that's all from sportsday. thank you for your company, good night. and now on bbc news an interview with svetla na ti kha novs kaya. after claiming a remarkable election victory over belarus' long serving dictactor alexander lukashenko, svetla na tikhanovskaya was forced to flee to lithuania to save her family. are you afraid? yes, iam. they can do anything, they can take my children to an orphanage or something like this. we first met svetla na tikhanovskaya as she was preparing to run for president of belarus. taking on the country double long—standing dictator alexander lu kashenko. she did not want to be a politician but had agreed

to stand in her husband's place after he was jailed. thank you! i am not sure if i want this. for this month, i became much stronger but i am still not ready for what is going to happen. what followed was enormous popularity. then a rigged election. widespread police brutality. and the biggest protests the country had ever seen. while lu kashenko declared himself victorious, tikhanovskaya was forced to flee the country. as she emerges from hiding, we meet up with her again. this is her first interview in exile. so it is fair to say that a lot has happened since we last met.

how are you? i don't know, as a matter of fact, because... as i have already told you when we met last, i wanted to give up so often and it hasn't changed since i just can't step away now because i became like a symbol of freedom. i understand that i am not a leader. i cannot lead all my people behind me because i am more frightened than anybody else among them. but ijust cannot give up. you say that you are more frightened than anybody else. why, what frightens you? i think that this responsibility i have, i understand that they are waiting for something from me, waiting for some decisions,

waiting for some speech from me and i am afraid that maybe i will not be able to do enough, or maybe i will make the wrong decision that will change history. you feel that you have the weight of history to come on your shoulders. it is not a fear for life, it is a fear of responsibility. in the last week, hundreds of thousands of people have come out onto the streets of belarus. asking for change. many of them shouting your name. raising their hands in public to show they voted for you. how do you feel when you see that? i understand that they

were shouting sveta, shouting my name, but again i am like a symbol. they are shouting for their future, for their wish to live in a free country. they were shouting against violence, for their rights. but they voted for you. yes. they voted for me not as person or president butjust as like a symbol of changes. ahead of the election, svetlana knew the odds were stacked against her. not a single election here has been deemed free or fair. they don't believe in honest elections. but i still believe our president, who understands that his time is over. do you think you can win? i do not believe i can win but i believe people can win. that change is coming? yes. i want to believe in this. not believe, but i want

to believe in this. it is widely believed tikhanovskaya went on to win the most votes and many now see her as belarus‘ rightful president. do you see yourself as the legitimate leader, as the president? while i can't declare myself as president because, you know, we don't know the real number of the people who voted for this or that person but we know for sure that the elections were falsified. but i can accept that i was chosen by people as national leader. and, you know, ijust cannot come and say i am president, you have to obey, it is something not about me.

some of my friends say to me, 5 million says you are president and you cannot say this! this was the moment she disappeared, the day after the election. when she emerged in lithuania, she hinted at a terrible choice she had had to make to keep her children safe. can you tell me anything about what happened in those election offices and what choice you were given? i am sorry, but i can't. not now. do you fear for your husband, yourself, your children? it is notjust the topic we have to discuss now because it is my wrong story and what is more important is the situation in belarus.

people want new, fair and transparent elections of which they will be able to choose a leader for themselves. we see what is going on on the streets, see how the russian people are united —— how belarussian people are united and they do not want this president any more and will be able to accept him especially after all the violence which happens during peaceful demonstrations. authorities have responded to the protests brutally, thousands of people have been detained, many of them badly beaten by police. there are reports of widespread torture. it is like a question of life or death. it is really important to protect our country and to make it really free because we are a good nation.

how do you feel when you see the reports of violence that have come out of the country in the last week? you know, i was really shocked. i didn't tell anybody but i just was crying. when we saw the first pictures after the people they released, no, i cannot even believe that these policeman who beat these people, belarussians, becausei cannot believe that our people could be so cruel. do you have an idea if you were in charge how you would make sure that the people accused of violence and torture face justice? i am sure that all the people who were involved in this crime, they should be punished.

but this should be done after new elections because the main thing now is to change authorities. and after this of course people will have to think about a lot of things, and one of the most important things is to find out all those people who made all this violence and torture, and the people who were killed, at least two during these demonstrations. at the moment, alexander lukashenko is digging in, it does not look like he is going anywhere. are you worried that the movement could fail? no, i am not worried because i believe in the belarussian people the same way they believed in me one day. and just we have no right to step

back now because if not now, we will be slaves and our people understand this and i am sure we will stand till the end. if he weren't engaged with you or the opposition, what do you do to push forward? i have no right to make such plans because i shouldn't even accept this idea that they will not be engaged with the body we set out. i think it is the only way out for this crisis to stop and i'm sure he understands this as well. since you've been here, you have met with many european leaders and players. what support have they given to you? you know, i am so grateful to all those leaders and to all those countries who are supporting our people, who are really involved

in the fate of our people who understand why we are struggling for our rights. do these leaders that you have spoken with see you as the leader of belarus? you know, maybe the fact that they are talking to me means that they support me as national leader. have you heard from anybody in the kremlin over the last week? have they reached out to you? no, no. just no. does that surprise you? some leaders who wanted to support me personally and our people, some didn't want to, why should it surprise me?

after ten days in hiding, svetla na tikhanovskaya has broken cover. she may be a reluctant politician but she's agreed to lead the belarussian opposition from afar. do you want to be a leader in this time? you know the answer to this question. i am not a leader by nature and i have never been such a good leader but it is my fate and it's my mission now, i have to be a leader and i have to find some unknown qualities in myself. what do you want for the future of belarus? i want the belarussians live in a free, safe country where they are not afraid to speak, where they are not afraid to be grabbed on the streets

if they do not agree with something. do you want to go back to belarus? yes, it is my motherland and i adore my country and i want to live there, and i will go back immediately when i feel safe there. what will it take for you to be able to go back, to feel safe to go back? i think that after new elections, maybe even before, so i will feel safe and come back. i don't know. if you get the elections you want, would you run as president? i don't think about this now because we have a purpose now to have these

elections and who will be in these elections is the second question. hello there. it's been a day of sunshine and blustery showers today. more showers to come tomorrow and for a while this evening and for the first part of the night. those showers heavy for a while as they move southwards so they become lighter, fewer, many places dry by the end of the night with clearer skies and light winds. temperatures similar to last night, maybe a bit chillier in northernmost parts of scotland. tomorrow morning, many places will start dry with some sunshine but very quickly we'll see showers arriving in northern ireland, moving over the irish sea into wales, into northern england, then into the midlands. later on some heavy and perhaps thundery showers also arriving in east anglia and the south—east. improving through the afternoon across much of wales and south—west england. the winds lighter than today, turning more north—westerly in scotland where there will be very few showers around tomorrow but on the cool side. our highest temperatures

will be 23 or so, like today in the south—east of england, ahead of those heavy showers. we may well see some patchy rain heading eastwards on monday, but overnight and into tuesday, another spell of wet and windy weather on the way. this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 8:00. manchester united captain harry maguire pleads not guilty, and is released from police custody — following his arrest on the greek island of mykonos. uk tourists who've been on holiday to croatia, austria and trinidad and tobago now have to isolate for 14 days when they get back. being in croatia there were only a few options, which were to get to slovenia or to get to italy, and neither were possible. after france and now croatia, no holiday can be guaranteed. hundreds of thousands of people in north west england are told not to socialise with anyone

outside their household to stem