this is bbc news. our top stories: shot out of the sky — the us military targets the chinese balloon that had been floating in american air—space. they successfully took it down, and i want to compliment 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. a peace mission to south sudan — the pope makes an unprecedented visit alongside the leaders of the church of england and church of scotland.

we'll tell you about the bbcjournalist trying to make amends for her own family's connection to slavery. 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. its foreign ministry has now released a statement saying that china strongly disapproves of and protests against the us attack on a civilian unmanned airship. it also said the us use of force is a "clear overreaction and a serious violation of international practice". tim allman reports. for days now, all eyes have

been on this solitary object, floating serenely through us airspace. was it a harmless weather balloon or a spy in the sky, sent by the chinese? whatever it was, the american government had decided enough was enough. look at that trail of white vapour on the left of the screen. that is a us f—22 fighterjet, streaking towards the balloon. then, a second trail, this time from a sidewinder missile, about to bring itsjourney to an abrupt end. suddenly we saw something take off from the jet and we knew it was a missile and you could see the explosion. didn't hear anything but saw the explosion of the balloon. gosh, it was almost like it was a moving cloud coming down. then the smoke was coming down and then it started slowly going down

towards the ocean. explosion. whoah! did you hear that? a few moments after the impact, the sound of the explosion could be heard at ground level. then the remains of the balloon its canopy torn to shreds, falls to the earth. a satisfying moment for president biden although he had to wait a few days for the operation to be carried out. i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down as soon as possible and they decided not to damage anyone on the ground and decided the best way to do that was to wait till i got over water. in a statement, chinese foreign ministry accused the us of overreacting: it added: the whole incident has caused tensions in what is already a delicate relationship. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, cancelled a planned trip to

beijing as a result. the balloon is believed to have come down in relatively shallow water and any wreckage easily retrieved. the americans hope they will then be able to work out exactly what the chinese were up to. tim allman, bbc news. earlier i spoke to robert daly, director of the kissinger institute on china and the united states. he told me how serious this situation is for us—china relations. first, as you say, it is going to be fascinating. the question is, how important is it going to be? this has been a very dramatic few days. there is a very good plot, it is getting a lot of attention. it is not clear if the balloon incident does not tell us anything about chinese us relations that we didn't already know, so that is one aspect of the story. secondly, as you say, china claims this is a normal meteorological balloon. but there are a number of these balloons, all not over chinese airspace, and the american military seems quite certain this is in fact an intelligence balloon, and now america is in a position

to discover that. the debris only came down in 47 feet of water. we will be able to get it pretty quickly. and if china, as seems likely, is mischaracterising this, we are going to know that shortly. how damaging is all of this? even before we know the exact contents of it, we have had the accusations from the us, secretary of state antony blinken has cancelled his planned trip to china. how damaging is it? i think the biggest long—term impact of all of this is that it is now going to make a much higher percentage of americans see china as a threat. china has been seen primarily as a threat within washington, dc for several years, but for most americans, they haven't felt threatened by china. china has been over the horizon, and now china is right overhead. and so this is going to spread the bad china narrative that has been gaining more adherence not only here in the us but in canada, in the uk and europe. people are going to see this in a more personal way, and it is going

to give a sense of urgency to those parts of the american government and military and in congress that are determined to counter and condemn and weaken china if they can, and so i think the bigger impact is that it lends more credence to that broad accusation about the nature of the chinese government. yes, it is quite interesting, isn't it? that it was visible with the naked eye so people could film it with their smartphones. if it was a spy balloon, why would they want to do something so blatant and so unnerving for the members of the public in the us, as you say? so, this is a key question. it is not in china's interests to have more americans seeing china as an enemy. and the timing is particularly bad because china, this spring, after the end of the zero—covid policy, really wants to focus on its domestic development, its demographic crisis, a whole series of economic crises, and china

had been looking for a sort of timeout from friction with the united states. so this appears to fly in the face of that. one possible answer is bureaucratic incompetence. did some agency of the chinese government move without getting the full signup? that is possible, there is incompetence there as there is here. other than that, it is sheer speculation. do they want to send a message to the people of the united states thatjust as our flights and cruisers around taiwan, what china sees as its sovereign territory, threatens them, they are in a position to threaten us. that is sheer speculation. it really doesn't make sense that china would do something which damages its own interests right now. how important was the us secretary of state's trip, which has now been cancelled? i know you said china wanted to be focusing a bit more perhaps domestically. it is always better that they speak then not speak.

i think there was always going to be a difficulty in this trip had secretary of state blinken gone to china. what china wants is a time out from friction with the us. that is not the us wants. it wants guard rails or a floor or some rules for communication such that we can continue to pursue what president biden has called extreme competition with china, while lowering the danger would result in war. so those are two very different goals. china, to date, rejects the idea that us—china relations are fundamentally competitive, whereas a growing number of people in the us see this as a new kind of cold war. certainly, the whole story of this balloon and it being shot down had a cold war feeling to it, from beginning to end. robert daly from the kissinger institute on china and the united states. i've been speaking to anna malindog. she's a china analyst and a columnist for the asean post, based in manila, in the philippines. i asked how the shooting down of the balloon was received in the region.

the chinese people and even the chinese government are not accepting, or blatantly not accepting the so—called speculation that the balloon itself is like a spy balloon. according to them, and most of the statements coming from — the official statements coming from china, is that they would want to have an open discussion about this incident, this unfortunate incident, they were regretful about this. but i think from my vantage point, the way i see it, it is better for the two sides, the chinese and americans, to discuss this open mindedly speaking, because it will further deteriorate the already deteriorating us—china relation if this incident will not be handled in a proper manner. and at the same time, it is not good as well for the world, if the us—china relation will deteriorate further. well, i suppose it all depends on what they find, doesn't it, when they piece together the bits of balloon when they pull it out of the water. in terms of the reaction to normal people, are you in a position to tell us that all about how

people themselves in china have been reacting to this? i think there are various different various kinds of reactions, but generally speaking, i think the chinese people does not agree or does not accept the hyping of this incident, and smearing their country as if their country is, you know, stupid not to understand that, you know, doing such a thing like a balloon spying out in the air, so blatantly speaking, would not be good for china. i think the chinese people are very smart and very intelligent. i myself was not really... i am thinking at the moment that really, if china would do such a thing, not given the already negative perception of china in the united states. so there is a lot of speculation, there is a lot of comments on the social media as well, but at the end of the day i think it would be nice for the both countries

to talk it out, discuss it, and avoid escalation of the incident. because it is something that the world doesn't want. i was just speaking to our previous guest about the visit by the us secretary of state which has been cancelled. what do you think china will feel about that? will they be disappointed? actually, there are two sides to the story, based on what i have monitored. the chinese side said there is no such thing as a visit, really, and they did not announce that there is such a thing as a visit of blinken to china, it is only the us side that is saying that. so there are two sides to the story. so it is really up to the public and it is up to the two sides to clarify which is really true, because the chinese side is claiming that they did not announce that blinken would be visiting china and there is no such thing. anna malindog.

let's get some of the day's other news. forest fires in chile have killed at least 23 people and injured almost a thousand more. a number of countries including argentina, mexico and spain have offered help. authorities said there were more than 200 fires still active on saturday. 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. authorities in the us state of ohio say a freight train that derailed near the town of east palestine could burn for days. the 50—carriage train was carrying the chemical vinyl chloride when it came off the tracks near the pennsylvania border late on friday. 2,000 residents were ordered to leave their homes. violence has erupted in peru between demonstrators and riot police in the capital lima. there were clashes when a group of protesters stormed through a street,

throwing objects including firecrackers, at a wall of riot police officers, who fired teargas canisters to disperse the crowd. the demonstrators are demanding the resignation of president dina boluarte and for new elections to be brought forward. this is bbc news. a reminder of our headlines: the us military shoots down the chinese balloon that had been floating in american air space. three airports were shut and the local airspace was closed — it came down off the us east coast. an aristocratic british family is due to travel to the island of grenada to publicly apologise for the ownership of more than 1000 enslaved africans in the 19th century. the trevelyan family will also pay reparations to the people of grenada, where it owned six sugar plantations. one member of the trevelyan family is bbc presenter laura trevelya n. she spoke to our news reporter azaday moshiri in a personal capacity.

you know, it was really horrific, azadeh, and when i went to granada and i saw for myself the plantations where slaves were punished, when i saw the instruments of torture that were used to restrain them, when i looked at the neck braces, at the manacles, at this system of dehumanisation that my family had profited from as absentee slaveowners of these sugar plantations, i felt ashamed and i also felt that it was my duty — you can't repair the past but you can acknowledge the pain and that i wanted to try to do something to make it better and so, that's partly what's led our family to this moment, where we're going to issue a public apology when seven of us go to granada later in february and in consultation with grenada's national reparations commission, we hope that by establishing a fund that will look at economic development

in granada and the eastern caribbean, that we can do something to help an island where all of the wealth was extracted. so, you talked about duty, you talked about acknowledging what happened. you decided to go back to granada and film a bbc documentary there. what impression did it leave on you once you got there? well, azadeh, when slavery was abolished in 1833, slave—owning families like my own were actually compensated for the fact that they had lost what was referred to as their property — that's how slaves were seen. i wanted to go to granada in the wake of the racial reckoning here in the united states and just try to understand the link between the past and the present and to understand how the past defines the present. and when i went there, i saw an island where poverty is rife, where there's a lot of obesity, of hypertension and of ill—health — which is linked to slavery, health experts feel, because of decades of poor diet, of stress — and so,

it was really overwhelming. and so, some people could see what you're doing and argue, you know what? this is a drop in the bucket and that it's not going to fix the generations of difficulties and setbacks that these families have had to face. what would your response be to that? yes, i completely understand that this can seem like a very inadequate gesture — that our family received the equivalent of about £3 million in compensation when slavery was abolished. we got that money in 183a. so, for me to be giving £100,000 almost 200 years later for a fund that's going to look at economic development in granada and the eastern caribbean, maybe that seems like it's really inadequate but i hope that we're setting an example by apologising for what our ancestors did by enslaving the people of granada, and i also hope that we're looking at solutions, at how do you, through a university research fund, how do you come up with ideas for how this

wealth gap is addressed? laura trevelyan talking to my colleague. here in the uk, detectives trying to find a mother who has gone missing in lancashire say a new witness has come forward after a cctv image was released of a woman in a yellow coat. police have said that the woman was part of their enquiries to speak to as many members of the public as possible. police say they are working on the theory that nicola bulley fell into the river. but friends of the 45—year—old have urged detectives to keep an open mind as the bbc�*s 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're 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 farfrom 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's 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. well, 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've seen lots of search parties and people wanting to get out and help, and it's great that the community wants 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 capitaljuba. 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.

development proposed in the separate presidential election. none of the 1a candidates is expected to win outright in the first round. 0pinion polls put the former foreign minister in the former foreign minister in the lead. if no creditor gets more than half the volatility to leading candidates face a run—off next week. the campaign has been rocked by corruption and tensions between the island's greek and turkish cypriot communities. the former british prime minister, liz truss, has blamed what she's called a "powerful economic establishment" and a lack of support from the ruling conservative party, for her downfall in number 10. in an article published today in the sunday telegraph newspaper, ms truss admitted she's not blameless, but doesn't think her tax policies were given a realistic chance. the article is being seen as a return to the political arena. 0ur political correspondent jonathan blake reports. since leaving office 100 days ago, liz truss says she has been reflecting on her brief

premiership, soul—searching, which she claims has not been easy. at length she has now given her version of events of her time in office, the shortest of any prime minister. "i'm not claiming to be blameless", she writes, but says she wasn't given a reasonable chance to enact her policies, assuming that her mandate would be accepted and respected, adding "how wrong i was". proposed tax cuts lead to economic turmoil and tory mps turned against her. some say it is too soon for the former prime minister to try to answer for her actions.— for her actions. four months auo she for her actions. four months ago she nearly _ for her actions. four months ago she nearly crashed - for her actions. four months ago she nearly crashed the l for her actions. four months i ago she nearly crashed the uk economy and had to leave being the shortest serving prime minister. i think when you have done something as spectacular as that, you need to build up the permission to be heard. you

need to have people have a bit of time to look at you and say ok, we're willing to listen to 0k, we're willing to listen to you again. i don't enough time has passed for her to be heard again by the public. liz has passed for her to be heard again by the public.— again by the public. liz truss as she underestimated - again by the public. liz truss as she underestimated the i as she underestimated the resistance she would have faced from whitehall and her own mps. labour say the public is still paying the price and an apology is needed. liz truss says there is needed. liz truss says there is still support for what you try to achieve and her intervention comes as some conservatives argue for tax cuts to come more quickly. a disaster in office, ms truss clearly still hopes she can make a case for what might have been. jonathan blake, bbc news. after three years of toned—down celebrations, the famous venice carnival has returned to its former grandeur. 0ur reporter emb hashmi has more. elaborate opera, dancing and sparkling masks are back with a bang in venice. the two week—long festivities were launched by this colourful unicorn, a magical creature that transports

dreamers to the stars. the narrow alleys and bridges of the city were lit up by dazzling dancers and spectacular floats for the parade down the canal grande. over the next two weeks the city will be filled with thousands of tourists from across italy and the world. translation: it's great, it's magical, what else i is there to say? come and feel the spirit here! masked balls are held in ancient venetian palaces, while concerts and gondola parades are organised in the piazzas and canals, and costumed participants gather at the epicentre, saint mark's square. the tradition of this carnival dates back to the 11th century, and it is still going strong.

emb hashby, bbc news. and that is all from me for now. thank you for watching. goodbye. 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 south—eastwards. under the centre of the high with light winds, could see one or two 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 south—east 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 seven and ten degrees. 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 six and ten degrees. 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 north—west 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. pope francis and the heads of the churches of england and scotland have urged the people of south sudan to work towards lasting peace. the three christian leaders met for a prayer vigil in the country. pope francis told thousands of worshippers that true peace harmonised differences. in the uk, police searching for nicola bulley — the 45—year—old who disappeared while walking her dog in lancashire more than a week ago say they've found a woman they described as a key witness. she'd been seen pushing a pram near the river where nicola went missing.