that's our show for today. i'm ali velshi, thank you for joining us . >> campus shootings. two more students killed at american colleges on the same day president obama consoles families of victims of last week's campus murders in oregon. >> words aren't going to bring your loved ones back. >> changing course. the u.s. abandons the idea of training syrian rebels. >> i wasn't satisfied with the early efforts in that regard. >> where the u.s. will focus its efforts now.

>> ryan express, calls grow louder for former republican vmenvice presidential candidateo fill the shoes of john boehner. and elephants, cancer fighting? their secretes could help scientists find cures to cancer in humans. >> good evening i'm antonio mora, this is al jazeera america. as president obama traveled to console the families of 9 college students killed in oregon, two attacks occurred in other parts of the country, in texas and in arizona, at flagstaff. 18-year-old steven jones opened fire on four fraternity members after a fight broke out in a parking lot.

jones is charged with murder and assault. >> we are of course shocked and deeply saddened by the circumstances that bring us together this morning. our thoughts are with the victims and their families and our entire lumberjack family. >> while guns are prohibited on arizona college campuses, state law does allow for guns in vehicles. and in houston an 18-year-old freshman was killed and another wounded outside student apartments. police have arrested two people and looking for a third. that investigation also started with an argument. classes were cancelled for a the day. in oregon, the president said the country plus find a way to previous use of guns. allen schauffler, what kind of reception did the president get?

>> the reception was loud and not very fuzzy. verwasn't at all a usual day. president obama comes to visit families of nine people killed at umpqua community college last week. >> just had a chance to talk to them. obviously in moments like these, words aren't -- aren't going to bring their loved ones back. but the one thing that they shared is how much they appreciate the entire ucc community coming together. >> his visit is not too popular here. it's a conservative area, where the second amendment is sacred to many. protesters gather outside the airport, many of them openly and proudly armed. diane koenig is packing a 38 since she says she's had since a little girl. >> i'd like mental illness

addressed more and our rights left alone. >> we want to protect our families our friends and our properties. >> you'll find community strength and unity, support on sign boards all over the town. a local tattoo shop has raised more than $5,000 for a victims fund, selling roseburg strong designs. people not politics. dan marsh thoou on knew one of e students killed. >> i worked with her dad at the plywood mill. my heart is broke for them. >> at umpqua community college, the building where the nine people were killed is still closed off. small stones spell out hope unit and love on the sidewalk.

but a presidential visit and angry local reaction from statements by president obama on the day of the shooting. >> somebody somewhere will comment saying, obama politicized this issue. well, this is something we should politicize. >> i think he realized he shouldn't have said what he said when he said it and now he's trying to get sympathetic and create a little compassion. i don't buy it. >> this is a hunting and fishing region and many residents, like david johnson tell us flatly this is a gun town. >> everybody loves their gones here. we support our second amendment right. >> we gs we think it's disgusting that they are turning his visit of compassion into a political event. >> as this anxious weekends, the depth of the division between gun rights and gun control advocates is on full display in

roseburg. >> the president was on the ground and met with victims and victims' families for about an hour today at roseburg high school. mainly, six funerals, funerals for six people have been held in this city in the last couple of days. everybody is looking forward to monday when ucc is scheduled to reopen. antonio. >> thank you allen. allen schauffler in roseburg oregon. the obama administration is abandoning its program to equip and train moderate syrian rebels. failed to produce any results. al jazeera's mike viqueria has more from washington. >> conceding failure secretary of defense ash carter says the u.s. is pulling the plug to equip and train syrian rebels. >> the right kind of objective. >> a third country either jordan turkey or saudi arabia and send them back into syria to fight

i.s.i.l. initial price tag, $500 million. president obama unveiled the plan in august of last year. >> with this program, we'll help take on i.s.i.l. terrorists inside syria. >> but taking on that goal isn't part of the rebels, they want to fight bashar al-assad. while the plan included training more than 15,000 fighters, the congress was given the current tally. >> it's a small number and the ones in the fight is, we're talking four or five. >> critics including senate democrat tim kane of virginia said the plan was doomed from the start. >> and syria, the strategy is a joke. we do these one off actions trying to train 30 people and put them back into a royaling civil war involving millions, no

surprise, they get swallowed up in the civil war, killed or captured or defect immediately. >> the new u.s. plan is modeled on the policy used to assist the syrian kurds who successfully saved the town of kobani from i.s.i.l. assault. the rush into syria has changed the dynamic and put mr. obama on the defensive. >> on an interview to air on the cbs program 60 minutes, mr. obama hits back at critics who say vladimir putin is getting the best of it. >> he's challenging your leadership, mr. president. >> steve i got to tell you that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we've got a different definition of leadership.

>> reporter: but the russian aerial assault continues in syria hitting fighters backed by the u.s. many experts say the white house must do something soon to stop the russian barrage. >> russian influence in syria and in some cases in iraq as undermined by their intelligence agreement with iraq really bodes ill for american relationships if it's not collect now. >> for president obama a policy change in syria with many calling for more. mike viqueria, al jazeera, washington. >> news outlets in iran says one of its most promote generals was killed last night. hussein hamedali was a top commander during the iran-iraq war. he also led the crack down against antigovernment protests that erupted after the disputed 2009 reelection of mahmoud

ahmadinejad. brigadier general mark kimmit. general always good to see you. the administration is acknowledging what was already painfully obvious that the effort to train and equip rebels was failing. so now it's dropping back to what many had pushed for over the last few years, to arm the kurds and other moderates who are facing assad. is it too little or too late? >> i don't think so. i think there's plenty of time, assad is not going anywhere from the support he's getting from the russians, these rebel forces are under pressure. but i'm glad to see the administration finally realized the futility of this half hearted measure they had been presenting at this point. >> you among others have argued they needed to do more. the shift in strategy reportedly involves giving the forces small arms and ammunition. i know there's a risk in giving

them weapons but again is this another halfway measure? how are small arms going to help in the face of russian air strikes and russian armed syrian government forces? >> well it's not. and one would hope that this is a portfolio of countries that are providing support, not simply the americans providing the small arms but one would hope the aish countries in the e region would be providing more capability so these forces have what they need to take on the russian equipped and iranian equipped assad forces. >> we heard of the iranian general killed, not just through hezbollah in lebanon, but as you said the other arab inflations are getting involved, the saudis and other arab nations are promising support to the noni.s.i.l. force he. doesn't this pose a conflict even worse there?

>> there are three levels of the fight, superpower, where you've got russia stepping up against the united states in terms of who's going to have influence in the region and then in the middle you've got this shia-sunni fight that's raging throughout the middle east and at the lowest level, the assad force he against the rebel and i.s.i.l. forces. it is no surprise to anyone that iran has people on the ground. for years and years, iran has been providing support to the assad government. up to $30 billion a year that they've been providing to prop up the assad regime. >> let's talk about the superpower level. the russian, theory, to create either assad or i.s.i.l. is putin getting what he wants? >> i think they believe by providing support to the government of syria led of course by assad that they're

going to be able to keep syria as a unitary state. i believe that they have seen what happens when a government is overthrown in that region. very rarely is an improvement to follow. i think they believe that by keeping the government of syria in place, led by assad for the time being, they ask avoid the place that syria government being overthrown, the last akerr of the christians and the al wietsalawites and syria becoming nothing more than a libya often the mediterranean. >> it's on the doorstep of aleppo itself, which is the largest and used to be the richest city in the country now it's divided among government forces. is i.s.i.l. getting embold

everyoned by the russian actions? >> they are certainly profiting by the russian actions, if the russian he are going against the rebel forces that are being used to fight i.s.i.l. that's to their advantage. but the real question has got to come down to in the grand strategy inside syria what's the priority? taking out assad, taking out i.s.i.l? keeping syria as a contiguous state? frankly i think they're avoiding maybing those choice he, the russians aren't. >> general mark kimmit i know you just got back from the region it's great to have your views. thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> a new speaker of the house. gop leaders have pleaded with representative paul ryan to take the job, he has repeatedly refused to run for the office. the former vice presidential candidate has said he play

reconsider his position. david schuster has the story. >> on capitol hill on friday, in a closed door meeting representative lewis gomerd bleasd boehnerdblasted boehner a vote. but some breathing time is necessary. >> we've got to have vibrant internal discussions, the world will still function, congress will still function, we'll figure this out, we'll have some time. >> another reminder of the republican civil war and that war has left republicans unable to govern. the most powerful and crippling force is anger. anger at president obama and anger at republican leaders for even daring to talk with him. >> everyone wants unity in this

country. unity around with what, what principle. >> a few weeks ago the conservative hazard liners forced boehner to resign. this week they took their anger out at mccarthy. with no clear replacement for the house speaker the republican conference is in chaos. >> i think it's terrible. no group has the right to hijack the house, that's what's going on here and we should have been determined long ago. >> in the gop presidential nomination race, the republican establishment initially thought they would highlight their former and current governors and senators but government experience has now become a line of attack. >> we have losers. we have losers. we have people this don't have it. >> billionaire developer donald trump continues to lead nearly every republican nomination poll. then ben carson is running second and business woman carly fiorina is running third.

republican establishment candidates have tried to hit back especially at trump. >> he's shallow, has flog to know about policy, he makes it up on the fly. >> but the tidal wave only seems to be growing. the one republican who lawmakers believed could bridge the house divide is republican paul ryan. >> he would be an amazing speaker but he's god to decide on his own. >> drafting somebody from outside the chamber, the constitution says it doesn't have to be a members of congress. newt gingrich said he would consider taking up the gavel if offered. >> no citizen could turn out that kind of offer. why george washington came out of retirement. it's an offer you can't avoid.

>> an offer to get the entire republican house caucus to agree on anything. louse speaker john boehner says he will stay in office until the issue of his successor is resolved. a reminder of his promise to keep the government running, a promise that led other republicans to ask for his scalp. david schuster, al jazeera. whether elephants' superpowers could be used to help humans, coming up. this is our american story. this is america tonight.

>> we're in the "prairie state" yet we have such little of it left. >> now old-school methods meet cutting-edge science... >> we've returned this iconic mammal to illinois. >> with a much bigger long-term benefit. >> grasslands have a critical role in climate change. >> it's exciting.

>> techknow's team of experts show you how the miracles of science... >> this is what innovation looks like. >> can affect and surprise us. >> i feel like we're making an impact. >> awesome! >> techknow - where technology meets humanity. >> tonight, the white house became the binge house. it was lit up in honor of national breast cancer awareness month. about one of eight american women willing develop invasive breast cancer over their lifetime. research has shown that elephants are more resistant to cancer than humans. scientists analyzed elephant blood. they have 30 copies of the cancer suppressing gene.

this could be a key factor as to why elephants have lower rates ever cancer. joshua schiffman was the lead researcher on the study. doctor very good to have you with us. you are a peed yacht crick oncologist. a cancer survivor urs yourself. yourself. how did you decide to focus on elephants? >> we try to focus on this question of who develops cancer, and why? are a few is years ago i had an opportunity to tenant a meeting on evolution of cancer and heard that cancer rarely hav develop cancer, and possibly because of the extra copy of p-53 as you

mentioned. it wasn't until a few weeks later that i returned home and i was believe it or not visiting our local utah hobo zoo with my children. they checked the elephants every week to determine about they were healthy. >> cells replicate, the dhansess of genetic splaiks. what do you find that these genes can help the elephants attack and kill the cancer cells. >> exactly. whether we took the blood from the zoo animals and rin ringling brothers, barnum and bailey circus, the elephants eliminated that cell as opposed to humans,

where the cells kept replicate approximating. >> elephants can live to 200 years. do we know if it's for same reason? >> we think there's a different reason. each animal will have evolved a different way to protect over cancer. we think there p-53 is the way elephants have done it. >> how can this be used to help humans? >> that's the most important question of all. what we are now doing in the laboratory is trying to figure out exactly how do these extra coiption ocopies of p-53 contrie cancer resistance, is there a drug that could perhaps mimic the effect of these p-53s or is there a way of inserting that p-53 into humans who start developing cancer or who play already have it. >> how long a process will this be?

>> well that depends on how much support and enthusiasm we can drum up for this project. but we think it will probably be another five years or so before we're actually able to have some preclinical or even clinical trials. >> i know you've even got ring linringling brothers on board. thank you doctor, great to have you with us, thank you. coming up on al jazeera america, celebrating the birthday of a legend. ♪ imagine all the people >> remembering john lennon them. lennon next. and terrifying moments for likers whether a bridge collapses right under them. 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. i just had a horrible nightmare. my company's entire network went down, and i was home in bed, unaware. but that would never happen. comcast business monitors my company's network 24 hours a day and calls and e-mails me if something, like this scary storm, takes it offline. so i can rest easy. what. you don't have a desk bed? don't be left in the dark. get proactive alerts 24/7. comcast business. built for business.

>> the last thing the people of south carolina need right now is more rain, but that is what forecasters are predicting. a lows pressure system set to park itself off the coast, the downpours arriving on saturday. 125 bridges across the state remain closed along with 13 miles along interstate knife. every likers' nightmare is having to cross a wilderness bridge having to hope for the best. that terrifying scene happened in new zealand.

happened to four likers crossing a suspension bridge, the bridge tipped over after one of the chains holding it into place collapsed. all four likers fell into the ravine bull all survived. the 75th birthday of john lennon. ♪ you may say i'm a dreamer but i'm not the only one ♪ >> songs he published in the '70s promoted peace, lennon would have been 75 years old today, his widow yoko ono, joined well wishers to form a peace sign. tonight she was in iceland to light the tower built in john's

memory. "inside story" with ray suarez is up next, have a great weekend. >> america's college and university students past and present are more than $1 trillion in debt. graduating college with tens of thousands in loans is now commonplace, as is heading to work in jobs that don't require a college degree. years of costing more than other things, racing ahead of slowly rising incomes. more people are wondering whether it's finally all worth it.