to a fair hearing and remove safeguards against abuse. people in power, investigate online justice ana jazeera ah, revealing eco friendly solutions to combat threats to our planet. on al jazeera, ah, russia says a sal and full control of mario paul, except for the as of style steel plans, where ukrainian forces are determined to stand their ground. ah, you're watching al jazeera life or my headquarters in ohio during obligate. also coming up spain in denmark's prime minister's visit ukraine, they're expected to meet with president vladimir zalinski tension and the occupied and ok, so mos compound were is really troops of injured $21.00, palestinian worshippers,

and the 2 contenders for the french presidency. go head to head in a heated televised debates. hello, russia says it will spare the lives of ukrainian soldiers making a last stand in mario poor. if they lay down their arms, who turn has congratulated his defense minister, calling operations to control mar your pull. a success. russian forces are now laying siege to the as of stall steel plants. after president vladimir putin cancel plans to storm the facility. and we solution easily, so i consider the proposed storming of the industrial area, pointless. i ordered to aborted. this is the case when we must think that is we must always think. but even more so in this case, about preserving the life and health of our soldiers and offices, there's no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial city's block off this industrial area. so that not even

a fly comes to all russia has steadily expanded its control in eastern ukraine since february and capturing mario poll is critical for moscow to link separate just controlled territory in the east, where the russian annex crimea in the south and is resorted our reports, it's equally important for the ukrainians to defend. this was life in mario. just 2 months ago. children playing on the beach family is rolling by. but after 2 months of war, life is entity, but normal here. ukrainian say my, you will is hell on earth. the last remaining forces are holden out at one of europe's largest matter factories. for these they have ignored russia's demands to surrender. then a certain of the siegel them would have would do not from us. this is our appeal to the world. this could be our last appeal of our lives. we are may be facing our last days, if not ours. the enemies outnumbering us tend to one. they have advantage in the

air in artillery, in their forces on land, in equipment and in tanks. while we are only defending one object, the adult style plant, where in addition to military personnel, there are also civilians who have fallen victim to this war. we appeal and plead to all world leaders to help us with our european council president charles michelle is the latest you leader, to or for support in a sure sort of verity michel matthew grading president will admit that. asking, can you sample us to continue for why the mid 3 am today? we have to say 1500000000 euros military treatment. and the asked to do intrusion solution wish you, we are twins 2 twins members, 32 at butter 2. i'll support you to make sure that what we provide is what you need . and we just as the we precisely what underneath in her, we are able to make sure that we can provide. we use member susan, other partners demeans that are needed in order to fight and in order to win this

war, ukraine's presence is given up, their city is not an option. what might be open? in order to unblock mario pl, there are 2 ways, serious, heavy weapons that we are counting on city so far. we don't have enough of these weapons. and the 2nd way is diplomatic. so far, russia does not agree to this. the time is running out not only for ukrainian troops, but also civilians. this video was shared by grins as of battalion. inside the as hostile factory. hundreds of people seemed cramped on the ground somewhere in a sprawling compound. she says he'll floods with you. my youngest child cries at everything he twitches in his sleep. he and the oldest are starting to get depression. they miss a peaceful life. it's been really frightening lately. frightening even to go out of the bunker to use the toilet. and they had one desperate plea for the world leader seated dawn really? we lost our home. we lost our livelihood. we want to live

a normal peaceful life. we want to get out of here. there. lots of children in here . they're hungry. get us out of here. we beg you, we have already cried out all the tears we have now. i can't cry any more. we are just sat here. you block pregnancy name. on wednesday, more you posted to official said they have reached an agreement with russia to rescue 6000 civilians on buses. but because of the constant selling on the su, managed to get out tens of thousands of civilians are still trapped in a city that russia is determined to capture and ukrainian see. they are fully committed to defend. russell said that al jazeera live, well, let's get the situation now right now in it's find out rather about the situation in eastern ukraine and bringing charles stratford. he's joining us from the city of back with that in the don bass region. so charles, what is the latest news coming out of mary york? oh. well yes, i mean our understanding is,

is that nothing has changed and oversee. there are huge concerns with a lot of needs to be around. a 1000 civilians inside bunkers, underneath that giant great soviet built steel plants in mary. oh poor. i think what's interesting is that this decision by putin is and that comes a day after the as off battalion that sir a fighting force that as we know are defending their loss positions from that steel plan. the day after agile italian release, those pictures of families and children's in those bunkers, it's the 1st time we've seen pictures of that quality. so it begs the question whether this is forcing president putin to on the international stage, not to be seen to be behaving the way. certainly the west and the ukraine. accuse him of behaving so far in this conflict, having lost so much, seemingly moral authority on the international stage after bombing schools after

bombing hospitals, for example. so yes, huge concerns as i say for, for, for the civilians there in that steel clown, the as off brigade, in the last few hours of announced another statement saying they want a humanitarian cordele full, the civilians to leave. and for what they say around $500.00 wounded soldiers, but they are still not surrendering. and we know that putin needs some thing to show as a victory. we understand in the coming days and weeks up to may, the 9th, which is the day that russia celebrates the soviet victory in the 2nd world war. and so fall putin has so many journalists will tell you, very little to show from this war. since the invasion, certainly military analysts describing basically a defeat of russian forces by ukrainian forces around give. so the pressure is very

much on putin to as i say, shows some sort of victory. and as we head towards may the nights. but yeah, there are grave concerns about the civilians trapped inside that plant. we've seen a map of certainly a diagram put together by yeah, by people who've had to access to the, to the infrastructure, to the plant itself. and it just shows you how complex a structure it is. these are heavily fortified, concrete bunkers built in order to protect people, potentially from a nuclear attack. so it is very, very difficult. and silas to sang the only way that any kind of anybody could be flushed out of that comp. that complex would potentially involve something like chemical weapons. so putin knows this. he does not want to be seen to be a mass murderer on the international stage. we know there are 1000 civilians in

their the that the men defending it are refusing to surrender. and putting needs to, as i say, take some sort of victory to show his people around by the 9 are going to be very interesting to see how this develops in the next 24 hours or so. but yeah, massive phase for the 1000. that will so civilians trapped inside those bunkers under that steel point. okay, thank you so much. all stratford reporting from baton. so while all that is happening to prime ministers is spain in denmark of the latest european leaders to visit keith, the spanish prime minister pedro sanchez in a danish prime minister meto frederickson are expected to whole talk. soon. ukraine's president followed amir zalinski from on this. russell sar is joining us from the vive. so what significance do these visits have? and whether we have any impact on the fight currently taking place in the east of the country? russell that's a little how because we have seen that whenever the european leaders particular

listing here they're promising more weapons, more humanitarian aid. so today the spanish and english prime ministers are here are going to be a that the here and was at g m. and me that the ukranian president bullet image that ask you just yesterday, that the president of the european council shall, michelle, was here. and when he met the president, as the lensky, he said that the he had, he and you with the european partners, they're working on the package to particularly decide what exactly you clean needs . and he promised more aid, a new budget allocation for ukraine. and also he pledged more and more weapons food for, for, for, for ukraine. so this wizard, this high level is that ours are quite important. just remember, we're in the, just ahead of that the war. and we have seen the extra this, all of the embassies moving out of keep going, going to the neighboring countries, as some of them just relocated their embassies to, to, to live. if so simply,

they laughed at the, they loved the capital q because kia was under an imminent trans offer off of invasion by the russian forces. but 2, after a dead on the 2 feet of march, when the russian forces retreated from the region around key. if you have seen that this high level wizard, it just a resumed again, the 1st highest level profile, which, who was it that key was dim and at the present of european commission or sullivan de leon. and he was joined by the that the european union's foreign policy chief, joseph burrell. and after that, they have seen that the prime minister of the, of, of u. k. doris boston, just jab, buddhist johnson, wizard here. so vacant prime minister there that there are straus, deon, chancellor, the polish part of their prime minister. and so these are quite important symbolic lead, not only symbolically, but also practically. they are very much important. whenever we see that they're the european li, the role, the world leaders that are now wasting, give you, has mainly to the demands. first of them is,

is more weapons as the water is intensifying and eastern region prisons, zalinski and the grain officials are emphasizing that they need not only the tactical weapons but also the strategic weapons. right. and they say that the forces are running out of the ammunition. so in that sense, the main demand is, is, is, is more weapons. and 2nd one is humanitarian aid. the toward one. they're asking the european allies, european, because leaders to put more sanctions on russia, particularly on his gas and oil industry. ok, thank you so much. we're so sorry. our reporting from the v r s a says it's successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missiles called the sar matt president vladimir putin says it will provide food for thought for those who threaten russia. he says each missile can carry up to 12 nuclear warheads and can hit any target on earth. military analysts, hairline, omen, says, nato must make it clear to russia. it can't use nuclear weapons in ukraine. well,

i've raised in a column that it becomes desperate. he could threaten using nuclear weapons, and this, these will not be strategic weapons. but what we need to do in advance is that nato asked to say, if you use a nuclear weapon in ukraine, we in ukraine will be able to destroy your logistics. and much of your military, and that will make sure that you will lose. so don't even consider using nuclear weapons in ukraine. i hope to bite administration has the courage to be able to take that stand and let moscow know what the red lines are. in this case, nuclear weapons, i'm not going to be used in, if so, we and nato will retaliate in a way which will ensure that russia will lose in ukraine. and we have the capacity to do that. and who knows it? russia has presented a draft document to ukraine, outlining its demands for peace. ukraine is reviewing the proposals and that comes in the un secretary general and 20. the tara is pushing the president of both

countries to meet our diplomatic editor james base. is that the un headquarters with more the un has sent separate letters to the ukrainians and the russians requesting that they arrange a trip by the secretary general to keep and to moscow if they say yes, this could be one of the most important diplomatic developments since the start of the war, there have been talks between the 2 sides, but they have gone nowhere. this would mean the you and leader effectively carrying out shuttle diplomacy. his spokesman gave more details. we're going to take things one step at a time. so the letters were sent, the idea was be for him to go to boat capitals to moscow, into kiff, to meet with both a president's ah, to discuss whatever urgent steps can be taken to stop the fighting or i'm not going to give him a label in terms of what he will be doing,

but this is, this remains part of the secretary general's good offices, which he has been talking about really for, for quite some time. it follows a call by the secretary general for a 4 day humanitarian pause over orthodox easter. that something the ukrainians reacted to positively, but there's been no official response from moscow that has been criticism of the secretary general in recent days. more than 200 former, you and officials wrote a letter calling on him to step up his personal diplomacy or risk. the future of the united nations still heads on al jazeera, hong kong rose back coven restrictions, but it's come too late for many businesses. will also tell you about a wildfire in the usa to arizona that's tripled in size in just a matter of days. ah

hello, we got the usual showers across southeast asia, some re live the ones recently moving across bornea brunei, 102 millimeters of fright. in 24 hours, no showers continued to straggly. equator will she? i was coming back, came across a good part of the philippines. in the china seeing some lively showers. vietnam cambodia allows thailand seeing some wet weather, some really wet weather, making its way back across some malaysia, smarter sinks and big downpours as we go on through saturday. possibly some localized flooding coming in here. still some very wet weather there into java, the complete disturb to, into pop and you can follow that light of showers in wet weather a little further south. i stay in just around northeast corner of queensland. tropical queensland is still area. cloud hair drifting in from a coral, c will continue to bring some very heavy rainfall in across the region. we have got severe warnings in force for the flooding rags that we asked, seeing now,

and we will see further heavy downpour. $74.00 millimeters, the fright lockhart river, or where to where that link is sad just to round cans towards the townsville grass . he makes his way a little further west, which as we go on through the next couple of days. acquaintance sang some heavy showers into the interior. ah ah ah ah

o. a problem again, the headlines on al jazeera, the sour versus president. whatever fusion has council plans, the storm are still planned to new cranes, port city and your whole is instead ordered a blockade of the 2000 ukrainian fighters still hold up their vanish prime minister peddler sanchez and the danish prime minister met frederickson are the latest european leaders to visit keith. they are expected to whole talk of ukraine's president dimmer zalinski. russia says it's successfully tested, are new intercontinental ballistic missile. president vladimir putin says each miss all can carry up to 12 nuclear warheads and can hit any target on earth. so it's really forces fired rubber, bullets and pepper spray injuring $21.00. palestinians almost compounds

i. it's been a week of heightened tension at the site and occupied east jerusalem incursions by jewish ultra nationalist group for the recent unrest speak to stephanie decker. joining us from occupied east jerusalem and when you, when we look at these incursions by, by the jewish group, stephanie, is there a belief that there are political motivations behind them? well, i think there's more of an ideological motivation behind them. these are extreme right wing groups. there is some political support for them. yes, we have to say there are members of parliament of this government, of the previous government that supports the right for jews to pray on. the alexa most compound known to jews as the temple mount a. but certainly, you know, under the status quo, which is agreed upon by jordan, which is the custodian of the site. and israel non muslims are only allowed to

visit the site, not allow to pray and the issue, the bigger issue here during is that over the years, you've seen a change in nature of these bins. it's more and more of these ultra right wing groups accessing the site with provocative behavior, praying on the site attempting to pray on the site, some of them even going as far as to cool for the building of a 3rd temple on the site. so this is at heart of the crux of the issue i was talking to a couple of unless about this who are telling you that that means that the status quo has already change. and that this is a red line, i, you know, covering the, the conflict here. the story here when you have, you know, a war in gaza to home demolitions, whether in the occupied west bank settlement expansion, it doesn't mobilize the people to the street as does the alexa mosque compound. i'd people will tell you also, it's not just this area that, that it has an effect on end of the entire muslim world. so this is why else using a lot of diplomatic activity behind the scenes with the americans,

with the jordanians, are putting pressure on israel to try and temper the ground. although what we saw today was the last visit for the next 10 days, or the government is banned any more and on muslim visits until the end of aid. this is our policy really. they do this every year, but it is expected. many people will say hopefully to calm what's been a pretty tense week. yeah. and that mobilization that you speak of stephanie certainly always felt in gaza as well. and there's been reaction from there. what happens overnight i there is one record fired of night. it's the 2nd rocket of the last week, garza in terms of rocket fire has been quiet in the last 6 months or so. and because of the bubbling tensions, if you will hear also, hamas had warned yesterday there was a, an ultra right wing flag march. the organizes wanted to go paused damascus gate. this is an occupied east, jerusalem, really the heart of, of the area there of trade, of people who go in and out of the old city to pray and buy and do their trade

a. but the police were very careful, i think, showing also really not wanting tension tensions to escalate notches here on the ground, but also with hamas in gauze blocking off roads. not allowing the flag march to get anywhere near damascus gate so that one rocket was fired. there was as ready airstrike as well on gauze overnight targeting what they, what these really minutes we said was in his rating, weapons depot. but none of this, i would say it still gives an indication that there will be any major escalation when it comes to the gaza. part of the story, certainly, i think both sides reading between the lines do not want any escalation at the moment. thank you so much. stephanie decker report from occupied used to ru slim. the 2 contenders for the french presidency have taken part in a televised debate ahead of sunday's election, the incumbent or minute micro. on as far right challenger marine, the pan sparred over the cost of living, the ukraine war and the use future opinion polls favor my chrome, but suggest

a tight race. natasha butler reports from paris. olivia, i could do. it didn't take long for things to become tense. soon after the start of the french presidential candidate debate, the centrist incumbent emanuel macro put the far right candidate, marine the pen on the spot. by questioning her links to the kremlin and to russian bank loaned the funded her 2017 campaign, whatever they should thought you were. one of the 1st european leaders in 2014, to recognize the annexation of crimea. because you depend on the russian regime, and you depend on mister putin, madame le pen, you took out a loan in 2015 from a russian bank. the 1st check russian bank, which is close to the government. and all i remember my little boy, except the presenters repeatedly called for com is the candidates, disagreed over issues including climate change, education, immigration, and the european union. my carl believes the block should be stronger and the pen wants to diminish its power. the far right leader also said she would make it

illegal for muslim women to wear the headscarf in public if elected macros said such a move would provoke a civil war, is a shrewd ball until he still knew well, dollars was really i believe the headscarf is a uniform imposed by islamists that most young women who wear it have no choice was he said, just shelton, frances country of the enlightenment of universal values would be the 1st country in the world to bound religious symbols in public space. the 1st country in the world, that is what you are proposing. what i'll look at times mcgraw seemed over confident or on the attack. but for most of the debate, he clearly had the upper hand, leaving the pen, looking frustrated or confused. a performance wasn't a total re run of the 2017 election debate with micro a disaster by her own admission, but it wasn't far off, although she gained ground on some social issues, including health care forward curriculum. and you know, the reality is during your presidency, mr. mac, hong,

it's only crazy is that make you act there. had to be a pandemic to make you realize that help workers have been in a terrible way for years. you, for nearly half a century presidential candidates in france are faced off live on tv and a debate that's usually watched by millions of people, and is often a pivotal moment in the election. on monday that law was a fiery exchanges to rhetorical flourishes. the debates are often highly anticipated by viewers and rarely dull. over the years the protagonists and politics have changed, but one thing has remained constant. the person most widely perceived have won the debate, often wins the election. voters on sunday will now decide whether history will repeat itself. natasha butler, al jazeera paris. okay, don't china's president's hers has government backed talks to resolve international disputes, but opposes the use of sanctions in the video masters of the annual bow for him. for asia, she jumping warned against what he called

a cold war mentality and unilateral sanctions, it comes a day after a league video from the chinese navy showing an advanced anti ship miss are designed to destroy aircraft carriers. katrina, you has more from beijing and 100. we had chinese president, she didn't thing talk about the need for world peace and countries to work together . but on wednesday we had a video which appears to be link leaked by the chinese navy and shows a hypersonic missile being launched from one of china's most advanced navy missile destroyers ships. now we've had no consummation from beijing that they have successfully achieved this technology. but we do know that they've been working on it for some time, and if they are successful, they would be only the 2nd country to have hypersonic missiles after russia. now, from the looks of these videos, experts say it seems that these missiles have a, a range of about 10021500 kilometers,

which means they're able to target entire air strikes fleets at sea. and we don't know exactly why china is really putting a lot of investment into this hypersonic missile technology, except to say that paging has been building up its military and also nuclear capabilities over the last few years. and chinese analysts say that this is all about deterrence that china is a long way when it comes to power c with the likes of the u. s. or with russia. but because of increasing tensions around the south china sea, around taiwan, and also looking at ukraine and seeing how the u. s. and other western countries are really galvanized and sort of mobilized to support ukraine. this is making aging nother, so it's working on building up, its 2nd strike capability to deter any future attacks or counter attacks in what, what baiting sees as its own backyard. hong kong is easing some of it's go with 1900 restrictions for the 1st time. in 4 months. many schools are resuming in

person classes. gym cinemas and other public facilities are reopening on thursday. but as adrian brown reports, many say it's too late for some businesses. so many of the bars and restaurants in this once busy enter raymond, district of land, quite fun. the partial relax station of coby restrictions has come to late. one trade group estimates the by the end of april 2 and a half 1000 restaurants across the territory would have shot permanently. for more than a 100 days, diners couldn't be served up to 6 pm, and no more than 2 people were allowed to table. this steak house though remains open. the owner frustrated with the government's cobit strategy. it's not the policy itself. it's the lack of clarity. if the confusion and chaos, the flip flopping, that's been quite a bit of frustrating foss, even if there's a spike in the number of cases. i hope the attitude is that we have to live with this now. from thursday,

his restaurant can stay open until 10 pm with up to full diners, the table, the government has been providing financial support to businesses, including kim's, but the owner of this one won't. it won't survive another locked down, load on cash or thought? well, i think it will be difficult for us to survive with the existing cash flow. if there is a new way of coping 19, our cash flow has a limit. most of the small and medium enterprises like i have not recovered from the 5th wave. hong kong standing as asia's premier financial center, was already under pressure before the 5th wave. the european chamber of commerce says that up to half its members are considering leaving hong kong in part because of its tough corona virus restrictions. one expert though doubt, settle, go through with it, is easy to leave is more difficult to come back. ah, and, ah, they are considering living. i probably after some due diligence, they realize that, you know, hong kong remains to be

a vibrant financial center. hong kong airport was once asia's busiest. it's now eerily quiet. on monday, no flights arrived from outside asia, airlines of band for a week, if 3 or more passengers test positive recovered from the same flight. and every one entering the territory must quarantine for a week in a hotel. many other countries in asia, including singapore and south korea, have opened their borders to fully vaccinated travelers who no longer need to quarantine. that in turn, is helping their economies to grow again. but hong kong like mainland china is sticking doggedly to what he calls a dynamic 0 infection strategy. that means eliminating the virus rather than learning to live with it. it's a strategy that many economists warn, could damage hong kong, economic future. adrian brown, al jazeera hong kong ah.