this is bbc news. our top stories: 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 through your body at that moment. japan says it will not be sending government officials to the beijing winter olympics in a protest against china's human rights record. and the us brings in a law requiring companies to prove they're not using uyghur muslim forced labour. but does it go far enough? we speak to a leading uyghur activist. the former south korean president park geun—hye, who was jailed on corruption charges, is to be pardoned by the government.

and the renowned american journalist and author joan didion dies at the age of 87. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. a jury in the us state of minnesota has found a white former police officer guilty of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man. the prosecution argued that kimberley potter had shown culpable negligence when she killed daunte wright during a routine traffic check in april. the jury was shown bodycam footage, stopping short of the moment when the victim died. taser, taser, taser! kimberley potter told the court she thought she'd drawn her taser rather than her handgun

when she shot mr wright in the chest. the incident led to several nights of intense protests at a very sensitive time in the united states, and 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. cries and then he told me i shot him. outside the court, daunte wright's mother, katie wright, gave her reaction to the verdict. the moment that we heard "guilty" on manslaughter one — emotions, every single emotion that you could 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've been

able to process it, we want to thank the entire prosecution team, we want to thank communities, support, everybody who's been out there that has supported us in this long fight for accountability. well, earlier, we spoke to reverendjim bearjacobs who's close to daunte wright's family and also director for racialjustice for the minnesota council of churches. my immediate reaction was one of relief. as the jury deliberations went on, i must admit i began getting a little more sceptical about whether we would see guilty verdicts in this case. and you're calling of course for police to change the way they operate, to issue citations and summons rather than force in the wake of what happened? yeah, absolutely. you know, there's — there's different ways of doing policing, there's different ways

of engaging community and i think we need a whole scale — a wide scale re—examination of the training and procedures that officers go through. and, obviously, with all of the media surrounding daunte wright and also a number of other cases in america over the last few months, do you think there is the mood in america for change to happen within the police force? i get more and more hopeful with it. here in minneapolis, we saw the guilty verdict return on officer derek chauvin for the killing of george floyd, and now, today, with this guilty verdict bringing accountability to our police officers and our police forces, i think that there is hope that something needs to be done and something can be done. within the community

in minnesota, surrounding daunte wright, his family, what's it been like over the last few days? it must have been obviously pretty traumatic leading up to the trial? yeah, it absolutely was. i was — i was there with the family on the evening that daunte was killed and it was very heartbreaking. with this trial coming so close to the christmas holiday, there is a lot of — a lot of hope that this would be drawn to a conclusion with these guilty verdicts before the christmas holiday. and obviously, this — this is notjustice, it's not the desired — obviously, the desired outcome would be that daunte would be spending this holiday with his family, but i think the family and i think, really, kind of all of minnesota is kind of breathing a sigh of relief that this is over

and we have demonstrated that police officers, you know, there is accountability for your actions. and that, you know, you make a mistake, but mistakes — it does not mean you — they don't have consequences. that is talking about the death of daunte wright. some breaking news to bring you — a spokesman says japan has "no plans to send government officials" to february's winter olympics in china's capital, beijing. japanese olympic officials will still attend the games. it comes after the us and other countries announced diplomatic boycotts over concerns over human rights. those human rights concerns relate to what is happening in china's north—western region of xinjiang. china has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the uyghur population and other mostly muslim ethnic groups there. china denies it. now, president biden has signed into a law a bill that requires all companies to prove that

goods imported from the region were not produced with forced labour. us firms doing business in xinjiang, including coca—cola, nike and apple, have criticised the legislation. i asked dr erkin sidick, president of the uyghur projects foundation, what effect he hopes the bill will have. in our interview, dr sidick refers to the xinjiang region as �*east turkestan�*. we are very happy about this bill. it means that part of the uyghurs who are currently being employed as forced labour workers in china's factories in east turkestan will be released, so we are very happy about that. so you do think it will have an immediate impact for thousands of people currently in forced labour in xinjiang? actually, it is much more than that. my information tells us that more than 3 million uyghurs currently are working as forced labour workers in east turkestan.

the uyghur project foundation, recently we made a list on the companies that use uyghurs as forced labour workers in east turkestan. the list contains 14,000 factories. there's detailed information in chinese and english. it is available on our website. that means if each company employs 100 uyghurs as slave labourers, 1.4 million uyghurs are currently working in china's factories. actual number is much more than this and the people who are working there have no life, like in a hell. the reason is the father, mother and the children, they are all separated from each other and the mothers can only go home once a week to see their kids, so this is a horrible situation. now, this bill may force some of those companies to close down. if that happens, some uyghur people can be free, so that's a big victory for us.

obviously, very positive news for you. do you think this legislation goes far enough, and what more can be done? not yet. the reason is according to the information i got, 2.1 million uyghurs were transferred from east turkestan to other parts of china since 2014, part of them working as a forced labour workers in other parts of china. just about 12 hours ago, luda media, the owner, put out a video, saying that some of those uyghurs ended up in hubei province, in the jails of hubei province who makes products for america and other western countries, such as ladies jeans, so we have a large number of the uyghur population working in the other part of china, so the international community should come after them also. china knew this was happening, obviously, because the news had been around for a couple of weeks now. how will they react, do you think?

china — of course, china will not be happy. they're trying to hide information. one thing they are doing is they are arresting all the people who can send us information about the crimes that china's government is committing. i just got some information yesterday, saying that the chinese government arrested all of the uyghur college students studying in the various parts of china. this is part of the preparation that china's government is doing with the winter olympics, some foreigners may meet with the uyghur students and tell the truth, so the chinese government is very afraid of that and they already started arresting the uyghur students, so they will take all the evil measures about this. the former south korean president park geun—hye, who was jailed for 22 years on corruption charges, is to be granted a pardon by the government. miss park was impeached and removed from office in march 2017 after widespread protests in south korea.

as laura bicker explains, the current president, moonjae—in, had previously ruled out a pardon. earlier this year, he ruled out a pardon, saying it was premature. remember, this is a liberal president who would be pardoning a conservative, a far—right conservative president. in fact, conservatives in this country see her as their princess. she was jailed back in march 2017 after being impeached and removed from office and she was sentenced to 22 years. the entire scandal ignited protests right across south korea. it's hard to put into words the kind of ire, the anger on the streets as the links between big business, wealthy family—owned conglomerates and the presidential palace were revealed. and when it came to her sentencing, certainly, many people felt that it was the right thing to do in the circumstances,

and it showed that justice could be served. she was the first president to be impeached in this way and president moonjae—in, the current president, ran to office on the — kind of ticket of saying he would rule out corruption. so that is why it has come as such a surprise. but i would like to just give you a statement from the blue house, from the presidential palace, and from president moon, which has just been released. he says he hopes "it is time for south korea to step forward "from the painful past to a new era, "we need to gather our strengths "to courageously face the future together, "rather than fighting by being buried in the past." there is a note saying that, "in the case of former "president park, they have considered her heavy health "decline caused by almost five years in prison." she is said to be in rather ill health. yeah, obviously, health playing a big part. you have talked about the process and the controversy about this over the years — i know this has happened pretty recently, it is breaking news —

but what is the reaction likely to be like amongst the public? well, i think i've already seen a number of liberals who are extremely upset at this announcement. they're saying that perhaps it's being done by humanitarian grounds, but they do not understand the decision. conservatives have obviously welcomed the news. in fact, there are a number of protests being organised as we speak, saying that not only should she be released immediately, notjust on new year's day, when the pardon will be granted, but also that she should be reinstated as president. it must be said that far—right conservatives have always held a vigil in the centre of seoul, where they have been calling for her release for many years. so they have welcomed this news. but i think we will see over the next few hours the ramifications of this decision. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: with christmas just around the corner, we take a look at the man preparing for his busiest night of the year. 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 principle objective to capture noriega and take him to the united states to face drugs charges. the hammer and sickle| was hastily taken away. m 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, nosedown in the soft earth. you could see what happens when a plane eight storeys high, a football pitch wide falls from 30,000 feet. christmas has returned to albania after a communist ban lasting more than 20 years. thousands went to midnight mass in the town of shkoder where there were anti—communist riots ten days ago.

this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: kimberley potter, a former minnesota police officer, has been found guilty of manslaughter for killing daunte wright during a traffic check. japan says it will not be sending government officials to the beijing winter olympics in a protest against china's human rights record. a study from the british government offers hope that the omicron variant of coronavirus is less likely to cause severe disease than delta, the previously dominant strain. earlier studies from the uk and south africa also suggest that omicron is causing a more mild version of the disease, although the sheer number of cases could still overwhelm health systems. our medical editor fergus walsh reports. between 13 and 1a, these are the ages of some of the people fighting for their lives on a

covid ward. not one of them has been vaccinated. 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 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 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 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. fergus walsh, bbc news.

let's get some of the day's other news. the actorjames franco has admitted having sex with students from his acting school, almost four years after allegations were made against him. the 43—year—old agreed to pay over $2 million injuly, after being sued for engaging in, quote, "sexually—charged behaviour towards female students". but he said he didn't start the school to lure women for sexual purposes. the belgian government has 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. tiktok is now the world's most popular online destination, getting even more hits than google. that's according to it security company, cloudfare.

one of the reasons is thought to be the covid pandemic, as lockdowns meant people were stuck at home and looking for entertainment on the social media platform. joan didion, who chronicled 1960s and �*70s american culture, with screenwriting credits including the film a star is born, has died at the age of 87. her award—winning book on grief, the year of magical thinking" was inspired by the deaths of her husband and daughter. earlier i spoke to the author and book critic adam dalva, who teaches didion's writing to university students. i asked him what her work means to him. i think she represents several things to every american writer. didion herself said, "i have already lost touch with a couple of the people i used to be." so the two things i think she is most remarkable for is her use of creative fiction and the personal essay, which totally changed the genre, there are dozens showing today that she was their favourite writer and they would not have known how to write without that. and, as you said, her writing in grief later on in her life

is one of the most fabulous elegiac writing that we have. and you teach students her work, obviously, goodbye to all that, how they react to pieces like that? well, you know, goodbye to all that, which is the first leaving new york essays. it's the story about a young didion coming to new york and having a kind of mythical experience but also puncturing that mythical experience because she's aware of it. just today i had a student e—mail me about an hour before i went on to say thank you for teaching me that essay. a student in 2020, an 18—year—old, sayin that about an essay written in 1968, speaks of how fresh and contemporary didion feels. she teaches students so much about how much to describe things and how to show personal vulnerability in a limited perspective.

the book that focused on grief, did that help you? 100%. it is such a challenging book because it is so painful and sad. but i think anyone going through a difficult situation perhaps anticipating a difficult situation will see themselves in the magical thinking that didion is talking about, which is essentially leaving a pair of shoes so that her late husband can come back to them. these ideas of... americans don't handle grief very well, as i'm sure you might know, and didion really captures how it feels. it's a remarkable book. alongside that she was also a pretty cool character, right? yes, actually, there is a tote bag with her on it that was the hottest item in new york in 2017. she had the cigarettes and the sunglasses. a young harrison ford was a carpenter in the 1970s in california. she threw amazing parties, she hung out with the doors. she could not have weighed more than 80 lbs and chainsmoked cigarettes. this idea of the writer

as a character really helped her in her writing and we all loved her. she was a prickly presence and that made her really fun. i gather you have one passage in particular that means a lot you. would you mind reading that out for us? i would be honoured. thank you very much. this is the very end of the year of magical thinking and she is writing about her late husband. "i think about swimming with him into the cave portuguese bent and the tide had to be just right. we had to be in the water at the very moment the tide was right. we could have only done it a half—dozen times at most during the two years we lived there but it was now i remember. each time we did i was afraid of missing the swell, hanging back, timing is wrong. john never was. you had to feel the swell change. you had to go with the change. he told me that. no eyes on the sparrow. but he did tell me that." that was adam dalva reading the ending ofjoan didion's book the year of magical thinking. it's very nearly here, the big day itself. all around the world

people are making final preparations for christmas. last—minute presents are still being bought, food and drink is already being consumed. but for one man in particular the next day or two are going to be quite a challenge, as the bbc�*s tim allman explains. be it delta or omicron, nothing stands in the way of a man on a mission. # on the road again. # just can't wait to get on the road again. from his home in lapland, father christmas sets off for what will be a very, very long journey. let's give time to children and young people and do something together. let's make this christmas happy and unforgettable for everyone. christmas is about hearts full of hope. of course, he did have time to carry out a few errands before he left. this was santa — really, honestly — going for a dip in an aquarium in paris. like you do.

apparently it's an annual tradition around here. it certainly impressed the local children. both speak french "it was nice," said sisters lena and kenza. "he played his part well, he swam well. "we thought it was good." once he dried out, he headed to italy to descend down the outside of a chimney at this hospital in rome, then he handed out presents to the young patients inside. a quick pop across the atlantic and father christmas was giving out food parcels rather than toys. they were queuing up at this favela in rio dejaneiro, grateful for any help they can get. translation: i'm very happy because today, l all the people here in the community are satisfied that our christmas will be a happy one. ho, ho, ho, ho! and since he was in the area, he paid a quick trip to the amazon to hand out a few

pressies there as well. so, how does he get to so many places in such a short space of time, you might wonder? it must be the magic of christmas — probably. tim allman, bbc news. that is a busy man. crowds on the medieval charles bridge in prague have been enjoying a performance of czech christmas mass. music plays. 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. that is just about it from me. you can follow me on twitter if

you would like. but for now, thank you for watching. do stay tuned right here to bbc news. 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. and 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's 100m or so. some fog, though, under the clearer skies further south where it's at least 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 south—west across wales later. some drier weather — just drizzly rain for northern ireland. our weather front petering out across scotland and northern england. 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, 10, 11 degrees. 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 beat the records. these are 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. japan says it will not be sending government officials to the beijing winter olympics, but it's stopped short ofjoining the diplomatic boycott of the games, initiated by the united states in protest at china's human rights record. the former south korean president, park geun—hye, is to be granted a pardon by the government. ms park was impeached and removed from office in 2017, and jailed for 22 years on corruption charges. the renowned american author, joan didion, has died at the age of 87. in an illustrious career she chronicled contemporary us life in the 1960s and �*70s. didion worked as a novelist, screenwriter and journalist. now on bbc news, stephen sackur with hardtalk�*s review of 2021.