And im joined on this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up the un will investigate accusations of war crimes in yemen but its had to make a lot of compromises. If anybody out there is listening to us. We are dying. As puerto rico struggles with the off the mouth of Hurricane Maria a war of words between son fans mayor and the u. S. President. Here in coxs bazar with an update on the wrecking the crisis. Spains government is cracking down on the band secession vote in its catalonia region on sunday describing it as a mockery of democracy. Its warn volunteers at polling stations they could be fined more than three hundred fifty thousand Dollars Police of ready with gun deploying ahead of the ballots and sealed off more than half of the schools designated as Polling Centers offices say they will remove voters in madrid thousands of people in favor of united spain are holding a rally were holding rallies so far neither side is backing down. Lets bring in Tony Berkeley he is in madrid for us and im just wondering what sort of lines are you hearing from there and the fallout from that. City hall now jane and that rally was about five thousand people strong according to the organizers and thats quite something because up until now the spanish public has been rather muted its response to whats going on in catalonia but here people are very much in favor of catalonia staying with spain they are very much in favor of the measures the government is taking to try and ensure that referendum does not go ahead so you dont get any dissenters here if there was a mock referendum held in the center of madrid on friday and the overwhelming majority of people voted for remain strong support for this union to continue but people are concerned about whats going to happen i think theres lots of speculation about what happens if that referendum vote is a yes and what will happen in the future but the origins of the problems between catalonia the rest of spain the Spanish Government really wise in the civil war eighty years ago as ive been founding out. Explains most familiar to me but these are estonia has lost some of its meaning since catalonia started its drive for secession and its forthcoming referendum. On friday madrid held his own referendum purely symbolic but the people here equally important the question people were asked was do you want catalonia to remain part of spain because you want to remember to remind everybody that you know spanish sovereignty. You know should be there by all spaniards not just one part of spain which is catalonia you know these this year would affect holy spain we want to make sure that Everybody Knows that you know as our boys here. That you live in i came to vote because what theyre doing is an outrage again. Constitution against spain and against history those people deserve the worst adjectives even a lot of fun oh yeah if franco was alive we were just shoot them against the wall long live franco lives spain we dont want the communists. That thats an extreme view but there are still many in spain who think former military leader Francisco Franco was a hero and not a villain through the tranquil countryside north of madrid is the valley of the fall and a monument created to remember those killed in the civil war it was built by Political Prisoners and is where franco is buried if theres anything that symbolizes the divisions in Spanish Society this place is supposed to commemorate the dead on both sides of the civil war but for many its a monument to the fascist victory and the defeat of the republicans many of whom were cattle and so. Many on spains left believe that francos legacy lives on in every aspect of spanish life from the judiciary to politics and they support the catalans right for selfdetermination we have a lot of alto retiring frank and so the National Question is being treated in accompli the way we believe that catalonia referendum can be a democratic key and an example for all the nations that lives in it are now on the institution of this kind of state. In madrid vote people overwhelmingly wanted catalonia to stay part of spain but on sunday the question is will it still be a case of be the last spaniard or will it be farewell catalonia. The governors. Brother to kearney and threats against the election volunteers tell us more about what theyve said. Well theyre calling the. Government anti democratic they say a referendum is a weapon of dictatorship and its basically in the middle of a war of words on the moment and its going on and on i think the People Public now realize this is a serious situation its no messing around this is for certain that this is going ahead in some form the Spanish Government is trying everything in its power to stop that going ahead but at the end of the day the people are going to vote in some four weeks can still be counted by hand in the Old Fashioned way but i think the problem now facing everybody on this is what happens next irrespective of the outcome even if it so know what will happen to the relationship between catalonia and the rest of spain and thats the question that is worrying a lot of people where do we go from here all right tony betty thank you for that. The city of kirkuk in Northern Iraq has some of the biggest oil reserves in the country for decades they have been disagreements about who should control and place maybe units loyal to the Kurdish Regional government control the city and could coax inclusion in mondays secession vote has angered baghdad as traffic reports the Kurdish Peshmerga to control the fuel cook off to the iraqi army fled in islip pensive in two thousand and fourteen. But theres never been agreement between the Kurdish Regional government ok argy and the federal government in baghdad about who should be in control here and benefit most from the areas vast oil wealth. Kirkuk at an eighty percent turnout in the referendum on kurdish the session the day after the vote the Iraqi Parliament asked Prime Minister hydrilla party to send troops into kurdish controlled disputed areas like kirkuk and take back control of the oil fields and the kurdish governor of kirkuk hopes l. A body doesnt heed to parliaments demand Prime Minister about he has made it clear that force is not how he will approach this thing. And i agree with him and we dont expect a force to be used but of course there are people may be not under his control who may try to do this Parliament Earlier this month voted to remove mr karim but he has refused to go and anything thats comes against me for my patriotic position its its a nonissue for me many kurds call kirkuk their jerusalem but there are also turkomans arabs and christians here too there are also hundreds of thousands of arabs that have arrived here in recent years fleeing i saw and they feel very let down by the baghdad government theres also considerable opposition amongst the arabs and the turkmen about any idea with respect to kirkuk being part of a future independent kurdish state the vast majority of turkmen and arabs who have lived in kirkuk for generations boycotted the referendum this if you were to the area and the borders of k r g is not the clear and the specially kid. Well be. Owned by that and maybe. A war about. The way to solve this a problem is not in the brain then. The way. The two thousand and five constitution stipulates that the federal government send seventeen percent of the federal budget to the k r g every year it stops sending the money in two thousand and fifteen. And back that has since accused the kayleigh g of not sharing the oil wealth but only fighting here could jeopardize the battle against eisel in how we shop around fifty kilometers southwest of kirkuk. Who controls kill cook. The referendum on kurdish independence because they will fight anyone who tries to take it from them John Strafford al jazeera. The United Nations has agreed to start an independent investigation into human rights abuses by all sides in the war in yemen the decision follows weeks of negotiations since two thousand and fifteen Yemeni Government forces backed by a Saudi Led Coalition have been fighting heathy rebels supported by iran cattle or pairs honey on reports. The decision has been described as a game changer the Uns Human Rights Council will send a delegation to investigate a possible war crimes in the yemen more than ten thousand civilians have died since the countrys devastating war started in two thousand and fifteen and that number could rise the International Community faces several urgent tasks in yemen including the protection safety and security of civilians the u. N. Delegation is expected to investigate attacks on schools markets and even hospitals fina between harvey rebels and a Saudi Led Coalition which sides with president. Condi has torn the country the commission will also investigate attacks carried out by the rebels i think that the point becomes one of does the International Community stand by the laws the courts. And all yemeni lives as valuable as any other lives the decision was met with resistance a last minute compromise between western powers and arab countries including saudi arabia eventually made it possible experts say blocking the investigation could have led to more unwanted attention where you see mounting pressure at the International Level for this to go ahead at a level that the u. S. The u. K. Saudi arabia whove been instrumental in the past really blocking this kind of investigation going ahead would struggle to justify their reasons for doing so right now along with the war an estimated twenty million yemenis continue to go hungry and a nationwide cholera epidemic is ravaging the country since april more than two thousand people have died from the illness the red cross believes there could be a million cases of suspected cholera by the end of the year but access to treatment is limited airport is completely sealed off on the three planes roughly are entering the i. C. R. C. Plane m. S. F. And un plane and no other plane is coming in. Even planes that could do some new money here and transfer of patients that want to get treatment abroad or Something Like that this is not possible so you dont have access to drugs and youre going to go out. Of the war in yemen is showing no signs of ending but the Uns Human Rights Council hopes the investigation will lead to a greater level of accountability on all sides. Now dizzier the mayor of puerto ricos capital san juan is accusing the trumpet ministration of killing people through inefficiency ten days after hurricane rita devastated the u. S. Territory aid is starting to reach communities and the white house has appointed a three star general to oversee relief operations but the mayor says its not happening quickly enough we are dying here. And now i cannot fathom the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out the logistics for in small island of one hundred miles of my thirty five miles i am begging begging anyone that can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us we are dying and you are killing us with the in official. And the bureaucracy. The u. S. President has reacted strongly in an Early Morning tweet trump said the mayor of san juan had been very complimentary only a few days ago but has now been told by the democrats that you must be nasty to trump. He followed up with such poor leadership ability by the mayor of san juan and others in puerto rico who are not able to get their workers to help they want everything to be done for them when it should be a Community Effort ten thousand federal workers now on island doing a fantastic job the military and First Responders despite no electric roads phones etc have done an amazing job puerto rico was totally destroyed. There is about as more from san juan. This is a Convention Center left and turned into an Emergency Coordination Center between federal authorities and local authorities to try to get this island out of the crisis disc people that you see behind me lining up there here to ask for help some of them are offering themselves as volunteers in order to go and help out around this island that has been devastated in many many areas and the mayor of San Juan Academy has been very vocal about what this island needs in order to recover she see that much more government help federal help is needed in order to come out of the Current Crisis but her pleas were answered by President Donald Trump in a series of tweets on saturday morning where he said that the mayor had been convinced by democrats that she has to attack trump shes also saying that puerto rican speak to start working as a community theres over ten thousand federal agents on this island trying to help out so obviously those comments were not taken well among people here who are still trying to recover from the shock that the hurricane left in many areas around the country there is no water theres still no electricity all around the island it is completely relying on generators and thats why fuel is extremely needed at this point puerto rican scene general are saying that theyre being discriminated by the federal government theyre saying that theyre not receiving the same treatment that people in florida or texas that were also hit by hurricanes received and many of them here are demanding more help thats all coming up the u. S. Health secretary resigns after a scandal over his use of taxpayer money for private flights class. I mean our beloved especially Hunter Valley today Congress Center of everything to have a plan to curb the countrys out its called five house they from. However seymour pretty lively downpours across central parts of china recently in a long line of cloud and rain pushing right out into the East China Sea the i was sea pushing up towards the japan over the next couple days it will sink its way further southward shanghai had a pretty wet week last week im afraid this further heavy downpours in the forecast over the next few days and i think we are likely to see some localized flooding if you show as to just pushing up towards the south China Hong Kong all the edge of those so humid it thirty three degrees celsius the showers they continue to stretch their way across indochina target particular seeing some really nasty weather recently heavy showers too into the eastern side of india that into central and southern parts of the kountry and those heavy showers do look set to persist the Western Ghats still pretty disturbed long line of one soon all rain is coming in here the monsoon is retreating of course but that means retreating across the eastern side of the country through bangladesh into the northeastern parts of india and on into me and further north it will be largely dry there you can see for new delhi and also for a good part of pakistan that dry weather stretches right across the Arabian Peninsula pleasant sunshine coming through here a little humid once again by evening but sunshine here in doha with a top temperature of thirty eight. In the house era when News Coverage consists of a punchy had like a five second sound bite not an easy solution. To delve deep and. Challenge the status quo expose double standards and debate the contradictions. Join me. For a new season of the show the frank. From. This time well just. Like it is take a look at the top stories now spains government is threatening to pose a three hundred fifty thousand dollars fine on volunteers at sundays secession vote in the catalonia Region Police say theyll remove people from polling stations the United Nations has agreed to start an independent investigation into human rights abuses by all sides in the war in yemen it comes as another Saudi Led Coalition air strike killed five and injured six others inside up province. U. S. President John Chambers blamed what he calls fake news for claims that hes not doing enough to help put it we can recover from Hurricane Maria the mayor of the islands capital san juan is accused the white house of killing people through delays and bureaucracy. Hundreds of rango refugees have crossed into bangladesh are lining up to receive aid at the could to prolong camp bangladeshis of mobilized to help some of the hof Million People it was scared the violence in myanmar the u. N. Refugee agency and the government have been providing food and other relief sandra chartres more from a rehab and trauma sense of a chill. And in coxs bazaar in bangladesh. Close to how many are going to refuse it up crossed over to bangladesh for the matter of one month out of time two hundred eight it isnt our children according to aid agencies im going to the government and among them one hundred thousand children one of. This is something called child friendly space this was set up by bangladesh rock the largest and you know and also with the help of unicef what just says children has got to play corner that drawing corner and reading corner also have music on are the children to be quite happy out here theyre out of danger in the street they get counseling from a professional counseling people theyre also in a place where they are given free mats and lines sometimes. Just critics are set up among the new and old refugee camps six of them are old the rest are new if theres me and my references are unable to go back to me on my wedding yes to come goes like this and the son goes like this are badly needed to really have a lot of the children who are highly traumatised by what theyre facing on the other side of the border in the us to combine with those government aid agency has to mentally prepare to set up institution like this to help the children cope with the trauma of their face while coming to bangladesh and what the faced in myanmar usaid your state breaks to listen says washington has direct channels of communication with north korea to see whether young is interested in dialogue to listen has been holding high level talks in china about tension on the Korean Peninsula the u. S. Wants chinas influence to curb north Koreas Nuclear and Missile Program adrian brown has more from beijing. Well with tensions on the Korean Peninsula still at a very dangerous level rarely have relations between china and the United States mattered as much as they do now Rex Tillerson had been due to arrive in beijing on friday night but his visit was delayed because of mechanical problems with his plane on saturday he had a brief audience with president xi jinping that is significant because chinas president doesnt always grant an audience to visiting dignitaries from overseas thats a measure of the importance they place on Rex Tillerson presence in china and also of the importance they place on President Donald Trump visiting china in november that was confirmed by the white house at the weekend both china and the United States have a very different approach as to how to deal with north korea Rex Tillerson wants to make sure that china delivers on its promise to fully implement United Nations sanctions against north korea for its part china says its backing a whole slew of new sanctions against north korea for instance on sunday it will begin limiting the export of oil to north korea on friday it announced it was shutting down all north korean businesses in china in three months time the same applies to north korean chinese joint ventures so in a sense north korea in a strange way is bringing china and the United States closer together wildfires in Southern California spreading and forcing evacuations fires can be seen then dangerously close to homes in the city of lump park. Flames and heavy smoke have clouded the horizon there five five to seven hundred homes are at risk maybe more than forty thousand wildfires in the u. S. So far this year. The u. S. Government has ordered sixty percent of its diplomatic staff in cuba to leave washington says its embassies employees have reported Health Problems such as hearing loss for teeth and headaches the white house believes theyve been attacked but cuba says the decision to pull the staff out has been major quickly. We consider the decision announced today by the u. S. Government through the state department is hasty and will affect bilateral relations especially cooperation in the matters of mutual interest between both countries and the diverse exchange that takes place between cuba and the United States i say all right i want to reiterate the willingness of cuba to continue active cooperation between officials from both countries to clarify these acts completely and for that it is essential to have the participation and involvement of us authours shes australia is stuck in a time warp because of its coal Energy Policies according to the former head of a un panel on Climate Change australians are suffering from soaring electricity prices and power blackouts the government hopes it can improve this by extending the life of an aging coal fired power station got a boo reports. The owner of the oldest coal find our station in australia says its showing its age millions of dollars are being spent to keep the forty five year old little plant running before we times in five years but the government is pressuring operator a. G. L. To continue producing power for another five years beyond then saying its key to securing electricity supplies a. G. L. Is considering the request but says it would be better off investing in new cleaner technologies such as wind and solar so its a natural progression of whatever anything comes to the end of its technical life youd run the roller over whether you extend it or whether you. Do something new in this but certainly the economics to lead you towards your goals being provided for energy and. You know very flexible efficient technologies providing that capacity the Hunter Valley north of sydney in New South Wales is at the center of the Energy Debate here because its a major coal mining and power provider the little power station is in muscle growth and the towns mayor says its time to look to the future. If it is becomes a choice between extending little for an additional five years knowing that the jobs will come to an end at that point or closing it and repurpose ing it for fifty years of new Generation Power then that is clearly the preferable option. Not only is the Israeli Government pushing to expand a prolonged the life of coal fired power stations like this one in the Hunter Valley its also backing a new coal mine which if built will be one of the largest in the world. Despite Community Opposition these trailing governments approved the multibillion dollar indian owned a car market coal mine but there are serious concerns about its financial viability the architect of the United Nations paris climate agreement which agreed to cut Greenhouse Gas emissions says. Developing coal mines now makes no sense so you know if that project had been proposed in the year nine hundred fifty it would probably have been a good project to propose that project in two thousand and seventeen frankly its like Science Fiction time warp except that Science Fiction usually looks forward this one is a Science Fiction that is looking back astray is expected to remain the Worlds Largest exporter of coal for at least the next twenty years despite that abundance some power station operators see a future in Renewable Energy and reduced carbon gas emissions. Aljazeera muscle group in the Hunter Valley the leader of columbias last rebel group has ordered his pfizers to stand down ahead of a historic he sees five beginning on sunday Nicolas Rodriguez posted a rare video online committing the National Liberation army to honoring the deal the eleven began peace talks of the government in february after the disarmament of the much larger rebel group heres Health Secretary has resigned of a controversy involving his use of at least four hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money on private jets tom price was president trumps choice to lead the movement to repeal and replace Barack ObamasHealth Care Program ellen fisher reports in washington. Tom price may have gotten his annual flu jab but he couldnt protect himself from the president s anger donald trump give a broad hint the health and Human Services secretary is time in charge would soon be over the very fine man but were going to were going to make a decision sometime and i know hes resigned even though twenty four hours before he thought he could still save his job were going to work through this and. I think we still got to the confidence of the president price faced growing criticism for his use of private flights which sometimes makes government business with his own personal agenda the cost to the taxpayer more than four hundred thousand dollars. He also made trips to europe on military jets which could take the figure to more than a million thats enough to annoy the man who wanted to dream washington swarm so i was disappointed because i didnt like it because medically or otherwise price offered to write a personal check for the cost of a seat on the private jets and he promised to fly only commercial in future it wasnt enough three other senior Trump Officials are facing questions about their travel and must know be increasingly nervous interior secretary ryan zinke he took a private jet from las vegas to his home in montana at the taxpayers expense the cost Twelve Thousand dollars and Environmental Protection agency bosco uproot flights to various parts of the u. S. Costing fifty eight thousand dollars questions are being asked about the treasury secretary steven munitions travel and requesting a government plane for his european honeymoon i think theyre doing it because the example is that from the top we see donald trump violating ethics norms on a daily basis and so i think other people think we dont really need to worry about the ethics rules and that appearances really dont matter prices resignation is another high profile friday departure from the white house is now lost more than a dozen senior staff in just nine months alan fischer washington. There are these other top stories spains governor. It is threatening to impose a three hundred fifty thousand dollars fine on volunteers at sundays a session vote in the catalonia region piece of already sealed off more than one thousand three hundred schools being used as Polling Centers offices say theyll forcibly remove anyone trying to vote spains foreign minister has called the vote a mockery of democracy from madrid tony burke he reports. All the people here very much for you but theres also. This building here about leadership is meeting its people theyre calling for them to be jailed they very much believe you know here they say theres no historical geographical reason for cuts and you have to be separate. Iraq is coordinating with iran and turkey to take over control of borders managed by the Kurdish Regional government kurdish leaders have refused to hand over responsibility for border crossings after mondays secession poll baghdad once the result of that vote an old. United nations has agreed to start an independent investigation into human rights abuses by all sides in the war in yemen it comes as another Saudi Led Coalition air strike killed five and injured six others in saada province yemens u. N. Envoy says hes government will cooperate with the investigators u. S. President donald trump is blaming what he calls fake news for claims that hes not doing enough to help put or we can recover from Hurricane Maria the mayor of puerto ricos capital san juan has accused the trumpet ministration of killing people through delays and bureaucracy you say your state Rex Tillerson says washington has direct channels of communication with north korea to see whether pyongyang is interested in dialogue tillerson has been holding high level talks in china about tension on the Korean Peninsula the u. S. Wants chinas influence to curb north Koreas Nuclear and Missile Program. Hundreds of the refugees whove crossed into bangladesh are lining up to receive aid at the could to prolong camp bangladeshis of mobilized to help some of the half a Million People escape the violence in the Un Refugee Agency in the government have been providing food and other relief. Military cargo plane has crashed in democratic republic of congo at least twelve crew members have been killed those are the headlines up front is next. Group says all sorts in an age of simplistic narratives the listening posts critiques the mainstream response exposing the influences that drive the headlines at this time on aljazeera this week donald trump announced a revolutionary tax cut for the United States but is he its biggest beneficiary renowned economist and former advisor to Ronald Reagan and to trump. Also debate whether one is turning into a dictatorship