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 convention — we take a look

at how the party faithful view their presidential candidate joe biden. in belarus, the largest anti—government protests since last week's disputed elections, have been taking place, with further calls for alexander lu kashenko to step down. but he's vowing to stay in power, claiming belarus is under threat from foreign forces. mr lukashenko is accused of rigging the vote and unleashing a violent crackdown against demonstrators. it's thought as many as 100,000 people took to the streets in the centre of the capital, minsk, from wherejonah fisher, has sent us this report. all chant. a week after the disputed

election, belarus is voting with its feet. the centre of the capital minsk ta ken over by hundreds of thousands of people. united in their demand that alexander lu kashenko, the only president this country has ever known, leave office. well, i really hope that when he sees all these people, he will step down. do you really think that's likely? he's been here a long time. maybe, it's. .. i hope so. do you think this sort of demonstration is going to convince the president to go? yes, we believe. this‘s why we're all here. all minsk, all our country. belarus has never seen scenes like this before. a couple of weeks ago, demonstrations were extremely rare and usually brutally snuffed out by the government. now there are people marching as far as the eye can see through the centre of the capital, minsk. there's a real sense

of change in the air. but for now, president lukashenko clings on to power. this was his rally today in minsk. just a few thousand showed up, an embarrassing turnout for a man who claims to have won 80% of the vote. in a defiant speech, he rejected calls for new elections, telling his supporters that nato tanks were near the border. chanting. "leave, leave", they chant, but exactly how that happens is far from clear. do you think the president is going to go peacefully? i'm not sure about it but we will not go away. today, tomorrow, next week, we will sit here on the streets and i would like to say that i was born in 1998 and i spent all my life with president lukashenko and i don't want it any more.

this was a day when belarusians found their voice. all chant. "lukashenko, lock him up", they're saying here. europe's longest serving leader may passed the point of no return. jonah fisher, bbc news, minsk. a little later we will heard —— here from an expert on the region. us speaker nancy pelosi says she is recalling the chamber later this week to recall legislation is protecting the us postal service. there are already calls for the usps to testify before lawmakers against, the

democrats have... , there are already plans for top figures in the usps to testify before lawmakers — amid allegations of widespread mail delays and potential interference by president trump. the democrats accuse the president of trying to suppress postal voting in november's presidential election. well in north carolina protesters gathered again outside the home of the head of the post office, postmaster general louis dejoy. mr dejoy is a supporter of donald trump and a major donor to the republican party, and protesters say he's intentionally gutting the postal service to help president trump. earlier i spoke to steve herman, the white house bureau chief at the voice of america, and asked him if a vote on legislation would put an end to the dispute. well, maybe not. it really remains to be seen if they will be enough pressure put on republican senators to act on whatever the house presents to them. normally you would be right at something that would come from the democrat—controlled house would really not go anywhere with the republican—controlled senate. but what we know with the issue with the post office is affecting some

rural districts where there are republican senators who are feeling vulnerable in this november's election and they're also pushing back on what the president has been saying and what the postmaster general has been doing. it is interesting to see, the post office is obviously a very important aspect of people's daily lives. it's rarely in the headlines. why has this story gained so much traction? why has it gained so much enthusiasm and alarm in the us? it's a bit of a perfect storm. because of the coronavirus pandemic, we're going to see a record number of people who are casting mail—in or absentee ballots, something the president has been talking a lot about and keeps saying absentee ballots are fine but mail—in ballots are not. where election districts mail

out mass ballots to people who the president contends could be a reason for there to be fraud although there is no concrete evidence of that beyond a very, very tiny percentage. also this new postmaster general who was a political appointee, donor to donald trump, has been coming under a lot of suspicion and been removing sorting machines and even mailboxes in cities. he says this is all in a move to increase the efficiency of the post office which has been losing billions and billions of dollars per year and it's really not political. democrats, of course, are not buying into that and say this is just a move to throw sand in the gears of the postal service and really cause chaos of all these mail—in ballots that which conceivably could help the president. we're talking about the us postal service in the context of the election and mail—in ballots but of course people get a lot of other stuff, people rely on the postal service for a lot of other things,

medicine, social security. is there alarm around those issues, too? that's what lawmakers including republicans have been hearing from their constituents, that their medicines are not showing up. other pieces of mail that would normally take a couple of days to get somewhere else are now taking weeks or not been delivered at all. so it is becoming, to some degree, a bipartisan issue with the president on one side, the democrats entirely on the other side, but also now some republicans as well. steve herman from voice of america speaking to me earlier. somali special forces say they have ended a siege at a hotel in the capital mogadishu, that was stormed

by armed militants. reports say more than 20 people were killed when a car bomb exploded on the recently built elite hotel on lido beach, which is reportedly owned by an mp and is frequented by government officials. according to one government source, more than 200 people, including cabinet ministers and members of parliament, were evacuated from the beachside hotel. the al—shabab militant group has claimed responsibility. australia has seen its day of the coronavirus pandemic after the state of victoria recorded 25 deaths in 2a hours. victoria's previous daily record was 21, recorded last wednesday. there were 282 confirmed cases in the state in the past 2a hours. the total death toll from covid—i9 in australia stands at 421. new zealand's general election has been postponed because of the recent outbreak of covid—i9 in auckland. the poll had been due to take place in september, but the date has been pushed back by four weeks to the 17th of october. the prime minister, jacinda ardern took the decision after consulting the other political parties. i have sort and received advice

from the electoral commission on a range of options, including retaining the current date of the 19th of september, moving the election by four weeks to the 17th of october and the final possible date the electoral commission considers the election could realistically be held, which is the 21st of november. having weighed up all these factors and taken wide soundings, i have decided on balance to move the election by four weeks to the 17th of october. at the end of last week, i was advised that this date is achievable and presents no greater risks than had we retained the status quo. i've also been advised that in moving to a 17 october election day, the commission will be able to leverage and draw much of the work already undertaken to deliver the election. that is prime ministerjacinda

ardern. for more i'm joined by tvnz correspondent, ryan boswell who's in christchurch. how have the other parties in new zealand reacted to this delay? they are very pleased. they were pushing for the election to be delayed and even jacinda ardern‘s coalition pata —— partner new zealand first we re —— partner new zealand first were pushing for its aim it simply wasn't enough time in mid of this pandemic to debate theissues mid of this pandemic to debate the issues that kiwis need to get stuck into. remember, new zealand not only has an election but it also is holding a referendum on euthanasia and cannabis and every kiwi is interested to see what direction the next government ta kes direction the next government takes when it comes to tackling this pandemic. 's takes when it comes to tackling this pandemic. '5 it is interesting to think that the other parties are supportive because of course jacinda ardern is broadly viewed as having handled this crisis quite well. she is on tv every

day. she has got the attention of the media, notjust in new zealand. i wonder if the other parties are struggling to make any impact during this crisis. well, it does work for the prime minister at the moment, having this covert crisis take place in the midst of an election. like you say, she does dominate the headlines and people are watching with interest as to what the government does do moving forward. it really does suck oxygen from the other parties and what we have seen over here is that those minor parties and even the opposition party is really struggling in the polls right now. jacinda ardern could quite government —— comfortably govern alone with her party labour without the need for their party to be part of any other government. she is sending or putting out a very commanding presence at the moment here in new zealand and many kiwis are quite happy with the direction that she is

taking. thanks for your time. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: he's not donald trump — is that all democratic challenger joe biden has going for him? we investigate, ahead of the national convention. washington, the world's most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed i did have a relationship with ms lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today, in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the past ten days, 500 have died. czechoslovakia must be free! russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 118 submariners who died on board the kursk. we all with them now. with — in our hearts.

the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more than 2.5 million people in his hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us", chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well", joked the pope, "so you want me to desert rome?" tens of thousands of people have turned out at one of the biggest demonstrations in the history of belarus, to protest against what they see as the rigged election victory claimed by president lukashenko. mitchell a. 0renstein is professor of russian and east european studies at the university of pennsylvania, says he believes president lukashenko will be unable to hang on.

i simply cannot imagine how a dictator who has ruled his country so brutally over so many years can stay in power when no—one's any more afraid of him. as you can see in minsk today, there's hundreds of thousands of people on the street. the regime tried to crack down and brutally beat protesters for several nights and finally had to admit that they simply didn't have the man power, the will, the ability to beat enough people to keep them off the streets and i think that's such a shocking victory for the opposition forces, i think it's the beginning of the end for

lukashenko, in my view. why do you think they've gained so much momentum this time round? i was thinking of this during your report, and the key thing your your viewers need to understand is that most likely lu kashenko lost this election massively. in other words, he claimed he won 80% of the vote, the reality is most likely exactly the opposite — that 70—80% of people in the country voted for sviatla na tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition candidate, and lukashenko may have only received 6—10% of the vote. so when you take a country which everybody i think on the street knows that they all voted for the opposition and you come out and say to them, oh, i won 80% of the vote. it's just, it was just too much. it was too much. he could claim victory — maybe he got 45% and he could claim he got 60%, but when the proportions are like that, i think everybody on the street knows

that he lost the election and they're not going to go away, in my view. what's happened, in fact, is they've created a national movement probably for the first time in belarus. what you're seeing is the standing up of a nation, very similar to wenceslas square in 1989 in prague. something like that which is, i think, a unique moment for belarus. you're a professor of russian and east european studies. let us talk briefly, if you can, about russia. the role of belarus' neighbour is going to be in the back of minds of many people out on the street. talk us through what the relationship is between those two countries and the two leaders. absolutely, its very complex. russia and belarus have played an interesting dance for quite a long time and lu kashenko's sort of perfected it, where russia really wants to dominate belarus. russia looks at belarus as a domestic issue. it has a customs union with belarus, and it wants

belarus to no longer be a sovereign independent state. it has been pushing vocally and visibly, publicly, lukashenko, this year, to have more political integration with russia, which means a path towards basically becoming part of russia or some type of soviet union 2.0. lu kashenko has valiantly resisted, since 1994, this type of pressure by very cleverly playing the west off against russia, tacking this way, tacking that way and he in fact has maintained belarus as a relatively independent nation which is why he's making these arguments that he thinks "l'etat c'est moi", you know, "it's me who is belarus". in other words, "without me, belarus simply won't exist,

we're in threat of invasion, we're in threat of a moscow takeover, i'm the only one who can solve the situation". unidentified gunmen have shot dead eight people in colombia. most of the victims are reported to be young adults. it happened in one of the country's came producing regions. the first major cruise ship to cease operations in mid—march has left the italian port of genoa. the grandiosa. at three ports on a 7— dave voyage. the operators say they put ina voyage. the operators say they put in a health and safety protocol which includes all passengers and crew taking a coronavirus test all morning. police in warsaw have parts of pro— and anti— gay—rights protesters outside the university two days after being accused of heavy—handed

policing towards lg bt campaigners. a right—wing former presidential campaign says if they fail to stop gay—rights activists, they... hundreds of people have gathered in the spanish capital madrid to protest against the mandatory use of facemasks in public spaces — and other new government measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. there were similar scenes in warsaw — as people there called for an end to the restrictions. no social distancing at this demonstration. packed in together, close as can be. the unmasked of madrid. with their angry cries of freedom, they seem to believe the government is now a bigger threat than the virus itself. translation: i am

here because there are too many repressive measures. they are taking all our rights away from us. the solution is that everybody takes to the streets to the rate ——to raise their voices, insists this man. we need to prove we know what this is about and we are claiming our rights. spain was one of the earliest and hardest—hit countries in the pandemic and has had more cases than any other nation in western europe. infections have spiked in recent weeks but for these protesters, the battle to combat covid—19 has gone too far. it was a similar story in warsaw, where there was another anti— mask march. here they argue any restrictions aimed at fighting the virus are illegal and unconstitutional. in paris, facemasks are now compulsory and much of the city, which has

been named a high risk zone. the attitude here seems a little more accepting. translation: i think it is best to wear it everywhere. at least we know we are protected. are we know we are protected. are we going to get to a second wave? we don't know, so the best thing is to protect ourselves everywhere. facemasks have become symbolic, part of little debate but scientists insist they are still vital in the against coronavirus. tim allman, bbc news. the democrats will host their national convention on monday, wherejoe biden will be confirmed as the party's nominee for us president, in november's election. the event has been scaled down due to the coronavirus pandemic. mr biden knows there are some in the party less than enthusiatic about his nomination, particularly on the left. but there is a belief his choice of running mate (ani) senator kamala harris, can help him unite the party and turn a healthy lead in the polls against donald trump, into victory. here's our north america

editor, jon sopel. folks, thanks, i understand there are thousands of you on this zoom... campaigning, covid style. this is a socially—distanced fundraiser. but there are no phone banks, just thousands on a zoom call. and since kamala harris joined the ticket, the money's been pouring in. $48 million raised injust 48 hours. the excitement is palpable! at least i'm excited. but enthusiasm is hardly the right word. even among democratic voters, like these college kids. he's getting older. i don't think h‘s the strongest candidate that was out there, but he is the lesser of two evils, definitely. maybe not the most, like — the person i would want if i had any option, but, yeah, definitely the lesser of two evils. i'm voting for him, sadly. um, because at the end of the day, electoral politics is... it's basically damage control.

and these students aren't exceptional. a newly published pew research poll asked democrats why they'd be voting for biden. a staggering 56% said it was because he wasn't donald trump. the next most important was his leadership performance. just 19% said that would be the reason for backing him. butjoe biden has likeability. ask the owner of this diner in his home town of wilmington, where the biden family have been regulars for decades. i wouldn't just vote democratic, ijust... i'm on his side. you know, iagree with his policies and hopefully that's going to get us out of a big mess.

for the past five months, joe biden has scarcely emerged from his basement hideaway in the house behind me. and keeping such a low profile, paradoxically, has served him well. his poll numbers keep going up. but, surely, in the next three months, he's going to have to campaign hard if he wants to win the presidency. trump campaign ads have sought to portray the 77—year—old as a man who is losing it. i'll make sure that we are... ..in a position that... go ahead. oh, no, probably best i don't. certainly, biden is gaffe prone. if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or trump then you ain't black... and that i'm going to beatjoe biden. we hold these truths to be self—evident. all men and women created by the... you know the... you know the thing. the next vice president of the united states of america! in 2008, when a youthful barack 0bama stood with joe biden as his running mate, the optimistic and positive message was hope and, yes, we can. in this strange 2020 election, not being donald trump might be joe biden's biggest plus. jon sopel, bbc news,

wilmington, delaware. the democratic convention on monday will be covered here on bbc news. thanks for watching. hello there. we had lots of thunderstorms across england and wales on sunday, there was a slight little snippet there are catches you out but i am on but it's not every day you but i see one of these. yes, a waterspout that formed out in the bristol channel, and this was seen by a number of our weather watchers, actually, from north somerset. it was also spotted around the newport area

of south wales as well. that was all associated with this low pressure that's across northern france. we can see an occlusion. this band of cloud here that brought some thunderstorms across eastern england, and they were torrential. 28 mm of rain on sunday fell in bedford. looking at the weather picture at the moment, this system, essentially, is going to split into two bits, with this branch not really making much progress further north. that means the rain will continue to affect greater manchester, lancashire, merseyside along with wales for a time before easing later in the night. it won't really push that much farther north. that means the far north of england, northern ireland and scotland stay largely dry over the next few hours, but with low cloud. there'll be some mist and fog patches, and maybe a little bit of drizzle around some of the eastern coasts in scotland as well. for the rest of monday, the low pressure will continue to move its way in, and that will bring showers. this time, the showers

will be affecting scotland and northern ireland through the afternoon, but it's further south across england and wales that the day's heaviest showers are most likely to be. 20 or30 mm in the space of an hour. again, that's enough to cause some localised flash flooding. in between those showers in the sunshine, still feeling warm, still a little on the humid side. but we're not finished with the showery story just there, because tuesday will be another showery day. it stays unsettled with rain or showers to take us into next weekend.

this is bbc news, the headlines: an enormous crowd of opponents of the belarusian 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 has vowed 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 said date has been pushed back to october the 17th, giving parties time to resume their suspended election campaigns. now on bbc news, as

wales begins to emerge