this... >> as you can see, it's still a very much volatile situation... >> the government is prepared to carry out mass array... >> if you want free press in the new democracy let the journalists live. >> this is al jazeera america. live from new york city i'm tony harris. tight security as the jury selection begins in the boston marathon bombing trial. a trial expected to last months. oil dips below $50 a barrel and the markets go haywire. some show the chief calling the entire department racist.

and we begin in boston, jury selection good afternoon today in the case of dzhokhartsarnaev. a man accused of setting off a bomb in 2013. tsarnaev's lawyers tried to have the trial is moved saying their clients couldn't get a fair trial. john terret is here. john. >> tony, good afternoon the defense council had asked to delay the start and move the trial away from boston, both denied by the judge. but that doesn't mean we'll get a verdict any time soon. because just choosing the jury alone in this trial is expected to take several weeks. to his accuseers dzhokhartsarnaev confessed to the bombing in a note he left night the boat.

the youngest victim to die on april the 15th, 2013 but to his defenders dzhokhartsarnaev is the victim of an overbearing older brother now dead who intimidated him into taking part in the attack. almost two years on and boston is a city that wants the trial to start and be over. but can the youngest tsarnaev brother get a fair trial in a city where he's accused of injuring more than 260 people and killing three? his defense team lobbied to move it outside the city, not like timothy mcvey whose trialed triel was not held in oklahoma city. seem onerous but not impossible. >> frankly i don't think it is a problem to pick a jury. >> reporter: not everyone watches 24 hour news.

>> quite frankly there are people who don't know anything about it, and the question is whether those people can put aside what they know and be fair and render a verdict based on the facts they find it and the law as instructed by the judge. >> the trial is expected to take several weeks opening statements not expected until sometime in february. tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty on all the federal charges against him. if he is found guilty to any one of them a second hearing will be determining whether he is subjected to death. including the eun unibomber. >> pedro hernandez is charged with kidnapping and killing 16-year-old aton paetz in 1979.

lawyers for hernandez says he is mentally ill and falsely confessed to the killing. more u.s. navy divers have joined the search for the wreckage of airasia qz8501. earlier in the day divers picked up more debris and said they may have found tail of the aircraft. that's where the plane's flight recorders are located. lisa stark has more. >> tony, weather was slightly better on monday but still not good enough to get divers in the water where visibility has been near zero. two u.s. naval ships are on scene helping, in the search. also deploying a type of sonar that can map images on the bottom of the ocean floor there. >> this is our c scan. this uses different kill kilohertz

where we can find something as spall as a golf ball or something as big as an airplane finding and using different kilohertz bands. >> unclear if they can get divers or cameras down there to make a good look. so far no sign of the distinctive black boxes or the pinging sound they would make. weather is a factor in this crash and meteorologists have a new theory, they say perhaps extreme icing caused the engines to seize up. but again that's just a theory at this time. meantime indonesian air officials are cracking down, banning airasia from flying the exact route it took from indonesia to singapore on that sunday december 28th when the plane disappeared. apparently the airline did not have permits to fly that route on sunday. and because of that, officials

in indonesia also suspending the airport's operator as well as control tower officials. again the search continuing for more victims and more wreckage tony. >> thank you lisa. oil closed at just under $50 a barrel oil has lost more than half its value since last june. as a result gas prices in the u.s. have finally below $2 per gallon in some cases. those declines in oil prices fueled a significant selloff on wall street. take a look at the numbers. the dow lost about 331 points on the day. the s&p 500 fell, and the nasdaq was also down. the white house says the dip is beneficial for u.s. economy. >> it also is a testament to the success that the u.s. has had over the last several years in

part because of the policies put forward by this administration to increase production of domestic oil and gas. it also is a testament to some of the policies this administration put in place five years ago to raise fuel efficiency standards. >> joining me is rick newman. rick good to see you again. you're not surprised are you that oil continues to lose ground? many of you predicted this before the holidays. >> none predicted a 50% dplien, truly almost there is hardly anybody who was predicting any of this. mostly you heard oil would stay around 100 105 dollars a barrel. it's not just that oil prices are falling. that's generally ogood thing for the economy.

it's that oil prices have fawrnl sofallenso fast and up ended the cause and effect situation. saudis are continueing to produce and the prices are continuing to fall. this hasn't been what we saw before and this is what is controlling the markets. >> the markets are freaking out a bit. at what price point ber gallon do these declines -- per gallon do these declines have per gallon? these seem like a bit of a tax cut. >> i think we need to take a step back. i'm not sure they have a negative effect on the u.s. economy as a whole. >> really? >> we are having traders people who invest in the futures saying this is a washout. this is for most consumers don't have to worry about holdings in

some commodity fund that's invested in oil. this is not a problem for typical consumers. this is unambiguously good news for consumers. we are seeing financial markets react, it's not just the cost of oil, markets are trying to figure out does this indicate something about the world economy that we don't know, is it in worse shape than we think it is? i think that's not possible, i think it's that oil prices have overshot to the down side. markets are down a couple of points after a terrific five and a half year bull run is nothing to worry about if it continues for three months we would be. >> here's what i do here and i don't know what this all means. i really don't but i keep hearing words like spillover, if the price continues to fall. that it will have a spillover effect into equities or some

other areas of the market. does that make any sense to you? >> well, it is having a spillover effect on companies that produce energy. exxon was down, chevron was down caterpillar was down. certainly there are some stocks that are harmed when they fall. >> i have some in my 401(k). >> i don't think it's really the price of oil that markets are responding to as much as we do not understand the dynamic that got us here. i think we're waiting to see is this really a huge global downturn as this might suggest? are there goodsing to second order effects that are very problematic out of russia out of iran maybe out of texas we don't know. it's not price of oil it's what else is going on the periphery that might be contributing to this.

>> terrific rick newman is a senior columnist at yahoo finance. thanks. >> thanks tony. libyan military spokesman says its jets struck the ship twice in darna that's a stronghold for rebel fighters affiliated with i.s.i.l. two were killed. later realized that the tanker had been commissioned by the local power station. climate conducive to arms trafficking. but french executives are stepping in. lawrence lee reports. >> one of the many unintended consequences of the war in libya the french involvement in the fall of gadhafi has been the strengthening of rebel forces in inninginin north africa. the concern is the increasing

disintegration, is leading to an open supply route for weapons out of libya and through niger. thus rearming frups in groups in mali all over again. announcing that france would be buying more drones. just outside the southern libyan border blocking the routes taken by heavily armed fighters. >> translator: we know in southern libya there are very important terrorist hot beds, the same in mali the same that can be in nigeria or elsewhere. it is a refuge we have set up a base, we can tell you something in confidence, if we can on the radio, maybe they can listen to us, that is why there is this base. >> all the same the most cursory look at a map showing the difficulty of policing libya's border from a single point.

the proposal is to put another base here, but the borders to the west and to the east are vast and unpoliced. the setup is designed to take those distances into account. >> translator: this is not a static base it is a dynamic military base that can adapt according to the terrorist threat. it will have ground troops special forces and air contingents. >> france has said it won't intervene inside libya by itself. president holland suggested it would if the united nations allowed it. may lead to more international intervention of a very different sort of the one that led to the death of moammar gadhafi. lawrence lee, al jazeera. still to come. presidential candidates the not wait long to make a splash in 2013 chris christie, and mike

huckabee joins the fray. david shuster has it all in presidential politics. >> i'm allen schauffler checking in on the tunnel project that is stuck dead and causing concern. cern.

>> a judge today cleared the way for same sex couples to marry in miemedmiami-dade county. when the judge lifted her stay, the reaction, just a few hours later the first couples tied the knot. the new republican led congress convenes tomorrow. republicans will steer the direction of both the house and senate and they have a packed

agenda. libby casey is live for us. libby, we have seen plenty of discontent from republicans with president obama's goals. can we actually expect to see things getting done in this new session? >> reporter: well, tony, republicans will control the senate and have their biggest majority in the house. others they hope to use to win political points. >> republicans have a hefty to-do list as they take control of congress. first up approving construction of the keystone xl pipeline to bring oil from canada to the gulf coast refineries, the congress won't say how the president will react to keystone bill crossing his desk but there will be other bills that the

president will definitely veto. >> we think obamacare is a terrible piece of legislation we're going to be voting on that if we take repeal or take out pieces of it like destroying the 40 hour work week, the medical device tax the individual mandate. >> reporter: incoming senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, will need democratic or white house support on some measures and he may find it on corporate tax reform or trade deals with asia and europe. republicans say their biggest tool, control of the purse strings. and they plan to use funding for the department of homeland security to try oblock the president's action he on immigration. should say gop leadership should pivot their direction. top house republican john boehner faces his first test of

2015 tuesday expected to win the job of speaker but not without push back from conservative ranks. it may be one of the new battles in a gop congress. expect the style and tone among republicans, leader mcconnell sent a clear methodical at a they want to win and keep the house and senate in two years and even think about taking the white house. tony. >> this will be good lps ... to ... watch libby. another race for president. david schuster joins us for that david. >> tony, former governor mike huckabee announced he is looking for a presidential campaign. he eventually run out of money and organization to keep up in the primaries against the 2008

nominee john mccain. he used to have a show on fox news not anymore. >> there has been speculation that i would run for president. if i could absolutely rule that out, i could keep doing this show. i can't make such a declaration. i won't make a decision on running until late in the spring ofs 2015 but the continued chatter has put fox news into a situation that it's not fair to them. >> huckabee last a lot of goodwill build up with the gop's most socially conservative voters. the front runner on the republican side will remain former florida governor jeb bush bush mr. bush tacked to the right on a key social issue he lamented court decisions legalizing gay marriage telling the miami herald, quote it ought to be a local decision i

mean a state decision, the people of the state decided but it's been overturned by the courts. gay rights organizations criticized former governor bush. as libby mentioned the 114th congress is set to begin tomorrow republican house speaker boehner faces a leadership vote on tuesday former florida congressman ted yoho and texas republican louie gobert. he delivered his speech yesterday on ffn. tv. >> you said you'd fight amnesty tooth and nail, you didn't, you funded it and then you took the only hostage that obama would like for us to shoot. it was a terrible strategy and it follows a number of years of broken promises. >> boehner is still favored but

stay tuned. there are a lot of football games over the weekend and a fan reaction shot has not done any favors for new jersey governor chris christie. republican considering a 2016 presidential campaign, with jerry jones the owner of dallas cowboys. christie in red went in for a double high 5 with jones in the middle. that was awkward kind of rejection. quote, really rich white guys separating stuff is never not funny. >> (laughing). >> wearing the same outfit as fat albert. that was from cbs.com. to all of those non-councilmember fans, who have their panties in a ringer, the governor has been a cowboys fan all his life. panties in a ringer?

hey man welcome to national politics and by the way for the record i would never sit in the box with daniel schneider. 2008 vice presidential nominee sarah palin remember her? her son using their dog as a step stool. quote, anyone let alone a mother to post such a thing. let alone peta used to the hardhearted bizarreness of this woman. enjoyed eating dead dog meat. >> did you have to go there? >> actually mr. obama revealed he ate it as a child not that he enjoyed it. although the president tony, did make a joke about it a few

years ago. watch. >> what's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? a pit bull is delicious. [ laughter ] >> perhaps palin thought he was being serious. that's today's power politics. >> 2015, come on. david i think i myself with that one. -- i hurt myself with that one. enrique pena nieto's popularity is sliding in mexico. and real drag on the president's government, david mercer reports from mexico city. it's early saturday morning and jorge nava opens up his tortilla shop. while his business is located in

mexico city's wealthier areas jorge rarely earns more than $tom leyden omonth. he struggles to support his family and with customers buying fewer tortillas than ever life is getting harder. >> translator: the minimum wraij is about $4.50 a day and to be honest it isn't enough. we have to pay rent transportation food school fees and supplies, shoes clothes everything we need. the minimum wage is not enough. >> with sluggish groal and a weakened peso, jorge says he needs a boost. something mexican president enrique pena nieto will bring to washington when he meets with president obama. but this could take a back seat to a more pressing issue. in pena nieto's political career just two years into his presidency polls show his

approval is dropped to 40% the lowest for a mexican president in nearly two decades. when the leaders met in early 2014 the u.s. praised mexico's energy reforms and the capture of drug bosses. but expectations that pena nieto would issue in a period of stability and prosperity didn't last. in late september 43 students disappeared in southwestern mexico. became a symbol of corruption and violence and protesters called for pena nieto to step down. despite intervention from the fbi, the students are still missing. security is likely to take top spot during the president's meeting. >> obama is going to say to pena nieto, you're going to have to make changes to your cabinet to improve human rights, justice and the rule of law.

i'm going to give you that opportunity. if you are not able to do it we're going to start looking for someone who can. >> with mexican congressional elections coming up in july, pena nieto was keen to secure his political credibility. what's less clear is what effect the president's visit to washington will have on jorge nava and millions of mexicans like him. david mercer, al jazeera mexico city. >> many will not be able to escape to lebanon new government restrictions will leave them with one option, stay and survive in syria. bill deblasio, police officers again turned their backs on him. him.

>> it's a chilling and draconian sentence... it simply cannot stand. >> this trial was a sham... >> they are truth seekers... >> all they really wanna do is find out what's happening, so they can tell people... >> governments around the world all united to condemn this... >> as you can see, it's still a very much volatile situation... >> the government is prepared to carry out mass array... >> if you want free press in the new democracy let the journalists live. >> 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. >> fleeing syria just got harder

for people trying to escape the deadly civil war there. millions of syrians fled since the war first began in 2011. in all the united nations say more than three million have left. turkey and lebanon have both taken over 1 million each. but now lebanon changed the rules. jane ferguson reports. >> for years abel didn't need to have a vees to work visa to work in lebanon but now lebanon has changed the rules. entry or reentry is not guaranteed. >> translator: i've been working in lebanon since 1995, and now we don't feel safe. >> reporter: many syrians live in this working class

neighborhood of beirut, many are confused and came to ask us what is going on. but it is not yet clear what will happen to those already living inside lebanon who don't qualify for visas under the new rules. not all syrians in lebanon are registered as refugees. many came here years ago looking for work. some escaping from the recent war split their time between the safety of lebanon and visiting relatives inside syria. now, if they leave, there is no guarantee of being let back in. >> i have a daughter still living in aleppo. i risk my life to go visit them. now they have blocked us and i won't be able to see them. >> reporter: it's not just working class syrians who will be affected by the new rules. every syrian who is not registered as a refugee will have to explain to the lebron nees government whatlebronlebanesegovernment

what they're doing here. declaring and prove it. the application on the border is a application for their visit. this has to control and secure the flow of syrians. >> reporter: the new regulations is the norm, but the border between syria and lebanon has historically been open. now syrians here fear that freedom of movement is fading. jane ferguson, al jazeera beirut. >> let's bring in bill froelich, with human rights watch. bill good to see you. what is your reaction to the visa policy shift from lebanon? >> the main concern is away will happen to those refugees. what happens to those who don't

have passports those who are seeking refuge in lebanon. this seems clear from the lebanese announcement of the new veesvisa regime. >> does this effectively close the door to yrnz, it syrians, it is a closed door from lebanon at there point? >> we're not sure how this is going to pan out but the categories don't include the humanitarian category. it doesn't include people who need protection and doesn't accrue those who need protection who have the official documents from the government who may be persecuting them. >> it seems incumbent to me, working with the appropriate syrian ministry to identify at least the most vulnerable, women and children and develop a system to allow them into lebanon. does that make sense?

>> well, it depends what you mean. because if you are only looking at the most severely handicapped people or severely ill the most vulnerable people, you may actually be cutting out very large numbers of people that need to flee syria because of bombs and bullets. the number of war-affected people in the country is over 12 million at this point. there are people who knee to flee who -- who need to flee who don't fit any particular category of severe vulnerability. >> i think the number is one and four in lebanon is syrian and that's an enormous burden for that country which in no way is a rich country. ultimately did lebanon have to take this step? >> you're absolutely right. the burden on lebanon is enormous. it has a very delicate demographic balance. this would be equivalent of new york the populations of california text texas and new york

sunlt comingsuddenly coming in as refugees. the principle you couldn't return someone to some place where they would face threats to their freedom. what you're doing to a people is rejecting people at a border to a directly facing country in the situation as syria is putting people at serious risk to their lives and freedom. >> what happens to those living inside the country as mentioned in jane's piece who don't qualify for visas, what happens to those people and if they leave there's no real guarantee that they'll be allowed back in. >> certainly there is ambiguity at this point. the government announcement of the program did say they would not be deporting people who are in lebanon currently. we hope that is the case but this certainly is raising the

anxiety level sky-high within the refugee population of lebanon. people are very concerned about whether they are going to be able to maintain themselves and ffof course the pressurize of other sort of vigilante approaches to syrian refugees living there. >> i'm wondering if you are inside the country and need to get out and you get the signal to lebanon that might not be the place to travel to, i'm wondering are turkey jordan and iraq viable options if you have to get out of the country right now? >> really, lebanon has been the more open of those countries that you named. jordan's border was virtually closed for several months this late summer, only really reopened in part, to relatively small numbers that were actually huddled against the border in december. turkey similarly has seen

bottlenecks and the iraq border is very, very difficult you know outside the kurdish area and that's basically open to ethnic kurds. >> there is no end of the fighting, bill froelich, with human rights watch bill a pleasure, thank you. we will have a much deeper look at this issue coming up at the top of the hour on "inside story" with ray suarez. men have been forced to resign from the cabinet of recep tayyip erdogan. the al-aqsa mosque in jerusalem

made a rare visit to the muslim holy place today. he said it was his right as a muslim to be there. the hilltop compound is also a sacred place for the jews. in germany thousands of people filled the streets in several german cities including dresden protesting the islamization of germany. not all are buying into it. >> clearly out numbered the padida supporters, that cathedral turned off its lights against the pegida movement. saying they were not welcome

effectively. angela merkel has come out in the last week or so saying people should not be tempted to follow pegida, saying its organizers are motivated by prejudice and even hatred. a recent opinion poll said 13% would turn up for a pegida rally it's not clear exactly house many people around germany sign up to all of the slogans and campaigning causes of pegida. mainstream political parties certainly distances themselves from what the people behind me would call a neonazi movement. >> two citizens of the ultimates face charges of trying to overthrow the south african nation of gambia.

>> these people were papa faal and chemo njie. he according to alleged co-conspirators who to the u.s. authorities about the plot was supposed to assume the presidency of gambia had the plot succeeded. he purchased weapons to be sent to gambia. the plotters were trying to overthrow as you mentioned yahya jammeh who has ruled gambia with summing something of an iron fist for 20 years and as a result of his policies of suppressing accident andsuppressing dissent and controlling the media has created a worldwide exodus of dissidents of his regime. as you mentioned he blamed the

failed coup attempt on what he called terrorists based in foreign countries. now the u.s. has laws on the books that prevent citizens or residents of the u.s. from conspiring in the violent overthrow of a foreign government and that is what these two individuals have been charged with. >> the cia's internal watchdog is resigning. david buckley was the cia inspector general for the last few years over the handling of the cia's detention and interrogation records critical of some of cia's employees. buckley's departure has nothing to do with anything he investigated. new york city police commissioner william bratton says the murder of two police officers has had an impact on police officer activities. the stoppage continued last

week. statistics obtained by the new york times said overall activities were down 56% compared to last year. parking violations and traffic violations also fell by more than ploy%. new york city bill deblasio joined the police commissioner for that news conference today. roxana saberi is here with more on that. roxana. >> tony, the mayor wanted to focus on the city's record low crime statistics but he and the police commissioner ended up fielding questions about work stoppage and tensions between the nypd and the mayor. protesting mayor bill deblasio at the funeral of a fellow officer he called on the city to come together. >> rather than get lost in the daily back and forth by the loudest and most disrespectful voices those that have been so loud in this debate in recent

weeks, let's talk about where we need to go as a city. >> reporter: tensions between the player and nypd have been running high. many officers, bill deblasio sided with protesters who in december decided not to indict a white officer in the death of eric garner. the mayor has also said he has often warned his biracial son how to deal with police officers. >> i thought here today is that actions speak louder than words and time will tell. >> reporter: on monday the mayor said new yorkers want to move on. >> the people want us all to come together. the people believe that we can do better. and that positive vision will prevail over the negative vision visions, where the loudest voices of disunity and discord

dominate the news cycle. >> calling for records in garner's grand jury hearing to be made public. four groups have filed petitions calling for the transcripts to be disclosed information that is usually kept secret. while the public thirst for information is both palpable and understandable satisfying that thirst would impair the effectiveness of future grand jury proceedings. tony a judge announced he will hear arguments for and against disclosing those grand jury tbuments later onarguments later on this month. >> roxana thank you. ines. >> a facebook page saying thank you nypd has almost 50,000 likes on it.

police and residents are posting their messages of support for the nypd. davis county utah and this was a rally in oak brook il illinois saying blue lives matter. the rutgers police department as well as well as the cooney campus police. all shows message of support on this website. and they're using the hashtag "thank you nypd" as well as, "blue lives matter." and tony, some are calling for aably appreciation day they are asking to change your social media avenue avatar. and a police chief being criticized for posting an antiracism message on twitter.

>> trying to get him on the program and can't wait to see let's keep our fingers crossed it might happen. ines thank you. a grand jury's decision not to indict police officer dairnz fordarrenwilson the public should know why the decision was made. it is against the law for grand joorsjurors about their decisions. diane eastabrook, does this situation have a case here? >> the missouri aclu is arguing that yes as you mentioned grand juries do operate in secrecies but that shouldn't absolve someone of his first amendment

rights. >> prosecutor mccul lokculloch transparency? >> all long mccullough said he would be transparent and this person said some of the testimony and the way witnesses were presented differs from the way evidence was presented in other cases. this person sat and listened to evidence in other cases this person has something to compare the way things were handled in the michael brown darren wilson, case. the government side has been presented here but not every side has been presented here. >> diane would the sui suit if it -- if this is successful, would the

suit allow other grand jurors the freedom to talk about the cases they're involved in? >> no, not necessarily. this case deals with this particular juror and this particular case. it would not apply to any other jurors in this case or any other grand juries in any other cases in missouri. >> i hope that made some sense. thank you. the grand jury in ferguson, christof putzel recent sat down with actor ethan hawke. on a "talk to al jazeera" to discuss the issue. >> it's kind of shocking the variable divide in our country and how uncomfortable it still is to talk about. i think everybody wants it. i think why people shed tears when obama is elected when americans do is it feels like some racial divide is healing.

i mean we just feel that this must mean it's healing and then something like the ferguson case happens and you're like well, there's still so much suffering and so much dialogue happening in separate corners of the world. and you know that's just one small thing. i mean i thought we'd left racial issues behind for class issues issues of poverty and you know there's huge issues that are the next generation's issues. >> you can catch the full conversation with thawng ethan hawke on "talk to al jazeera" at 9:00 eastern. we speak to residents who want the big bertha project in seattle shut down. and i.s.i.l. projects have a $2 billion budget but it may have hard time paying its salaries because of coalition air strikes. at 7:00 p.m. eastern time.

>> well, the plan seems simple

enough. dig a two mile tunnel to replace an aging elevated highway and move traffic through downtown seattle, right? instead a project that was supposed to help the city has only caused more problems. the machine dubbed bertha has been stuck for more than one year and no one knows when the project will be finished. allen schauffler joins us from seattle. this project is a bit of a nightmare and even causing problems for some in the 100-year-old buildings near you correct? >> reporter: exactly the problem, tony. two big issues here. one, nobody can say exactly when this project might be finished for certain. two, nobody can say exactly how much this project is eventually going to cost, for certain. although the state maintains they're technically not over budget just yet. what we do know for certain is that bertha, the world's biggest tunneling machine which is about 200 yards that way and 120 feet

down beneath the streets is causing problems even when she's not moving. the j and m cafe has been part of pioneer square since the 1800s and now it's part of the controversy shaking up this neighborhood. beneath these streets there's a giant drill boring a tunnel for an underground highway but the tunnel machine is stuck broken and repair work may be making this part of town sink. >> there's water coming in every day that used to never come in. >> j and m general manager tony took us to why there is growing concern about contraction. >> 120-year-old building you would expect cracks right? >> yes, this is getting crazy. when they get sensors they are tying sensors so they're watching these cracks. >> millions of gallons of groundwater pumped out recently so contractors could reach the bogged down machine and make

repairs. >> that looks fresh. >> that came down last night? >> that wasn't there yesterday. >> this is falling out overnight. >> yes. >> city officials are watching 30 buildings after cracks were detected last month above the machine dubbed bertha. >> one section of the double decker highway that the tunnel is going to replace sunk about an inch and a half during that time. that's an inch and a half more than the broken down tunneling machine has tunld in more than a tunneled in more than a year. >> it's almost a comedy. >> not so much for someone who can point to his own cracked walls and a front row seat for the engineering drama. >> the head of bertha is right there? >> right there.

>> he bleaches the sinking and settling would eventually end up in court bumping up the eventually price tag. >> no, this is america you know? >> the settling has stopped and work ton repair pit has now resumed. contractors hope to start drilling again in four months and finish the traffic tunnel by august of 2017, two years later than previously planned. but the head of the transportation department says nobody can provide a completion date for the $2.1 billion project. now there are more problems in more places than just the old buildings, the old brick buildings that make up this neighborhood. there have been problems with sidewalks and streets cracking and subsiding as well. a lot of engineering problems ahead, tony. >> allen schauffler, good to talk to you. pittsburgh's police chief is in hot water after this picture wenl viral.

went viral. some say he is calling his own department racist. ines has this next. >> 50 million are on the move across borders and internally displaced taking refuge from war, political crisis and ethnic strife. the groabl global plight of refugees, at the top of the hour.

>> pain killer addiction on the rise >> i loved the feeling of not being in pain >> deadly consequences >> the person i married was gone >> are we prescribing an epidemic?

>> the last thing drug companies wanted anybody to think was that, this was a prescribing problem >> fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... award winning investigative documentary series... opioid wars only on al jazeera america >> so the chief of police in pittsburgh is facing a lot of criticism posing with a picture antiracism sign. ines. >> tony when an activist asked chief to take a picture the chief said yes. the police chief retweeted the picture and then wrote this. it is time for courageous conversations about purported bias at work and in our

communities. it will be okay. now the image went viral and the fra ternlgfraternal order of police called the police department racist, posing with an end white silence sign is racist chief. he has since posted an explanation on facebook and sent an e-mail to the department apologizing if he offended anyone but standing by the photo, tony. he has received messages of support, give this plan an award, chief of the decade. others have come out in support of chief mcglade. >> was it unclear who put the photo out the was the mayor's office in support? >> the mayor's office was in support. since the mayor looked at that photo he was very much in support of it.

the police chief even retweeted the picture he didn't find anything wrong with it or neither did the mayor. >> it's got the union that's got the problem. ines thank you. "inside story" is next on al jazeera america. >> people are on the move. the largest number of refugees since the end of world war ii. this is "inside story." hello, i'm ray suarez. around the world people who have concluded that staying where they are is just too dangerous hit the road, leaving their