11/03/2017 BBC Weekend News

The world's facing its largest humanitarian

That's the assessment of the United Nations which says

more than 20 million people face the threat of starvation and famine

in four countries in Africa and the Middle East.

?3.5 billion are said to be needed - by July - to avert disaster.

This report from our world affairs correspondent Richard Galpin

contains images you may find distressing.

For months now it's been known that millions of people,

old when a BBC team met her in December.

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

Families forced to flee their homes and left with little to eat.

Already a famine has been officially declared

here with almost half the

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

Of the huge number of people the UN says

are now in danger, almost 2 million are in Nigeria.

and more than 14 million in Yemen.

The UN is predicting that without serious help 1.4 million

people could die before the end of the year.

They're calling for ?3.6 billion to tackle this crisis.

Aid agencies on the ground say at the

moment they do not have enough money to deal

A child who suffers from severe acute malnutrition, unless

they are treated there is a high likelihood they will die.

If they are treated then they can recover completely and the cost of

that treatment can be as little as $80. Apart from conflict, the other

because of the crisis is drought. Somalia has been hit hard. In this

hospital alone almost 50 children have died in two months, most from

dehydration. With the lives of so many children like these now at risk

the UN believes the global response must be quick. Richard Galpin, BBC

News. A female judge has been criticised

after warning women who get drunk that they are putting themselves

in danger of being Lindsey Kushner QC said

what she called 'disinhibited Her comments have been described

by the campaign group Rape Crisis Jailed for six years for what police

described as a horrifically prolonged attack. Ricardo Rodriguez

was found guilty of two counts of rape but sentencing judge Lindsey

Kushner used her final words before retiring to issue a rape warning to

women. She said girls are perfectly entitled to drink themselves into

the ground but should be aware of potential defendants to rape

gravitate towards girls who have been drinking. If push comes to

shove, a girl who has been drunk is less likely to be believed than one

who is sober at the time. While many might see her comments as useful

advice, others believe this is a backwards step. I'm very anxious

that whatever message she meant to send, it's very clear that it is a

message there is not much point in reporting. That's wrong. Whatever

amount of drink you've had, do report, you will be treated better

than this suggests. A rape survivor herself this woman now helps others

through the ordeal. It makes all of us really quite angry and not just

because they're arrogant, factually incorrect comments, but it's one

thing to go around making these comments when you sit in a court

room all day and you are engaging in one aspect of society without

engaging with the women who are experiencing this. Judge Lindsey

Kushner is not the first to comment on this sensitive subject. Of the

judges have faced criticism in the past. Campaigners, though, hope this

will not stop other rape survivors from coming forward in the future.

Frankie McCamley, BBC News. President Erdogan of Turkey has

described the Dutch as "Nazi remnants" and "fascists"

after his Foreign Minister was banned from travelling

to Rotterdam to attend a rally in support of a referendum to give

Mr Erdogan greater powers. The Dutch Prime Minister said

Mr Erdogan's remarks were "crazy" 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 Shi'ite pilgrims near an ancient cemetery

in the city. It's not yet clear who

was behind the attack. Online ticket touts who buy in bulk

and then sell tickets 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 reports. When it comes to seeing your idols

up close people will sometimes pay But increasingly fans

are being priced out by robots or bots that snap up tickets in seconds

and resell them at inflated prices. It stops youth from going to these

places, from seeing these shows. It's not necessarily

fraud but if people are making money out of something that

you, it's kind of a bit like you shouldn't put such

a premium on something. The rise of the Internet has enabled

touts to use software known as bots to automatically buy up thousands of

tickets in seconds and that's what the Government wants to make a

criminal offence with unlimited fines.

We think it's unacceptable that fans are being ripped off by

these computer bots buying up all the tickets

and then selling them at

So we're going to make that illegal so that people can

buy tickets more easily and fans can get to the concerts, the sports

But can we ever fully remove illegal ticket touts?

There's always more that can be done.

As long as there are people out there wanting to profit on the

back of tickets there will be people wanting

to buy those tickets as

The important thing is to sort of distil

market that works well for the industry and a market that works

And that might mean that official ticket

sellers for popular shows will have to be far more vigilant when someone

tries to suddenly buy or suddenly sell a lot of tickets.

Criminalising these bots which snap up tickets which fans

otherwise want could work but if they're overseas then there's very

Also, ticketing experts say that the bots might in fact

be real human beings, paid paltry sums of money by

the illegal ticket touts to do their work,

criminalising them would be fraught with problems.

Joe Lynam, BBC News, in the West End.

England look to be on the verge of retaining their Six Nations title.

They are playing Scotland at Twickenham where victory today

Our sports correspondent Joe Wilson is there.

England very much in the lead with just a few minutes remaining.

Absolutely. We note strange things happen in sport but with England

54-21 ahead here we can assume the match is theirs and therefore the

Six Nations title. This wasn't the type of game we expected. Scotland

have been in good form themselves, so why has this happened? Jonathan

Joseph in the England backline has been the catalyst, two tries in the

first half for him and another one early in the second half, those

three tries, his running, Scotland could not match it. England have won

their games in the Six Nations without excelling but this is the

kind of performance the coach Eddie Jones always wanted. Scotland not

helped by a number of injuries in the first half in their back line.

England on the point of retaining the Six Nations title but their

resources financially and the number of players available should always

be competing for this title. Remember how bad they were in the

World Cup? What is the difference? It has to be that man, the coach,

Eddie Jones, about to win the Six Nations again with