A hit squad to kill a former intelligence officer. The leaders of 2 west african nations ivory coast and guinea are expected to run for controversial 3rd terms in october. And new yorks attorney general sues the National Rifle association in a bid to dissolve the gun lobbying group. The search for bodies continues in the aftermath of lebanons deadly port explosion and so does the search for answers 16 port officials have now been detained but many arent blaming the people running the port instead they say the people running the country are responsible protests are being held in central beirut calling for a complete overhaul of the political elite theyve been backed by french president emanuel mccrum hes been touring neighborhoods devastated by the chemical explosion the death toll from tuesdays blast. It is now at 149. 00 and its expected to go up by nick smith as the latest from beirut. On the streets of beirut on thursday frances president Emmanuel Mccomas essentially moment by people many of them calling for a turn of french mandate fronts was the clonal power here before independence and is because micron has essentially stepped into a void left by lebanons own political leaders mokhtar on has been able to offer practical support in the terms of the medical teams on Financial Assistance to beirut and hes off with a routine moral support as well but hasnt come from lebanons oh belittle classes they havent been able to do that and theyve been conspicuous by their absence from the streets since the catastrophic explosion just did what i know is that the people of lebanon have electricity shut down every day and its not working the provision of imports and exports has collapsed because of the Financial System and so theyre on says for the short term that we need as we know the answer is to fight corruption reform the energy and electricity systems the customs we need transparency for imports and exports we need reforms for all the sectors and insist on these changes quickly. Many beirut says most people here have been left to their own devices we spent the day Walking Around parts of beirut and we saw young people with brushes and dustpans and pickaxes and shovels beginning to clean up we didnt see the military we didnt see the police and it was the french president who said he wants to see a new political order here in lebanon he wants to see a dramatic change in the way that this country is going. Well International Rescue teams are still arriving in beirut and the crisis is getting worse as in a hot air has more. Search and rescue teams are still digging through the rubble at beirut port the site of massive explosions that damaged or destroyed much of the lebanese capital families are desperate for news about their loved ones dozens are missing there is pain and grief zainab fears she will never see her husband allie again. Theres a still are still you know i dont know where he is i havent heard from him since 6 pm monday and i want to know if hes alive or dead. Rescue experts from abroad have started to arrive to help a country that wasnt prepared to cope with a disaster like this. Other with. The fund says theres still a lot of destruction. Destructive building. There is somebody. The blasts were felt kilometers away killing dozens and wounding thousands buildings homes shops all destroyed 300000 people displaced billions of dollars in damage investigations are focusing on possible negligence in storing tons of highly explosive material at the port officials have promised assistance and compensation to those affected by the explosions but driving around the city the state is noticeably absent in destroyed neighborhoods like this one it is the people who are helping each other they are cleaning the streets clearing the debris and distributing food and water to those in need public anger against the Political Class many believe is responsible for lebanons near economic collapse is not new decades of corruption in the glare triggered an antiestablishment Movement Last october weve been fortunate going used to this not being present for its citizens we dont have properly just city we dont have a proper garbage infrastructure we dont have proper water infrastructures and unfortunately the people have gotten used to it but its its a time for change its weve been asking for change for quite some time and i think this last catastrophe is going to make change for the country much better the priority now is to help the victims many are still in hospital in Critical Condition calls for accountability and justice are growing louder for now people are focused to rely on themselves i need money the world. Myself. And i need everything and i didnt want to be mean so this is why im. Some may call it resilience but for many this is about survival nearly half the population of 5000000 lebanese were below the poverty line before this disaster the situation has since got worse. Beirut. The grown prince of saudi arabia is being accused of sending a group of hit and to canada to kill one of his top former intelligence officials aside those of the allegations being revealed in a lawsuit filed in washington d. C. The hitmen one allegedly sent by muhammad bin solomon just days after a journalist was murdered inside the saudi consulate in istanbul and october 28th. Seeking damages from the crown prince but allegedly orchestrating an attempted extra judicial killing and for violating International Law for more on this lets cross live to mike hanna in washington d. C. Mike theres a surprising amount of detail in this lawsuit what more do we know about since. When indeed yes its 106. 00 pages senate contains exhausting detail in terms of what is alleged to be the crown prince guidance of a hit squad which came to the United States according to the court papers and then was prevented entry into canada by alert border officials but within the court papers as well is the allegation that the crown prince texted. On a number of occasions asking him to come back to saudi arabia he left saudi arabia back in 2017 however then these messages escalated into major threats saying that he would be dealt with also within the court papers is a flow chart which indicates an identifies of members of the alleged hit squad along with others who were involved in this operation and among those members of the alleged hit squad are what are described in the court papers as Forensic Experts experts said cleaning a crime scene so this very similar almost a mirror image of the operation in which journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered in istanbul so extensive detail. Within these court papers pointing directly to the crown prince as being allegedly responsible given the fact that the target was a was in there the alleged target i should say was in canada at the time why is this lawsuit being brought in the United States. Firstly because there is legislation in the United States that allows a non us citizen to bring a legal action against a Foreign National who is accused of torture and or extrajudicial executions so that is one reason the legislation is in place but also in his court papers sardar chabria insists that the hit team did gather in the United States before attempting to enter canada and then the last point which is very important as well in the court papers ill jump free says that his son and daughter have been detained in saudi arabia by saudi authorities in what he describes as a form of hunger bait bait to lure him out of hiding now this has been an issue here in d. C. Senators from congress sent a letter to President Trump last month asking him to bring pressure to bear on saudi arabia to allow the release of children by having this court case in washington no doubt all jobbery hopes that this will race pressure on the trumpet ministration to take some kind of action to get allow his children to return to their family mcconnel live for us in washington d. C. Mikes thing thanks very much indeed. While the leaders of 2 west african nations are expected to run for controversial 3rd terms in october president allison watada has governed since 2011 and said in march he would not run again but his preferred successor died in july formally accepted the ruling partys nomination for ivory coast on thursday but his opponents say it violates the constitution meanwhile guineas governing party has asked president off accommodate to seek a 3rd term in office of elections this year thats despite months of protests against extending the 82 year olds time in office and again a in law president s can only serve 2 terms but condi pushed through a new constitution this year which reset the time and not allows him to run for office again or quasi or say is a professor of history and Political Science at Delaware State University is joining us by skype from dover in delaware thank you very much indeed for being with us on the aljazeera lets talk about the situation in guinea 1st of all what do you think is motivating off a conduit to go for the 3rd. I think its purely a question of power hes been in power for quite a while since 2010 and so it believes that he wants to continue to enjoy the power that yes thats whats motivating him. We should point out that this moment he hasnt officially accepted the nomination of the party yet but the assumption is that he will of course i accept that and there is a very strong system the suggestion that there are going to be more mass rallies because weve seen a mass rallies organized by the opposition in the past what do you think is going to the lead up to the election is going to be like in guinea. I think. The. People are going to let him know that theyre not happy that hes going against their wishes im hoping that the leadership on the west coast as they try to do in mali would also try to intervene to prevent any possibility of violence but theres no question that president can they insists on running he changed the constitution and clearly hes going to accept the partys invitation to run. Let me ask you about the situation in ivory coast at this point because. Ouattara had said he was going to resign hed nominated the Prime Minister as his successor obviously the Prime Minister subsequently died in the situation changes was there really an option for the party other than to ask what how to run yes there was an option for the party these are moments that call for statesmanship and because as people have little know that they were not happy with him running for a 3rd term and he had gone ahead and said that yes you will not run and he had chosen somebody else he should have in this moment gone ahead and showed some state statesmanship and told his people in the ivory coast even though my party wants me to run i am not going to hide my 2 terms of listen to you and were going to choose somebody else and this especially in a moment when 2 of his opponents are going to be people that you want to dance in the past. Most successor and and the and if he had stepped aside in this moment i think it would have been a wonderful opportunity for ivory coast to look ahead for the younger people there are no limits of people who in his party who are ready to run if he had stepped aside would there have been a risk of a political vacuum and a power struggle within the party itself which may have spilled out onto the streets which we have seen in the past in ivory coast i think as i said run out of them showing a leadership vacuum and his party would up shown the world that he was standing tall for stability especially since 2 of his opponents in this president ial election im going to be 2 people hes been going at it for a long time his opponents and i think every cause needs new leadership and he should lead the way to allow that to happen across it or say we appreciate your time and your expertise so thank you very much indeed for joining us on aljazeera thank you very much. Still ahead on aljazeera africa passes 1000000 coronavirus cases but there are concerns there still isnt enough testing in many countries. That awesome out marks 2075 years since the 1st atomic bomb and calls for a Nuclear Weapons free world. But. More some of storms across eastern parts of the u. S. At the moment lots of cloud still showing up here well wet weather coming in just around the carolinas easing up across virginia heading up towards new Jersey New York and into new england behind it and retry wanted to show us the scattered in well see similar wetter weather just spilling out of the canadian prairies down across the plains easing a little further east which is we go through sas a bit behind that hot and sunny more sentients lifting those temperatures around 44. 00 celsius there for phoenix and the state funded dry rot out west coast of the u. S. Much of western kind of the also seeing a good deal of settled and sunny weather some settled in sunny whether its in the caribbean but so we got some lively showers once again just around the western side of the caribbean into Central America thats where the heaviest rain is going to be over the next couple days but we will still see some wetter weather just around the Eastern Island so i think the wettest weather is going to be across the way in woods as we go on through friday still quite a rush of showers here as we go into saturday but the league was also seeing some of that western weather at that stage a few showers coming in across hispaniola some wetter whether theyre actually pushing into jamaica well see a little bit of sherry right its northern parts of cuba about over the top temperature 32. Where there is water there is life but finding it and australias arid deserts is a skill few still possess they took us to a small wet spot in the sea in the desert and this was this is a very important place theyve been telling us about for the last 5 days who came in at 4 and one is set up against all odds an aging population is posse on its knowledge the rainmakers of the outback on a. Form. Your child is here a reminder of our top stories this hour 16 port officials have been detained as the investigation into lebanons deadly explosion continues protests have been held in central beirut calling for a complete overhaul of the political elite a move which has been backed by french president emmanuel mccall. The Saudi Crown Prince is accused of dispatching a group of hit men in a failed attempt to kill a top former saudi intelligence officials. In canada a lawsuit making allegations has been filed in washington d. C. The hit man was selling julie sent by mohamed bin salman just days after genesis. Was murdered inside the saudi consulate in istanbul in 2018. And the leaders of 2 west african nations are expected to run for controversial thirds terms of elections and told that i have because president allison ouattara formally accepted the ruling partys nomination meanwhile guineas governing party has asked president african day to seek a 3rd term in office. The number of covered 1000 cases in africa has now passed a 1000000 as the World Health Organization wants that a surge in cases could overwhelm hospitals so far more than 21000 people have died from the virus across the continent south africa accounts for more than half of the cases it also has the 5th highest number of infections globally 75 percent of the continents infections are in just 5 countries south africa Egypt Nigeria ghana and algeria just 10 countries account for 80 percent of coronavirus testing taking place. Dr vision o. C. D. Is an Infectious Disease specialist at the oldham institute and she says all voted a lot of cases are high in south africa situation does seem to be Getting Better it is very concerning that there are places where theres not a lot of testing and we still seeing a rise in the number of cases however i read difficult to predict what the implication alf back. Of not testing i mean what the how the figures would look if you were doing more tests currently we are borders is still closed so south africa had closed borders since march and we dont have any. Movement in and out of the country it is not movement of people theres movement of cargo but not movement of people and so were hoping that thats going to you of course create an environment where cases are not being exported. South africa is really i mean we are getting quite a lot of cases right now were probably going to get close to a 1000000 when this is over but i think back we have seen a little bit of relief in the last week or so in terms of the number of cases being reported also in terms of the hospital a burden and the number of people who are in the hospitals and the percent occupancy of the hospital beds i think think seem to be getting a little better it could be just period because you know maybe people are not testing as much or maybe theres just some other reason but hopefully that trend continues right now its just a trend but hopefully the trend continues and then we can see in a few weeks whether were back were actually over the hump but of course you know going to take a long time to get down back to the road. In brazil more than 13 percent of people are not on employed its the highest level in 3 years nearly 9000000 jobs were lost between april and june because of the pandemic and at least 13000000 people are now looking for work in south americas biggest economy in in the u. S. The number of new jobless claims dropped to 1200000 last week hiring picked up in may and june as states began lifting coronavirus restrictions still more than 16000000. 00 americans continue to collect Unemployment Benefits a federal aid package of 600. 00 a week expired at the end of july politicians have yet to reach a deal to extend it new york states attorney general is suing the influential Gun Lobby Group the National Rifle association several executives are accused of siphoning off millions of dollars to fund luxury lifestyl