this is the briefing. i'm sally bundock. our top story: china says it will take "firm counter measures" after president donald trump signs legislation backing protesters in hong kong. from make—up advice to human rights campaigner. we meet the tiktok star who's rejected the social media firm's apology and insists that china has tried to censor her free speech. rescuers save a little boy after an earthquake in albania claims at least 30 lives. in business, crypto crime wave. theft and fraud losses from digital currencies are soaring — as the market continues to boom

a warm welcome to the programme, briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business, and sport. also in the programme, british actorjohn boyega has admitted that he left his copy of the closely—guarded script for the new star wars movie under his bed and that it ended up for sale on ebay. that was after he moved and it was left behind. so we'd like to know have you ever lost anything important or valuable? president trump has signed a bill into law in support of pro—democracy protesters in hong kong. under the new act, the us will have to be satisfied that hong kong retains sufficient autonomy before it agrees favourable trading terms. the hong kong government said

the legislation would send a wrong signal to the protesters. china described it as a gross interference in its internal affairs. our correspondent nick beake is in hong kong. nick, i would nick, iwould imagined nick, i would imagined that the pro—democracy protesters are very happy about this move in the united states. sally, they are absolutely ecstatic this morning. they see this as the best possible thanks giving present that dot —— president ontong could have given them. they say this isa could have given them. they say this is a vindication of their campaign for the last five months —— president donald trump. it is wide international support as they try to gain more freedoms here or try to hold on the freedoms they have got in the face of what they would say the chinese erosion of those

essential liberties. let me tell you what is happening this morning. these are police officers who moved in this morning, finally, to the polytechnic university campus which has been the scene of this siege for the past ten or 11 days, some of the most violent and dramatic episodes in this crisis. they are now clearing away everything here. other teams, not riot officers, but teams with psychologists and social workers are making their way around this huge complex, trying to go into all the different classrooms, lecture theatres, storage rooms, to see if there are any more protestors here. the working assumption is that eve ryo ne here. the working assumption is that everyone has left but not sure about this so they are trying to assess that this morning. and then at the point where they think no—one is here they presumably will start up the proper clear up. it will cost a lot of money to bring this place to the condition it once was in. we can see behind you the bottles and the bits and bobs used to try to make weapons, as it were, during those violent protests weapons, as it were, during those viole nt protests of weapons, as it were, during those violent protests of a week or so

ago. what is happening to those who held out? as they leave the polytechnic university are they being arrested, questions, what's going on? well, we think most people have got out. there has been some suggestion, whispers, that if you people, maybe a handful, still inside. the police have said, thing because we have got to this point, that their priority today is to make sure they are ok and not arrest them. the protesters maybe 15—16 yea rs them. the protesters maybe 15—16 years old, who may be have not had the food and water supplies they would have done over the past week or $0 would have done over the past week or so stop it is there well—being the police are worried about. these officers and their colleagues will be using and collecting criminal evidence for use in future prosecutions. the police have taken a really tough line honours. we know about 1000 people were here at the height of the disturbance —— on this. we saw people trying to escape

by abseiling from bridges and making a runfor by abseiling from bridges and making a run for it. the police fired rubber bullets and tear—gas at them. they saw this as a really serious crime, this occupation. it is something they will pursue through the courts in the coming days. thank you. nick beake in hong kong for us. let us see how that has played out in china. our beijing correspondent john sudworth explains how the story is playing out in china. we have 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 is no suggestion as to what those countermeasures might be. but i think as you heard from nick there,

while the protest is, those campaigning for what they say a greater democratic freedoms in hong kong will see this as a victory, something that will support their cause, china, which has been morning 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. in coming on top of those election results this week, this will be seen as only complicating things further, which is why i think seeing such a firm response. that is john in beijing. later with business briefing we will speak to rico and how this has moved financial markets and what it means for the fragile trade talks between us and china. all that a little later. 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 make—up 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 leaked documents revealing how muslims there are locked up in high—security prisons, 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.

let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news. two winter storms are affecting travellers in the united states jeopardising their enjoyment of forthcoming thanksgiving holiday. motorists were left stranded and thousands of flights delayed in oregon and california. heavy rain threatened flash floods from san diego to los angeles. protesters have again been out on the streets of the maltese capital valletta demanding the resignation of the prime ministerjoseph muscat over his handling of the murder of the investigative journalist, daphne ca ruana galizia. mr muscat has stood by his chief of staff, who has been questioned over the murder and who resigned this week. a three—day general strike is expected to begin across lebanon to push for the formation of a new government. it's the latest development in six weeks of protests sparked by deep discontent with the ruling elite over the ailing

economy and corruption. 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 gave the order after a blast destroyed a chemical distillation tower. let's turn to our top business story — crime and fraud involving digital currencies is soaring. losses have hit almost four and a half billion dollars so far this year, according to new research, up 150% on the whole of last year. since bitcoin arrived a decade ago the market has exploded — there are now more than 1,500 different digital currencies in use. inga beale is on the board of business campaign group london first and is former chief executive of lloyds of london.

good to see you again. cryptocurrencies send a shiver down many people's spines, because it is quite difficult to understand the system that is based on blockchain and everything else and yet they seem to be very, very popular. they are. huge growth in them. like anything to do with technology, actually. because everything will be techin actually. because everything will be tech in the future. i think this just goes to show the new vulnerabilities we have got in our world today and how easy it is to go m, world today and how easy it is to go in, do these scams, and they are ever more sophisticated, and just to think about one of the scams is based on one individual creating a currency. he then pops off, he dies, u nfortu nately, currency. he then pops off, he dies, unfortunately, tragically for him, but suddenly $195 million has disappeared. this is an example in this new research that highlights some of the fraud that is going on with regards to cryptocurrencies. bitcoin, for example, and several others are completely legitimate and have been running for a long time.

very volatile in terms of value. so they are kind of risky. they are kind of rescue. a lot of people won't bed too much on them in one go —— risky. this is the underbelly of the technological revolution we are having. the dark underbelly of cybercrime. it is sitting everywhere. in fact, cybercrime. it is sitting everywhere. infact, cybercrime numbers in total in a year make this look quite small because it was, one of the criminology professors in the university in britain said he thought cybercrime last year was $1.5 trillion. a big market. u nfortu nate. $1.5 trillion. a big market. unfortunate. criminals chase the money. this is what they are doing. thank you finau. inga beale is back later in the news briefing —— for 110w. later in the news briefing —— for now. we will dig deeper into business briefing. rescuers in albania 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 six—point—four—magnitude quake. 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. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: we have a special report from the black sea, where major efforts are being made to stop it from being the dumping ground for south—eastern europe. 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.

you're watching the briefing. our headlines: china says it will take "firm counter measures" after president donald trump signed legislation backing protesters in hong kong. rescuers save a little boy after an earthquake in albania claims at least 27 lives. tackling waste and in particular plastics in our seas and oceans is now recognised as a priority for governments around the world. for decades the black sea was treated as a dumping ground for agricultural and industrial waste — with things so bad that scientists considered parts of it almost entirely dead. so how are things now? in the first of a two part special report, our correspondent jonah fisher and video journalist abdujalil abdurasulov travelled across the region looking for answers.

this is the dnieper in eastern ukraine. for decades, euro's rivers have washed waste into the black sea. we are being shown what is known as blooming. it happens when excess nutrients, often from fertilisers, because a rapid growth in algae. starting the water of oxygen. decades of regular blooming has killed off life in large parts of the black sea. creating underwater deserts were only jellyfish drive. on the black sea's eastern coast in georgia, we see and smell another of its big problems. so this is the main rubbish dump here in batumi, but the big issue

for here is that it is only about 300, 400 metres from this rubbish dump to the black sea itself, and there is a waterway which basically leads all the way down there. taking rubbish with it. this isjust one of numerous examples around the black sea of how easily poorly managed waste can get into the water. we have already kind of disturbing evidence that the marine letter, number of floating items per square metre, has almost doubled compared to the mediterranean sea. it is the worst situation for all the european seas. even more alarming is the evidence of how deep the contamination goes. we are on board a research vessel hundreds of kilometres from shore, and this probe is being sent to kilometres down to take samples from the

seabed. analysis of the mud has revealed the presence of tiny fragments of plastic, known as micro plastics. these scientists also have worrying news about what they are discovering in the water. the biggest threat is coming from medical waste, especially antibiotics. because of their antibiotics. because of their antibiotics and the black sea that means bacteria will develop your which can resist the antibiotics and me that ultimately that medicine does not work anymore? yeah, this is now a real problem. people are dying from this. taken together, it is a sobering catalogue of environmental work. testament to decades of neglect and abuse. but in the next pa rt neglect and abuse. but in the next part of our black sea journey, we look at what is being done to turn things around, and discover that projects thousands of kilometres away just projects thousands of kilometres awayjust might projects thousands of kilometres away just might make projects thousands of kilometres awayjust might make a difference.

the second ofjonah fisher's reports can be seen on bbc world news on friday. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello, i'm chetan pathak with thursday's sport briefing. the european champions league holders liverpool missed the chance to reach the knockout stages with a game to spare after being held at home by napoli. a win for either side at anfield would have seen them through, and it was napoli who took the lead midway through the first—half with a goalfrom dries mertens. but dejan lovren equalised for liverpool in the second half — a point each though means that nothing will be decided until the final round of matches in two weeks time when liverpool face a tricky test to salzburg. a lot of people around liverpool probably think, now we have to play again, and have to put in everything that we have. but it was never

different. i can't remember one game, since i'm here, where we could go in with 50%. so that is our situation. and it is ok, it is not brilliant but it is ok. lionel messi scored in his 700th game for barcelona as they sealed their place in the last 16 of the champions league with a 3—1 win over borussia dortmund, whilst emil forsberg scored twice in the 90th and 96th minute as rb leipzig came from 2—0 down to draw 2—2 with benfica and make it through to the knockout stages. unai emery says he's only focused on the present as he prepares for arsenal's game against eintracht frankfurt on thursday, one of 24 games in the europa league. the pressure is on the arsenal boss after a winless run in his last six matches across all competitions. arsenal are top of their group though, four points clear of standard liege and their german opponents. it's a competition emery won three times when in charge at sevilla.

england vice—captain ben stokes has given his full support tojoe root ahead of the second test against new zealand on friday. england were beaten by an innings and 65 runs at mount maunganui with root making just 13. he's not scored a century since february and has faced suggestions that captaining the side's affected his batting. he has got the backs of everybody in the changing room. that is the most important thing to him as a captain and to us as players in general. you know, the only thing that matters is the changing room vibe, really. anything outside of that is just noise. he is england's captain, he has england's bass player, and he knows that and he has got the full support of us in the change rooms. —— best player. but from me chetan pathak and the rest of the sport team, that's your thursday sport briefing.

the bright colours of cheriyal scroll paintings have been bringing indian folk tales and religious texts to life for centuries. it's a 500—year—old art form, unique to the southern indian state of telangana, but it has struggled to remain relevant — until now. a group of traditional artists have been reviving the tradition, creating contemporary products with cheriyal paintings. shivaani kohok reports. the 500—year—old cheriyal style of painting is unique to the southern indian state of telangana. but its popularity has waned over the years. there are only 16 cheriyal artists left today. but they're determined to revive the art form. translation: i never thought i would paint for a living because the market for this art was so bad. but then we decided to explore new ideas. the experiment worked. so younger artists like my brother and i are continuing to make

cheriyal art. but they have not altered the technique. they use natural colours and organic materials like tamarind seeds and powdered wood. translation: storytellers used to wear these masks and narrate myths to entertain people. now we make smaller masks as wall decor. cheriyal was once famous for its long scroll paintings. they depicted tales from hindu epics. these scrolls were used in village fairs to tell stories. as oral storytelling started to disappear, cheriyal paintings became an endangered art form, but that is starting to change. translation: the market for cheriyal art is great right now. apart from those who are buying, there are those who are learning about it.

we are getting lots of orders online and the government and other organisations are supporting us too. he says that art is a reliable source of income for him, and he hopes to continue this family tradition for many more years. and tell me what you think about our talking point today. have you lost something that proved to be very valuable law very, very costly? the reason we are asking the question is because john costly? the reason we are asking the question is becausejohn boyega, the british actor who is in star wars of course, when he was moving house the left is closely guarded copy of the latest script of the new star wars movie under his bed, he moved, a cleaner founded and put it on sale on ebay, just $89, i think. anyway, somebody from star wars intercepted,

founded, and purchased it for more. nothing was disclosed. that is the happy ending. hello. yesterday relentless rain, we saw scenes like these across parts of scotland and the north—east of england. today we are anticipating things becoming drier here is the rain sinks southwards. as it does so, though, we're gonna see much colder air following on behind it. this is below‘s been generating older wet wet weather. this trailing front is what's left of it for us today, and behind the front, a northerly wind picks up. the arctic air starts to feed in and it will trickle its way all the ways south by the end of the week. so, first thing today, still some rain across the north—east of england, that will clear, i think, through the morning. then our front brings quite wet conditions do northern ireland, wales and southern counties of england as we had on into the afternoon, early evening. but we are still seeing temperatures peaking in double figures here.

in the north, clear skies, much more sunshine, but a cutting northerly wind and highs of just five and six, feeling very, very different, even by this afternoon. on through the evening and overnight, some heavy rain for a while out of that front across southern england, perhaps in wintry showers coming in on the northerly wind to parts of scotland. we've also got some ice here first thing on friday. and a widespread frost, just enough cloud to the south holding temperatures up. but a hard frost as well for some more rawer parts of scotland. chance of a few more wintry showers here, too on friday. the northerly wind perhaps a little lighter, there's still a chance of some showers coming in off the north sea coast, and they could wintry across the north york moors. a chilly day, just about everywhere, just four degrees there in aberdeen. i day on into saturday, we still have the area of high

pressure with us, that will mean a lots of dry and chilly weather across the uk, but this low is set to come into play across into saturday, winding its way into the south—west of england, it will mean some milder conditions, it could also be a prolonged spell of rain and pretty strong winds as well. a little bit of uncertainty as to just how far north that rain may reach and how far east. so, 11 for example, in wet plymouth, elsewhere with sunshine, five, six, seven. still feeling chilly, but with lighter winds, and i think we'll see to end the week. saturday into sunday, the lows of into the continent, the highs starts to build again. it's because the high re orientates a little bit, we could see a bit more cloud to monday, tuesday for scotland, some patchy rain possible at times but gradually some milder air feeding in here. they chilly outlook for all of us to start next week.

this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. crypto crime wave. theft and fraud losses from digital currencies are soaring, as the market continues to boom. plus, your own village from only $55,000. how one entrepreneur is attracting investment to spain's abandoned countryside. and on the markets — new record highs for wall street after better than expected figures on the us economy. but that optimism is fading in asia after president trump signed legislation supporting the hong kong protestors, potentially threatening us—china trade talks.