Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20240713

Hello to you. 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 bbcs nick beake is in hong kong. Today, talking to the Pro Democracy Movement, they are ecstatic. They believe this is International Recognition of their fight. And, believe this is International Recognition of theirfight. And, of course, comes in the same week they have done extremely well in this district elections. And they have really shown that the wider public here in hong kong support their cause, they would say. And, so, really, the news coming from america overnight they see this as a huge bank giving present from President Trump. Something which would mean that at least every year the americans look at the state of affairs here in hong kong decide whether or not china is exerting undue influence on the city, whether they are interfering. And as a consequence, if the american steam thatis consequence, if the american steam that is the case, they say they will look again at hong kongs special trading statuses, which of course makes it exempt from the exemptions the mainland is subject to. Lets get more on the reaction from beijing and talk to the bbcs john sudworth. How does this look from there . Well, as you might expect, mike, we have had an immediate and pretty angry reaction from chinas 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 have heard before as this bill has made its passage through the us legislative process made its passage. And there is no suggestion as to what those countermeasures might be. But i think as you heard from nick there, while the protesters, those campaigning for what they say is greater democratic freedoms in hong kong, will see this asa freedoms in hong kong, will see this as a victory, 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. 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. You have to wonder, in a way, if it plays into the hands of the leadership in beijing was trying to betray the protesters as an unrepresentative minority, but also puppets of foreign powers. That is a claim we have heard them make time and time again throughout the many months no unrest in hong kong. Of course, supporters of the us human rights and democracy report would say that far from threatening to meddle in hong kongs affairs, in a way that threatens to resort to the status quo. It threatens to remove hong kongs special privileges if this assessment process that is put in place deems hong kongs autonomy to have been eroded significantly under chinese rule. China will, of course, not see this way. It will believe it is political, it will believe it is political, it will believe it is a sure sign, once again, that there are foreign interests at work and, i think, we can expect to see more of this kind of pushback from the chinese authorities. Quite what they can do about it, though, what these countermeasures might be, is another matter. Of course, all of this comes within the context of both beijing and washington being locked into this ongoing trade war, difficulty is that in terms of seeing a way out. It may be that china decides that this is the step that prompts it to decide, once again, two, you know, inject into the stray discussions some of this wider context. And it may make a resolution on the trade front that much more difficult. Just briefly, much more difficult. Just briefly, john, it is an odd kind of sanction to threaten. If you want to help hong kong. Removing most favoured nation status would hurt hong kong. Yeah. That is an interesting point. And i think one that, you know, the Chinese Government itself may want to argue. There has been a big debate over the period of the unrest in terms of how much china really needs hong kong now as a gateway for International Trade and investment. There are, of course, now other ways, trade and investment. There are, of course, now otherways, other trade and investment. There are, of course, now other ways, other routes for investment to come into the chinese economy. And so it may also be the case that this threat doesnt have quite the weight that it might once have had to stop the importance of hong kong as a percentage, a proportion of the greater chinese economy is obviously much, much lower than it was 20 years ago at the handover, when china formally took over the running of hong kong. Soa took over the running of hong kong. So a question mark there as well about how much influence of this are may actually bring to bear or how symbolic, in fact, may actually bring to bear or how symbolic, infact, it may actually bring to bear or how symbolic, in fact, it may be. Thank you very much for that. 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. Maltas 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 maltas 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 theyve been protected from high up . In the crowds was her niece. Its 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 maltas richest men. This week, the minister who gave him a huge energy contract, konrad mizzi, stood down. And so did keith schembri, the prime minsters chief of staff. He is being questioned by police. But this evening, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was defiant. Maltas opposition want him to stand aside so he cant interfere in the investigation. When he refused, they walked out. And, outside the Prime Ministers office, Daphne Caruana galizias sister told me corruption that malta has enabled is an issue all of europe should worry about. Very importantly, for the sake of the 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. Rescuers in albania are still searching for survivors of tuesdays 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 are waiting for the police and the rescue team to find. Because im his friend and his cousins are lost. And its also a girl that is not found yet. Shes young. And it was his. 20 years old. And we are waiting for the rescue team. Whole families have perished in the disaster. For those who escaped, the fear of further tremors saw hundreds prepared 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 couldnt get a place in a tent. We registered today and now were 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. Lets get some of the days 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. A backlash from subscribers seems to have forced twitter to delay plans to disable inactive accounts. On monday, twitter began contacting users who hadnt logged in for six months, warning them their accounts would be deleted unless they signed in. Twitter execs now say they hadnt considered the potential upset caused by removing accounts belonging to users whove 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 chinas treatment of the Uighur Community in xingjiang. Vivenne nunis went to meet her. Broadcasting from a bedroom in newjersey to the world. In four days, feroza azizs snappy video has been watched more than 5 million times on tiktok and twitter. Curl your lashes, obviously. Then youre going to put them down and use your phone, that youre using right now, to search up whats happening in china, how theyre getting concentration camps, throwing innocent muslims in there. So why did this 17 Year Old High School students decide to speak out about an issue on which so many have stayed silent . As a muslim ive always faced oppression and racism, but to see that this group of people, this ethnic group, is going through much more than i could ever even imagine, i thought this isnt right and i need to spread awareness about the. Tiktok is owned by the beijing based bytedance and its faced criticism by some who believe it censors content that could offend chinese sensibilities. Shortly after posting the videos, ferozas 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 ferozas phone. The Chinese Government has consistently claimed that xinjiangs uighurcamps are for voluntary re education. But just this week the bbcs Panorama Programme exposed leaked 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 that i have, even tiktok. Im not scared of tiktok, even after the suspension. I wont be scared of tiktok. Another sign of how powerful social media platforms have become. Vivienne nunis, bbc news. Stay with us on bbc news. Still to come remembering the australian writer and broadcaster clive james, who has died at the age of 80. 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, its a funny old world. Angela merkel is germanys 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, its not hot air we need, its 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 19605. It was an alliance that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war with the cuban missile crisis. This is bbc news. The latest headlines china says it will take what it called firm Counter Measures after President Donald Trump signed legislation backing protesters in hong kong. Lets have more on that story. Samuel chu, managing director for Hong Kong Democracy Council joins me from hong kong. Welcome. Thank you for your time. What is new here . Good morning. Thank you, mike. I think this represents a new era and a new phase of the us hong kong policies and relations. And also a new day in us 0pen china policy relations. What this bill does is it shows the us is now seriously stepping up to fulfil its obligation to hong kong, promises made to hong kong, and now has the unique sense of a relationship with the city of hong kong, which i think is an incredible change and shift from his past. Surely, samuel, that will be true only if it is implemented. It would need to be implemented to. Exactly. And i think that this is really a reflection of the fact that when the 1992 act was passed, there was a collector that went on for the next 2025 collector that went on for the next 20 25 years that went on to the situation today. I think this is why they have come together in the us, working with us hong kong is another supporters, to now keep the pressure on making sure that the Us Government is doing the evaluation and the recertification is faithfully and diligently to ensure that the visa processing is actually being monitored and to look at specific ways that sanctions must be taken in incidents where police and government officials have committed and violated human rights. Does it worry you at all that President Trump, how do we put it, is not consistent . The record shows he goes back on things he says. He has gone back on things he says. He has gone back on things he says. He has gone back on allies. He likes authoritarian leaders was obvious trying to do a treaty with china was a bevy does a great deal is it not possible he will dump support for democracy in hong kong was yellow i think there are two things. One, i think there are two things. One, i think this is not unique for this administration. We have had a successful administration, successful administration, successful administrations in the us they did not do enough or do anything or did equally horrible things to protect hong kongers. Anything or did equally horrible things to protect hong kongerslj think this opens up a new possibility for an political negotiation that didnt exist before. And i dont think it isjust on the shoulder ofjust a president of the administration but i think depression now exists in terms of c0 ng ress depression now exists in terms of Congress Speaking clearly, Civic Leaders speaking clearly, and actually having these measures in place as an option opens up a new kind of political negotiation and solutions to hong kongs future. American backing must surely help the government in beijing to paint the government in beijing to paint the protesters fairly or unfairly as puppets of foreign powers. What you understand by this threat by beijing of countermeasures . First of all, and always continue to say to the beijing government, this is the deal that they made. This is the deal that they made. This is the deal that thing came to the us to negotiate for hong kongs special status in protection for autonomy and freedom. This is actually asked stepping up to the deal that china made to the world. I think this now represents the chinese and Hong Kong Authority another opportunity, riding the landslide wins that the Pro Democracy Movement had in the District Council elections this weekend, this is another moment they can step up and say we are now willing to negotiate and concede to some of the demands that the hong kong people have. And i think this is giving me government as many opportunities as they can to step up. Samuel chu, thank you. Its thought heavy rain and flash flooding has killed hundreds of people in several countries in east africa. In the congolese capital kinshasa, dozens have died. Un Officials Say at least 120 have been killed in kenya, where landslides and floods swept away homes. 0ur africa correspondent merchuma has been to meet some of the survivors. I am in a school that has just been converted into a rescue camp. Hundreds of people have gathered here, most of them women and children, and they say they have walked for days to get to this facility. Their homes and farms were completely destroyed by the floods and landslides. Translation i was running away when the waters were coming down. Ifell and broke my leg and i have been in pain since then. My children carried me to this place. Its now that i have been attended to. A team of medical personnel have come here to help these people, and the doctors say most of the injuries they are receiving are soft tissue injuries, but there are a couple of people who are coming in with fractured limbs. The most affected are children, and the doctors say they are developing complications because of the cold and they dont have a place to stay, and they are being forced to refer some of them to hospitals and facilities away from this place. Another big thing is that these doctors cannot go beyond where we are now, because the roads are impassible. They have been cut off, but there are people on the other side who still need help. All the bridges have been swept away. The mudslides have also covered the roads. And that is where we think there is a bigger number of patients that need to be attended. And the only means to reach there is through. More people are expected to flow into this camp and others in various parts of the affected region, and the death toll is expected to rise because Officials Say there are people who are still missing. In some places, we are retrieving some bodies, some hands, some legs, we need some forensic testing so that we can know who they are. The weatherman predicts more rains will be experienced in this region and other areas across the country and an appeal has been made to people who are living in landslide prone areas to move to safer ground. 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 bbcs 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 youre yet to see a welsh soap opera, then you must catch the bbcs 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 im improvising on tv, like now, im writing it in my head just before i say it. If its any good at all and thats 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 couldnt 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 cant 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 its very important to me, because i wasnt expecting to have it, and itsjust 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. That is 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, its 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 the north sea coast 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 to everybody on friday, temperatures down to single figures and a cutting northerly wind. Saturday, High Pressure 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 were 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 aswell. 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 favourable us trading terms. The islands government says it opposes and regrets Donald Trumps 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. Maltas 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 tuesdays earthquake, the worst in the country for years. At least 30 people are known to have died in the 6. A magnitude quake. The Prime Minister has declared a state of emergency