if slavery i think we will truly be making progress when we all accept the history of slavery as all of our history. our documentary series slavery routes starts march 10th on w. . you're watching the daily news asia coming up on the program more bad news for hong kong from beijing the leadership has announced it will go forward on what it calls electoral reforms for the territory in what many hong kong are seen as more authoritarian overreach. and the death of south korea's 1st transgender soldier throws a spotlight on the losing battle for septimus in a deeply conservative country. plus it's not cool to precious gems these dealers are after they search the afghan back country for another kind of treasure that's

now in short supply. i'm melissa chan welcome to news asia what was anticipated has been confirmed at china's annual national people's congress beijing will require that anyone running in future hong kong elections be patriots and by that it's not loyalty to country but loyalty to one political party the chinese communist party wait for this reason necessary measures must be taken to improve the election system of the hong kong special administrative region eliminate hidden dangers and risks in the system and mechanism and ensure that patriots are the main body of hong kong people administering hong kong. in hong kong that process has already begun most recently with 47 pro-democracy politicians and activists detained on trumped up charges of

state subversion simply for holding primaries during last year's local elections. the families collapsed and i too remember hearing as 47 opposition figures probably meant it in custody. and unprecedented scene thursday in hong kong many are you action hopefuls other pro-democracy cam targeted under the national security law because they took part in an unofficial primary last year. this is not the only bombshell to hit in recent days beijing is over the whole idea of his most democratic city to only. patriots to run for public office. also be given to a committee controlled by beijing to. kerry low and opposition district councillor bettis probation protests are in 2019 has come 1000090 percent

of the seats and had hoped to sustain the protest movement but now he says running for elections is no longer an option for him. you know russian could be balder in the past. we have to screen the words on our posters. politicians are more anxious and fearful no one would have imagined that today we're not just facing disqualification but also life imprisonment because of our belief. that this or council is to only for democracy in hong kong this was nearly 10 percent of the seats in the legislature and a comedy death picks to deceive executives patients plus what up and are that whole call authorities also plan to require are there are counselors to patch loyalty to the mainland that were disqualified elected officials like there was among those

detained he forced his hokkien invite before the hearing. it's a wide ranging revenge on all hong kong people and the pro-democracy camp extensive repression one as this is where we stand at the moment do we necessarily have to surrender i hope everyone has the same answer as me no. even before these reforms become reality opposition politicians have routinely been hindered in their work carry law is following a lawsuit against the authority which withheld his allowance because his office was one of the polling stations in last year's primary he said that this is just a tea party iceberg. the authority to change the electoral rules to ensure their victory and marginalized us. even if we cannot win many seats we should still strive for. every single chance to fight for resources and positions to speak going

to live and serve the community michael. holmes democratic opposition is prepared to have the up close and the kerry low and others are not about to throw in the towel. joining us is activist and pro democrat nathan la now in london these days nathan there's no other recourse is there a creative way for these politicians to represent the people of hong kong now. well for now i think of the result also post by the beijing government. the home the whole electoral see some. back up banks that have become much more. all too graphic that they're one. of the very 1st election after the hangover so this is surely worrying. now we're in the middle of a global pandemic but do you think given all that's happened to hong kong we'll

ever see mass protests in the streets again. but definitely i think there's just of psychos in your movement and no matter how severe the suppression is there will always be open since you for these are coming out in march again it's just about the right timing zone right within a day so for me i have my face on calm people it's just the time that we have to stick together and try to well go through this very difficult time. what worries you the most that beijing hasn't but might and can do to hong kong what i think most of our. worst worries have become reality they are implementing the national security law which have already quashed our freedom of speech and. many other freedoms and also they are reforming the elections so that only the the so-called patriots that the polity allow recognized can be

allowed to be involved in an election so these are worst scenarios and we have to believe facing it and of course here in the u.k. what are you focused on and working on these days from london. i think it's always important for us to go on a more international support and china and hong kong people as a message to the world expression under the national security law if you are in hong kong and you can that interviews to foreign media is that criticize the beijing government or proposing any policies that the well could hold them accountable then you also need to to the national security will and you may law in joe for months or years or 30 years so for me i need to do in that sports and child try to speak up for home people talk to demolish that are genuinely representing them but their law allowed to do so in on call nathan law thank you so much for

joining us thank you so much there's been an outpouring of anger and calls for legal reforms in south korea this week after the country's 1st transgender soldier was found dead in her apartment he was discharged from the military last year after undergoing gender reassignment surgery her death is being treated as suicide. being in the military had been buna shoes soused childhood dream but the staff sergeant was kicked out of the army after her gender reassignment surgery south korea remains deeply conservative about sexual identity and l g b t rights many gay and transgender koreans have to live under the radar. i think that is a fact that we don't have anti discrimination laws in place here that's deeply unfortunate members of sexual minorities

a south korean citizens to. be an had gender reassignment surgery she hoped the military would acknowledge the change that the removal of her male genitals was classified as a mental or physical handicapped and she was discharged. that's when she waived her anonymity and pleaded to be allowed to say. it was found in her home this week in a suspected suicide. i think she let us know the realities of life the sexual minorities here. the fact that she spoke out in order to protect herself and yet she had to leave a flight this. illustrated the reality on the ground in south korea. is. the military's response it wasn't in a position to say anything about the death of

a civilian but after an outpouring of anger on social media official condolences were quickly offered and death was labeled as unfortunate. afghanistan's rug hunters are increasingly rare as rare as the antique hand woven carpets they seek they weather blizzards beatings from armed. and fighting with insurgents in their quest to track down the last of afghanistan's antique rugs rugs that can fetch thousands on the international market. be true a lot of them will sort of. shari i like a liz an afghan rug hunter to find the hand-woven antique treasures for sale in his karpal show but even he spends weeks sometimes months on horseback with donkeys in turn deep in the jacket badlands of northern afghanistan it's a perilous way of making a living circle more of the buddha or john would both like it was during the war

all the main roads were blocked. so we had to take the carpets we took them off the truck and then we had to reload them on to the wagon. pretty good the at one point way up the mountain we had to take the carpets onto our shoulders and then we crossed the mountain that way on foot. was that there should be going around to bury her if you can deal with. afghanistan's carpet belt stretches west from northern province along those beckon turkmenistan the borders and down across the frontier with iran the most sought after carpets are often decades old woven from hand spun wool made with dyes concocted from roots herb's and flower petals once dowry gifts these rugs are brought back to be washed and then dried outside so the

sun can bring out that color as a single carpet can fetch thousands of dollars on the international market efficient earns a place in the showrooms of premier drug dealers but finding the genuine articles amongst the fakes and cheap imitations is more difficult now than ever the amount of all tribal carpets from afghanistan have just vanished they're now dead we used to get around 10 to 15 years ago is not the same amount that we get now i may be around 10 person or move you in 10 percent maybe 5 per cent of the real treasures of off on carpet is a renewable decades of conflict displacement and urbanization have all taken their toll the market has now flooded with cheaper rugs that can be produced on us and afghans rug hunters say their trade has changed forever.

we leave you with pictures from a farmers protest in india saturday will mark a 100 days of demonstrations against new laws liberalizing agricultural markets this one blocks a long stretch of highway leading to the capital delhi thanks for watching have a good weekend and goodbye. 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 nineteen's. on t w. flora. culture. hair.

super food. lifestyle. patients on ventilators. overwhelmed doctors. face masks knockdowns. army trucks taking away the bodies of coded 9000 victims and new infections and deaths reported to every day. until march 2020 vs where images only see. in

china where the virus felt far away but in the blink of an eye it had hit northern italy and spread to the whole of europe. in a matter of weeks a worldwide pandemic would be declared and our lives would never be the same. welcome to our coverage not one special auntie w. i'm going to get jones in berlin and i vividly remember sitting here in the studio last year reporting on the horus in the italian region of lombardy little did we know that 19 would soon dominate all our lives and still does. america may once again look like a quiet northern italian city. but it was here that the pandemic gained its foothold in europe. it was the 1st place where the horrors of covert 19 were felt outside of china emergency stations were transformed into intensive care units and

not all patients could be treated cemeteries were overflowing and military trucks had to transport coffins out of the city the pope john the 23rd hospital was at the center of the outbreak. today the number of coronavirus patients is a small fraction of a year ago. the director of the emergency station suspects that barrack a most residents have developed a form of herd immunity to the virus. many of the people who had antibodies in their blood last march were tested again in december and they still had antibodies in their blood 8 months later of those people hardly anyone was infected again. after the 1st wave the city's health officials ordered extensive blood tests showed who had already been infected more than 40 percent of those tested had antibodies against covert 19 perhaps explaining why significantly fewer people were infected during the 2nd wave in late 2020 but

now another problem has officials concerned. i think we may have survived the worst of it but it's far from over we have to look carefully at the mutations that are spreading because they could completely change the virus and the situation here. the outbreak left even survivors traumatized and it wiped out nearly an entire generation of seniors among them stefano grandfather. there's a saying that fits this tragedy very well every time an old man dies it's like a library was burned down we saw a lot of libraries burned here it's a huge wound that will never heal. he said to look down and back i'm ok much too late to save those like his grandfather. he founded an organization to seek justice

and take legal action against the public officials he said let it happen 5000 people joined up. but for now fusco says he wants to transform anger into something constructive and one year after the coronavirus catastrophe to make sure that something like that never happens again. and i'm joined now on the line by and because dorothy head of the critical care department in the i.c.u. at cremona hospital in italy criminal court also being a beautiful old town and along with the region that was hit by the pandemic last spring and dr stuart you were right in the thick of it how did you experience that terrible 1st wife last spring. i perfectly can recall exactly the time when we knew that we were facing. because we had been the very 1st one to diagnose with these infection in europe and at that time

it was clear that we were forced to do 3000 which was totally unexpected and nobody in the last. one 'd 100 here here in europe so it was the idea that we have to find a way to defy against a funding the care problem which was really astonishing at the time and you had to make hard choices also something that you probably don't have to do every day. yeah i think that what should be clear that the. disanalogy oh we were forced to to face was it sorta war scenario is sort of mass casualty problem where the diffusion on my schedule of the year when there's a huge disproportion between the number on the action you have to take care to take

care and research sees that you have been able to 1000 was a very difficult very important to. research which means that physicians which means the lakers which means. how to reach. a range and leave. the hospital organizational to meet the think it which was top of the different from the routine that. must have been very tough for me not all your colleagues still on board or did some say this is too much i quit. yeah i promise you that as i mentioned. to cool the situation with a sort of for worst scenario worst situation. what was the sheik what was. he didn't say that peacetime organization was that thoughtfully reverted so.

that the defining. many many hours to be cool and so she's also let me say that. all the main themes for an intense east need. senior class which means a huge need of ice you care so the physician where guided. prayer. bishan with their e critical condition and so nobody nobody say no nobody surrender to the situation if you are asking me walk as being the cause of these choices for sure has been extremely hard so what is the situation now compared to a year ago. let me say that from the organization a perspective of course now we are well prepared and we. we know better

disc angle to pull off but all of these guys on fixing the very beginning these was totally unknown and so that was a nice sure the time now we are more ready and we have a more deeper knowledge about what we have to do and about the what the called we meant the east must come 1st chellaney meantime we have became the core section corben the it between your logic perspective barry close to the 1st wasteful. fortunes the thing that you have to fight so we could be. the longer waiting for the vaccines prodigy. to enjoy the fine and just very briefly if you could utter a wish to politicians what do they need to do now. i think that we have to

poke each other and we have to balance again the actual. research the walkies the now is variable and forecasting very wisely what to do in the next 23 months in order to address our export all right doctor and request r.t. from criminal hospital in italy thank you so much. thank you now one positive side effect of the pandemic more people have been getting a flu jab but there are still reservations towards go with 9000 maxine's and they justified time to ask eric. my elderly and eyes have already survived the infection is vaccination recommended for them. i'm not a doctor and your in-laws need to talk to one about what's recommended for their specific unique medical situation but they can go into that discussion informed

so let's go back over a few fundamentals of this pandemic that are important to keep in mind 1st and foremost the elderly are the group most at risk when they get this disease in some places 4 in 5 of the people who have died from coke at 19 have been over 65 that's why in fact seen rollouts nearly everywhere the elderly are at the top of the distribution list because evidence is now really piling up that back seems really do reduce severe disease hospitalization and death in that group and 2nd in trials older people generally responded very well to approved vaccines and going on 300000000 shots worldwide they're still doing so so the chances that a vaccine will present some kind of danger to their health are vanishingly small

and there's a reason why which is that scenes don't make you sick many people still have to be reminded of that approved vaccines don't contain sars kovi 2 they contain things that fake an infection with it and that can cause side effects as your immune system reacts sometimes even. fairly powerful side effects but but those are signs the vaccine is working and are almost always quite short term the 3rd point i want to make is that health authorities pretty much all recommend everyone get backs unaided when they have the chance even if they have the disease and have recovered because then the vaccine at as a booster can help shore up the immune response even more there might be some instances for example where someone is extremely frail or where there are serious

underlying conditions where doctors might recommend postponing bax an asian but if they were recommending that for my in-laws i'd certainly make them explain why because vaccines saved lives. there williams will be back next week as well colbert not in special thanks for watching.

the world go round because you care about sustainability. because the want to protect the environment like that. to become a winner in that nature and. the women are doing it. to. intimidate to.

cutting through the noise to. where i come from people are known for being tough but fair to your country a lot of people tell it like it it was the fake call of the concrete jungle the melting hottest to me that never sleeps and if there's an energy that makes it feel like old but amid the high. so it's important to listen and pay attention because it's not just the loudest voices who need to be heard we all have a story to tell i see it as my job as a journalist to go beyond the obvious now i'm basing your on my work takes you around the world might get things from a mistake to tell the important stories behind the headlines what is the heart of the story why does it matter who lived impact come stay focused if you want to cause us to cut through the noise to get to the truth my neighbors are telling and i want you to death to.

do nearly all. of the morning. i cannot sleep because you know was losing a loved one. in those polls swollen. lose most goods lose. there's no use in the low blood for the workers. goes oh no you were using the world for the good. old tomb slew. of her closely. her killer loose.

there's a steely news line from berlin pope francis arrives for the 1st papal visit to iraq the pontiff is urging dwindling numbers of iraqi christians to stay put and help rebuild after years of war and persecution also coming up. china shit its focus from the find against the coronavirus to longer term economic goals .