In the form of International Community germany is sending search and rescue experts to beirut and a plane full of aid has just arrived from qatar. And solidarity with the people of indian administered kashmir protest take place in missouri for about to mark one year since india revoked the disputed regions autonomy. And he similarly small little confirmed he will not defend his u. S. Open title later this month because of coronavirus fears. Welcome to the news are we begin in lebanons capital beirut where the governor has described the fallout from choose the explosion as apocalyptic the president michel has promised an investigation into the blast that killed at least 100 people and injured thousands more as it ripped through the city is in the heart of reports. The people of this disaster stricken city are starting to assess and comprehend the extent of the damage of a blast that was far more destructive than any explosion lebanon has ever seen just before sunset on tuesday highly explosive material stored at a warehouse at beirut port caused the blast sending shock waves across the city now in ruins. Almost every build. Has been damaged many are dead thousands are injured and hundreds are missing rescue workers worked through the night and into the morning as people and bodies were feared trapped underneath the rubble because it was said my husband is an employee at the Electricity Company he survived but his colleagues didnt they only now move in their bodies from under the rubble this is a country already reeling from a dire economic crisis where 50 percent of the population live below the poverty line its people are not in a position to cope with this disaster. Of the. Material losses are sad but its nothing compared to those who lost their lives this is my taxi its my livelihood and im still paying for it. Everyone has a story of survival or tragedy the damage spread several kilometers many are blaming those in power for the catastrophe. This was lebanons hiroshima we trusted them with our money our souls our lives and they betrayed us why are they still in power they should all resign we only have their day will come. Authorities are appealing for help from the International Community the state is close to bankruptcy. Its like a big earthquake hit lebanon by roots this will cost billions of dollars to restore the economy will get even worse because businesses have been hit entirely in order for it to relaunch a nice new investments we will not despair some countries have started to send much needed medical supplies the Health Care System was already close to collapse hospitals have been laying off staff in recent months because of the financial crisis and. We are an afflicted hospital there is no hospital as you can see hospital is closed and now we wait for our directors in order to receive instructions because we want to start the recovery workers cannot get in also as you can see because its unsafe the ceiling is falling down it is a critical situation. Lebanons leaders are promising an investigation to determine who was responsible for storing Ammonium Nitrate without Safety Measures at the port for years and. We are determined to investigate and reveal what happened as soon as possible and bring those responsible to justice and punish them accordingly we will transparently announce the results of these investigations but those who hold power are being blamed for negligence incompetence and corruption people are in shock with anger is also growing out of Political Class many blame for mismanagement and being responsible for running the economy into the ground months of protests calling for a new leadership have been met by a militarized state and demands by the International Community to fight corruption. And especially at the report in order to be eligible for Financial Aid have gone and hurt what many call a manmade disaster is the latest crisis to hit a country already on its knees so much has been lost when there was already so little lets cross over to our correspondent in beirut tell me insane are you not just one of our senior middle east correspondents and you know the region so very well but this is your home city and you are a shock to most probably as anybody else about whats going on behind you in the last 24 hours. No doubt behind me is beirut port or what is left of beirut port you can see the scale of the damage this was a massive massive explosion shock waves were felt across the city i was a few kilometers from here walking in the street when i heard a thud i thought it was a mock air raid because israeli warplanes have been flying frequently violating lebanese airspace as of late but then i saw smoke and this and the shockwave pushed us to the ground glass everywhere panic chaos this country has hasnt been immune really to Political Violence and assassination so the 1st thing that came to our minds that this is yet another political assassination and then reports emerge that some sort of an accident happened at the beirut airport but people here are refusing to call it an accident theyre calling it a man made disaster theyre blaming the authorities for for this hundreds of people remain missing many of them port employees people who were working at beirut ports when that explosion went off their families are hoping that they will be 5 found alive but as you can see its going to be very very difficult even to find the remains of people there was a fire it began with a fire at one of the warehouses and firefighters were called in and as they were trying to put out the flames the fire spread to the warehouse where that Ammonium Nitrate was stored and that caused the blast so horrific scenes weve been driving across the city this morning almost every building is damaged and 300000 people are now made homeless indeed of course both the president and the Prime Minister have been speaking in the last few hours and this is poignant because the people here the politicians speak the speak but they dont walk the walk and if they do walk the world they will be walking out of office. Well a lot of people are angry its not just shock there is anger they believe that theres negligence incompetence and corruption there asking questions what was all this Ammonium Nitrate doing at a warehouse especially that reports are emerging that the authorities were well aware of the presence of this highly explosive material many have lost faith in the leaders and the leadership yes this is a new relatively new Government Faces but they were appointed by the same Political Parties who have been governing this country for decades the same parties who have been accused of running the economy into the ground this is why its going to be very very difficult for the people to cope because already 50 percent of the population live below the poverty line 32 percent of the workforce lost their jobs businesses have been closing down theres a shortage in foreign currency peoples savings are trapped in banks there informal capital controls in place theres a scarcity of dollars the local the local currency has devalued by 80 per cent and then you have a Health Care System which is collapsing so people do not have faith in those in power they believe they will not carry out a proper and independent investigation in fact already voices are calling for an independent International Investigation to find out exactly what happened. Last really that. Whole city and indeed the search and rescue operation as you said he continues the hospitals and the medical staff really under strain. Yes the hospitals are under strain the Health Care System was already collapsing before before this blast the private hospitals were already firing employees at the biggest hospital the American University of beirut hospital they fired 850 nurses and administrators just a few weeks ago because they couldnt they could no longer pay them why because people are losing their jobs when they lose their jobs they lose private insurance and they no longer can go to hospitals and its not just that the cash strapped government its private hospitals billions of dollars and then you have the Public Hospitals which are underfunded theyve been they collected for decades and so they are struggling and thats why politicians have been calling on countries to send medical assistance and some countries are answering that call you mentioned earlier qatar sending a Field Hospital other countries are going to follow suit but those who oppose the government critics of the government are appealing to International Donors not to provide aid to the government directly theyre saying give give the money give help to the people directly or through n. G. O. S because i can tell you people have lost a lot of faith with those who are Holding Power so they go to him but he wrote songs for the update. So as we heard beiruts governor has said that the disaster could cost lebanon in excess of around about 3000000000. 00 and it couldnt have come at a worse time azania mentioned the economy has been unraveling during months of antigovernment protests of allegations of corruption and mismanagement in march lebanon defaulted on 90000000000. 00 worth of debt talks with the International Monetary fund on a bailout stalled last month after infighting between the government and its central bank the lebanese currency which remains pegged to the dollar has lost 80 percent of its value since october thats been devastating for a country that imports most of its goods food costs are up 190 percent on the year and salaries and savings of lost much of their value while the fallout from the pandemic over 100 percent poverty and unemployment soaring judge joe barton is an economist specializing in Health Education and labor policies he says the Economic Situation is so dire it could be treated as a humanitarian issue. We have direct costs and direct costs you know the direct cost to repair the physical infrastructure the private property losses the public property losses and those you have in direct cost because this is you know huge interruption to whatever what was that stuff livelihoods of peoples income people who lost their bread earners and their main income earners the report which is now out of service for a long time the International Community should view the penny citizens now as it cannot make refugees in a status country because this state ruled by thugs has committed another act of war on its people with this massive explosion that is a deliberate act of more than negligence this is not an accident this was stored for more than decade everybody knew it was there from the top of the government the simplest employee on the port everyone knew this dangerous because equipment and chemicals were there to defend his people need help we need help right now and indeed a unhealthful even exacerbate the economic consequences of this and this help can be china through humanitarian support directly with the agencies that are on the ground i dont think frankly we have any other option if even if were paid some compensation money to rebuild it would be paid in the benes pounds which are worth 6. 00 of their value and we still need to import a lot of the roman curia. Every great Construction Material possible and from the initial assessment i mean 80 percent of beirut has that been damaged from the blast so this is a huge humanitarian operation and it should be treated as such. The member of Lebanons Parliament has resigned in protest over the port explosion there demanded an International Inquiry into the blast in his Resignation Letter he served in various program positions including minister of trade health and telecommunications is a former candidate of the Lebanese Parliament he says politicians must have known the explosive materials were kept at the port the company and that is importing should be investigated and what was the purpose and why that big amount of material and then the 2nd question is why were they kept in one place why not in the safe position away from the port which is a critical element in the infrastructure knowing the threat that they included and why were they decided to be exported why were they impounded for 6 years and no one was capable of taking action this can only happen with excessive political pressure and intervention in the Justice System which means people in the political establishment are by leading to this and that is why a lot of big heads should roll on this they should be held accountable the current government the current president of the republic those are the people who should be held accountable for the crime against humanity that both of the struction office city because of negligence the deaths of more than 100 people and the hospitalization of more than 4000 today the hospitals have been calling for distress because there morgues are full of places to put that the bodies in the hospitals of downtown beirut theyre starting to move dead bodies to other hospitals and on the country this is mass murder committed by the negligence and the political interests off if you will articulate thing the political power in this country and abusing its people. Governments around the world have been sending offers to assist lebanon france says 2 planes are being sent with aid and resources including Fire Fighters and medical stuff french president Manuel Buchholz says the age should allow for the treatment of 500 victims hes due to travel to beirut on thursday or russia also in a state is on the way sending 5 planes of humanitarian supplies the planes will deliver a mobile Hospital Medical staff and vital drugs and germany says its ready to dispatch a team of search and rescue experts its embassy in beirut was damaged in the blast and diplomats were forced to relocate lets get more on this war correspondent in germany dominic cain obviously the germans are coming to part of the rescue you might say dominic but what are the rest of europe planning to do individually or even as part of the e. U. Well in addition to those measures that youve just introduced for us we also know that the European Union at a wide a level in the pan european level has activated its your Civil Protection mechanism which allows that to dispatch firefighters search and rescue offices that sort of thing but also specially trained dog teams to go to the area and to help in as far as it is possible to find survivors within the site of where the disaster took place now that that unit will will contain personnel from the netherlands from the Czech Republic and from greece thats something that the e. U. Is able to do instantaneously as it were its also said that its prepared to offer the benefits of its Satellite Operations to the lebanese authorities so that they can go through the satellite imagery that the European Union has access to to help them in their deliberations and of course there have been expressions of widespread expressions of sympathy and condolences with all those whove been caught up in this disaster that took place in beirut obligated thanks very much. Pakistans Prime Minister has called india and oppressor the year of to new delhi stripped the autonomy of indian administered kashmir he accused it of turning the muslim majority region into an open air prison the area is not done to prevent protesters from gathering on the other verse 3 the curfew is being overseen by the military many local political leaders have been detained for months and thousands of people rallied in pakistani administered kashmir in solidarity they gathered in the regional capital to suffer about as well as other cities now a minutes silence was held at a rally in the capital islamabad. Where the moment will be speaking to elizabeth randomly standing by for us in new delhi but 1st lets cross over to kamar hyder in the pakistani capital islamabad and kemal we were waiting for the Prime Minister to speak he has spoken whats he said. Well indeed the bug assignee Prime Minister. Administrate if capital of pakistan he had minister to. The legislative assembly. Touching up on the top of indias move on article 370 he said it was a blunder by the government. Based. Points one day hate card to windy election then decided to revoke article 7 because he wanted to expand his support base and then he also according to Prime Minister imran khan that pakistan would keep silent because it wanted to extend an olive branch. To india also the fact that more banking on the fact that the International Community was more concerned about countering china by using india and therefore keeping quiet on the issue of kashmir so it touched upon those facts and also the fact that he said that its a dangerous policy exploding. A nexus between the r. S. S. And the b j p government in delhi which called for the minorities earlier the pakistani president spoke to protect and outside. Parliament he said that india would embark on a policy of demographic change and. Following the same lines that were doing on the west bank and saying that pakistan would never accept india unilaterally moved so indeed strong rhetoric and strong show of support by pakistan needs to cros