on the fingers of the. obscene woman where tricked. into prostitution stories. on she forced me interesting story. of the 77 percent. on w. d w is a show coming up today china's power and its links to corruption. is the preferred drink of china's communist party leaders but to those high level sidestep the role we distill the facts. used to teach it focused. we look at why france wants to be a major player in the region. welcome

to. join us it's the look of china's elite and powerful mao tie a famous brand of chinese distil spirit is the preferred drink for high powered communist party officials and features regularly in private gatherings that close most of 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 dry and corruption cases now the investigative journalist is on his way to china's most famous. do you know you can already smell the alcohol here at. 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 leaders partial to it and yes some of the bottles cost several $100.00 euros you says they are the perfect gift to greeks that we get your talent b.r.c. 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 jaguar to. the liquor factory 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 which that's where we come in the government lets us follow the lead of the mt i company and profit from them and that brings in some wealth to us people here. of what. his company uses the same distilling techniques the grain is for meant it in earth it's the pits give it

a pungent aroma 3 minutes and of soy sauce many people outside of china find it hard to swallow. the mashes fermented in a dry state during the distillation process steam passes through the mash and releases the. woollen says the liquor mostly to individuals as well as companies that produce special editions for weddings and company and a verse or. 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 inverse or ease. after they came to power they turned the factory into a state owned enterprise so it could provide them with liquor up. to about 5 banks procreated the factory. and the owner who refused to hand over reason 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 through was 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 goonan from beat up to business he spent many years of the china correspondent. welcome you spent i think what 15 years in china and during all that time did you develop a taste for. what i drank a lot of us. i don't know if that's entirely thing i do if it's very sad developed

a taste 1st basically mao tie lubricated the wheels of commerce in china as it was opening up all through the 2 thousands 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 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 a business bank was it's everywhere it's really very very central to how things are done 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 and it's not 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 water to the corruption scandals that have dogged this company well all the way towards the late the latter part of who jintao has reigned in towards the end of. 2012 when she didn't bring him to 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 banquets who were with gold watches up their arms and it was all these sort of stories which. when she jinping came in one of the things one of the reasons he made himself so popular was he cracked down on this but at the same time it's how this 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 you see in china is china's biggest company now i want to speak. against corrupt officials and you're quite right this up in iran 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 or xi jinping was 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 it's 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 we leave it there for the time being terrific women thank you so much for joining us in studio 4 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 use an essential part of the relationship as was evident in the recently concluded naval exercise a ruse with so french an indian naval vessels on maneuvers with those from other nations. and joining me now is former indian ambassador to france rockish suid he's gotten 3 a distinguished fellow at the think tank the observer to search foundation in delhi and best assumed 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 being 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 that at the moment even as we speak so they just 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 bought the ship that you are fighting to both countries india and france the naval vessels what reason you're part of the french naval exercise la perouse and they beginning a bilateral exercise but are not in about 2 weeks time. what is there a component of this is this essentially a security component in the in defense of it been looking at. well what has been taking place for more than. no. it is a bilateral naval exercise between the french in 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 the rules that you just referred to which has taken place earlier this month. is an exercise that in war and the 4 coordinations as well as france indicating the french willingness and desire to be in a. 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 10 trees shared divisions 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 about 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 the actual strategic partnership that has been in existence for trance since 1908 we leave it there for the time of thank you so much for joining us i'm master rocker soon speaking from denny thank you so much . this morning our website they're back to more of the same time through them for but. in the light of climate change. conference most of. what's in store for the moost news today for the future in the. context we're going to go city hall to get insight clear picture in mexico many push polls loves us right now in the morning right now climate change to fend off a story. faces much less leeway on just one week.

how much oil is going to really do that. we still have time to act i'm going. to sort of set. that subscribe and more like this. 2 years off the fire ravaged not you don't get the joke we find out why efforts to restore one of europe's architectural treasures all shrouded in control of a sea. we look at any drama no man in france as director and no brings the fateful night to the big screen. and we meet a fashion designing games are catching outfits are constructed not to flatter but to make us think. welcome to

us in culture april $29000.00 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 to dam tower itself which collapsed in the fire and will be rebuilt with these very tree this. year alone and 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 we're very touched by the supporters who couldn't muster 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 navy which have been removed germany has offered to finance the restoration of 8 windows. to who are to 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. in all sort of washing. so franco german cooperation is also taking shape president among call had set an ambitious timetable for the whole project it's to be completed by 2024 by the time of the un picking 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.d.m. now these trees are hundreds of years old being fails to rebuild not saddam not everyone is happy about this 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 would and lead construction is outs modood that it's a proven fire risk that it's a toxic crist's in case of fire and other reconstructions have been done with concrete they really but the decision on how not to dom is to be rebuilt has long been made right that's why it all went very quickly and i think we should go back

and remember the shock of the fire which came at the time when france was reeling after a series of terror attacks there was an order collective garth's from. when the iconic spire collapsed. 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 high seat i don't remember the pledge is flooding in. but is

the target date for completion realistic well the rector if not to dam himself says 15 to 20 years most of the work that's been done so far has been securing the science it's being stopping for the cramps is its being with taking out toxic and other substances far from the cutting down of the oaks the physical reconstruction is not really started so critics still feel there is time to sway public opinion and to take a different course of action right that's good 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. off the 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 here it's a good thing too 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 oscar winning director john jacques 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 count. little but insults 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 saws as one of the sets the film too for releasing 2022 will combine file footage with acted scenes from history dubiously i said to myself it's incredible it's incredibly spectacular touching the depths of the soul 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. will be tragically only clickwheel. 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 sol's built in 1130 was largely inspired by noted down. the fire is being reacted in a studio near paris. fashion design of the narrow. house construction projects of how she builds her creations using objects you wouldn't normally associate with clothing she sees fashion as art

and says hutch choice is all symbolic designs not to 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 her sorrow the stage is her model at a photo shoot in moscow. the fashion designers unusual combinations have garnered her international acclaim and. i have no humans with the materials and. i can combine a paper with. ways of creations because. i want to write a 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 yorker's 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 and moscow masks have played an important role in her creations by a mask i call her my. real face and it gives me a protection maybe and save and the mask is kind of her refuge for me because i want to show my real emotions. on the face mark mark phrase but i show my emotions through the textures the technique and the material things about. the new yorker saw over designs costumes and props for theatre 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. this dress with all and they always thought beautiful because it's combined with flowers and this and white paper it's actually a very beautiful but and it's kind of ok but not. to live in water. and. it's kind of. wild and 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. but what the terms mean paper . there's nothing more for a white sheet of paper. paper also plays an important role in her latest photo shoot. i mean there was such a quiet time with wide events and that makes me do it and do it again i'm always

looking for perfection of a type. because sorrow the 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. good company because mick jagger feels exactly the same way he's teamed up with sci fi just guitarist dave grohl virtually of course to set his complaints to music they've released the track to celebrate the easing of lockdown in england happy listening and see you next time.

into the conflict zone to sebastian. despite 1st diplomatic tools to 6 year old warrior who shows little sign of ending my guest this week from the yemeni capital saudis who shall be shot following with his photo so still a few feet of the school as the stomach used to policing shocking grows from killing indiscriminately why would face conflicts of the. 90 minutes fall d.w. . 96. it's their story their very own personal drama. the people who survived the catastrophe remember. and they share private footage with us that has never been seen before. internal storage people 26 on d. w. . how does the virus spread. why do we panic

and when will all of this. just 3 of the topics from cover and the weekly radio program. if you would like and the information on the program maurice 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 g.w. dot com forum slash science. at the front is that thing that's like a bunch of equipment because i want to think of gemini with a name the last few years have been quite. early and i pick up and i burn it on the hammock when it comes to gender because and of course i always look right in the eyes for a chance but perhaps the bank is on the new all the blood i'm going down the river and i want to be in the news better present their accounts but when you feed them all the giving they're realizing call just another way of never say you ready to meet the devil then heard me right.

this says to every news line from girl and the ending the forever war the u.s. president is preparing to lay out his plan for leaving afghanistan joe biden is expected to confirm he would drop all u.s. troops from the country by september 11th or go live to washington to hear him speak also coming up another setback in south africa where the use of the astra zeneca vaccine it already been stopped well now the suspension of the johnson and johnson vaccine is another huge blow to the country in its battle against covert 19

and the tiny particles making a very big noise in the world of physics the ons make matter but scientists say what really matters it is the way the moves could help explain the biggest event ever. on why our thank you so much for your company everyone the u.s. presidents is due shortly to announce plans to withdraw all american forces from afghanistan by september 11th the 20th anniversary of the 911 attacks or the pullout will take place regardless of the security situation on the ground and there will be no conditions attached it will mark the end of a 20 year conflict for the us the longest and its history. this has been a loner painful war. more than

2000 u.s. troops killed. and thousands more injured in almost 2 decades of fighting. the u.s. campaign began after the $911.00 terror attacks on american soil in 2001 strikes were launched against the islamist group the taliban and the terrorist group al qaida which was based in afghanistan but it wasn't until 2011 that al qaeda is of some of been larger than the mastermind behind 911 was finally tracked down and killed. although most u.s. troops were withdrawn in 2014 successive presidents have been trying to find a way to leave afghanistan altogether. but it's hard the taliban is

in control over much of the country. and women are already seeing many of their hard won rights rolled back. their almost weekly attacks on afghan forces and civilians alike. this is no peace. despite this donald trump promised all u.s. forces would be out by may the 1st this year. president biden also wants troops home but in coordination with nato allies we still have balance of personnel there . by administration strongly supports the diplomatic prague process is underway and to bring an end to this war that is closing out 20 years. although he won't meet trumps may deadline september is the new date.

a month more mark 20 years of a costly war with little victory to tool called. and here we are expecting the u.s. president to speak in about 10 minutes time on what we're waiting for president biden to outline his plan sit here with me in the studio is it of your correspondent sandra appears men she has covered the afghan war from its inception and joining us from washington is d.w. birch chief innes whole innes want to start off with you if i may we are waiting to hear from the president what does his decision tell us about his administration's foreign policy priorities. president biden sees the war as a drag on the need to deal with bigger threats like i like china like the climate change obviously the corona virus pandemic so his decision really highlights the

tradeoffs he's willing to make to shift the u.s. global forces from. counterinsurgency come pains which dominated the post 911 world to relieve current priorities that is i think the major shift we see here today a major shift indeed sondra after 2 decades of war. can we see the taleban effectively beat america and nato i wouldn't go as far but close enough i think the taleban stood their ground and they made it impossible for all mighty us a mighty nato to win this battle and to secure peace for the afghan population which is really what we should be talking about because they are after 2 decades still lacking the 2 essentials and that is life in peace and dignity without terror all right well thank you both for now we will be coming back to you both

momentarily as soon as the president will address the nation there but for now thank you both want to bring our viewers up to speed with the other stories making headlines around the world the minnesota police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black man dante wright has been arrested prosecutors plan to charge him billy carter with 2nd degree manslaughter he faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted the incident has prompted 3 nights of unrest in the city of minneapolis. the mastermind behind the world's biggest ponzi scheme bernie madoff has died in prison at the age of $82.00 he was serving a 150 year sentence for defrauding tens of thousands of investors out of billions of dollars over school decades. at least 20 children were killed in a fire at a primary school in the west african state of new cher numerous other children were injured most of them were still attending preschool the fire destroyed several

classrooms and blocked exits is cause is still unknown authorities have launched an investigation. the rollout of the johnson and johnson vaccine has been posited in the us much of europe and south africa as after reports of rare blood clotting and a very small number of people all health authorities said they were halting the use of the shot while they investigate the case in the special results another huge blow to south africa's vaccination rollout in february the country already stopped the use of the astra zeneca vaccine after it showed low efficiency against and the gress of local virus variants biotech pfizer jobs are only due to arrive next month and experts have warned of a looming 3rd wave and the situation in the hospitals is already spiraling out of control for patients and for health workers and the next report we need a physician who'd had enough of what she says are unsafe working conditions. doctor

so little was sick from by is wary of vaccines 9 years ago when she was 21 she became ill with tuberculosis despite having been inoculated against it before corona virus vaccines reached south africa she resigned from her post in a public hospital because she didn't feel safe anymore. oh ok 6 of us still adds the parents as they were when i checked the intake top you know which i feel is a huge problem it's a huge problem and shows that after all these years you know the odds are somewhat of. a former colleague made this video of support here she is wearing full personal protective equipment but she says that in the hospital where she worked it was either not available or inadequate sify but worked in intensive care and as a midwife she's been at home since she left at the end of the year even though she feels guilty about leaving she believes she did the right thing. medical staff are

badly needed but her life has to come 1st. hundreds of doctors and nurses in south africa have already died from cope at 19. i really felt as though i was working in a system that didn't really care about my own life and without was going to make it to tomorrow not you know especially seeing all the health workers dying the tributes online going out that think that that's going to be unix. those fears are justified only a few $100000.00 people in south africa have been vaccinated there aren't enough doses to go around at the current rate it would take 16 years to vaccinate the whole population south africa would like to manufacture its own vaccines but the patents are all registered overseas the only way i'd go back is if i'd be able to control. you know my exposure to illnesses you know and if i am exposed to

illnesses make sure that i have the correct effective p.p. . civil not also needs to be vaccinated but while she's no longer working as a doctor she doesn't mind waiting. and we are now joined by howard catton he is the c.e.o. of the international council of nurses which recently how they women are with their african health workers thank you so much for your time sir can you tell us what the situation is right now in the hospitals in south africa. they are close to being overwhelmed to start off are exhausted some are some of scared as well there are issues with numbers of beds scarcity of of i.c.u. beds and of oxygen supplies as well the suspension of the jane just a vaccine it's it's a temporary and it's

a precautionary measure people worried about vaccines being developed quickly and actually this shows us the detail the scrutiny that's been given to these vaccines we just need to let the scientists in the experts look at the evidence the numbers from the u.s. i think it was 6 cases where they've been close out of something like 66000000 and it's not clear whether there's a causal link all or not but the key issue here is to make sure that health care workers and nurses do get a vaccine as quickly as possible for for their health and safety and protection absolutely indeed and that's why i'm wondering what impact does it have to this at this temporary suspension of the change a shot. we are really concerned that there is a gross inequality around the world in terms of the access to vaccines out of all the vaccines that have been delivered administered only about 2 percent have gone

to the african continent wealthy countries use their economic might to preorder and buy are millions more doses than one needed an across the range of vaccines is a form of hoarding and control the consequences of that are that we're seeing younger and less vulnerable people receiving vaccines in some high income countries before nurses health care workers in africa and vulnerable people in other places as well it could be 202-020-2023 before all populations in some countries are vaccinated more people will die as a result of this inequality there is a an absence of vacuum of moral leadership which i think g 20 leaders need to step up to but also to recognize it actually is in a self interest to make sure that vaccines are shed can you describe for us just the working conditions that critical health workers currently have to deal with in

the south africa. they are dealing with many many more critically ill patients than they normally would 2 nurses say used to very sick people and and you know bedsteads numbers close to full but this is putting people in a situation where often they're not sure where the free bed will become available from their working conditions wearing p.p.a. for you know long long shifts is really difficult particularly in hate the mental health strengthens pressures that people are under as well just with so many sick people and then often having to stand in the shoes of relatives who come visit you know the last hand people are holding might be that of the of of the nurse so it's not just the physical it's the emotional burden that it's putting on our stuff and that's why we must do everything we can to protect and make sure they have p.p.

but they are prioritized and get the vaccine as quickly as possible howard catton a c.e.o. of the international council of nurses in geneva i thank you for your time when our some of the other developments in the pandemic bio attack pfizer says it will provide the e.u. with an extra $50000000.00 doses in the 2nd quarter of this year this is on top of the $2200000000.00 already earmarked for the block in denmark will stop using the astra zeneca vaccine entirely because of its possible link to rare cases of blood clots well this can delay denmark's vaccine roll out by up to a month and south korea has reported its highest daily jump in new infections in 3 months health experts are blaming crease travel which they say shows public vigilance is falling. when i take you back to our top story the u.s. president is due shortly to announce plans to withdraw all american forces from of gonna stand by september 11th the 20th anniversary of the 911 attacks well here

with me in the studio is correspondent peter's a man who has reported extensively from afghanistan knows the country intimately and from washington chief enos pole we are waiting for the president to speak momentarily is want to give you the 1st word if i may let's talk about this deadline very very symbolic very poignant but we've seen deadlines before said by previous administrations they've come and gone is this a hard deadline. well you know like that we have to be very precise because some people really especially here in the united states are criticizing this deadline saying that it was kind of give the winning the last window of the endless war to the tally of what. biden probably will. in the next couple of minutes or so.