going into the right direction. we were putting african communion from the continent like putting them on there. they're doing big things that we've, we've seen in louisville out there. triple know out that when they say trouble as their 1st african comedian to perform at madison square garden, he won't be the last. he just opened the yeah, it just made it easier for someone to come in. like i feel like i can do it. they say home, it comes from the moment the know that there's no point to continue. that seemed like more than enough that we believe that we will define you before. and what if we have amazing stories here and the more we keep on pushing, the more we keep on doing this, the, the, the so this is out there are, these are the top stories and at least 50 people have been killed in a rocket attack. and east and ukraine had a train in your train station as

a credit hosted used by civilians who are escaping, fighting president for them is landscape, pointed the finger at russia, but moscow denies involvement, ukraine's president. his round that everyone responsible for the attack of the train station will be brought to justice. oh he was he probably all the leading countries of the world have already condemned the russian strike on commenters. we are anticipating a solid global reaction to this war. crime like mass killings in boucher, like many other russian war crimes. the missile strike uncommon choice must become one of the charges at the tribunal. that will for sure be set up. all world efforts will be directed to establish minute by minute, who did what, and who gave the orders. the head of the european commission has visited ukraine and called the attack on a common tosca polling. best of the land was also shown mass graves in the town of boucher where russian forces are accused of committing atrocities against civilians . she promised to speed up the process of ukraine joining the you while the

european union has announced the new package of sanctions against russia, it includes freezing the assets of vladimir putin daughters, a ban on the import or purchase of russian coal, and a full transaction ban on 4 banks, pakistan's parliament will meets on saturday morning to consider removing prime minister and run calling from office. the supreme court ruled on thursday that con law by trying to have the president dissolved parliament to call an election. judges also said cons decision to block last sundays. no conference vote was unconstitutional. the 1st black woman set to become a u. s. supreme court justices spoken about her historic nomination contention brown jackson says it may have taken 200 years to happen, but the senate confirmation is making many americans proud. your step headlines, more news coming up right after we go to talk to al jazeera teaching. you can watch out to see where english streaming light all night teaching channels plus thousands

of of programs. the award winning documentaries and debt. these reports subscribed to you chief dot com, forward slash al jazeera english with every child has the right to grow up in a safe and inclusive environment. that was the goal set out in 1989 by the united nations convention on the rights of the child. but in a world filled with conflicts, millions of miners face attacks, abuse, abandonment, and don't even have access to a basic health care and education. unicef is the you, an agency responsible for providing from an italian and developmental aid to children worldwide. but our world leaders doing enough in an attempt to shine light on the challenges facing children around the globe. some of the world's most

recognizable faces in sports and entertainment have joined unicef schools as goodwill ambassadors. one of them is former england football captain david beckham, soul, our athletes and other celebrities making the difference. politicians have not been able to achieve in the next half an hour. we'll explore some of the work done by the football superstar with vulnerable children. and the challenges ahead for the 75 year old organization. units of executive director, catherine russell, goodwill, ambassador david beckham, talked to alta 0 at the door for him. 2022 ah 3rd button. thank you very much for talking to 0. welcome pleasure. thank you for asking. what do you think is the importance of celebrities like yourself getting involved in championing humanitarian causes, particularly when it comes to the world's most vulnerable people, women and children. i think for me personally, you know,

i've been involved with unicef for a long time now, and it's been one of my passions over my career. and also often my career. you know, during my career, i obviously did as much as i possibly could, to help unicef and the children around the world. but i promise unicef when i retired. and i had more times in my hand that i would be on the ground more and i would do more to support children around the world. so it's been an amazing journey . one that will continue for a long, long time. but i think on the celebrity side and on people that have huge social media followings. i think to get him part in involved in humanitarian work at that level is i think is very important. i think that we have a responsibility when you have the amount of millions that follow you and look

exactly what you were doing day in and day out. and how can you, how, how you can influence that. so, you know, i think that is very important because you can shine a lie on certain situations of every situation. and i've talked in the past about how important fund in this, and fund denise, obviously one of the most important things in organizations and help in children around the world. but also shine a light at the level the we could, we can do is one of the most important things. you know, i am able to help people by making people aware, you know, i have a very large follow in which ranges from 15 year old kids to 6070 year old people. and when you have that range, i think you have a duty to make people aware what's going on. make media are aware,

and also to be able to show the light, even more so on helping children. so i think those are responsibilities, celebrities, or people with large social media following task. you feel like it's, you're paying back to all those friends, all those children who watched you chair, drawn in the stands. it's a, it's a form of giving back to them. the loving support, i think, you know, throughout my career i've been very lucky, you know, i've had a long career at the highest level, been able to play for some of the biggest and best clubs in the world. and i feel very privileged to have done that. and my way of giving back is being part of unicef is shown in a lie. and there's many of people like myself that do a huge amount for unicef. that does a huge amount for children. so it's not just myself, you know, we have

a team behind us. we have incredible people on the ground. and my way of saying, thank you, my way of kind of giving back is helping these children is making people aware of what these children are going for. you know the devastation that they face and the problems that they have every single minute of every single day. is it one the cause or one scenario, maybe something that you feel has impacted you the most that you care about? the most of course are so many, unfortunately going around. what is that one particular one that you, you know, i can ask that question a lot. you know, people always turn around to me and say, you know, tell us your most rewarding story or the story that really kind of stays with you as many of those. because you hear on believable stories and unbelievable stories of children. the lives have changed for the work is that we have on the

ground the toilet work that the people do for unicef day in and day out. and we only see part of that. but i must admit one of the things that odyssey we are all talking about world devastating about the moment is the devastation that is going on in ukraine and what is happening to the children in ukraine. you know, there are many, many that are homeless now. the been a, been made to leave their homes. and that is one of the focuses that we've, we've been dealing with over the last few weeks. i think like everybody else, everyone is devastated to see what is happening. and we want to do everything possible to help. so one of the things that we came together with unicef and did i handed my social media over to this amazing doctor called arena. and she was

able to show the work that she's done. she was able to show the life that she's saving the pregnant mothers that she's help in the newborn baby being born premature. and in a poll in conditions without my social media following, you know, we only see bits and parts of that. so i wanted to try and help it every possible way to let people see the incredible work that she's doing and also raise awareness because like i said, our responsibility with people that have that, that kind of following is to make people aware and aware of the details because it's, it's mostly the details that people don't get to see. yes. there's a lot of media attention. yes. there's a lot of things that we read that we see. but sometimes we don't see those personal

stories and arenas. story really is incredible and it was quiet. it was quite a moment when, you know, when she took over and i saw exactly what she was doing a many 1000000. so what she was doing. so that's just one of many stores. you know, i've pharmacy been able to visit many places in my time with unicef from el salvador to uganda, to you, beauty, to nepal. and now main focus is children. main focus at the moment is girls and equality and making sure that these young girls do not get left behind because that's one of the things on my travels. so i've seen these young girls, i'll get and left behind and then not having the same opportunities. the boys and men all get in. so that's one of our focuses. but you know, we also focus on here all children. and i think that's one of the most important

things you know, with the, with the situation in ukraine and what's happening to the children there is devastating. but we also don't we, we make sure that we're not forgetting about the other issues and situations and things that are happening around the world as well. so there's a main focus on, on all children. if you have the message to, you know that a 910 year old boy or girl who has that man united, a real madrid or england jersey of yours. and you had the message of that you could speak to them. you know, one of those refugees, whether it is as you say, from a gun, a stand to syria, palestine, ukraine, wherever. what would that message be? my message would be to keep smiling and stay safe and stay strong because millions of people who are trying to help around the world and trying to help these children going through these devastations globally. the one thing that i would say is when i've been in these places,

when i've seen and played football with the refugees in djibouti or seen the young kids in the poll, the gone for the situation is that my children have never had to face. they have the same smile as my kids. i look at them and they're that, that they're happy their smile in. so i my message to the, to the, those young kids are going for it. keep smiling because those smiles makes everybody happy. it makes everybody realize how important it is to help organizations, lot unicef. because as, as i talk about the things that children struggle and go for over this time i've been, we've unicef, the positivity that comes out of funding. sean and ally on the situations

is incredible. and i've seen both sides. yes, there's devastation, yes. the children. and seeing them the way they are and what they have to go for is devastating. but then you see the other side of the help that's been put into these different places. and it's really incredible. we now hear from the executive director of unicef, catherine russell tavara, so executive director of genesis, thank you very much for talking to old 0. great, thank you for having me. we were just speaking to genesis ambassador david beckham, waldron, on footballer, superstar, tell me what do you think the role of these ambassadors play with regards to furthering units of agenda and how important is it's yeah, the ambassadors are so important and i'm very excited that david beckham is here, he's he and other ambassadors really helped to spread the word about unicef and do such a good job because they reach different populations. i mean,

david beckham obviously is world known and everyone, children, sports fans all, listen to his voice, and i think he has turned over his twitter account to, to folks in, in ukraine. so i think different it, he reaches different populations and that's the same with all of our ambassadors are really valuable to us because they care so much about unicef. they visit our programs, and then they communicate the message of unicef to different populations. and so when they talk about how important children are, how all of us should be paying attention to children and children's needs, it just reaches different people than we would ordinarily reach. and i think he, in particular has just shown his true support and dedication to the issues and it means a lot to us. so beyond the or ambassadors and pushing fee or the to the, the, or highlighting the projects. what are the main challenges that yourself is currently facing? yeah, there are so many challenges right now. and unicef works in

a 190 countries in the world and you know, their routine things that were doing immunizations, feeding programs, things like that. but i'd have to say that some of the biggest challenges are presented by conflicts, right? because conflicts always make it difficult for the most vulnerable people in a community. and those are almost always women and children. so, and there are many conflicts in the world. ukraine, obviously the one that's most in the news, but it's certainly not the other, the only ones serious and conflict. yemen is a terrible conflict where children are suffering. they the conflict in ethiopia. so there are many places where children are suffering. ah, we also have the problem of climate and the climate challenges that present themselves to children because it changes that environment. and a lot of times that means that there's water challenges for children and they have to go, you know, search was yeah, that were, you know, walk 2 miles in the morning to collect water. you know,

a lot more sort of climate crises which are always difficult for the most vulnerable people in a, in a society. and then of course we've had cov id, right, which has made things very, very difficult for children around the world. let's, let's start with the conflicts. obviously, you, you mentioned the, the one that has been dominating headlines has been a russian or russia's war on ukraine. we've seen in the media is that there's been a very clear difference in response to wards ukrainian, refugees as opposed to, for example, syrians or as opposed to africans they've, they've enjoyed much more favorable press, which also means they're involved enjoyed much more favorable. supports even the european union triggered this article, $55.00, allowing for refugees to stay one year and free education, free health. they never did that for the syrians that ever did it for other people . so do you find that there's a bit of a double standards in that respect it? it is certainly the case that e crane has has been different. and i, and, you know, i, i, i see that certainly in the, in the present in the,

in the response. but i have to say that, you know, again, i wasn't in this job during the syria crisis, but i think that one thing i have seen with refugees is it's always so dreadful for a refugee no matter who they are, to have to leave their home. all so this is typical of all refugees. this idea that they were going home soon. he now said they don't when you say, oh, do you know where are you planning to stay? we'll say, well, you know, we're just going to be here for a couple days really here for a few days. we're going to stay for with a friend or we're going to stay here there. and the reality is that most refugees on average, end up staying wherever they go for an average of 17 years. you know, it's crazy. i'm not going to cheer or mean sometimes even more. you've got, for example, but assuming refugees for 70 years, wazell sovereign, i'm what i want to shoot charles cure is that in terms of funding, in terms of support, are you getting enough from member states?

it listen it's, it's such a good question. it's something we struggle with every day because we, we do have a lot of generous supporters. in fact, here in katara, i just, um, we signed an agreement for in $8000000.00 which was so generous of the government here. but of course, we always need more, right, because the needs are, are just endless. honestly, because we try to provide so much support to so many children. and we could have probably 10 times our budget and still not even be, you know, nearly doing what we need to do around the world. because children are facing just endless challenges around the world. we're trying to get children educated. we're trying to make sure children are immunized everywhere and deal with the results of co bid. there are just so many challenges i. i was in afghanistan recently where we were working on trying to get children back in school. but i also found that children there are so cutely malnourished, and it was

a very alarming problem. i mean, honestly, i was, i went to a hospital where we treat children for acute round nutrition. and you know, i've seen a lot of things over my career. i've never seen anything so upsetting. honestly these babies were just, they were, they were just skin and bones and we were treating them with. and we have the way to treat them. but it's still, i know that that's a drop in the bought bucket in terms of the number of children who need that care. and you know, our estimates are 95 percent of the population in afghanistan are under will be in the next 3 months underneath the poverty. so i'm gonna, if you don't mind, i will ask you a question about this and i'm at o b, the responsibility foot this you've taken, the responsibility is eunice of to try and 8 and provide for it. but the reason why i'm not going to single out in the country here will go through a few of them. for example, if gunnison is where it is now you for talk about tickets of war. so whether it was a russians before the americans in the brits, or who were there, we talk about human,

saudi arabia on what it's doing there. you talk about ukraine and russia. what is stronger? is it not frustrating? and i know you're still new in the store, but is it not frustrating that there is no mechanism but forces countries who are primarily responsible for the suffering of children rather than you having to pick up the pieces and then go, you know, with a cap and hand to these countries to do it that there should be a mechanism that forces them to pick up. what are the pieces that they destroyed in terms of people's lives? you know, i mean the, the good thing and the bad thing about my job is i, i don't, i don't get involved in politics or in, but look, there's a lot of responsibility to go around for the world's children. right. and i think in a way we all bear responsibility for them, right? we all bear responsibility for the next generation. and we have to come together as a united world and try to figure out how best to support these children. it's in all of our interest to do that. and i think that, you know, when i go to a country like afghanistan or pakistan or any given country, i talked to the that country about what they need to do, obviously. and then they,

they are, they need support with regards to the status of a right to education for girls and what kind of stuff. what role does units of have been trying to provide educational, ensure that education was provided to, to, to young girls there? well, as i said, i did visit afghanistan, i wanted that to be the 1st place that place i went on my 1st trip, which indeed it was. and i met with the tower, then several taliban leaders there and talked to them about 2 things. one that girls have a right to an education, and unicef believes that and, and i communicate is that to them quite directly. but i also what was their response? so they, they, they didn't disagree with me. they didn't disagree with me. they're very, ah, the italian leaders i met with were very young, open to the conversation. i also talk to them about how i girl's education was

important. and oh, almost a sort of a litmus test to people in the west and that they had to understand that that, that, um, so many of our people who work with unicef, support, unicef, western governments. we do see girls education as a very important issue for whether the taliban is going to be kind of a legitimate government and open government. a government that supports pete, it's people or not. and i tried to communicate that to them, that they need to understand how critical that single issue is as is in, in a way. and i think they understood that now, you know, we at, at, we're happy that we were, that they were indicating to us. and then indeed girls were told that they were going to be able to go back to school. unfortunately, they showed up to school and were sent home. and so, you know,

we're now hoping that, that, you know, and we've been told that that's not really a final decision that they're considering what they want to do. but, you know, this is a, this is a critical moment for the taliban, one of one of the other countries that unfortunately children are suffering reluctant, or whether it's, you know, for their lives or malnutrition or lack of education. yemen. can you tell me a bit more about the work that you myself is doing there and challenges there? no, it's, it's a terrible situation honestly. and it has been going on for years and it, it, it, i don't see a solution at hand. and i'm very worried about it because i, i don't know, i don't know what happens next. i mean, we are, we are, it's certainly they are working on trying to help the children who live there, but it's a, it's a desperate situation and we need more funds. they are, we don't have enough money for our efforts there. and what happens at unicef said

a lot of our sons, some of our funding we can use wherever we want. but most of our funding is, is directed is given by individuals or countries, or whomever, gives it to us for certain purposes. and so we, we certainly need more money for yemen and because it hasn't, as, as you pointed out, hasn't been in the headlines recently as ukraine has. there is another issue that i want to talk about, which is where it falls under the umbrella of protecting children. and it's the rest of children in prison and go children, we've seen, it's either in terms of child soldiers that have been picked up in some conflicts between us dance officer down in the past. we've seen, for example, in israel with israel arresting according to bait selim these really human rights organization for them, for 600 children in recent months. do you believe that her, the legislation that currently exists in terms of protecting children on an

international level is enough? listen, it's very challenging. you know, i mean we, we, we are a child's rights organization, right? we believe children have rights and certainly children should not be arrested. right? children should not be in prison and children should not be. i'm children should not be fighting and conflicts. i mean, we certainly believe that i'm, but you know, children should not be subjected at jam. children should not be married early. there are a lot of rights violations that go on around the world. and we protest those and, and, you know, argue against those and try to support children and do our best for that. but yes, i mean, what is the mechanism to support it for us? the mechanism is we have to work with governments and work with partners around the world to try to combat it. there are several countries that have been pushing for the reform of the united nations with regards to you and agencies, likeness of like, raw, like others. do you believe that maybe they require some not necessarily reform,

but new tools, new mechanisms um that would help maybe further your work make it less difficult. yeah. it's a, it's a little bit of a hard question for me to answer because i've only been there for a couple of months. so i, other than thing that the un is very bureaucratic and has way too many meetings. i'm not going with that extra, but the one thing i would say, but unicef is we do both humanitarian work and developmental work. we're in development work. we're the only one of the only agencies that has both mandates. so we go in and deal with humanitarian crises, but we also are trying to do the development side, which is to try to help deal with problems before they become a crisis. right. so in a way, i think that unicef is lucky to have both those mandates because we are trying to while, while we are dealing with a problem also trying to work on things so that we can avoid the next problem. and i think that is the right approach and certainly for us,

but i think it's also the right approach more generally. because the only way you can really try to prevent these things in the future is couple things. one to try to make sure children are healthy, right? so they're vaccinated that they have decent nutrition, and that they are educated, right? that's the future of the world is if you can make those things happen is i can avoid every conflict in the future. no. but it is the best hope for the world, right, is that children are healthy, educated, love taken care of. and that way, you know, we have some hope that in the future will have a better world. and that's what unicef is really working for. catherine russell, executive director of units, or thank you very much for talking, talk to you. thank you so much. the stage is set and it's time for a different approach. one that is going to challenge the way you think was wor,

inevitable. i just want to started to please know that they're not doing the right thing was leave simplicity to the headlines. join me as i take on the lars dismantled misconstrued since and debate the contradiction, do we have a real democracy here in the united states? the sort of political party that's a radical insurgency, are mark lamond hill and it's time to get up front right here on out 0 investigative journalism. my role in this by pride, the in information about global experts and discussion the pandemic didn't create all of these problems. it showed us our true color voices from different corners. we don't need to sensationalize how we fail these stories. what journalists do best is look at the heart of the story. programs that open your eyes to an alternative view of the well today. oh no, just dara mainstream coverage of big stories can sometimes deliver more heat than light. in any water scenario, there's always

a push to simplify. narratives. nuances is always called for even in the case of an aggressive war, the listening pe, delve into the news, narrative and dissect them. there is not our great deal of subtlety. we're talking about the barbarism that is unfolding as though we're somehow unique. it's not unique covering the way the news is covered on al jazeera, investigative journalism. my role in this, i tried to be in a mis all hit to train station in ukraine, filled with people escaping the threat of a russian of friends who needs more than 50, are killed. ah, mccloud. this is al jazeera live from dough also come me up. we meet residents in one ukrainian region desperate for aid, but some say they've been forgotten off to russia. so the political future of pakistan's prime minister is in the hands of parlor.