a fellow traveler in russian blasted off into space with giant antenna but its job was to send messages back to earth by a radio signals a satellite orbiting the earth ninety times a day before burning up twenty to twenty two days later. all right you're watching the news here is what's still ahead the european union is cracking down on multinational companies that aren't paying their taxes apple and amazon may have to pony up millions of euros all of that and other business headlines coming up with monica. the lists are on the rise when required and. i am taking a blue moon straight to highlights different shades of nationalism and to find out what the nation me to you. to show you so or join the conversation here on to w.

on to the top and then facebook. going to let them know w. we speak your language our spanish program on you tube. only swilling someone doesn't put much and i can go to always close to the action but i'm up by my portable profile get along with what you can get that up to the minute news and opinion the background to political developments. d.w. we bring you more of the oil. at. the european commission is getting tough on the u.s. tech companies the yuan to address commission no orders back taxes to be collected from apple and to amazon. also coming up space. chip stock index tumbles

as tensions between catalonia and madrid s collects. welcome to date of your business i want to get jones in berlin the european commission is coming down hard on a u.s. tech companies on wednesday it launched a fresh crackdown over taxes paid by apple and amazon the commission said that generous tax breaks give the companies and legal advantage. patience has run out of the european commission taking to the podium that you competition commission announced that brussels had island in its sights taking the country's government to the european court of justice for its failure to collect taxes from us giant apple than a year ago the commission adopted the decision. requiring ireland to recover up to thirteen billion euros in illegal from apple however ireland has still not recovered any money not even in part apple is

currently appealing the case it argues that the revenues in question a subject to u.s. tax rules instead meanwhile luxemburg was also singled out by the commission on wednesday ruling that it has granted online shopping giant amazon on due tax benefits for the past eight years leading around three quarters of its profits untaxed the uses that gave it an unfair advantage over other companies. not justified. amazon now has to reap a tax benefit worth around two hundred fifty million euros plus interest the commission's position is clear it states that no matter your flag or ownership paying your taxes is part of doing business in the european union. so the e.u. commission seems to mean business but why now well let's ask our brussels correspondent bob. both ireland and luxembourg and holland as well of course they're all know

that for their generous tax rules in order to attract big corporations why is the european commission having a problem with it now. it's not having a problem now but it's going through the back catalogue and sort of making little points into all those cases that have been thrown up particularly if we remember three years ago as with the looks leagues scandals where that which was one of those cases where the european commission suddenly had to look at all these practices and say no this can't be true this cannot be allowed those are cases of illegal state aid they are big big multinational companies are being favored by those states as opposed to normal regular local companies or even european companies who don't get the same treatment so this has to stop and now they are just going through the catalog and it's a major exercise of housecleaning more or less what we see you know ok but those big u.s. companies certainly some from silicon valley are already threatened that it would invest less in those countries if they didn't get the kind of tax breaks that

they've received so far looks like those companies can dictate the terms here in europe. legally they count politically it's another ballgame by the commissioner migrate of esquire was quite firm and asked for instance whether this where the beginnings of a tax war or or a sort of trade war between the united states and europe and she said we make the rules and the companies and the member states have to stick to those rules otherwise they'll be an equal treatment and we have to have level playing field among the companies in europe everything else is just not right and we have also seen that at the last summit meeting in tallinn the big four berlin rome paris and madrid have come forward with a proposal saying we need to reform tax rules we need to unify them in europe and we have to sort of state one principle that tax is to be fit paid where the profit is made now it's kind of take a while to all that has been pushed through however they are on the way ok they

have to walk the talk now but obviously in brussels thank you so much for this and stay in europe for the catalonian regional government says it wants to form an independent european nation and it's already indicated it will declare independence from spain in the coming days a tense situation as the spanish on the council on economy a very closely linked spain's gross domestic product is around one trillion euros the catalonian tribute about a quarter of that that is two hundred and twenty three billion euros you will see them coming up here in just a second and then talk pull down now that is little less than ireland's g.d.p. for twenty sixteen but significantly more than portugal's so it's quite clear that catalonia is the economic powerhouse and that is why some say that a catalan break away could lead spain vulnerable while it is still on the road to

recovery but there is also concern that catalonia cannot realistically afford to go it alone. spaniards like yourself or gomez lost their jobs when the country's banks were on the verge of collapse she runs this community group one of many for those affected by the credit crisis for them no investment from banks meant no opportunities for businesses to grow cutbacks followed unemployment has since dropped nationwide but spain is still very much in recovery pro independence catalans are confident they say their industry and tourism will help them go it alone but breaking away would certainly slow down spain's return to the level of its pre-crisis economy however it would be wrong to overstate the impact catalonia attracts fourteen percent of all of spain's foreign investment still it lags way behind the spanish capital madrid which brings it almost sixty five percent despite being a top tourist destination and a big exporter catalonia comes forth in g.d.p.

per person behind other regions madrid the basque country and navarro. independence could have a downside for the catalan economy too hundreds of companies have chosen to move headquarters elsewhere in spain worrying that disruption and change in catalonia could upset their business that's cost the region billions of euros in lost opportunities many firms are coming up with backup plans in case of independence. the outlook here in barcelona is usually sunny but the economic clowns for those spain in catalonia won't go away as long as the independence question goes unanswered. well the turbulence in spain is also having an impact on investor sentiment across europe. filled us in on the day at the france the stock exchange. well i think in some markets in europe it did have an effect that put a brake on the developments when i look at france or britain or britain of course

with its own banks and worries or italy the trading there was nothing to write home about but here in frankfurt yes there were worries there were some concerns but certainly no panic because the dax reached a record high almost going to that thirteen thousand point level at the beginning of trading then i think the worries over catalona catalonia dampened the market and the market lost steam but recovered towards the end so kind of a funny day people are worried because they don't know what will ensue but on the other hand people had the time and let's say the inclination to look at the strong points of german economy for example but also low interest rates offering little alternative to investments in equities but when you just mentioned britain and of course i mean with brics it markets had to the time to sort of get used to the idea of a country sort of breaking loose from the e.u. is catalonia pretty much the same. i don't know if it is

drastically different in the way that the vote came about and also how the vote is being handled the bracks a vote was a legitimate one it was hotly contents contested it was controversial but it was legal and nobody is questioning the result in the brics that people are now negotiating with the e.u. on leaving the european union different story in spain the government in madrid the central one says it's a legitimate and nobody really knows what will happen what kind of a conflict will develop if the catalonians indeed go ahead with this so it could provide turmoil for spain and that's for the euro zone i think a different picture all right and frank said thank you so much for this. a decision on the e.u. license from one santos glyphosate herbicides is due soon. as reports. a cotton farmer from the us called john barton has a stern warning for brussels he's fighting cancer and he's trying to prove in court

that his disease was caused by the weed killer roundup like thousands of farmers worldwide he used the pesticide for decades and was always told it's safe and i expose my sons to round up when i was farming you know i would come back packs and you know they would go out in the field and spray johnson grass so now it's a father i'm taking my god. did i harm my own children in the class action lawsuit representing five hundred people comes as the e.u. is deciding whether to renew the license of the controversial weed killer the license expires at the end of the year the use food safety watch stock has declared that life for sayed the key ingredient in roundup is safe but barton's lawyers claim pesticide maker monsanto is deliberately hiding evidence about the safety of clive for say forty years ago we were seeing studies that smoking tobacco was good

for you that's what we saw big tobacco did that for years they bought scientists in there and monsanto has taken that playbook right from the tobacco industry the lobbying practices the u.s. lawyers criticized on their visits to brussels are a particular concern for the european parliament. in fact monsanto or organized the whole scientific evidence in such a way that that there was a real money palatial facts re written. scientific reports where it didn't write the reports themselves written by monsanto people the route with the acro chemical giant has become toxic after the company refused to participate in a public hearing all monsanto executives and lobbyists have currently been denied access to the european parliament. that's a business update here in the w. thanks for keeping the company.

entered the conflict zone with tim sebastian b.t.u. is getting increasingly fed up with hungary its refusal to take a share of bike routes and refugees to home rauf the new regulations laws my guess

here is budapest is all time kovacs the prime minister's international spokesman how long is his government thank you playing the bad boy in brussels for next t.w. . on the fast steps of central asia. an expedition in search of an ancient denizen of kazakhstan the saigon antelope species such mammoth time that some are. there year ago scientists found evidence of a mysterious catastrophe i saw with my own eyes on the first dead saigon's lying there . which killed so many of them and or those that are alive endangered psychos in distress find out more in our interactive internet documentary at the w dot com. i'm sorry gus. when history books are brought to. maybe the stories they're in we'll get to rewrite.

the story of the russian revolution. from the perspective of writers thinkers artists. what did it feel like to live in times of a revolution the people. to the russian revolution. nineteen seventeen to really starting october twenty fifth t w. u is getting increasingly fed up with hungary its refusal to take a share of migrants and refugees rauf to new regulations and laws my guest here in budapest is. the prime minister's international spokesman along the government's going to keep.