lebanon's former sunni prime minister saad hariri was no except. he followed in the footsteps of his father rafi career and just like his father he tried to unite the lebanese under sunni leadership to this and he was prepared to make concessions to has belonged. to. the billionaire building contractor with lebanese saudi and french citizenship wanted to build on the legacy of his father who had been a dominant force in lebanese politics law for curry was assassinated in 2005. for a few curry had been a beacon of hope not only for levanon and its national agenda the unit was also a figure with whom the sunni's identified the man who brought the cosmopolitan sunni elites back to the country and who had also given greater emphasis to the sunni identity of lebanon. but saad hariri tolerance of the shia hezbollah movement did not go down well with saudi arabia the self-appointed protector of the sunni's. for years the saudis urged hurry to exert more pressure on hezbollah. the group's closeness to saudi arabia's bitter rival iran was enough to win peri

yes, lebanon can collapse. if we do not do what we have to do, which is, you know, i remember when i started banking in 2002, i started getting into the finance of the country and before that i was a businessman in lebanon and in the us and then in france. we ask for a view billions of dollars and got commitments, and we got the dollars and did not do the commitments. and then more leaders came and then they said this time, we will do it, and then they said they would do the reform and get the money and then that did not happen and now they are saying i have to get the imf and if you do not, you do not get $1. this is the right approach to resolve the issues in lebanon. we have to get imf and we have to get it quickly. we have lost already a lot of time. and if you do not, it could be the end of your country? economically, yes. socially, it would be catastrophic, people will go into hunger and so yes, we have to have it, and we have to have it very quickly. people, politicians have to understand that. they have

tell of the lines 150 kilometers south of that border with lebanon. it's israel's biggest city and it now lies within the range of hezbollah missiles. that's one of the reasons why the israel defense forces have chosen to locate their center of operations deep underground beneath their headquarters. israel is such a small country that a short reaction time to attack from outside is team. appliable to its survival. these really army monitors the activities of hasbro law closely its findings show that hezbollah has grown in strength partly through the experience it has gained fighting in the war in neighboring syria. israel sees has been law in a wider strategic context. it views the shia militia 1st and foremost as a proxy for the implementation of iranian plans. many analysts say iran is trying to establish a land corridor from its own territory to the mediterranean with the aim of projecting an extended sphere of influence were the regime in tehran now has close allies over a wide area reaching from iraq and syria through to lebanon with hezbollah. w

and saudi arabia and nobody wants to help lebanon unless lebanon follows the politics that they want and the problem is that lebanon is not aligned it cannot be just you know marshaled into one position or another you know the u.s. has demanded and put pressure on lebanon economically but sanctions as you know restricted flights for decades because of hezbollah because they feel that it's you know a terrorist group and supporting terrorist countries so they have pressure on us and that way the other other countries have put pressure on us to turn away from the u.s. but as a small country it's very hard to take positions like that because you're really at the whim of other countries and other countries have refused to help lebanon unless there is some kind of political reform political reform again it doesn't every kind of help has strings attached you know foreign aid is not charity and countries have been trying to aim lebanon for a decade but they've done so in a certain way that promotes their own interest in the country ok so the problem with aid that it always that strains that

the face of lebanon because post assassination the the face of lebanon on the bandwagon and you know. politically the political decisions that have been have really changed limit on it really change after death us initially to take one person and make him responsible to kill deceit ip highly guarded with the new with technology and more all over to connect and you know. provide issues and give orders and wondered at his you know. what about of a minister had it and then take like to point tons of t.n.t. that needs a high expert to really in or make them as a bomb and bring the mitsubishi that was stolen in japan so it's a highly complicated scheme or highly complicated plot or operation i mean. and that meant or deferred it came saw that i need you know little issue all these are the this big picture of really killing but i missed it having because i mean if that had it in a political context political situation and it was killed it was killed as a jail political struggle in the beginning of the jail political struggle indonesian between iran and you know the arab gulf the arab and t

lebanon has. exploded people until this explosion the big problem people were talking about in lebanon were suicide personal suicide people on able to survive both locals and even immigrant workers in the country there was a case of a net european worker for example so we have really devastating psychological economic situation compound by. crisis where people really i think at this point could not care less about it because of the problems they're dealing with a personal level so big. the initial the initial aftermath of course is how how do people get treated and we're hearing a standard that hospitals are reportedly full of people from the plastic sack numbers that aren't known enough stage our local hospitals are they sufficient what you've been taking us through the volatile situations our hospital sufficiently well equipped to deal with such a tragedy. well hospitals are probably not equipped to deal with this additional burden considering already the the the financial stress they're under d

who comes from one of lebanon's most prominent political dynasties. both his uncle and brother were assassinated. nevertheless the mile believes and lebanese democracy. we have a history of 80 years of democracy the only maybe country in the region where you have ex-president living in peace in their own country you have every 4 years in the election you have. governments are being formed even if it takes time even if it's difficult to do it every time but at least you are doing it and it's a democratic process and this is a model that we. that you are willing to defend. the political system in lebanon is now under greater threat than ever before the shia has ball movement is growing in strength. many of its supporters despise the lebanese state. on the last friday of ramadan has a last celebrates clicks or jerusalem day which was 1st instituted by the iranian later on. tola khomeini in 1979 as a day of resistance to israel the dome of the rock in jerusalem has become a symbol of that struggle. hezbollah calls itself the party of the resistance opposi

more lebanon can endure. alone, and there is a limit to how much more lebanon can endurem alone, and there is a limit to how much more lebanon can endure. it was more that i was a homage to all those that were less fortu nate a homage to all those that were less fortunate than us and were caught in this big catastrophe. quentin sommerville, bbc news. ammonium nitrate is a chemical that is made all over the world and is relatively cheap to buy. but storing it can be a problem, and it has been associated with serious industrial accidents in the past. 0ur science editor david shukman explains what it is — and how it can cause so much damage. it began as a very large blaze, a towering grey column, and flashes from what looked like fireworks. but worse was to follow. a massive explosion, and as it erupted, an important clue emerged in the colour of the smoke, a reddish—brown, which meant that ammonium nitrate was involved in vast quantities. so what is this substance, ammonium nitrate? well, it is a chemical m

to move them to the mountains or to friends inside lebanon as anybody's army group. where. any explosion. that is only in the report and why and here in this court of the materials and. there are what it means is in downtown beirut. it could. be caused a lot of guess what it is. all over the country so the investigation when we can should go deep and. have contact with all the people. who are responsible who. are going to be tense because that would not. give any negligence and this. case. i think that. not only the government but. the deep state and there is in danger mouse 'd and. such. such. things. ok. we'll leave it there. in beirut thank you very much. we'll go with nations were among the 1st to offer help the cattery i mean a shake to mean been hummable funny says his country will send medical equipment to set up field hospitals iran has also offered support and has its reach as has its regional rival saudi arabia israel too is offering humanitarian aid through foreign channels as it has no diplomatic relations with lebanon e.u. leaders as well say they are ready to

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

because lebanon is perseid asli a product of the international community lebanon was a colony and lebanon continues to be colonized in many ways by these countries that are putting money behind these warlords so i think the real question for all of us living outside of lebanon is how committed is the international community to really helping love or not do they really want to see peace in lebanon or we continue to see a war between a cold war between the united states and iran and saudi arabia and israel all happening within lebanon all those arms and live in conflicts all around lebanon that's the only way we can really see a better lebanon is if the countries of the world will decide that it's time to stop pursuing your interests as time to stop treating lebanon as a chessboard so you know there's part of the equation happens in lebanon but a big part of it you know the real life support of these regimes of militias really comes from outside the country. well looking at live pictures while we're speaking to you. it looks like there riot police perhaps members of the military on the stre

we hearing from lebanon's general security chief about zebra him that. this explosion happened at a warehouse where explosive materials not explosives but explosive materials had been stored in a warehouse. there's obviously the main seat of the fire that the firefighters are trying to tackle there but in some of the other shots that with that we're seeing from the port area there are numerous fires burning at the port the area and emergency services reporting that there are people trapped not only there at the scene of the explosion but in their own homes. the blast wave damaged buildings several kilometers away. a lot of windows were shattered glass injuries but but really. buildings were completely damaged mangled by this this huge blast wave that came off the explosion as people were injured and as i said some reported the still being trapped inside you can see just how powerful that explosion wars. by looking at this video from the scene and initial fire or explosion and fire was followed by a much greater blast or series of blasts even. what appear

eddies and of rich gulf states who previously put money into lebanon but in the last few months particularly with the economic crisis caused by culprit in the downturn in all prices on able and willing to support lebanon so much because they say that the governing alliance between hezbollah the shiite group and the christians would interest in doing something they don't like so the road to economic has been pulled monthly platinum american sanctions on lebanon's banks that deal with syria as well as of course caused a crisis with a country that is so dependent on imported things of crude steps to always critical economic tensions and then to say you have final culmination of this long weary process of trying to find out who killed prime minister rafik hariri the extra minister in 2005 that's supposed to happen on friday and that's why this explosion is going to be seen sadly with the true or false why so many people is in some sense a repetition all that calamitous explosion back in 2008 because this is somebody trying to send a message to the court now i suspect it could well be just a terr

i mean look before this explosion took place lebanon was in need. of assistance of aid of a proper reform program there are the issue here is there are multiple issues built on top of one another in the 6 lotion and the devastation that is wrought in terms of human lives and destruction of infrastructure etc it is sort of the cherry on top so it was weak what lebanon will need immediately is of course assistance with food not only have food prices been rising in the country but the very staple of bread for example which of course depends on wheat may be at risk in the situation because if imports are correct the largest great elevators in the country have been destroyed in this explosion up or for them or of course this being the only major port in the country the ability to get food aid into the country may also be a child's immediately of course there's going to be issues with the issues with the health care system of course which as previous guest mentioned is being overwhelmed by everything from not only 5 injured from today's question but also

in beirut lebanon rula can you explain what happened to the domestic workers. now some of them sleeping on the streets can you give us some context. since the very beginning whenever domestic workers come to lebanon they do not find themselves protected by any form of law because lebanon did not sign international conventions that would protect those rights and under the national law it does not include migrant workers so when they find themselves under a file a system which is arabic for sponsorship or guardianship or treaty which treats them as if they did not have the autonomy or the responsibility over themselves and eyes unto one employer which is a drastic excuse for abuse of power and this has been the status quo or the economic crisis that has devalued that for over 70 percent in the past few months and with. 191 domestic workers are being treat we're going to come back to. there are sort of rolling blackouts in beirut right now so we'll come back to rula let me just pick up with bunchy bunchy i'm just showing the tweet here what happened to african lea

an idea why things are getting that worse lebanon is. on the verge of collapse 50 percent unemployment very close to bankruptcy basically this is kind of a failed state and i think that many lebanese and i also take the liberty to tell that i do speak to many are of the lebanese it is kind of. conventional wisdom that lebanon has been hijacked by hezbollah and i hope that lebanese would rise to the occasion and create kind of a protest that would believe my eyes the influence of us by law in the state of lebanon we do know that both hezbollah and israel came out immediately and said that they were not responsible for this situation that they had nothing to do with it whatsoever and if we can touch on israel again israel is actually offered assistance to its you know longtime rival lebannon could this tragedy somehow help to decrease tensions between the 2. sure i mean i think that that was kind of a smart move to assist humanitarian aid basically you know we know the story and or of government which part of it by the way is has barred la

support for lebanon and for the government of lebanon and indeed for the lebanese army which plays a crucial role in u.s. eyes in terms of attempting to limit iranian influence within lebanon ok mike many thanks mike i'm a reporter there in washington d.c. . now to some breaking news out of colombia where the supreme court has now in the last hour confirmed it has ordered the detention of the former president . has to do with a case in which the former leader is accused of witness tampering and fraud has repeatedly declared his innocence and questioned the court's independence he is a close ally of the current president even duke a. possible use of course on our developing stories out of the website al jazeera dot com or you can follow us on twitter as well. argentina has reached a deal with its creditors to restructure a large government debt it follows months of talks and is being hailed as a major step toward stabilizing its struggling economy argentina owes nearly $65000000000.00 it defaulted for the 9th time in may making it difficult to access more capital on the international

they are alive now to lebanon's prime minister who is making an announcement let's listen in. to. but it was still living around in that catastrophic that hit lebanon a catastrophic a that hit all of us in the heart due to the corruption in politics and administration and the whole state i have said before that the corruption system is deep there all over the place and i discovered that the corruption system is bigger than the state and the state is suffering from that sort of corruption the state and the country cannot face that corruption one of the types of this corruption has exploded in the beirut pulled the catastrophic hits all of us we have so many of the models in every place and the threat is big. fraid of so many other types of corruption that my attempts lebanon within the protection of the elite who controls the fate and future of the gun tray those elites who live on the rift and trade with them bishan zone holds of people according to the calculations of the courting to the different agenda today we are facing a massive catastrophic event and all the powers that are

and russia and 1 really israel and hezbollah lebanon and lebanon's people who are paying the cost of this fight but not never forget the that the that israel and going back to any book in any magazine any real. and in your space for reporting accurately facts israel as always been on their tactic from not on the defensive when trump said so quickly afterwards that his experts and presumably that includes some of the biggest intelligence agencies on earth that it was an attack that it was a bomb media here immediately started talking about hizbollah bombing its own city of trying to draw connections with the un tribe you are all on the hariri assassination immediately we started hearing reports in western media about russian ships from georgia containing ammonium nitrate what do we have to be wary off with in the immediate aftermath of this catastrophe this ridiculous i mean not know one of the killed one's own people and been as many she says they were christians and so now that we can lie by the blood. the only thing that lebanese are considering right now objectivists see is that i

united nations troops had been stationed in southern lebanon since 1978. their mandate to guarantee peace and security in the contested region. but it proved an impossible task for a u.n. force that was far too small. the lebanese army was in a pitiful state after the civil war and controlled by different religious groups. only when 6 un peacekeepers were killed in the 2006 war between israel and hezbollah did the united nations change its policy. since 2006 the un forces have had what's known as a robust mandate which allows greater scope for the use of force if necessary. for years things were pretty quiet along the border but recent months have seen a number of armed skirmishes leading to a renewed rising tensions to this day a state of war still exists between israel and lebanon and the 2 countries have no diplomatic relations. tel aviv lies 150 kilometers south of that quarter with levon on. its israel's biggest city and it now lies within the range of hezbollah missiles. that's one of the reasons why the israel defense forces have chosen to locate th

yeah we just heard officially lebanon israel has offered its help to lebanon on that line just coming in to us right now paula thank you very much for breaking dawn. the very latest on the tragic event in the lebanese capital. let's get some more in-depth analysis of all of this possible reasons the situation in beirut with historian mark alderman he is director of the crisis research institute in oxford there's always welcome to the program good to see you lebanon on we know mark was already in a not extremely vulnerable state must civil unrest over the government's handling of the pandemic the the worst economic slump in decades as well how volatile is the situation there. i think this is the real tragedy late for work who's explosion is going to be written the social situation is going through much more explosive because as you were saying we've had something like 80 percent of people in living on the breadline because they cannot actually commonly known the currency so truly should become very expensive and one of the casualties this explosion all the grains and storage is at the.

this is deja vu news live from berlin lebanon's government under pressure to resign one minister has already quit in the whole cabinet may soon follow her leaving beirut has been cleaning up after a night of unrest and the huge explosions that ripped the city of our on tuesday. also coming up the people of fellers go to the police president alexander lukashenko has been in power since the mid 1990 s. but this time around he's facing a serious challenge from this from. a 1000000 good half welcome to the program a lebanese government minister has resigned following protests that left one police officer dead and more than 100 people injured information minister monell obvious said she was quitting because the government had failed to carry out reforms our beirut correspondent reports many more resignations may follow perhaps the entire government will fall protesters blame their leaders for tuesday's port explosions that killed more than 150 people. she's the 1st government official to quit over choose days catastrophic explosion in beirut but many in lebanon hope she won't be the last.

we would talk more in detail about those aspects of the political life in lebanon. what do you think should happen 1st government officials say that investigation is going to be launched people say no we want the political elite to step aside from where does the sentiment of the lebanese people stand right now people who are very angry they've been very angry for most of their life who are a country that's constantly involved in wars and it's partly the same group of men militia leaders who are leading them and if it wasn't a war in the streets. becomes a war over the contracts and that's why we have no public services you know we don't really have a state i think this is a misconception that this is a poorly performing state this is a group of militias competing with each other and some bankers thrown in. and so there's no real structure of a state because every militia want to take the government and its own direction they want to create their own way of managing a state so i don't really think it's i think we get a little bit too lost in the personalities and som

because you know so far lebanon of course like i mentioned. it's going through an economic collapse and nobody was willing to help so maybe this will be the thing that helped lebanon ultimately i don't know but judging by the physical destruction. it's going to take a very long time to fix what's broken here it's very much look. there's been you're seeing severe unrest the country's on the brink of economic clear heavy heavily devalued currency. as we went through there are soaring food costs are going to happen there were happening before but no to extreme levels could this tragedy be a tipping point looks. you know i'm really no i don't know a little bit and special and focus is uniquely of that country move more so in terms of the. geopolitical. when there really doesn't seem to be those dynamics in this case he really seems to be. but i do know that that country has go with your financial woes of the value of their currency declining. a recent calamitous you know. history. whenever you have this sort of the actual you know obstacle facing

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 c

it's indeed a very difficult time for lebanon at the moment lebanon has already been witnessing and going through various crises before the latest explosion took place so there's a lot at stake at the moment is going through a economy crisis as well as the political instability due to different factors related to regional powers fighting over and taking lebanon as a playing ground to work out their own fights so at the moment the protesters that are taking the streets of beirut are not satisfied with the resignation they are happy that this resignation happened they were demanding for this resignation since the blast but they are saying that this is not enough the government is not the sole responsible behind this blast the whole political system based on corruption and client that has been kind of preparing for one disaster after the other due to various reasons so this is not enough for them as he was announcing his resignation the prime minister said he was stepping down to fight alongside the people of lebanon but isn't really an ally the people are looking for i mean the reacti

capable of leading weapons in lebanon and lebanon should out its only very strong army irrespective of whether as well is capable of do we work against the israelis or not but that doesn't mean that hezbollah in any anybody's mind with the ball in beirut just to consider that it was is you are just that and in reality nobody even has not claimed that israel had at all. they're looking for that it's within lebanon all both israel and hezbollah both want to go into a war and they have been evading all flee or direct conflict both the israelis and hezbollah for the past several months just calling their sums themselves names but never get to the act of waging a war against each other now in all of these terrorist act and what happens the real victims are the people of lebanon and that's what makes peace to be nice seems . ok we're obviously we invite hizbollah and the israeli ambassador to london on the show both hezbollah and israel deny any involvement in the explosions love to talk to you by the reconstruction of beirut cousin maghera thank you after the break the star of the wire in s

lebanon this is the major focus of the u.s. relationship within lebanon and also of course last month the centcom commander the most senior u.s. commander in the theater went to lebanon to have a meeting with senior military officials there that was a very important meeting in terms of the u.s. once again signaling that it wants to keep a firm alliance with levanon that it still views lebanon as a very important card in terms of its wider regional policy ok mike thank you very much mike correspondent in washington. so you're seen as a professor at the american university of beirut. the government will be able to deal with this disaster on its own. like many issues for the last few months we've been seeing the revenues government not taking that i decisions when it comes to managing the economy or the finances or social issues and i can imagine that this disaster this catastrophe will be dealt by the way that live in these people do relying on themselves on their war on their communities of or and the government would just be lo

i used to live in lebanon. i have had people texting me from all over the world, saying how are your friends in lebanon? what the country really needs is money to rebuild, money in the form of international donations. pledges have been rolling in, perhaps not as quickly as people might like, but now emmanuel macron has announced that donor conference. while it is extremely appreciated of course, people in lebanon simply don't trust that money is going to go where it is needed. many accuse the government of corruption and in this video here, we see emmanuel macron when he was there today, visiting the country, he was walking through the devastated area -- the woman is yelling in french, but she is saying, please don't give any money to our corrupt government. we cannot handle it anymore. to which macron replies, i know. don't worry. i'm going to help people, not the government. it will be very important in the weeks and months ahead that this money that will be rolling into lebanon finds its way to where it is m

he was in the streets before lebanon's prime minister was. if you can talk about that relationship and also the $300 million that have been -- a donors cononference set upup a where that money w would go? >> absbsolutelely. the fact that macron was in the streets before the prime minister or any other major official in lebanon was is more a reflection of the unaccountability of the lebanese political class to the population of lebanon that it is the goodwill intentions of the president of france. i think macron was trying to see the initiative for france and the european union to get ahead of the united states and a paving the way for some type of exit of the political and multiple crises in lebanon. he is perhaps even trying to reposition france in relation to lebanon and the broader middle eaeast. that being said, i think it is important to note that france, the united states, the european union, the international monetary fund, the world bank, asell as other powers like iran, russia, saudi arabia, are all complicit in helping create, maint

ben wedeman, cnn, beirut. >>> the daily star lebanon joins me now from lebanon. in the midst of this disaster you tweeted newsroom is working as hard as we can to keep everyone in the loop following yesterday's explosion in bay rutd despite the state of the office. firstly, what was the impact on you and your colleagues personally? >> i mean, it was like nothing we've ever seen before. we originally thought it was an earthquake. the building was shaking for five seconds. the buildings blew out. it was chaos. when the emergency alarm came out. it was only when we got on the street we realize the the true devastation. it was harrowing. >> there's been a decline in fundamental freedoms and repression of free speech in lebanon. that has resulted in independent media in lebanon. your own paper faced financial difficulties. as we reflect on the past 36 hours, what needs to change? >> in the country as a whole? >> right. >> i don't know where to start. i mean, look, people are angry. people are really angry. what's happened. this only ee ppitomizes the she negligence of

inside lebanon. take us through the events on ground. how do you assess the past few days? i was last there a few years ago, reporting on the syrian refugee crisis. 1.5 million syrians sheltering in lebanon. that shows the generosity of spirit of the people there. that's on top of palestinian refugees who have been sheltering there, as well. i've always thought of lebanon as a country that is blessed with wonderful people. but is blighted with a ruling elite that is, frankly, pretty appalling. the question is what happened on tuesday, will that change anything? and i take agnes' point about what president macron and the french can do, certainly in the short term. i, however, feel, in the longer term, we are not going to see that much change and i think that is partly because the international community has too much on its plate already. yes, president macron in the short term can lead a coalition that will perhaps force systemic changes in terms of economic reforms and transparency and that kind of t

deadly blast after initial reports the country's president has expressed condolences to the people of lebanon has offered emergency medical assistance. live from moscow this is r t international just after 11 pm here the same time where we start our breaking news this hour from i'm not beirut where a devastating explosion hit the capital of lebanon government officials are saying least 50 people are dead more than $2700.00 more injured the blast went off in the city's port area destroying buildings within a large radius the coals is so far clear it's believed to have set off fuel tanks causing a 2nd reply and a huge fire. i've got. one more one more. well we can go live now to beirut and speak to journalist commands in the capital levanon we spoke a little bit earlier i'll tell if you broke done for us some of the main reasons what was happening there the aftermath as well just remind us on the current situation on tickets through walkup in there. well right now we are standing at the symbolic martyrs square in the heart of the lebanese capital beirut we are just a couple blocks away from the

i saw all of the war in lebanon. this blow is as important as the 11th of september blow in the united states. for us, i think this is a very big blow. we need really the international support. french rescue teams left paris for beirut, britain announced £5 million of emergency aid, but lebanon has deep political problems that money without reform will not be able to fix. in beirut‘s wreckage are the ruins of the granary that contained vital supplies of imported wheat. another disaster, at the chernobyl nuclear power plant, finished off the soviet union. lebanon's old order should fear the fallout from beirut docks. jeremy bowen, bbc news. let s get some of the day s other news. the top us immunologist, doctor anthony fauci, says he doen‘t expect a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine to have been approved by regulatory authorities before the end of the year but remains confident tens of millions of doses would be available by early 2021, rising to at least a billion by the end of next year. and yet another gr

a new day in lebanon and the clock is ticking. search for survivors into the night after they wrote wasas rocked by huge --- beirurut was rocked by huhuge explosion. the hours after a disaster like this one are crucial with the chances of finding survival in the rubble dropping after that point beard -- afafter that poi. dozens are stillll missing. the area rescuers have to cover is huge. earlier in the day, there was good news as this 27-year-old man was pulled f from the rubbl. further inland the blast broke windows and knocked doors off their hinges. many people here have little faith in authorities to get things done. they grabbed their brooms and went to work cleaning up the streets themselves while some businesses have offered to help asked fores, discounts, or even free of charge. >> [speaking foreieignanguage] amidt that attitude comes anger at the corrupt state volunteers say is responsible for the blast. >> [speaking foreign language] >> a state of emergency y has bn declared inn lebananon for the t two weeks. the govern

for the beirut explosion lead to political change in lebanon people left to clean up the streets vent their anger or what they say is a corrupt system in a dysfunctional state so can the country rebuild and rise up from this destruction this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program on iran current lebanon deserves better it's one of the main messages coming out of beirut after tuesday's devastating explosion the blast killed at least 138 people made 300000 residents homeless and destroyed much of the city center many lebanese are blaming government corruption for allowing the disaster to happen for 6 years port officials reportedly asked judges for an order to move the nearly $3000.00 tons of ammonium nitrate that was stored in a warehouse but they say they never got a response some customs officials are now under house arrest the president says those responsible will be punished but people in beirut say they don't trust their leaders to conduct a transparent investigation or even help clean up the damage. they've been 24 years old enough to lift 11 on my entire life i've nev

briefing on the situation in lebanon what came out of this. well it was interesting this was a chance for the united nations to brief members states about the situation on the ground. and in lebanon and the international community's efforts to address some of the needs there are the secretary general antonio terra's called the situation a huge catastrophe this explosion of course coming on the heels of a socio economic crisis and a coded 19 pandemic he not surprisingly asked member states to be generous with international support but also talked about the need for a credible investigation and government reform that was really an underlying theme to all of the speeches given by not only u.n. officials but also some member states the humanitarian chief mark lowe cox said that ultimately billions of dollars will be needed to reconstruct levanon fully some $300000000.00 has been pledged by the international community so far but there's underlying concern that that money go directly to help the people and not to prop up this ruling class the anger

lebanon has just lost it port through which most of its imports lebanon has just lost its port through which most of its imports pass through and it has lost it right in the middle of the worst economic crisis in generations. let‘s speak now to the journalist and columnist baria alamuddin, who is from lebanon. good afternoon to you. thank you for joining us on bbc. you have family in beirut. how are they? they are fine. my husband and his in lebanon. he had last shattered all around him. luckily he was watching tv, not on his computer. i have my son and his wife and they are lucky in the mountains. this is not in seen —— unseen in lebanon, but this is deeper. my heart goes to my fellow lebanese and i wish they would find those that are not accounted for. i also sent mike indulgence. this is huge —— my condolences. this is a problem for the region and the world. we are very close to europe. i‘m sure europe does not want to see more of this flooding. i‘m sure it doesn‘t want to see more terrorism coming its way. goodness. this is coming its way. goodness. this is coming a