you. >> good evening, i'm antonio mora. this is al jazeera america. >> it seems clear that president obama made this nomination not, not with the intent of seeing a nominee confirmed, but in order to politicize it for purposes of the election. >> the republican controlled senate says president obama's choice to fill seat vacated 50 death of supreme court justice antonin scalia will not even get a hearing. >> so if you've been waiting for right moment, now's the time to come join us! >> and there is great anger, believe me, there is great anger. >> a pivotal night in politics appears to put hillary clinton and donald trump on a collision

course but their opponents insist they'll keep up the fight. the federal government calls for a reduction in opioids to treat chronic pain. how to slow the drug overdose ep epidemic. we begin with a showdown brewing between president obama and the republican controlled u.s. stat. the president nominated highly respected federal judge merrick garland, to fill vacant supreme court seat. the response from gop leaders was swift. majority leader mitch mcconnell says there is absolutely no chance the candidate will get a hearing. john terret joins us from washington, d.c, john senate republicans are leaving no room for negotiation. >> you know what, toant, there

really aren't, good evening live from washington, d.c. i think there's too much at stake with a four-four court as we have at the moment. the republicans are adamant they reject the nominee, nothing personal, the fact that the nomination has been made by this president. no confirmation hearing for him they say. a highl highly respected and wel publicized d.c. jurist. >> president obama stared down his republican opponents announcing a nominee to replace antonin scalia who died last month. >> a selected nominee who is widely recognized not only as one of america's sharpest legal minds but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, even hand heness and excellence.

>> 63-year-old plarld is chief6d is chief judge on the washington, d.c. circuit known in legal circuits as the nation'nation's second highest . a job he has held 19 year. earlier in his career he oversaw the federal prosecution of be oklahoma bomber timothy mcvey and ted kazynski. >> for a judge to be worthy of such trust he or she must be faithful to the constitution and to the statutes passed by the congress. he or she must put aside his personal views or preferences and follow the law not make it. >> reporter: president obama called on regions in th on repue senate to give garland an up and down vote. >> it will indicate a process

for nominating and confirming judges that is beyond repair. it will mean everything is subject to the most partisan of politics. everything. it will provoke an endless cycle of more tit-for-tat and make it increasingly possible for any president democrat or republican to carry out their constitutional function. >> reporter: if the president hoped his words might bring the two sides together, he was wrong. ever since the death of justice scalia, the battle lines have been clearly drawn and it didn't take long after the ceremony at the rose garden at the white house, for republicans to state for them absolutely nothing had changed. mitch mcconnell was on the floor of the senate, there will be no hearing, the next president thought to be a republican will make the selection not obama.

>> made this nomination not with the intent of seeing the nominee confirmed but in order to politicize it for purposes of the election. >> reporter: in other words, if the senate doesn't give garland a confirmation hearing and an up and down vote it will become a 2016 campaign issue and a very big stick for democrats to hit the republicans with. well, merrick garland spoke by telephone this afternoon to mitch mcconnell and the majority leader refused to meet him face to face, said there was no point, the phone call was a matter of politeness and charles grassley the important around influential chairman of the judiciary committee, the long and the shot of this is that tonight it seems very difficult to see a path for this nomination to confirmation anyway. back to you. >> thank you john. so who exactly is the judge at

the center of the confirmation standoff? how merrick garland became the pick. >> mr. president, it is a great privilege to be nominated by a fellow chicagoan. >> garland practiced corporate law as arnold and porter one of the nation's most respected firms. he became a partner after only four years and four years after that he ditched wealth and prestige to join the justice department as an entry level prosecutor. >> it was a sense of responsibility to serve the community instilled by my parents that led me to leave my law firm obecome a line prosecutor in 1989. >> in 1990s, president clinton

appointed garland to the federal bench. he is known as a judicial moderate, a consensus-builder and likable. >> because he is so impeccably credentialed and such a soft spoken decent human being that it's going to be harder and harder for the senate republicans to say we are not even going to meet with him. >> on the issues, garland has no judicial paper trail on abortion rights, he's issued opinions that suggest a more narrow view of second amendment gun rights and is considered tough on criminal justice, a pro phi on scotuprofile onscotus note, genn to supreme court precedent. >> even if we could read our paper trail, it's essentiallien a plod rat paper trail, it's

unknown how someone would vote as a justice on the supreme court. >> still at 63 years old, garland is the oldest noaa nominee since the nixon era. he would be lucky to serve on the court for more than 20 years. scalia's death, he served for 30. ratchet up president obama's pressure on the republican led senate to allow a vote on garland's nomination. >> i am grateful beyond words for honor you have bestowed upon me. thank you. [applause] >> david schuster, al jazeera. >> now to the state of the presidential campaign.in the wake of tuesday's primaries, hillary clinton was the big winner on the democratic side, she won four states and holds a slim lead in missouri. on the republican side donald trump scored big vic trises in n

three states but lost ohio to john kasich. fox news cancelled a republican debate planned for friday after donald trump bowed out. we begin with michael shure in florida covering the republicans. >> today my campaign is suspended. >> with those five words in miami last night the once promising campaign of marco rubio came to a an abrupt end. the state of florida was the site of his final defeat in this presidential race. >> it is clear while we are on the right side this year we will not be on the winning side. >> it was donald trump beating rubio by 19 points and winning over 50% of the vote in a state for the first time who found himself on that winning side in florida and just about everywhere else. >> this was an aplaysing evening. >> in addition to the winner take all state of florida, trump

won in illinois and north carolina, meaning he has won in every conservativ southern statt texas. the tenor of his campaign has been under scrutiny but dismissthe fact that his campaign will divide republicans in the summer. >> we have to bring our party together. >> despite his night, he lost the state of ohio to john kasich who was jubilant at winnings the 66 delegates in his home state. meaning kasich is the last man standing in the so-called establishment republicans. >> i want you to know the campaign goes on and i also want you to know that it's been my intention to make you proud. >> reporter: but the path remains daunting for kasich. even if he were to now win every

remaining delegate he would still fall short of the required 1237 needed for nomination. kasich is unphased. >> we will beat hillary clinton and i will become the president of the united states. >> reporter: senator ted cruz who did not have a good night finishing second in north carolina and illinois and third in florida was not daunted by kasich's win. >> only two campaigns have a plausible path to the nomination. ours and donald trump's nobody else has any mathematical possibility whatsoever. >> reporter: kasich who knows that his only chance will come at a now more likely contested convention in cleveland this july, was already contrasting himself with trump about. >> i remind you that i will not take the low road to the highest office in the land. >> donald trump increased his

lead in the race that began with 17 be possible candidates, but perhaps less clarity. michael shure, al jazeera, miami, florida. >> i'm mike viqueria in miami. hillary clinton is back where she started at the beginning of the campaign. the odds-on favorite to take the fight to republicans in the fall. >> we are moving closer to securing the democratic party nomination and winning this election in november! >> clinton routed bernie sanders in north carolina and florida, and a flair owe win in illinois. but time and money that debunks the theory after her upset loss to sanders in michigan, that clinton is vulnerable in the industrial heartland but sanders

is unperturbed. he launched into his now familiar astack. >> she has received money from the drug companies and the fossil fuel industry. she has given speeches on wall street for $225,000. $225,000 a pop. >> even the clinton team concedes upcoming clashes favor sanders. caucuses, a format where sanders does well. but after her victories tuesday the delegate math puts sanders in a big hole. clinton has a lead of about 300 pledged delegates, about twice what president obama had over her in any point of the 2008 contest. clinton is turning her focus to the fall and a possible if not likely confrontation with donald trump about after calls for democratic unity she trained her

fire on trump accusing him of bluster and bigotry. >> when we care, a candidate for president called for rounding up 12 million immigrants, banning all muslims from entering the united states, when he embraces torture that doesn't make him strong, it makes him wrong. >> mike viqueria, al jazeera, miami. >> hillary clinton's victories last night sparked a range of reactions, but one tweet in particular by to be show host joe scarborough is causing controversy. he tweeted, smile, you just had a big night. but they thought that was condescending. , he tweets she's a candidate that can take it.

a surge of painkiller overdoses. >> like putting a band-aid on brushing my teeth in the morning. >> a ban on doctors who give that prescription to patients. washington, d.c. train systems. >> the son of a musical legend has died. we say good-bye to frank sinatra jr. ♪ new york, new york

>> president obama has issued an executive order imposing new sanctions on north korea in response to its nuclear test and rocket launch earlier this year. the u.s. is also calling for the immediate release of an american student sentenced today to 15 years of hard labor. otto warmbeer was convicted of crimes against the state for stealing a popg propaganda bannr from his homes. bumping up the age

requirement for buying tobacco products,al derma, al aldermen e fines. cdc's goal is to have doctors first use ibuprofen and aaaspirin. >> like for so many veterans heroin and prescription opioids show the same risk of death from overdose. massive problem, 50% of its patients seek help for chronic pain and that has made the va the largest prescribe are of

opiate pain relievers. that makes the va the world's largest single prescriber, linked to addiction and 16,000 overdoses a year. now a national group is developing a program that would give any veteran at risk of abusing opiates and perhaps all veterans who are prescribed opiate pain sufferers narcan, which can temporarily reduce overdose whether from heroin or pills. >> since the 1990s painkillers like this have been prescribed as a standard means of treating chronic long term pain and the alternative therapies available at pain clinics like fm therapyl therapy acupuncture and massage are harder to come by.

>> if 50% needs to go to a multidisciplinary pain clinic that's a lot of pain relief you have to prescribe. >> because the va has not been able to cut the number of overdoses narcan is sort of a last ditch crisis management tool. >> we liken this to an epipen. not bad to have just in case of emergency. >> the drug that comes from the va can sometimes lead people into heroin. >> yes but that certainly doesn't reduce our -- you know our need to protect people. >> for boston, a nationwide narcan program can't arrive fast enough. >> i've lost a lot of friends to overdoses. and they weren't, hey you know some of them were the biggest addicts i'd ever met in my life

but they were also fathers and brothers and sons and some of the best men in my life and because the government hasn't come around yet, it's ridiculous. >> jacob ward, al jazeera, san francisco. safety problems, busy subway network of washington, d.c. was shut down because of recent electrical fires, inspectors found 26 defects but they say the system will be up and running at 5:00 a.m. thursday. >> hundreds of rail cars serving the washington metro system idle after a tunnel fire raised safety concerns. it is first nonweather related closure since this mainly underground metro opened 40 years ago. and it's forced 700,000 commuters to search for alternative transportation. >> for everybody safety you're going to have to move back.

>> all in all the situation might have been a lot worse because all nonemergency government workers were offered the option of taking this as an unscheduled leave day or working from home. the system's passengers have become accustomed to chronic breakdowns. >> not the worst but not the best either. >> there's a lot of work to be done and i there's a sign that there's an aging system and we need to replace the cars and replace the structure. >> but government resources have failed to keep up with the challenge. >> the growth, the sheer growth that the country has experienced is i think a troubling trend given how much we're investing and how we're investing today. >> experts say the u.s. has become dangerously neglectful intending to other elements of its fracture. infrastructure. the recent report warned that a large proportion of the

country's water supply infrastructure, quote, is approaching or has already reached the end of its useful life. as witnessed the crisis in flint michigan, where corroded pipes, and the u.s. would need to come up with more than $3 trillion to tackle its infrastructure needs in the next five years. but where the money would come from is a question that both the federal and state governments are struggling to address. tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. >> frank sinatra jr. died today, he sounded a lot like his legendary father and had a long musical career of his own. ♪ start spreading the news ♪ i'm leaving today ♪ i want to be a part of it ♪ ♪ new york, new york >> the younger sinatra's success

came nowhere near rivaling his father's. he had no regrets. the 72-year-old was on tour, and was scheduled to perform on his sinatra sings sinatra, and died of cardiac arrest. an excitement builds in cuba ahead of president obama's planned visit to havana, how locals are trying to cash in on the trip. the trip.

>> president obama is getting ready for his historic visit to cuba next week and so are the cuban people. some clever entrepreneurs are hoping to cash in on the president's visit. they are flooding shops in havana, with refrigerator magnets and tee shirts. they believe that the president's visit is serious business. >> translator: i would ask president obama to maintain the conversations in a mutually respectful way but move forward, we want to see the end of the story and that depends on him. >> president obama will be the first sitting president to meet cuba in eigh 88 years.

we will have live reports all weekend. finally, a homeless person in san francisco shouldn't have to pay for a place to live anymore. math thou chapmamatthew chapmann approved for $100,000 reward. >> i noticed people were sleeping in it. i go with my cane and like this, body language, boom! >> three other people whose tips helped parenthesis th apprehends

will split the remaining $50,000. have a good night. >> florida, texas and illinois have weighed in, new york, colorado and giant california remain. how to register, attract and retain voters has been a buzzel for both parties, a sought after group of voters. their numbers are growing so fast that even when they lowered rates lower than other americans, they loomed larger than other leaks. latinos in 2016, it's the "inside