this is the w. news live from berlin the european union is placing its bets on vaccine passports leaders agree on the need for coronavirus vaccinations certificates german chancellor merkel says they could be ready in time for people to take their summer holidays also coming up a shift divisions deepening armenia after the prime minister accuses the military

of trying to oust him thousands take to the streets in support of he called machine ian and also against him. and amnesty international says it has evidence of the worst atrocities yet against civilians in ethiopia has 2 great reach it says it's the opium and eritrean troops are supplying. and lady gaga dog walker is short and 2 of her friends bulldogs stolen in a brazen attack in los angeles. welcome to the program the european union has agreed to develop a covert 19 vaccine passports that could ease border crossings and allow people more freedom to travel again elite is met for a virtual summit to discuss coordination they're already under pressure over

a lagging vaccine rollout germany's chancellor says it will least be 3 months before a vaccine possible system is up and running. with slovaks nations coronavirus variance border chaos and summer holidays at risk there was no shortage of talking points at this virtual e.u. summit during a 4 hour video call leaders try to find a united way forward in the fight against the pandemic the pressure is intense concerns can't just be waved to side with the e.u. legging behind them vaccination numbers and new variants spreading rapidly across the continent the b 117 is by now in all member states but one. the south african variant is in 14 member states and the brazilian variant in 7 so there's a lot of challenges ahead of us apart from ramping up vaccine manufacturing and easing production bottlenecks the e.u. will put more energy into detecting these more contagious and dangerous mutations

through a dedicated program. with the spring on its way tourism has made it back to the agenda greek prime minister kitty hawk is was one of the 1st leaders to call for an e.u. wide vaccination certificates in the attempt to east travel restrictions and save the summer holiday season that's something all leaders could get behind but how and when exactly this vaccine passport could be rolled out is uncertain. we expected to be done by summer i am not a programmer so i cannot make any guarantees like i cannot guarantee vaccine deliveries but the political requirements are to reach this goal within the next few months. but for the moment member states have agreed that tourism and all non-essential travel is not an option. for more on this. brussels beautiful example of phenomenon when will we see these passports.

well presumably within the next 3 months that is what german chancellor angela merkel said after the meeting but she didn't want to commit to any specific date because as she stressed there are a lot of detail is are still being worked on in berlin but also in brussels the european commission would like to see and a you why. and if not then they want to make sure that national vaccine certificates will be wickedness in every member state but i think it's fair to say that what we saw yesterday was real progress compared to all the discussions going on going on for weeks now we have this broader agreement that vixen certificates are coming. so when i have this passport in the summer as the chancellor indicates it will be able to travel the e.u. freely like are used to well that's of course the key question but i don't have any answer for you yet because that is something that the leaders did not agree on.

that next institute it doesn't necessarily mean that you are allowed to travel french president mark hall was also a bit skeptical saying that you know we have to make sure that no one is going to be discriminated against because we don't have enough vaccines because young people still have to wait to be vaccinated but i think that the pressure is really growing from from different member states saying we need to open up travel we need to open up tourism. and chancellor sebastian courts want the european union that if there are not going to do it together. we'll go it alone so to have this passed or to get passports 1st you have to get a bar so nation so what have you leaders want to do about the birds in new slovaks in rollout. well they said that anything that is necessary has to be done to

speed up their roll outs to ramp up the production there is a new task force that has apparently the able been able to identify potential location that could be used to ramp up the production and that are funded ally and they had the european commission stress during their meeting that you know trying to calm down i think everyone that deliveries are increasing that we are going to see more vixens arriving in the next quarter but of course e.u. leaders are under a lot of pressure to deliver progress to deliver results to their populations and they were also talking about a possible complete export ban for vaccines but there was no a broad majority to introduce that because at the moment the european can commission is just controlling who is exporting that seems out of the european union but there is no export ban and it's not agreed upon that it's going to be

one in the future. for some phenomena thank you it's. a lot of border controls is something most of the european union have taken for granted until the corona crisis it's now countries have reintroduced controls as they try and stop the spread of new mutations across borders germany's front with the czech republic is as good as closed and that's just dropped in the lives of thousands of commuters. everything ok. and you i mean news about whether you can come over now there's no news you're looking pretty dire. no entrepreneur thomas maynard cannot go back to work his company is in the german state of saxony but he lives across the border here in the czech republic and the bridge he usually takes to cross into germany is now shut. thousands of commuters like him are facing

the same struggle sex and he only makes few exceptions for medical personnel and critical infrastructure workers. families divided by the border closure come to the bridge to meet german police tolerate this but don't allow any crossing. to the day before yesterday a friend brought me my medicines from a german pharmacy this is my cousin was there a day before then. the border closure is putting many of his check neighbors under financial strain freedom of movement has ground to a halt. my brother and many of my friends here work in germany right now all of them are at home and don't know what's going to happen. what should we do with our work it's very difficult and i don't think it's fair. the czech government has not really criticizing the border closure last spring prague

itself shut the czech borders relatively quickly when the number of infections in germany was higher. berlin justifies the current entry restrictions with the high number of new infections in the czech republic where the incident rate is currently amongst the highest in europe. the spread of the virus is out of control and hospitals are overwhelmed. yet many don't seem to care see no there are news about up out of them and there's nothing the government or the parliament can do for people don't follow the rules and everything will stay this way. never see the light at the end of the tunnel they're just tired of complying with the restrictions of any even those who used to follow all the rules are now paying less attention. which is about. the check parliament is divided over whether to extend the state of emergency and tighten the current measures what the tougher restrictions would look like and when they should take effect is unclear and so the situation in the border area also remains uncertain as long as infection

numbers in the czech republic continue to rise commuters expect their lives will stay on hold. let's have a look at some of the other stories making headlines this hour u.s. president joe biden has phoned king solomon of saudi arabia for the 1st time since taking office the u.s. is preparing to release an intelligence report on the killing of journalist jamal khashoggi the us has previously saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon as the likely orchestrates of off the. protesters and prayed outside the house of. she has been seen in public since her government was overthrown in a military coup on february 1st demonstrators on the streets again in several cities despite being attacked by gangs. to the former soviet republic of armenia now a months of political tensions are now coming to

a head thousands rallied in the capital year of on in support of prime minister nicole bashir and after he accused the military of an attempted coup but those against him also gathered thousands to call for his resignation prime minister has been a divisive figure following a meeting as defeat in a bloody conflict with its neighbor as a by john last year. an impact leader holding on to power for now armenia's top generals called on prime minister nicole pushing on to resign on thursday following months of protests but this time his supporters of come out in force. stepping in front of the crowd in the capital. pushing and denounce the army's move as an attempted coup. to keep god all the army must do its job. the army cannot look back the army cannot interfere in political processes the army must a by only the people and the political power chosen by the people. here feel that

he's gonna try to catch. what the opposition also took to the streets and numbers. they pressed home the generals demand. that was a war that we lost shamefully and the prime minister he was responsible for that has not left his post and since that day the public has been demanding his resignation. he was. pushing young strobel stem from last year's war without over the region of nagorno-karabakh. in weeks of fighting armenia lost control of large parts of the disputed region of as a beige on the turks really linking up the exclave to armenia thousands of armenians had to flee their homes and the army suffered heavy casualties. crushing defeat feels the anger on the streets of the earth where the protesters have set up

for the long haul. more of this story from joshua cherubs a journalist covering the caucasus region he joins us from tbilisi georgia what's the latest you're hearing there from the media. well so far everything now this morning seems coned in our media following yesterday's dramatic events when the chief of staff of the armed forces and several dozen other military officers called for him to resign this was really a one president interference by the armed forces in in armenian politics and really so far the peak of the crisis that our media and politics have been in since the loss of the war as your report described. since its armenia lost the war there's been calls from every corner of politics and armenian society for pashtun to step down but the military officers calling on it was. yet another level.

still passionate has used all of these calls and he's continuing to refuse. so he called that the military overstated a coup attempt. does far the military officers don't seem to have taken any further actions so it's maybe a bit premature to call it a coup attempt but it's certainly very close how much to protest the front. if i dropped in that how much support does he have still in the population well the thing is i think a lot of people are unhappy with him but there are really any alternatives there was a poll this week that indicated that 39 percent of armenians wanted to stay in power 44 percent want him to resign however the poll then also asked for you know approval ratings of specific politicians and pasha no it was it was far in the lead so any of the opposition any of the potential replacements for pasha are even less

popular than us and self so that's sort of. the situation that our media is stuck in so many international reaction so far to what's going on and i media. yeah there's all sorts of reactions there was from from the u.s. from the your european union from nato from various western organizations very similar responses saying calling on all sides for restraint but also noting that it's a bedrock of democratic principles that the army doesn't interfere in politics. the most intriguing and most important reaction is from russia russia is armenia's treaty ally strong supporter and even more important given. the large role that russian peacekeepers are now playing in protecting the armenian population in the corner part of our putin russian president vladimir putin spoke

yesterday with pasha. his the statement said that this was a sort of interesting discrepancy in the 2 descriptions of the statement passion and said that putin supported him. the russian statement the russian description of the call said that. what the kremlin supports maintaining order and calm in our media and resolving the situation within the framework. so there's a little bit of nuance there but certainly the crime that is is the international that ever was weapons going to be looking for us just like a chair that into b.c. thank you thanks for having me. satellite images taken this week show that hundreds of buildings were burned in ethiopia as northern region red crosses mark the damaged buildings a series of satellite images show the before and after pictures suggest that the conflict is still raging in the disputed region although the ethiopian government

says most fighting out stopped human rights organization amnesty international says it also has evidence that it ever trained troops massacred hundreds of people and to cry last november and was to used satellite images to document the atrocities that are supported by witness accounts. that this family got away they've escaped the fighting in ethiopia's region and have found shelter in sudan to w. news met them back in november when they just arrived. here. coping method as a cleaner we cried and our children cried with us and they wept in front of us so i think just the shooting started while we were eating and we just had to leave. their home in ethiopia has seen almost 4 months of fighting between local rebel forces and the ethiopian military the last set allegedly receiving support by eritrean troops gaining an accurate picture of events in tikrit has been difficult

to impossible journalists have been blocked from entering the region phone and internet services were at times cuts completely and humanitarian organizations have struggled to get in. in early december un human rights chief michel basher they said there is an urgent need for independent monitoring of the human rights situation in the region for all necessary measures to protect civilians and for accountability for violations that came about 2 weeks too late for this woman and some 800 of this in ethiopia as holy city of. that's how many people are thought to have died in an alleged massacre near an ancient orthodox church a recent investigation by the associated press found that the perpetrators were soldiers from neighboring eritrea and a new report by amnesty international backs this up the human rights group says it's collected evidence that ira trained soldiers went on a rampage in acts i'm on the 28th of november after an earlier attack on them by

a small group of rebel fighters knesset mary's church witness accounts describe them roaming the streets and shooting at fleeing civilians with automatic weapons and precision rifles i saw the people being shot on the ground when they were running approximately 10 people or more all of them young men everyone was scared and run away eritrea's government has denied its forces were involved in any massacre after the a.p. investigation was published the country's information minister called the story a horrendous lie relevant ethiopians to choose sions had long ascertained the us a fallacy of this story he posted on twitter fighting in tikrit is said to be ongoing and it'll be hard to verify what really happened in axum in late november but in light of amnesty international's new allegations the eritrean government may face fresh questions about its involvement in this bloody conflict that's playing

out away from the eyes of the world. talk to job he's got a problem one assumes a national he's the co-author of that report was it all about how confident are you about your findings and the allegations against eritrea. well we interviewed 41 residents and weaknesses from x. to him over to research missions and. interview over the phone so we're pretty confident you know famously also used satellite imagery that elude us to corroborate their burial sites in some of the city's churches as well as indiscriminate shelling in the city and and looting by every train forces we've also adjudicated images from. it online but knowing us to to to to corroborate some of the testimonies that was gathered.

there eritrea though denying its any involvement what do you say to that. well you know the weaknesses have no difficulties explaining what happened during this mess occur and that you know the perpetrators were every traitors what we need to say is that you know in retaliation to an attack on the 28th of november by a small group of protein feel if we shouldn't every trained soldiers went on a rampage and kill hundreds of people. you know people fleeing of people being laying up against you know behind each other and and killed in style we've also had hiring testimonies of of people carrying dozens of bodies we believe in total that hundreds of people were killed. and there we you know people had no difficulties identifying the butchered as

a as every tree and they were different. than if european soldiers they wrote trucks which had to retrain license plates this book a dialect of which is not spoken in ethiopia but he spoke in every tree out in the also wore special marks that are typical of you know billionaire people who eat in your trio. it's also important to note that the massacre was the culmination of of wave of abuses of abuses by every train soldiers in the aftermath of the attack on the city on the 19th of november by junk if you can every tree falls in which. you know citizens of ak soon faced a barrier of disconnection knowing and you sure you know the incoming force shot people who were trying to flee easy going to lash out for interrupting you hear the international community is of course aware of this conflict u.s. president joe biden just yesterday talked about it in

a phone call to kenya's president. so what has to happen now. i mean these teams national is calling for u.s. led investigation into the massacre but also into other great violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the country can act soon and these 2 had their you know of any use to the urgent discussions of how these investigation could could take place it's also very important to to to bear in mind that you know if you can a government continues to block communications overlaps with tikrit continues also to restrict access to media organizations international human rights organizations and humanitarian organizations you know we requested access to be accurate in government to tikrit and we've been denied access up until now so we're calling on the if you can government to grant and it access to media human rights and humanitarian organizations to tikrit we also calling on the if you can government

to investigate these these violations in an ina way that is you know credible thank you very much i'm up he's got a problem with amnesty international thank you. paula olympic women's gymnastics coach in the u.s. has killed himself just hours after being charged with sexual assault human trafficking and other crimes john gets a coach the women's national team to a gold medal in the 2012 games but on thursday the state of michigan files 24 charges against him that could have carried years in prison if convicted the olympic teams doctor larry nasa has previously been convicted of sexual abuse of female athletes in a case that rocked u.s. and indeed global sports. yes 6 committee of football's governing body fifa closed the bribery case against german greats. because of a statute of limitation expired

a statute that was put in place after the investigation was launched the 2016 feet probe found along with 2 other top german officials broke rules on bribery and corruption during german is successful bid to host the 2006 world cup 3 denied wrongdoing backed by one world cup of west germany as a player and another one. has been shot 2 of adult stolen police say the dog was severely wounded when he tried to fight off 2 government involved in the theft. is often a huge reward for help in returning to french bulldogs. guns. when taking the dogs. the victim is reportedly a friend of lady gaga named ryan fisher he's expected to recover from the gunshot.

the. assault occurred resulting shooting. vehicle was last seen seen around the neighborhood potentially really. it is not yet known if this was a targeted attack since buildout theft has become increasingly common. sold for thousands of dollars lady gaga is currently in rome shooting a movie she's known to be highly protective of her dogs and is offering half a $1000000.00 for the safe return of her pets no questions asked according to her representative. breaking news coming in a number of school children in nigeria as far a state have been kidnapped the state governor declined to say how many people were taken we'll bring you war on this story as the details become available update

i'll have an update for you on that story. and that's it for me and the news team here in berlin coming up next is to the point is a new nuclear deal between iran and america cost. us more news and stories on the news and also on the dot com do follow us on instagram and twitter we asked did of you news for us from the other team thanks for watching. the.

to the point of strong opinion this is a clear position some international perspectives. temperatures are once again rising between the u.s.

and iran so we'll get to launch enemies be able to renegotiate the iran nuclear deal but don't trump turned his back only 2018th hole will the downward spiral continue find out on to the point. to the point. next akathisia w. . conditions yet is stifling kurdistan's capital is suffocating smog the reason outdated cooling years. residents and activists are fighting back against the air pollution but within the government their demands are falling on deaf ears more than the. global 3000. in 60 minutes on d w. in

a globalized world. where everything is connected. all it takes is a scorched earth to set things in motion. local hero show called their ideas can change the world. global 3000. on d w. the united states and iran have be arch enemies for decades now and once again tensions are running high and the question is can the incoming bite the ministration and the devalued did leadership in toronto renegotiate the nuclear agreement that donald trump walks away from being 2080 pounds of what price certainly a lot hinges on what the 2 sides choose to do next so here.