this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories... iranian state television says the country's supreme leader has pardoned thousands of prisoners, including many who had taken part in recent anti—government demonstrations. the former uk prime minister, liz truss, blames what she calls a "powerful economic establishment" for the failure of her tax—cutting agenda and the downfall of her premiership. the us continues to search for the wreckage of a chinese balloon — suspected of spying — which was brought down by an american fighter jet yesterday. the former president of pakistan, general pervez musharraf, has died at the age of 79 following a long illness.

iranian state television says that the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei has pardoned a large number of prisoners linked to protests. the state broadcaster says that ayatollah khamenei was responding to a proposal by the head of the judiciary. iranian media outlets say that the letter from the judiciary chief said that a number of people, especially the young, had committed wrongful actions and crimes because of incitement and propaganda by the enemy. our middle east analyst sebastian usher gave us this update. this is a pardon that comes on the eve of the anniversary of the 1979 islamic revolution, so there are pardons quite regularly for that. what we don't know, obviously the numbers. we don't know when or how this will happen.

we do know the way that it's written says it's an answer to an appeal, a letter from the head of the judiciary who essentially frames it as being many people who went out to protest, particularly the young, were misled, by foreign agents, propaganda from abroad, and that they now want forgiveness. and they're still described as riots, nothing more, nothing less. so, in terms of how the authorities frame this, obviously nothing has changed. also, it makes clear that people who are accused, being charged with more serious crimes, so that's spying, murder, destruction of state property, won't be pardoned. the issue about that is that many, many activists, many people involved in this say that those people who have been charged with the strongest offences have not had fair trials. they've been summary trials. so they haven't had a fair look

at what their fair case is anyway. i think this is an attempt by the iranian authorities perhaps to try and put a line under the protest. what we've seen in the past few weeks is certainly less of a sense of how big those protests are across the country. there are still videos coming out. it's difficult to get those videos out anyway. i think there's been a lessening on the street. what hasn't changed is this sense of a generational feeling that enough is enough. the way that iran has been governed these years by a theocratic elite must come to an end and there must be reforms, cultural, social, political, religious. that's not going to go away. what may have happened is a sense that the protests as a direct threat to the regime, for now at least, is over. the former uk prime minister,

liz truss, has blamed what she's called a "powerful economic establishment" and a lack of support from the conservative party for her downfall in number ten. truss was forced to quit after her package of tax cuts caused panic in the markets and the pound dropped to a record low. earlier, kate andrews, economics editor at the spectator — a right leaning politics and culture magazine — gave us her view. readers of today's sunday telegraph where she's written this 4000 word essay to accept a few big things. i think really tough tasks of the readers. the first is that she's asking them to accept that she diagnosed problem and that fundamentally being correct about the diagnosis she thinks is more important than being correct about her attempted solutions to fix the problems. that's the first big ask. she's also suggesting, as you said in your opening, that she is not blameless but really she does place most of the blame on other people and other institutions. she calls them all kinds of things.

she refers to the treasury, the system, the blob of vested interests, the wider economic orthodoxy. she doesn't get too specific apart from direct criticism of the office for budget responsibility and the way they do their forecasts. but the impression is that external factors, political bias within institutions, stopped her from pursuing her agenda. she's confident in this piece that had she been to carry on, it would have succeeded in boosting growth. and what do you make of that characterisation? look, i think it's her perspective. it's clearly a one—sided perspective. it's very generous to events that we all remember vividly because it was just a few months ago. one of the struggles that i think liz truss has always had is, in the past and now, in this big comeback piece, she's never acknowledged that she planned to add tens of billions of pounds to day—to—day government spending and that that act alone played a huge role in spooking the markets. she talked about how interest rates were going up worldwide, yes,

but why was the uk leading the pack? she talks about the difficult economic times, but why was the uk becoming the outlier? a lot of that comes down to the fact that it wasn't political bias within uk institutions. it was the markets. it was investors worldwide that looked at her numbers and thought, gosh, this is a lot of spending. it doesn't add up. she's borrowing for tax cuts, she's got this huge energy price guarantee package coming in and they thought that the investment was a bit more vulnerable. they were demanding a bigger premium for investing in the uk. she's never addressed that issue, and in 4000 words she still doesn't address it, makes makes it really difficult to see this as anything other than the liz truss perspective. united states navy and coastguard vessels are working to recover the wreckage of a chinese observation balloon that was shot down off the coast of south carolina on saturday. the debris came down in shallow water and is said to be spread over a wide area. a pentagon official said the recovery would enable us analysts to examine sensitive chinese equipment.

china continues to insist it was a stray civilian weather observation airship. let's talk to our correspondent in beijing, barbara plett—usher. what is the reaction been to all this? ~ ., what is the reaction been to all this? ~ . , ., , this? we have seen reaction building to this crisis — this? we have seen reaction building to this crisis over _ this? we have seen reaction building to this crisis over the _ this? we have seen reaction building to this crisis over the past _ this? we have seen reaction building to this crisis over the past couple - to this crisis over the past couple of days, now the americans have shot down the balloon, the foreign ministry on the defence ministry protested quite strongly. they said it was an excessive reaction, and that they reserve the right to respond in some way. having said that, we do know that the chinese very much behind this visit that had been planned by the secretary of state, antony blinken. this was an attempt to try to stabilise the relationship, to ease tensions, and thatis relationship, to ease tensions, and that is no longer happening because that is no longer happening because that trip has been postponed. we did see some indications in the statement, especially from the

foreign ministry, that the chinese may not want to drag this dispute out too long. for example, they said that this was a violation of international practice or norms. they didn't say it was violation of international law, which would have found them... they also said they were going to protect the rights and interests of the enterprise involved. remember, they have been saying that this is a civilian aircraft, basically focused on monitoring weather patterns. they will properly continue to say that this was not a direct involvement of the government, which may also help them to try and ease off tensions in some way. definitely, relations have worsened over this incident, especially now at a time where they were supposed to be improving with that visit that had been planned. and the same question keeps coming up and the same question keeps coming up here, which is, why this has happened. what with the motivation be for china to do this if this was a deliberate spying attempt? we have been speaking to lots of analysts over the last couple of days, no

real satisfactory answer is yet to that question. i’m real satisfactory answer is yet to that question.— that question. i'm afraid i can't cive ou that question. i'm afraid i can't give you a _ that question. i'm afraid i can't give you a satisfactory - that question. i'm afraid i can't give you a satisfactory answerl give you a satisfactory answer either, because it is an important question. we do know, are very much believe that the chinese wanted this visit to happen, the chinese government. if you look at the way that the president, xijinping has been working towards easing tension with the international community in recent months, especially with that visit he had a november with presidentjoe biden, which seem to have gone quite well, and his attempts to get secretary blinken to build on that to sort out guardrails of this relationship, even if they can't solve fundamentals. there was a lot at stake here, and it was important for the chinese as well as the americans, and especially for the americans, and especially for the chinese, because they are facing tightening restrictions on advanced technology, notjust from the us but from other countries as well. i think they want to at least establish better relation so they

can deal with that in some way. given that, what would have been the value of intelligence they could have gotten from this balloon? it is really not clear that there was a great deal of value from it. the analysts here speculate that this may have been a mistake, that there was some sort of mistake made at some level, but this happened at this time. 1, ., some level, but this happened at thistime. ., ., ~ some level, but this happened at this time. ., ., ~ , this time. barbara, thank you very much for that. _ pakistan's former president, general pervez musharraf, has died following a long illness. he was 79 years old. president musharraf seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999, serving in office for seven years from 2001. at the time of his death he had been living in exile in dubai, receiving medical treatment. the bbc�*s gordon corera looks back on his life. 1999. and when troops stormed the national television headquarters to put pervez musharraf in power, the people of pakistan heard a familiar refrain. the nation needed another leader in uniform to save it from self—serving politicians.

in the past, our governments have ruled the people. it is time now for the governments to serve the people. pakistan had already been under army rule for more than half the time it had been independent. general musharraf portrayed himself as a moderniser out to rid pakistan of islamic extremism. the attacks in the us in september 2001 severely tested his resolve. controversially, within pakistan, he decided to support the american—led military campaign to oust the taliban regime in neighbouring afghanistan. the best way to fight this common enemy is to join hands. he faced protests that he'd sold out to the americans. later, he only narrowly escaped an attempt on his life. challenges to his authority were put down with military force.

he later handed over control of the army. but the killing of the former prime minister, benazir bhutto, in 2007, soon after her return from exile, undermined president musharraf's claim that the nation was safe in his hands. then his party was trounced at the polls, and the coalition that came in decided to impeach him for his alleged misrule as president. pervez musharraf, though, moved first and resigned. he went into self—imposed exile but returned to pakistan six years later, intending to stand in the forthcoming general election. but he was placed under arrest — a move musharraf described as politically motivated. allowed to seek medical treatment abroad, he was convicted in his absence of treason and accused of involvement in bhutto's assassination. pervez musharraf once said pakistan would help to shape the future for both islam and the west,

and the relations between them. on that, there would probably be little disagreement, but there undoubtedly will be over pervez musharraf's own contribution. the uk government and the health unions remain far apart on the eve of the biggest health workers strike so far in england. both sides remain deadlocked as nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists are among those set to walk out this week. 0ur political correspondent helen catt has more. nurses, physiotherapists and ambulance staff have already held a series of strikes. the coming days will see more staff on picket lines in england as the nhs faces its biggest strike so far. a resolution still looks remote. 0ne union which represents ambulance staff said talks about pay simply weren't happening. i can categorically say to you, we are in no talks at any level

whatsoever with the government about pay in the nhs. what do we want? fair pay. unite members who work in the ambulance service in wales will also walk out tomorrow. four other health unions in wales have postponed their planned action after the labour—run welsh government offered them an extra 3%. a source in the uk government said unite had been represented at a meeting of several health unions with the health secretary earlier this year but acknowledged it had not met the union since, although it had met others. the government insists the door remains open. the business secretary said he didn't think the action was necessary. i don't think we need to be having these strikes at all. the reality is, as i've said, overi million nhs workers got a pay rise last year when there wasn't one on offer. there's a pay rise on the table this year. the government has urged the unions to call off this week's strike action and get background the table, but pressure has been growing over action and get back round the table, but pressure has been growing over the weekend on ministers to be the ones to unblock talks.

it is the government's responsibility. they can sort this. you know, the unions have said, even before this started at christmas, if you meet us to discuss pay, we'll call this off. 0k. we have seen, when proper negotiations take place, about pay, not everything else, they can stop it. as it stands, though, things remain at an impasse. helen katt, bbc news. staying here in the uk — police say they've spoken to a woman they'd described as a key witness regarding the disappearance of nicola bulley. 0fficers said last night they were trying to trace the woman, who'd been seen pushing a pram in st michael's on wyre, in lancashire, close to where nicola bulley was last seen, nine days ago. detectives said the woman had come forward "very quickly". our correspondent danny savage has the latest from st michael's on wyre in lancashire. we are ten days since nikolai bulley disappeared, vanished from this river bank. for the international audience, we are about 250 miles

north—west of london, in lancashire, in a small village, by a river, where people are simply perplexed, and disbelieving in a way, about the fact that somebody could just disappear when they're out on their morning walk by riverside. that appears to be what has happened to nicola bulley. she was walking her dog on a friday morning, shejust drop your children off at a local school, she was a local route and walking, and in a ten minute window which happened at past nine, at 9:35am that morning, and the working hypothesis is that she accidentally fell into the river behind me, and never got out again. however, no trace of her has been found. there is no evidence of her falling into the river that has been found where she is believed to have fallen in. there are lots of unanswered questions surrounding this at the moment. the police have said this is an accident, there was no criminal

activity, and no third party involved. yesterday, we had an appealfor them, for a local woman appeal for them, for a local woman who appealfor them, for a local woman who they have caught on cctv on the day that nicola disappeared, who was pushing a child in a pushchair. that woman has come forward very quickly, it is unclear whether she had any more information to give to the officers, but has suppose she was a local mum from somewhere around this area. police are still searching for any trace of nicola bulley. the issue is, none has been found. until there is, people still ask questions and still wonder aloud what has happened to her, and question that police theory. pope francis is on his way back to rome after a historic visit to south sudan. addressing an open air mass congregation injuba at the end of his visit, he told the congregation he brought a message of hope and pleaded with south sudan's leaders to focus on bringing about lasting peace.

he was the first pope to visit the country since it achieved independence in 2011 and then swiftly descended into ethnic conflict. the government's one billion pound nhs recovery plan — which is designed to ease pressures on a&e departments — has promised 5,000 extra hospital beds and 800 new ambulances in england. but questions have been raised over how the extra resources will be staffed. 0ur correspondent michele paduano, has been finding out the reaction to the plan at one hospital in birmingham. this morning was lucky forjake. the emergency department was surprisingly quiet. been through the doctors. we would come into the waiting area for about ten minutes, didn't we? but this was the scene on december 27. over the winter holidays, hospitals declared five critical incidents. at its worst, 69 patients needed beds, with none available. it was awful for the patients,

it was awful for the carers or families of those patients, and it was awful for our staff, as well, who were put in a position where they were delivering care and maintaining safety, but not in an environment that, frankly, they came into nursing to deliver. withjust 20 cubicles, the emergency department can see up to 300 patients a day. the recovery plan will give this trust 25 more beds. there will be more ambulances. but it is about keeping people out of hospital. the virtual wards this winter only run at a0%. for the recovery plan to work, all the elements have to come together, and there are concerns that with no extra money, this is coming out of existing budgets. but the real elephant in the room is the workforce, and how you manage a staffing crisis. this emergency department alone needs 140 more staff. what makes an emergency department tick? people, our people. they have taken to social media to recruit.

i'm quite lucky that on average, about 60% of my staff on shift our my own substantive staff. about 40% are from an agency. i know trusts locally where it is 10% substantive staff and 90% agency. here, they know the problems will not be solved overnight. i there will be no instant silver bullet. we know that they will be incremental improvements that we have got to get on with, the spring into the summer. so that next winter, it provides a better experience for our patients and our staff. they hope that when they moved to midland metropolitan hospital next year, there will be enough beds available. if your home's kept warm by a gas boiler and radiators, would you consider switching them for some high—tech heated wallpaper? it's something that many housing associations and councils

are testing as they look for green and cost—effective alternatives. 0ur reporter dougal shaw has been finding out more. if you want to step into a 1970s time warp, come to 0ctopus energy's research centre in slough. engineers train here to retrofit the latest green tech like heat pumps into specially built, old—fashioned homes. they also test out promising new tech here, like this electric infrared wallpaper developed by british firm next gen. the electric wallpaper is a really good way of heating your home. it has a graphene layer and that actually, when it's powered, emits infrared. infrared is a bit like the heat you get from the sun. as the cloud goes over, you feel the sun height diminish and you feel cooler. that's infrared. and that's what the electric wallpaper does. the graphene material he is talking about is a one atom thick layer of carbon that can conduct electricity. once installed, the paper is plastered over so you don't actually see it. in a well—insulated home, the system could replace these chunky things. councils and providers of social housing are currently running pilots of the technology. this is going to be good for our climate

change action work, as well as helping individual residents have more control over their energy usage. you can heat up one room and leave the rest of the home with the heating not switched on. the idea is that that cuts energy usage, and it's that sense of control that attracted chris up in hull, who installed the technology in his home. he's using a slightly different version of the paper installed by a local company. using an app, he chooses to only heat the rooms he is in. at the moment, it doesn't cost me much more to heat the property compared to gas. it's pretty much the same, however, my plan is to install the solar panel system in this property, which would drastically reduce the cost of heating. additionally, it makes me very happy this property not relying on gas. it's a new technology which should help us as a country. so is electric infrared wallpaper, the future way to heat our homes? they can be greener in that they're helping us move away from natural gas, which we've got to do. but i think the running costs will be quite high, particularly compared with alternative electric heating technologies like heat pumps.

so i don't think low running costs would be a key advantage here, but the capital cost of installing it might be lower. heat pumps are not always straightforward to install, and it's those lower upfront capital costs that might give electric infrared wallpaper an edge, making it an appealing solution to big players like councils and developers looking to meet green targets. if they choose to embrace it, many of us may end up bidding a fond farewell to the trusty old radiator. dougal shaw, bbc news. hundreds of boats have taken part in a parade along the waterways at the start of the annual carnival in venice. the two—week event attracts tourists from all over the globe, with dancers, costumes and music lighting up the city. it was scaled down during the pandemic, but has returned to normal this year. 0k, it's official, peggy, a pug cross, has been named "britain's ugliest dog". her prize was a pampering session

and professional photo shoot at a salon in beverley, east yorkshire. simon spark has the details. # ugly.# this is just part of an amazing transformation for peggy. from a dog that was once sneered at in the street to now being photographed for yet more celebrity status media attention. here we go. but she's here to receive her prize after being crowned the ugliest dog in britain. good girl! peggy's here in beverley, east yorkshire, to have her photoshoot and makeover. she's getting a blueberry facial i right now, which is really relaxing and cleans her face really well and is supposed to— reduce tear staining. what do you think of her? i think she's really . cute in her own way. and for owner holly, a chance to reflect on a mad few weeks. it's been a bit of a whirlwind. it's been really crazy. a lot has happened really quickly. we'll see what sort of difference it makes, if any. i'm sure, she's great anyway, either way.

but she'll love all the pampering. she'll love all this. shampoo and cleansing complete, time tojoin chester to have her blow dry. so we'rejust trimming round her feet there. and then the next stage after that would be a clipping of nails. and then we've treated her to nose and paw balm as well. i mean, it's probably not somewhere that she often particularly... no, not at all. but yeah, we're so happy to have her. yeah. and then it was time to try on prizewinning garments, new jumpers and jackets. she feels a lot softer. she smells a lot better, hair's a lot more fluffy. not a lot we can do with the rest. # let me see beneath your beautiful...# so here she is, transformed and ready to face her public. simon spark, bbc news.

for most of us it has been a glorious afternoon, quite a lot of sunshine around, the contrast yesterday's blanket of cloud across the uk. contrast that with today's satellite picture, you can see today's sunshine. just the north of scotland that a had thick cloud to deal with recent errors. this is what the sunshine has been looking like in northumberland, a bit of cloud making the sunshine that kate, hazy. temperatures yesterday in northern scotland reached 12 celsius in kinloss, today about four degree celsius lower. most of us would take that change, given that there has been a lot more sunshine around. high pressure stays across england and wales, so that will keep the client sky is clear. just a few

patches of frost in rural areas. the frost will be extensive in england and wales, so in the countryside, temperatures could get down to five or six. a cold start of the day tomorrow, but again plenty of sunshine and the forecast across england and wales. scotland and northern ireland do have some thicker cloud, there might be an odd spit of drizzle earlier in the morning, but essentially a lot of dry weather, and it will properly try to brighten up. some of the day's higher temperatures tomorrow will be in the north. for tuesday, it is our drier day, there is a much greater chance of seeing denser patches of mist and fog, some of that lingering into the afternoon across southern parts of england and wales, where the weather could be really quite chilly. there is some brighter weather pushing into western scotland, perhaps a few spots of drizzle crossing northern ireland, and moving into northern england for a time. on wednesday, the wind start to pick up again, which will mean that the mist and fog is less expensive and will

probably be quicker to clear. there will be a few bright or sunny spells to the east of high ground, and temperature is around about average for england and wales, but still mild for scotland and northern ireland. towards the end of the week, we get this cold front moving its way southwards. that will bring a change to sunnier weather, the show was across northern areas stop those showers in lerwick will turn wintry for a time. we are expecting a bit of snow across the higher scottish mountains. that is it for now, by by.

this is bbc news, the headlines. iranian state television says the country's supreme leader has pardoned thousands of prisoners, including many who took part in recent anti—government demonstrations. liz truss blames what she calls a "powerful economic establishment" for her downfall. the shortest serving prime minister in uk history says she was never given a "realistic chance" to implement her tax—cutting agenda. the former president of pakistan, pervez musharraf, has died in hospital at the age of 79. general musharraf took power in a coup in 1999, and served as president for seven years from 2001. police investigating the disappearance of nicola bulley in lancashire say they've spoken to a woman they'd described as a key witness. ms bulley was last seen nine days ago. nursing leaders in england have made

a direct appeal to rishi sunak, saying an improved pay offer could be enough to stop strikes,