bernard smith, al jazeera, istanbul. and just a quick reminder you can always catch up with all of the stories we're covering by checking out our website, aljazeera.com. more details there of the situation on the greece macedonia border and plenty more. aljazeera.com. ♪ wall street in the middle of another big selloff as global markets tumble. new evacuations in the northwest as fires spread faster than crews can contain them. now international help is on its way. and a state of emergency in macedonia, as a migrant and refugee crisis pushing the tiny nation to the brink. ♪

this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm randall pinkston. well the stock market is plunging again for the fourth straight day. the dow is down nearly 2%, 190 points lower after falling 358 points yesterday. that is the biggest win-day drop in almost five years. nasdaq and s&p 500 also trading down right now. richard wolf from the university of massachusetts says this market turmoil requires careful analysis. >> selloff has to be taken seriously, because anything of this size, happening so quickly is a warning shot across the bow of the world economy. i think the way to understand it best is to see, that when you have a global capitalism of the -- in the way that we do, a problem in one major area, it's only a matter of time before it becomes a problem elsewhere.

for the last two or three years, people here in the united states, have diluted themselves, imagining that the growing problems of europe on the one hand, and the chinese economy on the other, could somehow play themselves out without reverberations here. what you are seeing now is the global recognition by the rest of the world and by people who have stocks and bonds that that was an illusion, and that we're now in another economic downturn, and the only question that intelligent people now have is how bad it will be, and how long it will last. these kinds of sharp fluctuations have a way of billing their own momentum so that we lose track of whether this is an accurate assessment of where we are, or the beginning of a panic that can have ramifications that we don't even want to dare look into.

professor wolf says while the u.s. economy is getting better, it is not translating to real improvement for african americans. real wages have not gone up, and that means less money is circulating in the economy. opposition leaders in greece are trying to form their new government one day after the prime minister resigned, and called for new elections next month. some members of his syriza party rebelled over the financial bailout agreement, tsipras negotiated with european creditors. >> reporter: approximately two dozen members of parliament from the syriza party have broken away from the prime minister's line and have said that they are going to form a separate far-lef hft wing group. they have said this is going to be called the consolidated anti-austerity front. or the united anti-austerity front. and this is a play on words because it is an echo of the

communist resistance during world war ii, which after the war, fought a civil war against national forces and that was of course called the national freedom front. this is no coincidence here the far left wants the name of its new party to sound like the continuation of a the communist fighting formations of old. i wants to suggest to voters that they are the true leftists, the true inheriters of the world war ii communist generation, and they are the ones that will carry the torch forward against austerity in this case in the upcoming election. >> john spiropoulos reporting. political analyst says many people in athens predicted that tsipras would call for new elections. >> he knows his opposition is

electorally weak. so we can count on that. the second thing is that we tried to get rid of his party desenders, and move on to a possible coalition with other parties just after the elections. the third thing is that he still counts on the support he has from -- from systemic media in greece, and the last reason is that he knows that gradually, beginning from this autumn, social disappointment against this bailout will start growing for -- against his government. he could form a new coalition within the current parliament but he decided to go on for elections and to reinvent himself as a leader of the center left, not only of the left. so i think that his -- his

options were quite narrowed and to my perspective he did the best choice. as of the latest poll in july, his -- his appeal is around -- his popularity is around 57 to 59%. but it tends to weaken as -- as we go on, after the -- the -- the agreement on the third bailout deal. so as long as he feels, and he is popular among the greek electorate, he is trying to invest in that, and as i told you, to reemerge as a leader of broader acceptance from the greek electorate. next month's vote in greece will be the nation's fifth in six years. the wildfires in northwest central washington state keep expanding in size. officials say they grew by 100 square miles in just the last 24 hours. 29,000 firefighters are trying to battle about 100 monster

fires in six states. and officials are asking for volunteers, they are looking for residents who could operate backho backhoes to dig power lines. >> reporter: there are 390,000 acres burning. >> reporter: dry weather and strong winds are helping fuel the fires age -- raging in the eastern part of washington state. the bodies of three firefighters killed wednesday were removed from the scene. they died after getting trapped in the flames. >> it was a hell storm up here, and the winds were blowing in every direction. >> reporter: the men were identified. their families in mourning. >> he was the center of our

lives. >> we're going to miss him more than anything in the whole world. >> oh, it's horrible. i can't imagine. i can't even imagine. and -- and to lose your life fighting a fire, that's horrible for a family, and it's just a bad deal. >> reporter: officials called for immediate evacuations near the north central washington community, a similar order went out last night for a thousand people in a nearby town. officials fear strong winds won't die down soon. >> we thank everyone who are doing everything they can to make sure the ever-green state, does not become an ever-fire state. >> the u.s. is spending $150 million a week battling the fires. now australia and new zealand are sending aide. about 75 fire experts are expected to arrive this weekend. and take a look at this

image from the fires in eyed you last week. a sheep dog and her two pups protecting a dead found. witnesses said the dog stayed for hours. you can see the satellite photo which shows smoke drifting across the entire west. we asked kevin corriveau how bad it is. >> today we are looking at some of the worst wildfire weather we have seen pretty much all summer long. i'm going to show you the warnings, these are red flag warnings encam passing much of the west and expanding east. fire conditions likely with winds gusting up to 35 miles an hour, as well as low humidities across the region. tomorrow we may see a little bit of a break towards the east, but in the west, it is not going to change. we are looking at orange air quality advisories.

that means people with asthma or emphysema, very difficult conditions. they advise you stay inside. temperatures today spokane at 76, seattle at 73, but tomorrow the temperatures are expected to go up, seattle at about 82, and spokane at about 79. the national weather service says it is not unusual for smoke press release the western united states to get caught up in the jet stream and 234r0e9 east. up next, it's america's unseen conflict in the horn of africa. president obama steps up u.s. efforts to cam bat al-shabab in somalia.

the u.s. has taken on larger military role in the fight against al-shabab. fighters have cut a path of destruction there. now the u.s. is trying to help somalia's struggling government. >> reporter: for almost a quarter century it has been a country in tatters. it has had 16 governments, mostly powerless and unable to stop the ride of al-shabab, that has destabilized not only somalia, but the entire horn of africa. president obama came to office vowing to decrease america's direct involvement in places like somalia, and use a combination of regional military

forces to fight groups like al-shabab. in a visit to kenya last month, mr. obama touted his approach. >> as we speak kenya is working with ethiopia and with the united states and others to further degrade al-shabab's space of operations inside of somalia. >> reporter: but the president's trip was a stark reminder that seven years into his presidency, the fight continues to rage. the day after the president spoke in kenya, a car baum tack on a hotel killed 13. al-shabab claimed responsibility. though they are lost ground, experts say what is needed now is political stability. >> over time that requires legitimacy and ultimately one has a reborn nation once again. until that happens we're playing whack-a-mole with shabab. >> reporter: the u.s. policy has been two prong, defeat al-shabab on the battlefield, and promote

a viable government. u.s. military personnel have been training and equipping african union forces, doing most of the fighting on the ground. the u.s. also has special forces operating inside somalia, and there have been air strikes. since 2007, the u.s. has conducted an estimated 15 to 19 drone strikes inside somalia, mostly flown from its massive air base nearby. that along with an estimated eight to 11 air and cruise missile strikes. at least six strikes hit somalia last month as they provide support for an ongoing offensive. this year the u.s. says the strikes have killed top al-shabab commanders, including one said to have played a role in the 2013 attack on nairobi's

westgate mall. the u.s. spent troops to somalia in 1992. it was an ill fated mission. the battle between the militias and american troops depicted in the movie blackhawk down ended with the dragging of dead american bodies through the treats of mogadishu. now the coalition is making gains, and there are two key questions, who fills the void and what is the future u.s. role. >> the u.s. is not alone by any means, but there are distinct limits of what the u.s. is prepared to do. >> reporter: a new government is in place. the prime minister spoke with al jazeera in march and painted an optimistic picture. >> i think the country is

[ inaudible ] i think most somalians have decided to pick up their own pieces and -- and do, i think whatever they can to really better their lives. >> reporter: long-suffering somalians can only hope he is right. chaos on the macedonian border today. [ gunfire ] [ screaming ] >> reporter: police fire tear gas and stun grenades to stop a wave of refugees from entering the country. many are fleeing syria, and have been camped out on a stretch of no man's land on the board we are greece. several hours later several hundred refugees managed to cross the border from greece into macedonia. our correspondent is on the greek side of the border. we just watched those dramatic pictures. describe, please, what it looked

like from where you are on the ground there. >> reporter: yes, that incident happened just a couple of hundred meters behind me from the place that i'm standing. it happened this morning when the group of about a thousand people, thousand refugees tried to force entry into macedonia. macedonian police, helped by macedonian army stopped them, using so-called shock bombs, that's the kind of bombs are used usually to prevent violence on football games all over europe. they stopped them to force entry into macedonia, and ten people were injured, four of them were hospitalized. but the real number of injured people is higher because many of them didn't look for the medical help. police settled here big wire fence wide in length more than

500 meters. a lot of policemen are in this area, and the number of policemen, and the number of soldiers that arrived today, increased comparing the last few days, because situation the getting serious from minute to minute. >> i'm looking at the picture behind you. i'm just giving a rough estimate. i'm counting at least 600 standing behind you. what kind of problem or -- or crisis are you witnessing there on the border? >> reporter: uh-huh. yes, there is more than 600 people. the estimation of local authorities is more than 3,000 people are waiting here at the border to cross to macedonia, but the number is even higher because not all of them have staying here. many rented apartments or rooms

in the city next to the border. so the number unofficial of course, is much, much higher. after that incident this morning, shortly macedonian police reopened the border and around couple hundred people managed to cross to macedonia. after that the border was closed again, and authorities said that they had gone -- allowed for people to cross it every two hours. the priorities for women and children because from 3,000 people here, most of them are women and children. there are a lot of pregnant women. i saw a lot of people with chronicle diseases, so they are priority to cross the border. they also announced that they are going to open it again tomorrow at 5:00 am, and they are going to allow for smaller groups to cross every two hours. >> i see a couple of pup tents

behind you, is there any kind of effort to create some temporary shelter for all of those people who are waiting to cross the border into macedonia and make their way into northern europe? >> reporter: actually no, because the greek authorities are not -- is not -- they are not helping on any kind of way. people are left to themselves. they are managing to -- to -- to do whatever they want to, because they are getting their tents by themselves. mostly they are sleeping in the open, the -- it's -- it's not comfortable situation at all. people don't have any food. don't have any water. they have some -- some medical help from the medical centers here and doctors of the world, but they are very, very short of personality here. i mean only five doctors for 3,000 people is definitely not

enough. but those people are hoping they are going to cross the border with macedonia, and continue their journey to the western europe, but people are coming on and coming on over time. for example, for tomorrow, from the island, is coming -- it is announced -- to -- a ferry boat is expected to come to athens with more than 2,500 refugees. eventually those people will come here at the boarder and we'll have same problem again, and situation will not get any better socially? >> crisis on the border. thank you. and a ship carrying refugees fleeing the violence in syria has just docked in greece. there were hundreds of migrants on board. they have been streaming off of the ship over the past several minutes. the vessel picked them up from several islands near the turkish

coast. the united states has asked australia to launch air strikes on isil fighters in syria. australia has so far been against any such action, saying it cannot happen without the permission of a legitimate syrian government or a united nations security council resolution. tony abbott says his government has not decided yet on the u.s. request. but is concerned about young citizens of his country who try to join isil. for the first time in the history of the u.s. army two women have graduated from the elite ranger school. they took part in the ceremonies in georgia yesterday. they successfully completed two months of gruelling endurance tests. but because they are women, they are still forbidden from serving with the army rangers or in any special operations positions. following your every move, some police departments use

equipment to track your smartphone, and they are doing it without a court order. ♪

>> i lived that character. >> go one on one with

a new report shows police in several states are using cell phone tracking devices for investigations. they have been doing it for years, but it has been kept very quiet. >> reporter: they go by industry

names like juggler and wolf hound. cell tracking equipment that's cheap, small, and easily used. purchase records show law enforcement agencies have been buying these devices for investigations since 2010. each costs as little as $2,400, some 7500. industry experts say the devices gather radio waves when a phone communicates with a tower. they could be used with more invasive devices, technology that acts like a fake cell phone tower capturing identifying information such as location. earlier jake ward reported on string rays which law enforce could used to scoop up data on every phone. >> people report their cell phones acting weirdly. the battery is draining, the interference with the ability to communicate, that we have heard

these problems arise elsewhere. >> reporter: law enforce has often declined to publicly comment on the purchase of these devices. privacy activists have been fighting against their use worrying the devices could be used to find cell phones inside people's homes. >> many years ago our founding fathers made the decision to say if police want to enter into a house, they have to get a warrant. it would be easier for law ens forment to say we are going to enter everybody's home and look for crime once a week. but we decided there are important liberty interests at steak. >> reporter: more than a dozen states have passed laws requiring warrens beforehand, except in emergency situations. al jazeera reached out to the agencies mentioned in the report. the justice department declined comment, florida's department of

law enforcement told it all follows all state and federal regulations. two federal appeals courts have upheld some forms of war rentless phone tracking. nasa astronaut scott kelly captured this video from the international place station of the aurora borealis. it releases colorful streams into the sky. here on earth the aurora is mainly seen over the arctic and an arctic regions. banksy has opened a display that he said is meant to be a festival of amusement and an

arkism. the news continues next live from london, web, keep up on aljazeera.com. ♪ chaos at the borer, thousands of refugees are pushed back as they try to cross from greece into macedonia. ♪ i'm lauren taylor this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up, two years on from the chemical attacks that shocked the world. alexis tsipras forms a deepening division in his party. and the