questions on voter turnout. we will take a look at one of the smaller candidates. the warfront in ukraine shifting back to the east of the country. u.s. defense officials saying russia has completed the pullout of all of its estimated 24,000 troops from the area around kyiv. zelensky has said moscow will refocus its efforts in the east of ukraine. reports are ready.

rob has more on this new chapter in the war. >> the ukrainian government has been warning that will happen for some time. they have spoken of a river appointment of russian troops away from the northwest of kyiv to the east of the country. it is assumed the russians are looking for a relatively easy victory vladimir putin will be able to trumpet a victory to the russian people. the alarm bells seem to be ringing a bit louder in ukraine. the vice premier wning people

that live in the east of the country to evacuate as fast as possible. today, you spoke about the attacks on kharkiv. that is in the northern part which is already largely taken by the russians and subjected to pretty intensive artillery strikes. 10 multistory buildings on fire. the government is saying get out as fast as you can. this is the first time the ukrainian government has issued a warning like that.

they are going to see what they can do to help ukraine and protect themselves. >> the u.s. leadership has been outstanding and indispensable. we will discuss wider issues today and tomorrow.

>> one was to support our ukrainian partners. we are doing it. two was to put pressure on russia. we will do that today. tomorrow we will talk about not only how to sustain these acts but how we can vote upon them. >> western countries trying to apply for the economic pressure with a fifth round of sanctions. a tricky process among 27 member states of the european union. european diplomats failed to approve a coal band against russia because of technical issues related to contract sanchez needed to be approved by all eu governments. a compromise could still be found on thursday. moving onto welders.

the military court announced a life prison term for the former president and erstwhile friend. he was found guilty of complicity of murder. peter o'brien tells us more about this historic event for the country. >> entering the courthouse here. ahead of a verdict that she has been waiting on. a military tribunal has sentenced the former president to life in prison to facilitate the assassination of his predecessor. >> [speaking french]

>> he remains an iconic leader for his sleep -- a socialist reforms. a country which he himself renamed. in 1980 seven, after just three years as president, he was killed. in october, he said that he was murdered for living his people. c1 trial.yers call the a political he was sentenced because he is

in exile. 10 others were handed prison sentences and three defendants were acquitted. anchor: for more on the author d professor of history in albany. thank you so much for joining us. the assassination was 30 years ago, but the trial only started after 2014. why is this such a significant moment? >> i see the trial is the outcome of a long, popular struggle. it has run a lot of support.

they have been following the story for 34 years, it's been in the public eye. just on a broader scale, i see the verdict is being important. nobody is above the law. anchor: as a historian and specialist, what new information was uncovered? >> that's one of the things that's been really interesting, beyond bringing closure is to learn more what happened.

you had 100 testimonies, many of them have talked about this before the assassination, and there have been many new testimonies, the details of that day. anchor: there has been suspicion around the assassination, dear expect any new information to come out about that particular issue? >> good question, and one of the

areas, these are certain deficiencies, disappointments. we did not learn a whole lot of the role of foreign powers, but i think many observers, france provided documents to the military tribunal. shed light on the role of documentation. there is icloud it's going to hang over. anchor: we have to talk about them as a person. an iconic, socialist leader.

what made him so special? >> it's important, because what he represented in resisting this llas quote, -- status quo. he was a revolutionary leader. he became this revolutionary icon, posthumously. at one point is considered a socialist, feminist, so on. at the time, there was little in the way with popular sovereignty across africa. he wanted to give people a voice. africans finally had a leader who had the people's interests at heart. he worked to transform reality.

anchor: a professor of history at union college in new york, thank you so much for those insights. >> thank you. anchor: here in france, the presidential election just around the corner. the far right candidate who broke away from the conservative party in the early 2000 is at the head of his own party now. we went to israeli this wednesday, signing off with a strong antimicrobial message. >> at this rally, they chant freedom.

they and their candidate believe disastrous.ring cid were sai there was a clear conflict of interest wit compans such as pfizer, and macron was only trying to help his fries. clear populist rhetoric. he wants france to leave the

european union, stop being part of european institutions. he said this election was for fries -- french independence. he said it was a foregone conclusion, a rigged election, the elites working secretly. anchor: time now for the business roundup. oil prices are in focus. >> energy prices have soared around the world, even more so since the invasion of ukraine. highest levels in years, roughly 75% more that when joe biden

first took office. energy companies are reporting reco profits because oil profits are so high. testifying about their role in the energy crisis. president biden asked -- some lawmakers accused the bosses of gouging prices and taking advantage of consumers. >> even in the face of a war, several companies testify told shareholders they would rather make running off i prices in the market. if these companies wanted to do something about high gas prices, they would put their profits to work. reporter: they refuted criticism and argued they cannot control market prices and the key was to

increase global supply. >> you cannot control the price of crude oil or natural gas nor refined products. we have no tolerance for price gouging. >> we are focused on doing our part to mitigate the disruptions caused by efforts to move away from the global mketplace. because oil is a global commodity, sll this not set the price. reporter: the u.s. government announced it would release one million barrels per day for the next six months. 30 countries have confirmed they will follow suit with 60 million barrels, the second such release of emergency oil in recent months. the impact on global prices has

been fairly limited. the central bank is trying to deal with inflation which is at a 40 year high at 7.9%. the federal reserve raised interest rates and minutes indicate policymakers could move more aggressively and switch to half percent increments. the official set the stage. there was general agreement that policymakers would start shrinking the balance sheet in the month succumb. let's check in on the daytrading action, wall street has closed lower, prospect of those more

aggressive rate hikes. s&p, loss of two percentage points. inflation has led to higher heating bills. 10,000 protesters took to the streets in athens. consumer prices rose 7.2% in february, minimum wage it 780 euros per month is low some eurozone. demonstrator said they wanted better wages and more help from the government. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> [speaking foreign language] reporter: the u.s. and allies are tightening sanctions against moscow. earlier this week the u.s. secretary treasury said it would block any payments from russia. j.p. morgan was stopped from processing to payments due on monday. russia's finance ministry said this wednesday it would use rules to pay $649 million.

ratings agency said paying a dollar denominated currency would constitute a sovereign default, that would be russia's first in decades. analysts say were forced russia to choose between default and using precious reserves of dollars. pressure coming in on all sides as western allies try to tighten the financial news on moscow. anchor: kate moody. moving on to our truth or fake segment. james, you are starting with pro-russian twitter accounts. claiming the massacre was staged. >> third of april. hundreds of civilian bodies

strewn on the streets. look at some examples. shares of content suggesting there was a stage in or somebody's were not bodies. the idea that this is part of a disinformation campaign. let's look at the first example. why are ukrainian soldiers repositioning bodies? that, it was a video film by

ap journalists. they are living binds because of that that was reported by ap and explains the bodies were taken away in that manner. it's a misrepresentation of what's on, very said event and

an unfortunate that it will be misrepresented. anchor: next, an example of a plastic mannequin. >> this is a twitter account, published on the sixth of april, shows a man wearing khaki clothes, he is attaching tape around the manikin body. this is presented as fake deaths. there was fakery of death and fatality around covid-19. there is a conflation of issues. events being fake. this feeds into that suspicion. if you go to the origins of that image, it takes you to a telegram account.

go back further, you find that image published on a tiktok account. it was published by a russian actor. nothing to do with events in ukraine. the dialogue around images. anchor: a young ukrainian women fake her own death. >> we see these images, she put

an image around that selfie of herself where she appearss a cadaver. this w shared on pro-russian accounts, denying she participated in operation, the suggestion was she participated in this false flag type event, backpedaling. if you go to her instagram account, her explanation is this could have been any of us. it was a trained online.

suggesting a staging of events. anchor: images shared out of context. that is all for now. stay tuned, more headlines coming right up. >> some rural and urban areas in france are destinations. too many retiring, not enough qualifying. it's a recipe for a disaster. >> [speaking foreign language] >> don't miss our report.

>> [speaking foreign language] >> the observers direct. ♪

o7ñ;ñ;?k

04/06/22 04/06/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> it is very hard. ey said ey hlready st him,hat i waa widow and i wanext. i waalready eparing mysf too out tohe orchard next and get shot. amy: as many