Crown Prince of Bahrain expected to invite Saudi support following anti-government demonstrations in capital Saudi forces are preparing to intervene in neighbouring Bahrain, after a day of clashes between police and protesters who mounted the most serious challenge to the island’s royal family since demonstrations began a month ago. The Crown Prince of Bahrain is expected to formally invite security forces from Saudi Arabia into his country today, as part of a request for support from other members of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council. Thousands of demonstrators on Sunday cut off Bahrain’s financial centre and drove back police trying to eject them from the capital’s central square, while protesters also clashed with government supporters on the campus of the main university. Amid the revolt Bahrain also faces a potential sectarian conflict between the ruling minority of Sunnis Muslims and a majority of Shia Muslims, around 70% of the kingdom’s 525,000 residents. The crown prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, said in a televised statement that Bahrain had “witnessed tragic events” during a month of unprecedented political unrest. Warning that “the right to security and safety is above all else”, he added: “Any legitimate claims must not be made at the expanse of security and stability.” The crown prince has also promised that national dialogue would look at increasing the power of Bahrain’s parliament, and that any deal could be put to nationwide referendum. However, some protesters have pressed their demands further to call for the toppling of the Sunni dynasty. The unrest is being closely watched in Saudi Arabia, where Shia are some 15% of the population. The secretary general of the Gulf Co-operation Council, Abdulrahman bin Hamad al-Attiya, expressed the “full solidarity with Bahrain’s leadership and people”, adding that “safeguarding security and stability in one country is a collective responsibility”. In an apparent reference to Iran, which Gulf Arab ruling elites fear may capitalise on an uprising by Shiites in Bahrain, he also expresssed “strong rejection of any foreign interference in the kingdom’s internal affairs, asserting that any acts aiming to destabilise the kingdom and sow dissension between its citizens represent a dangerous encroachment on the whole GCC security and stability.” Reports that the Saudi National Guard was poised to enter Bahrain were cited by the Foreign Office, alongside a recent increase in protests, as it changed its advice to advise British citizens against all travel to Bahrain. Earlier on Sunday, police moved in on Pearl Square, a site of occupation by members of Bahrain’s Shia majority, who are calling for an elected government and equality with Bahrain’s Sunnis. Witnesses said security forces surrounded the protesters’ tent compound, shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at the activists in the largest effort to clear the square since a crackdown last month that left four dead after live ammunition was fired. Activists tried to stand their ground yesterday and chanted “Peaceful, peaceful” as the crowd swelled into thousands, with protesters streaming to the square to reinforce the activists’ lines, forcing the police to pull back by the early afternoon. At Bahrain University, Shia demonstrators and government supporters held competing protests that descended into violence when plainclothes pro-government backers and security forces forced students blocking the campus main gate to seek refuge in classrooms and lecture halls, the Associated Press reported. The latest demonstrations took place a day after the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, visited Bahrain and said that the Khalifa family must go beyond “baby steps” reform and enact substantial economic and political change. Bahrain Saudi Arabia Middle East Protest Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
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Survivors young and old piece together their lives after Japan’s worst earthquake and tsunami since records began Harumi Watanabe rushed home to her elderly parents as soon as the earthquake struck. “I closed my shop and drove as quickly as I could,” she said. But there wasn’t enough time to save them. “They were old and too weak to walk so I couldn’t get them in the car.” They were still in the living room when the tsunami hit. Though she gripped their wrinkled hands with all her might, the force of the water was too strong. Her mother and father were ripped from her grasp, screaming that they couldn’t breathe before they were dragged down. Her last words to them as the surge filled their family home with water, mud and carnage had been a desperate cry to “stay together”. Watanabe was then fighting for her own life. “I stood on the furniture, but the water came up to my neck. There was only a narrow band of air below the ceiling. I thought I would die.” Watanabe is one of the fortunate few residents to survive in Shintona, a coastal town near the centre of Japan’s biggest earthquake since records began and one of the worst affected by the tsunami. The nearby bay is filled with cars, concrete and half-sunken homes that have floated away from their foundations. A railway line has been ripped from the ground and twisted vertically like a garden fence. Cars and motorbikes lie broken and so roughly reparked by the tsunami that some balance precariously on their bonnets. Emergency and media helicopters buzz overhead and the bereaved sob by the side of the road. The air is rich with the rotting smell of disaster and death. Japanese army personnel and rescue workers search for bodies amid the mud. Their work is sporadically interrupted by earthquake alerts and tsunami warnings, but they do not have to look far. The dead are wrapped in blue plastic sheeting and laid on military stretchers. Their numbers rose as quickly as the dozen or so rescue workers were able to find and carry them. “We have found 50 bodies here today and there’ll be more,” said an officer in the self defence forces as his team took a quick lunchbreak. “We’re putting more efforts into rescue elsewhere as there is very little chance of anyone surviving here.” The death toll in and around this area looks certain to rise. Drive east from Sendai and there are several stretches of devastated coastline. Helicopters buzz above Xintomei and Nobiru, where hundreds of bodies have reportedly been discovered. Further round the coast in Minami Shirazu, close to 10,000 people are reportedly missing after their town was engulfed by the tsunami. The full impact is still to be revealed. Rescue operations have been hampered by disrupted communications and ruptured roads. Travellers to the region are confronted by long traffic jams, broken fuel supply systems and diversions around broken nuclear power plants. Since Friday’s earthquake, which has been upgraded to magnitude 9.0, the confirmed toll from the multiple calamities has climbed to more than 1,300 deaths, 1,700 injuries and at least 1,000 missing people, according to the National Police Agency. Many believe that is just the start. The beleaguered residents of Japan’s north-east have been exposed to a cocktail of terror that would seem far-fetched even in a disaster film. Following the massive quake and a biblical flood, hundreds of thousands of residents have also been evacuated from the site of three broken nuclear reactors. Chemists have been inundated with previously unheard of requests for potassium iodide, which can help minimise the risk to the thyroid glands in the event of a release of radioactivity. So many aftershocks ripple across the region each day that many locals ignore the official advice that they hide under tables until the tremor has finished. This is dangerous, according to Takashi Yokota, director of the Earthquake Prediction Information Division of the Meteorological Agency, which warns of a 70% chance of a further quake of 7.0 magnitude or greater in the next three days. Much of the concern is focusing on of the elderly. At Shintona, about 90% of the victims were described as old, suggesting this might become a defining characteristic of the disaster. After the Sichuan earthquake in China, in which an estimated 90,000 people died, the focus was on building design and the large numbers of children who died in collapsed schools. In Shintona, however, buildings have – for the most part – been remarkably resilient while the elderly population have proved painfully vulnerable. Several locals said the young had been able to flee quickly after the tsunami warning was issued, but the old found it harder to run. “There are many old people here,” said Jiro Saito, head of the local disaster countermeasures committee. “We have evacuation drills, but people could not get to the meeting place in time. The tsunami was beyond our expectations.We must reflect on our shortcomings.” Japan is proud of having the world’s longest life expectancy, which is particularly evident in rural areas. Shintona’s large elderly population is evident in the intimate belongings now scattered in the muddy streets – 12-inch vinyl albums of Enka (Japanese blues) classics, a walking stick and tatami mats. This community is home to one of Miyagi’s first old people’s homes. The care manager, Kiyoko Kawanami, said she was able to confirm only 20 of the 90 residents as safe. “We don’t know what happened to them. The tsunami hit while we were trying to organise an evacuation,” she said. Kawanami took one group to the emergency shelter in Nobiru primary school. “On the way back I was stuck in traffic. There was an alarm. People screamed at me to get out of the car and run uphill. It saved me. My feet got wet but nothing else.” The fate of the other residents remains unclear. Shigejiro Murayama had come to look for his lost brother. While his wife cried and sighed beside him, he silently progressed as quickly as he was able with a walking stick. But he had to turn back when he saw what had happened. “There is no road left,” he laughed darkly. “This is a mess. Look at what has happened.” In the nearby city of Sendai, smoke continues to billow across the sky from the fire at a petrochemical factory. The air is filled with the sound of sirens and birdsong. Ai Matsuhashi is showing signs of post-traumatic shock. “I can’t sleep. I feel like the world is shaking all the time. I heard that is normal after a big earthquake, but I’m still worried,” she said . In a first step towards rebuilding her life, she has tried to tidy up and repair the broken furniture and belongings. But it is a frustrating task because each time she cleans up, there is another aftershock that tilts everything back over again. Since the electricity was restored on Saturday night, she has left the television on for comfort, but there are other worries “My biggest problem is the lack of a toilet. The authorities tell us we should use plastic bags. But I can’t bring myself to do that.” Shortages of water, fuel and food are a major concern. The city and surrounding areas are filled with long lines of people and cars queueing up for water and petrol. “We evacuated to high ground and a strong modern building so we are safe, but we haven’t had water or electricity since the quake,” said Yuta Kimura as she waited for her turn to use a well at a shrine in Matsushima. The authorities have established refugee centres in municipal schools and gymnasiums, but several people said they were reluctant to go. “There is no point going to Sendai,” said Toshinobu Abe. “They have just as little food and electricity as us. The refugee centres there are too crowded. We are better off seeking shelter at the temple near our home,” he added as he tried to salvage some clothes and blankets from the mud, weeds and fishing nets in his now uninhabitable home. Japan earthquake and tsunami Natural disasters and extreme weather Japan Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media I get really tired of the kind of false equivalency game being played by Cokie Roberts here. It’s one we see constantly by our Villagers in the media who are always desperate to paint the liberal base of the Democratic party as being “extremists.” Republicans are pushing for horrible draconian cuts to the budget that are going to weaken our economy, which Roberts admits is overreaching and it’s going to potentially harm them politically, but then she just has to get the “both sides do it” line in there. Sorry Cokie but one side governing like Republican-lite and catering to big business but actually caring about governing is not equal to the other side which just wants to burn the house down. She pretty well makes that point herself since she doesn’t cite a single example of this supposed overreach by the Democrats. The only ones she gives are examples of what the Republicans have done. And I don’t know of anyone who cares whether politicians are “getting along” or not, if “getting along” means doing harm to the working class. It seems the only bipartisanship we’ve been getting out of Washington DC lately is the kind that helps the rich at the expense of the poor and what’s left of our middle class. Transcript via ABC News . TAPPER: And Jon makes a salient point in that amusing spot, which is that most of the budget is not being debated right now, George. WILL: It’s not being debated because they say we’re only going to debate discretionary spending. We should… ROBERTS: Domestic discretionary spending. WILL: We should ban that word. It’s all discretionary, other than interest on the national debt. Social Security is discretionary. We have the discretion to change the law. Same is true with Medicare and Medicaid. ROBERTS: But — but — the — you know, they don’t, because they’re scared to. And what it requires is everybody holding hands and jumping at once. And there’s not a lot of hand-holding and Kumbaya singing on Capitol Hill, so I don’t think that you’re going to see that happening. But this fight I do think is going to be very interesting to see how it works out for Republicans next year. TAPPER: You think there might be overreaching? ROBERTS: Absolutely. And it happens with both parties. They do it all the time. They come into power and they think the voters have told them something different from what the voters have actually told them. The voters say, “We want you just to do something, stop bickering, get along, and pay us — you know, run the country.” And instead, they do things like, say, “We’re going tell the EPA not to have any power over greenhouse gases.” You know, that’s overreaching. “We’re going to cut Head Start.” These people have never run on a record. They’re going to have to next year go out and run on a record. And they’re going to have trouble with that. KARL: You know, they did run on a promise to deal with this. And Paul Ryan is about to come out with a budget. Next month, he’s going to come out with a budget that is going to address Medicare. And a lot of the Republican leadership up on the Hill thinks this is a terrible mistake, that he is driving them off a cliff to do this before the White House goes first or at least goes with him. But Ryan is charging ahead. And it will be very interesting to see how this plays. But he is — you know, he has somebody who has consistently promised to do this. He did it on his own, before he was chairman of the Budget Committee, when he was in the minority, he had only 13 co-sponsors of his bill. Now he’s doing it on behalf of the Republican leadership.
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Please, football commentators, pause the flow of words occasionally to let the game breathe Watching highlights of the 1981 FA
Continue reading …Please, football commentators, pause the flow of words occasionally to let the game breathe Watching highlights of the 1981 FA
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It runs to almost 2,500 pages and weighs 18kg and might just be the ultimate encyclopedia for serious foodies Got a spare 30 hours and £395 burning a hole in your pocket? If so, you might want to place an order for Nathan Myhrvold’s six-volume cookbook, published in the United States today, and spend the time creating his Mushroom Swiss burger. At 2,438 pages, and apparently weighing more than 18kg (40lb), his Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking could be the heaviest – and most ambitious – recipe book ever sold. Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer at Microsoft, was inspired to create the culinary colossus in 2004 after discovering that a cooking technique called sous-vide – which uses vacuum-sealed bags to cook food in water under very controlled temperatures – was not widely available. In response, he decided “to create a comprehensive book that covered modernist cuisine in terms of history and recipes, science and technique”. Highlighting developments spearheaded over the past 20 years by such forward-thinking chefs as El Bulli ‘s Ferran Adrià and Heston Blumenthal , the book outlines the equipment (such as test tubes) and step-by-step maths and science techniques readers will need to recreate optimum cooking conditions in their own kitchen. It took 36 people four years to put together the contents in Myhrvold’s Seattle-based Cooking Lab, using recipes from chefs both dead and alive. But despite its size it doesn’t include any pastry or baked dessert recipes (Myhrvold hints that he is saving that for a second book). And with some recipes requiring liquid nitrogen, critics have unsurprisingly argued the ingredients, tools and techniques are inaccessible to most people. But Myhrvold insists: “Eighty per cent of the recipes in the book can be made with the utensils that you can find in a shopping mall kitchen store. The other 20% is more exotic stuff but . . . even if you don’t want to cook with liquid nitrogen at home, for example, it’s still interesting to see how you would use it.” And he remains unrepentant: “This book is for people who really love food. The point of it is to be an encyclopedic reference that, in a self-contained way, explains the key techniques of 21st-century cooking and if you’re not looking for that, then there are a million other cookbooks in the world.” Food and drink Food & drink Chefs Food science Carlene Thomas-Bailey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …It runs to almost 2,500 pages and weighs 18kg and might just be the ultimate encyclopedia for serious foodies Got a spare 30 hours and £395 burning a hole in your pocket? If so, you might want to place an order for Nathan Myhrvold’s six-volume cookbook, published in the United States today, and spend the time creating his Mushroom Swiss burger. At 2,438 pages, and apparently weighing more than 18kg (40lb), his Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking could be the heaviest – and most ambitious – recipe book ever sold. Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer at Microsoft, was inspired to create the culinary colossus in 2004 after discovering that a cooking technique called sous-vide – which uses vacuum-sealed bags to cook food in water under very controlled temperatures – was not widely available. In response, he decided “to create a comprehensive book that covered modernist cuisine in terms of history and recipes, science and technique”. Highlighting developments spearheaded over the past 20 years by such forward-thinking chefs as El Bulli ‘s Ferran Adrià and Heston Blumenthal , the book outlines the equipment (such as test tubes) and step-by-step maths and science techniques readers will need to recreate optimum cooking conditions in their own kitchen. It took 36 people four years to put together the contents in Myhrvold’s Seattle-based Cooking Lab, using recipes from chefs both dead and alive. But despite its size it doesn’t include any pastry or baked dessert recipes (Myhrvold hints that he is saving that for a second book). And with some recipes requiring liquid nitrogen, critics have unsurprisingly argued the ingredients, tools and techniques are inaccessible to most people. But Myhrvold insists: “Eighty per cent of the recipes in the book can be made with the utensils that you can find in a shopping mall kitchen store. The other 20% is more exotic stuff but . . . even if you don’t want to cook with liquid nitrogen at home, for example, it’s still interesting to see how you would use it.” And he remains unrepentant: “This book is for people who really love food. The point of it is to be an encyclopedic reference that, in a self-contained way, explains the key techniques of 21st-century cooking and if you’re not looking for that, then there are a million other cookbooks in the world.” Food and drink Food & drink Chefs Food science Carlene Thomas-Bailey guardian.co.uk
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One of the UK’s favourite sports presenters on his freakishly successful double career In many respects an interview is not unlike an internet date. You read about the person you’re going to meet, and form some advance impressions – but everything still rests on those first
Continue reading …Former OMB Director and current Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels would appreciate it very much if you didn’t remind him of the things he said regarding budgets and the deficit back when he was part of the infrastructure that put us in this mess and listen to him now, thankyouverymuch . Back then, Daniels cajoled Congress into avoiding making the debt ceiling a political game. Nowadays, he’s just too busy union-busting to pay attention , doncha know…but then later in the conversation says that he hopes that the Republicans use the leverage they have now (holding the threat of a government shutdown over the Democrats) to effect *real* change. Funny, that, how he changes his tune. Daniels (ever enabled by the ineffectual Chuck Todd, who never met a conservative meme he didn’t snuggle up to) loves to make the distinction between the puny, miniscule little deficit he had to deal with under Bush and the huge monstrosity that the Obama administration is responsible for, ignoring the fact that the reason that Obama’s is so much larger is that his budget office much more honestly added the costs for the ongoing actions in the Middle East that were completely off the books during Daniels’ tenure. Nor was there any attempt to pay for the tax cuts for the very wealthy. It’s stupid and disingenuous for Republicans to pretend that the economic uncertainty only mattered after 1/20/09 and it’s pathetic and evil for the media to continue to let them do so. Transcripts (courtesy of MSNBC ) below the fold MR. TODD: Joining me now, the Republican governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels. Welcome back to MEET THE PRESS. GOV. MITCH DANIELS (R-IN): Chuck. MR. TODD: All right. Well, I saw welcome back because you’ve been here before as budget director. And, in fact, it is as budget director I want to ask you something. During your confirmation hearings–we were talking about these budget shutdowns–you had talked about that you wanted to see some way to sort of change the way so that, that, that there wasn’t politics being used–the government shutdowns weren’t being used as political leverage. And you also referred to riders this way, you said, “so that there aren’t things like extraneous measures that could otherwise upset the normal appropriations process.” We’re watching that right now. Is this the type of things you were warning about? And on these riders, are Republicans in the wrong for attaching these things right now? GOV. DANIELS: You probably think I’m paying more attention to this than I am, Chuck, and your memory is a little better than mine. But, yeah, I think probably, as a general rule, it, it is better practice to do the people’s business, try to concentrate on making ends meet, which Washington obviously has failed to do for a long time, and, and have other policy debates in other places if you can. MR. TODD: So your advice to Speaker Boehner would be, “You know what, we’ve made some political points here, but take these riders out. Take these political–have–save it for another part of the discussion.” GOV. DANIELS: He doesn’t need any advice but me, but I would, I would simply say this: The financial and fiscal problems facing this country are of a level that, I believe, threatens, not just our prosperity, but the survival of our republic. And really, I’m hoping and I–that the Congress and the administration will engage very seriously. I mean, to see them arguing over nickels and dimes like this is–especially from the vantage point of people who are making big changes to make end meet–in state Houses seems a little–it’s almost comic. MR. TODD: I want to go to the debt ceiling because in, in, the first time you were on MEET THE PRESS, you were asked about the debt ceiling, the fact that it needed to be raised. This was in June of 2002. You said it’s a responsible government–what a responsible government must do. And you said, “You know, what, it’s really a housekeeping matter.” That’s about to come up in about six to eight weeks. Advertise | AdChoices GOV. DANIELS: Yeah. MR. TODD: We don’t know the exact time when it’s going to happen here. Do you still think it’s a housekeeping matter? GOV. DANIELS: Well, less, less so now that we’ve doubled and we’re on our way to tripling the national debt. And so it’s a heck of a lot more serious than it was back then. But it is certainly true that the debt ceilings are rearview mirror exercises in paying for the, as I would see it, excesses of, of recent years. And at some stage you have to do it and honor the country’s obligations. But I definitely think, in the really critical fiscal corner we’ve painted ourselves into, it’s entirely appropriate to use that moment to surface these issues. And I hope for some leverage to get some real change and not just cosmetic. MR. TODD: Did your former boss, President Bush, make a mistake about not trying to pay for the wars in some form of another, asking for some temporary tax hikes, if necessary, to pay for the wars? Or to pay for the prescription drug benefit? Because, obviously, you were there when, when the debt also went up, when the deficit went up. And it was because, among other things, those two things were not paid for then. GOV. DANIELS: Well, we’ll never know. If you’d done that and you’d hurt the economy, you’d have had less revenues than, than you expected, maybe less than you had, anyway. You know, by 2007, the deficit was tiny compared to now. It was well under 2 percent of GDP. So we would love, wouldn’t we, to be back to that level now. So… MR. TODD: But you’re an executive now. If you–you believe in paying for things. If you are going to offer something, you should pay for it. GOV. DANIELS: Yeah, don’t offer what you can’t pay for. That’d be a good principle to return to in the federal government. MR. TODD: So the prescription drug benefit probably shouldn’t have been offered without being paid for. GOV. DANIELS: Well, it’s cost a whole lot less than anybody thought. But it is part–there’s no question–it is part of the biggest problem we face, which isn’t even these massive annual deficits we’re running, it’s the unaffordable promises we have made to–in what we call the entitlement programs.
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It’s not reassuring to hear that the Japanese won’t allow U.S. experts to have access to their failed nuclear plants, or that U.S. authorities think Japanese officials are downplaying the extent of the crisis. Of course, they already have a history of covering up problems in their nuclear power industry: AMANPOUR: Joining me now to discuss all of this is, nuclear expert Joe Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund and ABC’s Jake Tapper and Martha Raddatz. Let me start with you first, Mr. Cirincione. How bad is this nuclear meltdown, for want of a better word, and the fears that there may be another explosion here at one of the reactors? CIRINCIONE: This is already one of the worst nuclear accidents in history if it stops right now. And we’re dealing with multiple meltdown possibilities at reactor number one, at reactor number two at the Daiichi site. There’s also concern about reactors at the Daini site. There were actually incidents at other nuclear facilities in Japan that would have been significant incidents by themselves, but they’re caught in the wake of these major crises at these nuclear reactors that possibly will melt down in the next couple of days. AMANPOUR: Jake, how worried is the U.S. administration that this could reach the United States? TAPPER: As of now, the concerns are minor that this will reach even Guam or the Marianas Islands or Hawaii, the gulf — or the shores off of Alaska or the West Coast. There’s very minor concern, because there has not been a major release as of now, but administration officials are, of course, concerned in general about the potential for the spreading of radioactive material. And that’s why they’ve sent a whole — a number of experts to the region to monitor the situation, to help the Japanese, of course, but also to get our own information firsthand. AMANPOUR: And, Martha, talking about information, there’s been this feeling that perhaps the Japanese government has been playing it down, even though they’ve been on television almost every hour, giving briefings. Take us back to Friday and how this all played out. RADDATZ: Well, Christiane, literally right after the earthquake and the tsunami, I was talking to U.S. officials. And they were saying the Japanese are playing this down. They are very, very nervous about what’s happening at the nuclear plant, but they weren’t really talking to U.S. officials. It was sort of one-way communication. The U.S. was offering help. They were offering immediate help to get nuclear teams in there, and the Japanese were resisting that. So that was a real frustration in the beginning. I think that frustration remains somewhat, because they have a lot of people who can go in and help immediately. Obviously, this facility could not withstand that earthquake. So you have to wonder, going forward, are they really ready for what may happen next? AMANPOUR: Now, Mr. Cirincione, we know that at least three people have been treated for radiation sickness inside the plant, according to the government. Can you explain how these fail-safe measures actually failed? What happened that did not make sure that this nuclear reactor, this facility shut down safely? CIRINCIONE: Sure. Nuclear reactors are built to withstand crises, and even multiple crises. But it’s very hard to build a facility that can withstand this. This was a one-two punch. First, the earthquake knocked out the electrical supply to these reactors, and then the tsunami came in and knocked out the backup electrical supply. So for the last few days, they’ve been running on battery power, rushing to re-establish electric power to the plants, to the pumps that keep the water around the core and keep it cool. As those pumps lost the ability to do that, the core was exposed. We have at least half the core exposed at reactor number one at Daiichi. This led to the radiation exposure. No amount of radiation exposure is good for those workers scrambling to get these reactors under control. It could be fatal. AMANPOUR: And, Jake, they’ve already said that they’ve filled those damaged reactors with saltwater, which basically means they’ve given up on them, they’re not going to work anymore. How much confidence does the United States have in its counterparts here in the nuclear facilities, in the nuclear agencies? TAPPER: Well, if this crisis had happened here in the U.S., the U.S. government would be turning to Japan for help. These are the top people in the field. That said, these are government officials. And it has been pointed out, it’s not always true that the first things you’re hearing from government officials are the accurate information. It’s often optimistic. They don’t want to have a panic. And so the administration is confident, but I think they have their eyes wide open that not all the information they’re getting might be — the worst-case scenario might always be the best-case scenario. AMANPOUR: And, Martha, we know that these kinds of things always affect the idea of using nuclear power for energy. What effect do you think this will have on many people’s desire to actually increase the use of nuclear power? RADDATZ: I think it will have a huge effect. And that’s sort of something that you haven’t heard very much talked about yet. We’re dealing with the crisis now. But I spoke to a senior administration official last night. And they said that’s one of the major concerns, how this will affect nuclear power in the future. I think there were already demonstrations in Germany. I think you’ll see here in the U.S., we will surely take a look at our nuclear facilities and have Japan as a — as a bad model there in what can happen that you haven’t planned for. AMANPOUR: Martha Raddatz, Jake Tapper, and Joe Cirincione, thank you all so much for joining me. Still, there are people out there with knowledge of the industry who see this as more of a PR problem than an actual risk to humans. Here’s hoping they’re right.
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