forces were targeted in the west and as it's. doing a raid on our faces. more now on our top story the spanish government's move to invoke article one five five of the country's constitution and stripped the cattle and regional government of some of its powers here's a closer look at article one five five it's just two short paragraphs within the constitution of spain allowing madrid to use all measures necessary to prevent an autonomous region from breaking the law it's never been applied before the government's options include suspending the capital and government and removing leaders including the regional president colors putting on madrid could also take control of the catalan police force which defied court orders to close polling stations for the referendum the central government's already said that it plans to call an election to replace catalan as leaders in january joining us now is edward rose a constitutional law expert he's with us in barcelona so what happens next is

the catalan president do you think likely to declare independence anytime soon. as we definitely know that that's probably the situation so we all expected that after the decision of the spanish government that catalan government and especially the catalan president could someone could maybe call for elections but after. the decision of mr rudd has been so tough and it has been war so tough. that it's less likely it seems more likely that the time president. will make a formal declaration of independence even if that this note for you left you say no real effect i mean what is likely to happen if he does make that declaration of independence i mean surely that's just going to make things as far as relations between barcelona and madrid a concern even worse. yes so it has no to

ridicule no legal effect because there is no real chance to be effectively independent but of course it has the political consequences and and bad ones of course first of all it will make them much more difficult legal situation of mr puts them on to we have probably taken before the courts for different criminal criminal situations and criminal causes and this will break completely any kind of dialogue between us alone and the great and it will put it to. the central government of spain so the government officer for you to use any kind of force in order to warrant that he will be in charge of the situation she will have all the legal possibilities to use the spanish police to give orders to the cattle and police and if necessary to use the army. finally an assessor measure

if mr bush one doesn't declare independence in his speeches later today what are his options now. when she has assumed one because she was calling for elections even declare independence and call for elections saying that those elections will be a constituent elections for the new state then the question is if the central government will accept that as elections in general thinking that what will result is just a regional power you. probably both could to agree on the words elections and both could forget the ward constituent that mr putin one could use and the war to an army that mr roy hoodoos that would be the first the first possibility of mr briggs i wonder one which forth an end to this the crisis we have now the second possibility he has is to do nothing not to declare in devon them. but just to wait

to wait. until friday. we have to take the formal decision to put. into effect so until friday this is just a proposal. i need to see natomas fault so it's probably. kind of game between the both governments from today until thursday friday. and then we will see them on. calls for elections or is this in a treaty. article hundred fifty five very very briefly is there any doubt whether the senate will vote not to put it into practice. this is not. to put it. to put into practice it's not probable to the senate will do that probably if the senate will do that only if

someone calls for elections first if not. there is really no chance or to this practice mr rush to talk to so many thanks indeed constitutional law expert at wardrobe in barcelona the u.s. secretary of state is on his latest diplomatic mission focusing on conflict and security rex tillerson his first stop is in saudi arabia for talks on the war in yemen and the gulf crisis he'll then go on to qatar pakistan and india on thursday to listen said that he had little hope the gulf diplomatic dispute would be resolved anytime soon blaming the for blockading nations for refusing to engage in talks our correspondent patty culhane is with me in the studio right now we were talking earlier and you said to me it's very rare that the secretary of state to go somewhere where there's a problem without having a hint of that being a solution to that problem do you think he's got something up his sleeve you know these things are not done on the fly there's entire teams that come in always before hand. and with every other secretary of state we knew that when they were

getting on the plane landed in a country that they had an expectation of what they saluted call in d.c. deliverables but their tone they're saying that that's probably not going to happen the crisis is going to go on for a very long time so why is he coming so why is he coming told by sources in washington the president donald trump is growing increasingly frustrated his question keeps that he keeps asking the secretary of state is why is this still happening and why is this done so this could be the secretary sending a message to his boss that he is still trying and we are seeing a subtle change in tone from him as he starts on this trip but. once again u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson finds himself boarding his plane for the long flight to the gulf. he was here in july he hopes signing a memorandum of understanding with guitar would be enough to end the blockade it didn't despite his shuttle diplomacy so now he's coming back trying a new tactic for the four blockading countries saudi arabia u.a.e.

egypt and bahrain assigning blame and then in an interview saying qatar is willing to negotiate and the saudi led coalition is simply refusing to talk analysts say there is a renewed hope they might be more willing to engage now has the president for example try to put pressure on the saudis in the u.a.e. to be willing to to to me to their resolve some of the sanctions and stop that they put on. the fact that the president house call mout now and basically decertified the iran deal is that going to make the saudis more willing to work with us they deal with the situation with god or us president initially put all the blame for the crisis on cutter but after being pushed by his secretaries of state and defense he now says it's time for all sides to talk if i can help mediate between cutter and in particular the u.a.e.

and saudi arabia i would be willing to do so and i think you'd have a deal worked out very quickly his own secretary of state is publicly disagreeing taking the trip while downplaying expectations the g.c.c. crisis will end soon what he does during this trip could very well determine if that is true. so. restless has been embarrassed by this this the situation before there was the memorandum of understanding that the cattery signed on preventing terrorism they wanted the other nations the full blockade and have just signed up to it they didn't then there was the phone call between the crown prince of saudi arabia and the emir of qatar which went. no well what else could he do to push them well he's got a couple of different things he could do this would be really high risk because after you know president trump said he's a deal maker and this is what he does he could publicly say we're inviting you all to come to the white house come to camp david we're going to sit down to have negotiations now they would be unlikely to do that unless they thought that they could be successful but if they get frustrated enough they could use that card this

is a this is annoying the trump administration because right now they're looking for the entire world to sort of go against iran and this is in the way of that what about yemen and could could they use that as leverage they could use you have and there's a bill before the u.s. congress it's mostly democrats some republicans but it would basically send the message and tell the military you can no longer refuel planes in saudi planes warplanes over yemen they need those reviewers if they're going to continue airstrikes so that is a huge point of leverage so that's in the congress with the trump administration has the threat of saying we haven't taken a position on this yet but we'll be happy to push that there if we need to so he has some leverage they haven't been willing to use any of it lately or yet in the crisis started to see a slight change in tone we'll see in the next couple days could be interesting i was a serious probably kohei in many thanks indeed of course a month after hurrican maria hit puerto rico eighty percent of the island is still without power crews are working around the clock to try to fix hundreds of kilometers of power lines the governor of puerto rico says it could be another two

months before full power is restored alan fischer reports now from san. this is normally the convention center in san juan the capital of puerto rico but for the last month this has been the coordinating hub of all the rescue efforts across the island the federal emergency management agency the department of defense a number of local agencies and a number of charities are all based here trying to coordinate relief efforts but one month on after the hurricane many people are saying they're seeing nothing nothing from any of these agencies coming into their communities to help them there are many people here still without food still without electricity still without drinking water there are real health concerns as well because people are turning to polluted water just to try and sleep their thirst or even doing simple things like washing their clothes in water that is highly contaminated so there's a real risk that there's going to be another health problem just a few weeks down the line that the people here aren't unrealistic they remember hurricane one thousand years ago and said that the expected things would take some

time before they even started to get back to normal but they're deeply concerned that it's taking longer than any normal expectation they are saying they expect to see a lot more of the government they realize that they can't just drive trucks here that you've got to bring things in by plane and by boat but they say they feel they're being neglected one example of that is that someone from fema said recently that they do so many blue tarpaulins catering for the hurricanes in florida and texas there simply weren't enough to bring here to puerto rico and the people here believe they are being forgotten and they want that to stop and to stop no. china is refusing to condemn me in ma over its mistreatment of ro him refugees which the un has called textbook ethnic cleansing five hundred eighty nine thousand have escaped from me in march of bangladesh in the past eight weeks they're accusing me and army of rape torture and murder in rakhine state china is

a long time allie of ally of me and it says it supports its efforts to safeguard peace and that the situation can be resolved without outside help. at least three people have been killed in a landslide at a building site in malaysia firefighters say that the incident happened during the construction of two tower blocks in georgetown the capital of penang state emergency teams are searching for eleven workers who are believed to be trapped in the mud and rubble. candidates in japan have been making last minute attempts to convince voters ahead of sunday's general election opinion polls suggest the prime minister shinzo is on track to win and if he does he'll become japan's longest serving leader sarah clarke reports from tokyo. its carry much first foray into japan's political arena is appointed by the current government the harvard graduate decided to run for election and says the party of hope she stands for offers a credible alternative. if basically just doing their point thanks for the

thirteen people not all the public i think we have to change it and if people want to change it the governor of tokyo yuriko quake it launched the party of hope last month pledging popular policies and a nuclear free japan the body was initially considered the most prominent rival to prime minister shinzo law by its hold on government but on the eve of the general election polls show voters support has filed to gain ground and any hope of challenging his parliamentary majority is unlikely body of hope doesn't have a policy platform that different from the current ruling party on top of the governor created the party is not running for the prime ministership so it looks like a very strange situation prime minister abbott has played the strong and stable card in the wake of escalating tensions with north korea telling everyone to vote for

experience analysts say that campaign strategy has also paid off. has been lucky more than having played its cards right. when there's a national security crisis a jolly helps the incumbent government. on top of the opposition party the democratic party were so weak that it ended up in prodi. despite polls predicting our by returning to power. projections could still change forty percent in vote it's reported to be undecided which candidate or party back. mother who does the i haven't been able to decide at all. support stability of an administration but at the same time i wonder if everything should remain the same with. the latest opinion polls suggest that shinzo ruling coalition party could secure as many as three hundred of the four hundred sixty five seats up for grabs plus a two thirds of the majority held before the election if that's the case his

decision to call a snap election could pay off paving the way for him to potentially become the longest serving leader in japan's history. al-jazeera tokyo a new phone app is making it safe for women to take a taxi in mexico city a startup company is recruiting only female drivers following a series of murders by men john heilemann reports. a new poll ranks mexico city is the fourth worst in the world for sexual violence many women are attacked while moving in the crowded spaces of the metro buses but even at the hands of taxi drivers the arrival of right hand has meant that many feel safer but the rape murder of. the at the hands of her cab the driver then to that perception then this month another woman was killed this time by four men in a car registered with. the conversation starts with do you have a boyfriend you know very pretty and young you feel unsafe threatened think about

how to react what do i do if this gets worse. now marianna uses a new service it's called loud drive it's for women passages only and drum by women drivers were on a car was one of the first. i picked up a girl that asked me can i sleep for a bit of course me so i said you can't do that with a mild. driver you think what if he says something or takes me elsewhere with a female driver you know you can trust her. it's only eight months old but mile drive already employs nine hundred women and has been downloaded eighty two thousand times in the current climate business is growing in the double digits the apple has some extra features like a panic button and twenty four seven monitoring of drivers if they feel there are risk perception looking it's about perception as well what women feel when another woman is at the wheel them. getting into a car with

a man they don't know makes many women in mexico feel vulnerable off the bad experiences those we've talked to say those incidents of sexual harassment and definitely diminish but don't write painting and when they do occur often companies don't want to take responsibility. down now drug cost ten to fifty percent of the nuba and he's currently available only in the capital that means that through geography and price is not accessible to the majority of mexican women the demand is so high that it's already planning to expand to more cities here and if that works other countries around the world join home in. mexico city just ahead on the news here with the sports and after a terrible start to the season the boston celtics finally get lucky that he tells to straight ahead.

the russian orthodox church is deep pockets in the rapid expansion may bear its crucial role in putin's grip on power with some elevating the former k.g.b. officer to saying to president putin is our leader that given to our good people in power investigates how after the attempted elimination by the soviet union religion has returned to the heart of the russian state the orthodox connection at this time on al-jazeera. right.

i get time off to support his foreign agent thank you so much english premier league champions chelsea have bounced back with a last gas win against watford antonio conti's the man had fallen to one behind after taking the lead but two goals from about why and one from billy quick to help them seal a four to comeback win. five more matches just about to kick off manchester united play huddersfield united are just two points behind their city rivals leaders of manchester city are also in action they host seven plays of burnley and city to lose they could allow man united to take the lead and we'll see how we are going to

react in that moment we are going to drop points. home almost from real because the teams always show we do but we do other things fluently with the fore. ok two important doesn't come to much spanish league leaders barcelona will face the bottom of the table malaga later on saturday while malaga have won just a single point from eight league games all seton season bar sorry looking to continue their eleven game in run in all competitions barsa leave the table with twenty two points. we normally go in a bad situation they are rock bottom with only one point on the circumstances the most right you win any point we can and for us it's another chance to win three points to new positive way molly or through to the first team through to the semifinals of football's under seventeen world cup in india they've gone to one in

go on the usa will be hoping to continue their were markable run in the tournament when they face england in the quarter finals of that match kicking off shortly the us are coming off a comprehensive five in victory over a pair of why would such as the country's under seventeen's upstaging the men's senior team and missed out on qualifying for the world cup in russia next year yeah i mean. the first team not qualifying for the world cup is a disappointment and we've talked about it within the team just trying to bring hope back. to the u.s. soccer system and that the deeper round we go the more people believe that there is a future with u.s. soccer in the u.s. . when we come to an event like this already events we want to be as successful as we can this it's part of the culture and heritage to be have

a winning mentality and to give it your best but it's also important to recognize that we're also building for the future and the long term aim is for the senior team to to win caldwell cups and euros as we competed back and back in europe to major league baseball where the histon astro's beat the new york yankees to force a game seven of their championship playoff series justin verlander was once again the star of the night for the astros pitching seven scoreless innings in houston jozy altidore his home run and three r.b.i.'s also help the astros to a seven to one when the series is now tied at three games apiece the winner of the american league championship title will face the l.a. dodgers in the world series the decider is later on saturday in houston. i don't really even know how to explain it i mean the best way for me to explain it is multiple times throughout the game i forget what anywhere and i forget what's going on around me and my only focus is to execute by pitch i mean i want to remember

what batters coming up you know it's just. my sole focus is focusing on executing my pitches when i want to execute them the way we've come out and the way we bounce back in certain games you know we want all kind of different games we want some high scoring games we're going i think a wonder nothing it's a situation that our guys have been in a lot and i think you have to keep it in you know today's tonight's game in perspective hey we still have a shot to do what we want to try to do tomorrow. and put tonight behind you and move on let's be ready to go tomorrow. in the n.b.a. the boston celtics clinched their first win of the season after losing their first two games the celtics were looking to turn things around against the philadelphia seventy six ers kyrie irving starred on the night for boston scoring twenty one points while four ford added fifteen more as the celtics ran out one hundred and two to ninety two winners that was hamilton is closer to another formula one world

championship title the mercedes driver finished fastest in both practice sessions ahead of the qualifying for the u.s. . he also broke the record for the fastest lap of the circuit of the americas on friday the britain will clinch his fourth title on sunday if you wins the race with ferrari sebastian vettel lower than six vettel was third fastest in practice. and moto g.p. world champion marc marc has is in pole position for the fourth year in a row at the australian grand prix the honda riders set the fastest time in qualifying at the phillip island circuit on saturday is a major blow to the title hopes of championship rival andre to the c.e.o. so he finished down in eleventh maverick then ellis will be second on the grid and darko finished third. and that's all your support for now war for me later back teenager in foreign many thanks indeed that is it for the news hour i'll be back in just a few moments though with the latest on that decision by spain's prime minister to

speak seek formal approval suspend the cattle and regional governments will receive the. news has never been more available it's a constant barrage the bit with every day but the message is a simplistic you have the brain a good logical rational or crazy month and misinformation is rife dismissal and denial of well documented accusations and evidence is part of genocide the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging mainstream media narratives of this time on al-jazeera al-jazeera recounts the shocking story of the assassination of counts folk abene dot. the first u.n. envoy trying to bring peace to the middle east how is negotiations with himmler helped save thousands of jews from nazi concentration camps and how these mediation

skills put him at the vanguard in the quest for peace in the middle east. killing the count at this time on al-jazeera.

the government has had to trigger article one hundred five of the constitution that was not our wish or intention spain's prime minister moves to impose direct rule on catalonia. hello i'm adrian from again this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up kurds in northern iraq and gathering outside a u.n. office an appeal angry at recent attacks by government forces and shia militia in kirkuk. in the u.s.

production of the so-called motor city plus. i'm malcolm webb in the town of common in the democratic republic of congo where last month thirty nine refugees from rooney was shot by soldiers following a demonstration will be talking to the security for. the surviving refugees about what happened. spain's prime minister seeking formal approval to suspend the capital and regional governments autonomy money out of the hoist said that he isn't imposing direct rule on the region but the steps he's seeking may lead to the removal of catalonia as elected government and its replacement with officials from the dritte roy says that separatists in barcelona forced madrid to take unprecedented action. we are going to ask the senate to approve article one five five in order to protect the general interest of the nation to authorize the spanish government to suspend

the rule of the catalan leaders and all members of the catalan cabinet the rules of these officials will be conducted by the ministers appointed by the spanish government during this extraordinary period al-jazeera as andrew symonds has the latest now from barcelona. this is. in barcelona it's the seat of the regional government you'll see a poster which belonged to the referendum run up on october first when all of this started now the message about voting relates to an entirely different thing elections and they're going to be imposed on catalonia by the government via the senate if we look over here we'll see an assembly of media and a few people the biggest assembly will be of protesters nearby in a big demonstration and we're expecting. to address that demonstration will certainly be there apparently and we can see also some

a few demonstrators the message from the spokesman for this government you see that's the government building right there the message has been that this is really a coup d'etat effectively that's what they're saying and that democracy has been suspended that's the message there the question now is will push them all actually impose declare independence or will he announce elections of his own it's unclear what he's going to do but no doubt whatsoever that the measures taken have been much more heavy in their nature than what was expected there's a shock in barcelona there's a shot right across spain really because these are momentous times and a risk is being taken by both sides. in this whole crisis the biggest crisis for four decades of democracy in spain and no one is quite sure of the outcome will the

demonstrations get out of control what will the president do what is quite clear is that the government will impose its own members of the government and someone a caretaker figure to replace the president then there will be elections sometimes within six months sometime within six months and that will be down to the senate to organize the suspension of parliament here so uncertain times very uncertain ahead of you now from edward roche who's a constitutional law expert he says that his threats don't carry any legal weight until they're approved by the senate. it has no. effect because there is no real chance to be effectively independent but of course it has the political consequences and bad ones of course first of all it will make much more difficult legal situation of mr puts them on to probably be taken before the courts for

different criminal criminal situations and criminal causes and this will break completely any kind of dialogue between the us alone and the great and it will get to the central government of spain so the government officer before you to use any kind of force in order to warrant that he will be in charge of the situation he will have a. legal possibilities to use the spanish police to give orders to the cattle and police and if necessary to use the army. finally the necessity measures so it's probable that we will have a kind of game between them both governments from today until thursday friday. and then we will see if mr puts them on. calls for elections or if this in age really puts article hundred fifty five into practice. at least fifty five police

officers have been killed and six others wounded in an ambush in egypt the security forces were targeted on the road to be oasis they were carrying out a raid on a suspected hideout. timothy culled us is a nonresident fellow at the institute for middle east politics he says these types of attacks are rarely the subject of a public investigation. it's a massive loss of life for the security forces in egypt and there's been a lot of different stories coming out since since it took place so there's a lot of there's a lack of clarity right now on who was involved the initial rumors was that it was house which is a militant group that has primarily been targeting the security forces for years now but then there are been all the reports of some people trying to claim it was isis some people are trying to that just might have been other groups and that lack of clarity is continuing to this moment even when the official statement was

released by the ministry of interior we heard a number of people were killed but no clarity on the number. and state of the government's been kind of slow to to let the public know exactly what happened who was behind it and what what the casualty figures look like there's going to be a lot of big investigation into how this could happen where the mistakes were made and how the intelligence was that it it's very very troubling i mean the thing that we often don't see is any sort of public investigation into these types of incidents and so the public doesn't really get a chance to have a look at the review process and learn from what has taken place i don't anticipate that investigation will be terribly public either although for the for their own sake i'm sure that they're going to be trying to figure out how this happened to prevent. losing more officers in the future there's been yet another suicide bombing in afghanistan this what this time it was targeting a minivan carrying a military academy the district to be cadets rather in the west of the capital

kabul fifteen of them were killed at least eighty nine people are known to have died in friday's attacks on mosques in afghanistan i still says that one of its faces walked into a shia mosque in the capital and detonated an explosive vest the mosque was packed with worship those attending friday prayers the second blast happened when a suicide bomber to bomb a targeted a sunni mosque in central goal province early on saturday two rockets landed near the international military headquarters in kabul jennifer reports now from the afghan capital. the afghan capital awoke to two explosion just at just about six thirty local time two rockets landing not far from nato headquarters here in kabul the taliban has claimed responsibility for that the latest attack in a series here in the end here in the afghan capital and around the country the islamic state claimed responsibility for a friday night attack on a shiite mosque the in mom's i'm on mosque. here in kabul according to the ministry

of interior that attack are going in placing himself among the worshippers spraying them with gunfire before detonating himself another attack friday prayers friday evening prayers in a mosque in central afghanistan in gore province killed thirty three we don't know who was responsible for that caps a very deadly week here in afghanistan more than two hundred twenty people have been killed so far in taleban attacks on military outposts and police headquarters across the country in the south in the west in the north and in the southwest of the afghan security forces facing a resurgent taliban the islamic state also weighing in a big challenge for the afghan security forces that they try and grapple back territory from the taliban who control or contest almost forty percent of the country it's a very difficult task for these forces who are taking punishing casualties in the continuing fight at least eight police officers have been killed in an attack on the base in western the jeff several of those were wounded in the instant close to

the town of oil rule near the border with mali and it has interior minister says that in an investigation is on the way. the u.s. is shifting its counterterrorism strategy to focus more on africa defense secretary james mattis discussed the changes with members of congress the white house is under pressure to be more forthcoming about the deaths of four american soldiers in this year two weeks ago. the us secretary of state rex tillerson has landed in saudi arabia for his second attempt at ending the gulf crisis particle hain looks at how this time some analysts say things might be different. once again u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson finds himself boarding his plane for the long flight to the gulf. he was here in july he hopes signing a memorandum of understanding with guitar would be enough to end the blockade it didn't despite his shuttle diplomacy so now he's coming back trying a new tactic for the four blockading countries saudi arabia u.a.e.

egypt and bahrain assigning blame and then in an interview saying qatar is willing to negotiate and the saudi led coalition is simply refusing to talk analysts say there is a renewed hope they might be more willing to engage now has the president for example try to put pressure on the saudis in the u.a.e. to be willing to to to me to do resolve some of the sanctions and stop that they put on. the fact that the president house call mout now and basically decertified the iran deal is that going to make the saudis more willing to work with us they deal with the situation with god or us president initially put all the blame for the crisis on cutter but after being pushed by his secretaries of state and defense he now says it's time for all sides to talk if i can help mediate between cutter and in particular the u.a.e. and so.