were reported at the time. hong kong s last pro democracy newspaper is to close. apple daily newspaper has confirmed that its last paper edition will be published no later than saturday and its digital edition will also end at the same time. its assets were frozen by the authorities so it can t pay its staff. its ownerjimmy lai is injail, and its editors were arrested last week. earlier we spoke to martin yip, who is in hong kong. he explained what a blow this is to media there. from the pro democracy campus, this is really the end of the single biggest media outlet of the pro democracy camp, literally you just have to use that old catchphrase, the end of an era. many people have been expecting it to come somehow, because back in around march, there has been widespread rumours that the government would take it down by the 1st ofjuly,
if you want to run in the election, you would first have to be vetted by a committee that includes the national security police. if you fail this process, that could well mean that the police have secured enough evidence to prosecute you, while if you pass, that could be the voters turn to question if you are indeed a pro democracy politician. martin yip in hong kong. stay with us on bbc news, still to come. mapping out the invisible substance thought to make up 80% of the universe. the first of what the makers of star wars hope will be
the information ministry accused the social media giant of hampering free speech by arbitrarily suspending accounts and deleting tweets. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, has condemned the overhaul of electoral rules in hong kong. the sweeping changes, approved on thursday, limit the number of directly elected legislators. they also mean candidates will be vetted, keep out those critical of beijing. martin yip in hong kong explains. this electoral reform bill pretty much prescribed by beijing was passed by a landslide 40 2 in the legislature. the only remaining pro democracy politician said no to it. so did another who claimed himself to be neutral. beijing has hailed this passing of the bill as the beginning of good governance after what it calls chaos in past elections. the question now is if hong kong s legislature would ever