from the indonesian volcano — but what are they laughing at? it's eight in the morning in singapore and six pm in chicago where a jury has found actorjussie smolett guilty of staging a hate crime against himself. smolett, who is african—american and openly gay, was accused of orchestrating a staged homophobic attack against him by fake trump supporters in 2019. it was reportedly to generate publicity after being annoyed by his treatment on the tv show he was starring in at the time. let's go to our washington correspondent nomia iqbal. great to have you on the programme. i great to have you on the programme. i know great to have you on the programme. i know that great to have you on the programme. i know that this news is just coming programme. i know that this news isjust coming out. do you tell us will was said in court today? tell us will was said in court toda ? . v tell us will was said in court toda ? . �*, , ., today? that's right. this all happened _ today? that's right. this all happened back _ today? that's right. this all happened back in _ today? that's right. this all happened back in january . today? that's right. this all- happened back in january 2019. happened back injanuary 2019. this is been going on for some time. and he had this trial in which he faced six disorderly conduct charges and he was found guilty on five of those charges. he was cleared on a six charge. and as she sat there, he was accused of staging this attack on himself. this happened back in 2019, he was an actor on a tv series called empire. he made this claim that two men shouted pro donald trump slogans and him put a noose on his neck and attacked him. there was this outpouring of anger about what happened and support for him in the skin from celebrities and now, vice president, harris tweeted saying that this was a modern—day lynching but when police investigated and they took it very seriously, they found evidence that suggested that he had faked this attack and eventually led to the six charges he faced in the two alleged assailants testified during the trial, two brothers from nigeria, they said that jussie smollett had paid them to carry out this attack. and he maintained this throughout and through the stand and is on trial, that this was not a hoax and he is due to speak at some point today and presumably, he will stand by what he has said in court that this was no hoax but he has been found guilty of five charges tonight. figs but he has been found guilty of five charges tonight.— five charges tonight. as you mentioned, the cases - five charges tonight. as you i mentioned, the cases touched five charges tonight. as you - mentioned, the cases touched a particularly when that news first came out. what is likely to be the reaction to this verdict?— to be the reaction to this verdict? ~ ., , . ., verdict? when he was charged initiall , verdict? when he was charged initially. his — verdict? when he was charged initially, his career _ verdict? when he was charged initially, his career did - initially, his career did experience a decline. he is no longer a part of that show any more. and there was a lot of anger towards him at the time, presumably that will happen again because, what happened to him over what he claimed happened to him was so serious and led to the future outpouring of anger and support for him, it was so public at the time and you had news presenters even giving their monologue about how they felt about what happened. we are to to find out what his sentencing will be. he does face a prison sentence of about three years. to him he's never been convicted of a crime before, he may be convicted of less of a sentence or mates of probation, but where do to find that out at some point as well.- at some point as well. thank ou for at some point as well. thank you forjoining _ at some point as well. thank you forjoining us _ at some point as well. thank you forjoining us on - at some point as well. thank. you forjoining us on newsday. we turn now to london — where an unofficial tribunal — investigating china's treatment of the uyghur minority — has found evidence of crimes against humanity and genocide. the findings detail systematic human rights abuses — including forced labour and torture. the chair of the tribunal, sir geoffrey nice, explained how women were sterilised without their consent, and families deliberately separated. witness statements also described rapes and assaults in detention camps. pressure is growing on beijing, after both the us and other countries announced diplomatic boycotts of the winter olympics in beijing. the us house of representatives has also approved legislation, banning imports from xinjiang. human rights groups believe china has detained more than one million uyghurs over the past few years. here's the chair of the �*uyghur tribunal�* delivering the outcome. on the basis of evidence heard in public, the tribunal is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the prc, by the imposition of measures to prevent births, intended to destroy a significant part of the uyghurs in xinjiang. as such, it has committed genocide. the tribunal is satisfied that president xijinping and other very senior officials in the prc and ccp bear primary responsibility for acts that have occurred in xinjiang. well, the bbc�*s caroline hawley has been talking to one man, an ethnic kazakh, who gave evidence to the tribunal. he was detained in 2017 and subjected to forced labour, political indoctrination and violent beatings. this is a first—hand witness of china's oppression of turkic muslims in xinjiang. he's an ethnic kazakh, one of dozens of former detainees who gave evidence at hearings in london about what they went through. he was arrested in 2017, accused of installing whatsapp, which is blocked in china, and of watching videos about islam. the first prison was the worst. he says he was once punished for complaining he was hungry, and remembers being put in something called a tiger chair. this is where he says he was held before being removed to a re—education camp. well, we asked china's embassy in london for a comment — and a spokesman told us — it goes on to say: peter irwin from the uyghur human rights project testified in front of the panel to provide information to the tribunal. here's his response to the findings. finally, an independent body has weight of the evidence and i think that has major implications shown by the work of the tribunal of the past year, hundreds of hours of research, tens of thousands of pages of evidence, testimony working nonstop and it's a tremendous undertaking. and now real work must be done and there's no longer an excuse for governments are for the international community not to act, there is no excuse any more. i think that's a implication here. peter, with all due respect, _ implication here. peter, with all due respect, the - implication here. peter, with all due respect, the tribunal| all due respect, the tribunal was unofficial and has no legal binding or international law, china's we expected, has disputed the findings of the tribunal and what can happen now, given all of that? i think the purpose _ now, given all of that? i think the purpose of _ now, given all of that? i think the purpose of the _ now, given all of that? i think the purpose of the tribunal i the purpose of the tribunal was to fill a gap in the international law or courts for example do have legal standing like the icc, the icj where they are unwilling or unable to address issues like this. and these come up when crimes are being committed by governments like china, powerful governments against their own people whether there is a reticence for the international community to act. so, although one might argue that the tribunal may not have a legal standing, but it is very valuable, certainly is very valuable, certainly is very valuable, certainly is very valuable, certainly as a signal in the first body to whip this kind of evidence and it may have been international standing, does of the standing and some things that the international community should be doing based on these findings. be doing based on these findings-— be doing based on these findinus. . ., ., ., findings. what are some of those things _ findings. what are some of those things of— findings. what are some of those things of the - those things of the international community can or should be doing. what kind of pressure can they put on china that might work, in your opinion? i that might work, in your opinion?— that might work, in your opinion? that might work, in your oinion? ~ 3 ., opinion? i think there's a few thins in opinion? i think there's a few things in this _ opinion? i think there's a few things in this tribunal's - things in this tribunal's judgment may not solve the problem right away but it is a step in that direction towards accountability. collective action, states for example that rally together call for the creation of the commission having a judgment for this tribunal helps them do that. they should bring into the security council and i think symbolically, that would be very important. the un's on office on genocide is obligated to recognise early warning signs about these kinds of cases and has an obligation to take this up. national courts under the universal jurisdiction can take these cases up to rule on these cases may think there are many things that can be done to address internationally.— internationally. and “ust briefl , internationally. and “ust briefly, china * internationally. and “ust briefly, china has i internationally. and just - briefly, china has consistently denied all of these allegations, saying that these education camps do not exist and people are not in detention there. what do you think the reaction to further the pressure from the international community might be in china? i think it is hard to say but if you look at the cases that have come up and if you look at the evidence that has been presented over the past two or three years with the chinese government, they have consistently denied any wrongdoing in this case, setting forth the evidence and establishes the foundational basis by which the international community can do something he didn't. there is no longer an excuse that have come up and if you look at the evidence has been presented over the past two or three years with the chinese government, they have consistently denied any wrongdoing in this case, setting forth the evidence and establishes the foundational basis by which the international community can do something again. there is no longer an excuse for the government for the government not to do something. and they have been remarkable in the enormous amount of information thatis enormous amount of information that is been taken in and scrutinised and again, at this point, which is to really pay attention to what the chinese government says in relation to the uyghurs issue because they deceived off you skate in question any kind of alternative opinions or push facts out of the way. and you can get much more on this story on our website — bbc.com—forward slash news — including this explainer on who the uyghurs are and why china is being accused of genocide. the piece also explains where xinjiang is — and examines what the allegations are against china. more on the bbc website — or download the bbc news app. if you want to get in touch with me i'm on twitter — @bbckarishma you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme. we've heard about the damage done by bad air pollution in delhi — now research says pollution levels inside are alarmingly high. john lennon was shot at the entrance of the dakota building in the centre of new york. there's been a crowd here standing and putting on a silent vigil and the flowers have been piling up. the 14th ceasefire of this war ended at the walls of the old city. witnesses say that the shells were landing every 20 seconds. people are celebrating the passing of a man they hold responsible for hundreds of deaths and oppression. elsewhere, people have been gathering to mourn his passing. the widow of the former. president of the philippines has gone on trial in manila. she is facing seven - charges of tax evasion, estimated at £120 million. she pleaded not guilty. the prince and princess of wales are to separate. a statement from buckingham palace said the decision had been reached amicably. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. our headlines. a court in chicago has found the actorjussie smollett guilty of staging an attack on himself nearly two years ago to make it look like a hate crime. an unofficial tribunal in london finds evidence of crimes against humanity and genocide against china's uyghur minority. the drama surrounding the british prime minister borisjohnson has added fresh scenes — and new characters. after the claims about rules — breaking christmas party, there are now questions over whether he misled an investigation into refurbishments at his downing street flat. if that wasn't enough, some conservative mps are furious over his new coronavirus restrictions. our political editor laura kuenssberg has been following it all. nightmares on downing street. behind every window a different dilemma. what's the truth about last year's christmas party? who paid for the expensive interior design upstairs? how can they control another surge in the pandemic and can they keep their own party under control? when thejohnsons moved in upstairs they had thousands of pounds of renovations. when the lavish expenses emerged this was the prime minister's claim. who initially paid for the redecoration of his downing street flat? he should know that i paid for downing street refurbishment personally, mr speaker. yet the tories have been fined thousands for breaking spending rules, after a wealthy businessman tried to set up a special trust to pay for doing up the flat. the real tangle is whether borisjohnson has been straight about what happened. he told a previous investigation he hadn't known exactly where the cash came from until february this year, but today's reports that shows he sent a wealthy donor whatsapp about the cash several months before. downing street's defence? it's suggested he knew this wealthy donor was overseeing the money but not that he was directly providing the cash himself. borisjohnson is taking the british public forfools. he's not only broken the law but made a mockery of the standards we expect. and even though there has been tears and a resignation, number ten has hardly recovered from denials and non—denials about parties under its roof. i'm truly sorry... and tonight confirmation that the director of communications in downing street, jack doyle, attended and made a speech at the gathering on the 18th of december, to thank as many as 30 staff who were present. he is the man who has been in charge of denying there was a party. now we know he was at the event, just one of three under investigation. a formal investigation catch up with what really happened? not one, not two, but three. what the government is still calling gatherings. are gathering at number ten downing street on the 27th of november 2020, a gathering at the department for education on the 10th of december, 2020. and allegations made of a gathering at number ten downing street on the 18th of december, 2020. but it's the emptying of offices next week, the return of tighter covid restrictions, vaccine passports to get into venues, that's steering strong feelings. dozens of tory mps have already vowed to vote against the plans next week and this is all promoting private questions about the prime minister's future, with a warning from the past. the mood of the conservative party is sulphurous and what we need now is a bit of grip from number ten. it's no good having these stories dragged out by the media. the government needs to make a clean breast of it. the conservative party history is littered with ruthlessness on these occasions but i'm confident that boris will get a grip. there is exasperation in the tory party about what's been happening and near universal agreement that someone somehow has to take control of what's happening here. but a universal belief that that will certainly happen? that's a different matter. downing street will soon be home for a new baby girl, born happy and healthy to thejohnsons this morning. but what many conservatives also want to see is rigour and clear logic in residence behind that famous door. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. workers at a starbucks cafe in the city of buffalo in upstate new york have voted to start a union. starbucks decertified unions in the us more than thirty years ago but campaigners say the pandemic and work conditions have been the catalyst for change. in spite of everything the company has thrown at us and we know it has been an extensive anti—union campaign by starbucks corporate to try to prevent this from happening and our partners, they have stayed strong and our partners in this market who have backed us this entire time have stayed strong and we have prevailed. a us federal appeals court has rejected a bid by former president donald trump — to prevent the release of white house records to a congressional committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol. new zealand is proposing some of the toughest anti—smoking laws in the world, to try to stamp out the habit. under the plans, anyone born after 2008 will never legally be able to buy cigarettes in their lifetime. convenience stores have warned, the move could create a black market for tobacco. it's been two weeks since the omicron variant was detected — and so far, the eu medicines agency says, that cases of the strain appear �*mostly mild'. but the world health organisation has expressed concern, that wealthy countries will start to hoard coronavirus vaccines, in response to the rapid spread of the variant. one country is pursuing a transmission reduction approach, but their healthcare workers who are literally dying on the job in workers who are literally dying on thejob in other workers who are literally dying on the job in other countries because there has not been access to vaccines. they are not going to get out of this unless we actually have true vaccine equity and distribution of vaccines in a timely fashion to every country around the world and i think this latest example of omicron puts a fine point on that. new research has found — that india's capital delhi, has alarmingly high levels of indoor air pollution. the study by the — energy policy institute at the university of chicago — found that the levels of pm2.5, the lung—damaging tiny particles in the air — indoors were "substantially higher" than those found on the nearest outdoor monitors. but despite that, most households have been unwilling to adopt defence measures. delhi routinely tops the list of "world's most polluted capitals". our correspondent there, rajini vaidyanathan, sent this update: this is the world's most polluted capital city. many, many people in the city complain about the toxic air which doctors say could lead to long—term respiratory illness. often we feel that when we are indoors, we are more protected and safer, but actually according to the study from the university of chicago which surveyed residents across economic groups between 2018 and 2020, the levels of these small dangerous air particles they can get lodged into your lungs and cause lasting damage was substantially higher indoors than they were on the nearest recorded outdoor metres. and that is something that is quite surprising. he also found that rich and poor households are equally affected when it comes to air pollution and for those of them who can afford them, many people in the city are able to buy air purifiers which they keep inside their homes to bring down the levels of air pollution, but this study found that those who were able to afford air purifiers in their home were only actually lowering the dangerous levels by 10% compared to those in disadvantaged households. in fact, this is a very stark conclusion from the report, it is said that in delhi, the line is whether someone is rich or poor, no one gets to breathe clean air. now, we don't want you to feel that all the news we bring is miserable, so here's something a litle more cheerful. indonesian families who have been evacuated due to a volcanic eruption, have been brought some cheer by... a troup of clowns. here they are getting ready. the volunteers in red— noses, wigs and multi—coloured costumes performed games and magic tricks at the camp in lumajang on indonesia's java island. our hope is that it can bring back the children's happiness. make them as happy as they used to be. if there many kids that are traumatised because of this eruption, we hope our presence here can give support to the kids. a reminder of our breaking news this hour: a jury in the us has found actorjussie smolett guilty of staging a hate crime against himself. smolett, who is african—american and openly gay, hired people to fake a homophobic attack in 20—19. a homophobic attack in 2019. the court found he paid two masked accomplices to accost him in a city street at night. he said they had cried out a pro—donald trump slogan and tied a noose round his neck. prosecutors said he had orchestrated the incident to try to raise his media profile that's all for now — stay with bbc world news. hello there. thursday brought a day of contrasting weather conditions, glorious blue skies and sunshine in west sussex. nearly six hours of sunshine before the rain in the afternoon. as for friday, we could actually see plenty of sunshine yet again in many places. there will be a scattering of sharp showers and it will feel pretty chilly for most of us. however, as we head into the weekend, the story is changing. it will turn increasingly cloudy with some rain around but, more noticeably, it will turn milder. before that though, this weather front continues to clear away. the winds swing round to a northwestlerly and that's going to feed in some showers from the word go across the far northwest of scotland. it's going to be a chilly start as well first thing this morning. low single figures in the north. some of these showers could be heavy with some hail and thunder as well. and they will drift away downwards to the cheshire gap towards the midlands but you can also see there's a good slice of dry, sunny weather to be found for many, particularly sheltered eastern areas, central and southern england as well. temperatures generally around four to nine degrees and a little bit below par really for the time of year. however, as we head into the weekend, here's the change. these weather fronts will start to push and it will swing the wind direction around to the south—westerly that is going to feed and some milder air from southwest and that's going to gradually nudge it's way northwards for the second half of the weekend. it does come at a price, it means more cloud around. perhaps some early morning brightness in sheltered eastern areas. clouding over fron the west with the rain. and some of it quite heavy along west facing slopes as well. in terms of the feel of the weather, if we keep those clearer skies, six or seven degrees for a time, but out in the west the milder air will show its hand, we are likely to see ten to 12 celcius. then on sunday, it's going to be a cloudy, damp, misty murky kind of day with outbreaks of rain threatening to the far north and west. but look at the tempuratures, widely we are likely to see highs of 11 to 111 degrees that is just above the average for this time of year. and that milder trend is set to stay with us for the week ahead although cloud cover could be a bit of an issue from time to time. that is it. take care. this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories at the top of the hour as newsday continues straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. when it comes to the global response to the climate change challenge, it pays to differentiate between words and deeds. at last month's cop26 summit, the chorus of concern from world leaders was deafening. but the actions — well, tough decisions on deeper emissions cuts to stave off catastrophic warming were put off until next year.