the. mass pro and anti-government rallies are being held in the armenian capital with police attempting to keep the crowds apart as political unrest in the country intensifies. also in the headlines this hour joe biden is slammed for going soft on the saudis after failing to deliver on his promise to punish the kingdom's crown prince for his alleged role in the murder of a prominent journalist. lashing out at the lock down violence erupts in several countries around europe as people fight back against coronavirus measure. un human rights experts demand an international investigation into the alleged poisoning of kremlin critic alex

a no ball news although russia says it's still waiting to be shown any actual proof . it's 2 am here in moscow and you're watching r t international and i'm donald quarter bringing you the top news stories welcome to the program. tensions are running high in armenia protests both for and against the prime minister has been playing out in the nation's capital of year of on just hours ago the pm nicol posh and young addressed supporters and pledged to hold early elections with more on the day's developments here's artie's constantine rush called on the ground in armenia. a lot has been going on in your of on lately and the 2 major rallies that were held both by the opposition and the supporters of the prime minister they are officially over but people are still outside on this race and we're now let's actually follow with the supporters of the prime minister

because after the rally it was over they started to march around the city they were shouting slogans in support of the prime minister there were no major clashes reported that was one of the greatest concerns of that day the police they blocked off the cordon off the area and they didn't let this a procession to go to the national parliament that's where the a position. is held in its own rally now let me tell you that. he used his rally to make several major political statements and now instruments and for example he said that he offered to hold a referendum a constitutional referendum to amend the constitution and change the country's political system and to give more power to the president and another another take away from his speech was that he said that he still insists that the head of the general staff of the armenian armed forces on

a guest or on needs to wait and let me give you some back story here you see on a guest. along with other top generals he accused me called question on late in a basically being incompetent and of poor handling of the last war with his service john and he called for the rest of nation of the prime minister and so for that he was accused of staging a military coup and that's when the ricin crisis the recent political political crisis starts to unfold it seems like a lot lies ahead in front of the country in terms of political changes and in terms of you know over common in general the. major political crisis of the last couple of years let's take a look at why the most. turmoil in the country is taking place the prime minister faced calls by the country's military last week to step down following months of unrest it all stems from last year's conflict with neighboring azerbaijan which resulted in a peace deal that many armenians view as a humiliating defeat russian yohn in turn accuse the military of attempting

a coup and fired the country's top general that sparked mass rallies from both supporters and opponents of the prime minister later the president stepped in and overruled the p.m.'s order to fire the armed forces chief of staff. global relations analyst marco cassocks believes paasschen jaan will need to cling on to power until the election to give him any hope of winning it. but what's going on here is that after the defeats in the. relation is looking for a strong leader and russia could only look strong if he stays in power otherwise. he is a lame duck who is weak on able to control the situations are getting in power until the elections is key to his chance of actually winning them i think that is the population is probably a little bit divided between the kind of pragmatists who feel that he could have done much better against the bijani forces and those who feel that he's generally

coast that territory to armenia because of perhaps he is a pro washington or inflation because only he is worth much essentially. destroy the medium's defenses in the going to cut a back but i was saying to his drones will be shot down extremely successfully in syria. by the same kind of russian technology that he tried to blame only oh so the question is why didn't he usual why didn't he procul the correct technology that would have. depended on media the mediums are all that in the going to come out against those drones that would depend against in syria. this president joe biden is being accused of failing to deliver on his promise to take a tough line with saudi arabia washington sanctioned a number of saudi individuals over the killing of a journalist jamal khashoggi however it hasn't sanctioned the crown prince despite pressure to do that and has the story you were is will recall how joe biden

promised to hold saudi arabia accountable come down hard on them over the murder of jamal khashoggi. i said it at the time because she was in fact murdered and dismembered and i believe in the order of the crown prince and i would make it very clear we were not going to in fact sell more weapons to them we were going to in fact make them pay the price and make them in fact the pariah that they are well now joe biden is president and apparently his views and his position have changed as far as arms sales the kingdom of saudi arabia will continue to receive what joe biden refers to as defensive arms from the united states as far as punishing the crown prince even though the f.b.i. has come forward and said that they have no doubt that mohamed bin solomon did order the killing of jamal khashoggi at this point the biden ministration is saying the answer is more diplomacy diplomacy seems to be

a key word of course we reserve the right to take any action at a time and manner of our choosing i will note steve that historically the united states through democratic and republican presidents has not typically sanctioned government leaders of countries where we have diplomatic relations now nobody seems happy with these actions we've got u.s. mainstream media and even fellow democrats speaking up and criticizing joe biden saying that saudi arabia needs to be held accountable for these actions and the moves he's taken are simply not enough leaders around the world who use violence to crush dissent really don't see any material punishment coming out of sanctioning 76 people who are not the crown prince generally when it comes to diplomacy the goal is to make everyone happy but here we have a situation where nobody seems happy when it comes to saudi arabia they're angry they denied that the crown prince was involved and say that it is time to move on however the fact that there have been

a number of saudis that have been denied visas to the united states and hit with some sanctions that's being seen as a source of outrage in the kingdom meanwhile many of joe biden supporters are angry . it seems like saudi arabia is getting almost a slap on the wrist and not being fully held accountable so at this point nobody seems to be happy this is the new style of diplomacy from the biden white house. to get more on this story we're joined now by abdullah more leamy saudi arabia's ambassador to the united nations of the law thank you very much for joining us on the program now you know u.s. sanctions against saudi arabia but biden did not sanction everyone that a lot of his supporters were pushing for him to do like the crown prince specifically are you relieved about this move is it still frustrating thank you for hosting me. we don't need to be a to leave because we never fulfilled that was a serious possibility the competence is not involved in this process. has been

cleared or wrong doing he took a lot of responsibility as a courageous leader. and that means ensuring that the situation just corrected and that those responsible for this heinous crime are brought to justice and he did just that so there is nothing to be concerned about it's time to move on while then so we're talking about sanctions then if you mention that you know you you know while u.s. sanctions have been have been put against saudi arabia in general so what do you what do you think riyadh is going to retaliate or like do a little success from what i guess saudi arabia sanctions have been putting against certain individuals for whatever reason is that i think states may have and we understand that and hopefully it will be as individuals and if they can't give their names i'm sure they would have names lifted from those sanctions lists but

for the time being. not only the sanctions against saudi arabia such. a lot of people are disappointed with biden like i said before do you think he might cave in to this. well i'm disappointed why what has he done to disappoint he he has not found any evidence that links the crown produce is he supposed to create such evidence is he supposed to fabricate stories and work on them that's not how business is conducted between states business conducted between states based on common values common interests and the rule of law and the . evidence that can be presented in certain cases he had it was just you and if it is what based on the fact that the united states put these sanctions on these individuals from saudi arabia do you think that ties with the us between the u.s. and saudi arabia are going to get better or worse under binds and ministration in

specifically in comparison with trump's militarize with between saudi arabia and i to say it's not depend on individuals neither by the nor trunk there are built on historical record all 7 decades of mutual interests and common values and i expect those relations relations tools strengthen and to prosper in the future there will be some misunderstandings now and then it's own joint responsibility to clear them up and to look for the areas in which we can work together that are many are below morally me saudi arabia's ambassador to the united nations thank you very much for joining us on the program thank you. simmering anger a tightening cold restrictions has boiled over in ireland and denmark thousands have taken to the streets demanding their freedoms back.

well those protests in several countries come as there is an increasing transmission rate over 19 hearings from 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. across the book fall behind say the counterparts in the u.k. we're almost up 30 percent in there are still questions particularly the astra zeneca vaccine the efficacy of which older people have been questioned not just by phones but also by germany and as a result of thoughts many people are refusing in those countries that have not particular vaccine. so much so that some figures suggest up to 85 percent in

germany half will be used and possibly around 90 percent of those haven't been used in france so much so that there are pools now to give those extra time since teen 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 reject it 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 number going to patients why is there so much so that they've decided that they might reach out and obtain this the vaccine from russia there is 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 is already doing that hungry has been inoculated people with the sputnik the vaccine for the last month said to happen if at this rate of around 92 percent for the house and yet being given regulatory approval in europe but it seems as the vaccine continues to hold across the bloc countries now deciding to make their own way. a fraternity and loss of liberty a former french president nicolas sarkozy lands of itself a jail sentence for corruption on his fall from grace after the short break. the banks are supposed to be distributing the money that's their job but instead

they hold onto and say we're just going to buy more houses for ourselves and we don't care that we're not distributing it you know all these relief programs they go to the banks 1st and they don't distribute the whole lot to. become a billionaire he didn't actually produce anything he just keeps all the money that the government prints.

welcome back to the program the pandemic has left a trail of devastation in its wake over the past 12 months 2 and a half 1000000 people dead and around 115000000 infected but despite that there is still little known about the longer term effects of the virus known as long cove it ortiz and tong cross old ski has been seeking answers in his special called the documentary series. political should goodish for more than a year now humanity has been dealing with covert he just understands what symptoms have been identified but only now do we start to understand that there is also a long covert 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. the other will i thought that i was cured and everything would return to normal but unfortunately this was not the case i started choking of the felt then had to call a doctor again and i realized that i couldn't walk more than 100 to 150 meters so i was getting tired immediately and i would get a burning feeling in my chest you know 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 to little monk ovid a young people who have never been in intensive care and moreover i have not even consulted doctors about. manufactured not have any fever a cough at all because. 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 launce. it was just an less they're going to it it is if you are sick with something but of what exactly. 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 of ologies 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 by stay sick yes something like this. every day we see more and more patients for whom kovi did not end with them leaving 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. human rights officials at the united nations are demanding an international investigation into the alleged poisoning of kremlin critic alex a no ball meat while at the same time concluding that russia was responsible something moscow has repeatedly denied our europe correspondent peter all over was at the u.n. conference in geneva. this report by the united nations special wrap on to put forward a number of conclave about what happened to alexina valmy last summer from the investigation that they carried out the u.n. special operators say that 5 laboratories of unequivocal improvement in their eyes that missing a volley was poisoned with a novel talking nerve agent of a type that was only available in the russian federation and could only have been administered by somebody with expert abilities namely

a state actor russia denies any involvement in his poisoning this report wasn't just a look at what had happened to mr novelli that would also serve as a tacit statement of support for the opposition figure as a politician and as a man something i question the un are up and toes upon when put alongside statements that have been made by. amnesty international that said that they will no longer consider alexina vilely a prisoner of conscience after it became clear that he advocated violence and discrimination against ethnic minorities and migrants in russia human rights belong to all of us the best of us into the worst us and there is no excuse no justification. for the violations that mr number only has suffered for it is his language that is used in the past it's all just a final this support that really are getting him is because he's like right tonight

was being violated we've also had reaction to this report from the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman who said that she hoped the u.n. would put pressure on to release documents moscow says it still hasn't been given despite requesting them from germany we hope that after the call of the special that turks beilin will stop hiding secret material from the international community and stop editing at the formulas of the discovery steps in. says from the reports perhaps today statements by the special that protests will encourage our partners to end their dissent from ation campaign and start join us which should be carried out transparently and legally last week the e.u. high representative for foreign affairs announced that there would be further sanctions against individuals in russia in relation to the alexei navalny case we yet to find out exactly what those sanctions will entail and who exactly will be targeted but we have heard from the deputy foreign minister in russia who said that

he's not expecting too much from these sanctions this is not a surprise for us the continues to move in an absolutely normal legal way this is an absolutely dead end path which destructively effects bilateral relations and he no way meets the interests of the european countries themselves like saying of ali took ill on a flight from siberia to moscow last summer his plane how to make an emergency landing in the city of he was eventually lifted to berlin where he received intensive medical treatment and was subsequently diagnosed as having been poisoned with a novacek nerve agent russia denies any involvement in his poisoning but it's a case that continues to put increasing strain on russia's relations with the european union and the wider world. former french president nicolas sarkozy has been convicted of corruption and sentenced to a year in prison he's the 1st former president of the country ever to have been given jail term sarkozy's lawyer says they will lodge an appeal and he can also

speak ask to serve the sentence at home r.t. france's mahmoud el or reports from outside the paris court room. the former french president nicolas sarkozy has been found guilty of trying to bribe a judge and of influence peddling he has been sentenced to 3 years in jail with 2 years a suspended. will lead friends from 2007 to 2012 had to deny any wrongdoing he said he was the victim of a witch hunt by financial prosecutors. and his lawyer were found guilty of seeking to bribe judge as you bear for information on an inquiry into claims the former leader hadn't received in the suit payments from. cool as u.b.s. was also found guilty according to the judge the former president was said to have forged a corruption facts with the 2 man judges also said there was a serious evidence of collaboration between the 3 men to break the law and have

access to confidential information the state's case was based on wire tapes of conversations between dog. with prosecutors accusing him of using secret telephone lines to cover up his attempts to and full trade the courts as he is expected to appeal against the conviction it's not over for and he could as he will have to face later in a few weeks another trial with charges of illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign. journalist and political commentator and elizabeth motel you believe that despite the sentencing the matter is far from over. the 1st president to be condemned to jail this is a condition that he could have a nation that he's already going to elt so i don't think he's jailed yet. but certainly it's the see also has the interesting although that may mean the 1st president of france to be the object of 17 different court cases 16 of which were

dismissed without merit and he expects that his appeal sort of will do 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 court because it was based on the almost continuous hour phone tapped in by magistrates without a specific mandate all a specific object which in french all it is illegal so it's a really interesting case and that really demonstrates that french justice not as has become quite politicized in recent. that's all for this hour for more world news stories make sure to check out our website r.t. dot com and follow us on twitter i'll be back with more in just about 30 minutes or .

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