helena: this is "dw news," live from berlin. all change at the top in brazil. hardliner jair bolsonaro takes office as the new president. his election marks a radical shift to the right after decades of centrist rule. campaigners worry about the impact of his policies. also on the program, a authorits in germany say a man who rammed mymy car into a a new year crowd intended to killll foreigners. we will get the latest from our reporter in the western cicity f bottttrop.

going where no probe has gone before. nasa says a spacecraft has flown past the most distant celestial body ever studied. and revelers around the world ring in 2019. from berlin to baku, there has been music, dancing, and of course a series of spectacular fireworks displays. ♪ helena: i'm helena humphrey. gladad you could join me. brazil has just sworn in its new president, jair bolsonaro. a former army captain was inaugurated at a ceremony in the capital brasilia. he is brazil's first far right leader since a military dictatorship ended 30 years ago. bolsonaro supporters hope he can revive the economymy and bring

safety to the streets, but critics claim he is a threat to democracy. reporter: jair bolsonaro soaking up his moment in the spotlight. under cheers from his supporters on the way to brazil's congress, where he was sworn into office. >> we want to get brazil on its feet. we want to free brazil from corruption and crime. from irresponsible economic policies. and from ideological submissiveness. reporter: bolsonaro supporters are hoping for an end to the country's economic crisis and high crime rates. especially in the mega-city of rio, where he won a majority. >> i expect that he will make brazil better and safer. >> we will have to see when he actually starts doing things. making promises is not the same as keeping them. reporter: bolsonaro promised on twitter he would make it easier for people to buy guns.

he has also made it clear he will not protect the rain forest. he plans to make way for more mining and farming. bolsonaro's cabinet is almost entirely made up of white men with just two female ministers. this member of parliament is openly gay. he sees the new president as a hatemonger. he says he has received multiple death threats from bolsonaro's supporters. >> bolsonaro is not interested in humanitarian crises or refugees or poor people who are starving. men like bolsonaro do not have solutitions to those problems. reporter: brazil's other institutions will now be tested, as the new president attempts to implement his agenda. bolsonaro's party still has a relatively small number of seats in congress, meaning he will not be able to get legislation passed without cooperating with other parties. the courts and his opponents on the streets could also put a

brake on his power. helena: and journalist sam cowie has been following this story for us from brazil's biggest city, sao paulo. sam, how sharp a departure will bolsonaro's presesidency likelye for brazil? sam: well, brazil will undoubtedly face a very hard-line conservative shift. this is something that has been brewing for a while now. you haveve had, in the last four years essentially, you have had mammoth corruption scandals that have tainted all of the big brazilian parties. you have had rising crime and violence. you have had an economic recession with almost record high unemployment, which is continuing at the moment. so in this vacuum of kind of, anti-establishment anger and also, you know, because of the

corruption scandals, etc., wee have seen mr. . bolsonar babasically has s risen in thihs vacuum that has been left as traditional partieies on the let and right have become embroiled in these corruption scandals. he swept to victory promising to end corruption and tackle rising crime, etc. now reality starts and whether he will be a able to putut those thingsgs into practicece with ay fracturered congress remains toe seen. helena: sam, u.s. president donald trump has congratulated bolsonaro today. other prominent right-wing leaders attended thehe inauauguratition. whatat is bolsonararo's forerein pocycy going t to be like? sam: that remains to be seen. bolslsonaro has talklked about copying trump and moving the embassy, the brazilian embasassy to jerusalem. the problem with that is that brazil is also a huge exporter

of halal meats, it's one of the biggest in the world, anand the arab league says they will be very displeased if they were to follow in n trump's s footsteps moving the b brazilian embassy. he alslso visited taiwan when he was in campapaign mode. chinina did not okok well t tht at all.. brazil i is a huge soy e exporto china. even bolsonaro's own allieies he said, look, we back you on the indidigenous stutuff, we back yn ththe gun ownership, we want renegotiation of r rural debt. but alalso please, keep these bilateral l relations s with ch. soso it is goingng to be a difft mixture, even among his supporters andnd allies. it will be difficult to perhaps put into practice some of the more extxtreme foreieign policy aspects thatat he wanttoto do sh as moving the embassy and

decreasing trade with china. helena: journalist sam cowie in sao paulo. thank you very much. sam: thank you. helena: bolsonaro has pledged to kickstart brazil's economy. he is promising to emulate u.s. president donald trump by putting national interests first and promoting the private sector. that is easier said than done. as the country grapples with soaring debt. for the new finance minister, there will be plenty of challenges. reporter: this is paulo guedes, the man in charge of turning brazil's economic fortunes around. a u.s.-trained economist, he has pledged to introduce a host of free market reforms. here he is back in october telling the media about his plans to boost investment by lowering interest rates and reducing bureaucracy. he also wants to sell off state enterprises in order to reduce public debt, which skyrocketed during the previous

administration. so just how big of a challenge will that be? let's s take a look at the numberers. back in 2014, brazil's government debt amounted to 58% of total economic output. by 2018 it had surged to 76%. the world bank has warned that the figure could rise to 140% of gdp in the next decade if no drastic measures are taken. one measure that has been discussed is the privatization of state-owned oil company petrobras. it is brazil's biggest firm and by far its most valuable asset. parts of it have already been sold off. that decision came in response to a major corruption scandal that broke in 2014. but the prospect of the entire company ending up in the hands of private investors is a step too far for many, including apparently for president bolsonaro himself. sealing the fate of the oil

giant is therefore one of many pressing issues on the agenda for the new finance minister. helena: german authorities say they suspect a car attack after midnight on new year's day was motivated by xenophobia. a 50-year-old man is suspected of driving a car into a group of pedestrians in the western german city of bottrop. four people were injured and police say afghan and syrian nationals were among the victims. the man is also suspected of trying to hihit several people t seveveral locations.s. bestie interior minister says -- the state interior minister says the man clearly intended to kill foreigners. >> the case is one where a german deliberately drove into groups opepeople, ououps of people who were e to a large extent, at least, foreigneners. that meaeans this man had a cler inintention to kill foreigners. i do not believe that can be denied. those are the facts. helena: the state interior minister, there. dw correspondent alistair walsh

is at the site of the attack. he joins us now. alastair, talk us through what happened. alistairir: so last night, new year's eve here in bottrop,p, a 50-year-old man from essen attempted to drive his cararnto various groups of pedestrians. nearby he attempted to drive into one pedestrian but t was unsuccessful. he then drove here to o berliner plplatz, t centeter of town,n, the center of new year's eve celebrations lasast night. people lighting off fireworks, that sort of thing. here he had driven into a group of people and d injured four o f them, syrians anafafghans. one ofof those peoplple was seriouslsly injured. afafter that hththen drove t to essen,n, which is about 12 kilometers away, and attempted to do the same thing there with leless success. no one was seriously injured ththere. in terms of a motive, whwhen he was arrested he appaparently mae

xenophobic s statements to pole. this was laterer backed up by te interior minister who said he had a clear intent to murder foreigners. but they are also working on the idea that he possibly has mental illness as well. helena: how are people reacting where e you are there in bottro? alastair: hehere in bottrop everyone is relatively calm. people i have spoken to either do not know about it or they are all quite calm. there was meant to be a celelebration totoday. it is the 100-year anniversary of the foundation of the city. so therere was meant to o be a celebration here in the square where the attack happened. you can popossibly see behind me there is a stage set up that was meant to be e a show. however, the mayayor came out ad he''s cancnceled the celebebrat,

saying we do not want to celebrate while people are suffering. helena: alastair walsh, dw correspondant, thank you so much. let's take a look at some other stories making news around the world. north korea's leader has used his annual new year's address to warn his country may change direction on its promise of denuclearization if the u.s. continues its sanctions. kim jong-un also said he remains committed d to workingng towards lasting peace on the korean pepeninsula. a group ofof revelers in f frane rang in 2019 trarapped 50 meters up in the air after a fairground ride malfunctioned. it took firefighters eight hours to free the passengers. they were eventually lowered to safety, cold, but unhurt. a 10-month-old baby has been found alive, 35 hours after an explosion destroyed a russian apartment complex. rescuers found the boy in freezing temperatures after hearing his cries.

authorities believe a gas leak caused the blast. at least seven people were killed and dozens are still missing. the nasa probe new horizons has successfully flown past a celeste teal -- celestial body billions of miles from earth. mission control burst it out as they confirmed it had survived. >> we have a healthy spacecraft. we have just accomplished the most distant flyby. reporter: even after billions of kilometers of data gathering, a celebration was in order when nasa heard signals from their spacecraft that the dangerous flyby had been successful. ththeir probe came w within what must have seemed like touching distance to the frozen object called ultima thule. thisis is a comomter-generarated renderining of t 32 2 kilometer long frozenock which could reveal much about how the solar

system's planets were formed. a load of pictures are due in soon of the historic flyby, almost 6.4 billion kilometers from earth. >> the image i am to show you is the best image of ultima we got pre-flyby. and it is ok to laugh but it is better than the one we had yesterday. there it is. meet ultima. reporter: the mission has been likened to an archaeological dig in space. scientists hope to detect the terrain and chemical composition of ultima thule to learn more about the ancient building blocks of planets. >> we have a series of science objectives. one of the prime ones is to map the geology of ultima. whatever craters it might have on its surface, fractures, other topography, anything that will give us clues as to how the surface was formed.

reporter: the new horizons probe launched some 13 years ago on a mission to study pluto and its moons. in 2015 it passed the dwarf planet and found it to be larger than thought. it then flew another 1.5 billion lometers t to reach ultima thule. >> we have not ever been t t anything not only so far from the sun, but is so well preserved in this ultimatete deep-freeze. repoporter: new horizons will contntinue on well beyond the solar system now, yielding more untitil it runs ouout of the ned juice toto send back data. >> that is a bit of all of us on that spacecraft. it will continue after we are long gone here on earth. reporter: before that time, new horizons and its team will be leaving a massive load of information n for generations to build on. helena: joining me now from west virginia in the u.s. is keith cowing, a former rocket scientist and editor of the blog

nasa watch. welcome to the program, keith. break it down for us, if you would. why is a rock far, f far away actually that important? keith: the f far, far away parts actually what is important. because most of our solar system was made the materialsls four to five billion years ago that were heated and reformed. and if you try and figure out what the origiginal materials lk like, , they are gone. but if you go way out to the edge of the solar system as they have just done, it is like going backck in time. literally like being in a time machine, they are now observing a primordial piece of our solar sysystem, , the sort of stuff of which all the planets and d the sun and everything else were made. helena: to get actual images of ultima, when can we expect to see then? keith: you were just showing a blurry image. if i can use my props, it is either shaped like a potatato, r it may be two things like this. but again, you saw the image, it

is kind of blurrrry. every day the pictctures will gt much better. if they apparently have the accuracy they have had, we will be able to see features a couple hundred feet across. so this will be pretty amazing. helena: new horizons' journey into deeeep space dodoes not fih with ultima thule. so what cacan we expect then? keith: it has a a lot of fuel ad power left, so it cocould be functiononing the next 15 or 20 years. they are looking for another object like it that they could visit. who knows, pererhaps once they e done with it, it can turn back and look a at the sun and the planets and take anotherer one f these famomous pale blue dot images. but the spacecraft has only begun its journeysys. helena: we are certainly ver excited to seeee the pictures ad find out if it looks like one potato or two. for now, keith cowing, we ththak you very much for your insights. keith: my pleasure. helena: some sports news now, japanese ski jumper ryoyu kobayashi has won the second stage of the

prestigious four hills tournament in germany after a thrilling duel with the home favorite. ryoyu kobayashi edged out of the competition to make it 2-2 with 266.6 points. the victory gives him the chance of becoming the first japanese athlete since 1998 to win the four hills tournament. russia faces the prospect of new sporting sanctions after it missed a deadline for handing over data from its anti-doping lab. the world anti-doping agency said t that it wasas bitterly disappointed russia missed a deadline on the 31st of dececember, which was set to pae the way for russia's return to international athletics. it was barred from the 2016 olympics and 2018 winter olympics after a report uncovered a state-sponsored doping program. as the clock moves around the time zones and the last parts of

the world ring in 2019, the new year is officially underway. from east to west, revelers have been celebrating with music, dancing, and some dazzling fireworks displays. let's take a look now at some of the highlights. reporter: for millions of people around the glolobe, the last moments of 2018 were spent holding their breath. then as the clock struck midnight, the show began. from kuala lumpur to sydney. to hong kong. hours later, 2019 came to pakistan. then to dubai, home of the world's tallest skyscraper, the burj khalifa. and onto the lebanese capital beirut. one of the largest new year's eve celebrations in europe is in berlin at the brandenburg gate.

hundreds of thousands of revelers gathered for the show. it was a similar scene in the city of lights, paris. then across the atlantic to copacabana beach in rio de janeiro. in a new york, crowds gathered on times square for an annual ritual, the dropping of a crystal ball at midnight. not even heavy rain could dampen the enthusiasm. this year's event had a serious note, celebrating journalism and press freedom. helena: scenes of a happy new

year, there. but of course the question is, will it be a happy new year for brits? ben: that is a very good question. i don't think i will have to put you out of your misery. i don't think it is going to be a good 2019 for the brits, but that is my opinion. we will see what ms. may manages. she reckons that britain can turn a corner if parliament just backs her brexit deal. here are the key dates to look out for or avoid this year. the first coming up in mid-january when mp's vote on the controversial brexit deal. that will determine what kind of brexit it will be on march 29, the date britain leaves the eu. the american ambassador to the eu says a quick and massive trade deal with the u.s. would only be possible in the event of a no-deal brexit. that is what would happen if parliament rejects may's deal. a no-deal brexit would be a nightmare for european businesses. if parliament accepts may's

deal, it would mean an orderly brexit with the transition period starting after march 29 to allow britain and the bloc to work out their new trade relations. the transition would end december 31, 2020, and brexit would be complete. plenty of time for more drama, of course. along the way perhaps even anex. some asian nations are looking forward to signing post-brexit trade deals with britain. we asked our asisian correspondt inin singapore, andrea heng, if they are excited. andrea: they are already, you can bet. china and japan are touted to be the biggest winners for brexit deals. this is of course following behind hong kong, which was once colonizezed and managed d by the u.k. so, they already have a very

long-statanding, strong investmt from the u.k. tourism is very strong and financial deals as welell. so, all these fields between hohong kong and the u.k. are gog to increase. china anand japan are e followig closely behind. but it will tatake years beforee see any action of these implementations of plans or real results and outcomes of these deals. ben: european union officials call the euro a symbol of unity, sovereignty, and stability. but they stressed the need to strengthen its resilience against future crises. the single currency turns 20 today. it was originally the currency of 11 nations. now it is used by 19 eu member states. reporter: the euro was launched on january 1, 1999 with a huge party. the european central bank set the exchange rates with the national currencies. but europeans could only pay with the euro using checks,

credit, or debit cards. coins and notes were issued into circulation three years later. initially, financial markets were skeptical. the euro fell to a record low of $0.85 to the dollar on october 26, 2000. things improved two years later when the currency was launched as cash, in n paper and coins. that brought confidence. the euro climbed, reaching a record high of nearly $1.60. but the 2008 financial crisis shook the global banking system. the euro also took a hit. within a couple months it lost one-fifth of its value. times remained turbulent for the common currency. the 2010 greek debt exacerbated the situation and endangered the euro. the european central-bank jumped in to support it.

and the currency lost significant value 2015 amid another bt crisis in greece and the nflict in ukraine. but it started rising steadily afterwards. the euro is now the world's second-most important currency. more than 340 million people use it in europe. but times have still remained stormy for the common currency. ben: pepper is an increasingly popular crop in cambodia. it is home to a special variety, the kampot pepper. it has received the eu's geographical protected status. much like italy's gorgonzola. it is dramatically changing things for the local pepper bumper crop is expecected thisis indust andnd a yr. rereporter: this could be the ch crop for one of asia's poorest countries. kampot pepper is grown on about 450 0 farms in cambodia, saiaido be ideal because of its soil.

the pepper industry is the biggest employer thehere. >> growing kampot pepper has allowed d me to take care of my family and have a good standard of living. i want cambodians to know howw important it is to grow here. reporter: during cambodia's communist era, they cut down pepper production, saying it was decadent. the crop was revived in the mid-1990's. its rebirth helped t t local community and helplped pay for medical clinics and schools. the eu has given kampopot pepper protected designation. that has pushed prices higher and opened up new marketets. >> we are expecting prproduction to increase in 2019. kampot pepper is alrlready well-known in some international markets, but we are also developing some new markets. we are developing the new markets due to the quality and reputation of kampot pepper,

which is considered to be the best pepper in the world. reporter: the revival of pepper farming here has transformed lives and the landscape, and created an awareness of the region among pepper-loving consumers across the world. ben: and a reminder of the top story we're following for you. hardliner jair bolsonaro has been sworn in as brazil's new president. his election marks a radical shift to the right after decades of centrist rule. you're watching "dw news" from berlin. i'm ben fajzullin. helena humphrey will be back with more news next hour. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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