welcome to bbc news. i'm lisa—marie misztak. our top stories: two of the four americans kidnapped in northern mexico on monday have been found dead, refocusing attention on gang violence in the country. the white house says it supports a bipartisan bill in congress that will give president biden new powers to ban the chinese—owned app tiktok in the us. the romance scams that cost people thousands of dollars: the bbc speaks to former gang members. britain's prime minister says he's "up for the fight" to bring in new legislation to prevent migrants crossing the channel. the un refugee agency says it will punish asylum seekers. ahead of sunday's oscars ceremony, we speak to the star and director of best picture nominee elvis.

two of four americans kidnapped in mexico on monday have been found dead. the two survivors have returned to the us. the group was fired on by gunmen while driving through matamoros in the northeast after crossing into mexico from texas. a mexican woman also died in the violence. a suspect is in custody. here's our mexico correspondent will grant. caught up at the epicentre of mexico's violent drug war. this unconfirmed video reportedly shows the moment that the four us citizens, in mexico for a cosmetic health procedure for one of them, were kidnapped. only one appeared to be conscious, ramping up the fears for their relatives

in north carolina. those fears were later confirmed in the most public of ways by the governor of tamaulipas state, speaking live to the mexican president in his morning press briefing. translation: about an hour ago, we were notified that there - were indications of a sighting of the four american citizens. and 35 minutes ago, it was fully confirmed by the prosecutor's office. two of the four are dead. one is injured and the other is alive. the ambulances and the rest of the security personnel are on their way to give the necessary assistance for the transfer and any medical support that may be required. this was supposed to be a short trip to mexico by a close group of friends, but it descended into another tragic and violent episode on the border. health tourism to mexico is common and popular among people living in southern us states. but matamoros is one of the most dangerous cities in this country. tamaulipas, one of its most dangerous states.

the four americans had travelled together for one of them, 33—year—old latavia �*tay�* mcgee, to undergo a minor procedure. she was accompanied by shaheed woodard, zindell brown and eric williams. but the group never made the appointment. the incident further strains the already difficult us—mexico relationship. the cartels are responsible for the deaths of americans, and we are fighting as hard as possible. the dea and the fbi are doing everything possible to dismantle and disrupt and ultimately prosecute the leaders of the cartels and the entire networks that they depend on. under president lopez obrador, the mexican drug war has continued to worsen. critics say his security policy, often described by his "hugs, not bullets" simply isn't working, with the cartels in control of swathes of the country. now, as these four us visitors return home in the worst possible circumstances, they become the latest victims of mexico's endless war with organised crime.

will grant, bbc news, mexico city. our mexico correspondent will grant gave us this update. well, let me start by giving you the state department's travel advice for the state of tamaulipas. they obviously advise us citizens not to go there, saying that it is a state where organised crime activity, including gun battles, murder, armed robbery, car—jackings, kidnapping, forced disappearance, extortion and sexual assault is common along the border. so that gives you a picture ofjust how dangerous the entire state of tamaulipas is, and specifically this city of matamoros, of the absolute flashpoints in tamaulipas. it is worth bearing in mind that currently two factions of the same cartel, the gulf cartel, are at war over control of the roots north for drugs, but it's notjust the drug war. we talk about the drug war in mexico,

but really, this goes long beyond that. it is about control of the routes for trafficking migrants north, moving guns south from the us and money north, it is about the whole spread of criminal activity, much of which is contained along the border, specifically in states like tamaulipas. and in terms of the mexican government's strategy towards it, 35,000 people were murdered last year. during the worst years of the drug war, which were considered around 2015, it was 20,000. so the president's critics really believe that he is on the wrong path when it comes to security strategy in this country. so, will, you've mentioned this state advisory, and also, how dangerous particular areas are, but how unusual is it for americans to be kidnapped in the country? yeah, it's not common, but kidnapping as a device is common when it comes to, for example,

mexican businessmen or wealthy locals, or even not particularly wealthy people, when it comes to migrants trying to make their way north. they could be kidnapped and held to ransom and their families already in the us need to send funds south in order to release them. it is obviously a device of the drug cartels. was this a case of mistaken identity? it may well have been, but it is interesting that this was health tourism, it appears, the group were travelling south for some kind of cosmetic surgery, cosmetic procedure for one of them, and then got caught in the absolute worst possible nightmare along mexico's northern border. will ground speaking to me a little earlier. —— will grant. protests in the georgian capital tblisi against a controversial foreign agent law have continued late into the night. hundreds of people gathered outside the parliament building where police used water cannon and tear gas to try to disperse them. the demonstrators gathered after parliament gave its first approval to a bill requiring organisations that receive funding from abroad

to register as foreign agents. the bill has been criticised by the eu and the united states who say it will have an impact on freedom. to the us now, where senators from both republican and democratic parties have presented a bill that would give more power to the administration to ban chinese apps if they pose security threats, including the popular video—sharing platform tiktok. this bill comes after the us government officials were barred from installing tiktok on their devices in january. earlier, we spoke to zack cooper, who is a senior fellow with the american enterprise institute and a former pentagon and white house official. we asked him what the us hopes to achieve with this bill and why they are so worried about tiktok. i know this is going to come as a surprise to many young people who use tiktok and certainly don't see it as a security threat, but the risk here is that tiktok is still owned by bytedance, which is a chinese company. there are a multitude

of chinese laws that would require prior bytedance to divest much of the information that it has on all of the users of tiktok, and that's been the big concern from an american government side and there have been negotiations with bytedance, with tiktok, that have been ongoing for quite some time, about measures that would better protect that data, but those have not yet concluded in a deal that the us government is happy with, and i think that's why you are seeing the pressure now for congress to step in and provide the administration with some additional leverage. china and tiktik, the company owned by bytedance, as you said, has repeatedly reassured users�* data would remain secure. what's your assessment on why the us, the european commission and canada think differently? china steals something like $600 billion a year in intellectual property globally.

when the chinese government says, "don't worry about this, "we would never steal data from abroad," it is hard for the united states or others in europe or canada to take that seriously. in fact, there are chinese laws that would require bytedance to provide some of the information, so one step would be to make sure that that data does not flow out of the united states, that it stays in servers in the united states, but that still leaves a lot of leakage. for example, what happens with the bytedance algorithm, still at the moment controlled back in china by engineers there? how much of that data would they be able to see? these are really tough engineering questions and ijust don't think they've been solved at the level of confidence that the us government would need to let tiktok continue to operate to operate in this way. what's your assessment on where us and china relations are currently? they are bad and they're getting worse pretty quickly. just in the last few days,

xijinping and the new foreign chinese foreign minister qin gang have made quite damaging statements to the us and china relationship, they've always accused washington of making damaging statements about the relationship, but these were remarkably negative. so we're sort of going from bad to worse. the relationship was already in a difficult place. i think neither side thinks there will be a breakthrough any time soon, so both sides are perfectly willing to arm themselves to protect themselves against what they see as a more and more competitive and even conflictual relationship. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: will elvis actually leave the building with an oscar? our sophie long speaks to the film's star austin butler and director baz luhrmann. the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief. this the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil in modern times. in less than 24 hours then,

the soviet union lost an elderly sick leader and replaced him with a dynamic figure 20 years his junior. we heard these gunshots in the gym _ then he came outi through a fire exit and started firing at our huts. god, we were all petrified. james earl ray, aged 41, sentenced to 99 years and due for parole when he's 90, travelled from memphis jail to nashville state prison in an eight—car convoy. paul, what's it feel like to be married at last? it feels fine, thank you. what are you going to do now? is it going to change your life much, do you think? i don't know, really — _ i've never been married before. this is bbc news. the headlines:

two of the four americans kidnapped in northern mexico on monday have been found dead, refocusing attention on gang violence in the country. the white house says it supports a bipartisan bill in congress that will give president biden new powers to ban the chinese—owned app tiktok in the us. in recent years, people around the world have lost hundreds of millions of dollars to online romance scams. one of the most lucrative of these, being run by criminal gangs across south—east asia, is called the "pig butchering romance scam". as the name suggests, the scammers refer to their victims as pigs, whom they fatten up to be butchered or conned out of as much money as possible. a bbc world service investigation has spoken to former scammers. a warning — that this report from zhaoyin feng contains scenes some viewers may find disturbing. a whispered plea for help. whispers translation: i'm a chinese man

trapped in a scam compound in cambodia. �*didi', not his real name, left china for the promise of a well—paid job. instead, he was trafficked to cambodia, locked up in a compound and forced by criminal gangs to carry out an online romance scam known as pig butchering. translation: i'm recording this video secretly _ from inside the bathroom. in the scam, victims are known as pigs. scammers use fake online profiles to groom them before tricking them to invest in fake financial exchanges. didi worked 12—hour days targeting people in america and europe under the constant threat of violence. translation: someone in my team made a mistake today. _ he was beaten up in front of everyone, then dragged out of the office. videos shared with the bbc by activist networks show the type of violence didi witnessed is common in scam compounds.

this is �*shao tsui', not his real name. he's a former scam boss. he's wearing a mask to avoid reprisals from criminal gangs. he says he make hundreds of thousands of dollars running a scam operation, even writing a guide for other scammers to follow, but that he now regrets his actions. translation: the| pig butchering scam is all about using emotions. that's how you win their trust. the profiles we make up are always very handsome, rich, responsible and caring. it was a profile just like this that cindy fell for. the scammers stole the identity of an innocent social media influencer from south korea to target her with. jimmy came at a time when i was the most vulnerable in my entire life. cindy tsai is a successful businesswoman based in boston in the us.

at the time, she was going through a divorce and had just found out she had terminal cancer. jimmy would message me every day. if i was sad in my interactions with my husband, he was always there. when my husband and i had decided that we were going to divorce, that's when it switched to much more of a romantic relationship. after seducing cindy, jimmy tricked her into investing more than $2 million on a fake cryptocurrency platform, despite the large amount that i'd lost, i actually believe that i've been luckier than most. i've given the scammers enough of my time. i've given enough of my money, and i absolutely refuse to give them who i actually am. after four months in captivity, didi managed to escape and make it back home to china.

we approached the owner of the compound where didi was being held for comment, but he did not respond. hundreds of gangs continue to carry out the pig butchering scam from compounds across south—east asia, targeting people all over the world. zhaoyin feng, bbc news. mass rallies caused widespread disruption to services in france on the sixth day of strikes against plans to reform the pension system. hundreds of thousands of protesters staged demonstrations all over the country, but the biggest crowds gathered in paris. here's frances read. the frontline of the strikes, in paris the message is clear, and written everywhere. macron�*s pension plans it's a no. here like in many places his proposals to make people

work longer have been deeply unpopular. translation: i'm doing this for my children in the future i believe the way this has been done is not here. people have the right to be angry and we will be able to make ourselves heard because the government is not listening.— the government is not listening. the government is not listeninu. , listening. elsewhere in the ca - ital listening. elsewhere in the capital lease _ listening. elsewhere in the capital lease cordial - listening. elsewhere in the capital lease cordial tear. listening. elsewhere in the i capital lease cordial tear gas fired at those clashing with police. but for the majority it's about being heard. sandler is in western france one of 300 towns and cities taking part in national/. i towns and cities taking part in nationav. ., �* ., ., towns and cities taking part in nationav-_ nationav. i don't want to walk until i'm 64. _ nationav. i don't want to walk until i'm 64, |_ nationav. i don't want to walk until i'm 64, i say _ nationav. i don't want to walk until i'm 64, i say to - nationav. i don't want to walk until i'm 64, i say to myself. until i'm 64, i say to myself enough already, for the moment there are only promises made and we don't know when it's going to end so it's better to fight now then lose more later. it is notjust on the streets, fuel deliveries have been blocked from all french refineries, just one of many industries to shut down for the day as well as rail services and schools.—

day as well as rail services and schools. ., .., , and schools. the whole country will come _ and schools. the whole country will come to — and schools. the whole country will come to a _ and schools. the whole country will come to a halt _ and schools. the whole country will come to a halt as _ and schools. the whole country will come to a halt as one - will come to a halt as one after another profession begins the fight and a large number of sectors that are decisive for the life of the country. president of a crime's plans are still passing through parliament but the reaction they have ignited is a clear sign to his government and one that within french society is difficult to ignore. frances read, bbc news. the uk government has unveiled its plan to tackle illegal migration aimed at stopping people crossing the english channel in small boats. the prime minster, rishi sunak, said the bill was "tough but necessary and fair." the un refugee agency says the bill would deny protection to many asylum seekers needing protection, calling it a breach of the un refugee convention, and undermining britain's humanitarian tradition. this report from our political editor chris mason. it's half—five in the morning. so, dungeness. we're heading for one of

the beaches on the south coast where migrants have arrived. this morning we will discuss the prime minister's plans to get tough on small boat crossings. rishi sunak and the home secretary say this is part of what they call a larger global migration crisis, as people from poorer countries try to get to richer ones. people must know that if they come here illegally, it will result in their detention and swift removal. once this happens and they know it will happen, they will not come and the boats will stop. it's a massive challenge that's just got bigger and bigger. you imagine those migrants yesterday who attempted this crossing setting off from beyond where the eye can see to be picked up somewhere in the channel. and the scale of the problem that confronts the government and the prime minister set himself a huge challenge of trying to sort this out. the government is, for now at least, committed

to remaining in the european convention on human rights. but strikingly, the home secretary has written to mps saying there is a more than 50% chance the plans are incompatible with international law. today marks the start of this planned new policy. there is plenty more argument to come. earlier, i spoke to professor michelle foster. she's the director of the peter mcmullin centre on statelessness at the university of melbourne. she told me that she worries this law fundamentally undermines refugee protection. my assessment is as an international lawyer that we should have grave concerns about the terms of this immigration bill. if we think about the uk's obligations, you mention the european convention on human rights and also the fundamental treaty, the refugee convention. it is notable that the secretary of state has admitted that this bill cannot be said to be compliant

with the european convention on human rights and in my view it also fundamentally undermines refugee protection. the most important principle in refugee protection is the principle of non— proforma. and that means that every state including the uk that has ratified the convention has undertaken to never send a person where they may face persecution. however, this bill would in fact not just provide the power but require the secretary of state to remove anyone who has arrived merely on the basis that they arrived without prior authorisation. that is regardless of whether they have a claim to refugee protection, whether they have a claim under human rights law, whether in fact they are a victim of slavery or human trafficking and also, importantly, it also allows the secretary of state to remove a person even if they are an unaccompanied child. reflect on that for a moment,

it allows the uk to send potentially to a place of persecution an unaccompanied child. that should give every person pause. baz lurhmann�*s elvis goes into sunday's oscar's race with eight nominations. the film's star, austin butler, could win best actor for his portrayal of the �*king'. sophie long has been talking to the cast and crew about the emotional roller—coaster that was the making of elvis. we had fire, we had flood and then a pandemic, we lost the movie and then the movie came back and then the movie is made and then the movie flourishes and then austin wins the golden globe for best actor too and then we have the sadness of the shock of losing lisa—marie. it is such an incredible emotional roller—coaster up and down.

a difficult time and i think back to when she first saw the film and priscilla saw the film and how their reaction to it and especially because they felt the way they did about it, no review will ever mean more to me than what they said after, you know? tomorrow, all america will be talking about elvis presley. i all your films have such energy. i remember the first time i saw moulin rouge, it slaps you in the face. how do you do that? my energy might be slightly dwindling away as the years go by but they are engagement films. they are meant to challenge, they are not keyhole psychological dramas.

and the energy of the movies comes from baz's energy and his infectious storytelling and the fact that — as a collaborator you feel so privileged to be a part of the journey and he takes such care to include me, but everybody from mandy to the group, everyone, dolly grip, we all feel part of an energised and bigger company. # my darling... early on, baz told me that the camera has to dance with elvis and fly when he flies and then when the drama is heavy and emotional, we would be elegant and observational. i need to get back

to who i really am. how does it feel? it feels like a dream. i am trying to take snapshots in my mind and really remember these moments. this will never happen again so i want to remember it. there is so much buzz and i am used tojust being this guy who can hide behind a character. it's a lot of talking about yourself. and finally, an alligator believed to have been stolen from a texas zoo 20 years ago has been returned after being discovered at a nearby home. this 8—foot—long creature is thought to have been taken as either an egg or a hatchling. the female gator named tewa

was found near the city of austin last week before being taken back home to the animal world and snake farm zoo. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lmmisztak. hello there. up to now, most of the snow that's been falling has been across more northern parts of the uk, especially northern scotland. and we've got some snow and ice here at the moment, but that cold arctic air has swept down across all areas now. and coming into that cold air, this weather front is sliding in from the atlantic. that's bringing some wetter weather, a mixture of rain, sleet and some snow, snow perhaps up towards the m4 corridor. and there could be a couple of centimetres in places in time for the early morning rush hour. icy conditions here further north with clearer skies. it's going to be very cold and frosty. temperatures could be —13 in the glens of scotland. that wetter weather across southern parts of england and wales moves away fairly quickly. but then we'll see some more wet weather coming in from the southwest and that will start to turn to snow as well. more cloud across wales, southern england and the midlands.

further north, some sunshine, fewer snow showers around. but wherever you are, it's going to be a cold day. again, temperatures three to five degrees. let's focus on that wetter weather coming into the southwest, it's moving in more quickly now and it's moving a bit further north as well. so we'll see that rain turning to sleet and snow more widely during the evening rush hour and more significant snow in places as well, perhaps five to ten centimetres. that snowier weather then moves away later on in the night. and then we see a next area of low pressure coming in from the atlantic. this one is slowing down a bit and the snowier weather is moving northwards more slowly. so we do see some wet weather coming back in from the southwest on thursday. for southern parts of england, it may well be rain turned to rain in south wales, the south midlands turning to snow across north wales, northern england during the afternoon. snow beginning to arrive here, still dry through much of the day across scotland and northern ireland. this is the area that the met office have issued. the heavy snow warning, yellow warning. snow may not get as far north

in scotland, but there's still the potential for some heavy falls of snow. i think over the pennines in particular, with the snow developing a little more widely in these areas after dark. that area of low pressure not moving as far north, then slides away. we're still left with some snow falling actually for a while on friday, especially across central and eastern parts of england. that will be replaced by brighter skies from the north with some sunshine. but again, a few more snow showers. we're still in cold air for much of the country. may make seven or eight degrees in the far south, but otherwise four or five is more typical.

this is bbc news. the headlines: two of the four americans kidnapped in northern mexico on monday are dead. another was wounded in the incident, which also left a mexican woman dead. the americans were in mexico for medical treatment, with the sister of one of the four saying she was to have had cosmetic surgery. the white house says it supports a bipartisan bill in congress that will give president biden new powers to ban the chinese—owned app tiktok and otherforeign technologies that could pose security threats. the legislation is backed by dozens of democratic and republican lawmakers in the senate. the un refugee agency says the british prime minister's plans to prevent migrants crossing the channel will punish asylum seekers. the agency said safe and legal

routes were not available to most people fleeing the war and persecution. now on bbc news, panorama. tonight on panorama: one of the world's most influential social media sites in chaos. i try to log in, and my email is just not working any more. and that's when i knew that i had been laid off. mr elon musk... for the first time, twitter insiders tell the story of elon musk�*s takeover. you didn't know who you reported to or who was in the company any more. how he sacked staff who helped keep children safe from paedophiles. you can't go from a team of 20 to a team of about six or seven