by the resignation of mahathir mohamad he says appointment by the king is illegal luxembourg has become the 1st country to make public transport free abolishing fares for trains trams and buses in an effort to tackle road congestion and pollution the government says it hopes the change will also help support people on low incomes. a film critical of the death penalty and iran has won the coveted golden bear of the film festival but the director of there is no evil was not there to receive his prize he cannot travel from iran and faces charges of participating in social and political activities you have today those are the headlines up next americans live side by side in 2 parallel universes the truck parts of america are getting in trouble here there is a poll out a few weeks ago that you had almost 30 percent americans believing they were on the cusp of civil war both sides accuse each other of doing things that are so

blatantly wrong the bottom line on u.s. politics and policies and their effect on the world. over the past 3 months nearly a 1000000 people have had to flee for their lives in syria children are freezing to death but does the world care i'll ask a senior un humanitarian official. markets thank you for joining me on up front your the u.n. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for syria over the past 3 months there hundreds of thousands of people have been fleeing from their homes inside of it live many of them including kids freezing to death as the syrian army advances towards them is anyone going to save them can anyone save them. well the

humanitarian side are doing their best to help these people with many different humanitarian workers on the ground have been trying to help move people away from frontline areas and try to help provide in tents and blankets and plastic sheeting and food and other relief items but what these people want is for the fighting to stop they want safety and that's what's not happening at the moment and that's where the security council needs to act we have been briefing the security council we've been warning them that this is coming but you know humanitarians can only play their part political actors are also needed and they need to stop this fighting and ensure that the civilians are protected i'll come back to the security council and those political act as you rightly mentioned in a moment just dealing with the situation on the ground you say you're trying to help people get away from the front line but the harsh brutal reality is that there is no escape for a lot of these people is that turkey which is taken in millions of people in the past has shut the border so if you're

a syrian stranded it right now there's basically a death sentence hanging over you yes what we're dealing with is the situation of 3000000 people who are trapped in a war zone and these are people who are not simply fleeing fighting between 2 opposing armies this is a population which itself is under attack they come from towns and villages which have faced systematic wide scale indiscriminate bombing airstrikes and shelling that's continued day and night entire cities and towns have been emptied out and as these people have fled many of them have been hit along the way when shells and asked for rights that landed on the routes that they've been using to try to escape so this is a protection crisis on a monumental scale and something has to be done so are you asking are you calling on turkey to open the border or is it impossible for turkey to cope with another

3000000 refugees given i believe they've already taken in 4000000 syrians over the last few years. turkey already hosts more refugees than any other country in the world and it hosts many more syrian refugees than any other country 3600000 syrian refugees so most un member states are not being heard calling on turkey to open its borders i think they know that if turkey has to open its borders. the next question will be are european countries going to be opening their borders and are you saying that european countries should be taking in more syrian refugees because again european governments say that's a problem for us well the whole world needs to shoulder it's the sponsibility towards these people if they cannot be protected inside their own country then that have to be protected somewhere else the united states government has banned syrians from entering the country they're on a banned list as a humanitarian who's watching what's happening inside of syria how do you feel

about. what we know is that the people we're talking about are mostly women and children and elderly people the whole world has watched the pictures of in the last few weeks these people need to be treated for what they are civilians who are trapped in a war zone and many people have talked about this conflict in a very politicized way and we see some of the warring parties justifying their actions in terms of you know fighting terrorism but we know that there are more than 100 civilians for every find in the area and these civilians need to be treated for what they are these people need help and they need to be protected but you have a u.s. government which is obviously a big donor to the u.n. and to u.n. humanitarian relief operation is a big player in that part of the world you have a u.s. president to bomb syria a couple of years ago when his daughter came to him and said she couldn't bear to

see pictures of chemical weapons attacks you have a president who now says you know what i'm only there to keep the oil he openly brags and the president who will not taking any syrian refugees what's your message to the u.s. government as a u.n. official. well we want to see the u.s. government take action we want to see all of the members of the security council and particularly we don't think power as we want to see them play their role at the security council that has really been you know paralyzed over the last few months and has not been able to find a solution to this crisis but you know on many occasions in the past security council members have found ways to overcome their personal interest and find solutions and we need those security council members now to urgently find a solution that secretary general has called for an immediate cease fire and that's what's needed now more than anything else you say the u.n. security council is paralyzed what would you say to those people who say that some understatement syria proves that the u.n.

security council is broken it cannot deal with a problem like syria makes syria worse that it should be the russians or the chinese cast their 14th veto to block the delivery of aid to millions of syrians recently surely that shows that the security council is not fit for purpose when it comes to humanitarian disaster like syria i don't know if it's just the security council that's not fit for purpose i think you know the entire humanitarian system globally needs to be looked at you know something needs to be done to ensure that if people cannot flee to another country they will be protected within the borders of that but mark realistically you have the russian government which is bombing these towns you talked about systematic widespread indiscriminate bombing you said a moment ago what would you say to people who say you need to go further than that you need to call out war crimes for what they are you need to call out war criminals for who they are that the u.n. shouldn't just be kind of equivocating at a time like this it would be helpful if you named names and shame the people involved if i ask you today mark your they're dealing with this tragedy dealing

with this crisis if i say to you you're talking to these refugees they clearly telling you what's happening is there evidence of war crimes. well we know there's lots of evidence of what crimes and we know that what crimes have been committed throughout by whom oh well you know it very well by all sides and it's not for me to you know to determine whether any individual act constitutes that was a crime or not that's what the courts to decide but we do know that there's been many war crimes and certain a there's every indication that a lot of war crimes have been committed in the last few months including just in the last few days but mark a lot of a lot of people what a lot of people watching this around the world they'll say that's true crimes have been committed by all sides but right now a nearly a 1000000 people have fled from their homes in the last 3 months that's not all sides that's just syrian government and it's russian ally. yes well we know that the majority of the civilian deaths and injuries in the area have been caused by

air strikes and shining carried out by syrian government forces and their allies we know this very well and we've been calling on all of them repeatedly and i've had meetings and just this week with the russians and the turks and the americans and others talking about the conflict calling again for respect for international humanitarian law calling for these people to be protected we know exactly who's doing the bombing and we are pulling them out all the time but the problem is that the bombing is just continuing here's a problem though for the u.n. and it's all very well calling out these governments but we've known how bad it could be has been for years in 2018 steffan de mistura then the un special envoy for syria warned of a quote perfect storm looming over it slip they've been warning after warning after warning so why are millions of people in this situation right now why are nearly a 1000000 people fleeing for their lives when you have experts and diplomats having

warned that this was going to happen is it just that international organizations and governments and the people around the world just don't give a damn about syrians anymore they're exhausted of the syrian conflict there's a syria fatigue how do we get to this point well i think unfortunately that is the case that there's a lot of fatigue when it comes to syria because there's been so many battles and so much displacement after all 12000000 people have been this place than you know over these last 9 years but just at the time when we thought we'd seen the worst of this war when we thought the war might be coming to an end what we've seen is one of the worst catastrophes of the entire war so this is not the time for people to be taking their eye off syria and this is not the time you know for any complacency we need concerted action by security council members to stop this fight. but what would you say to critics who say u.n. officials u.n.

organizations haven't done enough could and should have done more over the past few years right now we're trying to scale and scale up our operation we've just asked for $500000000.00 in new funding we've got thousands of trucks crossing the border every month we're doing a lot but ultimately it's up to the member states of the united nations and particularly the security council members to find the political solutions to deal with crises that this mark you did call for an additional $500000000.00 to provide lifesaving assistance to people it liberally this week you say there's a 370 $1000000.00 funding gap when it comes to syrian humanitarian operations and yet last year when the notre dame cathedral caught fire people were able to pledge a $1000000000.00 to help fix it in the space of 24 hours when you hear statistics like that how does that make you feel i've never been happy about the amount of funding that 2 different humanitarian operations are around the world and certainly

for the syria crisis we actually need a lot more money than we're currently getting the money you're asking for is the equivalent of 2 months roughly of spending that the american military does on its troops in that part of the world so we should have no problem getting this money and because you are you know we don't know where the money we need but ultimately we need the money we need the political support but more than anything else we just want the killing of civilians to stop and the syrian government of course says as you mentioned earlier well all sides are doing horrible things they point to rebel groups they point to al-qaeda affiliates and it glib and say they're responsible for the humanitarian crisis what do you say when you hear that argument. well we know that all sides have committed atrocities and that's what we know that's been happening at recently but we also know this that this takes that have been collected by the u.n. human rights office recently showed that 93 percent of the deaths in the at that area had been caused by air strikes and shelling by the syrian government forces

and their allies mark last question what you mentioned the kind of governments having kind of failed in their obligations not doing enough to stop the violence or to contribute money what's your message to ordinary people watching this who have just heartbroken by some of the scenes coming out of syria what's your message to people on the look and they do well i think 1st of all pressure on your own parliamentarians on your own governments to ensure that there is a concerted effort made to find a political solution to this crisis but secondly please contribute generously to the humanitarian operation we need your support the people of need your support markets thank you for joining me on up front good luck. thank you. in 168 dr martin luther king launched a pull people's march on washington seeking economic justice for impoverished americans more than 50 years later and with a right wing republican president in office that movement has been revived and some

christian leaders on the left are demanding a revolution against poverty joining me now from atlanta to discuss this is the reverend dr william j. baba co-chair of the poor people's campaign and national call tomorrow revival and president of the nonprofit repairers of the breach william barber thank you for joining me on up front thank you so much i'm glad to be with you the president of the united states says quote no president has ever done what i have done for evangelicals all for religion itself do you agree with the. no i do not so don't agree that even evangelicals are supporting him i think oftentimes in the media we use these terms that have been thrown at us i'm an evangelical if you look at the true meaning of revenge or localism which means to preach good news to the poor care for the broken heart for the oppressed what we see is a false kind of religion a distorted moron there

a way evangelicalism has been hijacked we have been forced to use these false framing is like left versus right there's no such thing as a left christian versus a right christian and you're either christian or you're not an author ducks christianity says that what is most important is how you treat the poor the children the women the sick and the least of the and on all of those accounts fail but not just from his enablers in the senate the republican party faces and even those who have hijacked the word term evangelicals they are just because you say you're an evangelical there's a scripture in the bible that says there are many who say they love the lord with their lips but their heart is far from the heart of his policies are. far from anything orthodox christian christan to cause us to care about in the public square this is a global debate of course and you say there's no left or right and i'm sure many people agree with you but the reality is that if i was interviewing a quote unquote right wing evangelical leader on this show and we've had right wing

evangelicals on the show they would say no the most important issue is not poverty it's abortion for example you know that in this country in the united states that's a big driving force for a lot of quote unquote right wing christian evangelicals who don't agree with you but they can't but they can say that biblically you don't have text on abortion and the hatred toward homosexuals you do have 2000 texts that say health care and children and the poor so you can say whatever you want to but it doesn't lie with jesus the what we call the red letter of the bible and if you're an evangelical christian your public policy is not driven by republican party or democratic party concept of left or concepts or right it is driven by jesus and where jesus stood on social issues of its time i'm a theologian trained theologian is we have a battle of heresy vote versus christian true and that is not a left that is not a left right issue when it comes a theology theology doesn't use those terms of left and right you mention the word

heresy when you see donald trump read tweeting people saying he's the 2nd coming of god when you see some christian evangelical leaders saying he's been sent by god how do you feel about that have something harrison. heresy what they say a logical malpractise why they're saying i don't know why they send it back then but what i can say is it's not biblical and it doesn't line up with the example of jesus christ as i said you can say anything you can decide that you go on worship tomatoes or worship great fruit it does not make it biblical it does not make it christian i just heard you say you don't like the language of the religious right you don't like the language of left and right they're not really bad as what you call them then how do you refer to these people i just say their religion is their their and their religion the religious nationalists they are that's what they are they are not rooted and lost off the docks christian. viewpoints you can't find this in true christian values and so what we're challenging people is read the bible look at look at what history says look at what

the ology says now again the slave master had his own religion that doesn't make it right just because he had it running and that's why you had to abolitionists and frederick douglass and thomas and others who said no that is not christan it is something but it's not christan it is a religion maybe the religion of racism but it's not christianity you've called for a quote moral impeachment of donald trump what does that mean exactly yeah. what that means is when we look at the deepest religious and constitution of ai we have a 140000000 people who are poor and the wealth in this country and what his truck and his enablers chose to do give tax breaks to the wealthy we have we have 38000000 people in this country without health insurance what is trump and his enablers tried to do they take free health care when they get elected to the senate and the congress but they didn't work to cut health care for their constituents we

have the logical devastation 4000000 families in this country that can't buy unleaded water but can get up every morning and that gas we have climate change issues what has trump and his enablers done and stead of promoting the general welfare that the constitution requires they are promoting the corporation and promoting fossil fuel companies we have 53 cents of every discretionary dollar going toward military most of the going toward defense contractors and less than $0.15 going toward health care infrastructure education so that is not providing a servant for the common defense we believe those things are a directly opposite of our deepest constitution and more revival. that is and on that he should be impeached by the people poverty is clearly a big issue in the us many would argue that democrats have historically done a better job on poverty than republicans when they're in the white house but president donald trump would argue that the poverty rate for african-americans and

for hispanic americans have reached an all time low on his watch and for once the figures do seem to back it up what's your response there. well that's not true the 5th what donald trump benefit from was the economic power of the economy that obama presided over but wealth and actual wealth has gone down among african-americans and the reality is we have 26000000 poor and low wealth african-americans in this country 61 percent of all african-americans but i want to talk about the of the 66000000 poor white people this campaign that we're engaged in is in coal miners from kentucky together with black folks from lluvia who are starting to understand the systemic racism systemic power the ecological devastation the war economy and this false more narrative of religious national is hurting all of us all not know you mentioned white poverty let's talk about the intersection between poverty and

racism which is such an important section in this country because you mentioned how many white people are living in poverty and yet a lot of poor white working class americans in places like pennsylvania and wisconsin and michigan voted for donald trump in big numbers in 2016 and most of the academic studies suggest that they didn't vote because of economic anxiety but because of their racial resentment and typically towards immigrants and african-americans how do you convince pull white americans to stop voting against their own economic interests how do you do that well actually actually there was a study that came out after the election that said the poorest of wise did not vote for an addition to trump lost by more than 3000000 votes in the popular vote he only won because they let torre college in a couple of green but he didn't win the white working only by a big margin. well he won some of that but there are 100000000 people who didn't vote how do you deal with this you are exactly right the king said in 65 that every

time there is a possibility for poor whites and poor blacks to come together and form a political base that changes the country the white aristocracy sows division how do you change that you go so that our campaign is going to the back wheels of pennsylvania and kentucky and down to the delta mississippi and we are pulling together people we have $43.00 chord navy committees now made up of black and white latino people across this country we have $115.00 denomination of groups were planning a mass poor people's assembly mar march on washington we engage in a we must do more to immobilize an organizing educating registering people for the movement who vote you show people that the same people friends that participate in races voter suppression once they get elected they actually pass policies that hurt mostly white people because every state is a racist voter suppression state is also a low wage state and a happy hour to stay and when people see that many of them begin to shift and recognize we have to be

a coalition so that's interesting to say that because of course we've also seen many many reports in the press and beyond of white working class voters who have either lost their jobs because of trump's terrorists or lost the health care because of trump's war on obamacare and yet when they're also when you vote for me and they say yes we'll still vote for it. there are some that would do that but there's a remnant out there and we're finding them as i said in kentucky recently our campaign spent 3 years in kentucky and what happened kentucky shifted and a number of the counties we were in for 3 years they changed they flipped they flipped from truck support to the support of the new democratic governor we didn't endorse the governor we showed them the connections and how they were being played one against of and they got it and they decided to change we have to remember that after the civil war for instance black and white folk came together and changed the country and every effort to poor black and white. together has always been either assassinated or destroyed because as dr king said when that possibility is there

the aristocracy knows the danger of it too is political control on this country we believe in our campaign we have a moment in history that we can really work to change and it doesn't take much to 34 percent change in many of these states could fundamentalist shift the political calculus could fundamentally shift the political calculus with a big election coming up in november the presidential election who do you think should be the best democrat to fight this campaign on behalf of the poor against donald trump and a member. but we've not decided yet we've not endorsed yet because this is what we're saying 1st of all we have 140000000 people living in probably 43 percent this nation we've not had one debate televised on poverty no candidate running to date has dealt with 140000000 number and with the intersecting connections between systemic racism ecological devastation and the war economy that's a fact but it's in pieces have come out bits and pieces are come out and we're

thankful for that and part of it is because of a campaign more people are beginning to say bits and pieces in child poverty and people talk about the working poor as oh poor people and working 700 people die day from poverty and we've not called it a national emergency that is what we're listening for you said you haven't endorsed yet does that mean you will be endorsing someone prior to the d.n.c. convention in july where we'll be having our big poor people's assembly before the convention and what we've said all the candidates just like we did in kentucky we didn't endorse the governor but the governor endorsed issues and began to deal with people's issues we say to every candidate if you deal with systemic racism systemic poverty ecological devastation the war economy take on religious nationalism in a fun a way we have a mob justice budget if you look at a budget that deals with a lot of scarcity and says we have the money if you look at it now it's on the cost of poverty not just the cost of fixing it but what is the cost of poverty at this

been done by some of the best economists in this country we don't have to ask us to endorse your personality in dos the policies and the people will know who to come to and who to vote for we are very political but nonpartisan reverend dr william gahl the thank you so much for joining me on up front. thank you so much god bless you thank you thank you that's our show up front will be back next week. is really good to the both of the 3rd time in less than a year after both me parties failed to form a governing coalition and a prime minister netanyahu facing the start of his corruption from. an israel resolve its political crisis. the latest on al-jazeera.

migrants in uniform volunteering their labor to appease locals and combat anti migrant sentiment. people in power travels to the north of italy where a bold experiment is underway. with an unconventional approach to integration. italy's migrant boot camp on a. display of opiates and fantasy fun to camps fashion it isn't only a lesson in creativity but also in sustainability all these clothes are made from recycled fin teach all riposte fabrics we're leading the way to make sustainability the new normal because that's what it is to be some of the world's most prestigious fashion houses are based in paris and most say that they're trying to become more environmentally friendly changing a multi-billion dollar industry is a challenge but in an environment driven by trends where responsibly make clothes

may become the ultimate fashion statement. yes runaway bride because. an emphatic victory for joe biden in south carolina giving his bid to be the democratic presidential candidate the boost it needed. martine dennis you know with al-jazeera live from doha also coming out. show healthy people if you're healthy. you will probably. go through a process and then you'll be for the president tries to reassure americans after the u.s. recalls its 1st corona.