soul searching, wil when it comes back next year will it be necessary? >> more on that and everything else we're covering on our website www.aljazeera.com. >> i don't know what you're talking about. >> donald trump doing damage control from support of a former leader of the kkk. >> this is 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] so y'all be watching neal patrick harris right now.

>> chris rock taking aim at the lack of diversity in hollywood as tinseltown celebrates its big night. ♪ >> this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm del walters. the presidential candidates are making their final pitches today. millions of people in 12 states heading to the polls tomorrow. for democrats, 865 delegates are up for grabs. that's about a third of what is needed to win the party's nomination. on the republican side 595 delegates are at stake. that's about halfway to the g.o.p. convention. we are live in three key states this morning. al jazeera's ash har quaraishi is live for us in richmond, virginia. jonathan martin is in birmingh birmingham, alabama. we'll begin with heidi zhou castro in texas. texas is extremely important for the republicans.

to begin with, 155 delegates. but is this a make or break state for ted cruz? >> that's what most observers are saying, del. ted cruz is leading in the polls in his home state of texas ahead of donald trump by about 13 points. but trump has advantage in all the other super tuesday states. ted cruz knows he's in the fight for his political life here in texas. now a rally for ted cruz is just letting out behind me. i have to say comparing the size of this crowd to what i saw at donald trump's rally last friday, this is about five times smaller. also the make up of the crowd very different. not quite as unbridled enthusiasm, slightly older crowd. the same crowd that in the past would have supported greg abbott or rick perry here in texas. so ted cruz taking aim at donald trump knowing that's his competition to beat, attacking trump for his record on the second amendment.

>> i'll point out to you my two leading competitors have both previously supported banning guns. donald trump supported bill clinton's law banning the possession of many of the most popular firearms in america. and marco rubio in the city council in west miami voted to ban guns in city parks. i'll tell you right now i have never and i will never support banning guns because i believe in the second amendment right to keep and bear arms. >> we saw cruz trying to steer the narrative away from donald trump back to cruz's attack of the obama administration saying he would abolish obamacare and he will abolish the irs. >> heidi, texas has a large latino population, is that expected to be a major factor? >> it really depends on how many latino republican voters turn

out for this primary, del, and historically that number has always been low. though, here in texas voting numbers are well over 1 million, which is on pace to beat that of 2008. so it's really no telling. ted cruz is a cuban american as well as marco rubio. they're facing donald trump, who in nevada won the latino hispanic vote, and he's looking to do the same here in texas. >> and the former president, bill clinton campaigning for his wife all day long. he's popular in texas even though it's a red state. what is he telling the voters? >> yes, with hillary clinton now crisscrossing the country she has sent her husband to be surrogate here in texas. he's campaigning in three different texas cities today. he's really trying to capitalize among the base minority voters, especially among the latinos and blacks.

>> heidi zhou castro, thank you very much. and the polls showing donald trump with a large lead among most of those states. he's facing criticism this morning over one of his backers, the g.o.p. front runners refusing an endorsement of this man, the grand wizard of the k kkk. >> do you condemn them and you don't want their support? >> well, i have to look at the group. i mean, i don't know what group you're talking about. >> i'm talking about david duke and the klu klux klan. >> honestly, i don't know david duke. i don't believe i've ever met him. i just don't know anything about him. >> trump later tweeted he disavowed the endorsement. this morning he said it was a bad ear piece and said he could hardly hear the questions being asked in that interview on cnn. and trump picking up a big endorsement on super tuesday,

alabama senator jeff sessions campaigning on sunday, sessions is the chairman on the senate committee on immigration and said he stands behind trump's immigration plan. is that endorsement by jeff sessions a big win? >> it certainly is a boost because jeff sessions in alabama is popular among the republicans in the state. he's also now among the first u.s. senator to come out and publicly endorse donald trump. whether this is a game changer most would say not so much because he was already holding a commanding lead in the state of alabama. some of the national and state polls showing 18 percentage points close to his nearest rival, which would be marco rubio. he held a big rally here in the state yesterday. about 20,000 people showed up. in fact, some of trumps' biggest rallies throughout his entire campaign so far have been here in the state of alabama where he

had strong support from conservatives, evangelicals and so at this point it looks like trump will win the state of alabama and as far as who will come in second that remains to be seen. a few months ago it might have been ted cruz who would been a sure shot in the south but now marco rubio is projected to come out in second place as he has picked up key endorsements of his own here in alabama. >> let's talk about big mo on the difficultic side. hillary clinton with that massive win in south carolina. is she expecting the same in alabama? >> well, she's really hoping to get the same type of support here. you know, we all know that she had a he very decisive victory in. she's hoping with seven other southern state voting tomorrow that she could pull out big wins like that. we know in south korea she had strong, strong support among african-american voters. that's part of the reason she spent her time this weekend in alabama at miles coming, a

historically black college here where she spoke to 3,000 people. she spoke directly to some of the issues that many african-americans voters are concerned about. she talked about criminal justice reform, raising the minimum wage. she's expected to come out with a victory, also realizing she has to get the african-american vote in states like alabama, georgia, and arkansas. >> we see all those signs that she's fighting for us. who is "us" and what are the issues that voters are talking about where you are, in alabama? >> well, a lot of voters, you have to keep in mind, especially when it comes to the g.o.p. voters, 70% of voters here in what you would call the deep south are evangelicals. a lot of them are concerned about the typical issues like abortion and religious freedom. but we also heard uniform theme really across the country and also here when it comes to border security and illegal immigration. those are the things that candidates are talking about. and hillary clinton pushing directly to some of the issues

that african-americans voters are concerned about she feels. so you hear her message being more about the minimum wage and criminal justice reform. >> jonathan martin for us live in birmingham, alabama. thank you very much. and in another key state tomorrow, virginia. 110 delegates on the democratic side. 49 on the republicans. ash har quaraishi for us in richmond, virginia, aside from the raw delegate count, why is virginia so important? >> well, over the last few years virginia has seen becoming a battle grown state for 40 years up until 2008 it was largely a red state. it has largely become a purple state, and it's something that a number of these candidates are taking very seriously. only three candidates at this point are supported by ad campaigns here in the state. marco rubio, donald trump and hillary clinton. all three of them are making final pushes in the state. marco rubio was here on sunday. hillary clinton was at several events, and donald trump is

currently speaking to a crowd ated at radford university. he had more to talk about when it came to supporters here. let's take a listen to what he had to say. >> i'll be campaigning in new york. i love new york, okay? i will be campaigning in new york. if we win new york, it's over, you understand because we pick up so many delegates. we're also doing really well in michigan. >> and del, one of the other reasons that virginia is important is that it traditionally has a make up now demographic make up very close to the national picture. it's one of those places that these candidates can look to in terms of how well they do here and how that may translate moving forward as they get closer to the november election. >> what are the polls saying about just who is leading? >> well, recent poll from newport university shows that donald trump has six points over a second place marco rubio.

and then ted cruz rounds out the g.o.p. candidates in third place. hillary clinton has had a strong showing here. she's expected to do well here in the polls and she's trying to build on that momentum coming out of a huge win in south carolina where the african-american vote was a big boost for her. one in six african-americans supporting having in south carolina. and expect that to care over here. >> and the governor of virginia ran bill clinton's 199 campaign. but he's doing things different than other states in the primary. explain what happens there tomorrow. >> that's right, del, virginia is one of 14 states that is an open primary which means that voters don't have to have a party affiliation when they vote. that's something that has been a challenge for g.o.p. leaders here who over the last to you years have been discussing ways to deal with that. one of the proposals they decided on in september was to require a state statement of intent from voters who are going

to vote republican to make sure they did in fact do that. that's something that they scrapped in the last few weeks and decided not to do that. again, this is an open primary along with 14 other states. >> ash har quaraishi for us live in richmond, virginia. thank you very much. bernie sanders picking up a key endorsement from hawai'i's gabbert one of the first female combat vets to serve. she wants the united states to avoid, in her words, interventionist wars of regime change. end quote. up next on al jazeera america, the arrest of a murder suspect who is accused of shooting and killing a rookie police officer who died on her first day on the job. plus cyber bombs and why the defense department say they're an important tool in the fight against isil.

>> "inside story" takes you beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the soundbites. we're giving you a deeper dive into the stories that are making our world what it is. >> you a member of navy team 6, just moments ago. >> before this only five navy seal have been awarded the medal of honor.

>> byers earned that honor by requestinin in 2012. >> moderates and reformers in iran pulling off a major victory against hard line clerics there. president hassan rouhani and his allies winning 15 out of tehran's 16 seats of assembly of experts, the body that will choose the country's next supreme leader and moderates and reformists win the parliament election. now the u.s. is using cyber bombs to discorrupt isil's communications as they continue efforts to isolate isil to de facto countries. carter promised to do more when time comes. push isil out of raqq and mosul.

the national security jamie mcintyre is live for us. how much detail did the pentagon outline on the new cyber strategy and what they're trying to do. >> they described it in very broad terms. the u.s. is not just dropping regular bombs on isil and iraq and syria, but also cyber bombs. what he meant was that the u.s. is using it's new cyber command to mount attacks to try to deny isil access to the internet. so that they can not communicate with their--the people in the region. and also can't send their message out to the world. the pentagon said that it's not going to give a lot of details because it does not want isil to know what it is doing, but both secretary ash carter and the joint chief chairman talked about it at today's pentagon briefing. >> we can't allow them to freely command control enemy forces. it's just lake in any other war, we have to attack their

commanding control. one of the ways thats of doing it. it may have beneficial effect of driving them to the kinds of communications that it's in fact, easier for us to disrupt. >> we're trying to make life difficult for isil, and we're trying to stay a step ahead of them. we're trying to force them to make changes and discorrupt their communications and then we can anticipate some of the adaptations they're going to make and stay a step ahead of them. >> it's a shift in strategy because the old strategy was to sort of let isil communicate and then try to monitor and get intelligence from had a that communication. now the pentagon has decided it's more in their interest to shut isil done. they're doing that in a number of ways. they're overloading the isil systems denial of service attacks and they're also trying to get in and sabotag sabotage and force them into lower tech means of communications, and as you heard, things they could

listen to more civilly. all part of a broodser plan to put the squeeze on isil, isolate them and cut them off from their lines of supply and support. >> jamie, besides the cyber strategy, did you get a clue what else the defense department might be doing? >> they're promising to do a lot more, especially in iraq where iraqi forces are beginning to get in position to retake mosul. something that might or might not happen this year. and you may recall that when the iraqi forces went into ramadi the u.s. offered a patchy attack helicopters, who said no thank you we don't need those. but secretary carter believes that because of the scale of mosul, the iraqi government will accept more of that help. which could include u.s. advisers closer to the front lines. apache helicopters providing air power from the air and all kinds

of additional logistics as they put together that operation. again, the joint chief chairman when that happened this year he simply said, i don't know. >> jamie, thank you very much. american college student held by north korea for the last two months confessing that he broke 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 motivation of the korean people. >> that is the confession made earlier today during a nuns conference from pyongyang. he said that he took down a banner with the north korean slogan. the state department so far is declining to talk about his ca

case. newly released e-mail showing michigan's governor accepting e-mails from the summer of 2015. his office saying that those filters were concerns for things such as odor and taste but not health issues and e-mails reveal anonymous doers of $20,000 as meyer and clorox. th28-year-old ashbly was welcomed to the prince william county police department with this twitter picture and the message be safe. but she was killed just the 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 respond to go a domestic abuse call from 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. investigators say that hamilton's wife was found dead inside the home. his 11-year-old son was 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 at all. >> 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 bachelor degrees in aeronautics and a masters in science. >> still ahead, the diversity debate.

>> i'm here at the academy awards. otherwise known as the white people's choice awards. >> chris rock tackles 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.

>> royal caribbean anthem of the seas coming home early once again after sealing in hurricane force wins. this week it was nearly caught

in another storm on its way to the caribbean. several people on the board sickened with norovirus. so the captain decided to cut short the cruise. now to the oscars. we have charges and reports on how the charges of racism from tackelled head on. >> the oscar goes to "spotlight." >> a movie about the catholic church cover up of sexual abuse by priests took home best picture. >> and the oscar goes to leonardo di cap proio. >> and he won his first oscar after his nominations in his role in "the revenant." but chris rock would go back to diversity in hollywood. >> 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. >> he suggested the answer was african-americans had bigger things to protest 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 black nominated. >> it's also not fair that will was paid $20 million for wild, wild west. >> there were some hard truths about hollywood. >> hollywood is sorority racist. we like you, rhonda, but you're not a kappa. >> he told the story of a white house event takenned by many of his fellow celebrities and

recalled telling president obama this. >> mr. president, you see all these writers, producers, 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 passed away was not spared from rock's analysis. >> this year in the i am emmorale package is it going to be black people shot by cops on the way to the movies. >> a number of acts from whoopi goldberg and tracy morgan in skits what it showed what it would be like for black actors to play famous roles. >> look at me, i'm black thespian. >> you should get me. >> don't worry, black astronaut, we will. >> it will cost $2,500? >> that's expensive. should we leave them up there?

>> "mad max fury road" took home the most oscars with six. >> alejandro g.inarritu. >> he grabbed his second straight oscar in the directing category. and brie larson won best actress for "room." >> and finally for this hour a message of love turning up in france four years after it went on a trip around the world, ben and julie johnson getting engaged on valentine days. to celebrate they put the message and a dollar bill in a bottle in the caribbean. four years later that bottle washed ashore in france. he text them saying he found the bottle with the message ben and julie forever. no word on what he plans to do with the dollar. thanks for joining us, i'm del walters. the news continues live from london next.

>> this is al jazeera. >> holm there i'm barbara serra. this is the newshour, from doha. thank you for joining us. coming up in the next 60 minutes. scuffles and tear gas on the greek mast toanian border as refugees try to break through the fence. despite sporadic fighting in syria a u.n. aid convoy reaches a besieged town during the