laura: first there further calls for change in europe's immigration policy after the latest tragedy involving people trying to escape war and poverty. the bodies of up to 50 migrants were found in the back thursday close to the border with hungary. german chanceler angling merkel says it shows they must deal with the migrant crisis. reporter: inside dozens of dead

bodies believed to be migrants. police made the grizzly discovery near parndorf. the car was believed to have been parked there since wednesday. >> given these deaths occurred a while ago as they were in advanced state of decomp significance, it's not possible for us to -- decomposition, it's not possible for us to give the cause of death. we think these are refugees. reporter: early indication suggests the victims died of affixiation. austria's interior minister called it a dark day and they need to deal with people that profit from trafficking. >> we know smugglers that deal in human trafficking are criminals and those who think they are kind people who assist people in escaping can't see reasoning. reporter: they crossed over the border from hungary shortly before it stopped.

the spokesman for the hungarian prime minister said the vehicle was registered in the country. >> the truck's license plate, which i mentioned earlier, was registered by a romanian citizen. coordinate to the information we received from police. >> the truck was bought from a vow slackian firm. reporter: hung ari plans to reen -- hungary plans to reinforce its borders. the deaths come at the very moment e.u. leaders are gathered in austria for addressing the current migrant crisis in the balkans. laura: and as you heard there european leaders have been meeting today in vienna to discuss the situation in the balkans. over 180,000 migrants have arrived in greece this year and many are going via serbia, macedonia and hungary in a bid to reach northern states. those countries have been sending in troops with tear gas and putting up barbed fence.

angela merkel wants a stronger show of solidarity. >> we need to tackle the issue of migration in the spirit of europe, in the spirit of solidarity and it is also our historical obligation to give sherter to people in need. -- shelter to people in need. everybody knows what the situation is in syria is like, and everybody knows what the situation in syria's neighboring country is like. so it's up to europe to step in and help. laura: for more on that i'm joined with luis from amnesty international. thank you for joining us on "france 24." are you encouraged by the rhetoric coming from that summit on the balkans today, particularly comments made by angela merkel? >> yeah, we can welcome the

comments but they need to be translated into action and that's action on the part of all e.u. member states to help the frontline member states, the member states that are receiving the largest amount of refugees and migrants, that's greece, italy and hungary and it's up to them to provide financial aid to these states to be able to receive these migrants and refugees and respect their dignity. laura: countries like hungary say they're struggling. we have 3 1/2,000 people arrive in one day. they literally can't process the migrants quickly enough and if they do get across the border, austria sends them back to hungary. is ystem isn't working, it? louise: they are forced into irregular routes which makes

them come first to greece to italy if they come across the mediterranean. once they're in greece there's no reception services in greece. and we have a humanitarian crisis in greece at the moment with refugees, people with young families with young children living on the streets. they're forced to continue their journey but they have no legal way to move within the european union. we need all member states to come together to provide -- to show solidarity and to protect these people. we need operational assistance on the ground. we need more finances to be able to welcome these people to ensure their dignity. we need to stop -- move on from this policy that european politics is focused on. border -- on border control, on constructing fences. it's an illusion to be able to stop migration with fences. we need to -- aura: well, hungary claims the

barbed wire fence will stop them from coming true? louise: refugees and migrants ill then have to go to dosh to smugglers, and we'll have a reproduction what happened with the discovery of the bodies in austria. laura: can you say to countries they don't have the right to defend their borders? louise: they have a right to -- to have a border control, but there are also international rights to refugees to be able to access the territory. european states cannot block their borders to asylum seekers or to refugees. laura: as we know the convention says refugees should stay in the first safe country they arrive in. louise: first country they arrived in for greece, for a long time, member states are not returning asylum seekers to greece.

they are not returning people to greece anymore. there is no legal way for the refugees or the asylum seekers in greece to leave. they are forcing them through this dangerous route to the balkans. laura: realistically, though, it comes down to a handful of wealthy states like the united kingdom, like france, the scandinavian countries as well. these are the countries that will have to take in the migrants. germany has taken four times as many they took last year. at what point do you say that the numbers are just too many? louise: i think we need to put things into perspective. we talk about the current numbers that are arriving in europe, yes, there are more people arriving now. if we think about the numbers of people that are arriving in, for example, the neighboring states of syria, turkey is hosting two million people. lebanon is hosting 1.2 million. laura: it's a crisis, isn't it, it's not a european crisis,

it's a middle east crisis? louise: we have a duty to respect -- to welcome refugees. we have to -- these people are fleeing for their lives. [inaudible] if they come here to protection, we have each member state -- each state has the responsibility to welcome them and provide them with asylum. laura: louise, thanks very much. here in france, police have dismantled one of the country's oldest and largest roman camps. some 300 people were moved and their homes bulldozed of northeast paris today. dozens of women, children and disabled people were given urgent housing while the rest received hotel vouchers. thousands of gypsies live in france but their camps are often dismantled. >> packing, police evicted residents of one of france's oldest slums. in the pouring rain, the roma

camp, a sprawling network of makeshift shelters in the paris suburb was dismantled. over the course of two hours, around 200 people were moved on. only a few families have been promised emergency housing, and that's only for several days. residents say they weren't given any warning. >> somebody called me and said, get over here. the police have arrived and they are preventing us from taking our stuff. >> the police entered the camp. they went outside and they said, we will not it down. people didn't have time to take their things. my uncle was in the middle of lunch. he was eating and he was told to get out. that's not right. >> but officials painted a different picture of the proceedings. >> the evacuation was peaceful and calm. people were able to prepare their luggage and leave. those who were outside were

able to go in to get their belongings and their identity papers and we tried to do all of this in the most peaceful way and it was the case. >> human rights activists say shuttering the camp won't stop the problem. >> we are shocked and angry to see that the same solutions are being used, solutions that are costly and ineffective and have been demonstrated for decades. they do not work. >> thousands of roma live in france and face routine discrimination. their camps tend to lack water and electricity, and authorities often cite sanitary reasons for dismantling them. laura: in greece, a supreme court judge has been named as the head of a government, ahead of elections last month. he was sworn in earlier today. she will be the country's first female leader, and she has been a vocal opponent of austerity.

.he takes -- steps in it's 10 years since hurricane katrina hit the south of the united states devastating the city of new orleans. almost 2,000 people died and hundreds of thousands were left homeless. and today president obama is look g with the city to at the city. the storm was the costliest and deadliest natural disaster to hit the united states. to talk more about that i'm joined on the line from durham, north carolina, professor mark anthony neil, a study of african-american studies at duke university. thank you for being with us on "france 24." and president obama expected to say tonight what started out as a man-made disaster -- as a natural disaster, it went on to become a fail our of governance. we all remember the president at the time, george w. bush, was southerly criticized over

his -- sorely criticized over his hauntling of the crisis. mark: i think the way he was dismissive what was happening in new orleans -- and i don't think it was necessarily a case of him as kayne west suggested, not liking black people, but he didn't see a region as a value to him in terms of his electoral goals. i think if it was another state in the united states like florida or someplace like connecticut that were much more important to his electoral strategy he would have responded differently. laura: it seemed these perceived inequalities persist today. there's an interesting discrepancy, a recent survey shows that white residents in louisiana think the state has recovered well from the storm. but black residents overwhelmingly say it hasn't. why is that? mark: i mean, there are a few reasons. first of all, there is a large number of black folks who left the city after katrina who have not returned. so a sizeable portion of the

black population historically in the city is no longer there. and many african-americans who lived in the city of new orleans already lived in fairly tenous situation withs -- situations. it had to due with structural issues around what was historically its value in terms of a leisure city. people who have access to capital, who have access to money, who have time in terms of leisure time in terms of vacation, new orleans is still an incredible and wonderful city. for folks who live and work there every day, particularly those of african-american dissent, it is much more of a difficult city still after all these years. laura: what do you think about the criticism that obama has been using this anniversary as a platform to talk about the risks associated with global warming? do you think it's right for him to talk about that, or is that a diversion from the much more thorny issue about rich vs. poor and the different experience of black and white

citizens in louisiana? mark: i think it's absolutely all of the above. but we have to remember about katrina, it was a natural disaster. yes, we can talk about the impact of global warming in that particular instance, but what happened in terms of the residents in new orleans was the failure of the man-made levees. so the structural failures in new orleans correlated to the government to really be consistently aware what was happening structurally in that particular region of the country. yes, global warming is a issue, a larger kind of issue of the number of hurricanes. of course, the united states is in a moment where we haven't seen nearly as number of hurricanes, atlantic hurricanes that we've seen, you know, say the years up to katrina. but i think it's also these other issues that are very important. laura: all right, professor neal, thank you very much, indeed. mark: thank you. laura: we're staying in the united states. there was an emotional onair memorial today for two journalist who is were shot dead during a live broadcast yesterday. colleagues, alison parker and

adam ward received a moment of silence the exact time they were killed. they were killed by vester flanagan who later killed himself. and here is the suicide note. >> a human powder keg to go boom, those were the words that vester flanagan, otherwise known as brice williams, to describe himself in a 23-page fax. a rambling suicide note, he sent to abc news two hours after he killed two of his former colleagues and before he shot and killed himself. the channel immediately turned over the document to investigating officers. on wednesday his family expressed condolences to the victims. >> it is with heavy heart and deep sadness we express our deepest condolences to the families of alison parker and adam ward. we're also praying for the recovery of vicky gardner. our thoughts and prayers at this time are with the victims'

families. >> 41-year-old vester flanagan had numerous grievances. a gay black man said he had been the victim of racism and sexual harassment at work. the news station which fired him two days ago described him as a volatile, disgruntled employee. in his fax, he said his, quote, tipping point was the north carolina church shooting. two days after nine african-americans were killed in the june race crime, flanagan legally bought a gun. the killing has reignited debate of gun control in the united states. some like the governor of virginia saying safeguards to keep at-risk individuals from acquiring guns were too few. >> there are too many guns in people's hands that should not have them. twice i have brought legislation before the general assembly. twice i've asked that we have background checks. twice now they have rejected it. >> the white house has also joined the call for greater gun control after a killing live on

air that is the 247th mass shooting in the u.s. this year, a rate of more than one per day. laura: let's stay with the u.s. as we turn to business news. markus karlsson. the u.s. economy is getting stronger. it's doing well. explain why that is a headache with the central bank? markus: we're starting with the u.s. economy and starting with a sign of strength from the world's biggest economy. but as you say, there is a twist. let's start from the beginning. the u.s. economy grew by much more than expected during the second quarter. figures show it expanded by 3.7% on the same period in 2014. that's much better than the first estimates of 2.3% growth. but it fuels the dilemma for the u.s. federal reserve. there's uncertainty among investors in markets when the fed will start raising interest rates. from near zero where they are at the moment, where they have been since the financial crisis. a strong economy is seen as an argument in favor of a rate

hike but at the same time the u.s. central bank doesn't want to damage the u.s. economy by raising interest rates too soon. for more analysis of what's next, we can turn to the chief economist for f.a.o. economics and he's joining us from new york this thursday. thank you very much indeed for joining us, first of all, bob. what do you make of these latest growth figures? is the u.s. economy as strong as it appears? bob: well, it depends on what you're looking at. you know, if you look at this number, it looks pretty strong. if you average with the first quarter, we're back to 2% growth. markus: what does that then tell us about what's next for the federal reserve? there's also been talk -- there is a lot of talk in the recent week or so that a chinese slowdown could impact the u.s. economy and therefore the argument has been that perhaps the slowdown in china could make the federal reserve wait a

little bit longer. how vulnerable is the u.s. economy as to china? bob: there could be feedback effects. i think the main thing you look at for the u.s. economy is the u.s. data. so you have a strong -- we're basically into the second quarter. first and second quarter together are running at about 2%. year-over-year growth it's a little bit stronger than that, but the fed has already told us in order to raise rates it needs to see further improvement in the job market and it needs to be sure that inflation over the medium term will be 2%. i think the thing isn't china, it's not the u.s. growth rate. it's the fact is the dollar is still rising, oil prices is falling, commodity prices are collapsing and there's no way any reasonable economist could tell you that inflation is going to be at 2% over the intermediate term. the fed does not have the ducks lined up to raise interest rates. so i don't think they could raise rates in september. it has nothing to do with all these other things people are talking about.

it has to do with the conditions. two conditions. one about the job market. one about expected inflation. markus: you say that the federal reserve will be looking at the job markets, particularly. the job market is very strong, at least on the surface, in the united states at the moment. doesn't that give the federal reserve an argument to start raising interest rates sooner rather than later? bob: well, the fed has -- again, they have two conditions that would have to be met. one is that the job market has to be reasonably strong. and i think it is that. you're right. the job market is looking good in some ways. inflation rate isn't on a path to do what the fed says it needs to do. if you two criteria and not making them then you can't do it. it's just that simple. furthermore, if you look at the job market, while the numbers look reasonable and the unemployment rate looks well, the u.s. participation rate is falling and wages will not rise, 2% year-over-year. when you look at the numbers carefully, the things you would typically look at like job growth or the unemployment rate

may not be telling you exactly the things they used to tell you in the past. i think job market statistics are overportray the sense of complacency or strength in the job market. markus: now, we have seen the heated debate among analysts about when the fed will start raising interest rates. but does it all really matter? would a small rate hike actually impact the u.s. economy? is there a lot of fuss about nothing, in other words? bob: well, i think it matters. if you look at what interest rates had been in the recovery, they've been dead flat. they have tried to take the argument, well, the first rate hike doesn't really matter. on the other hand, the first rate hike is an acknowledge we are in a new regime and in this new regime the fed will start raising rates. once they start they could start raising rates rather rapidly. they've given some forward guidance on rates sometimes we call the dots. if you look at these dots, which are points on a graph to

tell you when fed members think the fed will raise rates points to different things in the future. it shows a relatively rapid rise in the fund rate. yes, i think it does make a difference. markus: what will the impact be for the rest of the world, if any, whenever the fed starts raising interest rates? bob: well, the i.m.f. has warned the fed not to do it. that's another problem that federal reserve has two conditions for hiking rates. the two conditions aren't met and yet the fed seems to want to raise rates anywhere in an environment where the i.m.f. warns not to raise rates. it would be a bad citizen thing for the fed to do. i don't know if there will be a lot of backlash for the fed but certainly developing countries won't be happy to see the fed raise rates when the conditions aren't met and when they will make their life more difficult. markus: when do you think there will be an interest rate rise?

bob: not until 2016. i don't think the fed will be able to raise rates this year. if it's true to what it's told us, it cannot raise rate until the inflation picture changes. that won't happen until next year. markus: ok. bob brusca from new york city. thank you for taking the time to speak to us. let's move on now. the government of ukraine says its reached a deal with creditors to license its public debt burden. it means ukraine's debts will reduce bid nearly $4 billion. it is meant to unlock money. they are in a deep recession and they are in face of a default. >> after five months of arduous faux and historic restructuring deal that could shave 20% off ukraine bonds and delay debt replacements, the cash strapped kiev accord paves the way for

financial assistance from the international monetary fund, money that ukraine needs to stay afloat. the fund has said it won't unlike a lifeline for kiev until their debts are on a sustainible path. >> so we have a deal that achieves all three of the i.m.f. targets. it means they've pushed out, there is no payments for three months. that postpones $11.6 billion. >> despite the jubilation, questions remain over whether ukraine's debt mountain is sustainible. ukraine owes $18 billion u.s., a reduction of almost $4 billion still leaves over $14 billion more left to pay. once the i.m.f. program ceases, kiev could face a fresh cash shortage which may require another debt repayment extension. there are also question marks hanging over outstanding debt to russia, one of ukraine's main creditors.

moscow has signaled it will insist on repayment in full while kiev says it won't give russia special treatment. defaulting to russia could carry fresh risk to kiev since officially the i.m.f. can't continue lending to a country that's in default to another sovereign. markus: ok. we're going to take a look at how stocks are faring this session. in the united states we're seeing the independent sees with strong gains. we've seen a little bit of a slowdown in the past hour or so. investors taking a foot off the pedal somewhat. the u.s. growth reading is helping stateside and so is a boost in crude prices. it's up about $40 a barrel. let's also look at europe where we saw shares trading higher here quite sharply this thursday. the london ftse 100 leading the ay there up 3.56%.

they are playing strong minneapolis. the shanghai composite, something we've been watching in the past few days. they snapped a five-day losing streak popping by more than/ñ>xú

08/27/15 08/27/15 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> tens of thousands of people left behind, and those are the sickest, the oldest, poorest, the youngest, the people with disabilities and the like and if the plan was that everybody should leave. you can't leave if you're in a hospital, you can't leave if you are a patient. you can't leave if you don't have a car.