Transcripts For DW The Day 20240712

That shakes the house and then a 2nd to keep. Up suddenly i had lost why i could hear a noise like it when i saw something flash and i put your money through the end of that explosion that is said beyond belief. Also coming up tonight the growing far right threat here in Germany Police are investigating a series of hate mail but even if someone writes to you in detail about how you should be strangled when to be on a wire it makes you feel different because you think whats going on inside the head of the person who sent. It to our viewers on p. B. S. In the United States and all around the world welcome we begin the day in the aftermath of the beirut blast more than 24 hours after 2 explosions leveled the citys Port District rescue teams are still searching. For survivors in the rubble more than 100 people were killed when a warehouse storing tons of Ammonium Nitrate exploded the force of the blast was so strong that it was felt 150 miles away in cyprus 300000 people were displaced their homes rendered uninhabitable by the blasts today a state of emergency was declared which gives authorities the power to place under house arrest anyone who was connected to the storage of the Ammonium Nitrate today we learned that city officials knew about the explosives allowing them to be stored at the port for 6 years. A day of grief for levanon as the country reckons with the losses and destruction caused by tuesdays explosion. With many people still missing rescue workers are desperately searching for anyone still alive under the collapsed buildings. That this man was rescued after over 16 hours under the rubble. A glimmer of hope amid the devastation. Shops and homes were destroyed across beirut hundreds of thousands of people likely unable to return to their homes for months. As the lebanese begin to deal with the aftermath a strong sense of community is emerging but a feeling of disbelief still lingers. The year weve never seen anything like this in our lives its difficult and the scene its shocking and scary i took everything in after all the destruction i looked for my family and gathered of them and went out to the balcony to take a look it was a massacre. Was the. Issue for the film and as i saw a lot of her if it seems i saw dead people i saw people running and screaming all the carrying their children you know people who had lost their children others looking for their mom or their sister and it was horrific it was difficult. To get much thats all. Planes carrying rescue teams and aid have begun to arrive from countries around the world the lebanese government announced the 2 week state of emergency and ordered a number of Court Officials to be placed under house arrest they include any officials involved with guarding and storing the explosive chemical ammonia nitrate that seems to have caused the blast in. We are determined to investigate. That are you and reveal what happened as a. Soon as possible thats the reason ish those responsible. T. V. Investigators have begun searching the wreckage at beiruts airport a 1st step towards fulfilling the president s promise to deliver justice. Were going to be here at the big table now is my colleague dimeter he need from d. W. Arabic is from lebanon. Im glad you took the time to talk with us tonight i think is you know im sad im sad that we have to meet under these circumstances but what have you been hearing about the situation in beirut as well as the investigation i will tell you about the situation because less than half an hour ago i was speaking with the beirut governor and he confirmed to me that the situation is really really bad the crisis is here which you are talking about more than 300000 lebanese the out homeless now were talking theres no electricity that had been used they lost that capital basically yesterday in addition to that he was talking about the damages that he estimated that the diet of damages is between 5000000000. 00 to 10000000000. 00 this is the diet at the end that is going to be even more to the kaiser so he which thats why that about his government they were asking for help from the International Community and been and actually the International Community there that going to help lebanon because if this government or the whole state would collapse the consequences would be really really bad not only for lebanon but for the whole region to the end we know that the government has promised an investigation some Court Officials are under house arrest a bit you say youve also heard that there may be a french investigation into this yes ive been talking with many politicians in lebanon and they confirmed to me some of them basically they confirmed to me that one investigation is like in an up and clean it its that one is investigation but there are 3 behind the scenes one is a french and thats why im on one michel he would be in lebanon tomorrow not only the 1st president to see. There have been these governments and to give his support but also because many french soldiers take theyve been killed in this explosion in the port from the unified theres also another investigation as they told me some politicians its a british investigation and also the American People he spoke about it basically with the head of that even his government so you have a 3 international and one. News but also let me tell you brant its very important that there were doubts from many of you but nice people about the anybodies investigation before it was started and they added that the government said within 5 days were going to give it is out and people there would be punished for that and the question is who is it like small implying in the 4th of what is going to be the one who gave them the audit inside the portal is going to be a politician but its going to be someone in the government was going to be punished at the end of the day would be the people in lebanon and in beirut do they trust the government to carry out a thorough investigation not at all not at all at least i dont want to generalize but that this let me say its a percent they dont believe in that and specially the people they were asking for changes and one has to. Talk a little bit about what weve been seeing on social media today there is a hashtag trending on twitter that translates into english as hang up the nooses weve found a video attached to a tweet with that hashtag i want to take a look at the tweet reads children and innocent people are affected by this terrible accident take a look these children standing at the window hit by the shock waves and at 1st we thought you know that they had been knocked unconscious we see one kid get up amazingly the glass did not shatter and the woman and the 3 children are able to stand up and walk out of the room which in itself you see but there is a miracle. Again you know your country your home country are you worried about vigilantes if you would say we dont trust the government were going to deliver justice our will weigh and find out he was responsible its not the case and the ban on brand is not the case because no matter how people there are angry and all of the out for that they lost everything now not only economical wise the loss they beloved one they lost everything calms and everything but still you know the way it works in abundance not like that its like a tribe or like a family there would always be somebodys been his dad really following a certain politician or result or certain family maybe that would be coulson a little bit thats why the International Community community entered into feud now and thats why the president the french president is going to be a liberal to support the government and not in order not to collapse and theres an agreement between the politicians and the ban on that no matter what would happen were not going to go to the civil war again so that we contain the whole situation before we run out of time what have you been hearing from your friends and family there we understand you know 80 percent of lebanons food is imported in the grain silo was destroyed by this blast are they afraid that people are going to think starvation that if they are they facing starvation because of the crush for corruption and economical situation they are like under the line of father to now before this happened the last time in because of covered 19 and because of the corruption and lack of a good governing in the whole country they already facing the situation at all of this the blast that happened the sport was offering 70 percent of the trade and also were talking about this bread that is going to be what you have in the market even though the government said we have another solution temporary even for a month was not going to happen its tragic its tragic my colleague or he did we appreciate you coming in sharing this with us and we certainly are thinking and have been the best for you your family everyone in they were thank you for having me thank you. Well the lib lebanese government has ordered an investigation into the blast as we just heard in hell 2750 tons of the explosive chemical Ammonium Nitrate could be stored at this site now we can see just how powerful the blast was by comparing before and after photos of the site take a look at this here we have a look at the harbor before the blast we know the fire brigade was finding a blaze in the building that is circled in red and now you see after the blast not only has the building been completely obliterated so has the ground underneath that leaving a water filled crater and complete destruction around that area. Ammonium nitrate is used to make fertilizer and bombs in 1905 it was used in the Oklahoma City bombing which at the time was the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in u. S. History what do we know tonight about the blast in beirut lets talk about that im joined by a chemist and the what caster and mr shell its good to have you on the program youve seen the video of the explosions and what happened from that were going to show the videos again and maybe if you could talk us through it and tell us what you see when youre looking at the explosions what can be surmised from these blasts. If i can just say one thing i could actually see your screen ok but i pretty well know whats going on in the video so i will attempt to describe things so the 1st thing is that there is a fire burning somewhere in the in the warehouse itself and that fire is clearly the thing which which triggered the really massive events that followed there was then a huge orange fireball which which is which is produced and this is the initial rather slow in kind of technical terms of explosion where presumably the Ammonium Nitrate really began to burn and blow up but moments later there is a 2nd type of explosion whats called the detonation and this is one which really happens and its supersonic speed and this produces this extraordinary shockwave and one can see that huge almost spherical sort of bulb of mist which travels outwards from the center of the blast and thats really a sign of this enormous shockwave and thats the thing that will really have caused enormous amounts of damage can you im surmising based on and based on what weve been able to. See what would have triggered all of this would it have been just this fire because we understand there were firefighters on the scene would it have been fires fire crackers for example fire words that were on fire that could have been triggered Everything Else that followed so you know Ammonium Nitrate has a very sorry long term Industrial History you know starting with how at the at the in germany the 1st place where Ammonium Nitrate was manufactured and then on through the decades again and again and again Ammonium Nitrate has has detonated and has caused you know massive destruction and almost invariably these things start with a fire of some kind right and thats the thing that triggers things now when you watch the videos you do hear some sort of crackling and banging and you see flashes and so it may be that somewhere in the warehouse for adjacent to it there was a consignment of fireworks or some kinds of munitions the Fire Department would call because of course there would have been huge concerns the real worry is you know what happened to the firemen and this is very very reminiscent of what happened in tension in fighting in china in 2015 where again the fire brigade recalled to a fire in a port warehouse and then you know the detonation happened. We know as you said as you just said people know that this chemical is dangerous and yet it was stored white in the middle of beirut we learned today for up to 6 years i mean how should it properly be stored. I mean you know that is that is really designed i mean you know the quantity is absolutely enormous and you know we know that it has to be stored pretty carefully and especially not in the long term because what it tends to do is have picks up a bit of moisture it cakes up it becomes much more solid and at that point it becomes more dangerous the idea that you had 3000 tons of this stuff which is that really close to residential areas just doesnt bear thinking about and its an indication of an absolutely massive regulator a failure i mean you know we have very very stringent in all countries regulations governing how you handle and how you store Ammonium Nitrate for this very reason these but it appears that in beirut there they got into a kind of tangle between the legal authorities the safety authorities the port authorities the just lead to gridlock and so its just kind of there and there is a complacency here remember when Nothing Happened we start to see you model be ok its missile before. Something like this could happen in another city somewhere on the planet i mean this is a just a beirut specific tragedy is it. Well you know its its incredibly hard to make predictions especially about the future but the history of Ammonium Nitrate tells us that this thing happens regularly again and again and it really underlines the reason why we must never lower our guard when it comes to chemical safety regulations and industrial accidents happen a lot they happen due to kind of complicated change will be very very difficult to ascribe blame to one or another individual you are clearly responsibilities all the way down the line and it will happen again unfortunately you know and its unfortunate that the people in beirut could not profit from the knowledge that you know that i know that is so common around the world what a tragedy a catastrophic. Andreea seller joining us tonight from switzerland mr so we appreciate your time and your insights tonight thank you. Pleasure. The man on trial for shooting a german lawmaker in the head and killing him have confessed today stephanie a far right extremist told the court in frankfurt that he pulled the trigger in june of last year killing a vulture luka lukich was a member of the german chancellor Angela Merkels conservative christian democrats and a regional politician in the west of the country he was known for his stance defending refugees and migrants. Well the killing of all to live go once again turned public attention to the dangers of neo nazis here in Germany Police are now investigating a series of hate mails from neo nazis which have been sent to politicians journalists and activists some of the threats contain personal information about the recipients information which is not Public Information which was its access apparently on Police Computers in a moment ill speak with someone who has been targeted but 1st we have this report mehmet has often seen hatred with his own eyes the lawyer has mostly seen it in german court houses while representing victims of far right terrorism there he faces neo nazis young and old to them he is an enemy stereotype. If someone writes to you in detail about how you should be strangled with the piano wire it makes you feel differently because you think whats going on inside the head of the person who sent. Them up in the 4 lately has been getting hate mail from the individual or Group Calling themselves and as you 2. 0 they threaten him and many other prominent people with violence and death and they signed their messages with z. Kayal untile hitler as well as the symbol of the s. S. Which is forbidden in germany the name refers to the farmer a terror Group National socialist underground or n. S. U. For short the terror group murdered 10 people between 2002007 carried out several bomb attacks their motive racism. Represented victims family members in the trial against the n. S. U. And its supporters the court ruled that the n. S. U. Consisted of 3 individuals and the case was closed in 2018. Targeted me in my closing arguments in munich i said that if we do not tackle these problems in the end as you will never end and thats exactly where we are now it will be. Until now it has been unclear exactly who is behind the current slew of hate mail germanys interior minister horst also finds the threats disturbing especially be apparent connection to the police the personal data of those who receive the threats was accessed on Police Computers several times but the whole fund does not believe its a structural problem instead he says these are isolated incidents. We do not tolerate any right wing extremist activities within the security agencies or he was in the Public Service as a whole. This. Wherever such a case emerges it will be tracked and clarified and consequences will be applying regardless of who is involved in 2004 the forseen d. W. Host Michel Friedman has been another target of n. F. U. 2. 0 he rejects the notion of isolated incidents theyre not in this woodside pool whoever cannot accept after n. S. U. To point out that we have a structural problem in germany that reflects right wing extremism both in everyday racism in micro racism as well as in a real axis of highlands has not understood how much democracy is threatened in germany. By excess they have. No chance or it is almost every member of michelle fleet month family was murdered by the nazis in auschwitz hes calling on all german citizens to get involved in the battle against the far right now so that history doesnt repeat itself long solved well the german actress and comedian deal is one of the people who received these threatening mails she joins me tonight from frankfurt you dont get to have you on the day when i ask you its just the 1st time youve received threatening mails. No threatening emails i didnt receive since like 2 years now and i already went to the police and already put in comes the complaint and the file and actually they did nothing and we understand that in this case your your details your information was accessed from a Police Computer in the german state of hasnt do you trust the police to investigate this. No i honestly have to say this is deeply disturbing to me because basically police should be the one who takes care of all a safetys no matter from where we are but obviously thats not the case i think its important to note is that i am not a full german. Migrant my trainer and smite rate it so i think for us is a different situation than floor lamp lou i germans would tell me what you mean by that do you think the police look at your kings and treated differently than they would for a german with blue eyes born here. Well we do have. The situation that migrants get criminalized over here we had that with it and as you case we understood that there is a structure of problem even Police Members are saying that god bless they are some Police Members who do understand the urgency of this. Habit manner. So no i do not trust the police in what they do because they say they investigate but funny as it is they have they not come into any kind of conclusions which is kind of disturbing because they find people in the darkness but somehow they do not find the people who threaten us i mean in this case with these latest threatening emails have you had a chance or have the Police Contacted you have you been able to tell the police how you feel. Well a when it became public that which a journalist investigated actually at the door only called me on monday telling me that he has this information they will go public on tuesday so on tuesday in the Afternoon Police said yes they would like to talk to me and give me another security and vice talk do you feel safe no i dont i dont feel safe im thinking about leaving this country which is terrible for me because this is my home place but these kind of threats and these kind of attacks they do get more and more and more every year and obviously nobodys interested in doing something i mean is does the old why did. You want it to do with racism. Racism how to call it. Studies. Said no we dont need it because racism is forbidden so. This is really not understandable the way most of the able to act and i think this is way out of place and you think things are getting worse in the country have been about 30 seconds yes definitely i mean we had how we had how know how no 90 writer and people got killed by a nazi german person. Who also wrote a manifesto of the you know nazi soldiers he was known it was a release its not like he was no one he was no but they didnt do anything either by our german actress and comedian you know i hope were going to chance to talk again and i hope since youre a comedian the next time we talk we can talk about something that makes us laugh thank you very much from then on the certain aisle is so much to sort of yell. All right the day is almost done the covers asia continues online youll find us on twitter either going to be news you can follow me at brit golf t. V. Every member whatever happens between now and then tomorrow its another day well see a bit about. This woman that is defying the regime. To a must move has been searching for her husband and son for years both might be victims of syrias secret service now know theres a ray of hope. Suspected henchmen of assad are on trial in germany. Some clues only to. Mr t. W. The time and place captured in pictures. Images of cars on. The flu studios archive documents lives in bygone eras. And leads to those living today. They are guarding gazas past in a box. It starts from august 14th. Hour hes. Pleasance. Forests and entire residential areas. Rising temperatures water shortages lands clearance theres an abundance of flammable material once again. Stuck. Somewhere between. Will be a conflagration the world on fire starts aug 12th on w. Hello and welcome to a new edition of focus on europe we begin today is show with a conflict that might be far away from europe geographically but still has a direct impact on our continent with the says of the syrian war a tale harrowing stories of arbitrary arrests torture and killings by the syrian secret police