but i have to hold this weight because i'm responsible for the future fall country for the people behind the boss. gardens of truth starts february 18th on d, w. mm hm. ah ah . this is the w news live from berlin, runs, state media says the country supreme leader has pardoned tens of thousands of people who were arrested in anti government. protests rights groups remain skeptical. also on the program, us works to recover the payload of a suspected chinese spy balloon shot down of the atlantic at the weekend while they

ging wants. there may be repercussions. ah, i'm anthony hale, walked into the program, ran supreme leader has reportedly pardoned tens of thousands of people detained in anti government protests. that human rights groups are skeptical of the decree, ayatollah ali, who manet, made the announcement on the anniversary of the 1979 is lanet revolution. but the pardon excludes people with international ties or any one faces fine charges. nearly 20000 people have been arrested in nationwide protests, which were sparked by the death of g. not master armine, while in custody. in september, alif atalla, nevada is an iran expert and the author of a book iran in an emerging new world order. he told us what he makes of the timing

of the announcement. well, the timing is still, you know, at a time when there is a relative calm of st. projects in iran, but we see the combination of strikes. so the situation has not really called for good, and we have to take such announcement from the supreme leader, but also from the iranian judiciary with losses. you know with loss 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 a protest, there are probably $20000.00 jails. and so what i see here and why would i could speculate about is something different. so there are reports about re education of prisoners inside of iran jails. and those trade could be

used on to work for the regime basically ah, as some kind of playing close also, you know, being tasked with acquiring a future project. so i think the, the whole background, the whole story is a different one. okay, tom, now for a brief look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world, the trial of 47 people accused of subversion has begun in hong kong. the activists are accused of holding unofficial primary elections to stand against prob, aging candidates. they were arrested following the introduction of a sweeping national security law that strict the territory of previously held freedoms in the danish capital, copenhagen, thousands of people that protested against a proposal to scratch a public holiday. the government wants to use the tax revenue generated from more working days to find an increase in defense spending. later member denmark is

trying to make the high defense spending target required by the alliance. a russian miss. aw, strike on e. e. e. grant, 2nd largest city of hockey, has left at least 5 people wounded and damaged buildings in the city center. i'll keep as 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 a university were destroyed and a nearby apartment building was left uninhabitable. one residence said she and her partner only survived. thanks to lucky timing. on yet mcclinton we happened to have just gone into the bath friend and right after that had happened. my husband was covered and broken glass, but everybody is alive. it's the main thing. 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 bach mote. while they battle in the trenches stole ukraine's leaders are waging their own fight automotives for more support from nato allies. the said bull who, grains 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 it gives way to spring. u. s. navy dog is are searching for the wreckage of a suspected chinese spy balloon. that was shot down off the coast of south carolina footage. it's down to the balloon over the atlantic after it was discovered, travelling across u. s. s. by last week, by ging denied it was being used for surveillance and condemned the shooting down of what it called, an unmanned civilian, a croft. and speaking on sunday, senate majority leader chuck schumer said he was confident the equipment attached to the balloon could be recovered. and that intelligence authorities would be able to understand it's genuine purpose because it fell in relatively shallow water. there's a very good chance we can cover most of it and even a chance to cover to recover it intact. and then we can learn a great deal about chinese capabilities and what they were up to. willing kim, as

a specialist in surveillance balloons at the marathon initiative, think tank in washington. they say he has more on what kind of information the u. s . could glean by recovering the balloon payload? i mean certainly the, the, just the payload itself is going to be something bad. i think the chinese are not gonna be happy in us. and this is a rather large package about the size, the 3 buses that indicate to me that it was something pretty sophisticated. and i'm not sure if i were the chinese, i certainly would not want that capability being 8 am and i u. s. intelligence of the 1st question i had when i heard that the balloon was saying of the us, why would a balloon be deployed as a surveillance tool in the age of high volume and very high resolution satellites? yeah, i mean show on the, on the latter point regarding resolution, i mean there's,

you know, it's not entirely clear that this was a imaging satellite. it could've been for signals in college, in the united states, fly signal intelligence aircraft near chinese or a space not over it. but even though that satellites, it's still the needs bites because you can get kind of better intelligence on, on things like, you know, get me radars and stuff like that. and, you know, it's, it's possible that's what this balloon was going into intended to do. there's also advantages in terms of costs, you know, you don't need to pay for rocket. there's advantages in kind of persistence and the amount of time to kind of stay over an area satellite, particularly the one that really well i kind of lower for moving around the world very. so there's definitely reasons why they would want to want to use the balloon, especially given how much acknowledged would be with him just to underline the point of the pentagon gathering evidence here. what are they exactly looking for

and what real chance that i have a finding this to a data i mean, i don't know exactly what kind of data they'd be looking for or story, but at the very least, i mean, i'd be interested in the equipment and so on, you know, what kind of, what kind of sensors did it, what, what kind of b like tronic did it have? so i think that would be of interest. william came from the marathon initiative thing. thanks so much for your time. give a 5 fathers are trying to control dozens of forest fires in chile at least 23 people have died in the places and hundreds have been injured and temperatures nearing 40 degrees celsius during the summer heat wave, making the flames hotter to put out spraying war traffic can assist to extinguish the fires with temperatures as high as 38 degrees, an arrow, and can hear the flames. keep spreading foster he said, yes, the wind picks up

a new direction and we'll look as if our whole reach is going to burn. or if it could, the fire is threatening, move villages, police and the army evacuated local people to safer areas. the chilean government declared a state of emergency in 3 regions. the interior minister says the destruction from a week for fires is of a scale usually seen in a year or 2. and we have asked for international health and are in talks without the government's central model. yeah. contact the one body of william cellulose for the packaging industry has been produced for export in these via prone regions. for decades, the raw materials come from a monoculture, a fast growing eucalyptus trees. the non native species dries out the soils and helps the flames spread once blaze the start local people are asking what caused the fires. agari, toiling to someone must have started a fire, a yogi, i'm and i was too late and i like i said, all we can do is wait until the flames reach us. we don't get for one or the police

are investigating, and there have been some arrests argentinian fire teams are expected to join the battle against the flames in the next few days, eastern african league us, of course, for a sci fi in the democratic republic of congo. were a rebel group is fighting to take control of a region which in minerals troops sent there by the d. i. c, military as well as the east africa community of filed to contain the conflict. the m 23 short for march 23, movement and takes its name from the date of the peace treaty, but its reputation is anything but peaceful. the ant militia has seized black areas in the east and democratic republic of congo, and according to the u. n. has flouted the latest cease fire and withdrawal agreement that was to come into effect in january. instead, the m 20 free took control of more terror tree and a key road. at an extra larry summit and brandy,

east african leaders call it fine immediate cease fire. the security distribution in literacy is a regular matter not matter for one or 2 convers, that's got to be sustainable, resolved through a political process. the lead us from congo, miranda uganda, kenya, tanzania, and burundi demanded. i. foreign and armed groups leave congo and pushed for military chiefs to meet in the next week. the ongoing conflict has increased tensions in the region, the d i. c as well as you and experts and western powers accused neighboring ronda of supporting the m 23. ronda has denied any involvement east and congress reserves of mineral resources have made it prone to conflict. for decades. the recent advance of the m. 23 has displaced more than half a 1000000 people since march 2022 alone. the refugees plight has been in the

spotlight this week as port frances met with victims of the conflict and the d. r. c. capital kinshasa, condemning the violence taking place. those affected are reluctant to get their hopes up, as they have seen too many failed attempts at peace. some sport now in about 5 months, the fee for women's world cup kicks off in australia and new zealand. everyone is involved is gearing up at this point. naturally, including the referees, but there are many challenges. female officials face ahead of the big tournament. these women are preparing for the biggest moment of their refereeing careers, the upcoming women's world cup in australia and new zealand. there's still so much that can go wrong. the goal and the challenge over the next 5 months is keep everybody healthy to keep them. the fitness shouldn't be an issue because we

a very clear plan, but the house 5 months, anything can happen. the referees that will officiate the word cup in australia and new zealand will come from the african asian end oceania member associations. but it's been a challenge giving some of these women enough game practice at while many countries really support the referees have been selected when they're representing their country on the world stage. and still we have countries who don't give the enough matches to these women referees who don't take them to the training courses with their elite referees workshops like this one in doha, allow football, governing body fi, fi to work directly with the female referees where they can provide feedback, but it's not a solution to what's likely a structural problem. and finally, revelers have gathered in the ta, bernice capital taipei, to observe the landon festival that marks the official end of chinese new year's

celebrations. the tradition is thought to date back over 2000 years and say paypal let lanterns off into the sky. thought to symbolize letting go of the past you is use festival is the 1st since taiwan reopened its borders following covet extractions, let it go up. that's your knees round up for the cell up next world stories taking us on a ride into the dangers on that being i'd transport into the midst of the crime war . i'm anthony howard in berlin. i'll be back at the top of the aisle with another both. i think people in trucks injured one trying to flee the city center. more and more refugees are being turned away. the water families played on the taxes. the reason for the credit on it is we look.