this is bbc news. i'm mike embley with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. making history: the democratic presidential candidate, joe biden, chooses black senator kamala harris as his running mate for november's us election. they take on donald trump in three months time — his campaign team has already weighed in, saying ‘americans will resoundingly reject‘ the pair at the ballot box. the people of beirut observe a minute's silence, marking the moment an explosion ripped through the city one week earlier. the main opposition leader in belarus flees the country after disputing the presidential election result. nationwide protests are continuing for a third night.

the hong kong pro—democracy activist, jimmy lai, is released on bail 2a hours after his arrest under the national security law. after months of speculation and 84 days before election day, the democratic presidential nominee joe biden has selected the california senator kamala harris as his running mate against donald trump for november's election. from jamaican and indian pa rents, she is the first black woman in the role. on twitter mr biden said: "i have the great honor to announce that i've picked kamala harris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country's finest public servants — as my running mate." kamala harris said she is honored to join joe biden as nominee for vice president,

and, as she put it, do what it takes to make him commander—in—chief. our north america correspondent david willis sastoe biden‘s choice of running mate is a very big deal. joe biden had said that he wanted an administration that would resemble the country at large, and to that end he has picked as his vice presidential running mate a woman, black woman, who is more than 20 years hisjunior. it has been an exhaustive search and taken about three or four months forjoe biden to narrow it down and i am told that about 90 minutes before the announcement was released by text message today, joe biden actually got on the phone to kamala harris and formally offered her thejob as his running mate. she accepted and he spent the remainder of that 90 minutes calling the unsuccessful candidates. but she is seen, in a way as representing a new wing of, or a new faction perhaps, of the democratic party,

one that lies between joe biden, who is very much a centrist and the progressive wing of bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. she is not left—wing but she is left of centre and as such it will be perhaps difficult for donald trump and his team to attack her as they have attempted to do already, i might add, by branding her a prisoner of the radical left, someone who wants to erase taxes and advance the socialised medicine theories. and important too, david, notjust because of who she is but also becausejoe biden, to be frank, will be the oldest president, if he is elected, 77, i think, and she might well be president. he has made it clear he only wants to serve one term, even if he gets there. that's right, and so this is a very big dealfor kamala harris, someone who clearly hasn't lacked ambition in that regard. she ran for president againstjoe biden leading to that rather testy exchange

about bussing that caused joe biden somewhat to take a step back. he didn't really see that coming, he was taken a bit off guard during that first democratic debate by kamala harris. but you are absolutely right, joe biden would be 78 on inauguration day next year, and of course that will put him up there when it comes around to a second term. kamala harris very much will be seen as his anointed heir, i would imagine, so this is a very big dealfor that reason alone. joe biden had said he wanted to try to find someone who could represent the sort of chemistry that he had with ba rack obama. the two men didn't always see eye to eye, particularly on matters of foreign policy, but they struck up what proved to be a very harmonious and very good working relationship. they trusted each other implicitly and joe biden was looking for those sort of qualities in his

own running mate. joining me now is ameshia cross, a democratic strategist and political commentator in washington. good commentator in washington. to talk to you. thank for good to talk to you. thank you for your time. veep is a sideshow, because of his age and he only wants to be a one term president. voters really have to imagine kamala harris as president. that is very true. also we can't underscore the fact that she is a woman in this role, and with a high likelihood of this being a very contentious election cycle, we have already seen that, but with this being an election cycle within the margins, it will be very close. the likelihood of us having in the united states a first female vice president is very high. you would think the vp states already very high, biden made an announcement months ago

saying he would choose a woman. he had committed to that, specifically acknowledging the fa ct specifically acknowledging the fact that women have pretty much held strong, particular black women in being the back bone of the democratic party, ensuring he got across the finish line in south carolina, reviving his campaign and basically keeping democrats in office across this country. but i also think that what he noted early on was she is fierce, not only in terms of competition, she was a contender against him for the presidency, but also, when it comes to grilling people. she was one of the foundational members of the senate in grilling just now the supreme courtjustice senate in grilling just now the supreme court justice and senate in grilling just now the supreme courtjustice and his confirmation hearings and a lot of those visuals play back over and over because it shows that kamala harris is not someone who is afraid to step up, she is not someone who is afraid to ta ke is not someone who is afraid to take shots. she is not someone who is afraid of a lot of the aggression we have seen

ratcheting up with the trump administration. she takes those things on. here the analysis of this kind of locks in the black vote and historically, joe biden has had close ties to black voters. within the black vote is not a monolith. people vote is not a monolith. people vote as individuals and you have donald trump suggesting he has done more for black people in the united states than any president with a possible exception he says of abraham lincoln. president trump 's accolades of the black community or from the black community or from the black community are only in his head. there isn't a single black person in america who is not on his campaign who will agree with those comments. to get back to biden and his pick, i do think there is something to be said about the vested interests that african—americans interests that african—america ns have interests that african—americans have in joe biden choosing an african—american woman and i think that matters for various reasons. this or two days ago a list of over 100 entertainers, athlete and a lot of leaders across this country who happen to be black men argue her that

he had to the black woman. a black woman was basically the only choice. we saw that same thing from a lot of other elect leaders happen to be african—american as well. african—american as well. african—american women specifically have really driven the charge for democratic policies across this country, as well as, and biden have said this himself multiple times, have rescued him time and time again ina have rescued him time and time again in a lot of very tight races, and some of his most ardent supporters either before his race or president. now was the time to actually showcase just how much he cares about what black women have put in. 0n what black women have put in. on that point, there is an analysis that says what happened in 2016 was down to hillary clinton's perceived unpopularity as a candidate. clearly, there were plenty of voters so hollande by barack 0bama that they voted for donald trump. aren't those voters in november going to be even more scared of a black woman? there are voters in 2016

who stayed home, and a lot of what we saw wasn't necessarily voters who were excited about barack 0bama and voted for him twice. many of those voters didn't vote at all. one of the biggest things this time and the biggest challenge for the democratic party is barack 0bama was a once—in—a—lifetime. you only get a lot of that magic coming together in a very short order. it typically doesn't happen. joe biden is not barack doesn't happen. joe biden is not ba rack 0bama doesn't happen. joe biden is not barack 0bama and it is unfairto makea not barack 0bama and it is unfair to make a comparison. what i do think that matters is that you have a kamala harris and joe biden and two sides of the coin that is quite frankly different because joe biden the coin that is quite frankly different becausejoe biden is ina different becausejoe biden is in a solid —— solid moderate wing and you have the progressive side of kamala harris, she is further left thanjoe harris, she is further left than joe biden harris, she is further left thanjoe biden and she is someone thanjoe biden and she is someone who brings a lot to the table, andi someone who brings a lot to the table, and i think those issues, particularly, igoing to get people out. in addition to get people out. in addition to the fact that american has an overwhelming population of

women. this is a country that is dominated by women and it is high time that women be seen in one of the strongest leadership roles in america. thank you for talking to us. let's get some other news. prosecutors in mexico have accused the former president, enrique pena nieto, of taking millions of dollars in bribes and using the money to buy votes in congress. the allegations are part of a major corruption investigation involving the brazilian construction giant 0debrecht. thousands of students in scotland are celebrating after the government decided to accept teacher estimates of exam scores. around 125, 000 results were downgraded last week following a moderation process overseen by the scottish qualifications authority. there had been claims that the system unfairly penalised pupils at schools which had historically not performed as well. coronavirus cases in france have nearly doubled in the past 2a hours as prime ministerjean castex

warned that the country had been going the wrong way for two weeks. the health ministry reported 1,397 new infections of covid—19 since monday and 1a people have died. australia has recorded its deadliest day from the coronavirus pandemic, with 21 deaths in the past 2a hours, all in the state of victoria. australia's second most populous state is just over one week into a strict 6—week lockdown to control a resurgence of cases. the state health authorities also reported a further a10 new infections. ceremonies have been held in the lebanese capital tonight as beirut marks the moment a week ago when the city was hit by a devastating blast. from there, tom bateman reports. here, there is faith in god... but none in their country's leaders. the living paid tribute.

they believe the dead paid for lebanon's problems with their lives. i want to pay a tribute to all the victims. i would not call them martyrs, never, they are not martyrs. a martyr chooses to die. we did not choose to die. a week ago, the moment when nothing would be the same. explosion a city shattered, a country brought closer to collapse. "there's no help at the hospital," says yara. "it's wrecked too." shocked and bloodied, she filmed the scenes of destruction. scenes she'll never forget. her husband comforts her. their home was destroyed, their neighbours below, killed.

but she vows to rebuild — her home and their country. we will raise our kids here and no—one is going anywhere, and we're going to be stronger than ever. and nothing like this will ever happen again. nothing! nothing should ever happen again because no—one should live what we lived and what we witnessed. these sisters have stuck together for a lifetime in beirut. they've seen disasters and war, but now, they're leaving. lebanon was already on its knees. now, some warn it may never recover from this. beirut is a broken city. people want change but they know with the system in place here, they've got to do it for themselves.

and they continue to remember their dead. for yara, a sign of theirfaith in each other in a crumbling country, where the future seems more uncertain than ever. tom bateman, bbc news, beirut. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, preventing an environmental emergency: the mauritian teams removing tons of oil, from a run—aground cargo ship before it breaks up. 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 its journey off the coast of canada, ending three hours later when the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: making history — the democratic presidential candidate, joe biden, chooses black senator, kamala harris —

as his running mate for november's us election. ceremonies have been held in the lebanese capital, beirut, to mark the moment a week ago when the city was hit by a devastating explosion. russia claims to have become the first country in the world to have developed a coronavirus vaccine that offers ‘sustainable immunity‘. president putin says it‘s got regulatory approval after less than two months of tests on humans. scientists though are sceptical about the vaccine. our medical correspondent fergus walsh explains why. i think the name of the vaccine tells you about the politics about it and its name is sputnik—v, and it was launched in 1957 sputnik—v, and it was launched in1957 and sputnik—v, and it was launched in 1957 and they beat america in the space race and calling the vaccine this is partly about politics and showing that russia is up there and it sometimes better not to be first, but to get the right one

and maybe this will work well but it does not work well, the troubling thought for scientists outside of russia is that no data has been released from the institute, so they cannot comment and it is concerning that russia has chosen to go so quickly without showing if hand and the data on the vaccine. the opposition candidate in the presidential election in belarus has fled the country. she has disputed the result in an election she claims was rigged. svetlana tikhanovskaya has said she went to lithuania for her children. her supporters back in the capital, minsk, have continued angry protests against the result. the former soviet republic is often referred to as europe‘s last dictatorship. our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford reports. she‘s been the face of change in belarus, but today, svetla na tikhanovskaya released a tearful video announcing she had fled the country.

translation: i know many will understand me, many will condemn, and many will hate me. but god forbid you have to face the choice i had. this was the last time the opposition candidate had been seen, heading to hand in an official complaint that the elections were rigged. we now know she was detained here for seven hours, and she made another recording, clearly under pressure. it was a call to supporters to recognise alexander lu kashenko as the people‘s choice for president, and to clear the streets to avoid bloodshed. no one bought that. protesters have come out for a third straight night, shouting for mr lukashenko to go. this is how similar scenes ended last night. police using stun grenades,

rubber bullets and brute force against the growing demand for change. and, yet, alexander lukashenko spent today talking food processing with officials. he‘s vowed there will be no revolution and blamed outside forces for fermenting unrest. that‘s why, when these russians were detained, state television paraded them as provocateurs. we know two of them were just observing the elections. across the country, desperate families are now hunting for the thousands who‘ve been detained, mothers clamouring at prison gates. this crisis has already claimed one protester‘s life and increased the anger and upset. the woman these people voted for has fled, but what svetlana tikhanovskaya has started now has its own powerful momentum. sarah rainsford, bbc news, moscow.

two of hong kong‘s biggest opponents to china‘s new security law have been released on bail. the activist agnes chow and the entrepreneur jimmy lai were arrested under the new law which is being used to silence those within hong kong who criticise either china or hong kong‘s pro—beijing ruling class. freedom, for now. media tycoon jimmy lai released on bail, late on tuesday. he supporters holding up copies of his apple daily newspaper, with the headline, apple will fight on. it‘s a tabloid which is highly critical of the chinese government. the paper saying it printed 550,000 copies on tuesday, instead of the normal 70,000, to cope with extra demand. he was arrested on monday on suspicion of colluding with a foreign power. pro—beijing authorities using china‘s controversial new security law to clamp down on dissent and he was not the only one.

23—year—old political activist agnes chow was also arrested at the same time, and then released just a few hours after lai‘s release. i would say that it is very obvious that the regime and the government is using the national security law to suppress political dissidents, and these kind of situation would not only happen on me but will happen on more and more hong kong people in the future. both will face trial at a later date. they could be sentenced to life in prison. paul hawkins, bbc news. the authorities in mauritius say cracks in the hull of a cargo ship which ran aground last month sparking an environmental emergency are worsening. efforts to remove the about nine hundred tonnes of oil onboard the stricken vessel are continuing. catherine byaruhanga reports. a toxic trail of oil seeping into the ocean and invading reefs, mangroves and lagoons. the mv wakashio wreckage lay

on the mauritus horizon, as crews battled for days to empty it of all of its oil. then things got much worse. cracks on the ship‘s hull deepened. locals have been wondering why exactly, why was nothing done. why did it take so long? why did the government give so many contradictory messages? mauritius is in crisis. volunteers are using their bare hands to clean up the oil, threatening their most valuable assets — water and wildlife are vital sources for his lucrative tourism industry, which is reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. and people here are furious. this is the leader of the opposition questioning the minister for shipping in parliament. the government is accused of being slow to act. this government did not assume its responsibilty. with the consequences

that there has been a collapse of the eco system in this country, and we hold this government totally responsible! france, japan and united nations but mauritius says has never faced an ecological disaster like this one. and there‘s real concern about whether this environment will ever recover. catherine byaruhanga, bbc news. french designer anne sophie cochevelou has been producing extravagant face coverings from her london home since lockdown, adorning them with anything she can find, from barbies to pokemon toys. she says the disposable surgical mask can make people anxious, and wants to inspire us to get more fun and creative. have a look. my my name is anne sophie cochevelou, i am a french costu me cochevelou, i am a french costume and fashion designer and since locked down, i have been mainly focused on making

these facemasks. they are not like your ordinary facemask. i use lots of toys, argues lots of embellishment, — — i use a loss of embellishment and what i used to put in my work, like barbie dolls or doll faces, have been integrated into the face masks. basically, iam kind of a hoarder so i actually have lots of material for this project. first i was doing it forfun project. first i was doing it for fun because i project. first i was doing it forfun because i literally had nothing else to do! i was stuck at home. but then people had an interest in them. people wanted them for themselves so i started making them for friends and then people wanted to from me because i had no other source of income i started to put them on an online shop. i

think i have made about 200 masks. my style is about making people smile and connecting people smile and connecting people together. people are really afraid to lose theirjob or to be able to pay their rent, so at least seeing someone dressed up and have a colourful facemask, you can kind of make them smile a little bit. french designer anne sophie cochevelou there. wrestler—turned—movie star dwayne ‘the rock‘ johnson has topped the list of the world‘s highest paid male actors for a second straight year, according to forbes magazine. over the past year, he earned $87.5 million, including more than $20 million from the netflix movie red notice. ryan reynolds, who co—stars in red notice, came second in the rankings. much more on all the news,

national and international on the website and on the twitter feeds. thank you for watching. hello. there is quite a mix of weather on offer across the british isles just at the moment. the headlines are being made by the heat but, at times, some low cloud is running in to some of the coastal areas, making it a great deal cooler and then, when all that heat really powers on through, we get that possibility of some thunderstorms and that is the mix that will take many of us through wednesday. there is heat to be had widely across western europe at the moment. the moisture being fed around this low out of biscay, up towards the british isles, where we start wednesday on another really humid note. widely across the british isles temperatures in the teens if not the low 20s. the bulk of the morning thunderstorms to be found across the north—eastern quarter of scotland. these gradually drifting towards shetland by evening, and then leaving behind just the chance of one or two thunderstorms dotted around, but generally they will begin to gang up across parts of wales,

the midlands, and central, southern england as we get on through the afternoon, where again the temperatures widely will exceed 30 celsius. although, underneath the cloud and murk, around about some of the coast, you could be closer to 17—19, something of that order. through the evening and overnight, those showers just getting a little bit further north and a little bit further out towards the west, and the murk becoming ever more extensive across parts of northern and eastern scotland, and into the eastern side of the pennines, and again where it‘s going to be a very close—night again. widely temperatures into the teens to the low 20s. thursday gets off to a pretty grey start. the cloud more extensive than we have seen it of late but a really close—feeling day, and it is that mixture of heat and humidity again that will spark those thunderstorms widely across the southern half of britain. always that fraction fresher and perhaps drier too further towards the north. though if the sunshine pops out here, again, you will be off into the 20s. as you move towards friday, i think we‘re going to see again the low pressure very much the dominant feature.

and always that risk of those torrential downpours affecting central and southern parts of the british isles. further north, again, the onshore breeze is dragging some low—level cloud into the eastern side of scotland. most of the best of the sunshine for northern ireland and across western scotland. although those temperatures look as though they are dropping awayjust a touch, i think you will still feel pretty close and it is going to take quite a while before we get something a good dealfresher moving in from the atlantic to affect all parts of the british isles.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the democratic presidential candidate, joe biden, has choosen senator kamala harris as his running mate for november‘s us election. the former prosecutor and california attorney—general is the first black woman on a major presidential ticket in american history. they will take on donald trump and mike pence in three months time. ceremonies have been held in the lebanese capital, beirut to mark the moment a week ago when the city was hit by a devastating blast. there was also a minutes‘s silence in the port area. many groups held pictures of those who died in the disaster. the main opposition leader in belarus has fled the country after disputing the re—election of president alexander lu kashenko in last sunday‘s poll. nationwide protests have continued against a result widely regarded to have been tainted. the police have blocked off city centres and thousands

of opposition supporters have been detained. now on bbc news: panorama. during lockdown, we changed the way we think about food. there‘s a lot of families that have really come into hardship. supermarkets struggled. fresh fruit started to become a challenge and then we got into things like tens and packet. and eating out was ruled out. tried to take the positive that it would only be for a few weeks. those few weeks turned into a few more weeks and it has been really scary. tonight on panorama, five months into the crisis, we‘ve got new habit. people are enjoying

eating together as a family.