>> hello and welcome back to the "france 24" newsroom. i am thomas waterhouse. here are the headlines. jubilation in back you, but outrage as azerbaijan celebrates its moscow-backed peace deal. protesters stormed parliament to demand their prime minister resigns. president-elect joe biden continues to be congratulated by world leaders. the current secretary of state mike pompeo has defiantly said that the transition to a second trump term will be smooth, with

the republican lear refusing to accept defeat. more from our correspondence in washington, d.c. after recent bloodshed in france and austria, eu leaders put their heads together in a videoconference to find ways to tackle terrorism. president macron says the bloc needs to focus on tightening external borders and the internet. thomas: first this hour, the turkish and russian presidents have spoken by telephone or tuesday with president gerd again telling vladimir putin that the moscow-backed peace agreement is the right step

towards lasting peace. as people in azerbaijan celebrated the breakthrough, protesters in armenia have been far from jubilant as they called for the resignation of their prime minister who accepted the terms of the deal. with more on the details of the accord is our correspondent. >> these soldiers are en route to the front line as part of the russian-brokered cease-fire signed by the armenian prime minister, some military personnel will be peacekeepers in the disputed region. >> [speaking foreign language] >> the soldiers will be stationed along the so-called

lush and corridor, which contains the only main highway connecting armenia to the disputed region. the pact to halt fighting will see armenia give up control in certain districts. thousands of lives have already been lost with this fighting, and under the agreement, they must return bodies of the dead. prisoners will also be exchanged while the thousands who have been displaced have been given the green light to return to the region. along with withdrawing its army, armenia has agreed to surrender control in areas that block links between azerbaijan and the enclave on the border with turkey. it's the first time turkey will have direct access to azerbaijan. activists say this will only increase their influence in the country. thomas: for more on this

russian-brokered text and its implementation, we cross to london and speak to neil melvin, director of international security studies at the royal united services institute. thank you for being with us on "france 24." this is clearly a deal that sparked different reactions from azeris and armenians. how fair is this peace accord? naieil: it's not really a questn of fairness, and it's not a peace accord. it's a cease-fire agreement that reflects the realities on the ground after a brutal period of warfare in which azerbaijan has tried, and armenian forces found themselves in a bad situation. the armenian political leadship made the decision to agree to cease-fire, which is called a cease-fire but is in

many ways a strategic defeat for armenia in the region. thomas: the armenian prime minister is facing calls from the streets for him to resign. how do you explain the fact that he accepted this deal? neil: i think he had few other choices. it got to the point where the azeri had taken strategic positions in the region, so in order to preserve some territory for the armenian population to live in and retain the link, this deal that perhaps had to be made. we are seeing what the political repercussions are for him, the armenian prime minister. there have been protests that have been a relatively small, but anger will grow as the implications of this deal begin to be broadly understood. thomas: what can we make of the

fact that moscow played a key role in hammering out this deal? is moscow when -- one of the main winners? neil: moscow was already the leading power in the south caucuses, so what they managed to do was reengineer a prominent role for themselves, but that has been at the price of accepting that turkey now has significant influence. turkey remains a lesser actor, but russia has had to upgrade itengageme in the rion in order stand still. they managed to sugarcoat this by talking about the russian peacekeeping force, but alongside this, there will be the opportunity for turkey to deploy military forces on the territory of azerbaijan as part of a joint monitoring center. de facto, turkey has become a security guarantor of this cease-fire. thomas: away from the diplomacy, this has had a massive impact on

the civilian population. there are large numbers of people who have been caught in the crossfire. what should be done to protect them as we move ahead? neil: this is one of the reasons why the cease-fire was agreed. we were facing a humanitarian catastrophe. part of the deal allows for the return of idp's from both sides, but also the azeri population that was displaced in 1994, the previous round of conflict, and the return of people to previously occupied territories, the seven bufr territories armenia occupied. we are going to see this return, but ultimately, this is a cease-fire. they haven't settled the final status of karabakh.

it's going to remain recognized as part of azerbaijan but de facto connected to armenia, and with russian troops on the ground in what they call a peacekeeping role. thomas: that's all we have time for, but thank you for being with us on "france 24." let's head to the u.s. where a grilling secretary of state has told reporters that the transition to donald trump's second term as president will be smooth. mike pompeo, like donald trump, has been busy rejecting the results of the november 3 election, saying that the world is watching and that all the votes will be counted. the state department did later issue a statement that said it is prepared for any eventuality. joe biden has said it's an embarrassment that trump hasn't conceded the election. for more, we can bring in our correspondent captive and gorgeous donnie who has her ear to the ground for us.

donald trump and other leading republicans are still determined to cling onto the white house and stay behind that desk in the oval office. reporter: the president still has not conceded this election, and most republican lawmakersn the house and senate are following along. his administration is supporting him, and that is because the strategy is the legal challenge strategy, and the republicans are really focused on those legal challenges. the latest example is the attorney general william br with that memo that came out yesterday, giving the green light to prosecutors to actually go and investigate allegations of voting irregularities even before the results are certified.

that is going back on for decades at the department of justice, a memo that said the department of justice would not get involved until final results. this has prompted one of the top officials in charge of election crimes to resign in protest to that memo, saying this was not how the department of justice should be running, not what the department of justice should be doing. republicans in the trump administration, doubling down on those legal challenges. it seems the focus for the department of justice could be on two states, nevada with a question of ineligible voters, and possibly pennsylvania with the extension of deadlines for receiving and counting the mail-in ballots. we know mail-in ballots surged

because of the pandemic, so the republicans, after their -- they tried their luck in the state courts in pennsylvania to throughout those mainland ballots, are trying to go the department of justice way to investigate those allegations. william barr did say that the fact he was giving the green light did not mean that they were ruling on the validity of those allegations, just that they wanted their prosecutors to be able to investigate. thomas: meanwhile, the president-elect has been addressing the nation to talk about health care. let's take a listen to what joe biden has been saying in regards to protecting obamacare. president-elect biden: the truth is the american people are more united on this issue today than they are divided. 79% of the american people, including nine out of 10 democrats, eight out of 10

independents, and two thirds of republicans, want to keep the aca protections for people with pre-existing conditions, which will be eliminated if this lawsuit were to succeed. this doesn't need to be a partisan issue. it's a human issue. it affects every single american family. thomas: biden's comments came as top judges at the supreme court mole over propping up barack obama's health care package. from what we can tell, they are in favor of protecting it. reporter: yes, it's a pretty big surprise if that actually holds. of course, the worry among the democrats was that with this 6-3 conservative majority on the supreme court, those judges would strike down the affordable care act. during these hearings, some of the line of questioning gave an idea that two of the

conservative judges seem to actually be leaning towards the three liberals in favor of upholding the obamacare law. those judges are the chief justice, john roberts, as well as brett kavanaugh who was appointed by donald trump. those two judges are basically saying that the focus of this case, which is on the penalty of the individual mandate, basically saying that even though that penalty has been zeroed out, meaning if you don't get health care, you no longer have to pay a penalty. they feel if that art of the law might be unconstitutional, they feel like the whole law should not be struck down because of that detail, insisting also that in 2017 when congress voted to strike down that penalty to bring it down to zero, their

intention was not to throw out the rest of the affordable care act, and therefore, they should not as a court replace the intention of congress. if this holds true, there are going to be deliberations. we won't know the actual result until the end of the spring of 2021. the line of questioning and what we heard in those hearings seem to indicate that justice roberts and justice kavanaugh could vote with the three liberals, meaning it would be five-four possibly in favor of the affordable care act. thomas: thank you very much. an ongoing investigation into the alleged mishandling of the covid-19 outbreak in france is being divided into four specific probes.

the public prosecutor says they will examine the impact of the official response that it had on the public, on health care professionals, on civil servants, and on the sick. figures show that a further 22,180 new cases have been confirmed nationwide, and on tuesday, the nation teachers deserted their classrooms to parade through the streets to demand tougher safety measures. reporter: in paris, police charged barricades in front of a high school where a number of teachers and students walked out, angry and spite of health measures, including the reduction of class sizes by half. >> we were afraid for the health of our parents, brothers, sisters. we are not kidding. i'm here because i do not want to infect someone else. i don't want education to be interrupted. reporter: these posters reflect

the anxiety. at this primary school, teachers say there are not enough of them to ensure the safety of their students. >> he or she must be replaced if they are sick or vulnerable. the children are great. there are other things to do, like limiting group sizes. >> this parent supports the strike. >> how can you prevent the contact between the children when they are in a class of 26? the only solution is to make six-year-old children wear masks, which makes it difficult to concentrate and breathe. reporter: this school was closed on tuesday with six of 10 teachers on strike. the administration has put the country's terrorism protocols in place without additional health measures. >> you have plenty of classrooms that face the streets, and the interior of the building is on the other side. how can we open them following the terrorism plan? reporter: the movement is

spreading to universities as well, some of which have not announced any new measures to fight the rising cases of covid-19. thomas: the european council chief, the german chancellor angela merkel, and the dutch prime minister mark rutte up were among the attendees who logged on for a videoconference earlier. that meeting was called by the french president following recent terror attacks on his territory and in austria. emmanuel macron said the group discussed a need for a determined fight against terrorist propaganda and hate speech on the internet. they discussed bolstering borders with the outside world. with more from brussels, here is dave keating who spoke to us earlier. dave: when macron has been talking about reform, a lot of people have immediately gone to this open borders system, but that is one of the three pillars

of schengen, this idea you can cross between eu member states without showing a passport. there are two other parts. the second part is sharing immigration and policing da, and the third part is the you's external borders -- eu's external borders. what we saw is macron is focused on the latter two rather than the first pillar. rather than the open borders system within the you, he's talking about the sharing of policing information, that that needs to be done at a larger scale, and most importantly, that the you's external borders -- that the eu's external borders, there will be a crackdown. they will keep track of who enters and who exits across the black. a lot of people have said that schengen, like so many things in the eu, like the euro, was done only halfway.

the eu has opened up its internal borders, but it left the policing of external borders to member states, and authorities are not sharing information with one another. it would be like if in the united states the policing of the border between mexico and arizona was up to the arizona state government. it would be a weird system. that is where we are going to see this proposal for reform focused. we are going to get a further idea about this when eu ministers meet on friday, which is the five-year anniversary of the 2015 paris attacks. already, it is looking like this isn't going to be about the internal borders. it's about the external borders. thomas: that was dave keating reporting from brussels. it's time to get an update on the business news with yuko huawei who is standing by. negotiators have reached an agreement on a long-term budget and on a massive coronavirus

recovery package. tell us more. yuko: thomas, it took almost four months to negotiate this dear on a long-term budget, which is a crucial step to unlock that massive 1.8 trillion recovery package. the 1.1 triion euros spending pl for the next seven years plans to make europe's economy greener and more digitaland the deal sets up a separate independent, dedicated revenue for eu coffers to repay the 750 billion euros it plans to borrow to help member states recover from the coronavirus. the budget has an extra 16 billion euros over what leaders previously agreed to over the summer. the money will be spent improving health care, education , as well as for the security. here's the chairman of the european parliament possibly a committee speaking about those

funds. >> secured 16 billion euros on top of the package agreed upon by the heads of state in july, and these flagship programs are at the heart of european citizens' conerns and are at the heart of the added value europe can bring to the economy and its citizens. thomas: european nations are battling to contain a second wave of coronavirus infections, and new lockdowns are hurting the job market. yuka: unemployment in the third quarter of this year rose in a number of european countries. in france, the jobless rate rose to 9% in the july-september period, up from 7.1%. that is the second highest quarterly increase since 1975. it is due to the fact that people were unable to look for -- go out and look for work

during the spring because of the two months of lockdown. in the u.k., unemployment rose to its highest level since 2016 to 4.8%. the figure is below the peak reached after th global economic crisis. thomas: in other business news, eu competition regulators have charged amazon with unfair competition, and it's the latest regulatory backlash against the onlineiant. tell us more. yuka: amazon faces a number of probes, antitrust probes, aund the world, but these are the first charges against the online giant. the eu accuses amazon of using the massive amounts of data it collects from third-party vendors doing business on its marketplace to help boost sales of its own brand. it is looking at potential preferential treatment by amazon

to vendors that use its delivery service called amazon logistics. the e-commerce giant so far denies the charges. thomas: let's take a quick look at the markets, and there was a big rally on monday over that possible covid-19 vaccine breakthrough. wh is the picture like today? yuka: that global rally we sa on monday has slowed down on tuesday as excitement about the vaccine trial faded. on wall street, the nasdaq and s&p were pulled downwards and ended the day in the red, the nasdaq somewhat deeper than the p as it is quite tech-heavy. the selloff of tech shares optimism it remains high over that vaccin's success. amazon's shares, by the way, dropped more than 3% on tuesday. thomas: thank you very much.

let's move on to look at how one little and very busy bird has been keeping an eye on the u.s. election. the social media giant twitter placed warning messages on donald trump's tweets about supposed election fraud in the run-up to the november 3 ballot, and now it could even go further when he leaves office in january. here is derek thomson from the "france 24" observers team. derek: twitter has kicked into high gear against donald trump, posting 18 warning messages on his tweets and retweets in the three days. when he posted these three videos from conservative media casting doubt on the results, twitter warned this claim about election fraud is disputed, but in fact, trump has been sharing fake videos throughout the campaign like this one in march. >> we cannot win this reelection -- we can only reelect donald trump. [laughter]

derek: twitter called that manipulated media because it was selectively edited. take a listen to the rest of the sentence. >> we can only reelect donald trump if we get engaged in this circular firing squad. derek: biden was warning against divisive rhetoric. in september, trump tweeted this video. >> i just have one thing to say. hang on here. [record scratch] dere this one was a complete fabrication. biden played a song, but not that one -- ♪ ["despacito" plays] derek: twitter labeled both of these videos as manipulated. our twitter's warnings effective? yes, they give people a signal

that the president's tweets may not be authentic. for the president's supporters, twitter is fake news aimed at undermining the president. up until now, twitter has treated trump as a public leader, but that could all change in january when he steps down. he will become an ordinary citizen, meaning twitter could choose to suspend his account if they deem his tweets are not in the public interest. thomas: that brings another slice of the program to a close, but do stay with us. there's more world news coming up for you after the break here on "france 24." ♪

11/10/20 11/10/20 . [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> 90% is a game changer. hoping to have a tool in your war against this pandemic that would be significantly affected. amy: pfizer has announced early data indicating its coronavirus vaccine is more th 90% effectivat preventing covid-19 infections.