that's cross live now to our europe correspondent, peter oliver, who's following a loan of the explosion. looks worrying. what else are we learning at this stage? well, the whole area around the city of labor crews and in north run west valley or in the, the west of germany is well of the roads. the whole area is old. clothes down. there are reports of sirens going off, not only in the city of live accused, but also in nearby towns anecdotally, i've been told the town of sali, the city of thought again and here people hearing fire and then being told, stay inside, get inside a building close windows and doors, while the emergency service is trying to determine if there is any risk from this explosion, we seem from the pictures, the huge plume of smoke that rose up. it is covering a large area. now what we've heard from ken park, which is the body which operates this, this facility in labor cruise, and is that at around $940.00 on tuesday morning and explosion took place. we've also been finding out some of the situation on the ground which have been confirmed that 2 people have been seri

now for more on the story we cross live to r t is peter oliver. hey there peter. so it's a huge fine. bring us up to speed on the development. 500000000 euros. it's a big chunk of change. even if you're a company like google, who it's estimated, is made around $46000000000.00 already in the 1st quarter of 2021. this is still one of those type of finds that they will fail. it's the largest find that google has faced in france. it see the 2nd largest find the french anti trust regulators of handed out to a single company ever. the reason that they've done it is that google was told that they had to come to some kind of fer agreement with publishers when it came to using news on their platforms. they didn't do that. they pretty much ignored it as far as what we, we can take from this. and that's the reason why they've been slapped with this 500000000 euro fine. the regulators say the size of the fine they've been given shows just how seriously they're taking it. when they are sorry to decrease an obligation for a company, it must comply scrupulously both in the spiri

peter oliver r t. in cologne, germany, russian athletes are continuing their impressive metal the whole at the tokyo games, in fact, reaching double figures in gold medals this friday. it means the russian olympic committee team now sits forth on the table. however, sadly you'd be hard pressed to find many saluting their success. earlier in the day, my colleague, you know, neil discussed the story with ortiz, saskia taylor will be limping. should be a huge celebration and need athletes all discipline from all over the world, coming together at one event showcasing the skills. unfortunately, for russian athletes competing out this, he has turkey games. that just hasn't been the case. they might be scooping up towards the russian that the committee will already see. does carney rank stud in total metal, but the atmosphere has been so hostile, it's been filled with suspicion, criticism, very little good sportsmanship from the global media and of course, photo competitors. for example, us when ryan murphy,

as peter oliver now reports. now the more than half of the german population have been fully vaccinated against coven. 19 the debate amongst politicians has moved on to whether that vaccination should entitle people to more freedoms. the president of the bond, the stag, things that should, i do not see any constitutional issues for differentiating between those who have been tested on the one hand and those who have recovered or been vaccinated on the other. since the risk of vaccination is extremely low, according to current data, not everyone is convinced of the constitutional fairness of such a device of move though, the german justice minister doesn't think it's right to split society down the lines of the vaccine. and the wax not should stick to the principle that those who have been vaccinated recovered or have a negative covered test, should retain all their freedoms. the justice minister is against mandatory vaccination. but those believe that everybody who can get a job should get one the result using ge

it will be a topic of discussion larkey that peter oliver brings is this story and more from berlin. the man in charge of the nord stream to gas pipeline. my tears vondik says the project should be finished with the construction phase by as soon as next month . it will then take around 3 months after that for them to get certification in place as well as safety checks to be carried out. then the pipeline will be ready to start taking gas from the gas fields of siberia, all the way to northern germany. on the baltic sea and then on towards the rest of western europe. the project itself had been delayed by at least a year and a half in cost untold millions due to us sanctions for president donald trump pod being vehemently opposed to the project. in fact, he wanted the new to buy more us liquefied natural gas, or l n g. the today though, is the cost. it costs a lot more money to ship thought across the atlantic, and then develop the facilities needed to re gasser fi that l n g, before it can be used than it does to pipe gas directly from russia under the sea, straight into germany, joe

let's fill in some of the blanks with a europe corresponded peter oliver, peter, hello, some dramatic pictures emerging online. never a good sign when you're told to stay indoors and keep the window shut. i've seen not a line coming through. what is known at this stage. right, this is all developing very quickly pictures of emerged, showing huge plumes of smoke coming out from that by a plant in the city of live accrues. and in the west of germany, the highway runs just passed. it people have been taking videos from cause and, and other vehicles as well there, the emergency services are on the scene already, but more, we're trying to get there right now. in fact, the fire service of the, the, for the region there is saying, please make sure that you can allow emergency vehicles to, to make their way along the highway move to the sides of the road. there's also tests being carried out to see just what could be in not smoke that is billowing out from the plant in labor, cruise and right now. now police have said to people in the area that they should remain in doors to close that window

but it is western germany belts bore the brunt or europe correspondent peter oliver repeats. here in all phyla in the state of royal and latin, the. this one of the worst affected areas by the fluid you can see over to my left on this building, where the water actually reached well above my own head. the job for people here right now is cleaning up following this disaster. you can see just behind me as people have taken all of their belongings from their houses, putting them out on the streets. everything covered with thick brown sludge that mud the rain waters the flood waters brought with them when they came into people's homes. extreme, heavy downpour started on wednesday and sold months worth of rainfall. in a matter of hours, people in these towns say it was beyond their worst nightmare. it didn't mean to several people, a dead. the bridge of the was destroyed or the bridges in all the towns had been swept away. people don't have anything to eat or drink. there is much and such everywhere. everything is damaged. the many houses of colossus. biggest disasters ever happene

his peter oliver low but whole area around the city of labor crews and in north run west valley or in the the west of germany is well, the roads, the whole area is old, closed down. there are reports of sirens going off not only in the city of live accused, but also in nearby towns anecdotally, i've been told the town of sali, the city is told again. here people, hearing sirens, then being told, stay inside, get inside a building close windows and doors. while the emergency service is trying to determine if there is any risk from this explosion we've seen from the pictures the huge plume of smoke that rose up. it is covering a large area. now what we've heard from ken park, which is the body which operates this, this facility in labor cruise. and is that at around $940.00 on tuesday morning, an explosion took place the residence of lever cruz and are asked to go to close the rooms, turn off air conditioning, and as a precaution, keep windows and doors closed. several employees are injured in the events, at least 2 of them seriously. they are currently receiving medical treatment. 5 em

continuing to tell you just said to be the worst of its kind in 200 years or europe corresponded peter oliver reports from germany. the people you can see working around me are all volunteers. you've come here to try and do whatever they can. one of the big problems they say that facing though, is that there's no real coordination with the emergency services, like the fire brigade, or the police, or even the military who are here in this area as well. although there's no shortage of people willing to help. many of those don't know if by turning appear, they're actually causing problems by parking cause in the way of stopping emergency vehicles guessing where they need to be. i think it's a heart to, in this federal system to, to coordinate some things like this. i asked the firework is where my help is needed because i drove with my brother and a friend here just to help. and they just didn't know exactly where to put the help they will like, i don't know either. and a lot of people are just like, ok, we want to have would want to do something but tend to make it worse if just standing in the

and use functions if small string to is used for political gain on teams. europe correspond to peter oliver. how's the details the united states and germany are steadfast in their support for ukraine sovereignty territorial integrity, independence, and chosen european pass. the united states and germany are united in their determination to hold, rush her to account for its aggression and malign activities by imposing costs of our sanctions and other tools. just a few weeks ago, it was announced that the construction phase of north stream 2 would be completed next month. after that, it takes around 3 months for certification and safety checks to be carried out, and then the gas can start flowing all the way from siberia, under the baltic sea and into germany through this new pipeline. the u. s. saying that they're not going to stand in the way openly of the project is one thing, but we've certainly heard all coming out on wednesday. is that, well, they're still not particularly happy about nodes stream to you told this committee that you believed to nordstrom to pipeline would have disastrou

people are still missing those intense rescue efforts. continue. ortiz peter oliver is on the ground for us in germany. devastation thus was being left in the wake of waters that told through towns like this one in western germany leader of the state of nor throwing west valia and number one contender to be next chancellor of germany and lush. it is called the flood a historic disaster countries going through flooding, catastrophe on the historic scale, almost moss, as the waters of started to recede by into something close to their normal levels, you can see the trail of destruction that's being left by the flood that ripped through towns like this one, these old buildings that were in the past didn't stand much of a chance that river flows just over my left ton shoulder here, where you can see it only does it destroyed everything is caught there. but on a molten house, just behind me, torn half of the side of the building off in some places in the flooded region, the clean up has been able to start. i was here, i just finished cleaning up stock was about to sit down to enjoy a cup

ortiz peter oliver has the report is before the flood struck west in germany, belgium look simberg and the netherlands, the copernicus, satellites that make part of the european float awareness system detected problems were on their way for the region. people in our viola, one of the worst effected towns in germany, have been critical of the warnings, or lack thereof that were given or done come to the case. no one was expecting it. the warning came too late. a public announcement, 5 or 6 hours in advance would have helped to say some essential belonging or another problem is that many elderly people didn't even understand what was going on. they didn't hear anything about it. and then they're also the foreigners. everything should have been organized better. people should have gone door to door or received a warning by phone, audio history of what happened with the opinions of experts analyze what happened. today's information. you can just refer to the fact that people were informed by text message. you have to imagine how much information is being dumped on people every day already.

peter oliver, you may think that it's all vaccines that have been given the green light by the world health organization and all the major bodies would be treated the same around europe. however, if you will, getting an astrazeneca vaccine, it may be worth while checking where it was manufactured. because if it was one of those that is being produced in india, it may not comb with the benefits you think it does. now, some european states including france, and it's really say they won't accept travelers who have been vaccinated with astrazeneca doses manufactured in india. as it stands. it depends on where you want to go in year if whether or not you're indian manufactured vaccine will be accepted for entry here in germany, along with 14 other countries in europe. you're good to go anywhere else, including france, italy, denmark, at a raft of all the human to states. you face being turned away. that's despite the job being backed by the w, a job and the vaccination given as part of the un kovacs program. we have to remember that during different damage, our challenges was to persuade

meantime, helicopters are trying to evacuate any survivors from rooftops or europe correspondent peter oliver's in the region for us. this is really here in hog in the reins over night that were forecasts didn't turn out to be that heavy. and we, we haven't seen any further rain falling on these already swollen rivers and lakes and already salt and ground. so far on friday, on thursday though, where i'm speaking to you from. so a 120 high watermark reached in just a few hours after was the rainfall came down and swept away large amounts of of well everything that was by the sides of the rivers. i'm speaking to you now just in front of a bridge that was under construction at the time local to telling me that well, construction equipment that was all not bridge was swept away as if it was nothing the work of trying to shoot without construction up. and making sure that if there is any further swells in the river here, that no more damage be done. because i see the physical called the, the material costs that unfortunately, and tragically, the human cost of this natural disaster is still well beyo

are europe correspondent, peter oliver, can tell us more from the scene just before 10 o'clock in the morning on tuesday when there was an explosion at the chemical park just behind me here. ah, it's been a huge clue of black float into the sky, could be seen for miles and miles around and caused huge panic amongst local residents. now, 2 people have confirmed to being killed the site following the explosion. and the subsequent fire over 30 people were injured, some of those and a very serious condition. there is also 3 people who remain missing following this explosion and fire the chaos which it caused well is still being felt. many hours after the fire itself was put out. it took fire services 3 hours to do that. they were on the scene very quickly. hundreds of fire and police services on the scene, but it did take as they say over 3 hours for them to put bad out the traffic chaos that it is caused around the area here of labor crews. and it's still all going. it's right in the evening now on tuesdays and speaking to you. a lot of the roads around here all still very much heavily u

so what, when so ro ortiz peter oliver has the report is before the flood struck west in germany, belgium looks in bergen benevolence, the copernicus, satellites that make your part of the european float awareness system detected problems. where on their way for the region, people in our viola, one of the worst effected towns in germany, have been critical of the warnings, or lack thereof that were given when done come to the no one was expecting it, the warning came too late. a public announcement, 5 or 6 hours in advance, would have helped to say some essential belonging. and other problem is that many elderly people didn't even understand what was going on if they didn't hear anything about it. and then they're also the foreigners. everything should have been organized better. people should have gone door to door or received a warning by phone. visiting the scene of utter devastation caused by the flooding and western germany champ langler merkel pledged more efforts to tackle the challenges posed by climate change. quickly chavez, which is the germany, is a country that can overcome t

exempt, plus they will be free from quarantining even if they come from high risk zones. ortiz peter oliver has been looking at the divisions appearing in germany over the issue. now that more than half of the german population have been fully vaccinated against coven, 19 the debate amongst politicians has moved on to whether the vaccination should entitle people to move freedoms. the president of the bond, the stag, things that showed what that could me is that those who had their full vaccinations could have more access to things like restaurants, theaters, sport, stadiums. i do not see any constitutional issues for differentiating between those who have been tested on the one hand and those who have recovered or been vaccinated on the other. since the risk of vaccination is extremely low according to current data. not everyone is convinced of the constitutional fairness of such a device that moves. so the german justice minister doesn't think it's right to split society down the lines of the vaccine and the wax not there will be no compulsory public vaccination. we should stick to the pr