this is the new news live from berlin the racine president alexander lukashenko rallies his supporters after a week of protests that followed last weekend's contested election the all-star tarion leader asks regime loyalists to defend the country and its independence but the opposition is keeping up the pressure holding the biggest demonstration the yet in the capital minutes also coming up. could a presidential pardon be on the cards for one of america's most high profile leakers of government secrets donald trump says he's weighing up for work free for

former intelligence contractor edward snowden. and in formula one racing world champion lewis hamilton has one of the spanish strong 3 broken. record for a career podium fictious. yes welcome to the program but a recession president alexander lukashenko has rejected calls to hold a new election and says moscow is ready to step in to quote save the country speaking to supporters in men's kuka shango also 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 opposition protests have been growing in strength since last week's disputed election they took to the streets in their

biggest numbers yet on some. opposing demonstrations in the streets of central minsk. with this man at the heart of both embattled by the russian president alexander lukashenko. dear friends i didn't just call you here to defend me you came here to defend your country your independence your families for the 1st time in a quarter of a century. lucas shankar dressed thousands of loyal supporters on sunday after days of protest put belorussian domestic politics in the international spotlight he accused foreign powers of organizing the opposition against him forever the opposition is all paid off their provocateurs who went into the crowd where are the parents of the children who went to the protest it's criminals who are committing these violent acts against our riot police here and that narrative about. lucas shankar has ruled the former soviet state since 1904 and after his disputed

reelection victory last week he is determined to stay in power moscow says it's ready to help militarily after the crushing reached out to russian president vladimir putin twice in recent days. but just 2 and a half kilometers away from the main government building in midst an entirely different sentiment as a much larger crowd of tens of thousands poured into a rally at victory park organizers called a march for freedom. movement continue we want changes and not just in the political sense we want human life to be valued in our country and that's the main demand so at the current authorities are in no way supporting that if they're only making it worse. they say for all of this to happen luka shingo has to go they reject official results that say the president won his 6th term with 80 percent of the vote and are demanding a new election and

a new beginning for the people of color. yes. well we can now go to w.'s moscow correspondent and be sure one who's following the developments in better room 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 i shan't go 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 know 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 belarus 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 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 who today is kind of a warning sign to the west that they shouldn't meddle in what's happening in velo 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 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 now let's take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world some of the security forces say they've ended a siege in a beach front hotel in the company mogadishu at least 15 people were killed when militants detonated a car bomb outside the elite hotel gunman stormed the building taking several hostages islam is the group al-shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack. 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. u.s. president donald trump has said he looked into a pardon for whistleblower edward snowden said he'd 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 to us government surveillance. translates as the party of god and 11 on the shiite islam is a group is all powerful it's influences its influence stretches across society through religion politics and the military but it's also part of an elite characterized by incompetence and corruption an elite that's proving resistant to reform despite growing frustration among the lebanese population and calls for an overhaul of the country is run for half an hour leave the poorest of beirut symbolizes the failure of the powerful clowns that rule lebannon the 22 year old she is' says this country is badly governed i'm told though has been acts like it's a protecting force speciality ali says the group shelters a lot of the blame. the explosion last week was the result of carelessness and the

breakdown of the entire state apparatus about 200 people were killed and 6 thais and injured but chipped in with. hezbollah operates as a state within a state living off its reputation of standing up to israel and offering protection and aid to its supporters the shiite militia is armed with an estimated 120000 rockets making it the center of military might and levanon hezbollah representatives dominate both parliament and the government but that's also a weakness as many blame the group for the poor state of the country its financial crisis and the devastating ports explosion earlier this month. son of peasants of other young demonstrators have been hitting the streets for months risking the ire of hezbollah which has targets of protesters to intimidate and spread fear ali says he was once captured detained for 3 days and tortured.

while you this by the supporters have attacked us many times destroyed protest camps and even beaten women and children that doesn't seem to bother them. hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah has shown no sign of moving aside for a new form of political leadership even after the resignation of the lebanese government in a t.v. interview he announced that he would like to play a decisive role in the new government has been a source to say that criticism of the militia is part of a campaign directed from abroad. no one in the world can tell them whether to leave the government or be part of a. miracle and in the report my son just wants to leave lebanon now and seek asylum in germany where his siblings live even if the trip could cost him his life. i want to cross the sea to get to europe or to some other place where animals have more rights than the people here where i am safe. sun has given up on his

homeland the keeps in his country especially hezbollah i've always proven to be too strong. well moving on to sport now and in formula one motor racing world champion lewis hamilton won the spanish grown prix for the 4th straight year on sunday the result was the british driver's $156.00 podium finish breaking a record long held by german racing legend. some of the drivers took a knee on the track before the race to show their support for the black lives matter of movement. and then they were off with world champion lewis hamilton starting from pole position and his mercedes teammate valtteri bottas also in the front row. and in a masterful performance hamilton managed to hang on to the lead throughout the race

on a sweltering afternoon outside boss alone with very little drama or suspense hamilton cruised to victory 24 seconds ahead of his closest title rival max 1st stop in the red with photo os finishing 3rd. but ready to doubt that today's it is a real surprise because we had this problem with the ties. management was. was very very good at this understanding of what happened last week it was interesting that . it was really they would have to do it today hamilton celebrated his 156th podium finish surpassing the record held by the great michael schumacher. the win increases his lead in the title race to 37 points ahead of her stopping. football now and in the semifinals of the europa league have beaten manchester united to one for now for 9 days have converted

a penalty to open the scoring for united in the 9th minute but then suso equalized for syria with 26 minutes gone and looped the young rounded out the 21 final score 12 minutes from time c.b.s. will face the winner of monday's clash between interland and shakhtar donetsk in the final. now to an athlete who followed her heart into the waves. learned how to surf as a teenager and soon became senegal's 1st a female professional surfer now the olympic hopeful is aspire 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. though that didn't discourage juice up 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 other it's 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's 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 sama sharing her love of surfing.

with no plans of slowing down. you're watching the news in berlin that's all from me and the rest of the team here book make sure to keep up to date on all that i just use on dot com take care. in the. climate change. comes from a massive. storm people. want to use today how for the future of. the total shock.