Plus, a bid to avert a serious oil spill off yemen. More than one Million Barrels are in this abandoned tanker. Doing nothing could be devastating. Im nicole frolich. To all of you joining us on pbs in the United States and our viewers around the globe, while gone. Authorities in southern ukraine are racing to evacuate thousands of residents. The breaching of the kakhovka da m has flooded dozens of towns and villages. The una chief says it could be the worst damage to civilian infrastructure in this war. Kyiv claims moscow blew up the russiancontrolled dam to slow any counteroffensive. Russia accuses ukraine of sabotage. Turkiyes president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told both leaders in phone calls that an International Investigation is needed now. Reporter volunteers and rescue workers use motorized dig needs to pick up people downstream from the destroyed dam, trapped by the rising floodwaters. Along with their pets. Residents along the right bank of the Dnieper River, controlled by ukraine, are being taken to temporary evacuation zones. By road, and by rail. One of them is in a city 100 kilometers from the flood zone in caps on curse on kherson. There are penner mannix the collapse of the dam has brought further misery for tens of thousands already caught on the front lines of the war between ukraine and russia. This 65yearold emerged from a bomb shelter after three days of russian shelling to find her home submerged. The city is like a ravine, completely flooded. Its impossible to drive through there. People were trapped in what became like an island. I was taken away by my friend. I had to leave because having spent three nights in a bomb shelter, i just could not take it anymore. Reporter but shes luckier than most. Her ordeal has ended on a bright moment. Her sisters live here, so she has a place to stay and shoulders to lean on. While those living along ukraines lower Dnieper River are now dealing with the immediate consequences of the dams collapse, the impact may be felt for generations with thousands of homes and livelihoods swept away in the disaster. Nicole a Rapid Response coordinator for the International Rescue committee based in kyiv and earlier he described to me how his team on the ground is handling the situation. Currently we at the International Rescue committee are carrying out rapid needs assessments. We are focusing on were seeing people are still being evacuated from the flooded areas. The numbers currently are around 3000 people who have left kherson. People are moving towards odessa and other Central Regions of ukraine. Our teams in odessa are also preparing shelters to be able to receive people evacuating. Nicole the russians and ukrainians both say the collapse has not caused any civilian casualties but the sheer dimension of the flooding makes that very hard to believe. Can your people corroborate the official information . Giuliano what is very important to highlight here is we are dealing with an emergency inside of an emergency. This attack is yet another very serious violation of International Humanitarian law. We are very concerned that we are leaving with 60,000 people directly affected by the flooding. We are talking about peoples livelihoods, peoples homes have been made and have uninhabitable. 650 square kilometers is now completely flooded. This is without question an infringement on International Humanitarian law. That is why the International Rescue committee and other organizations including the u. N. , were doing our best to help the people evacuating. And of course what i would like to highlight his we are not only going to take part in the immediate evacuation part, but also as soon as these areas become accessible again, the official news state, there will be around 10 days until the water is up to this level. We will be make sure we can access these levels areas and people can safely return. Nicole it will be until then we do not know the true extent of this. This river is also a front line between pressure and and ukrainiancontrolled territories. How was that complicating aid efforts for your organization and others . Giuliano it is extremely complex. Were not only dealing with the fact that these areas have been under constant shelling for the last months, or almost a year now, but also that these are mineridden territories. We have been receiving information and pictures from our colleagues on the ground that the mines, the unexploded ordinances have been floating around, making the area extremely dangerous for both the population and our teams on the ground. So, access is a severe problem in this case. We will be working closely with the safety Protection Unit of ukraine to see what is the best approach in evacuating people at accessing the areas once the water has retreated. Nicole that was Giuliano Stochino weiss, the irc Rapid Response team. Thank you so much for your time. Fears are the floods could impact the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear power plant which draws water for cooling from the dnipro river. To walk us to the dangers, lets bring in a professor with the department of civil and Environmental Engineering of the university of southern california. Good to have you on the show. There was grave concern about the zaporizhzhia region power plant before this already. How much bigger is the risk of a Nuclear Catastrophe after the collapse of this dam . Good afternoon. Fortunately, Zaporizhzhia Nuclear power plant is 130 kilometers upstream from this d am failure. And it would not be flooded. But zaporizhzhia is depending for its cooling water and the water from the kakhovka dam reservoir. If the reservoir drains, then zaporizhzhia will have a problem for its cooling. However there are cooling ponds over there, that we have enough reserve water. But then the water level goes down from the reservoir and they cannot pump it with a stationary pump. They need to bring these operated pumps. Which by the way, after the fukushima accident of 2011, they have somehow developed this contingency plan. But my biggest worry for zaporizhzhia is not immediately the access to power, its the problem of the kinetic and hostility around that, and the accidental shelling and all of those things that could happen in loss of offsite power. We have only one offsite power that gets electricity to zaporizhzhia. Nicole despite the obvious, which would be a halt in hostilities, what would be the immediate measures that, as far as you are concerned, need to be taken to ensure the safety of the plant . Najmedin one of the most immediate measures is exactly to follow the five principles which was laid out by the director general of last week at the un security council. Not to shoot from and to the Nuclear Power plants. That is one of the most important things. The other thing is we need to make sure we have constant reliable offsite power to the Nuclear Plant. Because the true lifeline of any Nuclear Plant is electricity and water. And we need to make sure that an Nuclear Plant, whether operational or in shutdown mode, they have a constantly reliable source of electricity and access to water. Nicole Najmedin Meshkati of the university of southern california, many thanks. Najmedin thank you. Nicole the air in much of the u. S. Northeast has turned into thick, red smog from hundreds of wild fires burning inainexamplee change. Reporter in upstate new york, the lake ismoke from hundreds os burning in neighboring canada. A few hundred kilometers further south, the smoke has triggered unprecedented air health alarms in new york city affecting millions. I feel very bad. At times i cannot breathe. Breathing is difficult. New yorkexpeence their worstr new yorkers are advised to where earlyseason fires. Face mask went outside to filter out high levels of polluting many see the trail of smoke as a sign of the climate crisis, particles found in the air. Which can include more frequent and even more extreme wildfires. Nicole for a closer. There are now airquality quality alerts for major u. S. Cities. You are outdoors, not wearing a mask, i am hoping we are not making y d smell the smoke threo four hours ago but now visibility has improved a little. I can barely see the Washington Monument in the background. Visibility was below three to four kilometers. New york city is a very different story. They are seeing their worst air quality ever observed in the biggest city in the u. S. , up to about 379, that is the official number. Anything over 100 is hazardous for the general population. So in new york you can hardly see a that had to ground airplanes because some cannot take off or land given how bad visibility is. Nicole he fir. Theres a counterclockwise swirling low psse over nova scotia swirling all this smoke south and as a result it is spreading from the arctic down towards near the gulf of mexico and the is over the most populous corridor of the u. S. Causing really bad air quality concerns. So unfortunately things will get worse before they get better. I think until friday evening we will have more smoke coming down. Only then will we see a shift in the winds and better visibility. Nicole this is an unusually early and very intense start of the fire season. How much of it can be linked to Climate Change . Matthew most definitely. We see fires every year, but this really is pretty much unprecedented given how many have cropped up. About 3. 5 million hectors have burned in canada. The Northern Hemisphere has had record fire emissions. The conditions that give rise to these big fires, they are getting more frequent and intense due to Climate Change. Weve seen three big heat domes already this year, and it is likely this kind of episode will occur again and again. Nicole meteorologist Matthew Cappucci in washington, thank you. Heres a look at some other stories making headlines around the world today. The Italian Coast Guard says its rescued over 1400 migrants from overcrowded vessels in the Mediterranean Sea the last few days. Dozens of people including two children needed immediate medical care. Italy has been cracking down on a regular migration, which has increased significantly since last year. The vatican says pope francis has successfully undergone Abdominal Surgery to treat hernia pain. It says the three hour operation passed off without complications. The 86yearold pontiff is expected to remain in hospital for several days. The belarusian president has pardoned an activist who was arrested in 2021. Sofia was pulled off a flight that was diverted to belarus, along with her partner, the dissident journalist raman. He was pardoned last month. Police in sri lankas capital have fired tear gas and water cannon at student protesters. The demonstrators want the release of activists arrested in antigovernment rallies. They called for support with the rising cost of living in the country, which remains in the grip of its worst economic crisis. The United Nations is carrying out a delicate operation to drain over one Million Barrels of oil from a decaying tanker off yemen. The ship has been abandoned for years, threatening an ecological disaster. After years of fundraising, a salvage omission is finally getting underway. Reporter a rusting rack off the coast of yemen that experts say is a catastrophe waiting to happen. Its carrying more than one Million Barrels of crude oil and there is concern it could rake apart at any moment. The tanker was being used as a floating Storage Facility for oil when yemens civil war broke out in 2015. Since then, it has been left to rot. In 2019, a team went on board and took these photographs. They show the extent of the neglect even then. Pipes were leaking and valves rusting through. A smaller dot from space, it could have a big environmental impact. A spill in the red sea would devastate wildlife, leave fishing communities destitute, and it would disrupt trade through the suez canal. People have been talking about it, but not doing anything about it. This crew has been able to do something about it and i believe we will be successful and continue to put forward until we succeed. Reporter the United Nations raised money for the salvage operation from member states, private companies, and even the public through a crowdfunding campaign. It eased some of the proceeds to buy its own tanker called the nautica. This animation shows the plan. The nautica moves in close and docks. Engineers board and gain access to his tanks. They lower pumps, then transfer oil to the nautica. Once its empty, the tanker will be towed away to be scrapped. The risks of something going wrong are real, they are palpable. And yes, if something were to go wrong, indeed, many questions would be asked. The only way we can answer a question is, walking away is not an option. Reporter it will not be easy, but the u. N. Says the alternative could be the biggest oil spill the world has ever seen. Nicole earlier i spoke with the head of the United Nations development program, who we just saw on the report, and i asked him if he was confident that the mission would actually succeed. Were confident to have taken all possible steps to recognize the risk, to mitigate them, and to put in place the kind of measures from contingency plans should an oil spill occur. Security plans in case something were to happen to one of the crew undertaking this operation. At the end of the day, weve done everything to be confident that we are where they can be, but we are not complacent. Things can only go things can always go wrong, and we try to be as prepared as possible. Nicole how prepared are you for complications or even a worstcase scenario . Achim right now we are trying to eliminate the chances of a worstcase scenario occurring. That is why one of the top contractors in the world is parked right next to it for a number of days. Technicians have been assessing the tanker, taking tests to measure the buildup of explosive gases in the tanks, reducing risk of explosion, and preparing a series of steps that will make the ship to ship transfer, the pumping of the oil from one vessel to another, as smooth as possible. We will continue to monitor this operation. We have a number of International Experts on the vessel right now monitoring every step and validating all the precautions. Nicole we do not want to be overly pessimistic here, but i do want you to give us a sense of the magnitude of the economical risks here if something does indeed go wrong in this mission. Achim absolutely. This is actually the reason why we are there in the red sea on behalf of the International Community. The United Nations took the decision to step into a conflict zone and try and facilitate, first of all through our u. N. Resident coordinator and his team in yemen, an agreement between the parties. Secondly, to contact the worlds leading experts to undertake this operation. The first and clear message is if we do not do this, the worstcase scenario will occur, the breaking up of the tanker. And with that, over one Million Barrels of oil spilling into the red sea with catastrophic consequences not only for marine life for hundreds of thousands of people, for the tourism sector, desalination plants, the fisheries industry. It could take up to a quarter to even begin to recover. It gives you a sense of the magnitude. For those who may remember one of the great catastrophes with an oil tanker, the exxon valdes, this tanker has four times the oil on board. Were it to break apart, it would be a catastrophe without precedent. Nicole so an unprecedented environmental catastrophe of possible global repercussions. Why did it take until now to act, and why did this rescue mission have to be crowdfunding . Achim first of all, yemen, tragically, has been in a state of conflict for over seven years now, which means that in such a situation where the internationally recognized government owns the oil tanker, but the tanker itself is actually more doffed the coast of a part of yemen that is under the control of the de facto authorities, as we refer to them. Negotiating access in a very conflictual situation took a long time. Secondly, trying to mobilize the International Community to essentially fund a major operation like this took longer than expected. In the midst of almost being ready, the war in ukraine suddenly lead to a massive explosion of prices from oil tankers. We had to purchase very large crude carriers to bring it alongside. So again we had to go out and fund raise. As i speak to you, and we took the very daring decision to actually proceed with this operation, were still 40 million short of the emergency funding operation. So as i speak to you, we have a crew right next to the tanker and we are still working the phones in order to raise the remaining amounts of money that are needed to conduct the operation. Nicole an operation that is in all of our interests. Achim steiner, thank you so much for your insights, and best of luck. Some sports now. Argentine superstar lionel messi joint he will join mls miami after leaving paris. He turned down a more lucrative offer from Saudi Arabian clubs. Its the first time at 35yearold will play for a club outside barcelona since 2000. He won 10 titles and four Champions League trophies. He won two domestically titles as well. Jude bellingham will be heading to real madrid after the spanish club reached a deal. After spending his youth career at birmingham city, this years player of the season moved to. Mend at the age of 17. In his three years there, he became a superstar on the radar of the top clubs in europe and a regular on the English National team. One of sports most acrimonious battles has come to a sudden end with golfs pga tour mounting with the sallyback to liv tour. The shock announcement comes after a year of fights and unprecedented disruption that has split the sport of golf. Reporter for the last 12 months, the world of professional golf had become the scene of a morality play. Nearly a year ago to the day, saudi arabiafinanced liv golf hosted its first ever event, with a field full of former pga tour golfers who defected to the new lucrative league. Since then, the two had been involved in a bitter fight that had split the sport. Now, the stunning backflip. Pga and liv golf will merge and form one unified commercial entity. The announcement comes as an even bigger shock, given pga tour commissioners previous stance that the pga would never, ever, associate with liv golf. I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite. And anytime i have said anything, i said it with the information i had at that moment, and i said it based on someone that is trying to compete for the pga tour and our players. And so, i accept those criticisms. But circumstances do change. Reporter critics see liv golf at saudis attempts of sports washing in the face of criticism of its human rights record. The new agreement between the parties also allows for liv golf players to reapply for membership on the pga tour following the 2023 you are watching live from paris here on france 24. Im mark owen. These are the headlines. U. S. Secretary of state lincoln is in saudi arabia for talks with prince mohammad bin salman. Zelenskyy tells macron of the urgent need to deal with the strike down on the dnipro river. Macron is urging the red cross to step in. Mike