welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: anger in italy. hopes fade of finding more survivors from the bridge collapse. 39 people died. some had a lucky escape. people were running, screaming in italian, "run, out!" "out, cars, out, cars!" "cars," so we just literally... "kids, run, run," because we didn't know what was happening. he has been an outspoken critic of the white house. now, president trump strips security clearance from former cia director john brennan. what is the story behind the killing of the half—brother of north korea's leader? two women charged with the murder will find out very soon if their trial will go on. the pilot whales stuck in an icelandic fjord twice in two days. no—ones is quite sure why. and a new era in tinseltown. crazy rich asians — the first hollywood movie in a genertion to be led by an all—asian cast. hello.

rescuers are spending a second night searching the rubble of a collapsed motorway bridge in genoa, but hopes of finding more survivors are all but gone. at least 39 people were killed when it plummeted to the ground on tuesday morning. in response to widespread public alarm about more possible failures in the region's infrastructure, a i2—month state of emergency has been declared in liguria. james reynolds sent this report from genoa. can there be anyone left underneath all this? to find out, rescuers will have to search under every broken concrete slab. but signs of life from beneath the rubble have now died away. translation: we haven't heard any cries since yesterday afternoon, but we may still find survivors.

looking up, you can see that some vehicles have been abandoned right on the edges of the section which is still standing, just ahead of the collapse. a few more seconds, and those drivers would have crashed to the ground. they were all incredibly lucky to survive. nicola and lisa henton—mitchell from oxfordshire were here on holiday with their two kids. they told me they were driving towards the bridge when they saw a commotion up ahead. people started shouting, waving their arms to reverse out the windows. and tooting horns and everything like that. and so we tried to reverse, and we couldn't go anywhere. and the car in front hit the front of our car, and then people were running, screaming in italian, "run, out!" "everyone, out, cars, out, cars!" "cars," so we just literally —

"kids, run, run," because we didn't know what was happening. we made our sonjust run, and we sort of grabbed our daughter's hand and started running. but we couldn't pick her up because all the car doors were flying away, people everywhere, torrential rain was coming down. screaming, and our daughter took her shoes off because she was just going to sleep before. she hasn't got her glasses. we left everything in the car, and we just ran for our lives. they took shelter in a motorway tunnel and waited for help. many other drivers ahead of them lost their lives. the victims include roberto robbiano, his wife, ersilia piccinino, and their seven—year—old son samuele. andrea cerulli was 48. he had a young son. he was killed on his way to work. 35—year—old father—of—four, luigi matti altadonna, was driving his work van. matteo bertonati, giovanni battiloro, gerardo esposito and antonio stanzione were all in their 20s and on their way to spain. they'd originally planned to fly,

but they ended up hiring a car instead. the country's prime minister, giuseppe conte, in just his third month as italy's leader, promises immediate steps. translation: these are unacceptable tragedies, that should not happen in modern society. this government will do everything to prevent such tragedies from happening again. but this has been promised before. yet for years, successive governments failed to fix italy's crumbling infrastructure. many italians will ask why this new administration should be any different. let's get some of the day's other news: at least 48 people have been killed in a suicide attack against an education centre in a mainly shia area of the afghan capital. many of those killed are believed to be teenagers who were getting extra tuition as they prepared for university entrance exams.

more than 60 people were wounded. the taliban have denied any involvement. police in london have been given more time to question the man arrested after a car crashed into a barrier outside parliament. salih khater is a british citizen who is originally from sudan. he is being questioned by counter—terrorism officers, although the bbc understands they haven't formally declared what happened at westminster a terrorist incident. the imprisoned former president of brazil, luiz inacio lula da silva, has been registered as a candidate for presidential elections in october, despite being in prison for corruption. thousands of his supporters gathered outside the supreme electoral court in brasilia to show their support. lula is expected to be barred from running since brazilian law bans people with criminal convictions from running for office. the united states has condemned turkey's decision to increase import duties on a number of american products, including rice, cars and coal. the white house said the move

was a step in the wrong direction. the two countries are in dispute about an american pastor who is under house arrest in izmir. the white house has broken with tradition and stripped the security clearance of a former cia director. john brennan has been highly critical of president trump on twitter. in response, he tweeted that the president's actions should gravely worry all americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. my principles are worth far more than clearances. i will not relent. historically, officials who have served in office often keep their access to weigh in on security matters and speak with their replacements. a number of other officials could also have their clearance withdrawn. for more on this, i have been speaking to our north america correspondent peter bowes. well, there has been, in some quarters, a very angry response to this. john kerry, for example, the former secretary of state in the last administration, said mr trump was behaving

like the ruler of a banana republic. and, of course, mr brennan himself sending out a tweet very quickly after hearing this news with his own views, suggesting that donald trump is trying to stifle free speech. he says the move is part of president trump's broader efforts to suppress freedom of speech and punish critics. he goes on, he says, "it should gravely worry all americans, including intelligence professionals about the cost of speaking out. my principles," he says, "are worth far more than clearances." i will not relent." it is true that he has been strong critic of the president, describing him as treasonous after his meeting with president putin.

as we have heard, there are other names on the list. this may not be the end. james comey, for example, who has described the president as "morally unfit to lead." he is one of the president's harshest critics, a former director of the fbi. he could potentially lose his clearance as well. others are suggesting that this could all be about the president's attempt to change the national conversation, or at least change the conversation on cable news in the states, which has been dominated in recent months by the russia investigation, and over the next couple of days we will have probably the conclusion of the trial of paul manafort, donald trump's former campaign manager, who is facing financial fraud charges, not directly linked to the trump campaign, but clearly he worked with him during that period in 2016, and that verdict could create more negative headlines for the president by the end of the week. the judge in the trial of two women charged with killing the half—brother of north korea's leader is expected to rule on thursday whether to proceed with the case against them. indonesian national siti aisyah and doan thi huong, who is from vietnam,

are accused of smearing the lethal nerve agent vx over kim jong—nam's face at kuala lumpur international airport last year. they say they believed they were playing roles in a prank television show. this is really the pivotal moment in this quite extraordinary trial, which is after hearing six months of evidence from the prosecution, more than 30 witnesses, more than 200 pieces of evidence, the judge has to decide at this stage whether there is actually a case against the two women. the prosecution have argued that the two women were culpable in what they describe as a professional assassination plot. now, they've also charged four north korean men who fled the country on the day that kim jong—nam was killed, in february last year. but very little has been said about north korea's involvement during this trial. the prosecution have focused purely on these two rather poor women who've got caught up in this, and tried to argue that they are, in their own words, professional assassins responsible for the death of kimjong—nam.

the defence have argued all along that the two women were essentially sucked into an elaborate plan by north korean officials, where they believed they were carrying out essentially pranks. they've pointed out lots of practice beforehand, payments made to the women, who were recruited in entertainment places here in kuala lumpur. and they've also pointed out that the failure of the police and the government to pursue the north koreans, who they say are the masterminds, leaves this case very, very weak. the judge must now decide whether to accept the case, push it forward, in which case we will, for the first time in future trials, hear from the two women themselves, and from many other witnesses. they face execution by hanging if they're found guilty of culpable murder, or the judge could dismiss the case. that in itself would be extraordinary.

it would mean there would be nobody at all being held accountable for this quite bizarre crime, or it's possible he may decide to downgrade the charge and say, "well, they weren't responsible for murder, they didn't know what they were doing, but perhaps they have some responsibility for his death." that verdict will come through in the next few hours, and after that we will know how malaysia's going to pursue this case. all the way through this, malaysia's downgraded relations with north korea, but it hasn't severed them. it's quite clear a political decision has been made by the previous government, it's been continued by this government, to try to maintain ties and even restore them with north korea. there seems to be no real will in the malaysian establishment to pursue north korea's role in this, even though everything we've seen so far suggests this was a north korean plot, and that these two women had, at best, a very minor role in it. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a push for more affordable homes. new zealand's parliament bans almost all foreigners from buying existing houses. the big crowds became

bigger as the time of the funeral approached. as the lines of fans became longer, the police prepared for a hugejob of crowd control. idi amin, uganda's brutalformer dictator, has died at the age of 80. he's been buried in saudi arabia, where he lived in exile since being overthrown in 1979. two billion people around the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to take place in this millennium. it began itsjourney off the coast of canada, ending three hours later, when the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is bbc world news.

the latest headlines: there's growing anger in italy following monday's bridge collapse, 39 people died and there's little chance of fimding anymore survivors despite the search continuing. —— tuesday's bridge collapse. president trump strips security clearance from the former cia directorjohn brennan, who has been an outspoken critic of the white house. the presenter and owner of the well—known far—right american media platform infowars was recently been banned from many social media platforms including facebook, youtube and spotify, for repeatedly alleging that the sandy hook school massacre which killed 20 children and 6 adults, did not happen. after coming under criticism for not joining the other social networks with a ban, twitter have now partially followed suit, suspended alexjones‘ personal and infowa rs accounts, but only for 7 days. it has reignited an ongoing discussion about the role social media companies should play in policing content on their sites. a short while ago i spoke to vox's internet culture reporter asia romarno, whojoined

us from new york. the public backlash has been intense over the last few weeks. in fact, as of yesterday, twitter only suspended alex jones‘s personal account and they suspended the info wars account as well. for many people as you know, alexjones is a disgrace, what he's done to the bereaved sandy hook parents is unforgivable and he also stated as a fact hillary clinton personally raped children. he thinks 9/11 was done by the government but in a way there's a much bigger issue, isn't there? it's about what is hate speech, what is freedom of speech, also whether these platforms are publishers, whether they have an editorial role, or whether they're just the tubes through which this stuff passes. right, and i think twitter has always tried very carefully to the line between protecting "free speech" and protecting people's right to be safe on the internet and not feel harassed.

in this case, where you have pernicious conspiracy theories existing to serve no political purpose or really to advance a rhetorical debate of any kind, it's just victimising people and hurting people. i think the general public opinion is that there's a very clear moral line here that twitter is refusing to acknowledge. there's a feeling, isn't there, that twitter has been more equivocal about this than other platforms. what is twitter‘s response to that? twitter basically started out by saying... to understand where twitter‘s coming from you have to understand twitter has been, ever since the election, implementing a series of progressive policies that have been intended to clarify its content policies and allow it to police toxicity on the platform, but they've done this in very inconsistent ways. so, for example, they could argue... you could argue that donald trump, the us president, violates

twitter content policy repeatedly, but in order to get around having to ban him they instituted a "newsworthy policy". things like that make it seem as though they want to look as though they're fighting toxicity but not actually fight toxicity by banning very prominent people. so if you take that into account when you look at alex jones, the logic that they gave was that he hadn't actually violated their content policies, which is really, really false. like, that was debunked by many media outlets after they made this announcement. and because of that, they then had to suspend him temporarily. yet, briefly if you can, aja, if social media networks accepted their responsibility really, employed the number of people they would need to police their content adequately, doesn't their business model become unmanageable entirely? well, there are arguments that that's true and that basically if we want social media, we have to have all of the toxic stuff and the detritus of the internet that goes along

with that if that makes sense. i think at this point the question isn't so much can we police the internet so much as are the companies we put our faith in willing to do their best efforts in order to give their users a safe environment? that's really all we can ask for. at this point i think twitter has lost faith from its user base that it's doing that. aja romano of vox there. now for whale of a tale, around a hundred of them got stuck in a fjord in iceland this weekend. police helped them get out of the fjord, in the west of the country. but less than 2a hours later they were back again, and needed help to get out once more. lebo diseko has the story. this is a rescue operation in action, the second in as many days for this pod of around 100 whales. they got stuck after swimming into a fjord whose opening is both narrow and shallow, making it hard to get out.

police helped guide them into more open waters, and it was hoped they'd go back to sea. but, the next day, they were back once again. cue rescue effort number two. translation: 13 of them went all the way to the shore, and we had to deal with them, push them out by hand, and that went very well. one of the whales even got stuck up on the shore and needed a kayaker to help get free. it's not clear why the group keep going back, but locals say they may be using the incoming tide to help them, and they've certainly attracted quite an audience. translation: naturally, this is interesting to see for both foreigners and icelanders, to view and experience this in nature. you can't see this in an aquarium. this is pure nature, which makes it more interesting. the group was eventually guided even further out

in the hope that they'd find their way to the ocean. that seems to have done the trick. but, if they do return, rescue teams will be on hand once again to help them find their way. lebo diseko, bbc news. new zealand's parliament has banned many foreigners from buying existing homes in the country, a move aimed at making properties more affordable. low interest rates, limited housing stock and immigration have been blamed for driving up prices in recent years. earlier i spoke to the person who announced the ban, new zealand's associate finance minister, david parker, who joined me from wellington. we do think that the housing market should be for those who have the right to live here permanently, and that it should be shaped by new zealand price pressures, not international demand. well, i'm lucky enough to have a new zealand passport. my mum was a kiwi, but that's beside the point. what you've done essentially is reclassify all residential land as sensitive land.

i know jacinda ardern campaigned on this. part of the point is to bring down homelessness and property prices generally, isn't it? it's part of it. we have the view that our most beautiful bays in the bay of islands and lakeside properties should be within the reach of the most successful new zealanders, and that it goes all the way down the income spectrum to the most modest home, which is nonetheless someone's dream. we've got the lowest rate of home ownership in new zealand since the 1950s, and we're addressing that in a number of ways, both on the demand side with measures like this, but also on the supply side with the big government house—building programme. i'm sure you know the figures, i was just looking at them. i can see the foreign investment percentage in auckland, 21%, that's very popular, in queenstown, 20%. but the overall level is relatively low, isn't it, nationwide? well, it's probably come off where it was a couple of years ago when the property market was running really hot, and there were fewer controls on outward capitalflows in some of the countries from which some of the buying pressure was coming. but, if you take queenstown,

about 10% of the properties across a whole district purchased by overseas people, and there's absolutely no doubt that's having an effect on the marginal price. there's a question as to how big the price effect is, but there's no doubt it has an effect. one of the effects of changing this is the construction capacity we have, both from new zealand investment and foreign direct investment, which we still allow into new housing, will will be delivered more into the needs of new zealanders, rather than than the higher—end buyers who would otherwise be diverting some of that construction effort. are you not worried that it will discourage foreign investment in other areas? no, we've been pretty explicit about that. we have high rates of foreign direct investment in much of our economy, and indeed, in the same piece of legislation that's introducing the ban on buying existing homes, we're loosening the foreign investment rules with respect to forestry. so those investors will make those

decisions based on the profitability of those investments, not on the basis of other investments that they can't make. the hotly—anticipated movie crazy rich asians has just been released across the united states. it's a significant milestone for hollywood because, in 25 years, it's the first studio film set in the present day to be led by an all—asian cast. tom brook reports from new york. what about us taking an adventure east? like, queens? singapore. crazy rich asians, inspired by a bestseller, tells the story of rachel, a chinese—american professor in new york, who travels with her 0xford—educated boyfriend to meet his family in singapore, where he was born. there, she discovers to her amazement that he's singapore's most eligible bachelor, and heir to a fortune. this romatic comedy chronicles her immersion into a world of extreme affluence, and her tense relationship with her boyfriend's mother. she just thinks you're some, like, unrefined banana.

no, no, no... those are for your fingers. yellow on the outside, and white on the inside. asian—americans have been to advance screenings of the movie in new york have responding enthusiastically, viewing it as validating. i've lived here my entire life, although i was born in china, and i've never seen a film that has such... has an asian cast, and has them portrayed in such diverse ways, and so glamourously. crazy rich asians stands in stark contrast to most hollywood films, where there's a dearth of asian stories and characters. 0ne survey has found, among top recent hollywood films, asians represented less than around one in 20 of all speaking characters. don't you want nick to be happy? i know you're not what nick needs. and often, the asian characters that do appear on screen reinforce negative stereotypes. crazy rich asians tries to deliver more rounded, authentic depictions of asian men and women. ever since i can remember, my family has been my whole life. crazy rich asians has been the target of some protest.

there were complaints that the leading man, who has a white british father and malaysian mother, wasn't asian enough for this asian—led film. there's also been some complaint over the representation of singapore in the film, that the local malay and indian populations have been ignored. for the criticism when it comes to it, there's not a lot of brown figures or actors or people from malaysia or india in the film. absolutely, there isn't enough. there should be more of these films to be able to represent everybody. but, again, this is a step in the right direction. clearly there's a lot riding on crazy rich asians. its performance at the box office is going to be closely watched. its success at the box office will, sort of, pave the way or open doors for other films that are sort of waiting in queue to be greenlighted, for production companies to bedistributed, to be funded. rachel, these people

aren'tjust rich. they're crazy rich. the release of crazy rich asians has been described as a watershed moment for asian representation. right now, the portents look good. the film has been getting strong media exposure, and it's been earning some very positive reviews. tom brook, bbc news, new york. russian cosmonauts from the international space station have been making a space walk. they've been launching four small technology satellites and installing an experiment called icarus onto the russian segment of the iss. the experiment may provide data about how disease spreads, some animals here on earth have been fitted with gps to track their movements. all the news any time on the bbc website. thank you for watching. hello there.

we're looking at quite a changeable spell of weather, really, over the next few days, with some rain around. we'll certainly get some rain as we go on through the next 2a hours. the satellite picture shows a band of cloud pushing in across the united kingdom for today, and this is rain—bearing cloud. now, we have seen three bands of rain that will tend to merge together into one as it moves its way in across england and wales as we go on through the next few hours. so there is some rain on the way for some of us. if you're out early a bit in the morning, a lot of cloud for england and wales, with bursts of heavy rain swinging across western england, wales, and on towards the midlands and central, southern england. add to that a lot of cloud and it will feel humid for these areas. a fresher feel to the weather in the north—west, but a lot of cloud and widespread frequent heavy thundery showers working in here as we go through thursday morning. so, the forecast through thursday. we've got our band of rain that will begin to spread

into east anglia and south—east england. as it pushes that bit further eastwards, it will tend to weaken at times, the rain becomes a little bit lighter as it swings into kent. further north and west, a cloudy morning coming up for scotland and northern ireland, with widespread heavy and at times thundery showers. it will be quite a breezy kind of day as well. there'll be some sunny spells between those showers as we head through the afternoon, with the showers becoming less widespread in northern ireland later in the day, and probably a bit more sunshine too for wales and south—west england later in the day too. for friday's chart, we've got another area of low pressure steaming in off the atlantic. this one's going to be bringing a belt of heavy rain into northern ireland, although there'll also be some rain for western scotland. after a dry and sunny start to the day on friday across eastern counties of england, well, it'll cloud over, but it should stay dry. it will be quite a gusty kind of day, though, with gusts up to 30—odd mph in the north—west of the country, along with that band of rain. now, temperature—wise, we're looking at highs of around 16—18 degrees across the north and west, but temperatures near average. in london, highs of 23.

now, looking ahead to the weekend, we have got some wet weather on the way. it's going to be quite breezy, the driest weather towards the south—east of england, particularly on saturday. but this area of low pressure has the remains of sub—tropical storm ernesto, and that's going to be bringing a belt of heavy rain that's probably going to be working in more really across northern ireland and scotland through sunday. so, in a bit more detail, across northern parts of the uk, scotland and northern ireland are likely to pick up a belt of very heavy rain on sunday. further south, meanwhile, we'll probably have drier conditions on saturday, but still the threat of rather cloudy skies on sunday, with some patchy bits and pieces of rain, especially in the west. that's your latest weather. bye for now. this is bbc news. the headlines: the italian government has declared a state of emergency in the liguria region after the motorway bridge collapse in genoa, that killed at least 39 people. five million euros will be freed from centralfunds in response to public concern about more possible infrastructure failures.

about 15 vehicles are still under the rubble, but there is little hope of more survivors. the former cia director john brennan, who has been a vocal critic of the white house, has had his security clearance removed on the orders of the president. a spokeman for mr trump also gave a list of other high—profile critics who may get the same treatment. luiz inacio lula da silva, has been registered as a candidate in prison for corruption. thousands of his supporters gathered , , outside the supreme electoral court in brasilia to show their support. now on bbc news, hardtalk.