and they share private footage with us there's never been seen before. bactrim movie starts of people 26 on w. . 66. you're watching news asia coming up today the results of may your all elections in south korea may be a harbinger of a conservative swing in the country though it's too early to say we take a closer look and see what this means for regional security and stability. plus reports a damning record of coby cases as they face a deadly 2nd wave of the pandemic can the country cope.

i'm melissa chan thank you for joining us south korea's 2 biggest cities and seoul have held their mayoral elections and the results show a conservative sweep this could mean trouble for president progressive democratic party particularly with presidential elections taking place in just under a year frank smith reports the election of new mayors for their capital city saw all here in the port city of busan might not seem that important because after all they're just by elections and the numers only hold office for a vote 14 months but they are indicative of a broader sea change in so crean politics if we go back just a year the democratic party $180.00 out of 300 seats at the country's national assembly and then of course yesterday they took a trouncing the question is how is. fluent chill will this result be in terms

of next year's presidential elections to take place in a boat 11 months are we going to see the conservatives hold on to a favorable public sentiment if we do then we're going to see some very different policies out of south korea even in terms of international affairs with a much harsher hardline policy likely toward north korea and perhaps closer alliance with the united states. joining us is do young kim and so with the center for a new american security do we on tell us a little bit more about what it means for security in the region whether a conservative or progressive party is in power in south korea thanks for so much for having me you know it will be a delicate dance for the u.s. and south korea in the remainder of this year because the current president the current progressive south korean president has about

a year left because they are already yet odds on exactly how to achieve the shit shared objectives on north korea now we can expect they will try to work together but i would not be surprised if they experience some tension along the way you know it's too early to predict what happens next year in south korea's presidential election but if a conservative candidate is elected we can expect the eye of the allies to be closely aligned in dealing with china north korea but if a progressive wins again then we can expect some discord and and some tension in the alliance when they're trying to deal with north korea and china and our north korea the associated press just quoted kim jong un of knowledge ing the country is facing its quote worst ever situation and we know north korea also withdrew from the tokyo games and it's closed its borders ever since the start of covert a year ago what's going on. you know i think their withdrawal from

the tokyo olympics i think it's another indicator that it's north korea sees the virus as the biggest threat to its survival more than what they call a u.s. a hostile u.s. policy now they have isolated themselves basically closing their border with china by ending nearly all trade with china which is north korea's biggest benefactor so you know we've seen reports that it's overseas north koreans like diplomats are not allowed to return home so i suspect north korea might continue to refuse direct talks with washington out of fear of possibly contract importing the virus now the pandemic has also caused north korea to basically double down on self reliance and decentralization to try to revive their struggling economy rather than continuing with economic reforms that have allowed cause i market activities until

now to remain a source of economic growth now they might go back to even the old barter system but north korea has proven to be very resilient even in the harshest economic times so you know i do not think we should be quick to think of any doomsday scenarios of potential collapse or what now or what not now you know condone their leader he's also apparently trying to mask his country's weakness with exaggerated displays of military strength by holding military parades we saw that earlier this year by advertising nuclear weapons capabilities you know in statements and verbal e. you know he seemingly does not possess and even testing missiles that we've recently seen. do we have a sense of that by the administration's approach to north korea and to the 2 koreas . you know we are still hearing that there they are wrapping up their

policy review but you know so we'll have to wait but according to what we've heard publicly from president biden and secretary of state blinken you know i think the contours or the main principles are already out there and they really are that the by administration is definitely open to diplomacy but they're also interested in types of pressure tools to to try to you know to to elicit north certain behaviors that the international community wants to see to perhaps even the right to impose some costs on some penalties and some violations that north korea might have conducted everyone's always wondering this but should we expect to see more missiles fired by yang anytime soon. you know i think so because north korea always has a military imperative to continue testing they need to test as much as they can to

try to perfect their technology now there's also a political element to this too you know some of their political calculations come when it when it you know in regards to timing of when to test these types of weapons and that's where i think you know sometimes a factor in things like you know big american holidays or big big american events but you know we have seen them just very recently edge test their short range missiles and these are very dangerous missiles these short range missiles can actually start a war or even be used very early on in a war so i think this is where you know the biden ministration you know president biden has said that he will respond to further tests will have to wait and see how he responds and i think you know i think washington will need to impose some type of penalty because all types of missile tests are violations of u.n. security council resolutions and not to mention the threats in south korea and americans living in south korea. the young kim thank you so much for joining us

thank you for having me. india is reporting daily records of new covert cases on thursday it topped more than 126000 with my russia state an epicenter of this new 2nd wave of the pandemic i.c.u. beds are quickly filling up health officials are worried and in some places clinics face vaccine shortages. rolled up and ready for a 2nd shot prime minister narendra modi among a growing number of indians to be fully vaccinated against the corona virus that india has now surpassed the us says the world's fastest vaccinating country with more than 3000000 shots been administered each day and yet the virus is outpacing vaccinations in the country is now well in the midst of a severe 2nd wave the new mutant variant is spreading fast.

views. dispiriting bird you just you might in work of what it is you to some to visit grandma are being served and what they presume is there this surge is going to play in the coming. weeks or months even. to try to stem that surge restrictions have been reintroduced in many states the capital delhi just the latest to impose a nighttime curfew. and the country is facing an added challenge a vaccine shortage maharashtra state home to the financial hub mumbai has raised alarm bells announcing it may have to hold vaccinations for up to 10 days health officials say they cannot afford to slow pace. there is a stock of $1400000.00 vaccines available in maharashtra and if we vaccinate $500000.00 per day then the stock will last for 3 days i want that immediately this

stock should be increased and more vaccine should be kept. diminishing stocks at a time of surging cases india's coded ordeal looks far from over. we have been here chadri from delhi bureau with us near india is one of the world's biggest vaccine manufacturers how can they be running out. well you did aren't used to it which have been raising concerns or a shortage in that sense at length looting my russia which is the worst now in the country now live with what explicit whiling expressed stress production that means they're not able to manufacture introduce any that means as required now either one out of the sea or up student institute of india which is the largest class in many factor so that you really need to base up on an actor to need to be increasing demands and that still has to do it actually needs. the government to be able to do

so and the other that in many factors also need to base up their production to meet the increase in demand now there are people who are saying that the vaccine to felicity. india is what is going to get us right now which means we are exporting a lot of that scene but the government has denied these claims seeing that gave not exploding that thing that a lot of that are planted by indians but another thing to note is that they want it we saw the king in the cave the number of cases soaring india didn't it's that in export to meet the domestic demand now what impact will this temper a shortage of vaccines have on this new wave of the pandemic well it will definitely leap days 80 raising among people b r barely into the 2nd b. of the pandemic and the floods are saying that the 2nd wave of spreading much faster than the last one and the continuous predominant messages by the governments of the beginning has been that the only way to deal with all of it is kind of cautions and that's a nation now in such a situation when we are going into the 2nd event begin to see the number of cases

beaking and this day if they're the shortage it would definitely be a cause of huge concern. many are chadri thank you so much for joining us. that's it for today you can find more on our web site www dot com for slash asia check out our facebook and twitter as well we leave you with pictures of people including the prime minister all across india getting their coded 19 vaccinations that's as the country keeps breaking records for new corona virus infections thank you for watching we'll see you tomorrow and good bye. to.

the funked up against the corona virus. as the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and contacts the coronavirus up to. 19. w. climate change. soon.

to. be used today. d.w. dot com african american cities for the meeting to give. clues to. the problem in society we have at the moment everyone is afraid of making a mistake what may happen if we don't do any. independent macos changed life as we know it. but what comes next. will a fast paced lives pick up again. will we continue to innovate regardless of the cost. live

lives profit driven. and globally connected. or has this pandemic sparked irreparable change. how will we live in the future after the pandemic. hello and welcome to the 1000 special i'm seen beardsley in berlin well this week we're taking a look ahead at life after the pandemic for what it means for cities to economies and even nutrition a recent study has linked higher obesity rates with higher cova death rates the world obesity federation report says covert death rates were 10 times higher in countries where the population was on average overweight further almost 90 percent of coppa deaths occurred in countries with high obesity rates the report calls for people living with obesity to have priority access to vaccines. i mean while the

pandemic itself has increased hunger and malnutrition around parts of the world take brazil for the 1st time a whopping half of brazilians don't have access to safe and nutritious food that's according to reddy pence on a local food research group lines are swelling by the day at soup kitchens and food distribution points in the country experts say the sharp increase in food insecurity is due to job losses caused by the pandemic. is assistant professor at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine and she joins me from london police it's good to have you on the show what has the pandemic taught us about past choices when it comes to nutrition. has taught us that. that disruption and disruptive events and i like stout do you think changes in the feats that we eat and the choices that we make so michelle data shows that people

certainly have changed my diet and i might do better and less well for some people that improved and i had some for others and many diets wes and what exactly that it did it wasn't because i spend my time at home because it wasn't because other things in a supermarket were grown up but i had more time to. their meals for example we don't exactly know yet but diets have certainly changed do you think that some of those obesity rates we mentioned just previously that that may lead some people to rethink perhaps the way they're eating does it give people time during the pandemic what is it that makes people have a rethink. i think it time i certainly had an issue there and what might be really interesting is to see to kind of isolate that group of people that started eating better started eating more fruits and vegetables and remember this comes in a. system where or in a world where

a very small proportion of people actually adhered to sufficient freedom fashionables and the different guidelines in countries or by the w.h.o. quite a small percentage of hairs to do that and you see that in a pandemic the proportion of people have very much increased. consumption of healthy food such as for eating vegetables and legumes and reduced unhealthy foods whereas others didn't so what would be really important and kind of a lesson that we can take as you. defend damage when going forward in terms of systems and diets but if you check this to see what what are those barriers that were removed by independent meant for these people that led to these improvements of their diets and can we used to learn a little bit of about what sort of leverage points we have in the food system in supermarkets in homes of people in perhaps even their skills on how to cook certain

foods from from scratch that would remove those various for others as well so that they could improve on their diets this one it sounds like you believe that some of these changed habits whether good or bad could stay beyond the pen to make. yes absolutely i think people certainly and again we're talking a little bit more about the group that experienced in him improvement of their diets. might also be once that kind of got a little bit more in touch with. what they're actually doing on a. daily basis so it is less running out of the office going to the supermarket and buy a ready to eat meal and it's more cooking from scratch so you will be more aware naturally how much salt goes in there that's what cetera and and a few more of the unhealthy or don't if it's that we eat too much of it we also say so yes i guess. i just want to say we've also seen during spencer make that food supply itself has changed what is that then for nutrition in terms of getting fresh

food. yeah it's a difference a really important lesson and something that perhaps. some scientists have been warning about for a while but our food system is really quite fragile you see it in the u.k. i'm most familiar with the environment here but south certainly also in other countries and in europe and in fact actually everywhere globally and what we see is that most countries also have. to have stocks for only a few days here very much dependent on other countries once to pour disclosed that they're greedy poses a problem to. the stock supermarkets for example but we also see that disruptions and in this case it was condemning but it could also be a natural disaster of climate change. rest in the southwest of the sourcing problem that we could certainly to all of a sudden products not being available in a supermarket or prices going up and especially in fresh polls we do get them

often from. countries that are phone or full to. disruption and that could ultimately lead for example to increased prices of fruits and vegetables in your supermarkets which naturally them disproportionately affect those that struggle a little bit in buying their daily supermarket was going so the friendship i'm sorry to say that the brig's it also has obviously been changing some of the supply lines as well as what to ask how can we better plan food supply lines when we know what we've known from the pandemic and from bragg's that for example are there any lessons there. yes absolutely i think mapping out where everything is currently coming from how much of that is for example domestically produced what sort of like storage in stocks do we have and are there certain pivotal food groups that are particularly. vulnerable or non brasilia and

in that sense and ways how to inform on to consumers but also to producers. about these vulnerabilities and see how perhaps there are some substitutions to make that to make food systems much more sustainable and make sure that the supply is resilient really quick because it could mean more growing locally for example instead of important stuff yeah absolutely and especially because you know in a more sustainable world we would be looking at improving our. plant based food consumption anyway so. that what we would need to find ways to source these things which gets me locally not to say that trait with. lower income countries or so is a bad thing per se of course daddy peace depend on export which are a global north as well but certainly looking at ways how to minimize dxed inanities

for your health but also what he or i are meant to be something that we can improve upon what to leave it there pauline show big thank you very much london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. over to our science correspondent now with a question that goes straight to the gut. you hear a lot about the micro biome in health what is it and why is it so important. the term micro biome describes the entirety of the microbial community that inhabits an organism like a human it's made up of a huge number of microorganisms even conservative estimates say that there are more microbes living in or on yours then there are cells in your entire body carrying your own d.n.a. but because most microbes are much smaller than body cells if you put every one of

them in your micro biome on a scale it only way a couple of kilos with with most of the microbes coming from the gut the average human is home to over 10000 microbial species many of which play for example vital roles in digestion and over the last half a century scientists have discovered that the make up and the balance of those species in an individual's micro biome plays a fundamental role and helpless and can be linked to to many medical conditions just look for instance at a recent large scale study on aging and the micro biome the authors found that in the elderly reduced populations of common bacterial species in the god were associated with overall better health aging people whose bacterial balance remains

more static over time didn't live as long on average although it's really tough to clarify cause and effect in a system as complex as as the human micro biome links to both health and illness have been established in fields from from allergies. science to cardiovascular disease to to neurological disorders like like almost 5 years it'll take a lot more research though to pen down exactly in what ways it's important to specific health issues but many common diseases might one day soon be treated by tweaking a patient's micro biome. or science expert williams there that's it for our show today thanks for watching as always stay safe and we'll see you again soon.

form. or.

one continent. 700000000 people. with their own personal stories. explored every day life for. what europeans fear and what they hope for. some do so only through. the 90 minutes on d w. parachute drama competition

driver marketing numbers atmosphere by the time intuition. money millionaire fans primes 5 spaniards and funds only. because we love football. to golf on you tube showing us. how does a virus spread. why do we panic and when we'll all be. true just 3 of the topics covered and the weekly radio. if you would like and the information on the coronavirus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at w dot com look forward slash science. leave. again

. live is respect the. peace. to sit down with. me mvm.

in fact. the highly contagious variant.