capital. we look at the battle to keep control of the bermese python in florida's everglades. the united states has urged turkey to halt military strikes to kurdish targets in syria. it comes as the prime minister demanded kurdish fighters withdraw from the border. it carried out the shelling near the town of a zchlt a zchlt in the north of the country - azaz. turkey says it was striking in return - retaliation under the army's rules of engagement. >> reporter: turkish military confirming that their targeting positions of y.p.g. inside the northern aleppo prons clearly a message. over the past few days this armed group and their allies have been taking ground from turkey back to syrian opposition groups, taking advantage really of the government offensive in the northern aleppo countryside. as we speak we do know that the y.p.g. has been trying to advance towards the two main strong holds in aleppo province. so clearly a warning telling them not to advance any further or maybe supporting the opposition groups on the ground who are trying to repel their advance. early today the turkish prime minister did warn that turkey will not hesitate to action against the y.p.g. such as action in northern iraq where air strikes have been targeting p.k.k. positions over the past few months. turkey considers the y.p.g. an offshoot of the p.k.k. a very complicated web of alliances on the ground because at the end of the day y.p.g. is an ally of u.s. and turkey made it clear that it is not clear with this alliance, but the u.s. saying that its position will not change at least 20 people have been killed in russian air strikes in syria. the attacks happened in the town of homs. it shows people crying over the covered bodies of some of the victims including children. we are finished. would no longer have houses e. we are displaced. >> these are people that don't understand what my interpretive philosophy is. however, scalia was not always untremendous diktable. he pleased liberals by upholding free speech in a case called texas v johnson which found that a man had the right to burn the american flag during the republican national convention. our correspondent joins us live. good evening. what does scalia's death mean for the obama administration? >> reporter: first of all he is not at the white house. he is in california. the white house deputy kree press secretary did release a statement saying the president was informed this afternoon about the death and that he sends his condolences to the family. the white house has indicated we are likely to hear more from the president later this evening. obviously we will keep you abreast of that. the question now, of course, is does president obama try to fill this vacancy before his term ends. we already have an indication that this will be a pitched battle in the senate. we have a statement from mich mcconnel, a republican, saying the american people should have a voice in the selection of their next supreme court justice. therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president. equally emphatic on the other side of the aisle, harry read, head of the democrats saying there is no doubt that he was a brilliant man, but the president can and should send the senate a nominee right away with many important issues pending on the extreme court. the senate has a responsibility to fill vacancy as soon as possible. harry read saying it would be unprecedented for the court to go a year with an empty seat on that bench. you can see already some wrang meddling on capitol hill. i think it would be very difficult for the presidential to appoint someone that would senate approval in this environment in this political year of course, the republican led congress will not want president obama to appoint the next justice. how long can they wait to make an appointment? >> reporter: the president can make an appointment, but the congress needs to confirm. it is never easy in environment. the president can make an appointment, but if the senate wants to stall, then that vacancy will remain until they act: republican leaders at least wants to wait until after the presidential election once the next president to make that appointment to the supreme court the high court was in the middle of its term. what happens now with those cases? >> a number of cases have been heard already and, of course, not decided. so if the justice had voted on those cases before they are publicly released, that vote no longer counts. the court will continue to hear the rest of the cases. obviously, only eight justices will be sitting at that point, and then they will have to decide and see if they come to some sort of majority opinion. there are a lot of very significant cases before the court this year on abortion, on affirmative action in college admissions, on union fees for public unions, on the president's executive action on immigration. last year was a year where we saw a lot of liberal decisions, if you will, holding up the affordable care act and also on gay marriage. there was a consensus amongst court watches that the pen due lumbar was going to-- pendulum that would swing the other way this year. i think it is anyone's guess. the court might end up in a four/four split. if that happens on some of these decisions, then the lower court ruling stands. it is as if the court never even heard the case. we will have to wait and see, but a lot of critical issues before the court this year. this is certainly a major blow to conservatives and really to the court itself. whatever you thought of justice scalia, he was a giant intellect on the court. he was certainly very outspoken, both on the bench and in his dissents when he wrote them and he will be missed in the court thank you. joining me in studio is brent ferguson. he is a counsel. thank you for joining us. first i want to ask you, is there any modern precedent for the court being down on justice for potentially a full year here? >> first, i want to say this is a big tragedy and our sympathy goes out to the family. he was a legal giant. the last three years has been shaped because of him. the there would be no decision if there was a four four decision tell us about his legacy. what will the court be missing now? >> his wit is what people know. we've heard the deep intelligence that he has. some of the legal theories that he basically started in the 1980s and he subskrabd to a theory of-- subscribed to a thought that influenced other justice and legal academics and people across the country. it is now a dominant theory you heard lisa our correspondent there talking about critical cases that are before the high court on abortion, on the president's executive action, on immigration and also on affirmative action. what do you think could potentially happen with these case sz if they do not have a-- cases if they do not have a justice to replace him this year >> that's difficult. the vote could be four to four in which automatic court decisions will be upheld. that means we could have different decisions in different regions of the country which can be difficult on issues such as abortion or affirmative action when we don't have one single decision from the high court does that mean if it stays in the lower court decision, does it mean the high court puts it on hold until they have a full bench or is that just that becomes law of the land? >> they could put it on hold if they feel that's appropriate. if they issue an opinion that's four to four, then the lower court decision stays for that region. it would go up to court later once the full court had nine members they could hear it again? >> indeed thank you so much for joining us >> thank you the death of the justice and the search for his replacement will likely be a key part of this presidential campaign. our correspondent is in south carolina where republican candidates will be debating tonight. good evening to you. what have you been hearing from the candidates on the death of zcalia? >> reporter: first of all, like all of america, i express sympathy about the death of him. before we get to the reaction of the candidates, we want to talk about some political implications. we heard from a member of the senate judiciary committee, lindsay graham, a former presidential candidate himself, who says that it will be unlikely that president obama will be allowed to fill the vacancy. here is what senator graham had to say earlier this evening. >> it makes us all concentrate on what it means to pick judges, how important it is to have somebody replace him with a like mind. donald trump is not a conservative, so i don't trust him to pick a judge. everybody else on the stage would pick somebody in the same mould, i think. everybody running other than donald trump i would have confidence would pick a supreme court justice that i would be happy to vote for. >> reporter: that's lindsay graham talking about the impact of the judicial vacancy on those who are running for office and what they will have to do. he also said that it would be unlikely for p.m. obama to pick a replacement. a rule has changed and now the president is stuck with what he and senator harry read pushed through. meanwhile reacting to the death of justice scalia, we have this statement from presidential candidate ted cruz: >> reporter: also this comment from jeb bush expressing the following say we lost a great man whose principal service left our nation vastly better off. this afternoon at mass his wife and i parade for him. he was a brilliant defender of the rule of law. his logic and wit were unparalleled and his decisions were models of clarity and good sense. i often said he was my famous justice. finally, this reaction from donald trump. >> reporter: those comments and others coming in from the republican presidential candidates how do you think that this unfortunate and sad death of justice scalia is going to play out on that debate stage? we heard from our senior washington correspondent that it is likely to be a political match. what do you think? >> reporter: i i can't say that. when they talk about a replacement that will be a very big issue as indicated by both read and graham. it is unlikely that president obama will get a chance to fill that vacancy. graham did say that if the president presents a suggestion who would be in keeping with conservative principles of republicans, then he would vote for that nominees, but it will be difficult to see how the conservative republicans and president obama agree on a new supreme court justice thank you for that. pope francis continues his first visit to mexico. he called on the country's government to do more in relation to the country's poverty. the brazil's army is deployed in relation to handing out leaflets in relation to the zika virus. a pope francis is delivering a mass in mexico city this evening. during his week long visit he plans to address immigration as well as the country's drug problems. our correspondent joins us live from mexico city. pope francis seems to be calling on church and political leaders in mexico for the corruption and violence in the country. how does this go down? >> reporter: me is, but as you mentioned he is ending the day, this mass that he led at our lady of in the area. he has been criticizing the political and religious and church elite here in mexico on saturday. he held a talk with bishops at the largest cathedrals. get out there and help the flock to live a more peaceful life in this country where corruption and violence is so common. he had hash worpdz for the leaders of the country himself. this is what he had to say in front of the president. >> translation: experience teaches us that each time we seek the path of privileges or benefits for a due to the detriment of all, sooner or later it becomes a place for corruption, drug trade, examples collusion of different cultures, violence and human trafficking, kidnapping and death, bringing suffering and slowing down development. >> reporter: that's what he had to say there. clearly trying to say to the political leaders enough with corruption. this country needs much more and the only reason it is so violent, so full of drug cartels is because so up money has entered the pockets of the political lead how do you think that message is being received? >> reporter: to be called corrupt is nothing new in mexico, but to be called corrupt from one of the most popular popes in history is a big deem, so the way they're reacting at least right now is that the president gave a speech himself in which he says he stands with the postmortem. he wants to help the poor, feed the hungry and get rid of inequality. he is one of the most unpopular the presidents in history, but he doesn't have much choice bib to get behind the words of the extremely popular religious leaders of a church that has tens of millions of followers in mexico. that said, it doesn't mean that from this day forward the administration is going to be able to root out corruption because that is how local, state and national government works in mexico. that is not going to end no matter what the pope says what can we expect from the pope for the rest of the trip? >> reporter: me is going to be travelling from the far south to the north of the country, tracing the route that many migrants make. at each stop he has priorities. he will be travelling on the southern border, leading a mass, celebrating a mass held in the language of indigenous peoples and that's a way to show he is reaching out to this community that that is for so many years, if not centuries, been at at arm's length by the catholic church. he will then be in central mexico, where there has been a massive amount of drug violence. he will support priests who have come under fire there, noting some that some priests have been killed there. also a mass that is right there across from e plshgs lpaso. he-- in the middle of all this travel on sunday he is going to an area on the edge of the city and will lead a mass there on sunday. this suburb is home to violent criminal gangs, corrupt police organizations that terrorize and pray on poor working class people. so he continues to try and side with the working poor in this country who sometimes feel they have no-one fighting for their cause you talk about the pope travelling to such violent areas. what's the security like for him? it's massive. from what we understand, it's the largest security apparatus ever for an international visit by a pope, some 59 or 60,000 security forces, that's including federal police, local police, the army, the marines. we have seen marines on patrol not far from where i am in mexico city appeared that is clearly - you don't often see that, but it is because the pope is here in town and boosting security which i haven't seen the level of for some time. the last thing for this government is for anything to go wrong on this visit which is getting attention from the whole world thank you. let's bring in ambassador who is the former u.s. am besanko dor to the hole ee sea. he joins us tonight. thank you for-- ambassador to the holy sea. thank you for skwoing us. >> thank you pope francis said he will not shy away from issues such as drugs, violence and drugs cartels. how do you see him addressing this? >> it is significant that he started this evening as was just mention mentioned. for the marginalised, the poor, these are the kinds of things that really propel this pope. as he continues to proceed claim throughout the world and will certainly do this in mexico, the globalisation of human indifference. as has already been pointed out also, there are different kind of issues that mexican society and latin america is facing. he will not shy away from denouncing the injustices, from denouncing the marginalization and the suffering that is occurring within mexican seat how do you think he will address illegal immigration, at least from the church stand appointed? >> i think this is a key to his pontificate. the first trip outside of roam was to the island of europe. it was there that he spoke about the globalisation of human indifference. he has been very, very outspoken in terms of recent crisis in terms of syrian refugees. i think that he will continue to do that. he is going to go to the border. he is tracing this journey from the south to the north and he will go close to the u.s.-mexican border. there he will defend the dignity of all human persons, particularly the dignity of migrants. so this is a pope that will not shy away from the christian message that every human being has dignity and it is defending you talk about him being close to the u.s. mexico border and we know he is expected to give a hot bed for trafficking and drug cartels. should we be concerned for his safet safety? >> clearly security is very high for him. this is a pope that will also not be stopped by security threats. he very much believes that his mission as the head of the roman catholic is to go around and point out human injustices and point out areas where human beings need to change. he has done that in europe, condemned the mafia. it is not going to supplies me if he defends the drug cartels, the structures of sin. he has spoken about economies that kill. he will stand with the central message of the preferential option for the poor in the marginalised and our duties, that is the duties of each human being and of governments in particular to defend those human beings who suffer so much as a result of various injustices thank you so much. >> thank you the politics of the supreme court, the death of justice scalia likely to impact the race for president this year. protesters take to the streets in munich calling on leaders to stop wars, particularly the ongoing conflict in syria. a deadly chain crash, what caused the pile up. welcome back. here is a look at the top stories. supreme court justice scalia has died at the age of 29. he was-- 79. he was the longest serving member of the country's high court and was consistently its most conservative justice amid news of his death, a republican presidential candidates are preparing for a debate tonight. the supreme court is to be a major part of the discussion. al jazeera's senior political correspondent michael shaw is in is an diego this evening. is it really really too soon how the impact will impact-- death of zcalia will impact the elections? >> it could. we lost a great jurist today, whether you liked or did not like him, he was regarded as a brilliant jurist. he was always respected. to that he had a very great friendship with ginsberg who could not have been more polar opposite. i think it is just important to remember that. then the politics are inevitable. that's what we talk about. tonight is by strange coincidence there is this debate in south carolina. it will come up there and impact this race. if you look at donald trump, he is just won new hampshire, he is the leader in the poll in south carolina and states beyond, but the republican party is at great odds with minimum on these social issues which is certainly things about which he was most opinionated. that may make a difference in this race. republicans that know that the president be nominating in the first few weeks of his or her presidency, the next justice. i think that is an impact to this race that you can't quantify now. aside from that there will be talks about obstructism, whether they are going to fight it. that's is going to be important as well to your point about donald trump there, we heard from lindsay graham and he already after donald trump saying this isn't a person that could nominate the right replacement for scalia. do you see this as potentially being a pivot point in this presidential race? >> it could be. these are often - we're giving hyperbole here. i think that republicans can now look at this race in a different way. republicans who were intrigued by donald trump, some supporting donald trump, who sit back and think wait a second, donald trump's fan is vague or defiant, that he is not in agreement with the republican party. a place that the justice scalia took up space. i think it will be delicate things for his opponent to deal with. i think ted cruz has been on the stump. i saw him on the stump in iowa and new hampshire saying this next president is going to possibly appoint four justices. that is important. to them you go to the senate where mich mcconnell already today, and i will quote him in a statement. he said: the point is the american people have a voice in the election of any president. so it would be hard or easy for democrats to argue and say the american people exercise their voice twice and elected obama. presidential election, you take it, we're not going to deal with it in the ensate i won-- in the senate how much does this play in voters mind. do they vote with the question on their mind of who the president will elect to the bench >> it is a long time ago before court divide america, people didn't talk about - it was almost a delicate issue. you didn't talk about the politicsation of the court. it has become more so, probably after the starting in 1987 and continuing through other other and seen from clarns thomas. especially in the unprecedented case of a supreme court justice passing away in an election year you will hear it more than ever. it is still something about which the candidates are not sure how to deal with. i think that is going to be some of the theater tonight and every the next few weeks thank you for that. turning to other news how, in the annual munich security conference is underway in germany. it is causing an uproar amongst people. around 2000 anti war protesters filled the streets on today calling an end to conflict. they're calling for a diplomatic solution to the conflict in syria. inside the conference western powers are throwing criticism to russia for aggressive involvement in syria and ukraine. the prime minister accuses the west of rekin delicatessening the cold water-- rekind meddling the cold war. >> reporter: the u.s. secretary of state was back here for a security conference. although some politicians hailed deliberations as a step forward others have extreme scepticism. he addressed that scepticism by stressing how critical it is to make the cessation of hostilities work >> this conflict will still require a political solution at some point in time in order to make peace no matter what happens. this is the moment. this is a hinge point. decisions made in the coming days and weeks and few months could end the war in syria or it could define a very difficult set of choices for the future. >> reporter: quite how difficult is clear from the remarks senior russian ministers have been making in munich. the prime minister says his country is feeling increasingly isolated. >> translation: one could go as far as to say that we have splid back to a new cold war, almost on an every day basis we are called one of the most terrible threats or to europe or to the u.s. >> reporter: the russians stress that they have national interest in syria and they have no secret agenda. they have denied that they are bombing rifl l civilians there. the humanitarian tragedy suffered has been highlighted by aid agencies and groups ally. hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced inside and outside syria. >> i think the underlying crisis we're dealing with is a tremendous crisis. it became a crisis says when refugees went to europe. that is been going for five years. it's in different parts of the world. what needs to happen, we need to give the protection, the international protections which these people who are fleeing from war and persecution deserve and are entitled to. >> reporter: while there may well be international support for a peaceful what way out of the crisis at the same time there are since that regional players like turkey and saudi arabia are readying their forces for ground operations in syria russia has reportedly bombed rebel held territory. peace talks continue in munich. videos shared on social need showed target shown. somalia armed rebel group al-shabab has claimed responsibility for this man's bomb blast on a commercial aeroplane. a suicide bomber carried out the attack which forced to make the plane to make an emergencying landing. the suspect is the only person killed in the incident. brazil declared war on the mosquito that is spreading the zika virus. tens of thousands of troops today were deployed through the country with leaflets. the president said the virus won't compromise the olympic games if august. >> reporter: more than 200,000 personnel from the brazilian army, air force and navy were deployed across the country. they handed out leaflets of the dangers of still or stagnant water. which is where the mosquito breeds. >> translation: as the population begin to see the size and the scale of this operation, with so many soldiers in the streets, the population will realise this is a series issue and everyone will do their part in their homes >> reporter: the virus has been linked to the birth defects of microcephaly in babies. >> translation: i'm three months pregnant and here i am with long clothes and repellant. >> reporter: the city will host the games in august and some athletes are considering of pulling out if the zika virus is not campaigned. the president says that brazil will defeat the virus >> translation: it is important to highlight that the virus has harmful effects for pregnant women, so we're carrying out an extremely focused investigation to exterminate the mosquito before we can develop a vaccine. >> reporter: the president sent her ministers to other parts of brazil to lead the education campaign, the public acts costing more than 120 million dollars will continue with troops visiting more than three million homes to identify problem areas an distribute pesticides. similar operations are underway across latin america wherever the zika virus has been found haiti's parliament is due to vote for an interim president in the coming hours. the former president left office last sunday with no successor following a botched election. >> reporter: a ritual heralds the start of the protest towards haiti's parliament. those who march are members of the opposition and come here because they want to make sure their voices are heard. most of them say democracy in haiti is at risk. >> translation: we are protesting to get a new president and prime minister. all sectors should be represented. the former president wants to put whom ever he wants in poir. we don't-- power. we don't want that. >> reporter: last sunday the president stepped down as president leaving behind a power vacuum. the first round of haiti's presidential election was held last year, but a run-off vote planned for the last month has been delayed amid protests and opposition allegations of electoral fraud. these people are going from one neighborhood to another gaining support. they say they're angry and they don't want argument -- on saturday parliament will vote and elect an interim president. they're working against time to get the country out of the crisis this man says. >> translation: parliament is trying to get haiti out of this process. haiti has many crisis, an economic one, social one and now political one. we need a government to help the government and the people. >> reporter: this is haiti's worst political crisis in more than a decade. one preside many here say that former president and the international community are to blame. >> translation: for years the international community has been applauding everything he did. he was violating human rights, the constitution and handing over the country to the rich. this is a problem when 78% of the country lives in poverty. >> reporter: that's why he people vow to continue their protest. they want to make sure that whomever leads haiti, even if it's just for the next few months, is someone that will truly represent them presidential candidates will focus a lot of attention on swing states this year. one of them being wisconsin. how the state may become central to winning over labor union voters. >> reporter: we are looking at temperatures that are sinking. they're going to be quite low in the morning. we will breaking records, but it is the windshields that are going to be extremely dangerous. we will tell you more about this when i return. at least three people died this morning in a pile up on interstate 78 involving more than 50 vehicles. critically injured motorists were airlifted to hospitals. 70 more were transported by ambulance. witnesses reported white out conditions just before the crash. from snow to bitter temperatures. >> reporter: that's right. we will break records tomorrow morning with how low those temperatures are going. we haven't seen these temperatures for many decades. i will show you what we're expecting. you can see about one third of the country is in the teens right now. the reason being the jet stream is taking a big dip right now across much of the eastern see board. that is allowing to polar air to sink in. temperatures are already cold. the coldest temperatures we have seen all season. up north in northern new york into the minus digits now. when you factor in the winds as well, and we're talking winds gusting to 37 in boston, 29 in new york, then windshields low. new york feels more like minus 21 degrees. i want to put this in motion through the evening. as we go towards about 2 a m this will be the coldest windshield that we feel with minus 32 degrees there. as we go towards the rest of the morning, it will be extremely cold. things are going to get slow. tomorrow afternoon it will feel like 6 degrees. we're going to be seeing 2 degrees in new york and that will be a report for the area thank you. this election season you can expect presidential candidates to spend a lot of time in swing states. one of them is kins kon is sin-- wiscons wisconsin. >> thank you new hampshire. >> reporter: on the heels of his big win and her big loss in new hampshire. >> it's not whether you get knocked down but whether you get up that matters. >> reporter: they have taken a pause to debate. wisconsin doesn't hold the primary until a few months. ahead of the party telling the tv station that wisconsin was picked because it is a battleground state >> we think it is important to cover the country and when we thought about the mid-west, we thought wisconsin was the best place to have it >> reporter: 1984 was the last time wisconsin packed a republican. republican governor who dropped his own presidential bid in cement is an example of g.o.p. wins in the state's mid term elections. since walker's 2010 election the state has gone through big changes starting with its unions. walker's landmark law in 2011 weakened the collective bargaining power of public employee unions. unions have been a key supporter of democrats and their numbers have fallen. in 2015, 223,000 workers or 8.3% of workers in wisconsin belonged to unions. that's down from 11% from a year earlier. that number was 14.2% in 2010 when walker was elected. some observers say that could have an impact in november. >> their fund-raising totals, what they get from dues from member paying dues are down significantly. they will have less in the way of financial resources to contest elections here this november. probably less shoe lertdz on the part-- leather on the part of supporters. walker hasn't come out unscathed. his popularity has fallen off his failed white house bid. it is unclear how much help he will be to the eventualual republican nominee. the g.o.p. already held the debate in the state. now in 2016 the question is whether democrats can continue their three decade winning streak in presidential elections or will unions diminish influence in wisconsin change that >> i think this november's election will be a good test of whether they are the unions of old or we're having a new era >> reporter: in a year when presidential can tests are buck bucking norms, that could bring more a look at what is coming in the next hour >> reporter: more on the impact of the death of the supreme court justice. the leading kon is servetive died in his sleep-- conservative died in his sleep. many tributes have poured in. also democrat bernie sanders has made campaign financing a major part of his campaign. we will take a deeper look at money spent so far, how it is raised and spent. those are some stories ahead this marked the first international day of women and girls in science. a group that has been often shut out. >> reporter: >> i'm basically a robotics sneer >> we design all the algorithms which is the math that goes into the flight computer >> reporter: while the number of women in science is going up, they still make up a small number in fields like engineering, math and computers. worldwide women account for just 28% of all scientific researchers. in north america and western europe it is 32%. for years successful women scientists have been sounding the alarm on the lack of diversity in this talk this woman sigh these rt cornerstones. >> we need all the talent there is. we need all the bright ideas there are as well and we cannot afford to be turning aside from a fair chunk of the population. >> reporter: it is a challenge private companies are grappling with. a recent report from >> ntel shows the number of female employees rose by 5% last year. men still make up three quarters of their workforce. >> things we can help retain women in science will benefit men too. better family policies which give both partners in a marriage flexibility in order to raise kids at aim time when they're trying to establish their scientific careers >> reporter: the white house has highlighted the need to attract women into these areas. >> girls, for example, we don't lift up models of them being successful. >> reporter: one survey shows out of 386,000 that want to pursue, only 4% they had a mentor encouraging them a recap of our breaking news tonight. supreme court justice scalia was found dead at a resort in a resort. he died of natural causes at 79 years old. he was the longest serving justice on the bench. president obama was informed of the passing of the supreme court justice. in a white house statement and the first lady extend their deepest condolences to his family. we will have more on the impacts of his death in the next hour. stay with us. stay with us. this is al jazeera america. here is a look at today's top stories. the longest current serving supreme court justice has died. reaction to his death is expected to have a far reaching affect on washington and the race for the white house. candidates are already speaking out. it could