since you can help bring about justice. policy men rights campaigners in libya investigating rape since the 2000. unspeakable crime on al-jazeera. on the normal 6 blows and kills at least 78 people in beirut sending a mushroom cloud into the sky and destructive shock waves through the city more than 4000 people are injured hospitals are overwhelmed pleading for blood supplies and generators to keep their lights on. but it's morning in beirut now and these are live pictures of the aftermath of that explosion that's rocked the city. hello i'm daryn jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up colombia's

supreme court orders the former president obama already to go under house arrest in a case relating to witness tampering and for all. argentina takes a major step forward in stabilizing its economy by reaching a deal to restructure the huge government debt also ahead a groundbreaking and controversial ceremony india's prime minister prepares to lay hindu temple foundations on the ruins of a mosque. welcome to the program a massive explosion in lebanon's capital beirut has killed at least 78 people and injured thousands more it happened at a port warehouse where about 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate have been stored for years well it's about 7 am in beirut now and these are live pictures showing the scale of the destruction hospitals are overwhelmed and in a moment. speak with someone from the medical community but 1st al-jazeera zana how

to reports. a massive explosion in the heart of the lebanese capital. was. the blast essential quavers across beirut shattering windows destroying buildings. and injuring hundreds. the streets were filled with panic and confusion of course it was so you know my call was down there it rolled over i think my injuries all because of the loss the loss cut me up my call was like this i don't know about the sun i don't know what happened i was fishing i heard there was a fire so i began to hit home then i heard something explode and then this happened i got injured this is all i know. rescue work began quickly and emergency vehicles converged on the site of the blast. putting out fires.

and getting the injured to safety lebanon's internal security chief confirmed the blast originated in the port district in a section housing highly explosive materials. lebanon's prime minister has addressed the nation promising that the victims would get justice for what happened . it will not post without accountability those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price this is a promise to the martyrs and injured this is a national commitment while the cause is still unknown some are already blaming the government levanon is an accident waiting to happen so many wait so many places whether it's. public services like just any kinds of government industries are not regulated well we don't like inspectors that so many buildings could collapse so you know again all the problems that lebanon face because we don't really have a strong government that is able to ensure. the safety of its citizens and that's

been why people have been protesting that's why the currency has been falling so you know there are so many possible accidents going on so it's very hard to speculate ambulances continue to arrive at this explosion there have been dozens of casualties many victims are still trapped in the rubble and rescue work looks set to continue long into the night the destruction of central beirut appeared to come out of nowhere and there's the shock of what happened subsides the demands for answers will continue to grow louder so now for their favorite well documented to me it is the president of the order of nurses in lebanon and she joins us now from the capital of beirut dr mona so we're hearing that hospitals in beirut have been overwhelmed with just to the huge number of injured people just talk us through how you are managing to cope how your colleagues at coping with just the vast number of casualties it's enormous. good morning hospital are not only over

when do we have the house that turns that that completely destroyed so we had evacuated patients who where in those hospitals to other hospitals and that this or no we have 2 other hospitals where partially destroyed so it was the best option it was a big hit to the head care system. or the hospitals that the med lebanon there is already bleeding so this situation is kept us there are sick and there is sadly i say that we lost city nurses the nurses who where working at the hospital and they are dead. i don't find words to describe what happened. we have never seen such a think yet an extremely tragic situation dr mona what about your own personal

experience where were you when the explosion happened and how did you respond. i was personally under all of that and i saw the explorers and i heard 2 explosions and then i start the. seeing of the one that people are and. we start the operation on the ground we have to ask other hospitals to accept patients to accept the injured people we start director started evacuating the hospitals they're completely demolished. and we have lots of the one that people we have there. situation cannot be cried really it's it's like we're living in the hardest and and the government says that hospitals are badly in need of blood donations

things like generators just to keep the lights on and electricity yeah i'm saying that the government is saying that hospitals are badly in need of blood they need generators to keep the lights on and electricity going how bad is the situation there because you were talking about how many of the hospitals are underfunded or i think we've lost dr mann to do it there if we can we'll try and get back to but let's let's move on shall we. because as we've been mentioning as we've been mentioning tuesday's blast happened after ammonium nitrate that was being stored at beirut's ports ignited ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound used as a fertilizer in agriculture as an ingredient in explosives for mining and construction it can explode if it comes into contact with an open flame or another source of ignition it's often used also by armed groups and this was a priming gradient in the 1995 oklahoma city bombing timothy mcveigh used 2 tons of ammonium nitrate when the deadliest industrial accident in the u.s.

was also due to ammonium nitrate it exploded at texas city's port in 1947 killing 5 $181.00 people and that led to major changes in regulations for it storage and handling when earlier we spoke to mark dow he's a professor of communications at the american university of beirut he told us more about the warehouse where the explosion happened the material is stored it was in the have your number 12 which is one of the biggest and they store all flammable and it order material that is highly sensitive to explosions and otherwise and those who are stuck there by quote touring because they're not allowed to enter lebanon and they were basically trying to get them into lebanon using excuses off using them for fertilizers so the reports so far are saying and it seems that something terribly when drunk there and they were not stored properly there was a lot of flammables and that region and then there was

a massive fire followed by in intensity. which basically destroyed 2 to pretty cannot mature radius of homes and houses around i was one of those who who is missing door glass and an entire entrance to a house because of the blast basically it's negligence. you have got the customs department responsible for it and then you've got the ministry of defense because they have the right to supervise anything off an explosive nature such as dynamite and others and include including the ammonium by traits that exploded evening as well as there's a forward port of beirut by the way is 80 percent of all imports into lebanon so it is the main main it's the main ought to be for this economy for food for medicine for everything right next to it is the massive the biggest storage and if you see

the footage you'll notice the big dominant white building that's the strategic game reserve for lebanon which got completely destroyed and that means wheat it means 3 months off wheat and around the port there are police 2 or 3 of the biggest mills and 11 on that or so produce the flour for the bread so the damage is massive on every scale well here pan leaders on the u.s. government are offering their assistance but it was the gulf nations that were among the 1st to offer help. to me been hammered out that he says his country will send medical equipment to set up field hospitals iran has also offered support as has its regional rival saudi arabia and israel is putting forward humanitarian aid through foreign channels as it has no diplomatic relations with lebanon. let's go to some other news now colombia's supreme court has confirmed it's ordered the detention of former president of the bed he's accused of witness tampering and

fraud riba has repeatedly declared his innocence and questioned the court's independence is a close ally of the current president even do take us on from petty as the latest from bogota. it was a unanimous decision on part of the judges the supreme court to comes after and 9 months of closely analyzing a lot of evidence in the form of a phone interception. listening to witness looking at documents conversations between the former president then is a lawyer and a close allies in this is the 1st time in history that a president or a former president of this country as well face the attention of the judges said in this statement that the reason for the tension is that they have reached the conclusion that there could be the possibility of obstruction of justice

taking place so we'll have to face the rest of this trial from his house or one of his farm from what we understand he is in a farm in. the north to the country right now and there's no doubt that this decision is shocked the colombians because that would be is still considered the most powerful and influential police station in the country but also the most divisive half of the country can see their him a savior for the way he successfully fought the rebels doing the country's internal conflict but the rest of the country instead to criticize him for the many human rights violations and cases of corruptions that happened during his 2 administrations i mean particularly the killing of thousands of innocent civilians

the next so traditional killings are committed by the army and paramilitary groups on. teena has reached a deal with its creditors to restructure some of its government debt that follows months of talks and is being hailed as a major step toward stabilizing its struggling economy argentina owes nearly 320000000000 dollars it defaulted for the 9th time in may making it difficult to access more capital on international markets successive governments overextended themselves with expensive social programs causing chronic inflation and frequent debt crises but the pandemic made reaching a deal even more important argentina is in a deep recession and its economy is expected to contract by about 12 percent this year to reason it was in buenos aires and she tells us more about the challenges ahead. kaname that is shattered not only because of coronaviruses been shattered since back in 2018 with recession inflation and many many other problems argentina

had what even the i.m.f. said it is an unpaid debt 300 and $20000000000.00 in debt and it was trying to restructure $65000000000.00 in the past few months it's been very very tense negotiations at a time it seemed that the country was once again it entered the fall of last may but that it once again those stocks where going to failed and what they ended up agreeing with 3 of the main creditors groups that includes bratten blackrock which is the largest asset manager in the world they agreed for a grace period until 2025 and they're saving around $30000000000.00 in that this is an enormous success for argentina's government because it certainly helps a times when the government needs to be spending money fighting with the crisis and fighting what's coronavirus is living in the country with a rise in poverty of unemployment among many other things i didn't you know

defaulted as you just mentioned also 9 times in history the last time was last may it was a soft default but let's not forget what happened in this country back in 2001 when he folded again on its foreign debt there were years of litigation 60 percent poverty rates among many other things so present about the phone numbers what he said on this day is that argentina succeeded that they managed to make payable a debt in times of a massive economic crisis and in the middle of up and that makes. also coming out al-jazeera including another big increase the number of covert 19 cases not strain is 2nd most populous state will be live from signal an election in sri lanka that could see one political family become even more for the status.

hello there mostly homeless and dr coles throughout much of the middle east but we've seen heavy rains for the last several days across the fall southwest of yemen and this has led to some fairly widespread flooding and there is more rain in the forecast on wednesday not quite as heavy as we have seen but even so it is still impacting those already flooded areas now the winds are quite strong coming through the interior of iraq the temperatures are high 49 and they can see all this blowing sand and dust really pushing quite a long way south of a hazy day again on wednesday temperatures in doha 45 degrees celsius and then by says a not a great deal of change again temperatures in the high forty's those winds a fairly strong and that she will be converging through much of southern saudi arabia but again there's rain still in the 4 calls across the western portion of yemen then down into southern africa mostly case guys throughout much of madagascar not so along coastal areas of south africa we've got to showers running along the coast is actually a little low pressure which is developing as we go into thursday big see how these

showers spreading north was keeping the time which is a little bit lower and still quite a few showers as well on shore flow freely from anywhere from tanzania through kenya on tool somalia and then through thursday you can see the showers you can see that low pushing away but it does mean important is that the next few days it if you want days of scattered showers. jump into this stream and julian on global community this generation will have to create its own democracy with social media on and online be part of the debate let me put it to me you keep coming steve when no topic is off the table is taking on all the systemic violence that people of color have suffered not only now but for decades we are going to need to transform lives the way he treats human equating business if we're going to adapt to climate breakdown this street on out is the.

welcome back to come out of our top stories here on al-jazeera a massive explosion in lebanon's capital beirut has killed at least $78.00 people and injured thousands a shockwave devastated the city it happened at a port warehouse where about 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate have been stored for years hospitals are overwhelmed. colombia's supreme court has ordered the detention of former president of bottle leader he's accused of witness tampering of food we that denies any wrongdoing. saudi arabia has reportedly moved a step closer to nuclear power constructing your rainy i'm yellowcake extraction facility with the help of china that's according to sources quoted by the wall street journal the facility is said to be close to the town of houla where

yellowcake is a milled form of uranium ore that's found not to leave it but would take additional steps on technology to enrich it enough for a nuclear power plant saudi arabia denies building a uranium ore facility but says mineral extraction is part of its economic diversification. sri lankans are electing a new parliament president go to buy a rajapaksa party's 2 thirds majority to make changes to the constitution the vote was postponed twice because of coronavirus the polls being held on a strict safety guidelines with voters expected to maintain one meter distance where face masks were an elephant is joins us live now from colombo so this is south asians 1st election since the pandemic why does this election matter and what have been the main issues for voters. daryn for the country as the election is sort of an indicator of way from

this crossroads obviously over a decade since the war ended here between the tamil tiger rebels and the government there are still a huge amount of issues that remain under in the north and east of the country about devolution of power and things like that but in the other parts of the country they've also been issues since $29000.00 that fatal sort of easter bombing that claimed over 250 lives you know there are fears of national security however in terms of this election it's been largely personality politics and we've seen a century that rajapaksa clan the 2 sort of key brothers in that the former president prime minister made the rajapaksa and the president go top it rajapaksa leading the p.p. campaign from the front talking about giving them the mandate to change the constitution essential to carry forward the work that president gore listed out in his campaign and obviously the opposition also in a shambles as they try to sort of cobble together

a proper challenge to the rajapaksa is let's take a look at some of the issues going into this election yes let me just say that was an important point you made because there's concern as you say that divisions within the opposition parties could actually help rajapaksa consolidate power and of course this has huge implications for any constitutional reforms. that's right i mean essentially the one of the reasons that the rajapakse is obviously very popular both brothers the president has got huge popularity for his handling of the corona epidemic i mean even this polling booth that i'm standing outside a lot of sort of hygenic measures and things like that being taking place precautions for the election but going into this election it's more about sort of the people at the top of it saw. the issues in terms of of an economic crisis about to sort of unleash in. there are the issues of cost of living the constitution now

obviously the rajapaksa see that the current constitution after the last amendment by the previous government does not allow them to get on with their program obviously that constitution strengthen the hand of parliament by sort of diluting the powers of the president of the rajapaksa state that want to be essentially a talking about dream rewriting the constitution that talking about bringing in a new constitution and obviously this would see reversals massive reversals in terms of some of the constitutional changes that were brought in in that last 19th amendment which saw independent institutions the judiciary the police. there will be certain mechanisms checks and balances for executive power so that is why this election is important it's going to decide the future direction of this country middleton and as life for us in columbus will thank you. it's bring us some more

news now on the corona virus pandemic in latin america continues to be an epicenter of a covert 19 but several countries trying to reopen their economies even though the number of cases continues to rise john heilemann has more from mexico city's. latin america's crossed the 5000000 mark for kobe cases attacked cities poverty the lack of formal jobs are helping it spread. the love the factors may also be at play resilin the region's most populous country has a president that opposed to quarantine. a mexico in 2nd place as a leader who doesn't like mosques and initially resisted social distancing now in other countries like bolivia with death count is soaring. elections originally slated for may have been put back to look toba the divisive interim president remains at the helm for opponents

a furious if the people are abandoned there are no jobs and the health system has collapsed a special police unit has picked up thousands of bodies from houses on the streets . and got to think that in some places there have been 30 dead 50 dead piled up in that corpses every day showing up in the streets it's because families don't have the resources or aren't finding places to bury them carlos are you in a group of entrepreneurs have developed this mobile crim a tourism is a solution. elsewhere more unorthodox responses in el salvador doctors without borders are heading into gang held territory because public health officials can't do anything fame or health services are afraid to enter our community and here there are many children many older adults and many pregnant women who need direct attention in brazil where there's a lack of test an online platform with artificial intelligence is being used to help detect coded the softer markets of the software market. these areas and shows

whether or not it's likely to be coded 90 it also shows the percentage of the contamination of the lung. the dissolution for the region's main problem remains elusive how the country's opened back up while the virus continues to advance john homan al-jazeera makes crew city. the australian state of victoria has announced another $725.00 new coronavirus cases it's another significant spike tough containment measures are now in place melbourne the country's 2nd biggest city is subject to nightly curfews and restrictions on movement hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to help enforce isolation orders anyone breaking the rules faces stiff fines nicola gage has more than 70. the figures might not same as high as some other places around the world but we need to remember that astrology has been extremely successful in containing this virus and we'll all noise how fossett can get away from us if it isn't confined but these new speak is really will justify i

guess for many the need for the tough shutdown lockdown measures that are currently in place in the city of melbourne in victoria where there isn't always an us because few and harsh penalties being imposed for anyone who breaks isolation measures but it really is deflating to not say they think is going down given how many paypal is being financially impacted by this of course we're seeing more businesses closing retiling manufacture a good many are concerned that some of these companies just won't be able to survive the 6 week lock down even with financial support from governments and on top of that some experts are saying that the recession that it's surely is currently in my last and to the end of the year a pretty tough time at the moment but we always knew that it might take a week or 2 to see how these new look down measures would influence the right of

infections in victoria virgin australia meanwhile has announced a firing 3000 stars as it prepares to relaunch on the new owners the pandemic forced into volunteer administration in full travel restrictions had left it billions of dollars in debt and the government refused to bail out indian administered kashmir is on lockdown to prevent protesters from gathering to mark exactly a year since the region lost its special status a curfew has been imposed in the area many local political leaders have been tension for months. india's prime minister narendra modi is overseeing the laying of the foundation stone for a hindu temple at a controversial religious site he's in the northern town of idea where a mob destroyed a 16th century mosque in 1902 after years of legal wrangling last year the supreme court ruled the site belongs to hindu groups correspondent elizabeth. from new delhi. on the banks of the solder you've ever people gather to pray in the ancient

town of iowa preparations underway ahead of the construction of a temple at the site that hindus believe is the birthplace of their god from. the rom temple is supported by all indians only some who wanted to spread hate were opposed to it. controversy over the site has led to some of the worst religious violence in india's history and security has been heightened. in 1992 thousands of hindus from around the country came to the town and destroyed the 16th century babri mosque and 22 others 18 of the muslims living in the town were killed including relatives of 5 and muhammad childhood we lost everything in the violence my sawmill was here we had thousands of dollars worth of wood they set everything on fire they killed my husband and brother in law. they tore up the koran in our mosque and started stomping on the pages we tried collecting the pages. kept

getting worse started attacking people here. the religious violence spread beyond iowa with yet mohammed childhood's father and uncle to have more than 2000 people who were killed around the country leading members of the hindu nationalist bought of the party are on trial for conspiring to destroy the mosque the b j p had long promised to build a temple this is the fulfillment of the promise to the listen. and this is a defining moment for india. the party gained more political support after the mosques destruction. then become a symbol of. that is where the destruction really created a new. full. force ultimately. in the country. the b.j.

people 1st elected to govern the country in the general election following the mosques destruction after the legal battles over the site's owner the supreme court ruled last year that it belongs to him now 30 years after he joined the campaign for temple prime minister narendra modi is inaugurating its construction elizabeth . new delhi. time for a quick check of the headlines on al-jazeera a massive explosion in lebanon's capital beirut has killed at least 78 people and injured thousands as a shockwave devastated the city well the government says it happened at a port warehouse where about 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate have been stored a year is the explosions believed had been set off by a well that was lost was felled 160 kilometers away in cyprus hospitals are

overwhelmed countries around the world including lebanon's traditional enemy israel offering help. when lebanon's prime minister has addressed the nation he says those responsible will pay the price. when doing it will not pass without accountability those responsible for these catastrophe will pay the price promised to the martyrs and the injured national commitment. colombia's supreme court has confirmed that sort of the detention of former president of our already bit he's accused of witness tampering and fraud or even has repeatedly declared his innocence and question the court's independence he's a close ally of president even do case argentina's reached a deal with its creditors to restructure some of its debt it follows months of talks and is being hailed as a major step toward stabilizing it struggling economy argentina owes nearly 3 $120000000000.00 saudi arabia has reportedly moved a step closer to nuclear power constructing a uranium yellowcake extraction facility with the help of china that's according to

sources quoted by the wall street journal the facilities said to be close to the town of houla yellowcake is a milled form of uranium ore that's found naturally there but would take additional steps and technology to enrich enough for a nuclear power plant saudi arabia denies building the facility but says mineral extraction is a part of its economic diversification. sri lankans are electing a new parliament president got to buy a rajapaksa party seeking a 2 thirds majority so it can make changes to the constitution the vote was postponed twice because of coronavirus it's being held on a strict safety guidelines with voters expect the dementing a one meter distance and wet face masks. so those were the headlines the news continues on al jazeera after the street station that's what it. is country's begin easing coronavirus restrictions scientists warn of a 2nd wave of infections in the last few. neighborhoods and many

feel the economy is being prioritized about for human life. to pull the focus on the out here but spike in public places we bring you the latest developments from across the globe coronavirus condiment special coverage on a. day there welcome to the stream home edition i'm josh rushing sitting in for the day replaceable for me ok today in today we time a trans racial adoption now in the u.s. most babies who will be adopted are nonwhite but 73 percent of those will be adopted by white peer it's in this raises a whole host of questions about what does it mean for that child's culture for their identity particularly as they become adults now here joining us on you tube i want you to be a part of the conversation.