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a fireman magazine. d.w. . good job it. surely is from africa and the world your link to exceptional stories and discussions. of these events and i would say deputed comes to join us on facebook w for. a new year and a new way of life for those living in the gulf but this could hurt the united arab emirates and saudi arabia introduce value added tax from today a first for the region the saudis add to that you you blow with a huge petrol price hike times. desperate times the best way to the press. and tris fighting out of control inflation with

a huge minimum wage rise but economists argue it's not worth the paper it's written on and will only compound the country's economic problems. and getting away from it all leaving the hustle and bustle of the big city to experience nature at its best more and more tourists head north for their holidays to shine a very different light on their lives. and paid for school and let's do business the gulf has long prided itself on its tax free cradle to grave welfare system but it can't afford it any more global oil prices have bloomed budget deficits and twenty eighteen has ushered in the region's first value added tax in the u.a.e. and in saudi arabia a big change for two super rich countries where the mole is king but the saudis are creating even more new year cheer with motorists with an unannounced rise in petrol

prices a doubling with immediate effect from midnight. one last fill up before gas prices go up now even saudi drivers are concerned about prices gasoline is rising in cost from twenty cents a liter to forty five cents most drivers aren't happy with us on this it is that the increase will affect people whose lives depend on using a car most of the time i work in a medical equipment company and on a normal day i drive between three hundred and four hundred kilometers so it'll affect me strongly and people support the it's not you can see it on your person ok people ignore we do accept opinions but you're just too cheap to cheaper than the other countries we're seeing. low oil prices mean saudi arabia is scrambling for more income the price of a barrel stabilized last year around sixty dollars yet the international monetary fund calculates that saudi arabia needs an oil price of at least seventy dollars

a barrel to balance its budget the higher prices for fuel are a clear sign that the government is serious another sign the government also has introduced a sales tax for the first time in the history of the country a five percent value added tax is now charge for food and drink textiles and in the real estate and hospitality sectors. saudis have grown used to not paying taxes for anything though including income tax so the authorities are implementing them gradually to ease the pain. a very different pain in venezuela where fulling oil prices combined with political unrest and corruption have decimated the economy it's become a fight for life or a chronic shortages of food and medicine it's used to be one of the wealthiest countries in latin america but inflation is set to top two thousand percent this year that's according to the international monetary fund the president's throwing

a bone to the working poor by hiking the minimum wage but that won't do much as the local currency the ball obama is with next to nothing. president nicolas maduro made the announcement on new year's eve on the issue is i'm announcing an increase of forty percent of the national minimum wage and of all salary scales nationwide of teachers military police doctors public workers a lot of police. but still only brings the full time minimum wage to just under eight hundred thousand baht of r.'s a month or the princely sum of seven dollars on the black market that would only pay for about two kilos of pork a venezuelan stable when it's available the wage hike comes after the government failed to deliver on a promise of lowering port prices for traditional christmas meals. more durable blamed portugal for failing to deliver pork imports. last week hundreds of people

took to the streets in the poorer parts of the capital caracas to protest the food shortage millions of venezuelans are unable to afford three meals a day. i don't think yet that name where hungry now the people are hungry there is a famine the government says the local food supply committee should hand out food every fifteen days but it doesn't arrive you say you know you got what you can you don't want the me and economists say the wage increase will only fuel the rampant hyperinflation opposition politician same with duros refusal to overhaul the. failed socialist economic model and stop excessive money printing will create more misery in the year ahead. from today social media companies in germany will have twenty four hours to take down illegal material if they fail to remove hate speech or fake news for example they could face a fine of up to fifty million euros a post critics fear the likes of facebook and twitter could overcompensate and

delete controversial but legal posts to avoid the hefty fines facebook has hired hundreds of new people in germany to comply with the controversial law british businessman richard cousins has died in a sea plane crash in australia along with four members of his family cousins was the c.e.o. of britain's compassed group the world's largest food service company the sea plane plunged into the hole three river near sydney during a sightseeing flight police said it would be days before the wreckage is actually recovered cousins was highly respected in the london financial community as a turnaround expert and exceptional chief executive he took over compass in two thousand and six and help the company recover from a corruption scandal compass is shares rose almost seven hundred percent during his tenure. as india seeks to keep growing its economy in twenty eighteen a look at president or interim ots reforms reveals a bit of

a let down when elected back in twenty fourteen he promised to modernize the economy and education system and combat corruption this year the economy will be a third bigger than when modi took office but his economic measures have slowed the pace of growth and as our next report shows they've made life harder for those who can afford it least. grew up in the crowded in poverty stricken streets of the moon by slum of daughter. here he learned the trade of taylor. within a few years he started his own small sewing workshop. business went well and soon he was able to recruit extra help most of the migrants from rural communities. but economic reforms a crackdown on cash and a new sales tax have made life difficult for small businesses like here's. the problem is cash flow if i don't get any money from my main customer how much supposed to pay wages and costs are rising last year young cost ten rupees now it's

twelve my customer doesn't have the money to pay me but expects my prices to stay the same. india's tax system is complicated even small businesses need a computer or a tax advisor which costs time and money. but additional burden has meant had to lay off four of his ten workers. last july the government introduced a new nationwide goods and services tax or g.s.t. aiming to simplify trade and prevent double taxation experts have called it the biggest tax reform since independence it's the second reform introduced by the modi government to have hurt the economy never in the last year the government announced that over eighty percent of cash in circulation would suddenly cease to be legal tender was a bid to curb the black economy the move officially term demilitarization crippled

the overwhelmingly cash based economy you wanted ocean and yesterday are the shocks in the indian economy in the last one year the economy is facing a real crisis and this crisis is embedded in from the unorganized and its impact on the impact of the g.s.t. and of the demarcation on the organizing and that impact has been felt by people in dharavi. tells us that seven hundred small businesses here have shut down already he himself had to take out a loan to keep his business afloat he sees the reforms as a failure. the government promised that prices would go down and people would profit that didn't happen now gas for cooking is twice as expensive. costs are increasing but not wages it's a difficult time for. the government insists things will improve. where the voters share that confidence will become clear in the next parliamentary election in twenty nineteen. well time to get away from it all and

a popular way for many europeans and germans to spend part of their holidays though they're not just consumed by the idea of topping up the ten in far flung corners of the world the far north of the continent is attracting more tourists than ever and it's mostly thanks to tackle a natural phenomena. this is the spectacular result of electrically charged particles colliding with atoms in the upper atmosphere the northern lights visible only in the night time skies above the arctic circle this couple from germany spared no expense to come here to the extreme north of norway. from us more adventure here and it's something special when we told our friends and family that we go to trial. for four weeks and they were they become very jealous. with the sun barely climbing above the horizon in the deep midwinter days are largely cloaked in darkness so the norwegians of come up with some rather special

attractions for tourists the hotel brought out of ice for example king crab safaris and close encounters with killer whales in recent years no one has tourism sector has gone from also ran to leading light was on its winter season we have the highest growth percentage wise at twenty eight percent and this makes me very happy and visitors to this secluded but increasingly popular corner of the world are also getting a buzz especially from those awesome night skies. nice doing business with you and just recapping our top stories the united arab emirates and saudi arabia introducing a value added tax from today a first for the region the saudis adding to the new year with a huge price hike and venezuela's president tries fighting out of control inflation with a huge minimum wage rise but economists. the country's economic problems. two

thousand percent this year i'll see you again soon here on.

this. i'm joined by the show. on those stories in just a minute but first this news just. perspective. climate change is affecting us on. rising sea levels and imagine when i joined the tonight show our streets. homes. and change grounds. through entire communities.

the good news is our own choices in energy conservation. recycling. and transport can help redraw the line find out what you can do today at redraw the lines at all. hello and welcome to tomorrow today coming up. fears and phobias coping with anxiety disorder is. the power of color how lights can affect performance. and eternal archives storing data.