almost half a million people protest in catalonia as madrid decides to impose direct rule dismiss key officials and call for a regional election. party has been under scrutiny with the u.k. foreign secretary boris johnson britain's the times newspaper and the european think tank all slamming this channel and insulting our guests. the pentagon hails the liberation of the syrian city of rocket from islamic state by u.s. backed opposition forces though the city has been left in ruins. broadcasting

live to read for citizen oscar recapping the week's top stories with our weekly program this is our international. hundreds of thousands of people have been on the streets of catalonia expressing their support or opposition to the movement for independence it follows madrid's decision to impose direct rule and strip local government of its powers now the spanish government is also calling for a regional election within six months cut a lot of leaders have branded the move though 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 mine tension is to hold it as soon as we recover. the spanish government has carried out the worst attack against scotland institutions and residents since the orders of the military

dictator francisco franco we. appreciate them. there who are in a greatly irresponsible act christ all boundaries band asking and effect a coup d'etat to ask 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 days and while the catalan parliament will not 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 cattle on board was eat me though we've come here to honor and express respect to the spanish armed 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 on 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. oh she 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 a direct rule coming from a treat. catalan as sore 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 isn't vote king 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 the force in elective democracies in the twenty first century. i think the consensus on the shuttle and side is a very strong one and i can't imagine that the people who are rightfully elected 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 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 happen throughout the week madrid has been tightening its grip over catalonia last monday to independence leaders were arrested for the roles they played in organizing the referendum one of them is the leader of the catalog national assembly the other is the president of an organization that promotes catalan language and culture since

then barcelona has seen even bigger demonstrations uniting hundreds of thousands of people thanks. be to our god. was. rocky. was. back a ways i'm going to pick that up sock one of us has god let's now take a look at how spain has been cracking down on god on his push for independence.

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

we are now applying article one five five because no government to talk in a democratic country can accept that the law will be ignored violated or changed and this has all happened under false criteria and they impose that criteria on everybody else. on the heels of california's referendum to break away two major at talian regions have finished voting for greater autonomy on sunday and the regions leaders explain how they see the historic belin. we want to overcome the inability of europe just sold problems and face up to them by offering a new dimension we wanted more united stronger curate one that takes into account the specifics of territories this is what can be simply called the regional. page of history will be written in any case vinnitsa will be the same as before we want to initiate this in amount of this democratic and compatible and in line with

the constitution. these are the areas first referenda and so of their kind and with more than fifty percent turnout in veneto the vote is considered valid although the votes are non-binding meaning that they won't change any powers they are or are expected to send a signal from locals unhappy at having to subsidise poorer parts of the country referendum on greater autonomy has been much anticipated in both regions for more than sixteen years the netto and lombardy are two of italy's economic powerhouses together both regions account for almost a third of italy's g.d.p. and almost a quarter of the nation's electorate they are home and to top tourism and industry hotspots including milan and venice we spoke to university of milan a politics professor marco but sunny he believes history has been made here. we witness and 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 if cuts alone yeah. and spain break apart then a lot of things will happen there that will have definitely a domino effect with van in tow scotland and all sorts of other regions there might be easily thirty five to forty five new countries coming up. self-proclaimed capital of rock i was liberated this week but there was a heavy price to pay in that story and other news after a short break you're watching the weekly here on our two internet. play.

live. leak. i played for many clubs over the years so i know the game and so i got. the ball isn't only about what happens on the pitch for the final school it's about the passion from the families it's the age of the super money killian erroneous and spending stupidity twenty million. it's an experience like no one else want to because i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful guy like great so what more chance for. me it's going to.

welcome back watching the weekly here on our team international now our t.v. has faced a week of intense scrutiny with a channel coming under sustained attack for what critics call its common propaganda techno hawkins 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 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 off 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 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 artie's political agenda these useful idiots remain oblivious to r.t.c. 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 check in the episode 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. 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. we decided to ask some of our guests that were mentioned in the list of useful idiots 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 god 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 airtime 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 voice. this week at the pentagon confirmed victory for call should lead kurdish troops fighting islamic state in the syrian city of raka

the defense department hailed of 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 is morocco. well however these latest pictures from rocka show that despite the victory it is now a virtual ghost town the destruction you see here was caused by isolate militia shelling and coalition airstrikes agencies also say a huge effort will be needed to end the city's humanitarian crisis claimed rocka as its capital in two thousand and 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 is now mainly in ruins.

recently called nation after us is we're ready to demolish the whole building to tackle one member of i say they have no problem killing civilians. we ran from death and fear any human being could 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 their level of suffering friends relatives family of the children exceptionally.

strikes targeting. would be humanitarian relief teams are only now beginning to arrive there has been a destruction in 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. members of the u.s. led coalition have already pledged millions in turn help to rock but this has prompted questions from russia's defense ministry which has provided aid to other liberated syrian cities what does this rush of western countries to finance rucka alone but it seems only one thing remains to quickly cover the tricks of the

booming of the u.s. and the coalition which barry thousands of civilians liberated from in the ruins of record. it switching gears now the french parliament has adopted a controversial counter-terror bill giving increased powers to security services the new law is drawing wide scale criticism from rights advocates who fear it will curb civil liberties now police will have even greater powers to search homes without a warrant to conduct stop and search operations on the streets the law also lets authorities to wiretap communications more easily including phones and e-mail places of worship suspected of promoting extremism may also be temporarily shut down and the architect of the law is president himself he says this is an alternative to the current state of emergency which has already been extended six times. to secure 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 a fact 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. francis state of emergency is due to be lifted at the beginning of next month there was first issued following the terrorist attacks in paris in two thousand and fifteen but many fear the new move encroaches on even more basic freedoms we gauge reactions on the street 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 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 in order to get more your point i think we would 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 would be able to get into our apartments i do believe the goal is fighting terror earlier the u.n. also slammed the anti terror bill it warned the measures if implemented would limit freedoms in french society political analyst dan glazebrook warns that without policy changes the new law will not be enough and 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 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 setting fire to two other countries. william shakespeare may have died over four hundred years ago but he is still causing quite a stir the words have been stamped with a trigger warning by lecturers at britain's elite cambridge university staff are warning students which texts could contain sensitive material such as violence or scenes of sexual assault. asks why the bard is now a cause for concern. ok to me from their worse than killing last and tumble me into some loathsome pit whenever man's 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 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 english lecturers at cambridge university operating special warnings on their time tables 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 incest rape murder and suicide they also happen to have kept people talking about thorny issues like close relations race relations and anti semitism for centuries i want to know what the people visiting the famous shakespeare globe theatre in london have to say about the warnings i think. demi's down the students. in the churn for smart enough to be able to handle this without a warning why should be green. four hundred juice. being good enough

for them. if you're reading literature you should expect to have some surprises you expect to be shocked to see or similar at 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 to. meant as a whole by the way when the globe says to stage tied to some drama three years ago several people fainted from the graphic violence including one of the things reviewing the show that very same critics still gave the production an exceptional review art isn't always comfortable the most challenging art can be anything but and now there are growing concerns not just in academic circles that modern

students are being too morally called old if they can't handle the content in classic literature how are they going to cope with life in general there's a for me i'll be back with more of the weekly in thirty two minutes watching our two international.

we're here. in the fall by discussion club and u.s. russia relations and the state of the world.