century. i'm ray suarez. that's the "inside story." and the news continues right now. this is al jazeera america. live from new york city. i'm richelle carey, tony harris is on assignment. searching for clues, investigators are trying to figure out what brought down the russian airliner. a jury of your peers or not. the supreme court takes on racial discrimination. quentin tear ren tino is

taking on a backlash from police. and e. coli, an outbreak is temporarily closing dozens of stores. ♪ crash investigators now believe that russian plane that went over egypt's sinai peninsula saturday, break up in midair, but they can't say why. they are examining data from the black box. the pilot reported no problems in flight, and external forces, that's a quote, must to be blame. but u.s. intelligence says they see no is proof that it was brought down by another group. >> we have no direct evidence of terrorist involvement yet, but we really don't know, and i

think once the black boxes have been analyzed, then perhaps we'll know more. >> he is not ruling out external forces, but right now in russia, it's a time for mourning. >> reporter: in the early hours of monday morning, a russian government plane carrying the victims of the air disaster touched down. almost all were russian holiday makers. the bodies had been brought to a city mortuary. at the crash site in egypt,o aviation investigators have been searching for clues.

russian officials say the plane broke up at high altitude, now the russian airline says it believes the plane was brought down by an external impact, ruling out technical faults or pilot error. >> translator: there are no such faults like engine or system failure. the only possible explanation for a breakup of an aircraft in the air could be a physical impact. >> reporter: the kremlin said nothing could be ruled out. >> translator: i would again like to express my condolences to the families and relatives. we are with you in heart and soul. i want to thank st. petersburg

for the response. >> reporter: outside the main airport an expanding memorial to the dead. it's a popular holiday destination for the russians. 17 children were among those killed. >> translator: it's sad, people, children who were on the flight. it is heart breaking. i have a child myself and i fly often. >> reporter: investigators have opened a criminal case into the incident. russian police reportedly raided the airline's moscow offices. russia has a poor aviation safety record. but the airline insists the plane was in good shape. it is hoped the aircraft's data recorders will reveal more answers. even without the black box recording it is clear something

happening at high altitude. it will take some time to get the answers as to exactly what happened. russian planes attacked isil positions near the ancient syrian city of palmyra today. since taking control of the area in may, isil fighters have destroyed a pair of 2,000 year old temples and other historic sites. activists on the ground say today's sites targeted an area near a reconstructed castle that dates back to the 13th century. 218,000 refugees have reached europe this month alone. austria is now putting a time limit on how long refugees can

stay. those who get status by november 15th will have a temporary asylum for three years, but there is no set plan after that. the journey is costly, and often dangerous. 60 refugees drowned off of the coast of greece in just the past few years. mohammed jamjoom has more. >> reporter: with all of the tragedy they have seen, still the aid workers keep looking. on lesvos the scene may be calmer, but the sense of relief is eclipsed only by growing outrage. >> i feel ashamed that i'm a yufrp -- european. that i'm from holland. european union, union, it's not the union. for me it's not the union at

all. >> reporter: she is one of many here committed to helping. >> i saw babies dying, helderly people almost dying. i cannot imagine that you can live with yourself when your -- when this is your responsibility. >> reporter: the refugees while extremely grateful for the help know life won't get much easier any time soon. but for many choosing to stay home may have been more risky. if the choice is between dying in any sea or dying in iraq, i make the sea. he, his wife, and four children had no other choice. it's the children who were sacrificed. ministers don't die, officers don't die, presidents don't die. it's the children and families who die. here the kids are priority, trying to make their fear recede

even if just for a few minutes. over 200,000 arrived here by sea in october alone. that's roughly the same amount in all of 2014. aid workers believe that huge increase is because refugees are trying to make this journey before their window of opportunity closes for good. many worry the winter will keep them from crossing, and others worry that europe will soon prevent them from entering. >> we issued a call to the european union to frontex, to both sides of the straits get more ships out there and shave more people. >> reporter: on the beach motions continue to ebb and flow, there is generosity all around, but hardly any of it is

state sponsored. it's volunteers driving these efforts. they look for any way possible to help. mohammed jamjoom, al jazeera, lesvos, greece. in romania three nightclubs have apologized to customers for putting their lives at risk following a deadly stampede on friday. one of them has permanently shut down. many are in the hospital in critical and serious condition. in door fireworks lead to that accident. president obama made a push for criminal just disreform in new jersey today. al jazeera's mike viqueira joins us live from the white house. so mike, the president is taking executive action on this. what exactly is his plan? >> reporter: good evening. if you have to disclose on your job application that you do have

a criminal record your chances of getting that job are reduced by something like 50%. it's called ban the box this movement to remove that disclosure requirement. the president has supported it, and he travel up to new jersey today to push for criminal justice reform and he did have an initiative on ban the box. he is now allowing the federal government to check criminal records later in the process, not have it on the job application, only for federal governments and federal agencies however. he visited a place called integrity house, has about 2400 individuals coming through the doors every years. it has drug rehabilitation, job-seeking skills, provides people with the goods -- sometimes clothes they need to go out on job interviews. the president perhaps the most

famous visitor ever to cross those doors. later he went to rutgers university and talked about his initiative. >> it is relevant to find out whether somebody has a criminal record. but when it comes to the application, give folks a chance to get through the door. >> reporter: why didn't he extend that requirement to federal contractors who hire hundreds of thousands to work for the government. there is rare bipartisan agreement on this issue. if he had done that by executive order, we would run the risk of alienating if republican supporters. he wants a legislative fix. >> mike this is an unpredented prisoner release.

are there concerns some of these might end up back in prison? >> reporter: you are referring to the sentencing guidelines that were released. and yes, beginning on friday, some 6,000 federal prisoners, non-violent prisoners, this is another initiative the president has talked about time and time again, 6,000 prisoners released now from prison. many are concerned that some will look back up in prison. if you look at recidivism on the return to prison, some 60 to 70% will end up back in prison. however, the push is still going forward. again, bipartisan agreement here in washington, key legislation moving through the senate, by the end of this year we could

have landmark reform coming out of the white house. >> all right. mike thank you. president obama says the new bipartisan budget will allow the government to plan for the future. it pushes the debt ceiling to march 2017, allowing the u.s. to borrow money to fa -- pay its debts. the supreme court is hearing a case on racism in jury selection. it involves a black teenager who was sentenced to death in 1987 by an all-white jury. the court is being asked to look at whether the prosecutor violated the rights of the department when he chose the jury. lisa stark joins us live from washington. >> reporter: richelle as you know when you pick a jury both prosecutors and defense attorneys have the right to disqualify a number of jurors

without giving a reason, but they cannot disqualify a juror because of race. now the supreme court is being asked whether that happened in a georgia death penalty case. the case involves timothy foster who at age 18 was accused of robbing, sexually assaulting, and murdering an elderly white woman. he was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. that was in 1987. fosters lawyers argued that nearly a decade ago they uncovered prosecutors notes highlights the names of potential jurors circumstances the names of potential black jurors. the attorney told the court there's little doubt what was going on.

>> we have an arsenal of smoking guns. we know what the prosecutor did here was identify the african americans then divide them up, take them apart from the other people, rank them against each other in case as their notes say we have to accept a black. >> reporter: a member of the justices seemed to agree. quote: justice steven breyer said the prosecutor gave 40 different reasons to strike african americans from the jury, quote: but georgia's deputy attorney general argued the notes don't show that, adding, quote: through's wide-spread agreement that discrimination in jury

selection is pervasive nationwide. and no matter what the justices decide in case, it's unlikely to solve that problem. some say the only way to get rid of discrimination is to get rid of pre-emptive strikes. >> as long as you can strike for any reason except race or gender, there's no earthly way to know. >> reporter: and that understand mines con if ied -- confidence in the judicial system. now the bias in jury selection can cut both ways. prosecutors disproportionately try to reject or strike jurors who will african american while defense attorneys tend to do that with jurors who are not black. >> lisa have there been studies

about bias in jury selection? >> there have been. there are studies that have looked another decades of trials. in louisiana it found that prosecutors struck about 45% of black jurors. and in philadelphia, the same study was shown. but for the defense side they ended up more likely to reject jurors who are white. so it can cut both ways. what some people are hoping is that the court might take this case and at least try to narrow the reasons that attorneys can reject these -- these different jurors, at least try to limit it in that way. >> lisa stark live from washington. thank you. straight ahead. boycott, why police officers are

upset with quentin tarantino. and the other vehicles now involved in the federal investigation of vehicle. ion of vehicle.

>> we're here to fully get into the nuances of everything that's going on, not just in this country, but around the world. getting the news from the people who are affected. >> people need to demand reform... >> ali velshi on target.

>> volkswagen emission scandal would be bigger than thought. the fbi says they also installed the software on 3-liter diesel engines. several volkswagen, audi, and porsche models use that engine. a new report suggests that america's manufacturing suck for is struggling. ali velshi what is going on with u.s. manufacturing now. >> well, a report shows that u.s. manufacturing view at the slowest pace since 2013. it fell from 50.2 in september to 50.1 in september. any number above 50 is considered expansion. below is considered contraction.

it's synonymous with a recession usually. 50.1 is obviously weak growth. and the job index also fell. but new orders did increase in october, richelle. >> what is behind the slowdown? >> reporter: well, there has been a bit -- there is a lot of global turmoil in currencies. china's economic slowdown means that america is exports less even to paces like china. there are some reasons to be optimistic though. car sales are at their highest level in a decade. production could pick up in coming months, but for now this is another indication that economic growth is okay, but not particularly robust. >> all right. what is on the show tonight?

>> fun show tonight. we're looking at the use of red light cameras in chicago. critics say the deck is unfairly stacked against drivers who went to chicago to have a look. the cameras have sparked a corruption scandal. so we're looking into that as well. >> ali thank you so much. you can watch ali velshi at his new time, right here on al jazeera america. poultry farms in georgia are bracing for a bird flu. when the disease slipped through the u.s. a few months ago, it cut iowa's egg industry in half. robert ray has more. >> reporter: georgia is the top state for chicken production. a $28 billion industry that

exports to more than 100 countries around the globe. >> it's all about awareness and trying to prevent birds from having contact with wild birds. >> reporter: but paul is responsible for making sure a problem in a small backyard production doesn't take the whole industry down. >> back yaushd poultry, you don't want to have them free range, and a lot of people want to have team that free range, but it's better to keep them in a cage and prevent contact with wild birds. >> i haven't thought much about it. i have got more things to worry about, really. that is more concern to me than that is. >> reporter: if a single chicken tests positive, flocks will have

to be killed. some poultry barns can hold up to 30,000 birds. >> in a regular operation they are testing those birds consistently. but in a backyard situation, there's the potential for wild birds to have contact with your chick chickens. >> reporter: they are desperately prying to get the word out. when we asked this man what he was doing? >> nothing. >> reporter: so far there have been no reports of bird flue in georgia. since the first report in 2014 there have been over 50 million birds that have died. wholesale eggs have gone up over 84% at grocery stores all across the country like this one. >> so the price of eggs is going up, because most of the farms

that lose their flock, they have yet to renew their stock to the level that can bring the prices down. >> reporter: there are almost 4500 chicken houses in georgia. the number of backyard forms is unknown. >> it might be a problem later on down the road, but right now, you know, if it gets to be a problem i'll get out of the chicken business. >> reporter: as temperatures drop, only time will tell if the south can avoid the deadly avian virus. still ahead, shipwreck after weeks of searching, a cargo ship lost in a hurricane is finally found. and debate demands, the republican presidential candidates have a list of requirements. ♪

several of the republican presidential candidates are making demands for a future primary debates, including questions and even some moderators. david shuster explains. >> how about talking about the substantive issues people care about. >> reporter: it's the latest twist in a republican debate season that has already been turbulent. on sunday, representatives of 11

republican campaigns agreed to make new demands on the broadcast organizations scheduled to hold future debates. >> harry truman couldn't get elected with explaining the healthcare situation in 30 seconds. >> reporter: formal demands will be issued tuesday. the list includes: >> raise your hand now -- raise your hand now, if you won't make that pledge tonight. [ cheers and applause ]. >> mr. trump. >> reporter: the list of demands would also prohibit candidates from questioning each other. >> the senate what it is like a french workweek? you have three days that you have to show up. >> reporter: after a bathroom

break, television candidates would be forbidden from showing an empty podium. and the room temperature in the debate hall must be 67 degrees or cooler. donald trump has decided not to sign the demands. instead trump's team will issue their own requirements and negotiate directly. ben carson's spokesperson strongly endorsed the demands. some of the candidates are still batting around the idea of havi having veto power over the moderators. several campaigns are convinced that political bias drove a

previous debate. the campaigns say they will not require the next debate to meet their demands. instead the first stipulations could impact the cnn debate in las vegas scheduled for december. in seattle voters will vote on a type of campaign reform. this is interesting alan, tell us more about it. >> reporter: very interesting. it's not something that has been tried anywhere else. it's initiative 122, and it would use a property tax hike to

give money to candidates in city elections. as i-122 backers canvas and knock on doors, it's clear they know this vote has drawn nation-wide attention. this campaign leader calls that exciting. >> people are looking at seattle, because we're adding a new tool to the toolbox so we can fight the issue of big money in politics. >> reporter: opponents say the election laws are well drawn and strict already wi already. >> i done want seattle to be the guinea pig. >> reporter: here is how it would work, every january at the beginning of a two-year election cycle, each rotor would be mailed $445 vouchers. those vouchers could be assigned to candidates running for city office.

candidates would have to agree to new campaign fund-raising and campai campaign limits. the vouchers would provide around $6 million in funding every two years. the no side said it could hurt candidates who get into a race hate. >> what is likely to happen on january 2nd is people who are well organized are going to try to scoop those vouchers up while the money is available. >> reporter: as for spending on the campaign itself, on the no side, less than $50,000 has been reported total. much of the $1.3 million raised for the yes side has come from just a few big donations from individuals and non-profits outside of seattle. making this a big-money campaign for an anti big-money concept. in this race our opponents are

exclusively corporations. those are the only people supporting the opposition campaign. >> reporter: and my moth you are outstanding them 30-1. >> yeah, we have thousands of endorsers. >> what is being funded by 501 corganizations that don't disclose their donors. >> reporter: but for those volunteers it's a chance to try something new city wide, and supporters say they have heard from groups across the country who want to do the same thing. >> this sets the floor for political voice so that everyone has an opportunity to be at least a $100 donor. >> reporter: the voucher system would be funded by a 10-year, $30 million hike in property taxes. there hasn't been a lot of publicly released polling on

this. but seattleites have been shown to be willing to raise their own taxes in elections like this. also this is a stated -- the stated intent is to get big money out of campaigns and politics, but if campaign funding limits were broken because of outside expenditures then the election commission might allow everybody to break that as well. >> is this energizing the voters there in seattle? >> reporter: you know, it's really hard to tell. you would think it would in a city as blue as this, the kind of themes that they are dealing with here. but the election officials tell us ballots are coming in at a very slow rate. it looks like it is will be a little less than they were hoping for.

>> okay. we'll have to see. allen schauffler thank you. investigators confirmed today that the sunken cargo ship wreckage is in fact the ship they were have searching for. the national transportation safety board says it appears to have landed up right. it went missing a month during hurricane joaquin. no survivors were found. a tropical cyclone has ripped through a island near yearmen. kevin corriveau has more. >> it is a very dry area. i'm going to show you the geography on that. this was a shot taken from nasa,

you can see the eye right here. yemen up towards the north. somalia is also being effected by some of the powers. here is the big picture, the storm making its way towards the west along the coast, and because it is going parallel to the coast, we are not looking at landfall until probably tomorrow morning local time there. we're seeing showers down here towards somalia, but yemen will be getting the brunt of the storm. across that region, normally the annual rainfall is between 1 and 3 inches a year, but we expect to see probably 10 to 14 inches of rain. some places may even see heavier showers there. in this port city here, we are looking at 300,000 people, they are on the worst side of the storm, but because it is such an

arid area, a lot of those areas are at the base of dry riverbeds so it is going to be a big problem. crash investigators say the russian plane that went down on saturday broke up mid-flight, but they don't know why. the pilot reported no problems and officials say the plane was brought down by external sources. >> translator: there is no combination of systems failure that could lead to a breakup in the air. the only explanation could be a mechanical or physical impact. >> reporter: u.s. intelligence chief says so far he has seen no evidence the plane was brought

down by isil, but he is not ruling that out yet. let's bring in a former investigator of the national transportation safety board. we appreciate your time so very much. saying that the plane broke up in the air, what are the things that could possibly cause something like that? >> we are all read about the repairs to the tail in 2001, and we have seen aircraft lose part or all of their tail and crash. matter of fact worst single aircraft crash in history was a japan airlines crash where a bad repair caused this find of failure. of course i'm always speculating -- i'm not saying that is the only scenario, that's one of them. another thing is at these altitudes and speeds you have to

handle jet liners with kid gloves, and if you go 10 notts to fast or to slow, you can do serious damage to the airport. so if the automation introduced some sort of disturbance or there was a pressurization problem, a cabin fire, whatever, you can get an an ja lags, and the plane didn't just die, it actually climbed briefly and then dove, and then climbed again, and then dove. so this looks like this could be a mechanical distraction. and everything is still on the table, richelle. the only great news is it looks like all of the pieces of the puzzle are there. they have the recorders and the

physical evidence on the ground is in a desert, so it's very easy to see and recover. it's not like the malaysian 17 flight that was scattered all over a wide area. so i think the egyptians are going to do a good job of reconstructing and understanding what happened. >> alan let me interrupt you for a moment. when you hear the term external force, that's a really chilling term to hear. what do you hear when you hear something like that? >> well, to be blunt, it sounds to me like it may be wishful thinking. >> okay. why do you say that? >> because obviously his airline is under scrutiny, the president of russia, mr. putin has said we're going to improve aviation safety, so right now i'm sure there is a lot of potential, let me stress that word,

embarrassment for metro jet. and it may be wishful thinking, i'm not saying he would be intentionally lying. but i don't know how he would know that. >> the good news to your point is everything seems to be there to be able to determine what happen. and we have found the black boxes as well. alan thank you very much. i'm sure we will be calling on you again very soon. transcanada has suspended its application for the permit for the controversial keystone pipeline. president obama was expected to reject the application. low oil prices have also been hurting canada's oil industry. the project is now in a state of limbo beyond the 2016 presidential election. chipotle as shut down 43

restaurants in washington and oregon after a report of an outbreak of e. coli. 17 people had eaten at a chipotle restaurant in the last 17 weeks. sabrina health officials believe we're going to see more cases of e. coli from this outbreak why is that? >> reporter: the first reason is the gestational period from e. coli and other bacteria illnesses lasts up to 10 days. this lasted about a week, so if you add 10 days, it's about this period right now. another reason may be that people were ill and didn't report to their public health department. they may have just not realized about the outbreak.

the third reason is because doctors are just getting in the latest numbers to the public health department. there is no official word on the exact source of the outbreak, but chip oelt lay has provided food items for testing. a lot of us worry about uncooked meat and meat in general when we go to restaurants to eat, but fresh fruit and vegetables and getting any kind of food poisoning is a concern. we spoke to a leading attorney in the country based here in seattle. he has handled lots of food-safety cases, and he said while the issue of food safety gets more attention than it did decades ago, there are still a lot of cases involving fruits and vegetables. here is what he -- had to say. >> we're not seeing the large

fruit and vegetable outbreaks. and that's a good thing. we're seeing outbreaks that are medium sized, 40 to 200 people getting sick at a particular chain. i think that's where the focus has to be. how are we going to make those outlets safer. >> reporter: he handled a big case here in the 1990s, involving hamburger meat and a fast-food chain here in the pacific northeast, and he said the meat industry was under incredible scrutiny since that outbreak, and he said they really cleaned up their act, but as far as food poisoning involving fruits and vegetables, it hasn't seen the same kind of scrutiny. there has always been a lot of scientific testing that has been taking place, but we're not

seeing a lot in terms of reporting. he said the reporting is not any better. he said during the height of the recession, a lot of the departments had less money to be able to really investigate food safety and poisoning, and he said that may be one of the reasons. >> sabrina thank now. a landmark day for the international space station.

♪ filmmaker, quentin tarantino is expected to publicly apologize for comments he made about police officers at a rally in new york last month. he will reportedly public an op-ed in a newspaper. police have called for a boycott of his movies, after he made a reference of exsensitive force by police, he was quoted as saying: karl dix is cofounder of stop mass incarceration, and was a leader in last month's protests

where mr. quentin tarantino made the comments. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> tell me more about the protests where quentin tarantino made the comments. what was the purpose of the protest? >> the purpose of the protest was to stop police terror and pose a sharp question to all of society, which side are you on? because we have seen too many cases of police killing unarmed innocent people, police brutallizing people like the little girl in the south carolina school, and we have seen the legal system do something to punish hardly any of these killer cops, and we felt it was very necessary for people to stand up, rise up, and to say that this must stop, and to challenge everybody to look at this and decide whether they are on the side of acting to stop it or on the side that says

it is okay for it to continue to go down, because there's no middle ground and neutrality in the face of this kind of injustice. >> i want to read you a statement that was posted online about what quentin tarantino said, it said: do you think they have a point? >> no, they don't have a point. what this protest was about, was about police who literally are allowed to get away with murder. i saw eric garner choked to death. the grand jury and the prosecutor could see no criminal activity in that. well, i saw it. and you can tell me that that's legal and they did nothing

wrong, but slavery, enslaving african american was at one time legal, jim crow terror was at one time viewed as legal. they are telling us that killing people, especially blacks and latinos is legal. that's not something i accept. i don't think anyone who stood with the families members and together with them, said that this brutality and this murder, this terror has to stop has anything to apologize for. >> are you disappointing that you are hearing -- at least one publication is reporting that he might apologize for his comments. >> i'm waiting to hear what he has to say. because i have heard the reports. i'm going to see what he has to say. but i don't think anybody who participated in that protest has

anything to apologize for. and what mr. quentin tarantino said is he talked about cops who are killing people unjustly and getting away with it. i'm going to wait to hear what he has to say. hi, richelle, coming up tonight at 8:00, midair mystery, what brought down an airliner over egypt. tonight the new questions about the aircraft's repair history and the growing anger from the victim's families. and a referendum in houston to establish discrimination protection for gay and transgender people. >> it would create a local solution to a local problem. >> city of houston prop 1 is not about equality, it's about

allowing men in women's locker rooms and bathrooms. also my interview with the evangelical minister who has joined an unlikely group to counter violence. >> it's god moral law, and that's the question i want to put to evangelical christians. plus we'll take a look back at the life of ted thompson. all of those stories and more coming up in about five minutes. the international space station has continuously inhabited for 15 years. will we see another 15? >> reporter: 400 kilometers above the earth astronauts spent

a 7-hour space walk doing maintenance and repairs. it's a constant task to keep the international space station in working order in the harsh environment of outer space. scott kelly recently completed seven straight months on the station a record for a u.s. astronaut. >> as things age we're going to have more maintenance requirements. but we have a lot of spare parts, spare parts outside. we have plans for changing those things, and, you know, keeping this space station flying a long time into the future. >> reporter: as a floating space laboratory, the iss has been the scene of thousands of successful experiments. but just how long the iss will remain in orbit is a political and economic question. the iss is a joint project of the u.s., russia, japan, and the

european union. funding for the effort is not growing. and political friction between the u.s. and russia over ukraine, briefly caused russia to suggest that u.s. astronauts would not be allowed to fly on its rockets. those issues have been smoothed over, and russia says it will continue to participate for now. but some space scientists suggest money spent on the iss might be better dedicated to a voyage to mars. >> the future of the iss is pretty certain over the next decade, but once you get beyond 2024, then it becomes very uncertain. at some .1 would have to transition resources to orbiting mars with humans or whatever the next step is here. >> reporter: perhaps the biggest accomplishment the space station has made is to provide a wealth

of knowledge about how the human body holds up during long stints in space, knowledge that will be essential for a successful trip to mars or beyond. i'm richelle carey. thanks for watching.

hi, everyone, this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. crash clues. new details in the russian jet liner disaster. >> translator: the only possible explanation for a breakup of the aircraft in the air could be a certain impact. the latest on the investigation. race and justice. the death penalty case heading to the supreme court. did prosecutors make sure it was an all-