a month after a massive explosion in beirut killed almost 200 people and left 300,000 homeless. rescuers are continuing to search in the rubble for possible survivors after some signs of life were heard on thursday. india has now registered four million cases of coronavirus, with figures reaching record levels almost every day. among the world's most affected countries, the number of new infections is growing fastest in india by some margin. india is currently recording almost 82,000 new cases per day there's been condemnation of the appointment of the former australian prime minister, tony abbott, as an adviser to the new uk board of trade. he has previously been accused of homophobia and misogyny. downing street said that he negotiated a number of trade agreements while pm. the bela russian opposition

leader svetla na tikhan—ov—skaya has addressed the united nations, to discuss the human rights situation in the country. mass protests and strikes have gripped the country after last month's presidential election, which saw incumbant — alexander lu kashenko — claim victory. but the opposition says it was rigged. hundreds have been detained amid claims of human rights abuses. she called on the un to send investigators into belarus . a nation cannot and should not bea a nation cannot and should not be a hostage to one man's thirst for power. and it won't. belarussians have woken up. the point of no return has passed. i want to make it very clear, collaboration with the regime of mr lukashenko at the moment means the support for violence and blatant violation of human rights. i call on the

international community to use all the mechanisms to stop the violence. including sanctions on the individuals that committed electoral violations and crimes against humanity. at the same time, i stress, if lukashenko does the same time, i stress, if lu kashenko does not the same time, i stress, if lukashenko does not represent —— lukashenko does not represent belarus any more. now on bbc news...a behind—the—scenes look at the preparations as some of the biggest names in italian opera gatherfor a glittering night under the stars at the verona arena. music plays. italy, home of opera — and the night the music came alive again at the famous roman arena in verona.

after months of silence, a dazzling gala concert with a big cast of italian opera stars. they sing. i missed to go and to put my feet on the stage — to feel the power of the orchestra. i'm going behind the scenes to find out what the future holds for live opera. music is something that goes

directly to the soul. it's not important, you know, the quality now, we start to think about the quality later, maybe in a few months, but now, let's do music. and will audiences return? i'm from verona, and the arena, it is our place to meet and enjoy music. so it was very important for me to be here tonight — the first occasion of reopening it. he sniffles. sorry. they sing. for an opera fan such as myself, it's a real treat to visit the roman amphitheatre in verona in northern italy — which since 1913, has hosted

a summer opera festival. but it's with some trepidation that i come here, because like many, i'm wondering how live opera performances are going to survive the coronavirus crisis. the arena's general manager and artistic director, cecilia gasdia, has invited me to come and see for myself how she and her team are all pulling together to make this year's festival work. cecilia tells me that social distancing rules mean, for now, opera's are being staged in concert form — with no lavish sets and costumes and without intervals.

cecilia turned to management after a long career as a celebrated soprano. she's performed at the arena and appreciates its marvellous acoustics. the opening concert is dedicated to italy's health workers. about 25 of the country's opera stars are singing

arias from italian opera. i joined them at last—minute rehearsals in a nearby venue. themselves for a live performance after months of lockdown? well, opera singers are a little bit like athletes — their artform is physically demanding, and they have to constantly train and use their voice to maintain their fitness. the world renowned tenor francesco meli and his soprano wife, serena giambrone, could at least practice together during lockdown at home in genoa. the audience is... cos you see... i don't know, many, many people are very different, like the theatre and everybody is here for you, for

the performers, for the... ..to take the emotion, and the whole arena is like this. lockdown has been tough on singers. many artists worldwide like soprano donata d'annunzui lombardi are facing very uncertain futures. i had many cancellations, because i had five productions that were cancelled. this is the destiny for every artist for every singer in this period. but anyway, i think that a real artist is always free to build another world, another... opportunity? yes, opportunity. # ave maria...#. bass baritone alex kept

up his singing via veto ——bass baritone alex kept up his singing via video links during italy's strict quarantine period. alex lost a friend to covid—i9 and believes he suffered himself. i started with symptoms, fever, tiredness, and i lost the taste and the smell. so i'm quite sure that i had it, and i was alone. i would've been scared. you are from bergamot, which is one of the cities that was worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic. how did you feel when all of that was going on? very sad, of course, because i have a lot of friends there and relatives, of course. and they told me the only twos sounds they could hear, it was of the ambulance and the bells of the

church for dead people. so, how did you manage to maintain your normal routine of practising your vocal exercises and so on? of course, when i started to feel better, i thought, what was the future of my life and of myjob, of course and my art? it was soon possible, i started to practice again alone to move my voice and to run to the light because i wanted to exit from this. lombardi was the part of italy at the pandemic‘s epicentre in which 35,000 italians died. milan is the regional capital, and mezzo—soprano annalisa stroppa lives just outside the city. she sings. yeah, the first month for me was totally in silence.

because i feel that the voice didn't want to sing. i was not in a mood. are you worried about the future for opera and future performances in other parts of the world? it's a very worrying period. of course, everybody thinks of how it will be in the future, how we can come back to work. the music is my life. it's not only a job for me. i miss a lot the relationship with the public, i miss to go and to put my feet on the stage — to feel the power of the sounds of the orchestra. mounting operas is extremely expensive, and operating with audiences at greatly reduced capacity is just

not financially viable. how can theatres survive? the arena normally seats 13,500, but with current guidelines, that's had to drop right down to 3,000. outside the arena, i see a group of artists demanding more government funding for the arts. as general manager, cecilia gasdia oversees 1,400 staff at the arena di verona. her leadership qualities were apparent from childhood. she was the second of three daughters.

but could nature wreck months of planning? there is heavy rain in the run—up the concert. even the 14th century italian poet dante seems to be wondering if the weather will spoil it. relief all around, the sun

appears for the stars of italian opera. and as final preparations get under way, i catch up with one of the conductors, ricardo frizza, and ask him what it's like to conduct an orchestra with new social distancing rules. it's difficult, it's not the same as before. because, of course, the more distance between the musicians, there's been more complications for the ensemble, for them playing together. does the music suffer in quality because of social distancing, in your opinion? yes. it lacks a bit of precision. but i think it's better to lack precision than stop the music. music is something that goes directly to the soul, it's not important, you know, the quality now. we will start to get into the quality may be later,

in a few months, but now, let's do music. 0ne singer lumbers up his voice at the arena and attracts a few curious passersby. he sings. at last, the countdown begins. well, there's an air of nervous expectancy. it's just over an hour before tonight's gala concert begins, and the tension is almost palpable. musicians from the orchestra slowly taking up their position behind me, and also members of the audience are taking their place. this is the first time that the arena di verona is staging a live performance since lockdown ended. there are even some members of the paparazzi assembled, because there are various

dignitaries in the audience, including the president of the italian senate. it's also a return to the arena for locals and visitors. why have you decided to come to the opera tonight? to support the arts, but also because a lot of people every year come here to verona to see the opera. i still remember when i came to my office, because i still had the right to go to the office, most people couldn't. and i live just a few streets down there, and i came to my office which is over here, and the entire square was a total desert. it was so heartbreaking. so unbelievably heartbreaking, and it's so great to see it alive again. i think it's very important for the people staying in verona. and are you nervous about sitting in the audience with many people? no. no, no. absolutely not. this isn'tjust an important event for the arena di verona. it's also very significant

for the whole of the italian nation, because it represents a reawakening of the country's culture. there is one big difference, though, this time, hand sanitiser, and i have to help my temperature checked... ..before i can go in. and unless you're performing, masks are compulsory. gong rings. and they like to start them young at the arena di verona. six—year—old lucas conducts the national anthem. and then we are in for a treat, as one opera star after another performs solo on stage.

she sings. so, annalisa stroppa, and the audience absolutely love her. she's a very attractive, engaging performer — singing aria there, rosina in the very popular barber of seville by rossini, and rosina determined to use all her wiles to capture

the heart of her dashing lover. he sings. and now we have donata lombardi — who is singing, again, a very famous aria from tosca by puccini. she sings. violin plays.

he sings. so, you can see how

the audience absolutely loved francesco meli — singing an aria there from il trovatore by verdi. the knight talking about his eternal love for his fiancee, leonora. and considered to be the leading tenor here in italy, francesco meli, and, you canjust tell from the reaction of the audience here that they loved it. bravo! she sings. applause. he sings.

and the last performer is the extraordinary baritone, leo nucci, singing in aria for my favourite opera — rigoletto by verdi. he sings.

applause. then the artistic director cecelia gasida joins in the finale — a personal triumph for her. the arena di verona

has not been silenced. they sing. burnt in subs. the title of the rousing popular neapolitan song which the opera stars sing at the end of the concert is ‘o sole mi —, meaning "oh, my sunshine."

well, with economic downturns and warnings of new waves of covid—i9, let us indeed hope that we can all look forward to a sunnier future. hello there. our weather is going to stay pretty quiet into the weekend, but it's often going to be quite cloudy, just like it was today for many of us. we had skies like these in herefordshire, but those kind of skies were quite widespread across england and wales today. further north, there is a bit of sunshine from northern ireland, scotland, on the far north of england, where we've also had some passing showers as well. the satellite picture picks up on those shower clouds across the northern half of the country, with that thicker layer of cloud

across england and wales. but spitting out into the atlantic, we're looking at the next weather system just upstream. this area of cloud just passing to the south of iceland is racing towards our shores just in time for this weekend. overnight tonight, we're going to see some cloud and probably some rain for a time, working across east anglia and southeast england. it won't last very long and it will clear out of the way, followed by clear skies. notice those showers will continue across the north and west, particularly for northwest scotland, although there will be a few in northern ireland and the northwest of both england and wales overnight. temperatures at 8—12 celsius. heading into the weekend, as i've already hinted at, it looks pretty cloudy, really. there'll be some rain around, likely to be quite patchy, quite light, not really amounting to too much. and it will tend to be biased across northwestern areas initially on saturday, a few sunny spells around as well. for northern scotland, showers from the word go. some of those still quite blustery, quite heavy, but some bright and sunny spells between these. a lot of cloud elsewhere though, particularly for northern ireland and for the northwest of england and wales

with patchy outbreaks of rain coming and going here. could turn out to be quite a damp day, although the rain probably not too heavy. and there will be some areas that stay entirely dry. southern wales, parts of southern england, maybe areas of eastern england and eastern scotland as well having the best of the dry conditions. the second half of the weekend again looks pretty cloudy, and there will be some further patches of rain developing. but notice the rain this time could be a little bit further eastwards. scotland, meanwhile, should have a drier day, particularly through the central belt, with some bright or sunny spells getting through here, and showers becoming increasingly limited to the far north east of scotland. on into next week, we have areas of low pressure passing to the north of the uk with weather fronts sliding and snaking across central portions of the uk. all in all, it looks like it will be quite cloudy with those weather fronts still bringing the threat of a little bit of rain. it turns a little warmer for a time across the south and east. that's your weather.

this is bbc news, i'm james reynolds. our top stories: as india hits 4 million coronavirus cases, experts warn the pandemic there could spiral out of control. lebanon marks a month since the explosion that destroyed large parts of beirut, killing nearly 200 people. the former australian prime minister tony abbott is appointed as a trade adviser to the uk, despite critics describing him as a misoygynist and a climate change denier. and barcelona superstar lionel messi changes his mind over leaving barcelona — he says he doesn't want to drag the spanish club into court.