in businesses, they say some people were trapped when a twister struck buildings. now oklahoma city or ukrainian nurse who lost both her legs, has shed a video of our 1st dance inside the hospital ward with her husband. ready and dinner was walking home with a c live in the east in the hands region. when a land mine exploded, victor wasn't hurt. they were married on monday. ah, this is al jazeera and these are the top stories. the world health organization says nearly 15000000 people have died from code 19 in the past 2 years, way more than originally thought. new numbers include deaths linked to the pandemic drain on health care systems. charlie angela has more now from london. those

figures between direct death and indirect, that have been lumped together. and i think we will see cool for the w h. o to distinguish between the 2. so 15000000 is based on the country report data and from to testicle modeling. but accurate numbers of covert deaths have have always been problematic throughout the pandemic. not just because it relies on countries being honest, but also because of the differences between countries on how they recorded cove death. ukrainian officials are accusing russian forces of resuming their attack on the besieged stoop onto the variable where civilians are trapped. russia had denied it and had announced a ceasefire at the side and insists it is abiding by it. that a 200 civilians are believed to be with ukrainian fighters inside the as a stop who are fighting what they say, a heavy, that the battles against russian and allied forces went away from the front line international donors when ponens capital was saw ukraine's president open the

conference with a virtual address the armed forces of ukraine and all of our heroic defenders bravely and firmly defend our freedom on the battlefield. but how this proved to warble and it's decided not only on the battlefield, there's also the economy and finance humanitarian support and the ability to ensure a normal life on liberated territory and rebuilding what was destroyed by the russian army. freedom must demonstrate that it protects people's provides better than tyranny. that is why this conference is so important for everyone in europe. israel supreme court has upheld an expulsion order against a post union villages in the occupied west bank, around $1500.00 villages, face being made famous. we've barely army had designated area, a miniature training zone in the 1980s is the headline news continues here on the algebra after the stream 2 statements i talked to, i'll just see room, we ask, what is the time table in your mind?

when do you think that you are, can be off of russian gas? we listen when i have seen and played football with these refugees, i look at them and they're happy smiling. we meet with global use makers and talk about the stories that matter on out. you see i i am my chevy, dean and you're in the stream today, the race to become the next president of the philippines. we'll talk about the front runners and what's at stake in the upcoming election. ah, the philippines is heading into the final days of a presidential election that some analysts say could alter the state of liberal democracy in the asian nation. it's been a campaign smeared by election disinformation and leading the race is the son of a former dictator with us to get into all the details is our panel who are joining

us from manila. leon bon, is a journalist who has been covering the campaign of ferdinand marco's junior for the news website. rosler. richard. hey, darian is an, a columnist and the author of the rise of do tell, say, a populist revolt against elite democracy. and regina kubat o, a journalist who has been reporting on election dis information for the washington post. and of course, we want you to be a part of this conversation live on youtube. you can chat your comments and questions to our producer right here. and we will do our best to get them into the show. let's get straight to it. i want to start by asking you regime why is this being dubbed the most consequential or important election in history? what's really at stake here, could you explain for our view our viewers i am and it's basically because the whole, the of truth on reality is going to be best in the upcoming election in this election. in particular, we are seeing

a massive this information campaign that is working in favor and benefiting the front on are afraid of the market junior know locally as bob, bob has nickname. this has been a decades long, well planned, well funded operation. that is cross platform. it's on you to bits on facebook. and basically there are a lot of people who have been buying this very embellished narrative of the martial law years and of the markets legacy with in some cases total denial of the corruption that went on during the time. and if he makes it the presidency, it will definitely show how far gone the truth might be in our fledgling democracy . and you know, i like how you frame that because we have an example of just that someone who has been swayed perhaps by social media. and obviously social media always playing a very big role in all the elections. i want to ask you,

before we get to that thought leanne, the campaigns really seem this time around to be driven more by personality. if you will, than ideology, is that true? you've been on the ground. what can you tell us about marco's juniors can contender? or you can see that it's driven by personality. you and you have loyalists of the dictator. voting for the son because his father was the dictator and they re, gene said they buy into the embellished image of the more shallow years be allegedly the golden era of the philippines. marcus himself, mark was the son to frontrunner himself. this not give comprehensive platforms. he has here on this campaign on the platform where our promise of unit b, hunger unit, the better internet unit, the better education unit, the. and he does not apologize for that for him. and he has come been, they've started, the psyche are so well that they feel like it's working, it's resonating with people and even bill here. so while the rising figure,

he has told me himself, in fact to be a unifying leader, richard, a unifying leader. we've heard marcos junior, his campaign just there and from many people you know, being about unity, unity about what exactly is it just the unity of to sort of dynastic leaders do territory of course and, and markers junior is father. what is, what is this unity that they're speaking about? what i said, it's a classic, generic mater who statement that really is vacuous. there's no clear policy implications here. we have seen that the front runner, boom, marcus, has tried to avoid any legitimate debate, even debates that were sanctioned by the commission electrons. so unity is their easiest way of saying we don't have a really detailed debate because once we get into details, that's where the devil comes in. right? and the devil in many cases is the, essentially the baggage historical values. the market is, i mean i have personally dog. this is the most consequential filament lectures, at least since 969. this was the last time and not marcus was on the ballot. and

once the father marcos actually wonder election $969.00. shortly after he declared martial law, and since then we have been living in the shadow of the marquesas with another marcus. now we ins he could complete. what do, terry could not complete in the last 6 years any that there could really undermine the foundations of democracy in the philippines. but he didn't have the discipline and where we evolve and he's quite, you know, advancing age marcos. if he comes soon he can finish the job and push the philippine democracy over. and i see virginia nodding and you wanted to jump in. go ahead. oh, i was just going through a lot. this may be cut end of it. um basically it definitely that this on the line of this upcoming election and the um, the marcus is really are benefiting from this decades long rebranding. ah, it's very strange because definitely in the international i in the world's eye and there is nothing a legit about the corruption and the baggage of the martial law years into the mark

as your team. right. but it's so ironic because locally that's being yeah, can pass that by people who have lived through it. well, and it certainly seems how, according all of you, that there is a bit of revisionist history going on, potentially using the online playground, if you will. we have an interview with our control. he's a 25 year old supporter of the marco's family in general. he really talks about how the information he's seeing online is, is directly influencing his vote. take a listen, ample in indianapolis. and while i was scrolling down, social media, there were a lot of articles about the achievements of mark was his father that so then i got curious when i checked the articles and i saw how beautiful the philippines were added during the time under ferdinand marcus. how cheap goods were and how much infrastructure he built, of which we're still using. now, in a richard, what do you, what do you make of that message right there? i mean, in 1986, you know, people power protests brought down the marco's family for a reason. ah,

it seems odd to be back, as you said, you know, 3 decades or more later with this same debate between authoritarianism and, and the democracy. what do you make of that messaging is social feat? media really impacting a broad section of the electorate. right. i mean, i'm a, let me just clarify because i think there has been a lot of millennial and youth bashing throughout the years. but if you look at the numbers, actually the exit polls in 2016 elections. the reason why bumble marcos did not become the vice president because the millennials actually did not rally behind him . in fact, let's focus 55 and above a lot of boomers, right. and generation x were much more, you know, i would say much more given to the new style ger for the marquess era. but in this election, it's quite different. now i don't want to bash the younger generation, but we have the gen, the generation 18 to 22 very young people and a lot of them are very active on tick tock platforms that were not really influential back in 2016. so this could be

a different ball game right now. i think the millennials were not really harbingers of revisionism, but this time i think there's much more plot ability in terms of the markets messaging to the generations. the and i think they have really focused on that. they knew they didn't do as well in 2016 in terms of the youth vote. so they have really focus on coming up with. i mean, you look at a wal mart as almost looks like a cape ops. if you look at solve, it kicked off, you know, videos among others and that clearly is catered to folks. very young folks like the, like the gentleman that entered with a while ago and you know, it's interesting to hear you say that we know that social media is all too powerful, not just with, with the millennial generation believe in. i mean, marco somehow been able, marcus junior, i should say, to dismiss his own can conviction of tax evasion and kind of billions that his family still owns the government. are these issues front and center is his challenger, linear brideau, who central message is anti corruption. managing to bring back the narrative,

perhaps to a more realistic portrayal of the history. it shouldn't be front and center, but the fact that it's not mean front and center is the price that we pay for having leak institutions for not having a much better institution. not have a membrane of what happened during martial law for having a weak justice system. we're having a weak anti corruption system and invited to the political opposition they did. and they've been trying to bring those issues front and center. but we see that a read the campaign actually go up the message of unity. they were branded, they're no go there. now saying they're going to win it for everybody. so now they realized just how powerful it, how capturing the message of unit b. s. and would be in the master at the electron . so it's, it's very sad to see how all of these took a back stage in this campaign. but that's a price it pay for years of start coming from all sectors of civil society. you're including the media and, and i want to get to that in

a little bit. i do want to ask you regina, to listen to this young man kenneth coven, 19 response volunteer. who makes a kind of passionate case for why he's voting for markers. his challender, lenny rebrand or take a listen. i'm excited to vote for vice president linear read of her president because of 3 reasons. first the bill. any help? see my love when slaves she gave my family members were front liners east and her city manager serge were offices programs on retesting and patient monitor. second v p. lenny has 0 record of corruption. she was given the highest audit reading 3 years in a row. 3rd, villette he lives in and is the best person to fix many of our brookins systems like public transport because she is a commuter, late us, and leaves an ordinary life. lagos, zebulon inspires many of us that big a more active role in politics and governance,

and that is why the lady is my prison. i know the polls show that you know, perhaps mark was junior's going to win. but do you think that lenny roberto has a chance 3 gene a lot of analysts would say that maybe she might have the momentum to fall off for the finish. maybe richard would be able to weigh and then a bit later on. but definitely one thing that the surveys the not measured is the engagement of the elect. i've been on the ground or the house, the house campaign for your bread though. and i can definitely say that it's something that the markets come this far has not been able to replicate 3 leave because it's stuck remark, assess, even, you know, with social media. and while it's been so effective, it's still the big them decades to make such a com back at the be able to rehabilitate their name. but the momentum, the upward spring of the following for your bed, who has been vilified for 6 years, there is, there is all these crazy conspiracy theories that go into are all this fake new

isn't. but somehow she managed to come up with come out of that with all the star power, all the celebrities who by her, and really i would say unmatched volunteer campaign. that's very creative. that's willing to counter trolls for free because we work a through online response team. that's definitely something to watch out for even if she doesn't make the election richard to your thoughts. i mean, it seems as though this is an election in many ways about authoritarianism versus democracy. someone a candidate who wants to hold the system accountable. another who wants to continue to maybe steam, roll it. what do you make of kind of disinformation, how it's playing in and what we just heard about rubric those real chances? well, i mean, let's be very clear about the situation here. a leonard or bred is not only against frieda and marcus junior. he's against the tandem, the axis of freedom. marcus junior and sided, the 3rd that the president,

this presidential daughter who is running for the vice presidency, but actually used to be the front runner in pre election service for the presidency . the moment started to turn to decided not to run for the presidency that was around 30 points that went to bumble marcus. so lenny is really against the whole team and that's the problem. that's why it's a little bit lopsided. the other thing we have to keep in mind is that actually pew survey world value survey. and when i was writing about the rise of that, i have to understand where it's coming from. and one of the thing i realize is that actually only 10 to 15 percent of filipinos of express categorical support for liberal democracy. so lenny is working in a very democratically ambivalent if not the democracy, fatigue situation. and that's why that's why she always had an uphill battle. but i think there was also some practical mistakes. for instance, we see an upsurge of house to house volunteers, grand riley's, but you know how i wish this thing started in january, february. she's charles, you, mark was the one on one debate. why now we should have done that in december,

november. so there was a lot of discerning this hearing on the part of the opposition that i think really played into the markets camps advantage. right. and the, and i see you nodding there as there was we heard from richard. i do want to share with you this clip from rachel con. she's a project coordinator with the fact checking alliance in the philippines. that was specifically set up to address really a global problem, not just in the philippines, which is of course election disinformation take a listen. i think this information is being a very big role in terms of manipulating the public. and the public is not aware that they are being manipulated. and that's the sad thing that their freedom is being rob because they're not making an informed choice. so the and, you know, and in january twitter suspended hundreds of accounts that were promoting marcos juniors campaign and violating a lot of its kind of rules on spam and manipulating the platform. you just heard that, that comment from the fact checker there. i mean,

is there hope that this will be a fair election? i think it will be a fair electron just because people feel like they made the choice. what i think, what people who do not realize as much of their choice has been influenced by fake news by embellish stories. bye bye bye algorithm. i see it personally and the people that i go over it. i see it in my own family. they don't realize that much of their opinion has been shaped by wrong things by both sides. so, i mean, if you look at it that way, democracies very much threat then and be very much fear for where we are going. if the line is going to be further blurred between fact and fiction and you know regina, when we talk about those lines being blurred, ah, it's interesting to me and maybe i'm wrong, please correct me. the philippines doesn't really have any sort of rules or regulations on social media. it seems that they have regulations,

like most countries do in terms of campaign spending for media for mainstream media . but that there's almost an exception if i'm not mistaken for social media that there's no, there's no way to govern that that you absolutely, and that is why some academics and critics have definitely called out the commission on elections because of the outdated rules that surround the social media competing in the philippines. one thing that we know is definitely that a lot of campaigning. advertising is a hid then through influencers. it's me or this guys to look like it's our guy, nick. and there's basically no way to know whether and when sir is on the politicians payroll on or not. so unlike if on went through sped lang, skin care products for a while and instagram, you'd see that, that sponsored. but then they can, in politics, when they're, they're marketing a certain fall edition. they can work that into any of their speakers, any of their content. it will look re guy. but actually that person could be on the

politicians payroll and there is no way of measuring up or finding that out in the current system. yeah, i mean lots of criticisms of the current system, not just the candidates from each different party i do. and also share with you on youtube. some comments that have been coming in one from dot. let me just read it to you right here. the philippines used to know, actually this one's better. this is just the sad state of the world in general with the rise of all right. authoritarian populace do territory bung bung. trump brags that live or ban modi both so narrow. so listing leader is right, that seemed to represent this sort of deepening divide. richard, what can you share with us about the geopolitical implications? what might marcus juniors rule actually look like if he does? in fact, when yeah, i mean the philippines is now actually kind of open system, right. i was quite shocking an interview with the spokesman of the commission elections of yours. but to know that we don't really have a kind of

a real boss mechanisms to make sure that there is no foreign interference in our elections. and, and the concern over 4, inter, for instance, special by authority, are in super powers by china. russia, among others, has been something mentioned by a lot of experts all but you know, we don't have a smoking gun because we don't really have a clear supervision of what's happening and it's 6 or extremely high, extremely high. the philippines is a u. s. street, the ally, but modern presidents 30 it has been acting like not an ally at all. right. much morality of china and the war is that a bond markets becomes the next president. he referred to killed the country in the direction of trying to add the expense of our tradition alliances with america. now that is worrying for a lot of us because we actually up territorial disputes. we china, not with the americans, well regret the opposition county that has emphasized the importance of revitalizing our alliance with the west and fellow democrats nations. so did you want to go or also stream the high and there are many power swab, also state who becomes the next president of the philippines. you know, it's,

it's interesting. we have a comment that was sent to us and you really laid it out there in terms of what's at stake for the world. sort of brought out the conversation. let us know what dr. jose ramon albert had to share with us. he had some deep insight. somebody will find his or pricing. the senator ferdinand muttered. marcos junior high school longbow is leading by a very wide margin cost economy groups. however, i'm not because he has a very strong alliance. we've started to bear the, the daughter off the current president, we say popular. what's more surprising to me that he's larger among the educated groups. and i think what we have to watch out for whether those who are trailing behind would be withdrawing in the next few days. because that could be a game changer. likely not going to happen. it seems almost them is that viable? is that just like hope all thinking that that could be

a last minute game changer? canada dropping out. what do you think when i think it's very much between roberto and mark us now and i think of all of the support there's a vice president or bad or counting that the surveys have a blind spot. that as we gene said that they haven't taken into account the unprecedented ground movement of doing house to house nationwide. it's never been done before. usually you do house house for local elections. and so maybe we're in for a surprise, maybe not. but one thing that i can foresee in the future, whoever wins, it's going to be a bullet that 1st the one month or 2 months. if marcus wins all those thousands people that showed up for of the are going to make their voices heard. if they're a read the winds, the 56 percent need the, the people that make up that lead of marcus are going to have their voice is carried. so we're in there. all right. in the next month, 2 months,

3 months. you know, we have a lot of people on youtube commenting, for example, jay fizzy saying we should stop calling him bong bong, and call him only as ferdinand marcos junior. to remind every supporter who they are. voting for trying to say that perhaps even just that is, is, is in a way, you know, focusing on the personality rather than the politics. i mean, if i'm not mistaken, under his father's rule, thousands were, were tortured, were disappeared, were murdered. and you know, it's, it's struggling to imagine that that's just being jailed over. i do want to say on the actual policies, we've talked a lot about, you know, the politics of all of this. but it seems both candidates have made sort of vague pledges. if i'm not mistaken regina to improve health care and fight poverty, that's kind of the overriding issue or has been for many, many elections in philippines history. is that true or? or is there a clear sort of difference between the 2? like what leon and yeah, the earlier. yeah. the, there's

a very vague promise of you and that the, but the platforms actually have not really been fleshed out, marty, because marcus, junior and tired that they're there have really refused to participate them to be repressed and answer any questions that includes both regarding controversies and basic policies like economics and that mac responds, etc. so they haven't been question there. in terms of been that make respond the bread, the has had a bit of a track record with being very active in terms of her programs and a lot of her biggest endorsements. now a lot of the people who really testify are people who have benefit from her various programs over the years while she was kind of working silently. definitely, one thing that we're seeing with her brothers campaign is that it's actually borrowing from the radical love model we've seen in 30 back and 2090. and when our position went up against the gun, one thing that we can learn from that particular campaign is about the camp really

year back. these populace out there. right, right. have the cater the got issues and, and basically court the, the electorate, based on things that are, that are basically closer to their heart than the drug guar or human rights issues or social issues where they can be more, more or less thick. right? i want to share with you very quickly. something that ferdinand bung bung marks junior high say on facebook just yesterday. take a look. i get none. i'm crazy. in the middle of a crisis, we should brace and prepare for a better tomorrow. what us, where we are united, let us turn our backs on disagreements into patient and let us embrace a unifying lita can will bring us a bright future. happy. so daughter thing the my you and will be like a long on the him put that on may 9 be also need to be vigilant of our votes. let us protect our decision and let us not allow it to be stolen again from us. i am willing so richard watching that we don't have much time left. i just want to get

a quick take as that is that campaigning? is that disinformation and of itself? i mean, just look at the video. it's screams nostalgia, it makes you think of his father. i mean, he, the way he dresses, saw the way looks he's harry style. i mean, the unity kind of a vague mater would statement. it's something that his father also use the say, you know that if you put someone like me, solid, be political will, whatever that means someone with strong will then automatically and magically all of our problems are going to go away. that's why do you want to know what policy? because this is all about right. putting our confidence in some sort of father would figure, and that's what he's doing by eatery lashley trying to look like on fodder. and perhaps we should have talked about. the patriarchy always seems like a very relevant topic. when discussing politics in this day and age. richard leon, ah, regina, thank you so much. that's all the time we have for today. thanks for watching at home and see you next time you can always follow us at streamed on al jazeera dot com. ah.

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