from whom did he come? and just time to remind you, you can always find out much more on many of the stories we're covering on our website. the address is aljazeera.com. it's down to the wire for republicans trying to kill the iran nuclear deal. why they say the white house isn't giving them enough information. cars and trucks being shot on a busy arizona highway. >> any time that you have multiple shootings against american isn't its on a highway, that's terrorism. ♪

this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm randall pinkston. well, the senate is set to begin a critical vote in just a few hours over the iran nuclear deal. republicans are trying to force through a disapproval resolution, but senate democrats say they have enough to block that, and it could seal the deal for the president. libby casey joins us live from washington. >> reporter: randall senate republicans are holding a procedural vote to end debate and move ahead on the disapproval vote. but democrats can filibuster, the real question is, will they? and no one seems to entirely know, even though democrats have enough in number, some have philosophically said they would

like to see a bill come to the floor and have just an up or down vote. however, if that happens, republicans would win the day, so it's far more likely that democrats will stand together and filibuster this to block it. despite the democrat's advantage there is still strong debate happening on the floors of the house and senate. in the senate, you'll hear from first a republican and then democrat dick durban. >> does this agreement do enough to stop iran's nuclear weapons program in does this agreement do enough to protect the security of the american people and our friends around the world? mr. president, i believe the answer is no. i -- it would be irresponsible to support such a weak, such a naive, and such a dangerous deal. >> to understand what we're trying to achieve here, we're not putting a seal of approval

on iran and their conduct, and their activity, that will never happen. instead what we're saying, we have one goal in mind, shared by many nations around the world to stop iran from developing a nuclear weapon. >> reporter: here is what is not ses penceable, we know how every single senator plans to vote. there are four democrats siding with the republicans. >> a lot of mass nation going on in congress today. instead of voting to disapprove the house has changed the rules and they are now taking three votes one to approve. republicans hopes that puts democrats on the defensive. they have to say i actively vote for it. they are also taking a vote, criticizing the white house for what republicans are calling

side deals when international inspectors and iran. the white house says these aren't secret, but republicans say they want to see the fine print or they can't go forward with a vote. and they are going to stroet force the white house to lift any sanctions. john boehner is saying the numbers are in our favor in the sense that a majority of members in congress do not agree with this. john boehner is still threatening to try to drag this out. he is hinting there are other ways the republicans can gum up the works, maybe by tying iran janish yous to the budget, or maybe even through a lawsuit. >> thank you, libby casey live in washington. israel's prime minister is personally warning british officials today over the nuclear deal. benjamin netenyahu bet with british prime minister david

cameron. he called iran one of two forces of militant islam, the other he says isil. his visit is being overshadowed in part by protests calling for his arrest for alleged war crimes in gaza. the six police officers charged in the arrest and death of freddy gray will be tried in baltimore. defense attorneys argued pretrial publicity including a multi-million dollars settlement to any family could swear the jury. the new york city police department is apologizing for tennis star james blake. blake was only released when a retired officer passing by identified him. >> a review of the video. i have concerns about the takedown in terms of -- and so

we talked to the officer, and talked to mr. blake to understand totality of the circumstances. >> the department denies race was a factor. they say the officers were working on an investigation into stolen cell phones. at least one aufltser has been reassi reassigned. driver in arizona are on alert today. john henry smith reports. >> reporter: authorities in and around phoenix aren't exactly sure what shattered the back passenger's side window of this white pickup truck as it drove along i-10 yesterday, but they consider this to be the tenth incident in the last 11 days of cars along that stretch of highway being damaged. >> it's just matter of time if this behavior continues that we have tragedy on our roadways. >> reporter: no one has been killed or seriously hurt yet, but people who regularly drive this stretch of highway are

frightened. >> it is scary. it makes me more cautious on that stretch. >> reporter: the fbi and atf have joined the investigation. >> i don't know if this is a copycat crime, if it's multiple people. there is no pattern for time. different days of the week, different hours of the day. >> reporter: and police suspect different weapons were used. six of the ten weeks were hit with bullets, the other four were instruct by what authorities can only confirm as projectiles. the first shooting happened on august 29th, since then this off-duty police sergeant's window, and this box truck have been hit, before that, a bullet shattered this wind shield, the flying glass injuring a 13-year-old girl. >> i heard a loud bang. >> reporter: a bullet hit his

seat on this bus, narrowly missing the driver. more criticism for the u.s. response the the refugee crisis in europe. officials say the u.s. will accept some 5,000 more eye asylum seekers next year. but even some white house allies think that number should be higher. >> this is really important. i think 5,000 is far too low of figure, but this is a subject we have to discuss. >> reporter: the administration has been defensive of its efforts to help the syrian crisis, saying it has already pledged $4 billion in humanitarian aid more than any other country. meanwhile hungarian police said more than 3,000 refugees entered the country today. many are crossing the border from syria right now in heavy rain and frigged temperatures. the hungarian government will soon vote on whether to deploy soldiers along the border to try

to keep ref geese out. italy has received more than 50,000 refugees this year, many who made a risky journey across the mediterranean. as harry fawcett reports they are now in limbo. >> reporter: for most of the 120,000 who have arrived in italy by sea this year, this dock has been where they made their first long-forked steps in europe. but now bad weather has prevented the boats from attempting the crossing from north africa. there are fewer african faces waiting for the food handouts. they don't linger here if they don't have to. those who are there, are mainly waiting for verdicts on their asylum applications. this man arrived here from senegal 15 years ago. he supports the sentmented behind the european commission president's plan for a $2 billion fund for africa, but

says it won't be easy to make it work. >> translator: if you want to help africans and stop some of them coming to europe, and avoid economic migrants getting mixed up with refugees, then you have to satisfy their needs at home. >> reporter: 40 minute outside is the refugee center. nearly 3,000 live here. waiting for asylum applications to be processed, as well as distributing the refugees away from strained countries like italy, the plan is to set up hot spots like this to speed the process. >> translator: of course there have been inefficiencies by the police, but italy has been left alone in facing this problem. since the tragedy in april in which 800 died at sea, and after the picture of the young boy on the beach, now the italian police is ready to do its job in a better way.

>> reporter: even before, this was hardly a rich town. the new plans are aimed at relieving some of the pressure on places like this, but they are just plans, requiring agreement from the nations of a divided european union. nobody disputes this lull in numbers has been entirely temporary, based on the weather. the intee your ministry says 20,000 can be expected to come here in the next few weeks, whether italy and europe are ready or not. coming up on al jazeera america, the federal government is promising more money to clear the nation's backlog of rape kits. now some states are taking steps to better investigate sex crimes. ♪

one day before the anniversary of the september 11th's attack, afghanistan's former president is challenging some long-held believes about al-qaeda. in an interview with al jazeera, he was asked if he still believes it is a myth that al-qaeda existed in afghanistan despite osama bin laden's presence in afghanistan during the attacks. >> on september 11th, 2001, was al-qaeda operating in afghanistan? >> i have come across the taliban, other groups -- the people called -- you

know -- calling themselves different names, different outfits of extremists and terrorists, we have deported them. i don't know if al-qaeda existed or -- and i don't know if they exist. >> and you can watch more of the exclusive interview on our website, aljazeera.com/up front. the federal government has announced $80 million to help clear the backlog of rape kits. the white house says $41 million in federal funds and $38 million from new york will go towards clearing backlogs in 27 states. the new york money is coming from corporate forfeiture funds. sexual assault is an ongoing issue on college campuses. now a new virginia law hopes to make it easier to prosecute those responsible. >> this is morgan's room.

>> reporter: everything in morgan's room, her drawings, photographs, even the posters on her bedroom wall are still right where she left them in 2009. >> she was a lot of fun. she really was. >> reporter: the 20 year old, an artist who wanted to be a teacher, disappeared after attending a metalica concert at the john paul jones arena. 101 days would pass before her skeletonized body was found ten miles away. harrington believes her daughter was abducted, raped and murdered. >> when i was told that it was likely we would find the predator who killed morgan from forensics from another body, something in my rears up, and i wanted to do everything within my power to stop that. >> reporter: she turned her

grief into activism. with your husband, she started the save the next girl foundation providing education, victim outreach, and pushing for new legislation to deal with sexual assault, but it would take another five years and another tragedy, by virginia lawmakers would sharpen their focus on college campuses. it was the murder of another virginia student, 18-year-old hannah graham that allowed the mystery of morgan's death to slowly unravel in 2014. all of it connected back to one person, jesse matthew, at the time a man twice accused but never convicted of sexual assault on dwoirnt college campuses. the fact that he was able to remain on the loose for several years, prompted this virginia senator and former military prosecutor to develop the hannah graham law. it requires schools to include a police officer and possibly a

prosecutor in their sexual assault investigations, rather than handling them outside of the system. >> i wanted a law enforcement approach that if you had a rape that it would be reported to law enforcement, and they would put it through channels just like they would have the victim of a rape wherever it occurred. >> reporter: on july 1st several new laws went into effect. one expands how and when law enforcement can gather dna from a suspect. another requires schools to report student's involvement in a sexual assault investigation on their transcript. jill takes some comfort believing it's possible these new laws could save someone else, and that they are in place just in time for the start of the school year in virginia. seattle teachers are returning to the negotiating

table today as a strike enters its second day. thousands of teachers walked out of the classrooms on tuesday. teachers say they have not had a cost of living raise in six years. the district offered a 9% increase, which the teachers rejected. one in six americans are living with student debt out and the u.s. government owns and makes a heavy profit off of it. now some entrepreneurs are beginning to see it as an opportunity to earn some money of their own. >> reporter: jamie winterbottom shares a tiny studio with his fiancee in new york city. >> my student loan was actually more in total in payment of $2,000 a month. i'm sitting about $150,000 in student loans. >> reporter: jamie is one of 40 million americans paying off student loans. the u.s. government profits handsomely from those loans.

it charges all borrowers the same interest rate. federal data shows it will earn $66 billion in loans issued between 2007 and 2012. and the private sector wants a piece of that growing money pie. unlike mortgages or auto loans, student debt is not backed by an asset so if for example you default on your mortgage, a lender can foreclose, if you stop paying your auto loan, a bank can repossess, but if you fail to meet your student debt obligations, your knowledge, your skills, cannot be taken away. david cline is ceo and cofounder of common fund. the company raised $100 million from investors anxious to meet the demand for student debt refinancing. the secret is the screening process for applicants.

>> we'll take into consideration somebody's credit history, we'll look at their fico, we'll look if they have settlements outstanding, we'll look at bankruptcies, we'll look at income. we'll look at employment. >> reporter: and because the company looks at so many more factors than the government, jamie managed to get a lower rate. he says now he's saving about $200 a month. >> it was about 2 percentage points apr more. >> reporter: it doesn't refinance undergraduate loans. within three years it says it has already lent out more than $200 million, it then turns around and sells those loans to investors. they expect to generate up to $15 million in profit this year. >> what decided to do early on was focus on a population of people whose earnings potential is high, and employment

prospects are quite high as well. >> reporter: it also goes one step further. it aggressively monitors its clients payments, and it hosts social networking events around the country for borrowers. do you think you deserve to be treated differently because you have been so financially astute. >> well, that's how risk pooling works. >> reporter: growing a pool of graduates, investors are confident will give them steady returns. the find of a lifetime. coming up on al jazeera america, a newly discovered fossil that may help answer the question of where we came from. plus a new warning over diabetes. millions of americans may not even realize they have it. ♪

a new study says half of americans either have diabetes or soon could get it, but it is the rates of undiagnosed people that surprised researchers. >> the pref lens of diabetes is high, and a lot of this is undiagnosed, and this suggests that we need greater emphasis on screening people at high risk for diabetes.

researchers found doctors are getting better at figuring out who has the condition, but screening has been uneven. >> diabetes doesn't cause any symptoms in the early stages, it is usually only after it has affected your heart, your eyes, the nerves and kidneys that you get diagnosed. sometimes the first warning is a heart attack or stroke. >> researchers found one third of caucasians did not know they had the condition. 37% of african americans, and 49% of hispanics. however, the number that surprised scientists was among asian americans where more than half are affected. it is the first time undiagnosed diabetes has been measured in that part of the population. >> that may be related to the body mass index. so asian americans in general may be thinner than caucasians,

and what will happen is we expect that when they go to the doctor, perhaps they are not on the radar as having diabetes potentially. >> diabetes is a leading cause of medical complications. the u.s. spends more than $245 billion every year to tleet disease, and there are fears without better diagnosis the problem will get worse. >> diabetes continues to rise in all age, and sex, race, ethnic groups and in groups according to education and income. >> now when researchers say prediabetes, they are referring to blood sugar levels that are high, but not high enough for a person to be considered diabetic. the fda has released new rules for food makers. they must identify in house

measures for identifying problems with their products. new clues unveiled today in the history of human kind. scientists vealing a new species who's bones were found in a small cave in south calf. and while it lived millions of years ago, it could help explain where we came from. stephanie sy reports. >> reporter: it's being called the scientific discovery of a lifetime. >> we standing on the shoulders of giants as we look for these extraordinary finds that are revealing information about not just our origins, but the origin of our species. >> reporter: in 2013, the bones of 15 people were found in a small cave, about 30 miles northwest of johannesberg, the findings are now being shared with the public. the fossils are around 2.5 million years ago.

it has many traits similar to ours. it has feet and hands, and walked up right. >> we see a creature that has a fascinating mix of characterist characteristics, they include unusually human-like features. >> reporter: scientists say this is the biggest find since lucy in 1974. this new discovery helps connect the dot to modern day humans. >> it looks like no other hominid in the mixture of very primitive things with very human like characteristics, and it is different from other characters we have found before. thank you for joining us. i'm randall pinkston. the news continues next live from london. check us out on aljazeera.com.

♪ the u.s. warns of a risk of a confrontation. this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up. >> authorities struggle to retain control as europe refugee crisis continues to worsen. 100,000 people forced from their homes in the worst floods in japan for half a century. and scientists reveal they have found the rns