i p t twenty. toes and. the famous potato. this is d w news live from bergland the united nations gets set to weigh in that is after the united states threatens to cut funding to countries that support a motion condemning its decision to recognize to lucilla as israel's capital the

emergency session is underway at the u.n. we have got expert analysis coming right up. also catalonia as crucial election leaders of the main regional parties have cast their ballots in a boat that is testing the region's appetite for independence and no evidence of links to terror groups police say that a driver intentionally crashed his car and to pedestrians at melbourne but his motive means unclear. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program thanks for joining us the united nations general assembly is holding an emergency session prompted by u.s. president donald trump's decision to recognize to roost as israel's capital the one hundred ninety three member states are set to vote on a draft resolution reaffirming that you who celeb status must be resolved through negotiation. now yesterday trying to threaten to cut funding to countries that fact

the measure of the status of the holy city is one of the most thorny issues of the israeli palestinian conflict with both sides claiming it as their capital amman and . let's get more on this now we are joined by kilmer scieno he is a middle east expert for the german institute for international and security affairs welcome to the program and thanks for being there. a controversial vote the outcome is highly expected to be in favor of this vote we know what are the implications of that result would you say the surprising especially when taken into account for the general assembly of the u.n. which is already considered to be quite critical towards israel enormous a consensus that alone these specific unique circumstances unlike the security council resolution that was vetoed earlier this week this resolution is nonbinding nevertheless we've seen an enhanced diplomatic efforts by the israelis to weigh in what you can define is talk to convict or is convincing specific nations saying

there's not opposed to specific reason to sion so a symbolic vote there but nevertheless i mean we have seen very strong rhetoric coming from world leaders and i want to in particular turn to what prime minister benjamin netanyahu had to say from israel so strong words have a listen and i want to get your reaction. maybe attitude towards israel of many countries on all continents is changing outside the walls of the united nations. and that change will ultimately permeate into the un the house of lies the state of israel totally rejects this vote even before the resolutions approval jerusalem is our capital and we will continue to build there and foreign embassies led by the united states will move to jerusalem write down what i say because it will happen i learned. the united nations as a house of a law is he says i mean those sound like fighting words why so strong here in india

the harsh tone but basically nothing of an exception to the line of policy of israeli governments towards the general assembly a long history of a still it is starting from the famous treaty seventy nine resolution of the general assembly in one thousand seven hundred six defining zionism as a form of racism and basically continuation of the same narrative specifically would you speak with the israeli domestic basal the israeli the he's owned political base but i would define two different goals or two different instruments and then you're always trying to use your festival by trying to separate the general assembly is biased in advance for him to cooperate as a biased phone which is different than the mainstream diplomatic community and then you know to support his attempts to convince other nations to defect to accept the new status of jerusalem and in the same time as we said it also says that the mystic purpose specifically speaking going in a clear it on to his own audience about the commitment and the consistent commitment to all of this israeli government you know to. show

a change in the status of jewels and for that matter so it's really a combination of both domestic and international goals and live so far we've talked a lot about goals we have a rhetoric here we also have symbolism right but i want to talk about potential action that we might see going forward because on the united states also coming up very strong here we heard the u.s. and back. nikki haley's saying essentially we are taking names here if you vote in favor of this that we are going to write your name down trump going one step further essentially saying that it could have some impact on funding on aid also funding to other countries do you think that we will see the united states follow through there i think that when we speak about domestic goals in intonation goes it also applies to the top administration if you really look closely at the language beyond the taking the names language of hailey defines this it was talking again about the united states and not letting the other countries take advantage of it and about the american people not letting other countries taking advantage of all

of the the u.s. generals will be on that list and so we see the same discourse the same discussion that we see during the early phases of the complaint of drum specifically against the u.n. this is different sentiments regarding the u.n. regarding specific forms of the u.n. and specific new mindsets about the american position on that level having said that still when we speak about the future goals of the united states we do see the u.n. is a relevant form which is an important instrument we seem to be a force by a drunk administration to the security council and so on especially when we walk in and we are speaking about the future of peace plan and the question of plan on that matter so really finding the golden fest is going to be the challenge in the next couple of weeks for the trumpet ministration and as i mentioned to our viewers we are awaiting right now a vote at the united nations acknowledging that jerusalem is an issue that must be resolved in negotiations that is of course in the wake of the u.s. decision to recognize to resume as israel's capital and jill. thank you very much

for telling us a little bit more about that decision and the implications there after we appreciate it. voters in catalonia are casting their ballots in a hotly contested election seen as a gauge of support for independence from spain the poll comes two months after the region declared independence following a referendum opposed by madrid. spanish authorities responded to that with a crackdown arresting separatist leaders and calling today's snap election madrid hopes that it will put an end to the political crisis. and correspondent lisa lewis has the very latest now from barcelona so lisa as we've just heard a tense backdrop for this election how is the turnout been so far. well the first figures from earlier from early this afternoon saying that of of about a third of the five point five million voters have turned out to the so far this has been a highly divisive election campaign the only exit topic in this campaign has been independents and catalonia is split in two parts those who are in favor of

independence and those who are opposing it i've spent i've been speaking to people from both camps. you know about his companion for the independent catalonia the pianist and her friends think that madrid stands for spain of the past. and got to say i told. the independence movement in catalonia really wants to change things for the better people in the rest of spain don't necessarily agree with that you better not go parliament for example approved giving people the right to receive gas and electricity even if they can't afford it but the central government then overturned the law but we don't have a common future with moderate elements. we are not going to do that. but the group has been plastering makeshift posters like these all across catalonia but you didn't expect to get involved in this campaign until

a little while ago independence how do you thin an option for oil initially i wanted to very against independence and the referendum it is after all a united country would have had more means to improve in citizens' life but when i saw how the police were breaching voters something inside me broke to pieces i couldn't help but say that he was that busy. the referendum was a turning point for many people here but that doesn't mean that they are any closer to agree with each other quite the contrary the catalans are more divided than ever . yama vivus has always apace independence but it wasn't until after october as a referendum that he took to the streets for the first time to express that sentiment along with hundreds of thousands of others he finally felt accepted by his home region. laconically a bullet example his our country is based on stigma if we say something that is

considered politically incorrect we are socially has to fight here in catalonia speaking out in favor of a united spain was for a long time. we didn't dare to give us about the rest. random and what happened at the time was so ridiculous that we lost. finally found the courage to speak on lines. of this. talk jamo recently started a satirical you tube channel in one of his videos he proclaims a catalonian republic from his balcony he wants people to laugh about a topic he thinks is being taken too seriously he's also calling for a conciliation not of political or politicians have broken our society but we shouldn't forget a neighbor who's been against the war in favor of independence to notice that our neighbor and do not seem our enemy the that we need to learn to appreciate each other again put into humans even if we don't agree with each other. but gentleman

knows reconciliation will take years he intends to keep on making his videos and hopes that one day they will make even independence supporters laugh. and they say i want to talk a little bit more about that reconciliation is that likely to happen through this election how is this election expected to affect that divide between the separatists and the unionists there in catalonia. well it will be very difficult to bring both sides back together they don't seem to be agreeing on anything friends have stopped talking to each other family members have stopped talking about politics so it's very difficult to imagine how they will become friends again these two parts of catalonia when it comes to the elections polls are predicting that neither side is likely to get a stable majority there might be one site which will get one of the other side which will get a very slim majority but each side the independent support and those who are against independence they are composed of parties that are actually from different

parts of the political spectrum and both sides have difficulties agreeing on a common approach and agreeing on who should be a leader in each case so it will be difficult it's very difficult to see how these elections can produce a stable government and many people here voters but also experts actually expecting a second or even a third round of voting in the near future ok so perhaps we might not have an answer after today it seems there at least what is the e.u. looking for in this vote would you say because i mean it also has a lot at stake in this election. absolutely the e.u. wants this problem to go away really there are other countries in the e.u. like for example france which have regions that would like to separate possibly corsica in france and the e.u. doesn't have any interest whatsoever in governing a huge number of states even more states that at the moment so they want the

countries to say united for the e.u. to be as strong as possible they just want catalonia to be part of spain and to stay spot part of spain lisa lewis with the very latest from barcelona where elections as we mentioned are underway highly contentious elections we thank you so much for bringing us the latest. police in australia have said that they have found no evidence of a terrorist link and a car ramming incident in melbourne at least one thousand people were injured several seriously the driver and a second man were taken into custody right after the incident during the city's afternoon rush hour. a tragedy in the center of melbourne. a white s.u.v. went through a red light and sped up to hit pedestrians before crashing into a barrier the driver was arrested after a struggle with an off duty police officer starts he say he's a thirty two year old australian citizen of afghan descent with a history of assault and drug use. we understand as i

should be still very early days that he is on a mental health plan and receiving treatment for a mental illness at this time we don't have any evidence for intelligence to indicate a connection with terrorism. a second man was also detained he was seen filming the incident and was carrying a bag of knives police now think he wasn't involved more than a dozen people were injured many have been taken to hospital including a toddler with serious head injuries. the collision happened at the busy flinders street and elizabeth street junction outside the central train station just off to four thirty pm local time the area was packed with commuters and shop was just a few days before christmas melbourne has been on high alert since six people died in january after a man drove a car into a crowd in

a nearby spot people it devastated the city has been targeted yet again. a quick reminder now of the top stories that we're following for you here before we go u.s. ambassador nikki haley has threatened u.n. members with funding cuts if they back a resolution condemning president donald trump's decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital speaking ahead of the general assembly's vote on the issue she said that the u.s. is being asked to pay for the privilege of being disrespected. you up to date now on news i'm sarah kelly in berlin don't forget you can follow us on facebook and twitter. w.'s program guide.