what was. bringing you the latest pictures from barcelona now as polling stations are at this moment opening in catalonia for the spanish regions controversial independence referendum in defiance of madrid's ordering them shut also in this week's headlines . take giants google of facebook and twitter have all joined in the hunt for the increasingly elusive letting alleged russian election that's. that's the euphrates river cross it is isis it's there that the. islamic states days in syria look numbered as they're driven out of the city of dia

resort and across the euphrates river. hello and welcome you're watching the weekly here on r.t. international the latest headlines underground up the stories that shape the week. it's decision time in the spanish region of council lonia polling stations have opened locals are now casting their votes on whether to break away from spain madrid though has vowed to prevent the referendum from happening branding it illegal data caution if it is in barcelona for us we can cross live to her now oh we do we do apologize we've lost our correspondent but we will be crossing live to her later in the program so do stay tuned for that. moving on now the spanish government regards this referendum illegal as saying that

it's a is to break the country with tensions mounting between madrid and barcelona officials from both sides traded accusations of extremism. disturbance it would. clearly be on the side of those who are advocating the referendum are. adopting nazi like by pointing out people who. are against the referendum and if you had a meeting of the government has crossed a very dangerous red line he has decided to resurrect the best of franco as. ok as promised dante's medina concha never is in barcelona for us we're not going to cross live to her i do believe she's near one of the polling stations medina votes now under way despite her dreads threats was the latest dickens hallo's on the situation. well as you can see in the gam standing right

in the middle of a crowd of people from the neighborhood of this area in barcelona and just as you mention despite some fears opposition coming from a dream and harsh measures taken by the spanish authorities this referendum on the independence of catalunya is indeed taking place now where right now in one of the neighborhoods of the city where the piling station is about to be opened last preparations are happening now we've got a lot of people here crowds coming in people standing in line waiting for their time to vote now if i can show you some people from this side from my right side you see lines of people now some of them came in the middle of the night around four or five am just standing here close to the school building that is about to be appalling station are protecting this building for a few true vote and some of them even spent the night here now the atmosphere is

really friendly people are supporting each other collapsing and they say that they are ready to defend their democratic rights. and this country has been mobilizing for the last many years just with these objectives to be able to express ourselves and to say what do we want for this country for the future he doesn't mother. because we love the graffiti we want to vote we have needed to do extreme actions such as sleeping in schools so just coming here hundreds of person said five o'clock in the morning spending i have been standing here for hours and we will be here all day if necessary because they don't want to let us speak. while this fight local police saying that the activists shoot of back a bit of the polling stations to vacate school buildings as you can see people are

still. here and i can tell you one thing crowds are coming in and people just sim very determined to vote now tensions and height of the referendum were mounting here across the region of cataloging especially in the capital city of wasilla now we saw a lot of protest movement happening both especially on saturday and on friday and madrid as well as spanish unionists a rally in front of the city hall and barcelona during one demonstration a man at tempted to tear down a pro independence banner from the town hall and in one of the schools four people were attacked with a pallid gun and some of them even received a minor injuries on friday night and neither school building which was supposed to be appalling station was vandalized while people were still inside sleeping there protecting the building now let's recap some of the advance of what happened in this country in spain and especially in the region of cats

a lot and the past couple of days to go ok. go. go go go. today is a crucial day of the voting at the voting the referendum on independence of council on an old eyes are indeed at the pauling stations located across the region and here and the capital city of boston people behind my back are ready to vote and we're here on the ground bringing you the latest ok thanks for that i thought it would be a question from barcelona who's going to be with us throughout the day with all the latest from both the loan we can now take. with some live pictures from inside the polling stations were cut to learn is are costing the votes a referendum organizers have. for any

a peaceful resistance to any police action but of course at the moment as polling stations have just opens just a few minutes ago everything looks incredibly peaceful and calm but we will be keeping you up to date on the situation throughout the day. now the spanish government does have reasons to worry about losing this region catalonia covers six percent of the country's territory and accounts for twenty percent of spain's g.d.p. the region is also responsible for more than half of investments into startups and almost a quarter of foreign tourists go to so perhaps that's why madrid is so desperate to stop this referendum. i. think we members of the former government have been judged and convict. and barred

from public positions. because we let the pose. them been. that good and with. the stuff in it that you know to. give you i don't do this. again if. you believe me. i. think i.

now the roots of the council on crisis go way back into spanish history. you surely heard about cats alone his 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 part 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 catalonia gets a statute of autonomy but six years later franco comes to power and takes that away the three decades of franco's oppression only posted to kathmandu 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 countermands claims to nations that it started a chain reaction. with protests and symbolic referendums in cities and towns across the region some catalans now compare madrid pressure to the decades of rancor dictatorship the region how would a non-binding independence vote back in twenty fourteen about eighty percent said yes to independence but it was declared illegal by spraying. north whenever both you and democratic catalonia is pressing ahead regardless it seems more determined than ever to be in the sand. when the church has shut down many referenda related websites on the spanish civil guard raided this then to attend a communications and information technology in barcelona where he makes coed so

dearly in a song dubbed the government's actions as they found internet war which have also created a mayor of a website that helps voters to find a polling station that's open we spoke to a member of the council on pirate party 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 civil rights over rights are being addressed by did this government because they are prosecuting we throw big all over again it's different with science they only hold information over the written video and the bridge and or well thought it would be gone but i'm actually more of an example of couple has seen the signs frank and i'm going. now with but voting now underway all teams both here in moscow and in barcelona will be updating you on the situation on the ground throughout the day.

major tech firms are cooperating with the u.s. authorities by handing over information supposedly related to russian meddling in the american presidential election twitter in its statement also took a swipe at our take jacqueline very good look at 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 that 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 things. 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 their very biased against that from 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. now as promised we're going to be bringing you the latest on the situation in constant loney we're now bringing you live pictures from barcelona where it appears it appears police are trying to force their way into one of the polling stations that the crowd outside on defending

this polling station they want to maintain. the situation to the people can it cost them votes so the situation fifteen minutes since polling stations opened it seems to be gaining. getting a lot more tense than we saw just a few moments ago we are going to be bringing you all the latest on the situation i'm referendum organizers had voted to turn up to defend these polling stations they've been there since five am this morning local time and a fourth book a peaceful resistance to anything. police action of course madrid has pledged to stop the vote and dozens of police vehicles have been stationed outside these polling areas police now forcing their way through the crowd as you can see trying to gain entry into these polling stations to shut this referendum down. as the winds are getting more and more tense in barcelona as the crowds try

to prevent police entering the polling stations and preventing catalonians from casting their vote their votes for independence from madrid. these are live pictures from barcelona. of course we're going to be bringing new more of the latest information on the catalonian referendum as soon as we get it and moving on one of the big allegations against russia store a major blow this week with three u.s. states saying the department of homeland security provided them with false information that d.h.l. slowly it's hold twenty one states that their systems have been hacked during the election but the three states in questions that the information was not only late little thorough wrong and that the agency should apologize. but it seems that news of alleged russian meddling just won't go away everyone and everything seems is being accused of having connections to most including reddit the joint to report

website and even the n.f.l. scandal. new york has if they could distinguish real from maine to 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 b. confederate monuments or c. the california independence movement california defined as a you're right c because i don't know i really don't know do you believe that kid no idea who is a russian agent is it alexander ovechkin matt drudge or tom cruise tom cruise no doubt us a b. and you're right which is used as a tool for russian propaganda according to this same us senator is it a fox news be read it or see snap chat. read it yeah you're right about that 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 the country prefers to quick explanations without any facts. well we discussed the recent allegations against russia with media analyst lionel and brant budowsky 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 evidence at this point who are the russians russian government russian people people who speak russian what we don't know and the fracking a black lives matter how is that going to help donald trump oh i know because it causes chaos details don't matter just make sure russia measured our g.

and we're off and running president putin and everyone else knows the exact truth the whole truth ok taking you back now to barcelona where the referendum. of voting for the referendum began just nineteen minutes ago and already police are attempting to polling stations to stop this vote of course the referendum has been declared illegal by spain's constitutional court and thousands of extra police have been deployed to the region police have now successfully gained entry into one of the polling stations despite a huge crowds of people outside trying to prevent entry. madrid has pledged to stop the votes of course the referendum organizers had voters to turn up to defend these polling stations they've been hearing of outside since five am local time referendum organizers have called for a peaceful resistance to any police action but police nevertheless force their way

use through the crowds into this polling station which is taking place inside the school where people are casting votes and on those ballot papers just one question do you want counsel lonia. to become an independent state in the form of or a public. or two boxes yes or no and of course many people in catalonia almost ninety percent of people in catalonia would like us no need to become independent from madrid. so they are civil guard now have successfully gained entry into this makeshift polling station inside the school where catalonians are costing the votes on independence from madrid. things remaining peaceful so far but of course quite a daunting presence of police. still catalonians

defiant saying day in the face of these civil guards police forces actually. these are live pictures we're bringing you from our loan and now we're going to bring bringing you all the latest on the referendum process throughout the day. i sang a. show of defiance defiance from confidant close catalonians the. as police from madrid was forced entry into the polling station. and. i can referendum organizers have called for a pace for resistance to any police action. for madrid has pledged to stop the vote and dozens of police vehicles have left the base in the port of the regional

capital barcelona to be here today as polling stations opened around twenty two minutes ago. this referendum of course has been declared illegal by. spain's constitutional court. the oath the iraqi who has a home i hope to bring you all the latest from barcelona and across consular nias throughout the day with these latest pictures live pictures for a day of projects but for now let's move on to some other news from the we cannot

remaining pockets of terrorist resistance in the syrian city of d arizona where pounded this week by government forces on the ground and russian have power from the islamic state siege of the city was broken by the syrian army a month ago now these are exclusive pictures from the area where several days ago syrian government forces made an important gain in driving out i saw from the western side of the euphrates river the russian military has now established a bridge that enables all made cars to cross in a separate mission russian strategic bombers carried out strikes on iceland down this road positions in the syrian provinces of diaz and it. her weekly. for her.

her. remaining terrorist cindy arizona now surrounded by both the syrian army and u.s. backed kurdish forces to travel to the city to witness the bottle has all correspondent with his report from the front line. palace once that is sort of most exclusive resort now a modern day fortress out of necessity. for three years the garrison here has wanted isis attempts to cross the river at times it was a close run thing and we don't have sort of an animal 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 of the 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 order and just to show you how close we are if you have a look through this hole at that cardio hospital well everything behind that is isis is part of the city of the resort 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. can we interrupt that report to bring you breaking news this hour civil guard officers are moving through crowds to get into polling stations in catalonia and breaking through doors but people inside aren't trying to stop them

because a lot of vote for independence from spain spotted just started just moments ago a similar case of the being reported at different polling stations madrid things this referendum as an illegal one and says its aim is to break spanish society just days before the vote spanish government deployed extra an extra six thousand civil guard officers they are a military force we can now cross live to artist maintain a cautionary. he was at the polling station a weapon leaf have interrupted him but also let's go over to her now medina can you tell us the latest from where you are. well the situation is very clear quickly getting out of hand really this is ration getting more and more tense and what's happening now is that we're still standing at this polling station that has just been open we've got crowds of people here and we do hear reports that around other polling stations around schools police are breaking in and they're

pushing people out and they are preventing people from voting very confiscating voting materials ballots they're trying to shut down polling stations now spanish authorities consider this referendum this event to be illegal and they promise that they will shut down old polling stations and will take old mashers to really stop this from going forward now in terms of what happening here now as you can see people right now looking at the direction this is where we expect to put police forces to iraq i've now some people over here told me that in two blocks from here there is another school and police's already there they're breaking down doors and they're taking people out holding them by their hair and becoming really really very quickly a very violent what's happening here is that they're trying to put the. older people closer to the doors to prevent from violence so the police that would enter

the building will not push those people out so the situation is really indeed very tense here and we expect to see security services police forces here in any minute now we have been here since early in the morning with been here at four am talking to people we know that neighbors of this area have gathered here and stayed here overnight to. attacked this pauline station and to let people vote they say that they will do everything to defend their democratic rights. maybe not this so the police intervention is something fed to voters will have anticipated a referendum organizers called for a peaceful resistance to any police action but how far although she is prepared to go what's the mood amongst voters there right now.