it was only. coming up on r t the palestinian death toll has skyrocketed as israel vows to destroy hamas as underground tunnel network with or without a ceasefire all the israeli military has asked for sixteen thousand more troops to carry out the ground fighting in gaza an update on the conflict just ahead. and it's been one year since n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden fled to russia his asylum expires today but will he be staying in moscow any longer more on that coming up. and there is blood tests for cancer and hepatitis but what if a blood test could test could tell you if you were suicidal scientists at johns

hopkins believe they found him mutation in a gene tied to suicidal thoughts and behaviors more on this discovery later in the show. thursday july thirty first four pm in washington d.c. i'm a mere idea of it and you're watching our team america. we begin with the latest on the crisis in the middle east yet after another intensive day of fighting in which one hundred sixteen palestinians were killed and three israeli soldiers killed as well a startling video has emerged of an explosion and a gaza market place which took place yesterday killing at least fifteen people take a look at the was. the. the

the and the the and. in total the conflict which is now in its fourth week has claimed the lives of over fourteen hundred palestinians mostly civilians and fifty eight israelis fifty five of which were soldiers and three of which were civilians the rising civilian death toll has sparked concern and outrage around the world united nations officials are condemning both israel and hamas for war crimes israel in particular was singled out for the bombing of yet another u.n. school and shelter commissioner general of the u.n. relief and works agency pierre amble spoke about the recent school bombing saying i condemn in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by israeli forces this is an affront to all of us

a source of universal shame today the world stands disgraced. had been operating the school which was acting as a shelter before being hit with artillery opinions are running hot here in the u.s. as well speaking out of christians united for israel banquet south carolina senator lindsey graham made these rather bold statements don't ever turn your back on israel. will turn his back on us the reason we're here tonight our job is to speak power truth to power. tell the united nations shut up. well thank you don't know what you're talking about. meanwhile israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says the military will move forward and dismantling the hamas tunnel network in the gaza strip with of course or without a cease fire it's now also said today that he will not accept any truce that won't

allow israel to complete its mission of destroying the sophisticated tunnel network the military says that so far it's uncovered thirty two tunnels all of which have been demolished and they say depleting the remainder of those tunnels will take no more than a few days that being said israeli officials have not ruled out broadening operations in the coming days and fact the government has already called up another sixteen thousand reserves. israel's recent call for sixteen thousand more reserves is meeting some resistance particularly from a group of fifty one former soldiers who say they will refuse to perform military service artie's policy or has their story in the future i hope. i can aspire to be reasonable palestinian after israel no longer exist in yell rosenberg is one of a kind the stitching trio the israeli programmer cuts

a solitary figure on the margins of israeli society formerly a soldier in israel's defense forces he now it's a complaint for those who want to resist the draft on political grounds but he knows his views have made him an outcast. i'm not a true israeli unlike some israeli or a bad israeli in the eyes of the regime. israel is not a case for dissenters a recent poll in israel found that nearly nine out of ten it is rabies not only supported the army's operation in gaza but wanted extended those who criticize it are made to hit on and called naive and treats his during a recent antiwar demonstration in the center of tel aviv this when protesters were touched by. right wing extremists chanting death to arabs verbal attacks seemed to mean physically fine and the protesters were beating up on the way home but there remains a small vocal minority who are not afraid to speak out because whatever the cost or

the divine man a former i.d.f. soldier in the occupied territories is one of them it's very hard to talk about it you know so i think. it's very very scary. and that's why it took me. about two years of service. then i decided ok that's going to be quite anymore about what's happening over the dove now works for breaking the silence and israeli human rights organization which collects testimonies from former soldiers and tells the stories to the world to talk about settlers violence we're talking about violence from soldiers towards palestinians we're talking about dozens of checkpoints in a very very small area only a few enough to speak out against an institution that beats at the heart of israeli society we have to remember that the soldiers that testify just examples of what any other soldiers are doing not because the soldiers are bad people it just shows us the israeli public the reality of what is going on there but most of these ready

for public of reluctant to hear a different point of view and are defending the country's bloody war in gaza twenty c. r r t tell of it. while the clock is ticking for edward snowden has asylum in russia is set to expire today but will the n.s.a. whistleblower who revealed a massive global surveillance ever return to the u.s. artie's lindsey france looks at that issue. a year in and i say whistleblower edward snowden is stuck he's awaiting russia's approval to stay in the country for another year refusing to give himself up to the american justice system he faces charges of espionage what legal experts call a strict liability crime something human rights lawyer nancy hollander explains the only intent that the government has to crew is that the person intended to disclose . documents or information that should not have been disclosed to them because it was classified or because it was confidential or because it involves some kind of

national security the government does not have to prove that the individual intended to. aid the enemy or harm the u.s. she says it's very easy for the government to prove and very hard to defend against much of the trial would probably be close to the public because it involves classified information and it would be very unlikely that snowden would be able to explain why he did what he did only how he did what he did it's not going to help him very much which college is client government whistleblower chelsea manning found out when chelsea mends case she wasn't even allowed to put on any evidence of why did what she did until sentencing and then she got thirty five years after snowden fled the u.s. to hong kong with millions of digitized classified documents he dumped off his hard drives with journalists and caught a flight to moscow where he stayed for a month at the airport before being granted asylum this was because the u.s.

government had revoked his passport preventing him from heading to his intended destination in latin america government officials went on air claiming that a true patriot would come home and answer for his actions even if they could dictate how he would be allowed to answer i think this will haunt him for the rest of his life here's a young guy who made some huge mistakes so you're not in the camp that says give them immunity and bring them back i mean the camp that says justice the american way snowden has mentioned he'd like to return to the united states if he'd be assured there's a fair treatment in the justice system or neither am i going to walk into a jail cell to serve as a bad example for other people in government who see something happen some byelection of the constitution and think they need to say something about it and so when people say why don't you go home and face the music i say you have to understand that the music is not an open court and

a fair trial nancy hollander cites the over classification of government documents as an easy way to prosecute whistleblowers she argues that even. if a document isn't any real threat to national security it will be classified thereby avoiding any embarrassment for the state or a loss of credibility it keeps the skeleton and the whistleblowers in the closet which is why human rights lawyers and whistleblowers the world over have stated that if edward snowden has any sense he'll stay away unless of course his legal team can get the charges against him under the espionage act drop something from r.c. washington. the g seven which is comprised of leaders of the world's major developed economies are condemning russia for a destabilizing ukraine and one that it faces even tougher sanctions if it does not change course britain france canada germany italy japan and the u.s. issued a joint statement yesterday calling on russia to stop its quote actions to destabilize

ukraine earlier this week the office of the director of national intelligence released satellite images that allegedly prove russia was firing rockets at ukrainian troops across the border the images were then posted on twitter by the u.s. ambassador to ukraine geoffrey pyatt many people remember ambassador pyatt of course for controversial leaked a conversation he had with victoria nuland the system secretary of state for european and your asian affairs obviously the complicated electron here especially the announcement of him as deputy prime minister and you've seen some of my notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we're trying to get a read really fast on where he is on this stuff i'm glad you sort of put him on the spot on where he fits in this scenario so i don't think clete should go into the government i don't think it's necessary i don't think it's a good idea in terms of when you're going into the government just let him sort of stay out and do his physical homework and stuff i think he has the he's got the

economic experience the governing experience he's a he's the guy you know what he needs is clinton tony book on the outside he needs to be talking to them four times a week. this by current claims from the u.s. ambassador pyatt russia continues to deny providing any material support for the separatists. as the fighting in eastern ukraine continues to escalate over a thousand people have taken shelter in a refugee camp across the russian border and go koval artie's wrong coast rob has the stories of those who are seeking a fresh start away from the violence. of the kiev was twelve years old when the second world war began and the grandmother remembers that time vividly but you probably never imagined that seventy three years later she would once again be hiding from airstrikes in her own backyard that would be they have been bombing us and they're still doing it now the jets fly very low you can hear them firing in the morning and in the evening this scam has been operating since mid june

displaced people find shelter here for a few days and then move on to places more suitable for longer term living the latest arrivals came from the shell shocked town of slogans here rumors. you spoke i couldn't sleep during my first night here before i left i said good bye it's my sister reggae for the paperwork says she could have my flat. yelena says she has lost everything is the result of kiev's military action her only hope for a fresh start now is in the siberian city of novosibirsk where she has relatives doesn't use them or if we never thought something like this could happen i was getting the pension and was still working now lost my job my house and my pension. at least a third of the refugees are children and russian humanitarian authorities try to provide what they can to make third time here as comfortable as possible but no matter the effort such conditions are certainly not normal for these youngsters

this refugee camp that can hold up to five hundred people is just a kilometer away from the border which frequently comes on their artillery fire. from ukraine the people i've talked to here now want nothing to do with their former country first so the last straw was constant shelling and gunfire that forced them to practically live in basements or bomb shelters for others the sights of friends and relatives killed by multiple rocket strikes remount calls for an artsy russia ukraine in order. the united states has spent one hundred four billion dollars on reconstructing afghanistan according to the quarterly report from the special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction or cigar arties may lopez has more. in a new report out this week a government watchdog took a critical look at the money spent in afghanistan and pointed out serious concerns that could impact everything from security to stability to social welfare the amount of money the u.s.

has dedicated to nation building in afghanistan is on precedent at the end of the year the special inspector general for afghanistan's reconstruction efforts estimates that the u.s. will have spent more money on reconstruction in that country than it spent after world war two under the marshall plan the u.s. spent in a just a total of one hundred three point four billion dollars helping europe recover from world war two between one thousand forty eight and one nine hundred fifty two compared to over one hundred nine billion dollars spent on afghanistan since two thousand and two so with all this money being spent on one country in the pursuit of stability where does afghanistan stand well according to the watchdog there are still problems in the country any when one of which could completely unravel progress made over the past twelve years right now international aid makes up sixty percent of the afghan economy and as has been the case with previous international conflicts aid produces significantly in the years after troops are pulled out

opening the door for corruption irregular competition and a weak or susceptible government and as afghanistan's domestic economy slows corruption has grown afghanistan is now tied with north korea and somalia as the most corrupt country in the world general john allen said this issue is the worst threat the country faces even worse than the taliban itself one industry that has been proliferating is heroin international forces focused on ending heroin and poppy production but the u.s. spends said. point six billion dollars on these counter-narcotics efforts yet sagar reports that farmers are growing more poppy today than ever before in twenty thirteen the international worth of this was three billion dollars which is fifteen percent of afghanistan's g.d.p. the inspector general says little progress has been made to counter narcotics operations and those efforts might not be sustainable after forces leave now when it comes to the afghan national army the amount of people that it has that are

being trained right now is decreasing and the number of desertions from the army are increasing in some cases like the case of the c one thirty planes the u.s. is shipping equipment to the afghans that they might not meet and in other cases the u.s. is not shipping weapons and ammunition to the country that they do need these are just a couple of the findings from this two hundred fifty six page report the amount of oversight in the country will decrease significantly in december even though money will continue to flow from the u.s. into afghanistan now according to reports less than twenty percent of the country will be available for this type of civilian oversight so these types of discoveries of fraud and of waste and of abuse could be few and far between in the near future even if they continue to exist reporting in front of the pentagon meghan lopez r.t. . still ahead on our team would you take a test to learn if you have a suicide gene and may soon be possible war when we return.

and i know we're. working late as by the scrapyards media tells us are acting like a bunch of. like three times in our entire financial system is break by a bunch of greedy. like soon as in there's more than just see what. i'm the red and i'm fighting one carefully chosen words. i'm abby martin the stories we cover here you're not going to hear any right back story that has turned out why i'm talking as a reason they don't want to. point. out now let's break the set. for you like me once a comedy news with some t what's a comedy news to be a bare fisted no holds barred fight to the death. like

a vampire fighting into the necks of the corporate elite the billionaire freaks while they're going. out so that's what you get with my new show project that tonight. washington. is being sued. the media. prophecy is going to play it back to doesn't do too much for ad revenue my own tech agriculture giant seventy six year old american farmer based in india fall out think it's going to create the cia do you think this is what's triggering. the largest fish but it's also the largest debtor nation in the history of the world breaking the fed is most it all turned to the status quo i want to give you all those points working for the american dream for the next they were just trying to

survive this time for americans and lawmakers in washington to wake up and start talking about the real causes a problem. live . live live. live . what if a simple task could determine your risk of suicide not only is that possible but it can be done with something as simple as a blood test in a recent study published by the american journal of psychiatry researchers said

they discovered a genetic indicator that could determine how vulnerable a person is to the effects of severe stress and anxiety those are of course the mental instability that are often linked to suicide suicidal thoughts or attends the johns hopkins researchers looked at how a group of chemicals of fact a gene called scott to now if the gene is impaired by a chemical change that individual may not be able to shut down the effect of stress hormones to discuss the details of this new research i was joined earlier by zachary kaminsky assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at johns hopkins school of medicine i first asked him to tell us how the research led to the conclusion that this particular gene is linked to suicidal thoughts certainly so he said about looking or kind of a molecular marker called d.n.a. methylation which is really

a molecule that actually the light switch or are turned up or down one that we've kind of like taking them as dimmer switches now what we did was they use a technique that allowed us to look across the entire genome once in fact across all of our genes and we looked in brain tissue from individuals who got by suicide those who did not and we asked the question using this technique are any of these lights which is turned off when they shouldn't be and using that to me we were able to find this. to really change the top ok now just to be clear what makes you more risk if is that gene you said it was scott to sky to or scott to scott to scott if that gene is mutated or if it's there's a depletion or lack there of. yeah it's really more like a cliche. the analogy that we think might be appropriate is thinking of it like

a brake pad that isn't functioning properly or has perhaps gone innocence so what this brake pad is or is or this dress was specifically or show you down the stressors in that way the brake pad analogy works quite well because if you are stressed i.e. if the car is driving you are going to need those brakes but without a stress factor you do not even notice that it was lowered that your brakes are. does that make yes that makes a lot of sense. a lot of people are going to hear this. new science and say well i often get stress asking getting anxiety does that apply to me should i get tested for this gene what factors would doctors be looking at to determine whether someone is a good candidate to get this blood test well the first thing to keep in mind is that this really represents a finding it isn't available for use yet this finding represents the promise to

meet me one day. but it's not necessarily going to be the case that anyone. order this test now i don't think everyone needs to worry about should i get tested for this this that's not where we see this being useful this could be really useful in for example emergency room where people are going to be screened for suicide risk already like this might help to augment occurrence free to really find those people that need closer monitoring for example that makes a lot of sense now outside of what our genes say there's another side of a white might be causing depression and those are of course the circumstances that were subjected to how much influence does d.n.a. versus environmental factors really play into each person's psyche. yes that's a really interesting question and it's something that you know science is really starting to get you don't have all the answers yet one of the existing things about earmarks we call them the genetic markers is that they're kind of the interface of

the environment in our d.n.a. that really allow our experiences in a way to change our v.n.a. and that includes our future future interactions with our own environments so in a way we're not really talking about looking at genes versus the environment by measuring the chemical modification these and the genetic markers we're kind of looking at well our genes and environment. and a lot of people would actually find this surprising that suicide is the templating cause of death in the u.s. that's according to the centers for disease control and prevention so put this latest research into context for us could it possibly curb those high numbers we're seeing how big of a breakthrough is that. yes so i mean i think that this is potentially a very interesting breakthrough we need to be validated in much larger sample size before we can be completely confident of the way that we're going to stand. by you

know identifying suicide so that we could you're seeing. now the ways in which a test like this might be useful for everyone you know need to be determined we haven't thought of a way that these. it would be useful for the entire populace for example another population such as the military we know are going to various i levels of stress might make sense there for example why then to five people at risk and then we could possibly intervene possibly limit access to lethal means that. and as i understand it these findings are possible because of new technology how exactly is new technology really shifting genetic research right now. well new technologies of course really work and it's becoming easier and easier to do and less expensive which is also important we're really getting a feel or all the changes that can happen in our entire genome we're able to look

at these now of course the dangers of that sort of technology looking at everything one says that the chances of all positive are endings are also very high so we need to be really careful with the things that the top you know that being said having the ability to sort of look everywhere all the corners of our genome as it were will really start to uncover a lot of secrets and allow us to understand the interactions between genes in new ways well this is certainly a huge step forward for health care here in the u.s. so zachary kaminsky assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at johns hopkins school of medicine thank you so much for coming on and breaking it down for us thank you. but i must is coming up next here on r t aaron a joins us for a quick preview hi erin hi i'm here at thank you very much are coming up on boom bust it's tech thursday and we're talking about twitter today now the micro blogging site is having

a tremendous week and we look into what the little birdie has been chirrup end of that and renowned cryptologist bruce schneier sat down with me to discuss all things cryptic and tech and you definitely don't want to miss my interview with them it's all coming up to stay tuned and america we're going to have you on tomorrow our son i'm excited we're very set is why we're going to stay on so no more terror. thanks erin does it for now you can follow me on twitter at america david stay tuned boom bust is next. i'm the best at it and i think a society that i'm big corporation kind of can. can do i'm the banker i take all that all about money and i must pass like that for a politician write the laws and regulations that bankers come up.

here just to pledge pratt today's society. that. i would rather ask questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question for.