you will never have to see me again. thank you. [laughter] gerald tan, al jazeera. much more of our stories on our website, the address to click on to is al jazeera.com. al jazeera.com. ♪ pope francis travels to southeast cuba for a mass and presidential candidate ben carson says a muslim should not be in the white house, now a major civil rights group says he should drop out of the race. volkswagen is paying the price for an emissions scandal. thousands of cars are being recalled as vw stock pledges. ♪

this is al jazeera america, live from new york city, i'm randall pinkston, pope francis now is in southeast cuba in the city where fidel and brother rual castro grew up and celebrated mass this for tens of thousands of cubans, this is the first time a pope has ever visited the city and pope francis is credited with helping u.s. and cuba restart diplomatic relations after more than 50 years. david is live for us in havana and david i'm sure you have seen many incredible sights during your visit there watching the pope, such a busy day he has had, what has been most impressive for you? >> well, you know, i'm telling you it's hard to think of a more impressive sight than hundreds of thousands in havana and he is

150,000 gathering had gathered there and just the sheer numbers of people who turn out to see this pope, not only here in cuba but across the region and mexico and honduras and nicaragua and a pontiff coming to cuba with a new relationship between the united states and cuba so pope francis visiting here on basically in the wake of that new paradigm between these two countries and also the fact he is latin and speaking spanish to people across the region it's quite an emotional moment for many. quite a few tears and quite a few heat strokes as well, caribbean sun and as they gather in revolution plaza and gather in holgeen it's something people have to contend with but those i talked to getting a glimpse of the pontiff and being able to hear him speak and address this country that had a bit of a tenuous relationship with religion is worth it. >> you know, we have seen some of the reports that you have given about the disdense and one

who somehow manages to get to the pope and then was dragged away. what can you tell us about the ability of disdense to have access to the pope versus the cuban authorities efforts to keep them away? >> reporter: you know, there is a group here on the island that has been here in existence really since 2001 by the name of blanco and the mothers and sisters and friends of a group of disdense that were detained back during a black spring in cuba which political prisoners were rounded up, that group said they wanted to have an audience with the pope and have not been able to reach him. they said if that was the case it would most likely be the work of scuba security agents and reached out to the government and got no confirmation of that and from sources on the island that is acknowledged by the cuban government there is a sense between 50-60 disdense have been either detained or stopped from coming out of their houses in the wake of this visit

by hope francis. this is one of the main issues that people are begging answers for will pope francis publically address human rights on this island something he has not done publically as of yet but certainly a concern that those particularly in south florida and new jersey that strong cuban american lobby that says despite the relationship you forged with cuba it's still castro's cuba and certainly paying attention to it. >> what is next for the pope, david? >> reporter: well, the pope has a busy day today. he will essentially head out to sort of the hill top over the city of holgeen of great religious significance and in 1790 an monk dragged up a cross and sit it on the hill and has been replaced but he will go there and bless the city and go to santiago for the third city

of the four-day tour. but, you know, people when they look at this pope and see what he has accomplished here it's not only going to be sort of the spreading of the faith that he is trying to push forward just like pope benedict did in 2012 and pope john pal in 98 but forging of the relationship and the new economic relationship he sort of backdoor channel with cuba and the united states and how it manifests going forward are what people will beg answers for when it goes to the next leg of the trip which is the united states. >> thanks, david in havana. pope francis has not directly criticized the castro government in his days there but cuban american lawyer says the pope has a style that still gets the message across. >> the pope opened the homily talking about how important it is to be of service from one person to another instead of serving an ideology and that was a fairly direct swipe at the

governing body in cuba and rual castro was sitting there in the front row. and i think even more interesting than that is under the wing of the pope cardinal ortega who is the cardinal of cuba called for conciliation and inclusion of folks alleviated from the political system. finally the pope was at pressured by a disdent who broke through security lines when he was going to start and he stopped and listened to the message and blessed him. this is a pope that is very intelligent. he is very strategic and i think you saw very, very clearly his message of diplomacy and he spoke earlier on the move that he brokered to bring the united states and cuba closer and how that was an example for the world to follow. so i think this pope, people i think twho -- who expect him to couple out in a confrontational

style will be disappointed but by the same token this is a pope who knows how to work behind the scenes, create a dialog and make good things happen. >> the pope will speak much more freely about his ideaings when he arrives in the u.s. stay with al jazeera america throughout the week and we will bring you complete coverage of the pope's visit to cuba and america. calls today from presidential candidate ben carson to drop out of the race over his comments about muslims and the republican was promising to meet the muslim groups when he said he would not such a muslim president. >> i advocate that we put a muslim in charge of this nation, i absolutely would not agree with that. >> reporter: this morning the council on american islamic relations a group carson wanted to meet said it is time for him to end his campaign. >> mr. ben carson is wrong today to assume and say that he cannot be president of the united

states. his views are inconsistent with the united states' constitution, for that we really urge politicians, the general public, community leaders, presidential candidates and his views repudiate and ask mr. ben carson to withdraw from the presidential race because he is unfit to lead. >> reporter: the two muslims currently in congress are also weighing in. representative carson from indiana said linking faith with fitness for office is assining and minnesota said quote the freedom of religion is a founding principle of our nation, every american should be disturbed that these national figures are engaging in and tolerating blatant acts of bigotry. and on the other side of the aisle democratic candidate hillary clinton increased her lead in the polls and according

to a new cnn-rcc polls has support of 42% of primary voters and vermont senator bernie sanders has half that, and biden support increased slightly even though he has not announced if he is running. two americans are getting ready to come home today after being released by houthi rebels in yemen and aid worker darden and sam farin are in ammon and helped negotiate their release and houthis held them in yemen for six months and they are still believed to be more americans being held hostage there. the nuclear watchdog agency says he was given environmental samples during a visit during a controversial site in iran. and he visited the military facility this weekend, the iaea and must visit the site under the terms of the nuclear deal

and he says iran's resent renovation there under minded the ability of inspectors to conduct effective verification. iran denies it is carrying out arms research there. there is cautious optimistic from iran's president about the nuclear deal with the rest and told cbs 60 minutes it will take time to truly forge a better relationship with u.s. and iran. >> translator: what existed between the united states and iran over the decades, the distance, the disagreements, lack of trust will not go away soon. what is important is which direction we are heading. are we heading towards amplifying this or decreasing this? i believe we have taken the first steps towards decreasing this. >> reporter: he says he is confident iran's parliament will approve the nuclear accord. israel and russia plan to start coordinating military action in syria. israeli prime minister netanyahu

talked about that today with russian counterpart vladimir putin in moscow, as peter sharp reports israel is worried that russian weapons might fall into the wrong hands. >> reporter: israelis made it very clear to the russians they are not accusing russia of supplies hezbollah but they are saying the situation is just so chaotic in syria at the moment that no one can really guaranty these weapons and there are a lot of them coming in and they are very high tech could end up in the wrong hands. israel is also worried that striking aircraft from russia and the very sophisticated antiaircraft missile systems could restrict the movement of israeli airforce jets should they attempt to target convows taking weapons out to hezbollah which they have done before so as well as the prime minister and the president meeting, these military heads will also be

discussing ways of sort of decon flikting the conflict and don't forget that the russian historical influence in israel is enormous there were so many jews that went over to israel in the 40s, 50s and 60s so they are very strong cultural ties there and i think israel made it pretty clear and that they do not see russia as a threat to the state of israel and they do have joint issues that do need resolving as this build up continues in the area. >> reporter: that is peter sharp in moscow, a case of broken trust, volkswagen ceo says he is sorry after admitting the company skirted emissions tests for hundreds of thousands of cars. ♪

sentencing in a deadly case of food poisoning involving p nuts and the former owner of peanut corporation of america faces a life sentence and a court find his brother and a plant manager guilty of knowingly shipping tainted peanut butter and sickened americans in 46 states and believes to be responsible for the deaths of at least nine people. volkswagen stock plummeting and trying to make a scandal for

emissions test and this morning vw stocks lost 18 billion in value and now thousands of cars being recalled to fix the problems and we have more. >> how do you like my new car. >> reporter: volkswagen says it will stop selling the 2015 and 16 cars marked clean diesel in the u.s. after the epa accuseed the company of cheating on emissions test. german auto makers ceo issued an apology an ordered investigation writing i'm personally deeply sorry we have broken the trust of the customers in the public and accuse volkswagen that would turn on the emissions control systems only when an emissions test was taking place. the rest of the time the cars potentially expose people to pollutants 40 times the standards. >> fined 18 billion which is the

highest ever against the auto maker for my reason and particularly for emissions violations. >> reporter: epa ordered recall of half a million diesel volkswagen built between 2009 and 15 and include the jetta and beetle and golf and epa trying to send a message to volkswagen and the industry as a whole they are not going to tolerate any funny business when it comes to the emissions standards. >> reporter: halting sales of recalled vehicles could put a significant dent in earnings and 20% of volkswagen sales are diesel. al jazeera. human rights activists are criticizing the u.s. for its latest goal in taking in refugees from syria and elsewhere, secretary of state this weekend said they will gradually increase the people coming to the country right now and u.s. accepting 70,000 a year and next year that number

according to kerry will be 80,000 and by 2017 the plan is to accept 100 refugees into the u.s. not all will be from syria. the foreign ministers of hungary, po land, slovakia will try to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers and the president says they are confident he figure out a solution to the migrant crisis. 100 iraqis leave for a better life elsewhere and some are desperate and makes them easy prey for the illegal visa trade and we have more. >> reporter: across baghdad are signs like these with visa services and more than that offer hope and a chance to leave the violence of iraq. some of these agencies offer legitimate services and some operate illegally and allow

desperate people and defraud them of thousands of dollars and marvin is one of them and doesn't want to reveal his identity because he is afraid. >> i was desperate to leave iraq and found a smuggler who was swedish iraqi and i spoke with him and he told me there will be a commercial fair taking place soon in sweden and able to arrange an invitation from a swedish company who would sponsor me and all i had to do was go to turkey and pick it up from the embassy and asked me for 15,000 for expenses and fees and left it with a third-party and i was stuck with no money and no visa and i called the third-party who held my money to find out he is accomplice and knows your family and easy for him to kill you or target your family or kidnap your son and when i heard this i was scared and had no choice but to let him keep the money.

>> authorities say they are investigating those who operate the visa fraud but so far locaters have been brought to court. displacement has seen a rise in numbers of people seeking to get out of iraq. >> translator: realistically speaking we can't ban iraqis from leaving and aiming to educate them and warn them of dangers of the journey and many are ordered to go down illegal routes out of desperation and we are looking into it. >> reporter: no way to know how much it is worth or how many people are defrauded because no one is willing to go to the police and report such crimes and during al jazeera's investigation we uncovered alleged cases amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. it would seem there are many like martin who are desperate enough to pay. that desperation is also mixed with frustration, a lot of the foreign embassys here do not offer visa services and the few

that do have very long waiting lists and other embassys asked you for go to neighboring countries like jordan and lebanon and apply for visa there and that combined with the violence and misery of living in iraq mean the smugglers and fraud sters have a willing market they want to exploit and they take them for thousands of dollars, al jazeera baghdad. television honors the best and makes history in the process, the emmy awards go to two actors in ground-breaking roles.

firefighters battling a new fire in monteray and destroyed or damaged at least ten homes and found a body in a charred car near the place where it began and still trying to contain two other blazes in northern california who killed five people last week and destroyed 1400 homes. new york city is home to one of the most polluted waterways in america. the federal government is now working to clean it up but as gabrielle reports there are many sites like it across the u.s. that are not on the government's cleanup list. >> reporter: the canal is so filthy and contaminated most people don't want to go near it let alone touch it but not iman, once a week he sets out in a canoe to wade right into it, one of the most polluted and toxic waterways in america. >> it's mostly restaurant, grease, oil, detergent and

basically anything through your sewer system ends up in the canal. >> reporter: you don't have to look too close to see how polluted it is and that is why he takes water sample to monitor the toxicity levels. however, it's under the surface where raw sewage runoffs in musky water giving a whole new perspective of how ugly the problem is and it's a problem that dates back decades. along its banks remnants of the industrial plants now mostly closed down that use it for a dumping ground for byproducts that formed a shaktar-like substance and settled at the bottom. this canal is so polluted and so toxic it has been designated a super fund site and that is a name given to any area or location in america that is so polluted that the federal government steps in to try to clean it up. it's not just here, there there are many more places all over

america just as bad if not worse than this. these yellow dots are everywhere their toxic fund super sites in america and more than 1300 of them and garcia an environmental lawyer says there are 10,000 more across the country. >> there are thousands of contaminated or abandon sites in states, in cities that just have not been designated for cleanup or have not been cleaned up. >> people who live in the sites? >> an academic study says one in four americans are living within three miles of either a designated super fun site or potential abandon and contaminated site. >> reporter: back at the canal the government has begun the complicated and costly can cleanup effort but it will be another five years until it's done and he says he will remain out on his canoe as long as it takes, hoping when it does get

cleaned up it could be an example for the thousands of others that are not. gabrielle with al jazeera, new york. it was a night filled with first at the 67th prime time emmy awards and top honors went to actor whose not too long ago could be recognized or cast in the roles they played and gerald tan has more. >> how to get away with murder. >> reporter: entertainment t.v. loves making history and the 67th emmy awards broke a new barrier honoring the first black woman as outstanding actress in a drama series. >> let me tell you something the only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. [applause] it was a sweet victory for the fantasy epic game of thrones with 12 prizes in total including outstanding drama

series. the show now holds the record for the most t.v. academy awards in a single year surpassing the west wing. >> and finally just thanks again hbo for believing in dragons and thank you. >> and thank you all for watchi watching. >> there was the usual humor like this from four time out standing actress julia louis- louis-dreyfus. >> to quote what a great honor it must be for you to honor me tonight. [laughter] oh, wait, oh, no, no, no i'm so sorry, donald trump said that, i'm sorry. >> reporter: madman's leading actor went home with his first trophy after eight nominations of the role and host john stewart wrapped up the stint of the daily show with another emmy for outstanding variety talk

series and left the show in august after historic 16-year run marked by multiple awards. >> thank you so very much. you will never have to see me again. thank you. >> reporter: gerald tan, al jazeera. >> also last night the first emmy given to an actor for playing a transgender character. jeffrey tambor star of amazon's transparent won best actor in a comedy, thank you for joining us, i'm randall pinkston and throughout the day you can keep up by checking out al jazeera.com.

>> tension in ouagadougo. now burkina faso army marching on the capital to disarm the coup leaders. hello there i'm felicity barr and you're watching al jazeera live from london. also coming up: progovernment forces on the offensive in yemen as houthi rebels mark a year since they took power in the capital. greek prime minister alexis tsipras declares a new mandate after winning his second election in a year.