Tries to help, having left after breaking news during dinner perhaps (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
means well
'tries to help' is the definition.
'left after breaking news during dinner perhaps' is the wordplay.
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'breaking news' becomes 'nswe' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'during' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'dinner perhaps' becomes 'meal' (dinner is a kind of meal).
'nswe' inserted into 'meal' is 'meanswel'.
'l' after 'meanswel' is 'MEANS WELL'.
'having' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for means well that I've seen before include "full of good intentions" , "tries to be generous" .)