Thank you forjoining us. Beirut is a disaster zone, 300,000 people have had to leave their homes, and a two week state of emergency has been declared and that desperate situation is compounded by accusations of incompetence, factional in fighting and an economic mess inflicted on lebanon by its own governing elite. The huge explosion on tuesday, which killed at least 135 people and injured thousands more, was caused by the ignition of 2,700 tons of Ammonium Nitrate being kept in the port area of beirut, despite the risks. The government has placed some officials under house arrest. Quentin sommervilles report contains scenes which you may find distressing. In a country long battered by shock, a fresh, unnatural disaster has seized lebanon. The fires burned long here at the port. The cause a powder keg of unstable chemicals, left to rot in the very heart of beirut. The shock could be felt in cyprus, syria and israel. The 2500 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate fertiliser was the equivalent of a one kilotonne blast. This was lebanons 9 11, they say. A catastrophe that shook the entire country. A small fire at the port had drawn people to their windows to watch. When the chemicals exploded, they received the brunt. Explosion. More than 4000 have been hurt and lebanon is traumatised. It is a day they will never forget, especially for bride, israa seblani. Explosion. In the small town of ras el harf, the buildings still stand, but the people are shuttered. Jessy dawood was a nurse at beiruts saint george hospital. She died, along with three other colleagues. She was 31 years old, and leaves behind her two year old, ella, and her husband. The work of a nurse is to save lives of people, and take care of people. This is what she did. She was a hero. She died when shes on her duty. Shes saving people, and she died. At jessy dawoods hospital, there is hurt and anger at a man made disaster, a physical manifestation of the countrys long dysfunction. This is a catastrophe, because, you know, we are one of the best functioning institutions in the city. We are helping with the covid effort, were treating patients. Already, the Healthcare System is about to collapse. Resilience is a word much overused in lebanon. In may melkis apartment, she sought a moment of peace among the wreckage. The 78 year old has suffered months of power cuts, the loss of her savings and rising food prices. And, now, this disaster. Hopes . Everybody says there is no hope, you know . But i cannot, i dont want to believe it. I want to keep hoping that each time these catastrophes happen, we stand up and start again. But everybody says, many, many years before, when i was in the United States, they asked me this question is there hope for lebanon . I mean, there is no hope. The same politicians who created the earlier crises have to resolve this one. There is little hope they can do it alone, and there is a limit to how much more lebanon can endure. It was more that i was an homage to all those who are gone and who were less fortunate than us, and they were caught in this big catastrophe. Quentin sommerville, bbc news. We will have more in the situation in lebanon in the business section of the programme, in about 20 minutes time. The senior american immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci has said he doesnt expect any Coronavirus Vaccine to be approved before the end of the year. The fight against the virus, he said, is fully dependent on the availability of a safe and effective vaccine, and he stressed that Political Considerations would not be allowed to interfere in the regulatory process. We likely are going to have maybe tens of millions of doses at the early part of the year but as we get into 2021, the manufacturers tell us that they will have hundreds of millions and likely1 billion doses by the end of 2021. So i think the process is moving along at a pretty favourable pace. Facebook and twitter have sanctioned President Trump and his campaign for posts in which he claimed children are almost immune to coronavirus. Facebook deleted the post, saying it contained harmful covid misinformation. Twitter temporarily froze the official Trump Campaign account and required the tweet be deleted before the account could be reactivated. 0ur News Reporter alanna petroffjoins me now with more. It does basically come down to language, this. What was it precisely that donald trump tweeted, put out . Donald trump did an interview with fox news where he said that children we re where he said that children were almost immune to covid 19. Now we all know that donald trump has a way with words and is not always as precise as some people would want him to be. In this case to say almost immune, facebook and twitter said that was not right and goes against Us Public Health information that children are not almost immune. They are not almost immune. They are not immune to getting the virus. They can get the virus however they tend to be more resilient than adults if they we re resilient than adults if they were to get it. Is interesting that facebook go so far to say that facebook go so far to say that it contains harmful misinformation, partly his use of language and no different why he should have any different rules to anyone else but even if you look at the National British health service, they talk about very few children develop serious or severe symptoms. They can get coronavirus but seem to get it less often than adults, and its usually less serious. The whole direction is that children are less likely to be badly affected. The general tenure of the message their the general message, it feels, yeah, it is roughly in line with how people are thinking, however, it is all about being precise and how you communicate. To say that children are almost immune and then to be pushing for schools to reopen, it gets into strange territory where facebook and twitter were not happy with that. In fact, the World Health Organization looked at 6 million cases of people with covid 19 are nearly 596 people with covid 19 are nearly 5 of the cases where kids, and thats about 275,000 kids with covid 19, showing that kids are not almost immune. Just briefly, the likes of facebook and twitter cannot but be drawn into the politics in the United States, certainly the United States, certainly the United States in particular . Absolutely. Republicans have been saying for a while now that the likes of facebook and twitter have been silencing their voice. Twitter and facebook would be saying they are looking at misinformation and trying to cut that out. Thank you very much indeed. A ceremony has been held in the japanese city of hiroshima to mark the 75th anniversary of the worlds first atomic bomb attack. The us bombing killed 140,000 people. The coronavirus pandemic forced this years ceremony to be scaled back in this anniversary year. From tokyo, heres Rupert Wingfield hayes. This man is a right wing japanese nationalist who says its time for his country to develop its own Nuclear Weapons. The group e leads is around of 1000 ultranationalist organisations in japan, dedicated to scrapping the post war pacifist constitution and the alliance with the United States. Translation we need to acquire Nuclear Weapons. So that the bomb will never be dropped on our homeland again, especially now, with the threat from china. They have some 300 Nuclear Missiles aiming at japan and we have north korea. That country is like a madman holding a knife. Bell tolling. This morning in hiroshima, they stopped again to remember the tens of thousands incinerated here 25 years ago and recommit japan to the abolition of Nuclear Weapons. What happened to you when the bomb exploded . I was surrounded. Among the dwindling number of survivors at the ceremony, this 83 year old, worried that as memories fade and survivors pass away, japans commitment to never Building Nuclear weapons is weakening. Survivors have a stronger fear because, you know, we have many powerplants that you know, we have many powerpla nts that means materials, plutonium we have and we have the technology to create a Nuclear Weapon. It may be easy if we set go now. If it wanted to, experts believe japan could build a Nuclear Weapon very quickly. It has a stockpile of 47 tons of plutonium, more than any other non Nuclear Weapons state. The whole issue of Nuclear Weapons is still to be here, even to talk about. The view that japan may one day need to build its own nuclear deterrent, goes well beyond the far right fringe, even into parts of the Ruling Democratic Party and the logic is simple,japan Ruling Democratic Party and the logic is simple, japan faces real and growing threats from north korea and from an increasingly aggressive and well armed china. Since President Trumps election, americas commitment to protect japan under its Nuclear Umbrella is progressively shaky. For the first time in post war history, there is now a president in the white house who has openly and repeatedly said its time forjapan to defend itself. I think that is the biggest change and the biggest cause of concern. And if japan is moving biggest cause of concern. And ifjapan is moving in a direction of relying more on its own capabilities, i believe thatis its own capabilities, i believe that is primarily because of a loss of credibility in us security guarantees. In the 75 yea rs security guarantees. In the 75 years since hiroshima, japan has lived under American Protection and now it is beginning to wonder what would happen if the americans really went home. Rupert wingfield hayes, bbc news. And we have another angle on the hiroshima anniversary after the hiroshima anniversary after the break. Stay with us on bbc news. Still to come why is a veteran rock star suing Donald Trumps re Election Campaign. The question was whether we want to save our people and japanese, as well and win the war, or whether we want to take a chance on being able to win the war by killing all our young men. The invasion began at two oclock this morning. Mr bush, like most other people, was clearly caught by surprise. We call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all the iraqi forces. 100 years old and still full of vigour, vitality and enjoyment of life. No other king or queen in british history has lived so long, and the queen mother is said to be quietly very pleased indeed that shes achieved this landmark anniversary. This is a Pivotal Moment for the church as an international movement. The question now is whether the american vote will lead to a split in the anglican community. This is bbc world news. Thank you for being with us. Our top story this hour theres mounting anger in lebanon at the failure of politicians to prevent tuesdays devastating blast in which at least 135 people were killed and some 5,000 injured. Lets stay with that now. 0ur correspondent Carine Torbey sent us this update from beirut. 0n on tuesday immediately after the explosion, and while all hospitals in lebanon on an beirut especially were swamped with a number of injured brought in, this hospital, one of the oldest and biggest in the capital, was evacuated patient is already inside the hospital. What happened . Seconds after the blast, the hospital became totally dysfunctional. The emergency room, it is even worse on the floor. From top to bottom, the ninth room to the 0r, there was nothing functioning anymore. The hospital had 330 patients, icu patients, covid 19 patients, women delivering babies, nothing was functional. We decided to install a Field Hospital outside so that served as the beds and automatically all patients were taken out and stabilised. In addition to regular patients, we had injuries in our staff, we lost four nurses, we had dozens of doctors and nurses who were transferred because of injury. We had also some visitors in the hospital, which we are still trying to count them. We dont have account of the visitors. We have seen pictures on social media of someone being operated on torchlight of the mobile phone. What happened . When you have a catastrophe like this, the first thing you do is cut off your electricity and gas because you can have another explosion, so we were without electricity and then started calling people right and left, the army and everyone, they responded from six till nine, asking for light because we we re asking for light because we were here doing and intubation, people putting in tubes, people coding, but at eight oclock when it became dark, we had to use phones to help people. Basically, how easy would it be and how long would it take in your opinion for this hospital to become operational again . Today we are doing the physical damage. As you see, we have the full damage at least in the structure of the glass and all of this. So it is a big operation. I am of this. So it is a big operation. Lam not of this. So it is a big operation. I am not sure of this. So it is a big operation. Lam not sure if of this. So it is a big operation. I am not sure if we have all the materials in the lab and on. We have to import it all from outside. Lebanon. It will take a month. You told me before the hospital. No, we arejust of service now. This is not the only hospital. I have heard other hospitals, but this is the largest, biggest. We were a big central, this is one of the over big central, this is one of the over not only private centre is taking a lot of covid 19 patients. We had 19 patients yesterday, but for the time being we will be off. Lets return to our earlier story the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki, which effectively ended world war ii. Robert bo jacobs is a professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute and joins me now. Thanks very much indeed for your time. 0bviously today marks that are very poignant moment in time. You are as bothered, though, arent you with what went on after that in terms of that rash of Nuclear Tests in all corners of the world . Tests in all corners of the world . Absolutely. On the one hand, you have two Nuclear Attacks carried out against a civilian population here in nagasaki, but rather than learn from the horror of what happened here in hiroshima, we proceeded, all the Nuclear Weapon states in the world, to go ahead and test 2000 Nuclear Weapons, expose a lot more people to radiation and put the entire population of the world at risk from these weapons being used in a nuclear war. So there was not that much of a Lesson Learned is that should have been. Except the message i suppose was that the powers of the time wanted to protect their own people, their own situation perhaps without realising quite the extent of damage they were prepared to commit in the process for the one thing that strikes me is we talk about and we heard earlier from some people the importance of the memory, the lest we forget culture again. That is very difficult to hold onto as the years go by. It is, absolutely, because once we get past lived memory, it is hard to hold onto the same depth and quality and emotional impact of what happened to people and what happened to people and what they experienced, and there are attempts here to try and find methods to continue to do this, for example, the legacy Survivor Programme where people learn the story of specific survivors and then retell it in their name, in the first person after they are gone. But there is a lot of anxiety here that with the loss of the generation, the survivor generation, that this story will fade more and more and more over time. There is a sense of urgency for the task for people in hiroshima and nagasaki. That point of nuclear abolition, that also feels. |j dont abolition, that also feels. dont know what the phrases. Jaded perhaps as a search . Because we have seen, jaded perhaps as a search . Because we have seen, even since the cold war, really, a gradual loss of interest in terms of public awareness. That is partly because the public is being preoccupied with additional crises, for example, global heating and global warming. There is a lot of things, another pandemic, a lot of things to take up, the anxieties and the fears of the future for people. Nuclear weapons remain present, though, and Nuclear Weapons can still retain the potential to destroy vast areas of the earth and to contaminate vast areas of the earth with radiation. As the Nuclear Weapon states move towards modernising, towards investing more money in new weapons and new delivery systems, this is a danger that your face systems, this is a danger that yourface and systems, this is a danger that your face and we ignore to our own peril and the peril of our descendants. An Important Message on an important day. Thank you very much indeed. Millions of sri lankans have voted in the parliamentary election, in which president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is seeking a fresh mandate to tighten his partys grip on power. The counting will start on thursday morning and the first results are expected by evening. 0ur correspondent Anbarasan Ethirajan reports. Despite fears over the coronavirus, millions came out to vote in sri lankas parliamentary e