thousands of protesters were arrested, including several linked to svetlana's campaign.he fled to neighboring with the witty and has been drumming up international pressure for lukashenko to step down. in may, a flight heading to lithuania was forcibly diverted to dtain an opposition journalist -- to detain an opposition journalist on board. last month, belarusian raided the offices of 14 rights groups, nongovernmental organizations, and independent media outlets. let's bring in our guest. joining us from warsaw, international relations manager of the belarusian sports solidarity foundation, an organization that helps athletes who face repercussions for expressing political views. in brussels, we have chief executive of the center for european policy studies. and also in warsaw, a belarusian opposition leader and former president of candidate. a warm welcome to all of you. so, if i can start with you first, because i know that you have spoken to the athlete. fill us in first of all, what has she told you about all this? >> she is ok. she is now at the polish embassy in t

. >> svetlana was in russia before arriving here. the messaging in both capitals was the same.ut more action was needed. there was no concrete response either by the president of the united states or the u.k. prime minister. as far as the president of belarus is concerned, it appears from the events in ukraine he seems intent on continuing his deadly messaging. security agents from belarus -- if security agents for did kill her, it is a dark morning to opposition activities. andrew simmons, al jazeera. >> still to come this half-hour -- >> i never touched anyone inappropriately. >> the new york governor's denial as he is accused of sexual harassment and urge to resign. helping with cleanup efforts after last month's floods. ♪ >> thanks for tuning in, here is your weather story for australia. we had that disturbance pushed across southern areas. a cold front, you can tell it knockdown temperatures. adelaide, melbourne, all below average. look below the interior of the outback just a few days ago, we were at 32 degrees. some fierce winds across the north highway of new zealand. w

two days after the vote the opposition leader svetlana tikhanovskaya — who we heard from a little earliern opposition belarusianjournalist — roman protasevich — and his girlfriend, were arrested after their ryanair flight to lithuania was forced to divert to minsk. and on monday, a sprinter from belarus refused orders to fly home early from the tokyo olympics after criticising her coaches. krystina timanovskaya has now been granted a humanitarian visa by poland and today gave an exclusive interview to the bbc. here she is on the decision to send her home. translation: i was very surprised, i didn't under stand because i didn't say anything political. ijust said that my trainers decision behind my back. i was very surprised. i was very surprised. you heard miss timanovskaya there explaing that her argument was not political. in fact her original complaint was about being entered into a relay race at short notice. but many fear she would have been punished anyway. on that, here's the polish deputy foreign minister. the head of the belarusian olympic commitee is the son of mr lukashenko, so

set. if there was ever any debate surrounding who is the greatest artistic swimmer of all time, svetlanane at the tokyo games. she now stands alone as the most decorated athlete in her sport, and she has a chance to add a seventh medal in the team competition saturday. romashina partnered with svetlana koles—nichenko to perform the top—scoring routines of all three elements of the competition, and the pair capped off their dominant run with a near—perfect 98.800 in the final. their gold—medal routine featured extremely difficult and intricate choreography that was meant to mimic the movements of spiders. in the athletics — canada's andre de grasse has won the men's 200 metres final — ending the reign of usain bolt, who retired in 2017. it's de grasse's fifth olympic medal but his first gold. meanwhile, the usa's sydney mclaughlin has taken gold and smashed her own world record in the women's 400 metre hurdles — shaving almost half a second off the old mark. there were five personal bests in the race, giving you an indication of what a high calibre contest it was. one of the hot topics in

last august, thousands of protesters were arrested, including several linked to svetlana, t for nob sky as campaign. she fled to neighboring lithuania and has been drumming up international pressure. lucas shanker, to step down in may. a ryan in flight, heading into lithuania, was forcibly diverted to minced where police detained an opposition journalist on board romano pro to save, which is accused of being volved in so called terrorist activity. and last month bell, russian police rated the offices of 14 rights groups. non governmental organizations and independent media outlets. ah, well, let's bring in our guess. now. joining us from warsaw is anna toll co tower international relations manager of the bell. russian sports solidarity foundation. the organization helps athletes who faced repercussions for expressing political views in brussels. we have a cat, a lantern chief executive of the center for european policy studies, and also in war. so valerie sep carlo bell, russian opposition, leader and former presidential candidate a warm welcome to all of you. so anatole, if i could sta

in london today, the exiled belarusian opposition leader svetlana tsikhanouskaya is meeting the britishith the bbc�*s today programme, she said what happened to the sprinter highlighted how the regime was using sport as a weapon of propaganda. now krystsina is safe and she's going to get polish visa and be as a refugee in poland. and, you know, her situation is not unique, i think, because the hijack of protasevich has the same nature. she is criticised sport officials, so tsimanouskaya was supposed to be punished for pure disloyalty. but we really thankful for the whole world that they supported her at that moment. and the government of tokyo and international olympic committee that they took care of her and now she is safe. nobody in belarus can feel safe. it's a pity, but that's true. i heard that her husband left the country and kgb people came to her parents but, you know, it's our reality. in related news, police in kyiv say an activist who heads an ngo helping his compatriots who have fled repression in belarus has been found dead. vitali shishov, head of the belarusian house in

svetla na ti kha novs kaya svetla na tikhanovskaya was svetlana tikhanovskaya was an intentional leader no one who speaks out against the oppressive belarus government is safe, not even olympic athletes. the belarus president, alexander lukashenko, who has been in powerfor 27 years, has been ruthless in suppressing any dissent in the country. those who try to protest face beatings and arrest by the authorities. it's led to many leaving the country. today, the belarus opposition leader, sviatlana tsikhanouskaya, has been holding talks with the prime minister here in downing street. she wants western countries to impose sanctions on the belarus authorities and she's well aware of the risks she is taking in opposing president lukashenko. i can disappear at any moment, i understand this, but i should do what i am doing. i can't stop because i am... you know, ifeel responsibility for the future of my country, the same as all those who are fighting at the moment, who feel the responsibility. the discovery today that this belarus activist, vitaly shishov, has been found dead in the ukrainian c