over chalks, russian officials said he collapsed during the walk in the penal colony. his family and supporters blamed the kremlin for his death. days later, that'd be put in secured his 5th term in office. by winning an over whelming majority in a presidential election with no real competition. and a few days later, government killed at least 137 people, an injured more than 182 in a shooting, an arson at top. in the caracas city hall music venue in moscow, islamic state claimed responsibility for the attack. as put in this 5th term officially got underway. he, we shuffled one of russia's most important ministries, surgery show who was replaced as defense, minister by deputy prime minister andre fellow solved. and the newly appointed defense minister immediately faced a major challenge on august 6th, ukrainian forces made a surprise incursion into the cursed region of russia. prompting a declaration of

a state of emergency in the region. more than 100000 people were forced to flee their homes near the border region. of course, for the 1st time since world war 2 foreign troops were now especially on russian soil. days later, this unexpected announcement by president putin agreed to prove a russian against russia by any known nuclear state. but was the participation or support of a nuclear state proposed as they are joint attack on russian federation. so we reserve the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression against russia and billows with russia already the world's most sanction country. the economic impact of the war is being felt across the country. the central bank of russia has a game raised interest rates to their highest since 2003 of all the sufferings in russia. are you comparable to that of your create this why rush or will able to sustain this war frustration for a longer period of time? perhaps one of the most sickening speaking events that happened in 2024 came in

early december. when russia effectively ended its military intervention in the syrian civil war, as the rule of president bush or of south collapse, russian officials are in contact with a new administration in damascus. but it is unclear whether president putin's military aspirations in the middle east will continue to be as important in 2025 as a war in ukraine enters its 4th year. the new york seems to be one of the most challenging in decades, not only for the russian states, but also for its people. dorset avari l g 0 moscow. that's it for me by the inside and these continues. he own out there off that will hotel, stay with the the

challenges with the control the holiday and under control of the region around. and that's why it was such an important thing. if you were walking around and a root was not to be in the line of fire from the holiday and the bottle of all the day incomplete tubes, the deviation all faded into 2 sectors east and west, paid the follow up with us for bullish on the on our shops, the overall how can plug them in from the 1st power

full building in the city. so me is the holiday yet more hotels are buildings that function as normal hotels, but often in the context of real instability. the pay was once a jewel in the mediterranean, but then tone upon bible. this is the seat front of the lebanese capital today, around 3 decades of to the end of the civil war. the devastating

conflict lasted for 15 years. the street was the green line, dividing by route into east and west. dominating the front line was this concrete skeleton. what was once the holiday inn? its rules still petted by the scars of war, a grotesque witness to the years of separation, killing, and destruction. the man, my name is tony young, i'm a painter and architectural activist from england. and i've lived in by route to about 8 years. i'm particularly inspired by the

memories and the feelings, the emotions that uh, embedded in the walls of the buildings and pirates, the most powerful building in the city for me is the holiday inn. it's so famous, sight icon, it. it's like a joint to which remains in the center of the city like an i'm results scott. the holiday inn is still a stock reminder is will lose that have yet to hear. even today, the, the 13th of april, 1975 was the official start date of the violence. but this was a proxy conflict full during the cold war era. on one side, lebanese ranked wing parties, backed by the united states,

aiming to expel armed palestinian groups from lebanon on the of the left wing parties, allied with the yellow banks by the soviet union, who sold the right wing christians as an extension of these really and the american influence 11 on only 2 weeks of to be rude to erupt to the south vietnamese capital side. going felt the communists ending over 19 years of conflict in vietnam televisions. first of all, now came levon on the all means of reporters and will photographers moved from southeast asia to the middle east and began to occupied bay roads. hotel rooms filled up with news crews and a new chapter of the cold war began. most of the correspondents tv crews

and photographers checked into this hotel, the commodore a safe haven in the west of the city. every day they would set off from here for downtown bay route for the main hotel district, where the holiday inn was the front line. the holiday, it was a war hotel in the sense that it was part of an urban bottles, a bottle between 2 factions of the strategic heights, but it wasn't a price hotel. so none of the journalists covering the bader state and the holiday in the holiday. and became one of the 1st significant physical manifestations of the conflict. my name is candace morrison, i'm a professor viewed a p and history. the one of my key research interests is in the history of war. hotels war hotels are buildings that function as normal

hotels. but often in the context of real instability. so i look at new minnesota sales, sorry, vitality and beta. it's commodore and but also the hotel you to fund bell fasts, for example, the lead your palace in you can see a cypress, all of these hotels have continued to function throughout this period of instability. some are with in the real midst of an urban conflict. a war hotel emerges out of a history where john lewis, over a long period before was thought of somehow find it a continual place to be a war for an o convenient near the center of activity and the city where the politics happens, where the culture happens. where you meet people, the hotels, which may be route to the tortoise center of the middle east. i'm jealous who they will be and i've long been a report to the reporting for more over the wells. and therefore, i been and was the most memorable amongst these was the experience of reporting from the lebanese civil war in the 1970s. this was once the richest part of the

richest city in the middle east. i 1st went to lebanon in 1972, as a young reporter. my very 1st off code for a magazine here called the new statesman in which i effectively said, this place is waiting to blow. what it needs is a spock, because of the complexity of this very small country, surrounded by competing nations, the from the 1950s to the seventy's. they really was a magnet for the international pleasure seeking a se routes. hotel district was up the hall to bits luxury tourism economy making it to favorite jet set destination. the

one we speak about beta its golden age. as the switch to the end of the amenities. we are actually talking about an area deal time district, the to use the very specific product of a precise 2 political project. my name is sort of frequencies and i'm a political geographer who's based at the university of birmingham. i am interested in hotels and urban conflict. the holiday inn came quite late in the day. in 1974. it was opened quite late in the day in 2 days to district, which was considered a playground for celebrities and politicians and the blue months and spies the hotel district, stunted life in the 1920 is when the st. george opened for full decades. it was one

of the most prestigious hotels on the mediterranean. during the cold war, in the 19 fifties and sixties, the bar of the st. george was described as a revolving door of information. the british double agent can still be was a regular p operated on the cover as a foreign generalist. and on the 15th of january, 1963 was spotted for the last time of the bar in the saint george before disappearing into a route and reappearing a few months later. and most of the most amount hotels brand new, including the felicia, even more luxurious than the saint george. but when the holiday inn arrived in 1974, it was not send me the toll list. but also the last to open before the civil war broke count. i remember the experience of the felicia

and i went to the holiday in different scales of hotel, the both of them picking it up george's hotels. the phoenician was very grand indeed. the holiday inn was a holiday and but a very up markets holiday instead of us. plenty of chrome, plenty of silver, plenty of gold colored drapes. it was done and very much in the style that's the arab world likes one. can i see it? denise essentials outside of how to say i sort of the stuff i freedom heavily, but i let me he comes over to me is over there to how to gladly liability of sending him something. i sort of the skin also, i haven't seen it in the face friend or none of the any, any came into the shuttle is even of name mom on the from the was a but a bit to say i wouldn't buy that. i bought it in the store and the see can really

how does look through the zillow to an i shouldn't be there to handle any tan. fremont. s i be the only be laboratory, but each. okay. but as an adult, i'm on fee for the theater, but then i can, if it's, you know, sort of contaminant cause ali, who live almost in a shade of medic and where to him as in my home, i'm gonna shut canada up. i'm going to be, let me, let me. uh, i'm gonna shut eve, but it's been of some of what's been done. i'm as hold. no, no, i'm up suv. declination. i'll see you then to see you that evie on our, on our be be made with altis told me young wanted to get inside the building today. but to do that, he had to get permission, not only from the owners, but from the lebanese omi, which still controls it as a strategically sensitive location. young wanted to indulge his passion painting. i finally got a chance to go inside. and my, my,

my immediate feeling was one of just overwhelming emotion. i, i felt sad. i felt i felt hard, but i felt amazing the when i started my project for the holiday inn. and so i sconces painting it from the outside from many view points. and then i discovered that the parents of a very good friend of mine and i have that stuff with the parents, sammy, and from them have dogs. i actually, uh know sony live next to the holiday inn and have a fantastic view of it from the balcony. and that possibly one of the very few people in lebanon who had the wedding reception dinner in the holiday in

the summer. and that is always at a 100 and for 40. and then for the minutes there wasn't a sense left. what's, i mean a lot of ups. i mean, again, it's, you know, i've had it been that the holiday and the i need and the law on, i'm already halfway. i'll shut off now by my design. i'm going to 0 is and when i was not stumbled, well, i'd have to look in at half of the i the, the, it hillary on the last 2nd cabinet with a henry economic from as rosen phone my la headed with 2 guns. but it's something that kind of mazda and has done, hadn't been in this way even if she'd shot on with the, with a skin, or is it going to put this on audio? but i think i had the button,

the 110 by the i saw not many minutes just look under the sun, the idea of on that. okay. and that the she felt that oh, can have up come said since then. yeah. the internet, the muscles in logan uh, went away and initially. yeah. and again, and when i said it made me been home today and why the cd heard of it to the new but unless it had been um, so it had where with it hold it in seeing the building from efficient. so you understand it's context within the city and what it must have meant in the civil war. i use this right, brian, right? which expresses this, the blood that's been spelled and the violence and the fire, the hate and the anger. and every time i slash it the, the, the paints, it's a way of going through that and, and that violence and honoring that. and i also

a raising positions that itself is the ratio of the when the civil war started in april 1975, the yellow and the lebanese national movement for the morrow night christian felons potty. the violence was treated by the so called bust incident on the 13th of april . when scientists from the foot lunch party opened fire on a bus, carrying palestinians as it drove through the stronghold of a, you know, romani $26.00 palestinians were killed and dozens wounded, unleashing what became a living hell on the streets of baby roots, which spread rapidly throughout level that was street fighting and shelling that was snipers and kidnapping on sick terry and mess it goes across the religious

divide. the christian philologist militias were based in east fe route, but gradually took control of the main downtown streets in the west of the city. the strategic part of the hotel district, including the saint george, the venetia, the hilton, and the holiday inn. on the 24th of october, 1975 left wing, mostly munitions and palestinian armed groups. under the umbrella of the national movement, launched the massive offensive to try and regain control of the hotel district which straddled east and west for the battle of the hotels. 19751976 was, was simply a bustle for control the strategic heights. he who controlled the strategic heights could essentially dictate terms so controlling these buildings in the hotel

district, the hydrolyzed buildings became extremely important for the militias. that had been market uh can be there. you the, the month soto for with the restart. okay. i left them the ascension, which had the old lady well, but that doesn't one know where she had been assigned shoulders. really nice. the image of fighters started moving up towards to and they started going on top of towers. one is bush on more and the other one is all the day in the a few days into the battle of the hotels. the guests a completely abandoned the entire district of evacuated to the neighboring mediterranean island of cyprus. the

soon after the upper floors of the holiday inn was set on fire by intensive shelley . the fighting on the ground spread into what was called set to full weather for lunches had begun using the hilton as a snow like the base. in the days leading up to the stone to the civil war, to be rude, hilton, it'd been preparing for its grand opening. but that never took place. instead, militias, on both sides checked in before any v i t guests. this rare, all kinds video shows the moment when the left wing fighters seize the low be of the hilton after the for lunches to withdraw into the positions in the holiday. and the important thing if you are walking around in beirut was not to be in the line of fire from the holiday, and my name is tim. so within hours the bbc's,

middle east correspondence in bay. ruth, in the seventy's, eighty's and ninety's. i was in bay roots during the much of the 1180. so i remember once trying to get down to the hold of the end to try and make some sort of effort to get into it, to interview the for lunches. and just as far as getting to the point in an area code, i'm or i see where you would come right around the corner into the face of a hotel gun. before i started and i scuffled back, there was a dead body lying up the streets. it is all rather sinister. i fled back to the hotel. i'm afraid it wasn't one of my brave a days. but did some people did get across to the holiday inn? on the 20th of march, 1976, the so called lebanese and palestinian joint forces launch the strongest attack. yes. against the for lunch. if it's in the hotel district, they're a,

was to control phone key positions that but especially the highly strategic holiday in control holiday and under control of the region around. so you, you, you took the holiday and if you possibly could, and that's why it was such a lot the battle the holiday and then it surrounds blaine's for 3 days as opposing militias buying for control. no one knew which way the fighting was going not to even the lebanese and foreign generalist, who reported on the national movements 1st incursion into the hotel lobby. federal elliot, little before i. lemme kind of listened to be handled, the memo for them. and i cannot insure what am i going to be hired on? i'm in the wake of the

small groups of christian for lunches, she'd managed to hide inside the hotel, killed the scene in national movement, come on to the full, making their way up to the top on the 24th floor by the fold by hey, of all sorts of stuff left on the on our shop. see on what, how you can walk me through steps of what study is out of feedback and i'm not smoking word for the low notes. what i'm a little probably not of our should be any on a life on some sort of oversight, yada away sort. i could always use your mike of the the images of the sniper dropping 20 full flows to his death on the street. under the malicious,

celebrating for the cameras, have become symbols of the full of the holiday in the dark bottles. that happened. the roommate room floor by floor stairway stair, the bottle of vodka in completed the division of the woods through the green line into 2 sectors east and west bay. and these partitions remained over the course of the following day. and it passed by dionte, and no one would ever know how many heroes died here in the holiday in. the battle lasted 3 days and 3 nights and there were no prisoners. at the end. jonathan nimble, be reported on several overseas, was for prestige, commercial broadcast, the i tv. and it was one of the 1st foreign journalists to enter the holiday in a document. the often most of the fighting, the smouldering ruins of what had been this very popular result.

hotel and you looked at him sort this is what we do to one another. as a hotel. now, is a shell. total shell, like thoughts, hunting down of, of the of, of to will wireless chairs smashed up a piano that was in there with somehow it's let's move furnace. the vibe, the show on the little like this broken this sort of looking bizarrely like gargoyles staring down. lots humanity done to itself below the fish, and it will not be a surprising vision. but it was surprising that that could happen in bay root the

the green line, of course, and the civil war was a place with flowers and trees grew abundant. and so it's in reference to that, but it's also a way of envisioning some bryce, a future kind of sense of height that might spring up in the ruins of the cost the today around $3.00 decades on from the end of the civil war. the complexity of lebanon, sectarianism, and the geo politics of the region means that the country and its people are still struggling to recover from its effects. the majority of the hotel district has been rebuilt. the enormous shell of the holiday inn still towers over downtown,

awaiting its fates. no more green line for it to look down on today. the but the monument to 15 years of struggle continues to attract visitors, historians, artists, and filmmakers. all seeking to understand the events of the seventy's and eighty's, the move in any of the ravaged building, surviving the conflict. it surely deserves the title. more hotel. a report has retreat in a brutal civil war. if it hadn't been that the is ready and vision with not being so low, so the coming door had become generally extensive. you could be in the safe and safe, and then you went out into civil war. i started off leaving this one of the grand

suite have to come to a hotel. the next room i was in was underground, tying the prison. so as a hostage, they was the commodore will hotels on al jazeera getting close to the people most affected by those in power as often as dangerous. but it's absolutely vital to the stories to be told we've pushed as far forward as we can to the front line. now, the smell of that is all of the power and a lot of the stories that we cover a highly complex. so it's very important that we make them as understandable as we can do as many people as possible no matter how much they know about a given chrisy. so issue as long as you say, we're correspondence, that's what we strive to do a meeting of minds. you need to compose fresh architecture, becomes in a reno in assembly, where you can place all these evidence together and start seeing things architect, vitamin, and photographer trevor pac man, pod one. another thing that i really want out of art,

which is not simply things that are trying to see the world, but things that give us the lives of how the world could be different. judy, it'd be unscripted on. i'll just say around the palestinians, full stiffly. yes. again, off to to hospitals and talk to them. israel's latest attacks on the go straight to the main site. this is all just there a life from doha or so coming up more is really strong. in syria, at least 10 people are killed, often munitions, death 1st struck on the outskirts of damascus. officials investigating the.