this is bbc news. i'm chris rogers. the headlines at 11pm: the parliament of catalonia declares independence from spain, with people taking to the streets to celebrate. but spain's central government in madrid approves direct rule over the region, dissolving catalan‘s parliament and calling new elections. translation: as of today, i have dissolved the catalonian parliament and on the 21st of december there will be autonomic elections for that autonomic community. the cyber attack which crippled much of the nhs in may could have been prevented with basic security measures, according to a government investigation. files about the assassination ofjfk are released, but some are held back at the request of the cia and fbi. and on newsnight, is spain facing an existential threat tonight? while catalans celebrate today's

declaration of independence, madrid has sacked the catalans‘ separatist leader and dissolved catalonia's parliament. can the stand—off be resolved peacefully and what's the impact of the crisis on the rest of europe? good evening and welcome to bbc news. spain is in a state of constitutional turmoil, with the country's prime minister mariano rajoy announcing that he has sacked the catalan leader, his cabinet and the chief of police. it comes after catalonia's parliament voted for independence from spain. mr rajoy said he would seek to have that vote declared illegal and he said there would be elections held in december for a new catalan parliament.

tonight there have been crowds amassed in the centre of barcelona in a defiant show of support for independence, but the situation has caused alarm elsewhere in europe. our first report is from our europe editor katya adler who is in barcelona. all: si, si, si. one by one the yes votes were counted, celebrated, relished by this delirious pro independence crowd. as they watched the catalan parliament finally after weeks, some here say years of waiting, vote on separation from spain. do you believe it will happen today? yes. it has to be today. and today it was. all around here catala ns are singing their national anthem,

the national anthem they now believe belongs to their independent republic, separate from the spanish state. there are so many questions. what will the spanish government do? but for now, this crowd just wants to celebrate. it's a long time we are waiting for this moment, we deserve this. lam crying. are you happy? very, very. but anxiety soon spread amongst all the euphoria as the what is next began to weigh heavily on people's minds. the catalan republic had been declared, but not in everyone‘s name. many here don't want independence. just around the corner we found this man waving a spanish flag. translation: i'm not happy, i'm not represented, the catalan people as a whole didn't vote.

it's disastrous, the result of an extended manipulation which does not reflect the will of the catalan people. but nothing today was going to stop the catalan president savouring his moment in history. from the catalan parliament he spoke of his emotions, but also of his conviction that declaring catalan independence was the right thing to do, the legitimate thing to do, he said. hardly the view of the spanish government in madrid, which is fuming. the public prosecutor here says he'll be filing charges of rebellion against the catalan president. at the very same time the catalan parliament voted on independence today, the spanish senate gave the green light to mariano rajoy‘s government to sack the catalan leadership and bring the reins of power back to madrid. this is the first time in modern

spanish history that one of the country's autonomous regions has had its power is stripped away. tonight, after an emergency cabinet meeting, the spanish prime minister explained why. translation: normality styles with law in order to return institutional legitimacy and to give a voice to all catalans i have now dissolved the catalan parliament in order to hold regional elections on the 21st of december. but what mr rajoy didn't explain is how he intends to impose direct madrid rule on the hundreds of thousands of catalans who reject it. tonight independence supporters in barcelona are celebrating with abandon their brand—new republic with no power and little recognition, dancing on the edge of a precipice.

the decision by the catalan parliament to declare independence has been condemned by leaders across europe, with britain saying it wanted the unity of spain preserved. barcelona has had a long fractious relationship with madrid, but things have been brought to a head by the disputed independence referendum earlier this month. sarah rainsford reports from madrid. support for a tough stance against catalan independence. many spaniards, like their government, see the move to break away as illegal. so they've begun flying the national flag here to show they're backing for a united country and for madrid's moved to take control in catalonia. this lady told me the separatists should be in prison for their move. this man still hoped the crisis could be sorted so catalonia stays with spain. his friends are from all over the country. but catalan separatism has deep roots.

the region's push for autonomy was a key trigger for the civil war and general franco's repression was brutal. and was part of the‘s returned to democracy. —— granting autonomy was pa rt democracy. —— granting autonomy was part of spain's return to democracy. now at least temporarily madrid is imposing control. after securing support from the senate, spain's government moved quickly into a crisis meeting to decide its next steps. imposing direct rule over catalonia is an unprecedented move and one with unseen consequences, but at this point there seems to be little mood here in madrid for compromise. tonight the government set out its plan. the catalan parliament will be dissolved with new elections on the 21st of december. catalan ministries that employ more than 28,000 people will be run from madrid. the chief of police has been fired with 17,000 members of his police force now overseen by the spanish state.

for now madrid has international backing. the president of the european commission said spain had made its choice and the eu will not interfere. but on paper the government's plan is one thing, implementing it in this climate is fraught with risk. there will be more attention and confrontation in the coming days and weeks. it's not a question of will. at a certain point there will be an incident and that could trigger a serious confrontation and nobody knows what will happen. despite this apparent calm, how the government handles its next move will be critical. an alleged member of the banned far—right group, national action, has appeared in court accused of planning to murder the labour mp rosie cooper with a machete. the 22—year—old man is charged with terrorism offences and threatening to kill a policewoman. he appeared at westminster magistrates court along with five other men. they were all remanded in custody. downing street has said any allegations of sexual harassment and abuse at westminster

are deeply concerning. it was responding to a report by the sun newspaper of claims made by researchers and assistants on social media. our political correspondent alex forsyth gave us this update from westminster. no official complaints have been made and no mps have so far been named, but according to this newspaper report a group of parliamentary aides and researchers have been sharing information about supposedly inappropriate and sleazy behaviour by mps on the whatsapp messaging service. now, we don't know that this group exists but when asked about it today the prime minister's officials postman said any reports of sexual harassment we re any reports of sexual harassment were deeply concerning, any allegations would be taken seriously and anyone with information should contact the authorities. tomorrow the labour party leaderjeremy corbyn will be giving a speech in scotla nd corbyn will be giving a speech in scotland and in that he is expected to say that for too long there's been a warped and the grading

culture in which abuse of women is tolerated, including here at westminster. mr corbyn will say any woman who's experienced such behaviour should feel free to report it and he'll say any mp who has engaged in such behaviour must be held to account. the bbc has said it treats any allegations of harassment seriously, in response to reports of complaints about an unidentified bbc radio presenter. the daily mail says that eight female members of staff have come forward to say they've been sexually harassed by the man. the cyber security of the nhs has been encouraged to improve after a major attack earlier this year. the national audit office said more than a third of trusts in england were affected, with around 7,000 appointments cancelled. our technology correspondent

rory cellan—jones reports. it was a cyber attack that locked up computers around the world with a message demanding a ransom payment, but the nhs was among the organisations worst hit and it wasn't ready to deal with it. 81 health trusts across england were affected. more than 19,000 appointments were cancelled, including 139 potential cancer referrals. everything we do is based around the use of computers for the records so when you don't have that it's basically impossible to work with any degree of efficiency. this gp surgery on merseyside was among nearly 600 whose work was disrupted, with no clear instructions about what to do. in medicine we have this thing called the golden hour. when anything major happens, that first hour is critical. nothing happened, there was no "by the way, please check business continuity is accessible, you might want to print off your list of patients this afternoon, you might want to put some contact numbers in there, you might want to do social media" or whatever. all that side of communications was completely absent. this, the royal london, was one of the worst affected hospitals, with ambulances having to be

diverted to other a&e departments. there was a national plan to deal with a cyber attack but it hadn't been rehearsed at local level. that meant people didn't know who to contact and the fact their computers weren't working made it even trickier. all this could have been avoided if health trusts had followed instructions to apply security patches which would have stopped the ransomware in its tracks. it wasn't a terribly sophisticated virus and so the patches that are issued nationally by nhs digital and updated locally by those bodies, in some cases that hadn't happened and so it was quite simple for the virus to get into those organisations. now the nhs has been told it needs a clear plan to respond to future cyber attacks. we have been getting our act together, we are getting our act together, we are putting funding in, we are putting education in. we are rolling out the programmes that were in place before this attack, and we will continue

to improve over time. the government now says north korea was behind the wannacry ransomware and further attacks can't be ruled out but hospitals are warning that cyber security is costly and they will need more money to shore up their defences. rory cellan—jones, bbc news. the us government has released 2,800 previously classified files on the assassination of presidentjohn f kennedy. president trump has decided to to keep hundreds of other files secret at the request of security agencies. president kennedy was shot dead in in dallas in 1963. two lorry drivers involved in a fatal accident on the m1 in august have pleaded not guilty to eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving. both men will stand trial in february. rishart masherrack also denied causing death by careless driving while over the alcohol limit. the other driver, david wagstaff, who's 53 and from stoke, admitted causing death by careless driving.

a minibus driver and seven passengers were killed in the crash near milton keynes. now on bbc news it's time for newsnight with kirsty wark. tonight, as catalans take to the streets is spain about to be torn asunder? spain has become the first country in the european union to have a secessionist crisis, with the catalan parliament's vote to declare full independence. si... thousands have been out on the streets of barcelona celebrating the decision, but furious that madrid has taken steps to impose its will and end all catalonian autonomy. translation: so, i'm informing you that as of today, i have dissolved the catalonian parliament, and on the 21st of december, there will be autonomic elections for that autonomic community. we've been among catalans

as they celebrated independence, and as the questions about what happens next start to multiply. we'll ask how the rest of europe will react to these momentous events. already the uk, germany, the european union and the us have lined up behind madrid, but the scottish government has said that catalonia must have the ability to determine its own future. so might there now be a broker to help sort out madrid's future relations with catalonia? and could there be a legitimate catalan indpendence referendum in the foreseeable future? and out in the open, almost all the files on jfk's assasination are published. but do they contain anything truly revelatory? we ask one former doubter of the official version whether they changed his mind.