and the comment that with my cuba on al jazeera, ah . 1 russia steps up the fight to end ukraine's last resistance and matter. you pulled president savanski calls on the you end up rescued. when do we report from the front lines of the war where a ukrainian mother tells us she picks up bombs to ensure her child lives in peace. ah, but i'm darn jordan. this is out as they are alive. and to also coming up absorbing inflation in the united states prompts the biggest interest rate high in 2 decades and in sport, real madrid reach the champions league final. after winning a dramatic semi against non justices,

ukraine's president has asked the un secretary general to help say the lives of people trap that a steel plant. and matthew polt, russian troops are reportedly entered the as of style facility, where ukrainian soldiers and civilians are inside. the russian defense ministry has said to begin a cease fire there for 3 days on thursday to help evacuations. alicia williams. alicia, today i spoke to you and secretary general antonio gutierrez and we discussed what we have already achieved and what is still necessary to do to save maria pole. and the defenders of maria poll city. there is not a single day that i and my team wouldn't do this, and i am grateful to everybody who helps as follow. grania by the good news on the mario post garrison for 70 days has resisted the overwhelming forces of the enemy by itself. since the 25th of april, we have held a circular defense of the ever stole fun. it is the 2nd day the enemy has broken

through into the plans. there i have a bloody battle, say, i'm proud of my soldiers for the inhuman if it's to contain the on school and let them not, i think the whole world for it's tremendous support of the mary. oh, poor garrison our soldiers deserve. and the situation is extremely difficult. we carry out the orders to keep defending despite everything. but most of the on the ground fighting is taking place in eastern ukraine, which moscow has made its main focus of the war. on tuesday 21 civilians were killed and they don't ask region one of its deadliest day so far. so all stratford is with ukrainian troops in the east and sent us this report. the black smoke rises from russian all control territory. we drive at high speed along what ukrainian soldiers call the road of life towards the front line. it's a walk through the forests to the trenches, the sound of artillery punches through the air, flushing forces trying to advance from the left and right flanks. but morale among

the soldiers is high. didn't lose least when the war started. i had a huge adrenalin rush and a search and anger, now more anger of what the washington up in lucia variable, and what they continue to do. many other places on the whenever be brothers liskey scars from mortar tillery strikes, russian forces frequently target disposition that shelling that you can hear is coming over our heads from russian positions and hitting ukrainian positions around about 2 or 3 kilometers from here. this is what heavy artillery sounds like when it's fired over your head. the was just the shell blush through the air. the crunch. just a hit explode. the soldiers of used british made anti tank missiles called in law's

part of a multi $1000000000.00 military, a package from ukraine's western partners. and in addition, but that unless we are grateful to western countries for helping us with weapons, because russia has much more than us, we can't hold them back without their health. from afford observation point soldiers tell us, russian forces are behind the wall. only a few 100 meters away and they are facing high tech weapons from above. those for my team could either get a reset or the drones help their artillery to hit oppositions. there are also weaponized version that for $3.00 to $4.00 times a day. they are difficult to shoot because they fly so high. my alina worked as a veterinarian before she signed up to fight the so many of the thing. when the thing you see book, i have a child, she's 10 years old. i want her to have

a peaceful sky over her head. that's why i'm here. i consciously decided to join up and defend my country. boxes of explosives and ammunition, the constant threat from above. the russian army trying to push forward under a blackening sky. cha, stratford, 0 eastern grade. the us federal reserve has announced the biggest interest rate hike in more than 20 years, raising its benchmark by half a percentage point. it hopes the move will lower inflation, which is a 40 year high. gabriel is under as more now from washington, dc. for regard to a good, a business is good at his beloved food truck. he calls tamales, packers pueblo. but when he needs to restock the trucks, refrigerator, with ingredients he had to his local market, realizes everything has gone up in price by a lot, $6.00 for this before you could get a 4299 double in price. even the oil he uses to cook with,

instead of being 40, now we pay $8042.00, because he was not alone. millions of americans are struggling to get by with inflation reaching the highest levels in decades. which is why that are reserved chair, jerome pow announced wednesday and aggressive interest rate hike of half a percentage point. we understand the hardship it is causing and we're moving expeditiously to bring it back down. the u. s. benchmark or target inflation rate is about 2 percent. he rate at which the fed believes a normal healthy economy can function without too much strain on consumers. in march, 2019 before anyone had heard of corporate 19, the u. s. economy was humming along inflation was at 1.9 percent. basic interest rates were also low. but then march 2020 hit. and so to do the pandemic, the u. s. economy began to shut down the federal reserve slashed interest rates to

near 0 to keep the economy from total collapse. it worked. but since then, supply chains have become clogged while consumer demand has increased along with energy costs, with russia's war and ukraine. goods and services have become more expensive. inflation kept creeping up last year and has been over 6 percent for 6 straight months. it's now at a 40 year high. so interest rates are going up to put the brakes on an overheating economy. left unchecked in ation, can lead to an unsustainable cycle of price hikes that directly affect consumers and business owners. just like ricardo the food truck owner, have a business run and a felony to support hey, not to raise the price, is one. unfortunately, i don't have a way around it. the government hoping this latest interest rate hike will provide

the economy with what the fed calls a soft landing for millions of americans. gabriel's hondo al jazeera washington, the head of the world health organization has warned access to safe abortions is crucial to saving lives. we made the statement as pro and anti abortion rights. protests happened across the u. s. there in response to a leak drop documents suggested the supreme court may soon reverse a landmark a bushel ruling difficult returns the legal right to abortion. the half of all us states would move to restrict or ban the procedure. but as rob reynolds reports, california is one of 3, promising to continue getting women the right to choose. oh, california is governor. is in a fighting movie. i think till she really be pissed off. at this moment, gavin newsome says california will be a sanctuary state for women seeking abortions from around the country. he will not be defeated. we will stand tall, we will stand firm. and we will affirm the constitutional currently

constitutionally protected rights of women girls. ah, protesters gathered in los angeles and other cities around the state, newsome says he will propose an abortion rights amendment to the state constitution for a state wide vote in november. we look forward to going front of the voters affirming is constitutional right in our state in the constitution, not just statute because we now recognize the vulnerability of the moment we're living in california as the least restricted access to abortion in the us. it covers the cost of the procedure for low income women and requires private insurance to pay for it. newsome has suggested that state funds may be used to help women in anti abortion states. pay for travel to california. california has war abortion providers than any other state,

but that network is likely to come under pressure as the number of women traveling to california to undergo the procedure is likely to increase dramatically. we anticipate substantially more people coming to california and to los angeles. we've been working with our hospital partners with a variety of partners across los angeles across the state, in addition to our legislative and gubernatorial leaders and really are doing all we can to anticipate this moment. governors of other states where abortion will remain legal no matter what the supreme. ready court decides are also speaking out message to women all across this country is that new york, the state of new york, will always be there for anyone who needs reproductive health care, including in abortion, let me be clear, no matter what atrocious opinion. the supreme court officially rolls out this summer in regards to roe v wade. abortion is safe and legal in illinois. a country

already severely split over politics and cultural differences. now on the verge of an even deeper divide, rob reynolds al jazeera los angeles. well, not every one is alarmed by the leak draft opinion from the supreme court. j appointment is from the texas alliance for life. he says, even if the law is overturned, women's rights over all will remain protective. there is a misperception on the side of people who support abortion rights, that abortion is needed for women to advance in society. and yet that's just not the case. abortion, abortion rate in texas and nations has been steep decline over the last 2 decades. i mean, it's really dropped enormously and yet women continue to advance in society, in government, in, in a law in education, just throughout society, any income or abortion obviously is not needed for women to advance and society.

the reasoning using this only applies to abortion, it would not apply to any other issues, like marriage contraception and any other social issues. it's this, this what the supreme court does in this draft, and of course what they do when they finally release or decision is. and that may be another matter we hope not. but it's very clear that they are only addressing the abortion issue, which was so egregiously decided 50 years ago. i shall prepare now to sierra when we come back. we're in nigeria is ne, don't province. whether you am 2nd general comes face to face with former boca, or i'm fighters, leading forestry experts meet in south korea to try and find solutions to reverse climate change mana saying, ah,

hello, he have another round of stormy weather developing across the great plains. us. we got to another barrier cloud, just sliding off the rockies. larry of low pressure here, latest feature that's now in the process of pulling away from the eastern seaboard . now to the south of our weather system, we're putting up some very warm moist air out of the gulf of mexico as typical. and we got cooler rad, just rolling off the raw case. and where those 2 main, that's where we gonna see that developing area of light pressure bring some really big sundry down pools in the possibility of some tornadoes. large hail stretching all the way from texas, louisiana, right up into the great lakes. they're literally sing some very wet weather event, which will slowly but surely continue to make its way further east was running across the appalachians toward the northeast corner. as we go on 3, friday, back up to the north west. there's another system just coming in here as well, some wet weather, and so winfrey, weather was sandy, see some snow coming in across the cascade south of that. it stays hot. it stays

dry. the fire risk remaining elevated, the hot, dry weather, stretching down across a good part of mexico. we have got some big showers. wants to get across central america. still some big show was there around the greater antilles. but looking fine and try for the east knots. ah, african story from african perspective. short documentary from african filmmaking. from ivory coast, just the last series from chauffeur de bus, a function of nursing, home and south africa. tina. i would change them and showed me that i'm actually tracking and fire with africa direct on al jazeera blue.

ah, welcome back to provide about top stories here. this, our ukraine's president is asked the un secretary general to help save people trapped to the as of style steel plant and malleable russian troops are reportedly entered the facility where ukrainian soldiers and civilians are hold up inside. the u. s. federal reserve has raised a key interest rate by half a percentage point in the hope of learning. inflation is the biggest increase more than 20 years. and the world health organization says access to safe abortions is crucial to saving lives. that's are the leaking of the draft document that suggests the u. s. supreme court could be about to overturn a landmark portion, rudy mon, our top story now the war in ukraine. there been confrontations between opposing groups of protest as in bulgaria,

whether the government should do more for you crash. i police in the capital, sophia, try to separate people calling for more aid. and those want in the government to stay neutral. earlier parliament voted in favor of allowing the repair of ukraine military equipment. it's all to refuse russian demands to pay for its gas and needles. for european union once it's 27 members to ban russian oil imports as part of its latest sanctions for the war in ukraine. it will be done in stages to give government time to look for alternative supplies. but several countries are pushing for exemptions. dominic came reports from berlin. this is the gas from yes, installation. in hunting months he asked from installations like these in siberia and across russia, crude oil, diesel and petrol. a pumped to customers. taken together every day, nearly 8000000 barrels of crude and refined products are exported. 2 thirds of them

end up in europe. but now russia's war against ukraine has changed everything to day. we are addressing our dependency on russian oil. and let's be clear. it will not be easy because some member states are strongly dependent on rational oil, but we simply have to do it. so today we will propose to ban all russian oil from europe. this will be this will be a complete import. bannon. all ration will seaborne and pipeline crude and refined . but in order for this to happen, it will need the support of all e u member states, and some a strongly resistant to all act embargoes by sally back. give you. russell anxious package would destroy the security of hungry energy supply. while you're like this package in this form cannot responsibly be supported on one at ne,

journeyed the sanctions proposed in strasburg will also target several large russian banks and other financial institutions. the notable absentee from the list is russian natural gas. in a sense, it's the elephant to the european living room. too big to be ignored, but also too big, unilaterally to be done away with, without seriously damaging economies across this continent. bottom line, as you will probably not be able to replace rocky gas any time soon. we're talking about a $150000000.00 billing cubic meters of gas that russia says west that's coming down at the moment. but we're still gonna face a shortage of, of quite a few bcm out there. the russian government condemned the proposed embargo and said sanctions are a double edged weapon, which will also hurt europeans economically. and that's the problem facing e u leaders. they want to act fast against russia, but they're stuck with the reality of decisions that governments across europe made over decades when they thought that it was in their best interests to make deals

with president putin. dominic cane al jazeera berlin, the united states there's, it's now economy preparing for both scenarios with and without the iran nuclear deal. the state department warned it's not sure there will be a mutual return to compliance with a 2015 agreement between terre on and world powers. the joint comprehensive plan of action limited iran's nuclear abilities in exchange for dropping sanctions. the u. s. left the deal in 2018. we are now preparing equally for either scenario that scenario in which we have a mutual return to compliance in which that breakout time is elongated. we are also preparing with our allies and partners for a scenario in which there is no energy. and we will have to turn to other tactics and other approaches. 30 people have been killed and attacked by the algebra on group, on african union peacekeepers in somalia. it happened on tuesday, the albatross army base in the middle chappelle region,

10 soldiers in burundi and at least 20 hours above sight as are among the dead. the 2nd, a general has called for the safe return of people displaced by conflict to ne, a. nigeria, antonio good ted as visitors are camping, born and state as last stop and a 5 day tour west africa, a decade of war between the government down the boca rom, proof of kills more than 40000 people. nicholas cripple in nigeria is born. those states, the un secretary general, received a rockstars welcome from hundreds of this place people. they fled attacks from the armed group book horizon off camera. he spoke with the former book or harm fighters . many of them teenagers. they have not only down their arms as part of a rehabilitation program, feel strongly to the international community to understand berto as a state of hope, to survive my action in ball medical denies. the enormous challenges the board will

face with climate change would still be active even and don't invest in the bottom of a good terrorist. met nigeria as president mohammed you hurry to discuss the fall out of the ukraine. russia conflict, the un estimates a quarter of a 1000000000 people could fall into extreme poverty by the end of the year. many of them in africa, prices of basic goods are rocketing. governments in the region, fear a looming food and energy crisis. when the cap will over attention is focused on the unfortunate situation you create, we in this region, she didn't already that the word is for getting a low chest. the i can be sure is that the word it with us and we confront, to extreme is terrorist organizations,

hunger and the enormous problems of dealing with millions of displaced people. then this to for, to vivid earlier gutierrez was in the chair where he met maryan refugees. fleeing attacks from arm groups linked to iso and al qaeda. when in senegal, he discussed with the chair of the african union president mikey sol, ways to unlock the funds to tackle climate change. droughts and extreme weather is fueling conflict in the sale. during his visit, he also sought to draw attention to the people of west africa, who he says are too often forgotten in the face of growing instability. in looming crisis, nicholas hawk al jazeera, the u. s. embassy in cuba has begun, issuing these as again for the 1st time and 4 years. former president donald trump closed continent services in 2017 of the allegations of sonic attacks on embassy staff and their families. a number of cubans trying to enter the u. s. are serge

recently with more than 78000 crossing from mexico and the last 6 lunch, or cube was one of 3 countries excluded from the upcoming summit of the americas in los angeles. the u. s. says they don't meet the necessary democratic standards. the decision as but washington at odds with countries in the region, in and out as they are exclusive, our latin america editor, lucy newman, spoke with tubers, deputy foreign minister to get heaven. his reaction, as the name implies, the summit of the americas is the only venue where leaders of north central and south america gathered to confront pressing problems. this year the theme is migration, but the host to president joe biden has unilaterally decided to exclude 3 countries, including cuba, iowa, thank you. thank you for. i met cooper's deputy foreign minister, cadillac fernandez the ga seal of van is point man for us affairs to talk about the implications of washington's controversial decision. or we have said that

a summit that excludes some countries of the region. it's an exclusive summit, but if you're going to have the summit, you're going to spend money on it. if you're going to go to the trouble of convening, heads of state and government, it would be to discuss the difficult problems that we have in our region, which are difficult. some of them are controversial and for the summer to be successful. the useful thing to do, and the fair approach to take would be to have everybody in have everybody put forward their point of view, even if you don't like, as we all know, tuba is undergoing a huge exodus of its citizens right now, the largest since the 1980 is actually why do you think that is one of the basic reasons that is pushing migration is people saw that the policy of the biting government is exactly the policy of the government, which is maximum pressure toward cube the policy of the us against cube in economic turns to date is nothing short of criminal. it's

a criminal policy to punish the livelihood of people while i've heard i asked for an undesirable seal if and as a gesture to the biden administration, the head of the summit of van up my grunting amnesty to protest his sentence. the harsh prison sentences for taking part in last year's anti government protest. why would cuba have to make concessions for us to stop applying a policy that is criminal? and that is clearly unfair. what would you say to president biden if you had him on the phone right now, about the fact that he doesn't want to invite cuba to the summit of the americas when that was one of the things that the vast majority of the countries of the region fought for, for so many years. i doubt that he would speak with me. but i would say that if you're going to call it a summit, you could call our summit of a part of the america. you cannot cali some of the america. if you guys could, some, you should not fear having frank dialog,

even when there are differences. and there are differences in the region. and there are problems. immense problems or regions that the countries need to talk about countries the region are claiming. that'd be an inclusive summit. and that cuba being put the u. s. should pay attention to it. leaders in the world forestry sector, our meeting in south korea to discuss ways of tackling global warming. so has revitalized it's forest soft a decades of exploitation is believed to be a model that could help others address climate change from a bright reports. it's a gathering that brings together thousands of experts on forests meeting after a one year delay because of the pandemic. organizers say that's a timely reminder of how humanity and nature are so interconnected, and reiterate the importance of healthy forests to limit global warming. taurus are absolutely essential to climate stability. if we have any hope of stain below 1.5

degrees warming, we need forests, their sinks for carving, so they sat carbon out of the atmosphere and all of the scenarios they all have forest in there as part of their models that bring that temperature down the host south korea offers important lessons on forest management. it's stripped much of its wooded hill sides in the 1st half of the last century and during the korean war, but then embarked on an ambitious reforestation program. the amount of land that's covered by forests has roughly double to more than 60 percent in the past 6 decades . that periods also seen south career, transform its economy into an advanced one proving it seems that economic progress and good forestry management can and do go hand in hand. in contrast, the mountains of north korea have been relatively stripped of trees. after years of economic hardship, it means bigger summer storms and floods because of climate change,

inflict more damage. and the changing climate is also causing more damaging forest fires in south korea. i'm our cuban our young than $120.00 a year. this year we had the largest ever wild fire that burned continuously for 213 hours, and that was made worse by global warming. so we need to improve our system for forestry disaster management and he another indicator of a changing climate. the cherry blossom season, which has just ended on the peninsula, comes earlier each year. a visual reminder of the delicate and shifting balance between trees and the environment. rob mcbride al jazeera, so let's get some sports news now. rail madrid will play liverpool in the champions league final after staging. a dramatic late come back in the 2nd leg of their semi final against manchester city rail. we're about to be knocked out before too late. goals by substitute rodrigo took the match into extra time and a penalty from korean bens m. i've actually gave an a 31 when on the night that 65

on aggregate already won this spanish league title rail, madrid who had to paris on may 28th m to become european champions free for a 14th time in the history. oh, by the dealership, american. pretty little the opponent was very tough. the match was really close, but the squad never gave up. boss after manchester city scored was things were more difficult, but we had everything, the sacrifice of luck and the energy that i think the substitutions helped a lot. so that everyone who played gave they all know it was an intense match. we try to put the pressure on and manchester city didn't play how they normally play because we put a lot of pressure on them. things worked out ok, but it is our nurse and ukraine who lost both her legs in the war against russia has shed a video of her 1st dot last. ready where city still is not, is oksana bundle. lena was walking home with victor vaccine live in the east and

the husk region in the last week of march, when a landline exploded. victor was behind. asana was unharmed as she had want him of the danger minutes earlier. they both got married on monday. ah, take a picture of the top stories a on al jazeera ukraine's president is asked the un secretary general to help save the lives of people trapped but a steel plant in matter. you pull. russian troops have reportedly entered the as of style facility, where ukrainian soldiers and civilians are inside. the russian defense ministry has said it will begin a sci fi there for 3 days on thursday to help evacuations. alicia alicia, today i spoke to you and secretary general antonio gutierrez and we.