this is d.w. news live from berlin but rosie and president alexander lukashenko rallies his supporters after a week of protests that followed last weekend's contested election the all stars hereon leader asks regime loyalists to defend the country and its independence for the opposition is keeping up the pressure holding the biggest demonstration yet in the capital minutes also coming up. the rainbow flag is being raised on statues and buildings across poland as the l g b t community steps up its campaign in support of jailed activists we'll have the

story of pollings new rainbow resistance. i'm voting yes welcome to the program. president alexander lukashenko has rejected cold so holds a new election and says moscow is ready to step in to save the country speaking to supporters in men's critical shankar's said the opposition protests are being steered from abroad and accused nato of deploying military forces near the country's border the alliance has dismissed that claim but says it's closely monitoring the situation in belarus undeterred fans tens of thousands of opposition supporters protesters are also holding a massive rally in the capital called the freedom march it's the biggest demonstration so far against really pushing. those disputed elections tree.

well we can now go to w.'s moscow correspondent and be sure one who's following the developments in better ruse for us hi emily i mean what do you make of the president goes accuse ations against nato while nato has firmly denied that they are placing troops at the valuation borders but we have heard from the belarus in the valorization army that they will be holding military drills in the coming days it seems to me that look ashamed to wants to turn this internal political crisis into some kind of a geo political conflict that he's kind of inflating it giving it more importance and that's a strategy that we've sort of seen in the past few days as well when he accused the protestors of being controlled from abroad he called them cheap but when you actually look at the protests that we're seeing they don't seem to have anything to

do with geopolitics people are demanding regime change and it's important to know that we don't see any e.u. flags on the streets of cities across bella reuss unlike in ukraine a few years ago when people were kind of demanding closer ties to the e.u. this is really not about that and the bellers in a condom me strongly depends on russia it's an important partner for the country and that will be the case going forward even if there is an office mission government subsidy close ties there live to go spoke to the russian president vladimir putin on saturday and again today sunday so what can we expect from russia in this situation. the russian side talking about external pressure on bella reuss and saying that it would be willing if necessary to provide assistance under an existing military agreement with bella

ruse so that could mean either russian troops or peacekeepers but it seems unlikely to me that that will happen at the moment it seems more like this announcement that we've seen from today is kind of a warning sign to the west that they shouldn't meddle in what's happening in after all russia sees bella ruse as firmly part of its fear of influence as an important kind of buffer zone between russia and nato but the kremlin surely knows that luka shango has lost legitimacy in the last few days and that even if he stayed he would be kind of a weak leader and that's not in their interest either. one who's keeping a close eye on all the goings on in batteries for reporting from moscow thank you so much well let's take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world at least 5

people have been killed in an attack on a beach from the somali capital mogadishu many more have been wounded so details about the incident are still emerging state media says islamist militants detonated a car bomb before a gunman stormed the building. thousands of protesters have rallied in bangkok to demand political change tensions in thailand have been rising after the arrest of 3 leading pro-democracy activists the demonstrations come after years of political turmoil and failed promises to restore democracy following 824000 military coup. u.s. president donald trump has said he will look into a pardon for whistleblower edward snowden said he had heard strong arguments for and against the move the exiled former national security agency contractor faces criminal charges over his leak of classified documents revealed u.s. government surveillance. well now to poland

a country where members of the community have faced increasing attacks from politicians and religious leaders human rights observers say homophobic sentiment has become normalized in poland but the past week has seen a wave of pro demonstrations across the country rallies have been held in warsaw and other cities in support of activists arrested for carrying out a protest actions people have been hanging rainbow flags on statues and public buildings rights groups accusing polish police of on all 3 detaining protesters and onlookers. well the reporter joe is here with me has been following this story jill tell me what tell us more about what's behind these protests something remarkable zain going on in poland in the last few days after years of injuring political lead homophobia some activists

have had enough and are turning to civil disobedience now i want to introduce you to somebody this is margo mago is an anarchist activist who was arrested a few days ago we can see it here in the video she's made this video just before she was taken into custody telling her supporters that she'll be all right now margo is part of a radical group called stop bush daughter more stop nonsense and they persevered yos of people running around polish cities hanging off the rainbow flags on statues and public videos of public buildings now they do this they say because in poland statues have more rights than living l.g.b. t. people however that is not what part of what margot was arrested for margot was arrested for allegedly attacking a truck a truck. driving around polish cities carrying homophobic messages messages such as are equating gay people with pedophiles this truck and trucks. i've been paid

for by a polish conservative group and activists have tried legal means to stop them that hasn't worked so now they're actually putting themselves in front of these trucks which we can see in another video just taken a few days ago we see here a group has stopped the truck the police are there as well there's an argument going on later we see the truck driving away and police intervening again to push a cyclist out of its path to enable it to continue driving around the city broadcasting its homophobic messages now margot was arrested for allegedly attacking one of these trucks with a knife slashing its tires and getting into a fight with one of its drivers now she was put into pretrial detention for 2 months that's even before she'd been found guilty which sparked this wave of protests we've seen in the last few days thousands of people have come out in cities across poland we've also seen demonstrations being held in other cities including here in berlin well briefly joel we saw that there's been you know during the kind of the campaigns to elect the conservative president that there

were you know a lot of there's a lot of homophobic rhetoric has that played a role in these recent actions yes well activists say that it's actually inspired them i spoke to the uk to said melnyk from the polish group campaign against homophobia and he says that people turning to civil disobedience because they become disenchanted with politics well it seems. that that's on the end we see that those actions one hand seem to be very. stressed that it's just a consequence for years. and warmest hate speech right. institutions and all. so magos case is drawing support from european parliament members have written to poland saying that she should be released from pretrial detention and we've also seen new protests there was one today in poland so we're seeing this new wave of resistance in poland children roy thanks for bringing this type of thing

what's going on in poland. let's bring you up to date now with the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic the world health organization is sounding the alarm after the number of new infections hit an all time high according to the w.h.o. almost 300000 cases were recorded across the world in the past 24 hours says korea and the u.s. have delayed their annual joint military drills after a south korean officer tested positive for covert 19 it's now due to start on tuesday but it's scope has been scaled down and new zealand's deputy prime minister has called for a delay to the planned september general election that's after a new coronavirus cluster emerged in the country's largest city all cleaned the source of the outbreak is being investigated well brazil is trying to entice tourists to rediscover rio some of the city's top attractions reopened this weekend following a 5 month pandemic shutdown the move comes despite surging infection rates brazil

is the world's 2nd hardest hit country with more than 100000 coronavirus deaths but with limits on visitor numbers in place some tourists appeared reassured with their cameras at the ready. the christ the redeemer statue one of rio's most stunning landmarks is welcoming visitors back with open arms. officials say there's little to worry about. this is working on a safe reopening. we're taking care mainly of people's health and economic survival . it comes after 5 months of closures that have seen brazil's tourist industry fall off a cliff the country has lost billions in revenue after operating at a tiny fraction of capacity but health experts are warning that brazil hasn't yet reached its peak infection rate even as businesses and public spaces reopen.

sugarloaf mountain another big draw for people packed into cable cars to get there . we are always going to be worried but when all the measures are fulfilled we feel a little more secure we have to take steps to be able to return to normal life little by little in this case normal life means posing in front of landmarks these people have decided it's worth the risk of the formula one that we're defending champion lewis hamilton has won the spanish grand prix for a 4th consecutive time the result is driver extends his lead in the standings after easily fighting all fred bolt for stop and who finished 2nd said his teammate came in 3rd right at the podium hamilton is aiming for a 7th title which would equal the record set by germany's. now to an athlete

who followed her heart into the waves. learned how to surf as a teenager and soon became senegal's 1st female professional surfer now the olympic hopeful is inspiring a generation of young girls to defy cultural norms and hone their skills on a surfboard. all the streets of cynical this is something you don't see every day women with surfboards it's a male dominated sport here. though that didn't discourage you son now the country's only female professional some fell in love with surfing years ago at the age of 13 black women surfers were nowhere to be found in senegal back then and some feel that void becoming a pioneer for the sport however her journey wasn't easy. what i always advise young girl missing starts a thing is to not listen to other people who try and stop them because they have.

to concentrate and to keep on going ahead focus on their training and again to not listen to others because i went through this myself with people telling me to stop assessing which is why i started sniffing a bit late and so i tell them that if you want to progress in your surfing and go forward don't listen to those who tell you to stop or stay at home because that backward looking. within each one teach one mentality some now 23 years old spencer spare time showing females in senegal the ins in outs of the sport some was looking forward to competing in the olympics until they were postponed because of the coronavirus until the next summer games some is sharing her love of surfing. with no planes of slowing down. i want to be surfing in the ocean you're watching the news i'll be back at the top of the hour and if you can't wait until then you

can always find more news and information on all our stories on our web site com or you can also follow us on twitter and instagram on public funniest and brilliant for me on the entire news team take care and see soon. reach any kind of surprising. amount. comes in the footsteps of the great.