we'll bring you back on. that have surprised yourself with what is. called training. and what. people. on the way. and critics alike telling us. this is a wus a show coming up today china's power and its links to corruption. is the preferred drink of china's communist party leads to those high level links sidestepped a lot of the facts. focused in the pacific we look at why france wants to be a major player in the region. welcome

to dublin news asia glad you could join us it's the liquor of china's elite and powerful mao thai a famous brand of chinese distil spirit is the preferred drink for high powered communist party officials and features regularly in private gatherings that closeness to the party elite gives the company advantages when it comes to expanding its business interests but is building follows a chinese journalist investigating mao ties alleged violations of the law. normally expose this crime and corruption cases now the investigative journalist is on his way to china's most famous treaty. do you know you can already smell the alcohol here that much over the southern chinese town of multis also the name of the liquor produced here the multi distillery is china's most valuable company with more than the country's biggest back china's political elite is partial to it and

us some of the bottles cost several $100.00 euros you says they are the perfect gift to greeks the wheat the idea of how well your corrupt officials prefer multimeters they only drink the most expensive brands and this alcohol is the most expensive and their love for it lets the prices rise even more. jaguars are to walk down. the lake effect or it takes up large swaths of multi-ton and many more are trying to profit from the big name within sight of the state owned giant is the distillery a family business. customers and people in the industry know that there's a limit to the production capacity of matai that's where we come in the government lets us follow the lead of the multi company and profit from them that brings in some wealth to us people here of what. his company uses the same distilling techniques grain is ferment it in earth it's the pits give it

a pungent aroma minnes and of soy sauce many people outside of china find hard to swallow. the mashes fermented in a dry state during the distillation process steam passes through the mash and releases the. woolen says the liquor mostly to individuals as well as companies they produce special editions for weddings and company and a verse or an. intimate relationship between china's communists and the spicy liquor began in the 1930 s. when communist troops hid in the area from their nationalist and bursaries. after they came to power they turned the factory into a state owned enterprise. so you could provide them with liquor. to buy faggots procreated the factory. and the owner who refused to hand over his business was executed for. these close links to the ready lead have called

whose attention he's been tipped off that mall type also produces in a neighboring town a violation of the rules on geographic origin so he goes to take a look. he finds the company is constructing vast production facilities there. near england and nobody cares what they do here and it's as if the government agencies which should control him don't exist. it's another piece of evidence for the book he is planning to write on china's most valuable company. and for more on this i'm joined now in the studio by clifford good and from beat up to business you spent many years of the china correspondent. welcome you spent i think what 15 years in china during all that time did you develop a taste for. well i drank a lot of us. i don't know if that's entirely thing i do if it's very fair developed

a taste 1st basically mao tie lubricated the wheels of commerce in china as it was opening up all through the 2000 and it was impossible to go anywhere without being facing these bank with these enormous food bank was at the end of which would be. would be vast quantities of mao to be drunk so explain to us this lubrication process explain to us the status of this company joys in china's elite well it's huge it's just it was associated with because i mean it's weddings it's up business banquets it's everywhere it's really very very central to how things are done and so it became a really it became a status symbol because each different variety is priced differently and one time i had a interesting experience a chinese new year with an air force colonel who was a relative of a friend and we were spending chinese new year there and he had a 1500 euro bottle in a squeegee was a squeegee bottle and

a plastic bottle it did not look on its smells like petrol but this was a huge status symbol so it's really really central to the outside of the culture and just for reference i mean 1500 euros is way more than the monthly salary in china isn't it absolutely i think it would have been 3010 times the monthly salary so from one squeegee bottle. to the corruption scandals that have dogged this company well all the way towards the late the latter part of huge in tatters reign in towards the end of 200-2012 when she didn't bring into power it was very much in my enmeshed in the whole corruption scandals that were going on we had tales of codgers who were who were drinking themselves literally to death at banquets who were with gold watches up their arms and it was all these sort of stories which. when she came in one of the things one of the reasons he made himself so popular was a crackdown on this but at the same time it's not just residual effect you know it's this residual popularity it's been able to stay popular it's still got the association with corruption but it's also still so popular and part of the culture

that it's managed to become you know as we see in china as china's biggest company now i want to speak. against corrupt officials and you're quite right this has been around and 132014 when he was cracking down on state banquets which went on for hours on and still continues to be popular is that not a contradiction in terms of what she did because trying to do well i think it's i think a lot of it is cultural just like expensive whisky in in europe or in america is in india indeed it is very you know people like the more expensive stuff but also people. still very popular you know it's i didn't have to be as expensive there's a bit of a face element so i think that's what's kept it going and also so much of what's going on in sort of the private sector in china now is also sort of they're still drinking them out. it's been taken out of that maybe to the state sector and brought into the private sector right we'll leave it there for the time being terrific women thank you so much for joining us in the studio for that.

bilateral relations between india and france are in focus during french foreign minister. 3 day visit to india on tuesday he met to indian foreign minister. both sides are keen to expand cooperation in what's become known as the pacific region cooperation in the maritime domain is an essential part of the relationship as was evident in the recently concluded naval exercise in ruse which so french an indian naval vessels on maneuvers with those from other nations. and joining me now is former indian ambassador to france rockish soon he's got a plea a distinguished fellow at the think tank the observer any such foundation in delhi a masters who would welcome not foreign minister 3 ounce visit is in the wider context of the so called into pacific region what does france expect from india.

france's. i think the 1st of the european countries that has because of its longstanding presence in the bullet's the indian ocean as well as in the pacific because of its overseas territories i'm talking about the french polynesian islands and the new caledonia in this ific and i'm talking of the reunion islands in the western indian ocean therefore france is only is had shared the notion of the in the pacific in the same manner that india is and nol what is happening is that all other european countries have come out with a indo-pacific strategy papers germany and the netherlands citing this concept as something that has quarter on and you which says it is working on in the pacific strategy. paper but at the moment even as we speak so it is quite natural

that the matter of time cooperation reflected in the shared perception of the in the pacific would be a major bilateral cooperation and discussion during foreign minister lizzie holmes visit i'd like to focus a bit on this a matter of time bob the ship that you are fighting to both countries india and france the naval vessels what recently part of the french name an exercise la perouse and they beginning a bilateral exercise better not in about 2 weeks time. what is the component of this is this essentially a security component in the in depressive it been looking at. well what has been taking place for more than 20 us no. it is a bilateral naval exercise between the french and the indian navies and this year.

it is i think we will also have an aircraft carrier group on both sides each participating in the exercise the exercise look at the rules that you just referred to which has taken place earlier this month. is an exercise that in war the 4 coordinations as well as fronts indicating the french willingness and desire to be. relationship with the board as well as you know court is not an alliance because india is not an ally india is not an ally of the united states unlike say japan or australia but that war is a partnership because the full countries share the vision often open and independent gender specific which operates according to rule of law not that is a principle that france also shares with the members of the quarter and hence the exercise look at who's all about that india and france also have

a shared vision of a blue economy because of the long coastline that india has and the coastal communities which are particularly vulnerable at times of climate change and the island communities that france has as i mentioned earlier both in the new notion and in the pacific therefore france is also acutely conscious of the need for sustainable economies you know not 30 seconds left if we could just talk a bit about the bilateral ties between india and france and one of the other areas of this relationship. well france and india have been strategic partners since 1998 other dies of course the economic ties particularly in the field of smart cities high technology in the field of biotechnology in the field of space space cooperation and in the field of counterterrorism and intelligence

sharing these form the pillars of the by that true strategic partnership that has been in existence for trance since 1908 we leave it there for the time ema thank you so much for joining us i'm master rockers speaking from denny thank you so much . website they're back to more of the same types of them for but. we've got some hotel it's for your bucket list. check. out scott for food. and some great cultural memorials to boot. double trouble. finding against the coronavirus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing.

measures are being taken. what does the latest research say. information and context. the coronavirus of the coded. monday to friday on. t.v. is off to fire ravaged not saddam cathedral we find out why efforts to restore one of europe's architectural treasures all shrouded in control of a sea. we look at a new drama film in france as director brings the fight for light to the big screen . and we meet a fashion designer who's are catching outfits are constructed not to flatter but to make you think. welcome to arts

and culture april 29th in the world watched incredulous as not saddam cathedral in paris burned the city's mediæval masterpiece and the place napoleon was crowned it was hard to believe it could be on fire. 2 years on restoration work is underway but efforts to save one of europe's cultural treasures has involved sacrificing some of its natural ones. workers from the national forests office have cut down $1000.00 oak trees there are around 200 years old almost as old as the not heard on tower itself which collapsed in the fire and will be rebuilt with these very tree this the 2 for only will they get a 2nd life and no $2.00 from the beams will last for 20300 years so these trees have a very noble purpose grigory touched by the our supporters. it's a monumental task scaffolding has been erected so that the spire and roof can be

rebuilt and further damage prevented. and then there are the windows in the name of which have been removed germany has offered to finance the restoration of the windows. to do with it some windows will be sent to germany for restoration and the other part of the money raised in germany will secure the restoration of other windows the middle. so franco german cooperation is also taking shape president a man who in my call had set an ambitious timetable for the whole project it's to be completed by 2024 by the time of the un pick the trees mark an important intermediate step towards the school they're failing is the symbolic start of the reconstruction of note. and i'm joined now by my colleague adrian

kennedy welcome i.b.m. now these trees are hundreds of years old being fails to rebuild not saddam not everyone's happy about this are they no 40000 conservationists signed a petition trying to stop the chopping down of these oaks for the restoration but the forestry department says that the trees involved only represent 0 point one percent of an annual harvest that is necessary anyway to provide room for younger trees they say sourcing the wood in france gives them total control over the process the critics though counter that this ward and lead construction is modood that it's a proven fire risk that it's a toxic careerist in case of fire and other reconstructions have been done with concretes ok really but the decision on how not to dom is to be rebuilt has long been made right that's that's why it all went very quick. i think we should go back

and remember the shock of the fire which came at time when france was reeling after a series of terror attacks there was no collective gasp from. when the iconic spire collapsed. macron was very quick to make the restoration a priority on the 1st anniversary he pledged that not done would be restored within 5 years by 2024 there was a period when more exciting innovative ideas were. considered but it was very quickly decided to restore the cathedral faithfully and quite conservative why around a 1000000000 euros was raised for the reconstruction much of it came from super rich donors and some people believe that they had an influence on this conservative decision and approach i see i don't remember the pledge is flooding in. but is the

target date of completion ballistic well the rector of not to dam himself says 15 to 20 years most of the work that's been done so far has been securing the sites it's been stopping for the crap says it's been taking out toxic lead and other substances far from the cutting down of the oaks the physical reconstruction has not really started so critics still feel there is time to sway public opinion and take a different course of action that's good now in the past months i do believe there have been some events inside the cathedral that's why in december there was a very moving concert it was the 1st event. after that since the fire it was lifestream there was no public of course not just because of current virus and the. performance or how to work protective gear it's a good thing to when

a glimmer of hope that adrian and thanks very much for coming in and bringing us up to date on that thank you but we stay with that story because the not saddam fire is also the subject of a documentary series for netflix and a big budget drama from oscar winning director john jack who brought us the name of the rose it tells the story of the 24 desperate hours during which the disaster unfolded. a group of tourists rushing out of a cathedral this scene is not in the french capital but in sounds north central france some 120 kilometers from paris. french filmmaker jacques annoy is making a new feature film about the fire at notre dame in paris using the cathedral of songs as one of the sets the film too for releasing 2022 will combine file footage with acted scenes from it should we see it i said to myself it's incredible it's incredibly spectacular touching the depths of the soul of and then there is this

beauty there is the symbol that's disappearing with the whole world crying 3 days later i was right and you know. he does it illegally to you. inside the cathedral $120.00 extras and actors wait for instructions. be careful the cameras will be close to your faces no one is smiling we are not in for anything funny. they're recreating the last moments at the cathedral 2 years ago before the fire started and the alarms went off. as for the filming location the cathedral in saul's built in 1130 was largely inspired by noted on. the fire is being reenacted in a studio near paris. fashion design of a narrow. house construction projects of her own she builds her creations using objects you wouldn't normally associate with clothing she sees fashion as art and

says hutch ois is all symbolic designs not so make people look good but to make the beholder think twice. and raw fish be a fashion accessory. that's how russian armenian artist veneer of sorrow of a stage is from model at a photo shoot in moscow. the fashion designers unusual combinations have garnered her international acclaim. i have no information and materials and. i can combine the paper with flour with the patients because with me i want to write the diary but for me it's for making a mask. to her masks are works of art and a means of self-expression. the new yorkers sorrow that has been working on her

mask series since 2009 she's already made around 100 fanciful face coverings ever since she finished her degree in fashion design in moscow masks have played an important role in her creations by mask i cover my. real face and it gives me a well protection maybe and a feeling of safety and the mask is kind of her future. for me because i wanted to show my real emotions. on the face mark my face but i show my emotions through the textures the technique and the material phones a mask. the new yorker saw over designs costumes and props for theater productions like this one in the russian city of perm in 2020. 3 years before she worked on the fish project at moscow's gorky park. and in 2018 she contributed to the moscow staging of book land.

time and again the designer mixes materials that don't seem to go together her current series fish and flowers is no exception because sorrow is inspired by fairy tales and surrealism fish are recurring symbols in her work ones that are meant to cause people to stop and reflect people. and. this dress with and i always thought beautiful combined with flowers and the white paper it's actually a very beautiful but and it's kind of ok but. not to live anymore is that and. it's kind of. manifest and. while. evil. is on her way to nikolai gogol house a museum in the russian capital she was invited to take part in

a group exhibition here entitled the islands each participant was given a room and free reign to show off their creativity. installation features paper flowers printed with images of meat here too she makes a connection between pretty plants and dead animals. paper is. one of her favorite materials to work with. a water trucks mean pay per month it's very vulnerable if. there's nothing more for a jules and i why it should ok part. caper also plays an important role in her latest photo shoot. i'm never satisfied with wide events and that makes me do it or do it again

i'm always looking for perfection but i cannot reach. the new york because sorrow of a stage is a real dream worlds that unmask her passion for the absurd. a very different take on fashion now are you fed up with being keeps up indoors meeting people just on z. i thought was a good company because mick jagger feels exactly the same way he's teamed up with sci fi just guitarist dave grohl though actually of course to set his complaints to music they've released the track to celebrate the easing up down in england happy listening and see you next time.

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r. this is a good news lie from drill in the end of an era nears and have got to stop the us is reportedly planning to withdraw all this troops from the country by september 11th garlits of the security situation what will this mean for afghanistan and its people also coming up i said back in south africa where the use of astra zeneca vaccine had already been stopped well now the suspension of the johnson and johnson vaccine is another huge blow to the country in its fight against cars with 1000 and their tiny little particles making it.