>> welcome to "live from paris," world news and analysis from france 24. burkina faso's military leader says there will be a return to democracy. no date has been announced. he also says his country needs international friends. his first public speech at a meeting scheduled forriday which could see burkina faso expelled by the other states in -- the other coup states in west africa. russia says the u.s. response to their demands over ukraine

ignores their main concern. ayden and zelensky speaking this thursday -- ayden -- biden and zelensky speaking this thursday. this is "live from paris." ♪ thank you very much for being with us. the leader of the military junta in burkina faso says when conditions are right, the country will return to constitutional order. the colonel said the country needs international partners more than ever. the group has already suspended

two other nations, and burkina faso could face the same fate. >> our mission is clear. his is the safeguarding of our people and the rebuilding of our nation. our main objectives are to continue reestablishing our territorial integrity and that in order to rebuild our nation. our commitment is by no means to reestablish any form of a stronghold, but it takes its source in all the legitimate demands of the people. mark: let's bring in our correspondent in ouagadougou. thanks for being with us. a pledge to return to democracy, no date fixed. what should we make of this? >> this is significant in that

it is the first time he has spoken since monday. no one has seen him, and everyone has been wondering the plan. i think it -- i think people are waiting to see what the reaction is from people. some people i have spoken to today -- there are trade unions who have said that they are caious and kd of need to see if there will be action with that line of words. >> indeed. public opinion can change quickly when the situation does not evolve the way they want it to. is he in control of the situation or perhaps some influence from outside?

>> there's nothing i would be able to say in order to confirm that. it does not necessarily speak to they was influence from another country. the soldiers i have spoken to say this was very much driven by them. mark: indeed, understood. it is coming from within the borders. all this comes ahead of a summit scheduled for friday, and part of the message was that burkina faso needs international friends. we're message than for the group. >> it is not only a clear message.

the question is how the international community will even see that. people in the international community say they cannot support a country where there has been a military takeover. moving portal -- moving forward, it will be interesting to see how we navigate that. mark: thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate your time, and we know we can count on you for further updates as the story develops. just to remind you, the new face of the junta in burkina faso say the country needs international friends ahead of a meeting of

the group that expelled two other countries after coos -- coups. russia says the united states response to his demands on ukraine do not much room for optimism. so, they sought to squash rumors of a looming russian invasion of eastern ukraine. russia has nonetheless over 120,000 troops on standby. >> no positive response -- that was moscow's reaction after the u.s. delivered a written reply for wide-ranging security guarantees in ukraine. russia's foreign ministry is leaving the door open for

diplomatic progress on secondary issues but says its top concern has been ignored. >> the main issue is our clear position on the inadmissibility of nato's further expansion to the east and the women of strike weapons that could territory -- the deployment of strike weapons that could threaten the territory. ask for the u.s. and its allies, banning ukraine on the western military alliance is out of the question. washington is however putting other options on the negotiating table, including more transparency in its operations, limiting exercises and limits in europe, and a potential new arms control treaty. wednesday meanwhile brought a return to normandy format negotiations between ukraine and russia brokered by france and germany. little progress made apart from continuing to respect a cease-fire in the pro-russian breakaway region of don best -- of donbass.

nothing has changed. this is the bad news. the good news is that advisors have agreed to meet in two weeks, which means for at least the next two weeks, russia is likely to main on a diplomatic track. >> french president emmanuel macron is scheduled to speak directly with vladimir putin on today as europe seeks to head off what many your could spiral into the largest military conflict on the continent since world war ii. mark: ukraine's president said to have a phone call with u.s. president biden to address security issues, energy, and macro financial support. the pentagon has put 8500 troops on alert. nato already has some 4500 troops across eastern europe. let's get more analysis with our deputy program director at the europe and central asian section

of the international crisis group. thank you very much for being with us. there are so many things to cover here on this situation. let's get straight to it. emmanuel macron wants to speak with vladimir putin on friday. what do you think the french president might be looking for and whatight he say? >> he says he is going to speak to figure out, like everybody has been trying to figure out russia's intention. russia has been keeping everybody guessing over its intention. one of the advantages to that for putin is that it helps perpetuate his -- division in the west over how to respond. one hopes that macron's discussion with putin will reiterate the fact that the west is trying to prevent a unified front and sort of deliver the

same messages of deterrence and desire from -- desire for diplomacy that other leaders have been doing. mark: i'm bouncing around from country to country. germany's foreign minister says as long as people are talking they are not shooting, which is i suppose a positive way to look at it, but does they become -- does there come a point where words become meaningless? do we get to thapoint where these kinds of things are said but they don't really mean much? >> i don't know. we just had an exchange of views where we see how far apart the sides are in terms of russia's demands that it has put forth about basically nato and the west rolling back the post-cold war security arctecture in europe. it does not mean there is nothing to talk about. the emlen has kept the door open

to dialogue. putin's spokesman in his that the kremlin will not rush their response. one hopes that diplomacy will continue for quite some time. mark: russia has said it is unhappy its demands have not been met. this is in reference to the message delivered to sergei lavrov 24 hours ago. it is very clear by the actual sort of situation we are seeing. what is your reading of this situion? what does ssia claim in terms of saying its demands are not being met? >> putin may not have decided what his next moves are. not least of which, to his advantage, he is dragging out

negotiations with the west or possibly buying more time. i think that when we talk, it is important to say that putin's options remain open. they include de-escalation. we certainly hope that is the measure. there are a number of routes that russia could take now that are short of, say,ull-sce march 2 kia. russia could escalate the situation with more covert psychological, cyber, or economical pressure. some analysts have spoken about trying to seize the land court or to try to create a bridge to crimea, but even that would be quite large on military operations. mark: indeed.

we are still talking crimea, donbass, russia's demands ukraine not join nato. russia treatg ukraine still as its backyard in many ways. and not as the it is a sovereign, independent state. >> indeed, russia is seeking demands from nato, but it has also got basically desires in ukraine to keep its influence their -- it's influence there. it is positive they have a meeting on wednesday, but they met for eight hours, and talks did not go anywhere.

the implementation is extremely difficult, and ukraine worries that russian demands would not be able to effectively create an entity that would not lead to a decision or laws that they would want to pass, so it is not in a rush to find ways to discuss or implement that. mark: you just heard that the zielinski-biden phone call has happened, and what we are hearing is that they discussed -- absolute surprises here -- russia de-escalation, financial support. how do you see this continuing? >> i think it is impornt the west ishowing support for ukraine. it has been a very long time that zielinski has also been seekinghis from the west. we have seen different kinds of

responses from different european portals and from the west, but thetrongest thing that the west can do now is ally have united frontn tes of presenting these deterrent measures, strong sanctions, really showing russia what the cost of any escalation would be. mark: thank you very much indeed for giving us that analysis of the ukraine crisis. thank you very much once again. we, us, are watching and following all developments -- we, of course, are watching and following all developments. next, pulling troops out of mali after tensions between the country and its regional partners and the european union. mali was sanctioned.

>> a decidedly undiplomatic review on live television as mali's military junta advised the french foreign minister to mind her own business and keep her mouth shut. >> mali today insists on respect for its sovereignty, and we invite her to exercise restraint and demonstrate the principle of not interfering in the affairs of other states. >> she had accused the junta of provocation for demanding the withdrawal of a danish special forces contingent. the roughly 90 danes have recently arrived to take part in a multinational european effort of some 9 soldiers advisg malian forces and assisting

them. those danish forces will be returning home with their government none too pleased. >> we are there at the indentation of -- the invitation of mali. the coup generals have withdrawn that invitation. it is again we see because they do not want a quick way back to democracy. >> relations between mali and its former colonial power france have in on the decline since the coup. france is reducing its own footprint in the region as it winds down the nearly decade-long mission to secure the region from jihadist groups, which has seen only limited success with militant operations continuing to spread across several countries. mark: the eu's drug watchdog has approved pfizer's coronavirus

bill making it the first oral treatment for the disease to be authorized. studies show it reduces the chance of hospitalization and death in patients with severe covid and may also be effective against the omicron variant. this is a potentially step in ending the omicron variant as it can be taken at home. neil young's music is being removed from spotify's streaming service. neil young himself has said this. -- has requested this. >> ♪ i'm getting old ♪ mark: neil young in his younger days. he himself made the request to be removed from spotify. he said he objects his songs playing on the same platform

that offers a podcast by a noted covid vaccine skeptic, joe rogan. >> he is a rock legend, and he is taking a stand against misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. on his website, neil young wrote that streaming platform spotify has become the home of life-threatening covid misinformation, lies being sold money. the controversy began after the american musician read an open letter from 270 medical professionals calling for spotify to establish a misinformation policy, mainly because of its number one podcast, "the joe rogan experience." joe rogan signed a contract with spotify in 2020 and has been repeatedly accused of promoting conspiracy theorists. he interviewed a virologist who

has also been accused of promoting false information about vaccines. twitter has locked the dr.'s account, but spotify has not touched the episode. that's when earlier this week, young took a stand. he gave spotify an ultimatum, writing, "they can have rogan or young, not of." -- not both." since the ultimatum, spotify has begun removing neil young's music. the streaming giant says they regret the musician's decision, while critics say it is spotify putting money over saving lives. mark: neil young taking his work off spotify in protest of the podcast but also other sources of fake news on spotify. there you go, someone taking a

stand and with a lot of courage, and obviously making a sacrifice because it's going to cost him money in the long run, but there you go. we of course try to bring you truth or for every story we do here on france 24. thousands of people have turned out to protest against the rising cost of living, amongst other things. kate: as usual. with seen inflation rising about 2.8 percent in november and december, the highest level in over a decade. many protesters say despite the government's efforts to cap think like electricity and gas bills, they simply do not earn enough to keep up. unions representing real workers and teachers were among those leading strikes across the country. they say they want higher pension payments and better pay, especially for public-sector and minimum-wage workers. france's monthly minimum wage is just over 1600 euros. the annual inflation and household juicing power is set to be a key issue in april's

presidential election. >> [speaking foreign lguage] >> [speaking foreign language] kate: french food suppliers are in talks with supermarkets over those rising costs. companies in every sector are struggling with rising inflation and what they can afford to pass on to consumers. catherine: at this biscuit factory, the cost of raw materials has soared because of the pandemic. sugar has gone up 40% while plastic packaging has increased by 20%, and the escape boxes are

more than 24%. for weeks, the company's ceo has been negotiating with grocery stores for a 12 percent increase in the price is paid, but it has not worked. >> distributors wanted to hear about and discuss cost increases enron materials. however, nobody wanted to accept small price increases. >> under a french law designed to protect the incomes of farmers, regular price negotiations are held with food processors and supermarket chains. however, some armors say they are being pressured into accepting lower prices. the big grocery stores say they are protecting their customers' purchasing power. >> we will not be able to pass on all the price increases that are requested of us right away. as a consumer, would you accept if all your daily food products increased between 7% and 10%? it is not possible.

that is where we play our part. we discussed to find the best balance, and in the end, there will be an increase, but one that is fair and balanced for everyone. >> he envisions an average price increase of 3% to 4% for customers once negotiations are concluded at the end of ever wary. kate: the eu -- at the end of february. kate: the eu is tightening monetary policy. it is the fastest pace of growth since the 1980's. economic activity is expected to soften in 2022, especially with the ongoing surge of covid infections, but the labor market strong and prices surging, the central bank plans to end its emergency bond-buying program in march and begin raising interest rates to tackle the highest level of inflation in nearly 40 years.

260,000 new jobless applications being filed last week. let's check in on the day's trading action. wall street extending its week in volatile straits. the dow jones flat, the s&p down nearly half a percentage point, and the nasdaq nearly 1.5 percent. we saw against in london's ftse and a bit less in paris. greece is trying to transition to more stable energy sources -- more sustainable energy sources turning to wind turbines mostly funded by private investors, but one island is worried about hurting its heritage and its tourism industry. >> they are europe's windiest aisles -- windiest isles and therefore a prime target for wind energy.

already the site of hundreds of wind turbines in a project supported by the government and financial backers. >> [speaking foreign language] >> residence do not agree. they are mostly against the project. tourism is an part of the island's economy, and there's concern windfarms will harm the island's beauty. >> [speaking foreign language] >> in total, around 30 wind

turbines are in the works for the island. climate activists argue the islands need to produce what they consume. >> [speaking foreign language] >> greeks overall support wind energy, but this island reflects a fight that has paid -- played out across europe, government stressing the need to switch to green energy, residents saying "not in my backyard." mark: great to see you. for the rest of the world news, stay with us. you are watching france 24. ♪

01/27/22 01/27/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> does president biden fly to honor his pledge to nominate a black woman to the court? >> the president has stated reiterated his commitment to nominating a black woman to the supreme court and certainly stand by that. amy: liberal supreme court justice stephen breyer is retiring after nearly 30 years on the bench, giving psi