time after time here welcome to a brand new season of going underground back on international workers day coming up in the show for hundreds of thousands killed by british backed bombs in yemen to tens of thousands dying due to british backed sanctions on venezuela we review the news that doesn't make them a good nation mainstream media t.v. headlines with former mayor of london ken livingstone thirty three years since the chernobyl disaster a new book alleges the true death toll was covered up by the un the world health organization we speak to its author mit professor kate brown all this more coming up in today's going on the ground for us today is a big day for anyone in the world conscious of this global multinational here using celebrities to promote clean energy initiatives.

today a quarter of the hague in all and decide on whether the company they're promoted by artists jennifer hudson pixie lott and others is responsible for what amnesty international calls horrifying human rights violations this is just one of the cases that has made the headlines of nigerian t.v. one of the widows of the nine men killed by the knowledge and military governments in one thousand nine hundred five is accusing all times shell of alleged complicity in the unlawful arrest attention and execution of her husband and eight others shells it has produced no oil or gas from the fields since one thousand nine hundred three but admits that are going to land continues to serve as a transit route for pipelines transporting shell oil to other areas whatever today's court decision about alleged shell collusion in the execution of the ogoni nine the un has already issued a report on the effects of the company's investment in nigeria this report is the first of its kind it's a scientific study of the impact of oil pollution on the niger delta or at. some

one particular part of the niger delta and there's never been a scientific study before and the report reveals widespread devastating impacts of pollution and it talks about how the people of the gony learned how to live with this pollution for decades the report reveals the impact on economic social cultural rights on the right to food the right to water the right to health. laws the entire community and the walkouts well we're walking to all of them. because they can go to fish now as you see already a war place where there was no fish or the eco system or less dead shells says it has publicly called for calling for reconciliation among the goalie's and between the ago knees and that it continues a community development program in the area despite the fact it is no longer an oil producing area nevertheless the multinational face increased scrutiny after the london extinction rebellion protests which involved protesters damaging shells u.k. headquarters i protested yesterday as that action was ending because i feel

you know it's absurd that i was walking off in handcuffs for criminal damage to the shell building when shell itself has been one of the main biggest polluters who has caused the largest amount of irreversible very serious harm that is happening all around the world the climate this crash destruction that we're seeing as a result of you know thirty years of too little too late the of the actual environmental lawyer who helped draft the landmark twenty fifteen paris agreement for her young mean there about why she's superglued herself and shell in london and joining me now is the former mayor of london ken livingstone because of the week's headlines thanks again for going on before we go to this headline slightly wrong in the wonderful daily mail apparently after forty years of noise and smears finally the daily mail was forced to apologize because the man on sunday ran a story a couple weeks ago saying i had said that it wasn't an. semitic to hate the jews or

israel now fortunately for the first time in my producer korea that had been done it lie about on the internet and so everyone could go and see i never said that at all because i saw that there and the minute i saw the mail it lone thought you know what i don't think we should have been living soon i mean this is the power of what they are doing i still get people to now three years since that labor m.p. john mann claimed i said it was designed as i still get people stop know as they say why do you say it was zionists idea when i explained i never did they quite happy that got away you name it i the up to forty is one that's taken forty years and the one they had a big banner headline now is buried away on page four well let's go to arguably the main story ending emitted from our neighbors agendas and brianna death toll to surpass two hundred thirty thousand by the end of this year that's a u.n. report so quarter of million and i mean literally a you've had

a block eight social medicine discount cane food con came in disproportionately i think almost a majority of those who've gone to children it's appalling and why isn't that dominating our news headlines here is america backing and britain backing saudi arabia britain surprising the weapons that saudi arabia uses to bomb yemenis and it's bombing hospitals it's bombing school it's appalling one child every twelve minutes i should say it is across parts he opposition and the support for this is not a party political since we have cornered on selections of britain even though this is happening in the other european countries they're stopping arms exports in germany say yes but very britain is america's principal ally and you we've gone along with virtue of their wards and i mean we have said i mean with i think we're spending something right. thirty times more on research in our military than we're

doing on and tackling climate change research and things from a. military industry i am weapons producing for us have had a huge influence over labor and tory governments for decades and decades and that's a big part of our economy well you just mentioned climate change it's all those who think we'd lose jobs and that's good with his left foot forward yet governments should shift support from arms trade to rerun is exactly the point i just like literally we could create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in britain if we invested in me creating all the technology to make our homes the inch of eighty eight put solar panels on average i mean invest in wind farms and that would be the quickest way of bringing down all our carbon emissions and saving our planet but you know the first thing this government did when it got elected back in two thousand and ten was slash spending on tackling climate change i mean supporting of

course your successor in the way city current mayor of london came under a bit of pressure for allowing the extinction rebellion to talk about the environment on the streets of london he then said to the extinction rebellion people you had your fun as it were what would you have done differently would you have led the demonstrations out i would have encouraged the demonstrations because the simple fact is as david happened our recently said in one of his programs we face extinction by the end of the century so i'm not surprised that kids are out there they want don't want to drop in a world in which their children to become extinct because of climate change and it's the biggest threat to human life on the face of this planet so i would be encouraging on to say carry on with it on to michigan and join them and to think more should be done about the. quality there have been ages in the whole of course i mean legislature the has now started the introduction of a new system the tragedy is i started at just one of the election to bars. but

actually the first thing he did was stop all that and then under bush's eight years ninety five thousand londonistan to fair quality died prematurely again because they already pay boris was appalling well boris johnson is welcome to come on this program to defend the environment even in the united states under the cortez the new generation of democrats they seem to be raising this arms control renewables again something that i think you see just means or to be a big very good election in spain where the that the socialist party i mean as now measures that the new government with today anderson for lenin all across america now an emmy you've already got twenty people was running for the democratic nomination and then some of the socialists that was inconceivable twenty years ago in america but i think a lot of americans have recognized their system isn't working well as for the american government we i don't know if we use all of the squad and why do we use

a chosen candidate for the venezuelan government leader as well as washington's this from the center for economic and policy research report finds us sanctions on men as well as spawns full potential of thousands of deaths and this is what supporting america's sanctions on venezuela just like on iran are illegal in international law. but america has the veto it the united nations so i mean very often when for every country at the u.n. votes century america trying to stop its interventions it just has a cost that one american vote and that defeats that we had the reporter or lou could have heard what you just said about the legality of saying to the e.u. recognizes you know has done rather than merely rule in read the meter or not all across the west people have come up supporting a man who's talking about a military coup and you've got this is this maneuver in the arms business. talking

about sending follow announcer eric brilliant blackwood or denying that reuters suggestion good good a bit like george are going to evolve we don't have the right to intervene to overthrow other governments have been democratically elected since nine hundred ninety eight every single election in venezuela has been won by the progressive party that first shot is now majority and that's when i think that america hates the fact he has a government that seize control of its oil supplies put them at the service of the venezuelan people just like in cuba i mean when castro came to power he put the interests of the cubans are american interests and that's what all these in war do you think you've heard of as your old friend was alive today and was watching the pictures of you do with military officers to get a coup would you think it early morning a would just laugh it off because i mean on i went and it's right in two thousand and eight the support amongst the people because after a century of the elites running venezuela whoever was in government still but the

two hundred richest families by she controlled everything suddenly they had a president who started building schools hospitals i mean make people what decent why age he transformed their lives and even a kidnapped child as famously in a failed coup how his time around might compare was talking about u.s. military involvement all options on the table. here it is talking about economic warfare killing tens of thousands of venezuelans once again that are many more will die i mean it will go on and as with the situation in yemen they will mainly be children this is outrageous amount my defining decade was the one nine hundred sixty s. where america's intervention in viet nam three point eight million vietnamese died in that war and all the vietnamese wanted was control of their own country and they'd been subject to try to nudism i mean i represent three and america's got to stop intervening in other peoples codicil the usa is the e.u. what do you get for all. track to long often behind america's interests goes we

linked in i mean american e.u. that our economies are very interlinked together but you still get your some degree of dissent occasionally to day there was a hearing on julian assange founder of wiki leaks where he leaks has told us so much about all of this kind of interference in other people's countries assyrian sondra spied on by it could always diplomatic star at the london embassy there is the lawyer claims there's bizarre stuff that they were alleging which sounds was smearing the set women on the ward of the embassy and so on of finding out why one port disputes that simple fact there is a new video of a disparity having them and then they went to release a recording m. is secretly recording his doctor coming and examining him and things like that i mean you think about it if you've been confined to an embassy for seven years you might becoming a bit difficult an eccentric he should never have been subject to that he was simply exposing the lies and smee as america's corporate interests and at some

going up on wiki leaks i mean we should be proud of people doing that and helping us to understand the truth you know i grew up in that post-war world we were told we were under threat from the soviet union the cold room that we now now is a war you know i and therefore people write a song to come out and actually make sure we get to know the truth we should be giving them roma i mean not. arresting them and getting ready no doubt to deport them to the x. rays of america hearing indeed is to more or do you think i mean we began by talking about media character assassination of you and an apology from them do you think this is all softening us up because all the media of being centering on these claims about his behavior in the embassy rather than collateral murder in iraq or any of the i mean literally that the establishment doesn't want someone knowing i had a son getting away with this the one thing he's got on his side is. the british courts

would be very reluctant to deport him to not just say schmidt that way he could be executed and we still execute the ecuadorian say that they're going to go and he won't be what you believe and telling you he's not going to. get livingston thank you but off to the break. as environmentalist back to nuclear power to tackle climate change we speak to the mit professor blowing the whistle on the alleged cover up of the threat of low level radiation elizabeth coming up about to going underground. financial survival stacey let's learn a salad fill out let's say i'm not so i can hear. the fight. thank you for. the story that's right. that slavery. green agreed to

prison which i'm old enough to remember there was most of my family were unemployed . there wasn't it was bed you know much worse objective listen today but there was an expectation that things were going to get better. there was a real sense of hopefulness there isn't today today's america where shaped by the turn principles of concentration of wealth and power. reduced democracy attacks. engineer elections manufacture consent and other principle holds according to. one set of rules for the rich offices. that's what happens when you put her into the. narrow sector of will which will is dedicated to increasing power for chills just you. one of the most influential

intellectuals of our time speaks about the modern civilization of america. underwater. not he didn't. oh. ya didn't go to. move for your. welcome back in the first half we heard from former mayor of london ken livingstone about the dangers of air pollution that the world health organization says killed four point two million a year but did the w.h.o. along with the u.n. cover up another literally invisible threat to public health low level radiation

a new book proposes that a positive prolific nuclear weapons testing and the future of environmentalists catalyze nuclear power commissioning might lead elites to suppress facts about the potentially deadly effects of low level radiation the book is a manual for survival a charitable guide to the future and its author mit professor brown joins me now from paris kate welcome to going underground so in discovering new information about your noble you trace why the earth exists today as if twenty nine thousand erosion of bombs went off and thyroid cancer tripling between one hundred seventy four twenty thirteen sperm count declining in america your above strain in new zealand how how do you think it is that more people don't know how general bill let alone other disasters like focus shima. are emblematic of a kind of failure of human human organization and capitalism yeah well. you know if

it leads you to wonder i went into the archives first i started in kiev and i went on to minsk in moscow and what i learned is that you know much of what we've been told about the chernobyl disaster is just wrong or incomplete people were far sicker far more people died than we've been told radioactivity was not contained inside the church zone in fact i find that pilots wind up and manipulated the weather so that radioactive rain fell on rural below roof in order to save the big russian cities nobody told the two hundred thousand people living under those green clouds and you know the story is just quite different when you look at the archival records and i found i was the first person usually to check out these files and i think that's why we haven't really known this story. and then i went on to u.n. archives to said you know why do we know about this big public health disaster and i worked in five un archives and i found there that certain key influential individuals were helping the soviet leadership minimize the record of the health

impacts of the disaster and i found you know i was like why would they do that and i found that they were the big nuclear powers the u.k. and u.s. france russia were facing lawsuits at the end of the cold war from their own testing and production of nuclear weapons for you know forty years prior to that and what they had done our leaders in the name of peace and nuclear deterrence they had you know emitted five hundred times more radioactivity into the environment than sure noble and you know i was left at the end of this book manual for survival wondering why we haven't been more curious as a society about our exposures to billions and billions of curies of radioactivity in nuclear fallout most people would think well this is a problem of soviet communism in the us so why would you go because it was because you say in the book there was a false impression that persisted in deep in the western capitalism. it was

a period of minutes in practice in the us in the immediate aftermath of general yeah that's right unfortunately the soviets had a lot of nuclear spills during the cold war a lot of accidents and they had doctors who because the doctors were not privy to the radiation doses that their patients were getting that was considered classified information the doctors became extremely good at detecting doses and symptoms in their patients just by studying their mostly the blood the. chromosomes their blood counts and looking at other sort of neurological factors teeth enamel things like that so the soviet doctors really had a what i consider a more sensitive and more developed radiation medicine than those in the west but as you know at the end of the soviet union everything that was soviet was considered bad soviet had bad politics bad economics and it followed that it was easy to slander soviet medicine and science and i find that that was you know the

the real. tactic that western experts came in and said oh you know soviet scientists they don't know what they're talking about these people out in the villages we do find that there is a record of sickness and they are sicker than they should be but that's because they drink too much they smoke too much they have poor diets and they have radio phobia they're they're just nervous about their exposure to radioactivity the book is structural it's blame but you did mention the u.n. there i mean you say that the media took the figure of fifty four deaths and six thousand cases of thought i would guess and this was influenced by fred midler author of the i.a.e.a. report what is the role of institutions like the. brains of the media or the wider public actual facts. well they wrote the big reports that they wrote the author of the first big un report was after that u.n.

consultants did a study of about sixteen hundred people in the double contaminated tira tori's they did that nine hundred ninety the issue to court report one thousand nine hundred one other reports filed in one thousand nine hundred six and the big one in two thousand and six achievable for a report and they kept really enunciate in the same kinds of messages first they said in one thousand nine hundred one we found no record of damage and we don't expect to see anything but a few childhood direct cancers in the future and then in two thousand and six that's they repeated the same message fifty four people dead six thousand kids with thyroid cancer and really no other detectable impact from chernobyl now the ukrainian officials have a count of thirty five thousand people receive compensation because their spouse died from a chernobyl related illness that's just people old enough to have married doesn't include children who have died people who are widowed or unmarried the unofficial count in ukraine alone is one hundred fifty thousand and that is ukraine which

received the least amount of radioactive contamination dello russo western russia received far more so that's a minimum number thirty five two hundred thousand dead from chernobyl but i mean even his reason is because she with the way the mainstream media have talked about accidents is always that there can be high radiation then there's less radiation and then it becomes safe you seem to suggest that there are a u.s. government coverup that benefits the promotion of an idea that everything from medical tests to atomic just to safe by saying low level radiation is about dangerous well yes i mean the u.s. government was involved in hiding evidence and denying evidence of their own testing of nuclear weapons in the american heartland right nevada americans were. americans and the soviets were the only people brave enough to have nuclear test sites blowing up bombs in their continental heartland so they were busy in the

early one nine hundred ninety s. trying to cover that story up because they wanted to avoid billion dollar lawsuits the french government was engaged in this kind of activity about algeria and french polynesia the british government had detonated bombs also in the south pacific and in western australia nobody wanted these lawsuits to come home to roost and so if you could say chernobyl was the worst accident in human history worst nuclear accident in human history and only thirty five people died or fifty four people died and six thousand kids got easily treatable cancers then hopefully those lawsuits could go away and the whole record of nuclear testing could go away and that's indeed what happened in the early one nine hundred ninety s. by defeating chernobyl making sure that you know low dose impact on health they had no precedent they were managed to slip away from those lawsuits so in that sense it was mission accomplished except that records stay in the archives for

a long time and after twenty and thirty years historians get to see them and then we see you know what happened in the past to be clear you explain why radioactivity was driven right through the food chain using. affected insect paul in the does and to the point that the european the european union there are berries on the shelves the radioactivity that you could dres to chernobyl right yeah i went after i worked in the ministry of health archives i went to the ministry of agriculture archives you know during the soviet period and what i find is that a good portion of the food chain was saturated with radioactive contaminants milk we honey wall would you know sort of you name it was emanating radioactivity and even find in some air. areas of the southern belle rose twenty two percent of women's month breast milk was contaminated above permissible levels

for radioactivity in and that's a pretty amazing thing when society has to set permissible levels of radioactivity for women's breast milk since ukraine joy the european association in two thousand and fourteen they have been sending. produce over the border to poland to be marketed in the e.u. and then globally and i found that thousands of people are picking blueberries from the pretty marshes that's you know between two hundred and fifty kilometers from the chernobyl plant and because the swamp circulates radioactivity and because blueberries soak up minerals and radioactive mimics of minerals so well those berries are radioactive all of them a radioactive some are really radioactive they pick them all they get it they get of mix to reach the permissible norm and then it goes globally and i found that these radioactive berries were crossing in trucks from canada into the u.s. and the border guards the nuclear security border guards stopped them because they

found this radiating mass in a truck they look in blueberries from ukraine there with them permissible limits and in they go now i'm not saying that these berries are necessarily if you eat them in small quantities they're terribly dangerous for us but what my thought is that rather than take radioactive produce from the contaminated territories and send the the radioactivity around the world would be better just to pay those pickers to pick those berries and then dispose of them as a nuclear waste which is indeed what they are just vimy there is a clause dimension to your book the globalization there that you just didn't imply you say that in the immediate aftermath of the i.m.f. economic disaster brought upon the former soviet union you couldn't tell whether it was nuclear catastrophe or economic catastrophe does the radiation today affect the poor. more than the rich it tends to if you look around the map of the globe. nuclear power plants tend to be put in jobless areas they're not near big you know

popular and wealthy places they usually put them in places where people are dying for jobs and they call them nuclear villages and they give them perks they give nuclear ploys perks like child care and and little bit higher wages and nice municipal facilities and so when accidents happen they tend to happen in poorer more rural places take your noble take fukushima take the windscale accidents up in northern england and all of our problems out in the american west this is an issue of environmental justice as well. thank you and that's it for this show of the seas will be back on saturday investigating today and tomorrow is critical u.k. decisions on wiki leaks founder julian assange just speak to one of the world's greatest got to do it steve bell until then he will talk to us social media.

after the previous stage of my career was over everyone wondered what i was going to do next the book different clubs on one hand it is logical to sort of go from fields where everything is familiar on the other i wanted a new challenge and a fresh perspective i'm used to surprising and i saw one on t.v. . i'm going to talk about football not the or else you think i was going to do. by the way wait isn't that. what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be. an arms race on this very dramatic development only mostly. i will see you. will be successful very

critical time to sit down and talk. mayday riots in france where police have been using tear gas arresting three hundred thirty people in paris alone. the u.s. attorney general testifies in front of the senator over his handling of the report findings as democrats did long william ball's immediate resignation saying he misled the public. and wiki leaks founder julian assange just sentenced in britain to fifty weeks in prison for skipping bell and twenty twelve before spending the next seven years in the ecuadorian embassy.