i'm alex crawford in kachin state in northern myanmar, and this is "hotspots." [theme music playing] tonight, we're going to take you behind the scenes of the world's biggest and hardest-hitting stories. we get rare access to the rebel army fighting in myanmar's forgotten war. they really believe that they''e going to end up being crushed. when clashes turn to tragedy... n:

they died after a wave of mud and rock engulfed those looking for precious stones on the hillside in kachin heavy rain. jonathan head reports. shouting. sodden with rain, an entire hillside collapses into a flooded jade mine, pushing a wall of water down into the valley below. shouting. people scramble to safety, shouting out warnings. but it was too late for many of them. they pointed out people swept up in the deluge. "there's another caught in the wave!", he shouts. "they've all gone." hundreds of thousands are drawn to the mines by poverty in the rest of the country and the possibility of striking it rich here. jade can fetch prices similar to gold. the industry has long been dominated by companies with shady links — to the myanmar military, to chinese businesses, to drug dealers and armed insurgent groups. scavengers of all ages sift through the waste left by the big companies, working and living under a ravaged and unstable landscape which they know can come down and bury them at any time. once the deluge had subsided, they could start collecting the victims — a scene that's all too f

records since records began in 2015 and predictably terrible for the environment. 150 million tons of kachinde were released by de forestation and fires. the equivalent to 25 million cars. the commu commissioner for human rights accuses venezuela's government of forced disappearances and torture. now there are fears the abus have gotten worse under the cover of the coronavirus energy many measures. >> seen here at the national assembly just before being detained by secret police in may last year. he was missing for more than a month before he reappeared in prison and was eventually released. in december it happened again. his whereabouts unknown for more than a month, except in time he remains in jail. it's part of what is called a pattern of invontary disappearances carried out by security forces for the purpose of intimidation and control. is ted of -- head of the n.g.o. told shea so -- al jazeera the disexperiences haveesque late this would year, especially since a state of emergency was declared because of the pandemic. >> there are related directly to forced dispetersons. first they dis

mud engulfed scoresn of fre miners scavenging the poorly-regulated jade mines in myanmar's northern kachin state are the most lucrative in the world. a building caught fire at iran's natanz nuclear pla today. u.s.-based analysts told the associated press they believe the site was a new cene production facility. the underground plant is used to enrich uranium. iranian officials insisted there wasn't major damage or radiation leaks. and, a passing to note. broadcast veteran hugh downs died of natural causes wednesday at his home in scottsdale, arizona. his career spanned seven decades, and included co- anchoring nbc's "today" show and the abc newsmagazine "20/20". he also hosted the pbs series "over easy" and "live from lincoln center". hugh downs was 99 years old. still to come on the newshour: a risin covid infections threatens the economic recovery following the original outbreak. hong kong continues to reel from the chinese government'son imposif a new security law. ident's rhetoric stokes tensions amid a racial reckoning in the u.s. and much more. >> woodruff: today's positive jobs numb