clashes in catalonia more than sixty are injured in at least thirteen arrested in the spanish region in a pro independence protest against a meeting between the prime minister and local leaders. a secret project by u.s. democrats to test online tactics and during a state election is revealed in a new york times report has claimed they used the methods of an old adversary those much maligned to russia. and decision to withdraw troops from serious conflict in the administration but also among u.s. allies while turkey supported washington's kurdish partners are less than thrilled .

international and sean thomas glad to have you with us. violence has erupted at independence protests in spain's catalonia region more than sixty people have been injured including at least thirty five police officers as anger flared at rallies over a federal government cabinet meeting which had been relocated to be held in the city as a conciliatory measure. was . we were. was. was it was. all right extra police were brought in

and at least thirteen protesters have been arrested demonstrators threw rocks at officers started fires and built barricades while police responded with baton charges journalist. scott excuse me was in barcelona for us barbara brought us up to speed with friday's of aids. thousands of cuts announced took out of the streets today to protest against the meeting between the federal sanchez and their regional readers of cuts along normally the cabinet meeting is held in madrid that has petro centers that already and lizzie actually also want to do it here in barcelona and people took it as a provocation because only one year ago that's a long and declared independence so people obviously are angry because they want to be independent and they want to be separate separate from the hosting so as you can see behind me you have signs of the bed at the base just politico's which means

these libor rates the political prisoners still nine of them are held in detention and basically you have all these people you have young people protesting and still trying to remember what happened here one one year ago so that people took out of the streets not only here in the center but also they blocked he said what seven which is that you wait leading to the airport so many people were blocked today and couldn't go home for christmas. well the authorities had hoped to relocating the meeting to barcelona would reduce tensions in catalonia the spanish prime minister and the catalan leader agreed on thursday to an effective dialogue and independence referendum held in october last year was deemed illegal by madrid which then arrested the leaders for rebellion and sedition the spanish prosecutor recently claimed that former president carlos and put your money spent more than eight million euros on the referendum. ridgemont calls that claim while bizarre. dr

alexandro who is a reader in spanish history at britain's newcastle university says the rallies should have been expected because current cattle on leaders are not listening to protestors concerns. the council. trying to work it's the. only chance the mind. and there. was not. so many ways that was expected. of the government cannot control everyone in the. this is the first time that the spanish and. army sit in the elections in december last year. was somehow symbolically very important both the spanish and the catalan government for the current government because they haven't been able to do much in the last year in terms of.

russia's alleged online meddling has surfaced once again but this time moscow cannot be blamed when the new york times is reporting that a group of democratic party members under took a secret project to test online tactics during an election in the us and this took place in the state of alabama last year by employing methods allegedly used by russia to influence campaigns. with commentary. for years the public you me were barash by stories of russian bots on t.v. radio papers daily they told us of malicious programs of evil software soulless slaves puton an existential threat to america take the alabama election a year ago russian bartz the media reported interfered medaled corrupted on behalf of republican candidates roy moore so surprise atop

a supporter more they both have a deep love of country the countries russia but still rough. edges for them it's pretty alarming when a guy's lives in a fluent russian or speaks fluent russian russian it everywhere year later it's moving closer to the oval office one might wonder why on earth russia would bother with a massive disinfo mation campaign in alabama of all places to fence taliban of the van as juicy a target roy moore him self was clueless about it had no idea why this was happening so as is republican tradition he blamed the democrats for setting him up the democrats as a source or a tradition change the subject and insulted him. maybe more should check with putin who shares his views on depriving people of their civil rights here is where

it gets really good the new york times did some digging and found a report titled the alabama project and figured out those weren't putin's bots at all they were faked dressed up to look like russian bots we orchestrated and a labrat false flag operation that planted the idea that the more campaign was amplified on social media by a russian but that i've seen some dirty stuff in politics all over the world but this this is platinum tear this on this deplorable and dirty tricks turns out it was all of fake psyop orchestrated by a group of i.t. experts who wanted to help the democrat win by cheating by lying and by their fraud being millions of voters in an attempt to frame the republican as being

helped by russia the guy who allegedly financed all of this is billionaire reid hoffman co-founder of linked in and apparently a guy with a really faulty moral compass often comes with the money my experience now here is the kicker and lighty is telling people shouldn't worry it's only one hundred thousand dollars peanuts when it comes to elections whatever world the democrats live in a hundred grand is change. joe trippi a season's democratic operative said it was impossible that one hundred thousand dollar operation had an impact on the race journalists no longer report the news they report their opinions same new york times when talking about how alleged the fake russian facebook accounts spend the same money hundred thousand dollars on

advertising on a national campaign the disclosure adds to the evidence of the broad scope of the russian influence campaign so when a democratic group is all but cool with spending a hundred grand on this information on lies framing and defaming someone it's just one hundred grand pocket change but if it's the russians at one hundred thousand dollars becomes an absolute fortune a crime against america and god i've always been suspicious that the russian meredith was slim z. and was probably made up simply because that's the kind of saying that the democratic party does they make things up in order to create the basis for an attack on the right wing and on the conservatives this is in the character of the democratic party and in the lack of character i should say and it's a it's

a criminal element that has taken over the democratic party the mainstream media only talk about things that service that democratic party agenda and it's an agenda that we saw in syria you know it's an agenda that will lead to war it's an agenda that risks nuclear conflict with the two great nuclear powers it's an agenda that needs to be stopped. president trump has left the international community stunned following his sudden decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria our. over the move has it been backed by a number of leaders including one major nato ally. of the us the trump told us during our conversation will you clear the direst from him weekly of them before and after this. as long as you give us the support in terms of logistics and how they started to withdraw all they have. not all of those party to the conflict in

syria are on board with the decision there is anger among the kurdish forces in the region with family members of the fighters appealing to washington to reverse their withdrawal mothers and wives of soldiers in the so-called syrian democratic forces have been gathering near an alleged american military base in aleppo. was all the. american turned his back on us as we continue to find. out and i know of any. why did they leave i said. you know we went to the airfield they promised us that they would not leave and now they've sold us out the tension is already escalating in northern syria with turkey now vowing an offensive against the kurdish forces which currently control man beach it representative for the syrian democratic forces told russian media they could be ready to hand the town back to the syrian government to prevent turkey launching

a similar operation in the province like it did after the liberation from islamic state back in two thousand and sixteen. we do not support and we would oppose efforts to move south and engage in activities against the syrian democratic forces so kurdish commanders have made commitments that they will turn over areas to local populations as they have been so tremendously successful in liberating those areas from gosh we expect them to live up to those commitments. that i'm from on base maffei to thank and their talk is threat with the cost of our gone to find together the americans and the collison again that talk to me until there was trouble from this around them validus is complicated this is sara and territory.

but this year we noticed more movement from the euphrates shield along the front line as turkey before its military operation on a friend threatened that manned beach would be the next target. as i said before our relationship is at critical juncture either we must put it back on track or it will further deteriorate we have agreed essentially to normalize our relationship again question of man this is one that as i said is going to be given priority in our joint work you are there for in this is one of the four measure it is one of the issues of work together.

we are a part of syria and we don't support separatism what you want an agreement to be reached in this tradition as part of a free syria. we heard from a former pentagon security analyst michael maloof who thinks the syrian government will look to fill the void to being left by u.s. forces well i think that given that the u.s. is pulling out it's only inevitable that assad would. begin to move move his troops back in and is very very important strategically to keep the turks away as well the turks are not going to be. going into my own bees as they have threatened to do so given it back to assad is very important and i think that that avoids the potential for a major conflict between turkey and the kurds and so and also. turkish

president everyone has pledged support now for. this this is all beginning to offer an a whole new dynamic in that region as a result of the u.s. pull out the blowback from trump the decision on syria has reached his cabinet as well defense secretary james madison's announced he is leaving his post pointed to differences of opinion with his commander in chief also appears to have driven a wedge through the u.s. at large with many media and establishment figures criticizing the move while the american public largely seems to support it with more his art he's killed. comes announcement withdrawing the usa from syria has got the media up in arms the republicans and the democrats are livid they say that the usa is losing out i believe it is a catastrophic mistake the job's not over dangerous premature jeopardize america's

mission in theory and her allies makes our country an even bigger laughingstock than it already is that gift it benefits iran the only reason they're not dancing in the end to run in isis camps is they just don't believe in density media's outrage does not match public opinion polls show that eighty six percent of americans say that us military force should only be used as a last resort now that opinion used to be very common on the opposite side of the political spectrum remember the peace marchers the antiwar movement this is what bernie sanders had to say my main concern terms of the middle east is to make certain that the united states does not get involved in perpetual warfare in the quagmire of iraq and syria trump made the same announcement last year but forces swiftly moved in to change his mind russian president vladimir putin who sent forces to support the syrian government against the terrorists a big game changer in the conflict he says he is a bit skeptical of trucks announcement would be stupid to you concerning the us

withdrawal from syria i don't really know what that means for example the us has been present in afghanistan for the past seventeen years and almost every year they say that they are withdrawing the troops they are still there now is the presence of american troops needed in syria or do you think so let's not forget that the presence there was illegitimate it was not agreed either with the un security council nor with the syrian government so if the us plans to withdraw that is the right decision while politicians and media from both sides of the political spectrum is voicing outrage trucks move it is at least complying with international law now let's see if he sticks to his guns this time. r.t. new york. shaking hands is a sign of friendship but it's causing a major fallout in denmark the country has adopted a new law obliging people to shake hands as part of the ceremony to become a danish citizen and supporters of the law insisted that shaking hands is

a custom and part of being danish the reason it's causing consternation is because of claims it targets muslims for whom physical contact with non family members of the opposite sex is forbidden for religious reasons now some town mayors are refusing to comply. it's against my ideology and conviction to have to force the people to have boards. it is a subject that fired up discussion earlier on r t with both sides proclaiming its all about respecting their respective traditions. it just shows how petty and vindictive the danish government is shaking hands is a personal choice there are many members of the jewish community you would choose not to shake hands of the opposite sex you can be vibrant members of society you can play an integral part in health and education as a lawyer in business be a good citizen without having to say well actually you know what for religious reasons i do not want to shake someone's hand and therefore i'm not going to do

that does that make you any less of a human being less of a responsible citizen and you want to live in denmark they want to shake hands well from a shaking hands get in the modern world use this nonsense we don't shake hands it doesn't really feel like it's going to be there for us through the village god go they finish go back to their country want to be forced it's a sign of friendship if you don't want to be friendly if you don't want to make similar culture if you don't want to be tolerant go home i'm sure there's loads of places where you don't even have to shake hands but you can chop each other's hands off if you steal some the job enjoy it is going to play to the gallery are going to talk to you about individual freedom human rights. to the gallery. does it necessarily make it possible that you won't be responsible citizen engaged in society played an active role just being able to practice your faith the ferry the fact that people have been forced to do this you've got dozens of mayors of all

under the law you don't object moving to the north and the point is the central point is this that it's about individual responsibility it's about human rights and it's about stopping bigotry and this law pacifically designed to target just a muslim community is discriminatory and inacceptable if you read the articles if you take the time to do it rather than just play with a chip on your shoulder you'll see it's not just about muslims and secondly if you don't like to shake hands don't move to denmark or don't because. a danish citizen and this idea that it's an attack on your human rights oh come on grow up why do you want to assimilate what do you want to sit in with a western coach or what not they want to be the other people on this god mohamad ease always doing this it wants to spread create division and then he accuses me of played to the gallery listen we shake hands in the west it's the way it is by not

shaking hands does it make you a less of a human being doesn't stop me from contributing to society i'm making a positive contribution now i'm somebody who personally my own choices i do shit people can learn female but there will be people out there who choose not to stare choice. china has denied us allegations that it is behind an extensive hacking campaign in a dozen different countries this comes after two chinese citizens were indicted in america over what has been described as a massive cyber theft of sensitive data china also urged washington to retract its accusations. may find new social issues i'm seeing you on the u.s. have brickies facts out of thin air the chinese government has never participated supporting anyone and stevens in secrets as the years to me did lou throw this so-called indictment of chinese citizens chinese nationals are accused of stealing data on one hundred thousand u.s.

navy employees as well as on a nuclear power research center in california and a nasa jet engine propulsion lab the allegations of a mass hacking campaign come with relations already strained between the u.s. and china over a trade war three weeks ago at the g. twenty summit president trump and she. agreed on a ninety day halt to new trade tariffs on steel and aluminum exports in the hope a broader trade agreement could be reached however that agreement was quickly overshadowed by. the arrest of a chinese tech giant official in canada at washington's request made one jew the company's chief financial officer faces extradition to the u.s. the rest is believed to be related to alleged violations of u.s. sanctions on iran we heard from the director of the china national association of international studies who says the u.s. accusations are sensational and political. accusation against the individual

chinese cannot be worse at a time when china u.s. relations are very much strained not only by the trade war but whatever that has been made available by the u.s. government is very flimsy the don't seem to really want to get to the facts they seem to have a major design to says in the lies and politicize this whole situation and they want to create the fear of china not only in the united states but in many other countries and i think the rest of the world knows for sure that the u.s. government is the biggest acute abuser of cyber security this is really good history in the relations between china and the united states. keeping within the same topic chinese telecom giant while way may be blocked from a german auction to develop high speed internet infrastructure this comes amid rising security concerns over the company's a possible espionage activity for beijing earlier a u.s.

delegation reportedly visited berlin and held a closed door meeting at the german foreign ministry encouraging a boycott of while away the company has already been blocked from building high speed networks in the u.s. australia and japan u.k. secret service chief alex younger has also voiced concern however germany's i.t. watchdog has expressed skepticism due to the lack of evidence proving walkways spy activity. for such serious decisions like a ban you need proof. our jeffrey tucker editorial director of the american institute for economic research thinks this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black the u.s. is is famous for its for its hacking and cyber surveillance of every political system in the world i mean so this is this is getting really out of hand and it's starting to be i must say deeply embarrassed scene for the u.s. on international economic stage but i think it's really sad because we're supposed

to be in the middle of a trade truce but instead of just using the ninety days to come to a better understanding what the u.s. is doing is almost you know every forty eight hours another propaganda blitz against china is kind of a rhetorical bombast we're getting on a daily basis is actually having a tremendous human cost and it's also if you tile i mean yes china is a rising economic power if you want to call a power but actually what it really means is that we can as a world community get to get richer and richer together and i think the u.s. needs to like come to terms with this and stop playing the bully on the playground with a. north korea has issued a stern warning to the united states saying it won't give up its nuclear capabilities unless washington is willing to meet halfway a statement could cast a shadow over the recent thaw in u.s. north korea relations. the united states must understand the proper meaning of the korean peninsula denuclearization and they had better study geography. when we talk

about the korean peninsula it includes the territory of our country as well as the whole of south korea with the united states has placed its invasive forces including nuclear weapons when we talk about the complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula it means the removal of all sources of nuclear threats not only from south to north korea but also from areas neighboring the korean peninsula. relations between pyongyang and washington took a nosedive when trump initially took office as the two countries leaders traded insults and threats the situation improved through. mid june this year when the two met in singapore donald trump and kim jong un committed themselves to denuclearizing the korean peninsula and normalizing relations the summit was seen as something of a breakthrough although not much has been accomplished sets with u.s. officials insisting crippling sanctions will remain in place and that the united

states has no intention of easing our unilateral or united nations sanctions they have they have not lived up to the commitment so far and until that happens there's not going to be any release of the economic sanctions earlier we spoke to human rights attorney eric sprott can he thinks washington has failed to reciprocate pyongyang's efforts toward resolving the nuclear issue. and washington has not approached these negotiations in a level the same level as north korea and in reality what they're proposing is not anything different it's still the idea that we can do nuclearized with pencil when we make it so the threat of a nuclear attack to go on from both sides that is going to entail the u.s. opening up its facilities to international inspectors to make sure there are nuclear weapons still there the u.s.

doesn't comment on such things we haven't seen any progress from you on formal relations and ending the korean war of ending the state of war in the korean peninsula why would they be nuclearized when there is a pending state of war there so the next step is to take place at that time is a commitment to the nuclear eyes what that will look like but only after if peace treaty is entered. vention and deception in germany where a time journalist from the respected their spiegel newsmagazine has been sacked for making up stories for years aren't you donald quarter comments. when it comes to trustworthy journalism the mainstream media might tell you there is no alternative .

to. meet one of their poster boys of honesty class for lotus work for one of germany's most respected newsmagazines der spiegel he was even named cnn's journalist of the year back in two thousand and fourteen for a story about prison inmate care the report takes the poets you can the interesting approach to a major social problem glossary lutes is brains pictures and the reader's mind the food like a film. well an acting career might have been better suited for real odious because the paragon of modern journalism seems to have faked his way through his seven year career of the sixty articles we know der spiegel published reloading us admitted fourteen contained fake news and a story about a young syrian boy he made up quotes and locations the tale of a guantanamo bay prison or a complete fabrication it was only after his colleague revealed his doubts over

a story they were working on together about the us mexican border that the truth came out the. first there were just like little mistakes that i paid attention to things that seemed suspicious a vigilante group that doesn't allow you to take pictures of them but they tell you unbelievable stuff even admit to their crimes like that they detained mexicans and crossed the mexican border with weapons were no went through the ringer with his managers trying to bring his doubts forward imagine challenging the legitimacy of an award winning western journalist praised by c.n.n. itself and if you're thinking this is a glitch in the mainstream media think again all these outlets have parted with journalists after they fabricated stories some more award winning journalists but awards in journalism are a whole other matter take journalist. he faked his own death with the help of the ukrainian secret service.