said the military will fundamentally scale back operations around the capital as a way to, quote, increase trust in the peace talks. but the truth is the russian military is already being forced out of several areas due to heavy resistance from ukraine. and it's come at an incredibly steep cost. check out these scenes from a town in northeastern ukraine where a senior u.s. official says russian forces have been driven out after weeks of occupation. burned-out tanks and half-destroyed buildings are scattered all over town. overnight, ukrainian forces also retook the city of irpin northwest of kyiv that's been the scene of some of the worst fighting in the area. the mayor says it's been, quote, liberated, although president zelenskyy says russian troops are still in the area. bottom line -- what the russian military hasn't been able to control it's tried to destroy. and yet after more than a month of fighting, the biggest cities including kyiv and kharkiv have

not fallen. and parts of kherson have been retaken. and despite unbelievable suffering, mariupol remains in ukrainian hands. its defenders refusing to give up even as the city is left in ruins. listen to this woman describing what life is like in mariupol right now. >> there's no gas, no electricity, no heating, no cell phone service. we melt snow to have at least something to drink. we cook on open fires under shelling and bombs just because if you don't you will have nothing to eat. a lot of people are just i think starving to death in their apartments right now with no help. >> life in mariupol. and, in fact, the mayor of that city says 170,000 people remain trapped. he also said 5,000 people have died, 90% of buildings in mariupol are either damaged or

destroyed. nbc news cannot confirm any of those figures. but all of this forms the backdrop for the new peace talks under way in turkey, and there is at least a glimmer of hope that progress could be made. in recent days, president zelenskyy said ukraine would be willing to meet russia's demands by claiming neutrality. he's open to discussing the fate of donbas in the east. on the russian side, four anonymous sources who spoke with the "financial times" say russia is also dropping some of its previous core demands. they include calling for, quote, the de-nazi-fication and demilitarization of ukraine's government and legal protection for the russian language in ukraine. russia would also reportedly be open to ukraine joining the european union but it wants to abandon any attempts to join nato. let me bring in molly hunter in odesa in southern ukraine. amna nawaz is an msnbc

contributor. peter zwack is a former attorney general. he is author of "swimming the voel ga: an army officer's experience in pre-putin russia." i want to start with breaking news. carol lee is covering the white house. i understand, carol, in just the last couple of minutes as i was coming on the air, we got breaking news about a call the president will be holding with other world leaders. what can you tell us? >> reporter: that's right, chris. the president, according to the white house, is going to hold a call with the leaders of france, germany, the uk, and italy starting moments from now, scheduled for 9:15 a.m. eastern time. this call comes amid all of those -- the backdrop you just outlined, all of those developments from the peace talks to the russians signaling they may pull back its military invasion in ukraine, and it comes after president biden

yesterday came out to further clarify some comments that he made on saturday saying that russian president vladimir putin should no longer remain in power. as you'll recall, there were a number of european leader who is said -- expressed skepticism about whether or not the president should have made those comments. emmanuel macron, the president of france, said at this particular time, european and ukrainians are trying to work out a peace agreement here, it's not the time to escalate in terms of rhetoric or actions. obviously, aimed at president biden. so that's the backdrop in which the president holds this call. again, it's supposed to start minutes from now, and we expect a readout afterwards, chris. >> carol, thank you for that. amna, obviously, this phone call between biden and the other leaders is happening simultaneously with the peace talks unfolding in turkey. do you think the two things are seriously connected? does it add any hope that real progress is being made?

>> chris i think one of the key issues in all of this is ukraine is able to defend itself as well as it has, holding off some advances, win back some ter toirp that was previously held by russians because of the support it's getting from the u.s. and nato members. and that has been a key to their success. that is certainly what's happening on the battlefield and that support from the u.s. and those other western nations is going to feed what happens and what unfolds in that diplomatic meeting today, as you mentioned, which is coming at a critical time, the first direct peace talks in two weeks. so we also know kwhishls have repeatedly told us any kind of response from the u.s. or other nato nations to russian forces or to president putin would be coordinate preponderance of the evidence they'll be talking about economic sanctions and military response and support and everything they need to do to support ukraine in this battle. so it's no surprise they are meeting, but certainly the timing is key because i

understand president macron of france is also scheduled to have a call with president putin later. so the two are closely related. what happened you see happening on the battlefield is informing the diplomatic talks and some of the leverage issues as changed. ukraine is going in with a little more of an upper hand, having held off the russian advances. we heard from the ukrainian foreign minister going into this they're not trading sovereignty. they'll go into the talks maintaining the need for ukraines' sovereignty. you mentioned the interview president zelenskyy gave. what i've heard from ukrainian sources is you have to remember the context of that interview. he was mentioning a potential for neutrality moving ahead, the potential for goeshging conditions with the eastern regions of donbas and crimea, but it was an interview given to russian outlets in russian and intended far russian audience. i think all of that is very important to consider moving forward. we should also note the kremlin

did not signal a lot of optimism going into these meetings. the spokesman, dmitry peskov, did an interview last night and seemed to take the temperature down a little bit, making sure to separate the nuclear issue from this fighting in ukraine. he said those should be treated as separate issues. but ukrainian outlets this morning reported those meetings started with no handshake and a cold welcome. we'll see what comes out of the meetings. >> general, let me ask you how you read this, particularly from the russian perspective. obviously, they are saying they'll fundamentally change what they're doing around capital. they're also -- the reporting from the "financial times" is they're willing to draw back on some of what seemed to be key things that they wanted to have happen in the middle of the peace talks. but do you believe them? >> chris, first, again, to pull back for a second as we move into the diplomacy, we have to remember how we got here. the russians five weeks ago did

an invasion on the scale of the open of the second world war and has taken large chunks of ukraine, bombarded its cities, and created a giant refugee crisis. so that's the backdrop as russians now seem to at least appear to talk of being interested in negotiation. next step, they have been shocked. they of been almost humiliated on the battlefield, and this i think resonates all the way to the inner chambers of the kremlin. so, you talk about the fact that, yes, we're going to relook, redirect our -- the key thing was never main effort anyway, and so the russians now are looking for ways to, if you will, buy time for negotiating,

including the bombing. also now with these negotiations, i think that the ukrainians -- and this is important for all of us -- they are going in now with their own system, their own -- what they desire, which is to give up sovereign tip or territorial integrity, not their aspirations. that's where the negotiations are going. and nobody trusts the russians at all in this. is this a tactical phase where the russians can regroup, remass, reorganize, and then find some other way? but they're talking, and as long as the world is aware and working in links with that, then let them continually pound each other into an awful end state.

>> which, as we've shown, it already is awful. but let me ask you, general, if you think there is an awareness by vladimir putin or anyone is telling him the truth about what the military situation is. i'm going to reference something that molly, who we'll get to in a minute, reported yesterday they found fascinating out of odesa, and that is that the yaef is basically mining the shoreline there and also that one of the senior naval officers told her they will be fish food, referring to russians, and another person told her we will kill them, we will drown them. i'm wondering what you think truly of the state of the military right now and whether or not you think there is a clear awareness by president putin of what's going on on the ground. >> i think -- i can't speak for putin, but i would hazard a guess that he's in a little bit

of a bubble and probably in major denial. and from his perspective, winning, however he defines it, which is first and foremost, holding his power and then by extension being able to be seen as successful in ukraine is critical, because his main concern is, i believe, are his own people, and ukraine has become now a gigantic and dangerous ulcer for him. all and the russian military -- we've seen indicators and reported it -- all over seem to be withering, from this thousand cuts pushback by the ukrainians where anywhere the russians are able to get, you know, mass,

yes, overwhelming firepower, but everywhere else it's hostile and dangerous. you have young soldiers and supply lines. it's not going well. even in the south where we were all concerned about, that seems also to be in recession. so putin now is trying to reorganize, let's do the donbas, that was always our plan, and maybe they can work their ways out of it, they think, and end that with in their minds a successful negotiation for luhansk and donetsk, which they're trying to expand right now to the full edges of those. and so they want that. they don't want to negotiate about crimea. but everything else i think is in play. ukrainians are resurgent, and putin is aware, his people are worried, i think the emperor has no clothes. >> so, molly, your reporting has been great throughout this, but i thought over the last 12 to 24

hours, odesa, i learns do many extraordinary things. and one of them is, after all this time, the feeling of the people on the ground, the feeling of the military, do you get any sense from them, a, that they trust the peace talks or vladimir putin saying he's going to pull back if you've had a chance to talk about that? and just about their resilience, which seems to be unabated in spite of everything over the last over four week, almost five weeks. >> reporter: yeah, chris. i think big picture, talking to people here, both civilians, military analysts here who are obviously watching the situation closely, no one gives any credit to the peace talks, to be honest. no one thinks russia is doing anything more than buying time, regrouping, reorganizing and trying to figure out their next target. as for claim they're focusing on the east in the last couple days, i've been reporting from lviv over the weekend, that city was hit hard when president biden was in poland on the

polish side, lviv in the west. i am in the southwest in odesa. but this morning -- we just got an updated death toll. there was an air strike on an administrative building. at least seven people were killed, 22 people injured. that strike happened after people had arrived to work in the morning to inflict maximum damage. so if putin is focused on the east, he is certainly hitting a lot of things that are absolutely not in the east. mikuliev is interesting. it is in the central coast, i would say, far from mariupol, which we focused on in the southeast, but it is on the march westward to where i am in odesa. as for whether or not people here believe that putin is not going to go after odesa, take a look around. i can't show you any military checkpoints, we can't shoot any navy or soldiers, but i can show you the tire, the sandbags, these huge hedge hogs. this is a city heavily fortified. we are in the sent over the cultural capital of the city. we are around the corner from the 200-year-old opera house,

which is heavily fortified, now a military zone. i can't even go in. talking to people here, they are ready for a fight and they've been ready for the past couple weeks, chris. odesa is a strategic port and historic and special and really meaningful city for both ukrainians and also for russians. they played a big role in the russian empire. there is a lot of nostalgia. so people here either think an attack is going to be imminent, and they have been saying this for the last couple weeks, they're expecting one at any moment, half the city, about 1 million people, they have fled, and then there are people we've been talking to who think there will continue to be attacks from the sea. we've heard shelling near the beach. there will continue to be shelling on the outskirts of the city. but there are people who think even putin wouldn't dare hit this city center, chris. >> carol lee, you'll be keeping a close ear for any reporting out of that call with president biden and world leaders.

coming up, more breaking news. the latest fallout after will smith apologized to chris rock for slapping him at the oscars. and the academy saying they will now open a formal review. but first, massive movements on the investigation into the january 6th insurrection. a federal judge says former president trump likely committed multiple felonies. as "the washington post" reports just a few hours ago, the white house logs that were given to the committee, the phone logs have a seven-hour gap. don't go anywhere. with a little elbow grease, you can do just about anything. thanks, dad. that's right, robert. and it's never too early to learn you could save with america's number one motorcycle insurer. that's right, jamie. but it's not just about savings. it's about the friends we make along the way. you said it, flo. and don't forget to floss before you brush. your gums will thank you. -that's right, dr. gary. -jamie? sorry, i had another thought so i got back in line.

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major breaking news this morning on the january 6th investigation. "the washington post" is reporting that the records, the national archives, handed over to the committee earlier this year show a more than seven-hour gap in the president's phone logs. and here's what's key -- it includes the time period when the capitol was being breached. this raises serious questions about the completeness of the records considering that we have extensive reporting. the president spoke to at least three members of congress as they hid in bunkers from insurrectionists. this new report comes after a federal judge in california released a damning ruling concluding it's more likely than not donald trump and a lawyer who advised him on overturning the 2020 election committed felonies. judge david carter wrote that

trump likely attempted to obstruct the joint session of congress on january 6th, which would be considered a crime. by the way, last night, the january 6th committee voted to refer peter navarro and scavino to the doj for contempt of congress charges. later this week the panel will hear testimony from the former president's son-in-law, jared kushner. nbc capitol hill correspondent ali vitali is with us along with analyst joyce vance. joyce -- excuse me. start with that breaking news. what do you make of this seven-hour gap? >> so we know, of course, there wasn't really a gap in the former president's conversations with people as the breach of the capitol was ongoing. one of the immediate consequences of this reporting and this gap -- and remember, chris, these are the records that the former president fought so vigorously to prevent from

being turned over to the january 6th committee. these are part of the records that were in possession of the national archives. since there are known phone calls that take place during that gap period, all of those folks are now prime targets for testimony before the january 6th committee. their testimony becomes relevant. there's been conversation about being hesitant to subpoena senators or to informally ask senators to speak. for instance, we know there was a call placed apparently by accident to senator mike lee from utah who handed his phone to alabama senator tommy tuberville. wund would think that the committee would be entitled to that testimony. and that leads us into the other big issue here, which is that the committee can't independently enforce its subpoenas. one of the mechanisms it has been seen to use is referring them to the justice department for criminal prosecution for

obstruction when they're not complied with. the issue here, of course, is whether doj believes that the president is good not just in this instance when we're looking to getting to the bottom of the insurrection. doj has to also consider how does that precedent hold up in, for instance, a new trump administration, if folks in that administration were to try to get into joe biden's activities inside of the white house. so these questions that sometimes seem so easy and simple to resolve really aren't quite that simple when you look in terms of the long-running precedential value that these decisions will create for the future. nonetheless, the january 6th committee makes it clear that they believe that what was going on on january 6th was so singular that the big lie is so oppositional to the interests of american democracy that they may have to take these unusual steps to get to the truth. >> so when you look at it in total, ali, what do these e

recent moves by the committee mean in a big-picture sense? we heard from liz cheney last night. she said the committee will be convening public hearings in the coming months. are these actions any indication that things are speeding up, stepping up? >> reporter: well, look, they have to be, right? because as much as the public hearings phase of this was frankly supposed to start a month ago, that was the initial plan at the end of last year, what's clear is that the public hearings are supposed to be the narrative-setting phase of this. what the last few weeks and months have shown us is that that deed line has gotten pushed back because there's still so much that we don't know about what happened behind the scenes on january 6th. i think some of the thinking as we were talking about what the committee could learn, how they could present it publicly, is questioning what more is there to know. we all saw the images bep automatic lived this in real time, especially on the capitol. what's becoming clear now, though, is there are still so many tlelds yet to be unspooled,

whether texts between ginni thomas and chief of staff mark meadows, the court documents and hearings still going on that are attempting to let the committee get access to things like what john eastman was talking about, text messages from mark meadows. we've consistently seen those legal battles. then of course the subpoenas still going on for people like navarro and scavino as the committee tries to get as much information as they can. looking ahead to what the public hearing phase might look like, as they're writing that narrative, they're doing it in real tile. the other loose thread i've been thinking about is as we start learning about this new information, i keep thinking about the fact, and joyce alluded to this, there are republican lawmakers who are pretty central here, especially if those call logs are incomplete, which we've reported in the past that they are. there are three republicans in the house who have been invited, not subpoenaed, who won't

comply. there's a question about how you get the republican lawmaker who is don't want to comply with the committee to get that information. >> joyce, let me ask you quickly here, the judge also ordered the lawyer john eastman to give the january 6th committee more than 100 emails he's been attempting to shield using attorney/client privilege. this is a guy who wrote a memo that's been likened to sort of a playbook for a coup. what do you think those emails will tell us? >> one of the emails the judge focused on in his opinion is an email he characterized as the first effort to set down the plan to overturn the election in detail, not just a legal theory, which even john eastman said he didn't believe would fly in the courts, but rather a step-by-step guide. if you would, it's a how to coup. so getting their hands on this information will be essential for the january 6th committee. sometimes you can tell how

important information is when you're investigating a case by how vigorously the people on the other side try to keep you from getting it. and certainly in this case, eastman, who is the person who went to court here out in california to try to defeat the committee's subpoena, has given us every reason to believe that the contents of his emails will be very important for the committee's work. >> finally, joyce, and you sort of referred to this, but there's a lot more conversation and plenty already about where this all leads with attorney general merrick garland. if the committee made a criminal referral against donald trump, would it increase pressure on him? i mean, the pressure has already been very vocal, but is he hearing it? and does he care? >> so, i don't really think the committee's work pressures merrick garland or the justice department in the sense some people have suggested. to the extent there's pressure or perhaps compelling reason for doj to act is the better way to

characterize it. it's because of what the evidence says. and folks inside of the kennedy building in washington, d.c., will look at the evidence and they'll look at the law. i don't think that they'll feel pressure from a ruling by a judge in the civil case. in fact, the judge himself seems to contemplate that at the end of his order. he talks about the impact of his ruling and says, look, this is maybe a wake-up call, but it doesn't have any value for other matters. certainly, it's not a criminal conviction. so garland will have to look at the evidence and decide when is enough enough and when do you go. of course the foundational issue there is whether doj the engaging in a detailed investigation. we don't see some of the signs i would expect to see of a grand jury investigation. but yesterday the deputy attorney general, lisa monaco, reaffirmed it in a statement that doj was committed to investigating, and she used the language "at any level events

related to january 6th." >> joyce vance, ali vitali, thank you. if you can believe it, we have more breaking news. we'll go to turkey where ukrainian negotiators spoke to the media following talks with their russian counterparts. nbc's keir simmons is there and joins me by phone. keir, what are you hearing? >> reporter: chris, just outside the venue in istanbul where the talks have been taking place began around 10:00 local time and finished at 2:00 in the afternoon. then we have had a number of updates from multiple sides that perhaps give us a little bit of hope that maybe these peace talks, cease-fire talks, are making progress. perhaps the most important news is from the russians, and that is that they are saying they will drastically reduce combat operations around kyiv and chernihiv. now, they say they're going to do that in order to build mutual trust and create further conditions for further

negotiations. they also are suggesting, the russians, that the kremlin might be ready to hold a meeting between president zelenskyy and president putin once a draft peace agreement is ready. now, chris, of course, that is what turkey's president, president erdogan, has been suggesting would be needed, a meeting between the two leaders face-to-face. and the russians -- it's been the russians that have been suggesting that that wasn't possible until there was some progress in the peace talks. it does now appear as if the russians are saying that that might be a possibility. ukrainians at the same time saying they would adopt a neutral status in return for the guarantees. we've heard from the ukrainians for some time they would be prepared to be neutral, if you like. i think the security guarantees may be the sticking point, what does that mean, what kind of

support are the ukrainians expecting from the west, and would the russians be prepared to do that. and then i think a little bit of a reality check, if you like, chris. turkey saying that this is the most significant progress so far in turkey's view, but that, quote, more difficult issues should be expected. i suspect one of those, chris, would be now we're looking a long way ahead, again, these are one-day talks and some progress in just one day in talks, but i think one of the really big issues would be how much territory if you like does russia hold, does it keep crimea, does it keep the wilwid donbas in eastern ukraine. even though there appears to be a little more trust here, there is an awful lot of talks yet to happen. fundamentally, of course, it will take an agreement between president putin himself and president zelenskyy, or you

could say the ukrainian people, because president zelenskyy has said he would put any agreement to a vote. >> just so i make sure i understand you correctly, keir, when you look at these sticky issues that still remain, from how much territory to security guarantees, until there is some agreement on that, until there is a draft peace agreement, any meeting between putin and zelenskyy would be on hold? >> reporter: oh, that's exactly right. all we have right now is some of the russian officials here suggesting that a meeting could be a possibility. as you know well, chris, from following the peace negotiations in other scenarios in the past, all kinds of things could go wrong between then and now. just a sign of how much mistrust there has been. before the talks, the ukrainians -- the ukrainian foreign minister was advising his negotiators not to eat or

drink anything, not to touch any surfaces because of fears in their view that they could be poisoned. so that's just gives you a picture how far the two sides need to travel in order to get to an agreement, never mind just simply trusting each other. >> yeah. mutual trust a long way from there. keir simmons with that breaking news. thank you. let me bring back in amna nawaz. obviously, whenever you have these complicated negotiations, the easy stuff falls away first, right, then you get to the really difficult stuff as keir pointed out, security guarantees, who's going to control what territory. how far in your view does that keep us from some sort of draft agreement? >> i think it's very clear what we know going into these talks, which was a very grim outlook from the kremlin and clear lines from the ukrainians. president zelenskyy basically said all these points of

negotiations that he mentioned -- donbas, crimea, security guarantees from a third country -- they were all conditioned on russian withdrawal, on cease-fire and all russian forces leaving. that was a starting point for the ukrainians. as for a meeting between the two leaders, as keir said, it has been russia that's standing in the way of that meeting for several weeks now. it was just yesterday, i believe, that foreign minister lavrov of russia said they think that meeting would be, quote, counterproductive until there's more clarity on some of these outstanding issues. so it has been the russians standing in the way of that face-to-face meeting, which we know would probably be something that indicates they're closer to some kind of diplomatic agreement of some kind. one of the guiding principles has been to watch what russia does, not what they say. there's a concern among

ukrainians, official members of parp lament, people on the ground that this is all just a ploy to buy more time. we know the russian forces have been suffering heavy losses. there's low morale. there could be an effort to relaunch somewhere else. there's a lot of suspicion on the ground there. there's also a lot of support for president zelenskyy, whatever he decides to do from the ukrainian people. they maintain a high level of support for their forces. their morale is still very high despite the devastating humanitarian crisis they are facing on the ground. they believe with the u.s.' support and those around them, they can win. good indications coming out of the meetings but no real change in the climate. >> little hope, the way keir simmons put it, more than 24 hours ago, but the reality on the ground, while russia says

they want to engender some trust by pulling back their troops from around the capital, you've got the ukrainian negotiators not eating or drinking because they fear they might be poisoned. so a little -- or maybe a big asterisk on that hope. amna nawaz, always great to have you and your perspective on this. thank you so much. coming up next, will smith apologizing to chris rock for slapping him at the oscars. but will that. the end of it? ♪ we believe there's an innovator in all of us. ♪ that's why we build technology that makes it possible for every business... and every person... to come to the table and do more incredible things. maybe it's another refill at your favorite diner...

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condemned smith's actions announcing that it will conduct a formal review. for all of the latest on this, i'm going to bring back npr critic eric dugins. good to have you back. let's start with the formal review. what does that look like? are there possible consequences here? >> it's hard to know exactly what is in store. they've said they're going to look at their bylaws, look at the codes of conduct that they have. in the wake of weinstein and ere bad actors, they have expelled him and bill cosby. i don't know that people expect will smith to be expelled. he could be suspended from the academy, i assume. if he creates a film that might be eligible for oscar nomination

next year, his role might be exiled in some way. they seem to have a limited range of options. we don't know what they are because they haven't spoken in detail about them. it will be interesting to see what their actions are and if they find a way to punish him. >> i wonlder what you make of will smith's apology, because a lot of people have pointed out it took 24 hours for the apology to actually be addressed to chris rock but also it came after the academy said we're looking into this. >> yeah, exactly. it came after a day in which a ton of people criticized what he did, including myself, on your air. so it feels a little late. this is the apology that he should have given on sunday night when he was allowed to give his acceptance speech for the best actor oscar. i think the only way he could have possibly moved toward salvaging that moment was to apologize to chris rock personally, admit he let his emotions get the best of him,

and try to say, you know, i did wrong and i'm going to admit it on this global stage. personally, i'm going to say it to a camera. to release a printed statement we're assuming he wrote, who knows if his publicist wrote it, it doesn't feel like it's enough. he's going to have to prove through his actions that he knows he did wrong and he wants to make amends, and we'll see what that looks like, particularly in wake of whatever the academy decides to do in order to react to what he did. >> and what's been the reaction overall, do you think, in the entertainment industry? i've seen a lot of comedians talking about this. they're worried, for example, it will happen in comedy clubs. even the nnaacp defense fund president said the way violence was normalized on the broadcast will have consequences we can't even fathom at this moment. what are the conversations you're hearing are happening? >> that's what's been so interesting about this moment. it touches so many different fissures in society. we've heard comics say -- you

know, comics are brought on to these shows particularly to do what chris rock did, you know, joke with the audience a little bit and poke at them a little bit. so what happens when someone delivers a monologue at the next critic's choice awards and another celebrity gets upset? a lot of comics are worried about that. i don't blame them. there's also a concern -- even richard williams, the real-life person that will smith portrayed in the film "king richard" that he received his oscar for, denounced violence and said this was not something that should have happened. so i think everybody sort of realizes that the violence was terrible, but it has sparked some conversations about the role of comedy, about black women's hair, about alopecia, and about what exactly constitutes defending a person that you love and when does that cross over into unacceptable behaviour. so there's ban lot of interesting conversations.

it doesn't strive from the fact that will smith did something terrible and he still yet has not been significantly punished. >> eric deggans, thank you so much. more updates now. we got word it was a little over 2 minutes ago, 9:19 a.m., president biden convened his call with world leaders. they're talking about ukraine. we'll bring you updates as soon as we get them. as we get them o, you can forget the personality tests and social media quizzes. because the only way you're ever gonna know is by heading into the big, wild,g so-damned-beautiful- it-hurts world and finding out for yourself. were you born to follow a path? or were you born free? these are the things we thought about when we made the new grand cherokee. made for what you're made of. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪♪ lunchables! built to be eaten. and it's easier than ever to get your projects done right. with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. and when you book and pay throug you're covered by our happiness check out angi.com today. angi... and done. this morning, mjor fears about inflation and anyone trying to buy a house or renting an apartment. there's a new study out from pew that says that 23% of americans spend at least 50% of their income on rent, far more than the recommended 30%. and over the past 12 months, u.s. prices to buy a home are up nearly 19%, a spike even bigger than we saw leading up to the 2008 housing crash.

even with mortgage rates seeing that big jump, it's unclear if prices are going to cool down anytime soon. joining me to make sense of it all, chris glynn. hey, chris. people are freaking out. trying to find a place to live is something of a nightmare. what's going on? >> it's a very difficult time for both buyers and renters right now. as you mentioned, with inflation, they're creating challenges for adding new construction, higher interest rates and rent prices that are up 17% and home prices that are up almost 20%. it's a really difficult time for buyers and renters. >> so what should people do? for example, if you want to buy, lock if your mortgage rate and hope you can find a place to buy? what's your recommendation? >> so, for people looking to purchase a home, you know, inflation has sort of a double-edged sword here. one of the ways to combat inflation is to lock in your costs. nobody's going out and buying a lifetime supply of gasoline, but you can go out and buy a lifetime supply of shelter

through home ownership. home ownership offers a path for potential buyers to lock in their costs. on the renting side, it's more tricky. the problem that renters confront is an immediate one where making ends meet and that household budget being squeezed mass led to tough choices, whether it means bringing in an additional roommate or moving in with family for a short period of time or even if remote work is a possibility exploring more affordable places to live. >> there was a number -- there are a lot of stats, but this one shocked me. corporations are buying up large amounts of houses across the country, all-cash purchases now 33% of home sales compared to 19% this time two years ago. so if you dent have that money, if you're millennial, if you're somebody looking to buy their first home, what do they do? >> i think the most important thing that people trying to get into home ownership for the

first time do is be realistic about the situation and get their financial ducks in a row. that can mean getting preapproved for a mortgage, knowing your tradeoffs and your wish list and where you might compromise and working with a real estate agent who can navigate the market, so you find a home that's affordable, that works for your family, and fits in your putting. i think those are a few of the things that buyers can do to prepare for that reality, that, yes, there's a lot of competition out there in the market, coming from all different types of buyers. >> chris glenn, thank you so much. and coming up, the challenging ahead after the biden administration said it would allow to up 100,000 ukrainian refugees into this country. i'll talk to a pastor who's preparing to welcome refugees to his church, next. next mission control, we are go for launch. um, she's eating the rocket. ♪♪ lunchables! built to be eaten.

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developing this morning on the heels of president biden announcing that the u.s. will welcome up to 100,000 ukrainian refugees, "the wall street journal" is reporting that some were already trying to get into the u.s. via the mexican border. detailing, quote, most choose this route because they don't need a visa to fly directly to mexico, unlike the u.s. now, once they make it to the u.s. land border, they can ask for asylum and often begin the legal process. the journal points out the u.s./mexico border remains officially closed to asylum seekers around public health rule that happened because of covid, but immigration officers working the border crossings were told last week that they are free to offer exemptions to ukrainian refugees, because of the war. joining me now, pastor vadim veskovich, he's center pastor at

the life of ukraine church in orange county, california. he is a native of ukraine and his church is willing to open its doors to refugees. pastor, thank you for being with us. i know this is personal to you, because you are from ukraine. you and members of your church have agreed to sponsor refugees arriving in the u.s., including the ones who have come in from mexico. tell us how you think this is going to work. >> yeah, i -- hello, everybody. so, my opinion, it didn't work at the first stage, because the people are trying to escape from ukraine through the europe and through the united states. so, what they do, they just buy a ticket and go through the mexican and the united states through the border. and that's the easiest way, as of right now, how they can be from ukraine situation in war with russia. >> so, what will they find when they get to you? how many total refugees are you and your church preparing to take in? and what are you doing to help

them at that point. >> yeah, so what we do, we have a couple of people in mexico border, so we helped them, after they cross the border, and then take them to different states. let's say, to our churches, ukrainian churches, all around the u.s. we help them with their homes, first with the housing, and then help them to fill out the paperwork, so they need to fill out. help them to find jobs and the rest of the things what they need to start a new page for at least one year. >> what an extraordinary advantage it is, because i'm assuming that many of the people who will be taking in these refugees, who may not speak english, do speak, right? that they'll be able to communicate in ways that folks elsewhere in the country might not be able to. >> yeah. so most of the people don't speak english, but let's say our church in california, one of the biggest church -- ukrainian church here in california, so we have 900 people attending

church, so we can help them in the beginning with the english language, so it works. >> yeah. and let me ask you finally, because i wonder if you still have family, friends inside ukraine right now. and do you know how they're doing? >> yeah, we do. yesterday, we've been chatting with one of my friends here in sacramento. their family tried to escape from kharkiv and kherson, and they can't make it, so they go back to their home, in the bomb shelter. that's why a lot of people are trying to get here in the states, and that's why we're not asking only ukrainian people to accept refugees, but american people to help us too. because we expect a lot of people to come to this country. vadim veskovich, thank you for all you're doing and thank you for taking the time to talk to us. good luck. that's going to wrap up this

hour. i'm chris jansing. yasmin vassoughian picks up breaking news coverage after this quick break. up breaking news coverage after this quick break people are taking financial advice from memes. [baby spits out milk] i'll get my onesies®. ♪ “baby one more time” by britney spears ♪ e*trade now from morgan stanley.

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priceline. every trip is a big deal. hey, everybody. good morning. it is 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm yasmin vassoughian in for jose diaz-balart. we're going to begin with the very latest on the war in ukraine. at this hour, the president holding a call with leaders from france, germany, italy, and the uk, to discuss the russian invasion of ukraine. all of this after russia's defense minister announcing that they have decided to drastically reduce its military activity near kyiv and chernihiv. that announcement coming as russia and ukrainian officials meet in istanbul for face-to-face talks aimed at ending the five-week-old conflict. an adviser to ukraine's president saying his country's primary focus is on security guarantees. and british defense minister saying that ukraine forces are having some success with counterattacks against russian