he is disgusted by comments from palestinian leader mahmoud abbas during a visit to berlin. mister abbas accused israel, of committing 50 holocausts against his people coming up in just a moment in news asia. why is a mysterious chinese ship packed with ada drelick, stockton shrill lanka at this 5 protests from the u. s. and india? melissa channel. we'll have out story. i'm do more in just a moment and i'll be back at the top of the good departure, due to the today, this meets flying to a foreign planet. in the 16th century, it meant being a captain and setting sale to discover a route. the world famous c. voyage of ferdinand of magellan. i'd

rather erase linked to military interests, erase linked to political and military christie. but it was linked to many financial interests and adventure full of hardships, dangers and death 3 years and that would change the world forever. but jillions journey around the world, starting september 7th on d w. you're watching d w news asia coming up today, a mystery ship docs in sri lanka and there is concern. what is the chinese shift doing there and what is its purpose? we'll take a closer look and will the biggest pop stars in the world be forced to put a pos on their careers to become soldiers?

ah, ah, i melissa chan, thanks for joining us. entree longer. a chinese ship has docked at the port of hamburg total too much controversy because india and the united states sought to stop the ship from coming. according to the pentagon, that class of vessels is operated by the chinese military and can be used to monitor satellite rocket and ballistic missile launches. china says the ship is a science ship that conducts marine research. ultimately, the government permitted the ship's entry. china, as a reminder, is a major lender to sri lanka, new york and quizzed china a longstanding friend to assist us in these stuck to the over this and sick who and

i am a billowed as soon as possible. and roy, with some meaningful vision for it. we have pucker se out on a move to joining us. he's the executive director of the center for policy alternatives. welcome to the program. i guess it does seem a little strange for india and the u. s. to pressure sri lanka on this, after all, your sovereign state, you can do whatever you want, right? a. so what i'm wondering is why did columbo appear to spend a few days deciding whether this chinese vessel can come to port? but i think the 1st intimation to sri lanka was out when the previous president was an office. and i don't think it even went to the foreign minister. it was decided at a divisional level at the falling ministry. so i think what sri lanka wants to do was to establish a kind of cooling off period in which it could re balance our relations between

china and india. and so with the ship coming, india has given us 2 claims, save, shoot hague. we have the military ship coming into the harbor at ham man plotter and it's already arrived and we have 2 planes that india has given us, which have also arrived. i mean, the point i think here is, is that sri lanka wants to maintain an independent non aligned foreign policy. we are extremely grateful to india for the assistance they've given us in terms of the current economic crisis. we need chinese assistance in terms of agreeing to a haircut with regard to the staff agreement with the i m f and the depth restructuring. so we required the assistance of both countries in the current situation that we are and we need to balance out the impact of whatever leverage that they can have on our foreign policy. and indeed on our sovereignty. can you

tell us a little bit more about sri lanka relationship with china? well, i mean, it's a very old relationship with china and many debts back to in terms of the independence agreement. in 1952 where we exchange a rubber for their race. ab, during another period of sort of economic depression or crisis. so the relationship has very good. it got locked lock better and probably got imbalanced in china's favor. when the raj boxes delayed to put a relied upon the chinese for diplomatic protection against the war, crowns. allegations and international flora, and also for infrastructure development, a fair amount of which will vanity projects and as a consequence, because of those vanity projects did not provide results, which enables sri lanka to peer back the amounts of money and rested or borrowed.

we don't have to borrow even more. and then when we couldn't do that, we gave the land to the chinese on a lease out the whole month out of port as you know is on a 99 year lease to be chinese sho. in the roger pucks at iraq as it were, we, the balance of power was weighted very heavily in terms of our relations with the chinese, the current crisis where india has been absolutely superb in coming to our rescue has sort of realigned that policy considerably very quickly and we know why that ship is in port, it says it's a marine research ship, but you also mentioned it is a military ship. well, i mean, it may have got something to do with the recent her incidence in the taiwan over taiwan. but i showed the chinese into send out a message that look, this harbor is under our lease,

and we therefore have rights to go to the honda. i am the you assistant to military ship st, sri lanka, the indians. right? who so, you know, it's not the sort of extraordinary in that respect. got it back, a se, over 7 am to thank you so much for joining us. ah. shed celebrities get special treatment. should they, if they are a globally famous group like b t. s and arguably, one of south chris, greatest cultural ambassadors, get a pass to years of mandatory military service are required there. and a boy band faces the possibility of disappearing into the barracks as dw reports. wonderful, but with a white glove with a parliamentary debate in soul on a key matter of national defense, a policy issue close to the hearts of pop fans in south korea and beyond. if k pop boy ban bts are required to do their military service,

will they be confined to barracks and disappear from view? well, as a chance, it might not happen. what is the youth about me feel? even if they join the military, knew there be a way to give them a chance to practice and perform together? you know, if they're a scheduled concerts abroad and then i was good news for the fans. all young physically fit south korean man must do 21 months of military service. a legacy of the korean war which ended nearly 7 decades ago. technically south nor korea signed an armistice, but never a peace treaty. the korean peninsula remains heavily militarized. do 3. 0, the idea of the pop stars, a soldier has a long history in popular culture. when u. s. rock'n'roll legend, elvis presley entered the army in 1958. the day became known as black monday. but the king of rock'n'roll service did much to boost the public perception of the military. b t. s could even benefit from taking up arms. south koreans who do their

military service are very popular. people, highly value are to serving in the military. this may boost their popularity completely upon in 2011 south korea's modern day, elvis counterpart reign made a public display of his loyalty when he was forced to join a 29 dodging the draft certainly doesn't go down well with the public. meanwhile there are special rules for sport stars. tottenham hotspur, footballer, son young men was exempted from service because he'd won a medal at the asian games. but he still had to complete 3 weeks basic training which he did in 2020. during the english premier leagues enforced hiatus during the covert, pandemic locked down with bts. the issue was coming to a head. the oldest member of the band gin is turning 30 in december. this year legal revisions in 2019 allowed globally recognized k pop stars. to put off their

service until 30 that said the rigors of military life might prove a challenge for b t s. in june, the 7 member band announced a break from group musical activities to pursue solo projects, pleading exhaustion. joining us is to mar herman author of b t. s blood, sweat, and tears. welcome to the program. so we're not hoping for any blood but plenty of sweat and possibly some tiers for these guys. if they spent 2 years in the military and i wonder how likely is it, they'd have to serve the full 2 years and yeah, a few years ago. so now it's typically a little shorter, usually around 18 months, unless you do a specialist around training. so that is still a good time size now and it starts with list are able to

sometimes go for media or sometimes so hopefully that time will be there won't be too many cheers. and please know, i wonder how, how disruptive would this potentially be in a report we mentioned the pop star rain and how he did his time in the military did that impact his career? what's your take on? if b t s had to spend any time away. so yes, traditionally a centers who do analyst, they tend to have a hated their career tends to take it off in a big promotional come back period. some people are really successful on a stack, made a little, i think e t s has to be concerned about that rain is still usually popular. and so 3, i'm a huge, you know, now he's in

a different generation of his career anyway. but at the time it was quite stressful . and so we now have a different parent and where pastors are doing so military and coming back and promoting just normally. so i think things are quite different, but it will still you still have to see how it goes and how they pull it off. exactly, but i don't think it's necessarily it was. i wonder how would it be regarded? i mean, how is it regarded in south korea that as some people get special treatment and serve far less time? it huge today. almost bulk, all military service is a huge issue with the younger generation having people to actually fill all of the military company to try to allow for less than 20 generation. so just in general, military,

hugely ferry debate, public right now who gets, or at least can get, depending on what they, how they play it international. and their feel usually they need this and the answer is they can be eligible. if you study certain things, you can delay if you're reading your belly play only bank level to so people you know, typically go and they come back and they continue their life. so it's a pretty normal life. then for grand young man to take time out of their career or there are still special. ready there are attendance or high by and large, most of the be around the see obviously bts, you know, do deserve some special treatment of people's perspective just because what they do

and then leads to kind of this conversation about why are there for some people and others like yours right now to get there right military unless that's kind of different because generally not just easier to my herman. thank you so much for joining us. that's it for wednesday. thank you for watching. see to mile ah a vibrant habitat ended glistening place of longing. the mediterranean sea, it's waters connect people of many cultures. the net enema, m. jaffar, abdulla korea, exploring lebanon,

a melting pulse of religion and west in the next on d. w. sometimes books are more exciting than real life raring to read. oh, but what if there's no escape w literature list laundry german ma street. ah ah, the mediterranean was once a major crossroads at the heart of the ancient world. today it has become a barrier separating europe from africa. is there anything left of a past once cher.