this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: president trump is escorted from a white house briefing after security shoot an armed suspect outside the building. there was an actual shooting and someone has been taken to the hospital. protests on the streets of beirut, as the entire lebanese government steps down after last week's explosion. and new research suggests so much ice has melted in antarctica since the mid ‘90s it could fill the grand canyon.

hello. president trump has praised the actions of the security service who shot an armed suspect near the white house. agents then abruptly removed the president from a news conference. mr trump was in mid—sentence, addressing journalists at a press briefing, when he was approached by a secret service agent and escorted from the podium. this is what happened. it looks like they are going to be dumping records. hopefully soon. excuse me? what's going on, mr president? a short time later he returned to the press room. here's what he had to say: so, thank you very much. sorry for that. there was a shooting outside of the white house, and it seems to be very well under control.

i would like to thank the secret service for doing their always quick and very effective work, but there was an actual shooting and somebody‘s been taken to the hospital. i don't know the condition of the person. seems that the person was shot by secret service. not too many details emerging at the moment. our north america correspondent david willis has the latest details on the shooting. the secret service has confirmed what they call an officer—involved shooting at the corner of 17th street and pennsylvania avenue. that is the eisenhower executive building, which is next door to the white house. quite a dramatic scene where the president, literally mid sentence, when he was approached by a secret service officer and escorted from the podium. a reporter who was nearby

quoted the secret service agent as saying, in his words, "step outside, sir, we are going to have to step outside." now, the president wasn't taken to the underground bunker that exists at the white house, as indeed he was briefly at the height of those quite violent demonstrations in lafayette park near the white house at the height of the black lives matter demonstrations. he was taken to the oval office where he spent eight minutes, and then was told he could go back and resume the press conference, which he did. a wide—ranging press conference lasting about an hour thereafter, but it is highly unusual for this sort of thing to unfold right in front of the television cameras. this was a televised press briefing and the president led away, as i said, mid—sentence from that briefing. just help us with the geography here, how close did all this come to the president and we know anything more the actual incident? it seems to have happened outside the walls of

the white house, and according to the president himself, mike, this was a suspect who was shot by the secret service and taken to hospital. the president said he thought that the suspect was armed and he paid tribute to the vigilance of law enforcement, but a fox news reporter who was quite nearby at the time reported hearing two shots in rapid succession. now, all we know from the secret service themselves as i mentioned was that there was an officer—involved shooting. it does appear, even though there is a large presence still of law enforcement in that area, that the incident now has been resolved. david willis for us there. the entire lebanese government has stood down following last tuesday's catastrophic explosion in beirut. the prime minister said it was the result of endemic corruption which is "bigger than the state" itself. angry protests have continued at the government's handling of the crisis, as the country

faces economic collapse and food shortages. our middle east correspondent quentin sommerville is in beirut. inch by inch, lebanon is falling apart. they knew their government was finished but, still, they want more. even among the tear gas, these protesters can almost smell the government's downfall but they've brought down governments before and there's been little change here. a reshuffling of the same old faces at the top isn't going to solve lebanon's crisis. when the end came, there were cheers. and riot police. the prime minister gave his resignation to the president but his government remains until a new one can be found. the state is out in force in a shattered capital,

carrying guns, though, not brooms. the lebanese are famous for their determination, but people here are sick of being left to fend for themselves. nobody else but the youth is going to help here. as you see, you can see some people from the government here and theyjust sit and do nothing. it's not fixing. we do a revolution, it doesn't help. we become more aggressive, it won't help either, so what else can we do other than clean at the moment? some bonds in beirut remain unbroken. this man lived in this beirut flat for 70 years. just two blocks from the port. he and his wife were here during the explosion. this is our kitchen. most of the doors and windows are gone. is it time to leave, i ask? no, no, no, no, no. i stay with the tent here.

gemmayzeh is a tight neighbourhood. a dozen people died on this one corner, and everybody here knows exactly where their neighbours were when the blast hit. but some are in no position to help. their wounds are too raw. romy zakhour lauret was in her car on the highway by the port. she and her husband filmed the fire before the explosion. when we arrived to the hospital, it was like a movie. i had more chance than others because i saw that people on the road, people lost their eyes. today, she's having plastic surgery. drjoe baroud is offering his services to the wounded for free. it's my god telling me that if you can at least offer some kind of your expertise to help the people because if i'm going to go and work

on the streets in five months and see people with bad scars on theirface, i'm going to feel directly responsible for it. fireworks explode and tonight, tear gas and fireworks as lebanon slips further into the void. this disaster brought the lebanese people together. but it's also tearing their country apart. quentin sommerville in beirut for us. some see lebanon's political system as the root of its problems. it's sometimes referred to as a ‘confessional‘ arrangement. seats in parliament, and senior roles, are assigned to different religious groups. the president, currently michel aoun, must always be a maronite christian. he was elected in 2016. the role of parliamentary speaker is reserved for a shia muslim. nabih berri has been in that role since 1992. the prime minister, a post hassan diab hasjust resigned, must be drawn from

lebanon's sunni muslims. it is a system that encourages diversity, but also promotes sectarian interests and patronage. well, for her analysis of the situation i spoke with randa slim, a lebanese political expert and senior fellow at the middle east institute. i asked her how the country will be governed for the time being at such a difficult time. imean, i mean, it's going to be a ca reta ker i mean, it's going to be a caretaker government, but it's not a government that can take decisions, especially, for example, going forwards when it comes to negotiations with the international monetary fund and the kind of reforms, such as economic reforms that are required for lebanon to receive a badly needed aid package and economic assistance from the international community. so this kind of government is not ina this kind of government is not in a position to make these decisions because it's a ca reta ker decisions because it's a caretaker government. so even

though there have been so many resignations, what are the chances, would you say, of real change? i... looker, ithink, as you said in your introduction, this is a system that has been now in place for decades. there are a lot of interests at stake here. and people and groups are going to defend these interests and are not going to give up the power they have had for decades, from their fathers, they have had for decades, from theirfathers, grandfathers, and now, some of them, you know, theirfamilies and now, some of them, you know, their families have and now, some of them, you know, theirfamilies have been in powerfor a long time and some of them are warlords who appeared on the scene during lebanon's civil wars in the 19805. lebanon's civil wars in the 1980s. and so this government resigned. definitely a new government will be in place. who knows when? it usually ta kes who knows when? it usually takes months for the ruling elites to come together and make a deal among themselves to agree on a new cabinet. so maybe the humanitarian disaster

that unfolded last week and the economic crisis that has been going on since october may prove to be a catalyst for a quick formation of the government, though i don't think the government will be that much different from the one that has just resigned, basically powerless and unable to make decisions stop i suppose a really major overhaul will involve disarming has bhullar. they will disarm when they want to be disarmed. they spent blood and treasure in syria to defend its weapon throughout and its military arsenal. think about how much they are willing to go or how much force they are willing to use to defend the actual military arsenal which is in lebanon. so disarming hezbollah will also lead to dividing the

army, you know, along sectarian lines and will deepen the political divide is stop eventually, disarming hezbollah has to be part of any kind of state building project in lebanon. but this has to be pa rt lebanon. but this has to be part of a dialogue that involves a kind of political system for the future and that involves also disarming hezbollah. and that's not going to be happening in the short—term, not even in the medium term. so, in a sense, the country is back where it was months ago, but with so many lives lost, 70 homes lost, the economy collapsed as well —— so the economy collapsed as well —— so many homes lost. the economy collapsed as well -- so many homes lost. correct. the project started last october. they die down a little bit because of covid and the lockdown restrictions. but the economy has been in freefall for some time. poverty is at 50%, even before the explosion stop it is expected to go up to

60%. the explosion last tuesday rendered 300,000 people homeless. so in the immediate term what is needed is humanitarian assistance to provide food and shelter and medical care for people stop you have more than 7000 injured. some of them are still in critical condition. you have more than 150— 160 people who have died with some still missing and also likely to be among the dead. and a banking sector that has been insolvent now for some time. so you have an economy that has been in freefall for some time and except for humanitarian x —— assistance, which looks like it will be forthcoming from the international community, the government, which now does not exist or has resigned, using ca reta ker, exist or has resigned, using caretaker, need to negotiate with the imf a package to help shore up the economy and now with the economy resigned, these negotiations are going to come to a halt awaiting the formation of a new government.

randa slim from the middle east institute. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: more wrangling over relief aid in the us. we report from new hampshire on the debate over who should be offered help and how much. the big crowds became bigger as the time of the funeral approached. as the lines of fans became longer, the police prepared for a huge job of crowd control. idi amin, uganda's brutal former dictator, has died at the age of 80. he's been buried in saudi arabia, where he lived in exile since being overthrown in 1979. 2 billion people around

the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to take place in this millennium. it began itsjourney off the coast of canada, ending three hours later when the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: president trump has been escorted from a white house briefing — after security shot an armed suspect, outside the building. protests on the streets of beirut — as the entire lebanese government steps down — in the wake of last week's catastrophic explosion. the world has reached a disturbing new milestone in coronavirus cases. according to johns hopkins university, their aggregated tally has become the main reference for monitoring the disease, the official global number of covid—19 cases

has now passed 20 million. the total official number of global coronavirus deaths is more than 730,000. the united states has suffered the most deaths, at least 163,000. there have been at least 101,000 in brazil and 52,000 one of the challenges of pandemic and lockdown is helping those hit by the economic downturn. in the united states, talks are still stalled over the next round of government funding. in states where there have been few covid cases and the economy has largely reopened, there's debate over who should be offered help — and how much. jane o'brien reports from new hampshire. win, win! a rare sight in this virtual election season. this is amazing. 0h! look at the trump t—shirt! a politician on the campaign trail. nice to meet you.

this man is a republican challenger for a democratic senate seat in new hampshire, the state president trump lost by a whisker in 2016 and where his endorsement still carries clout. i am proud and honoured to have received president trump's endorsement and it is a good thing. i don't view it as a liability at all, a view it as a very, very good thing and i would tell you that, you know, the polls are starting to turn some now and, you know, 90 days in politics is an eternity. joe biden enjoys an overall lead in new hampshire but president trump support among republicans remains above 80% even as some have questioned his response to the pandemic. it has been inconsistent sometimes, it has been overreaching sometimes, in some ways, so how he manages now for the next two months going into the general election cycle after labour day

and beyond is really going to make a big difference for voters. do you know how you are going to vote ? yes. i'm going to vote for the president. new hampshire has so far escaped the worst of the pandemic, that is why many republicans here support the president's focus on the economy. but despite record unemployment, staff shortages are a problem here. at first, the health concerns were the problem. the second problem was that a lot of my employees could make more money staying at home than what i've paid them. no—one is replying to the help wanted ads. we cannot get seasonal staff. this is a wall of lobsters. new hampshire hotels and restaurants depend on seasonal workers even when there isn't a pandemic.

and here we have a 3.5 pounder, and normally he would have been eaten by now but we have had to close extra days due to the lack of help. covid isn't closing down the lobster trap. the owner can't get workers locally and foreign students who normally plug the gap can't travel. doing all this stuff and giving out the money to everybody, even the ppp loans. it has been great for our business and a lot of businesses, but eventually someone will have to pay that back. and it's unfortunate it will be people in the future, kids who aren't even able to vote right now. he supports the relief offered under the president's executive order. he says the payments are lower and the payroll tax cuts may allow workers to pocket more money when they come back to work. agnes chow is the latest leading pro—democracy campaigner to be detained in hong kong, under the new national security law. this after the arrest of the prominent activist

and media tycoon, jimmy lai, on allegations of collusion with foreign powers. the white house national security advisor has said the us is officially "deeply troubled" by the arrest. in total eleven people were arrested on monday. i've been speaking to the hong kong based writer and lawyer antony dapiran. i asked him what he made of these developments. well, this really is a continuing of this ongoing crackdown, but most shocking of the events yesterday was this really direct attack on hong kong's free press with the arrest ofjimmy lai and a large police raid on the offices of apple daily, his newspaper. and do you expect the people to be held for some time or do you think this is in some way a warning to others? well, under the new national security law, suspects can be held without bail so it's highly likely jimmy lai, agnes chow and the others arrested yesterday will be held without bail until their cases come to trial, which could be some months away, and i think there is no sign that this

ongoing crackdown is going to stop, especially in the context of wider ongoing tensions with the us and china and hong kong right in the middle of that. and do you expect china just to press ahead without testing the water in some way, seeing if there is meaningful international reaction? well, we really haven't seen any backing from china at all, notwithstanding consistent strong international pressure on the issue of hong kong. every week seems to bring new moves by the international community including of course the most recent sanctions from the us, but that does not seem to have dissuaded china at all with the latest arrests, the sign that this seems to be continuing. i don't think there is any sense they are going to back off. do we know anything about how the people arrested are being treated, because the chinese authorities are pretty rough with people in tibet and xinjiang. we do hope and expect that here in hong kong,

people will be receiving treatment in accordance with international standards of human rights. they are being held by the hong kong police, we understand they have not been handed over to the mainland authorities or taken across the border but that possibility is there for more serious cases, but we expect they do have access to their lawyers, and they are being treated in the appropriate way, but it's unlikely they are going to be given bail or singled out anytime soon. further to the future, how do you expect it to develop? we know that several democracy activists have left the country, do you think many people will or will a lot of people behave as so many do on mainland china, that they have political opinions and certainly not voicing. that certainly would be a very sad future for hong kong. we really are in transition. people are trying to understand what the

parameters of the new environment are, many people will take that option to leave, others will stay and try to fight on, as brave journalists did yesterday and today, continuing to live stream the parade on the police headquarters and putting out the addition today is that they will be testing the limits and seeing what they can make of life in the new hong kong. you talk about the new limits. the new national security law is very broad, isn't it? yes, indeed, it is very broadly drafted, deliberately so, to enable the authorities to target any person they fight to be an irritant and that indeed is what they've done so far forjimmy lai and agnes chow and i'm sure we will see others to come as they make use of this tool in their toolbox. the ice shelves in antarctica have melted to such an extent that since the mid—nineties they've produced enough water to fill the grand canyon. a study released today has put it all down to higher temperatures in the ocean. victoria gill has more.

ice shelf seems a very humble term for the huge masses of floating ice surrounding antarctica. and to study these vast frozen platforms, scientists had to zoom right out into space. using satellites to make precision measurements of the thickness of the ice shelf showed that in 25 years it lost enough mass to fill the grand canyon with water. the ice shelves that we see melting in this study are not going to raise to sea level in themselves because they are actually already sitting in the water. they are already floating. the sea level rise comes when those ice shelves reduce the restraint that they exert on the rest of the antarctic ice sheet, which then flows faster into the ocean, causing sea level rise. the effects of all this cold, fresh water entering the deep sea around antarctica are likely to be felt far beyond the polar south.

the ocean plays a major role in just controlling the climate around the world. adding a lot of cold fresh water to the ocean kind of changes the way in which inversion can transport heat, and that can change global climate and maybe potentially change rainfall patterns around the world. is that what scientists mean when they describe antarctica as the world's thermostat? that what happens to that ice and in that ocean is shifting weather patterns all around the world ? yeah, exactly. with many of the world's biggest cities by the coast, modelling future sea—level rise accurately is crucial. this study reveals just how much of that accuracy depends on understanding what is happening to the ice at the end of the world. victoria gill, bbc news. on that note, we have to leave you u nfortu nately on that note, we have to leave you unfortunately but we will be back shortly. there is more

news any time on the bbc news website and on our twitter feeds. thank you for watching. hello. the heatwave will continue for a few more days for many of us. we had temperatures on monday again of 35 celsius, the fourth consecutive day where temperatures were above 3a celsius. this was the picture in west sussex, lots of sunshine there, but we've also already seen lots of heavy showers and thunderstorms. and tuesday brings us a similar day, hot again with the chance of those thundery downpours. we've got very warm air with us at the moment, as there is across much of central and western europe. but bubbling up in the afternoon, we are set to see those torrential downpours. in fact, we start off tuesday morning already with some really heavy showers, particularly across the northern half of the uk.

a hot, humid start to the day, especially further south. there will be a good deal of sunshine in store for tuesday, but especially during the afternoon, we'll see more of those showers popping up. they could be heavy and thundery with some hail and squally winds with some of those downpours. but as is the nature with these sort of showers, they will be hit—and—miss and there will be long spells of hot sunshine. in the south—east, we're likely to see 3a or 35 celsius once again. it's a little bit fresher for scotland, northern ireland and the south—west of england, typically the low to mid—20s here. now, through tuesday evening and overnight into wednesday, most of the heavy showers and thunderstorms die away for a time. there could be quite a bit of mist and murk as we've got quite humid airaround. to start off wednesday, a little less humid across the far north of scotland, but for most of us, we are in for the high teens, possibly 20 degrees once again to start the day. so, wednesday a similar day, hot sunshine and scattered showers and thunderstorms as well. it's parts of northern england, wales, central and southern england that are at most risk of catching those thunderstorms through the day on wednesday. fewer for scotland and for northern ireland, but hot once again, with temperatures up to about 35 celsius in the south—east,

the mid to high 20s further towards the north and the west. and then heading through wednesday night into thursday, we'll start to draw in this area of low pressure, and it will bring a change into thursday. that's going to be drawing in some fresher air and also further scattered heavy showers and thunderstorms, too. it'll be driest across parts of scotland, northern ireland and northern england, typically the low 20s here. still, we could see 30 celsius down towards the south—east, but not quite as hot as the next couple of days. so, the heat continues, thundery downpours are likely and then things turn a little fresher as we head towards the end of the week. bye for now.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the white house has been placed on lockdown after us secret service agents shot an armed man outside. president trump was suddenly escorted from a white house press briefing by an agent, but returned minutes later and told reporters a person had been shot and taken to hospital. the president said he did not think the white house fence had been breached. protests on the streets of beirut are continuing, even though the entire lebanese government has now stepped down. in an angry televised address, the prime minister blamed last week's catastrophic explosion and the country's economic problems on a corrupt political establishment. coronavirus cases have now surpassed 20 million world—wide, with the official number of global deaths standing at more than 730,000. the us and brazil have suffered the most fatalities. many nations are being forced to re—introduce economic and social restrictions as the disease continues to spread.