for headline stories today. in the wake of choose these deadly explosion our correspondent is in the midst of the. checkpoints if you look over there you can see the. preventing any protest as from getting older so far they have failed they're doing it right now in fact look . now wearing gloves this is what they are doing. is following

rioting in beirut in which government ministries were stormed and more than 700 people injured also ahead on the program. emergency crews clear the rubble after a 5 day search for survivors paroles. a roof or killed at least 158 people on. the street. but the. self a big stories from the past 7 days on right up to the moment of elements as well this is the weekly international hello and welcome. our top story large crowds

are again gathering in central beirut softer a night of rioting in which state ministries were stormed the country is reeling from the shock of choose they steadily explosion with protesters demanding reform and for officials to be held to a call and. i . was. out was. out. 6 6 out i.

was i was. well let's recap why those scenes are hopping we go to choose they were tragedy struck at a run 6 pm muss of blast hitting the beirut port area $158.00 deaths have been confirmed but with dozens still missing it is feared that number will rise the city's health system already struggling with cold but 19 has been overwhelmed by this auster numerous city buildings helping dumb edged thoughts and so locals have been left homeless.

we found everything turned over our hands and i turned around and i was here by something in my right hand for st. kitts t.v. but. i saw. the devastation here in the lebanese capital is very much the blast that was felt 10 kilometers away from the ward where it took place i believe this is going to be a sleepless night for the lebanese and a very sad 9. 11 years army and fire fighters have been still trying to put off the fire which is still until today burning through the remains of the warehouses rescue workers are still trying to dig to the rubble to find the remainder or the missing

differentials. well we are standing on the doorstep of martyrs square as you can see behind me the

ambulances are still gushing in and now these demonstrators to express their dismay over what they say is poor handling of the lebanese government of the aftermath of tuesday's a explosion. they say they are going to stay here until their demands are met also at the same time we know that in the district of east of badal protesters have managed to storm into the foreign ministry. here claim in fact the property will follow is building belongs to the people of. the testers has turned up at least one ministry is this in addition to torching a number of buildings. that are sad we lost

the country we lost beirut. people. we didn't find out we have family members we don't know anything about. people will daily will back to the streets they will daily us for justice we need the justice made who doesn't deserve this and we would if you is what happened to us. let's bring you live on the program to babe ruths where r.t.c. . being covering developments the last number of hours for us now you've been in the thick of things as well you were where gas was being used 1st of all how are you on what's happening where you are. well right now the yes indeed we were where the police were using the army were using tear gas we have been gassed a number of times like 3 or 4 times maybe rule covered in residue right now but right now the army has essentially cleared out the street let me just show you

where we lost our when you were watching us it was literally right down that street so you can see it is completely empty now the road block the police checkpoint the military checkpoint that the demonstrators were trying to dismantle is right be right it's right next to that glowing. so right now the police have cleared the army i should say because it is military these are soldiers they have cleared all the street you can see field medics here who are ready to provide support to anyone who is sick to anyone who is room dead by rubber bullets which the police how the military excuse me have been using or who have had tear gas poisoning because it has been very extensive and in fact we will be sending some pictures right. right after this life so if you so basically all the demonstrators they have moved down the streets and the police have been the army has been chasing them there is

something set up a blaze over there also the results also the aftermath of the pro. but right now you can see here ambulances because i'm absolutely certain that there will be plenty of wounded perhaps even as many as yesterday from the mall because it has been the 2nd consecutive day of protests and these are fully fully ged riot police who are falling back which probably means that the protesters have been scattered through the streets let me tell you their operation has been very swift very fast they moved as they were clearing the streets firing rubber bullets firing tear gas as people were falling back it was quite indiscriminate because all journalists were there in the crowd as well a lot of journalists were there they didn't care for it but well one might say it's not really their job to care about someone who decided to cover the protest from the thick of it but yes right now it looks like the protesters have been have been

while they have had to fall back and scatter through the streets again as i've already mentioned it's the 2nd consecutive day of protest of protests excuse me here in the lebanese capital yesterday more than 700 people were wounded almost close to a 1000 people were injured in the clashes and basically today we've seen the very same scenario unfold people trying to occupy minister ariel and governmental buildings and the army evicting them from there shortly afterwards and be a basically people are very unhappy about so many things what broke the straw that broke the camel's back was it was the the blast of course in the poor because it destroyed so many homes 3 more than 300 people were displaced here in beirut by the bloss the size of a small town also also right before the pandemic lebanon as

a country hit a severe economic crisis it was hit by a severe economic crisis and covert 19 didn't really help with things because as the government tried to balance but. we economy between keeping economy running and taking care of people's health you know what they say. the jack of all trades excuse me the master of none this is basically what happened people got sick and the economy continued to nosedive so this is what people have been so so unhappy about and this is a century why they are taking to the streets now and mosques because many many people have their homes destroyed they have no means of restoring their homes and so they are angry they don't know what's going to happen the government still has not offered any aid to those affected by the bluffs so so this is how they are venting their anger here but there have been critics of this approach as well there have been people who have been saying in fact even among protesters they've been

saying that well while they understood the anger boiling inside of people they did not really approve of capturing and occupying governmental buildings and ministerial bedell buildings for instance they have been calling to peaceful protests also some people have been pointing out that hospitals those that have not been destroyed by the blast in the port they are already overflowing they're being overwhelmed with patients essentially there are people who are sick with covert 19 there are people still injured from the bloss now daily they have to treat hundreds and hundreds of people because of the protests and under some people has some critics have been saying that well it's not the right time while it is certainly an emotional and a wrenching time for the people here in lebanon they have been saying maybe maybe there should be a different approach maybe people shouldn't wait but a lot of people are clearly very sick of waiting. thank you for laying out all those challenges and what's happening right there and also well done for soldiering

on with that report after being tear gassed or in the area where gassing was happening even saddam off in beirut thank you well just to follow on from what he was saying lebanon already been going through its worst financial crisis in years inflation is soaring almost half the population lives below the poverty line around a 3rd of working age adults in fact are no lloyd protests against corruption the dire state of the economy have been occurring sporadically since october the blasts not destroyed the country's main port only at the situation what you're seeing here was on saturday demonstrators putting up gallows in the location where people were hung more than 100 years ago into the ottoman empire protestors raising cardboard cutouts with ropes around their neck depicting lebanon's prime minister hezbollah's leader there as well as other officials in response to the unrest lebanon's information minister among well some announced her resignation saying the current

government has failed to live up to the lebanese people's expectations. let's go live now to journalist rania colonic rania is in beirut thanks very much for taking the time to speak to us today iranian things seem to be snowballing in beirut despite ministers resigning on the promise of an early election what exactly do you think the crowds out there want. well just to clarify i was in beirut until yesterday i know in washington d.c. but right now you have a few different things taking place there's a a lot of anger obviously in the street over the explosion which is the fault of you know extreme incompetence and negligence by a governor extremely corrupt government. and so there's a lot of righteous anger in the streets of people who are angry they lost their anger they lost their homes angry this happened on top of everything else it's been deteriorating in the country and there's also you know some attempts of which

always happens in the aftermath of any sort of crisis in lebanon to manipulate. for political gain by different political factions so there are certain political factions who have people the streets trying to make it about his vote as opposed to about the entire lebanese power structure and any course you have people who were demonstrating starting in october ju to the economic collapse who have continued those administrations in the aftermath of this and what we're seeing is you know i some of the most violent confrontations between security forces and protesters in recent memory and lebanon and of course this is you know comes on top of as you mentioned an economic collapse that has been taking place since october in lebanon but in recent months because of covert 19 has become very very severe and this blast it took out the most important port in the country where almost 80 percent of

the goods that come into lebanon come through this port it's now gone so there's a challenge right now with dealing with the immediate aftermath of the explosion and there's a lot of anger in the streets but it's only going to get worse there's going to be extreme shortages in lebanon which is a country dependent on imports where it's there's already a dollar shortage there's already an economic collapse there was already power cut and now you have your most important port gone and the capital of the center of the country is destroyed there seems to be so many rumors swirling iran over the last number of days about oh exactly the bus could have been triggered really a complete lack of trust in the messages coming out of the government who are people blaming for choose these tragedy that. i mean it depends lebanon is a very polarized country where you know it's up and set up by sects the government and so people tend to not everyone but many people tend to look to their calm you know leaders for how they should view things that happen in the country so it

really depends on who you ask. most people believe it was an accident due to corruption. gens incompetence which seems to be the case. with this fertilizer that was stored for 6 years and really dangerous conditions where there was many complaints about it and warnings and nothing was done by the government so people are angry about that as for who's to blame you know people who belong to parties that are pro-american and tend to blame hizbollah because their leaders are blaming hezbollah what they. rule in all this really is the public anger as you say has been directed against them and their control most all of the beirut port area i think it's right in saying are people really going to start questioning the group's huge influence in lebanon. that's not accurate to say that hezbollah controls the port the port is controlled by the by the government by the port authority god as well as not some all powerful force that controls the entire country that's just not the case that is

a certain narrative that we're hearing from certain political factions and certain like western narratives but hizbullah is role of this is being a part of the state and the power structure there is this is this was not the fault of one political faction this was the fault of lebanon's entire ruling elite which was bali is certainly a part of but so are all of the other parties i've mentioned. so it's not one specific party that was responsible for this it wasn't hezbollah that was responsible for this it was the people in charge of the port authority some people that were in the judiciary that refused to act on it and intervene and a corrupt elite that was trying to negotiate a way to make money off of this and couldn't figure out how to split the profits so they just let this fertilizer sit there until this dangerous explosion took place it's a fault of lebanon being a dysfunctional incompetent failed state for the most part and it's always been that way and this is just the most extreme consequence of that so to to further complicate matters is just through the head of lebanon's mar in the churches cold

on the entire government to step in is this going to develop into what is a functional conflict as you say only going to progressively get worse. i think it's going to progressively get worse for the people who live in lebanon on their quality of life is going to get worse that said i don't see this deteriorating and feel like a civil war type of condition is lebanon's of broke country and there's nobody to fund a war you need weapons and money to fund a war so i think what you're going to see is what seems to be happening is the government is once again resigning and stepping down and calling for early elections which is actually what's a place last year but in lebanon until the system actually changes in the way the government is set up by sacked. and till that changes until the legalized that that exists in the law and love and all that allows ruling elites to just steal from the public coffers until that changes you're just going to have the same sorts of

governments come in and new names new faces but the same political factions doing the same things and the country is going to get worse what are your thoughts on the cold for an international probe president michel aoun has rejected it saying it would dilute the truth well i certainly think an international probe would be very useful here because lebannon you know different political factions control different aspects of lebanon it would be very difficult to have an unbiased objective investigation from within the country particularly since so many people from so many different political factions would be implicated in this so i think it would be very useful to have an international investigation and you're going to see a lot of the ruling elite say no to that because they fear that they would be implicated. to the lebanese ministers at least 6 members of parliament we're hearing. quits in the wake of the tragedy with other finchley do anything to come to rest or is that simply not enough for the people out in the street. i mean the people on the street you know we've seen this over and over again eventually

protests die out and that's probably what will happen but there's going to be some level of injuries and violence you know not just protesters there's also rioters there's also a police officer was killed yesterday by rioters and many many of the security forces were injured as well as many protesters injured as you know your correspondent was saying before so i think you're going to see those clashes take place for a while as people are angry but my sentiments and from being on the ground in beirut and lebanon in general is people are tired they're exhausted and right now the of the situation is continuing to deteriorate so i think at some point you probably will see people go into more survival mode in protest mode but you're going to see protests take place probably for the next couple weeks roddy thanks very much for coming on the program and sharing your thoughts with us journalist rania killick. just. the latest developments in the lebanese capital this day protesters have regrouped on markers after last night's

brutal standoff in which hundreds were injured we have seen rioters hurling firecrackers at police and trying to pull dawn barbwire barriers in the city center riot police arrive in force using tear gas and rubber bullets but they've denied reports of live fire being used in the past number of hours the lebanese labor ministry was reportedly taken over by protesters we're just trying to a certain whether that is still happening well it's all happening today despite the prime minister's call for an early election has conceded that choose this explosion which killed at least 158 people was caused by corruption. so let's move on to more world news now a voting has wrapped up in belarus where president alexander lukashenko is seeking a 6th term in office there are tough restrictions on reporters covering the events

and within the past number of hours to video journalist from artie's ruptly agency were detained let's get more and all the. hawkins done just 1st question what is known about the roughly crew at this stage what we know that these 2. the polling stations filmed the elections they were detained by security forces in the capital and subsequently taken away they have been in contact with the office for around 10 hours we haven't been able to establish their location the reasons for the rest or what exactly is going on now they're not the 1st journalist to be detained and but it was during this election period 2 journalists from the russian t.v. channel doest t.v. rain. also detained here today just over the last hour or so the but a russian interior minister has told the russian ambassador they were arrested and charged with administrative offenses relating to electoral procedures breach of

electoral procedures and protocol and they will be extradited to russia in due course once that paperwork is completed its course been a tense time and better use during this election period reports of the arrest attentions of journalists and of campaigners and candidates as well the news has come in just over the last 45 minutes or so the election committee with a turnout of 79 percent across the exit polls these numbers are not going to just exit polls of course. exit poll saying that alexander lukashenko has won 79.7 percent of the vote with his main opposition candidate. with around 6.8 percent of the vote meaning if these numbers are confirmed these are only exit polls at this point he will have won a 6 consecutive term in office as things stand right now and now taken off to herself earlier today went into hiding because of fears for her safety

a number for campaign staff were also detained alongside media kolesnik of another opposition figure who was briefly detained and then released her house of course faced held power since 1994. winning 5 presidential terms with landslide election victories now. to. this point was the main contender to oppose him she's managed to build a reasonable base of support to gain the dawsons of other candidates and bring people out into rallies on the streets of belarus.

now look to shrink it was explore what was expected to win of course thing come when president the self previously stated he didn't expect widespread international recognition that his elections were free and fair because of the way they were of course carried out here today though denied that saying that there's been no oppression of any sort and the people simply have to follow the law to avoid any sort of consequences. there has been no removal is hussein even of the law. just follow the rules and any talk of reprisals will disappear if you violate the law we will respond and yes we have been responding my only so far. will give you updates if we do get any more information on those to be strong as a minsk in the meantime those as we say those exit polls if proven correct do confirm a 6th. for alexander lukashenko many hoping for some sort of turning point some watershed moment in domestic politics in better o.c.

if those numbers are confirmed seemingly that won't happen as he would retain his post as the president of the us. bring us right up to date on the thanks dan. well now there's a recap of the stories that shaped the past 7 days more. and more great programs here. how can you explain love i've been to 82 countries i've been to open i came here and in those 3 days i just filled with hope. and. say show. i made my decision to come here because i felt i

knew i could build a new life you. know companies and. decided that this money is no good to be free. my one dream is that all my children find the same kind of happiness i do. i love my home i love cold weather i like the culture i like the history i like everything about it. and i know that. i am. a russian fama. 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 u.s. military who pursued the next as the so during 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 justification for and arguments against dropping the avons however declassified documents give weight to the argument 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 others died from the burns and high dose of radiation they received. over $50000.00 survivors. still live in the city each one of them has their own story to tell of the day the bomb fell and i was on my way to meet one. who told. me. what was it when so i mean she will beat out. that he's sure that. sumac i just get a movie with her magic or not if i think she's seeing this.