this is bbc news. i'm david eades with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world: the first funerals take place after beirut‘s massive explosion but who is to blame for the blast which killed at least 135 people, injuring thousands more? facebook and twitter sanction team trumpfor claiming children are almost immune to coronavirus. bell. hiroshima marks the 75th anniversary of the exact moment an atomic bomb was dropped on the japanese city. we talk to the last of the survivors. millions turn out to vote in sri lanka's elections despite coronavirus fears.

thank you forjoining us. beirut is a disaster zone, 300,000 people have had to leave their homes, and a two week state of emergency has been declared and that desperate situation is compounded by accusations of incompetence, factional in—fighting and an economic mess inflicted on lebanon by its own governing elite. the huge explosion on tuesday, which killed at least 135 people and injured thousands more, was caused by the ignition of 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate being kept in the port area of beirut, despite the risks. the government has placed some officials under house arrest. quentin sommerville's report contains scenes which you may find distressing.

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. explosion.

more than 4000 have been hurt and lebanon is traumatised. it is a day they will never forget, especially for bride, israa seblani. explosion. 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 other 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

on her duty. she's 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 cannot, 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 they were caught in this big catastrophe.

quentin sommerville, bbc news. we will have more in the situation in lebanon in the business section of the programme, in about 20 minutes time. the senior american immunologist dr anthony fauci has said he doesn't expect any coronavirus vaccine to be approved before the end of the year. the fight against the virus, he said, is fully dependent on the availability of a safe and effective vaccine, and he stressed that political considerations would not be allowed to interfere in the regulatory process. we likely are going to have maybe tens of millions of doses at the early part of the year but as we get into 2021, the manufacturers tell us that they will have hundreds of millions and likely1 billion doses by the end of 2021. so i think the process is moving along at a pretty favourable pace.

facebook and twitter have sanctioned president trump and his campaign for posts in which he claimed children are "almost immune" to coronavirus. facebook deleted the post, saying it contained "harmful covid misinformation". twitter temporarily froze the official trump campaign account and required the tweet be deleted before the account could be reactivated. 0ur news reporter alanna petroffjoins me now with more. it does basically come down to language, this. what was it precisely that donald trump tweeted, put out? donald trump did an interview with fox news where he said that children we re where he said that children were almost immune to covid—19. now we all know that donald trump has a way with words and is not always as precise as some people would want him to be. in this case to say almost immune, facebook and twitter said that was not right and

goes against us public health information that children are not "almost immune". they are not "almost immune". they are not immune to getting the virus. they can get the virus however they tend to be more resilient than adults if they we re resilient than adults if they were to get it. is interesting that facebook go so far to say that facebook go so far to say that it contains harmful misinformation, partly his use of language and no different why he should have any different rules to anyone else but even if you look at the national british health service, they talk about very few children develop serious or severe symptoms. they can get coronavirus but seem to get it less often than adults, and it's usually less serious. the whole direction is that children are less likely to be badly affected. the general tenure of the message their the general message, it feels, yeah, it is roughly in line with how people are thinking, however, it is all about being

precise and how you communicate. to say that children are "almost immune" and then to be pushing for schools to reopen, it gets into strange territory where facebook and twitter were not happy with that. in fact, the world health organization looked at 6 million cases of people with covid—19 are nearly 596 people with covid—19 are nearly 5% of the cases where kids, and that's about 275,000 kids with covid—19, showing that kids are not "almost immune". just briefly, the likes of facebook and twitter cannot but be drawn into the politics in the united states, certainly the united states, certainly the united states in particular? absolutely. republicans have been saying for a while now that the likes of facebook and twitter have been silencing their voice. twitter and facebook would be saying they are looking at misinformation and trying to cut that out.

thank you very much indeed. a ceremony has been held in the japanese city of hiroshima to mark the 75th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack. the us bombing killed 140,000 people. the coronavirus pandemic forced this year's ceremony to be scaled back in this anniversary year. from tokyo, here's rupert wingfield—hayes. this man is a right wing japanese nationalist who says it's time for his country to develop its own nuclear weapons. the group e leads is around of 1000 ultranationalist organisations in japan, dedicated to scrapping the post—war pacifist constitution and the alliance with the 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. they have some 300 nuclear missiles aiming at japan and we have north korea. that country is like a madman holding a knife. bell tolling. this morning in hiroshima, they stopped again to remember the tens of thousands incinerated here 25 years ago and recommit japan to the abolition of nuclear weapons. what happened to you when the bomb exploded? i was surrounded... . among the dwindling number of survivors at the ceremony, this 83—year—old, worried that as memories fade and survivors pass away, japan's commitment to never building nuclear weapons is weakening. survivors have a stronger fear because, you know, we have many powerplants that you know, we have many powerpla nts that means materials, plutonium we have and we have the technology to create a nuclear weapon. it may

be easy if we set go now. if it wanted to, experts believe japan could build a nuclear weapon very quickly. it has a stockpile of 47 tons of plutonium, more than any other non— nuclear weapons state. the whole issue of nuclear weapons is still to be here, even to talk about. 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 democratic party and the logic is simple,japan ruling 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. since president trump's election, america's commitment to protect japan under its nuclear umbrella is progressively shaky. for the first time in post—war 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 the biggest cause of concern. and if japan is moving biggest cause of concern. and ifjapan is moving in a direction of relying more on its own capabilities, i believe thatis its own capabilities, i believe that is primarily because of a loss of credibility in us security guarantees. in the 75 yea rs security guarantees. in the 75 years since hiroshima, japan has lived under american protection and now it is beginning to wonder what would happen if the americans really went home. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news. and we have another angle on the hiroshima anniversary after the hiroshima anniversary after the break. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: why is a veteran rock star suing donald trump's re—election campaign. the question was whether we want to save our people and japanese, as well and win

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

this is bbc world news. thank you for being with us. our top story this hour: there's mounting anger in lebanon at the failure of politicians to prevent tuesday's devastating blast in which at least 135 people were killed and some 5,000 injured. let's stay with that now. 0ur correspondent carine torbey sent us this update from beirut. 0n on tuesday immediately after the explosion, and while all hospitals in lebanon on an beirut especially were swamped with a number of injured brought in, this hospital, one of the oldest and biggest in the capital, was evacuated patient is already inside the hospital. what happened? seconds after the blast, the hospital became totally dysfunctional. the emergency room, it is even worse on the floor. from top to bottom, the

ninth room to the 0r, there was nothing functioning anymore. the hospital had 330 patients, icu patients, covid—19 patients, women delivering babies, nothing was functional. we decided to install a field hospital outside so that served as the beds and automatically all patients were taken out and stabilised. in addition to regular patients, we had injuries in our staff, we lost four nurses, we had dozens of doctors and nurses who were transferred because of injury. we had also some visitors in the hospital, which we are still trying to count them. we don't have account of the visitors. we have seen pictures on social media of someone being operated on torchlight of the mobile phone. what happened? when you have a

catastrophe like this, the first thing you do is cut off your electricity and gas because you can have another explosion, so we were without electricity and then started calling people right and left, the army and everyone, they responded from six till nine, asking for light because we we re asking for light because we were here doing and intubation, people putting in tubes, people coding, but at eight o'clock when it became dark, we had to use phones to help people. basically, how easy would it be and how long would it take in your opinion for this hospital to become operational again? today we are doing the physical damage. as you see, we have the full damage at least in the structure of the glass and all of this. so it is a big operation. i am of this. so it is a big operation. lam not of this. so it is a big operation. i am not sure of this. so it is a big operation. lam not sure if of this. so it is a big operation. i am not sure if we have all the materials in the lab and on. we have to import it all from outside. ——

lebanon. it will take a month. you told me before the hospital... no, we arejust of service now. this is not the only hospital... i have heard other hospitals, but this is the largest, biggest. we were a big central, this is one of the over “— big central, this is one of the over —— not only private centre is taking a lot of covid—19 patients. we had 19 patients yesterday, but for the time being we will be off. let's return to our earlier story — the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki, which effectively ended world war ii. robert ‘bo' jacobs is a professor at the hiroshima peace institute and joins me now. thanks very much indeed for your time. 0bviously today marks that are very poignant moment in time. you are as

bothered, though, aren't you with what went on after that in terms of that rash of nuclear tests in all corners of the world ? tests in all corners of the world? absolutely. on the one hand, you have two nuclear attacks carried out against a civilian population here in nagasaki, but rather than learn from the horror of what happened here in hiroshima, we proceeded, all the nuclear weapon states in the world, to go ahead and test 2000 nuclear weapons, expose a lot more people to radiation and put the entire population of the world at risk from these weapons being used in a nuclear war. so there was not that much of a lesson learned is that should have been. except the message i suppose was that the powers of the time wanted to protect their own people, their own situation perhaps without realising quite the extent of damage they were prepared to commit in the process for the one thing that strikes me is we

talk about and we heard earlier from some people the importance of the memory, the lest we forget culture again. that is very difficult to hold onto as the years go by. it is, absolutely, because once we get past lived memory, it is hard to hold onto the same depth and quality and emotional impact of what happened to people and what happened to people and what they experienced, and there are attempts here to try and find methods to continue to do this, for example, the legacy survivor programme where people learn the story of specific survivors and then retell it in their name, in the first person after they are gone. but there is a lot of anxiety here that with the loss of the generation, the survivor generation, that this story will fade more and more and more over time. there is a sense of urgency for the task for people in hiroshima and nagasaki. that point of nuclear abolition, that also feels...|j

don't abolition, that also feels...” don't know what the phrases. jaded perhaps as a search? because we have seen, jaded perhaps as a search? because we have seen, even since the cold war, really, a gradual loss of interest in terms of public awareness. that is partly because the public is being preoccupied with additional crises, for example, global heating and global warming. there is a lot of things, another pandemic, a lot of things to take up, the anxieties and the fears of the future for people. nuclear weapons remain present, though, and nuclear weapons can still retain the potential to destroy vast areas of the earth and to contaminate vast areas of the earth with radiation. as the nuclear weapon states move towards modernising, towards investing more money in new weapons and new delivery systems, this is a danger that your face systems, this is a danger that yourface and systems, this is a danger that your face and we ignore to our own peril and the peril of our descendants. an important message on an important day.

thank you very much indeed. millions of sri lankans have voted in the parliamentary election, in which president gotabaya rajapaksa is seeking a fresh mandate to tighten his party's grip on power. the counting will start on thursday morning and the first results are expected by evening. 0ur correspondent anbarasan ethirajan reports. despite fears over the coronavirus, millions came out to vote in sri lanka's parliamentary elections. face masks were compulsory and the voters were asked to maintain social distancing. there were fears that the pandemic would keep people away from the polling centres, but the election commission said that voter turnout was around 70%. initially, i had the fear of coming with my baby, but after coming here, i realised they supported me, and, indeed,

there was a good service. it's a pandemic, obviously everyone is scared, but it's something that we have to go through in life. ithink... this is my first time voting, so it's an experience and i'm glad that i did it, so i think it's going to be a close call again, yeah. president gota baya rajapa ksa, seen here, was among the first to vote. his sri lanka people's front appears to be the voters' favourite. he wants to install his brother mohinder as prime minister. the government's successful handling of the coronavirus would favour his party. sajith premadasa, seen here, is one of the main challengers. but the opposition is also divided, splitting anti—rajapa ksa votes. mr rajapa ksa's party wants a two—thirds majority so that it can change the constitution. it's thought the powers of the president could be increased, reversing the work of the previous government. but rights campaigners worry that the space for dissent is already shrinking,

and an overwhelming majority could lead to greater authoritarianism. the votes are being counted this thursday and a clear trend is expected to emerge by late evening. anbarasan ethirajan, bbc news. here is a familiar figure to many of you. the rock star neil young is suing donald trump's re—election campaign for repeatedly using his music without his permission. he says the trump campaign breached copyright laws by playing his songs at political rallies and events. a warning — there is flash photography in this report from the bbc‘s tim allman. rockin in the free world playing it was the moment donald trump launched his campaign for the white house, and his introduction to presidential politics was accompanied by the music of neil young. how you doin'? but the veteran rocker has long called for the trump team to stop using his work, a request he says has been wilfully ignored. now, he's taking his

grievance to court. in a statement, his lawyers said: but the plaintiff, mr young: he's not the only rock star wanting to distance himself from the trump campaign. 0nly last month, sir eltonjohn joined the rolling stones and aerosmith in signing an open letter calling on politicians to obtain permission before playing their music at political events. and the family of tom petty issued a cease and desist letter when his song i won't back down was used in a rally at tulsa. we love you, man! neil young, who is now officially a us citizen, is seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each time one of his songs was played. rockin' in the free world playing forthe trump campaign, it may not be

such a free world after all. tim allman, bbc news. we have the business news coming up injust a moment. so stay with us. 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 south—east 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 south—east 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 news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world: the wall street paradox: gloom in the economy, euphoria on the markets — yet another record close for the nasdaq as the bulls continue to dominate. we take a look at why. plus, the biggest slump since records began. the philippines becomes the latest once fast—growing asian economy to fall into recession. we start on wall street, where markets have been racing ahead again,

despite concerns the us economy is stalling amid a surge in new coronavirus cases. the tech—dominated nasdaq has hit a new record high for the third day in a row — with the dow and s&p also moving higher. investors are hopeful congress will soon pass a new economic stimulus package for the us but markets have been increasingly de—coupled from the problems in the broader economy. the bbc‘s monica miller has been trying to find out why. 2020, saying it has been a turbulent year is an understatement. the past six months feels like six decades as the coronavirus has flipped our lives upside down! the pandemic has caused massive unemployment and companies to go out of business all around the world. governments and banks have bleak projections for the us economy, comparing

it to the great depression and yet... the markets have been red hot! why are investors so happy when the economy is so dreary! reason number one, look to the future. investors do not look in the rearview mirror. they are looking ahead six, 12 even 18 months down the line, optimistic that the situation will improve in the future. according to markets, they do not reflect everyday life, what we are expecting, what they reflect his future expectations of everyday life. cheap money is hard to resist. to keep the economy going, central banks around the world are offering to lend money with near zero interest rates, a lesson learned after 2008 and 2009. all of this money has increased money supply and washing around the world at 0% and it needs to find a home somewhere. fear of

missing out. the only thing that investors hate more than losing money is missing out on making money! that is reason number three. that is why they are investing in pharmaceutical firms racing to find a vaccine or companies we used tools as we work from home, helping to keep sanity as a stay—at—home. thing the markets move like this, thing record amounts of retail money enter the stock markets as well. human beings like the idea of making money for nothing, that is our nature. how long will it last? in the real world, people are scrapping to get by. there is a slim marginfor scrapping to get by. there is a slim margin for error especially as cases for the virus slide again and as for whether or when the markets will be in sync with the economy, a lot will depend on how severe the pandemic is in the coming months and whether investors think the expectations for the us economy will match up to reality. those are the questions.

david madden is chief market analyst at cmc here in london. ijust wonder, if i just wonder, if they are a booking to the future, investors, we looking at 12—18 months ahead, the message and the assumption must be that they know this mls, the money is still going to carry on washing in? -- the stimulus. absolutely, even though there is your negotiations going on between republicans and democrats in the us in relation to the next round of the coronavirus stimulus packages, there is a belief that a deal will be struck in the end. we have seen some will be struck in the end. we have seen some progress will be struck in the end. we have seen some progress being made in the past 20 for hours. republicans have made some concessions in relation to evictions of government backed housing. democrats are basically lowered their funding request for the postal service. so these small incremental changes in tactics on both

sides ultimately adds fuel to the fire and the belief that some sort of agreement will be reached. is more to do with how much more money is going to be injected in the us economy rather than how the economy is right now. you can look at that ina right now. you can look at that in a steely eyed way. you would hope investors would. what about the fear of missing out? the sense that you have to be on the bandwagon? fear of missing out, foam oh as a young people refer to it, that is an exceptional driver and he just has firmly settled on how much markets have been playing out -- fomo. markets have been playing out —— fom0. particularly on the more tech focused nasdaq100, yet again another record high in these stocks and if you think about it, the likes of amazon, apple, netflix, facebook, they are already having an increasingly large influence in day—to—day life before the pandemic and now it seems that traditional businesses have been set back

by the pandemic and conversely, the trajectory towards e—commerce has been sped up. the view is, as he said, the more you can punch higher in these tech stocks and pharmaceutical stocks, the more some people will get an itchy feeling that they wish they got in yesterday and they may get in today and tomorrow. and here is and anonymously, gold is over $2000 an ounce at the same time the markets are doing well. usually you expect one or the other, what is going on there? you do indeed expect one or the other. essentially, the wea kness or the other. essentially, the weakness in the us dollar has really made gold that much cheaper. the cheaper the dollar becomes, the readily cheaper gold becomes to purchase. also all that aggressive stimulus from the central bank has put exceptional pressure on government bond yields and some are now negative so effectively

you are paying money away for the privilege to lend to someone. the privilege to lend to someone. and with that we have seen some investors someone. and with that we have seen some investors potentially ordinarily investing in bonds go you know what? if i'm getting no yield or negative yield, i need to have an asset such as gold, hence the demand for gold. that is a perfect explanation! thank you very much indeed! let's go to asia now and another of the region's once fast—growing economies has confirmed it is in recession. the philippines has seen its gdp slump much more than expected in the three months tojune, pushing it into recession for the first time in almost three decades. shara njit leyl is following this for us in singapore. it isa it is a domino effect it feels? absolutely, david. the latest economic growth figures for the entire region are showing what sort of impact the coronavirus and the lockdowns have had on

the economy is in some of the numbers are so i watering the bad, we have not seen these kind of numbers for decades. for example, the philippines, gdp numbers, just out this morning, showing a plunged into its first recession in more than 30 years! growth essentially shrinking by more than 16% essentially shrinking by more than16% in essentially shrinking by more than 16% in the april, june quarter, despite having undergone one of the world ‘s longest and strictest lockdowns, it was far steeper than what economists predicted and it comes after its southeast asian neighbour indonesia, the biggest economy in the region and most populous, reported its worst growth numbers yesterday since the height of the asian financial crisis! remember that within the late 1990s! indonesia ‘s strength 5.3%, with than expected, prompting the government to hasten the place of stimulus spending in the months to come. yet, more dire news, down under, we heard

from the prime minister of australia scott morrison who spoke a while ago predicting that unemployment numbers in australia may peak at at around 10%. strict restrictions have now been the state of victoria, essentially closing most retail, cut construction, manufacturing, and he has estimated that the victorian knockdown could wipe 12 billion dollars from the economy this quarter, going to show the length and breadth of the contagion and how it's been felt in places that were previously thriving. and a long road to recovery as well. thank you indeed. to japan now, where toyota is set to be the latest of the car giants to reveal the mayhem caused by the pandemic on its business. it has just warned full—year profit will be down by almost two—thirds — 64%. honda saw sales plunge 40% in the three months tojune, and it has warned annual profits will be the lowest in 10 years.

we await those results for toyota. joining me now is seijiro takeshita from the university of shizuoka, where he is professor at the school of management and information. good to see you. i wonder, what are their result is likely to look like? we know what the other big giants going through, is toyota any different? quite different, in fact ten minutes ago they came out with the estimate, a revised estimate from 100 billion to 730 billion so from 100 billion to 730 billion so they're doing relatively well thanks to the fact that the china market has come back strongly and at one point in february china sells for toyota we re february china sells for toyota were down 70% but if you look at aggregate number it is actually turn to a plus! the us is also showing signs of bodying out on toyota as well, at one point down 60% in april but it has mitigated down to

less tha n but it has mitigated down to less than 20% and in addition they are doing the usual stuff, which is continuous cost cuts and visualisation of parts, procurement, all these kinds of things with the nga methodology and they are doing much much better than their peer rival, nissan, where south have declined by fourjune and in the case of toyota, 21%. that is extraordinary because toyota is extraordinary because toyota is the epitome of a global brand and the coronavirus is a global infection and to have withstood the buffeting is exceptional? of course, as reported earlier it is a decline, again, nevertheless it was 20% which is a very very, well, devastating number for them but again if you make comparative analysis with their peers, obviously the continuous effo rts peers, obviously the continuous efforts of cost—cutting along with good revival through their

wide range of products and their approach, they are doing a very good job. do you think, obviously we are into august now and you are reflecting on july figures. are we going to see a july figures. are we going to seea similar july figures. are we going to see a similar sort of story beginning to emerge now for the big motor manufacturers? i appreciate toyota may fill the head of the game at the moment but things move quickly?” would like to think so but u nfortu nately i would like to think so but unfortunately i think considering the second wave of coronavirus, possibly a third, and also the fact that in our supply chain, it has to be rejuvenated, especially the trade war going on between us and china, i don't think the path ahead of us is as easy as we would like to think and for that reason i would think it would be optimistic to think that the revival changed will continuously go on upwards towards the end of the year. thank you very much indeed. as those figures from toyota come m, those figures from toyota come in, we will bring them to you.

let's go to lebanon now. even before tuesday's explosion in beirut that killed at least 135, injured thousands, and left the port and surrounding areas in ruins and even before the coronavirus pandemic, the country was facing the worst financial crisis in its history. its official exchange rate has been pegged at 1507.5 lebanese pounds to the us dollar since 1997. but years of financial mismanagement and soaring debt has seen the unofficial exchange rate plunge to 8000 to the dollar and the country struggle to import enough food and basic necessities. so, how can the country avoid economic collapse? joining me now is andrew freeman, middle east analyst at the consultancy control risks. big question to put to you, andrew, it does look as if economic collapse is, sadly, the route ahead ? economic collapse is, sadly, the route ahead? low u nfortu nately the route ahead? low

unfortunately as you say if you look at what has been happening for the last couple of years, well before the protest, lebanon has been doing badly financially. we were at 150% debt to gdp and we are well above that from now on the path back would be difficult so this explosion could not have come ata explosion could not have come at a worse time. is accident will be devastating for the economy, for infrastructure development, the service division and all those things that had been touted as part of the senior development programmes and imf funds will be difficult to achieve now. programmes and imf funds will be difficult to achieve nowm seems sadder now that there is an international willingness to help. i think there is a $10 billion fund available through the imf and yet it seems the government and political factions and the bank of lebanon cannot get their act together? that is the trend generally in lebanon, it is disagreements and disputes between parties and one of the sad things in all of this is

that while the imf loan and others have been put on the back burner, the international community is willing to put money in lebanon and 80s are really coming in but where will we will struggle is how it is dispersed and he was in charge of dispersing the aid? money traditionally flows out of eight and development runs into the pockets of politicians and corruption and negligence and mismanagement will continue and as we saw on tuesday, that explosion was one of the critical factors of this. it is hitting the essence of beirut, and as a port city, it needs to import a lot, and the figures we are getting, something like 80% of food is imported into lebanon in any case, you can see, certainly week after week, month after month to come, the situation will be dire for millions of people. it will be. it will be extremely challenging. i think we need to have a full investigation at the port and

how much damage has occurred, needs to be undertaken. it is extensive damage. but if we look at what else is is available, the airport is running to a lesser extent, there is tripoli port, the ta kes 25% there is tripoli port, the takes 25% of the capacity. land borders, very challenging for particular reason so it will be very difficult for this aid to come in. you are with control risks, you look at the region asa risks, you look at the region as a whole, the stability of that region. presumably, there are plenty of countries who will no that are destabilised lebanon is a very bad thing. do you think there is still that regard, that additional support can and will come in? i think so. can and will come in? i think so. we have seen offers of support coming from places you wouldn't expect, israel being the obvious one. iran even came out and blamed lebanon and the lebanese government for the accident on tuesday. there is a general consensus that lebanon

needs help and lebanon should get help, and as i said earlier, how that gets in to the country and who manages that and how that gets in will be the two key factors in determining how quickly u nsuccessful determining how quickly unsuccessful lebanon is for rebuilding. absolutely. andrew, thank you very much indeed. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: european football is back. manchester united and inter milan prepare for their respective games in the europa league quarterfinals. the government has set out what it's calling the most radical reform of the planning system in england in decades. ministers say it takes far too long for new homes to be approved, and the rules need to be streamlined to speed this up. the housing secretary, robertjenrick, says the overhaul will protect green spaces while making it easier to build on brownfield sites. but labour says it's a "developers' charter",

and the royal institute of british architects has warned of a danger of a new generation of "slum housing". the 2—day inquest into the death of the television presenter caroline flack is due to conclude later today amid a backdrop of accusations her prosecution was a "show trial" based on her celebrity status. the former love island host's family and close friends told the inquest yesterday how the ao—year—old feared losing her cherished career, and her mental health spiralled after she was arrested on suspicion of assaulting her boyfriend following a disturbance at her home in december 2019. you are watching bbc news. the latest headlines: there's mounting anger in lebanon at the failure of politicians to prevent tuesday's devastating blast in which at least a hundred—and—thirty—five

people were killed and up to 5,000 injured. hiroshima marks the exact moment an atomic bomb was dropped on the japanese city 75 years ago. we will have a focus for the moment on the game ‘s business. —— games. on wednesday, sony told us its playstation division had its best ever quarter. and shortly we will hear from rival nintendo — investors are expecting a jump in profits of over 150% in the three months tojune. critical lockdown time, wasn't it? so has the whole games industry been a winner during the pandemic lockdowns? and will that success continue? joining me now is ed thomas, research director at global data. the figures argued, but perhaps not that surprising given the circumstances everyone was living in and working in. will they last? that is the important question. first of all, the performance has been

massively boosted by the pandemic and people being forced to remain in our homes and the number of alternative forms of entertainment being limited, so that has really been a big boost for the gaming industry as a whole. whether they will last is difficult to tell at this stage. i think it all depends on how long the pandemic itself lasts for. because we have seen pandemic itself lasts for. because we have seen booms in the initial weeks of quarantine that have been slowed down as things start to return to normal. but if there is a second wave or if the situation continues to worsen, then i think this strong. for the gaming industry will continue. and i presume with more people are buying consoles, they are going to carry on wanting games use on them. that's true. i think one of the interesting aspects of what has been happening during the pandemic

has been as well as the console gaming industry doing well and nintendo's which is a good example of that, there is also the online gaming industry, which is still able to deliver new products to people, and has been doing well outside of the consoles a lot of things. but, yes, one of the challenges of going to be in the longer term, keeping up the development of the big headline marquee titles and delivering them on time and being there to support new releases, for example, later on in the year we are expecting new consoles from both sony and microsoft, and it will be interesting to see if the launch the titles are available, that they need to really enter the market strongly. yes, we will see how that goes. thank you very much indeed. thank you. let's cross now to

the bbc sports centre. hello. i'm marc edwards. and here is your thursday sport briefing. 2a hours on from clinching first—seed in the western conference, the la lakers lost 105—86 against 0klahoma thunder as nba continues in its disney world bio bubble. no such problems for philadelphia as joel embiid scored 30 points to beat a spirited washington wizards side 107—98. but it wasn't all smiles for the 76ers. they lost 2—time all—star ben simmons to a knee injury in the third quarter. european football is back, and serie a side inter milan have booked their place in the quarterfinals of the europa league. goals from romelu lukaku and christian eriksen helped them beat spanish side getafe 2—0 in their one—match round of 16 winner—takes—all tie. joining inter in the last eight in what was more of a formality are manchester united. they progressed with ease thanks to their 5—0 first leg cushion over austrian side lask. it finished 2—1 on the night. no need to get your calculators out. 7—1 on aggregate.

jesse lingard and anthony martial on the score sheet for 0le gunnar solskjaer‘s side. they'll play copenhagen next while shaktar donetsk are also through. antonio felix da costa won the first formula e race since february in berlin. he led from start to finish and has extended his lead at the top of the driver's championship to 41 points with five races across the next eight days to come. andre lotterer and sam bird took second and third. the first golf major since the start of the covid—19 gets under way in just a few hours' time in san francisco. tiger woods and rory mcilroy will tee off together in an all—star group completed by the new world number one justin thomas. in line with most other sports, there will be no crowds, so woods says it'll be a little calmer out on the course. it is different than most of the times when you go to the tv, people yelling or trying to

touch you —— tee. that part is different. as far as energy, i am keen and playing, that is the same. i am pretty intense when i play in pretty into what iam doing. world number 22 anett kontaveit is among those in action in italy as the palmero 0pen continues on thursday. it's a tournament that still features veteran sara errani. the 33—year—old, a runner—up at roland garros in 2012, came from a set down to beat kristyna pliskova and reach the quarterfinals. rallies like this helping the italian wear down her opponent who's ranked 100 places above errani in the world. errani coming through 3—6, 6—4, 6—3. some results coming in. toyota posted a 98% plunge in its first quarter, operating profit. still a small profit there, $131 million for that three months april to june there, $131 million for that three months april tojune and is still predicting reasonable

profits over the course of the year, although the weakest in nine years. we will see that pans out as well. thanks for being here on news. —— bbc news. 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 south—east 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 south—east of england, mid—30s, 35, maybe 36 degrees

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.

good morning. welcome to breakfast with charlie stayt and naga munchetty. 0ur headlines today: anger and arrests in beirut as an investigation begins into the cause of the devastating blast which rocked the city, killing at least 135 people. a mother's agony — pc harper's mum tells us about her campaign for tougher sentences for those who kill police officers in the line of duty. forecasting the shape of our recovery — how bad are things looking for ourjobs,