A 5 day search for survivors draws to a close the beirut airport explosion killed at least 158 people and left thousands injured. But. Are broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is our to International Im sean thomas glad to have you with us as we recap the weeks top stories with our Weekly Program but we start with breaking news this hour from bella reuss where large scale protests are unfolding after the countrys president ial election an official exit poll indicates that Alexander Lukashenko who has been in power since 1904 has won a landslide victory the rival candidate says the vote was rigged demonstrations in the capital minsk were met with. Forced by police please please. Please liz. Led police to live. To grab one of. The triplets little yappy 7. And. When i was walking home my quotes are in the middle of the action i was near the Sports Center it seems like the main clashes with the police were taking place that i saw police a large shields standing file and completely blocking me out any people stood and faced the 1st the police stood still then they started banging on the ground to shield its at least trucks pulled up riot Police Rushed out and started gruffly grabbing and detaining people and at some point i realized they had to hide because i didnt want to get beaten up as well. Our correspondent Daniel Hawkins reports now from outside the bella Russian Embassy in moscow where protests have also taken place. Well these are scenes unprecedented in a generation the crowds of thousands are growing by the hour not only in the capital minsk but across other cities in belarus from video to brest as well people who want to express their indignation at an election they view is neither free nor fair of hundreds earlier here today at the by the Russian Embassy the police pushed them back and things are looking calmer now that is a far cry from whats going on right now in a bello roofs Security Forces are trying to break up these ever growing protests were hearing reports of barricades being built across the capital people hearing explosions as well across the city now authorities denying you know that any such injuries have taken place but looking at the scenes of police cars driving into people and police charging protesters with batons its easy to see how this could happen this is what was happening in minsk over the last couple of hours. It was widely predicted to win this election but many people were hoping for some sort of watershed moment in but a russian domestic politics that moment has now taken place a risk taking place right in front of us in the streets his campaign there was criticized for the arrest and detention of journalists all physicians activists and candidates as well incumbent president lo stated that they all thought his actions were constitutional and legal this was a response just hours earlier easy to do months to do to know and demonstrate we have. 6 children learn to live a demonstration from just 2 sides to go and. If you do anywhere in violation of the law to do everything is regulated energy means if it with other people then we will hold you and you have. Multiple opposition candidates were barred from taking place in this. Mr lection many of them were arrests that had criminal charges instigated against them one such for the opposition candidate. Who was barred from standing a later fled to russia out of fears for his own safety has lent his support to the protesters describing the actions of the incumbent president as a coup this is what he told us earlier. Is clear that this has nothing to do with normal exit polls these are just numbers off the top of someones head the real results are exactly the opposite we support citizens are doing because their votes have been stolen. Started his campaign with a brutal violation of the constitution. Is now seizing power by force hes the one whos carrying out a coup. All the anger at these Election Results goes beyond the russian borders apart from the protest here in moscow weve seen crowds gather up by the russian embassies in kiev in warsaw even as far as field tell of eve with no message coming yet from the government it does look like these protests are set to grow some reports unconfirmed of course at this stage that in some Cities Police have stood aside and let these protests take place if that is confirmed that is true certainly thats not a good sign for the incumbent president look and it looks like these protests will be carrying on not going anywhere and getting bigger by the hour. For more on this lets cross live now to mark almond of the director of the Crisis ResearchInstitute Mark thanks for being with us here on our to international. Were not really used to seeing such on rest on this scale and specifically where the leadership usually takes a very tough line on any dissent how serious or indeed significant does this look to you. Well this is a big change have been demonstrations in elections 2006 for instance but they were peaceful and greatest in peace long signs obviously now we certainly see and hear some. Stun grenades being used and the police charging Demonstrators Demonstrators hitching least i think back and also taking these taking place a number of cases again in the past minsk was to some extent an island the. Opposition to. Great extent other rural place and smaller cities tended to support his government which had produced. Perhaps 1520 years. Being benefits but in the last 5 or 6 years the irony of who the shinkansen policy is that he. Sought to move away a bit from russia he lost and its because russia and then of course you have big isis cools the World Oil Price collapse and then also by condit who those things have to be there which is standing and you didnt have any past 26 years so the situation was reversed and if nothing else theyre bored with the same person not seeming to have a clear direction to improve things in the. Home. If you look at the official exit polls they claim that look a single one in a sweeping victory of course many call that into question unofficial exit polls including from other countries suggest the complete opposite how damaging is this solution it goes to credibility in the country and outside the country. It certainly is perhaps less plausible that hes got a great result this time compared to say we 20 years ago when we see that its the country through the soviet economic collapse and a lot of people felt that he was managing the situation well james of all possible risks you so you would expect to support with ford and i think you probably maybe since really dont sleep well the government has decided that he said hes got fewer votes this on a nickel 5 years ago this would be a sign of weakness but in fact it may be simply something that seems deeply implausible was had the psychology of the question to said despite all the usual rising support the opposition main opposition candidate says a vote that might have seen more holes. And the danger in this situation is that people dont trust each other any more they dont believe the fish will result in sports moves or who believe that his home and really expressing a truthful opinion theyre really working interest or trying to find so this is a very dangerous situation when you get to as issue of both sides of the political equation really have no. Acceptance no trust of the other side. And that of course can produce a very violent to well about that lack of trust the rival candidate said lana he cannot says that shes going to challenge the result. Thats going to be interesting how do you see that working out given the situation in the country right now. Well its the situation is such that its quite possible this will fall im sorry weve seen over the disputed election lead to a kind of revolution to a successful model for the way the Legal Process is like its. Redundant simply because it takes time to go through the dock and check the papers to see what the people with the record are the result in vical. And so it seems to me that the danger now. Is that enough people believe in enough places that the intro or they are angry about this and that the government is convinced that this is in fact and therefore its authorized to use force to suppress what it says little demonstrations for those attempt to overthrow it despite their actions and so the ground for compromise. Going to court and was of the evidence backs. Away seems to be not that thats a Dangerous Mission and certainly is a danger to drawing parallels here could this develop along a ukrainian scenario with Something Like the unrest that we saw in 2014 in kiev. Lose credit possibility partly because although we tend to focus on the capital city like. Now. There are several. Printable cities in the us would probably have. Position support where the police may have been weak because many of the capital drugs so you could find situations in some of these cities like rest video on the internet with protests you might see a situation where some of the provincial cities for how to control. And that could then create a crisis of war situation which is something which nobody may have planned for better or worse than i just stated the russians or they were. The ones who have the governments who control over big of a sense of the dangerous that it then uses. The same kind people those places on the border. To neighboring countries to support so its a potentially could spin out of control very rapidly it might be that it will come on down either because of justice to go home or because. They dont have the resources and. Want to touch on something that you brought d up earlier which is the belorussian relationship with russia specifically how will the russian government be viewing the unrest in belarus considering that. Its been kind of a mixed bag in terms of good and bad with relationship there. You know the irony. Here is president is that he started out as a postal in so union state with russia but in the last 50 years or so hes more pursued an independent for instance today. He was celebrating the arrival of a higher oil through a face or. So. Many years of rest. His internal policies but also by for instance his vote. As well and then more recently he is presented himself as the champion of belorussian. Russia and so weve had the situation that really in the International Situation constellation he has to some extent its not burned his bridges with moscow. Undermine them and at the same time maybe he hasnt really been paranoid point to your community or with the americans who regard him as a throwback. Somebody whos outlook on the world or something. So the problem for the russian government has other us this is a neighbor russia is part of this you will stay cool not so soft moscow any kind of. Concern to russia as a state and must be the risk. Even if theres no harm and any internal crisis belarus that the suspicion that raises tensions between states russia on the one hand when you have accumulated. So this is not a particularly. In the International Situation right mark almond were going have to leave it there its always interesting to hear your thoughts appreciate it thanks for helping us get our minds around the situation thank you. Right switching gears now protesters have regrouped in central beirut for a 2nd night of unrest of the Labor Ministry has reportedly been stormed in a replay of last nights clashes around key government buildings the country is reeling from the shock of tuesdays deadly explosion with protesters demanding reform and for officials to be held to account if he goes down of reports now from the lebanese capital. Yesterdays action was not the last one that was for sure because people it seems are driven to the edge here in lebanon and indeed it is the 2nd consecutive night of protests and a lot of people are out here in the streets theres a very distinctive smell of tear gas in the air anyone who has been ever gassed in the life can never forget that smell its very distinctive so the police have most certainly have been using and if you just if my cameraman could just zoom in just over that you can still see the smoke inside the fire as its the tear gas used by the police here we are at one of these checkpoints if you look over there you can see the military man theyre standing there and theyre preventing any protest as from getting inside here although they have been trying because they have been trying to dismantle this barbed wire this is one of the things here that they used you see so they literally they grab it like this and try to dismantle the bob why are they in so far they have failed and theyre doing it right now in fact look they are you see they are wearing gloves this is what they are doing. And they have not succeeded a yet but. This is what they this is what they have been doing. So again and again and over there they the army they are ready to jump them as soon as they get any any closer any closer to success now people are unhappy basically what broke the cat with the straw that broke the camels back was the last because it destroyed a lot of peoples homes and theyre saying essentially that they have no means of restoring of or of mending their homes themselves and they are blaming the government for the explosion theyre saying what all those tons of neutrik acid were doing in the port. And so they are very very angry and look they almost they have almost dismantled the barbed wire at this checkpoint and. Clearly the army the military the the the soldier that hes talking over the walkie talkie and i think what hes doing right now he is calling for backup. From. The police and the army are trying to clear out of this street right now we are in the middle of the city i guess everywhere this is the Army Checkpoint that the protesters try to clear out and right now people are leaving theyre trying theyre running away from their running away from the epicenter from well the action was from the most heated and you can clearly hear you on the t. V. Hear the explosions. The soviet people are very confident any. Any who give up but the army they are going the operation to free. People are still people are picking up rocks over there if you look over there this is where people are. There covering their faces because tear gas is literally everywhere right now. You can see this is. People can barely breathe. And c. P. S. Can obviously cannot do anything we cannot talk we cannot express i will selves we cannot get anything anything we try to do we have done the fighting us we have the Police Fighting us we have everyone. Everyone facing us because we need our needs and we need to get back our country and our city and this city were not be rebuild unless we take back our country and if you look if you just look over that this is that she has just been swimming with people only you can see there right now is just a line of soldiers just a pack of soldiers who have moved forward about a 100 meters from the. At the center from the epicenter of the protest and this is basically this is going to be their position now and from over there they will keep moving here and they will keep clearing out the streets and these bright flashes that you can see the night sky this is the tear gas these are tear gas canisters as there is a lot of tear gas you can see but but protesters i centrally blinding trying to blind the army with these green lasers which is very very dangerous by the way because if they are powerful enough they can blind a person literally we are just now at the front line literally we are one of the few people left as close to the police as the we are right now 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 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 after its right next to that glowing mosque 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 by rubber bullets which the police how the military excuse me have been using who have had tear gas poisoning because it has been very extensive and 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 also results also the aftermath of the protests but right now you can see here ambulances because im absolutely certain that there will be plenty of wounded perhaps even as many as yesterday from the old. More 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 didnt care for it but well one might say its 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 ive already mentioned its 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 weve 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 also some people have been pointing out that hospitals those that have not been destroyed by the blast in the port 4 they are already overflowing theyre 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 be under some people has some critics have been saying that well its 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 shouldnt wait but a lot of people are clearly. Very sick of waiting the blast went off and around 6 pm on tuesday in the port of beirut 158 deaths dozens still missing the citys Health System already struggling with cove in 1000 overwhelmed numerous city buildings badly destroyed and thousands of locals left homeless. No not all of a sudden we found everything turned over our hands but i turned around and i was hit by something in my right hand the stream. Streaming but. I saw. The devastation here in the lebanese capital is very much the blast it was felt at the time kilometers away from the board 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 take to the rubble to find the remainder or the missing and differentials. Angry very sad we lost the country we lost beirut we have. We didnt find out we have family members we dont know anything about people will they legal back to the streets they will daily ask for justice we need the justice made who doesnt deserve this and we wish you is what happened to us levanon had already been going through its worst financial crisis in years inflation is soaring and almost half the population lives below the poverty line around a 3rd of working age adults are unemployed the latest on arrest is a sharp escalation of the anticorruption rallies ongoing since last october on saturday demonstrators put up gallows in a location where people were hanged more than 100 years ago under the Ottoman Empire protestors raised cardboard cutouts with ropes around their necks depicting lebanons Prime Minister and hezbollahs leader as well as other officials in response to the unrest lebanons information minister has stepped down saying the government has failed the people the environment minister has also quit so he has lost hope in the quote stero regime journalist rania colic earlier told you know neal my colleague that the protesters want someone to be held accountable for the tragedy. 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 its been deteriorating in the country and theres also you know some attempts 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 ball as opposed to about the entire lebanese power structure and any course you have people who were demonstrating starting in october jus to the economic collapse who have continued those of inspirations in the aftermath of this and what were seeing is you know i some of the most violent confrontations between Security Forces and protesters in recent memory most people believe it was an accident due to corruption and negligence and competence which seems to be the case as for whos to blame you know people who belong to parties that are proamerican and you tend to blame hezbollah because their leaders are blaming hezbollah what they. Rule in all this really is the public as you say has been directed against them as well as not some all powerful force that controls the entire country thats just not the case that is a certain narrative that were hearing from certain political factions and certain like western narratives so its not one specific party that was responsible for this it wasnt 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 couldnt figure out how to split the profits so they just let this fertilizer sit there until this dangerous explosion took place its a fault of lebanon being a dysfunctional incompetent failed state for the most part and its always been that way i dont see this. Deteriorating and feel like a civil war type of condition is lebanons a broad country and theres nobody to fund a war you need weapons and money to fund a war. Right theres a real back of top here with more news this is our 2 international. Ah no no crow. No shots no. Pack shoes belt. Strap no 1st one. Which your thirst for action. Isnt really who slipped through is there any truth in the news also what is this one creature known as ilya gave birth to say about tropes evolve. Hello and welcome to worlds apart carl gust of young and pioneering sway psychiatrys who is now seeing and now the rise to prominence more than 50 years after his death once remarked dad we dont solve our problems but rather outgrow them this may be true for individuals but does it also apply to