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viewers like you. thanyou. announcer: and now, "bbc world news". laura: i am la. this is bbc world news america. tragedy in israel as a religious festival leaves 45 people dead. molly is suffering from a rise in oil extremism. several states in india report they are running out of vaccines. brazil is now the second nation in the world with more than 400,000 covid deaths. plus, we have a special report from st. vincent where people

are suffering after the eruption of a bill cano. -- volcano. welcome to world news america on pbs and around the world. funerals have been held in israel for vicms of a crush at a festival. over 40 died and hundreds were injured at the sight of a revered second century rabbi. the country was starting to celebrate the return to normal life and it is now in morning. a warning, this report contains distressing images. >> they came to celebrate and to be blessed. thousands of jewish pilgrims at the motain tomb of an ancient rabbi. instead, panic and a deadly

crush. the crowds left the gravesite descending a narrow walkway. those at the front were trapped. people tried tearing away at metal barricades to free them. >> paramedics whatever were running by administering cpr on kids. we understood something was going on here. >> pilgrims joined paramedics in a desperate search. dozens had been suffocated or trampled. children became separated from parents and army helicopters evacuated the wounded. in the hospital's, there has been anguish as relatives wait for news. many of the dead still have not beenormally identified.

he took his two young sons to the festival. when it got crowded, they tried to get out. >>e reached a ramp where there was a river of people. i fell on my back and others piled on top. my 10-year-old son was screaming for help and shouting. my 13-year-old son was gone. the annual festival sees ultra-orthodox jews flock for the night of prayer. bonfires are lit. this was the country's biggest gathering since the pandemic. israel has lifted many restrictions after the country's vaccination rate and police had planned for crowds. so what went wrong? >> this is where the surge took place. eyewitnesses said it was slippery. people turned this corner heading down the steps and some

said a barrier was blocking the routes and that is where the crush took place. >> at the scene, benjamin netanyahu called it a national disaster and promised a full inquiry. this afternoon, they began burying the dead. amid the grief and funerals, questions mount over whether it could have been prevented. after a night of ritual, this was the one no one wanted. laura: what are you learning tonight about the mass tragedy? >> already, the focus is falling on the israeli police. last night, the public security minister was at the site taking part in the celebrations. the police know very well in

previous years about the numbers of crowds that this event always attract. we have been hearing throughout the course of today a number of stories emerging about near misses when it comes to overcrowding. both yesterday before this and in previous years. there will be a lot of questions being asked not least around why the walkway did not appear to have appropriate safety precautions that might have prevented this from happening. was infrastructure good enough to deal with the size of crowds. we had the regional commander for the police here who attended the site. he said that the police have launched an investigation. there is now an investigation by the justice ministry looking at all of the authorities involved in this. he said that whatever the inquiry finds for better or worse, that he would take full responsibility.

laura: israel is no stranger to conflict and trauma. if the country seem to be doing so well with the vaccination campaign. what is the mood tonight? >> absolutely. benjamin netanyahu described as a national disaster. it is being seen as one of if not the worst civilian disasters the country has ever faced. a lot of focus is going to be not just what went wrong, but how to prevent it in the future. the point that you mentioned about the vaccination program is quite important. israel had rolled out the fastest vaccination program in the world. the fact that covid restrictions had been eased that had seen the ability for people to come back. that created country what -- a lot of controversy.

coming out of e pandemic into this, this was the biggest public gathering since the coronavirus restrictions were eased. it has become an important part of how the people are looking at the story and whether or not people have got the balance right. whether or not they can go forward with these kinds of numbers if there are the right precautions in place. laura: thank you. now to the west african state of mali. our correspondent has been traveling alongside a group of u.k. forces who are beginning with the you and is calling the most dangerous peacekeeping mission in the world. >> british troops are back in harm's way. in the most dangerous deployment since the wars in iraq and afghanistan. this time as part of you when

peacekeeping mission in mali. a countrin crisis. suffering extreme poverty, the impact of climate change, weak governance, and a surge in violent extremism. within 300,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. >> try to understand -- the security concerns in the area. anyone who looks suspect. >> we were among the first journalists to join them on patrol. they are on high alert. >> groups of five to six motorcyclists. it's a bit suspicious. >> strangers coming through the area. >> they know extremists have been here. for the locals, there is often a fear in speaking out. >> they are reluctant to say but the issues are which suggests there is some sort of fear of reprisal.

it is giving them an understanding of being a presence to provide the security. >> jihadist groups have been conducting a reign of terror. this propaganda video of the group calling itself islamic state. in competition with other extremists linked to al qaeda. these long-range reconnaissance patrols are designed to gather intelligence to protect the local population and to drive the extremists out. they are having to cover a vast area of thousands of miles. the question is, can a few hundred british troops really make a differee? t-rex tens of thousands have become refugees in their own country. these families have left their villages for the safety of a nearby town. victims of the violence.

>> most of the family was killed. >> anything we can do to allow them to live a normal life free from fear of rape, order is a success for us. >> that heading to work alongside the security forces. who have been accused of human rights abuses. they are taking casualties also. 30 mali soldiers were killed just a few weeks ago. what if the british become the target? >> if someone's gone to attack us, we are not going to sit and watch, we will defend ourselves. if someone's going to attack the local nationals, our job is to protect them. if protecting them involves violence, then we will use violence. >> u.k. is committed to using this peacekeeping mission for at least three years. thousands of french troops have been fighting in a separate counterterrorism mission since 2013. for britain, the question is can

it really help bring peace to mali or is this a long unwinnable war? laura: as india's covid crisis continues, the biden adnistration will restrict travel from india to the united states starting on tuesday. the country today reported a new daily record of almost 390,000 new infections. our correspondent is in delhi. they start a mass vaccination drive. are some states running out of vaccines? >> today was supposed to be the grand start of the government's program nearly 25 million people are on an app hoping to get a slot for a vaccination. when the time for slots came,

not but a handful have been given out because there are no vaccines. many of the states of said they don't have the requisite vaccines. there are two vaccines in india which are given out. the first is astrazeneca. the second one is indigenously developed. a third they are expecting is russia's sputnik vaccine. we don't know anything about the pfizer or moderna vaccines. that is what the locally produced vaccines are not enough. they exported nearly 66 million vaccines locally. india says it was part of its global commitment, but the opposition says you should have accented you people first instead of giving it out to the world. laura: how much frustration are people directing that india's

government over its handling of the situation and the shortage of oxygen and hospital beds? >> there is anger, frustration, and the problem continues. people continue to die without oxygen. yesterday, a relative of mine was looking for a hospital bed. i could not find a bed in delhi and that is what people are suffering. in one place that is like a satellite city of delhi, the rich live there and you have hospitals running out of oxygen or not able to find a hospital bed. especially in delhi, you don't want to fall ill, because if you do and you don't find a hospital bed, there is a potential there is a chance you could suffer the same rate of dying on the road without oxygen or a hospital bed. laura: you mentioned your

relative. what is it like for you personally reporting on this story while living through it? >> there are two aspects to it. you are surrounded by the stories of human suffering. there is too much. you hear people losing their parents, their brother, their sister. this inability to do anything, you have a relative who is dead you are not able to go to the funeral. you are not able to attend cremation. it is one aspect. it takes a toll on you. the second aspect is, what i am suffering is my family now they are also suspect because the pcr tests came back negative but the doctor says they have the classic symptoms of covid. this is not just my case, it has happened to a lot of people. you are always dreading that

something might go wrong. telling people back home to please check your oxygen levels. it is very nerve-racking, i wod say. >> thank you so much for your reporting. as india struggles with covid, brazil has become the second country in the world to report more than 400,000 covid deaths. the united states was the first. the who is encouraging other countries to share vaccine doses with brazil. how is president bolsonaro responding to this grim milestone? is he talking about more lockdowns or speeding up the vaccination campaign? >> there is tinkering around the edge of his appearance. sometimes, he appears with a mask. he sounds at times more

conciliatory. but he is still the same person. he has threatened to send the army into states that want to lockdown. he sounds bullish about this parliamentary inquiry with a senate team asking what went wrong and if criminal charges could brought against the president or if he could be impeached. he says he has nothing to fear from the senate inquiry. he is very much playing to his conservative base which are the evangelicals, the big financiers, the farmers. the problem is that his support base is shrinking. laura: it is striking how india is simultaneously struggling with its crisis and the world is coming to its aid offering all this assistance. do brazilians feel isolated at this moment? >> i suppose the difference is that they have a president here who is more of an abrasive

character. he has his fans, donald trump one of them. but he has strong critics as well. there perhaps has been more of an outpouring of emotion toward india because of the different style. the brazilian health minister was saying today that countries should share their vaccines with brazil. the government was offered tens of millions of doses from pfizer last year which they turned down. now, they have a real vaccine shortage. the russian vaccine will not come to the rescue anytime soon because the government will not buy the vexing. they have threatened legal

action against the brazilian health regulator. now, you have this brewing between the brazilian health authorities and the russian manufacturers. laura: you are watching bbc world news america. still to come, thousands of refugees css the border from emr into thailand to escape the fighting between the army and the rebels. ♪ laura: amazon is the latest tech giant to report how much money it has been making over the last three months and the numbers are staggering. amazon's revenue was up $108 billion. >> much like its peers, stellar earnings came in. triple what it made for the previous three months of this year. when you look at online

shopping, that's not going to go anywhere. that business is well-positioned for the future. then, it's cloud computing business. because we have all started working from home, as businesses look to the ture, is going to be a hybrid model presumably going forward. that would benefit its cloud computing business. it's hard to see how this company isn't perfectly positioned for the times we find ourselves in. laura: thailand says more than 2000 refugees have crossed the border to escape myanmar. the military seized power in february. our correspondent is on the

border between myanmar and thailand. she sent this report. >> the foreign ministry has confirmed that more than 2000 villagers have fled the fighting in the mountainous western region of myanmar. they have crossed the river that makes up the border between myanmar and thailand and now they are on the thai side. officials say they will provide humanitarian and medical aid if necessary. the context to this is that region has been the scene of fighting for decades, but there has been renewed escalation of the fighting in recent weeks since the coup in february. the insurgents are the biggest ethnic group in myanmar supporting democracy protesters. those calling for return to democratic rule and an overturn of the coup that took on figure a first. they are believed to be hiding protesters and activists who fled the towns and cities.

we understand from some organizations that thousands villagers are on the myanmar side andill cross if the fighting continues. of course, undaunted and determined, the pro-democracy demonstrators continue to take the streets. calling for the democratically elected government to be returned and for the couto end. laura: that was our report from thailand's border th myanmar. it has been three weeks since a volcano eruption on the island of st. vincent. thousands were forced to flee their homes and the hurricane season is now only a few weeks away. our correspondent went to st. vincent and has th report. >> the aftermath of eruption is hauntingly beautiful. the explosion left hillsides

denuded. the lava flows brought tens of thousands of men -- tons of material down and a hail of dust and stone shower the villages below. one of them was sandy, the picturesque fishing village reduced to a dustbowl overnight. located in the red zone, the villagers now risk fresh emissions and mudslides. >> we have 295 students. class a local teacher -- her pupils had been returning to school after months of homeschooling. the volcano ended that plan when the roof came down under the weight of the asphalt. >> i was distressed knowing that so many students would be out of an education for a while.

>> there isn't a home, a vehicle, or a surface that isn't covered by a thick layer of this can it jt. with hurricane season approaching, is going to take this community and st. vincent as a whole many months to recover. >> it is a multidimensional challenge of immense proportions. >> the prime minister says that eruption has compounded the problems created by coronavirus. >> plus the desolation of the country. the complete decimation of agriculture and animal husbandry. >> around 15% of the population was forced from their homes. many sleeping and converted classrooms, eating donated meals, relying on charity. she says it wasn't hard to drop everything and run. >> because i didn't even think about it. >> she lost her teenage daughter

in a bus crash a few years ago and says that leaving serial things was easy in comparison. >> it was just getting out of there. >> that is the only saving grace of this huge disruption. that no one died. the volcano is still active and the scale of the tragedy for a small island is vast. homes, crops, animals, entire livelihoods buried beneath the ash. >> a very difficult moment as the hurricane season approaches. before we go tonight, a very different kind of ocean crossing caught our eye. a ship without passengers. it's the world's first autonomous ship and it will soon leave the southwest coast of england on a journey across the atlantic. it is covered in solar panels and it will use sensors to study marine pollution at sea. the mastermind behind the

project said unlike the original mayflower, nobody will get seasick on this trip. thank you so much for watch narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundati; pursuing solutions for erica's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪ narrator: you're watching pbs. ♪ da-da-da-duh-da-da-da♪ ♪ da-da-da-da-da-da ♪♪

captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: triumph and tragedy. more than 575,000 americans lost to covid, as vaccinations ramp up. we hear about the challenges to getting people to take the shot from the frontlines in texas. then, when commerce confronts conscience. how taking on forced labor in china creates a backlash against western brands. >> many companies, when push comes to shove, are going to try to stay in the china market, and will probably risk a western blowback over a blowback in china. >> woodruff: and, it's friday. david brooks and jonathan capehart analyze president biden's address to the nation