rk matter didn't end up in the right place that we expected it. and that might be the first sign that dark matter cares about the rest of the universe in other ways than through its gravity. >> fascinating. remember you can keep up to date with all of the news we have been following on our website. aljazeera.com. the fight for 15, workers call for higher wages around the globe, but some say it could actually increase inequality. more protests against police violence set for today, after rallies stopped traffic in three major cities. and hundreds of migrants feared dead after their boat capsizes in the mediterranean. ♪

this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm stephanie sy. tens of thousands of minimum wage workers are walking off the job today across this country, and all over the world. fast-food workers are among the many on strike. protesters want $15 an hour that is more than double the current federal minimum wage. >> organizers for the rallies are determined to make an impact with today's show of force. already we're seeing demonstrations nationwide including in front of this philadelphia mcdonald's. there is this scene in brooklyn new york and the movement has been very active in cyberspace too, all of this in an effort to

raise the current minimum wage to $15 per hour across the country. many business groups oppose any rise in the minimum wage. they say such a move will force employers to cut back on jobs employee hours or both. last week this was said: 21 states have raised their minimum wage for 2015 but none meet the $10.10 an hour federal minimum wage president obama has been calling for. giving american workers a raise

has been a frequent topic for the president, including these remarks two years ago. >> for businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pocket. and a whole lot of folks out there would probably need less help from the government. >> reporter: even with the raises as you can see, california oregon and washington, meet or exceed $10 an hour. the fight is for $15 per hour in every state. organizers say they expect 60,000 people to participate in 200 cities and 25 to 40 countries. they expect them to join the fight. they are focusing on low-wage industries like fast-food, home health care as well as day care, and adjunct professors from colleges and universities. images of the protests

already pouring in on social media. in tokyo fast-food workers marched for higher wages and benefits. in seoul, south korea, this group gathered holding signs. and this video comes from new zealand, workers are demanding an end to zero hour contracts. diana is a former chief economist at the labor department. she is now at the manhattanist ought to a conservative think tank. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> you are of the belief i understand that raising the minimum wage will end up hurting workers. what evidence is there of that? >> if you had to pay $15 an hour for a worker you would hire a different kind of worker one with hire skills. ask any small businessmen, any employer of a large business they would all tell you the same thing. so that means there are fewer

jobs for the workers who would earn $7.50 an hour. in that discriminates against poor people who need jobs. it discriminates against low-skill individuals. if you have to pay $15 on hour maybe you could get some kind of electronic kiosk for orders the way they do in germany, but you wouldn't have a worker. >> i want to play for you what kate goodman had to say. >> i think what we're going to see in the medium term when regular people like justin and me when we make $15 an hour we're going to be spending it in the local economy, and that will create more jobs. it is actually a myth that higher wages cut jobs. >> what about that argument?

>> well these people are obviously very well intentioned, but why not pay everyone the average wage which was $25 an hour. and then no one will earn less than average. i think everyone can see that if employer were required to pay $25 an hour many would lose their jobs. we need entry-level jobs for low-skill workers, and if kate could get a job at $15 an hour she should quit her current one and get a job that pays $15 an hour. there are people who do that all of the time. 97% of workers in the economy are paid above minimum wage not because of the kindness of their employers, not because of any regulation but because that is the only wage at which their employers can persuade them to

stay. if al jazeera offered you minimum wage would you stay? no. >> but i don't do a low-skill minimum wage job. some people do want that kind of job, and need that kind of job. if the federal minimum was raised to $10.10, 25.5 million americans could benefit and some a 500,000 jobs could be lost. >> i don't think the congressional budget office with all due respect is focusing on the right thing. if an employer is forced to pay a hire wage they are not going to keep the same person. and in the fast-food industry there is constant turnover. an average three people occupy each position per year. so you might get your $15 raise, but then when you move on somebody else is going to be

hired. that person will have a hire skill set. what is not going to be fine is low-skill workers who will be unemployed. already, we have a teen unemployment rate of about 15%, and african american teen unemployment rate of 30%. a youth unemployment rate of 10%. how high do you want these unemployment rates to go? do you want to price his low-skill people completely out of jobs? >> what is the alternative then diana? how can lower-paid workers get a share of the growth that people at the top of corporations enjoy? >> by getting more education. a minimum wage job traditionally has been a temporary job. i had a job scooping ice cream

at baskin-robins, but i was in school i finished my high school degree i got a college degree. i became chief economist of u.s. department of labor. you have got to get more education, better jobs and work up the ladder. you are only going to earn more if you have the skills to justify that or the experience. so you have start out at $7.50, work hard get a good reference, move on to your next employer. >> you are certainly not an ice cream scooper anymore. my first job was as a barista. diana, thank you so much for joining us. >> great to be with you. aaron hernandez has been found guilty of murder.

the verdict came down just moments ago. he stood accused of killing oden lloyd. hernandez faces life in prison when he is sentenced. in philadelphia today it's not just fast-food workers who will be on the streets, demonstrators plan to demonstrate against recent police shootings that have killed unarmed black men. thomas we are seeing a lot of protests against police really across the country. >> there were more than two dozen yesterday alone from california to new york. hundreds of protesters in some cases thousands, taking to the street. they are calling for more action sparking more debate about the use of force by police against minorities. at least 25 demonstrations on

tuesday. protesters want accountability and they want transparency. in chicago, about 200 people gathered at the daily center demanding reform. five people were reportedly arrested. in oakland, california hundreds of protesters marched blocking traffic on interstate 88. in los angeles the protests continued with many carrying signs and banners. 15 people were arrested after blocking a computer train at a downtown intersection. meanwhile in new york city several hundred demonstrators marched towards police headquarters, with reports of dozens being arrested for blocking traffic. police also say an off-duty officer was assaulted by protesters heading home. these protests come after a string of high-profile cases of black men losing their lives to

the hands of white police officers. last week we saw video of a south carolina police officer shooting and killing a black man who was running from the officer. today's philadelphia rally is part of a nine-day, five-state march. it kicked up on monday and will wrap up next week in the nation's capitol. the group says it plans to deliver proposals for reform to congress when it arrives in washington, d.c. the philadelphia rally, once again, one of several planned for today. the group is also calling attention to the so-called schools to prison pipeline saying more attention needs to be placed on education and less on incarceration. >> it is still good old fashioned protests that gets the most attention these days. >> wanting their voice to be

heard. >> yes. video shows police deliberately ramming an unarmed suspect with a squad car. >> one round just went out. >> officers were tailing the suspect, and seconds later one officer slammed right into him, and then hit a concrete wall. the man survived and now faces felony charges. investigators say the officer likely saved the man's life because he probably would have been shot and killed if the incident kined. the u.n. refugee agency says hundreds have died while trying to reach europe. the u.n. says nearly 8500 people have been rescued in just the past five days. paul brennan is live in italy. paul first of all why has there

been such an up tick in migrant deaths lately? and what do we know about them? >> reporter: these migrants come from various motivations which lead them to take this dangerous, deadly passage across the mediterranean, trying to reach mainland europe. the humanitarian organization certainly believe the reason why so many are dying this year is a change in the policy of europe towards -- we had a $10 million operation in a proactive search and rescue operation run by the italian navy. in that was scaled back to essentially a border-control operation. it doesn't go further than about 30 miles from the european coastline. and it is tasked with guarding

the coast rather than rescuing people from small boats out in the ocean. so that's why we believe many more are dying, but motivation for people still wanting to make that crossing especially now is the improvement in the weather, and also the fact that conflicts have shown no sign of abating both in africa and the middle east. >> massive refugee crises happening around the world, paul. and they are not always welcomed with open arms in europe. is there any push to ease the burden. >> there is certainly a push to ease the burden on italy, which is the closest country. lampedusa is very often the first landfall that these refugees make. and then they become effectively the italians responsibility. what we see is the italians are

increasingly reluctant to take on full responsibility. and the authorities take these refugees to holding centers, and then they open the doors, and the refugees are allowed to roam free heading north. so that is the expectation. the hope is for a coordinated approach to make sure that italy alone does not bear the full burden for this influx. >> it is a long and dangerous journey for those refugees. paul. thank you. iran's nuclear capabilities were a key issue at a meeting of some of the world's greatest powers. their are discussing the conflicts around the world. dominic kane is in germany where the meeting took place. >> reporter: they have discussed yemen, libya, islamic state of iraq and the levant, and iran. and that is something that

secretary of state john kerry who has now left the summit -- he spoke about iran and talked about the importance of the p5-plus-1 discussions that were held. you remember earlier this month those marathon talks that took place. and we talked about coming to a resolution and the hope that the negotiations that will go on with iran will come to a positive resolution at some point. there was also reference made to yemen by the host of the summit who welcomed the security council's decision yesterday to impose some sort of arms embargo on the houthis, and talked about the volatility of the wider region. later today we expect to see a discussion about ebola in western africa and africa itself is something that the german government as president of the g-7 is very keen to push the issues that matter there. talking also about the violence

and security in africa. and these are things that you can expect to see him refer to when he gives a news conference in a few hour's time at the close of this summit. we'll also here from the policy chief. she is due to speak in a few hour's time and will want to talk about ukraine and the other issues that have been discussed so far today. jailed in egypt, an american man sentenced to life for his alleged ties to the muslim brotherhood. his sister speaks out next. ♪

welcome back to al jazeera america. it is 10:50 eastern. taking a look at today's top stories. overnight air strikes by the saudi-lead position pounded

houthi positions in yemen. heavy fighting is also reported in sana'a and aden. the european union announced an anti trust suit against google. they are looking into whether the operating system is anti-competitive. google insists its products help to promote choice for consumers. iran's president is reiterating its stance on reaching a nuclear deal with the west. he said it will only happen if all sanctions are lifted immediately. an american has been sentenced to life in prison in egypt. he has been in jail since 2013. the 27 year old has been on a hunger strike for months and had to be wheeled into the courtroom. he was arrested during a sit in. he was convicted on charges he

belonged to the muslim brotherhood. yesterday i spoke with mohammed's sister and asked for her reaction to her brother's sentencing. >> no matter how much preparation you do for these kinds of things you are still going to be quite a bit shocked, and you get that punched in the gut feeling upon hearing the news. so i can't say i was well prepared for it. it was still very shocked. >> what kind of legal representation did he have? >> mohammed has been represented by a great team from the [ inaudible ] center and he's -- the team actually includes quite a bit of well-known human rights attorneys in egypt. [ inaudible ] being one of them. [ inaudible ] being another. so he's -- he's got quite a legal team in cairo. >> at this point what legal avenues do you have? >> we were told that within 40

days we could appeal the decision which local counsel definitely plans on doing. >> the state department of the united states issued a statement after your brother's sentencing saying it was disappointed with the decision. what else have they done? >> certainly many oversees have -- people in d.c. have spoken about mohammed's case state department strongly made it clear that, you know the sentence was not fair. white house condemned the sentence and demanded his immediate release, so there's quite a bit of a reaction over the sentence. >> do you feel like that is enough? the white house has also just released millions of dollars in aid to the egyptian government. >> yes, that's been, you know quite mind boggling to be honest because the understanding all along was that this aid was being held because our government was not happy

with the human rights violations in general in egypt, and at the top of that list would be mohammed as an american citizen who has been subjected to torture and obviously in detention he has been medically neglected. and the understanding all along was that was the reason the aid was being held and so it's release to me had signalled that maybe egypt was willing to start having a conversation about how it was going to do better in that arena, whether it be democracy or human rights you know and, you know, ending the crackdown. >> what is your best hope right now? do you feel like to is a possibility, he could be for example, extradited to the united states? >> that's our only hope actually. i don't have any faith that the egyptian system is going to do any justice. it hasn't for the past 20

months. it hasn't for many people. so we're putting all of our hope into the u.s. government's effort to get them deported from egypt and brought back home. as he continues his hunger strike his goal is about spreading arwareness. boston is marking two years since bombs went off at the marathon. the city will hold a moment of silence. jurors in the penalty phase of the convicted bomber are being told not to attend any of the events today marks 150 years since america's president died. we'll take you inside an exhibit with an never-before seen look at lincoln's legacy.

a new analysis finds the california drought has not caused major damage to the state's economy. at least not yet. the report from the state legislature says the drought has devastated agriculture, but that

only accounts for 2% of the state's gross domestic product. melissa chan takes a closer look at the business of buying water. >> reporter: water is actually not being distributed evenly across the state. there are someplaces that get a lot of water, and other places that are very short on water. we have shown you plenty of reservoirs that are half full two-thirds full and you see that water mark where the water used to be. so we thought it would be a good idea to show you a reservoir that is almost completely full and we spoke to officials to find out exactly why that is the case. >> a lot of the information coming out about california is really looking at the snow pack and the customers that are dependent on that. and we're not. we're not part of the state water project or the central valley project.

we're a unique system that has a local supply, our mountain is where most of our water comes from. >> >> reporter: it is actually one of the richest economies in the entire state. so this could be one of the haves and the have nots with the haves, having enough water. but it's also about the luck of mother nature and good water management. we'll talk more about it in a report later tonight. militia chan al jazeera. california. >> you can check out the full report tonight at 8:30 eastern. abraham lincoln is being remembered tonight at a vil gill. he died 150 years ago this

morning. thanks for watching. i'm stephanie sy. the news continues. ♪ ♪ . >> this is al jazeera. >> welcome to the news hour. i am rachelle kerry in doha. coming up. hundreds of migrants rescued off italy are brought into port the u.n. says not enough is being done to save them. more air strikes target rebel positions in yemen's capitol as saudi arabia and egypt discuss large scale military exercises. the european union takes legal action against google