world without beethoven i can't begin to imagine. what. starts a timer 68. of the. news a line from girl and no let up in the demonstrations against president alexander looking. cheered on by onlookers thousands of workers more government buildings in the capital minutes condemning of political violence and demanding new elections it's the biggest challenge to date to president hold power also coming up. in the united states concerns mount over mail in voting for november's election president trump has cast doubt on the process and is blocking extra funds for the

postal service to help handle the ballots. and a bull's eye for like sick as they stone athletico madrid to go further than may ever happen the champions league will bring you all the action. michael it's nice to have you with us in baylor reuss protests against president alexander lukashenko are growing thousands of factory workers have walked off the job as demonstrations against sunday's disputed election result continue for a 6th day workers from state run plants once the voting base of go or downing their tools and joining the protests across the country they're calling for new elections and an end to the violent crackdown against the us. position shankar who is facing

the biggest challenge to his rule in years has dismissed the protests as a foreign backed out. earlier today because franco held a meeting with construction industry officials and dismissed rumors he had been overthrown and fled the country in the. first of all i would like to say that i am still alive and not abroad as some well informed people here say the president has left the country. today is all because the 14th. and we are here to discuss the work of the construction industry. journalists hand. is covering the story for us in minutes we asked for her take on the latest statement from president looking. they have the final results of the election where announced and according to those results 80 percent of the wall given to. so nothing

has changed right and to teach only 10 percent of the bolts so apparently is ignoring well basically the whole country that has been protesting. also well what he said during this meeting with the construction industry and they basically said that there were only 20 workers at those major factories major plans. mas and these are cold who wanted to express their opinions but they then they just turned away and came back to work and it wasn't true and well apparently the whole country now knows that this is not true and this workers have joined 3 protesters right now so it's very hard to ignore strikes that are happening across the country . e.u. foreign ministers are meeting via video conference to discuss possible sanctions on bail our brussels correspondent gail mathis has been following this story for us

greetings again how likely is it that the e.u. agrees on sanctions against bellew's it actually looks like the foreign ministers have at least started the process of imposing sanctions on bella rooms that is something that the german foreign minister prior to the meeting but also other foreign ministers of the u. member states have been asking for and just now the polish foreign minister confirmed that the e.u. favors of the 27 representatives that are meeting virtually here in brussels favor a list of individual persons that could be put on the sanction list that list is now being accomplished consisting probably of 2 groups on the one hand people who have committed fraud in the elections and people who have committed violent acts against peaceful protesters cared my 2nd question for you is going to be about polling making some noise about reaching some sort of

a resolution is that what you're referring to now while you have the neighboring countries in particular poland but also with us which is hosting currently the exiled opposition candidate those countries have been putting particular pressure on the e.u. to send a strong message and i would say that part of that message has been that the. prime minister of poland while this meeting is taking place here in brussels at least virtually has announced that poland is loosening visa restrictions is opening the labor market and supporting independent media and n.g.o.s so if you want to symbolic act an act to support the civil society and act that is particularly crucial at the time where people are on the streets and are looking for how are the countries around them how is the e.u. reacting and what response are they sending. i think it's safe to say watch this space we'll likely hear more from matthews as this story continues to develop thank

you so much now look at some of the other stories making news around the world at this hour the united nations says the death toll from last week's massive explosion in the lebanese capital beirut has risen to nearly 186000 people were injured. affected operations at. clinics in the city and damaged schools used by 50000 students. in afghanistan have begun freeing 400 taliban prisoners a final group of inmates has been a key taliban demand for beginning peace talks with the afghan government. including insurgents convicted of attacks on afghans and foreigners. germany has declared most of spain

a high risk coronavirus region including the island of majorca which is popular with german tourists only the canary islands are exempt from the warning travelers . compulsory. testing when they return to germany or. thousands of british citizens on holiday in france are rushing to get home before new quarantine rules go into effect over some 160000. believed to be vacationing in france the country has seen a rise in infections prompting london to add france to mandatory 14 day quarantine on arrival. now pandemic guidelines have brought dramatic changes to the way the 2020 presidential campaign is playing out in the united states gone or the large scale rallies and close up encounters of 2016 physical distancing also poses

a logistical headache for polling day one reason voting by mail is in focus but the mail in vote has critics including president trump w's in a poll look at how the process is playing out in one state connecticut ahead of the november election. over 2 thirds of the u.s. voters will be able to make their choice by either mail in or absentee ballot in the 2020 election more than ever before in the history of the united states this is what this year's election battlefield looks like sounds ridiculous well donald trump has politicized mail in voting in absentee voting because he fears that this might lead to a great awarded her knowledge among democrats according to president trump made in voting is more susceptible to voter fraud even though there's little to no evidence for this he has already announced that he might not except the outcome of the 2020 election undermining the most crucial tool of democracy the right to vote.

he is unfortunately turning into an authoritarian figure and. he doesn't like democracy so much anymore it seems like so i think it's really important for all of us to exercise our right to go and i'm teaching that to my children to know. how people want to exercise their right to vote looks different from many in this year's election due to the. 1000000 downloads as a professor of cringe you pick university of connecticut and he has been teaching constitutional and criminal for decades i'd rather vote in person i'm used to doing that i've been doing it for 50 years but because of the pandemic i just don't want to go into a polling place where people are standing in line where i'm dealing with people who could be in fact i have to cut your voting machines other people may have touched

so i'm very much in favor of the absentee voting this year at least. deca demick has a very different take from the republican president trump has been sowing doubt about the reliability of this year's election results from the beginning of his tenure. the biggest risk that we have is mail in ballots because with the mail in ballots called universal mail in ballots it's much it it is a much easier thing for a foreign power it's much easier for them to forge ballots and said the man it's much easier for them to cheat. the president's statements raise concerns that he might not accept a defeat and might try to remain in the white are concerns about even if the president doesn't refuse to leave it remains to be seen how its followers are going to take this they have already been primed to believe that if he loses this was an unfair alexion and that could easily lead to mass resistance even to violence in

the street. the pandemic damages many aspects of life even the integrity of the democratic process itself. from politics to sports and the champions league quarter finals are underway of like 61 the experts and beat the favorite athletico madrid 2 to one to advance the semifinal say opened up in the 2nd half leipzig standing almost put the bulls ahead with a header in front of the goal 20 minutes later a hard foul by cost and then provided athletico a chance which felix converted to even the score like 6 winner came minutes before the end of the game substitute tyler adam speak aim the 1st u.s. men's player to score in a champions league quarter final leipsic advance of the semis to face p.s.g. . so what's the reaction like when a team like the leipzig pulls off such an upset sports journalist and he may is on

the ground in lisbon. leipsic you only formed 11 years ago they are very much the underdog team along with that so lance it went beats by perry. they are the story they off the roof so their 1st ever champions league semifinal they were playing in that 1st quarter final so it's an extraordinary story yulian noddles men their coach is actually younger than lee and now messi use hoping to night to be going for a place him self in the semifinals of the competition i saw the game with some fans of sporting last night they are the underdog team of this city lisbon the capital of portugal behind the big rich a team of them secret service supporters of sporting in a very small bar near the stadium where the match took place the josie i'll fill out their home they were very very happy at the end leipsic have made it through to the last 4 of this competition it's an extraordinary moment for them as they aim to become a german champion here and maybe we'll see byron as well perhaps doing the business

later many football fans would prefer to see in munich. in the final and not in the quarter final but such was the luck of the draw the match takes place in lisbon and is close to the public because of the pandemic of course but with the cream of the crop on the pitch there is still plenty of buzz in the. it's not like there aren't any fans in lisbon welcoming their favorites some were camped outside the hotel barcelona players are staying at supposedly the next best thing if you can't get into the stadium. byron munich vs barcelona should be a celebration of soccer instead it's a muted classic to be played behind closed doors it pits not just 2 great squads against each other but it's also a meeting of superstars such as arguably the world's greatest player barcelona's leonel messi purses the deadliest striker in europe this season byron's robert

leaven dusty with $53.00 goals to his credit including many of those scored in the champions league. half this level i don't think there are favorites is a bit of luck in there so yes we can count on having the best player in the world. but leavened off city has 13 goals in the champions league this year. quality is so high on both teams that either one can wind up with it on a bus going up it can also all will approach barcelona with the necessary respect we'll analyze them as we do with any other team we know our strengths and we will try to use them as much as we can on the 2 office who is doing this behind supplying it all comes down to this winning the coveted champions league title this is a giant version of the cup which is set up in downtown lisbon where fans as they are can come together and also watch the games on t.v. set up by local restaurants. but this is where they'd really rather be at the.

inside. you're watching the news coming to you from berlin up next business with kate ferguson we've got more now website d w dot com as well as our twitter and instagram feeds what's a handle. on michael o'connor more news to. slip. carefully. to do good. actually.