guardians of truth starts february 18th on d, w. ah, ah, ah ah, this is need of the news line from berlin. after tracking it the days drifting high over the us fighter jets shot, shoot down a suspected chinese 5 balloon. aging warns there may be repercussions off of the program. iran state media says the country supreme leader has pardoned tens of thousands of people who were arrested in the antique government protest. but rights groups remain skeptical. and pakistan's,

former president and military ruler perez michelle, has died after a long illness he bring, he did bring in liberal values to a conservative country and also survived several assassination attempts. ah and really mohammed walked into the program. china has condemned the u. s. military's decision to shoot down a suspected chinese surveillance balloon that flew over the united states. the us shot shot down on saturday, crating, a diplomatic and political storm. china has warned the us of repercussions. they maintain, it was merely a civilian weather weather balloon. that term was bone, of course. after floating across the u. s. for days the suspected chinese spy balloon has been shot down off the coast of south carolina.

several airports was shut and as space closed before the balloon was brought down by military fight. jets, landing 11 kilometers of the us, mainland u. s. president joe biden said he all did the balloon to be down as soon as it could be done so safely. 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 as successfully. i took it down and i want to compliment our aviators. who did it, and one more to report on a little later, china's ministry of foreign affairs condemned the shooting down of the balloon. let it maintain us, was a civilian airship. a year. beijing previously said it regretted his entrees into

us as space or good afternoon of us secretary of state white, antony blinker. duncan cancelled a trip to china following is discovering a very the balloon may be neutralized but the fall out to spur, the soured, already brought diplomatic relations between china and the united states. earlier i spoke to in boy he is a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the university of colorado bolden . and he told us how a surveillance balloon wax and what it's capable of. yeah, so i spy balloon, you know, it has to be useful attributes. so it is much closer to the ground and then 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 a what we call a persistence. which means that, you know, because not flying very fast and it stays over the same, you know, reach enough 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 rita has reported the pardon, tens of thousands of people detained in the anti government protests that human rights groups are skeptical all the decree. i told ali hama they made the announcement on the anniversary of the 979 is from a revolution. but the policy excludes people with international ties, or anyone facing find charges. and the 20000 people have been arrested in nationwide protests which respond by the death of my son. meaning, well,

the custody in september. i leave it all on the job, isn't iran expert? and also the author of the book, iran in an emerging, well emerging knew well thought that he had told me what he makes, 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 reeducation 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, the whole background a whole story is a different one. some may argue that this could possibly be seen as the 1st acknowledgement by the reading 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 holds 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 the 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 protest. but this path is also quite difficult given also u. s. pressure upon the iraqi government and that, you know, no r u. s. 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, you know, pardoning a lot of prisoners, maybe

a whole different background to what we initially can think of as a brief look at some other stories making headlines around the world. tens of thousands of people have attended math. how my pope frances on sunday, in a stadium in south saddam's capital g above the pope, use his visit to edge rival factions to make peace. yes, i spent 4 days in the democratic republic of congo. east african leaders have called for an immediate cease fire in the democratic republic of congo, where a rebel group has fighting to take control of a region rich in minerals. troops sent there by the d. r. c. military as well as the east africa community have failed to contain the conflict anti government protesters clashed with police and perused capital after parliament rejected a proposal to bring forward elections since december, thousands of demonstrators across the country have been calling on president deena

bolo, artie to step down, she took over from petra castillo, who was impeached and arrested for trying to dissolve. congress chillies says that the death toll from while fires has now reached 22. the government has extended the area covered by emergency orders, allowing the deployment of troops to baffle the flames or the 250 fires are burning amid scorching summer temperatures that have hindered the firefighters. now what pakistan's, former president and military ruler perverse machine has died, he succumbed after a long illness in hospital in to buy at the age of 79, which are of 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. all opinions of atlas shaft in pakistan

remained divided. here are some voices from the capital. it's on the bought port, don't get it. 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 let the rule of laws, 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 close to the education and infrastructure, he brought development to the country and at the time g, d, p growth was good. but on the other hand, the country suffered losses in the face of terrorism. your entering america's war weakened, our own country. well, i'd nana seem ally as a senior lecturer in international relations at kings college london. and i asked him if he thinks lucia 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 key sort of political opinion in pakistan, among especially urbanites and herb, the urban middle class oriented against corruption and towards development. and of course, a lot of those voters, i have been supporting him on hand. so this is a very powerful experience. a 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 the sheriff, even though he was an unknown craddick actor,

has actually forced pakistan toxins, 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, a russian missile strike on ukraine, 2nd largest city. hi, keith has left at least 5 people wounded damage to buildings in the city center. cock even 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 phone yet with which we happened to have just gone into the bathroom and right after that had happened. my husband with covered and broken glass, but everybody is alive. it's the main thing with 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 battling with trenches to have toll ukraine's

leaders are waging their own fight automotives for more support from nato allies. the said, bull green, 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 moon rises this evening, mocking the end of the lunar new year festivities. many people are celebrating the lantern festival and the in china, the 2 on province. that is a big deal. this is the lantern fair and the city of the gong. 2023 is the year of the rabbit. and this giant rabbits is the centerpiece of the event. the origin of

the lantern festival is thought to go back to some 2000 years to the hon dynasty. well, that's your news roundup coming up next is reporter. it takes a look at the increasing gulf between the rich and poll in germany. i really. mm hm . it, thanks for watching all season take care of. i just got to use this with all say, well great, we're thinking in some more. we'll save you.