welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: day two of the virtual convention — joe biden is formally picked as the democratic party's election nominee. the former us president, bill clinton gave a speech on why leadership matters. it is trump's us versus them america versus the america of joe biden where we all live and hope together. it is the clear choice. the future of our country is riding on it. the president of mali, appears on state television to announce his resignation after he and the prime minister are arrested by the military in an apparent coup attempt. researchers uncover the unseen scale of plastic pollution clogging the atlantic ocean. and an unwelcome spotlight on the chat show hosted by ellen degeneres — three senior producers are fired for misconduct.

the democratic party in the united states is holding the second evening of its virtual national convention. joe biden will be formally nominated as the party's candidate for november's presidential election. in the next half hour or so his wifejill will deliver the main speech. earlier, during a pre—recorded speech, former president bill clinton said thatjoe biden is the man for america and fiercely criticised president trump for his handling of the pandemic. our correspondent laura trevelyan is in wilmington, delaware — wherejoe biden will make his speech and accept the nomination on thursday. the headlines so far? certainly

former president bill clinton painting a stark choice saying that if president trump is elected for another four years then he will blame bully and belittled but if joe then he will blame bully and belittled but ifjoe biden is elected president then he will build back it up. a stark framing there from former president bill clinton and you also see again democrats trying to show a dig tent showcasing the ethnic regional diversity of america and you see that right now in the rollcall that is happening where all 50 states representatives a re standing up to endorsejoe biden. it is interesting to see how the democrats have done it because it is like a movie set, actually as you go from montano to maine to north dakota they are trying to show exactly what is happening. at the end of that they will be interesting to see whether there is a surprise appearance by joe biden. we are told he will make surprise appearances throughout the week before he speaks on thursday and you would think at

the end of this rollcall when he is nominated by all of states that that could be a so definitely we should keep an eye out for that. an interesting night and the theme is leadership matters. credits trying again to draw a contrast between what they say is donald trump ‘s failing leadership in this moment of coronavirus and economic calamity and what they say would be biden‘s more successful unifying leadership. and a performance from john legend. what is the response to joe biden —— jill legend. what is the response to joe biden ——jill biden being given a prominent role here the former second lady. it comes after michelle obama had a starring role on monday night so starring role on monday night so you have these two powerful women, the spouses of the president and vice president of the previous administration and it is these women who are being given these very prominent roles and you must wonder whether with college educated women in particular being a wea kness

women in particular being a weakness for president donald trump, he has been losing in that demographic since he was elected and crated in that category on the 2018 midterms, whether that by putting these women, these prominent roles, thatis women, these prominent roles, that is trying to really attract even more of that group towards joe attract even more of that group towardsjoe biden. attract even more of that group towards joe biden. president trump himself has been talking about how the nice suburban housewife should love him and so housewife should love him and so clearly suburban women are a key block in this election and you would have to think that the prominence ofjill biden tonight will appeal to that. as an educator she will speak live from the classroom where she once taught as education is a hot topic right now. everyone is struggling with how to return to school in the era of coronavirus so she is bound to reflect on that, you would think, as well as speaking into the leadership qualities of her husband. and we will be back there as soon as we see doctor jill biden come out to speak. earlier you were saying that it

is not unusual in politics to have different versions of reality being presented but these are not just reality being presented but these are notjust different interpretations this week and next they are utterly different and people really have to make up and people really have to make up their minds on this. you can see that democrats who have not had much of a chance to have a voice or to come up with a clear narrative of the trump presidency because of the chaotic nature of it. every day there are new headlines and the president is at the centre of his own reality show, as he said he wants each day of his presidency to feature him and it has, every day. democrats have not been able to respond and this week for the first time they have come up with a cohesive narrative that they have spent 3.5 years thinking about and every day they are trying to home a home a different theme and they are trying to say that he is unfit to lead while building their own narrative. we will get a com pletely

own narrative. we will get a completely diametrically opposed presentation next week. the one thing about this moment is that there are real facts in people live. covid is a real fa ct. people live. covid is a real fact. the economic effect is another effect that you cannot spin and this is what democrats are hoping is an advantage for them but, equally, republicans say donald trump is still trusted more on the economy and they believe that that is where he could come back, that he will be trusted to rebuild more thanjoe will be trusted to rebuild more than joe biden. we'll be back to you shortly but let's hear what alexandria 0casio—cortez had to say. good evening. and thank you to everyone here today and endeavouring towards a better and more just future for our country and our world. infidelity and gratitude to a mass people's movement working to establish 215t—century social, economic and human rights including guaranteed healthcare, higher education,

living wages and labour back rights for all people in the united states. a movement striving to recognise and repairthe striving to recognise and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonisation, misogyny and homophobia. and to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past. a movement that realises the unsustainable brutality of an economy that rewards explosive inequalities of wealth for the few at the expense of long—term stability for the many. and who organised the historic grassroots campaign to reclaim out grassroots campaign to reclaim our democracy. in a time when millions of people in the united states are looking for deep systemic solutions to our crises of max evictions, unemployment, lack of

healthcare and unemployment, lack of healthca re and out unemployment, lack of healthcare and out of a love for all people. i hereby second the nomination of senator benard sanders of vermont for president of the united states of america. and we knew how long she was speaking for because we had to time it because we had to time it because how long she was being allowed to speak for became quite a hot topic. yes. when you think that she is a social media star of the party, the darling of the progressive left, her democratic socialists have had more success in the recent round of primary‘s so there was a lot of feeling that she was not being given top billing that, for example, the former republican governor of 0hio got far more time than she did. so it isjust an interesting tension, really, that clearly the biden campaign does not want to showcase her too much because she is divisive. president trump has

seized upon what he calls the squad, four young women of colour, freshman immigrants selected in the midterms. although she is a star she is also someone that republicans see as a wedge figure so clearly the biden campaign is trying to use her star power carefully. thank you very much for that and we will be back to you injust a moment. the postmaster general of the united states has said he's suspending changes to the postal service, which had led to claims that he was trying to interfere in november's presidential election. louis dejoy — a financial donor to president trump — said no changes would be made until after the poll and he expected postal ballots to be delivered on time. the democratic speaker of the house of representatives, nancy pelosi, dismissed the allegations from president trump. there is no evidence of such widespread fraud and when they asked his chief of staff, ‘you don't have any evidence of fraud in the vote by mail,‘ he said, ‘well you don't have any

evidence that there isn‘t fraud.‘ i mean, really. this is how they insult the intelligence of the american people. and that is why they know they can‘t win the election on the level so they have to lie, cheat and steal, and that is what this is. let‘s get some of the day‘s other news. the disputed president of belarus, alexander lu kashenko, has accused the opposition of attempting to overthrow him by setting up a co—ordination council to facilitate a transfer of power. he‘s threatened action against the 35 members appointed by his main opponent, svetlana tikhanovskaya. the captain of a japanese ship that spilt hundreds of tons of oil off the coast of mauritius has been arrested and charged with endangering safe navigation. crew members told police there‘d been a birthday party on the day the vessel ran aground last month. the ship split in half over the weekend and its bow is being towed away from the reef. actor ben cross, who was best

known for playing athlete harold abrahams in the film chariots of fire, has died at the age of 72. representatives said he died suddenly following a short illness. tributes are flowing on social media with his daughter, lauren, posting she is "utterly heartbroken". president ibrahim boubakar keita has appeared on state tv in mali to announce his resignation, and the dissolution of the government and parliament. he and the prime minister were arrested by the military, in an apparent coup attempt. the move has been condemned by the united nations secretary general and france, the former colonial power. paul hawkins has more. mali‘s rebel soldiers taking mali‘s leaders under arrest away from the presidential palace in the capital bamako. inside the car, president ibrahim boubakar keita and prime minister boubou cisse. no one knew where they were

going, and in the early hours of the morning came this broadcast on state tv. the president resigning and dissolving the country‘s national assembly. "i want no blood to be spilled to keep me in power," he added. in recent months, huge crowds led by this populist imam mahmoud dicko have been calling on the president to step down. a country of 19 million people beset by corruption, a flagging economy, and insecurity caused byjihdists in the north. which is why the rebel soldiers had their supporters. translation: the whole of mali has been liberated by a republican force. the malian people support them from above and from below. we are really very, very happy. there is no education, there is no health, there is no security. he does not want to listen to these people. translation: we are very happy, because this is the liberation of the people of mali. all of mali's people were waiting for this day. all of mali's people

were waiting for the big chief and his men to allow us to breathe. today, honestly, we don't have any words to express what is in our hearts. thank god. the president‘s arrest had been condemned by the economic community of west african states, the african union, the un and france — the former colonial power which has troops based there. many feel this is a rerun of 2012 when the government‘s mishandling of a rebellion led to another coup. violent jihadists took advantage of that chaos to seize northern mali and they are still there today. the seeds of this current coup sown during the previous one eight years ago. many will be hoping now for a smooth transition of power. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the empty cruise ships lining england‘s south coast that have become an unlikely tourist attraction.

washington, the world‘s most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world‘s most powerful man. indeed i did have a relationship with ms lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the last ten days, 500 have died. chanting: czechoslovakia must be free! czechoslovakia must be free! chanting: czechoslovakia must be free! russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 118 submariners who died on board the kursk. we all with them now, within our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more than 2.5 million people in his home town of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us," chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well," joked the pope, "so you want me

to desert rome? " this is bbc news, the latest headlines: day two of the virtual convention — joe biden will be formally picked as the democratic party‘s election nominee. his wife, jill, and former us president, bill clinton will give keynote speeches. the president of mali, appears on state television to announce his resignation — after he and the prime minister are arrested by the military — in an apparent coup attempt. she‘s one of america‘s most popular stars — ellen de generes made tv history 20 years ago when she came out as gay on her comedy show — she went on to present the oscars. now serious allegations of a toxic culture on her long—running chat show have led to three of her top team being fired — and put the whole ellen brand under scrutiny. from los angeles, sophie long.

what can i say? did that not work out? screaming. it is moments and guests like this that have made the ellen show a daytime staple in the lives of millions around the world. turning it into a huge money maker for warner brothers and giving its 62—year—old host, who signs of every episode by saying, be kind, a massive platform. but after years of rumours, a twitter thread asking people to share stories showing that the star did not practice what she preached, lead to damaging media reports and an internal investigation. that has resulted in three top producers being ousted from the show, following allegations of bullying, intimidation and sexual misconduct. they have previously categorically denied any wrongdoing. the hope is that there will be real change behind—the—scenes of the ellen show and across television shows in hollywood. i think the real impact, you know, is to be seen. this is all happening very quickly, this is all unfolding very quickly and it is hard to speculate how a 17—year—old show will change in 2a hours of the news cycle.

ellen degeneres became an icon for lgbt communities around the world when she made history by becoming the first lead character to come out on her own sitcom, ellen, in the 1990s. after an initial backlash, her chat show went on to win tens of emmys and she hosted the oscars, confirming both her star power and her place in television history. during the pandemic, ellen has been hosting her show from her home, but many of the senior producers have returned to work here where it is normally filmed this week. an emotional ellen is said to have told staff she found that the reports are heartbreaking and she said the coming season, due to premiere next week, will be their best ever. early ratings will reveal how damaging this has been, both to her reputation and future

and to that of the show. sophie long, bbc news, los angeles. goodbye, everybody! thank you, new york! the problem of plastic pollution in the seas is well known. but new research has suggested that there could be many more tiny particles of the waste floating just beneath the surface of the atlantic ocean than scientists had realised. the findings, based on an analysis of samples, and on computer modelling, highlight the largely invisible scale of the pollution clogging the world‘s second largest ocean. victoria gill reports. a common sight on any beach walk. plastic that we‘ve thrown away littering the shore and in the decades that our discarded plastic waste has been finding its way into the environment, some of it has broken down into tiny pieces that wildlife can mistake for food, so scientists have set out to find all of that microplastic, particles smaller than the diameter of a human hair, floating in the atlantic. on an expedition from the uk

to the falklands, researchers sieved the top 200 metres of the ocean at different locations and found that between 12 and 21 million tonnes of plastic is floating in the upper layers of the atlantic. by measuring the mass of very small microplastic particles in the top 200 metres of the atlantic ocean, we arrived at a new estimate of the load of plastic in the entire atlantic which is much larger than the previous estimate of 17 million tonnes that we thought we had put in in the past 65 years. the team only search for the three most commonly used packaging plastics, so they say their estimate is likely to be conservative. but what all these microscopic fragments show is that decades of our plastic pollution has been washed out of rivers or even blown on the wind into the ocean. some of that is plastic waste we buried years ago. this is an old legacy landfill site, so this hump of earth

is a landfill site that is not in use any more but all of the rubbish that was buried here, you can see, a lot of it was plastic and it‘s just coming out of the ground as the sea erodes this away. we are going to come out of that for the moment and go straight to the democratic party‘s convention wherejoe biden hasjust been party‘s convention wherejoe biden has just been speaking. applause # celebrate good times, come on!

that was so sweet with the grandkids, yay! and now we have an official nominee... joe biden there officially nominated as the democratic party‘s nominee. this is a big moment? absolutely. joe biden, who has had several failed presidential runs, he is now the nominee for the democratic party. he is taking on donald trump and a little over 70 days time and shortly we‘re going hear from time and shortly we‘re going hearfrom his time and shortly we‘re going hear from his wife and his closest medical advisor, jill biden will speak about why her husband is the man for this moment, in her view and she played an extremely important role in his search for a running mate, and it seems that her advice in weighing in kamala harris was extremely power. it will be very interesting to hear from power. it will be very interesting to hearfrom her another she is thrust into the limelight because when she was

wife of the vice president for those eight years she was low—profile, she had issues, education, community colleges, those were things she was passionate about but of course michelle obama was the first lady, she was the person in the spotlight but tonight we are going to hearfrom spotlight but tonight we are going to hear from jill spotlight but tonight we are going to hearfromjill biden and her own words and it will be fascinating to learn a bit more about, clearly she has played this extremely important role behind the scenes but now she is stepping up centrestage. and laura, you are making a pointjust now, and laura, you are making a point just now, there and laura, you are making a pointjust now, there is a strong political reason why these clearly very capable women are being foregrounded like this. absolutely, because all of the polling shows that donald trump has a problem with couege donald trump has a problem with college educated women in particular, suburban college educated women, that he‘s been losing that constituency, there‘s been an erosion over time since he won in 2016 and if you think about it, it‘s women who tend to run the households, not to be sexist,

make, but i know that i‘ve run mine. it‘s women who are juggfing mine. it‘s women who are juggling work, family, making the decisions and in this area of the coronavirus pandemic when it is impossible to plan from week to week, when women are trying to figure out where their kids are going to be in school, remote school, they can be going to college or sent home because there is a coronavirus outbreak, this is a very anxious constituency right now, looking for guidance of leadership by putting first michelle obama and now leadership by putting first michelle obama and noinll biden, these competent, professional, successful, confident women in these prime time slots, it seems like democrats are trying to appeal to the women of the nation. we keep wondering how this is playing with the voters, it‘s not anything like a normal convention, of course. it‘s a series of recorded inserts, very often. yes, and it is very ha rd to very often. yes, and it is very hard to know. one thing that we do know is that the viewership last night was down 25% for network television compared to

2016, but apparently digital viewing increased, so you could argue that isjust viewing increased, so you could argue that is just reflecting the fact that tv audiences are declining and digital ones are going up. we don‘t really know. we will get some polling next week, see what this week has done forjoe biden but the real testis done forjoe biden but the real test is in little over 70 days time when americans will go to the polls in this historic election. interested to see what lessons the republicans are learning from this for their own convention. right, which is next weekend which is also a scattershot affair president trump will be speaking from the white house, both resident mike pence will be speaking, nikki haley, former ambassador to the united nations will be speaking. she, of course, a very prominent, diverse figure in the republican party, strong woman, so she is someone who is being showcased, the democrats really this week have shown what a big tent they have and how diverse they are. republicans will probably struggle to look as

diverse, but they are certainly going to try to the best of their ability, and remember mike, that voting actually sta rts mike, that voting actually starts in september. some states allow early voting from september and because of the coronavirus pandemic, you have to imagine that more people than ever before will be utilising early voting and there has been a huge fuss here in the states about the united states postal service, president trump has just had to have his nominee in the postal service get rid of their plans to make big changes to the postal service because of concerns that the president was going to try to use the postal service to disenfranchise people because so many americans are going to vote by mail in the selection, so although foreman and leader presidential election isn‘t until early november, the fact is that americans are going to be voting by mail from september. laura, thank you very much indeed for that.

we are going to keep an eye on that for doctorjill biden to appear. we will take you back for that, but in the moment, thank you so much for watching. hello there. if this was autumn or winter, this weather forecast wouldn‘t look particularly unusual but, of course, it is summer. the winds over the next few days are going to be exceptionally strong for the time of year, it could cause some problems. low pressure is in charge, the centre of the low up here, this swirl of cloud. you can see these different lumps of cloud just being scooped up by the low and sent in our direction. this one is going to bring some very windy weather through wednesday night and thursday. this lump of cloud bringing rain into the southwest through the first parts of the day. ahead of that, some areas starting off with some mist and fog, but there will be a lot of dry weather, some spells of sunshine. however, this heavy rain will drift its way northwards across england and wales, getting into northern ireland, and perhaps into southern scotland by the end of the afternoon. the winds will be strengthening all the while, particularly down to the southwest.

temperaturewise, 19—23 degrees, quite a humid feel as well. then as we head through wednesday evening, we will see this band of rain continuing to journey northwards. more wet weather pushing in from the southwest, and the winds really will start to strengthen. now, this area of low pressure has been named by the irish weather service, storm ellen. see all of the white lines, the isobars on this chart, squeezing together. this shows that we‘ve got a very deep low, which for the republic of ireland could well bring damaging winds, exceptionally strong winds for this time of year. but as you can see, those strong winds are also likely to affect western parts of the uk. not as windy as it will be for the republic of ireland, but as we head through wednesday night and through thursday, we are likely to see wind gusts of 40—50 mph, a little more than that in exposed spots in the west. the winds not as strong further east. we will see some outbreaks of rain clearing northwards across scotland, then some sunshine and some showers, temperatures between 21—26 degrees in parts of eastern england. some warm air being sucked up ahead of this area

of low pressure, and the low stays with us into friday. still plenty of white lines on this chart, plenty of isobars, so we will see some pretty strong winds continuing. in fact, for some of us, friday is set to be the windiest day of all. showers or longer spells of rain particularly up towards the northwest. largely dry the further south and east you are with some sunshine. top temperatures of 18—24 degrees. so, some unusually windy weather ahead.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the democratic party in the united states is holding the second evening of its virtual national convention. within the past few minutes joe biden has been formally nominated as the party‘s candidate for november‘s presidential election. to fight president trump for the white house. in the next half hour or so his wifejill will deliver main speech. earlier during a pre—recorded speech former president bill clinton said thatjoe biden is the man for america and fiercely criticised donald trump for his handling of the pandemic. let‘s return now to the democratic party virtual national convention in the us.

she is in wilmington, delaware. he will be formally accepting the nomination on thursday. that‘s right, he well. a very interesting 20 minute when coming up. the next speaker will be the former us secretary of statejohn kerry. he was on a conference call earlier today that i listened in on and the theme of today is leadership matters and kerry is going to be pretty blunt about what he saysis be pretty blunt about what he says is the chaotic world order that donald trump has contributed to. he was saying earlier today, john kerry, that this is the people‘s pitch to america from the democrats that whenjoe biden america from the democrats that when joe biden and america from the democrats that whenjoe biden and barack obama left the office, the economy was strong. they have recovered from the recession of 2008 and america was respected in the world a re america was respected in the world are now people are laughing at donald trump and the world is in chaos. this is whatjohn kerry is going to claim and donald trump and his supporters were absolutely above that. but i think you

will hearjohn kerry being pretty direct