i think t twenty is the don't thing. tell us i'm going to make us feel i'm telling the famous potato. this is the w. news live from berlin a victory for separatists in spain's catalonia region as voters have the majority in the regional assembly their leader carlos bustamante calls the vote a defeat for the spanish state so what is next for catalonia will go to barcelona

for more. aid groups accuse russia and syria of targeting civilians in airstrikes on rebel held enclaves that's as another round of syria peace talks gets underway in kazakhstan. plus an alternative to the olympics after being banned from the winter games for systematic doping russia says it will stage its own sports extravaganza. i'm susan was gonna good to have you with us separatist parties in catalonia how won a slim majority after yesterday's regional elections deepening a national crisis over whether the wealthy region should remain a part of spain the post president carlos posed amongst together for catalonia party one thirty four seats are now along with a pro independence parties the separatist movement now has seventy. of the one

hundred thirty five seats that are in the regional parliament that's a majority of just two but the anti independent citizens party shown here by its abbreviation c s is the largest party with thirty seven seats so it is unclear which parties will form the next government and who will work together but the result has set up another showdown with madrid. long before vote counting was finished the party of form a cuttle and leader catalyst please the moment was celebrating victory. we see exactly right. not only for us but for the forty and these movement. we are in may not be here. i mean one thing these pieces. it's amazing we've always said sachs we got him he was the monster see and here we are. along with the two other separatists who parties together folks are alone you know has a narrow majority seventy out of one hundred thirty five seats. from his exile in

brussels said it was a black day for spain central government. you must go to the spanish state has been defeated. and his allies have lost and i've received a slap in the face from the catalan people who you know they have lost a plebiscite through which they wanted to legalize the coup d'etat through article one five fired one prime minister has failed in catalonia. but the problem madrid camp was also celebrating victory the citizens party which opposes independence emerged as the single biggest party with thirty seven seats. today and we have sent a message to the world that the majority of catalans feel catalan spanish and european and will continue to do so. and the nationalist parties can never again

claim they speak for all catalonians because we are all catalonia. yacoub we do not only with rival groups declaring victory this election has seemingly done nothing to end catalonia as political deadlock but it has made one thing eminently clear the independence movement is not going away. a data. is in barcelona for us and she joins us for more on the story hi barbara good to see you the results indicate that this region is still very much divided over the question of independence what kind of reactions are you hearing today. the problem really is that soon me the day after the election is like the day before the election and so it seems that even though everything was really peaceful and very democratic yesterday today catalans are mostly already losing interest

christmas is approaching the big lottery draw is today that sort of galvanizes all spain and front of the t.v. screens and their i phones and it is so politics take a backseat however politically the place is still in a mess because practically how could they now form a government in barcelona the one independence leader is in jail the other is in belgium in exile so who could probably and possibly get to govern in the palace that we see in the back of me it is totally unclear and nobody really seems to care today people have voted in the say ok now somebody else needs to take care of the future the other side of that coin barbara is spanish prime minister mariano rajoy you know he called the selection that was a risk the gamble appears to have failed how big of a blow is that for him. it is the biggest possible blow because he again he

has miscalculated as he has done from the beginning of this crisis some years ago he should have handled this independence crisis differently with a bit more political sensitivity and good sense but however he tried to tough it out and that has backfired spectacularly and also we see the rise of this year don knows the liberal big party in his own conservative camp and they're going to really compete with him on the national level now and so it might very well be that we see the end of the era of money on what about the former catalan leader carlos pushed a month barbara you mentioned that he is in belgium and self-imposed exile does this result strengthen his position. it strengthens his position in a way however the cool dition partner the other independence party they do absolutely not love him because their leader is in jail and you spin sniping against puts them on from there saying oh look at this coward you know he didn't even have the

courage to stand up for his own deeds which is in no way true of course so how can put it a month return kenny returned would madrid pardon him could he again create a government all that is completely up in the air his resurrect is strong but on the ground of course he has no practical power and nobody really knows how this conflict can be resolved and how he could probably return to office it's the last thing madrid once of course on the other hand you have to see that a lot of catalogs voted for put him on even though he did flee his own country so it's undecided and the conflict here in ca to loan you continues right barbara bass of reporting a from barcelona for us barbara thank you. and a little later in the show we'll be taking a look at how the markets have been reacting to the news out of barcelona now to some other stories making news around the world french president manuel mccall has

held talks with his palestinian counterpart mahmoud abbas the pair met at the elysee palace and paris to discuss the u.s. has moved to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel the meeting comes after the united nations voted to reject donald trump's decision. cuba has postponed the historic transfer of its presidency for all castro confirmed that he will stay on until april two months longer than planned due to the damage caused by hurricane irma castro and his late older brother fidel have ruled the country for nearly sixty years. police in western australia say they have made the country's largest adverse seizure of methamphetamine the one point two tonne haul as an estimated street value of more than six hundred million euros eight men have been charged with offenses carrying a maximum life prison sentence and human rights watch says syrian and russian forces have stepped up their airstrikes on eastern near damascus the area is one of the last strongholds of rebels fighting the troops of president bashar al assad the

rights group released these pictures showing the attacks it says have killed dozens of civilians human rights watch says government forces have tightened their siege of the enclave and are blocking evacuations and restricting humanitarian aid the population is at risk of starvation with dwindling supplies of food and medicine. well the reports come as power brokers russia iran and turkey hold a new round of syria peace talks in the cause of capital astana the un special envoy on syria stuff and i'm a story is taking part he usually holds separate talks with syrian representatives in geneva but with the reports of that worsening humanitarian situation in eastern he's hoping to get the sides to agree to well law u.n. aid convoys in. let's bring in simon mabon he's a middle east expert at the university of lancaster in the u.k. hi simon so there are new airstrikes as we said fresh air strikes and eastern rota and meanwhile stephanie on the story is expected in

a standard for those peace talks today we've seen so many diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in syria fail is there any real hope for a fresh push for peace well i certainly hope so but i fear that that might be optimistic right now i think that all sides know what each other want but but there was this real intractability between the different sides this means that it's increasingly difficult to actually get a resolution that the assad regime wants to stay in power wants to to try to pay all forms of of oppositional forms of armed opposition and reclaim control over all of syria whereas the opposition groups the u.s. and u.k. they all want some form of transition to a post assad syria now of course assad's in a much stronger position than he was a year ago or so so so there's very little incentive for him to negotiate or not so it seems that there's just a real impasse where is that keeps time for assad and the russians and the iranians

who are supporting him to just go and and exert control and influence and trying to regain all of all of syria militarily some if we look at the specific situation and eastern russia what are the biggest hurdles to getting humanitarian aid in. well it's clearly just under a blockade it's it's a place that's been under blockade for four years now which is made it increasingly difficult to get any type of humanitarian aid who medical supplies into eastern ghouta so so that's the big lid just tickle challenge getting permission to do so obviously that involves getting permission from the assad regime and that's been a big hurdle right now obviously the assad regime has been incredibly reticent to to give any access to the monetary and aid this part of this besiegement as part of this strangulation if you will of the the opposition groups there and so because it is besieged it's been increasingly difficult to get anything in which is having

obviously a massive impact on the people around four hundred thousand people sending you said yourself all the sides here involved seem to have intractable positions so after today's meeting and. what are the next plans well that's the big question i guess i guess it just depends if any side is willing to compromise but also the one extent assad is able to be successful in his military aims and what type of resistance he's met and i guess that's the question as to what happens next on the ground not only in start to and in geneva if there are further rounds of talks in geneva which i margin i will be in in the early part of twenty eight the but how the facts on the ground to change things and that will have a massive impact on the negotiating positions of all of those involved time and may been the middle east expert at the university of lancaster in the u.k. thank you simon thank you now russia's sports minister says the country will host an alternative competition following its banned from february's winter olympics in

south korea that suspension came after the international olympic committee found evidence of a quote on president and systematic manipulation of the anti-doping system. in less than fifty days around two and a half thousand athletes would descend on pyong chang for the twenty eighteen winter olympics the question is how many russians will be here among them earlier this month i.o.c. president thomas bach announced a ban on russia because of state sponsored doping. this elin pickett launch now appearing some more tremont sure russian athletes will be allowed to compete in pyongyang under a neutral flag if they can prove they're clean but with some russians calling for boycotts the country wants to stage an intensive games for those choosing to stay behind. but it's it'll hold a number of competitions for athletes and we're working on it now but the competitions will also be an opportunity to invite foreign after. the last winter

games in sochi in twenty fourteen were meant to be a display of russian sporting prowess they've since turned into a russian nightmare. evidence from gregory rot chunk of the former head of russia's anti doping lab revealed cheating on an unprecedented scale this year an i.o.c. investigation finally confirmed that evidence to be credible. the year has been an intense warm hard warm. believe we've never had a harder year for both soviet and russian sport sure will. but still russia and its president vladimir putin continue to deny state involvement until that changes the country may find itself left out in the cold a pariah of international sports. now the draw for the spanish national lottery and a jackpot worth two point four billion euros is under way the christmas lottery named al gore go or fact one is an annual tradition that goes back more than two

centuries millions take part in the chance of striking it big giveaways designed so that as many people as possible when something with cash prizes doled out for us the country. you're watching t.v. news still to come germany is famous for its skilled trades but with the labor force shrinking do jobs like plumbing painting and plastering still have a future. daniel wynter will have that story for you coming right up in business. and sell it. on freedom and the whole. world i come from the region is rich in history. but so poor image of the trinity and freedom this makes it especially difficult for

independent.