this is bbc news — i'm shaun ley with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a former minnesota police officer is found guilty of manslaughter — for killing daunte wright during a traffic stop. the moment that we heard guilty on manslaughter one, emotions, every single emotion that you could imaginejust running could imagine just running through could imaginejust running through your body at that moment. an official uk government study shows people who get infected with the omicron strain of covid are far less likely to end up in hospital. in russia, president putin insists on immediate guarantees that nato will not expand further to the east. you must give us guarantees, you must— you must give us guarantees, you must elect, immediately, now — you must elect, immediately, now we _ you must elect, immediately, now. we want to be palmed off

with decades of idle chatter about— with decades of idle chatter about the need of security for all while _ about the need of security for all while the other side carries_ all while the other side carries out its own plans. hello and welcome to bbc news. good to have your company. a former police officer in minnesota has been found guilty of manslaughter, following the killing of a black motorist, daunte wright. kimberley potter says she mistook her handgun for a tazer during a routine traffic stop. the prosecution argued she'd shown culpable negligence during the incident, which led to several nights of intense protests. the jury was shown bodycam footage of the traffic stopping short of the moment when daunte wright died. taser, taser!

kimberly potter says she thought she was drawing her taser, rather than her handgun, when she shot daunte wright in the chest. the incident occurred at a very sensitive time in the us — not far from the court where white police officer derek chauvin was standing trialfor the murder of a black man george floyd. let's have a listen to kimberly potter's tearful evidence in court. i remember yelling "taser, taser, taser!" and nothing happened. and then... he told me i shot him. this is the moment the judge read out the verdict. we the jury on the charge of manslaughter in the first degree, while committing a misdemeanor on or about april 11, 2021 in the state of minnesota find the defendant guilty. the mother of daunte wright,

katie wright, gave this reaction to the verdict outside the court. the moment we heard "guilty" on the manslaughter one, emotions, every single emotion that you can imaginejust running through your body at that moment. i kind of let out a yelp because it was built up in the anticipation of what was to come while we were waiting for the last few days. and now we have been able to process its. we want to thank the entire prosecuting team, we want to thank the community support, everybody who has been out there and supported us in this long fight for accountability. there is concern it may be a hung jurywhen there another study, this time from the british government, offers hope that the omicron variant of the coronavirus is less likely to cause severe disease than delta — the previously dominant variant. earlier studies from the uk

and south africa also suggested that omicron is causing more mild disease, although the sheer number of cases could still overwhelm health systems. our medical editor, fergus walsh reports. 30-40, 30—40, these are the age group of people fighting for their lives against covid. a powerful illustration of the dangers facing the unvaccinated and the pressure on nhs staff, filmed in the intensive care unit of royal liverpool hospital, where four out of five covid patients are notjabbed. the intensive care society said at least two thirds of covid patients were unvaccinated in 12 out of 16 critical care units it contacted in england. it's not for us to judge people

who haven't been vaccinated, it's for us to look after them as well as we can, but it's very sad when people come into hospital who haven't been vaccinated. they're very unwell and they ask to have the vaccine then, which of course they can't, because you have to get better from covid before you can be vaccinated. evidence that omicron causes milder disease has been reinforced by preliminary analysis from the uk health security agency. it suggests that someone infected with omicron is 30 to 45% less likely to attend a&e, compared to a delta patient, and between 50 and 70% less likely to be admitted to hospital. but the extra protection that the boosterjab gives against the infection does wane more rapidly against omicron than delta, being about 15 to 25% lower ten weeks after the booster jab. it shows that people with omicron have a reduced ——than delta, being about 15 to 25% lower ten weeks after the booster jab.

it shows that people with omicron have a reduced risk of hospitalisation compared to delta. now, it's very early days, only a small number of individuals, about 100 were admitted to hospital with omicron in this period, but nonetheless, it is the first signs of cautious optimism we can have for a while. as daily cases hit another new record, uk researchers estimate that half of people with cold—like symptoms actually have coronavirus. the number of nhs staff off work because of covid has risen by more than 50% in the past week in england to nearly 19,000. in london, the epicentre of the omicron outbreak, it's more than doubled to nearly 4,000. covid infections are surging across europe — with both the uk and france reporting new, single—day records on thursday. italy and spain are the latest countries to introduce

increased restrictions in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus. our europe correspondent nick beake has this report. the festive message to spaniards this year — wear a mask, even outside. across europe, governments are issuing health warnings rather than glad tidings. at a time when families come together, the advice is to keep your distance. belgium is now inviting children as young as five to get vaccinated. covid cases here have been falling for the past ten days, but cinemas and theatres are set to close, although pubs will stay open. it's really a political choice that is not really supported by scientific. i feel like there are rules, but no—one really cares. it helps me to study that - all the nightclubs are closed! exhausted doctors and nurses are pleading with the public to follow the rules. the measures have their effect, and they permit us professionals to continue in our hospitals to take care of all kinds of patients and not only patients having covid. so, really, i know the measures are weighing on all of us,

but they are so important to be able to keep our health system standing up. medical staff here and across europe are unanimous that getting more people boosted is vital in the fight against the new variant, but what we don't yet know is how the early studies coming from the uk suggesting omicron is milder will affect the decision—making of individual european countries in the coming days and weeks. covid rates across the continent have been spiralling. denmark has the highest, followed by the uk. but france, spain and italy have all seen a surge, as well as germany. and there's been anger in munich at tighter controls which have targeted the unvaccinated. police kept order at a time when most uk visitors are being kept out of the country. but travel bans, which france has also introduced and scuppered british getaways, won't work, according to the world health organization.

it argues specific local measures, such as those introduced in spain and italy today on face coverings, are much better. as ever, the politics of the pandemic can take some navigating. as the last—minute shoppers venture out, the general message from europe's leaders — we wish you a cautious christmas and a reined—in new year. nick beake, bbc news, brussels. ecuador is making covid vaccines obligatory, for children as young as five. only people who have medical reasons will be exempt from getting jabs. around three quarters of people aged overfive have been fully vaccinated in ecuador — the government hasn't yet outlined what will happen to those who do not comply. russia's president has again insisted that the west must give russia guarantees that nato won't expand eastwards and admit ukraine as a member. vladimir putin rejected accusations that russia is preparing to invade ukraine, after amassing thousands

of troops on the border between the two countries. during his annual press conference he said any expansion by nato would be a threat to russia's long—term security. our moscow correspondent, steve rosenberg reports. it's the most wonderful time of the year, if you happen to like long news conferences. vladimir putin's end—of—year press briefing is always a marathon affair. forfour hours, the kremlin leaderfielded questions, and he used the event to vent his resentment at how nato enlarged after the fall of the soviet union. translation: "we won't move one inch towards the east," _ they told us in the 1990s, and what happened? they deceived us. they brazenly tricked us. there were five waves of nato expansion, and now missile

systems are appearing in romania and poland. is this russia's response? a build—up of russian troops near ukraine's border. the kremlin denies it plans to invade, but this is pressure, and on the west, too, as moscow demands an end to nato enlargement and nato military activity in eastern europe, what it calls security guarantees. translation: you must give us guarantees. - you must do it immediately, now. we won't be palmed off with decades of idle chatter about the need of security for all while the other side carries out its own plans. vladimir putin spoke for a long time, but gave little away about his intentions regarding ukraine, about whether, as the west fears, he's planning a large—scale military operation there. but what we do know now is that next month, us and russian officials will sit down to discuss the security guarantees that moscow is demanding, so there's

still hope for a diplomatic resolution. vladimir putin has done 17 of these press conferences now as president. you need plenty of stamina to do this and to listen to it, and since all main tv channels in russia show it live, it's wall—to—wall putin, a reminder, as if russians didn't know it, who's in charge here. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. president biden has signed into a law a bill that requires all companies to prove that goods imported from china's xinjiang region were not produced with forced labour. washington says genocide is being committed against the uyghur muslim minority there; an assertion china denies. us firms doing business in xinjiang, including coca—cola, nike, and apple have criticised the legislation. our north america business correspondent samira hussain explained more.

remember that china is the biggest market for many multinational corporations. so, if their business and ability to do business in china is hampered in any way, it will cost them. look at the retail sector. you see that some of these retail companies like h&m and zara, who have spoken out against the treatment of the uyghur people by chinese people in china and have suffered quite a bit of pushback. you look at how much money they have lost in terms of revenue, it's about 25% and a quarter. so that is why they are very worried about this because the chinese government obviously objects to any of these classifications that they are committing any kind of genocide or engaging in any kind of slavery with regard to the people in the uyghur province. but for companies not to say, look, you cannot supply, any of

your suppliers can outsource any materials from that region unless he can prove with certainty that no forced labour was used, that actually is putting corporations into a position where they have to take more of a political stance. take more of a political stance-— take more of a political stance. ., , stance. one company actually apologised — stance. one company actually apologised today _ stance. one company actually apologised today for - stance. one company actually apologised today for this - apologised today for this policy and saying, look, it's not our fault, policy and saying, look, it's not ourfault, blamed policy and saying, look, it's not our fault, blamed the policy and saying, look, it's not ourfault, blamed the us government. not our fault, blamed the us government.— not our fault, blamed the us government. yes, so intel, the multinational _ government. yes, so intel, the multinational chip _ multinational chip manufacturer, which we have been talking about a lot, because there is such a chip shortage. they had put out a statement earlier this week saying to their suppliers, luck, no one can any raw materials or any finished goods coming from the xinjiang province. then they had to walk back those comments because there was such an outcry from so many people within china, including the chinese government can and even chinese p0p government can and even chinese pop stars in their comments on thursday had to say, well,

look, we were not taking a political stance with what we said, i'll be blunt to do is to be able to comply with us law. in fact, some of the pressures that they are feeling from other international governments. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: we'll have a special report on how the pandemic led many people to relocate to be closer to their families — and how that meant some had to move to a new country. the world of music's been paying tribute to george michael, who's died from suspected heart failure at the age of 53. he sold well over 100 million albums in a career spanning more than three decades. the united states troops have been trying to overthrow the dictatorship of general manuel noriega. the pentagon said it's failed in its principal objective, to capture noriega and take him to the united states to face drugs charges. the hammer and sickle was hastily taken away. in its place, the russian flag

was hoisted over what is now no longer the soviet union, but the commonwealth of independent states. day broke slowly over - lockerbie, over the cockpit of pan am's maid of the seas nose down in the soft earth. i you could see what happens when a plane eight storeys i high, a football pitch wide, falls from 30,000 feet. i christmas has returned to albania after a communist ban lasting more than 20 years. thousands went to midnight mass in the town of shkodra, where there were anti—communist riots ten days ago. this is bbc news, the latest headlines... kimberley potter, a former minnesota police officer, has been found guilty of manslaughter — for killing daunte wright during a traffic stop. let's get more on that now and a little earlier, i spoke to nikema levy armstrong, an attorney and socialjustice activist in the city, who emphasised just how avoidable daunte

wright's death was. what's important for viewers to understand is that none of this had to happen. this all was the result of racial profiling of daunte wright for having an airfreshener hanging on his mirror and having expired licence tags. one of the issues that we raised with the police chief and elected officials in brooklyn centre is why was it a priority to pull someone over in the midst of a global pandemic for something so petty? and instead of treating daunte wright like a human being, being, we aw that he was gunned down, ultimately by kim potter. i think the jury made the right decision in this case and we are celebrating that there will be accountability, yet also mourning what the family of daunte wright, because they will have an empty chair at their dinner table during the holidays. yes, for a second, for this year, this will be a powerful reminder, won't it?

at least verdict has come before the seasonal break so that people can mark that over this weekend and that terrible loss. when you say it was racial profiling in the stopping of this vehicle, did the defence offer any explanation as to why the vehicle that stopped at this point, or it is your suspicion is that they were kind ofjust clocking up numbers, number of stops, recording number of stops, to kind of meat some kind of target? well, the issue did come up during the trial through the testimony of officer lucky. he was a trainee with the brooklyn centre police department, so essentially rookie who decided on a hunch to pull over daunte wright, which is what he testified about. and then we heard when kim potter took the stand that she said she would not have even pulled the car over her had she been the officer in charge of the situation, but because she was a supervisor,

overseeing the conduct of officer lucky, she too was responsible for everything that happened from the initial traffic stop of daunte wright all the way to his demise. this included a car accident that injured an elderly couple. as well as the woman who was in the car with daunte wright. this was reckless conduct on the part of kim potter and the brooklyn centre police department, and this was an unnecessary tragedy that did not need to happen in the first place. what was kind of puzzling about this and notwithstanding that the prosecution accepted it was a mistake and had no intention to kill daunte wright or even to injure him, perhaps to despair him, but and you can criticise the motive or even drying the taser in those circumstances, but what was odd about this is that officer potter had a quarter of a century experience as a police officer and had only undergone updated taser training within recent months. absolutely. she was a 26 year veteran of the forest as well as

—— she was a 26 year veteran of the force as well as a field training officer, and she took multiple training opportunities to learn about the taser that she was using as well as the difference between a glock and a taser. this was a mistake that never should've happened, and i believe that the jury saw that her explanation did not hold a lot of weight because she never even went into detail about why she drew her gun as opposed to her taser, given that her taser was on her nondominant side and her glock was on her dominant side, which was her right side. so it made no sense, she didn't take the time to clearly explain how the mix—up even happened, and ultimately, we have a young man dead without anyjust cause under the law. speaking with me about daunte wright's coming back in april of this year. —— speaking with me

about daunte wright's killing back in april of this year. let's look at some of the day's other news. ministers of belgium's multiparty government have decided to close the country's two nuclear power plants and their seven reactors by 2025. the decision could leave belgium with an electricity shortfall if alternative generating capacity is not brought on stream. ministers have, however, pledged funds for research into other forms of nuclear power. the renowned author and journalist, joan didion, whose essays, novels, and screen plays chronicled american society, has died. she was 87. among her best known works was the essay collection "slouching toward bethlehem", and the award winning "the year of magical thinking," which was inspired by the death of her husband. close to one million polish people left their homeland in search of higher wages and a better life in the uk after it opened its labour market in 200a. many have settled here — but a combination of brexit, the pandemic and the pull of theirfamilies has persuaded others to return.

our correspondent adam easton reports. i feel safe here. that's something i didn't have in the uk. this cosmetics student is talking about that secure feeling that being near family and close friends often brings. and that's her sister and grandmother... a law graduate she lived in the uk for 12 years doing a variety ofjobs. injanuary, she rushed back to her home city of lodzjust in time to say goodbye to her dying grandmother. i grew up here in this flat and my nana used to teach me how to skate. granddad used to teach me how to cycle. so, yeah, all sorts of wonderful memories. since 2004, hundreds of thousands of people here have left for the uk seeking better paid jobs. since then, we've had brexit, the covid pandemic and people are missing theirfamilies and are returning home.

the number of poles living in the uk now is at its lowest for eight years. this couple had well—paid jobs in london for more than six years. they love the city. their children were born there. but the high cost of raising a family there persuaded them to come home to warsaw. and i was sure that in poland i could easily find a nice nursery where i canjust send them and, you know, spend like five, six hours at home working. and in london, actually, we were not able to find, like, a nice nursery. professor isabella grabovski has interviewed hundreds of poles who have recently returned. most want to stay, but some, after years abroad, now feel uncomfortable in their homeland. one third out of our 500 - returnee sample said that we do consider return to the uk or to other countries- because they do not. feel at home any more. in recent months, poland has seen a surge in the number

of mostly middle eastern people trying to enter the eu illegally from belarus. most poles support the government's refusal to let them in. but this woman says her years living in britain has affected the way she sees migrants. living abroad, being a migrant myself, gave me that feeling, kind of an empathy for the people who are now on the border with belarus. they're in terrible conditions. we should treat those people equally. after years of living abroad, these poles are bringing with them new skills and life experiences that may shape the country's economy and its politics. adam easton, bbc news, warsaw. the duke and duchess of sussex have issued the first photograph of their daughter lilibet on their festive card. the image shows meghan raising lilibet in the air as she sits alongside prince harry, who is holding their two—year—old son archie on his knee. it's the first time lilibet,

who was born injune, has been seen in a publicly—released image. the photo was taken at their home in santa barbara, california. their daughter named after their grandmother the queen elizabeth who will celebrate her diamond jubilee next year. crowds on the mediaeval charles bridge in prague have been enjoying a performance of "czech christmas mass". a choir gathered below the bridge to sing carols — including those written by composerjakubjan ryba more than 200 years ago. organisers say an organist and four singers were recruited for the event — other musicians and members of the publicjoined without any rehearsal. and i'm sure they all sound very cheerful. that's it from us. thank you very much for your company this hour as with everywhere. to stay with us, all times of the day and night

on bbc news, and you can follow us any time online. goodbye. hello there. snow has been falling across the hills of scotland through the night. that will continue, although it is tending to peter out. we could have several centimetres lying towards morning. also fog is going to be an issue for those travellers on friday morning, quite thick patches in places, reducing the visibility, and that's because we've had a lot of mild and moist air move northwards during the day on thursday. still with us friday, but so too that cold air, and where those weather fronts bump into the cold air, as i say, across scotland at the moment is where we are likely to see the snow. but that boundary may come further southwards into christmas day. so, several centimetres over the hills, relatively low levels, that's100 metres or so, some fog though into the clearer skies further south where it's at least a milder, but it's the light winds that we've got an issue with here. so going through the day on friday, we've got that mild air with us,

the fog issue slow to clear, and then our rain starts to sweep into the southwest across wales later. some drier weather, just drizzly rain for northern ireland, our weather fronts petering out across scotland and northern england, but the best of the sunshine will be in the far north here after a frosty start with some fog patches here too. but it's here where we keep that cold air through the day, whilst for most, because we've still got that legacy of atlantic air, it is a little bit milder, 9—11 celsius. but that cold air looks like it may well be on the move, so as we head through friday night, christmas eve into christmas day, that may well push a little bit further southwards. our weather fronts still with us coming into that cold air. so the likes of the pennines possibly the hills of north wales just might see a smattering of sleet or snow. but it looks like some good spells of sunshine across the north and perhaps northern england, and then further south on christmas day, we've got some more wetter...some more rain to come in. so, again, we will have the contrast, still that mild air across western areas, but perhaps a crisp start in northern and eastern parts, a little bit of wintriness,

as i say, over the hills. so we are not going to be the records of christmas day across the four nations, they are not going to be that high, the temperatures, as i say, more likely 4—5s in the north, 11—12 in the south, but the next few days, we are most likely to see if we see snow, it will be over the high ground of the northern part of the country from north wales northwards. at lower levels, most likely we'll see some rain. so for boxing day, still that cold air around with us, and you can see we've got some unsettled weather as well. you can keep up to date online.

this is bbc news.

the headlines — a former police officer who killed a black man in a routine traffic stop has been found guilty of manslaughter at her trial in minneapolis. kimberley potter mistook her handgun for a taser when she shot daunte wright. a uk government study has shown that people who get infected with the omicron strain of covid are far less likely to end up in hospital. but there is concern the boosterjab protection begins to wane after ten weeks. ecuador has made it compulsory for everyone aged five or over to get the coronavirus vaccine in response to the increase in covid infections. only those with a medical justification will be exempt. president putin has asked for an immediate response to his demand for nato to stop expanding to the east to ukraine. he also said he'd initiated high—level talks with the us. now on bbc news, hardtalk�*s review of 2021.