this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 2pm: the united nations says the world faces the largest humanitarian crisis since 1916. more than 20 million people face famine in parts of africa and the middle east and urgent action is needed, the un says. reports from syria say at least a0 people have been killed and dozens injured following two explosions in the capital damascus. more than 60 prisoners have had to be moved out of a section of guys march jail in dorset because of a fire started by a protesting inmate. a retiring femalejudge is criticised for saying women can protect themselves against potential rapists by not getting too drunk. the government cracks down on ticket touts. computer software which buys hundreds of tickets within seconds is to be made illegal with law breakers facing unlimited fines. and coming up: the invisible killer. as part of the bbc‘s we can breathe season which looks at how to tackle pollution, we visit the most polluted road in britain outside london.

good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the world is facing its largest humanitarian crisis since the end of the second world war, say the united nations. its humanitarian chief says more than 20 million people face the threat of starvation and famine in four countries in africa and the middle east — nigeria, somalia, south sudan and yemen. the un say 5.5 billion is needed, byjuly, to avert disaster. our world affairs correspondent richard galpin has more details. for months now, it's been known that millions of people, including young babies like this, in yemen, have been starving. she was just four months

old when a bbc team met her in december. and across yemen, hundreds of thousands more children have so little to eat they are struggling to stay alive. and the threat of mass starvation is affecting three other countries. this is a refugee camp in south sudan, which, like yemen, has been torn apart by conflict. families forced to flea their homes and left with little to see —— flee. already a family has been officially declared here, with almost half the population in urgent need of help. we stand at a critical point in our history. already at the beginning of the year, we are facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the creation of the united nations. now more than 20 million people across four countries face starvation and famine. without collective and coordinated

global efforts, people will simply starve to death. the number of people the un says is now in dangerer is huge. almost two million in nigeria. nearly five million in south sudan, and 1a million in yemen. the un predicts without serious help 1.4 million people could die before the end of the year, unless more aid money is found. they're calling for £3.6 billion to tackle this crisis. apart from conflict, another major cause of the crisis is drought. this is somalia, which has been particularly hard hit. in this hospital in the capital mogadishu, doctors have been treating people who've travelled almost 200 miles to get medical help. the most the cases, the death

cause is dehydration. we are doing the rehydration of the child and we have given some antibiotic. some basic aid is reaching those in need, but nowhere near enough. so it's possible famine could be declared in all four countries, unprecedented in modern times. michael penrose is the executive director for unicef uk. hejoins me now from paris. thank you for being with us. let me ask you first of all about the scale of this. there is a danger, when you use language like the worst, the biggest, people cannot grasp the scale of what we are talking about. trying to humanise it, how would you express what the un is talking about? it is so important that we

and —— understand how unprecedented this is. the things we are hearing on the ground in somalia, south sudan, women unable to breast—feed because they are not getting enough nutrition themselves to produce milk for their children. 0ver nutrition themselves to produce milk for their children. over 20 million people face food in security. there has only been a handful of famines since the second world war and we are looking at for simultaneously, potentially. that is something i have never seen in 22 years. and it is the long—term consequences as well. if you have famine on this scale, if this is what happens this year, if we don't do enough to prevent it, that the damage to people can last for a generation and beyond, the mind the damage to a country in terms of land not being cultivated and long—term food supply and so on. absolutely. we are facing to threats. the immediate threat of children starving to death. 1.4

million. 0n children starving to death. 1.4 million. on top of that, if children go with malnutrition for any extended period of time, the damage becomes permanent. they lose their intellectual capability, they lose their health, so as well as the immediate life—saving, unless we can get in and continue to support these people, we are going to abandon a generation. the age groups and agencies, the monetary and organisations, the relief operations have been warning about this for some months. they have made appeals for money, some money is coming in but not as much as had been originally pledged. if this way trying to change that dynamic? saying, yes, we hear what you are saying, but we have other problems that we are dealing with. the words that we are dealing with. the words that describes the requirement here is humanity. the sheer scale of this problem and the impact it is having on children means that we all have

to come together with collective humanity. unicef have been saying for a long time there is a problem here. when we use the word famine it means it really is critical that children are going to die. i don't think this is something we can ignore. yes, there are other priorities but this has to be the top pirated. immediate relief, you talk about long—term action, but as people say, famine is generally man—made, it is the consequence of other things, like war and instability, the mass movement of people, displacement and so on, is a national —— enough of the international effort going into that side of it, sustaining ceasefires, putting in the —— peacekeeping situations? absolutely. unicef has people on all of these countries on the ground who could get in if the conduct were to permit it. you could save these lives. but there are no

humanitarian solutions to what fundamentally critical problem. yes, we can save lives in the short term but we need to sit down with those with influence and find injuring solutions to these complex. while pa rt solutions to these complex. while part of the convict is —— lack of ability forfarmers part of the convict is —— lack of ability for farmers to plant at the moment is absolutely because of the conflict. reports from syria say at least 40 people have been killed and dozens injured following two explosions in the capital damascus. it's thought two suicide bombers targeted buses transporting shiite pilgrims near an ancient cemetery in the city. it's not yet clear who was behind the attack. correspondent richard conway is in the city. he sent this report. this is the largest attack to hit damascus in some time. the suicide bomber detonated his device in this district in the centre of damascus,

killing 40 people, injuring dozens more. the target was sheer pilgrims. the president wants to visit his country returning to normal but it isa country returning to normal but it is a long way off from happening. more than 60 prisoners were evacuated from a jail in dorset last night after a large fire was started by an inmate. it's believed he climbed onto the roof of hmp guys marsh near shaftesbury after complaining about a change of regime,at the prison. fiona lamdin is there now. last night, there were over ten fire engines at this prison. they surrounded the building as they put out the flames and smoke. today, the fai has clearly been put out. in the last few moments, the fire engine drove in. the other thing we have seen drove in. the other thing we have seen today coming in at through this gate is prison bans. there is some speculation that some of the prisoners had to be evacuated and

are being moved. but this hasn't yet been stood up. flames and thick smoke filled the night sky above hmp guys marsh. after an inmate thought to be drunk, wearing many layers of clothes, set light to them on top of the prison roofjust after eight o'clock last night. as firefighters controlled what they described as the large fire outside, inside, 64 prisoners were moved from their cells to the safety of the gym. in an unannounced inspection, two—and—a—half years ago, investigators found this place in crisis. they said staff and managers had all but lost control. they said one in four prisoners felt unsafe as gangs operate openly. from where you are here, what could you actually see? we could see out of our bedroom windows some flames. george bolton lives opposite the prison. as i understand it, he ripped tiles off the roof and set fire to his close and it caught the timbers of alight. that's where the fire came from.

we didn't see flames, because we can't see past that house there, but we did see the glow. another blaze in another prison. it's just one in a long string, 50 fires are reported each week in prisons in england and wales. these figures have doubled in two years, a strong indication of the chaos going on behind the country's prison fences. 0ne neighbour said he did once find drugs in his garden but he says he has never lived there and seen a fire like last night and that is what everyone says. i spoke to another person living opposite and he says he has knitted 20 years and never anything like last night and also they hope nothing like this

happens again. joining us now with the shadow justice happens again. joining us now with the shadowjustice minister. thank you for being with us. what do you make of this incident? it is not surprising because as we have been noting, there is this problem in prisons across the tree where there are these types of activities happening, there are assaults on prison officers, assaults of inmates on each other, high levels of suicide. lots of drugs and other issues of that nature in our prison system. actually, things have been getting out of hand now for quite a hearing of time. so, i'm not surprised to hear about this particular incident occurring. we are told by the ministry ofjustice that there are long—term plans, and indeed some of the plans are coming in as we speak, in terms of recruitment of extra prison officers, which are designed to ameliorate some of these problems. we have our prison system that is

comparatively old, in large parts, and we have demand for prison places thatis and we have demand for prison places that is high. how would you change that is high. how would you change that balance? there are two ways of approaching this. one is when the government came in in 2010, they cut down a quarter of the prison staff numbers. that is boundary is as you have these difficulties. what's the osman sow they are trying to recruit 2500 more prison officers, they have not unable to recruit many at all. one of the reasons is because none of the golf coming in, they are leaving within short periods of time because the stress on them of being prison guards is tremendous, they don't want to carry on. one of the ideas we have suggested to the government is that perhaps, prison guards were made redundant have to be brought back on a short—term contract be brought back on a short—term co ntra ct to be brought back on a short—term contract to deal with the sit duration because they need x periods to guards to deal with this. ——

experienced guards. they are often the only people prisoners talk to so they act as an informal pastoral ca re of they act as an informal pastoral care of this. a lot of prisons are overcrowded. we have in our country to things going on. on the one hand, there is a feeling that the maximum number of people should be locked away for the maximum period of centres and if we want to have that kind of prison policy which is often come to productive, —— counter—productive, then you need loads of rehabilitation and education programmes and prison officers. one of the biggest problems with god is 16 year and pounds is being sent —— one of the biggest problems we have is the money spent on preventing reoffending. at the end of the day,

you can sentence reoffending. at the end of the day, you can sentence somebody for three yea rs you can sentence somebody for three years 01’ you can sentence somebody for three years orfour you can sentence somebody for three years or four years you can sentence somebody for three years orfour years or you can sentence somebody for three years or four years or five years but far fewer prisoners will be in for life. they want to come back into society and they really need support when they come out of the business service in terms of accommodation, education, in terms of being able to look after themselves so they don't commit offences that takes them back to prison. that requires resources. the justice secretary does not want to look at the issue of how we do this. i don't want to look at this. at the same time, they are not investing the money we need to actually tackle the money we need to actually tackle the problem. one of the quickest things they need to do is to get prison officers in. and whilst they are trying to recruit them, but more are trying to recruit them, but more are leaving. we have suggested to them, bring in the risen officers

that you prematurely made redundant in 2010, a quarter of them, recruit them back and they can at least... and at the same time, you need real investment. unless the government invests in terms of personnel, in terms of holding better prisons, and also we have a system of rehabilitation, education, supporting officers —— prisoners when they come out, and unique the manpower, the pastoral care, people are not being searched only because they don't have the resources to search every single person. mobile phones are coming in. all these things are very resource intensive than the government really is not doing enough, quickly enough, to address these issues. the headlines on bbc news: a plea for help from the un, which says the world

faces its largest humanitarian crisis since 1945, guys as millions of people face famine in parts of africa and the middle east. reports from syria say at least 40 people have been killed , and dozens injured , following two explosions in the capital damascus. a fire has caused damage to guys marsh prison in dorset after a prisoner was able to start a blaze on the roof. more than 60 prisoners have been moved to safety. a female judge has warned women who get drunk that they are putting themselves in danger of being targeted by rapists. lindsey kushner qc said what she called disinhibited behaviour could put women in danger. the comments have been described by the campaign group rape crisis as outrageous and misguided. francis fitzgibbon is the chair of the criminal bar association. he says he agrees with the judge. he says he agrees with the judgem

is unusual for he says he agrees with the judgem is unusualfor a judge he says he agrees with the judgem is unusual for a judge to make he says he agrees with the judgem is unusualfor a judge to make ride waging comments —— wide—ranging comments that go past this. it seems to me she is lamenting the prevalence of attacks on young vulnerable women by rapists and one of the things that makes women vulnerable to that sort of attack is when they get very drunk. she was very careful not to blame the victims of the rape for what has happened to them. she said, a woman can do with her body whatever she wa nts. can do with her body whatever she wants. and a man will have to adjust his behaviour accordingly. don't think anyone can disagree with that. it seems to me that what she is really saying is that when a person, any person does something like getting extremely funk, which is potentially risky, they need to be aware of the risks of what they are taking and have some understanding of where it may lead them. i think

it is unfairto of where it may lead them. i think it is unfair to characterise what she said as blaming the victims for what happens to them. i think she makes it very clear that the violent behaviour of rapists is the fall problem and they are 100% responsible for what they do. but it seems to me, more as a parent, than asa seems to me, more as a parent, than as a lawyer, that it is sensible to tell 1's children when they start going out on their own to be alert, to look for the danger, to stay with their friends to look for the danger, to stay with theirfriends and to look for the danger, to stay with their friends and make sure they can get home afterwards and look after each other as well. that seems to me to be plain common sense. online touts who bulk buy tickets and sell them for inflated prices will face unlimited fines under

new government plans. it will also be illegal to use so—called bots, or automated computer software, to bypass limits on the maximum amount of tickets that can be bought. our business correspondent joe lynam is with me. what is a macro three —— what? thousands of tickets appeared on legitimate such as —— secondary market, it is perfectly legitimate for the secondary markets to sell tickets but what is not legal is, and it will now be criminalised, is these bots. it is a bit of software that harms the relativity of tickets, snap them up, they have an array of credit cards they can use, snap them up and puts them back on these markets had fastly inflated

prices. you and i, if we stay up late and stay up, there is still no chance of getting these tickets. the legitimate sellers themselves are annoyed that people up priced out of the market. a ticket with the face value of £60 will be on the market for £200. how much responsible as she rests on customers to just say, i'm not prepared to pay this ludicrously inflated price, however much i want to see my idol? you and imight be much i want to see my idol? you and i might be saying consumers. but if you absolutely must see a certain act, whatever it is, you will pay what you need to pay, and if that means it is game to cost an arm and a leg but this is a special concert... it goes back to pricing

the legitimate fans out of the market because they cannot afford often to pay £1000 for a ticket. you will be able to do that. the rhetoric is good. the industry is saying this is great news, i can't imagine fans and musicians will be saying the same. you can come after these bots if the companies are based in the united kingdom is, but the vast majority of these companies are operating out of an apartment in bangalore, for all we know. i have spoken to some ticketing experts today and they are saying that these bots may not be robots at all. they may be real human beings being paid a pittance in sweatshops outside the uk to make these purchases and then put them on these purchases and then put them on the secondary market. they might be paid 25 cents to buy a ticket. the turkish president has described

the government of the netherlands as nazi remnants and fascists in an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries. his comments come after turkish foreign minister mevlut cavusoglu was stopped from landing in rotterdam amid concerns about his bid to drum up support for mr erdogan. dutch prime minister mark rutte said that mr cavusoglu's visit would be a threat to public order. turkish rallies have been cancelled in other parts of europe including germany due to fears over possible human rights abuses following last year's failed coup against president erdogan. earlier, mr cavusoglu gave this comment to cnn turk on the likelihood of his visit to the netherlands being blocked. translation: if the netherlands cancels my my permission to fly today... they are constantly threatening that. if they do that there will be harsh economic and political sanctions against the netherlands.

this will not go unanswered. if you cancel my flight permission, there will be heavy consequences. earlier my colleague maxine mawhinney spoke to our correspondent mark lowen in istanbul. he explained the reaction in turkey. it started off last week with germany banning turkish ministers from coming to germany to speak to the diaspora there for campaign rallies. austria followed suit. there were bands in switzerland. and now the netherlands at actually banning the plane of the turkish foreign ministerfrom banning the plane of the turkish foreign minister from branding banning the plane of the turkish foreign ministerfrom branding in rotterdam. it is unprecedented. what is equally unprecedented is the reaction from turkey, the turkish government is calling them nazis, nazi remnants carrying out not see practices. on the one hand, you might think this is a chaotic

colla pse might think this is a chaotic collapse in relations between turkey and its european partners but on the other hand, you have to think that mr erdogan is a canny political operator. when turkey is seen as the underdog that they drive. this stand—off with the netherlands, germany, and others, it needs he can present turkey and himself as being repressed by europe and that he is standing tall to represent turkish nationalism and that will play well in the turkish referendum in six weeks' time in which he is seeking for more powers. given that the netherlands have introduced this and, i'll be expected to hear from the president with more? the immediate reaction was to call them not see remnants but there could well be ramifications in some kind of attempt to block dutch planes coming here, although no dutch ministers are coming here in the

next few days. could there be sanctions placed on the netherlands? could there be protests? we have already seen people outside the dutch consulate in istanbul. he knows he wants to cater and speak to his half of the country that is nationalist, that will be reassured by his stance here. the other half of the country is recording in horror at his behaviour and europe is recording in horror as well. he is recording in horror as well. he isa man is recording in horror as well. he is a man who doesn't care much about the other side of the country. experts have revealed that the author, jane austen, was virtually blind towards the end of her life, possibly because of arsenic poisoning. tests on her glasses show that medicine she had been taking could have contained arsenic, which may have contributed to her early death. ben moore has this exclusive report. for one of history's greatest writers, just reading her own novels would have been very difficult without these. jane austen's specs have been at the british library for 20 years,

but only now can they bring focus to her life. back in the early 19th century there were prescriptions, similar to what we have today. so what we did was have somebody bring in a portable lensmeter so we could very, very carefully have it examined. austen was longsighted. firstly low perception, but her eyesight deteriorated. the final pair revealed that she would have had great trouble reading and writing. this could help reveal the mystery of why she died so young. the possibility of her being poisoned accidentally with a heavy metal such as arsenic. we know now that arsenic poisoning can cause cataracts. arsenic was often put into medication for other types of illness, so potentially for rheumatism, which jane austen suffered from. using modern optometry, we are able to see just what jane austen's eyesight would have been like. that is 475. i cannot see your face at all.

i can only see my hand when it's about there. so that's what she needed, to correct her vision. the british library wants optometrists to get in touch and offer their professional opinions. a rare chance to see things through the eyes of one of our best—loved authors. let's return to the remarks from the retiring judge warning that women who get very drunk are more likely to be at risk from predatory males as rapists. let's talk to someone whojoins us from as rapists. let's talk to someone who joins us from newcastle. dame vera, thank you for being with us. it seems her remarks were quite carefully thought through. she made clear she is not talking about this reducing the response of the tea of men who take advantage of women. she compared it to leaving lord door

open. you are creating a vulnerability you don't necessarily wa nt to vulnerability you don't necessarily want to create. she is clearly worried about young women being raped and the message should be directed at the men who are raping. those predatory men who deliberately pick on a bold rebel young woman, —— vulnerable young woman, they are deliberately focusing on someone because of their vulnerability, it would be better to say that that predatory behaviour is well understood and will be treated with very strong sentencing. unfortunately, if you focus, and she herself had knowledge that judges are often criticised for focusing too much on the conduct of the complainant and not on the conduct of the rapist, if you focus on the young woman, or young man, because

of course it happens to them as well, and say that they are, if they have been drinking, are seen less likely to be believed or more likely to have consented to the individual, thenit to have consented to the individual, then it looks as if you are shifting then it looks as if you are shifting the responsibility over to that person. i know she said that you can do what you want with your body, you can drink yourself to a standstill if you want to do that, but then we nt if you want to do that, but then went to say that if you do that, you put yourself at greater risk of rape. it is worried that what she has done consciously or unconsciously, and i am sure it is the latter, is she has put people off complaining, if they have had a drink, andl off complaining, if they have had a drink, and i really would not want to send the message that —— i want to send the message that —— i want to send the message that —— i want to send a message that this is a throwback message. the criminal justice authorities can well deal