>> this is al jazeera america live in new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. a huge storm is blamed for more than a dozen deaths and now dangerous cold will cause more problems. the family of a brain-dead girl and the hospital has compromised. secretary of state john kerry arrived in ramala to talk with palestinian president mahmood abbas. will the new 777 x jetliner

be built in the seattle area? >> the snow has stopped falling across the northeast. now freezing cold has set in. the storm that dropped several inches of snow across the region is blamed for 13 deaths and thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed, stranding thousands at airports. we go to richelle carey at columbus circle in new york. look, this cold is nothing to play with. we're talking about a dangerous chill at this point. >> we are, and it's actually getting colder. since we've been out here today. at the park, just in the lat few minutes it dropped to 14 degrees. that's without the wind chill, you know what that means. it's well below zero. of course when the northeast sneezes if you will the entire country feels it.

when a snowstorm like this hits the northeast it effects huge population centers. >> almost two feet of snow in parts of massachusetts, up to 18 inches in new york, and parts of vermont the wind chill made it feel 25 below. cold enough to cause frost bite in a half hour. and in maine temperatures are down 34 below. >> reporter: many major highways were closed overnight. flights were delayed or canceled because of the storm. residents were asked to stay home and stay warm.

and shelters filled with many who normally sleep on the streets. >> normally we open up three times a day for meals and a lot of our guest also leave afterwards, but what we'll do today is keep our doors open all day. it's too cold to have people come and eat and then heavy. >> reporter: the new mayor of new york encouraged anyone who may see a homeless person out in the cold to called the emergency help line. richelle carey, al jazeera america new york. >> reporter: at last check an update on the travel delays. this morning there was an two-hour closure at jfk. you can imagine what a headache that has been. so at jfk at laguardia, also at newark there was about a 30-minute delay, a 30 minute back up. the issue or the planes trying to get in to the airport, depending on which airport you're going to, you should check some flights held at point of origin up to an hour and a half trying to get into the

airports here in new york city. so quite a mess. also there is still a state of emergency in new york and new jersey that actually sounds worse than it is. the temperatures are dangerously cold. the roads are in much better shape than they were this morning. that is a logistical thing so the mayors and governors can navigate the city and access the money they need to continue to try to keep the roads as safe as possible. >> richelle, are we at a place now where it is approaching temperatures that are so cold that people are being advised if you don't need to go anywhere, just stay inside? >> reporter: tony, i'm--my apologies, tony, my ear piece just went out. >> it's frozen that's what it is. >> reporter: my apologies. >> it's frozen, that's what it is. richelle, thank you. i got to tell you the frozen temperatures made fighting fires

very difficult. in massachusetts two fire hydrant lines became frozen while firefighters tried to douse a building fire. they eventually got them to work again, and here's what it looked like after they put out the fire. a thick layer of ice covering the entire structure. the snow and ice is not the only thing that residents in massachusetts are dealing with. major flooding as well. the national guard has been deployed to help with the ask you. during the storm 50 mph winds whipped up big waves that pounded homes along the beach, and now the water we're told is trapped behind sea walls. and social media is really lighting up with pictures and stories with this storm. marie has been following this for us today. >> reporter: touching upon what you just mentioned. 400 members of the national guard had been called to help out i in the affected areas. this is 30 minutes south of boston. these are high-water vehicles

that today transported people out of their homes. i spoke to the fire department police chief. he said that they've been very worried about the flooding. you look at this picture here. this is just before high tide, that water coming over the sea wall, and they're worried when the temperatures drop then all of that water would turn into ice. down in new jersey you've got senator cory booker who said earlier he was going to help with some shoveling in newark. so some people started tweeting. teacher mom said there are seniors at 702 seventh street. i have no way to get to them. i'm worried. he said, be there in 30 minutes. jamila jones said help for grandmother. he said on it. i'll go by in less than an hour. this picture is of cory booker as he was helping to clear out paula ellis' grandparents' area, also this morning you saw bill deblasio the mayor of new york city just sworn in a couple of

days ago, here he is shoveling snow in brooklyn. tony, there is a lot of attention that has been paid to this area of new york city just because in 2010 mayor michael bloomberg was criticized for taking days to clean up the streets of new york. >> inside your first week as new mayor you have a major snowstorm, and you've got thousands of homeless that you got to care for and get the city cleaned up and running again, and it looks like for the most part things have worked out okay, but it is still very cold. maria, thank you. the snow has stopped, what about the cold. kevin is here with a look at temperatures in the overnight hours and then another system o my goodness. >> meteorologist: this is what the vide scenario looked like. new england a was socked in with snow and rain all the way down the east coast. this is what we're looking at right now. it is gone. that is good news for many people. we're going to be dealing with very cold temperatures.

these are temperatures that moved from the middle part of the country over to the grace lakes now settling in across the northeast. the final snow totals it was eastern massachusetts that saw boston, 17.8. even parts of vermont saw about 17, and english town of jersey, that was 10.7 inches. right now this is the current stand alone temperatures we're looking at boston, 11. new york, not far ahead at 14 degrees. but we still have that wind to deal with. this is what the wind chill feels like. we're not done. it will go much lower than this. boston at minus 10. we've been seeing wind chills of boston down to minus 6 degrees. we're going to have saturday, a bad day as well. good news, by sunday we think those temperatures are going to

go back up. up to 40. >> get out of here, really? a heatwave. >> meteorologist: yes, a shift. >> thank you. a major meeting is underway to determine what will happen to the 13-year-old, the girl who was declared brain dead as a result from tonsillectomy. melissa chan is following this story for us. one of the main issues is whether this young girl will be able to be sent to new york to remain on life support. is there an undate on that? >> reporter: it is confusing. there is a federal court meeting taking place right now. we'll update you with the latest when we know the developments from that. but earlier this morning there was a county court hearing, and from there, there were developments. we have better clarification on what's going to happen moving forward. the family is going to be

allowed to send in outside physician in to the children's hospital in order to aassist with the transportation of the 13-year-old on life support. and then moments ago they clarified it. they'll allow her to keep her breathing tube, so they won't need to transfer than. the family will need to find a physician of that sort, and there is a new york medical facility willing to accept her. quite an incredible case. >> incredible, heart wrenching, controversial, walk us through the issues that have made this such a provocative case. >> well, let me give you an example. the county coroner's office issued a death certificate today. so you have a situation where you have a hospital, a county coronary's office saying she's dead. she is brain dead. the terminology is that she's a corpse. that's intense. then you have a family fighting

it in court wanting to keep her on life support. fundamentally this is personal for the family but also for those following the story. just the general public because we're talking about death. people have different notions of death. it's very controversial. death begin when the heart stops or is it brain death? the medical definition of death. >> all right, melissa, melissa chan following developments for us. now to the middle east where secretary of state john kerry went to attend peace talks with palestine and israel but he did not receive a warm welcome. nick schifrin has more on that meeting from jerusalem. >> reporter: palestinian president mahmood abbas wants to hear one thing from secretary kerry, that israel is willing to compromise. but secretary kerry is trying to get both sides to make compos

compromises to admit they'll have to make hard choices in the weeks and months to come if this is going to succeed. he's not trying to solve problems now but get both sides to agree on the framework of what they're going to discuss in the future. this is not solving anything. it's simply getting both sides to agree on a piece of paper that says this is where we start. this is where we're going launch our piece talks. when it comes to concessions and compromises, president mahmood abbas is saying israelis have to start negotiations based on the 1967 borders. that means no west bank no, gaza. that is not that president benjamin netanyahu ever said he publicly agreed to or that his allies will support him. in the meantime the secretary kerry goes to the israelis and says, what do you want? they want palestine to

acknowledge that they are a jewish state. the palestinians will say, we can't accept you as a jewish state because that takes away the right of return for many palestinians who were living inside what is now israel before 1948. that also negates the identities of 20% of arabs who live in israel right now. kerry continues to show the diplomacy. this is his tenth trip, it's hard work, but he continues to do it, his aides say he'll be back in the next week, the next two weeks if he needs to try to make this happen. >> nick schifrin reports for us. and i spoke with gershon baskin who works in a think tank in jerusalem. he talks about what is needed to achieve peace in the region. >> the point that i've been trying to push most is that we have to go beyond the vision of

the failure of the peace process, the kind of peace built on walls, fences, and barbed wire. that's not the kind of peace that is going to emerge from the process that will be sustainable. so we have to envision a different kind of process which is really based on cross boundary cooperation. i use the metaphor that we need to talk about building bridges rather than building walls. we need to think of symptoms syt will move an an access for people across borders. and it will be an open city where people can move freely across all parts of the city. we can't divide the city between the israeli sectors and the palestinian sectors. we can't go back to the kind of period in history of berlin with a wall of dividing the city between its two sides and we'll dealing with two different

states. we're going to need to build cooperation on security where there will be joint patrols, israeli personnel on the palestinian side but because it's on palestinian sovereignty the commanders will be palestinian. i think we need to build these kinds of agreements that are not dependent on third party forces. not n.a.t.o. forces. >> gershon baskin from the center of research and information. raiding parts of ramadi to clear out al-qaeda fighters. 62 fighters were killed in the assault. the army has laid siege to nearby fallujah, and both cities have become flash points. it was also a violent day in the streets of egypt in cairo clashes between muslim brotherhood supporters and police left 11 people dead and

42 others injured. 120 people were arrested. this comes less than two weeks before a vote on the new constitution. there have been daily protests since the interim government branded the muslim brotherhood a terrorist organization last month. the violence comes as three al jazeera colleagues remain in detention in egypt. mohammed fahmy, and peter greste and baher mohammed. they're charged with joining terrorist groups and spreading lies. al jazeera says it's fabricated no sense. next up, why some say this decision is all about business and not health. and how much can companies charge for what they sell in

stores. we're back in a moment.

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>> you know it's been said you are what you eat, but most americans may not know that a large quantity of the foods many of us eat contain genetically modified o or or organisms or g. we have more. >> american shoppers don't always get the whole story of what they're eating from the labels on food one advocacy group say 07% of food on these shelves contain gmos. 91% of soybeans grown in the u.s. 85% of corn. 75% of processed foods. and 40% of dairy products contain rgbh, banned for human

consumption in several countries and the entire european union. agriculture giants like monsanto, which rolled out its first harvest of modified corn for people last year say gmos are just an extension of traditional breeding and help produce products that are bigger and more resistant to disease. but those against gmos say that it can arm beneficial insects, damage soil and contaminate crops. and they require more herb sides. they're banned in three countries and 61 countries require products containing gmos to be labeled. but here in the u.s. companies are not required to use special labels. and while the government doesn't allow gmos to be used in foods that are labeled organic, foods labeled as natural can contain

gmos. >> joining me to discuss genetically modified organisms is greg jaffey. it's good to see you, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> what do you think of the decision of general mills to stop using genetically modified ingredients in cheerios. >> i think they are resetting a marketing precedence. they're saying that it is safe. this was not a food safety decision they made, but they made the decision because they wanted to satisfy a consumer preference a number of consumers had talked to them about. they wanted to do that for one of their many brands that they had. >> so we've got a raging debate going. i can't tell you how hot the debate was in our newsroom over this topic today. i'm wondering why this--this issue of gmos is so taboo with

some consumers? >> well, i mean, i think in part it is because food is very personal to consumers. it's something that we--we eat food many times of day. it is cultural, food is religious. also for many around the world we're far from where the food comes from. we go do supermarkets and we eat a lot of processed food, and we don't know where that food comes from. we don't realize that that food has a lot of processing, manipulation, and there is a lot of things done to the food before it gets to our table, and when we hear about it, we're surprised by it. >> my understanding is that whether jmo gmos are okay, a lot

of the information is coming from the industry itself. is it time to step up and conduct studies so we get something more definitive into the public space for this discussion. >> i'll answer that question in two ways. the current crops out there, the think the center of science and we've looked a the data out there, and there is a growing international consensus that food made from those crops are safe to eat. i think the food and drug administration has said that, and the european food administration has said that. and most of the bodies of that organization around the world has said that. but there needs to be an oversight of this. right now they have a voluntary meeting of. i think that is not sufficient. we need more oversight.

we need a pre-market approval process so consumers have more confidence in these products before they get to market. it's better that we have an independent look at these instead of having to rely upon monsanto or other developers to say that they are safe. >> here is the confidence question for you. i get people saying, and a lot of people said, and it was part of the debate in the newsroom that the foods, the gmo foods are fine. until you get to recombinan bovine growth hormone. i don't know what that is. i don't know what you think would be helpful to get more information out to the public. >> i agree with you that we do need more information. clearly we need more information about the food that we eat and where that food comes from, not just about recombinat bovine

growth hormone but generally where all of our food comes from. all of us would benefit from that. that's different than mandatory label one production process to stigmatize one but not others that are out there, i think that's something to keep in mind and that's important with how we go about all of this. >> greg j jaffey, greg, we appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> u.s. automakers finish 2013 on a six-years sales high but not before hitting speed bumps in december. david shuster will discuss this more in an hour. he's in for ali velshi. >> it was soft in december compared to december 2012. general motors saw sales drop by

6%. ford had a lower than expected gain of just 2%. chrysler did better with monthly sales up 6% higher than the previous year. but overall 2013 proved to be a terrific year for all three car makers with the strongest numbers they've seen in six years. ford sales jumped 14%. chrysler saw i an increase. over all they rose more than 8% of the year. >> that interesting. >> the treasury department estimates the big three has added 341,000 new jobs to the economy since 2009. and car manufacturing is one of the leading sectors that is both benefiting from the economic

recovery but also helping to boost growth. and this potential is why the federal government stepped in and bailed out g.m. and chrysler. g.m. is leaner and meaner and strong, and chrysler will be wholly owned by fiat, and ford is in a stronger position. >> what else are you looking at at the top of the hour. >> i know you're a huge fan of college football. in the seven year period between 2005 and 2012, spending on college football programs doubled. 38 schools spent $20 million on their programs. it is an arms race, and we'll get to all the implications in "real money." >> good to see you. see you at the top of the hour. we've been following an

american family trying to get orphans out of a war zone. they've made a decision about their time in south sudan. people in two states are watching a union vote very closely. the outcome could decide where boeing builds it's newest planes and creates thousands of jobs. finance. every night on my show i break down confusing financial speak and make it real.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. here's a look at your top stories. the northeast is dealing with freezing cold temperatures in the wake of the first winter storm of the new year. the storm has dropped several inches of snow across the region. and is blamed for 13 deaths and thousand of flights delayed and canceled. secretary of state john kerry met with palestinian president mahmood abbas to try to advance efforts to reach a peace deal. kerry said progress is being made despite sniping from both sides. the family of a brain dead girl and a california hospital has reached a compromise that paves the way for the

13-year-old to be transferred to a new facility. the u.s. is asking americans to leave south sudan as the violence escalates there. rebels loyal to country's former vice president appear to be gaining the upper hand over the government's forces. >> reporter: fighting continues around the town of bor. bor has changed hands three times since the fighting began. while the rebels control it right now, the government forces are trying hard to get it back from them. while the fighting goes on in bor, many are heading to juba, 150 kilometers north of juba, forces are coming to take the

capitol of juba. we don't know if it's related to this advancement, but the u.s. embassy has been evacuated all non-essential staff from juba and asking u.s. citizens here in south sudan to head to the airport in juba to be airlifted out of this town. they'rthere are other countrieso are evacuating their nationals from juba. they've been doing this since the conflict began. while this has been happening talks have been happening where we're told the rebels have taken an uncompromising position, and has put the cease-fire agreement as the seventh item to be addressed. >> the mother of children who are working in south sudan are going to join us in just a moment. this is al jazeera america.

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consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the government shutdown. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. >> we've heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete?

>> and now we bring you an update on a story we've been following for several days now. a group of american missionaries trying to escape the violence in south sudan have successfully made it out of the u.n. refugee camp. brad and kim campbell, their two daughters have had to leave behind ten orphans in their care. the children remain at an u.n. base near their old compound. joining us now from minneapolis for more on this we welcome back joan campbell, the mother of brad campbell, and joan, if you would, talk to me about the process that has finally led to this moment where brad and kim, katie and cassidy, have made it to juba?

>> i can do a little of it, but, to tell you the truth, it happened so fast i'm not even sure how they got to juba. i had talked to them last night, and they were still working on things, and then i tried to call them early this morning, and couldn't get through. by the time i got through they had landed in juba. and the conversations were so quick and hurried because they had so much to do and so many arrangements to make that i haven't had a chance to even ask them how they got to juba. but they're there. they're staying the night there. they've been able to get into a hotel. >> joan, can i-- >> sorry? >> can i ask you a quick question? you mentioned they are in juba now. from the reports we're getting juba isn't the safest place to be right now. how concern ready they about their stay in juba? >> i think they're confident and hopeful that they'll be out.

it's a couple more hours they're leaving juba fairly early in the morning tomorrow, and they are nine hours ahead of us. so i think they're fairly confident. i'm not as confident as they are, but that's okay. they don't really have any choice. the only way they could get out, i need to back up a second. when they got into juba the u.s. embassy informed them that the last plane evacuating people out had left and they missed it. that's why they're in juba and stuck there. kenya airlines are still booking flights. they're out tomorrow to nairobi. once they're there, i'll stop holding my breath and breathe again. >> are they coming back home to the states? >> no, not right now.

they're hope to go stay--they have friends in nairobi that they can stay with, and they're going to try to start gathering supplies, food and clothing especially, and they're going to find a way to get them to their kids that they had to leave behind. >> how concerned are they about those kids? >> terribly concerned, and apparently the departure from them this morning was absolutely heartbreaking. they just couldn't tear themselves away. it was terrible. but i will say that the last time i talked to kim she said, we're not done yet. we're still in there. we're not done yet. they're not walking away from this. >> joan, i can't thank you enough for the update, and sharing the story with us. we're going to stay with it. i think i made that promise to you, we are. and thank you for your time and thank you for the update, and our fingers are crossed and prayers are going out to you're

family and those kids, and everyone in that conflict zone right now. joan, thank you. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, thank you. the obama administration has pushed back against a supreme court decision to give catholic groups an exemption when it comes to birth control. >> reporter: covering contraception or birth control. there is an exemption for churches and other religious groups. however, that doesn't include charities affiliated with churches so charities pushed back saying they didn't want to provide contraception on religious and moral ground. the obama administration crafted what it thought was a compromise, arranging for a third party insurer to pay for contraceptive coverage. that did go far enough for many including a group of nuns called

little sisters of the poor. justice sotomayor give them a temporary exemption and asked the obama administration to respond by this morning. the obama administration said he they have no case because, here's the twist, their insurer is a christian group, and it is legally considered to be a church. it wouldn't have to provide contraception either. this is basically a moot point. however the little sisters of the poor say they don't even want to sign paperwork dealing with this contraception issue. they don't want to kick it up to an insurer even on moral or theoretical grounds so they're starting back. justice sotomayor has a couple of choices. she can continue this exemption. she can put a stop to it. she can also kick this issue to the entire supreme court and they can take it up. the supreme court is already looking at a couple of cases relating to private companies who don't want to pay for

contraception for their employees, so that's an issue the court will be taking up one way or another in the coming months. >> well, right now 31,000 union machinists are voting for a new labor contract. the contract will have a big impact on at least two states. alan? >> reporter: a lot is hanging in the balance in this vote an air of anticipation and uncertainty at the local union lodge. people have been coming here all day long casting their votes as they are in six different locations around puget sound. i've been talking to them as they come in here, and it's been an interesting mix of reaction. there was a vote six weeks ago. boeing rejected a company contract offer 2-1. folks that i've talked to after they voted they say they expect another resounding no vote.

more say they can't predict how this is going to come out. a couple said they were no-votes and flipped and think that that trend will prevail, but most said they were not willing to make a prediction but they expect this vote to be a lot closer. >> all right, allen schauffler, thank you. experts say quantum computers are decades away but according to documents released by edward snowden the nsa is working hard to get their hands on them. we'll explain what they are, and why they could be so important.

[[voiceover]] no doubt about it, innovation changes o

>> you know, you may be familiar with promotion that will price freezes, will that is going to happen in argentina. buts the government that is behind. "t." it's part of a plan to combat wildly fluctuating inflation in buenos aires. >> reporter: 194 items are on the list unveiled by the cabinet chief. they range from cooking oil to rice, household cleaners to

several brands of biscuit. >> this agreement aims to guarantee supplies of all the basic items on the list which means they will be available on a supermarket she have. >> reporter: like many families in argentina they have learned to live with constantly rising prices. they cope but it's never easy. >> first i try to use the credit card and try to make as many payments as i can, try to pay things because a year from now the same amount of money is going to be less valuable. >> reporter: every little helps. growing your own is one way of beating the price rises. >> prices are going to be increased 25% or 30% or 40%, a

and. >> reporter: buenos aires city bus fares rows. yesterday it was petrol and bus fares that went up. tomorrow it may be rice or pasta. shoppers have no choice but to live with it, but it creates uncertainty and sometimes anger. the government maintains that inflation is under control at 10% a year. many independent economists dispute that figure and say it's more than 25%. >> it might work if there were sort of broader economic program in place. such that this were a short-term stocstop-gap measure to greater environment of policies took effect or went into effect. since that's not the case i'm quite skeptical about it. >> reporter: the government is negotiating for more providers in supermarkets to join the

scheme, and a concerted effort to keep inflation under control. meanwhile prices continue to rise. >> reporter: it's summertime in australia, and things are burning up. officials say its australia's hottest year on record. bush fires and pow outages have affected thousands of people. firefighters fear that a large number of fire in queensland could jump containment lands. as strong rinds are predicted over the weekend. no. syria five staffers within the organization doctors without borders are missing. they were taken from a house they were staying in for questioning. that was in the north of the country. it's unclear who took the group. in germany one person was killed as many as eight wounded after a world war ii bomb exploded. it happened at a construction site near the city of bonn. the driver of a bulldozer was

killed, unexploded world war ii bombs are still discovered frequently in germany. and german race car driver michael sho schumacher is out oe woods. hhe hit the head in a skiing accident. he has the most successful formula one race driver with 91 race wins. states have had concerns over a shortage ever lethal injection drugs. this year tennessee decided to switch the drug it uses and gun setting dates for ten executio executions. >> reporter: it's been nearly five years since tennessee has executed anyone. the average wait time for anyone on death row is 19 years. but now the state is asking the courts to set execution dates for ten men. >> tennesseans really don't have

this huge appetite to see executions go forward, and now when nationally we're seeing support for the death penalty at an all-time low, this request is shocking. >> reporter: kelly henry is a public defender who represents four of the inmates whose executions the state wants to move forward. >> we have a fear that in doing that our clients' individual stories are going to be lost. each of the ten men that they've asked for execution dates for all have stories of injustice in their case. issues of ineffective counsel, issues of unfairness in sentencing. >> reporter: one execution has been set for october, and five other dates now set for the 2015. the state has set these dates because the inmates have exhausted the appeals process, and a big hurdle has been removed, an issue over the injectheinjection drug the statd

been using. tennessee like other death penalty states had to change its death penalty protocol. makers of the drug refused to sell them to the u.s. for executions. several months ago tennessee decided it would use a more widely available sedative. >> they bunched up on death row, and now they're scheduled for these things. in relatively rapid succession. >> reporter: he said even if all the requested execution dates are set, individual legal challenges will likely keep some from happening. >> you may see two or three executions very close and then there could be a period of six months or a year between the next one. it will sort of separate as time goes on. >> reporter: if tennessee does go forward it would be an

unprecedented move in a state that for decades has seemed reluctant to execute prisoners. al jazeera, nashville. >> the next generation of computers that could make all your passwords useless.

the stream is uniquely interactive television. we depend on you, >> you are one of the voices of this show. >> so join the conversation and make it your own. >> the stream. weeknights 7:30 et / 4:30 pt on al jazeera america and join the conversation online @ajamstream. >> welcome to al jazeera ameri america. new reports say the nsa is on its way to breaking every kind of encryption. according to the "washington post" the agency is building a quantum computer, apparently another revelation from nsa staffer edward snowden. jacob, let's start here. what exactly is a quantum computer, sir? >> well, tony, this is one of the most difficult things about my job, describing something as complicated as this on television. it's very hard. quantum computing is an explosion--let's start with what computers are like today. the computer that you and i use

are based on binary code, a sequence of bits either in the position of one or zero. the sequence of ones or zeros. quantum computing explodes it by makinmaking it so it doesn't hao be just ones or zeros. it can hold multiple pieces of information in one bit. ones, zerosos, combinations of e two. as a result it creates the ability for a quantum computer to crunch through data tens of hundreds of times faster than conventional computers these days. that would mean the comparison between today's computers and these quantum computers is like a steam engine and a jet plane. they're a whole order of magnitude faster. what would happen then if these were to become real? in this case i spoke with the

director of the berkeley quantum computing center, and she told me what life would be like if someone were actually have built a quantum computer. >> this would render it relatively easy to decrypt a lot of encoded information not only in u.s. but all over the world. this would be personal information, also heavily classified information. >> now, the question here really is how far away are we from this? the nsa, although it has been putting money into this since 1996, may not, in fact, be any further along than anyone else doing public work that is available and in published journals. there are centers at the national institutes of standards and testing, national labs are working on this, several universities. but they all agree we're decades out from a functioning quantum computer.

in 2009 someone tried to decrypt the basic security that you and i use to rely on safe e-mails these days and it took several hundreds computers two years to decrypt it. it's not as if we're going to use our passwords and bank accounts overnight. it will be amazing, but it won't happen for years. >> terrific. i absolutely followed that. appreciate it. in san francisco for us. australia has been enjoying an economic boom these days. that's been driven in large part by its mining injuries--mining industries, and china is one of its biggest customers. andrew thomas explains more. >> reporter: it's a menacing sight. all the more so when you realize these vehicles don't have drivers.

the latest of high tech in australia's mining industry. this new mine will be the most efficient in the world. >> the mines that you see here, it gives us a lot of head room compared to other producers globally. >> reporter: from th the provocatively named mines, the trucks carry support, empty, and then load it on to ships to china. there it's made into steel. each of these ships is loaded with 180,000 tons of iron oar. that's enough to make the city three times over. one of these ships leaves every 12 hours from this company alone. >> mining 155 million tons a year will bring in more than

$20 billion of revenue. rivals rio tinto mine even more. mining money has made australia rich, but it has pushed up australia's currency making it hard for non-mining companies to export. >> our export base has become more of a developing country. that means we're hugely exposed to a down turn in commodities and a slowing to china's demand for raw materials. >> reporter: even without the chinese slow down, jobs are going as automated productions take over from construction. australia's boom times aren't over. but there is a bumpy road ahead. al jazeera in australia. >> meteorologist: well, this is your last weather update for the hour. we'll go up here towards the

northern plains. minneapolis, it does not feel too bad. big changes will be happening over the next couple of days. a new arctic outbreak, and this one is going to be stronger than the last arctic outbreak. we have showers right now blizzard warnings in effect. we had blizzard warnings last night, and now it's in effect for parts of north dakota, strong winds and visibility less than a quarter of a mile, and temperatures plummeting because of that. right now 21 degrees in fargo, but take a look at what's going to happen at those wind chills overnight fargo, north dakota, minus 56 degrees, and it could be a possible in the overnight hours because of those very, very gusty winds. you want to stay out of your car, off the roads and in your homes. omaha, you're not much better at minus 20. have a great night.

♪ >> this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. the snow has stop falling. and now frigid temperatures over the midwest and east. the storm is being blamed for more than a dozen deaths and has forced delays at airports across the country. the family of a brain-dead girl will transfer her to a different medical facility. the obama administration is asking catholic groups to