hello, this is bbc news, i'm rich preston. our top stories: that's two, seven, zero... 22.5 years for derek chauvin, over the killing of george floyd. accountability at last, say mr floyd's supporters and family. no—one is above the law and no—one beneath it. a police officer is not above the law and george floyd is certainly not beneath it. 159 people are still unaccounted for, after the collapse of an apartment block, near miami beach. us vice president kamala harris visits the southern us borderfor the first time since taking office — as a wave of cross—border

migration continues. here in the uk, prime minister, borisjohnson accepts an apology from his health secretary, matt hancock, after pictures emerge of him kissing and embracing a colleague, in breach of covid guidance. and researchers find the skull of what could be our closest relative. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. ajudge in the us city of minneapolis, has sentenced the former police officer, derek chauvin, to 22.5 years in jail, for the murder of george floyd. the 46—year—old african—american died in may last year, after chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest. the lawyer for mr floyd's family says the sentence is "historic" and that it

brings "america a step closer to healing, by delivering accountability." our correspondent neda tafik is in minneapolis and a warning, her report contains some distressing images. this courtroom has been the scene of powerful testimony. today, it became a place of closure for the floyd family. the judge began proceedings by inviting them to speak. mr blackwell, you may proceed with input... his daughter gianna appeared first, on video. atjust seven years old, she is too young and innocent to comprehend fully what happened to her father. every day, i miss him and i love him. his brother, terrence, struggled to speak as he addressed derek chauvin directly. i wanted to know from the man himself, why? what were you thinking? what was going through your head? when you had your knee

on my brother's neck. when you knew that he posed no threat any more? those are questions that remain unanswered, since derek chauvin chose not to testify in his defence during his trial. for the first time, the public got a more intimate look into his characterfrom his mother. it has been difficult for me to hear and red what the media, public and prosecution team believe derek to be an aggressive, heartless and uncaring person. i can tell you that is far from the truth. and then derek chauvin himself spoke. i want to give my condolences to the floyd family. thejudge said his decision was not influenced by public opinion

or meant to send any messages. the sentence for count one, the court commits you to the custody of corrections for a period of 270 months. it is rare for the justice system to punish a police officer, and it took an extraordinary series of events to get to this moment. crucially, his murder was caught on camera in chilling detail. george floyd was pinned to the ground with it traumatised the community and shocked the world, prompting the biggest protests since the civil rights era. do you need a minute? the trial was so compelling that the jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict after just 10 hours of deliberations. this outcome was in

no way inevitable. still, this one sentence of this one of this one disgraced police officer will only do so much to advance racial inequality and the struggle of being black in america. this is the longest sentence a police officer has received in the state of minnesota, and speaking outside the court of the courthouse following the sentencing, the family say they do feel some measure of accountability. they say they hope this is a turning point in america because they feel that the activism surrounding this case could mean real change moving forward, and they told those gathered here outside of the courthouse to keep fighting forjustice. nada tawfik there. let's speak now to professor nicole gonzalez van cleve, associate professor of sociology at brown university and the author of the book, crook county: racism and injustice in america's largest court. professor, thank you very much forjoining us. 22.5 years, it could have been 30. will the

public be satisfied with this sentence?— public be satisfied with this sentence? ~ ~ , , sentence? well, i think this is a ste in sentence? well, i think this is a step in the _ sentence? well, i think this is a step in the right _ sentence? well, i think this is a step in the right direction. i a step in the right direction. this is one trial, a huge symbol of justice this is one trial, a huge symbol ofjustice in america but again, it's been the outlier in so many different ways. most police officers are never charged with crimes due to use of force. a machete of chicago for instance, it took 50 years to go —— convince —— and picked office of murder. thanks in the city. he got seven years and they think he will be out in three. in some ways this is a victory so there will be closure and peace for the family was certainly no substantive reform has been implemented since george floyd's. in fact during the duration of the trial, about three people per day died at the hands of police on the day after the verdict, about six people died on the 2a— hour period, so there was no kind of deterrence when we think about this kind of punishment. h0 this kind of punishment. no

official reform, as you say, but will this sentence set a precedent, do you think, but cases like this in the future? i've been studying these cases for a really long time, before they were on the kind of public consciousness of america and the world and i will say there is something different about this era. i think the video of seeing george floyd begging for his life and the bystanders videoing and begging the officer to stop, there was something about the visuals of that. i think that change the public consciousness. we saw that when they were selecting a jury, they were having a hard time, the defence was, finding these kind of pro— policing hardline blue lives matter folks, people had kind of changed in their attitudes. if you go back even a few years, there was the death of philando castile, he was shot in his car doing nothing. he was complying with the officer in the officer felt a sense of fear and he was

shot and he was found not guilty, the officer, and it was a jury so i think the public tide is turning a bit but the question is, will white americans feel like this verdict is enough? the answer is no and i hope that we still have the momentum of the public to create real political reform. to create real political reform-— to create real political reform. ., ., ., ., reform. you mentioned philando castile, mr _ reform. you mentioned philando castile, mr floyd's _ reform. you mentioned philando castile, mr floyd's murder - castile, mr floyd's murder along with the deaths of many other black men and women at the hands of police wanted the global lack lives matter movement we saw last year. do people feel like there is a change? i people feel like there is a change?— people feel like there is a chance? ~' ., change? i think right now, the activists that _ change? i think right now, the activists that are _ change? i think right now, the activists that are working - change? i think right now, the activists that are working who | activists that are working who are working for black lives and looking for equitable justice in the states, the feeling like this verdict is something, look and see there is no real reform put in place, i think there is this sense that we can do much more. even president biden, on the one hand, he is saying he wants policing reform that when you look at the details of some

of his recommendations, they are saying, well, we need more training for officers. well, thatis training for officers. well, that is code for let's put more money into policing and really, that has done nothing. police unions in america are so powerful and when legislation comes into the states that would reform or create oversight, just even basic protocols that would take an officer like derek chauvin off the street on his first offence, the unions are there thwarting such reform at every step. they are not detecting labour rights as we would think most unions do. they are protecting this kind of unruly level of policing that doesn't have any accountability. professor, thank you very much. emergency teams in miami are continuing to search for 159 people listed as missing after a 12— story apartment clock block lapsed on thursday. four

people are confirmed to have died. what cause the building to collapse remains unclear. 0ur correspondent will grant is at the scene and sent us this update. the longer this search and rescue goes on, the more harrowing it becomes. the families are doing their best to hold out hope of good news. but the difficulty is there are no positive updates to be had so far. they are gradually losing their faith. just a warning that might report does contain images of the moment of the buildings collapse itself. just a warning that might report does contain images of the moment of the buildings collapse itself. as the desperate search for survivors at the collapsed apartment block entered its second day, the full gravity of the situation was laid bare. the exact number of those lost in this tragic incident still isn't known, but it's clear this has the potential to be the most deadly building collapse in florida's history. the awful moment itself happened so fast, it took everything and, it is feared, everyone, with it — 12 storeys and entire lives reduced

to rubble in seconds. the methodical work of the rescue teams hasn't stopped since then. they say they're still hearing occasional knocks from inside the debris and are following every lead, at one stage trying to enter the spaces between the rubble via the basement. family members are gathered at a community centre as their unbearable wait for information goes on. magaly ramsey's mother lived on the ninth floor. it feels like the world gets to know more information before we get to know information as family members. i don't live in the area, so i came here hoping to get information and i'm still waiting for that. her mother, also called magaly, is one of the oldest of those missing. the youngest was ashani patel, the one—year—old daughter ofjoint british—american citizen bhavna patel, who was pregnant, and her husband, vishal — an entire family missing. but the city will keep up the search, the mayor promised.

we will continue search and rescue because we still have hope that we will find people alive. that is exactly why we're continuing, and that is why we're using our dogs and our sonar and our cameras, everything possible, to seek places where there still may be people. as the rescue effort continues, hopes are beginning to fade. for the family members, this initial period has been one of shock and a desperate wait for information. now, though, many are beginning to face up to the possibility that they may not see their missing loved ones again. magaly is clinging on to hope of updates about her missing mother. but she's also under no illusions about what she's facing. the choices you hold onto or either that there's a miracle with god's grace, and he does have lots of miracles in store for us, or god's grace was one that she didn't feel a thing and she's in his hands and his arms right now, in a good place. will grant, bbc news, miami.

stay with us on bbc news, still to come: is this the remains of our closest evolutionary relative? researchers discover the skull of what they believe to be a new species of human. members of the neo—nazi resistance movement stormed the world trade centre, armed with pistols and shotguns. we believe that, according to international law, that we have a rightful claim to certain parts of this country as our land. i take pride in the words "ich bin ein berliner". cheering and applause as the uk woke up to the news that it is to exit the european union, leave campaigners began celebrating. in total, 17.4 million people voted for the uk

to leave the eu. the medical research council have now advised the government that the great increase in lung cancer is due mainly to smoking tobacco. it was closing time for checkpoint charlie which, for 29 years, has stood on the border as a mark of allied determination to defend the city. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: ajudge in minneapolis has sentenced the former us police officer derek chauvin to 22.5 years in prison for the murder of george floyd. officials in florida say the apartment block that collapsed near miami on thursday, leaving more than 150 people, missing was due to undergo extensive repairs this year. the us vice—president kamala harris has visited

a migrant processing centre on the united states border with mexico. it's her first time there since becoming vice—president and taking a lead role in immigration issues. she rejected republicans' claims she has been slow to visit the region, days before a scheduled border visit by former president donald trump. mark lobel reports. stepping off air force too, in el paso, texas. it's passenger the vice president, barely setting foot on the tarmac before defending her long—awaited journey here. i said back in march i would come to the border, so this is not a new plan. the reality is we have to deal with causes and we have to deal with causes and we have to deal with causes and we have to deal with the fracture. it is a sensitive issue, as the number of undocumented migrants reaching the border here is at highest level in more than 20 years. including five young girls here from central america, without their parents, who the vice president said she

spoke to, later alluding to their suffering. the bbc has been told by some staff and children themselves of terrible treatment, and what are known as emergency camps in the texan desert. where disease is rampant, food dangerous, with reports of sexual abuse. those running the camps insist required standards of care are in place, for children. kamala harris told us customs and border staff her plan to stop people coming in the first place. people coming in the first lace. , , ., ._ people coming in the first lace. , , ., ~ place. help is on the way. and so those _ place. help is on the way. and so those principles _ place. help is on the way. and so those principles are - place. help is on the way. and so those principles are a - place. help is on the way. and so those principles are a large | so those principles are a large part of what is informing the work that we have been doing addressing the root causes. but leaders of _ addressing the root causes. but leaders of guatemala and mexico bleijie the biden administration's policies for causing the record surge in undocumented migration. it is a different story from the vice

president. different story from the vice president-— different story from the vice president. different story from the vice resident. ., �* ., ., president. people don't want to leave home _ president. people don't want to leave home if _ president. people don't want to leave home if they _ president. people don't want to leave home if they don't - president. people don't want to leave home if they don't have l leave home if they don't have too. �* , , , ., too. but it is the suggestion that kamala _ too. but it is the suggestion that kamala harris - too. but it is the suggestion | that kamala harris journeyed here because she had to, after former president donald trump announced he would be visiting soon, dominated her trip to this migrant processing centre. which also represents one of this us administration's trickiest issues. let's get some of the day's other news: president biden has reassured his afghan counterpart ashraf ghani of america's continuing support for afghanistan. after a meeting at the white house, mr biden said american troops may be withdrawing, but military, financial and political support for afghanistan would be sustained. police in germany say three people have been killed by a man with a knife who attacked passers—by in the central city of wuerzburg. other people were injured, some seriously. police say they shot and wounded a suspect as they arrested him. a senior official said the man had recently spent time

in a psychiatric institution. iran has rejected demands from the united nations�* nuclear watchdog for an immediate response to its request to extend a deal that has just expired on monitoring iranian nuclear sites. the iaea chief, rafael grossi, said it was vitally important that inspectors continue to be able to collect data. and police in the indian city of mumbai have arrested ten people in collection to a coronavirus vaccine fraud. which apparently led to people being duped into paying for fake injections. the group's accused of running eight private vaccination camps. police suspect they injected people with a saline solution. downing street says the british prime minister has accepted his health secretary matt hancock's apology for breaching social distancing guidelines, after the sun newspaper published images of him

and an aide, gina coladangelo, kissing and embracing in the department of health. in a statement mr hancock said he'd "let people down" and is "very sorry". borisjohnson now considers the matter closed, but labour is calling on mr hancock to resign. with the latest, here's our deputy political editor vicki young. he's been telling all of us to stick to covid rules. keep doing your bit, remember the basics — hands, face, space and fresh air. but matt hancock and his adviser gina coladangelo didn't take that advice. this picture of the two of them, who are both married, was taken inside the department of health in early may. government social distancing guidance says in the workplace, people should keep two metres apart. in the statement, the health secretary said:

mr hancock and ms coladangelo have been close friends since university. during the pandemic, she's accompanied the health secretary to meetings in downing street and interviews. speaking to radio 4 last year, she talked about first meeting him. we met at the student radio station, 0xygen fm. i red the news and matt read the sport. i've always joked with him that he did the sport because he wasn't good enough to do the news! laughs but i think it gave him a bit of an early heads—up into aggressive questioning from journalists and hacks. in september, she became a non—executive director on the board of the department of health, with a salary of £15,000. downing street say the appointment followed correct procedure. but labour's calling for an official investigation into whether the ministerial code of conduct has been broken. matt hancock either needs to resign or, if he's not willing to do that, then the prime minister must remove him from his post.

this isn'tjust a question of, yet again, a conservative mp disobeying those rules and thinking that they only apply to the rest of us — it's a case where we've seen cronyism on cronyism. this comes after other high—profile breaches of the rules. dominic cummings, who used to be borisjohnson's top adviser, caused outrage when he travelled hundreds of miles during lockdown. and professor neil ferguson, one of the most prominent scientists advising the government, resigned after his married lover visited his home. this was mr hancock's reaction at the time. i don't understand. you're speechless? i am _ that doesn't often happen to me. i think that he took the right decision... to resign. yeah, you wouldn't have fought to keep him? it's just not... that's just not possible in these circumstances. now after his indiscretion, there has been support from ministers and downing street. i think the secretary of state

has said everything he needs to say on this. he's apologised, and the prime minister is backing his secretary of state and considers the matter closed. and so far the prime minister is showing no sign of sacking him. us intelligence agencies have released a long—awaited report on what they know, and do not know, about unidentified flying objects. take a look at these pictures. the report considered over 140 reported sightings seen passing through restricted military airspace, spread across several decades. investigators said there was no evidence that the ufos involved extraterrestrial life, but their report acknowledged that many of the unexplained events involved physical objects whose presence was confirmed by data from multiple sensors. chinese researchers have discovered the skull of what they believe to be a new species of human that they claim is our closest evolutionary relative. this report by our science correspondent, pallab ghosh.

meet the dragon man. a perfectly preserved skull of what is thought to be a species of human that lived in asia around 146,000 years ago. a 3d scan shows a huge head with a brain that was about the same size as ours. but otherfeatures, such as a prominent brow ridge around the eye sockets, suggests something more primitive. i said "oh, my gosh, i can't believe that." and it is so well preserved you can see all the details. this is what researchers think he looks like. stocky and powerfully built, able to withstand the freezing temperatures of what is now north—eastern china. so, where does dragon man fit into the new human family tree? well, seven million years ago, the first humanlike creatures emerged. they became progressively more developed, until two million years ago, our ancient ancestor homo erectus emerged. that led to our close cousins,

the neanderthals and us, and we coexisted a few hundred thousand years ago. dragon man, it's claimed, is a new species that lived alongside us. not only that, it's more closely related to us. one of britain's leading experts in the field is part of the research team. after examining this replica made from resin, he believes that the dragon man is a hugely important discovery. i've been studying human evolution for the last 50 years or so and this, for me, is one of the most significant fossils that i have seen and studied in all of that time. and it really gives us a new view of human evolution, because it looks like, on our analyses, this is a sister species to homo sapiens, our own species. some experts believe that the dragon man might belong to a mysterious branch of humans called the denisovans. all we know about them is from a handful of human fossils.

the denisovans is this fascinating mystery population from the past. because we have had indications that they existed and then they found more in a jaw from tibet suggesting that thatjaw may have been denisovan. now because this jaw from tibet and dragon man look like each other, now we may actually have the first face of the denisovans. these early skulls found in china have baffled scientists until now. the discovery of dragon man suggests they might represent the gradual evolution of the latest member of the human family, called the denisovans. before we go: and before we go, the toy company lego is going green, making those plastic bricks out of recycled bottles. it's taken more than 5 years of work by 140 engineers

and scientists to find a sustainable source that's durable enough to withstand hours of play. in 2018 lego set a goal they would be carbon neutral by 2030. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @richpreston. hello there. friday evening brought some quite dramatic weather for some of us, especially across parts of england. through the western side of the midlands, there was some heavy, thundery rain. that was how it looked for a weather watcher in south staffordshire. and then to the north—east of london, and up into essex, some really vicious thunderstorms, with reports of localised flash flooding and even reports of a tornado in east london, or at the very least some squally gusty winds in amongst the showers, which did cause some damage. and the weather system responsible will still be quite close by as we head through this weekend. it will become slow moving across northern france, but from time to time, it will throw showers or longer spells of rain back in our direction. and we will see some showers during saturday,

across england and wales particularly. through east anglia, into the midlands and wales, we could see some particularly heavy, thundery ones during the afternoon. more cloud for north—east england, south—east scotland. some patchy rain here. brighter skies for northern scotland and for northern ireland, and top temperatures between 14 and 22 degrees. so, some of those heavy showers in the south will continue during saturday evening and some more persistent rain is likely to start to slide across the channel islands, and that will come into play across southern counties of england as we get into the first part of sunday. elsewhere, we start sunday on a mainly dry note. those are your temperatures for sunday morning, nine to 14 degrees. so this weather system that will become very slow moving through the weekend is likely to throw a band of rain back northwards as we go through the day on sunday. there is uncertainty aboutjust how far north the rain will get, but it's likely to affect southern counties of england.

it may spread into south wales and parts of the midlands as well. further north, it should be largely dry, with patchy cloud and some spells of sunshine. i think thicker cloud across the far north—west of scotland and temperatures between 18 and 22 degrees in most places. so, to sum up for the weekend, we will see some spells of sunshine, but there will be a few showers around on saturday. some of those could be quite heavy. and potentialfor some more persistent rain in southern parts as we head through sunday. and southern areas could see further rain during the week ahead. some of that rain could be quite heavy. further north, it looks drier. some of the highest temperatures likely to be across scotland, up to 24 degrees.

the 46—year—old african—american george floyd died last year after derek chauvin lent on —— knelt on his neck. 0fficials chauvin lent on —— knelt on his neck. officials in florida said the apartment block that collapsed near miami on thursday, leaving more than 150 people missing, was due to undergo extensive repairs this year. four people are confirmed dead and a major operation is continuing to search for survivors and more bodies. and here in the uk, borisjohnson has accepted an apology from his health secretary after pictures emerged of him kissing and embracing a colleague, in breach of covert guidance. matt hancock says he has let people down and is very sorry after the images show him.

now it's time for a look back at the week in parliament.