for a party america is. better than. the c. . heard of. jack the. president of the world bank he. sent us an e-mail. i want a million people protesting catalonia is madrid decides to impose direct rule to dismiss key officials to call for a regional election. party has come under scrutiny with the u.k. so foreign secretary boris johnson britain's the times newspaper the european all slamming this channel and insulting august. first the pentagon hailed the liberation of the syrian city of rock from islamic state by u.s. backed opposition forces although the city has been left ruined.

welcome my name is neil harvey. and. hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of catalonia expressing their support or opposition to the move for independence that follows madrid decision to impose direct rule and to strip the local government of its powers the spanish government is also calling for a regional election within six months leaders are branded the move a coup. but you have to know 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 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. were hawaii in a greatly irresponsible act christ all boundaries ban asking at a factor coup d'etat to ask the democratically elected government. of 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 while the catalan parliament won't be dissolved it will now be stripped of its capacity to elect a president. protests continue in the streets of wasilla and 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 a ticket to the streets of boston lawn 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 and. it's nonsense that the cattle a region wants to become independent it's about territorial unity formed in the roman times spanish unity is worth fighting for against the nonsensical actions of the council on board was eat me though we've come here to honor and express respect to the spanish on forces because they're insulted and blamed in catalonia the children of the civil god and national police offices are told in school that their father to reduce the spanish constitution does not forsee any referendum because

it's illegal and most of all it doesn't foresee a referendum to break up spain for centuries spain was one it won't break up to do the will of criminals poesy differing mood among people industries and a lot of uncertainty really old this shows a deep crisis that the region is at the moment and it is indeed the biggest constitutional crisis this country has seen in decades now many believe that the inability to really go. 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 cats leader up until last thursday to back away from proclaiming independence out or to be ready to face the possibility of direct rule coming from a treat. catalan as thor it is said capt 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 isn't voting 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 who's a professor of iberian studies he says that exerting this kind of pressure in

a democratic country is not legitimate what is the role of. democracies in the twenty first century. i think the consensus is a very strong one and i can't imagine that the people who are right to. elections go along with a new election after the government they were elected to morrow is is overthrown. and i think president bush and it's a very violent he says well if this can be done to us what things can be done to other people if you're going to. well throughout the week madrid has been tightening its grip over catalonia on monday to independence leaders were arrested for the roles they played in organizing the referendum one of them is the leader of the catalan national assembly the other is the president of an organization that promotes the catalan language and culture since then barcelona seen even bigger

demonstrations uniting hundreds of thousands of people. i was i was. i was. at the tag he was. but always something that i think that one of us has. i can take a look now at how spain has been cracking down on catalonia push for independence.

to those in charge in the capital and government who are the protagonist in this challenge to our coexistence and i ask them to cease illegal activities they should abandon their objectives. i.

need 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 be violated changed this has all happened under full script syria and they impose their criteria on everybody else. but on the heels of. them to break away two major italian regions are voting for more autonomy on sunday. already opened for the areas first referendums of their kind and although the. meaning they won't change any powers they are expected to send the signal from locals furious at having to subsidise poorer parts of the country. but it's a long day are two of italy's economic powerhouses they're home to major tourism industry hotspots including milan and then this local leaders explained why this vote is needed. we want to overcome the inability of europe to solve problems and face up to them by offering a new dimension we want to

a more united stronger europe one that takes into account the specifics of territories this is what can be simply called the europe of regions. page of history will be written in any case village so will not be the same as before we want to initiate this in a manner that's democratic lawful and compatible in line with the constitution. i'm joined now by mark up a sarnie he's professor of politics in the university in milan very good to speak to you if autonomy is granted what kind of impact will this have on the country as a whole do you think. well it's going to be great any pact you know if it's given for granted that down people from the north and that is from lamberti in vanity or really happy to subsidize the south now the amount of that subsidize and is probably not well known all over the world and lombardi it's fifty four billion

euros per year that leaves the region and goes well somewhere else you know anywhere rome solved you name it now fifty four billion is such an amazing amount of money you don't even realize that so it's ten million people in lumberton so it's almost six thousand euros per person to pay that they have to pay the lombards for being in italy you know that's that might might be cool to be a town these but it's expensive right same thing for the home granted to people in bamako their pain a bit less about twenty million grand a little so that makes it about four thousand a year right so we are witnessing for the very first time people that go to the polls oscon or negotiate on our behalf more autonomy we just want more autonomy we want more of our money in our regions and never happened before the lumber it's

we're just fiscal slaves of the rest of the country so we're preventing two people vanish and. and they are the very first time i say no we don't like it had sons going to be a big change it's going to just put the issue of the north back into the political discussion the timing is interesting in the sense of what's going on in catalonia at the moment do you think the independence they've had that the the quarrels with the national government and maybe if council and he does actually become independent is that going to have any kind of effect on the the mentality in italy . that was clearly inspirational and i have to confess that i'm all in favor of catalan independence and i have friends over there visit several times and so on and i met some people from ben and the other people from lombardy that were very motivated when they're to study how you build up a successful independent movement and so on i think we witness in really the

disintegration of this kind of european order and there will be a confederation in europe clearly like ten or fifteen years from now but not based on the nation states. that we know right if cuts alone and and spain break apart then a lot of things will happen that that will have a definitely a domino effect with damage so scotland and old sort of other regions there might be easily thirty five to forty five new countries coming up you have to realize that nothing happened in europe after the bit berlin wall the fall of the big berlin wall vote was for eastern europe but in the west nothing happened for twenty five or twenty seven years now so people are really waiting for that waiting for a new order to develop just on malcolm you you you mentioned germany out of you made it easier and i'm just curious to find out how you think the european

politicians will react because they definitely have turned a blind eye to calls from council lonia to help in protecting themselves against what they see is a president from the national government do you think the in you will react in any way to what's happening in italy. you well the e.u. what happened was terrible you know the people old people that were going to the polls and there would be you know not by the guardian in seville as they're called now in spain or in catalonia at least so they were beat up by these people and the politicians didn't say anything not a single word but actually believe it or not the bra crissy the you walk chrissy over there didn't like it at all you know because there they built up an r. rating which was based totally on democracy and when you see all these people that were beat up while they're going to the polls that kind of. democracy is certainly

very difficult to sell so i think the european the you woke the european poor chris there are they're working on several things live at the end help up help to ease the tension between spain and catalonia much more than the polled stations the poll the tissue nature it's waiting and waiting for madrid to make the bike move some may be said they hold the bylines but state all the people and so on tried to solve the problem because all these problems would come up in france and germany in italy everywhere. appreciate you coming on interesting thought my guest professor of politics at the university of maryland. now the syrian city of rock has been declared free of islamic state but now lies in ruins something the full story after this break.

and you say. it's really. the russian economy. and i know a lot of people who are looking for a creative way. to get. here in southern russia. in the fall by discussion club and u.s. russia relations and the state of the world. in case you're new to the game this is how. the economy is built around. washington washington. voters elected to run this country business because. it's

not business as usual it's business like it's never been for. a week of intense scrutiny through the channel coming under sustained attack for what critics are calling kremlin propaganda. explains. ati 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 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 validate

to validate and 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 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 the u.k. media watchdog to investigate the artes 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 made in-house. high 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. 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 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 r.t.s. political agenda these useful idiots remain oblivious to r.t.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 so. to be. a proportion 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. we decided to ask some of our guests that were mentioned in that list of so-called useful idiots what they think about the 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 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 eldad and others. you know of course everybody has their agendas but r.t. i think 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 airtime 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. this week the pentagon confirmed a victory for coalition led kurdish troops fighting islamic state in the syrian

city of rock are the defense department hailed the operation as a significant breakthrough. we're having great success against what was once known as the core caliph like iraq and syria and now we're actually ending the beginning i think the interest stage and watching the cal fighters rocket however the latest pictures from iraq car show that despite the victory it is now a virtual ghost town the destruction you can see here was caused by a combination of eisel militia shelling and coalition air strikes aid agencies also say huge effort will be needed to end the city's humanitarian crisis i still claim drucker as it's defacto capital in twenty fourteen the first major offensive against the terrorists there began two years later it used to be one of syria's largest cities but it's now mainly in ruins.

recently corelation air forces were 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 that killed is destroyed by 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 up every day. and they seem to be no really escape for these civilians their level of suffering friends relatives family of the children it's actually.

it's just getting. the man terry relief teams are only now beginning to arrive there has been a destruction of the water supply there the pollution 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 severe lack a lot of course and so there is a massive massive humanitarian grounds. members of the u.s. led coalition have already pledged millions in humanitarian help to rock all but this is brought to questions from russia's defense ministry which has provided aid to other liberated syrian cities what is this rush of western countries to finance rucka alone based on 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 wrecker. thanks thing with us this evening i want you all to international i'll be back with the very latest news at the top of the out. how does it feel to be a sheriff the greatest job in the world it's as close to being a king as any job there is one business model helps to run a prison now we just do or don't like to see you know b.o.b. is a temptation i don't know when it comes anymore we don't have to sarge and many more is cost effective that's what they want to do that knowing they don't give a damn if you do the chores and there are actually paying us to put it back into. the louisiana incarceration rate is twice as high as the u.s.n.

breach what she could is behind such success. with make this manufacture consent to step into public wealth. when the ruling closest to protect themselves. with the famous merry go round lifts only the one percent. we can all middle of the room sick. i mean real news.

on the welcome twelve's apart after years of being unable to strike a peace deal with the power. israel now wants to have a say in the resolution of another conflict this time in syria its objective is clear and to minimize the regional influence of iran but isn't it a little bit too late in the game well to discuss that i'm now joined by believe me a prominent israeli politician and for my foreign minister of israel ms levy it's great to see you thank you very much for talking to us thank you now you are currently in the opposition to use reilley prime minister benjamin netanyahu but as far as i understand when it comes to the issue of iran most israeli politicians agreed that it represents a major deadly threat to israel that has to be curtailed through all possible means at my right in formulating your position yes not only for recently police station

so we believe that iran the supposed to use the word but not only to you but to the . need to be dealt with international community as. i see him prime minister netanyahu who recently visited russia communicated something along those same lines to russian president vladimir putin do you by any chance know what how the russians have responded to those concerns raised by the prime minister i hope. that the sort of. the concerns of other states and the reason they're not only listen iran is both of the problem iran would have the right to exist iran. which is a total waste. in lebanon and iran support still in the region and final still in the region and therefore we all understand that there's a need to give an answer of course and to confront.