this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. amid growing anger at the lebanese government and mass demonstrations over last week's catastophic explosion in beirut, the country's information minister resigns. here in the uk, prime minister boris johnson says it's a "moral duty" and a "national priority" for schools to reopen fully in england next month. i'm very pleased that the prime minister is making schools a priority. i've been arguing for some time that my fear was that children were being left behind in this relaxation of lockdown. 400 taliban prisoners are to be released after a vote

by afghanistan's loya jirga or grand assembly in kabul. japan remembers the victims of nagasaki, 75 years after the atom bomb was dropped on the city. in cricket, england stage a stunnng comeback to snatch victory in the first test. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world, and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. international leaders are holding talks today aimed at raising aid for lebanon following the devastating explosion in beirut five days ago. the video conference is being coordinated by france and the united nations and president trump is expected to join the call.

and ahead of that, the first lebanese government minister has resigned — the information minister manal abdel samad annouced she was quitting citing the failure of the government to carry out reforms. at least 158 people died and 300,000 were left homeless when a huge store of ammonium nitrate exploded in a warehouse in the city's port. 0fficials estimate that it caused up to $15 billion worth of damage and a crater that is 43 meters deep. today's conference of world leaders follows a day of anti—government protests. many demonstrators called for the government's resignation — and even for revolution. 0ur correspondent tom bateman is in the city centre where the protests took place and gave us this update. they are still clearing up here, ben. we have seen a sight that has now become symbolic, really, of the aftermath of the blast — people with their own brooms and shovels.

this morning they have been cleaning up here in martyrs' square after the demonstrations of last night. this was the focal point. we saw demonstrators surge from here down several streets towards the parliament building that security forces had barricaded. most of the protesters were unable to get through and were met with tear gas and rubber bullets. they occupied several ministries as the evening went on, but then things began, after about ten o'clock, at nightfall, to melt away, really. we saw the protesters dissipate at that point. there are more calls for protest today, those calls for resignations and revolution continue. but i think after the heat was taken out of the core of it last night, it doesn't have the momentum, or it doesn't feel like it has the momentum at the moment. but, of course, the anger is to strongly felt and this is such is so strongly felt and this is such a volatile situation, that i think the coming days will be decisive in terms of the direction now that this country takes.

we have this aid conference today. in terms of aid, what exactly does beirut need? we know that there are so many people homeless, so many people injured and so much devastation in the city — what exactly is beirut asking for? well, it needs vast amounts of international aid. it simply can't cope with the scale of this on its own — an infrastructure that was already on its knees well before the blast. the losses have been estimated at somewhere in the region of $15 billion. there is this international aid conference today being hosted online by the french president, emmanuel macron. but the problem is where the money goes. everyone you speak to here says they simply don't want the aid going into the hands of their politicians. they believe that their political leaders are a corrupt elite that doesn't have the interests of the country at heart. that is something that the french president has reflected,

saying he has a determination that the money should go directly to organisations on the ground, directly to the people, but doing that practice of course is extremely challenging. but doing that in practicem of course, is extremely challenging. you can'tjust bypass an entire national government, so it remains to be seen how that will be done. in the meantime, people will have little trust in their political leaders. tom bateman reporting there from beirut. here in the uk prime minister boris johnson says getting all pupils in england back to school in september is now a "national priority". he also insists that schools will take priority over pubs, shops and restaurants in any future coronavirus lockdowns. here's our political correspondent, nick eardley. for many children across the uk, it's been months now since they set foot in a school. the coronavirus lockdown has led to warnings of young people falling behind. in england, an attempt to get pupils back in the classroom before the summer break failed.

but the prime minister has now made a full return next month, a full return next month a key test for his government. he writes today in the mail on sunday... borisjohnson adds... the government has been warned, though, that reopening one part of society might require compromises in others. we have probably reached near the limit or the limits of what we can do in terms of opening up society, so what that means, potentially, is if we wish to do more things in the future, we may have to do less of some other things, and these will be difficult trade—offs, some of which will be decisions of government and some of which are for all of us, as citizens, to do. i also understand mrjohnson has made it clear when schools do reopen, they should only close again

if absolutely necessary. he's told ministers shops, pubs and restaurants would be expected to close before schools if there are local lockdowns in the future. the pm also believes the harm done to education prospects and mental health is far more damaging than the risk posed to young people by the virus. there are still questions being asked about what the return of schools will look like, but the government has made it its national priority in the coming weeks. nick eardley, bbc news. the children's commissioner for england, anne longfield, said schools have been working "flat out" to ensure they can reopen safely. well, i'm very pleased that the prime minister is making schools a priority. i've been arguing for some time that my fear was that children were being left behind in this relaxation of lockdown. they couldn't go to the park, they didn't have youth clubs, many couldn't go to school and many couldn't learn because they didn't

have that home environment or indeed the tech to do so. my argument was that children needed to be made a priority. of course the economy is very, very important, but children's education is too and that will have an impact on the economy. so i'm very pleased that this has been stated very clearly and now this needs to be followed through to september to make it a reality. the children's commissioner and longfield —— anne longfield. earlier i spoke to geoff barton, the general secretary of the association of school and college leaders. he said everyone agrees it's a priority to open schools. i think what the article, essentially, with the slightly petula nt essentially, with the slightly petulant owner telling us is the thing is, one that the prime minister and that all primary children are going to back into school and at the very next day, the government on‘s guidance made that impossible because of the conditions, it said. it is not a

good look, secondly, very government that encourages people to go to pubs and measurements, incentivising them to do that when children are sitting at home. and thirdly, by blaming the unions for all of this. we, the same trade unions have worked with the welsh government where every child has been able to go back into skill before the summer holiday because we had the moral imperative to it. there's a lot of talk from the government behind the scenes about this trade—off, if it comes to that, if it is necessary that the government would rather shut down pubs and restaurants and schools and schools would have the priority. it that good? do you welcome that? schools would have the priority. it that good? do you welcome that7m seems to me a very bizarre analogy all of that. i was a head teacher for 15 years, running a school is very different from running a pub, suspect partly because you have a response ability, in my case for 1500 children and young people, you cannot say out the door and say, sorry, cannot say out the door and say, sorry, we are cannot say out the door and say, sorry, we are full, you cannot come in. the logistics are complex and schools and our members have been working to get her skills ready for

the autumn, but even yesterday you had the schools minister here saying that my money was going to go into school transport. what does that mean was deputy head of a school that had 22 buses arriving every day. those 22 buses would not be picking up children in a particular year groups, they would be picking up year groups, they would be picking up children of different year groups in different villages. again, it feels as if in the government as i was on the back foot, putting is any position of trying to then make some kind of sense out of their guidance. school leaders will do that, but it isa school leaders will do that, but it is a little bit rich, i think, for us is a little bit rich, i think, for us to play minister saying this is a priority because of it should have been a party from the beginning —— the prime minister saying. been a party from the beginning —— the prime minister sayingli been a party from the beginning —— the prime minister saying. i suppose they are looking ahead and the science advice is seeing only a certain amount of social interaction as possible because of the baddest rise again and schools will have the power to post up actually that is welcome? —— the virus arises again. it is not what happens in the skill thatis it is not what happens in the skill that is at the issue, it is the community transmission, the transport. it is those children who

seconded age were going to newsagent, going to public transport, what is the implication for them quite the schools minister yesterday appeared to be saying that when they are sitting on the school bus, children have to wear face masks. when they get into skill, they should not be wearing face masks. what we need, is not rhetoric, absolute clarity —— they get into school. if it is the case that schools have to close and in particular areas, if it is that, let's work through the details of that's appearance and feel reassured that's appearance and feel reassured that the right people are taking the right decisions. jeff about an hour, general secretary of the association of school and college leaders —— geoff barton. a grand council of elders — or loyajirga — in afghanistan has approved the release of 400 taliban prisoners, hoping the move will bring progress in peace talks. the council includes both afg hanistan‘s elected leaders, ashraf ghani and abdullah abdullah, and it agreed to the release after

meeting for a third day in kabul. the government has already complied with taliban demands to release several thousand other prisoners but the remaining 400, described by the government as "serious criminals", had become a sticking point. i've been speaking to our south asia editor, jill mcgivering, about the significance of this decision. it seems very significant. there is a real sense of sudden movement again and hopes are coming up again ofa again and hopes are coming up again of a peace process after quite a long time of stalemate. as you say, the government has already released nearly 5000 taliban prisoners, but these are 400 really proved a sticking point and it did not seem as if they could find a way forward. there are people accused of things like murder and kidnapping, involved in drug trafficking. and basically, the government are trying to come up with ways around it. they offered a substitute, for example anti—taliban have rejected that and held firm and said, unless you release these 400, we cannot see progress. today they went to the grand council and the said, the government should make this decision, we do not think, and

they have gone ahead and said yes, with some conditions. there is a sense of movement and possibly some form of inter—afg han sense of movement and possibly some form of inter—afghan talks, in a matter of days, they are suggesting. so essentially an obstacle to those peace talks has been removed. what are the chances, do you think, of a successful round of peace negotiations and how close are we to a breakthrough? certain are closer than we were yesterday. the fact that the grand assembly has come behind this will be seen as very significant by a lot of people watching this in afghanistan. we can't assembly also came up with if your conditions that will be carefully worked and appreciated by a lot of afghans. they were saying that they wanted a permanent ceasefire to be in place between both parties before those talks take place. that does not get very long to negotiate that. we have had short temper ceasefires of the days in the past, one over eid, for example.

that would be sure people are things you have any positive direction. they also talked human rights and they want the rights of women, religious groups, ethnic minorities to form part of those discussions. again, a key message there. our south asia editor. the government has formally asked the royal navy to support border force patrols in the english channel after record numbers of migrants tried to illegally enter the uk from france this week. the ministry of defence says it's "working hard" to find a way to assist. more than 500 people, including children, have arrived in uk waters in the past few days — many of them on overloaded inflatable dinghies. the coronavirus death toll in brazil has reached 100,000 — on the same day that the country registered a total of three million cases. it's the worst—hit country after the united states, and there's no sign of the virus slowing down. gail maclellan reports. grief. as south america's largest

country passes 100,000 deaths due to coronavirus. infections have reached the three million mark. experts say the official figures are most likely an undercount and they estimate the total number could be up to six times higher due to insufficient testing. translation: this dramatic situation is notjust a consequence of the seriousness of the illness, but also from the complete disorganisation of federal institutions for the adequate confrontation of the disease. anger has focused on the president, jair bolsonaro, who has played down the virus from the start, despite falling victim to it himself. he called it the "little flu" and flouted all medical advice for prevention of the virus.

earlier this week, mr bolsonaro said he was sorry for all the death but suggested everyone carry on with their life. a message that some took to heart, flocking to clubs and bars and ignoring face coverings and social distancing. at the urging of the president, the country is focusing on reopening and people are returning to work. this, despite the fact that the pandemic is not yet near its peak. 0n rio's copacabana beach, activists marked the moment. red balloons to remember the 100,000, and the numbers still climb. gail maclellan, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news: amid growing anger at the lebanese government and mass demonstrations over last week's catastophic explosion in beirut, the country's information minister resigns. here in the uk, prime minister boris johnson says it's a "moral duty" and a "national priority" for schools to reopen fully in england next month. 400 taliban prisoners are to be

released after a vote by afghanistan's loya jirga or grand assembly in kabul. the number of companies in the uk planning mass redundancies injune was five times higher than during the same period last year, according to figures obtained by the bbc under a freedom of information request. airbus, royal mail and hsbc were among nearly 1800 firms which announced job cuts injune. here s oui’ cusiness correspondent katy austin. among the businesses which announced redundancy plans in june were airbus, centrica and the restaurant group, the owner of frankie & benny's. there are fears of furtherjob losses when the furlough scheme ends in october, and firms planning to make 20 or more staff redundant have to notify the government. data obtained by the bbc through a freedom of information request shows a steep rise in the number of positions being considered for redundancy between march and june this year. injune, the government was notified of plans to cut over 139,000 jobs in england,

wales and scotland, although information from 79 firms wasn't available when the numbers were compiled. injune last year, the number was 24,000 planned job cuts and far fewer employers planned them. there are a number of industries that have been directly affected by the crisis where demand won't be returning, and they are now starting to lay people off. that is particularly the case in hospitality and in transport. but then i think this is also showing those industries that are having to restructure now, because underlying changes are being accelerated, and particularly in retail, the move to online shopping, the move away from high street shopping is driving quite significant restructuring in retailers. so, some of those jobs won't come back. the redundancy process takes time, which helps to explain why official redundancy figures gathered by the office for national statistics don't yet show a significant rise. however, employers often end up making fewer redundancies than the original number they notify.

in response to the bbc‘s findings, the department for work and pensions said the government's plan forjobs would give business the confidence to recruit and retain workers, and that new, subsidised jobs for young people would be created through the kick—start scheme. katy austin, bbc news. belarusians are voting in presidential elections that have billy serious challenge to the man who has a run the country for more than a quarter of a century. alexander lu kashenko is running for the sixth time — he's been in powerfor 26 years. several of his rivals were put in prison — orfled into exile — earlier this summer. but a political novice — svetla na tikhanovskaya — stepped into the race in their place and has drawn big crowds to rallies across the country, calling for change. 0ur reporter abdujalil abdurasulov sent us this dispatch from minsk.

iamat i am at the polling station in the capital in minsk and this is how voters are being created here, by music and this lady who is giving out sweets to people who come to cast their ballots. let's go inside and check it out in there. it is not very crowded, as you can see, but this is hardly surprising as more than 40% of voters have already cast their ballots during the early voting period which started on august the 4th. this is probably the toughest challenge the incumbent alexander lu kashenko has toughest challenge the incumbent alexander lukashenko has faced since he came to power in 1994. we have been hearing a lot of reports of people being arrested and detained. the three main contenders were denied registration orjailed and mr lukashenko's main opponent, svetlana tikhanovskaya, has faced a number of challenges during the campaign

period. she was unable to hold a campaign rally dash in rallies because authorities claimed there was a belly venues where booked by other people or for other events —— rally venues. more than 2000 people have been detained since the start of the election campaign in may. people were detained for a very simple reasons. some people were participating in a cycling rally, others were driving and honking their car horns in support of what they said was honest elections. this crackdown is only fuelling anger amongst the people here. at least eleven people have died and 20 have been injured after a fire in southern india. the blaze took hold at a hotel that was being used as a covid care facility due to hospital bed shortages. an inquiry has been ordered into the cause of the fire, which came as india recorded more than 64,000 new cases of the coronavirus,

another new record for a single day. it is 75 years since the us dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of hiroshima and nagasaki injapan, leading to the end of the second world war. a bell rang out to commemorate the moment the second bomb struck 75 years ago. prime minister shinzo abe and the mayor of nagasaki spoke at the anniversary event. it's estimated that 74,000 people died in nagasaki, on 9th august 1945, in addition to the 170,000 when the first atom bomb was dropped on hiroshima three days before. the bombs led to japan's surrender in world war two but the radiation from the bombs caused the deaths of thousands in the months and years that followed. those who survived are called

hibakusha in japanese. terumi tanaka is one of them — he was a 13—year—old school pupil when the bomb was dropped in his hometown, and recalls the moment of the explosion. translation: all of a sudden, i heard a big sound. i didn't know what the sound was. but as soon as i thought i heard the big sound, my surroundings turn bright white. my surroundings turned bright white. people say it was a flash, but to me, everything turned bright white. i didn't hear a sound, so i was surprised. i felt this was something terrible so i ran downstairs and ducked. i covered my ears and closed my eyes and the moment i ducked down i lost consciousness.

in the burnt ruins there were shapes that resembled human beings or bodies that had crumbled into bones everywhere. rescuers hadn't arrived after three days, so those who couldn't move due to serious injuries or severe burns and hadn't received help were hunched or lying on the ground. maika nakao is a historian at nagasaki university. she explained more about the significance of today's commemorations. i couldn't attend the commemoration even physically today, although i watched it online. because of the covid situation, the ceremony was different from last year's. it was much smaller than normal and many people couldn't attend the event. however, some messages are very strong and positive and it is very meaningful for the survivors and the people in nagasaki. in terms of what people feel there now, how much

anti—american sentiment is there in nagasaki, if any? in my opinion, i feel many people are not so much feel hostility against the us, so people don't have that kind of feeling, but more to build a peaceful world, a nuclear—free world. that's more important for the people in nagasaki. and of course, the two bombs falling very close to each other — hiroshima and nagasaki — but in terms of the casualties, and also in terms of the bombs, they were very different attacks, weren't they? yes, yes. the difference between the two cities are quite substantial because the bombing of nagasaki is second and it is said that there was no strategic meaning of the bombing of nagasaki so some people felt that the bombing of nagasaki is more cruel

and hard to understand. he is studying at nagasaki university. you're watching bbc news. —— a historian at mega psyche university. cricket — and the england captain joe root says they're making a habit of pulling off unlikely wins after what was a stunning victory in the first test against pakistan. all looked lost for england when they were reduced to 117 for 5 chasing 277. they needed a couple of big performances, and that's exactly what they got from jos buttler and chris woakes. they put in a brilliant performance to drag england towards what had looked like a highly unlikely win. there's more to come — the second test starts on thursday. we set out, at the start of the day, we said that it was going to have to take something quite special, might have to have quite a bit of luck at times, but if we had clarity in how

we wanted to play and individual game plans and committed to it, we would give ourselves the best chance. the way that they played that situation was fantastic. i thought it had everything. now it's time for a look at the weather with stav danaos. pa rt part two of the weekend are staying very warm and humid for most of us, particularly england and wales. this is where we are going to see higher temperatures, especially in the south—east. the low to mid so 30 celsius. started on a rather grey not for parts of england and wales thanks to this low cloud and mist which is pulling back to the east coast of the afternoon. could stay a little bit grey and quite cool and breezy across the east coast. elsewhere we should see plenty of sunshine around and a very warm. a pleasa ntly were ma ny sunshine around and a very warm. a pleasantly were many nice, very warm and humid in england and wales. as of 32 and 33 in the south—east. tonight we may see cloud returned to eastern parts of the uk. maybe a shower or thunder some developing across northern and western areas

with most places are being dry and it will be a one night especially in england and wales, a very magnet to come in the south—east. —— a very muqqy come in the south—east. —— a very muggy night. it stays warm and humid through the week. an increasing chance of thunderstorms and some could be severe. stay tuned to the forecast. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines:

amid growing anger at the lebanese government and mass demonstrations over last week's catastophic explosion in beirut, the country's information minister resigns. here in the uk, prime minister boris johnson says it's a "moral duty" and a "national priority" for schools to reopen fully in england next month. iam very i am very pleased that the prime minister is making schools a priority and i've argued for some time that my fear children were being left behind in this relaxation of lockdown. 400 taliban militants are to be released after a vote by afghanistan's loya jirga or grand assembly in kabul. japan remembers the victims of nagasaki, 75 years after the atom bomb was dropped on the city. in cricket, england stage a stunnng comeback to snatch victory in the first test.

now on bbc news, it's time for dateline. hello and welcome to dateline london. this week — we will be there for you, says a french president to the people of beirut. what does he actually mean? we will be there for you says a british home secretary to migrants crossing the english channel in record numbers, with an entirely different meaning. and has the coronavirus pandemic made millennials the unluckiest generation? my guests on socially distanced screens. agnes poirier of french weekly l'express and american

journalist and authorjef mcallister. and here in the studio the bbc‘s special correspondent clive myrie.