this is bbc news. i'm sally bundock with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a massive blast in the lebanese capital beirut leaves almost 80 people dead and thousands injured — the explosion sent shockwaves across the city. the lebanese prime minister says a confiscated haul of ammonium nitrate caused the devastating blasts — he promises those responsible will be held accountable. this is the scene live in the lebanese capital in the aftermath of the blast — there'll be 3 days of national mourning

for the victims. in china — a former fashion model handcuffed to his bed for so—called reeducation — rare footage of the uighur ethnic minorities held in secretive detention centres — we have a special report. a two day curfew is imposed in indian—administered kashmir — ahead of the first anniversary of delhi's decision to revoke the special status of the region. and why the latest issue of british vogue is making history, in front of and behind the camera. lebanon is in mourning after a huge explosion in the capital beirut killed nearly 80 people and injured more than 4,000 others. the whole city was shaken

by the blast, which began with a fire at the port which exploded into a mushroom cloud. lebanon's president said more than 2 thousand tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely in a warehouse at the port for six years. 0ur middle east editor, jeremy bowen, has been following developments. 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. 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 all to the city centre? jeremy bowen, bbc news. investigations into the cause of the explosion are still going on, but the lebanese president has already blamed the massive quantity of confiscated ammonium nitrate stored unsafely at the port. it's normally used as

a fertiliser and in industrial explosives. ammonium nitrate explosions have caused deaths in the past. in many cases a fire has broken out first, and then stored ammonium nitrate has exploded. in 2015 in tianjin, china —nitrocellulose caught fire in a warehouse, later triggering an explosion of 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. 173 people died. in april 2013 in west texas, 15 people were killed, and 200 injured when a fertiliser company building caught fire. ammonium nitrate stored there later exploded — flattening 80 homes. the largest death toll was in texas in 1947. 581 people were killed when 2,300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded on board a cargo ship. vyto babrauskas — founder of

fire science and technology inc — has written an extensive review of ammonium nitrate explosions. he told the bbc how they occur. it is a question of fire and lack of fire safety consciousness that the — every single disaster where ammonium nitrate blew up, either in storage or in transport, has one and only one cause, and that has been an uncontrolled fire. an from what i can see from the reports, that is precisely what happened in beirut. that there was an uncontrolled fire and lo and behold, when it impinged upon a storage of ammonium nitrate, there was a gigantic explosion. and that was entirely foreseeable, entirely preventable and there is a century's worth of tragic

record for anybody who cares to be aware of it, to realise that that is not how this dangerous material has to be treated and has to be stored. let's show you the scene in beirut, the morning after the devastating fire and explosion. you can see to a degree the extent of the damage which is fast and goes for miles. i will be speaking shortly to paul hawkins, are reporter in london who has been monitoring the situation overnight. he will bring us the very latest in terms of reaction from international leaders but also the latest numbers, the death toll and other details. 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 former fashion 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 reeducation and that nothing has been heard from him since. up to1 million uighurs have been detained in so—called ‘educational training' centres. 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, merden ghappar 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 merden ghappar 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. the authorities in indian—administered kashmir have imposed a two—day curfew ahead of the first anniversary of delhi's decision to revoke the special status of the region.

new razor wire and steel barricades have been placed on key roads of the main city srinagar. thousands of troops have been patrolling in other parts of the region. ishleen kaur takes a look at the situation in the valley that has seen a tumultuous year. thousands of tourists have enjoyed a ride with abdul karim but in the past year, he has spent most evenings alone. tourism has been absent. translation: i am tourism has been absent. translation: iam barely tourism has been absent. translation: i am barely making money. it costs 100 and 2000 rupees and i spend that much in its repair. this is the announcement which change the course of cashmere's future. exactly course of cashmere's future. exa ctly o ne course of cashmere's future. exactly one year ago, prime minister narendra modi's government abrogated article 370 of india's constitution taking away the region's

autonomy. it argued it would bring development to the region. but the move prompted outrage. critics said it would allow indians to buy property there which could change the demographic of the muslim majority state. indian administered kashmir was put in administered kashmir was put in a state of lot data which has shuttered its economy. it was around 18,000 for a period of four months in kashmir. in addition, there were manyjob losses. but the lockdown continues. cashmere's economy deteriorates and the desperation of its people deepens. ishleen kaur, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news. the people of sri lanka are going to the polls to elect a new parliament, with safety measures in place to contain the spread of coronavirus. president gota baya rajapa ksa is hoping that his successful handling of the pandemic, together with the rise of sinhala nationalism and a divided oppositon, will win his party

a dominant majority. hundreds of people have had to leave their homes near the french city of marseilles because of a forest fire. the fire has ravaged hundreds of hectares of vegetation. more than 1,000 firefighters are tackling the blazes and water bombing planes have also been deployed. there is intense speculation in the spanish media about the whereabouts of fomer king juan carlos, after his announcement on monday that he was leaving the country. some reports suggest he has gone to the dominican republic but officials there say they have no record of the former king having entered the country recently. satellite images have identified eleven previously unknown colonies of emperor penguins in antarctica, thought to number a few hundred penguins each. the finds increase the known number of emperor penguins by between 5% and 10% to more than 500,000 birds. the discoveries were made by spotting the distinctive

red—brown patches the birds leave on the ice. stay with us here on bbc news. still to come: fulham to the premier league after winning the championship play—off final. the question was whether we want to save our people and japanese, as well and win the war, or whether we want to take a chance on being able to win the war by killing all our young men. the invasion began at two o'clock this morning. mr bush, like most other people, was clearly caught by surprise. we call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all the iraqi forces. 100 years old and still full of vigour, vitality and enjoyment of life. no other king or queen in british history has lived so long, and the queen mother is said to be quietly very pleased indeed that she's achieved this landmark anniversary.

this is a pivotal moment for the church as an international movement. the question now is whether the american vote will lead to a split in the anglican community. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: almost 80 people have been killed and thousands injured in a huge explosion in the lebanese capital, beirut. the lebanese prime minister says a confiscated haul of ammonium nitrate caused the devastating blasts. he promises those responsible would be held accountable. let's stay with our top story. 0ur reporter paul

hawkins is with me. he is in the studio. the first of all, in terms of numbers, those injured, those missing, what do we know? the number of injured still standing at 4000, the death toll is still 78, but it certainly will rise at some point throughout the day given how large this explosion was. it was heard 150 miles away in cyprus. they felt it on the windows there, so undoubtedly the death toll will rise throughout the day. what we know is the focus of the investigation will be this 2750 tons of confiscated ammonium nitrate, that will be the focus of the investigation. right now, in lebanon, the president has declared a period of three days of mourning, that will start on the government is releasing $66 million of emergency funds. that will be the focus of the investigation. what we have heard in terms of international reaction of note,

president trump, he has said he has met with his generals, this was at a white house briefing committee met with his general committee met with his general committee did not name them, he said it looked like a terrible attack and said it was not a manufacturing type of event, his words. he thinks it was an attack, a bomb of some kind. that is what he is saying, we don't know which generals he has heard that from, we should stress lebanese authorities are calling it an industrial accident, although a very large one. and there is a search for those missing, trapped under rubble. there are a lot of people still missing. with this in perspective for us. lebanon, the economy was already collapsing. this is a dire situation for them when they are ina situation for them when they are in a very difficult place? they have been dealing with coronavirus, and before that unemployment rates of 30%. the national currency had fallen in value by 80%, soaring poverty, rising crime, unrest on street, power cuts, a lack of clean

water, limited public healthcare, and water, limited public healthca re, and then water, limited public healthcare, and then this. this industrial accident has devastated the port and undoubtedly surely will mean there will be some sort of food shortages and a problem with imports into the country and indeed the wider region. looking at life pictures now, as you say, the port critical for getting very important goods, food, etc, things much needed by those people. thank you, paul hawkins, for now. keeping a close eye on new developments as far as that is concerned. let's pause in terms of that story for a moment and renew all the sports news. —— bring you all the sports news. hello, i'm chetan pathak, with your wednesday sport briefing. he'd suggested he might not be going to new york, now rafa nadal has confirmed he will not be defending his us open title at the end of this month. the world number two says he doesn't want to travel due to the ongoing pandemic. it's also been confirmed that the madrid 0pen‘s been

cancelled due to a spike in covid—19 cases in spain. next, to a huge shock at the snooker world championship in sheffield, where the world number 89, jamie clark, making his debut, has beaten the world number four, mark allen, in the first round. clarke, from wales, is the lowest—ranked player in the tournament, but he turned around a 6—4 deficit against allen to seal a famous win by ten frames to eight. and talking of shocks, ireland have beaten england for only the second time in a thrilling third one—day international in southampton as they chased down 329 with a ball to spare. these two — paul stirling and andrew balbirnie — both hit centuries. ireland may have lost the series, but they end it with a famous win. very satisfying. it is, yeah, it's huge. it's huge for the sport, you know? there has not been a lot of cricket in the

country due to covid, so hopefully we have given the kids and a young generation a bit of a boost and something to strive towards. like our lads have. well, the england test team host pakistan at old trafford on wednesday for the start of their three—match series. pakistan have been in britain since the end ofjune and their preparations have included a 14—day quarantine period. it's going to be their first test match in six months. in tough times, you have to stay patient. because in these tough times, around the globe there are challenges, and playing cricket, we, the best thing is we are doing what we love the most, which is playing cricket. in football, the europa league returns on wednesday with inter milan and wolfsburg amongst those in action together with manchester united, who take a 5—0 lead into the second leg of their last 16 tie against the austrian side lask united, finished

the premier league season in third and are now hoping to win their first trophy under 0le gunnar solskjaer. they're all but through to the quarter—finals and it's straight knockout from there on. and finally, after sealing their return to the english premier league by winning the play—off final at wembley, it's fair to say fulham's social media's gone into overdrive. they've been sharing plenty of pictures of their 2—1 win over their london rivals, brentford. delight for manager scott parker who's taken them straight back up after being relegated last season. it's regarded as football's most lucrative game and estimated to be worth over $175 million to fulham. happy days for them. there's more reaction to that on the bbc sport website. but from me, and the rest of the team, that is your wednesday sport briefing. now, for the first time in its history, the cover of british vogue has been shot by a black male photographer

with a predominantly black team on set. the magazine's editor said the september issue was a rallying cry for the future. brenda emmanus reports. if a picture paints 1,000 words, then this is the vision for hope for the future, as seen by the editor of british vogue. the prestigious september issue has been dedicated to activism and features a host of international authors and change—makers, led by footballer marcus rashford and model turned mental health campaigner adwoa aboah. because we've been in covid, and then we went into sort of really an incredible time of change, these people for me, reflect where we need to go, where we need to be. caring for other people, caring for each other, caring for the world. in the past three years, edward enninful has stormed towards his vision of a more diverse publication. he's showcased big names and aspiring talent, had meghan markle as a guest editor, and turned key workers into cover stars.

it was misan harriman‘s photographs of the black lives matter movement that drew him to the attention of vogue's editor. what i felt i could do is capture a time capsule of a truly unique time in british civil rights history. and i didn't know what to expect. and when i went out there, i saw this wave of solidarity. he became the first black man in the magazine's history to shoot a front cover, producing images with a resounding message. reni eddo—lodge earned her place in the publication as a best—selling author of ‘why i am no longer talking to white people about race'. she has praise for vogue's leadership, saying it is activism at its best. leading, basically. leading, not following what you think the mass wants, but actually leading. because i think, you know, if more cultural leaders did that, they would be pleasantly surprised. in a year marked by global challenges, vogue claims to deliver a message of hope by celebrating the activists

determined to make a difference. brenda emmanus, bbc news. and of the business stories next. i'll see you soon! hello there. we're holding onto this north—west, south—east divide. certainly on tuesday it was the case, with many southern and eastern parts of england seeing plenty of dry, bright, warm and sunny weather. but it was a very different story further north. we had outbreaks of rain in northern ireland, northern england, and for scotland it really was a soaking wet day. now, this weather front responsible for it will sink a little bit further southwards into central areas to start wednesday, but we've got another front which will move into western areas later in the day. this first front will start to migrate northwards again through the morning, taking the patchy rain with it. this next weather front will push across the irish sea, into parts of wales and western england, the odd heavier burst mixed in there. and then further north—west, it will be rather cloudy with spots of drizzle at times. a blustery day to come, particularly in england and

wales. but once again, we'll stay dry with some brightness across england, the top temperatures 25—27 degrees. also fairly warm across aberdeenshire, with some brightness there. now, through wednesday night it stays rather cloudy with further outbreaks of rain pushing on in towards the north sea. but i think that will leave a legacy of clouds and clear spells and once again it's going to be quite a warm and humid night to come. now, this weather front really started out as we head on into thursday. you can see it fade out there in response to this building area of high pressure over the near continent, and that's going to be the theme as we end the week with high pressure starting to dominate. so that weather front as it fizzles out, it will take any showers with it, the cloud should start to break up, but as we start to pick up warm and southerly winds, i think it will be a dry day for many of us with variable cloud and sunny spells. and warmer, too, temperatures reaching the low 20s further north, the high 20s across the south—east. as we head on into friday, we could see a little bit of rain returning to western areas, some of it could be heavy. but for the bulk of

the country, central, southern and eastern areas, it's going to be a very warm or even a hot day with plenty of sunshine. so again, low 20s in the north and west, 30 to maybe 34 degrees in the south—east. so feeling quite hot again. as we move into the weekend, looks like another area of high pressure will build in across the uk and will settle things down, so it should be drier even further north and west, too. and again, another hot day across the south—east on saturday, signs of it starting to cool down a little bit as we head on into sunday.

all this is bbc news with the latest headlines this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. samsung is set to launch its new galaxy note and galaxy z fold handsets today but will they be enough to make samsung regain the crown as the world's biggest smartphone maker? virgin atlantic files for bankruptcy in the us as the global aviation industry feels the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. and, whilejob losses are announced on an almost daily basis, the pay received by the bosses of britains biggest companies has hardly budged at all. we ask why.

if you justjoined us, we will fill you in on the top is this stories. the battle top is this stories. to be the biggest seller smartphones in the world has not stopped because of covid—19. despite it causing lower demand tech brands are continuing to release new handsets. samsung is set to launch its new galaxy note and galaxy z fold handsets later today, but the pressure is on — last week huawei overtook it to become the biggest vendor of smartphones in the world, according to analysts' estimates. can samsung get back on top with its new handsets — or is huawei set to reap the rewards of china's swift reopening?

joining me now is ben stanton, senior analyst at canalys what is going to wow us? samsung has its work cut out. as you mentioned, it is under pressure to prove it is still a big deal in the smartphone world. so while the battle for the number one seller of loans probably won't come down at the high end of its range with the note devices and the z fold devices that it has, these devices that it has, these devices are incredibly important, just to show how innovative it is a new piece of prized how much that sentiment can resonate down to cheaper devices that are the volume drivers. it's got its work cut out but it's incredibly difficult to innovate in smartphones at the high—end. camera improvements, faster processes .

camera improvements, faster processes. it's difficult to say. there is going to be no glitzy stage or eager fans there in awe of what is going to be announced. do you think the galaxy z fold will be grabbing headlines? this is the foldable loan and it tried to launch one before and it cracked? when it launched it before, it had to delay slightly because there were challenges. when it came to pushing that device to market. foldable phones are the future of smart devices. what you can do on them from a productivity perspective, from a content consumption per sec give goes beyond what you can do on a traditional device and they a lwa ys traditional device and they always make huge headlines to samsung will be hoping for that, to be the top story on all the tech news. the thing is

now, and it has to go even further to showcase that it has something. the foldable smartphone space is still so nations, motorola has a new razor, huawei has some phones, but samsung is really the only gaugein but samsung is really the only gauge in town stop can still make a big statement. this do you think right now because we are working from home, we are reliant on devices more. this might bea reliant on devices more. this might be a time when people will reinvest in pink which phones they are going to get in the future? it's possible. over the future? it's possible. over the last few months, we've seen a mixture of things. smartphones that are purchased asa smartphones that are purchased as a luxury, it's been less common because people have had

less money in their wallet but on the flipside, there are smartphones purchased as a necessity. we need to stay in touch and smartphones are a great way to do that. for the new apple devices as they move towards 5g, that will be a big impact. the big challenges consumer purchasing power, if it's hit hard, as we see furlough schemes withdrawn, if the consumer wallet is hit hard, that may make the second half of this year harder stop good to hear your analysis. let's squeeze in some of the business stories. former google engineer anthony levandowski has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing a trade secret from google related to self—driving cars. months later he became the head of uber technologies' rival unit. thejudge said he could enter custody once the covid—19 pandemic has subsided.

australia's second largest airline virgin australia has cut at least 3,000 jobs and scrapped its budget carrier brand as part of a slimming down of the business.the carrier entered voluntary administration shortly after the pandemic hit — and in latejune a takeover deal was struck with us private equity specialists bain capital. the price of gold has hit $2000 for the first time — over fears of how covid—19 will drive up inflation. the price of the precious metal has skyrocketed this year — up by almost a third. often considered a safe haven in times of stress, it's been one of the world's best performing mainstream assets. the world's 6th largest hotel chain — virgin atlantic has filed for bankruptcy to protect itself from creditors in the us. this comes just one month after the carrier said it had

agreed a rescue deal with shareholders and creditors worth more than $1.5 billion. joining me now is richard hunter, head of markets at interactive investor. what do you think is happening with virgin atlantic? the first thing to say is, it's important to realise there are different banks from the rules. in terms of this chapter 15, this is a way of virgin protecting its assets from creditors in the country. it's not the equivalent of uk administration. it's not going to administration in the uk. indeed by protecting its assets in this way, we have indeed got that $1.5 billion rescue plan which virgin has pretty much agreed. it's not been finalised

but it's agreed. it's not been finalised but its expected to go through shortly but what it does show yet again is incredible pressure that the airline industry is under at the moment. from your perspective, talk as to what's happening financial markets. lots of earning reports through but there is the constant concern about covid—19 and seeing new spikes. and on top of that, you've got deteriorating relations between the us and china. there are concern in the pandemic crimping. in terms the seasons, you would expect some of the industries have been particularly ha rd of the industries have been particularly hard hit in terms of hospitality and travel and tourism in general. indeed the thanks the banks were trying to be pa rt the banks were trying to be part of the solution. it's supposed to be part of the

problem. not in the wheels of economy. lending out a great deal of money. keeping customers, loads of biz. it's resulted in several tens of billions of dollars. the real bright spot over the year—to—date continues to be us technology. we've seen a number of companies. including the likes of apple and amazon. there are now three or four1 trillion us companies. nice to see you, glad you are well. we will see you again soon. who can forget the scenes from just a few months ago of shoppers panic buying and empty shelves in supermarkets as countries began to go into lockdown? for a small country like singapore, which imports most of its food, the pandemic

has reinforced the government's plan of making the island nation more self—sufficient in providing food for its residents. one way to plan ahead is farm your own — as nick marsh reports. so this is our sitting area. dot up here on an old disused rooftop, a vision for singapore's future is quietly taking root. it's one of the growing number of urban farms, small in scale but begin ambition. no need for soil, only natural sunlight and nutrient enhanced water, yielding around 50 kg of vegeta bles yielding around 50 kg of vegetables per day and with the coronavirus pandemic revealing how fragile food supplies can be, reduces have seen an opportunity. obviously we are never going to completely replace food coming in from overseas but we need to increase the percentage of what's being produced locally so when things like this happen, it's not felt as much.

whopping 90% of what's eaten in singapore comes from abroad in the pandemic has created a new urgency to change that. in countries, some of the state of the food that is needed in singapore, coming from certain source countries, the source country has stopped. one of those staples is eggs. in the scramble to find new suppliers, officials even turned to poland then borders reopened and a quarter of a million had to be thrown away. to avoid this, singapore has a new strategy. by singapore has a new strategy. by the year 2030, the government wants 30% of what's on everyone's plate to be locally sourced. they are focusing on wish, eggs and leafy greens. the idea is that in ten years, markets like this will be full of food reduced here in singapore. with the help of special government grants. liao built a fish farm

using solar panels and a water filtration system, keeping the fish inside big and plentiful. the catch? for now, his barramundi cell for about 20% more than the imported ones, but that's not the only problem. the challenge to eat local is hard because singaporeans have not seen local produce. this tiny island metropolis as long talked about improving its food security in the face of climate change and regional instability but now the effect of the coronavirus is made that goal more crucial than ever. nick marsh, bbc news, singapore. schools should only close after pubs, restaurants and non—essential shops in any future lockdown, the children's commissioner for england has said. this anne longfield says children have a right to an education. she says children play a smaller role in spreading covid—19 and are much less likely to get ill from it.

the government says getting children back to school is a national priority. a group of womens' charities and unions have called on parliament to suspend a conservative mp who's been accused of rape. they say safety must be paramount and the house of commons should be no different from any other workplace. the former minister was arrested on saturday and later released on bail. the conservative party said it took any complaint "incredibly seriously". this is bbc news,

the latest headlines: almost 80 people have been killed and thousands injured in a huge explosion in the lebanese capital beirut. the lebanese prime minister says a confiscated haul of ammonium nitrate caused the devastating blasts — he promises those responsible would be held accountable. the uk's biggest listed companies have failed to address their bosses' huge salaries during the coronavirus pandemic. that's according to a report from the cipd, the professional body for human resources, and the high pay centre think tank. despite some high—profile reports of executive pay cuts, these were mainly "superficial or short—term", it says. neither have firms addressed a culture of excessive bonuses. it comes amid huge job cuts as the furlough scheme begins to unwind. joining me now is charles cotton, senior

reward and performance adviser at cipd. welcome adviser at cipd. to the programme. could you welcome to the programme. could you tell us in more detail about your findings? we found that prior to covid—19, the typical chief executive of one of britain's largest companies is taking home £3.16 million, which basically would take the average uk worker, working full—time, 119 years to achieve. after covid—19 impacted, we saw around one third of these organisations taking and making pay cuts to their chief executives but typically they were to the salaries, which only account for one fifth of the total pay. very few organisations, just

about 11, were cutting bonuses when contrast that with what is happening currently two employees in terms of them losing jobs or having pay cut, we don't think that at this time it is sufficient. what about the argument that i guess many would say is that actually in this unprecedented time of the pandemic globally, the ceo and the other top executives at these companies are under enormous pressure and have to make very tough decisions and their skill set is more important than ever than before and therefore they should be rewarded for that steel and as you say many have taken pay cuts, albeit not impacting bonuses. well, what we would say is that these people do incredibly important jobs and thatis incredibly important jobs and that is why they get the salaries that they do. what is more questionable other bonuses and incentives that they also

get which make it almost three quarters remuneration. wisest of the case? this is a story that comes around every single year — — why is it still the case and we do see shareholder revolts at the agm and they have to rethink rewards and remuneration. why are we still having this conversation, do you think? i think organisations are quite slow to change and concerned about what they would, what would happen if they make the first move and since covid—19there's been a massive change in terms of what we do and when we do it, how we do it, why we do it and at the same time we have not seen as much change to thinking about our rewarding people in the right way? not just those at the top of the organisation but essential care workers who have done so much to keep the wheels of the economy and society turning in the last three months. yes, and those key

workers trying to keep us healthy as well, charles cotchin, thank you for your time and perspective. more on that on the website. ——cotton. it's been a busy few weeks for tiktok, culminating in president donald trump saying he could ban the app in the us if it doesn't break away from its chinese owner, byte da nce, and sell its us operation to microsoft. where does that leave tiktok‘s host of influencers? many are looking at moving to other social media platforms, and hoping to take their followers with them. how easy will they find it to do that? will tiktok lose its most popular talent? joining me now is mary keane—dawson, group ceo at takumi, a multi—platform global influencer marketing agency and tiktok creative partner. good to see you again. so, first of all, our people

moving? are the influences thinking about leaving tiktok? i don't think they're thinking about leaving tiktok, is my situation of that is how they make their livelihood and that is where their audience predominantly is and if tiktok is banned in the united states, it will mean that they need to make a living somewhere else. the smart ones have already been posting their instagram and youtube tags on tiktok in the last few weeks because i think they are prepared for this. i was going to say because i've got a couple of teenagers and i was amongst a crowd of them on the weekend andi crowd of them on the weekend and i had them all saying tiktok will be bound to the uk scene. in their minds, they are moving away from tiktok, their uses, as it were? yes, we've seen it before but not quite the same situation because vine

was not actually bad, it was closed down rather suddenly and perhaps the uses realised it would not be around for much longer — such it is a very fickle space, social media, instagram and youtube are very well established and tiktok is a phenomenon and ifor one would be disappointed to see a quy would be disappointed to see a guy but in the same way that facebook and google and all the others, they harvest our data, so does tiktok. the problem with tiktok is it is a chinese owned entity by bytedance and no control from the perspective of the americans and other national governments in their opinion of what is happening with the data. there is a?. there is no evidence to indicate there is anything u ntowa rd indicate there is anything untoward happening and in our experience, tiktok are

incredibly studious about maintaining regulatory controls and complying with what is happening, whether it's in europe or with the united states with the government regulations around data, but there is a suspicion and that is the big question. for the influences, have they seen their following grow during the pandemic because, i mean that's obvious but i didn't know for sure, i wanted to ask you because presumably, people have been sat on their devices more than ever, especially the young audience that tiktok seems to attract? 10096, audience that tiktok seems to attract? 100%, you audience that tiktok seems to attract? 10096, you are com pletely attract? 10096, you are completely right. during the last 16—20 weeks, this horrible time in history that all living through, one of the winners has undoubtedly been social media and that's not just undoubtedly been social media and that's notjust among young people, judi dench is on

tick—tock and many actors, edgers alvar, are on tiktok because there is no other way of expressing themselves and is incredibly fast growth, the biggest downloaded app in the world. we will watch this space for sure. thank you for getting up for sure. thank you for getting up so early, we appreciated! —— appreciate it! linkedin has more than 700 million users around the world and is owned by microsoft but the professional networking site started out as just a small team of people with an idea. one of the co—founders, allen blue, talked to us about the early days of the company and shared the secrets of his success. 0ne one of the things that i had wished i had known when i was doing my first adults — at start—up, when you are at a start—up, when you are at a start—up you have to focus on just one thing.

back when i was starting linkedin, we had already done a couple of start—ups and by that time we stood the value of focus, in the early days of linkedin we were building a people search engine so if i wa nted people search engine so if i wanted to go solve a business problem i had to find a professional who would help me so the most important thing for us, matter of fact, the only problem we had to solve, we needed to grow the network. because we knew we only had one thing we had to get absolutely right, we were able to port two—thirds of the company on solving this one problem and that kind of focus lead to fantastic results, great innovative ideas, regular testing and experimentation, so now we fast forward and it is a

very large company linkedin add pa rt very large company linkedin add part of my role is driving innovation in the company but i still remember that one lesson, focus your team. your team can be tremendously creative and innovative but only if you define the problem they are trying to solve as narrowly as possible. that is a series that we run in the business unit and it is called ceo secrets and you can see many of those stories and tips on the website. i mentioned earlier there is more detail on that report that we focused on about the pay of ftse100 bosses. as i mentioned, there is a lot more detail on the online website if you want to dig deeper on that and as ever, all the other top

business stories. to make the most of bbc online as we keep you right up to day. that is all for me for now. have a really good day and i will see you soon! hello there. we're holding onto this north—west, south—east divide. certainly on tuesday it was the case, with many southern and eastern parts of england seeing plenty of dry, bright, warm and sunny weather. but it was a very different story further north. we had outbreaks of rain in northern ireland, northern england, and for scotland it really was a soaking wet day. now, this weather front responsible for it will sink a little bit further southwards into central areas to start wednesday, but we've got another front which will move into western areas later in the day. this first front will start to migrate northwards again through the morning, taking the patchy rain with it. this next weather front will push across the irish sea, into parts of wales and western england, the odd heavier burst mixed in there. and then further north—west, it will be rather cloudy with spots of drizzle at times. a blustery day to come,

particularly in england and wales. but once again, we'll stay dry with some brightness across england, the top temperatures 25—27 degrees. also fairly warm across aberdeenshire, with some brightness there. now, through wednesday night it stays rather cloudy with further outbreaks of rain pushing on in towards the north sea. but i think that will leave a legacy of clouds and clear spells and once again it's going to be quite a warm and humid night to come. now, this weather front really started out as we head on into thursday. you can see it fade out there in response to this building area of high pressure over the near continent, and that's going to be the theme as we end the week with high pressure starting to dominate. so that weather front as it fizzles out, it will take any showers with it, the cloud should start to break up, but as we start to pick up warm and southerly winds, i think it will be a dry day for many of us with variable cloud and sunny spells. and warmer, too, temperatures reaching the low 20s further north, the high 20s across the south—east. as we head on into friday,

we could see a little bit of rain returning to western areas, some of it could be heavy. but for the bulk of the country, central, southern and eastern areas, it's going to be a very warm or even a hot day with plenty of sunshine. so again, low 20s in the north and west, 30 to maybe 34 degrees in the south—east. so feeling quite hot again. as we move into the weekend, looks like another area of high pressure will build in across the uk and will settle things down, so it should be drier even further north and west, too. and again, another hot day across the south—east on saturday, signs of it starting to cool down a little bit as we head on into sunday.

good morning. welcome to breakfast with charlie stayt and louise minchin. 0ur headlines today: at least 78 people dead and 4,000 injured in a huge explosion in the lebanese capital, beirut. the blast, which shook the entire city, began with a fire at a warehouse, which housed thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate. we'll be live in beirut throughout the morning with the latest on the desperate search for more survivors. the children's commissioner for england calls for the government