this is v.w. news the live from berlin exit polls show a race that's too close to call in poland's presidential runoff populist incumbents and jay duda has a slight lead ahead of warsaw's pro european rough outruns koskie the winner will help shape poland over the next 5 years also coming up demonstrators take to the streets of minsk to protest next month's presidential elections there they call it a sham and if keeping the man known as europe's dictator in power.

i'm all out like a welcome to the program polish president may be heading for a 2nd 5 year term following sunday's election the latest projections shows that the conservative incumbents who is backed by the ruling law and justice party has a slight lead with 51 percent of the votes his rival the warsaw mare. secured 49 percent due to has already claimed victory but official results are not expected until later a monday at the earliest has more. a lot was at stake in this presidential election in poland but at the end of election day it was still unclear what direction the country will take early exit polls showed incumbent president do that ahead of his

challenger with a wafer thin majority but even though the final vote count isn't in yet dude ready began celebrating his victory party president here with me in presidential elections with nearly 70 percent voter turnout this is fabulous i'm very touched thank you very much. but some of his followers prefer to wait for certainty. coming up which isn't it because we're waiting for confirmation of the election results i'm very excited it's been really close all day. given the close results of the current mayor of warsaw rafaat cesc of ski was not yet inclined to admit defeat from up through gibbs i am absolutely certain that once all the votes are counted we will win for sure because i am at the right you're not bevan are good yes his followers echoed we will win. then you get going you're the result is promising so far and the night is still young we hope to wake up tomorrow to president has scaf skee. both candidates led polarizing election campaigns

duda continued the course of the ruling national conservative law and justice party by promising to preserve a strong economy and maintain social benefits such as child allowances and early retirement. in contrast his challengers ny has been all about changing course cesc offkey promise to make improvements to the health care system and strengthen ties with the european union. during the campaign do they choose the l g b t rights movement of promoting an ideology that was more harmful than communism he also accused german owned newspapers of trying to influence the election but for european observers media manipulation was an issue in a different respect. the programming itself was often used as a campaign tool for the president based on your ass but over the final vote count

will not be in before monday but regardless of who ends up winning the race the close results already reflect a deeply divided country 2 years did it for more on this i'm joined by d w correspondent simon has been following this story now both candidates have led polarizing campaigns can either of them unite a divided country while the 2 men are more similar than you might think they're both 48 years old. both represent right of center parties that were founded around about the same time and have been. if you can say that all historical rivals if we're talking about the past 15 years. or so they do have a certain amount of common ground that they could emphasize. if they want to reconcile the rest of the population to them. already president has apologized for rhetoric on the campaign campaign trail and in fact during his term of office suggesting that he hopes to have a more conciliatory approach in his 2nd term and indeed.

has also said that he would work together with the law and justice party if elected and so there is an all of french being being offered there but there are deep divides as well and these go back a long way much further than 15 years ago with the foundation of the 2 parties you have the. cities which typically have a much more. open outlook toward the to the world to the european union and then especially the southeast of the country the rural areas which are tend to hold on more closely to catholicism and a more conservative outlook and they may agree on a number of issues there are a lot of very strong differences you mentioned the european union they how does this national divide relates to the potence relationship to the e.u. well poland us hand very poor relationship with the e.u. in the past few years probably beginning in 2015 when and it should be said that it

was the outgoing. civic platform party the party of. attempted to essentially to pack the supreme court. when law and justice won the election and they did this after alone just as when the election they came in and tried to try to change it and pass new laws to to increase their control of the court and that's been a major dispute because the e.u. is concerned about the independence of the jews in judiciary. in poland but there's been other issues like logging in a prime evil forest and indeed. the rights which were quite a feature of this campaign. if. indeed when this was to be a boost for the interest of yes it will because that will mean his party will have the majority in the same the parliament the presidency which can essentially veto legislation. and it's only 2 votes short of a majority in the senate the upper house of parliament so they are well positioned

to push through their their platform if the if they wish of course they may want to look at the longer term view that the people may have tired already some want and again like you say perhaps take a more conciliatory approach some and thank you for your insight. to syria now and a day aid agencies are warning that millions of civilians are at risk in the north west of the country because of a decision by the united nations the security council voted to extend relief deliveries for another year but only through one authorised crossing point on the border with turkey millions rely on the i had and relief workers say the humanitarian situation is getting worse. showdown at the u.n. security council syria's backa russia with the help of china forced through a compromise that none of the other members had wanted only the babel how

a crossing point on the turkish syrian border will remain open aid organizations now fear that around half a 1000000 children will no longer have access to foreign aid while tensions run high at the security council the german foreign minister also criticized russia and china has got reminded us when we have always agreed that humanitarian aid should be accessible regardless of political and military conflicts russia and china have now revoked this consensus this is very cynical sooners russia wants its ally bashar al assad to decide what happens inside his country and who receives the aid without any foreign interference these issues should not be politicized so what we have to do the discussions today is not about humanitarian deliveries to syria we also want this oh discussion is about politics if you need serious concern about hypocrisy he probably should not use the words that he matters in a humanitarian and should not be politicized because that is exactly what russia

has done throughout this process and shamefully continues to do a disappointing result for the u.n. and the people of syria. earlier we asked correspondent and child favorites what the un decision would mean for the people on the ground in syria. whether it will mean there is a 1000000 syrian syrians who are into place or not who get the aid that they will literally so while the city has a war ravaged economy the currency has knowledge of 50 doing it to us dollar the quality not right i think 3000 we was dollar now there are jobs people don't have to to eat so what they eat is the stuff that they get in anybody international agencies the medicines the rules again is sent by international aid agencies they're not going to be getting that not one of the 1000000 syrians who was placed in done including. children so what are they going to be asked when i

think we do all this it is pretty this is what the regime wants what brush up and china wants when you have to remember that this is happening at a time when. this is are being reported from the region and child for a reporting from beirut there and now to some other stories making news around the world firefighters have been tackling a huge place on board a u.s. navy vessel in the port of san diego thick smoke billowed hundreds of meters into the air from the u.s.s. bonhomme richard at least 21 people have been taken to hospital. south african president cyril ramaphosa has reimposed a national curfew and suspended alcohol sales corona virus infections have increased sharply in recent weeks from a post so warm that a drink related injuries could overwhelm clinics and hospitals that are already under strain. and thorson's in the spanish region of catalonia have ordered

residents in and around the town of back into lockdown after a spike in corona virus infections citizens are only allowed to leave their homes for work or necessary shopping. he's often called europe's last. has ruled the former soviet republic of belarus for more than a quarter of a century elections have not been free and fair since he came to power in 1900 full . once again expected to win the next presidential election on the 9th of august frustration over his role as. demonstrators have been taking to the streets of the capital minced and other cities to protest against his handling of the economy on the coronavirus pandemic. for the 1st time in her life and this. has a feeling that change is possible in belarus that's why she's out collecting signatures

for opposition politicians in the capital minsk applicants require 100000 signatures to qualify a bit of these 2 she of life those who are in power now have to be replaced and the direction of our country needs radical change because everything is falling apart here in the culture education and health care but at the minute meeting. in belarus critics of the regime face persecution it takes a lot of courage to talk openly. to dictatorship it's pure dictatorship or to put it another way laws are ignored one man has the say over what happens and the laws are adjusted accordingly. and people are fed up and you can see that in the previous elections there was a lot of apathy most people did not even bother voting because they knew it wouldn't change anything. in many places it looks like apathy is a thing of the past there was a one kilometer line to vote stretching through minsk recently people waited for

hours to support the opposition candidates the president was compared to a cockroach that needed to be squashed by a slipper which has become a symbol of the protests. president look out shango then appeared to give the chief of his security services a new order. the true story i want to warn you and everyone else listening in there will not be a my we don't know. a revolution like the one in ukraine is not what anastasia and her fellow campaigners are aiming for they want free and fair elections a peaceful transition of power. this is a test for our nation i hope we can get through it and come out stronger and wiser . she was concerned to hear that president has appointed a new prime minister in particular the fact that he is from the military does not bode well. mongolia has staged

a festival of traditional sports without spectators for the 1st time in the events 800 year history it includes a colorful show of ceremonial dress complete with modern day antivirus face coverings and some hard for sporting contests the festival features 3 traditional tests of glorious skills horsemanship and wrestling but today games usually attract tens of thousands of spectators a travel restrictions have kept the crowds away this year. the world's top tennis players are in for a windfall despite disruption to the sporting calendar after the organizers of wimbledon and they will pay about $11000000.00 euros in prize money for this year's tournaments. the all england club says $620.00 players are in line to receive prices ranging from 522-8000 euros per player they're distributing that's money even though the tournaments had to be canceled due to the coronavirus the finals for this year's edition of wimbledon originally due to take place this weekend.

you're watching news from the lead brian thomas will be here at the top of the hour with more news in the meantime there's always the web site of the w dot com. i'm going to live for the from the entire news team thanks for watching . thanks. for the meal and i'm good welcome to the 2nd season of only good friends of the planet on the brink of disaster we did long in-depth interviews with experts about one question how to change the.