almost half a million people protest in catalonia as madrid decides to impose direct rule dismiss key regional officials and call for a snuff regional election. r.t. has been under scrutiny with the u.k. foreign secretary boris johnson britain's the times newspaper and a european thing timed all slamming this channel on disparaging our guests. and the pentagon hails the liberation of the syrian city of raka from islamic states by u.s. backed opposition forces though the city has been left mainly in ruins.

this is the week international coming to you live from moscow i'm kate partridge thank you for joining us. and you start with catalonia where almost half a million people have protested in support of independence it follows madrid's decision to impose direct rule on the region and strip the local government of its powers the spanish government is also calling for a regional election within six months catalan leaders have called the move a coup d'etat. this measure we're going to implement has a lot to do with the goal of holding an election in catalonia region will have to hold an election within six months but my intention is to hold it as soon as we recover. all of us by. the spanish government has carried out the worst attack against scotland institutions and residence since the orders of the military

dictator francisco franco we. rejoice in a greatly irresponsible act we crossed all boundaries by announcing a defacto coup d'etat to oust a democratically elected government. in the transfer of powers to madrid and dismissing officials alleged to have broken the law is expected to be approved by the senate within days and while the council on parliament won't be dissolved it will now be stripped of its capacity to elect a new president but in a question of the reports on the reaction from barcelona many people that gathered here at the square they were listening to the address that was made by the cast of the leader and they welcomed the playas they were shouting slogans including leave it at that which means freedom so for them it was there to address quite a big decision that was meeting now we've heard other reactions coming from different now cattle and government officials including the head of the catalan parliament that had has denouncement treats decision to invoke article one fifty

five and dismiss the local government now in the trees decision provoked really we've both outraged and we've seen hundreds tens of thousands of people here in the streets of barcelona now protesting in. marching and we managed to talk to some of them this is the miserable to this or we're a bit lost it's the first time we found ourselves in such a situation we've heard talk of possible support from europe for example but it seems that the e.u. is not interested as a tool in what's going on here but i think it's a relief we know are there other planets not. even. countries leave they say what they say all the time the same thing they repeat the same words and that's on the money and for the other leaders so it's it's it's easy possible to talk to them i mean you're going to make sure you don't know what they did by triggering article one five five it was suicidal because as you can see

there are millions of people defending catalinas right to independence what happened this saturday in the region of council lani a mania local authority a school defacto could it turn out in a blow to democracy. but we spoke to thomas harrington a professor of iberian studies he says exerting this kind of pressure in a democratic country is illegitimate what is the role of the force in the liberty of democracies in the twenty first century. i think the consensus of the catalan side is a very strong one and i can't imagine that the people who are rightfully looked at in the september two thousand and fifteen elections going along with a new election after the government that they were elected to form part of is is overthrown by the several of our days and i think president bush in moments a very compelling point when he says well if this can be done to us what other

things can be done to other people if you're going to sit by the way. throughout the week madrid has been tightening its grip over catalonia on monday to cancel out independence meters were arrested for the roles they played in organizing the referendum and one of them is the leader of the catalan. national assembly the other is the president of an organization that promotes the council on language and culture well since then boss alaina seen even bigger demonstrations united hundreds of thousands of people. i think. i was i. think. what i. was.

that of. but always on the back of a pick that that's all i want of us as. was . well as take a look at how spain has been cracking down on catalonia as push for independent. voters push abolition their argument out to those in charge in the council on government who are the protagonists in this challenge to occur existence and i ask them to cease illegal activity they should apparently their objective.

we are now applying article one five five because no government at all in a democratic country can accept that the law be ignored or violated or changed and this has all happened under full screen and they impose their criteria on everybody else. now it's also been a week of intense scrutiny for r.t. this channel roundly attacked his kremlin propaganda daniel hawkins explains r.t. has been in the spotlight for a while under fire from government officials the media even think tanks here are some recent highlights. boris johnson led the

charge in the u.k. house of commons with an attack on opposition m.p.'s who've appeared on this channel if you study the output of of russia today it is a scandal it is a scandal that members of the party opposite are continuing to to rally day to day. to meet. that kind of propaganda by going on those programs but some of his fierce criticism of the foreign secretary of peers to have missed out a bit of important information his own conservative colleagues have also appeared as guests on the channel as well as someone closer to home his own father stanley johnson was interviewed by going on the ground i was. just last month. the times newspaper claims there are now calls by the labor party for the u.k. media watchdog to investigate artie's advertising campaign on the london

underground they even contacted us for our take on the matter later saying our press office refused to comment except we did two questions do you wish to respond to this complaint which advertising agency created the adverts for r t what were they. in-house. high probably not much point in responding to a complaint to an authority that does not regulate out of door advertising the out campaign was developed in-house by the other team and fully proved by all u.k. vendettas we are glad to say many in the u.k. are engaging with our advertising understood thanks for swift response. and it gets better one thing tank recently completed the mom of task of compiling

a list of all the thousands of guests who've appeared all our shows ever from politicians and journalists to academics and thirties and even groups them into categories and then dismisses them as useful idiots many people in europe and the us including politicians and the persons of influence continue to exhibit troubling naivety about r.t.s. political agenda these useful idiots remain oblivious to r.t.c. intentions and b.c.'s legitimacy by granting interviews on the shows and news casts so only useful idiot list john mccain one of the most vocal critics of russia even film director rob reiner gets a mention in the celebrity section he's now part of our organization called the committee to investigate russia as not to mention u.s. senator and former presidential candidate bernie sanders as well as another of the current american president donald trump i guess that's finally the smoking gun of russian election influence former first lady michelle obama gets

a mention although her name only appears in the program description she was never an actual guest check in the episodes would have confirmed this back to boris johnson himself he is listed on the reports official guest list taken from webb's. descriptions for the comedy show news thing well they may want to double check that one as well it's. boris welcome. are we going to get a chance to fight the spanish before america and russia killer so. you saw. the . proportion of the reporters sponsored by george soros as well as the u.k. and u.s. embassies in the czech republic it certainly spurs criticism of those giving interviews on this channel. or we decided to ask some of our guests that were mentioned in the list of useful

idiots what they think about that description. development is somehow trash it gets more and more aggressive across europe the political debates and one of these games they are playing. they are destroying the reputation of politicians they don't like i don't think that it's fair to say that we are simply here is russian stooges i am not anti russian but sometimes i'm quite critical of russia over syria and over the detention of political prisoners like in others. you know of course everybody has their agendas but i think he has certainly not tried to constrain my expression or the expression of many other people i know i work with a network we speak our mind and we're critical of the west when it's appropriate and were critical of russia when it's appropriate. the reality is that dissident voice in the u.k. the only very rarely gets any time in the mainstream media r.t.

is is the only place that has been providing a regular platform for what used to be dissident voices in the u.k. but now much more mainstream voices. all the recent attacks on r.t. come amid a russian meddling frenzy the latest comes from britain where a labor party m.p. has called for a probe into moscow's alleged interference in the bracks it vote given the widespread public concern over foreign and particularly russian interference in western democracies. this house but the government and the electoral commission will examine these reports very carefully and reassure our country that all of the resources spent in the referendum vote from permissible sources. well anti russia hysteria has been making headlines for months now and it started with alleged moscow meddling in the u.s. election then moved on to the french and german votes and there have even been

suggestions russians hacked that catalan independence vote for president putin says it's all part of a deliberate campaign launched after donald trump's victory. so sure it's the us who put up with this some president and russian campaign which was not provoked by anything someone lost the elections to mr trump and russia was blamed for this than there unfolded the russian hysteria and now any failure will be connected to us and one of the loudest complaints comes from the politician who claims russian interference lost her the us presidency. in germany members of parliament have been attacked by russia. and france crowns campaigned with the head by

a massive cyber attack just before their president. now the evidence that russia has a hockey to email no civil civil war that is not possible to seduce bisley a stated goal was to a criminal group it really time be anyone. still the simplicity of the technical code can make us think it's just a simple. creed did it and so this person can be in any country with any kind of motivation. maybe you've even seen the ads in a london underground one russian state funded propagandist or rag watch archy and find out who they are planning to. the fact is they're also opening a new scottish. goes to show

you yet again the his stereo the absolute. boggling hysteria that occurs whenever the word russian. whenever it's even mentioned people say. russians are added again how are they at it again i don't know but you know how they are who the russians what russia and those russians. more of this week's headlines in just a few minutes including france adopts a new counterterrorism bill but concerns are raised about civil liberties. but will these games. let you say. breaking but. both sides it's a reality. the russian economy. and

i know a lot of people who are looking for a creative ways to get better results. in case you're new to the game this is how it works the economy is built around. corporations from washington to washington to meet. the. 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.

welcome back this week the pentagon confirms the victory of the coalition led kurdish fighters against islamic state in the syrian city of raka the defense department hailed the operation as a great success in the fight against. we're having great success against what was once known as the core caliphate iraq in syria and now we're actually in the beginning i think the end stage and watch for the caliphate is welcome that. however the latest pictures from rocka show that despite the victory it's now a virtual ghost city the destruction you see here was caused by ice ill militia shelling and coalition air strikes aid agencies also say a huge effort to we needed to end the city's humanitarian crisis when i saw a plane drakkar as it's defacto capital in twenty fourteen the first major offensive against the terrorists there began two years later he used to be one of syria's largest cities but it is now mainly rubble.

recently called mission after us is we're ready to demolish the whole building to target one member of i so they have no problem killing civilians. we ran from death and any human being would be afraid the sound of the planes makes us afraid they were shelling the civilians destroying buildings and houses rakhal was destroyed by a coalition aircraft only ten percent hit their targets the rest hit civilians. the u.n. estimates that's an average of twenty seven people are being killed in iraq every day. and they seem to be no real escape for these civilians the level

of suffering you're seeing friends relatives family of the children it's actually. it's just targeting. with the humanitarian relief teams are only now beginning to arrive there has been a destruction in the larger supply their political mission of because of course the area was under siege for such a long time there is a severe lack of medical services medical care hospitals that are functioning a severe lack a lot of course and so there is a massive massive humanitarian need on the ground. the french parliament has adopted a controversial counter-terrorism bill giving increased passed to the security services. the new law has drawn criticism from rights advocates who fear it will

cope civil liberties while police will now have a greater ability to search houses without a warrant and conduct stop and search operations on the street the lower also allows also it is to wiretap communications more widely including telephones and e-mail and places of worship suspected of promoting extremism may also be temporarily shut down while the architects of the law or is president himself he says this is an alternative to the current state of emergency which has already been extended six times. to do awful sort of security to the anti terror draft law on the reinforcement of internal security has been adopted by a parliamentary majority and it will come into power in november of the first when the state of emergency expires the state of emergency was effect however we've seen in recent months that unfortunately doesn't protect us from the reality of certain tax because any state of emergency can protect us in totally reduce the threat. well france's state of emergency is judged me lifted at the beginning of next month

it was issued following the terrorist attacks in paris in november twenty fifth in the new law house race some controller see with many slamming it as endangering basic freedoms we gauge reaction on the streets of paris. with no i don't agree with it and i'm sure we can do things differently i don't think it is the way to solve the problem of terrorism. i think when you look for something to have real reasons for doing so me personally am not against it. i really don't think it will help to fight any terrorists it will only harm personal freedoms and i believe it is designed more to control the people. normally the more your point is wrong i think we already have the means to control people there are already laws in place we know we are in the control and i phones are being monitored if they were now able to get into our apartments i don't believe the goal is fighting terror. well earlier the united nations also raised objections to the anti terror bill it

said the measures if implemented would limit freedoms in french society and warned of possible repercussions we discussed the new law with former m i five officer animation and political analyst dan glazebrook the state of emergency was passed because of the appalling attacks but that was only seen to be for a limited time what nikon is doing is now codifying the same terms and putting it forever into french law i think they've expanded the stop and search powers around major transport hubs and also this idea that they can close down centers mosques places religious worship if there's hints of radicalization but there's no proof required for that closure and that is quite concerning as well because of course what is radicalization at the moment of course everyone in france is focused on the concept of islamic radicalization but what if that spreads what if there is mission creep so that someone who protests against the government is deemed to be

a radical and you know their work may close down if you don't deal with the root causes which is the brutal foreign policy on the one hand and the alienation of entire communities due to your system out against discrimination and racism on the other if you're not going to deal with those even the most vicious police state will not be able to stop. being some people who decide to lash out unfortunately you're never going to be able to keep your population one hundred percent safe because your whole foreign policy is about certain fire to two other countries well for more on these and plenty of other stories that get our web site r.t. dot com otherwise i'll be back with the latest headlines at the top of the hour see them. here in southern russia in solitary attending the ball by discussion because in our top it gives us russian relations and this state. the world.

i played for many clubs over the years so i know the game inside guides. football isn't only about what happens on the pitch for the final school it's about the passion from the fans it's the age of the super money kill the narrowness of spending to get to the twenty million player. it's an experience like nothing else not to because i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful game played great so what chance with. the base is going to. pick.

up. what politicians to do something to. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president i'm sure. some want to be. the two going to be pros it's like i'm up for three in the morning can't be good. i'm interested always in the lives of my colleagues. first said.

my. goal. was a bit of cut a lot of b.s. to study well at the kind of mushy finality and i don't want to let the your talk about how much more i'd let her be honest and a half in the flesh emily i shall get a letter i learned to whom i had that that's not to be a story. so it's not so much so much so that. he. was before this was useful to you. to be sure he doesn't feel that. they've been released and until we don't find sentencing we don't want to do with it if you are

moving the body yes with your friend just obviously i've told you. my land will have to be i'm going to get that piece of the popular niche market hobby it up yes it's b.s. and. the bomb but don't tell except. that i don't know how that would be when i say that i love the idea i came i thought the human is more out of that hobby and with an a ha. i don't know for sure not that it has but there's a little how to change one if you have the thought has the of the fight them a better the comfy method i don't fuckin let me off well i know how that the jets are looking to us and i'm unhappy i will sort it out then. i can was off with the land for the betterment of the whole to. be be the measure of the law

another bit of confusion with a little cardio at the end. of what i said well you know was a. little on the slow. a saudi and. families. around here and also he was a he had to have moved multiple injuries among ten had to sell them to yourself you . will hear most around the world today. and if you can buy a political fence a little for the c.s.a. you also. get them just a. wee for the b. . if you howard.