an old man... >> an america tonight investigation only on al jazeera america control of ancient city of palmyra. >> i'm fauziah ibrahim coming up in the next half hour, malaysia's navy begins to search for boats stranded at sea. government will be live in bangkok. and california declares of state

of emergency after a burst pipe dumps thousands of gallons of oil into the pacific ocean. >> soldiers from the islamic state of iraq and the levant have made significant advances in the military i campaign in syria. now i.s.i.l. controls half of the country. full control of the ancient city of palmyra. those who stay behind are now living under i.s.i.l. rule. control of the city of palmyra also gives i.s.i.l. direct access to darazur. the last border crossing between iraq and syria. the armed group now controls five major cities across syria and iraq, including mosul

ramadi. >> with their own camera rolling, i.s.i.l. fighters fighters are relentness in destruction of any sign of syrian regime past or present. just a few weeks ago i.s.i.l. was said to be on the run. in the same video local people are shown to support one fighter. it's unclear whether that support is genuine. i.s.i.l. has used sphere and terror to controlfear andterror to control before. thousands of people who are thought to be trapped inside. many had come here seeking sanctuary from other parts of

syria and i.s.i.l. has struck the heart of syria's ancient past with its ruins now under threat. >> we may have different beliefs, we may have different views. but we have to protect such incredible vestiges of human history. and i would appeal indeed that destroying heritage will not prove anything. >> with no clear strategy to strike back the group's momentum has taken many by surprise. there will be much soul-searching in syria and beyond about how to stop the group from taking more territory. emma hayward, al jazeera. >> the prime minister of iraq is calling for forces loyal to the government are trying to prevent

the armed group from getting closer to a main base a few kilometers away. i.s.i.l. seized the province yam capital ramadiialcapital ramadi earlier this week. military site near sanaa airport was bombed early in the hours of saturday. north killing five ethiopians. hashem ahelbarra has more. >> reporter: government troops gain ground. if job falls into government hands it will be the most significant loss for houthi rebels since they took power in september. these vehicles seizeed by tribes

men loyal to president abd rabbu mansour hadi. backed by soldiers loyal to former president ali abdullah saleh have intensified their campaign to capture yemen's third largest city. >> translator: we are ordered by our religion, norms and morals, to defend yemen. >> reporter: the saudi led coalition has ramped up its positions against houthis in the saada the capital. southern province of shebwa, as the fighting picks up international efforts are underway to bring together yemen's warring factions to start political talks in geneva. saudi arabia which backs president hadi said iran is not welcome at geneva. >> the last time i checked iran was not a member of the gcc not

a member of the arab states, not in league with countries near yemen, why not invite others to the conference, there is no place for iran at geneva. they have not played the constructive role and as such cannot be rewarded by a seat at the table. >> reporter: international aid agencies warned the ongoing crisis will affect millions of people across the country. yemen's key factions say they welcome the geneva talks but remain divided over its agenda. government officials wants the talks to recognize houthis as the country's legitimate leader.

hashem ahelbarra al jazeera riyadh. >> malaysia has deployed four navy ships to is emp for search for migrants at sea. they will provide temporary shelter to the migrants who land on their shores. but thailand has refused to take in the refugees. bob mcbride has further. >> with malaysia in the chief of the navy in this part of the coastline saying four ships and three helicopters have now been assigned to the task of looking for the migrants. only when they start to make contact with those vessels that are thought to be out there will we get a real sense of just how many migrants there are likely to be wanting to come ashore.

meanwhile there has been an important break through in the diplomatic side of dealing with this agreement and that is myanmar agreeing to take part in talks on this emergency crisis. there was a meeting in the malasian and indonesian foreign officials, we don't know what was said behind closed doors but we expect the talk was probably very frank and forthright, telling myanmar that it is expected to take part. it is being said to be part of the solution, almost the ambivalence of many people in myanmar to deal with this situation, with some senior officials even distancing themselves and saying it is thought their responsibility. so the fact they will at the negotiating table is a break through. >> prompted by huge street

protests calling for government ouster. let's go to scott heidler you were there to twns coup. just how did thewitness the coup. just how did the military justify their takeover? >> it was just a year ago fauziah, the army announced that the country was under martial rule. there was no personal announcement no press conference if you will, but we were then called into a conference room saw on television at the same time the nation of thailand did that this country then was going to be taken over, the government of this country was going to be taken over by the military. now, the then head of the military pre chenocha, now the

prime minister, said he did it only because the country had to be heeled. and as we -- healed but as we found out it has still got healing. >> bringing together was a top priority for the military government. the political divide between the so-called red shirts who support former prime minister yingluck shinawatra. , and futa is the political party founded by tosin. >> still you want to persecute demonize and try to terrorize

intimidate the opponent. >> but the government says it's following a reconciliation road map and deny following yellow shirts. >> translator: the political division is so deep-rooted and it did happen over the last two years. when someone chooses one side of the political divide they often find they are not happy when they don't get what they want. >> reporter: but to some it is more than not getting what they want. according to organizers there are 20,000 red shirts in thailand. many here say the reconciliation program is nonexistent. started the red shirt village concept. he leads a million supporters. the military has summoned him for questioning three times. >> reconciliation hasn't happened at all. this is a lie. we all concede that one side is only treated badly.

jejgeneral priut should not have become prime minister. he said he wanted no power then he became prime minister. >> reporter: reconciliation is one of its challenges. it has since driven back the schedule and faces the international commitment on to clamp do you on human trafficking. back in the red shirt home, they are looking forward to holding something more than picnics. polling has been delayed three times since the military took over this country. they are saying now the earliest time that this nation can move back towards democracy won't happen until mid 2016.

fauziah. >> thank you scott. i scott heidler reporting for us. a year after the military took over in thailand. government contraction down on corruption we'll give youal the details after the break. meets humanity. monday, 6:30 eastern. only on al jazeera ameri

>> al jazeera america, weekday mornings. catch up on what happened overnight with a full morning brief. get a first hand look with in-depth reports and investigations. start weekday mornings with al jazeera america. open your eyes to a world in motion. >> welcome back. let's look at the top stories on al jazeera.

in the latest advance the armed group has now taken over the ancient city of palmyra. the saudi led coalition continues to target houthi positions in yemen. sanaa airport was bombed in the early hours of friday. malaysia has deployed four navy ships to search for stranded migrants at sea. the united nations believe 3,000 asighasylum seekers are still at sea. u.s. president barack obama is promising more economic assistance to tunisia. a white house correspondent patty culhane records. >> u.s. president barack obama made it clear why he inviteed

president beiji kayep asipsi. >> it is important to acknowledge the place where the arab spring began, is the place we have seen the most extraordinary progress in allowing all parties and all parts of the population including women and minorities participate fully in the civic and political life of the nation. >> and he gave them more than just kind words but announced he is designating teuns a designating tunisia a nonarab ally of the us. >> it gives these countries the abled to buy lets them engage in technological communication

with the u.s.a we see you as an important technical pattern. >> the majority of money given for economic growth, 80 million to improve governance. the message to the u.s. he is making progress. >> however important the milestone tunisia has reached we are still midway, we have a long way ahead of us. >> reporter: but with the with war in libya next door he came here looking for more military aid. the u.s. says he'll get it. double assistance in the coming year. patty culhane al jazeera washington. >> a new leak of telephone calls between egypt and the u.s., the recordings are said to be telephone calls from the

egyptian president be be abdel fatah al-sisi. >> the elaboration of very disturbing. because the elaboration proof that really he's not putting his mind in governing egypt. in stabilizing the country. egypt's economy is collapsing. there's no rule of law thousands of people in prisons. the egyptian president morsi

sentenced to death thousands sentenced to death. probably the second largest country in the world. >> dismissthe energy, environment ministers david mers has more from guatemala city. >> the president fired three of his top cabinet ministers. corruption scandals are battering his administration. >> this was my request. it's important that this is made clear. it is not what is asked for but i am accepting this and making the changes that i consider appropriate. of course, we have made efforts to move forward and continue fighting to save the people of guatemala. >> the main cabinet shuffle came a day after the central bank

chief was arrested in a bribery investigation. police detained more than a dozen other officials in the probe, including the head of the security agency, who used to be president molina's personal security secretary. in april the biggest political scandal in years emerged after a multimillion dollar sting implicated the vice president's personal secretary. though the vice president stepped down two weeks ago the demonstrations and criticism offer the ruling party have grown. hopefully it will pacify guatemalans, but it's likely that the president's troubles are far from over. this is the first time a president's inner circle has

been linked. in spite of this week's political house cleaning, many guatemalans feel unable to forgive. >> they haven't done anything for us, all they've done the steal from the country. that's not right. >> translator: he's promised many things one of them was to deal with corruption. he's the main one that's corrupt. >> with the main elections just four months away, it will be hard to gain credibility. the hard work it appears is still ahead. david mercer, al jazeera guatemala city. >> a grand jury in the u.s. city of baltimore has confirmed charges against six police officers over the death of freddy gray, the african american man died in may after a spinal cord injury. one policeman has been charged

with second degree murder, all the officers are faceing multiple charges including reckless endangerment. volunteers and employees clean up an oil spill 25,000 gallons of oil leaked from an oil pipeline. be jake wardjacob ward ward last more. >> refugio beach is now covered with oil. >> with any oil spill response there's always things that complicate the response. for example, tonight we had to stop our skimming operations this evening because of weather. the high winds and the waves got a little bit too choppy. >> reporter: the spill comes during the migratory time for

hump back whales and sea lions. now swimming through the most toxic creations. new studies show exposure to petroleum killed large number of animals there for at least three years after the spill. with each high tide more oil continues to hit this shoreline because resources here are limited. >> why not have booms available to keep the oil? >> it's pretty much impossible to get all the oil they're trying to get it while at sea but when it comes to shore we have to have crews address it. >> it's certain memorial day is not going to happen for this stretch of coastline, there are armed guards posting here to keep visitors from the beech. be jacob ward, al jazeera

outside santa barbara california. >> the daily white house briefing in the united states has received its first ever question from a cuban journalist. >> i'm from cuba television. >> welcome to the white house. >> both countries are working to reestablish ties after more than 50 years. u.s. president barack obama and cuban president raul castro agreed to thaw relations late last year. wrestlers from both nations for first time taken part in a match in times square. interl halkettkimberly halkett has the story. >> this year is different. >> this shows to cuba you know what, we're all part of the same

world and people say you americans are so big and dominant. not when you're on the mat with another guy. >> never before have a cuban u.s. match taken place. new policy announced in december it's not just the athletes lockinglocking heads. ending decades of hostilities and reopen embassies in each other's countries. on wednesday high level officials from both sides held a fourth round of talks. there's some grappling to be done on the mat. >> still the basic human rights we hold so dear in this country that there are too many cuban political activists cuban journalists who see their freedom of speech their freedom of assembly their freedom of the

press crippled by the cuban government. >> the u.s. congress remains suspicious. the cubans would like to discuss the return to them of guantanamo bay. but that's not on the table now. despite their differences progress is being made. >> what's important here is that they have established a framework to talk. the biggest change here is that you've with gone from a policy of isolation to one of engagement. that in itself is a huge development. >> it is a development these elite cuban athletes hope to extend otheir families who have not had the chance to travel under u.s.-cuba policy. >> the sport i think is the best vehicle for diplomacy.

>> as athletes seek to core points one session at a time. kimberly halkett, al jazeera washington. >> archaeologists have found a set of stone tools. stone tools were found had kenya's tokana bays in. tokanana basin. the ability to make stone tools was unique to our own is ancestors and they only started showing this trait 2.5 million years ago. all this raises the question, who was making these tools 800,000 years earlier. one candidate a skull found about a kilometer from the tools. igignacio de la torre says the

find is very important. >> these artifacts are as old as these scientists are claiming. so the artifacts have been securely dated with argon dating 3.3 million years ago. there is no problem with the dates that they have been proposing. we are confident that the dating is correct. we can't tell for sure who the authors of these artifacts are. we now know it definitely wasn't homohabilis, the first stone tool user. but homohabilis wasn't around then and this appeared before the genus homo.

the genus homois no longer related to the making of stone tools. very important in the understanding of our genus homo. >> you can log onto the website to find out more at aljazeera.com. i'm "ali velshi on target". the harsh reality of the american dream. middle class families plagued by small paychecks and broken politics. dangerous waters naval war games with two of america's biggest rivals - russia and china stuck in the middle. america's middle class continues to struggle the as inequality grows and income erodes. the net worth of america's middle income families took a hit in the period between 2010 and 2013. way afte