al jazeera's jacob ward explains. >> you can't say we didn't see it coming.at the end of 2015, just five-inches of rain turned this drought baked california hillside into a disaster. now that el niÑo's rains have arrived, the risk to california is clear. >> take those small events and have it rain longer over a large area and that gives you an image of how things could go badly. >> geologist jeff mount is an expert on california's rivers and water supply. >> we are not ready as a state for the very large floods. >> to keep floodwaters under control, california has over 13,000 miles of levees, which have been called a mess, a katrina type disaster poised to flood california. >> there's two kinds of levees, those that have failed and those that will fail. eventually, your levee system will be overwhelmed, and so the question we always have every year, is this the year. is this the year that the levee system somewhere is overwhelmed. >> the california delta encompasses 1,000 miles of waterways, it is home to thousands of people and the state capital. mike is an

at al jazeera's jacob ward tells us, you could see it in bad weather worldwide. >> millions of acres of forest land burned to a crisp, rains 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. >> the 2015 was the warmest year on record, by a sizeable amount. >> 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, which goes back to 1880, you notice that 15 of the 16 warmest years have all occurred since 2000. this tells you something's happening. it tells you the climate is warming and this is due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. >> the united states was hit especially hard. according to nooa, 2015 was the country's second warmest year and third wettest year since record keeping began in 1865. hotter temperatures are causing havoc around the world. last year, a cyclone was the first hurricane str

jacob ward, al jazeera, trance. >> the last kuwaiti prisoner at the guantanamo bay prison is back athome. held without charge for 14 years, probably served as osama bin laden's spiritual advisor. he has denied the recruitment campaign and says he never committed any terrorist action. president obama says he wants to close the facility before he leaves office. >>> the mothers of the so-called influenzaffluenza teen, p stilln al jazeera america. >> looking at women voters as a monolithic block is really dangerous. >> kylhillary clinton,. >>> new ge geological era creatd by human beings. when you're on hold, your business is on hold. that's why comcast business doesn't leave you there. when you call, a small business expert will answer you in about 30 seconds. no annoying hold music. just a real person, real fast. whenever you need them. so your business can get back to business. sounds like my ride's ready. don't get stuck on hold. reach an expert fast. comcast business. built for business. >> governor of maine gave an apology of sorts for making a comment about his state's growing her

. >> that's jacob ward reporting from san francisco, and what the academy plans to do about its racialdivide. >> so hollywood has a diversity when it comes to nominations. all 20 of the categories, lack of a minority nominee. and some of the biggest and brightest are speaking out. will smith and his wife, jada pinkett smith, are announcing theiring intentions to stay away from the february award ceremony. >> the academy reflects the industry, in hollywood, and the industry reflects america. there's a regressive slide toward separatetism, toward racial and religious disharm knee. and that's not the hollywood that i want to leave behind. >> wow, joining me now, lola oginaki, cultural entertainment. and lee hawkins for the wall street journal. good to see you. we were together over the summer, right. >> yes. >> let me start with you, that's will smith's critique of hollywood, and what's your critique? >> there's definitely a diversity problem, and as spike lee said and as i've said in covering this industry, it has a lot to do with the fact that african-americans are not gate keepers and

jacob ward joins us from france, and you said it before, dried out land can cause mudslides and even worse, and is this what it's all about? >> that's the issue here, there's this tension, and we're all incredibly grateful for the rain that has begun to pound california this week. we need that rain, and at the same time, it's a system that we're not prepared for it when it comes to our infrastructure, and there's a question, why weren't we better prepared for these rains? you can't say we didn't see it coming. at the end of 2015, just 5 inches of rain turned this drought baked california hillside into a disaster. and now that el nino's rains seemed to have arrived, the risk to california is clear. >> take those small events, and have it rain longer over a large area, and it will give you an image of how things could go badly. >> reporter: geologist, jeff mount is an expert on california's river supply. >> we're not ready as a state for large floods. >> reporter: to keep it under control, california has 13,000 miles of levees, which are a mess, katrina type disaster. >> there are leve

also being sworn in tonight - - city councilmen bruce jacobs of ward 2 and jerome amos junior of ward 4. coming up... what's behind today's drop in all major united states and... find out why chemistry text books are now out of date that's coming up in just a few minutes. here's a live look at the storm track 7 live doppler radar. chief meteorologist mark schnackenberg has your full forecast next. and when you see news - or if you have pictures or video to share... you can do that by going to our page stay up to date on breaking news and weather information. "you're watching kwwl. we've got you covered. with ron --------- "now your storm track 7 through wednesday morning. tracking the potential of a light rain/snow mix wednesday afternoon into thursday. there is a little better chance of rain/snow friday. friday night turns colder and any precipitation would be in the for of snow at this point and continue into saturday as the the big story for the weekend and early next week is the cold. this will be the coldest air of the season with highs near 10 and lows below zero for the first t

al jazeera's jacob ward explains. >> you can't say we didn't see it coming.t the end of 2015, just five-inches of rain turned this drought baked california hillside into a disaster. now that el niÑo's rains have arrived, the risk to california is clear. >> take those small events and have it rain longer over a large area and that gives you an image of how things could go badly. >> geologist jeff mount is an expert on california's rivers and water supply. >> we are not ready as a state for the very large floods. >> california has over 13,000 miles of levees, which have been called a mess, a katrina type disaster poised to flood california. >> there's two kinds of levees, those that have failed and those that will fail. eventually, your levee system will be overwhelmed so the question we always have every year, is this the year. is this the year that the levee system somewhere is overwhelmed. >> encompassing 1,000 miles of waterways, it is home to thousands of people and the state capital. mike is an engineer with the california department of water resources. h

al jazeera's jacob ward has more on the extreme weather expected if the planet continues to get warmerlions 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 effect of strange and severe weather in the u.s. and around the world last year. >>> 2015 was the warmest year on record by a sizeable amount. >> 2015 set a terrible new standard for the planet, shatters records, warmer than 2014 which had been the hottest year on record. >> if you go back to 1880, you notice that 15 of the 16 warmest have all occurred since 2000. this tells you something's happening. it tells you the climate is warming and this is due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. >> the united states was hit especially hard. according to nooa, it was at the third wettest year since record keeping began. hotter temperatures are causing havoc around the world. last year, the first hurricane made landfall in yemen. there was a heatwave that saw temperatures above 48 degrees celsius or 118 degrees fahre

. >> jacob ward in san francisco, and a disturbing warning about the oceans.they're filling up with classic, and soon there may be more plastic than fish. >> reporter: researchers working for the world economic forum say about 8 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year. that's about one garbage load of waste every minute, and by 2050, there may be more classic in the ocean than fish. >> from whales being entangled. and dolphins, turtles, et are a, being choked and brown. >> reporter: he has long warned about the effects of plastic pollution. >> we have to stop the mess. beach cleanups are essential, but until we stop creating the mess in the first place, we're going to be picking up other people's garage. >> reporter: conserveties have been talking about it for years. debris collected from the water, and some like microplastics, smaller than a fingernail, are difficult to cleanup. >> i found it in a 5 minute search. >> but more plastics were being made and dumped every year, and production of the material is expected to double over the next two

has formally recognized elements 113, 115, 118, more now from our science and technology editor jacob ward. are. >> this is a pretty elemental place, earth air and sort of the fundamental stuff life. well, a chemist looking at this environment sees a complicated imings of the true elements the parts of the periodic table. now the periodic table is essentially a list of those elements and the study of chemistry is the study of how those elements come together to form the kind of stuff you see all around me. hydrogen and oxygen come together to form water. by the 1970s, we have encountered things that are on earth, like gold and helium and iron. but the kinds of elements that we would not be able to otherwise see ourselves. creating nuclear weaponry was creating conditions inside a star, creating ploo plutonium, yoournuranium, and these four nw elements are very unusual. first of all they live very temporary and violent lives. they last for seconds at a time. and they really only ever occur inside distant stars, stars that doesn't even take place inside our solar system. they are not used fo

jacob ward >>> so who wants to be a billionaire or close to it? well, prepare to get in a long line if you live here as the power ball jackpot is topping over 800 million dollars. it won't make you as rich as jordan. 800 million would put you ahead of tieger woods. it will give you a pretax net worth beyond the all time richest n.f.l. footballer who is worth 600 million. a dozen rare 1894 dimes, or one of them was sold for just under two million dollars. it is one of 24 minuted. the buyer i can't say anonymous. only nine other coins are believed to exist. i'm david shuster. thanks for thanks for >> david, thank you. we begin with an ambush on a police officer. an execution attempt on behalf of i.s.i.l. he pledged his allegiance to i.s.i.l, what he did why he did it. john terret is here. john. >> police in philadelphia says it's a miracle that the officer survived the ambush, callings his actions a true testament to his bravery in what they said was a chilling attack. surveillance video captured the attack. a man in a

. >> and jacob ward in the last search years there are some americans who don't think we're out of aecession. if you went into this recession with credit and with assets, this may have been one of the best seven-year periods you've seen in a long time. i'm looking forward to more conversation with you. many of you in philadelphia, where i spend half my time, the current economic conditions are not great for everyone. sara hoyt has spent a lot of time living and reporting in philadelphia. sara, philly is one of the nation's largest cities. tell us what income inequality looks like in a city like that, a city that is quite bifurcated. >> as you heard between you and jake the devil is in the details. here the latinos have the highest rate of poverty. that group is followed by asians, blacks and followed by whites. while there may be some up ticks in the numbers, here it is felt hard, fast and deep. >> yes, so latinos may have the highest rate of poverty in philly, put it is not the only story when it comes to poverty. tell us more about that. >> so the other story we want to talk about