toes and. the famous potato. this is the news live from berlin after scoring victory in regional elections catalonia is fugitive independence makes an offer pushed on says the time has come for dialogue with the spanish government without preconditions

a spanish prime minister mariano rajoy is playing hardball he says he'll meet the leader of the biggest party and that's pushed him on also coming up. human rights watch accuses russia and syria of targeting civilians in airstrikes on rebel held on claims look at the latest from there was been in touch with civilians who are trapped there. and in spain the festive season is all about children singing songs and bringing billions of euros el gordo the fatah one is here again the world's biggest paying launcher it has both celebrations and cash to the streets of spain. money welcome to the program spain's prime minister mariano rajoy says he is open to dialogue of to yesterday's regional elections in which song. supper to spot is

when a slim majority now a whore says he would talk with the new regional leaders as long as they didn't violate the country's constitution but he did not respond to calls for a meeting by colus pushed on the independence leader is in self-imposed exile in brussels here's what the two men had to say. i'm sure i'm ready to meet prime minister or in brussels or in a different place in the e.u. except spain for his reasons are ready to do that because it's time for catalonia for the spanish and for europe to start a new political phase and this phase needs to be defined by the political solutions not by the by non and dilute he has to pression we've been seeing so far. and how you're. going to have a new era based on dialogue not confrontation with beginning to have a long and a ton of cooperation and not imposition a time for plurality and not unilateral ism. the government of spain would like to

offer all its cooperation and all its willingness for constructive open and realistic dialogue always within the rule of law. but. as i'll bring in data business the louis was in barcelona for us lisa. rejecting a meeting with put them on their separatist leader offering dialogue does this mean the standoff will just continue. yes it does really if you listen to them closely so what's put them on to saying obviously i'm happy to talk but i'm still in favor of independence on the other hand you've got the holy the holy saying i'm also happy to talk but not to put them on he wants to talk to saudi man as the head of the cia that anna's posse which came out first in these elections it doesn't sound that these two will be sitting at one negotiating table together in the near future so who gets to form a new government in this region. it's

a very good question actually obviously the independents block a mile first in the elections but it will be very complicated for them to come together and form a government and that's because the parties actually diverging on the one hand you've got the two main parties the r.c.n. put them on students per catalonia party and they will have a leadership battle on the one hand you've got bits of one obviously who's in exile in belgium so he can't take up the post unless he comes to spain as soon as he does that he will go to jail that was made very clear by the head of the spanish state on the other hand audio who care us the head of the other big coalition party possible coalition party are see he's in jail at the moment and his number two was today also indicted for rebellion and sedition as the other former government members so you have really a problem here you don't know you to put they don't know you to put forward and on the other hand they have a problem with a minor party line a coalition party say u.p.a.

which has won four seats in the new parliament and that party has said we will only join you if you clearly go for independence now the larger parties are saying we are pro independence but they haven't said they would impose it right away so there is a struggle going on here. lisa mariano rajoy calling this election and then his party the conservatives registering their worst result yet has a selection weekend him. absolutely and not only catalonia where he's won about three three seats actually is party to popular the people's party and that was down from eleven seats in two thousand and fifteen but sudan us has come first that party which is quite new was founded in two thousand and five is now becoming a serious competition for the people's party for marianna was a highly their general elections looming in two thousand and nineteen and it would be a lot harder for money on iraq to win those elections now so far the e.u.

has largely stayed out of this crisis is there any sign that brussels me now get involved i'm not really actually one member of the european parliament set today we will not get involved in this conflict this is an internal conflict in spain it doesn't concern the european union obviously the pro independence camp was hoping they were telling me yesterday again last night we will we want the e.u. to intervene so that everybody can come to the negotiating table and find a solution to this crisis right looks like this is not going to happen in the near future he said louis joining us from barcelona thank you human rights watch says syrian and russian forces have stepped up their airstrikes on eastern go to 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 it says government forces have been

tightening their sleeves of the enclave and are blocking evacuations and restricting humanitarian aid the population is at risk of starvation with printing supplies of food and medicine. as now bring in human rights watch researcher. in amman she's been talking to locals in eastern guta and she joins us from there thank you so how would you describe the humanitarian situation there. the humanitarian situation in eastern although is catastrophic the area has been under siege since twenty three thousand and now we're talking about close to half a million civilians innocent people who are triscuit starvation and dying because of the lack of medical supplies and refusal of medical evacuations and how much food and water is left there. there's not much the reports that we have been receiving from the ground is that there's barely any any food and that medical supplies are dwindling we're talking about children who are dying from medicines

that are available ten kilometers away at the regular the mascot's pharmacy that they can't get to because of the siege sara the u.n. has put together an evacuation list of civilians but an evacuation hasn't happened yet why is that. so they want to cite administrative and security that is but there's also the fact that the syrian government has refused to evacuate these medical cases despite the fact that there is a plan and case and this has meant that around twelve twelve people have actually died since the plan has been put in place simply because they're waiting for these people to give them permission to move it's now apparent that process forces have tightened the siege since october why is that so there are a couple of reasons. the closure of the smuggling tunnels in early february to april of twenty seven thousand which were which were used to to provide aid and also smuggle out urgent cases but they've also closed across and called off the

deem crossing which is the only commercial which is the only commercial crossing point into eastern walter. and this is in addition to the fact that they rarely give give permission to you and convoys to enter and when they do their partial permissions whereby they remove life saving medical supplies and a lot of other material as well so sara given what you're describing would you compare the situation to aleppo just before it fell. i mean what we're seeing in eastern will to now with the intensification of the of the airstrikes and the offensive as well as the tightening of the siege this could very well be another a look well in the making our hope is that it isn't. but it does seem to be heading in that direction now peace talks between the warring parties continue in a stunning stand this is the eighth round what likelihood is there that the situation will now change. we are

hoping that the talks come up with with with the plan and actually push the syrian and get their actions to push the syrian government to allow humanitarian aid and access in this is particularly vital given that little is actually an area under one of the is a deescalation area under this agreement which means about which means that there should be humanitarian access there should be suspicion of hostilities but even where there isn't civilians shouldn't be dying because of this and humanitarian access should be allowed sarah kay eileen thank you. now to some of the other stories making news around the world u.s. president donald trump has signed a one point five trillion dollar tax overhaul into law the legislation was adopted by congress two days ago in a major political victory for the republicans it provides big tax cuts for corporations and the well americans but smaller reductions for those on low incomes

. french president emanuel mccall has held talks with his palestinian counterpart mahmoud abbas the pair met at the ne se palace in paris to discuss the u.s. move to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel the meeting comes after the united nations voted to reject donald trump's decision. british foreign minister boris johnson has confronted his russian counterpart over the annexation of ukraine and russia cyber hacking so gay lover of told him relations between the two countries were very low johnson's visit to russia is the first by a british foreign secretary in more than five years. russia's sports minister says the country will hold 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 unprecedented systematic manipulation of the anti doping system.

in less than fifty they use 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 amounts to ban on russia because of state sponsored doping. kit launch now appearing some more private 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 a boycott the country wants to stay general terms of games for those choosing to stay behind. but it's a little hold a number of competitions for athletes and we're working on it now 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 have since turned into a russian nightmare. evidence from gregory wrote

a 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. that's the year has been an intense warm hard warm. believe we've never had a harder year for both soviet and russian sport. 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 pariah of international sports. it's a festive season and it's spain that means children singing songs that bring billions of euros in cash gordo the world's biggest thing lottery is here again celebrations broke out across the country after the fact one was announced in the traditional fashion by schoolchildren in madrid singing the winning number which carries a cash prize of four million euros but instead of putting the entire prize into one

winning ticket gordo shows the wealth by having missed one of. the numbers of every winning ticket a song out each year it's the world's biggest lottery held at madrid's. the social prize payout is more than two billion euros many spaniards believe that being present at the drawing improves their chances of winning. hello merry christmas we came here tonight all the way from anybody you know going three generations in. them and. you find when all quit working only was the games you did any kind of fun when you all leave here really slowly. so that people won't notice and you know maybe and you know that you believe that. all you need is twenty euros to play and spaniards are crazy for the

last thirty in madrid alone more than three times as many tickets have been sold as the right residents everyone dreams of winning big gordo the four million euro top prize this is the day when supposedly loses can become one and two years ago for example el gordo went to a region suffering from s. unemployment and the second prize more than a million euros went to a betting syndicate in an old people's home and the. spanish state always wins big as it right up to two hundred million euros in taxes. coming up with a business. with different languages we fight for different things that's fine but we all stick up for freedom freedom of speech and freedom of press. giving freedom of choice.