and bringing some cheer to children evacuated from the indonesian volcano, but what are they laughing at? live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it's newsday. it's 9:00 in the morning in singapore and 7pm in chicago, where a jury has found actorjussie smollett guilty of staging a hate crime against himself. smollett, 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. in the past half hour, special prosecutor daniel webb gave a statement to the media, speaking of the importance of taking this case to trial. let's take a listen. a lot of times people say well, it will things under the rug but this police department we spotted by absolutely testifying in his trial that they took it seriously, they believed he was the victim of a crime and they worked so hard for the next three weeks, 26 chicago police officers spent 3000 hours of time costing the city well over $100,000 for a fake crime but never occurred and by the way, if a crime that denigrates what a real hate crime is. —— a fake crime but denigrates. 0ur washington correspondent nomia iqbal has been following the story. this all happened back in january 2019, so this has been ongoing for some time. in court, he had this trial in which he faced six charges, six disorderly conduct charges, and he was found guilty on five of those charges, he was cleared or found those charges, he was cleared orfound not those charges, he was cleared or found not guilty on a sixth charge. as you said, he was accused of staging this attack on himself. this happened back in 2019, he was then an actor on this tv series called empire and the claim is, or he made the claim, that two men shouted pro donald trump slogans at him, tied a noose around his neck and attacked him with bleach and there was this huge outpouring of anger towards, you know, about what happened, support for him, and this came from celebrities and even politicians but now vice president kamala harris tweeted at the time this is a modern—day lynching. but when police took it very seriously, they found evidence that suggested he had faked this attack and eventually led to these six charges that he faced and the two alleged assailants testified during the trial, they are two brothers from nigeria and they said that jussie smollett had paid them to carry out the attack but he has maintained throughout, and he did when he took to the stand in his own trial, that this was not a hoax and he is due to speak, we think, at some point today, and presumably he will stand by what he but he has been found guilty on five charges tonight.— five charges tonight. indeed, nomia, five charges tonight. indeed, nomia. as — five charges tonight. indeed, nomia, as you _ five charges tonight. indeed, nomia, as you mentioned, i five charges tonight. indeed, i nomia, as you mentioned, the case has touched a nerve across the country, particularly when the country, particularly when the news first came out. what is likely to be the reaction to this verdict?— is likely to be the reaction to this verdict? ~ ., , this verdict? well, when he was charued this verdict? well, when he was charged initially, _ this verdict? well, when he was charged initially, his, _ this verdict? well, when he was charged initially, his, you - charged initially, his, you know, his career did experience a decline. he is no longer part of that show, empire, anymore. and was a lot of anger towards it at the time, presumably but all —— that will happen again because it was, you know, what happened to him or he claimed happened to him or he claimed happened to him was so serious and, as i said, it led to this huge outpouring of anger and support for him, it was so public, i rememberat support for him, it was so public, i remember at the time as well, you know, you had news presenters as well even giving their monologue about how they felt about what happened. now, we're due to find out what his sentencing bilby. he does face a prison sentence up to three years but i think given the way it might work out, given he has never been convicted of a crime before, it may be he serves less of a sentence or he could serve probation but we are due to find that out as well as some point —— due to find out what his sentencing bilby. i’m what his sentencing bilby. i'm exelled what his sentencing bilby. i'm expelled there. —— will be. —— nomia iqbal. 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 than1 million uyghurs over the past few years. here's the chair of the uyghur tribunal delivering the outcome. 0n 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. 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 weighed up the evidence and named what's happening, which 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 non—stop — and working to stop a genocide. it's a tremendous undertaking. it's a first step. and now, real work must be done and there's no longer an excuse for governments orfor the international community not to act. there is no excuse any more. i think that's the major implication here. but peter, you know, with all due respect, the tribunal was unofficial. it has no legal binding in international law. china, as we expected, has disputed the findings of the tribunal. what can happen now, given all of that? well, i think from the outset, the purpose of the tribunal was to fill a gap in international law, where courts, for example, to 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 — where there is a reticence for the international community to act. so, although one might argue that the tribunal�*s judgement may not have a legal standing as such, it is very valuable, certainly it 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 not have standing in law and some things that the international community should be doing based on these findings. what are some of 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? yeah, i think there's a few things — and again, this tribunal�*s judgement that may not solve the problem right away, but it is a step in that direction towards accountability. collective action will be required. states, for example, that rally together call for the creation of the commission, having a judgement for this tribunal helps them do that. they should bring into the security council. china will veto this. but i think symbolically, that would be very important. the un's own 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 universal jurisdiction procedures can take these cases up to rule on these cases. i think there are many things that can be done to address internationally. and just briefly, china has consistently denied all of these allegations, you know, 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? yeah, i think it is hard to say but if you look at the cases that have come up, if you look at the evidence that has been presented over the past two or three years, consistently, the chinese government 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 governments not to act. 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 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 obfuscate 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/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. iam i am looking forward to hearing from you. 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 to the dakota building in the centre of new york. there's been a crowd here standing in more or less silent vigil and the flowers have been piling up. the 14th ceasefire of this war ended at the walls of the old city of dubrovnik. this morning, witnesses said 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. imelda marcos, the widow of the former - president of the philippines, has gone on trial in manila. she's 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. 0ur headlines: a court in chicago has found the actorjussie smollett guilty of staging an attack on himself nearly two years ago and making 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 parties, —— after the claims about rules breaking at christmas parties, there are now questions over whether he misled an investigation into refurbishments at his downing street flat. now, some conservative mps are furious over his new coronavirus restrictions. 0ur 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 forjohnsons' 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 this 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 report showed he sent a wealthy donor a 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. boris johnson's 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's been tears and a resignation, number ten's 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 december 18 to thank as many as 30 staff who were present. he's the man who's been in charge of denying there was a party. now, we know he was at the event, just one of three under investigation. thank you very much, mr speaker. a formal investigation catch up with what really happened? not one, not two, but three. what the government is still calling gatherings. a gathering at number ten downing street on november 27, 2020, a gathering at the department for education on december 10, 2020. and allegations made of a gathering at number ten downing street on december 18, 2020. but it's the emptying of offices next week, the return of tighter covid restrictions, vaccine passports to get into venues that's stirring strong feelings. dozens of tory mps have already vowed to vote against the plans next week, and this is all provoking 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. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. 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 30 years ago, but campaigners say the pandemic and work conditions have been the catalyst for change. as of today, we have done it. in spite of everything that the company has thrown at us, and we all know that it has been an extensive antiunion campaign by starbucks corporate to try and prevent this from happening, and our partners at the location have stayed strong and our partners in this market who have backed off 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 6 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. new research on dragonflies has revealed that 16% of the world's 6,000 species are at risk of extinction because of the loss of the wetlands where they thrive. conservationists say wetlands are disappearing three times faster than the world's forests. 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 organization 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, there are healthcare 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 sort of 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, that's 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 the world's most polluted capitals. our correspondent there, rajini vaidyanathan, sent this update. this is the world's most polluted capital city. now, many, many people in the city complain about the toxic air, which doctors say can lead to long—term respiratory illness. now, often, we feel that when we are indoors, we are actually more protected and safer, but actually, according to this study from the university of chicago, which surveyed residents across all economic groups between 2018 and 2020, the levels of pm2.5, which are the small, dangerous air particles which 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. it also found that rich and poor households were equally affected when it comes to air pollution, and for those 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 said in delhi, the bottom 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 you is miserable, so here's something a little more cheerful. indonesian families who have been evacuated due to a volcanic eruption have been brought some cheer by this — a troupe 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. translation: our hope is that it can bring back i the children's happiness. make them as happy as they used to be. there many kids that are traumatised because of this eruption, and we hope our presence here can give support to the kids. heartwarming in the face of a tragedy. that's all for now. stay with bbc world news. have a lovely weekend. hello there. thursday brought a day of contrasting weather conditions, glorious blue sky and sunshine in west sussex. nearly six hours of sunshine before the rain arrived late on 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 north—westerly and that's going to feed in some showers from the word go across the far north and west of scotland. it's going to be a chilly start as well first thing this morning with low single figures in the north. some of these showers could be heavy with some hail and thunder mixed in there 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 4 to 9 degrees, so still 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 they will swing the wind direction around to the south—westerly, so that is going to feed and some milder air from the south—west and that's going to gradually nudge its 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 from the west with the rain pushing in, and some of it turning quite heavy along west—facing slopes as well. in terms of the feel of the weather, if we keep those clearer skies, 6 or 7 degrees for a time, but out to the west, the milder air showing its hand, we'll likely to see 10 to 12 degrees celsius. then on sunday, it's going to be a cloudy, damp, misty, murky kind of day with outbreaks of rain perhaps threatening into the far north and west. but look at the temperatures — widely we are likely to see highs of 11 to 1a degrees. that's just above the average really 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's it. take care. this is bbc news. the headlines and all the main new stories of the top of the hour, straight after this programme. saturday basically something massive happens like every hour so what is the metaphors you have been using to capture such chaos? one on the radio earlier was smorgasbord. i one on the radio earlier was smorgasbord.— one on the radio earlier was smorgasbord. i wondered when someone with _ smorgasbord. i wondered when someone with a _ smorgasbord. i wondered when someone with a smorgasbord. l someone with a smorgasbord. smorgasbord of news. i'm not sure what smorgasbord is. that's good. fiasco. i said fiasco _ that's good. fiasco. i said fiasco about the party. that's good. fiasco. isaid fiasco about the party. that's a significant _ fiasco about the party. that's a significant moment - fiasco about the party. that's a significant moment in - fiasco about the party. that's a significant moment in any l a significant moment in any news story. a significant moment in any news story-— a significant moment in any news story. a significant moment in any news sto 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