from berlin. tonight, world leaders are paying tribute to mikhail gorbachev, who has died at the age of 91. the last leader of the former soviet union, he is credited with helping to end the cold war. the west saw him as a hero but inside russia, the opinions are mixed. we will get reactions to this passing. also coming up tonight, a team of u.n. experts is on his way to

ukraine's zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. the head of the region says they plan to stay there and prevent a nuclear accident. and the u.s. has approved updated covid-19 vaccines that target the latest strains of the covid-19 variant. the latest boosters could be available in a matter of days. and we look at the devastation in pakistan after powerful floods swept through the region, taking lives and livelihoods with them. ♪ i'm brent goff. to our viewers watching on pbs in the united states and to all of you around the world, welcome. tributes are being paid to mikhail gorbachev, who yesterday died at the age of 91. the last leader of the soviet union, he helped end the cold

war by forging better ties with the west. today, germany's chancellor olaf scholz said that gorbachev had been a courageous reformer who dared to do many things. russian president vladimir putin today held him as an extraordinary global statesman, but the kremlin said that gorbachev had been badly wrong about the prospect of friendly ties with the, and i am quoting here, the bloodthirsty west. >> in mikhail gorbachev's first speech as leader of the soviet union, it was clear he was a stark contrast to his predecessors. >> the right to live in peace and freedom is the most important basic right of each individual. reporter: gorbachev wanted to change the soviet union, to bring it closer to the people. he promoted glasnost, openness, and perestroika, reforms, two

words that will forever be associated with him. his new outlook was popular with many. his policies also applied to the military, despite the resistance of soviet generals. >> i am convinced that we will also have to reform our military. we have far too many weapons. we have to seek dialogue with other superpowers and reduce our arsenals to a reasonable extent. reporter: as a result of that dialogue, gorbachev and u.s. president reagan signed the first of many disarmament treaties in 1987. it was the beginning of the end of the cold war. in october 1989, when he visited east berlin for the gdr's 40th serial versions, gorbachev urged

eric honecker to implement reforms. he warned the eastern leader, saying life punishes those who come too late. a month after his visit, the berlin wall fell, and with it, the iron curtain that had divided europe for decades. it was gorbachev's reformist policies that helped unleash a peaceful resolute -- revolution across eastern europe. in 1990, gorbachev was awarded the nobel peace prize for his key role in bringing about a new, peaceful world order. internationally, he was highly regarded. but at home, he was increasingly under pressure. the economic situation was dire. the soviet union, on the verge of falling apart. communist hardliners stay reached -- staged a coup in august 1991. at the end of that year, mikhail

gorbachev announced his resignation, and the soviet union was dissolved, with many russians holding him responsible for its demise. brent: horst was one of the closest advisors of the former german chancellor. he sat at the table when the late chancellor negotiated germany's reunification with mikhail gorbachev. earlier this evening, i had the chance to ask him what it was like to witness a turning point in real-time in european history. guest: well, it was an exciting moment. i was the notetaker during the meeting between the chancellor and secretary-general gorbachev. early february, 1990, in moscow,

when gorbachev suddenly said, it's the job of both german governments to decide whether they want to be united, how they want to be united, and how fast. and in that moment i was aware that i was witnessing history, real history in europe. and writing down the wording of general secretary gorbachev, i a sked the chancellor, gorbachev has to repeat this sentence in order to avoid any mistake in writing down the exact wording. and gorbachev did. this was a great moment. brent: a great moment, indeed.

was it clear to everyone, particularly you as a german, that you had the leader of the soviet union sitting there who had the power to block any attempt at reunification, but was choosing not to wield that power. he was choosing to let germans decide for themselves. was that reality, was that clear to you at that moment? horst: well, at that moment, it was a clear announcement. whether gorbachev would be strong enough to manage it was a different question. and, well, i tell you, i had later on a private meeting with the foreign secretary.

he had just left his office when i met him in moscow. because we have had a difficult time in january 1990, because the chancellor was urgently interested in a meeting with gorbachev. personal meetings, the first one after the wall had come down. and suddenly, we had to learn vi a the media that gorbachev had canceled all meetings wit foreigners in january 10. and i asked later on, what was going on in moscow inanuary? because we were waiting for a meeting with gorbachev. and he said to me, mr. teltschik, at that time, wead a discussion in the leadership

in moscow whether we should militarily intervene in the gdr or not. i remind you that about 380,000 soviet troops at that time were posted in the gdr. it would have been an easy effort for them to stop any emigration and closing the wall again. brent: that is very true. we all remember that the tanks, they did not roll out. and that is when history was made. mr. horst teltschik, we appreciate you taking the time to share your memories and your insights tonight. thank you. now we want to take a look at mikhail gorbachev's legacy as seen through the eyes of his fellow russians. some blame him for the soviet union's collapse. some even see him as a traitor.

reporter: russia's news channels reported that president vladimir putin had expressed his deepest condolences, but muscovites themselves we not united in mourning their former leader. >> he laid the foundation for our democracy that existed in the late 1990's and early 2000's. >> he was a remarkable politician, the only and last president of our country who did good and bad things. >> he let the country fall apart. now my relatives live in a different country. the ex-soviet republics are not together anymore. that is bad. >> we lost our home country and are restoring it now. it was a big one. now it is a small one. reporter: in gorbachev's homeland, ambivalence reigns. a kremlin spokesman hailed him as a statesman who will go down in history, but dismissed his hopes between russia and the west as roromanticism that did t work out in the face of what he called the length or soonest of moscow -- the bloodthirsty-ness

of russia's opponents. brent: i asked why president putin and mikhail gorbachev, why they voted criticizing each other publicly, despite their very different perspectives on the soviet union's final days. >> well, i think because both, for their own reasons, they disliked boris yeltsin's period in russia's history. putin saw yeltsin as someone who took awayot only his chair into kremlin, but his country, the soviet union. and putin hated yeltsin for progressive policies, for trying to curtail the powers of the kgb, and essentially by basically reducing russia's standing as a great power in the world. so both had their attitudes towards yeltsin. but putin, being a politician,

understood he cannot avoid national mourning for yeltsin. brent: we know mikhail gorbachev supported the 2014 annexation of crimea. but what happened afterwards is not so clear. do we have an idea of what goachev thought about vladimir putin d the invasion of ukraine? >> you know, that is my impression, gorbachev was also very careful to keep his ideals to himself. although we had some hints that he was disappointed with what happened from the 24th of february, over the eight years since putin invaded ukraine, he never id any word of direct criticism. he supported the annexation, he supported putin's policies. that is official. maywhat he -- what he thought, maybe we will know eventually,

but is public record remains as such. brent: russia and the passing of mikhail gorbachev. thank you. experts from the u.n.'s nuclear watchdog around the way to the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in ukraine to carry out long-awaited inspections. to get there, they have to cross the front line of the city of zaporizhzhia, which is still under ukrainian control, and the russian occupied newark -- nuclear power plant. the mission follows weeks of growing concern about fighting near the reactors. reporter: arriving to conduct with the head of mission calls a very complex task. n. inspectors are praring to visit the zaporizhzhia power plant on thursday. for now, the team remains in ukrainian-controlled territory. but the head of the u.n. mission was clear. that they are heading to a war zone. insisting his team has one job -- to prevent a nuclear

accident. >> it's a mission that seeks to prevent a nuclear accident, and to preserve the largest, the biggest nuclear power plant in all of europe, not only in ukraine. this is what we are concentrating on. reporter: ukraine and russia have accused each other of shelling areas near to the facility. last week, damage to a transmission line knocked the plant off-line. heightening fears of a radiation leak, or even a reactor meltdown. ukraine's energy minister said the visit by the u.n. should drive home the dangers posed by zaporizhzhia. >> this visit should underline the importance of nuclear security. in russia should understand that

should not lay with this, any games. reporter: as combat continues on ukraine's eastern front, all eyes are on zaporizhzhia. hoping to prevent a disaster that can reach far beyond the country's borders. brent: our dw correspondent is in the city of zaporizhzhia and he told us what he has learned about the u.n. nuclear inspector's chances of crossing into russian held territory. >> we are hearing conflicting signals. russian officials have announced they will arrive tomorrow morning, indicating it will be a speedy process. on the other hand, occupational authorities said they would not be handed a pass through the checkpoints and they will have to queue up like everybody else, potentially delaying their arrival. it will be very important for them to reach the site and to figure out what is really happening. shelling has occurred again

today and we do not know how safe the situation is at the moment. but the original plan is they will travel there tomorrow and get access to the plant. brent: let's take a look now at some of the other stories making headlines. mourners are marking the 25th anniversary of the death of princess diana. tributes were placed in front of her former london home. fans also paid respects in paris where she died. the princess of wales was killed in a car crash along with her boyfriend and driver. she was 36 years old when she died. the world health organization says more than 50,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported globally this year. the health agency has recorded 16 deaths, the majority of infections are in the united states. the w.h.o. declined the -- declared the viral disease a global health emergency. germany has reached a

compensation deal with relatives of israelis killed in the attack at the munich olympics in 1972. german media are reporting the families will receive 28 million euros. 11 israelis at a west german police officer were killed when palestinian militants broke into the olympic village and took hostages. these are images from a town in pakistan's northern valley where hotels, homes, bridges and roads unprecedented flooding, flooding the u.n. is describing is a climate catastrophe. it is normally a popular tourist destination this time of year. it is now a scene of utter devastation. reporter: the overflow from pakistan's swat river now chur ns through these city streets. when the floodwaters arrived here, they came with unexpected force, washing away roads and

damaging bridges beyond repair. many of the hotels in this popular tourist region have been destroyed. >> around 30 to 35 big and small hotels were washed away. today is the sixth day since the flooding started. we can still see 20 to 25 feet of water inside the hotels. >> this is the situation here in our town. reporter: people here have seen similar devastation before, during the last major floods to 50 region -- to hit the region in 2010. one local resident says much of the rebuilding done since then has been lost. >> we were badly affected by the 2010. we rebuilt our houses with a lot of effort and difficulty, with blood and sweat. the village i come from at around 40 to 45 houses. they have been completely destroyed.

reporter: local media say some 200,000 people remain stranded in the swat valley, and the worst may not be over, with more rain expected in the coming days. brent: u.s. health officials have approved updates to covid-19 vaccines that target the latest strains of the omicron variant. the tweaked booster shots, which are made by moderna and pfizer biontech, could be available in a matter of days. they will only be administered to people who have already received their primary vaccinations. we have more now on why covid vaccines needed an update and how that has been done. reporter: to hope fight off covid-19, vaccines induce defensive measures in the body. among them are the production of protective antibodies that can recognize and latch onto the surface of the coronirus, especially its spike protein. that can stop the virus from

docking onto cells to infect them and flag it up for destruction by other immune system defenders. but if the structure of the spike protein changes due to mutation, it can have consequences. the immune system might no longer quickly recognize the invader. >> omicron has, over time, adapted to become all the more efficient for infecting human cells. there are a number of parameters and characteristics that make it a really difficult virus to deal with. one of which is because it has changed some of its surface structure -- a mutation -- and the spike has a number of changes. reporter: mrna vaccines use snippets of genetic code to make the body produce the spike protein to stimulate an immune response to sars-cov-2. rewriting the code is a pretty

fast and straightforward process, and changing it changes the vaccine's associated spike protein. so why have omicron-specific vaccines taken so long to arrive? >> this has a lot to do with two factors. factor one, we're not sure that better adapting and refining the vaccine is genuinely going to afford a marketed a provement -- improvement against future infections. and then of course at the level of the manufacturer, decisions have to be made, when do we bite the bullet and actually now produce a new vaccine. reporter: experts hope messenger rna vaccine technology will help us keep pace with new variants of sars-cov-2 as the virus continues to evolve. brent: earlier, we asked an epidemiologist and cofounder of

the world health network about the success of such a catch-up with the mutating virus. >> i think if we stay ahead of the game, with the most current variant-adapted vaccine, i think we can stay ahead of it. because right now ba.5 is the dominant strain worldwide, and this new booster is for the ba.5. so it is perfectly tailored for the virus at the current moment. just like over a year ago, the wuhan 1.0 vaccine was tailored for the vaccine -- for the virus at that time. t we have to stay ahead of it. this is for the same reason we have the flu vaccine updates every year as well. but again, we cannot just let the virus spread. s good to reduce both hospitalization and infection because it is infections of a massive number of people which

will only breed more variants. brent: i understand that point, eric, but this virus has shown us that it can change, it can mutate quickly. how do we know that once we begin the rollout with this tweaked vaccine that, four weeks later, we're not going to be dealing with a lot of new cases of yet another variant? eric: that is true. this is why we need the vaccines-plus strategy, not vaccine-only. many countries seem kind of lazy on the other mitigations ey only just want to have the vaccines and be done with it. i want to emphasize, getting the boosters, this one is very critical, it is the one i am really looking forward to. we also have to have other mitigations such as air ventilion, n95 masks, especially indoors, especially as winter approaches. and you need them together, in synergy, in concert, at the same

time. because only together at the same time can you stop transmission, infection, and therefore new variants, together. that is why countries that neglect all three pillars, in a way, the vaccines plus the n95 maskplus air vtilation, will be in a world of hurt once the winter comes. you need all three, and at the same time. brent: let me just ask you, what about where you are in the u.s.? it has been a problem convincing everyone that they should get vaccinated. now we are talking about not only boosters, we are talking about tweaked boosters moving into the autumn. how confident are you that enough people are going to get this booster? eric: that is of course -- the uptake is a big question. in many ways there is a little more eagerness for this booster, because it's an updated one, the new software update, as opposed

to buying a version two years out of date. i think there will be some uptake for that. but at the same time, we have to remember the other pillars. if you do not want to mask, this is why it is really important we put in air disinfection, air quality guidelines as well. which, le's be honest, is not political in any way. we need all of them in every way. but this booster is absolutely critical to be of to date, to be software updated against the new virus. brent: if you do it with your iphone, you should do it with your immune system as well. eric feigl-ding, as always, we appreciate your time and your insights. the world's oldest film festival, the venice film festival, begins today. the event this year will be mas k-free. it's also hoping to mark a return to the glitz and glamour of festivals' past.

reporter: when it comes to old world movie magic, no one does it better than the venice film festival. for this year, the goal is clear. to get film fans excited about going back to the movies. female figures are in focus. cuban actress ana de armas plays marilyn monroe, showing the darker side of the icon. [laughter] the buzz around cate blanchett's performance in "tar" already has people talking about the oscars.

this director will not be in venice. he was sentenced to six years in prison by the iranian government. his new film explores an artist living and working in iraq. >> [speaking foreign language] reporter: art house fans will have plenty to watch this year. the big question is whether the world's oldest film festival can get them off the couch and back into cinemas. brent: we will stay on the couch, because we will be back after a short break. i will be back it take you through the day. stick around. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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>> headlines. awaiting entrance to the war threatened power station. permission to prevent a nuclear accident says the iea chief. these russian travelers into her become a tougher to get and a lot more expensive. the eu ties to pressboard with this. germany warning not to punish ordinary russians for vladimir putin past invasion of