>> this is aljazeera america, live from new york city, i'm tony harris. brussels attacked, isis claims responsibility for the bomb beings that killed dozens at the airport and subway. president obama said that this attack is another reminder that the world must unite. and encrypted information, what officials can really learn from cellphone conversations from members of isil.

at least 34 people are dead after bombs exploded this morning in an airport and subway station in brussels. the police believe at least one of the suspects made it out of the international airport alive. that man is now the focus of a massive search across brussels. and in in the meantime, barker is in brussels with the investigation that's underway. >> reporter: the immediate shock after the attack. a haze of confusion and chaos. and the realization of what just happened.

once again, the routine of people's lives, making every day journeys, shattered. in the dash to escape the danger inside. >> i'm so scared. i feel like it's the end of the world. i heard an elosion, and the iling was going down, and i go under the sink, and then the second explosion went. and everything is black. >> across the city, another attack in the maalbeek metro station. hen and women and children, abandoning want courage and escaping as quickly as they could. the injured treated on the pavement, the army keeping guard, the shock felt everywhere. an urgent shove down of the

transport system in brussels, and immediate concern. one rescue organization appealed for people to stay where they were. belgium's federal prosecutor has confirmed that this is the image of the suspects that are behind the deadly blast. the images of the coordinated attack rippled across. the injed taken to hospitals, and the dead t mortuaries, and therimaskfdentifying those killed begins. just months after t last major attack in europe, fears ofnother sen civilians in public places have been realized. aljaze brussels airport. >> european leaders are rallying around belgium, calling for the fight against terrorism in the region. james bays has more from the united nations in geneva.

two of europe's worstr cks have now both taken thpresident of fnc afours. country where 130eoe were murdered in paris in november, call for eureannity. >> we're all aware that we're all involved and museal th the subject, because without curity, there can be no economic development and we must be sur tha all goes intce . spad world leaders reacted on socialedia. president tweeted that his heartndin were in brussels. spain's acting prime minister saidhat terrorism feat us. an jticeinister cald it a black day for europe, and the british foreign srery said that his governm was in contacth hiselum

counterparts the eu president was in belgium when it happened. >> it's a sad day for europe. europe and it's capitals are suffering the same thing that this region has known every single day. >> as her jordanian counterpart spoke, she was moved to tears. >> our friends in europe and all of the nations, -- >> turkey is still reeling after a suicide attack on one of the main shopping streets on sunday. the country's prime minister gave this reaction in brussels. >> today, here again, i invite humankind to act together to fight every kind oferrosm. every kind of terrorism. >> the links that the attackers may have had to isil will becens

investigation, but most observers believe that it will be impossible to defeat isil until the conflict in syria, nearly five years old, is brought to an end. talks here in geneva continue, but disagreements about something as simple as the agenda. syrian government chief negotiator wants the focus first on terrorism. and in a statement from damascus, his government said that they put the wrong policies on syria. for the main opposition block, the negotiations committee spokesman said that the people of syria stand inolidarity with the people of belgium. condolences from around the world continue to flood i world leaders expressing their sorrow and anger, but soon they will have to move onto more difficult issues. their response in aviation and transport security and

intelligence gathering and middle east security. >> today's attacks happened less than five months after gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in paris. america tonight's sheila macvicar was back in the french capital in november, and she's in washington tonight. with this tragedy and termath seems to resemble what we have seen before, and certainly in paris, it certainly seems to resonate with you. >> that's certainly true. what we saw with paris and this attack, and what we know about the two failed attacks that we know of, that have taken place, one in paris and one in belgium, and between the terrible events today, we're talking about a new level of sophistication, a level of sophistication that the counter terrorism officials have not seen before. a discipline in communication, in timing, a discipline in

encryption, which is making it extremely difficult for counter terrorism officials, who are stretched very very thin to get on top of this threat. in the same way in which the presumed logistics coordinator from the paris bomber, salah abdelslam, who was arrested just four days ago in brussels, how he was able to evade the police though he was thet wanted man in europe for that period of time, at the same individuals, going ahead and preparing for a very highly coordinated attack, this is something that the counter terrorism officials in europe, in belgium are struggling with. >> pj crowley -- you're filling in for our friend, ray suarez, and pj is a state department official, and the question that you asked, why belgium some. >> well, there's this view, and pj talked about that.

if europe has a soft underbelly, then belgium is the softest part of that underbelly. there are issues we talked about with the intelligence services, and there are problems with off thization and marginalization. in belgium, which is a very small country, 1.3 million people, it has the largest number of citizens per capita, and the largest, more than 500, who have left belgium to go and. >> isis. some of them have come back, and it's a problem, not only that belgium is facing but all of europe and communities in the united states are facing. >> hey, sheila, if we sort of went to the bottom line here on the question of tense, and you have hinted at it, and i've heardt discussed throughout the day here, is information siloed in belgium? is that part of the problem

here? that intelligence information is not shared directly between the belgium police and the intelligence services? >> well, it's a huge problem. it's not even shared between different factions of the belgium police. belgium is a country that's as bn a long history and of that struggle. and the result is the formation of a very decentralized state. in this country, there are 19 significant police departments. all of which have some fact finding capacity. so you have these police factions, and you have an intelligence service, and they're good people, but highly stretched. i talked to an anti-terrorism official, he said in order to carry out a 24-hour

surveillance on a single individual, that could take up to 20 people, depending on how many languages the person was using and how many phones the person was using. in france alone in november, there were 5,000 people who were supposed to be under the constant surveillance of the stas, because they're believed to be a threat to the security of the state. france does not have that number of counter terror officials. belgium has nowhere near want number of counter terror officials, which is why salah abdelslam was able to disappear into a neighborhood that he knew well and disappear and lie low for months. >> she'll a. that's amazing to hear. sheila macvicar. you can watch more of her reporting on "america tonight" at 6:30 pacific time. this morning, president obama said that the b bombings are another remind that are the world needs to unite in the fight against

terrorism. the latest on the u.s. reaction to the terrorism attacks. >> reporter: president obama began his much anticipated speech to an old enemy for a pledge as a close ally. >> we'll do whatever is necessary to support our friend and ally, belgium, to bring to justice those responsible. >> reporter: mr. obama called for a unified fight against the scourge of terrorism. >> we will around the world. >> reporter: the white house release this photo of national security adviser, susan rice, in an early-morning call with top security aids. earlier, mr. obama called charles michelle and offered his condolences. >> as our country has always done, we must confront this threat together. we must defend democracy and defeat terror >> reporter: testifying

before congress, secretary ashley morrison said that the military is vital, but it's only one part of the fight. >> we need the intelligence, the homeland security and the law enforcement and so do our partners, because of the kind of thing that you saw in brussels this morning. >> reporter: meanwhile, at chicago's o'hare airport, there were long lines and beefed up security. it was the same in new york, where mayor de blasio tried to assure the public. >> there's no credible threat against new york city at this time, but we're in a high state of vigilance and readiness. >> counter terrorism officials said that the attacks like the one in brussels can provide lessons for law enforcement officials. >> what can we learn from what they can tell us and teach us, whether it's the actions of the terrorists, or the advice we get from the local authorities, that we can bring back here. >> there were republican critics who said that president obama should cut short his trip

and come home immediately to washington to deal with the problem of terror, but in an interview on late tuesday, president obama said that the entire premise of terror is to disrupt people's lives, and he boarded airforce 1 on the next stop of his trip, argentina. >> prompting swift responses from the presidential candidates today. aljazeera's david schuster reports. >> reporter: soon after the news broke from brussels, donald trump went on television. the frontrunner cop demand the attacks and justified his hardline on immigration. >> we are taking in people, we don't know where they're from, and who they are. brussels is an amazing example. it was absolutely a crime free city, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. and you now you look at it and it's ta disaster. >> reporter: texas senator,

ted cruz agreed. >> the attack in brussels is in many ways the fruit of a failed immigration policy in europe. >> reporter: but cruz hammered trump's military isolationism. >> the way to respond to a terrorist attack is not weakness, it's not unilateral surrender. abandoning europe, and abandoning nato as trump suggests, is preemptive surrender. >> john kasich focused on president obama. >> if i were in cuba right now, the last thing i would be doing is going to a baseball game. i would be going back to wash where and assembling all of my leaders and the civilized leaders of the world and say, okay, folks, we didn't delay any longer. this threat is growing more intense and bigger every day, and we're all in this together. >> reporter: in the democratic race, the issue with

isil could boost hillary clinton. her largest margins over rival, bernie sanders, came in december after the attacks in paris. she reminded television viewers of her foreign policy experience. >> we have to have a clear objective of defeating isis, of defeating the tactics and activities of terrorists. that's something that i've been talking about for some time. >> reporter: bernie sanders spoke about the need for more effective international cooperation to hit isil harder. >> we need to pledge a coalition of the muslim countries in the region, including some who have not been as active as they should be, with the support of the united states and other major powers to finally destroy this barb erish organization. >> it's unclear what impact brussels will have on the presidential campaign, but none of the candidates are taking any chances. all of them are speaking out.

david schuster, aljazeera. >> let's take you to live pictures now of a memorial in brussels this evening. candles and flowers to honor those who lost their lives in a series of attacks across the belgium capital. we'll have much more at the bottom of the hour. up next on the program, primary, why ted cruz is expected to win big in utah. and the unforgettable life in the toronto mayor, rob ford. find fantasy shows.

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contests that could shake things up on the republican side. voters go to the polls in arizona, idaho and utah, which is expected to deal a huge loss to donald trump. aljazeera's michael shure joins us from murray, utah and what's at stake in tonight's contests some. >> yeah, tony, it's interesting. it's not just about what's going to happen in the race, about the delegate count. i'm here at cottonwood high school in murray, and what's happening here, the beginning of mitt romney's blueprint to stop donald trump from gaining the nomination here, so this is about actually winning the caucus, but keeping the donald from winging it, and getting 50% for ted cruz. if he gets ted cruz, he gets every vote. and it's about mormons keeping donald trump away. and that's what's going on here in utah. >> do i love the mormons,

okay? >> do you do mormons love donald trump? so far in 2016, the answer is a resounding no. trump has already lost the mormon-heavy states of idaho and wyoming, and tonight he faces the voters of utah, where 63% of the population are members of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, lds for short. >> in utah, there's a big mormon population, and that might have a big sway in who we choose. >> tim chandler, an associate professor of politics at the university of utah, and he said that they have a difference in style. >> they're taken aback by his arrogance and style. >> that feeling is pervasive. >> that feeling puts people off. his political leans, his demeanor is completely off from utah's character. >> that may explain the latest

poll numbers in the church-owned dez rit news. in head-to-head with bernie sanders and donald trump, hillary clinton would beat utah. a democrat has not won utah since linden johnson in 1964, which is prominent utahans have come out against donald trump. >> here's what i know. donald trump is a phoney, a fraud. his promises are as worthless as a degree from trump university. >> the 2012 nominee has put everything behind a stop trump effort in his home state. in a facebook post, romney said that he will be caucusing for ted cruz without endorsing them. one reason they're so opposed, their church sponsored missions all over the world and church sponsored immigration. >> when donald trump talks

about building a wall between the united states and mexico, this causes many residents of utah to have concern. >> before you decide to make an overall judgment on one particular group, mexicans and is the southern immigration, these are families, and you can't export them. they're children of god as well. >> so many republicans in utah, particularly those of the mormon faith, hope to do their part to keep donald trump from the nomination, and as the musical "the book of mormon "says, tomorrow will be a latter-day. tony, it's not necessarily who wins in utah, but whether the mitt romney coalition is able to get someone over 50% to deny any of them. that's what we'll see tonight.

>> the percentage of the victory, michael shure for us, and there of been long lines today as arizona voters head to the polls. take a look here. polling stations, due to strong voting. bernie sanders is hoping to gain some momentum ove over hily clinton. while donald trump and ted cruz are locked in the vote and adam,, where's adam? >> reporter: hi, tony, we're going to talk about the crazy lines in a moment that have a lot of people very angry, but first, what's happening in the arizona race. hillary clinton and donald trump are heavy favorites to win in arizona. this is a winner take all state. so a win for donald trump would put him closer to the nomination and avoiding a brokered convention, and a brokered convention is kind of

what democrats would like to see. >> donald trump is kind of the frankenstein that the go. op created. >> chad campbell doesn't hold back a punch. he's the leader of the arizona house, and he spends his political career out numbered by republicans, who he says are growing more and more extreme. >> and he never shut down that crazy insightful speech. got their votes, but now that they're starting to take over the party, they're flipping out, but it's their own fault. they allowed this to happen and to fester, and nowhere is that more true than here in arizona. >> reporter: donald trump leads the arizona polls. a red state known for throwing fundraisers and be presidential candidates like john mccain and barry goldwater. >> arizonans are attracted to the candidate that they think can beat the democrat.

and now they're trying to figure out who that is. >> for the arizona gop, he says that candidates are not just campaigning for votes, but busy behind the scenes, lobbying the state's 58 delegates. that's because those delegates might get the chance to vote for whoever they want, despite the results of the primary. >> in there's a clear winner after the first voting, what happens to the arizona delegates? >> arizona state law says that the delegates that get sent to the convention in cleveland have to cast their vote for the winner of the march 22nd election. but if the candidate in cleveland does not win the majority of delegates in the first round of voting, the state law says now, if there's no clear winner after the first round of voting, the delegates are released and permitted to support and vote for whichever candidate they prefer at this point. >> arizona university

historian, simpson, has researched brokered conventions. >> how do these conventions affect the party when you look back historically? >> it's hard for that, one time brokered conventions were the norm, the way of choosing delegates, and now all of a sudden, people feel that the popular will, people didn't have that reluctance in 1968 when hubert humphrey won the election without running in a single primary. >> call it wish not wishful thinking, but some democrats like chad campbell believe a brokered convention could break the rival party. >> if that happened, you would see -- i don't want to say implosion, that may be a little bit strong, but i think that you would see a revolt within the republican party. it has been fractured for years now, and it has been this

tedious balance on the republican side between the tea party types and the more historical conservative republicans like john mccain, and they have been at war for six years. so if something like that were to happen, you would probably see a big schism, bigger than already exists, and maybe a revolt from the tea party establishment base, the donald trump types, against the traditional more establishment base, and they may take over the party for good at that point. and i don't know where the traditional republicans would go, and where they would land if that were to happen. >> so we're at a polling place in scottsdale, arizona, and i'm not using this as a figure of speech. the line actually does wrap around the building. some voters told me that they waited more than an hour and a half to cast their ballots. scottsdale is in maricopa county, the most populace

county in arizona, and in 2018, the2008,they had 200 polling sts and to save money, they reduced them to 60. you have these enormous lines, and the voters are walking out of here very frustrated. a lot of them are turning around and leaving and saying that they're not coming back, so it's not just a contest of which candidate is most popular, but which supporters have the most patience and time. >> that's a mess. adam may for us in scottsdale, arizona. and up next, why brussels? the reason why the capital city is the latest tart for isil, and why theyme not need to open up the iphone after all.

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said that they were aware that some sort of attack was planned. but they were surprised by the scale of it. more than 30 people were killed in bombings at the brussels airport and the subway station at the headquarters of the eu. the eu's foreign policy chief became ove wrwlmhrief: praised for peace a dialogue, but walked away as the feign ministegan t sak. >> we stand with you with our friends in eur and with all peace loving nations, and --. htack tears, and embraced as youaw, the forgn minister and walked away from the podm. policpolitico's writer, she sawe

devastation inside of the airport. >> i got there at 8:35, 8:40, so approximately 14 minutes after the two bombs had exploded. i had to leave my car about two miles away from the airport, because everything was blocked by the police. i started walking, and then approximately one mile from the airport, there was a press block, so i just hid my press badge into my jacket and pretended that i was a normal person and walked through it. and this was a very lucky chance, and i managed to get very close to all of the victims that had just been taken from the airport were. so i started to interview people, there were some people covered in blood. and some wrapped up inblankets,e

like completely bloody. so i started interviewing them and collecting their testimonies, and they were really shocking. i don't know if you want me to go to detail -- >> would you mind? i would like to hear a bit of it. >> so one guy who worked -- his hands were completely covered in blood. and he told my he had heard a man screaming something in arabic. obviously i cannot confirm that, but that's what he said. and after that, he heard boom, a huge explosion, and in front of him, he saw a couple that was about to withdraw some cash from an automatic machine, and the women's legs just disappeared and her husband, which was basically standing next to her lost a leg.

next to them, there was a police officer, running toward them and he also lost a leg. then i spoke to two guys who work at the cafe inside of the airport, and they also said that they heard a huge explosion, and suddenly, there were a lot of bodies with no heads, or no legs lying in two of them. one specifically saw a m whose chest was completely open. then i met another guy whose body was covered in blood. he asked me to check his ear, and he was fine, but his clothes were very dirty. he was a homeless person who normally lives and sleeps in the parking lot under the airport. and he uses the toilet on the third floor of the airport, which is where, according to what he said, the bomb exploded, so he went there, and what he saw were, according to his recollection, only bodies with no head. and there he saw also a woman

who was withholding her baby very tight. they were both bloody and she was screaming, where's my baby, where's my baby? and the guy that i interviewed said you have your baby, you are holding it, she said not this one, i lost my oer child. >> belgium police and intelligence officials have come under a lot of scrutiny in the aftermath of this attack. >> understandably. >> and so it is next to impossible, would you agree with me? to completely secure soft targets like airports and subway stations. that said, how would you describe the response of the belgium officials? >> i mean their response to the attacks? or the respoe to what? >> i think it's kind of too fold, isn't it? it's the response to the attacks, but it has been the

response in the aftermath of the france attacks? >> i mean obviously, to judge things that happened, b for sure, as that has been reported before, because i covered terrorism since the paris attacks, belgians lack communication and since the paris attacks, they didn't have a single arabic speaker in their police force, which is insane considering that they have the highest per capita number of pro terrorist fighters, and there's also a lack of communication between the two intelligences, let's say the equivalent of the fbi and the cia. so i think for sure, there are things that are not working. us how would you otherwise

explain what just happened? especially considering that on such a day after salah abdelslam, one of the ten paris attackers was captured, interpol released a note saying, let's be careful, let's guard borders specifically like we should be alerted. and it was predictable. not to this extent, but i spoke to a bunch of security sources and they said itas not surprising. >> the escalation of violence in europe has put the entire continent on alert, and couple that with the capture of salah abdelslam in brussels, and many wod say that it was only a matter of time before belgium's capital was targeted. >> reporter: it's the end of a traumatic day. people take a moment to honor those who died and to think of those who even now are fighting

for their lives. there are so many questions. how could this happen? and why did the attackers choose brussels? >> being a city that's really close to me that i love, and i have been living here for quite awhile, it came as a shock, and it was hard, and honestly, today has been eally exhausting. >> the subway station, where you go t work every day, and you don't even think that something could happen there. >> reporter: to begin answering those questns, you have to go back to last november. police quickly established a brussels connection to the paris ck raided homes in the mollenbeek district. they were looking for the members of the cell that planned and coordated entsin paris. that search culdmite weekf the prime suspect,ch last

salah abdelslam, but it took police four months to find him. he had slipped through their fingers on previous occasions. it was in the building behind me that the belgium police finally repeated salah abdelslam friday night. when one cell is closed d others are often activated and that seems to be exactly what has happened. in percentage terms,elgium that's seen more of its citizens traveling to syria than any other country in europe. mollenbeek and other deprived areas have proved fertile ground for recruiters. young people without jobs o prospects for hope, the message is effective. >> here in mollenbeek, criminals and drug dealers, they are appached by hate

preachers, as we call them, who turn their mind. and this may happen in a very short time. >> reporter: the timing of these attacks, just days after the arresf abdelslam can not be a coincidence, but the bombings appear to be more than an act of refuge. after all, brussels is the eu and the country headquarters. it's the heart of europe, and all that it stands for. aljazeera, brussels. >> today's attack in brussels adds to the injury over the battle between apple and the feik. today a judge posed a hearing to decide if they have to crack the iphone encryption, and that's why the fbi has found a third party maybe to open the phone of one of the san bernardino shooters. jacob ward joins us from san francisco, and what do we

know about this point of the fbi pulling out of it? >> the timing is strange, but it also seems to be a question of having found a solution, we simply don't needham for. need . it seems to be an internal contractor of some sort, the fbi hasn't said whoo has found a way to copy the contents of the phone on and back on as many times necessary to crack the phone. the fbi is pulling out the day before they were supposed to go head-to-head with apple, including the chief security officer on whether or not apple should be forced to open up a phone. and the timing is strange. it raisings the question of whether this is a technical thing or a legal parallel of some sort, that going head-to-head with apple is not going to, and that's why they

have pulled out here. >> interesting, so jake, let's turn to brussels. apple's argument about privacy and the need for a line to be drawn when it comes to government surveillance in our lives is a little bit tone deaf on a day like today. privacy laws are different. and what do the attacks say on the debate. >> on the face of it, on a day like today with the devastation in brussels, makes you think that why don't we get data into the hands of law enforcement as much as possible? but here's the thing, tony, there have been no domed incidences where law enforcement has gone out in front of an attack based on communications. we're not seeing evidence of that. and brussels in particular, the belgian infrastructure is fractured by hierarchy and

there's not a good system for the police agencies, so even if you would have thrown wild the data, there's no evidence that they would have made good use of it. and that's true of a country exponentially larger than that, the united states. all of this talk about encryption and how it may have assisted the attackers and keeping the communication secret. well n. the recent days, it has come out that the attackers in paris used burner phones, disposable cellular phones and made traditional calls on the cellular met york, not traditionalling communication. so it's not clear if opening up the doors on data would be a way of necessarily avoiding tragedies like today. >> such a good discussion and debate. still ahead, historic visit, the president ends his trip to

cuba, and what's next for the relationship between the two countries?

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>> fun, but also symbolic of the relationship that the countries have had. it has been an embarrassment for the cuban government. a presence to make american millions over life in communist cuba. the trip has generally achieved more in symbols than substance. earlier in the day, president obama delivered his main speech, broadcast live across the country. >> i've come here to bury the last remnants of the cold war in the america's. i have come here to extend the

hand of friendship to the cuban people. >> reporter: hpeople. >> i believe that should be able to speak their mind without fear, to organize and crit size their government and protest peacefully and the rule of law should not include arbitrary detentions of people who exercise those rights. >> reporter: and to underscore the point, mr. obama met with human rights activists after the speech. many saying that they want to see change, and as always, an end to the embargo. >> when you have to buy medicine, you have to look for it in japan or other places, and if it has a north american component, they don't sell it to you. that's damaging to the above the and the big businessman and the cuban people. >> reporter: it extends on

not this visit, but on congress. for the last several days, president obama has called on congress to end the embargo. saying that on some matters, the president of the united states can't act alone. something very interesting the president said about the embargo. he said that there are limits to his executive authority and the limit of things that he can do around the embargo is getting shorter. all of pressure on congress to end the embargo. he said that he felt confident that the embargo would end, but he wasn't sure about when. >> we have had a year of big changes between the united states and cuba, and the president has now visited cuba. what might come next? >> well, tony, when i saw the president get back on the plane, on airforce 1 and leave havana, the first thing that popped into hi head, when is raul castro going to visit the white house?

and in fact a reporter asked him that question in the joint press conference that he had. and the question went unanswered. and so we won't know about that, and the other thing that i think is interesting, going back to baseball, major league baseball submitted a proposal to the treasury department and the government has to it decide, getting cuban players to the united states without having to defect, or risk their lives traffic being across mexico, risking their lives just in order to play ball. after the government decides that, there's the cuban side. and the cuban government will have to have a say. but there's definitely a lot of mitigation to figure things out. >> melissa, good work down there in havana. the u.s. supreme court has questioned the legality of the affordable care act, but tomorrow, another challenge will be back before the court. lisa stark has a preview. >> reporter: parts of the

affordable care act, obamacare have been challenged by independent businesses, by a religious owners of a chain of craft stores, by a handful of virginia residents, and now, perhaps the toughest opponent yet. ♪ nuns, the sisters of the poor. their mission to serve the elderly poor. at 27 location innings the u.s., others worldwide. these nuns, together with a host of other religious charities, schools and diocese, object to one provision of the healthcare law, which requires free birth control coverage for employees and students. as they argued in lower courts, providing contraceptive coverage violates their beliefs. >> it violates our nation's historic commitment to ensure that people from diverse faiths can freely follow god's calling

in their lives. >> under the law, the government has to accommodate religious beliefs, and faith based groups that object to the contraceptive mandate can opt out. >> they're not involved in any way in providing for or paying for this coverage. the government is invoking it's own legal authority to direct the insurance company to provide for this coverage. >> the little sisters of the poor say that's not good enough. they contend that it still links contraceptive coverage with their healthcare plan. >> this has never been about the cost. it's about the little sisters and if they have the right to control that, or if the government can come in and control it instead. >> tuesday, the speaker of the house weighed in, in favor of the sisters. >> the administration claims to have offered them an accommodation, but it is just a fig leaf. so this is the choice they're

facing. either violate your faith or pay up to $70 million a year in fines. >> but supporters of the law argue that if the little sisters win, that would greatly expand religious protections. >> today change that balance from the way it has been struck since the founding to stretch religious accommodation to a point that really cannot be helpfully sustained in a nation of diverse faiths. ultimately, the justices have to decide if the law as written strikes the right balance between protecting religious liberty and protecting the government in providing healthcare for women. >> up next, remembering a turbulent life. we look back at toronto's colorful and ex sentive former mayor, rob ford.

>> rob ford, the colorful and

controversial former mayor of toronto has died after a battle with cancer. as aljazeera's kimberly reports, despite his battles with drugs and alcohol, ford remained a popular figure in toronto politics until the very end. >> you want me to have a public meeting? >> rob ford gained prominence in 2010 as a no nonsense politician. he ran for mayor of toronto and won resoundingly. but not long after, ford became known around want world, not for his governing skills, but instead for his scandals while in office. >> it was extremely, extremely humiliating. >> many of the voters didn't seem to mind ford's past drunk driving convictions or that he referred to asians as orienttals. with each blunder, his popularity only seemed to increase. but the spotlight took its toll and increasingly shown on

ford's substance abuse. in 2013, video emerged of ford smoking cocaine from a glass pipe. he initially denied the allegation. >> he don't use crack cocaine, nor am i an addict. >> he refused to step down, so the council stripped him of much of his power. he was the punchline of many comedy shows. >> you know about rob ford's abuse, drunk driving, racism, inability to tell the truth? is there any truth to these things? >> that all i got. >> no, you got a lot of them. >> but when a second video emerged in 2014, ford finally publicly admitted the long-standing rumors of his drug and alcohol addiction about true. >> to move forward, i have to make changes in my life.

>> reporter: but while making those changes in 2014, ford was diagnosed with a rare cancer found in his abdomen. he underwent treatment. and late last year, it returned. the man who seemed able to survive attacks, couldn't beat the cancer that killed him. ford died on tuesday at the age of of >> thank you. we begin with the terror attacks in brussels. 4 dead after the targets in belgium's capital city. the terrorists attacked the airport and subway system. >> the immediate shock after the attack.