this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. explosion lebanon is in mourning after the huge explosion which killed at least 100 people and injured more than 4,000 others. the blast shook the whole city and a desperate search for more survivors is still under way. translation: from seven o'clock in the evening we've been all over every hospital in beirut and we are now waiting for the names to come out, and nothing has come out. we don't know if he's dead or alive. lebanon's prime minister says the blast happened when thousands of tonnes of confiscated ammonium nitrate caught fire at a warehouse.

translation: what happened today won't pass without account. those responsible will pay the price for what happened. this is a promise to the martyrs and to the wounded. here in the uk, failing to implement border restrictions on arrivals earlier in the pandemic was a "serious mistake", according to mps. indian prime minister narendra modi lays the foundation stone for a new hindu temple in ayodhya, a site that has long been a source of tension between hindus and muslims. wh smith says it could axe up to 1,500 jobs in the uk after the pandemic pushed down the number of customers going into its stores. and good news for the emperor penguin as satellite mapping technology discovers 11 new breeding sites in antarctica. hello and welcome if you're

watching in the uk or around the world 7 and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. rescue workers in lebanon are digging through rubble looking for survivors after a devastating explosion in beirut. at least 100 people are known to have died, but with many more missing and more than 4,000 injured officials warn that the number of dead is likely to rise. the huge blast at the port sent shock waves across the city, destroying many nearby buildings and blowing out windows several miles away. an investigation is under way to find out what exactly caused the blast. the country's president said over 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely in a warehouse for six years. while the lebanon's prime minister warned those responsible would be punished. translation: what happened today won't pass without account. those responsible will pay the price for what happened.

this is a promise to the martyrs and to the wounded. this is a national commitment, facts will be released about the warehouse that has been there since 2014. small fires are still burning across the city and smoke can be seen rising from the remains of buildings. this report from sean dilley contains some distressing scenes. explosion it was a catastrophic explosion. what?! the blast was heard 150 miles away. no! another view from moments earlier shows a fire in beirut port. authorities say the flashes were caused by fireworks. but then... explosion alarm blares ..as the sound of the explosion rang out across the city, windows smashed and buildings were destroyed. from the streets beirut could only watch as the carnage unfolded. 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. already heavily stretched by the covid crisis, beirut‘s hospitals were overwhelmed by casualties in need of urgent treatment. translation: we have at least 300 wounded in the hospital right now. we have six operating suites that are still operating right now, and this keeps filling up by another group that needs attention. we have about four to five in intensive care, we have three that arrived dead. every one of our crew, doctors and nurses, are operating, even administration — everyone is working. we have a lot of damage as you can see. all the ceilings have collapsed at the entrance and the glass windows of patients' rooms. as embattled medics struggled to help the injured, distraught locals sought to find lost relatives. translation: he is 29 years old. from 7:00 in the evening,

we have been all over every hospital in beirut and we are now waiting for the names to come out and nothing has come out. we don't know if he is dead or alive, we just don't know. the international community has offered its help to a city in turmoil. boris johnson tweeted: lebanon's president has announced three days of mourning and promised to release 100 billion lira or £50.5 million of emergency funds. officials say highly explosive materials believed to be ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse for up to six years caused the explosion. they say they are investigating what ignited it. in the meantime, authorities say those responsible will face the maximum possible punishment. sean dilley, bbc news.

0ur correspondent in beirut, lina sinjab, gave us this update from near the scene of the blast. so far it is really hard to tell what the causes are behind the explosion. we know for sure there was a storage of explosives that had been stored there for almost six years since 2014. and there has been many calls that they should be destroyed or stored in a safe way but they haven't been. this is the main reason of the explosion. but it's hard to tell at the moment what caused the initial flame that caused the explosion. the government has opened a big investigation and they expect some outcome in the coming 48 hours. but at the moment the situation is really devastating. i'm standing just a few metres away from where the explosion happened and you can see still the smoke coming out from the port of beirut. this is the main port that imports

and exports material to lebanon, lebanon relies heavily, almost 90% of its consumption is imported and now the port is out of function completely. around the port, this is like the lavish downtown beirut and the beirut city centre and most of the buildings have their windows shattered or they are out of function. and the damage also among people around lebanon, 4,000 casualties so far. and, of course, there are almost 80 people who died so far. the hospitals are rushing and they are out of capacity. they are helping each other. it is a really difficult situation and with the economic crisis here in lebanon they'll have to rely on international aid to come and help them out, otherwise they will not be able to stand on their feet with this. lina sinjab in beirut. joining me now is lina khatib —

director of the middle east and north africa programme at the international affairs think—tank chatham house, and former director of the carnegie middle east center in beirut. thank you forjoining us. 0bviously a lot of questions were raised yesterday about whether this was an accident or something more alarming. what is your take on that at the moment? of course, it's not going to be easy to speculate. it could be an accident, it may not be an accident, but regardless, explosive material of this kind should not be stored in an area close to residential neighbourhoods and unsafely. and certainly should not be there for six years. this speaks of gross government incompetence and just illustrates the huge level of corruption that lebanon has been suffering from for decades and which seems to be snowballing. why would a substance like this, which is used

in explosives, be stored in such mass quantities? that raises questions in itself, doesn't it? absolutely. who needs 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate? it is known that this substance is used for making explosives and it is also known that hezbollah, the lebanese group, is smuggling material like this into lebanon through the port. so it is plausible that hezbollah may have some sort of link to the ammonium nitrate that exploded at the port. but of course, it is too early to tell. but certainly this is not a normal circumstance. lebanon's agricultural industry certainly had not been benefiting from tonnes of fertiliser sitting in a port for six yea rs. fertiliser sitting in a port for six years. just explain the context and timing of this because beirut obviously has been through decades of political instability and

difficulty. but this week also is significant, isn't it? absolutely. 0n significant, isn't it? absolutely. on friday the special tribunal for lebanon that is investigating the assassination of former prime minister rafik hariri is meant to issue its verdict and it is expected that the four people that the court will say are responsible for the assassination are going to be hezbollah members, the same four people that the court had indicted previously. this, of course, would only add to political tension in lebanon, but also against the powers that be that have allowed the situation in lebanon to be dominated by the impunity that lebanon is witnessing today. so this explosion is also happening at a very critical time for the country. so even if this is just time for the country. so even if this isjust a really time for the country. so even if

this is just a really tragic, horrible accident, how is this going to affect public opinion, do you think? 0bviously people are suffering in the immediate area, but it will have a wider impact, will it? absolutely, lebanon was struggling already, the currency had lost 80% of its value and the coronavirus situation is worsening. people have lost their livelihoods asa people have lost their livelihoods as a result of both the economic situation in lebanon which is not helped by a government that does not seem to be cooperating with, for example, the international monetary fund when asked to engage in really necessary reforms. and, therefore, people have been protesting in lebanon since october asking for the political system to change and for the government to be responsive and the government to be responsive and the government to be responsive and the government is being far from responsive. it continues to act with impunity. so this explosion, with its devastating impact on livelihoods, is going to only add to

popular resentment and anger against the government and all the political class in lebanon. ok, lina khatib, from chatham house, thank you for your time. as we've been hearing the blast is thought to have been caused by 2,700 tonnes of the fertiliser ammonium nitrate, which had been stored in a warehouse in the port area of the city since 2014. chris phillips is the former head of the national counter terrorism security office and led a uk government review of how ammonium nitrate was stored in the uk. hejoins me now. chris, how unusual is it to have this amount of ammonium nitrate stored anywhere? well, actually, this all comes from an almost identical explosion that happened in toulouse in the early 2000s, 2001, i think it was, and in the uk we had a look around at what we had in the uk and were ammonium nitrate was being stored and how it was being looked after and it was quite alarming here, actually. so quite a bit of work done on how we store it and how

much you should store, and how safe it was. and of course, most farms across the uk and across the world use this stuff, just as a fertiliser for their plants. and what conditions does it need to be stored under? there has been a lot of questions about what has happened. in beirut, but how this material was stored. the way this stuff is stored is really important. it sounds to me as if this stuff had been left in a warehouse, which is probably the worst way you could do it. of course, ammonium nitrate on its own is not dangerous. it is only when fuel oil gets added to it and then some kind of ignition, and that's what we saw, it appears, yesterday. so it is really important that you actually know how to store it, you don't store it in big quantities like this, you separate it, you ensure that if there is some kind of an explosion on one part of the ammonium nitrate store that you have got, that it will not propagate to

other parts of the site. there is lots of work that was done by scientists in the uk and across the world on how to store this. it appears, they didn't go to this site, it appears that those lessons we re site, it appears that those lessons were not learned in lebanon. and does that look like negligence or deliberate? and, you know, iwas asking an earlier guest, actually, can this stuff self ignite, or does something have to be added to it or happen to it in orderfor ignition to happen? no, you have to have fewer oil and then an ignition. i think you saw the initial explosion yesterday was quite a small explosion followed by a much bigger one. so if the storage has been badly done, and we don't know whether this was any form of deliberate act, but if it is not stored properly, if fewer oil gets into the product then it is easy to explode. —— fuel oil. the ira used

the stuff across the uk to make their explosions. you will remember their explosions. you will remember the attack in manchester where the city centre was pretty much taken out. that was two or three bags of this stuff. it is really lethal if it is mixed in the right way and people deliberately or accidentally add the fuel oil to it. how is it traded amongst terror groups all over the world and in the middle east? there is many explosive types that can be used. this isjust east? there is many explosive types that can be used. this is just one. the key point about this is accessibility. and of course, ammonium nitrate, as i said, is used on farms across the world so it is a fairly easy thing to get hold of, which is one of the reasons in the uk that we set up a whole system explaining to the farmers and those people who used itjust how dangerous it was. so it is really important that the farmers, the people that hold this stuff, no its importance will stop and i can only speakfor the importance will stop and i can only speak for the uk, the importance will stop and i can only speakfor the uk, the uk has quite a

good system of securing its fertiliser. ok, chris phillips, many thanks indeed. those live pictures coming in from beirut where the search for survivors continues. the british retailer, wh smith says it could cut up to 1,500 jobs as part of a restructuring of its uk store operations due to a coronavirus—driven fall in customers at its travel and high street shops. the book—seller and stationer, was founded more than 200 years ago. ben thompson is following this for us. this is more bad news forjobs and on the high street, of course. yes, you're right, and we should be really clear here, whsmith's business is made up of two very distinct parts, one is the high street business that we have known for so long, and the other are those outlets in travel locations, mainly airports and railway stations. those two really tell us a very different picture. because we know very few of

us are picture. because we know very few of us are travelling right now, we have seen us are travelling right now, we have seen pictures of empty airports and empty train stations, therefore, for the retailers that operate there, business has not been good. wh smith tells us this morning that about 53% of its stores in those travel locations are currently open. most of them were closed at the height of the pandemic, and therefore, it means that the money that they make from those stores is significantly down on the same time last year. just looking at the numbers released this morning, they tell us in the travel business revenue, it is down by 73% last month compared to this time last year. its high street business, a slightly different story, revenues picking up more quickly. they are still down but down by 25% on last year. that's primarily because many of the stores, around 200 of them, were able to stay open during the pandemic because they had post offices located within them. so that helped keep some of those stores open and the tills kept ringing to a certain extent in those outlets. but

nonetheless, wh smith has realised that things are not picking up very quickly and therefore it is going to look at how many stores it has, and where they operate. as a result it has said it may have to lose 1500 jobs and will begin the consultation on redundancies. but as you say, further bad news for the high street has already been struggling. and i think what has surprised many is quite how long it is taking for many locations to pick up, so looking at train stations and airports at the moment right now, many assuming they would bounce back when travel restrictions were lifted, but because many of those restrictions are ongoing it means for the businesses that operate there it is very tough indeed. very difficult times. ben thompson, thank you very much indeed. here in the uk mps have accused the government of accelerating both the pace and the scale of the coronavirus pandemic by making a series of "critical errors". the home affairs select committee says — in particular — lifting all virus—related border restrictions in mid—march resulted in "many more people"

contracting covid—19. the government has dismissed the findings, saying its decisions throughout kept people safe and were "guided by the science". 0ur political correspondent nick eardley is in westminster. nick, this report is pretty damn thing about events in mid—march, isn't it? yeah, absolutely. good morning. they have been a lot of concerns raised about the way that the uk government approached the quarantine issue, some criticism that they didn't bring it in quickly enough, some criticism recently that it was brought in as a blanket approach. this report is looking at why the decision was made back in march to basically scrap quarantine. if you remember before 13th of march, people coming back from the worst affected areas at that time, most of which were in china, but also italy and iran, they will being told to quarantine on arrival. that

was then scrapped for asymptomatic people. the committee is really critical of that, saying it is inexplicable that the government took that decision at the time and the decision to do so lead to more cases coming in to the country. have a listen to the chair of the select dunnock home affairs select committee, who is the labour mp yvette cooper. first of all, we still had in the third week of march over 1 million people arrived in the uk, in the fourth week over 500,000 people arrived in the uk, and we saw the evidence from a detailed genomic scientific study on the thousands of people who were coming into the uk with covid—19 at that time and the chief scientific adviser himself said it was the very many different strains of the virus which is what accelerated the pandemic. and even just two days after the government lifted all of its self—isolation guidance, at a time, bear in mind, when other countries were bringing in much tighter restrictions, we had in one day an estimated 900

people arrive with the virus. so i think that's the evidence of the mistakes that were being made but we really want the government to learn from this evidence because, bear in mind, this was a full ten days before lockdown happened, this was a time when people were coming back from holiday, for example, going into the pub, going to restaurants, going back into work as well. if we are to get things right in the future we should be recognising that mistakes were made and crucially, behind some of these key decisions we could find no scientific basis for them whatsoever. it is really important that decisions are guided by the science. it raises lots of questions, not just about what is happening now as people are in holiday mode, but also, was it the scientists or political leaders making these calls ? political leaders making these calls? yeah, absolutely. i mean, the government rejects the findings of this report will stop quite simply, it says that they are inaccurate and

that the right decisions, they argue, were made at the right time, guided by the science. but there is a lot of criticism of what went on. in those early months, the decisions being made in whitehall, some of the advice that was given has been questioned as well. we can see those in minutes from those discussions that were had at the time and some people have questioned whether scientists were direct enough with the government, quite frankly, about some of the potential risks of allowing people in from other parts of the world. in terms of where we are at now, i think the government is fairly confident that it has got toa is fairly confident that it has got to a place where it can alter quarantine based on the latest data. we know, for example, that when the number of cases went up in spain and luxembourg people coming back from their were told that they would have to quarantine. quite possible that will happen with other countries over the next few weeks and months as well as we see local increases in

the virus in various countries. but yeah, absolutely some questions still being asked about those early decisions. and i suspect over time there will be a lot more of those questions to be answered. what does that mean for right now as people perhaps travel back from holidays at the end of the month to start school and work more in september with a lack of a fully operative test and trace system ? lack of a fully operative test and trace system? the government has shied away from using test and trace asa shied away from using test and trace as a potential solution to try and reduce the quarantine period that has been suggested, for example, that the uk could follow other countries, rather than telling eve ryo ne countries, rather than telling everyone when they come back from some countries that they have to stay at home for two weeks, giving them a couple of tests. 0ne when they get to the airport and one a few days later to check if they have shown any symptoms of the virus, or whether they have it. ministers are slightly nervous about that. they are not totally convinced that the airport test will show up in many cases at all, nor that the capacity is there to follow up every single

person who is coming back from affected countries. so quite frankly, going on holidayjust now isa frankly, going on holidayjust now is a bit ofa frankly, going on holidayjust now is a bit of a risk because there are some countries where the virus is increasing and ministers have said all along that if you are returning from those countries to england, you run the risk that there may be that quarantine reimposed. so the message from the government has been that travel is back on, people can go on holiday, but there is a risk, quite frankly, that if you go to certain places and that quarantine is introduced when you are away, when you come back you will have to stay home for a couple of weeks. nick ea rdley home for a couple of weeks. nick eardley in westminster, thank you. indian prime minister narendra modi has laid the foundation for a hindu temple in the northern city of ayodhya. the site of the temple is disputed between hindus and muslims. but after a long court battle it was handed over to hindus in november last year. the construction of the temple was a key election promise of mr

modi's hindu nationalist bjp party. many are questioning the timing of the event, which coincides with the first anniversary of the revocation of indian administered kashmir‘s special status — and of course the coronavirus pandemic. 0ur correspodent yogita limaye has been following events from mumbai. prime minister narendra modi has been speaking after laying the foundation stone of the temple, what he said is that billions of people today are witnessing something they have not imagined they would see in their lifetime. he says, like so many indians struggled and sacrificed during the independence movement, so have scores of indians struggled and sacrificed for the building of this temple. of course, the site where he has offered prayers today is a controversial one. it is at the centre of what is perhaps one of the longest running and violent disputes between hindus and violent disputes between hindus and muslims in this country. in 1992, a mosque that stood at the

location was torn down by hindus who believe that it was built over the site of the birthplace of one of hinduism's most prominent deities ram. indeed, this is a belief that is carried millions of hindus all over the world, and today we are seeing a lot of people rejoicing. they believe that this is a day of celebration. i have been hearing people saying this is an historic moment for them. but also a controversial one because the tearing down of that mask triggered religious riots in this country, thousands of people were killed, more muslims than hindus. and although, you know, who should stake although, you know, who should stake a claim to the land, that sort of dispute was resolved by the supreme court late last year. the criminal act of tearing down the structure that stood there, this is the case that stood there, this is the case that still continues. it hasn't been resolved. and so, many are asking whether the prime minister of a secular country like india should be offering prayers at a moment when there hasn't been a resolution on

that front yet. you guidolin my there in mumbai. —— yogita limaye. the children's commissioner for england says schools should be the last places to close in any future lockdowns — after pubs, restaurants and non—essential shops. anne longfield's comments come amid fears of a second coronavirus spike — with all pupils in england set to return to the classroom in september. pupils in scotland will return to school next week. anne longfield says children have a right to an education. of course, i want life to be normal, like anyone else, but the fact of the matter is, the virus is with us. we have to find ways to adapt. we have to find ways to manage it. and children have been out of school now for six months. it has been the biggest disruption since world war ii. we know that they have been struggling, many children, in terms of home learning. many won't have been learning at all. and the most disadvantaged children are the ones who are falling further behind. the education minister nick gibb has insisted that all pupils will return to school in england in september.

schools are our priority. all children will be returning to school this september. of course, schools have been open partially since june. we've had reception, year one, and year six returning to school. by the time we end the summer term, about 1.6 million children were in school, but we do want all children back in school in september, including in areas that are subject to local restrictions such as in greater manchester, and there are a huge number of measures in place in schools to make sure that children are safe, and minimise the risk of the spread of the virus. so, for example, increased hygiene, hand washing, cleaning of surfaces, lunch breaks, being staggered, lunch breaks being staggered, playtimes, making sure that children are in those bubbles and not over mixing with too many children while they are at school, and making sure that staff are socially distance from each other and from pupils, where that's possible. nick gibb. 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 uyghur 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. up to1 million uyghurs 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, 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 uyghur language.

despite the risks 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. 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. hello this is bbc news with geeta gurumurthy. the headlines: lebanon is in mourning after the huge explosion which killed at least 100 people

and injured more than 4,000 others. rescue teams are looking for survivors of the blast site whilst relatives desperately search for survivors and hospitals. translation: from seven o'clock in the evening we have been all over every hospital in beirut, and we are now waiting for names to come out, and nothing has come out. we don't know if he's dead or alive. lebanon's prime minister says the blast happened when thousands of tonnes of confiscated ammonium nitrate caught fire at a warehouse. here in the uk, failing to implement border restrictions on arrivals earlier in the pandemic was a "serious mistake", according to mps. indian prime minister narendra modi lays the foundation stone for a new hindu temple in ayodhya — a site that has long been a source of tension between hindus and muslims. bookseller and stationer wh smith says it could cut up to 1,500 jobs in the uk after the pandemic pushed down the number of customers going into its stores.

let's go back to our main story now and the huge explosion in lebanon's capital beirut which has left at least 100 people dead and injured more than 4,000 others. earlier i spoke to dr firass abiad, head of the rafik hariri university hospital in beirut, the largest public hospital in lebanon. he told me the situation in his hospital. we have received almost 200 casualties, some of them are dead. we have admitted more than 22 cases to our what intensive care units. and what sort of injuries had people been suffering? initially, most of the people who are coming, they were coming in tens, with some glass injuries, people just thrown up in the air from the impact of the blast. then later, the ambulances started arriving from the blast site, and they were bringing in people who had more serious injuries.

how many would you say are now critical? we have about 18 patients in our critical units and we still have some patients in the emergency rooms. we are waiting to see whether we can find places for them in our hospital or they have to be transferred to other hospitals. just how overstretched are you? you are talking obviously about not being able to treat everyone he was coming in. yes. the level and the numbers of casualties that we seen yesterday was unprecedented. we haven't seen that even in the times of civil war. i think that all the hospitals were stretched. add to that that some hospitals were damaged and had to be evacuated. we were actually receiving both casualties and patients being evacuated from hospitals as well. do you know how close to the blast people were affected? do you have that sort of information?

from talking to the first responders and the ambulance services, we know that a lot of the buildings that are in the vicinity of the blast, they haven't been swept up, and they are going into those buildings and we expect that the number of dead will rise as they do. is there anything in terms of external help that the international community can do quickly to help? i think that all help is appreciated. i think whether it is medical supplies, know the status of the stores, remember that this is the biggest marine port in lebanon, there was a lot of merchandise there. so up until now, we don't have don't have any information about how that affected the situation. is it men, women and children? is it families or people who were living or working

in the area that have come in to you? the extent of the blast, i cannot describe it. people have heard the impact of the blast in other countries. we have heard that injordan and cyprus, and they heard the impact of the blast. so i think that a lot of people have been affected in the capital and outside. these are the live images. research is going on under the rubble for survivors. we have been hearing that people are still missing and they have people critically injured in hospital, but the level of devastation is utterly huge, and the port, of course, also now affected, and that brings supplies in and out of beirut, and the impact of this is set to play into people's daily lives and are difficult political situation that already existed

there, in lebanon at the moment. in a very important political week, too. a lot of questions of course gone on how this explosion happened, but the immediate urgent request goes on for survivors, and to help those who have been injured. i want to bring you some breaking news from scotland. we are hearing from our collea g u es scotland. we are hearing from our colleagues there, that 381 jobs are going to go in renfrewshire at a clothing based, m&co, as it goes into administration in a prepack deal, retaining as family ownership. they are closing 250 outlets with 200 and —— they are closing 250 outlets with 200 and -- 381 they are closing 250 outlets with 200 and —— 381 jobs, including 54 non—retail staff, sadly, going to lose those jobs there, in scotland. womens' charities and unions representing british parliamentary staff have called on parliament to suspend a conservative mp

who's been accused of rape. in a joint statement, they say safety at work must be paramount. the mp was arrested on saturday and later released on bail. the conservative party says it takes all complaints seriously. the nobel peace prize winner john hume will be laid to rest later. his body was carried into st eugene s cathedral in londonderry last night, after the nationalist sdlp party members formed a guard of honour in tribute to their former leader. mr hume, who played a major role in the northern ireland peace talks, died on monday aged 83. yesterday we reported on the british children of islamic state group members stranded in camps in syria. today we look at the way the caribbean is dealing with the women and children who want to return. the caribbean island of trinidad had one of the highest recruitment rates to islamic state group in the west. many of the men who travelled as foreign fighters were killed. their widows are now asking the government in trinidad to let

them and their children return. poonam taneja reports. trinidad, the tropical island best known for its steel bands and carnival. but some they are swapped the caribbean island for the islamic state's self—declared caliphate. many, like this man have been killed in battle. his mother now fears for his wife and children, who are left stranded in camps in syria. the camp is not human like. it is overcrowded, and diseased. they have rations, and water is like, it is not... it is just not for human. i am a brother from trinidad and tobago. about 130 trinidadians joined is.

some are seen here in this propaganda film. many of the trinidadians who travelled to islamic state group either visited or worshipped at this mosque complex in the small town of rio claro. the imam's daughters, grandchildren and great—grandchildren all travelled to syria. he's come to the attention of both the us and local security services. are you a recruiter for islamic state group? i have never recruited anybody. i have never advised anybody to go over there. i am speaking the truth. whether you believe or not. how do you explain that so many people with a connection to you and this mosque here, travelled to islamic state group territory? this is a good mosque. people can come here. why my children and grandchildren have gone, i don't know. how they went for when they

went, number one, and the other people who passed through, i don't know how they went. no charges have been brought against him. the issue now in trinidad is how to deal with the women and children still in syria. something governments across the world are struggling with. here, new anti—terror laws are to be introduced to facilitate their safe return. we have designed laws so that we can buffer the return, receive them into a safe zone, so that we can actually debrief, investigate and we acclimatise our citizens to life in trinidad and tobago in a responsible way. but their relatives can't understand the delay. certainly they are not innocent, but i don't think they will view the mothers as terrorists, and i can't see a four—year—old being a terrorist. they will just follow the parents. many western governments remain

fearful about security, but aid agencies warn that, if they stay in syria, children will be increasingly at risk of death, disease and radicalisation. poonam taneja, bbc news, trinidad. 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 former 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. new guidance is being issued to sonographers to use when they carry out ultrasounds for expectant parents. it's to help radiographers communicate in an honest and clear way, especially if they pick up complications with the pregnancy during the scan. tim muffett has been speaking to some parents about their experience. right at the very end, she said, "so everything looks fine, your baby's got a heartbeat and there is just no fluid around your baby. " and that was almost said in passing. you know, i can still hear those words clear as day. hannah has had several miscarriages. 0n more than one occasion, distressing situations were handled badly. i rememberjust feeling, the blood, the blood colour draining

out my face, i felt quite faint. and she said, "so if you canjust sit in the waiting room, we will send a doctor out to talk to you." and she looked at me and said, "what's wrong with you?" i've just had the shock of my life, actually. you have just given me this news and i am trying to comprehend it but also now i have to go and sit back in a waiting area full of other expecting parents. now a mum of five, hannah welcomes new official guidance for sonographers who carry out scans on pregnant women. it seems to me to be of basic principles of good care and it's not been present. around one in 20 baby scans pick up anomalies that could indicate a health condition. some are serious, some are not. it is down to sonographers, such as alexandra, to relay unexpected news. and what we're trying to do as sonographers is, whilst we are scanning in real—time, quite often with the parents asking us questions, like can we see what the gender of the baby is,

and is that the baby winking or is it the heart flickering, we are trying to think, how are we going to break the bad news? have i actually diagnosed what is wrong with the baby correctly? and so it's a very, very stressful situation to be in and then suddenly you have to turn to the patients and sort of shatter their world, really. a lot of the training that we get is in—house, so it's literally watching the sonographer that is your mentor and who you are learning from. and obviously that's reliant on the sonographer doing it correctly in the first place. but we have never had a go—to publication, something where there is a consensus on how we should break bad news. the new guidance is published today. doctorjudithjohnson led the research. it's important the sonographers are honest and they provide a balanced picture of what they have seen, even if this is uncertain, and linked with that, neutral terms are really important. so it is important that sonographers use the term "chance" instead of "risk", and "health condition" rather than "abnormality". the use of the word "baby" — what we now know is that it is

always "a baby" as soon as expectant parents know that they are pregnant with a baby, and it is really important that sonographers use that language too. zoe is 13, she has down's syndrome and was born with a heart defect. whenever you hear news like that, we describe it as like being hit by a juggernaut. we were the classic first—time parents, going to our 20—week pregnancy scan, expecting to find out whether we were having a boy or a girl, grandparents on hold on the phone and all that sort of thing so i don't think there's any good way that you can possible hear the news like the news that we heard. however, i think it is possible to give that news in a sensitive and in a compassionate way, and that is pretty much what happened happened with our experience. the sonographer was very compassionate, she responded to the questions we were asking, she was very honest. she told us what she thought she could see but did not try to overtell us things, didn't try to diagnose. john runs a charity called tiny tickers for children, like zoe, who are born with heart problems.

he helped draw up the new guidance. i think it is absolutely vital that this training, these guidelines are adopted because sonographers are being asked to do really, really difficult things. up until now, there has been no consensus guidelines, there's been no mandatory training for sonographers so they have kind of been really left to it, to pick their own way through that really difficult thing. zoe's life got off to a difficult start butjohn and his wife were grateful that they were told sensitively and honestly about the challenges that lay ahead. tim muffett, bbc news. some breaking news on the court case involving the duchess of sussex. she has won a high court bid to keep secret the identities of five friends who gave an anonymous interview to a us magazine, in the later stage of her legal action against associated newspapers, the publishers of the mail on sunday and mail online. they reproduced parts

of letter she had sent to her estranged father thomas markle. at the preliminary hearing in london last week, her lawyers applied for the five friends who gave an interview to people magazine to remain anonymous and reports of proceedings, and it seems that the court has ruled, it has concluded, that the duchess should be granted an order which protects the identities of the five individuals, so the duchess of sussex winning a high court bid to keep secret the identities of five of her friends who gave an anonymous interview to a us magazine, this is part of her ongoing court action suing associated newspapers. in other new, 11 new emperor penguin colonies have been found by observing antarctica from space. the discovery, using satellite mapping technology, suggests the global emperor population is between 5—10% higher

than previously thought, at more than half a million birds. geographers say although finding these new colonies is good news, the colonies are small, making them even more vulnerable to climate change. joining us now to explain the significance of this discovery is dr preter fretwell, geographerfrom the british antarctic survey. can you hear us, doctor? thank you. can you hear us, doctor? thank you. can you hear us, doctor? thank you. can you tell us what has been found in terms of the numbers of these penguins? we have found that about 20 5000-55,000 new penguins? we have found that about 20 5000—55,000 new penguins located with the —— within these 11 new emperor penguin colonies. what does this mean? it is great to have more emperor penguins. this is a species thatis emperor penguins. this is a species that is vulnerable to climate change and we expect over the coming decades that numbers will reduce

dramatically. they breed on the sea ice, the frozen sea around the continent of antarctica, and we know from reviewing the arctic that that is not going to be one of the first things that goes as the world warms up, so having more penguins is good but this actual discovery, we found colonies which are more on the periphery of the range, towards the edge of where they normally breed and they asked quite small colonies are probably more vulnerable to climate change than other colony locations. why the small colonies make them more vulnerable? it is more the geographical locations of where they are, they are more towards the edge. there are only a few places in antarctica when you can go further south to colder locations and these aren't in any of those places. how did this information emerge? the european

space agency put up a new satellite a couple of years ago, which, we passed them to take images of antarctica. we had been using the landsat satellite before which has pixels on the ground of 30 metres, this satellite is higher resolution with ten metres per pixel which means that you can see smaller colonies, so we get better understanding of what is out there in antarctica. these small populations that are vulnerable, can they be helped or protected in any way? that is one of the sad things about the plight of the emperor penguins. what they face is a global problem. climate change is a global problem. climate change is a global problem. it is down to all of us around the world. when we, when we

won the atmosphere it affects all parts of the world, notjust the antarctic. we cannot put the sea ice pack, if it melts, and we cannot locally change the climate, to make it colder. if it gets warm in antarctica, then we are going to affect all of the wildlife and the ecosystems, in that very remote and unique part of the world. doctor peter fretwell, from the british antarctic survey, thank you very much indeed. the british government has announced details for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of vj day, the moment whenjapan's surrender ended the second world war. the prince of wales will lead the tributes with a national two—minute silence. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell reports. to those who took part, they were the forgotten army, fighting on against the japanese in the jungles of burma and elsewhere for several months after the second world war in europe had ended. the fighting in the far east

ended in august 1945 after the allies had dropped atom bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki. japan surrendered and british servicemen returned home. but britain by then was a country eager to move on. the feeling that their sacrifice had been forgotten was exacerbated. but at the national memorial arboretum in staffordshire on saturday august 15, the 75th anniversary of victory overjapan, or vj day, the prince of wales will lead the nation's commemoration of the moment when the global conflict that was the second world war finally came to an end. the service, which will include a national two minutes' silence, will be attended by a number of veterans who fought in the far east, and it will be broadcast by the bbc. the duke of cambridge will take part ina programme, vj day 75, the nation's tribute to be broadcast on bbc one. among the veterans who will feature in the programme will be the duke of edinburgh. as a young royal navy officer, he was on board a british warship

in tokyo bay for the signing by the japanese of their surrender. and captain sir tom moore, another veteran who served at the burma campaign, has voiced the hope of all of his comrades. nicholas witchell, bbc news. the latest pictures now from beirut where the ongoing search continues for survivors after that huge blast yesterday, in which around 80 people have died, with more than 4000 others injured. we have been hearing from the governor that up to three health —— 3000 people are homeless, there will be a cost of over $3 billion and it has affected around

half of the city of beirut. those are the latest pictures coming into us from beirut, after that massive blast yesterday. you're watching bbc news. thank you for staying with us. and we can catch up now with carol kirkwood. let's have a look at the weather. hello again. there is some rain in the forecast today but it is not going to be quite as heavy as it was yesterday. the front that brought the rain yesterday has pushed off into the north sea but you can see the tail end of it coming in from the west. that is going to produce some rain. rain moving across northern england and southern scotland. that will tend to turn showery, then it will bejoined by rain coming in across northern ireland, and we can see how that will affect western parts. some of that heavy and thundery, with the driest conditions in the south—east. those white circles are sustained wind speeds. not as windy as yesterday. temperatures ranging from 15

in lerwick, up to 25 in london. this evening and overnight, eventually this rain moves away into the north sea. left with a lot of cloud behind it, some of it thick enough for some drizzle, and there will be some breaks in the cloud, so some clear skies. another warm night with lows of 12 in lerwick, and 15—17 further south. on thursday, this weather front is bumping into this high pressure. it will produce some cloud. the isobars tell you that it will be breezy towards the west. that breeze coming from a southerly direction, a mild direction for us. so, we start on a cloudy note. the cloud will start to break. some sunny skies coming through. the brightest across the far north—east of scotland with highs of 19, and the top temperatures once again in the south—east, at 28, possibly 29. thursday into friday, another weather front coming in from the west.

still, looking at the isobars, that breeze coming up from the south, so more of us will have higher temperatures of dry weather to start with until the weather fronts come in from the west introducing that rain, which could be heavy and thundery in northern ireland. temperatures up to 34 in the south—east. the high temperatures do not last, for most, you can see the yellow, replacing amber. just in the far south—east hanging on to something a little bit higher. during saturday, lots of dry weather, temperatures up to 30, on sunday, looking at 26 in london, and cooler for most of us.

this is bbc news with joanna gosling, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. explosion lebanon is in mourning after the huge explosion which killed at least 100 people and injured more than 4,000 others. rescue teams are looking for survivors amongst the rubble at the blast site, while relatives of the missing desperately search the hospitals. translation: from seven o'clock in the evening we've been all over every hospital in beirut and we are now waiting for the names to come out, and nothing has come out. we don't know if he's dead or alive. lebanon's prime minister says

the blast happened when thousands of tonnes of confiscated ammonium nitrate caught fire at a warehouse. translation: what happened today won't pass without account. those responsible will pay the price for what happened. this is a promise to the martyrs and to the wounded. here in the uk,failing to implement border restrictions on arrivals earlier in the pandemic was a "serious mistake", according to mps. india's prime minister lays the foundation stone for a new hindu temple in ayodhya, a site that has long been a source of tension between hindus and muslims. bookseller and stationer wh smith says it could cut up to 1,500 jobs in the uk, after the pandemic pushed down the number of customers going into its stores. and the duchess of sussex wins a high court bid to protect the identity of five friends who gave an anonymous interview to a us magazine

hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world ? and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. rescue workers in lebanon are digging through rubble looking for survivors after the devastating explosion in beirut. at least 100 people are known to have died, but with many more missing and more than four thousand injured, officials warn that the number of dead is likely to rise. the huge blast at the port sent shock waves across the city, destroying many nearby buildings and blowing out windows several miles away. beirut‘s governor says the explosion has left up to three hundred thousand people homeless, covering half the city, and estimates the cost of the damage could be over $3 billion, more than £2.2 billion.

an investigation is under way to find out what exactly caused the blast. the country's president said over two thousand tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely in a warehouse for six years. lebanon's prime minister has warned those responsible will be punished. translation: what happened today will not pass without account. those responsible would pay the price for what happened. it is a promise to the marchers and the wounded. this is a national commitment. facts will be revealed about this dangerous warehouse that's been there since 2014. small fires are still burning across the city and smoke can be seen rising from the remains of buildings. this report from sean dilley contains some distressing scenes. explosion it was a catastrophic explosion.

what?! the blast was heard 150 miles away. another view from moments earlier shows a fire in beirut port. authorities say the flashes were caused by fireworks. but then... ..as the sound of the explosion rang out across the city, windows smashed and buildings were destroyed. from the streets... ..beirut could only watch as the carnage unfolded. 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. already heavily stretched by the covid crisis, beirut‘s hospitals were overwhelmed by casualties in need of urgent treatment. translation: we have at least 300

wounded in the hospital right now. we have six operating suites that are still operating right now, and this keeps filling up by another group that needs attention. we have about four to five in intensive care, we have three that arrived dead. every one of our crew, doctors and nurses, are operating, even administration — everyone is working. we have a lot of damage as you can see. all the ceilings have collapsed at the entrance and the glass windows of patients' rooms. as embattled medics struggle to help the injured, distraught locals sought to find lost relatives. translation: he is 29 years old. from seven in the evening, we have been all over every hospital in beirut and we are now waiting for the names to come out and nothing has come out. we don't know if he is dead or alive, we just don't know. the international community has offered its help to a city in turmoil. borisjohnson tweeted: lebanon's president has announced three days

lebanon's president has announced three days mourning and promised to release 100 billion lire or £50.5 million of emergency funds. officials say highly explosive materials believed to be ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse for up to six years caused the explosion. they say they are investigating what ignited it. in the meantime, authorities say those responsible will face the maximum possible punishment. sean dilley, bbc news. let's go to beirut. 0ur correspondent, lina sinjab, is in beirut. in the past few moments we have been getting new details through from the governor of beirut, who said that up to 300,000 have been left homeless in the impact of this explosion, which has damaged more than half of

the city. the scale of this planet and its impact isjust the city. the scale of this planet and its impact is just beyond comprehension, isn't it? —— of this blast. it is indeed. i mean, the images that are coming, whether on social media or of friends, relatives, people you know, of their houses and how they have been destroyed, is just beyond comprehension. everything collapsed in many, many houses. i know at least ten people from my own close network, their houses have been destroyed. imagine the rest of the country. the figure quoted by the government is not surprising at all. these are conditions where people cannot live in these houses, they have to find somewhere else. they have to find somewhere else. they have to find somewhere else. they have to be evacuated. 0r relocate. the question remains, how are they going to repair their houses? who is going to repair their houses? who is going to repair their houses? who is going to pay for a new residences?

some will stay with friends or relatives, but the wide number of lebanese who are displaced now, it isa lebanese who are displaced now, it is a big question of the economy and government efficiency on how to deal with this. and sadly, with a current economic crisis, the lebanese have little faith in their government and of their performance. they see them as corrupt and not delivering and not helping to rescue the country. can you describe for us what is going on around you? behind you we can see that devastation. also quite a lot of movement in cars and on foot? yeah, i mean, where i am standing right now in downtown beirut, i am just overlooking the port area. you can still see some of the dust coming out from where the explosion took place and all around it, all the buildings around it,

have a windows shattered, balconies shattered. and you can still hear the sirens of the ambulances going back and forth, because the rescue operation is still ongoing. not only are there trying to find casualties and remove bodies, but also moving people from one hospital to another because the capacity of hospital two has gone beyond what hospitals can take, so they are moving some of the casualties to other hospitals. so far there are 4000 casualties and the number is still rising. it is a devastating situation on a human level, and economic level and also ona level, and economic level and also on a medical level, and how the country is going to cope with his vast number of casualties. how are the authorities managing the search and rescue operation that is ongoing? you mentioned obviously hospitals are struggling. i am just wondering what support and help is available from the government and also what is coming in from outside

as well, albeit that it has just happened? well, the first response from the government right now is, as you can see behind me, the army is stretched out. there are lots of rescue operations, lots of cranes and trucks trying to remove the debris and clear the area, and find and rescue casualties. but the question also will move after that to both the hospitals, how much they have capacity. there are now makeshift hospitals being set up. some countries have already offered aid to support makeshift hospitals. but after that, there is the question about how this country is going to stand on his feet when it is already struggling for an economic crisis —— with an economic crisis? before this, lebanon had applied for international aid because of its economic crisis. and it is about to go bankrupt. but

right now, without international community coming in, it is hard to see that this government is going to be able to stand up, to be able to find housing for the 300,000 people who have lost their homes, or to be able to rebuild this port that is pivotal for the able to rebuild this port that is pivotalfor the import able to rebuild this port that is pivotal for the import and able to rebuild this port that is pivotalfor the import and export industry here in lebanon, a country that relies almost 80% of its consumption is from import, and this port is the one that receives 70% of the country's imports. the lebanese president has said that 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored on safely in the warehouse and that is what caused the explosion, described as being one fifth of the size of the hiroshima explosion. how are people reacting to the fact that that quantity of explosive material was being stored in the heart of

that porch? -- port. that is the discussion of the town today, both on the level of the people and also on the level of the people and also on the level of the people and also on the government. people are furious and very angry that these kind of materials and explosives have been stored for six years on safely, and there has been so many warnings from different parts of the government, that this should be removed, destroyed, or they should be at least stored safely this comes back to the same question, inefficient, corrupt government the people do not trust. we heard of the prime minister today saying that everybody should be held accountable for this explosion that happened. but actually what happened, just happened. they should really have taken the measures of safety and stability to avoid this catastrophe thatis stability to avoid this catastrophe that is there now. and knowing the

politics here in lebanon, everyone will throw the blame on another party within the government, but the problem is, the most important thing is, what is going to happen next? how are they going to rebuild or rescue this country from further collapse. --? thank you very much for updating us. the moment of the explosion was caught on camera by one of our colleagues, maryam toumi, who works for bbc arabic in beirut. she was conducting an interview at the time, we can watch back, she's in the top right corner of your screen. the images are distressing. explosion just extraordinary. the reporter was conducting the interview with a guest based in morocco. she is in a sta ble

guest based in morocco. she is in a stable condition with minor injuries. all bbc staff are safe and have been accounted for. ahmed bayram is from the charity save the children, and is based in beirut. hejoins me now. thank you forjoining us. well, with every image that we see, every story that we hear, there is new shock. what was your experience of what happened? hello, thank you for having me. i mean, like many other people living in beirut, i was minding my business at home in my room when i first heard a little shake. i live about six, seven kilometres from the scene. there was a little shake. i thought it was an earthquake. many thought the same. after that there was a little bank. i could hear windows around the building is falling off and people screaming. for that split second you

just have probably 100 thoughts in your mind. right after that there was the big bang, which you have seen images ofjust now. your first reaction is, what happened? is your family safe? is everyone 0k? reaction is, what happened? is your family safe? is everyone ok? but then i had a look out on my balcony andi then i had a look out on my balcony and i could see the damage around me. thankfully, we are ok in the building. we were probably among the lucky few. i speak to you probably after three hours of sleep. i can't imagine what that feels like for a child, a little boy or a little girl, who was probably a few metres away from the same. i'm sure they can't take the images out of their mind. iam can't take the images out of their mind. i am sure they had a sleepless night yesterday in beirut. it was a very sad evening, every sat night for everyone. so in a context where

you and all of you who work for the charity under the charities have been directly affected, how do you then start to help those who are going to be very much in need now and for the foreseeable future? yeah, i think, i and for the foreseeable future? yeah, ithink, i mean again, we are all human beings. all people around us have been affected. as for the children, thankfully everyone is ok. 0ur children, thankfully everyone is ok. our offices have taken a hit. they have received physical damage. but i think the only aftermath we have to start thinking about the people we ca re start thinking about the people we care about, about three children we serve. we have to get together. we have to pull ourselves together. we haven't seen anything like this in beirut in peacetime. and in lebanon. this is the capital. i think as a community we have to pull ourselves together, really pay attention to what is going on, with chilton in

particular, with all the needs they have —— children. it is its distressing time for everybody. we have to respond and act as one. it is time to show solidarity, to show unity, and it is time to look after those most affected around beirut, particularly children and all the impact that will have and we will see. you say in peacetime beirut, lebanon, has not seen anything like this. i can't think of any places in the world that have seen anything like this, the scale of that explosion and the impact in that city. half of the city has been damaged or destroyed. 300,000 people homeless. it is really hard to imagine how long and difficult the path back is going to be?m imagine how long and difficult the path back is going to be? it is. it isa path back is going to be? it is. it is a long, long way to recovery, i have to say. i as a humanitarian organisation looking after children, it is always children we think of. of course, families have been

already in, let's say, a complicated situation with the double impact of the coronavirus crisis and the economic crisis that people have been living. so imagine it now an average family with, let's say, two little children, having to prioritise them. they have a very tough choice. you have to choose between getting milk for your baby and for your energy bills. we know that electricity has been on and off and beirut has been struggling with large—scale power cuts. that has already added to people's monthly bills. and now we have another tough choice, which is how to fix your home, how to fix your windows. let's not forget, there is another, u nfortu nately, not forget, there is another, unfortunately, critical problem here, which is the toxic air that the children are spilling people

with breathing problems will have particular difficulties. —— the children are smelling. people's comes have no windows or doors, they are probably not even at home. this isa are probably not even at home. this is a tough time for all of the people in lebanon. this is the last thing lebanon needs. i think it is time now that the international community, everyone pulls together, look at the situation here and i think of, you know, it is time now to prioritise the babies, prioritise the children, prioritise those who have lost education, who have lost their home and now have to live with their home and now have to live with the traumas of this. it is catastrophic. we do appreciate you taking the time to join us. wishing you all the very best. these are the live pictures coming to us. the absolute devastation wrought by the

explosion yesterday of 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that the president has said was stored in the heart of the port. and that explosion has been described as being on the scale of one fifth of the size of the hiroshima bomb. ahmed from save the children just describing the toxic air that is concerning him for the children. and of course we are seeing smoke still rising, dust still rising, and that will no doubt have a long—term impact on those who are breathing those particles, not to mention of course the lost lives, 100 lives, so far, none to have been lost. 4000 injured and many missing. so sadly, it is likely that the death toll is likely to go on increasing. as we've been hearing, local authorities say it's likely the blast was caused by a fire igniting tonnes of ammonium nitrate

stored in a warehouse. dr chris 0wen is an explosions investigator. hejoins us now. thank you he joins us now. thank you for joining us. what did you think when you heard, the first time it was mentioned, that there were 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored? well, that is not a remarkable quantity. so although the ammonium nitrate is generally considered to be safe, and is if managed properly, we are dependent on ammonium nitrate as an agricultural fertiliser. on ammonium nitrate as an agriculturalfertiliser. vast amounts are made around the world each year. it is something like 33 million tonnes of it, four kilograms for every man, woman and child on the planet. we need this to grow food. so many countries, the uk included, have many thousands of tonnes of this chemical stored away,

mostly, well it can be stored safely if one takes some precautions, so it is stored safely around the world, but it comes as no surprise that perhaps mismanagement in the lebanon caused the explosion. and so we are told by the president it was not stored safely. how volatile is this? how should it be stored? and what would make it a particularly unsafe environment? well, it is not on sta ble environment? well, it is not on stable if it is pure, kept as manufacturing. people talk about how it has been stored for six years. it can be stored indefinitely and it does not become any more on site. many farmers have stored ammonium nitrate for a long time. but it does need to be looked after. it is an

oxidising agent, which means that if it comes into contact with combustible material and there is a fire, then the fire will become very fierce indeed. when it melts, if it becomes confined, it causes little explosions like the type we saw. and it releases oxides of nitrogen, which is the brown we see, as the precursor if you like to the main explosion. and that brown cloud is emitted by dirty diesel engines in very small amounts, and it is known to cause asthma. so yes, i think we've seen the effects of the explosion. they can be explained. and on the gas that was given off, the smoke, the particles that people will have been inhaling, is that something that you would expect the

impact of two unfold over a period of time? -- or two unfold. i am not a medical expert. and the effects of this will become apparent very quickly. nitrogen dioxide, oxygens of nitrogen, are heavier than air. —— oxides of nitrogen. they will come to the ground and they will settle, if the heat of the explosion in the blast didn't kick them into the atmosphere. the weather conditions in beirut at this time of the year mean that the winds probably circulated quite quickly. i don't think we are looking at long—term health impacts. we will know very quickly whether this is an issue or not. thank you very much for joining issue or not. thank you very much forjoining us. mps have accused the government of accelerating both the pace and the scale of the coronavirus pandemic in the uk, by making a series of "critical errors". the home affairs select commitee says, in particular, lifting all virus—related border restrictions in mid—march, resulted in "many more people" contracting covid—19. the government has dismissed

the findings, saying its decisions throughout kept people safe and were "guided by the science". we can speak now to david nabarro, special envoy of who director general on covid—19. he's also co—director of global health at the institute of global health innovation, imperial college, london, and joins me now from the south of france. welcome. thank you very much for joining us. so, the home affairs committee of mps here say the lack of border measures earlier in the pandemic was a serious mistake. what do you think of that? within the world health organization we are really careful about giving advice on border controls as a way of dealing with infectious disease threats. because in general we find that the problems can't be com pletely that the problems can't be completely stopped simply by

reducing the entry of people from particular locations, and instead we put a lot of emphasis on what is actually present insight a country to deal with any early outbreaks as soon as they come, what is in britain called the testing, tracing and isolating process, which is the absolute bedrock of control. i think as we move to a situation now where numbers of cases are reduced, it does become much more important to be trying to make certain that people are less easily able to come into a place from somewhere that has got high levels of transmission, and thatis got high levels of transmission, and that is where quarantine could be particularly helpful in reducing the likelihood that people bring in the disease without being detected. so i am not going to come i'm afraid, side with the criticism that you have identified, not right now. i think a lot more information is needed before deciding whether or

not that criticism is valid. in terms of how every country responded to something that little was known about initially because it was new, and it got learned about over time, the asymptomatic transmission was obviously a key factor in its spreading. and in that context then, or country is wrong to rely so much from the outset and actually people with symptoms reporting themselves here it's not unheard of that things spread a symptomatically? absolutely. first of all, people are able to transmit this disease, even when they don't have symptoms. they just may be feeling off colour, not serious enough to stop them from travelling, and so they arrive and they perhaps are excreting the

virus, and if they cough a little bit, they can pass it onto other people very easily. that is one of the big challenges of this disease that don't have a nice easy way to pick up people who are infectious. secondly, we do find that when people have got the infection, if they are isolated really fast, that is the best way to stop the spread. we are trying to make everybody understand that there is no short cut here. that if you are feeling unwell, you must isolate and get tested straightaway. sorry to interrupt. to come in and what you we re interrupt. to come in and what you were saying about asymptomatic transmission, have all countries moved too quickly to travel without quarantine? i think that i would make the point that quarantining after travel is a really important pa rt after travel is a really important part of keeping numbers down, particularly at this stage, where we

are trying to maintain a low level after a very intense and punishing period of lockdown, and we want to try to stop spikes building again. but i want to stress, i will be quick now, that it's notjust people coming across borders from other countries, it is also travel within our own country. all the time trying to make sure that we've got information about where there is a lot of virus, where there is less virus, and we are really respectful to prevent people moving from places with quite high levels of transmission, to other areas when we are trying to keep the numbers down. that is when it gets really important. i am just that is when it gets really important. i amjust wondering though whether this will be a period thatis though whether this will be a period that is looked back on when everything is analysed, when this has played out over a longer period, asa time has played out over a longer period, as a time when actually, if there had been less international travel right now, and there's been an obvious desire for it for economic

reasons and for reasons of people wanting to travel, but would this be looked at potentially as a time when that was wrong, people perhaps should have locked down more and focused more on what you're talking about, which is controlling it within their own borders?” about, which is controlling it within their own borders? i want to say two things on that. number one, please let's not try to use lockdown isa please let's not try to use lockdown is a primary way of controlling this virus. the best technique is to make sure that we have got defences throughout society to pick up outbreaks really quickly and stop them building up. somebody say comes into an area who has got the covid, the best thing to do is to make sure they are detected earlier and isolated fast. that is the half of it. and the second thing is to make certain that all of us do everything we possibly can to prevent this virus from spreading by practising the procedure is that we have all been told to do, physical distance and, face protection, good hygiene and, face protection, good hygiene

and staying out of sight if we've got signs of infection. these are the ways we get on top of this and obviously once we have got all those systems in place, then we can start looking at the border issues. but i don't want people to think that it is at the borders that most of the control is done. it's actually what happens inside our societies and getting disciplined about it. thank you. let's bring you live pictures now from northern ireland where the funeral of the nobel peace prize winnerjohn hume is taking place this morning. there is a gathering outside and, of course, the service happening inside. the family ofjohn hume yesterday asked mourners to refrain from lining the streets of londonderry for the funeral. we can talk now to the bbc‘s sara girvin, who's in londonderry.

this funeral actually coming very quickly after he passed away. tell us about the decisions that have been taken around a sendoff for a man who obviously was so well regarded and had such an impact. absolutely. john hume's funeral is just getting under way behind me at saint eugene ts cathedral. this is a different event than would have been envisaged pre—pandemic. many people would have wanted to be here to say goodbye to john hume, would have wanted to be here to say goodbye tojohn hume, to pay tribute to him and to thank him for his work on bringing peace to northern ireland, because of course he was one of the key architects in the 1998 good friday agreement. given the regulations that surround generals and covid—19, that simply could be the case and thus has been dramatically scaled down. tribute have been paid from around the world

this week by key figures. many of them would have wanted to have been here, would have been expected to be near, that simply wasn't possible but they have sent messages. we have had a message from pope francis, he said he would be praying forjohn hume and his family and commended what he called his untiring efforts to promote peace in northern ireland. the dalai lama also sent a note paying tribute to his fellow nobel rhodri, gloria, saying his example was for all of us to follow. —— nobel laureate. closer to home, some local politicians have been able to be here today. the tee shot, the irish president, and the first minister arlene foster and michelle o'neill.

minister arlene foster and michelle 0'neill. from across the globe, demonstrating the high esteem she was held in. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... lebanon is in mourning after the huge explosion which killed at least 100 people and injured more than 4,000 others. rescue teams are looking for survivors amongst the rubble at the blast site, while relatives of the missing desperately search the hospitals. translation: from seven o'clock in the evening we've been all over every hospital in beirut and we are now waiting for the names to come out, and nothing has come out.

we don't know if he's dead or alive. here in the uk, failing to implement border restrictions on arrivals earlier in the pandemic was a "serious mistake", according to mps. india's prime minister lays the foundation stone for a new hindu temple in ayodhya, a site that has long been a source of tension between hindus and muslims. bookseller and stationer wh smith says it could cut up to 1,500 jobs in the uk after the pandemic pushed down the number of customers going into its stores. let's go back to our main story now and the huge explosion in lebanon's capital beruit which has left at least 100 people dead and injured more than 4,000 others. lebanon is going through an economic crisis and hospitals were already struggling to cope with an outbreak of covid—19. the blast has triggered a new wave of anger against

the country's political leaders. edgard jallad is the editor of bbc arabic tv. welcome. every time you see the pictures, hear the stories, welcome. every time you see the pictures, hearthe stories, it welcome. every time you see the pictures, hear the stories, it is just unbelievable, actually, what has happened there. just bring us up to date with the latest news that you are hearing. well, there is a lot of humanitarian stories now revealed they after day or minute after minute, because the rescue forces are trying to remove the rubble and are searching for people. you can see on facebook pages people asking do you know this person? have you seen this person in the last 24 hours? marks are full and hospitals are beyond their normal capacity —— marks. now the ministry of health is asking countries to help stop the number of countries that have

expressed interest in sending some mobile hospitals to help in addressing the health issues. so, the country now has like 300,000 people who have lost their homes in this area, because the radius is huge, it is unbelievable. i know the area very well because i was brought up area very well because i was brought up there. so, i couldn't believe my eyes when i have seen the pictures of this area. it was like hiroshima, some newspapers, the headline compared out because of the level of destruction in the capital. describe what these pictures would have been like for? this is the beruit port, the key commercial activity for 11 on where the imports and exports ta ke on where the imports and exports take place. what we see, this big white building is the crane silos where the reserves are stored for

six to eight months. even i remember during the war, this was, even the belligerents try to avoid hitting this building because it feeds the whole country, all sex and all groups. —— sects. the fear now is that the country could face another level of a supplies problem, because people could brush undue panic shopping, because the whole harbour and port is now destroyed. everything there is destroyed. in terms of supplies, am i right in thinking everything pretty much comes from abroad? yes. lebanon has like 80% of its commercial is supplies imported from neighbouring

countries and from europe, from arab countries, yes. it is very important. basically warehouses and what is on the shelves of stores are set at the moment? yes. the country was suffering from a problem, an economic problem where shelves were empty due to economic problems. we are talking about a few weeks ago. now with this, this is a catastrophe now for the people living there. so, yeah... we like you describe the economic difficulties, what are the resources of the country immediately to deal with this —— resources of the country immediately to deal with this -- commodity level of assistance they will have to ask forfrom of assistance they will have to ask for from elsewhere and where is it likely to come from? —— what is the level of assistance? the government has drafted a list of immediate needs for the country. the minister of health as well give priority to the sector. they are sending this to different countries. the positive

thing is that so many countries have responded so far. we have heard that some arab countries are preparing to send some mobile hospitals and other countries, even the united states said they are here to help. the country needs help otherwise this will be a massive humanitarian problem that will stay with us for weeks now. the president has said that the ammonium nitrate was being stored unsafely, the last quantity stored unsafely, the last quantity stored unsafely, the last quantity stored unsafely in the port. at the moment we don't know why it was that it ignited, but it was an accident or something more sinister, either way, people are going to be angry, aren't they? people are already angry. they are refusing

politicians. we have seen people taking to the streets weeks ago and months ago, and we called it a revolution at that time. there is already something. this will add salt to the injury. the story of the ship... what we know so far is really putting a lot of question marks, because it is revealed now, hour after hour, we can read articles going back to 2014, 2015 about the ship. so it was known to experts that the ship started its journey in september 2013 from georgia and was heading to mozambique, according to one website and we are trying to get in touch with the writer of this article. they mentioned and described it as a floating bomb at that time. the circumstances and why this ship

endedin circumstances and why this ship ended in beirut port is a big?. the crew was arrested on the ship and they lodged a case for the lebanese tribunal is and they were deported at the end, but the ship remained there and the owner decided to give up there and the owner decided to give up the ship. so there are a lot of question marks. all of these, i realise they were not experts, but for us may it so we will know more in the coming hours in coming days. if let's bring you live pictures now from londonderry in northern ireland where the funeral for the nobel peace prize winnerjohn hume is taking place this morning. dad was also a father, a husband and

a man who loved and cared for his family at all times. i rang my mum was without a doubt his greatest achievement —— marrying my mum. they met at a dance, across the border in donegal, the starting point for many a derry family. romance was followed bya a derry family. romance was followed by a wedding and a december honeymoon in a freezing b&b in dublin. thankfully from the quality of the accommodation got better as a went on. my mum loved, supported and guided him throughout his tireless work was as greatest friend. none of us remember him changing nappies, what we do remember our endless coffee cups and overflowing ashtrays, newspapers everywhere and

ashtrays, newspapers everywhere and a co nsta nt strea m ashtrays, newspapers everywhere and a constant stream of callers night and day. he was there for all of us. there were times when i think we all felt he was absent, but he wasn't, he was just with us from somewhere else. along with mum, he totters all our values and gave us our moral compass. for that, we will be forever in your debt. as a family, we remember the man who was rooted in his community, who was most co mforta ble in his community, who was most comfortable sitting in front of the tv with half a dozen crunchie bars to keep them company and his family around him. a man who ordered the same dinner in the same restaurants in strasbourg and greencastle for 25 yea rs. in strasbourg and greencastle for 25 years. i'm sure he's up there now ordering his creme brulee and that awful sweet wine that he loved. a man that looked very at his best. a

man that looked very at his best. a man who himself didn't need to be invited to a make —— a microphone. a man who truly believed in derry and the town and the people and became our greatest ambassador. a man who loved on gal spent most of his time and greencastle —— donegal. he was finally able to switch off and relax and get the peace and quiet which she needed and deserved. the care dad received in the last years of his life allowed him to retain his dignity, individuality and his magnificent strength of character, despite his overwhelming and growing disabilities. it allowed him to ove rco m e disabilities. it allowed him to overcome them. if she were here, he would have asked us all to look at the us young carers —— if she were

the us young carers —— if she were the heroic daily work they do. an ethos of deep respect for everyone, regardless of where they come from a stage in life. these are the foundation stones that are critical to our communities. martin luther king might describe it as the politics of love. dab it outjust to listen. so that in spite of his all, shall live —— thank you, dad, for a life well lived. absolutely not easy to pay to be at the funeral of your own parent but beautifully done there. let's go back to beirut and that

explosion. joining me now is the shadow foreign secretary lisa nandy. what do you think the british government should be doing? boris johnson said yesterday the uk will do all it can to help. he is absolutely right to say that the uk will step up and offer assistance. asi will step up and offer assistance. as i understand it, they are about to send medical help, which is obviously an overwhelming problem at the moment. the lebanese people couldn't have had this happen at a worse time, to be honest. they have beenin worse time, to be honest. they have been in the midst of an economic crisis for some time, but they have also been really overwhelmed by covid and a lot of the health systems a re covid and a lot of the health systems are struggling to count, so the damage that's been done by the blast and the sheer scale of the injuries has willie been a triple

whammy for the country —— struggling to cope. —— it hasn't really been. food is a real concern. i would urge dominic rab to reach out to international partners and make sure we are coordinating the response quickly so that we are not duplicating efforts and we are getting put into the people that need it, as well as help for children. there are a large number of children, according to save the children, who out there who haven't got any care at the moment. their pa rents a re got any care at the moment. their parents are missing and possibly dead. we need to get that help in very quickly. what is your response to the fact that this explosion was caused by 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had apparently been stored on safety in the port per six yea rs ? stored on safety in the port per six years? there are huge questions to answer. i was listening with interest to the correspondence you are interviewing about the

speculation around how that large unsecured store of ammonium nitrate came to be stored in that way has for such a long time. we don't know the answer to that, we have is they need to know the answers and we also don't know what the exact cause of the past was. what actually triggered the explosion. of course, we need to know those answers. the immediate priority has to be to get help into the people of lebanon on right now, define people who are still missing, potentially injured, to get that medical help in coming to get that medical help in coming to get that medical help in coming to get food into people as well. and then start to think seriously about then start to think seriously about the long—term reconstruction of the country and what needs to be done in order to deal with what had been very long standing problems for the lebanese people. what about british nationals in beirut is back what is known currently about the numbers? the foreign office is trying to coordinate a response. it was one of the first thing is that they did. we very much about them and trying to do that. you have seen the scale of

the devastation. 0ver do that. you have seen the scale of the devastation. over in lebanon at the devastation. over in lebanon at the moment. it is very difficult to getan the moment. it is very difficult to get an accurate picture of what is happening. the foreign office is right to say that that will be a top priority in order to get assistance to people and get them home, if that is what they want to do. and our ambassador there on the ground is working to try and achieve that. i'm also speaking to the lebanese and bass are afternoon and i will be asking him what more we can do, not just to help british nationals, but to help the country as a whole. of course. the bill for trying to get beirut back on its feet has been put, this early stage, at $3 billion. that is going to require a concerted effort. it well and it will require an international response. 0ne will require an international response. one of the problem for lebanon in recent years, in particular for the lebanese people, is that level of international coordination just hasn't been there. we have real problems in the un

security council, the g20, the g7, those international bodies were traditionally pressure is exerted on governments in order to reform, to end corruption so that aid can get into the country, so that loans can be secured. there hasn't been a coordinated international response to the syrian crisis, a war that has been raging for longer now than the second world war. 0bviously lebanon is home to a large number of syrian refugees, which hasn't helped the situation. there are all sorts of reasons now why situation. there are all sorts of reasons now why we situation. there are all sorts of reasons now why we need a level of international coordination that we haven't seen so far. we have been urging the government here for some time to actually step up and work with partners. we are seeing a lot of countries now coming forward. not just the us, france, who have already sent in help, and the united kingdom as well, but also countries like israel, which has had a long—standing conflict with lebanon. there are signs the international community is stepping forward. we need to make sure that isn'tjust limited to the emergency response,

but that we actually see the world coming together to put pressure on the lebanese government to reform and to actually tackle some of those long—standing issues as well. and to actually tackle some of those long-standing issues as well. thank you very much forjoining us, the sunanda, the shadow foreign secretary. the retailer wh smith says it could cut up to 1,500 jobs as part of a restructuring of its uk store operations due to a coronavirus—driven fall in customers at its travel and high street shops. the newsagent said it expected to make losses of between 70 and 75 million pounds. revenue at its worst—hit shops — at airports and rail stations — fell by 92 per cent in the first month of lockdown. the company, which employs over 14,000 people, was founded more than 200 years ago. the children's commissioner for england says schools should be the last places to close in any future lockdowns — after pubs, restaurants and non—essential shops. anne longfield's comments come amid fears of a second coronavirus spike — with all pupils in england set to return to the classroom in september. pupils in scotland will return to school next week.

anne longfield says children have a right to an education: of course, i want life to be normal, like anyone else, but the fact of the matter is, the virus is with us. we have to find ways to adapt. we have to find ways to manage it. and children have been out of school now for six months. it has been the biggest disruption since world war ii. we know that they have been struggling, many children, in terms of home learning. many won't have been learning at all. and the most disadvantaged children are the ones who are falling further behind. the education minister nick gibb has inisted that all pupils will return to school in england in september. schools are our priority. all children will be returning to school this september. of course, schools have been open partially since june. we've had reception, year one, and year six returning to school.

by the time we entered the summer term, about 1.6 million children were in school, but we do want all children back in school in september, including in areas that are subject to local restrictions such as in greater manchester, and there are a huge number of measures in place in schools to make sure that children are safe, and minimise the risk of the spread of the virus. so, for example, increased hygiene, hand washing, cleaning of surfaces, lunch breaks, being staggered, lunch breaks being staggered, playtimes, making sure that children are in those bubbles and not over mixing with too many children while they are at school, and making sure that staff are socially distanced from each other and from pupils, where that's possible. the uk government has announced details for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of vj day, the moment whenjapan's surrender ended the second world war. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell reports. to those who took part, they were the forgotten army, fighting on against the japanese in the jungles of burma

and elsewhere for several months after the second world war in europe had ended. the fighting in the far east ended in august 1945 after the allies had dropped atom bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki. japan surrendered and british servicemen returned home. but britain by then was a country eager to move on. the feeling that their sacrifice had been forgotten was exacerbated. but at the national memorial arboretum in staffordshire on saturday august 15, the 75th anniversary of victory overjapan, or vj day, the prince of wales will lead the nation's commemoration of the moment when the global conflict that was the second world war finally came to an end. the service, which will include a national two minutes' silence, will be attended by a number of veterans who fought in the far east, and it will be broadcast by the bbc. the duke of cambridge will take part ina programme, vj day 75, the nation's tribute to be broadcast on bbc one. among the veterans who will feature in the programme will be the duke of edinburgh. as a young royal navy officer, he was on board a british warship in tokyo bay for the signing

by the japanese of their surrender. and captain sir tom moore, another veteran who served at the burma campaign, has voiced the hope of all of his comrades. you're watching bbc news.... now, the weather with carol kirkwood. hello again. there is some rain in the forecast today but it is not going to be quite as heavy as it was yesterday. the front that brought the rain yesterday has pushed off into the north sea but you can see the tail end of it coming in from the west. that is going to produce some rain. rain moving across northern england and southern scotland. that will tend to turn showery, then it will bejoined by rain coming in across northern ireland,

and we can see how that will affect western parts. some of that heavy, with the driest conditions in the south—east. those white circles are sustained wind speeds. not as windy as yesterday. temperatures ranging from 15 in lerwick, up to 25 in london. this evening and overnight, eventually this rain moves away into the north sea. left with a lot of cloud behind it, some of it thick enough for some drizzle, and there will be some breaks in the cloud, so some clear skies. another moonlight with lows of 12 in lerwick, and 15—17 further south. on thursday, this weather front is bumping into this high pressure. it will produce some cloud. the isobars tell you that it will be breezy towards the west. that breeze coming from a southerly direction, a mild direction for us. so, we start on a cloudy note. the cloud will start to break.

some sunny skies coming through. the brightest across the far north—east of scotland with highs of 19, and the top temperatures once again in the south—east, 28, possibly 29. thursday into friday, another weather front coming in from the west. still, looking at the isobars, that breeze coming up from the south, so more of us will have higher temperatures and a lot of dry weather to start with until the weather put stemming from the west introducing that rain, which could be heavy and thundery in northern ireland. temperatures up to 34 in the south—east. the high temperatures do not last, for most, you can see the yellow, replacing amber. just in the far south—east hanging on to something a little bit higher. during saturday, lots of dry weather, temperatures up to 30, on sunday, looking at 26 in london, and cooler for most of us.

this is bbc news. the headlines: explosion beirut is in mourning after the huge explosion which killed at least 100 people and injured more than 4,000 others. rescue teams are looking for survivors amongst the rubble at the blast site, while relatives of the missing desperately search the hospitals. lebanon's prime minister says the blast happened when thousands of tonnes of confiscated ammonium nitrate caught fire at a warehouse. translation: what happened today won't pass without account. those responsible will pay the price for what happened. this is a promise to the martyrs and to the wounded. in other news, schools before pubs — the children's commissioner for england says schools should be

first to open and last to close in any future lockdowns. bookseller and stationer wh smith says it could cut up to 1,500 jobs in the uk, after the pandemic pushed down the number of customers going into its stores. mourners gather for the funeral ofjohn hume, one of the key architects of the northern ireland peace process. good afternoon. rescue workers in lebanon are digging through rubble looking for survivors after the devastating explosion in beirut. at least 100 people are known to have died, but with many more missing and more than 4,000

injured, officials warn that the number of dead is likely to rise. the huge blast at the port sent shockwaves across the city, destroying many nearby buildings and blowing out windows several miles away. beirut‘s governor says the explosion has left up to 300,000 people homeless, across over half the city. he estimates the cost of the damage could be over $3 billion — more than £2.2 billion. an investigation is under way to find out what exactly caused the blast. the country's president said over 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely in a warehouse for six years. lebanon's prime minister has warned those responsible will be punished. translation: what happened today will not pass without account. those responsible will pay the price for what happened. this is a promise to

the martyrs and the wounded. this is a national commitment. facts will be revealed about this dangerous warehouse that's been there since 2014. small fires are still burning across the city and smoke can be seen rising from the remains of buildings. this report from sean dilley contains some distressing scenes. explosion it was a catastrophic explosion. what?! the blast was heard 150 miles away. another view from moments earlier shows a fire in beirut port. authorities say the flashes were caused by fireworks. but then... ..as the sound of the explosion rang out across the city, windows smashed and buildings were destroyed. from the streets beirut could only watch as the carnage unfolded.

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. already heavily stretched by the covid crisis, beirut‘s hospitals were overwhelmed by casualties in need of urgent treatment. translation: we have at least 300 wounded in the hospital right now. we have six operating suites that are still operating right now, and this keeps filling up by another group that needs attention. we have about four to five in intensive care, we have three that arrived dead. every one of our crew, doctors and nurses, are operating, even administration — everyone is working. we have a lot of damage as you can see. all the ceilings have collapsed at the entrance and the glass windows of patients' rooms. as embattled medics struggle to help the injured, distraught locals sought to find lost relatives. translation: he is 29 years old.

from seven o'clock in the evening, we have been all over every hospital in beirut and we are now waiting for the names to come out and nothing has come out. we don't know if he is dead or alive, we just don't know. the international community has offered its help to a city in turmoil. boris johnson tweeted: lebanon's president has announced three days' mourning and promised to release 100 billion lire or £50.5 million of emergency funds. officials say highly explosive materials believed to be ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse for up to six years caused the explosion. they say they are investigating what ignited it. in the meantime, authorities say those responsible will face the maximum possible punishment. sean dilley, bbc news.

nidal ali is islamic relief‘s country director for lebanon. thank you very much forjoining us. what have you been doing so far to assess what the needs are going to be? we have sent our teams on the ground to assess removing the damaged, the damage that happened, and also to provide quick assistance to devastated families, people whose homes have been destroyed by the blast. we will provide them with hot meals on a daily basis for the next two weeks. and also, we will have our teams of volunteers on the ground, clearing the debris and the damages from the streets, and trying to help families clear their houses. and also, in the medium term we will

start providing food parcels for the affected families in beirut and the outskirts of beirut. 0nly affected families in beirut and the outskirts of beirut. only on the medium term. we will be also providing affected hospitals with medical supplies. we are preparing our assessment and our proposals, and hopefully we will start moving immediately within the next 24—hours. immediately within the next 24-hours. 300,000 made homeless. where did they spent last night? -- spend. some of those with family and friends. some of the lebanese who owned hotels and lodgings and bed and breakfast, they opened their places to accommodate the displaced people. myself now, i am

places to accommodate the displaced people. myself now, iam in places to accommodate the displaced people. myself now, i am in my second house in the village. i had to flee my house because my house was destroyed. my flat was badly damaged. all the glass broken and all doors are smashed. my wife and me and my daughter, my four—year—old daughter, we couldn't stay in the flat so we had to flee at midnight to my village. how are people going to my village. how are people going to cope with this? it is obviously an instant to cope with this? it is obviously a n insta nt loss to cope with this? it is obviously an instant loss in a practical sense, but in terms of actually keeping life going, working, having income, being able to provide resources for families, it is devastating? already lebanon was going through an economic crisis, and also covid—19 came and paralysed the country. since last thursday to

monday, we had a complete lockdown imposed by the government. and on tuesday we had the explosion, where only the two days we were allowed to move around. inaudible. already the devastated economically. and this blast came and destroyed maybe the last hope for people to get on with life. thank you very much forjoining us. wishing you all the very best with your personal situation and also obviously with the work that you are doing to support so many. thank you. as to the cause of the explosion — the lebanese prime minister said that almost 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely in a warehouse for six years. but what is the chemical, why was it stored there and why did it cause so much damage? with more, here's simon mccoy.

this explosion, which could be felt more than hundred miles away, was caused by ammonium nitrate. 0fficials caused by ammonium nitrate. officials are now trying to find out what ignited it. ammonium nitrate is a common industrial chemical. it is used mainly forfertiliser a common industrial chemical. it is used mainly for fertiliser as a common industrial chemical. it is used mainly forfertiliser as it a common industrial chemical. it is used mainly for fertiliser as it is a good source of nitrogen for plants. it is also one of the main components in mining explosives. 0n its own it is not regarded as dangerous, but under certain conditions it can be deadly. in its pure form, when it is stored correctly by itself, it is really very safe. but it is a component of fertilisers, which is why it is freely available, but also a component of explosives. when it gets contaminated, that could be from fuel oil or it comes into contact with other fuel related substances, or it is badly stored and starts to degrade, and it starts to fill up and starts to degrade, and it starts to fillup drains and starts to degrade, and it starts to fill up drains where there is pressure, it can start to heat up because it has a reaction. as that heat increases, and we saw pictures

ofa heat increases, and we saw pictures of a huge fire beside the building or possibly even in the building, where the explosion came from, that would have been enough to start to heat it up, to then coming to this chain reaction event that is unstoppable. this would not be the first disaster caused by ammonium nitrate. the most notable, an explosion in texas city port in 1947. 2300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded, killing hundreds of people. the blast could be felt 40 miles away. and in xinjiang, china, 173 people were killed after an explosion of 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. it is really important you know how to store it. you don't store it in big quantities like this. you separated. ensure that if there is some kind of explosion on one part of the ammonium nitrate you've got, it will propagate to other parts. lots of work that was done by scientists in the uk and across the world on how

to store this. it appears, and i didn't go to this site, it appears those questions weren't learnt in lebanon. the investigation continues to find out how this explosion could have happened. more on the situation in beirut ahead. some breaking news. douglas ross, the mp for moray, hasjust been named as the new leader of the scottish conservatives. he has tweeted his pleasure at becoming leader of the scottish conservatives. he said it is the honour and privilege of a lifetime, and now the focus must turn to earning the trust of people looking for a positive and credible alternative for scotland and want a fresh start for our country. he was the only candidate to put his name forward to replace jackson carlaw mai who had unexpectedly quit as party leader last week, less than six months after he succeeded former leader ruth davidson. nominations

closed at noon and the new leader of the scottish conservatives, douglas ross. the duchess of sussex has won a high court battle to keep the names of five of her friends private, for the time being, as part of her legal action against a british tabloid. meghan markle, who's married to prince harry, is suing associated newspapers over articles in its mail on sunday paper that included parts of a handwritten letter she had sent to her estranged father, thomas markle, in august 2018. 0ur royal correspondent, nicholas witchell, joins us now. so, a win for meghan markle on this point. bring us up—to—date? so, a win for meghan markle on this point. bring us up-to-date? yes, the latest skirmish really between the duchess of sussex, meghan markle, and the mail on sunday. and a victory, or a partial victory for the duchess, because the identities of these five friends will come as you said, remain secret for the time being at least. those are the words used by the justice being at least. those are the words used by thejustice in the high court this morning. this is part of

meghan's court action against associated newspapers, the publishers of the mail on sunday, over the paper's publication of a private letter she sent to her estranged father, thomas. and the mail on sunday defence is that meghan had permitted these five friends to cooperate with the us magazine and they had referred to her letter to her father in the article. and the mail on sunday has become aware of the identities of these five friends from legal documents which have been passed between the lawyers representing the two sides. and in the high court a few days ago, her qc argued that to disclose the identities of these five friends to the public at this stage would be to exact an unacceptably high price for pursuing her claim for invasion of privacy against the mail on sunday. the qc for associated newspapers, on behalf of the mail on sunday, said the friends are important potential witnesses on a key issue. he went on

to say that reporting these matters without referring to the names would bea without referring to the names would be a heavy curtailment of the media's entitlement to report this case and the public right to know about it. mrjustice warby, in his judgment, has come down on the side of the just —— duchess and decided the identity should remain secret for the time being at least. a representative for the duchess has said, we are happy the judge representative for the duchess has said, we are happy thejudge has agreed to protect these five individuals. you, nick. we can cross live to edinburgh now, because scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon is holding a coronavirus briefing with interim chief medical 0fficer dr gregor smith. my my comments will undoubtedly spark a lot of questions. further detail will be provided later today on the scottish government website, but i wa nt to scottish government website, but i want to give the headline information direct to you now. firstly, let me set the context. when the aberdeen was initially

reported last week, there were four identified cases as part of it. over the past few days a test and protect the past few days a test and protect the team has been tracing the contacts the team has been tracing the co nta cts of the team has been tracing the contacts of both individuals. they and the local incident management tea m and the local incident management team are doing an exceptionally good job and they have my deep appreciation for that. however, job and they have my deep appreciation forthat. however, i can confirm that as of now, a total of 54 cases have been confirmed as associated with that cluster. a total of 191 close contacts have already been traced, although we expect that number to rise over the course of today. and in the past 24 hours across the whole of scotland, a total of 64 new cases have been reported, a full health board breakdown will be available later as usual, and i will come back to say more about the national figures shortly. but my provisional information is that 36 of the 64 new cases are in grampian. it is not yet clear how many are connected to the

outbreak in aberdeen, and indeed let me be clear that some of these may already be counted in that most recent figure for the cluster that i have just given you. but this high number of cases certainly heightens considerably our concern that we are dealing significantly with a significant outbreak in aberdeen that may involve some community transmission. the main link identified in the cluster so far has been the hawthorn bar in aberdeen city centre. however, more detailed analysis by nhs grampian and test and protect has shown this one venue does not account for all of the positive cases. indeed in total now, more than 20 other licensed premises are part of the contact tracing picture. so when we take all of this information together, we have been led to the conclusion that we must now take further immediate steps on a highly precautionary basis, to prevent further spread and to give

the test and protect team is the best possible chance of successfully breaking these chains of transmission. earlierthis breaking these chains of transmission. earlier this morning i chaired a meeting of the scottish government resilience committee, because i wanted to consider the latest data that we had overnight, and also what our response to that it should be. nhs grampian, police scotla nd it should be. nhs grampian, police scotland and the leaders and chief executive of aberdeen city council, played a full part in that meeting andi played a full part in that meeting and i am very grateful to them for their constructive and very helpful contributions. i want to assure you that the decisions we agreed this morning, and that i am about to confirm to you now, are not being taken confirm to you now, are not being ta ken lightly. but confirm to you now, are not being taken lightly. but we are at a stage of this pandemic where extreme caution is necessary and also, in my view, sensible. i'm also mindful of the need to act quickly and decisively if we are to succeed in ouraim of keeping decisively if we are to succeed in our aim of keeping transmission as close to elimination levels as possible, and also to protect our

priority. and it is a priority. you have heard me say that before. the priority is getting young people back to school. i was struck this morning by a comment from the children's commissioner for england, she said, and i am quoting, if the choice has to be made in a local area about whether to keep pubs or schools open, schools must always ta ke schools open, schools must always take priority. i agree with that and so did the leaders of aberdeen city council. that is one of the very important reason is that we are taking firm action now. so i can confirm that it was agreed this morning, albeit, as i'm sure you understand, extremely reluctantly, to reinforce some restrictions on the aberdeen city area. and i want to set out what those restrictions are. let me remind you because i know particularly for people living in aberdeen there will be lots of questions and we will make more detail available over the course of the day to give as much clarity to people as possible. but firstly, travel guidance to people in aberdeen from today is that you should no longer travel more than

five miles for leisure or recreation purposes. you may continue to travel for work or education, but we advise against other travel. we are also advising people not in aberdeen are not to travel to aberdeen. if you are already in aberdeen visiting family or on holiday, you can stay, but please follow all of the guidance while you are there and ta ke guidance while you are there and take extra care when you return home. secondly, from today, people in aberdeen should not go into each other‘s houses, extended household goods can continue, but remember, these are situations which should only involve one other adult living only involve one other adult living on their own. and finally, we will be introducing regulations, we will publish these later today, requiring all indoor and outdoor hospitality in the city to close by 5pm today. that includes all bars, restaurants, cafes a nd that includes all bars, restaurants, cafes and pubs, hotel restaurant can remain open but to provide food for residents only, and take away

services can continue. but although the pubs and restaurants and cafe is most close. this restriction on hospitality will be backed by regulation, so if necessary, it will be enforced. but i would expect, given the responsible way they have root —— behaved in recent days, the owners of these businesses in aberdeen will act voluntarily and continue to be responsible. i want to thank businesses and hospitality trade for their cooperation so far. these regulations, and the associated guidance and advice, will be reviewed in seven days' time. by which time i hope we will begin a better position tojudge which time i hope we will begin a better position to judge the scale and the trajectory of this outbreak. and at that point, if these restrictions can be removed, we will remove them in their entirety or in part. but i should also give notice that if it is considered necessary, we may extend them beyond the initial seven day period. finally, if you are contacted by test and protect in aberdeen, please comply

with their advice. in fact, if you are contacted by test and protect anywhere in scotland, please comply fully with their advice, particularly in relation to self isolation. we will also make available this afternoon a list of the more than 20 licensed premises that are part of the contact tracing operation in aberdeen, and if you have been in one of these premises in the last two weeks but have not been identified as post contact, our advice is to be extra vigilant, looking out for symptoms, and also to particularly rigours —— rigorously follow all of the public health advice. now i know that all of this is deeply, deeply unwelcome news for people in aberdeen. it's very unwelcome news for people in aberdeen. it's very unwelcome news news for people in aberdeen. it's very unwelcome news for all of us. i did not want to be standing here today making these announcements. and i'm very sorry that we are in this position. i understand the impact of these measures will have on individuals and on businesses. let me emphasise that where a business has brought staff out of furlough, those staff can be

furloughed again as part of the jobs retention scheme. but generally, the last thing we want to do is reimpose these kinds of restrictions. but this outbreak is reminding usjust how highly infectious covert is. so i precautionary and carefuljudgment is we need to take decisive action now, difficult though that undoubtedly is, in order to contain this outbreak and prevent further harm later on. as i said earlier, this is also about doing everything we can to ensure our children can return to school next week. aberdeen schools are holding orientation sessions from next wednesday, with schools due to open fully the following monday, the 17th of august. acting now, wejudge, gives us the time and space to protect your com “— us the time and space to protect your com —— are young people to return to education. we have seen plenty of instances in other countries where outbreaks have run out of control because action has been taken too late. there are no guarantees for any of us in any of

this. but we want to do all we possibly can to try to avoid that happening here. let me turn to the normal statistical updates for the whole of scotland. as i've already reported, an additional 64 positive cases were confirmed yesterday, which includes the 36 in grampian that i mentioned earlier. there are also 15 cases, according to provisional information, being reported in the greater glasgow and clyde area, and we will be paying very close attention to those and any possible patterns. these 64 cases, the highest daily number we have reported for some time, represent 1.3% of the people tested yesterday, and the total number of positive cases in scotland now is more than 13,000. 267 patients are currently in hospital, who have been confirmed with the virus. that is three fewer than the number yesterday. and a total of three

people last night were in intensive ca re people last night were in intensive care with confirmed covid—19. yesterday's confirmed figure of four was later revised down to three, so today's number is the same as yesterday. and finally, in some very welcome good news today, i am glad to say that yet again during the past 24 hours, no deaths were registered a patient confirmed through a test in the past 28 days of having covid—19. and the total number of deaths under this measurement remains a 2491. however, national records of scotland has just published its weekly report. it includes deaths of people who have been confirmed through a test as having covid—19, just like our daily figures, but it also covers cases where the virus has been entered on a death certificate as a suspected or contributory factor of death, evenif or contributory factor of death, even if a test had not been carried out. that is a wider measure and therefore catches more cases. the latest report covers the period to sunday the 2nd of august. at that point we had 2091 deaths recorded

are people who had tested positive for the virus. none of these had been registered in the seven days up to sunday. today's report shows that by sunday the total number of registered deaths within either a confirmed or presumed links to covid—19? was 4208. of those, seven we re covid—19? was 4208. of those, seven were registered in the 70s up to sunday. an increase of one of the week before. two of those seven deaths were in care homes, the same number as the previous week. national records of scotland has also reported the total number of deaths recorded last week from all causes was 40 higher than the five year average for the time of the year. i will put that in context. last week the average was 16 lower, the week before it was 37 higher, the week before it was 37 higher, the week before that it was 49 more. —— lower. it is not unusualfor that number to fluctuate a little bit. in general though these figures show the same trend as our daily figures. they confirmed that covid—19 is now has been driven to low levels in scotland. the main part my update

today should be to remind all of us that we have absolutely no room for complacency. the figures also remind us that more than 4000 people have lost their lives to this virus, each one of those was an irreplaceable human being, whose loss will be mourned by many. my condolences again go to everybody who has lost a loved one. and i also want to thank all of our health and care workers, at least today those in grampian, including our public health teams working there for the incredible job they continue to do. to close today, before i hand over to the chief medical officer, i want to return to afamiliar medical officer, i want to return to a familiar but very important point. and it feels even more important today. this virus has not gone away. if you doubted that, then today we have evidence of how true that is. it is still out there. and it's still highly infectious and it is still highly infectious and it is still highly infectious and it is still highly dangerous. the outbreak in aberdeen is a sharp reminder of that. it shows what can happen if we

let our guard drop. and it should serve as a warning to all of us. just because many of the restrictions have been eased across the country, doesn't mean we can safely go back to normal. we are still in a real daily battle with this virus and so we must all continue to exercise extreme caution. test and protect is vital and it is doing a fantasticjob. but test and protect cannot beat the virus all on its own and it is absolutely not some kind of get out ofjail absolutely not some kind of get out of jail free card absolutely not some kind of get out ofjailfree card for absolutely not some kind of get out ofjail free card for the rest of us. every single one of us are the first line of defence against this virus. if the virus gets past us, test and protect steps in and tries to keep it under control. as i say, so far they are doing a really good job. but by definition, theirjob is a lwa ys job. but by definition, theirjob is always firefighting. 0ur job. but by definition, theirjob is always firefighting. our job, job. but by definition, theirjob is always firefighting. 0urjob, as citizens, as human beings, is to try to make sure the fires don't start in the first place. we need to make sure the virus does not get past our defences. the facts campaign

summarises the five rules we must follow whenever we are out and about. so please remember them and please stick to these rules where ever you are. f, face covering is an enclosed spaces, shops, public transport or anywhere else inside that physical distance and might be more difficult. a, avoid crowded places, indoors obviously but outdoors as well. avoid all credit places. c, clean your hands and hard surfaces. d —— t social distancing. and 5, self—isolate and get a test. if you remember these five basic measures then we can all help to make sure we keep this virus in retreat and don't allow it to get a grip of us again. my thanks to eve ryo ne grip of us again. my thanks to everyone who is abiding by that. and my thanks in particular, notjust for past efforts, but for the difficulties i know you will be

facing in the days ahead, to everybody in aberdeen. and we will continue to do everything we can to get this virus there under control and to keep you fully updated on all development is. i'm going to hand over now to the chief medical 0fficer over now to the chief medical officer to say a few words before we go to questions. i want to start today missing thank you in paying tribute to the people involved, but any test and protect any local incident management teams. this has been an excellent effort. any very complex environment to understand and track the extent of this outbreak. the first minister has outlined this today. i also want to emphasise that test and protect is not the first line of defence in combating covid—19. we are. each one of us. each of us has a responsibility to ourselves and to others in our community to act a nyway others in our community to act anyway that helps prevent corporate 19 from re—emerging and getting a grip on sustained community transmission again —— covid—19. i

believe we all know what to do, but we need to make sure we follow the guidance. otherwise, i'm sure this will happen. this is not something that others can take care of for us. this is our collective responsibility. if you have symptoms, to cough, fever, ora responsibility. if you have symptoms, to cough, fever, or a loss of or change in sense of smell or taste, i need you to selflessly and energy to book a test by going to nhs website or by phoning oh 800 028 2816. "0800 a negative test is not mucous up as a solution. it is critical you set up a solution. it is critical you set upa site a solution. it is critical you set up a site for the full working days. this is because the virus can take days to incubate. even if you have a negative test at the start of this page, you can still become

infectious and spread the virus to other people later on. again, the first line of defence as the action we take ourselves. this is our responsibility. ensuring that we wear face coverings when we are enclosed spaces, especially public transport and retail shops where it is mandatory, avoiding places that are crowded, taking that decision that place looks too busy to be in, this virus especially love spreading and crowded indoor areas that make me look around the world and any outbreaks that they place in other countries, one of the common practice we continually see is that these have begun in crowded indoor spaces. making sure we clean our hands with warm water and soap, using sanitiser regularly and cleaning the service around us regularly to. keep your distance from others, two metres remains the default to reduce the chance device been committed and you been infected or contacted by test and face. as i've already mentioned, if you have

symptoms of cough, fever or loss or change in taste per sense of smell, self—isolate medially and book a test. we all have a part to play stealth. the coronavirus hasn't gone away and i need your help in making sure it does not reignite the chains of transmission across the country that we saw before. these figures we re that we saw before. these figures were reporting today and the outbreak we see in aberdeen remind is that it is not time to drop our guard yet. i will go to questions now as usual. gray first minister, the sharp rise in cases you are filing today —— the sharp rise in cases you are filing today -- accounts from bath and aberdeen, no contact —— from aberdeen. could you envision for the restrictions in the future? test and protect is doing a very good job. test and protect will make judgments about whether people need to be contacted, because they are close contacts contacted, because they are close co nta cts a re contacted, because they are close

contacts are not. we have the trust our experts to make those judgments. the other purpose of testing to of course, is to give us early information about the potential sources of and patterns of spread. it is because of testing protect that we know there are more than 20 licensed premises, that may not have had cases, but people have been identified as contacts may have been. we are able to look at as an overall basis and help testing protect and to add to those efforts action is best to be taken for that this this complex but know that they work that's been done locally is being done externally well. this will be ongoing situation. —— extremely well. i've been asked all week, reconsidering measures? i've said all week if we consider measures are necessary, we won't hesitate. that is what we are imitating today. i'm not going to speculate any more than i did earlier in the week than what i

did... suffice to say, none of this is easy, none of this is action we wa nt to is easy, none of this is action we want to be taking. if we judge based on all of the data and analysis on work that local teams are doing, that measures are necessary to keep this virus under control to protect the ability of children to get back to school, then we will not hesitate to school, then we will not hesitate to ta ke to school, then we will not hesitate to take those actions. i will come back to the central point here, we all have a part to play here. every time we have cases going from one person to another... this is not about trying to blame people. please don't think it is, we are all fining this typical and none of it is full proof against an infectious virus. -- all proof against an infectious virus. —— allfinding proof against an infectious virus. —— all finding this difficult. every time one of us doesn't abide by part of the health advice, we give the buyer is an opportunity. the reverse of that is it oliver's abide by all this all of the time, we limit the opportunity for the virus to spread.

—— the reverse of that is if we all abide. test and protect is the second line of defence. let's try and focus on not allowing it past the first line of defence. if we all as individuals focus on that, we are helping the overall effort to keep it under control. steven brown from stb. first minister, you put these measures in place for seven days ahead of the school reopening, but also this pandemic you have said things will have to be reviewed through weeks to see whether measures have really made a difference. can people be comforting, you will know know enoughin comforting, you will know know enough in seven days' time to have seen the measures? you'll make our site we will open the revered and in seven days and it may be that in seven days and it may be that in seven days' time we have greater confidence —— seven days' time we have greater confidence -- we may not have that greater confidence that it has been

contained. either because we need more time to assess that we need evidence that it has spread further. i can't unfortunately look forward seven days and predict with certainty what i will be standing here then reporting to you. i think given that this is the first time in scotland, and i hope there won't beam others, but i can't rule it out, i think it is important to keep it under regular review. i don't wa nt it under regular review. i don't want people in any particular part of the country to be living under restrictions that others are not for any time longer than is necessary. i'm trying to be straight people, there a lot of inherent uncertainty in what we are dealing with. i try to give a sense of this opening remarks, we have very deliberately here taking a very precautionary approach. i want, here taking a very precautionary approach. iwant, if here taking a very precautionary approach. i want, if we can, to stamp on the site before it spreads further in aberdeen, and perhaps gets out of aberdeen and spreads more widely in the country. f7 ——

now we think that concern is less, then perhaps we can review things. -- if then perhaps we can review things. —— if we think seven days from now. you mentioned that businesses can re—furlough staff, is the scottish government looking at any additional financial support for businesses that will be closing? on the point of review and perhaps how long these resections could be in place, what measurements are you looking at? the numberof measurements are you looking at? the number of cases? tracing all the contacts affected here? in respect of the first part of the question, i think the point about the ability for businesses to re—furlough staff who have been brought out a product is the key point in the first insta nce to is the key point in the first instance to make sure that businesses are aware of. clearly the scottish government, yes, we'll be looking at whether or not there is

additional measures we can take an additional measures we can take an additional support we can provide. it was a point raised by aberdeen city council this morning at the resilience meeting. we will be having further discussion around this. this is not a political point, just a reflection of reality, we will be raising these issues with the uk government, because all parts of the uk are going to face these situations. the furlough scheme, although it has been reined in a little bit is still in place right now, but two or three months now, and current uk government plans, that will not be the case. we need to continue to have these discussions on an ongoing basis, and we well. it will be a mixture of all of these things. at the moment, from my layperson's point of view, somebody who has been immersed in this forfour months somebody who has been immersed in this for four months now, somebody who has been immersed in this forfour months now, my worry... i chaired a meeting with nhs leeds at five o'clock last

night, compounded this morning, there is a rapid rise in the number of cases being identified breakdown. contacts of cases being identified breakdown. co nta cts a re of cases being identified breakdown. contacts are being identified and trace, we are almost 200 conductors already. there is not yet any certainty that we don't have wider community transmission. that is the reason for caution. i hope any variation now we will have much greater... a much greater sense of where this case a come from, what healings are, and that there is no greater community transmission. when you've got any contact tracing exercise more than 20 licensed premises, then the real risk of the spreading out of a very content outbreak is very real and that is why we have got to take the decisive action that we are talking about today. clearly this has been a very rapidly evolving situation. it is happening critically over the last few days. we are seeing the rising

numbers. one of the things we will be doing costly over the next seven days until the next viewpoint is working closely with colleagues from the public health department, the health protection teams in grampian to understand the local data. we'll be looking at some of the positive cases they are getting. we will also be looking at the yield positive cases from the degree of testing that they are getting. as they begin that they are getting. as they begin that contact tracing process, with each of these individuals, is to see if we are chasing down and gathering the evidence of those chains of transmission. i guess what we're trying to make sure we are doing here is discount that there may be ongoing community transmission in that area that we need to take these further actions for longer four. that area that we need to take these further actions for longer founm is worth just saying and i may come back and say more about this later in the week, we will be looking for lessons we can apply elsewhere in scotland. i am speculating at the moment, which have heard me say i don't like dying, so i am breaking own rules here, but we could see a

pattern which involves people going from one pub to another in the same night. it may be we have to look at some of those lessons to think about whether we need to tighten up some of the restrictions about operation across a wider country. i want to make sure we are fairly rapidly doing some assessment of that nature. i may have more to say on that later in the week. the copy 19 crisis and the low oil price has created what has been called a perfect storm — — created what has been called a perfect storm —— the covid cases. businesses closing at anfield banks and mental health services... with this latest poll, what assurances can you give to aberdeen in the north—east? —— food banks.

can you give to aberdeen in the north—east? —— food bankslj can you give to aberdeen in the north-east? -- food banks. i know aberdeen city council will be looking at what they can do, we are having discussions. rightly and properly, significant support both for business and the economy across scotland, but also for communities as well to help people who are living in poverty that is undoubtedly being exacerbated by some of these conditions. as we go to his pandemic, as different areas face challenges as we go, we need to make sure we will continue to respond appropriately. the final thing i would say here, and it is not anything to say, the consequences of these i have announced today are very real, and i don't underestimate them. any four—month period of difficult these problems, including government, this has been one of the top so far, because this is for the first time we are imposing restrictions none of us wanted to see in the first place and certainly don't want to see return. the worst thing that could happen for any part of scotland, aberdeen or any other part of scotla nd aberdeen or any other part of scotland as the spiders getting out

of control again... any damage —— the virus getting out of control again. all of what we are doing when it causes damage and harm and that has been true from day one, but it is allan has been true from day one, but it is all an interest of trying to prevent greater damage and harm being done further down the road. which doesn't make it easy for those living with the consequences of this, but hopefully gives some context as to why these really difficult and not so long ago com pletely difficult and not so long ago completely unthinkable decisions, having to be taken. lots of people who have been in aberdeen during the outbreak will have travelled in from aberdeen shire, so what you say to people who have been in the city re ce ntly people who have been in the city recently and that in the shire who may be asymptomatic? white race would you have two bars and restaurants are on the border between the city and don't have to close —— between the city and don't have to close — — what between the city and don't have to close —— what advice would you give to bars and restaurants. you'll make

thatis to bars and restaurants. you'll make that is a good question and the obvious linkages and intertwining —— the intertwining of aberdeen and aberdeen shire is one of the things we discussed this morning. right now the restrictions we are announcing apply to aberdeen city and i want to be clear about that. they will be ongoing analysis of the test and protect data, to see whether it may be necessary to extend these restrictions to some parts of aberdeenshire, but we will only do that we deem it necessary and we haven't taken that decision yet. in the meantime, the advice to anybody who has been in aberdeen, particularly, if i can describe it in the night—time economy, they have beenin in the night—time economy, they have been in pubs and aberdeen over the past couple of weeks, if you have been on a night out there, wherever you live, be extra vigilant. if your contact you live, be extra vigilant. if your co nta ct by you live, be extra vigilant. if your contact by and protect, do what advise you. even if you are not, be extra vigilant. that means watching every symptoms, making sure you are absolutely rigorous comic i want

everybody to be rigorous when it comes to facts, but it is possible to be extra rigorous. this is advice to be extra rigorous. this is advice to pubs and reference everywhere, be really rigorous in the application of the safety measures —— pubs and restau ra nts. of the safety measures —— pubs and restaurants. that's a bit cleaning, staff wearing the appropriate protective equipment, it is about taking the details are people who come in, so that they can be contacted come in, so that they can be co nta cted if come in, so that they can be contacted if there is any concern. all of these things are really important, so please tighten up on these, rather than allow the standards to slip as may have been the case. i suppose human nature, individuals, businesses, a real paranoia about at the start but slowly and surely beget less use to... it is to tighten up again.

that applies i think particular to businesses in hospitality trade. that applies i think particular to businesses in hospitality tradem terms of how the virus spread initially any pub and then at others potentially, how is any activity been identified the main courses, events were cabins may not have been followed ? events were cabins may not have been followed? if events were cabins may not have been followed ? if i events were cabins may not have been followed? if i can also asked, you saw pictures of people in aberdeen crowding together outside pubs, details of your peers have come to light after your first worried about seeing those pictures? i'm going to say a word or two about transmission risk. work is ongoing, so i don't wa nt to risk. work is ongoing, so i don't want to get ahead of where they are, they haven't got a completed picture of how the virus is transmitted. that is one of the reasons were

acting anywhere we are, because it is in acting anywhere we are, because it isina acting anywhere we are, because it is in a clear picture of exactly how outspread —— it has spread. i'm standing appearing today doing what idid standing appearing today doing what i did once had to do, which is reimposed related to country, so in that sense might peers have been realised. i don't want that to sound as though i am blaming people. —— in that sense my fears have been realised. i know how terrible it is to be living under these restrictions. none of us enjoy it, none of us i'm sure are perfect in our day—to—day compliance with these things. but what i would say is, where we have reached today in aberdeen should be the biggest wake—up call in this pandemic since the early days of it. it hasn't gone away. i so wish it had gone away. what i've been telling you about melbourne and even the north of england and parts of spain and other parts of the world, that has been

real and worrying me for the last few weeks. i guess it is far away and there is always a sense of, oh, well, we are doing well and it won't happen here. it can happen here and it is happening here in aberdeen. please take this as the biggest, loudest warning yet that this virus is still out there. we forced it into retreat in the last three weeks, but the battle is not one against it. this is a battle for the foreseeable future that we have to fight and repay on a daily basis. all of us are the first line of defence against it. it comes down to, every time one of us forget to wash your hands when we go in summer, every time one of us doesn't wear a face covering up on a bus or any shop, every time you touch a ha rd any shop, every time you touch a hard surface that somebody else might have touch cleaning it, every time you creep closer to in another household and the two metre distance, you're giving the buyers a chance to spread. that is what we have to absolutely had to guard against —— the virus a chance to

spread. it does come down to all of us. that is a hard place for us to be, but it is where people right across the world are right now. that really is the most important thing for all to remember. in answer to the first part of the question, the imt are clearly looking at is with a great deal of interest to try and understand what the modes of transmission might be what is a complex outbreak. at this moment in time having clearly been able to do that from the questions they've got the answers to from people, but what we know in general is that there are certain characteristics that make transmission much more liable. the further away from someone, the less likely you are to catch it. two metres is better than one metre. one metres is better than one metre. one metre is better than direct contact. that all gets factored in. we also know the indoor transmission is much more likely than outer transmission. fairly ventilated indoor places,

that are crowded, start to become an environment where the risk of transmission becomes much more likely. all these things will be taken into consideration. the imt will be considering all this at length and will issue a final report. in the meantime, what they will also be doing is they will be feeding the learning from the discussions they are having over the course of their action back to us so that we can learn and perhaps reflect on that, it wasjust to clarify, are the 200 close contacts people who actually live in the city hours are anything to suggest it could have spread to other parts of

scotland? i don't have the breakdown in front of me, but i think there's a confidence associated with the cluster in aberdeen... all of these link patterns are exactly what the imt are looking for. i have raised this issue before but it continues to be a concern for nurses. . . . it continues to be a concern for nurses. and aerosol generating procedure that produces of...

only surges masters they say are not sufficient, they cannot carry out the tests themselves —— surgeon masks. if proper ppe is important for soldiers, why not our nurses? . nurses have told me they feel dispensable and not as important as the army and the fire service. who wear the same equipment. the chief medical officer said last time i wear this that surgeon masks were the recommendation... the body also says the evidence on this as weak and staff should wear what they feel is appropriate. why is ffp three not being made available to them? the idea that any of our health or social care staff are common to use your common dispensable... i cannot refute encounter that strongly enough. —— use your word

"dispensable". we owe such a great debt of gratitude to those people. we work hard to protect them. which they deserve. we will always listen to concerns and seek to respond appropriately. i know! to concerns and seek to respond appropriately. i know i am no different here to the majority of people across the country, but i have close family members of my own who work in these front line positions. i understand, who work in these front line positions. iunderstand, notjust who work in these front line positions. i understand, notjust as first minister, although i understand in that role, but i understand in that role, but i understand it as an individual human being, important these things are. i am nota being, important these things are. i am not a clinician, not being, important these things are. i am nota clinician, notan being, important these things are. i am not a clinician, not an expert, a —— the gains we have around ppe is informed by expert opinion. i will ask a question of my advisers to make sure there is confident that my

confidence in the advisory giving. we don't make any of the decision to drop any of this guidance lightly. i wa nt drop any of this guidance lightly. i want that to be clearly understood. sima carrie williams isaac and all staff working in health and social ca re staff working in health and social care be given the pp appropriate for the task they are undertaking —— care be given the pp appropriate for the task they are undertaking "m is important to emphasise and restate that the beginning of this. an expert opinion has been provided a more constricting aerosol generating procedure. a national infection prevention and control experts have developed guidance on the basis of that. we have gone even further than that. now an independent panel of experts has also been commissioned to re—examine all the potential aerosol generating procedures that might take place across the country and to give advice as to whether any further changes are needed. i'm as confident asi changes are needed. i'm as confident as i can be the protective equipment that our staff are currently

provided with a you can carry on watching that news conference up to one o'clock on bbc one in scotland. new long—term projections are being introduced in aberdeen after a cluster of cases in aberdeen. now 54 cases linked to the city and by five o'clock today all pubs, city and by five o'clock today all pu bs, restau ra nts city and by five o'clock today all pubs, restaurants and cabbies must close. five mile travel section is being imposed. no indoor meetings. the latest in that coming up at one. the main focus of the entity has shifted slightly into northern ireland, north wales, northern

england. no sign of significant rainfall. quite a messy picture to the rest of wednesday. the pronto system continuing its generators. the remote end to ease northern ireland. pushing parts of southern and western scotland, northern england, midlands, a few showers. dress in china for the south and east you are. hence the highest temperatures. still feeling pretty cool temperatures. still feeling pretty cool. through this evening and overnight that area of rain across northern england, southern scotland will tend to push away eastwards. eventually most of us become dry. quite large amounts of cloud will be some clear spells. another mild if not muggy night for many. temperature is not much lower than 15 or in places. a little pressure compare to last night. here is a frontal system tomorrow. montessori is running into this area of high pressure. as it does most of the remote 20 feet away. there will be a lot of cloud left on it. that could be thick enough tomorrow to bring

some light rain or drizzle. most will have a mainly dry day. most of us will see some spells of sunshine. quite a us will see some spells of sunshine. quitea warm, us will see some spells of sunshine. quite a warm, if not humid day tomorrow. 26, 20 seven celsius across the south—eastern quarter of the uk. as we go into friday, notices frontal system is just fringing the western side of the uk. killer here were some showers, maybe some longer spells of rain. —— cooler here. temperatures will be rising once again on friday. much more in the way of promotes on friday compared to thursday. notice these areas of showers. it is the temperatures which will be the story on friday, once again across the south—eastern quarter of the uk, we can see them getting up to 34 may be 35 celsius. high pressure building to the weekend. for most of us it will be mainly dry, still warm but turning a little cooler for many

through sunday.

the grim search for victims in beirut — at least 100 people are dead, more than 4,000 are injured. still many questions, as authorities say the blast was caused by nearly 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely in a warehouse translation: we were at home. we heard what sounded like fireworks. we thought it was a container in the port was on fire. a few seconds later, we were flying through the air. as an investigation gets under way, lebanon's prime minister says those responsible will be held to account. translation: those responsible will pay the price for what happened. it isa pay the price for what happened. it is a promise to the martyrs and the wounded. we'll be getting the latest

live from beirut.