on the line from his home in the olden beirut. for the past hour or so we've been looking at these remarkable pictures from beirut police have been firing tear gas was a candidate account of the protesters who've been demanding a resolution to the country's financial economic crisis at the end of a week of rage they've called it hundreds perhaps even thousands of protesters have been involved in running battles with security forces who've been firing tear gas canisters out of the protesters have been using throwing fireworks back at the police the demonstrators angry over plans by the ruling party to form a couple of from the current political crisis we'll continue to work monitor the situation well you'll watching people in power on al-jazeera.

the form of the bully mall just over 30 years ago came amid sweeping changes that would end the cold war and see the downfall of corrupt authoritarian regimes across the city here it's 3 decades on the pro-democracy optimism of those days has turned sour xenophobia and nationalism on the rise political corruption is not going away in the 2nd of 2 special reports we've been told kerry have remained yet and wasp-y. the lessons of history haven't.

peace in europe 30 years after the end of the cold war. best set with rising ultranationalist and and struggling to find answers to hatred and corruption. the euphoria that swept the continent 30 years ago in the wake of the fall of the bird in war seems like a distant dream. within 2 months communist dictatorships from the baltic to the black sea where i stood there and curtain was gone europe appeared to be on the brink of a brighter future. but these hopes were dashed perhaps nowhere more so than bulgaria a country which despite the propaganda enjoyed one of the most repressive communist

dictatorships. when the red army marched into bulgaria in the dying throes of world war 2 it began a reign of terror that lasted 46 years some little bit that there's a part of it then yup a whole mess it's better to put it so they but then are says there is some original sin and i said that he said here. everyone was targeted intellectuals peasants and iris to cry at. one of the 1st victims of communism was king simeon the 2nd ascended the throne aged 6 after the mysterious death of his father's zol boris the 3rd he was reportedly poisoned on hitter's orders for refusing to send bulgarian jews to nazi death camps. the thing that struck me was that all of a sudden my father's a.d.c. address me as your majesty which of course he only used for my father and that's

when i suddenly realized that my father was no more but that's. a tiny detail but of course afterwards i was a. pose to be the king and act like a grown up in spite of my age. the red omi killed simians uncle the regent and exiled the boy king and his mother it would be whole a century before he could return it was in the moment i said foot physically on it was when the plane touched down on the runway where i had tremendous sort of emotion in my wife realized that because it was actually 50 years later that suddenly i was landing in bulgaria it was a land unrecognizable to the king he later served briefly as prime minister a command economy and transformed the country almost everything of value had been taken from the people and put in the hands of the state. and we know the full

horrors of the regime were coming to light. this is better than a. a concentration camp that operated well into the 1980 s. . built on an island in the middle of the time there was no chance of escape for the thousands of political prisoners who were sent. for unless the. continent like it is sort of bogus that the so to let this get that. one man who survived this ordeal is petco. in his eighty's one of the. well i took the you know. who. knew nothing in the room with my own trunk and then you come on i'm going to

vomit it there. and you love the. 2 2 2 2 little. guy who conclusively and then had to call. the kind of the. bell is part of this and blood that to our off $8.00 to $6.00 concentration camp in bulgaria. to tell the people who have been there and most of them found they're there. for them in the food to leave in the heart of the back a bed no lives out the best in mobile that flood to me is is bulgaria's leading novelist he is chelate it will gary's transition from communism to democracy a period of lost opportunities in 1990 there was name meaningful change of

government he say's the communist party simply changed its name to the socialist polity divorces in the billy mitchell to galveston minister put it up though and they all conall fits the bell haldimand guzzle drew gotti you know the child i'm them your name not surprisingly the economy collapsed and almost one in 3 bulgarians left the country. gels name one into 19 again that night bill got any the day he quit to morgan days you could do with me 70 horses professing horrors of the most the dust from 10 a post and. when i went to one temple thinkable gaiety the population hemorrhaged leaving the elderly behind. today there are 1500 deserted villages throughout bulgaria. we met stefan the last inhabitant he cannot

longer afford electricity. he took us to one of the many deserted hines's. steffen believes the situation is saved but things were actually better under the communists got up on the but. many of bulgaria's rural villages have become ghost communities we've got a major problem which is shall we say in their make and that's of the past 20 or so years we are decreasing there's a lot of villages which are empty this is sad phenomena. those let's build by the country's lastic take a total shake of. is emblematic of the problem. the

space age structure was once a shaped piece headquarters for the politburo. it's not a derelict the authorities cannot afford either to maintain or to demolish it. remains frozen in time a surreal reminder of a communist legacy that still dogs bulgarian. over the border in remain here an equally dog story is still a merging a nondescript complex on the outskirts of the capital duke arrest as is the archive of the security remain use feared secret police during communism demeanor and a cash has been sifting through the files since they were opened to the public in 2005 the condition for remaining is entry into the e.u. . this place to put it matter for italy. is valuable for

munster. the most sinister library you can imagine it's a naval library actually. there nowadays it's a documentary file with the letters written from the prison on the bed sheets one of the ladders is addressed to the united nations we ask the united nations organization to defend the human rights fear are there or are there we are masters of the romanian nation and he thought which is not according to the line of the party. it means our imprisonment isolation andar. one of communisms most infamous dictators nicolas church asking remaining in to europe's closest equivalent to north korea. coming to power in 1965 church s.q. developed his own personality cult. the cheering crowds masked as

a regime characterized by arbitrated tension execution without trial and most nutrition while the dictator and his wife lived the high life. churches queues prisons like this one a july of now life empty but estimates of the number of people jailed for political reasons run into the millions. let me show you all some other things this time it's from beyond off a this this are all recruited month papers for pupils they recruited youngsters will be coming for months in schools this is corrupting the young generation of a country and destroying it's in our souls it's in our. you know bone structure. the end when it came was swift and brutal for the

church eskies an uprising in timisoara 500 kilometers to the east was spreading towards the capital and when the dictator an address to the people and revolution square the writing was already on the wall. ceausescu and his wife can be heard off camera ordering the people to be clients. with the tried out of control the ceausescu's fled only to be captured and taken to a military barracks in triggered at least an hour from the capital where a young omi captain found himself face to face with the form a tyrant of the. war show of the stuff going to ship the stuff will be great. for his him broke windows but even if so without effort of.

course the court just sort of got out got out the up most remarkable. young. there were not of the thought of the trial was broadcast to the nation. the such as skiers were taken to this spot and summarily executed the pictures were broadcast immediately you can still see the bullet holes. i only ask you a former communist minister who had been dreams to succeed the dictator seized power claiming to be a democrat. he alleged that terrorists were threatening the country and unleashed the full force of their own me in the resulting chaos a that 800 people lost their lives in peace and you can self has honest one. and the one did not in french himself but on that new theme how about the rest of

his cronies one of the also poor. boffing still iliescu would serve 3 terms as president of roumania during which time none of his former communist colleagues were brought to justice his party the social democrats has enjoyed a near monopoly on power romania was a country that decided to hide dirt on the carpet and hope that if we don't disclose the inconvenient tools. those realities are going to go away with the former communists in power the wealth of the country was plundered the economy collapsed and widespread poverty pushed millions to the bread line it wasn't until remain you joined the e.u. that things began to change under pressure from brussels the national and to corruption directorate was founded chief prosecutor. began to indict high ranking politicians. controversially she relied heavily on wiretapping and covertly

filming. her. cos course this was remain useful minister of agriculture films taking a bribe almost 1400 individuals were convicted including 5 ministers 18 judges 11 state prosecutors and 24 mans before 2012 we never had me in this county convict it for corruption. frankly magine the shock of the political class. livy you drag and i until recently the leader of the social democrats who was banned from becoming prime minister because of a previous conviction tried to portray convey she's war on corruption as an attack on human rights and drafted new legislation which would effectively notify all court cases against him and his fellow politicians. access graphics at the chance

that enjoy that evidence that muddy become rich tell its god it was. there push it a bit does fundamentality she take out of what disappointingly i just up was it for dragnet it was a question of survival the appeal courts were about to hear a number of cases against him should the crimes no longer be illegal he was off the hook. when last year he finally succeeded in firing convention it looks like he had won but kept there she remained defiant but if you didn't. know if you saw her there as those still fringe at a drag name is apparent picture e was too much for the people almost 30 years on from the toppling of ceausescu revolution square was once again occupied 580-0000 protesters. all day most days

and the last day as you know when i was was for the for the rule of law and for justice. the riots police were instructed to break up the peaceful protests they started fire with any small grenades fired but they they did not shoot them in the air and they fired through us and they took up out of my leg dory nearly died from his injury hundreds were hospitalized the future of roumania hung in the balance indeed it was a cliffhanger because if you modify the criminal legislation them everything is gone and this is what they tried to do but under pressure from the people the law makers failed so pushed through the legislation and truck name is behind bars serving a 3 year prison term. even iliescu once seen as the hero of the revolution is facing charges of crimes against humanity for staging or to in order to seize power

he denies any wrongdoing we didn't have a revolution he $89.00 it was just the cold that we thought that it was a revolution but behind people's back somewhere the eggs for my genitals of the remain a secret police they just try to get rid of and they take power they transform from the social democrats and they said now everything is ok we have the. but in fact it was just you know it was a fake democracy. but. state corruption brings thousands of young protesters onto the streets of bucharest it's a completely different story in per capita warsaw. this is independence day it started as a small event with just a few 100 people but over the years in groups and in the last years it had about

$200000.00 people which makes it the biggest far right gathering and they were and i think the. the growth. of this one event you know strengths and the social acceptance of the core nationalist ideology especially among among the younger people. poland is governed in name by journalist not kaczynski leader of the lauren justice party which won power in 2015. others took the office of prime minister and president but no one is in much doubt about who is in show much. kocinski swished the cemented his government's authority by purging national t.v. of independent journalists and pushing for state control of the judiciary. they get are usually the only other not limited to other hold into yet another plan are selling all the large clubs i'll push to get some of that set up he don't like even

here you've got some who don't now there's a kick out. the ass or the government are sure recipe for disaster germany never had a more natural with the government mess with those words right. and it didn't get rid of the rest of the world it produced the great curtain to remember history after. the holocaust museum in warsaw best testimony to horrors committed to join the 2nd world war when 6000000 polish citizens perished many its death camps like i should. but in recent years fuse once thought consigned to history have returned. an effigy of acidic was burned while a moped cheered in the city of rocks last shortly after the law and justice party came to power 4 years ago. it's not an isolated case the

most recent incident was in april 2019 and the time to approach. this is the kind of expression of on tenuous sentiment that we didn't see in this country for many many years however the rising tide of anti semitism was drawing international condemnation other targets of populist rhetoric fire and. in the run up to the general election in october 2019 kaczynski turned his file on the l g b t community yeah. yeah. yeah now even . one newspaper began offering l g b t freezing stick as swig nick was one of several times that claim to be l g b t free ahead of the election if you think collaring are eligible to be free zone

it's the people that the pirates and you get stalin some being thrown on to people and. someone decides to go on a people hunt. of course many ordinary poles are horrified at the rise in hate speech but in october 2000. 19 things reached a new low a pride march in the city of blue blame. the police caught a couple who brought out. a bone. to the lodge and they were headed to detonate it and the police experts sat if it's happens it might have killed people. electro and so from a shipyard worker and poland's elder statesman a look at the naval peace prize to steve and his country to democracy is an outraged. status from to recommend climate here should the mission face the love. misanthropy of parts of france she has used the example to marry now the thoughts

of me that the mission your poem nobody's move that you're involved. in the 1980 s. poland was the epicenter of the cold war the solidarity movement headed by leko and organize strikes in the get done 6 shipyards which quickly spread across the country prompting the communist authorities to declare martial law. solidarity held its name and before the decade was out poland had democracy. but earlier this year another event brought to its foundations. of a time of age the city's mayor for 20 years was stabbed by a man a stone too and i've been asked day as a national charity event. the killer condemned the civic platform policy which opposes the current government as he murdered the damage that.

the dumb a bitch spoke up for minorities and condemned him a phobia like his close friend like fellow and he was true teenie attacked by the state controlled media. just over. the 12 month of the prickly because there. you are here are news and public can be more than $100.00 per hour and all of them in the negative. with wide spread to the vacation the dumb a bitch feared for his life in one extreme case and the far right national news drop or publishing of produced a symbolic death certificate which dave buster out in a city but the police dropped the investigation just one or 2 weeks. before he was killed in. the assassination coming 30 years after the 1st free elections in poland

casts a shadow over the good danske where the struggle for freedom against communist rule had its 1st victory not only in poland but arguably in the whole of eastern europe as a vote again upwards here could guys elect someone as are more democrats here on earth as the next advisory a populist i mean there might be mommy quote but. the reelection of gyrus kaczynski is lauren justice party just 2 weeks before the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall center a chill wind across the continent of europe. in several countries but once communism held sway not a populist nationalism dominates some of the rhetoric has changed but the authoritarianism that many once dreamed of the scaping keeps rearing its ugly head .

a healthy environment depends on a healthy insect population but across the world. numbers are dwindling. countless creatures are declining as a result of human activity. people in power investigates the extent of the crisis and asks what can be done to abate it. insect to get in on al-jazeera. join africa's largest trade and investment bit in the wanda gives you access to

more than 1100 exhibitors and 10000 visitors and baez and more than 5000 conference delegates from more than 55 countries participate in trade and investment deals with $40000000000.00 u.s. dollars as business and government come together to explore business and networking opportunities at the international exhibit which will include a creative africa exchange by the african export import bank and the opinion faulkner speak of 2020 transforming africa big stories generally sounds like maybe angles in this story are too numerous for comfort with different angles from different perspectives things going to really bring relief. to the war to even separate the spin from the facts the misinformation from the judge so this is clear and sounds to. hear people's focus with the listening post on al-jazeera you know what's happening in our region we know how to get to places that others

and all the fires are still going on the way they tell the story is what can make a difference. we are rude but cruel it is very worried or it's outrageous on the streets of beirut as riot police used tear gas and break up hundreds of anti-government protesters. hello i'm adrian finnegan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. fueling the conflict libya's oil output has cut in half off the wall khalifa haftar orders a blockade of 5 major oil exporting pools. airports in the us.