all the millions of dollars, the state promised women's reproductive health money will need for god to protect mothers and their big lives. back at the clinic, mariama gives birth to a boy. he's quickly examined by the doctor who hands him to the nurses who in turn more handsome to the father. meanwhile, the mother is in the recovery room. one of them was still waiting to meet her new born. nicholas hawk al jazeera luger, northern senegal. ah, no, again, i am fully battle with the headlines on al jazeera, the last civilians evacuated from the besieged as of style steel plant in the ukrainian city of mario paul. how sante arriving ins, operation, ukrainian fighters, defending the plant se they'll keep fighting and never surrender. a fat big is following the rescue mission from disney pro. the seems to be the 3rd way for that

have left that plant or we understand that women, children, and elders, we have been evacuated. now these people have been in there for a considerable amount of time in the as of power plant. that was one of the largest metal plants in europe, this around 10 kilometers squared and has a vast array of tunnels and rooms and underground there. and people have been hold up in their pros sheltering from the russian bombing and the artillery fire. and they bring completely trapped that city has been besieged. g 7 nations. meanwhile, imposing new sanctions on russia and its leaders. a g 7 statement said present proteins, actions have brought shame on russia. shebra tanti is in washington with more a number of sanctions have been announced. so ab and 3 more russian tv stations will be sanctioned as services, the u. s. will sanction. and the u. s. person for writing accounting or trust, or corporate formation, or business services, not legal services of business services to the russians. the g 7 once again, pleasures to face at russian oil for the export controls on things like wood

products, industrial engines boilers, motors to hit the russian industrial base and more sanctions on russian leaps and belushi and a russian attack going to school in eastern ukraine is feared to have killed dozens of people who took refuge dad. the governor blew. hans says about 90 people were in the school when it was bombed. israeli forces have shot data, palestinian man who tried to enter israel to the separation barrier in the occupied west bank. another palestinian was shot and killed by israeli police after a stabbing attempt at damascus gate. they use foreign policy. she says the appointment of hong kong new chief executive violates democratic norms. john me was the only candidate in a secret ballot held by a 15000 election committee. those are the headlines. i'll be back with the al jazeera and use our right after inside story to stay with us. thanks watching. ah

will. hong kong is new, lead up father road freedom that john lee is the former security chief who led to the 2019 cracked out on pro democracy protested. he's studying to uphold the rule of law. does that mean that china's grip on britain's former colony is tightening even further? this is inside story. ah. are there and welcome to the program i must ozzy attain. now the result was a foregone conclusion because there was only one candidate to choose from.

following a secret ballot, hong kong has a new leader. john lee is due to replace carry lamb as chief executive on july 1st . now the staunch china loyalist was elected by committee of around a 1500 members, all betted to ensure their patriotism, to presentation being and beijing. now he says he wants to unify society and make the asian financial hub more competitive. but activists in hong kong say they fear that leaders in beijing are further tightening. nick rip, adrian brown has with china's endorsement. it was just a question, but how big john lee's winning margin would be to give the appearance of an open contest. the secret votes were presented to the election committee before being counted. congratulations, a landslide. 1416 boats. in his acceptance speech, lee promised to leader hong kong that was carrying open, vibrant, and vigilant, safeguarding our country sovereignty. national security and development interests.

protecting hong kong from internal and external stress and ensuring as stability will continue to be of paramount importance. the former number 2 in the hong kong government had previously served the security chief authorizing the use of tear gas rubber, bullets, and occasional live rounds. to disperse, protested during the unrest of 2019. 0, it was an election day of one candidate, 3 protesters, and lots of police. 7000 officers, in fact, enough to keep the few dissenting voices well away from the convention center where the vote was held. analysts say the john lee has china's trust, but winning the trust of hong kong could be more difficult. trust can be rebuilt through several ways. one way is by restoring a countable government in hong kong,

which is in the based i would say under the administration of kerry lamb. so that requires the cooperation of the media of ledge, co of civil society. sunday was also mother's day in hong kong. some people we spoke to were aware there was an election, but just weren't sure that the candidates name. oh dawn. oh, i yeah. john, so you all well was that your lesson? so i went to that a homecoming people was supposed to choose a data for the 1st time in 2017. it didn't happen then. it hasn't happened. now raising the prospect that this could be the model for future elections to choose hong kong leader lead is due to be sworn in as chief executive on july. the 1st, traditionally

a ceremony attended by china's president adrian brown for inside story. you'll recall after 156 years of colonial rule, britain handed back control of hong kong to china 25 years ago. under the terms of the 1997 deal. china pledge to give the territory a high degree of autonomy with its own executive, legislature and judiciary, a framework known as one country, true system to last 50 years. leaders in beijing also agreed to guarantee rights and freedoms for hong kong. people including the right to protest, a free press and freedom of speech. then in recent years, beijing has cracked down on those freedoms. stroking mass protests and international criticism in 2020 china voted to introduce a national security law and hong kong, giving police broad powers to punish critics and silence descend fundamentally changing life. it's 7000000 people. they've had no say and who then new leader is. instead, a committee of hong kong delete, vetted by beijing churches, him and

a one horse race. ah, well let's not bring in our guests in hong kong. we have tom grande. he is the editor in chief and the founder of hong kong, free press, and independent publication in beijing. victor gow is a chair professor at suture university. and in nottingham and england, steve sang is the director of the china institute at so asked university of london welcome to the program dental, and thanks for being with us today. and stephen, i want to start with the process that's just taking place, an appointment rather than an election. it seems at this committee of electors, very much handpicked. do you feel like there's now really been a move away from even the attempted semblance of democracy? i think you are right in saying that what we have seen in hong kong is a change from the past of a pretense to your actions. true. now it is election in quotation marks,

chinese style. do you lessened subtly walked such as it was that took place in hong kong? really is no different from your actions under the communist party. victor, let me bring you in here because you yourself have been in the corridors of power and beijing. i understand what is china's strategy here? well, 1st of all, let's congratulate mr. lee on becoming the next chief executive of hong kong. i think his election speaks loudly, that stability is restored in hong kong. and the society at large is ready to embrace development and growth as the principal challenge for the residence in hong kong. now for this election to take place in hong kong, let's look at it in historical terms. the british colonists ruled hong kong for more than 150 years. they never elected the governor of hong kong. the governor of

hong kong has always been appointed by the monarch, and he did not represent the people of hong kong. he represented the british folic the imperialist interests of hong kong. therefore, whatever grievances or complaints, all dissatisfaction, you may have. you need to say that whatever democratic rights in hong kong to day is already a far cry from the knoll democracy at all before 9097. whether democracy can be further enhanced and improved. of course, there will be, however, no one can use democracy, are rule of law as a hiding shield to promote the so called independence of hong kong, or to deny the chinese sovereignty of a hong kong. this is made clear, crystal clear thou by mister lee's election. i think people in hong kong will

continue to practice capitalism with hong kong style. and they will be very firmly committed to the one country to system principal, which all covered hong kong up to 2047. and while he did say some opposition, i guess we can say 3 protest as outside. and then i understand 8 committee members . i believe voted against mr. lee tongue. you can send that there might be consequences for any of those people. i know there's going to be ballot. there were also there are also 4 blank apparently. but let's look at the number of the facts of what happened today. 1461 voted in a city of 7000000, representing 0.02 percent of the public cash to balance those people well invested by none other than a panel headed by you only until last year he got

a 99 percent support rate amongst both and yeah, and the wider community. he has an approval rating of 37 percent according to a less credible poll. there was 7000 police officers, a lot of them assigned to that protest you mention today that's almost by culture. both her and all this cost, the election budget over this year is $330000000.00 us dollars. and just to respond that to, to it's very true, british times good little intentions and so full democracy. but there were attempts, made a democratic reform in both the fifties and the 9th is on their way out, which would cost by beijing and steve, i want to bring you in here because i could see that you didn't necessarily agree with mr. gow. i'll let you have the float. if we do with history as lick to has raised, then we will have to deal with history as facts one other than fiction. if we

compare the last full british governors with defore chief executives since hong kong become chinese a gained, we can see that all 4 of the last, british governors receive very, very high popular rating. there was no democratic, formal democratic accountability off the british governors to hong kong. but every one of them was so responsive to public opinions that every one of them receive very high rating. none of that applies to the for chief executives of hong kong. there was no which was governor who had to go to hong kong rip 7000 security suckers, people present to make sure that there were no incidence. that just happened with the election of john lee or coming back to present day. i want to get to johnny and

just a moment, but i also want to take a look at carry lands, legacy. you've spoken there, steve about approval ratings. now i see terry lamb is leaving officers the least popular chief executive ever. 33.4 percent approval. mean arguably, it was the 2019 protests that caused. she hasn't been to harden her stance on hong kong, and much of that people believe was due to lans handling of the expedition. beth, much of that driven some might argue by her own political ambitions. tom, you're in hong kong. how will people remember her? well, some of the do that stress legacy and we are seeing 3 news outlets closed in the last year to bear in mind. john lee was the number 2 officials must much of the last year. and i'm curious to recall that thing the protest 60 plus civil society groups responded last year. most of the opposition, the democrats are either behind balls, flight interest, ex soap, exile or quick politics. all together, we seeing

a mass exodus in life of the national security law and harsh covey rules that long ago. so being accused of mishandling protests effectively illegal, imitated the moment about a year ago in the press freedom index. hong kong was with a to the last week. it's all the biggest fall of any poetry in the world. 248. so this is not only will japanese inheriting, but also what he says, responsibility for as a top official, broad her can you? well, let me throw that then to victor, given the level of unpopularity of carry lamb, the legacy that she is left, and how she moved closer to beijing and the perception of john lee has been very close to beijing. what challenges is he like you to face trying to get hong kong as on side? i think mr. lee has huge challenges. he need to bring the society together. he need to re open hong kong to foreign business interests. he hopefully will need to visit

to the united states or many other european countries and japan and australia, canada. you name it to make sure the hong kong is here to stay at the one country to system will remain in effect up to 2047. and hong kong will continue to practice capitalism with hong kong characteristics withdrew of law. i'm with the dollar. we've talked about his engagement with various different capital is and he can't set foot in the us because he's sanctioned by the u. s. and obviously the crackdown in hong kong has left a bitter taste in the mouth of as many foreign leaders. i'm curious about where steve, you think this might be going in terms of how hong kong is going to be perceived in the eyes of the rest of the world and, and how china is playing its cards yet? well, i think china just created a moral hazard. full leaders of them will take the more credit countries in europe

and in north america. if they accept john leads to visit, then they basically are telling offer a tarion countries in the world that if they then mix somebody who has done something particularly oldest, put him, put him in a position of authority. and whatever sanctions imposed on that person will be lifted. so did his making it practically impossible for the united states government to allow john need to visit the us. and then we will get into it. and acrimony of the chinese authorities accusing the u. s. and perhaps other western countries, floppy, hostile to hong kong, because they would not accept the chief executive of hong kong. we should never be in the situations like that. i want to talk a little bit more about john lee the now and that will affect how he is

a one in town. so i, i think both the referred to, you know, all the international status here and john leave promise to restore it international standing. none of this is going to be possible for as long this on call is pursuing what china re, in terms of the 0 co dynamic 0 policy. at the moment. we have mass on 2477 days quarantine in the hotel when you rivals, this is meant to be, asians will city and international 50. hong kong is not going to be able to change that and regain it state to submit this big brain drain. an exit, unless china chain you it's i felician coven policies. and that's not gonna change me until november when she's paying is rubber stamping to a lease a life. so the door is close really here in terms of how much john lee can do. because the mainland border has to look and we have china before it can open to international travel and self,

and the content ministration of admitted that i'm calling is going to be cut off for some time. yet, while amid all of that, i see in his 44 page manifesto he bowed to tackle inequality. unlike previous chief executives, he's not a politician, not a civil servant, not from the business world, mister guy, what do you make of his ability to address some of these issues, especially given the context that tom's just described. oh, that's exactly what i said that a mr. lee need to bring hong kong together. a hong has huge challenges in terms of housing, jobs for resemble creativity and innovation, as well as connecting in the greater depth when china's mainland, as well as with the rest of the world. the world is changing, china is changing, the greater bay area is changing hong kong with all its advantages, should adapt to the changing circumstances rather than being complacent or other them being left behind. i think all these need to be addressed by the new chief

executive. therefore, i think reaching out to the rest of the world, including the western world as well as chinese mainland, in particular, the greater bay area to address all these challenges in hong kong will be missile these top priority now allow me to make one point. we know what the united states now is dealing with, ah, january, the 6th insurrection, occupying the capital of the united states in washington, dc. whatever that happened, the hong kong, comparing with the occupation of the capital city in the united states really should be judged by the same light. the united states now is a closing maga as sedition and rebellion, as anaki, as demons as undermining rule of law. we should use the same criteria to look at those rioters storming the electrical building, setting up allison, attacking please,

your name it. i think mom i and they both it and from van the opportunity throws him out. and tom, i'm, i'm going to bring you and because you are on the ground with the protesters in the streets during many, many of these days at what would you say to mr gal? i agree, perhaps this time things may be different because you know, the last 5 leaders have always said that they are going to solve the housing problem and any quality you have rising unemployment, there's housing crisis, a mass exodus export to down g. d, p is down. what you often see with china and he's probably from periphery about that be taiwan. all in china is that they, they try to throw money at the problem and investment infrastructure. and that kind of thing, perhaps misjudging the real root of the issue. and integration with china is often the issue in hong kong. so maybe it will be different when it comes to the ty comes

and the power they hold. and the housing situation here. but i think the book and most people had today when they seen this rather broad and vague, manifest those glittering generality. how's it going to do it? and is it real this time because they really have held it all before in hong kong when it comes to we're going to solve the housing crisis. and tell me very briefly mentioned young there. and i want to bring steven on this because mr. lee was the one in 2019 who sanctioned the use of water can and take us even live rounds on protesters and i see after a visit to soon young and that same year. he then told lawmakers that there could be lessons for hong kong own counter terrorism strategy. what should we be expecting from him going forward, steve? i think that is a very sign. john lee was a long standing police officer in hong kong. he would have joined the police force probably in the late seventy's and when food

a period of the eighty's and ninety's. when home combs police force transform yourself and walk from one that was systematically corrupt. to become the most respected department in the hong kong government. and when he was separately for security in 2019, in a matter of weeks, he adopted tactics that completely squandered, concede that the police beloved in the previous quarter of a century, turning into the most hatred and despised department in the hong kong government. and that is before he was even referring to she john as per winding inspirational x experience, he should look back into the history of the hong kong police force where he got things right way he earned popping respect and credibility as chief

executive. she will have to earn that respect and with the ability before he will have a chance to put his policy ideas into practice. otherwise, the just slogans in speaking of policy practices. mr. gal, i want to ask you because i notice amid the trials of those currently being prosecuted in hong kong under the national security law, which mr. lee has been a big proponent of. i see even a beijing appointed judge has criticize the delays in terms of process there. could china potentially go too far ahead? no, i think not. why? because one, these should be clear in hong kong, rule of law and democratic rights need to be fully protected. on the other hand, anything which denies china sovereignty of on kong is illegal is against the national security law. and anything which advocates, hong kong independence,

for example, will be punished by law. this is very similar to many other countries. for example, in the united states, they practice a system, one nation under god, indivisible, no one can really use force to achieve independence of any particular state that will be illegal punishable by law. many other countries have a civil of things. so you cannot say what's happened the hong kong, under the attack against the hong kong government attack of the very well behaved police policy. hong hall is rule of law is freedom of expression. what happens to washington, for example, occupying the capitol hill is illegal law. you should know and use the same principle and same benchmark to judge these violations against the rule law. give united states. although i grant and the hong kong, there have been a mistake. i want to bring in tottenham because he is on the ground in hong kong. and i, i don't want to let you go without asking you about public sentiment that now it's

been a while, i believe, since we've had ne, solid pull figures by lost count. it looked like support for the opposition movement has increased, but then support for protests has decreased. we've obviously seen very few people out on the streets. there have been clothing restrictions and placed. now given the low turn out that we also saw in the december elections as well, record low turn out to people even care who is in charge now or is this a a done deal for beijing? it really struck me in the story. we saw alley from adrian, that limited apathy. is it apathy tongue or is it submission? it's difficult to tell because most of the democrats are behind balls the next dollar of politics. and i think it kind of thing. it is more about fear. the big thing big to get wrong, that is, but actually in the us, you will not go to prison for your words, for waving a flag or a sticker advocating independent. these are the kinds of things that people have been tutored or, and that's what's keeping people on the street. if you do want to look at any

statistics. well, the last time they surveyed approval ratings, john lee had a favorable rating of about 37 percent. and he has promised a local version of a national security which last time that was tabled in 2003 or half a 1000000 people onto the street. again, i don't think you're going to see the kind of protest you did in 2019 all back then . but suddenly i think what's keeping people off the street to the moment is the national security law and haven't activated being i guess in questioning descent. well, certainly be watching how this all plays out in the coming days, weeks and months. but now we'll leave our discussion there. thank you to all of our guests, tom grundy, vick to go and stay sung and thank you too for watching. you can see this program again anytime by visiting a website that's out there a dot com and prepare the discussion. do go to my facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash 8 inside story. and remember you can also join the conversation on

twitter. handle is at age 8 and type story for me and started. hey on the whole team here in the lifeline. the ah wrong with trust in authority is at an all time low you want for hench hayton true distrust this is a battle about what the truth actually is. al jazeera investigative unit pulls back the curtain and reveals how fear, suspicion and conspiracy theories have become the 2 of the powerful were in

a dangerous territory, and that dangerous territory runs deep. what happens now that we literally diverge, that may well be how democracy does the truth illusion coming soon on, i just gotta talk to al jazeera. we ask, what is the time table in your mind? when do you think you can be off of russian gas? we listen or, and i have seen and played football with these refugees, i look at them and they're happy. they're smiling. we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on al jazeera. we understand the differences and similarities of culture across the wound. imagine, lad, you call her hand out, you sarah, will bring you the news and current affairs that mattie out of being seen as a burden. countless babies are reported in india simply for being girls. but

amidst these resistance, even from her own patience, a fearless midwife has adopted the cause of challenging, deeply ingrained tradition and terminating this modern day beat aside. the daughter 3, witness on algebra. lou, this is al jazeera. ah, hello, this is a news are on al jazeera. i'm fully back the ball live in doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes, the last civilians leave the besieged steel, planting the ukrainian city of mario all while the soldiers who remain trapped their vow, they will never surrender. us. diplomats returned to their embassy and key as g. 7 leaders, issue war sanctions against russia. also this out.