britain's true colors, part one on al jazeera. from the al jazeera london rural car center to people in thoughtful conversation. people use the lowest category and they describe the outsider with no host and no limitation. the difference between a migrant and refugee is purely a choice. when you are a refugee, you are forced to flee part one of asthma khan, and hath that i had what has happened a lot in the west is that culture and food is separated studio b unscripted on out his era? ah, the battle for back moot intensifies ukraine's president says russia throwing morbid troops into the fight. ah,

hello, i'm darn jordan. this is al jazeera live from dough also coming up prominent pro democracy figures are on trial in hong kong. 2 years after they were arrested, out of the government, controversial national security laws were belie from ecuador, where folks have been counted in a referendum. the aims to battle crime. i'm talkin bar mental issues plus, unprepared and ill equipped, di conditions in camps. the display statements, syria, i made worse by of loss of freezing, as we begin in ukraine, where president vladimir zalinski says he expects a major russian offensive in the coming weeks. and his nightly address, lensky said moscow's increasing pressure on several fronts. ahead of the 1st anniversary of the war on february 24th, while the battle for control of the eastern city of back moot has been intensified with russia deploying more troops, al jazeera zane basra,

to reports in the capital. keith, ukrainian soldiers, defending buck boot, enter the fray, knowing they are out numbered, and more russian fighters are on the way. but what is the major flash point on the eastern front right now? ukraine's president has promised he won't let the city fall without a fight. but believe me or zelinski may also be preparing his people for a worst case scenario that that is the sort of she knew, the who in the course of 346 days of this war, i often had to say that the situation at the front was tough and that the situation was becoming tougher. reach it is once again, that kind of key there. ukraine's army says a gun down as many as 200 russian mercenaries from the wagner group in a recent attack. but russian forces are gaining ground as they push to surround the

city. the worry for keep, now russia could be close to successfully cutting off the main highway into the city. currently ukraine's main supply line that could be a decisive moment in the battle for buckman. russian missiles are also hitting more civilian targets along the eastern front air strikes in cartesian hit a university and a residential block of rooms didn't you see there was a strong blast and everything happened so quickly. we were saved by the furniture that fell on us because of that we are alive. she's only lived in car keith, a few months homeless and displaced for a 2nd time during this war. the siege of mood has emptied out the city. but some refused to leave seeking refuge in prayer ms. walker from the brooklyn most i know they said, chance i might die last night. its healthy and to my garden, all the vendors were blown out a booth,

flint on my house this morning. it could have hit me in the head. our life is fleeting. they will die in any case for now or in 2030 years. it is not important. the main thing is how i present myself to god. does the licensee does jump the bridge or the nurses through the national? i pray for our country for all ukraine, for my children, for my family, for all ukrainians, for all i pray. oh but will ukrainian lines remain as unbreakable as their faith? both likely to be tested and coming days as russian forces escalate their campaign for bomber 30 z basra, the older 0 here. and there are reports that ukrainian defense minister, alexey resnick. av is set to be replaced by the head of military intelligence, rusnick office commander, increasing pressure after his ministry was tainted by a corruption scandal involving food contracts,

commenting about his possible dismissal at a news conference early on sunday. resonant of had this to say earlier stance pressure, where should i was not when i entered public service for the 1st time in 2014, i was then the secretary of the key of city council. and i immediately told everyone that no official is in his chair for ever would. you came on the decision to be the minister to fence or not is made by one person according to the constitution. it's the commander in chief in the president of the country, florida. me zalinski. well, william courtney is a senior fellow at the rand corporation. he says, any decision to replace the defense minister won't effect ukraine's ongoing operations? well, the timing is not so important. the main thing is that the new minister of defense be capable several years ago, rand corporation, where i work, wrote a report advising that. it is important not for the minister defense to try to do the job of the chief of the general staff and vice versa. that had been

a problem some years ago. the new minister of defense would have to be the representative of the messy defense to the parliament, to the router, to the presidency, and also too many in the west election rest and coff has enjoyed a good reputation in the west. as an effective minister of defense, who understood the broad political implications of what was going on. hopefully a new minister will perform the same role and not seek to duplicate the military strategy functions of the very capable chief of general staff general's allusion. it has been puzzling all along why the russians are throwing so much effort at bar moot. it is not a city of great strategic consequence, but it appears that pre goshen, the head of the wagner group has wanted to show that his ex convicts that he employees can do something. and so they have focus on back mode. but it is not

a strategic point, as far as ukraine is concerned, or the russians are really wasting a lot of soldiers and military equipment and that effort. now the trial of 17 of hong kong, most prominent pro democracy figures has begun. the defendants and legislators, politicians, activists, and community workers who were arrested 2 years ago and charged with conspiracy to commit a version. a charges are linked to their participation in an unofficial primary election held in 2020. well richard kimber, join us live now from hong kong. richard, so just talk us through the significance of this trial and why it's important. well, this is certainly a big deal to hong kong. there's really not been a problem. i try to like this for the last 2 years under so many cobit 19 restrictions. but here we have some of the most high profile democracy activists in hong kong standing trial across the cross section of society for young activists is a very well known internationally, like joshua wong, through to form a law makers and well known legal scholars. you can see behind me the school is

a police outside the building, marshalling the tendency from what is actually quite a large number of activists to come out despite previously facing bands on gathering because of cove. at 19 rules, there is now people waving union jack blacks behind me. there's a long queue of people sneaking around the courthouse. now the cobra, 1900 roles have been somewhat east in hong kong. it's not but unity to people to come out and show their voice again. and there's a sense of anticipation about this trial because many of those arrested have been detained for the entire period since the arrest was made 2 years ago. and so have not been seen or heard from since during a time when most of his democracy activism in the city has effectively closed up completely after the major political reforms that have taken place in. and richard, how is this case being viewed by the public? what do they make of it? well, the certainly huge sympathy for many of the people who are going to be sending trial today and through the next 90 days,

which is expected to be the length of this trial. certainly a sense of frustration that it's taken me this long to get to the stage and that many of those who have been detained have not been able to speak out during the time since they were arrested. there. is there also conflicting a sense of wanting to get back to business in hong kong because today what all this is going on behind me? the government on the other side of town is also promoting the fact. the border with the chinese mainland is being reopened. for the 1st time in 3 years, and one comes chief executive itself is right now in the middle east, in saudi arabia and the united arab emirates promoting new trade ties between hong kong and the rest of the world as part of the opening up process. so for many businesses that are more sympathetic with the government's efforts to try and stabilize the city of those months of st. protests, they would like to see this trial sorted out as quickly as possible. so hong kong can focus more on getting back to business and reintegrate think with the rest of the global financial economy. so just try to certainly again, causing social division here between the many people who have turned out again this

morning to so that support the activists and many people who really want hong kong to just move on to move forward and put many of this political chaos if that are 2 years behind it, i mentioned kimber life s the in hong kong. richard, thank. now on saturday, the us military shut down with claims was a high altitude chinese surveillance balloon. the chinese government expressed outrage claiming it was a weather balloon that had just blown, of course, spoke to major diplomatic rao with a u. s. sexual state cancelling a plan visit to beijing. well, now there's growing criticism in the u. s. of a. how president biden handled the incursion into american asset base practical, hey, report. oh, wow. a loud and very public end to a story. the american people watched unfold for days, a high altitude balloon crossing the country, which the us military said was china's attempt to spy on the us. it was shut down, saturday would an f $22.00 fighter jet, launched a single missile, the balloon and equipment plunging into the atlantic ocean. now as the u. s. navy

works to retrieve the debris, a growing criticism in washington that the balloon got that far. the present was paralyzed for an entire week by a balloon. we should have shot this balloon down over the aleutian islands. we should never have allowed it to transit the entire continental united states. it doesn't seem like the president knew about the balloon. then. according to pentagon officials, it was 1st picked up off the coast of alaska on saturday, january 28th transit aint through canada, and then entering through northern, idaho, and on to montana on the 28th the following tuesday. that was the day that the white house, as president joe biden was 1st informed. he gave the order to shoot down wednesday . the military says it wasn't safe to do it over land. so they waited until it reached the coast. we sent a clear message to china that this is not acceptable. we protected civilians. we

gained more intelligence while protecting our own sensitive information. we believe this week, the gang of aid is going to be briefed on the incident that the leadership of the intelligence committee and of the house and the senate, both democrats and republicans, the following weekend february 15th, we believe the entire senate is going to get a classified briefing, meaning this controversy, and these criticisms are unlikely to em. anytime soon. paddock lane l v 0, washington. italy's national cyber security agencies warning thousands of computer servers around the world have been hacked. the ransomware of effective dozens of companies in italy, the agency says serve as in france, finland the us and canada have also been compromised. us cybersecurity, official say they assessing the impact of the incident. what ok, boyton is a cyber security and intelligence analyst, he said, is likely the attack target that companies across several different sectors. a little details being released,

but the fact that italian cybersecurity authority is warning about this is a good indication that this could be as at large scale and hitting lots of places, it looked like it might well be a technical or a technical, a server issue that was supposed warned about on friday and saturday as well in some circles, in which case if that's, if that's the one, then it will be hitting a service across all sectors depending on where what their update status is, where they rolling the latest versions, whether they run system safety, etc, and that's not dependent on what secretary they're working and it requires that systems are kept up to date. that software is made correctly in the 1st instance, which it always is in practice. most of the attacks that do happen can be prevented because data systems near the ransomware attacks attack known from the abilities, things that have been fixed for a while already. so if it's the thing that the internet was talking about on friday

and saturday, then it saw something that was discovered in 2021 an ac 16. the newest version of software votes of our being counted in, ecuador was constant roofnal referendum and local elections. the national referendum was proposed by the president. we am a lasso to battle a crime wave and address environmental issues. over 13000000 people were registered to participate, the opposition led by former socialist president. rafael korea has been urging voters to reject the proposed reforms. go live now to alessandra petty in the ecuadorian capital key to alexander. we understand some early results that have started coming in from the vote count. what more can you tell us? ah, well there and i can say that it's going to be a long night before we get the official results or the electoral council officials just came out and gave at their latest the bulletin calling on a quandary. answer at to be patient essentially as saying that this is going to be

a long process. it has to do with the fact that it was a big number of questions. 8 questions that were part of this a constitutional referendum. and also the fact that the ecuadorian on sunday were also voting for more than 5000 local officials and other officials of different the ecuadorian a institution. so. so, so far we're looking at around 5 percent of the votes counted in the case of the constitutional a referendum bratton. now the, the yes vote seems to be on top. we've also seen a number of private exit polls that say that the indeed the majority of ecuadorian sir, would have voted positively positively in this a referendum. if this is confirmed, this would be a major victory for president the yet more last. so he

a was hoping for a victory to assert that sort of regain initiative, given the fact that his is a very unpopular administration, we essentially had to deal with crisis after crisis after coming in office back in 2021. but again, these are just a partial resolve suggested beginning of accounts. so it's definitely too early to call these elections one way or another, alexandra z say voters are presented with a rather long confusing list of questions in this referendum. but what ordinary people want from all of this look, there's no doubt that ecuador is, are looking for a change of they are worried about the increase in crime, in particular, and the regions across a long beer pacific coast of the country. just to give you an idea,

true a candidates for mayor of the leftist party of former presidents, roughly raphael kirby i have been killed during this election campaign, one on saturday just hours before the pulls opened. another 13 campaign events have been attacked allegedly by these drug gangs that are operating in an this region. and the government so far has been an able to control a situation that has been a worsening a for many months now. more than 400 people have died in the air ecuadorian prisons due to clashes that broke out in past mounts, months in that prison. also the economy is the is big on, on people's mind. so they are hoping that things can turn around. but while it seems like a majority might have voted in favor of these ref friend,

we are also seeing in these 1st projections the fact that the left these parties opposition parties have are gaining seats across the country in local elections. alessandra, thank you for short, break it down to 0. when we come back, tens of thousands of people are displaced in a matter of weeks as violence rumps off in the democratic republic of congo. and will take you to morocco with football fans are enjoying one will come, i'm dreaming of another more not stay with us. ah winces. running away very rapidly from east asia is just by cold oscar a slow shower to an ha carter maybe on monday. but look at the temperatures when they're sub 0, but they really are warm. this type of the year, beijing is hard. it should be by 3 or 4 degrees. even shanghai is just about the

average. and that's only because it's cloud and rain for southern shy black rain itself was winding up into significant proportion of the month's worth for a key issue, for example, is running up into sudden home true. so i think would be some snow melt here. flooding is a petition, potential least the northern china, the sun, is out. the temperature is hover around where they should be. by the time we get to choose day. but it doesn't look like deep mid winter after dahlia south of this. and it's the rainy season. heavy rain continues to be likely in peninsula malaysia and borneo probably western populate, and maybe some parts of philippines and central job all as a potential flood. we've had significant sto recently in afghanistan, northern pakistan, and normandy, appear to still some to come, but it's tend to diet, rain to in sri lanka. but equally that tend to diet. new delhi has a benefit from what's happening from those snow showers because you've got a change in the contrast of the air, the window pick up on tuesday, wednesday,

new air quality will improve. ah ah ah ah. ah lou ah,

welcome back. a good amount about top stories here at this hour. the battle for control of the eastern ukrainian city about moves is intensified just weeks before the 1st anniversary of the russian invasion. it comes as report some key suggest ukraine's defense minister is set to be replaced by the head of military intelligence. the trial of 17 of hong kong is most prominent. pro democracy figures has become the defendants and legislatures, politicians to this community. workers who are arrested 2 years ago in charge of conspiracy to commit to the suburbs and votes that are being counted in ecuador, constitutional referendum and local elections. the national referendum was proposed by president lawson potluck crime, weight, and address environmental concerns. now, magnitude 7.8. earthquake has struck a se on town. in total key at the epicenter was in bizarre chick, which is about 30 kilometers north west of the major border city. of gassy and what

trim has reportedly lasted about a minute and it's understood some buildings. what damage, no casualties have been reported so far. let me bring you more in that story. as we get it, tens of thousands have fled their homes and eastern democratic republic of congo in recent days after renewed attacks by the m $23.00 armed group. the rebels are widely understood to be backed by neighboring rolanda, which is government denies malcolm web reports. now from the village of king eric and die, a shimmy. a says he couldn't bury his 78 year old mother after she was hacked to death with machetes. fighters from the n. 23 armed group attacked his village last week in eastern democratic republic of congo. new i live, i move in to my mom left home to go and farm and suddenly the n 23 appeared and killed her little brother. witness. it came to tell us we didn't go

there because we fear it. if the killing an old woman, then they'll be killing young people like us as well. and throw a camel eric's among tens of thousands of people who fled their homes. in recent days, this camp on the outskirts of the city of goma, new home. we went up into the hills to see where they come from. we accompanied an army general who was visiting commanders near the front line. most of the people that live around here have fled. the homes and the shops are empty. they've been taken over by soldiers who turn this village into a base. and here they are looking at cross their enemy on that distant hillside. the slopes here, a steep terrain makes it very difficult for anyone to attack or defend the armies last waves of territory to n 23 in the last 4 months, many congo. liza questioning why the government hasn't done more to supporters

forces and 20 threes, rapidly growing stronger, denies committing atrocities that it frequently accused of its fighters carry rwandan army equipment and london soldiers had been photographed among them. wandered denies, supporting them. so she belted. yeah. this is not m 23, it's the one than army. and you should know that 23 is not only with through want an army, but it's also supported by other groups operating that in congo. and this by you and investigators writes groups and residents all say congos forces have collaborated with armed groups to fight against them. 23, congo government denies it. when the accused congo of hiring foreign mercenaries, congress governments has its hired form of french soldiers. as military instructors, we need some instruct all. and i think with those who are working with them, it's a group of what you're calling france leisure and the joy of tarzan delorme from

phase. they are well known. they come to give some instruction to our military simple. further up in these hills, a colton mines vast sums for whoever controls them. the people who lived here farming the slopes and now camped in the valleys, hoping somebody will bring them food. there's been conflict here on and off since the 1990s. now it's intensifying once again. malcolm web al jazeera, kinky democratic republic of congo, display families in northern syria were already living in dire conditions after the destruction of their homes. but they've been worsened by a severe snowstorm that if the area mom at vall has a little they are left in the cold. these displaced families in north and syria are facing a new ordeal brought on by a severe snowstorm. and they are not equipped for the challenge. 2 of you with all

of them, as you can see for your own eyes, only this night, 5 tenths of collapsed children left and the rain and snow without any shelter. this situation is the same across all the displacement camps in our la post, north and countryside and italy. low temperatures, along with heavy rain, have taken a heavy toll on the people here. most of the tents are not water resistant. there is a visible absence of essential sanitary facilities, fowl, water pants, fill the street south surround the tents. thick mud restricts movement and makes it difficult to deliver clean drinking water to the camps. children in particular are suffering the most well as alkali marano, other children in the camp are sick. if he want to take a tel to a hospital, we have no alternative but to carry it through the mud and walk a long distance to the main road. my dad and water every way we are left without

anything to keep us warm. serious issue mandy terry in response coordinators are warning of a further deterioration of the situation in the camps. more snow form is predicted in the coming days, and they are calling on international relief agencies for help. in addition to food and clothes, there was a desperate need for heating equipment, and there are warnings of possible deaths because of the severe cold. there are nearly 2000000 displaced people in north and syria, living in caps along the turkish border, and many of them need urgent help to get them through a tough winter. muhammad fun jessia morocco's ambitions to stage. major football tournaments only increased on the team's good performance that cut off will come countries the ultimate target is to one day bring the world come back to africa and richardson reports from about the this is where world cup dreams

a born morocco is investing in foot board every level. there are hundreds of pitches like this across the country, giving young players affordable access to coaching and competitive matches. as you walk through last it is you'll see those stubblefield everywhere. wherever do the spot, the, there was nothing there. the government will use it, you would just kind of feel we called, i mean our big my label, which is which means like there are close to the community in near the moroccan capital. overabundance is the mohammed, the sick academy and national center of excellence, where players age 12 and older go to study and play football. graduates include for the morocco squad, we took part in the recent world cup. coach runs the semi finals in capsule was a 1st for an african team. less feel good is another wilco record. the country has . morocco has been a host the world cup 5 times and on each occasion it has failed. meaning the

country has the unwonted title of most well cut bits without success. it all began when it missed out on the 1994 final. tonight had states by just 3 votes, and most recently, the nation failed to land. the 2026 tournaments. morocco is likely to bid for the 2030 will come, possibly in a joint effort with portugal and spain. public health. we have good stadiums and good infrastructure. morocco could organize any tournaments if you want proof, then right now we have the world cup for a 3rd time. it's something that's good for the game in morocco and for arab and african football. so why not? why shouldn't we have the world cup here? after a hang bull kit is a professor of sports and sociology, he says the national team success and the countries ambitions are host, the world cup can have an impact far beyond the football pitch. give a push to our country. that doesn't mean that like, oh no,

it's like the wither of ost. everything would change will be okay. we'll be happy and we'll be reach country know, but things can be really moving to a better better way. the work kept was like an opportunity to say that we could really do something, we could really become an influence and a good country and sport and on other sectors button should really work for them. some good news could be heading morocco's way in the next few days. the, the decision expected on whether it's been successful and it's bits a host at 2025 cup of nations, africa's biggest international football tournaments. and the richardson al jazeera roberts ah, type of christian on the headlines here on.