sometimes quite literally. you want other true colors of universities in the u.s. . i make you think i should now law you florida international from the capital catalan capital bringing you all the latest how's the civil guard is raking on doors and stopping the referendum on independence of catalonia. and i'm mickey aaron with a round up of the week's news including tech giants google facebook and twitter old joining in the hunt for the increasingly elusive looking alleged russian election that let's let's. that's the euphrates river and cross it is isis it's

from there the they shelled the city. islamic states days in syria look numbered as they're driven out of the city of dia resort and across the euphrates river. below there you're watching the weekly here on r.t. international the latest headlines on the news the shape the week but we start this hour with breaking news from catalonia where voting on independence from spain is now under way civil god office those have forced their way into several polling stations across the region they broke down doors as activists inside trying to prevent them from entering with several people trying to weigh what officers.

thank you. ok. ok. ok was. oh the latest on the situation let's go straight to medina cochon of and boss alona here's one of these polling stations medina is only an hour into the referendum into voting and it's already been quite eventful hasn't it what can you tell us what's the latest. by the late is that the situation is getting more and more intense really right now the behind my back there is a polling station that said i can't do that i'm sorry and what we see right now is that the situation as i said becoming very very hard and people are having the

right thank you it was said that this polling station and so forth and the coachman continue to these people are expressing their support for this bill because they say that there are ready to defend their democratic rights but we do know according to news agency athey that catalan police have close more than fifteen palling stations and are rating them just two blocks away from here a school building was just raided we've got people from that school coming here to try to continue their vote now we've got one person here that i just a match and he can show us what happened police pushed him outside and police turned down his shirt and pushed him out of the school really using force and he's not the only one people coming here to this square close to the school building are saying that police is using force violently pushing people out shutting down the polling station and saying that this was promise so they will not see the lads.

people vote this sunday now we've stayed here for a couple of hours talking to people that are right here in the middle of the night trying to protect this building they are determined and they say that they will do everything to protect their democratic rights. ok as long as we're doing a question of in barcelona who's going to be bringing us up to date throughout the day on the latest from catalonia but for now thanks medina. or video has appeared online of officers confiscating focuses on ballot papers from my council on polling station as you can hear people in the background shouting out and whistling at the police. as we've mentioned the spanish government regards this referendum as illegal saying that is the aim is to break the country with tension is 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 you know pointing out people who. are against the referendum if it is a government has crossed a very dangerous red line has decided to resurrect the best of franco ways. respond as government does have reasons to worry about losing this region cause i learned it 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 counseling 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'll let. that get on with. the stuff in it that you know to. give. us a. sense of the way they feel about the way. i. think of.

now the roots of the council on crisis go way back into spanish history. you've surely heard about cats or learned 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 cats are learning it gets a statute of autonomy but six years later franco comes to power and takes that away

the three decades of franco's oppression and the post 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 countries can stitch new court 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 catalans now compare madrid pressure to the decades of franco dictatorship the region held a nonbinding independence fight back in twenty fourteen about eighty percent said yes to independence but it was declared illegal by spain. when up a few undemocratic to catalonia is pressing ahead regardless and seems more determined than ever to be in the sand. madrid has shut down many referendum

related websites ahead of today in this polish that well god has raided the center of telecommunication information information technology and boss alona what he makes co-edit said julius songs dubbed the government's actions is the first internet war which have also created. or of a website that helps the 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 or do the right thing because it's not a matter of them it's a matter of the mocha see some other people rights over rights are being oppressed by government because they are prosecuted we thought we got over again it's different with science they only hold information the referral. for. example of that couple has seen signs from girls from going. with spanish society divided

europe's largely were frightened from taking sides saying it's the internal issue if it's banging well i thought that some people encounter lonia those who accuse the e.u. of turning its back on the region's right to vote as an e.u. media briefing this week journalists have tried to pin down the block to get it you explain now all you have a double standard in freedom of expression whilst found out four thousand. in other sound out for. 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 cause additional that we don't have anything to say i mean this is freedom of expression anything else that we can help you with today. it's an internal constitutional problem according to the e.u.

and the house to be sold in the frame or called internal orders or legal order of. the problem is that this is true until until when certain issues. writes like this in the last few days the issue of freedom of expression we choose not only an internal constitution that ensures speaking it's the duty of law do you choose if you want to pass your constitutional or not all of the spanish constitution or it's now as police try to stop the voting catalonia on teams both here in moscow and our correspondent medina cancian over and barcelona we'll be updating you on the situation on the ground throughout sunday with live pictures throughout the day so stay tuned for that.

and other news now 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 and its statement also took a swipe at our take tackling virga looks at the latest efforts to root out and ledged 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. 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 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 we're 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 so a major blow to this week with three u.s. states saying the department of homeland security provided them with false information the d.h.s.s. hole twenty one states that best systems had been hacked during the election but the three states in question say that the information was not timely late but also wrong and that the agency should apologize. but as things that new news of alleged

russian meddling just won't go away everyone and everything is seems is being accused of having connections to moscow including reddit the drive to a port website and even the n.f.l. scandal morgan asked new york as if they could distinguish real from made up accusations against russia which scandal was said to be the result of russian trolls by a u.s. senator was it a n.f.l. players not standing up for the pledge or for the flag was it be confederate monuments or c. the california independence movement california but it's a you're right see because i don't know i really don't know do you believe that kid 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 u.s. 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 influenced. by that i think it's all over the internet so it has to be true the country prefers to quick explanations without any facts. when we discussed if the recent allegations against russia hold water with media analysts leinil i'm going to 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 their allegations with some that didn't disappoint who are the russians russian government russian people people who speak russian what we don't know anti fracking as black lives may. better 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 would prove relations is to stop it stop whether anyone will admit it or not is not a stop stop interfering in the american system stop promoting racism or racial division promoting 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 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 were to buy an ad that is on the news already how is the russian buyout story somehow worse deeper affecting people more than the other story i'm hearing ten thousand times on ten thousand other platforms. we're going to take a short break now but when we were turn it will go back to boston lona where a referendum on independence from spain is now under way with the civil gone to attempting to close a polling stations and made an increasingly violent situation there we have the latest.

here's what people have been saying about rejected in the senate it's full on awesome the only show i go out of my way to launch you know what it is that really packs a punch oh yeah it is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same we are apparently better than the blue. sea people you've never heard of love jack tonight president of the world bank so take. me seriously send us an e-mail.

hello welcome back we go back to our breaking news this hour now from council lonia where voting on independence from spain is underway civil guard officers have posted their way into several polling stations across the region they broke down doors as activists inside tried to prevent them from entering it was several people drank away on offices. oh. all right it's. ok. if it.

is just some of the events of occurred in the past hour or so here you can see spanish police detaining protesters who were blocking the way of police vehicles so we've gone officers in riot gear can be seen and dragging away people sitting in the road scuffles have also erupted between protesters on the police let's cross the line to our correspondent who's that amidst it all now medina cochon of appears out a polling station now with dana can you tell us what's the latest from where you are now place. well the latest is that the crowds are getting bigger and bigger we've got more people coming in and basically we are standing in the crowd of people and i can tell you that this is worrying they've got children here they've got families here they've got elderly people here and if the situation is

going to get a violent or tans and him might get violent and tense at other polling stations then we might see some serious consequences over here now accord. to latest reports the spanish government has accused the castle and police of holding this referendum of basically lasting this referendum happen spanish authorities say that scotland police is to be believed for this and for this crisis and for the situation they say that catalan pretties for catalan police political interests and criteria's are more important than professional and this is why the national guard civil guard has to react in such a violence way and do things that they do not want to do and we've seen those things happening this morning just two blocks away from here we've seen a polish station that's been raided by security forces by police forces using force and being real violent towards ordinary citizens to words at the neighborhood who were elderly people we do know that students and old people were pushed out sound

one was even pushing out using their hair and they were breaking the windows shook the school so the situation got tans and we do expect to see police forces coming here in a second in a minute that's why there are so many people around me now we talk to some of them some people here is spend nights being here protecting the building of the school trying to protect their right to vote and they told us that they are determined to defend their democratic rights and to vote this sunday. 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 does a mother but it's raining or is it or because we love the grocery we want to vote we have needed to do extreme actions such as sleeping in schools such as coming here hundreds of persons at 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. out spaces or it is. thirty seven years have already closed down. most of the calling stations motion more than half of polling stations around barcelona in the region of concha line and but people here they do not want to leave they want to face this resistance they say that they do want to vote and there are right now blocking the entrance of this poly station they're clapping and support they're trying to show that there are a peaceful gathering over here that there are just simple neighbors of the area that they want their voices to be heard. ok medina you'll besa perhaps you can shed some more light on the actual situation but from the images that we've been seeing we're looking at live pictures and some of the latest video over the past couple in

of a couple of hours and what we're seeing are riot police looking quite determined to get the job done by any means necessary being quite aggressive toward some of the people who have turned out to vote today well can you tell us about the people who were there today i mean why have been raising that some of the people there are many are parents and children who are inside these polling stations which is schools of course who have stayed there since lessons ended on friday and slips that some so that i can and show that they can vote that today and you also spoke about elderly people in the crowds is it quite a worrying situation the police that being aggressive towards these people always their aggression on both sides. it is indeed it is very worrying when we are right here at this polling station at four am this early morning the first thing that i saw were family you sweat the small children and they decided to spend this night at the polling station at the building of the school and afterwards as the closer is the date and the gal were the opening of the

doors of the school was getting more and more families with children were coming in and right now i am surrounded by students and surrounded by children. that families with children elderly people it is a very worrying situation if there is violence just two blocks away from here then the consequences we hear might be quite dramatic. here we're just looking at some images now some live pictures there of another voter who seems to have been injured by the aggression of police forces that. from a prior to this vote the referendum organizes main navy i have to interrupt you right now i have to interrupt you right now i can see police arriving right now and people are starting to clap we can hear right now sirens of police cars and we can hear how the copters in the sky show i believe that there might be some tensions happening and we see more police coming in from the other side show it might happen

that they're blocking this area they're blocking the area of the school with the people inside. the container perhaps we can turn the camera and get some shots of the police vans arriving also i wanted to ask you prior to the vote referendum organized as they had to maintain is that this would be a peaceful resistance to any police action that would occur today but i think the question is at this point how far are these people these cuts alone ians willing to go to make sure that they cost them votes today. well i believe that they're very determined they're ex there it is very important to understand that people over here told me one thing everyone told me the same that they do want to remain peaceful that is that this is why they're bringing families and children over here this is why there is singing and last thing they're

trying to keep the atmosphere friendly they're being real friend to us they're being very helpful and they're saying that they do want to just express their opinion they want to vote today. and for many of them it doesn't really matter whether they're going to vote yes or against the referendum they just want to defend their democratic rights and they want to have this right to vote and this is basically the number one message that the crowd is sending here that it is important for them to protect their fundamental human rights. how many pennies was the police presence line where you won now medina our police continuing to arrive we know that the the regional police the emotional status quo jura has been backed up by the civil guards who have been shipped in from other parts of spain and because they were worried that the original police wouldn't stop the boat they wouldn't do the job well so how many.