an enormous crowd of opponents of bela rusian president, alexander lu kashenko, has gathered in minsk to demand his resignation. it comes amid growing anger over alleged poll—rigging, and police violence at subsequent protests. but the president vows to stay in power, claiming belarus is under threat from foreign forces. the speaker of the us house of representatives, nancy pelosi, has said that she will recall the chamber later this week to vote on legislation to protect the postal service. democrats have accused president trump of trying to hamstring the cash—strapped postal service to suppress postal voting in november's election. new zealand's prime minister has announced that general elections due to take place in mid—september have been postponed because of a fresh covid—19 outbreak. jacinda ardern told a news conference the poll date has been pushed back to october the 17th, giving parties time to resume their suspended election campaigns.

there's more uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of students in the uk. the exams regulator has withdrawn its advice on how pupils in england and wales can appeal their allocated grades, just hours after making the advice public. the uk government has been under fire since thursday, when end of school results for 18—year—olds were awarded with nearly 40% of teacher assessments having been downgraded. there's concern there will be more confusion with school results for 16—year—olds just days away. here's our education editor, branwen jeffreys. outraged, disappointed by their a—levels. the common theme is anger, a lot of people are really sad and distressed. it's a really stressful time, like, your future is uncertain. students brought their protest to westminster today. i was predicted a, a, a, and i got given b, c, c. and ijust think it's unfair

that we got given these grades, even though we didn't actually sit these exams in the first place. afraid their future is at stake. i don't really know what to do. the only thing i have left to do is wait for the government to reveal a fair appeals process. some did get the grades they needed, but 40% of a—level grades were adjusted down. next week, with gcses, it could be worse. half a million pupils will get their grades. in england, only a i% rise overall is allowed. senior tories calling for a rethink. there'll be a massive number of downgrades this thursday. a really great massive number. we mustn't forget half a million people take maths gcse, so you're into numbers of hundreds of thousands complaining that they've been hit. you know, when you're in a hole, stop digging! goodness knows what is going on at quual. it sows confusion amongst pupils, head teachers, school teachers, and it's the last thing we need at this time.

we need a ronseal appeal system that is simple, that people understand it. the politics of grades never so heated. the pressure on ministers building. i care about these young people, to be honest, and the hundreds of thousands of students who are affected by this disaster. so, that's why i'm calling on the prime minister to step in, quite frankly. he needs to right this wrong in the next 2a hours. that's why he's the prime minister of the country. he needs to get up off his backside and help and support these young people. when schools shut, exams had to be cancelled. but now support for the alternative is falling apart. it's really not good enough for us to be finding out information last night, which our members are going to have to implement. you know, one head teacher saying they're going to have 900 appeals across their school at a time when they're trying

to do the logistics of this pandemic. there has to be a sense of government, the regulator working with the very people who are responsible for young people and who have to implement these ideas. and still, it's not clear how many will appeal, as rules for that have been rewritten. branwen jeffreys, bbc news. all the latest on that story on the bbc news website. now on bbc news, in this episode of witness history we hear from a survivor of the khmer rouge and the man who tried to find a cure for the common cold. a warning this programme contains scenes some viewers may find upsetting. hello, and welcome to witness history here at the royal academy in london. i'm tanya beckett. today we present five extraordinary moments in history as told to us by the people who were there. coming up, we meet the scientist to try to find the cure for the common cold. the diver who discovered the lost plane belonging

to the author of the little prince. and the african man who ran away as a boy to live in the arctic. but first, it's a0 years since the end of the brutal regime of the khmer rouge in cambodia. around 2 million people are thought to have been killed under its extremist rule. sokphal din survived for years in what became known as the killing fields. a warning, this piece contains some distressing images. the cambodian people are the victims of a hideous experiment in communism that failed. the khmer rouge guerrillas triumphed in the spring of 1975. the man who emerged as the leader of the new cambodia was pol pot. it was a living hell. you cannot imagine.

no—one could imagine. for the communist regime, time began when they took over. for them, 1975 became year zero, a time of grotesque social engineering with class slaughter and mass uprooting of the population. they were extreme communists, year zero means we start from scratch. no electricity, no books, no education, nothing. anyone educated had to be executed. doctors, teachers, and if you wore glasses. i lost many of my relatives and theyjust executed them, took them away and i never saw them again. literally millions of people were marched out of phnom penh to the countryside to begin

building the new society. at the time, i think i must have been 17. i remember that very well because that morning we were in the kitchen, having breakfast. i heard a knock at the door and i saw two soldiers, they both pointed their guns at me and shouted at me to get out of my house, right now, or i will shoot you. everyone packed on the road, people on the bicycle or motorbike and everyone seemed to panic. if you stopped or were not moving you were shot. they are shouting and pointing the gun at you. and all young soldiers, 12, 14, 15. the young guerillas, they were brainwashed by the communist regime, khmer rouge, they look at you like you are the enemies, they hated you so much. one of my cousins was taken

right in front of me and his mother begging the pol pot army, the communists. "please release my son, he isjust a student." "if you ask again or cry, i will shoot you as the same time as your son." they took him away and we never seen him again. i heard the screaming, the begging, the crying, children crying, it's a horrible atmosphere. on the road, on the pavement, you can see the bloodstains on it. they send me to work in the rice paddy and physically you had to work all day. my food allowance would be a small bowl of rice, for one day, yeah. it seemed to me that we just were not treated like human beings. and when they executed people we never saw where they took them until the waterflood came out and you could see the body float everywhere.

i seen many things and i got used to it. by the end of khmer rouge‘s year zero, nearly half of cambodia's people were dead — its intelligentsia, its doctors, teachers, professional people, systematically murdered. you can't imagine, a human can do to human being, how could anyone at age 12 or 13 can shoot you or kick you or kill you. because they had been brainwashed, this could happen to anybody. it could happen any minute if you are not aware of that. sokphal din, who regularly speaks to children in schools about the dangers of political extremism. next, injuly 19114, the author of the world famous children's story the little prince disappeared in his plane over the south of france. french diver luc vanrell solved the mystery of antoine de saint—exupery‘s missing plane.

translation: after so many years searching across the mediterranean, it's here that we found the wreckage of the plane belonging to the author of the little prince, antoine de saint—exupery. this place had become inhabited by the little prince. for me, he now lies here under the sea in marseilles. it's his refuge. antoine de saint—exupery, or saint—ex, is universally revered in france — not just of the author of the little prince, but as a pioneering airman and romantic free spirit.

there was also the mystery that surrounded his death. translation: i became interested in the disappearance of him because i read his books when i was young and his thinking came to influence me throughout my life. in france, we tend to say that you need to read the little prince in two different stages of your life. it was not until i was 40 that i came to understand it and all its subtlety. on july 31st at 7:45pm, saint— exupery took off for a high altitude reconnaissance mission. taking off from corsica towards the second world war, he simply disappeared, no one knew whether he was shot down by the germans or simply crashed, and no—one knew where. translation: we think he was spotted by a german gunner who saw a twin engine

plane flying towards marseilles. he was 44 years old and one of the oldest pilots in the war at the time. when i used to dive in that area i would find bits of planes, but i always thought they were from a german plane. in 1998, a fisherman found a piece of plane in his net, together with a little bracelet. and to our surprise, on that bracelet was written the name antoinne saint—exupery. i knew those bits of wreckage so i decided to investigate. the main part of the wreckage was at a depth of 87 metres, it was about 2km from the coast. we didn't find any visible human remains. but while i was at the back of the wreckage i caught sight

of a white cloth and i tried to grab it. i put it around my neck like a scarf. the image that came into my mind was that of the little prince on his planet with his big scarf floating in the wind. on that day under the water i was convinced i'd found the right plane because of this totally unscientific detail. in may 2000, i was able to formally identify the plane, because of its technical markings, it only could have belonged to saint—exupery. these days i like to give the little prince as a gift to young people. it's a book that contains truths that became universal, like when it's only with the heart that one can see clearly. what is essential is

invisible to the eye. and the little prince is still one of the best—selling children's stories worldwide. now a story about the hunt for a hope of a cure for an affliction that affects us all. britain's common cold unit is a remarkable institution. it was set up after world war ii to investigate the illness and it became perhaps the only place in the world where thousands of volunteers went on holiday knowing there was a strong chance they would get ill. the unique aspect of the common cold unit was the volunteer set—up. they'd come to catch a cold. it's a crazy thing really, to put people there. let's have you back on the bed. this is the virus, then. we will put it into your nose. it gave us the ability to study a virus in its natural host. and this was still a very rare thing.

the common cold unit was set up by the medical research council after the second world war to try to discover the cause of the common cold, because of the number of working hours people lost to taking time off, it was enormous for the productivity of the nation as a whole. the common cold unit advertised for people to come there and they were a paid pocket money and rail fare and they lived at salisbury for about ten days. newsreel: these bright young people are starting a holiday at government expense. it enables scientists to find out more about the common cold. they would come and be divided up into sets, those who were infected

and those which got placebos. it was a big deal because the chances of getting a cold were pretty good. they had different motivations — some came for a rest or a holiday and some students came for studying, and we had a large body of housewives whojust came for a great rest. people did meet and there were lovely stories of romances. people could talk to each other but had to stay ten yards apart. ten yards was the magic distance over which the common cold virus couldn't jump. 18,000 volunteers are now believed to have spent time in isolation at the unit, but a cold cure remains elusive. about the time i joined the unit, they discovered how to grow the virus in cell culture and then the science took off. it turns out there's not one common cold virus, but hundreds of them, and that

makes vaccines very difficult. we thought about why some people are resistant and developing new tests for new viruses and about developing drugs that could cure them, or prevent them, even if we can't get vaccines. myths were tested as well — for instance if you went out in the cold, particularly the rain and cold, and this predisposed you to catching colds. there was no evidence at all that any of these things affected the incidence of the cold. in the end the common cold unit was closed for economic reasons. i think it was a big loss, scientifically. such facilities are very valuable and there are very few of them. a cure for the common cold — people are looking still. commercially it's still a very attractive proposition. nobody has yet managed to find one.

but we can always be optimistic. professor nigel dimmock, eminent virologist. remember, you can watch witness history every month on the bbc news channel, and catch up online with thousands of programmes in our archive. just search online for bbc witness history. next, the remarkable story of tete—michel kpomassie, the boy who ran away from his village in togo to live in the arctic. tete—michel kpomassie spoke to witness history about his odyssey. i started a journey of discovery, only to find that i was being discovered. i was one of them. i became the ‘african eskimo'.

i was born in 19111. in togo, west africa. i grew up as an ordinary african boy. but one day i was on top of a tree, and suddenly there was a snake... ifell, and i was badly injured. after my convalescence i went to the missionary bookshop. and i saw a book — eskimos from greenland to alaska. and i learned that it is so cold in greenland that there are no snakes. "oh, where is that paradise?" i was obsessed with the eskimos. people said, "you

are completely mad." i ran away from togo. i was 16 and a half. it took me eight years to get to greenland. i was the first black man they had ever seen. as soon as they saw me, all talking stopped. the children were so afraid. some started weeping. but i was always welcomed by the eskimo hosts, who became my friends. i went to the north. that is really beautiful. and i saw the eskimos living according to their traditions. i had to learn everything from them. i had to learn their language.

we also ate seals and the skin of the white whale, which i did not appreciate at all. at the beginning, i was afraid for my stomach but slowly, slowly i became accustomed to the climate. i was happy, because i really conquered my freedom. i really wanted to live forever in greenland. but my countrymen had never seen it before — they had never seen the polar night before, never seen the polar lights before — and i said to myself, "after the slavery and

colonisation, why can't i write for my people to see the eskimos through our eyes?" so i decided to go back. it took me five years. but my deepest wish would be to end my life in greenland. it is my country — yes. the extraordinary tete—michel kpomassie. and finally, tunisia became one of the first muslim countries to introduce far—reaching equal rights for women. in 1957, president bourguiba said women should be able to vote, go to school, divorce and marry on their own terms. he allowed abortion,

access to contraception and he banned polygamy. saida el gueyed was part of the tunisia women's union. newsreel: the women who ten years ago had no rights and were contracted to marriage by their parents and covered their faces when they left the house — these tunisians are not doing at all badly. this is, one imagines, as emancipated as any girl can get. the swinging tunisian dollybirds represent one of the most remarkable social transformations of present times. translation: the equal rights law was the biggest gain for tunisian women. president bourguiba said he was notjust a liberator of tunisia, but a liberator of tunisian women as well. for 30 years he fought for his country, first battling for independence from france, and he was jailed and exiled for his trouble.

since independence, he has been his nation's leader. i knew him against the struggle against colonialism. in the equal rights law he banned polygamy. he gave women social and economic rights and introduced the law on the 13th of august, 1956. thanks to this law, women were allowed to vote and also to become politicians. i am one of the founders of the tunisian women's union and president bourguiba relied on us. in this school 100 miles from tunis, a teacher hammers home the facts of female life to 16 teenagers. there are 13 such schools staffed by the union, a militant and powerful embodiment of opinion in the land. the teacher leaves them no doubts about their right. she tells them that they are not slaves any more. "you are like european women

and have equal rights with men: this you must understand." this law protected girls. fathers were no longer able to force their daughters to marry against their will and president bourguiba encouraged us to make sure families were not stopping girls from getting an education. they are taught about contraception, abortion, and laws giving them equal rights. after three months here they return to their villages to spread the word, because it's here in the countryside that the modern tunisian woman has to win the fight for equality in territories that have remained for centuries the unassailable stronghold of tunisian men. we spoke to men more than we did to women, because we faced opposition from them. we spent a lot of time meeting men and explaining the law to them. family traditions used to oppress girls.

but now they're free to choose who to love. tunisian women were given another safeguard against massive families when they became the first women in any muslim country able to have abortions. the law at present states that any tunisian woman with four children can have an abortion without her husband's consent, and the operation is paid for by the government. the president told us to make women feel like they have a role to play, that they have the right to live and dignity and trust themselves and their soul. he said he gave women these rights not as a gift, but because he saw women's power to lead in post—independence society. saida el gueyed continues to write and campaign on women's issues in tunisia.

that's all from witness history this month. we'll be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. for now, from me and the rest of the witness team, goodbye. hello there. we had lots of thunderstorms across england and wales on sunday, and one of those spawned an impressive waterspout in the bristol channel. this was spotted in somerset and newport in south wales. we've seen some rain, thundery, moving northwards. this system will split into two pieces, i think,

with the rain making little progress farther northwards. that means there will be rain outside across greater manchester and merseyside, clearing across the midlands and eventually across wales too, the weather slowly coming down over the next few hours. the north of england, northern ireland and scotland staying dry with low cloud. some drizzle along the eastern coast as well. monday, broadly speaking, we're looking at another salary day, and this time the showers will be farther north, affecting scotla nd farther north, affecting scotland and northern ireland for a scotland and northern ireland fora time, scotland and northern ireland for a time, but it's in england that the showers will be, capable of some localised flooding. that's your weather.

it's a crazy thing really, to put people there. welcome to bbc news — i'm aaron safir. our top stories: chanting. in belarus — huge crowds fill the streets in one of the biggest protests yet against the president. but alexander lu kashenko remains defiant, telling his supporters he won't give up his country, after a week of demonstrations against his contested re—election. new zealand's general election is postponed because of a fresh outbreak of covid—19. us house speaker nancy pelosi announces a vote to prevent changes in postal services ahead of the election. and, as the democratic party prepares to hold its national