>> reporter: it is a slightly different scene that greats this team of adventurers, 85 years on. caroline malone, al jazeera, doha. much more on that and everything we have been covering on the website, aljazeera.com. this is the start of a longer-term process to make sure we are committed to flint. rick snyder undepressure as about vittses file a lawsuit over the city's water crisis. or or occupation, the leader of the wildlife center is now in custody. >> i won't be doing the debate. >> reporter: donald trump pulls out of the final faceoff ahead of the iowa caucuses.

and the zika virus is found in another u.s. state. ♪ this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm richelle carey. michigan officials are promising more action today to ensure that all michigan residents have clean water. this comes after activists filed a lawsuit. they are asking a federal judge to demand the replacement of all lead pipes in the city's water system without charging the residents. flint's major and michigan's governor said they will try to make that happen. >> i have told the governor side -- that the residents

should not have to pay for the water. >> this is about continuing to take action, though. now is the time to act to do things to help the people of flint address the damage that has been done, both in the short-term, the intermediate term, and long term, and i'm committing to getting that done. >> reporter: he also promised an expert xheet tee to come up with a long term solution. he also said the city wants to expand medicare so all children in the city can get medical coverage. police in oregon have set up a roadblock around an oregon wildlife center. last night the leader was arrested along with seven others. john henry smith has the later. >> reporter: authorities have released few details about the confrontation that began with a traffic stop. the fbi and state police stopped

vehicles carrying several of the protesters about 20 miles north of the wildlife center they have been occupying for almost a month. it ended with a shootout and several members of the movement arrested including the leader, his brother was shot and injured. family members say that the group's spokesman was shot dead. he was a rancher who had taken on the role of speaking for the group. >> tell them to come and serve the warrant right here. >> reporter: he put up numerous videos on his youtube page and talked about the occupation earlier this month with our allen schauffler. >> this grievance is widespread throughout the west. >> reporter: the armed protester, seized the wildlife refuge on january 2nd, demanding federal lands be turned back over to local ranchers, as word spread about the shootout and the arrest, those still in the

compound went online, calling for reinforcements. aman bundy had been talking with the fbi over the past few days. it is believed the men were heading for a community forum when they were arrested. >> a retired fbi agent spoke with al jazeera this morning. he says what happened was inevitable. >> any time you have a standoff like this, ultimately you want it to end peacefully. my guess is they were waiting for them to make a move away from the refuge where they would get better opportunity to make arrests without putting anyone in danger. so they probably waited for this time to make -- to use this opportunity. >> despite calls from inside the compound, lanza says he doesn't think things will escalate, and he says that is not in the interest of the protesters or

the government. the fbi has arrested an milwaukee man, who they say was planning to kill dozens of people in milwaukee. he was arrested monday after buying machine guns from undercover age engineers. coworkers say he was let go after he was allegedly aggressive towards clients and disparaging towards america. >> that shot up a huge red flag. and he was all out about how terrible the government we have, yet he lives in the america. >> reporter: he fbi said he told informants he wanted his attack to be known the world over and ignite broader clashes. officials have upped the reward for the arrest of three

escaped men. in cleveland, six police officers are out of a job today for their role in a police chase. the chase in 2012 ended in a hail of bullets with an unarmed couple dead. it also lead into a federal investigation. only one of the officers was criminally charged and he was later acquitted. police in seattle are trying to find those responsible for a shooting at a homeless camp. our correspondent reports that it is the latest trouble as the city tries to deal with the growing problem. >> reporter: the victims of tuesday's night shooting lived at a camp known locally as the jungle. >> we have at least two persons of interest. we believe this was a targeted incident. >> reporter: the shooting comes at a time when several cities are grappling with how to combat homelessness. while the national homelessness rate is declining. seattles has risen sharply.

king county saw a 21% increase in its homeless population over the year before. the mayor and executive declared a state of emergency pledging more than $7 million to address the crisis. >> we are involved in a homeless crisis, the like that we have not seen since the great depression. the executive order was not a gimmick. it was an actual plea that seattle by ourselves cannot deal with this crisis. it was an actual plea to the state and fed rool government to assist us. >> reporter: the major has been criticized by the homeless and their allies for shutting down unauthorized camps without notice, despite the lack of shelter beds. but he says a lack of mental health care funding and a national heroin epidemic has been aggravating the problem. turning to politics and the presidential race, this afternoon, at least one of his fellow candidates is criticizing

trump's decision to skip tomorrow's debate over a fight with fox news anchor megyn kelly. >> we'll do something where we raise money for the veterans and the wounded warriors. let's see how much money fox is going to make on the debate without me. >> reporter: they sparred in a depete last year, when the fox moderator questioned trump about his comments about women. republican rival ted cruz is now challenging trump to a one on one debate with him any time before the caucuses on monday. no comment so far from trump on that challenge. >> reporter: the latest poll numbers still give trump the edge. 37% of voters back him in the abc news "washington post" survey. ted cruz is second, marco rubio is a disimportant third. abortion is once again proving to be a major issue this election season. carly fiorina said she would not give a dime to planned

parenthood. that comes amist controversy, accusing the group of making money from the sale of aborted fetuses. ray, what do you have? >> richelle you may recall earlier in the campaign season, carly fiorina made a big splash when she during one of the candidate's debates gave an impassioned rejection of the use of fetal tissues, of the methods of acquiring them, and their use in research. it propelled her for a time to the top rank of the polls, but we found out some things about her service as a board member on a pharmaceutical giant that was using those same stem cells derived from fetal tissue.

>> so ray, tell us more about this exclusive report. i know you are going to have it tonight on "inside story." >> well, as a board member who was receiving a salary for guiding the corporation, she stood in line to derive some n den -- benefit from the production of vaccines from these stem cell lines. this is somewhat in contrast to her impassioned statements on the campaign trail and her consistent, one would say, solid defense of those now found to be doctored and now questionably legal videos made earlier in the year. these tissues are the subject of a lot of controversy on the campaign trail because they are sort of the inner game of the abortion debate. it is merely an argument about whether or not pregnancies can be legally terminated?

or are there other questions about research and development using fetal tissues. how are these tissues acquired? what is the illicit use of them? we have been trying to get a statement from the carly fiorina campaign. it was no secret that this research was going on during her time as a board member, and it was no secret that anti-abortion groups around the united states opposed the continuation of that research while carly fiorina was a board member. >> okay. this is going to be an interesting report tonight on "inside story" with ray suarez. be sure to watch it tonight at 6:30 eastern. haye, thank you. on the democratic side, bernie sanders met with president obama. he was seen arriving about an hour ago for this private

meeting. on tuesday sanders blocked the president's latest appointment to the fda. >> in my mind, we will win here in iowa if the voter turnout is high. [ cheers ] >> reporter: hillary clinton has also been courting voters in this iowa. today she holds a get out the vote event. defeating isil in libya, how the u.s. plans to stop the group's growing influence there. and concerns over the unchecked spread of the zika virus. president obama is among those calling for more research.

the french justice minister has quit over a new measure aimed at stripping people convicted of terrorism of their citizenship. she is among several figures on the left who call the proposals discriminatory. it was put forward in the wake of the november attacks that killed 130 people. in denmark there is criticism over a new law designed to make the country less attractive to refugees and asylum seekers. the law forces migrants to hand over valuables when they enter the country. it also delays family reunifications. danish officials say they need the valuables to offset the cost of handling the migrants. they argument the nation has already done enough to help the immigration crisis. danish officials say the only way to stop the crisis is to end syria's civil war.

but peace talks scheduled to begin on friday are now in jeopardy. >> reporter: the turkish authorities have long let it be known that they are opposed to the pyd being involved in these talks in this syria. however, on the ground in syria, the ypg is the most effective fighting force. the u.s., the united states, particularly, has been working with them for a long time, supplying them with small arms, supplying them with logistical assistance to help fight isil. so the ypg was expecting and wanting some sort of representation at these talks. russian foreign minister sergei lavrov has already said that we cannot achieve the results we want, a definitive political resolution in syria in if the pyd is excluded. and the leader of the pyd he has

always said we expect to be invited. he hasn't received an invite yet, and they represent a large section of syrian society. there are a lot of syrian kurds living in the country, and he says we should be represented around those tables, and if we're not, then these geneva 3 talks could fail he suspects like the geneva 2 talks that failed, because he says not every -- every aspect of syrian society was represented around the table. >> bernie sanders reporting there. the united nations has not yet revealed a full list of who will attend the talks. the u.n. envoy to libya warned that the political process is taking too long and that is allowing further expansion of isil. that concern has the u.s. and itself allies looking at expanding their military campaign against isil to include libya. jamie mcintyre joins us live at the pentagon.

so jamie what are military officials saying? >> reporter: well, richelle there is a growing consensus here that the war against isil can't just be about iraq and syria, and the pentagon have been looking at concern at what has been going on in libya, where isil has been spreading its influence, in fact controlling a big chunk of the coastline there. the u.s. has already stepped up surveillance flights over libya to look fortargets, and the big push is to work with the allies to come up with a coordinated campaign. they are talking about the same kind of thing that is going on in iraq and syria, and that is targeting isil leadership, as well as targeted commandos that

would go in to libya. i'm told by pentagon officials, that the u.s. really wants this to be a nato lead-allied operation, not something that the u.s. is doing all of the heavy lifting. one of the things that secretary carter has conceded over the past couple of weeks is that while this coalition has more than 60 nations involved really only a handful are doing the heavy lifting in the fight. >> how would this be different from what they are already doing, jamie? >> well, they have already conducted some strikes in libya. they conducted an air strike to take out one of the isil leaders. they bombed fuel trucks as they continued to try to hit isil and cut off its stream of finances from oil revenue. but this would be a stepped up campaign, something more on the

order of what we see in iraq and syria, where there are daily air strikes, a more coordinated effort on the ground, and some confirmation of actually going on the ground. it's a complicated situation in libya. there is no functioning government there, and there are warring factions fighting each other, but there is a growing concern that that is where they need to take the battle next. >> so this is the question a lot of americans would have, would this involve deploying more troops to the region? >> reporter: possibly, but not necessarily. there are already special operation forces in iraq. they could also be used for operations in libya, and of course, the u.s. already has considerable air power, conducting air strikes there, so they could use the same assets, but secretary ash carter has not ruled out additional u.s.

military personnel in a support role. he just doesn't want them in a direct combat role. the kinds of operations they are talking about is in and out commando raids. richelle. >> all right. jamie thank you. president obama is joining the calls for a bigger public health response to fight the zika virus. this virus transmitted by mosquitos is spreading across central and south america, and many doctors fear it is now headed to the u.s. >> reporter: the centers for disease control and press release prevention confirmed that residents of virginia and arkansas tested positive for the zika virus. it is spread through mosquito bites not person to person contact. it fist appeared in the americas

in 2014 and has spread to 20 countries. the cdc has urged pregnant women or women who may become pregnant not to travel to 24 locations. >> laboratory confirms we only have a handful of cases, but of course the huge increase of zika, and the rise of zika cases gives a lot of reason for concern, and now the big task is to try to establish the link here. >> reporter: the world health organization said it suspects there is a link between the zika virus in brazil, and microcephaly. but so far the evidence is circumstantial. other countries that have had outbreaks have not reported cases of microcephaly. in brazil, workers fumigated

rio's dome, where the up coming carnival will be held. >> translator: you could have the start of an epidemic in this place. >> reporter: puerto rico's health secretary confirmed 18 new cases of the zika virus. the majority of the cases are in the southeast of the island. united airlines and latin america's largest airlines say they will wave cancellation or flight change fees for people who want to change their trip to inverdicted areas. >> i think we'll probably have small, shall we say splurges or clusters, but beyond that i'm pretty confident that we will not have wide-spread zika virus.

>> reporter: it's hard to spot, only one in five victims actually develop symptoms. >> there is no treatment for this virus. we can't give you a drug to cure you, and there's no vaccine yet, so the whole trick is to stay away from infected mosquitos. >> reporter: health officials expect the virus to spread to every country in north and south america except canada and chile. doping in major league sports, baseball and profootball, start looking into illegal athletes after an al jazeera investigation. and uber goes high stech to monitor its drivers.

the nfl is investigating one of this year's super bowl quarterbacks. they say they are doing a comprehensive review over whether peyton manning used human growth substances. he denies using hgh, results are not expected to be known before the super bowl. major league baseball is asking for help its doping investigations. the same al jazeera documentary quoted a former medical clinic employee who says he provided the banned substances to current and former mlb players.

he is now denying those statements. >> reporter: this youtube video pokes fun at a make believe uber driver. uber is now running a pilot program, measuring small movements on a driver's phone. they are trying to see if drivers are speeding and braking too fast. the company cites 10,000 deaths related to speeding in 2012 in the u.s. the measure could generate complaints from drivers themselves worriedover being tracked, but uber likely has the right to monitor those working for the service. >> and they are not going to hand out tickets, and they are

not going to take them to court or throw them in jail, but they can decide whether somebody who is providing a service under their name to their customers, is adhering to the law. >> reporter: critics say the technology could be an added stress for drivers. >> it's yet another distraction where you have to think about how fast you are going, and how hard you are braking, when you should really be thinking about what is in front of you, and keeping everyone safe. >> reporter: if transportation companies already track their employees movements including delivery firms like ups. it's not clear if any of them the device to evaluate safety on the road. thank you for joining us. i'm richelle carey. the news continues next live from london. keep it here on al jazeera america. ♪

>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello there, i'm barbara sarah. thank you for joining us. coming up in the next 60 minutes, syrian factions arrive in switzerland ahead of talks scheduled for friday, but there are serious divisions over who should take part. after fatal shootout the fbi sends reinforcements to confront members of an armed militia in oregon. struggling to survive in one of the world's richest countries, we have a special report on the