dress you're facing taking a stand just not that has been know to make up until the global 3000 theories starts june 21st on d w. me just weeks ago now to the beginning of the summer olympics in japan. preparations, though, have been hauled hayes by the cove. it's 19 pandemic, and as many as 80 percent of the japanese say they want the olympics cold off. but the japanese government and the international olympic committee insists the huge event will go ahead. even it's no foreign spectators and the athletes competing empty stadiums. many wondering what's the point and our giant sports events like the olympics, perhaps a thing of the past year on to the point we ask tokyo olympics games at any price.

the news? well, thanks very much for joining us here on to the point to him, i guess in the studio all the much troubled deutsche of l. a. sports reporter barbara moore, who say that for most athletes, they simply know all tentative to the olympics is the game. so go ahead, the world will fall apart. also with this is higher zeppelin, a leading authority on the machine, nations that go on behind the scenes in the world of sport, not least in the world and the doping. he says the i o c's main interest is to secure its 1000000000 dollar income by making sure that the games go ahead and a very warm welcome to to fit my a cook, oak east asia experts and former japan correspondent who argues that the tokyo games might look like a failure, but japan will make the best of

a very challenging situation. thank you. sorry for being that. i thank you for those introductory comments. i'd like to begin with. you finish with the 1st question. how important to these olympic games for japan and the people of japan, they were meant to be a liberation from the shadow of focusing my, especially the younger generation today doesn't know so many events in japanese history at all. they only know about nuclear devastation and it's now me. and originally it was meant to clear up the japanese image and all this is no turning into a disaster, admittedly. but there is not much of turnitin now to flowing through and making these games with all spectators work. that is a dark vision as the days and weeks to come say now barbara, how important to the games for the i o. c, the international olympic committee of the olympic mit fee. of course, that has on high importance because lots of money depending on these games. and

then again, of course, for the athletes, it's extremely important because they have been training for years. many of these sports. they don't usually get the attention outside of the olympics, pick canoeing, or take, pick one to all the smaller sports, phoenix, important for those athletes, but they get the, the chance to compete in front of the world. so for you, there is no doubt that the game should go ahead. there is no doubt that they will go ahead for me actually, i don't think we are in a point in time of time when there is a chance to, to cancel them. and i do think in the eyes of the athletes, it's also important i'm going, i was about, we've got this remarkable figure of 80 percent of the japanese population, apparently, against the games taking place. you know, what of the japanese authorities, the japanese organized says the games got right. so fall and what have they got wrong? how do we explain this figure of 80 percent? it's very clear that the damage situation in japan is very,

very boring. are not enough vaccinations. most of the people are against his games because they i think they are not at the right time taking place. no. so they think they should be postponed. another time to 2022 from my point of view for good reasons. because as i said, the risk is very high in the moment again should be again postponed to, to, to, to, to sort 20, to be told metrics of the japanese people one presumes. then the major downside would be, they would land in the same year as china, so it would look like a co hosted double loan pix by japan and china, and we know they are enemies. a fascinating point. okay, well normally the idea is that the island picks can give a big booth to the host country promoting positive national pride in bringing people together. but as we see, there are serious doubts over whether that is what is happening in japan. let's have a look. invitations are unusual for japan, but opposition to the olympic games is growing according to polls. 80 percent of

the japanese population are against them. how many people in the world have died from corona have completely changed my mind? i feel sorry for the athletes. we're training so hard, but holding the limit games and the panoramic no, i want them cancelled. tokyo state of emergency has been extended until july 20th the vaccination rate is film. and if you're not to mentioned morning for doctors about variance, but corona virus is not the only reason for this opposition because you're picking out for you. one big imperil and big game are being used to cover up the aftermath of the 2011 fukushima nuclear disaster. and to show the world the problems there have been resolved. this is a lie that we cannot tolerate. the japanese government trying to hide its own shortcomings from just tell us

a little bit more about overseas. it's really a cover up on the part of the i think trying to distract attention away from the doom and gloom of japanese society. the government or is it a cover up that we're seeing here? it's not a dock conspiracy to cover up for cushing, i was a sports event, is just a p r move very big p r. move on the side of the form, a japanese prime minister who was seeing japanese, the japanese image going down river quickly for so many reasons. and wanted to change something about it. that's fair enough, but now depend, emmy came and so this alone because overshadow shudder, but 2nd disaster 1964. just this is an important date. it was a time for japan to show after the 2nd world war that they are back among the group of civilized nations they could show their technologically advanced fishing content . high speed train made 1st run from tokyo to osaka in record speed. no other train

on the planet was as prospect then everybody was in a good mood. and i think japan wanted to repeat this little miracle of recovery after starting 2nd world war and the pacific. now, after fukushima and everything went wrong because of course, and do you think that there is any opportunity you seem to indicate this in your statements at the top of the show that the japanese people will come together and there will be a surge of enthusiasm and positive feeling around the around the game, it is quite improbable that it will be alike and then says yes, the wave of the part for the, for the games and the number is just tell us, it will be that way. but i think the games will take place and they will take place in an orderly fashion that at least will show that the japanese are able to organize something like this on the pen demik conditions, a different message, but also

a message. so gonna message is the games that traditionally been used to project the image higher of a host country, the whole country has over itself. that's a perfectly legitimate thing to do. is it not? it is, but to be honest, it's about yesterday. it's about the olympic spirit. so called olympics per it's, it's not about a country. wherever athletes go, they want to compete, they want to win metals, they can do it at every place in the world. so i don't see any reason why we have to do that as if your wife was in japan. we can do it really. as i said, a year later it would work, but i know that's too much box. the drummond president ordered. the committee doesn't want that because he think he cannot afford as his f anymore. and also the question of money is the question of insurance, because if the games will be canceled by the i will see then maybe they will have a loss of income at the very end. and that's, it's all a question from my point of view. it's not about the athletes. it's not about them

. but you have said the athletes are the means to an end. exactly. because i think it's about billions dollars euros to income caused by the tv rise contracts. but this one does have contracts. it is what counts was the i see when people say it's all about money. they're right. to be honest. yes. barbara, i don't even disagree in this point. i just, i just also want to get the perspective of the athletes who have no alternatives to these games. is just how it is. there is no, no equal competition. that gives them the same attention. so they depend on these olympics taking place. i totally agree that they could have been postponed one more time, but it's too late now. and what, when you to talk about the athletes these, have you been talking personally to athletes? we have been following several athletes over the past year, also making the documentary at the w about the path. and i have just last weekend

for example, confirming with an athletes competing in tech 10. and he's of course, hoping for so much that these competitions are going to take place because he has invested everything into going there. and when we talk about them as fairs again, so you have, you were insulting. and you were also in london, london, and realize it my favorite game, sir. no, go into the london, he was going to just tell us about the atmosphere that the, the, the 2 difference narratives their game. so she had london. yeah. and real awesome into reality. absolutely. it's the atmosphere is very different depending on the place that's taking, it's taking place in london what's, what's the great atmosphere? you could also actually the population has been very skeptical had of the games. but then when they, once they started, that has been a great spirit. so many people from different places coming together and celebrating the athletes for she was far more reserved, i would say. and real was again,

something else already struggling financially the country. you could also pull it notice a difference already between the world cup and the olympics, i would say from the atmosphere and still very open. once the game started, everybody was celebrated and to the $0.70 to the people of japan. actually believe in the games because it says, i use the word narrative. there it is. it's something you have to believe in. and in recent years we had power politics. we've had corruption with our doping which, you know, has been investigated and that's been huge exposures. have people i have the people in japan lost their belief in a, in a major project of this kind. they were never really 2 answers. yes. think about that. it was charismatic. prime minister sions, or other, who made japan won the game. now he's gone politically and of course came instead. so it was a difficult sell to the japanese public to begin with. the situation is so

different from 964 because japan doesn't have to prove anything anymore. money is important. it's an aging society, suddenly costs play a role, especially as for pushing the aftermath is also very expensive and he shifted the energy trend transition. so i know the public was always reluctant and know the mood has entirely turned against the games pose up. there was an age of innocence that implicated pretty $964.00 as that age of innocence. now perhaps disappeared forever. you've talked about these games possibly being postponed, or we may be seeing the end, you know, a whole story of the games that has, you know, taken decades over a 100 years. i'm not sure if you can talk about a positive interest and let's talk about a 36 olympics in germany. and i have been mis abused by a, by the nazis in order to show

a whole wrote that germany of so called peaceful country, which it hasn't been the case as you know. so i think corporate gunner was always a problem for the bix and it's still used and for example, she in 2014 was a very, very good example for all you can make propaganda with the olympics. just have in mind that 2 weeks after such games, the crimea was it was already occupied by a bye, bye bye bye bye. put in. so you know what, what has happened in the time of your prepare rep preparing for the invasion just in the olympics. let's just be i can find next. next. how could sports have stopped that? i mean, you're putting a lot of burden on sports. no. how can sports fix all these problems? you think germany would not have started 2nd world war. russia would know that they would have cancelled the olympic, i didn't say no, no, no, i'm not. i'm not saying that this was, this was, has any connection with the army is what i said to use the olympics in order to

distract from political whatever consequences from political behavior that what's, what's happened ends up happening. 36, you know, jewish people haven't been allowed on the streets before. the picks 36 after the little bit, but during the mix, all his signs on the streets where left for a gun. and then later there have been, there are again so and so actually 2014 a page in 2008 in the time of the olympics. it was peaceful atmosphere. but what happened off rivets is a completely different story. maybe it's not about the sports stopping regimes, but it's the question is, do we give them the states and the possibility for sports forcing in the end? i think that's a critical question. ok. moving on just a little bit before the games in tokyo get on the way. there is of course, the big kickoff in soccer's european championship on the 11th of june. another event that was postponed for a year because of the coven pandemic. now,

all the matches are taking place in existing stadiums from munich in southern germany via the russian city of saint petersburg to bar code the capital of us or by john 4000 kilometers way. it's not clear how many spectators will be answered each match, but there are concerns about so many phones being on the move around the continent . barbara, the euro, 2020 organizes have been working hard to create a positive bows around the tournament. have they succeeded in doing so? i'm afraid i'm a bit more skeptic about the years even than about the olympics. first of all, i do believe it's a big challenge to have this competition spread over so many different places. meaning that fans will always only gather it at one location. and now we also know to the panoramic even that is going to be difficult. so i don't really expect like big celebration laurie this, this,

that'll atmosphere that you will usually get with these tournaments. and yeah, still i'm quite sure it's going to stay in the atmosphere the euro 2020 championships to be similar to tokyo in the sense that, i mean we're, we're having to get used to empty stadiums. i think we, we have to 1st we have them. so all people going to have that in tokyo, of the games, they're just so sad because spelled the whole point. they build hydrogen filling stations, hydrogen gas stations all over the place to show the world public how advanced japan is. all this was in vain now. so cpr side of the event is completed watch. yeah, and i think nobody you would things at the sports events without spectators should be the norm going forward for. i mean, this is the exception in a pandemic. and there's not a model would be different as

a euro because they are spectators, as it was a precondition from the european football soccer buddy. as i said, only with spectators at least a certain number of spectators, you will be allowed to host these games. so it's a little different, so we will have a kind of atmosphere at the euro, but we will, we won't have it, i guess in tokyo. and when you compare the to get the, the games on the in the huge saca told him and what we learn by comparing the 2 i think we can compare them totally different thing. olympics are with many, many sports different sports disciplines at one place and should be at one place from my point of view book is that this is a so called experience football. you can play everywhere, doesn't matter. because if you look at on the tv screen, it doesn't matter if it's in most coveted berlin, if it's a munich where it is, it's the same or less. so i don't see a big difference except one thing we had so caught my eye on him and driven abrasions on the streets during big tournaments. we won't have that this time and

it will never happen if you have a tournament or spread over different countries. at this point, the d, the d centralized nature of the tournament, is that a future for major competition? i do believe in a, in a little smaller form. yes. bringing over like 23 neighboring countries. i definitely see an advantage in doing that. i think in this case here, it's a little exaggerated well can events like the olympics or the soccer world cup still be a format for the future vehicle for reconciliation, the needs and peace, or are they too big and to politicized? so g, 2014, the winter olympics, where the closing ceremony was a mattress, as the price tag, these were the most expensive gains to date, costing around $50000000000.00. the same thing president. and shortly thereafter, russia and ex crimea, in china to the world,

became an autocrat. get 1st at the 2000 a summer games and next year when the country will be hosting the 2022 winter games . the sports facilities are new, but the politics remain unchanged, whether it's the suppression of the democratic protest and hong kong or the internment of weaker. now the ios, the insists that have human rights in mind. that's also the shared view of world soccer governing body fee for which was the 2022 world cup to be held in tar and praises. the reforms made there, however many immigrant workers who died during the construction of stadium in the desert emerett should such major events be awarded to authoritarian regime. the big, tough question should the major events of this nature like the lympics, like the world can be awarded to the storage area and regimes? in my opinion, the answer is yes. this should happen because we are one world community on this planet and big part of the world is not ruled democratically. and why excludes them

from the sports world to be doing so much trade. this china, we could cut off many other ties culturally, economically. why reduce the reaction to to sports? why deny authoritarian countries a possibility to host games? hi, should we can for orator in countries? i mean, i'm saying we, who are we to make sure that showed off her italian, the countries and nations be given a stage for authoritarian politics for making their case if the situation in these countries is too varying, it's too bad and i would really say, okay, it's not possible you can do it in countries where you have a very severe away edition of human rights. that's my opinion, but i'm with you. i say you cannot exclude them at all. but you should use leverage

because you have power isn't sports buddy. and can, can use leverage to say ok, you have to fulfill at least some criteria in order to make sure that these games will be held under the conditions of free speech or press freedom for example. and it's not the case. i would say ok then you cannot bid for the olympics as if as a precondition or for the big championships, but there's a very end, i agree. you can't excuse him at all in an aspect that directly relate to the games like the construction projects are so i think you should enforce i a standards, but it should the precondition be i don't know high ranking on the democracy index . probably not. right? no, i such for example, you should make, save, makes secure, the free speech press freedom for example, that people are allowed to write and report whatever they want in this country before. and during the games. just to give you one example that is not a place in some countries, and that is for me, very boring and against, by the way, against the so called human olympic spirit. there's a lot of talk of

a boy out of the 2022 winter olympics in beijing for example, as a you know, how much of a blood would you're shaking your head? it's too late, it's too late. i think we would have been discussed how would we need to just cause beforehand, let's say 7 years ago, 5 years ago. but not that much. no, we cannot do that. no. it's simply too late. as i said, they should have used their leverage is an honor to reach some level, at least of let's say, a liberal spirit in these games beforehand. they didn't. and now it's to jason like umbrella ruth, for example. of course, when the situation is getting extreme, that under short notice you decide to withdraw the events of the, the hockey, a word cup, for example, which was supposed to take place in colorado. but in general, of course, it's important to, to negotiate the conditions. i had of giving, giving away the olympics,

deciding where to take place. do you think that the big sports can be part of the solution or part of the way back from the set back, the global set back to be a corona pandemic has been sexually? yes, because the sports brings people together. we have been in a situation that separates people in everyday life in between countries. and sports events will be more important than ever to go back to normality and project a sense of well being in the community of nations. yes, so it's more important than, than ever. i would agree with respect to sports in general because as a cultural value, global cultural value, which we have to respect, i'm not in favor of supporting sports organizations who do exist dropped because they have a very uncharacteristic structure in many federations. and i'm really, very skeptical is these are going to your organizations are the right bodies to

organize big events. and then again, there is no tentative right now. like lympics are still the only what, why it's event where people from every corner of the word of participating and people from, from all over the world, also watching. so if there is any chance of bringing people together, i think it is the one in picks, not in tokyo, nobody will be there. but so what things from, from all the different part sterile, how are these games going to be going to be very narrow? they're very strict rules are not only like corona tests everyday, but also a strict separation, i believe, for athletes. and during this, i'm not allowed to take trunk public transportation to get in close contact with the nice population. also the athletes can only stay there for a very short time, which means that right off of the competition, i think within 48 hours, they have to leave the country again. which means that they are not able to, together to party, to, to, to be there at the closing ceremony in the end,

which is also a very emotional moment usually. hugely important for the absolutely the high point of their careers. very, very often. absolutely. so this is going to how, how the video, there's always this thing of the zillow picks that we get the statement, the best selling, pick several, whatever, you know, where are these? and they are going to the bottom of the pile. there will be, it's a very, very, very and audio limbic history. i guess it's a there and we'll have to lead to that. thanks very much for joining us. we've been talking about this. okay, well, impacts probably going to happen. what the say mood going to be, thanks very much for joining us. thanks very much. my 3 guest as well. enjoy the show. come back next time. bye bye. until the

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the news, the the ah luxury vacation protection. welcome to las tab on the playground of the people ridge on the pacific coast of mexico said behind the facade, a brutal wall of the drug cartel and basic pharmacy prevail funds, son. i'm the in 15 minutes on dw

me, what people to say matters to me. that's why we listen to their summary reporter every weekend on d. w. hijacking. the news where i come from the news is being hijacked. journalism itself has become a scripted reality show. it's not just good versus evil, versus them black and white in countries like russia and china, turkey, people are told that it's that simple. and if you're a journalist there and you're trying to get beyond that, you are facing scare tactics, intimidation. and i wonder, is that where we're headed as well? my responsibility as

a journalist is to get beyond the smoke and mirrors. it's not just about being fair and balanced or being neutral. it's about being choose. my name is brent golf and i work at the w the the it's been ongoing quest for the the spring began in 2011 people stood up against correct rulers and dictatorship. all these moments had left the box and my memory was it was an incredible feeling that they were liberated.

they had hoped for more security, more freedom, more dignity, have their hopes fulfilled. 10 years after the arabs spring, rebellion starts june 7th on d, w. i the this is dw news, and these are the top stories. hundreds of people have gathered in hong kong victoria park to mark the anniversary of the 1989 t enemy square massacre. the vigil took place despite attempts by chinese authorities to prevent any commemorate action of the student uprising. police dispersed the crowds and arrested jo hung tongue, a prominent democracy activists involved in organizing the vigil.