i'll. say. this is r.t. and i'll recover some of the week's biggest stories catalonia is independence referendum c spanish police used force against voters in a violent crackdown as goodreads calls the push for secession illegal. coming up empty handed the u.s. senate intelligence committee admits finding no evidence that so-called russian meddling affected the presidential election unfortunately the committee who's who of the wall the issue of collusion are still open no vote were. in the headlines to russia's prosecutor general is reportedly considering registering american media outlets as quote unwelcome here in russia in response to unprecedented pressure

against us see in the us. and is the syrian army continues to push back islamic state in its residents in liberated towns talk to us about life under terrorist siege. we want to lose one of three sons many families keep. when he beat me up the cell block long. my sister started screaming and hitting. moscow and kevin only to this high with a weekly roundup of the big stories of the last seven days and one of those stories that dominated our coverage is still very much happening right now in spain where the latest is the spanish prime minister has said he will not allow catalonia to go independent in an interview with a national newspaper for sunday's referendum so the majority of catalans who voted

say yes to leaving spain riot police across catalonia use rough tactics than on the day of the vote in what's been described as a violent crackdown on democracy. one

video in particular shows the tactics used by riot police as people queue to vote in barcelona one officer can be seen as a drop kick in a person down a staircase others were thrown. were just helping the people because they were throwing them up the stairs and throwing them down upon them from the hair and someone is on the floor and there is a guy that jumps on the person that's down and they went up there it's where they got this girl that was one of the organizers and they grabbed her and there broke her hand if you imagine that supported by

a democracy you were there is saying that's the law that's what you consider the law since the vote another regions in spain have seen a number of mass protests both for and against independence of correspondents been following how it all unfolded. we do know is that just two blocks away from here there was another polling station at as building of a school and just an hour ago police raided that building and forcibly removed people out of there ok ok this is public at holy aware as you can see the protests continue here on the iconic sware of the barcelona says he i think i was was really impressed than the kids i think he was treated by the law that so many people young people who came here holding blacks up in the ground and consul on you know we see here families with small children we see elderly people

here and you are asking if they're shouting at the national police forces to leave the region the consul lining up. was. thank you we can see it was it was a gather there was this. road you can see here and in some kind of robbing banks they are quite loud and really are symbolic of the past three weeks ago right here and her. as you can see the atmosphere is quite stands out as the protesters here the ones who are against the police brutality and for the independence are being confronted by another group of protests over there you can see that there are so police between these two groups to avoid any kind of trouble thank god thank you entire square in front of the cattle on leaders headquarters is popped with thousands of people dressed in white who are here to call for dialogue

thank you and the commission statement called council only as independents vote illegal but then stated it was an internal matter that spain should deal with from the get angry reactions inside the european parliament . why did the madrid government feel it necessary to stop dish in such a heavy handed brutal and in the final analysis counterproductive manner we now have a chen place which every independence movement so no consonant can use to provoke unrest and violence so disproportionate cannot be justified no buts and no excuses whatever you think about the referendum whatever you think of independence i think that has to be clear that violence is not a mean for solving political conflicts and what of the european union's response the first response should have been to completely condemn the violence but no this

is by the e.u. who recognize the independence or cost of a without a referendum and who recognized palestine as a nation state even though the e.u. treaties did not permit it the n.e.p. just has speaking there stephen wolf also shared his thoughts with us only use reaction to the violence in catalonia it's been despicable it's been dishonest and it shows really that the e.u. has favorites and they will stick by by by their favorites as long as it means keeping everybody in the club by demanding that they must be some sort of negotiations and talks between the spanish government under also those in catalonia with the must first be a denunciation of the violence by the police over vies the police who feel that they could do it again. right before we leave this story for a minute let's check out these live pictures coming into us from a pro unity rally underway in barcelona becomes in the run up to cattle presidency

charlie skull callus separated morse addressed to the region's parliament on choose day a lot of attention is going around that we could announce independence or has he softened his tone that's the worry amongst his supporters but a lot of people turning out there in barcelona's my sunny day for it hopefully no trouble there will be across it throughout the course of the day will keep that camera locked on but it happens to be the first to know i. feel. more the big stories that we just got the still no evidence of collusion between donald trump's election campaign and russia according to the u.s. senate intelligence committee on wednesday they briefed the public on the ongoing probe looking into moscow's alleged meddling in last year's presidential election the issue of collusion is still open. we continue to investigate both intelligence

and witnesses as it relates to the steel dossier. unfortunately the committee has here a wall we can certify. that no vote totals were effective they did not in any way shape or form that we've been able to find alter that this channel has been on washington's radar of course artie's editor in chief says the network is now facing unprecedented pressure over in the united states with both stuff and contributors being targeted although no evidence suggests that r.t. influence the election. the r.t.s. on twitter were almost uniformly anti clinton and those i think you look at them and you have to conclude no there was a clear design in these ads so that's one congressman's opinion yet on the same day the senate intelligence committee probing alleged russian meddling the complete opposite there's no way that you can look at that and say that that was to help the right side of the ideological chart and and. not the left or

vice versa or they were indiscriminate it seems that the overall theme of the russian. involvement in the u.s. looks create chaos at every level all of this is just the latest segment of the russian did it saga where now all attention seems to have shifted to our channel and its social media ads well it's no secret that our t.v. does advertise on twitter and other platforms just like most other media outlets the little blue bird sing a song of russian meddling last week and report the disclosed how much we spend on ads the sum was two hundred seventy five thousand dollars but i need to consider is that being able to make a sufficient influence on the election when all the candidates spend about one billion dollars to make it look as if we've done something obscure shady or semi-legal summers utter nonsense shooters contacted us with their supposed to push forward and like cheney are you sure it is presentation and hurts so that is how

much it cost and we'd reach recently google became the latest internet giant to jump on the anti r.t. bandwagon when it yanked us from its premium ad service in the us without any warning whatsoever now that move is unlikely to have an adverse effect on our channels reach as we are already the most feared news network on you tube and fact last month we hit the milestone of over five billion views nevertheless this ban only adds to the mounting pressure on the channel the recently new active measures excessive those terms getting a reputation have been taken against class specific room number and so have we operate through once a kind of a high shirtless experience. to a point it's virtually forced to contrary washington is absolutely insane with the idea that our two years out there they want to condemn it as somehow russian propaganda but the fact of the matter is whether you love your tea or hate the idea

that the u.s. government can tell you what you can watch and can't watch the idea that there's a government censor or something like google in bed with the government telling you what you and or can't watch this is like something out of nine hundred eighty. for in response russia's prosecutor general's reportedly mulling over whether now to declare some u.s. media outlets as unwelcome here in russia that could possibly see big networks being removed from russian cable television but will have no impact on bureaus and journalist ation of the country the foreign ministry's also said like for like mages are on the table. that us the russian foreign ministry can take countermeasures against journalists representing media outlets of countries that have restrictions on russian journalists russian. and we've just gone wiki leaks said julian assange has weighed into on the issue tweeting a more guide to modern western journalism his advice for being a reporter in twenty seventeen was to take a random global news story and if the russian media was already reporting on it then you could simply link the story back to moscow and suggest the kremlin

responsible for whatever it may be we don't troubles to twitter to to ask why american intelligence officials aren't looking into u.s. news outlets and their possible role of manipulating public opinion with false reports we heard from the director of grassroots political consulting he told us that he shares the president's concern over the state of american media to. we have about five corporations that control our entire media berettas people are profiting off of them and it's completely controlled and at the same time you have congress investigating and seeking regulation on free media any alternative news media coming from international sources like this channel to bloggers social media now facebook having to go troll through with physical people so many different news stories that their focus is on shouting voices of anything that's not mainstream media and it was an interesting tweet from president trump. in other news

americans are still trying to come to terms with suffering the country's deadliest mass shooting it was a huge story of the week tragic fifty eight will massacre the country music festival in las vegas last sunday and the five hundred were injured. q. i.

i i. i. i. i. i. think. we need to truck we just need to get people out of the hospital ok. cool. q. . her her. horrific the gunman knocked out the windows of that hotel room overlooking the festival before unleashing a shower of bullets into the crowd it went on and on he also fired shots at fuel

tanks that was stationed nearby thankfully they didn't explode when police stormed his room they found the shooter's body as well as an arsenal of weapons including a handgun and numerous rifles. you can just hear the rounds almost like creeping up on you. feels like they're just it's like cut you down make those shots don't start you don't hear that i think being in a word alone when i realize. actually stored. that this is. also real. in just the fact of having to run over all these. military. you would know. i'm just so. i just there's also so much pain and thinking like why. why did those people do to deserve. the shooter was sixty four year old stephen paddick he lived in

a community for retired people in the city turned the gun on himself before the authorities got the police say he had no prior criminal record and no military background and the f.b.i. says he wasn't linked to any terrorist groups despite claims by islamic state authorities say they found twenty three weapons and products hotel room nineteen more were discovered in his home it's also reported that the killer had two devices with him called bumper stocks to which allows semiautomatic weapons to be modified into fully automated ones there were also thousands of ammunition rounds of products host to an explosives in his car the tragedy really ignited the debate over gun control in america critics have highlighted the absurdity that it's illegal to carry a fake gun for instance on the famous las vegas strip but there are no restrictions on carrying a real firearm security on the bridge in a week told us it's near enough impossible to prevent attacks like we witnessed last sunday considering the gun laws. given that the initial acquisition of the

weapons themselves is in nevada it certainly is perfectly legal and needs to be kept so if the amount of ammunition or weapons you're buying and since it's also perfectly legal to buy the very simple mechanisms that are required to convert those semiautomatic weapons into far more lethal fully automatic or effectively fully automatic weapons there's really very little it can be done to then stop an individual from going to high vantage point such as in his hotel room and then using the weapon and indeed any number of weapons in the way that he did and so unless you're going to have metal detectors that each and every hotel to detect such weapons and even then you're going to have a mechanism a legal mechanism in place to prevent people actually any firearms and possessing them in this way there's nothing that can be done to stop this kind of attack taking place the fact is that america has a firearms problem but what to come in the weekly will take

a look at syria's ongoing operation to remove islamic state from the country when i return just after this break. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or somehow want to. have to go right to be close this is what before three in the morning can't be good . i'm interested always in the waters of mexico. city. in case you're new to the game this is how. the economy is built around.

corporations from washington to washington to meet. the media. voters elected to run this country business if. you must it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before. truck and more the big headlines of the last seven days in the syrian army is inching closer to driving islamic state out of dealers all profits earlier this week government forces entered the eastern town of my being considered to be one of isis last remaining strongholds in the country the russian military also gave aerial support to the latest advances.

after three long years the city of terror is always finally emerge from being under i still see at least from a military perspective next as more goes to reported in the way people there are now struggling to try to recover from living in the shadow of terror in the you'll find little and mocked by war every crate has its own tragic story and i think it exploded right here

a neighbor was sitting here holding his two year old nephew another man was there and my son isa was right here shrapnel hit him in the back in the waist and the legs a piece one to his lungs he still suffers pain from it. isa has now survived isis shells twice he well remembers his last brush with death and how his sister found him. i said judy judy my back hurts but she's not only my legs were hit but when they beat me up they so blood flowing down my back my sister started screaming and hitting herself the first time he was nearly killed by an isis shell he was just ten months old then shrapnel peppered the baby isa slicing off a toe in all he has eleven scars and a lump of jagged metal in his lungs that could still eventually kill him but at

least he made it the other two year old boy at the scene wasn't so lucky hell lasted for three years it left a mark on everyone. the word tragedy does not begin to describe what happened in there is or any door you knock on any family you talk to tell you of their loss and their suffering truly the one thing that unites this city is that everyone has a horrific story there was no place in daters or where the population could find sanctuary there is no place that the battle left untouched dust craters bullet holes and devastation everywhere entire districts of the city are in ruins entire generations traumatized entire generations lost.

during the battle with isis i was shot just above my jaw the bullet is still there my left eye was destroyed and i have ten percent vision in my right eye. the reality of war adele's two were others were also in the army defending dead as a daughter they were literally protecting their family against isis he is the only one left alive these families loss is neither unique nor the worst of the getting one to lose one or three sons many families give more than me in my office there was a man who lost five sons and a daughter this is war and war is. and destroys everything in the end of it for many the worst is over the breaking of the siege of dead us or heralded a new beginning yet others in areas still being liberated it's just the

start psychological scars left behind will take decades to heal more i guess the team from there is on syria. the king of saudi arabia made his first official visit to russia wednesday and it's been seen by many as an unexpected shift in riyadh foreign policy than is the kingdom is a long term ally of the united states of course but the saudi king's visit didn't get off to the very best of starts just as disembarked his plane is iconic golden escalating which usually gets into very smoothly those we've ever restored but taking someone may have been cheered up but a drive to moscow was welcomed by a number of posters across the city center to mark as a royal and couldn't sell more didn't cut corners when it came to choosing commendation either oh no the saudi delegation didn't just reserve several rooms if they booked three at least entire luxury hotels in the city center perhaps no great surprise that when you travel essential is include furniture carpets and that

faulty may be golden askew later ahead of the talks with. president putin was asked about saudi arabia's choice about laurie's. but let's face. it it's always going to be the united states when it comes to you. do you worry that the saudis are using you. you said always will remain is that anything in the world that is so absolutely constant. meeting resulted in three billion dollars worth of arms deals being signed in the end and future investments in technology is also a green or an industry economist. believes that saudi arabia and russia working together could help solve global issues better cooperation could help stem the production cuts and thus that of the oil price in coming months and of course such

cooperation between saudi arabia and russia could be a positive or could lead flecked positively on the conflict is syria old or saudi arabia that actually opposite sides an equal but a shim between them could come to the situation and do know as they could reach eventually a break in the deadlock and the brink be yet but the news wrap the week so far check out the ongoing tensions on the korean peninsula on our side r.t. dot com i'm kevin zero in but with more the big stories of the last seven days here in thirty minutes. europe has to either change or cease to exist people who work in this building headquarters should change the rules of the european union would have to work on fewer issues with better results should be paying more attention to protecting external borders fighting against terrorism curbing illegal immigration as well as

harmonizing economic policies and judicial systems otherwise the europe we have today is doing transformed into a strange loose community of twenty seven countries with nothing in common. when the make its manufacture consensus instead of public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. in the final merry go round if suddenly no one percent. we can all middle of the room six. million real new.

if you take an economics course you're taught that markets are based on informed consumers making rational judgments suppose you turn on the television set and take a look at the some of the they trying to create informed consumers making rational choices the country they're trying to create an informed consumers who will act irrationally in the so huge industry one of the biggest industries in the country.