protesters stormed several government buildings in beirut calling for justice and accountability after tuesday's devastating explosion security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds gathered in the center of the lebanese capital. the country's prime minister says corruption was blamed for the tragedy and calls for early elections. rescue teams continue to search for survivors in the ruins of the beirut port area we hear from the same 3 newborns minutes after the black. sheep you need to intensive care units in the calm of the rubble is when it started when we heard some of the units it was terrifying because

i talked to babies might be crushed in the live. broadcast live direct from our studios in moscow this is r t international thomas certainly glad to have you with us. now we start with breaking news this hour from beirut there has been an intense standoff in the lebanese capital where there is an outpouring of grief and anger over tuesday's deadly explosion security forces used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up crowds calling for justice. was. on saturday protesters stormed several government buildings in beirut security

forces have driven out protesters who earlier stormed the foreign ministry they took over the building and declared it a headquarters for the revolution. we are coming back to the property of our people these building belongs to the people of lebanon. we went to martyr square to set up gallows for those who did this to our country today will hang nooses and we will not lead a single government ministers. the police started firing tear gas at us on monster square and the rice is also tied to us and we fled. or to see goes on of his in beirut with the latest. well the smoke still hasn't cleared from the streets of beirut and everything that you can see around me well it hasn't been caused by the

blast but rather by today's protests we are in an area which has seen some of the heaviest clashes between the police the army and well the riot says it is in fact not far from the port where the blast had happened but this was not caused by the blast this was caused by all the protests and by people being unhappy lots of dumpsters just overturned set on fire i mean by the time we got here there was much more smoke much more fires going on let's just see just have a look here this is not again this is not damage excuse me this is not damage from the blogs this is a from today's protests and what people are unhappy about lebanon has been battered in the past in the past year firstly and foremost leave the country is in economic in an economic turmoil its economy plunged then covert 19 heads and it didn't help

the economy at all but on top of that what added was the well was the strain on the health care system and now this strain is worsened by what happened today because hospitals in some hospitals in beirut are destroyed the routes lebanon's in fact lebanon's oldest hospital no longer can take patients we were filming there today and the manager of the operational manager told me that he was born there and worked there for 35 years and he has no idea as to when that hospital is going to become operational again and with all of that and with a pandemic the figures are already in the hundreds well of those injured in today's protests so people are angry but we have to look to those that you can see they're very vocal they're very vocal and they i mean i'm absolutely sure. or that these actions will continue and it will do nothing good to the health care system and

will add to the catastrophe that lebanon is facing right now in fact there's a small group of protesters. in another part of town and we had time to speak with them there just outside the foreign ministry which had previously been captured by the protesters and briefly until the army moved in and cleared that building and i talked to my person who would like. volunteer leader of that small group and she was very vocal she was very passionate about her cause but she was she told me that she understands why people why people are so angry here why people are so angry at the government at the parliament and the ministers she said this she centrally said sometimes silence speaks louder than any words and sensually she called on her fellow protesters well at 2 to protest peacefully to just sit down and refuse to go anywhere and in that case scenario if the army moves in then they are clearly in

the wrong and she did put all the blame on what happened today on the army and on the police but still she called on people on people to start protesting more. that is that is that is a tall order though i have to say because people are fed up it seems like this blast became the final of the straw that broke the camel's back if i may say so because throughout these past days that we have been here in beirut and outside of be rooting for of course people have lost their homes and with the economic crisis that they have no simply no money to put their windows back back in to restore the roofs over their over their houses over their homes some people are ready to leave they're just ready to go and others are less fortunate because they simply have nowhere else to go there are 300000 people displaced by the blood. yes and that was the last straw that's why people have been coming out sporadically throughout the

week but today's demonstration has beat them as beat the all the previous ones when it comes to when it comes to scale i mean it's been hours since everything has been over but i mean there's still there's still smoke in the air and it seems like all the all the work that the volunteers had previously done yesterday the day before yesterday holds like classes and students schoolchildren are just good samaritans going around giving out water to people and people just taking to the streets with brooms to clear out to clear out of the debris with shovels to clear out the rubble the same shovels were used today to attack the government so all of that progress of clearing out beirut streets of dealing with the damage it has been undone by today's action and from by judging from what i've heard from the protesters they are not going to stop. there have been brutal scenes in the lebanese capital

demonstrators threw rocks and projectiles at police officers who responded with tear gas security forces fired live ammunition into the air to force people back. 7 demonstrators also put up market gallows in a location where people were hanged more than 100 years ago under the ottoman empire protestors raised to cardboard cutouts with ropes around their necks depicting lebanon's prime minister and hezbollah's leader as well as other officials in response to the surge and several unrest prime minister has called for

some hours ago an early election he stated that corruption was to blame for today's tragedy. but we are in a state of emergency and not only because of this catastrophe and the need to deal with it in these circumstances i'd like all political parties to agree on what happens next we don't have much time i'm prepared to bear this responsibility for 2 months until they can come to an agreement what is needed is for the not to stand in the way of structural reforms in order to save the country on monday at the cabinet meets in i will propose a bill seeking a 90 election a number of the ballot journalist all tough was in the midst of saturday's chaotic scenes in beirut.

these demonstrators were flocking to marchers square also to the lebanese parliament to express their dismay over the poor over what they say is poor handling of the lebanese government of the aftermath of tuesday's air explosion which targeted the beirut sport. the demonstrators are have to or have taken a very violent turn we are also hearing a lot of shots being fired in the air in addition to that there gas and now these protesters admit it doesn't seem that they're planning to leave as martyrs square and it's time soon many of them have already set up tents they say they are going to stay here until their demands are met that was.

also at the same time we know that in the street the sheffield east of beirut protesters have managed to storm into the foreign ministry. or they have been accompanied the by a retired lebanese army generals there are talks that the government officials will try to sit down with this retired army generals to a try and reach some sort of discussion or negotiations with a maybe to calm the situation down. we have lost everything we have lost our homes our lives have been torn apart of everything is happening at once over the i'm 28 and what future do i have our currency has lost most of its wealth is it is great solution i want to say to him oh news is ready for you. for years. giving them. their.

seeds and. the beginning people in faith even if a few people in. iran under of what happened in beirut an explosion went off in the port area on tuesday. it was one of the biggest non nuclear detonations in human history the explosion along with a follow up blast and massive fire leveled several districts and it claimed the lives of at least $154.00 people with thousands more injured the search and rescue operation is still ongoing for days on with dozens of people still missing these are before and after images of the blast zone officials have revealed that almost 3000 tons of ammonium nitrate were being illegally stored in the port area of beirut it is a volatile compound used as fertilizer and also as a mining explosive and that stockpile had been sitting in a warehouse in

a densely populated area for more than 6 years when with the anger and grief there has also been a glimmer of hope for those who are still looking for their loved ones under the rubble in beirut after 24 hours of digging it 12 year old girl was found alive. i know not how much but i do not mention the. rights. of them that i know. but we don't use. them all. the explosions shockwave across the city destroying buildings businesses and homes the u.n. has warned of a humanitarian crisis with 300000 people in need of shelter and many more in need of aid. the world health organization is warning that beirut's health care system has been badly compromised it was already under severe pressure from the covered $1000.00 pandemic and on top of that the explosion on tuesday put 3 hospitals out

of action medics are working around the clock to save the lives of those seriously injured in the tragedy here is one heroic nurses story. 6. when the explosion went off the ground shook beneath us the blast told me into another room i opened my eyes and found myself covered in rubble i found my colleagues and friends line here on the ground covered in blood. in the neonatal intensive care units were covered in rubble as well i started feeling new going south of the units i was terrified because i thought the babies

might be crushed under the rubble but fingo they were ok then i took them for this corridor and down through flights of stairs. i carried the babies and i was determined to take them to another hospital the only way less than 2 kilograms they had nothing on them except died people on the street give me their t. shirts and clothes so i could read the news and keep the news the conservation i hear on t.v. . i was holding the 3 babies and i didn't know if i was going to be able to rescue them nor all the time was counting the heads on my chest to make sure they were still there . still to come on r.j. international we will bring you live analysis on the on rest now unfolding in

lebanon and what is behind it that's after a short break stay with us. the be. same wrong roll just all. the way to get to shape our just to get out to. and in detroit because of the trail. once and let me find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground. no shots.

actually. extra. which your thirst for action. i welcome back to international let's give you a quick recap of our breaking news story thousands have been rallying in central beirut throughout the day piling the pressure on the government over tuesday's deadly explosion government buildings including 4 ministries have been stormed by activists a police officer has been killed in the riots this according to local law enforcement and at least 230 people have been injured in street clashes prime minister has

called for an early election and acknowledged that corruption was to blame for tuesday's tragedy. more this weekend across. from the gulf state and later. i was under this is one of the situations where when this broke i want to talk to you because you have a mind for these things specifically. there was already profound anger in the political establishment in lebanon before tuesday's tragedy i mean the young people have been on the streets for months now. was the explosion the final straw and how do you see these protests developing. hello shawn thank you for your introduction. yes there were protests in lebanon before the explosion in fact the protests began or at least the protests over the prime minister began in january when the was appointed by hezbollah on suggestion raney and suggestions

therefore while the yob is a sunni muslim in lebanon's. sectarian political system you have a sunni prime minister a christian president and shia speaker of the house well because. the sunni prime minister but. elected or appointed by hezbollah he's seen as a hezbollah candidate so he did not even enjoy backing from the sudanese or backing from those who supported the previous prime minister. so there was already an imbalance in the system and a lot of anger directed toward hezbollah and i think even from the early reports of the explosion a lot of people were suggesting that hezbollah had something to do with it whether directly or indirectly for a reason i think. hezbollah. literally under fire in the next

few weeks or months so it's the explosion was in some ways from a certain political perspective serendipitous. to be cynical but it just offers a considerable leverage against hezbollah right now so if you get down to what the protesters want to be on the streets what are they demanding it seemed pretty simple enough a key demand of the protesters is justice and accountability. is what realistically something that we will see. in lebanon how important is it that the lebanese authorities allow the international community to come in and do an accurate investigation. well. yes that's part of part of the problem i think in the middle east in general and lebanon in particular is foreign intervention for an international. interference and. influence i

mean that is actually the whole if you look back at the history of lebanon even before it was a lebanon in the 19th century it was. european traders who entered lebanon and pulled away the broke the fiber that linked lebanon to the east and the eastern trade routes in pulling them away to the west in trade routes creating the sectarian problems that we have today between christians and sunni so . i think an independent investigation is certainly warranted but an international one particularly one which given the visit by french president mccrum view in the media aftermath of the bombing. would put france into leadership france the old colonial power and one of the powers that created the modern middle east in the wake of world war one which is really one of

the biggest historical problems of all time. the way that it was designed so i think it would be appropriate to have. to finally get lebanese investigation and perhaps one that all of unease can trust and that would be my hope but unfortunately i don't think that's going to happen because it's about time that internal. trust was built rather than having to rely always on external players including there's. lebanon is rife with international un. peacekeeping forces and it is attacked daily and the southern borders is influence from syria iran saudi arabia europe it's really. it is truly a mess certainly blame is unfair well i mean it is certainly in the middle of

a big mess right there it is centrally located in a bunch of different chaotic groups fighting against each other for power now. the prime minister has called for an election i'm going to ask you to do a little bit of fortune telling which is almost impossible to do when it comes to the middle east but could this actually deliver meaningful change or will we be seeing the same people being brought back into power i mean many of the protesters want the whole political class to just get out. well. my it would be nice to have new people but then again new people what experience do they have in managing a country like lebanon it's not easy so i have a feeling that given the despite the strength of the explosion i have a feeling that all forces will prevail and it wouldn't be surprised if started reading became prime minister again he resigned in the fall of 200-1000 but.

i am a feeling we won't see the last of him and he probably still enjoys the backing of one major player in the region saudi arabia. so i think even this explosion will not be sufficient in changing lebannon. fish in a radical way in the in the kind of way that people are protesting. and also we still don't know what is really behind this explosion i wouldn't exclude an attack quite yet because we don't know we are talking could not was not necessarily from a mistrial we don't know sabotage could be a play. to be frank the whole thing is quite sinister in its timing and in its potential consequences given there is one party in the balance that is under fire extensively what i mean under fire is under

pressure story. and that would be hezbollah in this whole situation seems to be to eliminate hezbollah from the political. balance. many people are calling for systemic change and that's the only way that lebanon is going to have any real improvement one of the guys i spoke to earlier said that it's the system that is corrupt. getting really technical here to what extent is lebanon's confessional system an obstacle to social and economic progress i mean can we have any real change with that in place that is the problem lebanon is built around this confessional system legacy of french colonialism but also the legacy of the civil war that plagued lebanon in the eighty's and late seventy's. it is the current system is an evolution of the previous one. was agreed upon i

believe it was the title if accords in 1990. that gave birth to the evolution of this confessional system the civil war in the eighty's was generally about giving the shia more power because when the lebanese confessional system was created in the in the post world war 2 period. shiites were not as numerous as even christians and sudanese but by the sixty's the balance had changed the shia were the most numerous demographic group and in the seventy's and eighty's the shia having the demographic strength wanted more power so they wanted more political power. and their numbers are still in that she has favored today right so they have a lot to lose and i don't think that the system can be changed without some

friction of course a lot of people lose power. and i wish we could i wish we could talk about this for hours because there's so much to talk about but i'm sure that we can get you back as the situation develops political analyst thanks for being with us here on our to international thank you very much i will be back in about 33 minutes with another look at your news and covering our breaking news story out of beirut lebanon stay with us this is our 2 international.

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in august 1 9452 atomic bombs were dropped on the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki and. to this day opinion remains divided as to the real reason behind america's decision to use nuclear weapons with no possible military justification for dropping a bomb i have no question that there were those in the us military who pursued the next it's the snow here in the planning in october of 1945 had chosen 20 targets in russia in the 70 years since the bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki countless books and films have off the many just of occasions for and arguments

against dropping the avons however declassified documents give weight to the arguments that the bombs were dropped not so it's a military necessity to intimidate the soviet union. the 1st ever atomic bomb to be used in wall was in the city if there is steam on the 6th of august 945 well over 100000 citizens were killed those in the hype a sense of what instantly turned into dust while countless of those died in the burns and high dose of radiation they received. over 50000 survivors who should still live in the city.