Voting rights also coming up. A life in the shadows of the front line we have an exclusive report from a village in Eastern Ukraine that has been cut off leaving residents with no way out. And a big boost for u. S. President trump as the u. S. Senate taxes tax reform but a procedural error means the house has to vote on it one more time. Im brian thomas great to have you with us will the European Commission today trigger the socalled Nuclear Option of article seven and impose sanctions on poland a move brussels has never taken against a member state they view says that polands judicial reforms put courts under political control a violation. European norms but poles saying the moves are necessary to combat corruption now if they even does impose sanctions they could include the unprecedented step of suspending polands Voting Rights and cutting off its e. U. s. Europe has mechanisms to deal with cases of delinquency and that means more than just idle threats and reprimands. Should an e. U. Country go against the principles of democracy then europe has no choice but to nail its colors to the mast. Article several camera triggered by the year pin commission only in the case of a persistent and serious breach of the rule of law its the most radical form of sanctions within the European Union and has not been applied so far. Every you country must uphold basic values including freedom Human Dignity and the rule of law breaches can incur real punishment but imposing sanctions is no simple process. Every Single Member state passed a gift the approval of the European Commission within the material the Member States in order to trigger i took a step to thankful for can be tough they can in cleared the suspension of Voting Rights. Video of even one countries against imposing sanctions in article seven amounts to nothing more than empty posturing. More lets bring in our brussels correspondent terry shall star whats it looking like will we see brussels imposing sanctions against poland. Well i dont think the commission would certainly agree that this is empty posturing since it is the strongest tool in its arsenal but that doesnt mean were ever going to get to the point where poland actually sees it sees its Voting Rights suspended because its such a long road what we expect to happen today is for the commission to trigger article seven and that simply means that of the twenty two other twenty two e. U. Governments must vote to open a monitoring period now during that period poland could reverse course but even if it gets to the end even if nothing changes and it does come to a vote on suspending polands Voting Rights hungary has already promised it will block that and there may be others in the end so it doesnt look likely that that this final most severe sanction will ever take place but they didnt even having this debate constantly makes poland pay a price will whats polands position can it continue its standoff with the e. U. Its been remarkably resilient on this path so far rejecting every Commission Proposal to to change the political control is putting over is judiciary pull and basically says this is not your business you let us do our reforms as we see fit keep out but that doesnt mean that in the end poland wont have to change course if as we as we discussed sanctions come to pass there are also other measures e. U. Governments can take and are discussing taking including cutting off funds ok what are the broader implications of all of this for european unity at a time when brussels confronting real challenges like. I think that the biggest price to pay would be polands because it is it is direly dependent on funds theres some two hundred thirty billion euros at stake over the next five years and as far as european unity it could go the path of brecks it of course after the e. U. Is broken hearted but in the end it serves to unite the e. U. Countries and it will be interesting to hear the advice of british Prime Minister to resume a whos visiting poland tomorrow what she would tell her polish counterpart about possibly taking this path and finding more divisions between poland and the European Union or shots bring us up today from brussels thanks very much for that or for now for some of the other stories making news this hour austrias new chancellor has assured e. U. Leaders that his Government Supports the bloc in brussels a boss in court said austria remained pro european that despite a euro skeptic party joining the government versus conservatives formed a coalition with the far right Freedom Party this week the European Commissions job claude younker told course of the austrian government would be judged by its steeds in mexico a reporter has been shot dead in the Southern State of vera cruz Authorities Say tomorrow perez was killed in front of dozens of parents and children at his sons School Christmas party bearers wrote regularly about security and drug traffickers hes the twelfth journalist to be killed in mexico this year all tensions are flaring up once again in Eastern Ukraine along that five hundred kilometer separation line dividing ukrainian troops on one side and russian backed separatists on the other this past week alone has seen three ukrainian soldiers killed at least eight civilians seriously wounded now just days before this latest escalation our correspondent Nick Connelly visited the region he met with People Living on the frontline heres his exclusive report to taste takes us to the small village of show volga. Single potholed road is all the connect the village of john to the outside world the ridge that overshadows the village is already deep in separatist held territory here the front line begins where peoples gardens and. Show bunkers one hundred forty mostly elderly residents are dependent on outside help since public transport broke down the nearest supermarket is several hours walk away its only thanks to this volunteer letting go that International Aid is able to reach those who need it most. Are still of the group the weaker the village is cut off the people here have no way of getting out of the bustle the people here are just about surviving mostly thanks to what they can grow and their garments will sit on the floor on the high seas the. Twenty seven year old catcher takes us to her house on the far edge of the village. Three children left in java all the other families have long since left a single mother kathy relies on help from my parents and n. G. O. S her youngest son is just eighteen months old has began. For the last two weeks theyve been shooting every single day without a break i used to be scared but now you just get used to it after a while when the conflict broke out the family used to take cover in an outside cellar since that was hit they hide inside. So that the summer this is the best protected room the one least likely to get hit on that side we are protected by the house i was born and from that side we barely get anything coming at us and if there is then there are trees touch wood this house has never had a direct hit so far. On the separatists only seventy meters away there on the next street. Bridge in the distance locals tell us serves as a Vantage Point for separatists night as. Shows us where a direct hit brought down the roof of the cellar she used to hide in yes if i had somewhere to go that was really mine id leave but just to be tolerated i dont want that ive tried that twice already. Beyond catches house only ruins remain and the front line trenches most of them buried deep enough to stand up and safely. With me to ukrainian soldiers on guard duty theyre also father and son most of. Where we are theres plenty of shooting mostly at night its a bit quieter during the day but it happens. Its december and darkness falls early and with the shooting starts its time to leave. Just a few kilometers down the road is the majorca checkpoint one of only a handful of places where civilians can cross between government and separatist held territory. Up to ten thousand people make this journey every day. My father died ive just been to his funeral. Here i went from my pension i live in the whole of congo to autumn off from my pension its really badly organized particularly on the separatist side. But even the checkpoints aunt entirely safe in recent months this crossing alone has come under attack three times. Its a three hour wait out in the cold for these people here queuing to cross the circle separation line that divides Ukrainian Government troops from progress and separatists its now been almost three years since the front moved in this region cutting off the city just seven kilometers behind me from its suburbs and the ukrainian held site. These checkpoints were set up as a temporary stop gap but with political efforts to resolve the conflict going nowhere in a hurry they belong to. Its become a permanent fixture of life here in Eastern Ukraine. We have some breaking news coming in right now a major setback for the use top court has ruled that the Ride Sharing Service is no different than a taxi Company European court of justice decision means that it will face more regulations and fees and its app may be unavailable in some European Countries now who are officials or had already said that a ruling against the company would not affect its presence in most areas of the block. Other news now in the u. S. President doll trump is on the verge of his first major legislative victory after the u. S. Senate passed a sweeping republican tax overhaul now the house of representatives must hold a revote on the bill before sending it over to the white house procedural violations marred their first vote for their amendment the tax cuts and jobs act is passed. The senate vote was always going to be the close one but in the end the republican majority stuck together to pass the bill along party lines republicans were already celebrating after the measure cleared the house for the first time with a comfortable margin of twenty four votes the revote is unlikely to change the outcome although the heirs behind it give more ammunition to opponents its a perfect microcosm of the hasty and reckless process that produced this legislation if my republican friends think these are the only mistakes that will be found in their bill they are sorely mistaken many more will almost certainly be on earth the legislation provides steep tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy and more modest cuts for middle class and low income families it will slash the Corporate Tax rate from thirty five to twenty one percent prior to the vote White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders defended the reform. This is a tax package that prioritized helping the middle class certainly does that this is something that we wanted to benefit all americans and thats been the focus all along and so thats what weve continued to push for thats been the president s priority earlier more than a dozen people were arrested for blocking the entrance to the New York Stock Exchange protesters held signs and chanted slogans against the bill this bill is class warfare on the part of the rich its all about the donors to the Republican Party we have to defend our people all of our people President Donald Trump insists the cuts will not drive up the deficit saying they will attract more investment and lead to robust Economic Growth that he claims will create new jobs bolster wages and fill public coffers. The german bonus league or maybe on as mid season break but the german cops offering football fans a festive treat this week last night a strong shall go took on cologne which has been on the back foot lately turned out to be a tight affair. Now that weve been the hero and shall because late two to george frankfurt in the bond as they grew at the weekend and the defender was again in the action against cologne heading over in the first tough goal as were going to prove useful to shout the old game another one in the Second Period lead to another good chance this time a t in the stats it was denied by an excellent save from team zero zero and. Despite cologne offering little fret shaka fans were worried it wouldnt be their night. But their fears were raised on sixty three minutes when yet another corner was met superbly by max meyer the midfielder is an outside pit that germanys will cup squad and head is light that will do his case no halm. The final whistle was greeted with jumps of delight from coach dominica to disco shell could know the cup is that best chance of a trophy this term won then it finished with maya the hero the star. This is the interview news live from berlin dont forget you can always find out more about the German Company website that have you dot com that has more on these and other stories for now though for me brian thomas the entire news team thanks for being with us. Climate change. Waste. Pollution. Isnt it time for good news. And africa people and projects that are changing the environment for the better