cheaper to fly, it's a cost-effective alternative, and one that it hopes will ensure that hot air ballooning will be a cost-effective sport in the future. claims that north korea set off a nuclear bomb are met with scepticism and global condemnation. 18 minutes missing. the fbi having trouble peacing together the time line for the san bernardino massacre. from drought to drench. el niño already taking its toll on california. and a netflix video shining

the light on serious nows in the criminal justice system. ♪ this is al jazeera america live in new york city. i'm del walters. the undersecurity council holding an emergency session at this hour to talk about north korea's claims that it has tested a hydrogen bomb. pyongyang making that announcement today. it will be the fourth time that north korea has done so. south korea and u.n. inspectors can only confirm there was some sort of explosion underground. it showed up on sin ors on the site to the north as a 5.1 magnitude quake. there is growing condemnation around the world. >> our government has to take decisive measures against any additional provocations by north korea, and work with the international community to make sure the isolated country pays

the price for its latest nuclear test. >> reporter: even china condemned today's test. >> translator: the chinese government has always tried to keep stability and peace in nooeps asia. we strongly urge north korea to stick to its commit to denuclearization. >> if confirmed this test would raise alarms. this is the most powerful type of nuclear bomb. unlike atomic bombs, which release energy by breaking apart. a high again bomb derives its force from nuclear fusion. the blast can cause fire storms and intense white light that can lead to blindness. james bayes is live outside of the united nations, but we begin with jamie mcintyre who is at the pentagon. and jamie what has been the u.s.

response to north korea's claims? >> reporter: well, del, it seems pretty likely that north korea did in fact detonate a nuclear device underground. what seems highly dubious is it was the hydrogen bomb. when i talked to officials, the reaction ranged from highly skeptical to hey, it just didn't happen. and the reason why, is the blast, while very powerful, was very, very small for the range of nuclear weapons. as one official said, hydrogen bombs are measured in mega tons, regular atomic bombs are measured in kilo tons. there was a very small kiloton

blast. by comparison, the first american successful test of a hydrogen bomb was 10 megatons. pentagon officials tell me they believe this test is more consistent with what was last done in 2006, and they say at this point, it doesn't seem to indicate that north korea has mastered the technology to create those much more powerful hydrogen bombs. and the way they work, del, just for a moment, and i'm sure you remember all of this from your high school physics, but the smaller atomic bomb is -- splits the atom. plutonium or uranium usually is the fuel. a hydrogen bomb uses that explosion so set up a chain of reactions, and that produced a much more powerful blast, and again, at this point, while the

official word is it's going to take a couple of days to figure out what exactly north korea has done, officials here are saying they have pretty much concluded this was not a hydrogen bomb. >> is there anything that the white house can do beyond condemning north korea's actions today? >> reporter: one of the things you are going to hear from the government today is the united states says it will not accept a nuclear north korea, that is kind of hard to take at face value considering that north korea has obtained nuclear capability and retains that capability. the u.s., the international community has very little ability to influence what is going on in north korea. china is probably the only country that does have some, because they continue to supply north korea. but the u.s. is going to continue to try to isolate the north korean regime, and put more pressure on it. but as long as kim ki-jong, though north korean leader sees

a nuclear weapon as the thing that guaranteed the continuation of his regime, i doubt you are going to see north korea give up on it. >> thank you very much. let's go to james bayes at the u.n. james what can you tell us about the emergency session of the security council? >> reporter: the session started in the last half hour, del, ambassadors arriving, showing deep concern, but i think not quite aware of what they can do about the situation. we heard from some of the ambassadors who were arriving. january pan important regional player, only just on the security council, fifth day on the security council, saying they needed a strong response. but i think interesting comments coming from the russian ambassador, the longest-serving ambassador on the security council, nearly ten years on the council, following all sorts of international developments, but also the north korean file. he said we need cool heads and a proportionate response. what that will be is not clear,

because already there are extremely strict sanctions on north korea. what do you do beyond sanctions? the only other tool, really, the security council has beyond sanctions authorizing some sort of military action, and no one wants to do that, when you are dealing with a leader who takes rash actions and has some sort of, we're debating it now, depending on what the test was, but some sort of nuclear capability. >> and there are so many soldiers posted on the border. we also heard from ban ki-moon earlier today. >> reporter: yeah, he had been hoping to start a new peace initiative with north korea, he had even been planning to make a trip to north korea, that certainly seems off now. this was his response. >> this test once again violates numerous security council resolutions despite the united

call by the international community to cease such activities. it is also grave contravention of the international norm against the nuclear testing. this act is a profoundly destabilizing for regional security and seriously undermines international non-proliferation effort. i condemn it unequivocally. >> translator: obviously one of the things they need to do is get to the bottom of what exactly north korea did. you heard jamie talking about the u.s. assessment, from u.s. intelligence agencies and the pentagon. there is an organization called the ctbto, i can tell you in one hour's time they are going to be giving a news conference, their boss in vienna talking to us,

the u.n. press corps in new york. so interesting to see how they pronounce what happened in the last few hours in north korea. >> james bayes for us. james has always thing you very much. djibouti is now the latest nation to sever its ties with iran. iran has publicly [ inaudible ] of trying to block diplomatic efforts over the next two years. some thing it will be hard to get saudi arabia to compromise. >> saudi arabia can sustain this for quite sometime, and the issue here is that at least for riyadh, the iranians have to understand that saudi arabia is going to combat a lot of the negativity that we see in the region. >> reporter: and those iran yoon diplomats left riyadh today after saudi arabia cut diplomatic ties with tehran over the weekend.

protesters ransacked the saudi embassy in response to the execution of this man. the man accused of supplying the guns and explosives to the san bernardino shooters is due in court shortly. he will be formally arraigned, prosecutored say he gave the couple the weapons that they used to kill 14 people back on december 2nd. if convicted he faces 50 years in prison. meanwhile the fbi is asking for the public's help in reconstructing just what happened after the san bernardino attacks. investigators say they want to know what the couple did in those 18 minutes after the attack that killed 14, and they were later killed in a shootout with police. >> we have accounted for 3:42 of their time. we are missing 18 minutes of their time. so why is that 18 minutes so important? it is important because we want

to ensure that we know whether or not they stopped at any locations, any residences, any businesses, that we don't already know about. we want to ensure that if they made contact with anyone, that we don't already know about between those hours, or between that time, that we're able to fully investigate those matters. >> the fbi say they need photos or videos that show the suspects during that time. the fbi also says there is no indication that the san bernardino attack was directed from overseas. but they did say it was, quote, an inspired attack. a second baltimore city police officers charged in the death of freddie gray is in court today. he was the driver of the van that gray was in. lawyers for the first officer tried have asked the judge to block their client from having to testify at goodson's trial.

goodson is facing a second degree murder charge. that charge may be an overreach, we are told. >> i think the second degree depraved charge was a stretch for the prosecution. whenever the prosecution has a stretch in a case, meaning you are asking the jury to go through leaps and bounds based on what the evidence is, in order to convict. you can almost end up with a non-conviction, because you are trying to stretch what you have of the evidence so far. i think it was more important to charge him with manslaughter in the case, but second degree is asking a lot of the 12 jurors who will sit in this case, and to get a conviction out of this case. >> reporter: heintz says without the testimony of this man, prosecutors will have a difficult time getting a conviction. california bracing for more rains today, after being inundated by powerful storms,

and while the state says it needs the rain, this time it may be too much at once. >> reporter: the reason's first major el niño storm slamming the west, drought-stricken california, suddenly awash from the bay to l.a. flood waters forced this man to make an escape through the window. rushing waters filled southern california streets. >> probably the most dangerous place in southern california. >> reporter: mud was the concern here where ed keeps an evacuation list in his car. the hillside there was wiped bare by a wildfire. like many in this region, this man fears the worst. >> we're stuck until either the big disaster comes, wipes out my home, and i get paid for it, or this stuff stops.

>> reporter: mud also a worry here. homeowners did what they could. >> we have done the boarding of the driveway and try to keep water flowing from coming on to the property. >> reporter: a tornado touched by in nearby vernon. and in arcadia, officials are still cleaning up from the water that broke this retaining wall. in the north heavy rains made driving treacherous along route 101. driving was nearly impossible in this part of san jose. and officials warn today's storms hitting the bay area could be even worse. don't check your 401k, u.s. stocks down again today. new concerns over those reports of nuclear testing in north korea rattling the markets. low oil prices and china's weak economy also continuing to spook

investors today as well. all of this in part to the continuing tensions between saudi arabia and iran. the price of oil has fallen 8% in just the past few days. and it makes it very unlikely that opec members will agree on any production cuts. law enforcement looks for a peaceful resolution to the standoff in oregon. and donald trump going after ted cruz, and whether cruz is eligible to run for president. ♪

the republican-controlled house voting again today to undoe the affordable care act,

and defund planned parenthood. this bill is expected to make it to the president's desk. the president says he will veto the measure. paul ryan promising to present an alternative to the healthcare law this year. schools are still closed in burns, oregon today. the demonstrators say they are in it for the long hall. so far they are staying put and won't leave until the federal government returns the land to area ranchers. katherine barret is near that center in oregon, and the local sheriff says he is going to meet with membersover the community. what is it that is of most concern to the residents there? >> well, i think there is a lot of general anxiety, knowing there are people up here with guns and not knowing what the ultimate outcome of the conflict is going to be, that is

underlying everything. but having the schools closed is not helpful to working parents. as well they have been invaded by a media circuit, and law enforcement population, assisting in this case to try to seek a peaceful solution. and there is a sense that this is people outside of the community who are taking up a cause that is maybe not the community's own. the mayor of burns has heard from many of his constituents. >> the overwhelming feeling from the folks is, it's time to go home. we don't want you here any longer, and we want to get our lives back to normal. >> reporter: and the major also points out that having law enforcement monitor the situation round the clock for the last number of days is costing an amount of overtime in

the budget that was not accounted for in their normal operations. >> now we have heard from the mayor and the sheriff, and the protesters are saying they have more on the way. is there any sign from law enforcement that they might try to do something to break up this occupation. >> reporter: the protesters have canned for more support to come. it's not entirely clear how many will actually show up here. there was a rumor -- it was either information, or misinformation, but the protesters heard late yesterday that perhaps yesterday there were arrest warrants being issued, so they moved up their perimeter closer to the media, closer to the main road, they said they didn't want to be taken or confronted in the buildings. when we arrived this morning, there were campfires and people

camping out staying guard overnight. so they are on alert and aware of it, but there has been no overt signs. >> katherine as always thank you very much. there is a new feud between the republican presidential candidates, donald trump and ted cruz. trump says the fact that the texas senator was born in canada may be a problem. >> people are worried if he wasn't born in this country, which he wasn't. he was born in canada, and he had a canadian passport along with an american passport until recently. so i don't know what it all means. >> trump revis itting those claims, the members of the birther movement leveled at president obama. ted cruz had this to say last night.

>> i tweeted out a response to donald trump raising questions about my natural citizenship. >> reporter: and he of course is referring to this tweet which links to a video of happy days. he was born in calgary canada to a mother who was a u.s. citizen. some tensions on the democratic side as well, bernie sanders voicing some of his strongest criticisms of hillary clinton yet. the senator calling out clinton for taking speaks fees from the financial industry. sanders laid out just how he would reform the big banks, including the break up of the banks that are called too big to fail. >> and here is a new year's resolution that i will keep if elected president and that is if wall street does not end its greed, we will end it for them. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: sanders speaking in

new york just a few blocks away from wall street. he also promised to jail some banking executives and give new protections to consumers. when al jazeera america returns, a netflix series drawing claim and attention to the conviction of a murderer.

for the first time in its history, west point has a woman in charge of the cadets. she is a decorated army vet. she was officially sworn in on tuesday. she served in iraq and afghanistan. she will be responsible for the day-to-day training and discipline of the students at west point. and a virginia state senator filing a wrongful death lawsuit. in late 2013, the 24-year-old son killed himself after stabbing his father. a mental health evaluator and placing agency mishandling a crucial six-hour window for admitting his son. scott walker says he has no plans to issue a pardon this steven avery. this is the subject of a new

netflix documentary series called making a murder. it has many asking if the case is pointing out serious flaws in the criminal justice system. ines ferre has our story, and a warning there are some spoilers. ♪ >> reporter: the netflix documentary, making a murder, puts the spotlight on a justice system. >> you have a lot of people who will be looking at these sorts of things, and when they hear about a story, they are going to be more inclined to believe that the government actors are not as honest as they once had thought they were. >> reporter: it's the story of a wisconsin native, steven avery. dna helped exonerate him after he served 18 years for a rape he did not commit. the documentary suggests that

the local sheriff and the district attorney knew they were convicting the wrong man. >> despite 16 witnesses, and a receipt that showed it was virtually impossible for mr. avery to have committed the crime, the jury convicted mr. avery. >> reporter: two years after his release, he was convicted for the murder of this woman. >> we the jury find the defendant steven avery, guilty of first degree intentional homicide. >> reporter: the series suggests that he was framed over officials. avery's defense attorney told al jazeera the documentary is sparking public interest. >> participate in some way that least offers the prospects of having an impact on things in

the world that upset us. >> reporter: the prosecutor in the murder case says the netflix documentary left out damming evidence, saying: the directors say they put in all of the significant pieces of the case, and they are confident in the series they made. ines ferre, al jazeera. finally, this time tomorrow you could be a multi-millionaire. the power ball jackpot would be as high as $450 million. it is also the sixth largest in north american history. your odds of winning by the way, 1 in 292.2 million. you have a better chance of being struck by lightning. but lottery officials point out, you can't win if you don't play. thanks for watching. i'm del walters in new york.

the news continues live from london, next. ♪ north korea says it has tested a hydrogen bomb. experts not convinced the device was that powerful. >> this act is a profoundly destabilizing for regional security. ♪ good to have your company here on al jazeera, i'm david foster. also coming up in the next 30 minutes. syrians displaced by fighting ask for help as storms and snow blanket their camps. u.n. peace keepers f