this is d.w. news live from berlin and donald trump abruptly counsels peace talks with the taliban and us president says lives in response to a taliban attack in kabul so is this the end of the peace process that's been looking to wrap up america's long campaign in afghanistan also coming up. russia

votes in regional and local elections around the country but concerns that the opposition is being shut out are frightening to overshadow the ballots. and pope francis celebrates mass with hundreds of thousands of the leaders in madagascar and as a message of hope for the younger generation in the poverty stricken african nation . i'm rebecca ritter's welcome to the program and a potential blow to ending u.s. and gauge men in afghanistan president donald trump has canceled peace talks with taliban leaders at camp david which was supposed to be taking place today in a tweet president trump said he scrapped the secret meeting on to the taliban claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in kabul the u.s. and the taliban have been meeting since last year in the hopes of ending the 18 year conflict. the body of an american soldier returns home sergeant at least body

to ortiz was the 16th u.s. service member killed in afghanistan this year one of a dozen people who died when a taliban car bomb exploded on thursday near the u.s. embassy in kabul. died inspired president trump to tweet an unexpected announcement . the major taliban leaders and the president of afghanistan were going to secretly meet with me on sunday unfortunately in order to build false leverage they had made it to an attack in kabul that killed one of our great soldiers i immediately canceled the meeting and called off peace negotiations . it has been 18 years since the u.s. invaded afghanistan after the september 11th attacks on new york city by its ally al qaida thousands of coalition troops have died as well as tens of thousands of afghan troops and civilians. the afghan government has been critical of the

negotiations between the u.s. and the taliban which have largely sidelined afghan officials but a spokesperson welcomes trump's announcement. there was an important day for the taliban to. to brace a political life they had to do so and they. continued violence while they were talking to the city he was in. this movie mission and we didn't see any commitment by the top of it for any peace process except talking and you know. continuing to have this now of course meanwhile the taliban said the decision will harm the u.s. more than anyone else but seem to leave the door open to more talks. trump has pledged to withdraw the remaining 14000 u.s. troops from afghanistan but faces resistance from the afghan government. and some

u.s. lawmakers who say it's too early to leave the afghans on the road. and there. has been following the story for us from all thanks for joining me as we heard the taliban reacted to president trump's decisions saying that canceling the pace talks would harm the u.s. more than anyone else what i mean by that well i do not think that the decision by the us i think the taliban what they're actually trying to do is they want to get the maximum are out of the deal the negotiations. ended gradually i believe so what exactly the taliban mean here that you have to agree to all duns and obviously all these 3 parties the taliban the u.s. and the afghan government they all want to get the maximum out of a potential agreement. taliban on trying to show their strength in the

battlefield there have been a docking they have launched various attacks in afghanistan just to pressure the u.s. but apparently president grump believes that he should not be surrendering to the taliban here and this is quite a turnaround bearing in mind that the trumpet ministration said it was on the threshold of an agreement with the taliban and u.s. secretary of state i underline that today again let's take a listen we are making real progress towards that we had a commitment from the taliban to make a formal public announcement that they would break with al qaeda something that an american demand that it got back as far as president bush we were making progress along the way present proposed supportive of those efforts making real progress but how close were they really are. well i was in doha covering the talks last week and we know 1st hand that u.s. and taliban negotiators are very close to the kind of agreed on

a draft agreement and obviously then the u.s. envoy zalmay cleans up to get to kabul and he held talks with have gone off issues so things are pretty smooth but then the taliban attacks continued and you have to understand that it is what trump do we get to the announcement the decision it is a temporary measure in my opinion all these parties desperately want a deal whatever the taliban say whatever president the president not sure what he says at this moment all these parties really do reach an agreement and i think that. right here so what is next in the peace process. well we have to see what the u.s. wanted the moment is nation wide seas fight in afghanistan that they want the

taliban to do agree to the taliban on the other hand believe that if they flex their muscles they show battlefield they could you know pressure the u.s. . but they have to understand that the u.s. although president. to withdraw troops. before the elections in the u.s. next year he wants to show some kind of success. regarding afghanistan the u.s. is not in hearty here so the only way out of this crisis is that the taliban agree show some flexibility agree to terms with the u.s. and then hold talks with the of gun government the elected government in kabul and hold indra gone dialogues that is the only way out of this crisis and i believe this is going to happen sooner or later these are just you know bargaining tactics . thank you very much for the analysis thanks for having me on the show.

some of the other stories making news around the world turkish and u.s. troops have conducted their 1st joint patrol in northeastern syria and present stablish what it calls a safe zone in the area i mean kurdish fighters away from its border turkey also wants to resettle up to 1000000 syrian refugees in the region. hundreds of residents of greater bacco island have arrived in the bahamas capital nothing survivors of hurricane doran's assault on their homes many women by family and friends the united nations says some 700000 people are in need of food and shelter . russians have been voting today in regional and regional and municipal elections some observers say the election is neither free nor fed more than 7000000 were eligible to elect small macon's to the moscow parliament president vladimir putin cast his vote in the capital where demonstrations have erupted in recent weeks protesters were angry after authorities banned several

allies of opposition leader in a valley from standing a police crackdown around 2000 people the times. for more on this let's bring in our correspondent our until he's in moscow will only have a full sagan's tomorrow but do we have any was also i saw well we're russia is quite a large countries around which amounted to we get the official election totals but looking here at moscow which is actually the most closely watched races we're seeing that voter turnout is roughly in line with what it was last year and that was only around 21 percent which is quite low and that could be an indication that these weeks of protests would lead up to this polling actually failed to have a large impact on and feel like total shit here when these regional elections are being seen as a serious test for russian president vladimir putin and his united russia party why well that's because if the united see united russia as you are seeing right there is fear you seen some rather historically low polling numbers right now only around

30 percent of the russian population says they actually support the party which is form kind of the backbone of the support for a lot of your putin for almost the last 20 years now and their brand is especially considered toxic in some of the major cities we're talking about moscow and st petersburg here that's part of the reason why many of the candidates for the state duma here in the city duma rather here in moscow to sharon this independent candidates out of fear that association with the brand if you do that or see it could actually hurt their chances in today's polling and what outcome is the opposition campaigning for considering that many of its candidates have been barred from running. well it really depends on what you mean by the opposition is hard to speak from or of a unified opposition when it comes to russia when it comes alexina vali you mention who is one of the most prominent members of the russian opposition and one of the most vocal members actually trying to. see he's actually focused on trying to get his supporters to back

a list of candidates he says have the best chance of defeating the d.n.a. to see a member's basically they're arguing that by preventing more of their candidates from getting into government it would be a win for the opposition in general now so far we don't know how many people are going to actually support his list of candidates but if it actually does prove to be successful it could turn into a model for future electoral success on the part of the opposition and russia has said that google and facebook have distributed political ads today can you tell us more about. well right now is from what we've been hearing and reading here in moscow it seems that the russian government is accusing these american tech giants of violating its laws which forbid political advertising in the final days running up to the election now they're saying that amounts to an illegal. and illegal influence or influence campaign on the part of the tech companies in an attempt to actually influence the democratic process here in russia now it's

actually something that the west has long the queues russia of as well and it seems that this could be an attempt to put pressure back on western powers who are often critical of the way the democratic process actually works here in russia and speaking to us from moscow thank you. thank you hundreds of thousands of people turned out in madagascar it to hear pope francis celebrate mass the service was the climax of his visit to the on a nation the 1st by head of the catholic church for 3 decades francis told the country's youth not to lose hope despite widespread property. cheering crowds of the faithful near madagascar's capital antananarivo it's the 1st time in 30 years that a pope a celebrated mass here expectations were running high. but. i got here at 3 yesterday afternoon and i stayed here every night yet in the mideast but this visit is to people hope that we can improve our situation i suggest that.

the situation is bleak especially in the capital around 2 thirds of the country's 26000000 people live below the poverty line. after here right on saturday pope francis criticized excessive deforestation saying it benefits only a few people while misusing one of the country's most important natural resources. francis had a similar message at sunday's mass the high point of his visit to the island speaking to the hundreds of thousands in the congregation the pope condemned cultures of privilege in which as he put it a few live in wealth and the expense of the vast majority. of villages whose your name on monday pope francis travels to marisha is the 3rd stop on his 3 nation african tour. to

tennis and bianca under e.s.q. has begun serena williams in straight sets to win the u.s. open in new york the 19 year old canadian have this done the start to the match taking the 1st set to 63 she then storms to a 51 late in the 2nd and looks certain to win and williams 4 back to tie the set of 5 all on various q. held her nerves though and eventually won the set claiming her 1st ever grand slam title. as one of the most important awards in international said international cinema a golden lion from the vin venice film festival and this year's prize goes to a joke up a movie directed by the american todd phillips the film's adopt origin story of the batman villain starring walking phoenix in the title role it's the 1st golden lion for directed todd phillips and might put him in his late actor on the path to oscar glory. they're watching the news coming up next world

stories the weekend reports you can find all the latest news around the clock on our web site that's day w dot com i'll be back at the top of the hour with more international news thanks for watching. miter richardson. in the precious resources. under room warning investment. forum what mr carter ethiopia's gringo in. this country has an abundance of. leases to international trade. government to hire extra years corporations. but not every.