barkha al-jazeera london. time magazine's person of the year for 2020 is actually 2 people joe biden and camila harris the u.s. president elect and his running mate beats them and they're replacing donald trump u.s. infectious disease expert dr anthony found she was among the finalists as were americans front line health workers and the racial justice movement. with al jazeera these are top stories european union leaders meeting at a summit in brussels have agreed to cut carbon emissions by at least 55 percent by the end of the decade the reduction compared to 990 levels is seen as a big step up from the current goal and advisory boards of the u.s. food and drug administration has recommended the pfizer coronavirus vaccine should be authorized for use it's another step towards rolling out an immunization

campaign in the worst affected country in the world. hong kong pro-democracy activists and media tycoon jimmy lie has been charged on drug controversial security law the allegations include that he's colluded with foreign forces lies already in jail after being denied bail on a separate charge to go paul and has more from hong kong this is the most serious charge against him and the only one under the national security law several people there a couple of dozen people have been already arrested under this national security law but only a handful have had charges against him in this particular case he was arrested in august in a massive police swoop on his media headquarters now he's the founder of possibly the biggest and only pro-democracy media out a local media outlet left in hong kong. morocco has become the 4th arab nation to agree to normalize ties with israel the u.s.

brokered the deal promising in exchange to recognize morocco's claim over the disputed western sahara region protesters have returned to the streets of haiti's capital saying the government is failing to deal with violence and instability crowds burned tires and set up barricades was denouncing present. arms gains control large parts of port au prince and blamed for a recent string of kidnappings hundreds of construction workers cleaning crews and miners imposed route of cause traffic chaos in the nation's capital they're demanding salary increases and labor improvements crowds marched through limos historic center and over to parliament as another demonstration last week by angry farm workers 1 those are your headlines i'll be back with more news on al-jazeera that's after the nobel interview 2020 stay with us. scott realistically how can you deal with institutionalized corruption in this country we listen if this breaks up until conflict between august on and india this

has implications for the rest of the world we meet with global newsmakers and talk about the stories that matter. of ephedrine that's probably had no better in recent history the.

storage facilities at. folk i'm batting hunger and fighting against the use of starvation as a weapon of war the world's food program has been awarded this year's nobel peace prize for almost 60 years it's worked through disasters and wars improving the prospects for peace and stability through food security hello i'm fully back in doha. welcome to this special edition of the nobel interview which this year is in a different format and location due to coronavirus restrictions i'm joined from

rome by the world food program's executive director david beasley congratulations david beasley thank you so much for talking to al jazeera what does this say all your eggs with peace prize mean to you your w.s.p. family and what does it represent for the millions of people that you help around the world. tell you it was a big surprise we had no idea literally on that day i was out in the field in the middle of the hill in these ear and we were at that point to go shady nexus between extremist groups with the government trying to reach people it is a come back into the capital city to meet with the leadership this somebody comes busted into the room nobel peace prize nobel peace prize and i was like wow you know who what it is that we did world food program and it was like. you know wow i mean it was it was just amazing in the fact that we were there in the sale i think was a gift from above because people around the world are struggling in an unprecedented

way as we speak so this is going to mean a lot for the people around the world because as i've said over the last couple years there's been so much distraction with trump trump trump or breaks or breaks or breaks and a lot of people in the world all realize the impact that covert is having indeed in literally upon millions of people in fact the number of people on the brink of starvation has doubled and the last it literally in the last 6 months and so hopefully hopefully what this is going to do is i think the nobel peace prize committee was sent in a very clear message number one thank you to the women amendment to the women and men who put their lives on the line every single day to bring peace and stability to places all. around the world right number 2 is your hardest work is right ahead of you right and i do want to talk a bit more about coal that it is impact on the operations in

a little bit but i want to ask you david beasley about a crises such sun folding right now in the horn of africa last year's recipient of the nobel peace prize the theo paean prime minister has been engaged in a war in northern ethiopia that you were your going ization is having to help victims of today in sudan what do you make of that a nobel peace prize winner in gage in a conflict well sitting prime ministers have to make decisions on an ongoing basis and have a great respect for the prime minister of ethiopia and we pray and hope that this matter gets resolved sooner than later we are talking with the prime minister's office were talking with all parties involved make sure we have the access we need be in the supplies in the funds that we need to address the deeds as they develop this is an ongoing crisis but we're certainly hopeful that it will be over sooner than later because the people people indeed stability in peace and particularly in the horn where you've had so many issues over the past many decades the conflict in

northern ethiopia david beasley is having regional repercussions so don a country already dealing with challenges of its own is now grappling with an influx of refugees from ethiopia i'd like us to take a look at this report from al-jazeera as mohammad vaal from camp in sudan. the camp is growing more are being brought here in jos are doing what they can disability food and even cash about $25.00 a month to every individual that's helping people are meant to sleep here because they are complaining of the the type of food that is being distributed on a daily basis since the day they are arrived here so the cash is given them the ability to go and buy whatever they want particularly for the families who have young babies so it's a it's a developing situation and nobody here is expecting to return home anytime soon because they say as long as the each open army is in control as long as there is no

locally elected to green government in the other cities they don't think they will be safe if they return home david beasley refugees we heard there complaining about not having enough food in sudan how straight operations right now in this hot spot in this new hot spot that is the border between sudan in ethiopia and you know could this turn into a long for tactic crisis. well we certainly hope that it does not turn into a long protracted con clarke crisis because we're already spending a lot of money in sudan and now you've got this crisis and we hopeful we're hopeful that this can be over as soon as possible because the the number of funds number of prices in the lack of funds that we're struggling with now in crisis with this yemen or syria or somalia northeast nigeria south today in afghanistan d r c 3 haiti i could just keep going and going and going and we're prepared but

money is going to be a major issue in the future as it is now so it has to refugees wherever they may be included in sudan we will step up and do what we need to do so how has the pandemic then affected your operations i mean i imagine that if he must have had a major logistical challenge of delivering food this year with notch parts of the noble shipping in aviation networks close because of the pandemics what outearn it is that you have to find there is of course the money issue but access and food delivery has also been a major concern i imagine. let me tell you just when you think it couldn't get any worse into into 2019 hours preparing world leaders that 2020 was going to be a catastrophe and that was before covert you know we had economic theory ation is several places we had men made conflict despite being here and they are climate extremes and i was telling us prepare for a bad 2020 then desert locust cane weathers ethiopia kenya and then

just when you think you're dealing with every possible bad scenario. cove it just dynamic he does shift rick's i mean our whole 'd global economy a lot of different things that we're having to do having a shift monies around how we do things because of dissing as well as you can imagine in a lot of countries where you have a lot downs unlike in a wealthy nation where people might have 2 to 3 weeks of food in their pantry well they might not like where they eat in the 3rd week but they get food but most of the places we're in folly they live hand to mouth and you do a shutdown a lot down you will have destabilization famine and migration so we're working with the leaders of give us the flexibility and the funds so that we can come in and provide a safety net programs 1600000000 children out of school the high literally about 300 some odd 1000000 of those children get school meals lot of those children is the only meal they get so what do we do when the schools are shut down so we're working with leaders with the flexibility we need to get that food it to the home

through vouchers in any way possible and we are making tremendous progress in this regard but that's just one example then you might have a port to get such down a distribution point you can imagine what we're having to deal with on a daily basis so we're on the phone meeting in person to person with prime ministers and ministers of health care as every other leader necessary to make sure that we're moving and not disrupting the supply chain because it's not just having money it's how so have it access india's that is that is tough in this environment and i've read that at some point he was flying and chartering so many planes on the african continent that it was being called the continent at 9. you know someone had told me that that you know because when covert hit the airline industry just shut down around the world in so well you got to move supplies covert supplies ventilators testing equipment you name it not to mention 1st responders and bassett

or doctors nurses and so what do you do in so that's the world food program we don't carry into live or just food we do whatever is necessary to bring the world where it needs to be to get through difficult times and so in this type of time like with cove and impact we are the logistics humanitarian backbone for the world for the world weather center so if a w.h.o. we have actually transported over 100000 cubic meters of supplies to over 172 countries around the world 267000 passengers somebody said that we were the largest operating airline in the world right i don't know if that's the case but i know we ramped up scaled up and now that the airline industry is coming online is taking pressure off us to get focused back to where we want to be focus and that is feeding people and even people out and hopefully get vaccines out to the people and i was going to get to that in fact i mean vaccines are now being rolled out in rich

countries and the concern though is that poorer countries on the african continent for it for instance will be left behind a number of them a part of that the kovacs program to distribute this vaccine but there as you know to just sickle challenges what this how is that you have to be going to be involved in how do we make sure that this attack scene also is available to countries that need it as well to poorer nations we don't quite know what our role will be yet but we are letting everyone know that we are available take advantage of all of our resource i would just 6 just absolutely proven and tried system where we're there was covert whether it was ebola right whatever it might be we're vailable to make certain those vaccines get out in the most inexpensive way possible in the most effect. possible as the coronavirus pandemic rages on david beasley around the world refugees of course some of the most vulnerable people to catching and dying from this disease. water let alone health care al-jazeera stand their child reports

from the world's not just refugee camp. in bangladesh take a little over 3 and a half years since arriving a refugee is crossed into bangladesh from myanmar when you walk around the camp there is a stability and normalises but on the other hand when you talk to the rowing refuges and so you can sense there's a sense of frustration that been facing major challenges during the pandemic aside from restriction limitation on communication the ban also shortage of food and limitations of russian food you already know i'm very happy to get the russian but to be honest it's not enough for the family sometimes i have to do rice from. strictly depend on him an attorney and assistance from aid agencies and bangladesh government we had to make sure that we had enough to feed all 860000. and on top of that we also. feel assistance programs for members of his community

not talking to many of their own we found out their sense of frustration they're mainly concerned about their children and nearly half the population are children their own have access to any proper education there's been too frail repaired and there are no what their future holds there's a lot of uncertainty in their mind david beasley we saw there refugees from myanmar in bangladesh. under difficult conditions exacerbated by the cold a pandemic but i want to get now to the issue of conflict and hunger. and the reason these refugees find themselves in bangladesh today is because of the conflict in the states of course and in your various speeches to the un security council you have repeatedly linked conflicts and hunger where 10 years into the war in syria more than 5 years in yemen libya south sudan millions of civilians around the world being deliberately starved to death in 2018 we recall that the un

security council passed a resolution which prohibited the use of hunger 'd as a weapon of war and yet it's still happening and no cases of human made famine have ever been prosecuted at the international level what do you see they did basically as the biggest stumbling block. this is where i think the leaders in the world have got to focus on the on the areas of conflict and bring the pressure to bear to resolve these conflicts is it to me in a more complicated we've got so many areas of conflict in syria for example david beasley bashar al assad's need. has beleaguered the country for most of its 10 year war and even earlier this year efforts to authorize the delivery of aid were blocked by the russians at the u.n. security council what is your message to the international community today on syria . well it's very frustrating around the world the number of conflicts of the

continue to bubble up and we've got to bring in into some of these conflicts quite frankly we could in world hunger if it were not for the man made conflict in the leaders in the world kid is distracted as they are on so many issues we've got to come together elice to solve a couple of them right now let's solve yemen let's solve serialist solve you know that's what we've you know allow you think that oh absolutely not being sold as a weapon yet this anymore yeah do you think that this is not being solved this question of. food as a as a weapon of war because perhaps the w.s.p. has become a substitute for political action isn't there perhaps a danger of an over reliance on the w.s.p. that can absolve spa leticia from blame for creating famine or alternatively the international community's responsibility to protect. well it the politicians handle political questions but we use food as

a weapon of peace in fact when i got here my goal was to put the war or food program out of business so that we would no longer be needed because we have sustainable development but this manmade conflict is ongoing now with this is really important because you never could get the security council to come together with regards to food security in its relationship to peace and stability and we were able to pass that lead that that resolution last year which was a major breakthrough so i think what the work nobel peace prize committee is doing here is sending that message to the world is saying that food is critical to peace and stability and peace and stability is critical to food therefore we must minimize and where we can stop food being used as a weapon of war weapon of recruit about extremist groups a weapon a division let's use food as a weapon of peace today millions of people in yemen are at risk of dying of hunger if food assistance doesn't reach them you have expressed concern w.s.p.

has expressed concern that deliveries ah being obstructed in yemen who stopping aid getting to the people who need it i'm a yemen is a crisis all of it's own the worst humanitarian crisis literally on the face of the planet we feed unfortunately 13000000 people in a country of 29000000 people and so we face obstacles hurdles access and now money to replace putting up the are now a half rashes with with about 8 and a half 1000000 people yeah who's putting up the obstacles because humans are you talking about what everybody's got well about a year and a half ago 2 years ago was tough on the coalition because the hard data port we worked through that and i remember the who tease saying thank you thank you and i say whoa whoa whoa whoa i'm not saying that because i'm on your side i'm saying that because we need the eggs. this into the port when you cross that line i'm go jump on your back to and i have been especially in the last year to have because we

haven't had the excess we needed we have a bit of put the biometrics in place we have not been able to put the people all the things we need to make certain that our donors are confident they were reaching the intended beneficiaries and it has been a struggle every single day in the hutu controlled area it's been just a disaster as i said i don't see runs in concert yeah now you've got all of these demands around the world right as president john prepares to leave office he wants to designate the whole fees as a terrorist organisation would you agree with that. well that's a political decision but that was nothing i can do on hands on and spoken to the leadership of have spoken to the leadership in many countries around the world but i was in washington d.c. just last week speaking with the leadership explaining the consequences of the designation and the hurdles in the problems that we will face we'll do whatever we need to do we always have whether those same sins are designations or not we'll do

what we can to reach the people our job is the let the leaders understand clearly what will be the ramifications and what the difficulties that will be for us to reach people yemen is oriented extremely volatile fragile state with i can't begin to tell you we are on the brink of famine right now in yemen people are not getting enough food we don't have the access we need is just heartbreaking what we're doing to the innocent people and victims of this war so we need money the gulf states need to step up because there's so many demands around the world if the gulf states will step up to yemen it will take some of the financial pressure off of to say western donors to be able to do impact some of the devastation we're seeing now with covert in the sahara region western africa eastern africa d.r. see afghanistan so the gulf states have got to step up in yemen right now as well

as other middle eastern conflicts david beasley your of course the executive director of the world food program but you're also a republican a former governor of the u.s. state of south carolina and you've described yourself as not a u.n. kind of guy what does that mean. i remember with some of our 1st you in meetings they had all this u.n. lingo these acronyms that i did know what the world they were saying half a tablet i said to the secretary general said i don't know what they're talking about. here are they hug or. so they started you're trying to use common sense language and i really do think this one of the reasons that we've been a we've been very successful in raising the bar and raising more money because the parliament leaders around the world hear a common sense lingo elaine was the you understand because they've got to convince so they are taxpayers why should we send money down to shed i mean i've got problems of bridges eggs and bob very are or school problems in birmingham you know

this type of thing so what i do is come in speak the common person language that everybody understands if you do this this is what school happen if you don't do this this is what's going to happen is how do you how do you actually have no not at all sure that as an organism. how do you view the u.n. the united nations as an organization president trump has criticized the un's bloated bureaucracy has called it has called it weakening competent not a friend of democracy he said would you agree with him on any of those points well although as to the world food program i mean i call you know the miracle on pennsylvania avenue we've been able to bring the administration the white house and the republicans and the democrats together when they're fighting over everything we've been able to bring them together increase funding because they see that the world food program is a very fishy right there effect precise moderation make a difference around the world let me just pick up on something you said there very interesting that you said that because many feared that the trump administration

would cut significant funding for w.s.p. as it did with other u.s. contributions to the multilateral system but w.s.p. and unicef both headed by americans like yourself remain the charmed parts of the u.n. system they're properly funded gifted by the u.s. don't you think this is unfair to other u.n. agencies that are doing great work as well i mean u.n. women or u.n. f.b.a. for example well of going to bat for a lot of other u.n. operations and the job my job is to to feed people around. world in and make the world food program the most are too easy and effective that it possibly let me touch on palestine if i can please from 2018 until now the trump administration has cut funding for the west bank and gaza and basically all humanitarian aid for 4 palestinians in those cuts came after the palestinian leadership decided to sever

ties with the trump administration for having moved the us embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem i wonder david beasley how are you able to do your job and help people who desperately need you while having to navigate the wishes of the administration which provides most of your funding. well it has been a problem for me because i'm a straight shooter and that whether it doesn't matter which side of the fits you all you know in this job in the world food program i'm not republican or democrat i'm a humanitarian and so i'll just speak the truth and let the cards fall where they may and i have found a lot of leaders when i walked into the meeting who had one opinion when i sat down said this let me explain how i see things and let me answer any questions you have and you know they may not always agree with you but they walk away saying you know what i respect that and whether it's in the west bank or palestine or syria or afghanistan or yemen you know we've got to work through these issues with my job is

to make certain that innocent victims of conflict and war they they can survive and have a better life to be the final question the united nations says one of his 2030 development goals is to eliminate hunger and famine is that a chief of all do you think you can do that because that would mean you'd be out of a job and that he wouldn't exist as an agency well my goal is to put the world food programme out of business as we've achieved 0 hunger do i think is do about 2030 the answer is yes do i think it's going to happen by 2030 the answer is no in the question why because of man made conflict in libya let me tell you this is what really upsets me there's $400.00 trillion dollars worth of wealth on the earth today i mean just during code would billionaires make trillions of dollars and i'm sitting here struggling to feed. in keep children alive

this is incredible i mean what have i missing here there should be a single child going to bed hungry in the world today not one not when you have $400.00 trillion dollars worth of wealth we've got the capacity and the expertise to deliver we just need the politics to get out the way so we can help the people and create an environment that we're no longer needed in that is something we do well but we need the access we need the money and we need wars to in well i hope your message is heard loud and clear david beasley executive director of the world food program thank you so much for talking to our to see where they fall and thank you for watching the nobel interview it where again at 030-0830 g.m.t. on december 11th and is available on demand that al-jazeera dot com for me fully back to born the whole team here in doha thank you for watching by for now.

i was sitting at a brazilian judge knowledge that i was being trained one years or just need of mothering the father of my daughter i.e. not here. when parents are imprisoned the government doesn't have any plan for the trigger lifted behind these children need food they need shelter they are searching for love. my passion is to see that this shooting of prisoners are also given another chance to live for making them which it is because they're not a party to that crimes committed by their parents when i finally get to the place to build a home for these children and they see them become somebody used to fall into

society fending for themselves. to give me satisfaction. after a long night of wrangling a year leaders agree to a much more ambitious a missions cut 55 percent by the end of the decade. i know there are more a kyle this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. a u.s. government problem dogs as the use of fines as corona virus vaccine and another big step towards a mass inoculation campaign. anticipation builds months pro-abortion rights supporters in argentina with a vote in.