welcome to bbc news. iran's supreme leader is pardoning a large number of prisoners, including some of those arrested during the past months of protests. the pardon by ayatollah khamenei comes on the eve of the anniversary of the islamic revolution in 1979, a date on which an amnesty is often given to prisoners. though the country's state media says the pardons exclude people facing charges of spying for foreign agencies, murder or the destrusction of state property. taraneh stone, from the bbc�*s persian service, says those freed have several conditions attached to their release. one of those conditions is that they should not be linked to any spying activity, they should not be facing any

charges of corruption on earth or waging war against god. as you can see, these are quite ambiguous charges and people have been charged with these accusations for setting fire to bins in the street or merely protesting. so these are quite ambiguous charges. also one of the conditions is these people have to show remorse and also they have to provide a written promise that they will not participate in the protests or take similar actions again. the latest on the pardon in iran. press agencies report from ukraine that the country's war—time defence minister oleksii reznikov will be dismissed and replaced with the head

of military intelligence. he is a loyal ally of president zelensky, but will be moved to a different ministerial position. in recent weeks ukraine's defence ministry has been embroiled in a corruption scandal. pope francis says laws criminalising lgbt people are a "sin" and an "injustice" and that people who are attracted to the same sex are "children of god". the pope made the remarks aboard a plane while returning from an historic visit to south sudan. he said it's "not right" for some countries to still outlaw same—sex relations. last month in an interview, the pope said homosexuality "is not a crime" and called on catholic bishops to welcome lgbtq people into the church. earlier i spoke to lgbt+ campaignerjayne ozanne who's

a member of the general synod, the assembly of the church of england. she told me how significant these comments are. for the leader of the catholic church to come out and say this is not a sin, these are real people, they are loved by god, it is quite a long way from the harsh rhetoric we have had over the years and it is part of the trajectory to push has shown constantly, since i met him in 2019, of wanting the catholic church to be pastoral in its approach. but we have still got a long way to go. we are still saying that sex between two people of the same sex is sinful and wrong and that teaching is what can cause so much harm and pain, particularly amongst young lgbt people growing up in churches. i believe as part of these comments that he made to journalists whilst

they were on this flight back from south sudan, he did talk about the issue of marriage and gay people getting married in church and that is still not something that is possible. so is he trying to balance two things here? yes, he is wanting to have it all ways. in fact, i think the archbishop of canterbury, who was on the plane with him, would be in the same boat. they are trying to be, quote, lgbt friendly, but at the same time saying "you are still second class, you can't get married, you can't be in a relationship that we will bless." but if you want to get to rome you have to go in steps and this is a step on the way. if i may, one of the most important things is they had with them the moderator of the church of scotland and he, of course, blesses and performs marriages of lgbtq people, and so to be in communion with him, to take him with them on the journey, that was also a strong signal that he was prepared to be with other christians who hold deeply different views

and who are far more progressive in their approach to the lgbt community. tonight it emerged that the family of nicola bulley, who went missing while walking next to the river wyre in lancashire, gave a permission to a private underwater search and recovery company to search the river which police believe she fell into. many members of the local community have again joined the search today to find her. a key witness, who was walking with a pram close to where she disappeared ten days ago, has come forward. here's danny savage. this is nicola bulley leaving home on the day she vanished. setting off on the school run,

putting her spaniel, willow, in the boot. her family today released these pictures to show exactly what she was wearing. for days, police have been searching for any trace of the mother of two young girls. today was no different. what did seem very obvious was the large number of other people out, too. this is the bench where nicky's mobile phone was found a week last friday. today is dry and sunny and the number of people out along here is extraordinary. there are dozens and dozens of people along this stretch, along the other stretches as well, all walking the riverside paths to try and assist in the search. i mean, if she went missing in the same way, i would be expecting people to go looking. do you understand what i mean? i would really want there to be a search party. if it was myself, my eldest, we both takes the dogs out on our own. if it was one of us that was in that situation, iwould hope the community would do the same thing for us as well. ijust feel like everybody should be doing their part.

she disappeared without trace. police believe she accidentally fell in the river wyre, but it's the not knowing for sure which is keeping people looking. danny savage with that report. the uk government and the health unions remain far apart on the eve of the biggest health workers�* strike so far in england. the two sides remain deadlocked as nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists are among those due to walk out this week. our political correspondent jonathan blake, has more. with 19 years experience in the ambulance servicejoanne never thought she would find herself striking. while this dispute is primarily about pay, forjoanne it is also about the state of the health service and the delays patience and ambulance crews face because of the pressures on the system. i because of the pressures on the s stem. , , system. i feel sick sometimes because i _ system. i feel sick sometimes because i think _ system. i feel sick sometimes because i think those - system. i feel sick sometimes because i think those people i system. i feel sick sometimes - because i think those people outside waiting for ambulances could be your auntie or mum and dad, brother or

sister. once we arrive at a patient was my house and they have been waiting ten hours for an ambulance, we get the backlash. people shout at us, where have you been? we have been waiting hours. then we have to try and explain it is not ourfault and we are really sorry and we just feel sad and frustrated. i5 and we are really sorry and we 'ust feel sad and frustrated.* feel sad and frustrated. is the atient feel sad and frustrated. is the patient breathing? _ feel sad and frustrated. is the patient breathing? the - feel sad and frustrated. is the patient breathing? the strike| feel sad and frustrated. is the - patient breathing? the strike action will inevitably have an impact on the number of ambulances out on the street. but managers and unions have been planning how to keep the service going for the most essential calls. , ,., , , service going for the most essential calls. , , , ., ., calls. the response is going to look different during _ calls. the response is going to look different during the _ calls. the response is going to look different during the period - calls. the response is going to look different during the period of- different during the period of industrial action as it would do during normal activity. it is about understanding this is a dispute between the trade union membership and the government and not with the ambulance service. it is about understanding that. it is our responsibility to make sure that we continue to provide a service. for man the continue to provide a service. for many the decision to strike has not

been easy. concerns about the care thatis been easy. concerns about the care that is offered to patients now balance against the impact the strike could have. i balance against the impact the strike could have.— balance against the impact the strike could have. i never, ever thou~ht strike could have. i never, ever thought we _ strike could have. i never, ever thought we would _ strike could have. i never, ever thought we would strike - strike could have. i never, ever thought we would strike as - strike could have. i never, ever- thought we would strike as nurses. the decision to me to go out on strike is very, very difficult. but it has come to a point now where we have to make a stand. there is an issue, it is not being addressed, and we need to address it as soon as possible to ensure patient safety and patient care. im’ith possible to ensure patient safety and patient care.— and patient care. with no end in siaht to and patient care. with no end in sight to this _ and patient care. with no end in sight to this industrial _ and patient care. with no end in sight to this industrial action, i sight to this industrial action, health bosses across merseyside are braced for another strike day, caught in a row they have no part in resolving. {iii caught in a row they have no part in resolvina. _, , caught in a row they have no part in resolvina. .., , ., ., resolving. of course we want to get to a oint resolving. of course we want to get to a point where — resolving. of course we want to get to a point where we _ resolving. of course we want to get to a point where we have _ resolving. of course we want to get to a point where we have got - resolving. of course we want to get to a point where we have got the i to a point where we have got the dispute agreed and there is an outcome so we can get back to delivering the services we know we need to. we have got the plans in place to make sure the hospital is safe and we continue to deliver those things, but the sooner we can get over the other side of this disruption and end this dispute, the better, notjust for us as a

hospital, but for our patients. previous strike days have seen fewer ambulance call—outs and relatively quiet a&e departments. across merseyside, as in all those areas affected by strike action, the public are being urged to think hard before calling an ambulance unless it is a life—threatening emergency. 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. liz truss was forced to resign as prime minster after barely seven weeks, after her package of tax cuts caused panic in the markets and the pound dropped to a record low. earlier, the former conservative cabinet minister david gauke gave us his view. i think it's a pretty unconvincing case, in all honesty. the fact is that the government pursued a fiscal strategy, a tax and spend policy that did not have credibility.

the markets took flight, interest rates rose accordingly, the pound fell and the uk faced a real problem and market crisis, and that was a consequence of a reckless approach to the public finances. and i don't think there's really an indication from liz truss that she probably recognises that or recognises the errors that she made and her chancellor made in pursuing a policy that undermined market confidence. i spoke to henry hill, who is the deputy editor of conservative home and asked whether david gauke's assessment of the article was fair. essentially, yes. it is completely understandable that liz truss would want to try and carve a continuing role for herself in public life, nobody wants to spend so long climbing to the top and be committed to their ideas and then be seen as a failure.

but ultimately most of her article was about expectation, it was about trying to shift the blame and blame outside forces for what happened to her premiership and ultimately she has to take responsibility for what happened. how concerning is her stance and the fact that she is putting herself back out their politically? how concerning is that to rishi sunak at the moment? well, i don't think politically it is necessarily bad for him to have liz truss saying that what he is doing is not what she would have done, given the recent public memory of how her government went. in terms of political organisation, the conservative party is very divided and there are more than enough mps who sympathise with liz truss that they could cause trouble for the prime minister in the house of commons with regards to his legislative agenda. mostly what this is about is to try and rally the libertarian wing of the conservative party so that when the party loses office they are ready to fight it out with the other wings of the party for control in opposition and try

to shape the future of the party once they have left government. the way you are describing all of that, even the use of the language that you are using, is it quite bitter? you are using the word battle, is it a bitter fight already? there are deep, deep divisions within the conservative party at the moment. they have been in office in one form or anotherfor 13 years, they have had several prime ministers, several changes of approach, accumulated grievances, frustration that having been in power they have not got more done. whatever that more is. so, yes, absolutely, it is increasingly fractious. you can see that in the briefings coming out from different politicians to journalists about other conservative politicians. ultimately the problem is that at this point the conservative government does not have a sense of mission. margaret thatcher, the great tory icon, she was prepared to be unpopular and was extremely unpopular, but no matter what you thought of her there was always that sense

of what the government was in office to do and that was a great help for providing discipline. currently it does not have that and that has given lots of space for tory mps with lots of different personal views to have it out with each other. henry hill, the deputy editor of conservative home. beijing says president biden�*s decision to shoot down a chinese observation balloon that flew across the united states was an "attack on a civilian unmanned airship" and an "obvious over—reaction". washington believes the device was spying on sensitive sites in the us and sent fighterjets to destroy it yesterday. warships have now been deployed to recover the debris. barbara plett usher reports from beijing. for days, this solitary object floated serenely through us airspace, putting a diplomatic crisis onto television screens in real time. was it a harmless weather balloon, as the chinese claimed? or a spy in the sky?

moments after it arrived over the atlantic, the us brought an explosive end to the drama. that trail of white vapour you see on the left of the screen is an american fighterjet heading for the balloon. the second vapour trail is from a heat—seeking missile fired from the jet, easily finding its target. whoa! did you hear that? shortly after impact, the sound of the explosion was heard by people watching on the ground. then, what was left of the balloon came down in the sea off the coast of south carolina. suddenly we saw something take off from the jet and we knew that was a missile, and you could see the explosion. gosh, it was almost like a moving cloud coming down. it's scary. it is a different way of spying on us, let's put it that way. i the us navy is now recovering debris spread over seven miles in relatively shallow water. down to earth, the us shoots down a suspected spy balloon monitoring us military sites...

this was how america woke up to the news on sunday morning. late yesterday, an air force f—22 fighterjet fired a single air—to—air missile into the balloon, bringing it down. president biden was criticised by republicans for not acting sooner, but he chose his own time. i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. they decided — without doing damage to anyone on the ground — they decided the best time to do that was over water, within a i2—mile limit. china's foreign ministry accused the us of overreacting. the statement said... china expresses strong dissatisfaction and protests against the use of force by the united states. and that it would reserve the right to reserve further necessary responses. the incident has blown up a chance to ease tensions between the world's two great powers, with the us secretary of state antony blinken postponing a planned trip to beijing. here in beijing, the foreign

ministry in china had been expecting to welcome antony blinken today to talk about stabilising the relationship in carefully planned meetings. instead, suddenly relations have taken a sharp turn for the worse. the visit could still very well take place later in the year. butjust getting here is now part of the problem. barbara plett usher, news, beijing. the former military ruler of pakistan, general pervez musharraf, has died in hospital in dubai. he was seventy nine. general musharraf took power in a coup in 1999 and ruled for nine years. following 9/ii he supported the us in its war on terror. his loss of power and popularity saw him spend most of his remaining time in exile. our islamabad correspondent caroline davies looks back at this life. as his troops clambered over the fences of pakistani state tv, general pervez musharraf announced pakistan needed the army,

not politicians to be in control. your armed forces have never and shall never let you down, inshallah. musharraf portrayed himself as a liberal, disliking the term military dictator. when 9/ii happened and the war on terror began, he publicly declared he was with the west, although later he said america gave him little choice. it was a high wire act, balancing us demands with increasingly anti—american islamist sections of pakistan. musharraf ordered the siege of a mosque in islamabad whose religious leaders and students had condemned his pro—western policy. the outrage at what happened to the rise of the pakistani taliban. when former prime minister benazir bhutto was killed there were questions about whether the nation was safe in his hands. he lost the 2008 election, resigned before he could be

impeached and went into exile. when he returned to try and stand again in 2013 he was arrested. allowed to go to dubai for medical treatment, he was convicted in his absence of treason, which was later overturned. he stayed in dubai until his death. some today praised a man, saying he put his country first. others see the seeds of pakistan's current turmoil planted and growing under his rule. pervez musharraf who has died aged 89. a british family are to travel to grenada later this month to apologise publicly for their ancestors' ownership of more than one—thousand slaves. the trevelyans owned six sugar plantations on the caribbean island during the nineteenth century. the family includes the bbc

correspondent laura trevelyan who says they are paying reparations by donating £100,000 to a fund on the island. celestina olulode reports. a painful past with a legacy that lingers. a reality bbc presenter laura trevelyan was confronted with after learning her family was listed on a database of slave owners. when i went to grenada 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 the system of dehumanisation that my family had profited from as absentee slave owners, of the sugar plantations, i felt ashamed. later this month the family will donate £100,000 to establish a community fund for the island and have agreed to apologise for their ancestors' role in the slave trade.

when slavery came to an end, the trevelyan family received the equivalent of £3 million in compensation. laura says the £100,000 donation may seem inadequate, but she hopes herfamily are setting an example by apologising for what her ancestors did. the trevelyan family is only one. also, the amount of money we are talking about is really a drop in the bucket. so while we applaud this effort, we are conscious of the fact that more can and should be done. the real legacy of slavery is the underdevelopment of the caribbean, the underdevelopment of grenada, you are talking about the education system, the health care system, our whole economic premise. as nations continue to grapple with that legacy, there is mounting pressure from some for governments to pay reparations, too. celestina olulode, bbc news.

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. our reporter dougal shaw has been finding out more. if you want to step into a 1970s time warp, come to octopus 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 kris 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. the biggest names in the music industry are gathering

in los angeles for the 65th grammy awards. the main ceremony gets under way a little later tonight. beyonce leads the nominations with nine and could break the record for the most wins in the history of the grammys. this year there are 91 categories and among the contenders for album of the year as well as beyonce are abba, adele, and coldplay. jem aswad is the deputy music editor at variety. he told me that though there has been a decline in tv viewers for award ceremonies, the grammys are still the peak achievement in the industry. there's only one grammy awards. it is the absolute peak of achievement, public achievement, whatever, except for pulitzer or nobel prize or something like that, in the music world. there is absolutely nothing like it. brit awards are great, the american music awards are cool — there's nothing like a grammy. now, award shows in general have lost a lot of their lustre

with the decline of network television — sorry! but to a musician, it's still the ultimate thing. even when people fight with the grammys, like ariana grande got in a spat with the former producer of the show a few years ago andjust said, "forget it, i'm not appearing," but when she won her first grammy, she posted that night. she posted a video of herself dancing around her bedroom, so that shows what it means. jan askwhat spoke to me just before heading out to the grammys. that takes us to look at the weather. the weekend was a tale of two halves and we had a lot of mild atlantic air and on and we had a lot of mild atlantic airand on sunday and we had a lot of mild atlantic air and on sunday high—pressure and clearer skies. that high pressure stays with us for much of the week, but towards the north we will see

cloudy skies at times and windier weather as the midweek comes. in the south temperatures are falling away a little bit and with mist and fog. a bit more cloud creeps in across the west of scotland, and northern ireland. limited frost here. a much colder start for england and wales. minus three orfour in rural areas. but the fog should lift fairly readily and it looks like we will have less high cloud around compared to sunday. bright blue skies but more limited brightness and sunshine for northern ireland and western scotland. in the east we will see some sunshine. it lifts up to ten in belfast and in scotland. as we go through monday evening and overnight this weather from start to take shape across scotland and northern ireland, so again are limiting frost here, but not in the south. again a cold night, minus three out in the

sticks and in countryside areas. for tuesday probably more fog in southern areas and it is slower to clear. it could stay grey and cold for much of the day. that week whether france slips down, but brightening skies follow across scotland. more sunshine for the north—west of scotland compared with monday. as we go into wednesday there is tightly packed isobars arrive and we could have a spell of severe gale force winds towards the north on wednesday afternoon onwards. it will bring with it on wednesday night a spell of quite significant rain. further south probably a bit more breeze to lift the fog and less issues. but certainly the prospect of more in southern areas where the winds are a little bit light. as we move into the latter part of the week we have got that chance of rain in the north, but the high—pressure rules the roost further south. the main points about this week is it will be largely dry away from scotland in particular, but there will be frost

and fog in the mornings and chillier for a time on thursday.

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