i'm expecting wall. to wall down on the top. of the pretty well still ahead here on al-jazeera and explosive testimony pari former u.s. ambassador to ukraine during impeachment hearings to get president from. we'll tell you why we have taken charge of a police station in the central philippines. in season rains across much of indonesia out tools malaysia as well you can see the cloud on the satellite also heavy rain really of the next couple of days more widespread across much of. some heavy at times and then as we go through sunday the rains the heavy across northern and central somalia by monday that is when you'll

see. into the monday peninsula. into kuala lumpur on monday 32 celsius is the high temperature is warming up as well across into the south in the east of australia we've seen some welcome into areas of the coast pushing up into new south wales and also up into queenstown but dry for the next couple of days warming up as well in brazil than 25 on sunday 24 not a with a chance of showers sunny melbourne in hobart you could well over the next couple of days but again it won't be cold in fact warming up in melbourne 25 on monday 22 celsius in puff under some mostly sunny skies and then we've got some rain showers across. through sunday the rain working their way through christchurch on towards oakland in the north island in both coming in as cases time which is a not too bad 17 on monday in oakland but that does come as you can see with some rain.

what are you protesting about how does things in competition where there are on line well i face many people saying i'm directly out of translating slavery or if you join us on sand this is an attack on academic freedom and on our ability to do research and teach freely this is a dialogue myanmar is not making it very welcoming for people to come back everyone has a voice climate change is real the discussion this real and i'm here to talk about the solutions on al-jazeera.

book about means the whole rom the reminder of all top story the pentagon has warned turkey of serious consequences if it continues its military offensive against kurdish forces in syria on friday u.s. forces came under turkish military fire. also more than a 1000000 job openings people have been advised to leave homes as typhoon this approaches tokyo is expected to batter the capital with record amounts of rain and high winds. also kenyan runner elliott could chug a has become the 1st person to run the marathon in under 2 hours he completely distance with 20 seconds to spare. chinese president xi jinping has wrapped up his 2 day visit to india regional security concerns and the trade imbalance of dominated talks with the prime minister there towards after india revoke the special status of indian administered kashmir china has traditionally back to pakistan in its decades long dispute with

india until joins me now from the southern indian temple resort where the 2 leaders have met and of course this meeting was all supposed to be about trade issues between the 2 countries and how has it been viewed. oh well the 2 leaders certainly spoke about clear and the outcome is that they have agreed to set up a mechanism ministerial level to take this forward india has huge concerns when it comes to plead with china although the 2 economies are large that they are conducting business of billions of dollars and this year is expected to cross $100000000000.00 india faces a huge trade deficit of over $51000000000.00 this is something that india has been raising with china even during the summit it was raised but in terms of concrete outcomes other than the setting up of this what the indian foreign secretary described as an elitist mechanism not much has been achieved not

a specific assurance has been obtained by india from china in fact i put that question our foreign secretary and he said that these details are going to be later so no specific assurances as far as india's concerns. on this subject are but the indians are hopeful that with time they will make certain progress on the other hand they're also hoping that as the indian economy grows maybe just maybe they will be able to your some of the companies that invest in china who are looking to diversify as the u.s. china war intensifies and of course trade towards side the general meeting has also been overshadowed by the regional political issues that have been ongoing for several months. well absolutely right you are because just a few days before chinese president visit he supported pakistan again imran khan pakistan's prime minister was in china and chinese president said that the

relationship between india and pakistan i beg your pardon the relationship between pakistan and china is rock solid a lot of rhetoric has been exchanged india issued a scathing statement just a day or so before the chinese president's visit saying that kashmir is an internal matter of india of course all of that is coming in the background of india's decision on august 5 which was to strip indian administered kashmir of its autonomy so even when this was a began you know a lot of analysts we spoke to said that it's going to be overshadowed by that development in it in fact was although the indian officials i'm in deigning to leaders spent hours talking together and they have managed to build a personal rapport that should go a long way. in resolving some of their story disputes such as the border dispute. not. concerned that it's going to be overshadowed and in many ways it has i put that question up to india's foreign secretary and he said that kashmir was not even discussed which i mean that a mission in itself is quite significant because when india talks about kashmir it

claims all of it even the part that currently is under the control of the chinese government but that did not even come up water the indian official said to us saw the fact that it wasn't even raised in itself says. raises another question why did india not raise that question with the chinese president while he was here dude well for the moment. for us. to groans as donald trump pressured the state department to fire her she was removed because of unfounded and false claims evanovich gave testimony to members of congress leading an impeachment inquiry into the us president it's investigating whether trump pressured into investigating his democratic rival joe biden and his son who had business interests mike hanna has more from washington d.c. . the former ambassador to ukraine mari your benefits was instructed by the state department not to appear in congress however she defied this instruction appearing

before the congressional committee behind closed doors then there was the case of her opening statements being leaked and certainly according to that statement she came out with both barrels firing insisting that those with questionable motives had caused her recall from the ukraine that the direct instruction of president trump she spoke about what she called a hollowed out state department and certainly added to the congressional knowledge of the events that led to that phone call between president trump and the president of ukraine that lies at the heart of this ongoing investigation importantly though she also opened a little bit of a chip in that white house boycott of the ongoing investigations it is now known that a number of other state department officials may be appearing in congress in coming

days among them gordon sunderland who was blocked from appearing by state department last week but now he's been served a subpoena is lawyers say that he is willing and ready to appear in congress to give his evidence that documents that were in his position though will not be presented as they are in the position of the state department will to europe now where national day celebrations are beginning in spain amid internal tensions over the upcoming sentencing of catalan separatist leaders earlier this month demonstrations in support of the leaders took place in the catalonian capital barcelona from where our reporter sanju joins me now and of course this is a country divided in the loyalties an idea of what spain is or should be i mean what's the atmosphere like where you are. when you take. i mean where we're talking about the region of catalonia here the rest of of

spain would really be sort of not really quite as divided on that issue but certainly in cats in catalonia there are still deep divisions from that attempt to see 2 years ago the stance of me today is a sort of official commemoration of spain's national day you have a group a civil society a spanish national civil society supported by 3 main right wing political parties who are joining in the celebrations but i have to say though these this year's recessions are markedly smaller than the ones from the previous 2 years an indication perhaps that this situation has calmed down somewhat from this surge of nationalist feeling that has been seen to what's pro-union activists here but of course is eventually those. trends still tend to be there as well and people still feel quite strongly those who have gathered here today that catalonia is firmly

better out within spain that's their opinion as well course overshadowing this are still all the political issues that have been stringing along from the past 2 years those haven't dissipated in any shape way at all and of course that is also in part being seen also with the coming sentencing happening on monday in which 12 political activists and politicians are going to be finding out exactly what charges they're being they're facing and how much prison sentence they would be facing when the judges rule on those charges but of course in terms of book called case which will be early next week i mean how is that being debated and talked about where you are what the mood when it comes to knowing that those politicians will be facing. a court case. certainly from the pro independence movement they are being regarded as political

prisoners that has been firmly discussed in within those parameters there as well but essentially they're being held up as symbols of what the pro independence movement say is spain's very rigid and overly tough stance on the independence movement here now we're there are 12 of them who are being who are facing the sentencing on monday 3 of them are not in prison the rest of them are imprisoned and potentially they were being looked at a bar of carrying charges of rebellion sedition a misuse of public funds that relates to the 2017 october 1st attempt to seat where there was an attempt to have a vote here and the whole forty's were seen very heavy handedly clamping down on that however there is no escaping from the notion of that referendum was

technically illegal and this has been a situation which has been really drawing a lot of tension out here what ever the charges will be on monday it will really inflame the whole debate again and of course brings into question where does catalonia don't now and how if it is going to be continuing down the path of attempting to seek a referendum of some kind on its status how will it go about it how will it be able to do it within the parameters of the law so how all follow events with you over the weekend and certainly into next week as well. as the americas now in ecuador there's been more fighting between police and indigenous communities and joined a 10th day of protests against austerity demonstrators will present london to repeal a law that ended a 40 year old fuel subsidy which calls perch. prices to double at least 5 people have been killed since clashes began but has the details from the capital key to.

clashes between police and protesters in ecuador's capital city show no sign of relenting police used flash bang grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowds that demonstrators say authorities have also used live ammunition against peaceful protesters. 6 the ongoing protests have paralyzed much of downtown. amidst the chaos and clouds of tear gas medical patients could be seen fleeing nearby hospitals there are no no see machine numbers just over time before you see this we couldn't have imagined a situation it's horrifying to see people fighting one another for a few hours. after more than a week of unrest indigenous demonstrators continue to run from across the country to participate in the ongoing anti-government demonstrations some traveling from communities as far away as the amazon to join the front lines in the photo so much video of it but we've come from far away leaving our families behind and now we're

here to participate in a national strike so the government can show us some respect. in a pre recorded message to the nation on friday president lenny moreno asked for a direct dialogue with leaders within the national confederation of indigenous communities is indispensable if it's imperative that we end the violence we need solutions to the issues of our country i'm calling on leaders to speak with me directly. outside ecuador's national assembly building demonstrators were once again met with sound grenades and tear gas several demonstrators as well as police officers were injured during the confrontation despite the ecuadorian president's call for a national dialogue tensions still remain very high here in quito demonstrators say that they're angry over the heavy handed response by authorities against peaceful protesters if anything these clashes between demonstrators and police only appear to be intensifying the indigenous leaders have agreed to sit down for talks with

the president but with growing calls for the authorities to bring back order to the streets there's concern the violence could get even worse when measured up and dizzy to do it but. a town in the central philippines has replaced almost all male police folds with women offices it's poles of a one to government efforts at promoting women in the workplace. reports. that. they are on a mission not just to apprehend criminals but to break stereotypes. these police officers are the 1st all female police force in the country every measures many young police or pulleys mary's as they are called are from the town of mary in seeking whore in the sensual philippines male police officers who were previously assigned here have all been moved elsewhere this is seen as a trio blazing move by colonel angela handle who is also the 1st female. police

director of the city hall or she said she knows how tough it is for females to rise through the police ranks we have women legislators we have women in in the congress we also have women presidents and why not 4 day philippine national police around 20 female police officers now staff this station assigned to protect around 12000 residents and although their arrival is celebrated here the pressure to deliver is felt deeply. they are made to undergo the same kind of training that male police officers go through. the philippine national police has a 10 percent quota of female officers within its ranks under its reform program

for decades female police officers were mostly just assigned to do desk work but that is about to change now they tell us a woman's place is also on the front lines local residents say they have already felt the difference people are more curious people are more curious nobody noticed the police station before now they understand what they do and that the people are on our say not other ways public trust in the philippine police has plummeted over the last few years the government's controversial drug war has left thousands of filipinos dead most of them from impoverished communities and allegations of corruption and abuse of power has affected its top leadership. these police officers vow to give their best because for so long they've been sidelined this time using their strengths and qualities as women to finally lead and rule in

a man's world i. dug an al-jazeera maria in secure central philippines. your job as a road needs a hole robert a reminder of our top stories the pentagon has warned turkey of serious consequences if it continues its military offensive against kurdish forces in syria on friday u.s. forces came under turkish artillery fire the incident took place shortly after defense secretary mark esper calls for restraint from the president on down we have communicated with the turks on this issue i spoke with turkish defense minister a car yesterday to express our strong opposition to turkey's actions and reiterated the damage this is doing to our bilateral relationship more than a 1000000 japanese people have been advised to leave their homes as typhoon approaches tokyo is expected to be one of the strongest ever storms to affect japan

safety concerns are for the consolation of 2 rugby world cup matches and flights and train services have been halted. kenya's start marathon run there. has become the 1st person to run a marathon in under 2 hours during a specially a range vented the austrian capital he completed the distance in one hour 59 minutes and 40 seconds 2 years ago in italy he was just 26 seconds short of the target. the u.s. and china have struck a partial trade deal that could end the 15 month long trade war between the world's 2 largest economies after holding talks with china's vice premier doll trump suspended a terrifying on 200 $50000000000.00 worth of chinese imports that had been due to take effect on choose day it may take more than a month for a full deal to be a bit those weather headlines news hours here in half an hour to stay with us.

each awful office a photo opportunity for many. and profit for a few that is tourists flood europe's must see destination. tensions rising. with local communities paying a heavy price for popularity. asks what are the true economic and environmental costs. tourism is the land on which is he. alone has a secret this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week president trump threatens to destroy turkey's economy again we find out and we look at trump's business interest in istanbul. where have all the dollars gone lebannon goes from one crisis to another as one of

the world's most indebted nations clings to install a peg. gold what is behind its rise and how high can it go you'll be surprised at some of the bets those in the know are making. after president donald trump abandoned kurdish allies and gave the green light for turkey's incursion into syria the pushback from usually uncritical republican saw the president attempting to change his decision he said he would in his words totally destroy and obliterate turkey's economy if turkey does anything quote that i in my great and unmatched wisdom consider to be off limits what he meant by off limits wasn't clear but the threat was enough to send the lira lower so is it possible for trump to actually obliterate the economy we don't need to go too far back to see the damage done before and the best way to do that is to chart the liras decline but they before the attempted coup in 2016 the lira was trading at.

to $87.00 to the dollar it's been downhill since then tensions between the united states and europe over syria and turkey's refusal to raise interest rates to find double digit inflation saw the currency we can further from general 28000 to august it sank 40 percent president trump impose sanctions on august 1st after turkey refused to release a u.s. pastor who had been held over his alleged involvement in the failed coup a double tariffs a week later sending the lira to a record low the economy slumped into recession inflation peaking at 25 percent and the spat over russia's s $400.00 missiles kept the lira weak on october 7th trump threatened to obliterate the economy sending the lira down more than 2 percent with all the criticism president trump has been keen to point out the economic ties between the nations including its involvement in the f. $35.00 stealth bomber actual trade between the 2 is about $20000000000.00 making

the u.s. turkey's 4th biggest trading partner but critics are keen to point out president trumps conflict of interest in turkey top of the list of the trump towers in istanbul according to the washington post trump doesn't own the building but was paid $10000000.00 to put his name on it. ivanka trump thanked president irwin for coming to the opening of the towers in 2012 and a lawsuit filed by 29 senators and 186 house democrats claims trump is a partial owner of $119.00 turkish business ventures that's according to n.b.c. well joining me now via skype from istanbul is sin then again he is a visiting professor at carnegie europe thanks very much for being with us so how close is the relationship then between presidents trump and one or the relationship is indeed quite close because president traum has been in regular dialogue with the turkish president are gone and as we see in this case

he took on board president are gone the arguments and decided to give the go ahead to the turkish across the border military operation and his stance is markedly different than what we heard from the others pillars of the u.s. administration and primarily pentagon. and we when we look at the turkish economy and president trump personally does does he have a conflict of interest because of the trump towers in istanbul he doesn't own the towers but does license his name. yes obviously that's the definition of conflict of interest and given that he has this business venture in turkey. even though as you rightly said he doesn't all the property nonetheless gets a license fee based on extending his franchise so in that sense yes there seems to

be a cop the interest and trump has in the very recent past put sanctions on the economy that would that would damaging would they the sole reason for the economy sinking into recession nor it was just a an impetus really but already the church economy it had a number of structural deficiencies. very high external financing requirements more savings rate. and this is the main reason why coupled with the treta of sanctions. there has been a general risk of a version concerning the church on the me which has led to a financial bubble close and the shock on the currency last summer which peaked on the occasion of with political crisis are triggered by turkey holding onto us pastor and how much damage can the u.s. do to get to the turkish economy i mean president trump it has said he can

obliterate a turkish economy is that just bluster or can he really do that. well i think that indirectly the u.s. could certainly do quite a bit of damage to the church going because fundamentally the turkish economy is one where there is a lack of domestic saving sort turkey has to import capital from abroad and therefore the cost of that capital is very important at a time when there is tension between turkey and the united states and especially if the u.s. administration including the president trump moves ahead in the direction of sanctioning turkey that will raise the turkey's risk profile and the cost of capital and that's going to be the main challenge for turkey point forward before we end up in such a scenario and if we go back just a few years putin put a stop to russian tourism after turkish warplanes had shot down

a russian jet so turkey's economy is prying to sharks isn't it. it is it comes down to the fact that turkey's growth model is predicated on the availability of cheap capital inflows saw no way the deficiency over the past 10 years was that turkey was not able to shift to a growth model that is less dependent on foreign capital flows this could have been the case for instance of turkey have done a number of significant structural reforms that would have raised productivity and ensured you know are sustainable productive to growth in the economy but clearing that turkey continues to be dependent on these capital flows which makes it vulnerable to these type of political pressures and how would you assess things now is the turkish economy finally turning around interest rates and inflation a coming down what's your prognosis yes there certainly has been a rebound in turkey it seems to be pulling back from its recessionary trend but

the main challenge going forward will be whether turkey will actually be able to achieve the type of higher growth rates just in the parts that's the main challenge even if it rebounds from this recession area it looks difficult right now and turkey may indeed. be a hostage to in an environment where it has logged growth rates. and this is something new for the turkish political system an economy system given that turkey had registered quite significant the high growth rates in the past c.n.n. who again thanks for being with us thank you. i one of the world's most indebted nations has declared an economic emergency a lack of dollars for imports of wheat oil and medicine has pushed lebanon's

currency to the brink of devaluation of that could end lebanon's 2 decade long peg to the dollar the problem is the businesses buy goods from overseas in dollars and sell in lebanese pounds but lebanese banks are restricting access to foreign currency forcing many firms and individuals to resort to a growing parallel market and this is reflected in the current account deficit which means it is importing more than its exports in all living beyond its means the deficit has risen as lebanese ex-pats aren't sending as much money back home as they had in the past remittances to lebanon work revelent to 12.7 percent of g.d.p. in 2018 while the government is in talks with saudi arabia for new money the central bank has more than $50000000000.00 in currency reserves that's enough for 30 months worth of imports but if the government doesn't push through austerity measures a devaluation becomes a real threat then

a hot reports from beirut. fuel importers here had threatened an open ended strike because of a shortage of foreign currency their customers pay in lebanese pounds but they need dollars to import feel lebanon's central bank is intervening it plans to provide dollars at a fixed exchange rate not just to importers of fuel but importers of medicine and to wheat supplies of which have already reached dangerously low levels economists say levanon which imports at least 80 percent of what it consumes needs an injection of foreign cash because government is so exposed to the teaching of culture what's happening to see what's happening in iraq the problem of the g.c.c. countries. who cracked to be. there at the. and now the local currency has lost value it's the 1st time in 2 decades exchange

dealers speak on camera. the official price pegged at $1500.00 pounds to the dollar black market prices have emerged. how much can i sell my dollar. 155000 and if i want to i cannot buy right for. 57 ok thank you. the central bank denies that lebanon is facing a dollar crisis and describes her ports of a shortage as an exaggeration but there are attempts to limit daily dollar withdrawals and more and more merchants are no longer accepting local currency they too refused to speak on camera as an. economic conditions have long been precarious this is one of the most indebted countries in the world

a decrease in deposits into the banking sector denies the state a critical source of finance but there are other reasons behind the shortage of cash in the country. on iran for example affected its funding for its ally in lebanon which is also under sanctions this is disrupted the flow of remittances countries also stop providing help to a country they believe is controlled by their rival iran people are starting to take to the streets there is panic over the currency losing value which has hurt their spending power last month the government declared a state of economic emergency for these protesters however this crisis is not new and they want those in power to be held responsible for years of mismanagement and corruption well let's talk more about what's happening in lebanon from beirut we have sami executive director of the lebanese policy studies thanks very much for being with us. so i want to ask you 1st help me out with this the central bank has

enough currency reserves including dollars for the next 30 months but there isn't enough dollars for importers and traders has that work well the fact is that yes the central bank does have a high reserves but the situation is actually quite precarious just because we've been actually living with a large budget deficit and very increasing a trade deficit now the inability of the lebanese government to actually attract capital from abroad is putting a lot of pressure on actually deserves so what the central bank is trying to do is actually slow down sort of the depletion of its reserves in order to actually to contain this situation right now. is there a trust issue between the banks and the central banks or as the central bank governor has suggested dollars should be used inside lebanon and not outside is he

suggesting then dollars are being withdrawn and spent in say syria actually did relationship between the banking sector and the central bank is actually quite strong in fact it's that high level of commitment by the banking sector that's actually keeping this in a place that's actually not necessarily by the way a very very good thing on one hand it has avoided a crash whereby lebanon has defied gravity in the sense that the economic situation could have been much worse but the fact of the matter that because of this very cozy relationship they've been able to sustain the budget deficit that the government's actually incurring now this comes at a high cost because it actually benefits the backing sector a lot they've made a lot of money and a lot of profits to define mentioned engineering and as you know they actually hold more than 60 percent of the government debt so this relationship in my opinion is actually quite strong and it's actually troubling because it's too close to comfort

in the sense that you know they've been actually supporting the government but i think the government needs to take certain actions to stop actually borrowing more and more and start taking seriously forms to adjust the economic station and the fiscal situation but what do the central bank governor mean when he said dollars should be used inside lebanon not outside. what i'm not sure communes by that to be honest to me and the fact of the matter that if there was some rumors going around that the shortness of the dollar actually due to sort of. money going or dollars going into syria i'm not so sure that's actually proof to a god i think the problem is much more internal i think we're trying to sort of figuring trying or blaming other factors the enemy in the heart of the matter is not here going to be 11 has. always had the capital flow so the fact of the matter and i know we're talking about whether the lebanese dollars should be spent inside and not outside is beside the point what's actually telling us that's actually

a problem in the country we are actually able to sustain it if we remain at the same or that bath and the issue of saying that sending those dollars to c.d.'s to me is frankly is a distraction. expects have contributed more than 10 percent of g.d.p. through remittances and that apparently has slowed is there any reason for that. well indeed the ex-pat and the remittances they send along with what we call nonresident deposits this are key factors and have been key factors in sustaining the economic and fiscal situation and what i mean by that the fact that the government central government actually spends way more than it collects and we import more than we export which effectively means that we are spending our dollars side of the country to buy fuel we and also the goods. there emmett's is what they do they compensate for that because they bring in the money into the country and

this balance actually has worked in favor of lebanon for many many years and whenever we actually have a problem you know lebanon seeks international support now that eminence is now now actually slowed down a bit and this as a combination of factors you know it's the region a situation in the arab world the oil prices at the actually are declining would have declined systematically over the years which means that left with less money to send home and in fact many of the lebanese who live in the g.c.c. countries actually right now are able to save less and less as it is out of the high cost of living in these countries and what are the chances of a devaluation of the currency or a default on debt look. i would say given how things have developed in the last few months and given the reading has been on the wall in the sense sorry the writing has been on the world for a number of years now whereby you are actually saying that this is not sustainable

the chances of a default or or but a devaluation probably has increased but it's not inevitable stuck in a situation where all you know we're. about to crash no what that actually means we're in a very very precarious situation where the government has to take serious decisions the central bank has been doing or taking a many measures to actually prevent that through capital controls or implicit capital control through the financial engineering that this has undertaken in the last few years i think now it's running more and more out of options because the heart of the problem is going to be in the government in the fiscal deficit and in fact in the trade deficit where the government has to actually decide increasing the pie of the economy sending out a lot good to speak thank you. that would volatile markets trade wars and a growing risk of recession gold is trading at 6 year highs demand for it has never gone away central banks jewelers and some of the biggest investors have kept faith

with bullion so what's going on and is it too late to start buying gold let's start with that record high in 2011 gold prices hit almost $1900.00 an ounce after the financial crisis but it slid to almost a 1000 in 2016 for the last 6 years it's been struggling to rise above $1350.00 in the last month it made it to 1550 and could push higher how high well in the next 2 years it could hit $2000.00 according to analysts at citi group well joining me now from london is alastair hewitt director of market intelligence at the world gold council thanks very much for being with us so what's behind gold's recent rally them one of the really important drivers of the price gold price over the past 9 months has been lower interest rates and lower interest rate expectations if we have a look at the us and think about the federal reserve 12 months ago people are

expected rates to rise but we've seen them cut rates and people are expecting more rate cuts to come but it isn't just a u.s. phenomenon if you look at global monetary policy it's it is new system level in the past 10 years and that's robert a big impact on financial markets notably in the bond market where we've seen the stock of negative yielding assets reach astronomical levels so that's having a big impact on the gold price the question is why is this happening lots of economies now coming towards the end of an extended period of expansion there are recessionary risks on the horizon germany china and the us there are many people concerned about the outlook for these economies and that's partly because of the end of the business cycle is approaching but it's also because of the uncertainty in the world at the moment if you think about. some of the tensions included trade tensions between the us most of the world but not just the u.s. you've also got tensions between japan and south korea and of course you've got the

bracks debacle as well so all of these factors are combining to lower the opportunity cost of holding gold and that's a pause in the gold price so is this increase in india mom for gold largely a result of the uncertainty in the world right now on that gold is becoming a premium a kind of a safe haven. it's partly that way see in significant inflows into gold backed exchange traded funds and that's coming from some of the large institutional investors who are looking to hedge against some of the uncertainty in the world right now but it's not just coming from that source we have seen incredibly strong central bank demands over recent over recent years and they don't necessarily look at financial markets on a day to day basis they buy a motive to more often than not driven by fund driven by strategic policy initiatives so those are the factors supporting the gold market at the moment there is a flip side to this the big rally in the gold price has affected some of the large physical gold markets so we think of injury in china the gold prices has risen to

record high levels and some of the consumers there actually stepped back they're holding back for making gold purchases until the price drops to a more for a more affordable level so we're seeing is that usual investors and lush central banks supporting the gold price movements upwards but we seem relatively weak consumer demand in some of the major gobind countries such as china and india and what do you think is behind that decision by russia and china to increase their holdings. so in the case of russia as i mentioned earlier central banks are often quite strategic in their approach and often it's not what's happened in the world today but a result of a policy decision made by policymakers in the case of russia there's been quite a clear strategy of detail around its ation which they've talked about on. loss over the course of the past few years and that's involved 'd reducing their dollar holdings of dollar assets and increasing exposure to the euro to remember and also

increasing their exposure to gold and that's been a very significant driver of the large goal that we've seen coming out from russia and what's been interesting is when they talked about it they've made reference to some of the geopolitical tensions i talked about iran so in russia people are concerned about sanction risk and the potential of global tensions to escalate into real sanctions and gold as a financial asset that can be held outside of the financial system actually helps them manage some of that risk. so do you think gold prices can go any further then i mean do you think we could be looking at $2000.00 an ounce so i'm not going to make a forecast on the gold price but i do get us these kind of questions a lot probably the most common question is what's the big case book gold what could actually see the gold price fall over the coming months and if you think about it in that way going to take a bit of scenario analysis that can help inform investors judgments in terms of what they think are going to be happening with gold and other asset prices so for

gold to come down from its recent recent high levels you'd probably be expecting to see interest rate rises and for us to see interest rate rises you're probably going to need to see a stronger economy you're going to need to see the u.s. and germany and china banks in back from the front of the loans that they're entering into and you're probably going to need to see some of the trade uncertainty in the geopolitical uncertainty fade away you're going to need to see u.s. china trade tensions resolved you're going to need to see grex it resolves now for an investor out there and they need to think about that type of scenario and compare the likelihood of that happening to the likelihood of us continuing down the path we're continuing down at the moment and i think that can help inform investors decisions about where the gold price is going to go but the one thing this is brought home to many investors is that gold isn't just a tactical asset to be bought in times of uncertainty it's actually a very sensible course strategic investment through asset owners and investors to

have within their portfolio all of the time alastair hewitt thanks very much thank you it's been a pleasure. that is our show for this recruit member you can get in touch with us by tweeting me at as and seeker and to use the hash tag a.j.c. to see when you do or drop us an e-mail counting the cost of al-jazeera dot net is our address and there's more for you online at ages in a dot com slash c.t.c. that will take you straight to our page which has individual ports and links and entire episodes for you to catch up on. so that's it for this edition of counting the cost and has a secret from the whole team here thanks for joining us the news on al-jazeera is next. deano know your body negotiating if we would have a deal and we would have an albino 3 toshiba deal and you disagree with that deal because of the terrible twos the worst of the lot it was brought to us what you know what it was all made he has and those head to head with the chairman of the

u.k.'s breaks it party which ties the terms very loose tough i'm shocked that there's not a loose about it's often shop it's pretty clear is it as clear as brits it means brits yes it is and it's just as clearly hazy. on down to 0. my fast symons were all. taken by the chinese government all over the state with most stay with my wife and so on this is really human rights abuses of our time we decided to talk about it. just. tell the world. the truth about china systematic repression of the week is. tell the world coming soon on al-jazeera rewind returns with a new series. and brand new updates on the best of down to 0 documentaries are sick. so it's fun to. rewind

continues with the gift of sight just so sickly intervention is one of the few where you will see patients like this series at least 10 years younger than she was yesterday just within 24 hours on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera. hello i'm sam is a guy and this is the news out live from doha coming up the new. 60 minutes turkey says it's captured a key border town as it intensifies its bombardment of northern syria the u.s. threatened significant sanctions. millions to evacuate from the transport chaos hit by one of its worst ever

storms. a former u.s. ambassador to ukraine testifies as part of the impeachment inquiry against the president using him of a concerted campaign against her. and sprinting into the history books kenyan. becomes the 1st person ever to run a marathon in less than 2 hours. now turkish forces and their allies say they've seized control of a key syrian town center as their intensify their offensive their announcement a short time ago comes as ground troops push 30 kilometers into the north huge explosions and plumes of smoke can be seen in border areas the humanitarian impact

is being felt on both sides the u.s. is again warning turkey of what it calls consequences he's preparing sanctions if its military offensive into syria continues. from the president on down we have communicated with the turks on this issue i spoke with turkish defense minister a car yesterday to express our strong opposition to turkey's actions and reiterated the damage this is doing to our bilateral relationship now as a whole there is in uk chuckle a near the syria turkey border will be speaking to her in just a moment or 1st this report from charles stratford. black smoke rising over northeastern syria turkey tanks and reinforcements move towards the border the circus military says it's captured a number of villages around the kurdish controlled towns of to lobby out and russell i mean it's reported most if not all the civilian populations fled. the

u.n. says that more than 100000 people have been forced from their homes there are civilian casualties among the thousands of people fleeing turkey shell tillery shells soldiers and their syrian rebel allies turkey says it's conducting what it calls an anti terror operation to create a safe zone so syrian refugees in turkey can return. kurdish syrian democratic forces all s.p.f. is putting up fierce resistance turkey considers the main kurdish fighting force of the f.d.a. was aligned with a group which is full the turkish government for decades b.s.d.'s fault alongside u.s. forces a highly effective in defeating eisel in northern syria and the turkish offensive began after the u.s. withdrew some of its forces from the area turkey is nato's a 2nd largest military power the flux chief met the turkish foreign minister in

a prescheduled visit he called for restraint but no harsh criticism of the turkish government i shared with him my serious concerns about the ongoing operation and the risk of further destabilizing the region escalating tensions and even more human suffering. why church your house fidget amid security concerns i expect churches to act with restraint turkey's president remains defiant. there it is there in the down most of the big to make it is that we are not waiting for terrorists to come to our door we're now aiming to destroy target is ations are their source tookey own was respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our neighbors but under one condition we are not going to accept actions against our country the turkish military is widening its bombardment of s.d.f. positions along the border forcing potentially thousands more people to flee their homes and many of whom already internally displaced victims of the war in syria

strafford al jazeera on the turkish syrian border was in a hole there is live for us now in our chuckle a that's near turkey's border with syria let's start with the latest as this offensive rolls on ross a lion has fallen to the turks how significant is that. well undoubtedly a significant development a blow to the kurdish led syrian democratic forces it wasn't an easy fight for the past 4 days turkish airstrikes artillery targeting the defenses of the s. the f. and over the past 2 or 3 days intense clashes street to street fighting so they did put up resistance it is denying that the town has fallen but pictures are emerging from the town city center posted on social media by turkey's syrian allies the opposition syrian national army you see their fighters in the center of the town

pulling down. flags as well as white flags of course the syrian kurdish armed group is the backbone of the s. the effort group turkey considers a terrorist organization so a significant development there are 2 main border towns in a stretch of territory 120 kilometer stretch of territory along the border which has been really the focus of the ongoing operations the turkish foreign minister made it clear the initial phase of this operation will be to control that 120 kilometer stretch of territory 30 kilometers deep now in some points the turkish army and its allies have reached the 30 kilometer mark they've reached the m 4 international highway that connects east and west syria the question is will they be able to hold their ground but if they do they will then divide the territory of the euphrates from the west of the. dividing really the area under the control of the s.p.f. so progress is being made on the ground it is not an easy fight and of course there

is a humanitarian crisis unfolding with the united nations reporting that 100000 people have so far been displaced. there is a lot of western pressure coming down on turkey right now how always tookie dealing with that same. yes pressure threats criticism the united states saying that they're going to impose economic sanctions if their red lines are broken by the turkish government in this this offensive but turkey is putting on a very brave face saying that this operation will continue this is about our national security interests and president or the gun yesterday made it quite clear that this operation is not going to stop until the white b.g. moves 30 kilometers from the border with turkey so reaching that m. 4 highway but what he didn't say is how many kilometers on the border that they should leave from is it the 120 kilometer the initial plan or is it the 480

kilometers stretch of territory which is the so-called safe zone that turkey wanted to create so the question is this 120 kilometer or 30 kilometer pocket of territory it seems to be turkey seems to have a green light from the u.s. because the u.s. military would too from that area but the question is will turkey keep pushing to take the whole safe zone the for 80 by 30 kilometer so it's still not clear but so far turkey making it clear the message from here is no this is not going to stop at least for the time being. you know from a chuckle a thanks for that let's speak now to kidneys in istanbul he's a turkey analyst at the political risk consulting firm i.h.s. market good to have you with us so 1st of all how do you see the issue of toki u.s. relations already on the brink of another deterioration. that much is for sure relations have already deteriorated the issue here is

a fundamental contradiction in u.s. policy. for for whatever reason in 2014 the u.s. did start supporting a group that was deeply connected with the sworn enemy of a nato ally so the turks really felt betrayed from day one it is of course the case that now the kurds also feel betrayed by the u.s. but. it is the case also that there is this division in u.s. policy and that has really had a negative effect on what has been a decades long nato alliance the u.s. is now moving towards sanctions that this was we know they haven't actually activated the sanctions yet why is there room for diplomacy. mr trump appears to have given president on some sort of green light he claims that they agreed on limits to this operation we don't know if that was actually the case

and if so what sort of limits we're talking about. it does seem the case that trump . intends to allow turkey to proceed cleese with the 1st phase of the operation and in the aftermath restrain the expansion of that initial territorial pockets but of course we are seeing the u.s. congress breaking ranks with the white house and it may well go ahead with sanctions of its own particularly given of course the bipartisan animosity that mr appears to really attract now. the white p.g. the kurdish fighters there in syria they have links to the p.k. k. was just to give some background for our viewers that's a group that seen in turkey as a terrorist group it has a history of doing things like putting bombs in shopping malls and so on and so

forth in your analysis why has the u.s. and some of the western allies found it easy to overlook that sort of groups history to be fair i don't think they've necessarily found it easy there was a point in 2014 when the islamic state had emerged out of nowhere and there was a sense of urgency to deal with the problem and the kurds really provided a convenient ground fighting force and they were very effective for that purpose. i think many policymakers behind that move for supporting the wipe e.g. we're aware of the fundamental contradiction. resulting from this but of course at that point of the and still it what is the case is about 15 years long states and of course keeping it suppressed is the number one priority all right we'll leave it

there for now thanks so much i guess i can now protests against the turkish military offensive a taking place in several cities around the world and smith spoke to some demonstrators in the bill in iraq's semi autonomous kurdish region. little love lost here between the kurds in this part of northern iraq kurdish controlled part of northern iraq and the turkish authorities the crowd has been chanting terrorist terrorist and there is also a real feeling here of betrayal by the americans the kurds here saying that one day they are leading the fight with the americans against i saw and then the next day in about.