i can apply. this. point waves surfers fighting against unseen pollution the seas starting january seventh on g.w. . this is. from berlin tonight poland on the outs with the european union brussels is following through on its threat to punish warsaw all over judicial reforms that it says are undemocratic the move could see poland stripped of its voting rights in

the e.u. also coming up u.s. president is poised for a first major legislative victory after almost a year in office that's with lawmakers expected to give their final approval to a sweeping tax reform bill we'll get the latest from washington and new word from these two journalists since they arrested me and bar over a week ago they were investigating alleged abuses against muslims we'll get an update on their disappearance from the capital of me and more also on the show are the wheels coming off for europe deals the right ailing company a big blow its top board says that is a taxi service not just an hour we'll look at the fallout. i'm burnt off it's good to have you. with the european union has launched an

unprecedented process that could strip poland of its voting rights in the block the move follows months of tensions between warsaw in brussels over poland's judicial reforms speaking a short while ago the polish president duda appeared defiant and said that he had signed into law that put the country's courts under political control. says the reforms threaten the rule of law. a landmark decision was on the table as the european commission gathered in brussels at stake one of the values enshrined at the core of the european identity the rule of law which the commission says is under threat in poland. at the center of the rallies and series of reforms effectively giving parliament the power to appoint judges. within a period of two years

a significant numbers of laws have been adopted thirteen in total which puts at serious risk the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers in poland. the commission has taken the unprecedented step of invoking article seven of the e.u. treaty theoretically that could lead to sanctions like the suspension of poland's voting rights but it's unlikely to come to that hungary as already promised a veto such steps. nevertheless it's a highly symbolic move one which will probably only increase tensions between brussels and. the polish government says it's being singled out for unfair treatment. in fact the point is to punish poland for having an independent policy and for the fact that being the meek obedient country it was when the previous government was in power. the ruling justice

party has made judicial reform one of its key priorities and says the current system has too many vestiges of the communist era maia to buy inefficiency and corruption but critics say the legislation is a bit by the leader of the rightwing justice party kaczynski to enhance his power. over recent months tens of thousands of poles have taken to the streets to voice their concerns up the legislation that government remained for. now the e.u. has given three months to consider changes to its plans it seems unlikely that it will stand down. our we want to go to brussels now are standing by good evening to you max president has signed these laws effectively putting poland's chords in control of parliament are brussels and warsaw now firmly on

a collision course. at least you have very mixed signals coming out of warsaw at the moment first of all you mentioned it before brant he signed those two controversial laws into law which is of course a very bad sign for what brussels once on the other hand the prime minister announced that he would probably come in january to talk to the commission something they had refused to do all year long and something that plans to months who we saw in that report so the vice president of the european commission in charge of this whole thing regretted very much on the other hand you know it shows and that's probably the key thing you know it's a symbolic move by the commission and it shows that they're serious about adding up the pressure and that doesn't only include article seven and that could be you know for other things as well for example e.u. funding for poland something that would hit the country very very hard so yes they are at odds but the commission has more tools in its tool box than it showed today and this article subban i mean if it is triggered would that achieve anything

substantive. it's a procedure it's not only the article itself so it's this that the triggering process has started and of course what you were referring to at the end is whether the countries will that really will decide to for example strip poland over the e.u. voting rights what's called the nuclear option that at this point seems unlikely because you need unanimity to do that but a lot of steps come before that for example the european parliament has to give its go ahead and then the council so the member states themselves have to give the go ahead before they have the last vote and they only need a four fifths majority for that all very complicated what i'm trying to say here is the procedure takes a long time and it will give hungary who said that they would veto anything a lot of time to think about that and you know the circumstances might change so poland can't be so sure that this vote in the end won't really happen but it's to jan's aren't you would have a country like hungary saying we will not go along with this so the unanimity that

is required is probably not going to be there and so is poland right when it says the words of the e.u. or the threats ring hollow. the e.u. in its threats has always been about money that's where the real power is countries like hungry in countries like poland get a lot of money from the e.u. itself a lot of funding that helps them a lot and their citizens themselves are in favor of the european union that's what so absurd if you will at one point there that their government the government they elected in poland is at odds with the european union acts. in opposition basically to the values of the european union on the other hand they love the european union so in the next years what we will have are talks about the funding about the european union budget and that's where the on the countries really have the possibility of hurting hungry in poland and those two countries are well aware that

. all right our brussels bureau chief max often on the story for us tonight max thank you in the united states a sweeping tax bill is edging ever closer to becoming a wall the house of representatives are expected to give the final approval to the controversial legislation within the next hour the bill was already approved by both chambers of congress but an embarrassing procedural error forced the senate to send it back to the house for a revote and once it has been approved again it will be sent to president double trauma to be signed into law. are here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world officials in yemen say at least eleven people have been killed in saudi led airstrikes in the north of the country a spokesman for the rebel group said that the dead included women and children it comes a day after saudi arabia intercepted a ballistic missile fired by who g.'s towards its capital riyadh. after three days

of fractious debate uganda's parliament has passed a controversial bill to remove the presidential age limit the new legislation will allow president yoweri museveni to stand in reelection or for reelection rather in twenty twenty one on wednesday police arrested several opposition lawmakers as they tried to enter the chamber. germany's two major political parties the christian democratic union and the social democratic party have agreed to hold exploratory talks about governing together talks begin on january seventh and the parties will announce five days later whether they'll pursue formal coalition negotiations germany has been without a government for three months since inconclusive elections in september. ok we want to go back to that story now about that impending tax reform in the united states our correspondent in washington is karsten phenomena he joins us now good evening to you karsten what is the current state right now of this much

anticipated tax bill. well the house of representatives is still debating but the vote will take place very soon and everybody expects that once again the halas pos this law and it will be sent over to the white house to be signed by president on a trump all ride in cars we want to let our viewers know that we're watching live pictures from the floor of the u.s. congress nancy pelosi speaking right now what are the controversial elements of this bill. well most of it really the republicans are saying this bill will basically benefit the middle class and it will make sure that companies will have more money to invest and pay higher wages in a kind of

a trickle down effect but the democrats like nancy pelosi say no this is just a handout to the rich and those corporations and this trickle down effect the republicans want never really appear for me and there are three main takeaways here first of all yes there has been a few improvements for the middle class in this bill compared to earlier drafts but still it is clear that most of the money goes to the richest one percent of the population and of course those corporation the second point is that this plan would blow a big hole into the federal budget and the republicans interesting lee are already talking about how they would check of this deficits by cutting entitlements and welfare programs next year and the third point is there is a provision in this text reform bill that attacks obamacare the affordable care act of president barack obama the previous us of the on the trump the individual

mandate which says that every american has to have health insurance in different not they have to pay at tax on it this would be abolished and that would mean that probably less young and healthy people will get health insurance premiums will go up for others and millions of americans probably cannot afford anymore to have health insurance in the future. and washington correspondent constitute naaman on the story there as we wait for that final vote on the that bill overhauling the u.s. tax code karsten thank you very much. mia moore has barred a senior united nations rights monitor from entering the country now the person in question was due to visit me in march in january she planned to assess alleged rights violations against the muslim minority more than six hundred thousand have fled suspected ethnic cleansing in iraq and stayed on the border with bangladesh

mean maher says that it will no longer cooperate with police. meanwhile pressure is mounting on b.m.r. authorities to release two reuters journalists arrested more than a week ago now the men are accused of violating a colonial era or official secrets law they had been investigating the alleged military crackdown on muslims. committed to finding the truth but now how it's captive that's one year old while alone and twenty seven year old toso who are described as bookish and warm by family and friends. while known joint reuters news agency over a year ago from a family of rice promise he do is dreamed of becoming a journalist. he's also written a children's book co-founded a charity to promote tolerance between myanmar ethnic groups. and worked with often . good husband to me.

the hard worker and he continues to learn. that. he's not a political he's a journalist. i believe he wouldn't do anything wrong that's why i want him to be free to soon as possible. wrote poetry before violence and his native state led him to write news. but his and while learns reporting on the military crackdown that which has forced more than six hundred fifty thousand muslims to flee has cost them their freedom. they've been missing since last tuesday after being invited to dine with police officers and young gone myanmar's ministry of information released this photo of the two men who it said had illegally obtained documents on the violence they plan to share with international media foreign governments human rights groups the un

and the e.u. have condemned the arrests we expect from your mouth or it is to ensure the food production of their rights and to release the journalists as quickly as possible freedom of the press and media is the foundation and the corner store the cornerstone of in the book. myanmar or thirty's say police have almost completed their probe of the two journalists after which a court case against them again. next with business stick around for that. is no. the banks. who want the language of the bank.