this is bbc news — i'm maryam moshiri — with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. striking in support of the protesters. workers in belarusjoin the public outcry over disputed elections, as more stories emerge of torture and abuse by police. politics and the post office. how the mail has become a hot—button issue in the lead—up to the us presidential election. a desperate dash to the french port of calais — as britons scramble to get home before the uk's new quarantine measures come into force. and — a lesson in public health management. how images from a crowded school hallway in the us state of georgia have re—ignited the conversation over opening schools.

hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we re covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. first. tens of thousands of people across belarus have been on the streets once again, showing their opposition to the country's president. alexander lu kashenko was declared the winner of last sunday's election, having ruled the country for the past 26 years, but critics believe the vote was rigged. the european union now says it doesn't recognise the result, and is preparing sanctions against belarus, where this evening thousands have been

marching on independence square, in the capital minsk, from where abdu—jalil abdurasulov now reports. chanting. the opposition movement against president lu kashenko is growing. protesters have gathered in the main square of minsk. they are chanting, "freedom, freedom". they have brought flowers and balloons to show that their movement is peaceful. this is unprecedented for belarus, where authorities violently crack down on protesters. translation: i have been living here for 28 years and for 26 of them, he was ruler of this country, mr lukashenko, and i am really tired of it and i want to change it. at the notorious okrestina detention centre, a volunteer reads out the list of names of those who still remain inside. and as detainees leave jail, they show us bruises from vicious beatings.

many tell harrowing stories of torture and abuse. serhiy was arrested on monday. riot police threw him into a police van before torturing him. they used batons and electrocuted him with a stun gun. translation: whenever we moved or said a word, they would beat us. one of the police said, "if i was ordered to burn you alive, i would." they could do anything to you. the pain was unbearable, and i begged him to stop but he carried on. opposition candidate svetla na ti kha novs kaya, who earlier had to flee the country, has called on authorities to stop the violence. translation: the people of belarus no longer want to live with the former regime. people don't believe in his victory at the elections. let's defend our choice.

back on the square, special forces nervously keep an eye on the protesters. the president tried to soften the mood today by calling on security forces to be more gentle, but this may be too little, too late, for the regime. for more on the protests i've been speaking to the belarusian journalist franak viacorka who fled the country due to security concerns and now works with other journalists in ukraine, collecting and verifying footage of the protests sent from his sources in belarus. the strikes that we have seen, it was impossible to predict in belarus one week ago. if i were to ask on monday if belarus would go on strike, we do not have such tradition. we have never had a strike before. if you see that more than 20 different enterprises and companies are striking in their demands a re pretty clear.

they demand for a new government and they think, they are very serious about this and they will follow it to the end. what do you think has pushed people across that line to start striking and start pushing themselves even further? people are very tired of the system of authoritarian system. it is very similar to 1989 before communist fallen in belarus and they wanted tojust change. any change. so, employees and factories and scientists, medics, doctors, teachers havejoined the protests in 1989 and now, a very similar situation were all the social groups wanting him to leave and they hope the transition will happen soon and it will be nonviolent. but western support and western

sanctions can help him sanctions can prevent him from shooting people, from torturing people in order to have nonviolent transition. lukashenko must stop using violence in the streets. as the us presidential election grows closer, and the coronavirus outbreak in america continues to spread, there has been an increased focus on using postal votes. but there have been questions over whether the us postal service — or usps — could cope with the increased demand. now the usps has said that some states have reported election mail volumes which are ten times higher than any previous year. it has now advised several states that they may need to expand their voting by mail deadlines to allow the system to cope. the issue has been put in the spotlight for two reasons. firstly, the postal service has been struggling financially, which some people blame on changes to regulations dating back several years. and secondly, president trump has raised concerns about the possibility

of electoral fraud through postal voting. he was asked about whether he would give the usps extra funding at a news conference a few hours ago — here's how that exchange went. if the democrats were to give you some of what you want, what you said in a series of tweets in the last hour, would you be willing to accept the $25 billion proposal for the postal service, including the three and a half billion. it is not what i want, it is what the american people want. here's our north america editor jon sopel with more. the united states postal service would find itself at the centre of this kind of controversy. unprecedented numbers look like they‘ re controversy. unprecedented numbers look like they're going to vote by mail. donald trump repeatedly has asserted that mail in ballots or postal votes will lead to fraud and chaos, but none of the recent surveys of postal voting back that up. so what people suspect is that donald trump is worried that

making voting easier will lead to an increased turnout, increased turnout will favour the democrats. so he is saying that in terms, i am going to start funding supposed votes become impossible. that is led to fury. the states postal service is worth today make worried that there will be delivered to barack obama since eve ryo ne delivered to barack obama since everyone depends on the us postal service, they cannot be as collateral damage to an administration more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing the virus. two of most suppressing the virus. two of m ost rece nt suppressing the virus. two of most recent people to register for postal votes for donaldj trump and his wife milani. hundreds of thousands of british holidaymakers are desperately trying to return home to the uk, after the government imposed quarantine measures on france and five other countries, taking effect in the early hours of tomorrow

morning. travellers will have to self isolate for 14 days, as the french prime minister, acknowledged the number of coronavirus cases in the country, was going "the wrong way". lucy williamson reports from calais. the countdown began this morning at france's ports. thousands of british tourists beating the deadline for quarantine. in calais, eurotunnel told us their shuttles were fully booked despite running extra trains at peak times. we decided to try and book a ferry, cancel our holiday and come home to avoid it. i think it's very sudden. i think it could be a bit more gradual, maybe a bit more notice. i've driven for, what, 11 hours with breaks, so, you know, getting back to make sure that i don't have to self—isolate. that's it, really. august is a busy time at the border anyway. the race to escape today less noticeable here than online. it was only literally 15—20 minutes. i think we were 852nd in the queue.

in nice, passengers complained of long queues at the airport. unfortunately, because of the quarantine, we've had to cut short our holiday. really disappointed with the uk government response. they could've given us a bit more than 24 hours' notice. the uk's decision on quarantine wasn't unexpected. many tourists had already factored in the possibility that they might have to isolate when they got home, and eurotunnel says many of its customers are choosing to simply stay on till the end of the holiday. of course, it hasn't stopped travel in the other direction. we're still seeing people coming to france and going on holiday. we're seeing cars with, you know, bicycles on the roof, so it's absolutely clear that they're holiday— makers. today, france declared the regions around paris and marseille high—risk zones. the national infection rate has risen to sa cases per 100,000. as we were literally about to put the cases... that didn't worry paul howard and his family, who were due to leave for france today.

going to put the cases into the car and then got the breaking news. knowing, you know, that we would definitely have to quarantine, my son would miss two weeks of school, i had concerns around insurance. in the end, we knew that there was only one decision to make, but it's just so disappointing. there are nowjust a few hours and just a few ferries left until the deadline passes. after that, the journey across the channel will mean an hour at sea, another two weeks at home. lucy williamson, bbc news, calais. let s get some of the day s other news the debate on whether or not send kids back to school continues in the deep south.

the big crowds became bigger as the time of the funeral approached. as the lines of fans became longer, the police prepared for a huge job of crowd control. idi amin, uganda's brutalformer dictator, has died at the age of 80. he's been buried in saudi arabia, where he lived in exile since being overthrown in 1979. two billion people around the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to take place in this millennium. it began itsjourney off the coast of canada, ending three hours later when the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is bbc news. the latest headlines:

strikes spread across belarus as unrest over the disputed presidential election grows. the european union is moving closer to imposing sanctions. there have been queues at the french port of calais — as britons scramble to return home before new uk quarantine measures come into force. in the united states, president trump has been outspoken in saying that schools should reopen this autumn. those decisions are being made at a local level, but weighing safety and educational development is one of the toughest calls teachers, parents and students are having to make. take the example of one school in the state of georgia. education administrations are doing damage control after a picture of a crowded hallway went viral. our us correspondent larry madowo has the story. a heated meeting between the parents, teachers and the officials of

the board of education. the 28,000 students in this district were among the first to return to school as covid—19 ravages america. is the china virus prevalent in children? my point is as much that we try to prevent illness and injury in children, it can still happen. and requiring children to wear masks and not play outside on equipment is not going to change that. 15—year—old hannah waters was surprised when she returned to school. she was suspended after tweeting this now viral picture of her first week and sharing video of crowded hallways, no social distancing and few students wearing masks. i've also been surprised at how many parents are upset with me because, if i were a parent and i was sending my kids to school and i saw that, i would be upset with the county and everyone, basically. but i've gotten a lot of backlash from parents and students. hannah's suspension

was reversed after public outrage and the school closed. it is reopening next week with a mixture of rotational, in personal attendants and online learning. but masks are still not required. masks have been politicized and so has the virus and it shouldn't be. it's just straight science. jenna thames is allowing her eight and six—year—old boys to go to the elementary schools for face—to—face classes. one of the schoolmates tested positive for the virus, butjenna doesn't worry because she says nobody in herfamily is at risk. being a former teacher, ijust know how important it is to have that face—to—face school setting with a teacher and so they can socially and emotionally thrive because they learn from their peers and they also learn from their teachers. if any of the other classmates catch coronavirus, will that change your mind? no, i do not think that will change my mind. i feel that it is a virus and i feel like people are going to get it.

jenna calls the public hand—wringing over the new school year an overreaction. but when returning to another high school, he stayed for only three lessons before asking his dad to pick him up. he has asthma, his dad has an autoimmune disorder and his mother has diabetes. i saw teachers and students not taking it seriously. it just felt like it wasn't a safe environment for me to be in. i heard them saying masks are stupid and they're making of others for wearing them. this high school has become ground zero for the controversy around reopening of american schools. it pits parents who think the threat of coronavirus is overblown against their peers who accuse school administrators of not doing enough to protect their children. it has become a divisive political issue in a divisive election year. these kids are reallyjust taking what to school what they learned at home. we live in the country

and a lot of people here have backwoods, southern politics. there is a ku klux klan bar, like, six miles down the road. rudy and his family plan to move from the county from a neighbouring one where they feel safe and so noah can attend another school district. georgia does not have state—wide guidance on school reopening and so local school districts make the rules. but in an election year, even going to school has become a political statement. taking forfuel taking for fuel shipments in the departments is the largest seizure of iranian oil made by the us authorities it's at the cargo from four vessels was worth 1.1 million barrels and is now in us custody. the wildfire burning in los angeles and started moving away from populated areas after the wind changed direction. evacuation orders are starting to be

lifted. meaning some residents can return to their homes. firefighters are still working to control the blaze, which is spread over to control the blaze, which is spread over more to control the blaze, which is spread over more than 3000 acres. new zealand prime minister has announced a 12 day extension to the country covid—19 restrictions. that is after an initial cluster of just a few cases in the city of auckland. it's not growing to 29. it's been a world leader in containing coronavirus, is the 122 days of the community transmission before these cases we re transmission before these cases were discovered. seven african countries will begin administering coronavirus antibody test next week. the african centers for disease control and prevention say that the testing as part of an effort to understand how widespread the infection is on the continent. liberia, cameroon and nigeria, morocco some of the first countries to have signed up for the country.

in the aftermath of the explosion that shocked lebanon and brought the city of beirut to a halt, there s growing concern of beirut to a halt, domestic workers, many of whom were already in precarious situations because of the struggling economy. a group of sierra leoneans are urging their government to evacuate them and using music as a way to bring ttention to their plight. phoebe hopson reports. singing this is lucy's story. she is over 70 women asking to be evacuated from lebanon. asking about my experience because many people like to listen to

music and definitely for young people because i note that the amount of abuse that the say that when you come to this country, you will have a good job and a good opportunity. lucy says she was promised a job in teaching but was tricked into becoming a domestic worker for a family into becoming a domestic worker forafamily in into becoming a domestic worker for a family in beirut. she was not paid for seven months and that the family tried to kill her when she went to the police. i want to go back and even when you walk, you cannot afford to pay you, at the dump us afford to pay you, at the dump us in the streets. we are here and we do not have anyjob, even. they are able to make us some with the work of an activist. but i want to see her

in herapartment where activist. but i want to see her in her apartment where there we re in her apartment where there were 15 women, all together in one small room, sleeping on a few mattresses and begging for food, begging for help. begging for medical care. she said to me that she has written a song when she sing it to me and to the other 14 women, they all cried. it is well documented. in 2018, the system where they we re in 2018, the system where they were legally bound to their employers, greatly limits their rights. but campaigners worried that the situation is going from bad to worse. as the country deals with economic ruin, the coronavirus pandemic and are the aftermath of last week possible explosion, many have become homeless. the antiracism movement in lebanon for this work and painting for evacuation, carried out a survey of the women at the start ofjune. survey of the women at the start ofjune. any of them have been thrown out by their

employers and by the recruitment agency. 15% of them have flipped their employer house and stating reasons like physical or verbal abuse or unpaid wages. lucy, like the other domestic workers have put all their hopes on the chance that the government might evacuate her. something they have not confirmed. saturday marks the 75th anniversary of victory overjapan day, or ‘vj day‘ as its known to millions. that's when the country's emperor hirohito announced japan's unconoditional surrender. yet even now the legacy of the conflict lingers. many japanese see their country as a victim of the us atomic attacks on hiroshima and nagasaki. meanwhile, china and korea view japan's post—war apologies

as incomplete and insincere. from tokyo, rupert wingfield hayes reports. at tokyo's yasukuni shrine, the narashino brotherhood has come to bow to the spirits of japan's wartime leaders. august is a busy month for these far right nationalists. first, they tried to get to japan's parliament, but the way is blocked. so they crank up the speakers and begin shouting abuse. "the liberal democratic party is useless," they shout. "you are idiots." with more and more of her troops landing at shanghai... japan committed many crimes during world war ii, but by far the worst was the nanjing massacre. after the city fell, tens of thousands of chinese soldiers and civilians were slaughtered. but not according to takahiro ozaki. translation: first of all, the nanjing massacre does not exist. the civilian population of the city was evacuated. if there was a massacre, where did all the dead bodies go? there is no evidence, it's all a lie.

china is not the only country these groups claim, has wronged japan. today, their target is russia. so this is another piece of highly contested history for japan's nationalists. up the streetjust here is the russian embassy, and they believe that at the end of world war ii, russia stole a big chunk of territory from japan, and today, they‘ re here to demand it back. 75 years on, the wounds inflicted by world war ii remain open and festering. anger is strongest in south korea, where japan's prime minister, shinzo abe, is a figure of hate and ridicule. last month, a korean artist unveiled the statue of mr abe prostrating himself before a young korean woman. it symbolises the begging for forgiveness that japan has yet to do for the crimes it committed against thousands of korean women. the united states, which was the occupying power injapan, did not want to get

into the history question, wanted everyone to move forward. and you had, you know, millions, tens of millions of victims in china and korea. they are saying, "wait a second, wait a second, that's not ok, i'm not ready to move on." on saturday, thousands will gather at the yasukuni shrine. many will come to pray for a relative, one of the 2.5 million japanese war dead. but others will come here to pay homage to the 14 class a war criminals who are also honoured here. in seoul and beijing, they will see a country that still refuses to face its own past. also on the bbc news app. thank you so much for your company.

goodbye. hello there. over the last few days, temperatures have slowly been coming down, something a bit more comfortable both by day and by night. although we'll hold on to the humidity across england and wales as we head on into this weekend. but for this weekend, it's generally pretty similar to how the last few days have been. rather cloudy, a bit of sunshine in northern and western areas. humid in england and wales, where we'll continue to see showers and thunderstorms at times. now, on saturday, the pressure chart shows higher pressure to the north, lower pressure to the south. that's why we'll start off with showers and thunderstorms across some southern portions of wales and southern england. further north, it'll be rather grey, pretty much grey everywhere, but the sunshine will break through central and western scotland, northern ireland, north west england, perhaps a few sunny spells across the south east of england.

this is where we'll see some of the heaviest of the downpours into the afternoon. temperatures low to mid—20s where you get the sunshine, but quite cool across some north sea coasts where we hold on to the cloud and mist. as we head through saturday night, the threat of showers and thunderstorms drifts a little bit further northwards into northern england, southern scotland, north wales. and for many of us, that cloud will roll back in, so it will be another fairly mild night, quite muggy again for england and wales. on sunday, subtle changes. 0ur area of high pressure drifts northwards. that allows this area of low pressure to push north across the country. so, we'll start off with plenty of showers across central and northern parts of the uk, although much of northern scotland will stay dry with some sunshine. we'll start with some sunshine across southern england and wales, but then as that temperature rises, then thunderstorms will break out here into the afternoon. some of them could be quite heavy. again, temperatures low to mid—20s celsius across southern areas, cooler where you hold on to the cloud and mist on the eastern coasts. 0n into monday, that area of low pressure sits on top of the uk. quite a weak feature, so these showers and storms spiralling around across the country

will be moving quite slowly. the lion's share of the storms, though, will be across england and wales. fewer for scotla nd and northern ireland, where we should see a little bit of sunshine at times. those temperatures ranging from around 17 to 23 or 24 degrees in the south. then, big changes as we head on into the middle part of next week. something we haven't seen for a while, a deep atlantic low will sweep in to bring much fresher conditions, some strong winds at times through wednesday, particularly into thursday. we'll see a band of rain followed by sunshine and showers, and it will be turning cooler and fresher for all by the end of the week.

this is bbc news.

these are the latest headlines: strikes and protests have been taking place across belarus, demanding the resignation of president alexander lu kashenko after his disputed re—election. the demonstrations have been fuelled by accounts of torture from protesters detained earlier in the week. estonia's foreign minister has said the election was not democratic or legitimate. the us postal service has advised several states that they may need to expand their voting by mail deadlines to allow the system to cope in the run—up to november's presidential election. president trump has been accused of deliberately underfunding the service to try and benefit his election chances. thousands of british holiday—makers have spent the day trying to return to the uk from france — before the requirement of a two—week quarantine comes into force. the new rule also affects five other countries, including the government has signed deals to buy two more experimental