headline stories. lloyd from the country's election. call for the president's resignation many are voicing alarm over the. situation in my country. the president. our president. the leaders of france and germany reached to president putin to discuss the situation and russia has called on all countries to avoid interfering in the crisis. in the u.s. senate intelligence committee releases a reports accusing. party

2016 the document uses the phrase almost certain. evidence. with 1000 infections spiking in many european nations governments across the continent imposing safety restrictions sparking widespread discontent. in the world this is our team international my names you know me very welcome to the program. belarus entered a 10th day of protests against the president who is accused of rigging the recent election although demonstrations were initially marred by a heavy handed police response they are now largely peaceful the belorussian interior ministry has said accept some responsibility for the way the crisis

unfolded but the statement was short on specifics. the trees across the country have been brought to a standstill by workers strikes while crowds remain it's on the streets demanding president goes resignation and trying to keep up the pressure until there are demands are met this was the scene in minsk on monday evening. i look i. was i. was i or several culture of protests are now being held there prosperous the largest is in the eastern city of mobility of as you can see people are waving the red and green flying get altered in 1905 a year after alexander lukashenko came to power that's in contrast to the older red and white flag used by opponents of the president people have been speaking out in

support of mr lucas franco and saying feel the west needs to stop. the situation in our country is very serious so we have come out here to show our support for the president we are against unrest in our country. there should be new rights we should find compromise says we do not condemn the support for the position so why should they condemn the us. and want to say one thing i stand here preval or is our president for our prosperous and beautiful country will never give up to anyone or earlier in the day the leaders of france and germany contacted president putin to discuss the crisis in belarus with more inert tears artie's roman culture of. rallies in support of what's happening in belarus have been happening in front solve a country's embassy in the russian capital for 10 days straight we've seen different turnouts here with the largest probably the past we can probably see the protesters so it will supporters have behind me carrying flowers and holding white

ribbon meanwhile protests continue in belarus as well where on cheese that would seem both pro and anti look at shango rallies all over the country present look at shanghai held a meeting with the country's security council where he criticized like he said opposition's plans to damage their relationship with russia and its nato and e.u. aspirations however the opposition holding those statements issued they're all saying that there falls have nothing to do with the reality and it sounds at manuka lation and they also said that they plan to on or all of the existing agreements with russia and other partner countries as well as here with the shadow had to say it is statements have been made by some western countries who don't even know where the roof is and have no idea what is happening here but nevertheless they make these statements we have reacted to this and deployed combat o.

me units on our western borders and have brought them to full combat readiness meanwhile top european political figures continue seeking the kremlin's stance in the issue in a bill or rousseau european council president charles michel said that he spoke to blood may putin on tuesday and said that the e.u. began working on personal sanctions against all those responsible for human rights violations against peaceful protesters michelle added that there should be no outside interference in this matter now in 2 separate cell phone calls and shoes day and they shaded by burned and paris let him is. and spoke to his counterparts angela merkel and emanuel mccraw on and he said that any example by outside forces to intervene in the internal political crisis in bella roosts is counterproductive and he stressed that placing external pressure on the officials in the bill of

rights is on acceptable now german chancellor angela merkel also outlined germany's position after the phone call with a lot of members and let's have a listen to issue and today as spoke with russian president putin and made it clear once again that freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate must be guaranteed that prisoners must be released and that there must be a national dialogue to settle things peacefully in belarus we will continue to discuss this to more all these talks with the russian leader are taking place as head of the european union summit on bella ruse the e.u. leaders planning to meet via video conference on a wednesday and meanwhile no matter the resolution it's clear that the european union one says is in no rush as in the internal situation in belarus. let's go live now on the program to political analysts cliff director of the punk

wire group a consultancy firm good to see you president mccraw chancellor merkel have both been in contact with love him or putin we don't know the exact contents we should say all of those conversations but what do you think european powers are hoping to get from russia. this is a very unique situation in europe but this is something into or players need to work very closely together with in order to find a peaceful solution to the uproar in dollars not to know that you know what you want. in the country or in the surrounding countries related to better or worse so everyone i think has their own ideas as to what they feel the best way forward is but as a european union as a union of nations i think they will come together to find some solution long with the their russian counterparts that are russian media are saying that right after those phone calls with merkel and mccrone a lot of relayed the discussions to look in effect does it look as

a putin has turned into the the mediator here. clearly putting a mediator in times like this is difficult because obviously he has his own agenda and what he wants to achieve with the sis this situation he isn't as bold in his movements now as it's still very early on in the process we may see a fact just like what happened with ukraine where the leader may be exiled to russia for protection but as it stands now i think it's fun to see you how much the protests will gain momentum even more so and then from there they'll see what happens next valorous as you say shares borders with e.u. countries 3 of them so clearly there is plenty at stake for europe the european council we know issue to hold an emergency meeting on the situation with out in mind the close month do you expect to see any unity in how to handle the crisis. i think so i think nobody in europe wants right at one of the doors of all

of europe's especially given the fact that there's no list 3 names or no nations next to $1.02 so everyone will be hoping for a peaceful solution to this perhaps you may see 2nd say a 2nd wave of elections coming through into better use in the coming in the coming weeks or months but for sure nobody wants you know the worst case scenario which is more violence and more police brutality in the nation and as the scenes are developing as you're speaking we're looking in on the screen we know that president lukashenko said that better russian troops have been sent to western borders and have been put on high alert what is most of without action do you think. i'm not too sure because there's no extra threat from what i see from any need to counterparts there may be a sign of destruction from what's actually happening in the country itself but i don't see any reason as to why he needs to deploy troops on that side of the country i think he's finding a way it is possible anyway to keep the attention of him and want to protest

external threats that may be facing right now he seems as if he's on his call to leave it's been 26 years of power there for him and i don't see him there in the near future that's also this is a very tumultuous time for him and for the nation but hope you can do see some sort of peaceful resolution to the chaos that we see right now what we are seeing today that we haven't seen for quite if at all in fact during these times our country protests we've seen crowds in the streets in several cities. of 'd golmaal in minsk itself has seen some come to the streets saying that the country needs stability and that the chaos has to stop do they have a point because surely if if he quits if he's i have the picture is there not just going to be an era of severe instability in an already troubled country about what the people are going to risk you to ask themselves right now is are they willing to live with the current system in place as it was before the elections for them for the next 10 to 20 years with the same that with the same political system or are

they willing to change and face what naturally occurs when a nation changes its leader of such a long period in time so they need to make this is and sells i think the protests show that they are willing to make a change no changed so much as this one as important as this one happens without noise and protests without even you know or without the violence that we see now but this is a transitory period and hopefully the end of this. people will come together themselves of clients who should for the betterment of their own people that's not really what everyone wants to hear very much a rapidly evolving situation there in any case political analyst klitzman marotta director of the punchier why a group consultancy firm thank you. thank you. in well the german government house confirmed that it's been in talks with the leader of the bella russian opposition so atlanta to call up sky lead to lift you in the as soon after the election artie's done the hawkins' takes a closer look look at who's main challenger. but the roof is at boiling point its

streets and squares are main packed with thousands of voices of discontent its people determined to be heard they feel the president just isn't listening they don't mind a new leader a symbol to unite them at a time of crisis. has become this symbol yet i'm not a politician my husband surrogate economically wanted to become the president of valorous he's now in prison for that almost unknown at the end of may the humble english teacher and interpreter to lead a quiet life until her husband is set again to cut off ski a popular blogger presidential candidate was disqualified from the presidential race and thrown in jail in an act of protest she took up the opposition husband's name and announced she would stand she said herself that she didn't want power at one point telling supporters she's more comfortable frying cutlets in her role as stay at home mom you are just as good as i want to become president in order to

restore justice in this country my campaign program won be familiar to everyone the main point is new honest and fair elections. took off was just a woman with a grudge like many he couldn't predict the crowds would turn her into a symbol misconceived our constitution is not for women our society is not mature enough to vote for a woman's breast things got heated it seems but was ready perhaps not specifically for to. but for change yet despite condemning the results as false protests gaining traction she fled the country putting our family 1st. i have probably remained the soft woman that i originally was i know that many will understand me many will condemn me and many will hate me but know this god forbid that you faced

a choice that i had to face children are the most important thing that we have in life. yet for some in the west she really is one step away from the presidency with the german government already confirming it's held talks with the exiled opposition figure in our shoes no longer the english teacher mother or weak woman as she described herself days later she claims she's ready to step up to the plate as head over transitional government. there is i am prepared to act as a national leader. others could have been in her shoes but as opposition figures fell out of the picture taken off there was left as the last woman standing the accidental candidate with her latest announcement she's upped the ante time will tell whether she can meet the expectations of those that want her to lead that change. in moving on to another headline stories governments across europe are bracing for a 2nd cold with 19 waves again rolling on popular restrictions but the public is

growing increasingly fed up as peter all of a report. as europe tries to tiptoe back to normality a 2nd wave of covert 19 seems set to derail those hopes here in germany daily infections passed a 3 month peak last week the health minister in the country says this is partly due to soma in general people coming back from holidays people attending parties and other celebrations now is to buy into that and it's very difficult to make people stick to the moods after they've had 2 or 3 beers at a party such events make it especially easy for the virus to spread so maybe we should stick to smaller family gatherings for a while longer germany has labelled most destinations in spain including the extremely popular destination of york as high risk it another blow to the already stricken spanish tourism industry but i think i mean i think the measures they're

taking are a bit drastic we thought we had good prospects for september but now with travel companies sending people home it's getting very difficult it's good to be cautious but the situation here looks fine to me and now with no customers i don't know how long we can hold on you know back east at the moment is my spain has taken tough measures against condit 19 social distance in masks as you can see we don't have outbreaks but the virus is everywhere you never know where you will be safe and where you can catch it let people travel because here we depend on the tourism and if we don't have to or is it will sink neighboring france has also been breaking records for all the wrong reasons marking up post lockdown high of over 3000 cases seen metropolises like paris and mall say expand outdoor areas with face coverings a mandatory while work spaces are also set to become mosque zones. it

is a good idea but it won't be easy to make people respect the rules especially at work because they will have to spend the whole day there with a mosque on vision. i wear a mask it work every day and i think it's normal so for me nothing will change you know not us there's a surge of cases in france and all the other countries so i know it's necessary to wear a mask i wear one every day at work a spike in cases among young people has seen the italian government step in to shut down discos and night clubs they'll also be a reintroduction on rules insisting that face coverings be worn in outdoor public spaces at night it's a pity that we did not see this government response before my pig everything should have been closed sooner we can be but i sympathize with those who own nightclubs it's not easy finding the balance between the interests of entrepreneurs and public health what will prevent going to be honest i don't think the club should have been reopened it all should have remained closed because the clubs are not essential and

closing them prevented new cases both the number of cases in europe rises so does anger over covert prevention measures you know my life. was. i. no one wants to see a return to full lockdown that places those in power in the own enviable position of having to try balance freedom with fighting code it as we try to work out which restrictions we want to be imposed and where the virus is determined to reimpose itself across the whole of europe these are all over our bill in. the state of emergency in beirut has been extended after the devastating chemical blast

earlier this month that story and more still to come. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics sport i'm showbusiness i'll see you then.

20 minutes into the program welcome back the u.s. senate intelligence committee has released the final reports on the alleged russian meddling in the 26000 election the document accuses lot of the democratic party servers a claim the russian government has repeatedly this missed let's not bring in our u.s. correspondent my pen. we've been hearing these allegations for several years now

are there any groundbreaking revelations in this document take us through it. well this is the 5th and final report it is over $1000.00 pages and it takes us some quite interesting places to the ritz carlton hotel the miss universe pageant but the culmination of the report the ultimate final conclusion the long awaited conclusion of the report says that apparently the d n c hack hacking of the democratic national committee server was personally ordered by russian president vladimir putin take it was the committee found that russian president vladimir putin ordered the russian effort to hack competes networks and accounts affiliated with the democratic party and leak information damaging to hillary clinton and her campaign for president now do they offer any evidence for

this shocking conclusion no they simply say that they have a high confidence that this is the case and terms like high confidence seem to be all through the report the word likely is used 139 times in the report phrase that the phrase almost certain is in 23 places in the report we've also got seems seems used 39 times however despite this high confidence and almost certainty and these terms that don't seem to indicate they actually know what they're talking about they do blame russia's security services for the acting of the democratic national committee server take a listen beginning in march 26th scene offices of the russian main intelligence directorate the g.r.u. successfully hacked competes networks belonging to the democratic national committee and the democratic congressional campaign committee and the e-mail

accounts of clinton campaign officials and employees including campaign chairman john podesta. now the report claims that russian security services in gauged in spear fishing and this got them access to the democratic national committee server however the only source for this is testimony from the tech firm known as crowd strike now crowd strike was actually hired by d n c lawyers and now we also have the testimony of ex f.b.i. official shawn henry who has testified that crowd strike never had any evidence to back up their claim so now of course not surprisingly wiki leaks gets thrown into the report as well. we can leaks actively sought and played a key role in the russian campaign and knew it was assisting russian intelligence influence if it the committee found significant in the cations the cina signs and

wiki leaks have benefited from the russian government now julian assigns has long denied the claims that he is somehow a russian operative but regardless we now have this 1000 page report the final installment we hear from the senate intelligence committee so a lot of americans and people around the world have to be wondering is this the last we're going to hear about this russia gate stuff is this finally over is this the ultimate conclusion of this story or will they find a way to keep it going came up in live from new york bring us through the 5th and final report thanks for that caleb well indeed a lot to speak i'm very happy to say that we've got delhi mccallum's executive director at the wrong pole institute on the line also in the us today. good to see

you 1st of all what practical consequences could there be do you think from this report could it be used to justify new sanctions against russia. well i think if you're having trouble sleeping it could be used to help you go to sleep because a 1000 pages of rehashed and rewound over allegations with 0 proof is certainly would be a cure for insomnia but there's nothing new in here there's nothing unusual there's no proof it's over and over again the problem you have government investigating government always exonerates itself so no the whole thing is you know about narrative management keeping the narrative alive that we have an enemy we have to keep them an enemy because that's what keeps washington taking that's what greases the wheels of the military industrial complex we've got to remember there's an election this year 2 democrats have long used the claims of russian meddling to question donald trump legitimacy as president could this report could have an impact in november. well that will be used as it's been used for 3 years

to very great effect but very little truth you know senator breaux headed up most of this investigation said the real conclusion here is that russia did not intervene to benefit either particular party but actually their real goal was to undermine american state and democracy we've heard that over and over but the question is to what end this would be an enormously high risk high risk operation for the russian intelligence to take what are the rewards what would be the rule ward of such a high risk operation the idea that you have in america lose its faith in democracy how does that benefit russia i mean if it's cold war thinking somehow we lose faith in our democracy and the evil soviets can rob us of our precious bodily fluids you know it's it's just there's no logic to it that the document as our correspondent was saying is littered with terms like almost certain likely when accusing russia but still no solid evidence surely they would have produced

a proof by now if they had it you know when you look at the time the money the effort when you scratch beyond the headlines there's not a lot there. well it also said that members of trump's campaign team presented attractive targets to russian intelligence and again the question is why president president then candidate trump ran on a platform of quote why not get along with russia why would you need russia to infiltrate the campaign and try to influence them to be in favor of better relations with russia when they're already there again high risk 0 gain it just defies logic any intelligent person to look at it and laugh at it just another aspect briefly to talk on a couple of months ago google claimed to raney and hackers were targeting the trump campaign on chinese hackers were targeting joe biden so whoever wins the next election are we likely to see just more allegations like this. this is just

reinforcing the narrative everyone is out out to get america everyone is out to destroy our elections when the fact is the opposite the us is the biggest meddling come country in the world look at bella ruse today go to the national government for democracy website and you will see hundreds and thousands of dollars spent just over the last year to directly influence the elections in belarus to directly finance opposition parties they don't even try to hide doesn't even try to hide it weekend oh my gosh there's gambling going on here as as they say in casablanca it really is quite laughable we appreciate your thoughts as always done you mccallum's executive director of the rumpole institute live in the program. state of emergency in the lebanese capital has been extended for another month beirut is still reeling from the devastating chemical blast tore through the city on august 4th 180 people were killed in the tragedy with over 5000 injured over

350000 people also left homeless as the explosion ripped through the building centuries old structures belonging to lebanon's cherished architectural heritage of also been badly damaged the owner of one ruined historic mansion lived in by his family for generations shared with us what was left. and i say ancestors lived here 200 years ago and has been in the family ever since i lived up stairs and when the explosion happened i was sitting here with my wife daughter and 2 grandchildren i was reading a newspaper. my . little sisters were made of marble they don't make them like that anymore

artistry went into the building everything is computerized and heartless but even the small things i headed from my grand grandparents one to 10 down to my children there. plus i did that once out of i've never seen anything like the ford explosion we have witnessed war it's lots but nothing like this. and it's a if they finish their investigation in a restaurant they won't rebuild my home or bring back our history it is the politicians who should be held responsible for what happened. in this country and i will not build it again we have national unity. you're tuned in to our to international more great programs get.