dancers. go a. question no. you know what our jim eric overnight more violence struck the city of chicago we continue our special coverage of the violence plaguing the city. and the president from ns the cia's covert program to arm and train syrian rebel. and civilian deaths in afghanistan spike even higher in the first half of twenty seventeen those stories and more coming up right now. it's thursday june twentieth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm ashley banks and you're watching r.t. america.

we begin today in chicago where violence continues to plague the city on wednesday alone at least fifteen people were wounded in shootings within eleven hours including a four year old boy and a six year old girl there were at least two reported instances of extreme road rage and several drive by's artie's natasha suite is alive in the newsroom with more natasha now that's right ashley a city employee takes road rage to an entirely new level and dean and gun fire it forty six year old chicago police dispatcher got into a verbal dispute with an eighteen year old wife an intersection on the south side wednesday with a confrontation became heated and the forty six year old and in the fight by shooting the eighteen year old woman in her chest and authorities say the woman was shot all while her three children were in the car she shot her in the stomach to go

. so the hospital and is in stable condition the city employee was also sent to the hospital for a head injury and it's undergoing questioning well she's been employed as a city south for since one thousand nine hundred five and according to a law enforcement source she has a concealed carry license no word yet if police will press any charges as the incident is being investigated by area central detectives and if that shooting wasn't shocking enough a twenty seven year old man and two young children were shot while on their way to get a snow cone in chicago's austin neighborhood wednesday afternoon authorities say the victims were not found on scene but at the hospital. also the right to work on able to locate a big. they did find a vehicle that was shot up and evidence to support there may have been gunfire to. canvas around for the victim could not find

a victim short time later we learned today three people showed up the hospital. they were going to. right now believe there was a seven year old in the morgue there was a lot of life threatening the man reportedly had a gunshot wound to his chest while the six year old had a gunshot wound to her leg and the four year old boy had a great and paul police say the incident is under investigation and the shots were poorly fired from a black car and just before wednesday night a seventeen year old male was shot in the leg at the back of your neighborhood on the south side after being approached by two males to drive in different neighborhoods a reported last night one in the far south side west palm a neighborhood injuring a twenty two year old man in his side and another in the west chad had neighborhood injuring a man on his ankle and sadly enough this wasn't out of the ordinary these were just a few of the many shootings reported for wednesday just a day before on tuesday eight people were shot across chicago three of them fatally

in washington suites are two. continuing her reporting on chicago beyond the numbers are to correspondent. this report from a neighborhood standing up to violence. in my search for the south side of chicago you don't see in the mainstream media i met inspiring youth claiming ownership of some of the most volatile streets this is the little village neighborhood on the south side of chicago one of the most dangerous in the entire city it's a blazer residents tell me certain people can't cross the street out of fear but tonight the community is claiming those streets taking them back because as you can see look around there's much more to these communities to chicago to the south side

of chicago than the numbers and the headlines which come across our desks in washington the reason we're out here would surround increase the peace we know that the community needs a sense of peace right now and that's what we decided to get together with the community a youth love initiative to reclaim the streets want to put a different story a different face to the story that a lot of people hear about little village and and just neighborhoods and chicago says people here community organizing unifying in order to promote peace and actually make a change and show action that we really do care about our communities in local media news out of little village tells the story of violence shooting gang feuds death and while according to the chicago tribune's most updated statistics violent crime around the community is up twenty percent from this time last year the wider struggle of the people here is often overlooked and i was born and raised here i understand i grew up with the struggles you know hearing gunshots confusing with them with fireworks and wondering if another life was taken and i think it's time

their youth are given the voice and attention that this is our streets our reclaiming the peace and remembering that we are one on neighborhood titles and together here in little village we do receive a bad portrayal of what you know that would solve violence and what's awesome is that bring born in race or. the richness of the culture the wishes of the families i'm glad you guys are here. now one step foot into our neighborhood to live a day in our lives and their lives of our struggles and we just want to reclaim let everyone know we are. following is a severe thunderstorm watch a mountain from the national weather service the national weather service has

issued severe thunderstorm watch number four to six affected until ten pm this watch includes the following counties in new jersey burlington campbell and mercer and the following in pennsylvania burke's books montgomery and philadelphia remember a severe thunderstorm watch means the conditions are favorable for the development of severe weather including large hail and damaging winds and close to the watch area while severe weather may not be imminent persons should remain alert for rapidly changing weather conditions and listen for later statements and possible warnings stay tuned to no weather radio commercial radio and television outlets or internet sources for the latest severe weather information repeating severe thunderstorm watch number four to six has been issued from five o five pm until ten pm for the following counties in new jersey burlington camden and mercer and the following counties in pennsylvania burke's books on comrie and philadelphia. camp out in

other high crime areas throughout the city every friday night this summer their presence will keep the peace and they deserve your attention and the whole village on your part until our team. president trump has decided to end the cia's covert program to arm and train moderate syrian rebels battling the government of bashar al assad that's according to anonymous u.s. officials cited by the washington post officials told the newspaper ending the operation is in the best interest of both the united states and russia for more r.t. spoke with former u.s. diplomat jim joshua this potentially use a huge if that if it's all it's cracked up to be this is this is potentially a real game changer let's let's remember these these so-called moderate rebels we're talking their various offshoots of al qaeda like i was saying. they're really bad people they're killing christians are doing all sorts of horrible things we

should have been supporting them in the first place and a trump is going to do this and it sounds sounds from the reports that this is serious this is a real game changer unnamed official saying this is a victory for putin blah blah blah it doesn't occur to some people that not supporting terrorists is the right thing for america having nothing to do with russia but there are some people say because the american people don't want to merican boots on the ground that's why we have to support proxies like these very very bad people because we have to block the iranians or thwart the russians or something like that and i think what this shows some strategic sense on president trump part and also i would commend senator rand paul in representing tolson gabbert who've been trying to do this legislatively earlier i was joined by investigative journalists and national security and security policy analysts and gareth porter i first asked him what this covert program was this covert program in fact it take a lot though it was extremely ineffective of course as i've written and do you know which is what you've alluded to is that it did in fact strengthen the two.

in syria over a period of years beginning two thousand and twelve but you know the the problem that they had was that the so-called moderates the people who were less jihadist if you will less extremist could not get their act together and they were always weaker than the. people were in northern syria where the opposition was strongest so the united states had this problem all along and you know by twenty sixteen when the syrian government with the support of the russians and the or iranians and others were able to push the. the al-qaeda led rebels out of aleppo really the the major part of the conflict between the rebels and the assad government was was

completed and from then on i think that the fate of this program was really sealed i don't think that it really had any chance of continuing once that victory in aleppo was complete well this raises the question of who the u.s. is still supporting inferior like the kurdish fighters and why. well i mean the united states has created this alleged stake in the conflict in syria over the last few years of course over the the isis presence in iraq and surrounding areas and once the u.s. began its bombing program both in iraq and in syria against isis that created a whole set of new dynamics which inevitably i think in the nature of the u.s. . sort of political military intelligence complex created a constant forward movement of military and intelligence activities one thing led

to another thing and i think that's what we're seeing at present we have now more u.s. military personnel in the area near iraq than ever before we have more special forces there we have more helicopters we have more cia people in other words they have created an entirely new dynamic here that is going to be very difficult to break it's going to be very difficult to reverse it that's the problem that we face right now and what you just said we know that the u.s. has a lot of military bases still in syria. the u.s. and still supplying u.s. backed forces with armored vehicles and weapon so garrett how think never can is ending this covert program to u.s. policy in syria well at this point i think that it's not terribly important i think that the decision to announce this clearly followed the agreement that was reached

very recently with the russians on a ceasefire in southern syria and it was done i think in part because you know it was it was recognize that it was already of a fed accompli that they weren't going to really continue this program they'd already decided to do that. so to announce it was a gesture in part towards the russians but the idea that's been reported in some news media that somehow this is a concession to the russians of course is totally false i mean that that really doesn't follow logically in terms of the nature of the decision and the timing of it. all right now on trop he promised that i'm doing his campaign that he would end aid to rebel groups in syria but as we keep talking about they're still having a presence there now in your opinion do you think the u.s. is still pursuing the goal of regime change by other means you know i'm not really convinced that regime change per se was ever really the objective of the obama

administration let alone the trumpet ministration there were people within the obama administration who may have wanted to get rid of assad but for the most part particular the white house was really not in favor of that they always had the idea that somehow they would support the armed opposition to put pressure on the assad regime to come to the negotiating table but about was really never a realistic aim and to the extent that they would be successful in that there was always a danger that it would support or enable the terrorists the al qaeda led forces to succeed and gain power in syria so that's why i was always very highly critical of this because i thought it was an extremely responsible policy and we have a little less than a minute left in your opinion if anything what do you think this is going to do for u.s. russia relations i don't think this is going to change u.s. russian relations and i think that they they are on the right track in terms of the

decision by the trump administration to really seriously negotiate with russia after the high degree of tension we saw a couple of months ago particularly with iranian supported forces right there on the border with iraq that now is. seems to have eased off and i think that's the most important development there we've seen in regard to us russian relations on the ground in syria three thank you so much for your time always a pleasure to have you here gareth that was investigative journalist and national security policy analyst gareth porter thank you for. coming up on our teeth civilian deaths in afghanistan spike even higher in the first half of two thousand and seventeen. i think the average viewer just after watching

a couple of segments understands that we're telling stories there are critics can't tell you know why because their advertisers more or less. in the order to create change you have to be honest you have to tell the truth party's able to do that every story is built on going after the back story to what's really happening out there to the american what's happening when it's local ration makes a pharmaceutical big chill speed when a company in the environmental business ends up polluting a river that causes chancer and other illnesses they put all the health risk all the dangers out to the american public those are stories that we tell every week and you know what they're working. i'm john harshman i'll give you what the mainstream media can't the big picture.

here. and question. what you're looking for you see. we'll go deeper investigate and debate all so you can get the big picture. good. you have for brooks is just a wildly different place you want to. argue with your big issue and the only way we're still a little bit bored you sure you. want to talk. now all you did you. were born. in afghanistan the united nations reports the number of civilian casualties in the

sixteen year war have soared to record levels this year alone three thousand five hundred eighty one civilians were injured and one thousand six hundred sixty two were killed when men and children are among those most impacted by violence in the region and this is due in large part to homemade explosive devices made by taliban militants the use of these bombs reportedly calls almost forty percent of civilian casualties occurring during the first six months of two thousand and seventeen. days among children increased by nine percent when compared with the same period last year killing four hundred thirty six children and wounding one thousand one hundred forty one while female deaths rose by twenty three percent killing one hundred seventy four women and injuring four hundred sixty two airstrikes carried out by the u.s. and afghan forces also contributed to the recent surge the united nations reports there has been a forty three percent increase in casualties caused by airstrikes all this comes at

a time when you u.s. led coalition airstrikes are once again reaching record highs the number of airstrikes closely match a levels and twenty twelve when there were approximately fifty thousand u.s. forces deployed in the nation now only in one thousand eight hundred u.s. troops are estimated to be station and the country. new documents published by wiki leaks allegedly reveal how the cia worked with a defense contractor to analyze and develop malware the latest poll seven series released details how raytheon a black bird technologies reported to the spy agency about malware programs are run by foreign governments for more on this story our teams marina joins us live from my am ino marina since the start of twenty seventeen wiki leaks has been publishing a leaked cia document allegedly detailing how the agency has used malicious software to infect or take control of electronic devices what are we learning from this latest revelation. well i'm verified documents published by wiki leaks

wednesday purport to show how raytheon black bird technology reported to the cia about malware are thought to have come from foreign governments like russia and china raytheon is a defense contractor specializing in homeland security and defense technology it is also the company that made the fifty nine tomahawk missiles used in the april air strike against syria now according to wiki leaks raytheon acted as a technology scout for the remote development branch of the cia by analyzing malware attacks and giving recommendations to the spy agency for further investigation and development for america's own malware projects the latest documents published by wiki leaks were allegedly submitted by raytheon to the cia between november two thousand and fourteen and september two thousand and fifteen and they describe five malware h.t.t.p. browser remote access tool according to the cia experts is thought to be created by

a chinese hacking group called emissary panda and it captures keystrokes and writes it to a file and f. log is also credited to a chinese hacking group called some more i panda the malware is reported as a tool which allows an intruder administrative control over a target riggin is categorized as very sophisticated malware with target surveillance and data collection containing up to sixty ages of the implementation the authors believe it was created by a nation state how mark toss is detailed as a suspected russian state sponsored malware which leverages twitter accounts meanwhile game current is described as a trojan which steals information using simple decryption and injects itself into a different process now the report does not say who is suspected of creating game kerr now previous unverified vault seven documents published by week in leaks have allegedly revealed. how the cia collects hacking exploits unleashed by other

countries to then disguise the agency's own hox it is not clear how many more documents leaked documents weiqi leaks has connected to the cia and its contractors but the more leaks the that that we can leaks publishes the more the american public and for that matter citizens all around the world have a closer look at what the cia is doing by using malware and abusing malware it has become a very big problem because some argue the cia is leaving this mail war out in the in the in the cyberspace and it is causing viruses and global infections so you know while the cia doesn't say much about these leaks doesn't even say the documents are verified obviously criticism increases each time wiki leaks published these publishes these classified documents thank you so much marina for the report that was already correspondent arena. the russia stereo mainstream media has been

relentless for the past year or so but every time you think you've seen it all something even more bizarre comes up from suggestions that communists are still running russia to promoting wild conspiracy theories argue the lack zero chef he takes a look at the latest example dear americans there is something you don't know or being misled about the soviet union never ceased to exist on communists are still running the show now even injecting their evil tentacles of disruption into u.s. democracy well good thing those protesting trump are well aware of that as well as former chair of the d.n.c. donna brazil who are rich wheat at the russian embassy in the united states saying communists are now dictating terms of the debate what could possibly go wrong with tweet like that or mentions to that have been priceless and that's a human from politicians saying that it looked like a joke to journalists suggesting that brazil has not read a newspaper since one thousand. ninety one. ordinary twitter users having

a blast saying that this was probably not the best week of the day brazil's they defined in the face of criticism saying that first she was merely keeping an open mind about things and then even suggesting that k.g.b. probably still exist as well but twitter crowd did not stop and threw serious punches about brazil's upcoming book in which she promises to tell the nation how exactly trama got elected and considering her past this has been a neverending mean generator speaking of which brazil has been the subject of many of those after she was fired from the c.n.n. for leaking debate questions to hillary clinton during the election campaign but it's ok you know as long as donna supports good journalism good journalism is important right the problem is that the journalist in question has been consistently producing gems like this one openly suggesting that not only president's adviser steve bannon is in for

a death penalty but trump himself should be running scared because she believes he is also in for an execution but if one of the leading m s n b c anchors indorse is this kind of stuff it should be fine water concept right and don't forget that conspiracists at the end of the day all first emotion the least satisfying narrative which is also credible because you hope it's true right when you can't say anything truthful just say something which people hope would be truth humor and satire aside all these can be hard to classified as a laughing matter since those people are followed and watched from the screens by millions of people but still you almost have to wonder which bizarre claim they will produce next since they don't seem to be concerned about embarrassing themselves even further. reporting from washington d.c. well that does it for now for more on the stories we cover and go to you tube dot com. and check it out. set our teams out. you can also follow me on twitter add

actually banks underscore our team and don't forget the question mark. oh the world just dates and all the news companies merely players but what kind of part is already america playing r.t. america offers more r.t. america first look. many ways it is just like the real news big good actors bad actors and in the end you could never you're. so lucky all the world all the world's a stage we are definitely a player. i'm

john harshman and i'll give you what the mainstream media can't so big picture. a little and when question more fun what you're looking for this is the little slow. to go deeper investigate and debate all so you can get the big picture. you might have heard about a recent poll from a.b.c. news that showed president trump is that in a record low approval rating just six months and was presidency the worst in seventy years you might have heard that because boy into the mainstream media here about that poll and run with it they all covered this a.b.c. news poll c.n.n.

political put it back the washington post usa today media business insider time magazine the new york daily news newsweek m.s.m. we see you get the picture all of them they all covered the poll and they all pretty much ran with the headline that highlighted the approval rating of the president if you didn't hear about it then you must now follow the news now forget the fact that we're talking about news organizations once again touting polls as new this late forget the fact that oh about a year ago we were bombarded by polls telling us that hillary clinton had the presidency on lockdown in fact we were bombarded by the same poll the a.b.c. news poll which said over and over again how hillary was going to win forget the fact that that poll like most of our mainstream polls were just shown to be a big pile of steaming fake news and now here we are less than a year later and these same organizations are still reporting and these same polls forget that aspect of this. because what i thought was even more interesting was

something buried in the poll results that somehow did not make it into any had lyme the poll didn't just measure the president's popularity it measured a lot of things including what americans think the democratic party stands for right now this same poll also said that only thirty seven percent of americans say the democratic party stands for anything. well more than half of all americans think that now it only just stands against trump there's a perceived lack of agenda there according to a.b.c. news so most americans don't believe democrats stand for anything right now according to this poll but apparently mainstream news organizations did not find that as interesting as the president's approval rating it's just a great example of how polls are used to confirm whatever bias you might have and in this case it's pretty clear what the mainstream media is biased which is too bad .