boat. a new year and way of life for those living in the gulf but this could hurt the united arab emirates and saudi arabia introduce a value added tax from today a first for the region the saudis add to the blow with a huge potential price hike taxing times. desperate times in venezuela the president tries 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 below the compounds of the country's economic problems. plus getting away from it all leaving the hustle and bustle of the big city to experience for nature at its best more and more tourists headed north for their holidays to shine a very different light on their lives. and been physical and let's do business

the gold 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 for 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 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 people's more which not you can see under person ok people ignore we do accept the news but they're just too cheap to cheaper than the other countries we're super. 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. 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. to a different kind of pain those falling oil prices combined with political unrest and corruption have decimated venezuela's economy there are a chronic shortages of food and medicine inflation is set to hit two thousand three hundred percent this year the president throwing a bone to the working poor hiking the minimum wage but that won't help much as the local currency the bolivia is one next to nothing. basile 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 political. 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. 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 you can 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're not working anymore what the me and economists say the wage increase will only fuel the rampant hyperinflation but opposition politician same with duros refusal to overhaul venezuela's failed socialist economic model and stop excessive money printing will

create more misery in the year ahead. but just businessmen 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 compass core the world's largest food service company a seaplane plunged into the holes for a ribbon is it me during a sightseeing flight he said it would be days before the wreckage is recovered cousins was highly respected in the london financial community as a turnaround expert and. chief executive it took over compass in two thousand and six and help the company recover from a corruption scandal compass its shares rose almost seven hundred percent during his tenure. as india seeks to keep growing its economy in twenty eighteen a look at president red remoting his reforms reveals a bit of a let down when elected back in twenty fourteen he promised to modernize the economy and education system and come back 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. 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 and. india's tax system is complicated even small businesses need a computer or a tax advisor which costs time and money. that additional burden has meant the him 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 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 to monetise ation crippled the overwhelmingly cash based economy you want to date in g.s.t. 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 darby. as eamon 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. of the government promised the prices would go down and people would profit that didn't happen now just 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. social media companies in germany will have twenty four hours to take down a legal material from now on 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 legal posts to avoid the hefty fines facebook has hired hundreds of new people in germany to play with a controversial law time to get away from it and a popular way for europeans germans to spend part of their holidays no they're not just consumed by the idea of topping up a tad in far flung corners of the world the fun doth of the counted it is attracting more tourists than ever and it's mostly thanks to its 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 for me is more an 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 way is tourism sector has gone from also ran to leading light. we have the highest growth percentage wise in only 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. business with. i'll see you again very soon here on details of.

the fast pace of life in the digital morris shift as the lowdown on the web showing new developments and providing useful information on the way to use phone lines and interviews with the makers and users. should from next on detail. they live to surf but. danger lurks in the water we were there all year long surfing waste and. not only the weakness but the kind of victims i mean you troubles. basically in this case you know she only has moments in backup vocals. there's a little i was on

a shelf. is going to east india it's sad to go somewhere every day and see more and more proficient times for the sims gives me everything the waves the wind i have to give something back to me and i feel obliged to mishandle many of us are just. one waves of surfers fighting against unseen pollution the seas starting january seventh on t.w. . shift living in the digital age today the future of communications a smart ball for dogs left home alone and a kaleidoscopic vision of cities to come.