every generation has a higher purpose. ours if. the the. the. apocalyptic scenes in beirut where the search for survivors goes on after cheese days devastating blast which is left up 230-0000 homeless and several officials involved in the storing of a highly explosive chemical at the port of being put under house arrest. hello i'm maryam namazie and london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up on the program that's america passes europe as the region with the highest coronavirus deathtoll. the city. and the modi

launches construction of a controversial hindu temple a year off to revoke the special status of india's only muslim majority state. lebanon's government has declared a 2 week state of emergency giving the military full powers a day after a massive explosion devastated the port area of beirut it's also putting a number of beirut porter fishtails under house arrest pending an investigation into why 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate was stored there at least 135 people have been killed more than 5000 have been injured but the death toll is expected to rise as emergency workers search the rubble for survivors around $300000.00 people have been left homeless by government estimates the damage might

range between $3.00 and $5000000000.00 hospitals have been overwhelmed and they're in desperate need of blood donations and power generators to keep the lights on there is a no hoarder begins our coverage. the people of this disaster stricken city are starting to assess and comprehend the extent of the damage of a blast that was far more destructive than any explosion lebanon has ever seen just before sunset on tuesday highly explosive material stored at a warehouse at beirut port caused the blast sending shock waves across the city now in ruins. almost every building has been damaged many are dead thousands are injured and hundreds are missing rescue workers worked through the night and into the morning as people and bodies were feared trapped underneath the rubble because it was. my husband is an employee at the electricity company he survived but his colleagues didn't the only now moving their bodies from under the

rubble this is a country already reeling from a dire economic crisis where 50 percent of the population live below the poverty line the state is close to bankruptcy and the cost of damage is estimated at $3000000000.00 the damage spread several kilometers more than 300000 people are now displaced its people are not in a position to cope with this disaster or how the. material losses are sad but it's nothing compared to those who lost their lives this is my taxi it's my livelihood and i'm still paying for it. everyone has a story of survival or tragedy many are blaming those in power for the catastrophe . this was lebanon's hiroshima we trusted them with our money our souls our lives and they betrayed us why are they still in power they should all resign we only have god now their day will come. the way authorities are appealing for help

from the international community the state is close to bankruptcy. it's like a bigger earth quake hit lebanon in beirut this will cost billions of dollars to restore the economy will get even worse because businesses have been hit entirely in order for it to relaunch and nice new investments we will not despair some countries have started to send much needed medical supplies to the health care system was already close to collapse hospitals have been laying off staff in recent months because of the financial crisis and i love mr mankell we are an afflicted hospital there is no hospital as you can see hospital is closed and now we wait for our directors in order to receive instructions because we want to start the recovery workers cannot get in also as you can see because it's unsafe the ceiling is falling down it is a critical situation. lebanon's leaders are promising an investigation to determine who was responsible for storing ammonium nitrate without safety measures at the port for years and. we are determined to investigate and reveal what happened as

soon as possible and bring those responsible to justice and punish them accordingly we will transparently announce the results of these investigations but those who hold power are being blamed for negligence incompetence and corruption people are in shock but anger is also growing out a political class many blame for mismanagement and being responsible for running the economy into the ground months of protests calling for a new leadership have been met by a militarized state and demands by the international community to fight corruption especially at beirut's airport in order. to be eligible for financial aid have gone unheard what many call a manmade disaster is the latest crisis to hit a country already on its own these so much has been lost when there was already so little. beirut well the explosion was the most powerful ever suffered by beirut a city still scarred by civil war 3 decades ago this satellite image from the planet

lab was taken of beirut's port in may and this is the same view today showing the devastation at the blast epicenter with a large chunk of the main dock as you can see completely gone but it's believed that a fire started and then spread to a warehouse where the confiscated ammonium nitrate had been stored for 6 years the blast is virtually flattened by a root support which is lebanon's biggest and the main entry point for imports to feed a nation of more than 6000000 people and it sent a shockwave through the city buildings were damaged and glass was smashed more than 3 can always has a way affecting an area where more than 750000 people live leaving many homeless people reported feeling the blast and windows rattling on the mediterranean island of cyprus about 160 kilometers away we can now speak to dr i mean coetzee's a professor of clinical emergency medicine at the american university hospital

beirut's main hospital and president of the lebanese society of emergency medicine can you tell us about your experience treating patients it must have been a very difficult and grueling night for health workers and i suppose hospitals are still overwhelmed today. thank you for giving us time to do ringback this kind of experience yesterday basically the you know i hate to use the stick do the statement that we had in beirut had the opportunity to unfortunate the fortunate you to train for the mass casualty instance so most of our associates get sent to the hospitals got to some extent experience and the plans for deployment getting such incentives over certainly has been a an excellent one for that one that we've discovered and published internationally 'd so however yesterday's must schedule the incident was peculiar when the blast happened we went immediately into full activation flow experiment disaster plan and

automatically all our faculty and their sis and staff activated then mobilized and showed up on scene without making phone calls we just showed up and by the time we were there within half an hour we already had had deceived. no less than $100.00 casualty followed by another wave of more serious injured people usually the work 'd of the 1st wave 'd tends to be the less injured it and said it is over there the 2nd way within the 2nd hour is the one that is sickness so anyway we received within 3 hours more than $400.00 casualties and no less than one. that the patients when they got exploding in the the either in that if somebody sedation room or in that it got heated on a couple we were declared that but upon their arrival we deployed on our own goal and. regular faculty and their service personnel at least it was going on and

it will help us and we were able to despite the fact. that this was an unusual event to do what needed to make and then you know and i'm not innocent and so i don't try and i'm just struck by what you say about that. first wave of casualties and a given that we've been hearing there are some areas where people haven't been evacuated or they've just not been able to reach hospitals do you expect to see a continuous wave of patients coming in some of them with was injuries than the ones you've seen so far the specialty of mercy medicine puts the order into chaos we expect not only a 2nd wave of more typically get ill people we expect in doing less where we have to extricate patients we expect 'd another wave that arrives later but they typically are dead or more severe injuries do you will do crush injuries but the numbers of those patients of alive or subject will be less so technically speaking

after of last injury and it again of course it must say that we have acquired experience in knowing what to expect however we were surprised in this particular event 'd by the sheer number i mean we we've had the worst blast you've got in beirut even when you're in the civil war in if you do the really association the prime minister we were hit we were being hit by want to 5253 on that within expect 102500 casualties for i heard that sheer number we were having a hard time moving within the departments we opened the 5th floor as it emerges that the apartment we 'd walked in the eve for in the 2nd floor for logically we were out with the cases we had one section where we were just removing glass and so shooting people there mythologised the satellites and i just quickly ask you what is your message then to the international community because you know they've been thousands of engines and so are you short of supplies how how badly do you need international help. we need the national health provides us fuel to provide us

means to sustain our open ations in the longer run i also know that we have lost through it city hospitals that they do appear old you know with go of it we have issues with ventilators being available if we have yes and that yesterday our own go with unit was for our staff it was foot fully with it prepared but you know all the proper preventative measures to avoid that but nevertheless we were we were one of the 4 is situations a little bit cases and we were in the session one of the covert cases at the same overnight we couldn't move anywhere because our covert units were on the floor so we are at this stage with regard to being able to hand the ventilation issues fuel sussed deigning operations city of our hospital has been destroyed we've lost. 55 nursing nursing and nursing staff from 2 of these situations with which that

we've destroyed st george hospital medical center and going to you know our and sorry and then all of those 'd that he went to the hospital so basically we have think about it didn't want to build it merely from the blast limon as a financial collapse that is ongoing we need support with ventilators fuel financial support to be able to maintain our operations this is what we need me to be having that equipment isn't all you need we have city stand we had them our ice we just need the means to sustain them operational we need the supplies parts when when these machines require that in the longer on with regard to this actual blast i'd like to differ with some of the. callers that i've heard from some of the at that point it does what it does the what it questing mobile hospital is an admission of people to come to the country to help us. i'm sorry we do not need

more experts we have the amazing. the anderson but the aluminum we have a lot to export oh so little what do they really need is the supplies fuel system no provisions or don't you know look i mean thank you very much for clarifying that and we wish you best of luck with the remarkable work that you and your teams and your colleagues are carrying out right now thank you. for having me . governments around the world offering assistance lebanon agree concussion planes arrived in beirut on wednesday carrying medical supplies turkey france and germany also plan to send help french medical teams and firefighters are on their way to beirut for search and rescue support and the french president will also be traveling to lebanon on thursday to meet with its leaders and there's been a show of support in israel a country that's been in conflict with lebanon the lebanese flag was projected on

to tel aviv city whole the mayor to to the humanity proceeds any conflict in the wake of the beirut disaster as well and israel for to devastating month long war in 2006 with israel causing billions of dollars of damage to lebanon's infrastructure firefighters in the u.a.e. have been working to put out a massive blaze that broke out at a market and a 2 month fire is believed to have started at the souk which has been closed for several months because of the corona virus pandemic no injuries have been reported but a hospital nearby had to be evacuated as a precaution. the number of people who have died from the crime the virus around the world has passed 700000 of the past 2 weeks one person has died from the disease every 15 seconds and that that's according to a new research boy that by the reuters news agency the u.s. brazil india and mexico has been leading the rise in fatalities and then it was

initially slower to reach latin america but officials have struggled to control it spread on tuesday it passed europe as the region with the highest death toll with more than 206000 fatalities well john heilemann joins us live from mexico city now and it appears to be a worsening situation across the region despite restrictions on people's movements and lockdown measures still being in place. yeah and just as you mentioned actually the debate has been fully in america the fact that it seemed to arrive in strength to coronavirus later than other places but it hasn't really left but also this is a poor region in which governments now are trying to balance what do we do do we try and open up an old we keep closed and try and beat this thing and take the economic course which of course are going to affect the most poorest the poorest most of all in the region so there's a real sort of die limit that governments across latin america are facing right now

as you mentioned brazil mexico brazil in 2nd place in terms of the death toll globally mexico is in 3rd place but i want to take you around a couple of other countries in the region the really badly affected right now we have peru which in terms of its death rate and it's and it turns of it's case rate per 1000000 people it's one of the highest in the world and at the moment they've let venezuelan doctors that are fleeing their own country work in the health system because the hospitals there are really under pressure trying to deal with this at the moment also bolivia that's another country in south america whose hospital system is really struggling with this to the extent that there's a special police unit that has picked up more than 3000 bodies left in homes and left on the streets in that country there's another problem for bolivia as well in that it was meant to have elections in may and now those have been pushed back and pushed back until october is a real problem because there's a very divisive interim president at the moment who's going to have been in power

for more than a year before fresh elections are going to be called the colombia as well another country that seemed to have this under control at the start and now things are definitely getting worse there as well so not a good panorama in general for some of the region's major countries and major economies i also wanted to ask you about period john because there are concerns not only about the rising number of cases that but also hundreds of women and girls who have gone missing carrying and any. yeah and i suppose that's another impact of the lockdown that's what women's rights officials are saying in peru not in terms of the domestic violence and the attacks and missing women and girls wasn't happening before improves been a problem for a long time in that country but the lock down in which they've been cooped up with potentially. aggressive in attacking partners has made things even worse in that

country and one thing to say about this it's 900 women and girls but 2 thirds of those are minors 2 thirds of those are under-age girls that have gone missing in peru and due to a lack of a national registry for missing people put women's rights officials are saying there as well is that there's no real way of keeping track of the of knowing who have who have been found later and who are still missing and that's a problem that doesn't just affect peru it affects many countries in latin america here what we are now in mexico almost at the start of the pandemic we were reporting an increase of 25 percent of people look talking to a hotline trying to prevent domestic violence or report domestic violence women shelters here in the country were telling us that they've had 60 percent more calls to their hotline about this problem i remember one woman shelter saying to us look this is a pandemic that was here even before coronavirus so this is

a problem that various different countries in latin america been dealing with before coronavirus as with elsewhere in the world this situation has maybe intensified in those countries as a result of corner virus and because the pandemic continues in latin america there's perhaps not an end immediately in sight to that problem also thank you from mexico city john heilemann. want to turn to afghanistan now where the health minister is saying 10000000 people have been infected with the coronavirus there this is almost a 3rd of the population the figures are based on a nationwide antibody survey which tested about 9 and a half 1000 people the highest infection rate was found to be in the capital kabul where more than half the city's residents of thought have contracted the virus officially afghanistan has only reported 36000 cases and 1200 deaths and that the you do general result of the survey says that 31.5 percent of the afghan population which is equal to 10000000 people have been infected by the corona virus during the

pandemic 37 percent have been infected in cities and 27 percent have been infected in rural areas. the united nations is saying when 50000 people have been affected by flooding across it done thousands of homes have been damaged in the interior minister says at least 5 people have been killed it down in blue nile state last week because of to run chill downpours heavy rains are expected to continue raising concerns over the spread of water borne diseases and then flash floods of hit several provinces in yemen killing at least 20 people including children regions of . among the west affected thousands of people have been left homeless after 2 weeks of heavy rain that has more. to eventual rains fill up this dam in the yemeni region of moderate forcing it to overflow. since it was rebuilt in the 1980 s. there are growing fears it could collapse nearby refugee camps have been damaged

the rains have also downed power lines and destroyed crops. there is a lot of damage many farms and properties were hit by the floods many displaced people were directly affected by. the floods have killed or injured dozens the u.n. estimates more than 10000 people who were displaced have been uprooted once again i am as an acknowledgement of my family is under siege from the water the floods are separating me from them and my homes that in danger because the surface is being eroded around them. around 200 kilometers away in a province the floods damaged more than 5000 tents is trying to salvage what he can but i don't. i was in chiffon district when i came back and saw my home destroyed i looked for my children they went to another tent i've been collecting some belongings like food flour household appliances but it's covered in water.

heavy rain started 2 weeks ago battering several provinces. in the capital sana'a floodwaters swept through parts of the city last week damaging shops and markets residents watched on as cars drifted away throughout the larger outnumbered the. path that some try to rescue those caught up in the current. around 24000000 yemenis are in need of assistance many live without basic necessities food water sanitation or safe shelter. i came from her ugh i'm sick on import condition with a broken leg i've been one of the cops here for a year no one can help us. medicine is in short supply and

aid groups are overstretched nearly 6 years of fighting between the who tease and yemen's internationally recognized government has left the country in ruins it's also about the world's largest cholera outbreak and now coronavirus the government has called for international support but with more rain expected yemenis can only wait until help arrives while trying to rebuild whatever they can hold on jazeera. sri lankans of turned out in big numbers to version their twice still a parliamentary election it's the 1st country in south asia tell the general vote chairing the pandemic in march president carter by rajapaksa dissolved parliament 6 months early and called a snap election is a brother the prime minister is hoping to gain a majority of votes to consolidate power when alpha nando's is in colombo where ballot boxes are being collected. the polling has ended and now it's for the ballot boxes carried in vehicles like this to come into counting centers around the

country outside one of those largest counting center the royal college and over the next couple of hours basically back ballot boxes from throughout the district will be being brought here into the counting centers now for the 1st time the election of oddities in this country given the coronavirus challenges have decided not to start counting on election day everything will get locked in overnight and the counting proper will start on thursday morning now by far and large from what we're hearing from observers the election officials themselves things went pretty smoothly on election day overall assessment the election is fine but. there were a 1000000 problems with the prediction and these include basically regulation of campaign financing regulation on social media the use of social media in

campaigning according to observers these are some of the key issues that need work obviously basically candid the parties will be waiting to hear the results but they will have to wait overnight onto those numbers are tabulated before the see the future direction of sri lanka. it's been a year since india's prime minister narendra modi revoked the special status of indian administered kashmir modi said it was needed to maintain security in the muslim majority state of channel and kashmir since then the territory has been under lock down with civil society activists and opposition politicians detained the military imposed a curfew to prevent protests on the anniversary of the decision of pakistan's prime minister has called india an oppressor saying the decision to impose control from the telly is turn kashmir into an open air prison thousands of people protested in pakistan administered kashmir in solidarity and a minute's silence was held at a rally in the capital islamabad kemal hyder has more now from islamabad. the

prime minister of pakistani administered kashmir speaking on. a forum saying that what was happening across the border wars in our dialogue down by death date. of course condemned the india and truck saying that indian forces were meeting out atrocities against the people of kashmir any president bush speaking before a crowd he said that india and its government under it in their modi will following a policy of demographic change across pakistan it is considered a black day because it marks one of the an occasion of meat off the article 370 border war but there are also apprehensions that night in their modi with this controversial citizenship law and a fact i did a lifelong member of the rights to. song indicates that

india is now moving away from that policy that it used to have and that it is going in an extreme direction which of course is also angry neighborhoods like nepal. and china well india's prime minister narendra modi has laid the foundation stone for hindu temple at a controversial religious site it's in the northern town of. destroyed a mosque in 1902 sparking national riots that killed thousands elizabeth prong and reports from you daddy. prime minister not in the more he prays before an idol of the hindu god rom a head of construction starting on a temple and the date he's on or it's a moment many of india's nearly 1000000000 hindus have waited decades for me this temple will be the symbol of our perennial feet in nationalism it will also be symbolic of the united strength of hundreds of millions. but division of the side

has led to some of the worst religious violence in india's history and security has been heightened in 1902 thousands of hindus from around the country came to the town and destroyed the 16th century babi mosque and 22 others 18 of the muslims living in the town were killed including relatives of possible misha and muhammad shai had. lost everything in the violence my sawmill is here we have thousands of dollars worth of wood they set everything on fire they killed my husband and brother in law. they tore up the koran in our mosque and started stomping on the pages we tried collecting the pages. getting worse started attacking people here. the religious violence spread beyond mohammad child's father and uncle had to have more than 2000 people who were killed around the country leading members of the hindu nationalist bought at the edge on the party or on

trial for conspiring to destroy the mosque the b j p had long promised to build a temple it was 1st elected to govern the country in the general election following the mosques destruction was busy. become a symbol of. that is where the destruction really creative. force . of that force ultimately is not ruling the country. after the legal battles of the sites on the ship the supreme court ruled last year that it belongs to him booze now 30 years after he joined the campaign for temple prime minister that in for more he is inaugurating its construction and is a problem al-jazeera you daddy just one of the stories to bring in a german neo nazi on trial for murdering a pro refugee politician has admitted to the killing stuff and told the court in

frankfurt that he fired the shot that killed walter you back last year he apologized to the victim's family for what he said was his cowardly and cruel act the killing shot jummy and highlighting the growing threat of right wing violence. the top story lebanon's government has declared a 2 week state of emergency giving the military full powers a day after a massive explosion devastated the port area of beirut a number of a reporter officials have been put under house arrest pending an investigation into those responsible for the blast at least 135 people have been killed but officials say the death toll is likely to rise as the rescue efforts still going on a spokesman for the u.n. said the damage to beirut support presents a major humanitarian challenge both in lebanon and for all the parts of the region

. we expect that the damage the port will significantly exacerbate the economic and food security situation in lebanon our which imports about 80 to 85 percent of its food. our colleagues at the office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs also expect that this will affect our ability to provide aid to syria because the port in beirut was one of the ways that we should be in it and of course we also use the airports so we'll need to find alternate plans but 1st we'll need to do a damage assessment and see what is needed. to repair the port and to go about our operations when all the stories we're following the number of people who have died from the corona virus around the world has now surpassed 700000 over the past 2 weeks one person has died from the disease every 15 seconds according to research by the reuters news agency on tuesday latin america past year appears the region with the highest death toll with more than 206000 fatalities the u.s.

brazil india and mexico have all been leading the rise in fatalities. all afghanistan's health minister says 10000000 people in that country might have been infected with the virus that's almost a 3rd of the population figures are based on a nationwide antibody survey the united nations says more than 50000 people have been affected by flooding across 2 don't thousands of homes have been damaged in the interior minister says at least 5 people have been killed heavy rains are expected to continue raising concerns over the spread of water borne diseases those are the headlines this hour do stay with us for the stream that's the program coming up next are asking how the coronavirus has disrupted family planning i have only seen later on in about 25 minutes time.

hey there welcome to the stream home edition i'm josh rushing sitting in for fin me ok now look if you're watching this on the you tube live stream i need your help to see that chat box over there that's a live chat box there's actually a stream producer in there right now waiting to get your comments and questions to me so i can get into our experts that are in the show today and it could not be a more important show we're talking about family planning tearing cove in 1000 i'm going to queue right to my computers to show you a table here now it's not a it's not a pretty picture but it is an important picture i want you to look right down here at this.