Your morning briefing: What you should know for Friday, August 7

Protestors clash with police in Beirut following deadly explosion

Anti-government protests have broken out in Beirut following a deadly explosion in the city.

Lebanon officers reportedly deployed tear gas near parliament as they clashed with demonstrators last night.

Protestors were angered by Tuesday's devastating explosion, which officials said was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely at the port since 2013 .

Many people in Lebanon believe government negligence led to the blast, which killed at least 145 people.

Temperatures to fall just shy of record as heatwave continues

Forecasters are expecting today to be one of the hottest days ever recorded, but temperatures will fall shy of the highs seen this time last week.

People are being warned not to get "caught out" by soaring temperatures, as the country will be hotter than some of Europe's top holiday destinations, including Ibiza and Tenerife.

The mercury is set to rise to at least 37C in London and the South East later, on the second day of a heatwave that could last into next week.

But is now unlikely that temperatures will surpass the 37.8C recorded in Heathrow on July 31, which was the hottest day of the year so far and the UK's third warmest ever.

Trump threatens to 'close down' TikTok as he orders ban on transactions with Chinese firm's owners

US President Donald Trump has ordered an unspecified ban on "transactions" with the Chinese owners of the consumer apps TikTok and WeChat.

Mr Trump had threatened a deadline of September 15 to "close down" TikTok unless Microsoft or "somebody else" bought it.

TikTok, Microsoft and WeChat owner Tencent did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was expanding the US crackdown on Chinese technology to personal apps, mentioning TikTok and WeChat by name.

Cummings’ lockdown trip 'drastically undermined public trust in Government'

Dominic Cummings' trip to Durham at the height of lockdown drastically undermined public trust in the Government's handling of the pandemic, according to new research.

The analysis, conducted by University College London (UCL), found the actions of the Prime Minister's chief adviser reduced people's willingness to follow social distancing rules.

Published in the Lancet, the research analysed 220,000 survey results from 40,000 participants in UCL's Covid-19 social study between April 24 and June 11.

Daisy Edgar-Jones makes Vogue’s list of 25 most influential women of 2020

Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones features alongside the Queen, Rihanna and Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis in Vogue’s list of this year’s most powerful women.

The fashion bible’s annual list selects "the women of the moment” who are leading us through 2020 with “prescience, power and poise".

This year's edition of Vogue 25 seeks to highlight how, during the coronavirus pandemic, "as priorities shifted so did the spotlight".

The magazine describes Edgar-Jones as "the star of the lockdown must-watch Normal People" and notes that the BBC Three show's release during Covid-19 "accelerated" her "rise to fame".