this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm james reynolds. huge crowds of protesters in belarus accuse president lukashenko of stealing the election and demand he resigns. president trump confirms blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients can be used as a treatment against covid—19 in america. fires amongst the worst in california's history, with weather conditions set to fan the flames. and bayern munich win the champions league, beating paris saint germain in the first final ever to be held behind closed doors.

hello and welcome. in belarus, huge crowds of protesters have demonstrated against president alexander lukashenko and the re—election they say he rigged two weeks ago. they are demanding that he stand down. from the capital minsk, steve rosenberg sent this report. a warning — it contains images which some viewers may find distressing. they poured onto the streets. "long live belarus," they cried. a sea of protesters flooding the centre of minsk. "resign," they shouted. a message for this man, alexander lu kashenko. for 26 years, he's been the president, but look how the people have turned against him. on independence square, they accused him of stealing

the election and of violence against the people of belarus. our aim is to show the government that we are not their slaves. we are here to show that we never elected him and that we want the change. that we want the new country with a new president. in belarus, people are making their voices heard like never before. they're demanding change. but the problem for the protesters is that there's one man who isn't listening. alexander lukashenko has made it quite clear he has no intention of stepping down. but he has every intention of raising the stakes. today, mr lu kashenko donned military garb and watched the protesters from his helicopter.

"they're running away like rats," he could be heard saying. back on the ground, kalashnikov in hand, he set off to find supporters. and he found them. a round of applause from the riot police. "you're doing a great job," he says. but the president's critics painting a different picture. as he was preparing for today's protest, roman zakaria told me about the culture of fear mr lukashenko and his security forces have created. a few days ago, roman was beaten up by the police. the people i fear the most are the police. no—one can protect us, and i cannot live beside these people any more. we need to change something in our country, quickly. his sign says "long live belarus"

but roman sees no future for himself here if there'll be no change of president. steve rosenberg, bbc news, minsk. whilst opposition groups are demonstrating in belarus, sympathisers have held similar events in other countries. this is lithuania, where at least 30,000 people, including president nauseda, formed a human chain from the capital, vilnius, right to the border with belarus. you can see how they're unfurling a huge red and white flag — that's the former flag of belarus, which is being used to show opposition to mr lukashenko. vytis jurkonis lectures at the institute of international relations and political science at vilnius university and is an expert in the politics of belarus. hejoined that march of solidarity and explained why it carried such support from the people of lithuania. we had something like view dozens we had something like view d oze ns of we had something like view dozens of thousands people in solidarity, holding hands together, connecting baltic

countries in belarus and i think there are two reasons for that, expressing solidarity with the belarus in people and another which i think is important is which is to increase the sensitivity of what democracy and human rights are and why the freedoms are so important and they can't be taken for granted and you need to cultivate it every single day if you don't want to have this situation is the belarus in people are now having, when they are really fighting for they are really fighting for the independence and freedom. in the us, the food and drug administration has given emergency authorisation for the use of blood plasma from recovered covid—i9 as a treatment to fight new cases of the disease. as part of trials, around 70,000 people there have already received plasma. independent scientists caution that the step is unlikely to be a breakthrough. but president trump said it would save lives. in america, the the us food & drug administration has authorised the use of blood plasma from recovered patients to help fight new cases of covid—i9.

experts say there is evidence plasma treatment will decrease death rates. this is a powerful therapy that transfuses very, very strong antibodies from the blood of recovered patients to help treat patients battling a current infection. it's had an incredible rate of success. today's action will dramatically expand access to this treatment. and i want to thank dr hahn, secretary azar, i want to thank the fda, all of the people that have been working very hard on this. it showed tremendous potential. the bbc‘s north america correspondent peter bowes told us more. it's known as convalescent plasma. it's the plasma from people who have had covid—i9 and are now recovering and indeed in tens of thousands of cases at an experimental stage it is already being used to treat others with the virus in the early stages of the infection. people have been treated in hospital and according to the president also backed up by one of his medical experts on the platform with him today, there is the promise that the use of this treatment can increase the chances of survival by some 35%.

now others are suggesting that we should just perhaps hold on a moment and that further trials, further clinical trials, are necessary to prove beyond any doubt about the safety of this treatment and its long—term effectiveness in large numbers of people. those trials just haven't been completed yet. however, the president as we have just heard seems to be putting a lot of promise into this and he is appealing to americans who've had covid—i9 and recovered to actually go ahead and donate some of their blood plasma. let's get some of the day's other news. at least 13 people have been crushed to death in peru as they tried to escape a police raid on a nightclub which was allegedly violating coroanvirus restrictions. it happened at the thomas restobar club in lima. several people were injured, and police made more than 20 arrests. at least five people have been killed in flooding

in the north of turkey. the town of derrell is among the worst affected areas. a number of people are still missing, and turkey's president erdogan has promised state help to repair the damage. a senior iranian official has said that the black box recorders on the ukrainian plane accidentally shot down by iran injanuary show it was hit by two missiles, with passengers and pilots alive for 25 seconds before the second missile hit. all 176 people on board were killed. us president donald trump has approved a disaster declaration for california, which is battling more than two dozen wildfires across seven counties. the declaration frees up federal funds to help pay for temporary housing and repairs — with more than 700 homes destroyed, and at least six people killed. the wildfires were only i7% contained as of sunday afternoon. to give you an idea of just what it's like being caught up in the flames, take a look at this footage, which was filmed in roseville, near the californian state capital sacramento. it was filmed on a dashcam

as the driver tried to find their way safely along a road. right now we have more than 400 red crossers who are on the ground and hundreds more helping virtually and those folks are out there making sure are getting people in shelters oi’ are getting people in shelters or hotel rooms where it's available and they are also there to make sure the people who are coming to our shelters have a safe place to stay and food to eat and they have someone food to eat and they have someone who is there ready to listen and just to be there for them at such a time. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the rise of women leaders in belarus and the president who didn't see it coming. he's the first african—american to win the presidential nomination of a major party, and he accepts exactly 45 years ago to the day that martin luther king declared, "i have a dream."

as darkness falls tonight, an unfamiliar light will appear in the south—eastern sky — an orange glowing disc that's brighter than anything, save the moon, our neighbouring planet mars. there is no doubt that this election is an important milestone in the birth of east timor as the world's newest nation. cheering. it will take months and billions of dollars to repair what katrina achieved injust hours. three weeks is the longest the great clock has been off—duty in 117 years. so it was with great satisfaction that clock makerjohn vernon swung the pendulum to set the clock going again. big ben bongs. this is bbc news, the latest headlines:

hundreds of thousands take to the streets of the belarusian capital, minsk, to call for the resignation of president lukashenko. two weeks ago he won what they are calling a rigged election. the president has responded with a show of defiance. president trump has confirmed blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients can be used as a treatment against covid—19 in america. he said the treatment could reduce the number of deaths by 35%. two weeks on from the disputed election, there are still hundreds of thousands on the streets of belarus protesting. president alexander lukashenko threatened the mail opposition leaders so women have stepped in to take charge in leadership roles and demonstrations. let's take a look at the role of women opposing the president in belarus. rachel denber is deputy director of europe and central asia for human rights watch. she's in new york. rachel, how is it that women in particular have come to the forefront of opposition in

belarus? it happened due to huge miscalculation on the part of alexander lu kashenko. huge miscalculation on the part of alexander lukashenko. it's asked started with sergey tikhanovsky, who is a very popular blogger in belarus who had presidential ambitions, and when he was arrested on may 29 with a number of his supporters, svetla na tikhanovskaya, his wife, decided to run for president in his place and for a while, they didn't seem to attract a lot of attention on the part of mr lukashenko and his team and actually registered her as a candidate but then her candidacy really took off when the wife of another candidate who was written off the ballot, allegedly because 100,000

signatures that were supporting his candidacy were declared invalid, his wifejoined his candidacy were declared invalid, his wife joined forces together with svetlana tikhanovskaya and she was also joined by the campaign manager for another prominent candidate, and they electrify the countries people, with massive rallies outside the capital which was unprecedented. president lukashenko hasn't always taken female political rivals seriously. absolutely not. he was so seriously. absolutely not. he was so unprepared and what he said about svetla na tikhanovskaya, even when she was drawing huge crowds, he said ina was drawing huge crowds, he said in a very dismissive way, oui’ said in a very dismissive way, our constitution wasn't made for a woman, they don't even know what they are reading, she really should go back to cooking dinner. he was com pletely cooking dinner. he was completely dismissive and condescending, demonstrably ——

demonstratively out of touch. briefly, does it matter in an unarmed opposition if the leaders are men or women? ultimately, i think this government has ways of trying to under way, unhinged, undermine the opposition. at a time when thousands of people we re time when thousands of people were being arrested and beaten in the police stations, women we re in the police stations, women were also arrested,, women were beaten, not as badly as the men, but they were sexually harassed, some were sexually assaulted, i think this is a very repressive regime but then again it was women who came out on the streets, dressed in white, carrying flowers, that their children be released. and it was women who continued to

protest, women who are forming mothers groups, demanding the release of political prisoners. thank you so much. to india now where the coronavirus epidemic is getting worse. the number of confirmed covid cases has crossed the three million mark, and the country now has the world's highest number of daily new infections. the health ministry says nearly seventy thousand new cases were registered on sunday. local lockdowns have been imposed in several cities and states. india is third only to brazil and the united states in having the highest number of covid cases globally. ramanan lakshmi—narayan is an epidemiologist at the university of washington and gave us an update on the situation in india. in the initial stage most of the reported cases, and remember, the 3 million figure report that iraq refers to reported cases which has amongst the lowest level of testing in the world for a large country did first cases we re large country did first cases were in the cities but as weeks and months have gone by we see and months have gone by we see a lot of cases in east india

and northeast india especially in the populated states and more cases in rural areas which lack much in the way of public healthcare facilities. the epidemic is spreading. serological studies indicate that actual reported cases are only a small fat —— fraction of the actual number of infections. the republican convention opens on monday evening. president trump is set to be the headline speaker every evening. the event is largely virtual because of coronavirus. in this election, a few swing states are likely to be pivotal. 0ur north america editor jon sopel reports from one of them — pennsylvania. white water rafting on the lehigh river in pennsylvania and a wild, bumpy ride ahead for voters in this key swing state. michelle and kevin are registered republicans but not happy with the choice before them. i work in health care, so i'm really not pleased

with trump's response to what's going on. i'm also not happy with how biden might run the country and maybe... i already think it's going to cost a ton of money. we've gotten no leadership from the very beginning. but though polls suggests the trump campaign is under water — don't be fooled. coronavirus might have cost him but... given the choices, i'm going to go for trump because i think the alternative is bad. i think he's done a brilliant job with the economy. i think we're in a better position than we were. and what do you think of donald trump as a person? he's not the nicest guy in the world. i don't think he does very well with people. the contrast between rural, idyllic pennsylvania and its post—industrial heartland is stark. back in 2016, donald trump promised that blast furnaces like this one would be firing up again. that hasn't happened, and with coronavirus,

the us economy has cratered. polls suggest that here in pennsylvania, he is way behind. but defectors are hard to find and his supporters still back him fervently. and the president has far from given up on the state. he came here on thursday, to the town wherejoe biden grew up, painting a bleak picture of what life under the democrats would be like. think of the smouldering ruins in minneapolis, the violent anarchy of portland, the bloodstained sidewalks of chicago and imagine the mayhem coming to your town. but for duane miller, the former mayor of bangor and owner of the local paint and diy store, trump has lost his sheen. my definition of donald trump, you know, just him as an individual, not the position of the president of this country, but he's a spoiled brat and he acts it. but you voted for him in 2016? yes, yes, don't tell anyone that! no. and that's the thing —

a lot of people don't want to tell. state polls didn't do well measuring support for trump in 2016. masked faces may well be hiding masked views in 2020. jon sopel, bbc news, pennsylvania. football — and bayern munich are celebrating after winning the uefa champions league. they beat paris saint—germain 1—0 in the final in lisbon. this season's competition has been badly affected by the coronavirus — so no fans were allowed in the stadium. that didn't stop them celebrating back home — as bbc‘s tim allman explains. call this a long—distance love affair. no fans in lisbon but the bars and restaurants of munich were packed. social distancing clearly not in vogue around here. appropriately enough, plenty of beer was consumed as the fans celebrated their team's sixth triumph in their team's sixth triumph in

the champions league. translation: we were alljust waiting for this tournament. all this time we could not watch football and it means everything to us. we have finally been able to win the champions league here again and it is incredible. translation: i guess the corona break gave the bavarians a chance to try out new tactics to played strongly in the tournament but i don't think this was predict last august. this was a highly anticipated match. two sides full of talent and ability. sadly, as is so often the way, and never quite lived up to its billing. the only goal came from kingsley coman, ironically, a french player, who headed injust before ironically, a french player, who headed in just before the one hour mark. a satisfying night for the bailey and her —— coach. he took over in november ona coach. he took over in november on a temporary basis but he has 110w w011 on a temporary basis but he has now won the league, german and european cup although he has given the credit to his

players. translation: there is a nice saying that those su ccesses a nice saying that those successes only rented in the rent had to be paid every day. this is something the team shows every day with their attitude on the pitch. they are willing to give 100% and therefore it makes me and the coaching staff very proud to work with such great players. in paris, the champs—elysses was closed off to traffic, perhaps anticipating a party. but the party never came to the french team searched for a first champions league title will have to wait. bayern have been unstoppable this year. they have been worthy winners. german football on top yet again. indigenous groups in australia and the country's biggest football league — the afl — have joined forces in a push to free the aboriginalflag from copyright legislation. the distinct red, yellow and black flag was designed by indigenous artist harold thomas in 1971. it has become a national symbol of unity for indigenous people in australia. but due to copyright law, indigenous people aren't

allowed to commercially reproduce the flag on clothing without permission from a white—owned company. our reporter freya cole explains. didgeridoo plays. dreamtime in darwin. a showcase of tradition before a clash between two of australia's biggest football teams. the game happens once every year, and is a celebration of the aboriginal and torres strait islander people and their contribution to the game. but in 2020, there is a glaring omission from the field. the national aboriginal flag wasn't to be seen on players uniforms or within the ground. instead, players wore "free the flag" t—shirts during their warm—up. it's part of a growing

movement which calls for the australian aboriginal flag to be free from copyright and licencing restrictions. local charity clothing the gap started the campaign a year ago, and now every afl club has jumped on board. to have every single team wear these free the flag tees before they train and then it's opened up these conversations nationally in all these communities and people are talking about it. the issue has had a whole lot of exposure and i certainly think that with the amount of publicity and the amount of outrage that the government has to take action. the flag was designed by indigenous artist harold thomas in 1971. it rose to prominence in ‘94 when cathy freeman donned the flag at the commonwealth games. the following year, the federal government officially made it a nationalflag.

and in 1997, thomas was successful in a bid to claim authorship. to this day, activists say it's the only flag in the world which is restricted by copyright law. we thought it was a flag that belonged to the people but it doesn't — it belongs to harold. it's essentially a very public asset that's privately owned. we want the flag back so we can enjoy it the same way that we did and we can see more aboriginalflags in the community and not less. harold thomas has full control over who can use his flag. wam clothing, which is owned by two white australians, is the only company in the world which is allowed to use the flag on clothing for commercial gain. the free the flag movement aims to stop that, saying it's a matter of national pride and symbolism which should be free for all. freya cole, bbc news.

mexico city has seen the welcome return of some old friends who have effectively beenin friends who have effectively been in hiding due to coronavirus. there there. the floating mariachis have returned to the river ways in what has been dubbed the venice of mexico. they are a popular attraction at this unesco world heritage park which has only recently reopened. and a reminder of our top story, president alexander lukashenko of belarus has responded with defiance to the latest mass protests against his disputed re—election. crowds demand the end to his 26 year rule. he flew overhead in a helicopter

comparing protesters to rats. he then emerged carrying a weapon to congratulate the security forces. hello. we have a changeable week ahead but the start of the week ahead but the start of the week does not look too bad at all. this is the forecast. sunny spells and a few showers on monday, not a bad day on the whole. tuesday looks very different. an atlantic storm develops around 1000 miles away from us, heading in our direction and it will bring heavy rain and gales. in the short term it is not too bad, apart from a few showers in the morning across southern parts of wales and the south of england that should clear away. a couple of shells further north in the afternoon. on balance, a fine day for most of us. here is that spell of heavy weather approaching on monday

night into tuesday. it is a developing low pressure, developing low pressure, developing storm that is propelled by a powerful jetstrea m propelled by a powerful jetstream and as i said it will bring a spell of rain and gales, widespread gales across the uk. here it is approaching the uk. here it is approaching the uk. here it is approaching the uk early on tuesday morning and you can see the rain sweeping in two western and northern parts of the country, the gale wrapping around this low pressure as well and it will sweep across the uk during tuesday. the heavy rain will be on the north end of the day and in the south it may brighten up but look at those dust of win. inland could be in excess of 50 mile an hour, in excess of 60 around the coast and that maybe troublesome for dumb of that make some of us with disruption and branches lying around. wednesday will still be very windy around the north sea coast, anywhere from newcastle to norwich as the low pressure pulls away. still some strong wind down the side of the country but further west it will be much, and by the

afternoon the wind should die down and on wednesday it will probably be our best day of the week with dry weather, pleasa ntly warm week with dry weather, pleasantly warm to 21 degrees in the south of the country and then on thursday we go back downhill with more rain sweeping in off the atlantic. not as windy on thursday. this is more of a rain thing heading oui’ is more of a rain thing heading our way rather than gales to this is the outlook for the week ahead and you can see the weather icons change from day quite a bit. temperatures in the south will be around the 20s, or high teens in the north. that's it from me, by.

and caring this is bbc news — the headlines: hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets of the belarusian capital, minsk, to call for the resignation of president lukashenko. two weeks ago he won what the protesters are calling a rigged election, but the president has responded with a show of defiance. president trump has confirmed blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients can be used as a treatment against covid—19 in america. the technique uses antibody—rich blood plasma from people who've recovered from the disease. he said the treatment could reduce the number of deaths by 35%. firefighters in california are preparing for conditions to worsen as they try to bring nearly 600 wildfires under control. dry lightning strikes, blamed for starting many of the blazes, are forecast to return, along with warm and windy weather. the fires are among the worst in california's history.

beirut was on the frontlines of lebanon's15—year