>> the bulling got two much to take for me >> that's when when you feel like it's gonna be the end. 15 stories, 1 incredible journey >> edge of eighteen coming september only on al jazeera america >> a school housing thousands of refugees gets hammered. i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this," that and much more straight ahead. >> a series of deadly strikes today in gaza. civilian death toll has surged. >> a strike on a u.n. school. >> nothing worse than attacking sleeping children's. >> today the world stands disgrace.

>> pro-russian rebels have planted land mines around the site. >> these sanctions will hurt the russian economy. >> for terror organizations around the world, this has become a cottage industry. >> the government is the main source of money. >> and corporations paying ransom in secret. >> you don't have to run a marathon, you don't have to run a mile. >> you only need a few minutes a day to get significant health benefits. >> getting out each day because every step counts. >> we begin with an attack wednesday in gaza that killed at least 20 people at a u.n. school where at least 3,000 displaced palestinians had taken refuge. hit by four shells, two shells hit classrooms where people were asleep. in jerusalem a spokesman says israeli forces had been told 17

times that refugees were being sheltered at that school. >> we condemn in the strongest possible terms the serious violation of international law by israeli forces. this is an afront to all of us. a source of universal shame. today the world stands disgraced. >> in washington a national security council spokesman condemned the attack, saying the united states is extremely concerned that israel claimed, hamas for hiding weapons in u.n. facilities. meanwhile a spokesman for israeli military said israel attack. >> in the morning there was mortar fired right from next to the school. there was an exchange of fire with our forces. clearly it is a tragedy but the idf does not intentionally target u.n. premise says.

>> more than 1300 palestinians have been killed in the fighting most of them civilians as well as 56 israeli soldiers and three civilians. nick schifrin, is there anyplace in gaza that people can go to and feel safe? >> reporter: if you ask any gazan where they are in their homes hiding out from israeli bombs or here in gaza city having fled from those bombs or whether they are in u.n. schools they will say no. they will ask the question, where do you want me to go? exactly what the u.s. has pointed out, the white house has pointed out, if israel has urged these people to go to u.n. shelters closer to gaza city, away from their homes closer to the border and those u.n. schools turned shelters are attacks, there

is nowhere safe. one in eight or one in nine of all of gaza, if those are already full, they have gone to private homes in gaza city. but i've talked to multiple gazans, who transfer their family every night. different areas are being shelled. the answer is that many gazans say there is nowhere safe. they simply say, the fighting's everywhere, where do you want me to go? >> hamas is boasting of its terror tunnels which before it didn't really talk about much showing video of how hamas fighters went into israel and killed israel soldiers. so at this point is israel at all motivated to stop this until it gets rid of all of these tunnels? >> so far, we've seen israel absolutely against and forcefully push back against any kind of pressure including from president obama himself.

according to u.s. and israeli officials, president obama and prime minister benjamin netanyahu two nights ago or rather last night had a very heated conversation. obama made it clear that he wanted this to stop. he wanted a ceasefire. the prime minister made it clear it wasn't going ostop until their mission was done. now only silver lining tonight is that in the last few hours an israeli official has suggested that the tunnel mission, the mission to destroy all those tunnels antonio that you mentioned, to attack israeli troops and try and kidnap them, we've seen evidence of that, might be done within the next few days. so the indication there or the hint from that official is that if indeed the military can get that part of the mission done then you'll see the political leaders much more interested much more willing in accepting or at least being willing to consider one of these ceasefire that the so far they have rejected in the last week.

they still want the egyptian proposal which was the original one, hamas completely rejected that. we are far away from any real solution but if the israelis are willing to go towards a ceasefire then you can see the u.s. in the middle. >> nick schifrin good to have you with us, thanks. for a look at where this conflict is going i'm joined by daniel kurtzer, served as deputy secretary of state for near eastern affairs. ambassador good of to you join us. the u.n. says six of its schools in gaza have been struck by shell fire since the offensive began. that israel is likely to be responsible for all of those attacks, gaza hospitals have been hit repeatedly. i understand the fog of war and soldiers will fight back when fired upon. but shouldn't

israelis avoid hitting places that they know are sheltering hundreds if not thousands of people? >> this is a very small area, crowded area and civilians are going into u.n. shelters where hamas fighters are located and where there are hamas arsenals. so you have this really volatile mix of civilians and fighters. and when israel returns fire it will return fire to these places. yes, israel needs to do a better job of preventing civilian casualties. but hamas also shares a great deal of responsibility for locating its fighters and its arsenal had these places. >> now usually israeli public opinion is as divided as in any other country. in the past israelis have turned against military action when lots of civilians are killed. that's not happening now. results show

that israelis think that it hasn't been enough so 93% of israelis support what's happening in gaza. what has changed? >> well, there is an extraordinary consensus of support for this operation. and i think it derives from the discovery of how extensive the tunnel network really has been. the israelis have known about the tunnels for quite some time. they have been used mostly until now for smuggle things into gaza. consumer goods and building materials and of course weapons as well. but i think the israeli public as well as the military was shocked by the fact that this extensive tunneling network could have resulted in almost a small invasion of hamas fighters into the territory of the state of israel. and therefore, the population is looking at the military to close down that strategic offensive threat. >> now, hamas repeated again on

wednesday that it would only agree of a truc truce if israeld agree to a lifting of the blockade of gaza. president obama has certainly called for that and treaties for the palestinians have called for demill triesation of gaza going back two decades. rks demilitarization of gaza going back two decades. >> israel wants a system where hamas is demilitarized, the gaza strip is demilitarized, and hamas can't remilitarize over the next period. hamas would like to see gaza open to the world. these are resolvable discrete issues. the problem is that you have the politics of negotiating between a state and a nonstate actor, terrorist organization, and neither one of them wants to see the other gain an advantage.

so it's going to take some -- >> saw what happened to secretary kerry in his last proposal because israelis were not happy that he seemed to be negotiating indirectly with hamas and that he had favored hamas too far. but then is israel creating a bigger monster here? because the people in gaza, half of them were unemployed, half of them were getting food aid. this is before this all happened. there was little hope and you and i have all heard it described as an open air prison. we've got 10% displaced, virtually no power, problems with water. again is this making things worst, is it going to make the palestinians more intransigent? >> you've got the difference between short term and long term objectives. they have lost family members their homes have been destroyed, many are talking about joining

the resistance. in the short term, you have the problem that there is a threat to the population of israel and israel feels it had to take care of it. you know it comes back to the only logical answer here which is a resolution of the underlying conflict. and i think to the extent that you know perhaps an opportunity may result from this terrible tragedy, it would be to get some kind of a process moving again, which can resolve the overall conflict. otherwise i think antonio you are exactly right. >> in the past egypt has supported hamas. that's not the case now. hamas, some argue, is firing missiles into israel as much to get egypt to open its border crossings with gaza as to go after the israelis. egypt's attempt to mediate a ceasefire didn't work. do you think the sisi government in cairo wants israel to go on

with its offensive? >> there are signs that egypt is not unhappy with what israel is doing. knock out the tunnels between egypt and gaza, you see a government in egypt now that considers hamas a threat, destabilized place because of weapons coming out of goos. so the egyptians see a larger strategic interest with israel. hamas's problems are they don't have a lot of friends in the arab world. they have sympathy for what's happening in the arab world but not support for hamas. >> you don't think anything is going to change quickly? >> no, i don't think so. i think the demands of the two sides on a ceasefire are still so far apart and the fact that israel feels it's got more work

to do on the tunnels, suggests there's more days ahead of us on this type of situation. >> thank you for being with us. >> thanks antonio. >> as we just mentioned a overwhelming number of israelis strongly back the operation in gaza. but there are some that find serious fault with the israel tactics. former combat soldier in the west bank. he works for a group that works on injustices for the yehuda military. former israeli air force officer wrote about her time in the service in the guardian on monday saying i believed with all my heart that we were doing what needed to be done. things have changed and now i can no longer have that certainty. how have things changed? >> i think when uli, my comrade, wrote that things have changed,

she doesn't necessarily say that things have chained on the ground. i think when she says things have changed, she changed, the way she sees the things and the reality and the way she understands. because it was a thing for me, when i was in the military during the second intefada, when i was able to start to think about life as a civilian that i started questioning and i started kind of like realizing that the way i justify things to myself throughout my service didn't make sense nirl. >> your group's point is the israeli military acts not with just what's happening in goos to control palestinians, to break their will, to let the palestinians know that israeli forces are always going to be there and they should be afraid to stand up for themselves? >> we are a group of almost 1,000 israeli veterans who served in combat units from the

beginning of the sick intefada until today. we believe in a very simple thing. our military should be an instrument of defense and not occupation. what we're trying to do is hold up a mirror in front of our society and demand of our society to take moral and civil responsibility for what's being done in our name. and what's being done in our name is a prolonged occupation that's built and designed to are increase it and increase it and this hole has no bottom. that's why what we want to do and what we want to see happening is climbing out this hole and ending the occupation. >> you say that it's designed to do that and that this leads to all sorts of abuses, that it's institutional, and that is abusive behavior is policy that is set by the israeli defense forces?

>> look, one of the main things i've done during my service is what we call in the military making our presence felt. what does it mean. the concept, the idea is that palestinians if they'll get the feeling that the idf is all the time everywhere they'll be afraid to attack. so in order to basically make them feel this way you make your presence felt. and the way it methods manifests itself, we used to have 24-7 patrols work in the old city of hebron. eight hour shift walking the streets, bump into a random house, these are not houses we had intelligence about, sergeant leaves the patrol, chooses a house, i was a sergeant, wake up the family, tear apart the place, finish searching, go out knock on another house, bump into the family and search the place and that's how you would fast your eight hour shift, 24

hours a day, seven days a week, from the second intefada started, the palestinian will feel that the military is right here, you never know how we're going to show up, it's what we call in the military to create the feeling of being pursued. these are basically phrases that we used in our briefings. >> how do you respond to an idf spokesman who says your group is just about smearing the israeli military, that the examples you brought up represent a minuscule portion of israeli soldiers and any bad behavior your group has uncovered had been reported to the idf that the soldiers who did those ciensdz of things would be hundz -- kinds -- kinds of things would be behind bars? >> the spokesmen approved that's one of the things they do. so this is not one rogue soldier. that's the mission. now the other thing i would say

is, i don't on a very, very deep level i don't believe the problem is the idf. i believe the problem is the political mission the i dfortf is sent to carry out. when your political mission is to maintain a prolonged mission over another people, that's the way it looks, think of it, we had war winter, autumn clouds, we had operation cast sled, and you ask yourself where is it going. so that's the idea, that's the big strategy that every two years we'll have an operation. every operation will be more aggressive than the previous one and the death toll will just rise and we're going just for another operation? actually, what we need to do is to rethink our strategies and to look for a different way out. >> so you think this operation would have happened even if hamas hadn't been shooting 100 rockets a day into israel? i do want to end with asking you i guess a final question. is israel doing what it can?

do you believe it's doing what i can to avoid civilian casualties in gaza as it claims? on the other hand do you think the palestinians are putting their civilians in harm's way by putting missiles and other armaments in other areas? >> look, you're not going to hear good words about hamas from my mouth. hamas is a terrorist organization. no doubt sadly enough i don't believe israel is doing everything we can to avoid civilian casualties. just look at this new articulate tick that is -- tactic that is in this operation a main strategy and admitted by ministers and generals which we call this knock on the roof. you take a house which is a house of a hamas activist somewhere in the middle of gaza and that suddenly turns this

building into a direct target even though it doesn't pose a direct issue. even though you know there's civilians inside, this idea when you ask civilians to leave the the building and they haven't listened to you they deserve the death penalty is outrageous. i think that just shows you that every operation we tend to cross another more red line that we haven't crossed before and slowly slowly we get used to it. 47 years of occupation we're not able to feel empathy with palestinians, we are not able to see them as equal human beings and just like i as a soldier the first palestinian house i burst in i still felt something the face of the children brought me to start to ask questions, the 10th time i did it i got used to it. we are here also. the first operation in gaza we

were shocked but the death toll of civilians is rising up. we're not willing we're not able as a society to understand and realize and put question marks and that's very very sad thing for me. >> yehuda shaol, thank you very much for joining me. now for more stories from around the world. we begin in kano nigeria where a female suicide bomber killed three people and injured seven more. fourth suicide attack in as many days by young women and girls. a new tactic by the boko haram terrorist group. another school in kano and on monday two attacks by young women targeted a gas station and shopping center, killing three and injuring 13 others. on tuesday, three minimum tants were arrested one of them a ten-year-old girl who was wearing a explosive belt.

next to washington, d.c. where the u.s. state department has barred venezuelan officials from entering the united states. abuses committed against antigovernment forces earlier this year. >> certain venezuelan officials responsible for recent human rights abuses. the action he taken today are not directed against the people of venezuela. they are in support of human rights and narrowly targets specific individuals responsible for repression. >> we end in los angeles, where a 93-year-old water main ruptured and flooded sunset boulevard near ucla. 75,000 gallons of water a minute shot as high as 30 feet into the air and ripped a 15 foot hole in the road. hundreds of cars and six buildings on ucla's campus were damaged and firefighters had to rescue five people from an underground parking structure. it will take days to repair the

leak after discovering more damage in surrounding pipes. that's what's happening around the world. ukraine says pro-russian separatists are placing land mines around the area of the mh17 site. tune of more than $100 million in ransom money is being spent to get hostages our social media producer, hermela aregawi. what's trending hermella? >> join the conversation on twitter @ajconsiderthis and on our facebook and google plus pages. >> al jazeera america presents >> i'm a big girl now. i know what i want, i know what i have to do to get it. >> 15 stories one incredible journey edge of eighteen coming september only on al jazeera america

>> ukrainian officials now say pro-russian separatists have placed land mines near the mh17 wreckage making the situation worse. investigators still cannot get access to the crash site because of fierce fighting on the ground. meantime, ukraine's

counteroffensive against the rebels is seeing success. they intercepted a convoy of vehicles crossing over from russia. putting pressure from russian president vladimir putin. facing sanctions placed by u.s. and european union. only serve to aggravate riggs american relations. and the eu upped the antse ante about. >> joining us is ambassador kurt voa volker . he's now executive director of the mccain institute of international leadership. part of arizona state university. good to have you here if new york. >> antonio, great to be in new york. >> we are seeing both sides

accusing the other of shooting ballistic missiles. escalation. it is healthy to see it because it is clarifying. russia has been pouring people and equipment into ukraine for months already and we have been denying this as some kind of russian intervention and treating it as home grown insurgency which is not the case. its own sovereign territory they're coming into conflict with insurgents. the sanctions that we saw this week, the sanctions are intended to put pressure on russia to get them to back down. >> are they having that effect? because we are listening to some of what's going on in the soviet union, we have got others russian officials saying that the sanctions are having no effect whatsoever. a lot of this sounds like the

propaganda we were used during the soviet union days. >> exactly. we have to separate what the russians say from what they think. they are trying to diminish the importance of these sanctions in their public statements. the reality is that they know in the long run, maybe not this month or next month but if you go out 6'8" ten months, these sanctions will have an effect. right now the russians can ride the popularity of the west is against us and we need to be strong and fight back, it makes putin more aggressive in the short run but in the long run they know these sanctions will hurt eventually and they want to hypotheses. >> there are differing reports, some are saying that the sanctions are actually strengthening putin and others are saying no, this is gig to hurt him, especially people in the higher levels are saying, this is a serious problem, certainly in the long

run. >> it is certainly both not just one. for them to say we are not going to pursue this venture any longer, this would seriously weaken him. he can't get out of this mess alive so he's committed to this course that he's on. at the same time, the people who are backing him know these sanctions will hurt eventually. they want him to finish and clean up and be done with it. >> the sanctions have already hurt. it was a fairly weak economy but growth has completely stopped. you think russians who have gotten used to a better life might be upset. a russian woman named olga let's listen to what she said. >> translator: we lived in tougher conditions and our lives are peaceful and friendly. who cares if we have just one fur coat and not three? >> so when you hear people like that, the soviet union, people had it rough and things have

certainly gotten better. >> embedded in her statement is whatever we're doing is worth it for some reason, it's worth it for russia to acquire this part of ukraine. six months from now, things are not going well in ukraine that could be a different story. if they are going well in ukraine or what i expect is that putin will push and push and push, get as much as he can then fall back a little bit and then find that the europeans are willing to ease up on sanctions. that's actually going to work out pretty well for him. >> but aren't you concerned that by isolating putin and isolating russia that we're basically talking about a coronerred animal here that might be more dangerous that he might lash out, are you more concerned that ukraine. >> there is the problem of the cornered animal and the problem of a roving tiger. you don't want to create a

coronerred animal but if you have a roving tiger, you have got to stop him anyway. >> whatever happens hopefully with it will be for the best. kurt volker good to have you with us. >> good to be with you. >> paying for operations around the world, kidnapping europeans for large ransoms, and a new report says despite public denials, european countries are the ones paying the most for their citizens to be released. joining us for more, a foreign correspondent for new york times, who reported an article bankrolling al qaeda terror. you're talking about obscene amounts of money going to terrorists, you believe $125 million from western european governments, you also talk about how the u.s.

treasury has spend $165 million? >> 165. the sums are phenomenal. what i've been able to do in the last couple of months, is we weren't clear where these ransoms were coming from before, we always heard they were coming from europe. it's crystal clear now, european governments, not just entities but governments that are paying this in an effort to save their citizens. >> they keep denying it though. >> they keep denying it. the first ransom i was able to confirm was in 2003 to a group called the jspc, a little known 8 jihadist group. they held germans for somesome six months and the german government in collaboration to other citizens there, were desperate and didn't know what to do. they finally decided that after one woman died of dehydration in

the desert, to take the money and give it to the president of malli and the president of mali agreed to move it to the jihaddists, germany was able to say the was an aid payment and mali used it to -- >> used the word gow generous and use it to get these people freed. >> exactly. >> what this ended up being is seed money for al qaeda in the magreb which is a significant group. >> when i was in mali last year, i found thousands of pages of documents that that area's al qaeda group left behind. the man number 2 of al qaeda in there he talks about a number of things but he gives following advice to his brothers in africa. he says ransoms are an easy spoil. and he goes on to eight that in yemen half of his own operating

cost is being funded by ransoms. so we now know that the yemeni branch of al qaeda is also considering ransoms to be -- >> a big part -- >> a big part. >> it's almost as a big plan. >> absolutely. >> they are looking at this as can, of it last been in africa. what's happened is the ransom money has increased dramatically. it used to be a couple hundred thousand per person now we're person. >> that's correct. it's created a kidnap economy around the hostage takingers. first it's al qaeda but then the europeans themselves cannot go to meet them. so they need to employ government negotiators who are sometimes members of criminal groups. those people allegedly are taking about 10% of the ransom amount.

so on both sides now there's an incentive to like up the amount. >> right. >> the negotiator -- >> wants a lier number in order to get more money. >> exactly. >> part of the problem are the governments i'm sure are under pressure not to do this. >> absolutely. >> but the pressure to do it is tremendous because what you found too is in cases where the governments don't pay, specifically the u.s. and british government, officials get killed. americans and british citizens are getting executed and cimg some who are with western europeans who are freed. >> exactly. the most dramatic is edwin dyer, who had gone to mali to a music festival. he happened to be grabbed with two other, a european, two from switzerland and a german. britain made it very clear from the beginning that they would not pay a ransom.

and a negotiator told britain don't tell them that. you can have this policy of not paying ransoms, don't tell them that. they sent the message anyway, they killed edwin dyer. >> among others journalists who have been kidnapped, whether we can cover what's happening in all these places. a pleasure to have you with us, a fascinating story in new york times. absolutely. >> what's trending on the web? >> protest a recent comment by turkey's deputy prime minister. to protect moral values, women should not laugh in public. hundreds of thousands of turkish women are defying that sentiment. they are posting photos of themselves, laughing all over social media. but it is not a laughing matter. turkey is one of the worst

countries for women's rights. it ranks 120th out of 136 countries. deputy prime minister's comments provided fuel for more secular opposition party. nelda tweeted, while so many murders are being committed, the deputy prime minister creates women's as a target. domestic violence is also a major issue. about 40% of women in the country have suffered physical abuse at some point in theirs lives. let us know what stories you'd like to see featured in the digital spotlight. tweet us @ajconsiderthis. >> hermella thanks. and still ahead, john boehner's step forward, just before summer break. and also why more americans are giving birth outside hospitals,

including bizarre places like an elevator.

>> house republicans took a strong shot across the political aisle shortly before congress leaves for its august break. on a party line vote the house passed a resolution granting itself authority to sue president obama and other members of the executive branch for allegedly abusing their executive powers. the main focus of the lawsuit involves the president's delay of a key obamacare provision that requires most employers to provide insurance to their employees. michael surer is an al jazeera political contributor, always good to see you. white house says it's about executive overreach, the obama administration so far has been pretty dismissive of all this republican talk but is there danger from the white house in underestimating the gop? >> i don't know. they have been playing the same gaining for a while. congressman steve powell tweeted

that he thinks it's underreach, he's a democrat he would. but other republicans reagan, clinton and george w. bush, using executive power, obama falls way short of them. it is not as exactly advertised. >> it's a big modification of a law as opposed to something an executive should have dealt with. and the question also is, is there a danger of a backlash for republicans on this? because nancy pelosi has already sent out a fundraising letter for democrats because of the lawsuit. >> i think there's a danger and republicans are playing to their base, democrats to theirs. the danger comes to republicans voters. i don't think that's going ohappen to the mid temp elections but sure going to hurt them in 2016. if they're not getting this stuf

down, that means they aren't getting legislation done. antonio it makes you wonder why incumbency has such power when legislators do so little. >> this strange back and forth about impeaching president obama, john boehner said on tuesday it was a democratic scam to raise money. don't people know they have the internet to look up what people have said in the past? democrats have been talking about impeachment since 2009. >> you do wonder if they know about the internet sometimes. this is not a new refrain and certainly not arefrain that democrats came up with. it is novel when you heard the white house communications director, dan pfeiffer talking about impeachment and 2.1 million raised by the d triple c, and it's certainly not going

to happen. >> and you bringing that up opinion about dan pfeiffer and james ernest, democrats are the ones that have been escalating it recently to get more money. >> ist >> it's the vast left wing conspiracy. >> in contrast to the right wing conspiracy. >> the speaker of the house and other people of problem nens of that peter talking about impeachment and not just the fringes, to be fair it's not speakers out there trumpeting, when it's being mentioned they can't believe it. when they speak about it their minions list as well. and they start writing checks. >> the unaccompanied children flowing across the border, the wigger news congressman luis gutierrez just said the

president would take what he called generous broad action towards the millions of undocumented immigrants that are in the united states, so this has started a hue and cry about whether the president is considering some level of amnesty. and it's not just republicans that are upset. democrats who are up for reelection are concerned about this too. >> well, first of all it's just speculation what luis gutierrez meant when he said those things. last friday the president met or there were meetings with the white house with central american governments and people representing latin american affairs here in the united states. so there are things being hammered about, talked about quite a bit. but right now it's just mere speculation. >> but gutierrez has been very critical of the president. now he's saying the pth going -- president's going to do something great.

>> i absolutely believe he knows what he's talking about. he's not just saying that to say it. but the question is we don't know what it would be. however, the president, this is again going back to executive action, the president is the president here. and if the congress goes on holiday without doing anything the president stands to gain politically and alleviately aboualleviatelegislatively about that. >> lois ler lerner handy totally disappeared. she calls right wing republicans an expletive. we don't need to worry about alien terrorists, it is our own crazies that will take us down. at this point is the justice department going ohave to take more aggressive action to investigate lerner

and the irs? >> i think they're going to have to look at these e-mails and find out what's missing. what it does antonio is takes it away from the white house. the more this goes on, more we learn about lois lerner the more we read, she does turn out to be somewhat rogue. >> could that be problematic for the warehouse too? >> i don't think it's problematic for the warehouse. it is no be more problematic than it is now. you can't tie something to the president to the administration if it's a rogue. in a less convincing way reagan tried to keep himself away from oliver north and his rogue assistant during iran contra. dating myself a little bit. the one person acting with autonomy and maybe a little bit of craziness is the better for the white house. >> the question is if she was a rogue operator. >> that's true, that they have

to get to the bottom of absolutely. >> michael it's great to have you with us as's. >> thanks antonio. >> more americans are affected by the ebola virus. but first growing number of parents are going back to the future when it comes to childbirth.

>> today's data dive really delivers. more babies are being born outside of hospitals in the u.s. both intentionally and unintentionally. this week david davis and his wife lily of west hear hartford, connecticut had a surprise,. >> i was rubbing her back of my left hand and baby shot out, i couldn't grab it fast enough and that's when it fell into the

out. >> that's right, the newborn fell into the toilet. while baby liv made a real splash she's doing just fine. we've heard stories of babies being born everywhere from cars to even sled after a snow storm. out of hospital births have jumped from .7 biforts t births to 1.36%. they usually occur on purpose at home or nonhospital birthing centers. the pacific northwest is a hotbed of out of hospital births with 3% happening at home. the darker blues show the highest levels, the green states have the lowest. a return to the past with a growing number of mid wives. in the 1920s nearly all of babies were born out of the

hospitals. by 1969, out of hospital births had fallen to just 1%. the cdc says the recent increase in those births could have an impact on hospitals, clinician training and health care costs. coming up how run being for only five minutes a day could lower your chance of dying early. we'll have the details, next.

>> we're here in the vortex. only on al jazeera america. >> with concerns the ebola outbreak in west africa could go global, quarn teeng individuals who show signs of the disease. killed more than 660 including one american who had stopped in nigeria on his way home to minnesota. two medical workers are in serious condition in liberia. isolated for exposure to someone who died of the disease. neither of those peace corps workers have shown signs of the illness. so just how worried should we be

in the u.s? as the disease does arrive as many will predict, what is the chance that we could experience a full blown outbreak here? abdul, epidemiology, i can't say that, ab dull. we now have hong kong and britain quarantining passengers if they show any signs of illness when they come in. and emergency meetings in britain, here in the u.s. we are not quarantining anyone. prict sawyer died of the disease. -- patrick sawyer died of the disease. he was coming through nigeria when he ended up dying. is there much doubt that at some point somebody will come to our shores with ebola? >> this is a theoretical risk. in subsaharan

architecture africa, the spread has been horrible. somebody might board a plane, come and bring ebola to the united states. the likelihood is really high, once in medical attention the algorithms about dealing with this would almost ensure that it wouldn't happen. but it is a theoretical risk but the movements in hong kong and u.k. has taken us a step further about how this might go global. >> one worry is if patrick sawyer had gotten on an airplane to the u.s., it's not transmitted in airborne fashion but -- so you have to have some contact with bodily fluids. the question is how much contact? >> the biggest outbreak in history is happening right now and that's 1200 people. we really don't know that much about the disease. there is some convincing evidence, a research firm in canada published a

paper that suggested ebola might be airborne. in that respect rp we have to consider this -- respect we have to are consider that people don't have it for sure until it's pretty late on. the incubation period of the disease is between three and 21 days and that gives somebody a long time after having gotten the disease to move elsewhere. that said, getting actually touching, so feeive it is air -- even if it is airborne, it's probably not as contagious at a really serious epidemic. >> it doesn't make sense from a financial standpoint for drug companies to deal with vaccines or come up with vaccines to deal with this. >> exactly. >> the surgeon general last really sounded a big loorm about skin cancer and how we are seeing cases soaring, 5

million people being treated each year for skin cancer. it's really jumped dramatically since the 1970s. how big of a problem is this and why are we just not dealing with it? because it is preventible. are we not listening to what we have been told to do? >> we have to think about skin cancer in the same way that we do with skin cancer. part of it shaped by a social norm, back in the '60s or '70s when lung cancer was far worse, today we see tanning as a really cool thing odo, something we like the do, look tan but that has a negative consequence. >> 30% of young women are using tanning beds, highlighted as one of the big problems. incredibly this cancer, skin cancer now accounts for more cancers that are than any of the others combined. >> yes. we need to be thinking about tanning beds in the same way we think about smoking.

it's something that people may choose to partake in but they're putting themselves at great risk. part of the step that there surgeon general leaning on is bringing that into milk space. we need to have a societal conversation about it because it's taking people's lives. >> some other important health information this week is running as little as five minutes a day could add years to your life. >> i think that's a positive note. this changes the physical paradime. when we think about physical exercise, it's easy to say, i don't have that hour and a half that it takes to go to the gym i'm not going to do it. but if you could five minutes get yourself a good run in right before you take a shower in the morning or come home, it could save your life. we have to take this data in context. a large observational study. see what happens in the end. >> certainly the five minutes aren't going ohelp you much with

weight loss but it does, if it does help you with your health in general and cardiac disease. >> there is the paradime of fat but fit. that's note the only mechanism by which it decreases risk for mortality. in and of itself independent of weight loss is a good thing to do. >> abdul thank you for coming. >> thanks for having me. >> former speech writer pat buchanan will join us what life was really like in the white house. the conversation considers, @ajconsiderthis. you can

>> across all boundaries in the united nations today in aljazeera. blue first, we'll start now with our top story. it has been our top story for nearly four weeks now, and this is the very latest to come from the conflict between the israelis and gaza. and reports are coming that israeli war jets have attacked a car in the central part of gaza. at least four palestinians killed, including a woman. and nicole is in gaza, and nicole, bring us up-to-date.