considered himself to be a steward for their safekeeping. and there's just time to remind you, you can find out much more on many of the stories we are covering, including that inquiry into the british spy's address on our website, the address is aljazeera.com. i think he's sick. i think he's a sociopath. i think he's a serial rapist. >> reporter: a former oklahoma city police officer set to be sentenced for assaulting women while on duty. the u.s. markets trying to pull themselves out of the red. detroit's public schools filing suit against their teachers after days of sickouts. and a major snow storm is

headed towards the east coast. ♪ this is al jazeera america live in new york city. i'm del walters. sentencing is underway in oklahoma city, oklahoma today for a former police officer found guilty of sexually assaulting women while on duty. he was convicted back in december, the jury recommending 263 years in prison. heidi zhou castro is live outside of the courthouse in oklahoma city. we apologize for the fire alarm. heidi the team are asking for a new trial, what are the chances of that happening? >> reporter: well, that does not impact the sentencing hearing that is just about to begin. however, the motion for a new trial claims that prosecutors hid evidence that may have helped his case.

ultimately there were 13 accusers, all african american women from a low-income community that he patrolled, that they say the sexually assaulted them while he was on duty. this happened over the course of six months while he was in uniform on duty. >> and are people satisfied, though, with the way the investigation has been carried out so far? >> reporter: well, the investigation according to police have been very thorough. it has been very transparent, however, you hit on that issue, the community is asking for reform, and just a thorough justice, and they are not seeing these reforms take place. the police department has not implemented any real policy changes since daniel. the only real difference was this body camera program has been sped up. the community is calling for more changes to happen. meanwhile, the oklahoma okay police department said they had

no clue he was doing this, and he alone bares responsibility for his crimes. >> well, you know, it's -- it's a very difficult case. he is anomaly. this is not something you see all the time. in 20 years in law enforcement, i have never see it. >> reporter: another change that has been called for, but not been done is to change the monitoring system of officers. right now in oklahoma city. there are supervisors who oversee between 3 to 7 officers at a time. obviously that system failed to catch this officer. >> briefly before i let you go, heidi, is the department doing enough to bring back the confidence of the city? >> reporter: it is certainly trying to start that dialogue. last night there was a public forum in the community where these attacks happened, where the police chief took questions, but ultimately it still boils down to calls for reform that

have not taken place. another example is oklahoma city police officers patrol these streets alone. the department says it doesn't have resources to double up, but that is something that advocates are calling for. >> heidi thank you very much. stocks have been up and dunl morning on wall street, after the worst close since 2014. right now they are up. earlier this morning the european central bank leaving interest rates there unchanged. today it was another bad morning in asia, the modest early games, wiped out early on over fears of falling oil and troubles with the chinese economy. excuse me. a former corporate analyst join us. the markets have been up and down, right now they are up. should i be pleased or concerned? >> you could be calm for this. the main reasons are china, the economic weakness, and also oil.

we got some new oil figures, the price of crude is up, and that is sending the market, specifically energy company shares rising. right now the market is up almost a percent right now, and a lot of that is triggered by information that is being flooded in the market right now. >> how much is this a factor of the european central bank. >> they are huge consumers of global commodities and products, so we want to make sure folks in the euro zone can buy goods. so they said we're going to encourage banks to loan more by keeping rates flat, and the signal they are sending to the market is we are going to possibly do whatever we need to do in order to make sure banks are confident. they left the window open to lower rates even further. >> asia is being described in a

bear market, what about the united states? how close are we to being at that 20% mark? >> we're getting closer every day. however, we are not there yet. and i mean that's the key point we want to take from this. china is in the middle of a huge transition. so you have to take what is happening in that part of the world with a grain of salt, because there are so many structural shifts happening. clearly they have experienced declines, but the country is going through transition. as far as the united states is concerned, a lot of indicators suggest we are doing well. >> inflation, usually when it is kept in check, everybody is happy. not the case this time. >> not this time. the euro zone is saying the target is not high enough. it suggests that you rerning

more money, prices are goods are going up, and that's typically a good thing, because if you are borrowing more money, and earning more money, then the burden of the inflation is lower. but when it's very low, the value of the cash on hand is so high, you don't want to spend it. businesses don't want to invest, because the value of what they have, that cash is so crucial. so that's why the ecb is taking steps to opening the door to possibly lowering them because they want their inflation rates to rise. >> thank you very much for being with us today. if you have some extra money and you live on the east coast, you are going to spending it getting bought. millions are bracing for the first winter storm. washington, d.c. getting some light snowfall overnight. but that is nothing of what the east coast is going to get. >> given the significant

severity of the forecast, we will treat this event as a homeland and emergency management. today i'm declaring a state of emergency for the district of columbia, which allows us the ability to access federal resources when we need them. >> this storm is causing a lot of different problems for us, besides all of the snow that we will get. it has already pulled out of the rockies. this is today's forecast, and we have seen the snow reports anywhere from south dakota south ward, and parts of arkansas for example. there could be a heavy core today four or five, six inches even into northern mississippi. that's pretty significant that far south. and in southern portions of the same state of mississippi could see the severe weather.

through the course of the day, dynam dynamic enough to have severe weather, and then as this continues to develop it pulls off of the coast by saturday, so i think saturday is going to be the worst day in terms of not only heavy amounts of snow but the winds will really pick up for the coastline as well. now today, besides the northern snowy side of it, the severe weather risk from louisiana into alabama. that does include the risk for tornados. so you really want to keep an eye to the sky. and through friday it all right starts -- it really ratchets up for a lot of places between friday night and saturday, 18 inches in the core of these darkest pinks. you go further north, still a lot of snow, but by boston it's probably only three or four. but there will also be the high

winds. so it will be blowing that snow arrange, reducing visibility. some could be in the 30 to 40-mile gust range, possibly as high as 50 miles an hour, and that's why we even have some blizzard warnings in a few areas even today. the obama administration could announce as soon as today new visa requirements for europe travelers who are nationals of iran, iraq, sudan, and syria. the rules would apply to europeans who have visited those countries over the past five years. it is unclear if there will be exceptions for those who have traveled there for government, humanitarian or journalistic reasons. senate democrats stopping a bill that would have kept syrian refugees out of this country. lisa stark has more. >> reporter: supporters of the bill said it would help prevent

americans from terrorist attacks. now syrian and iraqi refugees are already vetted before they come to the united states, but this would have made that process much more stringent. it would have required the head of the fbi and others to sign off on the refugees saying they were not a threat. >> this legislation is about national security, people who are refugees whether they are adequately vetted by the appropriate authorities before they come to the united states and live in our communities. this is not about banning refugees, it simply is not. >> reporter: many democrats denounced the legislation saying republicans were declaring a war on refugees. >> our war is not with syrian refugees, our war is with isil and terrorists, and those who are using this country's freedoms to kill innocent

people. and for us to turn our back on these refugees is plainly wrong. the bill sounds so innocuous. >> reporter: republicans needed 60 votes to advance this bill to begin debate. they did not get it. democrats wanted to turn this, really, into a slap at donald trump. they said we'll vote to advance the bill if you would let us vote on on amendment to denounce trump for his call to ban muslims from coming into the united states. immigration and security a very hot topic on the campaign trail, and three republican candidates actually left their campaign to comcast a vote, marco rubio, ted cruz, and rand paul. bernie sanders stayed on the campaign trial. but we know he would have voted against this bill. >> lisa thank you very much. of the 4 million syrian

refugees worldwide, the u.s. has taken in fewer than a thousand so far. and some european leaders are warning the e.u. has six weeks to change its asylum policy or fall apart all together. earlier the secretary general of amnesty international explaining why this issue is so crucial to the world's economy. >> it's a crisis of historic proportions. we have never seen anything like this. 60 million-plus displaced in the world, over 20 million refugees. and if you don't address this question, without human rights, you are not going to have prosperity or peace. >> he also condemned the move by the british parliament that delayed the transition of refugees. the final vote is scheduled for monday. the bill is expected to pass. a hit ordered at the highest level, the judge connecting

vladimir putin to the killing of a russian dissident. and a battle between the city of detroit and its teachers now in court.

that standoff in oregon proving to be costly. oregon's governor now saying the ongoing occupation of that national wildlife refuge is costing $100,000 a week. federal, state, and lobing skal law enforcement officers so far avoiding doing anything that they say might provoke a confrontation. we're also getting a better sense of the confusion at the start of the flint water crisis. the governor releasing hundreds of pages of emails.

some showing his staff unsure who was responsible for cleaning up the mess. >> all of the people of flint as they work their way through this terrible tragedy, it is a rem d reminder of why you can't shortchange basic services that we provide to our people and that we together provide as a government to make sure that the public health and safety is prereceivered. [ cheers and applause ] >> the president [ inaudible ] assistant sectarian of health and human services to lead the response in dmrint. detroit schools are back open today.

the district asked the courts to intervene and they did. the teachers say their pay is too low, and the buildings are unsafe. diane eastabrook has more. >> reporter: the doors were locked at this learning academy in detroit wednesday. as teachers from that school and 87 others called in sick, so they could march outside the north international auto show where president obama was visiting. this was the teacher's latest effort to draw attention to what they say are impossible working conditions. >> we have overcrowded classes. >> they knew the conditions of the school. they just didn't know we were going to tell on them. >> we're seeing damage from the roof. >> reporter: the american federation of teachers posted this video on youtube showing how rain water damaged a ceiling and caused a floor in one

gymnasium to warp. and the teachers complained about classrooms with too many kids and not enough supplies. the detroit federation of teachers says money problems and a revolving door of district managers are why so many members are so frustrated. the school district is struggling under a more than $500 million deficit caused by a drop in property tax revenue and cuts in state and federal aid. that's why the district has struggled to maintain schools and keep teachers, but the interim president says the district is turning a blind eye to the problems in its schools. >> they need to make education in the city of detroit priority number one. >> reporter: and they haven't done that? >> no. this is not happening to any other school district in the state of michigan. >> reporter: the michigan legislature is creating a plan

that would create a second school district. the governor said the legislature needs to act soon. >> detroit schools are in a crisis. the detroit schools are in need of a transformational change. >> reporter: the emergency manager says if help doesn't come by april, the district will be insolvent. >> we're talking about the lives of some 47,000 students and families and communities. so these things are critical to the long-term survivability of any city or community. so we're at a point now where we believe it can be fixed but we need the legislature to do that. >> reporter: darnell couldn't say what would happen if the state fails to act, but the teachers fear it could mean even fewer teachers and a tougher learning environment for detroit's children.

>> and the union responding to the school districts request to ban the sickouts all together saying: a boston attorney is looking into allegations of sexual assault at a prestigious rhode islander boarding school. not clear what is behind the change. the middleton, rhode island school, acknowledges it did not report those accuses to authorities. in alabama a man is scheduled to be put to death today, using a controversial drug. he will receive a combination of drugs. his attorney arguing that the sedative had been used in problematic executions. this is alabama's first execution since the state added the substance to its lethal injection combination.

a british judge saying that russian president vladimir putin probably has a role in the poisoning of a spy. british police arrested two russian men, both of them former russian agents with living litvinenko poisoned tea. they deny any involvement, and moscow refuses to extradite them. >> i have concluded that there is a strong probability that when mr. litvinenko was poisoned it happened under the direction of the fsb, the federal security service of the russian federation. litvinenko's wife urging the british government to punish russia with sanctions. the british government says it will freeze the assets of the

suspects in his death. and al jazeera is calling for the release of its correspondent who has been missing for two days covering intense fighting in the yemeni city of ta'izz. when we come back, sad news for "star wars" fans. why they may have to wait even longer for the next installment of the series. and the lasting effects of climate change.

new evidence today that climate change is real. government scientists fining that 2015 was the warmest year yet on record. jake ward has more on the extreme weather expected if the planet continues to warm. >> reporter: millions of acres of forest land burned to a crisp. rain so severe, bridges and roads were washed away. billions of dollars in damage. these are just a few of the effects of strange and severe weather in the u.s. and around the world last year. >> 2015 was the warmest year on record by a sizable amount. >> reporter: 2015 set a terrible

new standard for the planet, shattering records. warmer even than 2014, which had been the hottest year on record. >> if you -- look at the surface temperature record, you notice that 15 of the 16 warmest years have all occurred since 2000. this tells you something is happening. it tells you the climate is warming, and this is due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. >> reporter: the united states was hittest officially hard, according to noaa, 2015 was the country's second warmest year, and third wettest since record began in 1865. hotter temperatures are also causing havoc around the world. last year a hurricane strength storm made landfall in yemen, the first in recorded history.

india saw temperatures across 118 degrees fahrenheit. >> when you go back and study the climate of the earth as i have, you see that at certain times it was colder, and at other times it was not as warm, but we are at one of the warmest periods for the past one or two million years right now. >> reporter: el nino may be partly to blame for balmy temperatures in december. >> it definitely effects weather patterns globally through more extreme weather events. as the atmosphere warms, the atmosphere holds more water vapor, this is why we're seeing a greater frequency of heavier rains and heavier snowfall. the cats are back on

broadway that is. cats returns to the stage on august 2nd. the first run was 18 years. it went dark in september of 2000. cats winning seven tony awards. it is based on the book written by tsel -- ts elliot. and disney announcing that episode will be released in 2018, not 2017 as previously planned. it is the third biggest global release in history, taking in nearly $2 billion so far, and still counting. thanks for joining us. i'm del walters in new york. the news continues live from london next. and check us out 24 hours a day on our website, aljazeera.com.

♪ alexander litvinenko's widow urges britain to impose sanctions on russia, after an inquiry concluded that vladimir putin probably ordered the former spy's murder. ♪ hello there, i'm felicity barr. this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up, the child soldier turned uganda rebel commander appears before the international criminal court. a police officer is killed in tunisia, as protests over mass unemployment spread. and reading between the lines, the new book which unravels the