this is bbc news, i'm tanya bekett with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. shot out of the sky — the us military gets the chinese balloon that had been floating in american air—space. they successfully took it down, and i want to complement our aviators who did it. three airports were shut and the airspace was closed — it came down off the us east coast. suddenly we saw something take off from the jet, knew it was a missile. and you could see the explosion — didn't hear anything, but saw the explosion of the balloon. the hunt for the british woman who disappeared while walking her dog — detectives want to speak to a key witness seen nearby.

and a peace mission to south sudan — the pope makes an unprecedented visit, alongside the leaders of the church of england and church of scotland. hello, and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. the giant chinese balloon that had been floating over the united states has been shot down by an american fighterjet off the coast of south carolina. the balloon, which the us says was being used to spy on military sites, appeared to plummet straight into the sea. china continues to insist it was a stray civilian weather observation airship. a short time ago, this is what president biden said. i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down as soon as possible,

they decided without doing damage to anyone on the ground. they decided that the best time to do that was as it got overwater within a 12—mile limit. they successfully took it down, and i want to complement our aviators who did it, and we'll have more to report on a little later. our north america correspondent david willis has been giving us the latest. the challenge is to retrieve the data that part of the balloon that contains all the information about its intent before it sinks to the bottom of the atlantic ocean. there are parts of the ocean that go down as far as 6,500 feet in depth, i'm told, so this is really the big challenge that lies ahead for officials now. apparently navy craft are in the area, liaising with local coastguard, but it's going to be quite a battle. but it's a battle that the us wants to win — or needs to win, i should say — if it's to prove that this

balloon was actually engaging in some sort of surveillance or spying operation, as distinct from, as the chinese allege, simply gathering weather data. when president biden spoke about the balloon, he was very keen to say that he ordered it to be shot down on wednesday, that that order came from him and that was his initiative. so there is a lot about optics here, isn't there? 0h, very much so. and of course, the president had come under increasing criticism from his republican adversaries for not acting sooner on this. and it was explained at a pentagon briefing why he didn't — apparently, he gave the order for this balloon to be brought down back last wednesday, which is the day before its presence was even made public. but military officials decided to hang on because of the fear of this thing raining debris down over the us mainland. instead, they decided to wait,

as they did cautiously, until it had crossed the coast of south carolina, whereupon they cleared the airspace, they cancelled flights into and out of three local aircraft, and then they fired that one shot from a us fighter jet that brought the balloon down. for all of the messages to china that are sent through this very decisive action, no doubt the concern is also to instill confidence in the american people. 0h, very much so. and, you know, relations with china will be contentious and key in the run—up to next year's presidential election, most particularly, of course, if china does anything in regard to taiwan. so there's a lot at stake here. but the clear message from the biden administration — which if anything, has been tougher on china than his predecessor — is that this sort of thing cannot be engaged with, cannot be tolerated,

and that china's explanation for this — that it had simply blown off course whilst it was gathering weather data — just doesn't wash. the context, of course, as we've alluded to before, is that although in recent months, it appeared that there was some hope for a better course for us—sino relations, the wider context is very fraught, isn't it? it is, indeed, and antony blinken�*s much—prepared—for trip to to beijing, of course, cancelled at the last minute because of this snafu over the balloon. but that's regrettable, as far as many diplomats are concerned — a setback, as several have put it — because there was a lot on the agenda, notjust taiwan, but covid policy, all sorts of other areas. and they were basically looking to establish, mr blinken said, "guardrails" — that was the point of this gathering, of his visit, i should say, to beijing,

guardrails to prevent any escalation of any future conflict. and of course, that has now been put on the back burner. they are both saying — both sides — that they are open to rescheduling anthony blinken�*s visit. but mr blinken made quite clear that before that happens, the balloon has to be done with. and president biden, when he was asked the question about where this leaves us—sino relations, he opted not to reply — do we think that we'll hearfrom him again? well, that's right, and that was a throwaway comment — i think the point of that was really to make the point that he had given permission for this to be shot down on wednesday, and that was the message that he stuck to in that little interaction with reporters there, on his way to the presidential retreat, camp david. we may well get more on this from the president — probably not today, i wouldn't imagine. he's let the pentagon officials speak for themselves,

and they have said some quite interesting stuff — they have said, apart from other things, that they believe that this balloon was part of a fleet of balloons that had, as they put it, "violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents going back many years". dr zeno leoni is a lecturer in defence studies, at kings college, in london and joins me now. welcome to the programme. where do you think this incident leaves relations between the united states and china? i think we need to put this crisis in historical perspective — certainly we are at a very low point in the history of us and china relations. nonetheless if we look at the last 40—50 years, if we go back to the meeting between nixon and chairman mao

in 1972, to nowadays, there have been a lot of ups and downs. so the us and china have been able, in the past, to de—escalate crises that probably were much worse than this one — for example, the crisis from last summer. so i believe we will continue to see the ups and downs in the future, in this sort of complex relationship between the us and china where they are both best friends and worst enemies. bi; friends and worst enemies. by the backdrop to it all, of course, is what we heard about the us in terms of its increase of its use of military bases in the philippines, from five to nine, and china's corresponding activity in that region— that's the worrying part, isn't it? absolutely, i think we're seeing a new kind of cold war, that's for sure. and to an extent, i think china is right.

we've seen several us—led multilateral frameworks taking shape in recent months and years. so there is that, but the economic interdependence and the influence that businesses, both in the us and china, have on their respective governments is very powerful. and this is why, aside from what we have in both countries, like the congress in the us, the nationalist and china, the two governments into presidents are keen to maintain this relationship on a more manageable level, they have a more dovish approach compared to what i'vejust more dovish approach compared to what i've just mentioned. given the context you've just described, what do you think is the back story to this balloon? china has said it'sjust the back story to this balloon? china has said it's just a balloon that got blown off course, the us seems to see it differently, that it's some sort of provocation — what's

your view? i sort of provocation - what's your view?— sort of provocation - what's our view? ., �* ., ., , your view? i don't want to pick a side yet _ your view? i don't want to pick a side yet on _ your view? i don't want to pick a side yet on this, _ your view? i don't want to pick a side yet on this, and - your view? i don't want to pick a side yet on this, and i - your view? i don't want to pick a side yet on this, and i think. a side yet on this, and i think we need to believe china's story for the time being. but the us did absolutely well at shooting the balloon down because we cannot accept statements on such a critical scenario without evidence. so let's wait for the us to find out additional evidence before drawing some conclusions. thank ou ve drawing some conclusions. thank you very much — drawing some conclusions. thank you very much for _ drawing some conclusions. thank you very much forjoining - drawing some conclusions. thank you very much forjoining us. - you very much forjoining us. thank you. you very much for “oining us. thank youh you very much for “oining us. thank ou. �*, a ., , thank you. here's ashton proof. i initially saw _ thank you. here's ashton proof. i initially saw some _ thank you. here's ashton proof. i initially saw some people - thank you. here's ashton proof. i initially saw some people out l i initially saw some people out in the street, and at first i didn't think anything — my neighbours were still in their house and cars were going by. so i went out to check the mail and i'd heard that there was a

balloon that was floating around, and i hadn't been paid at —— paying attention to it before. sure enough, i looked up before. sure enough, i looked up and we found it. we also saw jet circling. i go back inside and i have my two and a half —year—old twins, but i'm watching and that's that i'm watching and that's that i'm watching and that's that i'm watching and playing with. i go back outside because i wanted to see if anything changed, and that's when i saw thejets looking like they were starting to go straight at the balloon, so he started filming it for my husband mainly who was inside and couldn't come out to watch it with me at the same time. and that's when you see what i'm assuming was a missile go—ahead at the balloon, and you see the balloon start to fall apart. you see the balloon start to fallapart. it you see the balloon start to fall apart. it was really, really wild to see that today, i did not expect it. i really wild to see that today, i did not expect it.— i did not expect it. i bet, so i did not expect it. i bet, so i went to — i did not expect it. i bet, so i went to get _ i did not expect it. i bet, so i went to get a _ i did not expect it. i bet, so i went to get a sense - i did not expect it. i bet, so i went to get a sense of- i did not expect it. i bet, so . i went to get a sense of people around you — was this something that was expected? we got a little bit of a heads up here in newsrooms around the world

with the closure of this airspace, so we thought, "right, the actual mission there, to shoot the balloon down, is imminent," but did you get any sense of that? i down, is imminent," but did you get any sense of that?— get any sense of that? i think i might've — get any sense of that? i think i might've been _ get any sense of that? i think i might've been the _ get any sense of that? i think i might've been the last - get any sense of that? i think. i might've been the last person to realise what was happening! laughter but my friends and some of my neighbours i think knew this was going on, and that's what happened. i'vejust not was going on, and that's what happened. i've just not been plugged into the sort of stuff until it was in south carolina, then i saw it everywhere all over twitter and other people's social media is that there was this balloon, and i didn't know what it was. this balloon, and i didn't know what it were— this balloon, and i didn't know what it was-— what it was. amazing, and i know you've _ what it was. amazing, and i know you've just _ what it was. amazing, and i know you've just done - what it was. amazing, and i know you've just done it, i what it was. amazing, and i l know you've just done it, but for those who are justjoining us, talk us through exactly what you did see step—by—step? because it's actually fascinating.- because it's actually fascinatina. . fascinating. yeah, yeah, so i went outside _ fascinating. yeah, yeah, so i went outside to _ fascinating. yeah, yeah, so i went outside to see - fascinating. yeah, yeah, so i went outside to see what - went outside to see what everybody was doing outside, and i was checking the mail,

and i was checking the mail, and that's when i saw this balloon that everyone has been talking about up in the sky. we have tonnes of trees around our neighbourhood, but there is not a cloud to be seen, so is a democrat able to spot the balloon, i saw the jet circling around it, and i went inside, went back after a few minutes and that's when i saw one of the jet start to take a straight shot at the balloon, so i started filming it, thought maybe something would happen, and my husband was inside, he wasn't able to witness it so ijust kept filming until i saw the balloon start to fall apart. than start to fall apart. an eyewitness _ start to fall apart. an eyewitness to - start to fall apart. an eyewitness to that i start to fall apart. an eyewitness to that balloon being shot down. ukraine says it's recovered the bodies of two british men who were killed in the east of the country. the bodies of christopher perry and andrew bagshaw have been reportedly handed over by russian forces as part of a prisoners swap. they were killed by shelling last month while doing voluntary work, evacuating civilians from conflict zones. let's get some of

the day's other news. as many as 2,000 residents in east palestine, 0hio have been forced to leave their homes following a cargo train derailment in near the ohio—pennsylvania state border. the 50—car train came off the tracks late on friday, and residents living within a mile of the crash site were asked to evacuate their homes on saturday. officials said the train was carrying the chemical vinyl chloride. there's been a fifth saturday of protests against the new israeli government's plans to limit the powers of the judiciary. hundreds of thousands took to the streets of 20 cities. prime minister benjamin netanyahu has dismissed the protests as a refusal to accept the results of last november's election, which produced one of the most right—wing governments in israel's history. officials in chile say at least 22 people have been killed in the forest fires sweeping across the country. more than 500 have been injured. president gabriel boric said neighbouring argentina had offered to send firefighters and equipment. interior minister carolina toha believes climate change

is making the country increasingly vulnerable to wildfires. the former british prime minister, liz truss, says her tax policies weren't given a "realistic" chance by her party. writing in the sunday telegraph — her first comments since leaving office — ms truss says she still believes her approach to driving growth was the right one. the article is being seen as a return to the political arena — she resigned after seven weeks in office in 2022. the search for a woman who went missing in the north of england while walking her dog has entered a second week. there's been no trace of nicola bulley since last friday, when her dog and phone was found near a river in lancashire. police now say they want to speak to a woman who was seen pushing a pram on the morning the mother of two was last seen, along the river bank in st michael's, on wyre. police have released this image of the woman — they're urging her to get in touch as a potential witness.

police say they are working on the theory that the 45—year—old fell into the river. but friends of nicola have urged detectives to keep an open mind — as our reporter juliet philipps reports. the search for mum of two nicola bulley continues eight days after she went missing. police yesterday said after extensive investigation, they are working on the hypothesis that nicola fell into the river — a theory nicola's friends and family have today questioned. as far as i'm aware, there has been no evidence found in the water that would point to the fact that nikki was in the water, or had ever been in the water. you're not going to give up trying to find nicola, are you? no, we can't. we are continuing as we have been all week. our hope is not gone, and we will keep going. nicola was last seen eight days ago walking her dog not far from here. not long later, her phone was found on the bench just behind me, still logged into a work call. her dog was found running off the lead, nicola

was nowhere to be seen. police say there is around a ten minute window where her movements are unaccounted for. the search for nicola has involved police, mountain rescue teams, and divers, as well as hundreds of people from the local community and further afield. i've been listening to the news of nicola's disappearance for a week, and the opportunity came along today, my neighbours and i said, "let's go and see if we can help in any way." we have seen lots of search parties and people wanting i to get out and help, and it's great that the community i wanted to come together. and try and find out what's happened to nikki. police are continuing to appeal for dashcam footage from last friday morning. their search for nicola bulley continues. juliet phillips, bbc news, st michael's on wyre. the pope, the archbishop of canterbury, and the moderator of the church of scotland are on a historic three—day visit to south sudan. they've called it a "pilgrimage of peace" to a country where more than 400,000 people have been killed in violence since

independence 12 years ago. 0ur religion editor aleem maqbool is travelling with the papal party, and sent this report from the capital, juba. it's his 40th foreign trip as pope, but it's a visit like no other he's ever had before. he's previously postponed this because of ill health and mobility issues, but was always clear, in spite of a reduced international schedule, there was one country he was sure to go — south sudan. but what makes this visit different is that for the first time on a foreign trip, he's accompanied by the leaders of other global christian denominations. the moderator of the church of scotland and the archbishop of canterbury are injuba, too. "at last, i am here," said

pope francis told a crowd of displaced people, "together with my brothers on this pilgrimage of peace." since independence in 2011, south sudan slipped quickly into conflict. it's along tribal and not religious lines, but the leaders are mainly christian — catholic, anglican, and presbyterian. back in 2019, in one of the most powerful moments of his papacy, pope francis kissed the feet of the south sudanese rivals at the end of a meeting at the vatican. they promised to work for lasting peace, but little changed. so, the religious leaders came here. does the same thing happen — you make a dramatic gesture and you go away, and things don't move forward? dramatic gestures are to kick open doors, to create momentum. they don't solve problems. what they do is they may unstick stuck situations,

and then they have to be followed up. tonight, the three christian leaders held a cross—denominational prayer service. it's been a remarkable coming together of churches and has brought somejoy. that's not to say many south sudanese are confident it will lead to real change. aleem maqbool, bbc news, injuba. let's take you live to lima, the capital of peru — where protesters are marching to demand early elections and the resignation of president dina boluarte. peru has been embroiled in a political crisis with near—daily demonstrations since the 7th of december, when then—president pedro castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve congress and rule by decree. since then, a new president has come in and promised early

elections. these protesters also want elections in congress. let's go back to top story — and the us shooting down that chinese balloon off the coast off south carolina. dr michael clark is a defence and security analyst. i asked him whether the balloon presented any intelligence danger. i don't think it presented any any surveillance danger, given the areas that it went over. it wasn't going to pick up very much from montana or the midwest states where the missile fields were, where the americans keep their intercontinental ballistic missiles. there was nothing to be gained from that that they can't get from satellites. but this was clearly a chinese stunt of some sort, it was a challenge. the chinese must have known that this baloon would be easily detected, because it was pretty low down, flying at 60,000 feet, which meant it was visible to the naked eye from the ground. and so, i think this was meant to be a challenge. i think it went wrong for the chinese — they lost control over it. and the united states — i think biden, whether he has

changed his mind about shooting it down or not, he has a perfectly straightforward explanation. he says that he decided on wednesday it should be shot down, and they waited until the safest possible moment when it was over water but with inside the 12—mile limit, the legal limit, and that was the time to shoot it down — that's what they've done. and so he can seem he can he can make the case that he has been completely rational, cool and calm — and it makes the republicans who are calling for the thing to be shot down over over land, looking adventurous and quixotic, and so on. so the republicans have now got to explain what benefit there would have been of shooting it down over montana when the debris might have fallen on people — i think that's an overstatement, but it might have — as opposed to doing it in this very careful, calculated way over water with ships waiting underneath to recover the material on board. and how difficult would that be to execute and any recovery? oh, the recovery�*s always got to be a problem. i mean, as your correspondent was saying, i mean, 650 metres

is pretty deep in terms of recovering relatively small objects from the water. and if it goes over the over the continental shelf, which is what he was talking about, down to 6,000 metres, that would be a big job and it may not be worth it, for the sort of surveillance material that was on this balloon. there wouldn't have been anything very amazing, i think, in the electronics or the surveillance material on this balloon, but it's worth recovering in itself. and what's interesting is that balloons are not that easy to bring down. they've failed in the past, because these balloons will take a lot of cannon shells that put holes in them, but they don't, as it were, deflate them enough to bring them down. and in this case, it looks as if it was f22s circling underneath it, about 10,000 feet below it — because f22s�* maximum ceiling is about 50,000 feet. so there must have been about 10,000 feet below it. and they fired at least one, maybe more than one sidewinder missile, which is a very old missile with modern variations. but it'd be interesting if a

single missile brought it down. they've been known to go straight through a balloon because it doesn't go through anything that actually compresses the warhead. they must�*ve thought about that, and it looks from the little bits of film we've got in the last couple of hours, as though it was a single hit with a sidewinder missile. and i would be very interested to know what sort of fusing they might've used on the warhead to make it work like that — because in the past, those things have failed, so well done to the us air force and bringing it down in that way with minimum fuss. find that way with minimum fuss. and the no that way with minimum fuss. and they no doubt _ that way with minimum fuss. and they no doubt wanted to do that, make it clean operation, because the next question is how this may or may not affect the trajectory of us sino relations? it the trajectory of us sino relations?— the trajectory of us sino relations? , , ., relations? it puts it into the deep freeze _ relations? it puts it into the deep freeze for _ relations? it puts it into the deep freeze for a _ relations? it puts it into the deep freeze for a while. - relations? it puts it into the j deep freeze for a while. the problem is the antony blinken meeting — this was something the chinese wanted at least as much of the americans. and the fact that the chinese have set “p fact that the chinese have set up this done and it's gone

wrong, they've lost control of it — and i think that in beijing, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, and they suddenly realise they have this military challenge going on at a time when blinken was due to go to china and the make democrat americans are making it clear, "if you play these games, there will be costs." nobody expects that meeting not to take place, it's just delayed, which that meeting not to take place, it'sjust delayed, which means the chinese will have to take a bit of heat at the meantime. and the us for once because the benefit of pointing out to the rest of the world, "the chinese do this all this time," there's a balloon flying now as we speak over latin america, the chinese are spying on us all the time, contravening our airspace and the sovereignty of other countries. so the chinese are on the defensive on this one, they can say is much as they like about it being a weather balloon, nobody believes it. in the americans have the upper hand and they'll

milk it for all it's worth, than the relationship will get back on track in one or two months�* time, and antony blinken will go to beijing and maybe they�*ll agree to not talk about balloon. maybe they'll agree to not talk about balloon.— there�*s much more on this story on the bbc news website and app. 0n diplomatic relations between the united states and china. meanwhile, this is bbc news. hello. the second half of the weekend is set to be the brighter half of the weekend. after a saturday that brought mainly grey skies overhead, sunday promises more in the way of sunshine, but a slightly chillier feel. high pressure building strongly across the uk,

keeping the vast majority dry with those lengthy sunny spells. this cold front has been slipping southwards, and that�*s been introducing colder air. so quite a few places starting sunday morning around freezing, a little bit milder down towards the south of england, where we�*re closest to this area of cloud first thing. but that will be clearing away quickly, and then, as you can see, there will be lengthy spells of sunshine. one thing you can�*t really see clearly here is some high cloud that�*s likely to stream in across parts of northern ireland, scotland, and northern england — that could turn the sunshine hazy at times, but it shouldn�*t spoil things too much. temperatures a little down on where they have been, 7—10 celsius — but with the brighter skies overhead, i think it will still feel fairly pleasant for the time of year. now through sunday night, this area of high pressure tends to drift a little further southeastwards. under the centre of the high with light winds, could see 1—2 fog patches — but around the edge of the high will be bringing more cloud into northern ireland and scotland, hence it will be a little milder here to start monday morning. the coldest weather down across england and wales,

with a touch of frost and some fog patches towards the southeast corner. but any fog should clear pretty quickly, and then, plenty of sunshine across england and wales, some bright skies, too, across the east of scotland. the western side of scotland and northern ireland, tending to see a little more in the way of cloud, maybe the odd spot of drizzle, a slightly stronger breeze. temperatures between 7—10 celsius. now, as we get into tuesday, we will see a weak weather front sitting somewhere across the centre of the uk. a little bit of patchy rain with that. to the north of it, some sunshine — to the south of it, could be some quite widespread fog on tuesday morning, which will tend to lift and clear to give some spells of sunshine. temperatures between 6—10 celsius. now, as we head deeper into the week, high pressure holds on close to the south and the east of the uk, but this frontal system pushing in from the northwest may well bring some outbreaks of rain — and it will also bring strong winds at times in the north of scotland through the middle part of the week. further south, things stay calmer, some spells of sunshine, but with

some patchy fog.

this is bbc news. the headlines... a chinese balloon has been shot down by the us military off the coast of south carolina on the orders of president biden. the balloon, which the pentagon believes had been spying on sensitive sites, appeared to plummet straight down into the sea after being hit.

police searching for nicola bulley, the 45—year—old