enigmatic. "american pie" was a hit in the u.s. pop charts in 1972 and 1991. madonna scored a hat-trick for her version of the song more on the website as ever. the usual address to click tonne is aljazeera.com. >> we have come to take our country back. [ cheering ] the republican race for president heats up as kentucky senator rand paul formally announces his run for the white house voters head to the polls in chicago to decide whether ron emanuel is in charge. ferguson, missouri residents electing new members to the city

council, and for the first time there could be three african-americans deciding the city's direction. this is al jazeera america, live from new york city i'm randall pinkston. we have a new republican contender for the race to the presidency presidency. moments ago rand paul announced his bid. his theme as you see on the signs is unleashing the american dream and stopping the machine in washington and spoke of his libertarian principles. >> this message of liberty is for all americans. americans from all walks of life. the message of liberty, opportunity and justice is for all americans. whether you wear a suit a uniform or overalls. whether you are white or black,

rich or poor. in order to restore america, one thing is for certain. we cannot we must not dilute our message or give up on our principles. joining me is republican strategist o'brien murray. there were other points made in the speech. in your opinion how will the republican primary voter respond to what he said? >> they'll respond positively. the message was a general message. he threw red meat to the people and to everyone that they can reality to. he said detroit three times, and reached out to african-american hispanics, colleges and the youth. it's great stuff for the general election. wait a second people will say, he may pull it off against hillary if she is the nominee. >> here is a question can he defeat the republican party candidates who will not talk

about the themes appealing to urban voters nonwhite. >> the interesting thing is we don't know what the electorate will be right or who is going to be on the ballot. jed bush is out there, marco rubio is rumoured to be running in the next month or so. christy's name is out there. there's a number of people and rand paul is fighting ted cruz for the far right. scott walker and others are center right. it depend who is on the ballot. santorum hucker bee. if there are four people who will put together the votes to win in new hampshire. >> he's obviously appealing to the youth vote. how significant is that in the republican party. >> it's not a tremendous amount. his father got a lot of the united vote. it didn't do it for them. they are the energy and the base for the volunteers. they can be low dollar donors. if they wrote a $25 check today

and again and again, it adds up. there's momentum they can pick up for. they come for the election day. they have to reach out older voters to vote republican. >> he talked about building bridges and using the money used abroad. getting away from nation building and talked about foreign policy themes that is not what republicans have been talking about. he did not just talk about them he related them for local issue. for instance we'll pay for bridges with money going do overseas. won't that get him in trouble for that that want to support foreign aid. >> the foreign issue is major. one of the things it showed is when he's againsten aid, it's viewed against israel. when they talk about it themselves and use it it's beneficial, if it's all packaged toot. if you take the snippet, you

snow your opponent the light you show them in. >> to what extend will he piggyback on his father's network. >> that will be terrific for him, the question will be his father's stance whether it will hurt him. yes, it's good and bad for him. the father raised he was the number two fundraiser last time around. mitt romney was number one. it shows an energy. if half the people write checks it's a great place to start from. >> thank you for your insight. we look forward to hearing more from you as the political season continues. >> any time turning to chicago, where voters are choosing the next mayor, it's a run off putting ron emanuel against cook county commissioner. ashar quraishi is live. you are in a polling station. what turn out have you observed? >> good afternoon.

that's right. we are inside a polling location on the city's north-west side an elementary school. it's pretty quiet and light here in terms of traffic through this morning. we are halfway through the day. the polls open. they'll be open until 7:00p.m. local time. we have seen a number of voters come through. it's been light. the february 24th election had low voter turn out. we have seen the early voting in the election has been high. 142,000 people cast the ballots, including mayor ron emanuel and his challenger garcia out and about on the trail, making for a last-ditch effort to push for the polls, because turn out will be. >> ashar quraishi a two-pronged question. who does low voter tonne out help. what are the big issues in the

campaign? >> well that's a good question. what we have seen in the last election in the february 24th election is mayor ron emanuel carried a vast majority of the ward but did not get the vote which is why we are in a run-off today. some of the big issues violence in chicago, violent crimes has been in the news a lot. 2012, there was a spike. 500 homicides in the city. that was something garcia challenged emanuel on. saying he did not do enough to curb the violence. and promised to put 1,000 more police officers on the streets. garcia said he would do that. they have been at odds when it comes to education. mayor ron emanuel presiding over the largest mass school closure, consolidating and closing underperforming schools in chicago. which helped garcia get the

support of the teachers union. a lot of issues to talk about, financial issues front of mine in chicago. >> one more question - why does the election matter beyond chicago? >> well as you know chicago is a democratic city. there hasn't been a republican mayor in 80 years. both are democrats. the party affiliation is not taken into consideration during mayoral elections. it gives a sense of where the party may be leading. you have garcia a progressive democrat. ron emanuel a centrist looking for reforming education and pension reform and reached out to corporate interest trying to bring business to chinkcago and garcia growing up in the west an area plagued by violence and he understands what the working chicagoan and their thought are.

there's a working spectrum and could give a sense of where the democratic party is going forward looking to 2016. ashar quraishi in chicago. >> voters are going to the polls in ferguson, missouri choosing new members for city council. we have this report. there is more than local politics at stake this year an unprecedented election. >> my children have been stopped. i didn't do anything. i was complacent. >> i was pulled over and sat on the curb in my car, and to be honest. i didn't realise it was long until i was in law school. >> i had state police put a gun in my stomach, dared me to -

made me watch while they beat my father. father. >> the sleeping giant has awakened. >> do you think the african-american community was sleeping when michael brown was shot. >> yes, i'll be honest with you, yes. >> adrian hawk inns wesley bell lee smith, ella jones - they are vying for seats on the ferguson city council and are up i gains some challengers. for one, it's low pay for a lot of work. council members are given $250 a week. most also hold full-time jobs, and there's a bigger challenge - low voter tonne out. a 'washington post' analysis estimates that in the 2013 municipal election 6% of blacks and 17% of whites turned out. >> this is where michael brown was shot and killed by a ferguson police officers. but from a voter perspective

it's important. turn out here is low. during the last election ward three's election won by 23 votes. >> the real reason for that is they are constantly voting for the same people. >> reporter: 76-year-old lee smith is running for city council in ward 3. for him everything changed in september when he went to a heated city council meeting. >> look around you, we are not going to let you go back to business as usual. >> smith's opponent wesley bell, a criminal justice professor and municipal judge who is also black. how big a factor is race in this election? >> we can't act like race is not an issue. it's always there, it's a matter how much of an issue it is. most candidates agree - race will be a factor it's not the defining issue. >> for me it's not race it's

who is qualified. earlier we spoke with britney paknet the director of teach for america st. louis and served on the ferguson commission and says this election is a chance to make the city better. >> the community of ferguson including peaceful protesters knocked on over 5,000 doors in the last few weeks, in order to ensure that change will come and come swiftly to a place like ferguson which can be a model for the rest of the region and country, on how to make sure that justifiable outrage turns into real change. voting is important. political change is important. there'll continue to be protesting and change turn out in ferguson is light. poll close at 7:00p.m. in other news at this hour washington d.c. and the surrounding area experiencing major power outages now.

pep coe says the outages are widespread. the white house, the capitol building several sights along the washington mall including the smithsonian, the university of maryland. not clear what has caused the outage and how long it will be off iraqi forces are removing bodies from a grave in tikrit. the massacres in tikrit last summer are believed to be the worst single atrocity in recent years. i.s.i.l. overran the base at camp spiker as the army collapsed. it may hold the corpses of 1700 soldiers. international officials warn that thousands of palestinian refugees are starving at a camp near damascus. the u.n. affect the situation a beyond inhumane.

i.s.i.l. fighters stormed the yarmouk camp. thousands of refugees are trapped. a few escaped. stefanie dekker has more from beirut. >> reporter: a diplomatic push is under way to open a humanitarian corridor for civilians trapped in yarmouk to get out. the head of the palestinian refugees agency addressed the u.n. security council calling for international pressure, it's difficult to contain the situation on the ground. i.s.i.l. controls 60% of the yarmouk camp. fighting palestinian groups have brought reinforcements to the groups but at the moment the situation is fluid. from the people we have been speaking to inside the camp they tell you that i.s.i.l. has snipers on buildings making it difficult to move in the camp. and people dependent on aid have been besieged. there's no running water, electricity or food. medical supplies are making

their way into the camp to help treat the wounding. the syrian movement is using barrel bombs and shelling the camp. people are trapped between the siege - meaning they are dependent on medical aid. they are trapped between infighting between groups and, of course bombing from the air. incredibly difficult situation. some managed to get out. the majority around 16,000 are trapped. pro-palestinian hackers disrupt the website following threats of a cyber holocaust by the hacking collective anonymous. israelis officials say the attacks caused little damage and did not impact government sites. the hacking campaign called operation israel took place april 7th since 2013. it's meant to be a protest of israel's policies towards palestinians. >> america's role in the war in yemen is changing. the pentagon says the u.s. is speeding up effort to deliver munitions to those fighting houthi rebels.

the u.s. has been providing intelligence and logistical support to the groups. more than 100 died in the latest violence making the delivery of aid to civilians difficult. yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world, and had several humanitarian issues even before the latest war. the average global age is 73, in yemen, it's 63. unemployment is 9." 55% of yemen's population has access to safe drinking water, compared to 89% globally. there's barely any hospital beds available, while the rest of the world averages three for every 1,000 people next up on al jazeera america - spending billions to fight threats against the u.s. is the fbi trumping up charges to justify its budget?

>> monday - a climate emergency. >> those species could not be here in 10 years. >> nasa steps in to help protect the future of the planet. >> the tropics regulate our climate. >> techknow heads to costa rica to see how one rainforest is fighting back. >> wow! some of these are amazing. >> techknow's team of experts show you how the miracles of science... >> this is my selfie, what can you tell me about my future? >> can affect and surprise us. >> don't try this at home. >> "techknow" - where technology meets humanity. monday, 6:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america.

after nine months of wrangling a deal to buy a bankrupt casino is about to close. a florida business is buying the rebel for $82 million. onward a fraction. $2.4 billion it cost to build the casino. chrysler may appeal against a deadly car crash, it was ordered to pay $150 million when after a boy died after a jeep he was in exploded. >> the jury reached a conclusion that putting the gas tank 11 inches from the end of a vehicle and hanging 6 inches down was not a safe place to put it. this was the first case ask out of the fuel-fed fire following a rear impact in a jeep that has gone to trial. chrysler settled every other one

confidentially before it got to the public eye chrysler said the jeep met safety standards. jurors begin deliberations in the case of dzhokhar tsarnaev facing 30 counts in the boston bombing that killed three and left 200 hurt. the defense is trying to paint dzhokhar tsarnaev as under the influence of his elder brother. prosecutor said dzhokhar tsarnaev was a willing participate in the attacks. since the september 11th attacks the fbi focused 40% of its budget on counterterrorism operations. does the need to justify billions in spending lead to phoney plots. david ariosto reports. [ ♪ music ♪ ] >>reporter: when it comes to funding efforts to root out terrorism the united states is virtual aunmatched. the american terrorism spent

$16.6 billion $16.6 billion on counterterrorism efforts domestic and around the world, according to figures revealed by "the washington post" based on documents provided by edward snowden. on the home front the fbi spends $4 billion on counterterrorism. using 4200 agents and since the september 11th attacks. they doubled down on security sending half a million, with monitoring obstructing violent extremists. since then there has been a string of successors. in 2002, brooklyn born man was arrested and convicted after returning from pakistan with plans in relation to a dirty bomb attack. two men were arrested in 2004 for planning to bomb the new york city subway system. in 2010 a tip from saudi intelligence prevented two printer bombs being loaded on to

cargo planes bound for the u.s. but it takes one to change the conversation. that nearly happened in 2009 when a nigerian man tried to detonate explosives in his underwear. it happened again in 2010 when two street vendors discovered an s.u.v. rigged to explode in new york's times square something that despite the heavy use of informants authorities were not aware of. in 2013 one attack got through. three people were killed and 264 others were injured when two pressure cooker bombs ripped through the boston marathon. the two men responsible had been flagged by the federal bureau of investigation two years prior, which underscored a need for tighter security screenings. >> there'll be a larger presence of uniformed police officers. they are doubling the size of law enforce. on the street. >> when does it go too far.

in 2011, the associate press found that the u.s. arrested and convicted more than 2500 people on terror related cases since 9/11. that's more than eight times as many as the decade prior, and undercover appeared to learn the line between sting and entrapment operations. human rights watch went so far as to describe some. stings as: the report says stains are focussed on: the question then becomes one of protection and the illusion of protection, when prosecuting terror-related cases. it's a fine balance that policy makers cannot afford to get wrong. up next - the buzz around bees. the bee population is in danger

and beekeepers are going to extreme measures to help them. we'll go to seattle to see how an airport is part of the solution. also, a tribute to fame author and poet maya angelo. angelo.

>> protestors are gathering... >> there's an air of tension right now... >> the crowd chanting for democracy... >> this is another significant development... >> we have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live...

for the first time the n.b.a. plans to hold a basketball development camp in cuba. a team of all stars will run a training camp to work with the cuban men's and women's national fames in havana. the n.b.a. plans to hold youth basketball clinics and refurbish some basketball courts there in today's tech beat bee populations are in danger especially in cities. it's hard to find space to breed them. some beekeepers in seattle have an unusual solution using the open land around seatac airport as a bee haven. marita davison has the details. >> reporter: as one of the busiest airports in the north-west seatac international serves 30 million passengers. most don't realise they are sharing air space with half

a million bees. >> we are standing in the middle of one of three ears at seatac. >> reporter: bob is the executive director of common acre a nonprofit bee conservation group, partnering with the port of seattle to form the flight path projects. >> the big thing is to save the bee. >> reporter: why is it important to save bees. tell me about colony collapse. >> bees pollinate one-third of everything that human eat. since 2006 there's a syndrome affecting commercial bee keep ners which the colonies enter a doom cycle and can't produce enough bees to survive. the colonies collapse. >> we want to develop local north-west bees better at surviving the winter than californian bees that come up in the spring. we are here at the airport where we have a little green island.

>> reporter: vacant land surrounding an airport may seem unusual. but seatac's safety buffer represents city's demand to find creative conservation solutions in the middle of heavily populated areas. >> on the green island for the most part we can control the drones in the air and trolley the colony genetics and set up the situation where we can elect our best queens hopefully they'll make their own drones and we are creating a strain of seatac airport flight path bees. >> reporter: as carefully selected as the bees have been and despite the fact that the cologneies are capable of -- colonies are capable of surviving challenges they face... >> there is no magic bullet. the answer is not a complicated

chemical thing, it's something that all of us can do. plant flowers, no chemical in puts. that's the solution to making healthier bees. not a magic super bee. tune in to tech no an al jazeera. >> take a look at what could be the future of batteries. it looks like a foil packent. it's an aluminium ion battery that recharges in a minute. flexibility makes it suitable for wearable devices. a tribute for the poet maya angelou. the u.s. postal service is unveiling a stamp, celebrating her life rise from poverty, segregation and violence to become a poet author and civil rights champion maya angelou died last year at the age of 86. more news from london. and we leave you with a shot of washington d.c. where the power has gone out. forcing the briefing to be run

by cell phone lot. an explosion at a power plant was responsible. announcer: this is al jazeera. hello, i'm felicity barr, and this is the newshour live from london. coming up the u.s. says it's speeding up weapons supplies with the coalition targetting houthi rebels in yemen. the red cross warns of a cata catastrophic situation. iraqi forces say it's safe for people to return home to tikrit. protests i