>> risks of fleeing the fighting with isil are almost as bad as staying behind. and who are the americans joining isis and what motivates them? good evening. this is al jazeera america. we begin tonight with the landmark moments for gay rights movement in the u.s. in a 5-4 decision it was ruled gay marriage is constitutional. gay marriages will also be recognized on official documents including birth and death certificates. outside the stone wall in people are celebrating today's decision as they have all day. it comes almost 46 years to the

day after a riot there ushered in the modern gay rights movement. as news spread moments from jupilation. and for the man who brought the case justice was served. >> it confirms what millions across the country already know to be true in our hearts. our love is equal. he married his husband in maryland which allows same-sex marriage. they moved to ohio which does not. when john died he fought to be listed on the death certificate as's husband. the case presented the court

with two questions. should same-sex unions be recognized under every state and are they under the amendment of equal protection under the law?

for those families today was a triumph. >> it was so much more important and so much bigger than just adding my name to my son's birth certificate. >> most importantly, i'd like to thank john. for loving me making me a better man, and giving me something worth fighting for. i love you. this is for you, john. and for the president it was

a big win. yesterday another historic decision at the supreme court, keeping key portions of the -- act. >> on the flip side are a significant number of americans who still oppose gay marriage. the governor of wisconsin called for an amendment to allow states to determine whether it should be legal. is that political posturing? >> without any casting any aspersions on what conservatives want to see happen opponents can win by losing and it's much similar to what we saw yesterday in the affordable care act. this is an issue that they have that they can

along with the other policies adopted in the last few years, does it put the u.s. now at the van guard of lgbt rights around the world? >> no way. we're catching up with some of our colleagues in other countries. i would

say. >> i would say the u.s. is actually not on par with some of our counterparts. for instance the government of argentina has the best gender identity recognition law in the world. malta just passed the best intersex law in the world. the philippines are actually considering a federal nondiscrimination law. >> what about the broader world though?

>> what about u.s. policy when it comes to lgbt rights. is the u.s. making that a priority at all? >> well i always say that this administration has done more in u.s. history to advance lgbt rights than any other government. but then i quickly follow that up by saying but it's not a hard record to beat because there's almost no record of presidents engaging on these issues prior to obama. there's no question that lgbt rights have increasingly been incorporated into u.s. foreign policy. it's in both delicate and easy relationships and increasingly we're seeing high-level commitment. that said the question is will

these things be institutionalize regardless of who is in the white house? >> an important day and it's good of you to join us. thank you. >> thank you for having me a series of deadly attacks rocked countries on three continents today. in tunisia 37 people died when a gunman opened fire in a hotel. dozens more were wounded. the gunman was dressed as a tourist. >>reporter: it was a sunny hot day and this resort was full when a gunman started shooting. his weapon was hidden inside a beachum -- beach umbrella. some ran for the sea, others for their hotel. many of the injured were taken to hospital still wearing their swimming costumes.

the attacker was shot by police. there are reports he was a student from tunisia. in march 2nd from tunisia killed 22 people in a museum. they were trained to fight in libya. tunisia's democracy has escaped the worst of the violence. it's held free and fair elections. its political process has been inclusive inclusive. thousands of young tunisians are fighting for groups abroad.

>> many of them came back to tunis. a lot of tunisians are angry against the state and don't accept the tunisian state as a democratic secular state. >>reporter: the government has called for unity and calm and is now under pressure to attack. it's talking about more police and soldiers on the ground. there are thousands of tourist spots and hotels around the country. many of them an easy target for someone intent on killing. isil is claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing at a mosque in kuwait. video shows the immediate aftermath of the explosion. the mosque was packed with some 2,000 worshippers when the bomb

ripped the place apart. 27 people were killed. 227 people were wounded. >>reporter: mobile phone pictures captured the panic and chaos following the explosion at a mosque in kuwait city. worshippers were gathered for friday prayers and they were the targeteds. initial reports that a man blew himself up as the congregation was leaving the mosque. the group islamic state is claiming responsibility. which has enjoyed relatively harmony recently between its

citizens. >> i think that this terrorist attack particularly targeted the -- particularly in countries like kuwait which has a good record of relationship between the two sects. >>reporter: the amir of kuwait paid a visit to the bomb site after the explosion. the cabinet also queened. security was beefed up nationwide. authorities fear more attacks could take place. in somolia an offshoot of al quaeda staged an attack. it was manned by soldiers from burundi. fighters blasted their way through the entrance. 25 men were killed and several women beheaded.

residents say al shabaab remains in control of parts of the village. i know it's too early to know if these attacks are connected but what do you think? >>reporter: they're not connected. what's remarkable about them is how much damage was done by two people. in tunisia and kuwait. it seems to be an individual who undertook this horrible attack. >> if unconnected, other than some possible loose affiliation with isil is that almost worse? because it would be another indication that isil is succeeding and radicalizing these lone wolves around the world. >> well i think it's -- these attacks are always to some

extent local situations. excuse me. >> sure. and these local situations we'll talk about both of these in a minute exactly what happened in tunisia and kuwait. but go ahead. are these lone wolves harder to defeat and control? >> they are. tunisia has seen -- i'm sorry. i'm having an attack. >> let's take a moment here and get back to you as you feel better and we'll just be back to you in a minute. we'll go to a break in a second. so in addition to the attacks, a violent incident in france struck fears in europe and the prime minister of greece has harsh words.

the easy accessibility of weaponry and high explosives. this guy in tunisia had a semiautomatic from russia. these things have flooded in from tunisia from the libyan civil war. it didn't used to be that way. so this is a problem. >> and tunisia and kuwait are among the most democratic states in the arab world. are they special targets? >> well they are special targets for various reasons.

in tunisia, you've had two democratic elections. these two muslim radicals don't believe in

-- in which they ultimately succeeded and they got the sunnis to come to them to protect them from the shiites after they provoked them. >> they can expand that to other countries around the world. what should the u.s. do? >> well the u.s. probably is not the most relevant actor in a place like kuwait but i think the u.s. did -- sending money to radicals in syria and there are sanctions that can be applied to

this kind of thing but obviously there's a large number of u.s. troops in kuwait. people are not mentioning this. it's a base. so the rise of isil there is a direct security threat to america. >> al jazeera america international affairs contributor, juan cole. thanks. while there appear to be no direct attacks in tunisia and kuwait, an incident in france today stirred fears of terrorism. a delivery man was accused of beheading a man and killing two others. paul brennan reports. >>reporter: the question of why he did what he did is still unclear but the details of what he did have horrified france. in the morning, saleh drove through the gates of a gas and chemical supplier. in his passenger seat was his

boss alive or dead is unknown. at 9:36 a.m. there was an explosion. one minute before at 9:35 cc tv images show the van accelerating towards an open warehouse. when firefighters arrived, he was trying to open more gas bottles. the decapation of his victim and the use of isil-type banners mean police immediately designated it as a terrorist incident. >> there's a lot of emotion but this is not the only solution. we must have action and the need to never give into fear under any circumstances and not create divisions or suspicions. that would be intolerable.

>>reporter: he was known to the intelligence services. >> this person was noted for being radicalized. he had no official police record. but we'll get more of a specific profile. but just six months on from the attack on charlie hebdo and with new laws and extra spending questions are being asked. what happened here is going to but the effectiveness of intelligence services under the spotlight again. we know he was on a watch list from 2006 but taken off one in 2008. he was the subject of intelligence memos in 2013 and 2014 because it appeared he was becoming radicalize

again. the u.s. state department condemned today's series of attacks and expressed sympathy where lives were lost. the united states grieved the people and governments of france kuwait somolia, tunisia and other nations and stands with them in solidarity as they reject terrorism protect their communities, restore peace and security.

the greek prime minister is asking voters to make the decision on a debt bailout agreement. the prime minister appeared on television in the morning to announce the referendum. he said the latest deal is a humiliation humiliation humiliation. greece faces defaulting on its loans and exiting the euro zone. officials announced the treaty today >> the agreement built on the long standing and special

relations between palestine with the new provisions related to the special status of palestine as the birth place of christianty and its noble messages. >> israel expressed disappointment saying the move would have hurt peace prospects and discouraged palestine from returning to direct negotiations. officials warned they would review. still ahead, isil's latest attacks in syria and what draws americans to try to join them or support them. and a group of american senators are on a mission to cuba. that's coming up on al jazeera america.

coming up living in

constant danger at the base of a volcano. but first the attack in kuwait wasn't the only atrocity committed by isil in the last 24 hours. 145 syrians were assaulted in khobani in syria today. 60,000 were also driven to flee their home. 3 million iraqis have been displaced by isil attacks and that number is expected to arise. >>reporter: it's just a few meters but for most who cross it, a painful journey. on one side is anbar, a sunni

majority province that is isil's biggest strong hold in iraq. on the other side are the outskirts of baghdad. they left fallujah for the country side. now they're headed for the kurdish region. >> they were ready to attack from the first day of ramadan aiming missiles here. everyone is leaving. >>reporter: she says there are no doctors left. the area is under isil control. and there's no electricity or government services either. despite the risk and hardship of staying, the decision to leave is almost as difficult. iraqi security leaders worry that isil fighters will infiltrate baghdad. just 10 kilometers from here.

>>reporter: this small bridge has become a life line between anbar and the rest of the country and the only way out for many families trying to escape the expected fighting. >> for security reasons cars and trucks cannot cross the bridge without special permission. this crossing is the only route left to eastern anbar. everything comes across by cart. he had to leave his cart behind but he lost so much more than that. their tent collapsed two months ago killing his young daughter. >> a storm came up at 10:30 at night. the bars of the tent fell down on us. four of us survived but my 2-year-old died. many say it's easier to resettle in the kurdish region. some will try their luck in

turkey or other countries. there's also traffic going back to anbar including some returning for the final time. a year ago, few people had set foot on this bridge. now tens of thousands of iraqis have walked across it. each step taking them further and further from their homes. the bulk of isil's recruits are from the middle east but it's found support in the u.s. we're looking at that in context tonight. the center of national security studied 59 people accused of trying to join or help isil since march of last year. 17 of those are accused of planning attacks on u.s. soil. three of the plottered were killed. eight have prior felony convictions. three made it to syria to join isil. karen greenberg joins us now. always good to have you with us.

those three we just talked about that are accused and have joined isil. that's just a fraction of the americans who may have made it over there and joined. >> right. those who have made it abroad but who have not been indicted are not covered in this report. the estimates are anywhere depending on who you talk to from 150, some would say even higher. but i think that law enforcement thinks 150 americans have gone over. yes. >> one of the striking things in the report is the increase in the last few months in the number of people being accused of trying to support isil. is that because law enforcement is more aggressive or isil is more successful in recruiting? >> it's hard to say. isis offers the idea of the caliphate. individuals here express the desire to go abroad and join what they see as the

caliphate. very few are of middle eastern accident. the interesting thing is the wide array of ethnic and national backgrounds and a third of them or more are americans. of those who are planning attacks, 100% of them are u.s. citizens. so no matter what their backgrounds, they're individual who is identify with the united states. many of whom are u.s. citizens. >> and the not insignificant number are women. >> compared to terrorism

statistics in the past 13 years, 2% of them were women in the past. that 2% of 550 individuals. now we have 5% of these 59 are women. so -- 15%. so it's interesting. many of them are facilitating others to go abroad. others have expressed a desire to go abroad themselves. >> and the motivations vary. >> yes. they vary from what we've seen in the past. these are very young individuals for the most part. particularly those called domestic plotters. what you'll see isna over 60% of them are under 21 years old. the number of individuals in the media or law enforcement reports are unindicted individuals in their teens. so motivation, a lot of it is about alienated youth. >> is it mostly social media?

>> social media plays a large part. there's also family connections that play a large part. it's not a lone wolf as we've seen in the past. >> so what can be done? >> what can be done is instead of looking at this from the end of law enforcement. let's see where these kids go. there's going to have to be some strategy on the part of communities and social welfare networks rather than law enforcement to understand who our children are. an al jazeera cameraman was killed in a syrian government shelling today. he was 19. he's the second al jazeera journalist to be killed there since december.

the combhe to protect journalists says syria is the most deadly country for journalests. in south carolina today, a celebration of life. the president sang and delivered a eulogy. he called the reverend pinkney a man of duty. >> he stayed true to his convictions. he would not grow discouraged. after a full day at the capital, he'd climb in his car and head to the church to draw sustenence from his family. china and the u.s. continued their annual dispute over each other's human rights record. today beijing said it's reef in the united states. it noted the killing of michael

brown in missouri and other cases in which african-americans were killed by white police officers. report is released every year a day after the u.s. state department issues its annual global human rights report. they're meeting government officials and religious and business leaders to discuss restoring diplomatic ties. >> i'm glad to see things are changing between our countries and that's better for both countries. >> negotiations have been going on for six months. the u.s. and cuba severed ties 50 years ago. it's world day against drug abuse. coming up the report on drugs where they're produced smuggled, and used across the globe.

where technology meets humanity. monday, 6:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america.

>> this is not for show. you can see this is for real. we have to show the international community that we're not ignoring the problems of this issue and we must find a way to tackle it. >> officials seized more drugs this year than last. a meeting in brussels has resulted in a plan on resettling migrants currently in italy and greece to other eu nations. lawrence lee has the details of the agreement. >>reporter: here they come again. 200 for rescued in the

mediterranean. more people to be processed and more trouble for europe. put when many european countries won't offer shelter, they're never going to be able to agree on a bigger deal for looking after refugees. the fact we took hours to agree about the system to be set up obviously shows that europe is not living up to the values it promotes in each and every occasion when it speaks abroad. on europe's borders, the fences are going up, between hungary and serbia. even more moderate politicians

in these countries say asylum seekers are not their problem >> i do not think that the west is that much responsible for them but i do believe that the west should do something in its own interests, particularly when it comes to security. increasingly make no distinction between them and economic migrants. >> they're people fleeing conflict rape torture, coming in desperate situations and there is indeed a moral imperative for europe to show compassion and to match up to its obligations offering access to asylum. >> 40,000 refugees spread among

28 members of the european union only amount to about 1,000 refugees per country but even though three countries have exempted themselves even from this arraignment. >> those from the african nation of -- possible crimes against humanity. more than 350,000 people have fled the country including 9300 now living here in the u.s.

while many here are upset over the situation there, others are skeptical of the u.n. report. >> this does not represent, reflect anything about this country. if the report to be believable, at least, credible there are so many flaws that need to be

corrected. the culture of weaving is slowly dying. there are only a few weavers and buyers left. for example, here the fabrics are expensive but looking at where to market it we have people who help us in the industry. >> local merchants have been investing just to keep the industry alive. the weaving is marketability but its value goes beyond money for these women. weaving has become their refuge in a conflict within community. weaving has helped their wounds to heal they say. the stories of their land revealed in their patterns. >> weighing the threat against

of lives with the importance of their livelihood. villagers facing danger every day to provide for their families. and seeing the impact of global warning firsthand in the marshall islands.

>> challenge the way you look at the world. >> talking about big subjects. >> telling human stories. >> rising waters taking their toll... we go to the threatened marshall islands... to talk to the peole affected most >> is there a plan?

indonesiaens are trying to get on with their lives but the volcano's predictability means they're always in danger. >>reporter: it's no longer safe here. trading picturesque fields for this. a camp for villagers living in the danger zone have left their livelihoods behind. >> we are afraid of the mountain but we have to tend to our crops. we need the money. we were born on this mountain. what will happen to our children. that's why we have to go back in the day to keep our fields alive. >>reporter: it's something police are trying to stop.

some have managed to reach their land though. the mountain was dormant were centuries until five years ago and further rumblings on and off since then. it's been most active over the last few weeks. >>reporter: one minute it's calm, the next we've just witnessed another eruption and it's quite dramatic to see. we've been speaking to someone monitoring the volcano. he says there's still a lot of activity deep inside the bowals of this volcano meaning there's still a threat of a far larger

eruption. rich and fertile soldiers for hundreds of years. there's a lot of respect for this mountain. but now it could quickly take it way. stephanie decker. now our global view segment. a look at how out lets across the world are reacting to various events. the economist writes actions speak louder than worlds writing today's attacks were calculated to undermine two of the region's

democratic government and isil takes a step closer to asserting greater control. a vulnerable tunisia needs help is the headline of norway's editorial. if tunisia falls because of terrorist action, there will be consequences. if the international community doesn't act quickly, it will be too late to prevent isil from gaining ground in north africa. sea levels are rising around the world and while it could be decades to feel the impact the marshall islands are already being affected.

>>reporter: culture is the -- culture 234 the marshalls. it's the backbone. >> it's tool that provides for the livelihoods of the people. it's the tradition that brings people together. >> how long have we been working on this? a couple of months. >>reporter: he's now one of the few here who have retained the carcinoma know building skills of his an recess stores. >> how many people would sail an that. >> seven. >> we are connected to the water. we don't have much land. the biggest resource we have is the ocean. and what connects to the ocean is our vessels. and the vessel of course just

like the vessel in your body brings life to your body. >>reporter: their greatest resource is now the greatest threat to their future. that's the irony of it. helen lives on a low lying atoll. it sits a foot or two above the high tide mark. that used to be enough. not anymore. >> this is the place where when we're -- this is one of the areas that it comes in. >> wow. how high does the water get? >> right here. knee high. >> yeah? >> king tides occur every spring when the moon aligns with the sun to increase the gravitational pull on the earth. but in just the last few years, these tides have brought

devastating flooding. when the last tides came they just came in over here. >> almost like a tsunami. it just came in and went in if the. >> really? in the years that you lived here when did you first start seeing this part of the island flood? >> 2011. >> king tides flooded an unpress tented three times last year leaving behind salt that's contaminated the earth killing plant life and crops and poisoning the drinking water. >> you say now mother nature is waiting in the wings? >> yes. >> do you think that this place becomes uninhabitable? >> i don't know. some say yes. some say 50 years. some say 100. some just 20 years. for that entire report watch compass sunday night at 9:30 eastern. that's it for this edition of al

jazeera america news. thanks for watching. america tonight is up next. amazing grace. ♪♪ ♪♪ how sweet the sound ♪♪ >> as the president honors victims of a mass shooting we look at a legacy of slavery. >> you'd never know these are the fingerprints of the