a sad fact of war for some reason this time around they seem to be avoiding any mention of who it is that controls east ghouta all but the same job when the islamists blindly shelled damascus every day and slaughter more and more civilians well that's war when the syrian army responds suddenly it's an atrocity remarkable isn't it how the rules change entirely depending on who's calling the shots. well to discuss the latest in syria i'm happy to say that we're joined live on the program by michele hoffman a senior advisor at doctors without borders you're very welcome to the program what is the current situation in eastern cooter. it is your good sir that we can really talk about what we see and the hospitals that. we support. so we have

six supposably supported and. i hope the nations in the last few days. overthrow markets and a number of wounded people has increased dramatically in the last. few days we don't have to report to us today but at the end of yesterday the hospitals at least afford so we don't know what happens in the. reported thirty eight hundred over the. two hundred. seventy people. that's an indicator of course that. there is a lot of very activity in the in the area. hospitals have. been destroyed and out of service. nine of them are still managed to continue some of those. those services are the

biggest problem for the moment the ones that still function. supplies. especially surgical supply side and stuff takes. hifi antibiotics and blood back have all but run out in those hospitals. if the archon see but an extremely. stupid difficult situation the. people in eastern goods are judged by . the increase of the number of wounded. the hospitals we support have received just expounding on what you said there we see people living in dire conditions michel we're showing pictures as you're speaking and what do they need there. that i need to know things. medical organizations so we focus obviously over. the medical needs first for two things for the.

patients and the stopping those most of those to be to be safe and of course for those people that need medical care or that it's a lot of wounded people but also many people with core diseases. another. two to receive supplies for the most important thing is safety for these hospitals the patients and the stuff of medical supplies surgical supplies at this moment are key world powers are addressing the situation in eastern guta not the un security council what do you hope that the i come would be all of that. go from our perspective it's obviously you know. matter. of. living that are not involved fighting. but.

you're at the are not. subjected to any more it's to any of the violence. that has happened which is the. last surviving just going on a medical supply so some sort of agreement that. these medicines and especially i repeat surgical supplies are honest i think can enter into the. besieged. place the surgeons. can do that my saving work well thank you so much for for joining us on program and giving us some information on what is really needed there in that area michele hoffman a senior advisor at doctors without borders from boston this hour. well i'm also joined live in the program by peter ford peters a former u.k. and buster to syrian a close follower of developments in the region peter welcome. just in the

actual what is going on there or not could the propose cease fire could it actually help the terrorists fend off the syrian army which is trying to clear them from the city in essence letting them regroup letting them rearm this is one of the issues being spoken of by today. could only work for the benefit of the jihad the who could regroup patch the wound from the above all they would hope to mobilize more international u.s. led port and opposition to any resumption of hostility to get them on the other hand a brief forty eight hour seventy two hour truth might not be on real by the ball go for the cure if you can thaw. who commit the with the bushman humanitarian corridor. do you believe that the positions

that some nations are taking on groups are different to those undertaking. journal abrasion of rock iraq's mozilla's well for example you'll remember as well as me that the statements the language used back then particularly by washington that if civilians are killed then it's on the terrorists that's what we heard back then not so much now. absolutely the russian ambassador made a fair point the double standard of blatant. land. with media. totally airbrushed out of the picture literally because the picture the jihadi. you. a naive view might imagine that it was just bombing civilians for the hell of it because the jihadi

fighters are totally absent from the picture and of course the pictures are literally provided by the jihadi themselves. this is one reason for the misunderstanding willful misunderstanding because the diplomat. all think euro to counsel countries know the reality what the media fail to point out also is that islamic state is one of the groups which hold yarmouk camp which is one corner of. and then you have an affiliate of al qaida which is holding another corner. real bad guys exactly the guy that when called out of most so and. with many three million casualties in the process. when in terms of what happens now we heard

the russian side calling for a unified solution in your experience and your thoughts of what we're hearing now do you think that is going to happen i'm not optimistic the. jihadi even recently been fighting amongst themselves the islamic state has been grabbing territory from some of the other jihadi groups like. cats in a bag. difficult to see how they can form a unified position however the president of aleppo jeff that ultimately this is what is likely to happen that is a negotiated conditional surrender by the jihadi then they will get them filled with evacuated to relative safety expert insight as always on the program peter ford former u.k. ambassador to syria thank you. thank you. ok no on

to germany where a top representative of the nationalist party has launched a scathing attack on chancellor merkel he told a parliamentary session on thursday that her policies are a failure and that she is part of a push to impose multiculturalism not just in germany but in all of europe peter oliver has been following developments finger pointing and a walkout by the chancellor is this the new normal of german politics it was a very heated session in the bundestag on thursday morning here in berlin. merkel was outlining how she see some of the challenges facing germany and europe and what needed to be done on that but it was really the performance from the political new kids on the block alternative that germany well certainly drew a lot of the attention first off we heard from alex vidler who's one of their co-leaders she said that the e.u.

no longer represented the german taxpayer in fact going as far as to call it pure socialism well that resulted in a lot of groans and a few boos from her fellow members of the bundestag she also called for a reduction in the e.u. budget post breaks it but then it was the turn of her co-leader alexander golland to speak he hits out directly at angola merkel's support for the proposed e.u. refugee distribution system that would see an overhaul of the dublin treaty that would see mandatory quotas for e.u. nations saying that they have to take set amounts of refugees you know countries want to decide for themselves who they take in there is no national do to with regard to multiculturalism and this last remark goes especially to the greens here well that prompted this reaction from the chancellor angela merkel clearly having enough decided she was often not going to stick around to hear mr cowen say that he

supported. it cooperation between the e.u. member states but not the formation of the united states of europe well is this the new normal in german politics because like them all loath them alternative for germany have the votes there in the parliament we've actually seen them growing in the polls of late but one can't really presume that every time they say something that mrs merkel doesn't agree with she's got to decide she has somewhere else better to be when i was an eventful day in the german parliament shortly after the incident peter was the scribing m.p. . bateson banning the veil proposed by the f.t. . the book at its work is the oath for the manifestation of islamic culture the tourists or women being veiled would be a fateful sign that our constitutional state is falling back under the cultural colonization of radical islam our fundamental values i adhere to people who are free and equal the full covering is a signal that there isn't

a will to participate in our open society even colleague and. dear colleagues a wolf in sheep's clothing sits in our bundestag this proposal isn't motivated by the stated reasons but rather as the applicant has already claimed to the press before we had it on our desks and how we've just been confirmed to be as a measure against the culture of color and ice age as is the often quoted if your proposal is successful the women who are up until now forced by their families and husbands only to leave the house while fully covered what in the future no longer be able to leave the house at all therefore you're not helping these women rather you're robbing them of the last morsel of freedom and participation in our society . is evil and the other way it is true when you don't want to hear these arguments because they come from the wrong facts you're aware i no longer belong to them but the need for action in this matter is still as it was before you believe you and

why i put out to god about the religious freedom belongs to germany other politicize this not and we are going to turn against this and average where this politicized islam attempts to restrict our way of life because if usual state will stand opposed to this. the windswept portuguese island of tourists here in the azores in the middle of the atlantic ocean is in desperate need of contamination decades of us or a force activity have allegedly left it polluted with hydrocarbons and heavy metals and islanders say that they are worried about the prevalence of cancer and other serious illnesses. the real commune but back to twenty thousand years this is the constant aso like

this if this is releases that never constant someone now that's eighteen twenty twenty eight hours and twenty thousand twenty days out. of them freely and it started to run away from here as well ready to stay too long . most what we have is a series of locations with extremely high levels of pollution caused by heavy metals or hydrocarbons there are very high levels of lead in some zones copper zinc molybdenum they've all of them heavy metals that in certain concentrations can cause to realty cancer arrhythmia and neverending amounts of problems associated with an excess of these substances. all my family lived in that area both of my parents died of cancer my mom of breast cancer and my dad was

a different kind of cancer like when i was thirty three i was diagnosed with breast cancer. much confusing the more cancer cases there are the more that appeal ation asks why is this happening and why if private soria are the roads that on one side all houses have a had at least one case of cancer and on the other side it's almost every other house that is not normal yours. well the u.s. has been tamed a presence on the island since nineteen forty three. serves as a stopover for a transatlantic military flights and is home to the sixty fifth base group although it's not known how many personnel are currently stationed there there are one hundred sixty one houses to accommodate them one former employee told us about the

health risks that workers at the facility say they have also been exposed to. going to were meant there was also a senate commission that came to check the legal process from some members of the american military who die enough to. give us the on to save our lives we were here for a week and june this is our much found out that we are doing here we were here to confirm the existence of radiation. radioactive contamination with. well the dire environmental situation on the island was first acknowledged in a classified report written in two thousand and three it's since been leaked details seventeen major fuel spills in one fifteen thousand gallons of jet fuel were released when a pipeline was on the intentionally activated that was in one thousand nine hundred four and there's been no cleanup since the report stresses that the island's inhabitants are at risk from contaminants in the soil and water is what the local

experts have been telling us. well five we found in the data that was published referring to the two thousand and seven two thousand and eleven period a higher number of certain cancers in the prior. than the rest of the years or so especially regarding the rare cancers for example i can with thirty three percent of the cases being in prior difference or while the area has only eight point five two percent of the population of. the and we think this is the repeat itself on various islands occupied by the americans life this is almost a scorched earth policy where the problems accumulate and the local government doesn't react the population has no capacity to take a stance and maybe as a result of scientific illiteracy or lack of knowledge on the cause effect relations. to olympic athletes from russia have been stripped of their bronze

medals in curling by the court of arbitration for sport after one of them tested positive for a banned substance reporting from south korea here is. so cass is officially saying that the first ever russian medal in curling that was won by the oh a mixed deal well now have to be taken away from them the announcement comes just about fifteen hours after alexander crucial lead ski hose both doping test samples turned out to be positive formal dhoni chose not to proceed with the court of arbitration for sport hearing that was planned for thursday afternoon. it's silly to do don't they don't be rules violations when the presence of a prohibited substance was consumed by to doping tests i'm ready for the verdict which is predictably the same in all cases and i weigh the pros and cons and decided to withdraw from the cas hearings and i think in this situation it's

useless and senseless so the washing curler has admitted that there was an anti-doping rule violation formally but he maintains that he is not guilty and that he has never taken the pills on purpose today we found out that alexander crucial needs he and his wife are not giving up the legal battle completely the russian curling federation will be looking to help them through trying to prove his innocence eventually and also they will try to get back these medals for now they haven't been able to obtain the c.c.t.v. footage or any other possible evidence that could play in favor of the o.a.r. athletes but if they do so the court of arbitration for sport provides the opportunity to relaunch the arbitration later the concentration of mill dony i'm in these two don't bring test samples pointed to a single use and we heard from the man who invented the drug that taking the pills

once or twice is absolutely useless besides this we've spoken to the coaches experts other curlers who had suggested that there may have been some sort of sabah taj that someone could have spiked alexander's food or drinks although if the curlers want to get their medals back they will obviously have to prove that and that is a very difficult process live from moscow every hour of the day this is our to international more great programs right ahead and i'll see you in thirty. think. welcome to all that might just

a few years ago that walt was on track if not to eliminate hunger and to reduce it gradually that changed in two thousand and sixteen when the number of people suffering from an empty stomach started to rise again and in several countries hunger morphed into famine how can they be reversed outrank while to discuss that i'm now joined by david beasley executive director of the world food program mr beazley it's great to talk to you thank you for your time it was good to be with you thank you now when the news of your appointment came foreign policy and magazine road that the un put appointee they had of the world food program to quote help stave off u.s. cuts if that was their rationale has it worked out well it has a better kicking and screaming into the system because i was not necessarily a un person but when i heard the facts of how bad the situation was around the world with all the conflict war and hunger coupled with the fact that the united

states very well make i decided i would take the role in so i hit the ground running facing for famines facing the worst humanitarian crisis since the beginning of the united nations which by the way seventy years of history here and in russia and so we were facing a catastrophic situation along with the fact that the number one donor into the u.n. system the united states was talking about cutting all the money so who will that job well frankly if they persuaded you to take on that you certainly had some success. it's already here for example of securing presence chunk g. twenty pledge show for six hundred fifty nine million dollars to relief famine in four african countries was that pledged on earth in full and how far did it go in addressing the problem well the united states is historically been a tremendous support of the world food program as has russia but the united states

was giving about one point nine billion what i assume this role in everyone thought that it would go the other way zero out which would be catastrophic and in fact the united states went from one point nine billion to two point five billion in other countries as well have been stepping up in a very significant way because as i till a million my friends if you want to spend another half a trillion dollars on destabilization military operations cut the world food program we're now into a second year of the trumpet ministration and there is still a lot of speculations about how this white house operates they set a formal and informal libraries that set in motion i know that you make no secret of the fact that you try to enlist they support the funky trump who've served officially as as an advisor to her father how helpful was her benevolence in securing that well when you have a two point five billion dollar bill you're looking for every revenue can every new you can to make certain that the president of the united states and the true

decision makers on money comes out of the sit in the house and so i felt confident that if the members in the leaders in the united states had the facts before them they would not back off their multilateral commitment in the united nations as for the world food program the u.n. may need reform and no question about that but the world food program is a different operation it's about fifty people keeping people alive operating emergencies and sustainable development and so the united states has not backed down invite we're seeing that the world food program is actually a program is bringing nations to get. every with all the division around the world we're food program we consider ourselves an opportunity to bridge relations so to interesting to say that because i think your agency is far more fortunate than some of the other agencies do you think perhaps they have a secret of. your success has has been your own personality or putting an american in charge i mean seriously it's

a serious matter for many in the un how crucial it is to have somebody who has an ear of the president or at least any or he's got it well you've got to have the year of the leadership but you also have the right message in bringing bringing together different factions within the government around hungry starving children who could be against that well but there are lots of starving children in the palestine and yet that budget is being how well you know we're looking forward to working through those issues as well but in the world today you can take any country of islam into say to the united states to come to the of us you know very well the democrats or republicans have been five hundred on everything and so we brought the leaders of the democrats and the republicans together around hungry children and they laid aside their differences in made peace and brought forward major some successes for the world food program but we want to take the same concept using food as a weapon of peace

a weapon of unification as we do that with different tribes children from different ethnic groups trying to bring different factions together terrorist groups like isis is now tied in a book rahman al shabaab they want to use food as a weapon of starvation a weapon of war or weapon of vision we see food as a weapon of opportunity of development sustainable bill success from not just bringing in the music together but bringing nations together and so now correct me if i'm wrong but i think even after securing that on the part of the united states the problem before famines remains very very accurate we're still talking about men . of people on the bring of not just starvation but on the brink of death and i heard you say that the only two solutions are number one getting enough funding to feed the people and number two stopping the wars which one of these you find more realistic more achievable at this point of time the only answers to starvation and hunger disco it up now for the first time in the years because in the wars. is

a heck of a problem the international community in the world has dropped the hunger rate over the past hundreds of years the particularly in the last twenty five years even though the population of the world went from five point three billion to seven point five billion the hunger rated dropped from a billion to seven hundred seventy seven million but no hunger rates going up to eight hundred fifteen million that's hungry people me very hungry people on the brink of they don't know where their next meal is now one hundred and nine million in this all this escalation is all because of man made conflict absolutely that's why i'm asking you mr beazley since you seem to believe that it is possible to those wars. pieces and also for all of us but i'm sure in your daily line of work you deal with the green reality rather than aspirations what makes you believe given that what you just said the. turnaround in the statistics very dispiriting

turn around and it's that distance what makes you believe that the international community all of a sudden they will be able to you know change its mind and when they are told that complex well there's still a dream in my heart that the hopes of people every person i meet i tend to think is a desire of their heart to have peace and i think sometimes. in diplomacy circles we tend to talk about the little things that distract us versus the bigger things that can attract us and i think the united nations in my opinion has not done the job that it should have done in the past twenty thirty years but i think you have new leadership in the united nations i think you have new leadership around the world this really looking to find paths of opportunity but until we have those conflicts resolved we have to have money in the world food program and then we have to have access so yes we were able to avert famines the four famines that

we faced faced in the past couple of years and face right now we were able to avert the famine but the number of hungry people went up and we're still facing famine in several of these countries where yemen is a very desperate situation somalia with the drought and the complexities there and then you get of course a south sudan is nothing but warfare and then northeast nigeria which is ethnic tribal conflict based upon ices and al-qaeda. and then you bring in the drought in the lake chad basin it's a terrible situation and what exactly can be international community to do about that because from what i know they're trying to mass ration is also intending to cut its funding of the peacekeeping operation so i assume that's not going to be easy to realize your own vision well i think you'll see realignment as the peacekeeping but that will have to work through itself within the international community but i do think the international players have got to step up in a way they have not done before for example each country will come into

a country as a donor and have their program siloed. i have been saying to the international community these very fragile communities like in the greater say hillary we need to come in with a strategic comprehensive holistic approach revive sustainability sustainable development resilience for example in the united nations world food programme we believe that every single person this enabled body don't know who is receiving food they ought to be in a community development improvement program but for that you have to solve the number one issue which is meet conflict you mentioned the word the way yemen and i want to see is that there is a potential chalk specifically about this country because i think it's stands out as a as a confluence of disasters or heard you say that you've been trying to raise the issue of the saudi conduct with the trump of ministration did you find it.