but the buffer zone in fact between between turkey the kurdish fighters. iran russia the united states trying to arrange all that in a we that on one hand it doesn't look very much like its abandon its allies in this case the kurds and on the other hand they can actually make tookie happy without allowing the iranians to control of this but because this is very complicated actually equation for almost everybody and we'll see how things are going to evolve over the next few days and weeks thank you very much for breaking that down or as we appreciate your time thank you it's a lot. now we have a special syria page on our website and there you can find this really helpful info graphic it breaks down who controls what in the complicated picture that is the syrian conflict. now we want to hear from you on these stories you can send us your comments to any of our online platforms on twitter just use the hash tag a.j.

news go at our handle is at a.j. english also on facebook that's facebook dot com slash al-jazeera or send us a message on whatsapp or telegram at plus one seven four five zero one trip or one four nine. now brazil's new president is set to be sworn into office in the coming hours. represents a may just swing to the right and he's promising big changes for latin america's largest nation he wants to loosen up environmental protection but also potentially in the agricultural sector to explore its more of the amazon rain forest there are plans to ease restrictions on gun ownership also in our says more people with guns can help reduce violent crime and foreign policy he's pledged to follow u.s. president donald trump's lead by moving brazil's embassy in israel from tel aviv to jerusalem with some arab states are threatening to boycott brazilian beef if also goes ahead he is also distancing himself from latin america's left wing leaders the

presidents of cuba and when israeli were not invited to his inauguration well let's go now to our correspondent john hall when he is joining us live from the capital brasilia he is going to be addressing the nation shortly in a couple of hours john what are we expecting to hear from him. i think we're expecting more of the policies that you've already detailed but this is a politician who as you were just saying there he's really risen from obscurity he's been a congressman since nine hundred ninety one seven terms but he never made much of an impact until relatively recently and one of the reasons that he's really risen is the brazilian some of them we've been talking to this estimate that there's more than two hundred fifty thousand people here in the capital of brazil for his swearing in ceremony say they they think he's just like us he speaks normally he

doesn't speak like a politician now that it's positives and obviously it's negatives as well he's make comments against gay people his make comments that have been deemed to be racist is make comments saying that torture is a good thing in the past and he's also spoken glowingly about the military dictatorships of brazil's past here so he's probably not going to mention that a lot in his speech but that's really what sorts of people expect from him that he's going to speak their language that he's a populist and that he's going to bring change here from really most of this centrist been dominated by the left wing workers' party to that he's going to be a real change from the at but john how much change do you think he will be able to achieve given that has liberal and social party has something like fifty to five hundred thirteen. a house member.

that's slightly misleading because there's a lot of other parties that could be willing and probably all going to be willing to unite with him don't know yet if in march when congress forms if he'll have an absolute majority that he needs to make constitutional changes for example but he's going to have quite a level of support there but he's going to have that level of support because of several different areas one of them the evangelical the christian evangelical congress speech which are quite numerous and influential and he really legal them to get elected another group is the agribusinesses you talked a little bit about the plans to cut back the amazon and loosen those regulations so he needs them also to continue to support him there's also the bankers in the financial sector that are hoping to make up his government and also his family his son especially though is quite a prominent congressman and he brings votes and also brings people with him so with those people it does give john abell scenario quite

a lot of support in congress but it also means that there's going to be lots of different centers of power that are all going to have their own agendas a lot of the time those agendas might be competing and he's going to have to try and balance the old and come up with a way to govern remember this is also a politician that said in the past as admitted i don't know a lot about the economy so he is going to have to delegate and leave the law on other people the question is who is going to try it there in which sort of direction his government's going to go and what about support internationally john do the leaders who are present at his inauguration the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu hung garion obama does that give us an idea about head sort of you know what his foreign policy is going to be like what kind of leader he's going to be. i think it definitely does and i think even in the last couple of days the supporters of his come to brasilia several of them have been holding israeli flags but i think that that's something

that you would have left as necessarily same but he's sort of made especially israel a sign that he's breaking with the workers' party in brazil has left this recent past this was a country that acknowledged palestine as a state that set up that relationship in two thousand and ten was quite supportive of the two state solution here so he's really making a break with that you mentioned also hung garion leader also bill sonorities being seen as part of this new wave of ultra right populist leaders and someone who can really be a sort of the work for that movement in latin america speaking to an analyst the other day that said what brazil is the biggest economy in south america the most populous country so where it leads other countries tend to follow soviet to see if this if that bomb scenario impact could start to reverberate around the rest of the continent john thank you very much for that for now that's john home and live in

brazil and we will of course be going back to him over the next few hours when we hear from brazil's president well as brazil swings to the right best in of communist rule is marking its sixtieth anniversary cuba's revolution and spied and guided left wing movements across the region. looks at the influence that cuba had and perhaps still has a national even as right wing leaders gain ground. the bearded ones as they were called road into heaven are on the first of january nine hundred fifty nine on a wave of optimism off to overthrowing the repressive but sister regime it was a new dawn and many didn't expect them to survive long especially as the united states actively try to undermine fidel castro's government most notably back in the failed one nine hundred sixty one bay of pigs invasion and imposing an economic blockade that survives to this day still a colonial was a friend of castro's. then meaning of. the one nine hundred fifty nine

revolution was a historic continuation of the liberation wars the wars of independence cubans have always been fighting against spanish colonial ism and then against us interference . led by fidel and his brother old and now. has constantly adapted to changing circumstances embracing help from the soviet union then turning to tourism in special measures when the soviet union collapsed and now allowing the growth of private enterprise albeit cautiously reluctantly we've made progress after. a long way from you know accepting the fact that we need we actually have to do a lot of different things to nurture the private sector because that's also a positive not only for the economy. but also for the lives of majority over cuban people. about thirteen percent of the workforce has gone private often desert in

low paid state sector jobs to work in the more lucrative tourist industry and industry selling visions of a socialist dream. this man died in bolivia in one nine hundred sixty seven trying to spread cuba's brand of socialism throughout latin america although he felt his influence is still felt if not at government level. trade trade union and social movements throughout the region and of course in cuber itself the country the arkansas adopted as his home cubans will vote on the referendum in february on the kind of socialism they had like to see in a revised constitution perhaps more market reforms and increased foreign investment . something that what i'd like to know what i question is what kind of socialism are we talking about i consider myself a socialist but doesn't mean it can be imposed as a constitutional level on the whole world the people who run the country today may have a different interpretation of socialism tomorrow and saying something is not socialist

could be enough to restrict someone's constitutional rights its allies in the region the disappearing brazil for instance sending cuban medics hobe them to sweden all drawing up the cuba says that socialist flame sixty years on still burns bright that they'll continue to defy the odds and survive and thrive that al-jazeera. right to fans now it is ringing in the new year by taxing the tech giants are is here to tell us about that are yes france has decided not to wait for the rest of the european union and has introduced the so-called gaffer tax on january the first one gaffe a stands for as you can see google apple facebook and amazon and the french government wants to raise five hundred seventy million dollars this year by putting the digital tax on revenues from advertising data sells for advertising to and market related fees are france along with germany have

been pushing for the european commission rather to agree to a pan e.u. digital tax by the end of this year but e.u. tax reforms need all the backing of all member states to become law and countries including either in the czech republic sweden and finland have opposed it now under pressure from yellow vests protesters president emmanuel micron announced a series of measures last week for low income families but the measures have left a multi-billion dollar hole in the twenty nineteen budget a macro and says the digital tax will help close that gap but critics fear e.u. tax could breach international rules on equal treatment for companies across the world now france's yellow vests protest movement has actually inspired activists thousands of kilometers away in taiwan this new year's eve flag raising ceremony attended by president signing when around one hundred demonstrators managed to sneak in and demand lower tax and fair handling of tax disputes now it's their

first protest this week but this one turned into as you can see there quite a scuffle with security while the others show movement in taiwan does date back to three years ago the tax reform campaign is have been spurred on by what's been happening in fronts. oh until i'm not so we came here to directly plead to our president we wanted her to your appeal for tax reform the yellow vest movement in france is in full swing and president mccall had responded positively and initiated the reforms we also hope president saing when i came here our appeals to the let's get more on this now we're joined by a technologist and balck and he is joining us live from cork in ireland very good to have you with us on al-jazeera so founds has announced it's going to do it without the e.u. since then we've had austria say it will follow suit the e.u. countries going to do the same you know as the e.u. works on will struggles to agree on an e.u. wide tax. i'd say that if they know what's good for them yes because

what these large tech companies try to do is divide and conquer they try to get the best tax rates bailable for them by playing one country against another we saw amazon do this with states in the u.s. very recently so this really all comes down to the balance of power between governments and these huge tech companies multinational companies who has more power these days and so i think that remains to be seen i personally think that tech companies are currently looking stronger so it would be in the interests of the the other states to stick together so that they can exercise some more power over these multinationals and why hasn't the e.u. being able to agree on a tax on till now is it because of that divide and conquer game that the large tech companies have played. well that and if you think about for example the european commission it's institutionally corrupt we have laws being so the same companies

spend millions of euros every year trying to influence the policymakers who will be making these decisions we have revolving doors so the same people who should be taking these decisions might be working at these companies in a couple of years' time so we have a lot of institutional corruption within the system and that makes it very difficult to both regulates and to and that these types of policies so yes to answer your question i think it is because the companies have been very successful and trying to stave off both regulation and taxes and you know an island which is of course along that a comprehensive you know d.s.t.o. digital services tax would exacerbate u.s. e.u. trade tensions what do you think and as the alternative what is happening now some of the biggest richest companies not paying as much tax as everyone else la i think you've answered that question that it isn't fit. well it's not because we're

talking about companies that pay maybe eighty percent tax where other companies pay twenty three percent and even if you look at the tax that france is proposing they're looking to make about five hundred million euros this year and if you think about the revenue the earnings just in the last quarter just in the last three quarters three of two thousand and eighteen of just facebook they made fourteen billion dollars so that's about four point five billion a month if you break it down to days that's about one hundred fifty million or so at day so if facebook was to pay the end hired c. of the tax that france wants to sue to levy. that would take about four days of earnings right now so we're not really talking about anything that's going to make a huge dent but this is a power play so really it again remains to be seen where the actual power lies here and i think it's in our interests as individuals and citizens that are democratically elected governments can keep these multinational tech companies and

check list of all kinds very good to get your expertise on this that is al balkan joining us live thank you i'm called an island thank you. we're going to saddam now a president omar al bashir appears to be losing support among his coalition follow weeks of protests of rising prices and food shortages that's got all cost pond and heaven will then she is live in the capital khartoum a second party pulling out of the coalition have. yes elizabeth let's remember that last week the national omar party also pulled out from the coalition government they said that if you like the government is not delivering proper services to the people that's of course as you said after weeks of protests people were saying that they've had enough of the government they're saying that the government has failed to curb the inflation which is at seventy percent one of the highest in the world and those protests quickly escalated to people demanding that the government step down people have been demonstrating for two weeks now saying that they don't want president i wouldn't push you to continue his twenty one year rule and that he

should step down and and hand over his his government to an interim government surprisingly that's what twenty two opposition parties also announced this afternoon along with the with the sudan reform now party withdrawing from the national government twenty two opposition party also said that they want president obama to push you to step down and to and his ruling party as well to step down and that they should hand over the the government to an interim government and to elections are held and for remember yesterday president ahmed and wish you said that he wants to dialogue with the people he wants to. make an all inclusive government but it's very hard to see how that's going to be possible when his current government is being one when the queen people are pulling out of the current government bit by bit so heather how much pressure is all of this putting on the president. well it is putting a lot of pressure on him because let's remember people are protesting for two weeks coalition and the coalition is coming in as you said people are withdrawing all governments are withdrawing sorry opposition parties are withdrawing opposition

parties are now demanding that he step down so it's putting a lot of pressure on him to try to make some kind of reform something he said he was going to try to but as we've heard before as we've heard from people protesting this said that these are promises they've heard from him over and over again during his twenty one year rule so they don't want to hear promises from him and what they want to do is to see him step down something he said he's not going to do so he has a lot of pressure upon him to try to reform the government but it's very hard to see how any kind of reform he introduces or any kind of improvement he tries to introduce will work for the not just the people not just for the people who are protesting but now for the opposition parties who are demanding that he steps down as well and so what happens now but he's not going to step down are the protests going to continue. yes people are saying that they will continue to run straight as a matter of fact the signees professional association said that they are planning for more protests in the coming days so it's obvious that they have not given up yet on their demand that he should step down he also said that he is not going to step down as he said but it's not very clear where this is going to go stan seems

to be at a crossroads people are saying that they will continue to demonstrate people are saying that they will continue to demand that he step down now the the u.n. and foreign governments are saying that the government is responding with excessive force amnesty international said thirty seven people have been killed so far and dozens have been injured as they continue to demand that president i'm going to shoot step down and as people continue to demand that he do that and continue to march in protest and plan protests it's not clear how many lives will be lost and how many people be injured if until he steps down that is if he actually does in the end he was actually very much for that for now that his head that is headed morgan with the latest live in the capital thank you. al coming up for those of you watching on facebook at the end the genius people of alaska said that they're facing many harmful misconceptions and stereotypes but i want to hear from them about what they want you to know also ahead of the new book that survey of details about the preparations for murder and journalist jamal kushal and the saw the consulate in istanbul.

and the skies over iran a relatively clear draw the moment this clouds moving up through afghanistan it's snow showers but the next mass is already waiting you know the source of all wet weather is down the it tends to be the mediterranean and the next circulation taking place and that rain has been across the stash in greece and in turkey his wednesdays picture is mostly in the south coast a bit of hartley says just know and that of course is going to be true of neverland and syria so if i take you over night from west into city that system develops and it comes in land shoots across syria and ends up getting blocked by the western side of iran so iraq iraq at the worst of the right it escapes through syria and you see snow quite readily at a bit of height money even affect iran just about but it's going to lower edge to the southern edge to it it's roughly speaking kuwait so much clout to south that

not much in the way of precipitation the breezes coming out of the empty quarter that could be dusty generally speaking quite warm so tempers are rising stuck in there are twenty six friday and twenty eight in riyadh by ninety's or we see something like mid teens very good summer shaffner point of view of meteorology now there was heavy flash flood summer shows all the wife one go through botswana to the eastern side of south africa. thanks love to make amends to sufferings because behind the suffering a millions of taxpayers because those taxpayers never go away is a new one bone every single day a nineteen it is an urgent national message that it be officially requested of ation of the support mechanism we created together because i happen to live in creeks somehow i am a sinner i'm a bad person. that's machine on al-jazeera.

the arrival of refugees is debated in european parliament's. but the journey itself is little understood. to syrians document the route that has claimed so many lives. to people in power.

and. what's trending online in the u.s. and. internationally. we have more on the. video. moving what's. more on the program on the. discovery and bollywood actor. has that and much more on our web site. called.

new data. keep emerging on house the journalist. to turkish journalists have published a book that sheds light on the preparations by the cell the operatives in the hours before the killing the book also contains previously unseen pictures of the same agents outside the saudi consuls residence the bags reportedly used to carry kushal remains yet to be. the entire team didn't go to the consulates but five of them went directly to the consul's house to prepare and receive the backs the pictures confirm this fact. turkey wants to investigate this properly it happened on diplomatic grounds and that means a forceful entry to investigate would create a crisis for turkey and even if evidence were to be found it would be considered a legal does not want that. along with all the journalists who were killed

and or jailed have been almost during rainy new year's how abrasions in new york organizers wanted to highlight how treacherous twenty eighteen was for members of the media as they hope for a better year ahead everybody's on their reports. it's one of the focal points of year celebrations around the world this year joining the york's mayor bill de blasio big night for the traditional lowering crystal ball in times square several prominent journalists at 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 as journalists are facing jail in myanmar for the people already shot by the 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 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 had 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 me and maher for reporting on atrocities against the

room. 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 trumps 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 to me i think that nationally for new year's eve to celebrate things and you got a lovely sleep times here is named after a newspaper and i think this is a tie to say like the importance of freedom in the present what is it journalism and celebrate when writing for new years and say that's had twenty nine in the year

when we were selecting journalism in the free press. as a ball dropped in times square celebration but also remembering all the journalists killed or imprisoned who would. get the chance to see it because of their truth telling reporting which target gabriel's sandow. your. now there are allegations of attacks on journalists is election. veteran journalist who says he was beaten by several men while trying to cover sunday's polls. is a senior political reporter who works for a big language newspaper. says he was attacked while trying to fill near a polling station on election day have to be hospitalized and almost lost his eyesight. here in a group of million rushed towards me while i was filming started beating me and snatched my mobile phone away there were seven or eight of them it was impossible

for me to resist them i started bleeding at some stage i became senseless. the threat of violence was not the only thing that made it difficult for journalists to cover voting on sunday restrictive election commission rules created a sense of fear and anxiety about reporting in general according to come out on level. one or two measures were relaxed later like travelling by motorbikes and entering the polling centers but the original rules and guidelines issued by the election commission made journalists anxious about their safety. is concerned about his safety but determined to continue his work as a journalist despite the attack each. this is the first time in my media career despite identifying myself as a journalist and also having my press card on me that i was still attacked i have to carry on my work with a degree of fear this is the fact there is no denying it. all political parties

have denied any involvement in attacks on the press. dhaka. now and mess a spacecraft has begun two thousand and nineteen with a flyby of the most distant world ever explored and if you're wondering how far that is it is six point four billion kilometers away from earth masses a new horizon for past alchemists at half past midnight back in twenty fifteen the spacecraft made history by sending the first closeup views of pluto back to earth altima to l.a. is one point six billion kilometers beyond pluto. at twelve thirty three am neurotoxins flies by a bot object nickname ultimate tooley and at four point one billion miles from home it's the far this exploration of worlds ever our first close up look at one of these ancient building blocks of the planet.

and legendary rock band guitarist primae composed a song especially for the occasion may has a ph d. in astrophysics and he joined the new horizon team at johns hopkins. and totally inspired me when getting to know the people working all the different departments of this thing being absolutely incheon to buy the whole thing and once i was kind of i wasn't exactly commissioned to write the song but i learned and i told him he said it would be great if you could do some music for it and i started to think this this mission to me represents more than the mission itself it actually represents to me the spirit of adventure and discovery and inquiry which is inherent in the human spirit. for let's get more on this now we're joined by francisco diego in london he's a senior research fellow in the department of physics and astronomy at university college london mr diego always good to have you with us on al-jazeera so ultimately

may as well be in supporting the most far away world if you can call it that evet this is a close up by a spacecraft so just how big an achievement is this for nasa you know before we even talk about what they might find from that datta. it is a major achievement and we must remember that this extended mission came up to the blue in a way because this is small body was discovered by the space telescope. well before and then he was found that this actually nasa was looking for a body to visit after pluto and finally the space telescope found this object and nasa said well actually we can steer the new horizons and go and visit it in a few years time and this is what happened today it is a fascinating a fascinating story and ultimately i believe it is in the same belt i think it's called the creek about that pluto is and why is it so important for scientists to

find out more about this belt and the objects in it yes this belt is the outskirts of the solar system we have the rest your plan is we have the asteroid belt we have the gas giant planets and then we have the copra belt that contains millions of small bodies like this one like pluto itself and the kind of material that we find in this called for belt is different it's very rich in water and methane a nice region and all these materials are concentrated in the outskirts of the solar system so investigating more the composition of these bodies is giving us more idea of the pristine material out of the which under which the solar system was formed four and a half thousand million years ago very important to have these opportunities to explore these very very remote regions of the solar system this is a unique opportunity and what will scientists be looking for looking at and for

what the dot when it does reach us and when you talk about you know water and me fane nitrogen could this rock sustain life. oh well we have to be careful here. we are talking an option which is forty you took forty two times farther away than the earth is from the sun at that point the amount of light the amount of energy that this object gets from the sun is about two thousand times less in a way all these pictures are we're going to see hopefully in the next few hours in the next few days what they can with out two thousand times less light that the one we have here on earth which is another major achievement now thinking of the possibilities of life i would say no almost got to go to the condition sidestream really is simply called extremely dark and any any ball at times will be completely frozen there but the existence of these volatile as the abundance of this there is

telling us they the history of the solar system because remember that we have our water our air that broadly was brought to the air and to the inner part of the solar system by comets and asteroids and obviously these one that crash landed on the earth in the very early stages in the solar system so this water and that water may be connected somehow and this is very important to do to reconstruct somehow the history of the solar system yes and what we're looking at really is what it could provide about the origins of the planets exactly. exactly. well we have to remember this is a very small object with very low gravity but we suspect surprises it will not be a spherical it will be a lone gate that will be the very funny shape we expect that you may have another object orbiting it because most of these on objects in the belt have moon scrub or there are objects or in them maybe or maybe a double side of the loped like some of the nuclear commons we have seen recently

in a ring around the. time the atmosphere and to me the most important one of the most important is a morphology of the surface of this or fiske us a lot of craters are not because we don't expect a large amount of craters in this part of the solar system but we will see the pictures come later on today on them better pictures later on in the week mr decker thank you very much for your expertise on this that is francisco diego in live and london thank you thank you it's a pleasure. to some other news now north korean leader kim jong un as offering more talks with the u.s. president donald trump but he says that his country may seek what he called a new path if washington doesn't keep its promises from a bride reports from seoul. even before the north korean leader spoke it was clear this was going to be a new year's speech in a different tone

a softer look for a softer message kim jong un spoke of into korean relations entering a completely new phase the escalating tensions building trust pointless and in last year's speech kim emphasized north korea's nuclear arsenal this year there was a different pledge. our parties our governments and my resolve for complete denuclearization remain unchanged we have proclaims that we will no longer make nuclear weapons and will not use them or spread them and we have also taken various practical measures already kim jong un stressed is a game of carrying forward the momentum from twenty eighteen into twenty nineteen it seems to confirm his intended historic visit to south korea is still a long track it's a prospect that divides people here including thousands of north korean defectors. rehearsing for an end of year concert pianist kim plays

a piece of music that is popular in both the north and south. where he defected sixteen years ago he couldn't have imagined a north korean leader might one day visit the south. or i got excited me think if he comes the day that i return home i may come soon. but now i think one of the reasons for his visit is to sustain his regime so i don't think we're going to see any unification the mood of optimism was also tempered when it came to relations with the u.s. kim says he wants to meet with president donald trump again but had this warning our money if the united states continues to break its promises and misjudges our patience by unilaterally demanding certain things and pushes ahead with sanctions and pressure against our republic then we have to seek another way to protect our country's sovereignty and interest under stablished peace and stability on the korean peninsula. twenty nineteen clearly holds the prospect of further

improvements in relations but with the ever present risk of the process or even going in reverse public bride al-jazeera so. the rescue workers in russia have found an eleven month old girl alive in the rubble of a collapsed apartment block the infant was taken to hospital the building was brought down by a gas explosion which killed at least seven people in the city of magnitogorsk on monday rescuers working in subzero temperatures as they search for a further thirty six people who are still missing what is police say they're treating a stabbing attack in manchester as a terrorist incident where three people were injured at one of the city's railway stations on new year's eve police are questioning a suspect and searching an address in manchester now in hong kong the pro-democracy rally on the first day of the year is common but this time activists say that they're facing an unusual demand from the government they were told to prevent the use of pro independence symbols at the government headquarters these civil human

rights from that it will comply to describe the demand as a threat to freedom of expression some independence activists joined the march while holding up banners for the city to split from china. now for those of you watching on facebook you'll see a video about what top plastic consumption is doing to the oceans a whale that washed ashore with six kilograms of plastic about stomach also ahead two of the greatest players in tennis go head to head for the first time. on top of. january. an in-depth exploration of global capitalism and our obsession with economic growth. as brazil gets ready to swear in its controversial president

we'll have live coverage from brasilia an award winning series showcasing hard hitting stories from the world's most populous regions. as the united states prepares for a new congress we'll examine what this will mean for the country and the world. with maybe a trend is constantly changing the listening post continues to analyze how the news is covered. january on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. where every.

piece that we could a trust broke us peace of mind important and we can grow old in britain spending money. and do many thing that we could do previously feel what could have been the war. time is coming we really believe. put the seal on the back to reality because. the teen because they see this meeting john. i believe the future of the plantation and put the t.v. he's really really back but we must cease from being the supplier of rubbish he is to. an end exporting barely read it but and for them. to undergo on but it needs. to be able to enjoy the finest cup

of tea in the world. the more so wonderful herb in the wood at the chinese feet it be said off the gods problems would be nice and seventy. three years old who would go. there with the quad solution among consumers to go back to quality invent happened. to own who would be reborn preet t. read the same enjoyment as if big to do the deed about predicting a useable people still on the. back and ship oh you know.

with bureaus spanning six continents across the globe. al-jazeera has correspondents live in green the stories they tell. you see are fluent in world news.

in the next episode of science in the golden age i'll be exploring the

contributions made by scholars during the medieval islamic period in the field of astronomy. copernicus is this day to these medieval astronomers from the golden age. that streams in many ways with the computers of the day you can use it to find the time you could navigate science in a golden age with german. colleague must much the same as now being held in pretrial detention for two years what is his crime. why hasn't he been tried yet why hasn't justice been applied in this case is he detained because he said china lust as journalism become a crime have moles become a tool to silence wars of truth we will continue i news coverage with professionalism and impartiality our work will remain credible and accurate but journalism is not

a crime incarcerating journalists is not acceptable we demand the immediate release of all colleague mahmoud to say and all journalists detained in a gyptian jails free mahmoud's and all his colleagues we stand for press freedom. it was one of the biggest bank robberies of modern times with eighty million dollars stolen from bangladesh a central bank one used to investigate how cyber attackers implicated the global banking system and on al-jazeera. brazil's new far right president is set to be sworn in promising major policy changes for latin america's largest nation.

and their own success and this is al jazeera line from london also coming up president donald trump agrees to delay the withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria a new path in the new year north korean leader kim jong un warns of an alternative plan on denuclearization and the book on the killing of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi reveals fresh details about the preparations before his murder. and the next hour brazil will get a new president jiah ball so now represents a major swing to the right and he's promising big changes for latin america's largest nation crowds are gathering for the inauguration ceremony a sixty three year old former army captain won the election by a wide margin back in october he's promising

a major crackdown on corruption and crime but he also wants to loosen up his country's environmental protection laws potentially allowing the agricultural sector to exploit more of the amazon rain forest and foreign policy he's faced to follow u.s. president donald trump's lead by moving brazil's embassy in israel from tel aviv to jerusalem. and john heilemann joins me now live from the capital brasilia so who is both an hour john and how likely do you think he is to follow through with all those come pain pledges he made. well this is a man who's a seven time congressman but he didn't really make any sort of impact to that time i think he only had two bills during the time he was a congressman from nine hundred ninety one so he's really come out of nowhere in the last couple of years and he's come out of nowhere because he has a plane so to speaking that way of communicating with the people here that a lot of his supporters especially who you can see along with to join inflatable

boats are now those behind us so that really chimes in with them that they think that he's one of us and he's come to power at this moment because brazilians really feel that they needed change this is a country with more than twelve million unemployed this is a country which in two thousand and seventeen have more than sixty thousand people killed and it's a country that's had the biggest corruption scandal that latin america's ever seen in the last couple of years so that's really propelled this guy who was on the really an outlier in brazilian politics into the presidential see now you mentioned a couple of his promises there about the amazon about security he's really in favor of a hard line strategy in terms of policing about making gun laws a lot more open so that people can get hold of weapons how likely is he to come frew with these promises it really matters a lot about which center of power gets to triumph in his government he's got quite

a lot of different bases from the evangelical christians through to the financial sector in the bankers through to the agribusiness sector that really wants to develop the amazon so which of those is paramount and his government is going to determine what exactly happens over the next four years in the country i'm guessing the regional leaders will be watching carefully as to this when he says in a speech to congress john but how much of an impact do you think he's going to have on the region and indeed further afield globally. well a lot of analysts us here are saying the ball so now is sort of hard right populous leader is obviously not alone he's a member of a sort of global wave that's come about recently but he's probably the only leader that fits exactly that profile right now in latin america and the feeling is that brazil such a big country it's the biggest economy in south america it's also the most populous

country in south america that might serve as a sort of front runner for other countries to follow suit at the moment we haven't seen that so much but it's definitely going to mean a pulling away from the left these countries in the region which especially under the leftist of ministrations of the first part of the twenty first century here brazil was quite close to getting close to the center right countries in the region now further afield really the only did that but also not only seems really that he wants to get on side is president trump has been called a lot the trump of the tropics and he wants his policies really to be aligned with the united states it's interesting that at the moment brazil's biggest trading partner is china and he would like to see that switch so we have to see how that develops that relationship during his presidency john homan unfriend the sly friends imprisoned here.

u.s. president bill maher trump says he won't rush to pull troops out of syria after coming under intense pressure from allies and senior figures in his republican party last month trump abruptly announce that all two thousand american troops will be brought home immediately following what he described as their victory over myself backtracking on plans for an immediate pullout tweeted this his drive to end u.s. involvement in wars still made him in his words a hero if anybody but donald trump did what i did in syria which was an isis loaded mess when i became president they would be a national hero i says he's mostly gone with slowly sending our troops back home to be with their families while at the same time fighting isis remnants will hide your castro joins me now live from washington d.c. for more on this so why the the back track heidi what's made this decision is it

all down to pressure from the other republicans. but i have a lot to do with it sue because from the moment that president trump first announced that the troop withdrawal in syria would be within thirty days that was met with immediate criticism not only from members of his own party and his friends in the administration but as well as his own defense secretary james mattis who would in fact resigned due to this policy decision now since that time trump visited u.s. troops stationed in iraq he spoke with commanders on the ground there as well as with lindsey graham an influential republican senator in d.c. over the weekend it appears that as a result of these meetings and reconsideration and a constant long being from senior military officials who all said that a rapid withdrawal was a bad idea that the president has in a sense relented and has backpedaled now to this four month long withdrawal which

is the minimum that his commanders on the ground there had asked for another thing this go to the thing to do with the set to take over from some i mean do what's his appointment mean what kind of a policy going. that's right so the person taking the helm from james mattis is patrick shanahan and they could not be more different in their background while mattis was a general of decades serving in the military having ground experience in afghanistan and iraq shanahan was the executive of boeing aviation and in fact has only eighteen months of any military experience he is seen as a person who is a capable administrator and will carry out trump's. orders however critics are fearful that he may become more of a yes man to trump and his. urges without really being that counterweight that

matus had been described as the adult in the room for making these foreign policy decisions but matters in trying to appease some of these fears upon his leaving his position as defense secretary which took effect with this new year he released a memo a farewell to his employees that said that the defense department remains in the best possible hands and that. the employees of the defense department should try to avoid distractions and remain focused on their sworn mission of protecting the us constitution good to torture hide behind your custer there with the very latest from washington d.c. well the pullout comes as the wall between syrian president bashar al assad's government and rebel forces appears to be entering its final phrase italy province's the last remaining opposition and people are bracing for a government offensive tries to bring all of syria under his control. reports from

the turkey syria border. this is ari how town in mosul syria said the promise it libya's home to three million people who since two thousand and fifteen have been effectively trumped it is serious last remaining a position on controlled by a celtic assortment of rebels. syrian president bashar al assad strengthened in recent months by support from powerful allies and that we opening up their embassies in damascus by some arab countries is vowing to launch an invasion it live with its cinder block thomson villages could soon be subject to rockets bottle bombs and even class the bombs. the rebels are putting more debris face while. today we are all gathered here and ready to fight until the last drop of our blood we are the songs of this territory and we know it very well and so do the people displaced from all over syria are now living in this small geographic area which is

just ninety square kilometer nothing will make us lose our resolve to fight on what to me are. in the middle of it lives of rolling olive groves the displaced live in some of the most desperate conditions possible with no proper housing they are the must see of the elements. i mean. we lack everything there is no food no money we have nothing that winter and floods are making life even more difficult when it gets a little windy our dance just fly away. humanitarian workers want a full assault on it live could spark a refugee crisis of historic proportions driving millions of people into turkey and europe yet this theater of war is never locking in action in another corner of north and syria fighters loyal to the turkish allied free syrian army are on the march. they're headed for the cut is held city of members in support of

a planned offensive by turkish forces in recent days tekkie has been massing troops at its border and even sent tanks rolling into territory the city that it holds sway over turkey considers the kurdish y p d fighters who control members us terrorists. turkey's main problem is with groups it considers terrorists finding a foothold in territory to administer inside syria i'm talking of the so-called terror corridor the p y g m p y d kurdish organizations but there is also the issue of syrian refugees turkey believes there is a great need to end the conflict in syria so the refugees can return the announcement of a complete withdrawal of u.s. forces from syria house opened the gates last kumble by regional powers such as turkey and iran to aggressively pursue the interest of the city feeling abandoned by the united states congress why preview for items of real with the syrian regime .