the museum is hoping the exhibit will plant ideas in people's minds about how we get what we eat, and the transof preserving the environment for food. jessica baldwin, al jazeera, london. if you want more on that story and all of the others, head over to our website, aljazeera.com. ♪ a potentially catastrophic category 5, mexico's pacific coast and the cross hairs of hurricane patricia. a daring rescue mission in iraq ends with a u.s. soldier dead. the first u.s. service member to die in the fight against isil is identified this morning. and another democrat drops

out of the presidential race. ♪ this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm stephanie sy. mexico is bracing for a major category 5 hurricane heading for the pacific coast. it is being called the strongest hurricane on record in the hemisphe hemisphere. >> translator: it's better to protect than regret. >> mexico has shut two key cargo ports, both are in the direct path of patricia, a lot of villages have also been evacuated. nicole mitchell has been tracking this. when is this storm expected to

make landfall? >> within the next 12 hours, and it's uncommon for these storms to get this intense, to a category 5. the winds are 200 miles per hour, the pressure setting a record as well. but we're definitely going to continue to watch this move inland. even if it loses some intensity, it has already welled up the water. we're seeing high surfs and other problems. all of the models pretty conclusive. this is mountainous terrain. just behind that, it's going to be possibly up to a foot of rain consistently, but once it gets into the mountains, this is a water vapor image, all of that

rings out even more. landslides, mud slides, this is definitely a life-threatening storm. if you look at this -- look at some of the moisture feeding northward. we have already had problems in the united states in placeses like texas because of heavy rain. that through the rest of the day will continue to move. the great lakes getting some of that, but the heavier moisture a little bit of patricia, and also from the gulf coast, it still looks like we have some flood concerns for texas. so as the northern edge keeps moving, we really want to watch that heavy rain potential in the south. >> thank you. there is a search going on right now for whoever opened fire at tennessee state university. initial reports say this was an apparent dispute over a dice game. the campus was on lockdown all

night. south africa's president has relented on a plan to raise college fees after thousands of students took to the streets in protest. crowds gather outside of jacob zu zuma's offices today. they say the proposed 10% increase would have made education out of reach for thousands of students. we now know the name of the soldier killed in iraq. he was 399, and part of the army's special operations unit. he is the first american service member killed in combat while fighting isil. jamie mcintyre has details. >> reporter: the u.s. was responding to an urgent request for transport helicopters and combat support from kurdish peshmerga forces. the kurds believed some their

fighters were being held in isil in a walled prison compound, and were about to be executed. they appealed to the u.s. for help to launch a desperate and daring rescue mission. ash carter signed off on the plan, under the assist authority of the u.s. train and assist mission. of being convinced isil was on the verge of mass murder. >> we had discussed the presence of mass graves at this compound. freshly dug mass graves. we have since learned that the postages had been told by other captors they would be executed after morning prayers today. steve warren, a u.s. military spokesman in baghdad in an exclusive skype interview with al jazeera provided a detailed tick tock on how the raid went down. four u.s. helicopters, two chinook transports, and two blackhawks land near the isil

compound carrying kurdish peshmerga commandos and u.s. special operations forces. u.s. troops back with the helicopters while peshmerga commanders attacked the compound. pinned down by fierce fire, and taking casualties, u.s. special forces come to the aid of the troops, a u.s. soldier is killed, four peshmerga are wounded. the discovery of up to 70 prisoners requires a fifth helicopter to get everyone out safely. colonel warren says if the u.s. forces had not intervened the mission would likely have failed. >> in the heat of battle while they were being pinned down and wounded these commandos on the ground made a decision and decided to come to the aid of those they were advising and assisting. they were positioned properly where they could maneuver and

eliminate the gunfire, and the peshmerga were able to get through the breach and then finish clearing the objective. >> reporter: it turned out no kurds were among the roughly 70 prisoners who were freed, but there were at least 22 members of the iraqi security forces among the captive. more than 20 isil forces were reportedly killed. president obama has sent back to congress a major defense bill he says is full of flaws. he vetoed the bill that could have prevented the obama administration from closing the prison at guantanamo bay. >> guantanamo is one of the premier mechanisms for jihadists to recruit. it's time for us to close it. it is outdated. it's expensive. it has been there for years, and we can do better in terms of keeping our people safe while making sure we are consistent

with our values. >> the president says he wants a broader bucket deal that would address mandatory cuts in domestic spending. one of the democrats who wanted to be president has now ended his campaign. lincoln chaffy dropped out a short time ago. he has been pulling at less than 1% and has only raised about $30,000 for his campaign. he said he plans to continue advocating for peace and limiting u.s. actions overseas. secretary of state john kerry is in vienna this morning talking about the war in syria. he is meeting with his russian counterpart, and the two are likely to discuss russia's military operations. days ago president vladimir putin met with syria president bashar al-assad. and there is growing acknowledgment that russia's bombing campaigns are giving assad the upper hand in the war. barnaby phillips is in vienna. >> reporter: stephanie we have had a series of meetings in the

hotel behind me. john kerry with turkish and saudi arabia counterparts all suspicious of russia's motive. sergei lavrov, the russian foreign minister flew here to explain what exactly russia is doing in syria, what its end objectives are. what undertakings could have been given to president assad a couple of days ago. and it is possible for these four countries all of which are militarily engaged in syria in different ways, reach a common purpose. can they reach an agreement on a transition that would see president assad step down. if so, how quickly? and do they trust each other enough to make such a plan stick? a lot of doubt it has to be said, whether those can be realized or not. but at least at the moment four

key players involved in the syrian disaster are actually talking to each other. and that's good news. many of those displaced by the syrian war are part of this sea of people who made their way to the serbia croatia border overnight. 5,000 asylum seekers are at a small town there, trying to keep warm. the u.s. has taken only a small fraction of the syrian refugees, but the governor of michigan says his state should take more. not everyone agrees. bisi onile-ere reports. >> reporter: right now michigan governor rick snyder is talking to federal officials on what the state can do to accept more syrian refugees, but i does not come out opposition. the obama administration's pledge to take in more syrian refugees has raised concerns about national security.

mohammed moved to metro detroit with his wife, mother-in-law, and four children in july. the family's life today is much different than it used to be. >> translator: we were facing danger on a daily basis. where we were living there were continuous daily clashes. our lives were a constant threat. >> reporter: when the civil war broke out more than four years ago, the family fled to turkey and gived at a refugee camp for three years before being admitted to the u.s. >> translator: after we crossed borders to turkey, i sat down and wept. i started looking at my village. i tried for an hour. >> we're a country founded on immigrants. >> reporter: sean is with lutheran social services of michigan, a non-profit that has helped resettle some of the 100 syrian refugees that have arrived in the state so far this year. >> what we have seen

historically is that refugee vettelment, and immigration can add to economic growth pretty significantly. so we also see it as an economic development tool for the city of detroit. >> reporter: but congresswoman linda warren has been local in her concern about terrorism, and the threat some refugees may pose to u.s. security. >> and that's why i continuously say we need a plan to vet that. and we need to be sensitive to that, because right now it's not we're choosing. it's a crisis, and we're just getting a mass of people who want to come to the united states. >> reporter: the government says it can take up to two years to review the backgrounds of refugees. >> translator: we will have a future here, but our children's future is far more important than ours. >> reporter: it's unclear at this point how many syrians will resettle in michigan, but

tanball says he feels fortunate that he and his family are here, and able to rebuild a life torn apart by war. >> reporter: bisi onile-ere, al jazeera, dearborn, michigan. a florida community is coming together after a man was shot by mis. why his family says his roadside encounter with an undercover officer should not have ended in his death. and the new rules that will make phone calls much more affordable for those behind bars.

a florida church will hold a townhall meeting today to discuss the shooting of on unarmed black man. ines ferre has more. >> reporter: respoke to the aunt and godmother of corey jones. they were close. the family says they have more questions than answers surrounding his death. and they are leaning on a community here to support them during this difficult time. those chants coming from hundreds who gathered at a rally thursday for corey jones. ♪

>> the 31-year-old drummer was fatally shot by a plain-clothed officer early sunday morning after his car broke down on the side of the road. now corey jones' family says new details about the confrontation has raised even more troubling questions about the deadly encounter. >> i need to know why! why is my son gone today! why! >> reporter: the family met privately with the state attorney's office. they said corey's body was found 80 to 100 yards from his car, and he did not use his hand gun. police are offering little information about what happened when the officer stopped to investigate what looked like an abandoned car. the police have said the officer was confronted by an armed subject. lawyers for the family say raja

shot at jones six times and three of them hit him. they also say he did not identify himself. >> why didn't he identify himself? why didn't he show the badge? >> reporter: jones's death is being investigated. his brother insists the shooting goes beyond race. >> our lives do matter. [ applause ] >> reporter: going forward, what -- what do you want to see happen? >> we want justice. we want transparency. i miss him. i miss him so much. i miss him so much. ♪ >> keep corey's beat alive. >> reporter: the community hopes to receive more answers from the town hal meeting scheduled for tonight. and the family says the information they have received comes from statements officer

raja made after the shooting. there was no dash camera, and he did not have a body camera on. a controversial cyber security bill has advanced in the senate. it will let private companies share information with the federal government and each other about attacks. privacy advocates say this bill is more about surveillance than security. it is going to cost prisoners a lot less to make a telephone call starting next year. the fcc voted to cap rates for inmate calls. our correspondent has more. >> we did rush a lot, because the rates were too high. sometimes the phone would cut off. >> reporter: this 19-year-old says being able to talk to her

parents while they were in prison kept her on the right track. her dad was jailed for drug-related charges when she was 6 years old, and her mom fallowed him two years later. >> the phone just kept that feeling of security there. like this is still my mom, and i can still talk to her. that's still my dad, i can still talk to them. >> reporter: but the cost of making the calls has long put a strain of families outside of jail. on average it costs about $3 a minute. >> families are being further torn apart. >> reporter: on thursday the federal communications commission voted to cap prison phone companies at $0.11 a minute. >> that's a vast step forward compared to the ruthless gouging family members have been subjected to.

>> reporter: the phone industry has increasingly come under scrutiny in recent years. >> you have a couple of hedge fund monopoly telephone companies that have gotten these contracts by offering the biggest kickback to the government. >> reporter: those kickbacks are payments the biggest service providers are contractually obligated to pay to sheriff's and state correctional departments. 60 to 80% of the cost goes back to the agencies operating the jails. global tell link ceo brian oliver says by just focusing on lower per minute rates, quote: any national sheriff's association, said the fcc vote disregards the realities of

maintaining the safety and security of jail. the democratic commissioner on the federal communications commission, one of the main advocates for these changes, and she joins us from washington, d.c. this morning. $3 a minute that would be exorbitant by most standards. but how do you respond to the sheriff's association? >> we establish those rate caps based on the information that the providers submitted to us. so we looked at all of the security protocols and everything that it cost to provide service based on unaudited figures that the provider sent to us, and we based those rate caps on that, so the security protocols are in place, all of the administrative and shared costs, those are all

reflected in the permitted cap rates that we voted to establish yesterday. >> so it sounds like what you are saying is that -- because from the piece we just aired it said that 60 to 80% of the money goes back to the agencies that operate these jails, so you are saying there will not be kickbacks as a result of this vote. >> i'm saying there is no financial reason for that to happen. we did not ban a shared profit. but what we said is that per-minute rate to that customer will be capped at $0.11 for larger facilities and up to 22% in the really small facilities. so we are not banning it, but we

believe through proper negotiations, which will occur over the next six or so months, that they should be able to come to terms and have a market-based and friendly approach that will provide affordable to customers. >> what did this vote come down to for you? was it sympathy for these families that are playing exorbitant fees. >> to me it's sympathy and selfishness. there are 2.7 million people where there is a hardship for them -- it is a hardship to speak to their parents because the rates are exorbitant. someone got a $56 bill for a $4 call. and most people can't pay on average a $17 bill for a 15-minute call. it is selfish, because what is

happening because people cannot afford to pay, they cannot afford to stay in touch, there are only 38% of inmates we surveyed that have regular contact with their family, and the biggest impedestrianable is affordability. and within five years 75% of the 700,000 inmates that are released to society go right back in was they have been isolated. so it is selfish, because i want to spend less of my tax paying dollars building more prisons, prosecuting more people, and i think this is a great step, affordability to be able to keep in touch in the right direction. >> thank you for that context. commissioner on the fcc commission. a high school coach in washington state is in the spotlight for what he does at the end of the game. why the school says he has to

stop praying with players. ♪

22 people are under arrest this morning of police uncovered a secret tunnel between mexico and the u.s. it was well lit, event lated and equipped with a rail system. u.s. and mexican authorities also confiscate 12 tons of marijuana. the founder of china's con

few house peace prize is defending its award to ma gauby. opposition leaders called the award insanity. he has been accused of using violence and torture to hold on to the honor. stock of alpha bit is up 8% this morning. the company got a boost from mobile and video advertising. it also announced a stock buyback with a math joke. here is the math. the exact dollar value of the stock buyback equals the square root of 26, the number of letters in the alphabet, multiplied by 1 billion. thanks for watching.

i'm stephanie sy. the news continues next live interest doha. have a great weekend. ♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. welcome to the news hour. i'm same-sex same-s -- sami zei doha. following student clashes with police in pretoria, south africa's president says there will be no increase in university fees. israel lifts restrictions on access to the al-aqsa mosque compound in jerusalem. hunkering down, people in