[Lu Stout:] Welcome back. This is CNN Connect the World with me Becky Anderson. 15 minutes past 7:00 here in the UAE. Our top story this hour, a global market meltdown. Billions had been wiped off the value of global shares, oil at a six-year low. This is the Dow Jones right now. It plunged 1,000 points within minutes of opening today. Clearly doing better than it was off just more than sorry 400 points there, some two-and-two-thirds of one percent. I'm want to say that it's a better day than we might have expected on the Dow, but watch this space. We'll keep you bang up to date in exactly what's going on. Well, they fled one hellish situation only to walk right into another. Thousands of people trying to make their way across Europe to seek asylum and now flooding into Serbia on foot. They are coming from Macedonia after crossing its border with Greece. The very latest flash point in this crisis. It comes as German chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande meeting to discuss what's being called Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II, some calling it the worst crisis in its entirety since the cold war for Europe. Arwa Damon joining us now live in Macedonia. You're just across the Greek border. And you've spent some time there now. And at this point yesterday, Arwa, reporting the good news that Macedonia had actually opened its border and allowed some of these refugees to push towards their destination effectively, which is northern Europe. What are people telling you there?
[Arwa Damon, Cnn International Correspondent:] Well, Becky, everyone, especially the Syrians have absolutely tragic stories of what they've had to endure back in their homeland and then how arduous the journey just to get here was. On the other side of this wire fence, that is Greece. And this is what it looks like today, fairly well organized, relatively speaking. You've had groups of people continuously arriving, being lined up, and they're fully being let across to then catch the bus on the Macedonian side of the border. But even just getting here is just absolutely exhausting. Earlier, we saw a woman who was three months pregnant collapsing from the heat. She had to be carried across. Many of these people have felt as if this was the only option that they had to ensure a future for their children. You can see the kids here making this journey mostly on foot. It's hard to believe that these little children have already probably spent days walking and they have days, if not weeks, of walking ahead of them until they do reach their final destinations. And as you were saying there, this is a crisis the likes of which Europe has not really seen in its recent history. And as one aid worker we were talking to, Becky, said what people need to think about because there has been a lot backlash against the refugee and migrant populations, they've been coming through some the local populations, feeling overwhelmed by the influx, some countries not necessarily welcoming them, but this one aid worker was making the point that, you know, when it comes to talking about how Europe needs to start handling this, an individual needs to recognize the fact that this could be any of us. We take a lot of what is around us as being guaranteed, the fact that our society seems like it's not going to crumble, that war might not necessarily come to our doorstep or other circumstances that could put us in these kind of positions, well that's not necessarily the case. So the starting point of any kind of conversation needs to be was a level of compassion, humanity and the recognition that we could all end up in this situation and that is what we need to really take into consideration. Because all these countries do have to come together at this stage for some sort of long-term solution, the crises that drove these very different populations out are not going to be ending, demographics are changing that is the sad reality of the world we live in. And we cannot abandon these people.
[Anderson:] Arwa Damon on the story for you. Arwa, thank you. Well, the streets of Beirut are much quieter today after protesters called off another planned demonstration, but their campaign against the government is far from over. Organizers say they want to reevaluate their approach after more than 400 people were injured in clashes over the weekend. The protests began over the government's failure to collect rotting garbage in the streets, but quickly turned into widespread outrage against the government in general. Well, let's get the very latest now from Nick Paton Walsh who is live in Beirut. Any reaction to those images we saw last night, Nick, from authorities at this point? Are they going to do anything about this?
[Nick Paton Walsh, Cnn International Correspondent:] The first thing we've seen the most obvious symbolic reaction, Becky, is a large collection of what you know as t-walls. Concrete slabs have been erected right down where there were protesters yesterday forming an enormous concrete wall between the prime minister's residence and the rest of those people out in Beirut, a symbolic gesture, certainly, and the police will say it's for their own security, but it does certainly isolate them, cut them off from those people down the streets below. Secondly, we've heard from the protesters today, and they are calling for people to come on to the streets again nationwide, or whatever city they're in on Saturday at 6:00 in the afternoon there. They're calling for investigations into what happened on Saturday and Sunday. And they're holding key ministers responsible for that. The government, themselves have been again referring to the role of infiltrators of a third party to instigate the violence we saw. And, you know, while the density of those individuals will be debated a lot, and that's happening already now in Lebanon, it was clear there was a certain minority that were much more keen on confronting the police than peaceful majority of the crowd and that allowed that violence to escalate here. But so far today, the presence of the army that began about midnight last night has calmed things on the street. We're hearing from the protesters at their conference that they are hoping for some kind of silent candlelit walk from near the justice palace where many of those detained last night are being held. But that is a relatively small operation we understand at the moment, the focus being on Saturday, an ability for them to organize themselves better ahead of that broader protest. All eye really, though, on the government and what level of reform it can put in. The environment ministers announced tenders to deal with the waste crisis, companies that will be involved in cleaning it up. That hasn't pleased the protesters at this stage as people looking to see quite how fast the government can implement reforms. They can put up a wall very quickly within 16 hours of the army coming onto the streets, but we haven't seen that level of swift response to the reforms requested by the protesters Becky.
[Anderson:] Nick Paton Walsh in Beirut for you this hour. Live from Abu Dhabi, this is Connect the World with me Becky Anderson. 22 minutes past 7:00 here in the UAE. ISIS destroys another part of Syria's historical legacy. I'm going to take an in depth look at the latest casualty and what it means. First up, though, transformations is taking us to Japan where one town is turning to cycling to drive tourists to the area. That's next.