this is day to what do you news live from the snap elections out of the bill but revolution on medians head to the polls today say prime minister nicole passion young swept to power on the back of popular protests now he wants a parliamentary majority to push through his reform agenda also coming up. as setting the damage in paris after more violent protests yellow vests demonstrators demanding further reforms while the french government promises to keep dialogue open. than the pitch turned into

a battlefield as tempers play in germany colorable derby in the end dortmund down shall go to keep their nine point lead at the top of the day. i'm rebecca has it's good to have you with us i mean ian's are going to the polls today in snap column entry elections triggered by reformist prime minister nicole passion and after he took office earlier this year president sarkozy caused his ballot early and urged fellow citizens to participate in the election earlier this year the country went through what spain called its velvet revolution it was the most sweeping transformation in the landlocked caucasus country since its independence from the soviet union nearly thirty years ago parliamentary elections won't shed will to be held until twenty twenty two the snap polls. being sane is an

attempt by passion on the cement political authority ahead of a planned reform drive. to his supporters he's a true man of the people a former journalist turned politician nicole passion jaan has a way with words and an unassuming style that has won the hearts and minds of many armenians pushing young was elected prime minister by parliament in may after galvanizing a civil disobedience movement to protest a power grab by the country's prime minister sergey sachs yun donning his trademark backpack and baseball cap weeks of mass protests that ultimately forced sarkozy on's resignation. but the long ling republican party retained its majority in parliament in october pushing on step down as prime minister to trigger early elections during his campaign he blasted the old elite as corrupt and pledged to revive the economy in a country where a third of the population lives in poverty principally some of the economic agenda

is our priority you were a very important and ambitious plan transform i mean your grammarian into an industrial country. into a technological and duster all states is a city void of strongly. remains popular if you doubt that his my stuff alliance will come out on top of the race among eleven parties and political blocks. isn't brand new nuclear power both for nickel passion on his virtues and honest during his seven months in office his hands were tied because the former ruling party still dominated parliament. until he gets rid of all the corrupt thieving politicians from the previous government he won't be able to do any good at all and she mused. the capital yerevan may look gloomy shrouded in december fog but on the streets there is real hope among armenians that this election could mark the advent of real democratic change. for more i'm joined by journalist joshua could sharon is in the capital yerevan joshua what's the turnout pain like so far. as of two

pm which is a local time which is the last results that were announced it was a little more than twenty four percent of eligible voters cast their ballots interesting is quite a bit down from the last parliamentary elections last year when when the corresponding figure was thirty three percent. the opposition is claiming the polls will cold too soon giving them no time prepared to prepare so they have a point. not really it's all it's a fairly disingenuous argument on there are that the main opposition has been making this claim it is the republican party which is the former ruling party and it was the biggest political machine in armenia and and if anybody would be ready for reelection this should be them it was kind of a pretext for them to argue against these elections which they knew they would lose badly and opinion polls are showing them losing badly right and what are some of

the challenges passion young faces if he does indeed gang that parliamentary majority. well our media's been in a long crisis really since the fall of the soviet union as a terrible economy. delegates foreign policy problems with with both russia and the west as an ongoing conflict because of our john. and partially on this raised expectations quite a bit and now that he's slated to have the parliamentary majority you know have all the levers of government in his hands and so there really will be no more excuses for him and people expect him to start labor. does passion and have the necessary political experience to be able to follow through on his reform agenda i think that the political experience isn't really be the issue and he was in parliament for a long time because he's a serious political figure i think the problem is just that that are being those problems are even systemic and just aren't going to be that easy to fix and and

he's kind of presented. things as soon as you really get rid of the old government that everything's going to be better. so far nothing has really happened to make things better in armenia is excuses downer explanation is down well the ruling party these republicans are still control of parliament now that will be the case anymore so we'll see we'll see if he manages to make a dent in our media's problems josh and i can chat in year than thank you very much . now to some of the other stories making news around the world saving russian human rights activists live near alex a gave us as guide she was ninety one the animal the last soviet era dissidents still active in russia annexed it was expelled from the communist party in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight for highlighting soviet human rights abuses and she continued to press the kremlin on its human rights record until the end of the. china has demanded canada release

a red arrested huawei executive among one job or face consequences mom is being held in vancouver and faces extradition to the united states where she is accused of violating sanctions on iran on friday she appeared before a court which adjourned a decision on whether or not to allow bail. from this railing after another saturday or violent protests by the so-called yellow vests movement police detained almost two thousand demonstrators and some one hundred thirty five people were injured in the clashes france's prime minister has called for dialogue and the government is signaling it will make further concessions to protesters in the coming days it is already scrapped a planned increase in fuel taxes the trick of the demonstrations. another night of unrest on the streets of paris. shops. cars banks nothing was immune as angus fled across the city sounds of extra

police were out paris practically on lockdown it wasn't quite the chaos of last weekend still officials are dismayed at what played out this saturday. and we are once again for the receipts to come back to get these going to be the long term. crises he belts these films to beach. with the cleanup operation in full swing on sunday parisians paused to take stock. i think it's very hard but it's normal reaction of the people there with the french people writing for. president. it is difficult for many people in the country but the view is not the government says it's listening to demonstrators scrapping its plan to hike fuel

taxes but president emanuel mccrone hasn't yet met with them that has ignited their fury. the yellow vests movement is less than a month old but it has already brought hundreds of thousands to demonstrations across the country like here in the southwestern city of bordeaux clashes between writers and police and then barricades set on fire outside an apple store. a w. correspondent lisa lewis is covering the protests for us lisa you've been reporting from a neighborhood which saw clashes yesterday was the same than now. well absolutely i mean the eighth only small that's not far away from the shows in the day and a lot of the damage has already been cleared up but they still some left as you can see just behind me there's a french bank the windows of which have been smashed it'll take

a bit longer until we wait to see the damages of a lot of yesterday's protest really has been talking to people here you've been telling me you know we have a chalk by what happened over the kind of care are getting used to that because that's what french precious are like many here understands why the demonstrations. have gone to the barricades and they also understand that they're having difficulties making ends meet but there are some who are now criticizing strides in the movement and say you know actually we're quite well off in france why what is will this about really however the large majority of the french three quarters of the french still support the movement and this is the fourth consecutive weekend of unrest in france put this into perspective for us how serious is this violence. well it is quite serious but we can say that yesterday was not as bad as the week

before last you know saturday one week earlier the subtle before that there were real scenes of urban guerrilla yesterday it was different the police had change strategy instead of keeping a distance to the protesters they for sports that were actually going at the protesters and arrested instigators at very early states also from the morning on the way controlling costs that were coming to paris taking way possible possible a weapons arresting lots of people more than one thousand seven hundred people got arrested in one day that's a record here in france and that actually apparently helped to prevent the worst from happening because there was a lot of talk about very very serious violence that could happen yesterday now listen to the brink if you can a man who mike holmes spokes person says he'll announce new measures in response to those protests what's being discussed. and may not cause it to talk earlier

next week so tomorrow on tuesday really and he might announce that people will get have more money in their pocket this talk about employees the tax free bonus there's also talk about implementing a tax on housing foster really so that could happen we don't know exactly what he's going to announce a place in the us in paris thank you for that analysis. in the bundesliga on saturday don't mean defeated fierce rivals shall come in and unfolding would be the black and yellow as clowns shone through as they continued to consolidate their late at the top of the table. shell because their reno was boiling over with excitement ahead of the much anticipated roar darby. but it was visitors dortmund who made that energy pay off first thomas delay any making it one nil after just six minutes his first ever goal for the black and yellow was and how sweet it was to score against their arch rivals i. after that

things got heated keeping the referee on his toes. to many go to desk zero shock i needed to get their attack going. but that didn't happen after the restart the dortmund defense look stare out. but then i mean at each went down in the penalty area. and after play continued for some seconds the ref consulted the video assistant. marco toys had stepped down at each foot an unfortunate but correct penalty or was it crazy daniel kelly jordy fired home to equalise for shaka in the sixty first minute. the bitter rivalry was bubbling over i thought man kept attacking and eventually hit paydirt jade in sand show putting them back in the lead by the english ace with acres of

space to net his fifth goal of the season. dortmund didn't manage to increase their lead in the waning minutes but it didn't matter i won the final score in the mother of all darby's. if as a mom always supposed to do was talk smiling we tried everything and still don't work so. that was a real game. it wasn't always pretty but intense with lots of jewels and chuckles maybe not pretty but winning miss darby for the first time in three years means much more than just the three points. christmas came early in the spanish capital of madrid after thousands of men and women dressed up as santa claus and it was all for a good course the five kilometer charity race turned the city into a sea of red and white with a few elves joining in on the fun. if the models race of its kind in the world and

money raised from the event will be donated to a cancer charity. we'll have more news at the top of the hour and don't forget you can get all the latest headlines from our website that's the date i wouldn't dot com i'm rebecca reavis thanks for joining. us.