you know what the. polling station doors have been smashed open ballot boxes forcibly removed and searching eight people injured just four hours into the region's referendum on independence from spain. elsewhere this week tech giants google facebook and twitter have all joined in the hunt for the elusive alleged russian election medlars. that's the river cross it says it's there that they shelled the city. and islamic states days in syria look numbered as

they're driven out of the eastern city of debtors or and across the euphrates river . you're watching the weekly here on r.t. international with me kate partridge thank you for joining us but first some other breaking news from canada police say that minton are treating the ramming down and stabbing of a fellow officer as a terror incident the thirty year old driver has been apprehended and an iso flag was found in his vehicle a manhunt followed the running of the police officer and the driver was finally stopped in the truck after a knock down at least four pedestrians and a high speed police chase through the center of the city no fatalities have been reported but the condition of the victims is unknown and we'll have more news on this as we get it. or be while voting is underway in catalonia in the historic referendum on independence from. thirty eight people though have been

injured in the standoff with military police according to catalan will sorties spanish civil guard officers have forced their way into polling stations across the region they broke down doors as activists inside to try to prevent them from entering with a number of people being dragged away. ok ok ok ok ok. thank you hold a bar. looking now cross live to local journalist not we don't but here's a polling station in wasilla know why they now say can you tell us what's been happening recently. hi yes so we're just at one of the polling stations that remain open and as you can see here behind me there's people queuing to be able to go inside and vote and earlier this morning the organizers of the referendum.

basically but made the votes available for any school so you didn't have to go to your destiny to polling station but that means that voting is very slow because they have to register everyone manually and they've also had problems with internet connections here so people are still waiting to waiting to vote but it's very very slow. in this county has been mobilizing for the last many years just with these objective to be able to express ourselves and to say what do we want to for these country for the future he does a mother but it's raining on the exit 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 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. why then i say i mean can you tell us something

about the reports of violence here in the activities of the police the civil guard what if we in your observations while you've been there. as i went to the polling school earlier this morning around four o'clock local people were preparing for first the capital and police most of the squad out to go. into schools but i think things started out very peacefully with them but then i've been getting accounts from people at polling stations where civil what they're sealed sort of spanish national police have come into the schools and they seized ballot papers boxes filled with votes and there has been violent clashes with people trying to protest peacefully in sirte trying to block to do a of this of the police to be able to get the ballot boxes so that's the latest thing in here at this polling station in the side of it. the police hasn't really they haven't come here yet but we're still waiting to see what happens and people just hoping that they will be able to vote before any clashes might happen here.

today now see don back in barcelona thank you very much indeed for your time well meanwhile a spanish government official house tweet is that the police's actions are professional and proportionate but the following video which wasn't what the official was specifically referring to what suggests otherwise. was was was was was. was. was. was. was. was. was. was. and they saw what

a piece meet robert projectiles rubber bullets fired by police when dispersing a crowd of photos the sound of shots can also be heard on the radio. and we can now cross live to colorado school to every catalonia he was injured today during the scuffles will cause thank you very much indeed for joining us i mean can you tell us what happened. not much before which has been much more harder than myself we were just behind here in our in our polling station around five o'clock on the job boat when the pollies arrived. the cops saw they that's nothing it's been the poor but very much. that's. going to shouldn't i think serious i mean it's nothing serious for me i mean what have you seen that happen to other people how were the police we've had reports here of rubber bullets being fired i mean did you experience that. no no it was it's you

know we experience that it's been amazing we never we saw there will be a trying to do takeoffs os from their polling stations we never thought that they would need such a violent from the police they hit us barkley all people he says it's he can simply unacceptable i mean it's it doesn't look like a police just looks like a bunch of parents honestly i mean we had the the the quote there from the spanish interior minister he said on twitter that the police were they acting professionally and proportionately i mean what do you what's your response to that . either now as the great city are all of these sentiments or talk about abortion but we were seeing in a we saying. not by islands was thing we just want to vote we're seeing we're all friends and they he does with the crowd just over large and.

all people. it's been said about many people crying over the port either not what they think it's proportion but we had no one here force doing nothing else than sitting in and asking for our freedom of votes in that suit so colors that can i just clarify so you're saying that the police used batons and they or they used them on old people and kids as well. that's absolutely right they were not making any distinction at all they were hitting every one. they were not looking at and it says it was at the beginning when it started yelling you don't know and this will stop it's our colleagues at eight o'clock at the beginning so it was more or less ok they were pushing we were standing then they were calling we were standing so it was more or less ok but they suddenly they they just took the collapse and started getting absolutely everyone and it was very fast they they

once they decided to hit with the collapse we just stand for five minutes they were there and then into the. into the voting pool and and they took the votes. and what and what's it like to thank you now i mean we've got reports here that half the polling stations have now been closed to me do you think that there are going to be more clashes what's the atmosphere what's the mood like there now how the people feeling. yeah look at the beginning they called this one is just behind me it's cold. indeed ana so it's right they close it then it took for us just one hour to put it back up so yes they are causing it but we are back here again and people these votes. and do you expect to any more clashes today of course it will be happening all the time we're not. i don't know we haven't but as far as i see they will be going to more polling stations they will be closing it again where

we were going to do is. why this is not violence it would hit us it will injure us and then one day our last will start and open it again and just one in one question carlos did you say that they managed to take the ballot box. yeah they unfortunately with the best records but. yeah. they're into their school they were small good. people was running away. and then they they took the box with the boats and starts over that's a pretty it's going to be many missing boats here. or west bank who will try the game will open it again because thank you very much indeed for your time thank you for talking to us this afternoon thanks to you once that you're well well video has appeared online of offices confiscating boxes as we heard there and ballot papers

from a council and polling station with the voters trying to stop them. and these are other pictures of the police with the taking the boxes away and you can hear people in the background catching and whistling at the offices police also reportedly seized boxes and ballots in the days leading up to the referendum. on the spanish government does have reasons to worry about losing this region catalonia covers six percent of the country's territory but accounts for twenty percent of spain's g.d.p. the region is also responsible for more than half of all investments into startups and almost a quarter of spain's foreign tourists go to catalonia which is why madrid is so

desperate to stop the referendum. i. think 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 the most and why. they've been. that good and with. the funny thing you know to. give.

us a cynic we are going to. see about these. things. on the spanish society divided europe's largely refrain from taking sides saying it's an internal issue for spain however a number of e.u. observers are monitoring today's referendum we spoke to one of them greek m.e.p. . it's not reach a gauge the question if you should again the human rights by the judge i guess they do as well both for that odio spain and europe you know now that the government though for a while for a mother i think good god did all the bridges with god alone he or she did of the

mr accord the prime minister of spain. a deadly. blow to the unity. oh spain by using these doctors and also i think that the beautiful unit must endure for not taking sides in the grave otoh if she already know there are a foot into her yes or no that a photo but due to d.h. at the start of the diet ok while police try to stop the voting catalonian our teams here in moscow and barcelona will be updating you on the situation on the ground and. see.

peacekeeping way it was only about maintaining peace between states as an essentially symbolic value when you have militias when you have criminal groups. the symbol is not enough you need robust force. with your make its manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. with the final merry go round be the one percent. we can all middle the roots to. believe the real news is

really. welcome back and let's get back to some other breaking news from canada now police in edmonton are treating the ramming down and stopping of a fellow officer as a terror incident the thirty year old driver has been apprehended and an i still flag was found in his vehicle a manhunt followed the running of the police officer and the driver was finally stopped in a truck after he knocked down at least four pedestrians and a high speed police chase through the center of the city no fatalities have so far been reported but the condition of the victims is unknown i would have more details on this assumes. some of the other stories that shape the week major tech firms are cooperating with the u.s. will slower to use my hunting over information supposedly related to russian meddling in the american presidential election in a statement twitter also took

a swipe at aussie. looks at the latest efforts to root out legit 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 or 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 really 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 hillary's 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 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 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 well one of the big allegations against russia took a major part of this week three u.s. states saying the department of homeland security provided them with false information that it only atolls twenty one states that their systems had been hacked during the election but the three states in question say the information was not sorry late but also wrong and the agency should apologize. but it seems news of alleged russian meddling won't go away it seems everyone and everything is being accused of having connections to moscow including reddit the drudge report website and even the n.f.l. scandal kaleb loping also new york as if they could distinguish between real and 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 movement california defined as a you're right see because i don't know i really don't know do you believe that kidding no i don't know 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 flow. do you buy that i think it's all over the internet so it has to be true the country prefers to quit

explanations without any facts. so of terrorists resistance in the city of dead is all what prompted this week by government ground forces and russian airpower islamic state siege of the city was broken by the syrian army a month ago well these are exclusive pictures from the western side of the euphrates river where several days ago syrian government forces made an important game driving out i still the russian military has now established a bridge that enables all made calls to cross in a separate mission a russian strategic bombers carried out strikes on i sill and positions in the syrian provinces as or and it.

will the remaining terrorists as all and now surrounded by both the syrian army and u.s. backed kurdish forces r.t. travel to the city to witness the battle here is our correspondent what i guess the of with his report from the front line. for that 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 we don't have sort of an animal from the onset coming up to the roof was very dangerous and 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 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 as spectacular as its rise since the beginning of the year the so-called caliph it has lost thousands of square kilometers losing precious oilfields and strategic towns to the advancing syrian army and the u.s. backed rebels that is. not to say it's all that it will be. isis has nothing left to lose according to the syrian military the families of isis fighters and diehard supporters have allegedly retreated to the town of maya dean they have nowhere else to go in the shrinking caliph but this is the final act the dream of an islam makes state has been shattered but even in its death throes

will inevitably claim more lives brad guys do you have see from that is author syria. on a more or less stories and others go to our web site. otherwise i'll be back to the news headlines at the top of the. it's taken these children's hopes. it threatens to take the future of. the volcano could erupt again at any time. most people have a stark choice. live in poverty. but

some are following a different. movie to leave. the boy to hope for a better life. because there's a survival guide book stacie just like all the stored safely at least are. you sure it's nothing you don't get it back. oh heck no good repatriations king would get arrested seven years. ago of the separate kaiser report. peacekeeping when it was only about

maintaining peace between states as an essentially symbolic value when you have militias when you have criminal groups. the symbol is not enough you need robust force. if you. prefer no weird include a. scene over. these birds fish two weeks. i'll be asked me who that might be yes moments it's almost time. i could introduce you eat it is home to do most bowlful drug syndicate. why you grow marijuana and tomatoes in that city yet get pulled. over the pump don't give up the market a political gamble for your money want people. to

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