this is bbc news. the headlines: the american actjussie smollett has welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. been charged with making a false our top stories: attack. if true, his actions were tv actorjussie smollett is charged outrageous and despicable. president nicolas maduro has closed with falsely claiming venezuela's border with brazil to be the victim of a racist, to prevent the opposition delivering foreign aid, homophobic attack. which he sees as a political provocation. ajudge tells him if it's as tensions rise, he's said he may true, it's despicable. venezuela closes its border also shut the border with colombia, with brazil, as tensions mount over where most supplies moves by the opposition have been stockpiled. opposition leaderjuan guaido has gone to the colombian border to try to bring to bring in foreign aid. in food and medicine. at the first ever summit of its kind, in rome, for the first time in the history pope francis calls on bishops from around the world to take of the catholic church, ‘concrete measures‘ against child bishops from around the world are meeting at the vatican abuse by catholic priests. to confront decades of child and the world that inspired sex abuse by clergymen. the maker of middle earth. pope francis convened the 4—day a new exhibition celebrates summit, saying the world expects "concrete measures" to address the scandal. the art ofjrr tolkien.

you are up to date with the hello. it would be utterly outrageous and despicable, a judge has told the tv starjussie smollett, if allegations that he staged a hoax hate crime against himself are true. the african—american actor has appeared in court in chicago, accused of filing a fake police report that he'd been the victim of a racist, homophobic attack. chicago police say the star of the empire series may have staged it to promote his career. he denies the charges. aleem maqbool has the story — there is flash photography. it is a humiliating fall from grace. used to appearances on the red carpet, actorjussie smollett has now been snapped for his mugshot, arrested for concocting a fake hate crime against him. # sometimes you feel insecure #. he is best known to us audiences for playing jamal lyon, a sensitive, slightly troubled r&b singer

in the tv series, empire. this is exactly where jussie smollett says he was attacked in the early hours of the morning when he had gone out to get food. he says two men punched him, subjected him to racist and homophobic abuse, even at one point shouting at him that this was make america great again country, suggesting they had been trump supporters. my manager was still on the phone, so i picked up the phone and i said, brandon, and he's like, what's going on? and i said, i wasjustjumped. and then i looked down and i saw there's a rope around my neck. the president himself was among the many who came out to condemn the attack. i think that's horrible. it doesn't get worse. but police now say two brothers, seen here buying ski masks ahead of the incident, were paid by smollett himself to stage the attack, because, they say, he was unhappy with his salary.

empire actorjussie smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career. i'm left hanging my head and asking why. why would anyone, especially an african—american man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations? hate crimes have seen a dramatic increase in the us of late, but the police and rights advocates alike have talked of their dismay at the harm jussie smollett has done to those who really have suffered. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in chicago. president nicolas maduro has announced he's closing venezuela's border with brazil to prevent the opposition delivering foreign aid, which he sees as a political provocation. he is also considering shutting the border with colombia, where aid from the united states has been stockpiled. opposition leaderjuan guaido, who's declared himself president and is recognised by dozens of foreign states, has gone to — the colombian border to try to end the blockade. our international correspondent

orla guerin is there. a new arrival in a foreign land. alice has just given birth to her first child, carlos, born in exile in colombia, far from her family in venezuela. she tells us she couldn't risk giving birth at home. "it's possible that my son would not have survived," she says, "there is nothing there." "the president is telling a big lie when he says there is no need for help." paediatrician albert cova shows me around the ward where he treats the sick who make it this far. for him, there is a deep personal anguish — he's venezuelan himself and has a question for president maduro. "what more does he want?" he asks. translation: he is useless and does not have power any more. he already achieved his aim,

to destroy my country. arnaldo is five months old and fighting for every breath. he's malnourished and has pneumonia. his mother, claudia sandino, says she begged for medicines in venezuela but the only ones who get help are those who support the government. there is aid available, donated by the united states and stockpiled here in the border town of cucuta. well, there is no doubt that venezuela desperately needs help and there are many in the country hoping against hope that the supplies will get through. but the humanitarian aid here is also a political weapon, and it's aimed directly at nicolas maduro and his government. if it be gets through, every box that crosses the border will be a victory for the opposition, and that's something president maduro is determined to avoid. he told us if the us really wants to help, it should remove economic sanctions

and unfreeze venezuela's assets. translation: they should send a convoy with the dollars they have stolen from us. send a convoy with the gold. it's our money. with that, we could solve all our country's problems. the opposition say he's more worried about stopping them than solving venezuela's problems. his troops have been targeting trucks heading for colombia and he's threatening to close the border altogether. battle lines being drawn over aid — and venezuela's future. orla guerin, bbc news, cucuta. let's get some of the day's other news. almost 4 years after it set off from earth, a japanese space probe has landed on an asteroid, about 186 million miles from earth. the hayabusa—2 will try to collect rocks from the surface of asteroid ryuku, in the first mission of its kind.

the samples could help reveal whether it was asteroids that brought the original building blocks of life, including water, to earth. the family of shamima begum, the teenager who left the uk to join the so—called islamic state, in syria, is taking the uk government to court over its decision to revoke her citizenship. her sister has written to the home secretary saying the family cannot simply abandon her. ajudge has ordered donald trump's former confidant roger stone to make no further comment on the legal case against him. he faces 7 charges including lying to congress, as part of the investigation into russian election interference. he had been facing possible jail for posting a picture on instagram of the judge with gun crosshairs superimposed, and describing the case as a show trial. for the first time in the history of the catholic church, bishops from around the world are meeting at the vatican, to confront decades of child sex abuse by clergymen. pope francis convened

the four day summit, saying the world expects "concrete measures" to address the scandal. our religion editor martin bashir reports from vatican city. a sombre rendition of morning prayer marked the opening of this gathering of bishops, where the agenda has not been set by scripture but by scandal. before any speeches, synod hall fell silent to acknowledge the suffering of those abused. pope francis outlined the purpose of this summit. translation: we must listen to the shout of the little ones that demand justice. may the virgin mary illuminate us to try to heal the serious wounds of the scandal of paedophilia. all eyes are on the vatican, as pope francis seeks to develop protocols and practices that could be applied across continents, and in a church that numbers more than 1.2 billion. one survivor, who was abused

by a priest in chile, says a papal summit won't change anything if bishops remain a law unto themselves in their own countries. the bishops are the ones that are messing this up for everybody, because they go to their dioceses, they go to their countries, and they tell a different story. they nod their heads in front of the pope and say, "yes, your holiness, we'll do this," but then they go back to their countries and they do quite the opposite, they keep covering up, they keep this culture of abuse and cover—up, so it's really, frankly, terrible. back in the hall, those same bishops heard from senior clerics, confessing, sometimes tearfully, to the failings of the church. the wounds of the risen christ carry the memory of innocent suffering. but they also carry the memory of our weakness and sinfulness. after decades of scandal,

cover—up and countless lives blighted by abusive priests, there is understandable scepticism surrounding the summit. but this is a defining moment for pope francis and the roman catholic church. six years since he was elected, and people are tired of waiting and are demanding that he act decisively to begin restoring the moral authority of the church. martin bashir, bbc news, at the vatican. nigerians are due to go to the polls on saturday in nationwide elections — they were postponed at the very last minute six days ago. one key issue will be security, with nearly 2 million people displaced by violence in the north east. thousands have fled attacks by islamist extremist groups, including boko haram. our africa editor, fergal keane, reports from maiduguri, in north—east nigeria. the exhaustion of the new arrivals. they've just come —

safe now, after the terror of being driven from their homes. but this camp, built for 8000 people, now has four times that number. hadisa ibrahim, mother of five. her husband is missing and may have fled to neighbouring chad. "we went through hardship beyond imagination," she says. this mother of six gave birth to twins during her escape. can you tell us what has happened to your family? why are you here? translation: we ran from doro to escape boko haram. i spent two days in the bush, and while there i gave birth to twins. i had no clothes to cover the children or to cover myself. person after person has come up to us to complain that they don't have the basic necessities of life in this camp. tens of millions have been spent prosecuting this war, and still people are being driven from their homes, being terrorised. a new camp with proper facilities is being built to ease

the overcrowding. it's situated on a half—built, abandoned stadium, itself a symbol of the waste that's characterised the rule of nigeria's political elites. this election season has brought fresh pressures for the idps, as boko haram and the local wing of islamic state have stepped up attacks. these were mourners at a funeral ten kilometres maiduguri. the dead, 14 people, were gathering wood when they were attacked. it's a lack of basic human needs that's sent us out of our community. he had to go and hustle for us to eat, and despite the hustling, he didn't stop his education. he would work hard for us and also go to school before this really sad incident. the government says the war is being won, but the killers were still able to ambush the state governor's convoy last week,

and in maiduguri itself i met the survivor of a recent bomb and gun attack on a mosque. he points to the hole from the bullet that killed his neighbour. translation: that is the surprising thing that leaves us wondering how they got here. did they come from the town or the bush? that's what we are wondering. wherever they came from, they didn't attack there — they chose to attack us, here. but despite recent violence, we have been told displaced people have been moved on dangerous roads to vote in their home areas. these men, now back in the capital, told us they'd been taken 140 kilometres to their home town, a place already overcrowded with the displaced. the road between here and there, is it a dangerous road? are there boko haram on that road?

but the ruling party and main opposition say it was safe and people were moved back to their home area because it was simply to organise and monitor vote there. logistically similar perhaps, but at a risk to already traumatised people. whoever wins this election, there is little expectation it will change these lives. fergal keane, bbc news, maiduguri. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: why this very elderly tortoise — missing for more than a hundred years on the galapagos islands—may be the most important discovery of the century. prince charles has chosen his bride. the prince proposed to lady diana spencer

three weeks ago. she accepted, she says, without hesitation. as revolutions go, this had its fair share of bullets. a climax in the night outside the gates of mr marcos's sanctuary, malacanang — the name itself symbolizing one of the cruellest regimes of modern asia. the world's first clone has been produced of an adult mammal. scientists in scotland have produced a sheep called dolly using a cell from another sheep. citizens are trying to come to grips with their new freedom. though there is joy and relief today, the scars are everywhere. not for 20 years have locusts been seen in such numbers in this part of africa. some of the swarms have been ten miles long. this is the last tiem the public will see this pope. this is the last time the public will see this pope. very soon, for the sake of the credibilty and authority of the next pope, benedict xvi will, in his own words, "be hidden from the world for the rest of his life."

this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the american actor, jussie smollett, has been charged with falsely claiming to be the victim of a racist attack. president nicholas maduro has shut venezuela's border with brazil, as tensions mount over plans by opposition politicians to bring humanitarian aid into the country. staying with that story. mark weisbrot, from the center for economic and policy research in washington, has written extensively on venezuela. he told me there certainly is, as president maduro complains, a political element to the offer of humanitarian aid from the us. the trump administration and their allies in venezuela have stated publicly that it is part of the regime change effort, that they actually want to get the venezuelan military to disobey the president, maduro, and therefore undermine the government enough to overthrow

it, which is their stated aim. so you can understand this and also the aid is very little compared — and it's very little in absolute size — but it's very little and compared with the damage that the us government is currently inflicting on the economy through the economic sanctions — the economic sanctions since august 2017, not even the new ones which are much worse. but the ones since august, tohse sanctions have imposed but the ones since august, those sanctions have imposed a financial embargo on the country and decimated the oil industry. they have lost thousands of thousands of barrels of production and that, by itself, is, you know, reducing so much access to medicines, medical supplies, food, spare parts, everything that the economy needs. so it is kind of odd to be saying

at the same time that you are actually trying to deprive people of everything, including food and medicine, and then say, "oh, we're going to try and toget this aid into the country" as kind of a pr stunt. what impact do you think the closure of the border with brazil, the possible closure of the border with colombia, will have and how do you see this ultimately playing out? that depends on what kind of force is used. for example, the trunp administration has repeatedly threatened war and a lot of people are afraid — trump himself has said it a couple of times — and a lot of people are afraid that this would be used as a pretext for some kind of, for war itself. that is a real risk. i should say that the threats themselves are illegal, under the un charter, to threaten another state with war, and the sanctions themselves

are also illegal under the oas charter, under the un charter and probably under us laws as well because, just as in the case of the border wall that trump wants with mexico, he has to declare a national emergency and has done so for every set of sanctions he has imposed. in other words, he has to say that venezuela poses an unusual and extraordinary threat to national security of the united states and therefore we have a national emergency because of what is going on in venezuela. for all these reasons, everything appears very, almost absurd. israel's first spacecraft built to land on the moon has launched from florida on a mission that, if successful, would make thejewish state only the fourth nation to achieve a controlled touchdown

on the lunar surface. the unmanned robotic lander dubbed "beresheet" — hebrew for the biblical phrase "in the beginning" — is being transported in a falcon 9 rocket made by tech entreprenuer elon musk‘s spacex company. if all goes according to plan it will arrive on the near—side of the moon in mid—april. making it the world's first privately funded mission to the men. —— moon. conservationists in the galapagos islands have found a giant tortoise from a species thought to have become extinct more than a century ago. the adult female tortoise was found on the island of fernandina in the west of the pacific archipelago, off the coast of ecuador. katie silver reports. many of the 1a giant tortoise species found in galapagos were wiped out when the islands were colonised, in the 18th and 19th centuries. now, after last being sighted in 1906, the fernandina giant tortoise appears to be back. it was discovered in a thicket of vegetation on fernandina island, one of the youngest and most pristine of the galapagos archipelago.

translation: it is perhaps the most important discovery in the last century. there have been multiple investigations and monitoring projects on the island and not a single individual had been located. she is believed elderly, over 100 years old. authorities which cited tracks and excrement in other parts of the island, hope she is not the only one. translation: if we find more female individuals, and hopefully males, we can immediately start a breeding programme in captivity for this species, here in santa cruz. giant tortoises can reach more than 200 kilograms and are believed to have arrived on the remote vulcanic island chain around 3 million years ago. the most famous, lonesome george, was found in 1972 but, with scientists unable to find a mate, he died a0 years later, as the last of his species. as for this tortoise,

the scientists need to confirm, usig genetic testing, that it is definitely a member of the long—lost species. then they hope to set her up in a captive breeding programme and that he fernandina tortoise species may live on. katie silver, bbc news. before the lord of the rings, and even before the hobbitt, jrr tolkien had his paintings and maps, and even a secret language. now, a new exhibit at the morgan library in new york brings together all of the work that went into creating his famous middle earth. it's the largest such collection of tolkien material in years, and the bbc went to take a look. this exhibition sets out to explore the life ofjrr tolkein and how his experiences informed his creative process.

here we have an illustration that tolkein produced in his teen years. at 10—year—old boy he was making watercolors of trees and rivers streams that developed into his teen years he started experimenting more with visions of the distant mountain landscapes. and dark forests. it is called eerieness from 1914. it shows a cloaked and hooded figure walking through a very eerie and sinister forest. it was something that was so embedded in his imagination that in 1914 it came out in illustration, and then years later it would come out again in hobbit and lord of the rings. this is his working map for lord of the rings that he used from 1937 until 1919.

you can see how well used it is. it is folded and refolded, tattered and taped together. he did this so that the narrative would always remain geographically true. tolkein always said he began with a map and made the story fit. rather than beginning with a narrative that creates geography. visitors might be surprised and also excited by tolkein‘s father christmas letters that he produced for his children over 25 years. that shows what an involved and doting father tolkein was, bringing out tolkein the man, notjust tolkein the author of middle earth. i hope that our visitors understand a little bit more about the life ofjrr tolkein and the creative process. and really how deep the human imagination and creativity can go,

when they see what one man has created and the legacy that he has left to us. members of the monkees have been paying tribute to their keyboard and bass player, peter tork, who has died. he was 77. he was diagnosed with a rare form of tongue cancer in 2009. his surviving bandmates, micky dolenz and michael nesmith, say they are "heart broken". david jones died in 2012. a brief recap of the many news, it would be utterly outrageous and despicable, a judge has told jussie smollett if allegations that he hopes a hate crime against himself a true. he will appear at court in new york

filing a false report that he had been a victim of a racist and homophobic attack. thanks for watching. hello there. this very mild springlike weather for february is set to continue this weekend and indeed into next week as well. now, on thursday, we saw a top temperature of 18.3 celsius in aboyne, in aberdeenshire. and that has broken the scottish february record of 17.9 celsius so very mild indeed for the time of year. now, this warm air is rooted as far south as the azores and the canary islands and is being brought up to our shores on a fairly brisk south or south—westerly wind, denoted by those orange and yellow colours. now, as we start this morning, it's going to be a largely dry one. quite breezy across the far north—west with a few showers and we could start seeing areas of fog developing across england and wales. some of it could be quite dense, in fact. temperature—wise, a few chilly sports across the north—east of england, southern scotland, otherwise temperatures generally between 6—9 celsius. so that fog could be quite extensive

across the midlands, southern south—east england, into east anglia and extending as far north almost as the welsh marshes, up into merseyside and cheshire. and it may take a long time to clear through the morning and could even hold on in one or two spots across the south—east through the day. so some areas could have a grey day. otherwise for most another bright and sunny day. some hazy sunshine and it will feel very warm indeed for the time of year. quite windy across this far north—west corner, with generally 13—15 degrees, with a few spots, 17 or 18 celsius. high pressure still with us as we had on into the weekend as well, bringing these southerly winds. but these weather fronts always trying to encroach in from the atlantic. it will bring more cloud and some outbreaks of rain, i think, on saturday to northern ireland and then into western scotland, the odd heavier burst and it will be quite windy too. but eastern scotland, for most of england and wales, away from the west, another fine day with some hazy sunshine after the mist and fog clears away again. again, extremely mild, 111—15 degrees, the odd 16 or 17 celsius.

on into sunday, again some the mist and fog to start off with. could have a bit more cloud across the west, northern ireland, western scotland and perhaps western wales and the west country, where it will be breezier. and i think temperatures a degree or so down across the board. so we're looking at 12s to 13s, maybe the odd spot 1a or 15 degrees across the south—east. then on into next week, this big area of high pressure still dominating the weather, trying to keep this weather fronts out of bay but they will occasionally brush into the west and the north—west of the country, bringing a few spots of rain. but generally speaking, into next week with high pressure with us still, warm days, fairly chilly nights, sunshine by day but also the risk of fog in the mornings.