spin rain is the heat is produced so far as far as sas is santiago and given is no real changed out of the wind or the rain. there's a light continue. ah, there is no channel that covers world views like we do. a scale of this camp is like nothing you've ever seen. what we want to know is how do these things affect people? we revisit please state, even when they're no international headlines. al jazeera, really invest in that, and that's a privilege. as a journalist, ah, us fighter jets shoot down a suspected chinese surveillance balloon has been drifting across american air space for days, beijing as condemned the move. ah,

hello, i'm darned, jordan. this is out as they are a lie from to are also coming up. hope francis meets children displaced by conflict and south saddam and urge them to rewrite the history as a time of peace and on the streets of israel. thousands protest against benjamin netanyahu is far right government for 5th consecutive week. and the big fries hits north america more on the arctic blast at seen record low temperatures, and parts of the us and canada. ah, the u. s. military has shut down a chinese balloon, which it says was a surveillance craft. beijing has condemned the move. they maintain it was a civilian weather balloon, but a blown off course. president joe biden authorized fighter aircraft to take down

the balloon as long as it was without risk to civilian lives. on friday, it was spotted high above montana near a compound housing nuclear missile silos. it was down to the coast of south carolina. shortly after the government ordered a halt to commercial flights in the area. one day when i was break down the balloon or the pentagon to shoot down one v as soon as possible, decided without doing damage to any one on the ground. and decided that the best time to do that was we got over water within our, within 12 mile limit as successively took it down. and i wanna complement our graders or did it. and we'll have more to report on this a little later. thank you. what they say by the same a recommendation from you was funny and that's why the whole that is true. the down on wednesday, i was like the recommended to me like wait to take this place to do it will. our

pentagon correspondent particle haine joins us live now from washington dc party. so what more has the pentagon been saying about the shooting down of the blue? well, the pentagon, shortly after this news broke, did a background briefing for reporters. and they basically went through the tick tock of what happened and they really didn't make a secret of this. we knew it was coming because they very publicly close the airspace. they really secured the water in the continental us tera, tara water's. and so around 245 in the afternoon, they say there was a single f 22 rafter fighter jet, launched one missile the balloon. we've now seen pretty clear video of a direct hit. it slowly descends. they say now they're going to focus on the recovery effort. they say that should be easier than they actually thought it would be, because it's in somewhat shallow water is just about 14 meters, a little bit more than that. so what they're doing now is they have a whole host of us navy ships patrol in the area, the coast guards there. they say they're doing is they're bringing in a special boat sort of crane apparatus. and then they're going to use navy divers

and unmanned submersible to basically go down to where this, this now deflated balloon is and all of that equipment. and basically pull it up to the surface, loaded onto a ship, probably going to be a ship and bring it to shore so that they can study probably try to reverse engineer any of the any of the equipment on board. the question is going to be, are they going to provide proof? they have not in this entire, all of these days leading up to this, which saw the secretary of state cancel his trip to china. so are they going to make public what they found? because china says this was a weather balloon, the us says it was a spy balloon. so we're going to be waiting to see in the next couple of days whether or not they prove what it is they think they saw. alright, tactical, hey there in washington, dc. patchy thank you for that. let's come up now to beijing. a talk to katrina. you katrina for chinese officials of expressed outrage over the us shooting down their balloon. what more they didn't say a don sir. china has strongly condemned the

military strive to take down the balloon. they released a statement saying that it was an over reaction and a violation of international practice. now that follows a statement on saturday by the foreign ministry reiterating and saw that this is not a spy balloon, that this is a civilian airship. used to collect where the data but that was blown off caused by a strong winds. that there was a force major accident. it also sort of shifted from it's regrettable towards more defense one saying that the u. s. some of them politicians and media were using the incident to discredit and attack china. we also heard from beijing that one he had top chinese diplomat did speak to as the blinking over the fern. and he said that they should be regular communication between both sides. her voice misjudgement. he also called these accusations groundless. and he said that he said that the both sides would continue have cool hes going forward order this incidents. now this is

a major blow of cause to china. us relations. it has already been extremely tense of the last few years. there is a growing list of disagreements, everything from technology to taiwan, to the south china sea. so this issue will only add to that and it comes at a time what china is really looking to stabilize you as trying to relationship so that it can focus on it's increasingly slowing economy. all right, katrina, you live for us there in beijing. katrina. thank you. let's bring him brandon o'connor. he's a professor of us politics on foreign relations at the university of sydney's us studies. cynthia jones of live from melbourne. brendan, good to have you with us under president biden was under growing pressure to shoot down this balloon, but it also gave the americans the perfect opportunity to say, look, we called the chinese red handed and here's the hard evidence to prove it. well the hard evidence will be in the material in the atlantic lines and. ready that's i think, part of the reason for shading it down is to get as much detail on what was going

on as possible. i mean, there's claims and kind of claims. the us, of course, saying it's a spy below the chinese saying it's a winter blade. if you have hard evidence, then it makes your case a lot stronger. and i think that was part of buttons concern here. bottoms interest was to be able to provide facts to back up us claims of it being a spy below. yeah. brand that as you say, the chinese saying this is a civilian weather balloon blown of course, but it had been hovering over canada and the u. s. a. some time. but surely though, brandon, the chinese would have made the calculation that if discovered this balloon would have caused a serious diplomatic spot where the us yes, i think some common tied is probably rightly describing it as the left hand of the chinese government in the right. and maybe not going in the same direction with picking up the goods in the same manner with lincoln's visit coming up, the diplomatic side of this looks very difficult, but i think probably the spy balloons certainly satellite imagery by china and the

united states i gathering isn't too uncommon. so i think part of the story here is that there's always a lot more surveillance and spying going on than us the sort of like persons who are not involved in the national security states of both countries know about. and on occasions when the truth comes out, all these things get discovered, then the diplomacy around it can become tricky. and we have in some ways, been here before with the soviet union and 1960 shooting down a u. 2 americans pipeline over the soviet union. and the sort of difficulties the floyd from that period to the cuban missile crisis. 1962. and you know, a good example to learn from a mini regards of how these incidents can escalate and 10 times can rise a cool heads. let's, let's talk about the chinese reaction for 2nd brendan, i mean,

officials in beijing are voiced, outraged that the balloon was shot down and they threatened repercussions presumably though this is all part of beijing sticking to their story line. but look, this was just a harmless weather balloon blown. of course. yes, i mean, i think the higher the visits will probably push back against that if it's found to be not the case. the chinese have, i mean read shooting that up and there are domestic media to say look, this is the case of the us acting, illegal. a aggressive lay unwarranted lay shooting the balloon down. so i think the tension, the nationalists, the people who are escalators and both united states and certainly in china again, other people we have to worry about in any conflict between the country. and it was a real shy and. ready diplomacy, which is the cooler heads, didn't occur this weekend. yeah. just, just a final thoughts on that brand. and i mean, whatever the evidence this has been an embarrassing episode for the chinese and marks as you say, a low point in the us,

chinese relations. how much diplomatic damage has been done and how do you see both sides recovering from this? well, in some ways, we hope that this incident provides maybe some ground rules to deal with these types of conflicts to be able to get on the fi. so negotiate and discuss these things, rather than let them play out on the domestic media. there's plenty of people in the u. s. congress who want to make a lot of this might be suggest, the biden has brought this on, the bottom was to wait. so i think barton was under pressure to shoot it down, not over the united states because that would have been dangerous, but in the ocean. so it's a case of getting, i think the diplomat back talking, getting the president's talking about countries and trying not to let us get out of hand with people who probably don't know the fact that there probably is more of this going on than i think as i said we're, we're all and spying isn't uncommon. but this is certainly i think embarrassing for the chinese and suggest some sort of miscalculations of this, of the blame,

certainly, friend and i can't really get to get your thoughts and your analysis brendan, thank you very much. indeed for talking to us. thank you. my pleasure. separate processes met people affected by the conflict and south sudan. the head of the catholic church is on a 6 day trip to africa, which will end on sunday. more than 4000000 southward in these have been forced to flee their homes because of a civil war that's been going on since 2013. the pontiff spoke to the space people in the capital about his hopes apiece. i really can with you bear the burden of a painful past yet you never stopped dreaming of a better future in our meeting today. we would like to give wings to your hope. well, earlier we spoke to the right reverend doctor in green shields the head of the church of scotland, who's in south down with the pope. he says he's optimistic, the visit will help lay a path for peace just to fight the 3 of us being there together was quite amazing

at that in the sales, i think was a credible statement of unity. you can speak to people about peace. if you don't live in yourself, so i think that in itself, which was very powerful, real optimism or, and that maybe this is the time when things will begin to start to turn and change . and certainly all the services today we're, the political leaders were present and the big service for unity and for peace. later on in the day, there was quite a straight talking from everybody to the political leadership. yes, support was quite firm and what he was saying, expecting that, that not much had happened in the 40 years 5 years since they had trying to get things rolling. and i real same. so unless you have a country that's a piece, you know,

good to have other countries providing inward investment and you're going to find people continue vulnerable because of the continued violence. and you're not going to better at the prosperity of the people at the, at the almost half a 1000000 people in ukraine's a desa region. and now without power off to fire as an overloaded electrical substation officials war the repairs could take weeks. the government said it would appeal to turkey to help restore power to the black sea port city, the high voltage substation. now the power infrastructure around the desa have been damaged by repeated russian missile strikes. mino, a russia ukraine of carried out a prisoner exchange broker by the united arab emirates. ukrainian government says a 116 of its soldiers have been allowed to return home on 6 or 3 russian troops have been released out to 0. 0 was rob is in key 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. the president's office and the coordination, the humanitarian coordination. office that works on these prisoners swaps calling this cause for celebration, but they do say despite the fact that including today, 37 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. out there as a sama been jervey, 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 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 rest wants imposed on moscow. we know that the chief mom had been zaid visited her vladimir putin and also discussed the issue of ukraine. so break here now to sierra, when we come back steaming unsafe people in pakistan, colon that governments take action against army. plus i said that i'm getting keep to ecuador, where on sunday people will vote on a number of possible constitutional reforms. the many here. c as a referendum and the government, the viet molasses. ah

. but a bit more snow to come to accardo. otherwise the story isn't really wintry at all for east asia. there's rain coming through some parts of china, and that's a coast knocking out the sunshine, but the temperatures about average, whether it should be there, bit above average in northern china, in mongolia in the northeast as well. coming across the sea. that cold breeze does produce at styles it in ha carter, 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 tommy, it is the wet season, you get areas that are wetter than others, where's 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. it south

a sure it should be dry and it is dry. has been some significant right? its for like a maybe a bit more to come. but not so much on sunday. when you do see snow come across, asked afghan towards the north of pakistan. this ought to be a good bit of news. who tends to me is a west be disturbed. it meets it, mixes up the air and improves the air cultures. 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 corte ah bout diets define who we are. but who are we? if we don't know what we eating in a disturbing investigation into globalized food fraud, people and power reveals long hidden scandalous practices. the def, infiltrated international wholesale markets, and supermarket chains and asks, what's really on our plates. food in glorious food on to one out

just sierra ah ah. okay back. okay, remind about top stories here. this our us fighter jets of down the chinese blue and not be south carolina coast, which the pentagon described as a surveillance croft. it says the balloon was being used to spy on strategic sites across the united states process as the meeting people affected by the conflict himself for them. the head of the roman catholic church calling front end to the decade long civil war that displaced 4000000 people in russia and ukraine have carried out a prisoner exchange. brokered by the united arab emirates, ukrainian governments is a 106 tina of its soldiers had been allowed to return home. while 6 to 3 russian

troops have been released. thousands of his rallies have been out protesting against their government for 5th successive saturday. 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. m an con reports from west drew sl. oh, once 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. every saturday they gather, calling this right when government a threat to democracy in the rule of law. because it's a coalition built around opening, 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, all continued occupation. although their numbers are significant, they don't appear to represent the majority of israel society. i think right now

what is a vocal minority? we don't know what the majority of his release believe because the issues we're dealing with a very complex and the people we seeing protesting our 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, a system of weakening our democracy the governments 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 there, but she knew it. 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 government should be

a right wing one as well. lover. even the protesters neither in a minority right now, but they are hoping that will change and will become more mainstream. but he, that still means hard line conservatives. then going to 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 far right elements that make up of the current coalition. however, if previous governments or anything to go by then that hard line, conservatism will still remain. iran come out 0 west jerusalem. people in the northern and pakistani city of pasha, well, i've been protesting to demand a authorities take action to prevent attacks by armed groups. more than a 100 people were killed in the city when a suicide bomber target a mosque on monday out 0 is acid. beg, spoke to protest as on the streets of petula. ah, they came from across the province, demanding peace from the focused on the government. after monday,

suicide attack on a mosque that killed $101.00 people, and injured many more. political parties were asked not to fly their flags. instead, white flags were raised. many people here in the northern city of pasha, ver say, they don't trust braxton's military establishment. question, read it have been something from 20 out of 4. this is the need of the time that domain for quite a so peace and our own and oh, last an hour the meg demonte space on the city. and this protest is seen as a popular uprising, similar to the one that followed the killing of 134 students in 2014. in a 30 bon attack on a miniature school. the movement starved the boxed under taliban of supporting towns and villages in the region. and along with military operations. attacks by the taliban drastically reduced your response that these kind of incidents are happening, but no one is taking responsibility. all women and children are suffering. we want bes, we want education, we don't want state sponsored terrorism. every house,

this is leading and we can't take any more bodies. oh, they chant, we will never accept terrorism. the threat is still very real. security was high, run the protest. on saturday morning police carried out operations against armed groups. they say 2 valuable commanders were killed and a cache of weapons confiscated and others were taken into custody. the dog is of the still room which we honors industries of abbey were policemen, cusick, eugene solutions, and some high profile persons in this region. prime minister, shabazz sharif, a said pakistan is facing an unimaginable economic challenge. the killing of over 100 people seems to be a real turning point here in focused on for years they struggled and suffered with militancy and they don't want to see it make a return. but unlike before economic conditions now are the worth, the country as they were faith, which would make it even more difficult to get white. a result is the police thought desperately need some people here. they don't have a choice. they live on the front line of this battle. i thought, beg, i'll dedira

a shower of pockets on people in ecuador beheading to the poles, and the coming hours to elect local officials and vote on constitutional reforms. many observers are seeing this referendum as a test for president graham. a lasso was approval rating sits at less than 20 percent. was our run. pity has more now from a capital kito apathy and frustration, or on the rise among voters in kito ahead of sundays, wide ranging referendum promoted by embattled precedent. guillermo last. so to address the countries deteriorating, social, and economic conditions. so like if you look at it, we have no faith in politicians for all the scandals that happened recently. people has lost trust in politics, back on, so ha, with an approval rating below 20 percent, a hostile congress, mounting government corruption allegations, and a dramatic rising gang related crime. conservative president, last so has been left with little space to maneuver. i relation claudia,

that the 8th referendum questions which covers security issues, reducing the number of lawmakers in congress, environmental protection, and the possible extradition of ecuadorian st. could help him regain initiative and call upon us counsel does populate popular consultations, usually become a referendum on the current administration. but in this case, despite the president's major lost in political capital, the referendum has strong support because it addresses funded 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 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 estimate 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 weren't so from the security issues with democratic instability even less the environment. it's a tricky and deceitful referendum. unfortunately, all of us into last. so barely survived then 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 ben no campaign. he says the government should instead comply with the agreements that end the demonstrations. it will be both that the government strategically avoid simply mounting the agreement and comes out of district random to confound all. it really wants as to get some oxygen to continue trying. implementing policies that have not worked until now. both both show 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 allison and pity, and just quito. 22 people are now concerned dead in wild fires that are sweeping across chile firefighters. say there are now more than $250.00 different active fires covering almost 500 square kilometers. the government has extended an emergency order to cover 3 regions in southern julie. the fires at mon spot by an unusually hot summer heat wave. if they want to handle than me, we're 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 at 1130, an arctic blast has hit parts of the united states and canada with fierce winds, pushing temperatures down into negative double digits out there, as gable, as under as more now from boston. scenes captured from a live 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 blast 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 $33.00 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 hazardous 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, ah.