Take aim at the Saudi Royal Palace with rocket fire saudi forces say theyve intercepted that is the yemen conflict now spilling across the border. And a big boost for u. S. President trump as the u. S. Senate backs his tax reform but a procedural error means the house of representatives has to vote on it one more talk. Also coming up berlin marks a tragic anniversary when terrorists struck in the very heart of the couch. Church bells ringing out at the exact moment an islamist attacker rammed his truck into a crowded Christmas Market last year killing twelve people as germany gone off to help in the aftermath of that attack. And life in the shadows of the front line we have. Reports from a village in Eastern Ukraine thats been cut off leaving residents with no way out. Are brian thomas great to have you with us will the European Commission today take steps towards triggering the socalled Nuclear Option of article seven and impose sanctions on poland to move brussels has never taken against a member state sanctions would include the unprecedented step of suspending polands Voting Rights and cutting its a u. S. Aid or brussels correspondent teri schultz is following this very closely for us and joins us now terry whats whats behind the complete breakdown the unraveling of relations between warsaw and brussels. And youre right it has been a complete breakdown in fact the two sides are barely see even speaking anymore from what we hear about the possibility that the socalled Nuclear Option will be triggered its been years that the European Commission has been warning poland not to take these and these steps it considers undemocratic particularly in these latest weeks and months with regard to its Supreme Court so the European Commission has not wanted to trigger article seven but it really feels at this point that it has no choice and in fact youve got the euro the speaker of the European Parliament coming out yesterday and saying we need to do this poland has pushed us into this corner and article seven is really our only recourse at the moment because the ruling law and Justice Party seems absolutely unwilling to go back on these proposals to have more political control over the judiciary ok well stay with us your colleague our Catherine Martens in brussels has put together a report to give us a better idea of what exactly it takes to trigger article seven lets take a look at that. 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 European 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 if the approval of the European Commission needs within the material the Member States in order to trigger at augusta the thankful scot of it tough they can in cleared the suspension of Voting Rights. Video of even one e. U. Countries against imposing sanctions in article seven amounts to nothing more than empty posturing. Ok well what is poland been saying all about all this terry has but has it been engaging brussels with its position. From what we understand the talks have in fact gotten less and less frequent about this possibility and the new Prime Minister in fact on last week said he expects this measure to be taken against poland even left the summit early polling very much assert that it has the right to do this it is long schafer under e. U. E. U. Rules and said that this is a matter for its own sovereignty and in fact says the judiciary will be better off after these reforms but these are measures that the e. U. Simply feels that it cannot live with it would give a Political Party an extraordinary amount of control over this additional brand and poland has been warned step by step that this would not be acceptable there was a point at which the president. Did not sign into law a couple of the proposals and there was hope then that there might be some room for compromise but in fact it looks now like they will go into law and as as country mentioned there simply is not any longer any option for the European Commission but to take the step ok what about countries that in the past strongly backed poland ugly of hungary mainly will they be voting against poland. Yes hungary has come out and said that it will not lead article seven in the end it will not let these these potential sanctions go into effect that some way down the road because what will happen today what we expect to happen today is the first step and that is that the commission will tell poland that it is invoking article seven the first part of article seven and then Member States must approve that and at this point twenty two countries must agree to go along with these measures and it wont be a problem to get twenty two countries so that it will it will go forward the discussions on what to do about poland what to do under article seven will go ahead but in the end it will take all countries it will take everyone but the polish government to agree to finally invoke sanctions finally cut off funding finally take these measures and hungriest said it will not let that happen it may not be the only one ok now this is a part of a much bigger story isnt it what are the implications year of this vote today for for the larger story for european unity at a time when its confronting challenges like that like an assertive russia how does that fit in there. Well rex it is is probably the most relevant case at the moment because of course the u. K. Left saying it wanted its sovereignty back and poland has raised this in in these negotiations in this battle about wanting its sovereignty and this will be particularly interesting tomorrow because british Prime Minister to resign may well be in poland and there have been many calls on her to come out and stand with the e. U. To be unified with the e. U. Against what people in brussels see as a derogation of the rule of law but it will also be an important for the other Eastern European countries the visa grab for who support is needed to get to get measures passed here in brussels so it is definitely a test for unity but at the moment no one but hungary has come out and said that it will break with the rest of the European Union when it comes to taking these these measures against the polish government ok Terry Schultz bring us up to date thanks so much for that terry and thanks to the entire brussels staff for giving us some perspective on this this morning now for a look at some of the other stories making news at this hour Political Parties and spains catalonia region have held their final rallies ahead of thursdays election Prime Minister around arroyo campaigned on behalf of the prounion Popular Party while the ousted separatist leader Carlos Bustamante spoke to Pro Independence supporters via video link from brussels the snap poll was called after Catalonia Parliament was disbanded following an independent school. Bus crash on mexicos yucatan peninsula has killed at least twelve people and injured many more State Government said that the dead included ters who are travelling from a us cruise ship to a resort town called wall to see an archaeological site. Ok lets go to monica now who has the latest on that huge tax reform bill moving through washington some surprises a lot bigger excitement to there brian i can tell you that now the u. S. Senate has just cost republicans one point five trillion dollars tax overhaul moving the bill closer to president Donald Trumps desk and marking his first major legislative victory now the house of representatives will first take a revote on the bill after passing the old comfortably two hundred twenty seven to two hundred three procedural violations in model that first vote the revolt is expected later today and this president s trump wants to sign the bill into law before christmas and critics say that to the package is a deficit bloating giveaway to the super rich but republicans argue the tax cuts for corporations Small Businesses and individuals will bolster Economic Growth. 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 saying it would benefit everyone not just the rich. This is a tax package that prioritize 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 through 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. For more on the u. S. Tax bill im joined by cost of tout from the n g o Tax Justice Network and i would like to pick you up right away on that particular name or title because the bill includes tax cuts for both corporations as well as low and middle income families it says so is it just is it a fair bill the bill indeed includes tax cuts for nearly everyone but its and the end not a fair bill because most of those tax cuts eighty three percent of the tax cuts go to the super rich to the richest one percent of americans ok but it is if everything goes as planned it would be the first sweeping reform to the u. S. Tax system in more than three decades. I mean why is the reform so important in the first place. The reform of the tax is an ongoing issue so you have to reform and adjust tech systems all the time and the u. S. Has been doing this in the past. The reform is very important for trump i think primarily because thats his first and biggest promise to his donors were looking for better tax rates and its also important because the u. S. Did not just its Corporate Tax rate for the last decades and is one of the countries with the highest Corporate Tax rates today yeah and also has a huge deficit in its budget and obviously thats something that trump wants to do something about now if asked and so you basically agree to his critics that say this is package is a quote deficit bloating giveaway to the super rich but lets see if we can find something positive like what kind of amendments do you think the bill would need in order to make it more sam more acceptable so looking at positive sites theres some two positive ideas in the bill at least so one is to fight base erosion that means to fight tax evasion by many Foreign Corporations in the u. S. And the second is to finally tax all those cash piles that epa and the other companies have stocked offshore the problem of the bill is that the rate for those tax for this taxation of those cash is very low its only fifteen percent and not the thirty five percent that those companies were actually supposed to pay but this is why they didnt pay so i mean is there a middle way is this something if you had the chance to to knock on the door of the president on a trump and say listen this is how the reform would really do your country your economy good and be fair for everyone what would you tell him i would tell them to join the International Initiatives to cut base erosion to join them in an International Initiatives to Exchange Information on tax and accounts and to cooperate and to drive forward the International Reform agenda that definitely needs. A lot of fixes and a lot of initiative to make big improvements but not in this way all right lets find out if somebody does on his door and tell him all these things because of top header from the n. T. Oh tax just as network thank you so much for your insights ive moving to lizzie im now because europe wants to get into the rapidly growing list of the element is used in batteries that are vital for mobile phones or electric cars and the biggest lithium deposits are in latin america or australia right now china is the biggest lissie in by a the business potential is huge and that is why europe is gearing up now to get a piece of the action. Were off down the line in saxony going to hurt lots knows his way around these disused shafts like no other the former miner knows where mere a stone of common mica can be found it contains lithium essential for modern batteries and fundamental to the mobility. And the mind is trapped in here we call it since. And its what contains the elements lithium into drilling has shown that lithium or deposits with an estimated market value of some five billion euros lie beneath its involved mine together with a Canadian Company in miller wants to recover the mineral extraction is slated to start in four years when the financing is firmly in place the largest thats involved deposit can be exploited competitively besides Lithium Carbonate to use the mineral to also make more developed products such as lithium fluoride and lithium chloride those products can be put directly into batteries without any further processing into. Europes largest living in deposit is in austria eighteen million tons of it are buried beneath the alpine slopes near both in the federal state of carinthia. Extraction there is expected to begin in a bit over two years. In berlin smits of the German Mineral Resources Agency keenly follows Development Concerning the global deposits and availability of lithium. We dont anticipate lithium supply bottlenecks before twenty twenty five which weve researched and worked because we can see a very large expansion of already existing companies and many new projects in australia because well as south america we feel that. German battery producers obtain their batteries cells and the lithium they contain directly from asia. There are no european suppliers. Before the cells are finally assembled the lithium in them has traveled halfway around the world. Along transportation routes when the Carbon Dioxide footprint of lithium batteries is extremely high. And the cells which are batteries main components have to be shipped thousands of kilometers to europe is not an acceptable state of affairs its not ecological or economical as such we have to take up cell production in germany in europe. But until things reach that stage europes prospect of lithium producers will have to become economically viable as already established south american and Australian Mines no easy task. Well these are Interesting Times certainly politically and here in germany were heading into the holidays not really knowing if we have a government sooner or later very unusual situation isnt it but there are efforts to change that underway the leaders of germanys to be Political Parties are meeting today for more talks about possibly teaming up to form a new government thats all americans conservatives have been without a governing majority of course in septembers inconclusive election now theyre hoping to form another grand coalition as its called with the social democrats after talks with smaller parties failed but s. P. D. Leader Martin Scholtz is in no rush and insists that his party will weigh its options very carefully. At first he was against it then he played hard to get now hes leaving all options open until the last minute biggest question is still up in the air whether our conversation will lead to the formation of a government with very serious abou