check check >> subzero temperatures have the nation locked in an icy grip. the weather blamed on more than 20 deaths. republicans and democrats are playing let's make a deal, trying to find a way to extend unemployment benefits more than a million americans. >> heartbreak in south sudan, american mission ris forced to flee violence, leaving behind orphans they've cared for for a decade. >> and robert gates takes aim at president obama in a tell-all book.

[ ♪ music ] >> hi everyone, good to have you with us. i'm thomas drayton, it's downright cold. most of the country is dealing with brutal subzero temperatures. the freezing weather is not just wreaking havoc, it's having an effect in places where winter goats, hats and gloves are never almost ever used. al jazeera's jonathan betz has more. >> a polar plunge across the u.s. from the midwest where a state of emergency declared in 29 countries after tens of thousands lost power. >> temperatures dropped in the house. my son was concerned. >> georgia with single digits for the first time in decades. schools closed, shelters opened in atlanta. i'm wearing long underwear.

>> philadelphia, louisville - stunningly low temperatures. new york yesterday in the 50, and 60 degree plunge 24 hours later. temperatures hovering, shattering a record from 1896. >> it's cold. i should have stayed home. >> at these temperatures, it takes minutes for frostbite to step in. >> cities are stepping up efforts to reach out to the homeless. >> the large swing in temperatures is hard on equipment and causing delays. >> in northern ultimate snow stranded trains. 500 stuck, forced to spend the night on board. >> we stuck before then. we thought it was a 15 minute casual thing. >> they finished the journey by bus the next morning. travelling by plane offered little relief. jetblue back in the air after

making the move to ground jets for 17 hours to help crews c cap -- catch up. >> worry four days, 10,000 flights cancelled. >> we've had cancellation of plane, train, buses. and i'm with four patients over 70, with no medication left. >> one of many frozen in place as millions warm up. >> we talked about the homeless. there's tens of thousands in new york with no place to call home in these subzero temperatures. we look at the struggle to stay alive. >> it's a full house. the shelter opens its chapel and dining room to accommodate extra demand. temperatures fell to 5 degrees.

the shelter took in 179 people who had nowhere to go. matt helps to run the mission, but not before struggling with addiction and homelessness himself. >> you are already dealing with guilt and shame. many fears i fought it off. there were folks out there approaching me in a way i didn't feel bad about where i was at. >> new york's homeless population has been growing and is at record levels, figures not seen since the 1930s. every night shelters take in 55,000. that number include 22,000 children suffering most in extreme weather. >> children can't go to school or get a lot of meals which are provided at the schools. that starts to put pressure on a family's budget. >> a parallel decline in housing and low-income wages has been blamed for the increase in

homelessness. eviction, overcrowding are factors. >> the new mayor has been in the job for a week. he's making policy changes which one group says will have an immediate impact on thousands of homeless people. >> bill de blasio reinstated the code blue policy, a law guaranteeing shelter to anyone. whenever the temperature drops below freezing. centres are open 24 hours. people can drop in at any time, bypassing the normal registration process. the number of vans that searched the streets for the homeless increased. >> i ask the people of new york city, if you see a homeless person in distress, someone that needs help, call 311. >> there's 2.5 months of winter. chilly conditions last longer, and without a roof over your head, it can seem colder.

>> it is another very cold morning outside for a large portion of the eastern united states. now, we had temperatures very cold in the east, and we had our record low temperature for so many places. we almost can't even count new york, central park, one of the places that has a record low of four to start the morning. we are not going to be that cold through this morning. but we will be chilly. when we talk about the number of low temperatures, it was across 13 states, we had at least 45 temperatures that were broken, daily records, and the high temperatures came in. while it was warm but wet for the west coast. it was so cold to the east that we had record cold high temperatures. buffalo tied its record of minus 5, and tuesday high temperatures for atlanta.

though broke a temperature set in 1884. athens, georgia, had a record broken in 1905. it was cold, and we have the cold air in place for many of us. even at some places where we are 5-8 degrees warmer. we are cold, and had a blizzard warning coming off the grate lakes, specifically lake eyrie. and windchill warnings stretching across the great lakes. already on the ground with the wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour. what is on the ground from 5-15 inches for buffalo. the winds coming up out of the south, south-west. the lake ontario is not frozen over. we are getting the moisture picked up from the lake, where it's not frozen, and it's bringing in the snow. as we talk about the outlook for the next few days, there's significant snow in the north-west, in the mountains, cascades. a lot is 2 feet. what we are concerned about as

we work into wednesday evening, thursday morning, areas of freezing rain developing in the south-west. >> thank you. senate debate is underway on a bill to extend long-term unemployment benefits for those out of work for six months. if the bill makes its way through the senate, it could face a tougher battle. we sat with a group in the middle of a battle. >> that will be my last paycheck. >> when theresa thinks about the future, it is bad news. her extended unemployment benefits would stop before the news year. >> they are enjoying themselves on vacation, and you have people, you know, wonderring how will they put food on the table

or pay their rent. honestly, damn them. >> she is among 1.3 million americans hoping congress extends the benefits for an additional 27 weeks. for 14 months she relied on the government for $375 a week. $1500 a month, money that went towards feeding her family, caring for her mother and paying for her prescription drugs. >> i suffer with high blood pressure, and being stressful and not working, and still looking for employment, that's very stressful. >> she was laid off in october 2012 she was within executive assistant at a nonprofit organization. the search for her next job has turn understood a search for a new career.

>> i see that now being unemployed for so long. a lot of jobs i don't have the experience. there's many jobs in my field, why am i not being called. >> if benefits are extended for three mondays, for the long-term unemployed, it's a short term solution. >> the bill before the senate extends benefits at a cost of $6.5 billion. we are following a deadly u.s. military helicopter crash in the u.k. four u.s. air force members were killed when the chopper went down during a training exercise. local authorities cordoned off the scene. it went down in a bird sanctuary near the east coast of norfolk. it is not clear what caused the accident. >> the south sudan is closing in on a hotly contested city held

by rebel forces. in a matter of hours the army will announce they have reclaimed bor. rebels attacked the city and have been in control of it since. as the fighting continues many have escaped and many have been left behind. >> tony harris reports on an american family of missionaries, caring for orphans, and were forced to flee without them. >> the campbells and their two daughters are safe in kenya. their hearts and minds are in south sudan, having left their life work, and 10 beloved orphans behind. >> we've been trying to get a strategy for going back into the country and continuing the work that we started. >> they left their home in nebraska in 2012 and headed to south sudan, where they set up an orphanage, part of the work with christian missionaries. fighting with government and rebel forces landed on their

doorstep. >> we could hear machine-guns. and the ability to plan a strategy to escape was gone. that moment was gone. we had to deal with the situation at hand. the kids were in the room, under the beds way before any of us - we were, like, what is going on, what is happening. the kids were pulling us under the beds with them. that was crazy, that they knew instinct to do it right away. >> the family made it out of the line of fire to a nearby united nations base camp. >> when we made it to the base the children asked me saying, "momma kim, is this your first time to hear bullets like this one." i said, "of course it is, i have never lived through anything like that before." they said, "not for me, i have done this many times. it's disheartening that that's the sad reality of their world." the question is who was protecting who. >> as they prepared to leave for

kenya they ran into a disturbing reality. the government would not allow the orphans to leave with them. >> it was hard for any of us to leave. we decided that it was worse for us to stay there than it would be to come and try to do things outside of south sudan to help. >> the kids that were family, leaving them was worse than ever. more than the bullets that came past our house. more than anything. >> the campbells and their daughters are determined to return to south sudan, and reunite with the children they left behind. >> we have raised the kids as family. that is very important to us. you can't just walk away from family because there are some challenges in the area. >> as the conflict rages on, it is uncertain how long those challenges will stand in the way of their goal.

>> tough decision to leave. still ahead - taking aim at president obama. we'll tell you what former defense secretary gates had to stay about his old boss in a new tell-all book. >> a hospital trend - dumping patients on the street who don't have the means to pay for care.

>> welcome back. former defense secretary robert gates led the war in afghanistan, and now is taking on his own boss in an explosive book. roslyn jordan takes a look at the tell-all. >> at the end of 2009 u.s. president barack obama told the nation it was time to renew the fight against the taliban in afghanistan. >> i have determined that it is in our vital national interests to send an additional 30,000 u.s. troops to afghanistan. after 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.

>> but behind closed doors obama administration's former defense secretary said the president waffled about fighting a just war. in his new book, robert gates, who served during the presidency of george w. bush, he criticised president barack obama, hamid karzai: >> >> u.s. news reports about gates' memoires, the book is about settling scores as establishing a record of his 45 years in government. gates has harsh words for vice president joe biden, a man considered by many to be a foreign policy expert. i think he's been wrong on every major foreign policy over the

decades. >> gates accuses staffers of micromanaging and being clueless about the war. he admitted that he at first was opposed to the raid, leading to osama bin laden's death in to 11. some observers say his frankness should not be a surprise. >> former secretary gates is about the fray. he knows he will never serve in washington. everyone that selected bob gates knew what they were getting. joe biden called gates one of obama administration's closest advisors. it is possible that he doesn't care what anyone thinks. even a president whose intel ect and judgment, gates says he

demirs. >> security forces are on high alert in egypt as the trial against their first democratically elected president mohamed morsi began an hour ago. mohamed morsi and 14 others of the muslim brotherhood are accused of inciting the killing of protesters. egypt's interim government classified the muslim brotherhood as a terrorist group. >> with play-off football in full swings, it's a season for chips and dips. kraft food is warning of a cheese shortage. the product is flying off the shelves. some stores are reporting no shipments until february. kraft is not giving a reason, suggesting that the product is seasonal. >> it was nearly a year ago when

u.s. skier lindsey vonn tore two ligaments in her right knee and suffered a crash. a series of setbacks will prevent her defending her 2010 olympic gold medal performance in the downhill. she retore her acl in the right nee, and two weeks later she sprained it again in france. it made her realise competing in sochi is not a good idea. on the hard wood tuesday night it was a match-up of two teams in a big team match-up. the spart jans looking to handle the buck eyes the first loss of the season. the spartans built a 16-point lead. ohio state will come storming back over the final 10 minutes to force overtime at 58-all.

keith appling scored seven of his 20 game-high, and they led michigan state to the 17-26 win. in the a.c.c. virginia tech hosted sare awe cues for the first time since 1978. the orangemen made the most. using a 16-0 run in the second, on the way to a 20-point victory. the win approved sare acued record. one n.f.l. note to pass along. jeff ireland, allegededly encouraging a bullying environment resigned tuesday after six seasons on the job. ireland provided over 5-straight non-winning seasons. spending $2 million, only to see

the doll since drop of last two finish eight and ate. i'm michael eaves, that's a look in sport. >> californian hospitals accused of dumping patients. what is being done to stop them leaving the homeless fending for themselves on the streets. taking a trip back in time. what man may have looked like thousands of years ago. >> you are the prime-time news angeror al jazeera america. >> i am. >> okay, who got to you, and how? >> and our own john seigenthaler goes toe to toe with steven colburg.

>> welcome back. it's called patient dumping and

critics say it's not only degrading, it's illegal. that's when hospitals abandon homeless patients on skid row because they can't pay. lawsuits may have slowed the practice, al jazeera's brian rooney reports it is far from over. >> this is where they are left, among the encampments of skid row. olivia st. john said it happened to her, a hospital dumped her into the street. >> i had threatened to cut myself with a razor before they would give me bus fair to the - to downtown. they didn't offer transportation, they released me from hospital. >> robert jones lives at the union rescue mission, and from his perch in his chair, he has seen patients get dumped. >> they are dressed in hospital gowns, half are in wheelchairs, walkers and they can't walk or take care of themselves.

>> they tend to be people with addictions and mental illness and they have spent a few days in the hospital. they want them out. several hospitals were fined and new rules imposed for how patients are supposed to be discharged. that hasn't stopped them. >> you see the same people coming back, getting dumped. >> same people. it's a revolving door, in and out, in and out. they do it all the time. >> some of the van and taxi drivers know to avoid places like the mission where surveillance cameras, dump cams record incidents. >> we slowed it down in the news, but it continued, and not from good hospitals, but from kind of hospitals on the fringe. >> l.a.'s new city attorney says patient dumping is a priority for him. >> we have a feel that the issue is more pervasive than a case

here or there. we are involved in investigations to determine whether that is true. >> in the case just settled, the hospital, the 224-bed beverley hospital was accused of dumping a woman on skid row last may without finding her a shelter. the hospital says it would issue a statement, but so far has not. >> there are values that are basic. among those is everyone is entitled to dignity and to be treated with respect. particularly when they are in a vulnerable state. >> i was angry, stemming from fear, because i didn't know what the next step would be, you know. a lot of times, coming out of an nugs -- institution like that, you are on strong medication. >> the hospital is supposed to release patients to a shelter or family, and with a plan for their care, at least over the

next several days. hospitals that don't do it. they'll go after. >> we should point out the beverley hospital is not alone. orange county hospital agreed to pay $1.6 million in penaltyies after patient dumping surfaced. >> if you want to see a prehistoric man, take a trip to stonehenge. scientists took a 5555-year-old skeleton. it shows a likeness with a chiselled chin, full head of hair and beard. >> john seigenthaler shared laughs with steven colbert as a dress on "comedy central', "colbert report." that is terrifying, it's arabic,

it looks like arabic on fire, exploding arabic. why shouldn't by be afraid of al jazeera. >> do you know what it means? >> it says the bombing starts at midnight. what does it mean? >> no, it means peninsula. >> how do you keep people being afraid of this? >> i can't keep people from being afraid of this. i can't convince people of that. all i can do is say watch what we do. i don't think if they see what we do on the air and the stories we cover, i think they'll understand that we are doing serious news. [ cheering ] [ cheering and applause ] >> perfectly stated. that is what we do. you can catch john seigenthaler on al jazeera america every week night at 8:00. remember news at the top of

every hour. thanks for watching. >> hi, i'm lisa fletcher and you're in "the stream." sex, scandals and politics. 15 years after bill clinton's impeachment trial, are americans more willing to give cheating polices a second chance? our producer, raj is here. and looking at the comments so far, it's interesting, no one has talked about this topic.