this is bbc news. welcome if you are watching here in the uk, on pbs in america, or around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: china says it will take firm countermeasures as president trump signs legislation giving american backing to protesters in hong kong. from makeup advice to human rights watch, we speak to the tiktok star who claims china tried to censor her free speech. rescuers save a little boy after tueday‘s deadly earthquake in albania. powerful aftershocks continue to rock the area. more protests in malta, as an investigation into the murder of a prominentjournalist puts the government under intense pressure. and clive james, one of australia's most celebrated broadcasters and writers, has died

at the age of 80. the chinese government has announced it would take firm countermeasures after president trump has signed into law a bill that backs pro—democracy protesters in hong kong, despite objections from beijing. the bill approved by congress last week requires the state department to certify every year that hong kong has significant autonomy from the rest of china. that will decide whether hong kong retains the favourable trading terms with the us that have helped maintain its position as a world financial centre. the bbc‘s nick beake is in hong kong. nick, first of all, this bill signed by the president overwhelmingly approved by congress, what is

actually new here? what difference will it make? well, mike, it will make a difference in that every year they will have to be... i tell you what, as i talk, let'sjust walk this way, because we are on the campus of the trashed polytechnic university, and what is happening behind us, you will be able to see that there are emergency teams here, with police and fire service, they are going through all the stuff that the protesters have left behind at the protesters have left behind at the end of what has been a ten, 11 day siege. and there's lots of petrol—bombs that they have been working through. so while this activity is taking place, people are also taking on what has happened in washington. basically, what will happen, every year the americans will look at hong kong and i'll try and assess whether or not beijing is eroding essential civil liberties. it's been met with a furious reaction by beijing. they say america is interfering here. this is a sinister intentions, sinister intentions are behind this, and they

say they will respond with really strong countermeasures. and nick, on the point where you are at the moment, as we say, we have been waiting for the police to move on. the police did move in, effectively ending that 11 day siege. yes, that's right. let's just take you a little bit further inside so you can hopefully see a little bit of the activity. you're right, mike. the police teams came in this morning, and they say their mission really was not to arrest any remaining protesters they may find, but to make sure they are ok, so psychologists, social workers, have been going around the buildings of the university. because there has been the suggestion that some remaining supporters, pro—democracy activists, are hiding out there. now, we don't know what the actual picture is there at the moment, but it is clear that the police after ten or ii it is clear that the police after ten or 11 days of this going on want to draw a line under it. they want to draw a line under it. they want to move away from this. and of course, it was here that we witnessed some of the most dramatic and violent scenes of the five or six month crisis here in hong kong.

so yes, unclear whether there are still any remaining protesters inside, but certainly the pro—democracy movement, people who are in there who backed that movement, they have been delighted with what president trump has done. they say this represents a thanksgiving present to them. they think it shows the international community is on their side and backing theirfight community is on their side and backing their fight for greater autonomy in this place —— thanksgiving. of course, at the same time, as we have seen, china very, very angry, the hong kong authority suggesting the international community in the west in particular, the likes of america, the british and the australians, should really but out of this and leave this to china stop, at the polytechnic university, thank you very much. a short time ago, i asked our bejing correspondent john sudworth how the story was playing out there. we've had an immediate and pretty angry reaction from china's foreign ministry,

accusing washington of having absolutely sinister intentions, and threatening to take firm countermeasures. that threat we have heard before, as this bill has made its passage through the us legislative process, and there's no suggestion as to what those countermeasures might be. but i think, as you heard from nick there, you know, whilst the protesters, those campaigning for what they say is greater democratic freedoms in hong kong, will see this as a victory, as something that supports their cause, china, which has been warning all along that it sees the signs of foreign meddling and foreign influence in the situation in hong kong, is clearly going to take a very dim view of this. and, coming on top of those election results this week, this will be seen as only complicating things further, which is why i think we are seeing

such a firm response. we will hear a little more later from the hong kong democracy council. let's get some of the day's other news: ajudge in brazil has refused bail to four volunteer firefighters accused of deliberately starting fires in the amazon rainforest. the four men have links with an award—winning environmental organisation. police say they carried out the arson attack in order to raise awareness for their cause. the group has called the police allegations absurd. seven islamists have been sentenced to death for an attack on a cafe in the bangladeshi capital that killed 22 people. the attack in 2016 on the holey artisan cafe was carried out by five men who took diners hostage. eight people were on trial accused of planning the attack and supplying weapons. one was acquitted. the authorities in texas have ordered 60,000 residents in four towns to leave their homes after a series of explosions

at a petrochemical plant. officials in port neches, east of houston, gave the order after a blast destroyed a chemical distillation tower. a backlash from subscribers seems to have forced twitter to delay plans to disable inactive accounts. on monday, twitter began contacting users who hadn't logged in for six months, warning them their accounts would be deleted unless they signed in. twitter execs now say they hadn't considered the potential upset caused by removing accounts belonging to users who have died. the hugely popular social media platform tiktok, which is chinese—owned, has apologised to an american teenager who was banned from the site after videos she made criticising china went viral. her videos appear at first to be makeup tutorials, but they develop into denunciations of china's treatment of the uighur community in xinjiang. vivienne nunis went to meet her.

broadcasting from a bedroom in newjersey to the world, in four days, feroza aziz‘s snappy video has been watched more than 5 million times on tiktok and twitter. curl your lashes, obviously. then you're going to put them down and use your phone, that you're using right now, to search up what's happening in china, how they're getting concentration camps, throwing innocent muslims in there... so why did this 17—year—old high school student decide to speak out about an issue on which so many have stayed silent? as a muslim, i have always faced oppression and racism. but to see that these group of people, this ethnic group, is going through much more than i could ever even imagine, i thought this isn't right and i need to spread awareness about the. tiktok is owned by the beijing—based bytedance, and it has faced criticism by some who believe it censors content that could offend chinese sensibilities. shortly after posting the videos, feroza's tiktok account was suspended, and her handset was blocked from accessing the platform. tiktok says that move is unrelated to her posts about the uighurs. but feroza is unconvinced.

tiktok also briefly took down her video about uighurs. the company has now apologised and restored access to tiktok on feroza's phone. the chinese government has consistently claimed that xinjiang's uighurcamps are for voluntary re—education. but, just this week, the bbc‘s panorama programme exposed lea ked documents revealing how muslims there are locked up in a security presence, indoctrinated, and punished. i will continue to talk about it, and i will talk about it on twitter, on instagram, on any platform i have, even tiktok. i'm not scared of tiktok, even after the suspension. i won't be scared of tiktok. another sign of how powerful social media platforms have become. vivienne nunis, bbc news. rescuers in albania are still searching for survivors of tuesday's earthquake, the worst in the country for years. at least 30 people are known to have died in the quake, magnitude 6.4. gareth barlow has more details.

screaming frantically working by torchlight, rescuers dug with their bare hands to free a young boy trapped by rubble. his solitary cry an expression of the pain felt by albanians as they come to terms with the most powerful earthquake in decades. as after—shocks continue, teams from a dozen countries are working tirelessly, with special equipment and sniffer dogs, to find those still trapped in ruined buildings. we're waiting for the police and the rescue team to find... because i'm his friend, and his cousins are lost. and it's also a girl that is not found yet. she's young, and it was his... yeah, 20 years old, and we're waiting for the rescue team. whole families have perished in the disaster. for those who escaped, the fear of further tremors saw hundreds prepare to spend a second

night sleeping in tents. translation: six of us crammed into a car, and we hardly slept at all. it was so tight. we had to sleep in a car because we couldn't get a place in a tent. we registered today, and now we're waiting for a tent. states of emergency have been declared in the worst—hit areas. thursday is independence day in albania, but celebrations have been cancelled, as people mourn for those who lost their lives and the search continues for those still missing. gareth barlow, bbc news. the maltese government is under intense pressure as protests continue over the murder of the journalist daphne caruana galizia. a determined investigator of corruption, she was killed two years ago by a car bomb. her death shocked maltese society, and her family have led the calls for justice. malta's prime minister is facing calls to resign, and three senior figures from his government have stood down. all deny any wrongdoing, including any involvement in the murder. damian grammaticas reports. chanting

"mafia", they shout. "corruption". the targets of their anger — the politicians inside malta's parliament. why are you here tonight? because not only they have killed a journalist, just for money and power, but they have also brought the country to its knees. that journalist and mother of three sons was daphne caruana galizia. two years ago, three men were arrested for planting the bomb that blew up her car. but who ordered the killing, and have investigations been slow because they've been protected from high up? in the crowds was her niece. it's disgusting that nothing has been done in these past two years. we need justice. we need answers. what has energised the protests here is the sense that corruption might finally be being tackled in malta. impunity might be coming to an end,

as investigators focus on some of the richest and most powerful people on the island. inside the eu, malta has acquired wealth, but what daphne caruana galizia wrote about were the murky connections of its rich elites. last week, police investigating her murder arrested yorgen fenech, one of malta's richest men. this week, the minister who gave him a huge energy contract, konrad mizzi, stood down. and so did keith schembri, the prime minster‘s chief of staff. he is being questioned by police. but, this evening, prime minister joseph muscat was defiant. malta's opposition want him to stand aside so he can't interfere in the investigation. when he refused, they walked out. and, outside the prime minister's office, daphne caruana galizia's sister told me corruption that malta has enabled is an issue all of europe should worry about. very importantly, for the sake

of security of everybody in europe, investigators in malta who are trying to follow a dirty money trail need all the support they can get from external agencies, to make sure they can follow that trail wherever the evidence leads, and make sure that everybody implicated faces justice. justice, meaning all the crooked and the shady her sister wrote about are pursued, notjust the killers. damian grammaticas, bbc news, malta. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: powerful winter storms strand drivers and air passengers on the eve of thanksgiving. president kennedy was shot down and died almost immediately. the murder ofjohn kennedy is a disaster for the whole free world. he caught the imagination of the world, the first of a new generation of leaders. margaret thatcher is resigning as leader of the conservative party and prime minister. before leaving number 10 to see the queen, she told her cabinet,

"it's a funny old world." angela merkel is germany's first woman chancellor, easily securing the majority she needed. attempts to fly a hot—air balloon had to be abandoned after a few minutes, but nobody seemed to mind very much. as one local comic put it, "it's not hot air we need, it's hard cash." cuba has declared nine days of mourning following the death of fidel castro at the age of 90. castro developed close ties with the soviet union in the 1960s. it was an alliance that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war with the cuban missile crisis. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: china says it will take what it called "firm countermeasures" after president donald trump signed legislation backing protesters in hong kong.

let's stay with that story. samuel chu is the managing director of hong kong democracy council, i asked him what was new about the legislation. i think that this represents a new era and a new phase of the us — hong kong policies and relations. and also a new day in us—china policy relations. because what this bill does it shows the us is seriously stepping up to fulfil its obligation to hong kong promises that were made to hong kong promises that were made to hong kong promises that were made to hong kong. and it now has a unique sense of relationship with the city of hong kong, which i think is an incredible change and shift from the past. samuel, that will be true only if it is implemented. what you have his president trump signing it, congress overwhelmingly supporting it, but it will need to be implemented? exactly. and i think

this is really a reflection on the fa ct this is really a reflection on the fact that there was really 25 years that led to the situation today. i'm glad the hong kong democracy council has come together to keep the pressure on making sure that the us government is doing the valuation and certifications faithfully and diligently to make sure the visa processing is actually being monitored, and also to look at specific ways that that sanctions must be taken in incidents where hong kong police and china officials have actually committed and violated human rights. samuel, does it worry you that president trump is not consistent? the record shows he goes back on assurances he gives. he has

frankly betrayed alliances and allies and he likes authoritarian leaders. he is trying to do a trade deal with china. if he does a trade deal, is it possible he could dump support for hong kong? two things. i think this is not unique to this administration. we have had success of administrations in the us that didn't do enough or didn't do anything or have done other equally horrible things to protecting hong kong. so i think this opens up a new possibility for political negotiation that didn't exist before. and i don't think it'sjust on the shoulder ofjust the president, but the pressure now exists in terms of congress speaking clearly, civic leaders speaking clearly, civic leaders speaking clearly a nd clearly, civic leaders speaking clearly and actually having these measures in place as an option, opens a new political solutions to hong kong's future. american backing must surely help the people in

beijing painting the protesters as puppets of foreign powers. what do you understand from this threat of beijing of countermeasures? first of all, i always and continue to say to the beijing government that this is the beijing government that this is the deal they made. this is the deal that deng xiaoping came to the us to negotiate for hong kong's special status in exchange for protecting autonomy and freedom. so this is an foreign influence, —— isn't, this is a stepping up to the deal. this presents the hong kong and chinese authority another opportunity, riding the landslide wins in the district council elections, this is another moment that they can really step up and say you know what, we are ready to now negotiate and concede to some of the demands the hong kong people have. i think we're

just going to keep giving the chinese government as many opportunities as we can do step up to the plate. samuel chu of the hong kong democracy council. just briefly there, police have moved into the polytechnic university. the university management warned them the campus was full of dangerous materials such as petrol—bombs and corrosive materials. students have barricaded themselves inside, up to 1000. many have either surrendered or escaped. the university, many of the facilities are in ruins. the university management has notified the police of the severe damage and also the campus has been filled with also the campus has been filled with a lot of dangerous items such as the corrosive petrol—bombs et cetera. —— corrosive petrol—bombs et cetera. —— corrosive materials. i think most of the public at would like to see the

police and other government departments to solve the crisis as soon as possible. that is the view from the police there in hong kong. in the us, the thanksgiving holiday often involves a last—minute trip the store. but this year in some parts of the country they'll do better picking up a snow shovel and some skis. colorado has been walloped by the white stuff with several flights cancelled. that storm is now moving east and causing trouble for holiday travellers. 33 states are under travel advisories. in new york, a major concern is whether the usual massive balloons will fly in the annual macy's thanksgiving parade. laura trevelyn has been finding out more. will 0laf fly tomorrow? that's the burning question here in new york city. never mind the impeachment inquiry into president trump. will the giant inflatables which are a feature of the thanksgiving day parade be allowed off the ground, or will that storm system coming in from the midwest ground them? now, here is why it's important. because actually, back in 1997, felix the cat, one of the big

balloons, injured four people when it banged into a street lamp. so there are very, very strict rules governing whether the balloons can fly. if winds are at above 23 mph, and if they're gusting at above 3a mph, the balloons are grounded. now, that is a decision that will be made by parade officials early on thursday morning. when they look at the forecast, then we will know whether the nutcracker will be allowed to leave the ground and fly, or if he's going to be dragged along the ground, which is what is going to happen if they can't fly. will they fly? will they not? we will let you know as soon as we know. the writer, poet, broadcaster and critic clive james has died. he was 80, but had survived for the past decade with leukaemia and failing kidneys. 0ur correspondent david sillito looks back at a life and career of piercing humour and smart, often profoundly moving insights. # hello, clive...

welcome once again to the bbc's first deregulated, lead—free, self—financing, fully—sponsored tv programme. for your protection, the entire show has been pre—boiled for one minute. clive james, the tv critic who became a tv star talking about... tv. if you're yet to see a welsh soap opera, then you must catch the bbc's pobol y cwm. the action in pobol y cwm is nonstop. british broadcasting corps, night training, sunday... but there was so much to him. he was a comic performer, a journalist, essayist, poet and a lyricist. i would classify me as a writer, because everything i do is based on writing, even when i'm improvising on tv, like now, i'm writing it in my head just before i say it. if it's any good at all! and that's what i do. his tv shows jumped between prime—time entertainment... hi, girls! ..and highbrow brain food. born in sydney, his childhood became a bestselling memoir. when sydney was all there

was to see, i couldn't see it. but now i can. he arrived in britain in the ‘60s and, as a student, joined the cambridge footlights. the giant toad having joined the water—dwelling worms aboard the plastic pants, coffin number three is uncovered. in the ‘80s, we laughed with him at shows that british television would then go on to copy. in our time, fame is everywhere — you can't get away from it... by the end of the ‘90s, his tv career was coming to an end, but the words kept flowing. he rekindled his songwriting partnership with pete atkin. # touch has a memory... and then he was diagnosed with leukaemia. in 2010, and again a year later, he thought he was about to die. he was saved by a new drug. i was in serious medical trouble, and i got saved, and so this is spare time. and it's very important to me, because i wasn't expecting to have it, and it'sjust good manners

to try and use it well. clive james could write about anything — from commentaries on proust to an appreciation of eddie waring to this, his words on facing the end, hoping that he would live long enough to see the leaves emerge on a newly planted maple tree. filling the double doors to bathe my eyes, a final flood of colours will live on. as my mind dies, burned by my vision of a world that shone so brightly at the last, and then was gone. just briefly a reminder of that may news again, president trump has signed into law a bill approved by the us congress that supports pro—democracy protesters in hong kong. the bill requires the state department to certify every year that hong kong retains enough

autonomy from beijing to justify favourable trading terms of the us. the chinese government has announced it will take firm countermeasures in response. that it for now. thank you for watching. hello. yesterday we saw scenes like these across parts of scotland and the north—east of england, relentless rain. today the picture is going to gradually become drier, but that dryness comes with another change. much colder airflooding in across the uk. this is the low to thank for the wet weather. this front will clear south through the day. eventually the wet weather moving away, but behind it, the wind turns northerly and the cold arctic air sinks its way south into all parts of the uk, in fact, by the end of the week. here we start on thursday

still with wet weather across north—eastern england, but also extending into northern ireland, parts of wales, eventually reaching southern england come the afternoon. by then the skies start to clear and things will brighten for the north. but those white arrows surging down are the first signs of the cold air trickling in to the south. in the north, six or seven degrees, but with the effect of the wind it will feel so different. it will look different as well. thankfully we will see the return of some drier and brighter weather. still some rain around to the south of the uk through thursday evening. friday morning, most of it clearing offshore, but the legacy of the cloud will help to hold up the temperatures towards the south—west overnight. meanwhile to the north, it's a widespread frost, and in some more rural parts, quite a hard frost at that. the cold air in place, lots of fine weather as that frontal system moves off into the continent, but with northerly winds and some showers possible for our north sea coasts and drifting into the north york moors, some of them could be wintry, a few wintry ones for the highlands

as well, and a cold one for everybody on friday, temperatures down to single figures and a cutting northerly wind. now, here's saturday, high pressure's still clinging on, but it looks like this system will try to eke into the picture from the atlantic. just how far north the rain will push is probably the biggest question. pretty windy and wet weather on the cards for the south—west of england and south wales through saturday. elsewhere it stays fine but it will remain distinct chilly, with temperatures at six or seven degrees, whereas we're looking at 11 in plymouth. by sunday, though, that will be sinking south, and we should see some widespread fine weather all parts of the uk to enter the weekend. come the start of the new week, though, some frontal systems potentially toppling into scotland, bringing more cloud and outbreaks of rain, but perhaps some just slightly milder air as well. but certainly to start our new week, we are looking at fine weather, but a colder outlook than we have been used to.

this is bbc news. the headlines: china says it will take firm countermeasures after president donald trump signed legislation backing protesters in hong kong. the legislation requires the state department to certify that hong kong retains enough autonomy to justify favorable us trading terms. the islands government says it opposes and regrets donald trump's decision. the maltese government is under intense pressure as protests continue over the murder of a prominentjournalist. daphne caruana galizia was killed two years ago by a car bomb. she was investigating corruption on the island. malta's prime minister, joseph muscat, is facing calls to resign. rescuers in albania have saved a small boy as they continue to search for survivors of tuesday's earthquake, the worst in the country for years. at least 30 people are known to have died in the 6.a—magnitude quake.