in the headlines this monday protesters stormed government buildings in armenia as the heat is turned up only political unrest in the country. guilty as charged a former french president nicolas sarkozy is convicted of corruption and end of the year behind bars it gives him the dubious honor of becoming the 1st former president in the country to get a jail term. lashing out at lock down violence erupts in several countries around europe as people fight back against from the virus restrictions. and the never ending nightmare we investigate the plight of the so-called over the long haul are people still trapped struggling with their home months after their person faction.

you're watching are 2 international coming to you live from the russian capital this and every hour into the program. we start this hour with the growing unrest in armenia where protesters have stormed a number of government buildings in the capital the president and prime minister have already met to discuss the tense political situation in the country pm said the outcome of that meeting will be announced later today as the capitals brace for 2 mass rallies both in support of and against the prime minister with more on the story here is r.t. is constantine rushkoff. so far we know that the opponents of the prime minister are roaming around the cities storming into different government buildings demanding the resignation of nicole pasha none recently they broke into the us about 30 of the central district of your yvonne before that they hit another government building where several ministries are located and those were quite

chaotic scenes as the crowds were smashing through the hallways and i guess those people who were at their desks at that time might have been really frightened the crowd specifically were addressing the government employees urging them to stop taking any called orders and do not calm to the pro passion and rally they do not stay inside for too long they storm in they shout slogans with the help of a bullhorn and then they move on so it looks like the police simply can't catch up with them now that protesters are said to be coming back to the national parliament that's where the opposition has been camping out for the last several days turning the area into the center of an uprising against nicole anyway that shows you how much attention is in the air right now as the political crisis in armenia unfolds at the political front the situation develops pretty fast we've just received information that the authorities have agreed to snap elections but they will go

forward only if the had of the general staff of the armenian armed forces and i need. mr just growing along with other top armenian generals have called for the resignation of the prime minister and he called partially now and after that he was accused of staging a military q so after that i wanted to boot out the mystery but so far it hasn't succeeded because the president hasn't signed on that order. we have 2 rallies in the year of on schedule for today one staged by opponents and another one by supporters of the prime minister nicola the turnout of the rallies will be crucial for both sides as it might show who dominates the streets and. winning the hearts of regular people in this goal we fight for power. let's just have a quick reminder of the recent turmoil in the country the prime minister faced calls to step down by the country's military last week rushing and hit back accusing military officials of an attempted coup and sacking the head of the

military that sparked mass rallies both in support of and against the prime minister later the president stepped in and overruled passion and order to fire the chief of staff the country's face months of unrest following a conflict with azerbaijan last year which resulted in a peace deal that didn't sit well with many armenians. the former french president nicolas sarkozy has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to one year and jail psycho's it was found guilty of bribing a judge and exchange for inside information on an investigation into his presidential campaign finances sarkozy is the 1st former president of france ever to have been given a jail term a journalist and political commentator and elizabeth doesn't think this is the end of the story. the 1st president to be condemned to jail this is a condition that you could have nation that is already going to heal so i don't think he's jailed yet. but d.c.

also has interesting although the 1st president to be the object of 70 different court cases 16 of which were dismissed without merit and he expects that his appeal sort of will do to his luck will hold and appeal but a student it's a strong setback to something that in some jurisdictions would have been thrown out of school because it was based on the almost continuous hour phone tapping by magistrates without a specific mandate of the specific object which in french all is illegal so it's a really interesting case and that really demonstrates that french justice has been as has become quite politicized in recent. anger at tightening covert restrictions have boiled over and ireland and denmark where thousands took to the streets demanding their freedom back.

well those protests in several countries come as there is an increasing transmission breaks over 19 here in fronts the health minister has described the situation as. the epidemic with tens of thousands of new cases being registered every day now as a result of that over the weekend several times in france went into new weekend lockdowns and it does look as if that is going to be expanded to other across the

country here in paris the various discussing a mini 3 week lockdown it seems to many that the 50 that's been in place for several months now is more working but that's not the case according to the country's director general of health the situation is obviously very tense the government has taken strong braking measures particularly with the curfew the latter works very well well the e.u. of course is still having problems with its vaccine rollout it's been slow from the start only around 8 percent of adults have beem lated across the book fall behind say that come to parts in the u.k. we're almost at 30 percent in there are still questions particularly the astra zeneca vaccine the efficacy of which older people have been questions not just by phones but also by germany and as a result of that many people are refusing in those countries that have not particular vaccine. so much so that some figures suggest up to 85 percent doses in

germany have been used and possibly around 90 percent of doses haven't been used in france so much so that there are pools now to give those extra time since team younger individuals who might accept the fact see. we cannot afford the vaccine sitting around and not being used because some of those entitled to it rejected well as the e.u. is struggling to get the doses of the vaccines that people actually want to take some countries are now taking matters into their own hands let's take the czech republic for example which is declared a new nationwide state of emergency as the number could be going to patients why is there so much so that they've decided that they might reach out and obtain this make the vaccine from russia there's a huge interest in the russian vaccine we cannot wait for the european medicines agencies approval the state institute for drug control must examine the documentation and if they approve it the health ministry has to issue an exemption

for the czech republic not the only country that's already doing that hungry has gotten this been inoculated in people with the sputnik the vaccine for the last month that said to happen efficacy rate of around 92 percent but it hasn't yet been given regulatory approval he in europe but it seems as the vaccine rollout continues to hold across the bloc countries now are deciding to make their own way . more than a year since it 1st started taking a crippling hold on the world the pandemic has left a trail of devastation and its wake 2 and a half 1000000 people are dead around 115000000 have been infected but despite this little still known about the long term effects of the virus known as long our days on time cross else has the latest now and is coded documentary series. political show good for more than a year now humanity has been dealing with covert keach of us understands what

symptoms have been identified but only now do we start to understand that there is also a long coat that we use names way between 5 and 50 percent of people struggle with this disease for much longer than expected people who have been treated at our hospital they are coming back and these situations are becoming even more common than simple i got sick this is very worrying. just like how same day precisely comprehensible symptoms everything is just like in that series of. i thought that i was cured and everything would return to normal but unfortunately this was not the case i started choking felt bad and had to call

a doctor again and i realized that i couldn't walk more than 100 to 150 meters i was getting tired immediately and i would get a burning feeling in my chest it would be logical if complications off the coast but it could in the most severe cases have patients who lie like this in intensive care on ventilators but in fact this is not the case the majority of people with the so-called covert tail along a young people have never been in intensive care and moreover. i've not even consulted doctors about. you know i did not have any fever a cough at all. then i start to cough up blood and i got a very severe pain in my leg some of the consciousness some symptoms were ending other were starting headaches and even congestion in my chest just by the non damage to my lawn so it was just endless but there it is if you are sick with something both of what exactly where nobody can. cope it definitely hits the

nervous system that this is its main target then which way the. small from both these occur in the vessels of the brain little haemorrhages all this becomes evident via very different symptoms sometimes rather obvious and sometimes not a headache is something understandable and this is not due to intoxication but due to covert micro bleeding and swelling. massive weakness is also what everyone describes and what is completely unusual for other diseases visual and hearing impairment dreams become weird you know even hallucinogenic. cardia can be terrible and completely inexplicable even young people can have it. but the even young people who do not have any hope authorities or they go through an e.c.g. an echo the doctors find nothing. all this made us realize that this is damage to the central nervous system so the brain sends you some kind of a signal but stay sick yes something like this. every day we see more and more

patients for whom koby did not and with them live in the hospital sometimes the consequences last for months and how long it will last is completely incomprehensible the most important thing here is not to miss the moment and see a doctor in time for. the use of electronic wrist tags in israel to make sure people are self isolating when they arrive and the country is only getting a lukewarm reaction or flare reports from the launch of the initiative as you can see behind me it's largely deserted there are full flights that are scheduled to arrive this afternoon and passengers on those flights will be part and parcel of a new pilot program that is being launched today and which is hugely controversial a year ago one would not have imagined that we'd be in a situation now when you arrive in israel you have one of 2 choices either you quote in team in an army hotel or you can go home and do

a home quarantine for 10 days but now you have to go home with an electronic monitoring system this entails wearing an electronic bracelet either around will restore your ankle now this bracelet is part of a tracking system it's connected to a smartphone which is connected to a sticker that is placed on one of the walls of a person's home the company monitoring the whole system will. receive some kind of signal the moment the person steps foot out of the home so it's a way to try and stop people breaking home quarantine and it's also a way for the israelis to reopen the skies and would turn to some kind of normality the company that has designed the technology says that everything is safe and that people should not be worried in fact it is not as intrusive the stick knology as are the apps that are currently being used in israel the company has also stressed the point that it's not monitoring any kind of personal information it's not to coordinate the information and at the same time it's not taking pictures it's also

said that the bracelet is to quote comfortable that it is efficient that people won't even know that they have it on them it's very light and it's waterproof they actually gone so far as to call it a freedom bracelet saying that it gives passengers arriving in israel the choice to do an army hotel quarantine or a home quarantine having said all of that it still hasn't satisfied many people who are critical of the whole program asking travelers to choose between military force quarantine motel and an electronic bracelet i don't even know where to start with it is a nightmare happening in warp speed and trialed in israel before its global debut is or launches pilot program to track returning passengers using electronic bracelets and the knesset pasta law allowing disclosing identities of unvaccinated to authorities watch how the pandemic continues to erode any semblance of civil rights now land and a border is here in israel have been closed since january and at this point in time

they will remain close for at least a now the 2 weeks the only people being allowed into the country are stranded israelis aboard an independent organization the israel democracy institute is a watchdog and is walid about the direction in which this country is headed. the concern is that they rose in of the rights affected is not proportionate but rather extreme even in view of the current health challenge they stream changes in policy from one of a food open air port to complete closure without warning cation unaware citizens who travelled abroad lawfully with the full expectational that they would be able to return and without giving them a chance to prepare accordingly creates intolerable human situations now the climate system sees 100 tracking systems being issued there is a plan in place to expand this to a 1000 but that depends on legislation we've also heard from the health ministry that they haven't ruled out the possibility of week introducing monitoring people's

cell phones and that was something that the israeli internal security the shin bit was involved in last year but it also proved to be hugely controversial. the israeli government has already passed a law giving authorities access to the personal data of unvaccinated people is expected to remain in force for 3 months officials insist it's only meant to encourage vaccination and claims information won't be used for any other purposes we got reaction on the streets of tel aviv. but i'm concerned that the government wants to share private medical information with institutes that are not relevant i see it as a major violation of civil rights i definitely all about it to let this information out and out of the as an incentive to people to get like seen and as. taking us one step closer to normal life it's very simple you know over 5 people because of him to get vaccinated and the door listings and basically the corner

office and when we let them do it their way they doing you doing it strikes by surprise even to the old lines you know road rather than the streets and then and demonstrate how really hope that there won't be discrimination between people who've had the vaccine in people who haven't everybody should do it and then everything will be open to everybody. still had out but not down that donald trump makes a return to the spotlight as paul said just many republicans would still back him for another run in the white house a story and more after the break. join me every thursday on the alec simon show and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see them.

the world is driven by a dreamer shaped by one person or those. who dares thinks. we dare to ask. on the campaign trail joe biden said nothing would fundamentally change. what you do it is again he legally bombing syria in one trip is a local way any time soon. welcome

back will have been seen or heard of donald trump since he left the white house and january but all that changed a lot when the former president once again stepped into the political spotlight giving his 1st public speech since leaving office a comes as a recent poll suggests he still remains the most popular republican presidential candidate the 2024 election. was 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 trump did not say whether or not he would run for president in 2024 but he certainly left open the possibility it is far from being over. and i may even decide to beat him for a 3rd time ok was now he started off by making clear he would not be starting his own political party he would remain with the republicans 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 republican voters trump remains wildly popular where 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 of 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 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 at this point 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 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 but certainly ask elated during his presidency is not going away the country remains intensely divided we got reaction to trump speech from conservative commentator jeff taras and former libertarian party vice chair arvin vera. 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 to 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 at sea 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 and 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. a hugely controversial security bill which would stop people share. images of police officers online is being debated in the french senate it comes after the country's interior ministry revealed that attacks on officers have more than doubled over the past 2 decades with recent yellow bus and anti lockdown protests only exacerbating the situation.

that. we know no more. there are some. around 85 incidents of violence against officers are recorded in france every day and january alone more than 2200 cases were registered and just last thursday a police station near paris was attacked with projectiles and fireworks by around 30 people 4 suspects were arrested after that incident one officer revealed what he thought is behind the violence. what we need to do is to try to resolve the problem upstream and try to find solutions to the tensions that are undermining the climate

between the police and part of the population especially the youth and we have to focus on the background for example if we're talking about the source cell police station attack now journalist wrote a little less than a month ago about a pregnant woman who had been stopped by a police patrol from a veiled woman who was 4 and a half months pregnant was pushed to the wall by a policewoman and lost her baby following this even if the media doesn't talk about it people don't forget i'm not sure there is a link between the 2 cases but this kind of information circulates in the press but also circulates by word of mouth so that doesn't help to ease tensions this is not a problem that appeared suddenly it has an origin. the proposed security bill would curb people's ability to share images identifying offers in the media and online that's found guilty of violating the law could face jail and large fines critics claim it will prevent people exposing pleas for tally. on that.

what really has exploded these last few years is police violence today's police violence is no longer the same as it was 10 or 20 years ago today people film these kind of violations and put them on the internet only the day before yesterday there was another case of police violence that was filmed in paris on the video we can see 2 police officers who insult and handle a black man quite roughly so we have to read between the lines and understand that this is a defense strategy developed by the ministry of the interior and in particular by the police force which ultimately puts on an equal footing police violence and violence committed against the police which is also real today we have to completely change our strategy but i think that during the term of a manual micron it's already a little bit late to make changes because the presidential campaign will start in a few months and it's late to make decisions that have not been made in the last 4 years that's been our breakdown of the day's top headlines for now but of all the

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seemed wrong. to me you get to shape out this day and become educated and engaged with equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground. during the vietnam war u.s. forces also bombs in neighboring laos there was a secret war. and for years the american people did not know. how much it is to. carry back a country per capita. human history millions of unexploded bombs still in danger lives in this small agricultural country. even today kids in laos full victim to bombs dropped decades ago is the us making amends

for that tragedy and what help to the people need in that little land on. how low in welcoming cross-talk or offerings are considered i'm hearing about on the campaign trail joe biden said nothing would fundamentally changed he was right washington is again illegally bombing syria and why trump ism will not go away anytime soon.