Chile today. To donald trump cuts a 125 million aid package meant for the palestinians in half. Has the bitcoin bubble burst . We will tell you why the crypto currencies price has slumped crypto currencys price has slumped in recent days. First our top story live from paris. The parliament in catalonia is meeting for the first time in three months. Central government dissolved parliament in october after the region made a push for independence. The largest proindependence parties there say they are set to nominate former regional leader Carles Puigdemont for president again despite his selfimposed exile in belgium. Lets go to our madrid correspondent sarah morris. What hasas come out of the sessn so far today . The 135 mps have voted to choose the speaker. They are now voting to choose the rest of the Parliamentary Committee that runs parliamentary business. They have chosen a member of the left wing Independence Party by 65 votes for. The unionist camp has lost the possibility of having the speaker as one of their members. The Citizen Party had appealed to backleftwing party them and that would have produced a a time because carles pupuigdemont wasas not allowed o vote i in the e voting tododay. Getey are pushingng ahead to Carles Puigdemont invested. The spspeaker who o will be a mr vote isin how t that organized has said earlier before thihis vote that he wast in favoror of the leftwing pary backing the idea of a vote by teleconference. If the lawyers of the parliament were against it that may mean theres more pressure on Carles Puigdemont to step aside and let another leftwing candidate or proindependence candidate present himself. Genie how likely is that to happen . Will he step aside . At the momentnt he is saying absolutetely n not. He says he was the legitimate president of t the republic of cacatalonia thatat was declalard that it wawas the spanisish government thahat outed him wrongfully and the institutions of the region of c catalonia should be given n back to th thed that means spanish govevernment has m madet cleaear that if therere is an attempt to get him swornrn inn a distance to have him running a government by whatsapp and twitter they will take that to the Constitutional Court and more importantly they have said direct rule will not be returned to catalonia. So this crisis is far from over and theres many people in the independence camp during the institution that say getting the institution back for them is allimportant. Genie thank you, sarah morris. Set to vote on a key brexit bill today that incorporates thousands of pieces of eu legislation and repeals legislation enshrining britains eu membership. The conservative party of the Prime Minister is urging back the to governments brexit legislation warning opponents of trying to block the plan would bring chaos. The house of commons is expected to pass the text but it is also expected to face stiffer opposition and scrutiny in the house of lords. Chile for a is in controversial threeday visit. He began his day by confronting the sex abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church meeting victims and begging for forgiveness for the damage suffered by children at the hands of priests. Today the pontiff is diving headfirst into chiles conflict conflict with the mapuche people. It is involved in a territorial dispute with local hand holders. Landholders. This is the second time the pope will have visited this dispute with local hand holders. Region. In 1987 john paul ii came in totally different circumstances went you like was still a dictator chile when chile was still a dictatorship. The government keeps saying that by coming here the pope will bring peace to the region. This is a lie. Peace will only come when the government finally takes action. Anyre hasnt been institutional recognition of native Indigenous Groups. They havent recognize indigenous languages. They havent made progress on human rights and obviously the situation has been worsening. The popes arrival has left chiles largest Indigenous Group divided. They accused the church of doing nothing to support their claims in a longrunning dispute that stretches back centuries. They turn a blind eye to the atrocities carried out first by the spanish invaders and later by the chilean state. The mapuche people were thrown off their lands. The region has been rocked by violence recently with several churches torched. Some members of the Community Hope you will play a positive role. Hopefully he will be able to mapuche between the people and the outside world. They provoke us. The pope may not hold the keys to resolving this conflict che hope this will bring attention from the international community. Genie donald trump is making good on his threat to cut aid to the palestinians. The u. S. Just cut in half the amount it was supposed to give to relief for refugees. The state Department Says the move is aimed at reforming the human agency and encouraging other states to share the burden. Devastatinghave repercussions for hundreds of thousands of people. The u. S. State department notified the United Nations released and works agencys that it will withhold 65 million in aid for palestinians. The u. S. State department the state Department Spokesperson denied the decision was taken in retaliation for palestinian opposition to trumps decision to recognize jerusalem as israells capital. Its money thats being frozen at this time. Its not being canceled. Its just being held for future consideration. One of the things the United States would like to do is see some revisions made and how it operates. Early in january donald trump questioned the utility of providing aid to palestinians. Nikki haley had suggested a total freeze of u. S. Aid. Provide 60 will aid out of a planned 100 25 million. A palestinian official has said the budget cut could generate further instability in the region. The u. S. Administration seems to be following netanyahus truction Instruction Administration is thereby targeting the most vulnerable segment of the Palestinian People and depriving the refugees of the right to education, health, shelter ana dignified life. This comes as u. S. Palestinian relations have sunk to a new low. Mahmoud abbas called the recognition of jerusalem as the capital of israel the slap of the century. It was created with the purpose of providing health care and social services. Steve bannon refused to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee during a closeddoor session even after he was issued a subpoena to testify on tuesday saying the white house had told him not to. Bannon testified before the committee but refused to say anything about his time in the transition in the trump even after he left the white house. The subpoena came the same day the New York Times reported that he had been subpoenaed by robert before ao testify grand jury. This is a new tactic used by the special counsel robert mueller. The man who is responsible for the most important investigation when it comes to whether or not there was collusion between the russian government and the Donald Trump Campaign. Forced will now be to give testimony in front of a grand jury. That i is the decision that came from the special counsels office according to the New York Times. Steve bannon in theory knows a lot. He was close to the u. S. President and he was even closer to the candidate donald trump. He was not the head of the campaign at the time of that infamous meeting inside trump tower between russians and members of the trump campaign. Theres a big advantage for investigators. That is simply the fact that the relationship between steve bannon and donald trump is not good right now. Maybe steve bannon wants to spill the beans on exactly what the candidate was up to and who his campaign was speaking with. Ending might see is an at some point soon to this inquiry from the special counsel. That is what the white house once. The white house insists there was no collusion between russia and the Donald Trump Campaign and it Still Believes that this inquiry will be coming to an end pretty soon. What we might see in the coming weeks could be an interrogation by the special counsel of the president himself. That could happen in the coming weeks. Theres also still steve bannon and who knows where else this investigation might take him. Donald trump has apparently aced his first president ial physical. The navy doctor who examined him to be e did the president s Overall Good Health to good genes. Hehe did say the president n nes to lose some weight. The doctor also said the president got a perfect score on a surprise test designed to detect early signs forced to give of memory loss and other cognitive impairment. The white house has continued to fight off questions about how mentally fit the president is for office. Brazilian world cup winner inho has formally confirmed his retirement from football. Closing the curtain on an extraordinary career. The smiling magician definitively retired from. Ootball ronaldinho first entered the spotlight when he left his boyhood club in 2001. His skills make him a prime target for Football Club ursuline up for which he signed two years later. He played 207 matches. Ting a champions which League Trophy and two spanishsh titles. He joined ac milan in 2008 and in 2 2011 he returned to brazil. He also won 101 caps for his country. Winning the 2002 world cup. Last professional match in 2015 and has featured in a number of exhibition games. Despite his retirement announcement he could still make an appearance in a football shirt. The brazilian intends to play in a series of farewell matches after this summers world cup in russia. Genie france is set to lend when of its most famous tapestries to britain. Thats an century treasure that tells the tale of how William England inor invaded 1056. Emmanuel macron will make the official announcement tomorrow. The tapestry has never left france in its nearly 950 year history. It is currently on display in the northwestern french ration of normandy region of normandy. The biggest proindependence in catalonia say they will nominate Carles Puigdemont back to his old job as president but he is still in selfimposed exile in belgium and cant be sworn in unless he shows up in person. Pope francis continues his trip to chile today. On tuesday he sat down with victims of sexual abuse by priests after publicly asking for forgiveness. Donald trump makes good on his threat cutting a 125 million aid package to the palestinians in half. Time for our Business News with stephen carroll. You are going to start witith bitcoin which is tumbling in price again today. We have some people calling cryptopocalypse. South korea announced plans last week to ban trading in the currency and on top of that reports that chinese authorities are cracking down as well. After the rise of around 1400 last year to close to 20,000 per bitcoin in december the currency has fallen to half of that value. It is trading around the same level it was in early december. Todayn is down almost 10 now just over 10,000 each. The controversial demise of a coalfired power plant. A Spanish Energy giant is trying to close the last two power plants it has as part of a moved to cleaner energy. Closures are facing opposition from the Spanish Government. Julia kim has the story. The days of Coal Powered Energy are numbered. The spanish electricity giant has already started dismantling this coal power station in the northeastern village. The plants 80 employees will be transferred to the Renewable Energy sector. They have come to terms with its closure. Spent 20 years at this coal station but i understand the companys position is changing. Despite signing the Paris Climate Accord and pledging to the spanishs government is preparing a royal decree that would give ministers the final say on the facilities closure. If they decide to shut down energy security. The coal power station is good for spain. The issue is clear. It wants to close the facility to raise its tariffs. The Energy Company has scheduled the coal stations closure for the end of this year but some local businesses say they wont survive if it goes. Are able tos operate the next of the coal plants employees and contractors. They are the ones that keep the wheels turning in the village by living and spending here. Called on brussels for support asking the Eu Commission to remind the Spanish Government of its obligations under the paris climate records. Accord. Markets pretty much treading water in europe this lunchtime. In paris shares of music and Electronics Retailer are down 6 after news of a massive share deal worth more than 200 million euros. In london shares of burberry are fallinger they reported sales in the last three months of 2017. Australia has filed a trade complaint against canada saying it places unfair restrictions on sales of its wine. The wto sayss of licensing rules and taxes discriminate against imported wine. Citigroup has reported its first annual loss since 2009 as it takes a 22 billion dollar hit over u. S. Tax changes. Although the Corporate Tax rate it is one of the biggest in u. S. Corporate history. Has shown that working women and a United Kingdom are losing out on more than 150 billion euros a year because of the gender pay gap. Fulltime female workers are earning on average 23 less than their male counterparts. Youtube is going to change the way it monitors content from video makers that earn money from the site. Is promising more human from what itvideos calls its toptier users after the controversy involving one of the sites biggest stars logan paul who had to apologize after posting a video showing a man who had taken his own life in japan. Youtube is also going to change the rules on who can make money from advertisements on the site. Previously users needed to have 10,000 views on their channel to be able to place ads. A lot of people make an awful lot of money out of youtube. It will be interesting to see how those changes workout. Genie it is now time for the press review. Me. Ptika laurent joins youre going to start first with reactions to the Rohingya Repatriation deal from yesterday. They have been mostly skeptical. We have been looking at the daily star newspaper in bangladesh that reports that bangladesh and myanmar have agreed on a twoyear timeline to repatriate rohingyas back to bournemouth back to myanmar. For the editors at the Guardian Newspaper is a bad deal worsened by haste. The paper says refugees must not be forced to go back to a country that has been well known to have persecuted them for several months. The guardian says those responsible for that persecution must first be brought to justice and they call on International Donors to try and convince both sides to scrap this deal or at least delay it. Genie many people have been jumping to the defense of a hollywood comedian named aziz ansari. It seems to be marking a turning point in the movement. It dates back to the weekend when an ominous woman penned a viral piece. In it she recounts how the netflix star and selfprofessed woke feminist essentially cuesed clear nonverbal during a date sexually pressuring her and then breaking it off when she did say no. For misogynists this is a case porn. Venge corn genie people are saying this expose has derailed the me too movement. Thats according to misogynists. They say has the movement overreached with this story . A conservative paper says its time for the movement to into a discussion about Sexual Misconduct and one that discusses more about what constitutes Sexual Misconduct. The paper says both discussions are really necessary. An extraordinary report about wendi deng who is the former wife of Rupert Murdoch who may or may not have been a chinese spy. Wass a crazy story that first reported by the wall street journal this week. Was first reported by the wall street journal this week. Intelligence agencies warned Jared Kushner about his friendship with the chinese born windy day. She is the former wife of Rupert Murdoch. They divorced five years ago amid accusations that she and tony blair were having an affair. Noting that the wall street journal which reported the story is owned by murdochs news corp. Genie Emmanuel Macron is getting ready to loan a tapestry to the u. K. It has not left french soil for 950 years. It is believed to depict the Norman Conquest of britain. The french say it was made in france. The brits sale was made in britain. Macron has agreed to loan the tapestry. Genie but finish up with history. The scandal about egyptian movies mummies with different daddies. Priestsodies of two exhumed in 1907 in egypt by a wellknown british archaeologist were thought to be a band of brothers and dubbed the tomb of the two brothers. A 4000 year family scandal on whether or not their mother had a secret affair. Lets end on something that is sure to chill you to the bone. In the worlds coldest village in the siberian region the mercury plunged this week. It was so cold that the villages thermometer broke when the weather hit 62 degrees. This picture is what china 62 degrees does to your body. Your eyelashes and hair literally freeze. Narrator 2008, discontent turns into confrontation. Around the world peoeople take o the streets. Music momar they use tear gas, electric batons, plastic bullets. It was a very, very hard day. Narrator protests like these in dakar and senegal spread to many other cities. There were similar riots in egypt and in india. In haiti the president was overthrown. The reason . High food prices. One of the major causes climate change. Villagers are leaving their homes simply to survive