follow our expert contributors on twitter, facebook, instagram, google+ and more. this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm ton to in. a gut-wrenching day on wall street after china's black monday stock crash. stepping back from the brink on the korean peninsula, an agreement between north and south is announced. and the wildfires in washington state are some of the worst in history, more than a dozen still burning out of control in the west. ♪

and we begin with one of the wildest days on wall street in years. the dow jones industrial average plummeted nearly 1100 points minutes after the opening bell sounded this morning. stocks managed to recover some of take losses, but at closing bell the dow was still down 500 points. financial markets have lost trillions in value over the last few days. the euro first index lost more than 521 billion. the australian security exchange lost $60 billion of value. and it is estated that s&p 500 companies lost about $685 billion in value today. mary snow spent the day on the trading floor on wall street. mary, how do you explain what happened today? >> that's the one question everyone was trying to explain, and there's no one simple answer, but there was one

overriding theme, and that was fear and uncertainty. and to get a sense of just the wild ride you were just talking about, take a look at this one-day chart on the dow. it was the single-biggest point drop in the market ever. the market did recover, but there were a couple of overriding themes. china, of course, was the big one. and investors were expecting the chinese government to do more to stem the losses in china, and when that didn't happen, that certainly put in set the motion for the big selloff, but more than a thousand points within ten minutes of the opening bell, which certainly even veteran traders didn't see coming. another overriding question was low oil prices and what does that mean for the global economy? and in the background is the federal reserve, and whether or not the federal reserve will be rising interest rates.

so all of those factors added to the losses today, and the fact that the dow's loss of 588 points was seen as a sigh of relief really tells you what was going on there today. tony another thing we wanted to mention was so much of the trading that is dumped -- particularly -- when you see the new york stock exchange, there are not as many traders obviously as there were many years ago, and that certainly adds to the volatility and those quick swings. >> mary, you spent most of the day there on the floor of the exchange. could you describe for me what the mood was like there today through most of the day actually? >> fear. and nervousness. i mean, and this morning one trader even said that he thought back to the 1987 crash. the losses today were nowhere near the losses in 1987, but certainly this caught people off guard, and then there was relief

when buying was coming. traders say, look, we have been indicati indicate -- waiting for correction. the markets have been doing well. the u.s. economy as growing slowly, but slow growth is better than no growth, so they were bracing for something to come. the big question, of course, is what should we expect going forward? nobody can predict that for sure. but a trader we spoke with today kind of summed it up this way. take a listen. >> i think you are going to have an extended period of volatility. we don't really know what the chinese economy is doing. if it's growing. how do we price that demand equation into what u.s. corporations do. so it will be difficult for a while, and we don't know what our own fed and the other central banks are going to do. >> reporter: and several people we spoke with today said they do expect the sell-off to continue tomorrow. >> wow, what a day.

mary snow for us. thank you. today's stock selloff gained momentum in asia today. the biggest losses were in china, where the shanghai stock exchange fell nearly 9%, the largest decline since 2007. adrian brown has more from beijing. >> reporter: the share selloff began within minutes of the stock exchange opening. at one point it fell by 9%, recovering only slightly. some of china's biggest companies are listed here. on monday the government announced a new and risky intervention to try to prop up the market by using billions of dollars from the state pension fund, but it failed to stop the slide. >> translator: how can the markets drop every day like this? one, two, three, four, five. the market dropped for five days and it never rose back. >> reporter: many borrowed to buy shares and are now being forced to sell those shares to

pay back the loans. >> translator: the chinese market aims to eliminate the middle class. after eliminating the middle class, the middle class will have no purchasing power, and the market won't be flourishing. >> reporter: the value of their pensions could be at risk if the market decline continues. >> translator: i think the government consults this problem properly. the government won't spend all of the pension money on the stock market. >> reporter: everything it has tried so far has failed. since june the shanghai index has lost more than 30% of its value, and analysts warn the decline is likely to continue. once more the drop in chinese shares dragged down markets across the asia pacific region. the main reason, a fear that a slowdown in the chinese economy is worse than the government is

letting on. hong kong closed down more than 5 points. the region's biggest stock market, tokyo, ended down almost 5 points as well. australia, suffered its biggest one-day fall in four years, down by more than 4%. what all of these markets desperately need, but don't have is investor confidence. adrian brown, al jazeera, bang shinning. >> reporter: rick newman says china's contribution to this volatility was difficult to predict. >> what is happening with china is what you might call an unknown unknown. first there are problems within the shanghai stock market, which is not a real stock market the way we think of it, it is kind of a closed stock market. >> wait, when you say a closed

stock market and some things are going on, things that we weren't aware of? >> well, we have been able to see what is going on in the market, but we didn't anticipate the activities of the chinese government getting involved and doing things like encouraging people to buy more stocks and then doing things that encouraged them to sell, and then telling companies they didn't -- buyers they can't trade stocks. they have to stop. there has been a level of involvement that we're just not used to. so we have been trying to sort that out, and number two trying to figure out if that tells us something somebody weakness in the chinese economy that we did not see. so what to watch is what more do we learn about the real chinese economy, not just investing in the stock market. but the real chinese economy, does it turn it out to be weaker

than we thought or is this overblown. china has managed to have what economists call a soft landing. it looks like things will implode and somehow they work their way through it. so we -- could see some moves by the chinese government that changes things. >> more perspective from ali velshi later in the hour. after days of marathon talks, north and south korea have reached a new deal aimed at diffusing resent sense at -- along the border. >> reporter: after a session of talks lasting more than 33-hours, the delegation called a 2:00 am news conference. a dispute that began with a land mine blast in the southern side

of the demilitarized zone which maimed two south korean socials and escalated with the rebroadesting of south korean speakers, and the threat against them, was he said at an end. >> translator: north korea expresses regret over the land mine incident in which two south korean soldiers were injured. south korea in the absence of any normal situation, will end all broadcasting at noon on the 25th of august. >> reporter: there was a 48-hour deadline imposed by north korea. even as the talks went on, south korea said the north has deployed 50 of its 70 submarines from its bases, and doubled the amount of artillery stationed on the border. the south korean president on monday maintained a hard line demanding a clear apology.

that's how the expression of regret is being termed. both sides will want to portray this deal in the best possible light to their respective domestic audiences. given the sheer lenning -- lengths of the talks they both were doing all they could to prevent escalation. now they have agreed to prepare for a new round of reunions of families separated, and to arrange further talks as soon as possible. this time either in seoul or north korea capitol. north korea may well want to talk soon about lifting other bans. south korea says the north now knows that provoking a crisis no longer earns concessions, an assertion that will have to be judged over the coming months. three americans and a british businessman who helped stop a potential blood bath last

friday all received france's highest honor today. the president awarded of honor to the men. the men subdued the suspected gunmen who police say was heavily armed. >> translator: in the name of france i have to thank you for what you did, since friday, the whole world had admired your courage, your composure, your sense of responsibility. the solidarity which lead you empty handed to tackle a man armed to the teeth and ready for anything. >> the suspects attorney says he only intended to rob people on board because he was hungry, but french authorities say he was known to security services. security has been stepped up at train stations across europe in the wake of the incident, but now authorities are facing a new

dilemma. >> reporter: the president honored them with france's highest award. they had according to the president, prevented real carnage. how to keep france and europe's trains safe from attack is now a real question. the suspect in friday's attack boarded the train at brussel's station with neither passport nor baggage being checked. france's transport minister, hinted at the use of profiling. >> translator: when we talk about random stop and search checks, people say they can be discriminator to, but i would prefer that than to be a spectator. >> reporter: europe's politicians and police forces now face a huge dilemma, how to improve security on the

high-speed rail network, how to track known individuals across its own borders, while preserving the principles of freedom of movement which have become such a crucial part of the european economy and its way of life. nowhere is that more true than on france's famous network. carrying 250,000 people a day, from 250 stations across 1500 kilometers of high-speed track. across france, but also into neighboring e.u. states. on monday the head of france's rail network ruled out airport-style security, but it may be the only way of guaranteeing safe travel. >> what needs to be done is first for international trains, the ones more likely to be targeted, most likely to have like the euro star, some sort of airport security like, that would be the first step, and then obviously train marshals

would be a good step as well. >> reporter: friday's attract shows how vulnerable the rail system is. it might be a wake-up call that radically changes the way europeans travel by train. a massive wildfire burning in north central washington is now the biggest in state history. the fire shows no signs of slowing down, and fire officials say it could burn for months. right now 16 wildfires are burning across washington state. sabrina has more on this. sabrina? >> reporter: tony, you talk to people around here, and they will tell you, this is the worst wildfire they have ever experienced, and they have been through quite a few of them. we did get confirmation that the fire affecting this area is now the largest wildfire on record. in just the last few hours, overnight it grew by 12,000

acres. it's now more than 250,000 acres. 200 homes have been destroyed, but 12,000 are still in jeopardy, and that's not counting the outbuildings and other structures still in danger. and thousands have been evacuated. there's no welcome mat, but this campsite with two tents and a camper is home for the parker family and others right now. they have been camping since they fled their north central washington house a week ago. >> we left to tanasc ut, we was there for roughly four hours and evaluated all of the area. >> reporter: when flames showed no signs of slowing. >> we watched trees erupt and literally explode into huge columns of flames, like a roman candle would. a scale of 1 to 10, this would be a 15. how is that? >> reporter: the parkers are hardly alone.

in a town about 30 miles away, evacuated residents like sandy find some comfort sharing stories with other displaced families in the parking lot of a home-improvement store. these tables are stocked with food and supplies from this store as well as community donations. >> they have been absolutely phenomenal. they have made us feel so welcome and secure. they have cared for us. they are feeding us. >> reporter: but it may be a while before they are allowed to see whether they have a home to return to. more than 1200 firefighters are working what is now washington state's largest wildfire on record. more than 400 square miles have burned here, and it's growing rapidly. while the stag next air acts like a lid to calm the fire, the poor visibility grounds any aerial assault. >> it's a double-edge sword. it keeps a lid on the fire

behavior, but prevents us from being able to use aviation assets to their fullest extent. >> reporter: with no real relief in site, families like the parkers desperately tried to reach neighborhoods who refused to leave. he finally reaches his youngest sister. searching for any word on his home. >> not good in where is it at? where is your fire at? it was at rick's house last night. >> reporter: for now the family waits it out, wondering what is next. and the parkers still don't know if their home is standing. they have been trying to get ahold of them. they have been checking hour by hour, but they simply refused to go back in the area where they have their house at level three evacuation area still in effect there. they are not going back, they

say, it is simply too dangerous. and firefighters from northern california are now in washington state, so a little bit more relief on the way. >> yeah, yeah, sabrina good to see you. let's check in with kevin now. and kevin it's a new week. we would like to be optimistic here, but what is the for cast telling us? >> it's not good tony. one of the biggest red flag warnings areas i had ever seen was last week. as we go into this week it is pretty much going to be the same thing. this is on google earth, and you can seay cross northern parts of washington. i want to go closer in. right here as you can see, it is almost a quarter of a million acres burning right there. here is the actual town over here towards the southeast. now they are expecting that only 10% being contained right now, it has been an increase from about 8% on yesterday. we have some clouds pushing

through, but there is no rains coming out of the clouds. right now temperatures across this region -- we're talking about the 80s, but we expect the temperatures to go back up. we're expecting humidity to stay between 9 and 21%, very, very dry all the way through tuesday. but i wouldn't be surprise if this gets extended. and we're looking at very, very bad air quality. you notice a trend across this region goes up from tuesday towards wednesday. spokane 91 by wednesday, it really i think is only going to get worse. >> man, it does not look good. >> no, it doesn't. >> kevin appreciate it. thank you. betting big on clean energy, the president's new plan to make it cheaper and easier to invest in solar power, plus -- it is called the you-stink movement. growing protests in lebanon against piled up garbage and politicians.

♪ the only way to get better is to challenge yourself,

and that's what we're doing at xfinity. we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around.

tand that's what we're doings to chat xfinity.rself, we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. okay. take a look at this. live pictures now. air force one arriving in las vegas, framed beautifully there, right? by the mountains there in nevada. president obama just arriving. he is in las vegas to speak to an alternative energy summit and talk up his clean-energy

proposal. the focus is the search for alternative energy solutions that are also good for business. mike viqueira is live for us from washington. mike, what are some of the specific points we're expecting to hear the president make this evening? >> reporter: it's part of his push particularly in the last year, towards climate change, making this an issue front and center, as we winds up what he has called the fourth quarter of his presidency. it's the national clean-energy summit in las vegas. and there you see that impressive site always. the president finishing his two-week summer vacation with his family. first order of business, a trip out to las vegas, a state now known as the saudi arabia of solar, because of the bergening solar industry there. the white house putting up a lot of statistics around this trip.

i want to share one of them with you, last year, the united states in three weeks alone put more energy online from solar sources than it did in all of 2008. so a bergening energy. this is a must-do, must-attend for many in the national alternative issues. he is going to propose $1 billion in loan guaranteed for improving solar panels, installing solar panels on military house, helping low-income families becoming more energy efficient. allowing family owners to get up-front financing for energy efficient home upgrades, such anz stalling solar panels. so a big push, this is territory the president has waded into before. but the white house says you can point for every failure to ten successes, like tesla, which is

building a huge new plant in nevada there, tony. >> yeah, i'm tempted to wave, because we like to see any president disembark air force one, but it looks like it is going to be a minute. mike thank you. maybe we can keep that shot open as we get to heidi zhou castro here. according to the energy department, texas leads the nation in the use of wind power. it relies on wind twice that of other states. yet wind power has its critics. heidi why have so many texas communities embraced wind energy? >> hey, toni, just to give you some perspective first, if texas were its own country it would rank sixth globally in wind capacity. and it's the incentives, for the last 15 years, the state has subsidized the wind energy. and now to the point where the

american wind industry says about 17,000 jobs in texas are related to the wind industry. but texas is simply growing, and it's so big already, it always has the title of number 1 for carbon emissions. so it still has a lot to struggle for. >> i mentioned a moment ago that there are critics, who has come out against wind power in texas? >> reporter: well, this spring there was a push at the state capitol in texas that would have cut funding for the transmission lines that deliver power from the wind farms in west texas to the major cities like dallas here in central texas. the question is why this apparent about face, many have pointed the finger at the oil and gas industry, and its growing political power here. now that wind energy has become

so efficient and cheap that most consumers can afford it, the oil and gas industry has asked for a so-called even playing field. it passed the senate, but did not take it passed the state house. why? well, there was an epa ruling that came in just as the bill was making its way through. the ruling requires texas to cut carbon emissions by 32% within the next 15 years. so texas has sued against this ruling, calling it illegal, however, the threat of it taking effect is for the time being effectively, warding off this mounting threat against renewable energy in texas. tony. >> heidi appreciate it. let's take a look at those live pictures again. the president will be disembarking air force one in las vegas. he is in las vegas to speak to

an automatic - automatic -- alternative-energy summit. and he is talking about clean-energy incentives. they'll be talking about wind and solar as well. the president in nevada. we'll take a break and come back with more in just a minute. this is al jazeera america. ♪ ♪

>> we're here to fully get into the nuances of everything that's going on, not just in this country, but around the world. getting the news from the people who are affected. >> people need to demand reform... >> ali velshi on target weeknights 10:30p et

i have got to tell you, we will soon see the first indications of whether stock traders should brace for another roller coaster ride tomorrow. china's stock index opens about 30 minutes from now. and dow futures have already opened about 100 points higher. the dow lost nearly 1100 points during the first minutes of trading on monday. that followed the 530-point loss on friday. ali velshi is here with more. ali what the heck happened today? >> oh, my god, that's a big question. we had a continuation of friday's selloff. a lot of people will tell you it started in shanghai, but it didn't finish in america on

friday. but what we saw in china, the aggressiveness of its selloff, 8.5%, i think fed the aggressiveness of the u.s. selloff, so you see this thousand-point drop on u.s. markets. as we watched through the course of the morning, it deteriorated, it became a very small drop off, but i thought there is some chances markets might even close in positive territory. but while people thought the market was oversold in the morning, and bargain hunters were buying up some of these stocks, by afternoon you had all of those people who got so spooked by what happened on friday today, saying my stock has come back a little bit, now i'm selling it. and that's what happens in a turbulent market. we were hoping it would be

balanced out by today. looks like it is not done yet. >> okay, so it is true or false, this selloff today has everything or nothing to do with the u.s. economy? >> mostly nothing. >> okay. >> mostly nothing. and i'll tell you why. the fundamentals in the u.s. while not stellar, are pretty good. we have lowering unemployment, we have job growth, wages increasing -- not but much, but we have them increasing. we have no inflation because of oil prices. high home prices, and low mortgage rates. so all of those things are right. china is still growing at close to 7% a year, but the way the world is structured is china still has to keep growing fast to keep us happy. that's not happening, so there are real global concerns. the price of oil is affecting a lot of countries. europe is still growing slowly. what is going on with russia, and it's coming home to roost. we are reacting to things going

on across the world. it is not an american story unlike 2008 when it was solely an american story that we exported to the world. >> how do we position ourselves as average investors. they are flightened and slightly panicked or -- or you take a deep breath, exhale a number, and maybe start eyeing this as a potential opportunity to purchase. >> yes, if you are looking at it as a buying opportunity. you are saying some of these prices have gotten a little high, don't be unwise, don't buy the high fliers, buy things that are meaningful. for instance, and this is not advise, but there are a lot of people that say, oil can't sustain in the 30s, because some countries, saudi arabia, the united states will start to switch off the taps a little bit until oil prices go up, so maybe you take some of these beatendown oil companies.

some people look at it as an opportunity. the other way to look at this is not at all. if your horizon is long, the 38% loss in 2008, you have more than made up for it if you did nothing. if you never sold a stock in 2008 or 2009, you have already made up for it. unless you are a trader, don't get crazy, but you should know how to rebalance, and you should rebalance at least as regularly and you go to the dentist. >> ali good stuff. out on the campaign trail, presidential hopefuls wasted no time weighing in on the stock market's volatility and as david shuster reports some changed their messages to match concerns about the turmoil on wall street. >> reporter: monday's turmoil proved to beer recystable for donald trump.

he tweeted: and he posted this video on instagram. >> i have been telling everybody for a long time, china is taking our jobs. they are taking our money. be careful. they will bring us down. you have to know what you are doing. we have nobody that has a clue. >> reporter: his message that he alone can manage an economic crisis, plays to his top strength. when it comes to handling the economy more americans trust trump than any other candidate. and he added some populism to his policy details. in a phone interview he said he would cut taxes on middle class workers and raise rates on hedge funders. >> the hedge fund guys are making a tremendous amount of money. they have to pay tax. i want to lower the rates for

the middle class. the middle class is getting absolutely destroyed. >> reporter: on the democratic side, bernie sanders also weighed in. he ignored china's impact on the united states and focused instead on u.s. banks, quote: over the weekend, in new hampshire, sanders said the size of america's largest banks is again putting the united states at risk. >> my view is that if they are too big to fail, they are too big to exist, let's break them up. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: new concerns about the u.s. economy could add to the political leverage of democratic senator elizabeth warren. she has ruled out a presidential run, but has long focused on reigning in wall street's power and influence. >> we're tired of a game that is rigged for the rich and powerful. for progressives it's all about

a fighting chance, not just for some of us, but for all of us. >> reporter: this weekend, vice president joe biden invited warren to a meeting. aids refused to describe their conversation, but biden's supporters say the vice president is leaning towards joining the 2016 presidential race, a race that may increasingly be designed by populous concerns over the u.s. economy. david shuster, al jazeera. the u.n. agency for refugees is trying to help maintain order at the border of macedonia and greece where thousands fleeing conflicts in the middle east have tried to cross in hopes of getting to western europe. we have two reports from along the border, jonah hull is in greece, but we begin with andrew simmons where a blockade of the border has now been lifted. >> reporter: in the heat of macedonia's border with greece, the pathway for refugees may be

fully open again. but the pace as of their journeys may have quickened, politicians are bogged down in arguments. macedonia's interior minister came to a center to defend the decision to close the border last week. here too, austria's foreign minister talking about what the europe europe was or rather wasn't doing about the situation right now. in the brief time they spent with refugees, this man, an oil engineer, wanted to get a word in. >> i can't tell you to solve this problem for syrian refugee. why they then make safe zone [ inaudible ]. >> reporter: europe's youngest foreign minister didn't have an answer to that question. macedonia's interior minister blamed greece, saying it had no controls or security on its border. >> translator: our intention was to protect the border. >> reporter: this was confrontation with refugees in

humanitarian terms, surely it was a disaster. >> translator: our efforts were motivated by the humanitarian situation. >> it's also the fault of greece. if there is no support for the refugees there. >> reporter: what are you going to do apart from blaming greece? >> we have a meeting with all of the west bakken countries and germany and commissioners from the european union. >> reporter: but those words have been heard before. and little changes for these people apart from the speed of boarding trains like this one, away from the people in cities and towns of macedonia, and so as the political talking goes on in berlin, brussels, and other european capitols, the reality here is, there's a primitive reception center in operation. refugees are quickly moved on, and it would undoubtedly lead to more coming on this route, moving the crisis further up the

line to another country. here on the greek side of the border it is busy, but for the moment there is a system in place, and the system seems to be working. new arrivals coming here all the time. they are able to access basic aid, food, water, medical attention if they need it. sit on the ground under shelter and have a rest before continuing their journey. and you can see the group of people waiting. macedonian police in front of them, razor wire across the borderline, and the macedonian police allowing people through in groups of a couple of hundred, perhaps once an hour to continue their journey a few hundred meters. this is an absolutely unrelenting flow of people. to give you an idea of what is happening in the south of the country on the islands of the aegean, we're told there are some 9,000 people sitting in

makeshift camps, a number growing by around a thousand people every single day. there's a ferry, making shuttle trips to athens every single day. and those people arrive here within hours of being dropped off. so an unending flow of people making their way through greece into macedonia, and onwards to serbia. >> just stunning. the head of an international gay rights organization, says isil courts claim to have executed at least 30 people for sodomy. those comments came today during a closed-door meeting of the security council. and antique officials in syria say isil used explosives to destroy a temple in the ancient syrian city of palmyra. unesco called the temple's destruction a war crime. in beirut a vigil was held

to honor demonstrators wounded during weekend protests. the protests stemmed from declining city services resulting in power outages and uncollected garbage, and that is creating a new crisis for the lebanese government. >> reporter: on monday security forces put up a concrete wall. anti-government protests have been taking place here for weeks now, trigger by a rubbish crisis after the mainland fill was closed last july, but the descent is rooted in deeper issues nch lebanon has been in political limbo for over two years now as a result of the sectarian divide here. that along with wide-spread corruption has meant that basic services like water and electricity are not being

delivered. and the way security forces have been dealing with the protesters has further angered people. on monday, a demonstration was held outside of the justice ministry, demanding accountability after one person was killed and dozens injured during sunday's protests. meanwhile the organizers behind the hashtag you stink movement say they have the potential to create an alternative to the political status quo. >> we're more on the grassroots of the people. we're actually dragging people from the political movements because they have been there for decades doing nothing for them, and they are joining our movement. i think it's totally positive. it's true we're not that strong now, but i think if we stay on the same message we're -- we're using, we might have more people joining us. >> reporter: analysts including this doctor, a political science

professor at the lebanese american university agree that the core of lebanon's problems exist because of the way its political system is set up. >> the lebanese political scene right now, contests to the fact that the consultation on sectarian system that we have in lebanon, has really reached a stalemate situation whereby, it's not able to come up with solutions to daily issues that the lebanese citizen require. even a simple issue, such as collecting garbage from the street, was supposed to come as a normal thing, but any population lebanon or any government is becoming an issue of sectarian contestion. >> reporter: although this latest crisis is unique in nature, it's another example of

how many people here feel the political system is failing them. but the political system is deeply rooted and based on regional and international interests, whether that system will be changed any time soon is hard to see. criminal charges for two reporters covering a protest in ferguson last year. i will speak with one of them next. ♪ >> where's the water going? >> i worry about the future generations - what are they going to have? >> faultlines investigates the shrinking colorado river. >> no group of people can have their american dream... we have to pay that price.

>> i'll have two or three puffs and i'll already hav

♪nd i'll already hav you know a lot has changed in ferguson, missouri since last summer's unrest. the latest change, a sweeping overhaul of the court system. a new municipal judge ordered all arrest warrants issued before 2014 be withdrawn, now defendants will receive new court dates or options to get rid of their cases, except for this "washington post" reporter. he was arrested and one year later he has been charged with trespassing and interfering with a police officer. he was ordered to appear in court. he did not go, instead he joins us. and joins us from washington, d.c. good to see you have, wesley. let's take everyone back a year and then let's talk a bit. you were reporting from a mcdonald's in ferguson, and then

this happened. >> stop videotaping. i'll just grab our stuff and go. >> hurry up. let's go. >> [ inaudible ]. >> let's go. >> please do not tell me [ inaudible ]. >> time to go. >> please do not wave your gun at me. >> we're down to about 45 seconds. >> for folks who might have missed the story, what was going on here. describe in your own words a bit of that moment. >> of course. and so, essentially, myself and another reporter, ryan riley of the "huffington post" were working inside this mcdonald's it was largely as any reporter who goes in the field knows you are often looking for places with wi-fis and outlets to type your stories, so we had set up shop there. and on that evening, the police began evacuating buildings, building by building, so they came into the restaurant, ordered everyone out.

eventually they become seemingly frustrated that they we were not evacuating quickly enough. and they took myself and riley into custody. it become quite a immediate you storm, because we were the first of dozens of journalists who were arrested or detained in ferguson, and hundreds of people were arrested as well. >> yeah, i'm curious, a year removed from this, would you do anything differently? >> certainly not. both of us have maintained from the first day that we were given unlawful orders to stop filming the police. we were asking reasonable questions about how we should leave the premise. we were attempting to. and some officers who had short tempers decided it would be wise to arrest working journalists who were covering the story, so

no. >> what are you going to do about this citation? >> you know, and so we have -- myself and ryan both have legal representation, who are -- we're working through what our options are here. these are misdemeanor charges that have been widely condemned throughout the country. one of the first public statements was made on the day after our arrest by president obama, in which he noted working journalists should not be arrested for doing their jobs. 38 news organizations signed on to a letter protesting these charges, but we maintained from the beginning we did nothing wrong, we were attempting to do our job, and we're going to stick by that. >> you are pushing for greater transparency, amen, from police departments. are you seeing it after ferguson, after cincinnati?

are you seeing greater transparency from police departments? >> there is still much hesitation among many police departments. we're trying to track all of the fatal police shootings this year, and we have found there are some cases where the police are very quick to provide information. walter scott being one of those cases where the same day they received the bystander video, they charged and fired the officer. sam debows, it was two weeks after the shooting they announced charges and a firing of an officer. what we have to remember about ferguson, missouri is they didn't have information. it took a week to get the officer's name. it took months before the police put out any narrative about what darren wilson's version of the story was. so that was what drove so much of the unrest. a lot of police departments are declaring we're not going to be

another ferguson, and part of that means being more transparent about the in inga -- investigative process. >> some 200 calls to action are being whittled down to about 30. how important is it to get right and then to act on the recommendations in the area specifically of citizen and police relations? >> uh-huh. it seems crucial. what we have to remember is that ferguson is kind of a symbolic -- it's a symbolic word, but we're talking about greater st. louis and north county st. louis, we're talking about mr. municipalities that have loosely defined municipal pal lines, and so when something like the ferguson court declares it is going to get rid of arrest

warrants, that's great, unless they all do it. these municipalities are very loosely defined. the ferguson commission is a state-level commission that has the power to make recommendations that will cut across municipal lines. it would not just impact a specific municipality but rather the entire region. so that's why it is going to be so crucial to see what they recommend. >> yeah. yeah. i can't wait for that. wesley good to talk to you. thanks for the time. and for a look at what is coming up at the top of the hour, john siegenthaler, here. >> hi, there. jap pab's market will be opening at the top of the hour, and we'll get sense of where the market will be headed. and what is really driving the volatility. plus new orleans ten years after

katrina, we'll visit with the man that helped save the city. >> demographics was a large group of senior citizens and women with babies. and they were on the wall here, and stretched from the north end to the south end. >> more of his memories and will he run for political office. a temple in syria that stood for nearly 2,000 years has been destroyed by isil, and it's not the first site to be destroyed by war. tonight we hear from a real live monument man who advises the u.s. government on how to seay historical sites before it's too late. a japanese cargo ship made a special delivery to the international spaceation today. they delivered samples of whiskey and other alcoholic beverages. it's part offen a experiment to

see how the mellowness are affected by zero gravity. okay. that is all of our time. thanks for being with us. i'm tony harris. john is back in minutes.

hi, everyone. this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. monday drive the dow plunges nearly 600 points. >> it's a reaction to great uncertainty. >> as world markets reel from china's economic crisis. tonight a closer look at the beijing connection, and what is driving the volatility. in ruins, isil destroys