u.s. military says that friendly fire accidentally killed afghan security forces. people being killed in fresh clashes that erupted between protesters and israeli police. bringing in the west over the first ever joint russia china drills in the waters just a day after the united states and twenty other completed massive war games in the region. the next president see the colonization of.

financing the questions of russia's brightest young minds at a special q. and a session in sochi. very good evening to. you watching international the united states military has confirmed that one of its airstrikes has killed an unknown number of quote friendly afghan forces let's cross live to our. who has details on this just take us through what we know at this stage. well at this point numbers from the u.s. air force confirm that the war in afghanistan is escalating with the number of airstrikes carried out by the u.s. and coalition forces increasing at this point these airstrikes are not only not

only putting afghan security forces at risk further more u.s. military personnel are also in danger as the situation in the country escalates at this point since the beginning of twenty seventeen over one thousand six hundred thirty four munitions have been dropped or expended by u.s. and coalition forces and just for comparison in two thousand and fifteen only two hundred ninety eight were expended as and in two thousand and sixteen only four hundred forty five now this takes the level of fighting in afghanistan based on these numbers about how many airstrikes are being carried out to about the level that the fighting was in two thousand and twelve that's how much the fighting has increased we've escalated and the situation in afghanistan has reached the point that it was at in the two thousand and twelve war now at this point you know u.s. military personnel as well as afghan security forces are increasingly at risk and there have been many instances of friendly fire over two thousand u.s.

troops have died in afghanistan since the coalition invasion and a number have died at the hands of friendly fire as the level of airstrikes increases now at this point there are roughly eight thousand five hundred u.s. troops in afghanistan alongside five thousand other nato forces so the situation in afghanistan is escalating the number of airstrikes are rising and people are at risk including afghan security forces as well as u.s. and coalition troops. that's our correspondent kelly morgan bring his legs there from new york. now in other news another palestinian has been killed in fresh clashes with israeli police this is according to the palestinian ministry of health and it brings the number of palestinians killed just today to three protests erupted after israeli authorities installed security cameras and metal detectors at the revered acts of mosque that followed

a deadly shooting there last week. i. i. i. i. i i. i. i i. i was. the palestinian spiritual leader had warned the israeli government of the potential for an explosive situation on middle east correspondent paula slayer has the latest on what's happening right now in jerusalem. it comes as a week of protests over the israeli increased security measures around are taking place if you remember last friday there were two israeli security officers who were killed and israel responded by closing all many of the entrances to our locks so today they stopped main until the age of fifty from entering to pray they also

stopped buses that were making their way from across israel with israeli arabs who were hoping to go and show their defiance not wasn't just a day of prayer today friday is also the main day of rage it was called for by the spiritual leader of the al aqsa mosque and he said that it should be a day of hate and protest that people should abandon their regular mosques and come and pray at the al aqsa mosque but not actually go into the mosques instead stand outside in the middle to the that israel has put into place in the last few days to try and beef up security on the prison and he said to quote otherwise the situation would explode i was caught in some of those clashes and they were neighborhoods in east jerusalem mecca look almost like a war zone you have israeli security officers charging forward with rubber bullets and tear gas and also a machine that sprays liquid duty liquid on people the protesters surge in the opposite direction and they have huge rocks and stones that they've been throwing

at the security forces now all of this comes as the israeli cabinet hold an emergency meeting they decided to keep these metal detectors in place they believe it's for security but of course the muslim worshippers believe that it is a way for israel to change the status quo of the temple mount which is a huge the volatile and important religious site that currently has custodianship by jordan the clashes are ongoing and we do expect the situation to remain extremely tense. temple mount or if it's known by muslims is one of the most contested religious sites in the world for jews it's believed to have been the start of two biblical turnbull's mosque which is located on the hill is third holiest site it is administered by jordan based islamic religious or forty we got the views of people on both sides of the debate to find out what they think about current tensions. i don't understand why preventing and protecting the holy place

the temple mount. should be any reason for any kind of terror and violence if some people want to exploit that that situation and incite terror and the only ones to blame for the terrible be those insiders and those who are acting by it because the israeli security system will do everything it can to make sure to preserve public order the state of israel is instigating violence it's prohibiting people from practicing freedom of worship something that the state of israel claims the opposite of the state of israel wants to add a fake jewish feature to the identity of jerusalem to their claim actually we answer one thing jerusalem is israeli as moscow is american i'm very sorry that we reached this point i would have expected the leaders of the muslim community to

condemn last week's terror attack and to try to calm down the crowd but instead what we've been seeing in the past week we've been seeing the islamic leadership calling upon the people to come today to the temple mount and through an organized riot and this is something we cannot allow we're not going to allow to druce them the city which is holy for so many billions of people around the world jews muslims christians all believers of the bible we cannot allow this place to turn in to its center of riots of stone throwing of endangering the peace of the public order and therefore we had no choice the state of israel created this myth about security this nuclear state is claiming that it is in its attacking people's rights for its own security these people are on armed even the incident that took place that started this whole process didn't take place i could see sharif it took place outside the mosque. and israel retaliated inside the mosque to create to

the world that the incident happened actually in the mosque and by then it took advantage of the incident only to promote its gend to change just status quo inside a locks almost. in a shed light on what he might do when he's done with being the russian president he was fielding a wide range of questions coming from russian youngsters at a special event in sochi artist and hawkins was following the q. and a. it's been a marathon three hour long q. and a session just wrapped up here behind me it's very similar to putin's famous direct lines as well and this audience was very keen to know specifics about the president's personal life and what plans he had for the future of potentially stepping down as president of the russian federation. and yes what are you going to do when you leave the president's office. and usually i still haven't decided whether i want to leave it.

only after i have an answer to that question i will be thinking about the next steps there are a lot of things to do in this world i don't necessarily have to sit down and write memoirs i can leave the president's office but staying gauged in politics there are a lot of things i can do like ecology for example i think there's a lot of potential in that i've been taking part in various animal protection of events for several years i find a place for myself but i first need to answer the main question. and surprisingly perhaps given the young nature of the audience social media was something that came up does the president perhaps have some sort of online presence perhaps a secret one using an alias to which the president also gave a quite interesting response to you go for it there's a piece of that as for an online nickname and nickname is the same thing as an alias as you know i started my career in furn intelligence and sometimes i had to

use an alias but using a man would be foolish i would use my own name and that should go for everyone i think why would you want to hide behind a nickname when i studied intelligence school my alias was platter off and everybody had one because that's just what our job demanded but why hide behind a nickname and when a person is proud of what they do there's no reason to hide. pullover goes on every day you get to hear some inside a secret information about the president's past career there was a whole host of more serious issues touched upon of course as well from future space projects the colonization of mars to the development of high technology in russia and funding for the arts something quite unexpected perhaps from an audience so young and what are the most interesting questions you faced was which file you see holds dearest to his heart to which he gave an equally interesting reply life itself love and freedom and freedom particularly that last point. because another

issue touched on perhaps unsurprisingly was the issue of the opposition in russia corruption the absence or presence of censorship and pollution is said that of course the press censorship by such doesn't exist in russia although certainly issues related to perhaps drugs criminality drug trafficking would have to be kept under control and i had this to say about the issue of corruption and opposition in the country and what. should you ask what the value of other political parties not represented in the state duma is well they come up with new ideas and criticize those currently in power those who always have something to be criticised it's impossible to find solutions to all the problems but that doesn't mean you shouldn't aspire to this what you can do is simply speculate on those issues you can speculate on the problem of corruption it's globally widespread especially in emerging countries just look at what happened to our neighbors ukraine there in gulf corruption. all the audience here today was at the serious some account in

children from all over russia come here the most talented ones in their fields of sports science and arts who want to go a sort of boot camp mos the glasses joint projects to develop their talents this in a session with the president was a particular highlight something most of them were very much rick. forward to perhaps something that will happen again next year if they're lucky enough given the success of this q. and a session here today. the first ever joint russia china drills in european waters started today in the baltic sea the military exercise between the two countries is expected to last for a week however even before it takes place the event is sparking a strong reaction auntie's in the air and has been. western media is in a spin over the joint the twenty seven thousand naval drills starting today between russia and china headlines have been lifted with words like invasion and war was

warning of a challenge to nato so what sparks the panic well first of all it's the location in the baltic sea right in the heart of northern europe and next ten nato bases secondly chinese warships are making their debut tour in this part of the world. and if that wasn't threatening enough teaming up with russia but joins the drills are nothing new they've been held annually since twenty twelve but this first stage

of the baltic coast has already caused a frenzy as a trio of chinese vessels made their way there leaving their british danish navy's scrambling to shatter them out of their water is much to the amusement of the russian ambassador to china the baltic states repeat their usual incantations but at the same time they take for granted the fact that nato is deploying large forces on their territory but then wasn't this response predictable in october last year a russian fleet sailing around europe spotted headlines like the leading some to repin state to even consider sending vessels to intercept the group and this fear of the russian ships has been around for some time already you can just ask sweden a country that spent twenty years insisting that russian submarines were sneaky. around its coastline until they realize that the only thing lurking there mix now we can confirm that as of this moment no minks are scheduled to take part in joint

c. twenty seven c. . meanwhile the united states and allied countries have just finished their own massive exercises in the region saber guardian took place in eastern europe on the territory of three countries aimed at deterring so-called russian aggression and twenty five thousand personnel from more than twenty states participated in the biggest drills of their kind for five years but the writer and political commentator john white who says that the media is creating excessive ip over the china russia drills. part of an ongoing propaganda campaign is being conducted in the western media to try and paint russia and china of evil empire recrudescence of called warden or strongs and to try and demonize both countries they are only abiding by their rate to seal international waters or do nothing wrong nothing illegal the western media has to say to try and inflame the situation

is a see as part of this ongoing called war part of the game that we've seen in the last few years. ok let's go back to our breaking news story this hour the united states military has confirmed that one of its airstrikes is killed an unknown number of quote friendly afghan forces and we can cross live now to see afghan journalist blah. blah as i understand you're in the country at this moment can you bring us more details on the story. the governor of helmand province. has been confirming this incident to the local media have been speaking to counterterrorism in a police commander in the district of self and they're confirming that at least twenty five members of the police force including two commanders are among those killed. the policemen wore not wearing their uniforms something that police

often do in helmand that is to deceive the taleban when did try to lay on bush's but we're also hearing the look that was provided to the nato pilot by the afghan forces was identified as a taliban position this is an area that's a front line in yesterday. broad three humvees armored humvees that they had captured from the afghan national security forces throw them with explosives and did try. i had to ditch an egg them trying to break the security belt getting into the great district and one did did dad brought a crock bomb killing at least nineteen afghan national army soldiers so the strike today whether it was a mistake by the afghans or whether the police man should have been wearing their uniforms is a big blow for a force that's a lot of that's hundred

a lot of pressure every day the afghan national security forces are paying a very heavy price when it comes to fighting against taliban and in the last twenty four hours for example afghanistan has lost at least one hundred twenty member of its afghan national security forces so a huge blow and we are being told that there will be an investigation to find out exactly what happened. ok we've been hearing the thoughts there of afghan journalist bill many thanks. ok let's cross live now to another guest we bring in our bill bari atwan he's a writer and commentator very good evening t. abdel we just heard a take coming from afghanistan there on what may have happened what may have been the cause of these reported deaths do you think this incident will provoke a reaction from the afghan officials oh yes definitely they would be appalled by called friendly fire which has been repeated you know literally

every day. of going to sordo were killed by american airstrikes or by missile so i believe those people who definitely fit up of these kind of incidents because it does embarrass them and the eyes of the afghani people and it true is that they are not capable of protecting even dad their soldiers so definitely this this incident will steer a lot of anger among the afghan leadership military afghan leadership also and also among the victims or the family of the victims who were there who were you know being massacred by these american incident we heard from the previous guest that the suggestion maybe this was down to the clothing the afghans were wearing if this somehow some blame that lies on on their part does that somehow reduce the amount of responsibility of the u.s.

forces no definitely definitely it wouldn't make any difference that americans should be aware of those people that they are not part of the taliban they are not willing. uniform or clothes they should have actually that correct information on the ground that they have their own set of valences devices they have their own people underground and. you know a superpower like this should not make such a mistake which will have a huge or you know negative repercussions what are among the leadership or among the people and there's definitely these kind of attacks or these kind of must occur is actually played to the hands of taliban it does i think the taliban position make many people actually join them and it also it will make their recruitment process much much easier definitely there are a lot of definitely there are a lot of frustration and taliban will read these kind of first ration and. the

united states and afghanistan have been fighting together. allies for many years against terrorism following another incident like this how strong is their relationship at the moment when it is actually we can definitely that trust on united states is fading it already you know the american there for the last sixteen or seventeen years and that in the end they could actually create better situation better life for the afghan people there cannot protect there are going to people now taliban controlling more than seventy percent to eighty percent of the afghan authorities so the american supposed to be you know representing a superpower and nato is a super you know alliance so why is the thing for the last sixteen or seventeen years to make actually safer place why they could not actually you know

will convince the afghani people that there could be should organise and was i. you know if in a position of taliban leadership i would be extremely happy by this failure which taking place everywhere so definitely mr ranney the president will be in a very very difficult situation seeing his people his soldiers are must go by his friends that are american so it is it is appalling position to be honest a bill thanks for coming and giving us your thoughts here in r.t. international abdel bari atwan writer and commentator is my guest. i think. moving on to other news now while italy's been begging the e.u. for help in dealing with record influx of refugees austria's foreign minister is urged rome not to allow newcomers to make it to the mainland he declared that even if they are plucked from the sea they shouldn't get quote

a ticket to central europe and that's as the mayor of palermo said that the indifference of some states in the block to the crisis equates to fascism. that europe will be on trial for genocide this will be a second nuremberg trial maybe not in the courts but in the history books because of this ongoing genocide in the mediterranean and it's all because the indifference of certain states in the european union the e.u. has to recognize the freedom of movement as a human right this is very serious and i think the european union should can i say feel ashamed. while most ninety thousand migrants of arrived in italy by sea this year alone more than two hundred twenty thousand are expected by the end of the year vera palermo is also condemned an anti islam movement the so-called identity tarion saying that they should be ashamed while a group of either terence has launched the mission to defend europe is in the

mediterranean sea they say the mission is to expose humanitarian groups who've been working with people smugglers they say to provide what they call a taxi service for african migrants into europe. to overwatch. and inform the libyan coast guard about the doing anything you want trust the military will see when you get them as well signaled to the west to the people in distress and make sure that they even be brought back to the libyan calls. and that mission is being carried out from border four hundred twenty two ton vessel which carries twenty five crew members it has already crowd funded more than one hundred twenty five thousand dollars here on our map you can see the route the

ship follows it set sail from the east african nation of djibouti and it's heading towards the italian city of cantina from where they're going to patrol the waters auntie's correspondent. spoke with robert tim he's a spokesperson for the german branch of defend europe and he's going to join the mission shortly we can hear now what he had to say. i've spoken to many people here in italy locals and officials and even if they have issues you know the migrants there tell me that the ngos are doing a good job and in some cases perfect and you are here to do something that is that seems to me as blocking what they're doing but there's. a wrong wrong conception about our mission or main ambition is not to block off migrants illegal migrants coming to europe on main ambition is to document how the n.g.o.s are working because there are quite some indicators showing that they actually cooperate with human traffickers in often africa and there is of course something that people

should know about if this is taking place because a lot of people are spending their money on the nation's there how are you going to act when you find these n.g.o.s that as you are saying are potentially. people who violate the law we will just document the way they work if they also need like a helping hand when they have when there are so many people at the risk of drowning we will of course also come to help them. but we will make sure that we are not also bringing people to europe we will try our best to bring the people back to where they came from how do you. faced any problems with the officials how much under pressure from the media have you been you know well obviously in terms of media we are very much under pressure just pretty much every news outlet in europe is reporting about us in

a very one sided and negative way and as you've seen to false accusations i will shop ship has been stopped in. egyptian territory but we are still optimistic and i think a lot of people will be surprised by the end of the result of our campaign. this is foreign minister sergey lavrov has commented on rumors of a secret meeting between flemmi putin and donald trump during the g. twenty meeting he gave an interview to the american news channel n.b.c. is are these are really soon with the highlights sever interesting topics were raised and some of them were on these alleged to secret meetings that took place between president putin and president trump on the sidelines of the g. twenty summit in hamburg earlier this month of us because a lot of media have been reporting and speculating that on top of the official meeting between the two leaders to have an extra secret meetings where secret deals could have been reached now both the white house and kremlin have come out to the

night is and in this interview with also the night the allegation and a refurbishment and now a g. of kindergarten children mingling with each other or describing the importance of these possible extra encounters between putin and trump here we know about president putin and president trump meeting three times at the g. twenty that they met obviously for the bilateral they met at the dinner and they met well maybe they went together that was a four story when you were brought by your parents through kindergarten do you mix or is the people who are waiting in the same room to start going to close classroom is the. girl but there is also a room where they get together before the start so they can look the row or the same time when the bus lever also used some rather harsh words to describe the two russian diplomatic compounds that have been confiscated by the u.s. during the last days of obama's administration back in d.c. .