america says help is on the way as more girls are kidnapped in nigeria. will possible negotiations with the terrorists just reward their actions? also, the white house issues a major report on climate change. it specifically warns of dire consequences of different regions of the u.s. plus al jazeera exclusively obtains e-mails between the nsa and google that raise serious questions about a cozy

relationship. as another congressman fights off corruption charges action we will check on the dirtiest states in the union. hello. i am antonio moro. welcome to "consider this." here is more on what's ahead. >> we want our girls back now. now. >> the president has directed that we do everything we can to help the nigerian government to find and free these girls. >> a suspected boko haram gunmen abducted more girls. >> this is not some sdrant problem of the future. this is affecting mrnlingz right now. >> as we get nearer to the electio elections, it will be more dangerous. >> russia seems to be intent on a course of preventing and disrupting those e legs. >> we are here to take a stand against intolerance of the sulta of brunai. >> we have the economic pressure to apply. nobody is talking about burning

anything down. >> targeting the beverly hills motel is muss directed. >> we begin with nigeria where eight more girls age 12 to 15 have been abducted by armed militants, suspected boko haram gunmen loaded them on trucks. this follows the ab deduction of 200 girls who opposing western education. the group has threatened to sell them into slavery. myer year yap president "good luck" jonathan is accepting help from the united states. >> our embassy is prepared to form a coordination cell that could provide expertise on intelligence, investigations and hostage negotiations and to help facility ta information, sharing and victim assistance. >> the nigerian government says it has been working to find the girls but there are doubts about how serious those doubts have been. >> in the short-term, our goal, obviously, is to help the

international community to recover these young ladies, about we are also going to have to deal with the broader problem of organizations like this that can cause such havoc in people's day-to-day lives. >> for more, we are joined from state college pennsylvania by jakana thomas at michigan state university who has researched the activities of boko haram. she is the author of awarding bad behavior, how governments respond to terrorism in civil war, an in-depth study and the number of concessions offered to groups involved in african civil wars. good to have you with us. the u.s. is sending hostage negotiators. >> seems to show the u.s. is will be to help. >> that's despite the conventional wisdom that governments don't negotiate with terrorists. you right this would reward their bad behavior. >> right. >> you said that nigeria has made matters worse because its

undermined its credibility in the way it's dealt with boko haram? >> absolutely. one of the biggest problems nigh year i can't faces is rather than eschewing negotiations. they have at every turn, every single time boko haram has used such tactics by starting civilians and engaging in terrorist tactics, the government has extended negotiations. this essentially rewards behaved because a group would witness that their tactists using terrorist -- launching terrorist attacks against civilians is actually working. it's benefitting that cause. so, a the government gives them more offers of con -- offers of negotiations to sit down and negotiate their demands, this makes them think that this is a worthwhile tactic and strategically, this would be a good idea for boko haram.

>> you say it's benefited boko haram's recruitment? >> absolutely. so in some cases like in bono state after the government had come in and cracked down very harshly on boca haram affecting some of the civilians there as well killing civilians while trying to target boko haram ce recruitiment increased and people's sympathy has increased is. it seems the government does not care and it seems like the government who should be protecting civilians is doing something just as bad or worse in not protecting civilians and actually hurting them in their counter terrorism response. >> borno being the state where these girls have been kid napdz. there are conflicting stories about whether terrorism is effective. do you think this is one cause where that has happened?

>> at least early on, it's absolutely helped boko haram gain simple pathy. >> that's had a lot to do with the nigerian government's response. terrorism doesn't have to benefit the group but when the government does things, engages in counter terrorism like the niger yam government has, in these repressive responses, yes, it does work for groups. and so i do believe that tu can certainly help groups gauge negotiations. it can help groups gain concessions in some cases although that's not what we tend to believe happens. >> right. bo boko haram has been killing an all of lot of people. the stilts are all over the place. they claimed responsibility for a bus bombing on the same day the 200 girls were taken. it was a described as apoco-0 limittic. it was described as minor even though it killed scores of people and they say they walk among nigerians and nigerians

don't know who they are. how strong is this group? >> there are estimates that suggest they are not very stock and suggest that they are very strong but i believe that that statement basically explains why counter terryism has been so difficult for nigeria as it is f for most other states. basically these golfs have identification problem such that they cannot tell who a rebel group is or who terrorists are versus who regular civilians are and so when they do come in to try to combat terrorism, it's often inflicts significant cost on the community that they are engaging in these efforts where they are engaging in these efforts. and so i think boko haram is saying that, look. i am here yet you don't know where i am. and that is quite correct, that often governments don't know who the terrorists are. >> has a lot to do with their intelligence gathering capabilities, so they don't have

significant or substantial intelligence that will tell them who the terrorists and who is just an ordinary civilian and so we don't know exactly how strong boko haram is but we know what they have been able to do is ce sever lee hurt the nigerian government. they have lost quite a bit of credibility. they have looked incompetent since -- for years now because they have been completely unable to actually combat boko haram. >> in this case. who knows where the kidnapped girls are? some are said to have been taken to neighboring countries. girls who are still reportedly until nigeria are being held in a forest community but this area that we are talking about, as thei they are being used, you know, as slaves or wives for some of these military ants, the area is massive. it's about the size of west village and very rugged territory of the the likelihood of getting them back, i know you are not an expert on that but what do you think knowing africa? >> i would think it's very,

very, very difficult for the government to engage in the right type of operations to get those girls back. of course, with the united states' help, especially with intelligence gathering, it's much more feasible that be it was before they got western help, but i think that it's going to be very difficult to just go in and get the girls back. and even if they do, they might actually do more harm by again engaging in these kind of bull in the china shop repressive counter-terrorism efforts. so when they go in to try to get the girls who knows if they are not precise enough if they don't do precise special operations, what kind of impact that will have on the captured girls. >> let's hope that the u.s. help does have some effect and that something is done to help these girls. jocanna thomas, good to have you with us and it's good to have your perspective. thank you? >> thank you for having me. >> turning to a gloomy weather

report for the entire country, long longer, hotter summers, drought, flooding, wildpires and more extreme weather. a new climate change report released by the white house tuesday says we should all expect that to be the new normal. president obama is using a new tactic to promote action taking it straight to top meteorologists and local t.v. weathermen. >> this is a really significant and dangerous problem. our kids and our grandkids are counting on us to do something about it. >> for more, we are joined from our studio in washington by kristin affront, associate director for science at the cooperative institute at the university of colorado bolder. she is a lead author of the new lee released national climate assessment, mopping a team of colorado researchers and scientists who share the 2007 nobel peace price. great to have you with us. this breaks down what's happening across the united states region by region in the northeast and we are expected to see more heat waves, rain, snow,

coastal flooding. the midwest faces longer growing seasons and oddly, there are some better yields in california which is already dealing with drought this year, dprooiksz it's going to get dryer. as you look at the totality of your report, what do you see is the worst of it? >> you know, although there are some dire messages within the report, i think that there is also some opportunities that are really offered in terms of places where we can take action as it relates to the climate and climate change. >> said, of course, it outlines specific risks that are suppop o folks particularly in the southwest where we are looking at intentionfication of drought and more wildfire activity. in the northeast, as you mentioned, we are also, we are already seeing the impacts of climate change. >> as we saw, i guess, with

sandy and sandy's effects and i know that's one of the prediksdz for the northeast that we were going to see more storms that will lead to flooding. but how different is this from the dire warnings we have heard for years? the report says that we have seen an avenue warming of less than two degrees fahrenheit over the past century but that that could actually get to 10 degrees by the end of this century? >> yes. that is a possibility. you know, right now, we are committed to a tape degree of climate change and, there was, it's the impact of climate change in the next 10 action 15, 20 years but depending upon what actions we take, both locally, nationally and internationally related to mitigation practices as well as just emissions in general, that's going to define where that temperature, where that temperature trend really goes out to 2100. if we are on our current trajectory, we could see increases in temperatures up, up wards of 6, 8 degrees fahrenheit. >> what would that mean? >> well, i think as you kind of wind the climate change clock,

the tighter you wind it, the sooner it's going to snap and you are going to end up with some very significant tipping points being hit. tipping points could mean more catastrophic extreme weather events. unfortunately, we don't know when that might actually happen. >> on the other hand, the report says that while we are seeing climate change, it's been somewhat moderate and we are only seeing moderate effects but we are seeing some pretty substantial economic costs. >> we are seeing some of the economist costs. >> said, one has to be very careful in terms of attributing very spevenlths like hurricane sandy or the california drought to climate changecifics like hu sandy or the california drought to climate change. if we look at the pattern in terms of the cost of natural drafters over the past 50 years, we are seeing dramatic increases as a consequence of extreme weather events that are happening. whether or not they are caused by climate change, well, the jury is really out on the specific events but we could expect that trend to continue.

>> we have bit on this story quite a lot. the most recently poles show only a third of americans care a great deal about climate change. it's the same as it was in 19 gliep. you know, we are seeing all of these reports, the u.n. report, one after another. do you expect this will have a different response than the others have had. >> i hope so. the national climate assessment, the third national climate assessment is much more in did he have depth. there is more detail. there is no debate any longer about climate change. it is happening. and, you know, when i start a conversation with somebody about climate change, i don't start it specifically about climate change. i talk about food. i talk about energy. i talk about national security. i thank you about things -- i talk about jobs. i turn aing employ things that matter to people. and all of those things will be put at risk as a sequence of climate change. >> there are some climate skeptics and there has been criticism that the report is alarmist. some on the hill are charging

that the findings are going to be used to muscle through some costly emissions regulations that could cost jobs. the ko institute says the report has a bias towards pessimism. how do you respond to them? >> well, the first thing that i would say is, you know, the jury is not out. the jury has come back. we have the verdict. >> that's what this report is. we know that the climate is changing and alarmist? no. it's not necessarily an alarmist report but it is showing we have some risks in our society that we need to address. in terps of being dire and pessimistic. there is a lot of uncertainty about what might happen, what the long-term impacts might be of climate change, how it might affect extreme weather. but there are people. there are places, towns, cities, stautsz and regionongons that are really taking action already to reduce that you are long-term risk. >> talking about those actions, the report is clear, as you said, that we are all a part of

the problem. one of our big problems is our dependence on coal and the mieingsz but is it realistic that:will be phased out quickly enough especially with opposition from many regarding nuclear power. >> there are a lot of options across the sgrunings. we are seeing declines in coal and increases in natural gas. >> said, well, natural gas is quote, unquote greener, if you will, than a coal. is still is a greenhouse gas. it still emits greenhouse gases, i should say. we still have to be careful about what the muon or the relative mix of fuels are in our future. there are going to be impacts no matter what we do. for example, the chapter that i led on energy or didn't lead but i contributed to, excuse me, the chapter on energy >> water and land use, what we are looking at is even under a low-carbon future, there could be some signifcontact impacts

for our water resources and our land resources. the report is not defining exactly what policy options should be taken. it's really -- it's out lining what are the challenges and trade-offs associated with differently policy futures, whether they are energy trajectories or not. >> a lot of things to face and a lot of decisions to make. kristin affront, it's a pleasure to have you with us. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> am coming up, north korea accuses the u.s. of being the wor wordss worst human rights abusee while some plans are leaked allegedly showing china preparing for north korea to collapse. later, we will talk to ukraine's ambassador to the u.n. about the growing tensions with russia and the threat of civil war there. plus, our associate immediate at that i can't producer tracking the top stories. >> a video that makes a poetic case against the use of social media has gone viral. it's ironic but the message seems to be resonating with a lot of people. i will tell you more coming up. let us know what you think throughout the show. we are on twitter at aj consider

this and on facebook at facebook.com/consider this. >> award winning producer and director joe berlinger exposes the truth. >> our current system has gone awry... >> a justice system rum by human beings, can run off the rails. >> sometimes the system doesn't serve and protect, and the innocent pay the price. what goes wrong? >> it's a nightmarish alternative reality, sometimes you can't win... >> an original investigative series. when justice is not for all... the system with joe beringer only on al jazeera america >> i'm joie chen, i'm the host of america tonight, we're revolutionary because we're going back to doing best of storytelling. we have an ouportunity to really reach out and really talk to voices that we haven't heard before... i think al jazeera america is a watershed moment for american journalism ♪

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it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system. only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before. north korea is rattlingly what it calls it's treasurered sword, it's nuclear sabre. some say they are planning a game changing fourth nuclear weapons test. a document allegedly leaked from china's army says beijing is preparing for a collapse whier china calls it groundless, they

are calli establishing more catches for ref uming ease. last week, beijing warned north korea it would by know means allow chaos or war on our doorstep. i am joined here by gordon change who writes on asia: gordan, good to have you with us. beijing certainly does not seem happy with all of the north korean antics. i don't mean to make light of another nuclear test. is t could bang jing stop this? >> i think it would be difficult because the chinese easy have been losing influence. this was illustrated by the execution of of the uncle of north korea's leader. he was the man beijing looked to for trying to influence the forth korean regime. we have to remember why they test. the most important reason is

they want a deterrent against the united states and against china because china and it korea have been fighting each other for 600, 700 years. >> china is the only ally they have. ? >> the north koreans know the chinese keep north korea in business. the north koreans figure out if we just get the chinese upset, it doesn't matter because they will give us aid and more food and oil. so the north koreans do what at the present time to do because they know china won't punish them. what about this document? do you think it's legitimate? >> i think the chinese have had contingency plans for this at least going back to the middle of the 1990s when you had the great famine in north korea and you did have refugees going across the border into china. were this is real or not, i

don't know if that is true but the point is, china is looking at this because they understand all of the problems north korea has. >> what about the timing of this leak? is that significant, given we are looking at this fourth nuclear test? >> that's probably something along the lines of where i would be thinking largely because the chinese want to slow the north koreans down, create some second thoughts in their minds and one of the ways to do is to leak through the japanese. i think that there is a lot to this. it's murky. i wouldn't discount this report. >> you mentioned the leader getting read of -- rid of his uncle but they have deposed the man who is securities believed to be the number 2, a former south korean national execute advisor is describing him as reckless and more ruthless and dangerous than husband father.

and kim jung il was no surpripr is this that he is new to power. >> he and his father set a high stad for bad behavior. the problem is not so much the individual. >> system has incentives to act in ways that are dangerous and reckless and brutal. we have seen since about the muddle of 2010 a number of deaths, all unexplained, probably related to the succession from the prior to the current ruler. death is the way of dispute resolution. >> is there dissent? >> we see the purges that have been occurring for quite some time. when you have a series of purges, it means that things have not really been settled. we know there was a peytonage network. kim jung unis setting out to

elum nature that. >> sanctions, the u.s. targeting sanctions on individuals in russia. would that in any way work in north korea? they are so isolated. i don't know. do they have money outside of north korea. >> tons of money outside of north korea but the question is, these guys don't travel that much. when they do, they go to places we probably can't reach them such as china and the chinese have made it clear they are not going to enforce sanctions in a meaningful way. so i don't think that would work. there are sanctions that would work on north korea but not if you just targeted the individuals. north corkorea may have the wor human rights record in the world? >> may? >> okay. it has. the atrocities in their camps are probably not found anywhere else in the world. last week, though, it released a report that claimed the u.s. is a living hell as elementary rights to existence are ruthlessly violated and it goes on and on and on with all sorts of horror stories about how

terrible life is in the united states. is this going to play anywhere outside of north korea. >> maybe in china because china issues reports like that, not with the same flurrid language but i am sure that res onates with the chinese. apart from bay beijing, nowhere else. >> it seems insane for these people to be putting it out there. president obama and the south korea ian president have been calling for north korea to scrap its unusual weapons program. there is a powerful article in bloomberg that said it's not kim jung. it seems like they are insane because they are asking for the same thing, thinking somehow they are going to get a different result. what does the u.s. p what does south korea, what do we have to do in order to, you know, somehow protect ourselves against this crazy regime. >> a kim of things that we can do. one of them is really drop, the heavy word on the chinese easy. north korea is able to do these things with bay ying's help. if we are going to sanction banks, we need to sanction

chinese banks that participate in north korean financial transaction. if we did that we would get beijing's attention. there are things we could do but we are not willing to upset the chinese. >> lease see what they end up doing with these nuclear weapons and tests. gordan chang good to see you. >> thank you. >> the crisis in ukraine, tensions are high in much of the eastern part of the country where pro-russian separatists are preparing to stage a referendum on sunday. meanwhile after meeting with european union foreign policy chief katherine ashton in washington, secretary of state john kerry called the plan con con drived and bothus n. >> we reject this flatly and its pursuit will create even more problems in the effort to try to deescalate the situation. >> i am joined by yuri sergeiv.

it is good of you to join us, am bo ambassador. secretary kerry says the u.s. will not recognize the results. what if russia decides the votes are valid? >> no one will support the results of this referendum because we had experience with the same referendum in crimea. so because the figures have been falsified and there is no legal background to organize this with legislation. so they are play with dangerous things which will bring further escalation of the conflict. >> that's why all of the efforts

are aimed for this referendum to be held, the majority of that population in that region according to the poll recently undertaken gives different figures that over 70% are for united ukraine. in donetsk, 72%. >> that's why if the government en can you managed to encourage the population of these regions not to support this referendum, the referendum will not take place. >> we have seen what happened in crimea and ironically, forbes is reporting today that putin's own civil society and human rights council said the crimea vote in effect was a farce, that instead of a huge turnout which was claimed by russia with 97 vetting to be annexed to russia, the turn out was small and only a little more than half wanted

annexation. what if they do the same thing in eastern ukraine because it does seem that, in effect, crimea has been annexed by russia? >> yeah. exactly. a month ago, it was on the 25th if incorrect. the leader while visiting outited nations, he bought the exact figures, exactly what they gave recently to the public. so they are planning the same thing, the same things. >> is a diplomatic solution to the crisis possible? russian foreign minister sergeilsergecertaisergei lavrov so, should ukraine negotiate under those terms a minister in vienna answered this

statement of lavrov telling that it's not only impossible but it is absolutely immoral to. what shu that should do and we are veried forready that shoulde are veried for to a right to have the presidentialshu that s are veried for to a right to have the presidential e elections germany says ukraine is a few steps a lway from a military confrontathes. is the country getting ready for civil war or some sort of open conflict with russia? >> well, so, there are different sepz. we are trying to avoid any clashes and wars with russia and a domestic conflict. we try to restrain even with our

reaction on domestic reaction on the separatists and they highly estimated this restrain. it's our nature to be tolerant, patient, but we have to do something and this something is in the process. the active law enforcement campaign. now, proceeding with small success. we are trying to be very careful not to bring casualties, victims. it makes the operation not as it is expected to be. >> law enforcement, there have been a series of problems not only because they are beingcabe and the governor and police chief in odessa have been fired, ukraine's military commander has been replaced. presidential candidate former

prime miles per hour sister is calling for volunteer forces to help. so, it does sound like it's gotten a bit chaotic on the side of the ukrainian government. >> well, the you critic going from the political points accepted by the government, but the governor explained in terms of the activity of the law activity of law enforcement operation because the armed separatists hate behind -- hide themselves bind the human sealed and it was not so easy to proceed on the east. unfortunately, and the min sister recognized that. a big amount of the security forces did he haformed during t previous power are sculpted.

>> that's what happened in odes odessa. instead of stop the clashes between the protesters from two sides, the police restrained and even helped the criminals. so now, this case is under the investigation in kiev. so, the facts are known, and so this is what the central government should deal with. >> ukraine has scheduled, as you said, a presidential election. it's coming on may 25th. russia is saying you can't move forward with elections under these circumstances with this kind of chaos. it's clear vlad mir putin does not want these elections held. >> today in vienna, all of the european ministers supported the

elections. the president of france stated very clearly that will actions should bring stability. outside, it will bring instability if ukraine will not manage to have these elections. it's evident for us. we need these e elections, and while house and state department also voiced in favor of these elections and stated supportive to ukrainian people to have these elections. we are preparing for the elections. >> we are hoping for stability in ukraine. ukrainian ambassador to the united nations, it is a pleasure to have you on the show. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> time to see what's trending on the web. let's check back in with her l hermela. >> an anti-social media video

has gone viral amassing millions of views on youtube. it was created by london based minimum maker gary turk. he tells of a young man who runs into his future wife when he stops to ask her for directions rather than do what many of us do, which is use the map on our phone. they fall in love, get married and have kids and grow old. the point is, had the young man been looking down at his phone instead, he would have missed a woman that changed his life. >> me phone shut down those displays. we have a phone like existence. don't waste your life getting caught in the net. when the end comes, no, sir is worse than regret. i am guilty of being part of this machine. we are heard but not seen, type as we talk and read as we chat where we spend hours together without making eye contact. >> a lot of people are praising the message in this video as

they share it on facebook and twitter. one viewer has a different take. sabrina says, sure, we are plugged in but our reach is further than within earshot and our freedom to explore the world extends far beyond when the street rights go out now. i love technology for the freedom it brings, she says, tired of the mentality that embracing it is wrong. what do you think? of course you will have to plug in to let us know. you can tweet us at ajconsiderthis or leave a comment on our facebook page. antonio, it's incredible how quickly this is spreading. >> a good point but i am one of those people who shared on facebook it's absolutely beautiful. >> very iranic? >> it brings out things that are worth thinking about. >> absolutely. >> straight ahead, al jazeera exclusive reveals big concerns over computer companies and their relationship with the nsa. also, yet another public official facing corruption charges. we will look at the most corrupt places in the country, and some will surprise you. later, a boycott is raising

questions about whether american workers could be unfairly paying the pits for what their company's owner is doing thousands of miles away.

>> google's motto is: don't be evil. new documents may have users questioning how much the company

follows that. al jazeera has obtained two sets of e-mail exchanges that show google had a closer relationship to the nsa than the company admitted to after the edward snowden leaks last year. it shows friendly exchanges between alexander and google executives. the revelations surprising to say the least. 8 son leopold is an investigative journalist who obtained the e-mails. he joins us fromla las an lus. the thought was the phone companies had been more willing to share information and tech giants had done so only when compelled by courts aking as if they had been bullied into it. these e-mails show there wasn't much bullying. >> no. >> that's exactly it right there is that a year before the he had yard snowden revelations in those documents, here we see that google, apple, mike soft,

del, hughlet packard had all been involved in some aspect of information sharing with the nsa. . >> many of the e-mails focus on a project called "enduring security framework, esf" and it coord nathsz actions between the government and industry lighters. i have red civil libertarians said there do need to be but what happens here seems to have gone too far. >> it's not -- it's not clearly that it went too far. the reason that it's not exactly clear is because much of the information revolving around this enduring security framework remains classified. these briefings, these meetings that have been taking place that nsa director keith alexander articulates or discusses in these e-mails take place in a classified setting. so we don't really know what's being discussed.

however, the two sets of e-mails that we have obtained do show that one, they wanted to discuss mobility security and threats. there was another previous meeting that took place on software vulnerability issues related to when you start up your personal computer. so that shed some rare light into what has actually been discussed previously. >> talking about threats, part of this process may have involved an alleged thwarted plot by china that the nsa said could have destroyed the u.s. economy. some were questioning whether the computer companies should be working with the nsa at all to help with that kind of security. >> well, there is two sides of it. on one hand, you have, um, some civil libertarians saying information sharing is absolutely essential. the problem with it is that there is no clearcut guidelines on how that information sharing should take place. there is absolutely no

transparency about it as well. so we don't know to what extent or what extent they have been sharing information, what type of information they have been sharing, how they have been sharing the information. and whether a -- whether consumers' information has been promi compromised as a result. >> one of the questions is whether in that context of possibly helping these companies, whether the nsa could have possibly taken advantage of the companies? >> exactly. one of those e-mails, that's where we sort aof are able to pt the pieces together. it discusses what's referred to as a bios security threat and that's what i indicated about starting up your computer and more or less, attackers can brick a computer. well, that's exact what the snowden documents revealed, what the nsa was doing, hacking into the bios software and into the

platform there and exploiting it, exploiting those vulnerabilities that they then go to these tech firms like google asking them to open the door to allow the nsa in so they can, you know, so they can address these issues. >> bricking the computers is to make them useless. google isn't commenting specifically, but they said that they do work with many experts including the government to, quote, stay ahead of the game. where do you think these partnerships are going to go from here? will they become more public? will they continue? or do you think there is going to be some real pullback as a result of all of this. >> i think that the partnerships will continue. there will, however, it's important to also note that there won't be any transparency because of the revelations that, you know, that we have made here. i mean i made this premium freedom of information act request. i filed this because i wanted to find out what communications the nsa had with these tech giants.

and so this was sort of the first release of documents that i received showing what those communications were. so, it really is going to take perhaps more foia requests to find out the extent of how these conversations are continuing. >> great investigative work, raising all sorts of questions, jason leopold, thank you for bringing this information to us? >> my pleasure. thank you the global community outraged at the imposition of sharia law in brunai. is it fair to boycott a company here over what its ownership does in another country? what parts of the are the most corrupt? our data dive is up next. >> on techknow... >> we're heading towards the glaciers >> a global warning >> is there an environmental urgency? >> that is closer than you think... >> even a modest rise, have dramatic impacts on humankind. >> how is it changing the way you live today?

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>> you need to pay the water bill, if you don't pay it, we're shutting your water off in a half hour >> how will you survive? >> the stakes are so high... >> america's middle class: rebuilding the dream on real money with ali velshi on al jazeera america today's data dive looks at questionable uses of power. new york congressman michael grim said his internal polls show him leading in husband re-election fight despite a 20 count federal indictment that forced him to surrender to authorities last week, filing false tax returns, perjury, obvio obstruction and hiring of undocumented workers.

he fame lus threatened a new york t.v. reporter who asked him about the case. >> let me be clear to you. while grim's case is pending corruption is as old as american politics. a university of illinois study found chicago is easily the most corrupt city with the most convictions since 1976. in total numbers, new york is the most corrupt state with california, illinois, florida and pennsylvania rounding out the worst five. but all are populist states with a large number of public officials and that skews the numbers. the story is very different when you, you look at bids insiders breakdown on a per capita basis. then new york isn't even in the top 20. louisiana was the easy winner or should we say loser with nine convictions of public officials for every 100,000 people. it's followed closely by north and south dakota. who knew?

in a different study that included u.s. territories in the nation's capitol, washington, d.c., the virgin islands and gallup were the most corrupt. a look at accountability in a 2012 survey from the center for public integrity had dismissal results. it focused on state ethics, open records and disclosure laws and only five states got a b mine under the circumstances or higher. on our map, yellow is best. red is worst. new jersey had the highest grade, b plus. eight states got an f. west virginia got a d plus. former governor borrowed an only for a test drive that lasted four years. then he awarded the dealer a $2.7 million state contract. to quote ronald reagan, it has been said politics is the second oldest profession. i have learned it bears a strong resemblance to the first. are the boycotts targeting

mostly american businesses? >> you followed their journey across the border >> it was heart wrenching... >> now see how it changed the lives of the people involved. >> i didn't go back to the person that i was before i left... >> an emotional borderland reunion >> this trip was personal to me... this is real... >> long held beliefs >>...illegal in mexico too.. >> learn the language! come here... >>...most ridiculous thing i've heard in my life >> tested by hard lived truths... >> these migrants are being exploited >> beyond borderland... only on al jazeera america ds - .

al jazeera america, take a new look at news. new laws in the country of brunai have led to trouble for two landmark hotels in l.a. the death penalty for gays and aadulterers. the small rich agent owns the h hotels in los angeles. they are finding themselves targeted by protests from advocates including hollywood stars. >> berlin, 1933, hello. i mean, does it seem that far off from what happened during the h holocau holocaust? >> joining us, katherine spiller, the executive editor of ms magazine and executive vice president of the feminist

organization that held the rally. what are you calling for and why did you feel it was important to take action against the sultap of brunai by focusing on these hotels? >> we were scheduled to have our annual global women's rights awards event there at the beverly hills hole. about a week and a half ago, we became aware that the sultan of brunai said he intended to implement taliban like laws that would include the stoning to death of gays and lesbian s, aadulterers and the plug flying of women who have had abortions. we felt it could be unconscionable to proceed with the event at the holts. we pulled the event from the holts, moved it, and held the protest yesterday to call attention to the sultan's horrific edics that mimic the talibants laws when it was in pour in afghanistan and to make sure that people understand that really people's lives are at

stake in brun aye. we need to put pressure on the sultap and on the united nations and the world of nations to bring pressure on him to re-send these e addition. >> it's coming from high profile people. jay leno, celebrities have spoken out. the chief executive that runs the hotels said that boycotts may hurt the local economy and workers without stopping the laws from being implemented in brunai. is that a fair point? we want to hope that the sultan will move quickly seeing how much terrible press he is getting and how many people are saying they can't go to hotels here or in london or in paris or in new york that are owned by a man and a country that is about to implement these taliban-like laws. we were there because we were about to hold an event there. and listen. i want to say that the holts has been very gracious. they refunded all of our money. they understood that for us to

proceed with the event there was just not even possible. and we hope that the sultan will get the message very quickly. we hope the u.n. will get the message to bring pressure on the sultan so that none of the workers are going to lose their jobs and that we can go back to celebrating this hotel here in los angeles. >> i am you are not specifically calling for a boycott but in the end, won't it have that effect? you bring up the workers. the question is, you know, these event did like the ones you were going to have this do bring trel money for hotels the littto sur. >> they give a lot of business to other suppliers and contractors. >> let's not forget that people lifes are at attack in brunai and in nigeria and still in parts of after gap stan where these taliban forces are imposing these horrific violations of human rights. these are crimes against humanity that are being carried

out as though they have something to do with culture or religion. those are human rights violations and peoples' lives are at attack-- at stake. i hope the sultap gets the message. the faster the better. he cannot be part of the world community, a globetrotter and a secretseller and do this to his people and not have the rest of the world notice. >> do you think it will have an effect on him? what about the issue, to be devil's advocate that we should not be judging, you know, imposing our norms here on another country? >> we are not imposing any no s norms. we are talking about human rights which are universal. you have certain rights just by being born a human wherever you are in the world. these are not relimous edict did. these are not cultural e addition. these are crimes against human rights and that's what we have to treat them as. we have to recognize that you

cannot use relimingon and culture to impose human rights violations on a whole people and the world community will not stand by and let that happen. >> in that context, we do live in a global society, foreign investment and american busies commonplace. where do we draw the leip? other countries certainly do have some atrocious policies? >> i tell you, business ought to get the message, too because they have become the targets of these kinds of actions. how could business be dealing with these countries that are imposing these taliban-like lauds and not say something about them? this is a petro state. they are selling oil and gas all over the world to support that country. as consumers and as business interests, we have a right and an obligation to say something when human rights are being so blatantly violated. >> you are making a powerful statement. i hope it has a strong effect. katherine spiller, it's a pleasure to have you with us. >> thank you. >> the show may be over. but the conversation continues

on our website aljazeera.com/considerthis or on facebook or google+ pages. find united states on twitter at ajconsiderthis. we will see you next time. ♪ >> >>. >> u.s. joins forces to help the kidnapped girls in nigeria, as more girls are taken. >> america's extreme weather - the impact, the solutions in our special "climate change and you." . shaky ground oklahoma's