ever been to mecca this is a joyful location the road to has an al-jazeera. taliban fighters stormed the city of girls in the in central afghanistan hours gun battles will be life in kabul. alonzo raman you're watching over there live my headquarters here in doha also coming up. at overtax in counterattacks and with some are saying it truce has been reached with israel. turkey's currency plunges to record lows concerning investors as inflation rises. and the edinburgh fringe festival of tranks community

of artists some performers from around the globe the locals say it doesn't benefit them. welcome to the program we sort of got a star where there have been hours of fighting between taliban fighters and afghan forces in the central city. heavily armed men stormed the city attacking at several government buildings including police headquarters overnight now there are an unknown number fate tallaght he's dozens of people are believed to be injured. let's get the very latest to charleville us our correspondent who is live for us in the afghan capital and charlie let's just bring us up to speed on the situation as we know it right now. so we believe that there are at least fourteen people dead those people being police officers and more than sixty people wounded but it's such a fluid fluid situation it's so hard to get information out because cell phone

towers are down cell phones are jammed the taliban is putting out one one story and the government is putting out a completely different story both with vastly vastly different numbers talk to the u.s. military a short time ago they suit that they intervened this morning to assist with the afghan military they seem to be one bomber and apache helicopters to support afghan military on the ground they now say that they have seen aircraft back over the skies of gaza after they took the aircraft away now they're seeing them back they say that's to assist in clearing operations but we do know that gunfire is ongoing witness residents on the ground saying that is still holed up in their homes is still hearing gunfire it's been this way for more than twelve hours now they started to hear rockets hitting the police headquarters from the taliban around two o'clock this morning since that time here the gunfire as the taliban spread out through the city taking control of checkpoints the taliban is now holed up in a residential area essentially using human shields and it's somewhat of

a standoff if you will with the taliban in the residential residential areas and the government in in more kind of government buildings and trying to launch an attack on their course what we're also seeing and hearing from you as well charlotte is if we have these clashes on the ground we have aerial support we have ongoing gunfire not quite sure what's going on really is is really a p.r. battle is it not between the two sides as to who is telling the truth and what truth we're supposed to believe. exactly. since the early hours of this morning every thirty minutes the taliban's putting out a statement the government's putting out a statement putting up blogs and putting up tweets taliban saying we've killed one hundred and one hundred fifty police and soldiers and we've taken very few casualties and we're now in control of the city the government saying the same thing with killed one hundred fifty of the taliban the police chief just took a picture of himself on the streets

a short time ago with did taliban soldiers and posted it to facebook so this is very much a p.r. war trying to get out to the risk the world that one one side is in control of gaza and the other is not what's relevant in the context of this is that this election's in october parliamentary district elections in october the twentieth the government needs to be seeing to to be in control of security in this country indeed we'll get the very latest with you through the day the moment charlotte dallas the incumbent . home us says a truce with israel has been reached to stop the recent violence in gaza but the israeli government hasn't confirmed the agreement at least three palestinians including a pregnant woman and eighteen month old baby were killed when israeli airstrikes hit more than one hundred forty targets in gaza. fired rockets also into southern israel earlier trial stratford is following events for us from. near the israel

fence and it's all about keeping the truce in place for the moment at least charles . that's right so hell yeah it's a critical day to day twenty s week of these protests that are cool that happen every friday here and of course after this escalation of violence that we see earlier this week. there's a lot of tension here now as you say israel has not officially recognized this truce that was called by us but certainly so far since around eleven o'clock local time when hamas call that truce it has been very calm now all the various armed factions in gaza have called for more protests at the softer noon each week these protests come under a different banner this week the title of the protests is called for life and freedom and we are expecting quite substantial numbers of protesters here in the

coming hours but as you say so far this truce seems to be holding although there has been no official statement of recognition of it from israel of course every friday as you say for the past twenty weeks charles we've seen dozens killed in the ongoing tally of those that have been protesting we've seen just as many injured hundreds and well over a thousand and the international community holding their breath really every friday when the this scenario unfolds hoping that nobody will be killed or injured and that is always the main worry is it not not just for the palestinian authority but also those watching outside looking inside. as you say one hundred fifty palestinians have been killed in these weekly protests since they started a lot more than that injured and as i say hamas and the various factions say that

these protests have these protesters have every right to protest along this border fence and every week there are people killed the israeli military fired tear gas and we've seen in recent weeks big escalations as a result certainly a couple of weeks ago when an israeli soldier was killed there was a large escalation then so yes a lot hangs on what happens here in the next few hours but of course when you speak to the protesters when you speak to the people in gaza here they say that they will continue these protests because there is going to be no change if they don't continue to protest they feel completely isolated they feel forgotten about and ignored by the international community they say they've lived under israel's. most twelve years now fifty percent of them living under the poverty line fifty percent unemployed around four hours of electricity only in the street they cannot leave so

they they very much blame israel full this and they say that they will continue their protests until there is some sort of lifting of the siege of course israel and the u.s. blames how full the violence and full these protests israel saying that hamas is basically keeping the people of gaza hostage and exploiting them trying to get international attention on a political level those reconciliation efforts between hamas and fatah remain at a standstill we know that house accepted the latest the gyptian proposal put forward a couple of weeks ago and has handed that file on to the palestinian president. still waiting to hear his response with respect to that but of course such a big escalation of violence. and expect more protests here today the situation is very tense in gaza for the moment we'll leave it there charles and monitor events for the through the day thank you. now the u.n.

security council will be holding a closed door meeting later on friday to discuss the saudi admiralty coalition airstrikes that hit a bus full of school children in yemen fifty people were killed including the children some of them as young as ten now the un general secretary until you could terrorists has called for a product an independent investigation the u.s. state department spokeswoman defended the coalition air campaign in yemen while at the same time called for an investigation into the attack on the school bus we call in the saudi led coalition to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the incident we take all credible accounts of civilian casualties very seriously and we call on the parties to take appropriate measures to protect civilians in accordance with international law and urge all parties to investigate all reported is incidents of civilian casualties the home of the town has more from neighboring djibouti. talk in the hearing market than some of the provinces in north for me yemen is one of the last in the recent

past the sodium that i had to call you should however have called it a legitimate target saying they simply are the point where ballistic missiles targeting an industrial city in southern soda to be a was sent from something that has been rated most of in the north particularly from the booth of fighters and twice as who say it was deliberate and one aimed at causing the number of civilian casualties now what is also giving many people in yemen hope is the growing calls of the mission of that is hidden and the requests for investigations into so the. strikes on yemen find that many people in yemen think that the attention of the world is focused on the war raging in their country. now turkey's president rest of his in the north eastern city of bertie is expected to address the country's volatile economic situation now

the national currency has had a wreck orde lower after steadily falling all week long investors are worried after a rise in inflation and its increasingly tense relationship with the united states the trumpet ministration is calling on the turkish government to release an american evangelical pastor who is being held on terrorism charges that the volatility has caused the lira to drop more than thirty five percent this year cynical as our correspondent in istanbul of our international viewers they will be perhaps scratching their head wondering how politics is affecting the economy so severely in turkey and what the president might have up his sleeve to find a solution to this problem. well so how this of course politics is a factor that impacts on turkish foreign currency turkish lira tumbledown recently but of course it is not the only reason or the main reason we have to admit that

turkish economy is also dependent on foreign exchange mainly it is one of the problems of every every every developing country in the world being dollar rise so turkish economy is highly dollar rise then based on foreign funds that that makes it so afraid to any political dispute or any geo political dispute but of course their cash economy has many structural problems and many experts have been warning the government about about. recent fracturing of those problems however there hasn't been any step taken by the government jets and the government and its supporters have been saying that this is an international ethic and just a couple of minutes ago a line dropped on the agencies that president. before he began his speech he said that turkey is going to win this economy war so the government thinks that this is an economic war played against the turkish government and turkish nation however

many analysts many economics purse warn about the fragile ety and structural problems of the turkish economy but of course on the other hand these latest political dispute within the united states and turkey is a factor that speculated over in the u.s. dollar and turkish lira parity today we are expecting turkey's foreign turkey's finance and treasury minister mr barak who is a former energy minister and so on a lot of the president to reveal the new economy model of the new government presidential system now all eyes are on this new speech that is going to be given by the finance minister because it says turkey is going to introduce a new account. more though so now everybody is curious is turkey going to change its current economic model and it will switch to another one or is this a kind of mid term economic program that actually helps turkey to to

develop and get over its economic problems now turkey is kind of in the middle it's a nato ally it's a nato country and it has strong bilateral relationships with. with the united states but however now is also on another edge because turkey also has strong relations with russia especially over the things are going on in syria and iran as the sanctions to russia sanctions by the united states to russia and iran is on the rise turkey is kind of also left in the middle because united states wants. wants everyone to quit trading with iran but turkey says it's only a you know later on decision so we will be expecting the new alliance from the ministers it will be interesting to see what the president of the violence has to stay in the say in the coming hours in the moments and thank you. still ahead here on the roads there are hundreds of flights are being grounded as rhianna staff walk out of the job also the endangered animals at risk of extinction because of a proposal by donald trump's administrator stories after the break.

hello there the skies over japan a mostly clear at the moment we've had all thai food that worked away from us and now it's trailing a least cloud just to the south of us so for many of us in japan then it should stay fine and dry as we head through the day on saturday it's going to be warm too with tokyo up to thirty three degrees that area of cloud of rain just of the south of us though he's on the move and it's working its way northward towards us once more so i think on sunday we're going to see more of that cloud more of that rain particularly in the southern parts of honshu and through into key you shoot further west out for the korean peninsula is looking mostly dry but we do have more cloud beginning to pull itself together over parts of mongolia there on the northern parts of china including force in beijing so thirty degrees may be accompanied by

a few shop showers a bit further south and we've been watching this system here that's gradually tracking its way northward still pulling itself together as it does say to our developing system bringing strong winds and particularly heavy rains for the southern parts of china that's going to be with us not only on saturday but on sunday as well so they could well be reports of flooding in this region over the next couple of days this system is all just so generating the winds for the south as well pushing them towards the east of there picking up a lot of moisture and the dumping it around many parts of the philippines. this was wrong to cheat children away from the appearance and herd them into a school against their will there was no mother no father figures they put is a big player and we sort of looked after ourselves i don't remember the children's

names i'll never forget canada's dark secret on al jazeera. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera arms the whole robin a reminder of our top news stories. at least fourteen policemen have been killed in an hours long gun battle between afghan forces and taliban fighters in gaza city heavily armed men stormed the city overnight attacking several government buildings including police headquarters also palestinian group hamas says a truce with israel has been reached to stop the violence in gaza but the israeli

government hasn't confirmed the agreement at least three palestinians were killed in israeli airstrikes including about that he young child also fired rockets into southern israel. the u.n. security council is set to hold a closed door meeting later on friday to discuss the saudi have a rocky coalition air strikes that hit a bus full of school children in the air but fifty people were killed including young children u.n. secretary general attorney caetera she has called for a prompt independent investigation. now the irish budget carrier ryanair has canceled four hundred flights after its pilots and several european come. we staged a walkout now they're demanding better pay and working conditions a strike by a german union accounted for many of friday's cancellations strikes are also planned in sweden ireland belgium and the netherlands dominic k. joins us from one of the capital's busiest airports and certainly no bees flying

away too soon by the looks of it where you are. right this is peak summer holiday season here in europe middle friday in the middle of august and you'd expect there to be many passengers here indeed there are not from ryanair if you look behind me where check in desks are staffed there's nobody there those few passengers who have come to the airport to fly away because there are some flights going from ryanair for many of them will have to go to the information to find out if their flight is still going and what to do if it isn't we met earlier on a couple from dallas texas and flown across the atlantic through the night landed here in berlin and found out that they had no flights and they are having to make other arrangements they will fly on to their final destination many hours later today thirty one flights in total have been canceled here by ryanair the interesting thing is the airline has taken those flights from the departure board so appears as though it's business as usual but for the pilots union cockpit

represents the four hundred also ryanair pilots on today has a very different message this is what they said earlier on. today is not about wanting to beat ryanair and it wouldn't be possible anyway against a transatlantic employer will always be the long ground but what it is about is to signal to management that there needs to be an end to them trying to beat their own status and that is what we want to achieve today they want to send a clear message to dublin ryanair must change that. well clearly the question will be for ryanair can they absorb the financial hit that a strike like this will cause them as i said. this is mid august mid european summer holiday season a question for them do they want to to improve the offer they're making to the pilot's union have to wait to see what will turn out through the course of today we understand there will be a demonstration taking place at another airport in germany later on but for now

from here it's clear very few ryan air flights are actually flying indeed will follow vents for the through the day thanks dominic now to asia pacific where the corruption trial of malaysia's former prime minister will take place between february and march next year the date was set out and attended a hearing at the high court on friday the former leader had been charged with abuse of power criminal breach of trust and money laundering he's being investigated for a multi-billion dollar theft of a state investment fund d. set up in two thousand and nine and she denies any wrongdoing. immigration activists in the us are accusing the president of being a hypocrite donald trump has been critical of the legal practice that gives relatives of citizens preference for moving to the u.s. now his wife's parents have been granted citizenship seemingly as a result of the same immigration policy committee health care reforms. for years

president donald trump has railed against the u.s. immigration system calling it flawed and in need of reform specifically trump has argued against chain migration the practice of giving preference to the families of legal immigrants who also hope to come to the united states. under the current broken system a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives under our. we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children. this vital reform is necessary not just for our economy but for our security. and for the future of america but that effort by the president to end the longstanding u.s. policy known as family reunification appears not to apply to trump's own family on

thursday victor and amalia canards parents of first lady malani a trump were officially sworn in as u.s. citizens the application the process the interview was no different than anybody else's a pair is from slovenia or malani it was born and raised until she moved to new york the iranian who poc recy was not lost on twitter users who on thursday expressed outrage over the news pointing to the fact that the president on twitter just a week ago called for the end of chain migration program that appears to have granted his in-laws citizenship we must have border security get rid of chain lottery catch and release sanctuary cities go to merit based immigration he wrote we're glad that this administration and their family is benefiting from this but it does seem strange the timing of it and the fact that they are willing to benefit while not giving others the rest of us the opportunity to benefit from our family immigration

system a spokesperson for the first lady refused to comment to al-jazeera saying her parents are not part of the administration and deserve privacy the subject of family reunification is a sensitive issue in the united states especially given the trumpet ministrations recent zero tolerance enforcement of illegal immigration that has even included separating children from their parents kimberly hellcat al-jazeera washington. conservationists in the us also citing a government proposal that they say will protect plants and animals the trumpet ministration plans to strip major provisions from the endangered species act rob ruggles reports. a tiny and delicate creature the elsa good job blue butterfly has fluttered and danced on planet earth for tens of millions of years far longer than the human species has existed it is classified as an endangered species clinging to

the outermost fringes of los angeles's sprawling metropolis its native habitat largely reduced to suburban mc mansions and strip malls and dulcie works to keep the elsa good job blue from vanishing forever their habitat here that was planted for the endangered elsa going to butterfly there are thirteen hundred threatened or endangered animals and plants in the united states including the mighty california condor or the elusive eastern red wolf and the far ranging kemp's ridley sea turtle they are afforded special protection under a landmark law signed by president richard nixon in one thousand nine hundred seventy three it was intended to protect some or most imperiled plants in animals from extinction. and it's been highly successful in doing that ninety nine percent of the plants and animals that are currently protected under the endangered

species act are still around now the trumpet ministration has proposed changes in the endangered species act species already on the list would not be removed but rapidly declining species like the monarch butterfly could be in trouble threatened species would receive no special protection until they reach endangered status and are in danger of dying out the proposed changes to the endangered species act would make it easier for corporations to develop rare habitats drill for oil and gas cut down forests and lay pipelines the trump administration has consistently sought to ease environmental regulations it claims inhibit economic growth and this is just another piece of that puzzle that shows their total disregard for. into logical processes and the world that we live in for and dulcie the survival of

the elsa good job blue butterfly is a symbol of nature's beauty and far sighted legislation from a different era without the endangered species act we would behave working very aggressively on paving over paradise environmental organizations are planning a legal fight to derail the administration's proposed changes to the endangered species act rob reynolds al-jazeera palace verities california. the edge of the international fringe festival is underway bringing together thousands of performers from around the world but the parker bowles many locals don't see the economic benefits from the event. all guns blazing for the welfare state their scourge of society austerity austerity austerity this is killing work a play about growing up on a housing estate penned in by poverty a place where addiction and depression are rife. it's

a neglected narrative one that's found a stage at the edinburgh festival but the writer of the play questions whether the festival this truly accessible to those whose lives she's depicting. we need to encourage more working class and more and underclass people into the theaters and that's really tough because obviously. again money dictates access to these things that. take your revenues exceeded five and a half million dollars every year the events are a feeding frenzy for local businesses for hotels and restaurants and shops it sometimes with their prices up just for the month of august and then the events themselves well they're often powered by an army of volunteers or low paid workers after all the show must go on beyond the fringe of real life continues this is my house the city suburb still reeling after the recent murder of a local woman edinburgh has some of the poorest communities in scotland we don't see any of the trend we don't see in the french. we should really it would

benefit a war of the youngsters because again an eligible beloved be killed you're crazy scottish rapper darren mccarthy station name loki found his voice growing up on the wrong side of glasgow he uses performance to try and bridge the social divide the french can a great idea of being accessible in a festival for everyone and well i don't just i don't i don't think that that's disingenuous of and people would like it to be that we need to be allowed back. when it comes to. groups in terms of making sure that people are being encouraged to walk here for promotion or. festival organizers say tickets are cheaper in edinburgh the other european festivals accessibility they say is a top priority but whole question is extremely important to us. and it's also very

important to be part of this city there's obviously lots of visitors and we want to make sure as many of them can visit we also want to make sure there as many people as possible who live here year round can enjoy that. the first edible festival was staged here in one thousand nine hundred forty seven to unite a continent shattered by war but can culture now help unite a fractured society needs barca al-jazeera. your challenges their arms the whole rom with a reminder of our top news stories that these fourteen policemen have been killed in gun battles between afghan forces and taliban fighters in guards in the city that have lasted hours. heavily armed men stormed the city attacking several government buildings including police headquarters overnight dozens of people are believed to be injured also palestinian group hamas says a truce with israel has been reached to stop the violence in gaza but the israeli

government hasn't confirmed the agreement at least three palestinians were killed in israeli airstrikes including a mother and a young child was also fired rockets into southern israel. the u.n. security council is set to hold a closed door meeting later on friday to discuss the saudi ever r.t. coalition airstrikes that hit a bus full of school children in yemen fifty people including young children were killed u.n. secretary general antonio good terrorists has called for a prompt and independent investigation. turkey's president rest of their birds one is in the northeastern city of bay bertie is expected to address the country's volatile economic situation now the national currency is it a record low steadily falling all week long investors are worried after a rise in inflation and its increasingly tense relationship with the united states the drug administration is calling on the turkish government to release an american evangelical pastor who's been held on terrorism charges. the irish budget carrier

ryanair has canceled four hundred flights after its pilots and several european countries staged a walkout they're demanding better pay and working conditions the corruption trial of malaysia's former prime minister will take place between february and march next year the date was set after najib razak attended a hearing at a high court on friday the former leader had been charged with abuse of power criminal breach of trust and money laundering he's being investigated for a multi-billion dollar theft of a state investment fund set up in two thousand and nine jeep denies any wrongdoing and of course you can follow those stories on our website at al-jazeera dot com there's more news in half an hour but next on al-jazeera inside story with harder to hamid.

to train and equip the opposition in syria so they could help push back these terms as people in power investigates how the us supplies soviet style weapons to its allies through private company spend the us government could wash their hands and say well we didn't know where it was coming from so weapon that was supplied by the us government may well end up being pointed at us soldiers yes absolutely we pick it up that's me two months off to look perfect to america's gun secret pipeline to syria on al-jazeera. the united states reinforces harsh sanctions on iran but both allies and adversaries refuse to follow the trump administration's lead is this a new blow to american leadership or the first sign a new pull over power structure is beginning to emerge this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program i'm of the doubt that has made earlier this week washington reimpose that wide range of sanctions on iran the move followed the u.s. decision to withdraw from the iran nuclear agreement formally known as the j c p o the trump administration called on other powers to join it but also issued a threat telling governments to choose do business with america or iran not both the response has been a nearly universal no some of washington's closest allies have even promised legislation to protect their own companies against possible american reprisals. are you at all concerned that countries like china india russia like the. us.