there's. searchers finding against i'm seeing the city starting january seventh job. as did every news coming to live from berlin just two days after a cease fire was agreed in eastern ukraine there's hope for prisoners held on either side of the line of conflict berlin such as the german chancellor angela merkel has spoken to new craney and president petro poroshenko and he's promised to do all he can for

a speedy exchange of prisoners but civilians of cross the embattled region are freezing cold comfort those christmas after a spike in violence. along is also the president makes it all far after winning a slim majority carlos pushed along once dialogue with the spanish government but prime minister mario is playing hardball he says he'll meet the leader of the biggest party and that's not. also coming up human rights watch accuses russia and syria of targeting civilians in the air strikes on rebel held enclaves the latest from a researcher who's been in touch with civilians who were trapped there. i'm sorry her. and welcome to the show it's good to have you with us ukraine's

president petro poroshenko has said he wants to work for a quick exchange of prisoners being held on both sides of the conflict in the east of his country poroshenko made the comments in a telephone conversation with german chancellor angela merkel on friday both leaders also welcomed the news that russian back separatist and pro ukrainian forces and said they were willing to recommit to a cease fire agreement that was signed in two thousand and fifteen news comes amid a recent upsurge in violence in eastern ukraine. or for more we can bring in our political correspondent simon young simon what more do we know about this phone call. well you've outlined it pretty much the two leaders welcomed this cease fire that spin announced between the separatists in donbass and the ukrainian government set to run over the christmas holidays and they

said that they very much hope that could translate into more last thing moves for peace merkel is also welcomed this prisoner exchange that's been agreed between the two sides is said that she hoped that could happen soon poroshenko says he's working as hard as he can to make sure that it does and supposedly the moves for peace would really be welcome because in recent days we've seen pretty much the opposite on monday the russians announced they were pulling out military observers from the joint control center in ukraine accusing the ukrainian side of obstructing their work and on cheese day the o. s. c. reported that the situation on the ground has got a lot worse recently there's been more fighting for a long time so peace efforts are really needed what is germany's role in the efforts to bring peace to crane. you will from the start of this conflict germany

of course has acted as a mediator building on its traditional ties with russia and its strong business links with russia but also standing with ukraine as the country whose territory has been split and in particular also making it clear to the russian side that europe stands together always acting in tandem with the french and a lot of people have said that that has surprised vladimir putin he may have thought that there might be different positions among the european nations so germany has been very actively involved because when they go she ations haven't worked and with merkel has supported sanctions and in particular over the question of crimea which russia has illegally enix to simon the cease fire agreement was signed in two thousand and fifteen ahead of the festive season and since then we've seen little in terms of peace in the region is there any hope that this week's agreement to revive it can last any longer well anglo-american has been expressing

that hope in these phone calls with president poroshenko today and with latimer putin just yesterday and the eight that that hope is sorely needed you know ten thousand people have been killed in this conflict there are more casualties reported every day and as i said the military situation on the ground in the east of ukraine at the moment is worse than it's been for some time on political correspondent simon young there thanks very much. just a day after election as in catalonia it's still difficult to judge exactly who won pro independence parties took a slim majority but the party of x. catalan president carlos push mall is not the largest in the new parliament that honor went to the liberal citizens party which is anti independence prime minister marianna conservatives were nearly wiped out but he's still refusing to talk to the separatists despite pleas from pushed him off. pushed him all made his offer from

brussels where he currently resides to avoid being arrested by the spanish for leading october's independence referendum. i'm ready to meet prime minister oha in brussels or in a different place in the e.u. except spain for his reasons ready to do that because it's time for catalonia for the spanish states and for europe to start a new political phase and this phase needs to be defined by political solutions not by the banal and depression we've been seeing so far as your i know. spain's prime minister monti had different ideas. and the person i should be meeting is the one who won the election and that is mrs audi mud us. you know saudi mud us is the leader of this you down as party which had the best numbers nothing

will result on thursday. i think. the sun yes life in catalonia has certainly been affected by the divisive political situation with many locals hoping for some kind of breakthrough. i haven't offended you a little there is no progress i believe we must take a step further and let the winners of spain and colonial put themselves in our place and understand they must solve the issue and leave the most extreme positions aside. explain the steps because i think things have remained as they were and they should look now for a different solution to solve the problems. of. the hoary has made it clear he would talk with the new leaders as long as they don't violate the country's constitution despite separatist parties winning a slim majority forming a government is still a long way off. we can cross now to lisa lewis she is in barcelona following developments for us we also were injected a meeting with pushed him on

a separatist later offering dialogue does this mean the standoff is just going to continue. it looks like it yes there seems to be a deadlock really i mean if you look at what's the outcome of these elections yes the independent supporters have won the elections they could form a government with seventy seats in parliament but forming that government will be very complicated this coalition would be made up of three parties two large parties that can see him to be able to agree on a common later i mean it is very complicated right colors put them on is an exile in invalid's and he can't come back without going to jail and the other head of the other party of the year see party kara's he is in jail in spain at the moment so it's not really that easy to find someone new to replace them and then on the other hand you've got the smaller coalition party they see u.p. party and they are saying you know we will join you but only if you really go for

independence now that would be very complicated for all of them to go for independence right away because they have seen over the past few months and then madrid would intervene right away. there was a record turnout in this election eighty two percent how significant is that. that is quite significant in the sense that before hand the independents opinions worries always saying you know what yes the in and independence supporters are winning the elections but that's only because the other guys are not turning out to vote you can't you can hardly argue that's the case now with eighty two percent of participation so it seems like really a lot of the catalans are in favor of independence or at least opposed to the other parties that are not in favor of independence listen where do we go from here what's the situation going forward. well obviously the different parties will now try to form a coalition the parliament will come together will stand normally until the end of

january and then they have to elect a new leader of catalonia they have until they will elect that new leader in february and if they haven't done so by april that would trigger trigger automatically new elections so we could see new snap elections in late may or early june and just briefly pushed him on how relevant is he still of his party didn't get a majority. well he is very relevant because amongst the pro independence parties his party got the highest share of the base so normally that party would also put forward the new leader but as i said it'll be very complicated because he's an exile and there is no obvious number two people are really listening to what he's saying i mean from here obviously all right excellent that's lisa lewis she's reporting from barcelona thanks for bringing us up to date . a major power say they've agreed to hold talks on syria next month

turkey russia and iran say the meeting will involve both rebels and the syrian government that has rights groups warn of a fresh humanitarian crisis in syria they said the government and russian forces have been pounding rebel forces near the capital damascus among the worst hit areas eastern. human rights watch has released these pictures showing the attacks it says have killed dozens of civilians. were earlier we spoke to sara coyote from the human rights watch organization she says there's a new humanitarian emergency in eastern canada a year to the day since aleppo fell during situation in eastern is cut 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 the reports that

we have been receiving from the ground is that there's barely any and the food and medical supplies are dwindling we're talking about children who are dying from at this is that are available ten kilometers away at the regular damascus pharmacy that they can't get to because of the siege. and sarah cayley from human rights watch speaking to us a little earlier here's a look now at some of the other stories that are making news right now around the world the united nations security council has voted unanimously to impose new sanctions on north korea the move follows the country's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test the u.s. draft resolution limits the supply of petrol and crude oil to the isolated nation which could have a significant impact on its struggling economy here. the us president donald trump has signed a one point five trillion dollars tax overhaul into law all the legislation was

adopted by congress two days ago in a major political victory for the republicans it reminds of a big tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest americans with smaller reductions for those on lower incomes. in gaza there's been renewed violence in response to trump's decision to recognize two roussillon as israel's capital gazan authorities said two palestinians were killed friday in clashes with israeli forces along the border that brings the total number of deaths in recent days to ten with dozens more wounded. it is the festive season in spain that means one thing el gordo the world's biggest ten lottery also known as the fat one was announced in the traditional fashion today by schoolchildren in madrid singing out the winning numbers in total some two point four billion euros is being paid out and with that amount of cash all over it's no

wonder the whole country is aflutter. this is what winners look like at least some of them in spain today anyway. so those who had al gold or lottery tickets with the number seven one one nine zero eight christmas has definitely come in early. ok and it wasn't just ticket holders who was celebrating here. and all of that if they phoned me and told me that i had sold to gordo i was very nervous trembly afford my mother to tell her that we had shoulder gorgo ticket out of. the el gordo the fat one as it's affectionately known as a huge tradition in spain. the draw of results aside by schoolchildren in madrid every year. the main prize is potentially worth millions of euros but it's usually spread across thousands of tickets many spaniards buy tickets in groups and gather together to watch the live draw. but dream of winning big but of course millions

don't. see why i just live there i had to take it but i didn't win. no matter what they were not what they ya know that's why i just bought an empty bottle because we don't have a reason to toast to do i had three numbers and none of them won can you believe in . the lottery rules a complex which means it's not yet clear how exactly the winnings will be distributed but there's nothing stopping the winners from celebrating in spain right now. and that's good news thanks for watching. where i come from we have to fight for a free press i was born and raised in the meantime the painters with just one t.v. shadow and a few newspapers with official information as a turning.