India security tight at this hour in the city of. As Prime Minister modi inaugurated the building of a flashpoint hindu temple on the side of a demolished mosque. And with just 90 days left in the us elections we hear from lifelong republicans considering the once unthinkable in november casting their ballots for a democrat. Im brian thomas great to have you with us today they route it woke to scenes of utter devastation this morning after 2 colossal explosions devastated parts of lebanons capital they happened at a warehouse where nearly 3000 tons of highly explosive Ammonium Nitrate were being stored apparently without any Safety Measures at least 100. 00 people were killed. 4000 others were injured that according to the red cross these are images from beirut where smoke continues to rise over the blasts i think splosion shattering windows as far as 20 kilometers away rescue workers are continuing to look for survivors beneath the rubble it remains unclear exactly how many people right now are missing. More from our correspondent after this. Devastating blast followed by billows of smoke visible from all across the city. The massive explosion rocked beirut on tuesday evening flattening the citys port area with buildings destroyed and people trapped under the rubble. Ambulances raced to and from the area transporting the injured to hospital. Now that we were at home we heard what sounded like fireworks we thought it was a container in the ports that was on fire and they werent able to put it out a few seconds later we were flying through the air. Not the one we heard the 1st explosion we went to see what happened. I didnt have time i didnt realize there would be a 2nd explosion the glass exploded in front of me. The blast destroyed buildings not only at the port originated but across much of beirut even kilometers away from the epicenter. Shop windows were smashed walls and doors of peoples homes knocked down. The Prime Minister said those responsible will be brought to justice. It will not pass without accountability and those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price this is a promise to the martyrs and the injured this is a National Commitment to the bunny. The blasts hit a country already struggling with the coronavirus pandemic and the deep economic crisis. Hospitals already burdened with covert 19 patients are overwhelmed. Countries including longtime rival israel have offered many terry an aid to lebanon. Support is sorely needed to help the country deal with this enormous catastrophe. Were joined now by our correspondent. In beirut a very difficult morning where you are on can you describe for us your experience of what happened last night. Indeed brian this was really. When the explosion took place i was at my own house my house like a piece centered on the chairs away from the keys and of the explosion of the glass and my other friends and my house were all exploded i have no strong in my house anymore i thought the explosion was right under my bin day and then when i went to the location of the explosion when i was on the way i thought of the ambulances they were taking casualties from yes that were that are very supportive from the location of. The explosion this mall was on that ill bet you could see the smoke from any a you are they looked. There was a tool to the state of chaos and panic people who were kind of came and chased nobody knew what happened and then when they knew started coming you could understand what it was because their homes were already destroyed even if they were very far as the face of the explosion. As the glass was covering most of. The store fronts in all of downtime they are on the streets and this comes up of a hard time for living on where theyve been on. This very difficult. Kind of a crisis and also when i was on the way people were asking if they could and they could casualties in my own car but luckily there were many ambulances that were already picking people and this morning the hospitals are. There at least 700 got according to the red cross and at least 4000 injury. Then as still there is no face and the house the. People who are injured and yet on a very very difficult situation youre describing that weve been seeing scenes of the mountains of rubble around the blast. Sight and farther away as well is there any idea how many people are trapped right now beneath the rubble that need help that need rescuers to get to them. We have no idea how many people need help. And the rescuers are still digging under there of that and there are helicopters that are for people who were a few went away to this because of the mouth of the massive explosion so rescuers are still working theres the looking for if you can i am in an area that is basically one of the most every house because they dont need to. Be as were coming in and out and there was a jolt and panic and chaos didnt know because we cannot even they cannot even count the number of injured or as there are there are also people who are still lost and there is nobody knows what happened to them they are looking to looking for people who are lost does beirut does does lebanon have the capacity to get to all of these people and to treat them medically. Lebannon after all of the crew enough eyes that outbreak and lebanon was a fine day because of this and that may and then the explosion came out came a very bad time so where is and. They announce that the minister of health and i. Have no more capacity to. The injured people and they are treating. The injured people and the curry doors of the. Outside they would. A time for one more question was on why was this Ammonium Nitrate stored so close to the city center so much of it 3000. 00 tons right there in the port area and who is responsible for that you have any idea. There is the Prime Minister when they meet and they think he thank you very much b. And and he and assumption. And they will investigate to see who is responsible for this i have been told the time. Of the almost 2750. 00 pounds of fat and one year nitrate were there since 2014 and they were stored without measurements according to the president of lebanon he said on in the statement he said this today during the meeting of the high mid high council of fed to talk. In beirut will have much more from the lebanese capital as the day progresses of course thanks very much for now rosen and all the best to you there in beirut. Lets get more now with you on him paul he heads to Beirut Branch of the Heinrich Boll foundation that is a german think tank thanks so much for joining us a very difficult time are you your colleagues their families ok yes thank you very difficult time indeed were. Partners and also this is destroyed but we are who is not so all those people out there who suffered injuries those thousands and the lebanese few d salukis d review from mom and months is such a hardship and crisis from the coated power and demick youre referring to there imagine. These these explosions a calm as Beirut Lebanon is in the midst of a social and political crisis a number of crises and what needs to happen right now to get the country and its people through the shock. Yes there is never known is not one crisis in the midst of multiple crises so you mentioned the corona crisis. Came after the. Millions of lebanese protested against their government not only the government against a complete political system which is totally corrupt and which is not ready. To start any we flew home and to open up the system which is exactly the problem and i mentioned crisis 50 percent of. The country with destroyed the d d messes. d with pushed under the pope over to line then came corona the month long several month long lockdown now was searched in numbers of corona and section and then this that was wrong powell from the 100 foundation speaking with me earlier from beirut lets get you a brief balance from the other stories making the news this hour the former colombian president of our a rebate is being placed under house arrest while the Supreme Court decides whether he should stand trial for bribery and witness tampering his case is considered important test for colombias judicial system rebase Service President from 2002 to 2010. 7 joined police have used tear gas to break up demonstrations supporting the rights of the countrys Indigenous Peoples violent clashes have picked up in recent weeks as the mob people fight to have their Ancestral Lands and chiles Southern Region return. In italy firefighters and volunteers are spending a 6th day now battling forest fires in the each stern region of a boot so mare of the regional capital block without. Said that evacuation contingency plans are in place should the blaze bred to residential areas. Its to india now where Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has led a ceremony to inaugurate the building of a hindu temple that has been at the center of a bitter century old dispute between hindus and muslims the temple will be erected on the site of a demolished mosque the temple site was being heavily guarded ahead of that inauguration coronavirus Restrictions Mean that the ceremonies low key and not open to regular worshippers. The mosque once on that site was torn down by hindu nationalist mobs in 1992 thats file footage there the there are fears that putting a hindu temple in its place will reignite tensions between the 2 communities. For more on this lets go now to diffuse and the wall joining us from delhi good day to you know why is this site this location for the construction of the hindu temple so very divisive inside india. Well brian hindus believe that site believes where you log strong pleasure but hindu glory was bought and premade at such so the construction of the beginning of this construction is seen as a weave of the community too deeply in a space that the fed was literally in there as of office most contentious because there was a mosque built there the church was demolished 2 decades ago now the camp being part of building all of this temple has been 2 decades long and has a little need and has been closely tied to the drive of Prime Minister nouri more of these the egypt being the starting of this construction is seen as a delivery of equal or promised by end of egypt the deed of this constructions initiation is also significant and also ties to another key full of promise exactly why didnt want to do the remains were the government abrogated the special status of the shmita and removed its semi autonomous status now why the government says this was to do more Economic Development as well as better integration off the state of jim when. There has been criticism that opposition to the will best begin young what about scripts is meant to foretell. Outrage in the Indian Parliament on august 5th last year the Indian Government stunned opposition lawmakers by announcing it was revoking kashmir semi autonomy the basis of the regions complex relationship with india for decades. To see the special status of Jammu And Kashmir is going to be automatically null and void in the movement. The hindu nationalist government said the move was necessary to spur Economic Development and to better integrate the region with the rest of the country the opposition was shocked. Today the ruling party b j p has berri the constitution and the democracy. As a result 7000000 people in the Kashmir Valley were put under lockdown for months the government severely restricted freedom of movement and banned gatherings it cut landlines and mobile phones and even shut down the internet thousands of people were arrested including 3 former chief ministers reportedly hundreds of people still remain under house arrest or behind bars mostly without charge there are also reports of torture. Indian authorities deny the allegations. Neighboring pakistan still condemns indias actions since the 5th of august the illegal measures taken by india there is a new. Theres a new wave a new video for resentment against the across of these being committed or cross the. Beautiful short the people of pakistan stand with you and he adds kashmir will be part of pakistan. Inshallah chris mead but i go back a stop at the end of verse 3 of the autonomy revoke asia and the kashmir conflict seems as far from resolution as ever and little seems to have changed in the region itself fearing violent protests the government has again imposed a new curfew. Measure one year after kashmir had its autonomy revoked by delhi can you tell us more about whats changed for the people there for kashmiris. Well randy look at the long piece and tensions that have a bite it there for the last few decades not much as the dominant team that this was for Economic Development and better integration thats managed that a security and that happened more often relations got it out against the next month however this is also meant to decide as increasing insecurity among the live like commentators by the trees and violence and ive also seen the move to abrogate the special status as an election there was a little doubt that continued for a white after the abolition of the special status and for 6 months there was no internet so one ought to do that is just a lot of good will now as long docket this is one of the hits the economy ought to be since the last is that to make it up that you want a white 1000000000. 00 the us and daughters and. Thanks so much for bringing this up on a very important day for filling us in the misha wall our correspondent in delhi thank you its the u. S. Now where the president ial election is just 90 days away all the signs are that donald trump is facing a very difficult path to reelection hes trailing in opinion surveys and hes being sharply criticized for his handling of the demick so some republicans are now mulling what was once unthinkable voting for joe biden come 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 hes turned his back on it and longs for change listen i disagreed with virtually every word that came out of brock obamas mouth by his policies were anathema to me but i was never not proud of him and see President Trump as a man who has almost no ideological moorings. Mcgrath is part of the new republican Resistance Movement they call themselves Republican Voters against trump many voted for trump in 2016 but now theyre turning against him with nearly 100 self produced videos i thought it all off. Before the president has broken in my. Face. 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 nato 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 dont trust the media they dont trust elites they certainly dont 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 theyve never done before somethings wrong with donald trump. Another republican anti Trump Initiative is the Lincoln Project they attack trump head on using guerilla tactics putting for vocative videos on the us t. V. News network fox each clip is a punch in the president ial stunning they show him as incompetent or as a lot of your putins friend and comrade House 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 theyre losers when hes attacking us for a day hes not attacking joe by we focus on us for a day hes not focused on running a campaign so you know hes 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 trumps advisor kelly conway is one of the founders of the Lincoln Project the conway couple is symbolic of how trump is dividing americas conservatives the Republican Party as it comprised today is infected by the virus of donald trump i dont think theres any saving it they dont want to be saved they dont want to walk away from trump and trump is im 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 peoples hearts in this country i didnt think it was possible that it could happen so quickly but it did im 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 hell do the unthinkable and vote for democrats joe biden but in 2024 he wants to see a conservative candidate he can be proud of. In britain researchers are warning of a 2nd coronavirus wave twice as severe as the initial outbreak if schools reopen in the coming weeks now some regions have already put the brakes on easing lock downs after a spike in infections and people in Northern England or having to live with tough new restrictions. Brits unmasking up and not just inside and advising uncovered 19 infection rates and public warnings of a 2nd outbreak more and more People Choose to don a mask outside as well of course i will but my mum school and i put it when i go to place connection with individuals most british people just obey the rules i think will there be a 2nd wave yes Northern Region such as Greater Manchester recently witnessed a spike in infection rates in a bid to stem transmissions also tightened distractions again we want to pursue a local approach where we take Decisive Action where its necessary where the data shows that we have to do that. Leading scientists have criticised the governments approach to testing and breaking the chain of infection they say the Current System is not sufficient we need to scale up tests of seem to my g. P. And have a certain level of tracing of their contacts in order to avoid 2nd and what the government has admitted that theres room for improvement theyre planning to roll out record tests that will show results with a 90 minutes the down side they will only be used in hospitals and nursing homes. In the russian city of coverall skin the countrys far east new protests are set for saturday in support of the popular governor of the province hes under arrest in moscow for allegedly ordering 2 contract murders protesters believe those charges are politically motivated. This protest has shaken up russian politics thousands of people have gathered here on lenin square in downtown cut off. From go is not a murderer they chant they are here to support the man they call their governor sergei for gallup the opposition politician has been arrested and taken to moscow prosecutors there accuse him of involvement in several murders. But protesters in this far eastern city believe the charges against forego are politically motivated the accusations against him date back 15 years many here wonder why and they have reemerged now. Because i think they should prove there is evidence against him if he is guilty he should face court here and how about office can be condemned by a jury if hes innocent then they should set him free media more than more preferred people do. All of these accusations stink of politics. They havent presented the public with much genuine evidence. All weve heard are a few witness statements its just used to shift the 1st ones because 1st it was people because any new because no you know theres the presumption of innocence you cant just say someone is guilty and they just came and stole the governor elected by the people who are going to do. The protests have escalated from demands for girls freedom to calls for president Vladimir Putin to step down and even though the most recent rallies havent attracted as many people as the ones in previous weeks this is an unprecedented mobilization for the far eastern region. The biggest rallies are held on saturdays but protesters gather on lenin square every day of the week alexei lippa tough as one of them. For gul belongs to an Opposition Party one that is normally tolerated but things changed when he started to pursue policies that werent what the kremlin wanted it or not so as the protests and how about also enter their 5th week solidarity movements have emerged across the country smaller protests have taken place in at least 10 cities over 50 participants were taken into Police Custody but those arrests havent frightened people according to a recent poll 29 percent of russians would take to the streets if similar protests were held in their area. This is deja vu news you can always get more on these and other stories at our website or on our social media platforms like you 2 up next join us for eco india im brian thomas for the entire team thanks very. Much. To. The. 8000000 tons of flowers jumped into the jews in india. To test the sun sometimes. Now a start of converts useful hours into charcoal and chemical free incense sticks. Bein able to steer 70 k. G. s a dont miss distance from getting into the full. Eagle. Next to long d. W. Mistreating. Murders displaced nearly a 1000000 ringa have fled their homes in myanmar and most are now trapped in neighboring bangladesh shuttled to. Miss this planned tension a cleansing and if so who was responsible for. The documentary looking for answers. In 45 minutes on believe. Our planet is running. Blazes must be some. Flames that consume forests and entire residential areas of. The rising temperatures water shortages land clearance theres another one do so flammable material once ignited theres no stopping the flames. Going. Mobile concentration the world on fire starts august 12th on g. W. Our everyday life has so many people things we hardly more botched the mc show that we can all about our lives seamlessly from one toss to the other it could be a coffee cup or a state or a paper towel every day going to want to think about how environmentally phinney these things out if not these episodes will help with pink about that because