crosstalk rules and if it doesn't you can jump in anytime you want. 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 cease fire while the israeli military has asked for sixteen thousand more troops to carry out the ground fight 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 will he be staying in moscow any longer or more on that coming up. and there was blood tests for cancer and hepatitis one of a blood test could tell you if you were suicidal scientists at johns hopkins

believe they found a mutation in a gene tied to suicidal thoughts and behaviors more on this discovery later in the show. it's thursday july thirty first five pm in washington d.c. i'm amir a davit and you're watching r.t. america we begin with the latest on the crisis in the middle east after yet another intensive day of fighting and which one hundred sixteen palestinians and three israeli soldiers were killed a startling video has emerged of an explosion in a gaza market which took place yesterday killing at least fifteen people take a look. the was.

the word. the. the the i. and 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 this day five of which were soldiers and three of which were civilians 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 un school and shelter commissioner general of the un relief and works agency pierre spoke about the recent school bombing saying i condemn in the strongest possible terms a 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 on raw had been operating the school which was acting as a shelter before being hit with the artillery opinions are running hot here in the us as well speaking at a christians united for israel bank with south carolina senator lindsey graham made these rather bold statements. don't ever turn your back on israel because god will turn his back on us the reason we're here to know our job is to speak truth to power. till the united nations shut up. 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 or without a cease fire and 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 in fact the government has already called up another sixteen thousand reserves. and israel's call for those 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 that story. in the future i hope. i can aspire to be a reasonable palestinian after israel no longer exists young rosenberg is one of a kind the thirty three year old israeli programmer cuts a solitary figure on the margins of israeli society formerly

a soldier in israel's defense forces he now hits a campaign for those who want to this is 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 i'm a bad israeli in the eyes of the regime oh god no israel is not a place for dissenters a recent poll in israel found that nearly nine out of ten is rabies not only supported the army's operation in gaza but wanted extended those who criticize it are made head on and called naive and traitors during a recent antiwar demonstration in the center of tel aviv fifth when protesters were attacked by right wing extremists chanting death to arabs verbal attacks seem to mean physically violent protesters would be to not only wave but there remains a small vocal minority who are not afraid to speak of the whatever the cost of the divine man a former i.d.f. soldier in the occupied territories is one of them i think very hard to talk about

you know so i think. it's very very scary. and that's why it took me think about. when i decided ok that's going to be quite a bit more about what is happening over the doves now works for breaking the silence and israeli human rights organization which collects testimonies from former soldiers and tells these stories to the world to talk about settlers violence we're talking about drilling from soldiers towards palestinians we're talking about dozens of checkpoints in a very very small area only a few of brave 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 in the israeli public the reality of what is going on there but most of these republican reluctant to hear

a different point of view and are defending the country's bloody dancer forty c. r t television. while the clock is ticking for edward snowden his asylum in russia is set to expire today but will the n.s.a. whistleblower who revealed matthew lobel surveillance ever return to the u.s. artie's lindsey france takes a look at that issue. a year and n.s.a. 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 asked prove is that the person intended to disclose. documents or information that should not have been disclosed to the 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 who that

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 hollanders client government whistleblower chelsea manning found out when chelsea man case she wasn't even allowed to put on any evidence why she 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 latin america government officials went on air claiming that a true patriot would come home and answer for his actions is 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 him immunity and bring him 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 of this for a fair treatment in the justice system neither am i going to walk into a jail cell to serve as a bad example for other people in government who see something happening some violation of the constitution i 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 costs of occasion 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 quantity which is why human rights lawyers and whistleblowers the world over have stated that a better word snowden has any sense he'll stay away unless of course his legal team can get the charges against him under the espionage act dropped and the friend r.t. washington. the g seven which is comprised of leaders of the world's major developed economies are condemning russia for destabilizing ukraine and warned that a face is even tougher sanctions is 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 eastern ukraine russian foreign minister sergei lavrov continues to dispute those claims reiterating moscow's belief that the ukrainian government is the aggressor

in the months long battle stating ukrainian authorities are refusing to speak and sit at the negotiating table with the east and start a dialogue nevertheless the u.s. continues to try to make its case earlier this week the office of the director of national intelligence released satellite images. it allegedly proved russia was firing rockets at ukrainian troops across the border even then posted on twitter by the u.s. ambassador to ukraine geoffrey pyatt many people remember ambassador pyatt of course for a controversial leaked conversation he had with victoria nuland the assistant secretary of state for european and your asian affairs take a listen can't remember if i told you this or if i only told washington this that when i talked to jeff feltman this morning he had a new name for the un guy robert serry did i write here that this morning. that. he's now gotten both serry lou to agree that serry could come in monday or tuesday

ok so that would be great i think to help glue this thing and have the u.n. help glue it and you know the e.u. . reminder that this ongoing crisis in ukraine started off in the streets of kiev during protests back in the winter. as the fighting in eastern ukraine continues to escalate over a thousand people have taken shelter in a refugee camp across the russian border in cobol artie's roman pows around half the stories of those who are seeking a fresh start away from the violence. the key here 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 are still doing it now the jets fly very low you can hear them firing in the morning and in the evening the scams 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 the money that we're now to for something like this could happen i was getting the panshin and i 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 their its i'm here as comfortable as possible but no

matter the effort such conditions are certainly not normal for these youngsters this trip if you can back and 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 are now one nothing to do with their former country. the last straw was constant shelling and gunfire that force them to practically live in basements or bomb shelters for others the sights of friends and relatives killed by multiple rocket strikes. coffer of russia ukraine and water. cup a next step in aviation include. jetliners with anti-missile defense capabilities as the fighting in israel disrupts commercial carriers and investigators probe the downing of malaysia airlines flight seventeen the question is swirling again in the aviation industry artie's manila chan has the details there's been

a lot of talk lately about arming civilian aircraft with a defense system following the downing of the malaysian airlines flight seventeen some have speculated maybe even adding weaponry to commercial jets but that just raises fear from all sides over potential hijacking attempts to obtain those weapons or maybe accidental firing or simply that civilians are just uncomfortable riding on top of an explosive so what's left well for canada it means adding an air defense system on the belly right on the belly of their planes to protect it from shoulder fired missiles the canadian parliament has been considering adding this technology to their planes for many years but with this recent tragedy it's prompted a renewed urgency to equip their v.i.p. jets some members of the u.s. congress are also upping their push for this technology on civilian aircraft here as well how does it work well if

a shoulder fired type missile were shot in the direction of the plane the anti-missile defense system would detect it think of it kind of like a a forcefield on the belly of your plane it would then send out a laser beam that would essentially just scramble the missile sensors and cause it to explode far enough away from the plane to keep everyone on board safe and get you away in a hurry some of even likened it to israel's iron dome but for airplanes. well this technology it's not really new following the september eleventh attacks and after a shoulder fired missile barely missed an israeli commercial flight over africa back in two thousand and two the u.s. israel and other countries started to explore installing this anti-missile technology on to commercial jets in two thousand and two the pentagon spent twenty three million dollars on outfitting air force cargo planes equipped to shield them from missiles well fed ex bought the technology and began equipping their cargo

jets with it it was a system developed by northrop grumman called guardian the rest of the u.s. knowing that your cargo is safe from missile attack well before long and israeli tech company called el that developed a similar defense system and began equipping passenger jets with this missile to flexion there is called the music the hebrew name translates to sky shield now three israeli commercial carriers are installing the devices in their planes with plans to require that all passenger jets would soon to also be equipped with this device the unit can be mounted to aircraft within one hour and be transferred from plane to plane whenever needed for upwards of a million dollars or so so canada is currently working together without it to equip just their v.i.p. planes with this technology so in other words just the prime minister's plane from

washington manila chan r.t. . what if a simple test 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 is that are often linked to suicidal thoughts or attempts the johns hopkins researchers looked at how a group of chemicals affected gene called scott to now if this 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 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 so he set about looking for a 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 back across all of our genes and we looked in brain tissue from individuals who got by suicide those who were 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 technique we were able to find this. really mean to the op ok now just to be clear what makes you more risk if is that gene you said it was scott to. scott. if that gene is mutated or if it's there's a depletion or

a lack there of. yeah it's really more like a we. need an allergy that we think might be appropriate is thinking of it like a break that isn't functioning properly or is perhaps gone and so what this brake pad is or is or the rest of the dignity or shutting down the stressors in that way to break that analogy works quite well because if you're stressed the car driving you are going to need those breaks but without the drive back or you need to know that your god was low or that your brake. isn't a net sad makes a lot of sense. a lot of people are going to hear this. the new new science and say well i often get stressed out to getting an diety 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 the blood test well the first thing to keep in mind is that this really represents a finding it isn't available and yet this finding represents the promise that meet one day early. but it's not necessarily going to be the case that anyone. order that now i don't think everyone needs to worry about should i get tested if not where we see this being used well this could be really use will increase sample emergency room where people are getting screened for suicide risk already like this might help to augment the current three really find those people that need closer monitoring or sure that makes a lot of sense now outside of what our genes say there's another side of what 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 one thing that you know science is really starting to get you don't have all the answers yet one of these things about the molecular mar we call them the genetic markers is that they're kind of the interface of the environment in our d.n.a. to really allow our experiences in a way to change our d.n.a. and that is our future interaction with our own environment so in a way we're not really talking about. gene versus the environment by measuring the chemical modification of the genetic marker we're kind of looking at our g. and environment. a lot of people would actually find this surprising that suicide is the tenth leading 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 with that. so i mean i think that this is potentially

a very interesting breakthrough we need to validate it in much larger sample size before we can be completely confident but by the way that we're going to send suicide rates are high you know identifying the size of the. 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. it would be useful for the entire populace but for example another population such as the military we know are going to be serious i levels of stress might make sense there for example why then divide that risk and then we could possibly be off limits that will mean 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 technology is of course really important and it's becoming easier and easier to do and less expensive shoes 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 false positive findings 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 into 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 zachery 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. and that does it for now for more on the stories we covered

go to youtube dot com slash our to america check out our web site r t v dot com slash usa and follow me on twitter and there are david i'm at the martin are the stories we cover here we're not going to hear any right other big stories of the same time there's a reason they don't want to do now is to have our or thank you for all the outrage now let's break the set. this was the washington. is being seen. as a. prophecy of war and it is actually back to and doesn't do too much for ad revenue my own tablet culture giant son of seventy six year old american farmer in the studio fallout do you think this is going to create for the cia do you think this is what's triggering a great america is the largest economy in the world it's also the largest debtor

nation in the history of the prettinesses that is mostly a dollar turn to the status quo on a good deal of points and that's what the core of the american dream is the next day we're just trying to survive it's time for americans and lawmakers in washington to wake up and start talking about the real causes of. for the most part we humans don't like bugs well my constant quest to kill them all

which manifests itself in many ways one such way is genetically modifying the seeds to make plops resistant to bugs so giant corporations can make obscene amounts of money but now the bugs are fighting back here's the story the wonderful company is a few months santo dow chemical to constance and gentle make genetically modified p.b.t. corn seeds planted that assist make the seeds by inserting a gene from the p.t. bacteria the bt bacteria make these tiny crystal like proteins in every little corn kernels those crystals act like poison in the insect stomachs so when they eat the g.m.o. corn they die in a few days seeds modified with bt bacteria d.n.a. has been diffused for more than thirty years to help farmers increased prop out but now the seeds are ready no longer working according to farmers in brazil who bought the t. corn seeds from those wonderful companies they say the corn leaves for me no longer

dies after eating the genetically modified corn the farmers have had to spray up to three coats of has just died this year on the g.m.o. corn crops costing them a fortune they are now asking the wonderful g.m.o. seed companies to reimburse them for those costs since their products didn't do what they promised to the brazilian government is now concerned too that these speeds technology. has left the country vulnerable to test outbreaks and dependent on toxic chemicals made by these wonderful companies in response the wonderful companies are saying they warned the brazilian farmers to plant part of the field with conventional seeds to prevent bugs from mutating and developing resistance to g.m.o. see the farmers say they've done that as best as they could but that it's really hard to even find seeds that haven't been screwed around with genetically and they

say if the wonderful companies don't reimburse them for the pesticide spraying they may file lawsuits so the next time you're sitting down to a delicious meal of corn and if you live in the us that's pretty much everybody else and scorns and everything remember that not only is that corn probably genetically modified but it's also now probably covered with pesticides honestly when there is humanity going to learn that we need to figure out how to co-exist with a lot of the bugs we hate the more we try to kill those bugs off the more resistant they become to our lines of defense and the stronger they end up becoming sooner or later we're going to have to stop blindly chasing financial profit and we learn that the more we fight the bugs the more they're going to fight back and since there's trillions more of them who can you take pretty damn fast they will win tonight let's talk about that when you're on twitter.