North Korea’s state news agency has called the US-led effort to impose sanctions over its weapons programme futile, vowing the country inevitably will become a “state nuclear force”.

The comments on Sunday came from the Korean Central News Agency’s website Uriminzokkiri after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met for talks with China’s top diplomats and President Xi Jinping in Beijing over the Korean nuclear crisis.

Tillerson has been a proponent of a campaign of “peaceful pressure”, using US and UN sanctions and working with China to turn the screw on the regime.

But his efforts have been overshadowed by an extraordinary war of words, with US President Donald Trump mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “little rocket man” and Kim branding Trump a “dotard”.

OPINION: What can actually trigger war on the Korean peninsula? 

“The US and the South Korean puppet forces are mistaken if they think that sanctions and pressure will keep the DPRK from attaining the goal of completing the state nuclear force,” said KCNA, using the acronym for the country’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The US and vassal forces would be well advised to bear in mind that their frantic sanctions – contrary to the trend of the times – will lead to their final doom.”

Washington has reached out to Pyongyang but received no response.

“We ask: Would you like talk?” Tillerson said on Saturday. “We’re not in a dark situation, a blackout. We have a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang.”

In Washington, the State Department said while communications channels do exist, North Korea has shown no interest in talking about giving up its nuclear weapons.    

“Despite assurances that the United States is not interested in promoting the collapse of the current regime, pursuing regime change, accelerating reunification of the peninsula or mobilising forces north of the DMZ [de-militarised zone], North Korean officials have shown no indication that they are interested in or are ready for talks regarding de-nuclearisation,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

The United States has not ruled out the use of force to compel Pyongyang to halt missile and nuclear tests, and last week Trump threatened to “totally destroy” the country.

But privately senior figures admit military options don’t look promising, with ally South Korea’s densely populated capital Seoul – a city of 25 million people – in range of the North’s heavy artillery. 

Even as Tillerson met Xi and China’s top diplomats State Councillor Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the North’s propaganda agency fired a new barrage of insults.    

A statement proclaimed Trump an “old psychopath” bent on the “suicidal act of inviting a nuclear disaster that will reduce America to a sea of flames”.

READ MORE: Pyongyang: All options on the table 

North Korea’s rhetoric has been backed by a provocative series of ballistic missile tests and on September 3 it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test yet.

Washington, backed by most of the international community, has declared North Korea’s programme unacceptable, fearing its own vast arsenal will not deter Kim from attack.

With the world on edge, fears are growing a miscalculation from either side could trigger a renewed deadly conflict on the divided Korean peninsula.

Some recent tests saw North Korean missiles flying over Japan en route to the Pacific, and its latest underground detonation appears to have been a powerful hydrogen bomb.    

Observers have expressed concern if the North carries out an atmospheric nuclear test over the ocean, Washington will feel obliged to take risky military action.

But Tillerson said that decision would be up to Trump alone. “As far as I know the commander-in-chief has issued no red lines.”    

Tillerson instead called for calm, singling out Pyongyang’s missile tests for criticism.    

“The whole situation is a bit overheated right now. I think everyone would like for it to calm down,” he said in response to a question about Trump’s threats.      

“I think if North Korea would stop firing all the missiles, that would calm down things a lot.”

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

It’s no secret that Samsung wants (and arguably, needs) to bolster its AI work. The Bixby assistant is already a tentpole feature for Samsung’s smartphones, and it’s spreading to devices like smart speakers or even appliances. If it’s going to be a success, it needs to rapidly evolve past its current rough state and become something you’d actually prefer — especially since it does have relatively unique features like object identification. Combine this with Samsung’s early autonomous driving and robotics work and it’s possible that the fate of the company could hinge on the strength of its AI labs.

And one thing’s for sure: Canada’s investment in AI (it earmarked $125 million in federal funding, among other initiatives) is leading to a fierce battle for talent, particularly in Montreal. While major brands are researching AI across the country, such as Google’s DeepMind office in Edmonton and Apple’s self-driving unit in Ottawa, Montreal was already home to teams from Facebook, Google and Microsoft. If Samsung didn’t open an AI lab in the city, it risked losing talent. It’s hard to say how much longer this trend will continue, but it’s easy to see other big names following suit out of fears they’ll miss a big AI breakthrough.

Amazon is mainly selling the new Fire TV’s hardware-dependent features, such as 4K HDR video and Dolby Atmos sound, but there are some key software improvements, too. The online shopping giant has revealed that the device’s Fire OS 6 underpinnings run on Android Nougat, enabling app features specific to Google’s not-quite-latest platform. You can play picture-in-picture video within apps, so you don’t have to disrupt your show while you check settings. There’s a framework for time-shifting to pause and rewind live video. And apps can record content, including scheduling that can grab content automatically. This doesn’t mean that you’ll be ripping video from your favorite streaming service, but it does make it relatively easy for Fire TV apps to include DVR-like functions or capture epic game sessions. Just don’t expect these features to reach your older hardware.

Tom Alter, an Indian actor of American descent who worked on more than 300 films, has died at age 67 after battling skin cancer.

Alter died at his home in Mumbai, India’s financial hub and entertainment capital, late on Friday night.

He was diagnosed with skin cancer last year and had received treatment, but had suffered a relapse earlier this month.

Indian leaders as well as top film and theatre personalities expressed grief at his demise and offered condolences.

“While we mourn deeply, we are grateful he is now at peace,” a statement from his family said.

“Our family is so grateful for the overwhelming outpouring of love for our dear Tom.” 

Goodbye, Tom Alter. You might have been American, we might have made you play an Englishman, but you were all ours. RIP, sir. http://pic.twitter.com/2oV1EXKpy6

— Raja Sen (@RajaSen) September 30, 2017

Born in India to US missionary parents, Alter spoke Hindi fluently and acted in both Bollywood and international films, in television shows and on the stage.

A sports journalist in the 1980s and 90s, Alter was the first person to interview Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on TV, the Times of India said.

Alter was known for his role as a gangster on the 1990s soap opera Junoon, as well as for his work in Gandhi (1982) and One Night with the King (2006), the Hindustan Times reported.

In 2008, he received a Padma Shri award for distinguished service in art from the government of India.

Difficult decision

After resolving to become an actor and attending a film institute in Pune, about 150km outside Mumbai, Alter decided to renounce his US passport, according to a New York Times interview from 1989.

“You have to be truly committed to this country, otherwise you don’t get respect or acceptability,” Alter told the New York Times of the difficult decision.

Alter is survived by his wife, Carol Evans, son Jamie and daughter Afshaan. His body was cremated in Mumbai later on Saturday.

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, offered condolences to Alter’s family and recalled the actor’s contribution to the film world and theatre.

Through my first ever TV interview, met a true sports lover and a good human being. You will live in our hearts forever. RIP #TomAlter http://pic.twitter.com/BJ0fjqaSzM

— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 30, 2017

Source: DPA news agency

The wish of Catalans to vote in a banned referendum on breaking away from Spain “is unstoppable”, Carles Puigdemont, the region’s president, has told Al Jazeera, even as Spanish authorities step up efforts to stop the poll from happening.

The central government in Madrid has mobilised thousands of police to the northeastern region to stop the referendum, while the country’s  Constitutional Court suspended the vote after authorities challenged its legality.

Speaking to Al Jazeera’s John Hendren on the eve of the poll, Puigdemont said “referendums are not carried out by the courts or the police”.

“It’s voters who make up a referendum,” he added. “The wish to vote is unstoppable. You cannot put a brake on it.”

If it takes place, Sunday’s vote will be the region’s second referendum on independence in three years. The previous ballot, a non-binding vote in November 2014, returned an 80 percent result in favour of an independent Catalan state. However, less than half of the 5.4 million eligible voters participated.

Puigdemont’s interview, edited for clarity and brevity, can be read below. 

Al Jazeera: In 2014’s non-binding referendum, you had 2.4 million people voting. Now, the Spanish government wants to dramatically minimise that and delegitimise the whole process. So, technically, how can the vote take place? 

Carles Puigdemont: Spain never authorised any referendum or any consultation, even on a non-binding nature.

But one important thing has happened in the past few days. There is a new wide-ranging majority in Catalonia which has grown and wants to vote – be it “Yes” or “No” – and this is unstoppable.

READ MORE: Catalonia independence referendum – All you need to know

Referendums are not carried out by the courts or the police – it’s voters who make up a referendum. The wish to vote is unstoppable, you cannot put a brake on it.

Today the debate is not between Yes” or “No”, it’s above all between those who wish to create a new, modern state right from the grassroots or to continue with an authoritarian state which can cut back on our freedom and liberties, and compel us to continue forming part of this state.

Al Jazeera:  There is really no campaign in favour of “No”, so how do you ensure that there are objective people at the polls? And since you had to reprint the ballot papers many times, after the Spanish government has confiscated over 10 million of them, how do you ensure that they are legitimate?

Puigdemont:You have the registered census – people who are in the census will be able to vote, and people who are not in the census will not be able to vote.

People will not be able to vote twice over. There will be an electoral panel, which will be checking each voter individually. We should do things democratically via politics, not using the police or the courts.

Al Jazeera: With this cat-and-mouse game, in which police are shutting down polling stations, is there a secret plan for how to carry this out?

Puigdemont: We don’t know what the plans of the state are to stop the referendum. They’ve kept them under wraps.

So, we have no obligation to publicise how we are going to organise the referendum, the logistics – and there has been, as you have rightly said, a cat-and-mouse game.

Al Jazeera: Describe what an independent Catalonia would look like.

Puigdemont: We are committed to the great challenges of humanity: fighting terrorism, fighting climate change, fighting cyber-attacks.

Al Jazeera: On the front lines of this quiet revolution are children, young people out in the streets, people who have gone to Catalan schools and are now occupying schools to keep them open as voting places. At the same time, there are thousands of police in the street and there is the potential for violence. If it gets ugly, what will you tell them?

Puigdemont: Firstly, it is inconceivable that a peaceful people that expresses itself peacefully could be repressed with violent means.

For the last six years, we have organised demonstrations which have brought together millions of people with zero incidents of violence. We can mobilise large masses. Now that we have 10 times more police, should we be scared of violence? It’s rather suspicious.

The question should be, “Is anyone interested in generating a climate of violence in Catalonia to attack the reputation of a movement which has earned its credibility the hard way by the way it expresses its opinion peacefully?”

There is no violence. So, if someone does have this temptation, they’ll be doing themselves no favour, and they’ll be doing European democracy no favour.

It’s a peaceful, civic, cross-cutting movement, with young people, old people, people from rural backgrounds, people from metropolitan backgrounds, people of different levels of education, people who are wealthy and people who are not wealthy.

We do not have to show that we are a peaceful people who know how to think properly – we have proved that.

Al Jazeera: If you succeed, you’ll have to decide what relationships the nation of Catalonia has. In the European Union, any country can withhold its support for a new country entering. Spain would almost certainly do that. Don’t you run the risk of doing a Catalonian Brexit in putting more borders between you and Europe rather than fewer?

Puigdemont: No, that is impossible. Firstly, we are already European citizens. There are 7.5 million Catalans who have European citizenship and we shall not lose it. To date, I have never requested recognition from any European state because I’ve never known the result of the referendum.

After the referendum, we shall move forward on that. We are pretty confident about the future of Catalonia within the European Union. It is a yes-yes situation.

Al Jazeera: How do you evaluate the reaction of the Spanish and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy?

Puigdemont: It is no surprise, but we are very disappointed. Maybe you have seen images of Spanish people in various points of Spain where police convoys are leaving for Catalonia saying, “Go and get them”.

Those images define or reflect the policy of the Rajoy government. They have no interest in making us feel comfortable and happy within Spain.  

The Spanish government has almost acted like an arsonist. It has been putting wood on the fire. It has been acting totally irresponsibly.

And it is a lack of Spanish patriotism – a genuine Spanish patriot would want everything in its country to go smoothly, for everyone to feel happy within the state.

Al Jazeera: If you don’t succeed, you face some pretty serious consequences with the Spanish government. They have accused the organisers of this referendum of crimes, including sedition, which comes with a penalty of up to 15 years in prison. Are you willing to face that?

Puigdemont: We accept full responsibility, but it would be very, very irresponsible for the response to a political aspiration to be a prison sentence.

I am no delinquent. I’m no criminal. I am not responsible for sedition. You don’t normally get coup d’etats with ballot papers instead of guns.

I accept my responsibilities, but let me tell you it would be a very severe mistake and they would have to live with the consequences. It would be a definite blow.

Source: Al Jazeera News

After weeks of intense negotiations, the UN has agreed to set up an investigation into alleged human rights violations in Yemen.

Some European countries and Canada had asked for a Commission of Inquiry (COI) in Yemen, the UN’s highest level of investigation.

But a compromise with a group of Arab states including Saudi Arabia was reached, which removed the call for the COI from the adopted version resolution.

Yemeni government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, have been battling Houthi fighters since 2015.

How much has politics played in this UN decision? And who will hold those found guilty of war crimes to account?

Presenter: Hazem Sika

Guests:

Hakim Masmari – Editor-in-Chief, Yemen Post

Sami Hamdi – Editor, International Interest

Rocco Blume – Conflict and Humanitarian Policy Adviser, War Child

Source: Al Jazeera

A lot of fans are obviously unhappy about the change, especially since streamers have to be part of YouTube’s Partner Program to be eligible for Nintendo’s. That means they first have to rack up at least 10,000 public views and get approved for YouTube’s partnership before they can even apply for the developer’s. To be clear, program members can still post “Let’s Play” type videos with commentaries. However, if they want to broadcast live, they can only choose between two options.

They can either livestream on a channel not affiliated with the program or pull their channel out of the initiative entirely. If they opt for the latter, they can then register any of their work that contains a Nintendo IP on a per video basis. Unfortunately, they’ll only get 60 percent of the ad revenue if they opt to register each video separately, whereas member channels get 70 percent.

More than 60 people have been arrested during a neo-Nazi rally and counterdemonstration in Sweden’s second-largest city, according to police.

The rally by the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) in Gothenburg on Saturday featured an estimated 600 people, short of the 1,000 supporters the group said would attend, according to the Swedish anti-racist magazine, Expo.

Those who attended marched in formation in all-black outfits, some wearing helmets and holding shields.

Anger as Swedish neo-Nazis prepare for Yom Kippur march

The march, dubbed Revolt Against the Traitors, was met by a large crowd of counterdemonstrators.

Police had posted flyers before the event warning people not to act in a way reminiscent of German Nazis demonstrations in the 1930s and 1940s.

NMR, which promotes an openly anti-Semitic doctrine, originally sought to pass near a downtown synagogue during the march, which coincided with Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day of the year.

But Swedish courts intervened and shortened the route to less than one kilometre. The rally’s ending time was also shortened to avoid clashing with a nearby football game.

Counterdemonstrators threw fireworks and attempted several times to break police lines, allegedly to confront NMR members, who also tried to get past riot police.

At least 60 people were detained, police said in a statement after the rally. Two people were also reportedly injured.

“Stones, bottles and sticks were also thrown at us,” police spokesman Hans Lippens said.

Police offered to shuttle NMR members away in buses after they were circled by riot police, preventing them from completing their march.

Police said the move was meant to keep both sides apart.

The NMR later demanded that its leader who had been detained, Simon Lindberg, be released before they would leave the square.

According to local media, the NMR said that it may not seek permission for future protests.

Some 20 people, mostly Danes and Germans, were stopped as they arrived in Sweden to take part in the demonstration.

Prior to the rally, anti-racist politicians, watchdog organisations and Jewish groups expressed their anger and frustration over the scheduled event.

“As a democracy, we should do much more to oppose Nazism and extremism,” Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s prime minister, said on Friday at an EU summit in Tallinn.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Defakto is a small German watchmaker that has made a name for itself over the years thanks to the unique, but classic designs it boasts thanks to mark founder Raphael Ickler. The latest watch from Ickler and Defakto, the Vektor, continues this tradition of smart, minimalist looks, but adds a very slim case thanks to use of a Miyota 9015 automatic Japanese movement, and brings some extra retro appeal with a domed plexiglass front sphere and manually bent-minute and second hands that follow the curve of the dome.

As a whole, Defakto has long been one of my favourite smaller watchmakers, since it makes affordable (in watch world terms) timepieces with quality components, featuring case and face designs that are at once visually spare and yet also striking. The Vektor might be my favorite yet from Defakto, however, thanks to a combination of a small, 39mm case and height of only 9.8mm including that domed plexiglass. The red-hued hands in the version I reviewed (there’s also a black on white model) stand out strongly against the black face, as do the fine but easily readable white minute and hour indicators.

This watch also features a stainless steel polished case, which adds very little additional size and weight to the overall design, but helps accentuate its 50s-ish retro charm. The included German-made black soft cowhide strap completes the picture from a design standpoint, but also feels very comfortable even for all-day wear, with a supple, soft finish on the brown underside where it sits on your wrist.

There’s a display caseback too, giving you a look at the Miyota movement with a custom-engraved rotor for automatic winding, and the slender movement itself has some nice detail work with polished striations and contrasting brass gears.

This is also a watch that’s a treat to examine up close or using a macro lens – the hand-bent, thin minute and second hands seem to ride just under the glass, and the stacked central hearts upon which they turn reveal excellent attention to detail in the craftsmanship of the watch. Again, this is not surprising coming from Ickler and Defakto, but it’s a nice treat whenever I give the watch an up close inspection.

Few watches come quite this close to achieving a perfect balance in terms of size, subtlety, interesting visual features and general wearability – you can dress the Vektor up just as easily as wear it out as your daily wrist companion.

At around $635 U.S. before any import taxes or duties, it’s not cheap; but it’s a very high quality design and build from a watchmaker with a known track record, and again one of the best balanced looks for a watch in this category currently in my opinion. Watches with this Miyota movement are more frequently occupying this price band, and it’s still a lot less than you’ll likely pay for a bulkier design with an entry-level Swiss ETA automatic movement.

Defakto also has excellent sales and support in my opinion, and their watches also definitely pass the test of time. The new Vektor might be my favorite yet from this small German mark, and it’s bound to make an impact on anyone with good taste in precision handcrafted design.

Catalonia, whose leaders are pushing for a split from Spain in a banned referendum on Sunday, is one of the powerhouses of the Spanish economy. 

The region, in the northeast of Spain, is buoyed by industry, research and tourism – but burdened with a heavy debt.

Catalonia accounted for 19 percent of Spain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year, rivaling Madrid for the distinction of being the country’s richest region.

READ MORE: Catalonia independence referendum – All you need to know

It is fourth in terms of GDP per capita with 28,600 euro ($33,600), after Madrid, the northern Basque Country and neighbouring Navarra. GDP per capita in Spain overall is 24,000 euro.

Like in Madrid, unemployment is also lower than in the rest of the country: 13.2 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 17.2 percent nationally.

Home to big companies

Catalonia is by far Spain’s top exporting region, with 25 percent of all goods produced there sold abroad last year and in the first quarter of 2017.

It attracted some 14 percent of foreign investment in Spain in 2015, in second place after Madrid, which received a huge 64 percent, but far ahead of all the other regions, according to the economy ministry’s latest data.

Several large companies have their headquarters in Catalonia’s capital, Barcelona: textile group Mango, Spain’s third largest bank CaixaBank, Gas Natural, highway giant Abertis or perfume firm Puig, which owns Nina Ricci, Paco Rabanne and Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Major industrial player

The agri-food, chemistry and auto sectors are pillars of Catalan industry, which also has a big logistics hub.

The biggest industrial sector in the region in terms of jobs and turnover is agri-food, buoyed by the powerful meat business which exports a lot of pork.

READ MORE: Spanish police seal off polling stations in Catalonia

Oil, food for cattle and grocery products also contribute.

The region concentrates around half of all of Spain’s chemical production, with a major hub in Tarragona.

According to the sector’s regional federation, turnover in Catalonia is higher than in Austria or Denmark.

In 2016, the region was also the second car producer in Spain after Castilla y Leon. Nissan and Volkswagen, via its brand Seat, have factories there. Spain is the second biggest vehicle maker in the EU after Germany.

New technology and research

Since the 1990s Catalonia has invested in research, particularly in bioscience – genetics, neurosciences, cell biology – and the sector now represents seven percent of its GDP.

With many cutting-edge hospitals and research centres, including in the nuclear sector with a particle accelerator, the region says it is number one in Europe for pharmaceutical companies per capita.

READ MORE: Catalonia referendum ‘impossible to stop’

New technology is also very present in Barcelona, which every year hosts the Mobile World Congress.

Catalan universities are among the best in the country: of the top five Spanish universities in the widely-watched annual ranking compiled by the independent Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, three are Catalan.

These are Pompeu Fabra, the University of Barcelona and the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Its business schools – Esade and IESE – are well known and Barcelona also has big publishing houses.

The Casa Batllo, one of famed architect Antoni Gaudi’s masterpieces, illuminated in Barcelona [File: Albert Gea/Reuters]

Top tourism destination

With its Barcelona and Costa Brava beaches, Catalonia is the Spanish region that most attracts foreign tourists and the trend is on the rise.

More than 18 million visitors went in 2016, or a quarter of all foreigners who came to Spain.

Its airport is the country’s second biggest after Madrid. In 2016, it handled more than 44 million passengers.

It is particularly valued by low-cost companies that want to make it a European hub for their long-distance flights to the Americas.

Barcelona’s port is the third biggest in Spain for goods after Algeciras in the south and Valencia in the east, and one of the largest in Europe for cruise ships.

Debt the weak link

Catalonia’s debt represents 35.4 percent of its GDP, which made it the third most indebted region in Spain in the first quarter of 2017, after Valencia and Castilla La Mancha.

At the end of June, its debt stood at 76.7 billion euro.

Ratings agencies have given it a low, speculative grade, which means Catalonia is not able to borrow directly on financial markets. So it depends on loans emitted by the Spanish state.

Economic impact of secession

The issue is much debated among both camps, who generally present widely different figures, often based on different methodologies and hypotheses.

If independence were to happen, Spain’s economy ministry claims that Catalonia would leave the European Union, its GDP would fall 25 to 30 percent and unemployment would double.

But some economists believe that the newly-formed republic would stay in the EU, predicting its GDP would remain stable in the short term and rise seven percent long term.

Catalonia’s government also says the region would no longer suffer from what it calls a “fiscal deficit”, given that the region pays more in taxes to Madrid than it gets back.

The regional executive says this deficit is around 16 billion euro, or eight percent of Catalonia’s GDP and the central government, with a different methodology, estimates it to be 10 billion euro, or five percent of regional GDP.

Source: AFP news agency

The connection between the Apple Watch and an iPhone is the core of Apple’s wearable experience, and for the first time, the company gave the Watch the tools to function independently. Seeing the Watch hop onto an LTE network and use your same phone number is undeniably neat, but honestly, it’s not something I’d want to do very often.

First off, yes, you’re going to have to pay your carrier $10 a month for the privilege, not to mention an activation fee once this first wave of promotions dies down. Setting up the Watch with my AT&T phone plan was mostly a breeze, but some reviewers have experienced issues getting everything squared away, especially when older rate plans were involved. Your mileage may vary, but I suspect most of you won’t need to worry much.

Actually using the phone is easier than expected — you can either punch in a number or select one of your contacts — and call quality was generally very good. In a majority of conversations I had, the people on the other end couldn’t even tell I was talking into a watch. That can change suddenly, though. Earlier this week, I parked myself outside the office to take a few phone calls, and the signal indicator bounced between two and four dots of coverage while I was just sitting there.

As a result, call quality got really strange — I could hear the other party just fine, but I sounded like a mess to them. This only happened one other time, in a completely different location, and I’m at a loss as to why. In any case, if you’re interested in taking calls on a Series 3, a Bluetooth headset is a must. It’ll also help in situations where the watch’s speaker just isn’t loud enough, which is most of the time, frankly.

Messages rolled in quickly too, but here’s the thing: not all messages are treated equally. As long as you have some kind of wireless signal, iMessages will be delivered just fine. Text messages are usually subject to a delay since they’re routed through your iPhone, but this also means that SMSes won’t come through at all if your iPhone is dead. Emails running through Apple’s Mail app worked fine but took longer than usual to pop up on my wrist, so I wouldn’t advise going watch-only when urgent business is in the offing. And most of the Watch apps I installed worked normally, though a few — like Slack and Twitter — either did nothing or force quit when I tried to use them.

Early review models also seemed prone to connectivity issues stemming from a Wi-Fi bug — in a bid to conserve battery life, the Series 3 tries to latch onto wireless networks your other Apple devices have flagged as being suitable for use. The problem was, not every network was flagged correctly, so captive portals (like those used at say, Starbucks) would get the OK and the Watch would try to connect, with no way of getting past whatever interstitial screen popped up. It’s not that the Watch was going out of its way to jump onto unfamiliar networks — it’s that it some of the networks it thinks are kosher actually aren’t.

This is a major goof, but I can see why it might have escaped detection — I have had precisely zero issues with my Series 3 attempting to latch onto bum networks. Then again, I’m one person, and I find it hard to believe that not a single engineer testing the Series 3 prior to launch ran into this. I’m fairly sure you won’t run into this very specific kind of trouble, but it remains a risk; Apple promised a fix after catching some well-deserved flak, but it still hadn’t materialized when we published this review.

Really, my biggest concern is much more mundane: Going completely iPhone-free means the Watch’s battery life will take a huge hit. After an early morning run while listening to music and using the GPS, followed by a couple of test calls, the Series 3 was on its last legs by early afternoon. Apple has always been clear that the Series 3 is more of a temporary phone substitute than an actual replacement, so this probably won’t seem shocking to you. Still, if this morning routine sounds like your idea of a good time, remember to have a charger handy.

I don’t mean to make the Series 3 sound terrible at this stuff — when everything works properly, it makes for an adequate untethered companion. It’s just too bad that those moments weren’t as common as I expected.

As a fitness tracker

The head of Colombia’s last remaining rebel group has ordered fighters to stand down in advance of a bilateral ceasefire taking effect this weekend.

The ceasefire is an important milestone in efforts to end a half century of political violence in the South American country.

In a rare video posted online on Friday, Nicolas Rodriguez, known by his war alias Gabino, said he was confident fighters belonging to the National Liberation Army (ELN) would obey orders not to attack government troops or take other actions banned by the ceasefire.

“I have no doubt of your loyalty and that you will fulfil this commitment to the last consequences,” Rodriguez said.

Hopes were high for peace talks between the government and the ELN that started in February in Ecuador following an agreement last year that led to the disarmament of the much larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

But progress has been slow as the ELN has remained on the offensive and stepped up attacks on oil pipelines.

Just this week, the group was blamed for two simultaneous attacks on a major oil pipeline near the border with Venezuela that dumped crude in several rivers and farms affecting 700 families.

President Juan Manuel Santos on Friday signed a decree ordering troops not to attack ELN rebels once the temporary ceasefire takes effect at midnight Saturday.

Santos pointed out that this would be the first bilateral ceasefire the ELN has signed in its history.

The ceasefire, agreed to on September 4, will initially last until January 9, after which it can be renewed by mutual consent.

As part of the agreement, the ELN has pledged to suspend hostage-taking, recruitment of minors and attacks on infrastructure.

READ MORE: Colombia declares FARC war over as last guns taken away

 The government in turn must improve conditions for jailed rebels, as well as boost protections for leftist activists in areas dominated by the ELN.

“As Pope Francis has urged, we must never stop pursuing peace,” Santos said.

According to the protocol signed by government and rebel negotiators, UN observers will fan out across the country to 33 areas where the ELN is strongest to monitor the ceasefire’s implementation.

They will be assisted by the Roman Catholic Church, from which many of the ELN’s founders – priests and seminary students – hail.

The FARC and ELN formed in 1964 to fight for land rights and protection of poor rural communities.

Source: News agencies

Titled “Portraits of Her”, the ad features Shannon Wise of music group The Shacks walking along a sidewalk and singing the band’s 2016 single “This Strange Effect” as the camera transitions through the Portrait Lighting mode’s range of effects, such as Natural Light, Studio Light, Contour Light, and Stage Light.

The Portrait Lighting feature on the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X uses sophisticated algorithms to calculate how facial features interact with ambient light. While developing the new camera feature, Apple reportedly studied the work of professional portrait photographers as well as famous painters to see how lighting has been used in the visual arts throughout history.

Since the start of Europe’s migrant crisis, Hungary has regularly been criticised over its controversial and tough immigration policies.

In September, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected complaints filed by Slovakia and Hungary against a mandatory quota to accept asylum seekers, established as part of efforts to resettle arriving refugees more equally across the EU. 

The court’s decision is final and not open to appeal. As a result, European officials will continue to be able to order member state governments to take in specific quotas of refugees entering the bloc.

Budapest condemned the court ruling as “appalling and irresponsible”, saying the EU will pay for its security fence with Serbia. Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, reportedly said: “This decision jeopardises the security and future of all of Europe. Politics has raped European law and values.”

So is Hungary willing to play by the EU’s rules? And with increasing criticism of the country’s immigration policies and concerning freedom of speech, does Hungary really share the EU’s values?

“I think [the criticism] it’s extremely unfair because there’s an issue where we don’t agree – definitely. We think illegal migration is a security threat to Europe. Others say that illegal migration is acceptable. We don’t think its acceptable. But that should not give the reason to anyone to question whether Hungary respects European values or not because we have been members of the European Union… we share the European regulations, and we share the European values, of course,” Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s foreign minister, tells Al Jazeera.

Responding to criticism that his country isn’t living up to its treaty obligations of accepting more refugees, Szijjarto tells Al Jazeera:

“Hungary has always fulfilled all the obligations we have on an international level. When the migrants came to Hungary, we have offered them the supply and treatment which is written in the international contracts and regulations. But those people were not ready to go to refugee camps, those people occupied public areas, those people blocked the highways, those people occupied the railway stations…. They refused to cooperate with the local authorities, they refused to go to the refugee camps, and they have violated very important European regulations…”

Hungary’s foreign minister calls illegal migration a “bad phenomenon” and believes the migrant issue is to blame for the security threat facing Europe.

“The security situation has never been that bad in Europe than currently in modern history and the threat of terror has never been that serious as it is currently, and this is a direct consequence of the fact that 1.5 illegal migrants were allowed to come to Europe without any kind of control, regulation or check. And with this I don’t say that those 1.5 million are terrorists – of course I don’t say that – but I say such a big, illegal massive influx of people gave the opportunity for terrorist organisations to send their fighters, their terrorists to come to Europe.”

“Our position is that we should not encourage more people to take the life hazard, life risk to come to Europe, but we should help them to stay as close to their homes as possible. That’s why our initiative has always been to give more financial aid to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, the Kurdish region of Iraq because these entities have been taking care of many refugees,” Szijjarto says.

Despite disagreements and controversy, Szijjarto says Hungary is committed to staying in the EU: “We have been members of the European Union and we will be members of the European Union – that’s not a question, no one raises this question.” 

Source: Al Jazeera

The Iranian and Iraqi armies will hold joint drills at several crossings on Iran’s border with the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan, according to officials.

The announcement on Saturday came amid rising tensions in the wake of a controversial secession referendum in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, where almost 93 percent of voters backed a split from Baghdad.

Monday’s poll was strongly opposed by Iraq and its powerful neighbours Iran and Turkey amid fears it would provoke separatists among their own Kurdish population.

“A joint military exercise between Iran’s armed forces and units from the Iraqi army will be held in the coming days along the shared border,” Masoud Jazayeri, Iranian army spokesman, said on Saturday after a high-level meeting of Iranian commanders.

“In the meeting, the territorial integrity and unity of Iraq and the illegitimacy of the independence referendum in northern Iraq were stressed again and necessary decisions were taken to provide security at the borders and welcome Iraq’s central government forces to take position at border crossings.”

Iraqi soldiers on Tuesday also took part in a Turkish military drill close to the Iraqi frontier.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has refused to hand over control of its border crossings to the Iraqi government, as demanded by Iraq, Iran and Turkey in retaliation for the referendum.

OPINION: Kurdish independence vote – A historical perspective

The Iraqi defence ministry has said it planned to take control of the borders “in coordination” with Tehran and Ankara, without indicating whether Iraqi forces were to move towards the external border posts controlled by the KRG from the Iranian and Turkish side.

On Friday, Iraq also imposed a ban on international flights into its Kurdish region, ordering foreign airlines to suspend travel to the airports in the cities of Erbil and Sulaimaniya.

Tehran has been cooperating with Baghdad in building pressure on Iraqi Kurds, notably by cutting all flights to and from the region ahead of the vote.

On Friday, it also banned the transportation of refined oil products by Iranian companies to and from Iraqi Kurdistan.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Spanish police have sealed off more than half of schools earmarked as polling stations for a banned referendum on Catalonia’s breakaway from Spain, according to officials.

Separatists in the northeastern region on Friday evening and Saturday morning started occupying voting stations in a bid to ensure Sunday’s poll, which has been declared illegal by Spanish authorities, goes ahead.

READ MORE: Catalonia independence referendum – All you need to know

The central government in Madrid said on Saturday that 1,300 of 2,315 designated voting stations have been sealed off by police, who have been mobilised in the thousands in the region.

Enric Millo, the highest-ranking Spanish official in Catalonia, said parents and students were found to be occupying 163 schools and holding activities when police were sealing off facilities on Saturday.

‘Key battlegrounds’

Catalonia is a wealthy region within Spain that accounts for about 20 percent of the country’s economy. It has its own language, which is taught in schools and universally spoken.

Tens of thousands of Catalans are expected to attempt to vote in a ballot that will have no legal status as it has been blocked by Spain’s Constitutional Court and Madrid for being at odds with the 1978 constitution.

Al Jazeera’s Karl Penhaul, reporting from Catalonia’s capital, Barcelona, said that poll supporters spent the night in schools with their children.

“Citizens and families here have been getting together and organising defence committies. They know that those schools have become key battlegrounds in Catalonia’s political struggle,” he said.

OPINION: The case against Catalan secession

Speaking from a central Barcelona school, where adults and children slept in sleeping bags on gym mats, a separatist supporter who identified herself only as Giselle said: “We slept and waited for them (police) so that they would not try to evict us or tell us what they wanted.

“They came once and they were very polite. We told them we were inside and in peace,” she told Reuters news agency.

Police have been ordered not to use force, but to vacate the schools by 6am (04:00 GMT) on Sunday, ahead of the scheduled opening of polls at 9am (07:00 GMT).

Millo said anyone remaining in schools after 6am will need to be removed in line with a judge’s orders, but predicts there won’t be significant problems.

“I trust in the common sense of Catalans and that people will operate with prudence,” he said.

OPINION: Why Catalonia should be given a say on its future

The Catalan regional government said police had also occupied its communications hub and would remain there for two days after Catalonia’s High Court ordered police to prevent electronic voting and instructed Google to delete an application it said was being used to spread information on the vote.

But despite the efforts to prevent the referendum, Catalan leaders remained defiant, with the region’s foreign affairs chief telling Al Jazeera on Friday that the vote “is impossible to stop“.

Raul Romeva also called on the Spanish government to allow Catalan voters to “solve the situation by democracy” and reassured that “there is not a single reason to believe that there is a risk of violence” on Sunday.

Rival rallies in Barcelona, Madrid

On Friday evening, about 10,000 supporters of the referendum gathered off Barcelona’s Placa d’Espanya, or Spain Square.

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said regardless of how many people actually cast the ballots, if a majority say “Yes”, he will declare independence on Tuesday.

“In these hugely intense and hugely emotional moments, we sense that what we once thought was only a dream is within reach,” Puigdemont told a cheering crowd.

“On Sunday, we have a date with the future.”

READ MORE: Catalan leader accuses Spain of ‘totalitarian’ actions

The mood, however, was markedly different in Spain’s capital, Madrid, where thousands of people rallied on Saturday in favour of Spanish unity on Saturday

Waving red and yellow Spanish flags, the demonstrators gathered in the central Plaza de Cibeles, in front of the capital’s town hall, chanting “Catalonia is part of Spain!” and “I am Spanish, Spanish, Spanish!” – a cry usually heard during national team football matches.

Demonstrators in Madrid attend a rally in favour of a unified Spain [Yves Herman/Reuters]

“There was a depth of feeling here that we haven’t seen in the rest of Spain in the last few weeks. People have been rather mute in their response to this referendum crisis but today they voiced their opinions,” Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley, reporting from Madrid, said.

“Everyone we spoke to was unanimously in favour of Catalonia staying in Spain and some of them were calling for the jailing of the Catalan leadership, so feelings are running high.”

Opinion polls show Catalonia’s roughly 7.5 million residents are divided on independence.

A survey commissioned by the regional government in July showed 49.4 percent of Catalans were against independence while 41.1 percent were in favour.

More than 70 percent of Catalans want a legal referendum on independence to settle the issue.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Electricity is central to life on the island, just as it is in modern societies across the globe — and, no, it’s not just a matter of running televisions and toys. Puerto Rico’s sole energy provider powers everything from hospitals and food-storage facilities to air-conditioning and communication services. Most of Puerto Rico today is running on generator power, leading to extremely long lines at temporary gas stations as residents attempt to secure a canister of the scarce resource.

Water is one of the most pressing issues, however. Without power, there’s no way to pump water into homes and businesses, and some residents are collecting it where they can, including out of open-road drainage tracts and fire hydrants. People in Utuado, a city of 30,000, are relying on a pipe tapped into a mountain spring by the side of a highway. Until help arrives, that’s the only water available for drinking and cleaning in the area, CNN reports.

This week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated that 42 percent of Puerto Ricans were without access to potable water. As of Friday, just nine of the island’s 52 wastewater treatment facilities were operational.

Eighty percent of the island’s overhead transmission lines were damaged in the storm. While underground lines were mostly unaffected, most of Puerto Rico’s power system is aboveground. This devastation knocked out air-conditioning and refrigeration systems — many people were stranded by debris clogging the island’s roads, in need of food and ways to safely store it. In the most isolated cities, families are rationing crackers and watching their food and medicines go bad.

Hospitals are another beast altogether. Roughly 70 percent of Puerto Rico’s hospitals are not operational, but one facility that is, San Jorge Children’s Hospital in San Juan, needs 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel every day to function outside of the power grid. With rampant supply and transportation issues, keeping the lights — and lifesaving medical equipment — on is nearly impossible. This week, San Jorge lost power for an eight-hour stretch, from 6 PM to 2 AM. Ventilators and other essential machines were kept on via emergency backup power, but the hospital was forced to discharge 40 patients. As of Thursday, the hospital had just enough diesel to last through this Saturday.

The death toll is mounting, and there are far more fatalities linked to Hurricane Maria than has been officially reported, according to The Miami Herald. The official number is 16 deaths, though most hospital morgues (there are 18 operating at least partially) report being at full capacity.

The longer power is out, the more likely it is that illness will spread. Without power to provide clean water, storage and medical help, doctors and experts expect the number of deaths to rise.

“It’s coming,” Dr. Norbert Seda of the Canovanas Medical Center told CNN. “When there’s a shortage of water and sanitation issues, it will come out. We are expecting something like that to happen.”

Billions of dollars in debt and facing an islandwide humanitarian crisis, Puerto Rico is not equipped to rebuild its power grid on its own. One of the most likely paths it’ll take is privatization.

What’s next

Privatizing Puerto Rico’s power grid isn’t a new idea. Officials have been floating the possibility for years, and in June, four members of Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board penned an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal called simply “Privatize Puerto Rico’s Power.”

Congress established this seven-person board under President Barack Obama in 2016, as part of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, which aimed to dig the territory (and PREPA) out of its massive debt via increased US oversight. The board is able to seize public assets, break union contracts and cut pensions, and its austerity measures include lowering the minimum wage from $7.25 to $4.25 an hour. PROMESA was contentious from the outset — a handful of Democrats in Congress likened the oversight board to a form of colonialism, decrying how the legislation stripped away even more of Puerto Rico’s autonomy.

Despite PROMESA’s financial goals, PREPA filed for bankruptcy just a year later. That was when four members of the oversight board wrote the following:

“We believe that only privatization will enable PREPA to attract the investments it needs to lower costs and provide more reliable power throughout the island. By shifting from a government entity to a well-regulated private utility, PREPA can modernize its power supply, depoliticize its management, reform pensions, and renegotiate labor and other contracts to operate more efficiently.”

No power companies have made overt moves in Puerto Rico so far, but one US-based business springs to mind as a natural partner in this space: Tesla.

Not only is Tesla the leading name among renewable-energy companies, but it has experience in bringing power to another US island, Hawaii. Tesla and Hawaii’s Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative are currently maintaining a 45-acre solar farm in the hills of Kapaia, supported by a 53 MWh array of Tesla Powerpacks. The Powerpacks are essentially giant, commercial-grade white batteries that store the energy captured by solar panels, resulting in a more stable system and less wasted power. Batteries are essential for sustaining large-scale renewable-energy systems, and this technology is just now becoming a reality.

Hawaii’s energy problems mirror Puerto Rico’s in a few ways: It’s not connected to the mainland, so there’s no backup if its power plants are destroyed, and it has some of the highest energy costs in the country. Puerto Rico’s energy costs are generally two to three times those on the mainland.

Tesla has already shipped hundreds of Powerwalls — the residential-size version of the Powerpack — to Puerto Rico in an effort to help the commonwealth get back online. The company hasn’t signaled any interest in setting up permanent shop in Puerto Rico, but if it does, it’ll need to make a deal with the US government. Puerto Rico is no stranger to this scenario.

The island found itself in a similar situation just one year after becoming a US territory — in August 1899, Hurricane San Ciriaco devastated Puerto Rico with winds of 100 MPH and 28 straight days of rain. The hurricane killed more than 3,000 people and deleted nearly every acre of farmland, hitting coffee plantations particularly hard. As recovery efforts carried on, US interests scooped up land from former farmers and planted a booming investment crop: sugar. Control of much of Puerto Rico’s farmland transferred from citizens to US businesses, which have no obligation to ensure the health or sustainability of the territory or its people.

For example, The Intercept lists real-life problems caused by the partial privatization of PREPA’s power grid:

It’s not as if Prepa’s existing experiments with privatization have been success stories. The utility currently purchases around 30 percent of its power from two private sources, an AES coal plant in Guayama and a natural gas plant in Peñuelas, owned by the Spanish company EcoElectrica. AES sparked a major fight in the area and abroad for the plant’s dumping of coal ash, which can seep into waterways and cause a number of health problems. Post-Irma, UTIER — the Prepa utility workers’ union — denounced both of the private providers for shutting down during the storm to protect their infrastructure, straining both public providers and the unionized workforce. Were large swaths of Prepa to be privatized, it’s also likely UTIER would be disbanded.

Privatization could modernize and stabilize Puerto Rico’s energy infrastructure, but the island has a complicated history with both US businesses and the federal government. After Hurricane Maria, however, it doesn’t have the luxury of negotiating.

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) say at least 10 people have died after a military cargo aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from the capital Kinshasa.

Local news media reported that at least 10 people were on the plane bound for Bukavu in DRC’s east when it crashed in Nasilah, about 100 metres from the centre of Kinshasa, on Saturday morning.

Lambert Mende, a government spokesperson, confirmed the crash of the Antonov cargo plane after take-off from Kinshasa’s Ndjili International Airport based on reports from airport officials.

“The military cargo plane crashed around 7:30am (06:30 GMT), a few minutes after taking off from the airport,” Georges Tabora, director of the airport, said in a statement.

The aircraft experienced a technical problem shortly after take-off and lost radio contact with the control tower, Tabora said, adding that all 10 crew members aboard died in the incident.

There were no passengers travelling at the time of the crash, he said.

Source: News agencies

With a whirling buzz from 18 rotors, the pilot-less helicopter gently lifted off the ground and soared up into the afternoon sky, the spire of the world’s tallest building visible behind it.

The recent unmanned flight by the German-made electric Volocopter represents the latest step in Dubai’s pursuit of flying taxis.

Dubai already has invested in another model of a flying, autonomous taxi, and is working to design regulations for their use. Putting more passengers in the air could free its already clogged highways and burnish the city’s cutting-edge image of itself.

“It’s public transportation for everybody, so you can use, you can order it, you can pay for the trip and the trip is not much more expensive than with a car,” said Alexander Zosel, Volocopter’s co-founder.

“If you build roads, you build bridges, it’s a huge amount and it’s always much more cheaper to have a system where you don’t need that infrastructure.”

WATCH: Artificial intelligence experts demand ban on AI weapons 

Rush hour on Sheikh Zayed Road, a dozen-lane artery running down the length of the city, alternates between dense gridlock and sports-car slalom. More than 1.5 million Dubai-registered vehicles ply its roads, not counting those crowding in from the United Arab Emirates’ six other sheikhdoms.

The Volocopter’s designers envision the electric, battery-powered two-seat helicopters taking off and landing from pads set up across the city.

The prototype used in Dubai has a maximum flying time of 30 minutes at 50kph, with a maximum airspeed of 100kph. Batteries charged in climate-controlled areas near the pads would be swapped in as needed.

In practice, however, there’s a long way to go. Convincing white-knuckled flyers to get into a buzzing, pilotless helicopter is just the beginning.

Unpiloted passenger flights represent a new frontier for regulators. Dubai’s Road and Transportation Authority (RTA), which has invested an undisclosed sum in Volocopter, says it will work the next five years to come up with laws and develop safety procedures.

That’s a longer time frame than initially offered by Dubai. Mattar al-Tayer, head of the RTA, told a conference in February the Chinese-made EHang 184, a Volocopter competitor, would be regularly flying through the city’s skies by July, though that deadline came and went. The RTA did not respond to a request for comment.

Still, Dubai remains at the front of the pack when it comes to embracing new technology.

FEATURE: Reining in fully autonomous ‘killer robots’ 

Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, says he wants 25 percent of all passenger trips in the city to be done by driverless vehicles by 2030.

The city has a deal in place with Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One to study the potential for building a hyperloop line between it and Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital. That technology has levitating pods powered by electricity and magnetism hurtle through low-friction pipes at a top speed of 1,220kph.

For now, the Volocopter’s brief flights in Dubai drew VIP crowds and film crews making advertisements. But its executives say after rules are in place, they will be ready for mass production.

 Already, Volocopter has drawn the interest of automobile manufacturer Daimler AG, which was part of a consortium that put up $30m in capital for Volocopter. Even Airbus, a major airplane manufacturer, is looking at building its own flying taxis.

“We’ve proven that it works,” Zosel said. “At the end of this five years, Dubai will be ready.”

Source: AP news agency

In a speech on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump outlined the principles of a tax plan that would amount to the most sweeping changes to the US tax code in decades.

The plan would cut taxes for the rich and businesses, although Trump insisted that his tax plan would primarily help the working class, who would reap the benefits from the resulting economic growth. 

This idea – that tax cuts for the wealthy fuel growth – was popularised by conservative economist Arthur Laffer. The “Laffer curve” goes so far as to suggest that tax cuts can actually increase a government’s revenues. Laffer’s curve and his advocacy of tax cuts have been the driving philosophy of Republican tax policy for decades. 

But a 2012 survey of 40 top economists found that most of the profession disagrees with Laffer – and historically tax cuts and hikes haven’t closely correlated with economic expansion and recession. 

Laffer has advised President Trump on his tax policies and said his plan would be “phenomenal” for the United States and the world.

For this week’s Headliner, we speak with Laffer about whether Trump’s plan will make the US economy grow, or simply widen the gap between the rich and the poor. 

Follow UpFront on Twitter @AJUpFront and Facebook.

Source: Al Jazeera News

Supporters of an independence referendum in Catalonia have begun occupying polling stations in a bid to ensure Sunday’s vote goes ahead, stoking fears of violent confrontation with Spanish police.

Spain’s central government in Madrid, which opposes the referendum, has sent thousands of police reinforcements to the Catalonian capital of Barcelona to stop people from voting.

A court on Wednesday ordered police to prevent the use of public buildings “for the preparation and organisation” of the referendum.

But as classes ended for the day, small groups of activists, including parents with their children, on Friday peacefully occupied several schools where voting is scheduled to take place.

READ MORE: All you need to know about the Catalonia referendum

“We want to make sure the school is open for activities and at night when they might come to clear us out or empty it, there will be families sleeping or people in the street,” Hector, 43, told Reuters news agency.

The head of the Catalan regional police has ordered officers to evacuate and close polling stations by 6am on Sunday, before voting starts at 9am.

Parents vowed to come out and protect their children occupying the schools. 

“I am going to sleep here with my oldest son who is a student here,” Gisela Losa, a mother of three, told AFP news agency at Reina Vionant primary school in Barcelona’s Gracia neighbourhood.

Spain’s government said on Saturday police had sealed off 1,300 of 2,315 schools in Catalonia that had been designated as polling stations for the banned independence referendum.

A government source said 163 schools earmarked as voting centres have been occupied by families.

WATCH: Spain holds mock ballot ahead of Catalonia referendum 

Madrid has repeatedly warned those who help stage a referendum, which the courts have ruled unconstitutional, will face legal repercussions.

Spain’s education ministry said in a statement on Friday that school directors in Catalonia “were not exempt from liability” if they cooperated.

“There is nothing that justifies violating so basic a right as the right to vote,” said Omar Sanchis, a 29-year-old drama student, standing behind the railings of the Collaso i Gil school, which he and others had occupied.

The Catalan government says 2,315 polling stations are ready to go.  

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Barcelona, said both sides have been preparing for confrontation over the looming vote.

“Clearly, many of the polling stations will be shut down [by Spanish authorities],” he said. “The government of Catalonia has said … it will declare itself an independent republic if they get the votes.”

Final rally 

On Friday evening, about 10,000 supporters of the referendum gathered off Barcelona’s Placa d’Espanya, or Spain Square. 

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said regardless of how many people actually cast the ballots, if a majority say “yes”, he will declare independence on Tuesday. 

“In these hugely intense and hugely emotional moments, we sense that what we once thought was only a dream is within reach,” Puigdemont told a cheering crowd.

“On Sunday, we have a date with the future.”

READ MORE: Catalan leader accuses Spain of ‘totalitarian’ actions

Catalonia’s foreign affairs chief Raul Romeva told Al Jazeera on Friday the referendum “is impossible to stop” despite the central government in Madrid insisting that the vote is illegal and it will not happen.

Opinion polls show Catalonia’s roughly 7.5 million residents are divided on independence.

A survey commissioned by the regional government in July showed 49.4 percent of Catalans were against independence while 41.1 percent were in favour.

More than 70 percent of Catalans want a legal referendum on independence to settle the issue.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

At least 28 civilians were killed in air attacks in the opposition stronghold of Idlib province in northwestern Syria, a war-monitor group said on Saturday.

Four children were among the dead in the overnight air strikes on the town of Amanaz, a few kilometres from the Turkish border, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It was not immediately clear whether the attack was carried out by Syrian government warplanes or those of its ally Russia.

According to the Syrian Observatory – which gathers its information from a network of sources inside Syria – dozens of people are still missing after the bombardment.

READ MORE: Mapping out Syria’s remaining battles

Secondary air strikes were carried out as a search-and-rescue operation was under way for victims, the monitor said.

Anadolu news agency reported at least 40 civilians were killed and 70 others wounded in Amanaz.

The Russian and Syrian militaries say they only target insurgents and deny killing civilians.

The surge in bombing raids has forced hospitals in the province to close, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said on Friday.

Syrian and Russian jets have intensified attacks in Idlib. Increased air raids began after rebels launched an offensive against government-held areas in the northwest of the country on September 19.

Last month, Russia, Turkey, and Iran agreed to create a so-called “de-escalation zone” in the province, as part of their efforts to establish a broad ceasefire in war-torn Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Thursday to step up efforts to establish a safe zone in Idlib.

Syria said the Idlib deal does not cover hardline opposition groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the government of President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to the United Nations.

Source: News agencies

The first thought that crossed Mark Isaev’s mind when he heard of the start of the Russian military operation in Syria on September 30, 2015 was that it would be like Afghanistan.

“And here goes Syria as well. They will be sending Russian troops to Syria, I thought,” says the 53-year-old Afghan war veteran. “Politicians take decisions, and we, the military men, follow orders.”

In 1987, as the war was raging on in Afghanistan, Isaev – then a fresh military college graduate – was waiting to leave for Libya, where he was to work as a military instructor. Just weeks before his departure, the military administration discovered a problem in his papers: He was not a member of the Communist Party. Isaev says he refused to join the party and as a result was sent to fight in Afghanistan. His deployment lasted until the Soviet army withdrew in 1989.

“According to official statistics, 13,400 [Soviet troops] died [in Afghanistan] and I consider that they died in vain,” he says. “We did not need this war.”

Isaev feels the same way about Russian interventions abroad in general, including the war in Syria.

“Russia should not participate. During the Great Patriotic War [World War II], people died for their country, they defended their own country. Now [in Syria], who are we defending?”

At the same time, Isaev says that Russia should be fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), which he considers a threat. It is Russia’s duty, he says, and air raids on ISIL are a good thing.

Public opinion

Isaev’s attitudes towards the Russian intervention in Syria, while seemingly contradictory, reflect popular opinion in Russia.

According to a poll conducted by independent polling centre Levada in October 2015, some 72 percent of Russians approved of Russia’s “air strikes on ISIL”, which is how the Kremlin framed its intervention in state media at that time. The military deployment was necessary in order to stop the threat from ISIL reaching Russian borders, the government rhetoric claimed – although within the first days of Russian bombardment, the Syrian opposition reported that its positions were targeted.

Two years into Russia’s military operation in Syria, Levada Center conducted another poll which showed that almost half of the respondents wanted the intervention to end.

Part of the public concern has been over the deaths of Russian troops in Syria. Currently, the official number of Russian army personnel who have died in Syria is 40, but media reports have claimed that the number could be higher, as the military reportedly pressures families of dead soldiers not to speak out. The official number also does not include Russian mercenaries currently fighting in Syria.

More recently the opposition has also started discussing the war in economic terms, claiming that within the current economic crisis, Russia cannot afford to spend so much on a foreign war.

“A lot of money from the state budget is being spent on this war, while 17-20 percent of the population live below the poverty line,” says Elena Slesareva, press secretary for the presidential campaign of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Opposition party Yabloko has estimated that the war has cost the Russian federal budget at least $2.4bn, a number that does not include some costs, including funding for Russian mercenaries. 

While there appear to be signs of war-weariness among the Russian public, they have not translated into strong anti-war rhetoric or reaction. There has been no public interest in discussing civilian deaths caused by Russian aerial bombardment in Syria, which within the first four months of the intervention had reached at least 1,000, according to monitoring groups. The official narrative that Russia uses “precision” air raids and therefore does not cause a significant number of civilian deaths has been widely accepted.

Unlike the war in Ukraine, which provoked public outrage and large antiwar rallies in 2014, the military intervention in Syria has not drawn any comparable condemnation.

Buying into the state narrative

According to human rights activist Sergey Davidis, who participated in a small anti-war protest in October 2015, the general attitude of approval of the Russian intervention persists.

He points out that the majority of Russians, including part of the opposition, have bought into the state narrative of the war as an anti-terror operation against ISIL.

“A society in which Islamophobia and fear of Islamic terrorism and migration are well spread does not really worry so much about a war waged far away against unpleasant and dangerous people,” he said.

In his opinion, the opposition, which overwhelmingly rejected the war in Ukraine, perceives the situation in Syria as “bad Putin fighting some other bad people” and has not been so vocal in its condemnation.

At the peak of international attention over the siege on Aleppo in November 2016, a group of activists, including Davidis, sought to hold a protest but the Russian authorities banned it. Davidis says the ban was unlawful and he has taken the state to court over it.

Russia’s ‘new Afghanistan’

At the same time, official rhetoric continues to portray the intervention as largely successful and many have agreed.

“In my opinion, two years into Russia’s anti-terrorist operation in Syria, the results have exceeded expectations,” says Elena Suponina, a Moscow-based Middle East researcher. “Russia managed to achieve a lot of its goals in Syria at no serious cost or losses.”

She says that Levada’s opinion poll does not necessarily mean less support for the Russian army fighting in Syria. Russians wanting the end of the operation does not mean they want it “quickly”, she says.

Yet the possibility of a prolonged conflict is something that does worry some part of the Russian public. In the same Levada survey, some 32 percent of the respondents agreed that Syria could become Russia’s “new Afghanistan”.

According to Suponina, no one knows how long Russia’s operation in Syria will continue, but the Russian army will continue fighting until “the sovereignty of Syria has been restored”.

Source: Al Jazeera News