Are arrested by the military in an apparent coup attempt. Countries led by women fare significantly better in the fight against covid i9. A new study shows female leaders reacted more efficiently and more effectively. Hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. Were covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. First, on the second night of the predominantly virtual Democratic National convention, joe biden has been officially nominated as the partys candidate for the presidency. The convention heard, among others, from his wife, and former president bill clinton. Joe bidens wifejill biden ended the second day of the convention saying how her husband will bring the country together. How do you make a broken family hole . The same when you make a nation whole, with love and understanding, and with a small act of kindness, with bravery, with unwavering faith. You show up with unwavering faith. You show up for each other, in big ways and small ones, again and again. It is what so many of you are doing right now, for your loved ones, for complete strangers, for your communities. There are those who want to tell us that our country is hopelessly divided, that our differences are irreconcilable, but that is not what i have seen over these la st what i have seen over these last few months. The bbcs Laura Trevelyan had this assessment ofjill bidens speech. It was interesting, she used the silence of the classroom, which she put down to the pandemic and to the failure of donald trump and she said that joe biden would bring america back and she used the tragic story of the death ofjoe bidens wife and daughter in the car crash and how she came on the scene at the age of 26 and then she drew parallels with america, abdrabbuh make a broken family whole . The same way you make a nation whole, with love and understanding. So she has said she has witnessed joe biden first hand bring a broken family together and that she knows he can do that for america. Nothing about policy specifics, all an entirely emotional appeal to americans, fraught with anxiety over coronavirus and this is the picture fromjill coronavirus and this is the picture from jill biden that joe biden will be a reassuring man who can unite us and the question is, will this work . Are people open to this approach . She was certainly a very powerful advocate for her husband there. Joining me now is Amanda Renteria who worked as National Political director for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 president ial run, and is now the ceo of code for america. Thank you for being on the programme. First of all, give us programme. First of all, give us your take on how the second night has gone . It was a great night, you know i think there we re night, you know i think there were many questions as to how much the programme would be about donald trump and how much it would be about the Democratic Party and what you thought today was really the conversation around who we are asa conversation around who we are as a party and who we are as a country. It was the first time in the country we have ever done a rollcall that really changed the feature of the different states and there was a lot of talk about what a wonderful display that was, not only the different state think voices but the new leaders of the party. And then the and sink the engine with doctor jill biden really tell the story that showed not only who jill biden is at the heart of the family and their story and how it matches todays time. I think it was a really fantastic day also and pulled on the heartstrings that you really need at this point in the country and at this point in the election. Earlier in the evening we heard from former president bill clinton stop of course, Hillary Clinton was running last time and you working with her. How is the biden couple say different to the clintons and is that difference going to make the difference going to make the difference in november . difference going to make the difference in november . I think the country knows bill and hillary really well, they knew them very well going into it. What was interesting about tonight, yes, people knowjoe biden but they are getting to know the full depth of his career, the depth of the relationships he has had but tonight was about getting to know tonight was about getting to knoinll biden, what would it be like to have doctorjill biden as first lady and people got to see a teacher, a mother, a mother step into a heart wrenching story about a family that really faced some tragedy and so, i think that, that very story was quite different with what you saw with the clintons but there are also some connections that are the same. Bills ability to connect with people on screen, joe biden s ability to connect with people on screen, that is something that shows to be a successful path for any president. You talked about the new leaders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez also spoke today, this particular evening, she only got 90 seconds. Would you say that was very specific, that she would not get much time because she is from the far left and we dont want to see the biden s as puppets of the left . I think there is quite a bit of conversation about that and i probably think personally she should have had more time than that. On the other hand, it doesnt take a lot of time on these new Convention World to get your point across and when she talked about racism and homophobia, it made a huge difference, not only for those listening out there but really what will be a continual conversation on the party, particularly for a Younger Generation to make sure that any new leadership is held accountable for pushing the country accountable for pushing the cou ntry forward accountable for pushing the country forward and i think she did that in the 90 seconds she had and certainly i think there will continue to be a discussion and this election cycle, how much isjoe biden talking to the young progressives and how much is that he bringing on new voices and what i know about winning and what i know about winning an election, you need all of it and particularly in this election cycle. Commander, thank you for talking to us you. Thank you for your analysis. Just to say, so much detail on that on the website they do take a look amanda, thank you for talking to us. 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. Malis rebel soldiers taking malis leaders under arrest away from the president ial 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 countrys 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 malis people were waiting for this day. All of malis people were waiting for the big chief and his men to allow us to breathe. Today, honestly, we dont 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 governments 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. The disputed president of belarus, alexander lu kashenko, has accused the opposition of attempting to overthrow him by setting up a Coordination Council to facilitate a transfer of power. Hes threatened action against the 35 members appointed by his main opponent, svetla na ti kha novs kaya, saying he had the means to cool down hotheads. Ireland has significantly tightened its nationwide coronavirus restrictions after a rise in new cases, asking everyone to restrict visitors to their homes, avoid public transport and for older people to limit their contacts. And france, which is also facing a rising infection rate, has made facemasks compulsory in most workplaces from the first of september. The new rule is likely to apply to all shared spaces in offices and factories where there is more than one employee present. New research out of the university of liverpool has revealed countries with female leaders have had significantly better covid i9 outcomes, locking down earlier and, on average, suffering half as many coronavirus deaths as male leaders. The study analysed cases and deaths across 194 countries, of which 19 are led by women, considering a number of factors including gdp and population density. New zealand, led by Prime Ministerjacinda ardern, was the first country to record zero cases over consecutive days. While germany, led by chancellor Angela Merkel was the first to resume competitive top level sports. Professorjennifer curtin is the director of the Public Policy institute at the university of auckland and shejoins me now. Good to talk to you. So this is a study that now puts on paper as it were what people have been discussing for quite a few weeks around the world. Tell us more about what the university of liverpool found . More about what the university of liverpool found . Was very interesting about the study is that they have put as many countries as possible into their study so before it was, if you only looked at women lead countries, then yes you got a good news story but u nless got a good news story but unless you compare them with the countries led by man, you could not really say for sure whether gender was a factor. What they have found is that, yes, Women Leaders do make a difference and their reasoning or speculation or hypothesis for why this may he is that it looks like Women Leaders may be more risk averse to the human cost of the disease, visibly, the Economic Cost and what they do is look at the scholarship on leadership and that historically at least, mail leaders are meant to be more risk averse on economic factors which is why they left the borders open and the economy to run longer and as a result there have been higher human cost male leaders. There have been higher human cost male leaders. Also, does the study take into account differences between countries, for example, many would argue it is unfair to say, well, look how well new zealand has done, led by jacinda ardern, compared to the uk, led by borisjohnson, both islands but completely Different Countries with Different Countries with different pressures and Decision Making, Decision Making, Decision Making is a different process in Different Countries, surely . They have tried to counter that by doing paired comparisons of like it versus like, that they have paired new zealand with ireland, for example, and they have paired the uk with germany and other such pairings. What this study does because of the kind of things they are interested in testing, what they leaves out is not just testing, what they leaves out is notjust the islands factor but also the preservation of governments that these Women Leaders are in charge of, so they are not traditional neoliberal style governments, so neoliberal style governments, so they are slightly more progressive and slightly more likely to think that the role of the state is about looking after people in both a healthy sense as well as an economic sense, instead of focusing just on the economy. Really interesting. Professor, thank you for your time. Stay with us. Still to come researchers uncover the unseen scale of plastic pollution clogging the Atlantic Ocean. Washington, the worlds most political city, is today assessing the Political Health of the worlds 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 on the second day of their virtual convention, the Democratic Party in the United States formally choosesjoe biden to be its president ial nominee. 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. 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 worlds second largest ocean. Victoria gill reports. A common sight on any beach walk. Plastic that weve 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 set out to find all 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 i2 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 searched 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 anymore, but all of the rubbish that was buried here, you can see, a lot of it was plastic isjust coming out of the ground as the sea erodes this away. So even when this plastic is disposed of formally and put into landfill, its finding its way out of the ground and into the sea. Even through the coronavirus pandemic, volunteers have continued to pick up plastic litter from beaches. Some environmental groups say the pandemic itself has reignited our addiction to single use plastics. The disposable mask is now more pervasive than ever. We find more disposable masks than plastic bags on beaches. What were really asking is that, as much as possible, for people to reduce their use of single use plastic and if people can dispose of it carefully. Over the years, much of this pollution has become too small to see. But as this research reveals, it isnt going away. Victoria gill, bbc news. The postmaster general of the United States has said hes suspending changes to the Postal Service, which had led to claims that he was trying to interfere in novembers president ial 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. Tanya dendrinos reports, in the age of coronavirus, the American Postal Service will play a central role in delivering democracy. And how it does that has been a big political issue. First, the president said no to any additionalfunding. President said no to any additional funding. They want 3. 5 billion dollars for univers