the fact is a play as well prices enter a bull market counting the cost at this time. on october the first catalonia plans to hold an independence referendum yet the central government insists it's unconstitutional and the courts have judged it illegal as the state clamps down and catalans take to the streets where will this crisis and watch al-jazeera for the latest. the us pulls its embassy staff from cuber and warns americans not to visit off the mysterious attacks some diplomats.

and i mean this is uncertain life from london also coming up iraqi kurds released messages to pieces by stops international flights to the region over monday's referendum. farmers vowed to protect polling stations for counseling session vote as the region prepares for a showdown with spain. at least twenty two people dead after a stampede on a pedestrian bridge connecting two railway stations in india. and space x. founder you don't musk says he's developing a rocket that can take you anywhere on earth in less than an hour. so that the united states government has ordered sixty percent of its staff in cuba to leave its embassy in havana said to be because of quote specific attacks on u.s. diplomats. some of which have taken place in cuban hotels also used by american

tourists the embassy is now expected to stop processing visas and issue a new travel warning when the united states first became suspicious in late two thousand and sixteen when several embassy employees in have at a reported mysterious health problems twenty one staff of so far being affected the most recent just last month with symptoms ranging from dizziness to permanent hearing loss canadian diplomats have suffered similar health problems and u.s. officials initially said they suspected some sort of sound weapon the cuban government has always denied any involvement and says the u.s. decision to pull its star would affect relations between the two countries let's get more from our u.s. state department correspondent atika haters in washington d.c. patty q-tip business isn't it what's going on. it is such a strange mystery that really investigators say they still haven't figured out and

that's why the u.s. state department says they're taking this step not because they're blaming cuba for what they're calling this health attack they say that they haven't ruled out that a third party is responsible for targeting their diplomats but they say they're taking this step because they're trying to make sure as many americans stay safe as possible so as of right now all nonessential personnel have been told to leave the cuban. embassy and their homes their bring their families there all back headed back to the united states you know this is such a strange set of circumstances because in one case there was one diplomat who was in a hotel in havana and said well he was in his bed he heard this really annoying greeting homme and he stepped away just two feet wasn't there went back to his bed but right there again other diplomats that they didn't hear anything didn't notice anything obvious and they started having these symptoms and they range from as you mentioned hearing loss that's permanent feeling out of balance cognitive disability some of them say they can't sleep now there's some evidence they may have traumatic brain

injuries and so the u.s. is going to take this step so sixty percent of the employees are gone no visas for cubans and what could be more harmful for the cuban economy is they're sending out a travel warning to american citizens saying they can't keep them safe because they don't know what this is important to point out as you mentioned cuba has denied having any involvement in this they are helping with the f.b.i. investigation that is there but state department saying they have to take the step now even while the investigation is pending because it is just so mysterious and i was reading the cuban says the pullout is hasty and will affect bilateral relations . well of course when you can have any sort of movement between the cuban people to the to america that that is going to have an impact travel warning could have an impact as well because don't forget travel was just opened up to americans going to cuba as much as president barack obama could without having to go through congress now it's important to point out that the trump administration president donald trump came to office saying that he was going make big changes and that was

a horrible deal he gave a big speech and said he was going to make those changes but really they've turned out to be just cosmetic so far but this has during the relationship the state department secretary of state rex tillerson met with his counterpart at the state department put out a readout saying that it was a pretty strong conversation a very heated conversation so obviously this is something that the state department is concerned about i think it's important to point out too that everything we're hearing doesn't make sense to the experts i've been speaking to sonic experts and they say yes there are sonic weapons but they don't work like this if you are hit by one you know it and some of them said they didn't know it and also that the technology doesn't exist where they could actually target individual people in any sort of subtle way in buildings one expert said he worked on a pretty big speaker it was the size of a semi truck so obviously that be hard to hide in a hotel room so the mystery continues but in the meantime the u.s. says it has to take these steps to protect its people so the mysterious visit to go ahead and thanks very much in the pentagon.

iraq's defense ministry has reiterated that it plans to take control of the borders of the kurdish region in coordination with iran and turkey the government halted international flights that in an effort to get monday's session vote a no hold a two hundred reports from. the last passengers to catch a plane before to close up the airspace to international flights over to kurdish region. it's been cutting short of a kitchen that was two years into coming it was the first time his two year old son born in new york visited the home and he says he didn't feel safe transiting through baghdad. being kurds. he was going to. the measure was taken by the central government in baghdad after

the kurds went ahead with their referendum against. iran was the first to close its airspace to flies from the kurdish region a few days ago. this airport. for a period of three months only special flights will be allowed but with prior approval from authorities in baghdad anyone else wanting to travel from here. will have to transit through one of the domestic airports outside of the kurdish region or they can travel around. it's also linked to the rest of iraq by land but some drivers told us they have avoided going south because they felt unwelcome. iraq's government says it's only extending its authority on the whole country to preserve its unity and kurdish authorities replied that they won't hand over any border controls to baghdad. i mean.

a lot of people. coming through this airport and you have a big number. right now. through this. prime minister he said the closure of the airspace was not meant to starve. but people. don't agree he traveled from sweden to take part in the referendum. this decision is wrong. you can contest the referendum but through legal. again the future doesn't look good. the kurdish region is landlocked turkey iran have also closed their border crossings and many kurds are now bracing themselves for what their leader described as collective punishment but at the al-jazeera

arabic. hundreds of farmers have driven trying to through barcelona in a show of force ahead of sunday's secession vote they're backing his bid to break away from the mall and neighborhood groups planning civil disobedience campaigns to try and resist efforts by the spanish government to shut down the referendum called pinhole reports now from barcelona. the fields and into the political fray. to turn the tractors into barricades if police try to crack down on the referendum. we have come to the fence the country and we are fighting for democratic rights on the right. way.

with one hundred. rides. like. the night before in the harsh light of a small square neighbors. this is one of many defense committees grassroots groups controlled by any political party on a mission to defend that they strategizing to resist police were under orders to close down schools to stop them being used as polling stations. the children will sleep in the schools to stop the police closing them down. could be the first target of the. marching to the same drum beat students have occupied university and set up their own defense committee. they've been sharing practical advice on civil disobedience tactics thank you i don't think

people will go back home if they have in us also been here with different organizations to go to us and leave a two dollars could be going to do. it and get the consensus and i don't think this is something you can raise. cattle hands a deeply divided in the centrist party is among those opposing secession regional law will make a lot a not all dan is concerned about the emergence of citizen defense committees during the civil war days basile and was run by private militia factions vietnam and i thought of putting this into it's like the castle on government in its head mr pushed him on a driving a car with no brakes and a heading over the precipice and crashing into all capital and this man. but expectations have been raised on the street by set piece political rallies

hopes that may now prove hard to contain some call pennell al-jazeera boss alone the spanish. for thousands of people are currently attending a big rally in support of the yes vote in barcelona john hendren is right there for us john tell us more about what's happening and how many people are gathering. i am witnessing the latest in a series of remarkable demonstrations of public will all week long we've seen one demonstration after another here but what is started as a concert here is trying to do a political rally and you can hear the speaker now riling up the crowd just a few moments ago they were chanting we are not afraid that was directed at spain and it's significant because on august seventeenth there was a terrorist attack here in barcelona and that is what the people chanted after that that gives you. a measure of how strongly they feel about what is happening here.

the most those police the local police have been ordered to shut down the schools and they resisted that they asked for a court order to do that and then their chief told them to shut down the schools without using force and i saw some video earlier today of how gently they did that there may be exceptions that we learn about later but it was really remarkable to see police closing down schools slash polling places in such a remarkably gentle way some of the police we're told have asked for an hour off on sunday to vote that's particularly interesting because they're asking to do something that they have been charged with stopping this police have been asked to stop this referendum from happening at all on sunday and the speaker behind me just said a couple minutes after go go to the schools protect them and that's what thousands of students are doing here in barcelona and across catalonia they are occupying

these schools and the effort is to try to keep them open so that people can vote on sunday what will be interesting to see with that more than fifteen thousand spanish national police and civil defense forces here trying to shut things down and seventeen thousand local police who have been accused of not cracking down it'll be interesting to see whether that vote happens at all you can see the enthusiasm of the crowd behind me waving their flags and the number of people who say they are going to vote according to a recent poll has actually gone up in recent days despite the spanish crackdown cardone that and i would say john hendren reporting from bustling. so to him this off the united nations says it's setting up a group to investigate human rights violations committed in the war in yemen. and draining. why this private jet could cost

a senior member of donald trump's cabinet if john. hello again you know there is still sun storm drum going around greece sometimes western turkey in southern italy this is just won't go away it's not the most active area of weather the next few days in europe but at the moment yes it is but mostly over water there's been a string across northern turkey and that probably disappeared now but just watch the area around the igi still being fed by cold winds answer ukraine from russia so next only thirteen in kiev still twenty two in ankara but sixteen in bucharest this is a well sunday but if you look further west this is the atlantic weather breaking through now that eventually and i'm thinking it's beginning to come back into the weekend when it involves the remains of hurrican merrier and hurrican lee. but that will

produce a lot of cloud a lot of rain and maybe a bit of wind as well so wet spells fifty for the british isles a little bit to the north and france as well as some of the showers have been spinning out of the aegean my well carry on catching the eastern side of libya benghazi a particular gulf of c. it looks dry and i and there's an increasing likelihood of ng of cloud building particularly north now geria and eventually tunisia by the end of sunday or the off into sunday to bring some pretty big showers here scott had big. the coca plant has long been a pillar of bolivia's traditions but its use in illegal drugs today is threatening the nation's culture that might yet also dorothy's are involved because they receive kick backs while some have made fortunes many others have suffered at the hands of this multi-billion dollar industry me mattie my mother was strangled with

a cable and brutally covered with a towel because as you describe who are the winners and losers of this illicit trade snow of the andes this time. i got a reminder the top stories here and i'll just share the united states toward sixty percent of its embassy staff to leave cuba after a spate of mysterious attacks on us diplomats protestors have released balloons carrying messages of peace outside will international airport just before iraq halted international flights to the kurdish region. and farmers have couldn't verged in barcelona on the track to show support for playing his independence

referendum. at least twenty two people have been killed many more injured after a stampede in india's commercial capital of mumbai it happened during the morning rush hour on a protest bridge connecting two railway stations but it smith has more. crushed against the steps of this railway overpass or the bodies of commuters flat as a stampede of passengers pushed them to the floor. by police a falling concrete part of the handrail and people panicked thinking the bridge was collapsing a monsoon downpour made things worse as there were also people sheltering from the rain. that is why the stampede happened because there were too many members of the public on the bridge and the people were in a hurry and wanted to get out there was no one helping they were suffocating a felony child. commute to film the crowded bridge minutes before the stampede. it was the by friday morning rush hour and the world's second most

densely populated city this is typical. as soon as the bodies had been moved the bridge was open again a few blood spots the only indication of what had happened. the injured who'd probably been on my way to work when our on their way to hospital. relatives of those who didn't survive waited outside to recover their bodies india's railway minister says he's ordered a high level inquiry but it's myth al-jazeera government as strikes have hit towns and villages in northern syria killing more than forty five people and wounding dozens more at least thirty people were killed in a wave of strikes on various parts of italy province warplanes also targeted hama and aleppo provinces where syrian a russian troops are battling opposition fighters on thursday the russian in turkish leaders agreed to push for the creation of a deescalation zone to help end the civil war the united nations

is going to set up a group to examine all human rights violations committed in the war in yemen un human rights council said it hopes to identify those responsible for possible crimes yemeni delegations said except to the resolution that was passed in the compromise between western powers and arab countries or un across from that rose when jordan sent this update from new york. this deal almost didn't happen the high commissioner for human rights hussein wanted the human rights council to authorize a commission of inquiry that's the un's gold standard investigation into alleged war crimes or alleged crimes against humanity however the saudi government was opposed to the establishment of a c.e.o. why they have been leading the coalition in support of the yemeni government and their coalition has been accused of perhaps indiscriminately or perhaps deliberately targeting civilians in an effort to try to end the civil rebellion

they were threatening to withhold money from the human rights council if a c.e.o. authorized finally late overnight on thursday into friday a compromise one brokered by the dutch delegate to the human rights council a credible international investigation is necessary in order to comprehensively transparently independently and impartially establish the facts and circumstances surrounding violations with a few to put an end to the cycle of impunity in yemen this panel of so-called eminent experts will have about a year to investigate these all of these allegations inside yemen there are questions on how much access they're going to get how much cooperation they will get from the who the rebels as well as from supporters of the former president ali abdullah saleh and there are questions of whether their findings will actually have any legal weight but their work will soon begin at least there will be some

chronicling of what has been happening on the ground inside yemen where the international committee of the red cross says all the warring parties in yemen using disproportionate force which is that excessive civilian casualties it's also why the color is not the only outbreak the country could suffer and it's calling on all sides to open sana airport to commercial flights for sensually supplies. the situation from a humanitarian standpoint is a catastrophe we have we have something which is close to a million cases of suspected kolarov maybe by the end of the year and but this is i told you it's only possibly do an external illustration of something more serious we could have an outbreak of something else russian opposition leader lexan abounding has been detained again in moscow ahead of a pre election rally here as his supporters to assemble anyway and suggested his detention is linked to a larger rally planned for st petersburg in october around the as one of the most

prominent critics of russia's president vladimir putin and hopes to run in a presidential election in march but electoral authorities say he's not eligible because he's being a suspended sentence for fraud. the u.s. administration has appointed a senior general to oversee military relief operations in puerto rico after the devastation caused by hurricane maria aid agencies there are still struggling to get help to those who desperately need it to his abode sent this update from san juan. we're here at this convention center in san juan where an emergency coordination center has been created for federal government supported with no kind of forward about what is needed on the ground and on the ground the situation is desperate for many people here in puerto rico there's still no water no electricity there's no lines of fuel fuel that is not only needed for vehicles but also for generators for generators that have been used in people's houses but also for. hospitals for example showing there's been conflicting reports about what exactly

going on on the ground of people are complaining that not enough aid is being distributed and while the local government says that everything that has a right here to puerto rico has been distributed to the federal government the state that they have sent here everything that the local authorities requested so of course people on the ground are saying that much more needed to deal with the current crisis what makes the situation even worse that there are still some areas around the island that have been off limits because of road blocks among other things and that's why so far the united states military has concentrated on opening airports for example for example i'm blocking roads that were concentrating on saving lives that's what they say now three star general that is in charge of this whole operation they're saying that they're moving there they're moving their priorities to on ground operations and that's when supposedly vital resources i'm going to be distributed around the island a senior figure in donald trump's company that is fighting for his political future

. use of private jets health and human services secretary tom price could be dismissed after it was revealed that taxpayers will have to foot bills of almost one million dollars for his trips and he's not the only top politician facing questions over the travel is on for sure. tom price may have gotten his annual flu jab but he's not an ocular from criticism from the president we're going to work through this and as. i think we've still got to the confidence of the president the health and human services secretary is facing growing criticism for his use of private flights which sometimes makes government business with personal issues the cost to the taxpayer more than four hundred thousand dollars. he also made trips to europe on military jets which could take the figure to more than a million that's enough to annoy the man who wanted to dream washington swarm process you write a personal check for his seat on the private jets and he promises he will no fly only commercial no exceptions there are two investigations underway into his travel

arrangements he says he was not sensitive enough to taxpayers and they acknowledge is the concerns of others including the president i am not happy about it that. i asked at thursday's briefing of price would keep his job there was hardly huge support they were going through this process we're going to conduct a full review and he was he what happened three other senior trump officials are facing questions about their travel interior secretary ryan zinke he took a private jet from las vegas to his home in montana at the taxpayer's expense the cost twelve thousand dollars and environmental protection agency bosco uproot flights to various parts of the u.s. costing fifty eight thousand dollars questions are being asked about the treasury secretary steven lucian's travel and requesting a government plane for his european honeymoon i think they're doing it because the example is that from the top we see donald trump violating ethics norms on a daily basis and so i think other people think we don't really need to worry about the ethics rules and that appearances really don't matter donald trump promised he

would drain the swamp and the conduct of some of his officials goes to the very heart of that it makes him look bad and that tends never to end well for people who do that well in fisher washington. space x. primary lawn mass says he's developing a rocket which will soon be able to take humans anywhere on earth in less than one hour the tech entrepreneur made the promise of a space conference in australia saying is confident it will be ready for launch in five years promotional video said it would only take twenty nine minutes to fly from london to new york and it's just part of his much more ambitious plan to colonize mars in the next few decades. as a more from the international astronautical congress in. industry heavyweights and space lovers converged on adelaide for this year's international astronautical congress the highlight of the event was without doubt space royalty entrepreneur

and billionaire elon musk has long made it known he wants to make humans and interplanetary species to make sure we don't go the way of the dinosaurs now he says he'll start a colony on the red planet with the first human flights in twenty twenty four. or that the base starting on one ship then most horse eps then sucking up the city then the city bigger. and bigger. and over time turf forming was. making it so really a nice place to be. lockheed martin too has plans to get humans to the red planet it revealed more about its blueprints for a mars base camp that will orbit the moon and act as a launching pad for human missions to mars it believes it can have an operational in a decade in about five billion years give or take the sun will eventually be going

to a red giant it will expand and devour the earth so at least in five billion years we need to have somewhere else now how much do you need to worry about it in twenty seventeen fair question but that eventually you've got to get off the planet if we're going to continue as a as a as a human race at the moment all we have on mars two rovers like this replica of the curiosity and while there are many companies here that believe humans will journey to mars within this generation and possibly even colonize it there are doubts about whether mars should be considered a backup plan to. all missions to mars need the hope of one of three nasa deep space command centers this one is new strain capital camera it operates like air traffic control but the space sending commands and receiving signals from spacecraft and all the vital communications for any human missions to mars will also go through here i think one of things that journey towards my special is that

really in reality earth has always got we have to look after this planet first and foremost going off to mars going to have to create a whole range of new technologies to survive in an environment that's trying to kill you every second of the day and there's no shortage of companies working on those technologies to keep humans alive in deep space technologies that if nothing else could perhaps be useful to humans on earth to yarber mo him out his era adelaide as a fascinating possibility probably more about all the stories we're covering right there on a website dot com. dot com. so let's just have a recap of the headlines here on al-jazeera and the united states government has ordered sixty percent of its staff in cuba to leave its embassy and have it said to be because of quote specific attacks on u.s.

diplomats some of which have taken place in cuban hotels which are used by american tourists are u.s. state department correspondent as more from washington d.c. . talking to senior state department officials they say the investigation is ongoing they still have absolutely no idea what harmed their diplomats they say they are taking the steps. basically every one but non-emergency personnel and their families they're off the island because they want to reduce the risk to american diplomats they say this isn't meant to punish cuba they simply while they don't know they want to take these precautions iraq's defense ministry says it plans to take control of the borders of its kurdistan region in coordination with iran and turkey over monday secession vote it's already hold it international flights to iraq's kurdish region protesters outside the international airport released balloons carrying messages of peace iraq's government wants the results of monday's kurdish referendum to be canceled. hundreds of driving tractors have

staged a show of force in barcelona backing supporters of catalonia is bid to break away from. taking place in the region to oppose measures adopted by the spanish government to stop sunday's vote which it says constitutional at least twenty two people have been killed and dozens more injured after a stampede in india's commercial capital of mumbai it happened during morning rush hour on a pedestrian bridge connecting to the railway station. government airstrikes have hit towns and villages in northern syria killing more than forty five people and wounding dozens more at least thirty people were killed in a wave of strikes on various parts of the province warplanes also targeted ham and aleppo provinces where syrian and russian troops are battling opposition fighters the united nations is going to set up a group to examine all human rights violations committed in the war in yemen the un

human rights council said it hopes to identify those responsible for possible crimes yemeni delegation said it accepted the resolution that's it for now coming up next up front. this week donald trump announced a revolutionary tax cut for the united states but is he its biggest beneficiary renowned economist and former advisor to ronald reagan and to trump. also debate whether one is turning into a dictatorship.