seen she endures and a figure in a little black dress the wide eyed fashion icon the definitive catherine hepburn, al jazeera london. and plenty more stories for you any time on the website, the address is al jazeera.com. ♪ a new era for relations between the united states and cuba president obama made a historic announcement about reopening embassys and a new offer from greece as it tries to hammer out a deal to repay its debt what the greek government is saying after missing a deadline and the puerto rico government manages to keep the power on but maybe not enough to overcome a financial crisis.

♪ today i can announce that the united states has agreed to formally reestablish diplomatic relations with the republican of cuba. and reopen embassys in our respective countries. >> history 54 years in the making this is al jazeera america live in new york city i'm tony harris and united states and cuba took a step to restoring diplomatic relations and president obama announced a short time ago the nations are restoring diplomatic ties and sets the stage to reopen embassys in havana and doors shut 50 years ago and we are live with mike at the white house and this is the culmination of negotiations that have been going on for a long time now. >> quite some time and started around the negotiations to free the captive america allen gross who was this a cuban prison and worked for the u.s. government,

u.s. aid and obama administration and secret talks with pope francis talked behind the scenes with cuban counterparts and on december 17 allen gross was free and the time was right and domino's started falling and dam broke and choose your metaphor and president obama was going to normalize relations with cuba and since then a series of staff meetings to clear the nuts and bolts and details and last remaining issues between the two governments culminating in this appearance today a historic announcement with the vice president by his side and opening the embassy for the first time in 54 years and likewise they will reopen the embassy close to the white house on 16th street both expected to happen on july 20 and ceremonies in havana by secretary of state john kerry. president obama talked about some opposition through the course of the last several months voiced in congress in particular he called them

isolationists and said what they have done for 54 years simply has not worked. here is the president. >> this is not merely symbolic. with this change we will be able to substantially increase the contacts with the cuban people and have more personnel at our embassy and diplomates can engage broadly across the island and include the cuban government civil society and ordinary cubans who are reaching for a better life. >> reporter: senator robert menendez has been vocal in criticism of cuban american and president obama in this initiative and the president aboard airforce one taking a domestic trip and says menendez is wrong on that over criticism of human rights and a host of other criticisms levelled at the president and not simply by menendez but the president marco rubio and ted cruz and tony in

havana top diplomate and he is jeffrey delorentiz has the letter to the cuban ministry saying president obama took the step and formal notifications and wheels turning to flags being raised at the american embassy in havana and cuban embassy later this month. >> interesting times we are living and i don't know how this works. give us details on some of the logistics right in reopening embassys. >> well in u.s. law there is 15-day notification of congress and they began the clock and as a practical matter there is nothing congress can do about it at this point but when the president gets around to nominating an ambassador to hold the post in havana for the first time in 54 years and they can come up with the senate and in charge of confirming that nominee. there are also other issues at place here for the cuban side obviously the biggest concern

shared by american business is the trade embargo in cuba and in place formally since 1996 before that informally since the early 60s many people especially the cubans want to see that lifted. that will require an act of congress so far republican leaders have known no willingness to lift the embargo. >> tony. >> at the white house and appreciate it. no where is the impact felt more than in florida. some 900,000 cubans live there, actually cuban americans live in the miami dade area and melissa chan went to the little havana neighborhood in miami. >> this is the hub of conservative cuban american culture and no surprises here that a lot of people are uncomfortable, very unhappy rather with this decision but to a certain extent the miami we are seeing today is different than miami 10-15 years ago and i talked about gonzales and the case from 15 years ago when the child had come from cuba to the united states and the mother drowned in the process and there

was a big custody battle at that time between the father back in cuba and the relatives here in miami at that time and had the cuban american community up in arms really, well that monolific cuban american changed and you wouldn't get that here today. if the embassy had made that kind of announcement or if the u.s. government made that embassy announcement in the 1990s you would see a lot more people behind me, as such this morning we only had two protesters, and speaks to the fact that the younger generation of cuban americans have changed their opinions. in some ways they are over a it and listened to their parents talk about the removable policy and the fact that obama administration is normalizing relations i think there are certain people especially with the polls that suggest a lot of people are thinking maybe this is a good alternative and maybe we should try this out and that change is good. >> malaysia chan in miami little havana neighborhood, in an

unusual move cuban broadcast president obama remarks today with spanish translation. we will have more on this historic announcement throughout the day right here on al jazeera america. greece made a new offer to creditors one day after missing a crucial debt payment and look at the live pictures now just outside of the greek parliament building in athens, prime minister says he will accept an offer from the european commission as long as greece gets some wiggle room with pension and labor spending and asked for a bail out extension and a new round of rescue loans and we have more from athens. >> reporter: this man has a difficult job, telling pensioners they have to wait they are allowed in the bank one by one to collect some money. they have been here for hours. all this is not helpful for the greek government in the days before the referendum. it says it still wants a compromise with creditors. >> we are going to remedy the situation. we are trying to keep the

channels of communication open because we want an agreement and think an agreement is good for both sides where is the opposite and lack of agreement is going to be devastating we think. both for the euro zone and country. >> reporter: they have offered new concessions accepting most of the creditors' conditions, but the germans say there is nothing to talk about until after the greek referendum. >> translator: we are waiting for the referendum and talks on an aide program can't take place before the referendum and is not possible any way because it would require approval. >> reporter: europe leaders bicker and what do tourists think? it's vital to greece's economy and found them up at the ancient and some oblivious to the financial crisis and some taking it in their stride. >> i heard the bank might have been closed so i just brought some cash from home basically.

>> there are problems over here but now just carry on as normal as far as we are concerned. >> reporter: for the greeks the situation is much more worrying and they cannot escape the country's financial crisis and yet for all the tensions and disagreements in this country, the vast majority of greeks have dealt with the situation with great calm and patience. lila gives legal advice to bankrupt greeks 120,000 have declared bankruptcy in the past five years but what can she possibly tell them now. >> even as a lawyer we are afraid about what would happen next. there is a lot of insecurity and uncertainty at the moment so we are just saying wait and see. we have a referendum at the end of the week and maybe some things will happen and maybe not. we will see. >> somehow amidst all this greeks have to make a momentum

decision in the coming days about the country's future barnabie, athens. leave it to the internet to try to solve the greek crisis right, a crowd funding effort raised nearly a million euros, a little over a million dollars and a 29-year-old who started the fund says it's no joke and money will go to greek people and promises everyone their money back if the goal of 1.6 euros is not met. at the last-minute puerto rico state-owned power company todayaf avoided default and made a payment to creditors but that is just a fraction of $7.3 billion the government owes in total. the governor says the territory won't be able to pay all of that back. 18 years since hong kong was returned to chinese rule and demands for democracy are louder than ever and thousands take to the streets of protest plus yet another african/american church burns in the south and an investigation in a string of

suspicious fires in the wake of the charleston church shooting.

more than a dozen people are feared dead in southwest china today after flooding has affected more than 4 million people, thousands have been evacuated. homes and roads as you can see here completely wiped out and people were pulled from the rubble last night after a landslide burying several homes and hong kong marking 18 years from the switch from british to chinese rule and thousands took to the streets for the prodemocracy rally and the first major protest since lawmakers voted against electoral reforms. rob mcbride has more. >> they came with their slogans and banners and a year of political fighting. angry shouting matches between the demonstrators and much smaller groups of pro-aging protesters and accuse the

democracy campaign of squandering the chance of political development by blocking reforms in the way hong kong selects its leader. those pushing for full democracy for hong kong can claim this as something of a victory parade and did reject the reforms being put forward by beijing which they claim are a fake democracy and it's tempered by the knowledge that 18 years after this city passed from british colonial rule that people here are still as far away from running their own affairs. it's led to a very small minority and carrying the old colonial flag and calling for independence. the hong kong authorities, the only flags that mattered were being raised at a morning ceremony marking the handover back to mainland china. all talk of political reform are now put on hold with the government instead making the economy and people's livelihoods the priority. but the protesters, the marching

goes on as does the faith that one day they will prevail. >> even though it was turned down we still have to fight. >> translator: many hong kong people are against being taken over by the chinese communist system. >> reporter: a long the route a heavy police presence made sure there would be no repeat of the street occupations that dominated the protests last year. all sides seeming to accept the political impasse as long as the marches are still allowed and those marching keep moving rob mcbride, al jazeera, hong kong. the head of the u.n. watchdog agency will go to iran tomorrow, iae chief will meet rohani and news of the trip comes as diplomates work on a new deal. they have been giving themselves until next week to workout a deal over iran's nuclear

program. looking at the key sticking points and one is how much access international inspectors will have at iran military says there will be access and they are against that and iran insists they all must be lifted at the beginning of the deal and world powers easing sanctions over a period of time. iran is also against a ten-year freeze on nuclear research. israel temporarily shut down its shared border crossing with egypt in police stations in north sinai left 50 people dead and a group linked with i.s.i.l. says it's responsible and more from jerusalem. >> reporter: closed the to main border crossings with egypt and military is closely monitoring the situation in sinai after this deadly attack. we also under stand that the israeli military is also

monitoring the border area that gaza shares with egypt as well. all of this really just under scores the concern that israel has about the violence in egypt. the two countries have had what's been described as a cold peace since 1979 but the relationship between egypt and israel was thoroughly tested in 2012 during israel's campaign in the gaza strip which resulted in the deaths of a number offensive civilians and then egyptian president mohamed morsi pulled its envoy from israel but in the last few weeks the current president abdel-fattah el-sissi sent a new ambassador back to israel and the cooperation with israel and egypt is better than a few years ago and really under scores what we have been saying

that israel does have concerns about the situation in the sinai an area which they built a huge fence which stretches for over 200 kilometer, stands around 5 meters high and is covered in razor wire. >> in jerusalem for us they sealed off the home of the palestinian man in a bloody attack and forced to leave the home before israeli forces fitted the doors and windows with iron bars. now last year jamal stormed a synagogue filling four rabbis and a police officer before being shot dead and working at what caused a fire at another african/american church in the south and the naacp is alerting black churches to take necessary precautions. >> reporter: federal officials say they don't suspect arson at

this historically black church in south carolina and it burned tuesday night leaving only the brick wall standing. >> a lot of questions to be answered. i know the community is seeking those answers and i ask that you please bear with us as we work to try to resolve and identify what the causation of the fire may be. >> reporter: 50 firefighters worked for hours to put out the fire. the same church was burned down by the ku klux klan 20 years ago, this is the 7th black church to go up in flames since the deadly shooting two weeks ago. >> breyer wood before central is on fire. >> reporter: fbi is investigating church fires across five southern states including this one charred last week in north carolina. >> just seeing the flames just up in the air that had me terrified. >> reporter: police say that fire was arson. >> whoever has done this we forgive you and hopefully there is an opportunity for us to even meet. >> reporter: the string of fires are leaving black churches across the region high alert.

al jazeera. still celebrating in montreal and u.s. advances to the world cup finals plus a balarina takes a roll in the american ballet theatre.

team usa is headed to the women's world cup finals after defeating top ranked germany last night in montreal and it was good major victory for the american side and john henry smith has the story on how they actually pulled it off. >> blocks off, shoots, scores usa. >> reporter: perfect penalty kick from carly lloyd, minutes later lloyd beat kellie o'hare for the clincher. >> for the cup! a stunning 2-0 victory for team usa ousting germany for the world cup in montreal. >> we are extremely happy with the way we played and so happy we never stopped believing in

our game plain in ourselves and i think that germany is a phenomenal team and it feels good to get a win over such a great team. >> reporter: germany shut out by goal keeper hope solo and american defense one defining moment in the game was more of a blunder by the germans. >> sausage shot and she missed. >> reporter: missing very wide left on a penalty kick in the 59th minute even as hope solo dove the other way. >> translator: there were opportunities but we didn't follow through. we could have scored goals that would have come on top of it all and felt we were playing down the field well but in front of goal we were not so efficient and that was our problem today. >> reporter: germany ranked number one in the world and usa number two spot and the americans won in 1991 and again in 1999. now after losing to japan in the 2011 finals team usa is back for another shot at the title. >> it feels good right now but

we are not finished we have one more game so so far it feels awesome but we still have a job to do. >> reporter: that game will be on sunday in vancouver and usa will face off with japan or london depending who wins today, al jazeera in montreal. july first and means a number of new state laws take effect and indiana has a much talked about religious freedom law and thought it would discriminate against gays and lesbians but it balances the rights of everyone. california and massachusetts require some businesses to pay for sick time. millions of american workers are covered by this, minnesota is launching a medical marijuana program and it's now legal to posses small amounts of pot in oregon but approving the use of marijuana there has an unintended consequence for pot-sniffing dogs police dogs allen explains. >> as of july first in the state

of oregon it's going to be much more legal to posses and smoke and grow marijuana and people voted that in last fall and that is causing a lot of challenges and a lot of changes in law enforcement and here is one of those challenges you might not have thought of before what happens to a pot-sniffing dog when pot-smoking is now legal, this is a four odor dog trained to hit on four drugs including marijuana. in this over here is his pal and this is lola but lola is a three odor dog, a new breed if you will, not trained specifically not trained to hit on marijuana. certain amounts of which are completely legal right now. so four odor versus three odor dog, why the difference and why is that important in this new environment? >> until the courts give us some direction about four odor dogs and the new environment after july alerting to a car going down the road will give probable

cause to search the car and four may give us probable cause be was don't know yet and don't have a direction on that. >> reporter: many jurisdictions simply saying we don't want to complications and get rid of the four odor dog. >> to make sure the cases move forward in the court system. >> reporter: how exactly do they handle the dogs and do they retire them or ship them out of state or find ways to use them all of that is happening, those decisions and those challenges being met in law enforcement agencies all over the state of oregon we will tell you more tonight on al jazeera where the dogs are going and handlers are doing and how they are handling this. a group of girl scouts are the first to camp out on the white house lawn and the obamas paid the girls a visit with stories and songs and the first lady invited the group as part of initiative to reduce childhood obesity and the camp out didn't last very long though. thunderstorms and heavy rains forced the group to relocate to a building next door.

misty copeland is the first african/american woman to be the principal dancer at the american ballet theatre and she was a voice for diversity long before this milestone. >> take a bow. [applause] misty cope land is used to applause but this is historic, the 32-year-old balarina was promoted to the highest rank of the american ballet theatre becoming the first african/american principal dancer in the company 75 year history. >> i'm just so honored, so extremely honored to be a principal dancer, to be an african/american and to be in this position. >> reporter: copeland's promotion came with the lead in swan lake and another historic

achievement to her repitoir. >> it's the beginning. >> reporter: coming at the age of 13 a late start, she was told by many of her detractors. that struggle documented in this commercial for under armor that racked up 8 million views on youtube. >> dear candidate, thank you for your application to our ballet academy. unfortunately you have not been accepted. >> reporter: since that time copeland has soared silencing his critics and joined at 17 and was an soloist and dancing in dozens of performances and leaped from the stage into venues that easily made her the most famous balarina in the u.s. copeland has been the subject of a documentary at the tribeca film festival and author and

appeared on the cover of time magazine as one of the most influential figures of 2015 and those achievements she told al jazeera in february shadowed by some moments in doubt about a young black girl competing as a balarina in a world dominated by white dancers. did you ever envision this is what your life could be? >> no no it's still hard to accept that it's a reality. i don't know. again, i'm just so like humbled and grateful for the background that i have and the situations i've been through and to still be standing. >> reporter: randall pinkston, al jazeera new york. you can see her entire interview with misty copeland on talk to al jazeera tuesday at 6:30 eastern time and thanks for joining us and the news continues live next from london. ♪

>> announcer: this is al jazeera. hello, i'm lauren tail taylor and we are live from london and egypt says it's the state of war after 30 soldiers are killed in northern sinai. more cues at greek banks as the prime minister urges to reject a bailout deal and also. >> progress that we mark today is another demonstration we don't have to be in prison by the past. >> reporter: the u.s. and cuba resume full diplomatic relations for the first