this started. almost. was. almost half a million people protest in catalonia as madrid decides to impose direct rule dismissed key regional officials and call for a snap a regional election. r.t. has been under scrutiny with the u.k. foreign secretary boris johnson britain's the times newspaper and a european think tank all slamming this channel and insulting our guests. on the pentagon hails the liberation of the syrian city of raka from islamic states supply u.s. backed opposition forces though the city has been left in ruins. i'm

kate partridge and you're watching the weekend headlines here at r.t. international thank you for joining us. and we start with catalonia where almost half a million people have protested in support of the region's independence it follows madrid's decision to impose direct rule and strip the local government of its pros the spanish government is also calling for a regional election within six months catalan leaders have branded the move a coup. but you have this measure we are going to implement has a lot to do with the goal of holding an election in catalonia the region will have to hold an election within six months but mine tension is to hold it as soon as we recover. a lot of. the spanish government has carried out the worst attack

against scotland institutions and residents since the orders of the military dictator francisco franco. rahul in a greatly irresponsible act crossed all boundaries by announcing and in fact a coup d'etat to oust a democratically elected government. will the transfer of powers to madrid and the dismissing of 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. protests continue in the streets of wasilla in across the region of council anya now people that gathered here in this area of the city earlier well they were against the independence and many of them were from different union shops the region now they came here this sunday with their families and with their friends they brought flags shelf spain and they were shouting slogans including out

of a spine you know which means a long live spain at the same time on saturday we saw tans of thousands of other protests or is that also to get to the streets of boston long and they were supporting independence and they were supporting the results of the referendum that took place on the first of october now all these people now feel that they are. it will in no way stuck in a state of limbo and at least for the next six months now we managed to speak to some of them here in the streets of barcelona but we see differing mood among people industries and a lot of uncertainty really and old this shows a deep crisis that the rich. as at the moment and it is indeed the biggest constitutional crisis this country has seen in decades now many believe that the inability to negotiate ways out of the situation between the spanish government and the local catalan officials outlets to this particular situation to this crisis now

spanish government gave the catcher leader up until last thursday to back away from proclaiming independence out or to be ready to face the possibility of a direct rule coming from a treat. catalan as story it is that kept confirming the independence however at the same time they're also kept suspending the declaration of independence and all these allowed to the events of saturday when the spanish government and nouns that it is invoking article one fifty five of the constitution for the first time avar and this measure can only be applied if the regional government does not comply with the obligations of the constitution so now spanish prime minister calling for a snap elections to take place in this region within the next six months he is also calling for the dismissal of the local government asked the local government allowed to this crisis but important detail is that all these measures should first

be approved by the majority of the spanish senate but nonetheless what we're witnessing here is a big crisis not only a constitutional crisis but also a crisis within the the nation within the catalan people we spoke to thomas harrington a professor of iberian studies he says exerting this kind of pressure in a democratic country is not legitimate what is the role of. democracies twenty first century. i think. is a very strong and i can't imagine the people who are right to. go along with. new elections are steer the government that they were elected to form part of is is overthrown by the circle of artists and i think president bush among makes a very compelling find 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 and let it. all

throughout the week madrid has been tightening its grip over catalonia on monday to independence leaders were arrested for the roles they played organizing the referendum one of them is the leader of the cattle and national assembly the other is the president of an organization that promotes the catalan language and culture well since then boss alone has seen even bigger demonstrations uniting hundreds of thousands of people. i was. i. was not. but always on the back of

a pick that gets all of us past. i. i well as take a look at how spain has backing down on catalonia as push for independence. to those in charge in the council who are the protagonists in this challenge to the existence and i ask them to cease illegal activity they should apparently send their object.

if you need we are now applying to one five five because no government the tool in a democratic country can accept that the law will be ignored or be violated or changed this has happened under false criteria and they impose that criteria on everybody else. oh teens face a week of intense scrutiny with the channel coming on to a sustained attack to what critics call its kremlin propaganda the new holkins explains also has been in the spotlight for a while from government officials the media even things x. here are some recent hot it's.

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 validate legitime eight. that kind of propaganda by going on those programs but some of his fierce criticism the foreign secretary of pierced of missed out a bit of important information his own conservative colleagues have also appeared as guests on the shuttle as well as someone closer to home his own father stanley johnson was interviewed by going on the ground i was the afshin rattansi just last month. the times newspaper claims there are now calls by the labor party for off that's 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. or were they made in-house hi probably not much point in responding to a complaint to an authority that does not regulate out of two advertising the out campaign was developed in-house by the other team and fully proved by all u.k. vendors 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 the task of compiling

a list of all the thousands of guests who've appeared on our shows ever from politicians and journalists to academics and thirty's and even groups them into categories and then dismisses them as useful idiots many people in europe and the us including politicians and of the persons of influence continue to exhibit troubling naivety about artie's political agenda these useful idiots remain oblivious to auntie's intentions and based its 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 an organization called the committee to investigate russia as not to mention u.s. senator and former presidential candidate bernie sanders as well as none other than 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 checking the episodes would have confirmed this back to boris johnson himself he's listed on the reports official guest list taken from web site descriptions for the comedy show news thing well they may want to double check that one as well its power in say three boris johnson boris welcome. are we going to get a chance to fight the spanish before america and russia killer saw. portion of the report is sponsored by george soros as well as the u.k. and u.s. embassies in the czech republic it certainly spares no criticism of those giving interviews on this channel. well we decided to are some of our guests that were mentioned in the list of useful idiots what they think about that description.

development is somehow trashy 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 hearers 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 you and 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 there is a 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 while the recent attacks on r.t. come amid a frenzy of claims about russian meddling the latest has appeared in britain where a labor party m.p. called for a probe into moscow's alleged interference in last year's praxis vote given the widespread public concern over foreign and particularly russian interference in western democracies we're sure sure this house that 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 are from permissible sources. well i'm to 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 they have even been

suggestions russians hacked the catalan independence vote or president pages says it's all part of a deliberate campaign launched after donald trump's victory it isn't so sure it's the us who put up with some precedent in the entire russian campaign which was not provoked by anything someone lost the elections to mr trump and russia was blamed for this than they unfolded this anti russian hysteria and now any failure will be connected to us. some of the loudest complaints have come from the politician who claims russian interference cost the us presidency. in germany members of parliament have been attacked by russia.

and france that crowned campaign would have by a massive cyber attack just before their presidential election. now the evidence that russia has a hard q e mails no civil civil war that is not possible to so you've obviously a stated silverstein a criminal group it really can be anyone. still the simplicity of the technical part can make us think it's just a simple person who created it and so this person can be in any country with any kind of motivation. maybe you've even seen the ads and london underground one russian state funded propagandist or bragging watch archy and find out who we are planning to. the fact is they're also opening a new scottish. goes to show

you yet again the his stereo the absolute mind boggling hysteria that occurs whenever the word russian is whenever it's even mentioned people say ah rush is there 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 stories coming up including the syrian city of iraq or is declared free of islamic states but it's now in ruins more on this after the break.

i. i i. i. i. i. we're here in southern russia in solitary attending the ball by discussion club and our topic is u.s. russia relations and the state of the world.

welcome back this week the pentagon confirmed victory for coalition led kodesh troops fighting islamic state in the syrian city of raka the defense department held the operation a great success 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 stone age and watching the caliphate is rocket well how about the latest pictures from iraq a show that despite the victory it's now a virtual ghost town the destruction you can see here was caused by i still militia shelling and coalition and strikes while aid agencies also say a huge effort will be needed to end the city's humanitarian crisis playing draco's its defects capital in twenty fourteen and the first major offensive against the terrorists that began two years later and used to be one of syria's largest cities and it's now mainly in ruins.

recently called mission after offices were ready to demolish the whole building to target one member of i say they have no problem killing civilians. we ran from death and fear 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 coalition aircraft only ten percent hit the targets the rest hit civilians. the un estimates that's an average of twenty seven people are being killed in iraq out every day. and they seem to be no really

the scapegoat for the sunset billions the level of suffering in france or peeves family of the children it's actually. it's just i get it. would be humanitarian relief teams are only now beginning to arrive there has been a destruction of the larger supply their political mission of food 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. all members of the u.s. led coalition including france germany and the u.k. have already pledged millions in humanitarian aid to the residents of raka however this effort has prompted questions from the russian defense ministry which

previously provided humanitarian operations across other cities in syria liberated from the terrorists. what is this rush of western countries to finance rucka alone but a storm is seems only one thing remains to quickly cover the tricks of the barbaric bombing of the u.s. and the coalition which buried thousands of civilians liberated from still in the ruins of record. now the french parliament has adopted a controversial counter-terror bill giving increased powers to security services the new law restoring massive criticism for rights advocates who fear it will curb civil liberties while police will now have even greater powers to search homes without a warrant and conduct stop and search operations on the streets that are also let's also it is wired up communications more including phones and e-mail places of worship suspected of promoting extremism may also be temporarily shut down well the architect of the laureus president himself he says this is an alternative to the

current state of emergency which has already been extended six times reported to the office on a security the anti terror draft law on the reinforcement of internal security has been adopted by a parliamentary majority and it will come into power under 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 or france a state of emergency is due to be lifted at the beginning of november it was first issued following the terrorist attacks in paris in twenty fifteen but many fear the new move encroaches on even more basic freedoms we gauge reaction on the streets of paris. you know more. 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 that when you look for something to have real reasons for doing so me personally am

not against it. but 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 and only the more young i think we already have the means to control people there are already laws in place we know we are under 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 u.n. also slammed the anti terror bill it was the measures if implemented would limit freedoms in french society or discuss the new law with bush's former intelligence officer on the racial and political analyst done today. the state of emergency was passed because of the appalling attacks but that was anything 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 me close down if you don't deal with the root causes which is the brutal foreign policy on the one hand and then the alienation of entire communities due to your system out against discrimination and racism on the other hand 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 to 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 will be back in just over half an hour with the latest news put more in the meantime. but what is gaining any more that you think is our breaking but without the damage to both sides it's reality damaging our economy it's the image of the russian economy and the nation's. and i know a lot of people who are looking for creative ways to get better results.

applied for many clubs over the years so i know the game inside. 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 superman kill the narrowness and spending to get to the twenty million. so it's an experience like nothing else i want to because i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful guy a great chance for. a nice minute.

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if. he come. to. be. charged and one of us will be. able to get. me that i'm about to pull out. i'm going to get them to meet up under that. reported one mother because he's offering a few.