c w and online. this is news coming to you live from berlin the us was only minutes away from bombing iran before counseling the operation president trump says he called off his planned airstrikes because they could have killed 150 people would have been in retaliation for tehran shooting down of an american spy drone also coming up young protesters from across europe called on governments to take bolder action in the climate crisis comes a day after each leaders failed to agree on a plan to make the blocks economy carbon neutral like 2050. and deadlock over the

use top job all say so but fails to agree on who should replace commission president chong. and phil other powerful new position. fellow i'm terry martin good to have you with us u.s. president donald trump has confirmed he blocked a series of planned airstrikes on iran just 10 minutes before they were to go ahead and it tweets trump said the u.s. military was quote cocked and loaded to retaliate on 3 different sites he said a general told him 150 people could have been killed trump added that such a strike would not have been a proportionate response to the downing of a u.s. spy drone yesterday. well let's take a closer look at the shooting down of that drone and how it's been fueling tensions

between washington and tehran. the iranian military released this dramatic video showing what it says is a surface to air missile shooting down an american drone the footage cannot be verified but terror on says the u.s. aircraft was clearly flying over iranian territory when it was attacked. iranian t.v. ad what it described as wreckage from the drone a member of the revolutionary guard said they alerted the u.s. to the strike before it happened multiple warnings had been given to this aircraft in 2 stages but the u.s. military disputes the iranian fashion of events and has produced its own map to show that the drone was in international airspace when it was downed earlier president trump appeared to want to play down the incident suggesting it had been an era by iran i think probably. made a mistake i would imagine it was a general or somebody that made

a mistake in shooting that drone down trump had ordered the u.s. military to then prepare to strike targets in iran but then he changed his mind tweeting that he wanted to spare iranian lives of more now let's cross over to washington where barbara slavin is standing by she's director of the future of iran initiative at the atlantic council in washington barbara thanks for being with us 1st ask you president trial says he wants to keep us out of foreign conflicts yet he surrounds himself with hawkish military advisors shuns multilateral diplomacy now he's ordered an air strike on iran then called it off the last minute deal do you see any coherent strategy in his approach. i wish i did you know i haven't seen any coherent strategy since he pulled out of the iran nuclear deal against the best advice of his then advisers he seemed to think somehow that iran would come crawling back to the united states for talks but of course what we've seen is that

the us has increased pressure iran has retaliated and this acknowledgement that iran actually shot down this drone this is this is really quite extraordinary so his his policy has not worked out as far as i see it well we now have military action we've got the shooting down of a drone at least and very close to saying retaliation with air strikes and possibly possibly casualties you've been tracking us or any relations very closely is either side really interested in a military confrontation. no absolutely not but you know actions have consequences and in the end of april trump announced that the united states would not allow iran to sell any oil essentially declared complete economic war on this country and i think what we've been saying the last couple of weeks is the iranian response to that. german chancellor angela merkel has been responding to these

latest tensions this escalation in tensions between iran and the u.s. of us here what she had to say. as of us as far as iran is concerned the foreign policy advisers who are talking on the sidelines of course we are concerned about the situation and we are banking on diplomatic negotiations on a political solution to a very tense situation put it to. the on it was fun to fly through and. channel michael there appealing for diplomacy barbara what role if any do you see for europe in trying to resolve this conflict. well unfortunately europe has not been able to produce the economic benefits that were required under the nuclear deal they've been trying for over a year simply to have some sort of legitimate trade with iran food and medicine through a so-called special purpose of the ickle so far no transaction has gone through this channel so i think the iranians what we're saying is the iranians have lost patience with europe and you know see that it has not been able to stand up to the

pressure exerted by the united states the fact that europe is a little bit in disarray right now given the elections new people having to be put into place brax it britain about to get a new prime minister i think it all conveys the sense that iran cannot count on europe to help it get through this situation and that's probably another factor in these somewhat aggressive steps that we're seeing from tehran so the other signatories to the iran nuclear deal particularly europe are unable to salvage the deal or ran is suffering economically the u.s. is ramping up its rhetoric of belligerence and instead of pursuing multilateral diplomacy how do you see this playing out. i think we're in for a very tense time for quite some time i'm hoping that there will be some sort of back channel established between the united states and iran to try to deescalate but i have real doubts about the capacity of the trumpet ministration to negotiate

with the iranians as you pointed out president trump has surrounded himself right now with extremely hawkish individuals who are more interested frankly and weakening destabilizing iran even overthrowing the iranian government then they are in negotiating a win win agreement that the iranians could accept so i think we're in for for a lot of days like today i'm i'm really sorry to say that barbara thank you very much for your insights that was barbara slavin of the future of iran initiative at the atlantic council in washington. well here in europe thousands of students from around the e.u. have gathered near a coal mine in western germany to call on governments to take bolder action in the climate crisis organizers said up to 20000 protesters from 16 countries are gathered in and near germany's border with belgium and the netherlands is comes a day after european union leaders failed to agree on a plan to block to make the blocks economy carbon neutral by 2050.

fridays for future demonstrators are making a lot of noise this time protesters from 17 countries have gathered in auckland 20000 demonstrators are expected to take part they want to increase pressure on politicians to run 27 hours. because i think that the. situation right now. it's important that we stand together for something that matters to all of us i hope someone will finally listen. germany's green party is excited that so many people are demonstrating for climate protection the greens tweeted most people want to stop our dependence on coal quickly and today thousands are demonstrating again for more climate protection. thousands of demonstrators are on their way to the nearby village of fusion where they will show their support for climate protection at the

largest mining area in europe. they hope to influence politicians thru civil disobedience the deliberate final ation of law and order. remember his name and we accept the fact that we might get arrested because the climate crisis is so urgent it affects us all and that's why we're deliberately exercising civil disobedience to demand a phase out of coal power cooler this week the entire western rhineland is the focus point of the climate protest movement. thousands of protesters have gathered here and i am generous westernmost city they have launched what they call the 1st international climate strike i have met mostly students coming from germany but also some from neighboring countries such as belgium france or the netherlands they demand they ask for more climate action their main priority is ending brown coal mining in germany the open pit lane iron mines and power plants in the region the

rhine and reachin one of the main sources of c o 2 emissions in europe one of the protests is a 15 year old told me that the government's plan to keep these plants running for another 20 years which us crazy but an older gentleman watching the protests also called them naive in that a month for an immediate end to brown coal mining yet public support has recently written in germany for climate action the environmentalists green party is leading the polls and that is a huge boost for climate activists such as those protesters here and often. well eva leaders are deadlocked after failing to agree on who should fill the box top jobs when the current administration finishes its work later this year at the heart of the impasse is a disagreement between the e.u. used to powerhouses france and germany. it wasn't exactly a defeat but german chancellor angela merkel can't be happy with the result at this hour none of the lead candidate so she puts in counted otten are still in the

running chancellor merkel's last ditch efforts appear to have failed. so much digits as minutes after talking with donald tusk it's now clear to me that none of the leading candidates have been able to secure a majority in the european council and i can't see how that's going to change european council president donald tusk also seemed flustered the problems that i have nothing to add to what i said yesterday and well because i have some thick with fear but. i have nothing new to to communicate today. so the leadership question remains unanswered for now but this was not the only setback to emerge during the 1st summit after the e.u. parliamentary elections state leaders and governments disagree on a number of issues including climate policy when eastern european nations continue to block progress. same commercial starting climate change we unfortunately fail to

reach an agreement on the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. but not everyone was disappointed with the meetings outcome french president i'm on your mark on seemed pleased with the political stalemate he's advocating getting rid of the leading candidate system for him the fact that none of the candidates could get a majority means only one thing so he's then this system doesn't work. we decided to start the procedure all over again with new names which we have yet to choose in order to find a new balance when we met. it could be. so it's back to square one but the clock is taking the new leadership positions should be decided by the beginning of july the leaders have agreed to meet again for a special summit just over a week from now to make sure they meet that deadline. now to some of the other stories making headlines around the world today british junior minister has been

suspended after he was filmed grabbing and pushing a female climate change protester at a dinner for the finance industry foreign office minister mark feel the cost of the protester when she tried to approach philip hammond the chancellor of the exchequer as he made a speech police are investigating. thousands of protesters have filled the streets of hong kong in another round of demonstrations after leader kerry ignored a deadline to withdraw a controversial bill to extradite suspects to mainland china activists have surrounded police headquarters and blocked major roads they want to resign and release protesters in detention. at the women's world cup football world cup in france the us have beaten sweet to advance to knock out stages with a perfect record of 3 out of 3 many thought the game would be the americans 1st

real test but they made short work of their opponents. the americans waited less than 3 minutes before taking the lead against sweden the tournament favorites for the 3rd game in a row i see her run beating the swedish defenders to a new school from a corner to grab her 2nd all to tournament i do usa how do we backed 16 goals before the skating more than any other team so far so it was no surprise when they extended dead lead at the start of the 2nd tof this time it was for which tobin he could use to finish. the swedes had once again failed to get the ball under control in their box and were once again punished. to nail the final score the usa become the latest team to go through with a puffy record of 3 out of 3 wins and show again why they taped to go all the way.

you're watching to w. news coming up next it's business africa airlines are scrambling to assess the risks as u.s. or anyone relations are get even more intense and some carriers bypass the strait of hormuz. how the earth was free with you with that and much more in just a minute i'm terry martin thanks for joining us. it's been 50 years since the moon landing. she was the 1st man to walk on the moon . as a small boy she dreamed of the stars. as a pilot can see anything no matter how.