focus on the most positive uplifting in the important news of the day that doesn't showcase the worst of us only the best of us so let's start the show off with something truly great the great green wall of africa yes well u.s. president donald trump has been busy building or trying to build walls of barbed wire and hate metal in order to protect our southern border from poor people that don't look like him farmers environmentalist and scientists working in more than twenty african nations have been building a wall of trees indigenous land use techniques environmental pretty environmental protection to help combat the desertification of africa originally started back in two thousand and seven with just eleven countries involved the ambitious project stretches across roughly six thousand miles eight thousand kilometers of train that at the southern at the southern edge of the sahara desert in a region known as the. back by a qadri of conservation groups and governments around the world if the wall is completed it would be three times the size of the great barrier reef. with fifteen

percent of the wall completed just ten years and the project there is still yes a long way to go but supporters are determined this grand green dream will work because unlike walls made of stone and concrete this wall is made with love and light which is the only walls truly worth building when you're watching the hawks. like you that i got. while the men watching the hawks. and i'm so happy. this is the kind of well i love

to see yes although a fun show to. have measurable things to talk about i'm really excited about that. and i think this is one of the coolest things that we've seen as far as ecology and a whole continent involving numerous countries coming together to do this so the original plan was of this plan was to plan this great wall of trees that is going to be ten miles wide and ultimately forty three hundred fifty miles long and what it does by sex about a dozen countries. but it runs about senegal in the west and then just to djibouti in the east but the biggest problem with growing something of this size and this scope is desertification so where places were. places where. it's much harder now. no one is able to cultivate. things like that but plans change

and they realized it's not just about the individual it's about how to. change how you're bringing in. there was one story about an australian visitor oh you could change the land up a little bit like this and then that would have. been carried on like ten two decades in. the lead environmental special global environment the world bank said quote it is not necessarily a physical wall but rather a mosaic of land use practices that ultimately will meet the expectations of it has been transformed into this kind of metaphorical thing there they're changing the land for the better in order to create. a metaphor. and so that's where that's interesting so it's the african union and the united nations. organization refer to this as sort of africa flagship

initiative. land aggregation certification and i think is that i see things are. learning how to row in these areas where they haven't. techniques because what they've they've talked about. is twelve million acres of degraded. projects in nigeria about thirty million acres of drought resistant trees were planted across. and a whopping thirty seven million acres of land stored in ethiopia for those of us who are in our age group. think we remember what ethiopia was there was drought there was famine. here we are to a point where they're bringing that back they're bringing not just bring them food as it was through our generation for so long but we've gotten past the we can just bring the food to making it able to grow food and being able to be affordable for

everyone not just themselves and that's the thing is like you can't just rely on philanthropy all the time you can't just rely think we've become i think the upper one percent of this world kind of feels like well if i just given enough money and throw enough money at a problem that it doesn't there's much more beyond that and you know there's a there's a hundred different things that this kind of idea of this wall improves but i here's a couple of them that they list on their website that goes along with what the u.n. wanted to list in terms of like how they want to change and better make the environment i think is by like twenty thirty twenty fifty. one of them is big you know the growing improved water security and they know it's also improvement for women too because now when you have these trees growing you have these new practices being being done there when the girls don't have to spend hours a day fetching water because the trees will naturally kind of keep the water in the region. growing fertile land that's obviously one. land is one of the many humanities most precious resource this project does that it also creates jobs it

creates green jobs giving incomes to families across the aisle i mean that's a huge thing right there when you're building and creating jobs up this that's monstrously important you know and then finally one of the other ones that jumped out of the it's also starting to just it's creating sustainable consumption patterns and basically. people there can grow enough to be there so you don't have to rely so much on imports act you know and imports of food and things like that exactly incredible it truly is i wish we were building that kind of a wall along the southern border that. living through tornadoes earthquakes tsunamis and other natural disasters can be incredibly devastating nature if you're. even in today's age of technology and human ingenuity is still unmatched even viro and standards of destruction while witnessing nature's wrath in the moment is truly frightening oftentimes the aftermath of such an event can be just a scary in face of the loss of infrastructure and life and it's those nervous

moments in which goodness most often shines through and march the state of nebraska here in the united states had a bomb dropped on it in the form of a bomb cyclon the cause more than one billion dollars in damages to states from the to the state from a very rapid rainfall and heavy snow melt this included over four hundred million in the last crops for a state known for its farm and livestock dependence but thankfully nebraska has friends willing to help friends troxel lost a lot of hay farmers from my home state of wisconsin drove up and to all the way to farmers in pennsylvania were seen driving caravans across america's highways and byways delivering food supplies and lots and lots of hay to nebraskans to help them in the time of need kevin and kendra schmidt organized a supply trip to nebraska from stratfor wisconsin after a trip they told the media quote we started off with only two trucks and trailers and at the end of the day we ended up with a truck full of hay personal goods and seed for farmers it feels good to help

somebody that is that most definitely does to those farmers we salute wow that's a really neat story i think this is something that it sounds sort of cheesy being that i'm from wisconsin but it's true if you grew up there and you know this about the midwest and you know the there's just something very cultural that when things happen we don't think twice about you know when something happens you say what do you need we're going to go find if we have it or someone else says it will bring it we sort of don't wait especially in terms of farmers and we don't wait for these things to happen it's a community effort nobody's competing with each other and this sort of capitalist world. you know agribusiness beyond that there are these people who that's their livelihood and everybody works together and what you see here is literally people are taking their own trucks their own things and saying look i have a little extra why don't we. and i think this is one of those things that really is

what we need to see more of i think the media doesn't show this stuff but i know what happens all the time and that's one of the stories about these is that this happens all the time this is what we do when one community needs something. other and i often wonder why the media is so. negative. things like. you know they kind of leave it up to local media every now and again but they don't they don't feel good they're only allowed to go there. but the local but we're never going to care about basil which is one of the reasons i like doing these shows like this i mean when you look at the damage that the brass were talking one point three billion. that includes you're saying that's four hundred forty nine million in damages to roads levees infrastructure

four million crop losses four hundred million idle losses what these people are doing i mean just see the last fifty to one hundred percent of their hey hey one of them my mom and dad had a horse farm going to high school one of the base crops running a farm or an industry dealing with animals and farming you need. goes i'm. animal treatment whatever you say and whether it's. one of these cattle are there for. these kinds of things literally animals starve and one of the worst things you talk to any real farmer not a corporate you talk to any real farmer. seeing their animals stars no matter what those animals are going to be used for at the end is heartbreaking and that's not what they want to do and so this is the kind of thing that this is food for those animals you know it's not you know it's not just about your pork chops and your

cheeseburgers you know they're saving their lives that we also had like it's pointed out that tyrrell really doesn't like us of course you go to their. bodies still really is that they have to say. you know look i mean i love saying this because you know you mentioned it earlier to farmers know farmers there they know that they're all you know their lives are dependent made sure and when nature turns around and bites you like it has been through quite a change they're going to be there for support they're going to say hey you know what we have let's bring it to nebraska that's what twenty six thirty hours that they had to leave their homes to go to this incredible story that a lot of people do you would see because they were they caught it like a. viral video shows up it just happened that somebody somebody was driving and saw and that's the only reason i saw it and because there isn't anything aside from a few local news reports they don't do have they just yeah i mean we try to even

things out and hear certain days can be worse than others but to me and most times why wasn't even the need of these farmers i brassica should have been brought out but that's the thing it's not just about your fun whether graphics and will or will not weather cause a huge huge issue for my commute to work but really understand how it affects everybody and i understand i think this is another one of those things if you understand where your food comes from you understand how things work you know to back up what you were saying. meyers a lycoming county pennsylvania one of the farmers bringing food there from pennsylvania she actually said if it's not. what they want to bring down to them if it's not monetary it's cleaning supplies up it's not cleaning supplies it could be food supplies we're getting a little bit of everything from a little bit of everybody we are farmers farmers help farmers everyone should be taking that lee yeah we are

a community and the community of support one of those things called the wall before one of the sixteen volunteers who made the trip to nebraska said we had some flooding issues here in wisconsin but it wasn't as bad as what we saw in nebraska was ten times worse than we got and that's the other thing you can have your badly yeah you have flooding yes these things can affect you but when you look and say look i made it through this you have it harder. you know it's a simple idea of paying it forward that pay it forward let's help each other at the end of the most important thing to go to see good examples all right as we go to break watchers don't forget to let us know what you think of the topics we've covered on facebook twitter and you tube and see our poll shows that are. coming up at the walls brings us the good news world literacy in artie's turn of the chavez burger some extraordinary news that in new york the state government is actually fighting back against traffic congestion plastic trash actually pass something it's incredible all right stay tuned to watch for the hawks.

yet to be known as journalism is under assault and it didn't start with the trials of julian assange and wiki leaks once it was a noble report on the nefarious activities of those. speeches now the privileged few. my body told me that i belong with the boys but my thoughts my mind with and then along with the girls. under the surgery still be of any particular.

person's doctor. i was born a male had a sex change when i was thirty years old. i've now been living as a woman for twenty eight years and i fully regret this. problem should have gone away from it by now but they hadn't so these surgeries are nothing more than plastic surgery i've had several female to male friends and you look at it and you just go oh god you paid for that it's horrible nobody can change genders it's impossible. is still luzhin it's a mental illness. this is now one of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken down from a. well

. literacy the ability to read and write is one of the most important life skills needed to thrive in today's modern world according to unesco the united nations education scientific and cultural organization people with poor literacy skills are twice as likely to be unemployed they make thirty to forty percent less than their

literate coworkers and across the world sixty eight sixty to eighty percent of those in prison have below average literacy skills as of two thousand and eighteen nearly seven hundred fifty million people across the globe still don't have the ability to read and write on the flipside for the first time in human history literacy is no longer in the confines of the rich and powerful but accessible to the masses from ebooks to the good old fashioned library card never before have books and the skills to read them but easier to get one's hands on according to the organisation for economic co-operation and development it was found that today a mere seventeen percent of the world's population is a literate while back in eighteen twenty only twelve percent of the population were literate as they could read and write one of the most compelling and successful ways people globally have increased literacy within their families is through the shared experience of reading so hawk watchers let's celebrate this upward trend in

literacy and discover some of the additional ways individuals and groups are sharing the gift of literacy. that's incredible that from the eighteen hundreds to yesterday that's incredible news i'm so happy about that i've also heartbroken that there's seventy percent or that any of the seven hundred seven hundred twenty million four hundred twenty million. and even two three years ago they were estimating was that eight hundred million so we've got about fifty million and over the last couple of years part of that like when you look at the numbers of you say like generation to generation we've been getting more and more literate it really is a power struggle because when you talk about twenty school all of the books we didn't have libraries it wasn't until really carnegie started coming in building these public libraries that you'll see across small towns and really building a structure and have a university is where they were public people there weren't library circle to go to so what books you had is what books you had and if you couldn't read them you couldn't read them because they weren't schools either

a school system and part of that is why there are so it was a twelve percent and it's literally everyone right at the top because education literacy access to books those were things that were only allowed to the very elite to the very rich to the very powerful and keeping those away from people was how you kept people working and lousy jobs that were dangerous it's knowledge is power if you want to maintain power and that's the thing it's like i'm really excited to see these numbers and it's put is part of a good show that the like and that's why it's so important we have to protect that that's why it's so important that we have people out there protecting the information and keeping information to the public and not just hoard it at the top . and one of those people who is lovely and always wonderful dolly parton little didn't know so earlier this year her literacy program which is called imagination library they donated it's one hundred nothing in the book to the library of congress so she started this charity back in one thousand nine hundred

six as a tribute to her father is very hard working a lot if you know anything about her story. he never learned to read or write he didn't get to go to school couldn't because that where it was and what she said it's so important to me because if you can teach children to read they can dream and if you can dream you can be a success and you can see that in the numbers and there are so obviously if not reading and not being able to read and write puts you in this in this case and being able to is this gift and one of the things that she said that's why it's so important in julie is because you would like i mean we both know what we couldn't do the job that we do if we couldn't read or sleep you can't do anything you can't drive a car if you can't read read signs it's also a medical issue there are health issues if you can't read a label on a medicine if you can't read instructions if you can't communicate it's a problem with language and reading is the most powerful tools human beings need to

do truly a change in their lives in the make their lives better you know best and so important and when you see i mean the fact that you even have you wouldn't have any quality of literacy in gender oh yeah same to me too yeah so you've got in the seventy's only around sixty percent of women globally were literate so around the time of one of them i was born only sixty percent of women were literate twenty sixty and that number has gone up to eighty three per great even three percent literacy until you look as the literacy rates for men are still at around ninety percent across the board and only one in four countries have literacy rates for women above ninety percent and this is this is part of it goes back to whether it's teaching a girl to read or making getting water from your village close are these fundamental make a huge impact and literally make everything better and lower crime i mean mike what else do you need to know reading is good it really looks good good for. cleaning

your clothes. there's a little program called mary. some organizations have actually tar identify those areas where families as you said important can read together the lot listen as the laundry literacy coalition i love this they created lot of laundry and literacy kids consisting of items such as a sofa for parents told to sit together a colorful alphabet rug an open facing bookshelf an assortment of children's books and a set of four colorful puppet animals please let's get that in the long run because anyone who's ever been in a laundromat can be one of most depressing places in the world new people can sit while their clothes are getting washed and read and learn with their kids so important please keep literacy strong that's how we how we have power in this world and we're. now have a lot of good news for one of the biggest service on the planet york city a move to help the big apple's infrastructure and environment the new york state legislature just agreed to and passed a new budget deal that includes a ban get this single use plastic bags and the new tax on traffic congestion

artie's america hard to america's true chavez has more. after weeks of negotiations the new york state legislature and governor cuomo signed off on a one hundred seventy five billion dollar budget that includes a ban on single use plastic bags a manhattan mansion tax and a groundbreaking plan to charge anybody driving into manhattan honk if you pay taxes now drivers who cross into manhattan below sixty first street will be hit with the nation's first congestion pricing fees starting at the end of two thousand and twenty eight the drivers will be charged for electronic readers that are automatically assessing tolls affecting the estimated seven hundred thirty one thousand drivers who travel into manhattan daily wow i didn't know that that would be interesting as a death who hopefully allows less congestion because it gets pretty intense and sometimes. while similar knishes have been adopted in other cities including london stockholm and singapore new york lawmakers say the plan must not enough money to

support fifteen billion dollars in capital group mints. over the next five years the city's m.t.a. will create a review board tasked with determining total amounts to pending on the time of day along with exemptions the funds will be dedicated to upgrading the city's transit system as you know the subways. and the bridges and roads and everything and i'm sure upstate too so i think infrastructure is very important. the new provision also includes the ban of single use plastic bags that are found at grocery stores which often make their way into waterways and oceans displace trickle over i mean even the it wasn't that way i know i sound old but when i was young there was not plastic in the ocean and now it's gotten out of hand new york will join california and hawaii as the only states in the country with such legislation the ban which is expected to go into effect march two thousand and twenty will apply to most single use plastic bags provided by supermarkets and other stores i do think that is

a good thing we see too much plastic on the streets and i think it could help the environment it could help the process i'm out of plastic that we waste every day and on the provision allows individual counties to opt into a five cent fee for paperless bags with two cents going to local governments and three cents going to the states environmental protection fund yes good save the turtles susi susie save the turtles oh my so this video and it was like like a body of water covered in trash like literally the entire service company tries to it's disgusting please stop littering save the turtles the budget also includes two other dedicated revenue sources for the subways a mansion tax on manhattan homes that sell for twenty five million dollars or higher and a tax on internet retail sales other agreements in the budget include the closure of prisons eliminating cash bail for misdemeanor or nonviolent a rise and also

a permanent annual two percent cap on local property taxes reporting in new york tonight each of us are to me. by now most of us have forgotten about the christmas or yule trees we decorated with such great care just a few short months ago but for the wildlife the by use of national wildlife refuge in louisiana your all quality decoration is their new lease on life on march twenty eighth the u.s. fish and wildlife service conducted its annual christmas tree drop in which they helicopter dropped nearly eight thousand new used christmas trees into by use savage marshes the trees will act as natural breakwaters that will slow down wave and wave and water movement they trap silt and encourage the growth of marsh gases why is this so important well for one the wetlands act as protection from floods that threaten cities like new orleans during storms by functioning as natural sponges they create new marsh habitats by building structures that can support native marsh crashes it traps and hold settlements creates more land and

a more stable environment for animals and it even serves as valuable training as you can see for the louisiana army national guard and curious of the new orleans office of resilience and stability sustainability for using some leftover holiday cheer to buy a savage the second largest urban wildlife refuge in the u.s. good all right that is our house for you show for you to barely remember everyone who moves world we're now told that we love the office so i tell you all of you i am tired rovers are not out for keep on watching all those talks so there are great but.

after the previous stage of my career was over everyone wondered what i was going to do next hope the ball different clubs on one hand it is logical to stay in the home field where everything is familiar on the other i wanted a new challenge and the fresh perspective i'm used to surprising people and i saw why not if you think. i'm going to talk about football not the moral thing to think i was going to do. by the way ways of that slide here. what do you do before you came here where did you work before you came here when you lived. death row in many us states capital punishment is still practiced convicted prisoners can spend years waiting for execution but most of the time the victims' families they are very much in favor the death penalty there are some people because of what they did have given up the

right to live among us some are even proven innocent off to years on death row and how many more exonerations is it kind of take before we as a society realize that this is not working and we actually do something about. this drug where her cocaine is where four bucks for the under fifty it's the everybody used cocaine. cocaine you can smoke it this is where for fifteen thirty. twenty. score came to this is about a fifteen dollars bet and people smoke this one go figure seka this we you can find these drugs. any city in the united states that you want long as you want to

get to. make money. and that's one of the. pro-science protesters clashed with police in capital following the arrest of the wiki leaks founder in london president accuses the whistleblower of turning the ecuadorian embassy where he had been seven years into a hub because. silence faces possible extradition to the u.s. where he could be tried on allegations and conspiring with fellow whistleblower chelsea manning freedom of speech activists say the charges are an attack on journalism.