for that autonomic community. we've been among catalans as they celebrated independence, and as the questions about what happens next start to multiply. we'll ask how the rest of europe will react to these momentous events. already the uk, germany, the european union and the us have lined up behind madrid, but the scottish government has said that catalonia must have the ability to determine its own future. so might there now be a broker to help sort out madrid's future relations with catalonia? and could there be a legitimate catalan indpendence referendum in the foreseeable future? and out in the open, almost all the files on jfk's assasination are published. but do they contain anything truly revelatory? we ask one former doubter of the official version whether they changed his mind. good evening.

not since the spanish civil war and then the death of franco has spain faced such crisis and such uncertainty. it is unthinkable to millions in the country that they could face each other in emnity, but tonight, there is deep unease in spain. one of the most famous sayings of the spanish poet lorca was "to burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves". those words might be ringing in the ears of the members of catalonia's regional government tonight. so what will happen now? our diplomatic editor mark urban is in barcelona. well, kirstie, it has been a remarkable day, as you said, in the history of the eu, as well as the history of spain and catalonia.

lots of people, actually, in this country, don't want it to become independent, but in the key events that took place in that building behind me here, the parliament, there were 70 votes for it, out of a total of 135 mps. two abstained, ten voted against, and 53 stayed away altogether, a tactic that opponents have used before with the referendum vote itself on the 1st of october, rather a questionable tactic, you might say. but anyway, those who favoured independence had enough to get the vote through, and those events played out with extraordinary drama throughout the day. after decades of sparring with the government of post dictatorship spain, this was to be a day of action, and emotion. as mps were summoned one by one to vote on a parliamentary motion declaring independence.

excitement built in the crowd outside. what are you hoping? i hope yes. i don't know. i'm so nervous. i don't have any idea. then the results started coming. the sis, in favour, the nos against. the pattern quickly becoming apparent, not least, because many mps that opposed independence boycotted the vote. then the counting, followed by the inevitable result, and an explosion ofjoy. it's very... very... emotional.

sorry, we are very happy. it was our family was imprisoned in the past. after franco's dictatorship, because we were fighting to defend the catalan people. now... sorry, i can't. .. for us, it is a lifelong dream, so it's the best thing we could hear right now. so, we're really happy. we're going to defend this parliament, and this government until the end. we want to be free, and we are free now. so the catalan parliament has voted for independence, and this crowd, at least, is loving it. and as the national anthem was sung and the cava flowed, so many questions for those looking on. and for those peering down.

this is the helicopter downlink at the headquarters of catalonia's police, as the demonstrations built today. we were given exclusive access. this operations room was set up specifically for today's vote, the message that policing is carrying on in a professional and nonpolitical way but among these officers there are divided loyalties, so if the spanish government now tries to take direct control of this force, who will it obey? translation: we are a professional organisation, we have a hierarchy, we are ready to cope with any situation. at a personal level, some will feel more or less double with this or that situation. but once we put on the uniform, feelings and personal ideologies are left one side and we have a response or duty to police the country that we serve. and that the parliament itself,

in the heady hours after the vote, people coming to terms with its meaning, the madrid government's top man in catalonia clear about one thing, they're not going to accept the declaration of independence. translation: the spanish government only had two choices, do nothing and let put on six seed in his could it, or proceed with normality in catalonia. it is clear the only option is latter. as the vote supporters went to see whether the government responds by trying to seize key institutions of people, anxious hours lie ahead. the people of the government in the european union are not going to help us, but in each country of the european union, there is a lot of people with solidarity, who wants to share solidarity with us.

there are people in scotland, people in ireland, who say they are going to help us. and we believe a lot with solidarity from the base people. well, the catalanpolymer‘s today was historic. it is clear the authorities here have no idea how to make a reality of independence. they have no plans for a separate currency, border controls or security forces, for example. one mp that voted for it said to mejust now, "we have absolutely no idea what will happen next." with the government responding by sacking or trying to the catalan cabinet, this crisis is gathering pace. translation: today, i have dissolved the catalan parliament. on the 21st of december, regional elections will be held. through the late afternoon and evening, supporters gathered. volunteer fireman ready

to defend the new republic, and hundreds of catalan mailers, bearing their stars of office giving political support. but everyone is unsure about what the coming days hold. it's curious, but is it in some ways dangerous? she believes it is not. she doesn't know what can happen tomorrow. it won't be easy. catalan leaders have seized their moment, and are now apparently relying on over reaction by madrid to shape the path ahead. but away from the demonstrations, many catalans are uncertain about the wisdom of this, and the prime minister in madrid has

an arsenal of options at his disposal. with us now is one of those mps who voted for independence in that historic motion today. antoni castella, leader of the democrats for catalunya, part of the pro—independence coalition. let's start with the latest moves from good, president rajoy says the government here is dismissed, will they accept that? no, they're not going to accept that. the catalan government just announced that it is not anymore and autonomous gottman. that is the provision of the government, so they announced they are not going to accept. this has just happened? this happened half an hour ago. so, let's see what the next step that it's going to do from the spanish government. in terms of the people who didn't want this to happen, and there are a lot of them in this country, how are you going to carry them with you on this journey? yeah, that's very important, but in democracy, that's why we need a referendum. there was 80% of the people in

catalonia, they wanted a referendum. that's very important, for instance. finally, in october, we had a referendum, and that is the way you can count everybody. so now there is a majority in catalonia that voted. it was 2 million out of 7.5 million, so it was... there is no 7.5 million. 5.3 million votes. that is not a majority. if we tell you something, it is a referendum. the 90% voted yes. if you look at brexit, for instance, it was less than that. nobody is saying nothing about that. those are the rules of the referendum. everybody could go to vote. so the result, and the guarantees are there. the government of catalonia, what we did just today is just to get the response of what was the responsibility of the republic. how do you make it real now, because eu countries,

the united states, all sorts of countries around the world are saying they are not going to recognise you as an independent country? first of all, what we have to do is what we did today, recognise ourselves. then what we announce is this is going to be a building, bottom—up process. we want to do it with dialogue, with the spanish government, and the international community. we are going to take the next steps just doing it progressive, and doing it by dialogue. so let's see what's going to happen in the next steps. of course, there is a conflict of legalities. we think we have the right, we think we have the right of democracy, because the people voted. and we think that we have two fight it to build the new republic. that's not going to be something for tomorrow. it's going to be something that we will be holding by negotiation. and we ask for responsibly to to the kingdom of spain, and we think that the political

problems has to be solved with politics. dramatic days ahead, clearly. anthony castagna, thank you very much. thank you very much. so tonight the spanish prime ministe mariano rajoy, has announced he is firing the entire catalan government and suspending its parliament. for many catalans, their identity, their family language and culture is what they fought for against franco, fought for and lost, many great grandparents, grandparents and parents died fighting for catalonia. then, catalonia's autonomy was enshrined in spain's 1978 constitution. but that constitution, forged three years after franco's death for the newly democratic country, stated the indissoluble unity of the spanish nation. that is the basis for madrid's stand. the question is can the constitution hold, and will carlos puigemont be arrested for sedition? we'rejoined by alfredo pastor, the former spanish economics minister, who we spoke to last night before all this happened. good evening again.

good evening. i wonder if you just heard antoni castella saying that in barcelona they have announced provisional government of the republic? i heard that. what do you make of it? i think the reasoning is impeccable only it is based on false premises. the referendum was not a referendum that could be recognised by anybody. the catalan parliament had no legal authority to set up such a referendum. and the newly declared republic is outside the constitution, which is the instrument we have to frame our democracy. what do you think happens now? that is a good question. it seems to me that president rajoy has taken the less risky way of the many risky alternatives but it is a risky alternative because we can expect some kind of resistance in the streets

and probably as mr castella says, on the part of the government which has just been sent home. but two months ahead, it is in everyone's interest to have elections. in fact everyone was asking for elections yesterday and everybody breathes a sigh of relief when president puigdemont said that he would call a snap election. so, today, ifeel much more comfortable to know that in two months we will have a proper election. and, meanwhile, the spanish government willjust administer the day—to—day business of the catalonian institutions. the day business of catalonia might turn violent. last night you said on newsnight you would not be surprised if carles puigdemont

was sent to jail. before you send someone to jail you have to try them. and if that happens, that will take some time. so that's nothing immediate. these elections that mr rajoy said would be held on december 23. if the majority of those elections are for independence for catalonia we are in the same situations again and then what happens to the constitution? no, it's not the same, today it is difficult for mr rajoy to talk to the carles puigdemont government. when the carles puigdemont government comes out of elections that have not done anything illegal then they can talk. thank you forjoining us.

obviously, this is a huge test for spain. catalu nya makes up i6% of the spanish population and nearly a fifth of its economy. but its also a headache for the whole of europe. so far the uk, france, germany and the us have lined up with madrid, the scottish government alone has said that the catalans must be free to determine their own future. so how will this play out in spain — will it be peaceful or violent, and how will the catalan crisis resonate in other european countries? joining me to discuss this is lse professor of spanish studies sebastian balfour, former british foreign secretary sir malcolm rifkind and journalist and scottish independence campaigner lesley riddoch who returned from barcelona this evening. good evening, sebastian balfour, is spain equipped to deal with this? i don't think so. i think the odds on a peaceful transition from control from madrid is very very poor. first we will see widespread civil unrest.

there's no doubt about it. we already saw some problems with october one, the use of violence by police. and problems within the police. so widespread civil unrest of one sort or another, the independence movement has got a tradition of peaceful protest yet also imaginative protest. that is not something the spanish police will be good at dealing with. we are also likely to see obstruction and the civil servants, the firefighters are we saw demonstrating on october the 3rd, and strikes as well. so i think this is going to be almost impossible to contain. and you talk about civil disobedience and you fear a descent into violence. yes. i fear that descended into violence may not come from the independence movement so much as the reaction

by the forces of law and order. is the constitution and immovable force? no. it could be amended. it would be a complicated process. it would involve a referendum across all of spain, but it is something that has been raised and discussed and is set by a number of people, including people in catalonia. i'm talking about the mayor row of barcelona, for example. let me bring in lesley riddoch, who is just back from barcelona. lesley, you have heard that the international position is not to recognise this declaration of independence but to stand with madrid. the catalans to have any chance would they not have to have international support, and it isn't there. it is not there at the moment but there are deep by release in this. at the moment the council

of the european union is held by estonia, which declared its own independence unilaterally in 1991 and had no rush of western nations recognising it. it was little iceland that recognise and first, exactly the same story one year before with lithuania. the west wasn't willing to intervene because it preferred to shore up the russians in the hope that they would not return to come in as. so within recent memory we've got a very clear experience of a small nation wanting to establish its rights to self determination but of course when it is peeling away from the soviet union everyone eventually fell in behind that and now that little country is now the leader, now has the presidency of the european union! if you look at what happened in scotland, the independence referendum did not pass there but there was a build—up of support. yet we know from catalonia that the autonomous area is deeply split on independence. you might say, yes, 42% turnout,

but a lot of people were not in favour of independence in catalonia and did not vote at all. so it is hard to determine what the support is. you could point out that the present uk government got 30% of the vote. if you put that to one side, and this comes as a difficult thing to say for the support of scottish independence, that the uk did pretty well actually by the political difference that emerged between scotland and the democratically elected government there, and the uk. it allowed a legally binding referendum. it did not play constitutional politics. it didn't hide behind the law, it called a spade a spade. that is what the catalan people want. malcolm rifkind, you were there in bosnia. what do you make of what sebastian

says about the possibility of civil unrest becoming something darker. we should be under no illusions. this is the worst crisis in western europe has faced since the end of the second world war. over the next month the spanish government, having dismissed the catalan government, has two imposes authority in catalonia. it can't just wait till the election with no government that it recognises. if it tries to do that, which i think it will, the catalan separatists are a minority of catalonia but some of them will fight back and therefore the risk is some form of spanish civil war breaking out. i'm not saying that it will happen. i'm saying that it is a serious risk and probably will happen in some form. i will put this to sebastien but tell me what the impact on europe would be. part of the reason, one might say

that other countries are falling in behind madrid is that we are in a period where each country has its own issue with autonomy. it is more than that. lesley 's comment about estonia was irrelevant. catalonia itself is deeply divided, 38% voted for independence, 62% either boycotted the election or voted against it. you'll have a divided catalonia with the whole of the rest of spain of one of you. you say not since the second world war in europe... we are talking about yugoslavia... i said western europe. that's right, that is a very dark thought, is it not? i do not agree that this could become another civil war. all the force is on one side. yet what that site has not reckoned with is the creativity of and the obstruction they are likely to face in the governance of catalonia. and this is where, in a sense, calling elections by december 21 is better than running it for much longer because they are not

going to be able to run it. lesley riddoch, mariano rajoy says this is europe's battle, has europe got a place in sorting this out. of course it does. as the scottish government says there is a moral and political responsibility to do something about this test portion and use of force on october one, and the impasse we are in now. there's a constitutional on separation in spain but clearly there is a democratically elected government with a mandate to pursue independence. now there has to be some sort of talking here. i grew up in northern ireland and saw several periods of direct rule and i think malcolm rifkind would probably agree that in hindsight that was holding pattern only. you've got to get to the point of recognising a political difference and having the talks that the uk government was smart

enough to have a scotland. scotland is being seen as the gold standard already. thank you all very much indeed. this morning the us government released 2800 previously classified files on the assassination of presidentjohn f kennedy in 1963. donald trump held back some of the files at the request of the fbi and the cia, to the fury of those who have always doubted the official version of events. but he insisted the public deserves to be fully informed, and that eventually it will all be made available. these are perhaps the most contested 30 seconds of footage in us history — a conspiracy theorist‘s dream. the official verdict, of course, was that the shooter, lee harvey oswald, acted alone. but inevitably, the government's refusal to publish all of the 5

million pages of official documents on the case has fed a deep suspicion that something was fishy. today, we learned of one cia memo that suggested the shooter met a kgb agent in mexico cityjust months before the shooting in dealey plaza. another memo suggested soviet officials feared a us missile strike after the event. but this is the era of fake news, distrust in the washington establishment, and a president that questioned obama's birth certificate. as long as there are documents held back, redactions still in place, there will be those that simply don't believe the official narrative of the assassination of the 35th president of the united states. joining me from washington is the journalistjefferson morley, contributing writer with newsweek and author of the ghost, which tells the story of how a cia counter—intelligence chief monitored lee harvey oswald from 1959 to 1963. good evening to you. hi.

what do you make of the release of the files? what happened yesterday was disappointing. president trump released 2800 records and about 25,000 records remain secret. by law they should have been made public yesterday. that didn't happen. president trump extended the secrecy around the records for another six months. the agencies have had years to prepare for this. the president has had his entire term to breathe ever there is so the intent of congress and the law to see full disclosure has been faded and that is unfortunate. it will encourage conspiratorial speculation, which given government malfeasance in the case and the government ‘s extensive knowledge of the accused assassin before the assassination is entirely justified. so you think that 20% that has been held back might well contain something.

what did the cia say, it is about protecting sources? do you give any credibility to that? we've heard this since the pentagon papers that the release of secret material would endanger lives. it is virtually never proven true and i doubt it will be true of these records. there may be a handful of records that have real security information in them but we are talking about 25,000 documents that were withheld from public view. they are not all crucial to national security. we have not been through them all but by and large you don't hold with the idea thatjohn f kennedy was assassinated by lee harvey oswald. with what you have heard today, has it bolstered your view, undermined it or given you another idea? what we got from the cia and the fbi last night was that the least consequential records are being kept secret. there was nothing that changed my mind.

it was very telling that to the one interesting document that said something new was an interview with the cia director in 1975, who was asked, was lee harvey oswald and agent of the cia. we never get the answer. that's the end of the document. that is emblematic of what happened last night. a very truncated release that evaded the intent of congress to have full disclosure. given that donald trump's shtick has always been about distrust of the cia and washington, that doesn't play to his base. our people are upset with him because of this? i think a lot of people are. one senator wrote on twitter today that it was ridiculous that the cia was trying to continue the cover—up. it was really disappointing. we had a law in place

that was very clear. the president and the agencies evaded the law because the material in the remaining records, the remaining 80% of the records that were to be made public today will be deeply embarrassing to the fbi and the cia, and show malfeasance in the case of the assassination. briefly in a 20% not released, will find something interesting? absolutely. there's no question about it! thank you very much forjoining us tonight. we await that of interest. just time for some front pages. the times goes for a headline, spain on the brink, madrid imposing direct rule, the daily telegraph says that cracks show in the eu as catalans back independence. and we know tonight, too late for the papers that in catalonia they have declared a provisional government for the republic.

that's all we have time for. emily will be back on monday. from all of us here, a very good night. hello and welcome to sportsday. on the brink of glory. the top five finish the lewis hamilton in mexico this weekend and a fourth world title will be years. england's rug the league campaign starts with the defeat of the defending champions, australia. —— rugby league. and england on their best behaviour. thomas is from joe root as the ashes squad prepares to fly to australia without ben stokes. we know that what has happened isn't good enough and we are determined to turn that