coming up on our d.c.'s fire in place it appears the fighting will stop for seventy two hours between israel and gaza an update on the violence that's left hundreds dead and caused the un to ask if israel has broken international laws. 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 was blood test for cancer and have otitis but what if a blood test could tell you if you could be 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 eight pm in washington d.c. i mean you're a david and you're watching r t america. we begin with a developing story just a few hours ago israel and hamas agreed to a humanitarian cease fire that will start friday morning local time and last for seventy two hours in a statement released this evening the u.s. and u.n. said they had gotten assurances that all parties involved had agreed to an unconditional cease fire the temporary ceasefire is meant to designate time for negotiations and to give palestinian civilians the opportunity to bury their dead and take care of the injured and restock food supplies all of this comes in the

wake of 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. oh i was. the were you know. the. 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 a 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 crandall spoke about the recent school bombing he said 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 on raw had been operating the school which was acting as shelter before being hit with the artillery opinions are running hot here in the united states as well speaking at a christians united for israel banquet 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 tonight our job is to speak out this

truth to power. till the united nations shut up. you don't know what you're talking about. up until this most recent ceasefire israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said the military would move forward in dismantling the hamas home network in the gaza strip the military says that so far it's uncovered thirty two tunnels all of which have been demolished and despite the temporary truce israeli officials have not ruled out broadening operations in the future and 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 their story. in the future i hope.

i can aspire to be a reasonable palestinian after israel no longer exist. because one of a kind the city tree will hold its really program cuts a solitary figure on the margins of israeli society formerly a soldier in israel's defense forces he now it's a campaign for those who want it was just a 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 this when protesters were

attacked by right wing extremists chanting death to arabs verbal attacks seem to mean physically fine and the protesters were these are not only ways but there remains a small vocal minority who are not afraid to speak out whatever the cost to the divine than a former i.d.f. soldier in the occupied territories is one of them it's very hard to talk about you know. it's very very scary. and that's why it took me think about two years of service. then i decided ok the three of them to be quite anymore about what is happening over here after the dove 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 violence from soldiers towards palestinians we're talking about dozens of checkpoints in a very very small area only a few operative 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 republican reluctant to hear a different point of view and are defending the country's bloody grass or 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 massive lobel surveillance ever return to the u.s. artie's lynndie france takes a look at that issue. a year in an essay 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 was something human rights lawyer nancy hollander explains

the only intent that the government has to prove 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 hollanders client government whistleblower chelsea manning found out when chelsea mends case she wasn't even allowed to put on any evidence 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 of this for 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

violations 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 classification of government documents as an easy way to prosecute whistleblowers she argues that even if a document is. and 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 skeletons and the whistleblowers in the quantity 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 dropped and the friends r.t. washington. the seven which is comprised of leaders of the world's major developed economies are condemning russia for destabilizing ukraine and warned 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 eastern ukraine russian foreign minister sergei lavrov continues to dispute those claims it's reiterating moscow's believes such ukrainian government is the aggressor in the months long battle stating that ukrainian authorities are refusing to speak and sit at the negotiating table with the east and start the 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 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 but 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. i 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 so that. he's now gotten both serry and bunky loon 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. a reminder that there's an 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 kosovo artie's ronco surround has 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 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 rumors. you spoke i couldn't sleep during my first night here before i left i said goodbye to 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 their 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 was still working now lost my job my house and my pension. at least six thirty 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 forced the practically live in basements or bomb shelters for others the sites of friends and relatives killed by multiple rocket strikes. cost her a large russia ukraine and water. the united states has spent one hundred and four

billion dollars on reconstructing afghanistan according to the quarterly report from the special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction or cigar artes make a lopez has more. 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 a new 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 hundred fifty two compared to over one hundred nine billion dollars spent on afghanistan since two thousand to

sell was all of 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 reduces it 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 of 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.

spent seven 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 a worse 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 three one thirty planes the u.s. is shipping equipment to the afghans that they might not meet and in other cases the us 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 the report 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. . 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 affect 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 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 that conclusion of this particular gene is linked to suicidal thoughts. so we set about looking for a molecular marker all d.n.a. methylation which is really a molecule that acts like a light switch or r.g.b. he turned jean up or down and that was kind of like thinking them as they were which is now what we did was to use a technique that allowed to look across the entire human back across all of our g. and we looked in brain tissue from individuals. and those who had not and we asked the question using this technique are any of these light switches turned off when they shouldn't be and using that any we were able to find. really means that.

ok now just to be clear what makes you more risk if is that gene you said it was scott to guide to or thought to god to guide us if that gene is mutated or if it's there's a depletion or lack there of yeah it's really more like a. the analogy that we think might be appropriate is thinking of it like a brake pad that isn't functioning properly or is perhaps gone and so what this brake pad is or is or the stress of the sickly 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. new new science and say

well i often get stressed out and get it and diety does that apply to me should i get tested for the 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 to meet me maybe one day earlier. but it's not necessarily going to be the case that. 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 size or emergency room where people are getting screened for suicide risk already like this might help to augment occurrence 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 so that's a really interesting question and something that you know science is really starting to get you know have all the answers yet one of the things about the molecular mar we call them the genetic markers is that they're kind of at the interface of the environment in our d.n.a. that 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 look at 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 what does the latest research into context for us could it possibly curb those high numbers we're seeing how big of a breakthrough with this. yeah 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 the way that we're going to send suicide rates are by 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 leveled stress might make then there for example why dandified at risk and then we could possibly be. 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 a really important and it's becoming easier and easier to do and less expensive which is all important we're really getting or all the changes that can happen in our entire genome we're able to look at now the dangers of that sort of technology looking at everything one does that the chances of all positive finding are also very high and we need to be really careful with that being at the top and that be having the ability to look everywhere in the all the corners of our genome as it were really started on cover a lot of the grid 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 great 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 before we go don't forget to tune in for politicking with larry king tonight get this call dean the filmmaker behind the design coke a look at the employment of the billionaire brothers charles and david koch on american politics here's a snippet of what's to come. the father fred was one of the founding members of the john birch society which was a really wacko group which is now almost extinct but he once said that the colored man looms large in the communists plan to take over america does raise play any part in the koch brothers campaigns. well. let me answer it this way i think that race has played a big role in the public discourse and in the in the rise of the tea party we hear

a lot of coded language about after president obama was elected about taking our country back which begs the question back from whom and and so i do believe that there is a lot of racially motivated. dialogue so tonight nine pm tonight here on our team america that does it for now have a great night. on marinating in the financial world new. developments coming up stop it is the only take a good man to credit not going to get any economic but a new life there are now off.

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 conscience and gentle make genetically modified corn seeds planted that assists make the seeds by inserting a gene from the p.t. bacteria the bt bacteria making the tiny crystal like protein 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 increase crop out but now the seeds are no longer working according to farmers in brazil who have bought b.p. 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're 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. it 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 were born to 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 blind.