>> strategic relationship. >> our region must achieve stability which is essential for the prosperity of its people. >> the u.s. and saudi arabia come together on security issues, despite differences on iran. pleas for freedom. refugees in a standoff at an hungarian train station beg to continue on to germany as a thousand others defiantly

started walking to austria. proclaiming innocence, guatemala's former president tells a judge he has nothing to do with the prescribary scandal that forced him to resign yesterday. and attacking sharks? controversy over what to do with a growing population of great whites off australia's shores. >> good evening i'm antonio mora. this is al jazeera america. we begin with saudi arabia's new king making a long awaited visit to the white house. king salman met with president obama today after skipping the summit of gulf nations in may, after what many interpreted as a snub over the iranian nuclear

negotiations. still concerned about the lifting of sanctions, king salman expressed his agreement with the agreement. document. >> this is highly unusual, the u.s. president actually met king salman at the front door. the sizable protest both for and against the saudi king had long been cleared from the front of the white house. in the oval office, the leaders made sure to stress their long standing alliance. in an attempt to move on from the tensions of the iran nuclear deal. former u.s. ambassador to saudi arabia, james smith. >> for saudi, the imrazis the other gulf states, the nuclear issue was not the top issue. it was always number 2. top issue is iran's

destabilization strategy. >> reporter: the president reiterated his strategy to help saudi arabia to counter the issue in the region. the deal of america providing saudi arabia more military weapons. they want to see action in syria. >> we continue to cooperate extremely closely. in countering terrorist activity in the region and around the world including a battle against i.s.i.l. >> reporter: the president focusing on cooperation but top aids said once the cameras were gone the u.s. president was going to push the king to stop funding what they call the more extremist opposition. the king sounded an optimistic tone. >> translator: we want to work together for world peace. our region must achieve stability which is essential for the prosperity of its people.

>> reporter: it's going to be hard to judge just how successful this meeting was because any action in syria and yemen will likely stay out of the public view. the more concrete results could come from new equipment sales to saudi arabia, the sales will be announced because it's going to take a little bit of time because anything like that has to make it through u.s. congress. patty culhane, al jazeera, washington. author of the book desert diplomat inside saudi arabia following 9/11. good to see you ambassador. just four months ago, king salman rejected an invitation to come to the united states likely because of the iran deal. so despite all of today's niceties and the fact that the leaders virtually ignored iran in their public comments, how many tension surrounds this meeting? >> i think there's a fair amount of tension and a certain amount of getting back to know each other and resetting the

relationship that has to go on here. the saudis undoubtedly now realize this is a dealing that's going through. they might as well accept it and they now need to see what they can get out of it in terms of their own security and the relationship with the u.s. >> you're still involved with saudi arabia, you have extensive contacts there. the conventional wisdom you brought up the relationship with the white house has not been good. has it improved after the visits to riyadh by the individuals from secretary kerry and the defense secretary. >> the relationships at the state level require a certain degree of trust. i think the saudis have yet to reach that level of trust with the united states. we saw their lack of action in syria, how this country embraced the muslim brotherhood, that make them wonder wher whether ty

really have that kind of relationship with the united states. >> the relationship goes far beyond the nuclear issues, that will give them a financial windfall that will allow them to further destabilize the region by supporting assad in syria, hezbollah in and others. >> we will have their back, i suspect there's going to be a large arms deal, that will be developed, to try to give the saudis a qualitative military superiority over iran's conventional sources, the thad system which is i understand quite sophisticated, other militaries that will help the saudis this is going to be a start.

>> the administration has argued the saudis will have to use its windfall to boost the country's sagging economy. won't they be in a better position to do it in the future? >> i think that's a huge risk and i think there's a huge probability that they will take a significant part of that windfall to continue to wreak havoc in the middle east. >> the saudis have been accused to keep price low to diminish america's shale production by making it less economically viable. >> well i think the saudis miscalculated on the u.s. shale producers. they thought they would all be high-cost producers forced out of the market. but in fact most of the producers have been able to cut costs. they've been able to use technology, american ingenuity so they have been able to live with $40 oil for a large part of that segment of the i have. so i think that backfired on the

saudis. but they continue to produce flat out. the saudis are producing about 11 million barrels oday. i don't see any sign of their reducing that . so they have to be dhearnd iran's additional oil on the market is going to have a further reduction of price, the saudis seem resigned at least to riding this out as far as we can see. >> ambassador robert jordan, always good to have you with us. thank you. >> thank you. >> a houthi missile strike today hit forces fighting in yemen, killed in mareb province about 75 miles east of the capital sanaa. the missile hit a weapon storage depot. omar al saleh reports. >> it is the uae's biggest single loss in decades. using social media, the country's state minister for foreign affairs says it was an attack buy surface to surface

missile. shia forces loyal to saleh. in mareb the soldiers are singing yemen's national anthem and a pledge of loyalty to the new army. the oppos deposed president allh abdel al saleh last no. >> i have victory is near. we are in the process of building armt armed forces. >> discussing future plans.

>> translator: you are the yemenis armed, you are the popular resistance that restored the state and its pride. >> over the last weeks the saudi coalition has sent to the national army and fighters loyal to yemen's president abd rabbu mansour hadi who is in exile in saudi arabia. under houthi control that's why the fight to clear them could be swift. and many predict the next target for this new fighting force could be the capital sanaa and the houthitron hold ostronghold.

omar ah la saleh, al jazeera. defiance also appears to be forcing hungary to act. the hundred gair hungarian authy they will force them owalk. the three-year-old boy who came to represent the tragedy of the refugee crisis was laid to rest. the picture of his body on a turkish beach has a powerful reaction around the world. 20 miles outside budapest police faced a standoff with police, mohammed jamjoom is in bicske.

>> reporter: the dread and despair only continued throughout the day. please let us leave, her and her daughter, two of the many many who escaped deft and destructiod destruction at home. i have a two-year-old baby at home. >> stopped in bicske hungary. when i asked them what they wanted to go the answer was clear. germany, germany, germany. >> some waved their travel documents. others held up signs. where is humanity, read one. they begged authorities to let them continue their journey. and implored the media to shine a light on their suffering. while hungarian riot police

prevented journalists from getting too close to the train, one woman sent me a note from inside. girls shattered by a journey without end and boys exhausted by the life of a refugee. water was eventually distributed but refugees said they needed much more. when an empty cargo train pulled up our view was obscured and communication became much harder. fears grew and others fled. medics attempting to resuscitate a pakistani refugee who had collapsed after leaving the train with his brother. the medics have given up trying to resuscitate that refugee. we found out that he was from pakistan. his brother is here as well. it's a terribly sad situation. we're just a kilometer away from the train that the refugees had been on. a few hundred have since left and from what we've been told

they're scattered all around right now and the police are looking for them. back at the platform tensions only rose as refugees were rounded up. taken off the train they believed would deliver them to freedom put on these buses to a stages unknown to a future full of uncertainty. mohammed jamjoom, al jazeera, bicske, hungary. refugees in berlin say they've been waiting weeks to register at the central processing center. they're findin finding it diffit finding a place to live. >> thanks be to god i'm very happy to be here but we've been waiting for 15 days now trying to be registered. >> i love germany. some refugees come here and expect to get everything all at

once and that's wrong. they do give us a place to sleep eat and drink. >> germany expects 500,000 refugees to arrive this year, along with france, they try ohave a fair system of allocating. australia sends most migrants back to where they came from. today the prime minister says other countries should take note. >> i know that there has been quite a bit of interest in the policies that awfort has put int in place. because if you do stop the people smuggle trade, obviously you end the deaths at sea. and the most compassionate things you can do in the medium and long term is to close down this evil trade.

because as long as this evil trade is operating, as long as people are taking to the sea, in unsafe boats, we will see the drownings. >> those who aren't sent home are often placed in detention centers, just this week a report claimed cases of torture and child sex abuse at one of those centers on the australian island of naru. in tajikistan violence led the u.s. embassy to close its doors. ttajik officials blame it on violence that cost tens of thousands of lives. the country is the poorest of the former soviet states. coming up the search for survivors of a capsized boat, full of people risking their lives to make a living. >> they are poor people.

that is why they are here. >> cracking down or predators preying on desperate migrants in asia, next. also a man keeping literacy alive in south africa with his underground library. and later, japan 70 years after the bombing of hiroshima, roxana saberi's personal journey to japan on al jazeera's special report coming up at 9:30 eastern. tbl

>> a possible politically shift in war torn syria.

syrian president bashar al-assad is willing to hold parliamentary elections. assad agrees changes are necessary and willingham to share power with a, quote, healthy coalition. announcements comes a day after a boat filled with indonesian migrants sank off the western coast of malaysia in rough seas. as the report from the area, rescuers are still searching for survivors. >> just as rescuers had lost hope they find another survivor. barrebarely alive. >> looks very confused and not very stable. to say that he's happy also, there's no feeling on him. >> reporter: alive but this is not welcome they had hoped for.

officials say they are demeanor indonesian migrants, 42-year-old said he worked on a construction site to support his two children. he was on his home to the indonesian island of s sumatra when the boat capsized. >> i hung on, i wanted to save myself. >> accidents like this happen lch every year in waters. relying on smugglers to get them in. >> they are here because they are poor people, that is why they are here. at the same time, our legal system has to be respected.

>> malasian and indonesian officials say they will work to crack down. >> what we have to do is have a communication with the authorities in malaysia, how to prevent such an accident happening again in the future. so far our cooperation with authorities in malaysia is very good. >> reporter: out at sea the search for missing continues. malasian officials say sheps and planes are searching hundreds of kilometers. but as time passes, hopes for recovery will fade. >> guatemala's president otto perez molina resigned the presidency yesterday. he appeared before a judge who will decide if perez molina should be tried on conspiracy charges. prosecutors insisted today the

former president knew about a bribery report. he could have been offered millions by joaquin el chapo guzman. most libraries don't have good access to books. but as tanya page reports. one is trying to open access to library. >> he shares his love.book loves and there are plenty of them at his underground library. they're starting to encroach on his bedroom so he's tidying up to make space, but it's hard to believe where he'll have room for 40,000 books a business wants to give him. >> people that are eager to

branch out with us. operating an account. >> his concept is spreading because many south africans don't have access to books. they're unaffordable to most people and most schools don't have libraries. the need is even greater in his neighborhood because the municipal library was burned down by residents during a protest in february. they were demanding the installation of prepaid electricity meters. and the end to corruption. it is ironic that in protesting for better services some residents ended up destroying some of the infrastructure the community was benefiting from. >> but he's optimistic about the fire. >> there are worst crimes than burning books, one of them is not reading them. they are mostly like a zombie ghost place to a special people. we are trying to change that. >> reporter: this is more than

a place to bore row books. >> we are trying to make reading fashionable like a culture to the youth. >> he's encouraging debate role playing and writing. >> to embrace, to embrace. >> he's adding to his collection by regularly walking through town collecting donations from his neighbors. he believes reading encourages people to dream. >> yes, gentlemen, job well done. >> and to use their creativity in ways that benefit themselves and their community. tanya page, al jazeera, south africa. >> a rash of shark attacks down under. >> you can fine me $10 million and i still won't go in order. >> a solution to the rising number of predators flocking to an australian coastline.

>> at one time i felt that selling cocaine was my purpose. >> as the amount of drugs grew, guns came in. >> the murder rate was sky high. >> this guy was the biggest in l.a. >> i was goin' through a million dollars worth of drugs every day - i liked it. it's hard to believe that a friend would set you up. people don't get federal life sentences... and beat them. >> they had been trafficking on behalf of the united states government. >> the cia admitted it. >> a 65 yeerbled man escape-yeaa shark attack off the coast of australia saturday. the victim was able to free himself, get back on his board

and make it to shore. he was flown to a nearby hospital for surgery. sharks have struck 65 times between sydney and brisbane this year. andrew thomas has the debate from eastern australia. >> on the morning of july the 31st, just 20 meters from shore, former boxer craig ison was mauled buy great white shark. sat on his surf board, with the shark trying to rip off his leg, ison fought. >> i reckon the whole thing was about ten seconds. yeah. >> full recovery could take years. as for getting back in the ocean -- >> i would not absolutely not no way, you would pay me $10 million and i still wouldn't go back to the water.

i wouldn't go back until i believe it's safe. >> there's fear in the area of awfort 14 people attacked by sharks, two died. >> it's a little bit like jaws. there's a fear. i know they are reluctant to go into the water. >> why so many sharks? it could be this year's el nino, or the heavier than normal rains have washed noout rents into the water. more sharks are reaching maturity . >> along this coast that question has provoked fierce debate. some say nothing but the ocean is the shark's territory, that people have to accept a certain degree of risk. >> getting days you can surf and

run with your mates, that would be unheard of once upon a time. >> many want firm action, maybe to cull, shark netting, which traps and kills them, at a community meeting, the majority were in favor. >> cull conjures up the fact of taking out a lot of sharks. we can isolate the seven sharks that have been around for a while. if you take out one or two, they do it in other parts of the world as well. >> hundreds protested when they did it last year, although great white numbers have grown in recent years they still are much lower than they once were. >> i don't like the idea of a cull of an animal that has already been lowered to what is considered threatened levels. >> craig ison says he wouldn't want the particular shark that attacked him killed. he feels it gave him half a

chance. but he does want action. people he says deserve more protection than sharks. . >> special story, journey to japan with roxana saberi, is next. >> tonight... roxana saberi returns to her mother's homeland in a personal and revealing journey from hiroshima, a moment that still resonates 70 years later... >> there were corpses and bones everywhere, it's hard for me to come here again. >> to okinawa, where the presence of u.s. troops remains contentious. >> no osprey! >> and, in a culture resistant to change, how one woman is blazing new trails. >> in the future, i hope to see mixed race people commonly accepted. >> journey to japan. >> i'm roxana saberi in hiroshima. a city known to many through history books and images seared into our collective memory. when the u.s. dropped atomic bombs here and on