i. with catalonians independence referendum due to begin within hours police reinforce reinforcements raid barcelona while madrid says it's managed to shut down most of the polling stations. it's now been two years since russia launched its first air strikes in the war torn syria we look at what's changed during that time and. agro chemical giant monsanto's banned from the european parliament after refusing

to attend a hearing questioning studies about its products. you're watching r.t. international live from moscow studio with me in a day or two to welcome to the program the spanish region. is on the verge of what could prove to be a historic decision that this independence referendum should jolt the sunday tensions are mounting in the region with extra police deployed on the streets and raised to prevent the counting of electronic votes in barcelona crowds gathered to protest against the upcoming states today and in madrid spanish unionists staged a rally in front of the city hall the activists will sing song and dance and the fascists punished the launch party a number of protesters also gave a nod to salute. in his mind telling the truth on both and i know officials from

both sides i can say sense of it's true listen. if there is disturbance it would. clearly be. our. adopting. you know pointing at people who. are against the referendum it is the editor of the government over a whore who has crossed a very dangerous red line he has decided to resurrect the best of franco was during one demonstration a man attempted to time down a pro independence by the from buffalo news townhome it off to try for over a minute to pour down the sign with tried more democracy the protest eventually gave up on the question about reports from cops who are kept. this saturday as their last on the crucial day before the referendum on the end dependence of council on a kicks off and we've seen a lot of movement in the streets of barcelona and across the region now this

morning spanish civil guard raid at the center of telecommunications and technologist information to switch off applications that will be used to count the votes and we do know that the spanish police cordoned off the building now police presence has been tightened in different areas of the city especially on all the major squares and around school buildings that will be used as polling stations on sunday spanish authorities say that they have already shut down thirteen hundred schools across the region and this is really the half of old schools that catalonia has catalan officials say that they aren't ready yet to find a compromise or no we have said to the spanish government that it's still not to wait to send a message expressing their will to find a new scenario for the referendum for a whole his government does that we will be the first to welcome it to say let's talk and. even postponed the october first vote meanwhile this saturday we see

a lot of protests here in barcelona mostly people are protesting against the referendum to take place on sunday now we managed to speak to some people and listen to what they have to say the. president of spain has been sleeping for the past five years and during that time the government in catalonia has been preparing and fighting for independence and now the president has to act quickly and he's running around trying to solve this somehow. with the cold war here franco to decode they were they bought it but he's not democracy to me. what that thing is what to vote on how to vote it. and i think that votes just kind of democratic but it felt to me if you take it to the extreme it can be an arc east on friday there was some massive rally on plot a spiny which is also located on the heart of barcelona we've seen foundations of people supporting they rap for random mostly young people drinking flags of consul

lani and also shouting slogans so as you can see as they date the referendum drill was near the splits within the castle and society is getting more and more avid and with people from all stripes of society taking their views to the streets i thank you yeah. yeah. i. was. at. the polling stations that defended by so-called neighborhood watch is comprised of local supporting the vote they've been given until six in the morning to vacate the buildings that's only a few hours from now. so far they've found to stay and make show voting takes place

but sometimes both the buildings and those standing guard come under attack and one of the schools for example for people sustained injuries to the neck and chest after they were shot with a pellet gun to identify the assailant has not yet been revealed. another polling station at a secondary school was vandalized on friday night for station and as was stating that at the time of the assault here's how one of the activists described the attack. those nights when we were preparing for the votes a group of around twenty people turned up and tried to enter the polling station they still did hanging sones writing graffiti on the walls and provoking us they were hitting things destroying things shouting slogans in favor of spain in favor of spanish unity and against the. meanwhile in the spanish capital people have voted in a mock referendum the question on the ballot paper was and do you want catalonia to

remain part of spain hundreds of people against independence to cast a division in spanish society was the country's european partners and not rushing to offer help. for the film i mean there's. you know there was a. little initiative. the little. yellow. you should call the either free or not to take sides for their reps or a referendum and they do pay their share not but those who say that those measures taken by. the government those moderate are not acceptable imagine if the president maduro venezuela struck down the same things there would be every day national scandal about resolutions called the measures everything and now we've got silence no i would like to the european to to go. we're watching that little.

peace. negotiator mission the spanish interior ministry now says most of the polling stations which photo organizes and designated to host the referendum have been shut down by authorities. law and order in the region is maintained by the catalan regional police force known as the discard this replaced the spanish police locally almost ten years ago and is controlled by the catalan government and the cattle and forces have been tasked with preventing sunday's referendum from taking place. however the fear is being expressed in madrid that officers might not comply the spanish government has deployed national military forces to civil guard to the region to ensure the vote does not go ahead six thousand civil guards have been stationed at ports in the region arriving on cruise ships chartered by the spanish interior ministry they'll stay in barcelona until october the third and on saturday

morning a convoy of police vans left the port area heading into the city meanwhile the spokesperson for castle and his police force says that while orders will be followed doesn't necessarily mean anything will be prevented. the book because of the rules of police used to guarantee the internal security of our society in this respect please do not support those evil fi against the referendum. catalans we have no choice but to obey the decisions of the court and prosecutor's office when it's about control over crowds and public we have to see what happens in each individual case if we can't prevent something it doesn't mean we don't follow orders but the most probably we can't do anything about it. here in militants have suffered the most serious losses in the last few months according to the russian defense ministry over two thousand islamic state and al qaeda extremists including sixteen i saw field commanders were killed in just eleven days

the ministry added russian airstrikes also injured almost three thousand militants among those killed four hundred citizens from former soviet states who joined the terrorist ranks the ministry confirmed that with the help of russian airstrikes the syrian army will soon drive i saw from the eastern part of derry saw. now on the on saturday march two years since russia launched its act campaign against terrorists in syria al correspondent is reporting on the anniversary and more to him there is this is one of many locations he's been filming for us since the start of the campaign. now on the second anniversary of russia's operation i stand in dead us or a city that was besieged by isis for three years one of the most horrendous sieges in modern history its people suffered they stabbed and they died yet they now have

hope the city is slowly coming back to life but as with all things in syria it isn't that simple. isis still hold the small parts of the city and a few days ago they cut the highway linking did a sword in the middle of this vast desert to the rest of government controlled syria this morning they attacked the airport of their disorder but will force back defeated that it has been a roller coaster defeats and victories escalations and deescalation sees fives and betrayals certainly an action packed few years. this is the ad based in love takeo from which russian jets launching their suits

he's against islam ics they thought gets in syria. whether it's. in a time the pilots are ready to go it's a moment's notice. in this ad fifty at the lay down by the romans almost tooth. thousand years ago that isis staged one of its sickest massacres the russian military considers it the crowding jewel of the operation here in syria.

one come to the government's side of aleppo the sees what you see on your way here where just a few hundred meters away from the front line. where in the. and the rebels are pushing into aleppo again. the rescuers are now digging through the rubble looking for the body of a thirteen year old go. and did this to. you.

were as a syrian still reposition overlooking the industrial border of that is sort of the battle is said to be theists isis fired back as we filmed shells speak on fooling around. we ran but the syrian batteries kept firing. life even did as order is still far from normal but at least they will be stun. into debt anymore. this is the map which shows how much territory eisel has lost in syria since the air campaign began most of the terror groups strongholds to fall into president assad's army according to the russian defense ministry eighty seven percent of

syria is now free of islamic state. but the most significant came at the beginning in candid october twenty fifth be in the syrian government forced to that point were really on the rope. i feel we're at the gate of damascus. russia coming in leveled the playing field and favor the day for the syrian government you have to

remember that before that point the west and countries in the gulf countries had been sending we've been who planned this for truth. regardless of consequences or whether that actually helped i feel the west been powered through it and saudi arabia are continuing to pour in has been to the jihadi force through russia of intervention and particularly with air strike turned the tide. g. seven summit in the italian city of turin has received a less than warm welcome after hundreds of angry protesters surrounded the venue. was. clashes broke out between police and demonstrators voicing fury at the policies of the g seven economies several arrests

of the courtly tonight and while ministers discussed prospects of a fourth industrial revolution protests on the streets of turin have shown no signs of calming down. could. i. was. i. i. i i i. i was going to a coupe. the song of russia's recently closed san francisco concert has come to an end the last of the facility stauffer now on their way back home offices checking to has the details. the last remaining diplomats from the now close russian consulate in

san francisco have left the united states the consulate along with two trade missions one located in new york city one in washington d.c. were shut down with only two days notice by washington d.c. at the end of august and the diplomatic compounds were subsequently searched by the f.b.i. a move that the russian foreign ministry has called a violation of international law now the san francisco consulate itself did contain two different buildings there was the consulate and the diplomatic residence while the consulate itself has been under u.s. control since the searches took place at the beginning of september the russian diplomats have had access to the residence under certain restrictions up to this point this diplomatic rift really began last year between the u.s. and russia when in december former president barack obama ordered the expulsion of thirty five russian diplomats and seized two diplomatic properties that was in

response to allegations that russia meddled in the u.s. presidential election of course all of those allegations have not been backed up with any concrete proof and russia has denied them very strongly at that time no retaliatory measures were taken by moscow but after a number of sanctions were imposed against russia by the u.s. throughout this year there was the breaking point and at that point the kremlin said they could no longer take this lying down so at that point the kremlin ordered the u.s. state department to reduce their numbers their personnel in russia by seven hundred fifty five members washington then decided to take a more tit for tat approach to the situation and what they called parity shut down the san francisco consulate and the two and axes like i said in washington d.c. and new york city sergey lavrov the russian foreign minister expressed regret over the rise in tensions that he says was not started by russia and those closures really did signify an all time low in. u.s.

russia relations and all tension seem to have cooled at this point we can only wait and see if the departure of these last few diplomats will be the last word on the matter. french president emanuel micron has been hit by a fresh wave of criticism after cutting taxes for the wealthy he's responded by saying his latest tax reform is aimed at encouraging investment and promoting talent in the country however many people in paris don't agree warning the new leader is already becoming a president for the rich and that the reform will only worsen inequality in france our correspondent charlotte do penske has more. how do you know when you not just rich but you'll feel feet which. cars and race horses a definitely signs that eve more than a pretty penny to spend right. will not so much in france

where the toys of the rich and famous no longer eligible for tax and that's causing quite a stir if you think this is a bore i think this is unfair but justice no longer exists in france there isn't a justice system anymore this is the hunger for power of a prince who wants to rule our country how he wants. government is only for the rich and he doesn't care about the poor we don't have a middle class there are only poor people who work for the rich yes i am outraged and we the young people should protest against this not cool switching how france taxes wealth is government claims that it wants to you have to be extremely wealthy including tens of thousands of millionaires who fled the country because of the country's old tax system and even though only a tiny fraction of french people pay the old tax money going to own m.p.'s admit they going to face

a hard time explaining bass. how could i explain this to six year olds who own an old apartment that they will be taxed more than young trader's driving a ferrari so cool that the taxes raised under the old system of current sold out by the money that probably also lost by people trying to avoid it but many people particularly pension is say they'll be harder hit under the new system and they fear reus they claim that my calls government is only for the rich and the super rich so it didn't skate ot see paris back on a second. reforms of spot numerous protests across france demonstrations have seen retired workers on the streets angry with taxes on pensions meanwhile student protest is that micron and the spot clashes with police a french left wing party member told us that if nothing changes in the cons policy the popularity will sink further. attracting

a rich people to invest in france is always a similar agreement but mr microphone forgot that france is one of the. best country for already the best country for. foreign investment was elected we with them we get to keep what's presented by many medias like the new president. change thing it was a light because what he's proposing is this same old politics that this is only been the first beneficiary for the rich are seeing the impact will be that less and less people. believe. and that is popularity will go down. with giant monsanto has been kicked out of the european parliament its lobbyists were banned after refusing to attend a hearing it was about whether secret studies into the safety of my son to products were flawed or exaggerated for commercial lens no makers also slammed the secrecy

surrounding the studies. how can we be sure of develop duty of the conclusions about the safety or otherwise of life for state when there is lack of transparency when it is publicly revealed by the latest us court cases that the scientific data provided by the company experts was falsified the glaive for say the m.e.p. just mentioned is used by monsanto in some of its weed killers chemists say it can cause serious damage and is toxic to animals and people the world health organization claims it can also cause cancer the organic consumers association says most santo is happy to sweep it under the carpet if it means bigger profits. the stakes for months down are extremely high they have an eight billion dollar industry that they're trying to protect in the united states there are hundreds of people who have gotten cancer from exposure to monsanto's roundup herbicide who are

currently suing the company we have a paper trail that goes back to the one nine hundred eighty s. that showed monsanto knew that roundup causes cancer and. they have been able to successfully suppress this evidence and it was only until two thousand and fifteen when the world health organization determined that monsanto's roundup was a probable human carcinogen they've been trying to cover their tracks and convince regulators that things should proceed business as usual in the united states and in the european union they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars euros every year to suppress the evidence that their products are dangerous and to improperly influence regulators and decision makers in parliament or in the congress if it means billions of dollars in sales to monsanto i think they probably would be better off continuing to hide the evidence even if it means being banned from lobbying. the

u.s. and russia have agreed to work together on a new project to build a space station will all but the moon the station will serve as a launch pad for full the space exploration including manned missions to mars we spoke to former us come on. he thinks projects like this help nations to improve relations all the. this deep space gateway is one of the key components of the new architecture that is more of a moon century now and it's basically a node a very small a human tended kind of a space station that will enable us to both explore the moon and also serve as a departure point to go farther into the universe including possibly or hopefully when they to mars we want to go to mars in my opinion i think it makes a lot of sense to go back to the moon first because we want to make sure that everything we sent to mars before we send the crew there is going to work so we want to make sure habitats work the power sources power generators the rovers spacesuits we want to train crews there the moon is only three days away so if

something goes wrong you can get your crew back pretty quickly when the d.s.t. does gives you a lot of flexibility for exploration and i would fully expect all of the partners currently working on the i s s and hopefully new ones as well when we cooperate together in a big simple program like a like a space program that trickles down into other parts of the relationship and that can only be positive. roundup of the news this hour don't forget we're all over social media on face but twitter and of course our website. i'll be back at the top of the hour so don't go away.

thanks guys are financial survive. the bell on. climate change is it this is the central bank support diatom is going to call them i know it's a stop to that. there are some nazis in the if it's not the mass of the h.d. voters but you know to say that our culture of atonement. our remembrance of nuns nazi crimes is wrong that's true much it's the attitude of some people in the. deep which by the way is no in the process of tearing itself apart to. to get the degree which will get them that dream job young americans no longer

hesitate to put the house at stake is the first day of term on the columbia campus one of the most prestigious universities in the well more than eighty nobel prize winners have five a study to twelve. just as in many other ivy league american schools some students take drugs to boost their academic results thanks to infection mean defectives they can study through the night. without showing any signs of tides. breaking you could be and there are hours to see you. in the united states these study drugs have become a public health issue more than a third of american students take them regularly. got into columbia thanks to an exam she took under the influence. to avoid a disciplinary action she will hide her identity i didn't have any expectations of getting in.