this is you know we use live from berlin tensions in our media come to a head as the prime minister faces off against a military vehicle partially on warns of an attempted coup and rallies thousands of supporters after army commanders called for his resignation we'll get you the details form from our correspondent also coming up fighting the pandemic together in your leaders are holding talks today touching on that scene production travel restrictions and vaccine passports a year after the pandemic started just how effective is the use approach plus

syrian kurds appeal for international support as the islamic state returns in northeast syria they say the u.s. withdrawal has left a dangerous vacuum and that they're being only were welcomed by the terrorist group . very warm welcome to all of you what we begin our broadcast in our media where months of political tensions are coming to a head sparking concerns of violence mass rallies are underway in armenia as the capital yerevan with both opponents and supporters of embattled prime minister taking to the streets well earlier by mr passion on denounced what he called an attempted military coup after i mean he has armed forces demanded his red. nation

mr partially on has faced. since our menus defeat by azerbaijan in the conflicts over the last year. all right let's get you an update now from our correspondent and we sure in who's monitoring the situation in armenia what can you tell us about the situation in armenia right now well right now there are 2 parallel rallies taking place in the center of of rather a vieira vonne just a few blocks away from each other these supporters of nicole pushing on the prime minister have gathered and also his critics his opponents have gathered his opponents are calling for his resignation and his supporters have come out to support him. said that the army was trying to get rid of him in a coup attempt now this is as you said yourself part of an ongoing political crisis that erupted in armenia following the war in

a corner kora bob he signed a rather unpopular ceasefire agreement in november where essentially armenia had to hand over several armenian controlled territories within the core and a harbach which is an enclave inside of us live by john and recognized by the international community as part of azerbaijan they had to hand parts of that over to john a lot of people then were calling him a traitor and were angry at him and this political crisis has come to a head again this week after pushing yon essentially said that the military equipment used in the war was not effective so it's sort of blaming the army for the defeat then i don't know how much the popular support is there for prime minister. well in november when he signed that cease fire agreement the calls for him to leave office were really really loud people really saw him as

a traitor they were saying to me at the time when i was there that. john had kind of sold off part of their homeland that's it really was kind of a national defeat very much a blow to the pride of very many armenians but then again today we've seen thousands of supporters rallying in the center of yerevan in support of pushing on and pushing on himself today immediately called on facebook for his supporters to come out and people thousands of people followed his call so it does seem that he has quite a lot of support a very very delicate situation for the prime min prime minister nonetheless is the army prepared to resort to violence and forcibly remove prime minister. i think that seems rather unlikely on the one hand saying this could

tend on the other hand we've just seen a statement from the ministry of defense in armenia saying that the army should not get involved in politics indeed it's rather unusual for the army to get involved in politics at all i think the real question now isn't whether they'll be violence even though that is a possibility with these 2 parallel rallies just a few blocks from each other of course the question now once again is whether there . will be forced to resign under this pressure. on reporting from moscow on the situation in armenia thank you very much for your coverage. i would like to turn our attention now to the european union leaders that are meeting today to look at ways they can improve their pandemic response the e.u. has been slow off the mark in this vaccination drive and new infection numbers are still only high in many member countries while this map behind me gives an overview

of the infections per 100000 inhabitants over 7 days in yellow are the countries with fewer than 50 like finland which is doing particularly well the darker the orange the higher the infection rate germany currently has an infection rate of incidence rate i should say of $61.00 sweden and the czech republic well they've got more than $200.00 head of the e.u. meeting we take a look now at the challenges the bloc faces here is brussels correspondent max sander vaccines variance and freedom of movement about a year into the pen demick the block is struggling to keep up with recent developments as you counsel presidential michel made clear in his invitation letter to this 2 day leaders conference that remains challenging due to the emergence of new variants and the need to strike the right balance between restrictions and the smooth flow of goods and services in the single market. to block his field to

coordinate its anti coronavirus measures with traffic piling up at some of its internal borders like here between germany and the czech republic joins us now to discuss and chide us a bit for us it is essential to make sure keeping the safety of our citizens in mind that the variance of the virus do not make it to germany. not. with member states acting on their own brussels has reacted with a slap on the wrist. the commission sent specific letters raising our concerns to 6 member states which are. denmark finland germany hungary and sweden who are currently applying stricter measures and what is provided for in the recommendation in particular bans on entering or leaving the country while targeted restrictive measures on non-essential travel are necessary in the eyes of the e.u. commission blanket bans like those applied here in belgium do not serve this purpose the virus taught us that closing borders does not stop it but

we see the disruptions with spring on its way another fight among european leaders is waiting to break out greece in an attempt to save its holiday season had suggested an e.u. wide vaccination certificate other member states like denmark and sweden have already begun developing their own passports with a bloc as a whole risking fragmentation on the matter but the biggest challenge of all is the rather slow rollout of the e.u. wide vaccination program production shortfalls and other stumbling blocks have left the e.u. trailing behind countries like the united kingdom and lead to growing impatience among its leaders. couple of enough because the european commission should exploit the economic power of the e.u. to put pressure on the huge corporations. from ramping up vaccine production to closer coordination a lot is on the table

a lot is on the table taken out to prosperity for alexander outfought nama who is following those talks good to see you alexander are in leaders in damage control mode because a lot of people lost their cool about the slow vaccination rollout. yes indeed and i think it's true that the leaders are under extreme pressure to present concrete progress in managing their pandemic that it's why many of them will be looking to the european commission and to for answers to questions like for example what is the european commission doing to speed up the rollout within the european union and how is the european commission going to prevent any more delays in distribution but unfortunately it appears the commission president or the funded lion doesn't have any breakthroughs to report she will probably stress that distributions are increasing with every day that new task force has identified potential

locations that can be used to ramp up their production but of course true it's true that the roll out within the european union remains slow and this is indeed bad news for all member states and specially for those like the czech republic were really suffering facing a new wave of infections and seeing. hospital system on the brink of collapsing so we're very sluggish are all out is there a sense of urgency where you are because leaders appeared very rattled when some team vaccine manufacturers announced that they would reduce deliveries because of production problems that they were experiencing are we likely to see the e.u. pile on the pressure on the likes of astra zeneca for instance. yes the european commission is saying that they trying to apply more pressure but the question is of course what can they do they can threaten to sue the companies if the contras

contracts give them a cover on dos and they can also threaten to suspend payments or 2 cats of that funding in the future but it's not helping us right now that's why i think that it's also going to be an important topic today. possible. exports band at the moment the european commission is just controlling which exports are planned outside of the european union and i could imagine that some member states would like to to see a complete they could see an export ban. outside of the european union ok i'm going to let us look ahead at what a possible recovery might look like some are proposing introducing vaccination passports to help make a rebound possible here is what mr manford had to say he leads the conservatives in the european parliament and this is what he told us about on this topic freedom of movement is a fundamental right for all europeans and that is what we have to bring back and

that's why this vaccination passport is crucial and is immediately necessary i have no understanding why in the european council conclusions there is only as if formulation of we try to work on this or a very big formulation we have to speed up because currently 10 thousands of europeans are every day dictionary didn't you do would be a bureaucratic nightmare to give them a passport after they have exceeded ours or does mr labor have a point i mean is the e.u. strategy on vaccine passports too slow. yes he has a point where you really have to admit that at the beginning of the vaccine rollout in the end the european union there was this thinking that it's too early that we don't have enough vaccine so why should we talk about potential vaccine passports but of course now the pressure is growing from member states like greece or austria in his statement i had of the need today the austrian chancellor sebastian cordes

said that he's country is really thinking about introducing big scene passports digital i.d.'s and he's threatened that if the european union is not going to move forward quicker he's country will go it alone and that is of course what the european commission would like to prevent because they want a common approach and vaccine vaccine a passport that would be recognized in within the european union and all members of the european union under phenomenon brussels bureau chief thank you. the spanish capital madrid is under fewer la da measures than many other european cities but care homes have kept tight restrictions on their residence movements getting vaccinated has allowed the madrid pensioners in our next report to finally venture out on a trip and they made sure it was a special one. now today is cause for celebration. for

a 92 year old milagro had 9 days it's her 1st time leaving the care home in almost a year milagro caught the coronavirus last spring but has since recovered along with a few friends she strolls along the bustling streets of madrid and heads to the theatre . hi honey i got so heated so long since i've been to the theatre but i love the crown via that's madrid just like me makes me feel at home that maddening. going to see a shill is always a treat but it's a particularly special one for milagro and the other pensioners freshly vaccinated and free their reveling in this. thread those who spent a year cooped up in their care homes today symbolizes a return to normality. for

a barrel family. good luck has a lot of joy and it made us feel a little more alive it was really very good to be a movie a movie and. the chance to reconnect with those in the outside world. and. some other developments in the pandemic now a large study from israel indicates that the biotech finds are vaccine works as well in the real world as a did in clinical trials the study published in the new england journal of medicine shows the that axion offers do. very high protection against cove at 19 india has reported its highest number of cases in nearly a month more than half were recorded in maharashtra state home to the financial capital mumbai and the world health organization says we need more understanding of long term covert 900 symptoms.