very much forjoining us at what must be a very busy time for you and your colleagues in the world food programmeany. today there was news from damascus, according to the syrian state media, that the syrian government has now agreed that food aid and other supplies needed in earthquake stricken areas can cross the lines of this 12—year—old conflict, but aid officials have told the bbc that the success of what seems to be this concession by the syrian government will depend both on the syrian government forces on the ground, as well as the forces of the opposition across northern syria. so in the words of senior un officials, it's a small, important step forward but many more will be needed urgently. we will continue our special coverage from gaziantep and other places in southern turkey and other places in southern turkey and inside syria. for now, it's good buy from us here in gaziantep. she is one of several teams following the story in the affected areas. the tensions are readily high, around five days on from when those buildings fell, people are really listening out for sounds, hoping for mi

director for the world food programme.s designed to ensure new buildings were earthquake resilient? our analysis editor ros atkins has been asking that very question. these people are running to safety as a building collapses on monday in malatya. turkey's president erdogan says 6,500 buildings were destroyed by the earthquake. many collapsed as each floor fell into the next, and those inside would have had little chance. and there are several reasons why so many buildings came down. firstly, well, it is simply the size of the earthquake itself. this satellite image is of the city of kahramanmaras before the quake. this is afterwards. you can see the extent of the damage. the fact the earthquake was relatively shallow increased its impact. all of this created a degree of movement that many buildings couldn't withstand. and it wasn'tjust older buildings that succumb to. questions are being asked about the standard of turkey's newer buildings, too. the bbc has verified this picture, an apartment block built in 2019. this is

there's the world food programme, a whole host of other un and multilateral agencie which go in to crisisons and try to alleviate the worst of the suffering and certainly to avoid famine. is that not working? the system has worked in the past. the last time we were worried about drought conditions in east africa, the international community did come together, did deliver billions of dollars worth of aid. organisations like 0xfam were part of a relief... ..relief operation that saved lives. this time around, only a fraction of the resource that the un and organisations like ours need are being delivered. take the uk, for example, which has cut its aid budget just at a time of rising humanitarian need — is only delivering a fraction of the aid that it delivered a few years ago. and so there is a chronic underfunding of resources needed in the humanitarian system at the moment. now, you have been running one of the world's best known charitable aid organisations for what, the best part of four years. would you agree with this statement, which was written recently by sanjay reddy, who's an as

i spoke to the head, one of the leading lights in the world food programme at the airport this morningally across the world in terms of disaster risk management. but for us now, we confront the needs we are faced with and do our best to support the local people to overcome them. we can get international search and rescue assets in as quick as possible, maybe with some enhanced technology, as mentioned before, to support them. from there it's the basic core humanitarian needs, medicalsupport, water, needs, medical support, water, shelter, needs, medicalsupport, water, shelter, and a bit further down the line people will need food. what we are hoping to do, this is a light footprint assessment. we are here to ascertain exactly how best we can support and when that's clear we have teams on standby who can fly in from the uk and the things we do our situational awareness, understanding what's going on essentially. incident management to support people there if it's required. and last mile logistics. if we have people out in the hills who haven't been reached yet, we can get teams to get hu

turkey's bab al-hawa border crossing into syria on monday, two days after the head of the world food programmecriticized syrian authorities for blocking access to the area. aid workers say they are now contending with a shortage of tents for thousands of people in need. >> the united nations and relief agencies have not reached us. in shelters, there are some 200,000 -- 200 or 300 families. there are not tents available. if there are available, the prices have doubled. amy: russian president vladimir putin has promised to withdraw from the new start treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the united states and russia. putin made the pledge during his annual state of the nation address earlier today, where he gave no sign russia is preparing to end the war in ukraine. putin accused western nations of provoking the conflict. >> the western elites do not conceal their goals as they say, it is a direct quote to bring russia a strategic -- what does that mean for us? it means to end us once and for all. they plan to turn a local conflict into a global confrontation. we und

the world food programme says the fighting has displaced some 5.7 million people, a fifth of them lastran away to a village called kanyabayonga and mugunga with a baby of three months in a past conflict. bullets and bombs were falling all over. god helped me to escape. i vowed never to go back, even if the streets are littered with dollars. reporter: on tuesday, the pope told wealthy nations to stop plundering the drc's vast natural resources, saying that it is people that are more precious tn the minerals in the earth beneath them. [singing] later today pope frcis heard , painful accounts from the victims of the violence in the eastern drc, and blessed those who'd survived massacres, kidnappings and rapes. ♪ it was the first papal pilgrimage here since 1985, when pope john paul ii visited the country, then known as zaire. from drc, the pope will travel to another war-weary nation: south sudan, on friday. for the "pbs newshour," i'm chris ocamringa in kinshasa, the democratic republic of congo. ♪ amna: in its first hearing of the year, the house judiciary committee focused on immigrati

congress has provided, both last year and in fy 23, we are working at every level with the world food programme as you know to speed both food and fertilizers to countries that would normally be consumers of ukraine. russia's output to ensure that they can plant this year. senator blinken's particular focus on ensuring that we are working on this problem, not just for today but for tomorrow. particularly in africa, but in other parts the world we have over years of climate change so there are other issues like throughout, social degraded, seeing cops become vulnerable, et cetera. as we look at the preparation that you've just given us, we are focused in particular on a soil health, on new kinds of seeds, particularly on the continent of africa that can withstand climate change. on small farmers support, but also more systemic answers to these questions. we look forward to working with you. aaron, i don't know if you have anything to add to that? >> i do, thank you. i'd like to build under what the secretary mentioned with respect -- but not the only one, both getting the great output during the

i spoke to one of the leading lights in the world food programme at the airport this morning so the unrly in areas like this that are vulnerable to earthquakes. 20 years ago, the debate was over the terrible quality of building standards and buildings have a full on it like packs of cards. that is not obviously something you can judge from what you are seeing now but to what extent do we make the problem is worse for ourselves because of the way we plan, the way we prepare? there has got to be a more long—sighted view of resilience generally across the world in terms of disaster risk management but for us here now, wejust confront of disaster risk management but for us here now, we just confront the needs we are faced with and do our best to support the local people what immediately can be done? what immediately can be done, you mentioned search and rescue, which is mainly local. if we can get international search and rescue assets in as quick as possible, maybe with enhanced technology, to support them and from there, it is basic humanitarian needs, medical support, water, shelter and

world food aisles, even the baby aisles because often find products that are not cheaper than regular aisles from which and also you wisdom from dave i just add there who is a good friend of this programmesafraid all that we have time for today but i'm delighted that we ended on a high there with levi because always such a helpful, useful tips for how to make those pounds go a little bit further, when to shop, state of mind preparedness and indeed perhaps to avoid . that's it for perhaps to avoid. that's it for today. but i'm delighted to say that i today. but i'm delighted to say that! be today. but i'm delighted to say that i be back next weekend on saturday from midday . but that i be back next weekend on saturday from midday. but for now , from me and from the whole now, from me and from the whole team , enjoy the rest of the day team, enjoy the rest of the day and the rest of your weekend . a and the rest of your weekend. a very good afternoon to you. bye bye . hello. i'm rachel eggs and bye. hello. i'm rachel eggs and welcome to your latest weather update from the met office . and update from the met office. and looking ahead to the start of the new week and it'll be dry for many w