against the odds. 1 1 al-jazeera selects hunted. the lebanese capital beirut wakes up to a scene of destruction after a major explosion at a port warehouse rocks the city. hello i'm daryn jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up colombia's supreme court orders former president. to be put under house arrest in a case relating to witness tampering and for. argentina takes a major step toward stabilizing its economy by agreeing to restructure large government debt. also ahead a groundbreaking on

a 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 when it's about 8 o'clock in the morning in beirut and these are live pictures showing the scale of the destruction hospitals are overwhelmed and in a moment we'll hear from someone from the medical community but 1st. reports. a massive explosion in the heart of the lebanese capital 6. the blast sent shock waves across beirut shattering windows destroying buildings. and injuring hundreds. the streets were filled with panic and confusion.

my call was down there it rolled over i think my injuries are because of the loss the loss can. me up my call was like this on about from the front 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 chiefs confirmed the blast originated in the 4th 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 and so many wait so many places whether it's. public services like just all kinds of government industries are not regulated well we don't have 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 appear 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 favor. well the government says about 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate ignited in beirut port ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound used to produce fertilizer and explosives for mining and construction it can explode if it comes into direct contact with a flame or a spark it's often used by armed groups and was a primary ingredient in the 995 oklahoma city bombing timothy mcveigh used 2 tons of ammonium nitrate where the deadliest industrial accident in the u.s. was also due to ammonium nitrate it exploded at texas city's port in 1907 killing 581 people and that led to major changes in regulations for its storage and handling of dr myrna durham it is the president of the order of nurses in lebanon

she says the situation in hospitals in beirut is catastrophic. hospitals are not on the over when we have 3 hospitals that are completely destroyed so we have evacuated patients to where in those that there's 2 other hospitals and this and we have 2 other hospitals that were partially destroyed so it was a catastrophe it was a big hit to the head. i was on or the hospital this time and lebanon is already bleeding so this situation it's get that's the topic and there is i say that we lost 3 nurses 3 nurses who were working at the hospital and they are dead so i don't find words to describe what happened if. we had never seen such a thing i was 1st on the road i saw the explosion i heard 2

explosions and then i started to. seeing the being when the people. we started the operation on the ground we have to ask other hospitals to accept patients to accept the injured people we start started evacuating the the house with the. completely demolished. the we have lots of when the when the people we have that. situation cannot be described really it's a it's like we're we're living in a harder. well european leaders and the u.s. government are offering their assistance but it was gulf nations who were among the 1st to offer help qatar's a machete mean then handed out thani 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 offering humanitarian aid through foreign channels as it has no diplomatic relations with lebanon well nasa yassin is a professor at the american university of beirut he says he doubts the government will be able to deal with this disaster on it so. like many issues for the last few months we've been seeing the revenues government not taking the right decisions when it comes to managing the economy or the finances or social issues and they can imagine that this disaster this catastrophe will be dealt by the way that live in these people do relying on themselves on their war on their communities. and the government will just be lost in not giving and not doing the right decision i hope they do things differently this time i hope all the state the government the parliament administration leader look into this and give real

answers from people. and the people accountable and i think this this is what we want we need we need more responsible leaders and we need the engagement with that of the international community to deal with this kind of disaster i think this is what's needed you know the measure for this is the major port of beirut that was almost totally destroyed and part of it also the grain silos where the people of the grain and the we actually deliver the knees and people who live in lebanon need and that's another disaster in the making if we can get support in terms of grain and we and other food supplies. for the coming days and weeks we will be dealing with the immediate needs and the immediate aftermath but i think after that we really need to look into new ways and new people to govern this country rather

than just keep pushing again and pushing that responsibility into others that's going to some other news now colombia's supreme court has confirmed it's ordered the detention of former president arvada already that he's accused of witness tampering and fraud river has repeated denied the allegations and questioned the court's independence is a close ally of president yvonne don't tell us our own party has the latest from bottom. 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 whatever 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 are traditional killings that committed by the army and paramilitary groups. argentina has reached a deal with its creditors to restructure some of its government debt it 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 the international markets successive governments overextended themselves the expansive social programs causing chronic inflation and frequent debt crises 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. but to raise above and then as i was tells us more about the challenges ahead . an economy 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 is an unpaid able debt 3 $120000000000.00 in debt and it was trying to restructure $65000000000.00 in this task you 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 we are going to failed and what the ended up agreeing with 3 of the main credit scores groups that includes brat 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 debt this is at enormous success for argentina's government because it certainly

helps at 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 argentina 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 it defaulted again on its foreign debt there were years of litigation 60 percent cover to rates among many other things so present about about him and that's what he said on this day is that argentina succeeded that they managed to make payable at a debt in times of a massive economic crisis and in the middle of a pandemic. let's also to come here not just here including one year on from the day indian administers kashmir lost its special status we're going live from new delhi and it's one of the on a report that saudi arabia has moved a step closer to nuclear power with the help of china or not stay with us.

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 focus to 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 overact the temperatures a high 49 and they can see all this blowing sand and dust really pushing quite a long way sounds like a hazy day again on wednesday temperatures in doha 45 degrees celsius and then by says a no so 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 those rain still in the 4 calls across far western portions of

yemen and 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 because 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 pretty 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 this the next few days it is a few more days of scattered showers. image can change the way we see the womb if we had not seen this we would be talking about it it can spark mass action or serve the interests of the powerful he created this longing for a full opportunity that can obscure the truth this is a legitimate news story but this play and tracking points are pretty intense before

it can forge narratives all right through the listening post gives you the full picture. who are. already. welcome back a quick recap of the top stories here on al-jazeera a massive explosion in lebanon's capital beirut has killed at least 78 people and injured thousands as the shock wave devastated the city. the government says it happened at a port warehouse where about 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate have been stored for years hospitals are overwhelmed these are live pictures in beirut showing the often off of the explosion. on columbia's supreme court has over the detention of former

president alvaro uribe he's accused of witness tampering and cruel or even denies any wrongdoing. now indian administered kashmir is in 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 in detention for months and reports. so haleigh might come on has come to pray at his father's grave 65 year old bashir up at khan was shot dead during what indian security forces say were clashes with the main in the northern kashmir town of support on july the 1st they say he was caught in the crossfire. this video shows his body on the road near the car he and his 3 year old grandson were traveling in a photo showing the child sitting on his dead grandfather caused outrage. the

family accuses the security forces of putting the boy in top of the dead man so they could take pictures. police reportedly filmed him crying as they drove him away from the scene. the locals who witnessed the theater fighting did happen but it had to stop sometime before bushie ahmed const. but he was docked out of the car and fired up all. the latest report from the rights group general kashmir coalition of civil society says so hails father was one of at least $32.00 civilians killed by indian security forces in kashmir since january. it's been a year since the indian government cancelled a constitutional provision that for the past 70 years had guaranteed limited autonomy to the himalayan region the move effectively an exciting parts of the disputed territory demo guys be here all of our india's prime minister narendra

modi says muslim majority kashmir needs to be better integrated into the rest of the country. india has more than half a 1000000 troops stationed in the region soldiers patrol virtually empty streets. the government has repeatedly shut down the internet over the last year and access remains restricted the kashmir chamber of commerce and industry says the economy lost $2000000000.00 during the initial crackdown in the 2nd half of 2019 covert 19 has made things even worse. tens of thousands mostly civilians being killed in the 30 years since an uprising began demanding greater self-determination. rights groups and activists say the government ending kashmir's autonomy has reinvigorated recruitment into armed groups everything was done on the name of prosperity peace but if the c.e.o.

to get on things had been otherwise whatever it a little freedom was given you know by before 50 against here by day and begonias rule on it before the previous governments you know are no more. the indian government continues to deny journalists working with the international media permission to visit kashmir the mini didn't end there is to do with what is behind the filing of the filed complaints of the one eyed religion against the security forces against the police and instance i do not deny in there maybe some cases of humanoid ready. not doing their protection should we dig up against the persons who are violating the human rights op anybody for so hale and many kashmiris like him the sense of isolation from the outside world and the struggle for their rights gets harder by the day strafford al-jazeera. now in a moment we'll speak to come all standing by for us in about but 1st let's go to

new delhi and talk to elizabeth around and listen so there's already a lockdown in place there so what do you like to see happen in indian administered kashmir today could we perhaps even see protests. good morning protests a very unlikely given the indian government announced late on monday night that it was putting the region under curfew on tuesday and wednesday because it said that it had information that what it called separatist and pakistan sponsored groups calling for a black day what it called a black day on the 5th that it couldn't rule out a protest so the possibility of violent protests that might endanger public life and safety that it also couldn't that any mass gatherings would be detrimental to its efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus well they have been confusion because it later issued another order saying that there's no curfew but coronavirus restrictions remain what residents say that they very much look and feel like the same thing now very few people have actually called for protests given that they

were were coronavirus that there was a corona virus locked down and that is why midis feel that this whatever the restrictions might be cooled with a quick if you're not it's just yet another effort to stifle the opposition on the one year anniversary off the region's autonomy being void of former chief minister minister omar abdullah has said that he has sold this narrative that the happy with what happened to adding that if they are happy why aren't they out celebrating and why is there a curfew now his father the former chief minister off the region photo has called for a meeting today on august 5th reportedly with leading politicians in the region to chill a political solution to what's happened to find a way to bring me to. special status but we don't know that that will be allowed to take place because the movement of lead to some meeting severely restricted there's

also a ban on more than we people gathering to elizabeth thank you for that let's cross over not succumb all he's in islam about a promise to him and calm speaking in pakistan the administered kashmir later today about what's happening on the indians side so what's he likely to say. he had already made step down surely announcement here today when there was a cabinet meeting and richard gore decided that gets done would be issuing a new political map that shows coach made up part of august on an old date that it did get it did it by to be fed and line read the relevant un resolutions tiny prime minister had warned time and again that the world did not paying attention to the plight of the meeting which of course had. relations between india and budgets

. of frequent cease fire while asian along the drawer. gets done today to mark this day you have protests right outside parliament where the political leadership is going to be speaking there are all united when it comes to the. situation. because it's done in india work and the issue of what you can fit it up bilaterally if you didn't become our trilateral if you off to india you know move god because the 7 day and of course the dry right during an india is also sending reporters that cross the region. to get its own map now budgets done and i don't think that george bush made up part of budgets don i know it's got that tension instead of remaining very high along the line of control that separates india and budget tony administered kashmir all right to come out of there live for us in about kemal thank you. meanwhile 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 where mob destroyed a 16th century most back in 1902 but after years of legal wrangling last year the supreme court ruled that the site belongs to hindu groups. sri lankans are electing a new parliament president got to buy a rajapaksa party is seeking a 2 thirds majority so it can make changes to the constitution the vote was postponed twice because of coronavirus the poll is being held on a strict safety guidelines with voters expected to maintain a one meter distance and wear face masks saudi arabia has reportedly move a step closer to nuclear power constructing a uranium yellowcake extraction plant with the help of china that's according to the wall street journal the facilities said to be close to the town of houla where yellowcake is a milled form of uranium ore that's found naturally there but would take additional

steps on technology to enrich it enough for a nuclear power plant saudi arabia denies building the plant but says mineral extraction is a part of its economic diversification of thomas countryman is a former u.s. assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation he says the kingdom should pursue nuclear energy in a peaceful way. in saudi arabia the saudis have far better options for energy in their nuclear energy they are ideally located to benefit from renewable forms such as solar and wind energy in particular if they wish to pursue nuclear energy they should do it in a peaceful way with the maximum safeguards of forwarded by the international atomic energy agency. this new report means that the saudis are still many steps and many years away from having

a viable nuclear weapons capability but what concerns me is that they are pursuing the same kind of secrecy or deception that has marked the iranian program of nuclear development and it's not the best way for the saudis 'd to be a leader you neither economics or security in the middle east their strained state of victoria has announced obama 725 new coronavirus cases and some other significant spike tough containment measures are now in place in the country's 2nd biggest city subject tonight because he was on a stretch and some movement hundreds of military personnel have been deployed to help enforce isolation or does anyone breaking the rules faces laws fines mcconaughey has more now from sydney. these figures might not same as high end 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 a nice because few and harsh penalties are being imposed for anyone who breaks isolation measures but it really is deflating to not see these stick 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 looked down measures would influence the right of infections in victoria one of nigeria's biggest airlines has sunk more than 70 part of some ground crew due to the coronavirus demick private courier piece also plans to cut salaries of remaining staff by up to 40 percent it says major cities within nigeria west africa and the middle east but like many other airlines sorts business slum because of travel restrictions. the johns hopkins university virus tracker is now reporting there are more than 700000 deaths globally relating to the virus but despite soaring infection rates in the u.s. and deaths president trump says the outbreak is under control as it can be more than 157000 people have died close to 5000000 have been infected politicians are still negotiating a new emergency aid package after the latest unemployment program lapsed last week talks between egypt sudan and ethiopia on the ground ethiopian renaissance dam had

been suspended egypt and sudan withdrew from the talks to consult on ethiopia's new offer they say some of those proposals excluded legally binding rules regarding operation and the filling of the dam the 2 countries are on the downstream see the hydropower project could lead to water shortages. time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera a massive explosion in lebanon's capital beirut has killed at least 78 people and injured thousands of the shockwave devastated the city the government says it happened at a port warehouse where about 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored for years the explosions believed to have been set off by welders the blast was felt 160 kilometers away in cyprus hospitals are overwhelmed but lebanon's prime minister has addressed the nation he says those responsible will pay the price. in

doing it would not pass without accountability those responsible for these catastrophe will pay the price promised to the martyrs and the injured some national commitment. colombia's supreme court has confirmed it's ordered the detention of former president alvaro uribe it he's accused of witness tampering and fraud riba has repeatedly declared his innocence and questioned the court's independence he's a close ally of the current president even ducat. argentina's reached a deal with its creditors to restructure some of its that it follows months of talks that is being hailed as a major step toward stabilizing its economy argentina owes nearly $320000000000.00 indian administered kashmir is in 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 detention for months and india's prime minister and ramadi is overseeing the laying

of the foundation stone for a hindu temple and a controversial religious site in the northern town of your idea where a mob destroyed a 16th century mosque in 1902 after years of legal wrangling asked year the supreme court ruled that the site belongs to hindu groups. and the johns hopkins university virus truck is now reporting there are more than 700000 deaths globally relating to corona virus but despite soaring infection rates in the us and deaths the president trump says the outbreak is under control as it can be more than 157000 people have died close to 5000000 have been infected politicians are still negotiating a new emergency aid package after the latest unemployment program lapsed last week so those were the headlines the news continues on al-jazeera after listening post statement that's the watching battle. as a weapon of war leaves a very deep a scar. scar so wrong that the victims men and women can barely

talk about it. they are the only witnesses who can help bring about justice. 0 dollars human rights campaign is in libya investigating right since the 2000. unspeakable crime on al-jazeera. a chance for a country that's right and right democrat an act of. god or right. outside fox trying to cite trash get a free stance on rush that's fox time to come on this thanks. a lot richard burton you're watching the listening post working from home here are some of the media stories we're covering this week hungary another major news organization is about to turn pro government prime minister or bans work is almost done more bonkers pseudo sign.