this is deja news live from berlin the resume president alexander lukashenko rallies his supporters after a week of protests that followed last weekend's contested election the auto parts tarion leader asks regime loyalists to defend the country and its independence but the opposition is keeping up the pressure holding the biggest demonstrations yet in the capital minsk also coming up. the rainbow flag is being raised on the 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 poland's new rainbow resistance. pablo foley yes welcome to the program but a resume president alexander lukashenko has rejected calls to hold a new election and says moscow is ready to step in to save the country speaking to supporters in minsk kaluga shango 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 is closely monitoring the situation in bellerose undeterred fan tens of thousands of opposition protesters are also holding a massive rally in the capital called the freedom march it's the biggest demonstration so far against those disputed election victory. well we can now

go to w.'s moscow correspondent and be sure one who's following the developments in better routes 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 belarusian 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 protesters 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 note

that we don't see any e.u. flags on the streets of cities across. 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 bellerose 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 opposition government subsidy close ties there go spoke to the russian president vladimir putin on saturday and again today sunday so what can we expect from russia in this situation . well it's kind of hard to know at the moment but in recent days up until today russia has been rather quiet about what's going on in its neighboring country today we then had the russian side talking about external pressure on belo 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 fellow after all russia sees belarus 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 lucas franco 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. better risk correspondent alexander brokaw has been released from

detention reports for russian language service he was arrested in his hometown a. few days before the presidential election. received a 10 day prison sentence for petty going isn't a charge he denies and is considering appealing. his prosecution was purely political it was his 2nd time in prison this year. well we spoke to paul rieckhoff after his release and i asked him how he was treated while he was detained. i can't describe my roth. in the war this is the work place a lesion i was sitting in the snow all over this in review was to all of a so i am here to read and do not them all this time at the. internet and i am sure now. this is the regime about this

continuous. believe both for me because i didn't know anything. when i was g.w. correspondent alexander brokaw speaking to us after he was released from prison and better roofs moving on let's take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world at least 5 people have been killed in an attack on a beach front hotel in the somali capital mogadishu state media say the militants detonated a car bomb outside the elite hotel before gunmen stormed the building is a missed group al-shabaab has claimed responsibility. 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 a 2014 military coup. israel launched further airstrikes on

hamas positions in gaza overnight has closed the enclaves offshore fishing zone the army said the measures were in response to rockets and balloon fire bombs being sent into israeli territory over the past week it's the most intense escalation of hostilities in months. u.s. president donald trump has said he'll 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 that revealed u.s. government surveillance. and that's a poll of the 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 we can see 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 pigs or people have been hanging rainbow flags on statues and public buildings rights groups accusing polish police of unlawfully detaining protesters and onlookers. well the reporter joel dole roy has been following this for us hi joe welcome to the show tell us more about what's behind these protests well it's really remarkable what we've been seeing in the last week in poland after years of enduring this politically led homophobia or some. the activists have had enough and they're turning to civil disobedience now i want to introduce you to maga she's an anarchist activist who was arrested just over a week ago now she. can see a video here where she was talking to supporters just before she was taken into custody telling them that she's going to be all right she's part of

a group called stop because the doorstop nonsense and this group we could seen videos of them running around putting up flags on statues in public places around poland and they do so because they say that statues have more wives than living people are living people in poland however this action is not what margot was arrested for she has been charged for attacking a vehicle slashing its tires and getting into a fight with its driver now the vehicle in question is a van one of several trucks that has been driving around poland carrying homophobic messages equating gay people with pedophiles these vans are paid for by a conservative group we can see here a video of what people are doing in reaction to it bt activists are turning to civil disobedience to try and stop these vans from driving around because legal action has failed here we can see how the police move in to push people out of the way to ensure that the venue can continue driving along the streets and now the

maga was arrested for allegedly attacking one of these type of vans she was put into pretrial detention for 2 months before she's been found guilty of anything her supporters say that she was kept in solitary confinement and wasn't able to speak to a lawyer that has sparked this recent wave of protests that we've seen across cities in poland thousands of people coming out carrying rainbow flags even more rainbow flags being hung on statues and public buildings and there are also been solidarity demonstrations in other cities around the world well there was just an election in poland which you know the conservative president was relate reelected in a campaign that included. you know quite a lot of homophobic rhetoric of rhetoric not played a role in these in these recent actions that we've seen like those images there yet it seems to have actually reinvigorated the resistance movement i spoke to vyacheslav melnyk from the group the polish group campaign against homophobia and

he told me that many people have simply given up on politics as they don't see it as a way forward right. it seems to be whole and that's definitely and 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. and you should it's an art well so magos case is also getting support from european parliamentary members who have written to poland saying that she should be released from that pretrial detention we are also saying renew protests in poland another one today it was met by a counter demonstration of far right nationalists who were shouting homophobic slurs so we see that the community has a lot to fight against but we are starting to see the beginnings of a new resistance movement for l.g.b. to people in poland well childer thanks for bringing us that story

well moving on now we're going to take a look at the latest developments in the corona virus pandemic germany's public health agency is warning people to avoid indoor social gatherings as infections climates advising the public eye get togethers should be limited to small groups of close family and friends it has ordered a 3 week closure of all night clubs and discos after an uptick in new cases the government has also made mosques mandatory of nighttime in public and israel has nukes and it's tough travel restrictions citizens residents and foreign workers arriving from 20 countries will now be exempt from quarantine israel's borders remain closed to foreign tourists. moving on to sport and formula one we're defending champion lewis hamilton has won the spanish grand prix for a 4th consecutive time the reset his driver extended his lead in the standings after easily fighting off red bulls 1st up and who finished 2nd said his teammate

came in 3rd rounding out the podium how multan 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 some learned how to surf as a teenager and soon became senegal's 1st female professional surfer that he had become full is inspiring a generation of young girls to defy cultural norms and hone their skills on a surfboard. all the streets of senegal this is something you don't see every day women with surfboards it's a male dominated sport here. so that didn't discourage taji 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 girls who 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 to think of it 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 will stay at home because that backward looking. within each one teach one mentality son now 23 years old spencer's 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 plans of slowing down.

and watching 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 our stories on our website dot com or of course on twitter instagram for me the rest of the team here brilliant see you soon take care. what secrets lie behind things was. discover new adventures in 360 degree. and explore fascinating world heritage sites. g.w. world heritage 368 get the map now.