this is deja vu news live from berlin to beirut in shock after 2 huge explosions devastate the city. the blasts tore through the city's port killing at least 100 people and leaving many others trapped under the rubble thousands have been injured hospitals are overwhelmed the blasts were caused by tons of highly explosive materials stored in a warehouse. also coming up india's prime minister inaugurated the building of a hindu temple on the site of

a demolished mosque there are fears the construction could reignite religious tensions at a simmering flashpoint. and with just 90 days left to the u.s. election we hear from lifelong republicans considering the unthinkable and november casting their ballots for a democrat. i'm sumi so much god that's good to have you with us lebanon's capital beirut is an utter devastation after 2 shey huge explosions yesterday they happened at a warehouse where tons of a highly explosive chemical were stored apparently without any safety measures at least $100.00 people were killed and $4000.00 injured according to the red cross rescue workers are still looking for survivors underneath the rubble it is unclear how many people are missing right now. the sun. lasts an

eerie glow over a beer roots obliterated port. once a vital artery for imports and home to the country's wheat and grain stores it's now a sea of metal and concrete. levanon is a nation in mourning among them the staff at this nearby hospital. being given the fact that suddenly. there are a lot of victims we lost 4 nurses and patients visitors many dead and many injured and we have like 200 injured on the scene we face heavy. it was a sleepless night at the rest of the city's hospitals overwhelmed doctors treated the engine hallways rightful supplies are running low outside agonized families waiting for news of their loved ones many remain unaccounted for. a little of softness and he is 29 years old from 7 pm in the evening we have been all

over every hospital in beirut and they were waiting for the names to come out and nothing has come out we do not know if he is dead or alive and we do not know where home a lot of. questions too as to how thousands of tons of highly explosive fare to lies are ammonium nitrate ignited sending shock waves across the capital. the blasters had hundreds of kilometers away in cyprus. political leaders called for unity while visiting what remains of the port even for a people accustomed to horror the aftermath is unprecedented was applied. after this catastrophe and we have to stay strong we have to stay calm but this is too much for a nation that offended not eilish our. a

massive cleanup is slowly underway but officials say the rebuild could take years. 300000 people have been left homeless the prime minister has declared a 2 week state of american city and called on the international community to provide humanitarian assistance. for more on the story we can speak to dr assam and hotch medical director at clemenceau medical center in beirut thank you so much for joining us here on the w. 1st of all what is the situation like where you are today. where we are much better off than yesterday thank you. we're still receiving this so for now there are a few minor types and how many people have come to your hospital to a medical center to be treated as we. 50 hospital received yesterday i don't see

a 180 cases. there's. actually did. we have to rush like 35 patients is operating room we had. it's good to get cases. to go with another like that it's. a doctor how to how are you and your colleagues colleagues coping with this so we. have honestly a call of duty so many physicians to come on board. we have to manage like you have this rush of like 300 patients at one time your hospital their theory are so amazing that we could go up with that with lots of pressure and then we could manage and deal with the situation and recover to own patients to the best we could . how about hospitals we've heard that they have also been overwhelmed they were

overwhelmed already dealing with the coronavirus pandemic how are they getting through this in beirut today. it's you know it's kind of a very unexpected situation with doing our best to. keep up with coronavirus standards and because it is and dealing with the mass casualties coming to our hospitals it's been the story the same in most of that because they had a cluster of hospitals so in our situation we had to get people to provide the. engine people. and friends it was months and that measures eating our stuff were on protected with different types of mice and 5 or regular mice and hoping this wouldn't think these you know. effect of growing up so we have. more casual and more injuries in that sense you are of

course in beirut how has all of this affected you. you know it's a kind of shock you know. i can tell you most people. like a lot of people are in the kind of shock they get they can't understand like what. you know we're living in the aftershock now and then trying to deal with the situation to the best rekha we'll have to leave it there dr isom ahead from the chemist so medical center thank you so much for joining us randy w. . thank you thank you. let's talk more now about what caused the explosion that we have met from g.w. science with us hi fabienne you know lebanese authorities say that a fire ignited around 3000 tons of ammonium nitrate when you look at the videos

of what happened the explosions what do you think could have caused this blast you know the 1st thing you see is that there was a fire and inside fired over certain small explosions so some experts have and i think it's quite possible indicated that there was a fireworks explosion of some sort of may have been stored fireworks or as a small explosives and so that initial fire then jumped over to the storage area was it the monium nitrate was stored and that triggers this kind of terrible chain reaction or what about this chemical ammonium nitrate i mean why is it so dangerous . ammonium nitrate really in the normal circumstances isn't really that explosive but it changes as. when the temperature rises and once agreed to $170.00 degrees that's the case when the wood for example being involved in a fire. then it basically starts exposing

gases and these are not to burnable gases they don't really react but the way in which it happens basically already to see explosion in addition to that oxygen gets released in the process. besides laughing gas and water steam and as oxygen then can react was anything else it's basically highly reactive so what you're getting basically is a is a is a very dangerous mixture and this is not the 1st time it happened what about the after affects i mean the dangers of breathing in the chemicals released by the explosion. you know the chemicals released by the explosion soso by in the one you're nitrate are not toxic by definition they are basically harmless but of course you saw what happened and that is building rubble maybe as best as dust

can be all kinds of very poisonous. gases and smoke in the in the in the atmosphere and this certainly will have an effect on the people who have been through this i think the more long term medical effects are going to be a logical answer traumatization of people who went through this because this is going to have a very very deep long term effect on the psychology and feel of security of people and a lot of people are asking themselves how somebody could have stored such a huge amount of ammonium nitrate in a port so close to a very densely populated area what's your take on that. yeah obviously. this amount of huge amount of fertilizer material was brought to beirut by a ship that couldn't sail on for some technical reasons and has been stalled there for 7 years so it seems to have been something that wasn't really planned but there was no real concern all planned for it also i would like to mention is that we have

seen similar things of such as assault happening all over the world not was this huge amounts 270700 tons but it was 400 tons in germany into some 1021 in tianjin and china was 800 tons also terrible devastating explosion in a in an industrial area and we've seen similar cases also in toulouse in texas so it's not just developing countries that experiences it happens time and again in different areas fabienne schmidt from d.w. science thank you for your insight. and we can get some more perspective on this story now we have. arabic with us in our studio here a month thank you so much for joining us 1st of all you are from lebanon you have family and friends in beirut is everyone ok we've been trying to figure that out since yesterday since the blast just making sure that everyone we know is safe and

sound there are so there's a big number of missing was so i'm not sure how big that number is so obviously there are still people that we know that we don't know if they're still in good situation or not if they're safe if they're still alive even it's been a very tough past 24 hours i would say 20 hours and we're still trying to make sure that everyone we know is ok how about getting through the next days i mean we understand that there was no electricity for example many parts of beirut through the night i mean how are people getting through i mean ironically enough yesterday morning right before the last there was a big protest in front of one of the ministries protesting the lack of power supply in the power supply shortage in beirut city so there's obviously in the electricity crisis and they just adds up to the number of crises that lebanon is struggling with so the focus right now on the ground is for people to have access to it to power supply to water to basic food according to be what's governor almost 250000

lebanese people living in bay to it became homeless as a few yesterday that's one 4th of the population of big number a lot of people escaped their homes homes yesterday because they did their windows were shattered their doors were broken they escaped to neighboring villages or to their relatives in other cities just spend the night many people spent their night in the street. this morning yes this morning one even homeless person on a local broadcast t.v. tunnel said i'm in the street to report to us why are you in the streets he said i'm already homeless and now i can't even stay in the streets to that that's the extent to which the. the situation is devastating in lebanon and people are in dire need of aid we understand that this port is actually really important for supplies as well medical supplies were stored there also huge grain sites are silo so how important is it going to be to find another source of getting supplies and aid into

the city i mean we can confirm comfortably say that this can be the sole the sole porritt of beirut of lebanon of the whole levanon you know in lebanon we suffer from a very mild functioning of the system obviously and having no good infrastructure is one major component of that of that failed state system so very good ports was the main ports of lebannon not only were. sections with vital grains and food damaged but also medical supply urgent medicine needed to treat really dark conditions have been contaminated or damaged as a result of the blast so now is the focus on perhaps transfer transforming to put the support north of north of beirut to a kind of a temporary port to receive the aid needed to either be its medical supplies or food supplies and so on you touched upon this already but lebanon was already in the midst of an economic crisis the coronavirus pandemic what is needed right now

to help the country get back on its feet it's difficult to point it out there's a lot needed obviously 1st of all the focus is on saving people who are still there saving the survivors from the rubble is cleaning the area making sure the injured are being treated there aren't even enough hospital beds to treat people people who are being treated in the street last night so i think the main focus at the moment should be on direct relief providing. shelters for those who lost their homes treating the injured and so want but the next step is to kind of have a clear policy of how the government is going to deal with this crisis and how can the international. unity help here the international community has been showing supports and yes since just today already on its way today it's 11 on various field hospitals from different countries including qatar i had it on and so long a lot of the western presidents have short supports the lebanese people what's

needed right now is medical support but also a way to make sure that this hold reaches the lebanese population and not to the hands of the corrupt states because that's also that is the main question of who is responsible for this blast and can discover and if proved to be responsible for the blast the trust's and solving this crisis that's the main urgent question. arabic thank you so much for joining us here in a studio thanks. let's check in now on some other stories making news around the world hong kong democracy activists joshua wall and agnes trowel are on trial for involvement in the civil unrest that rocked the territory last year long says now is not the time to give up the fight for democracy despite the harsh new security law imposed on hong kong by beijing. emergency relief efforts are underway in south korea after 4 days of monsoon rains at least 15 people are dead and 11 others missing in the southern mountain district of and song flash floods and mud flows

caused by rain storms have damaged many roads and submerged large areas of farmland . and in france almost 3000 people have been evacuated from an area close to the southern city of mar say due to raging forest fires some 800 firefighters are battling the blazes which broke out on tuesday afternoon the fires are threatening residential areas and campsites near the coast. india has stepped up security in kashmir on the anniversary of india revoking the region's autonomy the government stripped to jammu and kashmir its only muslim majority state of its special rights last august the change in status in the indian part. anger and direct the local economy it was accompanied by lockdowns communication blackouts and mass detentions now parallel to the anniversary indian prime minister. the lead a ceremony to inaugurate the building of a hindu temple that has been a bitter decades long dispute between hindus and muslims. this hit

stands for an historic triumph for india's hindu nationalist government after a decades long dispute prime minister narendra modi led the groundbreaking ceremony for the new hindu temple at the flashpoint holy site of. marty this temple will become the modern symbol of our culture i'm using the word modern deliberately it will be the symbol of our perennial faith our nationalism this temple will also be symbolic of the united strength of millions. security was tight in a year leading up to the ceremony the city has long been a religious fault line at the center of intense sectarian violence in 1902 a hindu nationalist mob raise the barbary missouri mosque and i you know dia the incident triggered religious riots that left over 2000 people dead most of the

muslims. hindus believe ram one of their major deedes was born at the site and claimed the mosque was built on a temple there. but this case has been going on for 71 years but now finally the divine moment has arrived and everyone is very happy to be able to witness this temple for lord ram where extatic. modi's b j p had long been rallying for the construction of a temple on the site after a lengthy legal battle india's supreme court awarded the disputed a lot to hindus in november of last year the verdict caused disappointment among india's muslim community but many have since come to terms with the decision. that i'm in for the muslim community has accepted the verdict and we want to help with the construction of the temple and i mean. you know he has muslims will be able to build a new mosque on a nearby plot but prominent muslim leaders feared the new temple could have been

hindu nationalists to target other mosques in the region. and the us the presidential election is just 90 days away and all the signs are that donald trump is facing a difficult path to reelection she's trailing in opinion polls has been criticized for his handling of the pandemic so some republicans are now mulling what was once unthinkable voting for joe biden and november. 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 donald trump took office he no longer recognizes his party he's turned his back on it and longs for change listen i disagree with virtually every word that came out of brock obama's mouth 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. 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. in all our life. before the president has broken my. faith. riddled with guilt and very embarrassed that i voted for him and the d.n.c. run as a tomato. i will vote for them from a joke is because i believe the tomato can run through was form. that 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 provocative 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 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 focused on 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 democrat joe biden but in 2024 he wants to see a conservative candidate he can be proud of let's get some analysis on this story now we have voice foreman with us he's an expert in u.s. politics and a professor at bard college here in berlin hi boris good to have you with us we should say that the president does still have a lot of support among republicans so how influential are these dissident republicans actually. think at this point it's hard to tell what you are witnessing is that the g.o.p. is an ability to let up especially those politicians that have stuck to trump all along and know that the economy's don't you have to go for code crisis seebohm here's a problem some republicans are starting to think that how will their future look like after trying so they have to do strategic really organizing and we're seeing some political infighting that seems to be cooling as

a force you just touch upon this i mean people are asking questions about what the party might look like if president trump isn't reelected so what do you think will happen to the g.o.p. will there have to be a massive restructuring of how it looks. i think that's a great question 2012 there was a similar reckoning with into g.o.p. party the conclusion was that the g.o.p. couldn't remain on its traditional trajectory and that there had to be a more diverse compared bringing in more women for minorities that centra trump was the reaction precisely to that attempt and so the kind of crisis to reckon that happened at the time was postponed maybe until to those $21.00 big until 2025 we don't know yet but there will be a major reckoning that has to take place within the g.o.p. what about joe biden and all of this we've seen that he's opened up something of a lead in polls right now but at the same time he hasn't been seen much on the

campaign trail hasn't been actively campaigning that much so what do you attribute to that boost in the polls too is that mainly president trance handling for example of the pandemic. yeah i think i mean by that is not seen as the most charismatic candidate but i think she's had a good run because she basically checked. back. didn't really intervene in public discussions much trump has most of the work we should forget a similar thing was true for hillary clinton at the time but this is at this point so it's still early days but it's true that by. developing a lead to a few years even though it's his 1st presidential nominee by the time he might even go close or subconsciously when jennifer's reports for a month with us from bard college thank you for that analysis. ok coming up next on news asia tight security amid an uneasy calm as kashmir marks one

year since the federal government in delhi withdrew its special status. here in spanish she will have that story and much more coming right up on get up you new say just stay tuned.

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my choice the scottish because given the way told transmitted to the troops. men in the grass mom much and i will. this is d w is a show up on today's program triumphs in the us hindu nationalists i know from too many muslims in the region. empty streets and security personnel mark one year since the government in delhi has removed the autonomy of kashmir and imposed direct rules on the most of them a job to reject. on the same piece of prime minister narendra modi kicks off construction of a temple on i want to the most important courts in hinduism on the ruins of a mosque.