new cause for celebration world press freedom day may third on d. w. . this is it only news life for a girl and a night how were marching for a different future thousands of armenians heaving a call from opposition leader and he called pushing on it to go on strike and demonstrate against the government parliament's rejects it is quick to become prime minister but how much longer can it resist the public mood also coming up under fire palestinian leader mahmoud abbas whitely condemned for suggesting that

europe's jews brought the holocaust on themselves israel and the e.u. called his remarks unacceptable and embarrassing news for germany only four of the nato members nearly one hundred thirty year old fighter jets are fit to fly missions on that's at least according to media reports as the country tightens its defense budget. hawk it's great to have you along everyone we started off in armenia where tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of the capital yerevan to join a general strike opposition leader and call pashtun urged his supporters to bring the country to a standstill after he failed to secure enough votes in parliament to become prime minister and i was the only candidate that had expected a very different result. hangry opposition leader nicole pushin young calls for

must civil disobedience earlier after a day long session in parliament the votes just didn't stock up for him the ruling republican party was not prepared to let him become prime minister. with a new day pushing in supporters he did his call they started blocking or some of the main thoroughfares in the capital here over thousands of people were back on the streets here and in other cities. when they did it two weeks ago no one thought this was possible but the people of our mean here took to the streets for nico because they believe in him we want i want the creation of this country we don't want to be ruled by just thirty people who are getting all the power all the money of the country and we want to help them pressure want to always to be are. pushing in one of the government not to deploy troops and saddam in his political crisis could not be solved by force if the government did send troops to the

capital to quell protests he said all the soldiers will come to us and join us column and we'll try again to elect a new prime minister next tuesday i asked if you would be a candidate pushing in wasn't giving much away we will sink and go straight he said . all right let's go to our nick calio he is in the armenian capital here upon working the story for us there nick of tell us what's happening right now. good evening late i was you can maybe see behind me people are already getting warmed up for the big protest that's going to be happening on the back on the public square just in a few minutes people dancing on the roofs of trucks and that's really very much being the story of today we left our hotel this morning hit one of the normally busiest crossroads in the center of your of on and found a group of students sitting on the pavement singing eventually don't sing and they want to learn they were joined by families with children there was

a further street that was blocked by mother and infant children and also those extraordinary variety of different backgrounds we saw someone in their white bentley arriving to have a look at what was going on talk to people then half an hour later we talked to a group of construction workers with their heavy duty lorries that arrived bringing people in the back of those lorries so it really is a very broad cross section of army side it is turning out and these numbers are unprecedented so it's a very important this is a small country of about three million people tens of thousands of people in the streets day in day out really isn't a given and these are protests that have really exceeded most people's expectations in terms of their full sun in terms of the numbers right and then i think to have judging by the crowd behind you the mood is generally beat but what's the risk of this standoff potentially destabilizing armenia. people we spoke to said then scared they don't think given the numbers that the

police or even the army would consider. dispersing these protests by force they say also that the republican party would be too scared to go against the people given how big these parts of being close to that option is still here so far has to be said we've seen very little of the police. when they have turned up it's been to warn people to get off the roofs of lorries and also to get children out of harm's way so so far they've been keeping a very low profile but obviously though those instruments of the state in the state security are still in the hands of the acting government of the public apology you upset motorheads question and and currently engaged in a game of brinkmanship with the right and the game of brinkmanship but because what i want to ask you next is the ruling elite prepared to loosen its grip on power and come up with a compromise that will help defuse tensions with the opposition. so far then telling us very much we heard today that they would be

a second round of voting in the parliament a week yesterday cynic's tuesday but in terms of substantiative office to these protests as we have heard very much they just say the current government is that question needs to come to the table and talk and basically do a deal that's something that he's consistently refused to say to do he says he doesn't want to do especially behind the scenes deals if he's going to talk but it's going to be in full public view with the press present so so far we really haven't seen much in the way of coming together the protests behind me when we also know how long it's going to take how long can you carry on with this how long can you carry on closing down the city you're leaving your day job is to come here they said pretty much you honest me as long as it takes. calmly with the latest from your of on armenia thank you for you continue coverage. and in other news prime minister benjamin netanyahu has attacked palestinian president mahmoud abbas for making anti semitic remarks at

a meeting of the palestinian national council on monday abbas suggested that the genocide of european jews by the nazis were because of the jews role in money lending rather than because of their wrists or religion then you know said the palestinian leader was caught still a holocaust denier and he called on the international community to condemn what he called abbas's severe anti semitism all right let's get you insight now from mark rings he is director of the conrad adn our foundation in ramallah all right a very good evening out i see thinking what prompted this rant well besides what we can also talk about who it was well was that about them says that if you want to assert this two hours last speech i know all the shows that is dark environment was not to speak about is asleep in his perspective on european history

as you want to convey this message my understanding or my thinking is that it was maybe to convince a stimulus to support and again because support rates are quite low currently besides that one also has to take into consideration when you speak took place in the premier of the philistine national council meeting appeal all that is mentioned renew the political strategy of his leadership so i think it was part of a royal started that you wanted to convey to his people but it's still very difficult to comprehend why he chose to do this they took us all a little bit about what what his current position is in palestinian politics. well it's of course without saying that the statement yes made is unacceptable has to be condemned think the europeans did so a few minutes ago when it comes to those in tow positions we have to differentiate

on the one hand people in polls are a long way behind him to the constant media martin to resign and want to have a new leadership leadership in and who they trust and who can make the political economic and social difference on the other hand if you focus on the international level there you also have to see that for us as a state or national community he was always for the past decade ever since he embarked into politics a very important he actually because he represented the negotiations yasser court recognition of israel peaceful to g.'s to fight a. nexus oh gee for a picture of him past all of this is not a question and it brings me back to what i said look again in the majority is not behind this president and he has a very weak position all right but he's still clinging on to power nevertheless clearly this won't endear him to his israeli counterpart separate mr netanyahu seizing on this around has it become

a liability what does this mean for whatever is left of the peace process. a lot i think it was not a game changer what what we have to observe monday nights we have to see the full picture in israel the situation in the palestinian territories is not playing a big role. you know at the same time while apostles giving the speech benjamin netanyahu talking about iran which of course coming from iran so this is a security narrative that's taking place in israel while on the palestinian side as i described earlier there's a leadership in which people do not longer trust so i would say that the peace process if you ask people especially in the palestinian territories has died many years ago there is no political hope in the two state solution actually the news of the palestinian side more than their jewishness really community so it will be very difficult to renew this but i don't think that as each of these in an acceptable

passages. will contribute to this. direction because it's going to go director of the conrad adenauer foundation in ramallah mark brings thank you for sharing your insights with us thanks for having us. want to ring up to speed now with some of the other stories making news around the world. authorities in libya say at least eleven people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on the electoral commission headquarters a spokesman said the bomber was among a group of militants who set fire to the building in tripoli the other told commission has been registering voters ahead of elections in the country. donald trump's former doctor says are you literally giving him a glowing bill of health in the run up to the twenty sixteen elections was dictated by mr trump himself harold bernstein's letter said trump would be quote the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency who has whose quote physical

strength and stamina are extraordinary orenstein previously said he'd written it. the swedish institute for peace research says global military spending has risen to its highest level since the cold war and it most of the increase came from higher outlays in asian countries especially china india and saudi arabia russia saw the biggest decrease in spending down twenty percent last year. and here in germany the country's coalition government has presented its budget for the current year it's set to spend thirty eight point five billion euros on its armed forces that may sound like a whole lot but the defense ministry is up in arms saying it needs far more to modernize germany's fighting forces as pressure grows on the country to fulfill its obligations to nato. a german euro fighter taking to the air something of

a rare sight these days germany possesses one hundred twenty eight of the jet were plates but only four are reportedly mission ready that could leave the country unable to fulfill its commitments to nato germany needs to modernize its armed forces the budget is fair but there's no consensus on the cost. conservative defense minister was a left underly and says she needs an additional twelve billion euros by twenty twenty one to get the military back in fighting shape but she's only receiving two point five billion extra she's taken the extraordinary step of filing an official letter of protest. and a terse statement from the line played down the conflict but stressed germany's military responsibilities the most awesome many has to make its contribution here not just for security in germany but for our common european security as well here too germany's voice is needed. but finance minister all of shots is priority is

a balanced budget not a state of the art bonus there the social democrat argues that military expenditures have been growing recently. stuff in my yard so beautiful frightening let me show you a chart of how defense spending has developed in the last few years. that is in you can see the huge rises that have occurred that this is just a forest defense spending is conserved things have really turned around that a little bit of that. germany's military expenditures have gone from thirty three billion euros in twenty thirteen to a projected forty two billion for twenty nineteen but that still leaves germany well short of the nato target that members should spend two percent of their g.d.p. on defense and the bonus fan says far more money will be required to keep its troops ready for action. now

a chinese drone company has broken the world record for the most drones flown at once during a night performance where than a thousand tiny aircraft lit up the sky i'll be back with more news at the top of the hour but for now i leave you with a look at these mary impressive fiction. stories that people in the world over information they provide the opinions they want to express d.w. blog facebook and twitter up to date and in touch follow us.