determined to live life to the full. i have very limited sight. but i can distinguish objects big and small and realize their ambitions. but. because america. follows for inspiring people. to prove that seeing isn't everything at this time. anger in madrid as demonstrators take to the streets in protest against sunday secession referendum in catalonia.

from london also coming up on the safe spaces being created for children trying to find some temporary escape from the trauma they've suffered. if anybody out there is listening. we are. the u.s. . struggles to recover from hurricane maria. and tensions between the kurdish leadership and its regional neighbors after this week's vote for independence from iraq. government is cracking down on the bounce a session voted. on sunday describing it as a mockery of democracy it's one one volunteers at. polling stations could be fined

more than three hundred fifty thousand dollars apiece have already begun deploying ahead of the ballots and sealed off more than half of the schools designated as polling centers offices say they will remove voters in madrid files of people in favor of united spain are holding a rally. while our teams are across the country covering this story tony berkeley is in madrid where thousands turned out to protest against the independence vote we'll hear from him shortly but first let's go to call penn hole who is in barcelona called the catalan leader carlos put jim on saying whatever the vote is yes or no we have to think about mediation do you get the sense that people in barcelona are intending to listen to mediation. i think initially when this whole process this whole drive towards secession started it was the political leadership that very much was in command but the impetus really has shifted to the streets now

because it is the people who are in favor of secession they have realized that in order to get this vote out in order for the referendum to go ahead a tool they have to occupy spaces they have to organize themselves day themselves not the politicians have to defend the ballot boxes so i don't think the street is in any mood for negotiation from what we know the orth already has the spanish authorities in much mood for negotiation either a short distance away from here there are ten thousand national police and civil guard reinforcements in the port of barcelona they are ready and waiting to go into action they are under orders to evict citizens from schools that are due to be used as polling stations they do the victim before dawn we've got to see what the reaction is from the citizens now occupying schools across catalonia and that they have set up civil defense committees to try and resist the police coming in because they know very well if those polling stations are shut down by police this whole

referendum could be in jeopardy so that's a picture from karpen hall there speaking to us from barcelona let's swing down to this capital madrid where tony berkeley is standing by for us tony the spanish foreign minister saying there this referendum is a mockery. of democracy surely a referendum is all about democracy. you would think so that's the view that's been taken here from the spanish government but that's a view that probably would not be in agreement with outside of spain it's a very complicated situation is getting very heated and turning very ugly a war of words is happening between barcelona and madrid accusations and counter-accusations i can speak more from the street the people who turned out to this demonstration today. they were. five thousand i have to say it's not very many in a city of three point two million but the vote the voice of those people was raised and they were very supportive of the government i think if you asked most people

who were in attendance they would say the government is not going far enough but they certainly are taking the right measures according to those people but it's opening the door for counter accusations that they're becoming more thorough tarion and it's a throwback to the days when general franco was in charge of the country so it is getting very ugly the concern is what will happen after sunday's vote no matter what happens how are they going to heal the wounds that are being created this very bitter and vitriolic campaign. that the main question tell you barely that from the latest from madrid. hundreds of ranger refugees who have crossed into bangladesh are lining up to receive aid at the pollen count just across the border and today she's have mobilized to help some of the hof a million people who've escaped the violence in myanmar the united nations refugee agency and the government are providing food water and medical and. aid

agencies have created special play areas for were injured children to offer them some temporary a scape from the trauma they've suffered tell me a child really is one such area in cox's bazar in bangladesh. close to how many are going to refuse it up crossed over to bangladesh for the matter of one month out of time to undertake this isn't our children according to aid agencies and bangladesh government among them one hundred thousand children one of the ways this is something called child friendly space this was set up by bangladesh crack the largest n.g.o.s and also with the help of unicef what you're says children has got click on that drawing corner and reading corner they also have music on earth the children to be quite happy out here they're out of danger in the streets they get counseling from a professional counseling people they're also in a place where they are given free mats and lines sometimes sister six of this kind of it's are set up among the new and old refugee camps six of them are old the rest

are new if there is me and my refugees are unable to go back to myanmar with in years to come because like this and sometimes like this our badly needed to really have a little a lot of those children who are highly traumatized by what they're seeing on the other side of the border in the years to combine with this government aid agency has to mentally prepare to set up institutions like this to help the children cope with the trauma their face while coming to buy into this and what the faced in myanmar. the mayor of puerto rico's capital sound one has accused the chump administration of killing people through inefficiency ten days after hurricane maria devastated the u.s. territory aid is starting to reach communities in need and the white house has appointed a three star general to oversee relief operations but common huling cruz says it's not happening quick enough we are dying here. and

not cannot fathom. the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out the logistics for his small island of one hundred miles my thirty five miles i am begging begging anyone that can hear us to save us from dying. if anybody out there is listening to us we are dying. and you are killing us with the inefficiencies and of iraq. but it's likely to be months before life returns to normal in puerto rico sure isabeau is in the badly damaged town of nara hito. in the central mountains of puerto rico when he was one of the worst hit areas by

hurricane mighty yeah the eye of the storm passed right through this part of the island. in the course of my says she cannot help but cry when she things of everything she's lost you. can see i cry for what happened for what we lost but brenda is not alone many here are struggling to recover from the hurricane people tell us that this area used to be filled with green trees but as you can see there's not many left in fact many of the houses in this area were completely blown away. this for example is the only standing left from this house. that we cover for it's around away on around the island the electricity grid was destroyed so the island is currently dependent on generators. the hurricane was so strong that it destroyed the old posts the new posts nothing survived we are all

doing what we can to get the island moving again at the town's shelter there are more than one hundred people left homeless they have lost everything they own the city's mayor has played a crucial role in organizing relief efforts private donations are purring in but more is still needed. what we desperately need is water to continue providing people here with what they need we have some food clothes for them and now we need to see how we help them to get their lives back together what about rico was struggling before two consecutive storms hit the island heavily in debt with high levels of poverty local authorities say they need help because we have three four and five million of american citizens in need right now so we'll need our fellow of the federal government to recovery program this will take years it's really a position where before the. recovery efforts will probably take months people like

that in the course may say they're bracing themselves for a long struggle. and he don't want to recall tension is increasing between the kurdish leadership in northern iraq and its neighbors after this week's session vote iraq says it is coordinating with iran and turkey to take control of borders administered by the semi autonomous kurdish regional government the inclusion of the city of co cook in northern iraq monday secession vote has also angered baghdad it has some of the biggest always in the country channel stratford reports from there bill. it's the kurdish peshmerga to control the kill cook after the iraqi army fled in islip pensive in two thousand and fourteen but there's never been agreement between the kurdish regional government ok argy and the federal government in baghdad about who should be in control here and benefit most from the area's vast oil wealth. kirkuk had an eighty percent

turnout in the referendum on kurdish the session the day after the vote the iraqi parliament asked prime minister hydrilla party to send troops into kurdish controlled disputed areas like kirkuk and take back control of the oil fields and the kurdish governor of kirkuk hopes he doesn't heed to parliament's demand prime minister about he has made it clear that force is not. how you will approach this thing. and i agree with him and we don't expect a force to be used but of course there are people maybe not under his control who may try to do this parliament earlier this month voted to remove mr karim but he has refused to go and anything that's comes against me for my patriotic position. it's it's an honor for me many kurds call

kirkuk their jerusalem but there are also turkomans arabs and christians here too there are also hundreds of thousands of arabs that have arrived here in recent years fleeing i saw and they feel very let down by the baghdad government there's also considerable opposition amongst the arabs and the turkmen about any idea with respect to kirkuk being part of a future independent kurdish state. the vast majority of men and arabs who have lived in kirkuk for generations boycotted the referendum this if you to the area and the borders of k r g is not the clear and the specially cared. will be. space officer try going on between be owned by god and may be. a war about. the way to solve this a problem is not independency and there found on the way is. the two

thousand and five constitution stipulates that the federal government send seventeen percent of the federal budget to the kayla g. every year. it stops sending the money in two thousand and fifteen. and baghdad has since accused the kayleigh ji of not sharing the oil wealth but any fighting here could jeopardize the battle against eisel in how we are around fifty kilometers southwest of kirkuk. who controls kill cook. the referendum on kurdish independence the kurds say they will fight every one who tries to take it from them john strafford al jazeera. still ahead on al-jazeera a u.s. secretary of state is back in beijing wanting more from china to stop north korea's nuclear ambitions. and another setback for natalee's villages hit hard by the twenty fifteen at quake as heavy rains cause more destruction.

how i we've seen some very heavy rain recently into northeastern parts of turkey that has led to some extensive flooding still a fair amount of cloud just straddling the black sea pushing over towards the caspian sea i'm afraid yes there is more rain in the full cost over the next as i said want to show i was there ever towards georgia just extending out to come further south this financial i just around syria lebanon jordan twenty four beirut similar value to four terror and go on into monday here comes that cloud of rain that all the way through armenia pushing across georgia over into the caspian sea northern parts of iran could see some wet weather further south still pretty hot in

baghdad at thirty five celsius and hotter still in kuwait city. thirty two for not too bad though it does feel pleasantly warm that maybe touching thirty nine as we go on through monday elsewhere across the region potentially well i see sunshine busting through we see some rather wet weather busting across eastern parts of south africa recently hundred thirty nine millimeters of rain in the tal that showery right will make its way further east which as we go on through the next couple of days easing across the eastern cape by the time we come to monday it should be dry.

welcome back reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera spain's government is deploying police i had to balance a session vote in its catalonia regional sunday describing it as a mockery of democracy safe spaces have been created for a hinge of children inside refugee camps in bangladesh where the families of fled to escape the violence in may. and the mare of puerto rico's capital has criticised

the chump administration's response to hurricane maria which devastated the u.s. territory ten days ago. the united nations has agreed to start an independent investigation into human rights abuses by all sides in the war in yemen the decision follows weeks of negotiations since twenty fifteen yemeni government forces backed by a sound united coalition have been fighting the rabble supported by iran. reports. the decision has been described as a game changer the un human rights council has agreed to send a delegation of experts to investigate possible war crimes in yemen more than ten thousand civilians have died since the country's devastating war started in two thousand and fifteen and that number could rise. the international community faces several urgent tasks in yemen including the protection safety and security of civilians the u.n. delegation is expected to investigate attacks on schools markets and even hospitals

fina between harvey rebels and a saudi led coalition which side with president. condi has torn the country the commission will also investigate attacks carried out by the rebels i think that the point becomes one of does the international community stand by the laws that have. all yemeni lives as valuable as any other lives the decision was met with resistance a last minute compromise between western powers and arab countries including saudi arabia eventually made it possible experts say blocking the investigation could have led to more unwanted attention you see mounting pressure at the international level for this to go ahead at a level that the u.s. the u.k. saudi arabia who've been instrumental in the past really blocking this kind of investigation going ahead would struggle to justify their reasons for doing so

right now along with the war an estimated twenty million yemenis continue to go hungry and a nationwide cholera epidemic is ravaging the country since april more than two thousand people have died from the illness the red cross believes there could be a million cases of suspected cholera by the end of the year but access to treatment is limited airport is completely sealed off on the three planes roughly trying the i.c.r.c. plane m.s.f. and un plane and no other plane is coming in even planes that could do some humanitarian transfer of patients that want to get treatment abroad or something like that this is not possible so you don't have access to drugs and you're going to go out. with war in yemen is showing no signs of ending but the u.s. humanitarian council hopes the investigation will lead to a greater level of accountability on all sides to local sort of young al jazeera. thieves and pirates and oil rich nigeria are costing the government at least

a billion dollars in lost revenue every month now the nigerian army says it's cracking down on the oil and that's proving to be a difficult task reports from niger delta. on the hunt for pirates in all fields in the creeks of nigeria's delta it's hard and dangerous work. as we approach a base we were being watched all the way but the military hardware is enough deterrent that they're all feel or set on fire a strategy to stop us from getting close to these suspects however aren't likely today and. it. is. three months after their base was destroyed by the army it's being rebuilt while all is refined and the talk of pipes lead to a nearby oil well for a way crude is diverted this is what remains of an illegal refinery after

a raid by the nigerian army hundreds like these have been destroyed in the past few months refine oil here after breaking in from all pipelines and wells across the region and other bombed out refinery is trying to get back into business a few kilometers from here this company has been destroyed before. it was considered they are trying to revive it which means that we still have to conduct here to put it out of use completely again the biggest threat to nigeria's all supply any kind of me on to the us all thieves. it's a well connected orders of the buy just send ships or transport the crude in large quantities every ship was seized filled with petroleum products for years the pirates have made these waterways unsafe and blood the nigerian economy. now the army has new treatment and personnel. it's

a shore force which commanders hope will deter criminals. is penned in. bring about the. next night raids. protect the sovereignty of. the government's new offensive isn't welcome with everyone not just the pirates but i am very broken same. road into the region that's all it's not going to be with my people. government leaders say the crackdown use necessary to stop criminal activities protect lives in nigeria's largest natural asset. in the niger delta. the leader of colombia's last remaining rebel group has ordered his fighters to stand down ahead of a three month ceasefire beginning on sunday nicholas riggers posted a rare video online committing the national liberation army to want to ring the

deal that began peace talks with the government in february after the disarmament of the much larger fark rebel group. the white house has ordered a crackdown on the use of private planes for government staff following the resignation of the us health secretary tom price may twenty six private flights this year which cost the taxpayer around four hundred thousand dollars and language president trump several other administration officials are facing scrutiny over their travel. the u.s. says it's maintaining direct channels of communication with pyongyang and in an effort to resolve tensions on the korean peninsula secretary of state rex tillerson is in beijing meeting his counterpart one the u.s. wants china to increase the economic pressure on north korea over its nuclear weapons and missile program adrian brown reports from beijing. well with tensions

on the korean peninsula still at a very dangerous level rarely have relations between china and the united states mattered as much as they do now rex tillerson had been jus to arrive in beijing on friday night but his visit was delayed because of mechanical problems with his plane on saturday he had a brief audience with president xi jinping that is significant because china's president doesn't always grant an audience to visiting dignitaries from overseas that's a measure of the importance they place on rex tillerson presence in china and also of the importance they place on president donald trump visiting china in november that was confirmed by the white house at the weekend both china and the united states have a very different approach as to how to deal with north korea rex tillerson wants to make sure that china delivers on its promise to fully implement united nations sanctions against north korea for its part china says it's backing

a whole slew of new sanctions against north korea for instance on sunday it will begin limiting the export of oil to north korea on friday it announced it was shutting down all north korean businesses in china in three months time the same applies to north korean chinese joint ventures so in a sense north korea in a strange way is bringing china and the united states closer together large areas and appall are still suffering from the destruction caused by a powerful earthquake in twenty fifteen recent heavy rains have made the rebuilding process harder so initial reports from the border town of lifting. a raging river and a trembling mountainside weakened by the two thousand and fifteen grade when drugs started falling on larger bridge in june they cut a lifeline for people living on the other side of this but bridge is the only link to markets for people living in once thriving villages on the way to the chinese

border the entire area was devastated by the quake. when the bridge was destroyed and his car both became stuck on the other side three months on the drive is still precarious and the scene heartbreaking the mountainside is scarred by landslides triggered by heavy rain lost many homes were buried here flooding also engulfed homes near the river because look this is both because you had your power the dam can no longer hold water this forty five megawatt hydro power plant was destroyed. people have nothing to do since the bit broke people had to carry everything a sack of rice with one thousand five hundred rupees is now two thousand one hundred school at eight hundred children now there are three hundred everyone who has an option has left. this is living a town that used to collect three hundred thousand dollars a day just on customs and duties from trade with china now this is the reality at

what was a major border crossing. after the quake the border closed and locals on the chinese side relocated to say gutsy a city several hundred kilometers away this chinese town is now deserted on the path side people stayed on when we were here in early two thousand and sixteen. houses here and there was a bus stop over here many of these houses still had people living here with the hope that trade between the paul and china would start again the few who remain here now say they have lost all. even houses built after the quake have slipped into the river the government has declared the area unlivable but locals haven't been provided new homes we were told not to venture further rocks are still falling . and rocks are the only thing people have these women who used to earn fifty dollars a day selling chinese goods are now forced to break rocks in the hope they may one

day on them a living. they say that at least the bridge to katmandu will be built soon perhaps then they can sell the only thing they have to trade al-jazeera living on the nepal china border now to truly understand the range of crisis unfolding in myanmar and bangladesh there's no substitute to being there but our team al jazeera dot com has come up with a close by creating a virtual reality film of the crisis come all santa maria has a look. this is. she's just one of thousands of muslim or hinge or persecuted in maine maher and now living in a camp and conses bizarre bangladesh to put yourself in her shoes. i am ranger is the world's first three hundred sixty degree documentary on the range

and it was filmed back in may by al-jazeera virtual reality team contrasts v.o.r. they thought they were documenting the peak of the crisis but since then as we know around half a million more ranger refugees have crossed into bangladesh their stories can seem overwhelming mostly because they are putting yourself in the place of just one person makes it that much more understandable. for them. you can view the film for yourself at al-jazeera dot com for its premiere at the vancouver international film festival on october fifth. before we go a quick look at the main headlines. spain's government is cracking down on the bounce a session voted in its catalonia region on sunday describing it as

a mockery of democracy have already begun deploying ahead of ballots more than half of the schools that the polling centers. in the catalan capital. on the one hand we are seeing police under orders from the spanish government to move into those schools and make sure that all the citizens there are a victim before dorner and those schools a sealed so that the vote cannot go ahead meanwhile we're seeing families including their children organize into defense committees they've moved into the schools to occupy them organizing camp outs they want to keep the schools open and ensure that this vote goes ahead the marrow of puerto rico's capital someone has accused the trumpet ministration of killing people through inefficiency ten days after hurricane maria devastated the u.s. territory we are dying here. and not cannot

fathom. the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out the logistics for in small island of one hundred miles of my thirty five miles. the united nations has agreed to start an independent investigation into human rights abuses by all sides in the war in yemen the decision follows weeks of negotiations since twenty fifteen yemeni government forces backed by a saudi led coalition been fighting hoofy rebels supported by iran the leader of colombia's last remaining rebel group has ordered his fighters to stand down ahead of a three month cease fire nicholas wood riggers posted a rare video online committing the national liberation army to honoring the deal. saying spaces are being created for revenge of children inside bangladeshi refugee camps where their families have fled to escape the violence in myanmar hundreds of

ring fiji's are lining up to receive aid at a camp just across the border. that's all for now but inside story is next don't go away. who's committed war crimes in yemen the u.n. has agreed to send a team to investigate what how much us politics played in this decision and who will hold those responsible for human rights abuses to account for this is inside story.