80000 children are abducted by one of their parents and 101 east fuller. some mothers desperately trying to re unite with their children. oh, now j sierra examining the impact of today's headlines. this is what is the what about ensuring that i can continue? let count on that. setting the agenda for tomorrow's discussions. i don't believe that i think in, in a society that isn't willing to kill international filmmakers and world class journalists, bring programs to inform and inspire you need to have a media ensuring that like to the head on out to the 0. ah, us fighter jet, shoot down a suspected chinese surveillance balloon that's been drifting across american asked base for days.

ah, hello, i'm darn jordan. this is al jazeera live from dough are also coming up. i said that i'm kicked yukiko ecuador, where on sunday people will vote on a number of busty bulk of situational reforms. the many here see as a referendum on the government, the viet molasses process meets children displaced by conflict himself. van urges them to read like the history as a time of peace. plus the big fries moral may optic loss, that scene record low temperatures and parts of the us and canada. ah, u. s. military has shut down a chinese balloon, which it says was a surveillance croft, the pentagon claims the balloon was being used to spy on strategic sites across the country. president joe biden, author fighter aircraft to take down the balloon. as long as it was without risk to

civilian lives on friday, the balloon spotted high above montana, near a compound housing nuclear missile silos. it was down to the coast of south carolina shortly after the government or that a whole commercial flights in the area. china hadn't been taking the cross was a civilian weather balloon, but had blown off course. one day when i was break down the balloon or the pentagon shoot down. i want the as soon as possible, decided without doing damage to anyone on the ground and decided that the best time to do that was got over water within our, within 12 mile limit, successively took it down and i want a complimentary graders who did it. and we'll have more to report on this a little later. thank you. i was back on the same a recommendation from year it was funny and that's why you're told them to choose

a down or wednesday. i was like a recommend day said to me that way to take this place to do it. well. a pentagon correspondent, the practical haine, has been following the story from washington d. c. they've done a briefing with the pentagon reporters and it was an background. so we can't tell you who said it, but we can tell you what they said. basically they said they used one f 22 rafter fighter. that's a pretty modern aircraft. i can actually get up to that altitude, which is one of the concerns. it's 18000 meters in the air that this raptor one raptor took one shot brought down this. what they are calling or surveillance balloon. they said the debris field has been contained. they've got several navy assets in the region along with the coast guard. it is only about, they said the area where the debris is down, it's only about 11.2 meters deep. they expected it to be deeper than that. so they think they're going to be able to recover the equipment. they say that, well, it was transverse in the united states, that they believe they were taking actions to be able to stop any surveillance or

really limit the surveillance that the chinese aircraft could get. but at the same time, they said they were studying the aircraft and really learning a lot about its capability . and it's technology now to do that, even more, they have to recover the aircraft there. they said there's going to be a salvage crane that should be in the air in the next couple of days. what they were to do is the order of navy divers and unmanned surplus submersible vehicles. they're going to go down, they're going to put buoys on that, bring it up, put it to a crane, and put it on a navy ship and bring it to a navy base so they can try and reverse engineer the, the technology again, i don't expect they're going to show us any of this, they perhaps will, because again, this is a different narrative. china says it's simply a weather balloon collecting climate data. and the u. s. as this is a sophisticated, worldwide spy and operation. so the, the operation started at about $245.00 local time. we expect that the whole thing should be wrapped up in the next couple of days once they're able to retrieve the

aircraft. so let's bring in david ross. she's a professor at the neary south asia center for strategic studies that the national defense university joins us live from bethesda in maryland. david, good to happy with it. so the pentagon says us fighter jets finally shut down this balloon over to see how much pressure was present by the number to bring down the balloon. i mean, many of its political opponents say he waited far too long. yeah, that's right. he was under great pressure and you know, it's an open question. i think we'll find in the past few days, are there been other balloon flights that haven't been interdicted? so, you know, there's a narrative that president biden's, political opponents are putting up that chinese money was funneled through hunter by then. they point to support carbs. and eric's wall well, who had a girlfriend who turned out to be a chinese spine. so this is, this was not a good issue for president. she had to act as i support. the chinese have said that

this is a weather balloon blown off course, but it hadn't been hovering over canada and the us for some time. david, what sort of real time data could it have gathered before it was destroyed? we don't know if it's destroyed, but if it were a weather balloon off course, you would expect the chinese to notify united states and canada. i mean, that's certainly what we would do. what it could gather would be higher resolution imagery than you could get from a satellite that lags for a longer period that hovers for longer period over the target. so, you know, you can get a lot of visual information from a satellite, but something as far north, this montana you only have a few seconds of time over the target. whereas a balloon has more time. the 2nd thing a balloon would be capable doing would be gathering electronic signals, so it could intercept communications. and then finally, because it's in the sovereign aerospace of the united states and canada, you would expect it to probably gather information on what kind of signals we're

using. to track it so we could identify possibly identify in classify, you know, radar hits or something like that, which would be of interest if the chinese wanted to, you know, actually launch an attack. yeah. and david, once, once the balloons been recovered from the c, presumably us intelligence experts, it will be king to examine its electronics to see what sort of data gathering capabilities it actually has. that's exactly right. not just the capabilities, but i think we'll also look for the origins of different electronic parts. and if there's any western electronics or if they can identify any manufacturers of this, you know, there's a possibility that they will close down the pipeline to parts to china. or possibly even sanction companies that may have been providing technical equipment to chinese . and then just to final, i mean this has been an embarrassing episode for the chinese and marks a pretty low point in us. chinese relations. how much diplomatic damage do you

think has been done and how do you see both sides recovering from this? well, you know, china is a big country in the united states is a big country. so we have to start speaking to each other. you know, initially the blinking visit has been cancelled. it will probably be about 6 months or so. i think it is embarrassing for the chinese, i think, you know, if we do recovered and it does prove to be surveillance stuff, i think that there will be some public display of that which will be further embarrassment for the chinese. but on the other hand, you know, the chinese right now seem to think that they have the upper hand in international negotiations. they think that the west and the united states, in particular, is preoccupied with the war and ukraine. so they may feel they have an advantage and they can crescent david, really good to get your thoughts on your analysis. david, thank you. thank you. so people in ecuador are heading to the polls to elect

local officials and vote on constitutional reforms prompted by president graham a law. so many observers see this referendum as a test on a president whose approval ratings sits at less than 20 percent. alessandra petty joins us live now from the capital kito lesandra koreans seem to have lost faith in the political process and in president gear mulatto. so how important are these elections absolutely there, and there's no doubt that these elections come at a very difficult time for president. lesson is administration, as you were saying, he's highly unpopular and he's really hasn't been able to implement any of the business friendly policies that he had promised to would have turned around to the economic situation for many ecuadorian c. instead, he has had to deal with crisis after crisis pretty much since coming in to off his back in 2021. he barely survived that impeachment votes back in june after a weeks of protest that advert rock the,

the country seriously putting it in and further difficulty the economic conditions for most the ecuadorian, sir. but besides that also, he has seen a number of officials in his close circle now being accused of serious corruption charges that what most sick with ariens are worried about the air. so the terrible increase in crime, especially on the coast where drug gangs have been confronting each other inside and outside of prisons in the country. there have been dozens of dead. this has also been one of the most violent campaign election campaigns in recent history in equity, or at least 12 candidates that have been attacked during deer election campaigning. the one has been killed, the best level of violence, something completely new in ac weather in. now last, so it's hoping that this referendum can change things around, at least in part,

this political a fortune and the next 2 years that he still has as a president. apathy and frustration are on the rise among voters in quito ahead of sundays, wide ranging referendum, promoted by embattled press. you didn't get more lasso to address the countries deteriorating, social, and economic conditions. so like i said, we have no faith in politicians for all the scandals. that happened recently, people has lost trust and politics if that goes on with an approval rating below 20 percent, a hostile congress, mounting government corruption allegations and dramatic rise and gang related crime . conservative president lasso has been left with little space to maneuver that the 8 referendum questions which cover security issues. reducing the number of lawmakers in congress, environmental protection,

and the possible extradition of ecuadorian could help him regain initiative. when we call upon us with those popular popular consultations usually become a referendum on the current administration. but in this case, despite the president's major last in political capital, the referendum has strong support because it addresses fundamental issues for the people. that critics argue that last was hoping to use the referendum for a personal political when a way to try to boost to port for his failing presidency, to the detriment of the countries democracy was bullied because the former president of ecuador is constitutional assembly says the reduction of assembly members will reduce representation of remote areas and strength in the hands of the most powerful parties. the stomach for one consult up to get the you know, not that far from solving problems, this referendum could exacerbate some of them. it's like a poisonous apple that shines on the surface, but if you read the questions and an x as carefully you see it weren't solvent security issues with democratic instability even less the environment. it's

a tricky and deceitful referendum. unfortunately, all of into last so barely survived an impeachment vote after 2 weeks of cost of living, indigenous lead protests that brought the country to a halt. indigenous leader lay on the death isa is leading been no campaign. he says the government should instead comply with the agreements that ended the demonstrations. it will be over and pauses the government, strategically awards implementing the agreement and comes up with this referendum to confound tanks up. all it really wants is to get some oxygen to continue trying, implementing policies that have not worked until now. those polls showed a referendum, results could be very close, and on sunday, ecuadorian will also elect more than $5000.00 local officials with the opposition expected to gain seats across the country. even the passing of the referendum might end up being a short lived victory for last. so short lived there

or not, there is no doubt the last n is administration. need this political win on sunday to be able to regain some political cow capital some oxygen to manure for the time he has left in office. sandra, petty, your library from the ecuadorian capital quito, alexander, thank you. but frances says, met people affected by the conflict in south for than the head of the catholic church is on the 6th day trip to africa, which will end on sunday. on 4000000 south sudanese have been forced to flee their homes because of a civil war that's been going on since 2013. the pontiff spoke to despise people in the capitol about his hopes for peace. the ruling can with you, bear the burden of a painful past, yet you never stop dreaming of a better future. in our meeting today, we would like to give wings to your hope, rob peter b. r a jack as

a peace activist who was detained in southfield and forced to flee the country, he explained why this visit is significant for south of f. i have great hope for, for the visit of the pope and the other 2 religious leaders, the archbishop of canterbury and the moderator of the church of scotland. this visit is very historic. and if we should not see it from the lens of the leaders alone, we should see at what does this mean for the people of house done? what does it mean for the faith of christian faith in 1000 sudan and what i mean for the catholic church? i do believe this is historic visit and it will have him when a menace at impact i among our people and in our country. if you would see the crowd that gathered earlier today at the john gun was muslim. and since yesterday, when the to the 3 leaders arrive in google, they the, at the, a well coming from the population has just been absolutely amazing. ah, the, the, the, the number or the sheer number of people gathered

a john graham was liam is something that has not happened since away independent. and i think this is really where the impacts they impact should not be about the leader. what would be that this do for the leaders, but what it will do for the people about the pope and the religious leaders by coming to his house were done at a time when the war leaders have nearly forgotten the suffering of the people whose house were done, they have empowered our people and they have powered the church leaders. and i think together the people and the cheerleaders. united, particularly the youth and the women. these will be the renewal that the holy father has been talking about since he embark on this trip. i shall break every now to sierra when we come back under on the streets of israel. thousands protest against benjamin netanyahu fall like government for 50 consecutive week and shall anchor marks independence day with the parade. but many people say as little to celebrate. marla, stay with

the severe colon windshield saturday by sundays, almost a thing of forgotten memory. tempt you to so much different, so much higher. the real cold air is a long way north in canada, when he pegs minus 7 is not extraordinary. for the central part of canada, there is still snow falling, but it's just gentle stay for toronto, maybe or to we're more likely to still be melting on the ground. and he still sitting freeze up in boston and new york with that suddenly breeze. most the central states are looking fine. there is winter in the west. once again, rain coming down the california coast and easily tends to snow in land. and that's true in the rockies to where that snow is maintained. in fact, the code it uses a bit more. so in the midwest, this is nothing extraordinary. no excessive, extraordinary. during the caribbean, the steady trade winds mean frequent fatty light charged the most part, some heavy stuff, i think round the north bahamas,

at least to start sunday. in south america, there are showers, extending all the way from fairly heavy staff in peru, in bolivia, down towards the southeast. brazil. rio looks relatively dry south that the problem is not so much been. rain is the heat is produced so far as far as south santiago and given has no real changed out of the wind or the rain. there is a light continue. ah, but a city defined by military occupation. there's never been an arab state. he with the capital of jerusalem. everyone is welcome. but this is the polish structure that maintains the color project. that's what we refuse. it was one of the founders of a settlement with this and the story of jerusalem to the eyes of its own people, segregation, occupations, discrimination, injustice. this is apartheid in the 21st century. jerusalem, a rock and

a hard place analogy 0. ah ah, welcome back here, pick about about top stories here. this, our us fighter jets up down the chinese balloon, not the south carolina coast, which the pentagon described as a surveillance crossed says the balloon was being used to spy on strategic sites across the us. people in ecuador rock preparing to head to the polls on sunday, to vote on a referendum on constitutional reforms. the vote is seen as a major test for president b maluso, whose approval rating sits at less than 20 percent. of po process has been meeting people affected by the conflict in south saddam ahead of the roman catholic church . cool from end the decade, long civil war as displaced full 1000000. the protests had been held against

israel's coalition. government for a 5th successive saturday lodge. crowds gathered in tel aviv on the west jerusalem . although the protests were smaller than in previous weeks. hope coalition led by prime minister benjamin netanyahu is the most white wing and israel's history as widespread anger against his proposals to weaken the powers of the supreme court. critics say, democratic and when com. is it a protest off in west or was i think bob, well, the government's got a very simple strategy when it comes to dealing with the brightest is it actually simply ignores them. it still has a way for the majority within the parliament to push through. it's agenda and they seem to be doing exactly that, but it is difficult to ignore this kind of number. let me just show you around. this is a small, a protest than we've seen in recent weeks. but they all outside of the president's house, probably minister benjamin netanyahu is a residence, is actually just a few minutes walk away from her. now these scenes all taking place across israel,

something like twin t, towns are actually protesting. and they include tel aviv and heifer as well now at its height of the protest me. but a few weeks ago was getting about a 130000 people out on to the streets. now though last week's vega was around $30000.00 in a few hours, we'll know from the official police forces what the figure will be for this, but it is far smaller than i've seen in recent weeks. and that's actually good news for the government in terms of the kind of prussia that the protest movement can put on them. they're more, it dwindles, the more people simply get used to the idea that they are coming out in pop. other people should be protesting on my behalf rather than coming out and huge number. that's a problem for the protest rate. what they're trying to do is put pressure on the government in game here. it really is to force another election, but even the protest, his head know that they are currently in a minority,

that the vast majority of israel still support promised the benjamin netanyahu. almost half a 1000000 people in ukraine's odessa region are without power off to fight an overloaded electrical sub station officials warned repairs could take weeks. one said it would appeal to turkey to help mister power to the black sea port city. the high voltage substation on the power infrastructure around odessa have been damaged by repeated russian missile strikes. russia. ukraine of carried out a prisoner exchange broker by the united arab emirates. the cranium government says 116 of its soldiers have been allowed to return home. while $6.00 to $3.00 russians service men have been released, st. rockies and keep more on the exchange. what we're hearing is 116 prisoners of war have been released by the russians and are back on ukrainian soil,

the president's office and the coordination, the humanitarian coordination office that works on these prisoners swaps. calling this a cause for celebration, but they do say, despite the fact that including today, $37.00 swaps prisoners swaps have taken place since the beginning of this conflict . there remain thousands of russia of ukrainian soldiers in russian custody. and there remain hundreds of civilians as well who are yet to be returned back to ukrainian territory so far in terms of the civilians. only about a 100 have come home in these prisoners swaps. and in terms of soldiers about just a little over 1640 prisoners soldiers have returned home to ukraine in turn, in negotiations with russia, but what the ukrainians are saying despite the fact that this is

a cause for celebration, there is still a long way to go to bring all of the other ukranian citizens in russian custody home. a sullivan job aid has the russian reaction from moscow. the russian ministry of defense says that these people are now being treated for psychological and medical help. they're able to contact their relatives and it was made possible to get them released to you after meant. remember that they don't use the word swap with the help of mediation from the united arab emirates. we've seen in the last few months that these releases have become routine where moscow and ukraine exchange prisoners are. obviously we've heard from key of that there been receiving more prisoners than moscow. but this has been a case that we've seen a number of times in january. there was a release in december. there were a couple of releases. and then going back to september where the releases were facilitate, but facilitated by turkey and saudi arabia. this time around. it's been facilitated

by the united arab emirates, the ministry of defense, specifically. and thanks them. and you have to remember that this is a country which has so far, not given into any of the sanctions that the west wants imposed on moscow. we know that the chief mom had been zaid visited vladimir putin and also discussed the issue of ukraine. 22 people and now confirmed dead in wildfires that are sweeping across chile firefighter saying that there are now more than 250 different active fires, covering almost 500 square kilometers. the government is extended an emergency order to cover 3 regions in southern chile. the fires have been spot by an unusually hot summer heat wave. it dr. sanders and me were working on multiple sources of forest fires that added to the weather high temperatures and a lot of wind of cause great destruction, both in vegetation and building a feel for lanka has marked we anniversary of its independence from britain with

a parade that cost $550000.00 in public funds. the government's been criticized for spending that amount of money on the event as the countries facing a crippling economic crisis. michelle fernandez report from a capital colombo. this was how many she lengthens could participate in the 75th independence day celebrations. then money paid for from the sidelines, watching as the military bands and marching squads left the parade area approach roads and the venue were locked down, hours ahead to ensure the celebrations were not disrupted by protest is people here are angry at their government for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on this event at a time when the nation is struggling to pay for essential supplies. present renee victor missing insists the celebration is important. addressing the nation, he said, the corrupt political gangster is em. which sheets people into being eternally poor

and dependent must be defeated. he said this was the system change. the younger generation has been demanding for a long time. yes. and our market rather now, but my government has entered a new reformist path in order to do this. even though the decisions made to watch the seem painful, these have to be taken in order to get out of this crisis. permanent equity might have to do at many like wasn't moodily gay. don't believe the from missing his promises. the student leader has been released on bail after being detained for $167.00 days in what many c as political persecution for his role in the 2022 anti government protests than it would be at the bargain. the calling, like the freedom struggle to liberate the country from the imperialist 75 years ago . we now have to struggle to free the country from the robbers or the thieving gangs that corrupted the society for more than 70 years.

oh, hundreds of university students and activists joined to litigate to protest against the government crackdown on descent and spending days. despite a peaceful citizen being violently broken up by police on friday night. who said the protesters will violating a court order banning the protests. a claim, lawyers disputed many here said the government should not be sending this money to put on military parade, while millions of she luncheon at struggling to feed themselves, there was organizing protest like this said they would continue their campaign until the country is truly free. of corruption minute fernandez under 0 colombo note arctic blast as had parts of the united states and canada with fierce winds, pushing temperatures down into the negative double digits. authorities in new york and new england issued warnings on friday and had fears of hypothermia and

frostbite. gabriel, as under, has more from a city of boston. the people of boston are used to cold weather this time of year. that's nothing new. the differences, these are temperatures that have dropped down to record lows. hasn't been this cold in boston since 1957. how cold is it exactly? at one point, it was negative 23 degrees celsius and with a windshield factor dropped down to negative 33 degrees. not only here in boston, but it's in the entire north east of the united states, particularly the new england area, where about 14000000 people live all with sub 0 temperatures for the last 24 to 48 hours or so. they were imploring people to stay inside and only to go outside if absolutely necessary. because the conditions were such that in these temperatures,

any skin that is exposed to the elements could start to see some frost bite in under 10 minutes. now the temperatures are starting to slowly come up just a little bit here so you might be able to see behind me now some people are out. ice skating here, playing ice hockey on this frozen pond behind me. but clearly this was one of the coldest. basically one of the coldest fronts of air to come in to the northeast here in decades. and in one point mount washington in new hampshire. that was unbelievably cold. it got down to negative $78.00 degrees celsius. it was the coldest recorded temperature anywhere in the united states ever. ah.