"fine cut" series is generously prprovided by th bridges lalarson founundation. >> this is "dw news," life from berlin. unity or tonight, a show of support for a united spain. hundreds of thousands take to barcelona streets to protest for catalan independence. the parliament in barcelona could vote tomorrow to secede from spain. we will take you to barcelona and madrid. also, here e in germany, chancellllor angela noununcea ststart date for coalition talks to start a new government. it was a compromise on refugee policy that open to the way, or was it?

while fires sweep into california wine country, destroying vineyards, forcing tens of thousasands to evacuate, and the some very exclusive homes -- torching some very exclusive homes. brent: i am brent goff. good to have you with us. one of the most significant political crises in modern spanish history is about to come to a head, and it may forever change in spain as we know it. tomorrow in barcelona, the regional government of catalonia is expected to declare independence. lawmakers say 90% of cattle and voters chose independence in a referendum held just a week ago. but spanish prime minister mariano rajoy says the referendum was illegal, and he is warning tonight that his government will not tolerate a breakup, even if it means moving in and taking total control of

catalonia. we will go live to barcelona and madrid in just a moment. first, more from a nation divided. reporter: this is where history could be made come tuesday, the regional parliament of catalonia. it is not clelear if the northeastern province will declare independence from spain, but the centntral government in madridid is getting ready for sh a scenario. >> we are prepared foror anythig that might happen because afterr seeing the f fanaticism, we arae losing h hope of returning totoa state of reaeason and calm. reporter: in a rare show of unity, it seems the spanish parliament is unanimously backing the conservative government. even the opposition fears the consequences of cattttle and -- kabul on -- catal an secession. >> a universal declaration of

independence does not have any place in a state ruled by law. just as we are offering to talk, we will support the state's response in the face of any attempt at a unilateral split in the coexistence of spaniards. reporter: the unusual unity of political blocs over catalan does not surprise the government in barcelona, but they still see hope in negotiations. we have -- >> we have opened the door to talks and welcome any possible option for mediation. let's do it. but days continue to go o by, ad if the s spanish government dods not accept a request for mediation, we will do whatever we have to. reporter: given a big rallies in favor of or against independence did not materialize o on monday, barcelona is still tense. the uncertainty in both camps is fueled by worries about the local economy will stop after catalonia's biggest banks, other

comedies have announced they are considering leaving the region, saying that political instability is that for business. brent: want to pull in our correspondents now, standing by for us in barcelona, and in madrid. to both of you gentlemen, , good evevening. pressure is building today on the catalans not to succeed. will they vote for independence anyway? reporter: there is so much at stake here, brent, the catalan parliament can which you see here behind me, you can practically feel the tension, the pressure on puigdemont is a enormous to declare independence, not just pressure from the streets, but within his own coalition government. i had the chance to talk to a lawmaker from the far left within the coalition government, and he told me that catalan leader practically has no other option than to declare independence, because that is what people will expect.

here is what he had to say. >> if we don't do that, well, i think we will not do what the majority of people here in catalonia one us to do, and is the reason, because we were elected in 2015, we do what citizens ask us to do. brent: pablo, , to the outside world, this is shocking and almost unbelievable. our spaniards prepare to watch their coununtry breakupp tomorr pablo: if people from the outside worldd are shocked, imagine e people in spain. as a spaniard,d,'m sort of astoundeded at what isis happen. he hasas batattled a lot of spaniardrds, because itt is a tuatioion that no o one really exexpected. one e expected us to get to o e popoint whwhere on tuesday potentialllly catalononia could declare itself an independedent rerepublic.

for a lot of people, that is almost a crazy idea. now, what we have also seen isis that the government hahas been very direct a about what approah they are going to take with this, which is that if they have to takake back control, they hae to take control away from the catalan regionanal government, they will do that, they will do that to which dodoes have a lotf suortt a angst most spaniards d also, wowould say -- ththis is a ststrange thing mentioned in e report -- - it is someththing at seseems be back by all t the polititicalarties, and thatt is reflected d in society, that people are united in the idea that things need to calm dodo and get b back to normal, although i don't know how possible that will be in the next few days or weeks. brent: pablo, what would that look like? maybe explain to our viewers if madrid were to go into catalonia and take complete control, are we talking about police moving in? arare we talkiking about soldies ving i in? what would it look like? pablo: youou have to thihink oft

like this -- spapain is a federl country. it is a complicated strtrture, but each autonomy from autonomous community, hass powes . what would happen is that catalonia's would be suspended. with the education system or health care that would now be controlled directly from madrid, as opposed to the regional government controlling that. the police force in spain is quite complex. that wouldn't really change. at the end of the day, still controlled by the interior ministry in madrid. but basically whahat it would mn is that the catalan regional government functctions would essentially be null and void, that they wouldn't be able to make any decisions, and those decisions would be made in madrid by the central government. brent: eorg, let's bring you back in. what about the catalan opposition in parliament? where do they stand on independence? georg: they have told me -- i

talked to one of the leaders of the opposition party. he has told me that they of course are prepared to suspend the autonomy of the region if indeed puigdemont would go ahead and declare independence. he has said that another option is that this would be any legal step by the -- and the legal step by the catalan leader and the consequences are zero. it would not change anything in a large part of the population -- and a large part of the population would not acknowledge that. and also the mayor of barcelona came forward and she pledged the catalan leader not to declare independence but instead seek ka dialogue with madrid. brent: pablo, the last time that spain was faced with a crisis in this severe was back i in 1981. there was an attempted coup in the country. is that trauma -- or i should

ask, how is that trauma from 1981 speaking to what the country is experiencing now? pablo: this is v very much a generationalal issue as well.. you have to bebear in mind t tht anybodody born in the 1980's or 1990's,s, essentially t this isa very new situation for us. no one r really expected this.s. speaking to my pararents and people o of that generatation, y ha m memorieof t the dictatorship, fofor example, the coup d'état, attended coup d'état in 1981. very fresh on their mind, and they arere concerned a about the fa t that werere going into this situation that no one really knows what the outcome might be, where it might go. it is incredibly confusing, and i find that people including ourselves as journalists have been saying time and time again thatat we don't have anyny answ. we don't really know what is gogoing to happen. we will have to waiait andnd se, which are all the things we have tried to avoid. it is very worrying time. brent: our correspondence in

madrid and barcelona tonight. to both of you gentlemen, thank you very much. there is also an economic angle to what we are seeing in spain. javier is here from the business desk. staying without catalonia is bad business, it seems like. reporter: that business for both sides, especially in the beginning, and as everyone is time to figure out what is going to happen, stock markets around europe are nervously waited to see if catalonia does declare independence from spain. major spanish companies are moving their headquarters out of the region to other parts of the country, including a telecommunications firm and 2 large banks. meanwhile, the government in madrid is making it easier for companies in catalonia to quickly move out of the region. a split from spain would make catalonia lose its current status as part of the eu single market. that means more expensive exports and imports.

our core -- our financial correspondent was watching the markets closely today and here is her report from frankfurt. reporter: it has been in next day for european markets -- a mixed day for european markets bracing for r potential declaration of independence from catalonia tomorrow. investors are hoping for the best. ibex bounced back after last week's losses. both banks saw their shares go up after they announced plans to move out of catalonia. this tells us that investor optimism has less to do with confidence that the governments in catalonia and madrid will act reasonably and more to do with faith in companies on the need to protect themselves from political fallout. javier speaking of political fallout from it took france a while, but almost three weeks after signing controversial labor reforms, president emmanuel macron will feel the anger of thousands of french workers. all the country scenes are calling a general -- country's

unions are calling a general strike on tuesday -- ensure the message is heard in paris. the o one-date strike is set to hit schools, airports, even hospitals. president emmanuel macron plans to shake up france's famously inflexible labor code, and that has pushed the country's fractious unions together. it is the first time in a decade that online public service unions have united behind a protest call. >> why is it g going to work tomorrow? alall the unions are calalling e members out to protest full stop -- to protest. we are more effective when united then divided. javier:n past weeks, the union has sent tens of thousands of workers to the streetsts to protest against planned reforms like making hiring and firing easier. president macron says moves like these will fight france's chronic high unemployment, but the unions are furious about his plans to ax 120,000 jobs and reduce sick pay.

that is something they see as a direct challenge to their power. tuesday's showdown may be a taste of things to come as macron presses ahead with reforms. macron facing trouble governing his country. may have better luck in germany. brent: we will have to wait and see. thank you very much. closer to forming a new government in germany, as javier was saying, chancellor angela merkel's ruling christian democratic party and the csu say they have found common ground over the long-running dispute on refugee policy. the announcement came after tough talks on sunday night. the leaders say they have agreed to try to keep the total number of refugees to around 200,000 per year. since the refugee crisis began in 2015, chancellor angela merkel said that she would not accept a cap on refugees. our political correspondent is here at the table with me. good evening.

did the german chancellor just accept a cap on refugees? reporter: she did and she didn't. there is no upper limit in the document. it is more a statement of intention. she says in the very press conference where the 200,000 were given as a maximum number that is the 200,001stst person o come and claim asylum would also be treated in due process. so yes, it leaves a lot of room for new for, both for -- and a lot of room for maneuver, but for her and the csu leader. it is something widely supported not just in bavaria, but across germany. a lot of gerermans want to see some kind d of upper limit. at the same time, this is just these two parties agreeing on something so they can then go into talks with the other two potential coalition of birth which means this is not an outcome, this is a starting point. brent: what about the timing of this?

this agreement came very late on sunday night. it was not -- there was a reason they waited so long. michaela: well, there was an in the ffamily row that was going on throughout the whole process. they want to show that it was not that easy not only to their own party members, but it is in time for the first regional elections taking place this coming weekend just a couple of days before the coalition talks get started. brent: but wasn't announced so late to make sure that reporters were not be over it so quickly? was it a face-saving maneuver? michaela: that was absolutely the intention. the fate of the csu leader is much more in-depth than the damage that has been done to angela merkel in these elections.

at the same time, this is a deal they could have been a year ago, because this almost to the word is what their own parties recommended as some kind of middle ground a year ago. brent: all right, we know that we have coalition talks for the new government starting on wednesday of next week with the greens and the free democrats. what are you hearing about how easy or how hard t these talks e going to be after what happened last night? michaela: well, there's a lot of other issues they will be talking about. this is the most contentious one . the number is by the free democrats and the green party, and is has widened the gap between the conservatives, cdu, and the green party. it will be very tough, and we have seen reactions out of the green party saying what he's going to be at the end, what is going to be signed on the e dotd line as a sort of marriage agreement, stephanie not what we had today. -- is definitely not what we had today. brent: as always, thank you very

much. here are the other stories making headlines. a turkish prosecutor has demented jail sentences of up to 15 years for a group of human rights activists. they are been charged with terrorism offenses. they were detained while taking part in a workshop run by amnesty international. it covers topics such as how to protect sensitive data from the authorities. germany's president has met with pope francis for private talks at the vatican. they spoke for about an hour on a range of topics, including germany'y's recent election and europe's migrgration crisis.. ththpresident t said the p pope praised germany's efforts to take in refugees and that he expressed the hope that berlin would not turn its back on the problem. burton's cap -- britain's prime minister has laid out plans in parliament in case the u.k. leaves the european union without a deal on trade. she said there would be draft legislation this autumn on how customs would operate under that

scenario, one of several that she discussed in her speech. eu leaders are due to meet next week to assess progress on the brexit talks. the oscar-winning hollywood film producer harvey weinstin has been fired from his production company following allegations of sexual harassment. the producer of movies such as "shakespeare in love" and "the king's speech" is accused of sexually harassing femalee employees and actresses, including ashley judd over several decades. more business news now. a former star in the german skies is about to disappear. javier: that's right, and we are not talking about astronomy. we're talking about germany's second-largest airline. it says it will stop flying by the end of the month. subsidiaries from austria and the german carrier ljw will continue to fly come as they are still solvent, but empmployees e worried, as they havee no clue what will happen to their jobs. reporter: the end of air berlin

is frustratiting, even if not surprising news for passengers and personnel. founded less than 40 years ago, germrmany's second-biggesest car will be grounded by octobeber 2. most of air berlin's 8000 stafaf architect t to be taken by competitors for the airline assets. the estimated 1500 could be left out of a job. despite special job fairs this week and ongoing talks o o redundancy programs, many are far from optimistic. "we have yet to receceive any kd of signal that the airlines are willing to organize a joint transition arrangement for air berlin staff." "i been flying air berlin for over 30 years. i i st want to be able to o wora little longer under fair conditions. hopefully, i will end up on the street or have to start again with a brand-new -- i will not end up on the street or have to start again with a brand-new contract." meanwhile, many more air berlin

flights face cancellation. passengers flying with a sincere you which serves tourist destinations and is still solvent will not be affected. the same applies to lg walter. it's plans will likewise remain in the air. negotiations with prospective fires were due to be concluded october 12. the talks failed due to the british carrier lowering its offer. javier: to the u.s. now, and it has gotten environmentalists outraged. donald trump is moving to repeal a plan which put a limit emissions by u.s. power plants. the hehead of the environmentnt agency called the plan a war agaiainst goal, saying the rule didictated how the u.s. generats electricity. it was part of the previous administration's commitment to the paris climate agreement come from which trump wants to withdraw.

we know that the energy sector is a big one. that is why markets are taking a close look at what is happening. our financial correspondent on wall street is doing the same thing. high, good to see -- hi, good to see you. how are investors looking at this? are they focusing on the advantages for the coal industry or the disadvantages for companies working on renewable energies? reporter: there was probably no easy answer because there are two sides of the same coin. coal industry is one side and the renewable energy sector is the other one. epa had pruitt says no company -- wall street might be happy that the coal industry is out of the line of fire for now, but the industry that was prospering under obama, solar and wind companies, their stocks are having a rough day on wall street. we can see a slowdown, and this

is highly problematic for the renewable energy sector. javier: let's talk about jobs, because we know that trump was partially elected on the promise of securing jobs, including those in the coal industry. do you see him delivering on that promise so far? sophie: well, defining the clean power plants would hurt him its job growth in that sector and probably not only their. there would be no way to offset these with jobs in the fossil fuel sector. twice as many americans work in the wind industry sector compared to the soul -- coal mining sector, and solar employees more americans. the solar and wind industry are each creating jobs at a rate 12 times faster than that of the rest of the u.s. economy. the study was published by the environmental defense fund and says that solar and wind jobs have grown at rates of up to 20%

annually in recent years, and sustainability now collectively represents 4.5 million jobs in the united states, up from 3.4 million in 2011. most studies do agree that clean energy jobs outnumber jobs dealing with gas and coal light 5 to -- by 5 to 1. many investors think that t trup is the one killing jobs now. javier: we will see if that continues. thank you very much, so patient wants the in new york. we state in the u.s. brent: digg glad you are not in california tonight. firefighters in california say their main job right now is saving lives, as multiple places in the state continued to burn out of control. many of the wildfires that hit wine country in a napa and sonoma counties. auauthoritieies are evacuating everyone in n harms way. rereporter: the state of emergey

is in force in californinia's famous wine country, focused on that the valalley and sonoma county. -- napa valley and sonoma county. hundreds of businesses have been destroyed as wildfires ripped through the regigion. 20,000 p people have beeeen evacuated,d, many orordered by authororities to leave for their own safety. firefighters say their focus is on saving lives rather than putting out the fires. >> i drew my blinds and i saw flames. so of course i connect and i'm still shaking -- i panicked and i'm still shaking. when outcome and they were screaming "fire f fire fire, get out." reporter: some of wine country's most opulent homes and celebrated wineries were razed to the ground. this man was luckier. >> that whole ridge was glowing red. >> how fast did the fire moved? >> very fast.

>> were you worried? >> yeah, very worried. >>my neighbors house burned down, but i save mine. reporter: high winds are fanning the flames. this has reached san francisco 60 miles away, and the fires are still burning. brent: soccer news now. syria are traveling to australia to face off for a chance to qualify for next year's world cup. it would be there for several cup finals appearance. tuesday's matches the second and final leg of the playoff. the first was 1-1 draw. syria's national team success has earned attention from all over the world of football. reporter: it is a rare moment of celebration for citizens of a war-torn country. the syrian national team equalized late in the first like to run hope for qualification. the team will be welell support.

"when we arrived at the airport, there was a big welcome from the syrian community, and on social media and a lot of news agencies, they are saying over 15,000 tickekets were sold to te syrian and middle e eastern community." "i've elected back to thank all the supporters in australia of the syrian national team, and it is going to be a positive thing for us. " but critics say those who play for syria a even supppport the teamam are tacit supporters of president bashar al-assad and his government's violent crackdown on dissent in the country. many s syrian athletetehave been drawn into t taking sides s durg the civil war. meanwhile, australia are the firm favorites, having qualified for the last three world cups. this by their home advantage and superior squad, the socceroos will face a tough test from the opponents. brent: here's a reminder of the top stories we are following for you. the leader of catalonia is

reported to be prepared to declare independence tomorrow, despite madrid's warnings that it will not allow the region to break away. this comes a day after hundreds of thousands took to the streets of barcelona to protest against independence. you are watching "dw news," live from berlin. after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. stay with us. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

matters bond funds like cats. and fonts like at dot com. nnova you didn't see you at night from paris with me rachelle ferguson the id's of the top stories that were covering for you this hour. an ongoing crisis between kataloniya on the spot and status uncertainty over whether the regional declare independence continues. memeanwhile patterns prezidt is scheduled to address regional parliament own cheeks you to exercise leadp that flexibility in unblocking brexit tool