desert, so i see on depositor this approach combining local knowledge with traditional connections and offering help as well as asking for information. it's proving popular. a few 100 new mahari police are already operational and authority say they plan to recruit $200.00 more i. that's it. you're up to date on a more world news at the top of the hour. vanessa chan will have dw news asia, and just about have a good literature invites us to see people in particular that i like to see myself as the kids find strange grown up world. may only objective when is to share what

a thing beautiful. didn't you books on youtube? i was interested in the global economy portfolio w business beyond. here's a closer look out the project. our mission. to analyze the flight for market dominance. east versus west. good. with the business lawn on you too. you're watching t w news, asia coming up a new year and a new legislature for hong kong. one set up to be more pro bay gene, also more pro bay gene. the cities media landscape with the closure of yet another

newsroom. what's left of press freedom in the territory. plus india begins vaccinating teenagers against cove it as the country braces for a new wave of infections driven in part by the only con variant. ah, i melissa chan. welcome to another year of d. w. news asia. one of the big stories we kept coming back to in 2021 was the erosion of democracy and personal freedoms in hong kong. and china's communist party looks set to tighten its grip on the territory in the year ahead. just a few weeks ago we saw prob, aging candidates sweep the poles in hong kong legislative council election after law changes designed to exclude the opposition. ah,

today those newly selected lawmakers took their oaths of loyalty to what's now being called the patriots only parliament. and reflecting the new political realities, hong kong, traditional emblem in the chamber has now been replaced by china's and over the weekend came the news that china's cracked down on independent media in hong kong had taken another casualty. on sunday, the online outlet citizen news announced that it was ceasing operations because of hong kong, deteriorating press freedoms. a statement posted on facebook by the editor said this quote. we all loved this place deeply. regrettably what was ahead of us is not just pouring raines or blowing winds, but hurricanes and to no means and quote, citizen news will stop updating its site starting tomorrow. it will be the 3rd media outlet to shut in recent months following the closure of pro democracy newspaper, apple daily and online site stand news,

citizen news founder and chief rider. chris young. had this to say about why they're calling it quits. we have not been contacted by by police or national security office or on any on any matters. but the, the indication is clear that overall media is facing a face and increasingly tough environment. and for those who are being seen as critical or troublemakers, they are more, they are more on the revolt. so this is what we are facing. and that's why we made that decision for more. we have joyce lee from our east asia bureau in ty pay a joyce. can you tell us a little bit more about citizen news in hong kong?

what kind of stories did it cover? how popular was it? so citizen news was founded in 2017, a number of veteran hong kong report us and supported entirely by crowd funding. and they are very well known for the investigative reports as well as the date of journalism. and they want to human rights crisis and was in 2019 for a piece of our train attack during the pro democracy protests and another feature on you know, police officers hiding their id numbers to x, gave accountability and their chinese news team is also very popular as they're not afraid of covering sensitive topics in china. and this move, i understand was preemptive, wasn't it? the government hadn't yet gone after the newsroom. what did the editors anticipate could happen? well yes christian, the chief writer,

as it is and use told reporters today that the decision to shut down was made within a very short period of time. and the trigger point was the fate of the news. so just a few days ago, our national security police rated the newsroom and arrest us 7 editors and bought members before. so doesn't use. they had not been approached by law enforcement yet, but they heard that directly and indirectly. then online news, media outlets were being targeted and they said that they try their best not to infringe all, but it's becoming harder and harder to gosh, where the, the go boundaries were and, and use all that said in a statement on sunday that the t rating media environment has made it impossible for them to realize and missions without worries. and in times of crisis, a have to you are safe, got the safety of that stuff. and just to be clear,

you mentioned this citizen uses a different digital news. allen, from stan news which the hong kong government, as you mentioned did go after just a few days ago. it's lucy. it's easy rather to to lose track. can you talk a little bit about stan using what happened there? yes. so sad news was the most prominent pro democracy online use. all that in hong kong. and our last wednesday about $200.00 national security police officers arrested and 7 people associated with the publication and they froze about $7000000.00 us dollars worth of assets from the company. and the all that was forced to shut down immediately and its website was defeated on the same day to former senior editors were charged with conspiring to publish a seditious materials. and they were d 9 l. and now the crackdown came less than a month after hong kong security chief chris tang publicly criticize the news

saying is coverage of the government was bias and demonizing the young authorities have to repeat $89.00 that they are eroding press freedom, but express that the rate on stand use clearly extend the chilling on journalist very quickly. is there any free reporting left in the city? well, according to our survey, published by the foreign correspondence club of hong kong in november, more than 70 percent of correspondence in the city were concerned about being arrested or prosecuted for their work. and one 3rd of them were considering leaving hong kong because of press freedom concerns. and here in taiwan, i've seen more and more hong kong journalists are coming to find refuge over the past year. and many of them, i don't need that. they felt reinstate in hong kong and could only continue that work outside of the city. joyce lee,

thank you so much. ah, india has begun vaccinating young people between the ages of 15 and 18 against covered new cases in the country. have hubbard around $30000.00 per day. the good news is that hospitalizations have so far not gone up. but after a big new year's celebrations like year in goer, those figures might change. health authorities are working quickly to administer as many doses as possible at schools. and special vaccination sites, they do not want to see another deadly wave in the country. joining us for more as d w w bureau chief emory to chima and rita, can you tell us a bit more about the latest? are these on the crime cases? has it spread evenly across the country? melissa, the number of cases,

a new case of the new infections in india are today is 34000. and not, not all of these cases are on the current cases. in fact, we don't know how many of them are on the current cases. so far the conformed number of or micron cases in india is 1700. that old problem is that a genome sequencing is slow, and if this is the one which identifies what variance are at play, but given the pattern that we are seeing in this wrap, and spreads of the sharpest surge, we've seen in cases in india. since the pandemic began, so given that and the and the pattern of the way this is buried is spreading across the world. it is likely to be the dominant, a virus in india very soon. as far as this, even the spread, it is not a lot of regional variations. big cities like a bomb b, like a bangalore dairy, are the ones defected? as long as the sudden state of carola, i do wonder whether this means that the,

the government has re introduced some locked down measures or restrictions wait. some lessons have been learned to melissa from hard. the government reacted to last years as deadly 2nd wave. they've been very swift in reacting this and they've put a restrictions almost across the country. schools, colleges, restaurant, gym, cinemas, had been closed in most parts of the country. some shops are being allowed to stay open, but many of them have been shut down in markets. every 50 percent of them have been shut down. people are being encouraged to work from home and they have gulf views in place. melissa, in many cities like in daily, from 10 at night till 5 in the morning. but not everybody's of course, observing. the scope is, for example, we saw in go are they decided to let me know your party's a go ahead because it's a major tourist destination. so lot or lessons have been learned. politicians are

still taking part in political. ronnie is because they are region elections coming up and there's no semblance of social distance thing all reading of masks and such rallies. so they said, not all lessons have been learned from last year. and some wondering emerett, or if there is another dangerous surge where the hospitals be ready this time around. well, the general view here is, and that's also what the science is telling us from other parts of the world that this army crime virus is milder than the deadly delta buys, which brought a city is like daily to its knees last year. having said that, obviously they are experts or warning against complacency. they say if this army cron virus spreads at the writ at that spreading right now. and if only 2 percent of those people who are infected need hospitalization. it good again, bring the hospital or the infrastructure, the medic medical infrastructure to its knees. but the chief minister deli warned

against panic. he said, look, we are making preparations for more hostile hospital beds and is wanting people to stay vigilant. and it's always a numbers game now, with the vaccination rate in this country, a wonder ah, of 1400000000 people arrayed how many of that ah, is vaccinated and how are things going on that front will, according to current numbers, 90 percent of people who are eligible for maxine ation. have got the 1st doors about 65 percent. have got the 2nd dose and as of to the teenagers are being vaccinated. people between the ages of 15 and 18 can now get vaccinated as of next week. people who are over 60 or have health issues are eligible to be vaccinated. and you know, for a 3rd dose or even of a what they call the booster, does something vaccination or is doing well. but the gap between the 1st and the 2nd dose stim,

it needs to be narrow. that's where the government is putting the focus because they feel that even if people agree infected with army crime, that the chances of them getting up very severe attack. unless, if they are vaccinated, hammer to chima. thank you so much for joining us. that's it for monday will leave you with pictures from india of those teenagers getting jabbed. more news from the region on our website, d, w dot com and on twitter and facebook. as well with you tomorrow. good bye with . when will artificial intelligence surpass us? i'm from a future. ai is on the rise,

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