szell exploitation the country's new far right president. issued an executive order giving the agriculture ministry responsibility for demarcating indigenous lands the decree strips the indigenous affairs agency of power which is angered native rights groups the government has also promised to introduce an anti crime bill next month john holeman joins us live from brasilia john bolton our is clearly wasted no time on getting started what's been the reaction to his initiative so far. well i think first of all just to explain a little bit more about why he's done this specially with that measure in terms of indigenous reserves now what he's done is basically to make it but to be impossible now from all indigenous reserves in brazil and that was one of these campaign from the since he said not one centimeter more of protected land for indigenous people but so far environment solicits telling us here is not going to affect the

indigenous reserves that are already in place in brazil some of them as you mentioned that are in the areas covered by the amazon rain forest that she covers more than half of this country so would indigenous leaders a seeing this as i think is sort of the thin end of the wedge one has said the dismantling has already begun others have said that this is going to be and mean an increase in deforestation and violence in the future now the president hasn't really hidden his his sense of willingness to develop brazil's natural resources including the amazon rain forest full farming and other things and he's been spurred on to that by the agribusiness community in low b. that's now in charge really of the agricultural ministry here in brazil so that probably will come further down the line now there's been more positive reactions as well full price for the president he said or his ministers have said that they will be privatized nation of this day electricity company and also for airports in

the country and that's pushed brazilian stocks to a record high so i think probably a sector of the population especially in c.e.o.'s and environmentalists who will be extremely worried about what's happening with the ahmanson but i think probably more of the brazilian population will be looking at other things such as corruption such as crime such as the economy we're coming out of one of the worst for recessions in brazilian history and will probably be more focused on those johnnies also appointed as new cabinets are there any notable faces and does that give us any clue as to what his priorities are. i think there are any surprises really in his cabinet i think there are a few pivotal figures in the though one of them is paolo get this this is respected economist he believes in free market economy he believes in small government but

he's a pivotal figure a really big could the new president has admitted that he doesn't really know very much a tool about the economy so he's going to have to rely on this manpower look at this who as i say within brazil within brazilian analysts they say that he is a respected figure that he doesn't know what he's doing on the other hand we have the the new brazilian justice minister his name is sergio morrow this is a man who in part in the past was in charge of the investigation into the biggest corruption scandal in latin american history that affected really a lot of the political and business elite within the country now he's been named then he was a judge now he's been named as the justice minister what president bush fernando is hoping is that he's going to give him a head start really in fighting corruption in the country what critics of that really asking is before he was a pen independent now he's part of a political movement now he's part of the government will his priorities change

those are two key figures really within the new government i should also mention as well this seventy seven people with the military past that have been given positions president bush for not who has in the past said that he has an affinity with the military dictatorships of the past in brazil the democracy here is only thirty years old so i think a lot of people are going to be watching carefully what he does and what the figures in his government does do as this goes forward out as there is down home in speaking to us from brasilia thanks john. plenty more ahead on the news hour including. we're talking about. that's what we're talking about why the u.s. president thinks syria is a lost cause plus. day of nine hundred thirty million dollars that's a lot of money you know it's free though not bombing it's netflix's criticized after it pulls a comedy show that offended saudi arabia. and novak djokovic has put to the test at

the open will be here with that much and more in school. at least thirty one people are dead after days of intense fighting between two armed troops in northern syria it's happening in parts of two provinces aleppo and al-qaeda linked fighters and turkey backed rebel forces are blaming each other for starting the violence it's the west fighting in this part of the country in three months mohammed a doctor has the latest from near the techie syrian border. syrian rule one it does describe the latest spate of fighting the last in mosul syria in the past three months fighters and loyal to the al qaeda affiliated heya to friedel shum are said cut it out an offensive against talk peace block syrian rebels with

a view of dividing the free and on the other side of the aleppo countryside say took control of the threat to dick town of business and villages around it and now the toughest syrian rebels are calling for help from the force meant to try and repulse the offensive against them by the afridi all this comes a little over a week since the president of the united states donald trump announced the withdrawal of about two thousand u.s. troops were stationed in syria there has been a scramble to fill the vacuum of ventral have been left by the with the broom of the u.s. forces with turkey and iran did in the way you talk your force has promised the united states a full military ally it will deal with not only remnants of i said but also the al-qaeda affiliates and could be the main reason why the higher to to have

a shot has now cut it out on offensive on the turkish allies in syria of course talking also wants to cut it all to not talk on the town of men be dropped has been controlled by syrian kurds and right now we do not know when the offensive is going to happen but turkey has been massing troops such as florida and has put its allies the free syrian army on a wall footing. while u.s. president ronald trump has described syria's war as sand and death while defending his withdrawal of american troops speaking as a cabinet meeting on wednesday didn't provide a timetable for the military exit he announced last month against the advice of his defense chiefs but he did say he wants to protect kurdish people in syria been accused of abandoning the kaddish y p g in key allies in the fight against eisel. yes i know this is faster so i'm glad it is what is the timetable with us but as somebody said for months but i didn't i didn't say that either i'm getting out

we're getting out of syria look we don't want syria obama gave up syria years ago when he didn't violate the red line i did when i shot fifty nine missiles at but that was a long time later so syria was lost long ago it was lost long ago and besides that i don't want we're talking about sand and death that's what we're talking about what we want to protect the kurds never the less we want to protect the kurds but i don't want to be in syria forever it's a hand and it's death well not to have sami is the director of the center for middle east studies at the university of denver he joins us via skype from there that's quite some rhetoric we've had from president trump but is it really different from what he's been saying all along no i think it's perfectly consistent articulated this view of international relations while he was running as

a candidate for president it reflects a particular isolationist view of u.s. foreign policy that the united states should not be there you know spending money in wars in faraway lands it plays very well with his core base of supporters and with people on the extreme left and right in the american political spectrum so this is in many ways vintage donald trump is there not a deep seated concern within foreign policy circles for instance that any kind of u.s. pullout will leave a pallet that came in the region that could be filled by any one of the number that does including a possible resurgent of eyesore. well yes that's i think precisely the critique and the concern about trump's announcement to withdraw from syria it will create a vacuum that will likely lead to greater conflict one thing that we've learned in the war against isis is that they thrive in benefit where there's

a security vacuum or a state has collapsed was no other authority to assert themselves but also there is deep concerns that this will lead to conflict between turkey and the kurds who've had you know very acrimonious relations for many years now and it could lead to greater destabilization of that part of the middle east i do want to ask you more about that because president trump says he wants to protect the kurds but he made the surprise announcement after a call with tech is present that one who has very obviously said that he considers most of these groups a fight as terrorists today statement they regarded as a little disingenuous. yeah i think so i mean we don't know what trump means when he says he wants to protect the kurds but you know trump is not known for his you know deep commitment for the human rights of oppressed minorities in the middle east he has a very close relationship with president barito on this entire announcement of the syria withdrawal was actually precipitated by

a very important phone call with the turkish president. you know there's reports that they're going to leave the military will leave behind some of their heavy weapons to the courage to protect themselves but i don't think that will really sustain them if turkey is determined to invade north eastern syria and to crush you know the kurdish military presence that's there so that's my evaluation of his comments on the kurds and the last day and tens of reaction from defense settles what have we had from then and off to his statement today. well i think there's just a lot of you know concern and you know consternation about the absence of any sort of u.s. strategy with respect to the middle east with respect to syria with respect to the potential of you know greater conflict in overall thing as a result of this rushed decision. one thing that is clear though i think that we

can learn from these recent comments both today and on december nineteenth when trump announced his withdrawal is a trap is very much his own man he's not listening to you know john bolton he's not listening to his generals he's making his own foreign policy that is really really catering to the isolationist stream of the core base of american supporters who support him roughly thirty percent right or wrong and he's very much his own men not a has any speaking to us from denver thank you for your insights not a thanks a prominent egyptian rights activist is appealing to the president to pardon his wife he's been sentenced to two years in jail for mattress on a fathi was arrested for posting a video online denouncing the treatment of women in egypt and accusing god at a bank of sexually harassing her she was charged with spreading false news her husband mohamed loftie is asking president. to view his wife as a victim there have been protests across the indian states of carola against the

entry of two women into the sabbar a moloch temple police fired tear gas and water cannon against a group of demonstrators in the state capital the women with a fast to enter the temple since the supreme court overturned a centuries old ban on women of men's tracing age the protests to support the temples refusal to implement the courtroom ng saying hindu values are under attack . the temple and the disputes over gender equality are now at the center of the political fight just months ahead of national elections dosage of r e reports. under the cover of darkness and escorted by police these two women defied religious hardliners by entering one of hindu isms holiest shrines the shop a remodeled temple in the southern state of carola which attracts millions of worshippers ear their historic move is backed by india supreme court which in september ordered the authorities to lift

a ban on women or girls between the ages of ten and fifty from entering the temple . but the temples authorities refused so by by the court's ruling and subsequent attempts by women to visit had been blocked by thousands of the booties supporting the ban conservative hindu groups say they believe women of menstruating age would defile the temples in her shrine local media is reporting the chief priest briefly shot the temple for purification rituals decent clearly any issue of politics and elected in politics by am saying days after these two women ended up being. a dad be a baby at most fitting that replay in my eyes is so peaceful that even there have been these three men. getting their feet not object added not barris is very peacefully silent yeah louden gives me mental war and what before that board. the

care of a state president of the hindu nationalist party claims that these events are politically motivated. the b.g.p. has been seeing the local government orchestra going plan what happened they had declared a mission to start a bit of a lot temple to achieve this the commune is going to fold anybody vs means advantage debated this. on tuesday millions of women from across the state formed a six hundred twenty kilometer human chain and called it the woman's wall it's an issue that's become increasingly contentious in the run up to india's general elections scheduled for may going on the door such a party al jazeera. still ahead on al-jazeera why life is about to get harder for palestinian political prisoners held by israel. and we'll tell you why millions of people in africa's most populous nation are steering clear of banks. across liverpool and manchester city meet in the top of the table battle in the english premier league on thursday we'll hear from both camps in sports quickly.

hello there's a persistent and slowly snaking line a frontal system run across the us that is group wants the size of it and cold to the north of it so it's a lie where you either get rain or snow start quite possibly showing itself as a rare event in dallas of the next twenty four hours mainly it's north of austin texas rolling up through oklahoma eventually but rain and heavy rain could be the worry here you know so the temperatures are the side of the cold side not as low as they were they've risen about fifty degrees in twenty four hours winnipeg's above freezing so as minneapolis and that's i think continuing trend if a slightly warmer on friday and here's the rain risk that could be significant running through wet ground zero up toward tennessee and kentucky division probably

now relations it will snow the ground it will be rain and there's plenty of rain still for the pacific coast snow rapidly falling out of the sky british columbia in the cascades as well which is welcome but the rain itself is probably welcome a little bit further south in northern california. so on the caribbean apart from the great don't say should see a rain showers it's really quite quite a pleasant time of the year the onshore breeze for places like costa rica honduras and nicaragua just brings a little light rain. bigger and potentially more dangerous that's the best way to describe what's happening with the smoking alternative known as baby i enjoy the taste of it and not get the harmful effects of what smoking does between two thousand and thirteen and two dozen fourteen alone we start tripling and use among us high school students and head to head contests he say versus conventional cigarette which one do you think

it's healthy for my opinion i think they're both dangerous take no one else is in. getting to the heart of the matter how can you be a refugee after a while it borders between five safe countries facing new realities start from the very beginning go to school providing context housing is not just about four walls and a roof hear their story talk to al jazeera. welcome

back. a reminder about top stories this hour u.s. president donald trump has asked congressional leaders to return to the white house on friday after both sides failed to reach a deal to end the partial government shutdown trump said he is prepared to let the shutdown go on indefinitely until he gets funding to build a wall at the but at the border with mexico. brazil's new government has announced a major policy overhaul including measures expected to open up the amazon rain forest to increased commercial exploitations the country's new far right president . also promised to introduce an anti crime bill. at least thirty one people are dead after days of intense fighting between two groups in northern syria al-qaeda linked fighters and turkey backed rebel forces are blaming each other for starting the violence in its lead and aleppo province. netflix has been criticized for withdrawing an episode of

a satirical comedy series in saudi arabia after complaints from the government saudi officials say the program which criticized the crown prince broke a cyber crime laws more now from. the online film provided netflix has removed an episode of the show patriot act with hot sun from its site in saudi arabia and hades why do you know what his nickname is. rust which means father of the bullet we own ten percent of which makes complete sense saudi arabia are both places women drivers don't feel safe. they have nine hundred thirty million dollars that's a lot of money you know it's free tho not bombing them. there are people in saudi arabia fighting for true reform but m.p.'s is not one of them and to those who continue to work with them just know that with every deal you close you were simply hoping entrenched and absolute monarch under the guise of progress because ultimately m.p.'s is not modernizing saudi arabia the only thing is modernizing

saudi dictatorship or the audience may have found it funny but the saudi government certainly wasn't laughing because netflix received a complaint alleging the episode violated the kingdom cyber crime nor now any episode has one man has criticized his crown prince mohamed bin solomon over the killing of journalists in the saudi consulate that was back in october in istanbul and the kingdom's cozy relationship with the us was also criticized as well as the imprisonment of political activists including female drivers and saudis involvement in the war in yemen now the streaming service defended its decision saying we strongly support artistic freedom worldwide and only remove this episode in saudi arabia after we received a valid legal request and to comply with local law but using the artistic freedom card didn't go down too well with human rights watch in fact it's middle east and africa executive director that sarah leah whitson she tweeted that netflix

claim to support artistic freedom means nothing if it bows to demands of the government officials who believe in freedom for their citizens not artistic not political and she adds not comedic but jamal khashoggi editor at the washington post she called the decision quite out rageous now some people have been sharing the link to it's on you tube which by the way can be watched from founder a row at least for now with people pointing out that if anything saudi arabia is move has given the show more publicity and ironically it has the most viewed patriot act episode on you tube with more than one million views. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu is under growing pressure to expand illegal settlements as he launches his reelection bid last week israel announced plans to extend an existing settlements south of bethlehem from there stephanie decker reports. we

are deep in the occupied west bank just south of bethlehem trying to find the location israel has earmarked for the latest announcement of its illegal settlement expansion an area rights groups are calling to it's striking how many settlements are already cut across this land land that is meant to be part of a future palestinian state and he could make resident money for are going to help us find the hills a small group of settlers are already here. for example take bethlehem there you have settlement block here from the north and road sixty from the west and the settlement of efrat from the south and tacoma is there behind us what's going to happen to us what's left where should we palestinians breathe when you're looking for west bank today it's not a listing and continuities you're going to continue to between the villages and cities all e. zero. to five g. is an expert in the jug feel of the land where the settlements are and what their

presence means zero zero zero and so we have a big live view of settlement this is the more than any bloke and you have to give i was able bloke on my earlier that we look at me in the big kind of go to. the jordan valley but it's more dangerous than this one it's me in that all the biggest city in north of this garage it's your own will be divided for two pieces one of them is surrounded with certainly in the north and second settlement and so there is no good at all for the city one word the rights group peace now is fighting this latest expansion in the courts arguing this land should be allocated for palestinians not to build more illegal settlements i'm afraid that the coming months before elections will be used by the settlers to set facts on the ground that the government will not want to fight against and the government will issue new plans a new. fact because they feel that it's

a window of opportunities not knowing what will be after the elections and with trumpets ministration in their back they can do whatever they want back in the west bank on a road that skims a small palestinian village we come across to israeli settlers. we ask them where the new allocated area is. and they say it's in the settlement of a from what they believe that this is their land given to them by god unless there is significant pressure on israel by the united states and the international community to reverse this decision peace now tells us that it's only a matter of a couple of years until see bulldozers arrive here and start building thousands more illegal settlement homes stephanie decker al-jazeera south of butler him in the occupied west bank and israel's public security minister has promised to make conditions worse for palestinian prisoners gilad says jails will remove cooking rights begin rationing water and reduce prisoners' autonomy they also lose the

right to be housed with members of their factions a group representing palestinian prisoners says some of the policies are already being person place more than five thousand palestinians are being held in israeli jails as political prisoners many say they've been subject to torture and violence while in custody more than two hundred children are among those being held rights groups say more than one thousand eight hundred are in need of medical care with about seven hundred suffering from serious chronic illnesses and a stint in prison is often protest against poor conditions there have been several hunger strikes in recent years mustafa barghouti is secretary general of the palestinian national initiative he says it would be another escalation of human rights violations by israel. the fact. now these punitive acts against palestinian prisoners is very clearly related to the. israeli ministers are using

suppression and operation of palestinians as an instrument of competition in the upcoming elections some ministers are in france incumbent activities of those torturing people through imprisoning them especially children. now wanting to make conditions much worse for post in persons and others are greeting the policy of violence against palestinian people so in my opinion this is one of the way over a skeleton in the human rights violations fighting between a protest and create and me and my security forces has forced hundreds of people out of their homes and western rakhine states the u.n. says about two thousand five hundred people have been displaced over the past month following violence between security forces and equip known as the article on a military crackdown on revenge and muslims in iraq has driven more than seven hundred thirty thousand people into neighboring bangladesh since august twenty

seventeen rescue workers in indonesia are searching for twenty people feared buried beneath landslides in west java at least fifteen bodies have been recovered so far mariana hunt has more. the wall of mud and debris came without warning just before some see it on new year's eve. it was about one hundred people live in the village of tsunamis me it slammed into the heinz burying at least thirty buildings many up to the bruce. around to the back of my house and saw the bomb turn upside down and then be carried away our source. soil coming my way very very fast at least thirty five people are thought to have been swallowed up by the landslide survivors and rescue workers for the most part using basic tools they hands and to clear the thick mud to find survivors and the deeds but this is dangerous work

ongoing heavy rainfall on the unstable soil has triggered at least full more landslides hampering the refits soon it is me village is on the hill one of more than thirty areas within the sukhumi district that disaster relief officials head assist to be at medium to high risk because you. have to create your policy to make sure. the way relief invest is really weiss and. but that's little comfort for those whose family and friends did well still missing . that day my brother was visiting me down at the beach in the afternoon he said he wanted to return to his house i asked him to stay overnight but he said no i'm afraid of the tsunami and then i heard what happened there i came straight away to look for him. indonesia was hit by more than two and

a half thousand disasters in two thousand and nineteen including earthquakes. tsunamis and landslides. this disaster on the last day of the year took the death toll for two thousand and eighteen across indonesia to more than three thousand the highest number in more than a decade made in holland. and rescue workers in the philippines are struggling to reach areas cut off by floods and landslides which have now killed at least eighty five people still most money hit shortly after christmas devastating central provinces the victims including children were mostly killed when their homes collapsed a state of calamity has been declared in three provinces to give them access to imagine see funds the russian government says it's allowed an american citizen detained on spying charges to have access to u.s. consular officials who want on says about his arrest former marine paul whelan was arrested in moscow on friday by state security services his family says he was in

the country for a wedding and denied the charges against him u.s. secretary of state says if the detention is not justified he will demand whelan's immediate return economists are warning bad debt and low savings are threatening the survival of nigeria's commercial banks many people refuse to put their money in accounts saying banks can't be trusted on that interest reports. they yearn to get them bungle farms and souls on aeons to some nigeria's neighbors at the peak of the season he makes about thirty thousand dollars a week despite this income he stopped taking his money to the bank at a bank he although i'm not satisfied with the services i receive a used to have an account that i was disappointed several times so i put my earnings back into the business and invest in real estate. and millions of other nigerians either not putting their money into savings account or have never even

set foot in a bank. economist blame a number of factors including law income and poverty but even some of the reach i'm looking elsewhere to take their money if you look at the investment of fortune it is that i will often especially i'll save nigeria and the relatively high associated was in this to me and such ventus it because less is for there. in the country or led to this to our site but importantly. the sabin's culture must be institutionalized by the government itself with many banks going out of business during the last decade economy see better supervision and enforcement is needed to attract the savings and investment the banking system. or any pay mentioned institutions to roll in to destress of the. obvious total of this are said been taken we have been combative in twelve long it

indicates that the surveillance system provided by central mungo nigeria and as your lender for the insurance corporation is adequate or low all that it and what it can i was on the part of that of a greater authority banks becoming leno or fewer branches and staff and accusations and mergers are also becoming the new. bank used to be here someone else is renting the building now after decades of doing business the bank shut down because it didn't have enough customers many people are one and don't have enough. is the distrust of the banking system. small businessmen like they want more from the banks access not only to loans but better returns on their savings too if that's not provided the banks may find the number of customers contributing to savings accounts dwindling father. reese al-jazeera.