himself. his brother -- his brother escaped from paris, managed to free across the boarder into belgium and many people have said why are the authorities unable to track this most-wanted suspect, and if it is him now, then, of course questions will be asked of why he was not caught sooner. >> thank you. ♪ europe and turkey reach a landmark deal that would relocate thousands of refugees. defiance from north korea. the nation test fires more mismiles, the worries from beijing to washington. top republican strategies decide to unite and concur in an effort to unseat the front

runner. this is worse than anything we have been through. >> rising fears along with the flood waters in texas, and wet weather threatens to drench at least four states today. ♪ this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm richelle carey. there has been a break through in the talks to curtail the refugee crisis. turkey has accepted its proposal to take back refugees who cross into e.u. shores. and in return turkey will receive financial and political concessions. the deal is now awaiting final approval from turkey's prime minister. neave barker has the latest. >> reporter: the meetings of course continuing behind closed doors, but more confirmation as you mentioned from the czech prime minister and the finish prime minister that the e.u. 28

heads of state have endorsed this new deal between turkey and the e.u. what we wait for now is for the turkish prime minister to give his seal of approval, but we already gather that turkey has accepted this deal after three rounds of bilateral and trilateral talks over the course of the morning, between the turkish prime minister and the presidents of the european council and commission. as we get a clearer picture of what this deal means, we already have an idea of what it is expected to come into force. that we believe will happen at midnight on sunday, so only in two day's time. so that means that refugees, migrant, asylum seekers who are arriving in greece on the islands, or the mainland will find themselves subject to processing, and then in due course they will be sent back to turkey. there are some questions at the moment about the speed of all of

this. of course sunday, very close indeed, there had been some concerns voiced over the last few days by e.u. leaders that if a deal was reached that it would mean there would be a sudden surge of people desperately trying to make it to the european union before it came into force. we may still see some significant movement of people in places like greece in the coming hours as news of what has happened here in brussels filters down to those people on the ground. in geneva today the u.n. special envoy will be meeting with members of the government and opposition. celebrations today in the streets of crimea. today markets the second anniversary of russia's annexation of ukraine's crimea peninsula.

russia's 2014 annexation of crimea is not recognized by the united states and the european union. there are new worries today along the korean peninsula. north korea has fired a pair of medium-ranged ballistic missiles into the sea of japan. the launch comes just days after pyongyang fired short-range missiles. jamie mcintyre is live at the pentagon. jamie these missile tests continue. what message is north korea trying to send? >> reporter: well, richelle as you have indicated the pentagon says militarily this was not significant. these are missiles that north korea has fired before. they are road mobile missiles on truck beds. one went about 800 miles before falling into the sea. the other exploded a short time

after launch, and apparently malfunctioned. so militarily it wasn't much of a threat, however, diplomatically this is just another gesture of defiance of north korea which continues to thumb its nose at the west and seems to be in response to the latest round of sanctions the u.s. has imposed on north korea as it is trying to get north korea to tone down its rhetoric. in february they tested a much longer range missile that they said was part of a space launch, and now they are continuing to defy u.n. resolution, so really this is just a signal to the united states that north korea is not paying much attention to the warnings that the u.s. giving them. >> china has stepped in on the issue of sanctions. what is going on there? >> reporter: china has said i'm

not in favor of unilateral sanctions. the u.s. felt like it needed to respond, and instituted secondary sanctions which tried to dissuade people from doing any business with north korea. china would like to see a more unified approach. the u.s. would hope that china would exert more influence on north korea. it is believed to be the only country that has any influence. but even china's influence is of limited effect on the regime of kim ki-jong. >> the short-range missile, as you said, there is no cause for concern there. but this month north korea very boastful as they often are, saying they could obliterate new york city with a hydrogen bomb. is that really something americans should be concerned about. >> reporter: the pentagon is con fins -- convinced they are not

capable of doing that. but it is something the north koreans are working on. and what they said was if they sent a hydrogen bomb to new york, of course it would destroy the city. what the u.s. has determined was they had an unseszful test of a hydrogen bomb. but as we have -- we know from testing programs in the united states, sometimes even a failed test provides information and knowledge that can help you succeed the next time. so clearly this is a capability that north korea is seeking to obtain. a much more powerful hydrogen bomb. >> jamie mcintyre thank you. now to the presidential race, three days after the primary in missouri, bernie sanders has conceded defeat to

hillary clinton. clinton ended upbeating sanders by about 1500 votes. but because they award delegates proportionally each walked away with about 30 of them. on the republican side there results are still too close to call. and there are reports that a group of party leaders secretly met on thursday to discussion ways to dethrone trump. meanwhile federal investigators are looking into an apparent leak of donald trump's private information. it's unclear if the cell phone and social security numbers

actually belong to the republican front runner. in an interview the man says he regrets his decision to join isil and tried to contact kurdish forces to help him. >> i didn't really support their ideology, and that's -- at that point, that's when i decided i needed to escape. >> reporter: the 26 year old was reportedly a virginia native. his relatives have denied that any other family members are part of isil. >> reporter: a man has been convicted in a cartoon competition attack last year. john henry smith has the story. >> reporter: observers said he went from staring ahead to hanging his head when he heard he had been found giuilty. he has been charged for helping

the gunmen who were shot dead by police. prosecutors said kareem was the motivator, bank roller, trainer, and intended participant. authorities say kareem along with two other men were incensed about an exhibit of cartoons showing the prophet muhammad. it was organized by political activist and islam critic pamela gellar in response to the attacks on charlie hebdo magazine. this capitulation by the media and western elite to silence ourselves so as not to offend savages is monstrous.

>> reporter: he becomes the first person convicted in an american court for participating in a.comic isil-linked attack. his brother says he was manipulated. >> i think they used religion as a way in. >> reporter: kareem is scheduled to be sentenced on june 27th. >> john henry smith reporting there. historic floods continue to drown parts of the south. hundreds of homes have been evacuated and interstate 10 may remain closed for several more days. at least six people have been killed in the flooding. heavy rainfall is expected to continue into saturday. kevin corriveau has more. >> reporter: we are watching more rain for the south today and tomorrow as well as the nor'easter that is expected later this weekend. right now we have instability across texas, that is going to continue to move across the gulf states. tomorrow, though, the area of low-pressure is going to develop

off of any carolinas, that is what is going to become our nor'easter, as we go through the rest of the weekend and into monday morning. as we go towards sunday the area of low-pressure really begins to deepen, bringing more showers across the eastern seaboard there, and that's when the snow begins to develop. on sunday we're going to see those temperatures drop. and that is going to lead to the snow starting to develop through sunday evening and into monday. we think the snow values are still in flux, but we think we are going to be seeing messy conditions across much of the metro area, the heaviest snow will be north, and up through new hampshire. lauri robinson is poised to become the first woman to combat and command. she currently leads air forces

in the pacific and would soon be overseeing activities in all of north america. up next the latest on the unrest that is threatening brazil. and the president is preparing for his historic trip to cuba.

>> "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. for the first time in 50 years, mail from the u.s. is now on its way to cuba. and president obama sent the fist letter a response to a

76-year-old writer in cuba. she invited the president to have coffee with her when he visits next week. he replied that he hopes to have a good cup of cuban coffee during his trip. mike viqueira is live for us in washington, d.c. so mike, what is on the agenda for the president on this historic trip. >> reporter: as you reported some 88 years since calvin coolidge made the trip in the waning days of his administration. it almost has sort of a celebratory air of it. obviously many problems remain in cuba, still an embargo imposed by congress, would have to be lifted by congress from the united states on cuba. the president will arrive, he has got the entire first family intoe on sunday. he has first lady michelle

obama, his daughters and his mother-in-law. on monday he gets down to business. let's go through some of the major events here on his three-day schedule. he'll meet with the president of cuba. white house officials insist there will be no meeting between president obama and fidel castro. on tuesday an address to the cuban people. he will talk about many of the major issues on the agenda, human rights as well as economic opportunities, a round table with dissidents. this is something a lot of people are looking forward to, this meeting with cuban dissidents later that day. and to wrap up, perhaps appro h appropria appropriately, a baseball game. the tampa bay rays will play

with the cuban national team. >> as you said this trip has a bit of a celebratory feel to it. but what is the white house saying to critics who are vocal about human rights abuses in cuba. >> they are going out of the way to say that the president is carving out time to meet with civil society. it's not uncommon for the president to do that. civil society is a way of saying dissidents within that country. obviously there are many critics of this policy. republicans in congress and many members of the cuban american society population in south florida who say in spite of all of the openings president has had, you just mentioned posal mail going back and forth, cuba continues to crack down, continues to employ very harsh methods of law enforcement

against anyone who dares speak out against the castro regime. so the speech will be broadcast all over the country, anyone can watch, and he will take the time to meet with cuban dissidents, try to keep the pressure on the cuban government to open up the country economically and in terms of civil freedoms like freedom of speech. >> mike, thank you, as always. joining us now is al jazeera's david ariosto, david thanks for joining us. what does the white house get out of a trip like this? >> on the surface of it there is not a lot of quid pro quo. the white house -- president obama is meeting with disside dissidents. but what we have seen on the ground in terms of a lot of the criticism is there really hasn't been all of that marked see change in terms of human rights. the detentions have sort of

changed a bit. they no longer really detain people for long periods of time, now they are short detentions to sort of create a situation where it's very hard to organize protests in en masse. but if you are one of these community members in miami or new jersey, they look at this policy as essentially to an olive branch to a country that isn't reciprocating. but there is this subcurrent as well. china as increasingly sort of upped its game in latin america but particularly in cuba. about 57% of trade increase. and chinese investment companies have been at the forefront of starting to development the internet that is so lacking in cuba. and that is something that the new president of cuba in 2018,

has really put at the forefront of what he wants to be the next phase of cuba. it will be a period in which there's no castro at the head of government something that hasn't existed since 1959 on new year's day, but this is going to be an interesting time, and president obama probably sees this as an opportunity to start to develop ties with cuba and really change that country, maybe from the inside out. what the white house has consistently said is what we have done for the past ten administrations hasn't worked. so why not try something different. >> you talked about florida -- donald trump -- well, there's a reason i'm getting to donald trump, i promised. >> right. >> donald trump won florida, but obviously the constituency in florida care so much about this issue. what does this say about american sentiment about this trip? >> if there was a place where marco rubio was going to shine it was going to be florida.

and that didn't happen. donald trump carried almost after of the republican vote. and this is a cuban american who has promised like ted cruz to roll back a lot of what we have seen in terms of the normalize aches of relations, and even in a state that has so been a hot bed of anti-castro activity, we're seeing both , favoring candidates who don't have much of a problem with this. donald trump said he would have gotten a better deal. >> he says that about everything. >> right. but he is not taken the hard line stance that the marco rubios or ted cruzes have taken in terms of rolling all of this back. 7 in 10 americans favor normalization in relations. so there is also political calculous to this, this is something that americans have been favoring. it was only something like 70%

back in january. so we're starting to see an increased appetite not tonight go to this forbidden island, but just a sense of reestablishing ties with a country that has been off limits since 1960. >> all right. the public seems to be changing. congress hasn't completely changed yet. >> right. >> david thank you for joining us. >> thank you. brazil's political crisis is deepening today, now a judge had blocked a controversial appointment by the president. it happened after the former president was sworn in. the appointment has caused huge protests. sea world bows to public pressure over orca program. up next why the changes don't mean the orcas can go free.

breaking news out of brussels for you at this hour. these are live pictures as you can see. what is happening are there are reports that police have captured the mastermind of the paris attacks, the suspected mastermind. he is believed to have been shot and wounded during a major police operation in brussels. the 26 year old french nation who brew up in brussels, and fled paris for belgium by car after those attacks back on november 13th when 130 people

were killed. big changes are coming to sea world. the park says it will stop breading killer whales in captivity. [ cheers ] >> reporter: they have been making a big splash for more than 50 years. sea world's captive and controversial killer whales. the massive marine mammals have long delighted audiences and angered animal rights activists. on thursday the theme park announced a big change. its orca breeding program will soon be history. >> orcas currently in our care will be the last generation of orcas at sea world. the company will end orca breeding this year, and the animals will continue to live out their lyes at sea world where they can continue to inspire and educate our guests. >> reporter: the change comes nearly three years after the documentary "black fish". the film focused on violent

incidents involving a whale. and raised ethical questions about sea world's breeding programs. thursday's move signals how bad the backlash has been for sea world's bottom line. since the film indicate out in 2013 visitor somebodies have plummeted. animal rights activists applauded the division, on twitter people for the ethical treatment of animals said: sea world has earlier announced that orca shows will end at its san diego park in 2017, shows in san antonio and orlando will end by 2019, but in spite of the changes, the era of captive orcas is far from over, the creatures can live as long as a hundred years. some activists have called for the orcas to be released into the wild, but sea world says they would probably die there. sea world's ceo says:

sea world's 29 remaining whales will no longer perform tricks. instead the company says it will develop new orca encount terse that showcase the animal's natural behaviors. on the company's website the ceo makes the case that sea world is a victim of its own success in making the world fall in love with killer whales whatever the reason it is the end of an era of what some called entertainment and others called cruel. thank you for joining us on al jazeera. i'm richelle carey we'll continue to have the latest on the arrest of the suspected master mind of the paris attacks. we'll take you live now to london with more on that

developing story. keep it here. ♪ -- we as far as we understand, he and the other suspects are still holed up in building in the mellenbeck area, and this raid, as i said is ongoing. >> we have actually had some comment coming out of france. the president said around 1635 gmt, so about 25 minutes ago that he had no confirmation as of yet that the police operation in brussels was focused on the prime paris attack suspect. so no confirmation out of paris officially yet. no confirmation out of brussels. we are getting reports from the media, but nothing firm just yet. tell us what the past couple o