thank. you thank. you. thank you thank. you a polling stations are set to open in less than two hours with madrid having spent an extra forces to prevent that from happening also in this week's headlines. tech giants google facebook and twitter have all joined in the hunt for the increasingly elusive looking alleged russian election meddlers with twitter also taking aim at this channel plus. thank you thank you. thank. you. jimmy did

a wave of protests after the alternative for germany party and to the national parliament for the first time you have. allowed that this is r.t. international you're watching the weekly here all the latest headlines and the stories that shape the week. well it's decision time in the spanish region of catalonia in just a few hours people there will start voting on whether to break away from space in madrid though threatened to shut down polling stations branding the referendum illegal has prompted some locals to stage sit ins to make sure the ballot casting goes ahead. thank police officers the visited several facilities to let activists know that they must leave the premises by six am local time with the deadline which is now expired. but it's not

because live to our correspondent dana koch you have a near one of those occupied polling stations in boston alone i'm a dana what polling soldiers followed. well indeed. the pauling's stations here in the region of cads a line which are said to open in less than two hours now local police have indeed warned that the activists should leave the size by six o'clock sunday morning and they were actually the police was actually instructed not to implement force but still to shut down all the stations so far we have seen no police and no tensions and everything was peaceful but as you can see behind my back something is indeed happening we see right now there is a police car that has just approached the building of the school and the people behind my back are those from the neighborhood watch because we are in one of the

areas of barcelona and those people gathered here to protract of the polling station there palling station and the building of the school now they've been sitting here all night swapping one another and basically waiting for police to arrive to somehow protect the polling station from being shot down by security services now so far the atmosphere here is really friendly people are swapping and exchanging giving coffee to one another clapping laughing supporting and saying that the are ready to vote but of course we're here on the ground mani's worrying what's going to happen in the next few minutes maybe or and the next hour. or it depends on the actions coming from the security services now late on sunday the spanish interior ministry said that most of the polish stations which a vote organizers had designated to host the referendum have been shut down of by

a sewer it sees a but tensions not of the referendum were mounting really with a lot of protest movement both on saturday and on sunday in madrid there was a you and an israeli if as you can see now the people are collapsing the it's people are clapping because they saw and now there's a police car approaching the building of the pollies station now so far police is not approaching the crowds and everything is really quiet but again i said that we saw a lot of protest movement both for and against the referendum let's just recap what happened in the country and the past week gigs thank. god. the oath. again today is the crucial day the day of the referendum of the of

dependence canta lani and now ole eyes are ads of the polish stations across the region and of course here in the capital city of abbas a lawyer and we are here on the ground bringing you the latest. thanks clementina we appreciate that of course anything that happens in barcelona throughout the day you are going to be bring going to as all the latest from there thank you very much for dinner question of a. spanish government regards this referendum illegal saying that it is a mist to break the country with tensions mounting between madrid and barcelona officials from both sides traded accusations of extremism. disturbance it would. clearly be. adopting. you know people who. are against referendum if he had a meeting with the government has crossed

a very dangerous red line he has decided to resurrect franco. the spanish government does have reasons to worry about losing this region council lonia covers six percent of the country's territory the region is also responsible for more than a half of investments in start ups twenty three percent of foreign tourists go to catalonia that's why madrid is so desperate to stop their referendum. i. think. it's been three members of the former government have been judged and convicted and barred from public positions only because we'll let people know.

this isn't a closer look. that good and with. the stuff in it that you know to. give you i don't do this. again if you sense ok with it completely it's about a day. like i. took. to pick up. the roots all the council on crisis go way back into spanish history. by now you've surely heard about cats or learned desire

to go it alone the prosperous region in northeast spain accounts for almost a fifth of the country's economy and believes it's paying madrid way more than it gets back catalonia is home to seven point five million people posting its own language culture and history which is why many cats once considered themselves a separate nation. but it has been a lot of spain since the fifteenth century courtesy of king ferdinand and queen isabella for the origins of the modern says sation its movement let's fast forward to the twentieth century spain becomes a republic and cats are learning against the statute of autonomy but six years later franco comes to power and takes that away the three decades of franco's oppression and repulsed at the castle as desire for independence and after his death and spain's transition to democracy catalonia got its autonomy back but not enough as many locals believe when the country's can stitch new course limits on

cancer and claims to nations that it started a chain reaction. with protests and symbolic referendums in cities and towns across the region some cancellations now compare madrid pressure to the decades of franco stick to the region how would a nonbinding independence fight back in twenty fourteen about eighty percent said yes to independence but it was declared illegal by spain. whenever both you and democratic the catalonia is pressing ahead of god it seems more determined than ever to be in the sand. nigeria has shut down many referendum related websites and the spanish civil guard raided the center of telecommunications and information technology and also later. wiki leaks coeditor julian a song he dubs the government's actions is the first to internet war wiki leaks have also created a member of

a website that helps voters to find polling stations that are open we spoke to a member of the council on pirate policy which is also helping referendum related websites to stay active they are doing the right thing because it's not a matter of fact that they don't it's a matter of democracy some other people rights over rights are being repressed by did this government because they are prosecuting we thought we got over against it for a website that they only hold information of the referral to go in the regime or fall in behind. them actually more. an example of repression that has seen the signs right here and frankly. with the vote insecta starts in less than two hours our teams both hey we're not scared and in barcelona we'll be updating you on the situation on the ground all throughout this sunday so stay tuned for that.

major tech firms are cooperating with the u.s. all foresees by handing over information supposedly related to russian meddling in the american presidential election twitter in its statement also took a swipe at r.t. talking in vague looks of the latest efforts to root out alleged russian trolls. the internet is now trying its hand at hunting down even the slightest sign of moscow lurking in the shadows facebook twitter and now google are all gearing up to testify in congress on pesky russian meddling next month. twitter has released a report with the name just made to fill headlines russian interference in two thousand and sixteen u.s. election bots and misinformation now it sounds spooky but the findings are more than a little vague twitter apparently found and shut down a grand total of two hundred one suspicious accounts that broke their spam rules

and while russia is mentioned in the report those accounts aren't actually proven to have concrete links to moscow what was clearly laid out however was this channel spending on ads shockingly proving that r.t. uses social media and buys advertisements. facebook released similar findings earlier revealing four hundred seventy in authentic accounts then admitted most ads run by those accounts didn't even reference the u.s. presidential election at all so the kremlin is so sneaky that it was able to rig an election without mentioning the actual election pretty impressive facebook also said russia spent one hundred thousand dollars on those ads and other words less than one percent of how much candidates spent campaigning on facebook. while stories of how moscow sway u.s. voters with a bunch of social media ads continue to dominate the mainstream media the most shocking social network revelation is all but ignored wiki leaks has posted an email conversation in which facebook's chief operating officer seemingly proposes

helping hillary clinton's campaign head. i still want hillary rodham clinton to win badly i'm still here to help as i can i'm thrilled at the progress here louise making. looking forward to working with the first woman president of the united states. google is also accused of having close ties to the clinton camp a leaked memo written by clinton's digital strategist surfaced online. i'm in it he talks about eric schmidt boss of google's parent company and the work that he's done for clinton i have been kept apprised of the work being done by eric schmidt's group and others working directly and indirectly with your team on the whole i am comfortable with where we stand and confident in our roadmap to launch day and beyond but if you're waiting for these special committees and investigations to be set up into whether facebook or google actually help the clinton camp don't hold your breath just in case but i think it's

a witch i think that they don't care about what hillary was doing and they want to very biased against the pain so far they haven't showed me and that was a that was a pro trump that was paid for by the russian government i just see what's happening in this post-election period as a result of a bunch of sore losers that were shocked that they didn't win the election but i think that the responsibility for us ought to be is what has our government done has our government been involved after they're in power and unfortunately we're involved too much around the world one of the big allegations against russia is sora made to blow this week with three u.s. states saying to you that they do us department of homeland security provided them with false information and d.h. has told twenty one states that best systems had been hacked during the election but the three states in question say that the information was not needed late but

also wrong and that the agency should apologize. but it seems news of alleged russian meddling won't go away everyone and everything it seems is being accused of having connections to mosco including reddit the judge report website and even the n.f.l. scandal. new york if they could distinguish real for made up accusations against russia. which scandal was said to be the result of russian trolls by a u.s. senator was it a an f l players not standing up for the pledge or for the flag was it be confederate monuments or see the california independence moment california when it's. actually it was the first one it was a. a you're right c because i don't know i really don't know do you believe that kidding no idea who is a russian agent is it alexander ovechkin matt drudge or tom cruise

tom cruise no doubt that tom cruise strikes you as a risky he has that i don't even know dude to be honest he's an at drudge a drudge report you think he's a russian agent maybe that us a b. and you're right which is used as a tool for russian propaganda according to this same u.s. senator is it a fox news be read it or see snap chat. read it yeah you're right about that quoting to us and i would probably be snapped up actually it's read it it's one of those i would say b. and that's what yeah the same guy said that read it down right now do you buy this idea that rush is everywhere russian trolls are in fla anon do you buy that i think it's all over the internet so it has to be true unfortunately the the country prefers to quick explanations without any facts. and we discussed the recent allegations against russia with the media analyst line of writing but downscale a columnist for the hill news website. what is troubling to most americans here is

that the latest example involves playing race cards in american politics from some russian sources to try to divide americans there are allegations with some that didn't at this point who are the russians russian government russian people people who speak russian what we don't know anti fracking ads black lives matter how is that going to help donald trump oh i know because it causes chaos details don't matter just mentioned russia mentioned r.t. and we're off and running president putin and everyone else knows the exact truth the whole truth about what happened when it will improve relations is to stop it stop whether anyone will admit it or not is not stop stop interfering in the american system stop promoting racism or racial division promoting any political

candidate or party in the united states by not doing the things that were on the news now that they are doing one question what is the what is the best evidence you have to take all the time you want the best evidence you have of anything that you have attempted to accuse russia of you know the senate intelligence committee democrats and republicans the f.b.i. every law enforcement agency every cattle intelligence agency in america many many and most republican senators and republican members of congress republican and i'm a liberal democrat republican agree with every word i just said about what russia has done i'm trying so hard to play along i swear to you i'm not trying to be don i don't understand what if somebody were to pay an ad for black eyes matter n.f.l. boycott whatever it is so what if they would have by an ad that is on the news already how is the russian. story somehow worse deeper affecting people more. then the other story i'm hearing ten thousand times

on ten thousand other platforms. syria's army is continuing the fight against terrorists in the city of result with the support of the russian after a mission update after the break.

what holds if you should. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so if you want to express. yourself want to be rich. if you want to be this is what before you begin. to see all these people why. they should. welcome back remaining pockets of terrorist resistance in the syrian city of d i was aware pounded this week by government forces on the ground and russian app power from above islamic state siege of the city was broken by the syrian army a month ago and these on exclusive pictures from the area where several days ago syrian government forces made an important get. when driving out i saw from the

western side of the euphrates river the russian military has now established a bridge that enables almost cost to cross in a separate mission russians are teaching bonus carried out strikes on iceland for a position in the syrian provinces. and in the. remaining terrorists india is there are now surrounded by both the syrian army and

u.s. sponsored kurdish forces on the travel to the city to witness the battle here's our correspondent with his report from the front line. food out palace once that is sort of most exclusive resort now a modern day fortress out of necessity. for three years the garrison here has thwarted isis attempts to cross the river at times it was a close run thing and you don't have saudi going on and from the onset coming up to the roof was very dangerous because of the snipers it was really bad but when the army broke the siege and they fell back a month ago it would have been suicide to film up here not anymore. these five star hotel seem better days but thanks to its grandiose design and height acted as something of

a fortress here indeed as sort and just to show you how close we are if you have a look through this hole at that hospital well everything behind that is isis part of the city of that is or across the river they also hold sway this is all their territory that's the euphrates river and across it is isis it's from there that they shelled the city at will and from there that they launched the occasional raid across the river taking the other banking is key to liberating the city entirely isis still sends fighters and alms back and forth across the river at night it may take weeks but it is inevitable isis in syria is on its last legs its collapse has been spectacular as its rise since the beginning of the year the so-called caliph it has lost thousands of square kilometers using precious

oilfields and strategic towns to the advancing syrian army and the u.s. backed rebels that is. not to see it's all that it will be. isis has nothing left to loons according to the syrian military the families of isis fighters and diehard supporters have allegedly retreated to the town of my dean they have nowhere else to go in the shrinking caliphate this is the final act the dream of an islamic state has been shattered but even in its death throes will inevitably claim more lives guys do you have to see from that as sort of syria. germany has seen a number of protests denouncing the policies of the alternative for germany party and i thought it made a major breakthrough

a week ago and entered parliament for the first time. the big rallies gathered outside the a.f. these headquarters with protesters shouting at the party's leaders as they celebrated the election results the a.f.p. claims the protesters were acting so aggressively they were afraid to meet ability . to raise the bundestag elections also made headlines with angola merkel despite coming out on top so a plunge in support of a christian democratic party registered it was result since one thousand nine hundred forty nine that means hard times could lie ahead and that he's done a whole kins expect. to many i'm going to merkel is the embodiment of stability in the face of crisis big sing diplomacy with a firm hand and sound decision making well as for that skill this term has been marred by a series of setbacks firstly she decided to open the doors to asylum seekers at the

height of the refugee crisis almost a million flooded into germany in twenty fifteen alone while some more welcoming. started to worry the country just wouldn't be able to cope. a year off to mark a lot to open door policy germany saw a rise in modern crimes one of the most shocking hundreds of women alleging they were sexually assaulted in cologne new year's celebrations by men of north africa an hour of appearance. the events in cologne took their toll on merkel's popularity. the chancellor's controversial refugee policy is also blamed at least partly for something much more

sinister and dangerous a rise in is the most terrorism. poorly vetted or later radicalized migrants cross the border germany saw multiple terror attacks take place markel faced biggest leadership crisis. for the interest. the three of. them hold with the gun to. finally the g twenty summit presents an international p.r. opportunity for chancellor merkel but walsh advertised hamburg as a gateway to the world protest groups had other ideas welcome to hell and the authorities failed to prevent the chaos.

the city descended into riots torched cause and pitched street battles with the police much of the media held accountable for this even choosing that venue to start with she may still be queen of the polls but merkel may need a fourth term just the right some of the mess she created in the. fall i was on twitter for regular updates on the situation in catalonia and war and i'll be back at the top of the hour john. there are some nazis in the fifty it's not the mass of the h.d. voters but you know to say that our culture of atonement.

oh remembrance of nuns nazi crimes is wrong that's too much it's the attitude of some people in the if d. which by the way is no in the process of tearing itself apart to. make this manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. with the final larry go round the sun be the one percent. we can all middle of the room sick.