Gravitas Live With Palki Sharma Upadhyay | What's China doing with your child's gene data?

the world we own world is one [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good evening and welcome to gravitas and palki sharma pad here let's get started [Music] so the concept of boundaries does not sit well with china we've learned it the hard way all of us the whole world china breaches land borders violates sea borders breaks digital borders what if we told you that china has also not spared wounds it is harvesting gene data from millions of pregnant women across the world what for to create super human soldiers [Music] military is spearheading a dangerous project to create genetically modified soldiers it may sound hard to believe but we have numbers and case studies on women who may have fallen victim on gravitas tonight we'll bring you details of china's latest sinister project also on the show as the taliban gains more territory america puts the owners of stability on afghanistan's neighbors we bring you an exclusive interview with a member of the afghan peace negotiation team big tech is facing five from all sides 37 american states have sued google donald trump takes facebook and google to court india's new it minister tosses the rule book at twitter for the first time in the history of the olympics there will be no spectators for the events japan has declared an emergency after gohan virus cases rise and a question that all of us should pause and ponder on do we really need 10 000 steps a day we'll tell you what science says we begin as always with gravitas global headlines [Music] india's foreign minister sji shankar emphasizes the strong and stable bilateral ties between india and russia in his speech in moscow adding that at the core of india russia ties is multilateralism jai shankar is expected to hold talks with his russian counterpart sergey lavrov on july 9. india has appointed an interim chief compliance officer and will also employ two other executives to comply with india's new i.t rules this as the u.s tech giant says it is setting up a liason office in india meanwhile india's new it minister ashwini vaishnav says that twitter will have to follow the law of the land even as south africa's former president jacob zuma turned himself in for a 15-month prison sentence for contempt the justice minister says suma will be eligible for parole after around four months this after zuma surrendered for defying a court order to provide evidence into a corruption probe during his tenure u.s troops in iraq and syria were targeted with rocket and drone attacks wounding two american service members at an iraqi air base hosting u.s forces no group has claimed responsibility for the attack but experts say these could be a part of a campaign by iranian-backed militias indonesia grapples with a surge in corona virus cases amid a widespread oxygen shortage the nation recorded its deadliest day since the start of the pandemic on july 7th with 1040 deaths individuals are pleading for oxygen supplies across social media for the fourth time this month a chinese war plane entered taiwan's air defense identification zone in what taiwan terms as an unnecessary and thoughtless incursion in response taiwan sent aircraft and broadcast radio warnings to track the chinese plane california is set to approve reparations of up to 25 000 dollars to thousands of people who were sterilized decades ago when the government deemed them unfit to have children the so-called eugenics movement of the 1930s forced people as young as 13 with physical disability or mental illness to be sterilized a study finds that extreme weather patterns rising due to the threat of climate change are responsible for 5 million deaths globally each year this is the first and largest study linking changes in temperature to annual increases in mortality olympic organizers have banned all spectators from the tokyo games with japanese prime minister yoshihiro tuga declaring a covet state of emergency in the host city tokyo reported 896 new cases today which continues a significant recent spike in infections the fourth emergency will run from june 12 11 days before the start of the opening ceremony to august 22nd which is two days before the start of the paralympics world number one ashley barty has become the first australian woman to enter the wimbledon final since 1980 with a straight sets win over germany's angelique kerber barty rode the advantage of an early break to win the first set 6-3 but was on the ropes as 2018 winner kerber built up a commanding 5-2 lead in the second however the aussie fought back to force a tie break and then won it 7-3 to wrap the match tonight i want to bring you to your attention a new threat from china china wants to create superhumans people with extraordinary capabilities the project is already on and china is using the gene data of unborn children across the world to make this happen i know it sounds like the plot of a movie but this is happening for real it is not science fiction it is in fact a national security threat to 52 countries who already been compromised in this let me tell you how it works a chinese company is working in collaboration with the people's liberation army that's the chinese army what do they do they make prenatal test kits these are kits used by pregnant women then the company aided by the chinese military collects data of these women what for to understand what kind of genes are being passed on to the child it's called gene data harvesting in other words china is harvesting information about the health of babies how many children are we talking about more than eight million women not just in china but spread across the world 52 countries to be precise pregnant women in 52 countries across the world have fallen victim to these this chinese operation what will china do with this information their gene data use it to infuse superhuman capabilities into the chinese military you could say they want genetically modified soldiers and it's as scary as it sounds the last time they tried to modify a virus the world got a pandemic imagine them trying to modify humans now create superhuman variants it's insane it's also a threat that must be spelt out so here's what we know our story begins with china's bgi group bgi stands for the beijing genomics institute it's a chinese genome sequencing company a genome is basically a person's genes and this company bgi is in the business of studying genes the bgi group along with the chinese military developed a prenatal test pregnant women are given these tests for information about the health of the mother and the baby it's a fairly common practice it helps in detecting abnormalities in a fetus for instance the down syndrome now this particular test developed by china's bgi group and its military is called nifty it was launched in the year 2013 and today in 2021 nifty is one of the top selling prenatal tests in the world and this is where the problem begins when a woman takes the nifty prenatal test her gene data goes to the bgi group they actively collect it later this data is shared with the chinese government more specifically with some institutes run by the government of china like i said more than 8 million women have taken this test worldwide the bgi group is said to have sent leftover blood samples to its lab in hong kong and the gene data from clients is then being used for population research the data is being stored at the chinese national gene bank in shenzhen this gene bank is funded by the chinese government and it is run by the bgi group this test is sold in 52 countries india is one of them but it's not yet clear data from india has also made its way back to china what reuters has found is this genetic data of more than 500 women from europe and asia ended up at the chinese gene bank we cannot confirm if there's more but whatever the number is this even legal this practice of sending gene data apparently it is reports say the company the bgi group got all the women to sign consent forms before they took the test it's a fact that most people do not read the fine print and that's also unfortunate because according to the test privacy policy the company can share all the data they collect with the chinese government here's what it says the bgi group can share data if it is quote unquote directly relevant to the national security or national defense security of china how is the gene data of unborn babies in other countries relevant to the national defense security of china defies logic but this is the pretext that the company uses chinese national security and this is how the chinese state gets access to genetic data of babies across the world mothers who have taken the test are now concerned one of them is emilia a 32 year old citizen of poland who took the bgi prenatal test emilia says she had read through the company's forms before agreeing to the terms but she had no knowledge that the chinese state has the power to access her child's data i have to admit that the news that my data could have been taken over by the chinese government is shocking for me after reading the form i had the impression that i was well informed about the test and how the data would be used i would like to know if they are aware that these samples are probably being sent further on and why they aren't telling their patients about this this could be a very important matter when choosing a test for me it would be clearly this test needs to come with a bigger more specific warning label and if you're scared about the prospect of the chinese state gathering data about unborn children wait till you hear what china wants to do with this data having a massive bank of gene data gives china a clear strategic edge it can help beijing in a variety of ways with this data they can develop better pharmaceuticals but that's not the end game they're looking to create better soldiers genetically enhanced soldiers or human variants super soldiers are no longer just the stuff of science fiction with rapid progress being made in gene editing superhumans could soon become a reality gene editing is a method by which scientists can change the dna of living beings plants bacteria animals in humans they could change physical traits and cure diseases at least that's the promise that's being made but we've seen how gene editing can also go horribly wrong the bgi group says it is only working for the greater good and for that they're working with the chinese military doesn't add up but here's what they've done they've conducted genetic research to combat hearing loss and altitude sickness in soldiers the bji group has published studies with the third military medical university in china it talks about drugs that could protect harm chinese from brain injury at high altitudes interestingly the study makes a reference to chinese soldiers stationed in tibet and xinjiang the same regions that share a border with india and have witnessed clashes between the chinese and indian soldiers in the ongoing border standoff now china wants to deploy super soldiers at the border troops laced with edited genes using research from gene data surreptitiously collected from across the world by all indications china is far from achieving this anytime soon but the fact that they're trying to do this the fact that they're working in this direction the fact that they're collecting data from 52 countries should be enough to raise the alarm here's something that can be done immediately india set an example for the world last year by banning more than 100 chinese apps over security concerns india should consider the same measure for companies that harvest gene data now they say all good things come to an end for years big tech enjoyed control quashed competition vast in the glory of monopoly but now it may all end and end very soon doors are closing in on tech giants standing on the front line are facebook twitter and google i have three stories for you tonight we'll start with what's happening in the united states google has been sued in the us by as many as 37 states 37 american states and washington dc have together dragged google to court it is being accused of violating anti-trust laws what does that mean number one google is being accused of anti-competitive conduct in its play store you know the google play store that we have on our android phones american states say that the play store is anti-competitive i'll explain you see google puts misleading security warnings on android phones so when you try to download apps from outside the play store your android phone discourages you you may get a notification saying that the app is dangerous that it may have a virus and so on so a person mostly ends up downloading apps only from the play store why is this bad for you because it deprives you of choice of better price range a similar app could be cheaper outside the play store but google would discourage you from downloading it and it's especially bad for app developers they lose out on android users it's not fair competition here's another point on the lawsuit it says that google is forcing app developers to pay commission again how suppose you've downloaded an app from play store now you want to buy paid content on this app so what will google do it will force the app to use google billing for the transaction and that ensures that google pockets a 30 commission on every purchase google also prevents most app developers from selling their product outside the play store so it's my way of the highway google makes a fortune in the process everyone else loses out and none of this is really surprising we have been aware of big tech's monopoly for a while now what's different this time is that governments are doing something about it in this case it's the governments in the u.s google's home country what has been filed against google is a bipartisan lawsuit meaning parties from across the political divide have joined hands the case will be heard by a judge named james tonato he was appointed by barack obama he has a history of not being lenient with google but that's not going to be enough what these american states must do now is provide evidence and hard evidence remember what happened with facebook just a couple of weeks back america's federal trade commission had taken it to court it had accused facebook of being anti-trust but a federal judge could do nothing about it why because he said that the agency had failed to provide enough evidence to prove facebook's monopoly will google's fate be different we don't know has google responded to the news of this lawsuit it has here is a blog post it was published on the 7th of july it says and i'm quoting it's strange that a group of state attorneys general chose to file a lawsuit attacking a system that provides more openness and choice than others this is a 7100 plus character long blog there's a lot of unnecessary data a lot of technical jargon all stitched together to help google plead not guilty but this is not the only case that google is fighting there is another lawsuit that has been filed against google also named in it is facebook any idea who's filed this suit none other than former u.s president donald trump here's what he said we're asking the u.s district court for the southern district of florida to order an immediate halt to social media companies illegal shameful censorship of the american people and that's exactly what they are doing we're demanding an end to the shadow banning a stop to the silencing and a stop to the blacklisting banishing and canceling that you know so well our case will prove this censorship is unlawful it's unconstitutional and it's completely un-american we all know that we know all know that very very well for a change he's right what big tech is doing is not only an american it is also an indian and european it is in short anti-human rights anti-trust authorities in the uk and australia are already probing google's monopoly india too has come up with new i.t regulations to tame tech giants yesterday india appointed a new i.t minister his name is ashwini vaishna 51 years old former bureaucrat an iit and water graduate he's been tasked with breaking the monopoly of big tech in india of making the internet free and fair and of getting twitter to abide by india's new regulations that it has also openly been flouting for so long vaishnav was on the job within hours of taking office the minister sent out a loud and clear message to twitter he said and i quote whoever is a citizen of india and those who stay in india will have to abide by the laws of the country in compliance with the new i.t rules twitter has finally appointed an interim compliance officer in india now indian law requires big tech to appoint a chief compliance officer a nodal officer and a grievance officer in the country and all of them should be residents of india after much resistance twitter may finally be complying but these battles are far from over you see a new technology always enjoys the advantage of legal loopholes what's new is often mostly unregulated but the new but the law in fact catches up sooner or later it happened with nuclear arms it happened with space programs drag drones and now it is also happening with the internet it may have taken a good two decades for governments to understand the world wide web and its pitfalls but now that they have the end of big text reign and digital colonization should only be a matter of time speaking of ends the situation in afghanistan is going from bad to worse the u.s pullout is nearly complete the taliban is making rapid territorial gains meanwhile india's external affairs minister s j shankar is in moscow after a transit halt in tehran he's discussing the stabilization of afghanistan with russian officials in the next four minutes we'll get to details of each of these developments we'll start with america's retreat according to the pentagon the true pullout is 90 percent complete the remaining ten percent will be covered by the end of august at least seven former us bases have been handed over to afghan security forces and nearly one thousand c-17 freighter loads of equipment have been evacuated only 650 odd military personnel will stay behind and they will not engage with the taliban they will only protect the u.s embassy and its diplomats america says the onus is now on afghanistan's neighbors to act responsibly and play a constructive role in maintaining peace for too long many of afghanistan's neighbors have been happy to see the united states engaged in the united states alone engaged if there is to be a just and durable settlement and a comprehensive ceasefire it needs to be supported supported by afghanistan's neighbors and we hope to see them act responsibly that's convenient had they acted responsibly in the first place we wouldn't have been here the americans came they stayed for 20 years dropped what they call the mother of all bombs on afghans and now they want the neighbors to clear a mess their actions have only emboldened the taliban their onslaught is picking pace the terrorists have now taken control of 195 afghanistan's more than 400 districts they're contesting 129 other districts after kandahar and badakshan they have now shifted focus to a province in the northwest the badges province it's one of afghanistan's most underdeveloped provinces but it's important because of its location this province borders turkmenistan and the taliban has directly gone for its capital the kalai in our city on thursday morning the taliban attacked from all sides broke into the city's central prison and freed the inmates a video has emerged it shows the taliban speeding across the city on motorbikes some bystanders cheer with slogans we cannot vouch for the authenticity of this video but we can confirm that a pushback is underway afghan security forces have fortified several key areas they're trying their best to ensure that the city does not fall the provincial chief of police says the taliban made the wrong assessment they lost more than 50 more than 80 fighters and should be leaving the city soon we are inside the city the enemies of afghanistan the dirty taliban today wanted to take over the kala in our city and kill the honorable citizens of batkies they were wrong with their assessment and were faced with a quick response of our brave security forces the enemies suffered over 80 casualties and right now they are escaping from the city the situation is still developing turkmenistan which borders the badgis province is not taking any chances it has reinforced its military presence at all posts along the long border it is preparing for an influx of refugees so is uzbekistan tajikistan and iran and speaking of iran yesterday india's external affairs minister sri shankar was in tehran he met the foreign minister in the president-elect he discussed the situation in afghanistan today s j shankar is in moscow with the same agenda to find a solution to this evolving conflict he had several meetings lined up one with the foreign minister another with the deputy prime minister and yet another with the chairman of russia state doma committee on international affairs speaking at one forum in moscow the minister said that india always stood for an afghanistan that is united sovereign and at peace with itself and that this position has not changed what has been opposition on afghanistan we have both uh uh supported uh you know we were very clear 20 years ago certainly uh that we were for a united afghanistan we were for a sovereign afghanistan we were for in afghanistan where minorities had a had a fair share of representation we went for an afghanistan which was at peace with itself and at peace with its neighbors i don't think that has changed ahead of his arrival russian foreign minister sergey lavrov also made some interesting remarks he said that russia is closely watching what's happening in afghanistan that it's ready to use its military base in tajikistan and ready to defend its regional allies if necessary as you know we are closely watching what is happening in afghanistan where the situation has a tendency to swiftly deteriorate including against the backdrop of the hasty exit of american and other nato troops we will do everything we can including using the capabilities of the russian military base on tajikistan's border with afghanistan to prevent any aggressive impulses towards our allies russia has made its intentions clear india iran and the rest of afghanistan's neighbors are doing their bit well most of them are but with the taliban spreading rapidly across the country with no interest in indulging in a dialogue it's hard to say how much the other stakeholders will be able to secure their interests and this conclusion became quite apparent to us when earlier in the day we spoke to nader naderi mr nadhari is a member of the afghan peace team that is negotiating with the taliban he admitted that the talks with the taliban are not progressing as they they would have liked there is no change in the group's attitude the taliban still wants afghanistan to be governed by the islamic law will the taliban prolong yet another war in afghanistan and will the people of afghanistan now rise against this group is pakistan coming in the way of a peaceful settlement and what role can india play in all of this i put these questions to another another e here's here's an excerpt of that conversation mr nadhari welcome to eon thank you thanks for having me we'll begin with the latest what's the situation right now in kala in no uh the capital of the baby's province that was stormed by the taliban on wednesday well it's it's a it's a war a time of transition transition from a full a larger international engagement to no international military engagement and as a result of that transition you can see certain development happen that are unfortunate but the reality is changing back soon as it is the case in calais now in partners province yes the taliban stormed the center of the city however uh our security forces uh have cleared back the city uh of the taliban so you're saying the problem the provincial capital is now back under the control of the government that that is so yes yeah last uh last hours of yesterday uh they were they were pushed back uh uh palki uh you you've said that the country is the verse of a civil war and uh you suggested of the surrender there's no doubt that certain positions and certain posts our security forces did leave their postings and by leaving it was part of a consolidation of strategy consolidation of our forces since the first of may when the american troops began their withdrawal from afghanistan the taliban has taken control of more than 100 districts of your country why have the afghan forces uh been unable to push them back why were they not prepared for this offensive well this was that the hundredth has happened a number of months that lead to to the to the figure of 100th district the the key decision was when we decided to pull back from those localities where there in terms of number of population they were not significant and administrative importance uh was not as significant as strategic as to in to spend and invest a significant amount of resources in those areas we need to protect a civilian population areas the center of population needed to be protected as they come and the daily and consistent attacks so we made a strategic decision to pull out of some of these districts you know in the past few days we've seen videos of afghan troops government troops surrendering their weapons to the taliban we have reports of them fleeing to tajikistan to me it doesn't sound like strategic consolidation as you put it oh definitely those as as i say they were places where the the the situation and development have created a psychology of itself taking one of those areas that you've mentioned uh in in the border area with tajikistan uh but i'm i'm not a security expert i'm not a security spokesperson uh to provide you with more detail i'm a member of afghanistan's peace negotiation uh team and i would rather uh focus on on the on the elements of the piece i will allow the security situation for our security officials to to discuss it more i understand that in a recent interview abdullah abdullah the afghan leader who leads the high council for national reconciliation said that talks with the taliban have made quote unquote very little progress you've been sitting across the table with the taliban where is the peace effort headed i do agree that with chairman abdullah that the the talks did not yet uh made uh significant progress and especially and specifically because the taliban do not share the same sense of urgency as we have to end this war as soon as possible um the the issues on the table that uh has been an interest for the taliban to discuss are sub-issues not the main issues that related to ending this conflict through a political settlement and that's why a delay we do consider that killing time and delaying is more serving one purpose and that is to pursue more of a militaristic agenda rather than focusing on on whether we focus on on a peaceful settlement of of the differences so you are saying that afghanistan is heading towards another prolonged war if the taliban choose to not uh take the the peaceful path of political settlement uh every single indicator suggests that uh the people understand uh sharma what has happened in afghanistan is the transformation of our society there are many studies including one that just released this week of by by third party independent study groups that they they talked to afghans and rulers afghan women in ruler communities in rural areas there was a misconception that the phenomenon of african women rights is only urban based no afghan woman talks about women rights and and the freedoms in the in the ruler area this report and many other uh uh events like the gatherings of of women groups that the woman jackass and all of that is proving those who think uh afghanistan a woman only in in the centers of cities are demanding it everybody wants a different future for themselves are the taliban sensitive to these changes that afghanistan has undergone in the past two decades you've been engaging with them sitting across the table would you say that this is the same taliban that that ruled afghanistan 20 years back or have they evolved well the the words come safe suggests uh that these were different words been saying acknowledgement of the uh of the changes but those political actors a few of them for a long time uh almost a decade sitting in doha and those who are on the battlefield and those who are in kuwaita and in in uh uh peshawar those are the ones who are actually setting the policies and they as we see the implementation of those policies in the in the past few weeks in the areas that they've taken control of it they have implemented the same sets of strict rules as an example uh orders being issued that woman should not go out without a a a a male accompanied or maharan in that case a lot of services being put on halt because of that rule in some areas even uh the male members of the society were asked to grow up here and these are similar sets of uh restricted uh uh rules that they they were uh implementing when they were in power so you're saying they've not changed that's that's basically so far their actions suggest uh no change in the in the in their world view and the ways of the government there are reports not confirmed by the indian ministry of external affairs that india is indeed talking to the taliban uh if that were to be confirmed would you see this as a failure of the afghan government we as i said until recently they have not been in touch so we do heard the same as uh that there's been an um unconfirmed uh meetings or outreach from from india it wouldn't be a failure of the afghan government because the afghan government and government of india are very much close partners uh prime minister modi and president danny are close friends they talk to each other regularly president ghani visited number of time delhi in india in different locations prime minister modi at least visited afghanistan two three times they're good communication between our security departments and their indian counterpart there's also good cooperation between the foreign offices of both countries so uh there's never been an occasion where asman government would have not been uh open and forthcoming uh with our partners in in india in the month of march the biden administration put forward proposals for a negotiated peace in afghanistan but now the americans are withdrawing unconditionally american soldiers in fact reportedly left the bagram air base without even notifying the afghans do you believe that washington is abandoning afghanistan leaving it to its fate now well washington decided what they could think is is best for them and yes we we are partners uh we were close uh the partnering uh uh in in security areas uh boots on ground was a different time that partnership we are short is going to continue in different ways both in terms of assistance or security forces but also training and mentoring of course people races raise questions the general public has that right to to raise the questions to bring the issue of leaving without notification from a major air base and that is basically an expectation that's being built throughout these many years of partnership uh i would like you to comment on pakistan's role in the transition there are claims that terrorists from the taliban are still taking refuge in pakistan is pakistan's involvement hurting the efforts towards a peaceful settlement well pakistan recently have been coming forth and back promising that they will cooperate in peaceful settlement uh for those of us who've lived long in this neighborhood uh it's hard for us to only believe words we need to see tangible results we need to see if those words are translated into anything these words have not translated to anything so far we have seen an escalating level of violence we have seen more transit out of durian line here especially to the taliban both in terms of providing shelters and recreation centers for them to be to be treated in pakistan and health facilities but also logistical support in the nation and others have escalated the transition and the transit of it in the past few months so we don't see yet any contribution positively in a change in the attitude of taliban toward a peaceful settlement they do say that they're working toward it it's taking too long we need to end this war sooner right now the nathuri thanks very much for very patiently taking all my questions your country is going through a churn and we can only hope that that peace prevails thank you thank you always like they say if you want to enter politics it helps if you come from the right family the induction of a new minister in sri lankan government proves this the name of the minister is basil rajapaksa the age of 70 has been sworn in as sri lanka's finance minister interestingly basil rajapaksa did not contest the 2020 general election he was prohibited due to allegations of corruption but then the president of sri lanka removed the constitutional provision which prevented basil rajapaksa to enter the legislature and why wouldn't he basil rajapaks after all is president gotta bear rajapaksa's brother just like prime minister mahinda rajapaks says his brother also the minister of irrigation chamal rajapaksa the oldest of them all the four brothers are now in charge of sri lanka's four top ministries but the family's grip on power does not end here 35 year old namal rajapaksa the prime minister's elder son is a youth and sports minister 33 year old yoshita rajapaksa the younger son is the prime minister's chief of staff then we have shashindra rajapaksa the irrigation minister's oldest son he is the state minister of agriculture shamin rajapaksa his younger son director of the sri lankan airlines that's a total of eight rajapaksas in the government one big happy family also the most powerful in sri lanka and the contrast is dark because only yesterday there was a cabinetry shuffle in india and there was talk of technocrats making to top posts here we have eight rajapaksas in the sri lankan government this is not a commentary by the way on their competence but there's no denying that having the right surname takes you places in politics a trend which is not unique to sri lanka political dynasties have run democracies for decades take the marcos family in the philippines it started with mariano marcos a member of the philippines house of representatives his son ferdinand marcos went on to become both the prime minister and president his wife ferdinand's wife imelda marcos served as governor of metropolitan manila their son bongbong marco served as governor of ilocos note which is a province in the philippines as did their daughter amy marcos enemy's son matthew manotok is the current governor of the same province in brazil there's the bolsonaro family jayad bolsonaro the head of the family is the president his oldest son flavio boltonaro is a senator from rio de janeiro his second son carlos is a counselor from rio and his third son eduardo is the federal deputy of sao paulo and when we discuss dynasty politics we cannot not bring up india the nehru gandhi family has been part of indian politics since the 19th century the spans five generations it started with motilal nehru who served as the president of the congress before independence his son jawaharlal went on to become india's first prime minister until his death in 1964. in 1966 nehru's daughter indira gandhi became india's first woman prime minister she served another term until she was assassinated in 1984. that's when her elder son rajiv gandhi took over as prime minister he ruled in 1989 until he too was assassinated rajiv gandhi's wife sonia gandhi took charge as the president of the congress party in 1998 a position that she still holds rajiv gandhi's younger brother sanjay gandhi was also a politician he's said to have played a major role during the emergency one of the darkest chapters in post-independence indian history sanjay gandhi's wife gandhi served as an independent parliamentarian and then a minister this was the fourth generation the fifth generation gandhis are varun gandhi the son of sanja gandhi and member of parliament from the bjp there's priyanka gandhi vadra the daughter of rajiv gandhi and solya gandhi she serves as general secretary of the congress party and then we have rahul gandhi a member of parliament and the on off president of the congress party well these are just a few examples there are many more a 2018 study revealed that on average one in ten world leaders comes from a political family as do one in five lawmakers and how many of them deserve to is a question that has no easy answers tokyo olympics will be held without spectators for the first time in the history of the games the olympics will be held behind closed doors fans have been banned from entering olympics venues in tokyo and three other neighboring prefectures some spectators however will be allowed in venues outside the greater tokyo area but most events will have no fans the announcement comes after the government of japan declared an emergency in the face of wuhan virus resurgence our next report tells you what a spectator-less olympics means for the games and the government of yoshihide i have been saying that we might have no spectators if the state of emergency was issued for the first time in the history of the olympics there will be no spectators tokyo 2021 will be a closed olympics wuhan virus cases have gone up 2180 new cases were reported in japan at least 920 of these in tokyo alone japan has declared an emergency and banned spectators from the stance around two weeks to go until the start of the olympics it will be held under a state of emergency unprecedentedly [Music] this is bad news for all tokyo 2021 has always been more than just the games it has been a matter of pride for the government of japan it took up the challenge to host an already postponed olympics and to recover the expenses but a ban on spectators means there will be no income from ticket sales the state of emergency means that even the food and hospitality industry will lose out as bars and restaurants will not be allowed to serve alcohol what does all of this mean for the government of yoshihide suga a further fall in popularity japan's ruling parties suffered a loss in recently held city elections experts saw this as a mandate on the government's decision to go ahead with the olympics despite all odds in three months from now japan will also hold elections for its lower house if the city polls for a bellwether the response to emergency measures only weighs in on it i don't think we should hold the olympics in such a situation i think the olympic should be cancelled right away i just want to say that it's enough the vaccination for the general public has begun i think it's fine that the government issued the state of emergency but the restrictions are very unreasonable and that's what i can't agree with i think our life has been constrained because the decision makers didn't do enough i feel like we are being taken for fools and i wonder why things have become so chaotic japan has declared a state of emergency till the 22nd of august the olympics start on the 23rd of july and go on till the 8th of august tokyo 2021 will go down in history books as the first closed-door games also one where the government of the host country may end up with a loss the referee is yet to take a call on that bureau report beyond world is one do you want to stay healthy eat less drink green tea work out more and walk at least 10 000 steps a day in previous gravitas reports we have busted the myth of eating less drinking green tea versus normal tea we've also told you about the ill health the ill effects are working out too much tonight we address the 10 000 step myth most of us check our smart watches and fitness trackers every now and then to ensure that we are walking enough to reach the 10 000 step goal by the end of the day but have you ever wondered who really set the 10 000 step goal the story goes back to 1965. 10 000 steps have very little to do with health and a lot to do with marketing in 1964 tokyo hosted the olympics a japanese company called yamasa clock wanted to capitalize on the interest and fitness that these games had generated so it must produce pedometers devices that count your steps the device was called manpo k which in japanese means 10 000 steps meter was the goal based on any scientific research it wasn't in the years that followed researchers began investigating the 10 000 step logic a study called happy feet found that 100 days of 10 000 steps showed an improved mental health and well-being but recent studies have challenged this arbitrary figure a study conducted at the university of texas showed that 5 000 steps should be enough walking fewer steps than that means that your body will not be able to properly metabolize fat a study was also conducted at the harvard medical school this was as recent as 2019 researchers studied nearly 17 000 women their mean age was 72 their steps per day were measured for seven days researchers concluded that 4 400 steps may be enough to significantly lower mortality rates what if you walk more than 4 400 steps a day researchers said that the more you walked the lower your mortality rate but this levels off at around 7500 steps a day which is 2500 steps less than 10 000. what if you want to walk that extra mile please go ahead but science says there will not be any real benefit and just to put it on record i'm not discouraging walking i'm only trying to vet the 10 000 step logic here when it comes to walking in general its benefits are numerous walking increases cardiovascular fitness it reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke walking helps reduce joint pains muscle stiffness walking is good for those suffering from diabetes it also reduces body fat it will help you if you walk to the nearest grocery store instead of driving walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator if you are meeting a friend at a neighborhood cafe wear your walking shoes and walk down to the cafe if you do not walk at all start today start by walking for 10 minutes aim for 2000 steps increase slowly my point is walk by all means but don't exert yourselves trying to reach that 10 000 step goal and don't obsess over the readings of the so-called fitness trackers the 10 000 step goal is unscientific it serves no real purpose on that note it's a wrap we're leaving you with gravitas images thanks for watching [Music] watching [Music] me

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Id: e8FqDQ07Sp8

Length: 54min 35sec (3275 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 08 2021