real news is really. like. five hundred meters from. village ice is making it still. doesn't look. like that with the. syrian government forces continue to repel an islamic state from tears or province we've got exclusive footage from there is one of the last strongholds of eisel is liberated in the east of syria. also to come failed expectations and more uncertainty catalonia as president gives ambiguous signals on the region's independence and madrid orders him to clarify whether he's actually declared it or not and maybe meet exposed to sting operation catches even

the employee and his friend from the new york times revealing how they tried to influence what was after all said the south the world festival in students opens in russia's black sea resort of sochi where life at the open except. good afternoon welcome has just turned four o'clock here in the russian capital you're watching r.t. and a look back at what's been happening over the last seven days now syrian government troops have liberated the eastern city of my teen from islamic states it is the latest blow to the terror group which is now being steadily pushed out of the war torn country. i.

i. think i try. to picture because i. think of. well terrorists are fighting fiercely to retain what they can with their last stronghold in the region not against syria filed this report from the village of how to proceed shadowed syrian troops during its liberation. under a bright blue sky through devastated country across the euphrates over the only

bridge in the entire province we came to the village of had less than a day ago this was part of the caliphate but no longer from what we were told the syrian army's fifth division did the heavy lifting here much of had has already been swept and cleared but not all it isn't like the movies doors rarely open at the first peek. then came the first warning minute before you could. go to let me know and. tell you. he was right it wasn't one of the. isis back up had arrived we had forced the jihad ists felt confident enough to pick a fight and we weren't in

a good place the syrian army responded quickly but there was some confusion at first. then about. there who never know how many. five hundred meters from hadleigh village isis is making it still. doesn't it dug in. behind that house over there. to. try to be harassing syrian troops what they're doing is they're driving around in circles using speed and distance as their protection taking potshots the other thing hiding behind a house driving out far in the critical. hiding back before the serious . with heavier weapons it isn't going to get the game the very much but it's

a harassing you and it's keeping everyone on edge during the fierce firefight one of the pickup trucks stopped here is one of the jihad just briefly showing himself while spraying away on full auto with the clear targets out came the heavier weapons. and. it was a nice try again. this crap i says last but everything you just saw was shot within the span of a single hour in one village with a small unit these scenes being repeated hourly across the front hundreds of kilometers wide more i guess deal. from hard luck syria.

meanwhile al-qaeda linked terror group al shabaab is thought to be behind the deadly twin attack in somalia's capital the number killed in saturday's bombing has risen sharply to one hundred ninety nine according to the police in mogadishu where the country's largest ever attack also left around two hundred injured so instead of the first bomb a powerful truck explosion went off outside a hotel close to government offices the second blast happened two hours later in the capital's in edina district no one has admitted carrying out the attacks of lebanese in the streets chabad has a history a long history of carrying out a trial cities in mogadishu the somali president says the cleric free days of national mourning. this week the catalan president suspended declaring the region's independence calling for dialogue with madrid and the move prompted the spanish prime minister to demand

clarification on whether independence had officially been declared or not. that's not bad luck at all we ask for a mandate to declare catalonia an independent state. responsibly with all due respect i ask parliament to suspend the declaration of independence so that in the coming weeks we can undertake a dialogue but to go to europe for a moment we formally require the catalan government to confirm if it has declared independence of catalonia after the deliberate confusion created over whether it has come into effect. meanwhile people in catalonia have been left frustrated by the confusion many were visibly affected while listening to the president's announcement there and deeply disappointed to the end madrid has given the cattle and president until monday to clarify the situation adding has three days after that to drop the declaration if it's made and see a chalk in a report snag from barcelona.

was she was you could see was. through their reach it was. that it is necessary to show rebellion i did not know it and dependence is the solution which is a demonstrates this half of the population is tied up with this independence will hurt both spayed and catalonia it took many years to make the country whole and to divide it just like that is absurd this particular square there are screens being set up where no doubt this area is going to be cut by people in the hours to come preparing to listen to this crucial if the problem is right there and we do know that because that leaders in their meeting with parliamentarians in the head of the preparation of what's going to happen and people here despite this being a pro independence gathering really there is no certainty as of right now what

exactly he's going to say was. that a lot. of the super. bowl oh . yeah. i. did it again in a million so i think he should have declared independence because now he says he wants done like the good morning and has asked the spanish government like seventeen times and every time the doors have been closed to you so i believe today he would finally declare rates and i'm a bit disappointed he stated he didn't take a step forward that everybody wanted we understand he wants that but catalonia has spoken and we do want it independent it's a european only not in you i want independence i don't want anything to do with

this. my and sisters wanted it but we were forced to be spanish only if i ever can say that my nationality is catalan i'll be very happy just know i know where the iconic sensual must point out marcello not plaza catalonia right now and thousands of people if you can see that one faction from that direction towards this square this is that you wouldn't see it from this house where all of these people are coming out to speak in support of the think that's love with this president that the lawyer really has by only to the law you should assume because it was was i who he was i knew he was well it has been a fortnight since that independence referendum in catalonia where ninety percent of the people who voted said that they want to break away from spain but there have

been plenty of cases elsewhere in which yes votes in referendums have not translated into any real change the catalans are holding their breath after the drama that referendum will they end up sticking with spain after all will really go it alone and. be was winning a referendum hasn't always brought about the desired goal let's look at a couple of cases first up the greek bailout referendum in two thousand and fifteen prime minister alexis tsipras promised a no vote would mean an end to e.u. and i.m.f. imposed a stereotypic. a cooling on you to support this negotiation i'm calling on you to say no to this recipient of memorandums that's destroying europe. when an overwhelming no to a stereotype was returned to suppress caved in to the troika anyway it was i'm telling you right here that i take full responsibility. for mistakes as well for

signing an agreement that i do not believe in however i'm up large to implement it next up because this struggle for independence this is the train region and move in iraq has been raring to go certainly for years now citing tensions with baghdad we choose to live together with baghdad willingly if they don't want us to be their partners we refuse to be their servants and last month emboldened by months of repelling islamic states from iraqi territories the region held an independence referendum almost ninety three percent voted in favor of going it alone. now this is a new era for the kurdish people it is a turning point and we have to use it and this is a big victory for the kurdish people that was almost two weeks ago and since then silence within the same silence will fall in catalonia awakes to be see. potential collusion between the new york times and new chief was revealed earlier

this week in a sting body project very task which has gained a reputation for uncovering uncomfortable truths within the media is some of its latest on the cover video very rare cases. try to make up for the fact that something isn't in the trunk. well that man is believed to be petty according to his linked in profile he is you tube's brandon diversity curation lead in the video he then elaborates on how you tube sometimes intervenes to change trending video is. very real. but those cases. use some intervention make sure that they. encourage the thing to be basically they provide and some cases ninety percent of what a lot of people receive as knows it's just not you tube or you think of a picture of a doc playing the piano yes is the pipeline of new and if somebody can affect what

news makes that pipe why you have in essence and effectively affected the transportation to and the transmission of data all over the world well the two manager wasn't the only person exposed in the project very task video it also features nicholas dudek here an audience strategy editor for the new york times is also thought to be a friend of petty's due to claims he previously worked on the election campaigns of both hillary clinton and barack obama he's on camera saying he benefits from his relationship with the cheap stuff and calls himself a gatekeeper for the new york times deciding what gets coverage and what doesn't. people shops it's like it's something of a need to for just like yourself you're sad about it we don't know it's just clothes but security probably. i mean certain scenes but those are just words rates of things. they could actually just give

you i wish. i could do was well we did get in touch with the chief of some reaction it's not given us a response but we did hear back from the new york times and this is what they said in a statement the newspaper admitted dudek had apparently violated its ethics standards but also says that he did exaggerate the influence he had at the company communications director a project buried sas believes so called gate keeping in the media is a big concern. certain political entities certain media entities rise to the top of the pecking order there is collusion between the social media networks and the major media outlets what we did was we caught it we caught them admitting it would caught them being candid on undercover video admitting what most people want most americans and what most people around the world strongly suspect

was the case anyway but just couldn't prove we've just proved that. mr dudek kind of the star of these first two videos pretty clear about having worked for two presidential campaigns and wanting to continue his mission working for the new york times lots of interesting is in the new york times statement they didn't rebut the accuracy of what we said we kind of suspected that if they well here's a low level guy but they did they said he's a junior player but they didn't rebut the accuracy of what we put out they're just making excuses. for one of the worst the seats the mainstream media does an album major social media does is gate keeping it's a role it's not necessarily stopping most depressing story lines that they don't want to hear don't want you to hear they've got to ability to do a lot more than they used to in the startup phase of the internet and we're in new york and new york times and you tube aren't bad the bastard child of that relationship is fake news you watch and we can hear not

a nasty that he that the sound we can live to the city of sochi for the world festival and changed and students that's coming up just off the bank. would call me just manufacture consent to step into the public wells. when the ruling classes protect them. the famous merry go round be the one percent. nor middle of the room six. million real news is.

what we want is to put an end to nuclear testing and then to move towards a world free of nuclear weapons and to do that we have to bring countries who seek or who are of this ambition to understand that their national security doesn't depend on the possession of nuclear weapons. welcome back now the opening ceremony of the world festival of youth and students has just started in russia's black sea resort of sochi the week long cultural event is expected to attract upwards of twenty thousand visitors from around the world we can get the latest from daniel who are in sochi for us at the moment and dan we understand things are just about getting started what's happening and what can we expect over the next few days. and do there's

a big calls just starting behind me as you can see in preparation for the big opening ceremony which is expected to start very very soon the festival itself is actually pretty old it started back in nine hundred forty seven it's been held twice before in russia and now it's being held in so she has a big program waiting those visitors from all over the world but concerts as you can see here behind me that's sports competitions cultural events representing all the different countries attending here today and this week we've spoken to many different people some of those from new year the twenty thousand people attending from one hundred fifty different countries those from. india south america asia really a global event. and here i love the way to look forward to the school says to share some opinions to discuss and debate some to keep issues of today from global security to health and education that's one of the primary a.b.c. of the festival to get young people polled in deciding the global problems that face the world today now it all began in moscow with

a parade traditionally. a big fireworks display that was attended by quite a few people despite the rain we're lucky so far with here today it's been pretty sunny. the opening ceremony will take place here and some of the people here actually have been to festivals before one of them way back in nineteen fifty seven who's come back to russia to relive some of those memories. thirty thousand young people. and. fourteen. thousand. fourteen.

this is somebody you might recognize. you must. be. relieved to be here. to see. my first says without food. who are safe from all school. first of all a. little bit the old.

experience a little more open minded. well another person also there is writer a motivational speaking nick she will be at the festival in salt she he hopes to inspire young people and also encourage them to believe in themselves. i love russia and actually with the heritage of my parents coming from former yugoslavia we have a lot of similarities in our culture and i love this through the hospitality in russia is a beautiful country and i'm very excited for the country as they're holding also the world cup so i'm glad to be planting seeds of hope and love all across the country especially to the next generation my expectations at saatchi at the world festival of youth i'm so excited that my story can inspire people to never give up and to help them conquer their fears overcome obstacles and really

come to a whole new level of of happiness in their lives so i hope that they receive it well i just want to let them know that they're beautiful and to never give up and here in our team we will be continuing our special coverage of the world festival of youth and students over the next few days at sea and weekend that. misty right now unforgettable you have days. seen some of these kids it is. you get the idea of now and it's not with. that voting is underway you know austria's snap parliamentary election in which three parties a jockey for position and the chance to install the next chancellor but the refugee crisis having dominated much of the campaign the biggest parties there have been trying to leave by shifting to the right does that case the situation across europe

this year where populist parties have seen success as artie's poorest slip reports with was i. say we've got. yeah this is a time. of. the bastille code says people's party is widely expected to come in with more than fifty percent of the votes it is running on a platform of being tough on immigration which dovetails with the program being presented by a right wing party known as the freedom party that is also being touted as a party that will come in second speaking to experts it's

a possibility that the two parties could form a coalition although having said that the freedom party is accusing sebastian coe peoples party of stealing some of its proposals and if nobody is coming into the country without registration without a passport no one should be allowed to enter austria. will do everything possible to stop illegal immigration i am asking that social benefits for non austrians be significantly reduced. everything we can to end the abuse of our social welfare system by immigrants this election so he reflects on the ground that voters are turning more white and the reasons are numerous there is high unemployment there is a lack of economic growth and there is fears of migration the current government certainly appears not to have addressed these issues and we could have a situation in which the ruling party finds itself pushed into the opposition on

saturday the austrian chancellor warned against choosing a rightwing alliance he said that the country finds itself at one of the most important crossroads in decades despite that however it does seem highly likely that all could be on the road to forming a rightwing government. the media has dubbed the austrian election campaign as one of the dirtiest it has seen acting chancellor christian kern accused of using facebook to discredit opposition leader sebastian kurtz calling him as jennifer the pages were allegedly set up and run by a former advisor to the chancellor with current himself denying any involvement and promising to investigate the scandal all the polls are closed in about an hour and a half's time we'll be keeping a close eye on madeleine throughout me and you can watch and weekly here on r.t. on back with more needs and often.

and it always goes yeah well you always say are you going to. show you also the you know mr world that it's going. to go in another place or through the. euro or if you're. just to believe also all. the glad i wish i got a brother telling number. nobody can take the one that. got up out of that one. of course there are the important you know the strong room of the room.

somewhere. in case you're new to the game this is how it works the economy is built around corporations corporations run washington washington post media the media folks voters elect the businessman to run this country business equals power boom bust it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before . colin is still exist. ricos treated as one bizarro no economy calls on the hind limb alito and then thrown him along on the fourth recall as little can i knew a lot of. the island is controlled by the us government and some puerto ricans crave independence joe it was the almighty god you know it was. good at

either election but i'm going to sort of randomly go over that again again waiting in the last year earliest. still many do wish to join the us hundreds more leave every day knowing. that i'm a long way from mania. beings. with the country at a crossroads anger of the island is on the rise. name is always some are saying i built tiny houses for the homeless. see is back and they are here why do these guys out for me a tiny house is not a solution it will be a free for all. nice safe conditions to live in.