>> tech know, every saturday go where science meets humanity. >> this is some of the best driving i've every done, even though i can't see. >> tech know. >> we're here in the vortex. only on al jazeera america. >> this is al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton in new york. let's get you caught up on the top news of the hour. president obama says there will be no quick fix in iraq. >> we can conduct air strikes but ultimately there's not going to be an american military solution to this problem. there's going to have to be an iraqi solution that america and other countries and allies support. >> in tonight's deeper look. the islamic state's targeting of the country's vulnerability

minorities and the impact on the region. israeli air strikes on gaza push the death toll near 2000 as palestinian negotiators threaten to leave talks in are cairo. ukrainian separatists in donetske say they're surrounded and ready for ceasefire. tonight the u.s. has launched four more air strikes against the islamic state group of in northern iraq. jet fighters took out multiple fighter trucks, used to rain on residents. u.s. military operation in iraq

is just getting started and president obama says it could be a long term project. the president also reiterated there are no plans to put u.s. troops on the ground. president obama says the u.s. military will ensure the safety of americans in iraq and do what it can to help displaced iraqi civilians. >> our initial goal is not only make sure americans are protected but also to deal with this humanitarian situation in sinjar. >> our lisa stark is standing by in washington, d.c. good to see you. what can you tell us about the president's message? >> the president spoke on the south lawn before he headed out for vacation in martha's vineyard. he says there's no quick solution to the situation in iraq. we're not going to rox it i rese it in a few weeks. he made it clear that iraq's

problems wit will not be solvedy air strikes. it must be solved by iraq's government and a unified government. >> we must come together and the government must be conclusive. vice president biden is in close touch, all iraqi communities are ultimately threatened by these barbaric terrorists and all iraqi groups must unite to create their government. >> once they do come together, thomas as you said the president also reiterated, no u.s. combat troops on the ground in iraq. he said let me be clear about that. >> the president made that point several times. lisa we understand that france

and england agreed to send humanitarian aid to iraq but does the united states have anything more as far as humanitarian assistance? >> the kurds and the iraq government is fighting the islamic state. but as far as our partners, the president did reach out to both the british prime minister, before he left on vacation, the british prime minister and the french president. intrit human -- desperate humanitarian need but neither are going to help on the military side. >> how engaged will the president be while he's away from washington? >> well the president ask with his family in martha's vineyard. he's there for a couple of weeks but will make a quick trip back to washington. the president's white house travels with him in a sense

wherever he goes, and even though the president got in a round of golf he has his deputy national security advisor and his national security advisor with him and he will be keeping close tabs on what's going on. >> lisa stark, thank you. president obama insists there's no quick fix to the situation in iraq. targeting islamic state fighters, douglas oliphant joined us earlier from washington, d.c. >> ejecting the islamic state from iraq is an iraqi problem. only they can really effectively do it. that said, the islamic state is bigger than iraq and we may have an interest in pursuing them elsewhere, in syria, in lebanon, in jordan. i think he's absolutely right. in iraq, only the iraqis can fix this. the bombings are necessary and the right policy but the real action still is in baghdad in

the government formation. >> oliphant said the iraqis have taken steps towards a more stable government now we have to wait and see. group exchanged fire with lebanese villagers before being forced back across the border into syria. the skirmish followed, it's unclear if anyone was killed in the fighting. in syria a woman was stoned to death by is fighters. her crime, adultery. she was put into a hole in the ground and residents were told to stone the woman. when they refused, the is carried out the sentence before they dragged her away. the stoning occurred in araca, a stronghold for the group. how the group known as islamic state is changing the situation in iraq and surrounding areas.

plus islamic state's devastating impact in the region coming up in about ten minutes. the other major story developing the clash between israel and hamas. palestinian state is says israel has until tomorrow to return to the negotiating table in egypt. if not, they too will leave cairo. israeli strikes causing most of the damage at a refugee camp in gaza. a senior hamas official was killed during that attack. pushing the palestinian death toll close to 2000. the scene very different had israel. the beaches are crowded and life appears almost normal despite the fact that palestinian fighters fired about 30 rockets into israel today. many of them intercepted by the iron dome. we get more now from jane ferguson who is joining us from jerusalem. good to see you jane. what is expected to happen

tomorrow? >> well, tomorrow thomas is really the crunch time for these negotiations. if the israelis don't come back, as you have said, the palestinians have said they will no longer wait for them and that these negotiations will essentially collapse. now the israelis stepped away from the negotiations on friday. that was friday morning at 8:00 a.m. local timing:00 that that 72-hour -- time that that 72 hour ceasefire expired and rockets were fired into israel. since then there have been israeli air strikes into gaza every day including dozens of rockets fired out of israel into gaza. shortly after that, we're likely to get some indication as to whether or not the israeli delegation will return to these negotiations. the palestinians have said not only must they return but they should return without any conditions so they should really

return to the negotiations and discuss with the palestinians what they want which is an easing of blockade on gaza. it will become clear whether or not the israelis will show up or whether they the negotiations will simply collapse. >> what if the talks collapse tomorrow, what will we likely see? >> i think it's most likely that we will see a continuation thomas of what we're seeing right now. which is similar to what we've seen over the past month but less intense. there are strikes coming out of gaza into israel, rockets being fired and air strikes into gaza just at a lower intensity. we're still seeing casualty rates into gaza, today seven people killed that's much lower than on individual days, where dozens have been killed. nonetheless it is a continuous cawrs -- case of returning

rocket fire from either side. some communities refused to return to their communities, moved out to housing elsewhere temporary housing elsewhere in israel. they have told the government they don't wish to return because they don't feel safe. so both sides of the divide definitely bracing for more of the same at the minute. >> we'll see what the hours bring. our jane ferguson joining us from jerusalem, jane thank you. turning attention to ukraine's president, he might accept aid for the country's east but can't be accompanied by what he called military elements. earlier they had stopped a russian military convoy from crossing the border near donetske, claiming they tried to aid convoy. pro-russian separatist leader said they would accept a ceasefire to avoid a humanitarian disaster. anna hayward has the story.

>> the leader of the donetske peoples republic came out to say he would accept a ceasefire to avoid a disaster on donetske shelled for days. we have spoken to the antiterror operation here and they said they are not taking that offer seriously but clearly the creuns ukrainians are gaining grounds here. ukrainian forces have not confirmed that is of importance to the croorn force -- ukrainian forces because it is strategically very important. it is on the main road between luhansk and donetske. forces are trying to dig in their heels and grind against the force he here. russians have committed military operations along the border. military personnel were making

their way to the border. they say they were coming under the pretext of carrying out humanitarian mission here. if that indeed was the case that would set loorm bells ringing around -- alarm bells ringing around the international community. russia has come out and said those are a fairy tale. >> emma hayward. also, the remains of malaysia flight 17. he says the crash investigation is stalled because of fighting in the area. >> on wednesday, it got suspended because of shelling in the area, twice in the past few days we've had a big group of experts out there, basically they were collecting human remains as well as personal belongings of the passengers and we were there to help facilitate that to give them access.

and yes, there was shelling earlier in the week. and then just more recently, there was shooting. that ended up you know very close to where the experts were working. >> the spokesperson went on to say they had no choice but to leave the crash site because the ceasefire in the rebel controlled region was violated. exxon mobile and russia began a trilg project i drilline arctic. video link up between the arctic and vladimir putin's summer home in sochi. governments are closing their bothers in west africa. to stop the spread of ebola. librarliberia and sierra leon.

mohamed ado reports from sierra leone. >> she runs this makeshift restaurant just outside lagos, the commercial capitol. she skillfully prepares the meat for customers that might not come. >> few come like a day, only one person to come and buy. but before everybody used to buy. >> bush meat as it's called here is once again suspected to be the bridge from the animal world to the human. all it takes is a single transmission from animal to human mainly caused by handling of fresh carcasses from fresh animals. weswest africans say the food hs been schooled for as long as anyone can remember.

even when authorities are discouraging its consumption, it can still be found on almost every street corner. chairman of the national association of hunters is livid. >> it is a lie, a p rfort lie. if you don't -- pr lie. they cannot say we should not eat it and they cannot say the public also be eating it. >> for now, though, it's only the brave and most ardent of game meat consumers who continue to demand for it. for them, abandoning the tradition is out of the question. >> i was brought up with bush meat and i continue to eat it and i'll continue because i like it. it's my favorite and i've been enjoying it and i wish to do so. >> poor knowledge and suspicion especially in rural communities, have contributed to the spread of ebola in west africa.

it is concern here that bush meat isn't safe and undue progress made in curbing a further spread of the disease. mohamed ado, al jazeera, lagos, algeria. >> gay pride parade today. the law called for up to life in prison from anyone caughting having gay sex. the constitutional court threw it out on a technicality. some of the demonstrators wore masks to hold their identity. uganda's parliament plans to reintroduce the bill. deeper look at one of the goals of the islamic state,

eliminating contrary religions.

>> welcome back. more now on our top story as we

take a deeper look at iraq and the challenges it faces from the group known as the islamic state. the department of defense has confirmed it conducted four more strikes against the group. and president obama has proposed a long term strategy to confront is fighters in iraq. mormore from ir beal. >> former fighters and volunteers are now reinforcing the kurdish peshmerga to hold onto the gains the kurds have made but it hasn't been enough. u.s. air strikes, are meant to stop the advance of the islamic state group 40 kilometers from err bill, meant to help the

kurdish forces stand up against the enemy still known as i.s.i.s. >> they have accumulated modern weapons, munitions, tags, arm ored hum vees, no comparison between the fire power of i.s.i.s. and the peshmerga forces. yes, there has been some reverses by the peshmergas on this situation, some withdrawal of certain part. but this is not a classical war. >> this conflict a spillover from the war in syria is one that no army has fought here. the combination of islamic state fighters with suicide bombers and american weapons seized from iraqi forces have made them difficult to stop. >> we need these to buy time to

regroup to reorganize and to go on the offensive. >> one of the priorities will be to retake the mosul dam. the biggest in the country. now fallen to islamic state fighters. at risk are also oil fields which had been protected by iraqi security forces and then the peshmerga. now within territory held by the radical group. mosul a center of power for islamic state fighters is just 60 kilometers from here. the city of erbil is the kurdish capitol, an economic hub. propping up kurdish security forces will be a much longer mission. jane arath, al jazeera, erbil. >> huge population movements in iraq much of it driven by internal sectarian violence. as the group called islamic state moved into iraq this year

the situation became suddenly and dramatically worse. over the last two months, the group's fighters have consolidated their gains in iraq's north and pushed into kurdish territory sending christians and other minorities fleeing. close to 200,000 people have been displaced in areas around mosul erbil and kirkuk. former news editor for the baghdad bureau of the new york times. good to see you. >> thank you, good to see you. >> how would you describe the changing landscape of iraq now? >> we have the new state called islamic state in iraq, expanding moving fast and gaining ground and it is threatening the two capitols of one of the kurdish province up north and possibly

in the future also baghdad. >> do you think we underestimated the islamic state? >> i think so, yes. i think analysts or political experts said that or thought that you know maybe they would take towns, or maybe they will be able to take a city. but not expand that much and that fast. i think we underestimated i.s.i.s. >> u.s. is using minimal action. some are questioning whether it is too late. >> i personally think it is late. not too late. it is late. they should have moved in right from the beginning. but i understand the political issues regarding 9 nouri maliki. >> why shouldn't they have moved in? to prevent a scene like we have seen in iraq to prevent them from being so close to being able to bomb erbil or to

displace thousands of minorities or to slaughter and kill and enslave others. perfectly speaking yes i understand that, but from a humanitarian point of view i think the reaction should have been earlier. >> and as the president mentioned this is a unified effort. the responsibility should be on the iraqi government. >> definitely. >> and they fell short. >> there's no question about that. the parliament, the political parties they are all to be blamed for this. they take the biggest part of the blame for being unable to form a government, an inclusive government so far. and i think with the expansion of i.s.i.s, in the north, that would be an additional factor of pressure on the politicians in baghdad, to form a government. an inclusive government not just a government. the thing is: i think the u.s. can also use the drones or fa-18

in a different way. not just to drop bombs on i.s.i.s. but also pressure baghdad to get their act together, pressure maliki and find a prime minister who can find a inclusive government and have a political solution not just a military solution for the country right now. >> do you think maliki should leave? >> i think so yes. no other way. forget about maliki whether he's good or bad or my own opinion. we need somebody to reach out to the sunnies and the kurds, face this challenge and push i.s.i.s. back. is nouri maliki satisfactory to do that? no. he is not trusted.

>> how do we stop what is considered a full blown army? >> first of all we need the political path should go in tandem with the military action. we need a new government. we need to bring sunni tribes into this government. we need to get them to fight i.s.i.s. because once they lose, actually they already lost that but they lost the haven, or the support of people in sunni provinces. some of them at least who were supportive of them in the beginning. so once you get those tribes. once they feel that there is a government they can trust in baghdad, they can work with, there is a genuine partnership in this government, they will hold arms, they will fight i.s.i.s. along with the iraqi army and the peshmerga. we needs all efforts put this will not happen without a political solution. >> looking at the islamic state state and the division in the

country who is really in charge? >> who is really in charge in iraq? right now i think the i.s.i.s. unfortunately is the the one who is making the moves. everyone is sort of reacting to what i.s.i.s. is doing. no one is acting, no one is taking a pre-active action. everyone is reacting. the kurds are reacting to i.s.i.s. the government of baghdad is doing so. no one is taking the initiative except for them. they are advancing. they are attacking and they are sort of setting the agenda right now. >> i want to go even deeper, would you stand by for just a moment? one of the goals of the islamic state group is to eliminate minorities, one of them are the yazidis who are taking shelter in the mountains. roxana saberi has more on who these people are. >> reporter: as fighters with the islamic state chase yazidis from their homes in northern iraq many are trapped in the sinjar mountains with no food or water. others are headed nearly 200 miles to the northeast, here to

their holy city of lalesh. i visited last year. all yazidis are expected to make the pilgrimage to this ancient tomb once in their life. they believe the man buried here, abou about ba ba chabesh,s in the rock represent the good and evil that exist in each one of us. i asked him if the yasdz faith has similarities to other religions. >> our religion is a very old religion, we believe other religions have come from ours. we haven't taken anything. >> these kids who introduced themselves to me, represent

600,000 yazidis in iraq, some have left the country to marry outside the faith. they have been the victims of massacres 72 times in history. yazidis have kept their culture and faith alive, despite persecution by saddam hussein and the violence after his fall. the roxana saberi, al jazeera. iraq. >> thousands of years, between them shia arabs, sunni arabs and kurdish, many of them living in nineva a cultural diverse province 250 miles northwest of

baghdad. between 500,000 and 2.5 million have their own language and culture, most are muslim. more than 10,000 turkmen families have fled, into northern iraq. there are 400,000 iraqi christians. ten years ago the number was more than ten times that. they have been given people choice, if the islamic state. they have been targeted as islamic state as devil worshipers. they are stranded on a neerp mountain top without food or water encircled by the islamic state. i want to bring in jos ef

cassab, the founder and president of the iraqi christian advocacy and empowerment group. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> we mentioned the yazidis are an ancient group where he thr misunderstood? >> it is very small group, as has already been mentioned. the islam state they look at them as being the infidels and therefore they want you sort of you know remove them and kill them or have them convert to islam. and this particular group itself also doesn't have people to protect them. or they don't have the publis ma to protect them either. >> why didn't life improve after

saddam hussein was deposed? >> as you know after the 2000 war things changed drastically in iraq. if anything, things got worse, never got better to be honest with you. and as we see that there are so many militias roaming in the country, armed militias and running loose in the country. and you know, there's a lot of lawlessness in iraq at this time. there is no government able to protect them, as a matter of fact, this government that we have now is not able to protect the south. so it's not easy for them to protect others. the drastic change that took place in iraq after the war is that the iraqis majority of them became more sectarian than secular, alike before 2003. and not only that, we've seen a number of militants coming through porous borders we have

in iraq from everywhere from all the surrounding countries and even from libyan yah and yemen and other places, to you know, fight the minorities to eradicate the minorities. and to put them to death. this is something that is unacceptable and the government of iraq is unable to protect the minorities at this time. >> and when you look at how we got to this point, the further division among the minority groups where was the misstep along the way? >> well, there is a lot of things that happened. as you know, that iraq politically is very unstable at this time. even since the start of the war. and there is a lot of mishaps taking place. a lot of corruption. people, we have too many ruling parties in iraq, too many people calling the parliament of iraq their home for their own

benefits and the benefit of the clans. and that is really affecting everybody. but more importantly, it's affecting the minorities. because they are the weakest of the weak. so we start to see that the persecution is on the rise. and is affecting the community all at large. >> how big of a humanitarian crisis is this? >> this is really a huge -- i cannot describe it but i want to say, it's a huge, huge humanitarian crisis. we never seen anything like that in the middle east before. people at the verge of extinction. especially the minorities. we talk about the yazidis but we can talk about the christians of iraq, as already heard from on the report, they have been asked to either convert by the sword to islam or pay the jizia, a tribute tax, or protection tax,

or leave. a majority of our people lived in ninevah plane, it is the size of lebanon and it is full of iraqi christian towns and maybe 3 to 350,000 of them there at this time. it is -- they are ghost towns and only who is roaming free in these towns are the i.s.i.s. militants. >> and the christians have an option to pay a tax. the yazidis do not. >> not really. the yazidis are considered differently. as i said earlier, they are considered by those militants that they are people whom they worship the devil and therefore they should be pleamed. and that's -- eliminated. that's why a majority of them were mutilated and then killed. i cannot describe the atrocities

committed against them and so against the christians. the yazidis you know kind of were able to flee to a nearby mountain. but unfortunately, this mountain is sow so treacherous and dangerous that all the reptiles and carnivores are attacking them. so obviously there are people who are attacking them on the ground and there are animals attacking them on the mountain. so there is no difference between both. anyway, but the christians managed, many of them to escape. the problem is they escaped only with their clothes on their backs. and this is something that is really, really creating a very chaotic situation where they sought shelter at this time. that is -- that's what the case is. we've seen pictures of people i hear we are in a very much contact with our people on the ground, we hear people are sleeping in the park, sleeping

on the ground on the grass on the sand, and on rocky areas, not even with -- not even -- they don't have even blankets on them. >> very difficult situation, fight for survival. >> very, very difficult situation. >> i'm sorry i want to bring in ally adiv al naimi. when the dust settles what is going to be for these groups? >> it's going to be difficult. actually do i belong here when we're faced with all this volunteers, can you actually go back and say that you're safe, enthuse of this as your home? it all depends how this is all going to unravel in the end. are we going to push i.s.i.s. back and are we going to have a new government in baghdad that is inclusive, that is able to

protect its people regardless of religion or sect? i think it's going to be a tough situation for minorities in the country. >> we'll have to leave it there, lecturer at new york university and former news editor for baghdad and gentlemen thanks for being with us on a deeper look. >> thank you for having us. >> thank you. >> still ahead on al jazeera america, fired for tweet. an american college professor is out of a job. the freedom of speech debate that it sparked, straight ahead. in federal law state all children regardless to integration status -- immigration status are entitled to an education in the u.s. the rush to register all undocumented children in american schools.

>> following a developing story right now. hundreds of residents took to the rates to after a teen --

streets after a teenager was shot. it happened in ferguson missouri, part of lewis county. prompted hundreds of residents to comin confront the officers. neighborhood yelling obscenities and yelling kill the police. the teenager was unarmed. >> he put his hands down and started to get down but the officer fired several more shots and my friend died. >> about 60 officers arrived on the scene just after 2:00 p.m. authorities say the crowd was under control by 5:00 p.m. county police are now investigating the shooting. i want to bring in the phone st. louis officer shellman. officer shellman i know this is a developing situation. what can you tell us so far. >> yeah, thanks for having me. it really is.

our police department, the st. louis police department, was requested by the police department, the situation that happened with the ferguson police officer. detectives are the ones that are handling the actual investigation. they have been up in ferguson up on the scene of the crime for approximately five hours now. and i spoke with one of the sergeants on scene just a bit ago. and he said that this one they're going to be working through the night just even on the first day because there's so many people up there who may have seen something. they have so much evidence. againists kind of a unique -- it's kind of a unique situation because it's not our department who actually pulled the trigger on this one. so if it was our department, everything, our resources are right there. however, on this one, we have to you know go and get everything from the ferguson police department. the 911 tapes and any calls that

may have come in. so it's a lengthier investigation for us and at the early infancy stages of it. >> i know there's a lot of elements. do we know what led up to the confrontation? >> the detectives are starting to gather that information. i personally do not know that yet. when we do and they're ready to make a statement we'll definitely put that out. >> is there any history of any tension between the police department and the community there? >> i really don't know. because i wouldn't want to speak for that. it's not -- again it's a unique situation in that we don't patrol that area. so that would -- unfortunately i appreciate the question and i'd like to answer it for you but i just don't know. i've never -- that's in the north st. louis, north of the st. louis county and i just -- i'd be speculating to guess that you know in that neighborhood or that apartment complex there's

tension. that would be a guess. >> what is the situation like out there tonight right now? >> i think that everybody is on edge. and you know the police department, you know we just -- we've been asking the people look, you know we understand the concerns of the community but as the st. louis county police department we've been asked to come in and do a job, the job is a thorough thorough investigation as we always would into any shooting and this happens to be apolice-involved shooting where someone perished and someone died. and so we're going to leave no stone unturned and do a thorough investigation and as we always say that takes time. we can't come in and call it at face value. we don't know what we have at this point. and we have to interview many, many people and it takes time. >> certainly understand, it is an ongoing investigation. brian shellman joining us, we appreciate your time. >> thank you sir.

>> turning our attention oother news. palestinian officials gave israel until tomorrow to return to the negotiating table in egypt. if they don't return they too will return. damage one at a mosque in the refugee camp in gaza. america's heart land, the conflict in gaza is creating a free speech debate. rescinding a job offer to an associate professor for his political tweet. ash-har quraishi has the story. >> as the body count in gaza rose over the past few weeks the emotion in stephen salida's tweets became more charged. at this point, if netanyahu appeared on tv with a necklace of palestinian children would anyone be surprised?

chancellor phillip wise blocked the appointment. many on campus believed salida's tweets cost him the job. salida who has an active twitter presence has been silent. he did not respond to our requests for interview. state of israel and zionism can hardly be called a secret. he has written six books on the subject. university of illinois professor carrie nelson has written extensively on the subject of the chancellor's decision. >> there's kind of an invocation of violence there. he has seemed at times to step over the line into what some feel is antisemitism. >> there's also a petition for salida, a demand that the university revoke its denial, in

a statement last week if salida's job offer was voided due tweets on the palestinian israeli conflict that would be a clear violation of professor salida's academic freedom and an affront to free speech. >> this is a growing trend on college campuses is attempts to silence debates particularly about israel and palestine. i think it's absolutely essential to recognize that stephen salida is not alone. >> the academic freedom of a tenured colleague and what's acceptable from a job candidate. >> even though much of this would be protected by academic freedom you're still not required to give someone a job if you don't think they're really going to work weg well i- well in the community. >> for now salida appears to be a professor without a classroom. ash-har quraishi, al jazeera,

shachampaign, illinois. >> courtney keely reports. >> the violence doesn't allow us to go to school. that's why we're coming over here. >> whether they will be allowed to stay remains to be seen. one thing is certain. according to federal law all children in the u.s. are entitled to an education even undocumented children. and that's creating new challenges. many of these children are here alone. so finding them housing is a top concern. texas for example in karn city about 100 miles south of austin, a detention center is turned into a residence that will include a school. 30,000 children are released to family and sponsors across the country. states who received the most children are texas new york,

florida, virginia, california. children will be allowed to nrm enroll in public schools. it is unclear whether schools will be ready. one of the biggest questions how many undocumented students will enroll in each school? >> i'm not sure whether each superintendent could tell you whether they're talking about 10 new students 100 new students, thousand new students or even more than that. >> reporter: knowing that number is key because that determines how much funding the school district gets from the state. schools mate be able to get reimbursed for the extra cost but that's also complicated because federal law also makes it difficult to track the student's immigration status. >> until we get a game plan in regard to how this all is going to happen we as a state have to prepare for every scenario. >> reporter: i.t. a lot of adjustment for the school

districts and the students who still face deportation. courtney keely al jazeera. >> still ahead on al jazeera america, the list they don't want to make. the worst airlines in america straight ahead. plus rebecca is here. with the weather. >> we're going to be talking about storms, the storms around hawaii where we have conserve amountexpensiveamounts of rainfe difference between a typhoon and a hurricane, where does it make the change? coming up.

>> now available, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. a global perspective wherever you are. the major headlines in context. mashable says... you'll never miss the latest news >> they will continue looking for survivors... >> the potential for energy production is huge... >> no noise, no clutter, just real reporting. the new al jazeera america mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now >> the fear of back to back hurricanes had thousands worried on the hawaiian islands this week but things turned out to be far less menacing as expected.

iselle did leave more than 30,000 people without power. it was also flash flooding that uprooted trees and caused some property damage. iselle was the first tropical storm to hit hawaii in 22 years. rebecca stevenson with a look at the forecast. even a tropical storm, no fun to go through. >> no it is not. still very heavy tracking off to the west but as we look at one of the tower cams, from the island of oahu, rough surf, we expect high surf, rough surf advisory, across the eastern coast lines of the hawaiian island chain. it is a closer look at julio and that hurricane track as you can see expected to go to the north of the hawaiian islands bringing in some rain and more of that

high surf. it will go from a category 2 and weaken to a 1 as it heads away from land. pacific ocean lot of things going on several tomorrows in the pacific right now. and from a tropical storm moving across the western part of japan to a typhoon to hurricane julio, all three together. the difference is what separates typhoon from hurricane is the international date line. and in fact we do have a gap in our satellite here on this particular image to show you where that international date line is approximate. transitions over towards tie ta, a hurricane is going to be called a typhoon. amounts of rainfall still incredible and significant amounts. we're also getting significant amounts from thunderstorms coming across the united states and the rainfall totals highest

in the southeast where columbia south carolina, three inches of rainfall in places. >> that's what causes the flash flooding moving in very quickly. rebecca stevenson. thank you. still ahead the airlines that landed in the worst customer service categories. and ambitious efforts for new york city's mayor, his goal, zero traffic fatalities.

real understanding... >> where you scared when you hear the bombs? >> al jazeera america real... news... >> welcome back. this week an airline watchdog group released its annual best and worse annual performance. delta took the best spot, virgin and alaska were 2 and 3 respectively. now for the worst. the site said united airlines finished dead last thanks oa bad habit of overbook and lacking customer assassination, american and southwest were in the bottom 3. there is a new effort in new york city to reduce traffic accidents, kristin saloomey has

the story. >> this is where seth was hit. he died right here. >> reporter: the corner of nircht avenue and 53rd street -- 9th avenue and 53rd street brings a well of emotion. they helped form group families for safe streets. >> seth was my only child and he was my whole life. we decided that we want to help other people and create a city where this wouldn't happen to other people. and we could do something about it. >> reporter: their group is behind the efforts of new york city mayor bill de blasio. >> in a city as big and complicated as this, we didn't come here to do easy things, we came here to do things that would actually help people.

>> a crack down on taxi drivers and reduce the speed limit to 40 miles per hour. speed limits are a big part of improving road safety. make sense, the faster the car goes, the more damage it's likely to cause. one city shows that by reducing the speesd speeds by 15 kilometn hour would substantially reduce deaths. the hazards of interacting with traffic, cyclists know all too well. reducing speeds will be a big part of improving safety. >> you've seen a big improvement since 2007, 2008, the better bike lanes, separated infrastructure, partially because there's just more people out. so drivers are more used to seeing lots of cyclists and are

more careful around them. >> sometimes a pedestrian will wave me on. it's their right to cross first. >> traffic tickets to enforce the laws, the cohns say it's a small price to pay. kristin saloomey, al jazeera, new york. >> that is it for the news, i'm thomas drayton. thanks for watching. >> israeli air strikes intensify after hamas breaks the ceasefire. i'll talk to a chief negotiator for palestine liberation organization. what he considers to be the hindrance to peace. much more straight ahead. >> the worst outbreak of ebola that we've e