this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the death toll rises in lebanon, at least 135 people have died, rescuers are still searching through the rubble. the shock wave was so powerful it knocked people off their feet, blowing out windows for miles around. more than a quarter of a million people have been made homeless. in large parts of the city

every street, every building has been damaged. and, japan marks 75 years since the us bombing of hiroshima. we look at the lingering impact of the attack, and hear from some of the last survivors. 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. in beirut, a desperate search is continuing for more than a hundred people still missing after a huge explosion devastated the port. 300,000 people have been displaced. it's thought the explosion was caused by a fire that ignited piles of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely. quentin sommerville

has the latest. in a country long battered by shock, a fresh, unnatural disaster has seized lebanon. the fires burned long here at the port. the cause, a powder keg of unstable chemicals, left to rot in the very heart of beirut. the shock could be felt in cyprus, syria and israel. the 2500 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser was the equivalent of a one kilotonne blast. this was lebanon's 9/11, they say. a catastrophe that shook the entire country. a small fire at the port had drawn people to their windows to watch. when the chemicals exploded, they received the brunt.

more than 4000 have been hurt and lebanon is traumatised. it is a day they will never forget, especially for bride israa seblani. allahu akbar. in the small town of ras el harf, the buildings still stand, but the people are shuttered. jessy dawood was a nurse at beirut‘s saint george hospital. she died along with three colleagues. she was 31 years old, and leaves behind her two—year old ella, and her husband. the work of a nurse is to save lives of people, and take care of people. this is what she did. she was a hero.

she died when she's her duty. she was saving people, and she died. at jessy dawood's hospital, there is hurt and anger at a man—made disaster, a physical manifestation of the country's long dysfunction. this is a catastrophe, because, you know, we are one of the best functioning institutions in the city. we are helping with the covid effort, we're treating patients. already, the healthcare system is about to collapse. resilience is a word much overused in lebanon. in may melki's apartment, she sought a moment of peace among the wreckage. the 78—year—old has suffered months of power cuts, the loss of her savings and rising food prices. and now, this disaster. hopes?

everybody says there is no hope, you know? but i don't want to believe it. i want to keep hoping that each time these catastrophes happen, we stand up and start again. but everybody says, many, many years before, when i was in the united states, they asked me this question. is there hope for lebanon? i mean, there is no hope. the same politicians who created the earlier crises have to resolve this one. there is little hope they can do it alone, and there is a limit to how much more lebanon can endure. it was more that i was an homage to all those who are gone and who were less fortunate than us and were caught in

this big catastrophe. quentin sommerville, bbc news. ammonium nitrate is a chemical that is made all over the world and is relatively cheap to buy. but storing it can be a problem, and it has been associated with serious industrial accidents in the past. 0ur science editor david shukman explains what it is. it began as a very large blaze, a towering grey column and flashes from what looked like fireworks. but worse was to follow. a massive explosion, and as it erupted, an important clue emerged in the colour of the smoke. a reddish—brown, which meant that ammonium nitrate was involved in vast quantities. so what is this substance, ammonium nitrate? well, it's a chemical mainly used as a fertiliser.

farmers in the uk and all over the world apply it to their fields. and on its own there's no danger, but this powder can also be used as an ingredient for explosives. why is ammonium nitrate so potentially dangerous? well, in certain conditions it can become unstable. this vast explosion in china five years ago involved a quarter of the quantity that erupted yesterday. the explosion in beirut happened in the worst possible place, right in the port, with a lot of buildings around, and the impact would have been felt in several different ways. first, shock wave, leading to a sudden increase in pressure which would have killed people nearby. then a wave of debris, chunks of concrete and glass hurled through the air may be a mile away. and then a cloud of toxic gases and dust carried by the wind right over the city. so, why was the ammonium nitrate there in the first place?

in the aftermath, there are no clear answers. all of the port's officials are now under house arrest while an investigation starts. whatever happened, a deliberate detonation cannot be ruled out but nor can neglect and carelessness. there is probably enough problems within the infrastructure of lebanon to explain poor storage practices, poor chemical accounting. you probably have all the ingredients in there already without it being attributed to malice. seen from space, this was the port before the explosion. now it lies in ruins, whole buildings wiped out and the shocking sight of a large ship on its side. whatever the cause, the recovery will take years. david shukman, bbc news. the blast comes at a difficult time for the country, which is not only trying to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but is also struggling with in an unprecedented economic crisis. 0ur middle east editor jeremy bowen looks at

the troubles facing lebanon. officials who may have ignored warnings about the danger facing beirut are under house arrest. that is just the start of national recriminations. the force of the blast was devastating. if lebanon was rich, well governed and secure, it would find it hard to deal with this crisis. but it has none of those strengths. the mayor inspected the damage. he said reconstruction would take billions of dollars. that's money lebanon just doesn't have. the president, michel aoun, has declared three days of mourning. many lebanese don't trust their leaders and are sick of an elite, including former warlords like the president himself, who have been at the top for decades. lebanon's youth want change. before and sometimes during the pandemic, there were

big protests. many called them a revolution against corruption and incompetence. what has gone wrong is decades and decades of abusive use of power by a privileged and corrupt elite, which has been milking the country corru ptly, which has been failing to provide the basic services such as electricity and proper internet and proper telephone, affordable telephones, proper operation of the customs system, proper whatever, agricultural policy. they have all been lacking. a rare gesture came from israel. tel aviv city hall was lit with a lebanese flag. the two cities are separated by 160 miles of mediterranean coastline, and lifetimes of pain and history in the world's most unstable region. lebanon is surrounded by enemies, and the kind of friends that no country wants. to the south, there is israel.

this time, they have offered aid but before that, the talk was of border tension and perhaps even another war. then there's syria, where the assad regime has always regarded lebanon as its backyard. the lebanese have absorbed about 1.5 million syrian refugees. that is the same as britain taking about 15 million. and iran is close to the lebanese shia militia, hezbollah, which is the most powerful political and military organisation in the country. the medical emergency is extreme. first covid—19, and now three hospitals in beirut have been put out of action by the explosions. i saw all of the war in lebanon. this blow is as important as the 11th of september blow in the united states. for us, i think this is a very big blow. we need really the international support. french rescue teams left paris for beirut, britain announced £5 million of emergency aid, but lebanon has

deep political problems that money without reform will not be able to fix. in beirut‘s wreckage are the ruins of the granary that contained vital supplies of imported wheat. another disaster, at the chernobyl nuclear power plant, finished off the soviet union. lebanon's old order should fear the fallout from beirut docks. jeremy bowen, bbc news. let s get some of the day s other news. the top us immunologist, doctor anthony fauci, says he doen‘t expect a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine to have been approved by regulatory authorities before the end of the year but remains confident tens of millions of doses would be available by early 2021, rising to at least a billion by the end of next year. and yet another grim

milestone has been reached in the coronavirus pandemic. more than 700,000 people have now died from the disease, according to researchers atjohns hopkins university. the us has reported the most deaths with more than 157,000, followed by brazil and mexico. more than 11 million people have now recovered from the virus worldwide. joe biden will no longer travel to milwaukee to accept the democratic nomination for president. that's because of the coronavirus crisis. the former vice president will instead accept his party's backing from his home state of delaware. the decision comes as president trump says he may give his big convention speech from the white house. stay with us on bbc news, still to come. the march of even more penguins. why researchers believe there are greater numbers of emperor penguins than anyone thought.

the question was whether we wanted to save our people and japanese as well and win the war or whether we wanted to take a chance on being able to win the war by killing all our young men. the invasion began at 2am this morning. mr bush like most other people was clearly caught by surprise. we call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all the iraqi forces. 100 years old and still full of vigour, vitality, and enjoyment of life. no other king or queen in british history has lived so long and the queen mother is said to be quietly very pleased indeed that she has achieved this landmark anniversary. this is a pivotal moment for the church as an international movement. the question now is whether the american vote will lead to a split in the anglican community.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines. the death toll rises in lebanon — at least 135 people have died there's growing anger in beirut at the failure of lebanese politicians to prevent the devastating explosion in the port. many fear the worst of the pandemic is still yet to come in indonesia — the world's fourth most populous country. the latest figures put the total number of infections at almost 120,000 and total deaths at more than 5000. like many countries the indonesian government is balancing the economy and containing the virus, and most indonesians don't have the luxury of working from home. but has the government response has been too little too

late? dr dicky budiman, worked for the ministry of health in indonesia for 18 years. now at the griffith university, centre for environment and population health. good to have you on the programme. with your experience, 18 years within the indonesian ministry of health, do you think what is happening there, are we getting the right figures? are they correct in your opinion? indonesia has a very unique condition and situation based on our archipelago countries. they have more than 17,000 islands. with diverse in culture and in health facilities. the situation also influences how we have to deal with these pandemics. the government

of course has these challenges, and as you already mentioned the early time of this pandemic, that's not really appropriate but now the government is very serious in limiting the pandemic. but the problem still is because our, the large proportion of indonesian people is still not in a good understanding of, or knowledge about how they have to behave, and also how to prevent. but still we need to increase these communications for people to deal with this one. and there are

rumours in the community about the pandemic also. and now i can see the based on my experience for the pandemic in indonesia we have now the silent epidemic. it's because we have a symptomatic case in indonesia, and also indonesia the majority population is of a young age. this situation will not last because it will, and transmit this the most vulnerable population in communities. and then we will face a very serious problem. communities. and then we will face a very serious problemlj communities. and then we will face a very serious problem. i spoke to a friend of mine helping out in a charity there, he was saying that misinformation is a real concern. the governor even

having his own remedy when it comes to coronavirus about the steaming, boiled local alcohol there. how important, briefly, is meant that enactments information? it's quite serious. i also talked to the public, and this is the second biggest enemy for indonesia currently besides the virus itself. the rumours, the info goes very fast, and it's what makes me more worried because some of the public, some of the people in the public, some of the people in the public institutions show this kind of misunderstanding or of

misinformation and influences the community. so the good things are that some of civil society now, let's say how many of them already do very good response to deal with this. and they have the right communication, the proper communication, the proper communication to their community. and i can see that in the place that this civil society has come of the number of cases are not also quite high. the information is very important. so then the people or the community can follow the right prevention. and that's the clear message, but i'm so sorry for interrupting. we get the gist of what you're saying, excellent information, thank you doctorfor your expertise. it is 75 years since a us airforce plane called the enola gay

dropped an atom bomb on the city of hiroshima in western japan. three days later another bomb was dropped on the city of nagasaki. between 150,000 and 220,000 people were killed. the experience left japan with a strong anti—nuclear movement that endures to this day. but with an increasingly aggressive china on its doorstep, the remaining survivors of hiroshima are worried the lessons of august 6th, 1945 are being forgotten. from tokyo rupert wingfield—hayes reports. man speaking japanese. hirotomi igarashi is a right—wing japanese nationalist who says it's time for his country to develop its own nuclear weapons. the group he leads his one of around 1,000 ultra nationalist organisations injapan dedicated to scrapping the post—war pacifist constitution, and the alliance with united states. translation: we need to acquire nuclear weapons so that the bomb will never be dropped

on our homeland again, especially now with the threat from china. china has some 300 nuclear missiles aiming atjapan, and we have north korea. that country is like a madman holding a knife. on august the 6th, japan stops to remember what happened at hiroshima. to mourn the tens of thousands who were incinerated, and to recommit itself to the abolition nuclear weapons. what happened to you when the bomb exploded? at 83, keiko 0gura is one of a dwindling number of survivors who witnessed the destruction with their own eyes. she is worried that as memories fade, japan's commitment to never building nuclear weapons is weakening. survivors have a strong fear because, you know, we have many power plants that means there are materials. plutonium, we have.

and we have the technology to create the nuclear weapons. it might be easy if we said, "go, now!" if it wanted to, experts believe japan could build a nuclear weapon very quickly. it has a stockpile of 47 tonnes of plutonium, more than any other non—nuclear weapon state. the whole issue of nuclear weapons is still taboo here, even to talk about. but the view that japan may one day need to build its own nuclear deterrent goes well beyond the far right fringe even into parts of the ruling liberal democratic party. and the logic is simple. japan faces real and growing threats from north korea, and from an increasingly aggressive and well—armed china. and since president trump's election, america's commitment to protect japan under its nuclear umbrella is increasingly shaky. for the first time in postwar history, there is now a president in the white house who has openly

and repeatedly said, "it's time forjapan to defend itself." i think that is the biggest change. and sort of the biggest cause for concern. and ifjapan is moving in a direction of relying more on its own capabilities, i believe that's primarily because of a loss of credibility in us security guarantees. for the 75 years since hiroshima, japan has lived under american protection. now it is beginning to wonder what would happen if the americans really went home. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in tokyo. researchers have found new breeding sites for the emperor penguin in antarctica. victoria gill has more. they're the biggest and possibly the toughest of antarctica's penguins. when they are not foraging in freezing waters, they live

and raise their chicks on the ice. and that icy white backdrop has meant that scientists have been able to use satellite images to search the vast antarctic continent for undiscovered emperor penguins. these are the tell—tale markers that gave away their location. giant stains left on ice from thousands of penguins' droppings. we have found about 25 to 55,000 new penguins located in the 11 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. the emperor penguin‘s whole life—cycle is centred on the sea ice, so the scientists say this good news about the 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. 0ne 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. thanks for watching. hello. while some parts of the uk have had some pleasant sunshine occasionally this week and stayed dry so far, albeit rather windy, others have been very wet — particularly into parts of scotland but notjust scotland. 0ther spots had some heavy downpours during wednesday. but it is looking, for thursday, drier and warmer. high pressure building a little further. coming around to a southerly and that is going to lift temperatures again particularly

into england and wales on friday. there will be another surge of heat with temperatures in the 30s for some as we will see in a moment. temperatures as we start thursday will have held up overnight across a large part of england and wales. so, a rather muggy start. could be a few mist and fog patches around. a zone of thicker cloud into parts of southern england, could be a bit drizzly with that pushing into parts of wales and the midlands during the day. could stay misty along some spots along the english channel coast. whereas elsewhere across the uk, it's a mix of cloud, some occasional sunny skies. it will be dry. best of the sunny skies in scotland towards the north. it is warmer, and temperatures peak in the upper 20s in the warmest parts of the east and southeast of england, just a gentle southerly breeze. 0n through thursday night, into friday morning, keep a bit of cloud, clear, keep some clear spells too — in fact clearing up across more of england and wales going into friday morning. and what will be another rather warm and muggy night. a warmer night in scotland and northern ireland. though by friday morning

there's a weather front close to northern ireland and for here and then eastwards across scotland, there will be some showery rain moving in. a few late showers and thunderstorms can't be ruled out in england and wales but the main story here will be the sunshine and the heat again. upper 20s, low 30s, and hottest parts of the east and southeast of england, mid—30s, 35, maybe 36 celsius around the london area. temperatures nowhere near that high in scotland and northern ireland — it'll be heavily cloudy with the chance of rain during the day. high pressure building back in for the weekend and that does mean a lot of dry weather particularly on saturday. by sunday there is an increasing chance of some thunderstorms around, particularly into parts of england and wales. and where friday is going to be so very hot, it will slowly cool a touch into the weekend but more noticeably elsewhere.

this is bbc world news. the headlines. people in lebanon are blaming their politicians for the massive explosion in beirut on tuesday, which killed at least 135 people, injured five thousand more and made (00v)a number of officials at the port where the explosion a number of officials at the port where the explosion occurred are to be kept under house arrest while investigations continue. lebanese officials have said that the storage of some two—thousand—seven—hundred tons of ammonium nitrate at a warehouse in the port caused the blast. in france, almost 2,000 firefighters have been trying to extinguish wildfires to the west of marseille. almost 3,000 people have been evacuated from campsites and residential

areas. and thursday injapan marks 75 years since the us dropped an atomic bomb on the city of hiroshima, killing thousands — and changing the nature of warfare. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are anna mikhailova, deputy political editor of the telegraph, and pippa crerar, political editor of the mirror_ tomorrow's front page starting with. good to have you back both for the second edition, i promise we won't be interrupted this time by any pressers. let's start with these pages.