we are apparently better than. the sea diver heard of. jack tonight. president of the world bank he. sent us an e-mail. i was half a million people protesting catalonia as madrid decides to impose direct rule to dismiss key officials and to call for a regional election. come under scrutiny with the u.k. foreign secretary boris johnson britain's the times newspaper and the european think tank or slamming the channel and it's something i guess. but the pentagon this hailed the liberation of the syrian city of ras car from islamic state by u.s. bank opposition forces although the city has been left in ruins.

and for joining us my name's neil harvey and you're watching the weekly here on r.t. international. 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's decision to impose direct rule and to strip the local government of its powers spanish government is also calling for a regional election within six months after the leaders have 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. a lot of us but. the spanish government has carried out the worst attack against scotland institutions and residents 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 oust a democratically elected government. 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 while the council and 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 of 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 either a protester 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 of course it's nonsense that the council in the region wants to become independent it's about territorial unity formed in the roman times spanish unity is worth fighting for and against the nonsensical actions of the council on board rosie 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 fathers 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 at last 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 direct rule coming from a treat. catalan as story it is it 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 harlington a professor of five billion studies and 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 rightfully elected. elections go along with a new election after the government they were elected to. is is overthrown. and i think. president bush moments are very fine and he says well if this can be done to us what other things can be done to other people if you're going to see. that. 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 council on language and culture since then also in a scene even bigger demonstrations uniting hundreds of thousands of people thank you thank

god god. i. was i. pad. it was. back always something that i think that god wants others to ask. god i would take a look now at just how spain has been cracking down on council only has pushed for independence.

was. their argument only to those in charge in the catalan government who are the protagonist in this challenge to our coexistence i ask them to cease in the illegal activities they should a parent. their objectives. we are now applying article one five five because no government to talk in a democratic country can accept that the law be ignored or violated or changed and

this has all happened under false criteria and they impose their criteria on everybody else. hot on the heels of catalonia as referendum to break away two major italian region saw finishing voting for more autonomy on sunday the region's late as explained how they see the historic. link we want to overcome the inability of europe just 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. the page of history will be written in any case vinnitsa 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. the polls are closing for the area's first referendums of their kind and with more than

fifty percent of the people having voted in veneto the vote is considered valid although the votes are non-binding meaning they won't change any powers to say they are expected to send a signal from locals furious at having to subsidize poorer parts of the country these folks been much anticipated in these two regions would sixteen years now when the term and long body are two of italy's economic powerhouses together both the regions account for almost a third of italy's g.d.p. and almost a quarter of the nation's electorate the home to top tourism and industry hotspots including the land and then this we spoke to university of milan politics professor mark above sania who believes that history has been made. we are witnessing for the very first time people that go to the polls oscon or negotiate and i would they have more autonomy we just want more autonomy we want more of our money you know regions and never happened before why the birds were just fiscal slaves of the rest

of the country so we're failing to people the nations and. and they are the very first time i say no we don't like it it's going to be a big change it's going to just put the issue of the north back into the political discussion so first right now it's a call from all our autonomy that is we want to keep more of a money this is not clear from the legal point of view or constitutional point of view how it's going to happen but from the symbolic point of view it was incredible you know more i guess tonight more than sixty percent of the van to people maybe forty five fifty percent of the birds will have voted for that so that's really a very clear sign in national politics. face a week of intense scrutiny with the channel coming under sustained attack from what critics of been calling its kremlin propaganda daniel holkins exploits altie has been in the spotlight for

a while under fire from government officials the media even think tanks here some recent. boris johnson led the charge in the u.k. house of commons with an attack on opposition m.p.'s who have appeared on this channel if you study the output of russia today it is a scandal it is a scandal that members of the party opposite continuing to rally day to date to meet. that kind of propaganda by going on those programs but some of his fierce criticism. foreign secretary of peers to have missed out a bit of important information his own conservative colleagues have also appeared as guests on the show as well as someone closer to home his own father stanley johnson was interviewed by going on the ground i was there i should return see 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. latest 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 our to see what 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. 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 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 other 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 its. and news casts so only useful idiot list star 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 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 spares no criticism of those giving interviews on this channel. we

decided to ask some of our guests who were mentioned in the list of so-called useful idiots what they thought about the description. development is somehow trash it gets more and more aggressive across europe the political debates 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 you and others. you know of course everybody has their agendas but i think it has certainly not tried to constrain my expression or the expression of many other people i know i work with the 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 the dissident voice in the u.k. only very rarely gets any time in the mainstream media. 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 france adults they need counted tera bill but the liberty groups are up in arms i'll explain why after the break. when else seems wrong. just don't. get to see. this day. and in detroit. when some find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

in case you're new to the game this is how it works now the economy is built around corporate corporations run washington washington media the media so voters elect a businessman 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 confirmed a victory for coalition that troops fighting islamic state in the syrian city of raka the defense department hailed the operation as

a significant breakthrough. 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 as rocket. however the latest pictures from iraq are show that despite the victory it is now a virtual ghost town the destruction that you can see here was caused by a combination of eisel militia shelling and coalition air strikes aid agencies also say a huge effort will be needed and the city's humanitarian crisis i still claim draco as it's defacto capital back in two thousand and fourteen the first major offensive against the terrorists there began two years later he used to be one of syria's largest cities now it's mainly in ruins.

recently called mission after us is we're ready to demolish the whole building to target one member i said 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 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 out every day. and they seem to be no real escape for these civilians their level of suffering friends relatives family of the children it's actually.

it's just getting. the humanitarian relief teams are only now beginning to arrive there has been a. destruction of the wonder supply their pollution of food because of course the area was under siege for such a long time there is a severe allow medical services medical care hospitals that are functioning severe lack a lot of course and so there is a massive massive humanitarian need on the ground. members of the u.s. led coalition have already pledged millions in humanitarian aid to iraq are but this is prompted 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 big storm 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 mosul in the ruins of record. french parliament has adopted a controversial counter-terrorism bill giving increased powers to security services the new law is drawing wide scale criticism from rights advocates who fear that it will curb civil liberties police will now have even greater powers to search homes without a warrant and to conduct stop and search operations on the street laurel so that or thirty to wiretap communications more including phones and e-mail places of worship suspected of promoting extremism may also be temporarily shut down the architect of the law is president emanuel micron himself he says that this is an alternative to the current state of emergency which has already been extended six times. good of course you did well awful sauna securing 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 the first when the

state of emergency expires the state of emergency was affected 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 and totally reduce the threat until state of emergency is due to be lifted at the beginning of next month it was first issued following the terrorist attacks in paris in two thousand and fifteen but many fear that the new move encroaches on even more basic freedoms we gauged reaction on the streets of paris and almost. 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 they 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 in order to avoid your point 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 also be able to get into our apartments i don't believe the goal is fighting terror. earlier the un also slammed the anti terror bill it warned the measures if implemented would limit freedoms in french society political analyst on glazebrook warns that the new law won't work if france doesn't change its policies 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 systematic institutional 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 decides to lash out unfortunately at the 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. shakespear may have died more than four hundred years ago but he's still causing a stir his works abuse them too they trigger warning by lecturers that britain's elite cambridge university staff are warning students which tech school can turn in sensitive material such as violence or scenes of sexual assault on these polly boy asks why the body is now a cause for concern. over keep me from their worse than killing last and tumble me into some loathsome pit where never mans i may behold my body do this and be a charitable murderer so should i rolled my sweet sons of their fee no let them satisfy their lost on the that's a snippet from shakespeare is a first tragedy titus andronicus the play features graphic violence gang rape and fourteen murders and now certain industry at cambridge university

are putting special warnings on their timetables when they're going to be covering potentially distressing topics like these they're going to have to have a lot of disclaimers with the works of shakespeare though some of his plays can be very gory they feature things like in. incest rape murder and suicide they also happen to have kept people talking about thorny issues like claus relations race relations and anti semitism first centuries i want to know what the people visiting the famous shakespeare globe theatre in london have to say about the warnings i think. demis down the students. in the churn for smart enough to be able to handle this without a warning or should be put forward use. as being good enough for them. if you're reading literature you should expect to have some surprises for

you expect to be shocked to see or simulate that particular student i think the problem with the world these days is that there's just so much focus on being offended by everything that people are just so scared of what they can actually say or do cambridge university has told me that any warnings that they put out are the initiative of individual professes and that it's not a policy adopted by the english department as a whole by the way when the glucose is just stage tied to some jonica three years ago several people fainted from the graphic violence including one of the thesis reviewing the show that very same critics still gave the production an exceptional review art isn't always comfortable the most challenging arts can be anything but and now there are growing concerns not just in academic circles that modern students are being to molly coddled if they can't handle the content in classic

literature how are they going to cope with life in general. thanks thing with you watching our teens or national i'll be back with the latest news see you in just over half an. look to get. all the feeling of freedom. everyone in the world should experience phillida and you'll get it on the old the old. the old according to just. walk a mile or all come along for the ride. pilon no one knowing if you'll street it looks like the trails of attributes would be analyzed it came from the bottom six. bits of my life with me like you not i got to

. put. up with pretty. good. luck with that song the song. mark twain said it's easier to fool people than to convince them they've been for that could be why america is so divided because people have been fed fake news paid for by corporate interests they beat you down until you believe their fairy tales well here's a story for you it's called the big book and it's full of facts not fiction it's just. guys i made up professional is power.