welcome to the weekly international we come to. the top stories of the day the week . we start the program straight to spain where thousands of support both in madrid and barcelona in the capital activists hit the streets waving spanish. the protests reflect a deepening crisis in society after the region formally declared independence on friday. in madrid which sucked at the local government. and that's. a rollercoaster few days in the region.

the proceedings she is it taking place today in australia take a look at raja hines read that hundreds marching up the street they have been marching but whose you won't appreciate this is a reference to the home of catalan president carlos who she wants who was removed from office by the madrid government after he and the catalan parliament declared this to dependent republic following a vote just a few days ago been really interesting to see the divide. it seems split between the people who desperately need spain and those who desperately want to remain part of spain but the reality is this is a crisis that could go on very long time with nobody city certain as to what exactly is the situation in catalonia at the moment the separatists say we are an independent republic through unity much just like they say no we are participating madrid to easy in control and the reality is if it's tested in the cool of the

constitutional court in spain it's likely to side with the governments in between which acted in accordance with the spanish constitution when it don't article one five five this was described as being the nuclear option a part of the constitution which is now being used for the very first time which allows senators who are trying to get others are afraid to take raul castro up this region now we have. just a space and we are done saying my own mayor your holiday record you know that that is of course your duty opinion here in that only you. live in barcelona thank you. if i were to discuss the ongoing crisis with a political commentator and a former catholic a both of whom have very different views. or they are trying to do is to demolish our regional government institutions. and take

control of. social movements the problem right now is that and nationalist movement independent movement is living in about a war in another war because they have people in the radio and they want to keep remain in a spain you can say that these are democratic to to to to listen the voice of the people and what we have been trying to do hearing about one year but it's always not really like you know if. the point is that you go one people be express their. opinion what we've been trying to do two years ago is to find the possibility for a couple in society to express this was on the first of over the business and did these movements and in this terrible time where he did not the question of how do

you decide which crisis democracy and right now the story but this is not a question of companies and what you have in madrid this is a question of the moderates see and you should listen what people have got on people. who they won for for the future anybody in the international sphere is going to give a recognition to the state right now this money is walking to restore their constitution or their in their region and we have to broaden it to protect the heart of the card balance they want to keep their rights they want to keep it remain a spanish this is very sad when you are just saying that you want to save fifty percent of cargo into. the you should care about one hundred percent of problems was i did it i'm not getting violent at all they are spanish government's been given overwhelming support from european institutions with nato and the un also one

side most member states along with the likes of the us australia and several latin american countries are all calling for spanish unity however there are those who have said they would never ever recognize an independent catalonia of belgium finland and sweden called for dialogue between barcelona and madrid russia stressed the cattle and crisis is a completely internal matter scotland though has backed the independent school saying cattle land should be free to determine their own future senior fellow at johns hopkins university for the league of bindi fears catalonians are not looking at the broader picture. the moon is deeply divided on the part of a separatist and there is also a source to all of. i would use that word did you know me even if it's not a good word i mean they they are in this collective emotional moment and i don't think they're seeing clearly what is going to have been off the words i mean

they're within you know nato or the u.s. they were the single member states also starting to come out there were also very clear that they only with a nice spain. already over a hundred and surprises more out of. the stock market is going down the so i don't really see how they can understand that alone they're not going to have that really and the fuel for their dream you know meanwhile a small region in the pyrenees mountains the value says if catalonia breaks away from spain it will break away from catalonia we travel to the area and spoke to locals who don't share their regions hunger for independence. one on the budget and as they are on valley is a unique territory within county loney it is self governing has its own institutions its own language and its own history in culture only nineteen percent of those who vote in the referendum in favor of catalan independence that it was no

good at all right to self-determination was unanimously approved by the cattle and parliament and by the spanish state we could become a part of france or china tomorrow for instance if we chose to do so but we won't do it we want to remain a part of catalonia and spain. people are really afraid especially for the economy the economy of their own valley is very free general because it is entirely dependent on tourism therefore and we can see it makes people really free. around are probably going to see rallies expected old day in barcelona here when our international will be patching it through. international twitter has blocked this from advertising on its platform and. out of

the blue a move to be clear it doesn't the news feed accounts which you can still follow as usual. details of what it does mean. a story worth the plot thickens and develops almost weekly r.t. has received notification from twitter it began positively we believe in freedom of expression and in speaking truth to power it ended ironically with the news that all r.t. accounts on our brand from advertising any content on the social media platform twitter has made policy decision to or board advertising from all accounts owned by russia today and sputnik according to twitter r t on behalf of the russian government attempted to interfere in u.s. elections as claimed by the us intelligence report back in january twenty seventh seen no clear accusations of wrongdoing misconduct or breach of policy now this turn of events is almost comical given that last year twitter offered to deliver an

unbiased point of view of the us elections through an exclusive ad campaign aimed to promote artie's election coverage and bring it to a wider american audience ortiz released some details of the election collaboration offer to provide a clearer picture now this special offer included many features from customize the mode to analytics and research solutions even a dedicated team of twitter experts to help with media strategy now this had the specific aim of having a bigger reach to american voters and viewers why would twitter have offered this to a kremlin propaganda tool seeking to control the election after the negotiations r.t. didn't take up the offer because of the hefty price tag it went over all social media budgets what happened over the last year and a half how has r.t.e. gone from trusted media partner to being on par with mysterious russian bots and

trolls here are the facts r t never violated any rules while advertising on twitter r.t. has never dealt with and will never deal with bots or any other compromised tools on any so. media platform r t has never spread any sort of deliberate misinformation if this had not been the case r t would have been banned by any social media platform in question as all of them have strict rules for policy violations however twitter included this channel in their report russian interference in the twenty sixth elections it even went as far as releasing confidential information on adverts spending on the platform a marketing strategy used by most international news outlets by the way in this day and age but again no proof of real misconduct the unprecedented actions of twitter might end up backfiring for all media outlets as artie's editor in chief has warned honestly i didn't believe that twitter was controlled by american security services

it looked like a conspiracy theory to me but twitter has just confessed it's a pity especially because american news outlets operating in russia will now feel the tenderness of russian tit for tat measures in the twitter officials will testify before congress on russian election meddling no doubt auti will be given a mention and while we're happy we've played by twitter's rules can twitter say they've avoided by the very principles of free expression they say they believe in so since twitter has already disclosed confidential data about the ad contract with together it all out in the open in twenty sixteen the social media giant made a special us election offer to r t with quite a hefty price tag it would have cost us one point five million dollars over just four months but with a few more bolt on options we would have ended up spending about three point three million dollars and what do you get for that kind of money or for one thing you get a customized moji that would have set back this channel some eight hundred grand so

artie's management decided to decline the offer from twitter and then we discussed the twitter advertising ban with legal analyst live. but. what's happening right now the f.b.i. investigation every body's favorite now let me get this straight r.t.d. by using ads or ads ok like the world does what did these ads do did they survive the election did they cause or were they evidence of or in d.c. of colucci and what pray tell did these ads or conflicts they made americans think and maybe caused curiosity dissension perhaps and that was the collusion so that's

a great move for freedom of speech way to go twitter it's disgusting we're bringing more of the week's top stories in just a moment here on the channel including claims that hillary clinton and her team financed and initiated the infamous dirty dossier on trump's alleged ties to moscow back.

in case you're new to the game this is how it works. on a me it's built around. for a show from washington the washington post media the media. voters elected to run this country business because. it's not business it's business like it's never been done. here in the russian capital as the u.s. congress tries to piece together what led to the deaths of four subbasement in news year this month lawmakers complained they had no idea that troops were even in that african nation three weeks ago a group of american and local troops were ambushed by islamic state fighters before

u.s. nigerian soldiers were killed. in admits full air support provided until two hours after the battle began. the second biggest u.s. military presence in africa eight hundred out of six thousand troops across the continent at the tiny country of djibouti is first with four thousand servicemen and then somalia and cameroon house about four hundred three hundred respectively correspondence american now with more on the wiring disconnect between key u.s. lawmakers and troops on the ground. so it's official washington has intervened in so many different countries even u.s. senators seem to have lost track but i didn't know there was a thousand troops and this is an endless war without boundaries no limitation a geography and senator graham is not the only one senator graham there you didn't know we had a thousand troops and did you know i did not and there you have it two sitting

senior senators one republican and the other a democrat had no idea the u.s. currently has over one thousand troops in news year so how is this possible past administrations have used the authorization for use of military force against terrorists or the. to warrant military operations involving non-state actors or terror organizations passed by congress right after september eleventh that allows the president to use force against those who planned it committed or aided the nine eleven attacks and only one person voted against it congresswoman barbara lee let's step back for a moment let's just cause just for a minute and think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control according to a two thousand and sixteen congressional research office report the bush and obama administration's use the on thirty seven occasions to initiate military action in over a dozen countries and now with trump it appears there's even less oversight the pentagon

has just announced that they will no longer disclose troop numbers in iraq and syria but can this apply to other regions besides iraq and syria. and already. consistent complete. lack of. transparency and accountability ministration you know it's gotten significantly worse track has touted this is reform. reform this policy of mine or mine were. if. you're going to even listen to me. how many troops are in various places and. when the former defense secretary and cia director leon panetta was once asked about how many wars the u.s. was engaged in seemed rather lost it's a good question but you know it you have to stop it and you know i have to stop and

think about the now with very little transparency in u.s. operations overseas may not exactly be quite the subject to laugh about. on our team washington d.c. . if we revealed hillary clinton's election team on the democratic national committee help bankroll the now infamous dossier on donald trump the document was published back in january and outlined unsubstantiated links and deals between moscow and the campaign in the run up to last year's presidential election here's how the u.s. president reacted to this latest news it's very sad what they've done with this fake it was made up. i understand they paid a tremendous amount of money and hillary clinton always denied it the democrats always denied it i think it's a disgrace it's just really a very it's a very sad it's a very sad commentary on politics it's got. the dossier claim to trump had close

links to russia the kremlin compiled compromising information on the us president the report also contained lewd allegations on trump which sparked a scandal when published less than two weeks before his inauguration a buzz feed was first to break the story and though it admitted the allegations were on verified the story was immediately run by c.n.n. and others. the dot ca dot ca that controversial document it alleges overt knowing collusion and wild unconfirmed accusations was a bombshell. to america host ed schultz says the new revelations on the clinton team's involvement in the trump claims reflects very badly on u.s. politics i'm disappointed because it's a sad commentary for politics in our country and i also think it's very damaging to the process but this in boulder the president and his credibility because he has said all along he has been a victim of fake news you can't get any more fake than this it was surrogate after

a surrogate that went out on the cable shows in this country for months on end that tried to blame this on russia and accused the russians and the trump campaign colluding to deep six hillary clinton in the election i think this is horribly damaging for the democrats i think the democrats are going to have to distance themselves from hillary clinton and i think hillary clinton has to answer a lot of questions about how and why. syrian's credentials have been questioned on a number of times when it came to russia related stories the news outlet has not launched a fact checking ad campaign which i write has already received quite a response. this is an apple. some people might try to tell you that it's a been it might even start to believe this is opinion. but it's not. this is in.

the mainstream. and over and over again this. isn't. when it comes to words associated with russia many people would likely pick coal so one food manufacturer is trying to cash in on that by studying russian made ice cream overseas. miguel process of the aga went to the city of all go to try and get the secrets behind the rest of. the eyes very ice cream factory made out of local ball of the milk none gmo eco friendly this ice cream happens to be one of the most

delicious in but now ice very company exports the most amount of ice cream abroad and produces the most amount of ice cream in russia countries like china israel i said by john and even serbia which is in the works are to taste delicious taste of ice berry was even trying. to contemplate yet again in the volunteer was chosen for ice cream production due to its excellent ecology and experience and a reproduction we're about to get these two civs taste of real ice cream just before it comes off the conveyor and goes into the freezer so we get the fresh taste that is supposedly exclusive and unique let us give it a try. it's a little as you can see it's not frozen there's really fresh. i'm

sorry for the man. but this is delicious. a motion yelena can i help you make something at this factory now with my own hands the average them i don't is delate sure let's make the ice cream. i'm just making myself useful here in the high spirit ice cream factory. i see that speed is really important here you gotta be quick when you when you do this thing you know. new to be to make a new system now i can finally try all the unique tastes that i was told about as george said let's. start with our tact. apricots ice cream interesting let's give it

a quick try. just to see what i experience. seems natural. to. you so much for having. you all think you brushing my skin which may just be going to a store near you. thanks for sharing your sunday with us here on out c international your weekly various. here's what people have been saying about rejected and i suspect it's full on awesome the only show i go out of my way to find you know what it is that really

packs a punch. yam is the john oliver of r t americans do the same we are apparently better than blue that said i see people you've never heard of love redacted the night president of the world bank. but he doesn't write me seriously he sent us an email. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. some want to. have to go right to the press to see what before three of them can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters about how. things should.

stanton glantz only learned of this case through the documents we showed him. the approaches that they used to attack the person doing the research on linking cured meats with cancer were the standard things they do one is to go through her work with a fine tooth comb and find every little thing they could possibly complain about and because the issues tend to be fairly technical you know if you're a politician or if you're a reporter or english or a highly specialized reporter all you hear is well this person said there was something bad and this other person said that they didn't know what they were

talking about and settled these efforts to go after the scientists and to discredit the scientists is a key element of a much larger strategy to just gum up the entire policymaking process to the point where nothing happens that translates into hundreds of billions of dollars of sales and profits for them so the whole game is just slow down. in the documents on dr preston martin other even more machiavellian scenarios were studied. here it was suggested that talks be held with the scientist. and here a proposed seminar in order to lure her. name to influence her and even shape the conclusions of her future studies. the common point of these documents they all come from the same lobbying firm

multinational business services. already hired by philip morris to contest the effects of passive smoking on health and headed by a certain jim toth see a master of influence. amazingly in washington the heart of american power this law. it is still well established. as he never answered our requests for an interview we went to see him without an appointment and with our documents in hand and a hidden camera. move . into the us he works here who are us i'm french and journalist i'm looking for and i'm looking on the noggin.