this is bbc news, i'm david eades. our top stories. a code red for humanity — a major un report warns that human activity is changing the earth's climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways. the world listened, but didn't hear. but it didn't act strongly enough. and as a result, climate change is a problem that is here now. nobody is safe and it is getting worse faster. feeling the effects in california — almost 10,000 firefighters are now battling blazes across the us state. the president of belarus calls the uk america's lapdog after britain

and the us announce new sanctions against his country over human rights violations. the smallest baby ever born — one year on and this little girl finally leaves hospital for home. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. it's the definitive report on climate change and what, or who, is to blame. the un's special panel, the ipcc, has published its first update in eight years, and pins the warming of our planet firmly on human influence, adding that global warming is still accelerating. the un secretary general antonio guterres says the evidence can not be denied. and 195 countries agree with him, as they have

all signed off on the findings. in short, greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking the planet, and putting billions of people at immediate risk. the report warns that the global average temperature rise could reach or exceed 1.5 degrees celsius in the next 20 years — ten years sooner than expected. it said rising temperatures will cause more frequent, extreme weather events across the globe. and warned that irreversible changes are already ongoing in melting ice sheets, rising sea levels and increasing acidification of the oceans. but the report also stated that climate change could be slowed down, with rapid and sustained emission reductions. 0ur science editor david shukman has this report. as the world gets hotter, it's becoming more threatening. the terrifying scenes of mass escapes from greek islands, burning amid heatwaves, just as devastating fires

also hit california. the new report from the un climate panel says there will be much more of this to come. with a real additional amount of global warning... this major study concludes that temperatures are rising and it is beyond doubt that human activity is driving them up. all the warnings so far have been ignored. the world listened, but didn't hear. but it didn't act strongly enough. and as a result, climate change is a problem that is here now. nobody is safe and it is getting worse faster. people in every region of the world are now feeling the impacts of more violent weather, fuelled by the gases that we release into the atmosphere. it is an absolute fact that human influence is warming the climate, and that is a very stark reminder that it is our activities which are changing

the climate and affecting these extreme weather events and as the planet continues to warm, these consequences just get worse. the scientists are certain of all this because they have got satellites spotting in minute detail how the planet is changing. and teams of researchers out in the toughest conditions, gathering data to help work out what is likely to come next. the big question is how much more the planet will heat up in the coming decades, so scientists explore different scenarios. in two of them, there are rapid and deep cuts in carbon emissions and although the temperature does rise to potentially damaging levels, it isjust about within the limits set by the international community. but in two other scenarios, which are actually much closer to where we are heading right now, the increases are much more dangerous. in the most extreme, where emissions keep growing,

things become catastrophic. but the message is that there is still time to act. in one sentence this report shows that human action has got us to where we are, but human action can also crucially decide how the future will look like. we are not doomed. there is a lot we can all do, like this project in cambridge to fit shades to keep the sun off the windows. this problem is only going to get worse with climate change. we are going to have more and more heatwaves and they will be worse and worse, so that is why i think it makes sense to shade your windows now, start learning how to adapt. but some changes will be far tougher to deal with. the oceans will keep rising, we just don't know how much. the scientists are warning that there is going to be some rise in sea level whatever

we do, maybe half a metre by the end of the century if emissions are brought under control, or one metre if they are not and that would be really devastating for millions of people on coastlines around the world. but they can't rule out a far bigger rise approaching two metres if the polar ice sheets collapse. the great ice sheets are already adding to the level of the sea, but this process may suddenly accelerate. scientists aren't sure, but the implications would be disastrous. india is now in the grip of flooding. higher seas would make it worse. the science has never been so clear that we can head off the worst of climate change, but not all of it, so we urgently need to get ready. for more on the report's

findings, i've been speaking to dr greg flato, vice chair of the ipcc group that authored the report. i think it's clear the scientific evidence is very compelling. during the process we went through over the last two weeks, governments accept that science, and agreed to the summary that was written. it was revised over the course of the two weeks, but this is the most comprehensive and authoritative statement of our current scientific understanding. and some of the areas you look at, you can say categorically, these things are irreversible, for example the sea—level rise. the degree of melting of the ice is irreversible. are they the areas you will be the most about? or are there other aspects? methane has risen up in this report as one of the key areas that has perhaps gone under

the radar a bit. well, methane has been identified as a powerful greenhouse gas all through the ipcc reports, this is now their sixth report. it is the second most powerful greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. so it is well known, it has got more attention recently because methane has a relatively short lifetime in the atmosphere, roughly ten years or so, compared to carbon dioxide, which lasts for many, many decades. so if you can mitigate methane emissions in the near term, you can slow down the rate of warming and see that effect rather rapidly, whereas mitigation of carbon dioxide, the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere stays there for a long time, so you don't see that effect. you see the concentration stabilise, but not go down.

whereas with methane, you can actually make it go down. but you can't stabilise the climate without getting carbon dioxide emissions to net zero. and therein lies one of the biggest challenges. what is your sense of the possibility of doing that? are we getting to the point where, frankly, we havejust pumped too much c02 out now? well, no, because the future warming depends on future emissions, so there is very little commitment to warming in the sense of further increased temperature if we were to magically make all emissions go to zero today, the temperature would stabilise almost immediately. in that sense, it's only our future emissions that determine how warm the climate will get. it's not difficult to illustrate the huge damage being wrought on the planet. greece is continuing

to battle raging wildfires on the country's second largest island — evia. the fires have been burning for a week after the most severe heatwave in 30 years. the greek prime minister said they were facing a natural disaster of unprecedented dimensions and it was obvious the climate crisis was now knocking on the door of the entire planet. more than 600 firefighters are trying to control blazing forests which have destroyed homes and businesses. 0ur correspondent bethany bell reports from evia. fires rage on in evia. it's been a week and they're still not under control here. greece is experiencing its worst heatwave in decades. the searing temperatures and scorching winds mean these forests are like a tinderbox. the flames leave behind a ghostly landscape, white with ash. the fire swept through these hills, killing the trees,

and this is what has been left behind — wreckage and destruction. the ashes are still smouldering. the ground beneath my feet is hot from the blaze. vangelis has come to check up on his family's farm. it belongs to his son—in—law who's off fighting the fires. theirflock of 2,000 sheep and goats used to graze on this hillside, now all lost in this disaster. he says he's never experienced a fire like this before. translation: climate change in my opinion l is hurting the entire planet, and especially these forests, which are flammable. the authorities certainly haven't handled this very well, but the fire was our destiny. no one could have put it out. dozens of wildfires have broken out across greece in recent days. the prime minister says climate change is to blame.

translation: it is obvious that a climate crisis is now— knocking on the door of the entire planet, with fires that last weeks. this is a reason but it's not an excuse nor an alibi, and i will say it clearly — we may have done whatever is humanly possible, but in many cases it did not appear to be enough in the unequal battle with nature. in some areas of evia, the fires only stopped when they reached the sea. many locals say they've been abandoned. they say the authorities haven't done enough to protect the forests and their homes. and with temperatures rising, there are fears of more wildfires like this in the years to come. bethany bell, bbc news, evia. a huge wildfire in northern california is now the second largest in the state's history with thousands of people forced out of their homes.

the dixie fire has been burning for more than 26 days and almost 10,000 firefighters are trying to contain it. the bbc�*s azaday moshiri reports. it's now the second largest fire in california's history. flames so relentless they threaten entire towns. the now infamous dixie fire started almost a month ago in the north of the state, and is now around 2.5 times the size of new york. and there's still no sign of it abating. 11 major wildfires are burning across the state. 489,000 acres of land have been destroyed and only 21% of the blaze is contained. but it's notjust land, but also lives that are at risk. thousands have been evacuated under orders from the state, leaving their homes and their businesses at the mercy of the blaze. we could see the red coming over the hill,

the glow of the fire. it was intense, like the monster it truly is. california's governor gavin newsom walked through the historic gold rush town of greenville, which has been ravaged by the fire and left in ruins. the dries are getting a lot drier, and the heat and hot weather's a lot hotter than it's ever been. extreme weather conditions, extreme droughts, leading to extreme conditions and wildfire challenges the likes of which we have never seen in our history. and as a consequence, we need to acknowledge, just straight up, these are climate—induced wildfires. despite more than 5,000 firefighters battling the blaze, authorities warn it could take weeks to contain. and with rescue workers expecting higher temperatures in the coming days, more of california will be swallowed up by flames. there's lots of information and articles on our website

about the un climate change report, including what each of us can do to reduce our own carbon footprint. chris morris of bbc reality check has made a short film about three things we can do to make a difference. take a look on bbc.com/news or on the news app. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: nasa looks for participants to live in its 3d—printed property that simulates life on the red planet. 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 being buried in saudi arabia, where he lived in exile since being overthrown in 1979. two 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.

billions of people are at immediate risk of the effects of global warming — the un's warning as they release a landmark report that finds humans are to blame for climate change. the un says at least 27 children have been killed in afghanistan amid fierce fighting between the taliban and government forces, as the militant group continues to seize ground. the us has confirmed that its sending its envoy, zalmay khalilzad, to qatar to hold talks over three days to try to bring an end to the current taliban offensive. prince andrew is being sued in new york by virginia roberts giuffre, one ofjeffrey epstein�*s alleged victims. in a statement, ms giuffre said her civil suit lays out in detail how she was trafficked to prince andrew and sexually abused by him. prince andrew has flatly denied all of the allegations against him. 0ur north america correspondent

nada tawfik has more. virginia giuffre's team say they have been trying since 2015 to get prince andrew's representatives to answer what he knew aboutjeffrey epstein�*s alleged sex trafficking ring. last month, they asked his representatives to meet them so they could come to a negotiated settlement over virginia roberts giuffre's claims. they say the prince's team ignored them completely so under this landmark new york state law, the child victims act, they have just a few days to file a lawsuit before she won't be able to in the future, so they have filed the civil lawsuit, they alleged that prince andrew knew she was a sex trafficking victim, knew she was underage, and that she did not consent to the sexual acts in new york, london, the us virgin islands, the occasions she accuses him of sexual abuse. certainly he has previously strongly denied all of the allegations. we have reached out

to buckingham palace and his representatives for comment. the president of belarus says britain can "choke" on the economic sanctions it has imposed on his country in response to human rights abuses. speaking at a press conference, one year since securing a sixth term in a presidential election that many view as fraudulent, alexander lukashenko called britain "america's lapdog" and denied his authoritarian government had used torture and violence to silence dissent. from minsk, sarah rainsford reports. alexander lukashenko calls this his "big conversation." though for over eight hours he did most of the talking. exactly a year after his controversial re—election as president, we were in minsk to question him on the mass protests and the repression that followed. and, on international sanctions, including new measures introduced today by the uk. translation: you can choke

on your sanctions in britain. l we didn't know what britain was for a thousand years and we don't want to know now. you are american lapdogs. applause. but the punishment is for the vicious suppression of the protests and the torture of hundreds of detainees. after such brutality, i wanted to know how alexander lukashenko could possibly stay on as president. translation: it's fake, dear girl. - it's fake. why would they be tortured? they weren't even under investigation. if people had bruises, they got them on the streets when they threw themselves at riot police. well, that was quite a performance by lukashenko. obviously, very comfortable and very confident here, still in his presidential palace. he shrugged off all the accusations, all the criticism, and yet we have been talking to people here in minsk who have suffered a lot

in the past year and who say there is a real sense of fear here now. this attack was fatal. roman bondarenko was beaten, then dragged into custody. he'd been trying to protect opposition symbols on a protest square. his mother isn't even allowed to leave flowers here. roman�*s death sparked more protests and the authorities don't want shrines to him. the only one left is in a secret, secluded spot, where elena goes to remember her son and the price he paid for protesting against alexander lukashenko. translation: people really want change, to stop all this _ violence, the outrageous things happening now. so many honest people have suffered and for nothing at all. i can't get my head around it all. mass protests reduced to hidden shrines, but a year on, the emotions, the anger, have gone nowhere here.

sarah rainsford, bbc news, minsk. never mind life on mars — how about living on mars? well nasa is now on the lookout for four people who will do virtually that — spend a year in a martian habitat, designed to recreate the atmosphere and life that astronauts might experience on the red planet. they will live in mars dune alpha, a 1,700—square—foot habitat, placed inside a building at thejohnson space center in houston. earlier i spoke to melodie yashar, director of architecture and building performance at icon, the company which will help design and build the mars dune alpha habitat for nasa. i asked how on earth one builds up the credentials to work on such an amazing project. that's a great question. we are in a very fortunate position, working with a renowned architecture firm, and together we are synthesising the requirements

compiled by nasa to put together the programme for this habitat. what does that mean in real terms? what are you having to accommodate? we had to accommodate living and working spaces for four crew members to be conducting research and tolerating one another for an entire year, and they will not be leaving, they will have limited communications with outside, and we will be trying to simulate mars mission conditions as best as possible. so is it mostly about the psychology of living together in a very confined space for a long period of time? the mental challenge? or can you replicate the atmosphere or lack of it that they might experience on mars? it is primarily looking at the health of the crew,

performance, psychological issues, and what we would call human factors, having to do with the experience of living in space on a long duration mission. there is so much we don't know about the way crew composition and performance of the team would actually work in the long—term in outer space. we are not looking to simulate some of the atmosphere and environmental factors that would come with the mars mission, which would be drastically different as well. a baby thought to be the world's smallest at birth has been discharged from a singapore hospital after 13 months of intensive treatment. kwek yu xuan was just 212grams — the weight of a hamster — when she was born and measured 2a centimetres long. her mother gave birth to her by emergency c—section four months ahead of schedule after she was diagnosed with pre—eclampsia —

dangerously high blood pressure that can damage vital organs and be fatal for both mother and baby. (yu xuan now weighs a much healthier 6.3 kg. drzubairamirfrom the singapore national university hospital told us how he and his team helped baby yu xuan to survive. so, when we had yu xuan on our hand, of course it was a surprise. and there wasn't any precedent of how to look after such a tiny baby. but our team worked very diligently, and we have our own protocol from previous experience with premature babies, so we implemented that. and we modified our protocol according to the baby's need. so this was a team effort, and we are very grateful to yu xuan�*s parents and to the community that, you know, trusted us to deliver care for her. and she's doing well.

well, many of us have had to endure days of torrential showers, the grass is sodden. what has happened to august, we wonder? i've got some good news — tuesday is looking sunnier and warmer than of late across most of the uk. not absolutely everywhere — we still have a few showers in the forecast in the short—term. here's the unsettled weather recently. you can see the clouds spiralling across the uk, but we've got a gap in the weather. it's called a ridge of high pressure. there's a low heading our way, as well, but this ridge will settle things down on tuesday. so, what's tuesday 6am looking like? a lot of fine, bright, if not already sunny weather across the uk — 13 in london, 10 in glasgow, just the stray shower here and there.

how about the rest of the morning into the afternoon? lots of sunshine, especially across england and wales. in scotland, we're anticipating downpours and thunderstorms to form over the highlands, and they'll probably drift towards the east coast, and there's a chance of a few scattered showers close to the north sea coasts and maybe one or two other areas. but other than that, it's going to be a predominantly sunny day with scattered fairweather clouds, light winds, and very pleasant temperatures. i suspect they'll hit 2a celsius in one or two spots on tuesday. a look at wednesday's weather map. a low is approaching with its weather front. the weather front is approaching western areas of the uk, so the weather will go downhill. 0ut towards the west on wednesday, you can see the rain sweeping in — this is the morning in northern ireland, western parts of scotland, and other western extremities also get the cloud and rain, and a bit of a breeze too. but eastern areas and the southeast should,

at the very least, stay bright and actually quite warm in norwich, up to 2a — that's because, ahead of weather fronts, we quite often have a southerly wind that's strengthening the breeze — not strong, just a light summer breeze keeping those temperatures high enough. now, the weather front moves through the uk on thursday, but notice there's hardly any rain on the weather front, it's literallyjust a line of cloud. that will introduce just slightly fresher conditions to western areas here, but staying warm in the southeast, up to around 211—25 celsius. but in the northwest, close to the centre of the low pressure, it'll stay wet and at times windy.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the un has sounded a dire warning that climate change is unfolding more quickly than feared and humanity is almost entirely to blame. it says ongoing emissions could also see a key temperature limit broken injust over a decade. a thousand more firefighters have joined efforts to tackle wildfires raging in parts of california, including the second largest in the us state's history. it takes the number of personnel to just under 10,000. prince andrew is being sued in new york by virginia roberts giuffre, one ofjeffrey epstein�*s alleged victims. ms giuffre says her civil suit lays out in detail how she was trafficked to the duke of york and sexually abused by him. prince andrew denies all the allegations against him.

now on bbc news, it's hardtalk.