i am. i am curious. you're watching c.w. news live from berlin after the airstrikes the u.s. threatens further action against syria's leadership i spoke to the president this morning and he said if the syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again the united states is locked and loaded us ambassador nikki haley had a clear message for the united nations security council reject a russian resolution to condemn the western missile attack on the ledge of chemical weapons facilities in syria. also coming up. hundreds of thousands marched through

barcelona demanding freedom for catalonians jailed leader nine separatist leaders have been imprisoned over the region's push for independence. speaking out for the woman who can speak no more a friend of mario they franco the fines death threats actually surface for answers and the killing of the popular rio de janeiro councilwoman. welcome to the program. the u.s. and its allies said they have no plans for further missile strikes on syria but washington has warned it's quote locked and loaded if damascus carries out more poison gas attacks the u.s. also says is preparing new sanctions on russia as punishment for supporting the regime of syrian president bashar al assad un ambassador nikki haley announced the

move on c.b.s.'s face the nation. will be coming down the secretary will be announcing those on monday if he hasn't already and they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to assad and chemical weapons use. and syrian president bashar assad has says saturday's u.s. led airstrikes were based on a campaign of lies coming from the u.n. security council assad hosted politicians from russia which continues to support its ally. business as usual appears to be the message of these syrian state t.v. images an upbeat president assad welcomed russian politicians to damascus signaling that the u.s. led strikes did not pose a threat to his hold on power russia says it's firmly behind its ally. relations between the russian and syrian army's or accident so relations between politicians the army will now fulfill its task and russia and the assad government

are not the only ones defiant the pentagon showed off satellite images of the destruction saying the strikes completely destroyed two targets and seriously damaged another one in damascus was reduced to rubble. we have a responsibility as a world to attack and stop what syria is doing and so the united states with her allies one after three sites these are pinprick targets three targeted sites that we know were housing and testing chemical weapons it's these people that were affected by the poison gas attack that triggered the u.s. led strikes thousands of refugees from eastern live in this camp near aleppo many a disillusioned. i feel nothing because the us britain and the rest of the world have taken away our emotions they told us with the friends of the syrian

people but on the contrary they're our greatest enemies. and we know that they tell us do whatever you want kill if you like. should back in damascus syria's deputy foreign minister greeted a team from the international chemical weapons watchdog despite western allies already having launched retaliatory strikes inspectors will now determine whether poison gas was used in duma but they will not assign blame. for more on the ever thickening plot of this story i'm joined by kristen helberg who's an expert on syria and you're working on your third book on this conflict so first off is syrian president bashar al assad stronger or weaker for all of these airstrikes is it easy to even say that yes i think he feels reassured because the west just told him that they were not interested to interfere in this conflict they were not interested in regime change this is what we heard from london this is what we heard

from paris so he feel reassured and he feels that there are no red lines he only sees green lights meaning that he can keep on fighting and attacking civilians with conventional weapons unless he uses chemical weapons there won't be any reaction and speaking of chemical weapons have you seen any more evidence about who's behind this attack on duma actually there are quite a few evidences that people have gathered and they have kind of research them delicate for example they took over open source resources and they kind of looked whether this was consistent with what we know that there was we attacked last saturday there were two attacks one at seven thirty in the evening and they found one cylinder on the building and this building was the one that most of the dead bodies were taking off from and it was the same building actually that russian military police was already visiting in the beginning of the week we know the coordinates of this building what we know is that it was definitely chlorine gas and what needs to be researched now is whether there was a nerve agent inside these cylinders because the symptoms of the victims and the

high number of deaths really the two this and what we know is that they tried to smuggle out you read samples and blood samples during the last weeks to jordan and this might be the evidence that the u.s. and france are talking. so speaking of the u.s. and friends we know that germany is talking about working with the u.s. and britain and france on some sort of new diplomatic initiative for syria what can we expect or is that likely to lead i'm quite skeptical because we have seen this before you know france really wants to try not to name the responsibility the responsibility of this chemical attack this was exactly that would russia prevent it last week in the u.n. security council they don't want the experts to name the responsibilities like they did last year after the chemical attacks with more than eighty deaths so this is really what russia is not interested in and they were they are talking about access for humanitarian aid to the are talking about stopping the bombs against civilians we have few and resolutions in place namely twenty two fifty nine from december two

thousand fifteen it's all in there all these things are already inside and was allusions they were just not implemented so this is the problem it's not the problem to create new ones the problem is to implement them now what's to stop the russia and iran and turkey from imposing their own post conflict vision of syria on to syria and what does the west have to do if they want to play a role and stop that from happening it's probably too late because because the west was only talking they were kind of rhetorically always supporting the opposition supporting rebel groups but they didn't really invest what they needed to invest to help them to kind of top of the regime so i think it's too late to do anything about this they would need to protect civilians then if not ready to do this this is what we just saw by these attacks that will very limited i think the only card of the west is the economic caught because syria needs to be reconstructed it's two hundred between two hundred and three hundred billion dollars and russia and iran cannot pay for that so this is why the new putin really needs

a diplomatic settlement with the west because they want the west to pay for these reconstruction. and how they're joining us in the studio thank you so much for your insights. now to some of the other stories making news around the world protests have been taking place across india over the gang rape and killing of eight year old bonnell the muslim girl's body was discovered in a hindu dominated area earlier this year demonstrators have been demanding justice for her and other victims of sexual crimes in india. two pakistani soldiers have been killed in cross border fire from afghanistan the pakistani military says they were working on a fence at the border afghan officials say that pakistani troops crossed onto afghan soil prompting the response by their troops. montenegro's governing democratic party of socialists says its leader. has won the country's presidential

election the six time former prime minister spearheaded the former yugoslav republic is joining of nato in two thousand and seventeen and is now crafting it and free into the european union. thousands of castle and separatists have been rallying in barcelona to demand the release of jailed secessionist leaders to pro independence grassroots groups organize the protests and they also have support of spain's two major labor unions the protest comes ten days after a german court dismissed an extradition request for catalonia ousted separatist president and released him on bail. the streets of barcelona flooded with yellow it's the color chosen to show solidarity with the nine imprisoned catalan separatist leaders who've been in pretrial detention for six months now they're facing charges of rebellion in connection with last year's failed independence did in catalonia their supporters consider them to be political prisoners will limit

the most serious problem is the price paid by politicians who are elected by the people we cannot stand for that. today i'm here because i'm with everything going on just like everyone had today i want the freedom of all calm writes. since the arrests catalonia is independence movement has stalled but advocates say their fight isn't over money from good this is about defending our democracy and ending a policy influenced by judicial authority releasing prisoners allowing exiles to come back and resolving the political conflict using policy and only policy because . among the jailed separatists are members of catalonia is regional government including jordi sanchez catalan lawmakers selected sanchez twice to be their new leader but both times a spanish judge refused to release him from jail to be sworn in catalonia has been in political limbo since being central government imposed

direct rule in the region after it unilaterally declared independence last october fresh regional elections will be triggered if a new leader is not a lifted by may twenty second. to brazil now where thousands have turned out in rio de janeiro demanding answers in the slaying of city councilwoman mahdi ali franco she was shot dead a month ago after an event on empowering black women franco had been a fierce critic of police brutality racism and discrimination against the poor the hardest and shockwave through big. well there have been no arrests in the case so far. speaking out for the woman who can speak no more a month after mario li franco was gunned down her supporters demand answers one particular detail of the investigation has spiked their suspicions officials say she was killed with police bullets they say were stolen. franco's death

cuts especially close for told me they were close friends like franco patrol is a leftist politician devoted to feminist causes and defending the poor and she too has received death threats. you know people this is a political crime aimed at simon singh everyone marty ellie stood for the people of the slums blacks women and the community the state is behind this crime. since franco's murder petrone doesn't go anywhere without bodyguards but she refuses to be intimidated. but i say we must now keep moving forward we will not give up we will continue monday at least fight around the world to achieve democracy for those who never had it those living in the slums and the fringes of brazilian society but is where the it is most people here believe this was a political assassination franco's case shocked the country and prompted an outpouring

of protests especially in rio where the military recently assumed control of the state's public security many are critical of this move especially since franco slaying bottom of us up our democracy is under threats this worries me but at the same time it empowers me to take to the streets i just mark it because we're here because we want justice and we want to defend what little democracy we have in brazil through. my battle they kill mariachis body but no. her voice. telling me and the other demonstrators have no down and the mario's legacy is far more powerful than her killers could have ever imagined. on word to sports it's been a big day in the football world manchester city have been crowned in english

premier league championships all the most famous derby in the bundesliga took place as shaka host of dortmund you can catch the goals and the action from our game in the our bundestag show after the break with expert analysis from former germany striker celia shah sits with both sides in the running for a champions league place the derby is more important than ever but shopko dortmund come out on top find out in just a few moments. we'll leave you with these pictures of the extremely flexible limbs and daring moves that were on show at the acrobatic gymnastics world championships in belgium in the women's paris finals the duo from north korea impressed with their routine to finish second behind russia. and then through competition to israel snatch victory with an eye catching display of agility and teamwork. folks do not try this at home.

they're watching d.w. news we'll be back with more after top of the hour don't forget you can get all the latest news and information on our web site e.w. dot com as for us and. climate change. least. pollution. isn't it time for good news. at africa people and projects that are changing the environment for the better it's up to us to make good turf.