with a two huge matches to get things under way an inspiring story of friendship and hope kevin sinfield has raised millions of pounds for mnd. people living with the disease tell us they can t thank him enough. good morning to you. it s a clear cut tale of two halves this weekend with today largely cloudy and mild and tomorrow chillier but dry with plenty of sunshine. it looks like it was a chilli into next week as well but i will have more of that and the weekend s weather details right later on. it s saturday the fourth of february. our main story us defence chiefs say they have identified a second suspected chinese surveillance balloon, this time above south america. the first balloon was seen yesterday above the state of montana, in the north of the united states. it prompted washington to cancel a high level visit to beijing and accuse the chinese authorities of being irresponsible. china has apologised but insisted it s simply a weather monitoring device which has
get better and better, so that is exciting for us. and again, to work with the players that are already here and the players coming back from injury, we feel we have got a good group of players, a very strong group of players, absolutely. so now we need to gel and become a really good team, and that is where the work is. manchester united manager erik ten hag says he wants his side to focus on matters on the pitch, ahead of tomorrow s match with crystal palace at old trafford. it s after one of the club s players mason greenwood had all criminal charges against him dropped. greenwood denied the charges of attempted rape, assault and controlling and coercive behaviour. he d been due to face trial in november this year and said he was relieved . manchester united say they ll conduct their own process before deciding what to do next. this was ten hag s response when asked for a comment about greenwood at his press conference earlier. no, nothing. i can add nothing. i refer to
corner of the studio, but a story in two parts, the weekend weather, it starts with a lot of cloud but a mild feel. it ends on sunday with something a little bit chillier but much brighter. but certainly right now we have got a lot of cloud out there, that cloud actually thickening up enough to produce drizzle, some mist and murk of a high ground, limited clear breaks. but with that cloud cover, temperatures not dropping too far, 6-9 , temperatures not dropping too far, 6 9 , so i really might start to saturday morning, but a cloudy start for most. if you look closely at the map, some breaks appearing in the cloud, there will be some spells of sunshine, but equally, for northern ireland and scotland, this band of rain pushing in from the west, eventually with something brighter following on behind. 9 12 degrees. but as the band of cloud and rain sinks further south and east during tomorrow night, the rain will weaken but we will start to introduce something colder behind this
washington has accused beijing of acting irresponsibly after a chinese surveillance balloon was detected over the united states. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, has postponed a much anticipated trip to beijing over the incident. china says the balloon is a civilian airship which had deviated from its planned route. however, us defence officials argue the balloon, seen above sensitive areas in recent days in the western us, was a high altitude surveillance device. our security correspondent, gordon correra reports. i.have no idea what this thing is. a strange object in the sky, filmed by a member of the public in rural montana. and for those of you who think this mightjust be the moon, it is not the moon, the moon is off to my right, i can see it. it s not the moon, nor a ufo, but, us officials claim, a chinese spy balloon. it seemed so brazen and just so insane to me, it wasjust, like, this thing is so visible. and it s now sparked a major diplomatic row. the chine
over the elgin marbles. it follows prime minister mitsotakis repeated position that the parthenon marbles, as they re known in greece, should be returned. welcome back. plenty of news on ukraine today, notably a statement from the nato secretary general that ukraine willjoin nato alliance after subject to reforms. it s too early to say exactly what will be the decision at the washington summit. all of us agree that, in the midst of war, full membership is not possible. but, of course, we will continue to look into address how we can move ukraine and nato even closer together as we prepare for the washington summit. what decision we make has to be addressed at a later stage when we are closer to the summit. but that does have implications for the way the war might end. would russia be prepared to negotiate a ceasefire knowing that, as part of any truce ukraine was about to join the alliance, putting nato s borders even closer to moscow? not that there is any sign the russians