they don't. but everyone has the right. everyone has the right to. this is detail you news live from berlin spain's central government takes drastic measures to stop catalonia from breaking away half a million people take to the streets of barcelona in protest separatist leaders are calling it the worst attack on the region since the franco dictatorship we'll get reaction from barcelona also coming up moments ago polls closed in japan as voters

face horrendous weather in order to cast their ballots prime minister shinzo obvious seeking a larger majority as he seeks to revise the country's constitution. a warm welcome to the program i'm marian evans dean. established government is moving forward with what's being called the nuclear option in catalonia madrid has announced on president of measures to temporarily strip the region of its powers by firing its leaders and triggering fresh elections cattle on president carlos whose demo is accusing the central government of the worst attack on his region since franco well meanwhile large crowds rallied in barcelona to protest against spain's proposals.

adman's do and nothing is been proven yet right so marianna haw is calling for elections as soon as possible but isn't there a danger that with new elections in catalonia we'll just see separatists being reelected. this group that's an end power now can stand again so put them on and his ministers are out of course they can put up new leaders however if you look at the latest polls for four puts them on a centrist pro independence party they were in so hot it wasn't really so great it's not that he would just easily sail into the majority plus his government now

is being propped up by an extreme leftist party and we don't know anything about their fates they might not be able to do this again and get enough votes together so that is completely unclear and there's a further aspect during the last regional elections voter turnout was only in the sixty's of percents so now this time we can be quite sure that everybody who is against independence who wants to sort of return to the life they don't want to see economic welfare and the economic future of catalonia will turn out to vote so it's really cool politically open we don't know what will happen now what do we know about the next move by the catalonian government. we know nothing of course because they're keeping their cards very close to their chest however they have three options put cement re declare independence during

this coming week and go down in flames be arrested and become a march or great maybe some some people some of his supporters would love that but it's not clear whether he'll want to do it he could also just sort of keep his feet still and wait for madrid to act and he could still call for elections from his own side he could do this before the senate takes his powers away on friday so he could still call for elections and overtly autonomy being suspended that is basically his best bet but whether he will choose that is totally unclear all right barbara vai's on monitoring the situation from barcelona thank you so much. now to some of the other stories making news around the world and voters in the northern italian regions of lombardy and been a tow are holding non-binding referendums asking for more autonomy from the central government both regions are led by members of the far right northern league they want more powers over infrastructure health and education they're also looking to

slash the tax revenues send to room russian opposition leader alexei in of all the announced on social media that he is out of detention he had served a twenty day term in moscow for organizing what officials call an authorized protest they've only has held numerous rallies across the country since announcing his intention to stand in next year's election against president vladimir putin. to japan now where polling stations have just closed in snap parliamentary elections that prime minister shinzo ave called last month of voters braves heavy rain and strong winds from a powerful typhoon that's lashing the country opinion polls showed obvious governing party poised to cruise to victory but observers have been warning the bad weather could depress turnout they called the election hoping to win a two thirds majority that would enable his government to revise japan's pacifist

post-war constitution. well joining me now from tokyo is journalist michael penn thanks for joining us michael so polls closing just a few minutes ago what are the exit polls saying. well the exit polls are predicting that the government will definitely win a majority as to whether or not they will win the super majority which is the two thirds majority you mentioned that we probably won't find out until later in the evening but it will definitely be a crushing victory for the prime minister and probably will certainly historic low voter turnout both because lack of a real competitive election as well as a thai food hitting the island right on election day here looks like turnout is probably going to be well below fifty percent in fact. well why did they decide to hold a new election right now he didn't have to call them early so why now well he

calculated that this was going to be his best opportunity and that calculation is clearly proven correct i think the number one issue was that the opposition parties were not ready to contest an election right now at the time he called the election the main opposition party was polling something like three or four percent support it was just had a new leader and was not able to to really put together the policies at all and the tokyo governor yuriko quite k. who was a popular potential rival didn't have time to set up her own political party which she might have been able to do by next year so basically the prime minister pounced while the opposition was not ready for an election all right so the opposition in japan is quite weak and yet himself has faced allegations of cronyism and not all of his popular policies are popular and yet voters still do like him why is

that. well to be honest the polling shows that the voters don't really like the polls lower than his party does. essentially i think most of the people believe that he's the only person who can run a competent government at this time and with threats like north korea and other problems hitting the nation that kind of reluctantly are going against the ruling party aba himself is clearly not trusted you can see that in the polls he's not liked but on the other hand he's considered to be the only option in town so it's not a win that shows any great affection of the people for the prime minister it's a win by default are i tend journalist michael penn reporting to us from tokyo many thanks indeed thank you well it's not often that all five of america's living former presidents get together on stage but last night

jimmy carter bill clinton barack obama george h.w. bush and george w. bush put aside partisan differences to raise money for hurricane victims they were joined by popular pop rock and country stars for a concert that was broadcast nationally from houston texas oh. it was the concert and a plea for help your fellow americans are so close that was the message that the five living former presidents had for america at a fundraiser in houston texas to help victims of hurricanes that devastated u.s. gulf states and caribbean territories this fall. or storm or stage or tonight could not be prouder. of the response of americans. when they see their neighbors and they see their friends. this is strangers in the

american step up. by. the concert also featured country and rock n roll stars. but the night's surprise headliner was pop superstar and grammy award winner lady gaga. pain is such an equalizer. and in a time of catastrophe we all put our differences aside and we come together. because we need each other oh we can survive. more than i want to express or did the current us president total trump did not attend but he did send a video message thanking his predecessors for their help. the five former presidents started their fund raising initiative in september since then has raised more than thirty one million dollars. some sports news now and in formula one lewis hamilton smashed the track record to claim pole position for sunday's u.s. grand prix in austin the pole was the seventy second of hamilton's career and

eleventh of the season the mercedes driver can clinch his fourth formula one world championship if he scores sixteen points more than closest rivals of us and settle who qualified second the ferrari driver trails hamilton by a fifty nine points in the standings hamilton's mercedes team angel terry botha's is in third followed by a red bull's daniel ricky and ferrari's kimmie record and now a sports story about defying the odds it's about a video game enthuses from the netherlands who lost his science early in life but that didn't stop him from becoming a professional gamer. meet blind warriors spin of the gaming world known as fin bend a vega in the real one at the age of six he lost his sight and his biggest fear at first was being unable to play video games anymore but after

a while he discovered he was able to play street fighter. i was able to hear what was going on in the game and react to each kick into punch each move from each character has a different sound. after you learn each sound effect you have to know how to react on it and from that moment on my new game experience started soon spain had the skills to enter his first tournament as a pro. i want to measure on my own face and that was so amazing i mean i almost had tears in my eyes because well so wonderful. to show everybody that even with a disability that you can participate in the real world if you want. i really hope that what i'm doing can inspire other people to do the same or to go for what they want in their life even if it's impossible as they think that there's

always a way to do something if you want to spend wants to help make games more vision impaired friendly in the future. you're up to date now on d w news will be back again at the top of the hour in the meantime you can always get the latest news and information on our web site just visit dot com america from all of us here in berlin thanks for watching. your smart t.v. smarter d.w. force more. what you want when you want. to do extraordinary.