so you. are on. this is state of the union is live from berlin brazil's deadliest 24 hours a since the beginning of the pandemic the daily death toll climbs above chub 1000 people for the 1st time we bring you the latest from the house the amazonian city that has been devastated by a more contagious virus variant also coming up on the show 10 years after a devastating earthquake tsunami and

a nuclear meltdown japan at remembers the victims we look at how survivors are coping a decade on from the triple to sastre. hello i'm claire richardson welcome to the show the number of daily covert 19 deaths recorded in brazil has climbed above 2000 people for the 1st time over 270000 people there have now lost their lives to the coronavirus a death toll surpassed only by the united states scientists say brazil's current wave of infections and deaths is being fueled by a more contagious virus variant that started in early january in the amazonian city of mouse hospitals ran out of oxygen and people died waiting for medical attention but health experts now say complacency has set in and it could lead to more virus

mutations developing and spreading to the reporter your honner america's travel to mouse to assess the situation. lucy leonard thus it is back to live in a normal life and meet john wall reach an early date when the health system in the now is collapsed she had been infected with the newest strain of the coronavirus and needed oxygen but this city has run out of feet by to see us now. it's aim to apocalyptic us and i hate the more religious people said it was a sign of the end of the world that image of a well it was a night in that you know i never thought i would experience such a dramatic moment the moment the film that i'm much less seen it's a moment the sea descends to pop forgotten this is the main market in my house even those tours and businesses are only allowed it to operate at 50 percent of their normal capacity and this by the scientists warn it's about emergence of more and

more dangerous variants the market is always overcrowded. about 13 new strains of the koran a virus had been that that that in my not was one off then the one is responsible for 60 percent of current infections in the region suggesting that it is more transmissible and that number is on the rise raising fears of it there are 2 ways it could lead it to date margins of even more dangerous bargains according to devide ologist who discovered that he was trying. to squash people to behave your scares me because they are seen the situation the worse and yet they continue to live as if things are normal so that could mean that we will soon have a much more serious situation. according to disturbance by the fear of his research foundation the government of vaccines are still effective against the p one strain

is but summations center can add mr thousands of those lisper day but even here the oath already is our own they go implement physical distance in. opposed to the moment when vaccinations starts there are always a lot of people but then they crowding goes down when older people come for vaccinations they bring one or 2 relatives and that's what causes the crowd. with more than 7 percent of it's the hobbit on spikes united states of a muscle mass where my mouse is located because administers their most adults is today to brazil however it is still a far from containing the virus without social distancing people will continue to die from the virus. the city has made space for 22000 new graves in the cemetery it's on the horrific forecast of what the new variants could bring to my knowledge in the our future. and journalist as sam khouri joins me now from sao paulo for

more the same as the u.s. and parts of europe start to get things more under control brazil appears to be going in the wrong direction with these crushing acase numbers how did things get so out of control in brazil. good morning clear really dire situation here what we've seen in man now is essentially now spreading across the country where i am here in sao paolo which is brazil with wealthiest and most developed sites there are no more i see you beds right now there are thousands of people i 1000 people in fact waiting in the queue some people have died in the queue at least a dozen people that we know of have died in the queue you know some part of the huge say 44000000 people but it really sets the tone if the richest and most developed state in the country is at full capacity. essentially there are 3 main problems here right now what as the as we heard from our colleague in the previous report the new variant which was detected him announced in january is one of the

main cases of this what we're seeing across the country right now is that the number of new cases that are being detected something like 5 out of 8 are connected to the new variant has been proven the 3rd is a new virus and it still is more deadly but it is more contagious it's twice as contagious as the original corona virus and in a country like brazil if there's more can if there is if it's more contagious there's going to be more people that die especially as the hospitals fill up the 2nd reason is that the vaccine uptake has been very slow across the country less than 5 percent of people have been vaccine you know 220000000 people here in brazil long way to go before we reach the 70 percent threshold which is considered safe and then the main reason that if you speak to all medical professionals is the behavior of the federal government especially the far right president dr olson already who from the beginning has set to downplay the virus you know when he was

in florida with donald trump it was he said it was an invention of the media to take down the government that he went to being a little flu that he wouldn't have to worry about because he used to be an athlete then it went to being all just man out we've got to get on with things and the thing is this kind. you know in brazil which is a country it's a middle income country lots of people in the informal economy lots of people you know literally working during lunch time but dinner on that so you go where the president says it won't affect me because i used to be an athlete you know that resonates for better or worse that resonates with a lot of people and so the longer heads the the the the disconnect between the federal government that we've seen here and the state government here like we've seen in sao paolo with the state governor calling on people to really try and you know social distancing going to law down and the president saying no we've got to keep the economy open we've got to keep the economy running it's just a little blue you know that's really caused a lot of confusion and is one of the main reasons or the i death toll according to

all the experts i've spoken to some cow in sao paulo thank you very much for that update but and let's get you up to speed now on some other stories making headlines at this hour the united nations security council has released a statement unanimously condemning the violence against peaceful protesters in myanmar it calls on the military to exercise restraint and engage in constructive dialogue language threatening further action was removed after opposition from china and russia. u.s. secretary of state and has described the violence in ethiopia's to cry region as ethnic cleansing and calls for the withdrawal of eritrean troops washington's most senior diplomat called for a reconciliation process to restore peace more than 50000 people have been killed since of war broke out in november. at least 27 people died and 39 others were injured in a bus crash on indonesia's java island the bus was carrying

a group of junior high school students teachers and parents when it plunged down a steep ravine police are investigating the costs. and the u.s. congress has approved a sweeping pandemic relief package the 1st major legislative triumph of the biden administration the covert 1900 bill is expected to be signed into law on friday the measures include direct relief payments for most americans and billions of dollars for schools local authorities and businesses. well japan is marking the 10th anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that caused the deaths of some 18000 people people have been gathering beside the ocean to pay tribute to the victims many of their bodies were never found after the tsunami swept them away the force of the wave was so strong that only 8 alone a pine tree was left standing along the coastline where remains today as a symbol of hope the earthquake also caused of the biggest nuclear disaster since

turn noble the wave hit the fukushima daiichi power plant causing a reactor meltdown and forcing tens of thousands of people to abandon their homes. 300 square kilometer exclusion zone remains in place around the plant it contains the memories of a tragedy that has defined the lives of survivors now me it's a ghost town situated just a few kilometers from the fukushima nuclear power plant the only thing left here is memories from march 27th. 70 o'connor who grew up here nowadays he rarely visits the family home it lies in the exclusion zone. where it's been too dangerous to live ever since. to grow a pool i don't find it time stood still he said i feel more that everything has gotten worse. now there is just silence here.

but sammy o'connor is still haunted by the sound of the tsunami. and the image of the waves destroying everything in its path is stuck in his mind. already there being able after respect nature these are nature's warning signs that you must treat the earth with care if you are on your part of the case because. samuel used to work at the power plant now he wants nothing more to do with nuclear energy. one look at the area explains why the banks littering the ground are filled with radioactive soil an entire city has been eradicated and almost no one wants to live here cleaning up the damage will take generations thousands are busy on the site of the nuclear plant but the toughest work is yet to come. there's no blueprint for the work here and even though we're making progress you still come up

against problems you didn't anticipate. you can you want to do much of. the work is recover spent nuclear fuel and make sure the reactors a constantly pumps with cooling water the water is purified but it's still contaminated and it may have to be dumped into the ocean at some point. the area is still in a state of emergency according to greenpeace that we're only in year 10. it will be going on for at least the rest of this century. japan has invested billions of euros rebuilt sounds or constructed entirely new ones but they're mostly empty filled only with those who work at the power plant or the elderly. semi o'connor who hates the word reconstruction he says nothing will be like it was before. the grave site of his family lies in the exclusion zone.

sure but the whole don't want to just look at what i have to put on the kinds of annoying things i have to put up with just to visit a grave site it won't be over tomorrow or in 10 years or even decades from now that's why sammy o'connor feels compelled to talk about what happened on march 11th 2011 on the fukushima disaster shocked public confidence in nuclear power in japan the country's reactors were shut down and most remain offline today earlier i spoke to journalist sonya blush high in tokyo and i asked her how japan has changed since the disaster there was this this idea that japan would abandon nuclear power they were in the 1st 2 years very big demonstrations by japanese standards. but then 2 years later the liberal democratic party came again into power and

they very much includes nuclear policy still in their energy plan and it's still in the current energy plan and apart from nuclear power of course the disaster preparedness has improved it's always been relatively good but there have been new measures taken like. new steps built close to the sea that people can escape to like higher up places and so on of course disaster drills up being held but on a political level like us it will when it comes to nuclear power. it's still very much the same and there is very much. this movement by the nuclear as it's called to maintain its its previous power. journalist for us there well even now with some good news because berlin zoo is baby gorilla finally has a name thousands of berliners that took part in an online vote and staff shows it

tila for last month's and new edition and to visit family 1st time mom a baby took a break and snapped on a special fruit and vegetable feast to mark to last name day other suggestions had included hope kovi and even a frown after the german chancellor. just as well they chose to live that is all from me for now sorry kelly will be with you in 45 minutes time with a character it's an embellishment from the whole team except for watching. imagine how many push the old logs are thrown out in the war torn material different office stores places my place and way from just one week. before it can really guess. we still have time to work i'm doing.

what. he. refuses to leave his phone in the fukushima exclusion zone where radioactivity is 10 times higher than normal. he feeds his castle though there contaminated meat can never be eaten. what you see is doing may seem irrational but it's possible a long running. battle waged by people home to by radiation there are many examples weapon tests on bikini atoll the fukushima disaster the radium goes.

g.g. jeannie. the accident occurred on march 11th i was working at the owner of our nuclear power plant 120 kilometers north of tokyo. and i had to stay there until the 15th of march i couldn't leave on the 13th the alarm was sounded and on a cow as well because the radioactive cloud was passing through the area so i thought i'm going to the radioactivity was so intense that nobody was allowed to go outside the colleagues out doing measurements had to come back inside but this was a good on march the 13th i saw a huge ship out in the back it was the ronald reagan crew who believe it was here as a part of operation tomodachi going down nope not subsumed closer. to my dad she is the japanese word for friends the operation was

a humanitarian mission on the part of u.s. forces to help people affected by the tsunami. on march the 13th 20112 days after the 1st explosion in a reactor at the fukushima nuclear plant the aircraft carrier u.s.s. ronald reagan was caught in the radioactive plume rising from the plant. we knew we were responding to we knew where we were going there was a tsunami and the reactor there was something wrong with the reactors would be good and might be leaking. i think the part that we didn't know was like the severity of the cooling and what we were really going into until we were in it we had access to the higher ducts so right off the bat i happened to go up. and you could you could taste it in the year there the air tasted different almost like like

a metal taste almost like blood in your mouth or it's not blood it may be more like a tin foil or something like you're looking tinfoil the radiation we didn't know right away. they try to keep that from us but our alarms went off and we had to go to our d. come stations where we get screwed down and everything in no one knew what was going on so they had the nucular people from the ship come in with their greater counters and you just have a long line waiting to the catwalk which side of the ships to get checked basically so you're not tending the entire inside of the ship hearing those geiger counters and you don't know you hear this sound and it's. clicking and it's like why is this what's going on don't worry about it you know we were out there for for 3 or 4 days and then the captain came over the speakers and said that there was. a meltdown at the fukushima nuclear power plant. there ronald reagan had taken a position 200 kilometers north of the fukushima. an easterly wind carried

radioactivity out into the pacific in several waves the aircraft carrier was trapped its 5000 crew members india 2 days of intense radiation. and we had to move the ship because we were you know in the path and apparently it shifted right into us and we had to from there we took precautions to not as much radiation but i do remember over a few days it was a game of cat and mouse of running from the radiation obviously there was questions like oh are we going to die you know what's going to happen to us don't worry about it nothing's going to hurt you you're funny that's what we were told keep doing your job your fight. hire people are going on to the deck. we are.

also still under the current i'm not good for him he will cause water for drinking and for showering on board was taken from the sea unfiltered of the music apart from the radioactivity the soldiers absorb from the atmosphere they also poison themselves via the water they drink. locals that was probably worse than wallace will talk flip on going to god he will do the well was also on another thing about radioactive radiation is that it goes through the body. light is also alecto magnetic radiation that it can't enter the body. radioactive radiation is so much more intense you don't know ok and there you know because. it's enormous energy pierces the body. in the process some of it is absorbed by the body guard on the i.q.

shusaku this or that radioactive radiation damages molecules in the body and it's especially dangerous when it damages the d.n.a. which carries genetic information and he just you know they told us that we're going to. go upstairs and wash everything down by we're going to scrub all the jets were a scrub every surface. we were going to come down so we were done. directly after the 1st explosion people in the region felt relatively safe because the wind was carrying the radioactivity out to sea but on march 15th it changed direction and headed inland to tokyo exposing countless people to radiation. the disaster struck everywhere on the ground in the air at sea there was no escape people were desperate to know if there was any way to protect themselves.

all know by only preventative measure against damage by radioactive substances is to ingest iodide though that go some way towards preventing fire oid cancer. it's the only thing there is the usual. sort of they also say although there was a supply of potassium iodide tablets in fukushima and they were not distributed to its residents. that was a serious crime against the people. on march the 14th reacting them to 3 exploded the mayor of me horace and his deputy decided to give iodine capsules to all their residents. was the only town in the region to do this and it did so without permission from the district administration which consistently played down the danger. the disaster had all the hallmarks of

the nuclear industrial complexes failings the withholding of information the passive itchy and submissiveness on the part of the authorities towards the plant operator coupled with ignorance and incompetence. in such cases taking potassium iodide tablets is the thing to do. we received absolutely no information about the situation and more the level of radiation. you have fukushima prefecture told us nothing. that i could not depend on the state or government institutions to protect those affected no information was coming from above. so i followed news from abroad so i could at least hear the forecasts about the

release and spread of radioactive plume in the atmosphere. and in desperation i started to prepare for the distribution of iodine tablets. on march the 15th reactors number 2 and 4 exploded in short succession. the workforce at the plant was evacuated the 700000 residents of me how really got there iodine and a short time later at the prefecture got in touch with the man. who got to the meat a little not the fishermen charged chided us because we had distributed potassium iodide to everyone and asked who had instructed us to do so a lot and we said it had been our decision he then told us to get the tablets back . because the prefecture had not authorized that distribution you can assume we

told him that the pills had already been handed out and it would be impossible to get them back. we just ignored it he doesn't stop we stop the. world i don't entitle suppose you're supposed to take them as it's happening now before it happens right so they brought us the forms the sign that says that they gave us an idea but it never happened let alone when those forms came about it was way after the fact so even if you would have gave us those titles at that time would have no effect on have done anything for us they brought us out to the mass that x. and they just sat us all down at table zones and here we're going to do these papers just sign them says that we gave the idea in tab was to sign it and we'll talk about it later and i was sitting there i was like i'm not signing this you just have to do it i don't have to do anything but you have to sign it and i just

gave the paper and i walked away i'm not signing it but so many people were there that we have to do we have to sign it and they just sign away you know we you know we didn't get it. do you 2 loans so close that the commanding officers took potassium iodide tablets then the ronald reagan is nuclear powered so of course it's a quick with a dust senator so the top brass knew full well how high the level of radiation was . what they should have done was inform their soldiers and take appropriate safety measures his you know. what the crew one told thing was that they continue to drink filtered water and remain exposed to radiation i'm going to ask and i want to know don't lie to me i want to know if i'm going to be ok i want to know if my future is going to be ok my children are going to be ok i need to know these things and then you go to the v.a. to ask can i get a check just one check just me one time you tell me come back when something falls

off what happens if my kids are falls are you going to check me then or now you know what i mean like i i just want to know what's the truth. everybody here was affected by that whether they knew it or not and has been affected by things like that because they've been testing with nuclear stuff here since the fifty's in the sixty's. radiation and why while on top of your people doing this to your people. 25 of those on board the ronald reagan during the operation have since died in 2015400 former crew members who had fallen in the company that operates. these 4 marines left for health reasons the authorities have not acknowledged any connection between their exposure to radiation onboard the u.s.s. ronald reagan and the illness. on

march the 1st $954.00 the u.s. detonated a hydrogen bomb on bikini. it was far more powerful than expected almost a 1000 times as powerful as the atomic bomb that destroyed hiroshima. and japanese fishing boat. who was at work in the nuclear fallout the boat's name means lucky dragon but for the 23 men on board exposed to intense radiation with 0 protection this was the least lucky day of their lives. less than 9 years after the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki japanese civilians were again subjected to the deadly effects of atomic power.

in the early 980 s. sociology professor. got to know mrs fucci she and his son had been subjected to radiation when the u.s. detonated an atomic bomb of another sucky. was irradiated a 2nd time in 954 he was one of the fisherman near bikini atoll. the 2 are buried next to each other in the cemetery. but they're sort of again the. seat you might like i mean i mean yeah i mean you. could name a new couple that with. most of. he took his own life out at sea he was 27 years old. however he wasn't

a member of the crew on the dive go for. we had thought that was the only post exposed to radiation at bikini atoll. that's what they taught us at school but it wasn't true. we were shocked to discover that apart from the dye go for career model there were many other boats near the arts hall at the time. you started to do some research he and his students looked for fishermen who had been at sea near bikini asshole in 954. handed out questionnaires in and around the fishing port of call and got almost $300.00 replies. the result came as a shock but the fisherman told her and his students directly contradicted the official version of events when the us conducted its nuclear weapons test on bikini atoll the diago for could do was just one of many japanese fishing boats subjected

to radiation. is still the best known and is now on display in its own museum in tokyo. but it is only the tip of the iceberg in fact some 700 fishing boats experienced the same thing or near bikini asshole in addition to 23 men on board the diag of. several 1000 other fishermen were also exposed to the radiation the japanese government has never publicly acknowledged or identified them or offered them any compensation. you know. we had no idea that a nuclear bomb was going to be tested there. we only heard about it after we got back to port in japan more. color than then they are only to make the army

war college we had enough drinking water on board but we used sea water to wash our car we thought only. to get up our my master the winds were very strong and the waves were huge and if so we were often soaked through many miles to go off it in a. bikini you are ordered to and their thoughts are with them that. we were at bikini atoll for 40 or 45 days or can you not. see war movie what are. the people you think they are for today we got no information and no instructions from the government. no one said we should avoid the area because of nuclear testing. couldn't dirty. for a day we often went back there to fish later on. of course we also ate fish 3

times a day. including the entrails of the stuff where we later learned that the entrails get contaminated 1st you don't think any. of them started off. in maine 9542 months after the day gopher choreo matter who returned to port a research vessel set sail its departure was carefully staged with a cheering crowd i'm sure. the japanese government sent the show cut so much through to take measurements at bikini atoll and met the spread of radiation. those were taking presentations and fished. sectored and scanned many many festered high levels of radioactivity especially tuna to name travel long distances

contaminated specimens were found far from the atoll. radiation levels were also tested in fishing ports in japan. engineers and white gloves examined large numbers of fish with a geiger counters. this map reveals the geographical extent of the disaster the red dots mark way contaminated fish were caught the affected area was much larger than the dangerous zone demarcated by the united states it encompassed much of the philippines taiwan and japan. the authorities said contaminated fish could not be easy in entire catches with dumped into the sea the financial losses were huge. markets suddenly had no fish to sell people were scared of the radiation and of shortages of a dietary staple it was an unprecedented crisis. the fishermen demanded

compensation from the government in the meantime the u.s. continued testing nuclear bombs at bikini atoll. japan saw mass demonstrations against nuclear weapons. radiation fallout came to be known as shino high the ashes of death. the n.t. nuclear movement was gaining support fast and the united states was getting worried . this was after all in the middle of the cold war. if your plan were to fall under soviet domination again for communism want. to prevent this possibility. strong well defended your plan is vitally important and necessary. in early december 954

a new government was installed in japan the us played a part in that under some of the 10th convicted war criminals and politicians who had served the militaristic regime before 945 were rehabilitated. under some of the 27 the new foreign minister mahmoud. appealed to the united states for $2000000.00 the money was to pay off and silence the fisherman at the same time many former high ranking officers were released from prison on parole demilitarised after world war $2.00 japan was to have an army again. the u.s. launched a propaganda campaign in japan extolling the virtues of atomic energy well disney was commissioned to make a series of cartoon film starring the asem as something amazing. the atomic age was born only the superpower which america has released from within

the atom smart is not one but many giant. one is the warrior destroyer another is the engineers who provide quantities of energy to run the world machine. in 1955 the american traveling exhibition atoms for peace was shown in more than 20 cities in japan including hiroshima and nagasaki as the u.s. and the soviet union embarked on their decades long nuclear arms race more than a 1000000 people visited the exhibition marveling at the many peaceful uses of nuclear technology. that dared tell no tales and so. the silence of the grave descended over the horrors of hiroshima and nagasaki the suffering of the survivors was focused and

the tragedy of the fisherman harmed by radiation at bikini atoll was found in no history books. intense propaganda on behalf of our friend the asem drowned out attempts to commemorate the victims of atomic mind. radioactivity is a physical phenomenon that can both kill and cure. it was discovered by early because they and further research by pierre and. little ease with the 1st to use the term radioactivity in order to describe certain properties of the elementary which they had just discovered. this excess of radium in the early 20th century had mainly to do with its use in medicine it was above all the curies and in particular pierre curie you advanced

the research up you know. henry back around one forgot some radium in powder form in his waistcoat pocket for a few hours he then said to pierre curie how there's a burn on my skin exactly where the packet of radium had been arguing yes what would you be. oh seppi cute you'll get because it's so cute he himself tied a sachet with radium salts to his left for. if a kind of burn appeared that too and it left a scar would you describe. it in 1901 becker ellen curie published an article in which they described how radium rays cause skin burns in the gut but don't they need deep silt to buya. no you know if you get more back the same time industries started to get interested in the fact

that radium glows in the dark well it was marie curie who had observed this shortly after the discovery of radium. she wrote about the pretty bluish light. not only excuse me did radiance capacity to glow was soon harnessed to make luminous paint that enable one to see in the dark even unison committed to. do ghosts the story of the radium girls is one of the 1st known cases of cancer caused by ionising radiation should these young women and girls painted the faces of watches and alarm clocks with the radioactive luminous paint point you they were told to use their lips to create a narrative to their brushes so they could paint fine lines

a few you see it's easier and faster to. say upbeat. soft good food they did that and of course these particles of radium would stick to their lips which caused an otherwise very rare kind of chuma of the jawbone that humans were enormous the girls had been poisoned by the radium you know and the consequence was mental larry a pleasure so what that means is that they're born american which produces red and white blood cells and platelets stopped working and it killed them. for so young guns in $192075.00 of the women sued their employer the united states radium corporation it was clear that the company knew about the danger because the engineers in charge of the girls had taken measures to protect themselves. their case never made it to trial. there was an out of court settlement instead.

as so waffen in the united states the matter was sorted out with a bit of money because the women were poor they and their families said good it's better than nothing we'll take the cash and keep quiet we're going to see you coming on the overconcern you westerdale. up if you like you don't get to see the pierre curie died in 1906 in a traffic accident much later in 1905 when he was to be repaired in the pantheon he was exuberant when his coffin was opened a cloud of radon a scaped showing just how contaminated he had been like with me if he hadn't died in an accident it's clear he would eventually have died as a result of the radiation exposure just as marie curie did the course of the it was

she. women men and children were photographed in film from all sides shortly after the allied occupation of japan in 1945 the united states undertook a large scale medical investigation into the survivors of hiroshima and nagasaki they wanted to see what effect the atomic bombs had had a special the barratry was established to analyze the impact of radioactivity on the body note it was a lab and not a hospital it offered no treatment to the survivors they were only observed and studied the victims were downgraded to guinea pigs. these file cards bearing handwritten annotations represent irradiated individuals and their

elements. it's a horrendous archive of cruelty and immorality coolie registering skin diseases detached retinas menstrual irregularities hair loss in media tumors diarrhea and vomiting among many other illnesses and death the data was not published either in japan or the united states. in 1946 the united states launched a series of nuclear weapon tests. one aim was to study the effects of radiation on troops military equipment and the environment the program continued into the 960 s. . use in operation hard power and 158.