a powerful storm has spawned

at least a dozen tornados. eboni dion has joined us. the storm continues to move across the country. eboni, what's going on? >> i want to take you directly into the heart where we do have the threat of severe weather. this is going to be with us not just through the afternoon but in the evening. we have tornado watches stretching from michigan all the way down into parts of southern areas of missouri, western kentucky. paduka, it looks like you will be in line for the topics until about the 7:00 o'clock hour. as we check out radar, you can see most of the rain has been kind of pushing off to the north and east. storms have been moving swiftly, talking 55 to 60 miles per hour off to the northeast. so that is why chicago is now a huge concern. of course, there is a game that was scheduled to play there today. it has since been suspended with good reason. visibility low. we have blinding rain coming down and the threat of flash flood ing in addition to tornados. no tornado warning issued for chicago but there is one just a

little bit further south of chicago area and it's heading north and east at 60 miles per hour. too many people there to risk being out there in that stadium with no shelter. it is a very good thing to keep all of those folks safe out there. we will continue to see those storms kind of pushing off to the north and east, again, heavy rain threat, now flash flooded flooding is an issue. these storms have had a history of producing not only the damaging winds but also very large hail and the tornados. tornado warnings have been just kind of lined up right along from parts of lake michigan all the way into parts of southern illinois. as this line bows out, that's where we are watching for the strongest winds on the very edge of that line. here is a look at some of the damage that has occurred. right now, it's too early to tell, but you can see completely complete devastation just within the scene of course, i am sure the national weather service will be out to survey all of the damage and litted us know just how powerful that tornado really was. >> eboni, thank you. this was the beginning much our coverage of what is happening with these storms in the

midwest. usher kerish, we understand you are on your way to the stadium, to soldier field, they suspended the game because of how severe the storm system is. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: well, we are heading into the city right now, and the visibility is still pretty poor. you can see a fog just sort of wipe out the skyline. it's really poor visibility at this point. and, you know, the expectation is that this storm front is going to be, you know, most severe portion of it reaching chicago within the next few minutes. there are reports, as you have mentioned, of damage from toranados that have touched down further south and in central illinois and we are also hearing reports that there may have been a touchdown in the south suburbs of chicago, and a lot of people looking at what's happening in washington, illinois, where there have been confirmed touchdowns of tornados and lumber and debris being reported strewn about that area. here in chicago, traffic is

moving. people still on the streets. possibly unaware of how severe the weather is, but again, as you have been mentioning, the players have left the field about half hour after kickoff. >> uh-huh. >> they were sent inside as well as people in the stands were slowly moving to the lower concourse levels to take shelter and get into those protected areas. right now, it's just sort after wait, watch and see going on here in chicago, richelle. >> sometimes when it comes to things like this, i think people are unaware, sometimes they are in denial. if you follow sports fans on twitter, much of the afternoon, much of the early afternoon coverage in chicago was obviously about the weather, and there were fans tweeting they were upset that they wanted to watch their football, not in weather. and then, of course, it was severe enough that the game, itself, had to be suspended. i think often people really don't want to accept just how important these weather update did are. it really can be a matter of saving people's lives >> reporter: right. absolutely. i mean, listening to the radio, on the way into the city here,

you are hearing the coverage of what's going on with the weather, but there are a lot of people still discussing the impact that this delay of the game is going to have on the game, itself. the ravens leading 10-0. but that's sort of at the bottom of thinking in terms of the concern that you have for those many people in the stands and, you know, the severe weather front that we expect to come, you know, barrelling in chicago in the next few minutes. >> at this point, i suppose it's safer, i would assume, to have these people there as opposed to having 75,000 people out and about trying to navigate the roads, as dim as things look right now. i suppose they really thought this through and decided, let's just have people stay here and shelter in place? >> right. absolutely. and they do have the space for it. they have moved everybody to a lower concourse level. so they are at this point. the upper concourse levels took awhile for people to get down. you know, they called -- they suspended the game about 12:30 central time and started moving people down once those watches

indicated that this was some, you know, a more severe storm, and it was moving pretty quickly as we have been hearing between 55 and 60 miles an hour up to the northeast where at some point, it will touch the city. and then, of course, we've got these reports now of severe damage in central illinois, so it's a very serious line of storms and not to be taken lightly, which is why they moved those people down so quickly. >> okay. so very much an active situation happening in illinois as there are storms that have clearly already touched down. people assessing the damage. we are check okay casualties. also, this situation happening with soldier field in chicago where fans have been told to get to a covered area as the game has been suspended there. we are talking about 75,000 people, kureshi on his way to the stadium. we will keep an eye on these storms. keep it here on al jazeera for that. another developing story we have been following since it happened, the story out of

russia, a boeing 737 airliner has crashed while attempting to land in centra russia. it is believed 44 people died. the flight from the moscow exploded when it hit the runway. according to the international air transit association, russia had one of the world's worst air traffic safety records in 2011. here to talk more about the safety concerns surrounding this crash is al jazeera america's transportation contribute todd curt irs. thank you for joining united states. it's early on. but some of what we are hearing is that perhaps this plane crashed on a second attempt to land at and the weather was very, very trying. it was bad weather. what does that tell you? >> well, it was earlier reports said there was precipitation in the area. like you said, multiple landing attempt. this is also a nighttime landing. so those are definitely risk factors that could have played a role in this. but what isn't known right now is whether or not there were other issues going on navigational issues with the aircraft. did the airport even have a

working landing system in place for landing in poor weather? this has to be resolved by the russian authorities. >> what can you aid add to what we are reporting about the poor safety record, aviation safety record in russia? what more can you tell us about that? >> russia, as you know, went through a lot of changes after the fall of the soviet union. and what you ended up having was a system where there are a lot of aircraft throughout russia, former soviet union, that would not be up to the standards that we have here in the u.s. or in western europe. >> that's they were designed and certified under a completely different standard. and in some cases, some kinds of aircraft in russia don't have the support that you would have from the companies that made them, that you would have for boeing or air bus. now, point of packet, this particular aircraft that crashed was a boeing 7375. that is a model that's in use, in wide use around the world even though it's not in production. conceivably there wouldn't have been any problem getting spare

parts and that sort of thing for this aircraft. there has been a previous crash of a 737 500 in the former soviet union. so at this point, it's very early to say whether or not there is something wrong with that particular model or whether there is some sort of pattern with this aircraft in russia. certainly -- >> no. go ahead. i apologize. i apologize. >> certainly the past record of the former soviet union when this comes to air safety is a concern to many who fly there. in general, the suggestion i give to people is: if the airline you are flying is flying a western-built aircraft, an air bus or a boeing, and they have a fairly large fleet, then their standards are pretty much what you would see in other parts of the world. this particular airline had a very small fleet of aircraft, only about a half dozen modern airliners of air bus and boeing manufacture. so, it's unclear whether or not the airline, itself, may have had some issues when it came to maintenance and procedures.

>> okay.

there may be a political i am pettus to get to the bottom of this quickly. >> to be clear, al jazeera has not con firms that particular anythinget of information. the transportation contributor, thank you.nugget of information the transportation contributor, thank you. there were 44 people on the plane, 44 passengers, circulation crew members bringing that awful number to 50 people killed in that plane crash. thank you so much. aid is increasingly getting through to remote communities in the philippines nine days after typhoon haiyan struck. speaking to worshippers in tacloban. >> this house of god is far from full for sunday maps, people here having more immediate, material concerns. but agatha bulalaki said she

made a special trip even if she is not a regular church goer. >> i came to pray, she says, to give thanks to the lord that we survived, survived to see my daughter's 10th birthday. >> they are one of the few families who have received aid. hundreds of others affected by typhoon haiyan say they are waiting. >> the national government has been crit sidicized for poor management and slow and inadequate response for this disaster. officials meant to be pro-active taking pre-emptive measures like ordering evacuations and setting aside relief goods ahead of time. by their own admission, the extent of the devastated far exceeded expectations. >> president akino is getting an undata on relief efforts start through coordination problems and check on the conditions of those displaced. tra

tra tranché because you are working volume you knowtarily, it is very encouraging. no matter how upset i am, i just have to stomach it. what else can we do? >> reporter: there is still so much to be done. aid agencies are hopeful things are improving. >> once those systems are up and running -- and it takes time, a week, 10 days to get those systems going -- things will work a lot more smoothly. >> the rains continue to fall over tacloban. the weary can, the desperate, gather in god's house trust that someone is listening. t we have a new view of the storm. this appears to be cell phone video from people on the ground in the philippines taken nine days ago when this storm first struck, when these winds made landfall. as you can see, these waves are ravaging people's homes. really, really strong stuff

there. thousands remain missing after typhoon haiyan. shelters have been put in place throughout some of the hardest hit areas. more from the latey province. >> a neighborhood of fishermen in the philippines. poor, densely populated and now traumatized. julio was here when the storm struck. he said it was like nothing he had ever experienced. >> walk to go a safer place, we just sat down on the ground. we cried and prayed in the same spot. >> julio says lives were saved because they didn't try to flee in the middle of the storm but just stayed put while the winds crashed through the city at close to 300 kilometers an hour. there is not much left now. this area is one of the two most populous constituencies. even in the aftermath, local

politicians are accused of partisanship in aid delivery. >> the only thing i want to say to the government is forget about your political parties because it's affecting relief goods. on the road heading north to the worst hit areas thousands of people were lining up for rice and water. they could also get medical check-ups and tetanus shots which have run out in many hospitals in the area. you might think it's a government initiative because of the scale and efficiency with which they have been able to mobilize. they say they have given up 80,000 relief pack et cetera and treated 12,000 people in the last few days alone. but this is the iglesiana church of christ that is feared and admired in the political context for being able to get millions of followers to vote in a bloc. this. >> this was a scene of another tragedy here and later in the philippines, and this warehouse was where the national food

authority kept stocks for the entire province. you can imagine it must have been full of rice. after typhoon haiyan struck, desperate people flocked here. >> there is an overwhelming stench of wet, rotting rice now, but when there was still rice in these store houses, groups of people would come to take what they could. on thursday, the roof collapsed, killing eight. despair is also killing people across latey island. veronica pedrosa, tacloban, philippines. >> we will update the top stories including the severe weather in the midwest and we will bring you a live update on the plane crash in russian.

welcome back to al jazeera america. here is a look at top stories. right now, reports of storms as possibly as many as a dozen toranados stuffing down in

illinois and central and northern illinois at this moment. the chicago bears game has been suspended because of the threat of severe weather in the city of chicago. we are on top of that story here at al jazeera. relief supplies have started reaching remote locations in the philippines nine days after typhoon haiyan left large areas of the country in ruins. rescue teams are searching for more than a thousand missile people. a boeing 737 airliner has crashed while attempting to land in central russia. it is believed 50 people died. the flight from moscow exploded when it hit the runway peter sharp joins us live now from the russian capitol. tell us more about what we know. it is early on, but peter, what else can you tell us? >> reporter: well, flight u363 left moscow late in the afternoon local time fora what should have been a routine flight south to

>> that's how we get to 50, peter? >> reporter: that's right. exactly what we first heard, there were 44 dead. that was just the passengers. the crew involved with six people in the crew, and they all died in that crash, too. and as i said, there is an -- instantly, they are putting into place a pretty comprehensive examination into what happened in the last moments of that crash. >> such an awful, awful tragedy. peter sharp, live from moscow. french president is meeting with bingman netanyahu. the two are discussing how to keet keep pressure on to halt iran's nuclear program. ♪net praised alan for helping build a more stable middle east. each promised to support the hard line on iran. mike hanna shanz us live from jerusalem.

what are the two countries agreeing on specifically? what do we know? >> reporter: what the two leaders were very specific about was that pressure must be maintained on iran and should be racheted up. what they are talking about is sanctions the sanctions that some nations say could be dropped in iran does provide guarantees that it has abandoned its program of weaponized nuclear development. so both leaders making very clear that they believe that these sanctions should be maintained and, in israel's case, very, very definite that there should be even greater pressure in the form of sanctions put on iran. what are the differences in how they want to approach iran? >> reporter: the differences are somewhat subtle, where on the face of it, both leaders are saying exactly the same thing. however, benjamin netanyahu was very specific. he says there has to be a total

end to the iranian nuclear program. he says that there has to be a destruction of the country's centrifuges and heavy water rea reactor. francois alan said negotiations are proceeding. he says they have shown progress. he says what france is looking for are credible guarantees that iran has abandoned a nuclear weapons program. there is a subtle point of difference here which shows a little bit of daylight between israel and france, and that is that france is not i know cysting on a doelths destruction of iran's nuclear facilities. it is sayingtotal destruction of iran's nuclear facilities. it is saying it wants guarantees these facilities will not be used for nuclear weapons. >> okay, mike hanna, live from jerusal jerusalem. keep it here on al jazeera. much more to come.

power of the people until we restore our fr

>> welcome back. severe weather in illinois. what you are seeing here is a city of chicago specifically the game there. the bears game has been

suspended because of the threat of severe weather that is moving to the area. it has caused so much damage in other parts of the state and central and northern illinois, reports of possibly a dozen tornados touching down. what has happened is the game, the comic bears game -- chicago bears game, soldier field, this is some of the damage that we have known that has happened within the last couple of hours. in chicago, we know there is about 75,000 people who have been told to move from their seats into the concourse where they can have shelter as the storm moves to chicago. usher kereshi is moving to the area, giving united states the lay of the land what chicago looks like and this is a picture of it. it's pretty dark. usher, what are you seeing? >> reporter: it's, you know, it looks a lot later in the day than it should be, but, you know, people are still on the ground here we've got in the report this flash flooding, we are seeing a little bit of that in downtown chicago. a lot of people on the streets, a lot of cars, a lot of traffic,

and, you know, just maybe not understanding how severe these storms are. but we have seen a lull in the rainfall earlier, about an hour ago or so, it was blanketed rain and a lot of fog rolling in with lightning strikes and things like that along the lake shore. it seems to have calmed down a little bittises point. again, as you meningsdz, about an hour or so now, ago,tioned, an hour or so now, ago, at shoulder field, they had the players leave the field. they had all of the people in the stands move to lower concourse levels to take cover in preparation for what could be very, very severe wind. we did see, you know, if you saw some of the video out at soldier field, debris starting to fly around, wind starting to pick up, which here in chicago, the windy city is pretty common, but a little bit more severe in the last couple of hours. so, as they are waiting to see where this storm goes, we understand, of course, there have been touchdowns as you mentioned a in central illinois, in washington, illinois, and moving northeast toward the chicago area.

so, just these warnings and these watches are in place at least for the next few hours and so people are starting to take cover. again, here, at least in downtown chicago, there is quite a lot of people on the streets, richelle. >> i want people to understand some of the pictures we are showing as you and i are talking about chicago. the storms that cause this damage -- this is the system that is headed to chicago and the pictures that we are showing are from pekin and washington, illinois, more the central part of the state. the damage that we are seeing looks widespread and massive. it is severe damage. to be clear, we do not know of any casualties as of yet. we are doing our best reporting to get that information to you, but it looks like so many people in these neighborhoods that we are seeing lost everything, cars and homes and wood, just strewn across these streets and this is the system that is headed to chicago. so you can understand why they told people to take shelter.

now, it's our understanding, usher, that the game is basically at a standstill but i would assume at some point, they may end up cancelling the game. i know that's not anything we know for sure. but --? >> right. >> i can't imagine they will have people standing there forever. we are talking about thousands of people? >> correct. correct. we understand that the earliest the game play could resume if in fact it does. it's about 3:00 p.m. central time. so about, you know, we have a little bit of time before that would happen. and then at that point, i think they would decide if the weather doesn't look like it's clearing up enough for it to be safe for game play to continued, then at that point, they would start sending people home. we are outside of the stadium right now. you can see a heavy police presence, but not a huge stream of cars yet coming out of that stadium, richelle. >> usher, you be careful. we will check with you throughout the day to get more updates on what the weather situation is like there in chicago. we are also getting a -- doing our best to get reports on whether there were any casualty did caused by these storms that touched down in central and

northern illinois. keep it here on al jazeera america throughout the day. >> i'm russell beard in london england to meet a local hero who believes in the environmental benefits of sharing. >> i'm joyce ohajah and i'm in copenhagen, the worlds cycling capital, where many people prefer to travel on two wheels, rather than four. >> and i'm oliver steeds, and i've come to the coast of northern ireland to explore the power of tides. and i'm tamara sheward, in