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s scontaminated by landmines sie the invasion. we will have a special report. plus, swapping cigarettes for bathing. why authoritiesn the u.k. are giving out one million vaping kits. welcome to world news america. president biden has touched down in belfast at the start of his visit to northern ireland and the irish republic. the trip marks the 25th anniversary of the good friday agreement. the deal larger brought an end to the 30 year complex in northern ireland -- conflict in northern ireland, but turmoil persists even if less violence than in the past.

on wednesday, presidt biden speech before traveling to the republic of ireland. there, and he will celebrate his own family's roots, attending events. there will also be official engagements in dublin. he will leave for america on iday. our correspondent starts with this report. >> air force one arrives at belfast international and northern ireland's first presidential visit in 10 years is underway. time for a short hello with rishi sunak before the president was whisked away for the night. steel is in place in belfast city center in one of the biggest security operations in recent years. >> we have planned for a number of weeks, prepared for various contingencies.

we will remain confusion of the focused in policing. -- community focused in policing. >> to those who wouldll use violence -- >> in 1995, not long after a cease-fire had been declared, bill clinton crossed belfast's peace line to visit the divided communities. then came a historic moment. >> the first public handshake between a u.s. president and the leader of the ira. >> bill clinton helped pave the way for him to join peace talks. there was some political pressure for him not to come here? what did that hand shake achieve? >> it was a clear symbolic indication to this community

that the president of the usa was recognizing them and other communities. this stretch of the road, somebody died here at the hands of british soldiers. it was -- to have a moment of symbolism. >> to his long been a strong connection with ireland for millions of america -- there has long been a strong conneion with ireland for millions of americs. john f. kennedy described visiting ireland as the best four days of his life joe biden has often spoken of his irish roots, but said his focus would be the peace process and brexit. >> make sure the irish accords and the windsor stay in place and keep the peace. that is the main thing. >> there is now a little less need for those glasses as potus

will wake up tomorrow and less sun-kissed belfast. in the morning, biden will have a meeting with rishi sunak before heading to an event at the university with northern ireland political parties. what will he say to them? an invitation for the president to visit was not taken up. the optics here werdeemed less suitable with the government suspended because of disagreement over plans and arrangements. for this city, it will be a more brief afir than in the past, but still the mark of northern ireland's continuing importance to america in its post-conflict journey. david: emma enjoys meeting from belfast. this trip is all about celebrating the peace accords in northern ireland, yet the order

of the century on, the entire process is very precarious. emma: that is correct. one of the key parts of the good friday agreement was setting up a power-sharing government between unionists and nationalists. but that has frequently collapsed over the years. it has been collapsed for more than a year. that does not provide great optics for presidential visits. something he might have stayed longer if there had not been so much political instability, but on the othand, the big achievement of the good friday agreement is the relative peace it has brought to northern ireland. that is what the president will want to underline. david: president biden is due to meet the leaders of the five main northern ireland political parties tomorrow. what are the chances he could no things forward and prompt some

sort of breakthrough in the por-sharing agreement? emma: there is not great hope of that. on the one hand, he is only with the political parties briefly tomorrow on the fringes of this event at ulster university. in will not be much more than handshake and small talks. on the political side, the democratic unionists are boycotting because of their opposition to the brexit arrangements. they feel their place in the u.k. has been undermined. they often feel that president biden and other american leaders have not particularly understood the unionists position very well. there is not great hope that they can much to change their position. david:this is a president who he

much of his irish ancestry and has called this part diplomacy, part homecoming. >> emotionally, he is more drawn to the republic of ireland where his family has its roots and where heat will spend the bulk of this trip. it is great short visit to belfast. he will spend three days in the republic. he will speak to bothouses of the irish parliament and will be meeting the irish president and having dinner but there is a personal element to from and hes brought on this trip his sister and his son. he is taking them to meet some of their relatives. david: family roots run deep

there. the white house has been telling reporters of joe biden's great-great-grandfather, who sold bricks in order to finance the family passage to the united states. >> joe biden is proud of those irish roots. he is 5/8, he reckons, irish. he thinks that makes him one of the most irish presidents in history. this is personal. he wants to revisit the homeland. date probably will not do any harm when you have got over 30 million americans who claim irish roots who seem to embrace the emerald isle. this is after a fairly brief visit to northern ireland. some are disappointed he is not bending longer, but there is a

delicate political situation that he is not about to wade into. david: sarah smith in belfast. in ukraine, take best area is now covered in -- a vast area is now covere in landmines. more than 700 said to have died because of them. the areas on this map denote the parts of the country contaminated minds -- mines. st are concentrated in the kharkiv region where it will take decades to clear. in a moment, we will hear from james waterhouse about the scale of the problem, but first, let's hear about how he and his team gained access to the area. >> landmines have is been a part of the warfare.

in this conflict, we have seen the russian side use them in large numbers. when they retreated from the central region, we saw them deployed in areas they used to occupy. in the east, where there is heavy fighting, both lines have used that. we wanted to get a sense of the longer-term implications of that, so we got in touch with the state emergency services. they allowed us to join their teams as they responded to calls for explosives to be removed. the first day, we did not find any landmines, just missiles. they did not want to take us anywhere that was too dangerous. it was a f days later that we went to a town and finally saw mines for ourselves. they are deployed in an indiscriminate nature.

we were able to talk to residents directly affected by living with these. this is what you call a sctching of the sanchez, k sweep -- of the service, a sweep for hidden killers. the job with obvious occupational hazards. it is hard to describe this as anything other than random. this is a patch of land, not a place that was once contested, where there was heavy fighting, but what these sweepers are looking for our butterfly mines. they are banned by international law and can cause severe damage. only a few inches wide and shaped like a propeller,hey are scattered from a flying rock. they are illegal because of the indiscriminate way they can kill

and inju civilians. in this area, russia and ukraine have both been accused of using butterfly mines. the latter denies it. >> the city's deputy mayor tells me they have been demining every months since the second world war. it is now every y. >> they are everywhere -- yards, cemeteries. along the river, there are more. >> the damage they cause is devastating. as shown inside this hospital. >> heat stepped on one in the garden of his destroyed home. >> i have no house, no cars, no cows, no property. i used to have it all, but it got ruined. my grandchildren cannot visit

because of the mines. >> he is unr the care of the only doctor who kept worng throughout the occupation last year. >> unfortunately, in most cases, an encounter with unknown explosive devices and tragically . losing a limb or other injuries is not the worst outcome. a week and a half ago, we received a patient who discovered a mine. he is still here but the person with him dying. >> we have an appetite to better understand this. >> i am very cautious. i do not walk around much but when i do, i use the same path. i am scared. i have a son and in worried about him going out on his own. >> back here, butterfly clearing

reaches its crescendo. a job likely to be replicated for decades. james waterhouse, bbc news. david: here in the u.s., follow-up from the classified documents the is only growing. written -- britain says this should be treated with caution and could contain disinformation. white house officials have also urged caution but that has not completely calm to fears that the documents could open an unwelcome window into the west's support for the war in ukraine. >> washington and its allies are still dealing with the fallout of a massive leak of secret documents, one of the largest in recent years. most of these documents are related to the war in ukraine. the washington post reported egypwas planning to secretly

supply russia with 40,000 miiles. recent reports have suggested that russia was running low on missiles, especy after the campaign targeting ukraine's essential infrastructure. an official in egypt rected these allegations and said was a baseless claim. the washinon post also suggesting that u.s. officials had questioned the ability of the ukrainian militaryo achieve major gains with a counter offensive. ukraine is planning an offensive to try to take back territory now under occupation. this offensive is expected to start within weeks. we also know that the ukrainian military is facing a number of challenges, including a lack of on munition despite all the help that has been provid by nato countries. 1/5 of this country remains under occupation and we have

seen evidence that russian forces are fortifying some of their positions. some of the leaks give an indication of conversations they are having behind the scenes in the u.s., which has been one of ukraine's most important allies. we still do not know how much has been the. for american officials investigating, two key mustards remain -- who is behind it? and why? david: president biden has called russia's detention of the wall street reporter evan gershkovich totally illegal . he was detained by russia's security service two weeks ago. kremlin officials have accused him of the spying on behalf of the u.s., an allegation he denies. the white house said mr. biden

telephoned his family to say he was working to secure their son's release. on monday, the state department formally classified him as wrongfully detained. he is the first american journalist to be detained in russia on espionage charges since the end of the cold war. >> we are making it clear that it is totally illegal what is happened. we declared it so. david: let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines. israel's prime minister has reversed a dision to sack his defense minister. the dismissal took two weeks ago after he criticized the government's plan to overhaul israel's judicial system. the statement has been greeted with relief on the part of many israelis and it comes as a

district netanyahu is seeking to project a sense of unity. chicago has been selected as the host of next year's democratic tional convention. the last time the city played host to such a gathering was in 1996 when bill clinton was nominated for the second term. the 1968 democratic convention was marred by violent clashes involving anti-vietnam war protests. doctors are taking strike action across england. the u.k. has can -- has accused them of putting patient lives at risk. they are seeking a 35% pay raise but the government says that is not reasonable.

the president of brazil is visiting china this week. he will start in shanghai on wednesday before making his way to aging, where he will meet with xi jinping. china is brazil's largest trading partner, but these visit has implications beyond trade. mariana sanchez has this review of the trip. >> the handshake between lula and xi jinping will be closely followed in washington, d.c. after years of a government that irritated both the u.s. and china, is ill tries to reposition itself politically and is becoming one of the new printers of dispute for power and influence -- new frontiers of dispute for power and

influence. china has turned brazil into its biggest investment destination and is pressing for the country to join the belt and road initiative, which would probably be seen as a deepening of relationships between the two countries in strategic areas such as technology, infrastructure and supply chains. brazil sees chinese investment is a chance to industrialize its economy. without resrces approved by congress to send to bill, the biden administration tries to strengthen ties and has discussed with japan an invitation for lula to go to the g7 meeting, where the brazilian leader could negotiate for help to eliminate defestation in the amazon. david: officials in the u.k. are urging people to stop smoking

cigarettes and to vape instead. smokers will be given a free vaping kit. the british government is hoping to make engld smoke-free by 2030, but health charities say such measures are nowhere near sufficient to tackling the country's tobacco addiction. >> no doubt about the harms of smoking. one quarter of all cancer deaths are linked to smoking. in 1974, 40 5% of adults in britain smoked. by 2021, that had fallen to 13%. in england, that equates to 6 million people. the target in england is to get rates below 5%. this will not be achievable without urgent action. government plans include free

vaping kits, up to 400 pounds in vouchers for pregnant women to stop smoking. it is estimated that 50,000 pregnant women still smoke per year. there will also be a crackdown on the sale of vapes to children. >> this can play an important role in helping the government achieve its ambition. but there is a double-edged sword. on the one hand, we do not want children to develop any addiction at a young age, but for adults, vaoubg -- vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking. >> we asked smokers what would make them quick. >> i come back to cigarettes because they taste better. >> cigs are becoming about 12 pounds and will go up soon. >> as i said, i have been

smoking for about 30 years. >> the government rejected a proposal to increase the age you can buy cigarettes from 18 by one year every year until no one can legally buy them as new zealand has done. vaping levels are soaring. more than 4 million britons vape , including some 11 to 15 euros, even though that is illegal. >> vaping is important to how adult smokers quit, but we do not want to see children take it up. what is needed is changes in regulations. at the moment, these products e too appealing to children and too cheap. dad: many remain concerned about the dramatic rise in vaping among children. although less dangerous than smoking, its potential long-term

ers are unclear. a bit of basketball history has sold for a record price. a pair of shoes that belong to michael jordan have sold for more than $2 million. he wore the trainers on his way to a sixth nba titles on -- n 199 narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by.. narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪

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geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: body camera footage offers new details on the horrific, deadly event. geoff: a judge's ruling opens the door to more political pressure on medical regulators. amna: a firsthand look at how climate change is threatening a town nestled in the arctic circle. >> living here and also for tourism, it is not good. ♪ >>