this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the first resignation following growing anger and mass demonstrations over last week's catastophic explosion in beirut. the country's information minister quits. the uk prime minister, borisjohnson, 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. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world. stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. international leaders will hold 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 lebanese government has seen its first resignation of the crisis — 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. officials estimate that it caused up to $15 billion worth of damage and a crater that is 43 meters deep. today the uk government has pledged an additional £20 million — around $26 million — to help provide food for the most vulnerable in lebanon. the 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 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 in practicem of course, is extremely challenging. you can'tjust bypass an entire national government, but doing that in practice, 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. 0ur middle east analyst alan johnson joins us now. some of those demonstrators have been calling for revolution, for the fall of the government. so far we have seen the information minister resigned. they will at least see that as a start, i suppose. they will indeed surely well, this first resignation since that blast on tuesday. just in the last few hours, the information minister stepping down, releasing a brief statement in

which she said that the government had failed to bring around a change. a reference to the failure to deliver reforms. remember, that before the blast, lebanon had plenty, plenty of problems. mismanagement, corruption, and a great range of factors had brought the lebanese economy to its absolute needs. huge numbers of middle—class people being plunged into poverty and any information minister clearly admitting that there had been a failure to address all of that and are referring to tuesday clause blast and describing it as a catastrophe —— tuesday's blast. she apologised to the people and announce her resignation and also support for that kind of mood —— there is also support for that kind of mode coming from a christian minister in the sunday sermon, saying that if they couldn't help the government rise, step down. ——

in the country rise, step down. in terms of the aid money that people like president macron are trying to raise for lebanon, they sing again and again, people that they do not wa nt and again, people that they do not want that to be channelled through government leaders in lebanon because they simply do not trust them, they think they are too corrupt. who does it go toe to make sure to spent on the people who need it? that is right. there were really extraordinary scenes last week when president macron went down into the streets of beirut and moved among the people who have been so shaken and shattered by this blast and he made it very clear to them and later the wider world that there would be no simple handing over of large amounts of money to people who are very widely regarded as corrupt in the government and civil service. as we watch that, the video conference summit will invoke today and we will

be watching very closely to see what conditionality is attached to any money coming fourth and i guess they would be little problem in getting emergency funds flowing in great amounts, but it would be channelled more towards the ngos, the civil society groups that have proved so effective in the immediate aftermath of the blast, the clearing up of beirut has been done in very large pa rt by beirut has been done in very large part by the people of beirut and at the ngos that had been helping them. there has been a really marked absence on the ground of government input, an effort to get the crisis and start to put people —— for people to start putting their lives back together. thank you very much. here in the uk, a major teaching union has criticised the prime minister's suggestion that schools in england have a "moral duty" to get children back into their classrooms next month. borisjohnson has said that schools will take priority over pubs, shops and restaurants in any

future coronavirus lockdowns. but the association of school and college leaders have taken exception to mrjohnson's comments. 0ur political correspondent, nick eardley reports. 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 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.

earlier i spoke to geoff barton from the general secretary of the association of school and college leaders. he said everyone agrees it's a priority to open schools. i represent 20,000 leaders of schools and colleges. they are the last people, frankly, who need lecturing about moral duty. and i think what the article, essentially, with its slightly petulant tone, is telling us is three things — one is that the prime minister in number 10 had announced that all primary children were going to go back into school and the very next day, the government's own guidance made that impossible because of the conditions, it said. secondly, it is not a good look for a government which seems to be encouraging people to go to pubs and restaurants, indeed incentivising them to do that, when children are sitting at home. and thirdly, then 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 school 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 it, if it is necessary that the government would rather shut down pubs and restaurants than shools, that chools would have the priority. it that good? do you welcome that? it seems to me a very bizarre analogy all of that. running a school, i was a head teacherfor 15 years, is, i suspect, very different from running a pub, partly because you have a responsability, in my case for 1500 children and young people. you could not stand at the door and say, "sorry, we are full, you cannot come in". the logistics are more complex in schools and our members have been working to get our schools ready for the autumn, but even yesterday you had the schools minister here saying that more money was going to go into school transport. what does that mean? as deputy head of a school that had 22 buses arriving every day, those 22 buses would not be picking up children in particular year groups, they would be picking up children of different year groups in different villages. again it feels as if the government

is always in the back foot, putting us is always in the back foot, putting us in the position of trying to then make some kind of sense out of their guidance. school leaders will do that, but it is a little bit rich tahiti prime minister saying this is a priority. it should have been a priority right from the beginning. i suppose they are looking ahead and the science advice is saying only a certain amount of social interaction as possible because if the virus rise again and schools will have the power to close up actually that is welcome? —— the virus arises again. 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 school, they should not be wearing face mix. what we need is not rhetoric, it is

absolute clarity and media plan. if it the skills had to close in particular areas, let's work to the details of that's appearance will be assured that at the right people are taking the right decisions —— if schools have to close in particular areas. the uk 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. 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. it seems very significant. there is a real sense of sudden movement again and hopes 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 400 really proved a sticking point and it did not seem as if they could find a way forward. they are people who are accused of things like murder and kidnapping, involvement in drug trafficking, and basically, the government had tried to come up with ways around it. they had offered substitutes, for example. the taliban had rejected that and the taliban had held firm and said, "unless you release these 400, we cannot see progress". that's why they went to the grand council to say, "we don't think we, the government, should make this decision, we'd like you to make it for us," and they have gone ahead and said yes, with some conditions. but there is a sudden sense of movement and possibly some form of inter—afghan talks starting within 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? how close are we to a breakthrough? certainly closer than we were yesterday. the fact that the loya jirga has come behind this, i think, will be seen as very significant by a lot of people watching this in afghanistan. the loyajirga did also come up with a few conditions that i think, again, will be carefully watched and appreciated by a lot of afghans. they were saying they wanted a permanent ceasefire to be in place between both parties before those talks take place. that does not give very long to negotiate that. we have had short—term ceasefires in the past of two or three days. we just had one over eid, for example. those have actually been very succesful, they've held. a permanent one, i think, would do a lot to try and reassure people they are seeing things move in a positive direction. they also talked about human rights and said that when they do sit down for any form of inter—afghan talks, they want the rights of women, of religious groups, ethnic minorities to form part of those discussions.

so again, a key message there. 0ur south asia editor. 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 deaths, 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 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 our business 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. people in belarus are voting in presidential elections with a serious challenge to the man who's run the country for more than quarter of a century. alexander lukashenko 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. i am at the polling station in the capital minsk and this is how voters are being greeted 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 what's happening 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 faced since he came to power in 1994. we have been hearing a lot of reports of people being arrested and detained. three main contenders were denied registration or jailed and mr lukashenko's main opponent, svetla na ti kha novs kaya, has faced a number of challenges during the campaign period. she was unable to hold campaign rallies because authorities claimed those rally venues where booked by other people or for other events.

according to a human rights centre, more than 2000 people have been detained since the start of the election campaign in may. people were detained for 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 kind of crackdown is only fuelling anger amongst the people here. at least 11 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 years that followed. 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. nagasaki 75 years on. now it's time for a look at the weather with stav danaos heatwave continuing across britain and temperatures will remain above the seasonal average into next week across much of the uk, especially across much of the uk, especially across the south—east. it will be a warm and sunny day through the afternoon for most of us. that cloud will eventually melt away, burning back to the cause. it could stay a bit grey across eastern counties —— to the east coast. a little bit of

cloud dotted around, but for most, the sunshine. those temperatures very pleasant, low 20s in the north, very pleasant, low 20s in the north, very warm in england and wales with humidity and hot again across the south—east. maybe 33 celsius. into this evening, it stays mainly dry, very warm, this evening, it stays mainly dry, very warm, muggy, a this evening, it stays mainly dry, very warm, muggy, a bit of cloud affecting eastern counties of england. we could see a shower or thunderstorm developed across northern and western areas later in the night. a warm and muggy night to come for england and wales, particularly, and as we head into next week it stays warm, humid and quite a bit of sunshine around, but there is the increasing threat of a summer thundery showers. they could be quite heavy. the devil is in the details where these terms will develop. 0n details where these terms will develop. on monday, it looks like we will see the greatest threat across more western parts of the uk around the irish sea, perhaps into northern ireland as we head into the afternoon. elsewhere, plenty of sunshine around, it will be very warm. warmth and humidity creeping

further north into northern england and southern scotland, but a highs of 33, maybe 34 celsius in the south—east. into tuesday, the thundery low over the bay of biscay d rifts thundery low over the bay of biscay drifts northwards. that is what is generating these thunderstorms and lunch has become a bit of difficulty to pinpoint where they will turn out, but it looks like the northern half of the uk could be most upset. there could be further ones across the south—east into the afternoon. another very warm and humid day. for much of england and wales and southern scotland again highs in the south—east into the mid—30s. it continues to stay very thundery throughout the week. warm with some sunshine around, but there are signs by the end of the week of temperatures returning a bit closer to normal, turning a bit fresherfor all.

this is bbc world news,

the headlines: lebanon has seen the first political resignation following growing anger and mass demonstrations over last week's catastophic explosion in beirut. the information minister has quit on account of what she said was the government's failure to deliver reform. voters have begun casting their ballots in belarus with five—term president alexander lukashenko facing his toughest challenge in years from a political novice. mr lukashenko is still tipped to win, but he faces a prominent rival in svetlana tikhanovskaya, who is running in place of her jailed husband. 400 taliban militants are to be released after a vote by afghanistan's loya jirga or grand assembly in kabul. the us health secretary, alex azar, has arrived in taiwan, in the highest—level american visit to the island in at least six years.