which terrorists. turkey's main problem is with groups he 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 moment of a complete withdrawal of u.s. forces from syria has opened the gates crumble by regional powers such as turkey and iran to aggressively pursue their interests in the city feeling abandoned by the united states congress why premier fighters of cotton deal with the city and with uninvited forces to protect them against the planned talk it's often without football now when cut is held territory from syria remains the missing plank in assad's plan to reclaim the whole of syria it's just a matter of time say diplomats before his tonsils uptimes from the mohamed atta was

there. let's go now to our correspondent in washington d.c. heidi castro is joining us live from there so what is going on what this withdrawal heidi what do you hearing in d.c. . hi elizabeth the reports are that trump is no longer insisting that u.s. troops withdraw from syria within thirty days but rather now he is opting for a slower four month withdrawal this decision came at the behest of the lobbying of senior administration officials who from the beginning when trump made the announcement about the withdrawal were forcefully trying to sway the president to either change his mind or slow down in this appears that those efforts were successful we saw following the christmas holiday visiting u.s. troops who were stationed in iraq meeting with the ground commanders there as well as a weekend meeting with his friend and republican ally so there lindsey graham and now

on twitter today we saw back pedaling that initial announcement saying that this will be a deliberate and orderly withdrawal that will take four months which is the very minimum that the ground commanders in and around syria for the u.s. command were telling the president that they needed these announcement of the withdrawal the initial announcement of the withdrawal heidi was met by the resignation shortly after the defense secretary james mattis there is now an incoming defense secretary he certainly has a lot to deal with what do we know about. well he could be no more different from james mattis we're talking about patrick shanahan who is now the acting secretary of defense for the u.s. he'll be in that position as trump expands his search for a permanent replacement and while his predecessor james mattis came with decades of experience commanding troops in afghanistan and in iraq shanahan has only been

a part of the military for eighteen months prior to joining the trouble ministration he was the c.e.o. of boeing so he brings a corporate sensibility to the post he's seen as a very able administrator but lacking the opinion in the military backbone that matters have and that's leading some critics to view this position with caution that he may become more of a yes man for trump's policies james mattis who officially has resigned and is no longer with the defense department left a farewell memo to his employees that said the him is the defense department remains in the best possible hands but he also in what is being viewed as another underhanded criticism of trump's policy of withdrawing u.s. troops in this quick fashion he told employees of the pentagon the u.s. military that they should ignore distractions and stay the course commitment to

their mission of protecting the u.s. constitution elizabeth i do thank you very much for that as hard as your cost are with to live in washington d.c. thank you. now to solve the n r a t coalition and what the rebels are being accused of stealing and sending food aid that's meant for millions of starving starving yemenis the u.n. furred agency is threatening to suspend aid shipments unless the fifth stops the world food program says about two thirds of relief supplies to nova to which they control strongholds of being taken by groups and the associated press also i saw a document suggesting that rations intended for families and five are being stolen by two units working with saudi and the rotty coalition forces were extremely concerned by what we've discovered in the course of our inquiries we noticed in recent months there were increasing volumes of food for sale

in the markets in the capital sanaa this obviously happens occasionally in war zones where people are desperate and they will sell food to meet other essential needs such as health and education but what we have been noticing looked like a systematic. misuse of relief of food relief it would indeed seem to be taking place on both sides however. today most of our investigations have been on the. hooty side in the capital sanaa. and that is where we have discovered most problems because we've been. effectively prevented from carrying out all the monitoring we would like where abuse and diversion of food aid is taking place that it means it's not reaching

those who desperately need it for its survival so for us it's not really an option to say nothing and to do nothing. but taking you back to brazil now to the capital brasilia where president elect president. both the narrow has been sworn in and we're expecting him to address congress any moment now we will be taking that speech live when it happens in the capital brasilia. so again live pictures of the brazilian congress after the president's job also has been sworn in and he was elected in total but ending.

ending big government. i think we're going to listen in to what we're hearing from the brazilian congress. if you will just the president. president of the national congress the heads of state heads of government twenty heads of state twenty heads of government that are to me with your presence here today if you're. president republican pre-sale i want to morrow. with whom i went to the military academy negras. congressmen senators president of the congress. former president.

former presidents certainly. the. supreme court justice. ministers. armed force commanders. general prosecutor. ladies and gentlemen governors senators and federal congress men. heads of foreign missions who are credentialed visibly the brazilian government my dear wife. michelle. my children and other family members who are here and colleagues from the lower house brazilians ladies and gentlemen first i would like to thank god for being alive because. and also i would like to thank the hospital that carried

out this miracle that kept me alive now i'm humbled to come back to this house where for twenty eight years i was serving the brazilian nation i committed cumulated mucha experience in my struggles here this gave me the opportunity to grow and to mature i come back to this congress no longer as a congressman but as the president of the federation of brazil the mandate granted me by the sovereign boat of the brazilian people. i'm here today stronger and i am very grateful to god for my life and to brazilians who trusted in me and entrusted to me the honorable position of representing brazil during this period of trying times and challenges also much hope to govern with you and i would take this. opportunity to call upon each one of the congress men who helped me in

the mission restoring. our fatherland to free it from corruption crime economically responsibility and ideological submission. we have before us an opportunity a unique opportunity for us to rebuild our country and to return hope to our fellow countrymen and i'm certain that we will face huge challenges but that we will have the wisdom to hear the voice of the people and we will be successful in our undertakings and. only by working hard we will. help future generations to undertake this effort we're going to place value on family we're going to respect religions and our judeo christian traditions we're

going to combat the ideology of gender to support our values we will free ourselves from the ideological moorings we will progressively responsibly and very. consciously ensure that brazil has at the service of brazil. my electoral campaign. took to the streets and forge the commitment to putting yourself first and god above everything that's why. when the enemies of our country of order and liberty tried to. kill me millions of brazilians took to the streets there was an electoral campaign that became a civic duty it was quite spontaneous it was strong and undeniable and that's what brought me here. nothing would happen without the effort and engagement

of all brazilians who took to the streets to preserve our democracy and our freedoms i research my commitment to build a society without discrimination or division dark. henceforth. we will follow the sovereign will resilience who want good schools that can prepare their children for the labor market and not just for political activism. we will fight crime allowing people to find good jobs based on merit. that there be education health and infrastructure and basic sanitation respecting fundamental rights enshrined in our constitution. our national flag speaks of order and progress and that nothing can be done if we

don't stand by those precepts. we are going to honor those who sacrificed their lives. to protect us to revive security for us and our family members we have the support of the national congress in order to legally back the police officers so that they can carry out their work they. deserve to be respected our armed forces will have the necessary wherewithal to carry out their constitutional duty of defending the sovereignty of our country the national territory and democratic institutions. to protect our sovereignty and our borders we have put our team together in a very technical way without any type of logic or policy bias that can lead to

corruption as in the past we are going to salvage the credibility and legitimacy of the national congress and the economy we are going to. instill trust in our brand by assuring and free market the government will not spend more than it. brings in. by way of taxes. we will. carry out structural reforms that will be necessary for the financial health and sustainability of our public accounts. opening up new opportunities we need to create a virtuous circle for our economy that brings us the necessary trust to make it possible for us to open our markets to international trade spurring competition productivity and africa see without any i do logical bias and this process of

recovering our growth the agro or the big business or agribusiness sector will play a very important role in harmony with the protection of the environment and this way the entire productive sector. will have less red tape less bureaucracy and be allowed to operate more efficiently these challenges will only be achieved by a national pact between society and the. executive legislative and judiciary judicial branches seeking out new paths forward for a new brazil one of my priorities is to protect and to strengthen the democracy of brazil and i will work. hard to ensure that that not be just a formal promise but that it actually becomes a substantive and tangible aspect of political life in brazil with the respect of our democracy democracy we want

a fairer society that means we have to break from those harmful practices. holding back progress. that irresponsibility led us to the biggest economic and moral crisis of our history today we start the hard work of ensuring that brazil will turn the page and start a new chapter of its history a chapter in which brazil will be viewed as a strong vibrant country a brave country a foreign policy which will defect our sovereignty and to build the greatness of our country as well to foster as well as fostering the development of our country ladies and gentlemen of the congress. i will leave the congress here and go to the presidential palace with the support of god and the support of my family and the force of the brazilian people i will work

tirelessly to ensure that you still meets its destiny and becomes the great nation we all want to have it i think all of you very much brazil above and above everyone. so that is brazil's new president. addressing the brazilian congress in the capital brasilia after being sworn in as the president he started his speech thanking god for his life this was a candidate who was actually stabbed during the election campaign it was a terrible attack in which he actually lost a lot of blood he recovered from that to go on and won the election in a toilet let's go to our correspondent john home and he's been listening and he is live for us in the capital brasilia talked about sort of

a lot of issues that he was of course expected to address john one thing i found really interesting if not unexpected was that he said that you know he has a commit. and to build a society without division and discrimination i mean these are two things that he has been very strongly accused of. of during the campaign you know a lot of discrimination two words women to woods minorities and creating a lot of divisions. you know he really had to in there that this was a time possibly to leave that polarization behind he also answered a couple of other strong criticisms a level him one of those about the amazon and the fact that the amazon rain forest actually covers more than half of brazil and a lot of environmentalists worried that he basically get rid of a lot of protections and enable the agribusinesses to really start delving in then

he didn't he didn't say that he wasn't going to support those are good businesses he said that they were an important part of brazil's transformation but he said that he was looking out for the environment and that he was going to try balance those two things together he also talked about democracy and that's important because a lot of people we mentioned a little bit earlier in the show a lot of people have accused him he's admitted to supporting the military dictatorships of the past of favoring that approach to things so he came out and said i'm going to look to strengthen democracy and that is an empty promise so that was a side of things when he was trying to sort of art so those doubts those criticisms he also mentioned a lot about family values that's one of the things that got him sort of where he is right now he is a socially conservative politician the hocks in the way in ways back to brazil's

past he's got elected with the support of a lot of evangelical congress people so he definitely had that and had god at the center of his speech he also talked about the economy which was interesting past governments brazil in the twenty first century what we've heard of it so far it's been dominated by leftist of ministrations there's been a lot of social programs that were very successful in getting a lot of people out of poverty here but also put the government in a lot of debt and he basically promised there we're not going to spend. more we're going to spend more than is coming in the government he said that we're going to sort of try and get towards a free trade sort of economy and that's a real change from what came before it's a real break there and he's got a team around him especially in the economic sector with a lot of buying because of financial sector people so we have to see how that's going to develop john thank you very much for that that is john heilemann live in brasilia. and that does it for this bulletin do stay with us inside story and

coming up next thank you for watching. official results from sunday's presidential election and democratic republic of congo for acute days front. and governing coalition have already said they're on track to win so will there be a peaceful transfer of power. they're

welcome to the program. president joseph has been empowered for nearly eighteen years but he's now agreed to step down millions of voters went to the polls on sunday to choose his successor after a more than two year delay the votes are being counted but both could be chosen kansas and the opposition are already claiming victory the election was mobbed by widespread irregularities including complaints of vote rigging and violence instead it's been cut in the parents' attempt to stop speculation about the results and people in some areas didn't get to vote at all because of fighting and an outbreak of the virus. in just a moment but first catherine soy has the latest from the congolese capital kinshasa . we've seen a very difficult election here in the democratic republic of congo for the companies that's what six. presidential candidates tonight from access to certain

parts of the country before says violence should be sponsored by police using tear gas and live in some instances calm fourteen days it was so much his organization and some polling stations and visited voting machines were not working and some no one knows which is registered people they're very very angry indeed he so. says in talk of the country particularly in the east one evil to vote with the rest of the country's elections for those areas. to march because according to city outbreaks and to choose to be child in his that's a lot of people here really do not trust the electoral commission do not trust its profits they say that they don't believe that an action is going to be credible and that is a big concern to people. saying that he sees the election is contacted then potentially there could be violence also so president has to follow i was about twelve.

and a lot of people there came an election that has been delayed for two years and people would never happen people for president would never step down these thousand moments really was significant but many of his critics saying that well it doesn't really make a difference because he's possible choices ruling party kind of dates close to diary he is declared we're not then he just means that presidential system is going to pushing running this country who should. let's bring in our panel now and in london alcatel c.e.o. of innovation task force in paris below are journalist and chief executive officer of m.r.v. networks and also from london alex vines head of the africa program at chatham house if i warm welcome to all of you to the program marie let's start with you

this very much delayed election has eventually taken place on the thirtieth of december but how legitimate was that you know these. everybody believes is the right thing to say that the election will karma and because they have so much hope into this election choose sort of sooth all of the problems happening in this country help solve the price of see but what we saw is something which doesn't seem very legit to mit the way the organize it is part of the counter which has been. eliminated sort of. it's difficult to conceive that you held a presidential election in in two parts of part of the countries not taking part on the and old saw it was marred we've all kinds of logistical problems we have

these of working machines we've whatever you can think of so. the only thing we can say that it was not too much violence but. is not sure that this electoral process will help solve the political the ongoing and standing permanent political crisis in india see ok to what extent do you agree with us i mean many people especially opposition are crying foul in there saying that it was deliberately chaos sick so that it can be called that can be an old and cold voids do you agree with that. well when you look at these electoral process says a project you would say it has been a very chaotic process due to the fact that it has been done out of any transparency no involvement of private sector and every think

kept politically colored which means. it was really done on a way that nobody could trust it specifically when you talk about the position and today we see that the contest is quite huge and the outcome will not be accepted very easily alex the d.l.c. is a vast country it's the size of western europe and it has very little infrastructure linking east and west and north and south so why did the government refuse all international help in terms of financial and logistical aid. well originally the government did try and get international support and found it difficult to raise money and so in the end it decided to fund these elections on its own so. you do have to accept that i think. but it's correct for the of a to speak a guest on your program have highlighted the difficulties of of conducting

a credible election in a country like the democratic republic of the congo which is so massive as you've said the size of western europe and we have a polling infrastructure my own worry of this is that the government didn't accept significant international monitoring of the elections so for example the european union was excluded from deploying a very large credible team across the country and so that gets to the heart of this issue which is whatever the result is of this election will be will congolese trust the result and that's the problem here does this solve some of the political issues and move the country on or does it set it back and that's the big worry i think i mean if that's true isn't it because despite all of these challenges in the just the coal obstacles very many people passive is a menace to costs that violence that ballots will they accept the results that

comes out in a few days time. you know the problem is if. the government. announcement the victory of its candidate of course it would be massive rejection massive and probably they will be protestant in most regions but at the end of the day after also a massive repression we can predicts that the government which is very much prone to violence will resort to. a crackdown or what we can see we will probably see that. well after the protest they will wait for the storm and continue business as usual and proclaim their own candidate the incumbent president would proclaim its its own candidate and well and the

international community what you call the international community. probably will. you know communiques saying that things did not happen that the the right way but as we saw in many other countries leg room where nothing will happen and that's the tragedy of the country that the own leaders are not really interested in change and improving the situation improving the lives of the people even you know sort of improving the the only kind of me just think of themselves because they are serving foreign interest and those foreign interests are not interested in how being is structured democratic and transparent government regime in ok i'll do you share that pessimism do you think joseph kabila is chosen successor dari

emmanuel rama zani said dari is likely to be declared the winner and that no one is going to do anything about it. i'm just surprised about how people approach is an election these wars just three elections in one presidential national parliament and provincial parliaments and just to be frank with you national parliament is supposed to raise the government and provincial parliament is supposed to raise the provincial government i'm just surprised about the focus on the on the presidential election just for your information in congo constitution the end of state doesn't have that power we give to kabila it's i think of the past the next president to be very weak so we need to understand that our focus should go to the parliament my question is if today he goes as a president and the majority of the parliament go to the opposition the question

will be very different and the question today is our is going to be the election at the presidential level and the parliamentary level and then that's where we get the information and now we know how the future's going to be. as has an interesting take on it isn't it is this shift of focus away from the one man in power to the parliamentary system not something that we've seen via much of in the day r.c. do you think that it is that now is the time for that side of the power to rise up and take charge. well there are three things here one is obviously the credibility of this process will opposition parties be apt to get a majority in the assembly if it's a three issue election even with all the problems that were discussed we'll see that pretty soon tend to think that a massive systematic fraud is very difficult to achieve in congo given the

atmosphere and scrutiny of civil society activists and of us and so i think it's probably right that we'll see a much stronger coalition of opposition parties we've been the parliament then the question is can they work with each other i mean they failed to unite around a presidential candidate they were united for less than a day and that's been one of the problems i think of the opposition is division and then thirdly i think it's wrong to think that the people want instability in congo certainly the international community wants to billet easy and the two major powers with the greatest amount of influence in congo a probably seven africa and i'm gonna both driven by stability in the congo so they will have some influence over this process too i suspect although much of this will be determined inside the democratic republic of the congo itself alex has just touched on how much leverage those countries the international community as

a whole will have in the autumn after this election. well look i don't think the west has a tremendous amount of influence and the u.s. ambassador was per was was pushed out of the country before the elections. the congolese government the government made that quite clear he was unwelcome but i do think some of the neighbors have have have influence of mentioned i'm governor and south africa i think they can play a positive role at times in the congo and then there's mischievousness in eastern congo where you have some proxy wars going on in eastern congo where rivalries between burundi and rwanda for example and that can but sometimes can be positive but often it can be more negative marie would you agree with us or you're pretty pessimistic about the immediate future for the same but is there room paths for a positive impact. you know i like the idea that african countries

especially now neighboring countries maybe and probably all saw south africa might have a positive influence in solving the congo problem but i think is so far is just a dream because those are two actress one of not the major states there you know you have companies huge mining companies with. an intrigue it set off of. activists. with which are stronger than any government and not only india are see you see what you call our global world where some company major companies are stronger than nations than public governments so in congo this is very much so

and we mention to actors. africa but they are also one dollar or they all saw one there was very influential. which has its own agenda there so how can you. solve the problem alls or poor all this to get people together and to have a common goal in see which is which since right now are very very difficult and when you hear about the up war or the. unstable situation in eastern congo so you have wonder has very much its hand in it. what south africa does have and does not and let me give you another example of the weakness of african countries. prior to the election there was a meeting. in brazil your next door where the try to

sort of. influence the not to choose and choose a candidate but to to make sure that everybody everything will happen in a proper that the electoral process will lead to work a clear leadership vendor there the congo did d r c did not even attend it and so it has no impact whatsoever sort of grammys. and also i beg to differ to disagree on the on. your position which is divided i think to make a great great effort in choosing one candidate even if backed agreement did not last very long on what we saw at the end is that the matter for you was. appointed common candidate was clearly the there will be the leading candidate

in that election and if we can believe the ports is really outstanding ok well let's let the us all a similar but i'm going to jump in there bring our allies ok time for you lou he has promised better governance let's go back to the parliamentary system the you're talking about earlier can he deliver on that can he shape congo to be better thanks very much for this question again let me tell you personally no matter of who is a brilliant god. but let me tell you again that congolese constitution say's the government comes from the majority and there's somebody if today you lou wins these paul and he doesn't have the majority there somebody then unfortunately will not be able to do anything just for your information the main specific tasks of the head of state in congo is in foreign affairs and military of is the rest is

supposed to be in hands of the prime minister was issued from the majority of assemblies so again let's just don't focus on one person and this sort of growing management in the congo is now ending with joseph kabila which i think is the main important thing that we get out of this election is it ending there if we have said dari replacing him will we not just see more of the same strongman politics the only thing that can keep shut out doing the same think is that if so that it takes the place and the parliament is totally controlled by the same political group then they can mentally see the situation if not then i'm sure there is a change tide it's a game changer time ok and if this is the cause of the challenges that are facing say we've got the second deadliest outbreak of ebola in history in parts of the country all this election uncertainty what does it do when it comes to tackling

that major health crisis. well the democratic republic of the congo historically has. some of the best international learning and experience in combating ebola in fact it's been a shame at times that the congolese experience hasn't been used elsewhere it was ignored for a while when there was the crisis in the manner of a union west african countries of guinea see really own and liberia this is the second deadliest outbreak and it's obviously horrible timing that it overlaps with an election but i do think that the congolese have experience they have expertise they have international goodwill to work with them and so i think this is something that we'll probably see a key focus in twenty nineteen i would say it's one of many problems in the congo but it's not the primary one i mean when i think is about the politics that the country is facing wanted the moment ok and of course another one is the security

situation is because you have armed militia groups along the borders marie how fragile is that situation and again in these uncertain times how can that be exploited. you know security issue is linked to the governance issues as as long as you don't have illegitimate power in kinshasa which everybody recognizes. you will have that weakness. of the extreme parts of the country is pretty special in the eastern part where you have or most of the wealth and the mining wealth and as we know. the one of the i would say the main point of all of this ruling government is that did those they don't even control or i would see one third of the dared to marry so. that was part of the challenge to organize in

any election in that huge country even and you know if you take a regular african country it's still a huge challenge to organize elections saw imagine what it is for a country which is larger than central europe we've no infrastructure we've nothing and so the border issue is is part of world peace you know there's no the government is too weak the center of power is too weak so everybody feels empowered to do to stop wars and do whatever you have you know these appeal to chaos is very strong our lives the ethnic violence they were uses as reasons for a complete vote postponement in three well key opposition areas about benny and

young be the people there except there is reasons to not have their vote i think i believe it's not going to be held until march and what impact is that likely to have today it's done and unfortunately these people have been isolated and i hope in the next three miles there will be able to forceful dail on a members of parliaments and the is beyond us but what i'm saying is that the country is huge as is and that is has been saying and that's why i've been insisting on the fact that we had three addictions one of them being professional somebody with generates the provincial government with the governor elected among them the most important thing we need to understand is that congo is a decentralized nation define ition constitution and that's where we need to go so that we have little management to solve the local problems and if we don't do that should i be isn't part of congo the southern part of congo or the rest of the cong

. oh it'll be mismanaged because it can't just be a minute from kinshasa and that's where the constitution say very clearly that we decentralize country and these that it's in with three elections in one and it's important that we give the importance of each of these and its ins and so that we understand that is a change time and we will not have one person sitting in can just doing everything but ok to be very limited in terms of results so alex how likely are we then to see congo's first democratic transition of power if not at the top then at these lower levels that i was talking about well look up see right and it's why we keep hammering the point i think all three of us that coalition politics is going to play a very prominent role in terms of congo's future there's no doubt many congolese one prosperous and stable future and how you unlock that with coalition politics by for the central level but also the provincial level is going to be the pathway

forward. we'll see i mean it's been difficult at times for the opposition as i've already highlighted to to reach a common platform but the dynamics within the assembly may well force pulling together i'm not so worried if we have a symbolic weak central president in the country it's not a bad thing to see an end of strongman politics within central africa if that's what happens and in the democratic republic of congo in particular but it will need a much more assertive political class that will have a longer term developmental vision ok and well the election results will have to show us whether that's possible absolutely we watching very closely indeed many thanks to all our guests for joining us today alcatel maria bello and alex vines. and thank you to very much for watching you can see the program again any time by

visiting our website that's al-jazeera dot com and of a discussion to go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com ford slash a.j. inside story goes and join the conversation on twitter at a j inside story from me laura and the whole team here in doha it's bye for now to our eye on my. more wind more diversity the new look of the u.s. congress what it needs for the first time on january third we'll ask what it means

for the democrats and for president joining us for coverage of this historic step in american politics the new u.s. called on al to zero. a lot of celebrating control. that is tremendous for the potential so i think and he was determined to go on could use of them at the point of the sword to avenge its people to eight hundred eighty is he smashes the frankish office captures the king of tourists that he sees is the true cross and this is the great military victory the crusades an arab perspective episode three unification of this time on a. cultural history subscribe layer upon layer at times erase others rejuvenating and reinvent. through the transformative power of public art and unlike the collision of hip hop culture and

indigenous tradition forms a community building project led by the godfather of hawaii graffiti. on a. this is al-jazeera. and i welcome to the al-jazeera news hour on live from my headquarters in doha with me elizabeth coming up in the next sixty minutes. i promise to maintain defend hold and protect. brazil lurches to the right with. the man called trump of the

tropics takes charge of national america's largest country. president dollar trump agrees to slow down the fall of u.s. troops from syria. the u.n. freshened stop sending food to the one five keep stealing it from starving people and the most distant object ever visited and that. often i think body one point six billion kilometers beyond pluto. with all your sport as roger federer and serena williams do the tennis court will have the action. when the big u.s. . has been sworn in as brazil's new president the far right leader has promised to boost

the economy and crack down on corruption and violent crime and he recently stood controversy with plans to move brazil's embassy and israel to jerusalem yeah advocates and mentor protections and easing restrictions on gun ownership while and has an organization speech. planned for the economy she's devoted to that we need to create a virtuous circle for our economy that brings us the necessary trust to open our markets to international trade spurring competition productivity and effort. see without any ideological bias in this process of recovering our growth the big business and agro business sector will play a very important role in harmony with protection of the environment and also underlined his commitment to conservative values this we're going to place value on family we're going to respect religion and our judeo christian tradition you're going to combat the ideology of gender to support our values we're going to free ourselves from ideological moorings we will progressively responsibly and

consciously to assure that brasilia is at the service of brazil my electoral campaign took to the streets and supports the commitment of putting brazil first and god above everything. is going to talk correspondent john heilemann he is joining us live from brasilia with what was a short speech but one that did address the main issues that he campaigned on. it certainly did no it was a speech i think in which he did try and balance things he talked about what he wanted to do and he also tried to address some criticisms of him one of those criticisms not just within brazil but from the international community a bit about the amazon rain forest about environmental issues and rain forest actually covers more than half of brazil so what he said there was that agribusiness says we're going to forward decisive role he said in his government and of course they want more access to the rainforest and protected areas but he

said he was going to try to balance that with protecting the environment he also said that this was going to be a government that was free from discrimination and free from the vision of course he's been a really polarizing figure because hand in hand with what we heard from him there about christian values about family values he's also a person that's made homophobic remarks remarks that have been deemed as racist in the past so he tried to sort of address that and slip something about that in there one thing that he mentioned a lot of times in the speech we heard it a little bit there was about ideology he said that this government isn't going to be subservient from ideology i think that what he really means there is ideology is specially from a leftist perspective because brazil for much from two thousand and three to two thousand and sixteen was governed by successive leftist of ministrations so he was saying we really picked our government on purely technical ways the best people for

the job without taking that into account but then he went on to say that this was a government that was going to look at free market and that sort of. economic strategy to go with to make sure that they brought in more money than they were spending which of course has its own ideology to itself as is having a family a nuclear family values so i think he was really saying that this is a break with what's come before. and now we're going to go perhaps to more conservative traditional values of the past in brazil placing value on family respecting religion what he called the judeo christian identity also spoke of overcoming division and discrimination john but you know given the the really shocking things he said about women about minorities the l g b t community will the few words that he did say today the piece has many critics.

i think it's pretty certain that they won't and some of his supporters actually that we've been talking to we did bring that up with them before the election do you really think that the country can come back together again and most of them were quite honest about it there is saying that the polarization is so deep within brazil that it's not going to happen like it's not going to happen quickly within months we're going to have to see as always what the actions are not just a few words here on his swearing in day so it's going to quickly become apparent with sort of what sort of president not always will he be the sort of president that goes along with remarks that he's made in the past some of those remarks it has to be said years ago now in which he said that he favored torture and things like that will this be a president now that takes on the responsibility of the country sees different points of view maybe that takes a vice and these are able to delegate to the people around him that come from various different sectors from sort of hardline christian evangelicals to the

banking in the financial sector to the agribusiness sector to even his family his son is a very powerful congressman what are they all going to be telling him now what sort of vice are they going to be giving him and will push him more to the extreme or will he be more inclusive these are all questions that we're not going to get an answer for today or even in the coming weeks but as he goes on his four year presidency john thank you very much for that for now that is john heilemann live recently and let's get more on this though we're joined by jim. barlow he's a professor at catholic university very good to have you with us on alexander i said what do you make of the new president's speech and i can you tell from what he said today whether he won't try to reach out to his critics and opponents is that even possible to do that. no i wouldn't hold my breath that he's going to take a more moderate position what we've seen since the election is that he's sticking

to his campaign rhetoric he appointed ministers that pretty much follow his promises the dysart prizing thing is that he got elected without making any type of compromise we don't come in to the center to to win votes so i can see no particular reason why he would change now we're going to have to wait a few months and to see faces and difficulties to perhaps some other ration but in the first few months of the first few policies i wouldn't bet on it right because he was able to get elected without moving any closer to the center be able to govern effectively and make the major changes that he's promising without those compromises do you think of the at least at the end of next few months yes he faced some difficulties in the months since the election did action in your leg never get a job or in november he faced accusations and some of one of his kids one of his

sons got involved in corruption scandals in the legislature and real but his support is so strong that the public doesn't seem to care too much about it he has a very strong base people are betting there waiting for his reforms and i think is going to stick to this right wing approach at least for the first few months and he's talked a lot about reforming the system and cracking down on corruption yet some say that has nominees the secretaries have been involved in corruption scandals is he serious about fighting corruption. well yeah he sent a got involved in some some corruption scandals in the legendary religion arrow his chief of staff got involved in some fuckin bay finest scandals but the thing is really brazil is living now we need india age of the fake news and of what someone calls a poster of jordan journalist in the media very low regard there's not

a lot of trust in the media so the public is just feeding off news that are produced by his campaigns or by his supporters in a sense is a sort of a parallel reality. accusations don't don't stick to him you know nothing nothing's sticks to him so far so. you know way he was a representative for twenty eight years is nothing like he's new he's not fighting to the mainstream he's a part of the system he's been a part of the system for three decades now but something somehow we believe in do spiral reality and let's see if the the real fact the political facts come back to bite them or not as as you said he has been around for a long time in something like seven off his twenty two cabinet ministers as a form of the trade peson l. that is more than i think in any administration during brazil's dictatorship from

life to sixty four thousand nine hundred eighty five is that a concession. well it is a concern of the military forces in brazil very wise to have a view of the country but in the way some people are thinking that the forces could be some sort of counterweight to the to the author groups within the administration particular does this right wing new liberal record not make and finance ministers that in the visors that are put in place they're going to come up with have been a very. right wing approach to the economy. privatized state on companies and could some red tape and the military force a more nationalistic view a sovereign view of brazil so there are dangers within the administration it is concerning in one sign that young forces are going back to power but some people

are even seen as a as a moderate powers a moderate factor misses out it's very good to get your expertise on this they really appreciate your time that is that your all doesn't live in the south follow thank you thank you my pleasure well brazil's shift to the political right comes on the same day that cuba has lost thinks that state he is of the communist revolution led by fidel castro that inspired and guided left their movements throughout the region but now the left is out of power and most of latin america cuba itself is hesitantly opening the door to private enterprise that has more on cuba's influence . the big ones as they were called road into heaven or on the first of january no.