plane. this is d w news live from berlin iran sees a british oil tanker in the gulf the tanker is called being sent to imperil iran's revolutionary guard say it's been taken to an iranian port a british government emergency committee has gone into session also coming up germany's chancellor delivers her verdict on donald trump's racist remarks. i

reject trump's comments and stand in solidarity with the congresswoman he attacked it was on the america's most forthright comments of her annual summer news conference at which she also credited young activists 1st bring her to task faster on climate change also on the program the dutch supreme court finds the state partially liable for the deaths of 350 bosnian muslims in the 7 it's a massacre when dutch troops failed to protect the victims from bosnian serb forces . plus helping migrants survive the desert on the us mexico border it's called the water drop and it's organized by a group known as border angels they're trying to stop by grants from dying of thirst as they tracked into their promised. tom calma aspen welcome. the program the british government's emergency committee

is meeting at this hour after iran's revolutionary guard said it had captured a british oil tanker in the strait of hormuz iranian officials say the steno imperiled was stopped for quote noncompliance with international maritime laws and regulations and has been transferred to an undisclosed iranian port the owner of the vessel has confirmed that it lost contact with the ship after it was approached by unidentified vessels and a helicopter. are those get more on this breaking news now i'm joined by d w news reporter rebecca ritter's rebecca what more do we know i mean can you give us any more details 1st of all about what exactly happened or why this happened just before we came on col so details are still slightly sketchy that coming in but we do know as you mentioned the revel iran's revolutionary guard says it seized a british oil tanker in the strait of hormuz on the vessel was apparently heading for saudi arabia and it suddenly veered off course and headed into iranian waters

in the strait of hormuz according to marine tracking the tanker was heading north to the. currently heading north to the iranian island of kish and that's part of the iran iran's revolutionary guard have quite a substantial base there so the ships owners have issued a statement they say the vessel was approached by unidentified small craft and a helicopter during the visit to the the strait of hormuz while the vessel was in international waters there presently unable to contact the vessel and it's now heading north so that's about all we know as to where abouts of the ship at the moment we heard about these these emergency meetings now taking place in the u.k. i mean how the authorities in the u.k. have been reacting to this well obviously they were quick to come out to say that they were assessing the situation and the u.k. ministry of defense that it was urgently looking into the incident now obviously they are convening that emergency meeting so we'll have to wait and see what comes out of that in the u.s.

meanwhile the white house has also confirmed that it was aware of the incident and it would be working with its allies to defend against iran should anything happen and this isn't the only incident in this region i mean this comes at a time of rising tensions there is this just a new level now of escalation it certainly looks that way at this stage i mean you know as you say rising tensions they've been ratcheting up over the last few weeks months even since the u.s. obviously rejected the iran nuclear deal they've been calling for iran to say so all uranium. and richmond which iran has said it will not do it consistently refused in fact and they have been several incidents in recent weeks in july a british warship intervened to drive 3 iranian military ships that were there to try and intercept a u.k. tanker and then 6 days before that an iranian tank was detained and it's being held because it was thought that it was shipping oil to syria in defiance of embargoes there so you know definitely this is kind of thing kind of

a tit for tat and so this will definitely driving up tensions rebecca bettors bring us up to speed there thank you very much. meanwhile u.s. president donald trump has said there is no doubt that the u.s. warship brought down in iranian drone on thursday even though iran denies that it has lost any of its unmanned aircraft mr trump says the u.s.s. boxer patrolling the strait of hormuz brought down the drone because it had flown too close to the warship. a view from the drone that the u.s. claims it shot down of the ship the u.s.s. shot it down iranian say this footage credibly disproves the american claim that one of their drones moved too close to a u.s. navy ship. the u.s. has stuck to its guns u.s. president donald trump today addressed the issue in an event at the oval office when questioned by reporters as to the veracity of the story. we're going to do we . said a drone had come within a 1000 yards of the assault ship the u.s.s.

boxer pictured here and ignored calls to stand down iran has responded with derision the foreign minister suggested that perhaps the u.s. shut down its own drone by mistake. this is the latest scrape between the 2 countries over who is provoking whom in the strait of hormuz on june 20th iran shot down a u.s. drone it said had violated its airspace just days ago the iranian military seized a foreign tanker in the strategic strait saying the ship was smuggling oil they released this footage on the edge of the showing the incident. the united nations has urged restraint on all sides to avoid open conflict. let's take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world a strong earthquake has hit greece just north of the capital athens the 5 point one back into tremor sent people running into the streets and disabled phone and wireless connections a 2nd tremor was felt 40 minutes later. german sea captain. has left

italy after facing questions and then telling in court yesterday show we're trying to germany before heading to an unnamed destination she's accused of aiding illegal immigration after docking in italy with 40 rescued migrants despite the italian government's ban on privately operated migrant rescue vessels captain said it was her duty to save lives. germany's foreign minister has presided over the return of a looted painting to the world famous pizzey gallery in florence italy the still life face of flowers by dutch master john phone by some was stolen in 1044 by retreating nazi soldier as a gift for his wife. well uncle americal as rejected u.s. president donald trump's racist remarks about for us congresswoman speaking at her annual summer news conference the german chancellor said she stood in solidarity

with them she also credited young people and the fridays for future movement with jump starting her environmental policy medical took questions on arrived wide range of topics including on her health. confident and satisfied the german chancellor appears relaxed in front of the cameras plenty one wondering how she's feeling after being seen trembling several times recently anglo-american answered good. short and to the point it's not always merkel strongpoint on this occasion she also had some clear words for the u.s. president she criticized donald trump for his racist attack against 4 democratic congresswoman from ethnic minorities. i reject trump's comments and stand in solidarity with the congresswoman he attacked not far from eccles press conference climate activists from the friday's for future movement were out on the streets. thousands took part among them the

swedish student created to invade mechelle admitted the movement has pushed the german government to act more quickly on climate change she conceded more needs to be done if germany is to meet its commitments under the paris climate accord. concerning the 2030 goals we don't know the exact details yet but the experts say and i agree with them that the most efficient path to achieving those goals is to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions but we must also take into account the social impact. of. mekele brushed off complaints from her party's coalition partners the social democrats over the election of a seller for the lion from the ackles c.d.u. party. business we shouldn't be overly proud about it but we also don't need to be the only ones in europe who are grumpy about

it flaky. after 90 minutes the press conference came to an end with this strong signal that the chancellor hasn't given up her job just yet. our political correspondent simon young was watching that press conference now this was as you mentioned wide ranging i mean sheets of questions for some 90 minutes what do you think what was her strongest message that she had today you know i had the impression the main thing she wanted to get across was that she's still here and she's very much in control and everything's fine really from her point of view she repeated how happy she was that her 2 allies her 2 female party allies have moved into top jobs this week on the line to the european commission presidency and a great karen bauer to the defense ministry here in berlin she said she was relieved about that but she also talked about lots of issues the challenge of

climate change was something they had to get on top of and greater good added to the with her school protests that added to the urgency there she was talking about a range of other things modernizing germany's universities reforming the pension system building houses and so on so she's really saying i'm here i mean charge i know what i'm doing as we said there after she'd made her opening statements there was more than an hour of questions she was asked about a whole range of stuff of course also about offensive remarks by president donald trump let's have a listen to what she said about that. let me say clearly that in my view america's strength lies precisely in the fact that it's a country where people of very different nationalities have contributed to the strength of america as a whole. so these are let me say comments that very much run counter to the firm impression i have i have to say that he does my little for me i did it gunther.

just. you know and later she she said when she was asked you know do you distance yourself from these remarks and and sold their eyes yourself with the. those congresswoman who were attacked by donald trump she said absolutely i do so she was pretty emphatic on that strong marks there now they've also been concerns of course about the chancellor's health we've seen these 3 different bouts of shaking that she's experienced in public she says she's fine what's your impression was she looked fine today she was there was no shaking or anything we've seen these troubling incidents of her shaking when she had to stand but it was a sitting performance to date to put it like that she said she knows what her responsibilities are and that she's she said to the journalists you know maybe so you know that i wouldn't say that i could carry out this job if i couldn't and she was so you sort of rather on a put in a personal way she said you know i'm i'm the one who cares most about my own health

because when i've actually stepped down a couple of years i want to carry on enjoying life for a few years at least toft of that. i'm feeling fine is what she said course continues after politics chancellor merkel she repeated that she will she wants to govern until 2021 that would officially be the end of her or her term here or coalition though it's been a bit shaky it hasn't been the smoothest ride in the in recent years how long will she last will she make it to 2021 you know the coalition is shaky just like the chancellor but she said today that relations within the cabinet with her social democrat coalition partners are very good but it has to be said the social democrats are under a lot of pressure they've really failed to reorganize since the elections a couple of years back and they are struggling in the polls we've got some key regional elections coming up in eastern states at the end of this year so. in

actually in a couple of months time already so you know if the social democrats feel they have to sort of move to the left to restate their socialist credentials they may feel that they can't win elections any more inside government and they want to pull out now of course would mean a premature end to the political career of anglo-american d.w. political correspondent simon young thanks very much. the supreme courts of the netherlands as found the dutch state partially liable for the deaths of 350 bosnian muslims in the server needs a massacre the muslims were killed by bosnian serb forces after being expelled from a un safe haven being guarded by dutch troops during the bosnian war in 1905 the murders were part of an organized massacre that left about $8000.00 muslim men and boys dead. it's the final decision from the netherlands supremes court.

and for the mothers of srebrenica it's a disappointment. on jenny hold as the dutch defense ministry and the dutch government are responsible for the start of the genocide in srebrenica if it's one percent 10 percent or 100 percent they are responsible it is their cynicism primitivism and their own incapacity that they can only recognise it for 10 percent most responsible that's. why 10 percent according to the court dutch peacekeeping forces should have been aware that the $350.00 men hiding in the compound would be mistreated and even killed but the court also said even if they remained in the compound there was only a 10 percent chance that they would have survived. in 1905 thousands of muslims were fleeing serb forces they headed to muslim majority in bosnia where dutch un peacekeepers were stationed the court's decision is specifically about the 350 men

who were hiding inside the dutch peacekeepers compound. due to the dutch battalion known as dutch but deprived these member a fugitive the chance of staying out of the hands of the bosnian serbs. if you think the verdict is fair if people make mistakes and made a mistake. so be it that's fine i mean i'm human i can make mistakes so but to. say that you made a mistake but it's like 10 percent. that's not fair whatever the percentage for the mothers of. the netherlands remains responsible. well it's one of the most divisive issues right now in the u.s. the trump administration is treatment of migrants with reports of terrible conditions and abuse at the tension camps along the southern border and that's after many migrants have already survived the dangerous track through central

america and mexico some are some americans are now volunteering to take action to help them our correspondent all of our salat medical group of so-called border angles making life saving water drops in the california desert. with every step they take the dangers of the desert become more and more evident heat sun and no access to water may crossing the mountains a risky undertaking 15 volunteers of the so-called border angels try to make it safer by dropping water in the desert traces tell them they're on the right track. this is a heavily traveled area and bad. because the border patrol presence has been stepped up in other areas more people are feeling funneled into this more dangerous ravine region and coming through here and there are discarded things out there go along. along the way to empty water containers shoulder up

their efforts are not in vain. this is been a very strenuous hike so far you can easily consume one in the house for 2 leaders off water so it's very obvious how important these water drops are essentially they can save the migrants life. among the volunteers the descendants of migrants like seek his son chess whose great grandfather migrated to the u.s. from mexico 100 years ago there were no roads there were no interstates there wouldn't nothing so the only possible way that he could have gotten up here him in my great grandmother were. walking. you know. somebody had to help him along the way. here i am. others want to make a statement against the u.s. government's migration policy. and ministration and the current political climate that's a represent

a mass majority of the mirror came to welcome in the previous. final leave the group reaches its destination time to deposit some water containers for migrants coming through from the nearby mexican border the bottles will be among the 1st things they find when crossing into america a personal message in spanish when i sweat up the good luck to those who might need it. we have brothers and sisters that are in need that are facing death and facing hardship that because of a gallon of water might be able to be saved and become productive. at the end of the day the border angels hike to muddle through for new and desert they say helping migrants is their duty because america has always been a nation of immigrants. for more let's go to oliver salat he's in washington for us of course he made that report now oliver here's what we've seen this week we've seen trump supporters chanting and time migrant

slogans we've seen the trumpet ministration trying to crack down on the rights of asylum seekers and yet there are still these groups like the one that you met i mean how divided is the country right now on the issue of migration of course we're looking at a very divided country but we've also reached a moment in which the president is actually benefiting from his extreme rhetoric and this divisive message and you could easily see that at one of his last rallies where his supporters were chanting send her home obviously referring to all maher one of the 4 congresswoman that donald trump insulted with a series of racist tweets last week and soledad on the one hand side and you could see that the supporters are embracing this kind of rhetoric but on the other hand you have the democratic party who is trying to show themselves in a very different light he's trying to show that there's a cosmopolitan america and a lot of the candidates the presidential candidates in the democratic party have

a migrant background you could hear them at the t.v. debates as speaking in spanish many of them delivering parts of their messages in spanish so that was on president of those well and on that side also is the volunteer group that i joined in the mountains there and you the mexican border that is really trying to make a statement a political statement as well trying to show that there is a cosmopolitan america one that is embracing migrants and people with other other cultures and backgrounds let's talk about the group that you joined i mean there's been a backlash against actions of volunteers like them tell us about that. and so this group the so-called border angeles has been doing these water groups for about 20 years now but i talked to one of their leaders and they told me that only since president trying to cut off his and started his crackdown on immigration have they've been experiencing all kinds of backlashes 1st and foremost of calls for just a normal people that are yelling at them that are insulting them that are saying

why do you not just focus on ordinary americans rather than helping illegal migrants who are coming into the country on documented you that have border patrol agents who go into the desert to destroy these water containers but then most importantly there are stories of legal action taken against these humanitarian aid organizations there's a story of a man who allegedly helped offered them shelter and gave them a lift because he found them in the desert and they were extremely exhausted and use knowledge charged with felony and conspiracy facing up to 20 years in jail briefly if you can of i mean how can those kind of actions just simply leaving water in the desert how could that be seen as something that's illegal well 1st of all those stills that you and terry aids groups the people who are participating there they're being told to not have any interaction with the migrants they meet because they that could be interpreted as human trafficking in fact if you take

these people home and provide shelter provide give them a lift and anything like that and of course they're trying to protect themselves also by not providing 5 i'm not uploading any pictures on social media just for their own protection and reka mona's the person who founded the border and said this is a record number of legal action taken against humanitarian aid organizations operating along the mexican border right now a direct effect as he says. crack down on immigration. all over solid in washington reporting on the border angels thank you very much. now this week of course marks the 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 mission that put men on the moon for the 1st time since then astronauts and scientists have turned their attention to other goals in space but now there is renewed interest in lunar matters a german astronaut training for what could be the next move by. this dusty landscape is not the moon but volcanic ground on the spanish island of land

serota much as mara and french astronaut trainer every step along are gearing up for the next moon landing they're testing equipment and gathering igneous rock which is similar to that found on the moon if marty is mara does make it to the moon he'll need to be able to identify everything he sees. that's aloof even a mineral that comes from deep underground from close to the earth's mantle geologists are really keen on making a discovery like this on the moon. because samples like this could tell you a lot about the moon's composition. mounir is one of 7 astronauts preparing for what may be the next manned flight to the moon liftoff could be in 2024. they station from our is the astronaut training center at the european space agency in cologne. we have

one there's a new race to the moon not between the soviet union and the us like 50 years ago this is much more of an economic race it's about being the 1st to fly to the moon the 1st to achieve dominance in space. china is investing heavily in space technology so much he has mauer is learning mandarin as well as russian he wants to work with chinese astronauts and eventually fly to their planned space station. the chinese space capsule will have a weight limit for astronauts 75 kilos so fitness is a key part of training. this is a typical exercise that prepares you for space in a space suit is so tight that you can practically only use your arms there's a risk of injuring your shoulder muscles. next stop brylin mauer has

come to this planetarium to persuade politicians and business leaders to support the moon mission. is complete the sentence i'm glad that people are going back to the moon because. because it'll be an amazing adventure and not only for astronauts but the right technology we can bring everyone along using virtual 3 d. technology people can just put on a headset and join us when we explore the moon. in november the european space agency will decide whether to pump money into the race until then much he can only dream of being the next human to set foot on the moon. and a quick reminder now of the top stories that we're following for you at this hour iran says it has seized in british oil tanker in the gulf the tanker called the stand out in peril and iran's revolutionary guard says it's been taken to an

iranian port a british government emergency committee has gone into session. german chancellor angela merkel has rejected u.s. president donald trump's racist attacks on for congresswoman as round as railed against before dawn wide congressman in a series of tweets telling them to quote go back to where they came from. you're watching t.v. news up next is africa the environment magazine i'm promise but i'll be back with more news at the top of the hour thanks want. food.

the fellow africa that's in the primate camisole of the world. uganda has given a far as national talk is hidden deep in the jungle. needs ranges ensure the survival of chimps i'm told the cretin. concept for success is cutting tourism.

next on d.w.i. . robots they're still in the development phase. but what's going to happen when they grow more. will schumann's admission in spain able to piece move coincidence to a more formally on the verge of a remarkable life so. if we just bumble into this totally unprepared with our heads in the sand fusing to think about what could go wrong then let's face it it's probably going to be the biggest mistake in human history. artificial intelligence is now spreading through our society. is this the beginning of

a digital age. will we be subjected to continuous state surveillance. on a day on the experts be able to agree on ethical guidelines or will this technology create deadly new autonomous when i'm so sick. we. robotically starts august 14th on t w. hello then welcome to the latest edition of eco africa and now it's i mean from lagos nigeria now there's so much you can learn on this show if you haven't had any questions about the environment and what you can.