this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm shaun ley. our top stories. two so—called chinese "spy" balloons have enterted us airspace in what the us secretary of state dubs "an irresponsible act". the presence of a surveillance balloon in us airspace is a clear violation of us sovereignty and international law. and the missing person case that's left investigators in the uk perplexed — mother—of—two nicola bulley hasn't been seen for eight days. police think she may have fallen into a river. forest fires in chile sparked by a devastating heat wave have left at least 13 people dead. a young youtube star in iraq killed by her father has sparked nation—wide outrage and calls for protests and legal reform.

the boss of tesla, elon musk, is cleared of fraud charges brought against him by the company's shareholders. china has made another attempt to calm the diplomatic crisis caused by the detection of a chinese surveillance balloon over the united states. the top foreign policy official wang yi has discussed the dispute with the us secretary of state anthony blinken, who postponed a trip to beijing this weekend in response to the dispute. china insists the balloon is a weather obervation airship that went off course, but washington says it's being used for spying. our north america correspondent, peter bowes, reports. a surreal but increasingly serious international row. this speck in the sky could be spying on the us —

the chinese balloon that's been hovering over the country for several days. china insists it's a platform to conduct weather—related research that's deviated from its route. beijing has apologised but the us state department says it stands by its assessment that the balloon is being used for surveillance, and defence officials now say there's a second balloon. we are seeing reports of the balloon transiting latin america. we now assess it as another chinese surveillance balloon. antony blinken had been due in beijing this weekend to hold talks on a wide range of issues, including security, taiwan and covid—19. but he said that was no longer possible because the purpose of the trip — to forge better relations between the two countries — had been undermined. the presence of this surveillance balloon in us airspace is a clear violation of us sovereignty and international law, that it is an irresponsible act

and that the prc�*s decision to take this action on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the subsequent discussions that we planned to have. beijing says in a phone call on friday night, antony blinken was told by his chinese counterpart that accidental incidents had to be dealt with in a calm and professional manner and that both parties needed to avoid any misjudgements. us defence officials say the first balloon is still hovering somewhere over the united states and they're keeping their options open. and i can tell you that the balloon continues to move eastward and is currently over the centre of the continental united states. again, we currently assess that the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time. officials say the immediate objective is to get this balloon out of us airspace. peter bowes, bbc news. our china correspondent — stephen mcdonell — has been guaging the response from beijing.

there had been great hope here in beijing that the visit by us secretary of state antony blinken could provide something of a breakthrough, of a reset in us—china relations. but this balloon or these balloons have put a stop to that. there was, however, a call between china's most senior foreign policy official, wang yi, and antony blinken and according to official readout of that call from the chinese side, they're saying that wang yi told antony blinken that both sides should maintain steadiness and with timely communication, they could avoid misjudgment in terms of this balloon affair, but that beijing would not accept any groundless conjecture or hype regarding the balloons. also, in a separate statement from the chinese foreign ministry, they said that some politicians and media in the us have hyped up this as a means of attacking and smearing china.

so you can see, even as china is trying to reassure the us that the balloons have accidentally floated into us airspace, they're still trying to take a strong stand, i guess maintain some face either way. a lot of work is going to have to be done to rebuild the trust that would be required for anthony blinken to set another date to come to beijing to have these talks, which, as i say, are supposed to be designed to ease tensions between the world's superpowers. here in the uk — a missing person case has been perplexing investigators. but lancashire police investigating the disappearance of mother—of—two nicola bulley now believe she fell into a river. the 45—year—old was last seen next to the river wyre in the village of st michael's on wyre, on a dog walk a week ago. a major search for ms bulley continues, but no trace of her has been found.

in response to the police�*s theory, nicola's friend of ten years emma white said it's important to keep searching for evidence. we can't be talking about a life and basing it on a theory. we can't go and tell those girls, well, the theory could be x, y and z. we need some evidence. whatever the news is, then we'll deal with whatever the evidence is. so again, we're out in force today and raising that awareness. if anybody does see anything, hear anything, jogs the memory of last friday, please share. but on the bulletin yesterday, we're asking for factual information so that influx of calls yesterday, we want the facts. i spoke earlier to our reporter olivia richwald, who's at st michael's on wyre in the north of england. she told me what is being searched for today. she told me what is being searched for today. well, just since we've been here this morning, we've seen the police helicopter overhead — flying very low, actually, and hovering for a long time, presumably scanning the river for any signs of nicola.

we've also seen police search teams on foot. just a few minutes ago, they've passed this section further up the river. they tell me they're walking the entire length of the river today. nicola bulley is a 45—year—old mum of two young girls. it is now eight days since she vanished. she'd just dropped her children off at school and was walking back along this footpath, a popularfootpath here next to the river. she disappeared from a spot around about 400 metres further upstream. she was walking her dog and she had her phone with her. the phone and dog were found, but there's been no sign of nicola ever since then. yesterday, the police held a press conference here in the village, and they were keen to stress there were no suspicious circumstances that they can ascertain at the moment. they don't believe there is any criminal involvement. so their working hypothesis is that nicola has accidentally fallen into the river, and that's why their searches today and this weekend will be

focusing on the river itself. but there's a huge team of volunteers also searching, and like nicola's friend, emma, they don't want to give up hope. they say they're looking at all possibilities to try to find out what has happened to nicola, and find her. yesterday, the police confirmed that they had very thoroughly searched this one kilometre stretch, but the river from here to the sea, it's about 1k kilometres long, so clearly there's a lot more work that needs to be done to search the river. it's not an easy river to search, because although it looks narrow, it's quite deep and it's very murky. so police have been using sonar and using underwater search teams. they've also been consulting river flow experts to try to work out where nicola might be. meanwhile, the volunteers are still coordinating a detailed search of the area — everyone hoping that there is a positive outcome to this curious case. olivia, one of the old

circumstances, which was apparent after she had disappeared, was that she was on the phone apparently moments before, and that the phone was found, even though she wasn't found. she'd been in the middle of a conference call with colleagues. i suppose that was something that would make people think, "oh, if you suddenly leave your phone and you vanish, has somebody attacked you and dragged you off?" do the police think they can come up with an alternative explanation for that very odd — small but very odd matter? yes, that's right, there have been a lot of theories as to what might�*ve happened to her, and that's why the police held their press conference yesterday, to try and reassure people that they've scoured the area and they've searched cctv, and they don't believe nicola left the area. the phone you were talking about was found on a bench, it was still connected to a teams call that nicola had joined.

it was still left on and still connected to that call on the bench. the police believe that possibly she joined that call, she was walking her dog, perhaps the dog found something or got into a difficulty, and perhaps nicola left her phone on the bench and entered the river by accident. that's the theory that they're working on at the moment, and they are keen to stress, they don't believe there are any suspicious circumstances. chile has declared a state of disaster in several central—southern regions after a heat wave sparked forest fires that left at least 13 people dead. more than 100 homes have been affected and 10,000 hectares of forest destroyed since the wildfires broke out on wednesday. stephanie prentice reports: scenes of devastation in chile. these are just some of the homes razed to the ground by fires raging out of control. some of the people living here in santa juana trying desperately to save their communities.

doing what they can to salvage the dry earth on arable land. thousands of firefighters and civilian support crews have been sent out to try and contain the fires on the ground between the capital, santiago, and southern farming regions. but on friday, a helicopter trying to assist them came down, killing two of the rescuers. other civilians have died trying to flee in cars through the smoke, at least two when their car crashed. translation: i want you to know l we are not going to leave you alone. today the priority is to put out the fire. that's what our resources are deployed for. as a government, we are concerned about support for reconstruction and recovering everything that has been lost. the most important thing is to save lives. there are fears that strong winds predicted over the next few days

could scorch this landscape further. reconstruction and recovery of these farming areas at least seemingly a longer term goal. stephanie prentice, bbc news. ajury in the united states has found elon musk not guilty of fraud over a tweet about tesla. mr musk was being sued by shareholders who claim they lost billions following tweets by the founder of the carmaker that he was taking the company back into private ownership. — something which never happened. summing up, the lawyer for the shareholders said that the billionaire was not above the law while mr musk�*s attorney said his client was not a tweeting monster. james clayton has been following the case. but i'm curious what you guys think. elon musk seemed nervous after he'd given evidence. "how did i do?", he asked the media outside and, to be fair, he had a lot to lose. potentially billions, in fact. in terms of an individual tweet,

this tweet had already been extremely costly. in august 2018, he tweeted out that he had funding secured to take tesla private. that would effectively mean buying out tesla shareholders and many investors say they took mr musk at his word, buying up tesla stock. after that tweet tesla's share price rocketed, but soon it became clear that the deal was far from done. tesla never went private, it's still a public company to this day, and when that became clear the share price duly fell. investors lost big money. the securities exchange commission had already fined elon musk and tesla $40 million for the tweet and stripped him of his position as chairman of the board. in addition to that, many shareholders sued. for the last few weeks, this court in san francisco has been hearing evidence. the question the jury had to decide was whether elon musk had knowingly tweeted out something that wasn't true and, if he had, what damages he should pay.

mr musk argued in court that he'd acted in good faith and, after deliberation, the jury concluded he did not have to compensate investor losses. this is a lawyer who's an expert in securities fraud, who's interviewed bernie madoff and elizabeth holmes under oath. when we looked at the case i thought it was a slam dunk. i mean, it comes out says "funding secured", i mean, that's is as concrete of a statement of taking a company private as there can be. finding elon musk not guilty i think is a travesty because it means that from now on corporate executives can put out tweets, use social media and skirt the line very thin on what's real and what's not real as long as they can say that they believed it in their own minds. many legal experts thought that mr musk would lose this case.

they were wrong. it means that one of the world's richest people has just saved himself, potentially, billions of dollars. james clayton, bbc news, san francisco. a young youtube star in iraq that was killed by her father has sparked nation—wide outrage and calls for protests. tiba al—ali was killed on 31st of january according to a statement by the iraqi interior minister — after several attempts by the police to mediate the family dispute. tiba had separated from herfamily on a trip to turkey in 2017, and refused to travel back to iraq with them. she gained following on youtube posting daily videos, which frequently featured herfiance. our middle east editor for bbc world service, sebastian usher, is now with us. this is a terribly sad story, and it has provoked very strong feelings from people more widely. tell us first about this question of what happened to her. do we know the

circumstances?— circumstances? there are two accounts- _ circumstances? there are two accounts. one _ circumstances? there are two accounts. one is _ circumstances? there are two accounts. one is about - circumstances? there are two l accounts. one is about account, circumstances? there are two - accounts. one is about account, as you were saying, from the interior ministry, which, as you say, said there had been an attempt by the local police mediation, but no sooner had that started, then she was killed. herfather turned himself in immediately and confessed. on iraqi media, more flesh is put on that, that she was strangled by her father, flesh is put on that, that she was strangled by herfather, that flesh is put on that, that she was strangled by her father, that her father, when he showed up with the police, that he was not expecting punishment, that he committed a crime of honour, as it is known, that she had shamed the family by living apart, shame the family by being with herfiance, who living apart, shame the family by being with her fiance, who she living apart, shame the family by being with herfiance, who she is unmarried to, and there has been a new development. this is an old, a very disturbing story, these killings are not confined to iraq, but in the age of social media, there are more and more girls and

women in the arab world who make their gnomes name through social media, but in doing that, they run the risk of angering a more traditionalfamily. it the risk of angering a more traditional family.— traditional family. it sort of amplifies — traditional family. it sort of amplifies this _ traditional family. it sort of amplifies this slight, - traditional family. it sort of amplifies this slight, some | traditional family. it sort of. amplifies this slight, some of traditional family. it sort of- amplifies this slight, some of the relatives see it, because notjust everybody in your neighbourhood, but everybody in your neighbourhood, but everybody in your town, and maybe a bigger global community. yes. everybody in your town, and maybe a bigger global community.— bigger global community. yes, and this is compounded _ bigger global community. yes, and this is compounded by _ bigger global community. yes, and this is compounded by the - bigger global community. yes, and this is compounded by the fact - bigger global community. yes, and this is compounded by the fact that there are audio messages which were put up by friends of hers before this happened, in which she said, unconfirmed it is her, that she was at risk, and that she was essentially healed back to iraq on a visit, and the aim was to do something with her. you mentioned the police and mediation, they have come under attack with, how can the police, when i have been warnings, and this is what has caused the outrage, is that the laws as they

exist in iraq, are not strong enough about this. this is still seen as a crime and domestic violence is well beyond that, as crimes which are personal to the family, and there are reasons and justifications for this, and people are online saying that this is another example of a woman killed in the most brutal way by people closest to her, because of these outmoded ways of thinking, and it is aided by the fact that the law doesn't say that it will be treated necessarily as murder, is the worst crime possible. this has seems to have perfected the way the father showed up and said she shamed us and that it showed up and said she shamed us and thatitis showed up and said she shamed us and that it is a man of honour and not expecting any major penalty, except for a few years in prison. a murmuration of starlings is one of mother nature's greatest displays — but you don't necessarily have to trek miles into the countryside to see one.

bird—watchers have been enjoing some epic aerial entertainment on a trading estate in the west of england. tracey miller went to join them. the mesmerising spectacle of thousands of starlings. it's footage like this that's brought us to the unlikely location of trading estate near tewkesbury. doesn't it seem strange that they're going to be roosted in this industrial estate? well, if you see the state of the flora, they have of the floor, they have definitely been here before. it's not gum. that's a load of bird poo. but these birds will be travelling a long way. they will be coming from 15—20 miles in all directions, and they will be coming in to roost communally. and whilst they are doing that, they will be keeping warm and they will be sharing information about the feeding places they have been that day, and also, by murmurating above the roosting sites, they make sure they can avoid predators like peregrine falcons. it's never guaranteed they'll show up, but as dusk began to fall,

huddles of hopeful humans began to gather. 0h, very hopeful — expectant, even. when you see the birds fly overhead and you hear the sound of their- wings beating, it's quite - an incredible, powerful feeling. you get goosebumps. then they came, small groups building up untilwe were treated to this aerial ballet. and the sound that gives it the name murmuration. that's wing beats creating a murmur of sound, flying at speeds of up to 50 miles an hour. andy the cameramen did well to keep up. absolutely awe—inspiring, beautiful. absolutely beautiful. and all in the middle of an industrial estate as well. so it was a fantastic- experience, and they could be back tomorrow if you want to come down as well. - then, in a moment, they all landed to roost in the trees. tracey miller, bbc news. pope francis is continuing his visit to south sudan where he's trying to persuade political leaders to end conflict in the country.

the pope is on an unprecedented �*pilgrimage of peace' in the world's youngest country. on saturday evening, the pope will lead prayers at the mausoleum of south sudan's independence leader, john garang. 50,000 people are expected to attend. here in the uk —nhs leaders are warning that there will be a struggle to clear backlogs and improve emergency care — unless industrial action by thousands of staff is brought to an end. it comes as nhs england prepares for the biggest round of strikes in its history next week, with thousands of nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists planning walkouts. health leaders have called on ministers and the unions to urgently find a resolution to break the deadlock. julian hartley, chief executive of nhs providers, joins me now. in essence, you guys part of the employment package, as it were, that

the employees deal with. i appreciate that the funding envelope is set by ministers. have you guys been doing enough to prevent it getting to the stage or help bring it to an end? i getting to the stage or help bring it to an end?— it to an end? i think first of all, to be clear. _ it to an end? i think first of all, to be clear. pay _ it to an end? i think first of all, to be clear, pay is _ it to an end? i think first of all, to be clear, pay is nationally i to be clear, pay is nationally negotiated and trusted leaders have been doing all they can to, obviously, manage the challenges of this industrial act shouldn't and want this to come to an end as soon as possible. it is absolutely vital, in the interests of patients in terms of those waiting for operations, those coming in as urgent cases, that we see a resolution to the industrial action and all trust leaders across the country really want to make sure that we can find a resolution to this. to do that we do need negotiations at a national level. we need to see this resolved quickly because, looking ahead, the big challenges we are facing with

emergency care, and of course getting patients through to have their operations, requires us to have our hospitals and health services fully staffed. we really do need to see progress. that services fully staffed. we really do need to see progress.— services fully staffed. we really do need to see progress. that in itself is a challenge. _ need to see progress. that in itself is a challenge, because _ need to see progress. that in itself is a challenge, because you - need to see progress. that in itself| is a challenge, because you already have so many posts are vacant in the health service, and therefore this must increase that challenge. you can only get in so many agency staff to cover. just on this that was raged raised in the context of education, we don't get told which teachers are going to turn up literally on the day we find out whether they walk through the door or not. is it any different in the health service? do you get reasonably reliable information about that?— reasonably reliable information aboutthat? ,, . , .,~ about that? trusts have been working ve closel about that? trusts have been working very closely with _ about that? trusts have been working very closely with staff _ about that? trusts have been working very closely with staff colleagues, - very closely with staff colleagues, and if we take the rcn, i know myself, we work closely with rcn colleagues locally, and make sure

that what is called the derogations,, that is those nurses that will be working, those agreed in advance, and there is a lot of planning that goes into this. it does take a lot of attention, a lot of work and time, but i trust leaders spent an awful lot of time, and staff have worked really hard, to try to mitigate and manage the impact of this action. going back to what you said about vacancies, yes 133,000 vacancies are currently in the nhs, so it is really crucial we retain our existing staff and recruit more. in doing that, we need to make sure that we are not in this climate of ongoing industrial action, and bring that to a resolution as quickly as possible. let me ask you finally, do you see a route through to a resolution on this? i have to say, the noises have not been very encouraging, even recently. i not been very encouraging, even recentl . ~ �* ., recently. i think we're all desperate _ recently. i think we're all desperate see _ recently. i think we're all

desperate see that. - recently. i think we're all desperate see that. i - recently. i think we're all desperate see that. i am| recently. i think we're all i desperate see that. i am an optimist, but i think it requires ministers to sit down with staff representatives and really start to get into the art of the possible, because patients are losing out in terms of operations, and obviously, the challenges with urgent and emergency care, we have an important plan on urgent and emergency care that we need to see actioned, to improve the urgent care pathway, and of course all of those patients waiting for operations. it is fundamentally in the interests of patients, the nhs, everyone, to get this fixed. thank you, julian. and how's this for beginner's luck. 18—year—old juliette lamourjust scooped nearly 36 million dollars in canada's gold ball lottery jackpot on her first try. although she's the youngest canadian to ever win such a big prize,

she still plans to finish her university studies and become a doctor. and very good luck to her. that is it from us. hello there. this weekend's weather is certainly going to be a tale of two halves. part one of the weekend rather cloudy and mild, limited brightness around, but by sunday, it's going to turn chillier and largely sunny as high pressure topples in right across the uk. so today we're in this wedge of milder airfor one more day before the colder air starts to move in behind this weather front, introducing outbreaks of rain to the north and west of scotland and northern ireland through the afternoon period. some dry and bright weather towards the south and east of scotland for a while, but for most of england and wales we're staying dry, a lot of cloud around, limited brightness, some of the best of it towards eastern areas. one or two spots of drizzle towards western hills. top temperatures of 12 degrees in the south, just around ten

degrees further north. this evening and overnight, that weather front with outbreaks of rain spreads southwards and weakens as it does so, so barely anything on it, just a band of cloud. by around dawn it should eventually clear from the south and south—east of england, introducing much colder air, so it is going to be a chillier start to sunday with some frosts certainly in northern and western areas, perhaps a little bit of mist and fog too. for part two of the weekend, a big area of high pressure sitting across the uk with the chillier air trapped underneath it. although i say chillier, temperatures will be actually closer to the seasonal norm, but it will be a colder start than what we've been used to for sunday. a bit of early frost and mist and fog around and then it's going to be dry, widespread sunshine across the board. a bit of cloud for the northern and western isles there, maybe for the far south—west of england, perhaps in towards the channel islands. otherwise, it's going to stay dry and sunny for most. temperatures down on what we've been used to the last few days at seven to nine degrees. our area of high pressure still with us as we head into monday. drifting a little bit further towards the east. that may allow this

weather front to encroach in to the north—west of the uk. i think it could be a bit cloudier on monday for scotland and northern ireland. breezier too, could see some splashes of rain in the western isles. for most of england and wales, after a chilly start with some frost, mist and fog, it's going to be another dry day with pretty much widespread sunshine. temperatures again range from around seven to nine degrees. high pressure holds on for much of this upcoming week, so a lot of dry and settled weather to come. quite a bit of sunshine around too. it will be chilly by day. temperatures close to the seasonal norm. nights will be cold, though, with frost and mist and fog.

this is bbc news. the headlines: after a chinese balloon flew into us airspace — another is reported over latin america. us secretary of state antony blinken earlier called off a visit to beijing calling the balloons "an irresponsible act". in the uk, the search for missing mother—of—two nicola bulley enters another weekend after police say they believe she fell into the river while walking her dog. the search continues, but no trace of her has been found. forest fires in chile sparked by a devastating heat wave have left at least 13 people dead and tens of thousands hectares of forest destroyed since the wildfires began earlier in the week. the tesla founder elon musk has been

cleared of wrongdoing for a tweet in which he said he had "funding secured" to take