going places together, the police footage starts with what appears to be a routine traffic. stop. but quickly the situation escalates. no, any, police can be seen beating nichols and trying to subdue him with pepper spray. he can be heard crying for help and for his mother. o. nichols died from his injuries 3 days later as that video was being released. protestors in memphis took to the streets to call for justice. this is certainly a city very much still in shock by what they saw in that video, the violent beating death of tyree nichols at the hands of police. ah . i to jet, shoot down a suspected chinese surveillance balloon that's been drifting across american asked space for days.

ah hello, i'm darn jordan. this is al jazeera live from dall also coming up i said, i'm 15, keith to ecuador, where on sunday people will vote on a number of busty boca institutional reforms. the many here, c as a referendum and the government, the viet molasses process, meets children displaced by conflict, him, south saddam, and urge them to rewrite the history as a time of peace and anger on the streets of israel. thousands protest against benjamin netanyahu is far right government for a 5th consecutive with the u. s. military has shut down a chinese balloon, which it says was i surveillance? croft, the pentagon claims the balloon was being used to spy on strategic sites. was the

country president joe biden authorized fighter aircraft to take down the balloon as long as it was without risk to civilian lives on friday, the balloon was spotted high above montana, near a compound housing nuclear missile silos. it was down to the coast of south carolina shortly out of the government or that a hold to commercial flights in the area. china hadn't been taking the crop. was a civilian weather balloon that had blown off course. one day when i was break down the balloon or the pentagon to shoot down on wednesday as soon as possible, decided without doing damage to any one on the ground. and decided that the best time to do that was got over water within our, within 12 mile limit as successively took it down. and i want a complimentary graders who did it, and we'll have more to report on a little later. thank you guys. i was back on tuesday and recommendation from year was funny and that's why the whole that is through the

down or wednesday i was like the recommend day said to me that way to look take this place to do it. well, a pentagon correspondent, article hain has been following the story from washington. d. c. then done a briefing with the pentagon reporters and it was and 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 that 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 is only about 11.2 meters deep and 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 search 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. says, 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. what david derosa, professor at the national defense university, he explained why china may have used a balloon for surveillance. instead of modern drone technology, 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 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 of 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 were 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 and attack and not just the capabilities. but i think that 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. 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 compress it. people in ecuador are heading to the polls to elect local

officials and vote on constitutional reforms prompted by president grey maluso. many observers see this referendum as a test than a president whose approval rating sits at less than 20 percent. lesandra petty joins us live now from the capital kito al foundry ecuadorian seem to have lost faith in the political process. and in the prevalence of high important are these elections? well, darren, they are definitely extremely important for our president. guillermo lasonya said the ministration, as you are saying in your introduction, he is highly unpopular. he has been dealing away at a crisis after another since her coming into office there. and 2021. he had to deal with a major indigenous, a protest that a major increase in crime are longer the crock coast, where drug trafficking gangs are fighting care for control of what has become the

main route for coloma and peruvian cocaine up north through the united states. and he really hasn't been able to do much about any of these crisis is now presenting this referendum as a way to solve many of these. there are problems about his critics. instead they believe that the this, if indeed he wins, it will only help him sort of revitalize that for a little while as administration, maddie will do little to solve the many problems that ecuadorian are going through . 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 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 face to maneuver, thought that the 8th 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 funding mental issues for the people's game. the 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 country's democracy was politic. the former president of ecuador, the 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 antics as carefully you see, it won't solve the security issues with democratic instability even less the environment. it's a tricky and deceitful referendum. unfortunately, all of into last so barely survived than impeachment, vote after 2 weeks of cost of living, indigenous lead protests that brought the country to a halt. the indigenous leader lay only thus isa is leaving. been no campaign. he says the government should instead comply with the agreements that ended the demonstrations. it will be everyone that the government strategically a wide, supplementing the agreement and comes out of district random to confound all it really wants is to get some oxygen to continue trying. implementing policies that

have not worked until now. both polls showed the 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 lesser shirt lived there night. there's no doubt that i win on sunday would offer a little greeting space for la. so and his administration. but also we have heard her as also you heard in the, in, in the piece there that there at the indigenous movement. this considering the possibility of a renewed a protest in coming months unless the agreement that they reached there with the government are indeed their implemented and a full field. and there is a growing number of law makers that are also called link for resignation. and part of life. so and possible early elections, alazam rom,

petty live us there in kito. thank you. bye process has met people affected by the conflict in south sedan. the head of the catholic church is on a 6 day trip to africa, which will end on sunday. more than 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 des space people in the capitol about his hopes, the piece, the really 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 of peter b. r. a jack as a peace activist who was detained in south sedan and forced to free the country. he explained why this visit is significant. 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 as we should not see it from the lens of the leaders

alone, we should see at what does this mean for the people of south dak, what does it mean for the faith of christian faith in 1000, up to down and what it mean for the catholic church? i do believe this is historic visit and it will have him when the mentors at impact i among our people and in our country. if you would see the crowd that gather it earlier today at the john ground was muslim. and since yesterday, when the to the 3 leaders arrive in google, are the, 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 at john graham was liam is something that has not happened since away independent. and i think this is really where the impact is the ipad. it should not be about the leader. what would be that is due 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. more than 40 people have been killed in northern nigeria, casino state, out of gunman attacked a village and stole sheep and cattle. it's the latest violence, the head of the general election that's scheduled for february 25th. lack of security is a key concern for voters as hoffman interest reports in the capital, a boucher i test run for equipment and stuff to see the level of preparedness i had of nigeria, general elections, potential voter when a brian is confident, the poll this year would be small, the process will need very and mostly especially you covered 2 times. i came back for the 2nd 10 tonight if the mission was still 15, rejected me political and in the say that we'll test for the election commission

will come 3 weeks from now. when millions of nigeria s q of devote to an election day for aldo the commission says it's ready. we are confident, in spite of all suffering from that lectures who treated the reference to us. this is called the 2nd nigeria says it's deploying more technology during the elections to tackle the voter fraud and make the process more transparent than previous ones. what secure generally a technology can't guarantee a credible connection in a country why security forces are struggling to contain attacks. my uncles, it will wonder why we are based on what our police police especially and then on forces we went in the past few weeks. the frequency and ferocity of attacks ahead of nigeria general elections have increased. the election commission itself

has been targeted with critical equipment supplies destroyed, consigned by the rise and violence. it warned. the pole could be threatened in many areas unless the visa types are stopped. with only a few weeks ago, the violence hasn't gone away. this has created fi voters, one on the se, could be intimidated, and refused to come out on election day. how many degrees i would use either double check. time for short break here now to 0, when we come back more than a 100 prisoners of war are released in exchange between russia and ukraine, plus the big fries. hicks, north america will have more on the optic loss that c record low temperatures in parts of the us and canada. more in that state. ah, the american people have spoken. but what exactly did they say? is the world looking for a whole new order with less america in it?

is the woke agenda on the decline in america? how much is social media companies know about you? and how easy is it to manipulate the quizzical look us politics, the bottom line? whatever hasn't been done before, can be done even better, as long as a human being is doing it. you can do it, no matter how you possibly it looks. it's you to putting the effort to put in the lock and you will have to be patient with me. i am the captain exiles and me a soccer team in kenya. and am we're so at this the stand which we are the only i so key team in east, in central africa be as they i francois focusing drea. well we had managed to play in some international games. then when kobe gimme the ice rink was closed, and it's the only ice ranking the country. tough times the man tough question. what exactly are you asking for you? what troops on the ground, the rigorous debate we challenge conventional wisdom and demand the true upfront

with me, mark lamond hill on al jazeera lou . oh well come back, a quick reminder, the top stories here, this our us fighter jets of down the chinese balloon of the south town on a coast was the pentagon described as a surveillance croft. it says the balloon was being used to spy on strategic sites across the nice people in ecuador rock baring to head to the polls on sunday votes and our referendum unconstitutional reforms. the votes being seen as a major test to president clear, melissa was approval ratings. 6 at less than 20 percent and po process has been meeting people affected by the conflict in south sedan ahead of the roman catholic

church for front end. the decade long civil war is displaced for many thousands of israelis have been out protesting against that government for 5th successive staff. a date, benjamin netanyahu coalition is the most right wing in israel's history, and as widespread anger about his proposals to weaken the powers of the supreme court in one column reports from western roo, slip. oh again, tens of thousands are out on the streets across israel, protesting against the government. here in western islam or outside the president's house, hoping to be heard. however, the numbers are far smaller than in previous weeks. ah, every saturday they gather, calling this right when government a threat to democracy, rule of law, because it's a coalition built around. okay. all right, parties. it's worth noting these protests, a, just about israel. not many here are talking about the palestinians, the still peace process or continued occupation. although their numbers are

significant, they don't appear to represent the majority of israel society. i think right now it is a vocal minority. we don't know what the majority of israelis believe because the issues we're dealing with a very complex and the people we seeing protesting are people in the economic world . high tech lawyers, a journalist, people who feel the threat to understand what this means for the change of israel's legal regime. a and the demise of israelis, of israel's democracy, of moving on the path of hungary and poland. and perhaps other countries that have moved into an a, our system of weakening our democracy. the government's less than 2 months old and therefore too early for polling data. but it would seem, the majority of the electorate still supports the government of benjamin netanyahu . i need on their machinery. i am supporting the changes this government makes this country isn't moving or people who aren't letting it move. they must give this government a chance to change. thanks. hello,

i'm right wing. the government should be a right wing one as well. never even the protest is neither in a minority right now, but they are hoping that will change and will become more mainstream. but he, that still means hardline conservatives. then game for the protest is to force a new election. now they may well succeed in doing that and they may well even get rid of some of the all right, elements that make up the car coalition. however, if previous governments all anything to go by then that hard line, conservatism will still remain around calling out 0 west for islam. an award winning iranian filmmaker has been released from a terran prison after starting a hunger strike the demand freedom pending a retrial to far pena. he was detained in july to serve a 6 year prison sentence. originally issued in 2010. but a crackdown on descent had been charged of inciting opposition. protests made months of turmoil that followed the 2009 election outside the prison. after his

release pan, i spoke about other political prisoners and his fellow hunger strike for hard masonic ah, almost half a 1000000 people in ukraine's odessa region not without power. after a fire at an overloaded electrical substation officials warned, repairs could take weeks. the government said it would appeal to turkey to help restore power to the black sea port. the high voltage substation and the power infrastructure around odessa had been damaged by repeated russian missile strikes. but russia and ukraine have carried out a prisoner exchange, broken by the united arab emirates, ukrainian government says 116 of its soldiers had been allowed to return home. while 63 russians servicemen had been released out 0 zane was robbie is in the ukrainian capital, keith with 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 presidents office and the coordination, the humanitarian coordination office that works on these prisoner swamps. calling this 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. winter 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, something jade has the russian reaction. now 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. they're 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. the bodies of 2 british volunteer workers have been returned to ukraine as part of that exchange deal. the family of chris paris says that he and andrew punctual were killed in east m ukraine in january. all attempting a humanitarian evacuation is not yet known when their bodies will be handed over to the british embassy staff to be flown. 22 people are now confirmed dead in wildfire are sweeping across. chile, firefighter say there are now more than $250.00 different active fires covering

almost 500 square kilometers. a government's extended an emergency orders are covered, 3 regions in southern chile, the fires have been spot on, usually hot summer heat wave. if they want to handle the working on multiple sources of forest size that added to the weather high temperatures and a lot of wind, of course, great destruction, both in vegetation and building an arctic blast hit parts of the us and canada with fierce winds, pushing temperatures down into negative double digits. cable is under has more in the city of dr. scenes captured from alive camera show the coldest temperature ever recorded in the continental united states. at the mount, washington observatory and research center in the state of new hampshire, where the windshield dragged the mercury down to an incredible minus 79 degrees celsius on saturday. the arctic glass has brought sub 0 temperatures to large parts

of the northeastern united states and canada temperatures across the region. plunging to dangerously low levels in boston, massachusetts, where it hit minus 33 with wind chill. the biting wind made the cold at times. downright painful. if you're really into masochism and whatever. yeah, it's actually great. otherwise people say what the hell am i doing here? people are used to cold weather here in boston this time of year. but this is unusual. the last time it got this cold in boston was 1957 in parts of maine, it was so cold, there were frost quakes. small earthquakes caused by sudden cracks in frozen soil. elsewhere the brutal, cold, complicated the emergency response to a massive fire after train derailment overnight in ohio,

freezing the water being pumped to fire fighters. icey roads have made for hazard is driving in some states like here in oklahoma. but back in boston, temperatures began to creep up slightly in the afternoon, reaching negative 12. people began to come out and brave the elements having some fun. but this is certainly a deep freeze that people here won't forget any time soon. gabriel's hondo al jazeera boston. all right, so that's it for me down jordan. so now the news continues here on al jazeera, after inside story station, watching ah but a bit more snow to come to her condo. otherwise,

the story isn't really wintry at all for east asia. there is rain coming through some parts of china, and that's a coast knocking out the sunshine, but the temperature about average, whether it should be there a bit above average in northern china, in mongolia in the northeast as well. come across the sea, that cold breeze does produce that started in her car, but only on sunday or monday it's probably gone at rain. proper winds itself up as it goes through. shanghai has towards southern japan for tuesday. so let's leave east asia and has the south. where of course is tom, the it is the wet season, you get areas that are wetter than others, was popular strictly wet and the central philippines. and for a time, i think peninsula malaysia is prone to potential flooding with frequent and fairly heavy showers in south a sure it should be dry and it is dry. has been some significant. right. and so i can maybe a bit more to come, but not so much on sunday. where do you see snow come across asked afghan, a sand towards the north of pakistan. this ought to be

a good bit of news. the tends to me is a wesley to, to have the beats it, it mixes up the air and improves the i called you. so poor as it is in new delhi. i am free for sunday and monday nothing will change by tuesday. this stuff might influence your weather. you got better air quality. ah, the global food production is wasteful and streaming our planet. but pioneers are adapting with new food sources. jelly fish is delicious with a very light sea food taste and texture similar to calamari and innovative production techniques. and i've seen a vertical farm before, but never in a restaurant. have to say this is great. earth rise feeding the billions honor just eat up a balloon over us dies triggers a diplomatic storm. beijing denies washington's.