responded with the videos, the featured pizza boxes from a romanian restaurant ship. some speculated that was how romanian authorities confirmed his whereabouts. the reports in the remaining media said police had used a number of methods including social media posts to ensure both brothers were in the country. take home for the last 5 years. among the items found at that home were bundles of cash and weapons, including swords, knives, and firearms. a court in bucharest is ruled at all 4 suspects, be detained for further 30 days, or equal sit al jazeera. ah, corporate could target the headlines here on odyssey or the world health organization has met with chinese officials to request more information on the countries surgeon covered 19 cases. the double h o ask for sharing of real time data and offered practical support follows growing doubts about the transparency of official data. for you in france, have joined

a growing list of countries to impose covered 19 checks on arrival from china, united states, japan, india, and italy have already announced compulsory testing. china has announced the new rules as discriminatory or cant, haiti, all countries score 19. prevention and control measures should be scientific and appropriate and should not affect normal people to people contact as well as normal exchange and cooperation in recent days. many leading medical experts for multiple countries have said that there is no need to impose restrictions on entry of travelers from china. general us house democrats, several least 6 years of donald trump's tax returns. the congressional committee says the records show, he paid no income tax in 2020 is last full year as president. although these tax returns contain relatively little information and not information that almost anybody would understand they're extremely complex. the radical democrats behavior

is a shame upon the u. s. congress, ukraine's as it destroyed 16 uranium may drones, launched by russia towards key valley on friday, falling daybreak from one of the drones damage to buildings in the capitol attack came a day after moscow carried out one of its biggest missiles strikes since the war began in february, russia and china say they plan to expand corporation in a video meeting with his chinese counterpart, russian leader vladimir putin said he expects. she shall ping to make a state visit in the coming months. and venezuela and opposition parties of voted to dissolve the interim government led by one glide oh, was formed up to president nicholas maderos, wildly disputed victory in the 2018 elections. parties are aiming to put up a united front of a possible presidential vote in 2024. and brazil is declared 3 days a morning after the death of football legend pele. he died on thursday at the age of 82. but those were the headlines and he continues, he announces air off

a generation che states with thanks to watching life now a with

in well come to generation change a global series that attempts to understand and challenge the ideas that are mobilizing you around the world. i'm new enough, want an independent journalist. they said lebanon, where jen, z, campaigners are fighting for radical change. a challenges they face couldn't be more daunting economic a lot. but it's a social unrest. and the devastation caused by august 2020 explorers in here. and they live in this episode, we need to young people using their skills to come back decades of corruption and victory. they believe the total read that is the only way forward.

oh oh, can you, can you tell me a little bit about your childhood and be able to were there any specific moments or events that saved your political activism? the early part of my childhood was not really influenced by politics. but as i grew older gradually, i'm interested in the boonies dynamics. however, also important lots of the ideas and concepts that were created by the abuse running class in terms of the sectarian connotations of the crisis. so at the end of the day, we're all currently products of the society and the general

a yahoo or jeez, and soon by the regime. but then i got exposed to various other ideas, movement groups that try to deliver an alternative vision for what the country may be, as opposed to what i learned to be as a child. oh why do you seeing that the settler club is and pointing and will it have some kind of effect outside the cult of lebanese universities as i can or club besides that as a socio cultural political space for soonest one or more about politics and the various developments happening. it meant the students as a social group and this group had to have economic interests which had to be protected. whether it's leaning on who dition battles against the administration to protect student freedom or, and needing long tuition strokes, which protects the students' rights in billing

and $1019.00, it was basically you the youth student component november 17 opposing. but it also transformed into a force, which is a mood to impose a certain, the sports on the lebanese landscape. or you're optimistic that her mother network will emerge as if, elliptical movement and lebanon know the way i see them. other than, for example, the movement. the not 20000 expensive social studies and then has taken the grassroots as a structured it as they came to the idea that it should be creating a culture, had giovanni, and challenged most of their employees, these miniatures, based on the various other forces, which of course offered this basis and as already forward and i think that's what makes the political movement them as the you were part of the

generation that was born and p site, but in 2006, this changed for you. yeah. can you tell me a little bit about god's o, as in lebanon during the 2006 war during the summer? i was impacted abs physically, but also i took it in and i understood even when i was told that narratives impact public opinion. but it was really and during the 2014 goes away, when i was interning at major news organization, look, i understood the weight and the importance of accountability, journalism and independent journalism. so that towards the road that i took in my career oh, there were on witness a series of protests and the past 2 years from 2011, 2015. and then the big 2019 protest. what was the role of the media and lebanon? the media are owned by prices and groups and political parties,

which are the political class that a lot of people and the protest movement throws up at the hearts of corruption. i enablers, which are the mainstream media. this information is the illustration of corruption in narrative and ideas. so it's really important for me to focus on the media narrative and also counted it through investigative work. so with the independent media organization i worked for, i took on the daily news reporting and covering her violations against protesters. the protests that were happening all over the country. there were media black out, so we were the ones who said lights on what was going on in a way that most he needs it means to me to them. there has been an increase in a thoughts on journalists and on needs. l. workers is freedom of speech and danger, and lebanon in your opinion. i think freedom of speech right now as going through

a specific kind of challenge because of social media and the government's use of social media, who intimidates people into self censorship. we need to speak against that, whether or not the intimidation is there and i think a lot of independent needs at workers understand the stress. and they understand that now is the time to continue with the accountability. journalism continues with open source investigations in order to uncover the status quo and to dismantle it's completely cut in as that. thank you so much for being with us today. your generation did not really witness the civil war in lebanon. however, every one husband's cards in the country may be through our parents or through stories that we hear. now i want to start with euclidean,

how did this shape your political activism in the country? now although we didn't experience the civil war, we were taught or inherited a narrative about no sector and connotations, even forms of heroism. you know, people that we were supposed to think a very highly. at the end of the day, we also formulated a counter narrative. the idea that you are transcending this with war and transcending the sectarian connotations which exist alongside of it. and this is something we're currently working on. what about you? i so i also have a kind of unique, a bringing as my parents are both from secular background. so i had this angle that i got from my parents while understanding the trauma that they lived through during the civil war. since that said, inherited intergenerational trauma and wanting never to have this happen again. so this was basically my viewpoint going into politics going into activism

and going into journalism as well. so is your generation more radical? katie, more uncompromising in a way we were thought for a long way to lebanon that this is the country. these are the relationships that exist between the ruling class and the people between the people themselves, between the various clinical factions which exist in the country. and we're suggesting that there's nothing static about lebanon, lebanon is always in the dynamic transformation, and we're here, you know, experiencing another dynamic respiration which go about after october 17th, which can about after the august for exclusion. we do thing that we have the agency to create the vibe, or they'll turn up if i say, what are the ways in which you can implement such change in your opinion. i think that we learned a lot from what's happening around us since they're so called arab spring and what people are h, as when we're able to achieve not only in 2011, but also 2019 with us across iraq, algeria, sudan, and elsewhere. and we learned from each other about tactics and futures and his

cities that we want to work together towards getting your, the chair of the political working group of the mother network, which connect secondary clubs across universities in lebanon, canada transform the student activism into any, some lights political movement in your opinion. well, i think the florida already the case in the sense that the network is established and more than 12 to 13 universities. this suggests that there is potential for genuine competition between secondary progressive components in the mini society against the more sectarian, a reactionary components which have existed. historically, the secondary clubs are in the mother network and not only calling for secretaries . and they're also calling for a wider progressive package that also deals with social justice, more democratic inclusion. ideas pertaining to include deliberated from norms which

have destroyed their society so or not, and distant ideological group, we are part of the society or speaking to them with their basic needs. how can you actually convince people who might be even older than this generation to vote outside the scope of their sex when you have 18 facts and lebanon, when you have political parties that are based on their sex and that are not based on merit or even deep politics, the problem was tackling such a question is that we need to tackle it through it, which is client amazon from someone though it's for political sac, they're also voting for the ability to get a job to be able to get to get in a school to be able to get social welfare and all of these things that are tied to sectarian political parties. so really thinking about getting people to vote outside of their sectarian loyalty is we need to also be cognizant that we are telling them to make themselves vulnerable to

a reality without their so said protections and the political protections of a mainstream political party would offer them so this opposition movement should have a certain a turn, it is and realistic solutions to the sectarian plans in the 6 system that has been ingrained in every institution and every parts and parson of our life. so what you're saying basically, is that nonsectarian opposition groups need to compete with these long last thing and political parties by proving that this is not the way. so actually, and this was a very interesting phenomenon that's happened after the august 4 albedo blast people came together from across lebanon and forums, networks of solidarity, and financing and collaborative. certainly there is in networks that don't mimic the same authoritarian client in this thick structure that we're so used to

getting the government would say that they are attempting to tackle corrupts and in lebanon with establishing an anti corruption committee. and, and you law, tackling corruption in the country. what's your opinion on that in lebanon, particularly the term corruption is basically, and potentially immune, particularly when it's anti corruption. because the issue in lebanon was not just corruption in the sense that, you know, we have some interest being distributed within state sectors. it's a very structured and systemic issue. we have and has been amplified as the ninety's. we have a run based economy that is completely based on monopolies, the banking sector, plus the real estate sector. we have a sectarian system which completely distributes all ministries, all as for use that have come across after the war. we have enlarged that we have a lot of the social and economic inequality. no productive sectors which would use anything. and we're simply living the remnants of an extremely near the brood and

unfair economy. so people that are saying we want to fix corruption, but don't even want to fight back the interests of the oligarchy and the banks. then we can't really trust whether they're actually, if i think option. so as long as this is at stake, there is no such thing as anti corruption. as the on august, 4th, 2020 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded and battled causing damage to the whole city . can you tell me what happened on that day? so i wasn't the office, i had the work call in the middle of it and then 6, so 8 happened and then i felt a tremor that took me back and forth. and i hadn't realized what had happened. but i heard the noise of a huge explosion, and i saw that everything was destroyed around us. our colleagues were really close to the windows, and we were trying to figure out if anyone was injured. and because my apartments in my office were right beside each other, and i could see complete destruction of my apartment because this was an office for

an independent media organization. some of our videographers took their gear and they went down to film, the carnage. it was a complete massacre. it was something that i think no one wants to live through again or ever. what have on to kennedy once i heard the explosion and i felt that everything was shaking. the 1st thought, the game to our mind is that this is it's, i also was quite frightened in the position i was in because i felt maybe the building could collapse at any moment. so it was extreme uncertainty about the next 30 minutes after i was out and took my car. i notice that people are injured everywhere. so it was a huge catastrophic, a moment in which everything normal in our lives was hosted.

as that, you mentioned that you are in an office working with an independent media organization . did you manage after that to resume your work direct? he, i think what fueled us to continue and to actually double down on our reporting and on our coverage was our anger towards whatever happened and whoever were responsible. so this could be seen with our investigations. oh, with our daily news coverage and trying to piece together what's happened, why was there a fire? what's blew up before the ammonium nitrate? where was it exactly and which warehouse i was able to look at. ok. this video was taken on the roof of this building, and this time, this enables me to actually piece together something so that i can know what's happened because the anxiety of not knowing was worse then they're excited. see us . what's happened after $15000000000.00 is the number estimated when we talk about

the damages that were caused by this explosion. there are so many alleged accusations that corruption reached aids where thus corruption and carrying the aid as thus have them of the answer to corruption. because thieving, this regime with more funds for the by the international community, will only need to its reproduction and safeguarding its own basis. the solution is in us, is in the hundreds of thousands of people from various social groups and by grows and sex. who believe if they mobilize and create the differences of solidarity this could potentially create an adequate resistance in the regime. but there is no certainty insights, but there is always hope. can you, can i just jump in here when i look at are i understand corruption. it isn't just

from like an institutional governmental perspective, but if there is corruption, one place, it's probably tied to corruption elsewhere. when megaphone used it and investigation about the origins of the ship that brought them on united states to the bay to its poor. there were tied to syrian russian firms with addresses in london, so corruption is the globin. now i think when we want to understand and to fight corruption, we need to think about it as a system of solidarity. that is boyd or less at the same time and collaborate with independent media organizations just like the panama papers have done to uncover money laundering scandals across the world. i think there's something really important when she said, but there's also something her and to emphasize on based on this that i mean is regime is tied to international and global interests which sustain it. now that is

something to critique, but it's also something to look at and slightly so be inspired from that. if we do break these links or if we do create alternative links across borders that good or multiply the strength of our movement. and potentially we could benefit from a, an alternative nasa network of people who sang this way. and that's how we can create alternative power in the country and ultimately replace the current regime in site. i mean, cream. just looking at the protest starting tactics from the 20 october 2019 protest movement. we learned from hong kong we learned from turkey, we learned from sudan. and then again in may 2021, the george floyd protest. i said lebanese activists helped or created a guide for a black lives matter, activists and minnesota in order to help them in terms of distance security help

with tear gas. so this, sorry there to doesn't just transcend our fight against corruption, but also our fight against utter authoritarian regimes and oppressors. one of the so many challenges that the country is facing an integration or brain drain, many of the young generation are leaving for good at him. you mentioned that you are a part of the madder network which is connecting different secular clubs that the protests are kind of on hold right now. how do you motivate people? how do you revive these events and this truths? not many people have the luxury to go else. a lot of people are stuck here in the sense and they have no choice but to fight back for these after the august for explosion, when the people basically occupied martyrs where they were and saying, you know, let's make some calculations and see if we can afford this or that they just went sometimes we assume that if people emigrate, then they don't have a role. but this is a huge fantasy at times,

the lebanese regime benefits from the base flora. they benefits from the fact that we're gonna export every one. and then they'll give us the money so we can sustain ourselves. the opposition has a reality. the reality is that people are outside. how can they benefit us? well, most of organization that mechanism i can the mechanisms are becoming online as dressers, movements. so people can take part in meetings and sharing ideas and talking to people and getting heaps of people to vote. so that's all about raising alternative network by using the diaspora that was exported by the regime itself. but also kareem, i think, as opposition groups, or as students or union organizers, we need to learn to that the college, our hope for the future, which we saw on the streets in the beginning of the 17 october 2019 protest movements. people were coming together a dancing cooking together, singing together trading things with each other. these are in form of systems of

relationships and trades that had never been seen in at his downtown. bade woods until before some of the civil war. as that, we do know how media is monopolized in lebanon. how excited to private businesses, to politicians. how can you change that? so 1st, i think we need to recognize that 12 political families own, at least half of the mainstream media in lebanon. the other half is either owned by businessman, by individuals politically affiliated or by specific political parties. so the control over one, the media, but 2 and most importantly, the discourse in the sources of information is squarely in the hands of. 2 those and powered but independence visa organizations have found ways mobilizing the just broader and becoming important sources of information from the ground since they are the only ones that fell from the ground. from the point of view of the

protesters from the point of view of the oppressed. but again, the independence media needs to work together with a grassroots movement with some of site organizations to bridge together all these things in order to have a sustainable future. when you talk about all of these hopes and dreams, there's the ser and components that we need to talk about and that is challenging. a secular state has been law as a dominant political shade fighting lebanon. now some argue that they are a state within a state. how do you build a secular government with the presence of such prices? i don't think it's even possible to look for genuine the radical reform of the country with the state of the state like hezbollah, which is not just a party that distributes it's an infrastructure of a state of the self. it participates in other conflicts in the region and it also tokenize is on various causes. now the question remains,

how do we resist this? and i knew also have an issue with those who proclaimed to fight against as below. and in fact, they only tackled as vala from their own sectarian point of view. it was never a progressive starting point. and that's something that's extremely necessary. we want to go a step forward, but isn't that challenging? because has bella says that they are present to defend delivering these borders? the only way to tackle such a permeated nib state as well as to recreate a new narrative. it does not mean we have to concede to hezbollah at all. in fact, that's a big mistake. many opposition parties are doing. we need to continue creating this counter hedge money from a starting point which is secular, progressive and insularity with all of those oppressed by his mama and by not has

more. yeah. so, is there is face for optimism and a country so complex, like lebanon that awaits for the 2022 elections or some kind of change. there's never pessimism or optimism. there is a complex reality, as you said. and this complexity in of its says, gives us hope. this was happening this year, may not happen 3 years later. but the 2022 elections cannot be seen as a break, so it can only be seen as of today. however, many other breakthroughs await, because at the end of the day saddle honeyed in october 29, 2019 was not thinking that was in the directions. it was taken out by the streets. and the street could reinvent itself as does that when these regime. so i agree completely with cream and saying that elections is a tool, it's not

a means to an end. i think organizing through syndicates to clubs, through students, unions and across identities and sectarian loyalties is really important. so are you going to be the exoneration that finds a solution for this ongoing crisis and lebanon? i don't know. that's a lot of responsibility for a generation, because i think our parents thought there would be that generation. and i think their parents thought they would be that generation. so maybe i will listen. i actually think there is no such thing as this. you know, one time change in the country, lebanon, 200 years ago, was the, from the lebanon today. and social movements always existed and pressured in a certain direction. so i think each generation made this contribution and we're here to make our modest contribution and to see what comes ahead of us. that's it

for this episode of generation change from lebanon. katie mazda, thank you so much for taking part. it's been a very enlightening conversation. thank you. thank phone bye. ah. the world health organization urges beijing to share more information on its coven . 19 search is more countries and post checks on travelers from china. ah, hello, i'm darn jordan. this is al jazeera ally from dough are also coming up. donald trump remains defiant as touch.