in the field. thousands of people in barcelona rally against the spanish government after attempts to quash sunday's independence referendum for catalonia. exclusive video from syria's darrow's or our correspondent takes you to the heart of the decisive battle for the country's future amid claims that some forces are exploiting the gains. plus hoping to capitalize on the quick korea crisis the japanese prime minister calls as snap election triggering protests in tokyo. kids and boy here to. police in touch with cute. right she abused right she

discriminated left britain both of them for decades these are the things that didn't happen to the mosco this week and english football fans get a warm welcome in moscow for the you the f.a. champions league despite the british media's fear mongering head of the fixture as . this is our team international coming to you live from moscow with me jacqueline guga thank you for joining us this hour. we start in catalonia where thousands of students are rallying in support of the region's independence referendum scheduled for this sunday later in the program we'll cross to artie's luis castro who's been following the mass protests in barcelona. in response to the upcoming referendum spanish authorities are stepping up measures to prevent the vote taking place

fourteen regional officials have already been arrested and ten million ballot papers seized the official campaign web site has also been blocked with an increased police presence in the region madrid is also planning to take over polling stations in catalonia we cannot go live to our t's louise castro. who is if you can hear me what's happening where you are. well you think well we keep following the protests that have been circling around barcelona too young the whole morning mostly it was a call from this section of the universities and schools here in catalonia who called for all the students to come out on the streets and you can see there are coming by you know. and. so this is been going on the whole day. guys guys a couple of here anybody speaks english right so so what do you think what do you

want to tell the people that is watching right now about what is about to happen on sunday here you know spain in catalonia and there's they're there are barely over yet we're good at knowing that people that it's in that job that they are being asked he fits killing the democrats and we want to board we want to block her heart and to bring. as you can here this is the situation right now that this is happening all and the majority of barcelona today there's a lot of people there's a lot of students protesting what is being going on but let's hear what they all been saying during today and the people that essentially supporting this referendum . you know. every day i see move people who are ready for action and i don't see anything i see people worrying about whether the folks who happen or not what will happen is i haven't met anyone who would say they're going to stay at home because they're scared to go outside i see

now how the movement has been evolving for the last four years right here i've never seen anything like this before. we know that there are hispanic families money. the. society. we. live. in. the many years here. feeling to the right. but as you can see a lot of people are wondering what is actually going to happen on sunday regarding the actual election the result of the election one of the recent polls here in spain and cut the looting in general are showing so far the forty one percent are supporting the process of independence of catalunya in forty nine are against but these are old polls at the moment there are no certainty or was about to happen

this sunday regardless of whether there's going to be any actual election on sunday because as we have been telling everybody that in today the police has been all saw going into the center of paul's and they being confiscating some of the material that is supposed to be used for these sunday so far we can also show you a little bit some of the reactions that we had turned up here on the streets of barcelona where we found interest in people that are actually thinking a little bit different. because the single people you will see for yourself eventually you see you know if i have been released if i didn't even go to your face isn't feeling kind of your spine you know you will see interest on that number for you that if you're not maybe not you know you're the elderly or you know yourself in the lord it's been normal for people to do is start going much like

we're not sure. if she will get here that will be there just as i feel. well this is the situation as we speak here right now in barcelona we're going to continue our coverage of today's events and hopefully during the whole the next three following days because there's a lot of activity there's a lot of protests there's a lot of people calling for democracy and for the spanish government to leaven and suppress their voice on sunday in the referendum for for the first of all over. artie's lewis castro staying across those protests for us thank you for the update and. now the region's minister for foreign affairs has called on europe to intervene in the situation he says that by trying to block the vote madrid is violating democratic principles of the e.u. the call echoes the calland president's earlier statements accusing the european commission of turning its back on his region's right to vote. i was going to i

think we will have earned the right to be heard this is something that has not happened up to now this is something the european commission has been deaf to they will not be able to continue ignoring this issue. well catalans voiced their anger at madrid journalists have been trying to pin down the e.u. to get its view of the media briefing this week r.t. spoke to one of the reporters who were there. now when you have a double stand out in a freedom of expression whilst found that four thousand. in other strand out for the throne yet you condemn it when they shut down cambodia daily but you stay silent when a member states starts playing with freedom of expression. private websites if they start arresting jewelries how can you say this is a constitutional that we don't have anything to say i mean this is freedom of expression anything else that we're going to help you with today. it's an internal

constitutional problem according to the e.u. and the house to be sold into frame or called internal over there for you go over there of spain the problem is that this is true until until when certain issues arise like this in the last few days the issue of freedom of expression which is not only an internal constitution that ensures spain it's clearly you do you which is if you want to. you in constitutional order not only spawn a school situation or that that's. what the official referendum page now banned online by spanish authorities wiki leaks founder julian assange has responded by posting up a mirror of the website on twitter which now shows a polling station being taken over by the government we discuss the issue with european parliament parliament member diane james. this is

a serious issue in terms of freedom of speech for a european union member state and comments such as likening the situation to that that has occurred in covering this countries korea north korea and china i think the analogy and the similarity is there the european union believes in or claims to believe in freedom of expression and free speech and yet here we have a member state doing the absolute opposite the spanish government is resorting to this sort of threatening tone in terms of reprisals now if spain is allowed to get away with this that will form a precedent for other countries and it will form the the means if you like in the future for other national governments to ban referenda which are deemed to be unsuitable or make the european union uncomfortable. syria's ambassador to the u.n. has accused the u.s. of trying to take credit for the operation to retake the city of bears or from ice

all. the u.s. coalition and rebel militias they support hold to their operation in iraq which was a stronghold of eisel and through their forces behind trying to push the syrian army out of dairies or as if the americans were competing with the syrian government over control of derrius or instead of fighting are you still in iraq or . the remaining terrorist in there is or are now surrounded by both the syrian army and u.s. backed kurdish forces our correspondent there are girls there is in the city. this may have been lifted but it's not over yet isis holdouts in parts of that as sort of not for long. day and night battles rage around the city the jihad ists are throwing everything they have into the fight. every day there is combat they'll use heavy weapons from range although

trying to infiltrate in the middle of the night they attack with suicide vests and car bombs the battle goes on every day but the tables have turned it is isis now that is surrounded and slowly being squeezed out. whereas a syrian artillery position overlooking the industrial city the industrial corridor of there is order for supporting troops that are staging the offensive down there an offensive that began earlier this morning with a barracks of airstrikes but the battle is said to be fierce with isis giving no quarter from here syrian spotters watch for isis fighters from above this is why height is so important in war better advantage and better aim and this range you can't really miss not with hillary.

hits a verified and confirmed in real time it was at this exact spot as nest that a russian lieutenant general advised syrian offices fifteen minutes before his death he was killed to several days ago by an isis shell just a few hundred meters from here. isis fired back as we filmed shells began falling all around. we ran but the syrian batteries kept firing. the city of durham will be liberated in a week at the most and will free some of the suburbs to. the cost will undoubtedly be high it's a challenging battleground from dense urban areas to lush river banks and even trenches. the euphrates is both

a blessing and because isis still uses the waterways to move men and the arms and even launch surprise attacks. this bunker is manned during the night. it's because the tower across the river belongs to eisele for three long years captain he bring him squad has bled and died in nice try inches along the euphrates their sacrifice not enough to break the long stalemate but now everything's changed now they're winning more i. see from their resort of syria. after three years of terrorist siege many people in duress or are in desperate need of medical help this is the only hospital in the city that's working and you can see it's riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel for now it has just seven doctors and is overwhelmed by patients medical supplies are also in short supply mohammad

is one of the patients there he was wounded in the terror shelling his father was killed in the same attack. we spoke exclusively to syria's foreign minister on the sidelines of the un general assembly who shared his thoughts on the future relationship between the syrian government and u.s. backed kurdish forces he also thinks his country's crisis is now in its final chapter. iraq. over the last three months the syrian army and its allies have managed to liberate more than fifty five percent of syrian territory that's why i say that the main fighting in syria is coming to an end and that we are writing the last chapter in the history of the crisis when we are done with we can sit down at the negotiating table with our kurdish brothers and agree on the terms of our future relationship i always see every reasonable person must learn from the past in the past the united states always turned its back on its sell ice

that's why i hope the dollar of kurdish brothers will learn from that. the russian military has released a new video of its anti terror raids in syria's it live province it says that throughout the week all air strikes were focused on the terrorists hardware and meeting places they also foiled the terrorist plans in neighboring hama province wellness or of fighters were apparently planning other attacks. in france protests are taking place in the capital against president emanuel macross decision to slash spending in key public sectors and cut taxes for the wealthy after unveiling his first annual budget mccrone has been dubbed by some as the hero of the rich. our correspondent charlie do with in paris for us what we see are saying another unpopular decision from across who'll these cuts affect most. people who do.

well what you're seeing now is going on though by a national day of action by pensioners of course strong this is one of the many rejects me when there are thousands of people here who are coming out to express them and getting not going to involve the money orders government saying that they feel that they are being most affected by some of these cuts which will see them having to pay more taxes in certain areas of the law even and pensions he's saying they don't want the michael governments and leave them out in molds we assume this is on the eighty percent of pensions infos say that they've seen their income deteriorate over the last three years and many people that i've been speaking to in this protest say they just cannot afford the fundamentals in life many pension is saying this avoiding on around six hundred euros a month there if you live in a city like paris it's expensive to buy food it's expensive to pay for rent and they're saying that not enough is being done what they're incredibly unhappy about

is enough budget that was unveiled yesterday by mark on his first government budgets they say the social security bill is being cut by some five point five billion euros that is a huge amount of money to them about it and they say they are going to have to pay more money in some of the toxicity and they simply just adult afford it this is one man and how he destroying my gosh. based i'm not drawing a picture for you see the fortunate thing. that's not terroristic for me and for the much richer the forty. or. so that's the view of one man on the streets but many others are killing off things that they feel the money for much of that was aimed unveiled only only wednesday was actually a budget that will help the rich a motel for pensioners many of those who say they're here on the streets and they

just want was the man called to listen to their calls and that's why we think his budget over the next year and the rest of his term. are to charlotte to run scared reporting live from paris. parliament has been dissolved and a snap election has been called in japan more on that after the break. the kurdish language has many proverbs one of them being cited frequently better accounts of ones own jointly own. the iraqi kurds to being their own shepherd.

here's what people have been saying about rejected in night the sixties full on awesome the only show i go out of my way to launch a lot of the really packs a punch to sleep yampa is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same we are apparently better than food at. so i see people you've never heard of love jack to the next president of the world bank so take. me seriously send us an e-mail. welcome back protesters have rallied at japan's national parliament building in tokyo after prime minister abi dissolved the lower house the move paves the way for a snap election next month. the demonstrators here the prime minister want to capitalize want to capitalize on

high approval ratings these more legislative power he says he wants to get a mandate for a tougher defense policy towards north korea dana hawkins looks at the power play and whether gamble will pay off. a rise in popularity and opposition in disarray and a sinister forward threat looming on the horizon a perfect recipe for calling an early election which is exactly what prime minister shinzo has announced. another one you're by calling an election i am seeking a public mandate for the government's handling of north korean issues. the korean crisis could be a blessing in disguise for accusations of corruption and cronyism as well as unpopular policies knocked his ratings over the summer fall into lows of around thirty percent according to some polls but with rising regional tensions his popularity is already back at fifty percent now if he's reelected all we would become japan's longest serving prime minister and this could allow him to make

a historic change to the country's pacifist constitution discarding article nine which completely without says all military action supporters say this would simply legitimize japan's army and right to self-defense but critics would open the floodgates to participating in full blown foreign conflicts on the diplomatic strains with china and military tensions with pyongyang japan has already stepped up shows of military force holding joint drills with the united states and south korea as well as the new was shipped the most significant deployments in seventy years. even more cooperation with the united states. and america was very willing to take risks in confronting korea and japan. doing their. may just what i say dangerous to rich but public resistance to the increased militarization has been strong for our growers who are.

the protesters the only opposition of the faces governor. has already formed a new party of hope to challenge the government in a personal standoff with. that joseph joseph while we are facing a crisis with north korea is it ok to create a vacuum in politics of course not however prime minister abbott has already decided to use the premier's exclusive right to decide the lower house and call elections. she was right wing of the right wing so the two of the dream to cooperate. here is they have to propose to each other no we can think of these majority for no obvious seem certain he will win the election and strengthen his mind that so confident in fact he's promised to resign if he doesn't

the last time a leader took such a gamble just to strengthen the majority well we all know how that ended the big gamble. as election results show a hung parliament parliamentary majority is gone hong parliament that is no majority at all bold move could be a historic moment for japan or a spectacular fail for the prime minister. football fans are getting a taste of what's in store at the two thousand and eighteen world cup british fans have been in the russian capital for the u.a.e. f.a. champions league this week both liverpool and manchester united supporters were given a warm welcome as their teams played at spartak and c.s.k. moscow's brand new stadiums. so you see a lot of the news. being very aggressive but when you actually call me see this if it's all the way or. there's no fairfax and scott of.

places you know to go does slow. your heart rate that's where i was very very very shaky won't find very good all the way on the. way to get emotional. love i'm going to think about it he put the city and the house have been simply amazing icon tell you how lovely and special it is. former england international footballer stan collymore gave us the background to the matches. fast forward to the last couple of days the british press of my to really big deal. when you get off the plane if you're black if you're right if you are english you're going to be attacked and you just heard there from liverpool fans a bit of a line here from a journalist that you just dropped on on twitter kicked him by his. police attacked

. with noids rightfully abused rightfully discriminated left britain busted him for dead these are the things that did not happen to me in moscow this week that was replicated right the way throughout the city the reason why the last couple of days has been very important is that it's two of england's biggest clubs a little poll a month just you know it's a huge supporter bice traveling to moscow with moscow two of moscow's biggest clubs so we wanted to see and film around security the police in the experience. and as we see the experience the little poll finds that in particular it was fantastic off to all this game and that's been going on in social media by people it's an it's a be able to shine from them and i think it's been absolutely fine experienced to the stadium experience in moscow and it's been absolutely brilliant it's been well we've heard that some people really were wary of coming to russia but you didn't get that impression from any of the family the problem means is when you set a narrative two or three days ago and some of the newspaper headlines of russian

mob's whiten for english just inflames the situation the vast majority of russian football fans want to go and watch their team play is there a small minority that cause trouble yes but coming from a country that i do read england we've had problems with hooliganism for thirty forty fifty years in some cases and it's taken a quite a long time to deal with it so the two lot of english football fans were. there was something called gentle fans which was fun for both moscow and sports at moscow and initiative by both sets of fans given a blanket just. we see giving a spanking a warm welcome that's not going to be on the front page of tabloids tomorrow what they're looking for is rice isn't what they're looking for trouble they didn't find any so today always on social media often i look at it quite incredible how quiet it's been on social media from some of the journalists that two or three days ago

what. didn't happen people just had a really good time at the football predicted as expected. that's the wrap up of today's top stories this hour head to our web site r.t. dot com to find all of those stories and more i'll be back at the top the hour. best customers but the survival guide look stacey just like all the stores simply all the service. he sure knows there are you going to get him back. next year. oh it's no good says a repatriation team will look at the rest to serve in the. bill of the separate those guys report. we cannot stop the technological

revolution in the area whether with these stem cells you know the ability to grow certain organs on the skin of a human being or a computer technology in a general way or any other technology because it's driven by human curiosities. of parts of the kurdish language has many to describe the people's national

aspirations but the one that was cited a lot during last weekend's independence referendum was this batter at casa. a jointly owned coutts how close have the. now joining us from. great to talk to you again thank you very much for your time thank you it's a pleasure to be here now independence referendum always controversial and they always raise the question of their international legitimacy how likely is to kurdish vote to be recognized as the new political reality in your view i think political reality is already sinking into lots of countries the question of ultimate recognition will be much slower we know that many countries are claiming that this referendum was constitutional that's true kurdistan's laws are wrecked.