♪ brent: this is "dw news," live from berlin. tonight in barcelona come independence declared and deferred. the leader of catalonia steps back from the brink. carles puigdemont says catalonia 's overwhelming referendum vote stance but he asks them to suspend the bid to give negotiations another chance. the spanish government refusing to budge, saying there will be no breakup. we will have complete coverage tonight in barcelona and madrid. also, kenya's opposition leader kohl's out of a rerun presidential election. raila odinga says that is no

point in running for office if the old come unfair rules remain in place. could this destabilize the country? and wildfires continue to devastate northern california. at least 15 people have been killed and authorities say that number could rise. ♪ brent: i am brent goff. it is good to have you with us. the breakup of spain will not begin tonight. in a highly anticipated speech, the leader of catalonia has declared -- delayed declaring independence from spain saying more time and dialogue are needed. carles puigdemont told the regional parliament in barcelona that he has a mandate to declare independence, but that he will delay taking that step, quote, for a few weeks to encourage dialogue.

in short, there is no catalan independence declaration. let's listen to part of what he said tonight. >> the law of the referendum says that if the majority of the votes are yes, -- will declare the independence of catalonia. before and after the first of october, we want to succeed in doing what we promised. the president of the catalan government will tell you what the results of the referendum more. -- were.

we said that we are going to have an independent state. brent: that was the president of catalonia. we want to pull in our correspondence on the story for us tonight. in barcelona and my drip -- and madrid. talk about what we heard from the leader of catalonia. did he go as far as expected, or did he pull a political rabbit out of his hat? guest: i think we're looking -- if you want the independence-light version he presented tonight. there were a lot of people outside parliament winning for those words and also inside parliament you can hear the applause the moment he said those crucial sentences without

officially declaring independence. the key message was dialogue, dialogue, and dialogue. that is what he is seeking and had the chance right now. one of the key representatives of the protest movement, pro-independence. he said it is exactly the message the people here want to hear. they do not want the country going further into conflict. that is a scenario they would like to avoid. brent: the message that you got tonight is the pro-independence supporters in catalonia, they want this deferred independence. they want what they got tonight, is that correct? guest: certainly you will have people who were disappointed. when i looked around the cafes, on large screens everyone followed the speech. there was a bit of disappointment. you could tell that some people,

they did not admit that but they were clearly disappointed. at the same time over the last couple days i have talked to many people in both caps, but -- camps, particularly during the white march and they did not want to take sides. even people who voted yes and the referendum said we should not push things too fast. we should only announce independence when the time is right and when the spanish side would accept such a thing. brent: pablo, we are the report now that the president of catalonia has signed the document declaring independence from spain and has also signed a document which suspends it for the time being. how is that going to go down in madrid where you are? pablo: as expected, the

government essentially said the whole thing is a farce and they are going to continue with a firm hand, which is what they said. we're still unsure what measures they are going to take. he is expected to speak in the parliament holding behind me wednesday afternoon at 4:00. we will get some statement from the people's party at some point. ahead of the main opposition party, the socialists will be having a meeting at his residence in mature it. it will be interesting to see if there will be a show of unity amongst all the parties in the spanish parliament, which is something that does not happen very often. it is not often that you see these people coming together and being in agreement about something. they have taken essentially a hard line to the statement today. brent: exactly. you have catalonia basically

throwing the ball in madrid's corner. what are ordinary people saying about the fact that now they could be looking at more time to deal with this crisis? pablo: i'm glad you use the word crisis because essentially that tell the government is treating this. at the end of the day the suspension of dialogue, i don't know how much dialogue we're going to be seeing between them considering what we have seen over the past few weeks. we did have some indication that there is nothing they could dialogue about, there's no reason to. the constitution of spain essentially does not permit what happened this evening in barcelona. it is not situation to be in. the word blackmail or threat, it is hard to understand which meaning they were going for, it

was used by the government this evening. brent: the president of catalonia, he seems to have left his options open. is he actually a stronger political leader tonight? guest: that's a good question. he just passed me and he left the assembly hall with a big smile on his face. obviously happy with the performance he put forward. the big question will be how does it go on the street. is there too much pressure for people who want independence and want it now? also within this coalition government. one thing is clear tonight, the radical left who supports him is very unhappy about the speech. they are the reason why this meeting was delayed. it remains to be seen whether the pressure is something he can deal with in the weeks to come. brent: our correspondence in

barcelona and in majority -- in my trade. -- in madrid. the world of business is also trying to guess what the catalan meant and what is going to happen. javier: it's a ve difficult situation. investors are now looking at the current situation and what is about to come. we cannot know what is going to happen but we can see immediate reactions especially in the euro. it is trading over 1.18, it is not been that high since october 1. it took a tumble in the days following the referendum then picked up on tuesday even before the announcement, helped by strong export data coming from germany. earlier i talked to a man from the barcelona center of international affairs and asked him if he shared the view of the catalan president who said

moving businesses out of the region doesn't hurt their economy. >> no. on one side he is right, in that it is an appointment with the notary and they changed the we will see from barcelona to neighboring regions. having said that, some tax income be lost. -- being lost. more importantly it does considerable damage to the image of catalonia, as an open place business. -- place open for business. there might also be deviation of economic dynamism away from barcelona to this -- to other localities. not much changes on the operational level.

people are still going to work over here. having said that, a legal seat somewhere is more than just an address. they have operations there as well. the cities will try to attract more business from these institutions. above all it does considerable damage to the image of ours alone and catalonia -- of barcelona and catalonia. javier: thank you for the insight. following all of this -- it is optimistic for global economic growth. they raised its forecast in 2017 and 2018, now expecting global growth of 3.6% this year and 3.7% next year. the imf describes it as the

broadest in a decade pointing to stronger-than-expected upswings in europe, china, japan and the u.s. as well as emerging asia. good times ahead from the perspective pundit -- of the international monetary fund, but how does wall street see it? let's bring in jens korte from wall street. do you think investors share that optimism from the imf? jens: investors on wall street do not necessarily need the opinion of the imf to make up their minds if the economy looks brighter or not. in the past couple weeks and months we got some solid economic reports in the united states. in the past week we had the best reading from the industrial sector in about 13 years. the car industry seems to be doing a bit better.

at least we got hints on that from the latest car sales over here in the united states. overall the picture does look pretty bright. it did not hurt that the imf also actually hired expectations. the imf also does see some risks , especially when it comes to protectionism. that's a tendency we might be seeing all over the globe, not just from the united states itself. there are also some geopolitical events that could distract overall growth. but the bottom line is we did see another record day here on wall street. where shy not even 200 points for the dow jones to reach 23,000 points for the first time ever. we did not necessarily need the imf to achieve this goal. javier: surely one of the factors driving those gains on wall street is walmart. i know they said they saved $7

million a year by shortening their receipts. i am sure that is not the reason for their success, is it? jens: well, cost-cutting never hurts. but this amount is actually really not that huge. what really got investors going here on wall street was the announcement that walmart is going to buy back $20 billion worth in share over the course of the next two years. that has got the stock going by around 4.5%, which is a lot for a one-day performance for a company the size of walmart. they also said they are going to increase heavily spending into e-commerce. they are guessing the next year alone, purchases done online will increase by about 40%. they also want to expand the service to offer home delivery for groceries. so e-commerce is the big future

for walmart. that was also welcome news for investors here new york. javier: thank you very much. we stay in the u.s. because a diplomatic dispute between the u.s. and turkey is making investors nervous. on sunday the u.s. stopped issuing non-immigrant visas in turkey. turkey retaliated hours later by freezing u.s. passports out of its electronic visa system. wow that is tough on travelers, the impact is also being felt in turkey's markets. reporter: more than 300,000 turks flew to the u.s. last year. almost 460,000 americans into turkey. the visa dispute threatens to cut off this important stream of business travelers and tourists. the row how to -- it had immediate consequences on financial markets.

nervous investors sent turkey's main stock market index tumbling almost 5% at one point. >> tension with 30's allies, a series of -- with turkey's allies and more have weighed on the turkish currency. reporter: the lira has lost half its value over the last three years. turkey's double-digit annual inflation rate makes exports cheap what diminishes turk's export power. another danger is turkey's high level of government debt. it has to repay mo billion over the next 12 months. acura now wants to carry out further structural reforms to stimulate the economy. it helps that will encourage foreign investment. investors say that is unlikely without political stability. javier: if all of this causes headaches for investors, maybe they can take in nashville.

but that brand might change stock. the company announced it is considering the sale of its consumer health care business. the unit makes over the counter products like chapstick, lit balm and adult. it could be -- lip balm and advil. it wants to concentrate on biopharmaceutical products. we asked our correspondent in frankfurt while pfizer wants to get rid of their consumer health care business. reporter: consumer health units are often seen as a stable source of revenue for pharmaceutical companies who invest millions in several years in new drug development no guarantees the new drugs will make it to market. but pfizer is thinking of selling its indicated -- investors are speculating whether or not position of another pharma could be in the cards, like a leader in cancer

immunotherapies. javier: that is all from your business desk. back to you. brent: troubling news tonight about people living in poverty. they are at a greater risk of being sentenced to death. a global alliance of activists working to about the death penalty is reporting that finding today to mark this year's world day against the death penalty. so where is the problem most acute? amnesty international points to china, the world leader when it comes to executions. reporter: by am the internet -- by amnesty international's latest estimates, china remains the world's leading executioner. exactly how many remains a matter of speculation since there are no official figures. most information on the death penalty in china is a state secret.

joining china as the world's top five executioners are iran, saudi arabia, iraq, and pakistan. but 2016 did season changes, taking china out of the equation, global executions fell from a record high in 2015. just over 1000 people were put to death last year, down more than one third with sharp increases in iran and pakistan. pakistan lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in 2015 following a school massacre. a wave of executions some more than 300 people put to death. but last year the pace slowed. the report found that only a handful of countries were executing people on a large scale. last year just four countries were responsible for 87% of all recorded death penalties. for the first time in a decade, the united states has dropped

out of the top five. the number of executions there is at its lowest point since the early 1990's. but amnesty international warns it could go up again this year as a variety of legal objections are cleared. brent: kenya's opposition leader raila odinga has withdrawn from a presidential elections slated for october 26. he said he is pulling out because kenny is electoral commission had not filled his demands for reform, adding the rerun of the election would probably be worse than the previous one. the kenyan supreme court had ordered a new ballot in response to a legal challenge followed -- filed by odginga. i am joined by our correspondent on from nairobi. -- on the line from nairobi. this is a shocking announcement. what more do we know tonight? kathryn: it is quite a shock,

but then you look at it and you look at the days coming to this particular moment, we have seen the opposition, there were signs the opposition could or would not participate in the election if their demands were not met. they are saying they had 11 demands and they have yet to be met. this is the only way they can be assured of a free and fair and credible election, whenever the election should be held. we have heard from the president saying raila odinga's moved to remove himself from the rerun election is his constitutional right and the election will continue. but experts say this could be to the detriment of the president because then that could mean he would be -- his presidency would be considered illegitimate if he goes ahead without the opposition leader. we are also about to hear from the electoral commission. they are still deliberating on

this move so far. but kenyans are pretty confused at this point. brent: we have seen increasing levels of violence and protests in kenya. they have turned violent, sometime. who are these protesters and what are they demanding? kathryn: the protesters are mainly from the main opposition. these are supporters of the main opposition leader, raila odinga, and his principles. they are protesting under the slogan, no elections, no reforms. they feel until they have reformed, that is when they can go into an election. the main opposition has called for protests tomorrow so we expect to see people on the streets. were we expect to see no people on the streets, because it could be a situation that happened on the august 8 election when the opposition leader called for a strike and no work to boycott

work and no one actually follow through with that demand. it is a wait and see to see how kenyans react to this issue. but most to go on the street are those who support the main opposition. brent: our correspondent in nairobi tonight. thank you very much. voters in liberia have taken part in a landmark election. the ballot could mark the first peaceful handover of power between elected governments in the west african country in over seven decades. the president is stepping down after 12 years in office. the final results of the first round are due within two weeks. thailand's prime minister who want to -- who happens to also be head of the country's military has pledged to hold a general election in november of next year.

his unexpected announcement comes three years after the military seized power in a coup. there is reason to doubt this election will take place. they have broken several similar promises before. campaigning has officially begun for japan's lower house elections. analysts are calling the snap vote a referendum on prime minister shinzo abe, who has been in power for nearly five years. abe is facing an unexpected challenge for my one-month old party, but is still expected to win. hollywood producer harvey weinstein is facing fresh accusations of sexual harassment and assault. the new yorker magazine reports that 13 women have now leveled such claims against him, including three who told the publication that the raped them. a spokesman for weinstein denied the latest allegations. at least 15 people are confirmed dead and dozens more missing as

wildfires sweep through the u.s. state of california. the blazes have destroyed more than 2000 homes and businesses. hundreds of additional firefighters have been sent from other areas to battle the infernos come which continued to move fast with the help of strong wind and arid conditions. reporter: the wildfires ravaging northern california's famous wine country are also breaking out in southern ports of the state. fanned by winds whipping across the arid landscape, the flames have brought massive destruction. >> it all depends on how the fire is behaving. our primary concern is life safety, secondary concern is property protection. reporter: santa rosa, the biggest city in the northern region affected, has been forced to evacuate. authorities have also imposed a curfew to deter looters. the lucrative wine valley in

napa lies directly in the path of the fire. some of california's most british -- most of the just winer is reduced to ruins. >> working its way down the hillside. what can i say? it is slowly working its way up. reporter: the destruction playing out in california comes in the wake of the disastrous flooding in the american south. >> it has been a challenging month and a half for natural disasters across this country. with hurricanes affixing texas, the gold coast -- a flood -- i want to say to all of those in the path of these inventing wildfires that we are with you and we are standing with you. reporter: with the fire raging across california, authorities say the number of dead and injured can only increase. brent: here's a reminder of the top story we're following for you.

be leader of catalonia has suspended the region's declaration of independence from spain. in a speech to the reader -- to parliament, carles puigdemont said he accepted the mandate of the catalan people but ask parliament to delay secession in order to find a negotiated settlement. you're watching "dw news." after a short break i will be back to take it today. stick around for that. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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