investments in trailer parks. rob reynolds, al jazeera, washington. and you'll find much more on many of our stories over on our website. the address to click on to, as of ever, is aljazeera.com. aljazeera.com for all of your latest news and sport. ♪ shopping center showdown, mass protests planned at the mall of america, just days before christmas. >> seal the truth, huh? kill the baby's that's what planned parenthood does. >> reporter: attorneys ask whether the accused colorado planned parenthood shooter is mentally fit to stand trial. a deadly storm system sweeping across the country as millions head out for the holidays. and the nfl on defense, reports that they are reneging

on a deal to study brain-related brain injuries. ♪ this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm del walters. in just a few hours, hundreds of demonstrators are expected to protest inside the mall of america in minnesota. they are demonstrating about the death of an african american man shot by police. a state judge on tuesday saying the mall has the right to keep black lives matters organizers out, but the mall can't bar everyone who wants to protest. andy is outside of the mall. and the mall is open for business now. what are you seeing, and what are you hearing? >> inside the mall it is pretty quiet. we do see some police officers in there. local police, and the security as well, as the governor has ordered 30 state patrol officers to the mall just to watch over things just in case.

but the mall tried very hard to clamp down on this protest, in fact they went to court, as you said, demanding that the leaders of the group be banned from the mall, and the judge did agree with that. they also though -- the mall wanted all protesters banned from the mall. and the judge said no, you can't do that. and the leaders of the mall wanted them to be ordered to go on social media and order the protests canceled. and the judge said no. >> something could retreat something, and the mall would be going around the world to try to hold people in contempt. it would have been a nightmare. >> reporter: the attorney for the mall said we don't care about the black lives matter protest as it is. we're not taking sides. we just want to keep our guests

safe. they say it is private property, the courts have affirmed that over the years, and they think they are in the right to prevent these protests from going on. we'll see what happens when the protesters start doing anything today, they will likely get kicked out right away. last year the protests were non-violent, but there were 11 arrests for things like obstructing justice and trespassing, and that sort of thing. minor stuff. >> have the protesters indicated why this mall and why now? >> it's really about the damarr clark shooting that happened last month. a young black man shot by police, the accusation that he was unarmed. the protesters did a lot of protesting at the police department over his death. last year's was bigger, maybe

3,000 people. here today they are expecting maybe 700 people. >> andy thank you very much. millions of americans are taking to the skies, the roads, the rails, all of them trying to get to their holiday destinations. this is a live look at the crowded skies right now. in that is flightaware.com. a lot of travelers could be seeing severe delays because of weather. you can expect traffic jams and long lines at the airport, and you might need to get ready to wait. this holiday travel season started off wet for a lot of people, and it is not getting any better. aaa says more than 100 million travelers will hit the roads in the next two weeks, more than ever before. and they will have to keep an eye on the skies just as much as they do the road. fog may have lead to this crash

in arkansas, killing at least three people. across parts of the west, snow is so heavy, officials had to suspend the search of a missing skier because of avalanche dangers. dangerous winds in california overturning tractor trailers and taking down trees. >> we have another tree down. we're going to have to go respond to. >> reporter: more than 38 million travelers will expected to fly through january 3rdrd. the busiest airports, and weather could cause flight delays at all three. as historic heat hits the northeast. >> and the roads have already proven deadly, a person is dead in arkansas as a result of that severe weather. a mixed bag of weather, kevin. >> that's right. and it is only going to get

worse. nine states right now are under tornado watches, and the fatality that we had was because of wind damage. we have had a lot of reports of that. i'll show you that in a minute. but one of the things fuelling this is the temperatures are really warming up. 70 degrees right now, warm air, a lot of moisture and the mechanisms and atmosphere really making those thunderstorms pop up. we do have one string of line of thunderstorms pushing into illinois right now. as well as another one in st. louis. right now, we have only seen wind damage and some hail damage. we have not seen any tornado reports as of yet. but take a look at this, where you see those yellow dots, that is where the wind damage is happening, and i do expect later

this afternoon, and into the evening, we are going to be seeing those tornado reports coming into play. where you see this area of red, that is a tornado warning, so only one county right now in illinois. but all the way down in texas, we're talking about tornado watches, severe thunderstorm watches, and even flooding going on across this area. so we are going to be seeing very severe weather here, and tomorrow the severe weather comes down, down here towards the southeast, the big problem there is going to be the flooding. we are going to expect to see anywhere between six and eight inches of rain across the southeast, and those temperatures we are going to be breaking records. >> which raises the question are we there yet? >> not yet. thank you very much. donald trumpening the year with a double-digit lead in the latest polls. showing trump with 39%.

that poll taken after, by the way, the last presidential debate. meanwhile hillary clinton is fighting back her comments coming after donald trump's use of a profanity to describe how she lost to then senator obama in 2008. >> you are looking at somebody who has had a lot of terrible things today about me. and that's why he shouldn't let anybody bully his way into the presidency. if you go on arabic television, as we have, and you look at what is being blasted out with video of mr. trump being translated into arabic, it is playing into the hands of the violent jihadists. bernie sanders defending her before and doing so again. this time after trump's comments. >> donald trump is very upset,

very hard for him to deal with. i don't know what his relationship with women has been in his life, but he has discovered that women go to the bathroom. sander's defense of clinton could be working in his favor, a poll released on tuesday saying sanders would beat trump in a general election 51-38%. robert dear is due back in court this afternoon, he is the accused planned parenthood shooter. bear facing more than 100 felony charges related to last month's shootings in colorado springs, colorado. he admitted he was guilty saying he was a warrior for the babies. but his defense attorney will seek to have him declared mentally incompetent. the new governor in kentucky has ordered the state to revise those licenses and revoke the names of clerks who issued them,

including kim davis who was jailed earlier this year for refusing to give out those licenses. she said having her name on the document implied that she endorsed gay marriage. there has been a settlement in connection with the new town, connecticut shootings, the families will split $1.5 million from the state of adam lanza's mother. the suit alleging that she failed to secure the weapons that were used to kill 20 children and 6 educators back in 2012. nancy lanza was also killed by her son. the families are also suing bushmaster, the maker of the rifle. a major mistake in washington state, thousands of prisoners accidentally set free. ♪

as we mentioned earlier, robert dear is due back in court this afternoon. he is the accused planned parenthood shooter. jim hooley is live for us in colorado springs, colorado. if he is declared mentally incompetent what effect will that have? >> reporter: well, it's not clear if we will have a decision today. but it is definitely certain that if he is declared incompetent, it would complicate many, many matters here.

it would put all of the prosecution on hold, and he would most likely be sent to the colorado mental health hospital, south of here in pueblo to undergo testing. he has said he will not participate in any of that testing. so again, this is going to be a very complicated hearing here today. and once again it's not clear if we will have a final decision today or not. >> what is the process for determining mental competence? >> well, again, very complicated. he will have to undergo that testing, but as we said in a hearing just two weeks ago when bear interrupted the proceedings, the judge, his attorney several times, as many as ten or 12 times, saying i am guilty, there's no need for a trial, i'm a warrior for the babies all of that will be taken

into consideration. he has told his attorney he does not want to take part in any kind of evaluations, but the judge could order that to take place in pueblo in the coming weeks. >> jim will cameras be allowed in the courtroom? >> two weeks ago when we had the hearing with mr. dear making all of those outbursts very publicly, there was a live camera in the courtroom. but today because there is so many questions about his mental health and the competency, all of those things will not be allowed to be videotaped or broadcast live. >> one final question, any updates on that clinic in colorado springs, when it's going to reopen? >> reporter: we have been trying to figure that out since the shooting at the end of november. there is work being done on the clinic. there is repair work being done,

some construction crews doing that work. it is a fenced off with a very tall fence and one officer standings guard on the clinic 24 hours a day, but no official word from planned parenthood or the officials saying whether or not that clinic will ever reopen. >> gym thank you very much. today washington state's governor saying inmate releases are now on hold indefinitely, following the revolution they accidentally released 3200 inmates early over the past 13 years. the department of corrections saying a computer glitch is to blame. the governor now ordering an inimmediate investigation. >> this problem was allowed to continue to exist for 13 years, is deeply disappointing, it is totally unacceptable, and frankly, it is maddening. there are reports that the

family of one inmate told them about the problem three years ago, but nothing was done to fix it. officials now scrambling to try to determine if any of the prisonerss committed crimes sine they have been out. amnesty international says russia is guilty of war crimes in syria. >> translator: the russian and syria air strikes have increased recently. they pretend they are targeting the terrorists, but most of the people killed are women and children. >> reporter: russia says it has been targeting isil. but amnesty's documentation showing the location and timing match russia's reports on

targets. the military says more than 8900 air strikes have been conducted since the coalition began strikes in 2014. oil prices are inching up. crude is now trading between 36 and $37 a barrel. but goldman sachs says oil could fetch as little as $20 a barrel this year. opec predicting that prices will recover to $70 a barrel, but not until 2020. one major factor, the saudi-lead cartel pumping crude with abandon. >> reporter: awash in oil, but goi going broke. the ironic state of saudi arabia. >> the kingdom is facing sort of fiscal difficulties that it

hasn't faced for many, many, many decades. >> reporter: thank in large part to a global oil glut that has seen crude prices p pum -- plummet. a dive caused by saudi arabia. their strategy has caused oil to tried almost $65 below what saudi needs to fund its swelling spending. thanks to a costly war, the kingdom is waging in yemen, expensive air strikes against isil, and doling out billions of dollars a year to its citizens through well-paying government jobs, generous energy subsidies, and offering interest-free loans for building homes, getting

married, and starting small businesses. >> in the medium to long-term probably the most important thing is reducing subsidies. >> reporter: but cutting benefits never an easy political sell, and there are reports of moves within the saudi royal family to oust king salomon and his son who heads the kingdom's economic policy commission. >> british prime minister reviewing the case of a muslim family that was taken off of a flight from the u.k. bound for los angeles. the family saying they weren't told anything, except they weren't allowed to travel. the father says his children were excited about the trip to disneyland, saying quote: in another incident, a leading

amonth has his business visa canceled as he was about to board a flight to new york. when we come back, more questions about how safe football really is. and a chosen counter for one of the best skiers in the world.

not a bird, not a plane, the bright light spotted along the west coast last night, was a

russian rocket booster coming back into the atmosphere. robert durst the real estate heir one step closer to being put on trial for murder. he has agreed to be extradited from louisiana where he is being held on gun charges. he will be sent back to los angeles sometime in mid-august. they think he killed his friend back in 2000. he denies the charges but his case drew attention after the hbo series, the jinks. there is a new controversy over concussions in football. the nfl accused of pulling grant money that was meant to explore brain trauma. and john henry smith reports, concussions is all about the league and the research into that condition. >> i found a disease that no one has ever seen. >> reporter: in the new sony pictures film concussion, will smith stars as a real life forensic pathologist, the man

who coined the phrase identifying the brain disease, after performing the autopsy on nfl hall of fame center. his pioneering research lead to the discovery of the disease born from repeated blunt force trauma in the brains of nfl groups like these three. all players who took their own lives. the film chronicles how the nigerian born doctor went from knowing nothing about football to becoming the pre-eminent scholar on football-related brain injuries. the film also portrays the national football league as determined to cover up the doctor's findings. three days before the movie hits theaters, multiple reports have the league reneging on a $30 million grant promise to a leading brain injury research group. the reason? the boston university project is being lead by a leading critic

of the league, dr. stern. the nfl denies that, and says it is setting the grant aside for another project. and emails made public from the sony hacking scandal seem to indicate the studio tried to avoid the nfl's wrath by softening some parts of the film. one email from a senior studio executive reads: >> that wouldn't surprise me, because they have down played the concussion situation for such a long time. >> reporter: joe is an nfl hall of fame guard. >> if the nfl did have a way of alternating the film, or altering it in anyway, of course they are going to try to soften it. >> reporter: sony pictures has no formal business relations with the nfl, and the director

denies any effort to soften the story. as for playerings like this man, he is ones of of former players collecting close to a billion dollars to settle a class action lawsuit against the league. he says he is keeping his grandchildren away from the game he loved. >> i have six grandsons, but i really don't want them playing. >> john henry smith, al jazeera. dr. robert gladder, the director of sports medicine and traumatic brain injury, talked about the nfl's response to the problem. >> these are professional players who have had a long-term career, that have had multiple hits out there their career. and we don't know the exact genetics behind what is causing this. because we do know there are genetics. and these hits that happen over a long period of time are very different than what happens when someone plays youth sports and

stopping playing up until say the high school level. >> here is the question, you literally did write the book on this, and you just wrote a column in which you talk about it. and it deals with the decision that parents should make, and you tell them what they should do, and that is what? >> i think they should let their children play sports. and football is not one of the riskiest sports, equestrian, skateboarding, snowboarding, these are very dangerous sports. look at the big picture and their injury rate we have to be aware of that. the data is not clear about the risk of concussions and sub con kukss in the youth age, and we have to look at that. >> the nigerian-born doctor depicted in that movie says he believes more than 90% of current football players suffer from that disease.

the israeli government says it was facebook that helped solve a movie. officials thought this was an age chent relic. but facebook users told them it is a new era energy wand. and drones now being banned after a dangerous event on the slopes. check this video out. he was almost halfway through his run when the drone crashed into the snow just behind him. officials saying the drone's pilots didn't follow instructions not to fly over the course. close call. thanks for joining us. i'm del walters in new york. the news continues live from london next. and you can check us out 24 hours a day, by going to our website, aljazeera.com. and if you are hitting the roads, leave early, and plan on being there for quite sometime.

have a good day. ♪ >> moscow said an amnesty report is fake when russia may be guilty of war crimes in syria. mystery over why the prime minister of georgia has resigned. a remarkable