i'm ray suarez and that's the "inside story." >> this is aljazeera america. live from new york city. i'm tony harris. a meeting in moscow. syria's president sits down with talks with vladimir putin over his country's civil war. not running. vice president, joe biden decides against the presidential bid. reducing crime and prison population. the new plan, and the mega structure 1400 light years away.

and we begin with new developments in the conflict in syria. syrian president, bashar al-assad, met with russian president, vladimir putin, during a surprise resist to moscow on tuesday. the trip comes weeks after russia began carrying out airstrikes in syria. and secretary of state john kerry discussed the conflict with his russian counterpart, serg gay lavrov. and the two will meet in moscow on friday to discuss the war. lav from the pentagon with more, jamie. >> reporter: well, tony, the united states and russia are not just at odds in the skies over syria, but engaged in a public relations war offering vastly different narratives about what's happening on the ground. the video from the cameraman

went viral this week, showing a syrian offensive last week in a northeastern sub besh of damascus. it shows the extent of the devastation near the syrian capital after four years of war. misery, which the pentagon now accuses the russian air power of simply adding to. >> the russians have been indiscriminate and reckless in syria. and they have no difficulty dropping cluster munitions around where civilians may be, and based on their actions, they do not appear to be interested in defeating isil. they appear to be interested in preserving the assad regime. >> the white house says that bashar al-assad's red carpet resist to moscow ends the fiction that it's anything but

keeping assada power. they said that he's lying, not only about who it's bombing but also exaggerating the number the effectiveness of the strikes. russia says that it has conducted hundreds of airstrikes since it began bombing three weeks ago, and the u.s. said it's more like 140. meanwhe, the pentagon is putting pressure on the isil stronghold of raqqah, by dropping 50 tons of ammunition to fighters nearby. what the pentagon calls the syria coalition is a group of groups, 12-10, with 5,000 fighters total. and a week of training to use the new supplies and ammo. it's approaching the recommendations of robert gates, who told the senate committee that the old u.s. plan of taking fighters out of

syria for training was never going to work. instead, gates testified that the u.s. should find motivated tribes or ethnic groups and arm them. >> they may not fight in iraq, or outside of their own turf against isis. but they may well fight to the death to protect their homeland, and their own villages. >> as u.s. and russian war planes now operate under agreed safety protocol to the syrian airspace, a video released by the russian defense ministry shows a close encounter between a russian yet and an american drone. john kerry called the understanding with the russians immoral, saying that it gives president putin clearer skies to bomb u.s. partners. >> the pentagon said today that it understands the frustration of some iraqi lawmakers who

have been calling for russia to begin airstrikes in iraq, and carefully coordinated with the iraqi forces on the ground and designed to minimize civilian casualties, and so far iraq's prime minister has not asked for help. something that the pentagon insists would be problematic. >> well, jamie, the what if question. let's say that the russians ask the iraqis for help, and how would that change the conflict in iraq? >> the pentagon said that it has plenty of planes and fire powers, and it doesn't need russian planes. and one spokesman called it an uncoordinated player on the battlefield and that would raise all kinds of complications. the u.s. has made its position clear to iraq, they don't want russia there, and russia is not flying there, and the united states hopes that it stays that way. >> okay, jamie mcintyre for us

at the pentagon. there appears to be no end of violence in the middle east. and that has left dozens of palestinians dead. five soldiers were injured when a palestinian man drove into a group of he soldiers in member ron, and meanwhile, a soldier stabbed in the jewish settlement the occupied west bank, and then clashes between security forces. as carl reports from the occupied west bank, to some people, the violence is personal. >> reporter: a widow scratches the earth where her husband died. she cries, she can still feel his damp blood. he died as a wounded israeli

soldier crossed his orchard. it happened on tuesday in the town. the struggle was brief and brutal. >brutal. [ foreign dialogue ] >> reporter: the first and second soldier passed by, and then he tripped the third soldier and he stabbed him in his neck. the second soldier shot him in his foot and the third shot him in the head and tossed his body over there, she says. the religious rights with the violence, and here, it's more basic than that. this is a blood vendetta. one death demands another. we must take revenge for his death, the dead man's sister says. this family of hamas supporters, but factions don't matter of these days. palestinians have groups with little direction from party leadership. [ foreign dialogue ] >> reporter: why do we want

calm? we want revolution with all of us united, she says. in nearby hebron, young protesters he'd that call, trying to advance on soldiers in the illegal settlement in the heart of the city. tactics are low tech. a trash container serves as a shield against israeli stun grenades, but on the street below, there's no protection. israeli troops fire a bullet into a youngster's leg. [ sirens ] they have been fighting on the street corner every day for days now, and there has been no real sign of progress. i think that some of the questions now, will the political factions become involved in any significant way? could there be an uprising by ordinary palestinians, as protests like these begin to

fade away. hebron's the west bank's largest city. and store keepers called a day-long strike in solidarity with the protests. we want foreign countries and islamic countries to come support us and see how israel is occupying us. we only have stones to protect ourselves, and they're armed to the teeth, he says. the firepower may be mismatched. but yet both the israelis and the palestinians have suffered casualties. each death stoking the blood developedetta. >> and carl pinhall joins us again from jerusalem, and are there efforts underway in the middle east and europe, and one doesn't want to be negative about the prospects here, but are they expected to make any headway in trying to mend this conflict?

>> that would depend on who you talk to. secretary of state john kerry hopes that he can bring peace to the region, and so does ban ki-moon, and benjamin netanyahu, and mahmoud abbas. but what has continued, clashes and killings on the ground, and also, between the two sides, between the israel leadership and the palestinian leadership. you've heard mutual incitement, starting the violence, and one blaming the other for not stopping the violence, and all the time, the signs are at least in the west bank and occupied east jerusalem, the protesters out on the streets are not listening to anybody because they have lost faith in their palestinian leadership. and the peace process in palestine and the hope of getting a two-state solution, and their own homeland. >> so carl, israeli prime

minister, benjamin netanyahu, travels to europe and he's being criticized pretty heavily for comments that he made about the holocaust. and what did he say and how are people reacting to those comments? >> reporter: absolutely, tony, this has been part of the diplomatic effort, and then prie minister benjamin netanyahu comes out and blames a world war ii palestinian religious leader for going to germany in 1941 to visit adolf hitler, and persuade him not only to expel the jews in germany and europe, but also to ex exterminate them. that has stirred up a storm of fire here in israel. you have them saying that the interpretation of the facts is not correct. and wanting interpretation of

the sequence of events is not correct. and you have politicians left and right criticizing netanyahu for blaming the palestinians for inciting the germans in world war ii, the final solution, and as a result, adolf hitler and the nazis for making that it decision themselves, and of course on the palestinian side, they're throwing up their hands, saying this is another example of the way that netanyahu is using historical facts to try to incite further violence today to stoke the current round of violence. >> carl, thank you in ger. >> today, joe biden announced that he will not be running for the white house, he announced from the rose garden with jill and the president by his side. >> as my family and i have worked through the grieving

process, i've said all along, and i said time and again to others, that it may very well be that that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president. that it might close. i have concluded that it has closed. >> aljazeera's david schuster joins me here in the studio, and david, walk me through this, if you please >> reporter: well, it's significant for a host of reasons. you heard joe biden saying that the window has closed. and he has essentially closed the door on perhaps the greatest challenge that hilliary clinton may have faced in this campaign. she and her campaign repeatedly feared that biden would take establishment democrats away from her and perhaps lift the fortunes of vermont senator, bernie sanders. and the potential for a messy

clinton fight seemed to be increasing. at the first democratic debate, clinton described republicans as her enemies, and this week, biden talked about bipartisan support, and this is a matter of making things work. even in his announcement, biden repeated that, and he also seemed to jab at clinton for distancing herself from the administration on trade, oil drilling and the u.s. involvement in syria,. >> democrats should not only defend this record and protect the record, they should run on the record. >> reporter: in a statement on thursday, clinton made no criticism. she said that he's a good friend and wants to change the world for the better. vermont senator, bernie sanders, said joe biden made the decision that he feels is best for himself. and as for biden, he said that in the last 15 months in

office, he will fight for policy goals, including getting money out of politics and finding a cure for cancer, but his influence on all of these be decisions will diminish now that he has left the stage for a high-profile political career. >> was it ever clear if biden really wanted to run for president? or was it a situation where he was listening to his close friends and advisers, and needed to be convinced that it was his time and that he could possibly win? >> reporter: that's a good point, and joe biden heard from many of those advisers and friends, the odds are not there for you, unless hilliary clinton implodes or benghazi comes out. and the second question, what about his family? it did take a long time for his family to signal to him, as halle biden did yesterday, as

she gave several quotes, she's the spouse of bo biden, we're 100% behind you, but again, it took until now for biden to survey his family and okay, he has his family support. but what about the issue of does he want to finish his career with a losing campaign? >> david schuster, thank you. in the race for the next house speaker, wisconsin senator, paul ryan said last night that he would be willing to serve, but there are conditions, and one group of house republicans mite not agree to that. aljazeera's political supporter, michael joins us, and what is the latest on that story? >> reporter: well, tony, the house freedom caucus is meeting straight upstairs from where i'm standing right now, in room 444 of the cannon building, and they're getting together to see what they need to do. we asked a few of them, namely raul labrador, and griffin, they said they're going to be

voting tonight. and one interesting thing, marlin stubs, from the indiana house, said he was going to try to convince his conservative colleagues that paul ryan is the guy. >> well, let me try this then. how realistic are ryan's demand here, michael? >> well, it's that group that doesn't see them as being realistic. a lot of people, tony, have looked at what ryan has set out as a perfect path for him. these are my demands, and he knows those demands cannot be met because of the freedom caucus, and it looks to the caucus and the rest of the country that he tried to step in for his party. but he wouldn't do the things that he wanted. those demands trying to eliminate the rule that allows one group to vacant the chair, vote out the speaker of the house. and morgan griffin of virginia left the meeting and came back with a rule book to see how old

the rule was, and so they're looking at the fine print. and the demands be met by this group. >> the democrats saying anything about this? >> reporter: indeed they are, i spoke with john yarmouth from kentucky, and one of the things, the fact that if paul ryan does ascend to the speaker's chair, there's a little bit of an issue, because he's going to come in as if he unified the congress, when he only tried to unify his own caucus, and the democrats see him as a little bit more conservative, and more of the same as john boehner, and it's going to be very tough for democrats if he gets to the speaker's chair. >> next up on the program, america's prison population, a new push to reduce the number of people behind bars from an unlikely source.

and a protest in the middle east. 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. >> wikileaks says that it has posted items from cia director, john brennan's email account. and it claims to have a draft security clearance application,

containing his wife's social security number. a high school student claims to have hacked into brennan's email account. and the cia condemned the hacking and there's no indication that any of the posted documents are classified. police chiefs and prosecutors all over the country are launching a new campaign today. in addition to fighting crime, they're committed to reducing the number of people in prison. roxanna has the story. >> reporter: the u.s. has the highest incarceration rate in the world. the number of people in prisons has ballooned by more than 400% in the last 30 years, and now a group of the nation's top police chiefs and prosecutors says that it's time to change the trend. >> what we have to do in this country, and this may be a little bit radical is start thinking about what constitutes a crime. >> law enforcement leaders in the largest cities coming together with one unlikely goal. keeping more people out of prison. >> it's really clear that we

can reduce violence, we can reduce crime at the same time, reduce incarceration rates. >> it was announced on wednesday to address the overcrowding of crowding in america's jails. stemming from a tough on crime approach dating back decades. >> when i was a young prosecutor, it was, got to lock them up. >> beth was a former prosecutor. >> back in the 80s and 90s, there were legislators around the country enacting laws to make sentencing more severe, and that was to deal with a crime explosion. >> the crime began to drop in the 1990s, but incarceration rates began to climb. and now more than 200 million people are behind bars, and the price tag is hefty. $40 billion a year, according to one study. add to that the social costs.

broken families, the inability to find work, and stigma from having spent time behind bars. >> we have to rethink the equations, when we're making young people, especially young men of color in their mid 20s unemployable. >> the law enforcement group includes more than 130 officials, including some of the nation's highest profile leaders in law enforcement lapd chief, charlie beck, and nypd commissioner, bratton, and gary mccarthy. they're calling for a reduction of tough mandatory sentences for non-violent offenders, and alternatives to incarceration, like mental health and addiction treatment. and the problem now is to sell it to legislators and the public. >> we lead the world in terms of incarceration, and it has to stop. because many people who are incarcerated don't belong there. >> members of the group are

scheduled to meet with president obama at the white house tomorrow. and he has made overhauling the criminal justice system a top priority. >> the sharp rise in drug abuse in west virginia was the subject of a meeting hosted by president obama. and he went to charleston today to talk to official busy the town's growing drug program. west virginia leads in deaths. and the stigma around drug abuse, and to encourage addicts to seek treatments. >> this crisis is taking lives, it's destroying families, it's shattering communities all across the country. and that's the thing about substance abuse, it doesn't discriminate. it touches everybody, from celebrities to college students, to soccer moms, to to inner-city kids. >> the president also released a statement today, calling for increased training of healthcare providers who prescribe drugs and more access

to treatment for americans who suffer from addition. earlier today, we spoke with congressman patrick kennedy, and he's an advocate and he talks about how the obama administration has been slow to confront these issues. >> we have known for a long time there's an epidemic of overdoses in the country, and suicide is twice as much as homicide. and increasing every year, veterans as well, we know that addictions are surpassing car accidents as the leading cause of death. with all of this, if it were any other issue, we would have bold action. >> okay, you can watch our full interview with patrick kennedy tonight. 6:30 pacific. right here on aljazeera america. still ahead, giving peace a chance. top diplomats will meet on syria this week. the tough decisions ahead.

plus, a string of fires at black churches near st. louis, why the investigators think they're connected.

>> now to diplomatic efforts

to renew conflicts in the middle east. the war in syria, as benjamin netanyahu is in germany, where he discussed the situation with chancellor, angela merkel today. tomorrow, he will meet with secretary of state john kerry in berlin, and this week, they will discuss the crisis with leaders. on friday, kerry and mr. sergei lavrov will meet with lead enters turkey and saudi arabia to discuss the fighting in syria. let's bring in the former secretary of state, a teacher at george washington university. and boy, do these two issues need help, pj. and thank you for being on the program. i don't mean to be pessimistic about this, but clearly, there's no peace process in the middle east, not even a

pretense of a political process, and what on earth is secretary kerry hoping to accomplish with his trip there? >> well, you can be pessimistic. first of all, the conditions are not right for a breakthrough. we have to think of it as a wildfire. we're seeing constantly sparks put into place with the tit for tat. and the violence going back and forth there, and i think what jesujohn kerry is going to do, create a fire break so the flames don't spin out of control. >> you know, pj, i'm reading in the nation magazine today, in gaza, two/fifths of the population is in poverty. and 75% of palestinians live below the poverty line. and until the conditions

improve there, this violence will simply continue, won't it? >> yeah, we're in these cycles, and we have seen them periodically before. and i don't think that it's driven by an actor like ham ax, but spontaneous frustration because the day-to-day burden on these people is very significant, and they just don't see the prospect that it is going to change. unfortunately, while we know the broad parameters of what it will take to end this conflict, we just simply do not have the political conditions at the present time that can lead these leaders to the kind of breakthrough that the united states has long advocated but has not been able to get the parties to agree to. >> there you go, the conditions on the ground don't change in the foreseeable future, unless there's a land for peace deal calling for two states, sid

side-by-side. an independent state palestine, alongside israel. and there's no it deal possible with the current leadership on either side? >> that would be my take, you need a change in the leadership dynamic. there's no trust between benjamin netanyahu and [ aboriginal languagand abbas. they're not going to jump off of a cliff together, they're not going to do it. there's work to be done beneath the surface, and for the moment, one thing that's significant about the recent years, you've had very significant cooperation between the forces, and that's sustained. because what you need to do

here now is simply put a floor on what we're seeing to make sure that it doesn't go from being a difficult situation, and worse that spins out of control. >> is there anything that the security council can do about the conflict? in the area, statements from the security council, resolutions, anything at all, pj some. >> well, what you ultimately need is a direct negotiation between the israelis and the palestinians, rather than posturing. the united nations can't have a role to play. recently, that has been a venue where you have the grievances and palestinians taking steps that score political points, but thak them farther from the actual negotiation. so what we have here is a lot of posturing on both sides, simply because neither side has prepared their population to make the difficult compromises that will be necessary to reach

an actual agreement. >> what, pj crowley, is your take on assad in russia meeting with putin? >> i would like to think that he was dacka shopping, and he was preparing to leave damascus. that would be the ideal outlook today. i think this unmasked. he came to moscow because vladimir putin continues to save his bacon, and this unmasks for the russians what their interrex is about. it's not about fighting the islamic state. but preserving the illuminated governance of bashar al-assad. >> p.j. crowley, former secretary of state, and now he's teaching diplomacy at george washington university. a fire has it destroyed part of a refugee camp in

slovenia. the swept through the tents on the border with croatia. elsewhere, there have been scuffles as refugees grow impatient to continue their journey, and the parliament has continued it's use along the border. >> the flames spread quickly with tents pitched so disclose to one another, the blaze jumped easily from one to the next. firefighters were on the scene, but the damage was already done. much-needed emergency accommodation is now in ruins. the cause of the blaze is not yet known. further back along the refugee route, in serbia, the refugees in the open have been lighting small bonfires to stay warm. clearfies and soaking rain. >> we're very worried for the

capacity, the people are slowing and it would be problematic. but a long waiting time. and the weather conditions. if the weather is still good, we can still try to do our best to provide blankets and food and water, but the cold weather is getting worse and worse, and it would be very problematic. >> as conditions deteriorate, the conditions are rising. desperation and exhaustion sometimes develop into scuffles between refugees. in slovenia, the parliament has voted to deploy soldiers to enforce the police in the transit camps. the army has certainly arrived here at the border and this jeep is evidence of that. we have counted no more than five soldiers here at the camp today. and their roll is rather limited.

they're handing out food to the refugees alongside of the police. so despite the vote of parliament, the larger contribution of the army to this crisis in slovenia is still being worked out. >> reporter: the soldier's role is to watch over the refugees when they arrive here. if they see something out of place, the soldiers must inform the nearest police officer, because we're the ones in charge, but the army was very busy today. and i'm grateful for that. >> reporter: the european leaders will convene on sunday to discuss the emergency. and certainly images such as these will focus their attendance. paul brennan, aljazeera, slovenia. >> mohamed has been imprisoned in a turkish jail for 56 days now. and today in protest, vice media went dark to call

attention to the plight of the journalists. hear to talk about it, josh, you posted on this topic, saying that this trend sends a chilling message to local fixers, work with western reporters, and you'll be the one that pays the price. what is turkey doing here? it's western leaning, and it's a member of nato and a u.s. ally. what have we learned at this point about why these regimes -- let's call it what it is -- it's a regime, and why they target journalists? >> i think that they target journalists because they don't want certain stories told. and as western leaning as turkey is, it ranks about 154th in press freedoms. the story they don't want told is about the kurds in the southeast turkey, and that's where the journalists wanted to go, to tell the story of the pkk. and that's why they were

arrested and now the trumped up charges, associating ras you'll with the islamic state. and this is really about turkey and the kurds. >> i'm looking at these pictures, and tell me about mohamed. look, how important was he to the work that you did most recently in iraq? >> mohamed was my picture in iraq, and i 100% could have done the stories we did without mohamed. he took me to the christian refugee camps, and shia, and young kid, cosmo poll tin, lived in an apartment. and speaks all of languages in the region, and he's exactly the kind of guy that you need to tell these kinds of stories. and we need to tell them. but we can't do it without the world. >> english, arabic and kurdish and turk,. so what's the update on his status?

so is anyone able to speak with him? >> there's an emergency group in turkey right now, from press freedoms. from reporters without borders, and they have pulled together a team from all of these organizations, while there, they requested to see ras you'll, and they said no. i know this guy, he's in his early 20s, 22 or something like that. and turkey has moved him to a counter terrorism prison, and it's notorious, and it's full of the kind of radicals that this guy hates, and he must be indeed in a terrifying situation. he has been there two months, and they won't let internationals visit him. >> aljazeera has been targeted for this. >> been there. >> so we know how important it is to not forget.

and that's the thing with razul, not forget that he's there. the young kid is in this horrible prison because we want to tell stories, and journalism is not a crime. what the governments do. they could stop me from telling the story, but you take rasool out. and he escorts all of these journalists, and the british, they let them go after a day or so, but they keep the local guy there. the message is, you work with western reporters, and you'll pay the price. >> josh is the host of that terrific program, fault lines, and josh, good to see you as always. >> in st. louis, a $9,000 reward for information on whoever is responsible for the fires in churches in prominently black neighborhoods, and a suspected lone arsonist has been setting the fires.

>> reporter: fire department officials in and around st. louis say they have no doubt that the fires that have burned six churches there are the work of an arsonist. >> these things don't start by themselves, and it was an odd place, a door, and it's suspicious in nature. >> the new north side missionary baptist church is one of the churches set ablaze since october 8th. all are within three miles of each other. and each has seen an entrance set on fire. >> i would like whoever is doing it will stop. and whomever it is can be caught to face justice. >> five of the churches are prominently black, and the other is racially picked, and the leader of the new north side church said that it doesn't seem that locals are taking it seriously. >> i got phonecalls from kentucky, michigan, media, national media, but in st. louis, it has been apathetic >> reporter: while the

investigators for the bureau of tobacco and firearms don't have any suspects, it's likely that one person is responsible for the rash of fires. there's a 2,000-dollar reward for information leading to an arrest. >> it's appalling that anyone would do something like that. >> . >> at new life missionary baptist, a dozen churches burned, and dozens came together for the services after the fire there, showing amazing grace as they prepare to build. >> i don't want the communities to be angry and i don't want the churches to be angry, because it's in these moments that our character is tested. >> and still ahead on the program, they're changing again, and they can be a bit confusing. we're talking about the latest guidelines of breast cancer screenings. and mystery in space. flickering lights from light years away.

what the scientists think it might be.

>> more speaking out about announcement yesterday from the american cancer society, saying that women should wait until they're 45 to begin having yearly mammograms.

they were told to begin screening at age 40. and it was long thought that they helped doctors screen in early stages, improving treatment. but it's also important for men to be aware of the guidelines, so they can support the women in their lives, and have their own. she's a public health specialist. it's good to have you on the program. and i'm testing you, or writing emails to you last night about this. because i see john's show, and i'm realizing, wait a minute, we probably should have done something with this, it's really significant, and i think about the women in my life that i love and care about, and what is it that men should know? i'm thinking that men should be very much aware of the guidelines so they can help support the women in their lives. >> i think with guidelines aside, it's important, regardless of which guidelines

you follow, women are not getting breast cancer screening in a timely fashion, if at all. so there's a large portion of women that we're not reaching, and getting a mammogram is scary, it's not a fun thing, and encouraging them, have you gotten your mammogram? >> there are a couple of sets of guidelines out there. and that's a bit confusing. there's a task force working with the government. and the government and congress has established a set of guidelines, and then there's this new set of guidelines from the acs. and it's confusing. >> it's a bit of an alphabet soup. it's the u.s. preventive services task force, and they published the guidelines, starting at 50, women should be screened every two years, and they have drafted guidelines which have not been finalized yet. and then yesterday, the american cancer society updated

their guidelines, and they have broken it down specifically by age group. so what they're doing, factoring in the risks of screening, not just the benefits, but breaking it down by age, 40-45, and 45-50. essentially those are coming more in line with the task force guidelines, so what women should feel, there's not really disagreement among the experts. but they're really going -- >> in the same direction, but congress will likely look at yet another set of recommendations from the task force? >> right, so in 2009, when the task force developed their guidelines. >> it was controversial. >> yes, it was very controversial. so congress passed an amendment to the affordable care act saying that women, starting at age 40, should be able to get their yearly mammograms reimbursed by insurance companies, and i suspect that congress will be able to do that again. >> women watching this, maybe

there's just one question. should i have a mammogram, and at what age should i begin that process? >> well, i think you should discuss with your doctor, starting at the age of 40. if you have a family history, you may want to bring this up earlier, but starting at the age of 40, start having the discussion, and then you need to weigh, what are your risk factors, women overweight, smoke or drink, other genetic factors, and this should be a discussion between a woman and her doctor. >> here's the last thing, the contrarian in me wants to say, wait a minute. i am thinking this morning, we get guidelines on everything. guidelines for everything in our life. won't these guidelines become a bit of the white noise that's in all of our lives on a daily basis? does anyone really pay attention, and should they pay attention to the guidelines?

>> well, i can tell you that us as physicians, we certainly do. because it affects how we negotiate with insurance companies to get things covered. and standard care, and if we're providing good quality care, so we do pay attention, but ultimately, a guideline is not a decree. it should be a framework to provide counseling and discussion, and it should be individualized based on a particular woman's needs. >> good to see you, celine, and i apologize for the emails late last night. john seigenthaler is here. >> all right, tony, coming up tonight, joe biden decides not to run after thinking about it for weeks, he says no. and how did he make that it decision, and what impact will it have on hilliary clinton's race for president. and hacked emails. wikileaks has emails from cia director, john brennan, reportedly from his private aol

account. medical studies, when it comes to marijuana, there are none because federal law has stifled research. >> heroin, cocaine, lsd and ecstasy. all of these are much easier to study than marijuana. >> and we're going to talk about how pot affects driving, life ex be expectancy, and pregnancy and much more. new threats to whales, it's not hunting but changes in motion. we'll talk about stress on the pods off of the west coast of the united states, and what's being done to help them. and my interview with former frontman of saturday night live, g.e. smith. more on that in minutes. >> it is an outer space mystery, a massive alien built structure? dimming a star 1500 light years

from earth. jake ward is looking into the mystery from san francisco. >> reporter: well, tony, the news had been that the star had come out of all of the kepler date a. the search for earth-like planets across the galaxy, but then they noticed something strange. this star was dimming and brightening in a pattern that they have never seen before. and now searching for extraterrestrial intelligence out in the world, they're getting involved in this. something enormous is very closely orbiting the star. it's blocking as much as 22% of its light one minute, and letting it through the next. the star is 1 and a half times the size of our own sun, and whatever is orbiting it is huge, bigger than any planet. the phenomenon is so unique that it led to speculation

about an alien mega structure, maybe a cousin of the solar panels that we put into space. of all of the things, none are more excited than this institute. when you say a structure like alien infrastructure, they don't laugh at you. whatever it is, science has never observed it before. and unobserved phenomenon are what draw researchers in. >> because it isn't perfectly obvious at the outset, exactly what conditions are required to generate this orbiting mass, it becomes a mystery, and we find them interesting. >> 300 miles north of here is 42 of these. a two-story version of this. this is a radio telescope, bouncing off of the dish and gets focused to a very very specific point, and that is this an ten actually the

antenna is in part patented by the institute because it's built for a very specific purpose. separating out the background noise that comes from the universe, from a specific beam that means that someone is trying to get in touch with us. the institute has swung those 42 telescopes to the star to watch for waves of radiation. >> what we would see is a very pure color of light coming from that direction. it might look like a laser pointed directly at your face. that's the kind of signal that we would be look for. >> if they don't see what they're looking for over the course of three weeks, they will assume that there's no ongoing attempt to communicate and move on. humans have seen alien like stuff in space before. cosmologists have picked up powerful pulses of radiation that looked like some form of

communication until in 19 had 7, it was discovered that they give off a regular polings. perhaps this is one of those, not aliens, but just our imaginations running wild in a universe we barely understand. tony, the thing to understand here, the speculation about it being an alien structure, it's not just something coming from crazy bloggers, but they put fort the idea that this might be the case, but it's one of only many several, lots and lots of possible explanations of what it could be. >> what is the actual likelihood that this could be a structural object, or are our collective imaginations coming up with stories for things that we can't explain. >> that's exactly, that answers it in the question. that's the thing, there are many, many phenomenon that we have observed before. and you think to yourself, it has to be aliens because i can't imagine what it is, but the universe is so massive that

it could be almost anything. but whatever it is that we're observing, it took 1500 years for that light to reach us. and so it's very very remote that it's actually aliens, but we have to look at that. >> . >> john seigenthaler is next.

>> hi everyone, this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. decision day: >> that process by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign. for president. >> vice president biden says he won't run for the white house. what's behind the decision. what does it mean for hillary clinton? brothers in arms. putin and