we are keeping our cameras ready at the united nations for that press conference we're going to get on the appalling levels of violence on the south sudan civil war. we'll come to that as soon as it begins. aljazeera.com. aljazeera.com for all of the world news. ♪ from critic to comrade, ben carson endorses donald trump. downpours inundates louisiana and texas. and dishonorable discharge, two top executives lose their jobs amid a spending scandal at the wounded warrior project. ♪

this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm richelle carey. big boost today for donald trump's presidential bid. dr. ben carson has announced he is endorsing the man who repeatedly mocked him earlier in the campaign. >> it's not about me. it's not about mr. trump. it it's america. i have found in talking with him, that, you know, there's a lot more alignment, philosophically and spiritually than i ever thought there was. >> the announcement comes a week after he suspended his campaign. and could give trump a leg up with evangelicals. michael shure has more from florida. >> reporter: and donald trump gets the big endorsement from dr. ben carson, the most important part of which was when carson gave him the sale of approval because of his spirituality. saying he is spiritually okay.

that's what tramp wants evangelical voters to hear. the debate last night showed a different side of donald trump. unlike previous republican debates characterized by personal attacks and discord, thursday's debate in miami featured an intense discussion of the economy, education, and foreign policy. the first question of the nighting went to governor kasick on whether his support of trade deals was undermining the middle class. >> my position has always been we want to have free trade, but fair trade. when down tries cheat and they take advantage of us, we need to blow the whistle. >> reporter: they differed on the issue of social security solven solvency. >> i would retire at 68, it would be a graduating scale. >> i want to make america great again, and leave social security as is. >> but marco rubio challenged

donald trump on the numbers saying that they simply don't add up. >> you still have hundreds of billions of dollars of deficit that you are going to have to make up. >> reporter: cruz suggesting that trump has a history of giving money to both sides. >> if you have a candidate who has been funding liberal democrats, and funding the washington establishment, it's very hard to imagine how suddenly this candidate is going to taken washington. >> reporter: we're all in this together. we're going to come up with solutions. find the answers to things, and so far i can't believe how civil it has been up here. >> reporter: nationally being in miami the conversation drifted to diplomatic relations with cuba. miami is home to the largest cuban american population in the country. both cruz and rubio are of cuban

decent. the candidate spoke up. >> cuba and its regime remains an anti american, communist dictatorship, is harboring fugitives of american justice, including people stealing our medicare money and moving back to cuba all in exchange for nothing. [ cheers ] >> reporter: trump was also questioned about recent incidents of violence at his rallies. >> reporter: people come with tremendous passion and love for the country, and when they see protests -- in some cases -- you are mentioning one case, which i haven't seen, i heard about it, which i don't like, but when they see what is going on in this country, they have anger that is unbelievable. >> reporter: the possibility of a brokered convention looming, trump painted a process that he says boils down to two candidates. >> i'm going to have the delegates. okay? i think whoever gets the most delegates should win.

>> if you are one of the 65, 70% of republicans who recognizes that if we nominate donald trump hillary clinton wins. that's why the media wants him to be the candidate so much. if you recognize that, i want to invite you to come join us. >> reporter: the next big contests are tuesday, where ohio and florida will be up for grabs. >> michael shure, al jazeera, miami, florida. hillary clinton is taking a break from cam containing to attend nancy reagan's funeral. bernie sanders held rallies in tampa and gainesville. he is hoping for an upset win in the state. telling the crowd he is getting the same feeling he had in michigan where he defeated clinton. first lady michelle obama will also at tend nancy reagan's

funeral this afternoon. thousands of people have been filing past her casket over the last two days. nancy reagan will be buried next to her late husband. could be another day before the rain lets up in the south. at least five people are dead across the region, and a state of emergency is in effect for parts of louisiana. jonathan martin reports from new orleans. >> reporter: from louisiana to texas to tennessee. much of the south is under several feet of water, after days of heavy rain and forecasters say the rain may not let up until this weekend. northwestern louisiana was one of the hardest-hit places. drone video shows water inundating neighborhoods. thousands of people were told to leave their homes. those who stayed had to use boats to get around. >> roadways are completely flooded, you can't see any

signage. water swept cars and trucks off highways. the national guard was called to help residents. across the region, authorities say dozens of people and animals had to be rescued. >> this was an event that kind of -- you know, it sneaks up on you as fast and as much rain came down at one time, it is one of those where you kind of become reactive to it. >> reporter: in louisiana, fish were seen swimming in the streets, and in tennessee, heavy rain caused this landslide in memphis. with roads in many parts of the south flooded, in some places schools closed, communities are trying to keep the water at bay, and people are doing their best to cope, because it could be several days before the region dries out.

jonathan martin, al jazeera, new orleans. flooding is expected to continue into the weekend. nicole mitchell has more. >> all of the rain we have already had has lead to the flooding concerns where we have the rain. the areas in green, that's where we're having the potential. what has happened is there was a frontal boundary through the region, the northern end of this, into the northeast, for example, that cleared out, but the southern boundary remained more stagnant. the flow has kept things very moist across the gulf coast. widespread areas have seen a half foot of rain, and another half foot, definitely possible over the next couple of days with ban after ban coming in. this is the situation as we have it now. you can see there's occasional brief breaks by the time we get

into tomorrow. today is still going to be pretty saturated, but it's not until we get later on sunday this starts to clear. so really two more days of this. it has kept temperatures warm ahead of it. new york is at 63, well above average. midwest, some of these temperatures ten or 20 degrees above average. it has been a little cooler on the west coast. this system could bring rain into southern california today, snow to the higher elevations, and areas of high wind. new developments in the search for malaysia airlines flight 370, a south african man says his son may have found a piece of the jet on a beach in mozambique. they found the debris back in december, but said they didn't think to contact authorities at

the time. there were 239 people on board the flight. japan is marking five years since the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the country. they marked the exact moment the quake struck. 18,000 people died when the magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit japan. the tsunami caused one of the world's worst nuclear accidents when it crippled the plant at fukushima. >> reporter: this mound was built nearly a hundred years ago, a way for the people in this flat coastal area to come up and be able to look out to sea. this neighborhood was densely packed with houses that were certainly swept away when the wave came through here. at its height it was about two meters above this piece of high ground.

in the five years since there has been an eminence amount of work here. you can see the huge piles of earth. it's where they are trying to build an industrial zone. there are larger sea walls being put in place as well. this is happening up and down this eastern japanese coast. the prime minister saying another five years of revisalized reconstruction still awaits. but 174,000 people remain unable to return to their homes, 100,000 of those in fukushima [ inaudible ] where large areas are still in exclusion zone. here on this mound as well is a shrine where people have been coming throughout the day to pay their respects to the dead. it's here where many gathered at

2:46. the moment the earthquake struck. 950 people died here, 41 of those are still missing. this has been an effort to try to find missing bodies even now, five years onner in all sorts of places along this coastline. it's a very important thing for those still grieving all of these years later. >> harry fawcett reporting there. the government has percent billions of dollars reconstructing the nuclear plants. earlier this week two other plants were forced to shut down because of safety fears. we have more information about a leak of sensitive information from isil. an isil defector gave sky news the names of thousands of isil fighters. he apparently walked away with the information on a memory stick. at least ten americans are on the list. there are rofrts that the u.s. is planning to publicly blame iran for a cyber attack

three years ago. media reports say the justice department has prepared an indictment against the suspects. they struck a small dam in up state new york. authorities say the breach wasn't sophisticated and hackers only managed to get limited access to information. up next, the supreme court showdown, the battle taking shape on capitol hill over president obama selecting a new justice. and spending scandal, the report of lavish living that cost two cher think executives their job.

>> the only live national news show at 11:00 eastern. >> we start with breaking news. >> let's take a closer look.

president obama is attending the north northwest festival. he is expected to highlight digital entrepreneurs. michelle obama will stop by on march 16th. the first time in the festival's 30-year history that a sitting president and first lady have presidented. this comes one day after he posted canada's prime minister at the white house. they discussed a climate change change plan. this was the first state visit by a sitting canadian prime minister in 19 years. >> the friendship between americans and canadians, and the spirit that binds us together, a genuine, deep, and abiding respect for each and every human

being. cheers! >> in response trudeau referred to the 25,000 syrian refugees who have arrived in canada over the past few months, saying diversity can be a source of strength. senate republicans are still refusing to consider any candidate chosen by the president to replace justice scalia. the short list is said to include five federal judges. but the nomination may not go far on capitol hill. >> reporter: entrenched positions, republicans say no supreme court nominee until there's a new president. >> we're not going to drop any nominee into an election ye year -- calldron. >> when there is a nominee, do as we have done in the past, give the nominee careful

consideration. meet with the nominee. ask the nominee questions. >> reporter: thursday's business meeting of the senate judiciary committee turned into a forum to go on the record. the committee has the power to screen or block, or simply ignore the president's nominee. >> the work of this committee in this congress will be shamefully incomplete if this committee refuses to do that most important job of weighing a supreme court. this is a job the american people want us to do, and the chairman of this committee is saying for the next year, the committee will not do its job. >> reporter: president obama used his appearance with the canadian prime minister to your knowledge republicans to consider his choice. >> i'm confident that whoever i select among fair-minded people

will be viewed as an imminently qualified person, and it will then be up to senate republicans to decide whether they want to follow the constitution. >> reporter: the white house says the president is making progress as he considers supreme court candidates and washington news outlets are reporting that interviews have begun. among them, a d.c.-based judge who if nominated and confirmed would be the first african american american to sit on the highest court. and an iowa judge. >> we're even seeing reports from the white house election process is guided by raw political calculation, what they think will exert the most political pressure on me. >> reporter: republican lindsey graham admitted frustration with the partisanship in congress, but said thatting won't stop him

from siding with his g.o.p. colleagues, even if it makes the gridlock worse. >> we're setting a resident here, the republicans are, that in the last year, at least of a lame duck eight-year term, i would say it's going to be a four-year term, that you are not going to fulfill the vacancy of the supreme court based on what you are doing here. >> reporter: there are no signs of a bipartisan thaw any time soon. the justice department is out with its response to .al over an encrypted iphone that apple refuses to hack. the iphone belonged to one of the san bernardino shooters. apple has said helping the fbi could jeopardize privacy for

millions of years. the fcc is considering a new bill that would force providers to get permission there users before they obtain their information. the top two injured war -- warriors extives are out. >> reporter: you have probably seen their ads. wounded warriors has taken in millions of donation dollars since forming in 2003, but in the face of allegations surrounding possible misuse of those donations, the board has fired its leaders, ceo, and

chief operating officer. the group has been plagued for years by low ratings from monitoring groups. charity nav vat for says the wounded warrior project spends 60% or less of its donations on veterans, the rest goes towards overhead: but scrutiny for the project intensified earlier this year, when the "new york times" and cbs shared stories from former employees. they spoke of lavish spending on travel and parties, including a $3 million teem building trip to a colorado resort. >> donors don't want you to have a $2,500 bar tab, and fly every staff member to some five-star resort and whoop it up.

>> reporter: the group has tagged this man to serve as temporary ceo. he is the son of the former top commander in iraq and army chief of staff. john henry smith, al jazeera. california is one step closer to raising the smoking age to 21. a bill approved at the state senate makes california the most populous state to put the heavy restricti restricti restriction at tobacco use. taking aim at donald trump, using art to go after the presidential front runner. al ja.

a spectacular sight to show you from southern argentina. that piece of glacier is known as white giant. it's not linked to climate change. the arch is created as the glacier gross and cuts off part of a lake. once every four to five years enough pressure builds up to cause the ice dam to chance. donald trump has dominated the political scene for the past few months. some arts are using him as a canvas for satire. jacob thomas is putting the finishing touches on his latest

work. >> reporter: it is a pop art rendition of marilyn monroe. >> for me his facial expression sums him up. so i have taken the expression that he does and pairing it with pop art imagery. >> are you bathman? >> i at batman? >> reporter: it was this moment that caused him to create his first illustration of trump. the ideas kept coming to me, and the basic concept behind the whole thing is if people were laughing at him, then they are not taking him serious as a presidential candidate. >> reporter: the collection has grown, over 2 husbanden in all. >> it just the kind of stuff that comes out of his mouth is just -- it's scaring me, and it kind of feels like this

is -- you know, this is how it started with hitler. >> reporter: the count jewel is actually a porcelain thrown. >> the inspiration behind this was he lies about everything he is saying, and essentially he's full of [ censor bleep ]. >> reporter: thomas is not the only artist with a visceral reaction to trump. >> i'm calling for a complete shut down of muslims entering the united states. >> people were upset and shocked, but they weren't that angry. it was kind of confusing to me. they were like no, no, he is just funny. he is so crazy. no one is taking him seriously. and i'm like actually he just said the most vicious hate speech that he could. making us feel as though we might be the japanese back in the 50s. >> how are you. >> reporter: she created a

mock-you men try, about a fix shunnal character, about donald's illegitimate muslim daughter. >> i thought if trump's supporters are white evangelical muslim haters, then the one thing that donald trump cannot say he loves is muslims. he can't say that oh, it's so great that a muslim woman is sat tiericly playing my muslim daughter. >> they both understand that their work will likely draw more attention to the man they fear could be president. but both say it would be worse not to speak out at all. thank you for joining us. i'm richelle carey. the news continues next live from london. keep it here on al jazeera. -- unhcropes to gain access next week to an estimated

7,000 south sudan ease refugees living in desperate conditions. ♪ >> -- part of the central african republic. -- nation available out of the geneva briefing. and still in south sudan, our peace keeping operations and department of field support are convening a high-level board of inquiry to conduct an in-depth investigation in response to clashes which broke out on the 17th and 18th of february. the u.n. is also reviewing enhanced preparedness measures and contingency planning. and at 00