>> for more go to www.aljazeera.com. >> we're counting down the super tuesday with hillary clinton counting down success into more big wins. >> i don't know what group you're talking about. >> donald trump in damage control mode over support of a former leader of the kkk. >> this was a sad day for everybody in this room. it's a sad day for law enforcement. >> a soldier due in court accused of killing a rookie police officer on her first day on the job. >> if they nominated hosts i

wouldn't even get this job. [laughter] you would be watching neal patrick harris right now. >> sin tinseltown celebrates its big night. >> this is al jazeera america live in new york city. i'm del walters. the presidential candidates making their final pitches today. millions of people in 12 states heading to the polls pom. for democrats full republicans at stake. just under halfway of the jon convince. we're live in very important states this morning. ash har quaraishi is in richmond virginia, and ontan martin is in birmingham, alabama. we're going to begin with heidi

zhou. is it a make or break state for ted cruz? >> that's what all signs are pointing towards del. ted cruz knows he's in a political fight in texas. showing 13 points ahead of donald trump here on his home turf. but he's leading in all the other super tuesday states. he's threat even in his home state. here outside of a rally where ted cruz is about to take the stage i spoke to some of his supporters who said it's never too late. >> i think he'll win. i think he can win a lot more than people give him credit for. it is not a forgone conclusion that donald trump is going to win this thing. if we all go and vote our conscious, and for our convictions, ted cruz can win it. he's the only conservative on the whole platform.

he could definitely win it. >> and ted cruz calling on his friends and fellow political superstars on his behalf. we're expecting to see texas governor greg abbott and rick perry also take the stage next to cruz. >> heidi, texas has a sizable latino population, is that expected to be a factor tomorrow? >> it reality depends on how many latinos turn out. especially those who vote in the republican primary. historically that turn out is very low in texas. however, the state is reporting very high very early turn outs. many texans have cast a vote. we know in nevada donald trump won with 44% of the latino vote among primary republican voters and he's trying to do the same here in texas. >> before i let you go, bill clinton stumping for his wife

today. he's popular in the lonestar state despite the fact that it is normally a red state. what is his message to voters there? >> so as hillary crosses the country she's counting on her husband to visit three texas state. he's expecteded to target minorities blacks and latinos who historically have supported hillary clinton in the past. >> heidi, we thank you very much. also the poll showing donald trump with a sizable lead in most of those states this morning he's facing criticism over one of his backers the republicanners frontrunner refusing to condemn an endorsement from grand wizard david duke, kkk. he said he needed more information about the man. >> even if you don't know about their endorsement there are these groups endorsing you. can you say unequivalent you condemn them and you don't want their support? >> well, i have to look at the

group. i don't know what group you're talking about. >> i'm talking about dave duke and the klu klux klan. >> i don't know david duke. i don't believe i've ever met him. i don't know anything about him. >> now trump later tweeting that he disavowed the endorsement. this morning blaming a bad ear piece saying he could hardly hear the questions he was being asked during that cnn interview. and trump picking up a sizable endorsement ahead of super tuesday bam senator jeff sessions campaigning this sunday. he said he stands behind trump's immigration plan. jonathan martin live for us in birmingham alabama right now. is session's endorsement a big win for donald trump? >> well, del it is certainly a significant boost. he's popular among the alabama republicans, and this means that trump has the first endorsement from an u.s. senator he's the

first senator to come out and endorse donald trump. whether he needed it before tomorrow? likely not. if you look at the polls, donald trump has a commanding lead over his rivals. in fact, some of the polls show him ahead as by many 18 and 20 percentage points in the state of alabama. he did have a big rally in the state where easily 20,000 people came out. in fact, some of trumps' biggest rallies throughout the campaign so far have been in alabama where he continues to have strong strong support from conservatives and from evangelical voters. as far as who will finish in second here that remains to be seen. a few months ago it might have been seen that ted cruz was a shore shot. but now some polls show him in third as marco rubio has recently picked up key endorsements here in alabama. in the state of alabama 50 delegates up for grabs on the republican glide and hillary clinton winning by double digits

in south carolina, can she do the same in alabama? >> she's certainly hopeing to continue that southern support. seven southern states are voting tomorrow. she has spent some time here in alabama over the weekend along with her husband bill clinton. she spent time at a historically small black college really trying to get the same type of support that she had in south carolina. talking about raising the minimum wage, talking about support for historically black colleges and criminal justice reform. she's really stumping hard here as well. >> this is the first presidential campaign where there is no majority population. what are the issues, the issues that voters are talking about? >> well, in addition to things like i said, the minimum wage and criminal justice reform. you have to keep in mind of the g.o.p. voters 70% here in the state and really in this deep south region are evangelicals. so they're talking about issues

like abortion and religious freedom. when you go to some of these rallies. they haven't been necessarily talking about the issues. immigration like we've seen across the country really seems to be one of the dominant themes. we're hearing donald trump and other candidates talking about the border control issues. >> another key state tomorrow virginia won 110 delegates for the democratic side. 49 for the republicans. we're live in richmond, aside from the raw delegate count where "y" is virginia so important for all the candidates. >> virginia has become a battleground state. as you mentioned, 49 delegates up for grabs for republicans. 110 for democrats. 95 of those delegates are still up for grabs. and but it's also one of those states that's changed democrat

graphicallychangechanged demographically. three candidates are advertising they still have support campaign advertisements going on in virginia. hillary clinton, donald trump and marco rubio. and none of those candidates are taking for granted super tuesday and what it means here in virginia. all are campaigning here. donald trump who was here last week returning again. he'll be speaking at a rally hillary clinton also speaking around the state today and marco rubio arrived on sunday when he spoke to supporters and again continued to criticize the g.o.p. frontrunner donald trump. >> this has been a very different election year, and things have worked out in ways no one has anticipated. as a result today the republican party, the conservative movement, the party of lincoln and reagan is on the verge potentially of nominating a con

artist to be the nominee for president. >> and del as we were talking about earlier virginia is also a good litmus test for those candidates. the demographic make up in the state very closely matches that of what was happening in the national election back in '08 and 20/12, and it's a good indication of how these candidates would fare. >> what about the polls, what are the polls saying about who has it's lead in virginia? >> well, right now the latest polls here in virginia show that trump has about 6-point lead ahead of marco rubio can ted cruz rounding out the g.o.p. in third. hillary clinton with an edge over bernie sanders. she's coming off momentum in south carolina where she had a huge showing there. and so the faiths right now are clinton and trump. but of course, this is an open primary, so anybody can vote for

anybody. that's one of the different things that happens here in virginia compared to some of the other states. >> ash har quaraishi live in richmond virginia. thank you very much. bernie sanders picking up a key endorsement, a rising star. a gabbert said as a veteran she wants the united states to avoid, in her words interventionist wars and regime change. end quote. the weather is going to be an issue for voters in some parts of the country. >> two systems we're watching right now. one pulling through the northeast pretty quickly. this is going to develop and cause us some problems as we get into super tuesday. so, as i said, the one clears out but behind that, already starting to develop today and especially once it picks up mostture into tomorrow becoming more widespread before hitting

the east coast into the day on wednesday. so what that means in terms of the forecast, already today we could have enough instability for a slight risk of severe weather right around oklahoma. hail would be the biggest threat. by tomorrow it becomes much more widespread. that could keep some people if whyfy about going to the polls. in the meantime, temperatures will go down a little bit for the east coast tomorrow after the current front but still in the 50s and 60s today. and the real heat is portions of the central plains will stay in the 70s. the temperatures will cool 10 or 20 degrees tomorrow behind that next system. back to you. >> thank you very much. up next on al jazeera america. an arrest in the murder of a rookie police officer shot and killed on her first day of work.

>> the only live national news show at 11:00 eastern. >> we start with breaking news. >> let's take a closer look. >> newly released video shows the water in flint michigan, was safe to drink. releasing e-mails of the summer of 2015. the filters were for concerns of odor and taste now health issues. and they show the donation of $20,000 for filters from meyer and clorox. today an officer accused of killing a rookie police officer on her first day on the job. >> reporter: the 28-year-old was welcomed to the prince william

police department with this twitter picture and the message be safe. but she was killed just a day after being sworn in. >> it's a sad day for everybody in this room. it's a sad day for law enforcement. >> she was on patrol saturday responding to a domestic violence call at this home when she and two other officers were shot. >> i just want to be clear do we have officers involved in a shooting? >> we have three officers who have been shot. >> the suspect is 32-year-old army staff sergeant ronald hamilton assigned to the pentagon. the investigators say that his wife was found dead inside the home. his 11-year-old son also home but not hurt. she was rushed to the hospital where she died. >> when news came that she passed, it definitely hit us. we weren't expecting it. >> her history with the department goes back to 2011 when she started out as an intern. she spent six years as a marine corp reservist and earned a

bachelors degree in aeronautics and a masters degree in science. >> she had a passion that went beyond. >> her patrol car is draped in black and covered in flowers. the other two officers shot is expected to recover. >> police say they're not going to release the body camera footage after they fatally shot a 17-year-old. witnesses say it happened late saturday night. the teen was reportedly attacking someone who was homeless and who had been drinking. he had a metal stick and he was using it as a weapon. his identity has not been released. >> a college student has confessed to breaking the law. >> on the early morning of january 1, 2016, i committed my crime. of taking out the important political slogan from the staff-only area of the international hotel. aimed at harming the work ethic

and the motivation of the korean people. >> he made that confession during anus strong in pyongyang. he said he took down that banner that featured a north korean political slogan. he said he asked to speak. the state department declining to comment. a major victory against hard ironicallyics. president hassan rouhani winning 15 of state 16 seats in the an i systembly of experts, the body that will choose the next supreme leader. modists sweeping all 30 of the seatsburg the parliamentary elections. more than 30 million iranians voted. ash carter said that the u.s. is using cyber bombs. at a news conference carter promising to do more when time comes to push isil out of raqqa

and mosul. our national security correspondent is live. tell us what you can about this new cyber strategy. >> part of the u.s. strategy to defeat isil in iraq and syria is to begin to isolate them, force them to be confined to their de facto capitals in mosul and in raqqa and they've been doing that through airstrikes and action on the ground. now the defense secretary tear said they're using another potent weapon. something that he calls cyber tools, or cyber bombs and essentially they're trying to deny isil access to the internet either three overloading their systems, something that we know as denial of service attacks or perhaps infecting their computers and they're trying to do it in a way that isil won't know exactly when and how it's happening. here is the explanation we got from joint chief chairman a

short time ago. >> we don't want them to add that information or allow them to adapt over time. we want them to be surprised and frankly they're going to experience some friction that is associated with us and some friction that is associated with the normal course of dealing with the information age and frankly we don't want them to know the difference. >> now secretary ash carter said that the u.s. has conducted cyberattacks against isil, and they're already having an effect. but as the general explained they don't want to say exactly what they're doing and how they're doing it. >> and jamie the critics have been saying that the united states seems to always be playing catch up when it comes to cyberattacks. does this plan have a chance of having an effect? >> well, up until now the pentagon has been taking the view that they didn't want to disrupt too much of the isil communications because it learns a lot from them. it can monitor them and see what they're doing, and now they're

deciding well, they're going to take the other attack. they're shut down that communication and force isil to communicate other ways that may be more low tech but also might be easier for the u.s. to eavesdrop on. it's a sophisticated campaign. it involves some trade-offs of intelligence and there is always the possibility it could just drive isil into communicating in ways that are either on the dark net or other places where the u.s. can't monitor their communications. so the idea here is to deny isil access to the internet so that it can't spread its message locally and also worldwide as it tries to recruit more to its janet. >> jamie mcintyre for us. thank you very much. on that note there have been more airstrikes targeting isil fighters inside libya. planes targeted a convoy of suspected isil members on sunday. three explosions rocking a town

around dawn is when it happened. no one claiming responsibility for those strikes yet. the u.s. also saying it was not involved. the pentagon launching two airstrikes against the group last year. the truce in syria in its third day but the syrian opposition saying that russia has violateed that truce. new video that was posted online is said to show the city of homs and idlib being targeted by helicopters and military warplanes. one of those videos appears to show a helicopter dropping a barrel bomb. airstrikes are said to have had hit the rebel held areas. opposition forces blaming those strikes on russian warplanes. a member of sale team 6 receiving the nation's highest military honors just moments ago. edward byers jr. with the medal of honor. >> consider this in the entire history of navy seals just five

have been awarded the medal of honor. norris kerry thornton, murphy, monsour and now a sixth byers. >> he earned that honor for helping to rescue an american hostage in afghanistan in 2012. he had to take down several taliban fighters to save a fellow navy seal dying in that mission. still ahead, the diversity debate. >> here at the academy awards otherwise known as the white people's choice awards. >> chris rock takes on the issue of racism in hollywood at the oscars, and more trouble for that royal caribbean cruise ship damaged in rough seas earlier this month.

>> world caribbean anthem of the seas is forced to come home after sailing into hurricane-force winds last month, and this week almost caught in another storm back to the caribbean. several people on board also got sick with norovirus, so the captain decided to cut down the cruise by two days. it will drop anger in new jersey on wednesday. the talk coming out of last night's oscars has more to do with adversity than who won. we were reports of charges of racism tackled head on.

>> the oscar goes to spotlight. >> the movie about the cover up of sexual abuse by catholic priests took home the best picture. >> and the oscar goes to leonardo dicaprio. >> leonardoleonardo dicaprio con best actor. >> i'm here at the academy awards otherwise known as the white people's choice awards. >> in his trademark blunt style rock dove right in from the opening monologue to the final moment. >> and he suggested the answer was african-americans had bigger things to protests for the last 88 years. >> when their grandmothers are swinging from a tree, it's really hard to care about best documentary of foreign shorts. >> he also took a jab at jada

pinkett-smith who stayed home over lack of african-american nominees and. >> it was not fared that will was paid $20 million for wild, wild west, okay? >> but there were some hard truths about hollywood. >> hollywood is sorority racists racists. we like you rhonda, but you're not a kappa. >> he told of a white house house event attended by many of his fellow celebrities and recalls telling president obama this. >> mr. president, do you see all these writers producers and actors they don't hire black people. and they're the nicest white people on earth. they're liberals. cheese. even the famous list of celebrities who passed away did not escape rock's analysis. >> this year it will be just be

black people shot by the cops on the way to the movies. >> were whoopi goldberg and tracy morgan who took part of a skit who showed black actors playing famous white roles. >> look at me, a black thespian. >> yes you should get me. >> don't worry black astronaut we will. >> it will cost $2,500. >> oh, that's a lot. can we just leave him up there. >> "mad max fury road." >> as far as this awards, "mad max fury roads" took home the most oscars, six. the director grabbed his second straight oscar in the directing category and brie larson won best actress for "room." >> on the issue of diversity hollywood is a multi billion dollar industry. thanks for joining us. i'm del walters from new york.

the news continues live from london, next. >> tear gas on the greek macedonian border as refugees try to break through the fence. >> hello there i'm barbara serra. you're watching al jazeera live from london. also coming up on the programish programish despite sporadic fighting the u.n. said that the shaky cease-fire is holding by and large. how women and babies are dying in south sudan because of the mass shortage of blood. >> i never should