really unique and we know that that uniqueness is one allows us to live and survive ideas, the environment to susan golden, 3000 on d, w, and online ah, [000:00:00;00] ah, d w, news line from berlin. by in the sky, a suspected surveillance balloon ignites a diplomatic storm between washington and beijing. us secretary of state, post bones are rare trip to china after i also do an airship is detected over the u

. s. beijing claims the weather balloon that blew off course. also coming up against president the lengthy renews his push for a membership at a summit and keep saying his country deserves to begin. accession talks this year, plus the 77 year old russian artist, with shrugging off the threat of police punishment to display anti war art. look at her exhibition in st. petersburg. ah, i'm nicole phillips could have you with us. we begin with the diplomatic spots over an alleged chinese spy balloon that's been tracked flying across the united states, u. s. secretary of state antony blanket has postponed. a planned, visited china following the discovery. the balloon was 1st detected over the state of montana which houses some 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos entered

on officials, described the airship as an intelligence gathering below china claims the balloon is for civilian purposes and says it regrets the balloon accidentally sailed into you as airspace a moments ago, you as secretary of state antony blank and spoke about his decision to not go ahead with a visit to china yesterday, the department of defense announced that we had detected and were tracking a high altitude surveillance balloon that remains over the continental united states, we continue to track and monitor the balloon closely. we're confident this is a chinese surveillance balloon. once we detected the balloon, the u. s. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information. we communicated with the p r. c. government directly. through multiple channels about this issue, members of my team consulted with our partners in other agencies and in congress. we also engaged our close allies and partners to inform them of the presence of the

surveillance balloon and our aerospace we concluded that conditions were not conducive for a constructive visit at this time and did away respond. and so mason was kind of following the story and washington here is what she told me about antony blank and postponing his plan trip to china. right, so the state department has now confirmed that the secretary of state will not be going on this plan trip to china because of this incident, he was actually supposed to leave on friday night for what was being called an important trip. and those plans were scrapped and the state department official said friday that there were consultations with other agencies with congress. and they came to the conclusion that the conditions were not right. that a trip to china in this environment would not be conducive because it would have narrowed the agenda that secretary blinking could have address, meaning they would have have to talk only really about this 5 balloon. now the official did say that the lines of communication with trying to remain open, that dialogue will continue, and that a trip a by secretary of state lincoln could take place if the conditions are right again

. but all of this points of the faculty a nicole that for the u. s. this is a very serious incident enough to derail what was seen as an important trip at a difficult time in the us china relationship. the pentagon has held a briefing on this. what do we know about this balloon purpose and where it might be going? so right now we know that the balloon, according to the pentagon, is moving eastward in the us. it is about 60000 feet or 18000 meters up in the sky. so according to the defense official who spoke earlier, it is out of range of civilian air traffic. so it means that it doesn't appear to pose a physical or military risk. they also said in that briefing that this is a surveillance balloon, despite china's explanation, but they couldn't give details on why they know that they did say there are monitoring every movement of this below balloon. and we don't know if it's drifting or being steered, but we know it can be steered. and we also know, according to this to pet defense department official,

that this is not the 1st time that a spy balloon has entered us air space. but they wouldn't share more details on when that has happened before. out. authorities, of course, don't like seeing a chinese balloon whatever its purpose, the in us air space. why don't they just shoot it down? well, they said all options are on the table, so that would likely include the shooting down of this balloon. that didn't happen until now. because it was floating over, heavily populated part of montana. there was concerned that falling debris could be a danger to people. but i have to say that president biden's administration is getting a lot of heat from particularly republicans right now. who 1st of all asked why wasn't this balloon shot down before it entered u. s. aerospace and want him to do so now because they also believe that the u. s. could gain some information on chinese intelligence by taking this balloon down. so again, the pressure to do something is rising, but no decision has been made on that yet. the w correspondence and we sum us kinda

in washington. thank you. leaders of a european union have stopped short of granting ukraine a fast track to membership and the block at a summit with the you leaders and keep ukraine's president bullet. amir zalinski repeated his appeal to speed things up. he's an ukraine deserved to begin negotiations on joining the block. this very year. european officials bound to provide enduring support to ukraine, but that there were no shortcuts to eat membership. this history making summits offered up a flurry of announcements amidst the wintry conditions in keith. it was also a chance for the ease top officials to demonstrate the growing ties between ukraine and the european union. the future of ukraine is within the european union, lucrative people. you have made a clear choice for freedom for democracy, and hulu,

and reading you with or so me the clear decision. your future with our common european union. ah, but in spite of all of them, is the lensky attempts at these talks to build a fast path into the you. that future still looks some way off, despite all the smiles on positive rhetoric around the table that i know which it timelines. but their goals that you have to reach the forms, for example, to improve a situation in the canada country to then reach the accession negotiations and the session except itself. also discussed the war with russia and a promise of fresh e sanctions against moscow. focused on trade and technology, the president zalinski wants more immediate help in the form of weapons to hold off a predicted russian search in the next few weeks. said that the war wiggly caesar conditions where the more long range weapons we have. the better equipped artillery

is the sooner modern western tanks will start operating on the battlefield in ukraine will. okay, in the stronger our air defense will be the sooner rushes aggression will and not shop for the for the dinner and protection of european security and freedom. she eating will have more guarantees, issues, europe wastefully misplaced, his voice, beyond the pledge of new sanctions, came details of more humanitarian help for the country, including 25000000000 euros to fund a de mining program seen as crucial in helping ukraine rebuild. and in key more practical aid for residents, millions of energy efficient lcd light bulbs to help people reduce their own consumption and take the pressure of ukraine's crippled power grid. and i bradshaw is an expert on international economic sanctions with royal united services institute in london. and she told us why previous you,

sanctions haven't had the desired impact on the russian economy. sanctions are by definition a political term, but also an imperfect tool. it is very difficult to calibrate sanctions in a way that gives them measurable impact. but we have seen developing over the last 10 years, really focused on so called smart sanctions. and the last year has seen an unprecedented development in the types of smart sanctions that are relied on. and we will see more developments for sure in the future. but in terms of measuring the impact, it's very difficult indeed. and of course, there are many reasons for this, but principally, 3, the 1st reason is 5 sections have to be aligned. it is very difficult to

achieve effectiveness if there is disparity, divergence between different sanctions, regimes, which is one of the reasons why the today called for other countries to follow in its steps. and principally the main sanctions jurisdictions here would be the us and the u. k. canada and australia as well. so we would see more alignment. they also hold on country. it's like bella roofs and iran to cease their act and support or these, these new sanctions focus on preventing russia from importing foreign technology to boost their weaponry. especially when it comes to drones. now that you mentioned iran is that approach smart as you it's, it's an inevitable approach because it is

a response to what we're seeing on the ground and for that reason predictable to. but i think that again, sections foreign parts of a much broader package. so nice lation measures will, will look in a search, but it is the impact as a whole that needs to be considered as well. is incredibly difficult, of course to make sure not just the sanctions are smarter in the sense of targeting the right types of experts and imports, but also that they're complied with in practice. and that is the real challenge because of course, sanctions have to be and forest and they have to be properly understood on the grounds. so the businesses and the services industry understand, but it is that they need to do in order to comply. and that is one of the big challenges the faces. now finding sanctions that russia cannot circumvent anna bradshaw,

analyst and international economic sanctions. thank you so much. freedom of expression has long been under attack and russia, but censorship has only risen since moscow launched its invasion of ukraine. that's not stopping some artists from showing their opposition to the war. an exhibition in saint petersburg has gone ahead despite the dangers. why die, child stubs of peace and the words love against hate. all displayed on meter long cardboard posters. these are the works of 77 year old sim, petersburg artist elaina. also 2 dozen of these posters created from 2014 to the present day. were on display here at the local headquarters of the russian political party. yeah. political expedition opened on the last day of january the very next day it was rated by police and the works confiscated. organizers had anticipated such

a reaction that decided not to feature or supervise most critical work, fearing it could fall under new laws, restricting freedom of expression in russia with the smuggler. unfortunately, we were not able to exhibit all the works here publicly because we need to comply with the new laws. and we wouldn't want to put elaina also pover and the party at risk. even the job with some of her work are you are very striking. and leaking absolutely accurate from food, i think contain words that one would have to pay a fine for that more move. the stuff lena also has studied and taught out all her life. she created her 1st political poster in 2002, marcia. this after the seizure of moscow theatre by chechen rebels see good since then. she's taken part in countless protests is often being detained. off to russia

invaded ukraine, or supervised joined anti war rallies. oh, she says she was not afraid then, and she isn't. now despite the new repressive laws, both that knew that that was the one could be worse and what is happening when you . nothing is scary. you never know what scary it, but this is my country, my homeland. why can't i say or do something peacefully without weapons? daily news, bitter. several dozen people came to the opening of the exhibition in saint petersburg visit. his also wrote letters to russian political prisoners with events like this inspire hope in a bright future court. because there are many people who think the same and it's necessary for us to be close to one another. to know,

appreciate and love each other with. police seized a total of 19 paintings by alaina or c pover. later, the artist told reporters that she also got a visit from the police that night, but she says she will keep protesting. she is known in the city as the conscience of saint petersburg. and that the heat is up for energy firms posting record profits a will they be forced to ease the burden on struggling consumers, rob watts, has that and more and the business news after a short break article for kimberly and thank you so much for a company i were interested in the global economy our portfolio