This is Aljazeera America live from new york city. European leaders told greece it has just one more day to come up with new proposals in order to get bailout loans and prevent a banking collapse. This weekend the e. U. Will hold and emergency summit and is telling greece and agreement must be reached by then. Prime minister Alexis Tsipras addressed the European Parliament today and his government gave the e. U. What he said described as the brought outlines of a new plan, but the details are still to come. John is live in athens for us this morning. Good morning to you john, the Prime Minister was criticized by many european leaders during the meeting of the e. U. Parliament. How are the greek people reacting to what he had to say . Well, theres reaction in the political system, first of all the Party Leaders here have asked for an emergency second cross party meeting. That would be the second in three days. Mr. Tsipras spent seven hours in conference with the other Party Leaders monday, the day after the big no vote in the referendum. The no against austerity measures. At the end of that, he had hammered out a very broad position with them that asked for a that authorized him to negotiate a bailout deal that financed the greek government in a socially fair way that provided for a development package, a large investment package from european funds and that also discussed rescheduling of the greek debt, whats called the reinstruct urge of the debt. The parties seemed to be up in arms because of the combative nature of the speech he delivered to the European Parliament wednesday morning where he said the bailout has been a failure over the last five years. The greek people are exhausted with austerity. They can no longer take anymore i have the. I am not to blame for this situation because ive only been Prime Minister for five months, it is europes problem, it is not just a greek problem, it is something that has been mishandled by european leaders. Lets listen to a part of what he had to say. We demand an agreement with our neighbors but one which gives us a sign that we are on a long lasting basis existing from the crisis, which will demonstrate to us that there is light at the end of the tunnel. This is now the problem. Mr. Tsipras has failed to be conciliatory in any way towards his interlockitures in europe. We must assume talks can only take place on the existing measures that the europeans proposed and that mr. Tsipras in writing accepted before the referendum took place. I think that is what we expect to be announced on thursday. All right live from athens, thank you. Talks on Irans Nuclear program are in overtime this morning. The u. S. , five world powers and iran of given themselves until friday to reach a deal. They have to overcome many Sticking Points. We have more from tehran. It is wednesday morning in tehran, the sun rising and it is another day after which another deadline has passed for a nuclear deal. In fact, things have slowed down in vienna. Some Foreign Ministers have left the negotiations. However, u. S. Authorities and iranian authorities insist that negotiations are continuing. They still remain in their own characterization closer than ever before. There is still talk of a deal by friday, the Sticking Point now is the u. N. Embargo on conventional arms in iran, not nuclear arms. Iran has for sometime been unable to trade legally in nonnuclear arms and it would like the right to do that again. In most cases the western powers at vienna think this is a nonstarter. They dont want more arms in this region, fearing iran will arm others in the region in what some are calling a proxy war. Russia is interested in iran having more armaments. Russia could sell those arms to iran especially if the United States doesnt. Russia is a player in this region. Its biggest ally around here is syria and syria is a very weakened player at the moment. To have a strong iran that has arms is useful for the russian federation. There are a lot of things going on here that are now dividing the p5 plus one or the six world powers negotiating in vienna and that might be slowing up the negotiations. Other look at this more positively and say if weve gone down the list to the point we are discussing nonconventional or conventional arms and lifting the embargo on that, maybe were in a good place. Bottom line is weve missed the july 7 deadline. We are not going to have a negotiation or a deal that goes to congress for a 30 day up or down vote. Congress is going to have 60 days to approve this. That causes other complications. Iranians are not insisting a deal that isnt going to pass muster at home, by the Supreme Leader the ayatollah who has been reviewing this through out the negotiations. New information about the case of an undocumented migrant accused of shooting a woman to death in San Francisco. A source close to the investigation tells al jazeera the gun used in the killing belonged to a federal agent. I am not guilty. Juan Francisco Lopez sanchez pleaded not guilty tuesday. He is held on 5 million bail. He is charged with killing a woman who was walking on a peer. His lawyer says it was an accident and that sanchez found a gun wrapped in a shirt and it went off. Sanchez is in the u. S. Illegally and has been deported five times. San francisco officials released him from jail in april under the citys sanctuary law. If the politicians in San Francisco or other cities that have similar sanctuary policies do not act on this, my fear is this will happen again. Well have much more on this case and the impact of sanctuary laws coming up in our next hour. In a few hours the South Carolina house of representatives is expected to debate removing the Confederate Flag from the State Capitol grounds. On tuesday the state Senate Overwhelmingly voted to take the controversial banner down. That came the same day dylann roof was indicted for nine counts of murder. Resistance to the samesex marriage ruling continues in some parts of the country. In kentucky, several county clerks have stopped issuing marriage licenses entirely as a way to avoid issuing them to same sex couples. The american civil lib converts union filed against one county on behalf of four calls. One of those couples in the lawsuit joins us now via skype from kentucky. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. Thank you. You guys have been together for more than a decade and after the Supreme Court ruling came down it must have been such a monumental moment for you both to go to the county Clerks Office afterwards. Tell us what happened when you tried to get your marriage license. We went down to the Clerks Office and when we went in and went up to the desk, we asked to get a marriage license issued, and the clerk sitting at the desk told us to wait a minute. She went back to miss daviss office and then she came out and said im sorry were not issuing any marriage licenses at this time. What did you think at the moment when you heard that this county clerk was refusing to issue licenses to all calls gay or straight . We were outraged. We had heard this might might be happening in our county but no same sex couples had gone to the desk. When we were denied, we started following up from our county attorney through our governors office, and the attorney generals office, or the attorney a. G. And governors offices both indicated that they had already released statements that told the county clerks to issue marriage licenses, and so we thought representation at that point with the American Civil Liberties union the a. C. L. U. Of kentucky. Lets talk about how the Kentucky Governor is reacting here right after the ruling. A letter was sent to all of the county clerks in the case acknowledging some clerks personal concerns but also saying and heres a quote neither your oath nor the Supreme Court dictates what you must believe but as elected officials, they do prescribe how we must act. Do you agree with the governor, but do you also want to see him take sort of a stronger stance against these clerks who are refusing licenses . Well, our governor was a part of the federal lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court and so yeah we thats a pretty strong stance already and when that the Supreme Court ruling came down, he made that statement immediately and said start issuing these licenses. Hes reiterated that two times again this last week, and i believe again yesterday. We definitely want him to take a stronger stance, but it is our understanding that the only way that miss davis can be removed from office, since shes an elected official is through a lawsuit or if she resigns or if she starts to issue marriage licenses which is what we really want her to do, her job. Clerk kim davis said shes standing up for what she believes in even if it costs her her job. If you could speak directly to kim davis or county clerks around the country there are clerks in several other states refusing marriage license to say same sex calls and in some cases, all marriage licenses. What do you want to say to them . We respect each of the persons religious perspectives and their freedoms to those things, but at the same time, we believe that there has to be a separation between church and state. Her Job Description the Job Description of the county clerk and the magistrates in the u. S. Clearly state its their responsibility or responsibility of their job to issue these marriage licenses, and to uphold the laws of the county, the state, and the nation. We just want them to do their job. Good luck to you both. April and carrol from kentucky, thank you so much. The fight against isil in syria hits a road block. The pentagon says the best chance of regaining territory is behind schedule. After fleeing their homeland, some Iraqi Christians say they are being held hostage by the u. S. Government. Welcome to al jazeera america. Its 7 45 eastern time. Lets take a look at your top stories today. Afghan officials and taliban wrapped up their First Official peace talks on tuesday in pakistan. The white house calls the talks an important step. An investigation is underway near charleston, South Carolina after an air force f16 fighter jet collided with a small plane. Debris fell over the area. The two people onboard the single engine sess in a were killed. The f16 pilot ejected safely. The pentagon confirmed that the army will reduce ranks by 40,000 soldiers, 8 over the next two years. An additional 17,000 civilians will be laid off. About 490,000 soldiers currently serve in the army. The deep divide in washington over isil and how to fight it was on full display on capitol hill tuesday. The pentagon leaders faced tough questions about training Syrian Rebels and helping iraqi troops. The hearing was a battle of competing and contradictory narratives with john mccain opening. Isil is not 10 feet tall. It can be and must be defeated, but that will never happen if we continue to delude ourselves about our current campaign. In response, defense secretary ash carter repeatedly argued the anti isil strategy must be based on getting local forces to fight and govern. The u. S. , he says, cant win the war for them. We know from our history in the region that putting u. S. Cam both troops on the ground as a substitute for local forces will not produce enduring results. That rekindled the long running dispute over whether just a small number of American Special forces to guide iraqi troops into combat and u. S. Fighters to do airstrikes might make a difference. If we had a few advisors in the iraqi battalions, youre saying that would not make a positive impact on them in their capabilities to actually win . The j tacks and special forces are not a Silver Bullet to the destruction of isil. The Silver Bullet is getting the iraqis to fight. Carter admitted it is in trouble in syria where 7,000 anti isil volunteers, only five dozen are currently in training. I said the number is 60 and i can look at your faces and you have the same reaction i do, that that is an awfully small number. The lag jam is caused by the nationally mandated vetting process, screening everybody more interested in fighting Bashar Al Assad than isil. Frustration was running high. Mr. Secretary, when you look at a map like this, a map of syria that i assume you have handed out somebody did thats a mess. Chairman dempsey did reveal that u. S. Advisors stopped iraq from a precip to us plan to take rimadi and fashioned a more deliberate campaign more likely to succeed. Pentagon sources say the battle could take days and will tell the u. S. A lot about whether iraqi forces was regained the will to fight. Al jazeera, the pentagon. Meanwhile some Iraqi Christians seeking asylum in this country say they are held captive by the u. S. Government. They came to the u. S. Seeking a new life, but the asylum process has been delayed for months. We know that there were victims of a genocide. Theyve escaped living hell. Lets allow them to reunite with their families. Behind the barbed wire and concrete walls of this federal Detention Center near san diego 20 iraqiion are locked up. For four months, they sat and waited to be released. What we do know is that they are being held much longer than they should be, without a real reason. The men and women are a iraqi christian minority group. There is a spokesman for the local Community Calling for their release. We are protesting. We are talking to the state department to the white house and congress and we are putting pressure to make sure they release these 20 innocent people. The group fled isil, seeking political asylum in the United States. Here in the city, a suburb of san diego youll find the second largest population of the Iraqi Christians in america outside of detroit. Main street is fondly called little baghdad where restaurants, store fronts and churches tie this community together. All 20 of the detainees like Robert Basher have family willing to sponsor them. Its a very hard situation for him. He try like hes almost here, but he cant like, you know where hes at. Hes almost free, but hes not quite free . Yeah, like this. Hes very nice person. Hes like hes family . Yeah, hes family. His big wish is just to come here and live and work and be happy. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined our request for an interview but according to its process they must prove what the government calls credible fear of persecution back home. They must establish their identity demonstrate they arent a flight risk and pose no danger to the community. If those criteria are met period be released. A statement provided to al jazeera says the vast majority of foreign nationals arrested are in fact released under supervision while their cases are pending. Why do you think that four months is too long for them to be detained . There is a process for lawing Asylum Seekers into the United States. Its too long compared to their standard, compared are to isis standards. Usually, if they see that their political ask for political asylum and they have family, that they could do follow up interviews, they usually are released. These 20 are not being released, and more importantly ice isnt saying why. Would you do you think they are being held then . We dont know. I understand ice isnt telling you but what do you think personally . What teach told us is they dont have enough resources enough manpower to talk to everyone. Do you believe that . Its hard to believe. As the community continues to demand the detainees release and ice refuses to answer questions, they continue to sit and wait. Their former life left behind, their new one just out of reach. Al jazeera california. Hundreds of fires raging across alaska and northern canada, and the biggest danger may not be coming from the flames, but the smoke. Summer storms are bringing heavy rains across the midwest. Flash floods swept large parts of the country tuesday trapping people in cars and homes from nevada to kentucky and texas. In abilene, firefighters rescued a woman after her car got stuck in fast moving water. No serious injured have been reported. Wildfires across the u. S. And canada are causing major problems an in states like alaska more fires may be tied to Climate Change. Lets bring in Nicole Mitchell. How bad is this wildfire mistaken . In alaska, we hear about california and Climate Change, but alaska is warming twice the United States. Already three degrees warmer than 60 years ago. That spike in temperature is leading to more fires. Weve seen this across the country, higher temperatures lend to more fires in places like alaska, definitely more. Theres 50 large fires active in the United States, 20 of those right now were in alaska, but alaska has born the brunt of this. 3 millionacres burned so far this year, 77 of that has been in alaska, only 23 has been in the lower 48, so a lot more acreage covered here. In the 2000s because of this, twice as many wildfires as in the 1960s and 1970s because of the Climate Change warning and the area is increasing in just a couple years, more than 15 years back in the 1950s and 1960s. According to the Climate Assessment wildfires here will double by 2050, triple by the year 2100. So air quality is another major concern. Heres where all of those fires are. Places yesterday like fairbanks had hazardous air quality good between zero and 50, very dangerous air. Weve been talking about all the fires in the United States, as well. Weve had this problem in the lower 48. Canadian fires even bringing things into the hid west. Is this something that is going to worsen through the summer . Definitely. Were hitting the hottest part of the year and were already very dry. All right, Nicole Mitchell, thank you. Hawaii has the highest percentage of rooftop solar users in the country but local Utility Companies are doing all they can to keep residents from going green. When you think about an Energy Efficient house you probably do not think about a house like this. This is a 14 million mansion. Its on the cliffs of south maui overlooking the pacific with a three and a half car garage. It has the plaster they use in the vatican. It has an amazing kitchen a bathroom counter made from italian onyx lit from within. This is powered by this panel system. With plentiful sunshine, it has become the front line battle about the future of solar. Well be looking at the coming war over it in a special report later tonight. You can watch that report tonight at 8 00 eastern. That does it for us here at 7 30. Stephanie sy is back in two minutes. Have a good day. With a final bailout deadline looming, Alexis Tsipras fights for what he calls a fair deal. Taking the next steps to take the Confederate Flag off the statehouse grounds. Some want it to to say. Transgenders speak out about their struggle. This is Aljazeera America live from new york city, im stephanie sy. Time is running out for greece to reach a deal with european leaders. The eu set a final deadline for the country to come up with new proposals. This weekend the eu will hold and emergency summit, telling greece an agreement must be reached by then. Alexis tsipras told the European Parliament proposals need to be just. His government gave the e. U. Whats described as a broad outlines of a new plan but the details are still to come. Dominic cain is in france. In an impassioned address Alexis Tsipras outlined the pain and suffering he said his country has endured for the past five and a half years. He acknowledged some errors by his government, the party syriza, but said other governments had a responsibility to bear equally. He outlined in some wave the sorts of proposals his country his government will make to try to get one last bailout from the european union. It was in effect an urgent call for help. We demand an agreement with our neighbors but one which gives us a sign that we are on a long lasting base exiting from the crise which will demonstrate to us there is a light at the end of the tunnel, an agreement that will bring about the necessary reforms. That is clearly necessary. We have to recognize that over the past years reforms have been put in place which have been a but should on what pensioners can take, what employers can put up with, what they can stand, as well as ordinary citizens. The probe is that the euro zone leaders the president of of the European Council president of the European Commission have put a time limit on these negotiations. There needs to be proposals brought forward by thursday and there must be some sort of deal by sunday. Overriding all of this is the fact that the greek government and economy still owe very considerral sums of money to its creditors, the i. M. F. Payment meant to be made june 30 didnt happen. They are in arrears to the tune of 1. 6 billion to the euros with the i. M. F. They must make another payment on july 20 of 3. 46 billion euros and there is no sign so far they will be able to do that. While mr. Tsipras was applauded by some parts of the European Parliament there were also very clearly stoney, icy glances from other members of the parliament and from the president of the commission and the council. It all means that the greek government dominic cain there at the European Parliament meeting in france. Chinese officials are jam bling this morning to stop the countries stock market from c further. Overnight, the main stock index plunged to a three month low. More than a fifth of companies halted trading. Chinese stocks are down 25 since mid june as growth slows leading to fears of economic collapse. A federal court has sided with puerto ricos bond holders and blocked cities there from declaring bankruptcy. The island government is struggling to come up with a way to handle 72 billion in public debt. Last month, puerto rico said the debt is unpayable. Some on the island asked congress to change the law and allow the territory to declare bankruptcy. Major differences have pushed talks on Irans Nuclear program into overtime. They have given themselves until friday to reach a deal. Tomorrow is still a day to keep on eye on. If secretary of state john kerry fails to hand over a deal by then congress will get 60 days instead of 30 to review the plan. We have more. It is wednesday morning and the sun is ricing after which another deadline has passed for a nuclear deal. Things have slowed down in vienna. Some Foreign Ministers left negotiations. U. S. And iranian authorities insist negotiations are continuing. They still remain in their own characterization closer than theyve ever been before and there is still talk of a deal by friday. Their Sticking Point now is the u. N. Embargo on conventional arms in iran, not nuclear arms. Iran has for sometime been able to trade legally in nonnuclear arms and would like the right to do that again. In most cases the western powers at vienna think this is a nonstarter. They dont want more arms in this region, fearing iran will arm others in the region in what some are calling a proxy war. On the other hand, russia is interested in iran having more armaments for a few reasons. One is russia could be a country that sells those arms to iran especially with the United States doesnt. Russia is a player in this region. Its biggest ally is syria and syria has a very weakened player at the moment, so to have a strong iran that has arms is useful for the russian federation. There are a lot of things going on here that are now dividing the p5 plus one negotiating in vienna and that might be slowing up the negotiations. Others look at this more positively and say if weve gone down the list to the point we are discussing no one conventional or conventional arms, and lifting the embargo on that, maybe were in a good place. Bottom line, weve missed the july 7 deadline. We are not going to have a negotiation or deal that goes to congress for a 30 day up or down vote. Congress is going to have 60 days to prove this, causing other complications. Iranians are not agreeing to a deal that isnt going to pass muster at home. The pentagon defend the president s strategy to fight isil. Ash carter joined general Martin Dempsey facing tough questions on capitol hill. They dropped a hint about what they hope will be a huge victory. We have more. It was a lengthy hearing. You had to be listening carefully, but general Martin Dempsey revealed what all those advisors had been up to, planning the iraqi counter offensive to retake ramadi. The campaign to retake the city from isil is set for this month. Shaping operations could begin in days. In his testimony general dempsey revealed one of the first things u. S. Advisors did was stop the iraqis from rushing back into ramadi without and adequate plan to not only retake the city, but prevent isil from escaping. About a month ago the campaign was about to be executed precipitously is now a campaign to isolate and recapture it with the supporting effort in fallujah. Our presence in the anbar Operation Center is allowing the Iraqi Security forces to take a more deliberate campaign approach and to avoid the very tooth paste aspect of the way isil squirts around the battlefield when you squeeze it in one place and it turns up in another. It follows classic u. S. Arm doctrine focusing on rimadi and setting up blocking forces to represent isil from moving intory madi, as well as additional blocking forces to the west of the city to pin isil down. U. S. Air power including drones and Surveillance Aircraft would support the attack of several thousand newly equipped u. S. Advised troops, but under iraqi commanders. Ramadi needs to be retaken and the way to do it is to have a force under the command and control, competent command and control of Iraqi Security forces commanders, which has been a challenge, and a plan and the means to as you say make sure we get that they dont bog down and they are able to take ramadi and move through. This will be a test of the Iraqi Security forces, and its a test that they must pass. The lynch pin of the u. S. Strategy is to support and enable local forces, but not to do the fighting for them. Chairman dempsey again pushed back on the idea of putting American Special forces or spotters on the ground with the iraqi forces, saying that was not a Silver Bullet. The Silver Bullet he said is getting the iraqis to fight. An investigation is underway in South Carolina after an air force f16 fighter jet collided with a small plane tuesday. Both planes were flying over charleston. Debris fell across a wide area. Two people aboard the small plane were killed. The f16 pilot ejected safely. The South Carolina house of representatives is expected to begin debate over removing the Confederate Flag from the State Capitol grounds. The state Senate Already voted to take the controversial banner down. That vote came on the same day a in this indicted dylann roof with the murders of nine people at a charleston church. We have more on the Confederate Flag debate that began in the wake of the church murders. The house members are going to be voting a second time today. They voted yesterday to move the legislation directly to the floor and by pass the committee. Today they are going to vote on a number of amendments that essentially would replace the current Confederate Flag with another Confederate Flag. The House Speaker yesterday implored members of the house to vote down those amendments. We now ask that they not erect hurdles that they not try and pass other amendments and put up other flags and other symbols of the confederacy and hatred and racism that they simply allow South Carolina to move forward. We would ask that the General Assembly of South Carolina specific live the house take the flag down and give people nothing to fight about that they remove the flag and the pole and that nothing go up in its place. Potentially if they can get through all of those amendments today, vote on the legislation they have to vote on it a third time, that could come as early as tomorrow. If that legislation is passed, the governor could contain it by the end of the week and possibly that flag could be removed sometime soon. We dont know when. Diane esterbrook reporting there. New york city is eliminating bail for people accused of nonviolent or low level crimes. Judges will be able to replace bail with supervised release instead. House republicans are set to take up a about him to improve the health of forests allowing federal agencies to tap into a Disaster Fund if they run out of money for fighting wildfires. Want department of agriculture will testify today about stopping aviation flu. Thousands of farm chickens had to be culled because of the outbreak. Summer storms threaten a huge swath of the United States. We have the latest. The floodwater storms this week left behind are not normal. It has people from the southwest to the midwest struggling to dry out and clean up. Texas streets turned into rivers by record rainfall. In missouri, this river overflowed forcing vacationers to flee and residents fleeing with very little warning. This is a historic flood for southern berry county. The last time any of us remember a flood to those levels was in the neighborhood of 17, 18 years ago. Flooding plagued indiana. Everythings underwater in there. I have nothing. Across the south and midwest water was everywhere, making travel by car particularly treacherous. The water was deep and we hit that water and it killed the engine. Officials are imploring people to stop driving through flooded roads. That puts a very big strain on your Fire Department and we need to be able to take those medical calls when they come in. Im sure a lot of folks need to go through those low water areas to get home. Dont. Take your time, wait it out go to a friends house do whatever you need to do to not have to get back to that. The storms and the flooding from texas to pennsylvania are expected to last through thursday. According to the National Weather service, there were more than 100 flash floods reported from the mid atlantic to the southwest plains in just the last 36 hours. Thank you. Lets bring in Nicole Mitchell for more on that storm threat today. The flooding concern and what the emergency officials were saying in all of that, flooding is one of our number one weather killers, its dangerous to be driving or walking through the waters. You can see the front from the north through the midwest and into the south and in the west coast, enough instability to be kicking off not necessarily rain but lightning. Along that line, as it moved along, really centered over portions of the accident. You can see widespread flood concerns oklahomatexas has gotten the brunt of the rain, heres how that spreads over the next couple days. That stays the core of it two or three inches, but oklahoma, texas, there are isolated spots that get five or six. Albuquerque has so much standing water, they say the mosquitoes have gotten out of control, as well. If its not one thing its another. Thank you. Serving in the shadows. Felt good. It felt very, very good to be able to actually be myself and be in uniform at the same time. The battle for acceptance by transgender members of the armed forces. One year after the war in gaza began residents are still picking up the peelses. Subway cuts ties with its pitchman after an investigation by the f. B. I. Taking a look at todays other top stories from around the nation, the son of a former congressman has won a primary in illinois. State senator Darrin Lahood defeated opponents. He is the favorite in a september special election. Three are dead after a shooting near the university of married campus in baltimore. Its not clear what was behind the shooting. Police say two vans pulled up and two gunmen opened fire. A fourth victim is recovering. This is the second shooting in that location in the last week. Sandwich chain subway and its long time spokesman jared fogle have broken ties. Officers removed documents electronics and other items from his home. He has not been charged but two months ago he fired the director of his charity due to child porn chargessing. Today marks one year since an Israeli Military offensive in gaza began. With 100,000 in termly displaced and territory in ruins for many, last years war seems fresh. 2,251 gasses died during the conflict. 75 were civilians. On the israeli side, 73 were killed. 63 were no one combatants. Today, widespread reconstruction has not started. We have a report from gaza. Why is reconstruction happening so slowly . The reconstruction evident here in gaza really hasnt started simply because gaza is under siege. With its borders that it shares with israel, very little supplies have been allowed in. According to the United Nations only 1 of Building Supplies needed for gaza has been allowed in over the past 12 months. Add to that the fact that the border they share with egypt the rafah Border Crossing is also closed. All of that has meant that those people who lost their homes during that 50 day conflict have very basic shelters. In fact, lets take a look at how many are living now. Im here where thousands of people are living in these very basic shelters made out of tin or plastic sheeting. Most people here are small children. It really just scores the fact that many gasses one year after this conflict are living in very very desperate conditions. When you look a year on after the war the situations worse. The unemployment is no better, poverty has increased. The humanitarian need to increased. I think the only reason to be slightly optimistic is i do think our construction will separate in the coming months. A very desperate situation here. Of course, that need for reconstruction, which is so acute that the people weve been speaking to say to us that although a year has passed since a ceasefire was agreed between hamas and israel, every time they step out their doors it feels as if the war only ended yesterday. Who do they blame for the pace of reconstruction. They blame a lot of people. They blame israel for the blockades. They blame hamas for not doing enough to figure a way to get Building Industries in. Abbas is based in the occupied west bank for not being able to find a way to move forward with hamas and anger at egypt for not allowing people to move back and forth between the crossing they share with it. The consistent theme here is one of anger but the fact of the matter is that people here in gaza realize that their future, their homes are simply not in their control and they rely on so many others to try to make this happen for them, something which simply hasnt. We go now to israels Council General in new york joining us from telaviv this morning. Thank you for your time. Reconstruction senior israeli arm officers have reportedly recommend that had gaza border restrictions be eased on the israeli side. Will the Israeli Government consider easing these restrictions . Good morning, stephanie yes youre right. The army, the military internal Intelligence Branch has recommended a that ment and other terse be allowed to go into gaza. In the past they have been allowed to dig or structure tunnels and to fortify rocket launching places or pads and so in the absence of any kind of supervision, the process is tragically very slow. Lets take a broader look at where were at a year on. From israels perspective what did last years war accomplish . Hamas still runs gaza, and many of these tunnels are believed to still exist. Hamas rules gaza and that is the result of the operation. From an israel point of view, there have been four or five accomplishments and successes. One is from an israeli angle deterrence has been restored by virtue of or as is evident by the number of missiles that have been launched since last summer eight as opposed to several hundred in the year preceding that. Theres a question, stephanie of can you quantify deterrence by a number of missiles and did hamas lose all its capability and the answer to that is probably no. Secondly, another accomplishment from israels point of view is that the tunnels surrounding a peripheral infrastructure has been destroyed. A third success is that there is enhanced cooperation with egypt and a fourth is hamas has been severely weakened. There are consar lack of successes. Hamas is still in control as we just said. The second is that the operation weakened the Palestinian Authority and further severed the west bank from gas and that is doing no good the palestinians and israelis have for a diplomatic settlement. The third is that any military operation has to have some political end to it. This military operation successful for less successful led to no diplomatic, significant diplomatic process which is why a year later unfortunately, were at a deadlock a status quo a stalemate, any way you want to look at it. Israelis refer to these periodic wars as mowing the lawn and you wonder how many more years can go by before we see another israeli war with gaza. Thank you. Criticism over sanctuary for undocumented migrants. The shooting death of a young woman is feeling the debate. Hooked on heroin, the new numbers show more americans are using the drug and surprising finding over who are the biggest abusers. Welcome to al jazeera america. Taking a look at todays top stories. Marathon meetings are underway issue vienna, focusing on friday as the target date for an agreement on Irans Nuclear program. John kerry is still there. Greece that just one more day to come up with new proposals in order to get bailout loans. Euro zone leaders gave the final deadline today. The the South Carolina hours is expected to debate removing the Confederate Flag. On tuesday the state senate voted to take the controversial banner down. The governor has pledged to sign the bill. New information this morning about the case of an undocumented migrant accused of shooting a woman to death in San Francisco. The gun used in the killing belonged to a federal agent. The woman was killed as she walked one week ago. The suspect had been deported five times. Her death is making San Franciscos sanctuary law a focus of criticism. Its a crime that has raised uncomfortable questions in this liberal bastion. Sanchez admitted killing a 32yearold woman on the city waterfront but said it was an accident. Did you shoot kate stein way the lady who was down on peer 14 . Yes. You did shoot her . Uhhuh. Lopez sanchez has a history of drug related crimes. Hes been deported five times to mexico and is exit a for critics of San Franciscos socalled sanctuary policy. San Francisco Police should have notified ice but had a policy not to. Its a city policy not to active live cooperate with u. S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The federal agency told use it had asked the city to let them know about any plans to relevancy sanchez saying in a statement our officers lodged an immigration detiner asking to be notified prior to his release. That was not honored. San franciscos sheriff fought back, saying the burden was on ice. Ice needs to get a legal federal warrant or a court order to facilitate his transfer and that did not happen. While many cities across the country choose not to cooperate with federal officials, San Francisco stands out as a particular safe haven for undocumented immigrants. This is a vulnerable population that there are elements that will prey upon a population that they know will not interface will not have contact, communication with government and that frankly was exacerbating public safety. State attorney general was quick to support the policy, saying our policy should not be informed by our collective outrage about one mans conduct as has many in the citys legal community. You cant blame the sanctuary policy for this event. Cant blame the policy for whatever this particular fellow did. There are dozens of people released every day who are subject to i. N. S. Holds who dont commit crimes. Still the citys on the defensive with the mayor saying he would investigate the matter, though its unlikely anything will change despite the womans unfortunate death. Al jazeera, San Francisco. An attorney with the National Immigration law center joins us from washington this morning. Good morning. Thank you for your time. Thank you for having me. As San Francisco mayor said, these laws, sanctuary laws were never intended to protect repeat serious and violent felons. Without getting into the blame game did kate die because her killer slipped between the cracks . San franciscos policy isnt unique. Theres over 300 jurisdiction, in the country that have embraced this policy. Specifically its because under the former secure communities program, under the Obama Administration, many local Law Enforcement officers were put in the position of being viewed as immigration enforcers and a completely eroded Community Trust and completely dismantled local law they are not enforcing the ice laws, but did this guy slip between the cracks because they are not cooperating with the federal authorities on these deportation cases . Ice was aware of San Franciscos policy and they knew that in order to request that notification from the city of San Francisco that they would needle to provide a warrant just as a sheriff of San Francisco had said. If ice had wanted to do that, they certainly were in a position to be able to do that and San Franciscos policy again is like overthrow hundred jurisdictions in the country. This isnt unique to San Francisco. Do you think that those jurisdictions need to reexamine these laws . I think those jurisdictions are all responding to a much more significant problem which is the fact that they dont want to be viewed as immigration enforcers. It completely gets in the way of their ability to do their job. Weve seen this response from so many over 300 jurisdictions in the country is precisely because local Law Enforcement that said if we dont get our communities to comfortably come forward to us and provide information about the crimes and community, we cant do our jobs. This is actually a response to that. The courts have been challenged, there have been constitutional challenges in the courts that have upheld these types of policies at the local level so i think San Franciscos policy is reflective of a sentiment shared by local Law Enforcement across the country. There was a young woman dead and a lot of people are outraged by this. How concerned are you that this case is going to set back more movements like yours that protect rights for undocumented immigrants. I think of its a tragedy what happened in San Francisco. Its unfortunate and senseless loss of life. I think at the same time, it would be unfortunate and dangerous to use one example to in form wider policy. The reason that so many local Law Enforcement officers have responded in this way and said let us do our job is because we havent addressed our nations immigration problems. We have over 11 Million People contributing to the fabric of their communities and who are part of our lives and we havent been able to find a way a smart comprehensive and humane way to make sure those people have an ability to remain safely in the United States without fear of being ripped apart from their families. I think this is a direct response to that. They want people to come forward and feel safe in their communities and they recognize that a threat to one member of their community is a threat to everyone. I think that thats what this is part of, a much larger trend and much bigger conversation about Immigration Reform more generally. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Thanks for your time. As the Obama Administration decides its next steps in the fight against isil, the pentagon said it will reduce ranks by 40,000 soldiers or 8 over the next two years. Budget constraints led to the cuts. An additional 17,000 civilians employed by the army will also be laid off. 490,000 soldiers currently serve in the army. Its been four years since the pentagon ended dont ask dont tell. Now gay and lesbian Service Members can serve openly, but one group of fighters is still in the shadows. We have the story of the first army officer to publicly come forward at transgender. She joined the Army Medical Core 15 years ago enlisting as a man. Inside, she knew she was a woman. Your psychiatrist said as recently as october that you were unfit for duty. Yes. How devastating was that to hear Something Like that . Just evenings mentioning this to anyone, i could lose my job. I wanted to serve my country. I wanted to deploy. Ive been in since i was 17. This is my chosen profession. I want to serve. Four years after dont ask dont tell ended the military still officially disqualifies anyone who reports psycho sexual conditions including transsexualism and transvestism. Major henry is the first active Duty Army Officer to publicly come forward at transgender. There are an estimated 15,500 transgender Service Members in the military, according to the Williams Institute at ucla, making it the largest employer in the u. S. Transgender people are more than twice as likely to serve in the armed forces as the general population. Former navy pilot is a director at sparta where Service Members and allies support respect and tolerance for all. Its like dont ask dont tell, you have people hiding, you have people who if they do come out can be discharged administratively, lose their pensions. Last month for the first time, president obama hosted six transgender Service Members at the white house for the lgbt pride month reception. We were invite and told to wear and given authorization to wear the uniform that confirms with our gender identity. It felt good. It felt very, very good to be able to actually be myself and be in uniform at the same time. For army major jami henry lifting the ban will finally allow her to be herself too. They might be accepting transgender Service Members. I can just be like any other doctor in the military. That is incredible to me. Jonathan betz, al jazeera washington. A new way to talk about Mental Health on line. Social media users worldwide have been posting images of semi colon tattoos and drawings on their bodies as part of a campaign looking to raise awareness about the fight against depression and suicide. People chose the symbol because of how its used in writing the writer could have ended the sentence but chose not to. They want people contemplating suicide to choose not to. President obama will visit vietnam soon, making the comments while welcoming the communist leader to the white house. It marked the beginning of improving relations. Smiling in the oval office, this is meant to send a message. Its been four decades since u. S. Troops left vietnam, two decades since normalized relations. Now their leaders say its time to take the relationship to the next level. I certainly do look forward to visiting your beautiful country sometime in the future. The reason for this meeting for vietnam is mostly about defense and the running conflict with china over disputed islands in the south china sea. They were shocked by chinas moving of the oil rig into what they called territorial waters last year and fundamentally revisiting all of the their International Relationships with the u. S. , japan with india. They want partners they can count on. For the u. S. , its about the transpacific partnership, now negotiating that would be a massive free trade pact, representing 36 of the worlds g. D. P. The white house response, theyre trying to change that. In the context of a t. P. P. Agreement, what we can do is compel vietnam to better respect the basic rights of workers in that country. The u. S. Agreed to sell vietnam military equipment for its navy, but so far, nothing else. The u. S. Sending the message that they want more help, theyll need to take another look at how many rights first. Sailing to cuba aboard a u. S. Cruise ship is one step closer to reality. Carnival hopes to offer trips next year. If approved, the cruises to the island nation from the u. S. Would be the first since the trade embargo was put into effect in the 1960s. While we had the u. S. Approval is the first important step for us, we obviously also need cuban approval and were working with the cubans to receive that approval so we can be able to start carrying guests. Our intention is may of 2000 stingy a trip could run afoul of the trade embargo so the crews might plan to offer tickets for a program that lets passengers volunteer while in cuba. Pope francis is wrapping up the first leg of a tour today. The environment administering to the poor and the governments tense relations with the Catholic Church are high on the agenda. Heroin use in the u. S. Showing a large spike. 300,000 more people across all income levels are using the drug. Most of the new users are white. Surveys find three out of every 1,000 americans used heroin in the past year up from a decade ago. More people are dying from heroin overdoses, more than 8,000 in 2013 alone. The drug also has a firm grip on parts of canada. Doctors in British Columbia are using a controversial method to help addicts. This is hastings street, downtown vancouver nor torous for street drugs and violence. They hit me over the head. Our tour guides, two of the citys estimated five to 8,000 intravenous drug drug users. In my mind, a junkie will do and say whatever for that next fix. Both leanne and kevin know exactly where theyre getting that next fix not on the street, but a government funded clinic where they get herrun free prescribed by a doctor. We went with kevin for the second of his three daily injections. Methadone never worked for him as a heroin alternative and repeated rehab attempts failed. Im looking for a vein, because ive had problems lately. We watched as he cant hit a vein first in his right arm then left. Give me a small tip. Finally he shoots directly into his shoulder muscle. When you do it, its like a big warm hug. Its like your mom just hucks you, squeezes you and then really tight no worries everythings out of your mind. We interviewed kevin after his fix. The patients here are considered so severely addicted, giving them the drug they crave is the best and cheapest way to protect them and those arent them. Free heroin, its either that or, you know, you want me to smash in your car or robbing you, hurting you or something . Thats where it would end up, you bottom out. Similar programs have been run in europe for years and many studies show keeping people like kevin on an even keel, not chasing street drugs can pay off. They will benefit their lives will become ordered again and the societal harms are so shaded with their drug acquisition behaviors are reduced. Dr. Mcdonald calls it a signs based approach, a way of maintaining an addicts health. Not everybody sees the benefit. Jim orourke runs Vision Quest Recovery Society abstinence based rehab for severely addicted career criminals. Is there a point to get clean . Im 23 years clean and sober i. V. Drug user. If were giving these folks heroin, is that a way of giving up on them . Yeah, you flush them. Thats it. There you go, byebye. Were not going to deal with you anymore, you need more . Lets give you more. By giving them heroin, are we giving up on them . This is a treatment that is not going to will engage people not otherwise engaged in care. If we cant engage people in care, some will die. Its like winning the lottery to me, basically yeah. He supplements government assistance checks at a government assistance site on hastings street. You get your dope when you come here and use it yourself. He says his regular supply in a clean medical setting has stabilized his life. We hear the same from leanne. For an addict, this is better than just good. Doesnt the government always get the best of the best . Dont we want our people to be the best . I mean is there any thought at all of sometimes kicking this habit getting rid of it . Kicking the habit i have now . I will never kick this hospital. From where i was to where i am now, im completely happy. In the future, do you see living without it . No. No, its been a part of my life, and adjustment, i love it too much. Wildfires across the u. S. And canada are causing major problems. In alaska, more fires maybe tied to Climate Change. Lets bring in Nicole Mitchell. How bad is this wildfire season . Its huge and getting worse every year. We talk about california but in terms of temperature alaska has gone up the most, about three degrees in 60 years double the rest of the country because its so far to the north. Thatted as to wildfires. These are images from around the country this year. Its already been a brutal season. Fifty large active fires, 20 of those in alaska alone. Then when you go in terms of acreage, it is a much different story. Alaska easily tips that scale. 3. 1 million acres burned so far this year, nationally 77 of that has been in alaska. Weve had twice as many large wildfires as the 1950s and 1960s and area is increasing each year. According to the national Climate Assessment, they think it will be double by 2050 and triple by 2100. Heres a map of where some of those are going on right now. So far total for the year, theres been about 700 fires higher temperature lower humidity, more lightning strikes. Its also doing a number in the smoke. Yesterday, in fairbanks, it was 50 times worse than the daily average. The smoke was so oppressant and that has been funneling into the United States, the lower forth eight, place like minnesota to washington has had very poor air quality because of the fires. A marriage of sight and sound. The museum where you can enjoy the art a little longer. A member of the simpsons cast returns to the show. Welcome to al jazeera america. Rescue operations are underway near the greek islands after a boat sank off the Turkish Coast. Greek and Turkish Coast guards rescued 21 and recovered one body. Several people are still missing. Migrants have tried to make their way to the greek islands from the Turkish Coast this year. Karachi without power overnight. The private Electric Company blamed it on a fault if the distribution system. A similar outage left the city without power for hours. Thousands have died due to the heatwave. Harry shearer the voice of characters on the simpsons isnt leaving the show. He wanted more flexibility in his schedule. Fox confirmed tuesday that everybody voice from the original cast will be back for this falls 27th season. A new show is opening at Londons National Gallery today. Some photos of the exhibit are on the wall behind me. Its an exhibit that promises to use art lovers ears to help them see the paintings better. The ambassadors at the court of king henry the eye painted in 533. Listen to the music made by a view len with only three strings. Its tense reflecting the broken string in the loot and the historic tensions as the powerful king of england south to break with the Catholic Church. I wanted to use the tension within the space. I think its palpable and defined, the constant shifting. Six musicians or sound artists were given their choice of any picture in the national gallery, and commissioned to compose. Electric music by the d. J. Changes as one nears the picture. Just as the unified form of the painting dissolves into tiny points. The challenge for museums in this fast paced world is to slow people down. Visitors have a tendency to russia taking pictures of themselves looking at paintings left and right. The music makes people slow down. They look at the paintings and see details they wouldnt have noticed before. The natural sounds of the lake are recreated. The sound of the music force you to feel something. They force us to experience something, whether you like it or not. Its a very visceral experience. An american composer, a piece made in the 14th century. The music encourages you to look deeper, look through and down. For me, a bell should remind you to look somewhere else. Listening and looking all designed to slow the visitor down and provide a new way of seeing art and appreciating it even more. Jessica baldwin, al jazeera london. World cup Champion Team u. S. A. Will get a ticker tape parade in new york city. Thousands of fans cheered the team in l. A. The new york parade will be the first time the city has honored athletes who arent all from new york. Thanks for watching. Have a great day. Wildfires lit by arsonists. This sounds like it happened in a flash. Millions in damages. And the tragic human cost. Hes not here anymore. Find out how experts are fighting back. Hidden in the mountains of afghanistan. What you have seen was a drop of the iceberg. A 5000 year old archeological site. This has preservation on a scale that no other sites have. Under threat by Global Mining and scheduled for demolition. Mes aynak is one of the most important sites in the century. With time running out. Theyre losing everything. Can archeologists stop the clock . This is rescue archaeologic we are trying to excavate as fast as possible. Welcome to the news hour from doha. One year on from the war in gaza, tens of thousands of palestinians are still in desperate need. A show of support at the European Parliament as the greek Prime Minister calls for a fair bailout deal. Chinas soft market plunges after a surge of panic selling. The fear is spreading to other