u. s. have communicated to chinese officials the seriousness of this situation . we are expecting some sort of response within the hour when china's foreign ministry holds its regular briefing this afternoon. but just to recap what exactly we've heard from the u. s. they say that the tracking and a legit chinese surveillance balloon. it's quite large. the size of euclid's of 3 boxes in high altitude and this is high above the commercial airline level. so currently poses no threat to airlines and they say that it is floating above. what the u. s. have said is sensitive areas that does not pose a significant risk when it comes to intelligence gathering. and also reportedly there was some discussions in the biden administration about whether or not to shoot the balloon down and it was decided and not to go forward with that plan because of any danger. devry possibly would have posed people on the ground. now, as i said, we were waiting still on a official response from beijing. here we had her seen

but we now have former u. s. defense and military officials have described the latest incident as embarrassing, especially given that the u. s. is the world's leading military power and opposition. republican party members have now they've got on the offensive, and they've accused biden of not acting decisively enough. and they say that he's failed to protect american national security. i would listen to what they've said. i friend robert o'brien, former national security adviser. why aren't we taking action to deal with this? and why did we know about it? robert o'brien, larry, this is awesome. baron and things that i've ever seen in american diplomacy, we sped trillions and trillions of dollars on hardware, on soldiers, on airman, on sailors. and we can't do anything about it. why was allowed to go clear across the country for so many days? if you look at this, national security is one of the biggest things that any country can do. it is a function of government. we see that the by the administration knew abou

u. s. will have access to the u. s. military already has access to 5 different military bases across the philippines. under the enhanced defense corporation agreement, which was signed back in 2014, under the administration of former president min ignore aquino, the 3rd, the joint statement by the u. s. and philippines defense ministries, a state that the u. s. has invested around $82000000.00 in these 5 locations where they have, they have had access to 4 years. and so they are committing to investing in these additional locations. we don't know yet where these 4 additional locations are going to be. but we might find out during the presser between r u. s. defense secretary lloyd austin and philippine defense secretary currently to gov is junior. that's happening in a couple of hours from now. we do know that there have been pock sir, that possible 2 locations are going to be in the northern philippines, close to taiwan. and so if that is true, that would give a strategic advantage to the u. s. in case hostilities ar

u. s. have linked this information to us administration officials. this trip was actually never officially planned by either side, but at the moment we are hearing that it has been postponed indefinitely. so we don't have a new date for this trip either. it rises to the level of a diplomatic crisis as it's being called here, because blinking would have been the highest ranking member of the biden administration to visit china. the 1st secretary of state to visit china and years, and there are questions being asked about why this is happening now. was this meant to be a provocation ahead of this visit? was it a mistake? especially because the u. s. and china relationship, it is very tense at the moment, just on thursday. the u. s. announce that it is stepping up its military presence in the philippines. it is believed that that is seen to be the u. s. trying to deter china from taking action in taiwan. there were other issues that would have been discussed like hong kong human rights violations in nash and john, also the south china sea, and of course,

u. s. have taken a tumble after new figures showed only a small drop in the rate of price hikes, inflation rising 6.4 percent year on year and january. that's a 10th of a point less then the month before. that's the 7th month and row the rate has fallen, but analysts had expected a bigger drop. stubborn inflation means the federal reserve is more likely to continue its pace of interest rate hikes. we go to yann's quarter in new york yen inflation did cool, but not quite as much as hoped. give us your read on this now. well, i mean at least the trend has to ride to, but that's pretty much sure where it already as stops. i mean, we do see a lower prices for computers, for example, for a tv set, some and also a for used cars so. so that's actually a pretty big ida. but done been on the other side though, we still have elevated prices, especially when it comes to shelter energy of the oil prices. by the way, we're up a good 8 percent last week and that's not even included into this latest the c p i

u. s. have been blocking bio aid from getting into syria after the disaster. as you can see in this map, major air carriers have been avoiding syrian territory as syria struggles to receive humanitarian aid, washington has sought to blame the delays on the assad government and russia. reality has been up until now at least that one country primarily has stood in the way of that. the russians have consistently threatened or use their veto when it comes to expanding border crossings. we're going to continue to make the case. countries around the world are going to continue to make the case. and we certainly hope that russia and all those who would stand in the way are hearing and see these just heartbreaking images. that despite the fact that moscow has provided a to both turkey and syria, in the aftermath of the humanitarian crisis, russian service men are helping clear rubble, while russian firefighting aircraft had significantly contributed to thing wishing fires at a rapid inter key. after the disaster, rush and rescue teams were also quick to distribute medi

u. s. attack on the chinese, on monday, ship invoices, it's protest. we have repeatedly informed the u. s. site that the balloons design purely for civilian use, an accidentally across the u. s. borders. in such circumstances, the u. s. use of force is an obvious overreaction and a violation of international practice. finally, after days of deliberation and doubt, us find 2 jets of short time. what they claim is a chinese spy bloom by aging, of course denies this. it says that it was a web whether observation balloon, although there is some confusion over whose recommendation it was to, to shoot down the balloon and listen to what us president joe biden told jan this 30 a successfully took it down. and i want a complimentary graders who did it, and we'll have more to report on a little later. thank you. by the, by now on the same a recommendation from your was funny and that's why her whole that mr. down all wednesday, i was like the recommend day said to me, let's wait to look, take this place to do it. some are already asking questions over the timing of the

u. s. could have a strategic advantage in case facilities break out in the taiwan strait. what we're seeing right now really is the rejuvenation of u. s. philippines ties during the administration of former president, rodrigo detective, the visiting force. his agreement was almost terminated, which meant that joined us, philippines, military exercises were all, also almost halted. but 2 months from now, we are expecting to see the largest iteration of valley that joined us. philippine military exercises are over 160001000 troops from the philippines and the u. s. will be participating. moline, what sort of reaction or regional reaction do expect to this announcement? we know that annoyed austin's trip has already pumped into dramatic reaction from north korea. well i think for sure that we will hear from, from china because especially if it's confirmed that these locations for these new basis that the u. s. will have access to will be in the north part of the philippines, closer taiwan. but we don't know that yet. that's not clear yet, so let's not get ahead of that. but th

u. s . invasion was illegal. i have indicated it is not in conformity with the un charter from our point of view and from the charter point of view, it was illegal. we spoke to a former chief un weapons inspector to arrive, scott ritter, who was there to evaluate what weapons of mass destruction the country actually had . he says washington never had any intention to let the experts do their job as their rocks disarmament was. the last thing the u. s. wanted, in reality i was brought in to help create an intelligence organization that would assist the special commission and evaluating the accuracy of the iraqi declarations about what weapons of mass destruction they had. you see, i thought that the mission of the special commission was to disarm iraq and am, and we worked in a very assiduous manner to carry out that mission. but it turned out that the disarmament of iraq was the last thing the united states wanted. the united states was going to go to war with iraq regardless. regardless, it doesn't matter what the trut

u. s. have been demanding. chinese have been pushing up. so the timing, the action is all very strange. this is one of those situations where i mean, there's just so much speculation out there. there's not much of the mission, i guess, unless the us and canadian authorities, i'm off or coming with whatever other information they collect. the rest of us can just rest on, you know, what is what we're being told. right. china mean time telling everyone to just calm down and let's see what happens. yes. so try it. the chinese response has been interesting and they've not fly out the night. it in other situations where they believe that, you know, they shouldn't be call out or they think that it has nothing to do it then the flat out say, isn't them, but that's not been the case right now. so that response from beijing just adds more to the mystery. thanks so much for helping us through that in show from the n u. s. national university in simple. thank you. and you create a president. zalinski says his country deserves to start talks on joining

u. s. government. having said all of that, the u. s. government now washing it very closely, assuring the public that this is not in any way in commercial air space. in other words, meaning that it's not going to come in contact with any passenger chat sore, and you sort of commercial air traffic, it's much higher. now, what is it doing? it's intelligence gathering. and the concern is, is that it is flying over some very sensitive areas, particularly what we know to be 3 nuclear missile silo fields. now, according to the pentagon, as soon as the u. s. government was aware that this was taking place in terms of the intelligence gathering that the sensitive data was protected. so that the foreign state actor, in this case a china, was not able to collect any of the sensitive data. the timing of this, of course is inconvenience per perhaps more so for the u. s. because of the secretary of state onto the blinking is expected to be heading to beijing in a few days for talk with talks of, for, with president. she, even if this is just a wea

u. s have been holding talks to re sent relations with a focus on democracy and climate change. joe biden and brazil's new president lula promised to rebuild strained diplomatic ties. both leaders faced challenges from afar, right after winning elections were put in jeopardy on the lot of the f. b, i has carried out a search at the residents or former us vice president mike pence. the search in indiana is the latest interaction with classified documents. are missing from the white hanover pence who is cooperating with the pro was found to be in the possession of sensitive documents. last month, he denied being aware of them. the u. s. military has shot down an unidentified object over alaska, on orders from president joe biden. officials say it posed a threat to civilian flights. the u. s. air force down to suspected chinese spy balloon. just last week. the white house says it's not clear where the latest object came from. out of an abundance of caution, and the recommendation of the pentagon, president biden ordered the military to down the object and they did. and it came insi

u. s. are still struggling to see a floor put in them with the u. s. having, of course, a policy to responsibly manage the competition with china and china. visibly angered over those allegations of spying, there's a lot to talk about. and the big question now is how beijing will respond to this. what can safely be seen as an offer for talks with the chinese president he w. washington correspondent, mikaela cruz. now many thanks. more than 42000 people are now confirmed to have been killed in earthquakes and turkey and syria. the city of antioch young turkeys had ty, province, was one of the hardest hid areas known as antioch. and ancient times. the city was a key staging point on the silk road until recently it was a multi cultural, multi religious place home to turks curds, armenians, arabs and jews. but the quakes cause colossal damage to this one's vibrant city are corresponding, julia han went to an talk here for us. and here is what she witnessed. ah, this is what's left of untouched. la. once known for its rich heritage. the city now lies and ruins. un

u. s. have been walking vital aid from getting into syria after the disaster. russian troops serving in syria have been providing medical assistance and humanitarian aid to local residents, and the areas affect it. india has also joined russia in assisting in those devastated regions, sending massive aid packages to both syria and turkey. a. we heard from political analysts for som of bu abdullah, who says the u. s. is trying to prevent syria from overcoming the aftermath of the deadly earthquake for humanitarian aid. these sanctions should be listed there is, you know, speaker of the u. s. department, he lives many times in our because that he said that the united states is not preventing any kind of a ministerial assistance to our area. why is this tuition is not like that? so not only sanctions united states imposing on people at united 5th l. u. s. army is this healing 120000 barrels of oil every every day. and as the same time, they are stealing the wheat cost on and occupying the very impo

u. s. is to expand its military presence in the philippines. defense secretary lloyd austin confirmed the move after a meeting with the president of the philippines ferdinand marcus, junior. u. s. troops have been granted access to more military camps in the country . but general austin said that the u. s. wasn't looking to have a permanent basis there. israel launched air strikes on targets in the gaza strip early on thursday. and palestinian palestinian militants fired rockets into israel in response. the strikes came hours after israeli air defenses intercepted a rocket launched from gaza. this latest exchange of fire comes amid a surge in violence in the region. protesters chanting shame, a confronted warners at the funeral of australian catholic cardinal george pell and sidney pell was one of the most senior figures in the vatican when he was found guilty of sexually assaulting fire boys. he spent a year in prison before his convictions were washed. the scandal had indian billionaire. good tom, donnie has called off a major share sale as his business. empire continues to plunge in value. his sprawling from grammar which stretches from ports to petrol stations, has lost more than 90000

have your company. this our, our top story, the u. s. sabotage, have been lot stream pipelines was aimed at cutting year at the awesome affordable wash and gas. nasa coatings he pulitzer prize winning journalist seymour hersh, speaking exclusively to assume a tansy on going on to grant. the people who did this thing were assigned to do it in the intelligence community, the operators, they initially thought it was a great idea. let's get a capacity was before we, before russia was talking, but it was so late, 2021. let's go and find out if we can do it. and by, within a few months, the white house clearly was sold. that was told the people doing it thought this was in a bad idea. they gave the white house some options to maybe bluff or convince reporting that the cost is going to be very high. and but then when the white house blue book by talk publicly about this, within 3 weeks of the briefing information he got. and victoria knew of both within a 3 week period and late january, early february of last year. both said publicly, well, we

u. s. leadership had blatantly threatened to get rid of the key rush and gas supply route in europe. we have repeatedly voiced russia's position on the evolvement of the u. s. and nato. nothing that they did not hide this boasting to the whole world. bad the intention to destroy the civilian infrastructure through which you are perceived russian energy resources. we also regularly noted the reluctance of denmark, germany, and sweden, to conduct an open investigation and opposition to russia's participation in it. and this, despite the fact that our country has incurred huge costs, those revelations were made by award winning investigative journalist seymour hersh, who sent the attack on russia's north stream system was carried out by the u. s. with norwegian involvement after months of diligent planning. but as decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than 9 months of highly secret back and forth debate inside washington's national security community about how to best achieve that goal. for much of that time, the issue wasn't whether to do the mission with how to get it done with n

have. the u. s. is accusing china, a violating international law. the balloon is still hovering over the skies of the united states. it was 1st tracked over the aleutian islands near alaska and travelled through western canada and into the u. s. state of montana where it was spotted near a military installation home to some of america's nuclear missiles. i have no idea the thing that seemed so brazen and just so insane to me that that any one would even attempt to just push a balloon over the sky. the chinese foreign ministry acknowledged ownership of the balloon and expressed regret for the incident, but said it was merely collecting weather data, not intelligently. the pentagon has its doubts. still, it says the balloon is not a threat to any one on the ground or plains since it's flying well above commercial air traffic. but there are questions about why the pentagon is allowing the chinese surveillance balloon to linger, looking at the potential for debris and the impact on civilians on the ground or property damage right now, as i mentioned we,

u. s. have been lukewarm under the rule of former president joel sanara lula says he would not petition biden's help bull snar extradited from the u. s. results. foreign ministry says a priority of the trip is to get more support for the amazon found to protect rain for us. both our nation strong democracy has been tested of late, very much customers. institutions are put in jeopardy. both united states and brazil, democracy prevail for the 2 largest democracy hemisphere, brazil, united states standard. we reject political violence and we put root value in our democratic institutions that it is now spent tidy, jo, castro, she joins us live now from washington. so they want to focus on environmental protections and how to tackle fall right extremism to lead is here, who are aligned in a very different way compared to their predecessors. absolutely, and that's making for what is likely a war meeting happening. still behind closed doors in the oval office. and as you mentioned, these 2 leaders are

u. s. army, such as iran, lebanon, by syria and yemen, others. consequently, iraq steel via transfers from the u. s. have been cut from $240000000.00 to only $22000000.00 on a day. the government has launched a campaign to combat illegal currency trading and promised to hold further discussions with washington to stabilize the exchange rate were hired out is one. this is one aspect of an economic challenge that requires a brave response and practical solutions to end the wrong financial policies inherited by the current government. in the mean time, the prime minister has extended credit to small businesses by half a $1000000000.00. despite government promises to continue the depreciation, many iraqis are worried about an increase in prices ahead of the holy month of ramadan. especially in imports such as gas and wheat, a number of currency exchanges have stopped trading anthony. that is more certainty about trees. some of the rockies blame the central bank for the shortage of dollars . others accused the united states of were promising the dollar. either way. it's the iraqi people who butte of the brand

international fund mauritania, voted just like many african states and chose to have seen that during the, the march vote in the u. s. last year. and they have a special relationship with russia in terms of marine fishing. and the movie tamia has a special economy zone that, that mr. love will be trying to speak to the right then favorable conditions for russians who are working in that economy zone. and they'll be looking to explore what economic issues of interest both countries can explode. but the, the north african region as a whole is a bit of a hot bed considering the disputed, the ongoing long going disputed rights of the people to self declare in western sahara and motor. tina is just below that country and it becomes an important cog in a sense of trying to reach all the situation permanently. mauritania is just like algae area enjoys very warm relations with moscow. and but one can say that about the relations between moscow and, but which is morocco, it's consistently been a thorn in this issue. and i think this will be among the most touchy points of mr . love to visit here in terms of what is the way f

u. s. have states that they are troubled by israel funds to expand supplements on palestinian theaters. officials say that it may spark more tensions between the nations. meanwhile, is really dumping of waste onto the west bank. has residents suffering from the toxic conditions on middle east correspondent, or if in austin to assess the situation on the ground flock, so fluffy sheep, grazing peacefully on green pastures and liz farm as fields and olive groves have always been a business card of edna a palestine in town, south of hebron, not any more. it is now known as one of the biggest electronic waste arms in the west bank for years massive amounts of e ways. local officials say up to 500 turns sailing including refrigerators, washing machines, computer monitor, cell phones, have been accumulating here, poisoning this coil and turn in this one. scripture is village into a veritable and a 20 gray yard. according to the palestinian authorities, it li, 60 percent of the trash that has filed out

they have accused the u. s. of favoring their own producers at the expense of european businesses. earlier i spoke to our financial correspondence in new york, teddy austro asking him whether test was decision, proves the european union right about its concerns about the inflation reduction act. well, it's certainly having its intended effect of the biden ministration. right. susie, i'm on camera intended effective the abide and administration to court electric vehicle companies to court battery companies to produce their products here in the united states. and that's because the inflation reduction act, right? it provides pretty significant tax credit to the financial incentives are very, very strong. now, tesla is just one of the 1st firms to state openly, right, that they are oriented more towards the united states because of the i r re. there could be other reasons such as the high energy prices in germany versus the united states. so there could be other reason there. and now the you, of course, is trying to fight back with some of its own experimenting with a program of own.

u. s. would have to adjust their cost significantly. right now their actions are hostile towards russia. what's the solution? i wish i knew tom will tell. can you tell us about the nuclear security at this approach in nuclear power plant? we know about the i e a's involvement. how effective has this involvement been? we know that the plant has come under fire a few times despite the presence of international experts. why is it so hard to set at that protection? so there we invited iaa experts to the 0. she nuclear plants hoping that they would be able to get a more checked of you on what's happening there. that mission hasn't been successful in our opinion. the november reports which some top the 1st 2 months of the i. e. a presence of the plants was biased. we share that in public, and in all private conversations with the i, e, a secretariat. let's see what they say in the february report that should be rated before the board of governors meeting in march. i'll 2nd objective was to bring international acts was there so that the ukrainians would stop firing in the direction of the nucle

u. s. want to invest heavily in wind and solar energy, partly for climate protection reasons. in the u. s. have recently passed law earmarked almost $370000000000.00 for climate and energy security measures. the e u and other countries are also came to invest in renewable energy. so says the i e. a forecasts that by 2025 renewables would have become the largest source of global electricity generation ahead of cold. but there's some way to go. there is still more than 2400 coal fired power plants in operation worldwide with new ones being built. that's a huge burden of both for the climate and those living nearby. south africa's economy is powered by coal, but critic site. this comes out of massive cost defenses day evolution is akila and therefore government needs to and then we need to add their gently. my hat is bleeding for the people who are living in this area and they are getting poor every day. 80 percent of the country's energy is produced by 12 coal fired power stations. in the south african cold belt. in 2019 greenpeace declared the area to be one of the most polluted on earth. ever d

have seen recently. and serious now facing both destruction from the earthquakes and as years long civil war, the u. s. has more than 5300000 people, the now homeless as a result of one day's earthquakes. in other news, you as a fighter jets have shopped down a high altitude object of the small town of dead horse and ne, in alaska. the pentagon says it poses a threat to flight safety. it comes 6 days after it shot down the chinese balloon over the united states. rose president has called for an all party meeting to solve the country's political crisis. the congress has rejected the la boulevard. there's proposal to hold early elections. public anger has been growing since december when pedro castillo with als to this president, asked, trying to dissolve congress 59 people have died and months of unrest in the democratic republic of congo fighting has been going on near the eastern town of saki, around 15 kilometers. west of the regional capital goma. it comes a day after m $23.00 fighters interest closer to saki, prompting thousands to flee their homes. and cy clone gabrielle is closing in on museums, l

u. s. head. philippine officials have been talking to journalists saying that there in our negotiations, that could give additional access to the u. s. military to philippine basis. the u . s. military already has access to 5 different locations across the philippines. under the enhanced defense vault ration agreement, which was signed in 2014, under the administration of former president. many no akina the 3rd. now u. s. defense secretary lloyd austin and philippine defense secretary currently about this junior will be holding a clor close bilateral meeting a few hours away from now inside the military compound. and after that meeting, they are expected to announce these t locations, if not the key locations. then at least they're expected to announce if there is an agreement for new locations. now, 2 of these locations are expected to be up in the north, close to taiwan, in which case it would give the u. s. a strategic advantage in case a conflict. the rises in the taiwan straits, but this is what pull testers are against. that there are now just a few pull testers right here, which i

u. s. u and u. k. have classified woody bio mass as renewable, allowing governments to subsidize the production and burning of wood pellets. many countries don't have to report emissions from wood fired power plants, because trees are seen as a renewable resource. producers are just required to reforest areas so that the c o 2 released while burning pellets is reabsorbed. no in the united states, depending on what state you're in, you plant 2 to 4 trees for every one you cut down the plant to for new but this is a little tiny pine trees. researchers like kelly suggest that the immediate impact of substituting wood for coal is an increase in atmospheric c o. 2. a study found that depending on the type of forest it could take up to 10 years until newly planted trees absorb the same amount of carbon socked up by the ones that were cut down. old are trees and storm more carbon. so there are certain forests that are even more critical to combat climate change than others. unfortunately, these are some of the for

it's good to have you with us. the u. s. military have shut down an unidentified object over alaska following orders from president by us officials did not say whether it was a balloon similar to the chinese spy balloon. that was shot there last week, off the coast of south carolina. they also said that they don't know who owns this object or where it originated. the white house gave an update just a short while ago, nicholas. in the case today, we're talking about an object again, we don't know a lot about it but, but that, and its altitude represented a potential threat to the safety of fine customers and civil air traffic on your broad and deep experience for you face might own or have flown this thing in the air. i have no idea or let's go to our correspondence from isn't was gone. is she is covering the story force in washington to me. yeah. of nerves, very jittery in the united states after what happened last week we, we know the u. s. of shot down an object over alaska. what more do we know or the pentagon has also d

u . s. have big plans, but small budgets, they mean well and indeed they help a lot of people, but they just don't have the budgets necessary to make a major impact on things like legislation. i know that blueprint partners with other organizations to get projects done. you also have had success with foundations around the world. can you tell us about some of your partnerships? yeah, i mean we, we are almost all of our funding is done on a project basis because we don't have an endowment. and, and it is hard. you are scraping and applying for grants, rounds, competitive grant rounds every day. you know, i will get off this in a few and i will go work on yet another grant application, which is unfortunate because i really like to spend that half of my time. i spend on this doing the work instead, but fortunately we have other good people, the organization who can do that. so in the kinds of grants we've had, for example, we've had some number of european commission competitive grants. we one, thos