of years ago i was invited to by the b.b.c. for a debate in beirut and the venue was at the american university of beirut and right before going to beirut the b.b.c. inform me that the american university of beirut has banned me from the campus and it turned out that the state department or threatened to punish them if i was allowed to enter the campus so ultimately after a protest by students and others and some of the media that was critical of the united states the b.b.c. decided to keep me in the debate which was the right thing to do ultimately and to change the venue so this is the this is the way things work work nowadays just getting back to your own personal experience and you being blocked i mean can you think of any particular you said you post some photos or anything particular you posted or something you could have warranted in any way even even the idea of you being blocked by facebook. no i can't think of anything that i have published that would be. an acceptable as i said the images the statements the. links that i put on. twitter and now the k. . which is not not not home by the united states i have recently j

nobody's and nobody's discounting now let me bring in also yassine head from beirut joe the chair of the american university of beirut refugees and this is have before we came on air i was speaking to a couple of academic friends of mine about whether there had been any academic studies done on 'd dealing with issues like covered 19 in a refugee camp and actually the answer that came back was not that we know of is there anything did has this been planned for by anybody who is that did this come out of the complete that field. no there is some work happening at the moment and i think there is research taking place to understand the implications of the government. but of course in a lot of time off. mic a lot of the efforts are to contain and to make sure that there is not outbreak and refugee settings in communities and form a settlements and the camps where actually there might be at risk particularly because the social distancing is a luxury for them but what's most widening. is also the percussions of the lock down on the livelihood and on the ability for the refugee families to earn a living the vast ma

we can speak now 2 of them he's a doctor specializing in infectious diseases a few american university of beirut medical center dr b.c. thank you so much for joining us can you tell us what the situation is right now where you are one of them are. you. ok doctor because we're having a little bit of trouble with the line but could you tell us how hospitals are coping we understand that they're overwhelmed. yes. well the. community. will. be in the pool with. a group. if you're on a. particular. horse. and you. sort of. go to the. right but we still unfortunately having trouble with the lines we're going to leave our conversation there might be straight from the american university of beirut medical center thank you so much for joining us. and we can get some more perspective on this story now we have deep from arabic with us in our studio here among thank you so much for joining us 1st of all you are from lebanon you have family and friends in beirut is everyone ok we've been trying to figure that out since yesterday since the blast just making sure that everyone we know is safe and sound there a

a major health center in lebanon most had to lay off hundreds of staff the american university of beirut medical center is a crucial health for the city it has reportedly let go of more than 500 workers mostly from the administrative and nursing departments the university. president had warned of staff cuts due to lebanon's financial crisis and the impact of the coronavirus. so i didn't have a baby daughter who i need to get food water and pay vaccines for i would have left by myself and if i knew that my $100.00 a month salary would bother them i would have left we got the short end of the stick we who have to back us or help us they fired us and those who are backed by political parties or movements it's all favoritism new restrictions have come into force in israel because of a surge in corona virus infections public places such as malls and tourist sites are closed on the weekends and there are limits on social gatherings both indoors and outside they've been protests against prime minister benjamin netanyahu is handling of the crisis the un is demanding an international investigatio

and major health center in lebanon has had to lay off hundreds of stocks the american university of beirut medical center has reportedly let go of more than 500 workers mostly from the administrative and nursing departments universities president warned of stuff costs due to lebanon's financial crisis and the impact of the virus. a london police officer has been suspended after he was seen on video appearing to be kneeling on a black man's neck the 45 year old suspect has been charged for possessing a knife in a public place those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after prison lives inside and out statement comes of watching by fire. he asked. you. if. you think the. attack in this weekend. in good living. is going to come back in a kook. a book with a minute. that she might have got a show at a show and. i said oh and i want to model and. just to say. this isn't. any rules a lot of the top. you want to get all uppity. about public. opinion today at ted. commit without a can look or an association bag. and you know we're going to. a bad lot i wot sangin to. no good lo

well anyway we spoke to mondo he's a professor of communications of the american university of beirut he told us more about the warehouse where the explosion happened the material is stored it was in the have your number 12 which is one of the biggest and they store all flammable in an order material that is highly sensitive to explosions and otherwise and those who are stuck there by quote touring because they're not allowed to enter lebanon and they were basically trying to get them into lebanon using excuses off using them for fertilizers so the reports so far are saying and it seems that something terribly when drunk there and they were not stored properly there was a lot of flammables and that region and then there was a massive fire followed by in intensity. which basically destroyed the 2 to 30 kilometer radius of homes and houses around i was one of those who who is missing or the glass and an entire entrance to a house because of the blast basically it's negligence you have got the customs department that responsible for it and then you've got the ministry of defense because

well let's dig into this with rami khouri he is the senior public policy fellow at the american university of beirut and he joins us now live from there mr corey always good to have you on al-jazeera let's start today with these reports of this alleged crude how much weight do you give them. i give very little weight to the idea of a cool being plot it is very difficult to do that with the immense direct and brutal control that i had been so man the crown prince now has over all of the security agencies in saudi arabia so the core idea is probably not very good realistic option but i think this is a sign more of the nervousness of the crown prince and the people around him who also rabia because they probably expect the the king will either abdicate or pass away soon and they expect there might be some kind of challenge to the succession even though he is the crown prince but the most critical thing about this i believe is that this is the the final affirmative confirmation the seal. taking over the mantle of the arab autocrats that used to be held by people like saddam hussein. and the mum of that

in lebanon or you might force a political agreement ok rami khouri the professor at the american university of beirut just very quickly let's hear from. his professor of international affairs and the promise at the not saddam university in lebanon thanks for being with us professor your thoughts on what's going on in beirut tonight. when i am now at my home in sun or going to a suburb of beirut and i am looking at the number of the t.v. screens in front of me and views and just in about i've been a bit ugly today it has become these are getting a sense. that amongst the nation began more than 3 months ago. private property public 2 property being targeted on a lot on a larger scale and that is that is because the man in the slaughters on the economy in all of what is happening the demonstration are no more demonstration for rights . 'd and for economic and improvement they have become outright but i at how to write broadening of the very precious resources of the country i myself had to study it and get bitten by united states for 13 years in a state no state no sitting in the united states no police

joined by a now professor of clinical emergency medicine from the american university of beirut's medicalr. when we spoke a few days ago, you told me you were concerned about a shortage of medical supplies and a lack of what can you tell us about the capacity in hospitals to be able to continue treating patients? thank you for having me. when we talk about capacity of hospital beds, it is about functional capacity, not only physical space. having a bed is not all you need. a needs to be staffff by qualified people, having the capacity to actually provide care, meaning providing medication, qualified help, qualified nursing and medical personnel, qualified investigational studies from labs. care of them if we do not have this tent? it costs to purchase, and our money is evaluated and the country is bankrupt. how can you take care after the attacks, of torn arteries and injuries? correspondent: can i ask you, it has obviously been several days since the explosion. what are you starting to see in hospitals now? are you seeing patients with more serious injuries? receive some cases that obvio

we have got elizabeth meyers professor of law at the american university in washington also the former editor in chief of inside arabia and beirut regular contributor i mean a professor of journalism at the american university of beirut and on skype from washington d.c. . the director of the institute for gulf affairs welcome to all of you i mean clearly i will start with you a bit of background on these 2 men had the relationship what do they have in common what did they have to offer each other when they met back in 2018. how much been so man has tried very hard to get major leading international figures and corporations including entertainment figures business figures to come to saudi arabia to invest and so you're a bit he wants to be he wants to lead a major what he calls a reform effort an economic restructuring effort inside saudi arabia and he wants this to be validated by people from all over the world so this was a. possibility for him to get one of the most prominent people in the western world to be a partner or an investor or at least a friend and this is something that probably is going to backfire on him because i

from inside a hot a the the american university of beirut casualties still arriving at hospital 34 hours after the explosion and what sort of strain at the moment. is lebanon's health system on the moment. you know we have a very limited number of i.c.u. beds in lebanon something and then the and the hundreds and the cases of coke would have have gotten to a point where many many of them are taking up those beds and there aren't many beds left and so you know it's like you're going through a crisis you're going through a kind of a pearl harbor and then you get hit again. on top of that so it's you know it's a double triple quadruple whammy on the number of things that are going through into these hospitals have been crying out for help on television for weeks and months now saying that they don't have the p.p. they don't have the protective gear to treat coronavirus patients they can't you know the because the currency has devaluate it so much the cost of care it's still expensive for lebanese citizens but it has no value and when you can we want a hospital you to buy imported goods we d

of medicine. cultural bra beirut, capital. we are greeted by the foreign minister of lebanon. isthis, all around me here, the american universityuate university. american university in more than name. is american, in its itscratic spirit and in educational philosophy. it seeks to train its students relate, to value through and to live by principle. of its certainly true medical school. 1867, before they had made the revolutionary discovery. >> the medical school that with 14 students now trains scores from all over the middle east. staff, some of whom are trained in the united states, is drawn chiefly from lebanon but includes several american physicians. heading the international an american, the dean of the medical school. american doctors teach anesthesiology, gynecology,nd surgery, and ophthalmology, all to train a student body that will spread the benefits of their medical education throughout this entire region of the world. training goes on too in villages each summer, villages which often lack a suitable water supply. field workudents do in preventive medicine and public health, under the doctor,n of an american who con

you now let's go to our panel joining us from beirut we have carmen jihad she's an associate professor of public administration of the university of the american university of beirut enquires austria we have hi cohen who is director of the lebanon project at the international crisis group also in beirut we have journalist welcome to you or comment the question now being asked by many lebanese was this accidental or intentionally set off and i think this is something that might take some time before people would put together all the elements of the puzzle. yeah well 1st thank you for caring to tell the story i know that there's a lot happening in the world right now i want to correct what you said to your guest before me people don't feel abandoned by their state we've you know that we have been taken hostage and we have been taken hostage for the last 30 years i don't want to count the numbers the disaster from last night people are stent picking up their loved ones bodies from under the rubble there are pictures all over of missing family members there are at least 300000 people affected by the bombing housing is destroyed i don't want to tal

lacked really gets 30 rami many thanks indeed rami corey the professor of journalism at the american university of beirut. the coronavirus pandemic the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the u.s. has just passed $1000000.00 that's a 3rd of the world's total number of infections president donald trump is promising to expand testing some states begin to ease lockdown measures and he's met florida's governor who wants to ease restrictions in his state let's go live now to washington our white house correspondent kimberly how could is with this committee the president tweeting. once again today he's been repeating these claims these inaccurate claims about levels of testing in the u.s. . yeah the u.s. president is really bristling at the suggestion that the united states may not be a leader when it comes to testing something that he has wanted to claim now certainly the united states has caught up in some cases in testing but in terms of being a leader that is certainly a fact that has been widely disputed another fact that we should talk about as you said there at the start of the segment the number o

they haven't survived the immediate impact of the explosion he was transferred from the american university of beirut medical center to france for treatment where he suck um to his injuries. 2 months later. in february and march 2005 the lebanese military intelligence and in sternal security forces conducted their own investigation and then man a cease of the explosion. from the way in a request from the lebanese prime minister the u.n. secretary general dispatched a fact finding mission to bear root to inquire into the causes the circumstances and the consequences of this assassination the investigation was not conducted according to international standards it was a recent aged disorganized and there was a chaotic approach to the crime scene investigation particularly in the initial period after the explosion the crime scene was not properly secured critical evidence in the form of the vehicles in mr herrera's convoy were removed by the i.s.f. from the crime scene on the very evening of the attack to trucks and other heavy duty vehicles drove on to the crime scene in order to do this the crime scene

that every times thank you so much your time ironically there it's endless professor at american university of beirut thank you. plenty more ahead on the news hour including. france protests at the highest level after the killing of a group of humanitarian workers in. one of the latest on efforts to clean up an oil spill along the coast of more ships. and indians most prolific test ball hits back claims about his future details coming up in sports. the russian protesters are back out on the streets a nice after 3000 were arrested there angry at the reelection of longtime leader alexander lukashenko who has been handed a 6th term he's promised to crack down on anybody disputing the result france germany and the u.k. are urging restraint steadfast and reports from mint sq. explosions rocking the russian capital a few hours after polls have closed a position supporters have come out in thousands to protest the initial election results riot police is blocking the entrance to a large square. and this firing stun grenades into the crowd. a police truck drives into protesters. ambulances are rushing in to t

smoke is actually fuel now that's one way of 'd looking at it then you go to the social media in beirut and you see that of those polls by american university of beirut medical center which is the most important medical facility in the. country and in the middle east which says everybody in lebanon needs to stay indoors from the look of the flame the explosion looks the night of it asset based stay at home and then you go into the medical center and they tell you that it's actually not that opposed the same think about canadian embassy canadian embassies doing headcounts of their stuff but then there are fake oboes from the canadian embassy which were obviously not posted by them because says that it's a drop the bomb with depleted uranium red color. all your loved ones together they don't inhale tried to go opposite direction of where so there is this kind of things which cannot be confirmed in the meantime of course the government is trying to put this finger on the who. who exactly is this sponsible but though this moment it's very difficult to include all. the sides we get into that in just a moment andrea but but as you say you're exac

i spoke to an specialist at the american university of beirut and people are saying to rep casks maskst happened, and - that's happened, and yeah, that's it. decades of corruption and i failing decades of corruption and of failing infrastructure, protests on the streets about this as well in the last few months. how will lebanon cope with this? it will need a lot of international help which really has not been forthcoming, has it recently? the international community has refused to help because of the corruption. in the government has to implement certain reforms on transparency and anti—corruption reforms on transparency and anti—corru ption measures reforms on transparency and anti—corruption measures before they receive any help. i think this is very different because if it is an accident which is what the government is saying, that it's not like the lebanese brought tips on themselves. the international community knows that lebanon needs help even if just community knows that lebanon needs help even ifjust to run the hospitals, this is going to be a huge humanitarian problem here i

on the current crisis i mean it has made things worse we've seen massive layoffs in the american university of beirut medic. hospital as you've mentioned this has been the hospital at the forefront of the country's response to the coronavirus but lebanon's economic problems far predate this crisis as our viewers will remember there was a you know the pot big popular uprising of october 2019 that was actually triggered by proposed taxation by the government in an attempt to scramble for more funds they wanted to tax actually what's up something a service that was free in order to finance their spending and so this is this is certainly made things worse but the government the country the economy was collapsing way before that it is quite clear that lebanon requires a norm that requires it potentially could come from the international monetary fund but if that were not to what options lebanon very little because the country is broke since october banks have also imposed kind of like de facto capital controls on people's on people's funding but i mean the government really needs to step up its act in the

and the >> reporter: rabih shibli is the director of the centiver for engagement at the american university of beiruted the digital skills >> i fully believe that this program, whereby you can deliver skills, train the refugees and lebanese on these digital skills, where ty can connect to employers outside the country, with its very limedrt job opities, it's a great idea. >> reporter: the idea is that refugees can remotely tap into work abroad, and make money for food without taking jobs away from lebanese. reem husein hajouz is a mother two, and lives here with her family. until now, she had never taken english or computer classes. do you want to use these skills here, in lebanon, or somewhere else? >> i c them anywhere. i feel very proud of melf now because i am learning and i'm knowledgeable. >> reporter: but there are challenges to the program. while more than 90% of syrian refugee households have access to a mile phone, for some, accessing computers is difficult. >): the mainte oblem i face is that i do not have a computer at home, so if i learn something at tnt cente and o come home and practic

of the gulf studies center at qatar university and from boston in the u.s. rami corey senior fellow at the some far as institute at the american university of beirut gentlemen welcome to you all rami let's start with you is the u.s. saudi relationship unraveling what are we to make of the state department's comments. the relationship is definitely in a serious process of transition and change after 75 years or so of pretty strong. stability in which direction it goes is going to depend on how the saudis behave and it's going to depend on how political winds in the united states change as well particularly in the congress and especially in the white house the saudi u.s. relationship now is very very narrow in terms of its links to the white house and particularly to cushion around trump and individually so it's a very send relationship compared to what it used to be before but it is definitely in a moment of historic change and it it could get better it could get worse depends on how people behave but chips wary here in doha what about the state department comments what do you make of that you know at the end of the day i think there was political pressure t

beirut. is a professor of communications at the american university of beirut he says the movement reflects a major change in how the. politics. all the current leaders are late and their age they have lost credibility they have destroyed the economy and they're massively incompetent so i believe the war generation the warlord leaders and their mafia friends have run out of bullets to shoot at the population and currently there are massive movements all across have been distinct in being very youthful very engaging and very active on social media in addition the principles of their choice of being citizens which is refusing the sectarian system and speaking their own opinions in the face of all those politicians i think this is a massive systematic change it's a new paradigm of how we want to run the country as citizens and what type of leaders do we want and what type of political parties we would create in 5 years this will be a different country without the warlords suddenly the mass movement is getting more leadership more people with skills of running the government and basically those p

want to let me go viacom and get his assistant professor of public administration to the american university of beirut when a player comment on the streaming just come off the back of it tomorrow. we've seen a definite return to the streets to protest also to organizing new political platforms in the north because the structural problems haven't changed since before the call it out of a kind of the not corruption rampant clan to this him in a deteriorating socio economic. conditions it's pushing people to take back to the streets i think the only hope that lebanon has is that the revolution continues and is able to institutionalize a new political channels that really can change the existing political elite who have fielded since the civil war to make any demands to meet citizens' needs. like an it's not a gates all around imo you could say. he had left so i think it's very important here to set a few things straight 1st of all we had a political class that has been in power for 30 years since the end of the civil war all the years unsustainable all this to use mismanagement and corruption have led us

$1000000000.00 euro bond this year let's talk more about this now in beirut is job he is an associate professor of economics at the american university of beirut and it's great to have you with us lebanon now does finally have a government after months of paralysis what have you made of the promises made by the new prime minister with regards to fixing the root of all the problems the economy. you know the promises are still very general in my opinion and. you know we don't really think that this government can really deliver on a nice concrete promise because it has lost the support of even some of the main political parties in power and also from the continued protests on the street there seems to be adjourned there are discontent with the way this government was formed with the way the ministers were selected and their background or at least several of the ministers and until now we haven't seen anything concrete or just words empty words that are yet to be materialize in a concrete plan ok so in the absence of anything concrete let's talk about what could be done and what is it that is needed in your opinion to start turning this

$25000.00 deaths a major health center in lebanon has had to lay off hundreds of staff the american university of beirut medical center has reportedly let go of more than $500.00 workers mostly from the administrative and nursing departments of british war veteran who raised $40000000.00 for the u.k.'s national health service of the night and by the queen captain said tom moore walked $100.00 laps of his garden for his 100th birthday initially set out to raise $1200.00 but donations came flooding in the ceremony was queen elizabeth's 1st face to face meeting with a member of the public since the lockdown began in march so those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera of the inside story thanks for watching life and. tax us taxes tax us a group of 1000000 as a government to raise taxes to fund a coronavirus recovery they say charity is not the solution but will governments unsub a call and how popular is this idea this is inside story. welcome to the program i'm laura kyle the coronavirus crisis seems to be spinning out of control on thursday the world record of its worst single day rise

strategic affairs analyst and a former moroccan minister and in beirut but i'm a hootie director of global engagement at the american university of beirut welcome to the show and let me start with you this normalization deal between morocco and israel has been discussed for a while now but how much of a shock was it that morocco's agreement was clinched in return for american recognition of moroccan sovereignty over the disputed western sahara region. by think morocco has had relations with israel in the 1990 s. as part of the last of cord and morocco has had like here economic relations at that moment and then he'd had them when the netanyahu government walked away from the spirit and the letter of the chords but i think now is a ripe moment for that to resume while understanding that morocco is very friendly and also has good relations with the palestinians the king of morocco is the president of the committee of jerusalem so i don't think that it's walking away from the palestinians but i think it's a country could have i mean like an arab country could have leverage with both entities it's morocco morocco has like a very l

now to massai who is an expert in islamist groups and political science professor at the american university of beirut she joins us now on the line from there could have you with us professor where were you when this explosion hit yesterday. i thought. i mean. 'd something like this. once you realized that it was an explosion that caused it what we are what we are national force then. something big. check. sure response i think. for most people. was. destroyed. the prime minister has declared a national day of mourning. wednesday. what do you think will be the impact on the country of this explosion. already is going through maybe the toughest time in its history the state is about to collapse the economy is already. bad. people all. of the people are out there just. increasing the. ringback funding or the exchange rate dollar. lebanese is going to help but wonder. what today is going to lead to massive school people go and i think the government this day just to remind you that you. are one is. the most gracious. because because of the fires that took place among. the government could not. help cours

and we speak now to mocked oh he's a professor of communications at the american university of beirut and was a former candidate for the lebanese parliament thanks very much indeed for being with us so the prime minister has talked about the. explosion being caused by possibly dangerous materials that was stored in the port and had been there since 2014 can you explain just what kind of oversight there is a of the port and how that kind of material might have been there for for so long in such a densely populated area. the material is stored it was in the have your number 12 which is one of the biggest and they store all flammable and that order material that is highly sensitive to explosions and otherwise and those who are stuck there by quota touring because they're not allowed to enter lebanon and they were basically trying to get them into lebanon using excuses off using them for fertilizers so that the ports so far are saying and it seems that something terribly when drunk there and they were not stored properly there was a lot of flammables and that region and then there was a m

ann associatee professor at the american university of beirut to movie sure to keep that level very much on ourr radar these nextxt few weeks. well the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov foot today hit back at western governments which have accused moscow of. poisoning the kremlin critic alexei navalny. lavrov said the accusations were unsubstantiated and he staunchly denied any official involvement. in the valley is currently being treated at a german hospital after falling ill three weeks ago on a domestic flight in russia. german experts say the forty four year old was poisoned with the nerve you choke nerve agent. russia's foreign affairs minister saiaid calls from western nationsor an investigation into the poisoning of opposition politician alexey navalny. reminded him of the twenty eighteen script ball case when a russian spy and his daughterr were p poisoned with a soviet ea nerve agent nothing showing in england. we are a customs a and difficult thoughh to remind us been c creat by our westernave collgues after the poisonining in salisbury. was oncnce everything waslassified

makdisi is a founding director of the public policy and international affairs program at the american university of beirut a welcome to you all i want to start with you karim some of the things i've been hearing from lebanese friends here in doha and through my interaction with lebanese people across the world and in lebanon itself. off is that they're all corrupt they're all thieves this is a criminal at that there's no hope anything for lebanon crema how do you get to a position where seemingly most of your population is so anti any public institution because they've been filed so many times how does that happen well and it happens over a very long time it's been happening over at least 3 decades since the end of the civil war from there any amount in one piece on with something day and it's been a slow demise it's a bit like the problem boiling and you know just continues to boil slowly slowly slowly until it's too late and it's cooked and i think this is i mean this is the short answer it's becoming for 3 decades. i don't share and a lot of people will start thing what with blaming everybody blame the