11:30 east coast time. time to return to that breaking news we're following out of los angeles. more than a thousand schools there are closed this morning. the students told to stay home, those at the school are being told to wait on people to come pick them up after the school district received a bomb threat. officials say the threat came in electron form, and involved any backpacks or packages that were left on campus. >> children already at school are being taken to safe locations, waiting to be picked up by their parents. >> and johnry -- john henry smith has been tracking the

developments. we are also hearing from other school districts. >> reporter: that is true. the superintendent as you mentioned termed the threat electronic in nature. now the "new york times" is quoting sources at the los angeles police department, and they are reporting someone telephoned a bomb threat to a member of the school board, and the superintendent says he wants every single school building in the los angeles unified school district searched. that is a massive undertaking. there are 640,000 students in l.a. unified schools, as well as adult education students, so you can just imagine what it will take to search all of the buildings needed to accommodate those people. he cited recent violent events near and far from l.a. for closing down the schools. >> i think the circumstances in

neighboring san bernardino, i think what has happened in the nation, i think what happened internationally, i as superintendent am not going to take the chance with a life of a student. remember, we do get individual threats. we do evacuate schools. we do lockdown schools, et cetera, and do not release students until we notify parents. so what we were doing today is no different than what we always do, except that we are doing this in a mass way. >> he says the school district is working to notify all parents and officials asked everyone to work together. >> we need the cooperation of the whole of los angeles today. we need families and neighbors to work together with our schools and with our employees

to make sure our kids are safe throughout the day. we need employers to show the flexibility that a situation like this demands, and we ask you to show the maximum possible flexibility with your employees who are primarily mothers and fathers and guardians today in this situation. >> the superintendent says he will be releasing a statement updating us on a situation before the end of the day, and you might imagine one of the things he'll mention is will school be open tomorrow. >> don't forget we are also planning to bring a presser for you live at the top of the hour, expected from l.a. officials. >> our producer on the west coast will be joining us by phone. dena, did everyone get the word in time, or were there thousands of kids already in school when

the announcement was made. >> the announcement came at a time in the morning when the older students were either in school or on their way to school. and we were told that buses were getting notified en route. they were turning around from their ruth. the younger students were still at home. so there is a mix of some students in school, we're told, and those who are not. and those who are in school are in safe locations and they are being told to wait it out, until an announcement is made. >> what is the plan for those kids inside those school buildings right now? any plan to come and somehow manage to pick them up? are parents being asked to come pick them up or what? >> yeah, for right now, they are sitting tight with their principles and other school officials, and parents are being notified and they are being told to meet them at the reunion gates of each school when they

come. >> the superintendent said bomb threats are common. but this one is rare. how rare is it that they closed all of the schools in los angeles. >> we are told that it is very rare, unfact it is unprecedented. they didn't think of another time when this kind of widespread complete district closure has happened. it just points to the fact that there is an abundance of caution happening right now. they are hoping to find out what exactly it is, but the threat is so specific, that it made them take on this sweeping closure to keep everyone safe. >> dena thank you very much. we should point out that this is a threat, a threat only so far, other than the fact that the threat seems to be more specific than in years past. you heard the former police chief saying when he was on his

watch, there were so many threats that they had to start separating them because people were using them simply as a way to get out of work on friday. >> today is the last day for americans to sign up for obamacare. the obama administration is hoping to sign up about 900,000 people through the affordable care act this year. that would bring the total number of people covered to 10 million. according to this morn's "new york times" government officials are describing unprecedented demand. federal reserve officials begin a two-day conference this morning. when they are done, the fed is expected to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. >> three, two, one. >> reporter: after nearly seven years of near zero interest

rates, the federal reserve is primed for liftoff. >> the u.s. economy has recovered substantially since the great recession. >> reporter: in testimony this morning, janet yellen described an economy ripe for an interest-rake hike. with an unemployment rate that has been cut in half. rosy numbers, but not the whole story. unemployment has fallen in part because the percentage of people in the labor market has shrunk. there are early indications that wages are picking up, most americans are still waiting for a raise. evidence of a labor market that still has too many workers chasing too few jobs. do you think the federal reserve

is justified in hiking rates for the first time in nine years? this >> i think the federal reserve needs to wait until the american labor markets become tighter. the larger concern right now, really is, is full employment, and we are not there. >> reporter: but yellen is concerned that waiting too long could force the fed to raise interest rating abruptly. >> it would risk tightening the markets and possibly pushing the economy into recession. >> the american economy still didn't delivering for american workers, and choking up job creation at this point, that's a real danger as well. >> reporter: american firms are also likely to suffer from an interest rake hike, because it will make an already strong dollar even stronger, making u.s. goods that much more

expensive to buy abroad. well other central banks around the world are holding rates down, and even cutting them, t janet yellen is signalling that they will raise rates gradually. paul ryan says he expects a spending deal to be voted on today. some lawmakers are hung up on policy issues that have been tacked on to the bill. the current funding expiring at midnight thursday morning. a state of emergency has been declared in the city of flint, michigan after studies found possible lead poisoning in children living there. the mayor says the city needs federal help dealing with the crisis, 28,000 liters arrived yesterday sent by the federal management agency. early budget problems prompted

flint from -- to switch to a different water system. a chicago judge has acquitted a police commander on charges he shoved his gun down a victim's throat. this new ruling comes at a tense time in chicago, where many people say police do not treat everyone equally. as part of our series, five days in chicago, al jazeera's ashar qureshi takes a closer look. ♪ >> reporter: weekend after weekend, shooting after shooting, chicago has become infamous for its gun violence. >> in chicago ten are dead, at least 54 others injured. >> reporter: it has dominated the headlines, giving rise to the city's nickname, chi-raq.

and yet the city is arguably safer than it has been in the past. overall violent crime is down. in 1991 there were 928 homicides compared to 425 in 2015. but safety is relative. city worker is fed up. >> your mayor -- >> reporter: he took the day off to protest. >> it always has been division. there has always been two chicagos. we have known that our whole lives. after a period of time you become numb to it. i docket want us to be numb to it anymore. >> reporter: chicago is america's most segregated city with violent crime concentrated in mostly poor black communities and neighborhoods. the most dangerous are on the south and west sides. critics say more effort goes into making sure the more

affluent areas remain safe and undistu undisturbed. >> i wish the mayor would be mayor for all of the city and not just certain parts of the city. >> reporter: cook country commissioner says the disparities are undeniable. >> there ought to be the same type of protection for people who live in austin, engelwood, lawndale, these communities have been devastated by gun violence. >> reporter: some say the two chicagos cannot be equalized without a concerted effort at the top level. >> those communities need to have an entire effort to bring the change, and as long as you have areas where there is very little hope, you'll have gangs, guns, crime, and murders. >> are you stupid!

>> reporter: it came to a head in recent weeks. protests erupted after the release of dash cam video, showing a white police officer firing 16 shots killing a black teenager. it's a tail of two cities, say some, one of them thriving and safe, the other poor and perilous. ashar qureshi, al jazeera, chicago. our week-long special, five days in chicago continues tonight at 7:00 pm eastern. and there is more evidence this morning that the population in america's jails is on the rise. new numbers showing that there are nearly 700,000 inmates looked up every day in this country.

in san francisco, voters there today deciding whether to spend more than $300 million to build a new jail. in that project divided the city. melissa chan has more. >> reporter: for opponents a new jail symbolizes the prison industrial complex. >> we are not going to support stand-alone prison to continue to lock up african americans and latinos in this city. >> reporter: and it's unnecessary, they say, when the number of inmates in the city has dropped in cent years. >> we want to build a system that will make san francisco safer. we know the jails do not make our citizens and community safer here in san francisco. >> reporter: but the mayor and the sheriff's department argue that the building is not safe in the earthquake zone. >> it is a jail that has gone way beyond its time. i was the captain there as one time, and i -- i was always here

during the great overcrowding of the late '70s and early '90s. what we're looking at today is really replacing 1200 unusable beds with 384 targeted beds that will be much safer and a much better fit for the population that we're left with in the jails. >> reporter: the political tussle is taking place in a process called realignment, critics say instead of a new jail, the city should focus on mental health programs and drug treatment centers. >> to commit to spending more than $300 million at this time in our history is simply wrong. >> reporter: with so many superintendents opposed it looks likely the project will not pass. melissa chan, al jazeera, san francisco. a plumber is suing a car dealership after his old truck

ended up in the hands of isil. you may remember seeing this picture when it went viral almost a year ago. it had the plumbing companies logo and phone number visible. now the plumber wants reparations from the dealership for the quote, severe harm the incident has caused him. >> his secretary was recently called an isil [ censor bleep ], so just not -- not flattering things, but not also some were scary, some with people i'm going to come kick your [ censor bleep ]. you don't want to be an american. get out of here, and i'll help you go. he plumber says he had no idea how his old ford got from texas to syria. >> when we come back, much more on the threat that closed the schools in l.a.

when we come back, we are awaiting the latest coming out of l.a. >> reporter: and we'll take y yaw -- you aboard a high-tech ship.

♪

back now to our breaking news out of los angeles. officials say they received an electronic threat against multiple campuses, that's when the decision was made to shut down all schools and send any students and staff home immediately. police and other experts will sweep the campuses until they are all declared safe to reopen. seattle's major says he won't sign the ordinance that allows drivers of uber and lift to youian nice. drivers have been considered independent contractors which doesn't allow traditional benefits. >> i want to give the drivers some leverage in negotiating with uber or lift so they have some say in what their job looks

like. >> a court challenge is expected. residents in hong kong are envisioning a future through art. our correspondent has more. ♪ >> reporter: hong kong's high-rise buildings, testament to one of the most densely populated cities in the world. it's architecture reflects a colonial past merging with an uncertain future. the participants were asked to visualize, 2050, three years after hong kong fully integrated with mainland china. >> we're very interested in creating a platform for people to speak. for young designers and for this next generation to have a way to communicate their thoughts and

thinking. >> reporter: some thoughts needing interpretation, such as this exhibit, featuring mint plants, a disco ball, and mojitos. >> this is a rejection about what we are going through right now in long long, censorship, collapse of the government leadership. it's really, really chaotic. so i can project 30 years from now, it might get worse. >> reporter: the artist based his vision on how the government handled last year's prodemocracy protests. other projects were not so abstract in depicting the yellow umbrella protest movement. the creator spent nearly two months on the streets with demonstrators. >> the core that you see of the chaotic fragments they are actually constructions made by the protesters on the streets. so i wanted to create that

ambiance so people can think about what they were doing on the streets. >> reporter: other exhibits stayed away from politics. this structure was made by 3-d metal printing. it's creators believed the new technology can be used to build homes in the future with a computer program to design living spaces. our long -- hong kongers may be living in stacked aluminum pods. and here is the latest now on that high school football coach in texas. he admitted he encouraged his players to tackle the ref. this is the video. two players blind siding the ref during a game in september. the former assistant coach now

pleading guilty to misdee men your assault charges. prosecutors say they plan to file charges against the players now. cuba has welcomed home four baseball players who defected to the u.s. to play. the players are the first defectors welcomed back as active players. the gesture is a big milestone in the thawing of relations between the u.s. and cuba. >> it is a goodwill trip. we have been taking baby steps to fine out, you know, what if anything can be done in -- in, you know, playing baseball down there at some point. cuba hopes that one day the mlb will pay them for its players. the united states is entering a new era of high-tech

ships. >> reporter: a new $90 million ship, the av neil armstrong is about to carry researchers to the deepst ocean on the planet. it takes years to get a ticket. you have to be a federally funded scientist, and you have to raise a lot of grant money to earn your place here. but the idea is that you will be able to do big basic science. the kind that is so hard to get funded these days. the federal funds for ocean research as taken a big hit in recent years. climate scientists have always assumed the ocean would absorb roughly half of our carbon emissions. >> reporter: the human influence

on our planet is detectable everywhere from the depths of the ocean to the north and south pole, and this is a time when we need to understand how our ocean is changing and how it will impact life on earth. >> reporter: that's why this ship is built to go to the ends of the earth. >> we -- we generally work in -- in nastier places just kind of by default of what scientists are looking for. the ship we just retired spent most of its last 15 or 20 years in some pretty rugged environments. certain groups were looking at the air-sea exchange of stuff between water and air, and the best mixing happened in storms. so they wanted to find storms and rough weather. it's the job, i guess, you know? [ laughter ] >> reporter: the diesel engines

can take this boat to almost any part of the world except for iced-in portions of the arctic. and the ship has six miles of cable. that means it can put something literally on to the ocean floor. a new competition could jump start the creation of better tougher robotic systems, designed to withstand incredible pressure. a $7 million competition announced this week will award millions to the best systems capable of surviving at 4,000 meters. the prize will hopefully create a market for the technology. >> the prize which was awarded in 2004 was a private space flight competition to get three people up to 100 kilometers in the atmosphere twice in two

weeks, and that spurred the private space flight industry. >> reporter: between new ships and new technologies, the ship will hopefully reveal the mysteries of the deep sea, 95% of which is almost entirely unknown to us. at a time of bad climate news and sparse funding, the launch of this ship and this prize is a rare opportunity to do good work at sea. again, we expect to learn more about that breaking news coming out of l.a. at a news conference at the top of the hour at 1:00. all 640,000 students told to not come to school. that loves more than 900 schools in los angeles alone. and the new york city police commission said a similar threat tuesday to new york schools, was not credit, he called the

decision to close the l.a. schools, quote, a significant overreaction. the underpanel of ex -- experts accuses iran of breaching the nuclear deal. i'm david foster, you are watching al jazeera, live from london. also in this program, los angeles closes all of its public schools over what is described as a credible threat. saudi arabia announces a new anti-terror alliance to fight isil and other armed groups from mali to pakistan. and a shaky ceasefire starts in yemen as the warring parties begin a