everyone. lebanon's president raises the possibility of external interference or a rocket attack being behind the beirut port blast the number of officials under arrest is now. hello and welcome again i'm peter w. watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha also coming up sri lanka's governing party gets the victory it was looking for a majority for the rajapaksa brothers to push through sweeping constitutional changes. unemployment dropped slightly in the u.s.

but the painful reality does remain for millions of americans out of a job because of the pandemic. that was never something that i thought would happen to me in my life. the u.s. is accused of political manipulation after donald trump signs an order banning business with the chinese and apps to talk and we chat. top story the president of lebanon says an investigation into the beirut port explosion will look at whether it was caused by negligence an accident or possible external interference 19 port officials have been detained as frustration grows over the government's response to the blast bernard smith starts our coverage from beirut. armies of volunteers are on the streets of beirut. sweeping clearing digging. they're filling the gap left. by the state. which is

conspicuous by its absence. we had an i.t. company here times were tough before tuesday's explosion now she says she can't see any future here. i am in. los angeles. i see i'm 30. and both come. from 25 years. i work here out this is the 1st time i. i see something like that. lebanon's president michel aoun says an investigation into the explosion will look at whether it was caused by negligence or external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act whatever it was in beirut they want to know why 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate was stored in an urban area. when the ammonium

nitrate ignited the shock wave instantly crossed the city leaving beirut looking like a place but after just 5 seconds has suffered from years of conflict. frustration and anger boiled over on thursday night and there were some small protests near lebanon's parliament. but most people here have been focused on cleaning up for now . the government says reconstruction costs will run to at least $15000000000.00. this is a country that was already on its knees because of a deep economic crisis and a currency that has lost 80 percent of its value in less than a year we don't have a government to look after and believe either we don't need food oaklawn own blood even our apartment. we're trying to see people if they need help within our street that's the least we can do the government is in cap and capable of helping us so we

the people are coming here to do to help our comrades and levanon and we're coming from the north all of us where we're like 78 people were coming from 90 kilometers north north of beirut and we're here just to stand by the people the blast has left at least 300000 people homeless many will rely on relatives or friends to take them in. more than 150 people have been killed and there are many missing foreign search teams are leading the delicate task of trying to find survivors under the rubble more than 5000 people have been injured. 16 people have been arrested in the investigation into the warehouse explosion including the port manager but for many in this city the finger of blame is pointed at the very top of government. bernard smith al-jazeera beirut ok let's get more live from our correspondents in a hoarder who's in beirut as well as you know we've had these comments in the past

90 minutes or so from michelle and what's your reading of them. well the president saying that investigations are continuing and they're still trying to determine the cause of the blast but for the 1st time he is raising the possibility that this is some sort of an attack that a rocket could have been involved he also does point out that this could be an accident and negligence on the part of a few people but for the very fact that he said a rocket or a bomb attack this is really going to raise a number of questions because people really have little faith in the investigation so far the authorities are promising that it's going to be transparent and it's going to be swift but the very fact that the committee which is in charge of investigating this disaster is made up of people from the political establishment the head of different security agencies as well as ministers this is raising questions because people say it is this these people who should be questioned on exactly what happened and just moments really after the explosion we heard the head

of this security one of the head of the security agencies he was talking about a fire at the port that so investigators at the beginning talked about a fire in a port that was not to contain and then spread to the warehouse which contained the explosives the highly explosive material ammonium nitrate so the president raising a number of possibilities saying that the cause has still not been determined i once you know about. i'm assuming 1st will identify those responsible 'd for what happened then other investigations will follow i repeat that we fully understand the reaction of the people as many have lost their loved ones and know condolences nothing would console them and only retribution against the perpetrator or the person to blame that's what we endeavor to identify those responsible however solace and comfort rests in justice and you will know me i'm general the show you

have tested me at times of war and at times of peace. is there a sense there when you're walking around the city saying to people really engaging with the politicians at the moment even though they generally as a general proposition they want them gone that's clear but they're just too busy because they're rebuilding their cleaning them selves yes the priority now is to provide aid to those in need it is the people the people are in the streets they're providing aid they're clearing the the debris they're giving people food family friends opening homes there are no shelters for these people the government is absent the state is absent so people really are becoming really angry and they're already starting to mobilize in fact there are calls for a mass protest tomorrow tomorrow afternoon so we remember for months we saw people in the streets demanding a new leadership they were met with

a militarized state they were arrested they were that the state used tear gas they used rubber coated bullets to contain the unrest but this time around people are saying that they're just so angry they want revenge it's no longer a new leadership they want those in power to be held accountable for what they have done they are not calling this an accident they're saying that this you know this is a manmade someone was responsible for storing those explosives at the port in the middle of a city a densely populated city so people are angry there are already calls for protests but whether or not they'll be able to mobilize the street we have to wait to see because many many people are struggling more than 50 percent of the population live below the poverty line many of them have lost their homes many of them have lost their livelihoods so difficult days ahead for the people of this country who are relying on the support of the international community for the time being ok we'll

leave it there many things in order our correspondent reporting live for us out of beirut. well staying with those protests tomorrow though i was mentioning the paula. is a lebanese m.p. and member of the opposition coalition she says president is only paying lip service and it's time for the entire government to go. they really need this government to go away and to lead this country not only the government the government is representing. a small part of the political system it's the political parties we need to say to step out and say we have made me happy to dismantle the mercenaries ruling this country needs to stay in their homes right now needs to be held and accountable and we need to have early elections as soon as possible people go and vote for

a new put it if it got no matter what they should vote for independence or vote for the opposition like me cannot continue it was the same but it's got that has been ruling this country for years and years and they take us from baby to another faith here in this country even before this huge blast. it's already we have spent like $300000000000.00 on infrastructure around the christiane but that nothing $300000000000.00 on. country and nothing was done nothing was it's based on all that money they stole a bonus money in their bank. and and they continued the blame game everyone tells us that it's the other who's responsible everyone is studying but the good ones that the good ones but it's the other sects it's. as a community we are one claiming it's one nation living the same crisis the same

problems goes by these people. let's move on to some other top stories for you this half the election victory in sri lanka that's expected to cement the power of the rajapaksa brothers the governing party has taken nearly 60 percent of the vote the sri lanka people's front is led by go to and mahinda rajapaksa they serve as president and prime minister along with their allies and security 2 thirds majority giving the president the power to make sweeping changes to the constitution the parliament isn't expected to convene for another 2 weeks melson and has more now from the capital colombo we're waiting to hear sort of details of how the rajapaksa want to take this forward north of the 20th of august is when the new parliament has been convened by a gasket signed by the president they will come together but we also heard that as early as next week we will have the prime minister my him that rajapaksa and his cabinet to be sworn in awaiting confirmation but talk of limiting the cabinet to 26

so obviously the rajapakse is not wasting any time in terms of carrying on with the work program that they had targeted for them serves they did ask for a man that strong sort of a support of 2 thirds which now with all of their own votes and their allies they haven't parliament to pass through any changes now the key thing that they had said was that the amended constitution does not allow them to carry forward their program but now there is that confidence with this result of the election in fact president gore tabi rajapaksa responding to the results as they came through yesterday said he's confident that he can build a strong parliament to take forward he's a vis stars of prosperity that he's kind of mandate and program that he put forward for his presidential bid and that this government is taking forward. park here

softly the son of an amount to is the executive director of the think tank the center for policy alternatives he says the opposition is weak and divided and there are big challenges ahead i think what's both average boxes of injury was getting out that he would require a strong stable government in comparison to what happened that accounted for in the sort of governance which the prime minister and the president to part is very weak and vacillating and dr night it so strong stable government also the assertion of the identity of the majority community so it's also a strong signal of the biggest scar with a strong sense of you know centralized leadership authoritarianism barracks and emphasis on law and order and on discipline out of the can we can continue them if we do that to speak and i think things will start and isn't meraki 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 consequence of this article 'd with bank inquiries you know we see not has struck something right eunice startles full 1000000000 a year from now until the 202020 and we have our foreign exchange ermine's very badly hit of course by the virus the biking to to the middle east the apparently industry and hospitality. so that residents origins that he has to face as well. ok still to come for you here on al-jazeera the number of corona virus cases in india has now hit 2000000 as it struggles to bring the pandemic under control. pitching in to help will visit a city in the u.k. where it's taking a community effort to combat coronavirus. hallow

the mighty river hanging in south korea and seoul is actually lapping the streets of the capital and there's more rain to come because the seasonal rains have reached this far north so for central some parts of northern china particularly the korean places sas career and some degree north korea in the far north of japan but usual line of wetness so next 2 days maybe the next more than 2 days south of this all or a few showers around the humid air in southern china and wanted to showers in japan and this clearly quite a swathe of what was right up to the minor violence in japan for the south sols forecast confirms it is wet wet wet for the next 3 days south of this not line to watch and it's this one here maybe not quite so obvious but i think mina's in

train for days of rain as well and that line extends back into thailand cambodia south vietnam south of that is a relatively dry picture at the moment i think kluges all of indonesia maybe unusually in this forecast at least a thunder you want to another wet one for the next 3 days monsoon rains are concentrating down the west gets but equally so all the way in south pakistan. $115000000.00 trees disappear every year. the clothing that we. all way from cycling to safe it finds the famous yellow dress fade from blue jeans. to conserving the world's dwindling weapon. free of the aids world's global bird migrations life intersect right where we are the basic discovered a treasure is one of the most special plants on the planet after ice ecosystems in

that announces era. welcome back you're with al-jazeera live from doha peace with you this half hour your top stories lebanon's president says an investigation into the beirut port explosion will look at whether it was caused by negligence an accident or external interference 19 port officials have now been detained. the governing party in sri lanka has won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections these frank a people's front is led by the rajapaksa brothers go to by and by hinder they serve as president and prime minister. spain's former king juan

carlos has reportedly been staying in abu dhabi since he left spain on monday the spanish newspaper a.b.c. news says one car last flew to the u.a.e. on board a private jet spanish courts are investigating him for money laundering and tax evasion tied to a business deal with saudi arabia. there are tensions between the u.s. and china over the ban of some popular chinese social media apps beijing is accusing washington of using national security as an excuse to suppress foreign firms on thursday donald trump the u.s. president is sued an executive order to block the platforms within $45.00 days between a new reports now from beijing. the job news videos have 1400000 followers on video sharing. the chinese version of talks. the 25 year old uses the app every day and isn't surprised it's become so

popular in the us to wash or we're very proud of anything that originated in china is not just a video sharing platform as an example of chinese in january. she's alarmed by donald trump's executive order to bad tick tocks use there unless the app is sold to an american company. i'm not sure how the company would develop if the owner changes i believe every company has this also if you replace that something the coral will be lost the u.s. government says it's cracking down on chinese apps which it says spread propaganda and pose a security risk to americans beijing says the move is a pretext for suppressing chinese tech companies move on you when it's over the relevant u.s. approach has no factual basis at all it's clearly malicious smearing on a political many people the point of it all is to maintain these almost fully ovaries high tech industry. talks parent company is in talks to sell the app to

microsoft washington has given it 45 days to confirm the sale tick-tock denies it with a communist party and is threatening legal action against the us government it isn't the only time in the firing line messenger we chat which has 1100000000 users why. is also facing a ban the banning of which that is likely to cause problems for chinese users and businesses dealing with china from the us here the platform is more than just social media it's used to buy products invest in shares book travel and even a person's covert 19 health status washington is expanding its so-called clean network initiative which aims to root out major chinese tech products from the u.s. system analysts say the move is part of donald trump's tough on china campaign ahead of the u.s. election in november for the master chinese people especially those who have very

fond memories of the u.s. this came as a surprise and many people are pissed off because it just seems that chinese people are chinese companies are in a way i don't think is a good sign because we have seen the anti china sentiment going on around the world the chinese government is urging the u.s. to pull back the move or face retaliation trump executive order deep in the digital divide between china and the u.s. adding to diplomatic tensions and a growing list of disagreements over geopolitics and trade. ok let's just bring you some breaking news coming to us out of washington if you've been following the story about the relationship between the united states donald trump and beijing of course you will know there are involved of something of a tit for tat trade war just now we understand as of the past few minutes the united states has decided to sanction 12 chinese and hong kong officials we

know one of the names so far it includes the hong kong chief executive kerry lam so that's one high profile person on that list of 12 individuals who are being sanctioned such a negative relationship at the moment between the economic superpower that is china and the u.s. as a superpower off the back of that of course we've been reporting just in the past few hours about the u.s. decision to ban in effect take talk and tell microsoft you've got to buy that that's one facet of this relationship let's bring in our white house correspondent kimberly how to get us right up to speed on that developing story kimberly what else do we know. well i just caught the the top line as you were reporting it there so what we have been hearing this

morning at least from my hand reaching out to white house officials is that in fact there was something in the works to sanction chinese officials and now i understand that has happened so what we know is that as you mentioned that the concern has been for a very long time these political freedoms in hong kong and how they have been curtailed and this is yet another manifestation by this white house to try and take punitive action against china for what they believe is a very nerve wracking situation for the many of the americans that are also caught up in the midst of this what many see as a very draconian national security law you have to remember this has been a string of actions you talked about the action that took place less than 24 hours ago with the putting in place of the actions on tick tock and we chat those sweeping actions that really crack down on those chinese social media networks but

there have been others too we've seen the unanimous decision by the u.s. congress with regard to the actions that have been taken against chinese weekers that is something that has also been a punitive measure and then of course we've seen the rejection of the territorial claims by china in the south china sea that action coming from the secretary of state might prompt a oh why is all of this happening well in part has to do with the u.s. election that's less than 3 months away the u.s. president is furious that. covert 19 has ravaged the u.s. economy something he thought was going to propel him to reelection that's why as recently as in the last couple of hours he tweeted again calling the coronavirus or covert. the china virus he is pointing the finger at china it's a deliberate strategy by this administration and we should point out that this is something that donald trump campaigned on back in 2016 whether it was to take tough

action to bring jobs back from china to rebalance the trade relationship he's done all of that but he put that measure in a bit of peril when it's cold it hit this is just the latest in a string of escalations by the top administration but to specifically kind of half single out kerry lamb that kinds of that comes off the back of what we've heard 2 or 3 months of comments sporadically from the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei o talking about rights in hong kong talking about democracy in hong kong but in between him starting that conversation and where we are today when it comes to sanctions being leveled at kerry we've heard that legislation imposed on the former british colony by the government in beijing and opponents and critics of it would say it's totally wrong it's totally flawed because it gives the beijing government the opportunity whenever they choose to to circum navigate the hong kong

legislature. i think it's the calculation that's taken place here in the united states with regard to. pulling the special status for example of hong kong is that it was just benefiting china the united states is looking to isolate it increasingly and that is just one of the many tactics the reason that kerry last has been targeted is because the united states has taken the stand point that there was an opportunity for her to try and. soften some of what has taken place but she has not done that instead what she has done is sided firmly with what the united states calls the chinese communist party and chinese communist party officials so there was an opportunity for her to kind of strike a balance the united states has clearly with this latest action decided that she did not * do that and that is why she needs to be lumped in with the chinese officials that the u.s.

we should also point out sanctions just a couple of weeks ago so it's clear that there was this window of opportunity china did not take the opportunity and so the united states is now havering down even further ok kimberly many things for getting this right across all the developments the breaking story coming to us out of washington can really help you there in d.c. . staying in the states unemployment is still above 10 percent in america the government has just released its figures for the month of july and showing it did drop however from 11 point one percent in june to 10 point 2 percent but millions of people are still without jobs because of the pandemic and the stalemate in congress is holding up benefits republicans and democrats are all over new much the package off to federal payments to keep people afloat expire john hendren us that story from chicago. for more than 30000000 unemployed americans warm summer days fade to sleepless nights i never anticipated being on unemployment period.

i think that that was never something that i thought would happen to me in my life among the newly unemployed since march is sira guard who lost her human resources job in fears losing her identity what's at stake for my family is. being able to stay who we are being able to maintain the life that we have when us job losses began to accelerate dramatically early in the covert crisis congress took the unusual step of creating a 600 dollar weekly subsidy for the jobless in addition to state unemployment insurance that averages a little over $300.00 but that funding expired last week since the coronavirus shut down much of the united states in march the u.s. economy has shrunk by one 3rd the fastest drop in u.s. history according to a new study by the associated press and the university of chicago's national opinion research center about half of americans believe the jobs that have

disappeared are gone forever as congress debates renewing jobless payments the virus is resurging spreading to tens of thousands more americans every day this thing is coming back around and it's traveling from other states and if we had gotten it under control earlier we might not be in this position right now as washington struggles to respond to the virus and the unemployment crisis americans face insolvency and hunger thousands of them hourly at this los angeles food bank alone when cold it happened i couldn't there was no i had no money no money and now for millions coping with unemployment often for the 1st time dwindling hope john hendren al-jazeera chicago. india has become the 3rd country in the world to record 2000000 cases of coronavirus the covered 19 count has doubled in 3 weeks faster than the u.s. or brazil which do have higher numbers 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. this is al jazeera these are the top stories the u.s. has just confirmed it is imposing sanctions against 12 chinese officials including the hong kong leader kerry lam president donald trump has signed an executive order last month aiming to punish china for hong kong's new national security law beijing insists the law was needed to criminalize acts of secession subversion and terrorism but critics say it's being used to silence dissent lebanon's president says an investigation into the beirut port explosion will look at whether it was caused by negligence an accident or external interference 1000 port officials have now been detained. i want to hear how bout you. i'm a sunni 1st we'll identify those responsible 'd for what happened then other

investigations will follow i repeat that we fully understand the reaction of the people as many have lost their loved ones and no condolences nothing would console them and only retribution against the perpetrator or the person to blame that's what we endeavored to identify those responsible 'd however our solace and comfort rests in justice and you all know me i am general michel aoun you have tested me at times of war and at times of peace the governing party in sri lanka has won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections the sri lanka people's front is led by the rajapaksa brothers go to by and mahindra who serve as president and prime minister. unemployment in the us dropped from 11 point one percent in june to 10 point 2 percent in july millions of people are still without jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic and a stalemate in congress is holding up benefits republicans and democrats were at odds over a new emergency package after federal payments to keep people float expired covered

19 infractions of past 2000000 in india with more than 62000 cases reported in the past 24 hours it has the 3rd highest number of infections after the u.s. and brazil hundreds of afghan leaders scholars and elders are meeting in kabul to negotiate a peace deal with the taliban the loya jirgah talks are the last hurdle to the start of negotiations between the afghan government and the taliban the main issue is whether the government should meet the arms groups demands and release 400 prisoners the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei o a search in support for the move saying it will be an important step towards peace that comes after the armed group signed a peace deal with the u.s. in february those are your headlines up next it's the stream you can talk to me on twitter or tweet me back at peter davi one i will see you very soon but i. as protests rage over police brutality and corona virus grips the nation campaigning on the election trail has been forced to take

a back seat will the presidential candidates ever hit the road and so their brand of politics to americans before the votes follow the us elections on a. cultural 0 is here to report on the people often ignored but who must be heard how many other channels can you say will take the time and put extensive thought into reporting from under reported areas of course we cover major global offense but our passion lies in making sure that you're hearing the stories from people in places like palestine the young men have legion and so many others who go to the make me afterwards we care and stay. there welcome to the stream home edition i'm josh rushing sitting in today for femi ok now if you're watching this live on the you tube see a box over there.