out a $4.3 billion prize. an estimated three out of four spaniards buy tickets with more than a million people taking home a cash prize. more on the website, aljazeera.com. ♪ desertion and misbehavior, bowe bergdahl charged in military court today. the biggest problem for me is the entire process. >> demanding answers, sandra bland's family reacting to the news that no one will be indicted for her death. and chipotle's stock taking a beating after more cases of e.

coli are linked to its restaurants. ♪ the arrangement for a man who was once considered to be an american hero is now over. bowe bergdahl accused of desertion and endangering his fl low -- fellow soldiers. robert we just heard from the army regarding today's hearing. what else did we hear? >> reporter: well, del, good morning. i was in the courtroom, a little less than 50 people that happened at approximately 10:00 am sharp. bo bergdahl talked in, about ten minutes before that, he seemed a little nervous, had a little bit of a limp, it lasted less than 15 minutes and then he walked out. we learned a few things. he know more about the charges, but we don't know whether or not

he is going to take a plea of guilty or non-guilty. let's listen in. >> the military judge discussed the rights held by the accused, inquired on the record, regarding current military council and civilian council. sergeant bergdahl, said he was satisfied. the judge explained his right to be tried before a panel or military judge. and inquired if sergeant bergdahl wished to enter a motion or plea at this time. sergeant bergdahl deferred all of these decisions to later hearing. >> reporter: he is expected back here on january 12th for a government motions hearing. perhaps we'll find out more information about whether or not he'll entered into an actual plea, but we don't have answers on that yet. we asked the defense attorney, not giving any sort of statement

yet. maybe that will come out later, del. >> robert, what makes some of these charges so unique? >> reporter: sure. 2009 bowe bergdahl left his base, and he was captured by the taliban, he was held captive for five years. he is being charged withdyer is shun, that is a maximum of five years in prison, and the other one is maximum of life in prison, if he's -- if he is sentenced with that, eventually after the trial comes down, then that that is a major thing, because that really has not happened in the u.s. since after world 2. desertion is a more common charge. we have had about 1900 soldiers that have been charged with that. but he put, according to the military, a lot of soldiers in harm, thousands of soldiers looked for him in the months after his capture.

so a major situation here. but, again, january 12th is the next time that there will be a government hearing here, and perhaps the trial will begin in may maybe up to october, del >> thank you very much. the iraqi military today launching a major offensive. they are trying to retake ramadi. troops saying they are forced to remove roadside bombs as they move forward. and a battle between the afghanistan government and the talib taliban. jamie mcintyre joining us with more. what can you tell us? >> reporter: after months of preparation, it does seem the final phase of the offensive to

retake ramadi is underway. iraqi security forces made up entirely of sunni fighters have crossed the you fray tease river using a supply by the united states. and they are slowly moving in on a small force of fighters. there are only an estimated 250 to 350 isil fighters left in ramadi at this point. they are surrounded by more than 10,000 iraqi security forces, including some of the sunni tribes that the united states trained to take over there. so a spokesman for the u.s. military said the fall of ramadi is inevitable, but this is very tough urban terrain. so it still could be slow-going for the next couple of days. but it does seem there is

overwhelming force now focused on retaking ramadi, which is 70 miles west of baghdad, the provincial capitol of anbar. that's a key step for the iraqi force in order them to move on to the mosul, which is still months away from seeing this kind of liberation effort. del? >> let's switch gears now to afghanistan. monday was the deadliest day for u.s. troops there since 1913. are we seeing the country move back into the hands of the taliban? >> reporter: we are seeing the taliban making advances. this battle raging in helmand province which is traditionally an area that the taliban has held, and one of the major areas where opium is produced in afghanistan. the local forces have been overwhelmed by the taliban.

they have called back to kabul and said we need reeners toment, but what they really need is the kind of air strikes the u.s. has been using in iraq. but the u.s. no longer is in that combat mission of providing air strikes on the ground. it is up to the afghans to do that. and they don't have an air force yet. in fact their first graduating class of pilots training in georgia, are just supposed to be graduating this month, and beginning to take these new fighter jets over to afghanistan. so what the afghanistan forces need on the ground right now is support from the air and nato, and frankly they are not getting it. del? >> jamie, thank you very much. sandra bland's family saying they are going to keep demanding answe

answers. john henry smith has more on the grand jury decision. >> reporter: for more than ten hours, a grand jury in texas discussed evidence presented by special prosecutors in last summer's jailhouse death of sandra bland. she died three days after this traffic stop. >> the grand jury did not return an indictment. the grand jury also considered things that occurred at the jail, and did not return an indictment. >> reporter: the coroner said bland hanged herself using trash bags. special prosecutor daryle jordan would not review details with the grand jury, other than to say his team carefully reviewed video of bland's time in jail. >> the details, of course those are all secret. >> the biggest problem for me is the entire process, the secrecy of its all.

1100 miles away bland's family continued to express doubt that the sandra they knew would kill herself and about the grand jury. >> we believe this is a sham proceedings. we desperately seeking our own information to conduct our investigation of what happened to sandy there. they are invoking this inherent trust in a system that we think is flawed. >> the grand jury is committed to doing what is right, and we're committed to doing what is right. >> reporter: the grand jury meets again in january to examine other aspects of the traffic stop and her arrest. earlier we talked to the bland family attorney. >> first you have to realize what it is that a grand jury

does. it doesn't even have a judge. the judge is the prosecutor. the prosecutor gets to make the decision what evidence will be submitted and what won't be submitted. it's a secretive process, the testimony is sealed, and we're not even allowed to be part of that proceeding. so the reality is, it's just a tool of the prosecutor, so they can say, we submitted evidence, and unfortunately that evidence came back suggesting that nobody should be indicted. we have spoken to the family and shared with them, that we have serious concerns about how this proceeding was going to take place, and unfortunately our concerns came to fruition. >> he said the decision to have the grand jury return in january is strategic. it's an attempt to delay the release of a texas rangers investigation into bland's death. william porters trial for

manslaughter is now scheduled to begin on july 13th. another officer goes on trial in january. in minnesota a judge there expected to allow whether to allow protesters inside the mall of america. demonstrators there are upset over the death of a black man at the hands of police. ines ferre reports. >> reporter: these protesters are being told by the country's largest mall, not to demonstration on their property wednesday, asking a minnesota judge to grant the temporary restraining order. the mall of america is hoping to prevent a huge demonstration like the one last year, where some stores had to shut down. the mall says that protest caused irreparable harm to mall of america. saying as a private retailer it prohibits all forms of protests, demonstrations and public debate.

they also want protestors to delete and take down any online materials soliciting demonstrators to gather at the mall. >> our country was built off of protests. protest is meant to make people uncomfortable. protest is not meant to be easy, but it's a struggle that we must go through to get justice here. they hope to draw attention to the death of a black man killed by police. ♪ >> reporter: they have been demonstrating for weeks, demanding investigators to release the video of the shooting. authorities say they can't, because it could interfere with on-goggin investigati investigation -- ongoing investigations. >> we'll take this one step at a time. if the judge issues an order restraining the demonstration and that order is violated, we'll deal with it.

>> reporter: but some protesters seem to be doubling down on their promise to go to the mall. they have been tweeting with the hashing too sue me too. enreway marquez is still behind bars this morning. marquez was denied bailen monday, the judge finding that he still poses a threat to the public. prosecutors say he is the person that bought two of the guns that were used to kill 14 people. up next, hillary clinton responding to donald trump's latest slam, this one featuring an old yiddish phrase.

>> the woman accused of mowing

down dozens of people on the las vegas strip is in court today. her 3-year-old daughter was in the car at the time. she said she recently had become homeless a and had been living out of her car with that child. chipotle's stock prizing are down after more people are reporting getting sick from e. coli after eating the at chain. the cdc there is an epidemic of drug overdoses. and it's not just the cities. as john terrett shows us, users are dying in never before scene numbers in the suburbs. >> reporter: this sergeant has been patrolling the streets in this town for 20 years.

it's 40 minutes outside of new york. the busiest highway in the country, i-95 cuts right through it. >> we're wedged right between two much, much larger cities. >> reporter: and that's a problem because heroin addicts can buy their fill in those two cities. >> i have never seen anyone like this in my 40 years. >> reporter: a straight line of addiction from painkillers to heroin. >> seeing that we have been facing this problem for the last five years, we're seeing our addicts and users and overdoses, and the victims are, you know, in their early 20s. if you bring that back five years, they were here. >> at the high school. >> at the high school. >> reporter: yeah. among the million dollars homes the her -- heroin problem is hidden. addiction often takes place

behind closed doors in big family houses. kevin conroy nows this all too well. his john jack was hooked on heroin he is a big guy. >> he is. >> reporter: dwarfs you. >> he does. >> reporter: jack died from addiction. >> i think back, and i don't think about it being in the schools, but it is. don't try to pretend it isn't there, because if you do, you won't win. >> reporter: gary tells me about his beloved son brian who was also caught by heroin.

>> he was really burdened by his addiction, burdened by the cravings, and the shame. >> reporter: brian killed himself over the shame he felt addiction brought to his family. >> if you were to ask me how many fathers in my town had a son who was addicted, i would have raised my hand and said i'm it. i figured there were probably two or three others, but i didn't know who they were, because everyone was shamed. >> reporter: it's father's promise to his dearly missed elder son. shatter proof is pushing for more state laws to help cut the number of overdoses nation ride. >> reporter: this sergeant says 80% of crime in the area is directly related to crime with

narcotics. hillary clinton saying one of her first projects as president will be to battle alzheimer's. she's calling for $2 billion a year to be set aside for research. she says she wants the money to enable scientists to find a cure by 2025. meanwhile her spokesperson tweeting that her campaign will not respond to more controversial comments by donald trump. trump mocked clinton. >> she was going to beat obama. i don't know who would be worse. i don't know. how does it get worse? but she was going to beat. she was favored to win, and she got slonged, she lost. >> he used the vol geraghty in 2011 with an interview in the

"washington post." at that time he was talking about the republican party's losses in an election. a flawless launch and a big night for spacex. the company hitting that important milestone on monday in its bid to make rocketing reusable like airplanes up next the new plan to turn dead beat dads into responsible parents is paying off big time.

billions of dollars in child support goes unpaid in the u.s. in baltimore there is a program to ease the debt, especially on poorer parents, and it is paying off. randall pinkston explains. >> reporter: what did owing the state money for child support due to your life? >> it effected my credit score. i wasn't able to get a house. i wasn't able to get a car. it ruined my life. it totally ruined it. >> reporter: when ed, a college student in baltimore, fell behind on his child support payments there was little he

could go to catch up. >> it was about 30-something-thousand dollars. >> reporter: how was your dauthen then? >> my daughter had to be four or five. >> reporter: what did you think when you found out you owed $30,000 of child support? >> i was lost. >> reporter: it's not just the money that builds up. in the state of m m.d. punishments for failure to pay child support can include loss of state issued license from driving to plumbing and even jail. >> if you are stopping me from driving, i can't pay you money that you say i owe you. >> reporter: joe jones knew there was a better way. he is the founder and ceo of the center for urban families. a multi-service agency started in 1999 to help men become better fathers and providers. three decades ago, jones could have been a client. >> i owed child support for my

first child, i was coming out of my own addiction and incarceration. >> reporter: jones challenges a key requirement of maryland's welfare system. >> even if you don't have any income, they still require you to pay. >> reporter: for decades, jones has lobbies stated and national officials for common sense flexibility. >> lfrjs we have also had to do education to help them make that distinction between dead beat and dead-broke bads. dead break meaning you have the obligation to pay, but you can't. >> these are individuals that are really down on their luck. >> reporter: joe is the executive director of maryland's child support services enforce administration. >> it's our responsibility to work with them in a cooperative way to help them find employment and continue to work with them so all of their income is not being pulled out of their check. >> reporter: what do you say to

critics who say these guys had these kids, again, they ought to pay what they owe. >> again, an individual is taking $400 of take home, think about garnishing 65% of that. there is nothing left to live on. >> reporter: they enable parents to complete classes, to get a job, and pay the negotiated child support consistently for one year, if they do that, they earn credit for their back child support. >> and the credit that is earned can be high as 75% of state-owned arrears. >> so you will reduce the arrearage by 75%. >> correct. >> reporter: he says it doesn't make sense to saddle parents with obligations they cannot pay. >> i would rather get an amount that the parent will pay rather

than some number that they don't have the ability to pay. >> reporter: collections in maryland went up by nearly $40 million between 2011 and 2014. for all of the training and support the center for urban families provides parents, the ability to pay child support comes down to one element. the parent has to find a job. they have developed partnerships with businesses out there baltimore. ed burrows took advantage of the program, which helped him land a full-time position. >> reporter: who takes take of your daughter now? >> i do. >> old old she? >> she is 18. >> so she is in high school? >> she graduated from high school and is in college. there is still time to get those holiday gifts, but don't wait too much longer especially

if you want to mail it. it is the busiest day of the year for the u.s. postal service. amazon prime offering shoppers guaranteed delivery by christmas eve but you have to order by midnight on the east coast. google and ford said to be working together on those self driving cars. google began their talks with auto makers about the technology earlier this year. they are already testing dozens of self driving cars in california and texas. and the numbers have been drawn in one of the biggest lotteries ever. millions around the world watching the drawing in spain's el gordo lottery. it pays out more than $2 billion in prizes.

and we're smiling for now. thanks for watching. i'm del walters in new york. the news continues live from london next. ♪ [ gunfire ] they are calling it the final assault. iraqi forces storm the center of ramadi, trying to recapture the city from isil. ♪ hello there, i'm barbara sarah. this is al jazeera life from london in fact also coming up on the program. the united nations security council hearing how the war in yemen has lead to a humanitarian crisis that is critical to the country. under massive public pressure, india