to the. documentary. you're watching news asia coming up today what does the future hold for afghanistan as the government and the taliban work to conclude a peace deal ordinary afghan citizens face apprehension about just what they will and will not be able to do moving forward without retribution from violent conservatives. plus migratory birds travelling to the kashmir region faced a food shortage because of a climate emergency. and the menu that might leave you hungry or after the meal

then before thailand explores canada's cuisine and what that might mean for its tourism industry post pandemic. i'm melissa chan welcome to news asia talks in afghanistan between the government and the taliban are expected to wrap up this year but whatever the deal they hammer out will provide a little certainty when it comes to the question of just how much life will change for ordinary afghans many people particularly those living in cities worry about a return to more conservative society one that harshly punishes individual and free expression. today carry live fuller is fulfilling a wish he wants to add some new ink to his collection of tattoo artist sakhi south

that is happy to oblige he and his client share a passion that's unusual in afghanistan they love tattoos the qur'an forbids them so that is one of only a handful of tattoo artist in the country to have a studio. i've been running this tattoo studio for almost 6 years now so i have lots of clients unfortunately every day their own will. most of the cost i'm as a young man some have spent time abroad others it is drawn to western lifestyle and fashion trends. drawn out of the one i saw that kids were tattooing on their arms i was impressed so i came here to get my own. in much of the world tattoos are a popular fashion statement but in afghanistan many consider the trend subversive siddhant has installed surveillance cameras at the entrance to the studio and his

clients know the risks that taking. radical islamists could attack the studio at any time. i worry the taliban will come back in the same ugly and violent way as before then it'll be impossible to run my shop it worries me that probably come with smiling faces and open arms and because they're afghans i have to accept them. which reduce your. carbon has seen a resurgence of attacks this year. the streets look peaceful but it's not always peaceful here. in january 2 female judges were shot dead on their way to court targets include journalists government workers and human rights activists especially if they're women. miller maddi preaches one

of couple's mosques he says the rising violence shows the government is on its last legs and will soon crumble for him a return of the taliban is the only way forward. we have to tell the truth and say that actually the security situation was very good in kabul during the taliban era. they were very successful in terms of security there was no theft all murder throughout the country and especially not in kabul that. the mother longs for a return to a society based on strict islamic law when many acts like tattooing the body are forbidden. for the miller sakhi sadat studio is a scene and an expression of the west's devastating influence he says that implements is why afghanistan is so violent now not everyone agrees for some like

look fuller tattoo simply expresses freedom. joining us as journalist allie latif in kabul ali give us a sense of how uncertain things feel in the city it's a big city so if an attack happens in one place for people in the rest of the city life goes on and we just saw some pretty normal street shots of pedestrians and cars. that's the reality of it is that you a lot of times unless you're really paying attention if something happened on one side of the city you might not know but but the issue is that you know everyone you know like you have to go to the story have to go to work you have to go to school and that's really the fear is that it may not necessarily be where you are but you may have a friend you may have a relative that goes in that direction and that's what usually ends up happening is whenever these attacks take place no matter who claims responsibility for even if

they say you know our target is not civilians and it's the civilians that get killed and injured because they happen to be in public live there purposely in public places they're on roads their own streets they're front of hospitals there are government buildings and in all of these areas people are passing by all the time so that's really the fear is that you know it could happen to you any time and right there especially now that we have things like i d's and sticky bombs now the attacks in kabul and other parts of the country have targeted people with education such as civil servants teachers lawyers members of civil society do you worry about your own personal safety as a journalist. i mean i i often yeah i mean you can't you know even the issue is this is that even if i'm not targeted as a person right if i don't believe that someone would want to attack me personally

the actual fact of the matter is that i could be driving down a road where there's an i.e.d. you know i could be walking on the street in iraq it could fall and that's really the level of uncertainty that now used to be when we went to the provinces that we would be scared of things like sticky part not so much that you don't believe i or we would be afraid of rockets or really great of fighting on the street but now it's everywhere now in terms of the way forward where does all of this put us with the new biden ministration in the u.s. in these so-called peace talks between the taliban and the afghan government. again the way forward is still not clear and you know if you talk to people they all say we want peace you know whatever will bring peace whatever will make it so that we can feel safe walking down the streets make that happen and the government if you talk to people who government they just want to answer they want to know you know are they spending and if they're staying for how long you know what number and if they're leaving when are they leaving they just want

a clear answer because the more precise the answer is the more jackson it is the more they can plan for themselves and figure out what they should do going forward . always a pleasure to talk to you thank you. every year hundreds of thousands of birds migrate to a nature reserve in indian controlled kashmir the birds usually breed and spend their winter there but this year they're struggling to find food because of extreme weather conditions. they come from all over the world geese malard ducks cormorants and other species arriving kashmir from a far away siberia northern europe in central asia the hokus are wetland reserve is their winter home the place they come to feed and breed but this year local wildlife experts say the birds are facing a challenge. the weather is extremely harsh and though that is

normal for this time of year this year it's too harsh and since in these times it's become difficult for the birds divined have moved on their own or we started artificial feeding in the form of paddy grains in the form of. the unusually cold temperatures of course large areas of the wetlands to freeze over meaning the birds are unable to find food and would die if the locals did not take action so now they've begun spreading grain on the water to help the birds survive . or. we work really hard to take care of the birds as these days because our freezes we break ice and make a feeding pool we spread the grain and try our best to prevent these birds from starving if you want to go there you go. but it's not just the weather and the

changing climate that's causing problems for the birds they're also being robbed of their traditional nesting areas by urban development and critics say a lack of government action on environmental issues. studies also show that in the last 50 years the wetlands have shrunk in size by more than a 3rd making life even more difficult for the birds and their survival. in thailand hospital giving diners peace and comfort that the prescription the amount of marijuana is safe and effective. this dish arriving at the table is the joyfully dancing salad it may have been preceded by happily sipping a pork soup and followed by happy heart pork fried leaf good moods are clearly on the menu in this restaurant in a thai hospital's traditional medicine and wellness wing and they all include a touch of a certain herbal ingredient. i've never taken cannabis before it feels

weird but delicious. is the mom our can improve more and also create the ripple admittedly it's early days and the hospital and restaurant will continue research on the effects of their offerings. many of which originate at this government approved plantation thailand became the 1st southeast asian country to legalize cannabis in 2018 but it was only last month that most parts of the weed were removed from the kingdom's narcotics list that means licensed providers hospital restaurants for example can use its leaves and stems in food and drinks. like say the friends really happy which you might enjoy with giggling bread for safety's sake certain groups like pregnant women and those under $25.00 are advised against partaking also dosage levels are low with cannabis quantities listed for

each dish still diners notice something. that i think is an alternative food my review on the effects is that it makes my throat dry and i crave sweets so did you know i'm not feeling different but it feels good. being 1st brings dividends and this restaurant has gradually gaining a following with a concept the government too is following closely it sees cannabis infused food and drink as opposed lockdown means of drawing more tourists interested in trying alternative forms of herbal medicine. that's it for today there's heloise more on our website d.w. dot com for that slash asia we leave you with pictures of a women's dance troop in vietnam delta as they gear up for a lunar new year celebrations thanks for watching we'll see you tomorrow and good bye. to.

the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and context around a virus update. on t.w. . by calling me old and games did you know that the 17th through the end of the killed worldwide so that we can include but it's not

just the animals little suffering it's the environment meanwhile the uninsured to find ways out of the meat machine if you want to know how old one cliff to the priests and the culture has changed as we think is listen to our podcast on the green since. he was a symbol of courage and resilience and now he's the latest publicly known casualty of this pandemic captain tom moore a world war 2 veteran who collected millions of pounds to support the british helps the. actor in its fight against covert 19 now sir thomas the come to the virus himself and britons are bidding him farewell. but most cope with 9000 deaths happen in obscurity far away from the public eye and often without

a proper send off. more than 2200000 people have died from the corona virus worldwide so far some countries even have to create new space where the graves of many cemeteries are like assembly lines of wakes and funerals. that can damage has made one of the most traumatic experiences in a person's life even harder to cope with. welcome to our coverage and in special want to get germs and i have to say those images are hard to bear but that's the reality millions are living with since the start of this pandemic the death toll is overwhelming also for those whose job it is to give the deceased a dignified sendoff. there

should be a moment of prayer but there is no time for that there are simply too many coffins too many bodies arriving at the dubai owned crematorium in saxony. and some days there are more bodies than we can actually cremate on a single day or this is when us for our employees also because there is no end in sight. you know if. we are standing in the morning hall of our crematorium. it usually accommodates 90 people for the funeral services. unfortunately we had to convert the hall into a storage space because we could no longer keep up with the death conflict if the elephant. it's a difficult situation for us. because relatives can usually say goodbye to their

loved ones here. but at the moment that's not possible because this move leaves. no room for a funeral service not all of the coffins represent deaths from the coronavirus but many of them are marked so. these people had to end their lives without a final hug from their loved ones luke spanish cares for the bereaved he is a pastor and. family sometimes only realize how dangerous the coronavirus can be once they've lost a loved one to it. when the liberal me and i have contact with families who have lost a relative because of covert 19 to score and they are in a state of shock and reconsidering things this 1st phase of mourning the so-called shock phase lasts longer for that because something inexplicable something in comprehensible has been added namely this pandemic plan to me. the

pandemic is far from over. many more cremations will be carried out here get a hold is worried about the future. the. assuming that the number of infections remains high it follows that the number of deaths will too if the other food is in fact 2 and so on and that means we won't see any relief here until mid february at the earliest of the kind and finals and. it is a winter of mourning in durban as it is in many places in the world during the pandemic. tossed in the bank is a fine attala just at the university of paseo which means that he engages in the academic study of death and dying and he joins us now good to have you with us now people die all the time we all know that but is losing a loved one now during this pandemic heart of the normally or is that just our

perception what i think gets hard all the time doesn't really matter what the circumstances are if you lose a lot one your you deal with different things than just the cause of death i mean of course it's tragic to have a pandemic and so many people die it's the sheer mass that. really makes us feel uncomfortable when reading the news but for their families for the bereaved ones i don't think it really matters so much but i made the difficult part of mourning and i know that from personal experience is the part of letting go and that is usually helped by rituals and ceremonies that count to take place now how can we compensate for that to help us get closure. well that's true the problem is that the pin emic has some effects on all those rituals you can still have rituals of course but you cannot have the additional way of letting go in in a burial for instance and you cannot talk to the funeral directors in the way that

you could do before corona struck us and people nowadays tend to individualize their morning more than they did decades ago so for some not much change because they say if i lose the last one i will treat this problem in my very personal unknown way so i don't meet those collective rituals that's the one perspective but the other perspective is people say i need the usual the traditional surrounding i need to traditional rituals i need a. you know i need a way to let go that is that has traditional bones with everything that i've learned from my childhood on how we treat the dead and those people are really desperate because they cannot have what they are used to or what they expect from. letting go and losing someone they love i joked i talked to some people who said i

wanted to go to the funeral director and all i got was an e-mail link and i should do everything online and type in what my my wishes i know one was willing to talk to me in person and i just have to pay then and just do it on a written basis and for them it was really terrible right i mean and i need something to death death and extremely personal experience as pleasant as it can get if we 10 sites let's talk about those on the other side i mean how important is it for a dying person to have family or friends around because this is something that a lot of those who are left behind really grapple with. yeah that's true most people that die and i consciously know i am dying for instance in a hospice or maybe off cancer or something like that and most people want with them definitely their friends death partners the children that's the usually very small minority say no i don't want them with me because i don't want to you know give

them an impression of a person dying and having these these pictures in their minds forever that this is a minority most people feel more comfortable and to to the pandemic this is not or not as much possible as it used to be in the 1st round and in the spring of 2020. deadlocked on even on those hospices people were not allowed to only one person was allowed to attend to recent someone this is now changed in many parts of germany at least but still it's far from being perfect because you know if you want to see someone who's about to die you don't really it's not the 1st thing on your mind is the hygenic elements of it or the roots that come with it you just want to be that this person is an emotional mental and emotional matters and not really cannot be compensated by rational measures and i tossed in banco that. just at the university

off pasta. somebody who really studied death and everything related to that thank you so much for sharing your insights with us. of course to prevent as many call the 9000 deaths as possible we tend to have vaccines but the virus is not making it easy time for your questions now and correspondence derek williams. wouldn't modifying vaccines due to new variants be a huge undertaking. modifying vaccines would be a lot easier and faster in some ways than you might think but it would still be a pretty big deal most of the vaccines approved so far work by getting your cells to create viral proteins so basically the shot you're getting contains genetic blueprints for example in the form of messenger r.n.a.

which instructs your cells to make the spike protein that dots the outside of sars coby to those proteins provoke your immune system to recognise the virus without ever being exposed to it when the spike protein changes due to mutation making a new variant more transmissible for instance then in theory we can quickly figure out what's causing the changes at the genetic level and just update the blueprint in our vaccines to tell the body to start making a variant spites in addition to the original ones so it's not all that complicated theoretically but but the reality of changing back seem production processes even a little would pose some pretty major challenges i think and makers are facing enough of those at the moment already then there's the question of the kind of trials that updated vaccines would have to go through to be considered safe and

effective would manufacturers have to start from square one again no probably not but but altered vaccines would certainly have to go through. some testings so so changes would take months to implement fortunately we have some experience with this overall situation flu vaccines have to be updated regularly to remain effective so at least there is a framework in place that help guide healthcare authorities. back to captain tom moore he may be gone but his legacy lives on the super fundraiser has inspired 11 year old football image and power point hydel she is using her skill at q.p.r. piece the tricky art of keeping the ball in the air without letting it touch the ground to raise thousands of pounds for key workers and she's also inspired others

to use their soccer skills for a good cause. my shortly before he died captain tong said efforts a world tour and we want to leave you with that thought that's all for this edition of the 19th stay safe.

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a country's economy grow harmony with its people. when there are doers who look at the bigger picture india a country that faces many challenges and whose people are striving to create a sustainable future clever projects from europe and india equal to. the d.w.p. . innocent company pushed muslims are sold out in the uk right now climate change means different hospital story. faces much less the way phone just one week. how much work can really get. we still have time to ask i'm going. to success. that subscribes like this. it's about

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