interesting people of our time. >> you're listening because you want to see what's going to happen. >> i want to know what works what do you know works? >> conversations you won't find anywhere else. >> talk to al jazeera. >> only on al jazeera america. >> oh my! >> luhansk you're watching al jazeera. i'm jonathan betz, in new york. shots are fired as pro-russian protesters take over another police station in eastern ukraine. a terrible turn in the conflict in syria. >> questions, but few answers, in a firry crash in california that killed 10. >> election-related violence kills dozens in india, we take a look at the front runners in the world's largest election.

>> the white house is urming russia to -- urgeing russia to stop trying to destagize ukraine. pro-russian gunmen seized more buildings in the east. we look at video of a dramatic takeover [ gunshots ] >> 20 armed men storming a police headquarters. there was a similar scene in another town as well. more than one dozen masked gunmen took a station. protesters occupied a government building in donetsk for a week. negotiations are happening in lieu. ukraine is sending more soldiers to donetsk to fight the threat of further occupations. kim vinnell has the latest on the take offers.

>> this is the police station, usually a base for officers, now in the hands of pro-russian activists, more than a dozen gunmen, many with professional grade weapons go in and out of the building. it's unclear who they are, where they come from or how many are waiting inside. >> outside the building supporters gather. they say the interim government is illegitimate and want a referendum on awedon my from kiev. >> our people want to live quietly and peacefully without the junta that seized power in kiev. we don't want to be under america, we don't want to be their slaves, we want to with russia. >> support rallies around the gunmen, helping them forcify positions. a truckload of reinforcements arrive. pulling up the tyres to reinforce their barricade. people are arriving all the time, bringing supplies, handing

them over to people very much in control of the police building. moments after being told to film people to show their support, a mob of protesters turned on us, attempting to take the camera. >> rebasing to don ebbing, it seemed as -- donetsk after nightfall it seemed as if another crimea was on the way. armed men, some ukrainian officers stand guard over the roads. in donetsk protests continue. activists remain in control of the state administration building and maintain they are the true representatives of the people. >> translation: ukraine is no man's land. people of the east and the south are ricing up and -- rising up and want to take power in their hands. >> translation: police are with the people. we are also with them. there'll be no blood spilled.

>> it's been a week since the building was seized. ultimatums have come and gone. leaders organise themselves and say they are pushing ahead with plans for a referendum on the status of republic of donetsk. an emergency session of the security council is underway this kiev. kiev has a difficult task on its hand, with unrest in the east spreading fast. >> vice president joe biden will go to kiev, to show support for a united democratic ukraine. for more - we turn to tom ackerman in washington. >> the statement bit the national security spokesman called on vladimir putin to cease tactics aimed at creating a destabilising situation in ukraine, and inciting sabotage against the state. it said that what we were seeing

were the efforts to invade ukrainian government substantiates in eastern -- establishments in eastern ukraine, which is highly reminiscent of what was seen in crimea, before the referendum supported by the rush jrnings and upon the appeal for annexation. all this overshadows the outlook for the meeting scheduled on thursday in geneva, at which the ukrainian government, the e.u., and the united states are expected to meet with the russians to seek some kind of a diplomatic understanding. however, the russians, themselves, are accusing the ukrainians of threatening pro-russian elements, russian speakers inside ukraine, and, for their part, are saying the meeting may not come off precisely because of what they owling is happening -- allege is happening on the part of the ukrainian government. >> we are joined by william

pomerance from the woodrow wilson center, advanced russian studies. when you see the mass militants taking over the government buildings in the ukraine, how concerned are you? >> this is very concerning. these are disturbing developments, and as your report mentions they are taking place before a crucial meeting next week between the e.u., russia, u.s. and ukraine. it seems that the russians want certain facts on the ground. instability, and a pretext to intervene into the country. >> what do you mean by "intervene", what do you think is the ultimate goal? >> clearly russia has troops on the border of ukraine, and if it wanted to, if it felt necessary, it could send the troops into ukraine. initially russia wants to find a political solution that would essentially leave russia in

control. if not of eastern ukraine, and a very unstable ukraine as a whole. >> i think there are attacks by russia to -- attempts by russia to find a political solution that favours russia, if it's not possible, there's every inspection that russia may consider intervening militarily. >> the united states blames russia for the events in ukraine, accusing the kremlin of stirring up anger and putting people on the ground to encourage the protests. how credible is that. do you think that is fair for the united states to say to russia. does it mean there's not a lot of support in the eastern ukraine area for russia? >> it's difficult to confirm. it's difficult to know to what extent they are russian or russian speakers.

there's every indication that russia is, at least, encouraging what is going on in eastern ukraine. are there potential supporters of kind of leaving ukraine, and joining russia. there are a - there is a percentage of russian speaking ukrainians in eastern ukraine that continue to have ties with russia. there's certain established business relations with russia that are important for many eastern ukrainians. i don't think what we have seen is overwhelming support for joining russia or having russia enter into ukraine. >> you're saying it's different than in crimea, whereby all inspectors there was overwhelming support for russian take over. >> russian speakers are a minority in eastern ukraine. the majority are ukrainian speakers. >> they don't enjoy the same high level of immediate identification as existed in crimea >> with that in mind, is it

plausible that russia may be making moves to take over the eastern cities or more likely that russia wants to weaken the central government and cause a lot of problems for kiev. >> it does want to weaken it and cause problems. the problem is does russia want to intervene. now, because there's various coordinated protests in eastern ukraine, what sort of response do we have from the ukrainian government. obviously it chose to stand down during crimea and not provoke the russians and give a pretext for greater intervention. most like i the ukrainians will have a military response, escalating the crisis. >> a what is the alternative, what can kiev do to regain control.

>> the idea that ukraine initially had was to wait out the protests, and that occurred when russian protesters occupied buildings in donetsk and luhansk. it doesn't seem to be working in the kiev government favour, now that there are attempts to spark unrest in ukraine. the wait and see approach is not going to work. it's clear that the ukrainian government will have to organise its own security services and try to regain control of eastern ukraine. >> hoek, william pommerance with the woodrow wilson center, thank you for talking to us tonight. >> the syrian opposition forces are blaming each other for a deadly gas attack. two were killed, 100 injured in a fillage north of damascus. syria agreed to give up chemical

weapons. the u.s. blamed the government. syria denied responsibility. the violence displaced millions, it's devastating for children forced to leave their homes and schools for refugee camps across the border. from jordan, we have this report on the education crisis facing a generation of young syrians. >> all of the children in the informal class in imam are syrian refugees, learning to read and write for the first time. they have fallen behind in school by three and four grades and are no longer eligible for regular schools, because they are displaced by the war. >> that child has been out of school for three years. he hopes the catch-up program will put him back into school, even if it means being the oldest student in the class. >> being out of school made me miss my peers, friends and teachers. i forgot so much. i could only remember a quarter

of the subjects i studied. >> before the syrian conflict, two centres provided proms to iraqi rev guess and drop-alls. there are 25 centres across the country teaching syrian refugees. most children drop out of school because families have other priorities. >> parents are not going to tell you directly, it's about livelihoo livelihoods. so children required to bring livelihoods to the families, child labour is on the rise. >> this year unicef is asking for an additional 30 million to support education for syrians in jordan. 70,000 syrian children are out of school and need opportunities like the ones provided here. >> there are many reasons why they are not in school. some parents need children to

work, to sees financial burden, and some keep the children at home to protect them from a society where they don't feel integrated or safe. >> now this boy lives in the -- this girl lives in the northern cities. she has been out of school and helps her mother around the house. this girl has never been to school. the mother will not allow her daughters to walk to school. >> translation: i'm afraid my daughters will get lost, or a stranger approach them and convince them to go with him. we heard stories of girls being kidnapped near the schools. >> syrian children are among the hardest hit by the war. many forced to drop out of school not only lack a sense of purpose, but here hopelessness. >> iran claims to keep its u.s.

ambassador. a visa has been denied for an involvement in the 1979 u.s. hostage crisis. he insists he is was an interpreter. iran says he was given a visa and plans to challenge the move. and declares it a move against international law. >> we'll have that story. that'll be 11:00 p.m. eastern. >> in iran, a court overturned the death sentence of a former u.s. marine. he is now sentenced to 10 years in prison. he was arrested for spying in 2011. he and his family insist he is in the, in iran to visit his grandfather. president obama called for iran to release him. >> it may be weeks before investigators have answers to what may have caused a fiery californian bus crash. 10 families are preparing funeral. morgan radford has more. >> marissa and mavie were

inspeperable until they boarded different tour buses, headed to the same college they planned to attend together. >> we were going to see this one. >> marissa was one of five would died on highway five in california. her bus slammed head-on by a fed ex truck that crossed the median. >> there was a large explosion. >> the drivers of the truck and the bus died, and three chaperones who were taking teens to visit a university. dos ens were injured, others escaped. >> it was a ball of fire, and then a ball of fire. everyone was screaming. >> the students were part of a program at a college for low income family. many would be the first to attend college. >> it's a matter of seconds where you could die or live. it's a live experience. i don't wish it for anyone. the ntsb is trying to figure out

what caused the driver to cross the grassy median and hit the bus. >> the nts will figure out why the crash happened, not just the what, but the why, to allow us to issue safety precautions to stop it happening in the future. >> a powerful earthquake struck off the solomon islands, 7.6. a tsunami warning wag posted for -- was posted for the area but has been lifted. >> australia prime minister is standing by comments that pings heard in the indian ocean are from the missing malaysia airlines flight. tony abbott is confident that some signals came from the jet's black boxes. >> we have narrowed done, considerably narrowed down the search area. but trying to locate anything 4.5km beneath the surface of the

ocean, about 1,000km from land is a massive massive task. and it is likely to continue for a long time to come. >> there are fears that batteries powering the black box may have died. they are supposed to last a month. the plane that went down has been missing for 36 days. >> still ahead on al jazeera america. india's general election is the biggest. we look after the break. people in a small texas town demand a cult-like church to leave. live with the latest.

conversation >> illegal crossings along the south-west border increased dramatically. the border control made clearly 91,000 arrests. that is 69% more than the year before. >> recently there has been a stripping of shootings involving border patrol ates. we are on the ground in a town

straddling the border in mexico. >> a dusty cross and flowers mark the spot where a boy died gunned down in his home up to. this is a story of a boy, a border and a wall of silence. some time before 11.30pm, the 16-year-old died instantly when hit by a bullet in the back of a head. as he fell face down eight shots hit him in the back. one border patrol agent fired here, through the fence into the street, down into mexico. why? they say he was throwing rocks at them. an eyewitness said he was just walking down the street.

even if he was firing rocks, was shooting him a response, was he a threat to armed agents up on a cliff behind the fence. his grandmother is an american citizens, living on the arizona side of the fence, a few minutes away from where her grandson was kid. at a bedside shrine she prayers. >> there needs to be justice. it seems to me a cold-blooded calculated crime, a crime request no justification, because he was not doing anything. he was just walking. he wasn't doing anything. >> almost a year and a half after the fatal shooting the border patrol responded to jose's family. >> this is the claim of antonio's mother.

>> their american attorney showed a letter received dated march 14th. >> it claim cannot be attributed to a youngful or nej gent act or emission on the part of the united states customs and border application. and it's over. >> as far as they are concerned. >> the boarder patrol took 4 minutes from the time of the shooting to make this call to mexican authorities. >> let's listen to the call. >> montio says the delay suggests indifference to a mexican boy to be shot. >> if someone is hurt, you don't wait four minutes. >> his mother said the letter from the border patrol is an outrage. >> translation: i think they are mad. they are wrong. how can they not be to blame, it was an assassination.

at no point did my son shoot at them. he didn't have a weapon. to me it was a murder and a murder needs to be paid for, and justice dealt with. people can't go around killing people and have impunity. >> setting aside unearned questions of the case. border patrol agents face assault are rocks. this letter went out and says agents have been attacked with rocks 1700 times since 2010. 43 times they responded with deadly force, killing 10 people. no border patrol agent has been killed by iraq. with all this in mind the question remains - is shooting ever an appropriate response to rocks? despite the border patrol's letter to the boys' family, the department of justice and the federal bureau

of investigation is investigating. local border patrol wouldn't talk about the case or enforced policies. >> people feel like it's stonewalling, a lack of information, a lack of transparency. how does it affect the job. >> not too much. we don't have control over the investigation. >> overall, once the investigation is on, it's pending, we are out of it. like i say, we cooperate with the investigative agency. as far as giving information to the public, we can't do that. >> surveillance cameras tower over the intersection. whatever images the cameras caught, they have not been released. >> translation: show me the video where my son throws rocks. even with that, they didn't do the right thing. i want to see the video, where my son hurts them. it's a pain inside me that will be there until there's justice, until i know who killed my son or i know who is jumed.

only then will i think that all border patrol agents or minister aren't bad guys. >> i spoke with paul beban, and asked him what is next for the boy' family. >> now that they have received the letter from the border patrol, in the next few weeks they plan to file a civil case if u.s. district court and will ask for the video tapes. that could drag on. a big development. >> i wonder, are there efforts by the u.s. government to reform the border watt roll? >> there are. there's a bipartisan bill perhapsed by a congress pawn from texas and republican from mexico to tighten other controls, but it has yet to make its way through congress and others say it doesn't go far enough, but is a start towards ending confrontations on the border. >> coming up tomorrow. al jazeera america will debut an

original series called border land, attracting six diverse americans retracing the footsteps of three migrants who decide trying to cross into the united states. more news in a moment.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. here are the top stories >> pro-russian gunmen seized two police buildings in eastern ukraine and protesters occupy government buildings in the same area. ukraine is beefing up security to fight the threat of further occupations. white house is urging vladimir putin to stop destabilising the country. >> disturbing video shows the aftermath of a poisonous gas attack. the opposition and government deny responsibility. two were killed, 100 hurt. >> investigators suspect to be looking for clues in the california bus crash for weeks.

eye witnesses reported that the fed ex truck that crashed into the bus may have been on fire when the collision happened. >> now tonight a deeper look at india and the election taking place in the largest democracy, voting took place a week ago and will continue for a month. one elected, they will serve five terms. here are the frontrunners, narenda modi from the hindu national lift b.j.p. party, the governor of a wealthy estate. politics are viewed as conservative. there's rahul gandhi, of the congress party. coming from one of india's famous political families. father, grandmother and great-grandmother served as prime ministers. another is arvind kejriwal. with the independent common man party, foumeding it back -- founding it back in 2012 and

serving as the chief minister. >> voting is in the as easy as expected. nidhi dutt reports. >> mehboob ali may not have much, but he has the right to vote. and that's exactly what he and his wife are setting out to do. they were forced to leave their home after communal violence ravaged their village last year. since then mehboob ali has struggled to recover his family's official documenties. he did manage to get them temporary ids to be able to vote. >> translation: there should be peace in our county and all indians somehow prosper equally. we should all have work and a play to live. >> from roov tops to the grans of polling stations paramilitary and police officers were out in force. fighting bun muslims and hindus is a real and unsettling threat to many voters here, and because of this the need for visible

protection was paramount. the government as tried to boost the confidence of voters by issue these. this whit card encourages people to vote without fear, and the pink as a warning to some people that official believe may cause trouble. some say the events of august compelled them to speak up. >> translation: i want the government that believes in communal harmony and will deliver on its promises of development. >>. >> translation: through my vote i can pressure the government to help me more, and provide me with the baskss. >> sayyad sarafat is more thab 100 years old but still wants his vote to be counted. there are people like mehboob ali, who, despite trying, didn't make the voters' list. he says he should be in line at the polling center trying to make a difference. smad he's left to comfort his

children are lul bys. >> joining us now for a deeper look at the indian elizabeths a richard rossow, an expert in u.s. policy at the center for strategic and international study, and riddh. >> shah, editor of the hoept. >> what -- "the huffington post." what really is at stake in india. >> the congress party has been in charge. by and large people view the last 10 years as expansion upon programs, subsidised food, expand k farmers loans and schemes. less attention given to the economy. when they came into power, the economy was humming along. the growth rates have not been

sustained. the economy emerged as the real issue. polling takes that as the number one issue. >> when you look at the candidates, we mentioned three of the frontrunners, who has the best shot at winning the election? >> most exit polls have suggested that the b.j.p., the party will emerge as the single largest party. putting them at about 220 out of 543 votes. that will not give them enough to form a full majority. but they'll be able to form a government with their coalition partners. >> why is that critical? >> why is it critical that the b.j.p. is the party to form the government. >> what does it mean for the people, not having a coalition, what does it mean for the people? >> we have seen in pattern. no single party emerges as being

able to form a government on its own. there has been a coalition at the center. that means that weakens the decision making power of the government, the kind of policies that they want to put in place are not fully supported by the government. for the last five years. which was the coalition party for the congress, they have, time and again, presented them from putting policies into place. >> when you look at the front runner, leader of the b.j.p. party, he lead one of india's prosperous states, do you think he can apply the policies and successors to india as a whole. he can. this is a topic under debate. will he, as the leader for the coalition, enact the reforms to get the economy going. if you look at the record, most of the things done to stimulate the economy were about developing infrastructure, and building out special improvements to provide the infrastructure necessary for

economic development. those things are a little less hingent upon a coalition versus the congress party. most of the measures focussed on legislative measures. when you focus on legislation, that's when politics is difficult. if the b.j.p. is the largest party, forming the coalition, the reforms he wants to do are less reliant on votes, and he'll have a freer hand in doing the things that he does. >> he's a controversial figure, with a dark history. >> he is. not long after he took over as the chief minister, there were religious riots, there has been questions over whether he as the chief minister did enough to quell the riots for contributed. he's not been proven guilty by the inquisitions that have taken place since that time, but, still, the aura hangs over him, and in the united states, we

revoked his visa after that, and more or less cut off high level connections until recently, when the ambassador to india, nancy powell met with him. >> we talked about the economy, how it's a focussed issue for the indian people, and they struggled to feed its people and providing cheap food for the pure. nidhi dutt has more on that. >> sa; jeev sen is a man of the land. his family has become farming rice paddy for three generations, san jooef says the golden days of agriculture in india are gone. >> translation: over the past 10 years the amount of rice i produced has fallen. my costs have almost doubled or tripled. >> sanjeev sells the rice to mill owners like man. >> k -- manik dutta.

he can only pay farmers 22 for every 100 kilograms unlead. >> translation: i have to follow the governments orders and prue cure a set amount of ace at a set rate. it's a raw deal for stom farmers but i can't hep it. >> half the rice processed here is fed into the india's foot distribution system, which subsidizes prices for the poor. the state government in west bengal standardized the of rice bought from farmers to give more of them a chance to make a decent living. it doesn't help much. the government quota leaves farmers with tonnes of race to take care of. stock stored is a blessing and a burden for thousands across india. >> that is where middlemen like sheikh noor yas. >> n comes in. >> i buy the rice at a lower price and sell it to the mills.

because of price fixing my business survives. it works for me. >> it does not work for everyone. ambitious policies like they say sow a new set of challenges and highlight old problems. >> a new model has to ememorying where the public and private sector play an important role to reduce - the importantening is to reduce the food subsidies. how to bring dawn the subsidies and the cost is very important. >> the indian government has promised the poor access to subsidised food. that promise means every grain harvested from the fields counts. the challenge the government faces is not only find efficient ways to get food to millions of people, but nurturing the farmers who make it possible. bsh >> okay, let's bring back richard rossow, and riddh. >> let me get your thoughts on this, we are talking about

india's economy. help us understand what people in india are facing and why this application, more so than others in the past, may be critical for the indian people? >> inflation has been at a high rate. oppion prices were at a high and food prices were 18% higher than the previous year. we have seen inflation emerge as a big issue that the indian public cared about. that is emerging as something that the new government will be expected to help bring down. >> why is inflation so high? what is behind this? >> there were several different factors. one of them is the public sector schemes, the national rural employment guide has gip people three months of wages allowing them to buy food. the supply has not kept up with that, there are other prices, the falling rooupy, and energy as well. there are several different.

it's not an easy issue. there are several facts playing into this. >> when the new leader is chosen in india, how big of a job does this person face trying to get the economy to where it needs to be? >> yes, it's one of the biggest jobs you can imagine. in agriculture in particular, in india 53% of the workforce is involved in agriculture. most farmers have a couple of acres of land. most inputs into agriculture production are subsidised by the deposit. they have to -- government. they have to sell the government agencies. it's a regulated part of the economy, and difficult to deal with. farmers - that is the root of the land, the people that vote revly, and any time that you try to disrupt the model that exists, while we see potential benefits of doing so. in the immediate term you feel a lot of pain from doing so. if they pull back the input

subsidies, if they move the government-sponsored markets. it's difficult to do. there's little reform and modernisation. that's where most workers are. if you want to impact the most people, it has to touch the agriculture center. >> corruption is a huge concern with the indian economy and governments. how much of a difference can the new leader make for the people of india. >> corruption is a tricky issue, it ranks high when people say what are the issues they are voting on. they'll say corruption is something they don't like. corrupt candidates have a higher incident of election than candidates running corruption free. unless you are willing to be a little corrupt, it's almost impossible to get anything done is a perception. there's a disconnect between what people vote for and what they say in polls that they like. that said, there are visible

scams run over the last 10 years, where some public goods were released, like spectrum auctions, commonwealth games , and were not run in a transparent manner and individuals probably profited from the way they were conducted. there is room to strengthen the way public goods were released and mines, spectrum are sold to the public. there's a lot of room that can be done. >> a lot of room and concern. a lot of room with security. our correspondent on the ground, sohail rahman is there. we heard about the violence that broke out. update us on what is going on with that? >> the yes, there was concern about security across the general election and when certain states went to vote in the north-east. international borders were closed. what we have seen in the first week of elizabeths is violence in what is describes as the red

corridor. it's a link, you might say, from a northern state further down to adisha. these are the states in the central eastern part of india. they have been fighting a left wing maoist insurgency. individuals feel that the natural resources of coal, mirnerrals and lumber are being taken away from the state, but the revenues are not being ploughed back into the infrastructure, and for the benefit of the people. they have been waging war against the indian government, the prime minister manmohan singh said on several occasions that the maoist internal security problem is the most serious india has. at the weekend we saw more security personnel killed, up to a dozen as they were escorting

election officials to polling stations. and they went to the polls on saturday, as it did earlier in the week, in this 9-phase election. a landmine was the issue here, we have landmines and bombs earlier in the week as well. six security personnel killed, large bombs found by bridges in the southern belt. the problem is not just located to one area, it's located to several states, and they have threatened to continue to disrupt the election in that part of india. >> when you look at that as the backdrop to extensive elections, nearly a billion people coming out to vote. when we talk about the ruling party falling for the first time in a decade. how dig election will it be for india and how big a game changer will it be?

>> i don't think think huge. one thing is the emerge of a party, that you referred to before. for so long, the indian people have had two parties, the b.j.p. or the congress. given the crippling corruption, the slowing of the economy and a host of other issues, security, you know, the sexual abuses against women, we are seeing finally a third option that has emerged, and that - in such large numbers people have voted for them in the elections for delhi, and young people are engaged in a way i have never seen. >> riddhi shah and richard rossow, and thanks to sohail rahman live in new delhi, thank you for the discussion. we appreciate it. >> and there has been a series of setbacks in peace talks twine the israelis and palestinians. the arab league urging the united states to keep trying to move the process forward.

washington's patients is wearing thing. more in "the week ahead". at 8:30 eastern. 5:30 pacific. >> still ahead in al jazeera america. the controversy surrounding a texas church, heidi jo castro is there live. coming up, why a community is marching a gains a group. who are the church of wells.

>> we've been telling you about a controversial church that took resident in a small texas town of wells. that occurred three years ago, they have never left. residents want them out. heidi zhou-castro joins us from wells with the latest on this. >> hey, jonathan. church members purchased the gas

station and lumbar regard since 2011 since the rv broke down. they laid roots here. the community today wants the group out. >> who are the church of wells? the group of 100-some fundamentalist christians own homes and businesses in the east texas community. they raise chicken and home schoolchildren. they live behind covered windows and closed doors, as captured in this cell phone video, they tell people they are going to hell. the wells homecoming parade a week ago turned violent. several attacked church members as they preached to the gathering. injuring jeffrey rutherford's 4-year-old. >> her and several others are traumatised from it. they are having knight mares, not wanting to go out and play. >> two church members retreated for injuries, but did not press

charges. >> i forgive them, and i love them. >> 28-year-old shaun morris, 25 yield jacob gardner, and 28-year-old ryan bringwalt are the elders. they are willing to be martyred for their beliefs. >> one of our main, like, objectives is showing people how they deserve to die, and they need to die, and it will happen at the second death or right now by the grace of god in christ. >> i understand your message. some would say it's filled with damn nation. and hatred. you are preaching that god hates the sippers. it's a message that adults may think about. why target children. >> you have to understand that they were children in the crowds, that the apostles of every generation, of which they preach to. >> while the church of wells may strive to live a big lickal

lifestyle. the towns people of wells say enough is enough, and staged a protest on saturday. >> you are judging the people because they are not like you all. yes or no. >> yes or no. >> in a way the meeting is what the church of wells wanted, a conversation with the up to. but not every church member here was wanting to talk. >> do you still love your family. do you love your parents? 27-year-old katherine grove is a church member. her parents tried to re-un item with her, accusing church leaders of brainwashing their daughter. >> prays the lord. it's not about me, i'm dead. christ lives inside me. you want to talk to katherine, she's dead. >> the chump of wells says all members are free to leave when they wish, but the group itself will not leave wells until god tells them too. >> so i asked shaun morris today

how will he know, how will god she him when it's time to leave wells. he said to read the bible and wouldn't elaborate. she says the group is peaceful, they do not own weapons, and have no intention to change the style of preaching or leave wells soon. >> heidi zhou-castro live for us in rural texas. thank you. >> one of history's famous speeches is abraham lincoln's gettysburg address. film maker ken burns is paying tribute to it. in "talk to al jazeera" burns tells us about how he approaches his work. >> i'm making the same film over and over, asking this question - who are we? and what comes back from the projects are familiar themes. the first is obvious - freedom. the nature, personnel and collective freedom and tensions between the to pol arty. the second is race, we are founded on the idea that all mean are created equals - oops, but the guy who wrote it owned

others. there's tension between labour and management. stories of immigration, women, all sorts of powerful themes that compel almost all the stories in american history. i don't look for it. i'm not going to say "let's find the racial dimension." if you scratch the surface and say "i'm not interested in telling the superficial story of this, you'll bump into the themes all the time. >> you can watch the full interview with con burns on "talk to al jazeera". >> it's the navy's newest toy. a look at whether the striking ship is worth its multibillion price tag. >> we have storms. breaking out across iowa, bringing hail up to golf ball size. i'll show you the storms and where they'll pop you and talk about earthquakes and volcano.

ill

>> today the u.s. navy welcomed the latest addition to ith fleet, a stath destroyer, the first of its kind. uss "zumwalt" was cystened in main. the 610 foot ship is the largest destroyer. thanks to its advanced technology the ship requires half the crew of existing destroys, and the uss "zumwalt" is scheduled to go into service in 2016, and cost over $3 billion to build. in other details about the zum r the commanding -- uss "zumwalt," the commanding officer is captain james kirk as the first leader. that's right this captain kirk is the real deal, a graduate of the naval academy of anapolis, with 25 years of experience. seems like more than a copies dense that his name is captain kirk and he commands the futuristic ship. >> he probably does spoken word

poetry, and i bet everyone listens. >> we will, that's the truth. >> folks are listening, especially to weather reports in iowa now. we have been getting powerful thunder storms coming through, bringing up hail storms up to a golf ball size. some compared them to a half dollar size. we had wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour. storms are starting to break out in kansas, just nipping past south-east nebraska, and making its way to michigan. a lot of rain and dangerous lightening. it's been intense stretching across the area. it will proz -- progress to the south and the east. another round of storms in the mid west. in oklahoma, we have a significant risk for you, mainly in central oklahoma is where we'll focus for your day tomorrow. and nonetheless we'll track it for you. now we have the severe

thunderstorm watches and warnings in effect, strexing across the upper midwe have, and the hail reports have been the most numerous. when it comes to wind, they have been here and there. some flash flooding with the storms. it's primarily the hail. looking at wind gusts, u.s. wind gusts in this hour. it's been blustering for chicago, gusts up to 40 miles per hour. winds are easing. they are picking up for the west. through tomorrow, we have got concerns about dry assistance across new mexico. dry, and then you get the dry winds gusting. it's a concern for fire danger, folks have been talking about red flag warnings. >> now, for the forecast tomorrow, there'll be snow in the rockies and rain with storms and showers along a frontal

system in the midwest. let's get to the good stuff. we'll talk about earthquakes, and volcanos, the ones across the solomon islands - incidently, that's off to the north-east of where we have been tracking a tropical cyclone. australia has a tropical cyclone that made land fall a day ago. now it's making its way north of cairns in australia. currently with winds sustained at 54 miles per hour, and will track off into the ocean. we'll show you where we are getting the areas of earthquakes popping up in the solomon islands, where we have volcanos, and where three plates are coming together for the tet tonic plates. it's an interesting story. >> it is. we've been talking about it. calls for celebrations. cherry blossoms are in full bloom.

wintry weather delayed the cherry blossoms. thousands turned out for the parade. states from across the country have participated. beautiful to look at. that's the show. thanks for being with us. stay with us. "consider this" starts - now. >> real concerns for women in afghanistan. one of the country's important female leaders joins us. a shocking treatment for back pain, it's an exciting way science a battling paralysis. why are latinos doing better than african-americans. the head of the national league joins us on the state of black america. is technology killing our mental ability to read a book. welcome to "consider this," here is more on what is ahead. >>