old man... >> an america tonight investigation only on al jazeera america isil takes more territory in syria destroying symbols of the assad government along the way. welcome to al jazerra, i am jane dutton live from our doha headquarters. also ahead sr. leaders from the u.s. and south east asia meet to discuss the migrant crisis. as malaysia sends out its may have toy search for those stranded at sea. leaders take talk about the greece's debt as the deadline looms for yet another payment from athens. protests against the chilean government turn violent as the

president calls for political reform. ♪ ♪ fighters from islamic state of iraq and the levant are continue to go make advances in their military campaign in syria. the u.k.-based syrian observatory for human rights says isil now controls half of the country. the group is trying to control the area between the western city of homs and anbar province in iraq. isil has imposed a curfew in the ancient city of pal meyer palmyra which there are in full control of. a dire human terrien situation there as the city was without electricity or water for 10 days. >> reporter: everyone in this pumping station appears to have fled. knowing that isil has been edging closer day by day. but with their own camera

rolling, isil fighters are relentless in the destruction of any symbol of the syrian regime. palmyra is in the hands of these fighters. just a few weeks ago. isil was said to have on the run run. in the same video local people are shown to support one fighter. it's unclear whether that support is genuine. isil has used fear and terror to control before. the fall of palmyra has caused large and fear for the thousands of people who are thought to be trapped inside. many had come here seeking sanctuary from other parts of syria. and isil has struck at the heart of syria's ancient past with its ruins now under threat. >> we have may have different beliefs, we may have different views, but we have to protect

such an incredible vestiges of human history. and i would appeal in deet that destroying heritage will not achieve anything. >> reporter: but isil appears to be intent to trying to advance further. and 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 heywood, al jazerra. >> with the fall of ramadi there are growing calls for the u.s. to rei think its strategy in battling isil in iraq. but the obama administration insists what it's doing is working. alan fisher reports from washington d.c. >> reporter: strong criticism for its plan for iraq. a day before isil fighters swept in the city the u.s. killed an isil command never syria.

that's part of the strategy to degrade and destroy isil. providing training and equipment to iraqi army. but former republican presidential candidate john mccain a senior senator says the loss of romadi is a significant defeat. >> the obama administration seems unwilling or unable to grasp the strategic significance as isil terrorists ran sacked ramadi by the way the pentagon's news page ran a story with the headline, quote strategy to defeat isil is working. >> reporter: the state department insists things are improving. >> in a conflict like this you have ebbs and flows on the battlefield and what matters ultimately is if we can get back on track, get the iraqi army back on track and help them retake ramadi. >> reporter: you are not degrade to this ex-at the end where they can't launch major offensive to retake a major city. >> we have degraded their capabilities we have cut off their main source of funding

that's having an impact. we take fighters off the battlefield every single day. >> reporter: the white is rushing 1,000 anti-take missiles to help iraqi forces in an interview with atlantic magazine president obama admitted the loss of ramadi was a tick identical setback but added no doubt in the sunni areas we are going to have to ramp up not just training, but also commitment. and we better get sunni tribes more activated than they currently have been. senior military officers just back from training iraqi officers say they see improvement even if recent gains this tikrit set the bar later. >> no one ran away. right? not that i know that. and people fought. that's a big difference than what it was before. >> reporter: the white house insists it's keeping its strategy constantly under review. after ramadi it will be asking what went wrong. and how do they fix it. alan fisher, al jazerra

washington. the saudi-led coalition has bombed a military site near sanaa airport in yemen the air strike took place in the early hours of friday. saudi arabia denied reports that at the targed a houthi refugees camp in the north on friday which killed five ethiopians. a top u.s. diplomat has been meeting with government representatives in myanmar to address the growing refugees crisis in southeast asia. deputy secretary of state anthony is due to give a news conference later on friday. after talking with officials in the capital he said the only solution to the refugees problem was to address the conditions causing people to seek asylum. boats full of row rohingya refugees have been rescued or are stranded at sea after fleeing% could you go in myanmar. malaysia's foreign minister is meeting with government representatives in myanmar. malaysia is where many are

headed. rob mcbride has more from the island. >> reporter: that search and rescue phase has been ramped up here in malaysia with the chief of the navy in this part of the coastline. saying that four ships and three helicopters are now being assigned to the cast of looking for migrant boats several other vessels are on stand by 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 want to go come ashore. meanwhile, there has been an important breakthrough in the diplomatic side of dealing with this problem and that's the agreement of myanmar to take part in emergency talks. next week on this crisis. there was a meeting yesterday between the malaysian and indonesian foreign ministers with senior officials in myanmar. we don't know what was said behind closed doors. but we can expect that the talk was probably very frank and forthright. telling myanmar in no uncertain terms that it would be expected to take part. it is seen as being very much a

part of the solution. being the source of the migrant vessel. and i think there is a growing sense of frustration the almost ambivalence of many people in myanmar to deal with the situation with some senior officials even distancing themselves and saying it's not really their responsibility. so the very fact that they will be there at the negotiating table is indeed a breakthrough. britain's prime minister david cameron has announced plans to restrict immigration. about 300,000 people moved to the u.k. last year, that is the highest number in a decade. from london, simon mcgregor wood reports. >> reporter: british police on a raid looking for illegal immigrants in london. it was a good photo opportunity for a prime minister trying again to get tough on immigration. the latest numbers are an embarrassment to david cameron who keeps promising targets he can't keep. >> do you normally mind more than you think? >> reporter: immigration was an issue in the recent election and he now claims a mandate for

tougher action. so while a strong country isn't one that pulls up the drawbridge, it is one that properly controls immigration. >> reporter: next week his new majority government will introduce a new immigration law. promising to make the u.k. less attractive to my grants. >> one, dealing with those who shouldn't be here by rooting out illegal migrants and boosting did hedeportations. two, reforming our immigration and labor market rules so we reduce the demand to skilled migrant labor and crack down on the exploitation of low-skilled workers. and three, addressing the spike in e.u. migration by renegotiating in europe. >> reporter: david cameron paid homage to the long traditions and positive benefits of immigration, but his argument and it's one he thinks will connect with my britains, is now that the numbers are simply too high putting pressure public services and forcing down local

wages, making life harder for immigrants won't help, according to some. >> they have gone beyond tight 10ing the borders and visa controls, now it is about letting any ply grants who want to his try the adventure of living and working in britain for a period of time to know that they are going to have a very, very tough time. >> reporter: half of last year's immigrants were from the european union under the cherished principle of free movement. david cameron says he's determined to get concession on his immigration from his e. u partners. unless you does he won't get the numbers down and arguing for this country's continuing membership in europe and his promised ref remember done will be much harder. european leaders are meeting in the latvian capital for a summit on eastern european partnership. but the meeting is likely to be overshadowed by greece' debt crisis. after meeting germany and france on thursday, greece admitted it

will not be able to pay its next bailout installment. it's supposed to hand over $340 million by june the 5th. greece's attempt to change victory labor regulations is at the heart of its disagreements with the euro zone and international monetary fund. they came in power on promises of ending painful austerity measures and unemployment. a look at whether they have made any progress. >> reporter: she has just earned her diploma as an an anesthesiologist after 15 years of study and practice, she cannot find work. >> translator: i have gathered knowledge and experience, the problem is i cannot use them. there is a hiring freeze in the public sector. you can get a temporary one-year posting for a thousand euros a month without equipment or materials so we continue practice what we have learned.

>> reporter: her plight is the plight of her generation more than half of young people are officially unemployed. those that start earn $500 a month, many are forced to work on the black market with no retirement or benefits. the government says austerity hasn't produced growth but recession and unemployment. >> if at the time of the crisis, what you choose to do is artificially reduce demand by suppressing wages you accelerate and you augment the problem. it is not a mother of a -- matter of a left government or a right government. a left oriented policy proposal or a right wing oriented proposal. in my opinion it is pure and simple, may i say stupidity. >> reporter: parliament redid he go lated labor three years ago under an unelected prime minister. the night of that vote marked one of the largest and most violent protests of the crisis. this is the situation the least

wing vowed to overturn when it was elected in january. they want to restore to $800 a month in order to boost consumer spending. it wants to prevent employers from laying off more than five persons of their workforce in one go and wants to bring back collective wage barring ago. >> the trouble with individual bargaining is that you are alone against the company. unions may have agreed on a minimum wage of 800 euros in your sector and your employer comes along and says i can't give you 800 if you want, you can sign an individual agreement for 500. take it or leave it. there is one and a half million unemployed people. employers today are totally unable to boring an bargain with employers. >> reporter: uncertainty has cut greece's growth forecast to just half of 1% this year. and without growth, there is no visible end to unemployment for

her or the rest of her generation. polls have just opened in ireland where voters are taking part in a historic referendum. they have been asked whether to amend the constitution to allow same-sex couple to his get married gay couples are already a throughout sign civil partnerships. but friday's vote could make ireland the first country in the world to allow gay marriage by popular vote. one year on since its military take over. high thailand healed its political divisions? we'll have a special are sprerpblt on that. the first time cuban and american wrestlers tussled in new york. it's not just the athlete knocking heads.

[beeping] ooo come on everybody, i think this is my grandson. [lip syncing] ♪little girl you look so lonesome oh my goodness. ♪i see you are feeling blue ♪come on over to my place ♪hey girl ♪we're having a party happy birthday, grandma! ♪we'll be swinging ♪dancing and singing ♪baby come on over tonight

[baseball crowd noise] ♪ ♪ [x1 chime] ♪ ♪ [crowd cheers] oh! i can't believe it! [cheering] hi, grandma! ♪

♪ ♪ again, you are watching al jazerra, here say reminders of our top stories isil are making more advances and taking more territory across syria. the group is trying to get control of the area between the western city of hommes in syria and el anbar poff nips province in iraq. the u.s. government is coming under criticism for its crisis to stop isil. the white house has announced it's rushing a thousand anti--tank missile to his help iraqi security forces. a tapp u.s. diplomat has been meeting with government representatives in myanmar to address the growing refugees crisis in southeast asia. deputy secretary of state anthony is due to give a news

conference later on friday. they have either been rescued or stranded at sea before fleeing persecution in myanmar. it's been a year since the military toppled the democratically elected government in thailand. the take over was prompted by huge street protests calling for the government to step down. scott heidler takes a look at whether the military has managed to heal political divisions. >> reporter: when the military staged its take over dismissing the elected government. then army chief said they had to do it. thailand was divided, edging close to civil war. >> translator: bringing the sides together was a top priority for the military government. >> reporter: the political divide between the so-called red shirts who support the former prime minister and the yellow shirts loyalists launch by his

brother who he was prime minister. but one year on, accords to this red shirts the military government's reconciliation program is not working. the political party founded by toxin. >> you say you want reconciliation, but still you want to persecute, demonize and try to terrorize, intimidate the opponents of the government says it's following a reconciliation road map. they prevent the violence and did not favoring the yellow shirts. >> translator: the political division is so deep rooted and it didn't just 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's much more than than not getting what they want. this is a so-called red shirt village. >> reporter: according to organize, there are 20,000 in thailand, most of them up here in the northeast. many here say the recognize sell

areas program is nonexistent. he started the red shirt village concept. he leads a million supporters, the military has summoned him for questioning three times. >> translator: reconciliation hasn't happened at all. this is a lie. we can we can all see one side is only treated badly. the general should not have been the prime minister. he said that he wouldn't stage a coup and he did. he said he didn't want any power. then he became prime minister. >> reporter: as the military government moves in to its second year of rule. reconciliation is just one of its challenges. it has again pushed back the general election schedule. and it faces questions from the international community on its commitment to clamp down on human trafficking. this, as it refuse today give temporary shelter to the thousands drifting off its coast in migrant boats. but back in the red shirt heartland they are still wait for this day when they can hold

gatherings bigger than picnics and take a new generation of party leaders to the polls. scott heidler, al jazerra thailand. south korean appeals court has ordered the release i've former korean airlines executive. heather cho was convicted after an out burst on the plane over the way she had been served macadamia nuts. cho the daughter of the airlines chairman was sentenced in to be to one year in prison. california's local government is deploying hundreds to clean up an oil spill think 2,500-barrels of crude oil leaked from eye pipeline on tuesday in santa barbara. jacob ward reports. >> reporter: this is kind of place you see in oil paintings in the local restaurants now it's covered in oil. federal and state officials are only just beginning to come to grips with how much got out of a pipe line here and in to the water. >> with any oil spill response

there are always things that complicate the response. for example tonight we had to stop our skimming operation this evening because of weather. the high winds and the waves got a little too choppy. >> reporter: the spill comes during the migratory season for hump bake whales, gray whales and see lions that travel these waters for to feeding ground, they are now swimming through one of nature's most toxic recraigcreations. three years animal were killed i've speed. with each tied more oil hits the shoreline, resource here are limited. >> why not have boom as long the shore keep the high tied from bringing the oil in? >> a lot of it comes down to availability. the amount of booms available. it's pretty much impossible to get all of the oil. our crews trying to get as much as they can while it's still at sea. but then as it comes to shore as you can see here, we have to have crews address it.

>> reporter: as the clean-up efforts continue here, one thing is certain, memorial day is not going to happen for this stretch of california coastline. there are armed guards post heard to keep people off of this beach. officials tell thousands it could be weeks maybe months before anyone gets to use this beach again. jacob ward, al jazerra outside santa barbara california. a mass funeral held in colombia for victims of a landslide that killed at least 84 people earlier this week. burials were held for some of the victims while rescue workers continued their search for those still missing. more than 500 people have had their homes destroyed. police in chile fire tear gas and water cannon during anti-government protests outside parliament in the port see of valparaiso. demonstrators demanding free education tried to break past at a barrier as the president gave her annual speech of the nation. latin american editor lucia newman reports.

>> reporter: protesters and riot police played cat and mouse on the streets of value pa race foe hours. even as the chilean president delivered her state of the nation address. a mixture of students trade unionists and representatives of just about everyone dissatisfied with the way the government is handling the country came out to protest. riot police in full gear far out numbered the demonstrators. who nevertheless, the refuse today back down. clearly in the mood for a fight. violent clashes during the annual presidential address have become almost a tradition in chile, but this year the atmosphere is everybody more charged. exactly one week ago there was a protest here and as the demonstrators were scribbling some graffiti on the wall you see behind me the man living above grands firing on the crowd killing two students right where i am standing. as police held back protesters, the president focused on what she called per government's

accomplishments. >> translator: chile is going through one of its most important perhaps form formations in history. we have the opportunity to build among earn a better country. >> reporter: no one here was listening. >> translator: this is a protest by the social movement that do not feel represented by what she is saying. >> reporter: the president recognizes that that she has a serious credibility problem. she made a number of proposals to try to win back confidence. but as a sign, carried by these protesters reads we don't believe her anymore. which means the president needs to do much more than the proposals to recover her lost popularity. lucia newman, al jazerra valparaiso chile. 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 april after

suffering a spinal cord injury while in police custody. his death throwed mass protests against police prue tal at this brutality across the country. lisa stark has the details from washington d.c. >> reporter: a baltimore grand jury has now returned charges against all six officers in the death of freddy gray. these charges are very similar to the ones that the state's attorney initially brought against the officers may 1st. reckless endangerment has been added against all the officers and charges of false imprisonment have been dropped. all six officers face very serious charges, the most serious against the driver of the van that gray was transported in, officer azizer good it is don junior, he is charged with second degree did he pray murder. mean he go took actions that he knew would cause harm. but he didn't care. that's the charges against him of course the attorneys for all of these officers say these are

unwarranted. that the officers did their duty and they did nothing wrong. the officers also free on bail right now they will be in court, july 2nd for a formal arraignment. the daily white house briefing in the united states has received its first ever question from a cuban journalist. >> i am from cuba national television. >> excellent. welcome to the united states and to the white house. >> reporter: 10 cuban reporters are in washington to cover talks between u.s. and cuban diplomats, both countries are working to reestablish ties after more than 50 years. athletes are among those benefiting from closer diplomatic relations between cuba and the u.s., wrestlers from both nations have taken time for the -- part for the first a match in times square. >> reporter: it's an annual events in new york city, every spring young athletes compete and wrist until times square for an international title. this year is different. >> this shows to cuba, you know

what, we are all part of the same world and people say you americans are so big and develop familiar. not when you are on the mat with another guy. >> reporter: never before has a cuban-u.s. match taken place. it's all due to a new u.s. policy toward cuba that was announced in december. but not just the athletes locking heads. in washington, diplomats are also fighting over details to end 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. the white house acknowledged there is still some grappling to be done on the diplomatic mat. >> the way that the cuban government all too often fails to respect the basic human rights that we hold so dear in that country. there are too many cuban political activists cuban journalists who see their freedom of speech, their freedom of assembly, freedom of

expression trampled by the cuban government. >> reporter: for its part, cuban negotiators want the embargo that's crippled the cuban economy lifted. it was imposed in 1962, but the u.s. congress remains suspicious, the cubans would also like to discuss the return to them of guantanmo bay. the controversial prison on the cuban mainland. the americans say it's not on the table right now. still this one-time congress the adviser says despite big differences progress is being made. >> what's very important here is that they have established a framework to talk. the biggest change here is that you have gone from a policy of isolation to one of engagement. that in itself is a huge development. >> reporter: it's a development these elite cuban athlete hope will one day extends to their families who so far have not had the same opportunity to his travel under current u.s.-cuba policy. >> the sport is i think the best vehicle for diplomacy.

>> reporter: as diplomats and like these athletes, seek to score points, one session at a time. kimberly hal cut, al jazerra washington. from developments between cuba and the u.s. to other stories making the news, you can find it all by logging on to our website. aljazerra.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