mind, bear in mind more research needs to be done. just a reminder you can keep up to date with all the latest news on the website. there it is on your screen. aljazeera.com. >> preparing for the worst tropical depression bill batters the lone star state with heavy rain and risk of flooding. >> syrian refugees making their way back home after a battle with isil. >> the palestinian government is at a breaking point crisis

talks are held. >> good morning you're watching aljazeera america. i'm morgan radford coming to you live from new york city. >> texas is bracing for more high winds and rain this morning as tropical depression bill hammers that state. flash flood and tornado warnings are up in much of eastern the accident. this comes less than a month after the state suffered devastating floods, leaving more than 30 people dead there and in oklahoma. heidi zhou castro is live for us in dallas this morning. good morning to you. can you tell us what is the latest on the ground there? >> good morning morgan. formerly tropical storm now tropical depression bill is expected to hit dallas with its center around noon today although already you're seeing the steady rainfall that started overnight. i'm here at the trinity river which saw flooding after last

month's storms. there was a lot of flash flooding here. you can still see remnants of it with the trees pushed on to the banks. authorities are watching this area -- >> because of the flooding, it appears that we have lost heidi zhou castro. hopefully we can bring her back later in our program. it's not just texas affected by tropical depression bill. let's bring in kevin. what can we expect over the next days? >> it's a widespread area. even though the storm left coastal texas, it is still a problem down there. the storm system has moved towards the north but towards the south, we have a lot of thunderstorms pushing through victoria, as well as even houston. we thought the storm had gone through yesterday, but these are

the feeder bands coming in off the gulf, very dangerous in fact because in those feeder bands, we could be seeing severe weather, as well as tornadoes. here are some of those rain totals we have seen over the last 24 hours, up here, north of dallas, down here towards victoria, we had 5.7 bay city had 6.8. those are expected to rises because of the rain in the area there. as you saw heidi was in dallas. look at the storm system coming in. the tropical depression. here is the storm. we think it's going to clip to the west of the city. fort worth you're going to be affected by this. you are only going to see the heavy rain now. this is going to continue for the next four to six hours with the heaviest. let's talk about the track moving through oklahoma, arkansas as well as missouri. that's where we are going to be seeing a lot of rain. this storm is going to be tapped into the north of mexico, bringing in heavy shores. that is the source, major

problems with flooding. it only takes a couple of inches of rain to fall to get the flooding threat. tornado threat is still in effect. storms pushing through very, very dangerous. houston, you are still under a tornado watch right now. for the rest of the state as well as in oklahoma, we are looking at a major problem with flash flood warnings still across the south. we are looking at flood warnings in parts of dallas as we go up towards oklahoma city and that will continue, as we go through the rest of the day. we expect to see heavy rain, anywhere between six and 10 inches of rain across eastern parts of texas. that's going to shift towards the north as we go through the rest of the day. this is going to be a 48-72 hour event, we are going to be seeing massive flooding. >> we'll keep our eyes on that. >> lawmakers in washington are trying to get answers on the huge cyber attack on the federal

office of personnel management. >> i want to know why you didn't encrypt the information. >> the head of the department got a grilling on capitol hill yesterday over the breach that may have exposed the personal data of millions of current and even former federal workers. the committee was told the democratic had been warned for years that their systems were already vulnerable and their staff wasn't equipped to handle such a breach. the department chief promised a fix within 30 days. >> donald trump heading to new hampshire one day after declaring he's running for president. at an announcement here in new york the entrepreneur and reality t.v. star blasted the current president and played up his own wealth and fame and reasons to vote for him claiming he has what it takes to hold the highest office in the land. >> we need somebody that can take the brand of the united states and make it great again.

>> trump also criticized the other candidates for the top job. analysts say he could have an outside impact on a field of what is now 12 republican presidential candidates. >> the senate has passed an amendment that bans the u.s. from torturing detainees. the votes was an overwhelming 28-71. this amendment to the national defense authorization act bolsters the current law making the army field manual the standard for all interrogations across the board. if the house goes along subjecting detineees to water board understand an sleep deprivation would be against the law. >> i believe past interrogation policies compromised our values, stained our national honor and did little practical good. i don't believe we should have employed such practices in the past or permit them in the future. this amendment provides greater assurances that never again will the united states follow that dark path of sacrificing our

values for our short term security needs. >> senator contain was tortured while held as a prisoner of war in vietnam. he said his experience convinced him that abuses of prisoners does not produce reliable intelligence. >> 10 months after thousands of protestors took to the streets of hong kong demanding election reforms, lawmakers are close to voting on a proposal backed by beijing. hundreds of people turned out to protest those new rules. they would give voters the right to elect hang congress's chief executive, but the candidates chosen by china. >> hundred business of reef gees returning home after a kurdish victory against isil in a northern town. more than 23,000 people were forced to flee their homes in recent days. bernard smith has more from the turkey-syria border. >> a few hundred residents crossed the border again here

from turkey into their town on wednesday morning taking the opportunity for the return of peace to go back and see if they still have homes to go to. this is a slightly different situation to that of kobane. that four month long battle that went from the end of last year and finished in january resulted in kobane being all but destroyed. this time, it was a much shorter fight, 20 days, and we understand that the level of destruction, although homes have been destroyed particularly by airstrikes from the j led coalition, the level of destruction is nothing like that that we saw in kobane, so while the refugees are being well looked after here in the refugee camps, it doesn't home, and these people we've spoken to want to go home. most of them are syrian arabs returning, but we've spoken to a couple of kurdish families who fled two years ago when isil took control. they've now decided that they

feel it's safe to go back home. >> palestinian president abbas said the government in charge of the palestinian territories will soon be dismantled. hamas said the partnership doesn't work since they are not allowed to operate in gaza. hamas is calling the decision to dissolve the government one-sided. >> this all started tuesday night at the revolutionary council meeting when president abbas was quoted as saying that the consensus government would be dissolved in the next 24 hours and a new government formed. what is not clear yet is whether this is going to be a cabinet reshuffle carried out by the prime minister or if it's going to be a cabinet reformation with a new candidate pointed at prime minister and tasked with forming a new government. right now, we understand there's a meeting between abbas and

abdullah to discuss this. this consensus government was formed last year in june. it's a government made of technocrats that are backed by both parties and it was tasked with organizing a general election, so that eventually, a palestinian national unity government would be elected by that the palestinian people, but a year has passed and this hasn't happened. >> a united nations panel recommends a sweeping overhaul of piece keeping missions calling on the u.n. to address sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. investigators revealed that peacekeepers in haiti traded he sex for supplies. some victims included underage girls. >> fighters with al-qaeda in yemen say they have killed two people they accused of helping the u.s. track down and kill their leader. the pentagon confirmed a drone

strike killed wahayshi. he has been linked to the charlie hebdo attacks and once was osama bin laden's personal secretary. >> coming up, assisted suicide in california, the state legislature considers a death with dignity law. >> coming up, this famous star wars set is threatened, as well as other areas here in southern tunisia.

emmy award winning

investigative series... fault lines invisible hands only on al jazeera america >> good morning to you. welcome to al jazeera america. it is 7:43 a.m. eastern and let's look at today's top stories. 300 more firefighters are arriving in alaska this morning to fight two raging wildfires. so far those fires have consumed hundreds of acres north and south of anchorage and dozens of homes have already been burned. >> a psychiatrist who treated colorado movie theater james homes said he had thought of kill people at least three or four times a day. she said holmes did not have a plan to carry outer an attack. 12 people died in the shooting that happened in 2012. >> for the second time in two years, a senate rejected efforts

to how the military handles sexual assaults. new york democratic proposed that measure which would have established an independent justice system that would prosecute rape and other sex crimes in the military. >> terminally ill patients who want to end their lives may soon have that right in california. a bill has been approved by the state senate. patients say this bill is all about the right to die with dignity. >> a day in the life of californian michael a terminally ill cancer patient. >> it's non-stop, just constant pain constant headaches just pounding headaches non-stop nausea, i'm constantly nauseated. when i'm not i have pain in my stomach. >> do you cry? >> yes it gets so severe i do cry. >> michael hopes the state and a

doctor will help him end his life. >> i don't want to die. that's not it. in love life and i want to live. this is the happiest i've been in my entire life, and now they tell me i'm going to die and to that have a death sentence, so why not just end it early. >> some legislators in california are asking the very same question in the form of state senate bill 128. >> s.b.128 is legislation that would allow patients to request a lethal dose of medication that a doctor would then prescribe. >> jason doctor researches health policy and decision making at the university of southern california. he sees both sides of the issue as compelling. >> for this legislation to go through and for doctors to practice physician assisted suicide or aid in dying, they would either have to go against the hippocratic oath, which

would be against their public commitment to the community. >> what do they say as justification? >> doctors in favor of this feel that they're helping to end suffering. they're shortening people's lives but ending their suffering. >> i would like to see all americans have access to the same health care rights. >> last year, californian britney maynard poignantly chronicled on line her own desire to end her life. her public determination may have resurrected the dormant deep bait around this delicate issue. maynard, terminally ill with brain cancer moved to oregon, one of four states along with montana, vermont and washington when physicians can prescribed lethal medication. she took her own life in november. >> this issue really has to be people terrified of dying. if you listen to what britney maynard had to say and shies very sincere, we have to ask why

is she terrified of dying and what have we done with modern dying that makes it so terrifying and can we make it easier for people. >> there's a difference between 1180ing a person's suffering and eliminating the person who is suffering. >> dr. ira a pal i can't tell active pioneer said this. >> the first thing is not to kill patients. >> he is against s.b.128. >> we will simply offer the people who are suffering an option to quickly and cheaply end their lives. this does not feel like social progress from my perspective. people should be born into the welcoming arms of society and die from the reluctant arms of society. >> michael wants the progress to come from his being able to choose to legally end his own

life. >> i feel lucky to be able to do this. >> funny a lot of people would say you're the unluckiest person i've ever talked to. >> i guess i am unlucky in that i have the cancer, but i'm lucky that i get to fight for this. >> michael shure, al jazeera torrence california. >> torn general loretta lynch will be form ally welcomed to office today. she has been on the job two months and now president obama will officially install lynch later this morning in washington d.c. her senate confirmation took more than five months. >> the world is running out of water. that's underground water or wifiers are going dry at an alarming rate according to nasa. the worst is california's central valley aquifer. it's being drained to irrigate farms during the drought. just last year, the state passed extensive ground water regulations. it may take 20 years before these rules are actually in full effect. meanwhile, water levels keep

getting lower. in california, that's just part of the problem. more than half of the world's 37 largest aquifers are being depleted. the worse shape are in india pakistan where there is no other way to find waters. they take thousands of years to reform and slowly fill with rain and melting snow. it's difficult to say how much is left. aquifers provide 35% of worldwide water. >> in africa, the sahara is spreading north and south. the problem says experts is poor farming techniques and deforestation. we have a report on one village's fight. >> a few years ago this entire area was covered in sand, but now life is returning. these salt resistant plants may mean his three children won't have to migrate elsewhere.

>> if you have sheep and camels that can eat these and live here before we couldn't feed them. we didn't have that water. we only had water from god. >> scientists partly blame climate change for what's happening here. every year, there's less rain and more underground water evaporates. the soil becomes dry and salty. >> large amounts of water of very salt levels. >> it's called desertification. some of the most famous scenes in star wars were filmed here. every year, thousands of cubic meters of sand are removed from the set. the sahara, the greatest hot desert in the world is growing every day. scientists are talking about building a green wall across the

whole sahara, a belt of trees and plants that will help prevent the creeping of the desert north and south and try to stop more land erosion. here an irrigation system makes sure the palm trees only get what they need. it is a major source of fruits. these organic dates are exported abroad creating jobs and money for the community. >> we need to stop this irrational exploitation, chopping down trees in the desert. if there is no common consciousness or vision, the solutions we have won't be enough. >> the people of this town have shown it's possible to survive this harsh environment. their dream is other communities follow their example before the expanding desert destroys more

land. al jazeera southern tunisia. >> on the science beat this morning, it turns out that wild bees are actually worth billions of dollars if we place a monetary value on them. researchers writing in the nature communications journal say they save farmers thousands of dollars every year. 2% of wild bees fertilize pollinated crops all controls the world. >> a major league investigation the st. louis cardinals accused of hacking into a rival team and trying to steal their secrets. >> speaking of sports, the golden state warriors are the nba champions after decades on the sidelines. we'll stay tuned for that.

>> rainy weather is slowing the hunt for two escaped killers in

new york. search teams are combing the woods for a 12th day. the cooler temperatures are impacting the technology they use to find those men. >> it's difficult because infrared thermal imaging is based upon picking up the body heat of these two subjects and when you bring in rain that's in the temperature of the 60-degree range and you're talking body heat, it will cool that down very quickly. >> state police have expanded the search for david sweat and richard matt with at least 800 officers out looking for them. >> new accusations this morning against fifa. swiss officials say the world soccer organization was tied to as many as divide three money laundering incidents, all connected to the upcoming 2018 and 2022 world cup bids. switzerland attorney general said he would like rush for qatar to be stripped of hosting rights if new evidence proves wrongdoing. this is a separate investigation from the one conducted by the

united states. you should know that al jazeera is funded in part by the government of qatar. >> the f.b.i. is investigating a case of hacking in major league baseball. the houston astros say their network was breached, as john siegenthaler reports another major league team is suspected of being behind it. >> the investigation has reportedly uncovered evidence that employees of the st. louis cardinals hacked into a database of the houston astros, gaining access to closely guarded team secrets. what they got is unclear. corporate espionage is nothing new, but the cyber attack against the astros, if proven true would be the first known attack against a rival team. the st. louis cardinals are at the top of their game. they have the best record in baseball and were crowned world champions in 2011, winning their 11th title second only to the new york yankees. why spy on the astros?

according to "the new york times," bad blood over this man jeff luno. >> it's an illegal activity and we're going to pursue it and find out who did it and prosecute. >> he switched teams in 2011 and joint the astros from the cardinals. >> drawn to the game by the money ball phenomenon, he is credited with helping build the cardinals team that won the world series. today, he's helping turn around the astros, crunching stats and using a computer program similar to the one he used for the cardinals. the stats are all readily available, but teams use proprietary software to crunch the in connection in their own way, creating unique and closely guarded statistics. some of the astros propriety information was exposed on line, leading to the cyber attack complaint. >> any allegation like this, no matter how serious it turns out

to be is of great concern to us. >> john siegenthaler, al jazeera. >> golden state is the champion of the nba beating king james and his cavaliers. look at that! the warriors won big last night 105-97 to take home its very first title in 40 years. seth curry look at him! he had 25 points and so did andre i iguodala who was named m.v.p. >> i think we definitely are a great team and a team that should go down in history as one of the best teams from top to bottom. we have a lot of, you know, a lot of things to be proud of this season. >> seth curry with the shot. thousands took to the streets in oakland to celebrate and after a

40 year drought that partying went on for hours. wouldn't be surprised if it was 40 hours. thanks so much for joining us. you can catch all the latest news on aljazeera.com.

>> there are flash flood and tornado warnings coming a month after texas suffered devastating floods leaving 30 people dead there and in oklahoma. heidi zhou castro is live for us in dallas. what is the latest on the ground where you are? >> good morning stephanie. i'm in dallas at trinity river that experienced flooding after last month's storms. already, you can see these

waters are rushing as bill heads neitherthis way from the coast. >> tropical storm storm bill made its way here after flooding last month. some areas are reporting flooding. tropical force winds are expected as it cuts a path through the lone star state. officials warned resident to say stay safe and be prepared after more than two dozen people were killed last month. >> we do not want to say a repeat of the tragedy of three weeks ago. >> flash flood warnings are in effect from corpus christi to gainesville with up to a foot of rain expected in some areas. saturated ground and swollen rivers means there is nowhere nor that water to go. >> the watershed can't handle much water and it can't go

anywhere else, so it's going to go in the streets. >> severe weather in may damage is expected to top $45 million. the city could see another eight inches of rain before tropical storm bill clears out. some streets and highways are closed now and the city is preparing for emergency evacuations. >> here in dallas, we're under flash flood warning until at least tomorrow afternoon. >> ok, heidi zhou castro live for us. as the tropical storm -- depression i should say moves in land oklahoma and arkansas have to worry about tornadoes and flash floods. let's bring in kevin. what are they looking at in the next couple days? >> we have a couple of things going on now. not only dallas, but we're still with everything down towards the south with this particular storm. here we are with the center of

the storm bill making its way. we think the center of the storm will go through arlington towards fort worth. the heaviest rain is towards the west. take a look what's happening down towards the south. they are not over yet even though the storm made landfall, we are still seeing very, very heavy rain showers there. severe weather is a major threat up and down the coast from houston all the way down towards corpus christi. you can see the enhanced clouds. we could get tornadoes out of this and we are still getting quite a bit of rain out of these particular storms. storm to get here, we saw about five to seven inches already. tornado warnings are in effect for houston to the north dallas not seeing those tornado warnings, it's really the flood warnings that we'll be worried about. where you see the red right here flash warnings to houston and to the west of houston. for dallas, we are looking at flood warnings, but that could turn into flash flood warnings

as we go later on. towards oklahoma, that is the next problem so the storm is going to make its way to the north fairly quickly. it's caught in a pattern that's been -- we've been stuck in this pattern for quite a while where a lot of the moisture has been wrapping around. that's why a lot of this area has been seeing quite a bit of rain. it's going to stay that way towards thursday. very heavy rain showers across parts of oklahoma tomorrow, then we move into parts of missouri. that's going to be another hot spot there. as you can see a lot of rain, a lot of moisture coming in and around. we have an area of high pressure here pulling it in and adding to the threat of flooding and probably as we go towards the weekend, we could even be seeing that same flooding across the ohio river valley because of the remnants of the storm. >> kevin, thank you. >> a bag full of homemade bombs killed more than 60 people in nigeria, witnesses say civilians were patrolling an abandoned boko haram camp.

they came across a sack of metallic objects and carried them away and the sack exploded. boko haram uses improvised explosives in their attacks. >> a push to reform how the u.s. military has handled sexual assault failed in the senate. the amendment fell short of the votes needed to advance. the bipartisan proposal would have removed assault cases from the military chain of command and established an independent justice system. the amendment also failed to pass last year. >> attorney journal loretta lynch will be form ally welcomed to office today later this morning in a ceremony at a theater in washington d.c. lynch has been on the job two months. her senate confirmation took five months. >> a 20-year-old college student is facing conspiracy charges today for allegedly supporting isil. the f.b.i. says he was attempting to carry outer an attack in new york city.

agents say he tweeted out support for ice ail and searched the internet for items to make explosives. boston police shot and killed a man also planning attacks. >> the head of o.m.b. faced tough question on capitol him about the cyber attack that may have exposed sensitive information of millions of current and federal employees. lawmakers say the agency was warned about problems with its computer system for years and did nothing. >> last year across government, we the american people spent almost $80 billion on information technology, and it stings. >> an open hearing and a private classified one back-to-back. >> this is one of those hearings where i think i am going to know less coming out than i did when i walked in. >> still the house oversight committee tore into the office of personnel management, he is special lib the boss.

>> you are doing a great job stonewalling us, but hackers not so much. >> time after time, office of personnel management chief was accused of avoiding the issue deflecting questions. >> we can provide additional information in a classified setting. >> or falling back on written notes. >> we didn't ask you to come read statements. i want to know why you didn't encrypt the information. >> that was one question that the committee struggled to get a straight answer to, why on earth wasn't the data encrypted. >> were the social security numbers encrypted, yes or no. >> no, they were not encrypted. >> there you go. >> other questions included how did this happen and how many millions of americans are affected. what she did say beyond referring the committee to the private session i guess that the agency was working to fix the problem. >> we have not yet determined its scope or impact. we have implemented additional security measures to protect

sensitive information. >> two points seemed to stopped out, one that o.p.m. management has been warned since 2007 their systems were vulnerable and two staff weren't really up to the job. >> the program office staff responsible for i.f. security frequently had no i.t. background. >> after the open and classified sessions were over, the chairman of the house oversight committee pulled no punches. >> it's going to be time for the office of personnel management director, as well as the c.i.o. to step down. whether the president fires them or they resign, we have to have a change. this is totally and wholly unacceptable. >> john terrett, al jazeera washington. >> this morning where are allegations about hacking in major league baseball. federal authorities are investigating whether the st. louis cardinals broke into the network of the houston astros. the hackers reportedly got their hands on scouting reports and

internal discussion about potential trades. >> there is an ongoing investigation, we've been fully cooperative. obviously any allegation like this, no matter how serious it turns out to be is of great concern to us, but it's just too early to speculate on what the facts are going to turn out to be and whether action, if any is necessary. >> it's not clear which employees are the focus of the investigation or if team executives have been implicated as being behind the hack. >> on the agenda today the state department will begin providing funds to help support a regional military force fighting boko haram. the u.s. plans to give $5 million to hip build that force led by nigeria. >> undocumented children in california will start receiving public health covering as part of a budget deal announced by the governor. 170,000 immigrants 18 and younger could qualify. >> the eastern cougar could be declared extinct soon. the fish and wildlife service

say that particular sub species of cougar that not been seen since 1938. it was listed as endangered 30 years ago. >> donald trump is heading for new hampshire after announcing his presidential candidacy yesterday. he blasted the current president as well as the other candidates seeking the job and said he has what it takes to lead the country. >> we need somebody that can take the brand of the united states and make it great again. >> analysts say he could have an impact on a field of what is now 12 republican presidential candidates. >> foreign policy may play a big part in the race for the white house next year. many are trying to separate themselves from the growing field. david shuster has a look at how the two leading candidates stack um. >> when it comes to

international policy experience, hillary clinton is the democratic front runner. as secretary of state she made official visits to 112 countries and logging almost a million miles. along the way she helped broker deals and took on over four years america's toughest diplomatic challenges. >> we're maintaining our bedrock core commitment to israel's security providing economic support, security assistance and we are also doing what we can to bolster the palestinian authority. >> that experience could actually work against her. >> she is somebody who has been in so many different role that is we've gotten to know very well and that can be great but it can be a draw back, because this is somebody who our view of her is kind of cemented.

>> during her big rally in new york city, she focused mostly on her family's modest upbringing. >> no other country is better equipped to meet traditional threats from countries like russia, north korea and iran and deem with the new powers like china. >> never mind it was clinton who proclaimed a reset in relations with russian president pool tin. also disclosures that the clinton foundation accept the foreign donations during her time of secretary of state is a controversial issue for her campaign. her being in favor of the iraq war made her do back pedaling. >> i made a mistake given the bush administration the authority. it was not used as i expected it to be used amounted the entire implementation strategy was flawed, so yes i made a

mistake. >> iraq also hangs over the head of the presumed republican front runner jeb bush. >> i've decided i'm a candle date for president of the united states of america. bush has taken step to say distance himself from his brother's failed policies in iraq. >> i'm my own man and my views are shaped by my own thinking and my own experiences. >> yet jeb bush stumbled badly last month when asked about the war. >> knowing what we know now would you have authorized the invasion? i would have, and so would hillary clinton to remind everybody and so would everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got. >> in germany the former florida governor criticized russia's involvement in ukraine. >> ukraine a sovereign european nation must be permitted to choose its own path. russia must respect the sovereignty of all of its neighbors. >> he mentioned his father, george h.w. bush, the u.s. president many germans applaud for helping to bring down the

berlin wall. >> the wall can never erase your dream, our dream of one germany a free germany a proud germany. >> but jeb did not mention another member of his family, his brother george w., a figure most germanslike because of the war in iraq. bolt 2016 candidates when it comes to international policy have last names that bring potential promise and peril. the challenge leveraging what voters like about their family's presidential history and burying what people around the globe make that not be able to forget. david shuster, al jazeera. >> election reform debated in hong kong, but pro democracy protestors say it's a sham. we speak to one. >> i'm rob reynolds at e3 gaming and electronic convention in los angeles where virtual reality is one of the big showcased items this year.

>> welcome to al jazeera

america. it is it is 8:17 eastern, taking a local today's top stories. nitrogen overload is likely killing thousands of fish in new york. scientists say the problem is aging septic systems leaking into the water. >> authorities recaptured one of the two prisoners who escaped tuesday from a minimum security prison while they were doing landscaping work in oregon. police found donald mcclain hours after he fled. the man on the right is still on the run. >> the last psychiatrist to see james holmes said he had that's of killing people at least three or four times a day. she testified at his trial saying the movie theater shooter was moving into a schizophrenic state. >> we offered him treatment even though his insurance was going to be expired but he never came back. >> holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for the

shooting which killed 12 people. >> the central bank of greece is warning the country could be heading toward a default and exit from the euro zone and e.u. greek prime alexis tsipras said he will give europe a big no if they can't reach an acceptable deal. he called their demands for further austerity cuts unattainable. >> lawmakers in hong kong are closer to voting on controversial election reform proposals. newt rules would give voters the right for the first time to elect hong kong's chief executive, but the candidates screened by beijing. hundreds of people turned out to protest niece new rules 10 months after thousands took to the streets demanding open elections. we have more from hong kong. >> it is hot humid and very loud in this corner of hong kong. behind me, some of the rival groups in this debate, these are the people that support china's

proposal to extend democracy in hong kong. in essence china has agreed that hong kong can choose its next chief executive in 2017 by universal suffrage as long as there are no more than two or three candidates and they are vetted by a special committee. the protestors say that is fake democracy, and they will be voting against it. at the moment, the government needs two thirds of legislators to support that resolution for it to pass. it seems unlikely. the scene here is a reminder of how polarized hong kong remains. it's only nine months since thousand of student demonstrators occupied not just this area, but also hong kong, the center of hong kong itself. of course the question now is could it all happen again. >> adrien brown there on the ground in hong kong. it was a simple object that came

to represent the protests, the umbrella became a symbol of resistance and our guest paul zimmerman held up a yellow umbrella last year as diplomats and politicians marked china's national day. paul after all of the protests last year, beijing really hasn't conceded anything. have all your efforts really been for nothing? >> well, there's a deep sense of sadness in hong kong about the failure of the national and local government to come to any kind of compromise and a way forward on political reform. i believe that the hard work for everybody has been to a good cause and people are looking forward to what is going to be next how is hong kong going to if it into the nation. it's how do you fit a square peg

in a round hole. the whole community is now aware of that issue and they are all part that have debate. i think that that is going to be the best protection for hong kong of its core values. >> what do you think of this reform plan before the legislature? some might say take what you can get, universal suffrage, even hope to the candidates will be vetted by beijing. >> i think that's a really bad idea and all the democrats are pretty clear and have been clear for a long time that that is a bad idea. you would then have a kind of legitimization of a candidate that has been put forward and approved by the communist party and that is the bad way. if the communist party wants to control hong kong with their chief executive then let them appoint their chief executive

but don't put it as a fake democracy and being able to tell everybody, he's been elected in by a million votes. >> assuming this reform doesn't pass and it does seem like the democrats have just enough votes to veto it, what is the next step? are we going to see massive protests like we did last year with occupy central? >> i don't think you're going to see major protests from here on. i think tonight's will be quite small. there is going to be finding a way, a path forward for democracy and negotiation between beijing and the local politicians on real and good terms. i think by having this veto tonight, the line has been drown, both by beijing and the local politicians and whether the community agrees with the local politicians will become

clear next year when there are general elections for thently legislative council. >> there are a lot of pro china demonstrators. we've seen video in front of the legislative building. they support this reform. are you seeing those pro china voices growing louder there? >> what you see on t.v. may be a lot of people have been paid to attend but there are of course people in hong kong that have been supportive of this package and there are two groups. there are the ones that are really pro beijing and pro china, and then there are the people that are really fearful that if this package wasn't going to be passed, that there's going to be a further loss of freedoms and a greater interference of the national government in the affairs of hong kong and that people would have to change their lifestyles and maybe had to use their

passports and go to live in canada or the united states and get away from hong kong. these people, there is a big group of people that are very fearful and therefore wanted to support this package. the overall majority of people in hong kong want to make sure that hong kong maintains their core values and freedoms and has self ruling powers. >> hong kong counselor, paul zimmerman, appreciate your perspective this morning. thank you. >> the war on drugs that taken u.s. agencies overseas at a stop drugs from coming to our borders but there have been cases of the state department killing people who weren't connected to drug cartels in anyway. paul beban looks at how the incidents like these are more common than you might think. >> anime 12, 2012, four people died in a remote corner of honduras, caught in the crossfire of america's war on drugs. honduras is a major transit point for cocaine traveling from south america to the u.s.

in fact, it's estimated that as much as 90% of the cocaine that enters the u.s. transits through honduras. it's often flown in on small planes that land on air strips carved out of the jungle, then transported by truck overland through mexico to the u.s. the victims and family members of those who died that night say they had nothing to do with drug trafficking, but the u.s. drug enforcement administration tells a very different story. al jazeera has obtained documents providing new in sights into exactly what happened that night and the two different versions of why those four people died. meanwhile, here in washington, some members of congress have said that the u.s.ception into this incident is taking far too long and what's more, that the u.s. war on drugs isn't working either here at home or abroad, and that too many in sent people are being counted up as collateral damage. >> you can watch palm's full

report tonight at 8:00 eastern. >> in today's digit albeit, aljazeera.com is looking at the death of eric garner here in new york one year ago today. he died from a police chokehold leading to widespread protests. the officer involved was later cleared by a grand jury. prosecutors in the case are fighting to keep grand jury minutes under wraps but during a court hearing on tuesday an appeals court judge asked if their arguments were more about protecting themselves from criticism. a lower court said releasing the minutes could lead to harassment or retaliation. for more, go to aljazeera.com and click on u.s. >> a florida dentist accused of performing unnecessary procedures on children. >> we go in for one fill in and we end up like this. >> you must be furious. >> very. >> very. >> very furious. >> why investigators say the doctor did it to rip off medicaid. >> hacking as a weapon, why both

sides in the syrian war are using the internet to go after opponents.

>> welcome to al jazeera america. it is 8:29 eastern. taking a look at today's top stories, flash flood and tornado warnings in eastern texas as remnants of tropical storm bill sweep through the state. the storm made landfall tuesday and has already flooded coastal towns in the south. texas is reeling from historic rainfall and flooding last month that left more than two dozen people dead. >> attorney general loretta lynch will be form ally welcomed to office today. president obama will officially install lynch later this morning in a ceremony at a theater in washington d.c. she has been on the job two months. >> a new york city college student is behind bars, accused of attempting to carry out an attack in the city. the f.b.i. says the man tweeted out support for isil.

they say he also searched the internet for items to make explosives with, including pressure cookers. >> the internet is becoming a weapon of choice for those involved in syria's civil war. government and opposition forces are active on social media but so are hackers. their moves may be far from the battlefield, but they are having a serious impact on the ground. >> it was a television controller's nightmare a cyber attack of epic proportion. 12 channels taken off air so how did a french t.v. station end up being brought down by hackers? the answer my lion the war-torn streets of syria. an act visit was a first casualty of the war. >> in my arrest, i spent three days where i was tortured, but on the second day, i was taken

in for interrogation. the questions were first of all they wanted my facebook account. >> digital media has become a weapon. the assad regime was confronted not only by the sir you know,. >> greetings to our friends around the world. we are anonymous the global resistance to tyranny. >> anonymous hackers with syrian government websites. inside syria the demonstrations had spread and level of violence increased. suddenly the painfully slow syrian internet improved. the security agencies had turned the tables on the activists. president assad found a secret weapon, his own hacking collective. >> the syrian electronic nation, honor, loyalty. >> we made contact with a syrian hacker the army tried to

recruit. he told us the hacker's base was extremely well equipped. sign you are security analysts discovered that pro reveal hackers accessed 31,000 skype conversations, many relating to a 2013 battle during which opposition forces lost access to crucial supply routes. >> we may never know exactly who struck but it's clear thousands of attacks on commercial and government targets take place every day around the world. syria's war is a likely blue paint for the way future conflicts will be played out with cyber warfare taking place a long way from the battlefield. >> tree is a research fellow

with george washington university joining us to talk about this. thanks for being with us. is the syrian electronic army a single entity operating within syria or a disperse network of volunteers from around the world? >> the dispersed network model is more like to anonymous. s.t.a. is probably operating on behest of the regime. >> 8,000i.p. addresses a second that hacker told our reporter this group is able to monitor. how big of a deal is that? how sophisticated are they? >> they are sophisticated only in that they are able to select their targets and pursue them with some degree of accuracy. it is impressive but not incredible for a small group. they've been able to pick targets they actually want to go after, reuters a.p., cnn and pick target they want to pursue

rather than groups at random. >> they attack the websites of major news organizations some like e. on line, but also like the washington post, the u.s. army's website was hacked this week. besides being an on line oh knowance, should we say has it done real damage to those organizations? >> not really. the groups they targeted and manager in which they have compromised them likely to go after third party vendors ad networks analytics platforms. the damage has been minimal and the actual compromise of the sites limited. the it's much most of of a propaganda effort on their part. >> when it comes to effects on the battlefield, are these attackers getting real in tell that is helping the assad regime in the actual war on the ground? >> yes. this is where it's important to draw a distinct between the activities. whether it's s.c.a. or just the

regime's forces, they have been cable to compromise isil groups, cell phones and lab tops that gain strategic information about the distribution of forces on the battlefield as well as the content and communications capability of those groups. it appears to have been an intelligence boon for the regime. >> some of these opposition groups that you mentioned are ones supported by the u.s., the u.s. trying to arm and train them. does the u.s. have the capability to counter this cyber aspect of the war? >> it's possible that the united states both through the d.o.d. and open internet probables run by the state department would be able to counter both the censorship as well as the target information. there's not necessarily evidence that the d.o.d. is directly involved with these groups. >> let's talk about the

activists. they target the facebook pages of these activists. do those opposition activists face only on line threats for do these hacks lead to physical dangers? are they then tracked down by the syrian government? >> absolutely, no, these activists, the potential for harm is very real. malware found by groups like citizen lab targeting the free syrian army but also isil is groups trying to spread information about the conflict as well as actors working in combat in those areas. the ability for the regime and isil to reveal the location presents a very real danger to their physical security. >> trey, research fellow at george washington university, thank you for your time. >> concerns in the west now that russia announced plans to beef

up its arsenal getting dozens of new missiles as part of an effort to modernize the forces. >> our nuclear forces will be supplied with more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic rockets that will be able to overcome defense systems even the most technically advanced ones. >> his announcement comes amid increased tensions over ukraine. the u.s. announced plans to position heavy weaponry. this doesn't seem like a good development. >> putin's comments were certainly not made in a vacuum, by boasting about russias missiles and their ability to overcome the most technically advanced anti missile defense system putin is reacting to last weekend's report that the u.s. is considering positions heavy weaponry in poland on rush's doorstep. nato's goal is to set up a rapid

reaction force designed to respond to russia's threats. russia is countering that with more of the cold style rhetoric we've been hearing so much of from moscow these days. putin made those remarks at the opening of a military theme park on the outskirts of moscow. think of the announcement as a rhetorical challenge to nato and the u.s. and his choice of venue an exclamation point. putin that talked about intercontinental ballistic missiles before that can carry nuclear warheads to the united states. he announced russia would be adding 50 of them to its arsenal, not the 40 he mentioned tuesday. it appears that russia is scaling back if anything. western leaders have to respond. here's what nato secretary general had to say. >> this nuclear saber rattling of russia is unjustified.

it's destabilizing and it's dangerous. >> secretary of state john kerry also weighed in saying nobody should hear that kind of announcement from the leader of a powerful country and not be concerned about the i am applications. >> it is one thing to here cold war rhetoric which we have heard for months now but are we actually seeing a return to sort of the military stance as we saw during the cold war? >> it's certainly not a positive development when you hear this kind of rhetoric out of moscow especially in relation to nuclear weapons. putin embarked on this modernization of the military before the crisis in ukraine erupted. it's never constructive or helpful to find a diplomatic way out of impasses when the rhetoric ratchets up like this. >> allegations are growing against a florida dentist accused of unneeded procedures performed on children.

attorneys allege he was bilking medicaid. watchdogs say the problem goes beyond florida. >> look, say cheese! >> cheese. >> her smile brings a pained expression to her family's face. >> she had a beautiful smile and he ruined it. >> ruined after a visit to howard schneider's dental office in jacksonville, florida. her family insist that teeth cleaning turned into a fill and after several visits, eight capped teeth which soon fell out. >> we go in for one fill in and we end up like this. >> you must be furious. >> very, very furious. >> she's among a long list of parents suing the dentist alleging he ran a house of horrors, abusing children by performing unnecessary procedures. >> show your upper lip. >> what are we looking at? >> the dentist was supposed to

pull two teeth but her son left missing four. >> i see metal in there. >> uh-huh. >> you don't know what that is? >> no, his bottom teeth were beautiful, nothing wrong with them at all. >> dr. snyder put that in his mouth without asking first. >> absolutely. >> she said her 2-year-old clearly recognizes the photos. >> who is that? >> what did he do? >> what did he say? >> mean doctor hurt me. >> photos of kids bloodied, bruised, teeth missing pulled sometimes without anesthesia. >> would you do you think the doctor was doing this? >> in general when you can make money and don't care about the results for the child, i believe that's why you do it. i can't understand any other reason. >> many patients are low income and relied on medicaid for dental care.

yet in jacksonville, attorneys say the dentist was one of the few choices parents had. >> he was the only dentist who handled a child on medicaid with special needs who needed sedation. he was the only choice in jacksonville. >> these parents had no other choice. >> no other choice. there was no competition. if he didn't like you he told you to leave. >> protestors marching outside his office weren't enough to scare off some mothers. >> this is the only one willing to take a look and see if they can do it. >> a problem across the country experts say. 37 million american children rely on medicaid for dental care. many dentists don't accept it. only a third of all dentist accept government assistance and nowhere is it worse than florida where 76% of kids on medicate haven't seen a dentist. >> a number of dentists of said that the medicaid rates are very low, so in some cases there's

just a very low participation rate among medicaid dentists. >> for years attorneys say schneider billed medicaid, collecting $4 million just in the past five years. in stall with stainless steel crown, more than $100 a tooth. pulling out a tooth collect up to $121. >> it does seem that this does seem to be a service that you tend to get paid more for that as well as the baby root canals, so i think that that's sort of where more of the money might be. >> schneider now is facing multiple investigations, lost his license his clinic is now closed. he denied doing anything wrong. >> i'm not worried about the allegations, because the allegations aren't true. now, like i said, you can come up with a dozen people that just love to make trouble. >> the 78-year-old hasn't been charged with a crime and is now

avoiding almost all media interviews, including with us after we found him at his home. >> we just want to get a moment with you. >> get off of my property and go away. >> the smith family is now looking for another dentist. >> i was just trying to help her. i was just trying to take care of my child the way i'm supposed to. he just took advantage of that. >> he did. >> jonathan betz, al jazeera jacksonville florida. >> women across the u.s. are having more babies, according to new in connection drop the national center for health statistics. the uptick can be attributed part to the improving economy. it jumped 1% from 2013 to 2014. that is the first increase since 2007, the beginning of the recession. the nearly 4 million births last year was the most since 2010. >> on today's healthbeat, good news for all you chocolate

lovers. a new study found people who eat more chocolate are less likely to develop certain diseases, we have more from london. >> so decadent, delicious and not so bad as we thought. eating chocolate every day is linked to a lower risk of heart disease and strokes. looking at the eating habits of 21,000 people over 12 years researchers at the university of aberdeen discovered those who ate more chocolate weighed less, exercised more, were less owe bees and less likely to have type two diabetes, putting them atlas risk of cardiovascular disease. there may be no need to give it up to protect your heart. >> eating chocolate seemed to be safe in terms of cardiovascular events. we found a reduced reduction in the risk of event in this.

we can't say this is because of chocolate consumption. >> the study focused on british people a nation of chocolate lovers the fourth largest consumer in the world. they understand what they're selling here. >> there are studies that suggest there is a big indoor 15 payoff. >> they were eating the mass produced bars like this and still had a 11% lesser risk of cardiovascular decease and 25% reduced risk of stroke. >> dieticians are warning people not to take up a chocolate habit because of the findings. >> there needs to be more duration, it is high in saturated fat, calories and sugar. if you're watching your weight, eating a lot of chocolate isn't going to be good for you. >> before you reach for another

bar, bear in mind more research needs to be done. al jazeera london. >> gilded victory the golden state warriors top the king and his court to take the nba championship. >> we'll take you to the largest gaming show on the planet where virtual reality is becoming all too real.

emmy award winning investigative series... fault lines invisible hands only on al jazeera america

>> welcome back to aljazeera america. it is 8:49 eastern, taking a look at today's top stories. former turkish president has died. the 90-year-old dominated his nation's politics for more than half a century. he was prime minister in the 1960's and 1970's and president from 1993-2000. two of his governments were ended by military coups. >> a tiger that escaped during flooding in georgia has killed a man. the tigers was one of dozens to get out of the zoo in the capitol. the city has been on lockdown as a precaution since then. the tiger was found and has been killed. other dangerous animals have been recaptured. >> a united nations panel is calling on the u.n. to address sexual exploitation and abuse by its peacekeepers. investigators revealed

peacekeepers in haiti traded sex for supplies. some victims were underage girls. >> michelle obama is promoting her youth educational move. it follows a visit to london and tea with prince harry. >> >> on the cult irbeat this morning, a prefather's day twist to last night's nba championship. ed golden state warriors beat king james and the cleveland cavaliers. it is the warriors first championship in four decades. john henry smith is here with a look at two of the biggest stars and more importantly maybe the men who were behind the success of these stars. good morning. >> absolutely. good morning stephanie. before they were nba champions seth curry and klay thompson were known as the splash brothers, a nickname they earned for becoming what their coach

called the best shooting back court in the enabling. before they were the splash brothers, they were the sons of two men who know a thing or two about the game of basketball. >> how did splash brothers become two of the best shooters in the nba? it's in their d.n.a. both of their fathers played in the nba for years. >> clay's dad played a little before clay can remember. i remember a lot of my dad's career, only a little difference there, but, you know, you grow up around the game of basketball with a dad that was successful, a lot of comparisons and it's nice that somebody is going to do kind of the same situation you did growing up. >> seth curry's dad del played 16 seasons and was one of the top 10 three-point shooters have all time. >> he was direct with me about my potential in the game and what he saw. >> direct is good. i always let him know where i thought he was at, what he needed to work on, how he needed

to work on things. >> klay thompson's dad was a rugged nba big man who retired after 13 seasons and two championship rings. >> i tell him every minute of basketball you'll remember as the sweetest time in your life. >> my dad told me, he appreciation patience and that really helped me out my first couple of years when i was going through a sump. >> it seems their two dads set the tone on how they act off the court, as well. >> i was never a flashy guy. they saw how dad handled himself. hopefully i passed a little bit of that on. >> i'm sure that had something to do with it. it let us be ourselves and i'm sure they might have something to say along the way. but that's not who we are. i got a little bit of style but only the flashy jesus piece and bling to speak for me. >> he jokes about it, he puts me on allowance and all that. i just learned from him how to

take care of your family, put your work first i mean family first, work second and everything will fall into place. >> scoring 30 points here, that's all great, part of it, but when they tell me how nice he is to everybody that makes me proud of him. >> it will no doubt be a nice father's day this weekend. let's hope they have a happy father's day in cleveland. while the championship drought is now over for the bay area, cleveland continues to thirst for a championship of any kind. it is 67 years and counting since any cleveland term has returned home the conquering hero. >> even with the king. >> even with the king. >> turning to soccer, team u.s.a. is heading to the elimination round of the women's world cup. they needed to beat nigeria to advance. playing her first game of the tournament, they did one better. she scored off of a corner kick. she now has 14, tied for the

second most goals in women's world cup history. they will face off against cameroon or china. >> on the tech beat, the electronic gaming industry is gathered this week in los angeles, taking part in the largest exhibition of gaming on earth. it's a lucrative opportunity for an industry that far exceeds the profits of film and music combined. remember reynolds paid the convention a visit. >> the biggest video gaming in electronic entertainment show on earth is off and running to the delight of thousands of fanatical gamers. e3 showcases the latest hardware and shaft wear in a vast and increasingly popular electronic entertainment industry. >> when you get to an e3 where franchisers like halo, gears of war, these are the big kind of blockbuster, you know, the sum of movies in our industry i

guess you would call them. those rolling out all at the same time makes an e3 really exciting for the audience. >> the biggest splash was made by sony, the japanese electronics giant is bringing new versions of classic games for its play station platforms including final fantasy seven. gamers could barely contain themselves when teased with a trailer for the last guardian, a game that's been in development for seven years. it features a boy protagonist engaged in adventures and escapes along with his pet. this year's e3 has been a coming out party for virtual reality devices. these machines have been talked about for years but now finally some of the biggest names in technology have devices that are just about ready to hit the consumer marketplace. >> facebook has oculist and

microsoft hololens with a new twist. >> rather than taking you into a virtual world, it projects the virtual world on to the world around you like a hologram. all of a sudden the virtual world will appear, you can move things around. it's exciting stuff. >> exciting for gamers and incredibly lucrative for the big corporations that dominate an industry that reaction in $93 billion a year, bigger than the movie and music businesses combined. rob reynolds, al jazeera, los angeles. >> coming up in two minutes from doha the latest from geneva where talks are underway to end the fighting in yemen. that's it for us here in new york. thanks so much for watching. you can get more news at any time an our website aljazeera.com. have a great wednesday.

>> hunted to the brink of extinction... >> we need an urgent method that stops the killing. >> now fighting back with a revolutionary new science. >> this radio carbon dating method can tell us if trade of ivory is legal. >> it could save a species... >> i feel like we're making an impact >> techknow's team of experts show you how the miracles of science... >> i'm standing in a tropcal wind storm... >> ...can effect and surprise us... >> wow, these are amazing... >> techknow, where technology meets humanity! only on al jazeera america

>> my name is imran garda the show is called third rail, when you watch this show you're gonna find us being un-afraid. the topics will fascinate you, intrigue you... >> they take this seriously... >> let me quote you... >> there's a double standard... >>...could be a hypocrite >> you're also gonna get a show that's really fair bold... never predictable... >> the should be worried about heart disease, not terrorism... >> i wouldn't say that at all... >> you'll see a show that has an

impact on the conventional wisdom that goes where nobody else goes... >> my name is imran garda i am the host of third rail and you can find it on al jazeera america >> u.n. brokered talks to find a solution to the war in yemen are on the verge of collapse. juror going home, hundreds of syrians return from turkey as kurdish forces celebrate victory over isil. >> we'll show you the money. crimean people smugglers say this is the cash the australian government bribed them with to turn back