CURRENTTIME — broadcast
20260806 123000 UTC
347 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
Data courtesy of The GDELT Project (https://www.gdeltproject.org/), from the Internet Archive TV News Archive.
Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:00:01] Since February participant. 2022, the war
[00:00:04] changed everything. We show the new
[00:00:08] history of Ukraine,
[00:00:11] about incredible strength of spirit, about fighting no matter
[00:00:14] what.
[00:00:19] Watch the joint project of Radio Liberty and the TV channel "Current
[00:00:23] Time," what is actually happening in
[00:00:26] Ukraine.
[00:00:38] In a matter of seconds, an explosion destroys the cooling towers of a nuclear power plant.
[00:00:42] An impressive sight, but
[00:00:45] dismantling an entire station takes decades. This
[00:00:48] happens because many materials are radioactive, and they cannot simply
[00:00:52] be disposed of the way nuclear waste
[00:00:55] was disposed of before.
[00:00:58] Nuclear energy is experiencing a revival worldwide.
[00:01:01] But have operators considered decommissioning nuclear power plants?
[00:01:05] What happens when a plant's service life comes to
[00:01:08] an end, and most importantly, how much will its
[00:01:11] decommissioning and
[00:01:13] disposal cost?
[00:01:16] Also in this issue: China, can exports
[00:01:20] save economic growth?
[00:01:23] Ayurveda: a healthy lifestyle at the intersection of tradition and modernity,
[00:01:27] and Erica Robin.
[00:01:30] Courage at a beauty
[00:01:31] pageant.
[00:01:40] Made in Germany.
[00:01:43] It was the jewel of Soviet technology. Nuclear
[00:01:47] energy is the energy of the future.
[00:01:50] It was the pride of communist East Germany. The station
[00:01:54] operates at full capacity and is absolutely safe. Now it
[00:01:57] has become a nightmare, beeping continuously.
[00:02:30] we are entering a contaminated
[00:02:31] zone,
[00:02:35] Kurt Radlof's parents worked here when the nuclear power plant was still
[00:02:38] functioning. Now he is responsible for public relations
[00:02:41] here. We immediately find ourselves in the center
[00:02:45] of the station.
[00:02:52] It's
[00:02:53] huge.
[00:02:58] Yes, here we have the... reactor shaft, where the
[00:03:02] nuclear fuel tank was also located. This is the heart
[00:03:05] of any reactor
[00:03:06] unit.
[00:03:14] Everything here is contaminated.
[00:03:17] We assume there is radiation here. If the measurement
[00:03:21] results are above the permissible minimum, further
[00:03:24] layers must be removed. This is a standard procedure, but of course, it takes a lot
[00:03:27] of time. It exists.
[00:04:04] fuel rods, all elements near them. The rods are left to cool in the world's nastiest
[00:04:07] pools, then placed in temporary storage.
[00:04:10] This process alone can take years. In this case, it
[00:04:14] took 7 years, but that was the easy part.
[00:04:18] The remaining 330,000 tons of materials need to be checked for radioactivity and
[00:04:21] dismantled, because the problem with radiation is
[00:04:25] that it cannot be neutralized.
[00:04:28] Nuclear fuel is considered high-level waste and can
[00:04:32] remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.
[00:04:36] It must be stored until it no longer poses a threat.
[00:04:40] Elements closest to the fuel, such as parts of the reactor
[00:04:43] vessel, were activated, meaning
[00:04:46] they were exposed to radiation long enough to become
[00:04:49] radioactive themselves.
[00:04:53] They are considered intermediate-level waste
[00:04:56] and also cannot be decontaminated. Therefore, they
[00:05:00] also need to be stored safely, but
[00:05:03] parts that were further from the fuel can
[00:05:06] be decontaminated. For this, they need to be sorted by
[00:05:10] material, and then the radioactive material needs to be separated.
[00:05:15] We have several decontamination zones here, for example,
[00:05:18] dry spray chambers or high-pressure chambers for spraying
[00:05:21] water. This significantly reduces the volume
[00:05:25] of waste that needs to be stored for centuries.
[00:05:29] Then each piece of equipment must be cut down to the size of these
[00:05:33] boxes. After a double check for residual
[00:05:37] radiation, the decontaminated material can finally be sent to
[00:05:40] a landfill.
[00:05:42] According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the entire
[00:05:46] decommissioning process will take 15-20
[00:05:49] years.
[00:05:53] But the problem is that in many cases, not everything goes according to
[00:05:57] plan,
[00:06:00] as in this workshop. This
[00:06:03] is the so-called first special building, where radioactive
[00:06:06] control water
[00:06:09] used to be cleaned.
[00:06:12] The building hid an unpleasant
[00:06:14] surprise.
[00:06:20] We noticed that there was quite a strong
[00:06:22] contamination here in the corner.
[00:06:26] If there was a crack somewhere in the plaster, which
[00:06:29] was probably not uncommon in 1990. Water
[00:06:33] seeped into the cracks and spread
[00:06:36] further.
[00:07:12] Every centimeter of the building needs to be checked for radiation, and all
[00:07:16] contaminated concrete must be cut or chipped away layer by
[00:07:19] layer.
[00:07:23] And we haven't even reached the final stage of the process yet:
[00:07:25] storage. Germany currently has no permanent
[00:07:29] nuclear waste repository.
[00:07:32] Therefore, everything is currently stored in a building that we are not allowed to
[00:07:36] film from the outside for security
[00:07:37] reasons.
[00:07:50] Low-to-intermediate-level radioactive waste, which constitutes
[00:07:54] 95% of the total volume, is planned to be sent
[00:07:57] to a permanent repository currently under construction in central
[00:08:00] Germany. As for high-level waste,
[00:08:03] there are currently no specific plans for its
[00:08:05] storage.
[00:08:09] And this is not just Germany's problem. Currently,
[00:08:13] only two of the thirty-one countries producing nuclear energy
[00:08:16] are building permanent repositories for high-level
[00:08:19] waste. So the fuel rods will remain
[00:08:23] here for a very
[00:08:24] long time.
[00:08:28] This nuclear power plant and its legacy will be the
[00:08:30] concern of current and future
[00:08:33] generations.
[00:08:43] China continues to build new nuclear power plants, despite the high
[00:08:46] costs of their decommissioning.
[00:08:50] Nuclear energy is returning.
[00:08:53] Beijing wants to reduce emissions and meet the growing demand for
[00:08:56] energy, but energy is mainly needed to increase
[00:09:00] exports. The domestic market is
[00:09:03] weakening. Are exports saving the economy
[00:09:07] or just masking structural
[00:09:09] problems?
[00:09:15] China's economy is slowing down,
[00:09:18] the housing market is collapsing, and people are not
[00:09:20] buying anything.
[00:09:22] Nevertheless, the country still achieves growth targets of
[00:09:26] 5%, driven by massive exports, even despite
[00:09:30] rising domestic debt. Since
[00:09:32] 2015, this debt has almost doubled and is now approaching
[00:09:36] 100% of GDP. But it
[00:09:38] is financed domestically, mainly by private savings.
[00:09:44] China is a dual economy. On the one hand,
[00:09:47] it is slowing down, with domestic demand and investment
[00:09:50] declining. But on the other hand,
[00:09:53] exports are growing intensely.
[00:09:57] Exports help, but the real estate market, once the engine
[00:10:01] of the Chinese economy, is now slowing the country's
[00:10:03] development.
[00:10:10] Housing prices are falling.
[00:10:14] years, last year they fell by more than 5%.
[00:10:16] Until 2020, the real
[00:10:22] estate sector provided...
[00:10:56] This consumption slowdown is exacerbated by China's long-term
[00:11:00] problem, demographic
[00:11:01] decline.
[00:11:07] The working-age population's share is shrinking from almost
[00:11:10] 70% in 2010 to
[00:11:13] a projected less than 40% in
[00:11:15] 2090.
[00:11:19] A shrinking workforce means fewer young
[00:11:22] buyers and declining demand, which becomes
[00:11:25] an obstacle to economic
[00:11:27] growth.
[00:11:31] We might think that deflation in China is the result
[00:11:34] of overproduction
[00:11:36] capacity.
[00:11:38] But in reality, it's a lack of demand. China
[00:11:42] should increase domestic
[00:11:43] demand.
[00:11:46] In recent years, consumer prices have hardly
[00:11:49] changed. While in factories, often
[00:11:52] the cost of production exceeded its
[00:11:55] selling price.
[00:12:01] Deflation is an unusual phenomenon for a major economy. However,
[00:12:05] China has been in this state for 3 consecutive years.
[00:12:09] One reason is that
[00:12:12] China has a very primitive social security system.
[00:12:16] Employees of private enterprises do not have good social packages. As a
[00:12:20] result, they do not want to spend much. Therefore, China
[00:12:23] has a large volume.
[00:12:34] If growth is not possible from within, it must come
[00:12:37] from outside. Exports are now more important than ever.
[00:12:41] Chinese manufacturers strive to remain competitive in the
[00:12:44] global market at almost any cost.
[00:12:47] Companies are in survival mode. They need
[00:12:50] market share, they are willing to lower prices, even at a
[00:12:54] loss. And this is a little frightening for Europe,
[00:12:57] especially Germany, and the entire world.
[00:13:01] And China's financial system supports
[00:13:03] this. Thus, all banks stay
[00:13:07] afloat. When they issue loans, they don't care if they
[00:13:11] make a profit. They don't even care if they can get that
[00:13:14] money back. The financial system just keeps giving
[00:13:18] money to all these companies, and as a result, there's a huge
[00:13:22] oversupply. That's why it's so hard to compete
[00:13:25] with Chinese products. The consequences are felt worldwide.
[00:13:29] Countries like Germany face reduced demand for their products,
[00:13:33] and those trying to build factories have to struggle
[00:13:36] to compete with China's dumping prices.
[00:13:40] China is thinking about China.
[00:13:44] If a company is losing money, but can
[00:13:47] compete with another company in the US or
[00:13:50] Europe, that's
[00:13:53] enough.
[00:13:55] They'll deal with profitability
[00:13:57] later.
[00:14:01] China is accepting slower growth for the opportunity to restructure its
[00:14:05] economy. But what can be done to
[00:14:09] accelerate it?
[00:14:13] If we manage to take bolder fiscal and
[00:14:16] monetary measures, China's economy can recover very
[00:14:20] quickly.
[00:14:26] I hope that the Chinese government will shift its
[00:14:29] focus from supply
[00:14:31] to demand
[00:14:34] and direct fiscal resources to social
[00:14:36] spending.
[00:14:40] For now, Beijing is willing to endure short-term difficulties for
[00:14:44] long-term results, such as technological self-sufficiency and
[00:14:47] financial
[00:14:48] stability.
[00:14:53] Another developing...
[00:14:59] Ayurveda, which means the science of life, has existed in India for thousands
[00:15:02] of years. It views the human body, mind, and
[00:15:06] soul as a single whole.
[00:15:10] A proper balance between elements is believed to enhance
[00:15:14] self-healing abilities. Currently, a fundamental modernization
[00:15:17] of Ayurveda
[00:15:19] is taking place in India.
[00:15:26] Relaxation is what most people associate with Ayurveda,
[00:15:29] but it's far from everything.
[00:15:33] After centuries of being in the background, Ayurveda is now
[00:15:36] becoming...
[00:15:40] Dr. Aishwarya Jayaram, a doctor who has practiced Ayurveda
[00:15:44] for 15 years, closely follows these changes. She
[00:15:47] works at Sanjeevanam Hospital, which combines traditional
[00:15:51] Ayurveda with modern healthcare and has become the center of this
[00:15:55] transition.
[00:15:57] This is a holistic approach. We see a person as a single
[00:16:01] whole. We think about their body, mind, spirit, even
[00:16:04] spirituality. We consider all these aspects. Ayurveda
[00:16:08] has many dimensions; it's not just wellness, it's
[00:16:12] prevention, it's stimulation, treatment
[00:16:15] and, of course,
[00:16:16] rehabilitation.
[00:16:20] Ayurveda, the science of life, is believed to be almost 5,000
[00:16:24] years old. Its foundation is the balance between
[00:16:27] mind, body, and
[00:16:28] spirit.
[00:16:31] It relies on nature, medicinal plants,
[00:16:35] nutrition, and lifestyle changes.
[00:16:38] Before, 14-15 years ago, people came simply
[00:16:42] for relaxation, rest, rejuvenation at
[00:16:44] retreats. But now, more and more people are considering
[00:16:48] Ayurveda as a method of treatment. They
[00:16:51] choose Ayurveda as their treatment system,
[00:16:54] preferring it over Western drug-based medicine.
[00:16:58] And clinics like Sajjavanam show how the perception
[00:17:02] of Ayurveda is changing. It is no longer considered an ancient healing
[00:17:05] system, practiced in small traditional centers or by individual
[00:17:09] doctors, but represents an organized and
[00:17:12] thriving sector, studied by modern
[00:17:15] science. It's now an entire
[00:17:17] industry.
[00:17:19] A clinic where thousands of people come annually looking for solutions to
[00:17:23] medical problems, with doctors with degrees in fields such as
[00:17:27] neurology, ophthalmology, and gynecology, as well as with
[00:17:30] laboratories for developing medicines and therapeutic oils, a modern
[00:17:34] Ayurvedic center combines everything.
[00:17:37] This, according to Eavy Anoop, the founder of Sajiwam
[00:17:41] company, such Ayurvedic personal
[00:17:44] care products like shampoos, soaps, oils, creams
[00:17:47] have also gained enormous
[00:17:49] popularity.
[00:17:52] The Ayurvedic product market in India is currently
[00:17:55] valued at $10.5 billion
[00:17:59] USD.
[00:18:02] Based on this, I am confident that there will be an annual growth
[00:18:05] of 15-20%.
[00:18:09] Undoubtedly, in 3-4 years, it will exceed $20 billion.
[00:18:12] He says that growth could accelerate
[00:18:18] further if Ayurvedic medicines
[00:18:21] gain wider acceptance outside India.
[00:18:24] It requires permission from the country receiving the product;
[00:18:28] its licensing authority must have a system to examine this
[00:18:31] product and issue permission. Currently, this
[00:18:34] is not the case, and this is lacking. a special ministry was created, investments were made in research,
[00:18:54] educational institutions and infrastructure, as well as in
[00:18:57] its international promotion. Wellness tourism is another
[00:19:00] area where Ayurveda holds a leading position. Emily
[00:19:03] Terrie, originally from France, and her... In Western medicine, the approach to
[00:19:11] the problem is essentially very limited. I read about endometriosis, it
[00:19:15] is related to what you eat, to your daily routine, to many
[00:19:19] things. So when I read about Ayurveda, it
[00:19:23] seemed very interesting to me,
[00:19:26] maybe this is the solution that would help me cope with my
[00:19:29] illness, because I was having a very difficult time in my daily life.
[00:19:33] Aishwarya says that such cases reflect a larger
[00:19:37] global shift towards more
[00:19:40] holistic and long-term approaches to
[00:19:43] health. This is supported by the fact that many Western
[00:19:47] countries now have their own Ayurvedic
[00:19:50] wellness centers. We are seeing a significant increase in
[00:19:53] awareness among the younger generation, especially regarding
[00:19:57] a balanced, healthy lifestyle. I think they
[00:20:00] are looking for balance, and this certainly leads them to Ayurveda in
[00:20:04] combination with yoga. In her opinion, the growing interest in Ayurveda
[00:20:07] reflects more significant changes, where traditional practices
[00:20:11] are reaching a wider audience, larger
[00:20:14] markets, and opening new
[00:20:15] economic
[00:27:42] promised to soon replace imported passenger
[00:27:45] aircraft. In Irkutsk, tests of a serial
[00:27:49] MS-21 aircraft were conducted. This is news
[00:27:52] of strategic importance for the Russian industry and aviation. The aircraft
[00:27:55] is completely import-substituted, all equipment is produced in
[00:27:58] Russia. Talk about the need for domestic
[00:28:01] liners began back in the mid- 2000s, since then almost
[00:28:05] every year they promised to launch the MS-21 into
[00:28:08] production. Ivanov stated that the country should receive
[00:28:12] a new medium-haul aircraft, the MS-21, in the coming years. The first flight
[00:28:16] is scheduled for 2015, with serial
[00:28:19] production beginning in 2016. In just
[00:28:22] 2 years, the MS-21 is expected to take
[00:28:26] to the skies. In 2016, despite government promises,
[00:28:29] neither serial production nor first flights occurred, only
[00:28:33] another grand announcement. Russia
[00:28:35] presented the liner of the future,
[00:28:39] the MS21. Cool, what can I say.
[00:28:43] The liner of the Russian dream. The first launch should take place in just a few
[00:28:47] months. Engineers are ready for serial production. Years passed,
[00:28:50] deadlines shifted, but Kremlin media continued to feed
[00:28:54] Russians promises. The first deliveries are scheduled for nineteen
[00:28:57] years, serial production of MS-21 aircraft is planned to begin in
[00:29:01] 2021. This year
[00:29:04] it will begin. In early 2022,
[00:29:08] they once again promised to launch production soon. After
[00:29:12] the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, new
[00:29:16] sanctions followed. It turned out that the fully Russian
[00:29:19] aircraft lacked imported parts. Again
[00:29:22] loud statements about the importance of import substitution and,
[00:29:25] of course, promises. Serial
[00:29:28] deliveries are expected to begin as early as next year. This year they will enter
[00:29:32] series. In the next 6 years, 600 completely domestic
[00:29:36] liners will be reproduced. This year, that is, in 2024,
[00:29:39] the aircraft was never launched into series. This will not happen
[00:29:42] in the current 2026.
[00:29:45] Serial production of the liner is now planned for
[00:29:48] 2032.
[00:30:50] truly limitless. I am Rosa Iosina,
[00:30:53] Zhilelskaya. I am 97 years old. I
[00:30:57] survived the Holocaust, and I am a