. >>> tom ackerman is in washington for us and has more on the proposed changes. >> while did he not go into very many specifics other than to say he was confident that the executive authority he would be exercising was certainly within his boundaries, despite the oaks of many republicans who say that what he is doing is extra-constitutional and that ultimately he will be overthrown in the courts. what obama said was that even though this is not exactly the optimum that he can expect it was what he felt he must do. >> u.s. justice department is suing, violations of the clean air act. last september vw's admitted to fitting so-called defeat devices in 11 million cars. the company could face fines exceeding $90 billion in the

al jazeera's tom ackerman reports from texas where the boom times are now bust. >> pleasanton, texas, likes to call itself the birthplace of the cowboy. but instead of cattle it's oil that accounts for the town heirs fortunes in recent years. >> it has given our communities and the same thing goes for our county the chance to advance a lot of programs in things that they're wanting to do. >> the prayerly landscape across south texas is dotted with new oil wells. thanks to dramatic advances in the trialing technology known as hydraulic fracturing. that development has made the u.s. the world's biggest producer of crude. but in some ways it's proven too much of a good thing. the more mercury the owe baby countries and others add to the global surplus the less each barrel is worth. >> collectively it would make sense to ratchet back production a bit. individually and that's the calculous in each country or energy companies is making, if it makes sense individually for them to to produce. so that's what we're seeing. >> as a result some drillers who depended on high oil prices to fund the

we'll hear from tom ackerman on the effect of the recent volatility in yil production -- oil production. >>> 70 years ago this was the king's first trip outside his country, forming an alliance with u.s. president franklin roosevelt. . >> movie reel: understanding each other's problems brings east and west together. >> i think we signed a bargain with the saudis, in exchange for stable supplies of oil and that continued until this day. >> reporter: when o.p.e.c. imposed an embargo triggered by the 1973 arab-israeli law, the u.s. launched project independence. >> by the end of this decade, americans will not have to rely on any source of energy beyond our own. >> reporter: what happened instead, the u.s. increased reliance on foreign oil to a peak of 60%. in the past few years the explosion of american crude

tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. >>> a landslide and sinkhole has shut down u.s. 101 in oregon. the landslide occurred about 50 feet away from the sinkhole after a storm dumped an inch and a half of rain in the area. repairs are suspected to take about a week. >>> finally, a very unexpected guest. to explain, when a player is about to run a free throw, last night it was michael phelps, winning his gold medals and hid speedo. it worked. add another talent to michael phelps resume. ray suarez is up next with "inside story." have a great weekend.

tom ackerman, al jazeera knox's snow covered streets. will they be able to make it to work on monday? >> they are sure hoping so. the city and the state here of new york officials are trying to get this city back on its feet after this historic snowfall. you know a lot of times people say that was the storm of the century. this actually really was one of the storms of the century if not the storm of the century. 26.8 inches of snow fell in central park, second biggest snowfall since 1869 the city is starting to get out. you can see some trucks with snow plows trying to clear the roads here 7th avenue and 33rd street, the heart of mid town, penn station, one of the busiest in new york if not anywhere in america. they did lift the travel ban. as you can see right now from this shot, things are getting back to normal in new york taxis and what else? traffic. there was this total travel ban. the subway system is starting to get online again. buses are going as well. officials are looking at two things right now. one is neighboring new jersey

tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. >> the u.n., polls showing bernie sanders running neck and neck in hillary clinton in the rates for the democratic presidential no, ma'am nails. sander's brand of socialist is surprising. john hendren reports. >> reporter: the time-worn realtyims of american politics are it changing. for the first time in u.s. history, american socialists have a "star-telegram" standard bearer. we need an economy that works for working people. >> a major candidate for president. >> if it takes a socialist to show us the way, a democratic social accident to show us the way, then god bless him. >> the system hasn't worked for a very long time. for me, it's not so much of a taboo or the "s" word so to speak because i have seen what cam tallism has. >> america's agricultural hartland taj these are signs of new times. >> with iowa preparing for, polls show bernie sanders in a heat or deeding with hillae. i with a could set up an epic rivalry, a socialist versus the ultimate capitalist. >> that's what's happening. >> trump is already tagging sanders with the other c wor

tom ackerman bringing us the latest from washington, d.c. there is more to come for you here on al jazeera. >> how much tax are you going to pay in the u.k.? >> the u.k. gets what it was searching for. google agrees to pay almost $200 million to the tax man, but some say its way too little. >>> and we report from zambia, why children are able to forced into work to help families make a living. >> welcome back. you're watching al jazeera. here's a reminder of the top stories. the u.s. secretary of state john kerry said he's confident talks on syria will go ahead despite on going disagreement over who will represent the opposition. tunisia's prime minister holds a meeting to discuss the wave of protest over unemployment. >>> a state of emergency is in place over parts of united states as a blizzard dumps huge amounts of snow along the east coast. now it's achieved a major success after google offered to pay $185 million in back dated taxes and change how it plates tax in the u.k. it follows anger in the amount of firm was paying despite u.k. b

tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. gabriel is on new york's snow-covered streets. what's the latest on the travel situation there? >> reporter: at the heart of mid town manhattan. a little bit of a seen of what it looks like right now. by penn station, one of the biggest train stations in all of new york, madison square garden. a travel ban has been lifted. as you can start to see taxis, buses are back on the roads again. subway system coming back on line as well much the big problem is the outlying areas. two things, number 1 is states like new jersey, for example, it's still going to be another hour or so until they get their buses, trains, back operating again. that's going to be important as they try to get this city ready for the rush hour coming on monday morning when hundreds of thousands of commuters and people that work in the city try to use public transportation to get in here number 1, trying to get the basic public transportation back up and running, which they are doing slowly. the second thing is the airports, more than 10,000 flights have been cance

. >> i'm tom ackerman in the state of texas where oil production is going strong but only compounding the global collapse of crude prices. >> worldwide gap between poor and rich is getting wider. 62 of the richest billionaires own half of the world's wealth. public investment would help to narrow the gap but only if the wealthy decided to pay more taxes. it's a rough start in the week the week of investment. the losses in japan followed the worst two-week start of the year on record that volatility expected to continue this week over concerns of falling oil prices and chinese democratic data and the u.s. markets are closed for the martin luther king. the break coming after the dow posted it's worst two-week start ever. wall street lost more than 3 trillion-dollar during that slide. crude prices are down trading at $27 a barrel the lowest since 2003. the investmen investors are worried about iran's return to the policy market. the sanctions did cut iran's export by 2 million barrels a day. now iran says it will retake its market share, increasing market share by 500 million barrels a d

. >> well, let's go to tom ackerman who has been following the story. they seem to be saying that the method of getting out of there is through these roadblocks. if they want to come out they can come out safely. they'll be identified. the intent is to keep from adding sympathizers. the last couple of days they've seen a procession of people from all over the u.s. west trying to join the group inside. and that further complicated the situation. the governor of oregon had urged the federal authorities to put an end to this. it had been lasting 26 days. and so the roadblocks that are set up here are really intended to--to end the situation peacefully. now, what happened yesterday on tuesday was according to eyewitnesses was that the two cars carrying these leaders of the group had been stopped by february and state police on the road. one group surgeoned peacefully, and the other one apparently gave just--let off and the authorities gave chase after about a kilometer or so. the car wound up in a snow bank, and according to one of the members of the occupa

tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. >>> a plaque honoring the people killed in attacks in paris a year ago has been unveiled by the french president and francois hollande led that ceremony and 20 were killed after a gunman opened fire on the magazine charlie hebdo and a kosher supermarket and four cartoonists working for the magazine were killed and heavy security is in place. still to come on al jazeera we will take you to the scene of that standoff in the u.s. state of oregon where protesters are still held up in a federal building plus. >>> for the first time in 16 years the opposition has managed to gain control of the national assembly. i'm lopez and come to venezuela and how people are reacting to this change. ♪ >> my story is so many peoples' story. >> that could decide the election. >> it can be different. >> "inside story" takes you beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the soundbites. we're giving you a deeper dive into the stories that are making our world what it is. ♪ the headlines on al jazeera the syrian opposition has given a list of demands ahead of u

., from there al jazeera's tom ackerman joins us live now and what is the prognosis after the storm? >> well, they really are prepared to first of all here in washington you've got the entire metro subway system locked down. this is i believe the third, only the third time in its 45-year history it has been completely shut down for an entire weekend and that was thanks to the advanced notice that was given to the authorities here. what the other concern here is ice, not just the snow but the ice that will accumulate on power lines. so far we have heard about 150,000 households, mostly in the carolinas that are without power but we expect that number to rise as the ice begins to accumulate and we should and some of those outages can last weeks as we have experienced in previous incidents events such as these. there is also the potential of flooding along the atlantic coast especially in new jersey which of course is very wary since the super storm sandy and this doesn't approach that kind of fierceness but nevertheless the authorities are taking all precautions and along that coast in

with that respect i think we can say so far so good. >> tom ackerman, thank you very much, indeed. joining us live from brooklyn is andrew friedman. thank you for being with us. talk us through the science of why this storm is so huge and so dangerous. >> yes this storm is so huge, there is a piece of energy deep dipped in the jet stream that is carved out of this trough in the jet stream. all the way down to the gulf of mexico we had snowflakes, in the florida panhandle, seven inches of snow in georgia, places where you don't often get snow. and then this very mild atlantic fish and water from the atlantic, and it's throwing a huge amounts of moisture pumping it into cold air that has been in place over the new york city corridor, which is highly populated. >> so are the worst areas likely to be places where the power has been out for long periods of time? what are the consequences, do you think? i think we lost our guest there. that's a shame. andrew, if you can still hear us thank you for talking with us. >> four people have been killed in canada's worst school shooting in decad

tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. >> speak to gabe agree yell in new york. this storm driver's license go over a large swath of the east coast. whi are the worst-hit areas? >>. >> reporter: they are sorting out how bid the storm was. governmentsats one point declared a state of emergency. right now, there is still a lot of problems that people are dealing with. particularly, people woudz power, about 70,000 people without power, 50,000 north carolina which is hit very hard, about 20,000 still in neighboring in general. pennsylvania also a neighbor. many high ways there that are closed and as of this, you know, last few hours, overnight, there were more than 500 vehicles that were trapped on some highways there. also airports, all the way up the eastern see ports. dulles international airport in washington, d.c. has not resumed normal operations yet. flights are cancelled there. here in new york, j.f.k. the government in new york says most likely the vast majority of flights will be cancelled here in new york here today on sunday as well. some airlines are sa

tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. >> scientists have revealed the 9th planet in our solar system, no not pluto. scientists say it has not been observed directly. coming up in 20 minutes we'll speak to a writer from space.com about what this means for the solar system. >>> zimbabwe's court has outlawed child brides. struck down the law allowing girls to marry at 16. activists say nearly a third of girls in disma zimbabwe get mard before the age of 16. some as early as 12. >>> in today's off the radar segment, haru mutasa describes why not everyone welcomes the chance to learn. >> welcome to a mandarin chinese class in south africa. these children are learning one of china's popular languages. ♪ ♪ >> what is this all about? >> it's about three little kittens. they're singing together and they're walking together. >> but these seven-year-olds admit it's not as easy as it seems. >> then you're going to say, because it's not the right term. >> the government is piloting the project in at least 30 schools in the province. >> children are like sponges, they can absorb, the beth part

tom ackerman has more. >> reporter: the sun was out again on sunday. and so were lots of people looking for help to dig their cars out of mountains of snow. >> anybody stuck, anybody trying to get out, some people have patience, some people don't have patience. but when you go through a neighborhood, you see everybody coming outside clapping. >> reporter: new york city lifted a one-day ban on all vehicle traffic. imposed so that thousands of workers could clear away a near record amount of snow. it was new york's second largest blizzard in the past 150 years. baltimore broke its record 75 centimeters. >> all it takes is one car to get stuck and now that road is not possible. pass passible and the plows can't plow the road and the situation quickly descends in to chaos. >> reporter: for some of new york's homeless the city's designated shelters norm at haven. >> and i had to spends most of my time downstairs in penn station due to the cold. >> reporter: more than 11,000 flights across the u.s. have been dan second since friday. while new york's airports

let's go to tom ackerman in washington. what more did obama say about this? >> reporter: well, he did not go into very much specifics other than to say he was confident that the executive authority he would be exercising was certainly within his legal boundaries. despite the objection he of many republicans, who say that he is -- what he's done is extra-constitutional and that ultimately he will be overthrown in the courts. what obama said was that even though this is not exactly the optimum that he can expect it was what he felt he must do. >> although we have to be very clear that this is not going to solve every violent crime in this country, it is not going to prevent every mass shooting, it's not going to keep every gun out of the hands of a criminal, it will eentially save lives in this country. and spare families the pain and the scroor are extraordinary lot they suffer. >> how might these measures beinbelimited as they are? >> that's just it. they are limited. we don't know exactly the specifics but some indications are this would more narrowly explai

tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington >>> time for an update on the weather in the u.s. with everton. it looks pretty from doha, obviously, but it's all over knew. -- now. >> it is, from this event. the worse is over. we'll see coastal flooding over the next day or so, still concerns, and it will be a week before we see milder air coming in. no sign of a quick thaw coming in. the price of the snowiest level zones to glengarry in west virginia, with over a meter of snow in 24 hours. and in new york where we have 58 centimetres of snow. the second snowfall event since records in 1869. a huge system this. you can see the area of cloud and snow pulling away. we can expect sun shine as we go on through the next day or two. something of a respite. notice how tightly packed the isobars are off the east coast. that is indicative of strong winds. the wind will be a feature for 24 hours for cox. we have seen -- for some. we see the wind getting in. from marylands to massachusetts and behind are beyond. the wind is a feature. we go through sunday. bright skies. crisp sunshine, no s

tom ackerman reports. >> pleasanton texas likes to consider itself the birth place of the cowboy. but oil has given the town its riches over the years. >> it's given the chance to kind of advance a lot of programs and things that they were wanting to do. >> the prairie landscape across south texas is dotted with new oil wells thanks to dramatic advances in the drilling technology known as hydraulic fracturing. that development has made the u.s. the biggest producer of crude. but in some ways it's proven too much of a good thing. but the more america and opec add to the global surplus the less each barely i barrel it is. >> it would make sense to ratchet back production but individually and that's calculus, each country or energy company is making, it makes sense individually for them to continue to produce. so that's what we're seeing. >> as a result some drillers who depended on high oil prices to fund their heavy operating expenses are being driven into bankruptcy. and texas has begun to brace for the down side of a traditional cycle. oil boom to bust. job growth in texas a cons

tom ackerman. >> australia is well known for sun, surf and sand lifestyle. it's that over exposure to the sun's harsh rays that's driving up the rate of skin cancer. scientists are taking the fight against deadly melanoma's into the digital age. when doctors look at a scene like this, they see the creation of cancer, more common in australia and new zealand, sunny places with lots of fair-skinned people than anywhere else. today action bethany carries avoids the beach. she sits in the shade and always wears a hat and applies cream. but she didn't when she was younger and at 19, bethany was diagnosed with a malignant m melanoma on her arm? >> sometimes i think i am going out for coffee. i won't be in the sun that long. before you know it, you have been sitting in the sum for a few hours and you have gotten quite burnt. >> technology to protect people from accidental lung exposure to the sun what engineers working at melbourne university. the engineers are creating thin, transparent, wearable patches. >> silicon, the material from your contact lenses is durabl

. >> tom ackerman with the latest. tom, thank you. >>> u.s. president barack obama is urging the rapid development of a vaccine for the zika virus. brazil is the country worst effected and itself government is deploying 200,000 troops to try to fight the outbreak. rob reynolds reports. >> reporter: there's a somber mood at rio's droem, seats, fencing, and food stands are all drenched with insecticide. in two weeks it will be packed with thousands of people celebrating brazil's carnival. and be a key venue when brazil hostst the olympic games. >> translator: any crowded place is considered a strategic place to combat the mosquitos. all of the football stadiums are considered strategic points. the dome is also a strategic point, especially this season. >> reporter: brazilian laboratories have been trying to determine if there is a link between the virus and birth defects in hundreds of babies. participate barack obama has been briefed on how the virus might spread and the possible economic impact. cases of zika virus have been reported in virgin

tom ackerman has more on that. >> pleasant in texas likes to call itself the birth place of cattle. but it's oil that has done well. >> it's given the community and country a chance to advance a lot of programme in things they were wanting to do. >> the prairie landscape is dotted with oil wells, thanks to dramatic advances in hydraulic fracturing. that development made the u.s. the biggest producer of crude. but in some ways it's proven too much of a good thing. the more america, the o.p.e.c. countries and others add to the global surplus, the less each barrel is worth. >> collectively it makes sense for all the producers to ratchet back production. individually, and that's the calculus. the country or energy companies making, it makes sense individually for them to continue to produce. that's what we are seeing. >> as a result. some drillers depending on the high oil prices are driven into bankruptcy, and texas is pricing for the downside of a cycle. oil boom to bust. >> it is a consistent bright spot and forecast to be a third of what it was. if oil prices stay at counter levels,

tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. >>> so a group of anti-government protesters in the u.s. refusing to end their occupation for western wildlife sanctuary, the group had been protesting against new jail term for two local ranchers and the men turned themselves in on arson charges and their lawyers say the protesters at the sanctuary do not speak for his clients. and land disputes between the federal government and ranchers for generations. allen has the latest from just outside the city of burns in oregon. >> reporter: a spokesman for the protesters told us specifically not to expect a lot of guns and any questions about how many protesters are here were left unanswered during our 45-minute tour of the national wildlife refuge property that this group walked into and took over. >> how is it going so far? >> emotional roller coaster and up and down but it's going great. there is no blood shed. this is not a violent or hostile situation. >> reporter: there are 15 or so buildings here, dozens of idle government trucks and swamp boats for the marshs and heavy equipment, the spo

tom ackerman has more from washington, d.c. >> two approximated attack, responding to i.s.i.l.'s recruiting messages with messages of their own counterpropaganda at times mocking them. these tactics have proved not to be very effective by the admission of officials here. and secondly, they are meeting with high-tech leaders in silicon valley, in california, leaders from facebook, apple, dropbox, twitter, to see if they can get more cooperation from these companies in trying to filter out the appeals of i.s.i.l. using these tools in better effect in actually working against i.s.i.l. up to now, they've had mixed results because although these companies say that they certainly are not interested in become conduits for i.s.i.l.'s propaganda, on the other hand they have privacy concerns, in particular, they have objected to the government's attempts to build sort of decryption escape routes, what's called back doors, so that the government can go into encrypted messages and right now, we don't know to what effect or how successful the government has been in getting the companies to s

crossing over to tom ackerman joining us from washington, d.c. to give us an update, tom, on that storm. and tell us more about what people are doing to prepare for it. >> reporter: well, pretty much hu hunkering down. there is active activity on clearing the streets here but still another 18 hours to go, there will be a lot more before the storm moves out to sea. right now, the officials according to the weather service here, the snowfall has accumulated 30 to 45 centimeters, but we do expect it to exceed 60 at this rate, and as you can see, the wind is really beginning to drive this snow and we have been told you should expect even heavier snow to be falling in the coming hours. right now, we are not seeing any diary mergencies although the authorities did have plenty of time to get people to warn them, actually, of these kinds of consequences life-threatening according to the authorities here the most serious incidents so far, about 130,000 people in north carolina and kentucky wouldn't power. once the storm dies down and ice begins to set in

tom ackerman joins us live. what are some of the most hit places? >> it's gone down as far south as georgia an you can see the winds pick up in washington. we've had 40 centimeters of snow accumulate in washington. we have an estimated 12 to 15 hours left in this storm. meanwhile, the forecasts are getting more and more severe as you go further north. the state of new york has just declared a state of emergency so now they expect 76 centimeters of snow in the city of new york. and the mayor, bill de blasio, has ordered a ban of all cars in road traffic in in the city. which is an unusual event for new york city. >> what kinds of problems will they encounter in the coming weeks? >> you nay recall the storm in new england last january, just about this time last january, it took them it took two months for them to deplete the piles of snow they had taken off the streets of boston. we don't know if that will be matched in new york city, but that is obviously one of the concerns in the mayor in making that kind of a ban on car traffic. we don't know how

tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington >>> on the other side of the world, subtropical hong kong is not immune to the odd cold snap. the government warned many not to go out in freezing conditions. many have, in the hope of seeing know. rob mcbride reports. >> reporter: in the run-up to the extreme weather. people in hong kong have been getting to grips with new terminology - polar vortex, taking some saying in here, what is a semitropical climate. this cold weather phenomenon is a blast of cold air blasted south across china, reaching as far as the south china coast. normally it never gets below 9 or 10 centigrade during the coldest days of winter. this meant temperatures are a few degrees above freezing. i'm here on the highest peak in hong kong it has been freezing. authorities put out weather warnings, telling people not to venture out. thousands of people have. many seeing frost for the first time. >> what everyone wants to see, of course, is snow. it is only ever officially snowed here four times, the last time was 1975. people are hoping that the blast of cold air will mean there

tom ackerman has more. >> reporter: 70 years ago this was the king's first trip outside his country to forge an alliance from u.s. president. >> understanding each other's problems brings east and west together for a better world >> i think we signed a false bargain, for stable supplies of oil and this has continued until this day >> reporter: when an oil embargo was in place, the u.s. launched project independence. >> by the end of this decade, americans will not have to rely on any source of energy beyond our own. >> reporter: what happened instead, the u.s. increased its reliance on foreign oil to a peak of 60%. in the past few years the explosion of american crude production has cut that dependence to less than 30%. nearly half the imports comes from its friendly neighbors, canada and mexico. meanwhile, the increased u.s. confidence in its energy security ask evidenced by three recent decisions. lifting a 40-year ban on exporting american i will, preparing to sell off one tenth of the reserve, and in a blow to canada president obama put an axe to the key stone pipeline project. pre

tom ackerman has that story. >> reporter: this visualization shows the long-term warming trend on earth, since the industrial age began. the orange colours indicate a steady progress of temperatures, especially in the northern hemisphere where carbon dioxide is highest. since 2002 we have seen nine of the 10 warmers years since record keeping began. in 2015 the average temperature across the planet was 20% higher than the previous higher year. in the u.s., last month was the warmest and wettest ever partly accountable to the periodic el nino weather effect. the trend is not just felt on land. more than 90% of human generated heat and energy winds up in the ocean. a study by the u.s. energy department found the amount of heat put into the sea doubled. despite a broad consensus, acceptance of global warming and human responsibility for it is a political issue in the u.s. a leading republican presidential candidate donald trump, with others in the party denies that it is real. >> i think there'll be a little change here. it will go up, get a little cooler, get warmer than it has. it will g

tom ackerman reports >> reporter: from georgia to massechusetts, the blanket of snow has kept outdoor activity to a minimum. winds as high as 90 km/h persuaded motorists to stay off the roads but many who did venture out found the conditions more than they had bargaind for. some were stranded over night. red cross set up a shelter for those without heat in their vehicles >> if your running into the ditch, we will probably run into the ditch. >> reporter: the metro train service was shut down for only the third time in its history. further north it caused flooding on new jersey's coast. >> there was significant water and ice that was floating up the streets. that are gone over the wall that the res government-- that the government said was good enough to stop this from happening. >> reporter: a rare travel ban. >> all vehicles that are not emergency vehicles or authorised vehicles that are involved in direct urgent service to people need to be off the streets. the nypd will begin enforcing the travel ban at 2.30 today and that ban will remain in effect until further notice. >> reporter

let's cross over to tom ackerman joining us from washington, d.c. to let us know when that storm, tom, is expected to hit and what else are people doing to prepare for it? >> reporter: well, the first snowflakes hit washington, d.c. approximately 18 hours ago. the forecasters say we can expect another 18 hours. as of now, the latest count here in d.c., itself, is about $0.35 meters of snow, but as our forecasters said, it could go as high as 60 or even more. right now, we are seeing reasoningbly good conditions in the sense that people are simply staying boarded up at home and the saving grace for this storm so far, at least on the eastern coast, has been that the authorities had plenty of warning and gave plenty of advisories in the city of fi philadelphia, there was a code blue yesterday asking if anybody who sees somebody exposed to the elements to report them immediately to the authorities so that we don't have incidents of hypothermia. in some cases. >> they are setting up shelters. >> you see a lot of cases of heart attacks of people trying to

tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. >>> the obama administration confirmed some of hillary clinton's emails on her private server contain top-secret information. this comes as clinton is campaigning in iowa three days before the caucuses. the new badge of emails released will not include those with classified information as she was secretary of state. and this comes as she and others cross state the state. but it's the candidate who was not in iowa that is getting all of the attention. >> reporter: with the iowa caucuses only three days away, donald trump who skipped thursday's debate managed to be absent once again, this time from the entire state. >> last night we had an exciting night. >> reporter: the billionaire was the only candidate not campaigning in iowa, focusing instead on new hampshire. he has hardly campaigned in the state, but polls suggest he is far ahead of the republican field. trump bragged to supporters in this granite state about his decision to skip the fox news debate after engaging in a war of words with the news network. >> what happened last night that was am

tom ackerman. >> this visualization shows the long-term warming trend on earth since the industrial age began. the orange colors show a steady progression of rising average temperatures, especially in the northern hemisphere where carbon dioxide levels are highest. since 2002 we've seen nine of the ten warmest years since record keeping began more than a century ago. and in 2015 the average temperature across the planet was more than 20% higher than the previous highest year. in the u.s. last month was both the warmest and wettest ever partly accountable to the periodic el niÑo weather affect. the trend isn't just being felt on land. more than 90% of human-generated heat energy winds up in the oceans. a new study found that over the past 18 years the amount of heat put into the sea has doubled. despite a broad consensus among scientists, acceptance of global warming and human responsibility for it remain a political issue in the u.s. the leading republican presidential candidate donald trump along with others in his party denies that it is real. >> i doubt there will be little change.

where tom ackerman is joining us from, tom? >> well, the storm has hit washington now for the past 20 hours and the forecasters say we can expect 16 hours of this kind of weather and as the day progresses we expect the winds to kick up even further. you can see now there is a driving snow right now. it's expected to be a bit fiercer as the storm begins to lend its way further east and towards the atlantic ocean. you mentioned people being told not to venture outdoors, you see very few people out here on the streets in washington. as for the roads, in one part of delaware near the coast the governor has ordered people just to stay off the roads. that is the first time there has been a mandatory ban on driving and they learned their lesson in kentucky where at the last we've heard about 3,000 cars were stranded on a major interstate highway for the last 12, 14 hours the kentucky national guard has been trying to rescue them, take them to a red cross shelter in that area. people whose heat has given out there, people who never exp