people and projects that are changing our environment for the better and it's up to us to make a difference let's inspire each other. to do it in africa the environment magazine. d.w. . this is daily news live from then a powerful storm has been sweeping across northern germany it's left several people dead and many injured the strong winds up rooting trees and causing travel chaos across the region weather experts are warning residents to brace for hurricane

strength winds. also on this program spain's top court bans a scheduled parliamentary session in catalonia in a bid to block separatists from declaring independence cattle and lawmakers condemning the move as a violation of their freedom of expression. and this year's nobel prize in literature goes to british raja cuz it will issue google judges praising the originality and emotional depth of his work which includes the well known novel the remains of the day. hello and welcome my name is christopher spring a good to have you with us northern germany has been hit by a massive storm which is left at least seven people dead and forced the cancellation of train services in many areas the german weather service says when sweeping the region could reach hurricane strength authorities are telling

residents to take shelter. the magnitude of storm c.v.r. has caught germany off guard its winds have lashed the port city of hamburg uprooting trees which have smashed on to vehicles with fatal results the roof was torn off this building in lehman while in berlin shoppers had discovered to safety the capital's tagle and chena filled airports have temporarily suspended operations while trains are at a standstill in the northern homburg berlin line berlin zoo has had to close its doors to and with c.v.s. set to reach hurricane strength as night falls authorities are warning people to follow the animals example and stay indoors while my colleague alex is stranded at hanover central station in northern germany alexa what can you tell us about the situation at the moment in hanna. it's still cry coordinate because no

train is still going through the main station and all the train traffic in northern germany has been cancelled and i was stuck myself on my way to the northern coast of three hours between two cornfields kind of made my way back to hanover and tonic auric situation because thousands of people are standing there waiting in lines in very long lines for more information for taxi vultures on a hotel now to dodge a man has offered to train for sleeping overnight there some ambulances have arrived there not only because they're expecting some panic there but also they are offering potatoes and some drinks to the people who are still waiting for information how they can get home where they can stay overnight ok alexy clearly emergency services doing what they can to cope all they preparing for more bad weather. at the train station itself they're just preparing for more and more

people arriving there was the me tours which are now running again and had over there have been suspended for the some hours here as well so ahead of a train station is one of the main changing points in northern germany has crowded with people still because they're coming from all over germany on their way to different parts and they're just trying to provide some information and often brings something to eat and possibilities to stay overnight ok and like so many thanks for that alexa my other reporting from hanover. catalonia has bid for independence has hit something of a road block spain's highest court has banned a parliamentary session in catalonia that had been scheduled for monday regional leaders signaling that they were going to use that session to declare independence from spain it's unclear however what effect the court's orders will have cattle on lawmakers have already defied a previous court ruling by holding last sunday's unauthorized independence

referendum. it's the latest twist in a political crisis that's dividing not only spain but also catalonia a crisis that's seen both sides digging in and refusing to budge this is the parliament where the region's leaders were expected to declare independence from spain on monday but spain's constitutional course has now banned their parliamentary session from going ahead. the council president says he's representing the will of his people there were a majority of catalan voters did not take part in sunday's independence referendum the spanish government says he's acting outside the law by trying to enforce an illegal referendum result governments have missed to put demands messages a journey to nowhere because there is no democracy outside the law there is no coexistence there are no rights outside the law for a long time is to put them on has been living outside the law outside reality and

outside sanity. in barcelona people say they just want the politicians to make a deal. very well aware of the problem we have facing and the solution must be found this is like a divorce there's no coming back you cannot divorce today and get married to morrow . the situation is very tense we've reached the stage where the spanish and catalan governments need to ease tensions they need to talk and international mediation would be perfect. for now the deadlock continues the separatists have called for mediation but the spanish government says it won't enter dialogue until they drop their threat of declaring independence. ok we're going to get more now from simon harris he is the author of a book called catalonia is not spain a historical perspective a book i believe simon that looks at spanish in catalonia history from

a catalonian perspective help us understand simon catalonia as a relatively rich region the richest in spain it already has the status of an all tom autonomous region why do catalan separatists nevertheless insist that they will be better off independent. well i think there's two there are various issues actually there's an identity issue that i would support and i suppose in my book that catalonia is a nation it's a country in its own right it's a sovereign state and so there's an emotional issue and also that castle only gets a very very badly or from a spanish government so on average there's a tax deficit the amount the amount of taxes we pay to madrid and the amount of investment we get back amounts to about eight percent of our g.d.p. every year and the last figures i saw which were from two thousand and fifteen that amounts to sixteen billion year of euro's every year that doesn't come back to catalonia but you know so there's but simon let me just bought in there you know

catalonia is nevertheless the richest region in spain so you're not doing that badly surely. it's rich in many of the ways but it's in many respects is a cash cow for the rest of spain and we suffer from unemployment's we suffer from lack of housing we suffer from lack of investment it's richer into terms of g.d.p. but for example in other parts of spain children get their schoolbooks paid for here we don't because we don't have enough money to invest in it and we continually in debt to the spanish government although we pay more in taxes so we think it's an unfair situation but but you know is that justification enough for independence or is that not a political negotiation that needs to happen between barcelona in madrid. well in many respects since two thousand and three this well this dispute has been going on for centuries actually but the modern independence movement really kicked off began

to kick off in two thousand and three with the renegotiation of the new statues of autonomy which would have given council only of the right to call itself a nation it would have given the council on language priority and it would give given as judicial rights and also the right to collect their own taxes and then pay this money back to madrid this was passed by the castle on parliament the spanish parliament and passed a referendum and then thrown out by the the spanish constitutional court in twenty ten so we feel that there's no possible negotiation we're getting a bad deal as far as we're concerned ok simon harris author of catalonia is not spain many thanks for talking to us. it's a pleasure. we're going to catch up with some of the other stories making news around the world russia has been rolling out the red carpet for saudi arabia's king it's the first time a reigning saudi arabia monarch is visiting moscow the oil market and the war in

syria are two of the issues he's been discussing with russian president vladimir putin. the head of brazil's olympic committee has been arrested as part of a probe into alleged vote buying to win rio's bid for the twenty sixteen olympics seventy five year old carlos are told news money accused of helping to arrange a two million dollars bribe to secure the games for the city of former director of brazil's a little bit committee has also been arrested. and nasa astronauts have successfully conducted a spaceport to repair parts of the international space station to us or not replacing part of an aging robotic arm used to grab visiting space craft two more walks a plan for the coming weeks to carry out further maintenance. british writer because were ishiguro has been awarded the nobel prize for literature the

sixty two year old best known for his novel the remains of the day the swedish academy said they wanted to recognize his works of quote great emotional force the decision to on an issue go don't marks a return to a more conventional reception last year the committee stunned the world by awarding the prize to american singer songwriter bob dylan. now i have to admit i haven't read a single novel by. a group but the good news is i have dealt a smart with me from v.w. culture and you've read them all haven't you know you for actively christopher i am a real fan and two of his novels are among my favorite books of all time when one first question is which one should we definitely should we start with you know that's the question i'm asking myself looking at you i would say remains of the day because it's very accessible this is his most famous novel it won the booker prize it was made into a magnificent film starring anthony hopkins and emma thompson

a family i haven't seen either so i've got to read the book then you can see that from one thousand nine hundred three yes read the book first because it's told through the eyes of the butt. and in the book you read his point of view and you the reader understand that he's not telling the whole truth he says it's full of self deception and this is one of the things about. working is that he can make produce do several things at the same time so we have an insights that the person speaking does not have it's all about repression the butler is working for i won't give too much away but he's working for the lord and he wants to do everything to please him but this road turns out to be a nazi and a housekeeper that he has very repressed feelings of love for turns out to have loved him all this time so it's about memory and regret so we should start with the remains of the day tell me also i mean you say you're

a fan of if you go to what is it that makes him so special. as with all great literature first of all the kind of themes that they deal with you have to really have something to say about the world and the nobel academy likes writers who have something positive to say about the world i think issues message might be that we should seize the day that we should be honest with ourselves we shouldn't deceive ourselves we should honor memory. he said that this afternoon in a press conference that individuals but also nations and communities should they often uncomfortable with the past and they cover it up they cover up the memories but also he writes beautiful sentences they're very clear and at the same time they're full of hidden secrets he's a mysterious writer you talk about nations and of course she grew has an interesting biography is a british writer but not born in britain. does that play

a role in his writing absolutely his parents are japanese he came to england when he was five he didn't go back to japan for twenty nine years after that and yet he wrote about japan he wrote about this other world but we can listen to him talking about this. art always said throughout my career that. i've grown up in this country and i'm richard lui strong through a large part of my way of looking at the world. my artistic approach is japanese because i was brought up by my japanese parents speaking in japanese inside the japanese home and so. i think i've always looked at the world partly through my parents' eyes just as we all did. so i've always had a part to be that that is japanese. because well if you go to that the nobel prize winner for the teacher this year and dealt with helping us to

understand why thank you very much they'll say thank you kristie. before we go quick reminder our top story for you spain's top court has banned a cattle and parliamentary session on monday in which the region's lawmakers were expected to declare independence from spain the country's facing its most serious political crisis in decades after catalonia held an unauthorized independence referendum on sunday. twenty more background if you want it on our website d w dot com and you can also start today by following us on facebook and on twitter you're watching d.w. news in berlin more from us at the top of the alan. on his germany is a strong country. that we have achieved so much we can do this and if something him to resign we must overcome it and then. go.