across all france 24 channels and france 24.com. host: welcome to world news and analysis from -- i am mark and these are the headlines. the city has been liberated from russian invaders. meanwhile, over 10,000 people have been killed so far in the russian bombardment and siege . peace talks. ukraine and russia have to sit down once again hosted by turkey, but there is little sign of a cease-fire. special arab israeli summit in the desert.

normalization of relations. egypt of the u were there. meanwhile, jordan visiting the palestinians. palestinians of course angry over these so-called arab accords. this is life in paris. marc: thank you very much for being with us. a major breakthrough is being claimed by ukrainian forces. ukrainian forces of taken back full control of the town. it's been a hotspot of fighting with russian troops near t capital of kyiv. disregarded by the russians in taking the capital. let's hear from the mayor. >> we have good news today.

we have freed the town. now we are moving our operation. it is not possible toeturno hear it yet. it is not saf yet. we are consolidating our new potions. next we will move. marc: of course we are still awaiting independent corroboration of that side of the story. we will bring that to u.s. and as we possibly can. meanwhile, at the death toll in that area it is in the region of something like 10,000. this comes from ukrainian estate sources, who say an official 5000 people have been laid to rest but many more are still laid to rest in bombed out buildings. the russians laid siege after marching into the donbass region. it is part of the unite the donbass plan. it was annexed by russia in 2014.

peace talks scheduled for this monday between ukraine and russia have been delayed by a day. the russian delegation arrived in istanbul by official kremlin jet before trance -- transferring to bulletproof cars to the city center. these will be the first face-to-face peace talks in more than two weeks. russian president vladimir putin did not appear ready to make compromises to end the war. ukrainian officials also played down the chances of a major breakthrough at the talks you to be held in istanbul after turkish president spoke with russia's vladimir putin on sunday. >> as russia's invasion of ukraine grinds on, president zelenskyy continues to rally support for his beleaguered country. speaking with four prominent russian journalist on sunday in a 90 mine video call. in which he said he is ready to consider a key russian demand.

>> adopting a neutral status would mean abandoning ukraine's ambition to one day joined the nato military alliance. other neutral countries like sweden and finland have been proposed as models. zelenskyy says such a status would be needed to be put to a referendum. he demanded that russian troops withdraw to their preinvasion positions before discussing the status of the donbass region are pro-russian separatists have been fighting a war of succession since 2014.

>> despite the willingness to compromise, zelenskyy refuses to engage with moscow's other demands, including the demilitarization of ukraine. the next round of peace talks are set to take place this week in turkey. expectations are low, as ukraine's military intelligence service says moscow's ultimate goal is a partition of the country. marc: so it is not exactly an optimistic start to these peace talks. they will reconvene in turkey. let's bring in for some broader analysis nadia, assistant fellow at the institute or to thank you for being with us. peace talks, that's what they're being billed as, but no sign from vladimir putin that he has any sense or appetite for wanting to stop being the aggressor. nadia: thank you for having me. i am not optimistic when it comes to the next round of

negotiations between russia and ukraine. even though both sides have stated that they are rdy to negotiate and president zelenskyy mentioned that his team was carefully assessing russian demands on ukraine's neutrality. several rounds of negotiations have already failed to bear any results. but despite the readiness of the parties to keep the door open for diplomacy, i do not see any signs of one or the other party feels like they have to let down and accept concessions. on the one hand, we see that ukrainians have waged a massive resistance that has been a huge headache for the kremlin as their military assault has not gone according to plan. while with the russian military experience in major issues in terms of planning, logistics, supply and so on. however russian president vladimir putin has declared that his goal is to de-militarize ukraine, whatever that means. this obviously has not happened in russia has clearly miscalculated in counting on

destroying the ukrainian army within days of the regime change. the meetings in istanbul, i think, would show to what extent russia is tempted to look for a way out, given the setbacks on the battlefield. but unfortunately at this point, i do not see that russia is ready to negotiate with ukraine. marc: second question i have is what does light reboot and want? you've already said demilitarize and then the rejoinder, whatever that means. it's one of those questions because now were going to put rhyme and reason to what vladimir putin is saying and why he is actively use active. i think people are going to be struggling. he wants to take ukraine back, doesn't he? that's really what he wants, isn't it? nadia: absolutely. i do not think that this is primarily about nato. i think this is about ukraine's future, their future as a democratic state, is a western democracy. a western-style democracy. and i think vladimir putin has

made it clear that he wants a regime change in ukraine. whether this would happen or not, i have very serious doubts that at this point, the russians will be unable to take kyiv and they will be unable to provoke a regime change. however, the demands are very, very -- they are nonstarter's. because we have seen that the ukrainian side is willing to discuss the neutrality. however, neutrality would obviously rule out ukraine joining nato and would formally close the door of the alliance for kyiv. but it seems like zelenskyy is unwilling to discuss the neutral status unless the major powers, such as the u.s. or ukraine would provide ukraine with security guarantees. and he has a lot of reasons to demand these guarantees because for instance, back in 2014, when russia waged war against ukraine and annexed crimea -- crimea, ukraine was a neutral country. so what he is arguing for is almost like a sort of article

five guarantee that would provide ukraine some protection if russia violat the peace deal and -- that they may sign in the future potentially. the likelihood of this would remain very high, as long as ukraine rejects to go back to the russian influence. ukrainian resistance has shown that there is no way back. the ukrainian people have made their decision. marc: indeed. the likelihood of ukraine disarming anything about it logically it is probably real, isn't it? there is a security assurance memorandum in place. the budapest it's called from back in 1994 appeared which is all part of ukraine basically handing back the nuclear weapons that used to belong to the soviet union which were on ukraine's soil. the soviet union broke up. that was all signed and sealed an assurance that ukraine would be protected by i think it is the u.s., u.k. and russia, to ensure it remains a sovereign state. clearly that means nothing

vladimir putin can i ask you a separate question? it is when you are not invited to speak about but i sense you got a good view on this. when joe biden talks about regime change in moscow, is that the only possible solution to this whole crisis do you think? basically, somehow, somewhere, leonard include being moved aside? -- vladimir putin being moved aside? not yet: i think a rege change must happen not from outside russia. and i think the regime change needs to happen, russian people need to speak up. and see what is happening in russia, because the independent media is almost nonexistent at this point. because the russian government has banned all of the alternative opinion tbeoiced in the media. we have seen what is happened to --or example in other opposition figures. it's a tough situation inside russia and we see that.

for example last week, there was this soviet style tt vladimir putin is organized and this shows that things are not going according to plan and ukraine. and this shows the danger and stress for vladimir putin's regime and that at some point the russian people may have enough of sanctions, another of these restrictions, and they may want to go out into the streets and speak out. however, unfortunately, i do not think that this will happen anytime soon read and it is clear that joe biden's comments, very tough comments during his emotional speech have caused a lot of frustration in the kremlin. because this is not somhing new. the kremlin has feared the revolution style of ed to happen in russia for many, many years. and they have taken fierce measures to prevent such kind of event happening in russia. marc: thank you very much indeed for being -- for sharing your

analysis. mentioning about the lack of independent speech, the last independent news source or semi-independent news source. excuse me for using the long word, forced to close by the kremlin. thank you very much indeed for your analysis. nadia: thank you. marc: we're talking about regime change and of course it was joe biden that made that remark. and that of course still ringing around washington, bidens calling for a regime change in moscow. try to alter the media agenda, the white house has been talk about money. the united states is to allocate billions of dollars to ukraine, talks -- tax the wealthy and lower its deficit. under a proposal that biden unveiled this monday, the massive 5.8 trillion -- i will say that again, $5.8 trillion plan would pay for many of bidens policy proposals.

as his administration struggles with low approval ratings and record inflation and uncertainty linked to covid-19. we are in the middle of all of this, joining us live from washington. good evening to you. the words that will not go away, regime change in moscow. i imagine joe biden had to field a question or two on that rust? reporter: yes he took some questions from rorters at the end of that speech on the budget. and of course, most of those questions were about his comments about vladimir putin not being able to stay in power. and it has to be said that joe biden's explanation of what he sa in that speech in warsaw was probably a much better than the initial cleanup by the white house which said that he simply meant that vladimir putin could not exert power over its neighbors in the region. what joe biden said was basically that he actually meant

what he said, but what he said was not regime change, it was simply that he would like to see vladimir putin no longer in russia. and so his words were exactly i am not walking athing back. i was expressing the moral outrage i felt toward vladimir putin. i was not articulating a policy change. i make no apologies for it. so very forceful words. the president really standing by in a way what he said. but downplaying the diplomatic consequences of it all, saying that basically these words came out after he spent the day meeting with some of those ukrainian refugees in -- and he said that he really felt outraged. and that was really his personal belief, that he did not want to see someone causing so much harm stay in power. but he insisted that this was not a u.s. policy.

and that it -- there was no question, absolutely no question about the u.s. taking down vladimir putin, if you will. and he repeated that a few times, because there were several questions asked in different ways to try to get that answer from him. marc: ok. it regime change dealt with by biden. and of course, they await a change -- well, the angle that the news has taken. 5.8 trillion dollar budget proposal. tell us more about that. reporter: yes, a huge budget propal, as you said, for the fiscal year 2023. and for joe biden, there are three main elements to that budget proposal. this course possibility, safety and security, and in vestments to build a better america. the final element is using some of the elements in the bill back better agenda, that has been stalled in congress for months now.

so years trying bring that back. the other aspect of it, responsibility, mentioned one of the aspects of that is the new so-called billionaires minimum tax. because e biden wants to pay for all of those things by taxing the super rich. a 20% minimum tax on the top 0.01% of earners. those who make more than $100 billion. that is one way of paying for it. if the other is to raise theop individual tax bracket to 39.6%. and finally, one thing that was a little bit change from what the budget was supposed to be because of the situation in ukraine is t safety and security. there is of course the domestic part, fighting crime at home, about $32 billion allocated to things like funding the police in local communities. but also about $31 billion in

extra defense spending, including $6.9 billion for things like nato. for the european deterrence initiative and of course, for countering russian aggressn and supporting ukraine in this situation, whether it is militarily or on the humanitarian aspect of things. marc: as ever, thank you very much indeed. keeping abreast of all the elements in washington. a pleasure to see you. thank you very much indeed. time to turn our i.t. business. who better than kate to join us. good evening, kate. the biden administration has unveiled its latest budget including measures that would target the country's richest people. tell us more. kate: some proposals more likely to become law, others less so. in addition to a proposal that would raise the corporate tax rate from its current 21% to 28%, in the top of the visual tax bracket from 37% to 39.6%,

the white house has tried to challenge the indefensible low tarates that benefit many of the wealthiest americans. take a listen to joe biden. president biden: right now, billionaires pay an average rate of 8% on their total income. 8%, that is the average they pay. now, i am a capitalist, but if you make a billion bucks great, just pay your fair share. pay a little bit. a firefighter and a teacher pay more than double, double the tax rate that a billionaire pays. that's not right. that's not fair. kate: that proposal will call for a minimum 20% tax on all households that are worth over $100 million. it is the 0.1% of's u.s. taxpayers, if you within 20,000 households. -- a view within a 20,000 households. this could lead to capital gains per things like stock

investments or gains that have not yet been sold. capital gains are only taxed when the assets are sold. it contributes huge wealth of billionaires like mark zuckerberg and jeff bezos. their unrealized and largely uncashed capital gains. the body demonstrations as those proposals could raise 360 billion dollars over the next decade. the proposals do reflect some of the president's initial campaign promises and analysts say it is more of a wish led -- wishlist heading into the midterms. it is unlikely to advance in congress. who has to approve any congress to be u.s. tax code. let's take a look at today's trading action. oil prices slumped 9%, sharing high heads into a lockdown crude analyst expect lower demand for oil there would wall street reversed earlier losses to close higher. the nasdaq up performing at the close with tesla shares rising 8%. we saw a mixed close for the major european indices. gains of about a half and three

quarters of a percentage point in each comparison in frankfurt there. losses in london as rolls-royce shares tumbled 11%. g7 leaders have refused vladimir putin's demands to pay for russian energy in russian currency. usually, commodities like oil and gas are bought and sold in dollars or sometimes euros any announcement be shipped to ripples that's a shift to ruble's raise concerns about gas supply in europe. a government spokesperson said customers would have to meet those new demands because russia would not provide gas for free. but germany's economy minister said making payments in rubles is unacceptable and a breach of contract. the spanish government has allocated 16 billion euros to help protect spanish households and businesses from the rising cost of living. inflation is hovering just under 8%, spurredn large part by soaring energy costs. we have more. reporter: a new plan to combat

the rise of energy costs. one day, the spanish government announced a package of around 16 billion euros in direct aid and state backed loans to help companies and households. >> what i am asking all political institutional and social parties to do is to unite in support of this plan in response to the economic and social impact of the war. i ask that we share this time with a sense of the best patriotism. reporter: the response comes as prices of petrol continue to soar as russia's invasion of ukraine continues. the government aimed to reduce the price and diesel price by $.20 per liter. the states will contribute and oil companies five cents. sanchez also announced a focus on housing. >> in the area of housing, in order to avoid high-rises that could harm tenant families, rent

over the next three months will be limited to 2%. and in order to help the most disadvantaged families, the spanish government will increase the minimum living income allowance by 15% over the next three months. reporter: the spanish government are hoping that these new measures will go some way to quell the current discontent in the country. last week, they unveiled a one billion euro plan to reduce fuel prices for truck drivers i made an unprecedented strike. the protests have led to supply bottlenecks for consumers and businesses alike. >> this of course is a problem we are seeing repeated over europe, but really around the world. here in fact, we've seen similar measures, $.18 off the price of one liter of petrol as of friday. marc: thank you very much indeed. pleasure to see you. let's cross these studio. good evening to you.

looking at some news and at discrediting joe biden. reporter: yes. today i am going to be starting on joe biden. if we look at this tweet which is by french news on twitter. it's been going around. as you can see it's got about a hundred 88 thousand views. and it is retweeted by 2000 users and in the tweet, a user comments the sick people who govern us. and in it he or she claims that biden in this has stopped a speech to ask for his mother who died in 2010. let's take a quick listen. president biden: i want to thank you all for being here. second, by the way, where's mom? mom? is she here? oh, she's watching? ok. reporter: in this video, sorry it did not play the whole way there. this idiot has given -- this video has given joe biden all sorts of criticism. his codecs have said it's

emphasized his senility and used it as evidence of incompetence. if you look at the youtube figures, i did digging and found the same video posted on youtube, dated july last year, it has 44,000 views. and there's an onslaught of comments calling him an absolute joke, sink used to old -- saying he is too old. some here to debunk that with help from this website, the focus was also done a deep site -- deep dive. the real story is this was an event for americans with disabilities. one of the special guest was a disability advocate and artist terry brown. who is a tetraplegia it and what actually happens is during the speech, biden was referring to brown and was asking if his mom was watching for it because of the close up and lack of ability to see tyree ground, but also the way it was cut, it was not clear who he was talking to. so it added fuel to the fire for

critics. and it is reiterating the online narrative of joe biden being too old. that we've seen by his codecs. marc: i suppose it depends on what they're looking to ask breasts and a low they are willing to -- willing to express. more viral news about another president. reporter: i'm going to keep with the world leader theme. it is about french president emmanuel macron. as we can see inhis video here, soal media users have been shari this video of hi what they say is a hand gesture. there's over 200 thousand views. replies of saying this is linked to the illinati. or the freemasons. and a member one bay on say and jc used to get this all the time -- i remember one beyonce and jay-z used to get this all the time. we got this fact checked and verified, this video. they confirmed it is not reason at all but is actually a 2017 video for when he met with the

international olympic committee. i did some digging i found this tweet that confirmed the date. may 16, 2017, so this is not recent at all. and as confirmed by reuters, the question is not anything to do with the freemasons or the illuminati. instead, this happens to be the international symbol in sign language to represent paris. so it was always symbol just to show support for -- debunk this same story at year in the summer. this is not the first time that president macron has gone through chris like this. it is very possible that this resurgent has to do with the french elections in a few weeks. that attempt to discredit and vilify the president. as always we encourage our viewers to fact-check as much as possible, especially with a campaign running up. marc: indeed, the far, far right website. thank you from paris. that is all the song language --

simon which i can cope with. thank you to kate for the business as ever and thank you for watching wherever you are. stay with us. more to come alive from paris.

03/28/22 03/28/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. biden: ukine will never be a victory for russia. free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness. for god sake, this man cannot remain in power. amy: president biden calls for russian president vladimir putin to be removed from office. while the white house denied biden was calling for regime