in the headlines the armenian prime minister sends a controversial order to sack the country's top general back to the president just a day after the head of state or projected it crowds continue to demand the pm steps down. some of the top stories of the past week stockpiles of the astra zeneca vaccine go unused in europe and the questions over its effectiveness but it comes as the world health organization warns of a lack of jobs and poor nations. and doctors in the u.k. reject plans to make vaccines obligatory for frontline workers.

it's the weekly from r.t. international taking you through some of the biggest stories we've been covering here for you over the past 7 days the weekend's developments to bring you up to speed on 1st though and a constitutional showdown is on the cards in armenia after the president rejected an order by the prime minister to sack the country's top general it comes as crowds in the capital continue to demand the pm quit thousands took to the streets of kiev and for a 3rd day calling for the resignation of nickel passion they're angry at his handling of last year's war with azerbaijan which many there view as a humiliating defeat although protests have been on and off since the war ended in november new demonstrations erupted on thursday when passion defied a call by the military to resign and accuse the army of a coup attempt here's how the situations unfolded. the prime minister and the governments of whom we are no longer able to make adequate decisions in this fateful. and critical situation for the armenian people given the current situation

the own forces of armenia demand the resignation of the prime minister and the government. you. might want to also says general it's still 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 was the initial actions will sit down at the negotiating table with the opposition for consultations on elections both cowher are. already for consistency and they're both of them. i'm a chef and just and there are people in the square to go on the stand being the only the scientific community top politicians parties everyone is against nickel

and we've made significant progress it has to quit he has betrayed the nation has to leave we've never had such a vile leader who treated us so badly we came to the square answering the call from our prime minister we stand with him to the end he must put an end to all this of course failing that this form of governmental transition is definitely not acceptable to me we came to see our prime minister of the republic square so the whole world knows that the people support him. her that's. right in the streets of the opposition teaching the pm to make camp. because. to stand $24.00 seventh's and also they are preparing for that night ringing firewood scored.

and has been brewing since november about a peace deal struck with azerbaijan over the disputed nagorno-karabakh region armenian saw the agreement as an embarrassing defeat and stormed the government building in response he gorged on of reported from there at the height of the crisis and outlined the troubled past that's led to what's happening now this whole process that has been brewing for months because it all stems from mean years and well nagorno-karabakh a defeat in last year's war with the armenian government the promise their people that they would come out victorious out of this clash with their by john over the issue of this disputed region of nagorno-karabakh so when i was there by john and i mean it signed a peace deal which russia effectively brokered it came poor mean eons for ordinary people as an absolute shock because according to that deal they had to concede 2

thirds of the going to care about to azerbaijan and that when it sparked that's when people started to come out to the streets passion and he tried to just push the blame on something else and at a certain point it was almost like he was trying to blame the military to blame the saudis for not doing enough he obviously he retracted that he later he said that he did mean that but that's when the bad blood between him and the military started because i've been there and soldiers they did all they could they just they were overpowered militarily they were overpowered they had no response they had no answer to the drone problem because the drones they were just obliterating their positions which were absolutely not ready for the you know their defense systems were not ready for that so that defeat and having to concede 2 thirds of the territories which are overwhelmingly populated by the ethnically armenian people without was. absolutely devastating and through the cause of all these months it

seems and while it is obvious now passion and hasn't done enough to to do so back together the divisions in the armenian society just so back together to heal this woman this massive wall and cleared it does have a fair amount of support isn't it i mean the call for supporters to come on to the streets and they did how much support does he have exactly and why is that support there given what you've just said judging from what i see right now is very much reminds me as to what was happening there back in october in november basically i did see thousands of people turn out against nickel bashing on a given back then but again every single taxi driver that i would talk to back when he would tell me something along the lines well i don't know i don't know why people are so angry like a lot of people do support the prime minister after all remember he came into power as the man of the streets so to speak he was like he came with a with

a crowd he came as part of a revolution himself so really the streets and the public support is all that he has to legitimize him as as as the country's leader that's why the his knee jerk reaction to this statement by the military was to call in his supporters to gather in the in the city center because this is what legitimizes him and his saying that it's an attempted military coup but again we haven't seen any military in the streets the general chief of staff he signed a letter along with some 40 other top officers generals they have called on him to resign but again they called in everybody to refrain from violence so to me it looks like the last world really the last warning literally the last warning to passion and it came as a complete surprise to passion and so he's trying to find this balance as to he doesn't want to be more who are than he needs to be and he's trying to and it is clear that he did not have a plan. for this he's just he just reacting on the world like something happens

he'll react it well it's not like he had a he had a contingency plan for that at least it doesn't look like he had one to me and we discussed developments with the vice president of the country's national assembly along with an armenian left head and general who's also a veteran of previous conflicts in the go no care about the regime knew it for 30 years the military has been poorly managed in terms of equipment and maintenance this led to the army becoming weak and pushing and came to power without a team experience the prime minister was an absolute 0 in military affairs as well as in economics and politics and this management disorganization noncompliance with the mobilization plan the destruction of command and control systems and the dismissal of military officers all this led to the fact that the general staff lost all patience and demanded the supreme commander his resignation as he was destroying the army to communion. its post-war turbulence when the military makes

political statements it can only be called a military coup the military must carry out its immediate task of protecting the borders of the republic politics is not a military matter our colleagues from other countries are emphasizing that this is unacceptable the prime minister has problems with a few military officials following the war and i must say the authorities and the prime minister are in control of the situation put in the blame on one person is wrong it's not fair and there are millions understand that we all have our share of the blame. on the other stories in the german chancellor's refusal to take the astra zeneca covert vaccine was creating plenty of headlines this week i'm going to merkel put it down to her age and 66 years old and i do not belong to the group recommended for astra zeneca. the astra zeneca vaccines only approved in germany for the under 60 five's but the chancellor's statement is fueling more questions

about the effectiveness of the jab it's led to reports of stockpiles of unused shots and comes as the world health organization born to the poor countries are being left empty handed when it comes to any vaccines more on that next from peter all of a. germany is facing a touch of cognitive dissonance when it comes to covert 19 vaccinations on the one hand politicians on the population are outraged at how slow the process of giving a vaccine to everyone in germany has been on the other hand vaccination centers like this one here in berlin at the old airport which only gives out the astra zeneca job well they've been struggling to get people to take up the offer that some sorts a line unused because not enough people enrolling or just not turning up for their appointment this is an absurd and unbearable situation as of last friday only 10 percent of the vaccines available had been administered the astra zeneca job is

only approved for use in under 60 five's in germany due to a lack of data on its effectiveness and older people it's being made available to health care staff but tales of reactions to the vaccine have seen some german states suspend its use. astra zeneca has been criticized because on the one hand it seems to be less effective than the messenger r.n.a. vaccines from beyond tech and moderna and on the other hand there have been reports of vaccine reactions both must continue to be well monitored is something quieter share there how can we do it to vaccine and then find out a couple weeks months later that it's maybe not as efficient it was as it was promised i think this shows that the way the european union has been managing this whole vaccine campaign it was not only by the professionals that were supposed to be making decisions in the 1st place i think this is something which is not normal and now it's backfiring of course we see a very small percentage of western europeans getting the vaccine it angela merkel

spokes person even had to put out a post on social media encouraging people to take the astra zeneca vaccine because there's a worry that the doses germany has could end up going to. waste. astra zeneca succeed in. that it prevents many infections and protects against serious illnesses vaccination can see. france has found itself in a similar position to germany when it comes to its citizens being unsure about the astra zeneca jab a general lack of vaccines across the european union added to growing fears about their safety i mean the 2 biggest eurozone economies germany and france are vaccinated just 6 percent of their populations but the head of the world health organization wants rich countries to check before ordering more shots and made diet shortages in developing nations if there are no vaccines to buy moneys

irrelevant currently some high income countries are into contracts with vaccine manufacturers that undermine the deals that call vioxx hours in police and reduce the number of those come by now that we've got these vaccines people don't want them so what do we do with that and there's no better be over of course if some kind of trees feel safe with these that soon they want them in their family who should and should should have them or sell them or or get into the countries we can't have vaccines staying in in. some or as some call spots areas refrigerated areas around the you know while e.u. nations the did the ring over whether or not to get one of the main vaccines that are on offer poorer nations are running the risk of having no doses of any vaccine at all peter all over r.t. berlin the director of health and care of the red cross says the consequences of

doses going unused could be dire. it is an ethical that we have hundreds of thousands of those effective and safe vaccine lying go unused in the european countries when we have but many else workers in the developing countries that are not getting any vaccine these are not only unethically is extremely sad because every vaccine that is not injected in the arm of a person is a potential death due to. the 19 so we really need to accelerate the distribution of vaccines and to do that one of the critical point in europe has been means information and mistrusts there not only in europe we have a lot of vaccine is around the world and i think there is a lot of work to be done to make sure that people understand that getting a vaccine that has a 60 percent efficacy rate is a great deal everybody should be going for that vaccine as long as the vaccine is

safe i think has been demonstrated by the so there's no reason why those people should be the thing and not taking a vaccine they're putting themselves and their communities at risk besides creating problems for the rest of the world the world should prepare for a new post pandemic reality that's what the world health organization special covert envoys told r.t. and also warned of other dangerous strain spreading. as some who say we should be striving towards eliminating the virus completely others and i'm in this 2nd group say that we must strive towards being able to live with the virus as a constant threat but putting in place a mix of defenses in our societies that mean that we hold the viruses but hey at the center of that is vaccination which can protect people from getting seriously ill and dying but there's also how we behave there's also how the

governments create the conditions in which we can behave in a really healthy way but we're going to avoiding the virus and as international cooperation. i want to be clear you always need to have traction nations to get so that's good practice or even just for many years i've carried a little yellow book next to my passport which indicates that i've had yellow fever vaccinations it includes tito's of the daytime received the vaccination who vaccinated me and very importantly will bacha number of vaccine i received i really think that's good practice now how the significance it used as possible as for being able to get on a plane or get into a hotel or go into a building or go to a festival that's a different story and right now i don't think anybody is in

a position to start saying to our vaccinations that it's will be used in practice it's early days on that. as as most of your viewers will know a recent investigation into how this virus appeared through an independent scientific group that was set up under the auspices of the world gopher organization a joint independent group together with the chinese authorities and they are in the process of producing a report looking for hypotheses about the origins and their report will detail where they got to in relation to each of these hypotheses finding out the origins of any kind of pathogen whether it's the one causing this corona virus pandemic or other pathogens for example like it or particular kinds of influenza these investigations that are difficult to do and as far as i'm concerned

this is a process it's on track. it's very political and a lot of people are watching it we have to wait until the report appears but authority for the judgments could be made. and still to come the stigma of cove and a recovered patient reveals he got hundreds of death threats submitted playing from lock down restrictions after revealing his infection his story's ahead when the way he returns after this.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. very dramatic developments only closely. i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical. usage.

hello again more of all stories from the week and medical industry lawyers say reported plans to make jobs mandatory for frontline health care workers in the u.k. could be illegal england's chief medical officer is already told health stuff that it's there to get a job in the state run national health service is reportedly considering making it obligatory for certain employees and i just talked to dr bob gill says some of his colleagues see it as an attack on their own autonomy. the idea of making x. nation compulsory is very shortsighted you need to understand that damn if there has been done to the trust of the medical profession even 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 you can medical chiefs say the number of covert patients has dropped and the pressure on the health service is now easing but with that in mind dr gill believes that mandatory inoculation could backfire if you make vaccination part of your terms of employment then what does a doctor do a 5th year of their risk losing their job losing their profession that they've studied and worked so hard for or they comply is 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 the pandemic which showed the vast majority of doctors

certainly felt that the government had completely missed and old crone a virus and demick and that confidence nothing has really happened to improve that confidence in government for mccovey patient in canada has warned of the stigma attached to getting the virus and claims that it could be stopping people from reporting infections cortland cronk received hundreds of death threats after it was revealed but he called the virus. people attacked me for no reason in new brunswick that's my hometown that's where i'm from there's a video that was on october 31st of me saying that i couldn't taste or smell anything and the background story i kind of the you tube video on this so that you know creates allergies where i can't taste her might and you know my nose gets blocked up in and that's what i was relating it to and that's why the 2nd day i booked a task like waited still there you know it could be covert i have to go out of the state so i'm just going to double check i'm pretty sure it's not because my spouse days prior tested negative for covert $191.00 of the guys that i was on the trip

with who came home early from calgary he tested also negative for quote 19 which he actually had symptoms so i was like ok there's there's probably a very slim chance that i have over 1000 and when i was traveling from calgary back to new brunswick i was considered an essential worker so we were required to isolate and i didn't have symptoms at that time my symptoms didn't come to 31st and i was coming back to new brunswick on the 24th of october after being infected people on social media began blaming him for subsequent public restrictions and lockdowns he spoke of the dangers of public shaming. a lot of people are so right about having kobe not because of it's going to harm them but it's because they're worried of what the the population around them will think when you shame somebody and when you have this big stigma on people for having called it a lot of people who are sick you know that might have a sniffle or a sore throat or something they don't bother going to get tested because they they feel like they're going to be shamed so or shunned and so

a lot of people end up hiding their symptoms that's an issue because then you're not getting a true number on cases and and you know you have people going around spreading the virus not knowingly the they have the virus because they're too worried about what people might think that they have the virus. now everything from brand names to work relations and even family ties are showing signs of breakdown as u.s. political divides begin to affect practically every strata of society double court has been taking a look. if you take joe biden's word at face value you might think political polarization in america is no big deal the nation is not divided it's not nearly as divided as we make it out to be but if you take a look at what's actually going on in the streets well a different picture begins to appear.

and according to the statistics your eyes are not deceiving you i think we're all aware of how political polarization has affected our elections and system of government but the impacts go far beyond the political arena it seems the facts contradict biden's feel good speeches about unity take the family the core structure of american society it's a real example of unity and something more important than political bickering with that in mind check out what one republican senators family had to say about his decision to support trump's impeachment we all thought really just gusted with you it is now most embarrassing to us that we are related to you you've been bearish the kings and family name ok as a politician his family cannot get around political talk at the dinner table but divorces parents disowning their children this is happening in ordinary american

families it's tough my husband is a trump has caused such strife they feel like i want to divorce i'm a registered republican who is now an independent who voted democrat my republican family however has dug in they think i'm the crazy one they were more shocked to find out i hate to d.t. than they were to hear i was also known as none of my family members talk to me i'm so sorry for anyone who's lost family over politics it has. you could see it in the workplace where playing politics can get you fired and the spotlight of national news like the former water burger employee who wore a black lives matter mask to the job i went ahead but i think that i made an approach to the style of clothing that i think everything you think i would say that is the thing you probably shouldn't buy the wrong item either unless you want to incur the wrath of those who don't agree with you going to food for example is now being boycotted just because the boss prays donald trump for

a also under boycott because the company dropped its contract with a conservative beauty blogger who claims she was targeted for her political views and the head of my pillow is taking flak since he publicly supports the idea that the last presidential election was fraudulent the keyboard warriors have drawn their swords and retailers have even cut ties with the companies because of it so next time you think about buying a pillow think twice unless of course you want your family to fall apart. around the world this weekend may have suffered its deadliest day since and protests against the military began of the stuff of february at least 18 people were reportedly killed as soldiers used live rounds stun grenades and tear gas against the demonstrators 30 bridgette it's the 4th week in which the country's been paralyzed by nationwide protests after the government was overthrown by the military. prices attacked police and damaged shops and banks in a 2nd week of violence in spain over the jailing of rapper pablo hustle the

musician was sentenced for insulting the royal family and his lyrics and tweets as well as other charges more than a dozen demonstrators have been arrested. and russia's space agency was kosmos has launched its 1st of a satellite to monitor the frozen environment of the arctic the rocket carrying the satellite blasted off from the baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan. and that is it for this edition of the week in just over half an hour quarter will be here with the next one the from a column bright thanks for watching have a great week.

join me every thursday on the alex simon sure and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. significant loss of us myself whenever i. notice that whenever so still is what it does but i think it will be now most of it if i'm the last one but i don't want to

get off this why is there no bit of. a bleed enough and then. some of that but enough of the most of it either. and yet you have a sense out of that that unless it is the other and it's good that. you can list the book it took me over the c.c. list i wanted to be done in amsterdam in earnest. which money cannot and must as you know. you're not seeing. as i was how easy it would be i would. get i call me when i looked up your number i found out today gosh i'm going to try going through the into money at.