use a new it's a kind of culture the old we are the suckers for what we are were a family and believe. me or send me a phenomenon starting october fifteenth on d w. the state of the news coming to live from berlin a showdown in spain over catalonia has plans for a separate as referendum spain's government says this vote is illegal and should not go ahead but catalan leaders insist everything is is in place the show is going

on also coming up germany's former chancellor gerhard schroeder is under fire for joining the board of russia's state controlled oil giant ball snaps a company this object of a new sanctions. plus u.s. relations with cuba hit a ball no after a brief trawl the u.s. is pulling out half of its embassy staff and warning travelers to avoid the island that's after mysterious attacks that have left some diplomats deaf. and i'm sarah harman welcome to the show it's good to have you with us tensions in spain are rising ahead of attempts by catalonia to hold a referendum on independence on sunday madrid says that's illegal and has sent thousands of police to the region but kut want to thore say everything is in place for this vote to go ahead. these are the ballot boxes that the leaders of

self-governing catalonia say its citizens will use to vote in the planned referendum from spain on sunday and i was drive from the catalan capital barcelona where thirty's in the town of vic insist residents will be able to vote despite the ban from madrid. mayor says for her the issue is personal but. for me the worst punishment would be to go out into the streets and not be able to give my citizens the opportunity to express their opinion and decide. i am not afraid of what the spanish government can do because we are not committing any crime. invicta hoping sunday's vote will go ahead. but the spanish government has other ideas it says the planned

ballot threatens the country's very foundations. the professional. secessionist process is illegal and it is based on illegal premises don't believe the obligation of the rule of law and if every single government is to prevent it from happening you are this is a specialist initiative is only trying to destroy spain. in barcelona farmers brought their tractors on to the streets to back their demand to hold the referendum. polls suggest catalans are evenly divided on how they would vote what is certain is that tensions are already running high. all right let's cross over to our correspondent pavlo foley elliot's joins us now from the spanish capital madrid probably you've just returned from barcelona how

survive it are people generally i was there you're absolutely right i mean people are incredibly divided over this issue i was very interesting to speak to so many people about this on the streets of barcelona and what i felt was that people were very determined to have this referendum whether they're on you know the pro independence saw it or against this there's also a lot of concern over what could happen on october the first but what was interesting was that if you speak to people it's become in some ways a to do subject and then other ways it's not i mean people are quite happy to open up to talk about it with their friends and family but at the same time they will not really talk about it that openly because they feel that maybe it's such a divisive issue with people you know with really strong feelings about whether you should be independent or not so often it's best to leave it and just not discuss it yeah understandable that people are avoiding that as kind of a touchy issue do you think that cadillac plans are going to be allowed to vote on

sunday because the spanish government seems to be doing quite a bit to stop them. you're absolutely right i mean the spanish government have confiscated twelve million ballot papers and also ballot boxes as well they've also shut down the cattle and the government's referendum website that was shut down and several times and then it was sort of reopened. they opened it abroad and then of course the social media as well has been sort of cracked down upon and they've basically said that people shouldn't vote there's also talk of fines for people who go and work in the polling stations across catalonia and that this is in sharp contrast to what the cattle and regional government are saying they're absolutely determined for people to turn out on sunday and vote and they've said that polling stations which will be in schools will be opened and there are ballot boxes there was an event held on friday showing what the bought of boxes looked like so you

know it's basically a complete and utter standoff so it'll be very interesting to see whether people will turn out on sunday and from what i was saying to before talking to people on the ground to barcelona everybody seems quite determined to go out on sunday and go to the polling stations people determined to have their voices heard what can we expect on sunday. that's the million dollar question sara no one really knows and it's not often that we actually say that really nobody knows what's going to happen that what we do know what the moment that the monsters aswad their regional police in catalonia has been ordered to go to the polling stations at six o'clock in the morning on sunday and make sure that they are locked and also to take away any. ballot boxes and they've also said that this is where it's a little bit of a gray area they've been also told that they you know it depends how should they act if things got a little bit out of hand because obviously there is a bit of

a concern will it turn violent i mean you know i don't like to use that word but i mean you never know what i mean people are very heated there's a lot of tension and it'll be interesting to see and also it is worrying to see how the police because they've been reinforced as well from with police officers from other parts of spain it'll be interesting to see how they react to the protests. and protests to the protests some people turning up to the polling stations on sunday a problem we've seen pushes for cattle on independence in the past this isn't a brand new issue what makes it different this time. what makes it different is i mean the cattle on the independence movement is not something new particularly since around two thousand and twelve the catalan regional governments have been very determined to hold a referendum and actually just a few months ago in the regional parliament they passed legislation which was essentially the legal groundwork and framework that would be implemented if catalonia did decide to vote yes in a referendum for independence and that was immediately struck out by the

constitutional court here in madrid and of course the government of money and of the holy has said that you know this is completely and utterly unconstitutional but the regional government has decided to ignore that and they've pushed ahead with it and this is where we are in the situation where basically the word i would describe for it is that confusion i don't confusion will continue on sunday when the vote either happens or doesn't you'll be reporting for us problem. for that jury is former chancellor gerhard schroeder has joined the board of russia's state controlled oil company that the appointment has provoked controversy and criticism in germany since ross stepped as subject to sanctions imposed on russia for its actions in ukraine charter says those sanctions are unreasonable. if the company is expanding its presence in the international market record pace this is

ross image film and in the future their expansion will be done under the auspices off gas. the former german chancellor has been elected chairman off the company's supervisory board after a year except at the position switch to thank the company for their confidence and explained his motives. i'm one of those people who thinks it's ridiculous to try and isolate a permanent member of the u.n. security council politically and economically. can never work. criticism of schwitters close ties to russia is strong in germany rosneft a subject to e.u. sanctions against russia many ask why he is joining a company that is firmly positioned within bass even members of his own party say she is making a mistake in trying to. use a private citizen but i warned him that as an ex chancellor he could never fully

return to the status of a private citizen i have to live with his decision this isn't the first job but has accepted in russia directly following the end of his term as chancellor he joined north stream a pipeline company russian president putin was instrumental in getting him these well paid positions has been close friends with putin for many years. rosneft is russia's largest oil producer other international companies such as b.p. and the emirate of qatar also own shares in the company but the majority of stocks belong to the russian state. is look now at some other stories making news around the world at least sixty it will hinge or refugees are feared dead after their boat capsized near bangladesh this as un chief antonio good terror has condemned marse treatment at her hand for than half a million of the muslim minority now flood amid

a crackdown the government claims is directed at extremists. at least six people have been killed in a suicide bombing in the afghan capital kabul the device detonated outside a shiite mosque following friday prayers the islamic state group says it carried out the attack two days before the muslim holy day. white house saying that u.s. health and human services secretary tom price has resigned this comes after a controversy over his use of expensive private charter flights for government business some of the flights were to places where he owned property or met with relatives what is going well after a fall in the u.s. his relations with cuba fresh troubles have now emerged the u.s. is ordering most of its personnel at the cuban embassy to leave the island following what it calls a series of attacks targeted diplomats some embassy workers have reported injuries

including concussions and hearing loss u.s. authorities are now working to establish how exactly the injuries occurred and who could be behind them. and for more let's bring in washington bureau chief alexander fun naaman alexander thanks for joining us u.s. embassy workers allegedly under attack in cuba these mysterious injuries do we know what's causing them. state department officials told us today that they don't know the means to methods what how these attacks have been carried out because the devices used in this tax have never been found but that of course there are a lot of speculations going on in the u.s. media some sources saying that we are talking here about a sort of weapon that. sound waves capable of inflicting physical harm and we are dealing here with physical symptoms including

as you said had they. and even hearing loss and because these symptoms vary so greatly doctor as a consultant here in the united states could so far not come to any come conclusion what's called the trauma very intriguing it sounds like something out of a sky movie now alexander the u.s. state department is pulling most of its personnel out of cuba what's your take is this about ensuring the safety of embassy staff or are we witnessing a real deterioration in the relations between the u.s. and cuba so something that a lot of people predicted would happen under president trump. yes you are right and the state department itself of course the decision was necessary and was made to protect the health of u.s. diplomats and the travel warning was issued to protect u.s. citizens but we have to say that the whole case is so mysterious at the beginning

for example the u.s. officials were talking about incidents now they are talking about attacks and we still do not know enough to judge what's behind the whole case but we have to keep in mind that president trump is convinced that his criticisms decision to restore diplomatic ties with cuba was wrong and that he vowed to cancel completely cancel the deal with cuba but so far not much has really happened but this decision today has the potential of being a set back to you as cuban relations all right very mysterious indeed we know you have been monitoring the situation for us very closely alexander phenomena in washington thank you and that's all from us will leave you with a little treat for the weekend some very cute panda clubs from china's sichuan

province the oldest is five months the youngest just two months have a great weekend enjoy. she's long been a.