tush in to "third rail." sun 6:00 p.m. i'm ali velshi. thank you for joining us. >> facing disaster. thousands of refugees dying on europe's roads or crossing the mediterranean. european authorities respond today with arrests of accused human traffickers. tracking erika. the tropical storm cuts a deadly path through caribbean, now taking aim at florida. where the governor has declared a state of emergency. resilience and recovery.

president bush returns to new orleans ten years after hurricane katrina and the withering criticism of his administration in response to the storm. 60 years ago today, sparked outrage and helped ignite the civil rights movement. >> good evening, i'm antonio mora. this is al jazeera america, we begin in europe where authorities are trying to crack down on human traffickers responsible for soaring number of refugee deaths on land and sea. today hungarian and italian police made several arrests some in connection with the 71 refugees found dead in the back of an abandoned truck in austria. others related to hundreds who died when boats capsized off the coast of libya. john terret joins us with the details. >> gentlemen antonio good evening. people making their way from middle east to europe are

generally speaking, not migrants seeking a better lives for themselves, some are but most are those fleeing bitter fighting in their home lands. a candlelight vigil for 71 refugees who died when their truck was abandoned by the side of the road. including eight women and four children were taken away for identification. it's likely they suffered an agonizing death, possibly suffocation. scraps of evidence as who they might have been, most likely refugees escaping the fighting in the middle east. >> translator: of course we are sure these people were refugees and more precisely were probably a group of syrian refugees. >> reporter: europe's refugee crisis is the biggest in 70 years, they come from syria,

iraq, afghanistan and many of africa's war zones. a 70% increase in those fleeing to europe compared to the whole of last year. >> i'm horrified and heartbroken as refugees and migrants are losing their lives in the mediterranean, europe and beyond. i appeal to all governments to expend safe and legal channels of migration, and act with humanity compassion and in coorgaccordance with internatiol obligation. zoara is one of the main points trying to make it to europe. >> we were migrating. our boat sank. it was in bad condition. it sank. libyans, thank god they saved

us. it is the grave of the mediterranean sea. >> the european union is desperately trying to forge cohesive strategy for the migrants. centers outside the austrian capital of vienna. casey comes with her boyfriend and mother to hand out toys and books and clothes to whoever wants them. >> i think it's the least we can do, these people have been through things that we can't imagine. >> the number of refugees crossing the mediterranean has reached 310,000 this year, that's up from 219,000 in 2014, antonio. >> it's going to keep soaring. john thank you. the prime minister of dominica. , has said, mudslides have swept

away people and homes. many roads are blocked by debris and water and power for about 80% of the island was cut off. meteorologist kevin corriveau has a look of where the storm's headed. >> erika has been an inconsistent and disorganized storm. as it makes its way through caribbean. this was a visible image right before sunset, the center of the storm down south of the dominican republic. over the next overnight few hours over cuba, as well as in the morning. we're going to be watching the track, we do think it's going to drop down to tropical depression. after that you notice this cone of uncertainty is very, very wide, we're not sure exactly where the storm is going to be pushing north. over the last couple of days the

track has definitely changed. on wednesday we were thinking it was going to good over the bahamas, thursday we thought an east coast landing storm. friday it went to the western side of flaf. we havflorida. we have a lot of uncertainty where it's going to go. gulf of mexico, it's going to be feeding off of a lot of warm water. >> kevin thank you. katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in history. 1800 died and more than a million in the gulf region were displaced but the area experienced a renaissance. former president george w. bush returned. jonathan martin reports. >> ten years after many considers one of the low points

of president bush's presidency, following hurricane katrina when mr. bush first flew over the city without touching down and publicly praised his fema director when anger was rising. >> you are doing aheck of a job. the fema director is working 24 -- >> on this anniversary vista the former president was greeted by the warren easton high school. he danced and posed for photographs with students. >> in a cruel twist, hurricane katrina brought despair during what circulate have been a season of hope. the start of the a new school year. the students who were going back to school suddenly had no school to go back to. >> the city's oldest public school was badly flooded and almost abandoned opening a year later as a charter school.

>> the story of this school, we see determined to rebuild better than before. it's a spirit much stronger than any storm. >> while the school and many others like it offered bright spots, for some the bush response is still a painful memory. >> it's just him aggrandizing his republican party and him saying something about what he thinks he did. and i wouldn't want to see him. i don't know thousan how the mad look me in the face and talk to me when my father was out here for two weeks after the storm with nothing living on crackers and stolen cokes from the convenience store. >> but the former president chose not ofocus on the past. he praised the facilities particularly the schools. since the storm the city's four year graduation rate is up to 73%. >> more than 9 of 10 public school students in this community now call charter school our home.

administrators have a strength to slice through red tape and innovate. parents have choices when they are dissatisfied and the results of these schools have been extraordinary. >> although mr. bush answer legacy has been contentious, his response to katrina in perspective. >> he failed in some way but he also helped the city in ways when i talk about the recovery and helping to fund, initially fund, right? nobody's perfect. >> and president bush answer visit comes a day after president obama was here in new orleans. tomorrow, former president clinton will be here in new orleans, he'll be the keynote speaker with mitch landrieu. antonio. >> jonathan martin, thank you. a federal appeals court threw out a judge's ban on the collection of phone metadata but the ruling did not address the

legality of the program, which was uncovered by edward snowden in 2013. >> the ruling of the court is actually consistent with what this administration has said for some time which is that we did believe that the these be capabilities were constitutional. >> josh earnest also said the president believes in reforms to better protect americans privacy while still keeping their affairs safe. hostage affairs envoy, jim o'brien will report directly to the secretary of state. the aim is to secure the safe return of american hostages overseas and to help their families. the move comes after some families claim their attempts ofreeze relatives have been discouraged and some cases blocked by government officials. president obama today urged american jewish groups is to get

behind the deal with iran. kimberly halkett has more from washington. >> the u.s. president appealed directly to jewish americans in an online web address that an agreement with iran is israel's and the region's best hope for peace. >> this deal blocks every way, every pathway that iran might take in order to obtain a nuclear weapon. >> reporter: the online appeal comes just weeks after israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu addressed the u.s. jewish community online as well, to rally support in opposition of the nuclear agreement. the argument it would make the middle east less safe. >> this is a very dangerous deal and it threatens all of us, there will be more attacks and more people will die. >> support for the agreement between iran and the six world powers designed to limit iran's nuclear program in exchange for

sanctions relief has deeply divided the jewish community. 46% support the deal, 31% oppose. the american israel public affairs committee or apac are spending millions to lobby congress to oppose the deal. >> i think president is trying to overcome some perceptions that he's not favorable oisrael and not taking israel's interests into account. >> currently in congress the 28 members who identify as jewish just 11 are in favor of the white house brokered agreement. the u.s. vice president joe biden next week is scheduled to meet with american jewish leaders in florida to try and win over their support. kimberly halkett, al jazeera, washington. live fight, more on the huge show of force coming up.

also 60 years after emmett till was murdered. a look at how his death still resonates today.

>> the u.s. and south korea have ended their annual two week joint military exercise. about 2,000 soldiers took part

in live drills, two miles below the demilitarized zone. harry fawcett has more from south korea. >> the combined u.s. south korean drill is the largest live fire exercise ever carried out by the south korean military and comes in the same week that north and south korea concluded a deal at least settling for now the most serious tensions on the peninsula, including an exchange of artillery across the border. interesting in terms of the types of scenarios that are being releasbeing rehearsed her. a war time and peace time scenario, supporting torses and the command posts responsible for it. that's very much a physical playing out of park geun-hye response, and indeed she's here

watching on as this exercise is carried out fresh from what many people here in south korea is seeing as a very, very vindication of their terms of a negotiated system. harsh position against any military provocation or nuclear testing while being open to cultural exchanges. so we have plans for more family reunions, families divided between north and south, ended in 1953 and plans for more regularized meetings. however in october there is the 70th anniversary of north korean workers party which many analysts say could be marked with rocket launches or nuclear tests. it is new slightly warmer relations between north and south and in a few days will find themselves tested pretty soon. >> today marks the 60th anniversary of chicago teenager

emmett till. the 14-year-old was killed for whistling at a white woman's funeral. barbed wire wrapped around his neck and a cotton begin fan weighingin fanweighing him down. the resulting outrage was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. keith very good to have you with us. >> thank you. >> i know you've said your own experiences with racism motivated you compelled you to work in civil rights and to fight racism but it was really learning the story of emmett till where you found your mission. >> i learned about the case at the age of 10 and i was in my parents' study and i came across these jet magazines that told the story of till.

i picked one of the plagzs up anmagazinesup. which was sort of a image of myself. i do not get that image out of my head. my mother then explained that story to me. it was used as an education tool in my parents' household to teach me of the racism that still lurks in the its today. >> the reopening of the investigation into till's death. >> yes. >> traditionally two men the husband and the brother-in-law of the woman who emmett supposedly whistled at had confessed to her murder, three were never punished for it. you found they were not the only culprits in this. >> absolutely. one of the amazing things was to hear about this story, hear people talk about this story,

going into the community in the delta and realizing that when you speak to some of the elders in the community, they were telling me there were more people involved in the kidnapping and the murder of emmett till. i have to say i have to tilt my hats off to the civil rights leaders of today, members of the black press who actually uncovered that there were more people involved and preserved that history. >> and spoke out when it was very dangerous to speak out. >> exactly, exactly. >> sadly none of these people ended up getting punished. >> no that's a continuing struggle that we have to deal with. just a notion that we are commemorating the 60th anniversary. there was no courtroom justice. >> you think we've come a long way since then then i saw a picture of the sign at the tallahachie river commemorating

emmett till's death. >> full of bullet holes. >> what does that tell you? >> that we have a long way to go. william falk fle faulkner said , the past is never past. if we forget our past history it will repeat itself. >> emmett till's mom emma till moseley, was a great woman. >> yes she was. >> what do you think she would think about this racial tension? >> her work was to instill justice for our fellow man who has suffered injustice. i think she would be upset because of the fact that, you know, after all this time we're still fighting those same social ills that we have been fighting since 1955. >> and emmett till still inspires civil rights activists today. >> of course of course. i think the reason he continues

to inspire us all is because every time you hear a story of an unarmed black male being shot by police, regardless if you believe the police or the victim whenever someone suffers an injustice emmett till's name comes to mind. >> it's a powerful important and terribly sad story. keith beauchamp, good to see you. the pope sent a letter of support to an italian author of a gay rights book. pope francis praised the author for her thoughtfulness in spreading genuine and human christian values. the view isn't shared by the mayor of venice who banned the books from schools. one of the most popular

tourist destinations, the end of the dead sea in a decade. the air guitar championships, yes, they exist, coming up. up.

>> the ceo of daylighting website ashley madison has resigned. after hackers broke into the

database and exposed the users. ashley madison facilitates affairs of olde married people. year after year, the dead sea is shrinking. the body of water between israel and jordan is ten times saltier than the world's ocean but it's losing about three feet of that water every year. imtiaz tyab went there to find out why. >> it's one of the most popular tourist destinations in the region but environmentalists say the dead sea which borders israel the occupied west bank and jordan is shrinking rapidly. famous for its highly salty water and mud, has been

shrinking. the apparent indifference of surrounding countries has been shocking. >> i see it's one of a kind in the world and it should be an international world heritage. and instead of we're destroying it and it's being degraded from day to day. >> the dead sea is shrinking because 70% of its natural water sources are being diverted mainly by israel but also jordan and to a lesser degree syria for farming and drinking water. the remaining 30% of the deterioration is caused by israeli and jordanian potash operation. they are concerned about the number of sinkholes that opened up around it since the 1980s, some are big as sporting fields and as deep as buildings.

damaging neerk beaches anddamagd buildings. >> the basic reason is the dropped in the groundwater level and that causes areas that were previously within salty water, to be flushed by sweet water, fresh water. >> some projects have been launched to try and save the dead sea you about environmentalists warn it could take decades to repair the ecological damage and until neighboring countries stop diverting waters to the ancient lake or put an end to their mining practices it's almost certain to dry up. imtiaz tyab, al jazeera at the dead sea. >> officials in poland say they are 99% sure of what could be a nazi train supposedly loaded with art gold and jewels can be found. they are asking treasure hunters

to stay away. it was found by a german and pole, who expect to receive 10% of whatever treasure is on board. >> as far as i know, nobody has accessed the train since world war ii. the information about its location was given orally by a person who was among those who buried the train. that person revealed their secret on a death bed. along with a sketch of where the train was hidden. >> officials say that apart from some possible treasures some dangerous materials from world war ii could also be on board. the train vanished in 1945. finally tonight, the best of the best gathered in finland to show their guitar skills. this competition didn't involve any actual physical guitars. 17 contestants from a dozen

countries took part, it was russia's our daddy bloomenkrantz who took the title, he edged out matt burns for the title. that's it. have a great weekend. weekend. >> the pictures haven't lost their power to shock. dead bodies in the terrible heat. vast neighborhoods under ten feet of water. ten years ago, hurricane katrina stomped ashore on the gulf coast bringing death and destruction on a scale lard to comprehend. bringing a national city to its knees. can you call the area recovered? katrina after the storm, it's the "inside story."