Alone welcome to the show im Stephen Beardsley in berlin its good to have you with us times are already tough in lebanon food prices were rising Power Outages becoming more frequent and coronavirus case numbers climbing now the need to rebuild the countrys largest port following explosion on tuesday threatens to expose just how threadbare the countrys economy really is. A city in ruins. Its gateway to the Global Economy destroyed. Lebanon is scrambling to pick up the pieces of this weeks explosion. But long before the blast levanon to qana mewe was then a death spiral. Rampant inflation in an increasingly worthless currency plunging many lebanese into poverty hunger and despair. All now are sure to get worse. More than 250000 people have lost their homes in beirut. And countless businesses have been destroyed. And we compensate. We lost our houses all shops and a house of my grandfather. Lost my uncles wife and we took out from under the rubble is there anything bigger than this except. The explosion level of beiruts port the countrys main artery for imports like food and fuel the bulk of the countrys grain and flour was stored in a silo there. The United Nations warns the blast could leave lebanon with a severe shortage of both of those staples. International leaders have pledged to send the lebanese government aid. But there are strings attached. Would you like to see the priorities a done it with unconditional support for the population in the months and years now if you want to france has been demanding indispensable reforms and sons notice an Energy Government procurement in the fight against corruption if these reforms are not carried out lebanon will continue to sink if it will continue on some. Efforts while now turning to rebuilding beirut. That rebuilding the economy may be a longer and more difficult task. Im joined now by christoph claim on hes project director for lebanon and syria with the freedom now been funded asian and he joins me from beirut you were close to the port when the explosion occurred could you briefly tell me what your experience was yes i was at my apartment just coming back from work my apartment is approximately 800 meters away. Explosion. I 1st heard the 1st small explosion that felt a little bit like an earthquake and then a couple of minutes later as this big explosion that we always saw on television that looks like an atomic bomb explosion and i felt this wave coming at me and i just was hiding behind. My whole space to direct you could see glass everywhere all the doors were flying around the apartment i was very lucky fortunately that nothing happens when you. Know because of the economy in lebanon has deteriorated rapidly over the past 6 months just how bad is it for normal lebanese. For a lot of people it has really become a. Statistic that show around 50 percent of the lebanese now live below the public line and that is a dramatic indicator you have unemployment rates of around 40 percent. Currency lost around 80 percent since the beginning of the year for a lot of people to say this is just an incredible that if you look at for instance the price. Of rice it used to be 5000. 00 lebanese pounds now its around 15000. 00 lebanese homes but salaries have stayed same or have even gone down and a lot of people lost their jobs so it shows you that it becomes almost you know very difficult to actually buy food stuff speaking of food stuff now the countrys largest port which is the main artery for a lot of that food stuff its in ruins what does that mean for the economy that is of course. Problem is. First and foremost a problem also for Food Security in this country. Is the 2nd port up in the north in tripoli its a much smaller hole and its very close to the Syrian Border also a security concern told in that sense the destruction of that by report is really its not only to import essential. Goods but specifically food and other essential troops all right Christoph Lehmann with the foundation thank you very much thank you. The over to wall street now where the 2nd quarter was a bloodbath for Many Companies but investors expected worse and thats helped push markets back up to record territory with more than 400 of the s. And p. 500. 00 Listen Companies having reported earnings were 22 percent above analysts expectations for that period covers the lock down heavy months of april may and june detector the nasdaq index has already reached a new record all the s. And p. 500 is nearing its previous record set in february. And lets look into this with our financial correspondent in new york korda. Yens investors seem happy but the reality is that a lot of these Companies Really got hit hard in the 2nd quarter is wall streets on a different page than main street yeah i mean clearly the stock market is decoupled from reality and then also if you look at the Stock Performance its a bit tricky because just 5 Big Tech Companies stand for about 20 percent of the valuation of the s. And p. 500. 00 so is those 5 stocks doing good that makes the s. And p. 500 in general look much better than it really is that if you have it companies in the leisure industry if you look at the airlines the Big Oil Companies and so on and so forth some big consumer names they clearly did pretty bad in the pastas 3 months that does not really get reflected in the stock market and there are 2 terms here on wall street fold more and you know fear of missing out is the one and then there is no alternative to stocks was all the cheap money from the Federal Reserve so that also played a role by the stock markets is extremely strong and as you mentioned almost an all time highs with the s. And p. 500. 00. Briefly is there anything that could stop this drive right now. Yes sure a lot of things can go wrong i mean 1st of all we shouldnt forget that we paid his heavy heavy debt to keep the economy going and then we will see what happens to all this governmental 8 fall and in talking about fall what will happen to the coronavirus and also what happens lets say for example to restaurants if the weather turns worse so there are clearly a lot of things that can go sour it was the stock market it was the economy all right there for us in new york thank you. And now to some of the other business stories making global headlines u. S. President donald trump says hes reintroducing a 10 percent tariff on canadian steel claims canada broke its promise not to flood the u. S. With exports he made the announcement at a Campaign Rally in ohio its unclear when the tariffs will be implemented. Has reported a 1800000000. 00 loss in the past quarter to the coronavirus thats almost a 30 percent drop on last year its ride sharing business took the biggest hit but the pandemic drove up revenue in its Food Delivery Company eats. Microsoft is interested in buying the entire Global Business of tech talk from its Chinese Parent Company that according to the Financial Times 3 microsoft plans had previously previously left out the european and indian operations of the social video app and the collapse of the air the collapse of air travel during the crisis in the 2nd quarter was unsurprisingly perhaps a big blow to move tons of with more than a 1000000000 euros in losses now chairman carson spores talking about cutting costs and cutting jobs most of lufthansas planes are still grounded parked and currently unused runways the German Airline has been part nationalized with the new deal granting 9000000000 euros in state aid but experts remain skeptical about its future. Its highly unlikely that look towns and air travel in general will be able to return to creak or run the virus levels in any case it will be several years before it does and look times it will take a pretty heavy knock. Indeed in the 2nd quarter of this year the airline suffered operational losses to the tune of 1700000000 euros c. E. O. Carsten spore seen here in better days says recovery will take until at least 2024 by which time look tons aims to become a smaller and more efficient Enterprise Management says that job cuts are unavoidable thats the case that other European Airlines to look tons is planning 22000 job cuts affecting 17 percent of its staff ryan air wants to slash 16 percent of its jobs while it British Airways more than a quarter of jobs are endangered and if their friends 16 percent of employees also face painful cuts it will be a long road to recovery will see tens of thousands of jobs being act in the meantime and it is the worst year in any asian history and it is going to leave a mark one way or the other it looks set to be a bumpy ride unions are already gearing up for a fight and with the pandemic still in full swing carefree air travel as it once was will be pioneer sky for a long time to come. Through. Well its not all bad news video game maker nintendo says its leveled up raking in a 1000000000 euros in the past quarter thats 6 times the profit of the same period last year behind the rise of the popular switch console and the hit game animal crossing the gains come as global lock downs kept more people indoors. Thanks for joining us. From nigeria you know thats what many would. Consider. And successful beyond belief. This is the way we do it. Would start 7 on d w. All fall. Until i feel sick that i see a sure shot not. A World Without beethoven i constantly begin to imagine. That tells the. Story of september 16th on d w. On neil and im going to call compile the 2nd season on the fence system about the environment its still about society and its still about us but all the planets on the brink he spoke to several leading experts in the face of. The church. Look up just to get a couple of big cents to. Good use crime fighters are back africas most successful radio drama series continues. This season the stories focus on hate speech prevention and sustainable charcoal production. Olympus odes are Available Online and of course you can share and discuss on africas Facebook Page and other social media platforms. Crime fighters tune in now. Playing. Welcome to arts and culture its the 100000000 euro Art Collection that got away what am i talking about stick around for that story and a dragon who fears humans with good reason the new animated film dragon a writer based on a beloved childrens book. German artist wife gungahlin thai uses terms to create his artworks and now theyre not a coronavirus. And over 3000. Handles bringing the heavens down to earth for a very special outdoor performance. But 1st imagine someone tries to give you an Art Collection worth millions of euros how fast would you say yes well thats what irish born american artist sean scully was offering a museum in the city where he lives his own invaluable lifes work but the museum and cars who are germany didnt say yes as enthusiastically as he expected its a tale of frustrations slow bureaucracy and some invaluable artworks stuck in the middle. Sean scully wanted to donate 280 of his works worth 100000000 euros to the current in the city of cars. And leaders in the region seen