oh ah ah, the thursday'll be news live from the land after tracking it for days drifting high over the us. fighter jets have shot down a suspected chinese spy balloon. beijing warns there may be repercussions or for the program. iran state media says the country supreme leader has pardoned tens of thousands of people who are arrested in the anti government protest. but rights groups are remaining skeptical and pakistan's, or presidents and military ruler perez, my sheriff, has died after

a long illness. he tried to bring in liberal values to a conservative country and survived several assassination attempts. ah, i'm really. mm hm. and welcome to the program. china has condemned the u. s. military decision to shoot down a suspected chinese surveillance balloon that flew over the u. s. the united states shot down on saturday, treating a diplomatic and political storm. china has warned the us of repercussions. they maintain, it was merely a civilian where the balloon blown off course. after floating across the us for days, the suspected chinese spy balloon has been shot down off the coast of south carolina . several airports was shot and asked,

closed before the balloon was brought down by military fighter jets, landing 11 kilometers of the us mainland us president joe biden said he ordered the balloon to be down as soon as it could be done so safely. on wednesday when i was break down the balloon or the pentagon to shoot it down on one day as soon as possible, they decided without doing damage to any one on the ground. the successor took it down and i want to compliment our aviators or did it. and one more report on a little later, china's ministry of foreign affairs condemned the shooting down of the balloon from let it ring tank was a civilian airship. though, di, you don't, beijing previously said it regretted his entrees into us air space. oh, good afternoon. you're us secretary of state wide, antony blinker, noncom cancelled a trip to china. following is discovery. it's very,

the balloon may be neutralized, but the fallout has further sour already brought diplomatic relations between china and the united states. well, and boy is a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the university of colorado boulder . and he told us more about how a surveillance balloon blacks and what it's capable of. yes. so i spy below, you know, it has to be useful attributes. so it is much closer to the ground than a spy satellite is. and so, you know, the closer you are to something more clearly, you can see it. and then secondly, blue has what we call persistence. which means that, you know, because not flying very fast and it stays over the same, you know, region of ground for quite a long time. so that allows you. ready plenty of time to gather information. and so

you know what's, what's unusual, i think what's surprising for a lot of people is that, of course, balloons are really not very controllable. usually right? you usually are being blown by the wind, and that's where you're going to happen. some reports that this object may have had some propellers in it, and so that would perhaps give you a lot more control. and maybe that's what makes it useful. in this case, iran supreme leader has reportedly pardoned tens of thousands of people to taint in anti government protests, but human rights groups are skeptical of the decree. and they made the announcement on the anniversary of the $979.00. this on the revolution at the pardon excludes people with international ties, anyone facing flying charges, any 20000 people have been arrested in nationwide protests. which response by the death of gina my so i mean, well in custody in september i leave

a job is any run ex that and also the author of the book, iran in an emerging new world order from a did a judge to honey. he told me what he makes of the timing of this announcement. well, the timing is still a time when there is a relative calm of street protests in iran, but we see the combination of strikes. so the situation has not really a comp for good. and we have to take such announcement from the supreme leader, but also from the iranian judiciary, with lots of, you know, with lots of grains of salt because there is no indication whatsoever that among those who are going to be part and going to be political prisoners we know that there are a lot of political prisoners in iran, and we also know that in connection with the protest, there are probably $20000.00 jails. and so what i see here and

why would i could speculate about is something different. there are reports about re education of prisoners inside of iranian jails, and those are going to be freed, could be used to work for the regime basically as some kind of playing close. also, you know, being tasked with a future project. so i think the whole back on the whole story is a different one. some may argue that this could possibly be seen as the 1st acknowledgement by the wedding authorities around the scale of the crackdown. would that make any difference? no, it, there is no such a thing and i think a combination to what i said before, you know, the regime has been able to put a hold of, you know, relative hold to the regulatory process as a college. but there is a white lea,

a combination of this process with renew street protests that you know when they do a cold winter is over in iran. and also when the huge economic price is going to also translate into a street protests, they're gonna quickly become political. and the iranian states could, you know, using a could also use, for instance, malicious in the middle east. i had to import them so to speak, in order to call the protests. but this path is also quite difficult given also u. s. pressure upon the iraqi government and dad's no, no arduous currencies are given to iran via iraq. and those militias would be pay, it would need to be paid in the u. s. daughters and not the iranian currency. so are, you know, pardoning a lot of prisoners, maybe a whole different background to what we initially can think of. we have like some

other stories making headlines around the world. anti government protesters clashed with police and peruse capital after parliament rejected a proposal to bring forward elections. since december, thousands of demonstrators across the country have been calling on president dina ballasa to sat down. she took over from petro kasteel, who was impeached and arrested for trying to dissolve congress. the death toll from wild fires in chile has now reached 23. the government has extended the area covered by emergency orders, allowing for the to the deployment of troops to battle the flames. more than $250.00 fires on our burning due to a summer wet heat wave. tens of thousands of people attended a mass held by pope frances on sunday, in the stadium in salsa dance. capital juba,

the pope used his visit to urge rival factions to make peace. he also spent 4 days in the democratic republic of congo, pakistan's, former president and military ruler perez, my sheriff, has died. he succumbed after a long illness in a hospital in dubai. at age 79. reserve became president after a military coup in 1999. he avoided 3 assassination attempts before leaving office in 2008. he later attempted a political comeback, but face criminal charges, and has since been living in exile. while opinions about the shafts in pock hassan has remained divided here some voices in the capital this summer, but we don't get sick. there was good in him, but his one act for which he will be remembered throughout history was that he broke the law and do i like the rule of law is the most important thing for any country family. and it is the responsibility of all citizens to uphold. it was more

like a headache up right away. on the sheriff was a good ruler, his tenure was good, will the prices were low and that provided relief to people education. shara inclusive education and infrastructure he brought development to the country and at the time g, d, p growth was good, they can put on the other hand, the country suffered losses in the face of terrorism. you're entering america's war weakened, our own country. i done the same alarm as a senior lecture in international relations at kings college london. i asked him if he thinks machine is remembered fondly in pakistan. it's complicated. one of the things that measured actually did was sort of come bring together and hire a group of a key sort of political opinion in pakistan, among especially urbanites and herb, the urban middle class on oriented against corruption and towards development. and of course, a lot of those voters have been supporting him on hand. so this is

a very powerful suburban of force in park st. politics that was muted before my sheriff came on the scene. at the same time, there was a lot of controversy over his rule and in fact, he was pushed out of power in 2007 by a massive coalition of democratic parties and civil society or organizations after he acted against the independence of the, of their judiciary, so in part i think my sheriff, even though he was, and the on democratic actor, has actually forced pakistan thompson's relationship to the military in a completely new phase in which i think it's more likely than not that the military will now will not get involved in a straightforward matter,

but rather trying to influence their own interest in their own policies behind the scenes of ash and miss all strike on ukraine. the 2nd largest, as he hi. keith has left 5 people wounded and damaged buildings in the cities center hockey. this close to the russian border and local authority say it's been the target of frequent miss. all attacks. emergency workers were on the scene after 2 russian missiles slammed into the northeastern city of har. keith, reportedly hitting to civilian structures not far from the central plaza. several floors of the university were destroyed at a nearby apartment building was left uninhabitable. one resident said she and her partner only survived. thanks to lucky timing. on yet must return. we happened to have just gone into the bathroom. and right after that had happened. my husband was covered and broken glass, but everybody is alive. it's the main thing. a good

moscow's forces have seemingly given up trying to capture ukraine's 2nd largest city. but they continue to bombard it, frequently hitting civilian targets. but a couple 100 kilometers to the south. the war on the ground is still raging with buck moot. at its epicenter. for months ukrainian soldiers had been fighting off an onslaught by russian forces, intent on resting control of the region. their line held through the depths of winter and into the new year. but now keeps as its fighters are slowly being pushed back toward back moat. while they battle in the trenches startle ukraine's leaders are waging their own fight automotives for more support from nato allies. the said will, who great, they say the only way to push the russian offensive back is with more powerful weapons. after initial hesitation, pledges of tanks and long range rockets began to roll in from western allies with deliveries expected to begin arriving in the spring. for ukrainian soldiers,

that might seem a long time to wait, especially with many analysts predicting that russia will intensify its assault as winter weather gives way to spring. and finally, as the full loan rises this evening, marking the end of the lunar new year festivities. many people are celebrating the lantern festival and in china sichuan province. this is a big deal. it's the luncheon fair in the city of zigzag that's making the most are getting the most attention there. 2023 is the year of the rabbits, and this giant rabbit is the centerpiece of the events of the origin of the london festival. is thought to go back some 2000 years to the hon dynasty through willard. how should woman? yeah, time for quick recap. of our top story, china has condemned the u. s. military's decision to shoot down a suspected chinese surveillance balloon that flew over the u. s. united states

shot down the balloon on saturday. crating, asymptomatic and political storm efforts are now underway to connect the debris. the thursday adobe it is live from berlin. up next is 4th life who meets a blind man on his quest to climb kenya's 2nd highest peak. thanks for watching. i'll see if i bite. the double use crime fighters are back with africa. most successful radio drama series continues through all episodes are available online. and of course you can share and discuss on d, w, africa's facebook page, and other social media platforms, crime fighters, tune in, know, sometimes a seed is all you need to allow big ideas to grow.