this is bbc news. the headlines at 4: the ministry of defence says it's had a formal request to help the home office as it steps up efforts to reduce the number of migrants crossing the english channel. a big anti—government protest is underway in beirut as the death toll from tuesday's massive explosion rises to 158. clashes have already broken out with lebanese police firing tear gas to stop demonstrators getting to the parliament building. the use of face masks in england and scotland is expanded with coverings now compulsory at cinemas, museums and place of worship. 60 new cases of coronavirus have been detected in scotland during the last 2a hours with more than half found in the aberdeen area, where stricter lockdown

measures remain in place. and ahead of mps return from their summer recess, we look at how westminster dealt with the major stories beyond the pandemic, including the budget, huawei and the black lives matter movement. that's in half hour here on bbc news. good afternoon. the ministry of defence has been asked by the government to see what it can do to support the uk border force to intercept migrants crossing the english channel. the government also wants the authorities in france to do more. france siad today that ten times as many migrants were intercepted last month compared with july last year. the crossings have been

continuing today, as gavin lee reports from calais. the beach at gravelines by day — a tourist hotspot half—an—hour's drive from calais. this was the scene at first light this morning. more than 20 migrants with a rubber boat and motor which they carried from the dunes to the shore. children at the back, holding hands, before they set off. these men, who appear to be in charge of the crossing attempt, start to leave the beach. but the boat is in trouble already. overloaded, they come back, leaving behind a woman and her child. they try again, finally getting out to sea. we've been on this beach for almost an hour. we've watched the migrants struggling with the boats and finally getting out to sea and people heading back towards the dunes, possibly smugglers. and in this vast beach, one of the areas we're told that migrants set off from each day,

there is no sign of surveillance. we called the police half an hour ago. still, we've seen nothing. nearby, richard, a wild bird hunter shooting on the beach, witnessed the attempt. he says he's seen migrants three times this week. translation: they leave from this beach all the time, every day. and if not here, they leave from higher up the beach orfrom dunkirk. it's unimaginable. on the other side of the channel, at least six migrant boats have been brought into dover by the uk border force already today. french authorities claim they're doing everything they can, regularly closing camps that pop up in calais, and they say they've intercepted ten times the number of boats at sea in the past month compared to the same period last year. but from the lack of surveillance we've witnessed on these shores today, there are questions about whether enough is being done to stop these dangerous and now daily crossings. gavin lee, bbc news, gravelines, northern france. earlier, i spoke to the former

first sea lord, admiral lord west, and asked him whether he would support military intervention in the english channel. i have no difficulty with using the royal navy to assist in surveying and securing the safety of the maritime waters around the united kingdom, whether it be the exclusive economic zone of 300,000 square miles or our coastline of 11,000 miles or our coastline of 11,000 miles because there are a disparate number of agencies or responsible for this, so i have no difficulties in working with them, but this is not a panacea to stop the problem in calais of illegals crossing into the channel because we will be able to monitor and pick up more and we will be sure that none of them are getting to the shore unspotted which we are not sure of at the moment and i have no doubt whatsoever that some have died having been hit by a large container ships at night and no one

ever knows about it, so it'll help assist that but it will not stop them because once they get on a ship, unless we have an agreement with the french in the same way as the border force, then we have to ta ke the border force, then we have to take them into the uk and the same issues than all arise. the only way to stop the flow as if we get an agreement with the french whereby when it ships in the channel pick them up, they are allowed to be taken straight back to ports like calais for the french to then go through all the procedures to check whether they are bona fides asylum seekers and where they come from. admiral lord west went on to be security minister in gordon brown's government. robert mcneil, from the migration observatory at oxford university, joins me now.

we have heard so many political promises about migration and controlling the number of people arriving illegally into the uk. what you make the suggestion of involving navy assets and policing the channel? there are vast numbers of people who try to manage flows but the nature of these things is that if you close one door another tends to open somewhere else. to some extent the arrival of people on boats as a facet of the efforts that have been made to stop people coming in on the backs of lorries and prior to that on to the eurostar and things like that which was happening in the late 90s and early 2000s. while the boat borne arrivals is a novel think that the uk the actual flows of irregular migration across the english channel is not new. essentially we are in a situation

where that is one of the only way into the uk by clandestinely means so into the uk by clandestinely means so from that perspective it is one of the ways that will continue it seems likely to happen irrespective of the measure that are put in place to try and control it. so again if the navy makes it possible for people to use but the chances are there will be more effort made to go back to travelling the backs of lorries or using other methods. it's presumably impossible to calculate the number of people who get in who we never know about per of those we know about how have numbers changed? there has been a substantial increase in the number of people arriving by boat, but while it is something the spectacle, very visible thing that is easy to film on show, the reality is that the flows of migration into the uk by clandestinely means are probably more likely to still be driven by coming on the backs of lorries and

other less visible modes of transport, so it's impossible to really know. there is no data in the uk about the size of the regular migrant population so we can't even tell whether or not... and the other thing that is very important to note here is that the irregular migration population of the uk is not really made up of a majority of people who arrived by clandestinely into the first place, it's generally seen as something which is driven by people arriving on a tourist visa and overstaying that these are. so the majority of cases, while this may be a significant minority, are people who are here lawfully and then stopped being here lawfully because they don't leave again when they we re they don't leave again when they were supposed to? that the consensus. it's to know for certain

and there is some argument that an increasing number of people arriving by clandestinely means may change the dynamics of that but broadly speaking it's expected that the majority and probably the vast majority and probably the vast majority of people in the uk without legal leave to be here are people who have overstayed a visa. robert, thank you very much forjoining us this afternoon. thousands of lebanese people, furious with their political leaders, are taking to the streets in beirut again four days after a huge explosion at the port devastated parts of the city. some protesters have clashed with police near the parliament building with tear gas being fired at the crowds. it's about a kilometre away from the site where the huge blast happened.

the lebanese health ministry says at least 158 people died in the explosion and more than 20 are still missing. the number of people injured now exceeds 6,000. food supplies have been disrupted and several hospitals are out of action — the united nations is warning a humanitarian crisis is looming. from beirut, tom bateman reports. lebanon is a place where hope is in short supply. a new day in the recovery effort at zone one as they now call the trail of devastation left at the blast‘s epicentre. scores of people are still missing, caught in a shock wave powerful enough to pulverise buildings and overturn ships. more pictures have been emerging of the immediate aftermath. beirut is a city struggling to cope.

like yusuf, who chokes back tears. he was blown across the room in the explosion. many share his despair in a city whose new epidemic is homelessness. translation: i saw everything was destroyed, nothing was like it was. the curtains were destroyed, television on the floor, chairs destroyed, everything destroyed. but there is resilience. people are clearing up for themselves as trust in lebanon's leaders plumbs new depths. this is what you see over and over again, the brooms of beirut. people believe that, if their government won't act, then they will. in streets wracked by ruin, a big anti—government demonstration is taking place this afternoon. people here say they are not angry — they are livid. tom bateman, bbc news, beirut.

joining me is hesham shawish. digital hournalist with bbc monitoring, he's been following events in beirut. this is your home country so you know very much the scene that you are describing to us. let's talk about the protests first of all. what scale have we seen and how has it compared with what we have been seen throughout the year before this explosion? this afternoon we saw a considerable number of protesters gathering in central beirut. it's still not the same number of protesters that we saw last october at the beginning of the protest movement but it is still a large numberand movement but it is still a large number and these are protesters that we re number and these are protesters that were earlier involved in the search and rescue operations and now have moved to central beirut. so some of these people have barely left the streets of the last few days. they have been out of the streets, helping out with a clear out, and

many are angry with the government for the response after the explosions and are holding the government responsible for the explosion. when you talk about the protest movement being long standard, because it has a lot to do with the collapse of the economy, would you say the mood has changed between the protests as they began and how they are now in the light of what happened on tuesday? —— long standard —— long—standing. what happened on tuesday? —— long standard -- long-standing. we saw all members of society participating and over time the protest movement did stagnate, especially because it was a rudderless protest movement, there was this resistance to have a central leadership, the most vocal activists in the movement refused to leave the movement. it is a bit like in france when we had those protests we re in france when we had those protests were nobody would say, i will be the front face of this organisation. very similar. the protest stagnated.

support waned as well. we have had this confused messaging being put out as well with a long list of demands, the list gets longer, and protesters setting the bar extremely high. what has been the purporting of these protests this week in local lebanese media which presumably has been dominated by both the explosion and clearup been dominated by both the explosion and clear up operation? the media landscape in lebanon is extremely lively. there is a lot of media freedom with the domestic media scene and most of the rhetoric has been very anti—government and critical of the government response. have government minister sought to make themselves accountable to the audience? that is part of the problem, they have not been on the streets or helped with the clear up operation, they have not been amongst the people so when president macron came to beirut on friday, there was a huge outpouring of

support and the crowds gathered. people were comparing the response. . . people were comparing the response... so why are we seeing this foreign president and not our own? exactly. that made people even angrier. you talk to friends and family back home and you must have been talking to them a lot since the explosion and hearing their stories. how would you characterise the mood among the people you have spoken to, leaving aside what we are seeing? protests only represent a part of it because not everyone will either have the capacity or desire to go in protest of the streets. it fluctuates from day to day. you see emotions ranging from frustration to hopelessness to anger to fury. younger generation trying to

find any way to leave the country to reach their potential outside. there isa reach their potential outside. there is a very young and talented generation of people, of graduates, that cannot find jobs and finding any avenue to leave. presumably that will only get harder to find his opportunities, given not just will only get harder to find his opportunities, given notjust the devastation that the estate of the economy as well. the economy has beenin economy as well. the economy has been in tatters since last year at least. and the extremely high rate of inflation, the lira has lost 80% of inflation, the lira has lost 80% of its value, so it is added a lot more pressure to people's pockets and soaring unemployment and poverty have added to people's woes and people are trying to find a way to leave, to get out, especially the younger generation. thank you very

much. there have been 60 new cases of coronavirus detected in scotland in the last 2a hours. more than half of those were in the nhs grampian area, which includes aberdeen, where stricter lockdown measures are in place. our correspondent, alexandra mackenzie, joins us from glasgow. no surprise that they have been these extra cases because there is a lwa ys these extra cases because there is always a lack between some infections and then when they turn into measurable symptoms. is there a sense yet from the nhs in grampian about how effective they think reinstalling the lockdown has been? aberdeen did go back into lockdown earlier this week and that was because of this spike in cases that we saw and we were told it was a cluster of cases connected to several bars within the city. the number has gone up to just over 100, it was 101 cases yesterday, and today as you said we have got those

16 new confirmed cases in the last 24 16 new confirmed cases in the last 2a hours and 39 of those are in nhs grampian. —— 60. we have not been told how many of these cases are connected to this cluster, we will have to wait until later today or tomorrow before we find out how many are connected. in terms of the lockdown working as well, as you say, there will be a lag until we know, but people within aberdeen have gone back to those restrictions because of the cluster, they are not allowed to go into other people's houses and have been advised not to travel out beyond five miles. aberdeen is a big city, it's an internationally popular place both for business people involved in the oil industry and for visitors as well. how hard has to hit the city? the oil industry was suffering a nyway the oil industry was suffering anyway in terms ofjob losses before it was hit with coronavirus so house

prices have been hit, job losses, so it's a very difficult place and when the oil industry has hit it hits the whole city, not just the oil industry has hit it hits the whole city, notjust in aberdeen out towards aberdeenshire as well, but it's just aberdeen city that is in lockdown at the moment. and another development this afternoon. the eight people self isolating from aberdeen football club, two people from the club have been confirmed as having had coronavirus, they had tested tested positive, another six people from aberdeen football club we re people from aberdeen football club were out with them last saturday night. they were not meant to be out at bars in aberdeen. it was not hard to see from nicola sturgeon's face yesterday how angry she was about this. she said she was furious about this. she said she was furious about this. those eight players have issued an apology this afternoon, they have said first and foremost we

would like to apologise to every aberdeen football club plan, to the manager, to everyone at the club, the football authorities and to the first minister, she was exceptionally angry about this yesterday. they have also apologised to health care workers who they say have been working tirelessly round—the—clock to help people and to help people get up and running again because the scottish premiership was up and running just since last saturday and aberdeen had lost to rangers last saturday and they were told they knew they were not meant to be out in aberdeen after that game last saturday. so the first minister yesterday said she was absolutely furious about this and she also saw other pictures of what had been happening across aberdeen last saturday, there were pictures of lots of people outside pubs without socially distancing, she said after she saw those

pictures she said she could have wept. thank you very much. the government says 46,566 people have died in hospitals, care homes in the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus. that was asa positive for coronavirus. that was as a five o'clock on friday, by 55 on the previous day, separate figures published by the uk show they have been 56,000 deaths registered in the uk where the person filling out the death certificate and registering the death has mentioned covid—19 on the death has mentioned covid—19 on the death certificate. it may not be the cause of death, it may be a contributing factor, so that might explain the difference in these figures. the government also said in the period up to nine o'clock on saturday they had been a further 758

cases. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's gavin. england's first test with pakistan at old trafford is delicately poised on day four — with the home side fighting back after losing quick wickets. pakistan had looked to be on course for victory with four wickets for just 31 runs. joe root was one of those to fall — out for 42. ben stokes added just nine before ollie pope was caught here forjust 7 — leaving england 117 for five. butjos buttler and chris woakes are fighting back — moving england on to 168—5, needing 109 runs to win. valtteri bottas will start tomorrow's formula one 70th anniversary grand prix from pole. he just edged out mercedes team mate lewis hamilton. no surprise there really, but there was quite a big one at silverstone

as nick parrott reports. at the end of last year nico lost his seat in formula 1. he only came back last weekend to replace sergio who tested positive for coronavirus. the german dropped everything to head to silverstone but did not stop the british grand prix because of problems with his car. with paris still ill he has a second chance. at first in qualifying it looked like his lie had not improved. silverstone can get windy but welcome berg was almost blown off course. having qualified 13th last week and few would have expected an improvement but racing point of mercedes engines and were even punished for copying parts of the car while mercedes are a class apart without reporters taking pole ahead of lewis hamilton the fight was on the best of the rest and holcombe burke won that contest given the chance of first podium finish in

what will be his 178 race. bournemouth have appointed eddie howe's former assistant jason tindall as their new manager following relegation from the premier league. tindall has signed a three year contract and replaces howe who left bournemouth at the end of the season by mutual consent following their demotion to the championship. so while bournemouth have found a new manager, juventus are looking for a new head coach after sacking the former chelsea boss maurizio sarri afterjust one season in charge. sarri guided juventus to a ninth straight serie a title but they were knocked out of the champions league by lyon last night. as we heard not so long ago, eight aberdeen players who broke lockdown rules by going to a bar have apologised for a "huge error of judgement" after two tested positive for coronavirus. the other six players are also self isolating after being in close contact with the players who tested positive, causing their scheduled match against stjohnstone this afternoon to be postponed. well, there are three other scottish premiership matches taking place at the moment.

(wipe gfx)and it's hibs who've made the biggest impression. three first half goals putting them 3—0 at livingston, livingston have just pulled one back. if they win, they go top for now, with rangers and celtic in action tomorrow. (wipe gfx)and it's hibs who've made the biggest impression. three first half goals putting them 3—0 at livingston, livingston have just pulled one back. if they win, they go top for now, with rangers and celtic in action tomorrow. goalless between hamilton and ross county. and dundee united have gone 1—0 up at motherwell. tommy fleetwood and justin rose are in the mix at top of the leaderboard at the us pga championship heading into round three later. fleetwood was in particularly good form in san francisco, shooting the joint—lowest score of round two. he's on six under par, alongside justin rose — the british pair are a couple of shots off the leader. this is the first major championship to be held since the start of the pandemic. neil robertson has a 5—3 lead over barry hawkins at the world snooker championship. their second round match was delayed though after the 2010 champion had a mishap with a cup of coffee. robertson then had to go

and change his trousers! it was delayed further when hawkins sat in the australian's chair, which had to be sanitised before play could get under way. live action is continuing a sheffield this afternoon with a heavy weight‘s second round match between ronnie o'sullivan. it's currently seven all and you can watch that match on the bbc sport website and the red button. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more in sportsday at 6.30, including a look ahead to chelsea's champions league tie against bayern munich tonight. a spike of coronavirus cases in preston has led to tougher restrictions coming into force from midnight.

friends and families are now banned from meeting in each other‘s homes or gardens and from mixing in pubs and restaurants. an extension on rules about wearing face masks also takes effect today — people in england and scotland will now have to wear them in museums and cinemas, as katy austin reports. the big screen is back. ten of cinema chain vue's 90 sites reopened yesterday, including this one in london's shepherd's bush after more than four months closed. so, are you a little bit excited? too excited to say a little bit. and what are you going to see? i'm going to see dream build. things are different, including one—way systems and enhanced cleaning. booking online and getting your ticket on a mobile phone app are encouraged and there is no pick‘n'mix here. now in england and scotland cinemas, face coverings are mandatory, although vue says it won't police them, recognising some people have valid exemptions.

you do need to wear a face covering around most parts of the cinema but, while you're eating or drinking, munching your popcorn as you watch the film, you don't need to be wearing it. and seating is allocated in a way that there is a safe distance between different household groups. that does limit how many people can be at a showing. we think approximately we will be running at around 50% capacity. it depends on the layout of the screen and of the cinema itself and the nature of the group sizes that come in. vue's phased restart reflects what's happening across the country. last weekend, 272 uk cinema sites were open, around a third of the total. it's thought lockdown cost the industry at least £500 million, and, so far, box office takings have been low, both because of the lower capacity and because blockbusters have been postponed. there were nine new releases this week compared to 17 in the same week last year. that might mean a bumper crop in 2021, but one expert says not

all cinemas will survive until then. it's a catch—22 — reopen and play to limited occupancy levels, which could be as low as 20%, and limited film content coming through, especially in the uk, which is relying heavily on hollywood content as well as a mix of uk content — that's very difficult. 0r staying closed is equally challenging — no revenue, staff on furlough. the cinema industry is confident people want to return. the big questions are whether they will be keen to see the old favourites currently on offer and, of course, how confident they are. katy austin, bbc news. hundreds of nhs nurses gathered in central london today for a demonstration about their pay. socially distanced protests took place after health care workers were excluded from pay increases that apply to more than a million other public sector workers. ministers say they are working

with trade unions to offer the ‘best possible' pay package for all health workers. now it's time for a look at the weather with alina jenkins. hello, another warm if not hot day for england and wales, a bit cool across northern ireland, scotland on the north of england. sunshine around for most of the rest of the day, but there will be more cloud feeding in to eastern and north—eastern coasts of england, parts of cornwall as well hanging on to more cloud. highest temperatures across central and southern england, up to 35 or 34 celsius across south—east england, the high teens or low 20s further north. this area of low cloud in the north sea starts to push its way westwards, some misty and murky conditions, perhaps some showers late in the night, another very muggy night for many, away from scotland and northern ireland, temperatures across southern england may not drop much below 20 celsius. for many of us tomorrow, we may start with a lot of cloud, misty and murky conditions,

a few showers cropping up through parts of the midlands and northern england.