very easy to see your version was better than. see people you've never heard of low down in the. rest of the world playing very. seriously. that major news out of spain catalunya regional government votes to break away from the rest of the country what are the consequences we're live in barcelona. then is the us silently growing its military presence in africa r t america's joe ricci has more on securing american interests abroad. and outrage over a lack of progress from the n.y.p.d. as many believe a majority of the officers still can't properly interact with people who have mental illness all this and more coming up on r.t. .

it's friday october twenty seventh four pm in washington d.c. i'm manila chan you're watching our team america we begin today with history being made in spain spanish prime minister marianna rai just moved to dissolve catalonia as parliament a few hours after it voted yes for a total independence from the rest of the country thousands were gathered outside of the catalan parliament in barcelona where they're celebrating they were celebrating earlier today but now with this news the mood has sort of changed artie's charlotte devinsky is live for us in barcelona hi there charlotte can you tell us what the mood is there after this roller coaster of a ride today. has been incredible in the beginning of friday morning many people. waiting with bated

breath to find out whether the cuts alone parliament would actually declare independence when it did we witnessed thousands of pro independent supporters who were surrounding the catalan parliament you all had their all news in the ad and all was shouting yes yes yes some people then broke into spontaneous song some people were crying and in the moments after that. declaration of independence we spoke to people who said that this is something that they had waited for their entire lives and not just themselves but their parents' lives the grandparents lives because for many catalonians this struggle for independence has been going on for many generations almost one hundred years now into the night in barcelona people have been celebrating they've been concerts taking place but this all amidst of course what we're hearing from madrid and this is that in spain the spanish government has decided that it will dissolve the council on parliament and it will also remove the chief of police here and it will now call snap election so many

people just been to a couple people who coleman it came on and off and what do you make of that they said look we don't recognize what the spanish government is saying we know that they've been active this article one five five which is unprecedented in spain it's a part of the constitution that allows them to strip the powers from catalonia but they're saying it didn't happen until the catalonian parliament had already made its declaration of independence so they will not recognize it but of course many people in catalonia would like to remain with spain and for them this declaration from the spanish government that they will how will these new elections is actually a glimmer of hope that charlotte it looks like the crowds have been pretty jubilant mostly peaceful i think is that still the case there. yes absolutely that's still the case one of the things that really resonates from this into. hires situation this is been weeks and weeks of uncertainty about the

future of catalog is the fact that today outside the parliament they were fro independent supporters as well as those who are pro unity and want to remain with spain and there was standing side by side catalans all say that they do not want my society to be ripped apart by this indecision this tension between the madrid government and the catalan government what they want those who want to remain with spain of course is to remain with spain but the pro independence say that they want to have their democracy their say and they will do everything peacefully to resist what madrid is about to do next or what they expect madrid is about to do next charlotte this is absolutely history in the making we know that barcelona and the cattle on region as a approximately twenty percent of all of spain g.d.p. so i doubt that my dread of going to let barcelona in the capital on go very easily what do you think might happen next.

well in all honesty this is unprecedented territory article one five five has never been acted in almost forty years of the spanish constitution this is the first time it's been enacted it was also inducted after that vote of declaration by the catalan parliament so the reality is nobody knows what the legal situation is here the catalan parliament of the people who support independence say independence has been declared they now want to formally secede from spain those who are in madrid in those who support spanish unity so you know article one five five has been inactive madrid has been able to take control away from catalonia in fact this is incredibly uncharted waters and we will have to see now in the weeks and months what will actually happen with the those elections will go ahead and of course most importantly for many catalonians is the fact that the regional police force here.

their chief of police has been subtle his job and many people think that that would mean madrid will send in their police and people are concerned about bands all right thank you so much for filing that report our t.v. charlotte dubinsky live for us out of barcelona. and to talk more about this we're joined now by thomas harrington he's a professor of hispanic and iberian studies at trinity college thank you so much for joining us professor first what do you think of today's vote was it legitimate that's a very interesting question it depends how you define legitimacy and in fact this is the central problem that we have in the catalan conflict where does legitimacy reside according to the people who are pro independence it was legitimate because they had a legitimate majority in the catalogue in parliament for others that legitimacy is is is cancelled out by the fact that there are a number of people in that same catalan parliament who walked out and considered

the the move toward independence to be rash and over and overstepping of prerogatives and do not in any way consider it a legitimate vote so now here we are madrid has as triggered article one fifty five aiming to impose direct rule in catalonia and scheduling snap elections for i guess the new catalan government for december how can we expect catalan people to react to this. i can't see any way in which this new government is going to be perceived as legitimate the party supporting the intercession in the catalan affairs from the central government constitute forty percent approximately forty percent of the sitting catalan parliament i do not and i do not think that the rest of the parties are necessarily going to go along with this and participate in those elections i think there's also going to be the quick

the issue of civil disobedience i think the spanish government may find it's not as easy to impose their will as they think it is at this point they're talking about shutting down t.v. stations as your reporter correctly pointed out of a deposing the president president and people are already talking about surrounding the parliament surrounding the presidential palace and making sure that this doesn't happen. is there is there any way for the people to stop the spanish government to stop madrid from moving forward with with article one fifty five and the consequences thereafter. i don't know that they can stop the if force is used i don't know that they can stop it forcefully in fact as again your reporter correctly pointed out this movement has always been peaceful and sees peaceful demonstration as its hallmark can they impede that takeover i think so i think civil disobedience has a long history not only in catalonia but in other places especially in eastern

europe where other places declared independence so this is not this is new for spain but it's not necessarily new for the world these things have been done in other places and have succeeded i guess a lot depends on the sense and among catalans as to how many of them want to put themselves on the line to impede the imposition of force from outside from britain from madrid and now given and given your expertise that in this area do you foresee madrid deploying perhaps deploying troops to the catalonia area over the next few months. i think it is not out of the question that they should they would do so but i also think they are aware that doing so would probably provoke even greater dislike of them from the people who are already alienated from them in the cat in the catalan autonomy as community so it's going to be a very delicate question i also think for all of the fact that the european union

has not been terribly supportive of the count on movement i do think that european union would apply pressure so that gross armed force is not used against catalonia but then again we're talking about a government that has a pedigree from franco is in a certain sense at least it's sociological lineage comes from franco as i'm and the idea of my way or the highway is very much a part of their way of thinking so it can't be ruled out either so what do you think as you brought up franco as them what would you make of the future of the fate of the cattle on elite. i'm not sure i understand the catalan elites if they become ill and then don't yeah and if they become independent what becomes of those those people and versus the common folk. the class has been a long issue within catalan nationalism throughout the twentieth century and one of the cliches that is often used is that catalan nationalism has always been

a movement of the bridge was easy to get greater financial concessions from madrid and there's a degree of truth to that but i think what we're seeing now is a much more transversal movement that has transcended that old class boundary and there are people from across the political spectrum across the class spectrum who are now very much interested in having a much greater greater degree of independence from the dead so classes there but you can't be as strict in talking about is you could in times past and real briefly on the subject of finances we know that the cattle on region. is about twenty is almost twenty percent of spain's g.d.p. if they were somehow able to secede from spain what would become of the spanish economy. i think that's one of the major underlying concerns here catalonia along with the basque country are the two wealthiest areas of the spanish kingdom and

spain i think is very worried that they're going to lose this economic powerhouse should catalonia. become independent that said the cattle on independent us have been very clear in their desire to have a very smooth working relationship with spain should independence become a consummated fact so the economies are currently integrated and i think the idea of the catalan independent is despite all you might hear coming out of madrid is that they continue to be largely integrated one with the other definitely fascinating stuff thank you so much for sharing your expertise and insight with us professor thomas harrington professor of hispanic and iberian studies at trinity college thank you so much professor. thank you very much. and just yesterday a u.n. subcommittee ruled that chemical weapons sarin to be exact was used against civilians in shaikh alcuin back in april by the syrian government this is the first time a neutral body has concluded one side or the other has been responsible for any

specific attack the syrian government denies such actions and says they disposed of their chemical weapons stockpiles years ago in a deal brokered by russia and the us the use of sarin or any other chemical agent is considered to be a war crime however so far no evidence or methods used to arrive at this conclusion have been made public by that u.n. subcommittee. and a brief twenty four hour cease fire has been ordered in the disputed northern territories of iraq between the kurdish minority and the iraqi government iraqi prime minister a body ordered a suspension of military operations the first of its kind since the kurdish independence referendum vote about a month ago it set forth fears of a looming civil war the kurds have aided the u.s. and western allies in pushing back isis militants however today the u.s. led international coalition issued conflicting reports on whether or not hostilities between kurdish and iraqi forces have actually ceased. coming

up later on r.t. america we will shine a light on what the u.s. military presence in africa really looks like and what america is doing on the continent stay with us you know i miss it. mark twain said it's easier to fool people than to convince them they've been fooled that could be why america is so divided because people have been fed fake news just 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 big and it's full of bad fiction. what politicians do. i put themselves on the line they did accept the reject. so when you want to be president and you. want some want to. have to go right to

the press this is what the full story of the people that i'm interested in the waters. there should. i think the average viewer just after watching a couple of segments understands that we're telling stories that are critics can't tell when you know why because their advertisers won't let them. in order to create change you have to be honest you have to tell the truth parties able to do that every story is built on going after the back story to what's really happening out there to the american what's happening when a corporation makes a pharmaceutical victuals people when

a company. in the environmental business ends up polluting a river that causes cancer and other illnesses they put all that health risk all the dangers out to the american public those are stories that we tell every week and you know what they're working. president trump phone call to a mother and an american soldier recently killed in africa has dominated headlines but the news media has done relatively little to explain why and where u.s. troops are actually operating on the african continent r.t. america producer joseph ricci takes a closer look on october forty four u.s. troops were ambushed and killed by isis militants in the african nation of nigeria the attack has raised uproar on capitol hill but the over arching question is what

are we doing in here the circumstances that happen in ny show what is the scope of our involvement there do we need an authorization of the use of military force but the u.s. has troop presence throughout the african continent american soldiers and bases are currently in thirteen subsaharan countries under u.s. africa command the french also have a significant presence in africa particularly in the country's former colonies. the map of africa is once again starting to resemble the colonial situation in the nineteenth century but what role are foreign troops playing in africa you know game of the stated goal is fighting terrorism i think the real goal truthfully is you know geopolitical expansion of the u.s. which seems to be a goal in another itself to essentially rule the world we have you know it's about a thousand military bases in the world in about one hundred thirty eight countries

and of course the goal is to be able to secure and control africa's best resources now to the dismay of military planners in washington the chinese our permanent military presence in africa just this year the chinese opened their first foreign military base in djibouti generally speaking what every say about china. there are intervention there if that's what you want to call it is much more peaceful than the u.s. is that is to say yes they want resources to they want some corporate penetration in africa it's but instead of shooting their own way to get it they build hospitals bill grose but american military interventions on the continent have failed to bring the promised ability to africa in fact new was nails destruction of more market duffy's government in libya which led directly to the rise of isis in the share if you look at

a map niger in jason to libya and we know that again after the two thousand and eleven invasion by the western powers. isis gained. lorsch control over libya and then spread to other countries like niger u.s. africa is now expanding its operations against isis and boko haram in africa all this means the news media might soon be talking about africa as the new middle east joseph ricci reporting from washington d.c. for r.t. . and over now to new york where the n.y.p.d. is reshaping its crisis intervention program the department has long been criticized for how its officers respond to calls and valving emotionally disturbed people or otherwise known as a.t.p. now many are calling for big changes are to trinity chavez has more on the story.

mental health advocates and community members are pushing for changes on how the n.y.p.d. handles e.d.p. calls now although the department has restructured its crisis intervention training many are saying that more can be done. response is not enough for two years. the police are doing their bit in training what we need other avenues a response to. training was first implemented in memphis almost thirty years ago and finally arrived in new york as a part of an action plan issued in two thousand and fourteen by mayor bill de blasio task force on behavioral health and criminal justice but has since concluded the n.y.p.d. adopted the approach in june two thousand and fifteen and has since trained at least sixty three hundred officers yet since two thousand and fifteen seven quote emotionally disturbed persons also known as e.d.p.s have been shot and killed by n.y.p.d. officers part of that is not enough you a few officers have been trained part of that is that we don't have

a way to get to see if you are to the scene quickly. or we need the mayor of course to be revived to come up with non-police alternative it was last october sixty six year old deborah danner was shot and killed by n.y.p.d. sergeant hugh berry after she experienced an emotional episode danner who suffered from schizophrenia first raised a pair of scissors at the sergeant and then a baseball bat barry then struck her with two shots in the chest a situation some say could have been avoided with the help of a peer specialist it would change that whole dynamic it would change the image of the whole situation. let the officers step back and let the peer specialists step in and let him have control of that whole situation put that knife on the floor and on september sixth the n.y.p.d. released this body camera video captured by four police officers who initially responded to a wellness check at the apartment of a gal richards in the bronx when officers arrived richards was armed with

a knife and a hidden object later identified as a fake gun. after repeated commands to drop his weapons over a seventy minute period one officer deployed a taser and two others fired their weapons. killing the thirty one year old what happened is the officer who is bonding clearly did not have a theology training they were going under the old training which is clearly in the world which is true you try to get compliance by shouting commands or stating mins and showing threat of force and that doesn't work for a person in distress the n.y.p.d. says that nearly seven thousand of its officers have received crisis intervention training and another ninety of its officers go to that training every week however with an average of twelve thousand calls made to the department every single month many believe the effort needs to be taken to scale we need social workers were already with the police or therapists psychologists meeting the police at the scene or appear professional meeting the police at the scene the n.y.p.d. told r.t.

that so far this year they have received over one hundred forty six thousand calls and rabinowitz hopes that the new training that has been implemented by the department for results in fewer deaths and less injuries reporting in new york turn to be charges r t. and before we go don't forget to tune in at nine pm eastern for a wary king now tonight's guest is whitney cummings she's an american comedian comedian and actress and creator and star of the n.b.c. sitcom whitney here's a snippet of what's to come and do like directing it's very tiring but i had an amazing cast and you know. but i am going to take a little bit of a break mr ting stand up. in a den of my favorite because it's the most connected you can be to people i like instant feedback a movie you make a movie have to wait a year to find out what people think of it stand up is joke you laugh or you don't same same with reading a book i got to wait a year to see if people like this great. cool creative writing two broke girls

what was that cancel it had been six years which is why i think a long time and you know way more about this and i do but there's all this politics of people owning shows and so many people are watching shows on computers now and you know so i don't even really know what to do. i think it worked because we talked about money at a time where lots of t.v. shows were basically just about a bunch of rich people who didn't have financial problems and these were girls in their twenty's who were dealing with the minutia of paying bills and getting by and they want to start a business and i think people really lucked into that because you know i was watching the shows about girls in their twenty's and all they cared about was if the guy was going to text them back and i was like that's not how my girlfriends are they all want to start businesses and write books and get blogs you know women are delaying marriage and they're delaying you know having kids let's talk about girls who have ambitions and i think people locked in and boom bust is coming up

next year on our team america lindsey france also joining us for a sneak peek of what the headline think hey there online retail giant amazon moves into the pharmaceutical space and it looks all set to shake things right up and china's belton road initiative picks up even more steam within the country's communist party and facing a string of corruption allegations a brazilian president michel to mare scored a victory of coming right up all right please tell me there's going to be a pharma prime on amazon i think the thing for that one thing. and that the print out for more on the stories we just covered go to you tube dot com for a flash r.t. america check out our web site. america all me on twitter at manila remember the question we're asking you back here i think. what.

i've got to do. you want to. switch to. a big trend among people who identify as liberals and work in the media right now is to go out there in the fire over states of america and talk to trump supporters or other simple americans to find out what had been generally so far their efforts have been completely thanked him and disingenuous takes there is still room and she's got a new show called i love you america where she goes around to places in america to

discuss issues with americans to try to figure out where she went wrong now she's the one who famously told bernie sanders supporters to grow up at the democratic convention last year remember so yeah i wonder where she went wrong anyway everyone keeps telling liberal hollywood they live in a bubble and are condescending rich people so there is supposedly making this new show to open a dialogue with the other side now i was hoping it was going to be good because i used to love her old show but this new show is just as condescending and sanctimonious as that where it almost feels like she's trying to convert them like she's on a crisp. mission in africa or something anyway to me it felt like just another b.s. attempt from media elite to act like they want to open their minds and get out of their bubble when really all they want to do is why so i was pleasantly surprised when i read a piece in the new york post recently by former n.p.r. c.e.o. ken stern he did it too for an entire year he decided to pull out then you're out

from my overwhelmingly democratic neighborhood and engage republicans where they live work and pray now already to me it's kind of think the money is than just method of their own in the parade to stereotype all republicans as christians which isn't true and he also goes through more stereotypes like hunting and guns but after reading through the whole article i was pretty much left with the feeling that stern actually did manage to open his mind a little and to realize that there is more to the truth than what c.n.n. manufactures because actually expresses regret for not opening his mind while working at n.p.r. think he learned just how grossly skewed the media really is and that he regrets being a part of that he also said he's skeptical the rest of the media like silverman will actually be genuine about listening to people who disagree with them because he also recognizes that the media is gaming from their left leaning bias through

increased viewership but it's conclusion i applaud the most he writes that in the end both trump and the media are the short term winners and that and this does gusting partisan fight going on right now it is the public that the long term illusory. it's. mark twain said it's easier to fool people than to convince them they've been fooled that could be why america is so divided because people have been fed fake news paid for by corporate interests.