support operations in djibouti and other parts of africa as well. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. president obama meets with leaders from central america trying to stop the flow of young migrants into the united states. secretary of state john kerry runs into another roadblock as israel rejects another cease-fire with hamas. the unrest spreads out of gaza with protests erupting in the west bank and jerusalem. a new survey shows a third of veterans returning from iraq and afghanistan have considered suicide.

president obama met with leaders from three central american nations today. they talked about ways to stem the tide of unaccompanied minors coming into the united states. most of the children come from guatemala, honduras and el salvador. the obama administration says more than 57,000 unaccompanied mierps cross the border between october and the end of june. the highest number came from honduras which has the highest murder rate in the world. what do you know about the meeting today, libby? >> reporter: tony, both groups had a message they wanted to get across to the other ones. president obama wants to make it clear to these central american leaders that they have to work together to stem the tide of children, especially children who are making these danger krus treks to get across the u.s. border. now, they're talking about working together, both sides are speaking along those lines.

the question is, what can they each do to deter the flow? the white house is hoping central american leaders can do more to deter people from making the trip, and they also want them to work to make sure they can take people back when the u.s. deports them and sends them back to their home countries, they know what to do with them and whether they should send them back to their home villages or find another safe place to be. they will work together, and the u.s. has a role in deterrents and the u.s. needs to help them deal with the basic problems causing so many people to leave their home countries. as part of this, the white house is talking about a pilot program, a limited program that would try to get more 407b hondurans get refugee status and be classified as such and come to the u.s. that way. it's something the white house is talking about and the president is addressing with leaders today, tony. >> libby, we have one line out

of the meeting. the president suggested some of the migrants but not all, some but not all are eligible for refugee status. there's just, as you know, one week left before congress leaves for the five-week august break. are they likely to get anything passed before the recess? >> republicans are concerned about these new qualifications the white house is talking about to allow more hondurans to get refugee status. the white house may work the international numbers and pri them here to see it as a test run basically. when you turn to congress, when it comes to legislation there's a big question mark as to whether or not they can get anything ton. republicans met behind closed doors this morning, and here's what one of the house republicans, phil flores, the texas had to say afterwards. >> we know the president caused this issue. the president has failed to lead on this issue. i think it's appropriate for

congress to step into the breach and try to fix this issue. now, doing nothing is a good approach. >> reporter: you hear accusations from republicans saying this happened on president obama's watch. the republicans just point a finger of blame is they leave for five weeks, as you said tony. if they go back to home districts without their own counterproposal, the whole is able to take center stage and get the message across to americans. we're seeing formations come from the republicans of what their counterproposal would be. it would deal with things like changing the 2008 law that addressing child trafficking laws. it would also allocate some money but not nearly enough, not nearly what the white house is talking about. there's push-back from democrats saying they mix two things. the law and money shouldn't have to go hand in hand and it's anybody's guess it anybody truly productive can come out of congress that both sides agree

on. >> the 2008 law is so important that you mentioned. libby casey for us at the white house. thank you. the white house says there's been a sharp drop in the number of unaccompanied minors detained near the border in south texas. that's because many children have secretary thoughts about coming to the united states. heidi jo castro joins us. you had a chance to speak to one chiel thinking about crossing the border, what did he have to say to you? >> reporter: that's right, tony. so i speak with brian this morning. now, he's just 15 years old, and you know what i said to him? brian, if you cross, what if you die or dry up in the desert or drown in the river? his answer to me was, oh, well. it's just heart-breaking to know that this boy who skrus turned 15 is now taking this dangerous

risk, even as the politicians in d.c. are trying to come up with a solution. those messages they're talking about is very difficult to deliver to these ears. for this child in this case, nothing could change his mind. >> it's called to him the united states. brian is steps away from reaching his goal so close yet so far away. you're so close to krur dream. it makes him happy, he says, but he's also sad because there's no one in the united states to receive him. he's trying to decide whether to cross or to return to his parents and seven siblings in honduras. he was 14 when he left his family's one-room house with the naive ambition of finding a job in the u.s. and sending money home. he struck off alone carrying nothing but two changes of clothes and $9.50 from selling a

wild hare. that was two months ago. since then he'd had a birthday, one he forgot about until his mother called to remind him. fresh are memories from the journey. he went through a tropical storm and witnessed the murder of a pregnant girl aboard what they called the death train. i jumped off just in time. the girl wouldn't let the gangsters take her, so they pushed her off. the train ran her over. he cried and asked god for help, he says. he still sees it in his mind. now he wonders if it was all for nothing. he's heard u.s. border patrol is no longer, in his words, helping to take you north. he's hesitant to venture out of the shelter's protective walls to find someone to help him cross. cartel violence in this mexican

state killed 64 people in april. human smuggling is a thriving operation here. now so more than over with the cartel patrolling operations. as a foreign journalist we can be here for a few minutes. when brian is looking for his smuggler he will come here alone. our camera is still rolling when mexican soldiers order us to leave. they don't want trouble from the cartels, they tell us. he says he's worried he'll be kidnapped and trafficked. i tell him the bodies of two migrants were found in the river and three more in the nearby desert. yet, the american dream still be beckons. do you think that's worth risking your life for? he says yes, it's worth it, because he's doing this to help

his family, he says, and because he's already come this far. tony, i just want to emphasize to you this boy is 15 but comes up to my shoulders and he is a boy. he's facing so many odds. he not only has no family or friends in the united states, but he only has a third grade education, and this morning when i last talked to him around 10:00, he said the coyotes were going to pick him up at the shelter. when i called him back a few minutes ago, his phone was off. i hope he called 911 if anything happened and we can hope for his safety. >> he's coming to the united states. he's 15 with a third grade education, and he's likely to get exploited here in this country. heidi, good to see you. th thank you. the obama administration is taking criticism for how it's handling undocumented migrants. the roots of today's immigration

debate may lie in decisions the u.s. made decades ago. >> reporter: in the 1980s civil wars raged across central america. fearing soviet influence, u.s. president ronald reagan strongly supported military dictatorships and undemocratic right wing regimes. >> we gave them money and military support. we gave them a lot of different things, and that included turning our head the other way when they went about doing their death squads and killing innocent people. >> reporter: tens of thousands of suspected leftists and their sympathizers were killed by soldiers and right wing death squads. many central american families tried to get way from the bloodshed seeking refuge in the u.s. >> we drove hundreds of thousands of people out of their countries during that time. >> reporter: their prime destination? los angeles.

>> los angeles is the modern ellis island for central americans. >> reporter: in the bar rios of l.a. young refuse fees encountered gangs and formed gangs of their own. the central american gangs include ms-13 and the 18th street gang identified by tattoos. they quickly became among the most lethal gangs. in the 1990s thousands of central american convicted criminals were deported by u.s. authorities. >> they deported gang members, but they exported american urban gang culture. >> reporter: gangs borning in los angeles flourished in el salvador, gauatemala and honduras. now gang-driven violence made them the most violent on earth. today largely to escape that pervasive violence tens of thousands of central american children are leaving their homelands and coming to the u.s. the majority cite fear of the gangs as their reason for

fleeing. >> the anti-communist type of mentality that we had, especially during the reagan era, came back to haunt us. this is all part of a historical trajectory. you do some negative things, destructive things. you think in the short run it will help. >> a legacy of violence rooted in the cold war poisoning the lives of children born decades later. rob reynolds, al jazeera, los angeles. the efforts to end the fighting in gaza have gone global now. reuters is reporting that diplomats from the united states along with several european and middle east countries will immediate in paris tomorrow. they will try to hammer out a cease-fire after talks in egypt fell short today. james baez has more now from west jerusalem. >> reporter: they had been negotiating for days, numerous phone calls and meetings trying to reach a deal. in the end a deal was not possible. it seems that the israelis

certainly rejected the proposal that was on the table. israel media reporting that unanimously the cabinet couldn't accept the proposal. john kerry, when he spoke to the press, was down-playing that saying that israel had a problem with some of the language, but a formal proposal was never presented. he will now head to paris. it's interesting he didn't mention who exactly he would be meeting in parse. it seems that the problems between egypt and qatar and turkey on the other side mean when you speak in cairo, you can't even mention the names of qatar and turkey, but he will meet the foreign ministers of those two countries along with european foreign ministers as these talks continue. for now ban ki-moon and john kerry say they want a 12-hour cease-fire extended. they're still working on an overall plan for a seven-day cease-fire from sunday, and then intense talks to talk about the bigger issues to start at that

stage. >> in the meantime fighting continues. more than 30 air strikes hit gaza today. nick shifrin is live with the latest. bring us up to speed on the current situation on the ground. >> reporter: tony, in the end today there were some 80 air strikes, more than 40 rockets fired from gaza. the diplomacy is intense, and z as james just said it failed and at that has meant a real vacuum here so that the violence can continue, the fighting can continue, and both sides can actually continue to really throw everything they have at each other. for israel's point of view, they continue to go after two things as we talked about so often. the tunnels that go from gaza into israel and the rocket and the rocket launchers. specifically two neighbors, one in the north about three miles that way and one in the east two miles that way. tony, we have heard and seen tank shelling, artillery shelling air strikes all day in

the neighborhoods. right now i hear a drone above me, and as i said, those rockets being fired by palestinian fighters into israel definitely continues all day. >> nick, i'm going to run this by you. i don't know if you have much to add to this. it looks like israeli prime minister said to secretary of state john kerry that there will be a 12-hour pause in the military offensive beginning on saturday. anything that you can add to that? >> reporter: well, kerry had been asking for this. kerry had been looking for at least a five-day cease-fire, and he announced during his press conference that there would be a 12-hour cease-fire just about half an hour ago. he announced that. that put pressure on the israeli leaders to accept that, even though israel had not accepted that at the time and actually i called the senior israeli military official after kerry said that. the military said we haven't been told of any kind of cease-fire.

if indeed netanyahu agreed to a 12-hour cease-fire, they will do that because kerry has pushed so hard for them to do that. the larger point as james suggested is that there is no temporary cease-fire that kerry was looking for. there is no five-day or six-day or seven-day pause, as many people are using that word, in order to stop the fighting. that means that there's no permanent cease-fire. so we are no closer to any kind of solution to this crisis than we were a couple of days ago, even though kerry says that he has made diplomatic process. >> we're hearing of a humanitarian situation in gaza involving water. what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah, tony. as we've been talking about, the u.n. has said this is a humanitarian crisis for nearly a week now. they've been begging and pleading for people for 60, 70 million dollars for food, blankets, and yes, water. many people -- it's not clear how many exactly, but many people across gaza strip don't

have access to clean water or electricity. some 40% of people don't have electricity more than six or seven hours every day right now, so you're looking at a crisis for water, for power, for food, and as this humanitarian cease-fire, if it indeed exists tomorrow happens, you will see some supplies from recall and egypt. >> nick shifrin in gaza. the palestinian leadership called for rallies across the palestinian territories in suspect of gazians. they clashed in the occupied west bank and east jerusalem today. the israeli riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to stop the unrest. kim was in east jerusalem where protesters clashed with police. >> you can see them moving. you can see them fired. literally in the past few minutes hundreds of men finished to pray because they couldn't

get into the old city to the mosque. they're praying outside here. this here is a cannon. police were very, very prepared, even before they got here. obviously, this is a very important day being the last friday in the muslim holy month of ramadan. and also given the plo call for palestinians everywhere to show solidarity and support for palestinian people in gaza. they decided to move in. i don't think we've been seeing this with fireworks, and the police are excited now at the moment. you can see smoke in the air sitting behind the line of police is the water cannon. there's a few hundred men here. the police in the last few minutes arrested this man. they moved in very quickly, a wall of police followed by special police to take a look down this way. you can see a water cannon

there. there was basically hundreds of men here that were angry they couldn't get in the mosque because of security restrictions. police were very, very prepared, however, and they came with stun grenades and they were met with protesters throwing fireworks. so they moved in fairly quickly, and they obviously have begun making arrests. >> let's give you a perspective on the scale of the conflict. israel has uncovered 31 hamas smuggling tunnels and launched more than 3100 air and naval strikes on gaza. the health ministry says they have 886 palestinians, most of them civilians. the united nations says more than 141,000 people in gaza are looking for safety at u.n. shelters. on the israeli side, officials say 38 people have died since the fighting began, at least 170 israelis have been injured. most of israel's dead and wounded are soldiers, and the israeli army says hamas has

fired nearly 2300 rockets into israel since the fighting began. israel's iron dome defense system has intercepted more than 400 rockets heading towards populated areas. israel says it's operation is destroying hamas arsenal. in the process many people in gaza are left with no place to go. charles stratford visited a neighborhood just after an israeli air strike destroyed a family's home, their third in less than a month. >> reporter: we rush to the site of the attack minutes after it happened. terrified neighbors lined the streets, and ambulances were close by. an israeli air strike on a family home in the neighborhood in gaza city. >> translator: at about half past 7:00 we heard air strikes nearby. we all jumped. it was a miracle we all got out and survived. we were in a house that was completely destroyed, and then we moved to another house and that was destroyed, and now

this. what do they want? we are ready to die. >> reporter: family members carry one of the children to safety. adults rush to hide with neighbors. the father had heart surgery a year and a half ago. his son said the force of the blast knocked some of his teeth out. the house behind me was hit in an israeli air strike this morning. apparently there were two warning shots fired around about a half-hour before that strike. there were 14 people in the house and a number injured. no one was killed. some of the families sit terrified in a nearby half. while she has a severely disabled child. >> translator: where do we go now? this is my child. we came here thinking this place was safer than the last. >> reporter: the neighbors look at the damage, and there is a sudden sound of a fighter jet approaching. fear is etched on their faces because there's nowhere safe to

hide. josh stratford, al jazeera, gaza. coming up, investigators try to figure out how to secure the wreckage of malaysian airlines 17.

wall street had big losses thanks to disappointing earnings news. it lost 123 points today and the nasdaq and s&p 500 fell today. amazon's quarterly earnings report played a big role in today's big losses on wall street. they reported a larger than expected second quarter loss. they said expenses outpaced a surge in revenue. it also says the third quarter could even be worse. the earnings report comes on the same day that amazon's fire smartphone went on sale. in today's power politics with four months till the midterm elections, several lawmakers are trying to soften the message on economics and equality. david shuster join us with more. >> paul ryan who is the

republican party's 2012 vice presidential nominee and the chairman of the budget committee unveiled a sweeping proposal to reform federal anti-poverty programs. this proposal is different this time, because it does nots cut social welfare spending. he would maintain $800 million spending levels on programs like food stamps and housing assistance, but ryan would give more power to the states. >> i would start a pilot program called an opportunity grant. it would consolidate up to 11 federal programs into one stream of funding to participating states. the idea would be let states try different ways to provided aid and test the results. in short, more flexibility in exchange for more accountabil y accountability. >> a lot of people refer to that as a block grant, but democratic reaction to ryan's proposal has been harsh. he said, quote, we have a case of total cognitive disnance

between the proposals today and the horse republican budget. it's schizophrenia on steroids. when it comes to the political hot potato of obamacare, democrats say it's hip pock see on steroids. many repeal to replace the headlight care law and website exchange. house speaker john boehner says there's no plans to introduce an alternatives before the elections. >> the discussions about obamacare and what the replacement bill will look like will continue trying to build con sense around one plan. not there yet. >> not there until after the election. in the arc senate race tom cotton is on the defensive after praising government spending for farmers. this week he applauded the quick approval of aid to farmers and looks forward to help the farmers get emergency funds they need following floods. the problem is cotton voted against aid to farmers in the

last two agriculture bills. mark prior said it takes a special kind of arrogance for cotton to engage in this kind of double-talk. in the louisiana senate race bill cassidy stepped up the attacks on decktic incumbent mary landrieu. watch this. >> 18 years in washington really changed landrieu. she votes with barack obama 97% of the time. >> the effort to portray her far to the left of the moderate comes as polls show landrieu beating cassidy by did you get digits. joe biden is considering a presidential run in 2016 starts with a few disadvantages. first of all, there's the political juggernaut known as hillary clintonment second, financial reports show that biden is one of the poorest members of the u.s. senate. yesterday at the national urban league in cincinnati, he joked about his family's cash flow.

>> i should have been a republican kid that make money. put me in a home with a window with a view, you know what i mean? >> in the world of politics so often scripted and measured carefully, thank goodness for joe biden. >> terrific stuff. thank you. as the u.s. contends with the immigration crisis, rick perry says the national guard is part of the answer. coming up, we will talk with a former immigration official about sending troops to the border. er. of fact based, in depth, serious journalism, and we fill that void...

>> there is a huge opportunity for al jazeera america to change the way people look at news. >> we just don't parachute in on a story...quickly talk to a couple of experts and leave... >> one producer may spend 3 or 4 months, digging into a single story... >> at al jazeera, there are resources to alow us as journalists to go in depth and produce the kind of films... the people that you don't see anywhere else on television. >> we intend to reach out to the people who aren't being heard. >>we wanna see the people who are actually effected by the news of the day... >> it's digging deeper it's asking that second, that third question, finding that person no one spoken to yet... >> you can't tell the stories of the people if you don't get their voices out there, and al jazeera america is doing just that.

president obama met with leaders from gaut maul at that, honduras and el salvador. this is days after texas governor rick perry called up 1,000 troops to help secure the border by deploying the troops himself. perry can order them to make arrests. troops in past border appointments did not have that particular authority. joining me is john torres, and he's the former acting director. it is good to have you on the program, sir. let me do a little fishing if a moment. let me start with something that's pretty straightforward. ? is this a good idea to militarizing this border? >> not necessarily militarizing the border. it's a good idea to have the natural guard provide temporary resources to get to your point b. if you start at point a and need

to complement the border, that takes a little bit of time. what you have to be careful with though is giving them law enforcement status and actually making arrests because they're not trained in immigration law and not trained in being able to detect the differences between human trafficking, for example. >> what could go wrong here? >> several things could go wrong. you could have potential civil rights violations, human rights violations. you have to be really kaf here you would have the national guard carrying weapons if they're using the arrest authority under the state of texas to support the department of public safety and state troopers to make felony arrests for a commission of a crime that's in progress. that's one thing. to arrest the illegal aliens as they come across the border, he is essentially children, you could run into a number of different situations potentially. you could be mistreating a victim of human trafficking. >> can i push back on this?

you didn't like me suggesting this was militarizing the border. we're talking about national guardsmen, and we're talking about the soldiers in jeeps and with automatic weapons and in helmets. it looks for all the world and i think the governor would agree it's a pretty powerful photo op, okay? look at the movements here. why push back with the idea this is militarizing the border? >> it comes down to what they're doing. if that's what they're doing with a big show of presence, with military personnel, military vehicles, then in effect, you know, you're creating deterrents, but you're creating militarization of types of deterrents, whereas, several years ago, eight years ago when i was still in the government, we used the national guard behind the scenes for intelligence purposes. we use them for transportation logistics, administration. we didn't have them on the front

lines. >> john, you know this. building roads and repairing fences and conducting surveillance is what we're used to seeing the national guard do, that's one thing, arresting and detaining people as might be the case here as another. the final signoff hasn't happened yet. do national guard troops have arrest and detention training as part of the portfolio? >> not necessarily under federal immigration laws. only the federal government has the arrest authority, and they can delegate that under a section called 287-g to states. in this case that requires a significant amount of training and that's not going to happen overnight. >> i would think so. you mentioned it. i want to follow up on it. will there be federal oversight on the lookout for possible abuses? who is the eyes and ears for potential human and civil rights violations going forward? >> that really is a key, what you mentioned. it's to have some sort of

coordination not only at high levels but on the ground levels so that they're working hand in hand with the federal government and the state and local authorities on the ground. the last thing you need is to have border patrol run into a blue on blue situation with the national guard and/or state authorities. so you could have a lot of damage there. >> absolutely. let me -- this is the fishing part of the interview here. john, you are the former acting director of i.c.e., right immigration and customs enforcement. going forward, policies that you advocated for when you were in a leadership position, resources that you advocated for when you were in a leadership position, what's needed? >> several things. one is you've really got to focus on law enforcement efforts and deterrents. that means focusing on arresting the smugglers, dismantling the smuggling operations on the other side of the border and

working closely with law enforcement counterparts. the second thing you need is to work with the community, and i mean working with the medical community, legal community, different types of non-governmental organizations so that they can help provide the services to the children that are coming across the border illegally. they're in a different situation that you just can't send them back across the border alone. lastly, you have to work with your international counterparts, the foreign governments as we see the meetings taking place today. you need to have substantive meetings to create deterrents not only here in the united states but in mexico and central america. >> i'm going to buy a little more time here. why can't you send them back across the border? we hear some politicians and some commentators on radio and television suggesting that the united states do just that, send them back across the border. >> two reasons. one is that they are not of legal age to have -- to macon sent to say i want to

voluntarily go back. that is something you can do as an adult. they have a choice of having an immigration hearing or going back voluntarily. children cannot do that. secondly, you can't really send a child who is unaccompanied back across the border by themselves. it requires a significant number of resources and safeguards to put into place. honestly, there's one more thing to mention here. they are required under law that was passed in 2008 as part of an anti-trafficking provision to have a hearing before an immigration judge. unless they're being detained, if they're in a non-detained docket those hearings can take two years before they see a judge. >> that was a bush era law. john, good to see you. john torres is the former acting director of the immigration and customs enforcement agency. john, appreciate your time. more remains from malaysian flight 17 arrived in the netherlands today. all 298 people on board the boeing 777 died in eastern

ukraine last thursday. human remains continue to be found. meanwhile flight data from the plane is sent to the netherlands. the dutch officials are leading the investigation into the crash. barnaby phillips has more now. >> reporter: they have been taking photographs of debris, but they have an enormous job because it's spread over a radius of something like 25 square kilometers. now, the australian and dutch governments have talked about bringing in soldiers so that a proper, secure, forensic investigation can begin. that's not going to be easy. we're in the middle of a war zone. we've heard artillery in the distance this afternoon. although those australian and dutch governments may have reached an agreement with the authorities in kiev, their writ does not run here, which is very much under the control of separatist gunmen. >> near the crash site fighting between the ukrainian government and pro-russia separatists

continues. a u.s. official says russia has deployed 15,000 troops along the border with ukraine. those forces are amassing heavy weapons. al jazeera reports. >> reporter: in donetsk the shelling continues. the smoke is rising close to apartment blocks built in the soviet era. many of them are empty. emergency workers here estimate more than half of the city's population has gone. that's almost 600,000 people. this is why they're leaving. a shell landed next to this school. it was emptied because of the holidays. like many here, its caretaker says she can't understand why ukraine is at war. >> translator: we really are in shock. ukrainians and russians lived and worked together peacefully. we didn't even think about the nationalities. now we just think about how to survive. >> reporter: more civilians are

dying in this conflict than soldiers. hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured. now human rights watch is accusing forces of firing rockets on people's homes. the elderly couple that live here were watching television when the rocket hit their apartment. i can show how lucky they were to survive. you can see the gaping hole in their rooftop. both sides are denying using grad rockets on populated areas. they're renowned for being inaccurate. that's because the rockets are unguided, and they're often fired from multi-barrel launchers covering a wide area. ukraine insists it's not using drag missile systems around donetsk. >>. >> translator: they haven't rafshed there yet. as of now our units with light artillery are blocking the exits

from donetsk, but it's the terrorists that are shelling donetsk to show the ukrainian forces in a bad light. >> reporter: human rights watch says they need to take responsibility. >> it's wise for the ukrainian government to commit toe stop using the rockets in populated areas. they are in inskrim natu -- indiscriminate and they're going to kill and injury civilians. >> ukrainian forces push further into donetsk, and separatists pro-russian fighters are preparing to defend the city whoever the costs. in mali french soldiers recovered one of the two flight recorders on flight 5017. they've been on the crash site. experts from france are expected to arrive tomorrow to begin the

investigation in turkey. the families of the detained men say the arrests are politically motivated. the turkish prime minister accused the police of trying to overthrow him. two children are dead following a carjacking in philadelphia. we have ha and more news across america. police say carjackers ran down a group of people in north philadelphia. two children are dead and two in critical condition. one of the adults is the owner of the suv stolen. the carjacker stole her vehicle at gunpoint and lost control of the car and ran into a group of people standing near a fruit stand. transcripts from this week's execution in arizona asked a defense lawyer to stop it

halfway. in the middle of the conference call, the attorney general assured the judge everything was fine. the execution took nearly two hours. arizona says it will put all future executions on hold until it investigates that one. donors on social media help detroit residents pay their water bill. the city's water department threatened to shut off services for thousands of people two months late on payments. two residents started the detroit water project, a website that matches potential donors with civil citizens' billing accounts. 300 residents signed up for help with their water bills. police in oregon say a 3-year-old crashed a jeep into a home and then ran back to his house and watched cartoons. the toddler was wearing a diaper when he climbed into the jeep and knocked it out of gear. witnesses say the vehicle rolled down the street and into a home.

a 22-year-old who was watching the toddler was cited for failing to supervise him. >> he hit the house. he got out of the jeep and ran back across the street to a home and sat on the couch like nothing happened. she was just getting out of the bathroom at that time and she hears a knock from the police department going, hey, this is what happened. >> the parents weren't home at the time of the incident. >> that's sad. that's just -- all right. see you a little later. thank you. coming up on al jazeera america, a new survey of vete n veterans shows widespread problems with ptsd. when the troops come home, what's happening with them? somebody from washington has been playing it back and decided to block everyone on capitol hill.

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clinics across the south are closing down because of recent legislation in texas and alabama. the laws require doctors at the clinics to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. we catch up with one woman fighting to keep it that way. >> don't go in there and kill your baby. >> reporter: she's a 47-year-old mother of five from new orleans. every month for the past eight years she's protested outside clinics that provide abortions. >> you're going to regret this decision. >> reporter: for her it's a personal issue. she says when she was 18 and 12 weeks pregnant, her family pressured her to have an abortion. >> the worst thing you can do is murder a baby. child abuse, that's horrible. the innocent little baby and the reality i did. i did that. my baby was torn part out of my womb.

>> then she met pastor will shanks and worked with operation save america where she says she was welcomed and counselled. >> i had to come to terms with that, but god set me free from that when i let the lord in and asked for forgiveness for that. >> none of you want to support the killing of an innocent baby. >> reporter: for 15 years members staged rallies like this one in new orleans. most of these people took a week off from work and traveled hundreds of miles to protest. this week they're picketting. >> what do you hope to accomplish by holding up the signs and shouting at people going into clinic? what do you think it does? >> i think they're hearing the words and the truth. they're hard-hearted, you know. some of them are pressured to come in here. >> reporter: women shouldn't have the right today that you have and you had when you were 18? >> exactly, and i wish i never had that right and choice to make, because it was the wrong one. i know i was 18 and had that

right, but i wasn't old enough to make that decision. >> reporter: during every demonstration the group is armed with signs, some with pictures of an unborn fetus and others with scripture. during this demonstration they hold a memorial in the french quarter for an unborn fetus. >> i believe that baby deserves a funeral to show people, yeah, this is what's going on. >> a wuss would do something like that. >> reporter: he said they're aggressive but not extreme. >> to me that's normal christianity. we have fallen so far below that norm, being normal seems to be extreme. >> reporter: she plans to travel with operation save america to the next big protest. she says her goal is for abortion to come to an end, and feeling her voice is key to that mission. jonathan martin, al jazeera, new orleans. a new study reveals more about the challenges facing

veterans. a group surveyed 2,000 members deployed during the conflicts. nearly half say they know at least one iraq or afghanistan veteran who has attempted suicide. 40% know someone who did, in fact, kill themselves, and nearly a third say they have thought about taking their own life. good to have back on the program matt howard. he's here. he's a form erma reason that served in iraq and he's with the group iraq veterans against the war, it's an organization that advocates support for veterans. are you surprised by these numbers? >> not really. >> not really? >> i think one of the things we notice is that, you know, lots of folks in our community have suicidal ideations and carry it out. i think maybe the fact that it's being reported as high as it is because there's a tendency to not talk about that kind of stuff, yeah. >> you're a veteran, and you have spoken with a number of veterans in your work. what do you hear is the main

reasons behind these suicidal thoughts? >> in our community i think that a word or a term that we've been kind of putting out there more and more is moral injury, and that's -- >> what does that mean? >> it's something that mental health professionals are starting to grapple with, which is the idea when put in a combat zone and dealing with really morally dubious situations differing from ptsd where someone is in a car accident are actually placed in positions where they have to do actions that violate their moral code. that has repercussions down the line. >> that's a heavy stressor as you go through it, and for years and years to come, right? >> absolutely. >> what are you saying to the veterans? what's available to them to help them deal with what they're dealing with? >> yeah. in our community, you know, in iraq, the ability to work towards remediating some of the things that people have felt morally dubious has helped a lot

in a lot of various ways. there's also i think something that came up a lot is like looking at the various -- the various techniques that fall outside of just talk therapy, which has proven to be kind of a so-so when dealing with things like ptsd and looking at things like cognitive processing therapy and things like cannabis are even looked at. >> really? >> absolutely. >> because i like you and you've been here a few times and i feel i can ask this question. have you ever suffered from these thoughts we've talked about here, suicidal thoughts? >> yeah. i think suicidal he'd yaideatio. i've never gone all the way down with an attempt. i think what i experienced was significantly less than a lot of good friends, but i think that when people are dealing with, you know, the implications of the role they played it's something that bears hard on you. for some that's, you know,

suicidal ideations or even the act of it is the end result. >> you think there is a way to get help? is this a situation where some of the these soldiers who need help will express these thoughts? >> yes. we'll take the next step to actually seek it out. >> factors are something that's dealt with as well? >> yeah. i think having community is a huge piece of it. vietnam veterans notice by being able to talk amongst each other makes a huge difference. the people isolated on their own, those are the folks that really need the community amongst veterans as much as possible. >> you're really never on your own, right? matt howard is a form erma reason that served in iraq. tell them about the agency you're with, too. he's with the advocacy group of iraq veterans against the war. always good to see you. coming up, the online push to help a poor bear -- that's a

polar bear keep building steam. this is back in just a moment. david shuster told us earlier about a plan to change to help governments in need. ray suarez joins us with more on tonight's "inside story." >> the new plan released by house budget chairman paul ryan is called expanding opportunity in america. it would combine money from 11 anti-poverty programs into block grants to the states. how would it work? congressman ryan says he wants to start a conversation, and that's what we're going to do life at the top of the hour. join us for "inside story."

>> on al jazeera america presents >> we always have strikes... people should never be allowed... >> what started as a peaceful protest >> police seem to stick to the self-defense story >> became a horrific moment in south african history >> i don't think any organization in this country would ever anticipate this type of violence >> what really happened that tragic day? >> it is the time to point finger at those whose fingers pulled the trigger >> al jazeera america presents miners shot down only on al jazeera america wikipedia is blocking some members of congress from making edits to the site. the online encyclopedia said disruptive changes to pages led

to this decision. i can imagine creative stuff going on. >> some of these he had difficulties are very creative but a little naughty to me. anyone can write or edit an entry on wikipedia, but wikipedia says someone pour people in the house of representativeses went rogue. >> it was written by people just like you talking about what they care about. >> some people abuse the freedom. take the page from former defense secretary donald rumsfeld. the original entry says he's an american politician and businessman. someone edited it calling him an alien lizard. the page for john f. kennedy's assassination was also changed. it said the former president was assassinated by lehar vee oswald acts alone. the edits version said he was

acting on behalf of fidel castro. the administrator decided to temporary block the i.p. address used to make disruptive edits. that address led to the house of representatives. >> these are infrequent. the community taking them very seriously. >> reporter: an i.p. address can be used by many different people so it's not clear how many are affected. >> an i.p. address or when any user on wikipedia does called vandalism, if that happens repeatedly a user will get a warning and get banned. so it's not unusual. it's kind of funny that it's happened to congress. >> reporter: not everyone is laughing. this user wrote out of over 9,000 staffers in the house, should we ban this whole i.p. range based on the actions of two or three? some of us here are making grammatical edits.

only anonymous edits are banned. staffers can make wikipedia accounts to keep editing. we reached out to see how many are affected by the decision, but we didn't get a response. that ban on that i.p. address will last ten days. >> did you get an answer from congress? >> we did. we called them and didn't get a response. >> all right. thank you. the twittersphere got behind an animals rights campaign. we have that story next. >> this is for all the animal lovers out there. free arturo and sform fstore fo arturo is the hashtag. they're referring to to polar bear in argentina. we're not talking p the south of argentina but the area of mendoza, the wine country area. for the last couple of years he exhibits what some animal experts say are signs of depression and the possibility that the bear is going slowly

insane. his partner died two years ago during a heat wave in argentina. this week the zoo reiterated that he will stay there. the zoo says he's used to his caretakers and the weather there. he's just too old to be moved safely. he's 29 years old, tony. >> 29? >> 29. that's a long time for a polar bear. former speaker of the house newt gingrich asked people to sign a petition on change.org. he's been speaking out about this issue for several days now. he's in the picture here in the denver zoo saying, arturo deserves a home as nice as cranberry's. that's right there. cher also tweeted to the president of the argentina saying, your hands are stained with his blood when he dies. people have been posting these signs up on social media. more than 700,000 people have signed a petition to put him in

better conditions, tony. >> all right. he's going through something. thank you. >> thank you. "inside story" is up next on al jazeera america. . house budget committee chairman paul ryan says there's a better way for governments to help poor people. take the job away from washington and give more of it to the states. would it work? that's the "inside story." hello. i'm ray suarez. for generatns