in white sheets and yellow barriers to ensure that people could not see the actual dismantling of the statute but what we do know is that the statue has now been removed from the university campus and i think this once again marks a significant change here in the freedoms or the perceived freedoms or how people will perceive the freedoms here in hong kong. danny vincent in hong kong for us. let s take a look at some other stories in the headlines: brigitte macron, the wife of the french president, is to sue over false claims circulating on the internet that she is transgender and was born male. the false report first appeared on a far right website and has since been circulated by conspiracy theorists. brigitte macron has been married to emmanuel macron since 2007. she has three adult children from herfirst marriage. the european commission has launched legal action against poland, saying it has serious doubts about the independence and impartiality of its
commemorating the deaths of students protesting in beijing s tiananmen square has been removed from a university campus in hong kong. the removal of the eight metre high copper statue, created by danish sculptorjens galschiot, was ordered back in october. construction workers are said to have laboured overnight to dismantle the piece, known as the pillar of shame. i ll speak to mr galschiot in a moment, but first here s he bbc s danny vincent in hong kong. in october, the university contacted the sculptor to declare that essentially this statue, following legal advice, needed to be removed. after that, they set a deadline for the removal. the deadline passed and it wasn t clear when the statue would be removed but in the early hours of the morning,
returned to china in 1997, they feel that these rights are being eroded and this is yet again another example of that. and this is yet again another example of that. and this is yet again another examle of that. , ., ~ ,, example of that. danny, thank you for that update. example of that. danny, thank you for that update. danny example of that. danny, thank you for that update. danny vincent - example of that. danny, thank you for that update. danny vincent in l for that update. danny vincent in hong kong. if you would like to get in touch with me about any of the stories we are covering today, you can do that on twitter. i d love to hearfrom you if you would like to share any of your thoughts on afghanistan, or what is happening in hong kong, or indeed on the subject of covid. 0n indeed on the subject of covid. on that subject, some news coming into us from the office for national statistics. its latest survey on covid antibodies. more than 90% of uk adults, more than nine in te
because of the threat to journalism. the same has happened to australian journalists in mainland china. so, the same is happening again in hong kong. apple daily is owned by prominant pro democracy supporterjimmy lai. you might remember these pictures of his arrest in december. here is mr lai paraded through the newsroom in handcuffs. he s a staunch critic of china and is in prison on a string of charges relating to the 2019 protest movement. he s also facing charges for violating the national security law. the law was introduced last year in response to massive pro democracy protests in hong kong. it essentially reduces hong kong s judicial autonomy and made it easier to punish demonstrators from the pro democracy movement. it criminalises any act of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. critics say it undermines freedom of assembly and speech and some democratic rights. however, beijing argues the law will bring stability. this is thought to be first tim
the first minister has always said really that 21stjune will not be a day in wales that all restrictions will finish, as is planned in england. that was never going to be the case in wales. it is a phased move down to alert level1 over the next couple of weeks up until the 21st and the likelihood is, with all the uncertainty still around the delta, that indian variant, is that wales will be in this alert level 1 for quite some time, until they get all the details and more people are vaccinated. a leading pro democracy activist in hong kong, chow hang tung, has been arrested, on the 32nd anniversary of the tiananmen square massacre. and police have closed off large parts of hong kong s victoria park in an attempt to stop the annual vigil which commemorates the thousands killed in a crackdown by the chinese government on student led protests against the regime in 1989. the hong kong government has banned the vigil for a second year in a row, citing coronavirus concerns. ms chow has calle