breaks. the law blanket coverage follows experts from politicians often have to choose arm soundbites strong and stable leadership trying to play the media and shape the message in an age of simplistic narratives the listening post critiques the mainstream response today is the two hundredth day of this administration exposing the influences that drive the headlines at this time on al jazeera. anger in madrid as demonstrators take to the streets in protest against sunday's secession referendum in catalonia.

all of them julie we don't know this is al jazeera live from london also coming up we will put on the safe spaces big created for him to children trying to find some temporary escape from the trauma itself it. has secretary of state is back in beijing wanting more from china to stop north korea's nuclear ambitions. if anybody out there is listening to us. we are dying. puerto rico are just the u.s. to speed up aid as it struggles to recover from hurricane maria. one welcome to the program spain's government is cracking down on the ban secession vote in its catalonia region on. someday describing it as

a mockery of democracy it's worn volunteers that polling stations could be fined more than three hundred fifty thousand dollars base have already begun deploying ahead of the ballot and sealed off more than half of the schools designated as polling centers offices say that they will remove in the spanish capital madrid thousands of people voted in favor of a united spade and held the rally neither side shows any sign of cracking jann carl pinhole joins us live now from barcelona hi there carr what's the situation right now have many of those polling stations been able to remain open. well judy i think one of the key things right now is that spanish police have an eye in the sky there's a police helicopter there's been worrying over barcelona now for about the last half an hour it went up in the heiress night started to fall it's been particularly viewing the port area of barcelona because that is where ten thousand police

reinforcements have been staying and they are under orders to come and shut down voting stations before they can even open night falls we also are aware that families with their children and so-called citizens defense committees have been trying to occupy these schools take keep them open let's take a look at a report and see why the schools have become so vital. for. school to become a decisive political battleground families and so-called defense committees are camping out to ensure school stay open and double as polling stations procession volunteers here in barcelona of the vote to information through a nap these are the few square meters at stake the spot where a ballot box will be placed it's pretty exciting you know because it's like. so many people here are united just. with one cause in common but police

are under orders from the spanish government to evict it isn't and shut down schools around dawn on sunday if that happens the referendum could be in jeopardy in madrid spain foreign minister criticised the catalan all thora t's defiance we think the law guarantees the most. pushing is not democracy it's a mockery of democracy democracy. referendum. do not. democracy catalonia sprains wealthiest region it's a bit bigger than belgium its economy larger than greece or portugal has its own language and cultural identity but the issue of secession has deeply divided society. with few impartial surveys the street is the only if imperfect barometer of voter sentiment on saturday thousands turned

out in madrid demanding spain with the main united. we don't agree on what catalans are doing they have no right to do what they doing we're all spaniards catalonia in spain. police raided the cattle and governments computer technology center and shut down software due to be used for the final vote tally. today we were informed that the organization of the illegal referendum suffered a blow when the facilities of the catalan government's telecommunications hold were blocked with the intention to prevent telematic voting and vote counting. referendum for a new republic or mockery of democracy the outcome is unlikely to hang on technology all the law but on the ability of citizens to defend the ballot box in schools that have become a battleground. now you can probably see the lights of

barcelona down there below starting to twinkle it looks quite a pretty scene from up here above but down there there is a real sense that not only catalonia but all of spain is now heading in to a critical few hours what happens overnight and as we get towards dawn could define whether this referendum goes ahead or not but if it does go ahead that is not the end of the potential trouble because if there is a yes vote in favor of secession the catalan government has said that within forty eight hours it could be declaring independence from the rest of spain and that really sends the country into unchartered political waters julie called pinhole there joining me live from barcelona. now would tony berkeley who's in madrid hi there tony just going on the back of what carl was saying this just how critical a moment is this for spain. well i think as karl said it is very critical i think

a lot of people here in madrid didn't realize how critical it was until today because they turned out in force for a demonstration we're told more than five thousand people came out to voice their support for catalonia staying with spain they were very condom condemning of the government they want to see the castle and government leaders put in jail they're fully supportive of what the spanish government is doing to try and stop this referendum and we've seen today basically a hardening of attitudes a hardening of action but no softening of emotion this has become a war of words which people are concerned where this will lead to whatever happens in sunday's vote the hostility and the acrimony that's been shown in this campaign will have long lasting effect so what will be done to help this we are told that maybe behind the scenes talks are going on who knows but each side is accusing the other of various things and it's not good for spain as a whole

a number of countries are watching very closely what is going on here because there are repercussions not just for spain but other countries in europe so this is critical not only for spain but for some countries in europe also tony in terms of the motion i know using the in the emotional dials dial down right now while the rhetoric i guess is being dialed up but i'm just thinking you know it being around people in this thing to do what they're saying did they have any sympathy with catalonia and those attitudes really hardened. they believe only has no historical all geographical reasons to claim that they are to be independent they want counted as part of spain it's always been part of spain they say. the problem is that many things hang over this referendum going back eighty years civil war the rule of general franco as leader. many of the catalan see the current government the judiciary and the police as being a legacy of that time so there's a lot of distrust

a lot of years of inbred hatred and suspicion of the regime here in madrid so that's got to be overcome how that's going to be done is going to be very difficult indeed we've seen in previous countries for example the former yugoslavia when that broke up when croatia wanted independence for example and then what happened was it became fragmented but each side learnt to give and take to bring that to a conclusion of course no one is saying this is going to end in armed conflict but what is the next step if the catalans vote yes one of only there live from madrid tony thank you. hundreds of range of refugees who've crossed into bangladesh are lining up to receive aid at that could just across the border bangladeshis have mobilized to help some of the half a million people who escaped the violence in me and the united nations refugee agency in the government are providing food water and medical aid. well aid

agencies have created special player his for a range of children to offer them some temporary escape from the trauma they're suffering tender choudhry is one such area in cox's bazaar in bangladesh. close to how many are going to refuse it up crossed over to bunker those are the matter of one month out of some two hundred a decision our children according to aid agencies i'm going to the government and among them a hundred thousand children one of the ladies this is something called child friendly spaces this was set up by bangladesh rock the largest and you know and also with the help of unicef what just says children has not played corner drawing corner and reading corner they also have music corner the children are quite happy out here they're out of danger in the street they get counseling from a professional counseling people they're also in a place where they are given free mats and lunch sometimes fifty or six of discouraged are set up among the new and old refugee camps six of them are old the

rest are new you know if there's me on my references are unable to go back to myanmar within us to come goes like this and now that the sun does like this are badly needed to rehabilitate a lot of those children who are hired from a price for what they're facing on the other side of the border in the years to combine with a government agency has to mentally prepare to set up institution like this to help the children cope with the trauma of their face while coming to bond with us and what the faced in myanmar us says is maintaining direct channels of communication with pyongyang in an effort to result tensions on the korean peninsula secretary of state next to listen is in beijing meeting his counterpart wangi on a second trip to the chinese capital this year u.s. wants china to increase the economic pressure on north korea over its nuclear weapons and program play joined by move 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 to 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 the 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. still to come here on al-jazeera. protest movements join forces to march against racism in washington d.c. plus. i mean. hunter valley has become the center of the any debate here and a plan to close the country's. path station. we've

got some very wet and windy weather coming into the northwest of europe over the next couple of days beyond this particular and of cloud very blustery conditions that comes out first area of low pressure starting to see the remnants of hurricane lili followed by harken that maria down into the southeast in kona all the way weather still in place here as well some more big time very downpours just around the island sea so the grease pushing into that western half of turkey between nazi battle still seeing germany five weather for vienna seventy's. bad powder not too bad but you can see the germany seeing some rather wet weather coming through the next size of a wet and windy weather come monday that does look a very blustery day across a good part of england some areas of wiles' clad in the rain streaming in looking to bring in the course france as well actually the western side of the may could see a little more cloud just rolling through a little clout there standing down into northern parts of algeria perhaps that path

they can often times to keep the old spots of right whether easing a little further into some very unsettled weather coming through here northern rock on the other hand looking hot and dry bats at around thirty degrees celsius bengazi with a high of twenty five. determined to live life to the full. i have very limited science five percent but i can distinguish objects big and small realize their ambition but also i was hungry for but also afraid of it because i'm married for love i still today. follows for inspiring people in istanbul as they seek to prove that seeing isn't everything at this time.

or mind of our top stories here on al-jazeera spacings government is deploying place ahead of the band secession of all in its catalonia region on sunday describing it as a mockery of democracy safe spaces have been created for a range of children inside refugee camps in bangladesh where their families have fled to escape the violence in the. u.s. says it's maintaining direct channels of communication with north korea secretary of state rex tillerson visits china for talks. of the mayor of puerto rico's capital someone has accused the trumpet ministration of killing people for inefficiency ten days after hurricane maria devastated the u.s. territory it is starting to reach communities in need in the white house has

appointed a three star general to oversee relief operations but carmen you and cruz says it's not happening quickly enough we are here. 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 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 the bureaucracy

well donald trump has hit back via twitter accusing his political rivals of telling the mayor someone to criticize them in another tweet he said some poor leadership ability by the mayor someone and all those imports who we kill were not able to get their workers to help while speaking to al jazeera is to raise a boy on saturday someone's mayor shrugged off trump's comments but said she believes puerto rico is being discriminated against i think we haven't been treated with the same sense of emergency that other to sas or sabun treated and again you know. i have five hundred twenty pounds mayor of a city in the caribbean a three star general. said yesterday we don't have enough we need to get more in order to be able to take care of the situation. home are to say that a general isn't saying the right thing. the white house has ordered

a crackdown on the use of private planes for government staff following the resignation of the us health secretary its own price made twenty six private flights this year which cost the taxpayer around four hundred thousand dollars president several other administration officials are facing scrutiny over their travel all private flights from will have to be proved by white house chief of staff john kelly. thousands of people are gathering in washington to protest against racism and police brutality in the u.s. two rallies are being held the march for racial justice and the march for black women organizers are calling for an end to what they say is systemic racism the day marks the anniversary of the l.a. massacre of one thousand nine hundred where more than one hundred black americans were killed by white supremacist rioters the leaders of columbia's last remaining where will group has ordered its finest to stand down ahead of a three month cease fire beginning on sunday they close rodriguez posted a rare video online committing the national liberation army to honoring the deal it

began peace talks with the government in february after the disarmament of the much larger fark rebel group tension is increasing between the kurdish leaders leadership in northern iraq and its neighbors after this week's secession vote iraq says it's coordinating with iran and with turkey to take control of borders administered by the sending autonomy as kurdish regional government the inclusion of the city of kirkuk in northern iraq in monday's secession vote has also angered baghdad it has some of the biggest oil reserves in the country charles strafford reports now from erbil. the kurdish peshmerga chief control you could call for the iraqi army flippantly since even two thousand and fourteen. but there's never been agreement between the kurdish regional government ok elegy 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 kill cook and take back control of the oil fields and the kurdish governor of kirkuk coachella body 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 may be 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 comes against me for my patriotic position it's it's a non-issue 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 turkmen and arabs who have lived in kirkuk for generations boycotted the referendum this if you were to the area and the borders of k r g is not the clear and the specially kid. will be. spirits or the throne between would be owned by god and maybe be a war about. the way to solve this a problem is not the independence you're under in front of the world is the outlook

two thousand and five constitution stipulates that the federal government send seventeen percent of the federal budget to the k l g every year. it stops sending the money in two thousand and fifteen. and back that is since accuse the k r g of not sharing the oil wealth but any fighting here could jeopardize the battle against icily how we shop around fifty kilometers southwest of kirkuk. troia's kirkuk which at the heart of the referendum kurdish independence. occurred saying they would fight if you tried to take it from them john strafford al jazeera well up to twenty eight people have been killed in airstrikes in the rebel held it clipped province of syria the u.k. based group the syrian observatory for human rights says that four children were amongst the dead they've not been able to verify whether the strikes were carried out by the syrian government or its main ally russia an air france plane

has made an emergency landing in canada after an apparent engine explosion the airline says the airbus a three eighty was flying from paris to l.a. when it suffered what was described as serious engine damage over the north atlantic and diverted to goose bay at least fifty people have been arrested in the swedish city of gothenburg during a demonstration held by a far right who are members of the nordic resistance movement fought with came to demonstrate its history far works the group which promotes anti semitic ideas time the march to coincide with the jewish holiday of kapoor one hundred officer and several other people were also injured. 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 says twenty fifteen yemeni government forces backed by a saudi led coalition been fighting hooty rebels supported by iran casual play as

well jan 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. condy 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 mansingh pressure at the international level for this to go ahead at a p.r. level 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 are

entering 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 more in yemen is showing no signs of ending but the u.n. humanitarian council hopes the. investigation will lead to a greater level of accountability on all sides to local story young al-jazeera. former un climate chief says a strain there is stuck in a time warp because of its reliance on coal and strains are suffering from soaring elektra's see prices and power blackouts the government hopes it can improve this by extending the life of an aging coal fired power station but its operators came to invest in new game cleaner technologies man reports from the hunter valley on the energy. the owner of the oldest coal fired power station in

australia says it's showing its age millions of dollars are being spent to keep the forty five year old little plant running before we ties in five years but the government is pressuring operator to continue producing power for another five years beyond then saying it's key to securing electricity supplies a.g.l. is considering the request but says it would be better off investing in new cleaner technologies such as wind and solar so it's a natural progression of whatever anything comes to the end of its technical you'd run the roller over whether you extend it or whether you. do something new in this but certainly the economics to lead you towards your goals being provided for energy and. you have very flexible efficient technologies providing that capacity the hunter valley north of sydney in new south wales is at the center of the energy debate here because it's a major coal mining and power provider the little power station is in muscle broke

and the town's mayor says it's time to look to the future. if it is becomes a choice between extending little for an additional five years knowing that the jobs will come to an end at that point or closing it and repurpose seeing it for fifty years of new generation power then that is clearly the preferable option. not only is the is draining government pushing to expand a prolonged the life of coal fired power stations like this one in the hunter valley it's also backing a new coal mine which if built will be one of the largest in the world. despite community opposition these trading governments approved the multi-billion dollar indian owned car market coal mine but there are serious concerns about its financial viability the architect of the united nations paris climate agreement which agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions says developing calm ones now makes no

sense so you know if that project had been proposed in the year nine hundred fifty it would probably have been a good project to propose that project in two thousand and seventeen frankly it's like science fiction time warp except that science fiction usually looks forward this one is a science fiction that is looking back astray is expected to remain the world's largest exporter of coal for at least the next twenty years despite that abundance some power station operators see a future in renewable energy and reduced carbon gas emissions yarber most. muscle brooke in the hunter valley and you might have much more about the big stories we're following on our website head to debbie debbie debbie dot dot cong. well before we go a quick look again at those main headlines we're following here on al-jazeera

spain's government is cracking down on the banned secession vote in its catalonia region on sunday describing it as a mockery of democracy base have already begun deploying ahead of the ballot and sealed off more than half of the schools designated as polling centers karl penhall is in the capital and capital. on the one hand we assume 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 campout they want to keep the schools open and ensure that this boat goes ahead safe spaces have been created for a range of children inside bangladeshi refugee camps where their families have fled to escape the violence in myanmar hundreds of ranger refugees are lining up to

receive aid at the could have prolonged camp just across the border u.s. says it is maintaining direct channels of communication with north korea secretary of state rex tillerson is in beijing meeting his counterpart wangi on his second trip to the chinese capital this year the mayor of puerto rico's capital song one has accused the trumpet ministration of killing people through inefficiency ten days after hurricane maria we are dying here and not cannot fathom. the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out why just sixty four in small island of one hundred miles might thirty five miles. thousands of people are gathering in washington to protest against racism and police brutality in the u.s. two alleys are being hailed the march for racial justice a march for black women organized as

a coin for an end to what they say is systemic racism. those are your top stories currently listening post is coming up next examining the spanish media's contrasting take on catalonia current controversial referendum we'll see a bit later. thanks. to referendum wanting to thank. you.