unscripted on al-jazeera. signs off on laws supporting hong kong's pro-democracy movement china promises a firm response. i'm richelle carey this is our desert live from doha also coming up rocky protesters set fire to the iranian consulate in the city in the shop i mean tehran for propping up a government they want to remove. another rebel attack in eastern jim accredit republic of congo feels anger against u.n. peacekeepers accused of failing to provide protection. and when a remote center of the pacific war 75 years after world war 2 the search for fallen soldiers goes on.

its president signed 2 bills into law that back hong kong pro-democracy movement american sanctions can now be imposed on chinese and hong kong officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses and hong kong's special trade status will be reviewed every year the territory's leaders say it'll damage relations with the u.s. while china's expressed extreme mcgrath over the moves saying it will respond with foreign countermeasures particle has been following developments from washington. the president aware that he was sort of forced into this not wanting to see china react sending out a fairly unusual statement saying that he signed these bills out of respect for president g. china and the people of hong kong they also put in their announcement that he had signed these 2 bills that he believes some provisions interfere with the president's constitutional authority and they would be treating the bill it with that if it were in mind what exactly does that mean they didn't spell out what

provisions or how that could come into force but this could be a powerful tool if the president chose to use it it's not at all clear he's going to not only does it a lot to him saying people in hong kong and china but if that special trade status that could be so critical if the secretary of state was to come back and say no china is not going along with the policy hong kong doesn't have enough independence they could basically take that status away that would have a huge impact on trade but bigger than that it could send a signal to a financial markets to investors that hong kong is not a safe place to park your money so that is the big concern it does seem unlikely that they're going to take these steps the other bill that the president signed for concrete lee it stops american companies from giving or selling any thing to hong kong authorities that could be used against crowds such as tear gas canisters or rubber bullets so sadly what the president is going to do it's not clear congress has given him this authority he has sent the signal that he doesn't want to use it

so we'll wait to see what the secretary of state says but for this president the big concern is the trade war he needs were all america to get reelected and right now they're really hurting because of this trade war so just a moment we will talk to enter thomas in beijing 1st is going to sir clarke who is and hong kong so sara what is the reaction been there at hong kong. well certainly this is a big win for the pro-democracy movement and it comes not long after the pro-democracy movement had a huge victory or landslide victory in the district council elections but this particular act will be embraced or the signing of the sacked by donald trump will be embraced by the protesters and the prodemocracy lawmakers now the hong kong governor has responded it was found within hours it's told the us to stop interfering in hong kong's internal affairs by city or angrily rejects this particular bill it says it sends the wrong message to the what they describe as the violent protesters who are paralyzed parts of hong kong for around 6 months or so

now so certainly an angry response from the hong kong government side pretty much telling the u.s. to but half of their internal turmoil if it is so there has been a standoff at this university give us an update on that apparently police have now entered the campus. where this certainly looks like the end of the the siege that was taking part in this particular campus that polytechnic university campus in california for more than $2.00 to $10.00 days yesterday they on on monday the university trained sent in a group of about 100 search teams looking for the last of those protests will remain holed up inside that camp as they couldn't find anyone so the police and the government now sent their own teams in and this is not necessary to clean up this is part of the investigation that these police that collecting evidence against those student protesters since been arrested on departure from that particular campus that collecting petrol bombs and any weapons that they believe can be used as evidence so that particular part that out that search is now under way that

collection at the university team has told the place they want them out of that campus because i simply want to start the cleanup of the university ok with the latest on kong sara thank you as i mentioned her thomas is covering this from beijing for us so what is the reaction there in beijing and are. well as you'd imagine the reaction from beijing is pretty similar to the reaction from the hong kong government after all the hong kong government is essentially tied to beijing the reaction is not so much on the specifics of what has been passed within this law the potential sanctions the review of hong kong status those details left to one side is the symbolism that passing this law means that has got beijing very angry and very swiftly they've put out a statement which really does get to the heart of what they see as the issue with this law that donald trump has now signed now in some ways they are saying that this is about interference in the specifics of hong kong and as sarah said there

that the u.s. has been disregarding facts distorting truth and openly backing violent criminals they are saying beijing that this law essentially encourages the violent protests but it's much broader than that and the statement goes on to say that this essentially is the u.s. deliberately meddling in internal chinese affairs in an attempt to undermine china as a whole or read a bit of the statement here it's very aim is to undermine hong kong stability and to disrupt the chinese nation's endeavor to realize the great renewal they really see this is some kind of coordinated conspiracy really to undermine china as a whole not just the pacific's the the specifics i should say of what's going on in hong kong and at the end of the statement we urge the u.s. not to continue going down the wrong path or china will take countermeasures and the u.s. must bear all consequences what those counter measures could be well that's anybody's guess at this stage but

a very strong and very swift statement we know we have to wait until mid afternoon beijing time for the government here to respond to issues like this in a public way they obviously had this statement ready to go really they're expecting donald trump signature on what already been passed by the u.s. that despite beijing's protestations all week and this statement coming out very very strongly to say they condemn what the u.s. has done ok andrew thomas with the latest there in beijing entry thank you. and a dramatic escalation of iraq's anti-government protests crowds of course their ronnie and consulate in the shia holy city of new jobs their kids here on a propping up iraq's government which they have been rallying against for 2 months now the story again the reports was hundreds of anti-government protesters stormed the compound of the iranian consulate in the jaffa $55.00 to tie a 1000 blankets and replacing the iranian flag with an iraqi one was analysts say the symbolic importance of the attack in

a shia majority city cannot be understated this is the city where the ayatollah khomeini used to live it's considered to be you know the heart of the shia muslim world and iran thought that it had the population the iraqi shia population on its side in terms of its you know regional policies clearly that's not the case. protesters say rand is exerting to much power in iraq they want the iraqi government to take action to limit it was it's the 2nd time this month that in a rainy and consulate has been targeted by iraqi protest as 3 weeks ago security forces killed to demonstrate is in the city of copula. both attacks feed into the wide to anti-government protest movement that the gulf to iraq since october so it's unclear you know what options the government in iran has in response to these

protests i don't think they have very good options and as so i suspect right now there is deep panic and paranoia in tehran over what happened today in niger. the challenge for iran is how to respond without alienating the shia community upon which its provide to expand its regional influence victoria gate and be out. at least 1000. people have been killed during another rebel attack in the eastern democratic republic of congo this is the balto region where un peacekeepers have been targeted by angry locals who say they're failing to protect them from a group called the allied democratic forces are suspected of being behind the attack on a village near the city. they're suspected of a string of recent massacres around benny which sparked a violent protest against the un and the congolese army catherine sawyer reports on the french capital of goma. another tense day in. a

protest is shot dead by a policeman on saturday. the policeman was later killed by an angry mob. they marched through the city with his body in a way to the area where he was shot in the head. is one of 6 people who have been killed. over the weekend people here are not and their anger is directed to the un peacekeeping mission called one school they blame the peacekeepers for failing to protect them from the talks from an armed group in the area called democratic forces or. the un mission has also been accused of using excessive force of protest is when i was peacekeepers showed that a protester was throwing molotov cocktails at. the peacekeepers so we are still in the process so very fine all the sacks and fact checking the ripples we have received in the midst of all this another tragedy

happened in our early morning attack by a.t.f. on a village about 30 kilometers from more than a dozen people hopped to death with machetes some of them the copy tainted. the anger on the streets of delhi is also being felt many kilometers south and north. protesters here have expressed their frustration. police have been deployed to keep them from getting too important says this is just a small group of people who have. fired the protesters and all the bad life left in the air to discuss them they just want you to be feeling much in the course of what is going on in bed me they think killing us so that although the united nations mr caldwell new god must leave this country . their message was clear and they told us no matter what force is used to remove

them from the streets they'll keep coming back until the demands of the people. that did not know what is funny we are tired i come from ah people are being slaughtered the u.n. and our soldiers are there and doing nothing why then all this force is there if not to protect our people but rather little they finished their part to a police station. where they paid their last tribute to my battle. and back in bed he was buried by family friends and hundreds of other protesters determined to keep the pressure on until the violence stops catherine sorry al-jazeera. so ahead on al-jazeera out of the running for president in the 1st round of an election brings us the rescue workers hoping to find survivors in the rubble after all they need a strong earthquake in tech aids. it

is a very mixed picture across much of the united states will some very heavy rain in the south and we've got some pretty strong snowstorms look at all the massive cloud working its way up to the upper midwest and then out across the west we've also got another may just snowstorm now already the impact has been felt certainly into denver hundreds of flights council on shoes day and you can see why because of all this snow but it was nickels just to the the roads very dangerous visibility very low because of the snow here but elsewhere it's a case of rain so as we go through. the united states people will still be traveling and it is still very unpleasant across much of the south pretty good in the southeast not too bad really at the eastern seaboard but out across the west it's a very mixed picture it's a better picture across the pacific northwest is cool in seattle it is 5 degrees

but then by friday everything just really winds up further so out across much of the west across the plains side of the central plains and it's a mix of rain and snow so quite dangerous conditions and also very dangerous certainly out on the roads but throughout all of that not too bad across the southeast 17 celsius in atlanta a fairly mixed picture across the caribbean we've got some showers to the north and heavy rains across southern areas of central america. you out on the streets protesting whether on line you feel the weight of the system each and every layer further and further into the jail or if you join us on. to start. again you're in detention or you're incarcerated this is a dialogue everyone has a voice for you know it's 36 o'clock. i want to give people the reason for joining

the global conversation. and you're watching all the top stories right now. back in hong kong pro-democracy activists american sanctions can now be imposed on chinese and hong kong officials responsible for human rights abuses government calls the legislation necessary and . the polytechnic university for the 1st time since putting pro-democracy protesters under siege campus police say they're searching the grounds to remove makeshift weapons and petrol bombs and iraqi protesters have stormed iranian

consulate and then setting it on fire protesters blame the wrong for propping up a government they have spent months demonstrating against. bolivia has appointed ambassador to the united states for the 1st time in more than a decade or so one of the several policy changes after the exit of former president . ariana sanchez explained some of the shifts have left many bolivians concerned about what's ahead. distributors. trying to make up for lost time for weeks distribution of their products was held up by widespread unrest throughout the country despite the relative calm now that she's anxious about the future there never was we are afraid everyone is talking about what will happen we don't know what to think. these coca leaf farmers say they fear and new government may try to limit their trade. however interim president jenny menus is changing things on many levels from reorganizing the military to breaking off relations within is. the

interim government is quickly changing some of the policies implemented by of all what i listen nearly 14 years in office many fear they will lose many of the gains they fought for so long. it will morale is lit a social transformation nationalizing the gas industry implementing social programmes to reduce poverty and unemployment the economy grew to unprecedented levels. in improvised town halls around us citizens like are fearful about the future. for 14 years the dollar was steady and there was economic stability no extreme poverty now we can return to the days of living in misery and all around the underdog made sure ethnic groups were represented at the highest levels in his cabinet and congress. we indigenous bolivians are depressed we had the power for 14 years and now they want to take it away. for nearly 30 years

way before medallists came to power indigenous bolivians fotr collective struggle to preserve resources land and their dignity is still allowed throughout her lifetime 70 year old. says she's supposed to take her ships and abuse against indigenous believe now she says it's time to be on alert. is that conflict now we have to build another platform to the. porter multinational state to defend the constitution so we're shielded from a rightist revenge movement that can make us go back 20 years we will not allow this if i have to be shot for this so be it they cannot pay it as if nothing happens here. indigenous believe eels are waiting to see who the next president of bolivia will be. and many see how willing to protect the rights gained. with their lights. a resilient court has upheld

a corruption conviction against former president lula da silva he was released from jail earlier this month after the supreme court ruled a person can only be imprisoned after all appeals have been exhausted or those found guilty of receiving bribes from construction companies in return for public contracts he has always denied any wrongdoing. groups in colombia have been holding a 2nd nationwide strike in support of anti-government protests around lights which started last week have seen multiple confrontations between protesters and police are angry about corruption and propose cuts to minimum wages changes in pensions and taxes of course out of the united states a president donald trump was aware of a whistle blower's complaint against him when he unfroze military aid to ukraine is facing an impeachment inquiry over allegations he withheld the money for sure angel and best his political rival joe biden new york times says white house lawyers informed trump in august before they told congress. rescue workers in albania are

still hoping to find people alive but in the rubble of tuesday's powerful earthquake they and those who escaped are also dealing with aftershocks supports and doris one of the worst hit city. the day after albania's most powerful earthquake in decades rescue teams are still digging in search of survivors but their relatives are worried this man's daughter and granddaughter are under the rubble of this apartment building he spoke to them by mobile phone in the 1st few hours after the building collapsed but has since lost touch he is too distraught to talk to us the state machinery is our phones are still geared towards rescue of those people still trapped under the rubble and in this once 5 story apartment block behind me 2 families are said still to be trapped and rescue crews are trying to pull them out but one and a half days after the earthquake that leveled this building there is now only

a hangover of hope that they may still be alive this woman's son and her family were lucky to be pulled alive from the rubble of their apartment building soon after the earthquake but they are now homeless and so is she personally give up in these very busy making up by going on the street for 2 days i slept on the beach the 1st night i'm still in the streets i don't want charity i want food oh clothing i just want to know what's going to happen with my home the army has set up this tent city in a football field and organizes food distribution but capacity is limited after the break and her neighbor would turned away like that you like to me they think we went to the camp in the soccer field and we gave them our names they told us there was no room and that we should go away and register with the municipality instead we have no way to go. the scale of the problem is enormous all over do this a coastal city of 200000 people there are cracked and broken buildings whose residents dare not enter them until engineers declare them safe some homeowners and

business owners are risking their safety to salvage what they can like the owners of this heating and cooling business who pulled thousands of dollars worth of machinery from the basement albania's president says there must be a reckoning for the human suffering route here. do you think there are going to there's going to be investigation about that for sure for sure but. it's clear that some of this constructions were totally out of the standards of security but take time the people of do this are still nervous a 5 point aftershock on the richter scale sends them running out into the streets fearing the collapse of already damaged buildings saving lives is what matters now and sheltering the homeless but this earthquake will likely leave economic and political scars as questions are raised about why so much of albania's prosperity was apparently built on sand jumps out all from us al-jazeera to this more protests

in malta over the murder of a prominent journalist and possible links to high level government figures demonstrators want the prime minister of moscow to resign after his former chief of staff was named as a person of interest in the case to senior ministers have quit over the scandal but the prime minister is refusing to step down apple's map and whether applications have started displaying the disputed crimea region as part of russian territory that the changes are only visible to users inside russia elsewhere the territory does not display as part of any country russian troops azan annex crimea 2014 which ukraine and its western allies denounced as illegal. give us our president jose maria mario that is vases out of the race to stay in office as former his former minister said as domingo samosa and priya and o'mara says sokol and balo will now battle it out for the runoff next month. from the capital.

outside the party headquarters of going to be sounds presidential candidate she should go and bellow hundreds of his supporters gathered here they didn't expect him to get through to the 2nd round but he did with 20 percent of the vote for his movement for democratic alternative party because the muslim we are tired of 50 years of the ruling party who are duping people selling drugs nepotism and corruption the people have come to say no calling for a new generation of leadership. many of them both supporters are poor and from the countryside and felt ignored by political rivals in particular the african party for the independence of going to be sound and cowbird also known as the p a g c the party has been in power since independence its candidates domingo's. campaign as a modernizer fell short of a clear majority to win outright opposition i've been involved i have some records show and people normal need to do the work for to do so and who my utmost

of the most is in the way i look after themselves and being. looked into for. appeal to voters in the capital b. so in those be so guinea and now living in other countries. most of the voters who live in the countryside many villages have 5 no running water no access to electricity and schools and medical centers are shut down the state is absent and so much of this election results reflect that anger among these people with their politicians that have failed them. president who stood for the independent party came 3rd in the election with only 12 percent of the vote it's been an expensive election and some are wondering where the money came from to finance it the country's law enforcement agency suggests some could have been drug money $22.00 tons of cocaine was seized over the past 5 years worth billions of dollars that in

a country where most of the people live on less than $2.00 a day. the choice for voters is between ferrera and umbrello one calls himself a man of the moment the other the general of the people who believe they can solve going to be sounds problems and offer you hope in the new direction for its people because hawke al-jazeera. the united nations has urged grace to urgently improve conditions in overcrowded refugee and migrant camps on its islands and high commissioner for refugees take on they describe conditions as miserable during a visit to lesbos about 39000 asylum seekers are currently living on various islands the remote pacific island was the scene about brutal world war 2 battle between the u.s. and japanese soldiers 75 years on the grim task of identifying and repatriating remains continues that clarke has more from pull. some of the

sleepy piece of pellet he is almost too much to bad and when you know the story you understand why the 75 years ago this small corner of the pacific was a small corner of. the marine corps the 1st division had the reputation of drawing operations which entailed easy land. distribution of good luck was dissipated it was at 8 30 in the morning on september the 15th 1944 when wave after wave of american troops began to pour on to the beach here they met heavy japanese resistance they were gunning placements at either end of the beach and many us soldiers died but the battle had barely begun. 11000 japanese were facing 18000 u.s. marines and the fighting was intense the island def field was quickly taken by the marines the japanese i didn't found they had this natural ridge that around 3 quarters life of the whole island and its highest point which is where we're at

right now is about 100 meters above sea level and within this ridge the japanese forces had honeycombed it with hundreds of caves with and for defensive purposes. the battle to flush the japanese soldiers out raged for weeks hundreds of tons of munitions were used millions of rounds of ammunition. thousands of men died. still today wreckage of war life strewn around the iron and tights rusting where they were blasted to a standstill in the dense forest what's left of a japanese plane a poignant reminder survivor old mess tins and the remains of what looks like part of a gas mask and i scouted their caves like this just honeycombed throughout the ridge where the japanese took refuge and eventually the americans just gave up trying to flush them out. and eventually they barricaded the japanese in in their thousands

and here they died in the end around $1600.00 u.s. soldiers died but the toll for the japanese was catastrophic out of $11100.00 survived still today remains a founding repatriated to japan it is very important for its government to return. to its properties for the deceased it was 5 times that year so it's about his dedication common to allow to make sybase. about 45 suits the means. to ship out the morial to both sides stand sentinel on the shores of pellegrino looking out across the wide expanse of the pacific ocean in memory of the men of 2 countries who died in battle thousands of kilometers from. al-jazeera helen.

look at the headlines right now on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump assigned 2 bills into law that back pro-democracy movement american sanctions can now be imposed on chinese and hong kong officials dame responsible for human rights abuses and special trade status will be reviewed every year the territories leaders say it will damage relations with the u.s. while china's expressed extreme regret over them saying it will respond with foreign countermeasures pedicle hansen following the developments from washington d.c. . the president made it clear he didn't want to sign this bill he doesn't want to see anything jeopardize what to him right now is the most important thing is getting that trade deal with china don't forget he wants to be reelected if you're going to do that he needs to win rural states rural states of the farmers are really hurting from this trade deal from this trade crisis so the president wants

to see a deal get made congress forces him she did it but he's sending the signal he might not put all that really into place and hong kong police have entered the polytechnic university for the 1st time since putting pro-democracy protesters under siege at that campus police say they're searching the grounds to remove makeshift weapons and petrol bombs university has been surrounded by police for 11 days after protesters retreated into the campus following fierce clashes that led to several arrests and after matic escalation of iraq's anti-government protests crowds of torques the iranian consulate in the holy city for shia muslims 100 surrounded the building lighting tires playing than anything else they could find while chanting iran out accused iran of propping up iraq's government which they want to replace at least 19 people have been killed in a rival attack near the village. in the democratic republic of congo to anger among locals who targeted a u.n.

peacekeepers saying they're failing to protect them earlier the united nations admitted one of its peacekeeper shot and killed one of the protesters who died in the last few days. unions and student groups in colombia are holding a 2nd nationwide strike in support of anti-government protests colombians are angry about corruption and propose cuts to minimum wages changes in pensions and rising taxes. so the headlines keep it here on al-jazeera more news to come the bottom line is that next. tool to use their own we were told to get to the ministry of ration has this been addressed by tookie we listen what he's the proposal. for a couple on you know we meet with news makers and talk about the stories that matter to 0. hi i'm steve clemons and i have a question has congress convince the american people that impeaching president donald trump is justified let's get to the bottom line.

the impeachment inquiry is officially 2 months old and it seems that the only thing that is really proved is that americans live side by side in 2 parallel universes in one donald trump tried to bribe a foreign country into investigating a political rival to win the elections next year and then the other democrats are conspiring to destroy the president at any cost and their partners are an evil media spewing fake news diplomats and bureaucrats from the quote deep state plus some ukrainians who many believe are the real meddlers in the last election rather than the russians so what universe are we fortunately.