if you. come from the past. this is the wus a ship coming up august on baby boom for many families even talking about birth control is frowned upon is this taboo driving the country toward a population predicament. and in another weekend are you protests in hong kong but is the movement losing momentum. plus the puppet show in indonesia inspiring kids to join the resistance against plastic pollution.

i'm melissa chan welcome to news asia thank you for joining us it's a topic that's still taboo in pakistan's conservative muslim society sex education once married women faced pressure to procreate fear of a backlash from islamic clerics discourages public discussion about family planning and access to contraceptives is pretty limited just 34 percent of pakistanis can get them this means the population continues to boom there are more than 200000000 people in pakistan and often individual families feel they can barely manage with so many mouths to feed here's the shots of july any with more than a home and standing up to make a difference shard arsinoe is a community. health worker in the town of picher in sindh province in

a conservative muslim society she reaches out to women pakistan's public health system fails to reach today she's speaking about family planning and reproductive health but it's not an easy sell. yet the american people are more aware of family planning these days but they're often reluctant because they're myths and misconceptions about using contraceptives some women are afraid that it will make them infertile forever others think it's against their religion scheider is not a trained nurse or a doctor but she lives and works in the community so when she refers them to the local government run hospital they trust her enough to go and get professional help . rima is a mother of 2 this is her 1st ever visit seeking advice on birth control the doctor takes a medical history and advises her on her options an injection for a 3 month gap bills for

a daily use contraception as well as implant method for 5 to 10 year contraception but unlike her most women in pakistan are not allowed to make these choices order says that more than the women it's her in-laws and the husband who call the shots as doctors we have to talk to the families because without their consent women usually can say no to having babies. no wonder then pakistanis produce more babies than any other country in south asia except of ghana stan millions of these children will never go to school they will be malnourished because their parents can't afford a decent meal for their large families boys may have a better chance of survival but girls will most likely face a bleak future. the question is where good to sleep pakistan a nuclear armed country lagging way behind its neighbors in human development to find out i have come to meet the men of disapproval community at this village me. i

think people see benefit in family planning but this is a fear of a backlash from islamic clerics is the major obstacles. this is a law has promised that he will provide food for the rich. they say that family planning is a sin and who are you to interfere. but then we try to explain to them that it is not against their religion or why would other muslim countries promote control but they've already mission me there's no carbonation of conflict that at the top in my time here is a doctor i have never seen a family planning official visit the sickly unless your investment community has a government plan for. community or hung. it's true that decades of militarism and corruption has taken a big toll on pakistan's social development but it now seems the biggest long term threat to the country may not be external but could come from its unchecked population growth. at this point if you've managed to keep track

hong kong has had its 21st straight weekend of anti-government protests police made more arrests and lobbed tear gas canisters at crowds and once again protesters flung molotov cocktails clashes took place in pockets around the city it doesn't look like either side moved the needle much crowds did turn out but in fewer numbers not like the hundreds of thousands even millions of protesters we've seen in the past so is the movement losing momentum. joining us is journalist holmes chan of hong kong free press who have some answers holmes weekend after weekend we've seen the protesters demanding things here the hear the things they demand they want to make sure that there's an independent investigation into police brutality they want to make sure that the protests themselves are not labeled riots and they want to make sure that protesters detained are lego they also of course want the leader of hong kong kerry land to step down paving the way for universal

suffrage you were there this weekend are we seeing any progress. so over this past. cycle of protests again which started with street marches which escalates into clashes between protesters and police so we are at the stage where it's almost at a deadlock gridlock between 2 factions neither of which want to back down and we saw police have even stepped up their law enforcement tactics for example targeting rallies the 4 that you know. and this has led to a large number of arrests over 200 arrests in the past week so the stance of the government so far seems to be they are unwilling to back down and they have given all the concessions that a cat is what they're saying earlier this month has been announced that the extradition bill hasn't formally was drawn that is one out of 5 of the core demands

of the protesters but since the other things involve a democratic form for example the government has shown no sign at all that it's willing to even listen to the protesters or even having changes incremental changes on that front now we also are reading reports that journalists have been targeted this weekend tell us more. in fact it is not the 1st time. that it journalists there have been very blatant cases of police direction pepper spray or gas or even water cannons at journalists or it clearly they're wearing for example that receptive dress they're showing their credentials but nevertheless they get treated this way one recent complication is that hong kong passed an emergency law to ban the use of masts which that would also include gas masks or respirators so that people can breathe and remain unaffected. now the government has promised that journalists should be able to wear gas masks when they're doing their jobs but over

this past week there are some incidents of police officers pulling off the mast from the face of journalists despite that they are journalists and they're in an environment where there is tear gas so that has less to condemnation by 3 of the largest press organizations in hong kong saying that this has proved troubling information about press freedom. now holmes tell us what's on the horizon i understand the next few weeks there will be local elections is that what people are focused on right now. well the local elections are for the district council so a relatively community level election it is not a major decision making party or doesn't have a lot of political power nevertheless the pro-democracy side is expected to have large gains next election partly due to how the cope agencies have lost favor with the public now there has been

a lot of doubt as to whether there are all of the patients affecting these protests elections especially because there are pro-democracy candidates was half interest in previous elections now so far we haven't seen that yet and most of the candidates even those who have very progressive views they seem to have entered into the race ok however the only remaining case. as most viewers probably know joshua long as one of the most prominent pro-democracy activists and for his temper pains so far has not been has not been given the green light. holmes can thank you thank you. there's a major problem piling up in indonesia plastic waste at the moment the country is 2nd only to china when it comes to dumping plastic trash into the world's oceans and it ends up in rivers as well 4 of indonesia's rivers are among the 20 most

polluted in the world many indonesians don't understand how damaging plastic waste can be for the environment now a group of performers is trying to change that. that's a traditional indonesian puppet show but not quite the puppets used in this performance but made entirely out of trash and the puppet tears at school children 11 year old yuan is one of them the show he and his friends are putting on is full of heroes and villains the baddie in this play plastic pollution burn let's call it is very helpful because it teaches us how we can reduce plastic waste at home and in the environment. the puppet tears have traveled to the capital jakarta from their home on the island of lombok their performance is meant to encourage the young audience to take action and make personal changes to help limit

the trail of trash. talk about the ticket the small items of trash can pile up and become a much bigger problem therefore we encourage people to resolve race problems in their own homes you know one of the ways is by turning waste into puppets. indonesia has been struggling to cope with the waste it produces much of which goes into landfill sites for the young pup it is there a treasure trove. they collect and sort through the waste in the neighborhood and then assemble and paint the puppets. thing. for the economy the scope of the lawyer for us at sa sockpuppet your school this is fun and we hope this can benefit many people and have an impact on our environment and the world's environment and glenn lead the media. 7 in

a country with a strong tradition of puppet theater it's a unique an effective way to get their message across reduce your waste or try to recycle it in the creative way. that's our show for today you can find more on our website e.w. dot com forward slash asia and on facebook and twitter as well please tell us what you think about what we cover and what you like to see we leave you with a look at the bali celebrations in india and pakistan. might see it here but as predicted there was a pollution hangover from the fireworks air quality in several cities has taken a nosedive thanks for watching see you next time a good buy. nico

is in germany to learn german. published in the. why not learn with him online on the mobile and free to suffer from. entering course nikos fic.

instead of. booking travel now i'm a retired. a warning from the i.m.f. to much of the middle east reform your economy street restore stability the protests keep growing demonstrators demand accountability from their governments in both lebanon and iraq. invasion banking great h.s.b.c. warns of further financial headwinds saying its profit outlook for next year isn't

looking great. and the lobsters caught in a train to war cata cashes in on a business their american rivals filled with china as trump towers backfilled leaving us fisherman empty handed. and going to school and let's do business a message to failed states and the authoritarian international monetary fund says unemployment and slow economic growth is fueling growing unrest in the arab states the i.m.f. says middle eastern and central asian economies will need to diversify if they are to overcome their problems and the unrest. another morning in lebanon another day of protests monday started with demonstrators blocking main roads into beirut the latest tactic to pressure the government into radical economic changes they accuse ministers of burning through public money for personal gain while hitting ordinary people with ludicrous new taxes.