leader of the orthodox church worldwide denied he'd been given bribes to authorize the separation however he admitted to a group of children he had been given chocolates by ukrainian president petro poroshenko. president poroshenko also has a chocolate factory even if the russian church is accusing me of being bribed with money to do this autocephaly in reality i didn't receive money because i got a lot of the sweets and chocolate from the factory apportioning though. according to an agreement made two centuries ago ukraine's orthodox churches have been under the jurisdiction of the churches of russia. but pressure has been growing for ukraine's churches to several times since the country became independent from russia in one thousand nine hundred one. and that pressure has been getting stronger since russia annexed crimea in twenty fourteen when large parts of eastern ukraine were taken over by russian backed forces and where fighting continues. crean's leadership headed by president petro poroshenko who's been attending

saturday's ceremony accuses the russian controlled side of the church of spreading pro moscow propaganda a charge russia denies if you feel. you dear ukrainians this is beat this is a great day i'm sure that it will go down in history for river. the document authorizing this operation known as the thomas will be taken back to crane on sunday the author docks christmassy a celebration is to be held in kiev the following day a celebration the church as leaders in russia may not share what matters are jews and. all right still ahead when we come back on and. i am. standing up against what they're calling a slave war unions in hungary call for a national strike. and from bombs debacle the former hong kong.

vanka now storing some of the world's finest wine. hello again this hour do want to start here and across the united states we did see one weather system make its way off the eastern seaboard those are the clouds right there so as we start the forecast map here on sunday things are going to be looking much better anywhere from boston down to new york washington atlanta a little bit cooler but it's going to be a lot clearer across much of that area where we are watches out here towards the west now look at all these clouds coming in off the rockies by the time we go from sunday to monday that system really organizes here across the central part of united states we are going to be seeing some very heavy rain anywhere from chicago all the way down here towards dallas but to the north into canada it is going to be heavy snow so we'll be watching that and that system is going to cause

a major airport delays at the beginning of the week we're also watching some very heavy rain passing through parts of cuba over the next few days here's that funnel boundary the rain showers could be heavy we're not just talking about cuba it could be the cayman islands as well over here towards parts of jamaica as well as into the bahamas so we're going to see those very heavy showers continuing have in a while sunday twenty four degrees and raining a forecast but by the time we get towards monday things start to improve their a little further to the south jamaica it's going to be a warm day if you partly cloudy conditions at thirty and center domingo a clear day for you with a temperature of about thirty degrees there. on counting the cost it was the worst performing stock market of twenty eighteen find out where china is headed in twenty nine t. brazil's new president has an economic challenge plus taxing times for technology giants and france at a profit warning from apple. counting the cost on al-jazeera. hello

again you're watching a reminder of our top stories this hour the u.s. government shutdown is dragging into its fifteenth day with another round of talks failing to break the deadlock president donald trump tweeted there was no headway made but vice president mike pence says the meeting with democrat members was productive. u.s. national security adviser john bolton has warned the syrian government the withdrawal of american troops is not

a green light to use chemical weapons. to meet israeli and turkish leaders about trump's decision to pull out roughly two thousand u.s. soldiers from syria. and egypt policeman has died while trying to defuse a bomb near a church in cairo it was found on a rooftop in the eastern suburbs of nasr city it comes less than two days before egypt's christian minority celebrates the coptic christmas. and the u.n. special envoy is back in yemen trying to convince both sides in the water fully comply with the cease fire agreement there's hope the warring sides will agree to meet later on this month possibly in kuwait. an attempt at piecing together a broken ceasefire the u.s. envoy martin griffiths is back in yemen calling all warring sides a fall of a truce they agreed to months of negotiations craft within weeks he was met by cancer patients who demand the sunnah airport be reopened they are among the

thousands of patients who cannot travel out of yemen for lifesaving treatments one of the many consequences of the ongoing war like a national leader. we would like to tell the world that they are those who are besieging us and saunas in the rest of the provinces that they are those of a vent as from water and medicine equipment facilities and medical devices every day we have six thousand passengers who cannot leave this airport. there have been reports of attacks and repeated violations a mother and her child were killed in the residential area of time as at least sixteen people were injured by who three artillery shelling. on friday at least fifteen people were killed in clashes between yemen's u.a.e. backed forces and locals in the southern province of sabah a far cry from the expectations of a cease fire agreement signed in sweden on december eighteenth.

this is a was in the port city of her data the lifeline to deliver aid to the rest of the country protesters are calling on the un's one horse to force cease fire and for yemen's government to follow it the accuse the saudi led coalition of carrying out low altitude flights over the city but the blame goes both ways the coalition accuses who the fighters of remaining and reports despite a previous agreement to leave. amid negotiations and unstable agreements the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history continues with more than fourteen million yemenis on the brink of famine. after yemen griffith's plants. visit saudi arabia to meet with xcel yemeni president abdul rubble months to hadi. u.s. secretary of state mike pump alle the schedule to stop in riyadh and the u.a.e. next week the war in yemen will likely be at the top of the agenda. another

attempt to enforce and ultimately save a fragile cease fire with lingering optimism that both sides will comply. al-jazeera. the union leaders in hungary are calling for a national strike and more protests as anger rises over labor reform a new rule or wants to boost the amount of overtime employers can demand while delaying payment or challenge reports. it's no secret what these hunger in protesters think of prime minister viktor orban. with christmas and the year after the way thousands of people around on the streets again still angry at new laws passed by parliament in december. there was no coordination with the law was just pushed through in such a way that even the opposition could not have its voice heard we just saw on t.v. you know that this government with that two thirds majority can do what they want

but we have to say stop now because people should not be treated like this in the working world. particularly hated is what's been called the slavery and the labor code the two hours of overtime to the average working day increase government control of the court system is also unpopular as is state media which gives little airtime to what position parties. we disagree with almost everything that has been going on since this government got into power and corruption to pseudo democracy and everything else mentioned at the protests the government doesn't represent the people. everybody has to have a voice here and that's not what's happening in hungary at the moment just a part of the population is represented. when they began in mid december big bands government called the demonstrations the work of foreign forces and the liberal billionaire george soros. after winning a landslide election in april can say his party enjoys popular support.

but these ongoing protests suggest opposition voices are more galvanized than they have been in years not all hungry ariens like way. obama is taking his country challenge how does a. french ministers have held an emergency meeting after the first yellow vest protests of the new year turned violent the. police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators in central paris the protest began in opposition to a rising fuel tax but are now demanding other reforms in serbia thousands of protesters have rallied for a fifth week there demanding media freedom and an end to attacks on journalists and opposition rallies were triggered by an assault on an opposition politician by unknown attackers in november. a voter is in the democratic republic of congo we'll have to wait another week to find out the preliminary results of last month's

presidential election they were expecting an announcement on sunday but the head of the election commission says it's counted less than half the votes or a bird mentally has more it's been delay after delay and patience is wearing thin people who democratic republic of congo were first promised election results on sunday now some time next week joseph kabila has clung on to his presidency since his term ended two years ago despite that he says he will step down after seventeen years in power he hopes the man euro zone is shaddai would take his place a man who played a role in the violent suppression of opposition protest in two thousand and seventeen said hari is up against two main opposition promise for more oil executive martin failed. late opposition leader felix just.

the united nations security council held a closed door meeting with representatives calling for transparency in the election results we call on all actors for call and restraint. the olding of these consultations underlines the will of the security council to maintain a very attentive monitoring of the electoral process but opposition members are suspicious of delays due to possible results tampering. the coalition. against any attempt to change the results posted in front of the polling stations and hold it responsible consequences. it's been the election fraught with issues there's been violence on the streets out of vote he was caught up in three opposition strongholds benny but temple and he'll be in government officials say it was due to security concerns and in the polling

outbreak that many saw that as an excuse to disrupt elections and just days before the election a blaze broke out in a warehouse in the capital kinshasa disjoint thousands of voting machines. the u.s. is now gearing up for possible widespread arrests and position military personnel in neighboring. the white house says its imposition to support the security of united states citizens personnel and diplomatic facilities in. delays in elections have in the past led to bloodshed on the streets but international pressure is building with the un african union and the u.s. now calling on the government to ensure a peaceful democratic transition. nor about unmanly al-jazeera. police said made several arrests in the australian city of melbourne during a far right rally hundreds of offices kept the protest apart from a counter demonstration by anti racism activists kathy novak reports that wasn't

killed in melbourne is usually a place to relax at the beach not today instead a scene of far right nationalists facing off against a left wing groups hurling insults across the police line with a very different views of the kind of a strain we are in which they wish to live and immigration nationalists say they came out to protest against crime on the beaches which they blame on a strangely ans of african descent ok doing the wrong thing and there's still enough for every hurt in the all powerful we want to apologise but we want our dog back we want the law but the sudanese australians in particular have been under scrutiny recently with 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 many things today about the fact there's the fact that they're trying to scapegoat it on africanus ryans is really disappointing only prior notice that the 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 were children come to ride the roller coaster is likely to be much more frightened by the anger on display outside the fun part cathy know that al-jazeera melbourne. a former military bunker in hong kong played a crucial role in world war two now has a new purpose instead of bullets and bombs it's now home to some of the world's

best wines so take a look. it's tucked away in one of the most expensive residential areas in hong kong carved into the side of the mountain it was once the main ammunition depôt for british forces in the colony during world war two built in preparation for a japanese attack in world war two it was the very last place to surrender to the japanese so hong kong surrendered on christmas day nine hundred forty one and little hong kong which was the code name given to the sites we actually lost until the twenty seventh of december nine hundred forty one so we always like to joke and say little hong kong outlaws the big hong kong by two days it's a network of underground bunkers but i mean ition has been replaced by crates of some of the world's best wines with a cool dark bunker is offering perfect conditions for storage we have about two thousand of the biggest collectors in asia that use us we have around about one and a half million bottles with us and we have

a total in catastrophic insurance cover of just under four billion dollars so you can imagine the per bottle value is is very high the bunker's was so sensitively restored they want to unesco heritage award they were unknown and inaccessible to many in hong kong for years now everyone is welcome i think the whole idea is a win win for the community absolutely because the way they've done it the way they've built up the activities and preserve the building and also i have to say they've got a very good sense of the historical importance there once twenty four bunkers here at this site there are now i left each one holds up to twenty five thousand bottles of wine including one of the most expensive ever sold at auction at two hundred thirty five thousand dollars for that reason god monitor this site piously one thousand and twenty four hours of violence the auction is subbies regards hong kong as the wine capital of asia it's been southern the strongest market this year with

hong kong accounting for more than. half of the company's one hundred million dollar global wine sales some would argue is actually the one capital the world at the moment over the last ten fifteen years without doubt it's probably been the biggest congregation of point collectors and buyers by hong kong a name sort of great to china back in the bunker it's not just about the value of vintage wines the relics of war have turned it into a working memorial to hong kong's past sirrah clark al-jazeera hong kong thousands of families have lined the streets of madrid to catch a glimpse of the annual three kings parade floats carrying the kings led the procession in the spanish capital marking the christian festival overpay for any sweets are thrown into the crowds to represent the gifts brought by the biblical three wise men to jesus many spanish consider the celebration more important than christmas.

this is a roundup of the top stories the u.s. government shutdown is dragging into its fifteenth day with another round of negotiations failing to break the deadlock white house officials met democratic congressional members but they still haven't found a way to reopen the government diane estabrook has more from washington. vice president mike pence jarrett cushion or the president's son in law and close advisor and kiersten nielsen who is the secretary of homeland security met for about two hours on saturday afternoon with congressional aides talking about this government shutdown the vice president said that these talks on saturday were productive however president trump tweeted that the two sides really didn't make much headway now the vice president is going to be continuing these talks tomorrow while president trump is going to be meeting with some of his senior aides at camp

david presidential retreat treat. the u.s. national security advisor john bolton has warned the asset government the withdrawal of american troops from syria is not a green light to use chemical weapons bolton is preparing to meet his radiant turkish leaders about trump's decision to pull out roughly two thousand u.s. soldiers and egyptian policemen has died while trying to defuse a bomb near a church in cairo two other offices and an onlooker were injured in the blast early results from the democratic republic of congo's presidential election have been delayed a week the outcome was expected on sunday but the electoral commission says it's counted fewer than half the votes. the. french ministers have held an emergency meeting after the first yellow universe protests of the new year turned violent but it began a weeks ago in opposition to a rise in fuel tax but now include wider demands for government reforms union

leaders in hungary are calling for a national strike and more protests over labor reforms increases the amount of extra hours employees can employ as can demand while delaying overtime payments those are the headlines counting the cost is next. and then he put it whirled on. us and british companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of their days looking forward to for dr events like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country have been truly unable to escape the war. 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 new 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 truth and 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. and michelle 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 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 during 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 economies in the world is still

a huge pace of growth but nonetheless the growth of the economy is slowing and i for global investors may 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 has developed markets and asia x. 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 markets 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 in that with the deal with investors foreigners who previously really stayed away from the state 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 they're 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 a. 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 baltar's 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 cs 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 its own 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 announced the launch of apple's i'm still a ten in september the fanfare couldn't mask the risk his company was taking. would he not 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 they've been killing us some. seven billion dollars in trade deficits less. 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 is 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 as citizens that are democrat.