♪ ♪ narrator: funding for presentation of this program is proded by.. by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. woman: and now, "bbc world news". >> this is bbc news broadcasting to viewers in the u.k. and around the world.

our headlines. a russian fighter jet hits a u.s. military surveillance drone causing it to crash into the black sea. washington calls this incident reckless. >> approximately seven: oh 3 a.m. central european time one of the russian su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of the mq-9 causing u.s. forces to bring down the mq-9 in international waters. >> stock markets rebound after rmoil caused by the collapse of silicon valley bank >> the nra has got to go. >> president biden expected to sign a newclashes in pakistan bn police and supporters of the opposition leader imran khan as they try to arrest him at his home.

kasia: welcome to the program we start in the united states where washington has summoned russia's ambassador after a russian jet fighter collided with an american drone over the black sea. the u.s. military's european command says the russian fighter plane struck. propeller of the unmanned u.s. aircraft, causing it to crash. president biden has been briefed about the incident and this appears to be the worst publicly acknowledged u.s.-russian confrontation since the invasion of ukraine more than a year ago. the pentagon says u.s. department officials had not spoken with russian officials so far about the incident. we just heard from the pentagon press secretary air brigadier general pat ryder in the last few minutes. >> at approximately 7:03 a.m. central european time, one of the russian su-27 aircraft

struck the propeller of the mq-9 causing u.s. forces to bring the mq-9 down in iernational waters. dumped profsion manr.of t this demonstrates a lack of confidence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional. kasia: that was the pentagon press secretary pat ryder speaking within the past few minutes. for all of our viewers jning us now in the u.k., we will bring you the details of what was said. let's cross over to washington. gary o'donoghue joins us now. we were watching that press conference, that briefing payment for our u.k. viewers, let's bring them up to date with what we know about this incident which the u.s. is describing as "reckless." gary: at about 6:00 this morning u.k. time, two russian fighters

came into contact with an american unmanned surveillance aircraft over what the american city is international waters over the plexi -- black sea. these drones often conduct spying missions but americans insist it was over international water. what seems to have happened, one of these russian airplanes collided or struck the drone, damaging its propeller, and then the americans to bring it down into the sea. we have been learning some fascinating details over the last few minut. it seems this encounter between ofor about 30russian planes and 40 min. the american said they flew in front of the drone, apparently don't fuel on top of it, as well, presumably to disorient the drone, etc.

before the collision took place and the drone had to be taken down. the pentagon says there was no contact with russians, russian military on this. we know the state department here in washington have summoned mb to an ado audience. ptty stif diplomatic measure. it may not sound like much, but that is what happens when countries have serious diplomatic pemros wi one another. we are learning more details. we were also promised by the pentagon perhaps imagery of what happened in this collision over the plexi. they are going through the process of declassification. we may get some stills and video of what happened later on. kasia: thank you for bringing us up to date. appreciate that. giving us an update on what the

pentagon press secretary was describing their, the u.s. describing the pilots actions as unsafe. the russian defense ministry said it's fighter jets did not come into contact with the u.s. drone, claiming instead it crashed due t what he described as sharp maneuvering. the managing director of the german marshall fund think tankt like this in this particular war. evwe scerios, so this is a notable moment. the question is, does this conflict lead to direct confrontation between the united states or a na countries and russia? so much of this war has been ukraine with nato weapons, u.s. weapons, and russia on the other side. this takes it one step further. we thought we were in a similar

position potentially last november when there was thought to be a russian missile landing in poland, and a polish territory, killing two people. that turned out to be not the case. there is a sense that there is a perilous moment in which you can have direct confrontation. what wou that mean? on the other hand, there have been direct on contagion between turkish and nato states, russian jets. in 2015, turkiye shutdown russian fighter jets violating the airspe. it is very difficu in these situations to say, what will be the next up? what will be the cool head that prevail? what counts as potentially escalatory and what doesn't? it is good that so many hours have passed and we are where wee

is reason, there are consultations, still pat conversation during this war. kasia: as we started the program, washington has summoned russian ambassador. we will have more on this in about 20 minutes time we are talking to michael clark, the former head of a u.k. based security think tank. we will get more analysis on that. let's turn to the united states. shares have rebounded after monday's sharp declines following the shock collapse of two banks. red by s. banking system safe. they are also scaling back their expectation for further u.s. interest rate hikes after the latest inflation data showed signs of easing. consumer prices rose 6% in the 12 months to february in line with expectations. that was down from 6.4% for the year to january. inflation, the rise in the price

of goods and services, generally puts pressure on the u.s. central bank, the federal reserve, to consider further rate hikes to cool prices. but the collapse of silicon valley bank, the biggest banking failures since 20's global financial crisis, has raised concerns about the fragility of financial markets. some analysts now expec the fed to slow or en pause rate hikes at their meeting next week. hapned in the u.s. banking system and why the rest orle f d woiswa here is our north american business correspondent. >> one u.s. bank collapses and then another. now the american government has shut them bo world is asking, is thi tsheth d astart of ather financial crisis? silicon valley bank is a bank that specializes in lending money to tech companies. all their troubles started last week when the bank was trying to raise money, in doing so fast.se

bank freaked and ran to take it out. but with everyone doing the same thing at the same time, the bank run out of cash. a ton of tech companies use svb. a knock-on effect would have been huge. the last time a u.s. bank failed incris 2is and turned into a gll recession. and nobody wants to see that happen again. u.s. regulators have stepped in and said, whoever has cash at the bank, we will guarantee that you will have access to it. problem solved, right? not so fast. a bunch of smaller regiol banks are seeing their share prices plummet. thatcabeiss usa lobank safe, or is this onelso on the verge of collapse? kasia: the international monetary fund says it is closely

monitoring developments following the failures of svb and signature bank. it's deputy managing director has tweeted that the crisis does not appear to be sparking a global shock with the dollar immediately depreciating. she says lower-than-expected interest rates in the u.s. are driving currency movement. to megan greene, global chief economist. ks rer l ground after suffering those double-digit losses. resident biden saying whatever is needed to shore up eggs will be done. .wearr oe vewothe it took about a day for regular people to really understand what the federal reserve, treasury department, fbi see had announced on sunday, which was not just a backstop posner's but also created a lending facility

for banks, which banks could hand over the long-term assets that they held. they could hand them over at par, so they wouldn't get stuck in the situation that svb was in , where it had to some of its assets at a huge loss. that worried everyone, make people think that maybe svb was insolvent. that won'be happening again. it took people a while to understand what was announced. that is my bank shares tanked i thinkay and then rebounded day. the worst of this financial instability is behind us. kasia: higher interest rates were partly to blame for silicon valley bank's crisis. we have seen rates at such low levels for so long. do you see any problems or merging other banks? megan: i think we will see financial instability emerging across the globe over the year. the u.k. is no stranger to that.

you saw gilt yields spike last fall, and the pension sector had a blowup. that is one example of these kinds of pockets of dislocation we will see in the markets as central banks globally are hiking rates and also shrinking their balance sheets, so they are withdrawing liquidity from the system. i think we will see more examples of this happen not just in the u.s., certainly not just at small banks. i would also highlight, the failur te hese banks in the u.s. was partly caused by higher interest rates, but these banks were unusually high exposed to high interest-rateisnd h vciclientele that were a phen of low interest rates. when interest rates started going up, that clientele started form ofover a year ago.shthe crisis happened in the past you days as some of thearted to sell off assets to redeem those deposits, but this has been

building for about a year now. kasia: using these banks were quite specific, we have seen the areas they wereegul tions wtierg place after the 2008 credit crunch to stop things like this from happening. megan: that's right. don frank and the basel iii rules were implement it after the global financial crisis. for most countries they were implemented across the banking sector. in the u.s., thanks to regulation in 2018, these rules were only implemented for the biggest banks. these smaller community banks didn't have to ascribe to the same capital ratios as the bigger banks, soonsequently they were vulnerable. kasia: megan greene, appreciate your clarity on that. thank you as always. meta, the owner of facebook, instagram, and what's up has announced it is axing 10,000 jobs.

the firm already announced 11,000 lost october -- last october. mark zuckerberg described the losses as tough but said that there was no way around them. supporters of pakistan's main opposition leader imran khan have clashed with police outside of his home as officers tried to arre him on a court order. police fired tear gas to disperse supporters who threw stones and bricks. in a video message,come out of s and riot,ve eifn he tary epictue show teargas outside of his residential compound. he is facing allegations that he unlawfully sold state gifts while in office. our islamabad correspondent khay facetime and he believes a case against him is politically motivated. >> first of all with the attack, the police came in without any knowledge.

we saw news that the police were ngnyco to arrest workers, so thy immediately tried to remove the workers. they stood their ground, and then there were water cannons, and then teargas. i am inside my house. we were all here, washing our faces because it came right inside the house. now, there is a lull. they are gathering more force. i am mentally eparing to spend a night in a cell. i am prepared for that. minethisini thtime, they wt me behind bars. >> so why are you resisting arrest when the police are coming now? >> we had taken protective bl until the 18th. on the 14th, there was no reason for them to arrest me.

what i would want and pakistan is rule of law, and that means simply, whoever breaks the law should be punished. my party or an opponent, they should all be subject to the law of the land. >> the law of the land says that there is an arrest warrant out for you and you are resisting. are you resisting the law of the land? >> they have, four days earlier. it is not the law of the land, it is the law of the jungle. kasia: the three people applying to become the first, next first minister of scotland, leader of secretary, thee part in their health secretary, and a former

questions in edinburgh in an event hosted by the bbc. let's cross over to our scotland correspondent james shop. 40 minutes time, just over 40 minutes time. what are we expecting to hear from these three?we are just st. i think you have guessed we have some technical problems with my colleague in edinburgh. we were going to tell you more about the three people who are vying to become the next first minister of scotland. can you hear me james? i think that is a yes. we are expecting this final tv debate to take place tonight. what can we expect given what we have seen already? james: perhaps you can see that black curtain behind me.

behind that, the audience is being warmed up for this debate in about 40 minutes time. it will be quite unique amongst the televised rates there have been so far in this leadership contest for the scottish national party. it is in front of a live audience which is not just members of the snp but also ordinary members of the public. they will be able to put questions directly to the three candidates. homes or use of, the health secretary, kate forbes, a former minister in the scottish government, and where members of the public can question politicians, candidates directly , can sometimes throw up surprises. it can throw curveballs at politicians that they are expecting. people undressing questions that really matter to them in their lives. there will be comeback you would expect from th audience, they will not necessarily accept

politicians ansrs thate qui a fy debate. it is true that snp are, for the first time in years, being presented with a real choice between alternive visions for the party in the future. the most important thing for them is independence. how quickly that can be issues are really important to voters in scotland that these candidates will be addressing. kasia: how have they faired so far in your assessment? kate forbes has been rising through the rings pretty quickly. how have they done thus far in terms of their previous meetings , and now their final meeting tonight? james: it has been a really interesting contest, it has not been a pro forma by the book contest. it has surprised people i think

with the ferocity of the debate particularly between humza yousaf, seen as a continuity candidate. nicola sturgeon has not endorsed anyone in particular but various leading figures of the snp have endorsed him. on the other hand, you have kate forbes, the finance secretary, who is in a sense an outsider, but some opinion polls suggest with her popularity with levels -- members of the snp they are rather level. and in the general public, some polls suggest that she is popular. that is a problem for the establishment in the snp, not the outcome they are hoping for. they want continuity, not radical change. but it really is up for grabs. the future of the snp is right at the center of this debate and is in question, particularly when we see those candidates debating tonight.

you will be able te that tonight on the bbc i player in the u.k., online in scotland on bbc1. kasia: you got ahead of me on that one. thank you, james. as james was mentioning, our viewers in the u.k. will be able to watch that. internationally, i will be here with the rest of the international news. a stdi oatersaf b hsteeasn malr tropical storm freddy hit the country on sunday. at least 190 people were killed. most of the debts in the teams are described as complete the overwhelmed following landslides and flooding. efforts to help those worst affected have been hamperedy strong winds, heavy rain, and flash floods. the country is already dealing with an unprecedented colorado epidemic. -- cholera epidemic.

>> with each passing day, the extent otropical storm freddie's devastation in southern malawi is becoming clearer. the destruction of roads and bridges and lives. about 200 people have been killed, with hundreds more injured, and officials fear the death toll will keep rising as the rain shows no sign of stopping. >> we hear a voice of ahild. ease save me. door, weve have me. all in the house ud. >> now a potential humanitarian crisis is unfolding. la 'ma'nagem'nt says thousands of homes have been displaced, families in refugee camps across the district without an up supplies.

the malawi red cross told the bbc they have yet to reach some areas as poor weather has made it difficult to reach areas by land or air. freddie is the most intense storm in the southern hemisphere. it struck madagascar and mozambique twice, but malawi has suffered the heaviest toll. authorities gave ample warning to those in low-lying areas but some communities fled when it was too late. the rain is expected to continue for the next 48 hours before freddie returns eastward toward mozambique. kasia:n centehe size of a washing tly mrachine ighs beiu to heat a public swimming pool in southwest england. >> in this pool is the first in the country to use a pioneering chgynoo t atcut tdown on carbonmissions

re the magic happens. >> he green unit, with the computers immersed in oil. >> when you put stuff on the cloud, they could end up in a data center like this. >> we all rely on the cloud in our everyday lives. the trouble is, the computers in those data centers generate enormous amounts of heat, so data centers have to get rid of that heat somehow. most of the time it is thrown into the atmosphere. this system is difrent. oil a then flowing that oil into heat exchangers to give the free heat. >> the leisure center says, like businesses around the country, it's had to deal with astronomical rises in their energy bills going up from 18,000 to 80,000 in a year. they say this new technology will bring them huge savings. >> we hope this will brings a

significant reduction in gas costs, potentially 50%, $40,000 a year in savings. >> we need to do this for the climate and the financial strain we have, pools shutting around the country. >> it is excellent if it bring down their bills. fine. >> really good idea. i was very cold getting in yesterday morning. i squealed. [laughter] >> theovnier gngcountry are undf closure or services because of high running costs. reds unf fuing to help. kasia: your thoughts are always welcome. don't go away. i will be back shortly. narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by.. the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-kovler fountion.

pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. ♪ ♪ narrator: you're watching pbs.

♪ ♪ narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by.. the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by conibutions to this pbs statn from viewers like you, thanyou. woman: and now, "bbc world news". laura: i am la