two thousand people who live and work here things have never looked so good you know until the good things should improve for better kim jong un wants to sort of. given that most fearlessly conciliation things will improve but the fractious history of into korean relations makes others more cautious talking. with their track record and it's possible that they might change in an unpredictable way so i don't have complete trust. today the only sound of gunfire comes from the firing ranges of the marines who are based here the shelters that people are taught to run to when the event of an attack are chained and locked one of the houses destroyed in the attack has been preserved as a memorial the disputed maritime border has long been a flashpoint between north and south korea in addition to the shelling of twenty

ten there have been deadly clashes between naval vessels near here but the remarkable improvement in korean relations in the past year is having a remarkable impact on the heavily fortified border separating the north and the south. guard posts along the demilitarized zone have been dismantled and the numbers of weapons facing off against each other reduced. assuming the process continues the fortifications of young people niland could eventually become part of a bygone era rob mcbride al-jazeera young piano island south korea. still to come here on al-jazeera thailand recovers from the aftermath of a powerful storm we'll have an update also ahead taking on brazil's criminal gangs the new president sends troops to contain violence in the northeast.

hello again and welcome back this oh i do want to update you on what is happening with our tropical storm puck as it makes its way past thailand now still bring some heavy rain showers across much of that area also affecting into myanmar and the admin and if you are islands are also seeing the heavy rain as well over the next few days the storm is going to start to weaken a little bit over the next forty eight hours as it makes its way towards the northeast but still bringing a lot of heavy rain across much of that area rain showers will continue over here towards bangkok as those outer feeder bands here on sunday still reach the area it's really not till monday that much of that area starts to break out of the rain with those tempers in baghdad going up to about thirty four degrees there well here across australia we are watching penny now this is been a prolonged storm that we've been watching for six more over the week now across much of this region here's the storm right there in the coral sea now penny as

a tropical storm it's making its way back towards the west now we do expect the storm before even making landfall if it makes landfall in queensland to become a tropical depression but still we could see some windy conditions along the queensland coast there down towards melbourne though it is going to be a slightly cooler day than what you see with a temperature of twenty two and rain in sydney where the temperature of about twenty three degrees for you there. on counting the cost it was the worst performing stock market in twenty eighteen find out where china is headed in twenty nineteen brazil's new president has an economic challenge plus taxing times for technology giants in france at a profit warning from. counting the cost.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera live from doha these are the headlines president trump says the partial u.s. government shutdown could last more than a year he doesn't get his funding for a wall along the border with mexico who threaten to use emergency powers to build it if congress doesn't meet his demand. the u.s. says it doesn't believe saudi arabia's version of the murder of jamal khashoggi the u.s. secretary of state will continue to push the saudis. next week. members of the religious minority community of meeting with the west to not withdraw forces for more than syria a report by the free foundation is warning if washington leave syria before hyson

is defeated the group will make a comeback. thailand's first tropical storm in thirty years has left one person dead as rain wind and surging seawater uprooted trees and brought down power lines it's now weakened to a tropical depression but the risk of flooding still remains thousands of tourists were left stranded when airports from ferry services were shut down before the storm public made landfall thousands of residents were also forced to evacuate florence louis has been following the story from the island of course some a week. we're seeing a loss of lives at a minimum and really it appears to be the worst of the storm has passed and by the time that department of the storm has moved on to muncie it has already been downgraded to a tropical depression it's still bringing rain and winds but nowhere near as strong as when it first made landfall on friday off and here on. his resume and sun has just come out it was raining this morning but it really appears that the worst of

the storm is over this is also a part of the world where it is quite common to receive heavy rainfall at this time in fact people the people who live in. didn't seem very by it i mean the rain and the waves in the wind were much stronger than usual but there was a sense that this was even though this was unusual this was something that they could very well cope with and their worst fears have not come true we drove around the island and seen really very little damage the worst affected areas really seem to be. where these tropical storm made landfall on friday off but even it was just the reports that we're getting is that dozens of houses were damaged power supplies were interrupted temporarily because electricity poles fell but as i said loss of lives have been kept at a minimum. tensions run high when for rights and pro immigrant groups run it one of melbourne's famous landmarks the demonstrations were held of the populace and killed of the heavy police curacy the far right groups were protesting against

melbourne's youth crime problem they blame on people of african descent they were opposed by groups supporting multiculturalism you know back with more. killed in melbourne is usually a place to relax at the beach not today instead a scene of far right nationalists facing off against them left wing groups hurling insults across the police line with a very different views of the kind of a strain in which they wish to live and immigration nationalists say they came out to protest against crime on the beat. ges which they blame on australian african descent ok doing the wrong thing and there's still enough for everyone here in the all playable we want to have prices but we want our drug back we want them up sudanese australians in particular have been under scrutiny recently with the local media airing reports referring to african gang violence but those who rallied in support of multiculturalism in australia say the minority group has been made

a scapegoat for bigger issues i've lived in melbourne my whole life now there isn't a problem with african crime we have issues with us not having enough and gauge with things today actually about the fact there's the fact that they tried to scapegoat it on africanus ryans is really disappointing only had prior notice that far right groups would be rallying at the beach and that counter protest would be staged in response to doing all they can to keep the two groups apart to prevent any escalation of physical violence the opposing sides moved from the beach front into the streets of st kilda shutting down roads as police maintained their lines using pepper spray at times to break ups couples extraordinary scenes outside the iconic luna park where children come to ride the roller coaster is likely to be much more frightened by the anger on display outside the fun part kathy novak al jazeera melbourne. the united states has deployed eighteen military staff to go

home after a disputed presidential election in nearby democratic republic of congo president donald trump says troops will support the security of u.s. citizens and personnel in case of violent demonstrations after results of a long delayed election are declared initial final results are expected on sunday vote counting is still underway but the three main candidates of all declared they want the vote catholic bishops feel that the biggest group of election observers they say there is a clear winner and they're demanding that accurate results be declared the u.n. security council met behind closed doors to discuss the vote. intimidation and harassment against journalists opposition candidates and human rights defenders continues to take place and this being a very sensitive as i said very tense period we are concerned that these efforts to silence dissent could backfire considerably when the results are announced and we are watching carefully and we are calling on all sides to refrain from the use of violence dozens of people have been killed the latest ethnic violence in central

book enough nicholas hawk story. the minister of interior in britain f.s.a. may call this a terrorist attack but no one has claimed responsibility for it and no one has been arrested it all started on the night of the thirty first where gunmen on motorcycle killed shot down a village chief just a hundred kilometers away from the million border where an insurgency is taking place the men that were behind this attack were said to be from full on the ethnic origin the philosophies are a group of herders that struggle along all of this the house in countries. their distinctive with their long robes and garbus the next day villagers from that area sought to get revenge and they attacked anyone that looked full on the at least forty people had been killed they went out with guns and knives and this attack comes at a time where the insurgency in this how the area is increasing back in december the

armies of the five to help in countries friends as well as the united nations have valid to bring peace and security in this region but they have so far failed one man muslim vico bricking a fonso national has been and has been behind numerous attacks in water do and in the regions of brick you know fastow now some of the people that we've spoken to from the government say perhaps that he may be behind this latest attack to try to sow division among the population between the full on the ethnic groups but there are numerous ethnic groups that are in breaking a fast so. venezuela has accused the u.s. of plotting with a regional bloc to overthrow president nicolas maduro his government more than a dozen foreign ministers from latin america and canada have said they won't recognize mathilda as president if you sworn in for a second term next week the lima group sent elections in may he will not credible and is calling for power to be transferred to the national assembly until the for

youth vote could be held what he would demand is relief but it sounds from where you are. varian republic of venezuela expresses great bewilderment at the extravagant declaration of a group of countries of the american continent which are receiving instructions from the united states through a video conference have agreed to encourage a. woman an ascension as has more now. the foreign ministers of the fourteen countries members of the group decided not to recognize. next president to take over office again on january tenth they said the election didn't comply with international standards it was not transparent it didn't have any opponents and it didn't have any international observers group decided today that. officials from the government will not be allowed

to enter any of the member countries it was expected in the last few weeks that at least. would break diplomatic relations with. foreign minister said that they are increasingly worried about the humanitarian and political situation in. foreign ministers of the countries urged. to not take office again on january. brazil's new president. in troops to the northeastern states in a. violent gangs combating crime was one of his key campaign pledges it's already facing an early test after forty tourists were robbed at gunpoint on a popular. it is presumed most iconic landmark christ the redeemer towers. are seen by many as a symbol of peace but the trail leading up to it. has become known for

violent crimes dozens have been ambushed held hostage gunpoint tourists think twice about visiting the scene and. we know they've advised us that tourists were robbed yesterday so we didn't hike up we have our camera so we didn't go i didn't want to go over. people. forty people and it's a little bit scary as a tourist you want to be safe you want to go you don't want to miss your cell phone your wallet your camera. it's not the first incident last year the area was closed after a polish man was stabbed the trail runs close to a fan at all city's slum that is home to some of the poorest in the city. many see that as a run by drug gangs and criminal organizations rising violence and read as you narrow has impacted the number of visitors in two thousand and seventeen there was

a reported loss of more than two hundred million dollars in tours in revenue j.a. both scenarios swept to power on a promise to crack down on crime and corruption to fulfill his promise he sending three hundred soldiers to the northeastern state of seattle to contain violence by criminal gangs for the national force has already been contacted the mobilization plan is in action and is about to leave scenes like this in not unusual in brazil's northeastern state there's been a wave of attacks in the previous few months that's included armed robberies and the targeting of public buildings and banks brazil has one of the highest murder rates in the world with tens of thousands killed every year paulson are has vowed to take action but arming civilians experts say this will only fuel further violence laura birdman made al-jazeera. five teenage girls have died in

a fire at a game center in northern poland it's believed the fifteen year olds were celebrating a birthday what's known as an escape room players a locked in a room and have to sell clothes to find a way out safety checks have been ordered at one thousand escape rooms at centers in. the donkey could soon become an endangered species in northern nigeria hundreds are sold in rural markets every week with a growing demand for their meat and their height but there's a limited risk reports now from dandan market one m.p. is pushing for a new law to protect the remaining stock. these animals are heading to the market it's certain that most of them will end up on someone's dinner table and their heights processed for export locals say the rush for the beast is driving the numbers down but all the dealers are bothered about is price drop. a sluggish or leg b. fall maybe because of lack of money but the fact is you don't see.

the departing is the money it's not impressive at all. he says there are thousands in the wild where he gets some of his stock. forty don't use are sold of every week in this rural market on average what prices ranging from fifty to one hundred fifty dollars per head. in northern nigeria long commute is not the many but the highs are valuable to traders who come here to buy the animals and with more and more donkeys being killed there back breaking work is having been done by the elderly because younger people have moved to cities to find what. former owners such as muhammad more to regret they sold their animals. the life is tough without it don't you get used to the help you get from. old people like me are used to living with them that's our source of transportation. a member of parliament who says the animals may soon join the growing list of critically endangered species is pushing

for a law to save the remaining stock. their fate may lie in the hands of small time breeders such as mohammed had a couple. breeding a donkey is tough and easy at the same time the pregnancy is long nearly a year feeding it is hard work and. it probably will take more than people like him to save the animals neighbors such as have already stopped exports of live donkeys it's questionable whether that and other measures will be enough to save the dependable dog yet. if you grease al-jazeera. nigeria. recapping our top stories here on al-jazeera president donald trump says the partial u.s. government shutdown could last more than a year if he doesn't get funding for

a wall along the border with mexico he's threatening to use emergency powers to build it if congress does not meet his demands the u.s. says it doesn't believe saudi arabia's version of the murder of the journalist. but the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei will continue to push the saudis for answers when he visits riyadh next week members of the religious minority community are pleading with the u.s. to not withdraw forces from northern syria a report by the free years e.d. foundation is warning if washington does leave syria before i say this defeated the group will make a comeback thailand's first tropical storm in thirty years has left one person dead as rain wind and surging sea water levels battered the country's southern coast is now we can to a tropical depression thousands of people have been left homeless florence levy has more now from the island of coast a movie for. we're seeing a loss of lives at a minimum and really it appears to be the worst of the storm has passed in fact the time that department that the storm has moved into the andaman sea it has already

been downgraded to a topical depression it's still bringing rain and winds but nowhere near as strong as when it first made landfall on friday afternoon and here on personally as well we're seeing services resumed to normal and sun has just come out it was raining this morning but it really appears that this storm has this is the worst of the storm is over. venezuela has accused the u.s. of plotting with a regional bloc to overthrow the president nicolas maduro his government more than a dozen foreign ministers from latin america and canada have said they will not recognize more durable as president if he's sworn in for a second term next week the lima group is calling for power to be transferred to the national assembly until a free vote can be held tensions have been running high as far rights and pro migrant groups run it at one of melbourne and australia's famous landmarks the demonstrations were held at the popular st kilda beach under heavy police security the far right groups were protesting against melbourne's used crime problem they

blamed that on people of african descent they were opposed by groups supporting multiculturalism those are your headlines your right up to speed with all the top stories don't forget to check out the website up next it's counting the cost also you soon. al jazeera is a very important force of information for many people around the world. camera have gone i'm still here go into areas that nobody else physically talk to people that nobody else is talking to and that story to the forefront. hello i'm adrian finnegan this is counting the cost on al-jazeera a weekly look at the world of business and economics this week new year but same old fears about a slowdown in china shake global financial markets find out what's going on with

the world's number two economy. also this week what brazil's president wants to do to transform latin america's biggest economy. and taxing times for technology giants a new law came into effect in france that apple has issued a rare revenue warning. to china u.s. trade war is on the countdown of the world is watching remember both sides agreed to a ninety day truce on december first well that expires at the end of next month and billions of dollars of penalties are still in place for many economists what happens next will prove to be the key factor deciding the outlook for asia's economy in twenty nineteen as the new year gets underway alarm bells are already sounding about a slowdown in the world's second biggest economy and exporting nation china's c.s.i. three hundred index lost around a quarter of its value in twenty eighteen manufacturing orders fell in december the

fear is that the impact of a trade war is likely to be felt this year and it could mean weaker growth in countries dependent upon trade with china it's making global investors jumpy about what's in store for the new year as rob reynolds reports now from washington d.c. . stock markets swinging wildly. a bruising global trade war and slowing growth worldwide so what's in store for twenty nineteen veteran forecaster locke's mana chewton studies leading economic indicators he says slow downs are part of capitalism upswings and downswings accelerations and d. celebrations are inevitable that's part and parcel of a market oriented economy. but that cyclical slowdown is worsened by policy decisions particularly the trumpet ministrations tariffs on foreign steel aluminum

and in a ray of goods made in china trump also rattled investors with unprecedented criticism of the federal reserve the nominally independent u.s. central bank it's really been a one two punch cycle slow down first then the trade sanctions trade war rhetoric whatever you want to call it and the question right now is are we ready or what is the next punch going to be in are we are we ready for it. in december general motors said it would close five plants and lay off thousands of workers in part due to soaring steel costs companies large and small are scaling back plans for twenty nineteen. los angeles businessman tommy yep sells toys made in china had they initial thought to start store to next year but that may be back to the drawing board germany sweden italy switzerland russia and

other developed countries have all had negative growth for at least one quarter and china is clearly in a significant slowdown. as for the u.s. the u.s. is not in imminent risk of a recession but we're continuing to slow in the long. longer we slow the sharper the slowdown the closer we get to recession risk. consumer spending is still strong u.s. shoppers want more than eight hundred fifty billion dollars worth of goods in the twenty eighteen holiday season it's always possible to remain optimistic and hope that policymakers make wise decisions and that the global economy doesn't tip into recession on the other hand the optimist who jumped off the higher state building you know what he said on the way down so far so good.

so buckle up twenty nineteen could be one bumpy ride joining us now from hong kong is jim mccafferty jims the head of equity research asia in japan at nomura holdings jim good to have you with us on counting the cost so what's going on with the world's number two economy does the future still belong to china well i think what we're seeing is that g.d.p. growth forecasts are coming in for china as the world's second biggest economy and a lot of the metrics coming through over the last couple of days are signaling that the health of the economy really deteriorated to do in the fourth quarter not having settled on its china's economy is still growing it's still the second biggest economy globally and it's growing at let's say more than five more than six percent a year which relative to big columns in the world is still a huge pace of growth but nonetheless the growth of the economy is slowing down from global investors they find that quite hard to digest just how important is

china's growth for the wider asia region and indeed its equity markets. ok so i guess in the context of asia pacific right now japan is by far and away the single biggest market is to forty percent of asia pacific that will change over the coming years as china's economy and china's stock market is really weighted by those in the providers and what we expect to see happening is that by twenty twenty three china will eclipse japan as the single biggest equity market in the region and that means that investors over here and elsewhere around the world who've traditionally seen asia pacific is divided into two categories japan as a developed markets and asia ex japan china being the biggest of those markets be morphed into one single asset class and that means in years to come we may look at asia pacific as china one single markets and then asia x. china as a separate market jim what does all of that mean to people like you and me and

anyone watching what it means is that china as an economy is the second biggest in the world in this fifteen one five percent of the global economic output but in terms of stock market it's only three percent of the overall stock market representations of what it means is that china's stock market needs to catch up with its economy and companies will become more sophisticated and that with the deal with investors foreigners who previously really stayed away from that stayed on the sidelines of the china market they have to come in given the scale of these companies which are not just domestic companies but becoming increasingly international over the last few years so i would expect that the big global investors who encourage retail investors to buy these global funds which are primarily u.s. and european funds going to start taking a much more seriously you sound pretty bullish particularly on on china if you don't mind my saying so are you being perhaps a little overconfident here given that the geopolitical situation that the trade

spat between the u.s. and china that rumbles on i think from the perspective of trade and we've been doing a bit of. work on this then i'm thinking that trump and she both care about the value of the stock market from thomas perspective all of his bolters all of the guys who got him into power they care about their four to one k.'s they care about their pension plans and weakness in the u.s. equity market we've seen in the last quarter doesn't like trump's policy with regard to trade at the same time from she's perspective although he's got absolute control is very useful for him to have social cohesion and for what china market point of view this is not a market that storm by a sophisticated institutional investors it's all my retail investors so if the chinese authorities and if the u.s. authorities are able to send signals that actually stimulate the stock market as well as it was recommit that will be welcome i think a very happy new year to you jim many thanks indeed for being with us on counting the cost you to the head of apple has partly blamed the u.s.

president's trade war with china for missing out on billions of dollars worth of business tim cook warned of lower than expected earnings for the first quarter of this year also citing weaker demand from china heidi joe castro reports. this is a i phone when a confident tim cook and now since the launch of apple's i'm ten in september the fanfare couldn't mask the risk his company was taking. when he nuff consumers across the globe be willing to pay the one thousand dollar price tag of the latest and greatest i phone and now the answer is likely not apple revised its revenue forecast for the first quarter lowering it by up to nine billion dollars and cook says it's due to weak i phone sales in china it's clear that the economy began to slow there for the second half and what i believe to be the case is the trade tensions between the united states and china put additional pressure on their cars

the u.s. is charging a ten percent tariff on two hundred billion dollars of chinese imports and china has responded in kind to sixty billion dollars of products shipped from the u.s. within two months the u.s. tariff on china will escalate to twenty five percent if the two countries don't come to an agreement i respect china and i respect president bush but this killing us some. seven billion dollars trade deficit slowest. five hundred. apples losses have pulled down global markets which may further harm china's weaken economy which only means more losses for u.s. companies that do business there chinese consumers have responded by turning inward choosing cheaper domestic brands over u.s. luxury goods from apple. to lamely because the quality of phones from china's local

brands have become better and better their market shares are rising. the homegrown huawei dominates the smartphone market in china its chief financial officer was arrested in canada last month accused of violating u.s. sanctions in her business dealings that stirred anger among chinese consumers giving them still more reason to support one way and boycott apple we still have a possible sixty day window for them to come to some sort of temporary agreement i think if anything the trade war is bringing tensions that we already saw between the u.s. and china economically to the four trade talks between the u.s. and china are set to resume in beijing this week. still to come on counting the cost a place in the sun one known europeans are snapping up property in greece. but first tech giants in france now have to pay more tax the so-called gaffa tax named after google apple facebook and amazon is to ensure global digital firms pay their

fair share the measure is expected to raise around five hundred seventeen million dollars for france and twenty nine t. in the french government have been pushing for an e.u. wide levy but failed to get the required support earlier we spoke to technologists and coda are all balkan who says that it won't financially hurt tech giant companies like facebook to pay more taxes if facebook was to pay the entirety 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 economists are warning the bad debts and low savings are threatening the survival of nigeria's commercial banks many people refused to put their money in

accounts saying that banks can't be trusted on that idriss reports. they yearn to get in bungle farms and cells any instance some nigerians 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 low income and poverty but even some of the rich and looking elsewhere to take their money if you look at the investment of fortune it is that i will open especially our save nigeria and the relatively high associated

was in this to me and such ventures it because less is center for them. in the country and are led to this to our side but importantly. the sabin's culture must be institutionalized by the government itself with many banks going out of business during the last decade economists say better supervision and enforcement is needed to attract the savings and investment the banking system. or any penang institutions to roll in to destress in terms of the high profile obvious total of this are said been taken away and 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 the greater authorities banks are becoming leno with 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 want to be number one. is a 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 goodly father brazil's new president jaya bos'n r.-o. was sworn in as the new year got underway he's already given powers to the agriculture ministry to manage the amazon rain forest john holdren reports from brasilia. so now he's president not open begin making good on his election promises he'll face some big challenges. crime is

number one more than sixty thousand brazilians were killed in two thousand and seventeen alone novel solution giving more people access to guns and police more license to kill you're going to hear those you need to descend to save the cowboys to defend themselves will honor and respect those who sacrifice their lives for safety. but brazilian officers already killed thousands most of them young black it's being questioned if an even harder line will work. less controversial but just as challenging is pulsar noddles saying to curb corruption he's brought in sergio morrow the man in charge of latin america's biggest bribery investigation is his justice minister but it may be tougher than he thinks nice fly take it's course it's much more easier terms of how like the narrative that in terms of practice. the government has besides the fact felt a strong way off the president to fight against corruption been assessed

established a lot of oily coal the. gulf are not if i jam like this i don't think so and then there's the economy twelve million brazilians are unemployed consonantal says that free market economics and small government will fix that you did you lose a government one spend more income seen anybody but if people really want to balance the books you have to make cuts to brazil's generous pension system it takes up more than half the federal budget that would be deeply unpopular how far president also not to get some responding to all of those challenges is going to be decided here in brasilia where his party has only about him but the seats in the houses of congress so he's going to have to negotiate with. those that backed him and that includes ex generals evangelicals i grew business leaders and the financial sector if you want to get anything done and everyone will want to say

these groups they are really willing to to fight each other so i'd say that the challenge is how to put these groups together and how to align expectations so that these groups become part of a government and not fragments. president bill so model run a successful campaign on the air or is it abuses of brazil's left of center governments now it's the time the man from the right to see if he can do better. joining us now from london richard segal richard a senior emerging markets analyst with manulife asset management good to have you with the set once again richard so what are the challenges facing both an auto as he takes office there is clearly going to be on fiscal consolidation or from an up or fronts economic liberalization but also streamlining

of the economy and the public sector workforce it's important to realize how enormous the challenges are though and therefore we'll be looking for this new government to be making step by step progress with only a few steps backwards rather than a big bang approach which would have the risk of failing but this is a man by his own admission who knows very little about the markets and how the financial world works has he got the wherewithal to do what brazil needs. thus far it's been quite encouraging to read one after another the appointments he's made to steer the economy first academics in the position of find its minister but also a long standing financial markets professional to run the central bank the risk here is that where there are setbacks these individuals my resign or be forced out

in their form would be back to the drawing board but thus far and present both of our zero as indicated that he will adopt a hands off approach towards letting the experts run the economy in the financial markets and so therefore there is reason to be encouraged but with many latin countries the initial placements and then welcomed but they haven't lasted long enough so once again we have to hold our breath and hope for the best he says he's going to stamp out brazil's endemic corruption it's bureaucracy. what's he going to take to get foreign direct investments what is it going to take to get those of us looking into brazil from the outside to put our money into the country a lot has actually been done in the past several years the car wash scandal help to root out a lot of the larger scale corruption so i would say that the more important

challenges as we look into two thousand and nineteen into two thousand and twenty are to focus on the bureaucracy rather than the corruption because of the scandals of the past couple of years those politicians who might be inclined. to go back to the old ways will be afraid afraid of being taped or be afraid of being. finding themselves on the front pages for the wrong reasons so that's less of a worry however pre-sales public sector bureaucracy is bloated across the board left to right up and down i think there what we need is an effort to reduce the size of the public sector workforce it's going to lay it take a long time but it has been delayed for many years and they have to start some richard pretty good still too many thanks indeed for being with us and counting the cost thank you and finally this week a record thirty three million visitors

a heading to greece every year and that driving up previously depressed house prices normally europeans are among the bias if they spend enough they get a visa to stay on zeros jones the ripple us reports from athens. has just sold this one bedroom apartment to a chinese investor it has a panoramic view of athens but until last year the owners would have been lucky to get half the price it fetched two hundred eighty thousand dollars that's the minimum investment required for a greek golden visa which allows non europeans to live in europe it's the cheapest such visa in the european union and it's brought a flood of new money into a depressed real estate market. the main priority for people who buy these properties it's secure the golden visa and freedom to travel in europe they see it as a cheap investment in a property they intend to rent out. half of all golden visas in greece go to

chinese nationals chinese companies have set up shop here to renovate and manage their properties foreign money is a bonanza for estate agents like who've seen their business jump by more than fifty percent in a year and tourism is part of that bonanza short term rentals are booming in central athens and boutique hotels are springing up during the past decade house construction and house sales have fallen by ninety percent that has wiped three billion dollars off the tax revenues that were raised when property changes hands so governments introduced the highest taxes in the european union on property ownership anyone with real estate must pay to keep it and failure to do so means the government may seize it and their bank accounts. greeks are being forced to sell the property they spent generations building to meet tax obligations the head of the hellenic property federation which represents owners met greece's creditors when the property tax was introduced. predators said that this was

a tax greeks must learn to pay because their real estate holdings a large compared to those of other europeans i don't think credit is understood that this tax goes against core values the greeks worked hard to build their property they often had to go overseas and nobody handed them this property. the selling spree is also encouraged by banks which are foreclosing on twelve and a half billion dollars worth of property that backs non-performing loans and they've severely cut credit for new mortgages so even though average property prices have fallen by forty percent in the past decade few greeks are in any position to take advantage of opportunities and that is our show for this week if you'd like to comment on anything that you've seen please do get in touch with us you can tweet me i'm at a finnigan on twitter please use the hash tag a j c t c when you do or you could drop us a line counting the cost of al-jazeera dot that is our e-mail address as always

there's more for you online at al-jazeera dot com slash c.t.c. that takes you straight to our page and they will find individual reports links even entire episodes for you to catch up on but that's it for this edition of counting the cost i'm adrian finnegan from the whole team here in doha thanks for being with us the news on al-jazeera is next. begins with but it does not in there no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat than the regime of saddam hussein this is a regime that has something to hide they had prepared a significant propaganda offer and guess what not one. was found in iraq since one thousand nine hundred ninety one iraq. on al-jazeera. rewind returns i can bring your people back to life i'm sorry with brian new

updates on the best of al-jazeera documentaries they has been a number of reforms put in chi since the car graham was filmed rewind begins with muhammad at the ten when i was in the i was the clubs. and the of a student i was very fortunate to be awarded on the rewind on al-jazeera. this

is al jazeera. hello i'm don jordan this is the al-jazeera news hour live from coming up in the

next sixty minutes in fact he said he'd keep the government closed for a very long period of time months or even years absolutely said the more threats from donald trump as the political deadlock over his border wall enters a third week plus. only don't worry. because we're going to go in there really. some members of the new u.s. congress make it clear they're going after the president. members of the minority community say they fear for their safety if the u.s. withdraws troops in northern syria. and thousands of homeless in thailand after powerful tropical storm but as the country's southern coast. the u.a.e. is accused of restricting profits at the asian cup as a house painter take on bahrain in abu dhabi.

welcome to the program u.s. president donald trump says give him his wall or he's prepared to keep more than eight hundred thousand public employees off work for a year the president's also threatening to use emergency powers to get it built meanwhile negotiators are vowing to work through the weekend in washington to try and break the deadlock political hane that's the latest from washington. the two sides emerged from both sides of the white house with very different impressions of how their meeting went and they had a very very productive meeting a lengthy and sometimes contentious conversation with the president. with democrats now in charge of one chamber of congress they came to the white house to try and find a compromise to reopen the government the president says he won't sign a bill that doesn't spend five billion dollars on a wall the democrats say they simply will not spend a penny to build it they only seem to agree on one thing in fact he said he'd keep

the government closed for a very long period of time months or even years absolutely i said that i don't think it will but i am prepared and i think i can speak for republicans in the house and republicans in the senate they feel very strongly about having a safe country but that is the key question can he keep senate republicans on his side if enough vote to fund the government it could override any potential veto reopening the government without a wall without that it could go on it for much longer both sides refusing to budge the president threaten to declare a national emergency to build his wall on his own but it seems unlikely he actually has the power to do that under the constitution an open question about who will win the political fight hundreds of thousands of government workers and contractors are not being paid and for many not paying their bills for them it is a question of how much more they'll have to lose before this political fight is over particle hane al-jazeera washington for us justice and homeland security

departments admit to using a report that was both inaccurate and misleading to link immigration to so-called terrorism or that erroneous information was then used by the white house in the push for immigration reform well the document claims that seventy three percent of people convicted of international terrorism related charges since the nine eleven attacks were foreign born but it fails to. detail how many individuals committed so-called terrorist acts of broad and only later brought to the u.s. for prosecution critics say by focusing on foreign born fighters the report emits numbers on homegrown fighters including white supremacists and far right groups well several civil liberties groups have brought about lawsuits saying the government agencies misuse their power to advance a political agenda well officials have admitted to the erez but have declined to attract or correct the report let's bring in eric hamm is an author and political analyst and joins us live now from washington d.c. every cow surprised dial you had how distorted this report appears to be and do you

think it was fabricated in order to justify president from attacks on chain migration and immigrant families. well absolutely i think this was a political decision made by the justice department and i think we've already seen a blurring of the lines between the justice department and the white house since the president was inaugurated and i think that's one of the reasons why i think there's so much concern particularly among both political parties here in washington that you're seeing a president that is has that has his hands on the scales of justice which is one of the reasons why you're seeing rising cause that there is a constitutional crisis that's coursing through the u.s. government here right at this time erick in terms of political traction i mean who does this kind of report appeal to is this president trump appealing to his support base by trying to mash together immigration and terrorism at the expense of the truth perhaps. well yeah and i think we want to also look at why something like

this would take place if this was this was to be done at the time that the administration was trying to bolster its reasoning for a band of the muslim countries and one of the reasons that they were attempting to use that was to say that there was a security risk in of course and they were using this idea that they were this terrorism was linked to immigration but of course now we see that the justice department was was was was erroneous and that idea and so now we're seeing the justice department actually retract this report which is virtually unheard of here in the united states that you would have the justice department actually do something like that but unfortunately what we're not seeing from the justice department is in the department actually going further than that and saying that this was in fact a political tool not a policy tool nor was it actually

a legal tool as well and that's an important point to make eric because in response the justice department is now acknowledges that the reports misuse the data saying it was quote an editorial error yet the dia refuses to retract that so what should they do in terms of correcting the report and getting to the facts and the truth. well i think what we need to see is we need to see the inspector general with in the justice department step in and get to the bottom of why something like this actually occurred because again this is a department that has has been known for its independence from the political machinations n. washington but now we're seeing i guess this blurring of the lines where you're seeing the president's political agenda override the justice department's legal mission and so now i think that's where that not only should there be cause

for the i.g. the inspector general to step in and get to the bottom of why this took place but also i think now with a new democratic congress we need to see hearings from the house judiciary committee to also bring in senior members of the justice department to find out specifically how the president's political agenda actually was able to be from center and such a. a report that was so glaringly erroneous and got it wrong or come thank you very much for talking to al-jazeera. now one of the first muslim female members of the u.s. congress is facing criticism for using an expletive against president trump when calling for his impeachment democratic congresswoman rushy that's why i made the comment just hours after being sworn in the president has called her language disgraceful but slightly stunning by her remarks and we got to get reports. newly

sworn in but already courting controversy detroit congresswoman rashida to lead concluded to celebrate free speech on thursday with a comment that's attracted widespread attention bully don't wait and maybe it's not because we're going to go in there really the mother. i believe is part of a new generation of democratic lawmakers many of them women coming to power for the first time most are seen as progressive and keen to hold president trump to account i don't like the language we use our language i don't like it again establish any language standards for my colleagues and i don't think it's anything worse than the president when the president said some in the democratic party are said to be angry to leave comments fearful that it could be seen as playing politics rather than pursuing oversight we had a very very productive meeting his part the president claims impeachment is not on the democrats' agenda so i think it's very hard to impeach him but he has done

a great job that's number one and. and we've been talked about that today i said why don't you use this for impeachment and then she said we're not looking to impeach you i said that's good that's good to leave comments so widely seen as premature but the new generation of lawmakers in the house may present the party's leadership with challenges huge number of new members who are quite bold if you will. have their own mark in may say we don't care what he says we got the vote we're not going along with what she says impeachment is a risky move for the democratic party and many are telling new members to be more cautious special counsel robert muller's probe is still underway and senior democrats are said to be more focused on the twenty twenty election either way most agree the language used by the congresswoman was not helpful to gallacher al-jazeera washington. members of the religious minority years eating community are pleading with the u.s. not to withdraw troops from northern syria a report by the free years any foundation is warning that if washington leave syria

before eisen is defeated the armed group will make a comeback the report also requested establishment of a no fly zone over northern syria to prevent a potential turkish assault on kurdish stronghold obama though joins us live now from gaziantep that's on the turkey syria border mom and so they use evening commute chutney very worried about u.s. troops being pulled from syria how real of those concerns. for it's real and that they're not just. the these but all for other religious minorities like the christians of syria and also of course the region there are a ton of is a really red. possibility now no community almost group of people how they how draconian i still can be self id's. over the years they have been holding sway in some of the lands in

syria and iraq cut it out some of the last atrocities against years edis you know from the killing off men to the sleeve meant to women for sexual slavery in various parts of both countries but also. they. destruction of temples belonging to the years edis or running them into mosques. forcibly botting them so this is a community that really forced and will cities we didn't buy i said on the read out of it tunnel these groups could be made possible by the hasty withdrawal will all the united states forces from. p.v. to the united states to stay put and see the job hunt completed and nominate we're hearing reports of civilian casualties following russian ass strikes in the area

what more can you tell us. all russian now in the western aleppo countryside health killed two of the old son.