hello, i'm philippa thomas. welcome to outside source. the democratic nominee for presidentjoe biden and his new running mate kamala harris are about to launch their bid for the white house. in the next hour, they'll be addressing an event together for the first time in delaware. the who warns more than half of beirut‘s hospitals are ‘non—functional‘ as the blame game over last week's deadly explosion continues. all the managers of the ports are now under house arrest. as well as the ministers at the time, were aware of it and didn't do anything about it. and this is really a criminal thing.

belarus authorities admit to using live ammunition during protests against the country's disputed election. britain's economy falls into a recession. new figures show uk growth fell a record 20% in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. welcome. joe biden, who's challenging donald trump for the us presidency this november, has already made history by naming a black woman, kamala harris, as his pick for vice—president. within the hour, we're expecting to see them both on stage for the first time as the official democratic party team pushing to topple mr trump from office. this was kamala harris leaving her home in washington earlier to head to delaware for the formal introduction so rare in these covid days to be waiting for an actual in person campaign event.

we aren't sure what the format will feel like. we should be feeling some energy when it happens and we will ta ke energy when it happens and we will take you do it live. beirut now, and lebanon's president has promised a swift,tra nspa rent investigation into the devastating explosion at a warehouse last week which killed 200 people and injured at least 4000 — a blast linked to the long—term, unsafe storage of almost 3000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. he says the probe will look at whether the blast was due to negligence, an accident or external factors, but many lebanese doubt the current establishment has any credibility to scrutinise its own actions. meanwhile, the political finger pointing continues. lebanon's economy and trade minister, who resigned on monday, along with the rest of the government, has blamed previous ministers and port officials in an interview with bbc hardtalk. this blast is really more than just corruption. it's criminal. it's a

criminal act. all the managers of the ports are now under house arrest, as well as the ministers, we re arrest, as well as the ministers, were aware of it and they didn't do anything about it. and this is really a criminal thing. reuters has reported that president 0w—n and prime minister hassan diab were warned injuly about the warehoused ammonium nitrate. and there's this from the beirut bureau chief for the washington post on twitter: this is the article she's referring to in this tweet. it quotes the head of search and rescue for the lebanese fire crew at the port, who says: the article goes on to say that vapour from paint thinners can ignite in the air and cause fires in unventilated,

hot conditions. we know several hospitals were badly hit by the explosion — and the world health organisation now says more than half of beirut hospitals are ‘non—functional‘. this is vision showing the clean up inside one hospital. three major hospitals were so badly damaged