emperor penguin colonies. it is great to have more emperor penguins because this is a species which is really quite vulnerable to climate change and we expect over the coming decades that the numbers will reduce dramatically. emperor penguins‘ whole life cycle is centered on the sea ice. so the scientists say this good news about their population size comes with a note of caution. all of the new colonies are in vulnerable areas, places where the best climate models project that the ice will diminish in the coming decades. one forecast suggests that the global population of emperors could crash by half by the end of this century. reducing carbon emissions to limit the global temperature rise, researchers say, is the only way to protect the frozen habitat that these birds depend on. victoria gill, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here's alina jenkins.

things will be getting much hotter by the end of the week but for now more rain through this afternoon. it has been across northern ireland this morning, blue sky is the anglia and south—east england. but this afternoon is a messy —looking picture, this frontal system pushing east and the brain will be clearing from northern ireland but then also arriving into south—west scotland and continuing across north—west england. also some heavy rain pushing into parts of wales and south—west england but i had that the best of the sunshine across south—east england, east anglia. but turning right along the west coast and some of that rain could be heavy. turning drier across northern ireland, feeling cool for scotland and northern ireland with some brisk wind. higher temperatures across the south eastern corner of the uk. overnight the main clearing into the

north sea and we are left with a lot of cloud but that should break up to give a few clear spells. another mild night the temperature is no lower than around 15 degrees in places but feeling fresher across scotla nd places but feeling fresher across scotland compared to the nightjust gone. tomorrow the frontal system i’u ns gone. tomorrow the frontal system runs into this area of high pressure and most of the rain will tend to fizzle out as it does so. link still have crowd which could bring some patchy rain and drizzle for a time but mostly dry date with some sunny spells trying to break through. a humid and warm feeling day, warmer thanit humid and warm feeling day, warmer than it has been recently across scotland, northern ireland and northern england. warmer still across the south—eastern corner, up to 26, 20 seven celsius. and temperatures rising further into friday. this frontal system keeping things fresh across northern ireland, north and west scotland but elsewhere temperatures building as the heat rises. on friday morning

the heat rises. on friday morning the way of sunshine, a sunny day for many the way of sunshine, a sunny day for a the way of sunshine, a sunny day for many away from northern ireland and the west of scotland. we could see some heavy showers through the afternoon. but temperatures again the story on friday, up to around 34, 35 the story on friday, up to around 3a, 35 five celsius across south—east england. moving into the weekend high—pressure building so most of us have a dry weekend with some spells of sunshine but we are likely to hold onto the heat across a large swathes of england and wales, turning a bit cooler in the north and east. a reminder of our top story: the grim search for victims in beirut — at least 100 people are dead, more than 4,000 are injured, after a massive blast was caused by nearly 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely in a warehouse. that's all from the bbc news at one, so it's goodbye from me. and on bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. good afternoon.

it's 1.30pm and here's your latest sports news... let's start at old trafford where england have had a decent morning on the first day of the first test against pakistan. they rain mostly stayed away, and the bowlers took advantage before lunch, as andy swiss reports. smile, everyone. barelya smile, everyone. barely a week up to the west indies, now it is pakistan's turn in the bio secure bubble. old trafford once again eerily empty as their batsmen emerge. for their part, eerily empty as their batsmen emerge. fortheir part, england had included ben stokes, to fight him being on pets of all —— despite him being on pets of all —— despite him being unfixable. —— unfit to bowl. the visitors rode their luck. for england, i was turning into one of those mornings, the hopes of an early breakthrough just agonisingly out of reach. with the floodlights on at the rain clouds circling, they

finally struck. a beauty from jofra archer. sixpence for themmy expedia star as pakistan's progress took a heavy knock. the pakistan captain gone for not. suddenly england's sales were up. pakistan's premier back nearly went first ball. the past 50 before lunch, but england will head into it with a spring in their step. let's go live to old trafford and our cricket reporter henry moeran. and henry, england came into this series off the back of that win over the west indies, but pakistan will provide a very different challenge over these three tests? this is going to be quite a

different challenge. not these physically because of that west indies series, and having played those three test matches back to back and whether the bodies will hold up to the strain of so much test cricket such a short space of time. ben stokes the england all—rounder on the site only as a batsman, he had a quad injury he picked up in the final test. it will be interesting to see how they can at that. pakistan have one of the most exciting fast bowling attacks in world cricket. too young and exciting players, the to see how they go, we'll see. there'll be a few sore heads in west london today after fulham confirmed their return to the premier league after a year away. they did it by beating local rivals brentford in the championship play—off final at wembley last night.

defenderjoe bryan was the unlikely hero as the game moved into extra time. he scored both fulham goals in a 2—1 win. and boss scott parker says they'll make a better fist of the premier league this time around. some clear errors made last time. yeah, and we will learn from that. we need to learn from that. we are going into the best league in the world. no arguments about it, the best players, the best teams. it is a brutal league. and i realise the challenge ahead. i don't think about it at the moment, because i want to try and enjoy...enjoy what we've done so far. it could be the big transfer saga of the summer — england starjadon sancho‘s potential move to manchester united from borussia dortmund it's been reported that the 20—year—old was close to agreeing a deal to move to manchester, but the german club want a transfer fee of around £100 million. that would be a record for a british player,

but united think that's too much. . .and say they'll walk away if the price isn't dropped. well, manchester united are in action tonight as european football returns for the first time since the start of lockdown. they play the austrian side lask in the second leg of their last—16 tie in the europa league. united are 5—0 up from the first leg and boss ole gunner solskjaer has his sights firmely set on winning the competiton. the team has developed all through the season. of course we are delighted with the finishing third, but the next step for this team is getting our hands or a trophy. we have been to two semifinals, we want to go one step further and we want to go one step further and we want to win something. let's go to the crucible theatre in sheffield next, as the world snooker championships continues... these are the live pictures. the four—time champion john higgins is the biggest name in action this morning. he's playing kurt maflin who's playing at the crucible forjust the second time.

2013 finalist barry hawkins is playing alexander ursenbacher on the other table. you can watch all the action live now on bbc two, and via the bbc sport website and app. rory mcilroy will have tiger woods for company when he tees off at the uspga tomorrow. the all—star group will be completed by the new world number one justin thomas. it's the first major golf tournament to be held since the start of the pandemic, and in line with most other sports there will be no crowds in san francisco — so woods says it'll be a little calmer out on the course. it's different than, you know, most of the times when you go from green to tee, people yelling or trying to touch you. that's. . .you know, that part is different. as far as energy, while i'm competing and playing, no, that's the same. i'm pretty intense when i play and pretty into what i'm doing. i'll have more for

you in the next hour. 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 yesterday 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 300,000 people homeless, across over half the city. he estimates the cost of the damage could be over 3 billion dollars — more than 2.2 billion pounds. bbc arabic correspondent, rami ruhayem is in one of the closest residential areas to the beirut port and sent this update. this is a sample of some of the destruction wrought on beirut by yesterday's blast. this neighbourhood here is very close to

the site of the past. many of the buildings here have balconies that overlook the port of beirut. people would have been standing on their balconies are near their windows, stretching their necks to catch a glimpse of the fire when the blast struck. if you were here when this happened, where you were standing would have made the difference between life and death, between a superficial or very serious injury. pretty country as a whole, this feels like a crippling wound. lebanon has just lost its port, feels like a crippling wound. lebanon hasjust lost its port, to which of its imports come through and it has lost it right in the middle of the worst economic crisis in generations. the moment of the explosion was caught on camera by a bbc arabic reporter in beirut who was recording an interview at the time. we can watch some of it back, the images are distressing. look in the top right corner of your screen.

mariam al toumi is the reporter in the top right hand corner, she was conducting the interview with a guest based in morocco. mariam is in a stable condition with minor injuries — all bbc staff are safe and have been accounted for. dr firass abiad is head of the rafik hariri university hospital in beirut, the largest public hospital in lebanon. he told my colleague geeta guru—murthy about 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, whether it is, we don't 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 they heard the impact of the blast. so i think that a lot of people have been affected in the capital and outside. earlier lina khatib — director of the middle east and north africa programme at the international affairs thinktank chatham house — spoke to my colleague geeta guru—murthy about what could be behind the blast. it is not going to be easy to speculate. it could be an accident, it may not be an accident. 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 illustrates the huge level of corruption that labour non—has been suffering from for decades —— labour non—. “— suffering from for decades —— labour non—. —— labour non—. —— three. —— three. ——lebanon. it is known his brother is often smuggling material like this —— his brother. they may have some link but

is too early to tell —— his brother. they have not been benefiting from tonnes of fertiliser sitting a pauper six years. explain the timing of this ——? this week, it is significant. absolutely come on friday the special tribunal for lebanon that is investigating the assassination of the former prime minister is meant to issue its verdict. it is expected that the four people that the court will say are responsible for the assassination are going to be his millar members. this would only add to the popular resentment and against the powers that be that have

allowed the situation in lebanon on to be dominated by the impunity they are witnessing today —— his millar. even about it is as a really tragic and horrible accident, how's it going to affect public opinion? are people —— we see people are suffering in the immediate area, but will it have a wider impact? yes, the currency had lost 80% of its value and the coronavirus situation is worsening. people have lost their livelihoods as a result of both. the economic situation in lebanon has not helped by a government that does 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 living on since october, asking for the political system to change for the political system to change for the government to be responsive. the government as being far from responsive. it continues to act with impunity. 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. lebanon was already going through an economic crisis and hospitals were also struggling to cope with an outbreak of covid—19. the blast has triggered a new wave of anger against the country's political leaders. joanna gosling has been speaking to edgard jallad, editor of bbc arabic tv, who grew up in the city, about the impact on the people there. the rescue forces are trying to remove the rubble and are searching for people who, you can see on

facebook pages, people asking if you know this person, have you seen them in the last 2a hours? morgues and hospitals are beyond their normal capacity. the ministry of health is asking countries to help with that. there is a number of countries that expressed interest in spending —— sending some mobile hospitals to help address the health issues. the country has 300,000 people who have lost their homes in this area. the radius is huge. it is unbelievable. i know the area very well. i was brought up there. i couldn't believe my eyes when i have seen the pictures of this area. it was like hiroshima. some newspaper headlines have drawn comparison. because of the level of destruction in the capital. white describe at these pictures would have been like

before. this is the beirut port, the key for commercial activity. where the imports and exports take place. where we see these grain silos, where the reserves are stored for six to eight months. even during the war, even the belligerents try to avoid hitting this building because it feeds the whole country. it was spared during the war and we can see now it is massively hit by this and destroyed. if fear now is the country could face another level of a supplies problem, because people could trash into some panic shopping, because the whole harbour, the whole port is now destroyed. everything there is destroyed. in terms of supplies, am i right in

thinking everything pretty much comes from abroad? yes, live and 80% of its commercial supplies are imported from neighbouring countries and from europe, from arab countries. it is very important. basically warehouses and what is on the shelves of stores are set at the moment. —— is it at the moment. the country was suffering due to economic problems and shelves were empty. and now this, this is a catastrophe for the people living here. you describe, obviously, the economic difficulties already there, where the resources of the country immediately to deal with this? what if the level of assistance they're going to have to be asking for from elsewhere? where is it likely to

come from? the government has drafted a list of needs, 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 some arab countries, they are preparing to send some mobile hospitals. arab countries, they are preparing to send some mobii united tals. needs help, be | needs help, be a |eeds help, humanitarian will be a massive humanitarian problem that will survive or stay with us for weeks now. the president has said the ammonium nitrate was being stored unsafely. the vast quantity of it stored unsafely in the port. at the moment, we don't know why it was that it ignited. if

it is an accident or something more sinister, either way, it is an accident or something more sinister, eitherway, people are going to be angry, aren't they? people are already angry. people are already angry. they are refusing politicians. we have seen people taking to the streets weeks and months ago and we called that revolution, at that time, so there is already something. this will add salt to the injury. the story of the ship, of what we know so far, is really putting a lot of question marks. it is revealed now, error after error, we can read articles going back to 2014, 2015 about the ship. so it was known to experts. this ship started is turning in september 2013. from george r. it was heading to mozambique, according to one website. from george r. we

are trying to get in touch with the writer of this article. they mention and described it as a voting form at that time. the circumstances on why the ship ended in beirut for is big?. the crew was arrested and deported but the ship remained and the owner decided to give up the ship. so there are a lot of?. all these information is, i started realising, they were known to experts. for us, may not... we will know more in the coming hours and days. now it's time for a look at the weather with alina jenkins.

yesterday western scotland had around 72 millimetres of rain in just 24 hours. it's what is obviously on record. the main focus has shifted slightly into northern ireland, north wales, northern england. no sign of significant rainfall. quite a messy picture on wednesday. the frontal system continuing. the remote end to ease northern ireland. pushing parts of southern and western scotland, northern england, midlands, a few showers. 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, but will be some clear spells. another mild if not muggy night for many. temperature not much

lower than 15 in places. here is a frontal system tomorrow. it is running into this area of high pressure. 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 warm, if not humid day tomorrow. 26 celsius across the south—eastern quarter of the uk. as we go into friday, notice frontal systems just fringing the western side of the uk. cooler here with some showers, maybe some longer spells of rain. temperatures will be rising once again on friday. much more in the way of sunshine 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 maybe 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.

lebanon is in mourning after the huge explosion which killed at least 100 people and injured more than 4,000 others. authorities say the blast was caused by nearly 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely in a warehouse. as an investigation gets under way — lebanon's prime minister says those responsible will be held to account. 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. after a cluster of cases some lockdown restrictions are reimposed in aberdeen.