this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: donald trump acquitted by the senate — just one republican votes against him. it is therefore ordered and adjudged that the said donald john trump be and he is hereby acquitted of the charges in said articles. chinese authorities spray the streets, as the number of coronavirus deathsjumps by the biggest number in a single day so far. a plane breaks into three pieces after overshooting a runway in istanbul. one person is killed, many others are injured. i am spartacus! and the hollywood actor, star of historical epics, kirk douglas, has died

at the age of 103. as widely expected, the us senate has ended the impeachment trial of president trump by finding him not guilty of abuse of power and obstructing congress. donald trump was impeached by the house of representatives, where his opponents in the democratic party are in the majority, but the republican majority in the senate has cleared him, so he has evaded the attempt to remove him from office and will fight for re—election in november's election. this report from our north america editor, jon sopel. senators, how say you? is the respondent, donald john trump, guilty or not guilty? a process that started last september came to an end today with senators voting one by one on the two articles of impeachment. mr alexander, not guilty.

miss baldwin? guilty. miss baldwin, guilty. and then the verdict. it is therefore ordered and adjudged that the said donald john trump be and he is hereby acquitted of the charges in said articles. but the wall of republican unity was broken by mitt romney. the former presidential candidate, with a bombshell speech, said he would vote to convict the president of abuse of office. the grave question the constitution tasked senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanour. yes, he did. with the impeachment process now behind him, donald trump is seeing his approval ratings inching up. the republican party is standing right behind him and the democrats have had a shocking few days, after the shambles of the iowa caucus.

it's all turning out to be a very good week for donald trump. cheering and applause. and last night he delivered a highly partisan state of the union address that could have been for a republican rally. but the shadow of impeachment couldn't be missed, as donald trump pointedly snubbed the democratic speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, who'd led moves to impeach the president. her outstretched arm ignored. and the speaker's disdain was etched on herface, as the president made his remarks. and then, in an extraordinary act of defiance, or petulance — opinion is divided — nancy pelosi ripped up her copy of his speech. in his speech, the president focused on the strength of the economy, something he hoped would be his trump card in this election year. jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, poverty is plummeting, crime is falling,

confidence is surging, and our country is thriving and highly respected again. cheering and applause. but to look at the faces of those listening — loving from one side, loathing from the other. a microcosm of america, a foretaste of how bitterly contested this election will be. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. i asked allan lichtman, distinguished professor of history at the american university, if it was a mistake to impeach trump. it wasn't a mistake at all. if we look back at past impeachments, the impeachment of andrew johnson and bill clinton and the resignation of richard nixon, in no case did their party win the next presidential election. in fact the democrats lost in 2000 after the impeachment

of clinton in an election they should have won easily at a time of peace and prosperity. trump did not get the acquittal he wanted. for the first time in the history of a presidential trial, a member of the president's own party voted to convicted him and remove him from office. this was not an obscure republican senator, this was mitt romney, the former republican presidential nominee, who gave just an extraordinary speech absolutely condemning the actions of the president. at the time when all this was going on, professor, it looked very bad to have the chaos in iowa and particularly forjoe biden? absolutely. look, the democrats looked like the gang that can't shoot straight but they have plenty of time to straighten that out and once they get a nominee, their hatred for president trump will unite the party but the real story is the decline and perhaps

fall ofjoe biden. donald trump's main objective in shaking down ukraine was to get dirt on biden. well, he didn't get that but throughout the impeachment trial the republicans smeared joe biden, with a series of lies, of course, but if you lie long enough and loud enough it sticks. looks likejoe biden has been pretty badly wounded, he can come back but he's got a long way to go. you're not in the prediction business but you have a good record of predicting results, how do the democrats deal with the fact the economy is strong and many republicans say they don't like him very much but he is doing what they want on abortion, tax, getting more conservative judges in place. you are right, and we saw that kind of partisan rallying cry in the state of the union address. he has a solid, unshakeable base but it's only in the low 40% range, not enough to win a presidential

election even in the electoral college. the democrats have to press on and i think they should invoke what george w bush did to defeat al gore in 2000 after the clinton scandal, campaign both on restoring integrity and honesty to the white house and restoring a presidency that's going to work for ordinary americans and not for the wealthiest of americans. it's going to be an uphill climb and very difficult, and right now on my prediction system, the election is too close to call. there are not enough factors out against trump to predict his defeat but as we know in the age of donald trump, things can change overnight and a lot will happen i guarantee between now and perhaps a lot more damaging information about the ukraine scandal, his finances and other misdeeds by this president. the story of the president's abuses is not over.

let's get some of the day's other news: the former mayor of south bend, indiana, pete buttigieg has maintained his lead over bernie sanders in the iowa democratic party caucuses, although still, only 85% of results are in. the process has been plagued by computing problems. elizabeth warren and joe biden are in third and fourth place. in turkey, at least 38 people have died in two avalanches in the eastern province of van, near the border with iran. five people died when the first avalanche struck on tuesday. many of those killed by the second were rescuers searching for the missing. the far right german party afd has provoked outrage in the state of thuringia where its members, in the regional parliament, helped oust the current premier by voting for a candidate from a different party. it's the first time a state leader has come to power with support from the far right. there've been protests and calls for a fresh election. the chinese authorities are warning that they face a severe shortage of beds and equipment to treat the growing number of people

with coronavirus as it spreads rapidly across the country and abroad. china says 563 people have now died, tens of thousands of others have been infected. meanwhile thousands of passengers and crew on two cruise ships have been placed in quarantine, after a number of people on board tested positive for the virus. john sudworth reports from beijing. wuhan is a city at war, with an invisible enemy. and they're trying everything they can to defeat it. state media is now full of images of an heroic struggle. the brand—new hospitals held up as proof it's one they're winning. but xiao huang is not so sure. it took him days to find his grandad a bed in this hospital corridor. shortly after this video was taken, he was dead. he fears his grandmother, who also has the virus, is dying too.

"if they'd been admitted earlier, of course, things would have been better", he tells me. wuhan is overwhelmed by illness, with hundreds more cases than available beds, and these patients hooked up to makeshift drips. one woman, who doesn't want to be identified, tells me that her uncle's death won't even be counted in the official statistics. "there are so many cases like his", she says. this is the death certificate. he never made it to hospital. all of this might have been prevented. in mid—january, knowing the virus was already spreading fast, the authorities allowed this massive community banquet to go ahead, putting the economy and political stability ahead of public health. with the epidemic raging, travel records show

five million people were able to leave wuhan before the city was finally locked down. with infections now taking hold across china, other cities have begun imposing restrictions. in nanyang, hangzhou, wenzhou, harbin only one person per household is allowed out to buy food once every two days. the increasing disruption is why some countries, including the uk, are advising people to leave. others are getting out anyway. yeah, quite a bit disappointed but i think it's ok because they're trying to keep us safe. the cost of all this is immeasurable. this was the middle of beijing in what should be the middle of a working week. the ruling communist party knows that as well as economic, there are political risks in all of this. that deep public anger that officials didn't do enough to tell people what they knew soon enough,

which is why we've seen the highly unusual step of the ruling politburo admitting this week that mistakes were made. the big question now, of course — can they fix this? with the propaganda in overdrive, the remotest corners are getting the public health message, but china faces a long journey yet. in turkey, three people have died after a passenger plane skidded off the runway at one of istanbul's airports, breaking into three pieces. the plane belonged to the turkish low—cost airline, pegasus, and had 177 people on board. rich preston reports. the landing that ended in tragedy. this is the moment a pegasus airlines boeing 737, arriving at speed and in wet weather lost control, skidded and overran the runway of istanbul's sabiha

gokcen airport. seen from the roadside, the impact of the crash visibly split the plane's fuselage into several sections. translation: unfortunately, the pegasus airlines plane could not hold onto the runway due to poor weather conditions and skidded for around 50—60 metres. it fell from about 30—a0 metres high. 0nboa rd were 183 passengers and crew who'd flown in from the country's western province of izmir. for rescue teams, the scale of the task before them as they comb to the wreckage for survivors becomes apparent from the ground. more than 150 people are reported injured, none of them in a critical condition, but turkey's health minister reports at least one person has died in hospital. there will now be an investigation into what happened, there will be many who highlight this could have been much, much worse.

stay with us on bbc news, still to come: he was spartacus, and many other heroes — the hollywood icon, kirk douglas, has died, at the age of 103. this is the moment that millions in iran had been waiting for. after his long years in exile, the first hesitant steps of 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. mission control: ..four, three, two, one... a countdown to a critical moment. the world's most powerful rocket ignited all 27 of its engines at once. and apart from its power, it's this recycling of the rocket, slashing the cost of a 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 their spaceship. one of them called it a piece of cake. thousands of people have given the yachtswoman ellen 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 bbc world news. the latest headlines: at the end of his impeachment trial, the us senate has acquitted president trump of charges of abuse of power and obstruction of congress. just one republican senator voted to convict. more than 560 people in mainland china have now died as a result of the new coronavirus. the number of people infected has reached 28,000. if you were watching earlier this week, we brought you a special bbc report on supporters of the extremist group is detained indefinitely, along with their children, in syria.

but what happens when families are allowed home? in indonesia, some have returned with catastrophic consequences. 0ur correspondent, quentin sommerville, and cameraman darren conway followed the route of one couple. the armies of the caliphate left much behind in syria. detention camps full of their wives, their children, entire families. dozens of countries are now asking the same question — can they welcome back orphans and daughters and mothers who belonged to the enemy of the world? from the camps and prisons of syria, we traced the journey of one family who answered the islamic state group's call — through the backstreets of turkey all the way home to asia. in this istanbul neighbourhood, the group tightened its grip on two indonesian followers. husband—and—wife suicide bombers rullie zeke and ulfah hid out here for months after

they failed to get into syria. but that setback didn't stop these two fanatics, they'd failed to achieve martyrdom in syria, so instead they would try closer to home. while other countries dither, here in indonesia, they are already running a deradicalisation programme. tiny minds were a big part of the islamic state's plans. but theirs was a childhood without song, without playtime. here at the rehabilitation centre, the children ofjihadists are given love and attention and allowed to have fun. they're learning to be kids again. some of the children here have just returned from turkey. their radicalised parents are being treated here, but we weren't allowed to meet them.

sri musfiah — a counsellor at the camp — met the couple. did you realise how dangerous they were? translation: i was surprised how we learned of the terrible thing they did. because when they left here they were nice, cooperative. they were better than the rest. and a year after they left the centre, we visited them and they were still good. i didn't expect that they would go back to this path. can you guarantee that, given there are hundreds of indonesians, trapped in syria, who support is, that if they come back they won't be a danger, they won't commit more atrocities, they won't commit acts of terror? no, we cannot guarantee. we went to uncover more of rullie and ulfah‘s story. sofyan tsauri is a former extremist who knew the couple and met them at the rehabilitation centre. he's against bringing more indonesian is supporters home.

translation: i disagree with bringing them back because it will create problems. they are not trustworthy people. in many cases, former terrorist get involved again with groups, even after they have been rehabilitated. the wild and ungoverned jungles of mindanao in the southern philippines were where rullie and ulfah headed next. here, they would become martyrs and mass murderers. hundreds of asian fighters across two oceans joined the islamic state group in the middle east. the worry now is that since the caliphate is lying in ruin, that that flow is reversed. just look at the territory here, there are miles upon miles of open sea, hundreds of islands, difficult to protect, and it's easy to move among them, easy to move

among countries. the trial of hashem abedi, the younger brother of the manchester arena bomber, has been told a friend refused to buy sulphuric acid for him after learning it could be used to make explosives. hashem abedi denies murder and assisting and encouraging his brother, salman abedi, to carry out the attack in may 2017 which killed 22 people and injured hundreds more. the hollywood legend kirk douglas has died at the age of 103. his son, the actor michael paid tribute to him saying: "to the world, he was a legend, but to me and my brothers he was simply ‘dad'." lizo mzimba looks back on his life. for the first time in my life, people cheering for me! he made his name as a washed—up boxer. champion earned him the first of three oscar nominations. he played a ruthless, selfish, fiercely—driven upstart, a bit like kirk douglas himself. i can beat him!

you know i can beat him! the ruthlessness and drive came from his childhood. he was born issur danielovitch demsky, the son of illiterate russian immigrants and brought up in extreme poverty. what other way could we have done it in the first place? the easy way. now why should we do that? he enjoys playing villains more than heroes — like a journalist at a mining disaster who wouldn't let anything get in the way of a good story. if you want a big human interest story, you've got to give it a big human interest ending. the critics applauded his roles in paths of glory and lust for life, in which he played vincent van gogh. but his lust for power earned him many enemies. he set up his own production company and hired and fired at whim, but he also defied the anti—communist witch—hunts in hollywood, crediting a blacklisted writer with the script for spartacus. i'm spartacus! spartacus was about a slave

who rebelled against the roman empire, just as douglas himself often defied hollywood. i didn't want to become a tycoon or anything. i wanted — it gave me a chance to do movies i wanted to do. like, i wanted to do spartacus, i wanted to do a movie about vikings, paths of glory, even though they have been quite successful, it wasn't easy to get the financing for them and all that but that's why i had my company. i had a call from jim lindsay the other day, dad. what's he calling you about? kirk's son michael douglas became as big a star as his father and both appeared on screen with michael's son, cameron. by that time kirk had had a stroke. kirk douglas had craved affection from his own father but never received it. in the end he became the founder of a hollywood dynasty and one of

hollywood's greatest stars. i asked our north america correspondent peter bowes how he would sum up kirk douglas. well, he was certainly the last of a generation. the golden age of hollywood. he was a man of many talents, many personalities. we've just heard about his extraordinary career. but i think he'll be remembered in this town of hollywood as much for what he did on the big screen as he did in real—life. he was quite a formidable figure. we've heard about some of his struggles. the time he wasn't particularly popular, certainly in the 1960s, with some. of course, very popular with others, as he worked to end the hollywood blacklist, the ban on using filmmakers with suspected communist sympathies. it was a very tough time in hollywood. i spoke to him in 2008 and he said that was one of the things he was very proud

of, proud of his achievements and the way he stuck his neck out at that stage in his life for something he believed in. and peter, there's some pretty uncomfortable things, i think particularly for the #metoo generation, emerging that we may or may not be true, we don't have enough information to deal with that, but there was a hinterland, a lot more to do with him than the acting, and the acting was pretty epic. yes. there is certainly a lot more to the man and you're absolutely right, it was a different time. now, perhaps leaving aside because we don't know the truth of the matter, some of the things that perhaps are being said about his personality and how he worked with others, especially actresses in hollywood. but at the end of the day, people are saying... and especially in his latter years, he was a great man for his generosity.

he and his wife worked tirelessly to raise money and also donating money, millions of dollars to good causes, and especially causes here in los angeles involving young children and troubled youths as well. he was very passionate about building school playgrounds, which he and his wife were involved in, he wanted to see a fit youth, fit teenagers, and that is something he believed in strongly and really dedicated the latter part of his life to that kind of work. so, just briefly, a lot of what he was involved in will live on? oh yes, it will certainly live on, and he is part of a dynasty. of course he has a large family, and we've already heard from michael douglas and i'm sure we will hear from many others over the next few days, and no doubt a tribute at the oscars on sunday. peter bowes for us there from la. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i'm @bbc

mike embley. national and international news on the bbc website. thank you for watching. hello there. our weather is expected to morph into something very wild this weekend. but in the meantime, we still have high pressure to bring us fine and settled weather. in fact, you could call the next few days the calm before the storm. here is our area of high pressure, slowly retreating back towards the continent as we head through thursday and friday, but it's still going to be strong enough to influence our weather. light winds across central and southern areas means we could start this morning with some mist and fog patches, some of which could be quite dense and could be stubborn to clear. some areas might hold onto it all day. but for most it should clear eventually. and we should see variable amounts of cloud but also some sunny spells, most of the cloud across western scotland

and into northern ireland. these temperatures generally peaking around 7—8 degrees, but colder than that where any fog lingers. as we head through thursday night it looks like it is going to stay dry again. more of a breeze picking up in the west, generally more of a breeze, so it looks like it shouldn't be quite so cold to start friday as what we've seen in the last few mornings. so we start friday off with a bit more breeze but also some sunshine and that means we're probably less likely to see some mist and fog. so, some good spells of sunshine through the day, but the wind picking up from the south, particularly across the western areas, where we'll see the first series of weather fronts bringing outbreaks of rain here. notice temperatures lifting to 10 degrees there. now, that first weather front spreads through on friday night, it will be quite a breezy night, even windy in the north—west. the rain eventually clears away from the east early on saturday morning and then we have got a window of fine weather. in fact, this sunny weather could be the best weather of the weekend for most of us. but it will be turning windier, particularly in the west, gales starting to develop later in the day with this next

weather front that moves in with some heavy rain and snow on the hills. temperatures reaching highs of 8—9 degrees. and it turns much windier on saturday night for all, but particularly across western areas, widespread gales here and outbreaks of heavy and persistent rain. now for sunday's named storm, we'll have to go back to the united states, where this low pressure's already developed. it has brought troublesome weather to the south and the east of the united states and will be picked up by a very strong jet stream across the north atlantic as it hurtles towards our shores. and it's likely to bring some damaging winds. look at all the isobars on the chart associated with storm ciara. a lot of the models are agreeing with this, which is why the met office have named this storm very early on. so some concerns about storm ciara, which will arrive saturday night through sunday to bring some damaging winds, likely to have some disruptions, so stay tuned to the weather forecast.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

the us senate has acquitted president trump at the end of his impeachment trial. senators voted along party lines with mitt romney being the only republican to vote in favour of convicting the president. democrats said the acquittal meant little because republicans had refused to allow witnesses at the trial. the number of people in mainland china known to have died as a result of coronavirus has risen to 563. 73 people died on wednesday, most of them in the province of hubei. the total number of cases across china has reached 28,000. the hollywood actor, kirk douglas, has died at the age of 103. star of spartacus, and many other hollywood epics, he earned several oscar nominations in the 1950s for both his acting and producing. his son, the actor michael douglas, described him as a movie legend and a great humanitarian.