following strong. and. complicating options on its future. multibillion dollar deals are on the table as the king of saudi arabia arrives in russia on the first ever official visit and it could be a shift in policy. with no. we're. coming up empty handed yet again the latest u.s.

senate committee hearing into. the presidential election was not. a good morning just. in the morning then in spain and that's where we're heading again first this thursday here on out international following those massive strikes against the spanish government that attracted over half a million people in catalonia now and see independence activists have gathered in barcelona this is all of course after last weekend's controversial referendum that saw violence break out across the region that has been following events for us in barcelona. i was really. since you see we live here and now that you

can see the street here it was people are quite fascinated about keeping spin ins have the have been speaking out against the independence they've been talking about how they want the rule of law to prevail how their actions were the way that we've been conducting was arrested in your words in the crackdown of course that of course we criticize on the day of the referendum on a first. day here now just to sort of the ones who are coming out are the ones least they were talking about the embassy was what they say and you're going to share it like think what they should do is respect the law in the constitution as all of europe and the european union have asked that the only thing we are asking is that the it be the constitution and the law which is what will defend the catamaran people. i think is civilized it will not give us anything respond if citizens festival we want

a united spain this independent side air space to nice is just a robust so far we do know that the catchline parliament said they would hold a session on potential independence process as soon as this monday so certainly this critical situation seems likely to continue given this stance of the catalan leadership to continue to pursue the results of the referendum where ninety percent of the electorate did vote to leave spain how exactly this is going to unravel remains to be seen could you want also said that he does want some mediation to be involved between barcelona and madrid and whether or not that happens and what kind of mediation is going to be and whether or not is actually going to bear fruit is what we're going to be watching now. earlier the general strike some of the seven hundred thousand people take part of it since the full way flags and chants of pro independence slogans along those streets. will catalonia knows several options regarding its future than one would be to open dialogue with the e.u. and spanish authorities to try to mediate the crisis that's been soured by madrid's

attempts to disrupt the referendum but the council on president says spain hasn't responded positively to the idea of talks yet anyway. i'm a big number but we have never received any positive response from the state to any of the proposals of mediation that we have on the table at the moment. spain's prime minister so far rejected negotiations once again stressing that madrid sees the vote as illegal meantime overnight protests in the capital so crowds calling for national unity and the central government not to enter talks with catalonia. was a couple of gourami's really interesting in these objectives but for us it's

very important. international community recognize what is happening here in the in couple anya and also they are and we are making calls here in the world to receive some international support in the in the process of negotiating with. with us by the government. so with the first option currently doubtful then couple only may have to look at other options that could include its regional government going ahead with declaring independence and a parliamentary session confirmed that could happen as early as next monday if there are to be ninety they said hour an extraordinary meeting will take place next monday ninth it's a debate to make an imagination of the results of the referendum it in other words declare the independence of catalonia couple who was once an independent go to twenty years is reduced and wishing not only a few political support to go already so i don't see that you could soon have

a couple of years and portugal shouldn't then slow with those who live in the other parts of europe watching with interest as to what is up to you. but i think we have to pick up a little you know its own merits give us outlook outlook deserve a start i think every place is different but it looks a couple only go is on that we do independence and it will certainly be encouraging for many of us once you know. the worst case scenario for catalonia would be madrid taking back power over the regional government there indeed under article one five five of the spanish constitution the central government could suspend the north eastern regions autonomy if it wanted to it's seen as a last resort but the spanish justice minister has confirmed that spain could suspend a plan autonomy if catalonia declares its independence next week we spoke to loot of an austin international affairs consultant who told the spain needs to tread carefully. they would search and then.

exclude them so. if the e.u. would accept such as she duration that is the and. as a as an international organization we can never accept that the e.u. member state uses the army against its own people we should also not forget that the reason and the circumstance that straight stream became a member was. a lip synched and delete data issues such as jannati it would be a catastrophe to strain unknown you know obviously. absolute. in the news this morning the king of saudi arabia has landed here in moscow on a story trip it's the first time the kingdom sitting monika's made an official visit to russia a move seen by many as an unexpected shift in rehabs foreign policy. with the russian president vladimir putin with huge oil deals at stake and if a trying to report deals with the biggest and richest gulf monarchies always mean

big numbers on paychecks and king solomon of saudi arabia is in moscow to do just that for these contract signatures but it is no secret that when it comes to international politics russia and saudi arabia aren't exactly friends but that only adds spice to the story because when it comes to the economic partnership high ranking officials on both sides have been teasing the journalists with these big numbers multibillion dollar contracts are expected to be announced including three billion dollars worth of arms purchases by saudi arabia plus one billion dollars of extra cash for the joint and energy fund to riyadh is also going to invest and gas production in russia moscow. he's going to build plants in saudi arabia and so on so is this

a case of economic interests first politics second we'll see because i'm not sure the leaders will be able to dodge that many issues where moscow and riyadh don't see eye to eye in international politics another issue that we have to watch out for when it comes to the context is of course the very close ties between saudi arabia and the u.s. remember donald trump chose saudi arabia as the first destination for his first foreign trip the president of russia vladimir putin was asked about all that last night but let's face it this major is always going to be the united states when it comes to its geopolitical interests you should always ruled remain is there anything in the world that is so absolutely constant while king solomon's visit to russia had a bit of a dodgy start because the golden clad escalator that he carries around the world suddenly stopped when the monarch was disembarking his plane but there was

compensation for that moscow understandably once to make the king as welcome as possible in russia he could see welcome posters on his way to central moscow and of course he's going to enjoy the best view of the crowd blood from his words call it and sweet and i'll tell you what the saudi delegation didn't just book several suites at the ritz carlton not even the entire hotel but a whole cluster of moscow's most lavish hotel in the heart of russia so there's a bit of a saudi kingdom there right now the meetings between vladimir putin and ken psalm on our jew later in the afternoon and of course we'll be there for you we heard from the editor in chief of arab news the bus for his thoughts on this meeting. this is groundbreaking this is the first saudi monarchy to come as a monarchy to to moscow. it sends

a lot of the signals in terms of where this relationship can go forward i just want to clarify that what hurts moscow hurts saudi arabia and i think instead everybody's interest for this industry for the sector to stabilize for any solution to a lot of these conflicts specially on cd we need to sit together and try to resolve these matters now when you come to the kind of particulars there might be disagreements but these are this is essentially what negotiations are for and i do not think it is in anybody's interest to see more bloodshed to see more lives being lost in the region it is certainly not saudi arabia not what the saudi arabia once and i do believe it's also not what russia wants. other headlines are small in the u.s. senate intelligence committee says the voting in the twenty sixteen presidential election was not affected by alleged russian meddling. we can certify. that

no vote totals were affected if the pallies are accurate the outcome of the election based upon we can remember. they did not in any way shape or form that we've been able to find and alter that from there we heard members of the senate intelligence committee say that they believe that russia was currently in the process of trying to create chaos in the us elections and they talked about social media the vice chairman of the committee who is mark webber he went on to say that social media platforms were not taking the threat of alleged russian meddling seriously enough facebook recently turned over three thousand ads that they say were russia linked over one hundred thousand dollars worth of advertisements that were bought between the years of two thousand and fifteen and twenty seventeen the social media giant revealed that most of the views that these ads received were accumulated after the election took place now senator warner went on to say that

the american users of ads should be informed about whether or not ads are purchased by what he called foreign entities now he didn't define what a foreign entity is or how it would be determined if someone who purchased an ad was a foreign entity or not he just felt that ad should be labeled from there are we went on to hear about how facebook has talked about the contents of these ads in the comments made to the press we heard it hinted that it's pretty clear that these ads weren't exactly linked to any particular candidate let's take a listen there's no way that you can look at that and say that that was to help the right side of the ideological shore and. not the left or vice versa or they were indiscriminate it seems that the overall of the russian. involvement in the u.s. looks create chaos at every level. and i would tell you the fact that we're sitting here nine months later investigating the pretty storm success at this. when we

heard the members of congress speaking to the press they seemed to insinuate or suggest or maybe even believe that the reason that their investigation is taking so long is because of the alleged success of the russian medlars and that they've done it so well that it's just very very hard to find the evidence they didn't seem to acknowledge the possibility that maybe the evidence they're so desperately looking for just isn't there well as you saw there the senate is focused on russia's alleged use of social media platforms as a tool to influence votes as they voted three social joins to work with the senate to help determine whether these were generated by foreign entities. we think it's important. that the three companies that we've invited google twitter and facebook will appear in a public hearing so that americans can begin to hear both about how we're going to

protect i would argue three areas one making sure that if you see an ad that appears on a social media site and americans can know when the source of that ad was generated by foreign entities we talked to former u.s. intelligence officer scott rickard about this he says the social media giants could be easily manipulated what's interesting to hear here is out of the hundreds thousands of dot hundred thousand only dollars that was spent supposedly by the russians very few views were actually made of that act those posts well that being said that's because you can easily control who sees these these posts using behead algorithm and other algorithms that limit these the exposure of these pows vice versa when the democratic party was posting things those posts were getting a widespread view because of their collusion with google and facebook so this is really a comical joke to me and it's and it really proves the red scare of russia can

survive here even in the year two thousand and seventeen. talking of which with anti russia styria now seemingly reaching a climax of sorts the roots of it all could be traced back to the one nine hundred seventy s. in america according to declassified u.s. intelligence documents then the soviet union they said were trying to influence small groups of people with telepathy and hypnosis. hello. hello. hello. hello. hello. ok worry about it if.

you so still call this tension stress. or little like her little lift. that will come from spain where this quote is still proving a sticking point for some countries despite a new plan we'll tell you about that plan and the rest of us out to break. that's. what politicians do something anything. they put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or somehow want to be rich . to do like to be for us this is what the before three in the morning can't be

good. i'm interested always in the waters of. the city a. global war hawks selling you on the idea that dropping bombs brings peace to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battle. for new socks credit tell you that celebrity gossip and tabloid but styles of reporters. often tell you on cool enough to fight. all the hawks that we along with all of what.

the f.b.i. is being sued by a victim of an islamic state and spot attack in twenty fifteen of up controversial cartoons drawing contest in texas the lawsuit alleges that the bureau may have been complicit in the terrorist incident but no one acting upon any warning signs now go from says sent the reports. the f.b.i. is under fire accused of encouraging a terror attack the accusation comes from a security guard who is taking his case to court bruce joyner was wounded in two thousand and fifteen and in iceland speier terrorist attack targeting the draw mohammed contest in garland texas. both of them had assault rifles came around the back of a car and started shooting at the police.

now garland could have been a massive tragedy but mr joyner along with other guards and the police managed to stop the terrorists now he wants to get to the bottom of this quite shocking revelation bruce has been a loyal law enforcement officer for most of his life and only seeks the food truth as the f.b.i.'s role in his near death all made that the two thousand and fifteen we did not understand why our own government will not tell us even privately what really happened that day so what does he base is accusations on well for starters the f.b.i. legibly help the terrorists hope to gain weapons by lifting a restriction during a background check it's also believed the agent even texted the terrorists inciting them well to have a good time. and finally the f.b.i.

is accused the following the terrorists to the scene of the attack not up we hand them but only to drive away and let them get on with it i don't like to think that they let it occur but it is shocking to me that are now under cover agent sees fellows jumping out of a car and he drives on. according to research by an american university a shocking fifty eight percent of people charged with links to eisele had contact with either an undercover u.s. agent or informant helping the terrorists do who knows what it's very troubling to know that not only was the f.b.i. aware of this attack but likely perhaps complicit in carrying it out and even enticing the two terrorists to carry out the attack in garland texas some of the facts are indicating that they had an undercover agent that was trying to get in with isis or if the attack had been carried out successfully and people died it was likely that this undercover agent and his superiors his supervisors in the f.b.i. felt that this would prompt him up to high ranks within isis he didn't have

a legal duty to prevent it but it certainly is negligence at the very least remember james komi the former f.b.i. chief well he didn't mention any of this during the twenty fifteen gharlane press briefing and when asked whether counterterrorism investigators are looking for a needle in a haystack he said the whole country is a haystack and the needles are invisible apparently there was at least one needle that was visible but he chose not to mention francis jago r.t. . polish member of the european parliament loose a scathing attack on the e.u. over its migrant policies during a debate cuse the bloc of ideologically bulldozing member states and repeated mistakes. the graphic policy is too subtle too complex a problem to be imposed by the you appear political and ideological bulldoze. has to be

a consensus of all member states otherwise we will be back in the situation where the big guys do what they want they can get away with anything that has to be over these mandatory quotas schemas been the focus of much criticism each member state was required to take in a specific number of asylum seekers after the migrant crisis all began back in twenty fifteen but the quotas were never fully accepted by everyone in the union the so-called redistribution the system then was decided by a majority vote but the sudden influx of migrants led to several countries appealing against the quotas poland hungary have been the most vocal critics refusing to take in any refugees the cross is also proved to challenge even for the use biggest and wealthiest countries too like france and germany r.t. spoke to the hunger and foreign minister for his take on the block's common migration policy. it's obvious that the migratory policy of european union was a failure so far you know the we got three four to system is

a total bad one street. at least central europeans we're honest about that but you know those western european friends of ours will praise this decision very a lovely and best os very lovely i've completely devoted to up to up to twenty five percent so basically no one complied with the decision of the of the european commission you know its mother if your book receipt is mother of political correctness instead of being honest and straight to the problems this is actually against the regulations and you broke no laws because that decision takes away the right from the member states to make their decisions on their own they let and thirty to rebuild their country and when they do not. there. all the latest from us all the time of course online dot com and kevin allen thanks for watching and stay with us if you can great program coming up after this break.

make this manufacture consent to step into public wells. when the ruling classes protect themselves. in the final go round certainly the one percent. nor middle of the room six. here's what people have been saying about rejected in the us exactly just pull on. the only show i go out of my way to launch you know a lot of the really packed a punch oh yeah mr john oliver of r t america is doing the same we are apparently

better than blue that you see people you never heard of love back to the night my president of the world bank so take. me seriously send us an e-mail.

one of welcome to worlds apart for all their differences russia and the united states are remarkably synchronized in their domestic politics both countries are currently going through a long over due process of elite rotation noisy and calamitous in the united states was publicized but perhaps even more sweeping here in russia how will these internal transformations impact the state of the global order that both countries lay their claims to well to discuss that i'm now enjoying by sergei krikalev the dean of the school of world economics and international relations at the more school higher school of economics professor curry going to is great to talk to again thank you very much room great pleasure to see him now in many of your recent interviews you expressed a sense of dismay at the u.s. political establishment radin nest she undermined their whole political system for the sake of undermining donald trump i wonder if it still intervening as

a russian hawk or is it already concerning because some would say there is a danger of the colorado old damage reaching far beyond. the thing at all from the beginning because. it's not only that. this is becomes too unpredictable. and dangerous it's overdue that is the has become dangerous to pull the world never in history where the relations of russia and the united states were bad or. he had to have this is the station we're in that is is the epicenter. international instability it's one thing and the second is of. concern about the fact that united states undermining. even the idea of democracy what is happening there is

a suicidal suicide note of the butt of the political system of the united states with the two will survive. leading me to my next question because the russian system is often criticized for its poor ability to insulate state institutions from private influence on them are consistent has long prided itself on being the opposite of that do you think these. checks and balances kind of if found that in towns parties and pressure they're obviously subjected to do with the stand somehow . damage will be the last thing we need is the current. station in the united states is not that. he's a maverick. much more concerned about his a. hole in here in this just to get him out to to criticize.