how do we make cities, reader, how can we protect habits? what to do with them all our ways? we can make a difference by choosing smart news solutions over steam set in our ways. global ideas, environmental series included $3000.00 on d, w, and online. this is the dublin years asia coming up today, the official start to south korea's presidential election campaign. one of the contenders is using deep fake to hammer home of real message that of change. but his main challenger is putting up a fight. we get the latest from sole and hong kong sees a steep rise and covey cases, despite it's 0 corporate strategy. and the cities leader is pledging to stay the

course. ah. i british energy. welcome to d w. news asia. glad you could join us. south korea's presidential candidates formerly began their campaigning today. it set to be the tightest race in 20 years between the 2 main parties with the election due to take place on the 9th of march . the 2 leading candidates have been dogged by scandals and enjoy high disapproval ratings, but voters are reacting favorably to a digital avatar of the conservative people power party candidate, created by his youthful campaign team. the deep fixed humor seems to be cutting through, especially with the younger electorate. he is on your end. this may look like one of the candidates running to be the next south korean president, but it is in fact

a deep fake room on august. a digital avatar of the conservative opposition candidate yoon suck hill. this a i version has attracted millions of views since this day be last month and tens of thousands of people have asked questions, often about popular culture instead of politics. a are use on your i am a i union couldn't thank you for your comment. i really like black pink tundra. do do do do, especially as my favorite soft storage. holborn in unit team is trying to make him look cool and accessible and trying to deflect from the damaging political wrangling on the campaign trail. south korea's former prosecutor general units, zekiel has faced controversy of the merc. he ties to a shaman and corruption allegations involving his family. but he's hoping to ride voter anger over rising house prices and corruption scandals involving the current government gerald in. you have to stop the corrupt and incompetent

ruling forces, attempt to extend their term and plunder people mean york potter miranda. you'll hear it only on all the people and forces who agree here should join forces her and we have to achieve regime change. have all of the she talk one. your charter rhonda from uva on north korea unit insists the pyongyang d nuclear eyes before any peace treaty can be signed or economic assistance. granted, his main opponent is lee jame young. the presidential candidate for the ruling democratic policy. lee has been dogged by his own scandals involving a residential development plan and his sons, illegal gambling. but he has risen to prominence with an aggressive pandemic response and a populist economic agenda. okay, are you i'm doing? i'm an outside or on the periphery of korean politics. who doesn't have experience

as a lawmaker? still? i li, jim young was given this grieved duty as the ruling parties. presidential candidate, doctor john lee is softer on north korea though, and says he wants to reopen stoled de nuclear. i zation talks between chung and washington is just 3 weeks now before south korea. alexa, new leda and the 2 candidates a doing all they can to win votes for now. polling remains neck and neck. but with a help of his online avatar, conservative candidate unit sick, he'll has at least managed to pull ahead of his rival with the young voters on august zoning minarda, john list of frank script from 0 frank. the election comes in the middle of a continuing pandemic. is this impacting the issues candidates are talking? absolutely. the pandemic is an issue particularly given. so the grease initial

successful response to the pandemic compared to other countries. the number of cases here were relatively low. but now you're seeing a search with the alma kron variant spreading across the country quite quickly, right now with the last 5 days more than $50000.00 cases per day. also the other issues of course, housing, the economy in small businesses having suffered because while people are buying things and many south korean electronics products around the world, the service industry is really suffering. so small businesses want to see some more relief from the government and potentially a lifting of the social distancing measures that are really impacting their businesses in a negative way. for frank of the rest of the world to be watching the selection for the direction of, for south korea's policy on north korea. where does the 2 main candidates stand on

that? the 2 candidates are really far apart when it comes to their policies toward north korea. jim young advocates engagement. he's the democratic party leader. he wants to see the 2 careers negotiate. he wants to bring the united states into some negotiation, perhaps, and see some calming of the tension on the korean peninsula. he follows in the footsteps of the current president moon j n, who organized the summits that we saw between north korean leader kim john and former us president donald trump. he wants to see things dialed down here and closer relations between north korea. and so korea, you and so you all the conservative, he advocates a much stronger alliance with the u. s. a resumption of, you know, periodic joint military exercises here on the korean peninsula. and potentially

even a preemptive strike on north korea. should it look like they were going to launch some type of missile? so again, very different positions of these, of the north korea, from the, to front runners in the, in the election here. and what sort of a campaign has it been so far, frank? well, the campaign, you know, well it officially started today. it has been sort of going on for a couple of weeks. they've already had a debate. they're going to have at least 3 more debates, but official campaigning did start today. i saw some, some st. trucks out on the street, and of course, you know, some music and we're going to see some dancing, of course, with these trucks and, and the candidates up on trucks speaking to, to crowds around the country. they plan on actually traversing the country. all major candidates are, are campaigning, both in soul and then moving out of school right away. also,

interesting. today i was at one of the demonstrations. and at that demonstration there was some, some head shaving. they were small businesses that again, are seeking relief from the devastating effect of the cooper $900.00 pandemic. both the pandemic itself, as well as the social distancing measures that the government has imposed on their business hours and the number of people that they can. they can serve so the campaign started today and we're going to see certainly some more noise between 6 am and 11 pm, at least out on the streets of south korea. bresh frank smith in cheryl, thanks so much for la. the. to hong kong next and leader kerry lamb has vowed not to impose a mainland china style locked um as the city faces its west outbreak of over 1000 to date. but lamb has also about not to abandon hong kong 0 corporate strategy. and

the health care system is very coping the crush over patients. this is the scene outside one of the cities, hospitals. since the beginning of the pandemic, a combination of close borders, lendy quarantined and contact tre, thing has kept the virus largely a b. but last month, cases began to serge mondays or more infections than at any other time. with more than 2000 reported. with the current spike, driven by the owner kron variant. the familiar sight of crawling qs as thousandths are forced to test every day. this follows the announcement of hong kong, toughest isolation measures yet including the closure of places of worship and hairdressers. a vaccine path mandate for shops and supermarkets is also been introduced later this month. leader kerry lamb has promised no blanket city locked down. but vowed that hong kong will maintain it 0 co policy. the problem we are

phasing is given the magnitude, the pace off, and the severity of this 5th wave, it has a oh grown, i'll capacity. so the immediate response of the hong kong has al guffman. now with the support of a central people's guffman is to enhance the capacities at various la pots of this antea. madame mikka effort vaccination rates are now rising, especially among the elderly. many seniors were unvaccinated before until now. hong kong had been coping well, but there is growing frustration towards the government's approach. you are chasing that i bought. this is insane, but there is no way to reach 0 cases. debra one by the time we achieve that every one's wallets will be empty. a lot of people will be out of work and have no income . the restaurants can't do any business. the government is really crazy. gotcha. we

can see that all that account is where they put an up router. so i bought a li. the situation currently is whether i'm here, it just got worse, empty restaurants and supermarket shelves, hopefully becoming a thing of the past for countries trying to live with the virus. but now commonplace here in hong kong. as the city adjusts to tougher measures. and correspondent if you'd be kong is in hong kong and filed this update on the situation in the city. hong kong is struggling, but not yet plunging into panic. however, with all the strength and restrictions imposed for more than 2 years, and now being for a tightened. many people here getting frustrated and exhausted. as a serial coat at flight appears to have no end in sight. and sought to over hong kong feature intensifies massive layoffs and pay cuts. make more people skeptical

about how realistic it is to take with us the recovery policy. moreover, the continuous put its gross oppression has already made many people trust that government, that's prompting credit is content to what is handling off the outbreak and for menaces. and here the hot like, oh, the policy is like stripping the remaining freedoms. and critics wonder whether it's patient influence rather than what books for hong kong, the half the city governments that came with the serial cove at the approach. and amongst other things that approach involves a longer choose at testing stations. we leave today with aerial shots of what that looks like on a daily basis in hong kong. when see you here, tomorrow, or by? ah, 3rd

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fighting the destruction against not only the in beaters came to prison, they shut down the next to do. the government is trying to destroy the indigenous people in with a large scale birchum of 80 projects. land grabbers are exploiting the amazon rain forest. indigenous peoples are now briefly opposing them. a long term report from the heart of brazil starts march 9th on d, w. ah . western economy say they're united on sanctions. should russia invade ukraine? penalties against banks and businesses could hit normal russians hard as well as europeans. we'll look at what's on the table and what the ripple effects might be. also on the show berlin's annual love letter to film the berlin allah is underway. german cinemas themselves or meanwhile struggling to fill seats. and it's

a ship of superlatives and it needs a new buyer. the massive global dree sits on finished on germany's baltic coast. the latest sign of the crews, industries struggles to stay afloat. hello and welcome to the show. i'm seen beardsley in berlin, banks, businesses and investors are keeping a close eye on the russian troop build up on ukraine's borders and sanctions are a special fear, finance ministers from the g. 7 group of industrialized nations saying monday that they were ready to impose massive economic sanctions against russia. in the event of an invasion, targeting banks and individuals. on the u. s. is also said, it could put an end to the north stream to pipeline. that's intended to be an important new supply route between germany and russia for gas. and that is supposed to be an important income stream for russia. and the u. s. is also considering put a putting russia on its export control as if it did it, it would join cuba, iran, north korea and sir.