other other issues important to liberals including minority rights and gay marriage now the fact that warren was the first major democrat to announce that she's taking this preliminary step to running may be a political calculation many others will follow in the spring and this is a suspected to be a wide field of candidates as many as thirty potential democrats who would like to take this on they include a wave of fresh new faces that were ushered into prominence by the midterm elections as well as more veterans politically including former vice president joe biden as well as senator bernie sanders both of whom have the added experience of having run for president in the past so warren would need to convince democrats that she deserves to be the new face of this currently leaderless party as well as sell the all important message of being able to defeat donald trump in the general

election on that front she has already shown some weakness trump has often called her using the slur pocahontas to deride her claims of having native american ancestry and warren's critics and supporters alike have panned warren's decision to take a d.n.a. test and release those results to the public saying she was simply taking trump's bait so in order to overcome that many are saying she would need to be more politically deft going forward. still ahead here on al-jazeera the sudanese president announces an investigation into ongoing protests as demonstrators continue to call for his resignation. to bolton or defect now brazil's new far right president could have an impact on the global stage.

and we've got quite a bit of unsettled weather across the middle east at the moment for take a look at the satellite picture we can see one area of cloud here of a q eight stretching its way across into iran and then yet more making its way across parts of turkey and turkey is going to have some pretty heavy rain as we head through the next few days so what out of this system head is making its way out of europe and then tracking its way towards the east it will bring us some heavy rain particularly in the southern parts of turkey and also some wet weather around the east coast the mediterranean sea particularly soggy here as we head through wednesday and into thursday a bit further south and the clown sinking its way towards us here in doha so a fairly great picture to the north of us as we head through the day on wednesday in fairly large amounts of cloud here in doha it could just squeeze out one or two showers perhaps down towards the south and the wet weather here is looking far heavier for many of us it is looking like rather a wet day the showers generally from angola stretching all the way across towards madagascar but then for the south where it's been very very hot recently we're

seeing quite a few thunderstorms here there's a stretching through parts of boats wanna and down through the northeastern parts of south africa so very heavy downpours here including probably jo'burg as well cape town should be a different story that we'll get to around twenty three that seventy three in fahrenheit and it should be fine unsettled. initial response had been inadequate but now it was time for. the muslims now moved from reacting to taking action putting the western crusaders on the defensive with hindsight this is seen as a breakthrough as a revival of the jihad in the muslim near east the crusades an arab perspective episode to revive at this time on.

her mind to the top stories the north korean leader kim jong un has rung in the new year with an offer of more talks with u.s. president don't trump but he will in the pyongyang may seek a new path on denuclearization if washington pursues action against north korea. both sides in yemen's war are being accused of siphoning food aid the un's food agency threaten to suspend shipments unless he sees rain in corruption and the associated press documents suggesting a russians in ties have been seized by armed units working with saudi u.a.e. coalition forces. bangladesh's prime minister sharon sina has rejected calls for a new very tough to be cleared the women in sunday's election the opposition has

called for a new vote accusing the government of widespread working. sudan's president bashir has ordered a commission of inquiry into nationwide protests are we going nearly two weeks ago the best to go should we look at how police responded to the demonstrations which were at least nineteen people dead becomes a security force again used tear gas and live fire to disperse crowds in the capital dozens of protesters were arrested there calling on bashir to end his twenty nine year rule despite his promises to implement reforms to improve people's livelihoods morgan his latest now from khartoum today is the thirteenth day of protests people once again marched out into the streets protesting president bush's twenty nine year old they once again called for him to step down and hand over the government to an interim government until elections are held but the president has seemed very defiant over the past few days and he still seemed defiant today yesterday he met with the chief of police and he told them to use less force with the protesters amnesty international says thirty seven people have been killed at

least and dozens and dozens have been injured and even more have been arrested but in today's protests police once again used tear gas and live ammunition now the president also addressed the nation on the eve of the country's sixty third anniversary independence anniversary and he said he wants to pave the way for negotiations with the people who are protesting. but how did things get into we shall enter into a new era where unity is reinforced and harmony is maintained in the whole country all with the aim to face the challenges and threats hovering above our head and here i renew the call to the honorable sudanese people in and outside of sudan to come together and stand united to parade on the good and not the evil we will join hands to denounce violence away from wars to engage in dialogue is the only means to resolve differences now for him to negotiate with the people protesting would be very hard that's because the people who are marching out in the streets don't have a certain body that is basically guiding them the opposition has come out and lent

its support to those people who are out in the streets because they see that these people have a legitimate reason to demand that president step down but then the thing is it's very hard for the president to try to negotiate with a body that is not controlled by anyone at the moment and people are saying that they will continue to protest they will continue to demonstrate on the streets they will continue to make their demands heard but the president is saying that his very defiant he's not going to step down he's going to try to introduce economic reforms he's going to try to improve the economy something that the people out in the streets marching said that they have heard over and over again and they're not ready to see after twenty nine years of president obama was here israel so at the moment sudan is still at a crossroad protesters demanding that a president step down and president i wish you very defined saying that he will improve the situation but he's not going to step down and it's not clear where the situation would lead to intense one thousand. in the democratic republic of congo several candidates are claiming they're in the lead in sunday's present and in sunday's presidential election count it continues after the ballot which was hampered by delays complaints of vote rigging and violence the internet's also been

cut in an apparent effort to stop speculation about the results twenty one candidates are vying for the top office including the opposition's margin for you malcolm i've been following events in the capital kinshasa and has the very latest . opposition candidate martin lewis said he's confident of a victory he said the information that he's teams gathered since polling suggests that he's in pretty clear when opinion polls held before the election gave him a substantial lead over all of the other candidates and he said that if a ruling party victory is announced he won't accept it meanwhile a spokesman for the ruling party's candidate mahmassani shattering said his candid it had won most of the provinces outside of the council with what the opinion polls showed and also odds with what was expected following the very large crowds opposition rallies did draw in some of the provinces during the campaigns majority of congolese an opinion poll say they don't trust the electoral commission and they

don't trust the courts to resolve the dispute internet services throughout the country have been turned off of course one of the key pieces of information that people want to be exchanging right now particularly those in opposition of results from polling stations that they're trying to gather the counting process also has some lack of clarity and controversy around it it's not entirely clear if the paper ballots printed by the voting machines one for each voter will be used as the main source of data collection or if an electronic signal transferred directly from those machines to the electoral commission will be used instead of paper counters of course much more transparent and easier for observers and opposition party. sensitives to monitor the electronic system opposition say is a paid vulnerable to manipulation. opinion poll say that half of respondents wouldn't accept the ruling because we announced that about half of respondents

would take to the streets if the case the french president set out his vision for two thousand and nineteen says he'll press ahead with his controversial economic reforms and many more macro to acknowledge the tension the policy could cause but call for patience and for unity not. the malays in our world in the crisis of the european dream is real but it doesn't mean we should despair it's a huge challenge we must face and all of this is connected with the malays we feel in our country but we have a role to play and a vision to propose that is the direction i've been trying to move our country in since the first day i took office and which i intend to continue to pursue putting people first this needs determination and consistency. smith is in paris with more of what president had to say. clearly what he's had to say has been affected by the

yellow bus protests in the last couple of months that started in november and clearly in a lot of what he was saying was addressing those concerns and he said that he wants twenty nine hundred to be. more decisive here when france will move forward he said in many of the things that they promised to do in terms of improving education improving health and he talked about wanting to address the issue of long term unemployed and try and help people who are without jobs but he also listed a series of wishes that he had for france next year interest in his first one was a wish for truth particular point he was making about the prevalence of fake news and he was saying that you know we have to pay taxes for the things that we want in this country we cannot live we can't have all the things we want if we don't pay for them we have to we have to be realistic and we have to address those issues he said and he said day also how to wish for dignity and he spoke particularly this again was i think an address to the people who the yellow best of protesters they

are the majority of whom are people who having difficulty making ends meet the working class is the lower middle classes who just can't make ends meet every month with a small paychecks they have and he recognized that he said i want more dignity for those mothers looking after their children to the farmers who are working the lines so an appeal really i reel direct appeal i think to those people who've been protesting on the streets already earlier this year offered various concessions to them a couple of weeks ago tax cuts and improvements in the increase in the minimum wage but this was another reaching out of those people i think. brazil's new president will be sworn in on tuesday. is a defy some figure who's appraised the country's past military dictatorship john holliman looks at what his presidency could mean for the rest of the world. this covers more than half of brazil the amazon rain forest it's known as the lungs storing billions of tons of the planet's carbon dioxide. it was already being cut

back but now brazil's incoming president wants to see it opened up to the business . go through. with people don't leave it with. if we need to we're going to propose democratically to congress change the laws of the environmental policies don't disrupt brazil's development. it's not just the environment john abell sinatra's election is part of a new global wave of populist conservative leaders levitated one sanat zero the victory of balsa narrow as a victory for the ultra right which is beginning to be a real force in the world brazil is very strategic one of the most important countries in latin america has this relationship now with the u.s. and other countries like austria turkey and the philippines. the one that the relationship will sonata is most interested in is with this money they share a love of social media and the distrust of the press but also not it was even been nicknamed the trump of the tropics between them they now rule over the two largest

economies in the americas it's an abrupt about face from the left this governments of brazil's recent past this street polystyrene you looks pretty quiet now but it felt some of the biggest tremors of change hundreds of thousands of people marched against a corruption scandal getting brazil's political class that together with problems with the economy and specially crime that many people fed up and ready to take a chance on an absolute outlier diable sonata. analysts say there's danger he could eventually have to another global trend strongmen undermining democracies he has a fondness for brazil's authoritarian past well i'm in favor of torture and the people are in favor of that too. that doesn't lose him points for many here who see it is just plain speaking they will judge him instead on how he acts to tackle brazil's many problems john home and how does he had a paolo. and cities around

europe are the latest to be welcoming two thousand and ninety. but one hundred thousand people lined the banks of the river thames in london to watch the celebrations this twelve thousand five split it over the city. and thousands packed their shells and he's a in the french capital to watch the display at the trough in paris. meanwhile bad weather did not deter the crowds from gathering in the greek capital in athens for a dazzling display of the acropolis. but new york times square has attracted his usual huge new year's eve crowd despite the pouring rain organizers invited journalists to launch the famous ball drops it was a gesture of highlighting the importance of press freedom ok when i was on day at the details from you. it's one of the focal points of

year celebrations around the world this year joining the york's mayor bill de blasio midnight for the traditional over in the crystal ball in times square several prominent journalists had an event that was not just about welcoming two thousand and nineteen but also recognizing how dangerous two thousand and eighteen was for the profession has joined the south facing jail in me and all for the people who were pretty shocked by all of the journal among those recognized was the committee to protect journalists an organization that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists around the world they say two hundred fifty one journalists were imprisoned during two thousand and eighteen but another fifty three journalists were killed in targeted attacks. including washington post columnist jamal khashoggi who was murdered and dismembered by saudi government

agents soon after he entered saudi arabia's consulate in istanbul he was especially in the thoughts of those at times square you know it's been a pretty tough year i think that's one of the reasons that we're the honoree journalists around the world and in this country as well have struggled and so i want to see a new year a year in which journalists are able to work more freely without threats and do their political work independently so prominent have attacks on the media ban in two thousand and eighteen the time magazine named khashoggi as one of its persons of the year we didn't do anything wrong the others all journalists including two reuters reporters jailed in myanmar for reporting on atrocities against the revenge or. and staff at a local us newspaper in maryland who survived a mass shooting that claimed the lives of five of their colleagues you are the enemy of the people just sit down please trump's frequent attacks on the media have

also come under the spotlight in october the committee to protect journalists called on president trump to dial back the rhetoric this after a trump supporter from florida sent more than a dozen bombs to critics of the president two of which went to the c.n.n. offices here in new york there's been a lot of hostility towards the press and you think that mostly for new year's eve to celebrate the things that you've got this little time square is named after a newspaper and this is a title like the importance of freedom the president is a journalist and celebrate when writing for new years and say that's had twenty nine he'd be a year when the worst back to journalism in the free press. has a ball dropped in times square celebration but also remembering all the journalists killed or imprisoned who wouldn't get the chance to see it because of their truth telling reporting which made the target tables on do is eat your.

heart time to recover the headlines here on al-jazeera north korean leader kim jong un has rung in the new year with an offer of another meeting with u.s. president on a trump but he will not feel young may seek a new poll from denuclearization if washington pursues against north korea how money will be if the united states continues to break its promises and misjudges our patients by unilaterally demanding certain things and pushes ahead with sanctions and pressure against our republic then we may have to seek another way to protect our country sovereignty and interest and establish peace and stability on the korean peninsula. both sides in yemen's war a big accused of siphoning food aid the un's food agency threaten to suspend shipments unless he's running corruption and the associated press or documents suggesting russians entirely have been seized by armed units working with saudi

u.a.e. coalition forces. u.s. democratic senator elizabeth warren has taken a major step towards joining the twenty twenty presidential race after announcing that she's forming an exploratory committee the move will allow her to raise money and find stuff before formally launching a presidential bid. bangladesh's prime minister sheikh hasina has rejected calls for a new vote after being declared the winner in sunday's election the opposition has called for a new vote accusing the government of widespread rigging and then see several candidates claiming they're in the lead in sunday's presidential election counting continues after the ballot which was hampered by delays plaints of vote rigging and violence the internet is also being caught in an apparent effort to stop speculation about those new york has become the latest major city to welcome two thousand and nineteen. thousands braved the pouring rain to part

time square for a string of star performances there was a summit next to the festivities with the organizers paying tribute to the freedom of the press. are you up to date with the headlines the news continues right after counting the cost of enough. every weekly news cycle brings a series of breaking stories joined in listening financed as we turn the cameras on the media focus on how they report on the stories that matter the most an hour to zero. hello i'm sam is a than a welcome to counting the cost an al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week things to watch in two thousand and nineteen financial storms could be forming in the global economy find out why and where what's in store for economies and people living here in the all dependent middle

east. plus a look at what economic collapse means for venezuelans in the new year. when america's sneezes the world catches a cold so the saying goes when there's a perceived weakness in the world's biggest economy the ripple effect elsewhere now as we're headed into the new year global financial markets felt a chill all on concerns over the health of the u.s. economy the dow jones industrial average saw its worst christmas eve trading day in history even though economic fundamentals like g.d.p. are still pointing to the upside there's a cocktail of factors flashing a pessimistic message the u.s. government partial shutdown higher u.s. interest rates donald trump's tweets criticizing the central bank then there's the rumbling trade tensions with china which threatened to derail growth. and that's

where i started when i caught up with russell jones from llewellyn consulting is the year wrapped up i don't expect that to be any major retreat from the sort of protectionism war mccance alist policies that the u.s. president is pursuing so any truce i think is likely to be only short lived and it really is a concern that over the next year or two we see the protectionist rhetoric in the protectionists substance really be ratcheted up to a higher level it's one of the bigger risks for the global economy looking into the next twelve months or so we've got this of what happens on that the u.s. economy does still have its weak spots and that is giving some worry is the u.s. do you think heading towards a recession i think the u.s. is i'm what i call that unsustainable boom at the moment. we've had this very late cycle fiscal stimulus and that if you like is hothouse economic activity during the

course of the last twelve months or so but that stimulus is going to start to fade and the legacy of that stimulus is two very large deficits a very large budget deficit and a very large external deficit the tariffs that mr trump is imposing on imports will not change that fact the u.s. is consuming far more than it's producing and at the moment that means that the trade deficit will expand and in many ways the u.s. economy right now is looking similar to the way it did in the mid one nine hundred eighty s. during the period of reaganomics it was another era of twin deficits and it was another area that ended rather badly it was a period of extreme volatility in financial markets and also in policymaking so my concern is that the u.s. looks good for now but that the city. rationed over the course of the next year or

so is going to deteriorate quite rapidly and potentially traumatically so the us is heading for a fall it may not be imminent but it's coming at some stage what about china's debt and growth challenges where you think those are heading in two thousand and nineteen well china is in a very very difficult situation at the moment the economy is slowing down at an underlying level and at the same time we have a corporate sector which is still hugely indebted and we have issues of transparency around the economy this is generating a lot of uncertainty where foreign investors are concerned and of course on top of that we have the growing protectionist issues which it faces as a result of of u.s. trade policy so china is in a tough place. also in addition we have a number of underlying tensions in the chinese economy which have been around for

a long time tensions between a capitalist economy and a communist government tensions between the economies economic growth and the underlying environmental problems it has tensions between the rural areas and the urban areas tensions between the rich and the poor and some stage my sense is that all of these issues are going to result in a crisis of some kind unfortunately i don't feel smart enough to tell you precisely when that's going to happen but when you have this number of issues coming together at the same time it is pretty clear that some juncture in the future the economy is going to get into trouble it's going to suffer some kind of traumatic experience policymakers also a finding it much harder in china to navigate their way through this series of issues that they're confronting sort of slamming their foot on the accelerator and

then slamming their. on the break is an approach which has worked thus far but there is a sense that it's generating deteriorating returns it's just not as efficient approach in managing the economy as it has been in the past and that's another reason why i fear that some states they're going to get into trouble let's turn our attention to europe then from bragg's it to the protests facing the french president to i'm a cols departure from germany a lot of political uncertainty how do you think that's going to impact the continent's economy in twenty nineteen well we're already seeing indicators of business confidence soften and soften quite significantly in the eurozone and there's no doubt that trade and politics are probably the two primary drivers of that suffering of confidence and i think the outlook is a little bit worrying the economy in europe is losing momentum and there's no sign that the sort of upsurge in populist politics is going to go away any time soon

brics it is another issue it's probably going to be a lot more damaging for the united kingdom it is for europe but nevertheless it is just one more consideration one will concern and i think beneath the surface as well with europe the fact is that the eurozone remains what i call a raw the hof by tensity a lot of its institutions are incomplete and my real concern is that when the or next recession does come round europe could once again see itself facing a sort of existential crisis very much along the lines that we saw between two thousand and ten and two thousand and thirteen is there any upside to all that we could perhaps take hope from for twenty nine t. well the good news is that the world economy is still expanding at the moment there's no doubt about that but you know underneath the surface all these issues will have to be addressed at some stage the risks are many. and various and i

certainly take the view that markets at the moment haven't quite taken on board all of those downside threats has been some adjustment since september also but the reason i think the potential for markets everywhere to fall further and i come back to this point that we are facing the great politicize ation ben bernanke a the former federal reserve chair called the period in the one nine hundred ninety s. and early two thousand the great moderation this is the great politicize ation and it makes it extremely difficult to know what is going to happen in the world economy but what we do know from history it sounds like you know please in the next financial crisis if so when's it going to hit let us be ready for it then shall we . i'm not smart enough to tell you when the next financial crisis is going to come but what i am i think clever enough or cognizant enough of history to know is that

populism doesn't tend to end well what i know from my experience is that bad policy leads to a bad outcome and in the context of populism we are going to be confronted i believe by a lot of bad policy choices a lot of nativism a lot of interventions which perhaps are necessary a lot of wrong turnings and i think that is again something which leaves us in a very dangerous very threatened situation all right thanks so much for your analysis on that russell jones there giving us his thoughts on the outlook for the year ahead well still to come on counting the cost microchip in employees is it ethical would you volunteer why some companies are already doing it. but first nearly two thousand venezuelans cross the border into peru every day and that's likely to continue into the new year after colombia peru now hosts more

venezuelans trying to escape economic hardship than any other country but on the sanchez has been following their stories from the. when i find nothing i mean he's got i you has been selling coffee on the streets of lima since she arrived from venice willing november the thirty two year old is qualified in food quality control but she's afraid she'll get in trouble for trying to work in an industry she knows well she missed the october deadline to apply for a work permit by just a few weeks i'm afraid we came here to work legally and to be in the country legally i don't want to do anything against the law to do so so-called foreign police along with immigration officials are conducting inspections across the capital to ensure venus williams half the required permits to work out of the muzzle by the immigration chief. said the briefly detained some than a swell and for security reasons. sadly some people have committed crimes and that

makes us sad because it affects the way peruvian see them and it also makes peruvians afraid. of the immigration office and many are rushing to apply for work permits before yet another deadline december thirty first they do says it won't issue anymore after that girl's family there will try i haven't waited for the last minute but it's been very difficult because i still don't have a certificate from interpol. immigration authorities say they've increased the number of personnel and office hours to help these venezuelans get their paperwork done fast but they also say eighty five thousand venezuelans have missed their appointments and twenty thousand have not picked up their approved permits. six hundred thirty five thousand in a swim and snow living according to official estimates you know it. says she feels lucky that she crossed the border in time to work legally. i pride in august they

gave me a portly just now i don't know what will happen to those who get here after the situation in venezuela is a tragedy officials say those wintered. tobar can only apply for asylum now but emily's kind of this doesn't guarantee a job you get that we've got it but that meant when i applied for asylum they gave me a paper that allows me to work but no one is accepting it as valid. on average two thousand in a sewer lines cross into every day they do and officials say they will not issue work permits after december but for now they will keep the border open to those fleeing the deepening economic and political crisis back home our crude oil fell almost twenty five percent in two thousand and eighteen and for petro dependent economies here in the gulf that's not welcome news over the years to come government budgets may have to make some adjustments iran for example already feeling the pain after being hit by us.