inspectors in the world, if the world can see that the job is being started

relatively quickly, and that in its early stages it does not throw up syrian resistence, to seek consistent fies case, but it looks like it is getting done, think about that. if we saw that happening in the next couple ofn't mos we would be in a very different position. >> ambassador richard butler, thank you. and once the president wraps up america tonight's joey chen, will be hosting a special town hall meeting she is in washington, d.c. tell us about the town hall tonight? >> good evening john, we are looking forward to the town hall. it is a special presentation for our program, we will be doing that right after the president's speaks after the top of the hour. our hash hag for that is #town hall. on the military, on international affairs and what is happening on capitol hill, we will also be hearing from all of you across america, and folks here in our

audience, as the mu seem. what do you want the president to say tonight? >> we are hoping that president obama a necessity to involve in the syrian crisis. and explain what our interests are in the region, and the interests of our allies as well. >> i see a lot of nodding heads. >> i definitely think it's important for the president to clearly express why he needs congressional approval for these strikes and clearly articulate what is the plan. >> do you think americans really want to hear this, are americans eager to see some reason for the strikes in. >> i think most persons are very confused as do what is the plan going forward, and what is the necessity, but i think obama can make that case. >> well, we will see. john we are standing by for that on america tonight. a special two hour presentation as soon as president is done, we will get the reaction from our audience, as to what the president has to say, and we will also take questions on the internet, #syria town

hall. it's america tonight at the top of the hour. >> all right, thank you very much. now now i will released documents from the national security agency shows government officials have been violated privacy laws by accessing phone records of almost all-americans for nearly three years. al jazeera says a court ordered the revealing documents to be released. these documents lend support to the allegations released by edward snowden that for three years until 2009, the nsa had inadvertently misrepresenteddist too to secret court that authorized the tracking of all kinds of phone inspection. not actual wiretaps but the names and numbers of americans who are called. and justified that on the basis that there was reasonable supposition that it was connected to terrorism.

when the nsa admitted it didn't know how to properly operate this, and it has been in violation of the court, and never told the court. now, these allegations or these disclosures come almost four years after the actual violations. but they do spur the demands for some kind of reform of the spire surveillance program. and eaves dropping lawsuit against internet search google was upheld in federal court. two ruling could mean millions in damages for that company. al jazeera joins us now live from san francisco, with details. melissa? >> i just want to start ought by explaining which products because there are a lot out there that 24 court ruling pertained

to. it has to do with google mans. there's an option there for street view. what it allows you to do is to see an actual perhap from the drowned of the retail store you are planning to go to or the residential house that you are planning to go to. and the way that googling does this is by driving across every single street in the quite, and taking pictures of it. what people have found out is that along with driving along the streets to take pictures, google also ended up picking up information from the wireless router of your home. so your email address, passwords were all collected. and that is why the 9th circuit court of appeals stepped in, because there is a lawsuit, and they have allowed the lawsuit to move forward. they had to look a a law called the federal wiretap law. and that law was written in 1968. so well before the invention of wireless. when crow have a situation where lawyers are trying to fit a

square peg into a round hole to make this law apply. the court of appeals has said it can move forward. >> what does this mean for the company? >> well, to google's credit it always said it tries to be as transparent as possible, for example itnd intos to govs request, and makes that open and available in therms of when those requests are put in there this particular case, google has come out to say, yes, this was a very bad situation. one lawsuit was already in the past, it was a lawsuit made by 38 states including the state of california, a small amount relative to the wealth of google it was about $7 million in terms of damages, what is really interesting about this potential lawsuit is that it is a class action lawsuit, so the pay out if the ruling is against google could be absolutely huge. for a company of this size. >> melissa thank you very

much. in business news, some pretty negative reactions to the new i-phones. the company's stock sinking at the close by over 2% after aunderstand noing a cheaper plastic i-phone 5 c, and upgraded 5 s with finger sprint scanner. one analis tells al jazeera, apple is not performing. everybody is waying to see does apple have any new tricks. we have waited a while. it has been a slow year for apple standards. i think we are all waiting to see. >> driving shares higher today, the dow finishes up 130 points p the s&p extending its winning streak. and syria still having a big impact on the oil market.

crude futures calling more than $2 to one of seven, and 39 cents a barrel. oil has reached a 28 month high. and new numbers showing the great recession, hit americans hard. each household lost between 50,000, to 100 the recession cost the u.s. economy up to $14 trillion. we are houring away from seeing a tropical storm make land fall. you can see it here on the satellite image, notice the circumstance until the clouds moving. we are about a 40 miles away from making land fall. we are looking at tropical storm warnings in effect for the islands right now.

and things are deteriorating as those bands make their way across. this is going to continue all night, then we need to worry about nova scioscia, and canada -- but still, quite a bit of rain. we are going to talk about more flooding doing on in some areas. we are more concerned about what is happening in new mexico because over the next day, we can see pockets of rain. anywhere from seven to eight-inches that will be very localized. for the majority of the state, we think about four to five-inches of rain. for new mexico that means it will be a major problem. look at this, 80 degrees these have come down. we were looking at the mid 90's for some areas. chicago, you are already at about 90 degrees. the things are going to change as we get to the weekend, we expect to see

70 degrees there, and things are heating up. right now new york is 83 degrees. from yesterday, compared to yesterday, that is 60 degrees hotter than it was yesterday at this time. over here towards toronto, we are 26 degrees hotter than the time we were yesterday. so a big heat up, a big warm up for most of the northeast, and z this will continue for tomorrow as well the count down continues until the president's speech, and still ahead, we break down the options before president obama and what we may be saying to those in syria and russia.

>> welcome back,

everyone. we are now just minutes away from president obama address to the nation, joining us now is jim walsh. he is an international security expert. and also, she is the senior writer here at al jazeera america. worked from syria as a journalist since 2011. welcome to both of you, what do you expect to hear from the president tonight? >> i think we will hear him retreat a little bit, and i think he may try to claim a victory, in the most generous reading this is what he was trying to do all along to get the russians to play. >> i think the food news is he has low expectations. he is in a tough bind, he has to give a speech that rallies the country for military action, while there's a proposal on the table. i think he has to change his communication strategy. when you watch him he is down, defeated if you want to win the american people you have to rally them. he has to give them positive information. >> we are getting a couple of words from the

administration officials prespeech, one of them says that the president will stress in his speech, that any military action in syria would be limited in scope and duration. and we also hear while he will pledge to explore he is a little skeptical about it. it is only going to last ten or 15 minutes what can he say to convince the american people. >> i think what has been missing is any sort of connection between ma the ultimate objective and whether these are the means that will achief that. >> how does he do that? >> i think -- they have been pretty mercury as to what their objective is. is their objective just ending the killing of kem weapons butkying with other weapons. is the objective getting all the peyotes to the table. >> you say he has to explain the objective. >> at the very at least. >> ha has he done a good job of that. >> i think he has talked about pit p he has said,

and it is so degrade and deter the use of those weapons. but think hi h caught in a box. it is very hard to argue for limited action that accomplishes modest goals that leaves asaad and the chemical weapons there at the end of the day. it is hard to rally people, for something that is limited and won't solve the problem. that's a structural problem. >> now that's been the big question is how do explain why it is in the u.s. national security interest. how can you he respond to that sort of question? >> i'm not the security expert, but i can tell you in the -- for syrian people, what is in their interest is that the killing stops. and they get to a situation where they can return to syria, and transition to the next phase. i think it is agreed

upon, that there is no transition, no moving until this regime starts. >> let's just stick on syria before we be to the security expert, and talk about from the syrian expertise you have, do you think that the syrian people believe that syria will offer up all those weapons and give them to the u.n.? >> i think people belief what they want to believe in this conflict currently. i think whether or not they are -- i think bashar al-asaad has made it clear that he is not acted in good faith, no matter what your position is. >> is their support for this proposal syria wide. >> there are people -- the problem is when we talk about these choices we think that everybody is either or. there are plenty of people that are against the regime, but were not for the strikes so this is a second opportunity to maybe get to the end of the regime without having to go through the military. there are people that are very disappointed and of

the refugees -- who wanted this because they thought this was the only way to get to the next phase. >> the secretary of state, have evokes iran. >> yes. >> consistently in discussing this matter. why is iran so connected to syria? why does it mat tore the united states. >> yeah, two good questions. first, why invoke eran, and what is the relationship. iran is -- they are trying to win a congressional authorization if there's one thing in this place in the united states of america, that everyone cements to agree on, it is that they don't like iran. because iran just elect add new president, and there's been talk about a new opportunity to have progress in that relationship. iran is involved on the drowned, buzz syria is iran's only ally. so they are tired in, buzz the ironies were sort of waiving the iran flag to justify the syrian attack, at a time when actually there's a

window of tonight here for improvement in u.s. iranian relations. >> are you surprised the length of this speech tonight, if he does speak ten to 15 minutes. >> i think we will get a do over here. if it hadn't been this for russian proposal this would have been a full board we need authorization, big sell the public speech. i think this -- >> not going to do that. >> he can't, not in the middle of this proposal. so i think he is going to -- this is -- think of this more of as in the series of appearances we have seen many the last week and a half where he is making his case. if the russian proposal whatever you want to call it doesn't go anywhere, and he wants -- and they are going to go for the authorization, then we will see the president out again, in front of the american public in prime time making the last last pitch. >> we will talk later, thank you very much. a quick break now, the president will be speaking in about ten minutes. keep it right here on al jazeera, we will be right

back. ç]

the white house tonight.

we are minutes away from president obama's address to the nation, let's go live who is standing by outside with more on what we expect the president to say tonight. mike. >> john, i think what we are going to hear the president say is what we have heard before. what's the difference, the venue, the road of day. this roadblock across news channels it will be inescapable sitting at home tonight. this is the message that the white house has wanted to convey. remember, it was about a week and a half ago, a saturday in the rose garden a nice saturday afternoon, not a lot of people saw what the president put forward there when he made that surprise announcement. that he was going to go to congress. all along, the white house has had this consistent campaign to lobby not only members of congress. there has been a parade of members coming back and forth since the president returned from russia, and the parade going the other way, with

susan wries the national security advisor, and other top officials going up delivering briefings both class fied and unclassified pacicly anybody who wants to talk. the message has been consistent, in the need for this authorization. the white house has high confidence that they were deployed and they were deployed by the regime that they are responsible. that they have done so, they have used these weapons repeatedly, many more than a dozen times. as a tactical measure in the civil war there. that this is in the united states core national security interest to prevent these to deter and degrade, or a shot across the bow if you will. a phrase that the president used in an interview after those attacks on august 21st, he will emphasize it is limited targeted no american poots on the drowned, but the president is asking for a pause. the very authorization that he asks for in congress he now wants congress to stand down, the senate is doing what the senate does, all kinds of alternative

proposals resolutions that would grant that authorization, in the very beginning stages the president wants everybody to stand down, while the diplomatic avenue is being pursued but very important to point out, the white house will continue to hold that sword over the syrian regime, they want that threat to continue to be on the table that the president can and will implement those military strikes if necessary. >> all right, stand by for a second, libby casey joins us now from capitol hill. what are you hearing there? >> well, you know there's been a lot of talk about how -- this is a conscious vote, and everything is on pause, we just heard from mike over here on capitol hill, but if congress has the chance to september up, conscious vote means that the people in power, the head leaders don't whip up support for something. they let members vote the way of their heart, the way of their districts but that also really hides the fact that there is no way to get a lot of members on congress onboard. they are hearing such a

negative outcry. so the president has to speak to a lot of audiences tonight. the american people, members of congress, but also the international audience. let's not forget about that, he has to talk to the world leaders and get them a sense that the u.s. is somewhat united, that the white house still holds some power, even though they had this big push back, and so he has a tough bill tonight because of all the audiences. >> all right, thank you very much. you stand by please, and we will go to the senate side, and paul is standing by this with more, paul. >> the president, of course, did come to capitol hill, asked senator democrats to press pause on any process of this vote. no vote as this played out. one side pressing the president for more force, the other side asking him

to step back completely from the edge. so with a bit of an escape, waiting for 24 to play out, as mike mentioned there are competing proposals moving forward with the threat of force still involved. and republican senator john mccain, again, still having the threat of force in the event that syria does not collect its chemical weapons and turn them over. we have been talking a little bit about this speech, this is an entirely different speech than it would have been two weeks ago. can you give us the sense that that is the case? >> given the developments that have unfolded rapidly over the last four hours. and i want to go back and talk a little bit about the way this has van spired.

vladimir putin and barack obama -- president obama has that -- not a formal by lateral, but sort of a pull aside on the margins of that g 20 meeting last friday, and by the white house's only accounting vladimir put forward this proposal. now, initially the white house was not impressed. the president was asked about proposals just like this coming out of congress, didn't mention the putin proposal specifically. blue said he hadn't heard anything from getting the authorization to put the foot to the gas pedal. fast forward to monday. john kerry is in london, he is there, with the u.k. foreign minister, he is add a press conference, he is asked is there anything that can avert the desire to move forward on this strike. sure, if in fact, circa were to relinquish its chemical weapons destroy them, then perhaps we can talk.

that's all the open that was needed. essentially the same proposal that was put forward on friday. this was seen as an opening. and from there on, the wheels started turning to the point where the president is on the point with the leaders from the u.k. and france. and then instructed john kerry to fly to geneva, to meet with the russian foreign minister to try to hash this thing out. again, they are in a trust by verify mode here. they do not want this to be a stalling tactic, whereby world public opinion diminished against any kind of retaliation, to the extent that it exists at all both internationally and here. >> all right, the president is about to speak, and our coverage begins right now. ♪

la you are looking at live pictures from washington, d.c. tonight. and the white house, where the president will address the american people. the topic, is syria. in just a moment, the president will take a short walk down the red carpet, leading to the east room where we expect him to present his case on syria. we expect him to present this in a few minutes. welcome to al jazeera's live coverage of the president's address, let's go quickly to the white house where mike is standing by. what do we expect to hear tonight, mike? >> here is the president's test. seth 9% of