Use of an adjective instead of adverb with gerund?

I keep hearing on the BBC channel their self-commercial that goes like "We are the leaders in global breaking news". Folks, could anybody kindly explain to me how come that structure is grammatically possible? My layman's understanding is that if gerund is used as a verb, "breaking" (breaking WHAT? breaking news) then only an adverb can be used to characterize the action. That is "breaking news globally", unless "breaking" is meant as as an adjective describing news, which doesn't seem to make any sense. Thanks for any comments.

Solution 1:

The term 'breaking news' is a fixed expression as defined in this Oxford Dictionary:

[mass noun]

Newly received information about an event that is currently occurring or developing.

‘some breaking news now of a rescue situation in California’

‘the announcement will likely be the lead story for the broadcast, barring other major breaking news’

So 'breaking' here isn't a verb that takes 'news' as object.

The best way to learn these things is by simply getting used to these fixed expressions.

Technically, 'breaking' can be a verb that takes 'news' as object, but these are normally limited to 'the news' as in:

I hate to break the news to you, but you're wrong.

BBC was the first to break the news.

But this sounds unidiomatic if not ungrammatical:

We are the leaders in breaking news globally.

EDIT

I need to clarify my position about whether breaking in breaking news is a verb or an adjective.

When I said:

'breaking' here isn't a verb that takes 'news' as object

I didn't mean that breaking in breaking news is not a verb but an adjective, although OED cited in the other answer disagrees. What I meant was only that it is not a verb that takes 'news' as object. But it still is a verb (and not yet an adjective), a verb that doesn't take 'news' as object, i.e., an intransitive verb.

According to The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (page 541), sleeping in a sleeping child is not an adjective but a verb, and this is what the book says about the criterion for determining whether a participle in a pre-modifying construction is a verb or an adjective:

In general, we will take the form as a verb if it cannot function as a predicative adjective. We have already seen that sleeping has no predicative adjective use; cf. also a smiling face, the sinking ship, a dying man, etc.

That is, if a participle in a pre-modifying construction cannot function as a predicative adjective, the participle is a verb.

The child is sleeping.

The face is smiling.

The ship is sinking.

The man is dying.

In none of the above examples can the participle function as a predicative adjective; it can only function as a verb embedded in the progressive construction.

Now turning to the current example:

The news is breaking.

Here, breaking cannot function as a predicative adjective, either. Therefore, breaking in breaking news (as well as in late-breaking news) is a verb, despite OED's classification otherwise.