d.w. news live from for land developers here in president seeks to quell a growing resistance to his rule and demonstrations head into a 1998 after alexander lukashenko says new elections could be possible but only after a referendum on the constitution citizens saying they want change now. also coming up the u.s. democrats launch their national convention with some straight talking from some high profile figures. if we have any hope of ending this chaos we have got to

vote for joe biden like our lives depended on. the 1st ever virtual convention culminates thursday with biden's nomination as donald trump's main challenger in november plus alcohol and tobacco go back on sale in south africa as the government uses coronavirus restrictions that saw curbs on most economic life. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program there has been a 9th night of protests and the ballot who seemed capital calling for president alexander lukashenko to step down that is despite signs from go that he may be prepared to hold fresh elections under certain conditions but following his controversial re-election last weekend after 26 years under his rule many ballo

racine's want change now. demonstrators demand liberty for the political prisoners and arrested protesters after 9 days of unprecedented protests calling on president alexander lukashenko to resign. and workers across the country joined a nationwide strike called by the opposition. to go away chanted factory workers at the president who had come to shore up support in an exchange with a worker has said new elections were possible but only after the country holds a referendum so. the president should not make decisions as a result of pressure the president must find a compromise exactly that is how. we need to approve a new constitution so the opposition won't be against it it needs to be approved in

a referendum because our previous constitution was approved in a referendum and based on the new constitution and if you want it we will show you elections for the parliament presidency and local government bodies. new and fair elections are what the opposition leaders spittle on a chicken off sky now in exile in lithuania campaigned for. the unprepared to take responsibility and act as the nation's leader cheering this period so the country settles down and gets back to normality so that we can release all political prisoners and prepare a legal framework in conditions to hold another round of presidential elections in the shortest time possible. and. as the internal pressure grows so too does international concern. that.

the e.u. is planning an emergency. summit's about bella russo mindstate the block is already making a list of people who will face sanctions for the violence that followed the disputed elections in bella ruse striking workers joining determined protesters in calling for their leader to go. and sure wind is following developments she joins us now emily as we heard there 9 nights of protest against shango the pressure is high what's at stake at the moment well i think in a way the future of the political future of i think some that will question go is at stake and as you say pressure on him has been growing and continues to grow yesterday we saw protesters marching to several prisons in minsk and demanding the release of political prisoners and of some of the people who were arrested during

the protests they gathered there and more and more workers from state enterprises are joining protests and are joining strikes as well including enterprises that really make up key sectors of the valuation economy and yesterday also state t.v. one state t.v. channel joined those strikes so these are really groups that were traditionally loyal to because shank oh and it seems that even support within those groups is crumbling yesterday we spoke to some workers at a factory and even they were shouting at him to leave and for his part you know in reply to all that said on monday that he would be ready to hold new elections and hand over power after a constitutional referendum do people believe him. well the main demand of protesters still is for lukas shanku to leave and of course what he's been saying isn't very credible considering the fact that yesterday alone in

the during the day he said that there would only be new elections over his dead body and then later on he said thing about about there only being new elections after constitutional reforms it's not really clear what exactly that would mean but it does seem that the opposition is prepared for dialogue one of. those close allies. told d.w. that the opposition would even be open to dialogue with luka shango if necessary and meanwhile has gotten together kind of a board of people to coordinate the transfer of power so it looks like the opposition is preparing for some sort of talks and even look at shank a may have some kind of a role and not and meantime on the international level go is claiming that russia says that it will support dello russo the u.s. and the e.u. officials there saying that russia should stay out of it so tell us a little bit more about that tension. well the west

wants russia to stay out of it and russia clearly wants the west to stay out of it they very much see being kind of part of their sphere of influence and on on the weekend we saw the russian side even offering military support if necessary to bella reuss i think that was a very clear signal to the west to kind of stay out bella ruse is seen as a key ally here in russia and also as kind of a buffer zone between russia and nato allies and i think even russia now knows that . it has kind of lost legitimacy in the past few days and that if he stayed if they did prop him up he would be a weak leader so i'm sure that the kremlin is looking around for other options after all even the opposition here even the opposition in bell roots rather knows that russia is a key partner that russia is an important country for the belorussian economy and

that they will want to keep it that way so it could be that if there are talks at least that's what people in the media here are saying that russia could be some sort of a mediator in those talks that could reflect the thinking in the kremlin as well that they want to mediate the future of. only showing thank you. and as the position of the veteran belarus leader begins to look increasingly untenable here in germany some past and present leaders say that they are seeing echoes of their own country's history playing out on the streets of minutes. on the left east germany in 1809 on the right 2020 in germany where memory of peaceful revolution is only 3 decades old comparisons are being drawn between the protests in belarus and those in the g.d.r. which eventually led to the fall of the berlin wall the deciding factor will be

what russian president vladimir putin does whether he supports alexander lukashenko on the regime or whether he has the wisdom and intelligence of the former soviet leader mikhail gorbachev and says that's no good we have to give up this country enable democracy and enable a new partnership between russia and belarus. and. some german papers are already calling the protests the beginning of the end of the dictatorship but what that might look like is the question occupying the minds of political leaders in berlin. i appeal to president to look to see dialogue not to use violence but to use dialogue in state. believe. appeal to the better russian military not to use violence against its own people. the people of this stricken but proud country deserve our solidarity and support. of.

germany has repeatedly criticized allegedly rigged election win as well as the violence used against protesters but politically it remains courses with all eyes in europe anxiously observing moscow in the meantime solidarity in terms of sanctions will be the focus of the e.u.'s emergency summit on wednesday. dorset. ag you have to make it is very very clear especially the germany new council presidency that lukas shankar is not elected president of belarus these elections were massively manipulated. and at the same time make it very clear that the sanctions will directly affect lucas and cote. who are we of the people was a key slogan of the demonstrators in the g.d.r. calling for democracy now more than 30 years later some protesters are demanding that they get to determine the future direction of the country. and we have now to

the united states where the democratic party has kicked off its 4 day virtual convention aimed at further solidifying support for its presidential candidate joe biden the event is normally packed with crowds but this year it is being held remotely because of the coronavirus convention will see the democrats formally choose biden to take on donald trump and november former presidential candidate bernie sanders was among those to give his indorsement to biden saying that he could help unify a divided country take a listen now to him and some of the other speakers. joe biden will and the hate and the vision from paris created he will stop the demonization of immigrants the coddling of white nationalists the races for whistling the religious bigotry and the ugly attacks on women i'm a lifelong republican but that attachment holds 2nd place to my responsibility to my country that's why i've chosen to appear at this convention what we do know is

that we can do better and what we've been seeing today for sure and i know that joe biden with his experience and his wisdom it is decency can bring us together to help us find that better way we have to vote for joe biden in numbers that cannot be ignored because right now. folks who know they cannot win fair and square at the ballot box are doing everything they can to stop us from voting it closing down polling places in minority neighborhoods they're purging voter rolls they're sinden people out to intimidate voters and they're lying about the security of our ballots these tactics are not new. but this is not the time to withhold our votes in protest or play games with candidates who have no chance of just some of the highlights there of day one of the democratic national convention kroft is

following this very unusual convention there's a lot of firsts here namely the fact that it is a virtual convent and we've just heard from michelle obama she was really the highlight of day one wasn't she i mean for democrats she definitely hit all the right notes she is extremely popular not only among democrats and she occupies a very interesting position because as 1st lady she was a quasi political position of course not an elected position but the 1st lady has developed into a position all of its own with its own agenda its own staff and she was able to see firsthand what it means to be president and what it takes to be president and she said very clearly donald trump doesn't have what it takes to be president and that kind of message really hits a note hits a chord with. as i said not just democrats but many people who respect her especially women of both parties there were other strong case we saw bernie sanders a fierce opponent of joe biden quite ideologically different in many different in

many ways but bernie sanders saying you got to vote for joe biden appealing to his further left supporters say you need to vote for joe biden this is not a joke there's not a time for kidding around so a lot of strong messages we all saw from republicans as well who are fed up with with donald trump so democrats and i would be pleased with their 1st day i mean this is the moment where everyone comes together and rallies behind the party it's really a big opportunity to rally that support to talk with us about the challenges of the format now because obviously we're not seeing the typical big venture in you know where there are a lot of people where balloons are dropping confetti is in the air hillary clinton in the mike arena for example yeah exactly it is a very interesting format it's a big experiment if it works this could be the way that can. and shins happen in the future if it doesn't they'll be a lot of jokes to be said to be a lot of joking around no matter what but still very popular i was following a couple of the online live streams with just thousands of people following adding

their own comments in a way harnessing the internet and social media it actually makes it a more interactive experience for many people it allows many diehard democrats many partisans people you know average voters get to feel like they're part of the action in a way because they're watching online they're able to comment they feel that they're involved in a way that they couldn't if they were if the event was physically taking place milwaukee then it's only for delegates and really party party members in so much as that so we'll see how this works so far there weren't any huge problems today it's a lot of different streams coming in from a lot of different places some pretty recorded some live it's a definitely a big technical hurdle and we'll see if the democrats can can handle this week and republicans have a shot next week you just leave there is that that jump in support in the polls following these conventions to talk with us about the bottom why what does it mean for the elections what does it mean for november which is still months away that

bump comes as a result of 4 days of wall to wall media coverage most of it positive this week for the democrats next week for donald trump of the republicans because that is the new story is this convention a hyper partisan event the long term effect on convention that conventions have an election historically not so great hard to make a case that it really impacts people's opinions or change people's opinions minds the convention is about rallying the troops preaching to the choir and getting getting them to open their wallets and that is the big point is fundraising coming out of the convention with a lot of money in your back pocket that you can go on to conduct your campaign and go on to hopefully win. so with the latest on the democratic national convention which kicked off last night in the united states thank you thanks. let's have a look now at some other stories making news around the world firefighters in brazil are struggling to contain blazes in the world's largest tropical wetlands

brazil's panton our region has seen a 3 fold rise in the number of wildfires compared to last year but the marshlands are home to thousands of species you need to the region. in pakistan at least 10 people drowned when their boat capsized in a lake in the south of the country rescuers said the victims were returning from a day trip to a shrine reports say that strong winds and overcrowding likely contributed to the act. and the german foreign minister heigl mosse has paid a surprise visit to libya berlin has been trying to broker peace in the country mired in a civil war since 2011th mosse called the recent wall in fighting a deceptive calm and warns that outside powers are still sending arms to the. well it is day 2 in the trial of what could be germany's largest ever organized child sex abuse case the main suspect is accused of sexually assaulting his infant

daughter more than 150 people are also being investigated in this case involving an online pedophile network and shared images of child pornography critics say that germany isn't doing enough to tackle sex crimes against children on the internet. the defendant hid his face as he entered the courtroom. it was a routine search of the 43 year old's home in a cologne suburb that revealed a sprawling network of men accused of sexual violence against their own children and the children of others. dog attacked as a defendant is alleged to have sexually assaulted his daughter in 61 cases some of them very serious he said to film the abuse and then share the videos in chat groups. uncovering these crimes has proved deeply disturbing even for the most experienced investigators the suspect allegedly began abusing his daughter when she was just 3 months old he's also accused of membership in a massive online paedophile network chat groups not only offered users tips on how

to abuse children but also provided them with children to sexually abuse it's the biggest case of organized paedophilia in german history suspects have been located across germany and abroad. charges in 10 cases and 9 suspects are in investigative custody and we have leads 130000 unidentified offenders it's the 3rd major paedophile network uncovered by police in the state of north rhine-westphalia in the space of 2 years 130 investigators from colognes police force have been working on the case sifting through the digital evidence to date only a portion of the data has been evaluated investigators are certain the files will lead them to many more suspects. well aware bit of good news we're heading to now to change the pace here on the economic front germany's central bank the bundesbank says it is expecting strong growth in germany in the summer of this year but it's

also warning against expecting a return to pre-crisis economic activity to sit. the days when there was not a soul to be seen on german streets are over with the lifting of coronavirus restrictions life is returning to normal since the low points in april things have been on the up. in the 2nd quarter the german economy slumped by 10 percent the biggest fold since world war 2 the balance sheet for the current quarter looks set to show a big increase according to the bundesbank. the impact of the corona virus in the broader economy has been relatively small the engineering industry shed over 30000 jobs in the 1st half of the year with over 1000000 employees in the sector this is bearable. the services sector and private consumption also did not completely collapse as the state kept on paying a large portion of salaries. on time to the european central banks expansive

monetary policy there are plenty of cheap loans available. so is everything looking good not exactly whether growth proves sustainable depends on what happens in other countries if their economies don't start to gain momentum then germany a major exporter will find it difficult to counter the downward trend. and as the coronavirus impacts economies around the world let's take a look now at some of the developments in the pandemic the world health organization says that the spread of the virus is increasingly being driven by people aged 20 to 40 the organization says that many young people don't even know that they are infected and they pose a danger to more vulnerable groups in australia and epidemiologists has testified that 99 percent of current infections in the state of victoria can be traced to 2 melbourne hotels where families returning from overseas travelled and had been staying. meantime we have the philippines president barbie go to terre tay further

easing the coronavirus lockdown in the capital manila and surrounding areas shopping malls restaurants and churches are being allowed to open from wednesday. south africa which imposed one of the world's strictest coronavirus lockdowns 5 months ago has begun easing its restrictions today that includes allowing alcohol and cigarettes sales again and the reopening of restaurants schools will open in phases starting next week south africans are also allowed to visit family and friends again for the 1st time since march its nearly 600000 infections south africa has more than half of all her own a virus cases in africa. let's get more from g.w. correspondent krishna is in cape town and following the story for us so how are people there feeling about the sweeping relaxation of lockdown measures.

i am in front of one of the liquor stores in capetown at the moment you can see few people are still queuing before they open there was a long line of people waiting to get in and many of them of course where happy those i talked to said well it didn't really make sense to have this band they said it was still available both alcohol and cigarettes on the black market they just had to spend more money for it but i was also quite surprised that some people in the line here told me that they could understand the government that they introduced this rule because the peak was there was the 1st peak of the penn demick and the hospitals have seen so many trauma admissions so many car accident and this was exactly the reason why the government decided to reintroduce for 2nd time this ban on alcohol sales to keep the hospitals empty to make sure that the doctors and nurses have time to take care uncovered 1000 patients rob so then therefore adriaan how confident are the authorities that the outbreak is now under control. well i mean the numbers look quite promising at the moment

a few weeks back we had infection rates of about 10000 a day now we're down to less than 5000 new infections every day the recovery rate stands at 80 percent and also there's a very low death rates you know much lower than originally expected so these are promising numbers on the other hand we're really not sure if these numbers reflect the reality because up until now in public health care institutions you're not able to get a test unless you older than 55 years or you have co-morbidities so it is likely that the real number is much higher than the ones that we see officially and the authorities still have a long way to go to get things fixed the health care system was not really overwhelmed as expected but this still a lot to do it has been neglected for years and years and also the contract tracing is a massive problem here it seems that the authorities are not following really up on all the context of its 90 and patients and this is something they need to walk on in the next weeks because if you follow just already warning that this sickens wave

might be coming they're looking at other countries where when they open boss like we've seen here at the moment then the numbers are likely to go up again and it's impacting not only people's health their way of life but of course also the economy and we know that that the unemployment rate increased over 30 percent in the 1st quarter talked with us about now the easing of restrictions and the impact that that is likely to have on an economic basis. well i mean it will of course give businesses some as a breeze and they're very happy about the restaurants in particular that they can now so i'll call again they say the major part of their income comes from from the sales of alcohol but of course things will not get back to normal that foster people here are expecting the unemployment rates to raise above 50 percent in the next rate which is of course shocking for this country and that is already has seen such a huge amount of inequality so there are really some tough months ahead and there are still some measures in place some coverts

a lockdown measures that are impacting the economy for example the borders are still closed international flights are not possible in a city like capetown this is a disaster that heavily relies on international tourism adrienne increased joining us from cape town thank you. socrates now and in the semifinals of the europa league inter milan have shocked our don't ask 5 nil. martinez open scoring for inter in the 1900 minute and then midway through the 2nd half internet age for more goals through the new low down bro c.e.o. martinez a again and 2 from romelu lukaku enter will now face a via in the final on friday night. reminder of the top story that we're following for you here on deputed protesters have remained on the streets for any fine night in the fellow 1st and top it all ends despite president alexander

lukashenko hinting that he could be open to holding elections and sharing power he said 1st there would have to be a referendum on the constitution. coming up next sunday to the news the best of the goals in the bundesliga it is kicked off i'm sorry kelly in berlin thank you so much for joining us this half hour.

to. pick up the for. the most. part of such. a most remote. place compilation album obscene. just. gives you. much of. the country in the pandemics shadow.

of spain's difficult path to a new normal. from total loss down. to the 1st easing of restrictions then the return of tourists and all of the consequences. spain's fight with a call on a virus comes. in 60 minutes on g.w. . we know this is a scary time for the coronavirus is changing the world changing our lives so please take care of yourself good systems wash your hands if you can date and how we are d.w.p. press here for we are working tirelessly to keep you informed on all of our

platforms we're all in this together and together make it. do you see that everybody. is very safe stay safe please stay safe. the us crime but. my bank make cuts in the mail out in. class and i thank you thank. you. thanks. for all you fans of fancy finished.