damn. crazy. ok. coming up on r t donald trump loosened shipping restrictions on aid going to puerto rico after days of criticism but is it too little too late. and the united states wants a nuclear free north korea the question is how they get there we'll discuss the options. then tragic statistics a report finds veterans twenty percent more likely to commit suicide than non-veterans the details later in the show. it's thursday september twenty eighth five pm here in washington d.c.

i'm ashley banks and you're watching our team america we begin this hour and puerto rico where president trump is finally lifting shipping restrictions for the hurricane ravaged island amid mounting pressure the white house says a temporary ten day waiver of the jones act has been issued to speed up deliveries of food fuel and other critical supplies to puerto rico for more we go live to our teens marine important in my ammi our marine of the trump administration its face fierce backlash for not immediately lifting the jones act for puerto rico after it issued a two week waiver for both texas and florida following hurricanes harvey and irma so how does suspending the law help puerto rico. well waiving the century old carolyn's act allows for international ships to transport supplies directly to the us territory increasing the speed access and quantity of aid being received in puerto rico now the jones act of one nine hundred twenty essentially protects the

interests of the domestic shipping industry under the law all goods shipped between us points must be transported by american made and operated vessels the cost of american flag vessels are nearly three times higher than foreign competitors which forces puerto rico to pay more for everything because it shipped first the mainland then changed ships and then shipped over to puerto rico now many have called for the archaic laws to be abolished president trump has suspended it for a mere ten days however some are questioning how much good it will actually do as of this morning tons of supplies are sitting idle in shipping containers at the san juan port damaged roads no fuel and no way to contact drivers has prevented the local government from organizing deliveries acting homeland security secretary elaine duke acknowledged the distribution problem while defending the in ministrations response distribution from the island the central ports to the end

points like the hospitals has been a challenge having twenty four to forty eight hours we will have replenished we have over two hundred gas stations open now so that people with generators can do that we have reached the hospitals so that is replenishing now. not only are puerto ricans dealing with a shortage of diesel fuel gas food and water but now money is running out the island wide power outage caused by hurricane maria has made most banks an a.t.m. non-operational there are reports of people running out of cash and this of course makes it harder for americans on this storm ravaged island to survive if they can't even buy fuel after standing for twelve hours in line for it or buy food once the supermarkets open again with food they don't have cash. we know the president plans to finally visit puerto rico next week but there's a report the white house is restricting

a group of the lawmakers from visiting the island tomorrow what do you know about that at least ten members of the house and senate were reportedly organizing a trip to puerto rico tomorrow according to the washington post permission to use military aircraft for the trip has been denied by the white house and pentagon who say they need it for they need the aircraft for rescue and recovery no two lawmakers and the new york governor have already visited puerto rico to provide assistance and support while restrictions are suddenly being imposed on lawmakers the trumpet ministration is reportedly making some hurricane victims pay for lifesaving evacuations u.s. citizens evacuated from st maarten following hurricane irma are reportedly being billed by the state department for transportation costs according to the u.s. evacuee manifest and promissory note failure to repay for the emergency evacuation can result in passport suspension or rejection to renew so in puerto rico we've

seen private citizens like billionaire mark cuban and proper pitbull we've seen them send private jets to deliver aid or even rescue cancer patients meanwhile the u.s. government is reportedly making hurricane victims pay for evacuations from st marc . carried out on a taxpayer funded airplane marina thank you for this report thousand arena poor naive reporting in miami thank you so much. now over to syria where the battle continues to retake the city of vieira zora from my youth the u.s. coalition and rebel militias they support halted their operation in iraq which was a stronghold of eisel and through their forces behind trying to push the syrian army out of dairies or as if the americans were competing with the syrian government over control of there is or instead of fighting ice and rock the remaining terrorism dares or are now surrounded by both the syrian army and u.s.

backed kurdish forces are to correspond i'm arad ghazi of is in the city. the siege may have been lifted but it's not over yet isis holds out in parts of that as sort of not for long. day and night battles rage around the city the jihad ists the throwing everything they have into the fight now every day there is combat they will use heavy weapons from range although trying to infiltrate in the middle of the night. with suicide vests and car bombs the battle goes on every day but the tables have turned it is isis now that is surrounded and slowly being squeezed out. whereas a syrian artillery position overlooking the industrial city the industrial corridor of their resort for supporting troops that are staging the offensive down there an

offensive that began earlier this morning with. airstrikes but the battle is said to be fierce with isis giving no quarter from here syrian spotters watch for isis fighters from above this is why height is so important in war better vantage and a. this range contrie meese with hillary. hits and verified and confirmed in real time it was at this exact spot as nest that a russian lieutenant general advised syrian offices fifteen minutes before his death he was killed several days ago by an isis shell just a few hundred meters from here.

isis fired back as we filmed shells began falling all around. we ran but the syrian batteries kept firing. the city of durham will be liberated in a week at the most and will free some of the suburbs to. the cost will undoubtedly be high it's a challenging battleground from dense urban areas to lush river banks and even trenches. of the euphrates is both a blessing and because isis still uses the waterways to move men and alms and even launch surprise attacks. this bunker is mund joining the knights because the tower across the river belongs to eisele for three long years captain he bring in the squad has bled and died in the shade trenches along the euphrates that

sacrificed not enough to break the loans they'll meet now everything changed now that we've gone i guess to see from their resort of syria let's talk north korea where the us is a working toward making a country nuclear free the senate banking committee heard from the treasury and state department today but didn't get any resulting results so far on the economic sanctions time to. thing that's important to remember is we've been down this road with north korea several times already and that they have continually undermined cheated and disregarded the agreements that we've entered into with them in an attempt to do what we are also attempting to do obviously with iran which is which is stop freeze and rollback in illegal nuclear programs for more on u.s. tactics to disarm a nuclear north korea let's bring in former u.s.

diplomat jim jotters thank you so much for he actually said the other thank you now a few days ago china's biggest banks they ban north korea and i can also now it seems that north korea banks and businesses were already fully banned so my question to you is what exactly can the senate banking committee push for now much i'd look to the customer for both the state department and the treasury department and i think it could be summed up as same old same old is that they may be scouring the round looking for other ways to choke off financial interactions with north korea what i did not see in any of the testimony is what is that going to produce the ideas if we can somehow star financially north korea that will force them to curtail their nuclear or missile programs i don't see the connection there i don't think short of a total economic and regime collapse they're going to stop those programs there right now and there are no examples of what that will look like in the future there are reports that china they imported one point six a million tons of coal from north korea back in august now this was the largest

monthly value since february when to be the issue that blanket ban on the trade so it's trying to print tending to ban north korea what exactly are we seeing here with the well they said they would ban imports of coal till the end of the year and i guess they change their minds the fact is the chinese seem to be walking a very narrow tightrope here between not wanting to be completely out of dialogue with the united states on what to do about north korea at the same time they don't want to see a collapse of north. ria because that would be a disaster for china on a number of fronts so i whatever their calculation is i think they will go so far toward accommodating what we're asking from them but not not go beyond that now into day china they order north korean owned businesses to close cutting foreign revenue to the country do you think this time china meant to then will really band north korea no i don't think so again how many north korean owned businesses are there in china i think this is

a fairly narrow step the question is what the chinese think they're doing with this strategy if they think they're going to mollify washington by appearing to go along with the same sions regime i think they're mistaken i think that the other alternative in that is to say a preemptive war with north korea has become all too thinkable in many circles here in washington and of the chinese think they're going to foreclose that by going along with some degree of sanctions but not as much as washington is asking i don't i don't think they're there perceiving our intentions clearly thanks for saying you say that this week a former nato military treaty if he said there's a ten percent chance of a nuclear war with north korea which obviously is very good news but would you agree with that i would call that ten percent good news i think that's a frightening lehi percentage when we talk about the prospect of nuclear war on the korean peninsula i think that's actually quite realistic and might actually be somewhat optimistic i think there are

a lot of people here have decided that since we will not accommodate any kind of real diplomacy for example the chinese double trees proposal that that the option is going to be something in the military front and as general stepbrothers said we're looking at hundreds of thousands maybe a million people getting killed either the north koreans don't use their nuclear weapons which they almost certainly will now i want to take a turn i'm sure you remember the story of otto warm the american student who died in june. after being detained in north korea for about seventeen months this week the details surrounding his death were released by the coroner's office they report says auto he had no signs of torture which directly contradict several claims by his parents what do you make of this wash saw the reports again i haven't seen the length of the four corners report but i've seen the news reports of what the medical examiner said there were no signs of torture or abuse that he reported on the other hand he talked about. pulmonary assists

a shin some kind of trauma something happened to him you have a healthy young man go in the congo into custody and then coming out at death's door and then die something happened to him now for the north koreans just say well we gave a medical service that's not good enough they they need to give an explanation of what happened to him and they who he was not of torture indeed was not abused then what did happen to him and we haven't seen any explanation of that and the parents deserve answers i think i think i think of the parents and this is someplace i think the united states does deserve answers that somebody something happened to him if it was something other than torture and abuse we need to hear about what it was and i think in the absence of an explanation like that something very bad is the default assumption is that you agree the u.s. or someone should definitely open an investigation i agree i think so yes thank you so much we're going to i think you have a right there thank you jim that was former u.s. diplomat jim john thank you thank you so much. coming up on our t.v.

tragic statistics on veterans so what can be done to help those who fight for our country the story after a short break. there's a real irony going. the way of the people in there it's always well that's what started it was always. wholesale surveillance is you know you have already what i was alluding to this is the uses. well i always thought this story is garbage and real. but politicians do something to. put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be trusted i'm sure. more some want to reach. out to the right person this is what the full story of the people that. i'm

interested in the was. there so. i think the average viewer just after watching a couple of segments understands that we're telling stories that our critics can't tell and you know why because their advertisers won't let them. in order to create change you have to be honest you have to tell the truth parties 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 a corporation makes a pharmaceutical chills people when a company in the environmental business ends up polluting a river that causes cancer 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. that you know veterans were twenty percent more likely to commit suicide than non-veterans well according to a veterans affairs press release that is. ok if the release also states the suicide rate for female veterans us two hundred and fifty percent higher than for female not that aren't wealthy even more alarming as the report says suicide rates are highest among male veterans between the ages of eighteen and twenty nine earlier i was joined by former united states marine corps veterans for peace and world beyond war and center for international policy matthew hoh and i asked him to share his experience with the pression and suicide thank you for having me on and really

really pleased you all are discussing this topic in this is not a topic that's germane to the american military and veterans but also to all veterans or all people who have taken are in war and in the killing process if he were in the mahdi background you know this is in the literature of shakespeare if you really are sure of homer we know the romans had to sillett we're saluting convalesce after battles and after war and after campaigns to recover into trying to get better from their mental health problems and this is an issue that through medical research we see not has documented this this suicide and issues of mental health in veterans not just in the american military but the research we've seen it in people who fought in the balkans in the ninety's as well as the israeli military has done a number of studies that shows that this is consistent across countries and across

wars but in my case i certainly did i had i struggled i have private stroker of my life with issues of suicide ality based upon the guilt of my involvement in the wars the guilt of taking part in the killing of the wars and there has been nearly two dozen medical studies that. demonstrate that that show that there is a significant relationship between suicide in veterans and their experiences in combat with regards to killing. earlier i mentioned in the report other that suicide rates were highest among veterans between the ages of eighteen and twenty nine now what have you come across as it pertains to studies linking combat to suicide i know you touched on a bet but if you can guess expound on it if a couple years ago the national center for veterans studies at the university of utah did a mete and alice's be available medical literature research available on the

relationship between combat and suicide and what they found in these studies i believe there are twenty three and one of the studies that dismissed so a lot of the twenty two studies all those studies all twenty two studies showed a significant relationship a real relationship between people who have been in combat and a susceptibility or an action towards suicide in later years regardless of how old they were this is not something other studies have shown as well this is not something that goes away with time and that's why we see just as as you noted the youngest veterans are the ones who have the highest suicide rates and for the young men that young male veterans of iraq and afghanistan from the u.s. military who are aged eighteen to twenty nine they are killing themselves at a rate nearly six times higher than their civilian p. or so other young men their same age in the united states if you're

a veteran of iraq or afghanistan in more combat you have six you're rate of suicide is six times greater then those who didn't go to war who didn't go to iraq and afghanistan but we also see as to any old is that true it's the rate of suicide for better ins who fought in world war two is equally high is at levels three or four times greater than their peers and the only reason why the entire. yet your data is not so rowsley. explosive in terms of the rates of suicide is because we have had periods where hundreds or thousands of american veterans doing go to war so if you look at the data that's a bit of v.a. has put out you'll see that among veterans who are in their fifty's and sixty's which corresponds to the time that america was not in vietnam and not in the persian gulf fighting and killing millions of people. you will see that the suicide

rate is much lower but for the periods of time that people served in war whether it be world war two or career or vietnam or iraq or afghanistan the suicide rate for those who participated in that killing in this it all comes down to suicide why the suicide about it's a moral it's a moral crisis it's a moral injury it's about the guilt is much much greater than it is among the civilian peers matthew that i have to leave it there thank you so much obviously the statistics are very alarming we greatly appreciate having you on former united states marine corps veteran to peace and world beyond war and center for international policy matthew hoh thank you so much again thank you. saying in the u.s. a house committee investigating russian influence on public opinion is asking facebook twitter and google to turn over information about a russian entity that bought anti fracking ads for more let's bring in legal and media analyst line of wine media why don't what exactly is

a russian entity. that is the million dollar question samosa important question is it russian government russian sponsored people who speak russia are russian i don't know had a better question for you now let's assume for the sake of argument argue window that these ads were placed by said russian entities to i would imagine benefit president trump then candidate drop i'm just imagining now if that's the case why would they be spending money on anti fracking ads why would that benefit him why would certainly that which is aligned against the and or g oil companies why would that be a wise ad and the other question which is most aboard to ask is what if i told you off another entity another governmental entity that involved itself

in bragg's it propaganda and that entity would be called barack obama who actually went and spoke on behalf of i guess the united states forget being an american a dizzy this is potest himself who actually was trying to affect directly a vote not to mention scottish independence so the first question is i don't know what a rush to the is and the second question is why would a russian entity buy these ads and the third most important is are we worried about any governmental involvement in elections or just russia that's the question i know some good questions there are when it comes to this information what concerns you the most. what concerns me the most is how we can run actually

based on just the headline how the american public a sten simply and the american sockpuppet mainstream media seem to be absolutely copacetic with just a headline and they never ask dumb questions that way as it's almost as though dare i say they never read this story it's almost as though they don't care about the story it's almost as though the headline itself will suffice if that blast russia or maybe somehow r t but if it blasts russia that's good enough let's move along have a nice day why no precisely what is the problem here the problem is simply that we have a group of people representing the mainstream media and a significant faction of american citizens who are in curious about what even these accusations are i have said it sitting here for so long i'm starting to annoy

myself and i've asked one question could you please tell me the best evidence you have of any russian involvement in changing affecting countering. messing up the election either by mis counting votes stealing votes mind control the sixty three million voters who voted for trump were they telepathically control i still don't know we don't know their line or going to have to leave it there thank you so much for your and favored line of litle media think you so much thank you. well that does it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america also check out our web site r t dot com forward slash america you can also follow me on twitter at actually banks underscore r t and don't forget the question mark.

in winter here in the pulpit. we are not a bad manager in a way. big news organizations have lots of people who work there and they all present different information in different ways in other words it's not really fair to make a blanket statement against a news outlet for one piece of content by one person since others at the outlet might not agree with that content either i myself have been struggling with that lately i've been trying really hard not to make blanket statements against news organizations based on one person's content but the new york times is really challenging me on that this week because they just ran an op ed in titled why i

admire anthony weiner as in the guy who was just sentenced to prison for twenty one months for sexting a fifteen year old child the new york times actually just ran a piece written by one person sally's to tell saying she admires anthony weiner the husband of whom are arguably contributor to the rise of president trump and now a convicted child sex offender the actual charge pled guilty to was transferring obscene material to a minor which is a nice way to say he sent nasty pictures of himself with his kid to another child after repeatedly sending gross pictures to women who aren't as wife this is the guy so tell admirers the reason she says she admires him is because he stood tearfully before the judge and acknowledged several truths that he was responsible that he accepts the consequences and that he needs help i guess to tell miss the part where we already did that publicly when he got caught the first time. now addiction is

rough and i admire anyone who is genuinely trying to work through their stuff sincerely but come on that you went. after he repeatedly sacks not only women. now a child's you can say wow sounds like he's going through a rough time or something but admire her even the guys in prison with wiener know there is nothing worse than messing with children the guys in prison with them won't be admiring him that's for sure but here's the new york times going right ahead and admiring this child sex offender or rather this morning writer is that my hearing him but by actually having the nerve to publish that the times is really challenging my new initiative of not blaming an entire news outlet for one person's contribution because it meiring someone for being convicted of messing with kids will really challenge any one sense of decency even when it's news.