small business i'm show business i'll see you then. our manias prime minister faces pushback from the country's president over his demand to fire the country's top general that's as crowds continue to demand that the pm step down. and donald trump makes his 1st public speech since leaving the white house saying he has no plans to create a new political party but he hasn't ruled out running for president again in 2024 either. plus in our look at some of the top stories of the week stockpiles of the astra zeneca colbert vaccine go unused in europe amid questions over its effectiveness but it comes as the world health organization warns of a lack of shots and poor nations.

7 am in the morning here in russia's capital and you're watching the weekly on our to international i'm donald quarter taking you through the past week's top stories welcome to the program. a constitutional showdown is underway in armenia after the president rejected an order by the prime minister to give the country's top general the boot comes as crowds in the capital continue to demand the p.m.'s resignation thousands took to the streets of yerevan for a 3rd day calling for the resignation of nichol pasha they're angry at his handling of last year's war with john which many view as a humiliating defeat although protests have been on and off since the war ended in november new demonstrations erupted on thursday when posh and yon defied a call by the military to resign and accuse the army of a coup attempt here's how the situation unfolded. the prime minister and the

governments of all me 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. the received nation of the prime minister and the government. you. might want to also. 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 will finish all actions will sit down at the negotiating table with the opposition for consultations on elections both were are. are ready for consistency and to both of them. and asked people in to square to go on the stand being the only of the scientific community top

politicians parties everyone is against nickel and we've made significant progress it has to create he who betrayed the nation has to leave we've never had such a vile leader who treated us so badly we came to the square in the coup from our prime minister. we stand with him to the end he must put an end to all this there of course failing is 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. right in the streets because the teaching of the p.m.'s to make. because. it is to stand $24.00 seventh's but also they are preparing

for that and i think the firewood for him. was because of that. anger has been brewing since november about a peace deal struck with azerbaijan over the disputed nagorno-karabakh region armenians saw the agreement as an embarrassing defeat and stormed the parliament building in your of on in response your style of reported there at the height of the crisis that outlines the troubled path that's led to what's happening now. this whole process that has been brewing for months because it all stems from me as and we're going to tax defeat in last year's war the armenian government the promise their people that they would come out victorious out of this clash with us there by john over the issue of this disputed region over the going to come about

so when i was there by john and i mean he signed a peace deal which russia effectively brokered it came for i mean eons for ordinary people as an absolute shock because according to that deal they had to concede 2 thirds of the going to come back to azerbaijan and that's when that's one people saw it. come 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 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 you know their defense systems were not ready for that so that defeat having to concede 2 thirds of the territories

which are overwhelmingly populated by the ethnically armenian people that was absolutely devastating and through the course 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 clearly it does have a fair amount of support doesn't it i mean he called 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 passion and even back then but again every single taxi driver that i would talk to back then 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 come. he's a leader that's why the his knee jerk reaction to the statement by the military was to call in his supporters to gather in the in the city center because this is what legitimizes him call passion and he's 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 on everybody to refrain from violence so to me it looks like the last word really the last warning literally the last warning to passion on 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 hard core 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 girl like something happens he reacts 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 we discussed developments with the vice president of the country's national assembly along with an armenian lieutenant lieutenant general who's a veteran of the previous wars and to go in a car buck. but presume you through 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 that 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 putting the blame on one person is wrong it's not fair and there are millions understand that and we all have a show of the blame. well it was bound to be back in the spotlight before long donald trump says he will not launch a new political party in his 1st public speech since leaving the white house at this year's conservative political action conference. we have the republican party

it's going to. go over for i haven't got a starting 40 odd how we speak to. thank god would that be very you could start a new party of let's divide our vote so that you can never win no we're not interested in that well this speech was highly anticipated due to the fact that donald trump is not on social media giving us a piece of his mind any longer now he started off by making clear he would not be starting his own political party he would remain with the republicans now that's an interesting decision from trump because wholes among his supporters indicated that if trump were to start his own party the majority would support him in doing so however donald trump said the stakes are getting higher so he will remain fighting alongside the republicans here's what he said we're in the middle of a historic struggle for america's future america's culture and america's

institutions borders and most cherished principles our security our prosperity had our very identity as americans is at stake like perhaps at no other time so no matter how much the washington establishment and the powerful special interests may want to silence us let there be no doubt. we will be victorious and america will be stronger and greater than ever before now trump did not say whether or not he would run for president in 2024 but he certainly left open the possibility not ruling it out he did predict that democrats will lose the upcoming presidential election in 4 years now a poll taken among attendees of the conservative political action conference indicated that a very solid majority said they would vote for him and wow the republican party has many elements within it that do not approve of donald trump among rank and file

republic. can voters trump remains wildly popular donald trump also made a point of taking to task the democrats and the new biden administration joe biden has had the most disastrous 1st month of any president in modern history that's true in just one short months we have gone from america 1st to america last year think about it right america last he also spoke about the issue of immigration he criticized the handling of the pandemic and gave a very harsh critique of the new administration so it is flowing people are looking on and saying that while democrats and others are saying that the country is healing and reunifying that doesn't really seem to be the case donald trump remains the center of republican party politics and the partisanship and division that gave birth to donald trump remains intact in the last 4 years things have become more and more intense and even though donald trump is out of office the polarization of the country which certainly ask elated during his presidency is not going away the

country remains intensely divided i discussed the political landscape following trom speech with conservative commentator jeff charles and also arvin vora former libertarian party vice chair for their take. if you chooses to run he's getting the nomination in 2024 the huge base of trump supporters is is it's young it's growing i mean it's just a larger and a more growing baze than the old guard that's kind of fading out all the people who are being you know silent through say face safe spaces or canceled or whatever all of those people are going to want a social group and a political group that speaks of their to their values right now the united states has become a divided cultural where political disagreements have shifted into the social sphere into the entertainment sphere cetera and now if you're a public figure of any kind or in many cases even if you're just a private citizen your political views put you at risk to all kinds of non

political attacks because the political sphere has shifted out of the political arena we're seeing it as being more problematic division rather the kind of than the good and the healthy political debate that has shaped american culture since the beginning who was on this track even before trump and so will trump on the scene and even. when he's outside of office i mean this divided is still going to remain and i'm not sure when it will happen one when people will finally reconcile as far as fighting goes i mean that the media is going to protect him as much as possible but donald trump is going to be one of his most vocal detractors and i think we saw that tonight at the speech here noland orlando and so yeah he is going to be a constant thorn invited inside biden won't be able to sneeze wrong without trump saying something about 4 years is not a short amount of time i think a lot can change between now and then maybe he'll decide that he doesn't want to run in that you'd rather support somebody to succeed him and maybe become more of

the kingmaker role but i do think that even if in 2024 if he does decide to run he does stand a very good chance of securing the nomination as long as he has still has the same energy that he asked today 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 section of society earlier in the week i took a deeper look at what's been happening. if you take joe biden's words at face value you might think political polarization in america is no big deal the nation is not divided this is 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 bearers 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 try to date 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 what a burger employee who wore a black lives matter mask to the job i would say the facts and details that i made in the style of clothing that i think gave related. to his what 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 go a food for example is now being boycotted just because the boss praise 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. german chancellor's refusal to take the astra zeneca coated vaccine has created many headlines this week bangalow merkel said it was due to her age and 66 years old and i do not belong to the group recommended for us to. vaccines only approved in germany for people under $65.00 but the chancellor statement is fueling more questions about the effectiveness of the shot it's led to reports of stockpiles of unused shots and comes as the world health organization warned that poorer countries are being left empty handed when it comes to any vaccines with more

details here's peter all over. 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 shots aligned 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. and on the other hand there have been reports of vaccine reactions both must continue to be well monitored something might fish out there how can we do it to vaccine and then find out a couple weeks months later that it's maybe not as efficient as 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 and now it's backfiring of course we see a very small percentage of western europeans getting the vaccine it's angle of merkel spokesperson 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. us to resent it because see that it prevents many infections and protects against serious illnesses vaccination can save lives france has found itself in a similar position to germany when it comes to its citizens being unsure about the astra zeneca job 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 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 this box 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 cheese feel safe with these vaccines and they want them in their family who should and should should have them or sell them or i don't know get into that to the countries who can't have vaccines staying in it. some more as some calls for us to call there's 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 at the red cross says the consequences of doses going on used could be dire. and if they called that we have hundreds of thousands of those it is effective and safe vaccine the line go unused in the

european countries when we have many elves 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 as being information and mistrust in not only 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. rate is a great deal everybody should be going for that vaccine as long as the vaccine is safe i think has been demonstrated that it will actually do 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 envoy has told r.t. any also warned of other dangerous strain spreading. as some who say we should be striving towards eliminating the virus completely others when 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 society is that main that we hold the virus at bay 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 governments create the conditions in which we could behave in a really helpful way but we're going to avoiding the virus and as international

cooperation ringback. i want to be clear that 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 dangers of received the vaccination who vaccinated baby 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 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 you started out vaccinations that it's will be used in practice it's early days on that. day there's been 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 over organization a joint in. dependent group together with the chinese authorities and they are in the process of producing their report looking for hypotheses about the origins and their report who 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 are difficult to do and as far as i'm concerned this is a process it's on track where it's very political and a lot of people are watching it and we have to wait until the report appears before

any further judgments could be made medical industry lawyers say reported plans to make covert shots mandatory for frontline health care workers in the u.k. could be illegal england's chief medical officer has already told health staff it's their duty to get vaccinated and the state run national health service is reportedly considering making it obligatory for certain employees and they test dr bob deal says some of his colleagues see it as an attack on their autonomy the idea of making the nation compulsory is very shortsighted you need to understand the dam if there has been done to the trust of the medical profession given the governments already chaotic and much criticized and little be and demi 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. u.k. medical chief say the number of covered patients has dropped and pressure on the health service is now easing but with that in mind dr gill believes mandatory an occupation could backfire if you make vaccination part of your terms of employment then what does a doctor do a 5th you risk losing their job 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 the pandemic which showed the vast majority all doctors

certainly felt that the government had completely missed and on the krona virus and demick and that confidence nothing has really happened to improve that confidence in government. that's it for the weekly my colleague neil harvey will be taking over in just about half an hour on behalf of the international team thanks for watching and we hope you have a great day. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race is on offense very dramatic development only closely and going to exist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time

time to sit down and talk. during the vietnam war u.s. forces also bomb to neighboring laos it was a secret war. and for years the american people did not know. until now so my skin is officially the most heavily bombed country per capita in appalling human history millions of unexploded bombs still in danger lives in this small agricultural country jordyn wieber thing going to continue to happen. even today kids in los full victims of bombs dropped decades ago is the u.s. making amends for the tragedy in laos what help to the people need in that little land of mines.