barcelona's demanding the release of the deposed catalan leaders who were imprisoned for their role in last month's session bit. those were the headlines you can follow those stories on our website at al-jazeera dot com more news in thirty minutes next on al-jazeera it's fault lines do stay with us. everything you do is being analyzed it's being a way to measure. life. and it's not just i phones that's almost like things i mean those small things all these days at the moment we are in a state of the universe like something bad would start and it's something that was for a week that i would rather take the risks of democracy and the risks of dictatorship digital dissidents at this time on al-jazeera.

this is the place where we remember the young women and you know sons of my. my kids and my mom here five girls i took boys. remember. i love my house and i'm going to stay now until i die. rizzi new whitfield has lived in this house in houston texas for nearly seventy years than hurricane harvey melancon and august twenty seventh tea. when the water started coming in the kitchen and i went in and i was walking in the garden i suppose it is and i couldn't believe it i looked at the bank though and it was just like a lake out there so much as. one trillion gallons of water bill in the houston area over a four day period by far the most rainfall in u.s. history more than ninety people talk to the ring with the stuff like we were at

noah's ark or something. really. it's just pretty good at. this time we had and we lost everything again. for. a day that i am on the list and open to me that i have writer's. that's the most high it's the most determined that not only. in houston her kid herbie hit everybody but after the waters receded will there be an equal recovery. you can't go with a clean slate assuming that harvey affected everybody with you because of that. have you gotten help from the red cross or fema or the city you know we have a witness who. lied to the red cross and i haven't heard from him and the money has denied me so you've received no assistance in the assistance. are you worried about losing your home just. as i.

believe that we're going to recall them. have to see these haves and have nots that awful translates into who gets the best of things when it comes to flood protection and who gets left out. a month after her be hit when media attention had moved elsewhere faultlines travel to houston just to the storm will deepen the city's social and economic divide. does something remember that my last but i mean you know i want to have the last time i will give up now but i will. also you must come to me at this time last time i'm going to leave us again i mustn't i want i mean if i was still with us on that

i mean now. this is clayton holmes it's a public housing development for some of houston's borst residents. a real an heiress and her family lived here. she was nine months pregnant when the hurricane hit she escaped with her husband mother and four kids days after evacuating she gave birth and where you living now said one of the most. of these houses were some of the worst hit. residents were left to look for a new place to live. to go home to reverend james caldwell is a community leader who's helped residents clean up their homes. the health study funded by the new york times found that floodwaters of one home here contain toxins . the levels of eco life bacteria were over a hundred times higher than what's deemed safe. in one family's kitchen they also found high levels of lead arsenic and other horrible metals. during the hurricane

twenty million gallons of sewage water overflowed from plants all over the region. reverend caldwell took us to see various house floor well read here take a look at in this hall what you'll see here is just like every unit in this area in this section. people death had to get out they they left everything. that they had and you about. what that was. you see what a lot of levels. three to four feet easily what when you look at this one this is someone's life is. everything now who they are the identity of a while for a while longer while she have a lot of good options in terms of where to go or where to move to. that is still up

in the air one and it's not just for her of of the thousands of others i will they become one their life to live with everything is gone i would hear it. and i mean how do you read purchase regained some of. what how did you do that one on me without any assistance and invited thank oaken you're being denied by the head crossing team but if that's going to help you. maintain a normal way of life why will you be able to move back into the home. do you know where you'll go. during the hurricane cleaned homes was especially vulnerable because it sits on the edge of this waterway the buffalo by you. might say ever so before.

further downstream is manchester a majority latino community one third of the residents here live in poverty. it's located near houston shipping channel one of the largest petrochemical complexes in the world. well over a dozen plants in the region reported spills or leaks gerry harvey. dr robert bullard is known as the father of the environmental justice movement. he's found that minority neighborhoods are at more risk to industrial pollution than other communities it's ok to put a landfill incinerator garbage dump refinery in black and brown communities to say somehow that even in a city like houston where we don't have zoning but if you look at and map vulnerability and proximity of these dangerous facilities they're not randomly distributed. race maps with vulnerability and pollution maps with race and

class and race is the most potent factor that determines where these facilities a located. this is where houston and. channel me event are you know works for the texas environmental justice advocacy services or take up to see the tanks the storage tanks that are lying flat that's manchester the group believes that environmental protections are not in place for the people living here you have huntsman chemical on the chemical. refining texas port recycling and then twenty six lanes of union pacific rail transporting chemical and crude oil products. this is. it houses over ninety three steel carbon storage tanks of nothing but chemical and crude products you can notice the tanks themselves are right next to these homes there are homes all

around these tanks were here there are so as the rains were hitting all of these tanks the floodwaters were flushing their way into people's yards. this chair here still a mystery and yes in the top one percent of most toxic schools in the entire nation so all those kids they're going out playing during recess are completely exposed. to what's going on right next to them. during natural disasters emergencies maintenance and start up and shut down events you have just a reckless amount of the missions that make their way into the local communities. we've basically tracked her have been tracking. over five million pounds of the missions that were released in the impacted areas and hydrogen

cyanide so for dioxide one three including all of these are extremely toxic and hazardous to human health there absolutely no permissible amounts. of things like benzene the valero energy refinery is streets away from where children play. after the hurricane this facility reported to the state environmental agency that it leaked chemicals including cancer causing vincy. but no one's going to get to take it no one's going to get a fine no one's going to. look for because of any of these emissions. in communities near the shipping channel there's a feeling that there's little accountability when leaks happen. and after the hurricane there was a sense of urgency to change that. we call this company right here the stinky one because every time you drive through here you'll smell how bad it is i've been here

for thirty seven years and i how many how many years of my life i've lost i mean i here in this in this environment but it's home like you here one florist works for a group that wants to start training residents to test air quality for themselves during hurricane harvey there was a big build a happen right over here and i'll show you right now from my g.l. and dana just billion almost half a million barrels of gasoline gas bill in the area and that goes back to what people were smelling during harvey was a very heavy petrol gasoline smell that we have never smelled before an area magellan said that they contain the spill but they acknowledge that there were arab missions including been seen are there are known respiratory issues for kids who grow up in this area there's a lot of people who would say their kids have asthma as was a big big thing i hear and i can feel bad for some of the people who live in these apartment complexes quite a few people who live here and a lot of times people don't really understand what's going on or don't know what

the dangers are. the bucket we were doing are testing because it's our our planet trying to educate the residents and how they can do samples at home and get those samples to us and we can find out exactly what it is they're smelling and what's. going on so it's a vacuum. then i'll just say dissolve. you see the areas is. we've got more than enough in there right after you can see this definitely. the right to breathe is a basic human right to talk about every day occurrences and that's what makes harvey and environmental justice issues and that we have to address some of the preexisting. conditions that that many communities had to grapple with. how fast you recover from a natural disaster has

a lot to do with where you live. low income and minority neighborhoods a pure resources to help them. when you talk about who has resilience who has the money the resources and who has historically had the level of investments that go to protecting very wealthy neighborhoods you can see that there's imbalance. greens point in north houston is one of the pores neighborhoods in the city. the shopping mall here has turned into an emergency relief center. this lie which goes on and on and on can only be measured in the thousands and thousands of people have it out here in the sun for hours waiting to get basically food stamps this isn't the normal for stamp program all these people to qualify had to be affected by hurricane harvey. i mean it's nice to kind of want to be. on t.v. in the situation like i mean you. have to understand how much right now to lose

their license when. we're not home has been three weeks just three weeks then you got hardly headaches it's problems stress were you surprised you came out all the yes i was in shock and i'm still upset and he's going to take you can't i didn't realize we had that many people and we don't really line up i mean everybody's heard. many of the people lined up hope you seem to that in this line will close in just days whatever oh. my i feel you i know. marina and her stepchildren have been doing what they can to help people affected by the hurricane when. they're sick and my friend is in the line he takes me simmering a call. i have a lot of people they need water and i don't know how to say don't nobody she's an undocumented immigrant so she can apply for the food disaster program or self even

though this is the second time brought home is flooded and she's lost everything i get donations move forward and when i do i think my my people food off. me not good enough that you know. what. i'm. getting really really no american running around are you serious at. this to have that uniform and be honest that. it's close to eight o'clock tomorrow. night i'm not going to do that until i did because they would have let me find hard that. brainless in greens point because they were in here is cheap but that comes at a cost the majority of apartment buildings here like inside the flood so. the areas

flooded at least five times since two thousand and one. i'm thinking i'm. going to have dinner together the way he's going there right here. and i like a river out here. that's when i started coming in. the water to start the rice. i mean my husband we were sitting outside watching just the water gore. and i was crying. that the state. we were just. recovering from the last we. heard. by the name. of your wife. or girl. you're worried about

staying in this apartment and being flooded again. for your stuff. we're not punishing you doing little girl so really she. started playing. dress up her clothes where every have it ok you don't ok. because my husband you know this is my husband my husband. and i never have the most of those three. a month i. never saw and i. know. you would love to see if the world she used to if you noticed

but there's not like affordable housing choices go over to. places that don't get flooded flying. they're. going to higher income. it will be a good choice for us from wadi or. better find children better environment. raise point is a poster child for vulnerability when it rains we're not talking rain we talking when it rains flash floods they get flooded. for the last three years we're talking about a community that has been disrupted where people are losing you know everything and when you start losing everything in a repetitive way you have to ask the question why isn't something die. in some areas or greens way over one third of the population lives below the poverty line. if the aftermath of harvey is anything like that of hurricane katrina new orleans

in two thousand and five housing prices will go off low income residents will be pushed out and inequality will grow. houston is already one of the most segregated cities in america and it could get worse what about bring to reflect they don't have the house thing choices in houston to move out of the flood plains and that's why we're building housing units now there are several that will be coming online you know. late on this year and next year the city's mayor sylvester turner the democratic campaign going to promise to provide more affordable housing i'm the mayor of the fourth largest city in this country to be the third city is doing very very well but there's still twenty four percent of the people in my city of working poor. and they are living in the shadows of this. and when i said when i came in as a man twenty two months ago is that i didn't want to be the mayor of two cities i

have and have not now what we have to do is that we have to move with a greater sense of urgency. to me the need that's meant as abated by by harvey and to put people in a better place and then. so you know you can run away from it storm the bisque so you can't ignore it you can't turn a blind eye to it. after the hurricane questions were raised about what if anything officials could have done to mitigate the flooding and some of the hardest hit areas. in houston people look to the harris county flood control district which is one of the agencies tasked with reducing flood risk for the larger metropolitan area. since harvey it's been focused on recovery clearing debris making repairs and preparing for the next door. hoping you know. well we were in town the agency which

is headed by a judge at image held a press conference for those residents who experienced the flood in two dozen fifteen a flood in two thousand and sixteen and now flooding two dozen seventeen are you doing enough for those residents no that's our hope or. should the county prioritize efforts to help communities who have a harder time recovering from a party like it's you know i think recovering is one thing mitigation is something else recovery there are prioritized but in terms of mitigation you know it's a question of making our community safe and so we're people who live in this more question of hydrology you know we need to look at. but critics say that approach focuses on scientific technicalities and ignores the reality that some communities have been historically neglected. because the judge is saying there's no equity lands then those of us who are out here in the public are saying that must be an

equity lens because we cannot reproduce the any quality we cannot allow money to follow money and money power when it comes to. the investments that have only made in flood protection that would be not only in morrow on ethical but we think would be illegal. harvey was the third major flood to houston in as many years but it was far more destructive than the ones before it . as the city tries to recover there's fear that the worst is yet to come knowing that another storm will come and another storm will come and the intensity of the strong seem to be getting getting a greater we have to change course. and we have to be on in this case a city that's more prepared and out a lot more reason the next time around. we kind of have a code word for climate change in texas called weird weather so you hear people in

texas talking about weird weather this and weird weather that because we really don't feel comfortable talking about climate change frankly houston hadn't seen the worst case storm the worst case storm is one that has a surge that comes in from the coast. the last texas was hit with a major storm surge was hurricane ike in two thousand and eight which hit the coastal city of galveston a surge storm is for horrifying because it would come up to houston ship channel and we have projected at least a twenty five foot surge in the shipping channels only protected to about fifteen feet so there's forty four hundred storage tanks for all and hazardous substances there we think twenty two hundred of them would be flooded and we think it would be the worst environmental disaster in united states history which shut down the economic engine of the region so it's a big do. you talk about thousands of lives that will be lost because of the flooding and the surge in the ways that would hit those communities that are low

lying and adjacent to now there's been scenarios on that but again a lifting on. that vulnerability and how do we address that. we will see police show and i think alice has been through in this time it was real. anybody the kids in your house family or friends the first thing i don't like jack and around they know he's in his flooded area just like louisiana they need to be and they need to do something that there's too many people too many. before we left used and we came back to green's point mo. it was the day before the disaster food stamp program was going to end here so people came to stand in line overnight. when

a young woman that they'd all. now that's been on the bottom i am now mommy never got a lawyer but to me that for me is. this is the legacy that everyone. billions of dollars in recovery aid are headed to texas to rebuild. but it's unclear how much of that money will trickle down to those who need it the most there are some in the media kind of come on never know cause i'm not there i'm not in this city there's real fear that the most vulnerable residents will be left behind in. the enough and then the best way to doff right now and the fight is to make sure that resources get distributed in a way this equitable and that's why i think it's important that that low income people and people of color working class people rich people poor people we all work on this post harvey recovery in houston and get it right.

in the united states rights activists are still being targeted they had enough information that you felt you were being watched raising surveillance from both the police and the f.b.i. this is not law enforcement. fault lines it investigates the scope of these agencies tactics and the impact on civil society. confidential surveilling black lives at this time all knowledge is zero. the nature of news as it breaks because you can see there in the distance of shia militia vehicles the dust you can see on the horizon there the peshmerga telling us are actually tanks with detailed coverage when the mine closed in one thousand nine hundred four many people lost their jobs stabbing if i thought making money from around the world this is supposed to last for a month but people tell us that it only lasts for eight days if you look around this is the only food available in this household. a mass exodus hundreds of

thousands of have fled ethnic cleansing in me in march for bangladesh one of the world's poorest countries want to one east investigates what their future holds at this time on al jazeera. al-jazeera. where every you. you're watching all of us are i'm so robin these are all top stories u.s. president donald trump says he wants to get along with russia in order to solve the world's problems speaking at the vietnamese capital.