i am. that if you give the news coming to you live from berlin harrison's waits for grants you have catastrophic floods boxer children and foreign minister calls the disaster the worst in the century it's already saying more than three hundred lives and made hundreds of thousands homeless look at the latest on the relief efforts from our correspondents also coming up. how is this the agenda what prepares to hold a state funeral for victims of the bridge collapse that killed at least thirty eight people on tuesday may coincide with a national day of mourning we'll have reports from the scene. and german chancellor

angela merkel prepares to host russian president vladimir putin for talks but aren't the cheerleaders likely to agree on a thing more than the need to keep dialogue open. i'm on i'll thank you for joining us the death toll from the catastrophic flooding in the indian state of karada has more than doubled overnight the state's chief minister announced that three hundred twenty four people have died in washy called the worst loads in a hundred years almost a quarter of a million people have lost their homes and rescuers are scrambling to evacuate residents to emergency relief comes in the safety of india is a popular tourist destination power supplies in many areas are on the main international airport is closed boats and helicopters are leading rescue operations

. following that story for us from delhi what is the situation today in the flood affected areas has the rain eased at all well not really you know the forecast today are for heavy rains and heavy winds to continue throughout the state not really until tomorrow really that things will expected to ease up and you've seen. so many people continue to be stranded. on trees on on. the way wherever it may be and prime minister narendra modi is there today doing an aerial survey of the state via helicopter but even that was interrupted at one point because of the inclement weather so the situation is still it's still very dire for many people so it's still really dire situation there the

moment how is the carolla government responding to the crisis well given the scale of the crisis where it's basically hit over ninety percent of the state the state government has needed a lot of outside support so you've seen the armed forces coming in there's been about fifty one navy boats that have come in the army is also involved the coast guard air force helicopters and doing rescue efforts that way releasing food packets and then you've seen prime minister modi today actually announce a huge aid package from the central government. of around seventy million dollars. to assist with this and you've seen actually quite a lot of activity as well on social media about raising funds a lot of private companies of have gotten involved making it easy for for people to donate companies like amazon and pay t.m. which is an online. service here in india so

a lot of activity there and the care of the government really calling on people all over the country and the world to help assist with with this effort. now monsoons are an annual event in indiana across asia what makes this one so exceptional and so deadly. well yeah absolutely this is a this is a common thing in india and south asia but what we've seen with the carola monsoons this year is that they've the indian met office has said that. carol has received a third more than average in terms of rainfall this year so stats really been a big factor of course but environmentalist are also pointing out that there's a lot of. sort of practices that have been taking place over the years deforestation encroachment of agricultural land and mountain ranges has really also probably worsen the situation in the sense that it has made people

more at risk because those environmental protections that were always there have been encroached upon. many thanks for that. they tally in the banks to hold a state funeral for victims of the bridge collapse on tuesday at least thirty eight people were killed in the tragedy relatives and friends of the dead are already gathering at the hall in the city where the services are set to take place and a newspaper says the families of some of the victims are refusing to take part in a ceremony preparing instead to have private private funerals are. found that some of the families are also angry with the government. rescuers tell us that they won't give up the search until they convinced that all the missing have been found but hope of finding survivors is not lost now one of the things that's really struck me since we've arrived here is how nobody we've spoken to was surprised that

something like this could happen one man told us he was so concerned about the bridges safety he would always try and drive across it as quickly as possible i'll just ride a the company that operates this stretch of the motorway insists all of its maintenance checks were up to date but the fact is that like many bridges built here in the fifty's and sixty's it wasn't designed for the pressures of modern traffic as one engineer told us it was simply coming to the end of its lifespan in the search for on his ministers have gone on the attack accusing else was thought it was negligence but people we've spoken to say the government itself has serious questions to answer. that the government is giving very nice speeches still have to see what they are able to solve and of a warehouse and of a bridge and was affected by the collapse i want to see the facts also because we have to give up to what. i think people find solutions the government it's only been in charge for two months we need more time to see what it does are available.

i believe in solving any of the culprits need to teddy let's hope those who are felt really pay this time because we are very angry there was no monitoring nothing was done here people die here and nobody talks about it the day off to the current government isn't about her or her sometimes controversy doesn't help solve problems but sometimes it can be used to point out who is responsible. with the nation in mourning a state funeral will take place here for those who lost their lives in this tragedy it's a nice president and other high ranking officials are among the many expected head missing from the mourners will be a number of relatives if the dead they say they feel like they've become pawns. a political firestorm. we don't want to share i'm sorry money my son was not a tool to be paraded before the public his funerals for those who loved him were not blind this government and its predecessors like a french system the citizens it's clear. and it's not just the victims' families

who are angry this tragedy has raised serious concerns about aging infrastructure nationwide people here tell me that war it's lee has neither the money the capacity to make some crucial changes and they're asking will this happen again. to some of the other stories making news around the world former cricket star imran khan has been sworn in as pakistan's new prime minister and his first speech as premier account promised to enforce ruthless accountability to fight corruption as far as he will in the most votes in last month's election but failed to secure a majority. venezuela's president nicolas maduro has raised wages in the country for the fifth time this year the move is part of a monetary overhaul that aims to curb inflation and news conference on the far is from monday and will see five zeros the nation's currency. the mexican military

has uncovered huge underground drugs locked in remote mountains in the country's west troops say that they have destroyed fifty tons of mesh on freshmen on the slice well mexico is a major supplier of meth and heroin to the us which has seen a surge in open addiction. and german chancellor angela merkel says she expects tough meetings with the russian president vladimir putin here in germany later today this is the first time that putin has been in germany for biafra talks since russia annexed crimea crimea from ukraine four years ago the list of disagreements is long with ukraine syria and russia's meddling in elections just start. she accepted the flowers but she didn't ease the sanctions over ukraine at their last meeting in russia the fact that angela merkel and bloodier putin are meeting for the second time in only three months shows a new interest to explore common ground despite fundamental differences some of

that may lie in syria despite russia's role as president assad's ally. russia wants to have first a solution with us so that germany and the european union accepts that there will be a post war syria with assad and then moscow and syria also need some money money is also an important issue in balance plan to build a joint gas pipeline with russia critics say it threatens regional stability especially in ukraine. both have an interest of the pipeline will be built and we but we also know that mr trump already u.s. government with the next wave of saying sions also talk of north stream to. be pushing from prosser to guarantee a future role for ukraine and transferring gas to europe u.s. president donald trump's volatile foreign policy has also piled up some new strategic interests between moscow and berlin. after really deep fall in

trust between germany and russia to a korean conflict since two thousand and thirteen and fourteen we now return to pragmatic relations interest oriented relations machall and putin are scheduled to meet for what is billed as extensive talks at the german government's guest house near violin the two leaders meet the press only before not after their meeting just another indication that no real breakthrough is expected on any of the topics on the agenda at the same time there is a recognition on both sides that with donald trump in the white house shaking up the rules of international politics they need each other even more than they used to. well found more on this now as a political scientist at the institute for security policy at germany's q university specializing in russia relations and he joins us here in studio for more on these talks now as we know i mean it seems like it's pragmatic politics and

actually you don't necessarily have to like one another to work together is that a fair assessment. of the question arises. why this the summit is actually taking place at all since everybody seems to agree that no a breakthrough or no significant agreements are going to be concluded and the answer i think it to that would be twofold one is that the german government wants to be seen to be gauged in dialogue with russia because this is when the criticisms that have been leveled in the public is fear against the government that there is lose a card out there that people are not talking to each other meaning germans and russians at the government level and this i think is very important reason the second reason is that america could or in my view should do what trump failed to do he has thank you summit and they need to point out the limits stringent limits to put in in his their foreign policy so this would be the two

reasons that in my view now of course that they're going to be talking about syria they're going to be talking about north stream too and ukraine speaking about trunk he's said fast germany is totally controlled by russia when it comes to north strain too and he does have a point of any you know he doesn't afford so this is ridiculous. what he has thing about apparently to the extent one can fathom what trump is thinking about is that there is the energy dependency you have by russia by germany and russia by germany and this energy dependency translates into political dependency well when you look at the energy dependency the most dependent countries on russia for energy have been the ones the most critical of russia namely the three baltic countries dystonia latvia and lithuania what really is an issue with north rim too is ukraine namely that the ukraine is standing to lose annually year three billion

dollars worth of transit fees. that's that's the point so i mean you creative also said that it undermines the efforts for russia to return crimea and that's another topic as well i mean they're also going to be talking about ukraine and you know the fact that crimea has been onyx almost four years ago what's the point of even discussing that at this point well i don't think that putin will spend a minute discussing crimea he made it clear again at the helsinki summit that crimea this is for him a settled issue what is going to be talked about is of course used in ukraine and there is a need for that too good to be done so. very much for joining us here in studio if it welcome. that's it for now you are watching d.w. news coming to you live from berlin and we will have more news again at the top of

the hour and don't forget you can get all the news and information as around the clock on our web site. called strength. works. and. long twenty. hours. jurors or. killed many civilians.