>> welcome to life in paris. i mark owen. these are the headlines. after a military coup in myanmar, claiming tens of millions of fraudulent votes. in november's election when the party 182% -- won 82%. supporters of alexei navalny arrested en masse, demonstrations across russia. prosecutors are seeking a three year sentence for the critic in the moscow court next tuesday. angela merkel called on vaccine makers to pull up the stops.

it is the result of the astrazeneca supplies and slow rollouts of the vaccination program in europe. this is life in paris. ♪ mark: thank you very much for being with us. hang sings hoochie is in detention as myanmar is under a coup d'etat. she is among the prominent politicians under arrest. the leader of myanmar's army says tens of millions of fraudulent votes cast in the november election. aung san suu kyi's party won by a landslide with 82% of the ballot. reporter: an uneasy calm as myanmar's commercial capital

wakes up to news of a power grab by the army. but signs of disquiet are on the streets. a heavy police and military presence as people queue at banks and atm's to access their cash. later, truckloads of military supporters drove through the streets, waving flags and playing the national anthem. in the capital, surveillance helicopters hovered and armed vehicles blocked off major roads close to government buildings. earlier, internet and mobile networks have been temporarily cut off. rumors of a coup had been simmering for days. and they were confirmed when the former general appeared on national television reading from a statement. military has declared a state of ergency for a year, citing "electoral fraud" over the result of november's elections. aung san suu kyi's national league for democracy party won a landslide 80% of parliamentary seats in that boat. the -- that vote. the army has called to

investigate voter irregularities. she was detained on monday morning using social media channels, she called on the burmese people to protest against the coup, and what she says in an attempt to resell a military dictatorship. indeed, many see this takeover as the end of myanmar's fledgling democracy, despite the compromises and concessions of the last decade. mark: let's get the analysis with the executive director director of burma campaign in the u.k. the previous name of that myanmar. once again, -- first of all, think you for joining us. aung san suu kyi is under arrest. do you have any word coming out of mnmar? anna: well, it is quite quiet of a moment. obviously the country has been really shocked and shaken by the food today. there was rising tensions since the electio in 2020.

but really that tension ramped up in the past few days when the military said they would not rule out a coup. there was a lot of speculation that something was going to happen. i think it has been a big shock. mark: banks the question why they waited from november until now to act. they say they acted because the election was rigged. was the election free and fair, do you think? anna: the election wasn't free and fair by any standards. it was not a part ties to election. the minority was totally disenfranchised from the election. many other ethnic people in ethnic areas were not able to vote. many rules were unfair. the constitution itself wrien and it lamented by the military, is inherent in late undemocratic. however, the military are using the notion of voter fraud as an excuse for this q.

as -- for this coup. as there is no evidence, the votes that were cast do reflect the results that happened, and that party won a convincing victory. mark: there is a certain parallel with what happened in 1990 when aung san suu kyi's party won by a similar margin and then she was put under house arrest for the next 20 years. history may be about to repeat itself. . the military is saying there may -- they will organize free and fair elections. they are also locking up a lot of many possible opponents. some is 1 -- so somewhat monday -- might wonder if we can trust with what they are saying. anna: we cannot trust what they are saying. they could say a year as a delaying tactic to put off any international pressure, to try and have a let's wait and see what happens approach from the international community. we may be seeing history repeating itself, but it is important the international community does not repeat the

mistakes it has made in the past. we talked about the rohingya and the genocide committed against them. the u.n. fact-finding mission investigating that gave a series of recommendation including referral to the international criminal court, imposing sanctions on military companies and arms embargo. and largely, the recommendations have been ignored by the international community. i think it is the sense of impunity, because the military has been able to get away with it so often. it emboldens them. i think they are banking on a weekend --eakend ashlar response. that is why it is essential we see a response from the national community, not just condemnation but actual action, top priority would be targeted sanctions on those military companies. mark: indeed. it is the muslims, because aung san suu kyi, we can put that to one side, her lack of action on the question is something that might weaken her standing

internationally. we can't go into that now. but it is the question which is the most serious one right now, isn't it? anna: well, there is sort of long-standing human rights abuses against the rohingya a, but also other ethnic group says well. we have seen in other places attacks and abuses against civilians. all of burma's ethnic minorities over the years have suffered in these abuses. the scale and intensity of the rohingya a crisis was devastating all those years ago. we do need to see action on all of those issues. and i think it is interesting because it is not clear the motivations behind this coup. on the surface, it does not suit or benefit the military, because they were doing quite well with their system.

it does seem to be prompted by the personal ambitions of the head of the military. again, it is important to target military and their interests. not just political, but their financial interest as well because that is a motivation for them. mark: indeed. anna roberts, we will watch closely. thank you for sparing time to fill us in on your insight into the situation. anna roberts, executive director of burma campaign u.k., thank you very much, indy. anna: thank you. mark: we are watching for all developments on the situation in myanmar. currently under a coup d'etat. aung san suu kyi, and other prominent people are currently locked up. next, the eu is considering fresh sanctions on russia over the treatment of alexei navalny and his supporters. over the weekend -- another weekend of demonstrations has taken place against his arrest and imprisonment. there are claims of over 5000 people being to paint -- being detained. let's bring in the journalist from the new yorker, who is in

moscow. good evening to you. tell us what the mood is there right now? josh: thank you. today saw another round of protests following protests from the week before, not just in moscow, other large cities, but hundreds of cities and towns all over russia. this is the largest wave of protest we have seen in the country in some years. this may come to a head or at least enter a new phase tomorrow when a court hearing in moscow in the morning will determine whether or not alexei navalny, who has been held in jail since his return to russia in the middle of january, will he be in fact sent to prison for up to three and a half years. that is what prosecutors are asking for. this current court hearing stems from a rather convoluted and politically motivating case that navalny involved in back in 2014.

he was giving a suspended sentence, a form of probation which now prosecutors are asking to be turned into a real sentence, which would see navalny go to prison for some years. if that is the case, i think protests will not just continue but perhaps ramp up, and reach another level of intensity. i think the next thing we will be looking for is this court hearing tomorrow. and from that, we will see what navalny and his supporters call for in the days going forward. mark: we are seeing images of what happened over the weekend. it is pretty clear that the law enforcement at these protests were not at all intimidated by the fact that it -- that they were being filmed. they were using their batons in a very free manner, and striking people at will, it seems. one cannot -- one can only expect that this will intensify or be stepped up if the protests continue? josh: i think that is the real dilemma for the kremlin.

of course, putin and his advisers are looking to belarus, a country to russia's west. which saw a large sale -- large-scale protester rep this summer and one that continues to this day. and they are, the use of force is something that brought more people out to the streets, it it activated people, angered people, it turned what had been a medium scale protest into a large hail -- large-scale protest movement. the kremlin is on the hand of using too much force that would radicalize portions of the population that remain on the fence, that remain pankive, even apathetic. while at the same time, betting on force as a way of intimidating the population, intimidating testers, keeping people off the streets, keeping the protests from becoming a weekly or regular phenomenon. and that is a very difficult needle politically from the kremlin to thread. how did they use in a force to

be cynical or machiavelli and about it? how do they deploy enough for so as to scare protesters and keep these protests from becoming too regular or widespread? but at the same time, not you so much force that you radicalize and activate parts of the population that for now, are not in the streets and remain essentially passive or apathetic. mark: and given navalny's standing, the danger is for the kremlin, that whatever they do, especially if it hurts him in any real way, it turns -- it turns him into a martyr. josh: certainly we have seen navalny's popularity grow as a result of kremlin tactics. i think it is worth repeating that by all estimations, and it is difficult to get a real read on navalny's popularity, but the end -- the best indications we have from independent polling and social research said that his approval rating is about 20%. and that is actually much higher than it has been in recent

years, that 20% is a result of navalny's surviving poisoning by nova choque in august by his dramatic return to russia in january. hiimmediate arrest, the actions of the kremlin very much are driving up navalny's popularity, giving him this heroic or martyr status, is used to just. again, it is not as if navalny has become an extra in early -- extraordinarily political figure, someone with a support to step in and say, to come russia's next leader tomorrow. in fact, i'm not sure the protests we have seen in moscow and elsewhere are so much in favor of navalny, in favor of him an individual, as a particular figure around whom people are rallying, but rather against the abuses and impunity in the treatment of navalny signifying. these are protesters -- protests are out -- about the issue of

force. mark: joshua yaff, joining us from moscow, thank you for your analysis of the situation regarding alexei navalny. poisoned in august, treated for that in germany, he returned to moscow two weeks ago, was arrested, put on trial and imprisoned for 30 days in the wake of that. tomorrow, facing another court appearance and perhaps three years in prison. his supporters continue to demonstrate as he called upon them to do so. 5000 or so arrested in this weekend's protests. we will bring you more as it develops. german chancellor angela merkel hosted talks with eu officials and vaccine makers, as anger grows over the continent's sluggish inoculation campaign. she has come under criticism of her decision to let the european commission take the lead in securing vaccines for the bloc.

the delays have dogged both procurement and the rollout of jabs across the 27 state bloc. in a bid to speed things up, she has convened an online summit to bring together cabinet members, the eu commissioners, and health and key pharma companies including biontech, pfizer, moderna, astrazeneca, and johnson & johnson peer let's hear from angela merkel. >> we have clarity on the deliveries for each quarter. and that means we feel confident that right now, we cannot promise more, we are going to be able to vaccinate all citizens by the end of the summer. so by september of this year, at the end of the third quarter. mark: angela merkel their speaking a little earlier. she is trying to press vaccine makers into supplying more. pfizer, biontech and astrazeneca have said they will up their production. sanofi and modernity trying to

help to ease things along. clearly, some action being taken, across the european union. slow, to say the least. we will keep up to date. time for business. kate joins us, less than two weeks since he has been in office, joe biden is getting pushback over a key piece of legislation. stimulus plan. kate: he is meeting with a group of republican senators who are asking him to scale back that 1.9 trillion dollars stimulus proposal. were above moderates are led by susan collins of maine. they are putting forward a plan worth one third of the president's proposal. biden has vowed to seek consensus on a bipartisan deal, but it is -- it is not clear how much he will be willing to compromise, especially with a thin majority. the $600 billion republican offer excludes aid to state and local governments and lowers the amount of stimulus checks to

$1000 while raising the threshold for eligibility for them. biden and his team insist big spending is key to protecting american households and businesses, and rebuilding the american economy. the nonpartisan congressional budget office has said it expected gdp to reach its pre-pandemic level by the end of the year, even without biden's stimulus spending. it warned the labor market would take years to recover. the biden administration has announced over $230 million in funding to speed up the production of an at-home covid test kit. the australia-based company has developed a kit similar to the now ubiquitous nose swab, but one that can be performed by yourself at home. a top biden adviser said the ability to test, trace and treat is a "linchpin of the new national strategy to control the spread of the virus." >> these are over-the-counter, self performed test kits, that can detect covid with roughly

95% accuracy within 15 minutes. thanks to this contract, they will be able to scale their production to manufacture more than 90 million test kits per month by the end of this year. kate: after last week's market turmoil linked to gamestop shares, another group of activist investors seem to have zeroed in on the commodities market. the trading price of silver has popped 13% today, topping $30 briefly, its highest level in over a decade. last week, amateur traders were pouring money into shares of the video games store chain gamestop hoping to squeeze big hedge funds who had bet against the company's fortunes. some of them have beenaking to involv in today's silver are not moves. it -- it has been billed as a david and goliath market. over the weekend, it sparked demonstrations reminiscent of the occupy wall street movement,

partly because brokerage apps like robin hood were restricting gamestop trades. a look at the rest of the day's trading action. gamestop shares fell 30% today. trade was halted briefly earlier in the session. they had 700% last week. wall street recovering from a panic that led to its worst week since october, closing higher. the dow jones up 220 points. the nasdaq over 2.5% at the closing bell. the major european indices closed as well. up over 1%. gay data showed eurozone unemployment at 8.3%. that is over 13.6 million people out of a job. they were the jewels of british high streets, and now they are heading online only. the internet giant asus has bought brands from the collapsed arcadia group. it is part of a growing trend that is reshaping the retail world, as our correspondent reports.

reporter: throwing a lifeline to the former high street giant. asos has inked a deal to take over top shop, once a symbol of british retail success, topshop fell into administration last year. along with the rest of philip green's arcadia group. and it's 13,000 employees. it was a dramatic fall from grace for the retail mogul. this monday, asos has announced it is buying topshop, top man, miss selfridge, and activewear brand hiit in a deal worth over 370 million euros. >> the acquisition of these iconic british brands is a hugely exciting moment for asos and our customers and will help accelerate our multibrand platform strategy. reporter: asos has not agreed to by any of the brand's 70 stores. around 2500 jobs will be kept. online, -- this online retailer is in talks to buy other arcadia brands.

also discarding their shops. it sealed a similar deal for debenhams last week, covering the brandon website but not its shops. and loss of 12,000 employees. arcadia's collapse has been among the biggest corporate failures of the coronavirus pandemic so far. lockdowns have crushed an already struggling high street, accelerating the move toward internet shopping. nearly 180,000 retail jobs were lost last year. meanwhile, onlinretailers are booming. handpicking the bones. -- and picking the bones. kate: n/a end of an era for shoppers in the u.k. mark: indeed. thank you very much. the whole effect of this pandemic on so many aspects of business is massive. thank you very much indeed. let's turn our attention to focus on colonial times, prices

pieces -- priceless pieces of artwork stolen from war zones. you can look to arc a lot -- to archaeological sites. they often end up on the global market, a market worth some 15 billion -- $15 billion each year. very fluid figure. identifying works of arts is among the rest is a tough task. . but not an impossible one as you will see. reporter: it is a small room. tiny -- tightly secured and full of hidden treasures. >> this is where we keep all the works of art. reporter: dara around 100 antiques -- they are around 100 antiques which were either stolen or plundered from egypt. >> some of it is on the shelves and the rest will be in this trunk. in terms of quantity, it is a massive seizure. we need to wait for the assessment to see how much it is worth. reporter: egypt, syria, libya,

iraq, all have been plundered in the last years, with hundreds of works of arts being stolen from archaeological sites. since the pandemic broke out, experts say the number of groups on social media dedicated t selling the loed a, has tripled. looters have uploaded videos of themselv displaying the works. in this clip filled in aleppo, they are getting ready to extract a moic from a site. this archaeologist has found a stolen tablet, engraved with writing. . it is up for sale online. >> the tablets come from iraq. they come from syria. they come from war zones. a can of course financed

terrorism, and it is like taking away the history of a country. reporter: but the trafficking also manages to find its way into the legitimate markets. they have been tracing the sales of works of arts for years. they have drawn up a map of all those that were plundered or stolen. they say many works and up in well-established auction houses. >> this portrait was sold by bottoms in 2015, where they said it belonged to a certain mr. s from zurich in the 1990's. but we have photos taken by the looters. they are from 2013 and 2014 and were posted on social media to try to sell the work. it is likely the portrait actually comes from a tomb, . >> it remains crucial for filing

a report to the police so they can go for an invesgation. >> finding the photographs is a battle. if we cannot get our hands on any, we can suspect they are stolen. some people in libya put their lives at risk trying to find such photos. reporter: so, how strict our auction houses when it comes to tracing the art they sell? one sale and monaco caught our eye. the auction catalog says this bust was sold by christie's in new york back in 2007. but libyan authorities believe it may have been found ian illegal excavation. while it indeed was up for sale at christie's, it did not find a buyer, and was displayed in barcelona in 2015. today, the gallery owner is under investigation by spanish authorities for possible terrorist financing. we met with the head of the auction house in monaco, where it was recently sold. >> it is quiteurprising that

this work of art could have been fod in an legal excavation, then be sold in the united states. where they have thorough background checks on such objects. >> it was also in the hands of a gallery in 2015. . the gallery owner is under investigation. should that be a cause for concern? >> we don't know about this, and it is very possible that one of the former owners interested the gallery owner in barcelona with the best. -- bust. reporter: the bust was seized by police last month and an inquiry is underway. authorities are hoping to make the task easier, after launching an application for smartphones which they can use to find out all sorts of information about work of arts, by simply taking a picture of it. >> we can see it is from mexico, from the western part of the country. now it is being sold on the black market. reporter: according to unesco,

the black market -- bla market is valued between 3 billion euros and 15 billion euros. mark: investigating the missing artworks that turn up around the world, often emanating from war zones. our special focus report there. stay with us. more to come on life in paris. ♪

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democracy now!] amy:rom neyork thiis demoacy now. >> the sgle greast thrt to our national security. our counterintelligence program must prevent the rise of a black messiah. amy: as black history month begins, we look back at the assassination of black panther leader fd hampt. the