police investigating the parties say they've received hundreds of photographs and documents. also in the programme... it's a year since the military seized power in myanmar — un investigators say more than a—thousand people might have been killed in war crimes since the coup. translation: i took up arms in the hoe translation: i took up arms in the hepe our _ translation: i took up arms in the hope our weapons _ translation: i took up arms in the hope our weapons would - the hope our weapons would bring justice for the whole society. i will be fighting for that as long as i live. and — more than a billion people around the world are celebrating lunar new year — we'll tell you all you need to know about one of the world's biggest festivals. live from our studio in singapore... this is bbc news. it's newsday. it's 8am in singapore, and midnight in london where borisjohnson has been addressing his mps in a private meeting — trying to fend off more calls for him to step down. it comes after he again apologised to parliament, following a report by a senior civil servant into downing street parties during lockdowns. though limited in scope due to an ongoing police inquiry, the report was nevertheless greeted with anger by many mps including those in his own party. police say they are reviewing more than three hundred photos passed to officers in relation to 12 events across government on eight different dates. our political editor laura kuenssberg reports on the day's events. it has been a long, uncomfortable wait for number ten — an official verdict into the government itself breaking the rules. part one, at least, has now arrived. will you take responsibility, prime minister? there may be no easy downing street escape. the blond head and red box you can spot from the sky arriving for a moment borisjohnson�*s enemies believed could be a reckoning. prime minister. he started with another apology. firstly, i want to say sorry, j and i'm sorry for the things we simply didn't get right - and also sorry for the way that this matter has been handled. and it's no use saying - that this or that was within the rules, and it's no use saying that people - were working hard. this pandemic was hard for everyone. j his penance, though — not changing his own address, but shifting others around. mr speaker, it isn'tl enough to say sorry. this is a moment when we must look at ourselves in _ the mirror and we must learn. we are making changes now to the way downing street . and the cabinet office run, so that we can get - on with the job that| i was elected to do, mr speaker, and the job that this government. was elected to do. mr speaker, i get it and i will fix it. - the findings are grim for downing street. ms gray found a serious failure to observe the high standards expected, with too little thought given to what was happening across the country. there were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of number ten and the cabinet office. she found excessive consumption of alcohol that is not appropriate in a professional workplace at any time, and some staff who had wanted to raise concerns about behaviours felt unable to do so. this may not be the full and final version, but the conclusion is clear — a number of these gatherings should not have been allowed to take place or to develop in the way that they did. and, remember, this is only the initial report into what has emerged week by grisly week about what was going on behind the closed door of number ten. jokes about explaining away the rules. this fictional party was a business meeting! cheese and wine in the garden, claims of loud music and parties in the flat upstairs. birthday cake in the cabinet room. the rule—setters alleged to be rule—breakers while the rest of the country was locked down. in contrast to the prime minister's seeming hope to rush through the statement this afternoon, the leader of the opposition was brutal and took his time. by routinely breaking the rules he set, the prime minister took us all for fools. he held people's sacrifice in contempt, he showed himself unfit for office. prime minister, the british public aren't fools. they never believed a word of it. they think the prime minister should do the decent thing and resign. of course, he won't, because he is a man without shame. some ministers hung their heads as the labour leader appealed to them, to their tory colleagues, to call time on the prime minister labour claims is now simply not fit to govern. they can heap their reputations, the reputation of their party, the reputation of this country, on the bonfire that is his leadership, or they can spare the country from a prime minister totally unworthy of his responsibilities. the eyes of the country are upon them. they will be judged by the decisions they take now. in all the sound and fury at borisjohnson, the snp breaking commons manners... he misled the house, he must now resign. ..branding him a liar. that man has misled the house. a wild ride in the commons. shut up. downing street had hoped the danger was passing. borisjohnson�*s lieutenants tried to grab control and shore up angry mps, but attacks on number ten from the tory side were opened by none other than a withering former prime minister. either my right honourable friend had not read the rules or didn't understand what they meant, and others around him, orthey didn't think the rules applied to number ten. which was it? i am deeply concerned by these events and very concerned indeed by some of the things that he has said from that dispatch box and i have to tell him, he no longer enjoys my support. it seems a lot of people - attended events in may 2020. the one i recall attending - was my grandmother's funeral. i didn't hug my siblings, i didn't hug my parents. j i gave a eulogy and then. afterwards, i didn't even go to her house for a cup of tea. i drove back three hours i to kent from staffordshire. does the prime minister think i'm a fool? - no, mr speaker, i want to thank my honourable friend and i want to say how deeply i sympathise with him and his family for their loss. disbelief on the faces of some of borisjohnson�*s own side. despair across much of the tory party and fatigue at weeks and weeks of this mess, but there is not yet a resolve to see the back of the man who won a historic majority with a promise of change. not tonight, not yet. as we said — this initial report by the senior civil servant sue gray — is a long way from the full document. she was asked by the metropolitan police to keep to a minimum any references to events that detectives were now investigating. that meant severely limiting what sue gray could publish. we now know that scotland yard is investigating 12 events —— on 8 separate dates —— including an event in the prime minister's flat in downing street. our correspondent daniel sandford has more on the police investigation — and a warning, there is some flash photography in this report. the departure of dominic cummings from downing street in november 2020. two gatherings held on the day he left are among those now under investigation by scotland yard, detectives examining whether the prime minister and his staff were breaking the lockdown rules that they themselves had written. borisjohnson has previously told the house of commons that no rules were broken that day. so which events are the police investigating? starting on may 20th, 2020 with the infamous "bring your own booze" event, they're looking at 12 different gatherings on eight different dates. eight of the events were in downing street and four in the neighbouring cabinet office. one was in the prime minister's own flat. the last two events were leaving dos held on the same day in april last year. we had a bundle of material provided to us just friday, which is well over 500 pieces of paper, about a ream and a half, and we received over 300 photographs, so we've just received that and my officers are prioritising this week to consider what's been provided in that bundle of material, what further investigations that they need to do and, of course, who they're going to be contacting. and who might get fined? well, that's not yet clear. detectives will be writing to dozens of staff in downing street and the cabinet office, asking for their accounts of the gatherings and whether they had a reasonable excuse for their actions. although the maximum penalty for these alleged offences is only a small fine, detectives here say they will be fast—tracking the investigation and it should be over in a matter of weeks, rather than months. but how damaged are the metropolitan police after being caught in this political storm? they've been accused of not intervening to stop the alleged parties at the time and then getting in the way of the publication of sue gray's full report by asking for the details not to be published. i understand the frustrations, i feel frustrated. what's important, though, is that i don't allow my frustrations to interfere with an independent police investigation. the force said today that it understood that its actions around the alleged downing street parties had divided opinion, but it insisted that it had to take difficult decisions, even when they were contentious. daniel sandford, bbc news at new scotland yard. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines.... police in manchester have been granted more time to question footballer mason greenwood. the 20—year—old was arrested on suspicion of rape and assault on sunday. his club — manchester united — have said the player will not return to training or matches until further notice. nike says it's suspended its relationship with the player. south africa's former presidentjacob zuma has appeared in court to face a long—standing corruption trial, regarding a $2 billion government arms deal. jacob zuma is accused of taking bribes from french company thales. he also faces 16 counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering. the streaming service spotify says it will direct listeners to verified facts about coronavirus. some artists have removed their music from the platform — in protest at podcasts by the us broadcasterjoe rogan — who included vaccine sceptics on his podcast. he's posted a video admitting he made mistakes and saying he supports the changes. we turn next to the ukraine crisis, and the continuing tensions between russia and the west. president biden says russia will face swift and severe consequences if it walks away from diplomacy and invades ukraine. at a special meeting of the un security council, the us ambassador said russia had conducted the biggest mobilization of troops seen in europe in decades. russia's ambassador accused the us of whipping up tensions, insisting russia had no plan to invade ukraine. nada tawfik is at the un headquarters in new york, and told us about whether there was any outcome at the meeting. we asked that to the us ambassador to the un because the united states had called this meeting. she said they didn't get out the answers they wanted from russia but that they hoped a diplomatic way forward was still possible. look, i mean, this meeting, there was debate about whether it should even be held by the members in the security council, ultimately, ten members sided with the united states, believing that this was in the interest of the security council to try for preventative diplomacy, to try to get involved before a crisis. on the other hand, you had china siding with russia saying it was the united states fanning the flames here, not helping to de—escalate the situation by calling this meeting and three other countries abstained in that procedural vote to hold this meeting. so it really did underline the divisions on the security council between the west and russia and ultimately no one was expecting any outcome from this meeting. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... a festival of light, luck and colour — hundreds of millions of people celebrate the lunar new year. this is the moment that millions in iran have been waiting for after his long years in exile the first hesitant steps of the ayatollah khomeini on iranian soil. south africa's white government has offered its black opponents concessions unparalleled in the history of apartheid. and the anc leader nelson mandela is to be set free unconditionally. three, two, one. the countdown to the critical moment, the worlds most powerful rocket ignited all of its 27 engines at once and part of its power is this recycling of the rocket slashing the cost of the launch that makes this a breakthrough in the business of space travel. two americans have become the first humans to walk- in space without any lifeline to this patient. _ one would call it a piece of cake. i thousands of people have given the yachtswoman alan macarthur a spectacular homecoming in the cornish port of falmouth after she smashed the world record for sailing solo around the world non—stop. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. our headlines... the initial findings of the report into parties at downing street during the covid lockdown have been published — outlining failures of leadership and judgment. the report says some of the behaviour was hard to justify — and effectively let the british public down. the conflict in myanmar is becoming increasingly violent and widespread, so much so that one year after the coup that took aung san suu kyi from power, it is now considered a civil war. battles between the military and organised groups of armed civilians are not only becoming more deadly, but also more widespread, according to data analysed by the bbc. this report from rebecca henshke is distressing from the start. this is the aftermath of a brutal raid by the military on a village in central myanmar. the bodies of six men were found. they were the ones who couldn't run. three were elderly, two had a mental health condition. some had their hands tied, as well as ropes around their neck. this man's body showed signs of torture. his widow says he stayed to look after their animals. translation: he had a limp after falling - from a palm tree. they must have seen he was disabled. he was old enough to be their father or grandfather, but they killed him. i'm heartbroken. this man was rounded up in the same group, but managed to escape by pretending to be dead. he says soldiers were looking for resistance fighters — members of the civilian militia network — called the people's defence forces, or pdf. translation: they wanted our names and our mobile phones. | they asked, "are you the pdf?" everyone said they weren't. after a while, a short man with smallpox scars walked in. he started killing people, saying, "you are pdf fighters." the military is now under attack across the country from the people's defence forces. what started a year ago as peaceful protests against the military coup is now a guerrilla war. translation: there is no country we _ translation: there is no country we can _ translation: there is no country we can rely - translation: there is no country we can rely on. - translation: there is no i country we can rely on. there is no international organisation we can rely on. this man whose name means dragon has emerged as one of the prominent leaders of the armed resistance. before the coup, he was a businessman. now he controls pdf units fighting with whatever weapons they can find. translation: i with whatever weapons they can find. translation:— find. translation: i took up arms in the — find. translation: i took up arms in the hope _ find. translation: i took up arms in the hope our- find. translation: i took up| arms in the hope our weapons would bring justice for the whole of society. i keep fighting for that as long as i live. , ., , . ~ live. the pdf are being backed b ethnic live. the pdf are being backed by ethnic armies _ live. the pdf are being backed by ethnic armies who - live. the pdf are being backed by ethnic armies who have - live. the pdf are being backedl by ethnic armies who have been fighting that as long as i live. the pdf are being backed by ethnic armies who had been fighting the military for decades in the border areas. theirjungle camps, thousands their jungle camps, thousands of theirjungle camps, thousands of young protesters have been trained in weapons of war. translation: i trained in weapons of war. translation:— trained in weapons of war. translation: ., ., translation: i never dreamt of handfina translation: i never dreamt of handlin: a translation: i never dreamt of handling a real— translation: i never dreamt of handling a real gun _ translation: i never dreamt of handling a real gun or— translation: i never dreamt of handling a real gun or any - handling a real gun or any other weapon.— handling a real gun or any other weapon. this person is 'ust 18. other weapon. this person is just 18. before _ other weapon. this person is just 18. before the _ other weapon. this person is just 18. before the coup, - other weapon. this person isj just 18. before the coup, she was planning to study economics. now she is in a pdf unit in central me and mark, attacking military. i unit in central me and mark, attacking military.— attacking military. i fear nothina attacking military. ifear nothing about _ attacking military. ifear nothing about killing - attacking military. i fear- nothing about killing soldiers or military dictators. our people are in deep trouble because of them. the people are in deep trouble because of them.- people are in deep trouble because of them. . because of them. the well armed military has _ because of them. the well armed military has labelled _ because of them. the well armed military has labelled anyone - military has labelled anyone opposing them as terrorists, vowing to hold onto power. this is now a civil war. a conflict thatis is now a civil war. a conflict that is intensifying and largely hidden from the outside world. we turn next to southern africa, where rescue workers have been struggling to reach tens of thousands of people who have been cut off after tropical storm ana swept through the region last week. the storm made landfall in madagascar last monday, before ploughing a destructive path across into mozambique and malawi. and the impact was devestating. homes were flattened. roads and bridges were washed away. our southern africa correspondent nomsa maseko has been to one hard—hit village in malawi, and sent this update. the effects of the tropical storm are being felt across the southern african region. here in malawi, roads and bridges that were swept away by flooding are currently being reconstructed. earlier today, the president visited this area to assess the damage. the devastation in terms of infrastructure, destruction, electricity, availability and other things compound the loss of life. we are grateful that it could've been worse. people had been warned in advance and yet, they never had an idea judging from previous experiences that this morning meant what. —— that this warning meant what. this area was affected by flooding back in 2015, but the people who live here have told me that the floods they've seen in recent days are something that they've never experienced in their lives. all that water moved from there and went on higher ground and swept away some of the houses and have said that the winds were so strong that the houses here lost their roofs. churches and schools such as this one have been turned into shelters to accommodate the thousands of people who have lost their homes because of the flooding. it's unknown how long they are going to stay here because reconstructing all those houses could take a while. more than a billion people around the world are celebrating the chinese new year, also known as the spring festival or lunar new year. here's what you need to know about one of the world's biggest festivals from karl riley. chinese new year is the biggest festival in china. it's also known as the spring festival on lunar new year. it marks the first new moon in the chinese lunar solar calendar. which is based on cycles of the moon and the earth. in 2022, the festival falls on the 1st of february. chinese new year has been celebrated for centuries. one legend says it began with the defeat of the beast. it was chased away by villagers with red colours, bright lights... ..and loud sounds. food is an important part of the festivities. and certain ingredients hold special meaning. dumplings symbolise well. noodles represents longevity. and fish signifies abundance. red envelopes with money are given for good luck. each year is named after one of the 12 animals of the chinese zodiac. 2022 is the year of the tiger. that's associated with confidence and competitiveness. for all of those celebrating. i do wish you a very happy, prosperous and healthy lunar new year from all of us at bbc news. i hope i'm saying that properly and correctly. before we go, i want to tell you about the story. the new york times says it has bought the popular word game wordle, that's gone viral. many of you may have well been playing this already. wordle was released in october by a former reddit software engineer. the once—a—day online game gives a player six chances to figure out the day's secret five letter word — using the least number of guesses. the new york times says it's acquired the game for an undisclosed price in the low seven figures. it says it'll continue to be free and there won't be any changes to how it's played. certainly something i've been playing and i'm glad to hear they will not be any changes when it has been bought by the new york times. you have been watching newsday. stay with us. british police say they're reviewing more than three hundred photos and five hundred pages of information, as they investigate whether parties held at government offices broke covid lockdown regulations. that is it from us. thanks for watching. hello. the week got off to a stormy start thanks to corrie. the winds have become a little lighter out there now, but for the rest of the week, it will still stay relatively windy, not perhaps as windy, though, as it was due monday. here is corrie come tuesday, menacing down in the middle of the mediterranean. another area of the pressure to the north of the uk will keep it windy here, particularly across scotland, but this weather front sinking south won't bring much in the way of rain. it will usher in quite a bit of cloud and perhaps most noticeably, it will pull in some very mild air, particularly in contrast to monday. sunshine probably most widespread, actually, for scotland and northern england. furthersouth, rather more overcast skies, some patchy light rain or drizzle, but gusts of wind across northern most scotland could still hit up to 80 mph, but what a difference in those temperatures for tuesday afternoon, 12—13 celsius, it willjust feel so much milder. and the milder air sticks around as we work our way into wednesday as well. further cloud flooding in from the west. our clearest skies likely to the far northeast of the uk, but because the air itself is mild, i think we will stay frost free, even though temperatures slide down into the range of single figures. and there is this big dome, if you like, of mild air sitting across the uk for wednesday. high pressure to the south, quite a lot of cloud, hopefully some breaks perhaps to the east of the brecons across the northeast of england and for eastern scotland. but despite the cloud, it will still feel considerably warmer than it has done to start the week, again, temperatures in double figures. quite a contrast then to come for the end of the week. thursday, we've got a weather front set to work its way south. some heavy rain initially for scotland and northern ireland, then the front pushing down into england and wales come the afternoon. looks like it could eventually bring some rain, something we haven't seen much of in a while, into southernmost england overnight, but the keen eyed amongst you will have noticed the white coming in behind that rain band, much colder airflooding in for friday, another quite deep low to the north of the uk. it's looking windy, it should be bright with a lot of sunshine, but there's the chance that we could see some fairly frequent wintry showers pushing into scotland, i think maybe a few sliding south into northern england as well. and feeling so much colder again by friday. temperatures just 5—9 celsius. this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour as newsday continues, straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi. my guest is somebody who can claim to be one of south america's best—known global icons. she knows the continent well. born in peru, raised in chile, she was also schooled in bolivia and has lived in venezuela. isabel allende is not only an acclaimed novelist, she's also known for her political writings. her uncle was salvador allende, the chilean democratic leader