distributions builders architects come with each other. there's it's called massive churches or. contracts to put its stores. d.w. . you're watching news asia coming out today some of hong kong's top activists and politicians have been found guilty for their role in anti-government protests in 2019 including. the founder of one of the territory's political parties follows the life long activist. plus what to make of the world health organizations investigation into the penn demick so origins china has one take the united states another.

i'm melissa chan thank you for joining us 9 of the most well known and well loved hong kong activists and politicians have been found guilty of organizing and participating in popular protests back in 2000 in 1000 they include 82 year old martin lee one of the key architects of the territory's constitution a defender of civil liberties and the founder of hong kong's 1st pro democracy party media tycoon jimmy lie has also been found guilty along with margaret in a respected former lawmaker the founder of hong kong's labor party chuck young was also found guilty cong caught up with him in the days before his verdict. a small flat in downtown hong kong weather woes only will see young dedicated to that 18 i 10 among krakow is located the military repression in beijing 32 years ago

changed the course of many people in china and hong kong including legion again i was there during the doing for the massacre and i was the pain for 3 days after my review thread to hong kong i crashed and i will spend my life time by people who mock within china. or not be in the very. least again is facing a difference fades critics say and i don't massive track now being carried out by the change this time honest news the liberal and democratic city hong kong in the wake of anti-government protest here an age this which organizing and attending and authorizes and that's really it was over a 1000000 people took part was one of the few without violent questions every one of the defendants a high profile figures apart from media tycoon jimmy and i all are former lawmakers icons of the opposition movement like martin lee lewis know this father of 2 marcus

issue of the charges carries a maximum 5 year jail term there i thought it was this case is just the tip of the iceberg with over $10000.00 others arrested for is the 1st verdict among the 9 charges for which he's on trial beijing's recently to sweep in national 6 years in law and his overhaul of the city's electro system intensify the fear. are going to rise hong kong's tenement mourning a vigil every year calling for an end to china's one party who for decades and that can make him a prime target and beijing security this year he will likely be absent for the very 1st time in this era in a way they're going to go now i would. by saying that this is already something of a blessing for me that i would only have to go to jail after you know 40 years of activism

in hong kong and but i'm ready to pay the price and regulate it something witnessed hong kong's decades long struggle the 64 year old activist is not optimistic but he believes that he success says will continue to fight for democracy and to define the levy's took on. joining us activist sonny chung now in exile in the u.k. these days sonny you fled hong kong last year because of what looked like your imminent arrest now we've seen the verdicts your decision to leave must feel somewhat justified. arbitrated yes it is so bad i left home colmes we already we are large starts at dissipate as their regime lots of arrests political crackdown by day she will not stop the city viciously a real shift us or shipping this really hawkish on home combatant day a reason to pay the price to get on a home call wreak of the canvas of how much how many sentient that will be

implemented by t. international community and that's why many political prisoners are now detained that you hold home and many people also go you're sol and that is fairly simple give us a sense of how important these figures are martin lee jim ely most viewers might not be familiar with their names but what do they mean to hong kong ors. martini actually and many at this they're very senior and old democracy campaign is form at that case actually of course their political fields may have a little bit different with the younger generation however they're still very much well respected by many people and then there and now they are now being arrested and being prosecuted and that's also a very big loss to our civil society because without them with months it's become

much leaderless of course but on the other had we have to assemble all the power and forces that we have and this is getting more difficult without it i want to pivot to what happened earlier this week with beijing overhauling hong kong electoral system what will be the impact of that you ask a very good question i mean we all of surf the national people's congress they make a very huge change or not your natural system and that's change can potentially severely undermined our whole economy and hinder our democratic. in the long run because this is a very packed work with both by the beijing government when they try to can so and try to decrease. seats in the legislative card so that also means beijing want to increase their control over our legislative council and that also

means the one country 2 systems has already fallen and we have no expectation from the one country 2 systems and democracy is not allowed it by the beijing government the senate has done decoration all the promises are now being cut and now being broken by the beijing government and the hong kong as a now you know very dire situation. now you mentioned earlier that you don't think sanctions are working is hong kong 1 last is there no hope i mean of course hong kong we have hope because after this no matter people on the ground or people are excel overseas as far are we are still trying as even as we can to help their democracy and try to repeal the most months for hope home however we also realize that of course the last months you saw very trolloping under the crack down of beijing that's why we have to stay connected and we try to

have to help form the international community a sense today is not effective be the by by by sanctioning we still have to find other ways to contest or try to understeer it's there are it's a question of beijing study chang thank you so much for joining us. the major story out of mainland china this week has been the world health organizations report on the origins of covert 19 a team of w h o n chinese scientists found it was highly likely that the cone of ai is transmitted to humans from bats via a 3rd animal crucially it pretty much ruled out a lab leak beijing has welcomed the findings nothing to see here while the united states and other countries say china restricted access to key data. their mission took them to the woo hand seafood market community centers and the infamous institute of buy religion if you privately for weeks this team of scientists were

trying to uncover the source of the coronavirus pandemic very well with. their report found the virus was highly unlikely to have been leaked from this lab but the head of the w.h.o. said the result was inconclusive. all hypotheses are on the table and water and complete and further to the studies from what i have seen so far. even before the team of scientists said threaten they were doomed to disappoint their investigation plagued by bickering with the u.s. accusing china of seeking to influence the report we were. never pressured to remove a critical element you know or report. despite that more than a dozen countries led by washington calling for an independent inquiry from

influence it lapse crucial data information it lacks access lacks transparency it certainly we don't believe that in our review to date that it meets the moment it meets the impact that this pandemic has had on the global community policing mounting pressure china hit back at its critics. politicizing the search for the origins of the virus is extremely unethical it'll only hinder cooperation and undermine global anti epidemic efforts leading to more lives lost. 2.8000000 lives and counting since this pandemic a marriage delayed 2019 how and why this outbreak happened is still unclear and may always be. we have clifford coonan in the studio formerly a long time correspondent based in beijing clifford it was very interesting to hear what the director general of the day said he's been fairly accommodating of china

what do you make of his new remarks well i think a lot has happened over the past year and i think key to this has been the return of the usa to 2 the w.h.o. . it left under donald trump and the narrative very much switched in china's favor trying to put a lot of pressure on the w.h.o. i think since joe biden brought the usa back into the w.h.o. we've seen a different approach less accommodating of china as you say and as we saw in the report and i think. clearly there's there's a new dynamic at work in the w.h.o. that's very interesting now this lab leak theory a lot of people say it's a conspiracy theory some people will say that the u.s. keeps mentioning it because it wants to weaponize it politicize the issue what do you make of the laptop theory i think the lovely theory has been weaponized i think under donald trump it was used as something to be china with the fact that it was it may have been developed in the lab but increasingly it's looking like something

that could be true and there's no way of knowing that it's not true because 1st of all it took you know this outbreak happened in new holland which is a long way away from you know province which is where the this this kind of outbreak normally would happen we don't know anything more about the animal that may have transmitted to us there's a lot of open questions there's a big wall of silence coming from china so i think it's not it was sort of lumped in with the tin hopper gate early on but i think now it's it's looking like. it's looking like a possibility in the in the absence of anything to confirm otherwise do you think we'll ever find out the origins of coping 1000 i don't think with the current government in china i don't think it's going to be possible i don't think it'll ever be allowed to happen. because there's just too much at stake can you imagine if it was proven that it would have. and in the law the repercussions globally are absolutely enormous there would be reparations kohls china's reputation internationally would be destroyed so i don't think they're ever going to allow that to happen in china i think it's going to be something that. i don't think

we'll ever know the truth hopefully somehow we will be able to find out the truth thank you so much clifford clinton for joining us. and that's the show thank you for watching we're back to miles see you then and good bye. we've got some hope to explore your bucket list. corner. for food. and some great cultural memorials to boot. double trouble for you go. a little guys this is the sub and the 7 besides the platform for this suit to get these issues. i know you know quite.

young people didn't have the solution good few jobs. 77 percent now everything on t.w. no. nominations for this year's brit awards are in with singer duleep but in the running for the reprisals. she's got some stiff competition more on that coming up on arts and culture and a designer debts her dues claudia skoda created. edgy looks for music legends like david bowie and cher now an exhibition highlights her ingenuity. and jewish humorists in germany take on anti semitism.

it's a woman's world at this year's brit awards and that is a big change west year the brits were criticized for nominating only male acts in the best album category this year there are 4 women nominated and the only one male artist. starts out there doing these but is the best known nominee in the running with her album future in astrology. is also. don't. do w. culture reporter my crew goes here for more about this year's brit award nominations michael got 3 nominations this year she already won a grammy for this album is this just going to be the dually push of maybe maybe but they also see 2 other female musicians and with 3 nominations and 1st of all we

have celeste she has won the last in the category rising star and and now she's nominated for best female solo artist full best album and breakthrough artist she's a soul sensation originally from california and now she's british and she has this remarkable voice. down around now. yes she does. she does and she's also a great songwriter has also written songs for a couple of soundtracks and also 3 nominations in the same categories for parks also newcomer from london. very classy. so together was doing these strong woman leading the race for the awards but it's

some stiff competition ok so that awards are about british music of course but there are also these international categories best international male artist best international female artist who should we watch out for there it's a bit confusing i was a bit surprised at the rw springsteen the me nation because he's the old rock he's from another generation and i don't thing that so many younger ones still know him but he has good chances to win also an award by the way the record labels have a big influence over who gets nominated so of course we have the most successful artists like. taylor swift for example she has just tricked the 1000000000 mark on you tube in just a few months was her latest song ok you as a music lover as a culture journalist just briefly who do you think should weigh should win. is

a very good word for it because i don't thing that she's going to him but i keep my fingers crops crossed for us and she is just special. know what i do full steam it solo artist and her voice is so fine diva obscure but maybe she's just not mainstream enough for to so we're going to have to see the brits are on may 11th my could we go thanks so much thank you. now to a fashion designer elle magazine calls one of the women who defines 20th century style claudia skoda created netware for singers donna summer cher tina turner and david bowie now scored his hometown of berlin is celebrating her with an exhibition of her designs the show's already been postponed twice because of the coronavirus but it's now viewable online and here on t.w. arts and culture. the exhibition dress to thrill celebrates the heady early days of

copious gotos career in the 1970 s. and eighty's. the fashion designer was a key figure in the west berlin underground scene. her work was considered a fun card. does sign of a card is what the other said i never said to myself now i'm going to be out on cards it just happened somehow. or we simply did what we want to. life and berlin was a bit freer back then and you can go about things in a playful way. and. also there. surrounded by the berlin wall and east germany west berlin was a little island of freedom a copy of skoda presented her clothes in an industrial complex and in her loft in a former factory building which she called. a group of creatives who were like a family to her lived and worked there scotus fashion shows were like happenings or

performances with models who danced their way down the runway these recordings give a sense of the energy and mood of those days. even though given the police energy was pushed in part by our status as a kind of island we could move around within a certain framework and then we wanted to really move a lot because there was nothing outside we wanted every. thing to be beautiful and exciting and interesting and also meaningful the daughter and small. david bowie and iggy pop lived in berlin in the mid 1970 s. and of course claudia skoda hung out with the city's creatives attended her runway shows musicians and artists such as martin kept him back he photographed her in a subway station posing with her knitting machine as if it were a guitar. photographer jim had kato also took

portraits of her the other photos in the exhibition are almost all by well known artists evidence of scott as excellent connections. that we did things for the sheer pleasure of it because we just wanted to do them and i had support from all of my artist friends my fabric noise family from everyone really but i probably couldn't have done it on my own as little cloudy or whatever it was so i thought i should go. and so she became the great cloud skoda who makes fashion into a work of art i. makes people laugh of course but groups are groups that face oppression that can also be a way to process trauma here in germany a group of jewish cartoonists and humorists are using jokes to cope with discrimination the book is ironically called anti semitism for beginners.

that's art mr goldberg your account is in the red surprising given your surname. you're converting to judaism why we want to become part of the global conspiracy these are some of the satirical cartoons found in miriam hubbard. anti semitism for beginners which pokes fun at anti jewish stereotypes the new york born writer of jewish descent who has german roots came up with the book project at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. immediately old conspiracy theories started circulating like the jews are to blame for the coronavirus that really bothered me. so i told myself i no longer want to get angry i want to laugh about this instead. we are at berlin's jewish look at the tour bookstore books from our yellow publishing house germany's 1st jewish

publisher of children's books are on sale here. founded 11 years ago these days she's also releasing books for adults like the kosher comics. who feel more. jewish humor takes a difficult or a sad situation or what have you. and exaggerates it or adopts a new perspective on it. and that creates a sense of relief. come on in russian jewish novelist by the mere camino has lived in berlin for 30 years his humorous works about everyday life of one of millions of fans he contributed a satirical text hypers times and says humor is perfect for countering anti semitic conspiracy theories in the form of throwing a force that it's

a nice fantasy imagining our planet is not simply circle the sun that someone is actually directing communicating and controlling everything. but i don't think it's the jews. at least not those i know. the bestselling author says the humor in his novels stems from the train tragic scene it's. not really is that of course remaining detached is key. i've always had this detachment from the world given my jewish roots which i never chose. we were always treated like strangers we were always outsiders kind of like living in a guest house golf hall but that i believe has helped me over the years ago out of the you quote from no i'm sorry jokes about jews and jewish humor are not the same thing. and.

since you define a story it's canadian county performing the jews are to blame a satirical song written in 1931 by fleetingly holland mocking the nazis anti semitism. in poland german composer and humorist of jewish descent who was later forced to flee to the us. holland square has been named in his honor. often performs holland she's also contributed a satirical text to me on how the stars and colleges. and deal with whether it's a virus spreading or a runny nose whether it's a failed relief package or a heavy cough whether it's climate change or rising sea levels whether it's a prolonged holiday or wages being cut the jews are to blame the jews are to blame for everything and i'm sure she says humor is the best way to tackle anti semitism well it's wrong because it's so grotesque and absurd that 75 years after the end of

the war we're still asking ourselves have people learned from the past and you feel that no they haven't that's why miriam her book is so fantastic because at the end of the day laughing is the best medicine and it's the best the middle c. and. so miriam had the sham plans to continue publishing books that provide a humorous and lighthearted take on jibberish life. for more arts and culture news check us out at d.f.w. dot com slash culture but for now i'll leave you with some images from spain where traditional perceptions ahead of easter have been canceled now for a 2nd year in a row to the coronavirus now some people in the city of savannah are visiting a holy week exhibition instead.

the phone.

every journey begins with the 1st step and every language the 1st word can call me coaxing germany to learn german. post why not permit him. to suffer it's simple bottom line on your mobile and free. w z learning course because free german made easy. how does a virus spread. why do we panic and when we'll all miss an intruder through the tap and from cover and weekly radio broadcast. if you would like any information on the crown of irish or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you can get your podcast you can also find us at d w dot com look for it slash science in. the

early. hours. but i cannot see the most you know for a reason. in those all osa all over. only as low as loons. is no use no lol lol for the with. dozen. workers in the world her. story. rooms.

this is the the view news live from berlin the united nations warns a full scale civil war could break out in myanmar the u.n. says a blockbuster is imminent as the army ramps up its deadly crackdown on protesters. also coming up india steps up its vaccine rollout.