PBS News Hour - Full Show - April 24, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: April 25, 2026

These are not the best of times for President Trump or his party. His boundary-pushing, foreign adventurism and bluster may make November a very difficult month for Republicans. Join moderator Jeffrey Goldberg, Annie Linskey of The Wall Street Journal, Seung Min Kim of The Associated Press, Tyler Pager of The New York Times and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez of The Atlantic to discuss this and more. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the news hour tonight, renewed hope for a diplomatic end to the war with Iran, while the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz continues to roil the global economy. An army soldier is charged after allegedly using classified information to bet on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. And residents of southern Lebanon used the ceasefire as an opportunity to return home and take stock of what's been lost. Everything is gone. There's no electricity, there's no water, no phone networks. They hit it during the previous war. It was repaired, but during this war, we lost a lot of infrastructure. Welcome to the News Hour. An American delegation is headed back to Pakistan tonight to continue talks geared toward ending the war with Iran.

One of the focal points of any discussion will be the Strait of Hormuz, where vital maritime traffic remains largely frozen. But while Iran's foreign minister is now already in the Pakistani capital, late today his spokesman said there is no meeting planned with the Americans. Stephanie Sy again begins our coverage tonight. Tonight, fresh hope for a path forward in the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. We've certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days. The White House confirmed today that special envoy Steve Whitkoff and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kush. will travel to Pakistan tomorrow for direct talks with Iran, notably absent from the team, Vice President J.D. Vance. He was set to go to Pakistan earlier this week, but was suddenly

pulled back to the White House, which now says he's on standby to travel should there be substantial progress in negotiations. As the extended ceasefire holds for a third week, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says Iran pushed for renewed talks. Iranians want to talk. They want to talk in person. And so the president is, as I've said, many, many times to all of you, always willing to give diplomacy a chance. But Iran has not yet confirmed it is sending diplomats to Islamabad for direct talks with the U.S. Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi posted to social media that he would visit Pakistan to review current regional developments. All this as the American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues, roiling global energy. markets. Even with three aircraft carriers and more than 15,000 sailors and Marines operating in the

Middle East, safety and security concerns persist for ships stalled in the strait. Both sides are claiming control. The two container ships, Iran's Revolutionary Guard, boasted of seizing earlier this week, are now anchored at port. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegesith admitted today, Ships are not getting through fast enough. We are seeing vessels transiting. There are paths that are open. So transit is occurring much more limited than anybody would like to see and with more risk than people would like to see. But that's because Iran is doing irresponsible things.

As pressure ramps up to get goods shipped and prices down, the president is trying to use what tools he can. The White House quietly announced today a 90-day extension of the Jones Act waiver, which makes it easier for foreign vessels to transport oil and natural gas around U.S. ports. As high oil prices, Stoke worries about the greater U.S. economy, the Trump administration continues its squeeze on the Iranian economy, announcing new economic sanctions on Iran, as well as on Chinese companies that the U.S. accuses of transporting Iranian oil. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Stephanie Tsai. In the day's other headlines, the Justice Department is dropping its criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over whether he lied to Congress about renovations at the Fed's headquarters. Instead, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Janine Piro, said the Fed's Inspector General would be looking into cost overruns at the site.

The announcement opens a pathway for Kevin Warsh to be confirmed as Powell's successor. Earlier this week, Republican Senator Tom Tillis threatened to block his nomination unless the DOJ dropped its investigation. At the White House today, Press Secretary Caroline Levitt urged Tillis to move forward. Senator Tillis should do the right thing and move to confirm Kevin Warsh as speedily as possible. He is a phenomenal candidate to lead the Fed, and we shouldn't be holding our nation's economy hostage because of a disagreement with the Department of Justice. The DOJ investigation of Powell unfolded against the backdress. of President Trump's repeated criticism of the Fed chair for not lowering interest rates faster. The federal appeals court ruled today that President Trump's executive order banning asylum claims

at the U.S. southern border is illegal. The three-judge panel found that immigration law gives people the right to apply for asylum, and the president cannot override those procedures. It marks the latest setback to Mr. Trump's broader immigration crackdown. The administration can now either ask the full appeals court to reconsider the ruling or take its case to the Supreme Court. The FDA said today it will fast track reviews for three psychedelic drugs aimed at treating mental health conditions, including depression and PTSD.

Two of the therapies involved the active ingredient in so-called magic magic mushrooms, while a third is based on MDMA, a substance commonly associated with ecstasy. The move follows an executive order signed by President Trump to accelerate research and ease some restrictions on these drugs. In northern Oklahoma, residents sifted through what was left of their homes today after suffering a direct hit from a powerful tornado. Eyewitnesses captured the massive twister tearing a path across the countryside yesterday. Others caught footage of debris swirling through the air as the tornado tracked near Vance Air Force Base. The storm looked just as menacing from above. An airline passenger posted this video of lightning. In the dark,

By daybreak, the storm's devastation was clear. Dozens of homes reduced to rubble. It was a miracle that there were no fatalities reported, but only minor injuries. Meantime, in southeast Georgia... It's so emotional because so many people has lost their homes. I've lived in this community for 41 years.

It's my home. I grew up here. I went to school here. And I may not know everybody, but my heart breaks. my heart breaks. Residents in Brantley County, Georgia, sized up the damage as wildfires forced hundreds of new evacuations there. Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp, said two large wildfires in the state have destroyed more

than 120 homes so far and are threatening nearly a thousand more. State officials believe these fires have burned more homes than at any other time in Georgia's history. A union for Spirit Airlines employees said today that any federal bailout of the best of bankrupt carrier must protect workers from layoffs. That follows reports that the Trump administration is in talks to offer half a billion dollars in financing in exchange for some 90% control of the airline. At the White House yesterday, President Trump even floated the idea of buying the airline outright. A lawyer for the carrier says liquidation could cost as many as 17,000 jobs.

Spirit had hoped to emerge from bankruptcy later this year, but a spike in fuel costs tied to the Iran war has complicated those plans. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today he has received treatment for prostate cancer and is now healthy. It's the first time he's publicly acknowledged the diagnosis. The 76-year-old says he had prostate surgery almost two years ago and that a more recent tumor was successfully treated with radiation therapy. He asked that a public announcement be delayed due to the war with Iran. On Wall Street today, stocks ended mixed amid ongoing uncertainty over the war. The Dow Jones Industrial average fell about 80 points. The NASDAQ jumped to nearly 400 points.

The S&P 500 also closed out the week in positive territory. Still to come on the News Hour, David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines. We travel to Trinople 40 years after the worst nuclear disaster in world history. And a new memoir from the Admiral who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein's studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. A U.S. Special Forces soldier who helped to plan the January capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been indicted for allegedly using classified information about the raid

to place bets in the prediction market. The soldier who was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina won more than $400,000 on the platform polymarket by placing a series of bets about Maduro's removal. The indictment is raising new concerns about insider trading and the need for regulation. Joining us to discuss this is our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, and David Hill, who's a journalist who writes about gambling for Rolling Stone and on his American gambler substack. Welcome to you both. And David, I'll start with you because you follow these markets so closely. Just briefly set the stage for us. What kind of concerns does this indictment raise? Well, it raises a lot of concerns. It also answers a lot of concerns. There's been quite a bit of,

there's been quite a bit of concern about prediction markets and the markets that they offer on geopolitical events, but also an insider trading that might be happening those markets for a number of months as we've seen prediction markets grow in the United States. And so a prosecution like this is very important, I think, for the prediction markets to try to return to some trust and sense of integrity about the markets that they offer. And Liz, you had a chance to ask President Trump about this indictment specifically yesterday. What did he say? This news was breaking as we were going back into the Oval Office around 6 p.m. last night. And I asked the president about this case, kind of read some of the details to him. He had actually seemingly

not heard about it yet, so he was asking me questions. And then I asked him a follow-up question about these bigger bets that are also being pressed about Iran. Here's that exchange. There are also better that are being placed as well on the Iran conflict, too, and there have been some trackings where people suspect that there's insider trading happening on these prediction markets around the war. Are you concerned about that? The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino. And you look at what's going on all over the world in Europe and every place they're doing these betting things. I was never much in favor on it. I don't like it conceptually. But it is what it is. No, I think that I'm not happy with any of that stuff.

One of those bets that has drawn quite a bit of scrutiny is a large bet again on Polly Market. back in March on the death of the Ayatollah. This person made about a half a million dollars an anonymous better on Polly Market. Meanwhile, David, we know there's been guidelines for sports gambling websites in place for years. That is not true when it comes to betting on geopolitical events. We know Congress is just starting to introduce some related bills. But when it comes to regulation or guidelines, what do you think is needed here? Well, what Pauley Market and Kalshi want us to believe is that they are,

offering futures contracts and should be regulated by the CFTC. And there are regulations that exist within the CFTC about insider trading in commodities and futures. And so ostensibly, any bet that you make on Calcium polymarkets should be under those same regulations, which is part of what I think we're trying to test here with the arrest of Mr. Van Dyke and the investigation about whether or not he committed insider trading when he made the bet about the Maduro, the Maduro operation. Liz, we know that the White House has reportedly actually issued a warning to its own staff last month against using insider information to bet on the Iran war in the prediction markets. Tell us about that. Pretty unusual. The White House personnel office sent around an email to White House staffers last month,

according to the Wall Street Journal and said that they cannot bet on the Iran war in these prediction markets. The White House said in a press statement that federal employees are subject to ethics guidelines that prohibit the use of non-public info for financial benefit. The Trump family, though, does have connections to these prediction markets. The president's son, Don Jr., is an advisor to both Kalshi and Pauly Market. Some critics of the president have accused him of using his power as the president to manipulate the markets when he talks to reporters on the phone or issues statements on truth social. The Trump administration, though, is coming down hard in this indictment that came out

yesterday. The acting attorney general Todd Blanche said, quote, widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply. The U.S. attorney that brought these charges against Van Dyke yesterday said that he engaged in, quote, clear insider trading, Omna. David, pull this back a little bit for us in terms of the lens through which we're looking. looking at this. Now, even if it is legal, right, is there something immoral or ethically questionable here about betting on geopolitical events when lives are potentially at stake? Certainly, the question of morality is sort of central to all of this, but I do think it's

important to understand that these types of bets are made in the major financial markets every single day. I mean, just one of the big controversies that I think the Trump administration is sort of reacting to isn't just the bets that are made on polymarket or on Kalshi, but that in the minutes before he announced the Iran ceasefire, there were close to a billion dollars worth of oil futures that were traded in the commodities markets. And so there's always the sort of looming question about insider information that could be utilized on bets in the markets that are impacted by world and global events. All right. That is David Hill from Rolling Stone and our own Liz Landers.

covering this issue for us. Thank you to you both. Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a ceasefire for another three weeks, but even as that extension was being negotiated, the truce has been unraveling on the ground. That's with multiple violations by both Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, Hezbollah. Special correspondent, Simulipholteen, reports now from southern Lebanon. The people of Aitid have returned to bury their dead. The temporary ceasefire is hanging by a thread, but it has given villagers in southern Lebanon

a brief window to come home and take stock of all that's been lost to Israeli bombs. Lubna Sleiman mourns her brother, Hassan Sleiman, a civil defense worker. He is just one of 100 first responders killed by the Israeli military. There's nothing Israel won't target. They don't spare first responders. they don't spare children. He was a medic who was rescuing people who were dying and he was hit. What is the reason?

They were clearly marked as an ambulance. Hassan, seen here in the picture to the left, was killed alongside his colleague Yusuf Ali Atawi. Israel targeted their ambulance on March 23rd, but until the ceasefire came into force last week, heavy fighting made it impossible to bury them. Yusuf's wife, now widow, is pregnant with their first child. I spoke to her sister, Mariam.

My sister is expecting a baby, her first son. We are very angry. Yusuf was moving the injured and evacuating the people of the village. He was also working as a mechanic. He had nothing to do with the fighting. Israel killed more than 2,000 Lebanese during 45 days of war. 18 people, including civilians and his Bala fighters, are being late to rest.

in this village alone. The coffins are carried down to the graveyard, to the sound of gunfire, an expression of grief but also defiance. We will not accept humiliation, the mourners chant in an enduring battle cry as old as Shiite faith itself. For many here, Hezbollah, what they call the resistance, is waging a righteous struggle against injustice. We are the resistance.

We will defend our land until our last breath. It's impossible that we'll back down. It's about our dignity. These communities reject their government's decision to hold direct talks of Israel, which demands that Hezbollah be disarmed. We can't hand in our weapons because there's no one else to defend us. If we handed in our weapons and made peace with Israel, we know that we would be humiliated. This land was never theirs, not in Palestine, not in Lebanon.

Israel has made no sign of withdrawing from Lebanese land. Following the ceasefire, an IDF spokesperson published a map that appears to delineate areas. it plans to occupy indefinitely. The Israeli military has prohibited civilians from returning to dozens of villages south of what it calls a forward defense line. We drove right up to this new de facto border. In the village of Hadatha, six miles north of the Israeli border, is as far as the Lebanese army has deployed. South of here is dangerous, we are told. South of here, the ceasefire does not apply. This is the furthest Lebanese army check point to the south, the Israeli military is stationed just a few miles down that road in the

town of Bento Jebel. There is an Israeli drone above our heads. And in the few minutes that we've been here, we've heard several explosions. The Lebanese army is telling us that these are controlled detonations carried out by the IDF. So this means that despite the ceasefire, the Israeli military continues to demolish infrastructure in Lebanon's south. The same day, just two miles down the road, the IDF's killed two Lebanese civilians as well as veteran Lebanese correspondent Amal Khalil. Such strikes have sent a chilling message to journalists and civilians to stay away from Israel's forbidden zone.

Yusuf Fahat Saleh and his family have little hope to return anytime soon. Their border village of Aitazhab is once again in Israeli hands. It's the fourth occupation since he was born. The only updates he gets are from news reports posted by Israeli media or the IDF. Seeing this, of course, causes you heartbreak. The enemy is there. They entered and destroyed the land that I grew up on, land I've lived on. It gives you determination to defend and reclaim your land.

Even towns, a bit further north that are under Lebanese control, remain practically abandoned. about a third of the population have returned to Jbeila Bottom, the village chief tells me. Everything is gone. There's no electricity, there's no water, no phone networks. They hit it during the previous war. It was repaired, but during this war, we lost a lot of infrastructure. People here are scared that Israel might strike anywhere, anytime. We are sitting here. We don't know if we should stay or leave. Israel doesn't differentiate between civilians and fighters. This has really affected people in addition to the damage that has been inflicted on their

houses. Hezbollah has made it clear it will not accept a one-sided ceasefire. Responding to repeated Israeli violations, the group has claimed responsibility for 10 attacks on Israeli troops, both inside Lebanon and in northern Israel. The ceasefire may have been extended, but for the people of the South, it's a ceasefire only in name. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Simone Fulte in southern Lebanon. The U.S. Justice Department dropped its probe into Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell. After admitting it lacked evidence, and voters in Virginia approved Democrats' redistricting efforts.

For all of that and more, we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and Capehart. That is the Atlantic's David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart of MS now. It's always great to see you both. So the DOJ dropped its probe, as we said, into Fed Chair, George. your own pal, in part to clear a path for the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as his successor, but also because the federal judge effectively crippled U.S. Attorney Janine Piro's investigation. David, what do you see as the takeaways? Who would have thought? Lack of evidence. Harts the prosecution.

You know, I think, first of all, Donald Trump, like every president, frankly, would love to have a Fed chair do what he wants because he can juice the economy at the right time for the election. Trump is obviously the only one who would actually act on that. And it should be said, we should appreciate the fact the Federal Reserve system is one of the crown jewels of our country. It was passed, obviously, in the progressive era. But you look at Greenspan, what Bernanke did was miraculous. I think Powell has been an excellent Fed chair. The fact that we have these independent agencies who are doing their job with civil servants doing their job is just something we should be proud of.

And the fact that it's under threat and still under threat should still alarm us, even if we've had a reprieve on this. The second point is that Tom Tillis, the senator who is retiring, who is holding up the Warsh nomination, it would be interesting to see if other senators who are not retiring start doing that kind of thing, standing up to Trump, now there's approvals in the 30s and not in the 40s. And I anticipate that a few more senators will discover some courage when it comes time to standing up to the administration that they have lacked for the last eight years. What do you think about that, Jonathan? As President Trump's approval rating starts to soften, do you think,

more Republicans will use leverage wherever they can find it? One can only hope. Senator Tillis, he won this particular war because he made it clear for weeks. He's not voting for anybody's confirmation until that lawsuit went away. And, you know, look, give the president a little bit of props here in that he just, okay, fine, fine. The prosecution is over. I'm going to get my guy in.

and maybe he will do what I want him to do in interest rates, but we'll have to take Mr. Warsh at his word that he says that he's not going to be a puppet of the president. We'll see. And Powell's term ends next month. Does this episode change the dynamics around his departure or the search, the appointment, the confirmation, the expected confirmation of his successor? You know, well, if you're Powell, you're worried that they're going to come after you again. And I think that's one of the reasons he's reluctant to leave because he won't have some certain protections.

But I think he kept on doing his job no matter what. And this is a very tricky economy with inflation's rising. And it was not expected that he would be able to drive down inflation without a recession. And he did it. That's amazing. And I thought, what Kevin Warsh is the best possible pick that Trump could have had. I've seen him speak at conferences for years. And he's a serious guy who a normal Republican might have picked.

which is not always the case with the Trump administration, substantive guy. So I think all things considered that part of the government is in reasonably good shape. And they have a gigantic new building. That is true. Look, the Fed has spent decades really trying to guard its independence from political pressure. Has that wall held or has something shifted in all of this? Well, it's held for all the reasons that David was just talking about. But now it's going to be tested with Kevin.

Warsh. And you talked about, you know, he's serious and substantive, and that is all great right now. But how many serious and substantive people in the before times have gone into Trump 2.0 and have done exactly what the president wants to do that is in contravention of everything that they've said before? And I'm thinking specifically of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a lot of ways. will a Fed governor, Warsh, still be serious, still be substantive, and still be in the good graces of the president? Let's shift our focus to Virginia, because Virginia voters this week approved a Democratic redistricting plan that could allow the party to pick up as many as four new seats in the upcoming midterm elections. David, what do you take away from that result?

Well, as Jonathan may recall, I hate this whole thing. You know, I hated it when Texas did it. I hated it when California needed. did it. I hate it when Virginia do it. I believe in elections. I would like there to be districts where both parties have a shot of winning, and the number of those districts in this country is now vanishingly small. I understand why the Democrats did, the Republicans started it. That's all fair. But we're just become a less good democracy. But for the Republicans, the lesson is, be careful what you start. And it's weirdly like Iran. In this case, and in Iran, Trump did not anticipate that the other side would take some reaction. He couldn't see like one step ahead.

I don't expect to see three steps at one step ahead. And so it was pretty inevitable once they did Texas, California would do this, and Virginia would do this. And on net, the Republicans are probably worse off than they were before. This whole thing started. The one thing I'll add and why Democrats should mute their enthusiasm is the 2030 is coming. And then you get real redistricting based on where populations are flowing. And populations, nine out of the ten fastest states, are Republican states, nine other ten fastest shrinking states or democratic states. Republicans are people are flowing to Texas and Florida and all those Republican states, and it could be the case in 2030, even with all this, the Democrats will be in rough shape

because it'll be very hard for them to win the electoral college as the electoral college and house votes go to red states. You mentioned Florida, Jonathan, Florida Republicans are apparently considering redistricting and redrawing their maps. What do you make of this? Is this just hardball politics, or is there something more corrosive happening here? hardball politics. And, you know, we have the president to thank for it. You know, I'm surprised you did not. Maybe he's older than the singing demographic that you usually quote. But I think

of James Brown and his song Static. And there's a great line in it that says, don't start none, won't be none. And had the president not gone to Governor Abbott and said, give me five seats, then you wouldn't have had Governor Newsom jump out there and say, oh, wait, what? No, we're going to do something. So, you know, as much as we say that, you know, the president started this, I want to give kudos to Governor Newsom for having the backbone and the spine to stand up and say, this is not going to happen. As bad as gerrymandering is and election should determine who elected officials are, when one side is trying to cheat before our eyes, we have to do something in response. And I'm glad he did.

In the time that remains, let's talk about Iran because President Trump extended the ceasefire with Iran, but he also said he's in no rush and wants to take his time. Is that measured patience or does it reflect the absence of a clear endgame? Crazyness. I mean, I thought he wanted it off-ramp, and he doesn't seem to be asking, he should be desperate for it. This is an issue that could destroy or severely damage the Trump administration the way Iran-Contra severely damaged the Reagan administration. Second, this is weirdly turning into the Suez crisis. In 1956, the British, it wasn't over the Straits of Formuz, it was over the Suez Canal.

They said, they're trying to block the canal. We won't let them. And then the Dwight Eisenhower in the U.S. said, too bad. Too bad. You're a weak power. You thought you're a superpower? Those days are over. And a lot of people around the world are saying to the America,

you think you're a superpower? You can't even open those streets of Formos? Your days' superpower is over. So Donald Trump should be eager to get the hell out of this fight. How do you see it, Jonathan? Similarly, I mean, watching this whole thing, I've been confused from the moment the bomb started dropping on Iran, because I don't know why specifically the president took this action. I don't know what his game plan was, has been, or will be. It's as if he's trying to, he thinks of a closing a diplomatic deal is the same as closing a business deal, that you can just do it overnight or one blustery performance.

you know, you get people to the table to agree to your terms. That's not how this works. I keep thinking about the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA. You had five nations involved in this, plus the European Union, I believe. And it took months and months of negotiation. Where's the Wendy Sherman? Where's Secretary Kerry? Where's Ernest Moniz, the Secretary of Energy?

These were all people, plus the Treasury Secretary. These are all people who painstakingly negotiated the Iran nuclear deal. And instead, what we have from the Trump administration is Steve Wittkoff and Jared Kushner, who happens to be, one, the president's son-in-law, and two, has major financial interests in the region. How on earth does anyone expect for the Trump administration to come to a deal that will be lasting in the interests of the United States and that will put a lid on the damage that's being done in the Middle East right now. And adding to the perceived confusion, the Secretary of the Navy was also ousted, reportedly having nothing to do with performance in the field,

but because of his closeness to President Trump and over a shipbuilding dispute with Pete Heggseth, Secretary Hegeseth. What does a leadership shake up like that signal, especially given that there's an ongoing naval blockade in Iran? Well, he was part of the grown-ups. He's a successful business person who probably knows how to run an organization and probably had his own ego as successful as he's been to say, like, I kind of know what I'm doing. I'm not going to do a P-Texeth and do whatever Donald Trump tells me to do. I'm not going to do a P-Texeth and basically be a buffoon on stage.

And so he tried to stand up for the strategy he thought was the right strategy. And that's in the Trump's second term, that doesn't get you very far. I'm very struck by, it's not only people like him. I'm struck by how many of the more intellectual Trump supporters are really upset about this. He's lost a lot of people, not only Tucker Carlson and people like that, but there's a writer named Chris Caldwell, who in that world is probably the smartest and the most intellectually sophisticated. And they're all like, it's not only this was a bad idea,

but even regular Trump voters are saying, where's the thinking process here? Well, you had a red line, and then you walked right through it. David Brooks, Jonathan Capehart. See you here next Friday. Yep. Take care. Have a good weekend.

40 years ago this Sunday, the world's worst nuclear power disaster exploded into history at the Soviet Union's Chernobyl nuclear plant, north of Kiev, and what's now independent Ukraine. The ensuing Soviet cover-up and then-clean-up operation made Chernobyl a byword for dereliction and mismanagement. But decades later, a global energy shock and Russia's war. on Ukraine, which has exposed the West's reliance on Russian oil, are changing attitudes towards nuclear energy again.

From the exclusion zone of Chernobyl, seen here with the Ukrainian spelling, special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky and cinematographer Amanda Bailey filed this report. Nikolai Pobedin arrived at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine one year after the disaster that made this facility infamous 40 years ago. Almost every year since, he's manned this desk at the plant, managing a critical department that prevents Chernobyl's still radioactive waste from melting down. It's a demanding job, but in 2022, it got even harder. That's when invading Russian soldiers took over the site.

They used us like a shield to store their weapons and equipment. After all, no one would attack a nuclear power plant. Were you hostage? Yes, of course. As Pabedin and his colleagues continued to manage the old radioactive debris, they also knew they were confronting a new potential nightmare since Russian troops had turned this place into a military target. But his critical duties prevented him from ever thinking of leaving.

Sometimes people ask me, why didn't you run away? Even if we had a place to run, how could we leave our workstations unattended? We'd come to Chernobyl just 70 miles not. north of Kiev to see for ourselves what this power plant looked like 40 years after the worst nuclear disaster in history, which sent radiation billowing across Europe. Good day. To get inside today, the first step is to measure your current radiation reading, for comparison later.

We changed into a special set of protective clothing to avoid bringing radioactive particles home. Our guide, Artur of Sepi, and took us inside. So how many people work at the plant now? At one time we have around 600 workers. Got it. So there's 600 people here every day? Yes.

Two of Chernobyl's reactors remained functional into the late 1990s, but Unit 4, where the disaster occurred, still requires monitoring and cleanup of the radiation, an effort that's slated to go on until 2064. And that's the reactor we were taken to see. Don't lean on anything. Don't drop anything. If you drop something, we need to call a desimitist, and he will check if it's contaminated. Okay.

We're just going to follow your lead. Oh, wow. Okay. So this is the control room of the ill-fated reactor number four. It's so spooky in here. What an eerie, eerie room. This is the control room of Chernobyl reactor. number four. The decisions that led to the worst nuclear accident in history were made in this room.

It was a flaw in the Soviet design reactor that caused it to overheat and blow up, just as its operators were trying to shut it down, sending clouds of radiation into the sky and showering the area with chunks of radioactive debris. Anyone within a nearly 20-mile radius of the plant suddenly found themselves under evacuation orders. With the Soviet Union offering few explanations and downplaying the scale of the event, here's how the news hour covered the incident two days later. The Soviets today reported an accident at a nuclear plant which damaged a reactor and caused some injuries. The Soviet news agency Tins said the accident happened at the Chernobyl plant north of Kiev in the Ukraine. It gave no more details than to say that measures are being undertaken to eliminate the consequences of the accident,

aid is being given to those who have suffered injury. Those measures would end up being much more expansive than first reported, with thousands of Soviet soldiers being exposed to radiation as they returned contaminated debris to the damaged reactor before encasing it. In 2016, this new structure was completed to prevent radiation from leaking out, and it's designed to last 100 years. It's over 330 feet tall, making it's over 330 feet tall, making it. tall, making it the largest movable structure in the world.

It was assembled next to the damage structure on rails and moved over to protect it. I don't think I've ever been in an enclosure this big in my life, but what we're actually looking at is two enclosures. The cement blocks around reactor number four, those were put there in the years immediately after the accident by the Soviet Union at a great cost to human life. And then many years later, the European Union funded this new enclosure that we're standing underneath right now. That came at a cost of $2.5 billion.

But in 2025, less than a month after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, Russia struck this containment dome with a Shahid-type drone. And although the outer shell was quickly patched, the damage compromised the structure's integrity. This simulation shows how a fire spread inside its inner layers, burning up a membrane meant to seal in radiation. So the drone caused more than 300 holes which we couldn't fix. And before this was all completely sealed, nothing came in, nothing went out. No, no. It's unbelievable that Russia would do this so close to its own border.

Yes, yes, exactly. I mean, we're very close to the border of Belmont. Belarus and Russia isn't much further away, and yet they would send a drone to strike this dangerous contaminated site. Yes, for sure. Russia does like nuclear terrorism. And the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is the first power plant in the world, which was under occupation. The next one is the Zaporizia nuclear power plant.

Which is still under occupation. The fate of the Zaporizia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, remains in limbo. after Russia captured it in 2022. Their terror has no limits. The attack has put cleanup efforts behind schedule, and it's estimated it'll cost another half a billion to repair the damage, money that will come from an international fund, not Russia.

When we get ready to leave, we tested again for radiation. Four, three, two, one, thank you very much. No contamination. That's a relief. Just outside the plant is the abandoned town of Bripitz, where 50,000 people once lived before the explosion. Forty years later, it's been reclaimed by the forest. For decades, this ghostly landscape stoked fears around nuclear energy. Despite that, Russia went on to become the world's largest exporter of reactor fuel.

But the invasion of Ukraine cost it billions in uranium. uranium supply contracts with the West, prompting Europe and the U.S. to reinvest in their own nuclear power industry. Volodymyr Kudritsky is the former head of Ukraine's national energy company. He says not enough has been done globally to break from Russian energy. I think that not many countries in the world really realize how dangerous it is to depend on Russian energy in any form, gas, be it gas, oil, oil products. Thank you.