to be told. recruits. for the moment but it. was. thought it seems a rupture in catalonia as independence referendum with police and over three

hundred voters injured we hear eyewitness accounts of the on the rest. so great if people leaving earth and this is the first people this or the earth taken from here by ambulance. police in canada say a stabbing and ramming incident involving an officer and a pedestrian is terror related and i saw a flag was found in the attackers car. a man kills two people as a major train station in southern france before being shot dead by security forces witnesses say the attack i shouted out god is great in arabic during his knife attack. you're watching aussie international live from moscow i'm kate partridge thank you for joining us. catalonia as independence referendum is now well underway but has

been marred by numerous scenes of violence three hundred thirty seven people have not been injured in clashes with military police according to cattle on authorities . i think. it was thank the thousand go was i think i think that this was cheating and third was and this is not the first people disorder to see the earth and the thinking from here but i'm sure that's so disappointing from their early hours of the morning was the sense that he is creating thousands i. respond if civil guard officers have been forcing their way into polling stations across the region and broken down

doors as activists inside trying to prevent them from entering with a number of people being dragged away. but the police stopping using rubber bullets to disperse the protesters sort of munition is used worldwide and deemed non-lethal however the use of rubber bullets is associated with cases of blunt injuries to the brain ruptured organs as well as the penetration of the abdomen heart and lung injuries have also been reported over time these could lead to consequences serious as permanent disability and even death. when a spanish government official has tweeted that police actions are professional and proportionate but something that the video is emerging suggest otherwise. or hey you can see protesters in jerome in northeastern catalonia facing off against officers demonstrators have their hands up in a sign of nonviolence but police apparently start hitting them with batons we spoke to one man who was injured in these clashes. we saw there will be trying

to take off from your station and we never thought it would be such a biologist from the police. but to the all people he simply unacceptable we were seeing him we saying not by alan's thing we just want to go to seeing we're all friends and the he does with the props. many. soda pop or i don't know what they fear exposure but we know one year was nothing owes them. and asking for our freedom what they were not making any distinction at all they were getting a very what they were not looking at and it's just. another video from catalonia shows police jumping on vine and kicking protesters as well as dragging the activists out of a polling station our correspondent in a question of are was at one of the voting stations in the county on capitol. hill

over here in barcelona never expected such a violent approach people are. in shock really we've got a lot of people here in this neighborhood very close to the polling station that is still operational people are still trying to vote here but we do know that it just two blocks away there was there was another piling station on the other building of the school that was just basically raided by police forces and police forces used force and they were violent and you spoke to several students who managed to ran away from that school and they're over here now they told us that the police forces arrived and they moved real quick and they pushed people out people try to lock themselves within the school to protect the building of the school so they broke the window sills of school and they got inside and they tried forcefully to remove people out of the school and they were removing them by their hair and they

pushed an elderly woman out a cell eight went of tense and violent real quick what's happening right now is that we are we expect police forces to iraq if crowds are getting bigger and bigger here by the minutes we know that a lot of people came over here from the school that was just raided by police there are a lot of students a lot of young people here there are also families with children we see a lot of elderly people and everyone we can feel a fear within the crowds and people expect police forces to iraq but they keep telling us that they are determined to vote and they're determined to defend their democratic rights and they're determined to stay here and protect the polling station 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 does a mother but it's raining. because we love the graffiti we want to vote

we. i 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 if i've been standing here for hours and we will be here all day if necessary because they don't want to let us speak or video has also appeared on line of offices confiscating ballot boxes and voting papers for my cattle on polling station with voters trying to stop them. the it. was. the. these are pictures of police taking the ballot boxes away you can hear people in

the background checking the offices of police also reportedly seized boxes and voting papers in the days leading up to the referendum. for. the may run in madrid unionists have been staging a rally in one of the central square as the activists were waving spanish flags and shouting slogans in support of spanish unity as well as the national police catalonia is a crucial economic region and this may be one of the main reasons behind the unrelenting opposition often attridge the independence vote. was an idea 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 a key reason why madrid is keen to stop the referendum.

was i was. in spain three members of the former government have been judged and convicted and barred from public positions only because we'll let the pope was. the legend that those are the white litigation it was a little public will step in. was i. wasn't that good and would that change this talk to me because i. was here if you know the senate key that is your sense look i say the way they came to me and see about their eight day was.

was well europe has so far stayed silent on events in catalonia officials in barcelona say they're now in talks with brussels to try to get official condemnation of the transactions a number of e.u. observers all monitoring today's referendum we spoke to one of the greek. it's not it's against the a because if you should again the human rights by the gays they do this of both not only spain and europe you know now that the government of all for mother read i think god did to all the breezes with catalonia she does the mystery of who the prime minister of spain there's a the addendum a. blow to the unity of spain by using this tactics and also i

think that the european union must interfere not taking sides in favor of c. or no in their affair and do we yes or no in their very i do but to made the age at the start the dialogue but the rates of the castle in crisis go way back in spanish history. by now you've surely heard about katsa 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 lands consider 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 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 catalans desire for independence and after his death and strange transition to democracy catalonia got its will tanami back but not enough as many locals believe when the country's can stitch new course that limits on cancer lands 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 frank a sick day to show 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 spain. one of above young demagogue the catalonia is pressing ahead for gardeners and seems

more determined than ever to be in the sand. while police try to stop the voting teams here in moscow and barcelona will be updating you about the situation on the ground throughout sunday. cliff. well meanwhile police in canada are treating the ramming and stabbing of a fellow officer as terror related after finding an iso flag in the attackers car the thirty year old driver has been apprehended a manhunt followed the ramming of the officer who was stabbed several times though his injuries aren't life threatening the driver was stopped later but fled in a truck and hit at least four pedestrians in a high speed police chase through the center of the city no deaths have been reported the condition of the victims is as yet unknown what. coming up

after this short break we'll have more on the stories that have shaped this week's news. peacekeeping way it was only about maintaining peace between states i didn't

essentially symbolic value when you have militias when you have criminal groups. the symbol is not enough you need robust tools. welcome back and now to france where security services have shot dead a man who attacked people with a knife at the main train station in marsay in the south of the country let's get more details on this from correspondent charlotte n.c. why the loss to me what more do we know at this point. what we know that two women were killed in that attack which took place in the city of marsay in the south of france now that attack took place at the main train station in mar say song charles

and we understand that one of the women who was killed by this attack a wielding a knife actually had throat slit that's coming from official sources on the ground now we also understand from passers by who witnessed this crime this act of terror as it's now being treated here in france that the man who was reeled in that knife actually shouted out. this is god is great and we understand that the soldiers who were trolling that train station in march say were able to shoot the knife wielding attacker immediately that man is now dead two people dead two women including one who had her throat slit according to officials on the ground now this is the latest attack it's being treated as a terrorist incident in france so serious that as soon as. all of this particular attack that the french interior minister said that he was going to go directly to

maher say and we have heard from some officials on the ground that this is attack could have been far more extreme had it not been for the fact that soldiers were patrolling that station at the time and were able to quickly take out and shoot dead the man who carried out that attack those soldiers are part of soldiers around seven thousand who have been deployed across the country as part of an operation to secure and safeguard main hubs like transport areas or tourist areas this province has been under increasing. attacks by terrorist groups for the last three years since two thousand and fifteen is that from january of two thousand and fifteen to you know coming up to almost three years now this country has been on high alert since the offices of the satirical magazine charlie were attacked with twelve people were killed and then the country's been in a state of emergency now for almost two years after that night in paris where many people killed in a series of coordinated attacks this incident now which is being treated as

a terror incident is just the latest in a long string of smaller incidents that we've seen this year in france but it means now that more than two hundred people have been killed in the country in terror attacks since two thousand and fifteen but the latest information is that two women have been killed following an attack in the city of mass a one woman had her throat slit the perpetrator of that attack was killed by police and the french prosecutors have now launched an anti terror probe into this attack during times france correspondent thank you very much. or now to some of the stories that have shaped this week's news major tech firms are cooperating with us or so which is why handing over information apparently related to russian meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election in a statement twitter also took a swipe at this channel r.t. jacqueline berger looks 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 that. 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 by as 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 swayed 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 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. in syria government forces are clearing remaining terrorist pockets in terrorist or islamic states three a siege of the eastern city was recently broken by the army and allied forces these are exclusive pictures from the western side of the euphrates river where government forces have made key gains driving out i still the russian military has now also established a bridge on the cost across the river. well the remaining terrorists in debt as all are now surrounded by both the syrian army and u.s. backed kurdish forces this week the russian ministry of defense said these remaining terror pockets will soon also be two of unknowns travel to the city to witness the fighting correspondent what i guess the of has this report from the front line. four 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 we don't have saud going on him 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 he 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 it's 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's part of the city of that is 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 bank 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 us backed rebels that is. not to say it's over or that it will be easy 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 my idea and 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 more eid guys do you have see from that as sort of syria. how about with more news at the top of the hour for other stories in the meantime. in america a college degree requires a great deal. paying a decade's long debt. studying so hard and requires strongest.

going through humiliation to enter an elite society. and parching to death sometimes quite literally. wants other true colors of universities in the u.s. . it's taken these children's homes. now it's threatens to take their future. of all came in here could erupt again at any time. most people have a strong choice. live in poverty. what's going to. put some a following a different approach. soon

we. employ that hope for a better life. pct .

welcome to worlds apart as the newly minted german parliament ariens gear up for their first session arguing why their last week's vote resulted in a disappointing victory or a comfortable loss for the country sitting chancellor with those share of the vote since nine hundred forty nine uggla merkel's party it retains hold on the top job but it will now have to share the chambre with the party's chairs almost nothing in common the way it did the german politics just change in a major way by staying mostly the same well to discuss that i'm now joined by former editor in chief of the german newspaper. mr zimmer it's an auditor to talk to you thank you very much for your time. well it's a pleasure talking to you while the newspaper where you have worked for more than

half a century the desired just published a transcript of its editorial meeting from i think it was nine hundred eighty two when the you all discuss the entry of the new party into the german parliament back then it was about the greens and the discussion was whether or not they should be considered legitimate political actors that question is pressing once again of in the parliamentary dabi of the alternative for germany what's your take on why that day belong in the german politics well listen they've been elected and they are a part of the german political system and i hope we all hope that they will behave according to the rules of parliamentary democracy but i know that many people also hope that they wouldn't make this victory and when we look around your of there are a number of parliament that have already parties that are more last ideologically.