welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. these are the stories that we're following for you. president obama has set a meeting with house democratic leaders today as the government shutdown rages on. chemical weapons inspectors set to tell us the progress of destroying syria's chemical stockpiles. ♪ it is day nine of the government shutdown and there

could be a small window of hope, a break through in the stalemate. both sides appear to be open now to a short-term debt ceiling extension and a temporary end to the shutdown. a could give them wiggle room to try to find a longer solution. president obama set to meet with house democrats this afternoon and plans to meet with senators and republicans in the upcoming days. randall pinkston joining us now. randall president obama said he would be open to that possible deal, how has that been received? >> right now we're not hearing very much hospitalal to the president's window of opportunity for a short-term debt ceiling deal. senator boehner also wants it to

deal with debt ceiling budgets. and democrats are expected to blame republicans. the president is expected to reiterate that fact this afternoon. this morning we heard the some thank from harry reid. >> let's reopen the government. speaker boehner could end this shutdown today, an hour from now, by letting the house -- entire house vote on senate's clean bill. when the speaker is on national tv and other places saying we don't have the votes, he will never know that. because he won't let the matter come to the floor. of course it has enough votes. there is no reason to drag out this process and force the nation's economy ever closer to a catastrophic default. >> reporter: what would have to

take place is that speaker boehner would have to set aside the rule that says there has to be the majority of republicans to bring a bill to the floor. meanwhile we are seeing poll results indicating while the republicans and democrats are both being blamed, the republicans are getting a little bit more from it. the polls shows that in the past week 75% of americans, 75% of americans are now concerned about a possible government shutdown. that's up 66% from last week. the same poll showing 30% of americans blame republicans, and 26% -- sorry -- 19% of the public blames the democrats. and that's up from 18% last week. meanwhile there is another ap poll showing overall congress has a 5% approval rating dell.

>> it is hard to dip below that randall. i guess the question a lot of people are asking is what is this fight about? have republicans backed away from tying this all to the affordable care act? >> we haven't heard a lot about obamacare in part because republicans may have realized they have sort of lost that fight. obamacare has taken effect. people are logging on to the computers and trying to sign up for it. we saw an op-ed by the house budget chairman paul ryan who didn't even mention the affordable care act in his article. he is talking about a long-term deal to deal with budget deficits. they will probably try to do something going forward, but right now is it off the table. >> randall thank you very much. let's take a look at the markets

right now. wall street apparently not too concerned today this compared to yesterday when it dropped 159 points. the tech heavy nasdaq lost 2% yesterday and down again today. the white house expected to announce thattianel janet yellen would be the next leader of the federal reserve. as real money's ali velshi tells us, the timing is a bit of a surprise. >> this announcement wasn't going to be made now while so much is going on, but it's no secret that it was going to be janet yellen, and i'll tell you why. the rules are that the vice chair becomes the chair automatically if someone isn't nominated or confirmed by the time the fed chair's term

expires which in this case is in the end of january. so if the president wanted it to be janet yellen, it was going to be janet yellen. bern n-- bernanke's term ends i january. now there has never really been a campaign for a fed chair. in fact most fed chairs i would say the public wouldn't know who they were going to be before they were named. but there were people who wanted larry summers versus janet yellen at the name of the fed. summers withdrew his name after a lot of opposition surfaced from senators. yellen is 67 years old, and will be the first woman ever to run the federal reserve. the big challenge facing the

current chair over the coming months is what to do about all of this money that the federal reserve puts into the economy. they have said they will start pulling that money off if they see unemployment down a little lower and economic growth at little stronger. that was expected to take place in september, it didn't. then we were thinking it would take place in november, but this whole discussion has thrown everything into confusion because at this point, if the debt ceiling is breached on october 17th, we will see a s w slowdown in the economy. >> joining us now to tell us just a about more about what that appointment might mean for our economy is our business correspondent. first woman ever to lead the fed what does this mean? >> it means a lot on what the fed will do.

she a new yorker born in brooklyn. she met her husband while working at the fed in the 1970s. he is a nobel prize-winning economist. they have done work together. >> speaking of the markets, the fact that they are relatively flat right now seems that we might be looking at consistency when it comes to janet yellen. >> correct. and that's one of the things that the markets value. she has been a huge supporter of bernanke especially when the feds were loaning banks money when no one else did. interestingly she also has vice chair helps manage the process

by which the fed gives advise so investors about which way interest rates will go. >> thank you very much. >> you're welcome. the white house is expected to officially nominate yellen at 3:00 eastern time. and al jazeera will cover that event live. the obama administration also moving forward with plans to close gitmo in cuba. the pentagon has named a special envoy. >> reporter: nearly five months after the president renewed his promise to close gone taun mow, they announced that it would be this man to head the process. lewis's job clear the backlog. and according to a spokesperson,

17 detainees are on food strikes. the detainee population will soon drop by one. a federal judge says this man can be released due to his severe mental illness. meanwhile the administration is still fielding questions about the capture of this man on saturday. right now the suspect in the 1998 u.s. embassy bombings is being questioned on board a us navy ship in the mediterranean. >> we know that mr. al-libi planned and helped execute plots that killed hundreds of people, a whole lot of americans, and we have strong evidence of that, and he will be brought to justice. >> reporter: but congressional republicans think the administration is making a mistake.

>> this system of using navy warships in lieu of gitmo compromises our ability to gather intelligence, because the best tool we have in intelligence gathering is time itself. >> reporter: that's a non-starter. the administration says it won't be sending anymore people guantanamo. and the reasons include the cost of the prison. >> this is really a political issue, and unfortunately u.s. taxpayers end up paying the price. well, the detainees pay the price, but u.s. taxpayers don't even realize we are spending billions of dollars for this. >> reporter: remove what the president calls a stain on the u.s.'s reputation, while ignoring all of the critics. and lewis will be charged with finding new countries to

play home guantanamo's remaining detainees. he turn now to egypt where morsi is scheduled to go on trial on november 4th. he was ousted in july. tell us more that you know about the upcoming trial. >> reporter: the trial is based on events that happened in early december where he brought in new sweeping powers to give him much more power. and there were huge demonstrations outside of the palace. they according to human rights watchers say they were attacked by pro-morsi supporters, and there was violence, there was tear gas fired and bottles and molotov cocktails were thrown.

we have spoken to the lawyer of mohammed morsi this afternoon, and he didn't even know this date was being set. he says that the public prosecution has told them they can't see moresy, because he is saying he is not willing to meet them. so the defense team says they don't think there can be a fair trial, and they think in the current climate in egypt, it is impossible to have a fair trial. >> there are all rights that the u.s. is cutting its military aid to egypt, what can you tell us about this? >> reporter: yes, that's right. initial reports saying that the u.s. is going to be cutting hundreds of millions of dollars. the largest recipient of u.s.

military and economic aid is in egypt. we're now hering that the white house national security council is saying that that's not the case. it could be a percentage, but we won't know until the coming days. the reaction from the egyptian foreign minister is they have had no official word that there will be a cut. i wanted to stress, really that there -- >> we seem to have lost our phone contact with our correspondent in egypt who has always we do not name because of concerns about security. inspectors in syria say they are making progress when it comes to dealing with that country's chemical weapons. on sunday workers began their mission there. the director of the organization of prohibition of chemical weapons giving an interview at the hague this morning. >> we have spent three days, 19 experts from the organization were deployed to damascus and

part of this team discussed this syrian authorities the disclosure made by the syrian government on 19 september. the rest of the team prepared to grant for the upcoming inspections. in fact the first inspection took place on monday, and previous day sunday and monday, 6th and 7th, and some equipment was already destroyed. >> inspectors have until june of next year to destroy all of the chemical weapons. adults are falling behind in reading as writing as well in america.

♪ fall interesting rates are bringing back demand for home refinancing, the latest report on mortgage applications shows a slight up tick in an increase of

about 4% over the last week. the number of refies topping purchases. shares of the owner of taco bell, pizza hut, and others have taken a big hit said. they have more restaurants in china than any other u.s. fast-food chain. nestle is looking to go on a bit of a fiscal diet by shedding jenny craig. they have said it wants to slow off its lower-performing businesses. america's children have been falling behind other countries for quite sometime now when it comes to subjects like reading and math. now there's a new study that says that american adults are

falling behind as well. jonathan martin has more. >> pulse. pulse. >> reporter: adults in this nashville literacy class are trying to catch up with skills they'll need for the 21st century. they are not alone. >> yes, i see it. >> reporter: they measured and compared reading skills, math skills and the ability to resolve problems. researchers found that the u.s. ranks below average in all three categories. in literacy the u.s. ranks 16th out of 24, third from the bottom in math skills and 17th in problem solving. participates were also tested on things like calculating mileage. social background and poverty have a major impact on skill

levels. the director says these core abilities are necessary for most jobs. >> i mean everything -- almost everything -- and every job is computerized in some way, of course it's also going to effect their personal lives, because if you can't read you are not going to do email, aren't going to be able to read documents at work or even things on the computer. >> reporter: debra boyd works in nashville, tennessee university. she said adults fail to develop the capacity to develop what they have learned beyond school. >> i think what we need to do is encourage our younger people and adults, the ability to use what they read to draw conclusions, to support their thought processes, so actually read for

the content and the context and then be able to use that. >> i see the l -- >> reporter: arne duncan agrees. jonathan martin, al jazeera, nashville. >> in all three categories adults in several other countries scoring significantly higher than adults here in the us. it was computer skills that won three scientists the nobel prize in chemistry. they were honored for developing computer models of chemical reactions. their work allows scientists to run complex experiments in cyberspace instead of test tubes. still ahead, he is a famous and mysterious artist. it is not me, it is banksy, and

his work is showing up all around new york city.

welcome back to al jazeera america i'm del walters here is your headlines. president obama plans to meet with democratic leaders today. the president is set to name janet yellen as the chairman of the federal reserve bank. that announcement expected at 3:00 pm eastern time. and al jazeera will cover the event live when it happens. a news conference today the head of the un inspectors in syria is giving updates. for decades an art itself known as banksy has been creating pictures like this.

>> reporter: you would have know it is there to notice it. renowned british street artist banksy has envieded new york for the month of october. a fan is hunting down his latest work on these city streets. >> as soon as i saw he was in new york i started looking up the locations and i'm out today looking for them on. >> his 50,000 plus fans follow him on instagram. >> the helium balloon. >> reporter: his canvases are a building, a garage door, or a new york delivery truck. but he does it all in secret. >> it's as if we're all kind of following him around, maybe just one step behind, you know? and it's so close -- we're so close to kind of getting a

glimpse of who he is. >> reporter: banksy's art often has political and social overtones. but it's his street art that makes him accessible to his fans. >> it's very rare that you'll get to see a real piece of banksy. >> because his graffiti doesn't last long because it gets tagged. when word of his art hit the street, fans like melissa raced to see it before it is tagged. >> you know it is not going to be there long. so that makes it way more exciting than something that would be in a gallery for month. >> reporter: his street art is illegal, but that doesn't mean that property owners won't try to cash in. this gallery sold a banksy painted door for $300,000.

>> i would think it would allow him to success on several levels. but then as they get defaced they think they are no longer relevant in the marketplace. >> banksy told the a magazine that many of the buildings he planned to use now have banks on

them. ment [ technical difficulties ] >> that is pretty much where it will stay here for the next few days. this rain with this storm will slowly work its way up the coast, so washington, d.c. up in to 23i78 l philadelphia -- from south to north as that will cause a lot of problems there with flooding and cooler temperatures across the northeast. so dealing with that rain is the

big problem we have. >> thank you very much. that will go it for us. "inside story" is next. i'm del walters reporting live from new york, and a reminder that we i'll bring the fed chief news conference to you live. we want to tell you one thing about a story you might not see anywhere else. expect to see some heads on a california bicycle company that has led lights the founder says they came up with the lights to display different patterns when you ride. it's a story you have to see to believe. there it is. i'm del walters in new york as always the news is 24 hours a

day on al jazeera and 24 hours a day on aljazeera.com.