Reacting to growing anger over beirut standing in court last lebanons Prime Minister considers reforms and early elections. And also ahead cracking down on dissent in the roofs disputed Election Results show long time president Alexander Lukashenko on course for an overwhelming victory. Top story the police in hong kong have made their highest profile arrest yet under a Controversial National security law imposed by beijing the media tycoon and activist jimmy law is among 7 people detained in raids on monday an executive in his media group says hes been held on suspicion of colluding with foreign powers sarah clarke joins us live now from outside the apple daily newspaper headquarters in hong kong where those raids are taking place sara what do we think is going to happen to him next. Well at the moment her paper we have a hive of activity behind us as you mentioned we are at the headquarters and are at least 200 police here now searching this particular building you see the vans on my right hand side weve also got a large media contingent is one nice high profile arrests yes made under these National Security laws. Early on monday morning arrested at his home and the potential charges he faces or collusion with a Foreign Force or foreign country and i should also start 2 of his sons have also been arrested in this particular sweep on monday morning now they are not affiliated with the likes of apple daily but we believe they may be part of a wider investigation into the likes of jimmy lise investments about 7 people arrested so far and we also believe 2 of the quite high profile Senior Executives within the company that includes the c. F. O. The chief Financial Officer as well as the chief executive officer theyve also been detained as a result so the police have said the operation is going smoothly and theyre continuing behind us as theyre searching devices investigating and talking to interviewing some of the staff here but we also expect more arrests to be made as the day goes on and more people to be taken into custody as a result will leave it there many thanks. Pakistans alone restaurants and cinemas to reopen as part of a phased easing of coronavirus restrictions the country partially lifted in may but the number of new infections surged in the following weeks. Have been falling recently but Health Workers say thats because less testing is being carried out joins us live from islamabad what does this mean for pakistanis. Lets not forget people have been in their homes for over 5 months weve seen. People. Very bad. Day were going to go back to their restaurants but they will be. Included. They will be in 60 minutes in between that. And. Then the medical. Warning that may be. Followed. By. The pakistani Prime Minister. Specific. Number of. However that. Warning that. Im not. A big point ok kimo many thanks to the correspondent in pakistan. The official number of corona virus infections across the United States is now past 1000000 but there are concerns the actual figure could be much Higher Health officials are urging the use of face masks and social distancing but this was the scene in south dakota this weekend around 400 people gathered for a 10 day motorbike rally in the city of sturgis this week 40 percent of u. S. Infections are in 5 states florida california texas new york and georgia. Lebanons cabinet is due to meet in the coming hours to discuss possibly early elections anger at the government has been boiling over after that catastrophic explosion in the beirut port area last week there have been 2 days of violent protests in the capital with more planned for monday 158 people died in the blast 21 are still missing the army says theres little hope of finding any more survivors. Well protesters say they want a complete overhaul of the political system to government ministers responded to public pressure and resigned the environment minister. Has confirmed he is out following the information minister manal abdel summit 9 m. P. s in all have also quit parliament. In the one. This is the point of no return people are starving the economy has deteriorated the economic crisis is heightening our families children friends have just been left behind fear and disappointments lives within them in this fateful moments we cannot just sit behind we have to stand in dignity together as a nation i feel that i need to send an apology to the lebanese people because we failed to achieve their ambitions due to the difficulties. Correspondence. First in march to square beirut when mr done with his ministers today is he going to try and convince them to stay or do we think this is a chance you might say look weve got to go weve got to have elections. Well what we understand is that hes been trying to convince them since yesterday he held an emergency meeting late in the afternoon after 2 ministers resigned there were reports that other ministers wanted to attend the resignation but after intense negotiations behind closed doors a minister emerged he belongs to the camp and he said we are not resigning the government is Still Standing and we will continue to carry out our duties and responsibilities towards the people of lebanon so it seems that those in power the Political Parties that really control the government they do not want this government to resign or to be toppled at least for the time being but the government is under a lot of pressure in fact the Ruling Alliance you have pressure from the street people keep taking to the streets demanding change demanding justice and then you have the International Community which has made it very very clear that they have very little faith in this government which was able really to deal with the dire Economic Situation before the blast destroyed many neighborhoods in beirut and then you have the opposition in lebanon which is. Trying its very best to to bring about change but theyre up against a very difficult very difficult task why political change to state institutions is almost impossible because the Ruling Alliance those in power they control the presidency they control the government and they control the parliament so even if enough m. P. s quit that youre unable to hold a quorum you dont have the quorum in order to hold a session in parliament you are not able to dissolve the parliament all you can do is create political paralysis but definitely that is a pressure on the governing alliance so a lot a lot of pressure were going to have to wait to see the outcome of that Cabinet Meeting later today and as far as the protesters are concerns in a do you get the feeling that they are not prepared to budge one inch because clearly they dont want political reform they dont really want elections if all the existing government ministers and m. P. s if their names are on the ballot papers they wont a lot more than just root and Branch Reform they want the political system kind of eradicates and they want to do it they want it restarted from a standing start. Yes but theyre not under any illusion that changing or getting rid of the political and security establishment that has been in place for decades is going to be easy we were at the square when those running battles were taking place and then the Prime Minister addressing the nation saying that hes going to hold early elections now for many that was significant that shows that those in power understand that this time around theyre going to have to cave in theyre going to have to get make some sort of of a concession but the people are asking under what alec torah law the electoral law that the governing governing Political Parties agreed on ensures that the political elites return to power any independent this is an uphill battle to be able to be elected in parliament simply because of this electoral law. So people are disillusioned because theyre up against a militarized state yesterday the way the Security Forces dealt with the protesters it was quite violent excessive amounts of tear gas theyre really giving a message that were not going to allow you to make any change or topple topple the system from the street and in the interim many of them are trying to survive you can see everywhere volunteers in the street just distributing bread buying bread buying medicine is now an affordable for so so many people before the blast nearly 50 percent of the population was below the poverty line so people losing face in the government losing face and the politicians but really they dont have much that they can do so they are relying on the International Community which has made it very very clear in the statements over the past few days that they are standing on the side of the lebanese people so you know thank you very much in all the reporting live for us there from beirut egyptians head to the polls soon to choose members of a newly formed Senate Voting begins on tuesday with results due on august 19th the government says voters living overseas are casting ballots in more than 140 countries imran khan has more. 60000000 egyptians are eligible to vote and have a say in who represents them in the newly reconstituted senate votes will be counted from both citizens home and abroad the 1st change 6 years follows the introduction of the new constitution last year. The old constitution was suspended in 2014 when president Mohammed Morsi was deposed and replaced by military chiefs. Who took the 2 spot the new senate has 300 men 100 directly appointed by sisi critics say its another power grab by him the government says a senate seat gives minorities a voice. The last election in egypt was 2 years ago when president sisi won reelection with 97 percent of the vote the exact same margin is a killed in 2013 he faced only one of the challenges in 2814 International Human rights organizations criticize the election Human Rights Watch said it was neither free nor fair. Egypts Election Commission declared ccs victory met the highest International Standards of integrity and transparency various human Rights Groups also criticized last years constitutional changes that concentrating our interests he sees and egypts government says the center election proves to the world and egyptians that the country is a fully functioning democracy in iraq is it. Still to come here on aljazeera more vulnerable than ever the u. N. Warns the coronavirus pandemic is posing a serious threat to the health of Indigenous Peoples. It is still hot struck most of europe not breaking records but well above the average and stockings through the ass an injection of bit more moisture and slightly cooler out frontal system there but not doing much to be honest said generating some lightning storms and not contempt by the greater was still 26 not as low as 36 in revenue between the 2 anyway but he could generate enough for sure enough of a cloud for thunderstorm or both monday and tuesday its rather dry now than of late in greece turkey and the balkans and his truck crossed the military into north africa as well the prison term should drop is what represents a slow leakage of heat as you generate more and more showers or thunderstorms every day and its those thunderstorms are in the story struck north africa and this is about the northernmost line that runs through sudan and west was towards mali if you get clumps of thunderstorms there of interest a turn sometimes turn into a revolving storm in the atlantic nothing too obvious at the moment then jumping south of all the rain we watched for winter fronts coming through into the western cape and this one is way to cape town at the moment takes a couple of days to get in but it looks like itll rain in cape town come tuesday with an increasingly strong wind. Exploited man hes the killing. John lennon i would think to make the charcoal that feels the fantasy is that forged the steel that in lakes is that charade that exploits them and. Penetrates Global Markets slavery a 21st century evil continues to charcoal slaves on aljazeera. Oh. Welcome back lets just update you with the top story so far this hour Hong Kong Media tycoon jimmy lying has been arrested under chinas new National Security or his company says hes being held on suspicion of colluding with foreign powers. Pakistan is reopening after months of lockdown and more than 280000 corona virus infections the government says its efforts to contain the virus have been a success but the World Health Organization says more testing is still required. Lebanons cabinet is due to meet to discuss the possibility of early elections anger at the government has been boiling over on the streets after a catastrophic explosion in beirut in the port last week. Protesters have taken to the streets in belarus after early official Election Results pointed to a landslide victory for president Alexander Lukashenko one person was killed and dozens were injured in the armrest the national Election Commission says the president is on course to win 80 percent of the vote and extend his 26 years in power to the opposition says the ballot was rigged and is low roberton many. Protesters shouting the police to go away and then scenes of violence reflected across belushis capital was. Was. Starting a few hours after porthos closed and continuing into the night opposition supporters came out in their thousands to contest the initial Election Results. Right beneath block the entrance to a lots where fights stun grenades into the crowds and Police Trucks drove into protesters. Amulets is the worst take the injured into hospital. Protesters have put up their. Its on to the main roads to prevent police cars from guessing that. Earlier in the day the town does it set learned ticking off scott has come out of hiding to costs have that she had left her apartment on the eve of the election fearing a wrath at 1st a reluctant president ial candidate that she had grown into the biggest hope many palin missions have for change to enough going election rallies attracted the largest crowds by lisa in the decade i was the microphone was. Off the coast in his boots president Alexander Lukashenko called the Opposition Group yes he did but im not sure what you stood in the us if youre going to go against our country or even in the smallest way try to plunge the country into chaos and stabilize it you will receive an Immediate Response from me for decades has enjoyed solid support in the former soviet country lately facing criticism for downplaying the covert 900. 00 crisis and worsening economy criticism that is rapidly growing to the largest practiced 26 year rule or some of the most credible reports suggest it looks like a support the country may be well below 10 percent so i think there is a real shot that some some Security Officials say will not be willing to fire on protesters if thats something that leadership that warders them to do and we all really hope and pray that he doesnt but even so potentially even go over to the side of the protesters. While the School Authorities may have been able to control the opposition using food this time people say and show they have beyond. The orbit of money and to say. Well Internet Services in belarus have been cut so well to see those correspondents that boston joins us now on the telephone from minsk step the statistics official statistics are really stacking up and mr lucas and his favor can we believed them. I think nobody believes those figures that that judge also being officially announced by the Election Commission that the president lukashenko got more than 80 percent of the vote nobody had any doubt that he would declare victory again for a 6th time but nobody believed that he would say that he would get more than 80 percent to devote so that even added to the anger that people already had because they didnt believe that the elections would be fair from the start so 2 hours after the polls closed last night they already took to the streets before even any Operational Results were in the us but when they heard that the the figures would go up into the 80 percent for the president they even got more angry there was an enormous frustration and heated the atmosphere on the streets i was there all night at one on until the early hours of the morning people of all walks of life because it wasnt only young people but also older people i saw children everyone was on the street shouting may go away look at shango and an angry at police because police really had that car they saw with their own eyes that one person was in the belief truck ran into a cliff but then one person was carried by that truck for a few 100 meters and now there are this these records that this person has died and briefly step if mr lucas saying good decides to adopt a line which is ive officially won and he stays with that position does he then carry on kind of leaking Political Capital. Its very clear that this has reached the point of no return for people who have been dead and dont look at frankly its near as could