themselves worlds apart we just of the for common ground. in the headlines this friday morning from our to international armenia's parliament is under siege by opposition groups as the country spirals further into crisis the country's opposition stand with military chiefs calling on prime minister nick called to step down after he yesterday sacked the head of the armed forces saying that he thought he was part of an attempted coup. and move triggered a standoff between thousands of his supporters and opponents leading to clashes on the streets of the capital here of. in other news to brief you on the e.u. chief and his open conflict with the head of the biggest member states germany as. long as i live merkel the plans for covert passports aren't set in stone.

not in the morning here good morning to russia around the world live from moscow this is art international with me kevin i know it and the folks in 1st this friday and events in armenia over the last 24 hours or so it's a country in turmoil this morning as the opposition there and military chiefs of called on the prime minister to step down and rejected his offer of snap elections hundreds of the prime ministers opponents come to overnight side the parliament building there are reportedly being encouraged by opposition leaders to stay the 247. vote to remove him but he says monitoring the area there's been no serious clashes reported thus far let's get up to speed let's go there are constantine rose course reporting from the scene of one of those camps there bit noisier than last

year i can hear beyond what's going on this morning as year of the whole country wakes up to a brand new day but a lot of uncertainty ahead. well good morning to you kevin you know right now the situation is boiling over i mean let me show you a little bit here is the crowd of people and from what i was told there was an argument like a fight between the local armenian t.v. crew and some protesters and the police had to intervene in their intervene and you know tried to facilitate that peaceful resolution so you know anyway it just shows that the situation is getting more and more intense here on the spot oh you can see right now people are again are arguing about something in armenian again the police officers have has to enter intervene well anyway we are right now looks like the situation come down. i guess for how long so like i said we're right now in front of the nation's parliament which became

a well and the epicenter of the current political crisis in armenia and several dozens opponents of the incumbent prime minister nicole down stayed here overnight demanding his resignation and from what i hear you know they're bracing for a long standoff setting up tents barricades loading up and supplies in a fire woods and i guess this is another sign that the latest round of the power struggle in armenia could be here to stay now you know everything that you see here it came after a turbulent chain of events in the country's capital yesterday the protests were parred by are meaningless top military command calling on the prime minister to step down claim in and i quote that the in the fact of management has led the country to the brink of death. the prime minister and the government. able to make adequate decisions in this critical situation for the armenian people

given the current situation the own fool says of the resignation of the prime minister and the governments of the. same time we call to refrain from using force against people whose children die defending their homeland and care about. the all soldiers and officers and generals do your job god borders and the territorial integrity of armenia this is my order and no one can disobey today we're holding this rally and war finished all actions will sit down at the negotiating table with the opposition for consultations on elections. on top of that the military is unhappy about what they describe as numerous attempts to discredit the armed forces . immediately fired back accusing those who demanded his resignation of an attempted military coup and calling his supporters to take to the streets now the opposition that backed the military commanders stage its own rally in your yvonne

as fighter jets flew past now let's have a listen to what pashtun had to say in front of his supporters the other day. was. right now it's a wait and see approach despite the prime minister's demand to dismiss the chief of the general staff around the country's military chief is still in office because they are meaning president hasn't signed off on the order any more uncertainty to the already volatile situation members of the parliament or also expected to gather for a special session today to discuss the country's immediate political future as it hangs in the balance yeah constantine stay there if you will for the next day or so because you never know what's going to happen across the weekend or whatever do and

as we saw it already kicked off quickly yesterday within 24 hours or so all right. so even if you probably line come about there are homes well i will try to get us all different. so national tensions escalated in november over the signing of a peace deal between armenia and azerbaijan on the disputed region about a cutback manias government had vowed victory in the war but end of the day the agreement was seen as a humiliating defeat which is some of the catalyst of what's happening now demonstrators reacted to the truce by storming the government building before they strongly oppose the prime minister's decision to end the fighting with the troops adding they wouldn't go. the territory ceded under the deal it's really been boiling out of the service since it agreed to let azerbaijan hold on to key parts of the area that's irked so many people in armenia and the armenians say they will never forgive him for the loss. well much of the current volatility is also been fuel to this the twists and turns of this there are many by

a top level dispute over army weaponry covering that side of it donal quarter. there must always be someone to blame for losing a war what leader would blame himself right he wouldn't be a leader for much longer that was the dilemma hanging over prime minister posh and young then he made his move he blamed russian weapons for his country's military defeat in a go in a car in autumn he said russia's electronic warfare systems could not handle turkish drones used by azerbaijan's armed forces the prime minister's attack on russia's military industrial complex added that the russian made its gander missiles either did not explode or quote exploded 10 percent it's not exactly clear what the pm meant by that were only 10 percent of the missiles launched did missiles hit only 10 percent of their targets neither statement has any confirmed substance behind it since no evidence was provided to back paasschen younes claims what is known is that such unreliable weaponry would clearly never be accepted into russian military service or by those who buy moscow's weapons like the armenian

military which pasha neon is now at odds with in fact russia's ministry of defense says none of their is candor missile systems were in any way involved in the nuke or in a car conflict giving russia's defense officials the impression that passion yon's been given in accurate information. according to the objective unreliable information available to us no missile systems of this time were used during the conflict it's appears that armenian prime minister and the i was misled and used information. the deputy chief of the general staff rejected the prime minister's claims about the unreliability of russian equipment calling his statement frivolous he then lost his post a chain reaction ensued with the military demanding paasschen younes resignation and then the chief of the general staff himself was dismissed and all that brought us to today standoff in front of the government buildings with the fate of the

armenian state itself hanging in the balance. as you expect international reactions when coming in with russia the u.s. the e.u. giving a response as they saw it to the crisis. russia has made it clear that it views the situation in armenia as its own internal affair and hopes for its peaceful resolution we condemn the old military coups or coup attempts no matter where they take place across the world it is unacceptable for a military to call for the resignation of an elected government we are closely following ongoing developments in our mania and encourage all parties to exercise calm and restraint and to de-escalate tensions peacefully without violence the european union is following developments in amenia very closely we ask all activists for calm and avoid any rhetoric or actions that could lead to further escalation experts told us too the only democratic way out of this crisis is to go

for snap elections. should be etc people such decides their form of government spent certainly the military will want to have their say they're upset you know that they lost the war. they want to make sure that they have a stake in the outcome of the next election you know they really want to force vent to a position where he asked to leave office and we'll just see how the prime minister is their votes maneuver and handle such a delicate situation. i think that what he's doing he's doing very deliberately it's a mission given to him by someone from the west we all believe that he came to power with one goal to draw russia away from the southern caucasus from armenia to make russia leave the region so that the turkish military can enter the southern caucasus so that nato can gain a foothold in the region this did not have the support of the military or the people essentially the whole of civil society demands that the prime minister step

down i do not believe that he can survive this people are looking to blame people as you can accept the new reality which is to have lost a lot of territory but it. wasn't to blame for that the military in the build up for many years of not harming the military properly and not seeing much and going to try to physically remove him. to intervene. in the normal sort of military coup they would. continue to push think. is the best for everybody including for 0 and just opposition has a very good chance of winning if they have sense. because we don't want. demonstrations perhaps. there's just. sort of elections is the best solution for every. want to. continue to follow that

through the day on online of course the next something different a boost for the news flagging 5 travel industry just maybe could be months away and it's likely to come in the form of a covert vaccination digital pass at least the german chancellor thinks so. that's the point with respect to digital vaccination bass all member states agree that when he has a thing the technical preparations were done by the european commission as well as member states in january now when you temper man that's so that there's comfortability among different national passes we in germany have decided that it will develop such a vaccination past the key data that has digital past mass contained have been defined by the european commission and member states. well more and more people on the airlines of course have been talking about it but. jumped the gun here with the european commission president so nothing as yet been confirmed shallow dubinsky reports that seen significance of the controversial but it does seem after what

angle a local said that this could be the way forward for the e.u. germany and france were originally said to be resistive to this idea but the fact that she's there giving it the green light well that is a game changer but while it seems that merkel was saying that this is being approved there was a bit of a different story coming out from the leaders in the official statement it wasn't so sure essentially saying that they won't be a common approach in this would be an issue with this it is this is what ursula vulgarly in that state and the vaccine certificates. indeed we discussed this topic as you know there are still a number of open question political question the 1st one is of course what these certificates will be used for but they're also scientific question not a call for vaccines difficulty originally came from countries like greece and

cyprus who have already greenlit their own plans to allow travelers from the u.k. and from israel to go there on holiday this year if they can show that they being and not kill a tick but there's huge criticism of this idea especially given the massive problems there have been rolling up the qubit 900 vaccine here in the u. many feel that this would essentially create a 2 tier system it would be unfair a form of discrimination so really many people unhappy about apple cider dear let's give you a sense of what the situation is here in the u. around 80 percent of adults in the countries have received the chap that's very far behind countries such as the u.k. a former e.u. member where around 27 percent don't and don't support the jat now there have also been as i mentioned many major issues surrounding the supply is or could 900 vaccines have been distribution issues in lower than expected deliveries and worse

still some european leaders have been pretty sniffy about some of the vaccines particularly the astra zeneca vaccine and so because of that and the questions being raised about the efficacy of the spec seen many in europe are now refusing point blank to have it it's been reported that 4 out of every 5 doses that we've delivered to the immune haven't been used yet and even elegant merkel said that she won't have the vaccine now admittedly she's 66 and the official advice and germany is that the astra zeneca vaccine should be given to those over the 8. of 65 but still this is signaling to many people that there is an issue of gay sex scene now the e.u. leaders following their video conference on thursday also clenched quick implementation of the 19 facts and recognizing the need they said to step up and accelerate this program change sure that everybody had the chair but it is of course it has so far

be slow this is what the joint statement from clearly has had to say we need to urgently accelerate the water isolation production and distribution of back since as well as vaccination when russia says it's ready to step up and send doses of sputnik v. to the e.u. to vaccine was recently given a glowing report in the medical journal the lancet which ranked it has been one of the most effective vaccines against the virus the e.u. has said it would purchase me but of course that will be subject to regulatory approval. yeah we're continuously would talk about corona virus after the break as well hope you can stick around this friday morning coming up the u.k. doctors come out against plans to make coronavirus shots obligatory for frontline workers what you think about that should they were across it since we're back.

join me every thursday on the alex simon show and obviously to get us on the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see them. seemed wrong. to me. to shape out just to. educate. and in. the trail. find themselves worlds apart week just to look for common ground. when a trauma happens it changes us literally it causes a chemical change in our d.n.a.

and this changes the way our genes function. sometimes for generations. i get morning get that story about maybe mandatory covert jobs for nature stuff in just a bit but 1st more controversy if you call this one a strain is become the 1st country to force tech giants to pay publishers for news content the laws designed to make facebook and google pay a fair price to the media then could be a game changer tracy chevys reports. facebook is refreshing australia after a tumultuous month that saw facebook poll news from its platform and protests the

tech giant will restore news pages in the country following a landmark agreement with the government experts say more countries may follow the internet platforms need to comply with the rule of law or if they are doing business in australia australia officially implementing a law that forces tech titans including google and facebook to pay local media outlets and publishers to link their content in news feeds or in search results the whole purpose of the humanitarian crisis has been to give a strong incentive to the digital platforms to do commercial deals with the struggling news media businesses google already striking deals with major australian news businesses in recent weeks including news corp and 7 west media while facebook is promising to pay $1000000000.00 over 3 years to the news industry adding that the social media platform has invested a $600000000.00 since 2018 we're working across the full range of the areas where it is important to make sure that the rule of law applies in relation to all of the

things that we do online with the internet the type of vices of modern life the so-called news media bargaining code comes just days after the government introduced some last minute amendments to the proposed bill after fierce pushback from both google and facebook we've agreed to make some clarifications to the code when it comes to the designation process by the treasurer of a particular digital platform a one month notice period will be put in place the country's unprecedented new law has been vigorously debated in recent months facebook even shut down news pages in opposition of the legislation last week those actions were completely indefensible after serious back and forth australia's treasurer josh frydenberg and facebook chief executive mark zuckerberg finally came to an agreement for facebook has reefs . astray in return facebook agreed to restore the news pages and live to ban on australians accessing and sharing news australian officials say this new law will

ensure news media businesses are fairly compensated for content they generate now many are wondering if there will be similar legislation implemented in other countries already facebook is exploring potential news licensing agreements in canada while microsoft is working with european publishers to push big tech platforms to pay for news in new york trinity chavez r.t. radio host kerry house and told us the new legislation is fully justified. it's very simple it's as if in the old days you publish a newspaper and then somebody came in stole your newspaper put it in their own stand and then added their own ads to it and made a profit it didn't give you anything back for it well there would be a problem there have been always for many many years and lawsuits because of it so clearly it's that time now when facebook has done enough stealing the already steal our data it's worth billions of dollars where i went who i talked to who my friends

are who my friends are not what do i eat all of that make it nothing 0 for them to sell and resell and resell that data in the united states right now corporations are much more powerful than government facebook wants to own everything its goals are to own everything does facebook want the new york times to be the newspaper of record no facebook wants facebook to be there's no editor in chief of the internet hello you can publish a blog and boy if you make it look good it looks like the new york times that people don't know the difference that's been facebook's conceit ever since 2006 it is the largest news organ other than yahoo in the world it's not going away. health workers have warned against reported u.k. plans to make over jobs mandatory for some workers pointing out it may be illegal under current legislation chief medical officer than is already told health stuff and getting inoculated is the duty of the national health service the n.h.s.

is reportedly considering making it a blanket tree for certain employees but it has talked to paul gilbert told us that some medical workers say that that is an attack on their autonomy. the idea of making x. a nation compulsory is very shortsighted you need to understand that damn if there has been done to the trust of the medical profession given the government's already chaotic and much criticized handling of the endemic we've already lost a 1000 health and social. work force due to the pandemic people have been working exhaustingly long hours have witnessed tragic scenes and to attack their professional judgment and autonomy by making this compulsory i think is another straw to break the camel's back and a snapshot of the backdrop to this u.k. medical chief say the number of coronavirus patients has dropped at the moment and pressure on the n.h.s. is easing official suggested the country's covert alert level indeed should be

downgraded so with out in mind bob gill again says mandatory inoculation could backfire if you make vaccination part of your terms of employment then what does a doctor do if you risk losing their job and losing their profession that they've studied and worked so hard for or they comply so it's quite a big stick to beat the profession with. i don't think anybody could argue against the evidence for vaccination and what the government should try to do is understand if there is significant reluctance why that is support those will provide the more information but not to coerce them it was a survey early on in that and then me which showed the vast majority all doctors certainly felt that the government had completely missed and or coronavirus and they make and that confidence nothing has really happened to improve their confidence in government. let me take you around the world in just

a minute some pictures stories for you here he is saying protesters wednesday gathering to support the hunger strike of a greek far right urban guerilla group member serving multiple life sentences and charged with several murders police had to use tear gas and water cannon to break up the crowds they arrested at least 30 the convicted man's reportedly in a critical condition after almost a month now. firefighters and military helicopters have been working to put out a huge mountain fire that threatens nearby residents more than 200 households have been told to get out of the area for their safety. problems of a different kind look at this snow authorities and show you a big central russia imposing a state of emergency over deep snow heavy snowstorms they're bringing roads to a standstill more than 600 people have been evacuated they're being housed in temporary accommodation and we thought we had it by the last few weeks here in moscow but just look at the depth of that snow.

by to cope with was finally germany's small brewers have been hit hard by the closure of bars and restaurants in the pandemic with many now warning they may not survive peter all of the reports. was whether it's munich's october fest all colognes carnival plays a leading role in germany's big celebrations has hit those parties hard as the need to implement coronavirus measures that seem cancelled and bars and restaurants closed which in turn has had a knock on effect for brewers really bad this is a situation of the smaller breweries because say they're often selling their bureaus in restaurants or pops and this you know pops and restaurants are closed since november so there is no real sales at the moment for them be

a sales of actually been declining in germany for a while now understood to be due to health concerns but over the last year they have gone off a cliff 17.3 percent down on a year on year sales for april 14 point one percent down for november some have looked to diversify to move with the times when a court in bavaria overturned a ruling banning the sale of alcohol in public spaces last month this brewery in munich set up a machine. so we have here the mobile tank which was created with 2 other companies and here you have fresh chain beer and the you can tap using their all the have to do is download the top of your credit card and then if you scan secure code you can type directly through there up and also be contact less so that is also entirely covered conformant while a brewery near nuremberg saw a rush on their lock down creation named vaccine the 2000 cans they produced

selling out in just over 3 hours cans and bottles they usually the territory of the larger produces the vast majority of germany small brewers sell direct to bars and restaurants all. all of which are closed with no real indication when they'll reopen the german government has provided financial aid and while it has helped it isn't a solution over 300 brewers have signed an open letter sent to angela merkel's government warning of an existential crisis in the industry while a lot of the talk has been about getting schools shops and hairdressers open there's no end in sight to covert restrictions on the hospitality industry if i can open i have to take on more debt but i really need an opening date i understand that it's difficult with the situation as it is but if i don't have an opening date i don't know. how much money i will need to until that day and i constantly will

need to keep looking for more money somewhere and this is just it's i'm just immense challenge and eventually it will not work any more and eventually water won't make any sense this breweries use the time that they've been closed during the pandemic to upgrade production facilities in order to allow them to sell beer in towns but that's all comes with extra costs and extra costs come with extra risks just by a government support alone it's impossible to survive this so it's just more and more debt and eventually it's already almost impossible to get money from banks because they're seeing the situation as it is and why would they give businesses that are basically bankrupt at this stage why would they give them money so it's just private investors that you rely on that you hope that they were believe in the business believe that they can come back strong the hope is that scenes like these can be seen again by the summer but fears over variance of covert 19 spreading through germany has many painting

a less than rosy image for the remainder of 2021 which will likely lead to a continuation of restrictions in some form all of which will take a serious toll on germany's breweries peter all over on. you know one good thing about our dear old human race a versus the breeds engineer it is they say you see it time and time again and i keep a close eye on what's happening armenia flood stories interesting you today on our site are tea dot com with our regular updates for the next 4 hours i can tell you that out of course we're talking about so much more as well but for now this friday morning kevin 0 in sounding off if you have to watch the dog it's 13 minutes past the hour 30 and 30 seconds to be precise don't be late for work now goodbye.