The UN says acute hunger has spiked around the world with a number of people facing famine

rising by 3 million over the past year.

But this year's spike is largely due to surging food insecurity in Afghanistan, where more than

half the population is malnourished.

Aid agencies say millions of children could starve to death.

This week, Afghanistan got some rare attention in Congress, at a hearing in which Senator

Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, quizzed witnesses about the U.S. fueled crisis

unfolding there.

And I'd like y'all to give us a little bit of advice as to how we best unlock the significant

amount of money that the United States currently has in its possession and its disposal

to try to address this crisis.

In February, President Biden authorized $3.5 billion.

It's about half of Afghanistan's frozen assets to be used, quote, for the benefit of the

Afghan people.

But three months later, we have not yet figured out what that international financing mechanism

is.

Still hasn't been set up.

First up was David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, whose organization

has been trying to get food directly to those in need without it passing through the government's

hands.

And so we actually sat down with the Taliban and said, look, no one's going to give you

money.

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