good evening everyone, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler, and here are the top stories. it could get testy on capitol hill. contractors who developed the trubility healthcare.gof will take center stage when they testify before a house. contractsors will be grilled over why the site was launched before it was ready. >> angela merkel called president obama to complain about reports that the nsa has been monitoring her cell phone. the white house said they aren't listening to calls and won't in the future. a spokesman did not talk about whether there was spying on her in the past. >> a 14-year-old massachusetts

teenager pleaded not guilty after being accused of killing his maths teacher. colleen ritzer was found dead behind a school. a candlelight vij ill was hell. >> detroit filed the largest bankruptcy petition in history to deal with $18 billion in debt. retirees, pension funds and unions were in court to fight bankruptcy, to protect their funds. "american tonight" is next, and you can always get up to date news on aljazeera.com. the city of detroit makes its case for bankruptcy. but is the motor city really broke? >> the emergency manager is evaluating the value of everything that detroit owns.

>> also tonight: giving voice to another troubled michigan community. >> we need some leaders, leisurers, thesaurians, chemical is. chemists. >> artists are helping a brighter picture emerge. >> good evening, thanks for being with us.

i'm joie chen. at the heart of detroit's future what seems to be a simple equation. but in the motor city today, the first bid to be declared bankrupt delivered a scathing assessment. he has calculated the pluses and minuses on detroit's ledgers and determined the amounts don't add up. it would be $250 million in the hole at best. but city workers and pensioners just aren't buying it. hundreds came out in protest today. they say the shortfall claim is just purification and that city leaders didn't work hard enough to negotiate settlements with creditors before detroit's july bankruptcy filing. it could be free from having to pay out its pension obligations to these city workers. >> it makes me feel as if i'm irrelevant, insignificant and my voice just doesn't matter. so we have to get out and show

support for those who have been unjustly treated in this whole bankruptcy scheme. >> in some ways, detroit's financial downfall isn't all that surprising. we have heard and seen many reports from the former industrial powerhouse and we understand the challenge of maintaining a community when so much of its industry has gone global. but it turns out that detroit's financial problems extend beyond corporate tax receipts and how it got to this point may be instructive to other cities including some very well outside the russ belt. from detroit, tonight here is correspondent chris bury. >> the city of detroit has entered uncharted territory. small businesses wiped out, tens of thousands of vacant buildings and a dwindling tax base leaving detroit without enough money to pay its bills, including billions owed for the pensions of city workers.

>> we have our city back. >> binnie both ner an her husband grady are both 71, both retired. >> it's like the city is trying to kill us all off, all of us retired because they're not going to take care of us like they should. >> binnie spent her career working for city, more stable than the automobile industry. now her world is far from stable. >> now my world is turned update down. if they cut anything away from me i don't know how i'm going osurvive. >> sme now receives an $885 pension and that could be in jeopardy. the city now $18 billion in debt must make the painful choices it put off for so many years.so the pensions of so many city workers and retirees are on the line. >> i'm just praying that

something happens you know, they just leave us alone. >> that something could be found here. among the treasures of an earlier more prosperous city at the detroit institute of art. when an auction house is trying to put a price on something considered priceless, a first van gogh ever acquired by a museum, this famous monet, the flemish master breugel, and the cradle of american industry. >> it's disturbing that the work of history, really, that we've been put in this position. and although i firmly believe that the chances of anything ever being sold are very, very slim, you can never tell. and so yes, it's of deep concern concern. >> at a diner just down the street from the museum we met

with ed mcneil. he negotiates contracts for 33 unions representing current and retired workers. >> to share the pain and share the sacrifice are city employees and retirees. that's just not fair. you can't not make those statements and not live up to your true obligation to people. so you don't lie to folks. that's just a tragedy for anybody to even kind of think that you would put a piece of art over somebody's life. >> almost everything the city owns is also on the line. as an asset to be sold off. including the tunnel from detroit to windsor, ontario. the entire parking meter franchise. >> and even detroit zoo. home to more than 3300 animals including 280 species, a temping

target because it could all add up. a healthy breeding giraffe can be sold for $80,000. >> the emergency manager is evaluating the value of everything that detroit owns. he has to demonstrate that he has examined everything in developing his plan of adjustment. >> that everything also includes more cuts for the city's beleaguered police force. at a time when it takes them an hour to respond to a 911 call, the fire department could also get trimmed, it's a new low for what was once the heart and soul of the automobile industry. grady both bot boatner knows well. >> don't abandon ship, we're not going to give up, we're going to keep pushing.

that's life itself. >> even though grady may not be able to see the cracks in his squawk or his makes' boarded up house, he and his wife know detroit is a different city now. not the industrial mecca that diego rivera painted a century ago. its most famous jewels could be auctioned off among so many hard choices needed to pay the bills that have been too long neglected. going that's correspondent chris bury. helping us to understand how detroit got to this point, trying to be called bankrupt. painting to one key set of figures just how big that pension shortfall really is. before the city's emergency manager took control it was thought to be around $650 million but afterwards we read on the detroit news politics

blog the shortfall ballooned to $3.5 billion. is it funny money or accounting tricks? joining is john pottow, a keen observer of detroit's issues. professor glad to have you with us. do you believe that detroit is truly bankrupt or not? >> yeah, it's a weird situation, joie where there used to be shame and embarrassment associated with bankruptcy. and here we have the city saying yes, we're completely bankrupt and its adversarially union saying no, no, you are totally fine, you've got lots of money, everything on its head already. i would say this. there's a pretty wide discrepancies between the figures you show. i should put season come text, i have not been on the trial, so i don't know who's testified yet on the solvency matter.

but there's been some serious inaccuracy on detroit's finances, it is entirely possible, i'm conjecturing, that they thought the pension liability was only $500 million and when they got in scrubbing the books they thought oh my god this is way worse than we thought. so the mere discrepancies shouldn't be suspicious or fishy given the uncertainty with the numbers of so far. >> that always comes up but on the other part, did detroit negotiate in good faith before it tried to make this filing ? >> exactly. and that's issue i think you're going to see even more hotly contested. because at the end of the day the numbers are going to come down to accountants. and i don't think you're going osee accountants lie or makeshifting eyes. it's what the numbers actually say. the good faith issue has more nuance. judge rhodes is going olook at

the witnesses which will include mr. orr and governor schneider, responding to this criticism. basically what the objectors were saying, the fix was in. they knew they would file the chapter 9 all along. let's hire a bankruptcy lawyer, put the city into bankruptcy and who cares. but no no, we sat down with people our door was always open and that's much more of a credibility thing who is the judge going to believe. as this trial unfolds, it's a bench trial, no jury, you'll be looking at what the judge's actions are, he might be keeping a poker face, make asking his own questions, which he's allowed to do. >> you have to help us, those of us outside the community looking inside on this, it's hard to understand why the city would want to declare itself bankrupt.

>> i tell you it is really, tempers are getting hot here. you see signs pensions before picasso. you have to prove that you're eligible for bankruptcy. you have to prove that you're bankrupt enough to go into these federal proceedings. and the city wants to go into the proceedings because that's when it can get a system wide plan to go into these bankruptcy rules. they can take concessions on the debt and force them down on the objectors. the other thing that the bankruptcy law allows you to do, whether michigan's law allows pension reductions, assuming it doesn't violate the michigan constitution you could make adjustments to the pensions and the health care liability and that's i believe one of the reason the city is so anxious to

use the bankruptcy system. >> and ken orr is the emergency manager in detroit. could i point out on a larger scale is, it is not just detroit. i was starte startled po about this happen chicago, cincinnati, rm lalas vegas, trenton, new jerse, oakland, california, providence, rhode island, all on the brink of bankruptcy because of these deterioratings bond ratings and pension obligations we read. give me a sort of primer on what that means . >> yeah, it's a vicious cycle joie. as the city's finances start deteriorating? the bond rating goes down. that means they have more interest and debt service payments which means they have lest available for police and to

borrow more money and it gets worse and worse. detroit could be the canary in the coal mine. it's true that detroit has massive circumstances, the deindustrialization of the economic base, you referred to the rust belt, underfunded pension liabilities is know by no means a individual to. this could be the beginning of a wave as the demographics of the retirees of the baby boom start hitting their retirement ages that expose the fragile bases of million mupping systems in the country. >> and chicago mayor rahm emanuel isn't going to be able to fix his budget because of that. certainly something to pay attention to. professor pottow thank you so

much for visiting us. shane up, another teacher murdered,

there's more to financial news than the ups and downs of the dow. for instance, can fracking change what you pay for water each month? have you thought about how climate change can affect your grocery bill? can rare minerals in china affect your cell phone bill?

or how a hospital in texas could drive up your healthcare premium? i'll make the connections from the news to your money real. >> might think for a moment that we're repeating the news from a day go but another popular math teacher has been killed. again the suspect is a young student. today it was in danvers, massachusetts. colleen richert . phillip is accused to beating her to death. he has been charged as an adult. authorities have yet to explain what the motivation or why the popular teacher was targeted. >> she was one of the nicest

teachers at danvers. always been out of your way to talk to you, always was very nice, it was a tragedy. >> at 24 years of age as i said it's a terrible tragedy for the entire danvers community. >> we're troubled by this murder of a 81 teacher as we were troubled a few days ago by the are sparks nevada teenager who took his own life. this is horrible coincidence, right? it doesn't look like a coppy cat pattern does it? >> no, i think that's an important point. they look like very different categories. on the one hand in nevada you had what was a multiple shooting in which the teacher was sort of running to protect the other students that were killed. you had a mass shooting there in the second circumstances in danvers outside of boston you have a much more targeted killing of a teacher.

we don't have all the information it's still coming in but they appear to be different circumstances although both in the category of school violence. >> there was apparently some act of violence committed in a school bathroom, blood found in the bathroom. these relations between teachers and students could be very emotional, that might be the indication taken out of the second incident. this was a beating, a popular teacher and a student who had been moved around a lot apparently. >> this one is obviously, both circumstances are tragic a little bit hard to explain because it's a new student to the school it's perhaps why the motive hasn't come out sooner, a lot of investigation needs to be done because the teacher was popular. often in those circumstances they tend to do well in befriending students. the point person students go to when they're in trouble.

this is harder to explain, most are at a loss of words, the student was new and it's hard to fathom how this could happen. >> we couldn't help but be reminded, of monday's school shooting, in sparks, nevada, injured two other school students after turning the gun on himself. >> 911 emergency. >> hi this is jan, we're calling from sparks middle school we have a shooting at our school. >> hold on one second. >> somebody brought a gun to school that shot a teacher. >> the teacher is down? >> yes. >> okay, we'll get somebody out there right away. you're at sparks middle school. >> yes. they shot again. >> shot again? yeah. >> okay, we'll get somebody out there okay?

>> okay thank you. >> uh-huh, bye-bye. 911 emergency. >> a student from sparks middle school, can you please send police out here? there's a kid with a gun! >> i got akid down that's been shot. >> i know, we have an ambulance on the way. we've had about 25 phone calls, okay? thank you. >> so disturbing to listen to. professor when you hear that you realize that young people were involved, young people saw all this and in -- we were told in some cases some of the young people tried to help their teacher who was down on the ground and it leads us to wonder what should be done in such a circumstance. in this case we're told that some of the young people tried to help and were encouraged by teachers please move away, we'll take care of the adults, the adults will take care of the adults here. but no one really knows what's the appropriate thing to do at that moment of crisis. >> yeah, it's a really difficult

decision i think for a lot of people involved and schools frankly don't have great prevention or intervention things around these high risk high critical situation scenarios. the teachers are right to tell the students to get away as much as they could because you really need to protect the student's safety in that situation. but in the chaos schools that don't have plans in place, chaos begins to rule and no one knows what to do and everyone looks to the adults in that situation. so i'm glad the teachers are encouraging the students to stay back. the 9/11 tapes your heart really goes out to what you hear is the fear in the voice s of all the students. >> the student saying i'm a student here please send help. it's shocking. what are schools doing? i mean do you see any evidence that people have begun to figure out look we're going to have to be clear with young people you might have to take action you might have to understand there you might have to take action in these situations we're going to

set a plan a policy in place for lock down or some sort of action, are schools doing this now? >> i think they're beginning to certainly with the shooting in connecticut really raise the awareness of the potential of school shootings occurring. although to put it in a broader context or still an extremely rare event only occurring you have about a one in a million chance of a school shooting occurring. so they're very rare considering but i do think schools are starting to think more permanently about what to do with these situations occur. because as i mentioned earlier when chaos occurs no one really knows what to do. so they're beginning to start these conversations in terms of putting policies in place at the schools when these situations happen. who are the leaders in these situations where are the students to go to find safety and things like that. >> is there any movement towards suggestioning to people look in a situation like this you might be forced other adults mighting

forced or older young people might move to try to neutralize the attacker themselves is that any sort of advice to be giving at this point? >> i don't think it's advice certainly to give to the students. i think the students priority should be going to safety. but perhaps a discussion is happening around the adults. when these situations occur how are we communicating with law enforcement, which often revise very quickly. many of these mass school shootings are over in ten 15 minutes and the are law enforcement gets there very quick. the teachers need to intervene to keep the students safe. >> professor brian drexel, thank you for being with us tonight. >> thank you. >> one of america's most violent cities, that's on inside story, we bring

together unexpected voices closest to the story, invite hard-hitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you.

>> now a snapshot of stories

making headlines on america tonight. long live the future king. britain's first prince george alexander louis, made his first appearance. one of his god parents is a royal. kevin skakel is granted a new trial. judge ruled skakel's many attorney was inextent. >> bombing tamerlan tsarnaev was involved in a murder two years ago. tamerlan's alleged connection to the murders turned up as the defense was preparing descrer's

zhokar's case. america tonight's correspond lori jane gliha returns to the community she knows well to make this report. >> it's not uncommon to shoot someone else over a $10 rock, you know crack rock. >> it's friday evening in flint, michigan, a place where shootings happen twice a week. >> two shootings in that drive way in the last ten months. >> state trooper jim swain is taking us along the neighborhoods. >> wherever you saw the grass it used to be a house. >> reporter: showing us what it's like to patrol a city that's seven times the violence of the national average.

>> how would you describe the city? >> voiment. i wouldn't feel confident to bring my 15 in here. a lot of this is random. >> anyone can get a gun. >> i've had 12, 13-year-olds with guns. >> isn't it weird they look like babies? >> look line babies,. >> already this year nearly 700 youth have become crime victims. city police arrested more than 40 for violence crimes alone. this year a 13-year-old was charged if a double homicide. -- charged in a double homicide. >> this is my room, this is where i sleep at. >> 17-year-old ann drai andre sn is facing charges with attempt to commit murder. >> thinking about the stuff you did, pray, read, read your

letters and stuff like that. i asked god to forgive me. >> he was 16 when police arrested him for his involvement in a shooting. he was 13 when he said he bought his first gun. >> it was like $50, 60, i didn't pay that much for it. i bought it from someone at school. >> why did you decide to buy a gun? >> to protect me, my family, everybody else to make me feel stronger than what i am. >> how many kids do you think carry a gun? >> half, probably. >> and you're not afraid to shoot ? >> i mean if it came down to it, if somebody was trying to take my life, i'd probably have to take them first. >> murder, burglary, the whole gamut.

>> here they get recreation time, fitness classes and schooling. willmer says the average kid here is at a third grade reading level. many haven't gone to school in a while. what's even more of a handicap is the lack of role models. called the who can help kids believe in a different kind of future. andre says his parents western around much as he was growing up. >> my dad he was in prison, in and out of prison. >> andre dealt drugs , learned how to make money by stealing from others. >> broke into somebody's house, took two flat screen tvs. he took it to that dude, he gave me $800, that was fast money. >> what do you think they're missing that might drive them away from crime. >> kids who come away from here seem to improve their situation have a

goal. they've got some kind of vision past tomorrow. >> reporter: andre has a vision. >> i want to be like on tv, be famous, have people know me for the good person that i am and not the person that i used to be. there's money to be made. i'm just trying to get it, goes on trial, praying to get acquitted. >> he dreams of becoming a wealthy rap star. >> but he's facing years behind bars. >> you used to be a shooter now i sit where you live at. like that. >> i really have never given up hope. >> pete hutchison is trying to turn things around for kids like andre, he's teaching a number of interventions, one program that seems to be working, the youth empowerment solutions project, carrying out community

improvement plans including neighborhood cleanups with the support of an adult mentor. >> already you've seen positive results. >> we think we're building momentum and if a neighborhood looks good then hope elevates and the kids feel better. >> reporter: researchers found preliminary evidence that kids who participated were less likely to be victims of crime. they were also better at woig avoiding conflict. kids with mentors are less likely to turn to crime. lately he has seen an influx of potential role models for flint's young people. >> a lot of the kids who grew up here in the '70s and '80s are coming back here to work, to mentor, to lead the parade out of desperation and hopelessness. >> we need leaders, learners, historians, politicians and you know, we need some

chemists, cooking the store. >> hip hop artist mama soul is one of those are people. a successful musician, she's performed with rap stars, but returned home to flint where she performance for kids at stop the violence rallies and speaks about her success in schools and detention centers. >> i know her! >> showing kids there's more to life than what flint's tough streets have to offer. >> if more kids who grew up in flipt, come back and show their success, we could instill at least hope in them. >> in some neighborhoods, hope is hard to find. >> and it's sad because i remember when these neighborhoods, people lived in them. >> she pointed out hundreds of abandoned houses left vacant

after tens of thousands of automotive jobs disappeared from the city. >> it's like the heartbeat is dying, you know. it had a heartbeat then. and now the heart is very faint. we have to stop shining such a bright light on the negativity and express more love and attitude for what's happening in the city. ♪ ♪ i'm ready >> look at mama soul. she's a good inspiration. >> how important is it that people like her come back to the community for kids like you? >> it gives them hope. like if she did it, i can do it. >> ♪ >> 18-year-old whitney friarson is proof that strong role models

can lead kids down a productive path. >> ♪ >> she use s melodies to cope with the lost of at least five friends who were murdered. >> my music is my therapy. being able to go in my room and write down things in an artistic way is so awesome to me. >> she also organizes community things for kids, encouraging teens to turn an abandoned piece of land into a fun place to hang out. >> my baby's dream is to build an art school and be the funder of the school that proud provides everything. that way, they will know how to build jobs and be

entrepreneurs. >> whitney is one flint resident with a vision for her future and a firm belief that she will get there. if you could describe flint in one word, how would you describe it? >> hope. hope. are. >> and joie i have to tell you, i asked every single person how they would describe flint in one word, i heard great uncanny challenged rear but the most disturbing way came from a 13-year-old, he described flint as death. the devastation of people who have been touched by crime. and then the optimism and hope. >> is that real? >> i think hope is real. it certainly doesn't reduce the amount of crime. it doesn't cover up the bad things but i think there is a real effort to reduce the amount

of crime that exists. there is a group that is called the michigan youth antiviolence center concentrated on flint, they've targeted a specific group of kids that come into the hospitals with injuries related to violence and they offer those kids counseling to help them manage their anger and have them steered on a different path. there is evidence that these plans are help the stem the violence. >> you live this community well, you lived there and worked there yourself on flint. what did you find on returning? >> i worked in the local saginaw, flint market. i will say i noticed a lot of change. i remembered in flint a lot of negativeness, but i saw a lot of positive things. they got a $20 million grant to

help destroy some of the blight, and universities, michigan state university just announced that they're going to be bringing some medical students there, some of the universities that are already there are expanding. i talked to some of the economic leaders there who also said that they are really learning how to diversify their economy. they're not so dependent on the auto industry anymore which is part of the reason the economy went down because they lost so many jobs. i have noticed a lot of changes. i noticed a hotel that had been renovated and turned into condos. some people estimate it will be another ten years before they're back on track but definitely getting back on the positive side. >> does seem like you have a very positive feel on that. lori jane gliha, on flint on the upswing. we hope to hear more on that. coming up. expelled by the pope. one bishop, the bishop of bling, we'll talk about why he is

paying the price for living in the lap of luxury.

>> every morning from 6 to 10am al jazeera america brings you more us and global news than any other american news channel. find out what happened and what to expect. >> start every morning, every day, 6am to 10 eastern with al jazeera america. >> pope francis has taken a most unusual step and suspended a bishop in germany the so-called bishop of bling has been the center of a scandal about his lavish lifestyle. more from berlin. >> the pope francis says he wants a poor church to take better care of the poor.

>> instead a papal spokesman said the german bishop would spend a period of time outside of his diocese while church officials conducted an inquiry as to where all the money went. so a canon law, the building budget for the bishop's residence and office hit $42 million, 20,000 spent on a high tech bathtub. living quarters typical of a movie star or star football player but for many german catholics not suited to a plan of the church. >> i think he is right. with this measure the situation broms becomes karma. the bishop is likely to return to lynnberg after the investigations have concluded. i think there's too much scorched earth.

>> before the suspension, they hoped the catholic chur church would bring peace of mind. here in germany a part of your taxes goes to financing religious organizations, the catholic church being a big part. it is unclear what will happen to the bishop until the church inquiry is completed. in addition to the bishop's high technical $20,000 bathtub he eag allegedly spent $610,000 for art, $135,000 for windows for a private chapel and $35,000 for a conference table. dennis doyle a catholic thee

thee theologian joins us. >> apparently he is making this move to allow the investigation to take place. and we don't know what the conclusion will be of this. but there's enough of a scandal here, and enough of an appearance and a reality of inappropriateness , that pope francis is taking action, this is not being taken place with the bishop, this expulsion. >> can you explain what that means? >> i don't believe that's a technical term from canon law, that the bishop has real authority in his diocese. and he's not the vicar or the

pope, the pope can't tell the a bishop in the diocese what to do but then if you have a case of corruption, then the pope and the brother bishops they can intervene in that kind of a case. but expulsion, i mean the pope could transfer him. he could transfer him to a diocese that doesn't really exist. we have a lot of bishops in the catholic church that are at this that are titular are bush opposite, i used to hear that when i was in catholic grade school they would expel the kids. >> that would be a little bit different i suppose. talk to us a little bit more broadly about what this represents for pope francis. we have heard so much about his

piety, his humble lifestyle. is this representative of something more generally about his thinking? >> well, i think it is when he became pope he said we need to become a chump of the poor, a church that is out in the streets and he lives this way and on the one hand this is very bad news. it's a true scandal it is representative things that go on in not such extreme manner in other places. these are things that need to be cleaned up. but on the other hand this is an opportunity for pope francis to do something. this is not my own criticism of him, but i've heard, everything he is doing is just gesture, symbolic. here is an opportunity for him to do something that is not only symbolic because it is but it is also very real. and he can get his message

out. that he's serious, he's serious about the church being a church of the poor and a -- >> and the timing as well, and the timing as well, that is moving very quickly to act. >> yes. >> that is also a measure of the importance he places on responsiveness. >> yes. yes. and he -- it looks like he wants a church that is more accountable. where people have to answer for things. and -- you know there's a long history in the catholic -- i was going to say there's a long history in the catholic church of ambiguity, that represents wealth we give our best to god and these buildings they show that god is what is really important for us. but the other side of it is that you've god human beings who -- you've got human beings that

also benefit from this wealth and it can quickly become something very inappropriate. and pope francis he's taking the church in a new direction. >> right but there has been some resistance, we have to note, there have been some people who have felt, some critics who feel that maybe he is too assertive in these ways, in changing things that have long tradition within the church. >> well, i mean, we have long traditions that are good and as i say, this is complex. some dimensions of why bishops have been treated in cases as if they were princes. if you look at that historically one can sympathize with that and one can say that it represents the fact that the church is important to people, not just the people in the government. but we also have long traditions in which things go wrong or people overstep their bounds. and this obviously crosses over into inappropriateness and pope

francis may have his critics and that's fine. but the things that he's doing, he's -- he's not going after people who are simply upholding traditions. i don't think he's going after anybody. this scandal has been going on for some months in germany and he's just addressing what has emerged. but he -- he's embodying the spirit of the second vatican council. he's embodying the spirit of a church that is going to engage the modern world. >> all right. sir -- we thank you for being with us. i know there's been a little bit of problem with the audio delay here we appreciate you putting up with us, dennis doyle from the university of dayton. thank you for being with us. thursday on america tonight, it is bigger than mount rushmore,

it is taller than the washington monument, colorado's crazy horse memorial was 66 years in the making. >> i didn't think he realized how long it was going to take or how much work it was going to be. >> they're trying to do this their way, i admire it, but if they're trying to do it their way it's not going to be quickly. >> if it takes them that long, it will be impressive. >> the dream that will not be deferred. the monumental task to create a

on august 20th, al jazeera america introduced a new voice in journalism. >> good evening everyone, welcome to al jazeera. >> usa today says: >> ...writes the columbia journalism review. and the daily beast says: >> quality journalists once again on the air is a beautiful thing to behold. >> al jazeera america, there's more to it. what happens when social media uncovers unheard, fascinating news stories? >> they share it on the stream. >> social media isn't an after-thought, it drives discussion across america. >> al jazeera america's social media community, on tv and online. >> this is your outlet for those conversations. >> post, upload and interact.

>> every night share undiscovered stories. >> finally from us tonight after ten years of violence in iraq it is not just doctors and engineers. many of iraq's creative talents have , uncommon works of awrt in baghdad. here is correspondent jane araf. >> this is beautiful, bits of baghdad trash rescued and brought to life.

>> i see the beauty that lies here. it is not just places that are considered beautiful that there's beauty, beauty is everywhere. >> in oil rich iraq empty melted water bolts represent a baby dead from dehydration. in his hands, an oil heater and pistachio shells become a tree and barbed wire blooms. mr. there's no shortage of materials. jonathan watkins came to baghdad to bring iraq's alternative art to one of the world's biggest events. >> necessity is the mother of invention, extraordinary invention. you're not going osee it as oil on canvas or cast brondz, you are going -- bronze.

you can find it at the places on the periphery. >> at the iraq pavilion, the venice vianali. commissioned by the government to be put in public squares or paintings on concrete walls like this one. on acity building near a military checkpoint. in a country where there's so much destruction, the urge to create art is everywhere. >> hassam subti is the owner of the dialogue gallery. in 2003, as american soldiers drove by he watched the library of the fine art academy burn. books he rescued from the flames became the these artworks, exhibited in paris, tokyo and new york. >> i didn't use colors or a brush just glue and a knife. in fact i realized that it is possible as you see, this is

nothing. just covers. but it is transformed to an abstract painting. it's not appropriate for me to draw like i drew before the occupation. there must be an approach that is parallel with the scale of the catastrophe iraq encountered. >> through the sanctioned of the '90s the war in iraq and years of sectarian violence sekti's gallery helped keep the war alive. without government help so have at least 1,000 iraqi artists. some of the avant garde pieces here go back to the 1960s. but subti says unlike iraq's post war art, they are not affected by the ca cataclysmic events. >> i think it will be a part of

iraqi very important to talk something different than before. and to do something different than. before. the art it means the mural of the stage. >> ferat jamil here in baghdad she is working on a groundbreaking animated film. it is a uniquely iraqi story. cawgd baghdad night, features a a -- called baghdad nights. produced entirely in iraq by iraqis. we had a lot of trouble getting funding because in the beginning nobody believed that it is possible to find young animators here who are able to do this kind of job. it was very lucky

to find the two that were able to do it it's a challenge because we don't really have the right equipment. >> the character is kind o of witch known in folk lower as a salua. >> we have to animate the body. >> it is one of iraq's first animated films. >> some people don't think it's necessary at the present time to do these stories. well i disagree. we have to also look at positive things in life to fantasy giving imagination to people rather than only concentrating on you know documentaries for reality shows. >> it's not a project easily tackled. but as the world is disofertion,

fwlfrming. welcome to al jazeera. the top stories this hour, thursday could get heavy on capitol hill. the contractors who developed the healthcare.gov website will have to answer. they are expected to grill the contractors. angela merkel called to say the nsa has monitored her cell phone. the white houses says it is not listening to her calls but the spokesman did not talk about whether or not there was any in the past. >> a 14-year-old high school