the spy in the sky, a suspected surveillance balloon ignites a diplomatic -- between the u.s. and beijing. a high altitude airship is detected over the u.s.. beijing claims it is a weather balloon.

marmur zelenskyy says his country plans to begin talks this year. plus a russian artist that is doing an exhibition in st. petersburg. to our viewers joining us on pbs in the united states and all around the world, welcome. we begin with a diplomatic spat over an alleged chinese spy balloon that has been tracked flying across the united states. antony blinken has postponed a planned visit to china following the discovery. it was first discovered over the state of montana that houses 150 missile silos. officials have described as an

intelligence gathering balloon. china claims the balloon is for civilian purposes and it regrets the balloon accidentally sailed into u.s. airspace. for more, let's go to washington where our correspondent is standing by following all of this. tell us more about the decision to postpone antony blinken's trip to china over this. >> the state department has confirmed that it has postponed his trip because of this infinite -- incident. in a statement, the state department said there were consultation with other agencies and 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 the secretary could have addressed meaning they would've had to talk only about this balloon.

the official did say that the lines of communication with china remain open, that the dialogue will continue and a trip could happen if the conditions improve. before the u.s., this is a very serious incident in up to derail what was seen as an important trip at a difficult time. >> the pentagon has held a briefing. what we know about this purpose and where might be going? >> we know that the balloon is moving eastward in the u.s.. it is about 60,000 feet or 18,000 meters in the sky. it is out of range of civilian air traffic so it doesn't appear to pose a physical or military risk. they also said that this is a surveillance balloon despite china's explanation but they couldn't give details on why they know that.

they did today are tracking every movement of the balloon and we don't know if it is drifting or being steered, but we know that it can be steered. according to this official, this is not the first time spy balloon has entered u.s. airspace but they don't have details on when that is happened before. >> americans don't like seeing a chinese balloon in u.s. airspace. why don't they just shoot it down? >> they said all options are on the table so that would likely include shooting down this balloon. that didn't happen because it was flying over heavily populated part of men to not -- montana. the buy and the administration is getting a lot of heat from republicans right now who asked why wasn't the balloon shot down before it entered u.s. airspace and want him to do so now because they also believe u.s. could gain some information on chinese intelligence by taking it down.

the pressure to do something is rising, but no decision has been made yet. >> thank you. mary gallagher is a china expert and a professor at the university of michigan. she told me about the d-up o-matic price china might have to pay for the balloon incident. >> i think it's an interesting development. there is some setback to getting the relations on a better track, but for the biden administration, the risks of going increased with this crisis over the balloon and they probably thought we were in a relative position of strength right now. now it's in china's ball -- court to get this back on track. >> what would have been the risk to go? >> there is a political risk in the sense that it has been

alleged by the republicans that he is weak on china. there is a select committee on china that is looking to do a lot of hearings so it's not a good time for antony blinken to go to china. just after there is this violation of u.s. airspace and sovereignty. i think there's a risk of making joe biden look weak. also china's behavior in recent meetings, antony blinken met with some of his counterparts. there's always the risk of not knowing how you're going to be treated in china recently with their diplomatic posture that is much more aggressive. there's also the risk of how

meetings would play out. it could look like it was a big mistake to go. >> china has satellites that it could easily used to spy on the u.s.. why use a and risk this kind of follow-up? >> that is great question. i don't know and i am mystified by the use of these balloons. this is not the first one. i think it also angered the government that the china's response was that it's a piece of weather equipment that drifted. i don't think that's very believable. there's a very important question as to why something more mobile and lower down is being used in place of probably more accurate satellites in terms of taking pictures. perhaps there is another use of this type of balloon. i'm sure the american military knows more about it than i do. >> u.s. china ties restrained,

they have been for a long time. antony blinken postponed his visit. how important is it that they establish guardrails? >> it is important and i think and hope that they continue to do that at least from afar if there isn't want to be a high-level visit at this point. president biden met with xi jinping last year which was good. this year given that china is coming out of zero covid, its economy is in the doldrums still, the u.s. just had a good jobs report. i think the u.s. is trying to position itself better vis-à-vis china post-pandemic. i think it wants to get back to more of an equal footing and not feel like it was in a weaker position either because of

domestic little things like january 6 or the bad performance the u.s. had in the early stages of the pandemic. >> thank you for those insights. eu leaders have stopped short of granting ukraine a fast track to membership in the block. at a summit, lorimer zelenskyy repeated his appeal to speed things up. he said ukraine deserved to begin negotiations on joining the block this year. officials vowed to provide support, but they said there are no shortcuts to e.u. membership. >> this history making summit offered up a flurry of announcements amidst the wintry conditions. it was also a chance for the top officials to demonstrate the growing ties between ukraine and the eu. >> the future of ukraine is

within the eu. you have made a clear choice for freedom for democracy and hula flow and we in the eu we have also made a clear decision your future is with us in our german european union. >> but in spite of voladamir zielinski's attempts at these talks to build faster path into the eu that future still looks some way off despite all the smiles and positive rhetoric around the table. >> there are no rigid timelines but their goals that you have to reach reforms for example to improve a situation in the candidate country to then reach the accession negotiations and the accession itself. >> also discuss the war with russia and a

promise of fresh eu sanctions against moscow focused on trade and technology but president zielinski wants more immediate help in the form of weapons to hold off a predicted russian surge in the next few weeks. >> these are conditions where the more long-range weapons we have the better equipped our artillery is the sooner modern western tanks will start operating on the battlefield in ukraine the stronger our air defense will be the sooner russia's aggression will end and protection of european security and freedom will have more guarantees. >> beyond the pledge of new sanctions came details of more humanitarian help for the country including 25 million euros to fund a demining program seen as crucial in helping ukraine rebuild. and in kiyv for more practical

aid for residents millions of energy efficient led light bulbs to help people reduce their own consumption and take the pressure off ukraine's crippled power grid >> sanctions are -- >> i'm joined by anna bradshaw she's an expert on international economic sanctions with the royal united services institute in london the russian economy so the remlin wouldn't be able to afford the war why didn't these sanctions have the desired impact >> sanctions are by definition a political tool but also an imperfect tool it is very difficult to

calibrate sanctions in a way that gives them a measurable impact but we have seen developing over the last 10 years is a real focus 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 three the first reason is sanctions 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 eu today called for other countries to follow in its steps and principally the main sanctions jurisdictions would be the eu the us and the uk canada and australia as well so we would hopefully see more alignment they also hold on countries like belarus and iran to cease their active support . >> 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 said. >> it's it's an inevitable approach uh because it is a response to what um we're seeing on the ground and for that reason uh predictable too but i think that again sanctions for in part of a much broader package so in isolation measures uh will will look in a certain way but it is the the impact as a whole that needs to be considered as well. it's incredibly difficult of course to um make sure not just that the sanctions are smart in the sense of targeting the right uh types of exports and imports but also that they're complied with in practice and that is a real challenge because of course sanctions have to be enforced and they have to be properly understood on the ground so that the

businesses and the services industries understand what it is that they need to do in order to comply. >> and that is one of the big challenges the eu faces now finding sanctions that russia cannot circumvent anna bradshaw analysts on international economic sanctions thank you so much they were among some others who arrived on different boats to the island overnight. pope francis has arrived in south sudan for the final leg of his trip to africa. he spent some days in the democratic republic of the congo -- congo. he is expected to call for days of peace. an award-winning irani director

has been released on bail. he was jailed last july after protesting the arrest of fellow filmmakers. earlier this week, he started a hunger strike. knees and he was protesting the illegal and inhumane behavior. lines at gas stations have become the norm in nigeria is the country struggles with fuel shortages. now people are queuing up at cash machines as well. our guest reports on the lack of cash ahead of elections later this month. >> long queues like these are no common around banks across nigeria. the economy is experiencing a cash crisis. the government introduced new banknotes late last year.

nigerians had until tuesday to swap old notes but the arrival of the new cash has been so slow, the central bank has been forced to extend the deadline to next week. the extended deadline is in helping people who already spent their old money and need new cash. they can't buy everyday goods and shops are refusing to accept the old notes. i wanted to show you the old and new notes. many nigerians, i don't have any either. i've been here since 6:00 a.m.. it is terrible. we don't know what's happening. >> it's very difficult as i'm talking to you now i don't have cash, but i'm hungry. how my going to eat? >> if you're going to bring out new cash and you don't want people to keep using the old one, you should make it makes sense. have enough cash in the population that you can now

retrieve the old one back. >> the government hopes the new currency will help fight corruption ahead of the coming elections. the plan may have backfired. the cash shortages caused huge shock to the system and created black markets for the newmark ash the new notes at inflated prices. >> the women's bundesliga returns from winter break with champions five points clear at the top of the table with a perfect record. the challengers have a mountain to climb if they are to close the gap may difficult thanks to the highflying stryker. >> she makes everything look easy. from juggling to scoring goals. she is joined top of the bundesliga scoring charts. eight goals in eight matches, but she is not done yet.

>> every year, every training session every game you can always do everything better. that is my goal. don't think that you can already do it all. it's not like that. they have won 10 games out of 10. it's easy to see why. the backbone is made up of germany's national team as well as the strykers. they have won five of the last six titles. there is a simple expo nation for their dominance. >> here we say always hungry and i think she is always hungry. we always want to win everything and i like that mentality. with the insatiable appetite and

the reigning champion's could go the whole season unbeaten for the second time in the club's history. >> joining me for more is our reporter from dw sports. what makes her so good and can they stay unbeaten? >> an extremely talented squad. as the report already pointed out, a big chunk of the team is composed of the germany national team. of course they were runners up at euro 2022. this team has a lot of experience, a lot of depth on the bench and they consistently qualify for the champions league so they know how to work with pressure. those moments they live for that. as we have already mentioned have 10 out of 10 this season.

they have already scored an incredible 35 goals and they have only conceded five. the second part of your question, will they stay unbeaten? i say why not. they have done it before and back then, it was heard that topped the charts. >> who could dare to challenge them at the top? >> if we look at the table, we see how close things are. they at the moment have a five-point lead -- we see frankfurt close behind in third trailing by seven points. it is a comfortable lead, but you can't get too comfortable because it's just five points. one or two matches and everything can be thrown out of order. here' the thing, a lot of teams will make it difficult for them. the coach knows that. the coach said we have to stay awake and alert. no team will gift us anything.

>> the women's bundesliga has had attendance records this season. is this real and lasting growth we are seeing? >> it's too early to tell. what would been observing and seeing this season looks very promising. you touched upon the attendance record. three matches in the bundesliga attracted 20,000 fans each. the season opener had just over 23,000. others attracted over 20,000. when you compare these numbers to the men's, they look like peanuts. but for the women's games, this is quite a jump. the previous record was around 12,000. that was in 2014. it's a major jump.

these are a lot of numbers to digest, but hopefully this switch in interest indicates real growth and not just the spillover effect. the key word being sustainability. >> that will hopefully lead to more excitement for the women's bundesliga. poland's sports minister says as 40 countries could boycott the paris olympics if russia and belarus take part. the committee is planning to allow athletes to take part but only under a neutral flag. lebron james has edged closer to the nba all-time scoring record. he added to his tally on

thursday. he is just 63 points away from the current record held by kareem abdul-jabbar. freedom of expression has long been under attack in russia, but censorship has only region -- risen since russia's invasion of ukraine. that hasn't stopped some artist from showing their opposition to the war. >> a wide-eyed child, dubs of peace and the words love against hate. these are the works of a 77-year-old petersburg -- st. petersburg artist. two dozen of these posters were on display here at the local headquarters of the russian political party. the exhibition opened on the last day of january. the next day, it was rated by police and the works confiscated.

organizers had anticipated such a reaction. they decided not to feature the most critical work fearing it could fall under new laws restricting freedom of expression in russia. >> unfortunately we were not able to exhibit all of the works here publicly because we need to comply with the new laws. we wouldn't want to put her and the party at risk. some of her works are very striking. absolutely accurate. but they contain words that one would have to pay a fine for. >> she has studied and taught art all her life. she created her first political poster in 2002 after the seizure of a theater by chechen rebels. since then, she has taken part

in countless protests often being detained. after russia invaded ukraine, she joined antiwar rallies. she was not afraid then and she is not now despite the new repressive laws. >> what could be worse than what is happening? nothing iscariot. you never know what is scary. this is my country, my homeland. why can't i say or do something peacefully without weapons? >> several dozen people came to the opening of the exhibition in st. petersburg. several others wrote letters to political prisoners. >> events like this inspire hope and bright future because there are many people who think the same and it is necessary for us to be close to one another, to know, appreciate, and love each

other. >> police seized a total of 19 paintings. later, the artist told reporters she also got a visit from the police that night but she says she will keep protesting. she is known as the conscience of st. petersburg. >> stay with us, after a short break i will be back to take you through the day's biggest headlines once again and in-depth. i hope to see you there. ♪

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>> welcome to "live from paris" on france 24. the american government is angered by what because a chinese spy balloon that has been drifting over the continental united states for days. beijing maintains i isust a weather balloon that was blown off course, but washington isn't buying it. pressure on russia is set to crank up as a slate of new sanctions are said to come into force. eu lawmakers in brussels agreed on another price cut of russian products as the block of top officials continued their visit to kyiv.

the pope also want to visit. the latest stop on his african tour has taken him to south sudan, where the pontiff has urged rival leaders to implement the years-all peace accord. -- years-old peace accord. it is good to have you with us this evening. u.s. sec. state antony blinken has suspended his trip to beijing after a chinese spy balloon was spotted flying over the continental united states. washington has denounced what he calls an unacceptable and clear violation of its sovereignty. china for its part has expressed regret for what it called the civilian airship that had drifted off course. the white house has rejected that, calling the craft a surveillance satellite. let's listen to antony blinken speaking moments ago. sec. blinken: the presence of

this surveillance balloon in u.s. airspace is a clear violation of u.s. sovereignty and international law. it is an irresponsible act, and the prc's decision to take this action on the eve of my plan visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions we are prepared to have. fraser: let's cross live in washington, where we can speak to "the guardian's" bureau chief david smith. thanks for joining us on france 24. we are told biden was briefed on this balloon on tuesday and a u.s. senator said he had reports it was flying over his state of kansas. he has been over the u.s. for some time, this balloon. vid: that's right, washington defensofficials knew about it for some time over alaska an nada alsseems to have been aware of it. it appears joe biden was briefed and talked about the military options including theotential to shoot down the balloon, but rejected back on the advice of the pentagon, who said this balloon is not capable of

gathering intelligence as a normal spy satellite couldn't, and shooting it down could rult in it falling on the ground and injuring and perhaps even killing civilians. joe biden appears to have been following the vice on tha buhe is gettg criticism anyway from republicans in congress, many of them saying that it should have been shot down over sparsely populated or rural arewith no population, saying this is a violation of american airspace, that it makes the president look weak, donald trump writing "shoot it down." biden could come under political pressure over this. what the administration has done is to postpone antony blinken's trip to beijing, and as you heard they are, he had strong

language denouncing china and its actions as detrimental to the discussions they were hoping to have. fraser: as you said, blinken has suspended that trip. beijing says this was an accident. the white house isn't buying that. what message does this incidents and considering relations are so tense betweethe two them? vid: i think no one is surprisedhat countries are spying on one another. u.s. does it to china and vice versa. the great mistake china made was to get caught in the act. and i don't think many people are buying the story of a weather balloon. the timing is awful, just before this blinken trip, and that has caused anger across the nation in washington. there was a real hope that this blinken trip could make a start on easing some of the many

tensions between the u.s. and china. obviously they are a rising power in the world. some addictions is suggest i -- some predictions suggest its economy will overtake the u.s. and the tensions run the gamut from trading to technology to the chinese that you taiwan. joe biden has vowed to defend taiwan and house speaker nancy pelosi was there last year. human rights abuses within china and threats to democracy in hong kong, and also china's failure to condemn the russian invasion of ukraine. i think it was going to be a very long and expensive agenda. the u.s. helps that blinken is the first secretary of state for the final six years to visit would make some headway and said very frustratingly there is a setback. it just ratchets up the tensions even further. fraser: remains to be seen whether that is going to be done at a later date. thank you for that update.

david smith for us in washington. eu member states are continuing to crank up the pressure on russia as they agreed a price cap on russian petroleum products ahead of an international embargo that goes into effect sunday. the bloc's top officials continued their visit to kyiv on friday to discuss a host of issues including ukraine joining the eu, more support for the country, and further sanctions against russia. the proceedings were interrupted twice with the delegates forced her to seek shelter after air raid sirens rang out. reporter: "we are family," that was the eu's message for ukraine during a high-level summit in kyiv. >> pressure is a suffering a massive strategic failure, but ukraine is withstanding and is building its path towards the european union. the fact that we are here amidst

the war, but we are building, discussing, and developing the future of ukraine in the european union, that is speaking more than thousand words. reporter: the two sides discussed the country's performs as it seeks to start negotiations to join the eu single market. talks kyiv hopes could start this year. >> we face a number of actions which will enable ukraine to become a fully fledged member of the european union, bause we are bombing various industries, finance, customs. reporter: ukraine asked her to join the bloc a few days after the russian invasion, but the eu has not moved to fast-track kyiv 's application, and requirements including cracking down on couption cou take years for the early on friday on the outskirts of kyiv, vast

swathes of ukraine's territories mined. 25 million euros of eu money were pledged to help de-mining efforts. >> one of the most contaminated countries in the world. these people have gigantic work to clean the landscape and make it safe. reporter: the bloc is expected to announce further sanctions against russia on the 24th of february, the first anniversary of the conflict. fraser: pope francis is continuing his tour of africa and is now taking his message of peace to south sudan. the plaintiff urged leaders to end the bloodshed and implement a 2018 peace deal, saying history will judge them if they didn't. the accord was reached after five years of civil war that

killed hundreds of thousands of people. clashes continue to this day, with around 2 million people displaced internally. joining me to discuss this further is the africa director at human rights watch, who joins me from aja. thank you for talking to us on france 24. south sudan was formed just over a decade ago. this is the pope's first trip there for some how important is this for the country? mausi: for a deeply devout christian country, 60% of south sudan's 12 million appalachian is christian, -- 12 million population is christian, including catholics and presbyterians, it is a really important time in south sudan's history. i think there is an urgency at this time for the leaders of south sudan to commit to both implementing and ensuring

commitment of of what soldiers across the country to revitalize peace process. the pope is an important religious leader for most of the leaders in south sudan, the political leaders, as well as military leaders. having his voice amplifying the message that there is an urgency to commit to, one, the roadmap, the extension of the revitalized peace agreement benchmarks, it is an opportune moment to push that message forward that there is no alternative to peace, but also the justice in south sudan. fraser: violence has been ongoing despite his peace accord which is five years old. how much impact do you think the pope's words are likely to have

on the peace deal being implemented? mausi: you know, we are hopeful. i was just in south sudan two weeks ago and met with very senior government officials, and we have realized that there is an acknowledgment that things cannot continue the way that they have been. and the fact that political actors are taking some steps, including reviewing the laws that enable security forces to continue to repress and 200 people -- and to hunt people, but also realizing that unification of the forces, which is part of the agreement, is inevitable and a critical point for action at this point, because there is some national level violence that is ongoing and shows that there are opportunities at the subnational level to continue because of the

arms proliferation and because of the lack of capacity in south sudan's security forces, national security forces, that is. there is a need to ensure that there is progress on those reforms that would ensure that there is a military in place that can absorb all of those forces and show that there is disarmament and show that there is proper training and professionalizing of the security forces. as well is the need for justice for all of the victims of violence, of killing, of torture, of a reduction sexual violence of women and of objection -- of abduction and sexual bounds of women and girls across the incident, by establishing the hybrid court. that much would get them to commit to. it remains to be seen whether the pope's voice and the voices of the other religious leaders,

joining with others like ourselves, would push them towards actual implementation beyond their commitment. fraser: i'm running out of time, so f briefly if you would, in 2019, the pope got on his hands and needs and kissed the feet of rival readers of south sudan. what affected that have on the process today? mausi: i think it was not too long after that that both the president and vice president were able to reach an agreement for him to return to the country. it is been how many months and set happen and it seems to be holding -- it has been how many months since that happened and it seems to be holding. we have to be optimistic that the voice of the leader that they both look up to would be enough to maybe balance off

whatever achievement or claims they can get from encouraging the fighting that is going on. it is the political will that continues to ensure the fighting continues. hopefully the pontiff's voice will hold back those tendencies in both leaders. fraser: mausi segin of human rights watch in abuja, have a good evening. let's give you a quick reminder of your headlines this hour. the american government is angered by what because i chese spy balloon that has been drifting over the continental united states for days. beijing maintains it is just a weather baoon th was blown off course. but washington isn't buying it. essure on russia is set to crank up as a slate of new sanctions are due to, divorce. eu--come into force. eu lawmakers agree on another price cut on russian products as the top officials continue their

visit to kyiv. the pope also want to visit, the latest up on his african tour taking him to south sudan, where the pontiff has urged rival leaders to implement a years-old peace accord. well, up next on france 24, i'm joined by -- >> [indiscernible] the main theories that the billionaire invested in artificial eggs and plant-based eggs. take a look at what we have got going on. this is one article posted by newspunch, probably the most prevalent article i saw on the topic. it was massively shared by social-media users. it claims that he invested in artificial eggs before the mysterious big shortage and price hike. that has taken over the united states. a disclaimer that this site has

been linked to miss information numerous times. i saw a similar headline on this article on gateway pundit. it alleges that gates invested in these industries and that is the real reason why behind americans are suffering with such steep prices for eggs. they claim the price has spiked 66% since last year and implied this narrative that that is why people are turning to plant-based eggs, some long-term strategy by bill gates to earn a profit due to his heavy investment in the environmental impact and the plant-based big industry as well. social-media users were in a scramble with this. let's take a look at what they are saying. this tweet has nearly 3 million views and this user has gone on to make a compilation of bill gates's previous interviews and articles written about him where he has spoken about the future of eggs in a world suffering from a climate crisis where

people are turning to alternatives because of that. also, a world where we have difficult farming practices, mass production of eggs and things like that. people are using this compilation of tweets as a sort of proof of his involvement that he is trying to price people out of the big industry due to his heavy involvement in it. this user used a pretty graphic image of bill gates as the joker with a massive bio syringe. i can only assume that is a jab. no pun intended at previous theories that link to bill gates to the vaccine industry. this user made a timeline -- 2013 he invested in plant-based eggs, 2021, largest private from an owner in the u.s., leading to 2023, the massive chicken and egg shortages in the rockets. implying that there was a long-term strategy by the billionaire to take over the big industry. fraser: according to these

claims, bill gates has invested massively in agricultural industries involving eggs. can you tell us more about that? vedika: yes, bill gates does have large investments in agriculture and farming in general including heavy involvement in plant-based alternatives. in 2014 he backed hampton creek, a company specializing in egg-free and egg replacement products. is rebranded to just, the first government-approved vendor of lab-grown chicken. bill gates has been vocal about his stance as an environmentalist and is back several synthetic meats like this one, but also beyond meat and impossible foods. he has been an investor in all those. apart from his interest in plant-based meat and eggs, he also -- these claims are true, he is an investor in those, but also he owns swathes of private

farmland. bill gates is one of the largest american owners of private farmland in the u.s. it was reported in the 2021 annual land owners survey by land report that he was the largest private landowner in the state and that he had amassed nearly 270,000 acres of private land. that feeds into that narrative by these theories online that by accumulating all of this farmland, it must be linked to the egg shortage. while he is a massive private landowner, he is not the u.s.'s number one by any means and this has been fact-check by the american press and along those same lines, bill gates has refuted a lot of these theories and said his accumulation of this farmland is purely environmental and climate-related. fraser: after all of your research, have you cracked it? is there evidence to support these egg-strodinary claims?

vedika: yes, there is an eggsp lanation behind it all. according to the cdc, the centers for disease control and prevention, i took this screenshot today. these are the live numbers. the cdc claims there are 50 million birds who were struck from last year by bird flu or avian influenza, and there is also a massive quote by an assistant professor at the georgia cultural institute -- georgia agricultural institute and he has been on record with the associated press claiming that these numbers of bird flu are the main contributing factor to the egg shortage across the u.s. he also told ap that there is some covid-related factors as well, things like production, labor hiring, bio security management on the egg farms, and

how recovery from these-- recovery for these farmers has been harder than inspected because of that. and we cannot eggsagerate the rising price of fuel due to russia's invasion of ukraine. fraser: nice to get as many egg puns as we can in there. vedika bahl, thank you for joining us. time for today's focus report. going back to the pope's trip to south sudan. since his election in 2015, pope francis has called the war in south sudan bringing to light the key role of catholicism in the heart of the world's youngest nation. the church is a partner for education and peace. the pope's diplomacy has had a role in shaping the country. ♪ reporter: ahead of the post arrival -- pope's arrival,

feasts that suit the needs -- thesis that sudanese have come in large numbers. they stretch and a helping hand with hopes to reconcile politicians. reporter: after decades of struggle against muslim sudan, south sudan gained independence in 2011. the catholic church has supported the country all these years and remains involved in affairs. in 2019, pope francis brought together the two men at the origin of the civil war, during which hundreds of thousands of

people died. this is a space for mediation where politicians can address the people. reporter: despite the gradual establishment of peace sacraments, fighting continues in some areas. to end this, the vatican is trying to influence the discussions by putting pressure on the country's elites. a stroll in south sudan is prominent, although only a portion of the vibration is catholic--of the preparation is catholic. there are other christian churches like anglican and calvinist. they respect institution, which has the confidence of the population. for this analyst, this explains the south sudanese before the

pope's visit. >> it made it easy for the south sudanese to enter the modern way of life. but without coercing or imposing their will, but rather, making things known and be understood. reporter: for him, the church established itself in the country by admitting children from all religions. it is considered as one of the few organizations able to unify the population while the government responsible for the civil war cannot achieve this goal. as a symbol of his involvement, catholic ngos are present throughout south sudan. the community that settled in the '80s uses schools to establish its printable's. >> we came from different communities, but you can find all of us are together and we do not discriminate each other. i believe when we get out in the community, we are able to change this thing. reporter: due to war and ethnic

conflicts, 4 million people live far from their homes, to million refugees abroad, while others displaced in their own country. many live in camps like this one. 1000 families have been hosted here since 2013. today, this man organizes a meeting with a group of women. >> we are almost like 16 insight here and they are living together. we are giving every time and they are living well and they love themselves. reporter: although tensions have eased up and fighting has ceased in many regions, the whole country is not yet at peace. opening 2018 the vatican, claims it is still working to bring the population closer together. the visitors of the pub could accentuate the pressure and lead to can't -- visitors of the pope

could accentuate the pressure and lead to positive results. >> we hope that his vit it can contribute to a stronger commitment to that process so that the leaders of this country, president salva kiir and the other vice presidents and political factions within the country, would really come and sit around the table and come up to appease resolution of the conflict that has taken far too long. reporter: as a symbol of the vatican's reach bringing peace byll means, representatives of calvinist and anglican churches are accompanying the pope for his visit. the catholic church is making a strategic move, with 1.4 billion inhabitants but only 250 million followers, africa often seen as essential to the future of the religion. fraser: we are going to take a quick break, but stay tuned to france 24. i will be right back with a

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02/03/23 02/03/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> when i first heard the news i thought, great, i have been canceled in florida. i think it is wonderful, actually, w that manof us ha been excluded om being taught in this ap cours it will be a backlash stop andot all of our names a out there so students who could not get access to us in this course