this is g w news law from berlin a massive explosion walks beirut. the blast in tears through the city's port killing dozens and leaving many people trapped under the rubble rescuers are racing to save lives the prime minister says those responsible will pay the price we'll take you live to the lebanese capital also coming up with just 90 days left until the u.s. election lifelong republicans explain why they plan to vote against donald trump

come november. with the data. because i believe the tomatoes do us all or. our current press. i'm boring golf it's good to have you with us we are following breaking news from the lebanese capital beirut tonight where the government says at least 50 people are dead after 2 massive explosions. the initial blast in the city's port area was followed by a 2nd explosion that shattered windows even 10 kilometers away over 2500 people have been taken to area hospitals with injuries many others are. in their homes

because of the blast is being investigated security officials say over explosives were being stored at the port lebanon's prime minister has appealed for help from the international community. harrowing accounts of the explosion have been coming in from across beirut here's how one eyewitness described the moment the blast struck i was driving around the area of where the explosion cured so we saw the smoke happening and we asked people what was going on they said there was initially a 1st explosion that cured in the area but it wasn't that loud so we couldn't hear it from where i was staying but when we passed that and went around because i want to go home the taxi went from within the buildings suddenly i lost my i couldn't hear anymore so i saw something flash and i put it here anymore i looked at it that's a driver i want to make sure that he was having the same experience excuse in the

same thing as me so what i knew something that there's something wrong with me he stopped the car he looked back at me and then suddenly we heard of a very loud explosion the glass shattered all over the car the cars around us the buildings all the glass just went down it was raining glass all over the city of beirut it was shocking so that the 1st thoughts i had that it was an assassination attempt because it was near downtown area beirut just where usually the car bombs were the assassinate multiple personnel it's happened i went down in a car made sure that that's a driver's ok tried to call people try to call my family and almost going to answer because the connection was it was bad and i took another taxi went home i saw my house is kilometers away from the explosion and all i saw is glass broken down the wall cracked the glass and not in my neighborhood was all shattered as i experience car bombs before here in the area and usually it was black smoke rising. one time.

i was massive. so it was something that i never experienced in my life and the sound. of the smoke and. the amount of kilometers that reached how many people heard it was the 1st time to ever happen and with me here in the studio was my colleague amal db she is with arabic she is from lebanon what i want to pick up on what we just heard there from talking about the the i guess the mood in the country right now that people have been discussed with the government they've been protesting and now there's a tragedy you know epic proportions for the country can the people expect the government to do what a government is supposed to do now. i think that's the urgent question of the moment what will the government. regards to this disaster that just adds up to 11 on has been going through i feel my feeling is that the people are fed up with the government any government with the system itself with the ruling elites with the

warlords who have been ruling levon dahlan since the end or assumed end of the civil war they have done nothing to lift up the country economically even politically to establish a regional crissy or to have the country on strong bases economically speaking so the people do not trust the government and we see what we're seeing now in the streets of beirut today is a massive social solidarity that fills up the void created by the like of good governance and the voices around signed the country they are very loud we're hearing from saudi arabia the foreign ministry in riyadh affirming the kingdom's full support for lebanon we also heard from israel today immediately after this explosion saying that israel had nothing to do with this explosion so it seems like the voices from else side the country just as loud as what are coming from inside the country right now absolutely. i've also seen

a lot of tweets from major presidents from major european or western countries we've seen bars johnson tweeting in support we've seen emmanuel mccall tweeting for support also. shot from the european council he also tweeted in support many arab countries offered humanitarian support but the question the main urgent question is who is to be held responsible for the tap and what have you heard anything from you were back in. concerning the origin the cause of this your welcome is that they had heard that maybe there were chemical in addition to the explosions or fireworks that were being stored makes it sound like maybe negligence you said the port authority could possibly be held responsible it's a little early to kind of assume any official narrative official story the seeing if you follow the major official narratives the thing coming up from lebanon there

is obviously different narratives official narrative coming out from the country itself so it seems there's no agreement on what exactly happened we should just wait for the investigations however if the investigations lead to some sort of negligence do you just storage of explosives or even chemicals in the port of beirut then the question is will someone be held responsible for this crime major western newspapers are calling this incident disaster econd to hiroshima what we're seeing is we posed kind of atomic bomb scenes in battle because it is there. because of the cloud and people are also calling each other not to be exposed because no one knows what kind of chemicals might still be there in the air so we are on the verge of a real humanitarian catastrophe that only adds up to the economy crisis to the failed state that lebanon is in and it is indeed time for the international community to take its. and actually show real supports that in these people the

prime minister has declared tomorrow a day of mourning in lebanon which we expect that to happen but what happens then after that to mean what would be a best case scenario in your opinion for the people of lebanon. moving forward well the prime minister has also called for an investigation they he said that the people who did this will be held responsible but i am not sure to what extent people trust the government and its investigation we've seen the head of the assassination in 2005 and we've seen the international tribunal that was formed to investigate the incident because there was a lack of trust in the judicial system and there's a verdict directly due this week is that correct absolutely it's you on friday the final verdict of the international tribunal and how do the assassinations and also the fingers are pointing to that out and saying might there be any connections with

the verdict on friday we still have to wait and observe and see what kind of stories unfold whether this was intentional or just an accident this definitely adds up to the boiling situation in this country in the regions and i ask you final question as someone from there when you 1st heard about this explosion and you saw the video what was the 1st thing that went through your mind in terms of the calls 1st think you think of when you see this massive destruction an explosion you think is there's a terrorist attack is this an israeli attack having survived wars another one that's the 1st thing that rushes to mind and the 1st thing you do is just call your family and friends and make sure they're all right and we hope that they are we that you taking the time to share your concerns with us tonight it's my colleague amal deep from you arabic thank you thank you for having me. well here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world italy firefighters and volunteers are spending a 6th day battling forest fires in the eastern region of. the mayor of the

regional capital. said no one had been evacuated but contingency plans were in flames if the blaze spreads closer to residential areas 2 women have been injured one of them seriously while swimming with whales off the northwest coast of australia they were part of a group of snorkelers on a whale watching trip when they were called by the tail fin of a mother whale protecting her calf tropical storm. has battered the u.s. east coast killing at least 4 people and 2 people died when a tornado spawned by the storm destroyed a mobile home park in north carolina the national hurricane center is warning of more floods to come as the storm continues its way north towards. aren't staying in the united states where the presidential election is just 90 days away but donald trump is facing

a difficult path to reelection and he's trailing by large margins in the opinion surveys and he's been criticized for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic some staunch republicans are now considering what was once considered unthinkable voting for a democrat in the. brian mcgrath has been a republican all his life the military adviser had a career in the navy where he was commander of a destroyer conservative values are his compass but since style trump took office he no longer recognizes his party he's turned his back on it and launch for change listen i disagree with virtually every word that came out of brock obama's mouth i his policies were anathema to me. but i was never not proud of him i see president trump as a man who has almost no ideological moorings 'd mcgrath is part of a new republican resistance movement they call themselves republican voters against trump many voted for trump in 2016 but now they're turning against him with nearly

100 self produced videos. before the president has. a face. riddled with guilt and very embarrassed that i voted for him and the d.n.c. run as a tomato. i will vote for the tomato because i believe the tomato can do was harm then our current president. this initiative for rebellious republicans was founded by sarah longwell a conservative political strategist she hopes that the videos will encourage as many republican allies as possible to do the unthinkable they don't trust the media they don't trust elites they certainly don't trust democrats what they need is to feel like they have permission to kind of cross tribal lines and vote for a democrat which is something they've never done before something's wrong with

donald trump. another republican anti trump initiative is the lincoln project they attack trump head on using guerilla tactics putting for vocative videos on the us t.v. news network fox each clip is a punch in the presidential stunning they show him as incompetent or as a lot of your putin's friend and comrade now congress some clips seem to be addressed directly to the president himself. trump has hit back calling the lincoln project a disgrace and the people they're losers and he's attacking us for a day he's not attacking joe biden we focus on us for a day he's not focus of running a campaign so you know he's easily manipulated person some of the most vicious attacks on trump and simultaneous support for the democrats come from top flight republican political strategists george conway the husband of trump's advisor kelly conway is one of the founders of the lincoln project the conway couple is symbolic

of how trump is dividing america's conservatives the republican party as it comprised today is infected by the virus of donald trump i don't think there's any saving it they don't want to be saved they don't want to walk away from trump and trump ism so i think the republican party is effectively dead bryan mcgrath still has hope for a post trump era in which republicans examine their conscience and renew themselves as a party donald trump connected with a lot of dark parts of people's hearts in this country i didn't think it was possible that it could happen so quickly but it did i'm hoping that his performance . turns enough people against his approach so that we can get on with the business of trying to be a trusted. force for good in the world to that end in november he'll do the unthinkable and vote for democrats joe biden but in 2024 he wants to see a conservative candidate he can be proud of. you know the u.s.

presidential election in 90 day you're watching d.w. news from berlin stephen beardsley is up next with your business news to be right back. to that. for g w office book and twitter up to date and in touch. like . my gorgeous. food for the russians.