♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight, republican presidential candidates, looking to unseat donald trump as the gop frontrunner, prepare to debate for the first time this election cycle. geoff: an airplane crashes in russia, killing everyone on

board. on the passenger list, the leader of the russian mercenary group responsible for an attempted coup. amna: and, india becomes the latest nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon, visiting previously untouched terrain. >> the more we know about what the situation is there for water at the south pole, the more scientists get interested in this place. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪

>> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf. the engine that connects us. >> the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for broadcasting and by -- public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour.

we began with two major stories tonight. yevgeny prigozhin, the head of the wagner mercenary group, was on board a plane that crashed in russia today, leaving no survivors. that's according to russia's aviation agency. the crash comes two months after prigozhin's attempted coup against the kremlin. we'll have more on this shortly. geoff: but first, republicans are set to hold the first presidential debate of the 2024 election season tonight. a field of eight challengers is gathered in milwaukee for this first faceoff, as the current frontrunner, former president donald trump, is notably absent. our own lisa desjardins is at the debate and joins us now for a preview of what's to come. lisa, you have been talking to the various campaigns all day. what are they telling you? what should we look for tonight? lisa: i have to stress, th is the first republican primary presidential debate in several there seven years. a lot of players have added up. it is 100 degrees here in milwaukee. this could be a fascinating

set of dynamics. at the top of that is a look at the stage. it candidates will be on stage tonight. six of them current or former governors along with two others and at the center of the stage is ron desantis, the florida governor. his camp says they expect it to -- expect to be attacked and that he will be seen as in a different league. he has double-digit support in some polls. others do not. however, there are competitors rising up and every other campaign i spoke to said of ron desantis, they believe he has the most to lose tonight. this will be a test for him and also a test of former president trump. he is certainly here tonight. everyone is talking about him tonight. can the stage here steal the spotlight from him? former president trump will have a prerecorded interview with tucker carlson.

it will air tonight on the website formerly known as twitter. geoff: so much coverage has focused on personalities. what about policy? the target audience is the republican base. what about the issues? what issues should we hear debated tonight? lisa: among the issues, there could be foreign policy discussions. vivek ramaswamy the upstart businessman getting a lot of momentum and attention right now has come out with some foreign policy decisions that his opponents are criticizing. one says he believes the united states should give less aid to israel. expect former south carolina governor nikki haley to go after him on that. that is one policy issue i think we should watch for. another one, schools. ron desantis is well-known, and we have covered on this program the changes in florida's curriculum, specifically regarding african-american history. senator tim scott, one of the

competitors on stage, has openly criticized desantis about that and the idea that the enslaved benefited from slavery is wrong. that could come up. finally, not quite policy but more politics, i think former president trump will come up as an issue of policy, a test of what republicans think about what the former president said, including about the election, and governor ron desantis will be in the middle of that. his words last week about trump and his supporters we will probably hear about tonight. i want to play when he said last week, right now. gov. desantis: if you are not rooted in principle, if all we are is vessels that have to follow whatever comes down the pike untruths social every morning, that will not be durable. lisa: now, desantis began his career, he was elevated because he was such a trump supporter. but trump and his supporters say

that was a knock against them. i talked to trump voters who say they don't believe desantis' words, that it was about elected officials but they said they do take that personally. geoff: lisa, you have been talking to donald trump's campaign. what are they telling you? what does he hope to achieve with the interview he reported -- recorded with tucker carlson? lisa: he wants to convince voters the republican primary is over. look at the statement today. from the trump campaign they , wrote, "president trump has already won the debate." they went on to say, "expect the fox host to show an unnatural obsession with president trump." i raise this because this is another important layer to the debate. this is a test of the boiling feud between former and fox news.

with him not showing up here tonight, it means a choice for conservative viewers. are they going to watch eight republicans on stage who want to be president, or are they going to watch him with tucker carlson, or are they going to just watch video clips tomorrow morning? it is a test of where them or -- information goes. geoff: lisa desjardins reporting for us tonight in milwaukee. lisa, thank you. lisa: you're welcome. ♪ amna: we return now to our other lead story, a plane crash in russia that could have ramifications around the world. a jet went down today en route from moscow to st. petersburg. the airline said it was carrying the head of the infamous wagner mercenary group. outside of moscow, a plane falls from the sky, the apparent fiery fate of a former kremlin soldier, turned traitor.

yevgeny prigozhin rose from the st petersburg underworld to become known as vladimir putin's chef, thanks to kremlin catering contracts. he helped cook up the 2016 u.s. disinformation campaign from this st petersburg building. and then, prigozhin's kremlin catering turned violent. his paramilitary empire wagner group deployed thousands of mercenaries to a dozen countries to do the kremlin's bidding. in ukraine, wagner helped russia capture the center of bakhmut, in the war's longest and deadliest battle. >> thanks to vladimir putin for giving us the honor of defending our motherland. amna: but he also turned his ire toward russia. he questioned the war's goals, and blamed military leaders by name for his men's deaths. >> we have a 70% shortage of ammunition. shoigu! gerasimov!

where is the ammunition? amna: and thn his most notorious act, a july coup attempt and march to moscow. it was aborted, but putin called it "a stab in the back." >> excessive ambition and vested interest led to treason, betrayal of the country and its people. amna: today, president biden said he couldn't confirm prigozhin's death, but suggested the coup attempt sealed his fate. >> i don't know for a fact what happened, but i'm not surprised. >> do believe putin is behind this? >> there's not much that happens in russia that putin's not behind. amna: for more on prigozhin, and the plane crash, we get two views. angela stent worked in the state department during the clinton administration, and served as a top u.s. intelligence officer on russia during the george w. bush administration. she's now a professor at georgetown university. her latest book is "putin's world." and candace rondeaux is a senior director at new america, a washington, d.c.-based think tank. she's written extensively about the wagner group and prigozhin.

>> i think this time, we see the reaction on the ground from perversions hands, -- from -- the namesake of the wegner group is also dead along with others involved in this.

>> you heard the comments from president biden and the cia director who said he would be surprised if -- would putin want prigozhin dead and do you believe be behind this? >> prigozhin challenged the kremlin and the conduct of the war. he had a populist message that while children were dying and their husbands were dying, the children of the elite were in the south of france. a brief extract on the day of the coup, there was anger behind it. if indeed there was inset -- assassination, we don't know that yet, it is to try to deter other people in the elite and

the military from challenging putin again. making them understand what will happen if they do. >> what about that? if there was an assassination, how would that be received and perceived in russia? what is the message? >> the message is, mess around and you will find out. the timing is interesting. we heard recently that the general armageddon as he is known, a big backer of yevgeny prigozhin since their days in syria, he was apparently devoted -- demoted. another -- a number of different commanders will be dealt with. in terms of what we are hearing out of places like belarus where

there are wegner contingents operating, we see reports of the internet being cut off in that area. there is concern that there could be some sort of retribution or operational revenge plan, that prigozhin had in place in case of death. >> we should remind folks that the wegner group pyed a crucial role for the kremlin and russia's war in ukraine. if prigozhin is dead, what kind of impact would his death have? >> i think we saw wegner -- wagner troops were withdrawing from ukraine. they were instrumental in taking back moved. -- taking a city.

what is interesting, on monday video camera with yevgeny prigozhin reportedly in africa saying the wagner recruitment is going on and they want people to fight in africa, to join the coup people. even if wagner will be less important in ukraine, for the time being it looks like it will play a crucial role in other theaters in the world particularly africa. >> what about the operations? wagner runs mining operations. is there someone else who can step up and take yevgeny prigozhin's place? >> there are other commanders including people in africa. there isn't anyone with the charisma he has had. in that sense, whoever is running wagner in the future, his right-hand man was also

killed, there won't be an individual like that who will try to rouse the public to criticize the war. that will be another impact of his death, that you will not have other people criticizing the war. as mentioned, the military and pro-yevgeny prigozhin people will have a feeding frenzy criticizing them and that may lead to instability. >> we have to reflect, yevgeny prigozhin is a unique figure. he went from head of the paramilitary empire. if he is dead, how do you look at his legacy and impact on power? >> his legacy is vladimir putin's legacy.

they came of age at the same time. there is only 10 years between them. they are in sons of st. petersburg. c they kind of grew into the men they are today. into this mafia culture. i think the overlap between the mafia and kgb, maybe we will not be talking about him today. he left a stain on russian history, on putin's legacy as well. enormous amounts of death and destruction and the loss of many innocent lives, including journalists, human rights activists who try to expose his misconduct and wrongdoing over the years. in a way, perhaps it is a moment

of closure and justice for those who have suffered at his hands. >> thank you so much for joining us. ♪ >> i'm stephanie tsai with newshour west. here are the latest headlines. tropical storm franklin lashed the dominika republic and haiti, triggering heavy flooding and landslides. at least one person died. the storm could dump as much as 16 inches of rain on some areas. the storm impact on the maximum winds of 40 miles per hour. many of those impacted live in poor, overcrowded communities. >> i don't know how to survive in the storm. i have already escaped gang violence in a bad storm will kill the rest of us. don't have a good life here. >> texas, the remnants of tropical storm harold brought more downpours that inundated

streets. authorities on that we are desperately urging families to provide dna samples of the remains of those who died in the wildfires. 115 people are confirmed dead with more than 1000 people still unaccounted for. officials say only about 100 dna samples have been submitted so far. >> we need family members to come forward and donattheir samples so compare them to the dna profiles we have already generated from remains. this is a critical step in order to make an identification based on the dna testing that's already been done. amna: maui's police chief -- maui county officials are also urging the public that scammers have false requests for dna samples. the death toll in greece has climbed to 20 people. outside athens, strong gusts fanned the flames toward homes

where more than 200 blazes have ravaged in the past two days alone. across the border in turkey, dense smoke filled the sky as fires burned in the western part of the country. firefighters struggled to control the flames. former trump campaign lawyer rudy giuliani turned himself in at an atlanta jail today. the former new york mayor has been charged with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results. giuliani spoke to reporters this morning in new york before heading down to georgia. mr. giuliani: i'm feeling very, very good about it, because i feel like i am defending the rights of all americans. and i'm fighting for justice. i have been from the first moment i represented donald trump -- innocent man -- who has now been proven innocent several times. amna: lawyer and trump ally sidney powell was also among the handful of co-defendants who surrendered today, ahead of friday's noon deadline. a federal judge denied

mark meadows' request to move and arrested georgia while he fights his case to move to federal court. president trump is expected to turn himself in tomorrow. south carolina's holdback on abortion -- rolled back on abortion right. this reverses the courts rulings that such a restriction was unconstitutional. it's the latest move in a larger effort across red states to limit legal access to abortions. part of a railway bridge under construction in india collapsed today, killing 26 workers. it happened in the town of sairang, in india's northeastern mizoram state. the incident is under investigation. the bridge has been under construction for nearly two years. north korea announced a second attempt to launch a spy satellite failed today. a similar launch failed in may. north korea's space agency said it will try again in october. still to come on the "newshour," canada struggles to combat devastating wildfires.

the biden administration's latest plan to relieve student debt. embattled northwest syria struggles to recover six months after a devastating earthquake we examine the plan to release treated radioactive water from japan's fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> india became the country to land on. after a failed attempt in 2019, days after it failed russian lunar landing, india's prime minister watched alongside the team at the indian space research organization as the lender touched down.

>> this success belongs to everyone. i have confidence that all countries in the world, including those in the global south, are capable of achieving success. >> joining me now is miles o'brien. good to see you. >> tell us about the indian mission. >> the primary goal has been accomplished. the research organization wanted to prove it could land a lander softly at the south pole of the moon. no nation has ever done this. india becomes the fourth nation to land on the moon anywhere, but the first at the south pole of the moon. it has already accomplished its minimal mission goal. now we are waiting for the tiny rover, which weighs about as

much as a check on bag, to roll up the ramp of the lander and spend a bit of time surveying the surface of the south pole, conducting experiments to understand its elemental composition, and the biggie is icewater. the more we know what the situation there is for water at the south pole, the more scientists get interested in this place. amna: as you mentioned, the russians tried earlier and failed. they wanted to beat the indians. what went wrong? miles: this is a bit of tortoise and hare story. the russians launched much later on a beeline mission to the moon . the indian space program takes a much more fuel-efficient and generally efficient approach. their launch was more than a month ago, and they slowly but surely nudged their orbit closer and closer to the moon, to save fuel, to save weight, to save cost.

the russians tried to sprint. we don't know exactly what happened but as it descended, something went wrong, and it made yet another crater in the moon, as if it needed that. it is probably a reflection of the financial issues that the russian space program phases, -- faces, certainly in the wake of the ukraine invasion, but before that, it had lost a lot of its commercial space enterprise and business to the likes of spacex. the russian program is a shell of what it once was, for sure. tell us a little more about why the south pole of the moon in particular is attracting more visitors now, and is this what is basically fueling a moon race 2.0? miles: yeah. it is kind of fun to watch. it is very different this go around. it is interesting that in 2009, moon orbiter carried an instrument built by nasa, which made the first discretionary of

-- discovery of water ice at the southwold of -- the south pole of the moon and that set off a race. it changes the way you think about operating an outpost on the moon. if you have water, you can sustain life. but you can also create electrical energy and rocket fuel. you could conceivably fuel up rockets to go back to earth or perhaps even go farther beyond. so with all that in mind, people who want to explore space find this an intriguing spot as a launching pad, if you will. amna: some of this is of national prestige. it was for the u.s.. what does it do for a country when they are able to do this and what does it tell us about america's efforts to return to the moon? miles: yeah. i think you can make an argument that to attain superpower status, having a space program is part of the whole mix. i think that is something that india has discovered and has made a huge investment.

really in the past three years, it has unleashed private enterprise, about now 140 small space startups in india, attracting several hundred what india has discovered is not only does it give you that soft power prestige throughout the world, space is a huge wealth generator, and as things get smaller and cheaper in space, you can imagine using space to provide great value to people here on earth, not just to go plant a flag on mars, but help farmers, understand climate change, to better understand our earth. all of that makes it a practical thing but also symbolic and boasting rights kind of thing for nations. i think india has discovered that, along with china, the u.s., and of course the soviet union initially. amna: you cover all these details of all these different efforts. seeing something like this, does it ever get old?

miles: no! this is so exciting to see a new generation of people, and a new group of people, succeeding in this realm. and to see india ascended and succeeded so well, it hardens -- curtains -- those of us who care about space exploration. truly the more the better, and nobody is enjoying any moment of schadenfreude over the russians failure. the more the u.s. and other spacefaring nations succeed, the more the earth as a whole does better, by using space as a tool to make life better here. amna: miles o'brien, thank you so much. always great to see you. miles: you're welcome, amna. ♪ geoff: it's been a very difficult summer in canada as that country has battled one wildfire after another. more than 37 million acres have

burned. the smoke from those fires has at times affected air in the u.s. a new analysis out this week finds that climate change increases the likelihood of hot, dry weather that helps fuel the unprecedented wildfire season. dan rivers of independent television news has the story. >> this is a glimpse into the heart of canada's wildfire crisis. an inferno consuming everything in its path, with flames leaping hundreds of feet into the air. this new video shows a blaze near kelowna, just one of more than a thousand fires raging across this vast country. it ripped across the hillsides here so fast, people had to evacuate across a lake. the blaze then jumped more than a mile across the water. >> one of the embers crossed the lake, and now this side of the lake is on fire.

>> those who escaped, still struggling to comprehend its speed and destruction >> you can't imagine. we always say it's just a house, but when you almost lose it, it becomes a lot more. >> blair savege has been battling the fire from the air, but couldn't save his own house. >> we have lost our family home. dislodged many friends and farms and things we have seen. the fires and the behavior of the fire is unprecendented. >> it's left families camping in carparks. frederica grooters got out with her dogs and her parents, but not much else. the family car business was incinerated. this video shows that their house, amazingly, survived thanks to a sprinkler system, but nothing else in their neighbourhood did. >> oh my goodness, it's devastating to see that video to

see the helicopter view, and see all of our neighbors' houses are just, to the ground, to the cement. it is horrific to see. >> wildfires are nothing new here, but it is the scale and ferocity which is different. those on the frontlines are clear about what's happening. >> we have had unprecedented drought conditions. everything is a tinderbox ready to go. >> for now, the firefighters think they have the upper hand here. they'll be bolstered by the canadian army this week, but canada's summer of fire is still a long way from being burnt out. ♪

>> student loan borrowers might find some relief under the biden administration repayment plan. the plan, which stands for saving a valuable education, could benefit borrowers. there are questions about who will benefit from the plan and who it leaves out. we turn to the education correspondent for npr. great to speak with you. what is different about this plan and what should borrowers know? >> it is an income-based repayment plan, which we have had a version of this for 20 years. this is more generous than any plan we have ever seen before. it is not because of one or two changes the biden administration is making. monthly payments will be slashed. for undergrads it will be cut roughly in half. we will see roughly half a

million more low income borrowers qualify for a zero dollar monthly payment. those are big changes. there's another one borrowers will feel, which is for folks making those low payments or even a zero dollar monthly payment, in the past, on previous plans, interest kept accumulating. that won't happen on this plan. any interest that is not covered by a monthly payment, the government is going to forgive month after month. one more big change, in the past, plans have had a countdown to forgiveness overall, 25 years for graduate borrowers, 20 years for undergraduate borrowers making payments. this plan includes a 10-year countdown for forgiveness for borrowers with smaller loans, like community college borrowers who take out or $12,000 less. >> why does the white house think this plan will hold up?

>> it is interesting. i have heard from lots of folks that this must be a replacement, this is plan b. interestingly, president biden announced this income driven repayment plan on the same day, at the same news conference that he announced the other plan that the court has since struck down. i think, geoff, to answer your question, the legality of this income driven repayment plan is just clearer than what the biden administration proposed with its previous sort of outright student loan forgiveness plan. this authority, the education secretary's authority to create an income-based repayment plan was delegated to the secretary by an act of congress. back in the early 1990's. the language of the law is fairly clear. obviously, there are lots of folks, republicans especially, who are really not happy about this plan, and they say it is too generous. geoff: borrowers can be

forgiven, if they are a bit confused about all the back-and-forth about which plans our current, which have been overturned. bottom line, what should people expect? what are the qualifications they have to meet in terms of income level or family size? cory: it's pretty quick. once folks get enrolled, they should get a fairly quick sense of what the monthly payment would look like, and for folks who enrolled in the previous income-based repayment plan, they should roll over this new plan and, you know, they can expect it to be, in effect, when repayment starts in october. there are a few of the things that i mentioned that one -- that will not actually going -- go into effect for one more year. i believe the countdown to forgiveness for borrowers with $12,000 or less, the cutting undergraduate borrowers monthly

payments in half, those are grander taper in, but some of these benefits are immediate. geoff: between 1980 and 2020, the average price of tuition, fees, and room and board for an undergraduate degree increased nearly 170%. are there any broad conversations happening, whether in congress or the administration, about how how to rein in tuition costs? cory: that is usually the first question i asked policymakers, every time i get on the phone, and that was one big knock against biden's previous sort of sweeping loan forgiveness plan is, it was all backward looking. it is arguably a knock against this income-driven repayment plan. it will definitely make life easier for borrowers moving forward. it will improve access for low-income borrowers and many low income americans who might not have considered college. it will make it easier for them to pay for it.

it is hard to imagine that this influx of federal dollars is going to somehow dis-incentivize schools from lowering prices. geoff: do you know how much this s.a.v.e. program will cost the government? cory: the most recent estimate i saw actually pegged the cost at potentially equal to or more than the $400 billion price tag of the outright loan forgiveness program that the supreme court struck down earlier this summer, so it is possible this income driven repayment plan can cost as much if not more than biden's previous plan, that is obvious -- obviously not going to go into effect. geoff: cory turner, thank you so much for your reporting and analysis. great to talk with you. cory: as always, geoff, my pleasure. ♪ amna: in early february, a

7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked rebel-controlled northwest syria, killing more than 7000, people, injuring thousands more, and destroying livelihoods. cut off from the rest of the world by the assad regime, survivors there have struggled to rebuild. earlier this month, special correspondent leila molana-allen traveled to idlib and jindires, some of the worst-affected areas, to speak with survivors still coping with the emotional and physical scars left behind. leila: another day, another pile of rubble. in the months since february's devastating earthquake, the syrian communities in this area of the country has slowly cleared the debris of countless destroyed homes. in the days following the quake, across the border in turkey international rescue teams worked against the clock with high-tech machinery to save lives. here, no one came.

it is extremely difficult for journalists to get into this part of northwest syria. we managed to get a rare visit. as the attention of the international community moves to other issues, human beings living here, trapped in this crisis, are increasingly being abandoned by the world. syrians trapped in this besieged enclave, home to 4.5 million people, were left. known as the white helmets, who worked for years to save victims of airstrikes and shelling attacks. carried out by assad and his russian allies. facing such widespread destruction with next to no equipment, many relied on little more than their hands. 4500 people died here following the earthquake. many of their lives could have been saved. this woman survived because she had gone to the hospital but the rest of her family was inside

the house. for three days, she could hear the voices of her children and husband, calling for help from within the carcass of their shattered home, but help never came. eventually, the voices stopped. >> i was hearing the sounds of my kids and could not help them. i tried but i could not. to see my sons die in front of me and i could not save them, how do you feel if your son dies and you cannot save them? leila: now miriam, her daughter, and granddaughter are living under plastic tarps amidst the dust and debris, using this for shelter from the 115-degree heat. they get by with help from surviving family and neighbors. i had many dreams but my life was ruined. now i just want to find a home. and leave this place. leila: jindires is one of the worst hit areas by the earthquake. six months later, many of the buildings here are still in

ruins. people are living in tents on the rebels of their homes. it is difficult to get building materials because everything has to be brought from turkey and even if they can manage that, most people here send -- simply can't afford to rebuild. with widespread construction across the border in turkey, the price of building materials has nearly doubled. the economy was already struggling before the earthquake. most workers only earned a couple dollars a day. many did not only lose their homes, but their ability to bring in the even that meager salary. mohamed is a therapist. since the earthquake, they have gone house to house to provide physical therapy. >> we go to houses of people to help them when their financial situation is not good or they cannot travel. we go to them and give them therapy and tools like wheelchairs for their recovery. leila: the team does as it can, but with thousands of people

facing life-changing injuries here and limited resources, the need is overwhelming. they are desperate for more funding and support. she has seven children. the oldest is just 12. he used work as a vegetable seller in his local market, earning enough to get by. but as he rushed his children out of their crumbling tower block in the middle of the night, the stairs collapsed, crushing his leg. he woke up in hospital with an amputated leg. >> what can i tell you? i had my legs so i can walk. now i have no legs. i lost my leg and know my situation is very dire. i used to stand in the street selling, but now i can't do anything anymore. leila: like many of the injured, he is in need of a prosthesis to get him on his feet again, and therapy to learn how to use it. but that would cost hundreds of dollars for even the most basic model. with their home destroyed and living on the charity of family

and friends, affording one without help is unthinkable. >> i just want to have my own life. now my situation is very bad. now the only thing i need is to have a prosthetic leg, so i can work and take care of my children and my wife like i used to. leila: he hopes one day he will be able to provide for his kids again, but many more children have been left without a parent to even try. this orphanage opened just a couple of months ago in idlib city. they are trying to offer some of them a new place to call home. >> when children first came to the center, they were so afraid. anything made them terrified. it is a big responsibility, and we try to do the best we can. x easy. stay strong. leila: 12-year-old mohammed and his 11-year-old sister lost their entire family and -- in the earthquake when their home collapsed. >> we were sleeping and the earth started shaking and we ran outside. we ran to my grandfather's house.

the white helmets took us to our grandfathers house. and they told us my father and mother are dead. then the white helmets took us to a camp, and we slept there, and then the teachers brought us here. leila: every child here has a similar story, and there's only space for 100 children here. many hundreds more have been left without parents or a breadwinner to care for them. aged grandparents and distant family members doing what they can to support another mouth to feed, and alongside the emotional devastation brought by the earthquake, many children they are the physical scars. >> this is my room. leila: this eight-year-old was buried under a mountain of bricks and mortar for 36 hours. >> that's my sister and that's me. leila: she is the only member of her family pulled out alive. her mother, father and twin

sister were killed immediately. now her grandparents hope to make up for all she has lost. >> she was her father's favorite. she needs someone to replace that father's kindness now. leila: his legs were smashed to pieces. this kind of injury was so common in the quake that it has become known as "crush syndrome" among doctors here. the hospital thought they would have to amputate but several painful surgeries later, they have managed to piece her legs back together. >> she can walk but not well. she has a difficult road ahead. she needs someone to address her and take her to the bathroom. she needs help with everything. god give me the strength to help her. leila: her legs maybe coming back to life, but her psychological ones we more -- wounds will be more difficult to heal. she rarely sleeps through the night, terrified her home will come crashing down around her again. >> in the night she cries "earthquake, earthquake!" she wakes up and starts screaming.

>> the children gather to receive gifts from an emergency task force. for a generation of kids who've lost everything so early in their young lives, trapped in this embattled, forgotten corner of the world, hope may not be enough. for the pbs newshour, i'm leila molana-allen in idlib, syria. ♪ geoff: japan is expected to release treated radioactive water from the wrecked fukushima nuclear power plant, and that may begin as soon as tomorrow. the government and the utility operating fukushima says it is safe to do so and the release is being closely monitored. but nearby countries oppose the move and worry it won't be safe. that's also a real concern for japanese fisherman. miles o'brien recently traveled

to japan for a series of stories with exclusive access at fukushima. he's back with this latest report. miles: at the toxic waste site that was the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant, the plumbing and the pumps are now in place. all that's left is to open the valves and start releasing diluted, yet radioactive, water into the pacific ocean. lake barrett: this is where all the water comes together, before it would be discharged to the ocean in a controlled manner. miles: my guide for this extraordinary tour was nuclear engineer lake barrett. he led the cleanup campaign for the nuclear regulatory commission in the wake of the three mile island meltdown in 1979. he is now a paid consultant to the owner of fukushima, the tokyo electric power company, tepco. lake barrett: if it was fresh water, i would drink it and have my grandchildren drink it. ok. so it's not a risk that i believe -- and most people

believe -- is one of concern. miles: but fisherman haruo ono is not convinced. homeport for him is 30 miles to the north of the plant in soma city. after the tsunami and subsequent triple meltdowns in 2011, he and the others here were put out of business, unable to sell seafood for fear of contamination. haruo ono: we couldn't sell fish in the beginning, but we tried hard and eventually resumed. but this time, we may not be able to sell fish because they will release the water forever. miles: forever, in this case, is about 35 years. that is how long tepco says it needs to safely drain these tanks into the pacific ocean. the company is anxious to make room to remove and secure all the radioactive materials the a chore that will take decades.

the tanks contain 340 million gallons of water that flow through the melted remnants of the reactors. it is tainted with tritium, a mildly radioactive form of hydrogen that occurs naturally. it is luminescent, used to light watch dials, aircraft gauges and exit signs. it reacts with oxygen just like regular hydrogen, creating water that is radioactive. it cannot be practically separated from h20 in quantities this large. >> i deeply understand fishermen's anxiety and concerns. >> yasutoshi nishimura is the minister of economy, trade and industry. >> the experts concluded, after six years of research, that the most appropriate way is to purify and dilute the water then discharge it to the ocean, in line with the international standard, or even lower. >> in july, the un's international atomic energy agency released its assessment of the fukushima daiichi water

discharge plan, calling it "consistent with relevant international safety standards." and concluding "it would have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment." the agency vows to continue its review during the discharge phase, having a continuous on-site presence. >> the health consequences are low for tritium, but there is debate to be certainly a factor of 10 what the level should be in drinking water >> marine radio chemist ken buesseler is a senior scientist at the woods hole oceanographic institution. he says every nuclear power plant in the world releases tritium tainted water. >> with four hundred or so nuclear power plants around the world releasing tritium, it would be hard to single out this particular site and say, no, you can't, the others are ok. the other 399 sites are releasing it and the ocean contains tritium already from those atmospheric nuclear

weapons testing going back to the 1950's and 1960's. >> regardless, japan's neighbors are crying foul. >> japan has yet to produce solid scientific proof to convince the international community that it's safe. >> if it were china, going to release some radioactive water into the ocean, the western media will be explode. >> state run media in china has led a chorus of condemnation along with pacific island nations, and until a recent election, south korea. but japan says the critique from its regional rivals deliberately ignores the science, and is hypocritical. china is the fastest growing nuclear power producer in the world. nishimura says just one of its plants discharges about seven times more tritium a year than what is planned at fukushima. >> through intensive outreach, we are trying to win the understanding of stakeholders. >> to do that, japan must dig its way out of a hole, which it

started at the outset of the disaster. >> the government failed to inform people adequately about the spread of radiation, about the risks. >> azby brown is an american expat who has lived in japan for 37 years. he is lead researcher for safecast, a nonprofit created in 2011 to address the communication meltdown. they distributed a thousand geiger counters all throughout the stricken region and beyond, and installed fixed sensors as well. they still maintain 17 near the plant. they say tepco, and the government of japan, lack transparency and inclusiveness. >> if they do what they say they're going to do, the risk will probably be very low to health and to marine life. but they're not transparent enough about what's actually in those tanks. they haven't made water samples available to independent researchers of whom there are many very, very qualified people around the world. they haven't

done anything that really would actually help build trust in what they want to do. >> scientists like ken buesseler would like some academic rigor. >> you would want to have someone other than the operator in charge of disposing of this check those numbers in the tanks. and equally as important as an oceanographer, i would want to be out there now measuring for this suite this range of different radionuclides in the seawater on the seafloor in the sea life just to establish those baselines very clearly. >> water from the tanks containing tritium will flow to this spot at about a hundred gallons a minute, where it will be mixed and diluted. >> clean water is brought in from the ocean through three 1000 horsepower pumps each flow about 33,000 gallons per minute. >> the water will flow through this large tunnel to a discharge point two thirds of a mile offshore. a two square mile area around it will be closed to

fishing. inside the plant, tepco has built fish tanks filled with flounder. some are exposed to the diluted tritium. the utility says it will closely monitor their health. it's an effort to assure the public. but that is of little consolation to fisherman haruo ono. >> if you throw garbage or anything else in the sea, you will be punished. why is only tritium different, and allowed to be dumped in the sea? really, the politicians in office now are stupid or something else, i don't know. whatever they say, we can't recover our jobs. >> the politicians apparently have reckoned with this possibility, creating a 50 billion yen, $340 million dollar, fund to compensate fishermen for potential losses. scientists may not be worried about properly diluted tritium, but perceptions driven by fear, and fed by misinformation, can

become reality at the seafood counter. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in soma-city, japan geoff: that is the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. ♪ >> major funding has been provided by -- >> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of newshour in jim and nancy and kathy and paul anderson. >> consumer cellular. how can i help you? a pocket dial? thought i would let you know with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is our thing. have a nice day. >> the ford foundation, working

with visionaries on the frontlines lines of social change worldwide. funding for america at a crossroads was provided by -- ♪ and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station frthiek you. >> this is pbs newshour west

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