this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm lucy grey. clashes on the streets of beirut, tear gas is fired on protesters as a policeman dies in the violence. earlier 10,000 protesters gathered in martyrs' square calling for the "fall of the regime". as the united states reaches five million coronavirus infections, president trump signs executive orders extending economic relief to americans after congress fails to agree his stimulus package. the island nation of mauritius declares a "state of environmental emergency" as more oilfrom a grounded ship washes onto its pristine shores. air crash investigators recover the flight data recorder of a plane that came down in southern india, killing at least 18 people.

hello and welcome to bbc news. thousands of people have taken to the streets of the lebanese capital beirut, in anger at the country's leaders, after this week's devastating explosion in the port area of the city. groups of protestors stormed a number of official buildings — and briefly occupied the foreign ministry before being driven out by the army. earlier, riot police used tear gas to try to disperse the crowds and one police officer was killed in the clashes. 0ur middle east correspondent, quentin sommerville, spent the day among protesters. leben i'm's rage against its elite is interrupting. the city and aftermath of the explosion is filled with tear gas and angen is filled with tear gas and anger. the protests have barely started, and already, tear gas coming in here from all sides.

there is tear gas coming in here from all sides. "we are rebels. free men," said this man. "they fired directly at us." the protesters breached a number of government buildings. there were reports of rubber bullets being fired, too. these were not just ha rd—core protesters. they came to condemn the government they plan for the distraction of their city in their lives, this is the fate lebanon's politicians deserve, they said. can you tell me in english what is written? we are going to get our justice. it started with a rolled call of the dead, among the names, 43 syrians and the wife of the dutch ambassador to lebanon. they carried a loft the pictures of those killed. we are fed up, we are fed up. this is our country. this is oui’ this is our country. this is our country and we want to defend our country. our president is useless come our

prime minister is useless. everyone in my government is useless. they killed us. we have literally reached rock bottom. i don't want to talk about it, because in going to cry. these weren't just hard—core cry. these weren't just ha rd—core protesters, lebanese of all walks of life joined the demonstration to, among them, this woman. earlier, with her husband, george, she showed us their destroyed apartment. their business was in the port two. everyone is to blame where we are today, for losing our money, for losing ourjobs, for losing our businesses, for losing our businesses, for losing our businesses, for losing our homes, for losing her lublin some our friends, everything! they are all to be blamed. they are all to be hanged! in the morning of the the prime minister acknowledged the prime minister acknowledged the anger, but took little responsibility. absolutely, they have the right to be angry and furious, not just they have the right to be angry and furious, notjust because of this, this is absolutely diabolical what happened, however, they are also furious even before that, for me, the

case of unbelievable —— for three decades of unbelievable corruption. the violence reached a crescendo, and then it was over. the police and army regained control. this is army regained control. this is a country ruled by forests and backroom deals. they have been calling for revolution here for almost a year, but lebanon's elite has staying power, the force of the disaster which engulfed the city may not be enough to bring change here. quentin sommerville, bbc news, beirut. carine torbey is monitoring the protests for us in beirut and says the protestors aren't just angry at the current government. it's very unlikely that what the prime minister suggested would really be seen as a acceptable proposal for the masses. i mean, what people are angry about is notjust, you know, the specific government, it is what they call the "regime".

the regime has to do with the group of secretary and and long—time entrenched political leaders — who are considered as the main rulers of this country. and what people are asking is a complete change of mentality with the way this country is run, because they perceive that, basically, what happened on tuesday was the epitome of decades of corruption, mismanagement and total negligence. so, basically, what the prime minister tried to do is to calm the masses, to tell them that, "i will be "leaving them are probably in a couple of months, "if the other political leaders can agree on some "sort of transition, or of an alternative." he has called for early elections, but this proposal itself is not hundred percent guaranteed to bring change. many fear that elections at this time might bring in the same political parties, therefore, they don't consider that this is

the real way for change. also, it remains to be seen how cooperative the other political groups will be with the prime minister's proposal. donald trump has signed executive orders aimed at providing aid to us workers suffering the economic impact of the coronavirus. the move comes after talks with democrats on a rescue package broke down on friday. mr trump wants to defer payroll taxes, provide protection against eviction, extend zero interest loans for students and give unemployed americans higher benefits. we've taken action to provide an additional...or an extra $400 per week in expanded benefits. $400, 0k? so that's generous, but we want to take care of our people. again, it wasn't their fault, it was china's fault. states will be asked to cover 25% of the cost using existing funding, such as the tens and billions

of dollars available to them through the coronavirus relief fund. under this plan, states will be able to offer greater benefits if they so choose and the federal government will cover 75% of the cost. so what do people make of the announcement? here's the bbc‘s north america correspondent david willis. he accused the democrats of basically wanting to bailout faulty democratic led states with this nearly $3.5 trillion bailout package that they have been promoting, and the president, of course, following the breakdown of talks over that, is now going it alone with these executive orders, and he signed four of them. one of which will extend the moratorium on evictions here, another will grant to the continuation of additional unemployment

benefits, and they will be deterring student loan re payments and payroll taxes for those who are still in work. now, the big thorny issue with all this has been an extension of unemployment, additional unemployment payments. those have been $600 a week, they have prevented a lot of americans from falling into poverty. they are being reduced. the president announced that they would be going down to $400 a week, a quarter of that money coming from individual states. now, the democrats have been very clear that they wanted to keep that some at $600 a week, other republicans to keep that sum at $600 a week, other republicans had argued for it to be reduced, lucy. it's interesting though, isn't it? because he is quite limited, isn't he, in terms of his spending power, because it is congress, isn't it, that controls the federal purse strings? very much so. the president has conceded that there will be legal

challenges to all of this which could draw the whole thing out for many more weeks. meanwhile, congress is in recess and many americans are affected by the coronavirus are effectively in limbo. it's not a good situation, but president trump looking to be seen to be taking action, well, of course, the presidential election is less than three months away here. this is quite controversial and there will be criticism of how he intends to afford to pay those additional unemployment benefit checks. how do you think this will go down with the public, because there are so many americans like there are in many countries around the world suffering greatly at the moment, and they come of the economic impact of the virus. absolutely. i mean, unemployment here is at its highest in decades. businesses are going under and about 160,000 americans have died already from the coronavirus, close to

5 million have contracted it. so, it's a very real problem here with indications that the virus is spreading from the southern sun belt states up now to the midwest, but president trump looking to make the point today in that very political speech that he has got this under control and he is determined to take firm actions in the absence of any agreement on the part of congress. let s get some of the day s other news... activists in brazil have released a hundred—thousand balloons in tribute to the people who have died of the coronavirus. brazilians are protesting against the way the president jair bolsonaro has handled the crisis — he has consistently played down the impact of the virus. two health ministers have resigned in protest. brazil now has the second highest death toll in the world, after the united states. israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has angrily condemned a wave of street

protests by his opponents, saying they were aiming to trample on democracy. for weeks, thousands of israelis have been staging protests calling for mr netanyahu's resignation. they're angry at his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and they say he shouldn't be in office while also being on trial for corruption. wearing a face mask will be compulsory in busy parts of paris from monday. it comes as coronavirus infections continue to rise in and around the french capital. scientific advisers warned on tuesday that france could lose control of the virus "at any time". the island nation of mauritius has declared a "state of environmental emergency" — after a ship grounded offshore began leaking oil into the ocean. the pristine waters around the island are being contaminated after a japanese—owned vessel ran aground on a coral reef two weeks ago. the ship has begun leaking tonnes of fuel into the surrounding water. sunil dowarkasing, a former member of the mauritian

government — who has also worked for greenpeace — says he is extremely concerned. here he is speaking earlier to the bbc. the leakage hasn't stopped at all since yesterday. we see, continuously, oil floating over one of the most beautiful and the biggest lagoon of the island. the oil spill has reached the shores. villages around have been hugely impacted. it's like all the shore of a very close village is completely submerged with oil. so this is a devastating situation that actually we are facing here. there's a sense of revolt in that sense that for 12 days the ship was wrecked on the reefs and there was no prompt action from government to eventually unload all the fuel in its tank so as to minimise the risk of an oil spill. this was the call i made

on day one of this wreck. there has not been any proper risk assessment done on the vessel to know the probability of the oil spill existing so this is where we are today and we are facing one of the major ecological crises that the island is facing. happy khambule of greenpeace africa says there will be dire consequences for mauritius' economy, food security and health. we expect this to be really, really bad based on the fact that there is still oil leaking after a number of days, and the fact that it started to reach the shoreline actually indicates that the impact is not only going to be on the marine life but also on the coastal community that is also experiencing this inundation of oil on the seashore. and the prime minister has said that they just simply don't have the skills and the expertise to re—float stranded ships.

how long do you expect this to go on for? well, we expect this to go on for a number of days until the area is secure in terms of the oil stopping. see, when the oil stops, it will be an easier manner in order to get in and actually deal with this ship and cordoning off the area with places the oil can flow to. again, there has been issues around the weather and logistically. we move much of the oil, as you can see from the containment measures, so there is a number of issues that need to be dealt with. notjust the oil but also the ship itself and the extent to which the oil has started to move outward. so, because the ship, the company that owns the ship say they have been taking these prevention measures and they've got this oil boom deployed around the vessel, are you saying that these measures aren't working? well, from the looks of things

and from what we understand is that these things are not working because the oil has reached the shoreline. if it has reached the shoreline it means the containment measures were in adequate. some more work needs to be done, and we have seen as well numerous accounts of not only individuals but also conversations that we are having of people saying that they are also helping out in order to make sure that whatever containment measure is there, subsequently those that have been breached, can at least hold off the lesser or the more of the oil that is coming through. obviously this is a very popular tourist destination, isn't it? and the longer this goes on for, presumably, the bigger the impact is, notjust on the wildlife but on the people and the economy to. yes, indeed. mauritius it is also quite hard—hit by the coronavirus, covid—i9 in this case, that's having an impact on the economy, we have to understand that key measures for this impact as well

as the fact that there is going to be any tourism is not going to be the ability there isn't going to be any tourism. to also fish and be able to make a livelihood for the foreseeable future, because this is a really, really bad situation. you are watching bbc news, the headlines. mass protests take place in beirut over tuesday's explosion. tear gas is fired on protesters and a police officer dies in the vioelnce. donald trump signs executive orders aimed at extending benefits to millions of americans affected by the coronavirus. the black box and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered from an indian passenger aircraft that crashed in kerala, killing more than 18 people, including both pilots. 190 people were on board when the plane skidded off the runway and broke in two on friday night. jill mcgivering reports.

the wreckage shows the force of the impact. the plane skidded off the edge of this table top runway and broke in two. that was after early attempts to land in heavy monsoon rains and high winds. the flight recorder just recovered may help investigators understand the final moment. locals who rushed to help describe the screaming, children cowering under seats and dazed survivors covered in blood. some of those rushed to hospital are critical with traumatic head and spine injuries. those who could paid tribute to the pilots the captain from a formerfighter pilot, had decades of experience. his young copilot got married last year and his wife is expecting their first child this month. translation: the pilot tried to land us safely in the rainy weather, it was cloudy, and around 7:30pm we crash landed. it was difficult to land. he tried a lot. the passengers are mostly local people stranded in the gulf by the coronavirus and finally trying to come home. jill mcgivering, bbc news.

the people of belarus are going to the polls in a few hours' time to vote in the presidential election. the incumbent, alexander lukashenko — a man nicknamed by his critics as "europe's last dictator" — is running for a sixth consecutive term . election observers have described previous polls as undemocratic, and far from free orfair. some of mr lukashenko s opponents have been jailed or forced to leave belarus. and although his re—election is virtually guaranteed, the opposition are pinning their hopes on one woman.

she says she's not a politician. but svetla na tikhanovskava is running in the most animated electoral battle belarus has ever seen. cheering. she's the wife of a popular youtube blogger who was jailed and blocked from registering as a candidate. she has joined forces with two other women. one of them is the wife of a would—be candidate forced to flee the country. another ran a campaign for another presidential hopeful — prevented from registering and imprisoned. thousands turned up to rallies for this new united opposition all over the country. hundreds were detained by the police. if she wins, tikhanovskava says she will call a new election that is genuinely free and fair. alexander lu kashenko, bela rus's first and only president,

has been in office for over a quarter of a century. he is not as popular as he once was — the brutal crackdown on protesters angered many, and he has been accused of not taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously enough. this presidential campaign surprised many, showing that a lot of people are fed up and want change. there are no opinion polls in belarus to gauge exactly how much support the current president and the opposition candidate have. but one thing is certain — even if president lukashenko wins, he will struggle to continue as before. 0lga ivshina, bbc news. the uk home office has formally requested help from the royal navy, to deal with migrants

attempting to cross the english channel from france. the ministry of defence says it's ‘working hard' to find a way to assist. a record number of unaccompanied migrant children arrived in the uk in the past two days, as gavin lee reports from northern france. at first light this morning, on a beach close to calais, we watch from a distance as migrants, men and women, children holding hands at the back, take to the water with a rubber boat and a motor. this is a glimpse of what's happening almost every day in the early hours, here in the town of gravelines. these men, who appear to be in charge of the crossing attempt, leave the migrants and start to exit the beach. but the boat's already in trouble. 0verloaded, 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 game 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. i didn't see how many children there were, but i heard them crying. 0n 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, including regularly closing makeshift camps that pop up in calais, to prevent migrants from settling here in bigger numbers. 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. the edinburgh festival, which attracts more than four million people to the city every summer, should have begun on saturday, but the coronavirus pandemic means there'lljust be a few limited performances online. 0ur scotland correspondent, lorna gordon, looks now at how the cancellation of one of the high points of the arts calendar, is affecting the city. this is the reality of the edinburgh festivals this year. no audience. masks, social distancing. a world—class cultural event moved online. i think it's an enormous loss. i think that for a lot of people who earn their living at this time of year, it's just a practical loss,

which is quite profound. there's an enormous loss in terms ofjust the sense ofjoy. the festivals bring notjust culture but also cash and tourists to the city. but not this year. old town streets, usually packed with visitors and performers are much, are much, much quieter. do you like it like this? i do like it like this but i miss the people as well. edinburgh resident and bestselling author, val mcdermid, is one of many feeling the loss of august's cultural extravaganza. in many ways, i think the real catastrophe of covid is still to come. the economic catastrophe in my business and the arts, and what's going to happen with theatres? what's going to happen with concert halls? what's going to happen with gigs? all around the city, the small businesses, everything from bakeries, butcher shops, all sorts of shops that are just not going to open again. the lack of tourists is having an impact, whether that's festival enthusiasts or wizarding fans, it has left the city centre tills much quieter than before. this time of year, we would have customers potentially queueing down the street

to just come in and have a browse around and of course, at the moment, whilst we have reopened, the concern is that footfall is extremely low. some here see this as a chance to reimagine the city's relationship with its visitors, which they argue have in recent years, reached unsustainable levels. what makes edinburgh unique is the fact that people live here. and they work in the city centre. we do not want to become like a venice or genoa, but we are heading down that route. the festivals have a big impact on this small city, support thousands of jobs, and make it a global, cultural destination. those here who rely on tourists for their livelihoods will be hoping they return soon. lorna gordon, bbc news, edinburgh. don't forget there's plenty more in all of our stories that we cover on our website. you can reach me on twitter —

i'm @ lucyegrey thanks for watching. hello there. pressure is on to bring in the harvest. there is heavy rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for next week. at the moment, it's all about how high the temperatures are going to get. it wasn't quite as hot on saturday as it was on friday. but still, the temperature in hampshire reached 34 degrees. the highest temperatures were in sussex and at frittenden in kent, and it's these sort of areas that we'll see the focus of the heat again during sunday. we start with some very high temperatures in the morning in the southeast corner of england, perhaps 19—20 degrees. again, it's cooler as you had further north, maybe 4—5 in the northwest of scotland. in between, we have got this zone of cloud that's pushed in off the north sea. and there may be 1—2 light showers in that as well. any shower threatening the far southeast should move away. gradually, the sunshine develops more widely, the cloud gets burned back onto some of those

north seacoasts. we have got that onshore breeze keeping it a little bit cooler as well. with that sort of wind direction, it will be cooler across eastern scotland than western scotland. and in northern ireland, temperatures will reach 20 degrees. the heat,though, is really focused on the south midlands, southeast wales, the west country, southeast england and east anglia. 33—34, possibly even 35 degrees to the west of london. into next week, the heat will slowly subside, and it is only very slowly, but we have got this increasing risk of some torrential rain and thunderstorms. that could start to develop on sunday night into monday morning, and the focus looks like it's more of these western areas with those storms pushing their way northwards. now, large parts of the country will still be dry and quite sunny. more sunshine, perhaps, around some of those north seacoasts. but, again, the highest temperatures are towards the southeast of the uk. now, what's happening is that higher pressure is less in charge of our weather. pressure is falling from the south, we've got a weather front trying to push

in from the west as well. so the air is essentially destabilising, which is why we have got this increased risk of some very heavy and thundery rain. the devil is in the detail, and there is still a lot of uncertainty. but it looks like on tuesday, most of those downpours are moving northwards across northern england and scotland. but later in the day, we could see some developing further south across parts of england. still some strong sunshine and, again, the focus of those higher temperatures will be across eastern and southeastern parts of england.