breaking news this hour malaysia airlines says its ill fated plane was flying lower than had been planned before crashing in ukraine killing two hundred ninety eight people on board after an alleged rocket strike. and grief stricken relatives struggle to come to terms with the tragedy in which the majority of victims would dutch nationals. also the russian defense ministry says it's been tracking signals from ukrainian army's radars and found that they were in use and didn't range of the plane at the time of the crash.

welcome my name to the harvey and you're watching r.t. international. we will start with breaking news coming from malaysia airlines which says that its plane was flying at a lower height than the original route requested rescue teams are now combing through the wreckage of a boeing that went down in ukraine on tuesday they're searching for bodies along with clues to what could have caused the crash this is what the scene looks like all two hundred ninety eight passengers and crew on board were killed in the tragedy we should warn you that there are some graphic images coming up. so far around half of the bodies have been retrieved from the wide field of anti government forces who control that area have denied earlier claims that they had found the flight recorders but insist that when they do they will hand them over to

international investigators and we managed to speak to one local woman who lives right next to the site of the crash if. i had terrible noise i went out first and then my has been the woman fell to the ground right after i ran out there first my husband found it was me. i was in shock because i couldn't go further than my yarran. so let's take a closer look at the the route that flight m h seventeen was taking well it took off in amsterdam it was on a long haul journey to kuala lumpur the boeing seven hundred seven was flying over eastern ukraine the zone of an ongoing conflict between ukrainian army and local militia groups the plane then disappeared from radar shortly before it was due to russian air space and here is a list of the nationalities of those on board the ill fated aircraft the majority

of the passengers one hundred eighty nine. forty four victims including all the crew members were malaysian and there were twenty seven australians also traveling on the airliner also among the victims citizens of britain germany the philippines and canada. these are pictures from kuala lumpur international airport the flight destination families of the passengers had gathered there to find out what happened to their loved ones some lashed out at the area demanding at least the passenger manifest it's also a time of grieving in the netherlands from where the plane took off reports now from amsterdam the majority of the passengers on that flight were dutch nationals and that flight took off from here where i am an ounce to dance to people airport before it crashed in ukraine it's devastating passengers relatives trying

to obtain information about what happened to their loved ones and the grief and the shock of coming to terms with their losses it was just unbelievable we know that malaysian airlines have sent out a care team here to amsterdam to help passengers cope with their losses but we also know that a number of the passengers were headed to melbourne for an international aid conference. but a prominent h.i.v. research show was on the plane with his wife heading for a global aids conference he was one of dozens of delegates thought to been travelling that long as friend the president of the anti aids foundation shared his feelings of the loss. i feel stunted very unreal i think the moment i will see something more tangible it was his presence you know i talked to them

yesterday morning before they boarded the plane circling were saying that she was very much looking forward to going to the conference in melbourne and then she even sent me a text message on the plane in malaysia airlines saying that they had just given them the menu card even before takeoff and that she was already looking forward to eating the nice asian food while lottie's spanish correspondent francisco guy he managed to get to the scene within hours of the catastrophe some viewers may find the images in his report disturbing in twelve kilometers around here there is still this is of the bodies there are also this is off air crafts and a lot of the tales of their lives of these almost three hundred people right now the local government of don't ask is saying that they agree to make a ceasefire for some days that they can do an investigation and here they can come

they said they always see and also the international civil aviation organization the situation in this moment is that in around some kilometers we have heard some grad rockets this means that they combat is still going on. you know russia's defense ministry says it has tracked the activity of the ukrainian military is radars on the day of the crash it says an exchange took place between military officials concerning targets early ukrainian security sources released what they claimed was a leaked phone conversation between local militia members discussing how they had mistakenly shot down a civilian aircraft president poroshenko says the rebels down the plane with a rocket but the anti-government fighters say they have no weapons capable of this and i'll blame the ukrainian forces meanwhile russia is calling for a thorough investigation as edward cowley now reports. well earlier blood in a putin said that ukraine must take responsibility for this tragedy it happened

over their territory and if there'd been pace in eastern ukraine then this tragedy would never have happened this is what the president had to say look we have to do everything in our capability to make sure an objective picture of what happened is made public and known to people in our country as well as the people of ukraine and the whole world what happened is completely unacceptable and no one has the right to walk away with the make you know no conclusion of what happened if you believe that i want to point out that this tragedy wouldn't have happened if there was peace on the ukrainian land at least if the fighting hadn't had resumed in the south east without any doubt the state on whose territory this happened must still responsible for this horrible tragedy russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov has also issued a statement about the recent shelling by the ukrainian army of russian territory

which has happened a few times over the last few weeks this is what lavrov had to say the obedience from the little if ukraine continues to shell russian territory almost has the ability to retaliate against the area where the firing is coming from your so far according to our estimates is these shellings as a result of nonprofessional as those working there or accidents during wartime now moscow has also said that it hopes the u.s. will review its support of kiev's military operation in eastern ukraine u.s. intelligence officials claim that the plane was downed by a surface to air missile but have not specifically blamed either side us president joe biden said a team of specialists will be sent to assist ukrainian authorities with the investigation going to church account is in washington following the american reaction. u.s. officials believe it was a surface to air missile that shot down the malaysian plane over ukraine the u.s.

is not pointing the blame thing there just yet president obama spoke with the ukrainian leader. we can be sure that the blame game in the coming days and weeks is going to be vicious there are questions as to who had the capability to do this the ukrainian military certainly has the capability to launch like that would require a team of specialists as we hear from many experts and there is another question why was this malaysian airliner flying over the conflict zone we know that u.s. airlines had been avoiding the area for some time to size me because it was deemed unsafe what kind of instructions that this plane was see from the ukrainian air traffic control and what exactly was happening inside the cockpit just moments before the tragedy hopefully we'll get more answers when investigators get hold of the black box of course one of the main questions at this point is who is going to investigate this the u.n. secretary general spoke out calling for an international investigation one of the concerns moving forward is that the investigation could eventually be politicized

the blame game is full on in the media even before any facts have been established . the deputy head of russia's aviation committee for an international commission to be allowed to probe the crash. understanding the difficulty of the situation in the area of the incident we consider it necessary to create an international investigation commission which could be established under the authority of the international civil aviation organization and to pass on to it all the flight recorders souls on the board that go. the plane tracking service flight radar twenty four suggests that the aircraft deviated from its usual routine went much further south than the other airliners passing over ukraine flying directly over the combat zone it's unclear why it took that path and this isn't the only unusual circumstance this surrounding the disaster let's get more now from wireless communications professor misha dollar plus thanks so much for joining us i'd like

to start if i may with the latest development now that's that media agencies are now citing a source in the malaysian airlines saying that the ukrainian air traffic controllers directed the plane to fly at a lower height than originally requested it is that a particularly strange request why would you guess that they would do that well you know i'm not in a relation next boat is certainly unusual that no request was made i agree with and particularly having very unusual circumstances with the previous flight a few months back which we haven't solved yet ok what about the fact that the malaysian plane was going over a combat zone that surprised a lot of people i just wondered what you think about that and to the members of the public that would seem like a risky thing to do it would surprise people that would actually happen. it seems it seems quite common actually you know been quite alone planes which flew a bomb or you know commerce knowns and i was thinking myself to be

a risky thing to do. in this particular circumstance what is actually suspicious is that the plane has a year from typically two weeks which seems to be now very very different from the flight just a day before. ok now the suspicion at the moment that's going around is that the jet was shot down by the book surface to air missile system now this is a system that can reach targets at an altitude of up to twenty five kilometers or the missiles can travel twelve hundred meters per second i mean it is a speculation but it's one that lots of people are latching on to does that seem very likely to you. it's probably the most likely given the video footage of the soul propelled rocket is real owners are going to give if that is the case that probably was actually shot down in to really very fine we would need the radar signatures of the of the russian ukrainians and maybe the u.s. who's covering the whole to respond there because that's the only thing which will

really confirm that an object has been flowing at a high speed towards the airplane ok that takes on probably the most important question which is that would it actually be possible to establish phish sure where the missile came from because the most important thing is going to be to clarify was it launched by the army or was it launched by the opposition if this happened. yes there are different ways of doing that the easiest way of doing it is if you look at the video you have you determine the angle of the self-propelled. and you know more or less where it actually has departed from you can use to show that standard from which directions actually come so that's a very rough indication and my guess is i've done a little bit of calculus it's coming probably from the east and from the eastern border. not from russia go and do really rigorous map of the world would be to look at the radar traces which i'm sure all the russian and the ukrainian military

because they are trying to protect their airspace in that case be fascinating to see what kind of information in that realm appears in the future then thanks so much for joining us there that's wireless communications professor dole a very interesting thank you thank you. well major air carriers have announced that they are diverting their planes around eastern ukrainian airspace among them our air france scale and love tanser europe's transport agency euro control has advised all a u. caris to avoid the area and following the tragedy eight leaders have been x. expressing their condolences to those affected our correspondent peter all of our reports from berlin. you heard from german chancellor angela merkel she was given a press conference in which she said there needs to be a full investigation into exactly what caused this disaster she said that germany was willing to to send

a team to ukraine to to help with that investigation to get to the bottom of exactly what happened but she also went on to say that this was an extremely serious act that the taken place she referred to the plane having being shot down and she said that those that are responsible must be brought to justice that's what the german chancellor saying that she did also express her extreme grief and condolences for the families of the those that have been killed four germans were among those that have been on board this plane and she expressed particular condo interest to the people of the netherlands who of course were worst affected by this disaster but she's not the only. european leader that's been speaking about this david cameron the british prime minister of course nine were on that flight as well he also said that he'd spoken to the dutch prime minister mr expressed his condolences and saying that europe and britain all grieve together with with the

people of the netherlands. and we're seeing this come out but from every leader every politician around europe all expressing their condolences and grief for what's going on with regarding the downing of this airplane in eastern ukraine now if you look at any radar map at the moment of the ukrainian area it's complete almost completely bare of any any planes flying around there many airlines are avoiding ukrainian airspace altogether all are avoiding eastern ukraine this is after control the the organization that monitors traffic safety said. that was now a no fly zone the area around eastern ukraine no flights would be passing over there as europe deals with what is a real tragedy not just for europe but for people around the world when we see the nations that all those people came from that have been killed early

a former pilot and a traffic controller desmond ross told us there are still some gray areas being presented about the story. the first one is the cockpit voice recorder which records the last two hours of all communications and all conversations in the cockpit so that that two hours leading up to the final moments should give us a fairly good indication of what was going on and that may even tell us that knew nothing about it whatsoever that it just happened frankly there's a couple of things that i can't rule but curious about the images that i've been seeing on television when the aircraft was hit and it would have depressurized more innocent mediately if there was a large hole blown in the fuselage or a compact excuse like scope and a sudden decompression of that nature would have been quite calamitous for people who had very few seconds of consciousness and before they passed out and they would fall in obviously great distance to the ground and so interesting in that they might be quite intact one would expect that that might be showing some signs of

damage you know the other thing that i found really interesting it is the collection of our sports that are being shown on television which will appear to be very train and almost brand new. and they've been collected obviously very quickly you know or from pockets of should cases perhaps so there are some interesting aspects to the whole thing we will undoubtedly come out of the investigation is conducted professionally and probably. some of the accusations against antigovernment fighters are based on a twitter post in which they allegedly both stood up having advanced missile systems capable of bringing down the plane it's claimed that the tweet was posted and then deleted from the account of the self-proclaimed dead yet people's republic however kiev is prosecuted general denied the weapons the four than into the hands of militants in a fortnight takes us through some of the speculation being circulated in the media . a shocking tragedy claiming the lives of nearly three hundred victims before

and investigation even begins the lack of credible facts has it prevented many in the west from jumping to conclusions according to the sun newspaper the russian president is personally responsible for downing the malaysia airlines plane in ukraine and accusation some u.s. officials are doing their best to feel if it is a result of either separatist or russian action mistakingly believing there was a ukrainian war plane i think there's going to be able to pay and there should be there does seem to be a growing awareness that it probably had to be russian surgeons now how we determine that will require some forensics but then if there is evidence pointing in that direction the equipment had to come from russia either the missile came from it's a missile that came from russia or it was from the separatists and it's a buccal style vessel i mean this came from russia russia has their fingerprints

all over it either way why stop it fingers according to the daily mail russia's hands are soaked in blood some journalists conveniently camouflaged their blame with a question mark headline after headline asking if russia is to blame very few bothering to enquire about ukraine's possible role in the plane crash the new york times on the other hand reported ukraine's accusations leaving no room in this article for russia's position the u.s. nato and russia have all called for an investigation to be launched to establish the facts many media outlets have already created their narrative even if it means bypassing the truth marina port ny r.t. new york. despite international calls for a cease fire the ukrainian army is continuing with this heavy. of lugansk which is one of the focal points of the anti-government resistance in the southeast early

reports suggest as many as twenty civilians have been killed as a result let's cross live and get the very latest from. it's only so sad in the aftermath of what's already transpired here there's still heavy fighting in ukraine's restive eastern as i understand it well there's no end in sight. absolutely it does seem like there is no end in sight and that is something that we've heard time and time again from the refugees that we have spoken to here on the russian side of the russian ukrainian border they say the town especially will guns has been completely wiped out and despite the fact that you can you know thirty's on numerous occasions said that they're not seeking to destroy residential areas and homes those are that seem to be those seem to be the primary targets that are being hit with people dying as you have said at least twenty people at least that's what the reports are suggesting have died just in the most recent shelling and whether or not any sort is sort of if there is going to be any in any sort of

any sort of calm in this storm is not yet clear. that's our correspondents are reporting there live thank you. now this recent series of deaths and the crash are just the latest developments in a month long conflict that's been plaguing southeast ukraine. other tragic milestones including the massacre in adesa in early may when forty two antigovernment protesters were slaughtered a week later seven people were killed when a ground offensive in the city of mariupol a military airstrike on the city center of lugansk in early june killed eight civilians and wounded many others next day a hospital in crowds nearly a man in the don't yet screeching came of the shelling by kiev forces claiming of the ten lives and just over two weeks ago the army shelled the small village of qana killing twelve including a five year old child since the so-called antiterrorist operation was launched by kiev in april the civilian death toll has reached two hundred and fifty seven

that's according to the u.n. special commission in ukraine. but ukraine's army does have some history of shooting down civilian planes who go back to two thousand and one a fatal mistake during a military exercise claimed dozens of lives russian plane was carrying sixty six passengers twelve crew members it was flying from tel aviv to the russian city of nova sibierski contact was lost with the jet above the black sea international investigators acknowledge the tragedy was ukraine's fault of however always denied the allegations. the website has gathered information on all the previous cases where civilian aircraft were downed by weapons that had to r.t. dot com to see where and when they took place. in the. let's

go now to the other top story we're covering today on r t which is that israel is widening its ground offensive in gaza one of its soldiers has been killed the first israeli military. in this latest campaign which kicked off late on thursday the operation has also led to palestinian casualties. it was a very low probability. this is going to. be a real good look at. these particular images showed the bodies of three children who were reportedly hit by artillery fire they're among more than twenty palestinians who have died since this ground operation started to take its toll

early friday of heavy bombardments rained down across garza with locals reporting tanks crossing the border israeli warplanes have also reportedly struck a building that houses several media offices rockets are still being fired into israel by militants israel says its ground troops are trying to destroy its initial target the tunnels being used by hamas to infiltrate the country harry fear has more. well the streets of gaza remain empty throughout this morning after the sun rose people here fear that this ground incursions will continue in the coming days people here do fear that the night the israeli ground invasion could step up its. operations into a new level which could be much more costly for the population of gaza including the civilian population but we decided to go to schieffer hospital where we spoke to a hamas spokesperson and questioned him on this recent past that. your reaction to

the israeli ground invasion of the gaza strip would differ in that people by all people defending or doctor all of these. good by the critics argue that you're going to introduce to give our own war because finally i want to be able to be able to do the groups here have the capacity to actually deal with an israeli ground invasion we already it would be. like throughout the world go through a third bomb. we would buy off it would be ok thank you very much for the time thank you ok thanks so that was. he iterated the position that israel's ground invasion really is going to invoke civilian casualties in large numbers to use that it does have the capacity to defend the palestinian population here from an israeli ground invasion and. to join me at the top of the hour when i'll be back with the latest developments from both eastern ukraine and gaza stay with us

there after a short break it's time for sophie shevardnadze. two u.s. agents who are working deep inside the german government have been caught which has heightened tensions between the two countries even more the german reaction to this was to expel the cia chief in berlin from his post this is the kind of story that makes people who hate u.s. foreign policy put the share button on facebook and get all excited it makes me feel that merkel or at least some elements of the german government are actually fighting against foreign meddling but i would say that you should take this story with a huge grain of salt yeah they just had one cia asset out of the country and this

could be a sign of change but there are still twenty plus u.s. military bases currently operating in germany and in fact the bow holder base is one of the largest ones outside of america territory with thirteen thousand troops permanently stationed there so basically if merkel really wants to reduce foreign meddling in germany she is going to have to somehow get a massive foreign military presence out of a country and since has been there for almost seventy years already i don't think that they're just going to pack up and leave on their own one day but that's just my opinion. these. economic downturns in the final. days the deal sank night and the rest because i think the make believe it's really.

hello welcome to survey and kill on se shevardnadze and diagnosed with ms and that . a baby doctor said he had never lived a life outside especially institution but if done wrong now he's a professor teaching others about the needs of people with autism dr stephen shore is my guest today. the number of children affected by autism is on the rise but the condition remains hard to define while many think it's an illness people who have autism don't consider themselves sick what does it mean to be so different. people really do.