a massive blast in the lebanese capital beirut leaves dozens dead and thousands injured. explosion. distant screams. explosion. the explosion in the port sent shock waves across the city, blowing out windows and bringing balconies crashing to the ground. the blast was heard more than 100 miles away. translation: i don't know what happened. i was fishing. i heard there was a fire. i turned and started to head home and heard something explode, and then this happened. hospitals have been overwhelmed — officials fear the death toll will rise sharply as rescuers dig through the piles of rubble. this is the scene tonight — six hours later — it's not yet known what caused the explosion. we will have the latest live from the scene. also tonight...

guys, one, two, three, four. scottish teenagers are the first in the uk to get their results after key school qualification exams were cancelled — pass rates rise but thousands of results are downgraded. in china a former fashion model handcuffed to his bed — for so—called re—education — rare footage of the uighur ethnic minorities held in secretive detention centres. we are lower than the world. the world? lower than europe. president trump struggles in an interview as he tries to defend his handling of the coronavirus crisis. and fulham and brentford battle it out into extra time for a place in the premier league — in what's being called the richest game in football. and coming up in sport on bbc news, rafa nadal won't be defending his title at the us open later this month after pulling out because of concerns over coronavirus.

good evening. a massive explosion has torn through the lebanese capital beirut, killing at least 70 people and injuring more than three thousand seven hundred. it's not yet known what caused the explosion but lebanon's prime minister says his country is facing a catastrophe and beirut is in mourning. he vowed to hold to account whoever was responsible. the huge blast at the port sent shockwaves across the city, destroying many nearby buildings and blowing out windows several miles away. hospitals across the city were quickly overwhelmed — officials fear the death toll will rise sharply. here's our middle east editor, jeremy bowen. just to warn you — his report contains distressing images. explosion. it was a massive explosion. shouting. another view from the bay.

and from the streets. what happened 7 oh, my god! oh, my god. it looks as if dozens are dead and several thousand injured. and a country already deep in crisis has been hit by a catastrophe. translation: i don't know what happened. i was fishing. i heard there was a fire. i turned and started to head home. i heard something explode and then this happened. this was the fire in beirut port. the flashes, they say, wear fireworks. then something much bigger ignited.

lebanon's interior minister told local media it was ammonium nitrate, which had been stored there since 2014. sirens. it can be used as fertiliser or to make explosives. alarm bell. this is downtown beirut, close to the parliament building will stop since the end of last year, lebanon has been paralysed by a political and economic crisis, and street demonstrations, before the country was gripped by the pandemic. the damage is spread across the city. the shock will run much deeper. and this tragedy risks pushing the lebanese further into despair.

hassan diab, the prime minister, broadcast to the nation. he told them that those responsible would pay the price. beirut‘s hospitals, already pressed hard by covid—i9, are faced with hundreds of casualties. translation: we were at home. we heard what sounded like fireworks. we thought it was a container in the port that was on fire. a few seconds later, we were flying through the air. lebanon will get international help which until now, its friends have been reluctant to give because of corruption and incompetence in lebanon's wealthy elite. but public anger, already strong, will demand real change at last, if lebanon's rulers cannot heal the wounded, fix the damage and punish the guilty. and there is one big question.

who allowed the storage of so much deadly explosive for so long in a warehouse so close to the city centre? jeremy bowen, bbc news. we can go live now to bbc arabic‘s beirut correspondent carine torbey who is at one of the hospitals treating the thousands of people injured... the death toll is rising fast and almost 4000 people known to have been injured. describe the scene where you are now. i am standing in front of the emergency guide of one of the hospitals and people are still coming here, either to check on relatives or check whether their relatives are in back at the hospital. there are so many people are unaccounted for. just to give you an idea of how overwhelmed at the hospitals are here and everywhere - in the hospitals are here and everywhere in but beirut, the injured have been mainlybeirut, the injuredhavebeen brought to hospitals by thousands, they have not been able to treat

them in rooms, they have brought them in rooms, they have brought them to corridors, offices, everywhere, the whole hospital, everywhere, the whole hospital, every single space in the hospital has been turned into an emergency unit. people are still coming on site here. you can see traces of blood all over the floor and also you can see how distressed and how people are in shock and panic, hours after this incident. it is impossible to state what will be the final toll and whether we will see a rising toll throughout the night, because people are still being rushed into hospital is all over the country. thank you. and our middle east editor jeremy bowen is here now — lebanon is facing a catastrophe says its prime minister — we don't know what caused it yet — but this has happened at a very sensitive time for the country. yes, it is an appalling tragedy which has been inflicted now on a country which was already really suffering badly because of an economic collapse, because of a

deep—seated political crisis, caused bya deep—seated political crisis, caused by a whole welter of things, by covid—i9, of course, it has been badly hit by that, back into lockdown, hyperinflation, the savings are people destroyed, real wages cut, you name it, they have had it and now they have got this. then there is the regional context as well, the israelis very quickly said they had nothing to do with this, normally they might leave that up this, normally they might leave that up and if they had, that sounds credible. the issue with them is the trouble on the border in the south between his brother, the lebanese shi'ite group close to tehran and the israelis. they have been locked in their own escalation in recent weeks. this catastrophic explosion in beirut will have consequences nationally and possibly even regionally, if it further destabilises lebanon. jeremy bowen,

a middle east editor, thank you. thousands of students in scotland have been given their results for their key school qualifications without sitting any exams after they were cancelled because of coronavirus. the grades are based on estimates from teachers. pass rates have increased at every level. but the scottish qualifications authority, which moderated the results, saysjust under a quarter of the estimates it received had to be changed — most of them downwards. critics claim some children from more deprived areas have been disproportionally downgraded. 0ur scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports. it is the most nerve—racking of moments. the results in a year when there were no exams. i'm going to uni. i've got my bs, so that's me in. oh, i'm so happy. i'm delighted for her. delighted. it has been a long, tense wait. for many pupils here, a sense of relief. i did way better than expected and i am proud of myself.

you don't know what is going to happen, it is out of your hands. you're not sitting an exam to determine it, so you're just not sure. but i'm dead happy now. there was no opportunity this year for last—minute cramming in the library. no sitting at a desk in a hall, writing answers against the clock. the exams which were held even in the midst of two world wars were cancelled this year because of coronavirus. the results based on estimates provided by teachers instead. the scottish qualifications authority accepted nearly 74% of the grades given by teachers. more than a quarter were adjusted in a process they said was designed to ensure the integrity of the system. the majority of those were revised down. teaching unions are concerned. most of the adjustments have been around the grade c boundary, being downgraded to a d and a lot of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds do congregate around the cusp between a d and a c, so i think that will have been

the case and, again, that is another reason why i think the appeals process will be critical, because if young people have produced the work in class and the evidence is there, then we would want to see that being rewarded. kirsty says she got a c in her advanced higher french prelim, but, like some others, she has been left disappointed. this morning when i got my results, i got a no award for french and so, i've basically failed it and i was a bit confused. i thought i would have done a lot better had i done the exam, i think. there has been a lot of inconsistency in my school, with people i have been talking to and i think... i am a bit confused, i don't know what is going on. scotland's education secretary is confident the system for awarding grades has worked. it has been a very difficult period young people, for their parents, for teaching staff and also for the scottish qualifications authority, but what we had to make sure was that the achievements of young people were properly and fully recognised and i believe

they have been recognised in the way that we envisaged. one, two, three, four! for some, it is a day to celebrate, but nearly 125,000 results were lowered and critics worry that some children from more deprived areas have been disproportionately downgraded. the qualifications authority deny that and say the attainment gap has narrowed, but a wave of appeals may follow. lorna gordon, bbc news, glasgow. the latest coronavirus data here in the uk shows there were 670 new confirmed cases of covid—19 in the latest 24 hour period. the seven—day rolling average is 802, that figure is starting to rise. 89 deaths were also recorded in the latest 24—hour period. that takes the total number of deaths in the uk to 46,299. on average in the past week, 60 people have died every

day from coronavirus, the downward trend in deaths has slowed recently. the head of england's test and trace system for coronavirus has denied that it is a failure after another day of criticism. as schools prepare to reopen and parents start returning to work, scientists are warning that if test and tracing isn't improved significantly, there could be a second wave of the virus by december that's worse than the first. here's our health editor, hugh pym. blackburn with darwen, the area with the highest number of virus cases relative to the local population. the council has felt the need to launch its own scheme to reach contacts of those who have been infected, adding to the efforts of the national tracing system. we use our local people to call you and text you and send you an e—mail and if we can't get through to you that way, we then send someone to knock on your door and give you the information for you to call us and give us your contact details. as communities like this worked on local plans, a group of academics said the centrally—run test and trace

systems in the uk had to reach more people to avoid another spike in coronavirus cases. we need to scale up testing and we need to scale up contact tracing to get to a level that our model is suggesting we can avoid a second epidemic wave with reopening schools and society later this year. people testing positive are asked for recent contacts, who are then told to self—isolate. in one recent week, 98% of those contacts were reached in northern ireland. in wales, the figure was 83%, while in england, 75% were reached. there are no comparable figures in scotland. with complex cases in england, such as hospital and school outbreaks, 95% of contacts were reached. but with non—complex cases involving individuals, just 61% were contacted. some who make the calls, known as contact tracers, are still telling us anonymously they are not given enough to do. i have spoken to, at a push, it would be eight people. a couple of them have been people

that have already been called seven or eight times because of other family members that have been involved. others are people who actually want to have nothing to do with the system. i don't think it is working at all, or it would be very hard to say that it was working well. boosting the number of walk—in testing centres like this one in england is hailed by ministers as an example of their commitment to making the system more accessible. but testing is one thing. getting to the close contacts of those who have been infected is another challenge altogether. the executive running the national scheme defended its performance after today's criticism. i absolutely don't accept that this is failure. it is the opposite. what nhs test and trace is doing is allowing us to identify areas where the virus is spreading more freely, where we do need to take targeted local action. that is exactly what you have seen us be able to do in leicester, in blackburn. but the uk was late to start building up a widespread network. germany, for example,

already had a testing and tracing system in place when the virus struck, one reason why case numbers and deaths have been lower than in many other countries. hugh pym, bbc news. the bbc has obtained rare footage from inside china's secretive system of mass incarceration in the far western region of xinjiang. in a self—shot video, a formerfashion model, who is from the uighur ethnic group, can be seen handcuffed to a bed. his relatives say he was taken away for what china has called re—education and that nothing has been heard from him since. the uighurs are muslims from the central asian region. the majority of them live in china's autonomous xinjiang region. current estimates suggest there are around 10 million uighurs living there. but up to 1 million uighurs have been detained in secure "educational training' centres". and there is growing evidence of human rights violations inside these camps, including forced labour and torture. neither the chinese foreign ministry nor xinjiang authorities

have responded to the bbc‘s requests for comment. john sudworth has this report. a few years ago, this man was a long way from his home in xinjiang, making good money as a fashion model in southern china. but this is him in february. his camera reveals his filthy clothes, and his left arm handcuffed to a bed. he is now clearly back in xinjiang. beyond the steel mesh on the window, a propaganda announcement drones away in the uighur language. despite the risk that it may bring him further punishment... ..relatives, including his uncle, who lives in amsterdam, say they have no choice but to release the video he sent them.

translation: staying silent won't help him, either. the only thing i can do is to raise public awareness. it is our only chance to rescue him. the young model had already served 16 months injail, having been convicted of a drugs offence in 2018, although his family say he was innocent. upon completing his sentence, whatever relief he may have felt was short lived. soon afterwards, the police picked him up again and took him back to xinjiang, for, they said, a few days education. we have asked chinese government officials here whether he was suspected of any further offence and, even if he was, why he was handcuffed to a bed. we have received no response. china has built a vast network of highly secure facilities across xinjiang, some of which we were shown as part of its efforts to convince the world that they're schools for combating extremism, not camps.

but last year, under intense international criticism, it said they were being closed. the texts merdan sent along with his video clearly suggest otherwise. "50—60 people were locked in a small room," he writes. "all had sacks on their heads and handcuffs and shackles." elsewhere, he could hear the sounds of torture. "one time, i heard a man screaming from morning to evening", he writes. his first—hand description of the police holding cell is very, very vivid. he writes in very, very good chinese. it gives us a lot of detail, and frankly, a lot of horrific detail about the way in which these people are treated. so it is quite a rare source. in the end, it was the virus that allowed him to get word out from this secretive system.

with a slightly high temperature, he was moved to this isolation cell as a precaution and given access to personal belongings, which, unknown to his guards, contained his phone. but as suddenly as they began, the messages stopped. he has not been heard from since. sophie, this isjust one man's account and it is difficult to fully verify force, although as you heard, experts suggest marks of it rings true and no wonder. china has built a huge capacity for detaining people in merdan —— in xinjiang in recent yea rs in merdan —— in xinjiang in recent years but the trouble is info about it is almost impossible to gather which is why these text messages are so which is why these text messages are so important, with that chilling detail about 50 or 60 people, who did and shackled, huddled in a police cell and eventually bust off somewhere else, suggesting that the system of control, coercion and

incarceration of the uighur people continues, albeit perhaps even more hidden than before. john sudworth invasion, thank you. —— in beijing. doctors in england, northern ireland and wales are being told they shouldn't prescribe common painkillers such as paracetamol and ibruprofen or opioids to patients with chronic pain, a condition which is not caused by an injury or other medical condition. the advice from the national institute of health and care excellence says giving them to those suffering chronic pain could do more harm than good. 0ur health correspondent lauren moss has more. when nicki was in her 20s, she was prescribed codeine for pain in her knee. but the short—term relief the medication gave her slowly spiralled into a deep dependency that took over the mother of two's life for more than a decade. in the end, there was no pattern. whatever was there, i would take. it wasn't even about the knee pain any more. at its worst, how bad was it?

as my body became more tolerant, i would take more. that's, i'd say, when i hit rock bottom, was when i was just void of any emotion. i didn't care about anything. i didn't care about myself, didn't care about what i looked like, didn't care about myjob. i didn't care on a day—to—day basis. chronic pain like nicki's isn't caused by an injury or medical condition. now, guidelines suggest painkillers ranging from paracetamol and ibuprofen, to opioids like codeine shouldn't be prescribed as they cause serious side effects, including stomach and liver problems, and are highly addictive. let me straighten you up. 0ther therapies, such as counselling, acupuncture and exercise programmes are being recommended instead. the overprescribing of opioids is a particular issue. it has happened because there has been a lack of really good alternatives for managing pain. it's often a bit of a last chance when a patient‘s pain isn't controlled. what we find is that when people

take them long term, it doesn't actually work and doesn't have the beneficial effect they would like. chronic pain affects just under 28 million adults in the uk. more than half of patients are also suffering with depression. 5.5 million people were prescribed opioid relief in one year alone in england, prompting concerns hundreds of thousands of people could be getting hooked. it needs to go further, where other medication with non—addictive qualities need to be put in there, and recommended. i think cbt, acupuncture, mindfulness, anything without medication that you can go and treat somebody, then you are looking at the whole person as an individual, instead of one size fits all. nicki has been in recovery for nine years and now helps others overcome addiction. she's welcomed the guidelines but says the services must be there to refer people onto. a public consultation

on the proposal will close