animals roam freely. you can read much more about that story as well as all the day's other top stories going to our website al jazeera.com, there it is on your screen al jazeera.com, one of our top stories we are covering on tuesday is hundreds of people missing in china after a ship sunk there. >> the head of the t.s.a. is no longer in charge after an internal investigation found serious gaps in security screenings. >> the senate looks to give back the n.s.a. spying authority but setting up a new battle with the white house. >> iraq says the u.s. must do more. the blame from both sides on how to fight isil add an

international meeting. >> this is aljazeera america. good morning live from new york city, i'm randall pinkston. the head of the t.s.a. is reassigned, his boss calling for changes for screening procedures after major security lapses were found. agents were able to smuggle mock explosives and weapons right past t.s.a. gate screeners? >> that is the brutal and quite frankly frightening proof. the report is as skatings as it is shocking. the department of homeland security sent undercover agent to say airports to test procedures across the country. they tried to smuggle 70 prohibited items into airports, including fake weapons and explosives. they succeeded 67 out of 70

times for a success rate of 95%. now the acting head of the t.s.a. has been reassigned. acting director joined the agency in 2004. his deputy will take over for now. homeland security director jay johnson is calling for major changes including setting up new training for supervisors. the agency will retest and reevaluate screening equipment and also boost the number of secret tests of screening procedures. >> it is disconcerting when we are trained to identify those type of prohibited items and it doesn't work. the terrorists do watch this thing. they do watch and go to school on how they can learn from possible vulnerabilities. >> the t.s.a. screens nearly 2 million passengers a day. le home land security department will release a full report on the investigation sometime this summer. the acts t.s.a. director was set

to be replaced soon anyway. president obama last month mom nailed a former coast guard vice admiral to take over the job. that appointment is waiting for senate confirmation. >> nobody is perfect but 95% failure rate is pretty astounding. >> that's the definition of jim perfect, completely jim perfect. >> the senate could vet today to reinstate key parts of the patriot act. some provisions of the program expired monday morning opinion senate is debating a compromise bill. some republicans including mitch mcconnell want to amend the freedom act including declassifying opinions by a special surveillance court when they are considered novel or significant, keeping spy agencies bulk data collection for 12 months instead of decision and requiring telecom countries to notify the government before dell heating all records less than 18 months old. high ranking house members say

the changes are unlikely to pass. the white house is urging the senate to approve the house version of the bill without any amendments. >> to china now where rescue crews are racing to save hundreds stuck onboard a cop sized ferry. the ship overturned in central china, 458 passengers and crew were aboard that ship as it was touring the river. at least five people are confirmed dead. the captain says the boat was caught in the storm and sank within minutes. rescuers say they have heard people crying for help inside the boat. rob mcbridal has more. >> this accident will raise concern about safety on china's rivers. there was an accident in january when a tug that was undergoing trials capsized with the loss of 22 lives but the river running through the heart of china is no stranger to accidents. what is unusual in this case is

the expected death toll. it was late at night when it sank, took just two minutes for it to sink. most of the passengers onboard were retirees, people 50-80 who were below decks most of whom were asleep and had very little chance of getting out of the vessel. we expect that quite a few of the people onboard the vessel would have been taking their first ever vacations. that is a concern for the authorities, that we are going to see a huge growth as more people in china take vacations during the summer, more people go on cruise ships like this. the authorities will want to ensure that cruising is done safely. >> myanmar's navy is helping hundreds of migrants found in a cramped boat. 727 abandoned migrants were discovered drifting friday in

the sea. their converted fishing bolt taking on water. the navy will escort them to bangladesh, but first are trying to discern where they are from. >> it's differ to tell you the conditions of these people onboard the boat or even the conditions of the boat itself. reporters trying to get close to the boat over the weekend were not allowed to. naval boats escorted them away, reporters were questioned, some for 45 minute, for an hour and also told to dell legality whatever they had on their memory cards so pictures, videos, all those were deleted. the myanmar government spokesman or the presidential spokesman when we spoke the him two hours ago said they would be brought to an undisclosed location and from there transported back to bangladesh. we don't know if these people are really from bangladesh. the myanmar government has only used the term bangoli to

describe them, also the word used to describe rohingya population. >> the u.s. led coalition fighting isil launched dozens of airstrikes overnight. coalition war planes destroyed isil loyaltyouts and vehicles and in iraq, airstrikes hit isil positions in ramadi and fallujah. the attacks come as iraqi and u.s. officials continue to blame each other for isil gaining ground. iraq's prime minister today said the j head coalition must do more to stop isil's advance. he made those comments at a meeting in paris. muhammed, this meeting is meant for diplomats to fine tune strategy against isil. is this blame game overshadowing

those efforts? >> it certainly is, randall. in the lead up to this meeting especially in the last couple of weeks after the fall of the strategic city of ramadi in iraq, we really see in a growing sense a frustration amongst coalition members that are fighting isil in iraq. first, you had u.s. secretary of defense ashton courtier with that now famous quote saying the iraqi army didn't have the will to fight and the iraqi government throwing blame back to the u.s. today, you havalal abadi calling it a failure because isil are continue to go advance.

there was a large sense of fanfare surrounding these talks but that has diminished in the days leading up to it. >> when you talk about what abadi wants he sounds like al-maliki who did not get along at all with the sunni and some say was the person who precipitated this problem that he was supposed to solve and now abadi seems to be as animate as al-maliki was about not cooperating with the sunni. >> that's a very good point randall and important one. weaver seen the u.s. and french in the last few weeks saying that there cannot be a military solution in iraq without a political solution. what they're looking to abadi to do is something they were looking toward al-maliki to do, embrace the sunni community more in iraq, try to be more inclusive of them in the

government so the resentment doesn't continue to grow. al abadi is blaming the coalition, saying he needs more intelligence sharing when it comes to airstrikes. he is saying nothing cob accomplished unless there i also support for iraq's ground troops which analysts say at best are in tatters. it's a very complicated situation, a very delicate diplomatic dance. while the talks go on behind me, you have war raging in iraq and in syria and the situation doesn't seem to be getting any better. it will be very interesting to see what comes of this meeting today and if there are concrete proposals put forth on changing this situation in iraq. >> thank you. >> an american journalist freed from yemen is expected to return to seattle. on monday, casey kooms arrived in neighboring iran. he was abducted by houthi rebels in may. he works for the intercept and other publications.

the state department says it is working to free several other americans being held captive by the houthis in yemen. >> we are doing everything we can to obtain the release of these individuals and obviously there are a number of ways we can do that, some of which we have before. secondly, we have been telling americans not to go to yemen for a very long time, and that's for a very good reason. the situation there is dangerous. >> video surfaced of a french woman pleading for her freedom. she was snatched off the streets of sanna in february. >> an egyptian court postponed a final verdict in the trial of deposed president mohamed morsi. the court received an opinion which must be referred to the high effort religious authority egypt. morsi was sentenced to death for a mass prison break in 2011. sentencings would be odd underuntil june 16. >> the united nation said sierra leone is very close to becoming ebola free. the chief doctor dealing with

the outbreak said the west africa nation will be clear in a matter of weeks but he warned that stopping the disease in neighboring guinea will take more time. the u.n. says people there do not follow guidelines for burring victims. 11,000 people have died from ebola in west africa since last year. >> in today's digit albeit, a chinese artist is in jail for posting this image on his instagram account. a photo shopped picture of the chinese president with a mustache and his face scrunched up. the peels is a part of images on the media account with similar facial expresses. he is accused of creating a disturbance. human rights watch is asking for his release. >> people do express criticism of the government either in written form or in images in china, even though they often are deleted by the internet

companies practicing self censorship or by the police. rarely do these kind of humorous way of criticizing the government which receive more than just a deletion of the post, his detection is quite unusual and i think reflects a general worsening of the human rights environment in china. >> the artist could face five years in prison. his wife says his posts were meant to be playful not political. >> a controversial plan to stop gun crimes in chicago. why many say the city's approach does not go far enough to change the culture of violence.

tonight, and we go live... >> welcome to al jazeera america. it is 7:45 eastern time. taking a look at today's top stories. the first decides appearance case has been settled in the malaysia flight. two boys father will get an undisclosed amount of money. it disappeared in march 2014. authorities believe it crashed into the indian ocean. >> french police cleared a migrant camp under a railway

bridge in paris. the migrants were in east africa and had been in the camp over a year. officials say it had gotten too large. homeless argues the migrants are being located for asylum seekers. >> the supreme court is making big decisions on hot button issues. monday, the justices handed down judgments on cases of religious bias in the workplace and free speech on the internet. they sided with a muslim woman who did not get hired she wore a hijab to the job interview. >> i think it is a positive legal development that is going to benefit many religious mines particular muslim women who don a head scarf in an environment where anti muslim violence is on the rise at a troubling rate. this is a ruling solid on legal grounds, but also going to progress our society towards more equal treatment of

religious minorities that are unfortunately being stigmatized in public and by the government, as well. >> in another case, the court overturned the conviction of a pennsylvania man who posted several violent messages on facebook. he had been convicted under a federal threat statute. the justices said a lower court used the wrong standard to convict him. >> there are worries in chicago we have seen a precursor to a violent summer. the stir is considering drastic threats to keeping citizens safe. >> just a snapshot of how fast and furious violence can hit the windy city. saturday night may 23, 12:30 a.m., two males are left in critical condition after shots are fired into their

apartment. one hour later 1:28 a.m. a mother and son shot in their car. that same night 2:24 a.m., one person shot multiple times in the chest. c.p.r. administered, but the victim is unresponsive. three shootings in less than two hours. all told by the end of memorial day weekend a dozen killed and 40 wounded in shootings concentrated in chicago's troubled south and west side. the mayhem erupted just days after rahm emanuel used his second inauguration speech to shine a spotlight on young men and women lost to violence. >> weapon as a city must and can do better. when young men and women turn lives of crime for hope weapon as a city must and can do better. when prison is a place we send young boys to become men we as a city must and can do better.

>> cook county commissioner richard boykin said it's chicago's elected leadership starting with the mayor who should be doing better. >> we can't sit idly by as elected officials and allow this to happen. the blood is on our hands. the blood of issue sent children the blood of grand mothers, the blood of innocent by standers, the blood of all the trauma that's associated with this, gun violence, is on the hands of elected officials who aren't willing to stand up and have the courage to lead. >> today we are here to shine a light on the terrible darkness of gun violence in chicago. >> last week, commissioner boykin introduced a seven-point plan to and the violence. >> first parenting workshops secondly, strict enforcement of curfew. three, an expansion of drug courts and other -- >> the controversial centerpiece, charge shooters with domestic terrorism. >> why do you think that would

work? >> we're in a state of emergency in certain communities in the city of chicago. we have to come up with every available tool in the kit. this is one of them. they shoot babies. they shoot grand mothers. they shoot innocent people. what do you call them? they are domestic terrorists, because they basically terrorize the community. >> some legal experts say bringing domestic terrorism charges against shooting suspects would be pointless. >> it doesn't fit with the historic notion of domestic terrorism, but again it's not needed, we have all the crimes on the books that we need in order to investigate and put away individuals who create this mayhem. >> a lot of people say he was an old soul. >> we met up with tanya binge. since 2009, she's been searching for the killer of her son 19-year-old diante smith gunned down at a party an chicago's south side. >> how many people would have seen what happened that night?

>> what i was told at least 150 to 200 people. >> of all those people, nobody came forward with any information. >> not a one. no one came forward. >> tanya tells us little has changed since we last met almost a year ago. a no snitch code of silence permeates the community. witnesses refuse to come forward. the case remains unsolved, and today, her pain is still raw. >> getting up and he's not here, trying to make it through a day thinking about i wonder if someone going to come through and say this what happened to my son, knowing that he wasn't perfect, but he wasn't a bad child, neither. knowing that his case could have been solved if people would come together and say what happened. >> as the weather heats up, chicago residents are bracing for another deadly summer season. >> seem like the more, the warmer the weather it is, the more killing there is. i'm not looking forward to any more parents joining this club

that i'm in since i lost my son because it's hard aching, and seems like you can't get over it. >> al jazeera chicago. >> farming with less water. california's farmers taking new action in light of the drought.

>> a tiny robot with big technological dreams. a team at m.i t. revealed this self fold be robot a magnet inside foldable practicessistic that operates without cables or wires. it folds and can walk, swim and carry heavy loads on command. when it's done with its job it can then self destruct. >> rising waters are threatening communities along the east and west coast including one of the oldest cities in america. we report from st. augustine. florida. >> chuck has been tending his

ocean garden. it's a past time that's allowed him to observe the environmental changes here and like many along florida's east coast he's witnessed the effects of storms and rising waters. >> the argument earlier was way back when, it's not really global warming it's just a natural chain every vents but i've been here a long time and i've been around a long time, and my wife and i are convinced that it's global warming. >> just down the road, in st. augustine, the streets fill with salt water 10 times a year, something even a new sea wall can't hold back. civil engineer said the city gets little help from the state and without it, the future could be bleak. >> i wouldn't feel very good, knowing that my property one day is not going to be worth much and the place i call home is going to be a memory instead of a place to live and work.

>> the problem is one of skepticism over sea level projections and climate change science. florida's governor like many in the republican party doesn't believe climate change is caused by human activity, but the republicans say it's time to move past that. >> it's a bad policy. it makes government look foolish denying what is obvious and failing to use the leadership that they have to address what is going to be a major issue in our state. >> what do you think this kind of severe beach erosion or physical damage is down to man made climate change or not it's relevant to people in this community. florida remains on the front line of rising sea levels. many want to see some kind of plan of action. >> andy gallagher, al jazeera st. augustineasement florida. >> farmers will plant crops that

require less water and leave some fields unplanted in california. this is part of a deal made last month to avoid deep cuts the state may enforce in the future. farmers will use 25% less water and look into our strategies for water savings. farmers will have to get creative with their ideas because california's drought just became a whole lot worse. let's bring in nicole mitchell for today's viral impact. >> dire is the shortest word for it. june july, august for most of the state the dryest months. the state dependency on the snow pack to help replenish the rivers and add moisture. the snow pack is already gone. we're setting record levels for how soon this is melted and a couple patches of snow left, but really, anything that's going to help, and that's cities, farms everyone dependency on that water, and it is not there anymore. as we look across the winter and what we saw here's a time laps.

we had a couple of good storms, when you see those pinks expand, that's the snow expanding. getting toward the end of the winter diminishing quickly. we got the snowstorms early and things really melted fast, so we don't have that to deal with. we're already in the drought situation. here's a look at what the drought monitor looks like. compared to last year, those extreme reds in the middle, the exceptional, that highest category of drought that would take rain after rain to kind of improve, 47% of the state. this year, or this time last year, that was only 25% so that is almost doubled in size. there were already some last year. the governor was saying let's set a 20% goal to reduce the water we're using. people voluntarily only did about 9%, so they put mandatory measures in place a couple months ago when they started to realize the snow pack was going. we'll see later today how much that has helped, but a lot more

may need to be done. >> thank you nicole. >> and thank you be for joining us. stephanie sy is back in two minutes with more aljazeera america morning news.

>> hundreds missing when a cruise ship capsize's off the coast of china. the search for survivors. >> alarming failures at the t.s.a. the acting director is reassigned after dangerous gaps were found in security. >> iraq's prime minister accuses the u.s. of not doing enough to stop isil. what he's now demanding as the coalition meets in paris.

>> this is aljazeera america. good morning. live from new york city, i'm stephanie sy. hundreds of passengers are still missing after their cruise ship overturned in the yandtze river. 458 passengers and crew were aboard for a tour. at least five people are confirmed dead. only a dozen people, including the captain, have been rescued so far. rescuers say they've heard people crying for help from inside. rob mcbride has more. >> this accident will raise concerns about marine safety on china's rivers. there was another accident on the river in january when a tug that was undergoing trials capsized with the loss of 22 lives, but the yangtze river is

to stranger to accidents. what is unusual in this case is the expected death toll, and that is due most live because of a set of unfortunate circumstances. it was late at night when this boat sank. it took just two minutes for it to sink. we know that most of the passengers onboard were retirees, people aged from 50-80, who were below decks most of whom were asleep and had very little chance of getting out of the vessel. we expect that quite a few of the people onboard the vessel would have been taking their first ever vacations. that is a concern for the authorities that we are going to see a huge growth, as people, more people in china take vacations during the summer, more people go on cruise ships like this. the authorities will want to ensure that that cruising is done safely. >> rob mcbride reporting. >> myanmar's navy is identifying hundreds of migrants in on overcrowded boat at sea.

727 abandoned mike grants were found drifting. their converted fishing boat was taking on water. the navy will escort them to bangladesh. it says the migrants do not want to go to myanmar. it is unclear where they are from. >> we are learning the accidental shipment of life anthrax was more widespread than first reported. scientists thought they were shipping inactive strains for research. the pentagon now says the number of labs that received live samples has grown to at least 28. that's across 12 states and the district of columbia. samples were sent to three labs in canada, australia and south korea. the head of the transportation security administration has been reassigned after a report on security lapses at airports. undercover federal agents sneaked mock gangs knives and explosives past the check points on many occasions. john henry smith has more on

what the department of homeland security is doing to fix this. >> good morning. i'm going to quote startling numbers in just a moment, numbers that abc news is reporting that came as investigators rerelated what challenges they put to gate agents. >> homeland security secretary has removed acting t.s.a. head and replaced him with the acting deputy director, mark hadfield. the decision followed revelations that t.s.a. screeners repeatedly failed to spot weapons and mock explosives smuggled through security systems at the country's busiest airports, so-called red teams agents posing as passengers out to beat the system took their illegal luggage through security check points on 67 out of 70 occasions, a staggering 95% failure rate has been reported.

one undercover agent was stopped after setting off an alarm. but t.s.a. screeners failed to detect fake explosives taped to his back during a pat down. >> it is disconcerting when we are trained to identify those type of prohibited items and it doesn't work. >> besides ordering a change in t.s.a. leadership, secretary johnson ordered the following changes in policy. the t.s.a. is to revive standard operating procedures for screenings, provide intensive training for supervisors and retest and reevaluate screening equipment. and of course, t.s.a. screeners can expect even moron dam covert testing. >> the problem is that the technology that they use to screen people are metal detectors, but there are a myriad of weapons that do not have any metal in them. some of chemical compounds when mixed with others or things they find on an airplane could be

dangerous. >> john pistol says america has to get this right. >> the terrorists do watch this. they go to school on how they can learn from possible vulnerabilities. >> homeland security is coming out with a full report in the summer. >> the now former t.s.a. head has not been fired. he is being reassigned to a different job in the department of homeland security. the acting t.s.a. director was set to be replaced soon anyway. president obama last month nominated a coast guard vice admiral to take over the job. that appointment is waiting for a senate confirmation. >> not what people want to hear as we head into summer travel. >> not at all. >> a congressional internist awaiting arraignment for trying to bring an unlicensed handgun into a federal office building. joshua wheeler was carrying on unloaded smith and wesson. it was discovered during a routine search required to enter buildings in the capitol. wheeler is an intern for can't date lynn jenkins. >> the senate could vote to

reinstate and reform the n.s.a.'s surveillance powers. patriot act expired monday morning and senators are debating a compromise bill that already passed the house. some republicans including mitch mcconnell want to further amend the bill, called the freedom act. proposed changes include declassifying opinions by a special surveillance court when they're considered novel or significant, allowing spy agencies to keep bulk data for 12 months instead of six requiring telecom companies to notify the government before deleting call records less than 18 months old. high ranking members of the house say the proposed changes are unlikely to pass. the white house is also urging the senate to approve the house's version of the bill without amendments. >> the head of the i.r.s. could face tough questions this morning on capitol hill. the senate finance committee is looking at how the tax records of 100,000 americans were compromised. the i.r.s. announced the data

breach last work. the agency believes the hackers were from russia. >> the supreme court started june with decisions in two closely watched cases, one involving free speech and threats on the internet. the other religious protections in the workplace. lisa stark has more from washington. >> the courtsided with a pennsylvania man who's angry rantings on facebook landed him in jail. he said he meant no harm. the court also sided with a muslim woman who was denied a job. >> pennsylvania resident anthony elonis went to prison after posting violent hang on facebook about shooting up a kindergarten class, attacking an f.b.i. agent and about harming his estranged wife writing there's one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. he argued his worst were therapeutic, nothing more than rap lyrics, protected by free he speech that he did not intend

harm. he was convicted after a jury found that a reasonable person would consider what he wrote to be a threat. the supreme court threw out his conviction on a 7-2 vote. chief justice john roberts writing for the majority avoided addressing the free speech aspect of the case, saying a criminal conviction requires an actual in tent to act on a threat. justice told the lower court to reconsider the case. justice samuel alito and clarence tomas worried that the majority did not explain just what was needed to prove in tent to carry out a threat. as justice tomas wrote this failure to decide throws everyone from appellate judges to everyday facebook users into a state of uncertainty. we spoke with former assistant attorney general by skype about the case. >> we now have a lot of people who can use this to say all kinds of wild and crazy stuff.

the first amendment's going to be tested. >> the national organization to end domestic violence said it was disappointed, that it will be more difficult to protect victims of abuse from threats. a second major case involved businesses and religion. the court found in safer of a muslim teen turned down for a job at abercrombie and fitch. she alleged her civil rights were violated. the company had a no head wear policy and said it did not know her religion and so could not have discriminated. the justice said she was suspected to have worn the he jab for religious reasons and that was enough. >> the supreme court dealt a

broad brush here. under title seven this goes about as far as religious freedom as any case i've seen. >> the company pointed out the court that the court did not determine that the company discriminated, adding that the company has a long standing commitment to diversity and inclusion and granted numerous religious accommodations when requested, including hijabs. the equal employment opportunity commission brought this case to the court on her behalf. in a statement e. said: >> the eeoc says for fiscal year 2014, it received 3500 complaints of religious discrimination. it says it's too early to tell if the court's decision will impact those cases.

we have more decisions including same-sex marriage and the affordable care act. >> an egyptian court postponed a final verdict in the trial of deposed penalty mohamed morsi. the court received an opinion which must be referred to the liest religious authority in egypt. morsi was sentenced to death for a mass prison break in 2011. sentencing has been adjourned john mccain june 16. >> secretary of state john kerry will have surgery for a broken leg. it will take place where he had a hip replacement a few years ago. he broke his leg biking this weekend. the state department said his injure will not disrupt nuclear talks with iran. >> the coalition fighting ice still launched airstrikes overnight. in syria isil heightouts and second were destroyed in the northeastern part of the country. in iraq, targets were hit in

ramadi and fallujah. comments were made at a meeting in paris that more must be done to stop isil. >> right now there's a blame game going on when it comes to the iraqi government and their fight against isil and this u.s. led coalition. today, prime minister has badi told reporters that the coalition isn't doing enough. he said the iraqi troops need more ground support that inning is going to get done, that this group is not going to be syringe wished unless there is more help for the ground troops. in the lead up to the meeting we heard frustration from the u.s. and mosh specifically from the foreign minister here in france,

who last week said there is not going to be any military solution in iraq unless there is a political solution and what the french foreign minister and the u.s. really want to see they want touses the shia led government in iraq embrace the sunni community more, so that resentment doesn't grow the way it has been these last several months. >> u.s. officials say an american journalist should be returning from, released and arrived in neighboring oman. the freelance journalist was abducted by houthi rebels in may. he worked for the intercept and other publications. the state department is working to free several other americans being held captive in yemen. >> we are doing everything we can to obtain the release of these individuals. we have been telling americans not to go to yemen for a.

nasa will test a device helping with human missions to mars. the deaccelerator could improve the accuracy and range of future mars explorations. >> a chinese artist is in jail for posting an image on his instagram account.

>> rarely do these kind of humorous ways of criticizing the government, which receives a deletion of the post, his detention is quite unusual and i think reflects the general worsening of the human rights environment in china. >> you can see all the memes that have cropped up on social media. this artist could face five

years in prison. his wife said they were meant to be playful not political. >> will allowing firearms at school in texas make people safer or accelerate the violence. >> a drug company making a difference in the treatment of melanoma. >> leaving bruce jenner behind, the olympian's very public transition, the impact on a community suggest struggling for acceptance.

>> 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...

>> congressional republicans are expect to grill anthrax officials this morning on stopping derailments like the one in pennsylvania last month. eight people died. >> one of the three friends of convicted bomber dzhokar tsarnaev will be sentenced today. he is charged with interfering with the investigation into the bombing. he has pleaded guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors, but face up to a 25 year sentence. two world war i sold injuries will receiver the medal of honor posthumously today. both were denied the medal for generation because of their race and religion. >> two major gun laws await the governor's signature in texas.

one allows handguns to be carried in the open on texas streets. the other makes it illegal to bring concealed handled guns to public universities. we ever more from houston. >> on this first day of summer classes at the university of houston, reaction is mixed to news that texas lawmakers finally reached a compromise. passing a controversial bill to allow concealed guns on college campuses. >> that is scary to me. that is such a powerful weapon you have in your backpack for you. you can unless use is whenever you feel like it. >> it allows people to protect themselves and those around them. i'm not saying that everybody's going to be a superhero with a handgun, but it gives you the opportunity to even the odds. >> it's a big victory for gun rights activists who pushed for campus carry in texas for several years. in a late sunday session the statehouse approved the bill 98-47, after the senate voted in favor a day earlier. >> i just feel that the time has come for us to protect the men and women of texas that are

carrying concealed on our campuses. >> texas has to get past its obsession with guns. >> the measure would allow guns to be carried on campuses, dorms and classrooms. the bill widely opposed by most institutions in a final version came with compromises. private colleges can opt out and public colleges create gun free zones, but not widespread bans. >> for me, to carry a licensed handgun made me feel safer when i'm making that walk across campus to a parking garage. anybody can be hiding, you don't know. >> some so big and powerful in your hands to try to scare number away can also take a life. >> 23 states leave it up to individual schools to decide and 20 ban it. >> it's important to note in order to obtain a conceal carry license, you must be 21 in texas, meaning many college students would not qualify.

>> jonathan martin reporting from houston. we're joined now from indianapolis this morning by that the midwest regional director for the organization of students for concealed carry. thanks so much for being with us. good morning. so you want to have the right to carry your gun at indiana university. why that is so important to you? >> to me, carrying a firearm is a part of my daily safety routine. i don't think of it as something special that i do. i grew up one side of my family had handguns around, one side of my family did not and being more prepared and having that option to protect myself made more sense to me watching the two sides of my family handle that differently. >> certainly carrying your gun around you for example walking home lately at night from your job on campus, a lot of people might say i can understand that. would you feel the need to carry it in the classroom the cafeteria, have it with you in

your dorm? >> well, first of all you never know where or when something will happen, whether it's likely or not doesn't matter to me, because i carry safely everywhere, and i want to be prepared everywhere, but also, i want to point out that if i can't carry in my classroom or in a cafeteria or someplace like that, i can't carry in between that classroom and my home. there's no checkpoint where you can store a firearm in between like just outside your classroom. >> i understand that gun lobbyists are now saying this could maybe prevent sexual assault on campus, which has been a big issue. the statistics are startling one in five women sexually assaulted on cam pulse. do you agree that is a good argument, that it prevents sexual assault? >> i agree that having guns on campus is a deterrent to any kind of crime that someone would be looking to go commit in a target rich environment somewhere they know people are unarmed, including sexual

assault, also on a personal level, for instance, my friends and my acquaintances, knowing that i carry a gun prevents people from wanting to mess with me in the first place or given me any unwanted attention. i've witnessed it before, been at social gatherings where one of my male acquaintances made a comment about how he wanted to do something inappropriate to me and people said i would not do that to craley, she's packing. >> it works as a deterrent for you. i won't ask you about your dating life. people think about hypotheticals this could go wrong and one is drinking. i've been in college drinking i guess part of a lot of college campus culture. how does a school monitor that if everyone is packing heat, as you say? >> well, first of all a lot of campuses are dry campuses and don't allow alcohol on campus

per the rules but it till happens anyway, in the same way that they don't allow guns per the rules but there's no physical barrier preventing most people from bringing it on to campus. second of all, in my college experience, and a lot of what i've talked to, most drinking, like heavy drinking occurs in house parties and in off campus locations where concealed carry doesn't affect anything anyway. >> do you think most students want them at school? should it really be up to a state law as opposed to students and individual universities deciding what they're comfortable with? >> i mean, i'm of the opinion that laws concerning your rights aren't about necessarily the comfort of any person. some person might be uncomfortable with my right to free speech and me saying something, but that doesn't mean they get to take that away from

me and could you repeat the rest of the question so i make sure i answer all parts of it? >> i think you kind of answered i did. you are saying this is about second amendment rights to you. it isn't whether your classmates feel comfortable with you holding a gun in history class. >> yeah. also, we don't aim to make anyone uncomfortable. we're stands for concealed carry. we don't have comments on the open carry argument. that could be distracting to some people. as a community we do other things. we try to make sure people get into gun safety classes and things like that and we encourage people to be poll light and smart and responsible with their firearm, if they are going to carry it. we try to have resources for that, as well. >> really appreciate your perspective this morning. thank you. >> students say their school district has failed them, so they're suing over how the schools in compton california handle those suffering from trauma ma.

>> a lion attack kills an american tourist while on safari in south africa.

>> welcome to al jazeera america. in china, 400 people are still missing after a boat sank in the yangtze river. a dozen people have been rescued, including the captain. at least five died. poor weather may be to blame for the accident. >> myanmar's navy is helping migrants found drifting in the sea, cramped in a boat taking on water. they are trying to determine where they are from. >> the head of the t.s.a. has been reassigned after weapons and explosives were smuggled past airport screeners. they are reevaluating procedures. >> students and teachers are

suing the compton unified school district in los angeles saying schools failed those who suffer from trauma. it's a big problem in the area. jennifer london has the story. >> it is traumatizing. >> kids in compton are like numbers. >> i felt small. i felt insignificant and i felt like i didn't matter. >> these south los angeles teens attend different schools in compton unified school district. all experienced traumatic events growing up, from shootings a beatings to homelessness. >> i met this 18-year-old as a park near her high school. >> i was sexually assaulted on the bus. >> on your way to school. >> on my way home from school. >> she and the other students say their schools failed to provide adequate mental health care and educational programs for students trying to cope with serious trauma. >> i think that i should have gotten therapy because i felt

awful. i couldn't go to school. that made me lose my credits and i wasn't getting good grades. >> the students are part of a landmark first of its kind landmark lawsuit against the district testing the limits of the americans with disabilities act by arguing complex trauma is in fact a disability under federal law. >> we have actually filed this suit on behalf of all students within the school district who have experienced trauma such that it has manifested in a way that it's interfered with their education. >> why is it the school district's responsibility? >> because it is required to accommodate students who have impairments. if a student came into the school and need add wheelchair, they would have to put in a ramp. >> compton unified serves 24,000 students. the lawsuit represents a large large number of them. why compton? attorneys say trauma is nearly

ubiquitous must not students here. >> she said after they first assaulted on a public bus she told a teacher. she said she was never offered counseling. >> i needed someone to talk to about that, because i really had nobody to talk to and that was a very hard situation for me to be in. >> the lawsuit brings about an opportunity for us to have a serious dialogue about ways in which to enhance the lives of students. >> the president of the district's board of trustees, while he couldn't comment on specific allegations did sit down exclusively with al jazeera to talk about the lawsuit. >> what i believe and what the district's position firmly is, is that let's look at the larger context. no one is running from the fact that there are issues within all communities. we just simply cannot localize it as being a compton issue.

the school district at mitts that a problem exists nationally and it exists in every state. the problem is not just a compton problem. >> so there is a problem in compton -- >> the problem should be looked at. >> don't you need to focus on your district and say we are not providing mental health services for all students, we might be failing them? >> the objective here is to focus on the needs of students, but again to simply single out compton is unfair. >> what grade would you give the district? >> i'm not going to assign grades to anyone. >> is that a way of not answering the question. >> what i believe is and i'm veras loot within this, there's always room for improvement. >> it's inappropriate to assume that the school can handle this alone. >> education policy expert maria

ott said the conversation serves at a conversation starter for need for mental health programs in schools across the country. >> even inge districts that have larger student health services available, those services have been really pared down as a result of reductions in funding at both the state and federal level. >> back at the park with kimberly, she hopes to graduate next month and go to college to study english. she dreams of being a poet. >> i felt so lonely i wanted to quit. i was so debt pretty, i was looking for friends on the internet. >> writing helps her learn to cope. lessons, she says she would have rather learned in school. jennifer london, al jazeera compton, california. >> as we've reported, representatives from 20 countries, including the u.s. are in paris today talking about ways to fight isil. you're looking living at that

meeting now where leaders are speaking. this is anthony blinken the u.s. deputy secretary of state. let's listen in. >> the humanitarian situation and stable says of newly liberated communities. third, we have made real gains in the minus since this coalition has come together. daish controls 25% lesteratory in iraq than when this first started and loft significant numbers of men and material. we have proof of concept that what we're doing works around al assad and in the north with occurred issue forces. we acknowledge that daish remains extremely resilient rootless and capable of taking the initiative. we have to learn from and act on our setbacks. in iraq, right now, we have the right strategy, a combination of coalition airstrikes, training, equipping, assisting and effective local partners. that is the winning strategy,

but only if both sides of the equation are present. what we heard today is that prime minister abadi's side of the equation is present, and adjusting to the challenges that we're seeing in places like anbar. he described for us in detail the anbar action plan that he recently passed through his council of ministers. i think we concluded that it is the right plan both militarily and politically for iraq at this time. we support the plan. it calls for separating the training and equips of local tribes in coordination with anbar authorities strengthening the provision and streamlining the provision of weapons expanding recruitment of the iraqi army, recalling and refitting the local police, ensuring that all associated fores in iraq act under iraqi command and supporting a new development fund for stabilization to get immediate assistance to areas that are clear to daish. the prime minister knows as we

do as weaver heard him say that the struggle against daish must be won by the iraqi people, just as syrians must ultimately win the fight in their land. we must therefore do all that we can as quickly as we can to help iraq bring fully capable and inclusive national security forces that will operate professionally and under a unified chain of command. one immediate step that we're a taking is to ship anti tank rockets for the use against suicide vehicles that were deployed in ramadi so much terrible effects. the first rockets will arrive this week and we're continuing of course our missions in anbar and elsewhere to keep the pressure on daish. we are moving forward, as well and we heard good reports today with each of the lines of effort that are at the heart of the work of this coalition to shrink daish's territory curb funding, and expose the. >>the gigantic

gab between what daish claims to be and what it is. the violence includes millions of refugees and displaced persons. the united states has provide $3.7 billion in humanitarian aid to those affected by the war in syria and more than $470 million for displaced iraqis. the magnitude and duration of the regional crisis have stretched the global response capabilities to its limits, but there are times and this is one of them when normal limitations have to be set aside. more funds are urgently needed to alleviate suffering and shield the innocent from harm. finally, we share the emphasis that the foreign minister placed on the urgency of a political transition in syria and we will redouble our efforts to help achieve it. it becomes clearer every single day that daish stands for nothing and dependency on people who will fall for anything. emerge from this meeting comfort

that we will defeat them through our unity determination around commitment to create a future of opportunity and peace for people in iraq and syria and indeed in the entire region. thank you very much. >> you just heard anthony blinken, deputy secretary of state defending u.s. strategy in iraq saying the u.s. is continuing on the course of training and equipping some of the iraqi tribes, including the sunni strikes as part of this larger strategy, but defend that go strategy under pressure from iraqi officials who have said the u.s. is not doing enough to defeat isil. >> a death row inmate in texas is granted one more chance to prove his in sense. robert pruiett was convicted of murdering a prison guard but it's a crime pruiett insists he didn't commit. he's hoping a d.n.a. test will save his life. >> we've been granted access to most of the state evidence against robert pruiett, 20 years old and already serving a 99

year prison sentence. this is the state's key evidence, a disciplinary report against pruiett written by the victim, officer daniel neighle just hours before his death. it began in an argument over a bagged lunch. the officer stopped pruiett from taking a peanut butter sandwich into the prison yard. he's yelling what am i doing eating in this pal way. we got into a confrontation, you know and there was argument. >> the exchange ended with neighle writing pro it a disciplinary note, later found torn next to the prison guard's body. the officer had been stabbed. pruiett said fingerprints were not on the weapon, but several in mates testify they saw him do it. now the truth may lie in the skin cells pruiett's lawyers hope neighle's killer left on the handle of the murder weapon. pro it says they won't be his. >> tell me, robert, did you kill officer neighle? >> no, i didn't.

>> why should we believe you? >> i don't know. why should you think i did it? >> as if someone else's profile is found on the weapon, that could reopen the investigation. >> how high is your hope now for something positive? >> if it's inconclusive again they're probably going to kill me. >> a south african game park is defending safety measures after an america woman was malled to death. the 22-year-old was touring the park when she stopped to take pictures of a lion. the animal attacked her jumping through the open window of the vehicle. park rules for bid visitors from driving through the park with the windows down. >> greece is calling on its european creditors to accept it latest reform package. the country is set to make a huge payment friday to thei m.s. patricia joins us with the latest in this saga. this drama seems to be heating

up as the latest deadline looms. >> greek prime minister is claiming center stage today calling upon european leaders to accept what he distribution as a realistic reform package submitted monday. the comments come on the heels from berlin. the german chancellor, french president, head of the i.m.f. and b.c. president are gathering on short notice. no official word yet on what came out of that meeting but we do know tsipras was not present. greece has gone haggling for months over the terms of a new deal to release $8 billion in bailout funds. two sides have major differences over belt tightening. europe and the i.m.f. want more from greece. athens wants relief from measures that have seen average incomes plummet 40%.

greece needs bailout funds fast. athens has a $1.7 billion i.m.f. bill due this month with the first payment do on friday. july gets even uglier, owing the i.m.f. another $500 million and what a whopping $3.7 billion bill coming. >> they've got to come up with a deal soon. thank you. >> in today's healthbeat, another sign that breast milk is best for newborns. a new study suggests that infants who are breast fed of less likely to develop childhood leukemia. >> scientists say there is a promising weapon to fight melanoma. drugs can stabilize or shrink a tumor and ever implications for treating other cancers, as well. >> when palm smith was diagnosed with skin cancer, she was

terrified she wouldn't live to see her grant children grow up. given a choice of treatment she chose a new combination of drugs being trialed and hasn't looked back. >> the drugs have shrunk this tumor from nine-millimeters down to four. after wards they found some leagues on my lungs but even they have shrunk now to tineeer than a pin prick. >> the trial used a combination of drugs that allowed the body's immune system to attack the cancerous cells. the drugs were tested on 945 patients with advanced melanoma. what doctors discovered was that 58% of those patients saw their tumors shrink or stabilize for almost a year. like any cancer treatment the drugs don't work equally on everyone and side effects include rashes, fatigue and diarrhea. >> the doctor has been treating his cancer patients with the individual drugs and is looking forward to using them in

combination. >> this is a game-changing set of results for advanced skin cancer, without a doubt. i think where the excitement is really coming, though, is in the broader oncological perspective. these are drugs not just specific for skin condition as her. you're enhancing the body's own immune system. there's no reason this approach shouldn't be effective against other cancers. >> this animation shows how the drugs work. while one boosts the body's immune system, the other reveals the cancer cells allowing them to be attacked. for the doctor, there's more work to do. >> there will be probably for the combination of drugs something like 40% of patients who don't have significant shrinkage and what we need to do is understand why and develop new approaches, so has hopefully, we can get the number of people benefiting from this treatment and these treatments to be higher still so we can help more of our patients. >> while the new treatment is

not a universal cure, cancers previously treatment, this is a new weapon in the fights against the disease. al jazeera london. >> farmers in sacramento california submitted plans to save water planting crops that require less water and leaving fields unplanted. this is part of a deal made last month to avoid deep cuts the state may enforce in the future for farmers. under the agreement farmers will use 25% less water and look into other strategies for water saving. >> farmers will have to get creative with those ideas because california's drought just became a whole lot worse. i was just in the state. it's hard to imagine it being any dryer. >> you were talking about the farmers. the governor actually asked cities mandatory last month, 25% is what the people need to cut.

the snow pack is entirely gone. that means there's little spots of snow, but really the stuff that would melt off that are reserve has already diminished and we're going into the tryst months. for motor of the state those are the dry months, so that snow pack would be what would help the farmers replenish water. we had a couple of big snows early in the winter and it diminished and toward the end melted off entirely to where we stand now. what is this doing to the drought? no water reserves from the snow pack. this year, last time, the exceptional drought was about 25%, now the red has almost doubled. that darkest red to about 47% of the state is under that highest category. as i said, going into the dry months, we don't have really any rain on the horizon. and none of that snow pack left, so the restrictions might get even tighter going down the road. >> nicole mitchell, thank you.

>> a defining moment in space exploration, celebrating 50 years since america's first walk in space. a look at where we've been and where the program is going.

available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now >> welcome to al jazeera america. taking a look at today's top stories. sudan's president is sworn in for another term, winning 94% have the vote in a national

election in april. he first came to power in a military coup in 1989 and faces war crimes charges in the international criminal court. he vowed to end the armed rebellion against his government and offered amnesty for anyone involved. >> a pilot was killed after his plane collided with another aircraft, as families on the beach looked on during an air show. the air show scheduled for later this week is canceled. >> belgium's phone booths are history. the largest telephone operator dismantled the last one today in antwerp. some of the abilities will live on, but not on the streets. twenty are going to museums and heritage sites around the country. >> in today's digit albeit, a famous person's transition is still trending. kaitlyn jenner will receiver the arthur ashe award for courage next month.

she unveiled her new look and name monday. she went public last month becoming an overnight sensation for the transgender community. >> it shows people the family acceptance that jenner has from folks that a lot of people recognize. that's really important. it just shows a real person, somebody who many know either from her olympic days or from her current t.v. show, so it's oddly even though jenner's a celebrity, she's kind of oddly more relatable in certain ways to people, because they recognize her. >> jenner's twitter account reached 1 million followers in four hours a world record. she tweeted thank you for your support. >> she received messages of support from people like senior white house advisor valerie jarrett who wrote to live as

your authentic several is a powerful example and soccer star wrote you be you. >> nasa is marking 50 years since a fee fining moment in space exploration on june 3, 1965 when ed white stepped into space. it was the first space walk by an america following one by a soviet cosmonaut a few months earlier. the space walk lasted 23 minutes, opening the door to decades of discovery. what does the next 50 years have in store? astronaut mike for man is at johnson space center in houston this morning. sir, great to see you, thank you so much. it's fun to have astronauts on our program. let's look again at the video from that space walk from 50 years ago. it was just barely a walk. set the seen for us when astronaut ed white exited the spacecraft. >> well, stephanie, like you said, it was barely a walk.

he actually didn't have anything to walk on. he was floating outside. it was more like a space float but it was just, you know, a very cool, inspiring experience, and when i was growing up as an 8-year-old boy hearing about his space walk, that was one of the things that made me want to become an astronaut. >> and you ended up space walking for some 32 hours in the course of your career. is this the riskiest part of the mission for an astronaut? >> well, it's kind of funny that in the space shuttle days, we wouldn't let the pilots do space walks, because they were not expendable, so i'm not sure how that was supposed to make us feel but i think, you know, nasa always does a very good job of mitigating the risks of everything that we do, so whether it be a space shuttle launch, a space walk, we're very good at figuring out where the

risks are and making sure we do everything we can to lessen those risks so we knew that going out in space was a little bit risky but the one person's spaceship that we climbed into to go out there and do those space walks was a very tough suit. it was self sustaining. this was very capable of withstanding some of the potential damage that we could experience out there. we knew that, so we were comfortable doing the space walks and accomplishing those tasks that nationals is a was asking us to do. >> one of those tasks was not small. the international space station was basically built by space walkers. were there certain crucial technologies including the evolution of the space suit that allowed for that sophistication out there in space? >> >> oh, definitely. you're right. we wouldn't have the international space station were

it not for the more than 100 space walks that we did to assemble that space station in space. the evolution that we had from the time that ed white did his first space walk until the time that we developed this suit that we're using during the shuttle and space station days, it was just phenomenal, and without that evolution without those advances and the suit, tools techniques procedures, we would not have been able to accomplish all the space walk that is we did. >> what is the next frontier of space walking? is it actually walking on mars and how close are we to doing that? >> the evolution is to develop ago suit that we can take to another planet surface be it the moon, mars, to an asteroid. we are developing new suits that will be even better than the suit that we are using now on

the international space station and in the next hopefully 20 years or so, we will be taking those first steps on mars. you know, we've already taken the first steps to getting our astronauts there but 20 years or so going back, we'll be going to mars. >> thank you so much for your time, sir. >> speaking of space you may see a flying sauce as her tomorrow night. we promise you the government will not cover it up. nasa will launch a test craft design to bring supplies in mars. the launch will take place in hawaii. >> an attempt to normalize ties, the new york cosmos will take cuba's national team in a friendly soccer march today. little the first time a u.s. soccer match has played in cuba

since 1978. that's it for us here in new york. thanks for watching. i'm stephanie sy.

>> on hard earned, inspiring new beginnings... >> these workers got the fight in them, they just don't know it. >> facing up to old demons... >> i am really really nervous... >> lives hanging in the balance... >> it's make or break... i got past the class... >> hard earned pride... hard earned respect... hard earned future...

a real look at the american dream hard earned only on al jazeera america >> good to have you with us, welcome to the news hour from doha. our stop stories this hour: >> iraq's leader tells his allies he needs more weapons to stop isil taking over his country. >> a chinese riverboat with 458 people onboard sap sizes. rescuers hear cries for help.