♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by.. the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. woman: and now, "bbc world news".

ros: hi there. i'm ros atkins. welcome to "outside source." there's new advice from regulators on the astrazeneca vaccine. rare blood clots will be listed as a side effect. >> the benefits of the astrazeneca vaccine in preventing covid-19 overall outweigh the risks of side effects. ros: u.k. says under 30's will now be given a different vaccine. instead, the risks of blood clots are very small, it says. we will take you to the details. we will be in indianapolis, where police have been testifying against former officer derek chauvin. one expert says he thinks unnecessary force was used on george floyd. >> at the time of the refrain, mr. floyd was not resisting. he was in a prone position. he was handcuffed. ros: the latest wave of coronavirus is causing terrible

loss of life in brazil. cemeteries are having to carry out some burials at night. and, new information on tiger woods' car crash is being released. this suv was traveling at more than 80 miles an hour. ♪ welcome to all of you watching on "bbc world news and those of you watching -- on "bbc world news" and those of you watching on pbs. this is the european medicines agency. >> the reported cases of unusual blood clotting following vaccination with the astrazeneca vaccine should list possible side effects of the vaccine. ros: they now believe there is a link between unusual blood clots and the astrazeneca jab. >> the benefits of the

asazeneca vaccine in preventing covid-19 overall outweigh the risks of side effects. ros: so, we are being told now that unusual blood clots are a rare side effect of this jab, but the risk is so small that the vaccine should still be used. we've also heard this from the committee that advises u.k. government on vaccines. >> adults who are age 18 to 29 years old, who do not have an underlying health condition that puts them at higher risk from serious covid-19 disease, should be offered an alternative covid-19 vaccine in preference to the astrazeneca vaccine, where such an alternative vaccine is available. ros: so, in the u.k., under 30's will be offered the pfizer or moderna vaccines, not the astrazeneca. next, have a listen to the head of the u.k. agency that clears medicines for use. >> our review has reinforced that the risk of this rare side

effect remains extremely small. by march 31, over 20 million doses having been given, we have had 79 case reports, up to and including that date, march 31. all 79 cases occurred after the first dose. of these 79 cases, 19 people have sadly died. ros: lots of numbers to take in there. about four out of every one million people who are vaccinated have been affected. i want to show you this slide. it helps to explain the decision to not give astrazeneca to the under 30's. the potential benefits are the blue dots on the left. the potential harms, in orange on the right. this is a scenario where coronavirus isn't circulating heavily, the scenario that u.k. is on course to reach. for the 2229 age group, the benefit for -- 20 to 29 age

group, the befit is greater -- the risk is higher than the benefit. sifting through these numbers is difficult. let's get some help from a professor of statistics at the university of cambridge. >> covid is a disease that really hits the elderly more, so the benefit of the vaccination does go down as you get into younger groups of the population. frankly, a lot of the benefit of vaccinating yoger people is to stop transmission and to benefit the whole of society, as was pointed out. it looks like, with this harm, this particular combination of very unpleasant side effects, it does hit younger people more. so, you've got the younger people, who are getting less benefit and more harms. at some point, you are going to

cross the threshold which says, actually, it would be better to gi them something else. ros: bear in mind, this move from the u.k. follows other countries who adjusted use of the astrazeneca jab in other ways. germany and south korea are not giving it to under 60's. siu didn't lithuania, and finland are not giving it sweden, lithuania, and finland are not giving it to the under 65's. let's hear from a former labour mp. he tweeted that it previously limited or paused their use of astrazeneca, but the u.k. is now restricting its use. dr. cox is a drug safety researcher at the university of birmingham. i put it to him that he had previously described suspensions in europe as not rational, so i wanted to know how he described u.k. was doing today. >> the evidence has changed.

if you look at the european decisions on who they are restricting the vaccine to now, they still don't havevidence for restricting it to the older age groups. so, as evidence changes, you change your position. as the professor mentioned, a course correction. we have had a change of evidence. that's entirely the way that things should work. but prematurely pausing, in this case completely suspending the vaccine, reducing the availability of a vaccine that hagreater benefits tn it does harms. ros: but when we last spoke, you were saying there is no direct evidence between this jab and these blood clots. but now you are telling us the evidence has changed. there now is a connection that you accept. >> so, when this -- what we will call a safety signal. initially, you get theseeports

that come through and that creates what we call a signal. signal then is investigated. further reports come in. an increased vigilance by doctors for these sorts of conditions. you collected more reports. not strengthens or week -- that strengthens or weakens the signal. now we've had somplausible biogical mechanisms around an immune reaction that strengthens the signal. although we can't 100% say that the vaccine causes your condition, you get to a certain stage where you t to say, ok, it looks more likely than not that this vaccine may be linked to this extremely rare side effect. therefore, you change your position. that's why my position has changed over the past two weeks as the evidence has come in. ros: it i day eight of what we think will be a month-long trial of former police officer derek chauvin, who is accused of killing george floyd by kneeling

on his neck in may of last year. the trial is taking place in minneapolis. have a listen to an independent expert on police use of force, who gave the jury this analysis. >> based on my analysis, mr. floyd never was not actively resisting at the time that he was in a prone position, nor did he communicate to them that he was attempting to resist or evade them. ros: he was also asked about proportionate force. have a listen. >> sir, do you have an opinion to a degree reasonable, a professional certainty to how much force was reasonable for the defendant to use on mr. floyd, after mr. floyd was handcuffed, placed in a prone position, and not resisting? >> yes. my opinion was that no force should've been used once he was in that position. ros: this case is being called "historic" in the u.s. media,

bringing together the issues of policing and race. joy reid pointed out that five of mr. shaaban's colleagues have asked -- of mr. chauvin's colleagues have now testified. it's going to be hard for the prosecution to win the case, she says. >> despite what might seem to be an obvious case for abuse of power or manslaughter or murder, in this case, despite the fact that the killing took place on tape, in front of the world, prosecutors still face steep legal challenges in winning a conviction against a police officer. while all the defense has to do is find just one member of the jury to take derek chauvin's side. ros: police investigator james race said -- a police investigator is currently on the stand. why is he being questioned? >> they want to walk through the process that went into investigating the fatal arrest of george floyd, from the moment they were taken away, to the

cars getting processed, and all through that, to show the level of meticulousness that went into , but also to preempt any questions from the prosecution about any sloppiness. but the main theme here is to try and show that all the policing authorities here, the entire law enforcement agency, did their job and to prove, as they've been trying to do for two weeks now, that derek chauvin violated department policy. ros: stay with me here on "outside source." in a few minutes, we will hear about what could be a groundbreaking finding. physicists say they may ha discovered a new force of nature. ♪ the king of jordan has spoken out for the first time after his half-brother, prince hamzah, link to this video to the bbc, accusing the country's leaders of corruption and harassment. >> what you see now is king

abdullah reacting for the first time to this unprecedented crisis within his family, and his country, and basically telling the people of jordan, this sedition has been nipped in the bud, jordan is safe and sound. all that you've heard about my brother, my half-brother, prince hamzah -- we have resolved it within the traditions of the family. he's trying to reassure what is very much a shocked and jittery nation, after not just the video you mentioned from parents -- prince hamzah, but also about an alleged plot in which the prince is alleged to have conspired with other prominent individuals, as well as foreign parties, to destabilize the kingdom. ♪ ros: i'm ros atkins with "outside source."

we are here in the bbc news room. european regulators say unusual blood clots should be listed as a rare side effect of the astrazeneca vaccine, but they are stressing its benefits outweigh any risks. next, we turn to brazil, because it has recorded over 4000 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, its worst day since the start of the pandemic. the death toll there is now over 330,000 and the situation is pressing, with thousands of patients struggling to access health care. let's ar from an icu doctor in the south of brazil. >>e have been working at full capacity for quite some time. what we are seeing is that it has been a long time since we have attended patients with anything other than covid in intensive care units. and everyone is exhausted right now. we are exhausted because we haven't seen our families for such aong time. for instance, i haven't seen my

relatives for the past 15 months. also, we are not hopeful that anything can change in the following weeks. we are vaccinating at a very slow pace right now. ros: that's an icu doctor in the south of brazil. next, this graph shows the death toll. in march alone, over 66,000 people died, doubled the previous monthly record. it has put pressure on cemeteries. this one is continuing burials through the nights. also in sao paulo, this doctor. >> we are having difficulties in gettg people trained enough to manage medically ill patients. -- critically ill patients. the nature of the disease -- and i was, at that time -- i didn't imagine then the impact and extent that the disease

would reach in brazil. because of this rare and bizarre combination of bad policies, also, the social vulnerability of the population, because some levels of population cannot afford social isolation, and also by the emergence of the new variants. ros: the variant is called p-1, more commonly known as the brazil variant. it is thought to be twice as transmissible as the original strain of covid-19. it was first detected in the amazon in november. within two months, it was accounting for 73% of cases in the city. but now it has read far beyond the amazon, across south america, now driving a surge of infections in peru, uruguay, paraguay, bolivia, venezuela, and argentina. there are concerns that the variant will have an iact for months.

one doctor who coordinated the pandemic response in northeastern brazil is warning we may get to 500,000 deaths by the first of july. that's the latest estimate, he says. an additional 170,000 deaths in the next three months. bear in mind, while some countries like france have brought in lockdowns to deal with new variants, brazil is easing restrictions. this picture is from são paulo on tuesday. the train station is packed. another factor is brazil's vaccine rollout. that began in january, and around 8% of the population has received at least one dose. this m is responsible for the rollout. he is brazil's health minister, fourth person to do that job since the pandemic began. he's also a doctor, which some people find reassuring. here's an epidemiologist. >> the new minister is trying to do things based on science.

his main enemy is the president himself. so, realistically, the new minister is trying to do the things right. we havaccelerated the vaccination. so, our goal needs to be 1.5 million doses per day. we are getting to one million per day, which is actually good, because our previous average was around 300,000 per day. and this minister admits the possibility of doing lockdowns, which is something the president doesn't admit. ros: we've already heard from a lot of people, but the man at the center of this is the man we've heard referred to, brazil's president, john jair bolsonaro. he's raised doubts about vaccines and has resisted national lockdown's. he also has a lot of critics. the governor of rio grande being one. >> what we are facing here in brazil, what we have here, it is

a sad situation that is the consequence of the lack of coordination on the federal level, by the national government. we have here, president bolsonaro, confronting governors and mayors and the main two -- the main weapon that we have two not -- to not allow the coronavirus to spread in an easy way, and the weapon is the social distancing. his behavior is, unfortunately, killing brazilians, and it is hurting our economy. ros: we should note, brazil's president has shifted his tone on immunizations recently. he is pledging to make 2021 the year of vaccinations, but his position on national law down -- lockdowns remains the same. he says no nation can sustain itself with that kind of policy.

for further analysis, the bbc's south america correspondent. >> they don't really know whether the absence of law down may have contributed -- lockdown may have contributed to the worsening of the crisis. brazilians were more relaxed throughout the summer, not adopting social distancing practices. all of that, we have seen. this strain is spreading more easily. it also may not be as resistant to the vaccine, although vaccines are proven to tackle the variant. this is a threat to the world as well, because, as we've seen these variants, it's almost impossible to contain them in one country. they can spread across borders, even if travel is banned. ♪ ros: now, we've heard that it was excessive speed that caused tiger woods to crash his car in february.

that's from the los angeles county sheriff's depent. before we hear from the police, you will remember this incident happened on a hill in a part of los angeles, and this was the aftermath. tiger woods was alone in his suv when the physical -- vehicle across the opposite lane, hit a curb, a tree, then rolled several times. he was taken to hospital with a sharp -- shattered leg. >> estimated speeds at the impact were 84 to 87 miles per hour. the final speed when the vehicle struck the tree was 75 miles per hour. there were no citations issued, and there were no signs of impairment. i know a lot of experts said, oh, they should have drawn blood or done this or that. without the signs of impairment, we don't get to the point where we can actually author search warrant and develop probable cause to execute that search warrant. that did not happen.

that is not preferential treatment. that would occur in any collision of this type, based on the circumstances. ros: the sheriff didn't say why tiger woods was speeding. let's hear more from peter in los angeles. >> that's the question. the speed limit on that stretch of road is 45 miles per hour. he was traveling at up to 87. the investigators have been looking at the data order on his vehicle -- data recorder on his vehicle, and that's how they know the speed. they also know from information they have gathered that it suggests, at the point of the collision, that tiger woods had put his foot on the accelerator, and it was slammed down, as opposed to putting his foot on the brake. there was some speculation that he might not have been familiar with driving that kind of car. it answers a few questions, but

it does leave a few questions hanging, especially that one -- why was he driving a speeds that officials now say were simply excessive for the conditions? but the circumstances surrounding are a little vague. they revealed at this news conference that tiger woods himself has said that he cannot remember those few moments. he cannot remember exactly what happened. ros: do know how he's doing, peter? -- do we know how he's doing, peter? >> he's now back in florida, recovering from serious injuries. police were saying he was looking to us -- lucky to escape this accident with his life. there were a nervous few hours as he was having emergency surgery. that had to be followed up with more surgery. he was moved from one hospital in los angeles to another hospital, and then eventually back to florida. from all accounts, as i understand the situation, he is doing ok, but it's going to be a

long recovery. ros: now to a groundbreaking discovery we are told could usher in a new era of physics. scientists are saying they found strong evidence for the existence of a new force of nature. this is coming from a team working at a particle accelerator in illinois, in the u.s. they said they found subatomic particles that were not behaving in the way that current theories suggest they should. that's as far as i can take the story. here's our science correspondent. >> the theories of modern physics have given scientists a new understanding of how the universe works, but the current ideas are not able to solve some of the biggest scientific puzzles, such as how the universe as we know it came into existence. now, scientists at this lab, a particle accelerator just outside chicago, have gotten a result that might take us a big step forward in answering those questions. they've been accelerating particles inside this giant rig,

close to the speed of light, and they found they might be behaving in a way that can't be explained by the curnt theory of physics at the subatomic level. >> we found the interaction of a heavy electron with a magnetic field is not in agreement with our current best theory of physics. clearly, that's very exciting. it potentially points to a future, new laws, new particles, new forces in physics, which we haven't seen to date. >> you've heard of electrons. well, there are similar particles which are much heavier and spin like tops. in this experiment, they were made to wobble using magnets. the current theory suggests they should wobble at a certain rate. instead, they wobbled faster. this might be caused by a mystery force that, in turn, is created by another yet to be discovered particle. scientists believe that there are four fundament forces of

nature, gravity, electricity, and two nuclear forces which control the behavior of atoms. together, they explained the way the world works, but in recent years astronomers began noticing things in space that can't be explained by the four forces, such as galaxies spinning faster than they should, and they can't explain why the stars and planets and everything on them, including us, exist at all. the new results suggest there might be a fit force, which could explain -- a fifth force, which could explain some of these mysteries. >> it has the potential to turn physics on its head. we have a number of mysteries that have remained unsolved. this could give us the key answers to solve those mysteries. >> evidence for the fifth force has been growing. researchers at the large hadron collider outside of geneva got a similar result. >> the race is on to try and get one of these experiments to really get the proof that this really is something new. it will take more data and more

measurements. hopefully, it will show evidence that these effects are real. >> these very early results are not definitive yet, but they are generating a lot of excitement about the prospect of a giant leap forward in our understanding of the universe. ros: and a reminder of our top story, european and british medical regulators have issued cautionary advice about the astrazeneca vaccine, saying unusual back -- blood clot should be listed as a possible side effect. the benefits from using the vaccine very much outweigh the risks, they say. the european medicines agency says women under the age of 60 seem to be the most affected. more online from narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by.. the freeman foundation.

by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. pursuing solutions for amera's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. ♪ ♪ man: you're watching pbs. narrator: stream the best of pbs on any device with the pbs video app. all your favorite drama, history, science, news, and documentaries all in one place. watch your pbs station live or catch up on the shows u missed. discover new favorites from pbs and locally produced shows from your station. get the pbs video app now and stream the best of pbs anytime. anywhere.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by.. the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. woman: and now, "bbc world news".