the government provides free testing and medical treatment for those who need it while campaigns to raise awareness continue. frustration in lebanon and calls for political change as people are left to clean up themselves after choose days of port explosion. collapse of a robbery or challenges their lives my headquarters here in doha also coming up because governing party gets the victory it was looking for a majority for the rajapaksa brothers to sweep through sweeping constitutional changes. accused of sending a hit squad to canada saudi crown prince faces a lawsuit in washington d.c. . the struggle to control the current virus pandemic in india cases past 2000000.

welcome to the program 16 people have been arrested in lebanon as frustration grows over the government's response to tuesday's port explosion among those who've been taken into custody or officials from beirut pulled the death toll is now starting at 149 but search and rescue teams continue to scour the rubble for any survivors there were protests against the government of those the evening crowds also rallied as the french president manuel micro toward the damage streets he's backing calls for a new political order in lebanon bennett smith has more from beirut. we've seen thousands of people out on the streets with shovels pickaxes brushes doing the cleanup because the government isn't we are just across from the main blast site you'll see

those standing grain silos and so the right of those where the explosion happened is a destroyed ship just beyond that and that everything that was in the way of the shockwave in the few just seconds it took to push out has been hit and destroyed and i am surrounded by debris. glass by destroyed buildings everywhere that was in the way in the path of buckshot wave assault in the few seconds it took beirut looks like it's been involved in conflicts there is really a lack of any assistance coming from the government in the best of times this is a very weak state with very weak social service provision and in a catastrophe like this there's very little the government clearly has is doing or is able to do we have seen n.g.o.s out on the streets we've seen people giving out food restaurants and takeaways shops giving out food on the streets and people

giving out bottles of water but these are very very short classes to stay calm these massive gaping wounds it's going to take years of course and there may be at least 300000 people without any homes to go to you can help them with n.g.o.s and volunteers are a few days but long term is an enormous challenge of what you can how you can help these people how you can really house people in this government is just not set up to do that. it's an election victory that's expected to cement the power of the rajapaksa brothers in sri lanka the governing party has recorded an overwhelming victory with nearly 60 percent of the vote the sri lanka people's front is that by got the buyout and mahinda rajapaksa who served as president. and prime minister along with the allies it has secured a 2 thirds majority giving the president the power to make sweeping changes to the constitution by a saltiest set of on a mother who is an executive director at the think tank the center for policy

alternatives he says the opposition is we can divide is there a big challenges ahead. i think what's what average access enduring was reaching out that he would require a strong stable government in comparison to what happened to him before in the sort of governance which the prime minister and the president to part is very weak and vacillating and dr united so strong stable government also the assertion of the identity of the majority community there is also a strong single biggest car with a strong sense of you know centralized leadership authoritarianism barriers an emphasis on law and order and on decision ultimately we can't continue them and we do that to speak and i think things will start there is now iraq because in addition to that the key challenge i think all president and the new government is

going to be going on in terms of dealing with the consequences of the kuwait bank inquirers you know we see an actor has something right you missed dollars full 1000000000 a year from now until the $22020.00 right and we have a foreign exchange earnings very badly hit of course by the wires the biking to the middle east the apparently industry and hospitality. so their essence which is that you guessed it. the saudi crown prince is being accused of sending hit men to canada with plans to kill one of his former top intelligence officials. the alleged target has. the lawsuit in the us and it's been reported there that interpol rejected a request to extradite back to saudi arabia because it was politically motivated when colonel reports. crown prince mohammed bin solomon has been feted in the white

house but now in papers before a washington d.c. court he's alleged to have ordered death squads to torture and assessed an 8 opponents the case is being brought by a former saudi intelligence officer sardar japery who alleges the crown prince sent a team called the tigers squad to canada to kill him the court papers say the men were denied entry by suspicious canadian border guards. this detailed flow chart submitted to the court identifies key members of the assassination squad and others involved including what are described as forensic technicians skilled in criminal evidence removal and their image of the hit squad that is believed to have murdered and dismembered journalist jamal khashoggi in istanbul in 2018 i know that there are women. all over the world in germany and france somebody noticed.

really basic run away from sort of because there. are questions from the government which is. totally and that's one of them is omar up to lindsay is also resident in canada mentioned in the court filing as another potential target of assassination and who posted this video in reaction to the news the case has been brought in terms of legislation that allows non us citizens to take action in federal courts against foreign individuals who have committed torture and or extra judicial killings in addition sod algebra he argues that the hit squad assembled in the united states before attempting to enter canada saddle japanese children now aged 20 and 21 are being held at an undisclosed location in saudi arabia as what he describes as human bait to draw him out of hiding last month 4 senators sent

a letter to president trump saying the u.s. had a moral obligation to press saudi authorities for their release the president in the past has made clear that regardless of the allegations of human rights violations against the saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman remains a valued ally and friend mike hanna al-jazeera washington. india has become the 3rd country in the world to record 2000000 corona virus cases the covert 900 count has doubled in 3 weeks faster than the u.s. or brazil which have higher numbers than epidemiologists say india is still months away from hitting its peak but the country's health system is already feeling the strain from the pandemic problem is in new delhi and says that the worst hit states asking for help from the government. india recorded yet another single highest a rise in cases more than 62000 cases and the worst hit state remains in

maharashtra it recorded more than 11000 new cases on thursday the chief minister of the state is asking the central government to pay for more treatment centers there are already around $37000.00 people either in hospitals or in treatment centers and there are still reports of people struggling to find beds especially in rural areas which have very little health care infrastructure elsewhere in the country cases are rising by around $10000.00 in the southern state of andhra pradesh the government there says that's because they're testing more people than anywhere else in the country they're testing around $50000.00 a day despite the overall rise that we're seeing around the country the health minister as always remains positive he says india is continuing to increase testing they are testing around 600000 people a day nationwide he also points to what he says is one of the lowest death rates in the world but we have to keep in mind that less than a shot of all deaths and via

a medically certified so it's really difficult if not impossible right now if you know how many of the deaths in the country are from coronavirus. china has accused the us of political manipulation after the us president issued an executive order banning businesses with 2 tech giants it blocks any transaction with the parent company of social media protect talk on the messenger app the sweeping restrictions come into effect in 45 days but to talk has threatened legal action trump says the chinese are gathering users data for beijing and pose a threat to u.s. national security well german descent is a see old social slow attack which helps media companies he says it was a lack of trust between the u.s. and china that led to trump's decision. well i think the big concern has been the chinese ownership by dance it's a chinese company and to talk has gone to great lengths to try to assure people that the chinese government has never requested that i dance provide or to provide

information certainly not on u.s. citizens i think the real concern though is the fact that they haven't done that yet doesn't mean they won't do that in the future and if the company is owned by a chinese company they're really not going to be able to refuse a request like that from the chinese government so actually i think you combine that with the escalating tensions that's been going on on the trade front and other fronts between the u.s. and china and that leaves us where we are right now but the big news of course is that microsoft reached at least a tentative accord to acquire some of the assets of tick tock the u.s. application canada australia new play at least with the domain the financial times today just reported that they're actually talking about buying. applications globally which in some ways would make a lot more sense microsoft is certainly a big enough company to be able to fund that kind of acquisition and to support that kind of acquisition globally you know the question is whether right dance is going to want to slice off the u.s. and some other markets from the global you know application and that obviously

presents tremendous technical challenges and there's no way that that had could happen in the next 40 days. still ahead here although there are doing things differently funded one city in the united kingdom is using community volunteers to help control the coronavirus. cheering for the empty stage one of the opposition leader in the other rooms was barred from attending her final election rally those stories after the break. how there was defying the law and of rain at the moment it may not resist. obviousness satellite picture but i think you got a clue we're focusing now and in the forecast and probably something new song is exactly manila and that line extends back towards the bulk of southeast asia where

a good many countries going to see some pretty heavy rain there are scattered showers to the south but not that many strat indonesia where the focus is definitely of the sea size china sea and the northern philippines which is not a big surprise i suppose further south in the middle of winter we've a proper winter storm warning through south australia that's a cold front that will bring colder air so some snow to the south and mountains in victoria for example and it will keep the showers with this on shore breeze all way around the coast from southern queensland right back to adelaide actually as far as perth is concerned and all of western australia that's an active frontal system that will bring considerable rain in slow moving through perth probably exceeding the month's average another storm is developing south of sydney you will not like that if your house is on the edge the forecast for canberra reflects a real change in virus not a very wet place but something to write on sunday and then it's windy on monday.

in russia not a lot. if you bring fame fortune and power election when i went to investigate on al-jazeera. be the hero world right. world.

book about to watch yours there with me cell rama reminder of our top stories 16 port officials have been detained in beirut as frustration grows over the lebanese government's response to the explosions there were protests into the night thursday . the governing party in sri lanka has won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections these lankan people's front is led by the rajapaksa brothers got a buyer and a hindu who serve as president and prime minister. and the saudi crown prince is being sued he's accused of sending its men to canada in a found attempt to kill one of his former top intelligence officials the alleged target assad r.j. pre has filed a lawsuit in washington d.c. . now hundreds of afghan leaders collars and elders are meeting in kabul to negotiate a peace deal with the taliban the loya jirga talks are the last hurdle to the start of the game between the afghan government and the taliban the main issue is whether the government should meet the armed groups demand to release $400.00 prisoners

u.s. secretary of state mike pompei is urging support for the move saying it will be an important step towards peace nations former finance minister has been charged with corruption then one thing pleaded not guilty to demanding a 10 percent cut for $1500000000.00 infrastructure project he was part of the cabinet that took over in 2018 after former prime minister najib resigned was ousted because of a separate corruption case resign was sentenced to 12 years in prison last week. the number of infections in africa has passed 1000000 the world health organization is warning the surge could overwhelm hospitals south africa accounts for more than half of all cases across the continent and critics say government corruption has hurt the country's response for me to bill or as more from johannesburg. south africa's public health sector has for years been overwhelmed and now with a global pandemic infecting more than 500000 people here public hospitals are under

more pressure. more than $24000.00 health workers have contracted kovac $1181.00 have died since march unions and workers say corruption is contributing to push service delivery and is putting lives at risk while the government's given contracts to service providers for personal protective equipment or p.p. e the prices have been inflated in other instances people has not been delivered at all well contracts have been given to companies and people connected to the government and the ruling african national congress party.

presidents a little more force i know we can use that as promised to deal with the croft corruption during a national disaster is a particularly heinous type of crime those found to have broken the law to enrich themselves through this crisis will not get to enjoy the spoils regardless of who they are with whom they may be connected but drum up was us chief spokeswoman is embroiled in a scandal involving her husband tendencies a way he's companies been accused of winning a $7000000.00 contract to supply p. p. e. through his political connections decodes taken special leave and she and her husband deny breaking any laws the province of halting stop health official bundler must to go and his wife to. have been implicated when the 1st infections were recorded back in march the government declared a state of disaster which meant to that the normal tender procedure for government

contracts was abandoned within days of the announcement a number of questionable contracts were awarded now the finance minister tetum but when he says the process has to be more transparent a government agency the special investigative unit says $102.00 companies and how to get a loan under investigation while in other provinces officials have been suspended and investigations have begun but no one's yet been charged prosecuted corruption during this health crisis is estimated to have cost the country more than $116000000.00 at a time when south africa is dealing with the 5th worst outbreak of culvert 19 in the world for me to malaya al-jazeera johannesburg. is an infectious disease specialist at the institution he says although the number of cases in south africa is holy the situation seems to be getting a lot better. it is very concerning that there are places where there's not

a lot of testing and we still seeing a rise in the number of cases however difficult to predict what the implication that. of not testing i mean what how the figures would look if you were doing more tests currently we our borders are still closed so south africa have closed borders since march and we don't have any. movement in and out of the country is not movement of people there's movement of cargo but not movement of people and so we're hoping that that's going to you of course create an environment where cases are not being exported. south africa is really i mean we are getting quite a lot of cases right now we're probably going to get close to a 1000000 when this is over but i think back we have seen a lot of bit of relief in the last week or so in terms of the number of cases being reported also in terms of the hospital a burden and the number of people who are in the hospitals and the percent occupancy of the hospital beds i think things seem to be getting

a little better it could be just because you know maybe people are not talking as much or maybe there's just some other reason but hopefully that trend continues right now it's just a trend but hopefully the trend continues and then we can see in a few weeks whether we're ready we're actually over the hump but of course you know going to take a long time to get down back to the road i want to be in the u.k. is being held up as an example of how a coordinated community of it can work to tackle the pandemic the scene a surge of localized cases in liverpool but instead of a blanket lockdown just shut down small pockets of the city and volunteers are playing a big part as lawrence lee reports tough little western land. these are the streets where the virus is thriving it's been moving house to house often transmitted by children to their parents or grandparents or living under the same roof in other places this would have led to the city being locked down but here they refuse to instead they localized the lock down to the smallest possible area we are doing

this with and through our community rather than to our community and that way we're building trust and relationships with the funtastic community leaders committee champions faith leaders in our ballance years that we've got in the area much of it is about making sure vulnerable people don't run out of basics like food or medicines that delivering so well lead he's not allowed to leave home but in turn he's keeping an eye out on his neighbors and reporting back to the violence he is the 'd brother across the road each 80 years old he was taken away in an ambulance this morning and blows it wife still there so straight on the phone to family to let them know what was happening could she not might not have let them know and then i told the masha so you know sometime today they'll be in contact with them to see i have you can get the supplies the data from local supermarkets all restaurants or cooks and more volunteers from all sorts of backgrounds this somali center has delivered $10000.00 meals since march and when they visit someone who's

ill they get them to the doctor yes we spreading the word and in the end because it's not only incumbent to the relevant authorities but it's incumbent with us to save the community our community and the wider community as well. it's all the sharpest contrast with a situation just down the road in manchester where the government insisted 4 and a half 1000000 people have had to lock down because of localized outbreaks in liverpool by contrast the testing center in the affected area has access to the most local knowledge quite apart from the obvious benefits of not having to lock down an entire city the other advantage of liverpool's model is of the volunteers come up with a really specific information about individuals on dozens and dozens of streets and that sort of highly granular data is absolute goldust for public health professionals. the whole response has become a source of enormous local pride among the volunteer groups despite them being

pressured financially due to a lot of courts they still continue to amaze as with the innovation with the compassion that they have been dealing with vulnerable individuals who. to shield there are dozens of nationalities doing this while acting as one unit in the better interests of the whole community they say anyone in the world could do what they're doing certainly the level of commitment and organization is quite the contrast to the u.k.'s disjointed national response to the virus or asleep al jazeera in liverpool spain's forward king juan carlos has reportedly been staying in abu dhabi since he left spain on monday spanish newspaper a.b.c. says carlos flew to the u.a.e. in a private jet spain's courts are investigating him for money laundering and tax evasion tied to a business deal with saudi arabia thousands of belorussians have taken part in

a band opposition rally in the capital minsk ahead of the presidential elections final day of voting on sunday now the race is proving to be the strongest challenge yet to the 26 year rule of president alexander lukashenko step vassal reports from the capital minsk. ignoring a government ban they shouted leave look i shan't go we will win thousands of supporters of opposition leader but lana too kind of sky rallied for hours in front of an empty stage after the candidate and her team was barred from entering we all work but we do not hear any more so all we have less fear as as before because it's not possible to have so much fear in our country. for i'm here to support the next generation our children i'm 51 years old and to be honest i can't watch how my mother is forced to count every cent because of her small pension because shankar also lost support our family called

a covert 19 crisis of psychosis despite thousands polling ill thank god only has been full force around the people from all walks of life all ages have gathered here risking arrest they are beyond fear they say the authorities had banned opposition rally saying a celebration for troops was held in the same park so atlanta. joined forces with 2 other women has attracted the largest crowd seen and bellows in decades describing herself as an ordinary housewife revival jailed blogger sent the panel ski has quickly become a symbol for change of many belorussians and change to happen for sure what we want change in a peaceful way but not many are hopeful that the elections on sunday will be free and clear with foreign observers banned and independent by russian observers already taking the opposition has announced they will take to the streets again as

soon as the polls close on sunday stepladders and al jazeera. the governing party in guinea has asked president also called day to seek a 3rd term if follows months of protests against extending the 82 year olds time in office and weeks speculation to ivory. president alasania tara has announced that he too is seeking a 3rd term amid interest reports. that i am in a fake to candidate in the presidential election of october 31st 2020 announcement that many believe will have serious repercussions but for some ivorians the declaration was not completely unexpected one former prime minister. and chosen successor suddenly died on july 8th the ivory coast and the ruling party was thrown into political uncertainty in office history and president ouattara said although he had planned to retire after 2 terms the death of bali has changed everything he

says his party are asked him to run again and he is accepted. there is sars and then my tragic the recent tragic events with the death of prime minister coulibaly have lifted a void in the team that i had put in place to continue and consolidate economic and social programs which you interested me with but also the tight calendar on the 3 months before the elections the challenge of maintaining peace national security as well as regional security and the necessity to could the health crisis the risk is that everything that was gained with so much 2nd phase and with the consent of the people would be compromised. thursday supporters of the former president and or thomas archrival. demonstrated outside the headquarters of the election commission in i'll be shocked they demanded that their leader be put on the ballot as well as the voters' register by bo is kind of glee in the netherlands after he was acquitted by the international criminal court of crimes during the ivory coast civil war when he refused to relinquish power after losing the presidential

election to mr ouattara because as people had let him know that they were not happy with him running for a 3rd term and he had gone ahead and said that yes he will not run and he had chosen somebody else he should up in this moment gone ahead and showed some state statesmanship and told his people in the ivory coast. even though my party wants me to run i am not going to. cross the border in guinea it's up to generate leader alpha condé is also set to run in his country's delayed presidential election for the 3rd time his party selected him on thursday to be berra. today you have all spoken allies parties and others i take note. pointers attempt change the constitution to keep yourself in power resulted in several violent demonstrations in which dozens of opposition supporters were killed by security

forces there are concerns that thursday's event may throw both give me an ivory coast into father political tom or maybe priest al jazeera rescuers are going to great lengths to save people trapped by flooding in eastern china the emergency workers trekked through dangerous terrain treif says stuck in a car in changing province all 3 were pulled to safety there has been hit by 2 renshaw rain and typhoon hit. your children there with the whole romney reminder of our top news stories 16 people have been arrested in lebanon as frustration grows over the government's response to tuesday's port explosion and those taken into custody include officials from beirut pulls the death toll stands not 149 but search and rescue teams continue to scour the rubble for any survivors ben smith has more. we've seen

thousands of people out on the streets with shovels pickaxes brushes doing the cleanup because the government isn't just across from the main blast site you'll see those standing grain silos and to the right of those is where the explosion happened as a destroyed ship just beyond that and that everything that was in the way of the shockwave in the few just seconds it took to push out has been hit and destroyed. is an election victory this expected to cement the power of the rajapaksa brothers in sri lanka governing party has recorded an overwhelming victory with nearly 60 percent of the vote these sri lankan people's front is led by go to and mahinda rajapakse or who serve as president and prime minister along with their allies it has secured a 2 thirds majority giving the president the power to make sweeping changes to the constitution. the saudi crown prince is being sued he's accused of sending hit men

to canada in a failed attempt to kill one of his former top intelligence officials the alleged targets file a lawsuit in the united states david 19 infections of past 2000000 in india it's the 3rd nation after the u.s. and brazil to reach the milestone epidemiologists say it hasn't yet reached its peak to chinese tech giants have seen their shares plunge after the u.s. president issued an executive order banning business with them the decision blocks any transaction with the parent company to social media app to talk and the owner of the message app we chant of course you can follow those stories on our website at al-jazeera dot coms updated through the day more news in half an hour in the news with peter dhabi next it's what i want to east to stay with us.

al-jazeera where every. day. in russia and in my mixed martial arts he's a phenomenon. in this city hundreds of amateur fight is from top to a battle with you know. deep in the caucasus mountains. train from morning till night hoping to find their way out of poverty and become champions. i don't think. it's a tough path but the payoff being that there is no good.