this is bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: an air india plane with nearly 200 people on board skids off the runway at an airport in kerala. 18 die and dozens more are injured. the united nations is warning of a humanitarian disaster in lebanon after the beirut explosion. many are still missing. hundreds of thousands are homeless. there is a massive clear up going on. they come from all over the country and the devastation here is enormous. strike action could be on the cards over british airways‘ plans to cut cabin crew and their pay. and combatting coronavirus latin american style. how venezuela's military is enforcing its lockdown.

hello and welcome to bbc news. at least 18 people have died and more than 120 are in hospital after a deadly air india accident in the southern indian city of calicut. the boeing 737 passenger plane came from dubai and was repatriating passengers who had been stranded overseas due to the coronavirus pandemic. at least 190 people were on board. alanna petroff has the latest. a mangled plane split in two. it landed intact but then overshot and fell into a valley at the end of the runway, splitting apart. this airport is known as a difficult spot to land in rainy weather. it's not unusualfor land in rainy weather. it's not unusual for pilots to fail in

their first unusual for pilots to fail in theirfirst approach unusual for pilots to fail in their first approach and circle around to try again. in this case, in monsoon season, the landing was fatal. both pilots died. investigators will be poring over the wreckage to understand how this could have happened. we will have a group that looks at flight recorder data. they will have a group that examines the structure of the aircraft to see why some people lived and why some people lived and why some people died stop they will have and operations group which is and operations group which is an important group that will look into how the pilots were trained, are much rest did they get. immediately after the crash, locals rushed in to recover sui’vivoi’s crash, locals rushed in to recover survivors and take them to nearby hospitals. volunteers did what they could to help. but injuries were severe. some didn't make it. translation: i found a child and a box on the plane. as soon as i've picked her up, her head had great interest. a small child about one and a half

yea rs child about one and a half years old. they took the child in the car. she was in an ambulance and maybe she would have survived. but it was a bumpy ride. they took the child to the hospital but she died. the last major plane crash in india was back in 2010 in bangalore. and the story is similar. the air india flight also came from dubai, overshot the runway, and crashed off a cliff. it burst into flames and most passengers were killed. this flight most passengers were killed. this flight was bringing indians home after they were stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic. but now, after months of waiting, many families will be mourning their loved ones instead of rejoicing at their return. alanna petroff, bbc news. jagriti chandra is a journalist at the hindu newspaper, she's following the story from delhi. 0vernight there have been confirmation about the casualty. we know that there are 16 people who have lost their lives, this figure includes the two pilots.

if you have seen the visuals of the accident and the aftermath of the accident it is evident that the damage was extensive. the fuselage of the aircraft split into two and the front portion of the aircraft, the cockpit et cetera, jammed into the boundary wall and visuals show that the nose of the aircraft has borne the brunt of the accident and that is why the two pilots succumbed to injuries. i can give you the latest. we know that three aircraft from new delhi and mumbai have left with air india staff as well as the top brass. these flights are also carrying the officials of the regulatory body of india's aviation as well as officials of the aircraft accident

investigation bureau. we know that the family members of the two pilots are also airborne from mumbai and will be reaching the airport. the team also includes aircraft and flight safety teams and talking about how this accident took place, it was raining last evening and there were tail winds. there had been warnings in the past and reports as far back as 2011 by safety experts who spoke about the inadequate safety area alongside the runway as well as at the end of the runway. the end of the runway also has a very steep slope and that is why, you know, it is very dangerous for pilots and there have been warnings

that the airlines must come up with proper procedures for operations in such circumstances. so a detailed investigation hopefully will follow and it will be an unbiased and fair investigation and they will hopefully be stock—taking from this. this is a tabletop runway and we have seen around ten years ago a similar accident at a different airport which also had a tabletop runway and had the advice of the safety committee been heeded perhaps yesterday's tragedy would have been avoidable. the united nations is warning of a humanitarian disaster in lebanon, with widespread medicine and food shortages, after this week's explosion in the capital, beirut. 154 people are now known to have died in the blast

and thousands more were injured. at least 300,000 people have been made homeless. 0ur middle east correspondent, quentin sommerville has this report. singing the lebanese are used to taking matters into their own hands. singing their national anthem, they came from all over the country to clear up their capital. you've come all the way here to beirut? why? yes, for volunteering. to support all the people who are damaged and they are homeless right now. and meet the ladies of the tripoli cleaning squad, from just up the coast from beirut. they told me, "we remain united no matter how much "they try to separate us. "muslim, sunni, shia, druze, christian — "we're all one band." it seems like every second person in beirut is carrying either a shovel or a broom. there's a massive clear—up going on. they've come from all over the country.

the devastation here is enormous, and these homes aren't going to be habitable for a very long time. in some neighbourhoods, the devastation is almost total. no house has been spared. more than 300,000 people are now homeless. and the crisis is far from over. here, they're rushing to evacuate another home. there is a house up there. it's almost getting fallen. can you see the roof? yeah, so we're helping them to get out their stuff from the house before the building fall down. french firefighters are helping with the search. they're welcome, but there's frustration that the lebanese authorities aren't doing enough. there's blood everywhere... yeah. alan says his family are now homeless. he took us inside their apartment. his father was badly injured. his blood is everywhere.

his dad will make it, but 12 of their neighbours died on this one street corner alone. in lebanon, nobody come check. three days, this big catastrophe in lebanon, nobody can come and tell me, "this room, you cannot sit in this room." here, it's... i don't know. nobody care. and they're still finding survivors. mobile phone footage. in the last few hours, this girl was pulled from the rubble. inside the port, at ground zero, it's a scene of annihilation, though russian rescue teams are still looking for survivors, and french rescue workers too. one said, "we always hope of still finding people alive. "if there's still structures standing, "then there's still a chance." lebanon's president says a missile may have detonated the chemicals, which flattened this area, but he offered no supporting evidence.

he's rejected calls for an international investigation. but in any case, leaving such a large store of chemicals here in the heart of the city was deadly folly. quentin sommerville, bbc news, beirut. president trump has confirmed us humanitarian support to lebanon in the aftermath of the beirut explosion. three us aircraft are on their way bringing supplies and medics. mrtrump also said he would take part in a video conference on sunday with france's president emmanuel macron and other international leaders and european institutions. he said he discussed the devastation with mr macron in the lebanese capital. president trump says he will take executive action to protect americans from the economic ravages of coronavirus. talks on new relief measures between his administration and the democrats collapsed on friday, and mr trump said he would extend tax relief and unemployment benefit, though he would not commit to keeping this at the same level as the previous package.

0ur north america correspondent david willisjoins me now. david, talk us through it. well, president trump stopped short of declaring that negotiations with congressional democrats over what will be a fifth economic stimulus plan we re fifth economic stimulus plan were over, but he said he was preparing to sign executive orders that would renew the payments, weekly payments to those who have found themselves out of work because of the coronavirus and was also planning measures to renew eviction protections for renters, provide student loan relief, and cut what is called payroll taxes here as an incentive for people to return to work. but by far the most controversial part of these discussions has been those additional payments of $600 a week for people who have found themselves out of work because

of the coronavirus. democrats wa nt of the coronavirus. democrats want those payments maintain at their current level, republicans do not. and, overall, the democrats are calling for an economic stimulus plan that's not shy, a little bit shy of $3.5 trillion. now, republicans say they have approved a lot of economic stimulus plans already and that that sum is far too high. so we have deadlock here. both the house and the senate have adjourned. their members are no longer in washington, dc and that is raising the prospect that this could drag on for some while. all that at a time when unemployment here is at its highest in decades and more than 160,000 americans have died because of the coronavirus. david willis, thank you so much. union leaders are threatening industrial action after accusing british airways of naked greed in forcing some cabin crew out of theirjobs. thousands of uk staff have received emails today telling

them whether they're being made redundant, while most of those choosing to stay with ba will have to sign new contracts on lower pay. the airline says the changes are needed for its survival following the coronavirus pandemic. 0ur transport correspondent tom burridge has been speaking to some of those affected. ba is locked in a bitter battle with some of its staff, who now face a bleak new reality. how this is going to affect my family personally, that's what's keeping me up at night, is to be able to provide for them. and i simply didn't want to end my career at british airways like this. this cabin crew member wanted to hide his face. he fears ba could take action against him, but he wants his story heard. myself and my wife, we both fly. it's going to affect us both. we're going to have to sell our home. even if he keeps hisjob, his overall pay will be halved. they forced me into a corner.

it's been unfair, immoral and opportunistic, and itjust leaves with a really bad taste. he protested with colleagues — who hid their faces with photos of their bosses — earlier this week, their salaries cut or theirjobs gone. we're losing our livelihoods, we're losing our houses, we're losing everything. why? because they're just being greedy, greedy, greedy. we've devoted our lives to british airways, and this is how they treat us. we are going to be on the lowest pay, the lowest terms and conditions if british airways get their way. and i say, "no way, ba." you're an absolute disgrace to treat people like this who have built the airline. so, what exactly does ba plan? two in five of the lowest—paid crew should get a small pay rise, but three in five will have their basic salary cut by 20%. crucially, they'll allowances too, meaning longer—serving members of staff would have their overall income cut by around 50%.

in a statement, ba said it has to... ba needs to reset, it has to develop a new strategy because it's facing huge competition from the very low cost carriers that are emerging from this crisis with better balance sheets and better financial situations. with much of its fleet parked up for months, the airline has lost record sums, but staff argue they helped the company make healthy profits before covid. now, strike action is on the cards. tom burridge, bbc news. this is bbc news. the headlines: at least 18 people have died after an air india plane skids off the runway at an airport in kerala. the un is warning of a humanitan crisis after tuesday's explosion in beirut which killed 154 people.

despite the desperate situation in beirut, stories of heroism and survival are emerging. 0ur correspondent carine torbey has been speaking to a nurse who managed to rescue three newborn babies after the explosion ripped through the city. this is normally a place ofjoy, but tuesday's explosion ripped through the neonatal intensive care unit. three premature babies were in their incubators. in the chaos, pamela, the only nurse on shift who was unhurt, picked them up. a picture that spread across the world. the only thing i could think of was the safety of the babies i had in the unit. the first thing i had to do was to rescue the babies and just carry them and get away with them. i thought that i can never leave them alone here and go away. pamela walked for over 30 minutes before finding safety,

holding them close to keep them warm amidst the havoc. i felt like the babies are very important to me, they were part of me. i had to keep them safe until they reached their destination. people were giving me their jackets so that i could cover the babies and take them back to safety. i felt like i was their mother in this timing. they needed me the most and i needed them most. today, one of those three babies is with her mother again. translation: they gave us hope again. they revive our home again. there aren't many joyful pictures coming out from beirut nowadays, but this one does stand out. carine torbey,

bbc news, beirut. the british home secretary, priti patel, says the rising number of migrants reaching the uk across the english channel in small boats is "unacceptably high". more than 1,000 people arrived last month, while 235 were detained on thursday, a record for a single day. so far this year, more than 300 boats, carrying almost 4,000 people, are known to have attempted the journey. our home editor, mark easton, reports from dover. calm seas are attracting desperate people. in the early hours, our camera spotted this group — among the occupants, several children and a pregnant woman. it's just one dinghy among more than a dozen that yesterday left france seeking a better tomorrow in britain. where are you from? from iraq, we are iraqis, from iraq! iraq? ruthless smugglers convince those in migrant camps that it's now or never, while the waters are benign

and the land borders are open — covid or brexit, they lie, will soon shut off this route to asylum. during the course of the day, we watched dozens of rescued migrants being led up the ramp to the processing centre on the dockside. from here, adult asylum seekers and families are loaded into vans and taken off to home office immigration detention centres. the unaccompanied children, though, become the responsibility of kent social services. in the last day, there have been 23 — the most ever recorded. i don't think there is any council in the country, certainly not even one of the size of kent county council, that could take on board 60, 70, 80 or more young people coming into its care month on month on month. we are in some considerable pressure now as those numbers increase. throughout the day, coastguard and border force vessels have patrolled the kent coast as holiday—makers enjoy the sun on beaches where migrant dinghies recently came ashore. many more migrants sneak into britain in the back of lorries and other vehicles, but the sight of dinghies

breaching the country's borders beneath the iconic white cliffs is always politically potent. the mp for dover says britain should send them all straight back. what we've seen is an absolutely unacceptable level of small boats crossing this year, and we do need the french to stop the boats leaving their shore, we need to make sure boats are taken back to france, and that if people do arrive here, that they are sent back to another country. the home secretary, priti patel, is not the first in that position to be embarrassed by the sight of migrants being smuggled into the uk, even more so as a brexiteer who campaigned for britain to control its borders. it's understood she wants the royal navy to join the border force cutters on patrol. meanwhile, a repatriation flight is due to leave for france and germany in the middle of next week as british and french immigration officials monitor a crisis that has every possibility of becoming a tragedy. today's beautiful weather has, of course, seen thousands of sun—seekers relaxing on the beaches of kent,

while just out to sea, border force vessels are still patrolling, on the lookout for more desperate migrants, risking their lives crossing the busiest sea lane in the world to reach those same beaches. mark easton, bbc news, dover. there were few countries less prepared for covid—19 than venezuela. its economy was already on the verge of collapse, and the healthcare system was in a similar state. the government has struggled to contain the virus, and human rights groups say the authorities are going too far in enforcing a lockdown, as tim allman explains. lined up in rows, sitting in the heat of the daytime sun, these people are being punished. their crime? breaking the rules during a pandemic. there are claims others have been forced to carry out physical exercise and some have even been beaten. translation: this thing the authorities are doing is not right. i leave my house to work and get food for the day and they won't let us work.

it is easy for the soldiers because they have food and how do we poor people do it? accurate figures are hard to come by, but so far the authorities have confirmed around 23,000 cases of covid—19 and more than 200 deaths. curfews have been imposed and there are strict limits on people's movement. the opposition says the response is heavy—handed and, in the end, self—defeating. translation: with the police and judicial handling of the pandemic there will be a higher rate of infection, a lower capacity for care and cases will be complicated. the population will not only then be afraid of virus but also of the police handling of the pandemic. president maduro has praised the military saying they are doing battle with covid—19. his critics say that if this is a jwar he is

going to far to win it. for business owners in the south—west of england, the lockdown has proved costly. the trade body visit cornwall says fewer holidaymakers will mean a loss of £800 million this year, almost half the region's annual tourism turnover. here'sjon kay. cornwall was not designed for social distancing. even on a damp afternoon, the narrow streets of st ives are heaving. a bit crowded! a bit crowded, yeah! hiding in a doorway, holiday—makers ed and margaret. there's that many people coming backwards and forwards, you don't know where to go. does it frighten you? it does frighten me, yeah, because i've got heart problems. so, you know... did you think about staying away? well, if i do that i'd never be able to go on holiday. there are clear warnings and restrictions in place, but some locals want more.

none of them are kind of wearing masks. michelle and stephen live here, but they're not going into town. she lost her retail job during lockdown... we want to get rid of it... ..so knows the importance of tourism to this region. but they feel some visitors are forgetting there's a pandemic. they're packed in like sardines. people are going to be catching the virus. it's going to spread. i personally think, if we carry on the way we are, we're going to have another lockdown. tourism officials say there are actually fewer holiday—makers in cornwall this summer than there were a year ago. but it feels busier because a lot of cornish people have decided to stay at home, so they're here as well. and a lot of attractions have had to shut, which means people are crammed into specific areas. thejudd family have been coming here from kent every summer for half a century. we kept ringing up and saying, "can you get us in,

ca they wanted to visit this year to support the local economy. but they are avoiding the busier areas to stay safe. it's being selective and reasoning things through. you know, we don't need to go to st ives this year. we'll be back at easter anyway, so we'll go to st ives at easter — it'll still be there. a feeling of normality after a period of great uncertainty. for the family that run this holiday park — relief. they're as full as they can be and all the staff are back. our customers have all been very receptive to the measures we've put in place. everyone's been keeping to their own families and maintaining social distancing. and that's been really reassuring to see. it feels like the coronavirus isn't here any more. it feels like normal. it is a delicate balance for a county that, until now, has escaped the worst. jon kay, bbc news, cornwall.

you can reach me on twitter. i'm @jamesbbcnews. please stay with bbc news. hello there. for the second friday in a row, some of us have experienced some extreme heat drifting up from the near continent. in fact, the first friday of august saw temperatures peaking at 36.4 degrees in central london, and the heat was pretty widespread across the midlands, central and southern england, widely seeing those temperatures in excess of 30 degrees. that said, not for all. in parts of north—west wales and the outer hebrides, we saw temperatures only at around 16 or 17 degrees, and here there were some showery outbreaks of rain. so over the next few hours those temperatures will fall into single figures. by contrast in the south—east it's going to be a very uncomfortable night for getting a good night's sleep. we wake up on saturday morning, perhaps low to mid 20s. so that means plenty

of sunshine around, albeit hazy for the weekend. we keep the heat in the south—east for some very warm nights to come. much fresher in the far north—west. that's because we are under this influence of high pressure, but there is a weak weather front slicing across the high. now this is just a band of cloudy, really. maybe the odd spot of light drizzle, but it's the dividing line between the fresher air up into the north—west, and circulating around that high is a north—easterly breeze that will just make it feel a little more comfortable, perhaps, along those exposed east coasts. at the same time, after that warm and sultry start, the temperatures in the south are set to climb once again. so widely we are going to see mid to high 20s, possibly into the mid—30s once again. further north and west, that's where temperatures should be, really, for the time of year. 17 to 22 degrees. that weather front could spark a few showers through the night, but generally speaking it will be a quiet night, and a quiet start to sunday morning once again.

again it's going to be another uncomfortable night down into the south with low 20s to greet us first thing on sunday morning. we could see a few isolated showers here and there across eastern england on sunday, but generally this weekend it's a dry story with some hazy sunshine coming through. again, that north—easterly breeze just peppering the feel of the temperatures, really, across the east coast. highest values on sunday afternoon are 32 degrees. now that heat is set to stay with us, and it could, as we go into next week, trigger off the risk of some sharp and thundery downpours. that's it. have a great weekend.

this is bbc news. the headlines: at least 18 people have died after an air india plane skidded off a runway during heavy rain in kerala. many of the injured have been taken to local hospitals. the aircraft with around 200 people on board broke in two afterfalling down a ravine, but didn't catch fire. the united nations is warning of a humanitarian disaster in lebanon, with widespread medicine and food shortages after this week's explosion in the capital, beirut. 154 people are now known to have died in the blast and thousands more were injured. at least 300,000 people have been made homeless. union leaders are threatening industrial action after accusing british airways of naked greed in forcing some cabin crew out of theirjobs. others will have to sign new contracts on lower pay. the airline says the changes are needed for its survival following the coronavirus pandemic.