welcome to bbc news, our top stories: donald trump's defence team concludes its case in his impeachment trial, denying mr trump incited an insurrection and accusing the democrats of waging a campaign of retribution. russia cracks down after weeks of protests, alexei navalny appearing in court again to face allegations that he defamed a second world war vetera n. a dramatic rescue in syria after a four year old girl apparently falls down a dry well. protests in myanmar as the un passes a resolution deploring the military coup and calling for the immediate release of aung san suu kyi. justin timberlake apologises to britney spears after a new documentary focuses

on how he treated her after their relationship. hello, welcome to the programme. we start in washington and the impeachment trial of donald trump. his lawyers accused the democratic party of waging a "campaign of retribution" against the former president. they finished their defence case in a matter of hours, denying that mr trump provoked the deadly assault on the capital last month. they also say his speech that day was protected under the us constitution. jon sopel reports. chanting: fight for trump! fight for trump! _ much of this impeachment trial has turned on one section

of donald trump's speech before an angry crowd onjanuary 6. we fight like hell. and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country any more. begin the presentation of the case for the former president. the trump defence team, though, aren't in the least bit defensive. good afternoon, senators. this is ordinary political knock—about, they say, and produced their own campaign—style video to highlight how democrats use the exact same language. does one of us have to come out alive? fight that fight! we have been fighting... i was fighting very hard... time is of the essence, both in terms of the fight... i think we should be fighting. fighting for a policy, though, isn't quite the same as urging your supporters to go and march on the capitol, with the consequences that followed. and over the course of this week, we've seen new and disturbing video. the then—vice president mike pence being rushed to safety by his secret service detail as congress is being overrun. the republican senator mitt romney, his life potentially saved by a policeman telling him to go the other way. and the trump—supporting mob menacingly searching for the speaker, nancy pelosi. man yells: where are you, nancy? i

we're looking for you! sing-song tone: nancy! 0h. nancy! _ the central claim of the trump defence team is that it's preposterous to suggest he incited the insurrection. more importantly, they're seeking to argue it's unconstitutional to impeach someone who's already left office, and his lawyers are making what sound like highly political speeches. this unprecedented effort is not about democrats opposing political violence. it is about democrats trying to disqualify their political opposition. it is constitutional cancel culture. donald trump has spent much of this week playing golf in florida, but republican support is fracturing. today, nikki haley, his former un ambassador, said:

the chances are overwhelmingly that donald trump will be acquitted, but it's now not just the united states that's divided, it's the republican party too. meanwhile, at the white house, the new president and first lady are getting ready for valentine's day. healing, unity, compassion. noble sentiments, but it doesn't feel there's a whole lot of love in the air. it only took donald trump is my lawyerjust it only took donald trump is my lawyer just over three it only took donald trump is my lawyerjust over three hours to present their argument. fiur present their argument. our senior north _ present theirargument. our senior north america reporter saysin senior north america reporter says in this case unless it could be more. they not only continue their assertions that the entire trail was unconstitutional, that trump's due process was violated, but also that donald trump's speech did not incite a riot on capitol hill because there was already plans to have a riot on capitol hill — people were moving towards the capitol,

there were already plans for violence — and so you cannot incite something that was going to happen anyway. they also pointed towards donald trump's speech, saying that it should be protected under the first amendment of the constitution's guarantees of free speech, the same way that democrats' speech — which they said had been incendiary at times — should also be protected. so it's a multi—range sort of defence, trying to knock down the arguments that the democrats have made over the past two days. and they didn't spend a great deal of time on the defence — why was that? well, it was interesting — you're right, only 3.5 hours compared to the 13 hours that the democrats spent and their reasoning was they did not have a lot they needed to defend. i think it is a reflection of the fact that they view that they have sufficient votes among the republicans in the senate to win donald trump's acquittal and the more they talked, the longer this would drag out and so something could change conceivably, so better when you are ahead to quit — although it was interesting during a question and answer time, four hours of it — actually, it was about 2.5 hours of it — after the defence rested their case, you could

see some republican senators, ones who had doubts before, once again raised the doubts in the tenor of their question. there was one question from mitt romney of utah and lisa murkowski of alaska, asking when donald trump knew that vice president mike pence was in danger and was it before trump tweeted out criticising mike pence? and the defence was not able to give a very good answer on that, so i think there are some concerns among a few republicans at least and certainly among the democrats that donald trump, while the riot was going on, did not respond to it quickly and he had a disregard for the safety not only of the members of congress but for his own vice president. that's interesting. and going into this trial, the received wisdom was that there would not be enough votes to impeach president trump on this. has anything in this trial so far shifted that? not that we have seen. i've been reviewing some of the things that republican senators have said to the media after the trial went into recess for the day, and the folks that you would expect to be against impeaching and convicting donald trump

were still against it. if you remember there was that vote on tuesday night about whether there should be a trial at all and 56 senators said there should be, 44 republicans only said there shouldn't be. all you need is fewer than that — you would need a total of 33 republicans to say donald trump is innocent — actually, 3a republicans to say donald trump is innocent, and that would be sufficient to find him not guilty, so you'd have to see a movement of 11 republicans — and there are no indications that there is an additional 11 republicans in addition to those six who already voted to continue the trial to convict donald trump, which i think makes his defence team feel pretty confident they are going to get a positive result tomorrow. 0k, well, let'sjust spell out what exactly we are expecting to happen tomorrow. you think we are very likely to get the actual vote. what else? that's certainly the way it's looking right now. all we have left is a possible debate over witnesses.

now, we don't even know if either side wants to introduce witnesses. there have been some interesting reports about phone calls donald trump made to the house minority leader kevin mccarthy and to tommy tuberville, the senator from alabama. maybe they could be called for witnesses but even if the house impeachment managers wanted to call witnesses, that would require a vote in the senate after debate. if the vote gets down or the house decides not to call witnesses, then all we would have is short closing arguments, then possible deliberations by the senate and after that, a final vote, so we are talking a matter of hours. the senate is set to reconvene tomorrow morning at 10am, so we could have a vote by early afternoon. in russia, the opposition leader alexei navalny has been in court to face allegations he defamed a second world war

veteran. he denies that. he has already been sentenced to more than 2.5 years in prison in a separate case that is widely seen as politically motivated. our moscow correspondent steve rosenberg reports from vladivostok. what do you find at the end of russia, where the pacific turns to ice? at first, russia here feels frozen in time, no hint of spring. but in vladivostok, there are signs that something is changing. last month, thousands here risked arrest to protest in support ofjailed opposition leader alexei navalny. there were rallies across russia. but there is no political thaw. the kremlin calls the protests illegal, and it's cracking down. blogger gennady shulga had live—streamed one

of the protests. a few days ago, police raided his flat and pinned him to the floor. the police video shows gennady�*s head over the dog bowl. translation: this show of force was meant to scare me _ and my wife. now the authorities are using that video to scare others, by showing what happens to people who tell the truth. scientist anton rasin, who is working on new cancer treatments, took part in the vladivostok protests. he, too, has been targeted by the police. they broke into my apartment, put me laying on the floor, like some criminal, and it was real humiliating and infuriating. this isn'tjust happening

here in the russian far east. in recent days, there have been reports of police raids and searches across the country — a sign ofjust how determined the authorities are to crush the protest movement. in moscow, alexei navalny was back in the dock, accused of defaming a world war ii veteran. this month, he'd already been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in a fraud case widely seen as politically motivated. the police raids on protesters are an attempt to cut mr navalny�*s support base by spreading fear. it will send chilling waves across everybody else who is in their early 20s, idealistic, wants to work for team navalny. a lot of people will be scared. a lot of parents will insert a lot of pressure on their kids to notjoin the movement. there's something else the kremlin is doing to try to undermine public support for protests.

it's telling russians, through the state media, that mr navalny is an agent of the west, and some people are believing it. "he is carrying out the west's instructions", galina says. "we all know it's the west pulling navalny�*s strings", yulia tells me. "and as for navalny being poisoned, he probably poisoned himself." where is this taking russia? with "blame the west" the official narrative, there's little chance of a thaw in relations with america and europe. russia is facing the prospect of growing isolation. to myanmar now, with

the united nations human rights council passing a resolution deploring the military coup in the country and calling for the immediate release of aung san suu kyi and others who have been arbitrarily detained. hundreds of thousands of people are protesting in cities around myanmar for a seventh day, also calling for her release. more than 300 people are reported to have been detained in the days since the coup, according to one monitoring group. john sefton, the asia advocacy director at human rights watch says more needs to be done on an international level. it is time for the international community to really step up. i mean, there have been special sessions of the un human rights council, meetings at the un security council, joseph biden in the us has placed sanctions on the myanmar military, but it is not enough. what the myanmar military needs to see right now is coordinated international responses from the european union, united kingdom, the us, japan, south korea and others, all saying that there are going to be tough economic sanctions placed on the

military leadership if they don't release political prisoners and restore civilian rule. 0k, how confident are you that those economic sanctions on those individuals in the military will make a difference? we are confident they will make a difference if they are done in a coordinated way. the united states has gone ahead and made their designations, and they have more to come. the european union leadership meets on 22 february and we hope they will also impose sanctions. but ultimately, what needs to happen is that concerned governments need to tell the corporations and banks that do business with the military leadership that they have to cut those ties and seize funds that go to the myanmar military, because it's only financial persuasion, not moral persuasion, that will work. 0k — i just wonder what your thoughts are on the immediate future, as in the days ahead. how much longer do you think the military there put up

——will put up with these protests on the street? how does this end? well, the hope is that the military will realise that they have miscalculated — that they have miscalculated the people of myanmar and they've miscalculated the international response — and they will backtrack. but the only way that will happen is if the international community stands by the people of myanmar, who are protesting for the eighth straight day today, the hundreds of thousands of people. if they stand by them and show that they are serious about imposing coordinated and tough economic sanctions on the military — not the government, not the country, but the military leaders... inaudible - then you will see perhaps backtracking and potentially a restoration of democratic rule. just lastly and just briefly, we have seen the protesters on the streets — of course, huge courage and bravery from them. how much a risk, how

much danger are they in? there is a lot of risk for them because as viewers may know and back in 1988, the military escalated and conducted a brutal crackdown and killed thousands of protesters in the streets of rangoon and elsewhere. 2007 also. but we are also concerned about night—time arrests of government and dissidents, and the hundreds of people who are already in detention who are at risk of mistreatment, so there is some very serious concerns and part of the strong international response is that it will perhaps prevent the military from committing further abuses or mistreating the people they have already arrested. we must leave it there, john sifton, thank you. this is bbc news. the headlines: donald trump's defence team has concluded its case in his impeachment trial, calling the claim that he incited an insurrection a monstrous lie. russian opposition leader alexei navalny has been in court again to face allegations he defamed a second world war veteran — something he denies.

the white helmets, a civil defence force that works in rebel—held areas of syria, are normally used to rescuing people from bombed out buildings, but the search and rescuers had an altogether different type of mission this week after a ii—year—old girl in aleppo apparently fell down a dry well. mark lobel has the story. searching for the ii—year—old sumaya. hours after rescuers say she fell down this well while playing with her cousin. "i've got you! i've got you," white helmet member assaf says. and then the dash to daylight. now checking her hand is ok, saying not to be scared, but sumaya's mind is on searching for her doll.

then assaf calls out for rope as sumaya calls out for her mother. preparing for the final hoist to freedom. then it's all systems go. the white helmets now happy to report brave sumaya is feeling fine and uninjured, with quite a story to tell. mark lobel, bbc news. british human rights lawyer karim khan has been appointed to the international common court. 0n to the international common court. on a second round of voting at the united nations in

new york, the support from 72 nations. doctors in france a doctors in france are treating a critically patient infected with the south african variant of covid four months after he recovered from covid i9. recovered from covid 19. authors in the study says the first of his kind. the 58—year—old man was first admitted in hospital in paris after he initially tested positive with covid i9 after he initially tested positive with covid 19 in september. the former head of the european central bank mario draghi has agreed to form a new government in italy. it will be made up of a mix of cobbler politicians and technocrats covering a broad sway of the political spectrum. justin timberlake has apologised to britney spears after a new documentary led to criticism of how he treated her during and after their relationship. he also apologised to janet jackson after failing to support her over their controversial super bowl performance back in 200a.

in a statement on instagram, he said: well, earlier i spoke to the celebrity blogger and media personality perez hilton and asked his response to the apology statement from justin timberlake. my first response was he did not write this. because it was note for note, in my opinion, perfect. he expressed genuine remorse, he expressed accountability, he acknowledged bigger issues at play like misogyny and racism and he vowed to be better and be part

of the solution going forward, which is wonderful, because he could have gotten away with saying nothing, like he has in the past. but he chose to speak up and i was happy to hear that. even if a team of crisis pr experts wrote that for him he still signed off on it and maybe he did write it. that's interesting. just remind our viewers who perhaps weren't, perhaps, following britney spears and justin timberlake and the saga all those years ago, what exactly is justin timberlake apologising for? well, the new documentary that came out recently, framing britney, painted justin timberlake and many others in a not so favourable light. if you remember, in the early 2000s he released a song and music video called cry me a river which depicted the demise of their relationship and it was alleged that britney spears cheated on him. and after that he spoke in ways about her in media interviews that many perceived to be shaming and in less than gentlemanly ways. he also never really came to her defence — ever. so he sees that as a missed opportunity. along the same lines as janet jackson.

if we look back on the super bowl where they performed together, janet and jt, she got the brunt of all of the backlash. after the super bowl, both justin and janet were supposed to perform at the grammy awards, but after the incident they were both cancelled from performing. however, justin went and cried to the head of cbs, according to reports, and he got his spot back on the show, but janet was still not allowed to perform. thatjust goes to show you exactly whatjustin timberlake says in his statement earlier today — that the system is set however, justin went and cried to the head of cbs, according to reports, and he got his spot back on the show, but janet was still not allowed to perform. thatjust goes to show you exactly whatjustin timberlake says in his statement earlier today — that the system is set up so that white men succeed and that women, and especially people

of colour, don't get afforded the same privileges or passes as, you know, their white male counterparts do. perez hilton, can i ask about your role in all of this, because this was a time when britney spears, of course, was huge news and you as a celebrity journalist at the time were accused of going too far and essentially bullying behaviour in your coverage of her. were you part of the problem? and i have apologised to britney, publicly throughout the years, as well as privately, and also recently. and thankfully she has been very gracious and accepted my apology and has worked with me several times since then. in 2009 she asked me to be a part of her circus tour. i was in the opening video montage. and then several years later, think it was 2015, i was invited to her vegas concert and she brought me up

on stage and chatted with me afterwards and was just so kind. and i think the big take away from all of this is that the world is concerned for her and the world really wants britney to be happy. well, you've owned your mistakes back then, but of course there were lots and lots of readers and the public, reading what you wrote, are they complicit too? i don't think they were complicit, no. because it was a different time. we are viewing things through a different filter now. and while i hope and i do think the media has gotten somewhat better, i'm not sure if the majority of people have evolved as much as they claimed to. look at kanye west. look at how many — to most people — talk about kanye west on social media when he is having his very public incidents, his episodes, whatever you might call it.

the lead actors of the iconic 19705 movie love story, ali mcgraw and ryan 0'neill, have been honoured with their own stars in the hollywood walk of fame. the pair were invited to a virtual ceremony held by the hollywood chamber of commerce and shown a video of their stars being made. love story remains one of the highest grossing films of all time. and before i go, dramatic discovery has linked stonehenge to its original site in wales. archaeologists from university couege archaeologists from university college london uncovered the remains of an ancient stone circle in wales and supports the theory that the monument was dismantled there and then dragged over 140 miles.

that's it from me. you can get me on twitter @lvaugthones. i am lewis vaughn me on twitter @lvaugthones. i am lewis vaugthones and this is bbc news. hello there. for most of us, this weekend is going to feel bitterly cold. that's because we'll have very strong winds. it's going to be windy, pretty much both saturday and sunday. but by the end of the weekend, we'll start to see some milder air making inroads, particularly across more western parts. but we start this morning off on a settled and bright note across eastern areas. windy and very cold, mind you. further west, for northern ireland, some disruptive snow to move in through the morning period. accumulations up to 5—10 cm and that snow will be blowing around and the strong winds drifting in places. the snow will then slowly move eastwards, affecting western parts of scotland, into wales and the south—west of england, but it won't reach central or eastern areas so, here, it'll stay dry, but cloud cover will move in again in the afternoon,

so it will turn a bit grey. a very windy, gusty day for all areas. factor in those strong winds with these sorts of temperatures, then it's going to feel bitterly cold wherever you are. these are the feel—like temperatures. it could feel even like —10 celsius across some spots so, a very cold day to come. as we move through saturday night, it stays windy and cold. there will be further rain, sleet and snow across northern and western areas. as we head into sunday, we've got a fresh tangle of weather fronts, bringing more rain, and it will be

of rain because here, the milder air will start to make inroads. gradually, it will reach eastern areas, but it will take its time. sunday, a bit of an east—west divide with temperatures very cold across the east, and any rain moving across northern and eastern areas falling on frozen services is likely to cause a significant risk of ice. beware of that. through sunday, it looks like it'll be rather cloudy for most areas, outbreaks of rain pushing into northern and western areas. double figures for all areas. it won't be completely settled. there will be some rain at times for some of us and nights will be much milder.

this is bbc news. the headlines: lawyers acting for donald trump in his us senate impeachment trial have concluded their defence. they say the accusation that former president incited an insurrection was a "monstrous lie". they say prosecutors have failed to directly connect the actions of the rioters to mr trump. russian opposition leader alexei navalny has been in court again to face allegations he defamed a second world war veteran, something he denies. in recent days police have been targeting opposition activists across russia and critics of the kremlin are being put under pressure. coup in myanmar. the un human rights council has called for the immediate release of aung san suu kyi and others who have been arbitrarily detained. more than 326 people have reportedly been detained since the coup.