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narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: and now, "bbc world news". >> laura: this is bbc world news america. millions of people in afghanistan faced starvation as international aid dries up and the u.n. warns of a catastrophe. this little girl has been sold by her parents so the family will have enough to eat. >> we know there are other families here who sold their children. someone came up to someone on

our team and asked if we would like to buy their child. the desperation and urgency of the situation is hard to put in words. laura: in sudan, a military. coup is underway. the prime minister has been arrested and at least three people are dead. plus, meet the triplets who are ambassadors to a global summit on climate change. at just eight years oldhey are trying to conserve our planet. welcome to world news america on pbs and around the globe. we begin in afghanistan, which the united nations says is counting down to catastrophe with millions facing starvation. since the taliban seized control, the international aid that props up the economy has slowed as world leaders debate how deal with the regime. families have told the bbc they

have to sell their own babies to get money for food. our correspondent, cameraman, and producer have been to an afghan city and are warning their report contains disturbing images right from the start. >> this is what starvation does to a country, to its tiniest lives. fix month-old usman. afghanistan was barely surviving before the taliban took over, but now foreign funds which propped up this country have been frozen, putting at least a million children at risk of dying. in this ward, one in five will not make it. usman weighs less than half what he should.

millions who have no work. his mother told us his twin is in a room next door. >> [speaking foreign-language] >> this hospital is full. me babies are already sharing a bed. while we were there, six more children were brought in. it's the only facility for hundreds of mes, because without foreign money, most hospitals are collapsing.

doctors and nurses among masses of government workers who haven't been paid for months. a third of the country's people don't know where their next meal will come from. we traveled to a settlement. tens of thousands displaced from remote provinces by decades of war and severe drought. . no means of income, barely any food. some days families here don't eat. they have sowed whatever little they have, and now some are forced to do the unthinkable. this baby girl has been sold by her family. we are hiding their identity to protect them. >> [speaking foreign-language]

>> her husband used to collect rubbish, but even that earns him nothing now. >> [speaking foreign-language] >> once the baby is able to walk , she will be taken away by the man who bought her. he has paid more than half of the $500 she has been sold for. that will get the family through a few months. they have been told the girl will be married this child, but no one can be sure. we know there are other families here who sold their children and

another person came up to one of our team and ask if we would like to buy their child. the desperation and urgency is hard to put in words. there is no more time left to reach the people of afghanistan. it cannot wait while the world debates whether to recognize a taliban government. >> nearby aid agencies handout parcels that might save some children from hunger. alone, they can't provide. giving the taliban money without guarantees on human rights and how the funds will be used is dangerous. but afghanistan is sinking fast. millions here will not survive the winter. laura: scenes of utter desperation in afghanistan. we turn to sudan, one of africa's largest countries.

the prime minister and his cabinet have been arrested by the armed forces. people opposed to the military have taken to the streets. at least three people have died. 2019 sudan has been ruled by a transitional government with military and civilialeaders sharing power. that has now broken down. our correspondence sent this report. >> the streets of sudan continued to define its political destiny. it is here the nation was realized two years ago. the sudanese came back to reclaim it. they called the coup a betrayal. >> we reject it completely. we have to go back to the constitution document. the government should be handed to civilians and we should free those we have detained. >> the mobilized in

neighborhoods, huge crowds turned up even with the intermittent phone lines shut down. they brought this announcement. >> [translated] a state of emergency is declared all over the country. the country remains committed to the content of the constitutional declaration on on 2019 and the agreement signed in 2020. >> the pro-democracy protesters reject the call. some have questioned how a military that has dissolved transitional institutions can still claim to remain committed to democracy. many are concerned about what happens now. >> we are about to see civilian democracy take off. we are just so concerned.

this was a big humanitarian situation before, 14 million people in need of assistance. this country which was struggling to move on, and it was in some ways. it feels like everything is going back to square one. >> professional associations that led protests two years ago have called for strikes and more demonstrations. sudan's fate will be shaped on the streets. laura: joining us now for more is ambassador peter pham, who was the u.s. special envoy for the region and is now a distinguished fellow. you have actually met the prime minister of sudan, who is now being detained. are you surprised by this unfolding coup?

>> i am surprised by the exact timing, but tensions have been building for some time. there have been large peaceful protests in recent weeks, calling for theilitary to pull back altogether and to allow full civilian leadership of the transition and smaller protests, calling for the military to take over from the civilian leadership. this has been building for some time, so it is not surprising that it took place even though the timing may have been a surprise. laura: the top military official in sudan is sang elections will take place as planned in 2023. do you believe that? >> one would hope they would take place, but it is hard to credit that when the transitional document, the constitutional document which the military purports to be upholding, also contains a

provision for sharing power between the civilians and military, which the military has trucked out of the way. there is a credibility gap, one would say. laura: i reported from sudan under president al bashir and it was an incredibly repressive place. there were hopes it would get better when he was ousted. why is it proving so difficult, the transition to democracy? >> after 30 years of a harsh authoritarian dictatorship, it was always going to be rough. part of the problem is economic. as someone who personally worked to alleviate some of these sanctions to end the embargo -- but a lot of it was also because of the military's involvement with the economy. large sectors of the productive economy are in the hands of the army or militia.

the reluctance to give up that control of the economy and its strategic sectors has led in part to the current crisis and that may be the very crux of the matter. laura: the u.s. special envoy to sudan was in the country at the weekend. do you think there is anything the united states can do to put pressure on the military at this point? >> the u.s. has announced already it is suspending its current aid program to sudan, including roughly $700 million in the current appropriations. this is money to help prop up the economy and certainly the united states is not going to prop up the economy so those who have seized power can continue to benefit from it. that is one step. on the other hand, we have to also continue to engage, to ensure what can be salvaged can be salvaged.

it is going to be a difficult balancing act for the international community as a whole in the coming days and weeks. laura: thanks so much for being with us. as world leaders get ready for next week's all important summit on climate change, u.n. scientists say there were record levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, undermining efforts to limit global warming. the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic didn't have a significant impact on greenhouse gas levels. >> this is the body that gathers all the evidence for different offices around the world, looking at the percentages of these greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane in the atmosphere, also in the oceans. they are at record levels again, despite a year in which

practically none of us got on a plane, many of us stopped driving our cars, we were all working from home. we were still living with the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that were remitted decades ago because carbon dioxide lives there for a really long time. what the wmo is saying today is we are not on target to limit global warming to the 1.5 to two degrees centigrade, which everyone agreed to. if we don't do that, global warming is linked to extreme weather. floods that we saw in europe, droughts in afghanistan earlier in the program. this is a norma's damage -- is enormous damage to people's lives and we are not, the wmo says, taking the action to reduce emissions drastically

that we need to. laura: entry to china's capital beijing is being restricted as officials try to control a coronavirus outbreak in the north of the country. the city is hosting the winter olympics in just over three months. the beijing marathon has been suspended indefinitely. microsoft has warned that hackers based in russia who were behind the attack on the u.s. government last year have once again targeted hundreds of companies. microsoft says it knows of 14 successful attempts to hack into computer systems. american officials attributed last year's tax to russia's foreign intelligence service. torrential rain triggered mudslides in areas scorched last summer. gale force winds have brought down power lines and several areas are on high alert for flash flooding. the turkish lira has fallen to a

record low after president erdogan threatened to expel the ambassadors of 10 countries. the u.s., germany, and france called for a jailed opposition activist to be released. renewed concerns about the impact that might have on foreign investment in an economy are driving the fall in the currency. you are watching bbc world news america. still to come, a bbc investigation has revealed the soft drinks giant coca-cola, the world's biggest plastic polluter, is struggling to meet its environmental promises. more on that coming up. the court in israel has ruled a six-year-old boy who was the only survivor of them do italian cable car disaster must be returned to family in italy. he had been staying with an aunt

until his grandfather took him to israel without her permission. >> the judge has issued a two-page summary to the media and has ruled that the six-year-old should be returned to his onto in italy. she also found that his maternal grandfather brought him on a private plane to israel last month. they violated the hague convention on child abduction and he has been ordered to pay the legal costs of the boy's on. -- aunt. a word of caution because we understand it is possible to appeal, but at the moment this is the judge's ruling and she says she prioritized the mental and physical health of eitan b iran. laura: the soft drinks industry produces 470 billion plastic

bottles every year, designed to be used once and thwn away. around a quarter of them are made by coca-cola. nearly four years ago, coke came up with a plan to tackle their plastic pollution problem, but an investigation by the bbc panorama program reveals coca-cola is struggling to make the progress required to meet their promises. in some places things are getting much worse. sophia has the story. >> in the 1950's, coca-cola was sold in glass bottles. the company would collect, wash, and reuse them. by the 1970's, coke was promoting plastic. >> single use plastic is a massive money ver for all sorts of companies.

they use incredibly cheap packaging, they put it on the market, and it is job done. >> in the last three years, 166 billion of the plastic bottles have been littered or dumped. coke knew it had an image problem, so it announced a plan to recycle more bottles. if you look at the small print, there is an admission. there bottles are only recyclable when infrastructure exists. this is the pacific island of samoa. in february, coke stopped producing glass bottles and started shipping in thousands of plastic bottles. >> the population was only 200,000. we don't generate enough waste to have a recycling facility for plastic bottles on the island. >> coca-cola has set up a scheme to play -- to pay people one

dollar for the plastic bottles they collect, but so far none has been exported for recycling. across the globe is uganda. here, not enough bottles are being collected to meet coca-cola's recycling promises. >> coca-cola says they will collect one bottle for each bottle they sell in uganda, but they can never do that. >> in the capital, the recycling system largely depends on informal waste pickers. most of them are single mothers with their children earning around one dollar a day. >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] >> the whole bottled drinks

sector has a recycling problem, but coca-cola is the biggest company, selling 3500 plastic bottles every second. nearly four years after making their world without waste pledge, our investigation has revealed coca-cola is struggling to make the headway required to meet their green goals. >> coca-cola is a master of eenwashing. greenwashing is pretendg something is green when it is anything but evidence from -- anything but. >> evidence suggests more coca-cola packaging is littered than any other brand. coca-cola say they are making progress but have a long way to go, that they are campaigning to encourage recycling in samoa and that they are working to encourage waste pickers. if theiggest global plastic polluter does not reach its

targets, the world's poorest will suffer even more. laura: how to deal with mountains of plastic will be just one of the agenda items at the u.n. summit on climate ange, which begins in scotland next week. worlleaders will descend on glasgow. young champions of the environment will be there too. phil mackey has met a family with eight-year-old triplets who were chosen to represent the u.k. here is phil's report. phiil: meet britain's youngest environmental champions. >> we are the green ambassadors. >> i got a packet of blueberries, i think. who just leaves it here? phil: they have been doing this since they were six after they were inspired in primary school

where they learned about waste and recycling. encouraged by their parents, they decided to do something about it. >> i have a bag full of stuff and i don't know what it is. phil: nottingham city council gave them the litter picking kit and their work has been recognized by the government. >> it is also the inspiration behind it. i hope this will inspire more people to think about the planet and for three years they have been doing what they are doing. i hope hey will continue. i am very happy and proud of them. >> this is not a drill. we are living in the beginning of a mass extinction. >> they spread the message through their own youtube channel. >> we are talking about a very

important part of recycling. >> back out on the litter pick, the bags are filling up. >> people are gathering together in glasgow making decisions. what things would you like them to do? >> reduce, reuse, and recycle. >> they should start teaching climate change in school so that when they grow up they can change the world. we need everybody to do the three r's. >> everybody should try their hardest to help the environment. >> sadly it's a never ending task, but at least today's work is done. phil mackey, bbc news, nottingham. laura: we end with something those triplets may like, a recycling story with a quest from brazil. did you ever think plastic bottle caps would be turned into

skateboards? that's what people in rio de janeiro have done. melting plastic has given kids a new toy and recycled waste that would have gone to the landfill. i can just see the triplets playing with those boards. i am large rebellion. thank you so much -- i am laura tr narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪

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captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, democratic divide-- president biden's agenda enters a critical week as he pushes his party to reach a spending bill agreement ahead of his upcoming overseas trip. then, democracy in crisis-- organizers of the january 6th capitol insurrection claim they coordinated their efforts with g.o.p. lawmakers and top trump white house and campaign officials. and, toxic water-- residents of another predominantly black city in michigan are exposed to dangerous levels of lead. >> environmental racism right here. we're looking at it. i'll always talk about how different things would be if it