isil fighters infill straight the syrian town of kobani for the first time in six months. ♪ you are watching am jazz i'm jane dutton. the burundian vice president flees to belgium to escape threats on his life. european leaders gather in brussels. and thousands of homes are evacuated as a long-time dormant indonesian volcano continues to

erupt. ♪ fighters from the islamic state of iraq and the levant have launched simultaneous attacks against syrian forces and kurdish fighters. the group appears to be moving on the offensive after losing ground in cent days. they infiltrated kobani for the first time since being driven out of the town six months ago. this comes days after the kurdish fighters drove isil fighters from key towns. our correspondent reports. >> reporter: injured in kobani after another attack by islamic state of iraq and the levant. there are also all rights of villages being executed after isil fighters stormed in. others are being brought across

the border for medical care. suicide bombers in cars hit kurdish forces in the town. kurdish fighters have been fighting isil for control of kobani since last year. they have been backed by u.s. air strikes and are under attack yet again. they also launched a simultaneous attack on one of the last towns being controlled by the syrian government. >> translator: there have been clashes in the northern district home to many syrian refugees. this comes as islamic state terrorists entered into kobani. >> reporter: isil fighters entered kobani from the western side of the town inside syria. >> translator: claims that the terrorist group daesh crossed

into kobani from turkey are just lies. it is just not true. >> reporter: isil has recently had serious setbacks on the turkish border. isil has lost supply lines on the border as well as influence. >> isil needs to show it still has influence, also we have the regime itself retreating from some areas, because it is overstretched and this is giving isil a big opportunity to advance, and finally we have the anniversary of the so-called caliphate coming up on monday and isil needs to show it is still very influential and powerful on the ground. >> reporter: and civilians are again caught up in the fighting. around 8 million syrians have been displaced inside syria, and

there seems to be no end in sight to the fighting. as for the various groups who say isil being pushed on to the back foot kobani becoming a flash point again is a concern. isil fighters have taken a strategic square in aleppo after two years of fighting. the opposition fighters also advancing in idlib. further south activists say rebels have attacked government-controlled areas of the city. our correspondent has more from jordan. >> reporter: even after nearly five years of war, it takes time for those hit by a bomb to make sense of what has happened. this is close to the jordanian border in southern syria, the birthplace of the syrian revolution is being bombarded by

government air strikes as rebels there make more gains. rebel fighters are calling their latest offensive the southern storm. an alliance of many different groupers of fighters in the south have been formed. more than 50 groups including the al-nusra front have joined force. the city is highly contested, the eastern half is held by rebels the western by syrian troops. >> translator: we announce the beginning of the southern storm offensive to return peoples rights and sovereignty. we keep our promise to god and the oppressed people that we will continue until we liberate the last occupied land. >> reporter: the rebels say the jets are backed by iranian and lebanese allies on the ground.

they say the government's strategy has been to bomb rebel-held areas, then soldiers mostly from hezbollah try to capture them. syrian generals say despite many setbacks they have captured many villages in the southern province and cut supply routes. rebels have taken over this whole province after pushing back regime forces. >> if there are falls that's another nail in the coffin of the regime as far as the rebels are concerned, but it's an opportunity for the regime to exert its control to show it is not a dead duck so to speak. it still has some fight left in it. >> reporter: in northern aleppo rebels have surrounded and seized an important square. it's the northwestern gate of

government-controlled parts of the city and it haze taken rebels over two years to take control. activists say the syrian government have dropped dozens of barrel bombs. they say they have not heard shelling this heavy in a while. rebels have made significant gains close to damascus and the syrian government always seems to strike there. soldiers in iraq have been killed by an isil suicide bomber and gunman. security commanders say at least 14 soldiers died when they were ambushed. one of burr -- burundi's vice president has fled after his life was threatened.

harry fawcett is in the capitol. >> reporter: government officials say the vice president had no reason to run away. they say he is perfectly safe in the country. the vice president wasn't heard from for a couple of days we were told that some sympathizers were hatching a plan to get him out of the country safely. he said he criticized the bid by the president to run for a third term. and that's why he left. people are suggesting that news on thursday when another grenade was thrown in the city center. at least six were injured and some are in critical conditions. on thursday students who were part of the opposition march, have been sleeping outside of the united states embassy for some time now, they say they

feel safer near the diplomatic community. the police moves in trying to move them. the students ran to the u.s. embassy for safety. u.s. officials let the students in and closed the gates before the soldiers could center. the police are outside trying to get into the u.s. compound. things are very tense on the ground, people wondering what will happen the next few days as we move to the contentious parliament parliamentary election. greece's prime minister is back in brussels. greece needs to pay the international monetary fund 1.6 billion euros or $1.8 billion by next tuesday or risk being declared in default and potentially be forced out of the euro zone.

lawrence why can't everyone at the meeting come to an agreement? what is going on? >> reporter: well simply because the creditors are demanding that this enormous structural return to the greek economy to bring it more in to line with the economy of a european country, and the greeks say they are being absolutely stuffed by the creditors. the finance ministers have broken up for the time being, because they don't appear to be able to get anywhere. angela merkel turned up and said she thought the greeks moved moved moved backwards. bare in mind jane too, that as difficult as this seems to be in july next month, greece has to repay another half a billion euros and at the end of the month more than 3 billion your

rows. and that's double what they are trying and failing to find now. and you think how much longer can this go on for? and it is reflected in the problems that the european union more genuinely has got. they are not going to be able to agree on how to resettle tens of thousands of asylum seekers, because half a dozen countries say they are not prepared to accept them. david cameron says he wants complete reform of the european union to allow for more sovereignty, and they just can't work as a group, because national interests keep coming first, and that's what the greece crisis and the migrant crisis have in common the european union, the european union just looks a bit dysfunctional at the moment. they don't appear to be able to think as a group. >> no they don't.

lawrence what is the greek view when it comes to the creditors now? >> reporter: the greek view. well frankly, the -- the view from the syriza ruling party in greece a number of them have said this is that they believe the creditors have a secret agenda. they said hang on you gave ireland a bailout, you renegotiated the terms to ireland, why aren't you doing the same with snus and they think what the creditors have is a secret plan to try to force the greek government into going back to the people and saying are you prepared to stick with us or not, to try to basically almost overthrow the syriza government and bring in a new greek government that is more in thinking with the way creditors have operating. some people see it as sort of a soft coup because they don't like dealing with the syriza

party. whether that's true it does appear that a lot of people in greece have a lot of sympathy that tsipras has taken towards them because a lot of greek people blame them for emprove riching their country. >> thank you. i'm in the occupied west bank as palestinian officials submit their first complaints to the international court.

♪ ♪ ♪ get excited for the 1989 world tour with exclusive behind the scenes footage all of taylor swift's music videos interviews, and more. xfinity is the destination for all things taylor swift.

good morning this is al jazeera america, lye from new york city. a major supreme court decision they have ruled in favor of the obama administration. lisa tell us what we know about the decision so far. >> reporter: stephanie, first of all let me tell you when that decision came down a big cheer went out saying aca is here to stay, the affordable care act. there was a lot of concern about how this case could go. it was a 6-3 decision. chief justice roberts writing for the majority. what this focused on were subsidies that individuals get who cannot pay for their own health insurance, and whether that would be available through the federal website, or whether they are only available to

individuals who in fact bought their insurance through the 14 states and district of columbia that set up their own local exchange. well, if the court had decided those subsidies won't available broadly nationwide 6.3 million people could have lost their healthcare subsidies, and would have found health care unaffordable, so there was a lot at stake here. justice roberts said there was a lot of economic and political significance to this decision. now the language in this statute was what was at question. four words. it said sub sid sdis are available to those who buy their insurance through exchanges, quote, established by the state, so what do those four words mean? the decenters say look if those four words mean something -- i'm sorry, i think it with us a

scalia who wrote the descent, he said those four words are pretty obvious, and he said they should only be available to people who live in those states that established their own exchange. but justice roberts says you have to look at words in context, the context of the entire act, and he said we must look at the broader structure, justice roberts went on to say that if we interpreted it that in fact these credits could only apply to people who bought their insurance through state exchanges, then this could lead to a death spiral and the act, perhaps, could collapse upon itself so this is a major victory, the second time they have upheld the affordable care act, and there are people who

oppose this wholeheartedly, and they will be going back to the books to try to come up with another legal strategy but as time goes on and more and more people buy their insurance, it seems very likely now that this affordable healthcare act is here to stay. >> all right. lisa hold tight there. i want to go to mike viqueira who is live outside of the white house. mike obviously a huge victory for the administration. when do we expect to hear from president obama? >> reporter: very shortly. we would have heard from him win or lose. you heard lisa say there was a huge cheer on the steps of the supreme court, i think you could actually hear a sigh of relief coming from the west wing but undoubtedly there were several of them. the president had expressed confidence in this case but

felt like it never should have been taken up by the supreme court at all. and justice roberts leads the majority of those who uphold this key provision within the affordable care act, 6.4 million people would have lost their subsidies, and at least in the short-term lost the ability to pay premiums. it would have been a disaster for obamacare, the president's signature achievement, and you are right. we will hear from the president today. >> all right. we'll check back in with you when the president comes out. i want to bring in david who has been covering the aca extensively at this network. subsidies are really a linchpin for the aca, does this mean they will remain entirely untouched; that we will continue with the status quo? >> that's kind of what it looks like here. the centerpiece of obamacare has

always been this individual mandate, and it was brought through these federal or state exchanges. there are other parts that they could discriminate based on gender and preexisting conditions. but relying on the federal government 6.4 million people could have been affected as high as 8 million by some estimates. this is huge. if you look at the people who would have been affected by this, their premiums could have jumped up by 282%. that is untenable for a lot of middle and low-income people and that's sort of where the rubber meets the road in this law. we talk about insurance pools, what brought insurers to the table on this was the idea that everybody had to be insured. if you have a system where 34 states, the majority of the union doesn't provide for subsidies for these low and

middle-income people then the onus for insurers is not really there. >> the whole thing falls apart, and i'll read another part of the ruling quote, congress passed the act to improve health insurancing markets, not to destroy them. you have to think the supreme court, besides looking at the letter of the law, and those four words, that they also looked at the economic impact. >> of course. and you look at previous decisions by justice kennedy, that says if the onus is the other way, the pressure is on the states. but the ruling in favor of king would essentially create two american healthcare systems, the

have nots, where you have those republican governors in states in the middle and south of the country, and then the haves, those who are getting the sub subsidy subsidies, and those who are more democratically controlled. >> you talk about the price of premiums and it would have affected the affordable part of the affordable care act, but what also affects those premiums and insurance are healthcare costs. so it's not just the subsidies. >> yes, we have seen healthcare costs start to diminish in recent years, but i think the important thing to remember is that the impacts of the aca are not just what is happening here in 2015, 2016, it's the idea that insurance pools are national in this country. you might have pockets, but when you have national insurance

companies, those risk pools are affected by people who are in the system and who are not. if you have more sick more old people in states where they are not getting subsidies, it pushes it up for everybody. >> all right. david hold on there for a second. we're joined by a former national legal director of the american civil liberties union. burt how would you interpret this decision. >> it's a huge win for the administration and i think also a huge win for the american people. this was an attempt to take the entire bill down using four words. and the way the words crept in there is a story within themselves. but it's quite clear that nobody thought that the words were intended to make the act completely unadministerable.

but if you read them literally, then there was a pathway to actually taking down the entire affordable care act, and i think there's a great sigh of relief by virtually everyone who -- who supports the bill to see that six of the justices rejected this, and the key of course is the two conservative justices robt roberts and kennedy, reject justice scalia's text. he says if the text doesn't make sense, that's too bad. we still have to send it back to congress and tell them to fix the text. roberts said the text is our servant, not our master and we have to read the text in the larger context of the entire bill, and it's clear that congress didn't intend this as a suicide pill for the -- for the act.

>> so this is the second time that the supreme court has now ruled in favor of the aca, and chief justice roberts has been integral to both of those decisions. would that be surprising to people given that justice roberts was appointed by george w. bush. he was viewed as perhaps being on the more conservative side of the court. >> he is on the more conservative side of the court, and it's true that he essentially saved the healthcare act on two occasions. the first time he was the fifth vote. this time he was the sixth vote and he wrote it. but i don't think it's all that surprising. he has consistently one, had a philosophy of reading statutes in a much more purposeful supple way than the kind of rigid text wallism that scalia accepts. and as chief justice he accepts

a responsibility to protect the court itself. if the court had taken down this bill either the first time around or this time it would have injected the court into the middle of a vicious political controversy, and it couldn't have been good for the long term health of the supreme court. >> burt thank you. i want to bring in michael shure who is live on capitol hill. we have discussed the dozens of times that legislatures have tried to overturn obamacare, but we heard reactions from them? >> you know, mike viqueira talked about a sigh of relief stephanie being breathed at the white house in a sense there's a sigh of relief on both sides of congress. a republican congressman i spoke to yesterday said their leaning is to rule in favor of

obamacare, but it becomes a very difficult thing to have to deal with, if it is sent back to congress, and the congress it would have been sent back to is a very different congress than the one that sent it into the law books. >> people who like these subsidies, even people against the affordable care act say they like the subsidies, so do republicans run a risk by further challenges to the aca. >> reporter: they do. there is a wing that is so passionately against this that they are going to keep going. but these four words established by the state, those were formed four years ago, and right now they are worried about the white house and holding congress so this takes the albatross off of the back of some running for president and congress. if you are dealing with it

legislatively in the capitol, then it becomes a different thing. so it is a bit of a relief here. >> all right. we're joined now on the phone by yvette a former deputy director of the office of health reform at the department of health and human services. she is one of the authors of the affordable care act. thank you for your time. your reaction to the ruling this morning? >> well, i couldn't be happier. i think those of who us worked on the law have been surprised by how far this has gone given that the intent of the law is so clear, and we have had that said by members and staff, both democrats and republicans have said that what they intended was for people across the country who are income eligible to have access to the tax credit so i couldn't be happier that the court saw that and upheld the decision. >> if they had read the aca the

way it was written, those four words, do you regret they were in the report? >> you know, it's -- you are taking four words completely out of the context of the law. the law is clear that if the state does not establish an exchange the federal government stands in the shoes of the state, and that is in the context of making shopping more available to individuals, all of the functions of the exchange are covered by whoever sets up the exchange the state or the federal government. so the law is clear that the feds are standing in the shoes of the state in that situation. if you take those four words completely out of that context, obviously which justice roberts and kennedy rejected then i can see how you would come to that conclusion, but without that there's really no way that you uphold that argument. >> how concerned are you by further challenges to the