we bring you man-o-pause. you can find us on twitter and aj "consider this". see you next time. hi everyone this, is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. under fire. an inside are attack in afghanistan claims the life of a 2-star u.s. general. cyber heist - a russian crime ring pulse off an internet -- pulls off an internet job. and someone that walked away from an airline crash. >> slam dunk in sport.

san antonio spurs hire a new assistant coach. tonight - the safety of u.s. forces in afghanistan is in the spotlight after an insider attack killed an american general. major-general howard green was a 34 year army veteran. officials say a man believed to be an afghan soldier opened fire on green and coalition troops. more than a dozen others were wounded. the shooting happened at a training center. lisa stark reports from the white house. >> the attacks took place at the african military academy. it was during a routine visit by coalition officers, meeting with their afghani counterparts. during this meeting a man in an afghan military uniform opened fire, he was reportedly shooting

with a light machine-gun and killed major general howard green, wounded a dozen others, including a brigadier general and afghan officers. the assailant was killed during the attack. at the pentagon rear-admiral kirby says it appears to be another of the insider attacks, when afghan troops turned on coalition forces. >> i think we have been very honest that the insider threat is probably - it's a perpishes threat and is difficult to ascertain. to come to grips with the scope of it anywhere you are, particularly in a place like afghanistan. so - and afghanistan is still a war zone. >> now, the assailant was apparently a member of the afghan troops, which means he would have been vetted for security concerns there'll be an investigation into the attack.

major general howard green who died in the attack was a 2-star general. he'd been in the military for 30 years, sent to afghanistan in january. a key part of the coalition troop was getting the afghanistanies ready for the drawdown of u.s. forces. he's believed to be the highest ranking u.s. officer killed in a combat zone. he leaves behind a wife, two children, his son in the army. the army chief of staff issuing a statement saying "our thoughts and prayers are with the green family and the family of the other soldiers injured." lisa stark reporting. for more on the changes of keeping coalition soldiers safe in afghanistan, i spoke to retired army general tony shaver. >> this is not easy, there's tribal issues. the taliban didn't claim credit

but say they have a lot of infiltrators in the afghan army. it's something to keep our eye on. >> is it the taliban or others taking advantage of the fact that the u.s. is pulling out. >> absolutely. i think the taliban is holding its powder, they are being patient. we are drawing down to 10,000 troops starting in january. that's one of the reasons we have seen a decrease. our profile has gone from 100,000 to 32. we are lowing it again. what -- lowering it again. what else can be done is do what we have done in the past. we have taken foreign military, string them in third country. n.a.t.o. want to be an ally and friend. let's take more and get them to be a central loyalist. move them to germany to be trained. that adds a lair of security. afghanistan, i think, is almost an encouragement to do this sort

of thing if you were there. >> does this mean the 10,000 soldiers left are at greater risk? >> no, as a matter of fact, i think the way they do it is my discussion on how they were working this. spesht operations doing anti-terrorism. the training element should be lower. our idea is train the trainer. you want to train an afghan cadry to be the trainers. you have afghans leading and training afghans. so i think in the end we'll be better off by the fact we have a lower profile. we have learnt a lot of lessons on how to lower the profile in a way to reduce the chances for this violence. >> what about the issues it raises ahead of a withdrawal from afghanistan. >> sure. i think we can agree that security is going to be the key to sustaining any central

government. right now they restart the auditing of the current presidential election results. we don't have a new president. we have no agreement for security forces past december of that year. the plan we have in face, will it sustain the government. will the forces that we have trained sustain it, it's a huge to be determined. frankly, i'm skeptical that we'll see the afghan government survive past the departure. >> it's been over 40 years since a high-ranking general was killed in combat. in 1970, army major germ dillard junior has shot down in a helicopter. timothy mud lost his life in the

attack on the pentagon, and the only other american general to die was brigadier general terence hildner who died of natural causes. >> now to the other top story, the 3-day ceasefire between israel and hamas almost reached the end of its first day, the longest stretch of peace in this conflit. israel pulled -- conflict. >> israel pulled out ground forces earlier today. the focus is on the talks in cairo, where negotiators are looking for a permanent ceasefire. diplomats on all sides sent small delegations to cairo, but there's no agreement. today some palestinians were able to return to their homes, we have this report. >> this is where israeli forces took cover while fighting in armed palestinian groups. the evidence of their preps in the front room of this flat is clear. so, too, is the damage caused by

earlier israeli shelling of what was once the home of a family of seven. >> the people who owned the house are the lucky ones. it's still standing. one day they may be able to rebuild and move back in. but that is not the case for many others. >> with tuesday's withdrawal of israel's ground forces from the gaza strip , and the start of the 72-hour ceasefire, many came back to assess what is left. this man those she where his house stood. all it is now is a pile of rubble. this is the first time he has seen his home since israeli forces ordered him to leave. >> translation: god help me, o god can protect us from the criminals. >> in gaza city, people have started to go out to the streets. for many the first stop is the bank. getting access to cash is difficult. most are taking out as much as they can.

>> for weeks i couldn't leave my house, and i ran out of money completely. i have 25 family members to stay with me. >> as people sal whimming what is left of their hope, there's hope that a ceasefire will hold. many know from experience how fragile it is. >> reporter: after four weeks of fighting israel's military left a mark on gaza, damaging much of its infrastructure. according to the palestinian center for human rights, two hospitals were destroyed, two water desal nation blants mr blown up. six u.n. schools were damaged and an attack on a sewage treatment plant created an environment crisis. nicole johnson has the story. >> reporter: untreated sewerage is flowing into the mediterranean sea. people go fishing. they don't catch much. they have to try, knee-deep in

filthy water. the smell is terrible. >> translation: what can we do. i want to help my family survive. we need to eat. >> reporter: when gaza is not in a war, it doesn't have enough electricity and infrastructure to treat the waste produced by 1.8 million. now it's worse. the sewerage pumping station was bombed. a pool of untreated waste blocks the road, and the overflow runs down to the sea. for the last two weeks, 30,000 cubic metres of raw sewerage flooded into the streets, in northern and central gaza. >> they take it to the ocean, even if not treated. the problem is - we are not capable of bringing the sewerage down to the facilities. the sewage in the streets is flooded in the nearby areas.

in the refugee camp on the sea, waste water trickles. children are playing. now it's here all day. i can't start to describe how bad the smell is. it's a problem, now it's worse. >> if that was not bad enough, mounds of rubbish are getting bigger. another 200,000 have moved into the center of gaza city since the war started. doubling the amount of rubbish. to around 700,000 tonnes a day. all ending here in the middle of the city. >> the main landfall cited in east gaza, there's no way the rubbish can be sent there. gaza's beaches are empty, the cafes deserted. the stench of rotting garbage and suage drifts across the

city. the conflict is left. nick schifrin has been there on the ground throughout the fighting. he joins us for an indepth look of life in gaza. tonight. british airways cancelled flights to sierra leone. more cases are reported in liberia. since march. 900 have died. the second american aid worker diagnosed with ebola arrived in atlanta. robert ray has more from atlanta. >> while officials and health workers around the world tried to stop the surge of the outbreak, there's another battle going on here behind me at emery hospital. the two americans in an isolation room being treated.

>> american aid worker nancy writebol arrived in atlanta, equipped with an isolation unit. as the plane flew in, the concerned family offered a public message of support. >> i love you. and then i'm going encourage her that we know that god is good, and we trust him. >> the other patient, her colleague, dr kent brantly made the same trip from liberia. the two patients are the first with ebola to be treated on soil. both improving after receiving an experimental drug. >> what it is is a cocktail of antibodies that the body makes to block the virus. the serum known as zmapp as harvested from lab animals, identified as an ebola treatment seven months ago. dr brantly received his second

dose yesterday at emory. nancy writebol got her second dose this morning. as they undergo treatment, the service of both workers is praised by christian missionary groups. >> if they suffered through this, in order to see tens of thousands of lives saved. they'd be willing to go through what i go tlox. >> sim or serve in mission was the organization nancy writebol was working with and they briefed the press. >> nancy is weak. she shows signs of continued improvement. she's showing signs of progress and is moving in the right direction. >> the world bank announced a $200 million relief fund, money distributed, guinea and sierra leone, to pay doctors, educate locals on how to fight the outbreak. volunteers from the u.s. and

around the globe suit up and head overseas to the front lines, where the virus claimed 900 lies. >> hoping for the best, the doctors here are monitoring the vital signs, keeping the patients hydrated, allowing the bodies to take over and fight the deadly infection, hoping for the best. >> robert ray reporting from atlanta. there are clues that may cause the spread of ebola. deforestation, logging, construction, global warming. animals infected are getting closer to humans, with no forest to keep them apart. researchers say the outbreak may have come from human contact with bats and gore illas. joining us to talk about the factors is abdo. he studied the virus with an assistant professor at columbia university. welcome. where does the virus come from?

>> so we know that the virus lives in host populations of animals that live in the forests in many of these sub-saharan african countries and only comes to humans, when humans make contact with the animals, in particular the infected bodily fluids. >> is there a concern about mutation? >> not really concerned about mutation. we know a certain proportion of the animals will be infected. when humans made contact, as it comes through and moves on to the human population, that's when it's epidemic among us. other than deforestation and reducing the area between humans and animals, what else is causing the spread. >> it's important to differentiate the spread. >> and the frequency and the severity of outbreaks over time. which is likely to be caused by deforestation, change.

>> so can we expect - i mean global warming, what impact could global have on this. >> as global warming keeps on - we know part of what is going to happen is there's a change in the precipitation patterns. there's data to suggest that as global warming occurs. there's moments where you go from arid weather to rainy weather, and that's associated with the ebola outbreaks in the past. as global warming continues to move forward, we expect the patterns, and it's possible the frequency and severity might worsen. years ago it seemed ebola was so far away and removed from the u.s. population, and the world population, but it seems as if this outbreak has changed that. why? >> it's important to put it within the context of general demographic changes that are going on in the world. the population is growing, and

people are moving to densely packed centers, and the third issue is the opportunity to move from west africa to the united states is more mon. planes fly in every day. as it happens, that's increasing the severity of outbreaks for a number of reasons. the fact that people get on a plane easily and move halfway across the world makes it more of a global epidemic. in the past when it seems so far aways, it's when it's so far away. with the increasing population density and the ease of travel. it's a plane ride away. >> how are african nations dealing with the spread of the disease. what might they do different. >> it's a change in a place like sub-saharan africa where resources are less available than here, medical and otherwise. while there are effort on the part of health minister ris in

sub-saharan africa and guinea, and on the part of the who, it's give because people fear the consequences of having the virus. and it's suggested that they are hiding from medical perm. if you get the virus, the implications are high. people, out of fear, if they are getting exporges, are hiding. and that's making it a lot more difficult. >> we hope it doesn't last among time. thank you very much. >> good to see you. thank you for having me. next, it's one of the biggest online security breaches. more than a billion passwords stolen. what you need to know to brect your personal information. walking away from a plane crash. 25 years later, we talk to a fiver of app amazing crash.

united flight 232.

target is still reeling from a data breach that put millions of its retail customers at rick, costing the company about $150 million in the second quarter alone. the hackers stole either credit card information or personal data from 100 million shoppers. the following month the retailer said it would cover the cost of credit screening for the customers for a year. there are other reports of a big data breach, the "new york times" says russian hackers stole more than a billion user names and passwords and have

half a billion email addresses. the firm discovered the theft that the hackers don't appear to have ties to the russian government. still concern. edward is a c.e.o. of a financial intelligence firm. he's in the studio. >> thank you for having me on. >> how does a gang steal that much data? >> it's a great question. we have to look at the particular situation. taking a step back, when vladimir putin came to power, he disbanded the kgb. and they wept to work for the russian -- went to work for the russian mob. what occurred, is advance intelligence officers work for the mob. this is not just normal mob activity, this is an entell geps operation -- intelligence operation. >> a billion customers. how do you get that much information on that many people?

>> well, intelligence officers are able to gain that type of information balls they are able to find a back door. what i believe is occurring here is that people are helping on the other side. what needs to be looked at is we don't live in a world of a bunch of geeks hacking a cyber code. it's not about that. it's about human intelligence, human to human contact. >> you say they are not hanging on a computer. they are stealing the information. >> both. there has to be a combination. one thing that my firm does, is we create an all-eeing eye. and try to prevent the cyber security. >> are we getting insiders giving the russians whoever steals the information help. >> you take the social security number and birth date.

it goes on the black market. >> how much does someone make. >> enough to conduct a large-scale intelligence operation. >> how much money could a gang, by taking the information from a billion people, how much money could they make from that? >> billions. because it's not so much monetary though. it's a huge monetary gain. >> that's why they are doing it. >> not... >> why are they doing it? >> the reason why they are doing it is to sell the information back to the russian government. it's a russian offensive. >> really. >> i believe so. >> this is using kgb intelligence officers to do it. >> how do you prevent your employees from handing over important information? >> the first thing is to admit that cyber security, there's no

such thing. because... >> like locking it up in the electronic safe. >> it cudoesn't exist. they will get caught. they'll be prosecuted. and will go to gaol. >> cameras. makes yourself target. the problem comes in. the problem is when you leave the door unlocked. >> so if i leave my computer on, and someone steals the information in it. is that right? >> absolutely. >> a simple mistake. >> either simple mistake or someone you know decides to take

the information and sell it to somebody else. >> good to see you. interesting information. dry weather and the drought fuel wildfires out west. california, oregon and washington state battling major blazes - 30 large fires moving through the federal and state forests. if the u.s. burns. hawaii preparing for a double whammy, tropical storms, and another severe storm. residents are stocking up on supplies before intense weather hits. >> kevin corriveau is here with that story. >> this tomorrow is making its way to hawaii. probably late on thursday, friday. it will be the time frame there.

back here is hoolio. that is a tropical storm. either way, we'll see a bit of storm activity. i want to take you down here to los angeles, on the outside. take a look at the video that came in yesterday. of this incredible rescue, during a flash flooding incident. an elderly couple was rescued out of the car. that was, unfortunately in a low-water crossing. they got out safely. you need to be careful in the areas where flooding is a potential. right now the factor is towards the northern park. where flash flood warnings, watches are in effect. as you see, there's a lot of rain across the region, that is the one place we definitely need the place. because of the drought swags. tomorrow we expect to see more

rain. >> thank you very much, kevin. >> coming up. nixon in his own words. rarely seen interviews from the former president on his final days in the white house. a randa view in space. after travelling billions of miles, a spacecraft meets up with a comet. what scientists hope to learn, coming up.

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this is al jazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler. coming up this half hour - many palestinians heading back home to gaza after 30 days. and getting the first look at the destruction left behind. plus a story of disaster and survival - a passenger on united flight 232 talks about the plane crash that forever changed his life. and inspiring change in the n.b.a. meet the first female hired as an assistant coach. the three day israel-hamas

ceasefire is holding, allowing negotiators in cairo to work longer, on a longer lasting truth. gazans are returning to what is left of their homes. charles stratford has more from rafah. >> hey, this is the latest from gaza. a day where we see the ceasefire so far holding. incredible shock among the palestinian people as they returned to what remained of their homes. i went to rafah in the south of gaza strip. a man described to me what he said was a tsunami, the aftermath of a tsunami down there, people picking through the rubble, salvaging what they can of their lives. a lot of distrust among the people as to whether the ceasefire will hold. people mogg into the areas that -- moving into the areas they lived in, taking as much stuff as they can and getting quickly out, away from what was a front line.

talks ongoing in cairo, we understand israeli delegation arrived for indirect talks with the palestinian factions. including hamas. and interesting reports from a source of hours in cairo, that israel are trying to push egypt to ask hamas, or demand hamas, that is, that they hand over their weapons in exchange for a guarantee from israel that they will rebuild gaza. very interesting line coming out of cairo, israel's demands are as high as hamas. we know a hamas want the blockade, the 7-year blockade over the gaza strip lifted. they want the prisoners released, they want the fishing areas that they can fish in expanded, but it seems that the israelis are pushing hard as well. >> that's the latest here from gaza. >> just a programming note.

30 days of war - an indepth look at gaza. we'll see you then. tomorrow, the american soldier freed after years of capture in afghanistan faces formal questioning by the u.s. army. investigators are looking into reports that army sergeant bowe bergdahl abandoned his post. he was captured in 2009 and released in may as part of a prisoner swap. the u.s. will try to fight climate change by phasing out old coal burning power applicant, but environmental groups are divided over replacing coal with gas. tom angerman reports. by 2017, the last of the coal-fired power plants in the state of massachusetts will be out of business. the latest to close, a 63-year-old operation whose

chimney stacks sued coal. if all goes to plan it would be torn down, taking its place on the sit site. it would be a smaller facility driven my clean gas. under the deal the gas-fire plant will be shut in 35 years. environmental groups reached an agreement with the utility in keeping with massachusetts official targets with a quarter of its electricity generated from renewable sources in the next five years. >> the settlement reached in regard to his plant is a great example of how we can use natural gas to keep the lights on. and create an intentional transition to a clean energy future. for some local residents, that is full of holes. we think it's a terrible idea. there's no way to meet the

mandated goal. the economics are if you build the plant, it will shut out the development of renewable energy like wind and solar and wave technology. >> massachusetts has plenty of wind and waves. both technologies development lags behind europe. off the massachusetts coast the first offshore commercial wind farm is years away from construction. it's promoters admit the price of electricity is double that of power on the grid. clean power advocates say the economics of renewables are changing for the better. >> already in some places in the country onshore winds and solar are reaching parity in competitive levels. in the courts, and on the streets the activists wage the fight for the state to step off the natural gas pedal. tonight there are signs that

the flood of migrant children across the border from mexico is easing. the federal government is lacking to the states to provide shelter for some of them. massachusetts offered to host 1,000 children, but says its help is no lodger needed. washington says there has been a drop in the number of kids coming across the border by themselves. >> a terrifying state caught in action. an unbelievable plane crash. that's united airlines flight 32 cash landing in iowa of of 296 on board, 184 survived. the airline industry learnt more about the did asker and the survival. the author of flight 232 joins us tonight to talk about the crash. and the stories of survival, and he's a commercial pilot himself. welcome. >> thank you. can you tell me why you decided

to write this book. >> well, i've been writing about aviation all my life. i've been a pilot most of my life. my dad was a pilot. this was a unique opportunity. it was a fatal crash, many survived. no one touched the story. these people, after 20 years or more, they were ready to tell their stories. the pilots did an amazing job. how did they stay so calm? >> well, they are professionals. they are trained to do this. however, they are not so calm as they seem. if you examine the tapes carefully you can hear the extreme tension in their voices. they were saying they were too busy to be scared. they did what they did, because they were tremendously experienced. >> there were many remarkable things about the flight.

most was 184 people on board survived. how did they survive? >> they survived mostly at random. there were some exceptions to this. there were people on board who made specific decisions about what to do that saved their lives on the spur of the moment, and saved others' lives. this is a story of human generosity and heroism. one fighter pilot on board was in the back and dropped from his seat. the plane was upside down after the crash. dropped from his seat belt and could sea fire. he was in so much smoke he could hardly breathe. he thought he'd die if he couldn't do something. he jumped through a wall of fire. the next thing he knew he was in sunlight standing on the runway unscathed wearing a suit and tie and pencil in the pocket. he saved his own life.

it was a remarkable feat. >> with the hero, the pilots were heroes, because they got them to the runway, even though we had the spectacular crash. >> yes. the plane was going to roll over on its back and dive into the ground from 37,000 feet when the engine and the tail blew-up, cip bling the plane. the pilot reached over, adjusted the throttle and put all the power on the right side of the plane so the wing lifted up. in that second, the split second decision, he saved those lives. >> this crash happened in 1989. what was it like for people to relive it and talk to you about it? >> we were just at the 25th anniversary gathering in sue city, and saw a huge outpouring of emotion from people,

everywhere. the survivors certainly, families. the crew of the firefighters and rescue people. all these people lives were deeply affected by this, and that is one of the things that makes it a great story. it's a story of human emotion. in the background are the mechanical facts of the crash. >> it's a fascinating book. great to talk to you. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> tonight we are hearing a disgraced president talk about the scandal that brought him down, this week marks 40 years since president nixon resigned. now the nixon library released rarely heard tapes of nixon. roxana has tham. >> i did not want to quit. i thought it would be an administration of guilt, which, of course, it was. in this interview richard nixons describes his fall from

grace. >> i hope no other president resigns. >> the richard museum and foundation is released 28 minutes of interviews with the former president. it's part of the 30 hours of interviews recorded with a former white house aide in 1983. nine years after resigning the presidency. he's more reflective. he's beginning to talk and think in terms of his legacy. with some distance from watergate. >> transcripts of the interviews have been available online. for the most part this foot ug has been sitting in the university of georgia archives. now with the release on youtube, the nixon library hopes more would learn about history, a goal historians say he may have had when doing the interviews. >> this was his gamble with history, that you can sit for the interviews 30 years ago, and one day we'll release them and maybe a younger generation that

didn't live through watergate or vietnam can have fresh perspectives. >> nixon times appears emotional. he reads a segment, a note that his daughter left him on his pillow. >> saying daddy, i love you. whatever you do, i will support. >> when he decided to resign his wife pat resisted. >> she was quiet, listening to the others, which she usually does. she came down very emphatically against resigning. >> historians say no other president agreed to be interviewed in this way. the videos may help to change the imaging of nixon's administration, as one of the most secretive in history. >> the true irony is that it may be studied so exhaustively that it may become transparents. >> three segments will be online. four released on the saturday. >> after a 10-year journey

through space, a spacecraft "rosetta", will be the first in history to meet with a comment. the size of a mountain. nadine barber has more on the significance of the rhonda view. >> reporter: celebrations in germany at the end of a hib erpation, and the reawakening of a spacecraft called "rosetta", it's been travelling the solar system for a decade. on wednesday it's due to get within 100km of a comet. if all goes well, it will be the first space mission to rhonda view with a comment. convenience, the spacecraft will be diverted, such that we'll be nearby the comment, we'll look carefully at the comet and build to fly around it. >> images taken in later weeks shows the comment in a fair

amount of detail. what is the fascination with the object. >> comets are primitive bodies, they can tell us about the formation of the solar system, and in particular about where vital comments such as water came from. we know that our earth has a great deal of water. we don't know where it came from. it's likely that comets had a lot to do with the process. >> since blasting off from french gi arna, rosetta travelled 6 billion kilometres. in a way its journey is beginning. it will be accompanying the comet around the sun. at the end of this year it will deliver a lander. scientists in germany tested the harpoon, used to fast on the comment to the surface. >> the challenge is that we know almost nothing about the comet. we knew less when we built the probe. we don't know what the surface

is like, whether it's soft or hard like ice. >> by the end of next year they hope to know more, enough to provide clues as to what the planet looked like. you may remember the man, the ohio man who raised more than $50,000 on kickstarter for potato salad. zach brown will use a significant portion of that money to set up a permanent fund to end homelessness and hunger in his home state. he started to raise money on the site in july, with a goal of $10. the project went viral, hundreds joined in on the donations. >> coming up next - $100 million. that's what it costs to make a robbery case go away. plus - making sport history. meet the new assistant coach for the san antonio spurs.

we are finally looking at a nice change across the north-east. we have had warm levels across the area. we have a frontal boundary coming through. it will bring some showers here and into pennsylvania. tomorrow we expect the showers, delays at the airport. what is going to happen over the next couple of days is temperatures will drop down. humidity will go down. it will people a lot better by

the time we end the week. especially here in florida, we see high levels of rain over the last couple of days. flooding has been a problem here across parts of naples florida. over the next couple of days, we don't expect much of a change. we don't expect much change. the areas saturated will stay flooding. we could see na in the afternoon. as well as as we go towards thursday, we do expect to see more rain, encroaching to the north. the dry weather we had across parts of kentucky, to parts of tennessee, that is going to increase as well. here is the 5-day forecast. temperatures will be warm. thursday, 94 degrees. that'll come down with showers. the news is n. -- the news is next.

>> i'm ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. we are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment.

we are ment to be your first choice for the news. a german court dread to drop a -- agreed to drop a bribery case against eccleston if he agrees to a $100 million payment. his grip on the sport could be at rick. >> from used car salesman to billionaire, bernie eccleston made the headlines. for the 83-year-old who built the sport up, those stories haven't always been favourable. eccleston went on trial in april, over allegations he paid a $44 million bribe to a former german banker, to help secure the sale of his f1 shares to a preferred bidder. faced with the prospect of a possible 10-year gaol term, the britain agreed to pay

$100 million, for prosecutors to drop the case. >> i have the feeling that he is relieved. apart from being fairly treated, in regard to the way the trial was conducted, can focus on his job. >> reporter: the decision meanings eccleston can keep his grip on the sport he dominated for 40 years. he became a big player when forming the f1 constructors association in 1974. he pulled off a coup in 1981, when he won the right to negotiate television deals. his company receiving a 23% cut of any agreement. there have been controversies such as in 1997 when he donated over 1.7 million to the u.k. labour party. the labour government proposed to exempt formula 1 from a ban on tobacco sponsorship. in 2009 he caused an uproar,

when he described hitler as a man who could get things done. >> eccleston remained effectively in charge of formula 1. some say the episode could be the beginning of the end. >> he's 84 in october. there has to be a change at some point. apparently cvc capital partners who own formula 1, and who eccleston works for. they realise whatever happened, yes need to move on and are starting to look to the future. >> whatever lies ahead. whenever he decides to call it a day, formula 1 will be a different sport without him. charges were filed today in a steroid scandal involving suspended new york yankee star alex rodriguez. one of the a rod's cousins was among seven people charged with conspiracy to distribute

testosterone. tony bosch was charged and will plead guilty. alex rodriguez was suspended for the 2014 season for doping. >> history was made today in the n.b.a., w.n.b.a. star becky hammon will going san antonio spurs coaching staff once she retires from the san antonio stors. she'll be the first assistant coach to be paid by an n.b.a. team. stephy reddy was the first to coach to a man's professional sports team in 2001, as an assistant coach in the basketball development league. she joins us now from washington. welcome. good to have you on the programme. >> glad to be here. the question in my mind coming through is why did it take this long. what did you think. >> it's a good question.

i think basketball is similar to a lot of professions, where you hire people that the trust and that you are familiar with the work ethic, this is an example. the coach worked with becky with the spurs, on a volunteer basis, and he got to know her work eth ebbing, her basketball iq, her smarts, if you will, and trusted her. he felt she'd make a good fit for the staff. oftentimes you don't find women working on the men's side of basketball. they don't get a chance to develop the relationships, that's what you hope. and you hope things will change. >> what do you say to traditionalists who argue that men's basketball for men and women's for women. >> i wouldn't argue with them. they didn't play the sport. anyone that played athletics knows that sport is the team, no

matter the agenda. you were born a certain way, it's the only differential. >> why has it taken so long for this? >> i don't have the answer to that. i think that you have a lot of people that have closed minds. we can abbing the same question about a lot of things to do with race, why does it take so long. you have people in position of power, that think some people are less than them because of the colour of their skin and gender. we know na gender does not dictate the mental capacity. >> what pressure will be on beck yip. >> she'll have a lot of eyes on her. spooes a smart woman and experienced. she is the right person for the job. i think that the spurs organization are the right organization to bring her in. they do things the right way from the top to the bottom. they have won all the champonships because of that.

the coach lp set the tone. the way he treats her is the way everyone else does. she'll be welcomed, respected and expected to carry her weight. i know becky will do a great job. >> it's not about gender, what does she bring to the spurs that others can't in. >> she played professional basketball for 16 years. she was a six time w.n.b.a. all stars, international experience, as well as playing in the united states. the game of basketball is trending that way, with more international players this past season than before. i think that she brings a wealth of basketball knowledge and people underestimate the value of education and compassion. it's not about xs and os. a lot of people understand the game. they write it down, they play and watch on tv. you have to be going to communicate that verbally and teach to someone willing to

learn. you do that by earning their respect. >> you have broken barriers. you were the first woman to coach a men's basketball team. what was it like for you. how did the men treat you. >> i had a tremendous experience. the coach was the first head coach i had in greenville. that year we won the championship. he did what i suggested the spurs will do. he brought me in, welcomed me, gave me real responsibilities, there was a game that i had to take overhead coaching duties, because he had to miss a game. the players respected me. they want to get better. when you get to the level of competition, you want to do two things. you want to win the games and improve of the skill set. they don't care who helps to accomplish the goals, whether it's a man or woman. >> this is amazing news, great to talk to you. congratulations on your success and great news about becky, we

appreciate you coming on to explain it for us. thank you very much. that's our broadcast for tonight. we'll see you back tomorrow night. "america tonight" is next. >> israel's invasion of gaza continues tonight. >> we have been hearing a lot of tank shelling coming from where we are, here. >> every single one of these buildings shook violently. >> for continuing coverage of the israeli / palestinian conflict, stay with al jazeera america, your global news leader.

the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. al jazeera america. on"america tonight", a fragile ceasefire takes hold. a more vulnerable community, gaza's children, by the hundreds fallout. drawing the line in texas. >> i want them to go away from the city. they don't have to be where they contaminate the air, the water and the people. a dallas suburb steps up with a first against fracking. can the home owners in departmenton texas keep the drillers at