The middle of. 158 people. With a mix of the big stories from the past 7 days on right up to the moment of elements as well this is the weekly on r. T. International hello and welcome. We start with breaking news from sware large scale protests are all unfolding the election exit polls point to a low. And slight victory for president lucas schenkel who has help our since 1940 but the rival counted it as this missed some things vote as rigged earlier to video journalist from arties roughly agency worked attained while covering the election the interior ministry has convened an emergency meeting in response to the un rest. You did you did do was to do was. I. I said. I. Was. For more on the speak to our teas done the hawkins done a lot of frustration clearly with what looks set to be a must have election victory for the. Salute lee many. Hoped this election would be some sort of watershed moment a turning point for by the russian politics though a victory was always predicted for an incumbent president this has been confirmed of course by exit polls which do show a large victory for. The main opposition leaders with. Coming a very distant 2nd but as those results came in people came out just a couple of hours ago there were hundreds here outside the Russian Embassy in moscow showing their indignation against election which they consider neither free nor fair. But what is currently taking place in the battle russian capital minsk and other cities reports of drawing crowds clashing with Security Forces building barricades the Police Responding with tear gas will to kind of flash bangs reports coming thick and fast of injury injuries among protesters as well as those crowds are growing throughout the night. Well these events are taking place not only in minsk but across belarus and further afield as well weve seen crowds gathering outside the embassy of belarus in warsaw in kiev in tel aviv and this is certainly something nobody could have predicted earlier today. Who has been in power since 1904 if confirmed this will be his 6th term in office and this election has been criticized not only by opposition figures in belarus but by International Organizations as we said as neither free nor fair reports of detaining journalists as we said as you mentioned to string this Video News Agency detained earlier today to correspondents from russian t. V. Channel rain doest also detained all thought to saying they were in breach of election protocol they had no accreditation to work there the interior minister confirming there would be extradited back to russia this sunday however as that has happened we say we say again crowds have continued to grow in protest in minsk other better russian cities and further afield as well this is something that. Has the noid this is something he said earlier today. To do months to go and demonstrate we have 6 sites in minsk 6 and there are demonstrations only at 2 sites go and demonstrate but if you do anywhere in violation of the law everything is regulated and if you interfere with other people then we will hold you accountable or does seem for now Alexander Lukashenko doesnt seem to be intimidated by these protests from what hes saying but evident that these crowds are going nowhere theyre growing throughout the night and then only in minsk as we said but further afield as well and as the official results coming in are confirmed these protests all likely to spread as the hours go on. Yeah well be keeping a very close eye on developments all through the night here in the studio thank you for that Danielle Hawkins bringing us right up to date. Well lets keep our protest theme going because people have regrouped in central beirut for a 2nd night of on rest 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 choose these deadly explosion with protesters demanding reform and for officials to be held to a card are. Reports from the lebanese capital. Yesterdays action was not the last one but 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 there you can still see the smoke its not the fires 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 barbed wire 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 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 cooling for backup. For. 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 he was hit here the explosions. The 7. People very passionate as any. Any who but the army they are going the operation to free him. People are still people are picking up rocks over there if you look over that this is where people are. There covering their faces because tear gas is literally everywhere right now. You can see this. People can barely breathe. And c. P. S. Can obviously cannot do anything we cannot talk we cannot express hello selves we can not get anything anything we try to do we have done you 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 there 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 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 the right to 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 has room by rubber bullets which the police how the military excuse me have been using or who have had tear gas poisoning because it has been very extensive and so basically all the demonstrators they have moved down the streets and the police have been the army has been chasing them there is something set up a blaze over there also the results also the aftermath of the 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 ministerial 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 for a 1st down view there from igor in the lebanese capital well lets just recap why were seeing the scenes that we are tragedy struck at around 6 pm on tuesday when a massive blast had to be reported area 158 deaths have been confirmed but with dozens still missing it is feared the number will rise the citys Health System already struggling with cope at 19 has been overwhelmed by the disaster numerous City Building something badly damaged on thousands of locals left homeless. In the home of the sun we found everything turned over our hands i turned around and i was hit by something in my right hand people screaming kids screaming but it was a choice and i should see. The devastation here in the lebanese capital is very much the blahs that was felt at 10 kilometers away from the port where it took place i believe this is going to be a sleepless night for the lebanese and a very sad night. The Lebanese Army and Fire Fighters have been still trying to put off the fire which is still until today burning through the remains of the warehouse says rescue workers are still trying to dig through the rubble to find the remainder or the the missing and differentials. The fear of sort of more about. The. Angry. Or sad we lost the country we lost beirut we have people. Who 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 they do doesnt deserve this and we would if you is what happened to us what needs to be lebanon had already being 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 all employed the latest on risk is a sharp escalation of the Anti Corruption rallies ongoing since october. Demonstrators posts mock gallows in a location where people were more than 100 years ago under the ultimate empire protestors raised cardboard cut outs with ropes around their necks depicting lebanons Prime Minister and hezbollahs leader as well as other officials in response to be onerous lebanons information minister has stepped on saying the government has feel the people the environment minister has also quit stating he has lost hope in the quote. Regime during this rally of how it told me the protesters are looking for 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 the political game by different political factions so there are certain political factions who have people the streets trying to make it about his body as opposed to about the entire lebanese power structure and any course you have people who were demonstrating starting in october jude to the economic collapse who have continued those demonstrations in the aftermath of this and what were seeing. 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 incompetence which seems to be the case as for whos to blame you know people who belong to parties that are proamerican and tend to blame hezbollah 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 on their control most all of the beirut porter i think its right in saying are people really going to start questioning the groups huge influence in lebanon. Thats not accurate to say that hezbollah controls the ports the port is controlled by the by the government by the Port Authority 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 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 of country and theres nobody to find a war you need weapons and money to fund a war. 20 minutes past the hour lets return to our breaking news from bella reuss where large steel protests are unfolding after the election exit polls point to a slight victory for president lucas who has held power since 1084 but many people are refusing to accept the result and. Barak aides in the capital been over major cities the rival camp of a claim sundays vote was rigged. To challenge the result theres also been widespread anger over the way the vote was conducted that polling stations are partly closing their doors despite the long lines of people still queuing up to vote the interior ministry has convened an emergency meeting of response to the rest lets go live now our chief political analyst Martin Mccauley for his take martin good to see you were not used to are we seeing unrest on the scale in belarus where the leadership usually takes a very tough line on any dissent how serious or indeed significant does this look to you. This is very significant because were looking at the unofficial opinion polls she has done a decent jobs going into the opposition candidate remember that her husband was in fact in prison now so that when she took over put her name in the ballot the unofficial opinion polls give her the lead but of course look at she goes and he can in fact manipulate the vote and so on because as a very famous suffering leader has stolen said ones just matter how people vote it depends on who counts the votes and look at shaker would say right i cant vote and therefore im going to say that i won whereas the majority of the population it appears no really the dinos guy has won the critical question here in minsk and in other cities go and still hung in bureaus is what is the role of the military will of military remain loyal to look at should go on. As if you look at the last 26 years hes been there for handy almost forever he looked after the military and the militia of the police very very well and theyve been given. A living and theyre being looked after because they keep him in power today for the key question is no will the ministry stay loyal will they change sides and if they change sides then you can go has to go to. The rival candidates atlanta and off sky she say she doubted martin that shes going to challenge the result how do you see the working out. She can attack challenge him but but that goes through the bill or recent court and in belarus the courts are controlled by look we shouldnt go to the from the judges will in fact find in look at changes in iraq based on. The rule of law does not apply in going through its rule by lol and by that. President president isnt like a little he determines what you know is. Opposition now he must be building up becaus