The National Football League is moving a game between the Tennessee Titans and the Pittsburgh Steelers, originally scheduled for Sunday, to either Monday or Tuesday after several Titans players and staff tested positive for the coronavirus.The Titans announced Tuesday that three players and five staff members had tested positive following Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis. Since then, an additional Titan player has tested positive for a total of nine cases within the organization.At a news conference Wednesday, Titans Coach Mike Vrabel said some of the players who tested positive were displaying flu-like symptoms. Vrabel described the situation as unfortunate but expressed confidence the team will be able to handle it safely with the players’ best interests in mind.This is the first NFL regular season game altered by the coronavirus pandemic. The league said it delayed the game to give the Titans more time to prepare, as well as test for any further cases.Both the Titans and the Vikings suspended in-person team activities after the positive tests. Although no Vikings players or staff are reported to have tested positive, the team said in a statement they evacuated their facilities as a precaution.The Vikings said they will work closely with the NFL and NFL Players Association “to monitor the situation, perform additional testing and determine when the facility can reopen.”So far, no changes have been announced to the Vikings’ game against the Houston Texans, scheduled for Sunday in Houston.
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Міжнародні резерви України станом на 29 вересня становили 26,5 мільярда доларів. Про це повідомив у фейсбуці голова Ради Національного банку України Богдан Данилишин.

«Обсяг міжнародних резервів, який на 29.09.2020 становив 26,5 мільярда доларів, є достатнім для стабілізації надмірних коливань на валютному ринку», – повідомив Данилишин.

За даними НБУ, станом на 1 вересня 2020 року міжнародні резерви України складали понад 29 мільярдів доларів. Таким чином, упродовж місяця міжнародні резерви скоротилися на 2,6 мільярда доларів, або майже на 10%. Скорочення міжнародних резервів відзначено вперше за останні чотири місяці.

У вересні НБУ доводилося продавати іноземну валюту для уповільнення девальвації гривні щодо долара США. Попри зусилля регулятора, за півтора місяця національна валюта втратила щодо долара понад гривню.
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The world recently reached a tragic milestone of one million known deaths linked to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.  Experts say more testing is key to combating the virus’s spread.  A biotech company in Taiwan has developed a robot capable of conducting thousands of COVID tests each day, making it possible to safely revive the economy.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.Camera: Reuters
Producer: Arash Arabasadi     
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Національний банк України встановив на 1 жовтня курс 28 гривень 31 копійка за долар, це на 1 копійку більше за офіційний курс на останній день вересня.

Регулятор не встиг повноцінно відбити тенденції міжбанківського валютного ринку, де всю другу половину дня 30 вересня національна валюта посилювалася. Станом на 16:25, за даними Finance.ua, котирування впали до 28 гривень 28–30 копійок за долар.

Ще в середині серпня долар оцінювався на міжбанку дешевше більш як на гривню, 17 серпня торги завершилися на рівні 27 гривень 23,5–25,5 копійки за одиницю американської валюти.
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Milagros Sotelo was looking forward to traveling from South America to Tennessee to start a job at Ober Gatlinburg ski resort this winter. The 22-year-old student worked the last two ski seasons in the equipment rental shop at the small resort nestled in the Smoky Mountains and was excited to reconnect with friends, practice her English and take a break from law school in Lima, Peru, where she lives.
But on June 22, President Trump signed an executive order temporarily barring a wide variety of foreign worker visas, including J-1 visas often issued to South American students who come to North America during their summer break. Sotelo’s plans were put on hold, and now she’s scrambling to find a job closer to home.
As ski resorts try to figure out how to operate safely during the coronavirus pandemic, by requiring facemasks, enforcing social distancing in lift lines and eliminating dine-in service, Trump’s order has added another obstacle heading into the winter: hiring enough temporary workers to fill crucial jobs like operating chair lifts, serving food and cleaning hotel rooms.
Trump argued foreigners pose a risk to American workers as the country tries to jumpstart its economy.
“American workers compete against foreign nationals for jobs in every sector of our economy, including against millions of aliens who enter the United States to perform temporary work,” according to the order, which is set to expire at the end of the year.
But Sotelo said there are plenty of jobs to go around, especially at and near ski resorts.
Many industry leaders agree, saying that even with Trump’s order in place, it’s difficult to fill seasonal jobs with domestic workers.
“A big part of the reason is — and this is true even during COVID — most Americans want a year-round job. They don’t want a revolving-door-type job,” said Dave Byrd, director of risk and regulatory affairs at the National Ski Areas Association.
Byrd said between 7,000 and 8,000 J-1 workers fill jobs at many of the country’s 470 ski areas every winter. Another 1,000 to 2,000 workers come to U.S. resorts on H-2B visas, which are also barred by Trump’s order. In total, foreign guest workers make up between 5% and 10% of the workforce at U.S. ski resorts, according to Byrd, who calls it “a critical amount.”
According to an NSAA report released in July, just over half of 202 U.S. ski resorts polled said they had trouble hiring a full workforce during the 2019-2020 winter season, and an average of 44 jobs went unfilled. The report said 27% of ski areas were understaffed in the summer, and an average of 21 jobs went unfilled.
Many seasonal jobs don’t offer benefits such as health insurance or retirement plans, Byrd said, and it’s even harder to recruit domestic workers because ski resorts are often in rural areas with expensive housing.
“Certainly in Western destination resorts, it is an enormous challenge for us to find workers because of the cost of housing in fancy destination ski venues — Vail, Crested Butte, Telluride, Taos, Jackson Hole, Big Sky, Sun Valley, Lake Tahoe,” he said.
Vail Resorts, which owns 33 ski areas in the U.S. and has historically relied on foreign workers, is recruiting more aggressively in local communities for the upcoming season and is seeing some interest among college students who have more flexibility because they are learning remotely or are taking a gap year because of the pandemic.
“We have already ramped up winter season recruiting efforts and have been pleased with the results so far,” said Vail Resorts spokesman Ryan Huff, who declined to say how many foreign workers the Colorado-based company hires for a typical winter season. Huff noted that Vail Resorts could pursue a “limited number” of foreign workers if and when the restrictions are lifted to help staff the remainder of the season.
But smaller resorts that aren’t as well known are sweating opening day.
At Ober Gatlinburg, September and October are spent recruiting student workers like Sotelo from places like Brazil, Peru and the Dominican Republic. This year, it could be difficult to fill the 150 jobs that typically go to foreign workers.
According to the NSAA, an average of 85 jobs went unfilled last winter season at resorts in the region that includes Tennessee, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina — in large part because of their remote locations.
“We’ve experienced this for many, many years, but it’s become very critical now,” said Jerry Huskey, a risk manager at Ober Gatlinburg who has worked in the resort’s human resources department for more than two decades.
He said that if the order remains in place, the resort, which typically employs about 500 workers, might have to cut operating hours and close some of its restaurants this season. In the meantime, the resort is touting increased hourly wages to entice workers and has had some success recruiting out-of-work convention staff from Florida.
Huskey started recruiting foreign workers on J-1 visas in the mid-1990s after an improving economy made it harder to attract Americans. About a dozen foreigners worked at the resort initially, and the numbers grew season over season as the area grew and competition for help intensified.
“It’s a good exchange of information and cultures. … They want to see what goes on in the U.S. They’ve never been here before, so they’re really losing out on that aspect and we’re losing out on having them,” Huskey said of the current situation.
The NSAA and ski resorts across the country were keeping a close eye on two federal lawsuits challenging Trump’s order — one in Washington D.C. and the other in the Northern District of California. The D.C. judge kept in place Trump’s ban on J-1 and H-2B visas, so now the ski industry is pinning its hopes on the California judge throwing out the directive.
“That would be the first hurdle, of course. Beyond that, the countries would have to open up to travel and then they would also have to be willing to come here with this virus going on,” Huskey said. “It’s a little sketchy and so many hurdles to get across right now.”
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Старі банкноти та 25-копійкові монети перестануть бути платіжним засобом в Україні о 23:59 30 вересня. Про таке рішення Національний банк України повідомив раніше цього місяця.

«По-перше, монети номіналом 25 копійок та усі банкноти гривні старих зразків, уведені в обіг до 2003 року, перестають бути засобом платежу під час здійснення розрахунків готівкою та будуть вилучені з обігу з 1 жовтня 2020 року. По-друге, Національний банк буде активніше виводити з обігу паперові банкноти 1 і 2 гривні і монети 1 гривня зразка 1996 року, замінюючи їх на відповідні обігові монети зразка 2018 року», – розповіли в НБУ.

Регулятор повідомив, що громадяни зможуть без обмежень та безкоштовно обміняти монети номіналом 25 копійок та старі банкноти, уведені в обіг до 2003 року, на монети та банкноти інших номіналів і зразків упродовж наступних трьох років.

До 30 вересня 2021 року це можна буде зробити в усіх українських банках. Після цього і до 30 вересня 2022 року старі монети та банкноти прийматимуть НБУ, «Ощадбанк», «Приватбанк», «Райффайзен Банк Аваль» та ПУМБ.
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A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld a ruling allowing Wisconsin’s absentee ballots in the November general election to be counted if they arrive up to six days after Election Day. The panel of three judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, agreed with a September lower court ruling that said if the ballots are postmarked by November 3, they can be accepted for counting as long as they arrive by November 9. The Republican National Committee and Wisconsin Republicans argued against allowing the deadline extension and could appeal Tuesday’s ruling.  They said voters had plenty of time to obtain and return an absentee ballot by Election Day. Wisconsin Democrats welcomed the court’s decision and said it would give more people in the state an opportunity to “have their voices heard in this election.” Absentee voting has been a focus of the election in the United States this year with state officials allowing more flexibility for people to cast ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.FILE – A voter drops off his election ballot in the drop box at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, in Cleveland, Ohio, April 22, 2020.As of Tuesday, about 1.2 million absentee ballots had been requested in Wisconsin and more than 308,000 returned. The state is one of the key battlegrounds that will determine whether President Donald Trump wins another term or whether former Vice President Joe Biden takes over the White House in January.  Trump won Wisconsin by less than 1 percentage point in 2016 and recent opinion polls show Biden with a slight lead. Eighteen other U.S. states allow ballots to be counted even if they arrive in the mail after Election Day.  Almost all of them require the ballots to be postmarked by Election Day to be eligible, except in Iowa and Ohio where the deadline is November 2. The receipt deadlines vary, with Texas allowing just one extra day, six states allowing until November 6, two accepting ballots until November 9, four others giving until November 10, and three states allowing until November 13 for the ballots to arrive in the mail to be counted. Illinois allows until November 17, while California has the latest receipt deadline — November 20. Louisiana is the only U.S. state that requires absentee ballots to be received by the day before the election. 
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Reaction to Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Republican President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, his Democratic challenger, split along partisan lines but also featured sharp criticism of how the event, often a verbal free-for-all, played out. Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, tweeted after  the debate that “For ninety minutes, @realDonaldTrump made a confident, commanding and compelling case for his re-election and took Joe Biden to task for supporting radical policies that would raise taxes, destroy jobs and make our communities less safe.”For ninety minutes, @realDonaldTrump made a confident, commanding and compelling case for his re-election and took Joe Biden to task for supporting radical policies that would raise taxes, destroy jobs and make our communities less safe. (1/3)— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 30, 2020Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for President Trump’s re-election campaign, told VOA’s Carolyn Presutti  the president’s performance  was “fantastic.” “What viewers saw was President Trump who was in command of every moment of the  debate, and I think what they saw was a weak Joe Biden,” Murtaugh said, “looking around for someone to bail him out.”  Prominent Democrats, meanwhile, called the debate for the former vice president and said Trump’s performance provided ample reason to deny him a second term in office.  “Donald Trump has failed this country with his lies, bigotry, and reckless leadership,” tweeted U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who competed against Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier in the year. Booker in particular denounced the president for declining to condemn white supremacists, instead urging them to “stand by.”Donald Trump has failed this country with his lies, bigotry, and reckless leadership.We can’t have four more years of a president who tells white supremacists to “stand by.” The choice in this election is very clear. https://t.co/AQNVH52gt4— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 30, 2020Many debate watchers slammed the loud and chaotic exchanges between the two candidates, including Karen Attiah, the global opinions editor for The Washington Post newspaper, who called the event “a national embarrassment.”This whole debate is a national embarrassment— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) September 30, 2020Some, including presidential historian Michael Beschloss, harshly faulted the president.  “Democracy was trashed tonight by a President who ran roughshod over the rules,” he wrote, “refused to condemn white supremacists and would not tolerate any form of dissent—a harbinger of what a second term might be like,” Beschloss tweeted.Democracy was trashed tonight by a President who ran roughshod over the rules, refused to condemn white supremacists and would not tolerate any form of dissent—a harbinger of what a second term might be like.— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) September 30, 2020Others, like former Republican senator Jeff Flake, expressed sorrow over the entire spectacle. “We are a better country than was on display tonight,” Flake wrote on Twitter.We are a better country than was on display tonight.— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) September 30, 2020University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato posted a blunt message on his Twitter account:  “CANCEL THE REMAINING PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES.”CANCEL THE REMAINING PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES. It is impossible to have an orderly, productive exchange with Donald Trump. Stop pretending otherwise. #Debate2020— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) September 30, 2020But Murtaugh defended the exchanges as illuminating. “I think a freewheeling conversation like the president was driving is actually good, it allows for a much better exchange of ideas and for viewers to see the real difference between the two,”  he said. 
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Nigerian lawmakers in the northwestern state of Kaduna have approved a measure to castrate men convicted of raping children under the age of 14. The controversial law comes in the wake of public outrage over the rising number of rape cases in recent months. But while supporters praise the new law as a move to defend women and children, some human rights activists say it is too harsh and may even fail to deter perpetrators. Timothy Obiezu has more from Kaduna State.Camera: Emeka Gibson
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.Daily DebunkClaim: The influenza vaccine Fluzone is more deadly than Covid-19.Vedict: FalseRead the full story at: Agence France-Presse Social Media DisinfoScreenshot Circulating on social media: Claim that there is a double standard in the response to H1N1 vs. COVID-19.Verdict: Partly FalseRead the full story at: USA Today Factual Reads on CoronavirusCOVID research updates: Tests reveal silent reinfections in hospital workers
Nature wades through the literature on the new coronavirus — and summarizes key papers as they appear.
— Nature, September 28A layperson’s guide to how — and when — a Covid-19 vaccine could be authorized
This story is based on interviews as well as on documents the drug makers have released detailing their clinical trial plans.
— Stat, September 28
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The World Health Organization announced Tuesday it would investigate newly released reports of alleged sexual exploitation and abuse against Congolese individuals perpetrated by the WHO’s Ebola aid workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  A year-long investigation by the New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation included interviews with 51 women who recounted several instances of abuse during the 2018 to 2020 Ebola crisis — mainly by men who self-identified as working for the WHO.  The investigation also identified abuses by members of the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Medecins Sans Frontieres, Oxfam, World Vision, the U.S. migration agency IOM, the medical charity ALIMA and Congo’s health ministry.  The majority of accounts said that numerous men frequently plied women with drinks and either had propositioned them, forced them to have sex in exchange for a job, or terminated their contracts when they refused. Some women were hired on short-term contracts and promised salaries more than twice the standard wage in the area. There were also accounts of women being locked in rooms by men who solicited jobs or threatened to terminate their employment if they did not comply.Approximately 80% of survivors globally do not report sexual assault. The abuses in the Congo were no different. A survey that was a part of the investigation found that 18 agencies involved in the Ebola response said they received no reports of sexual exploitation.  Most women who participated in the investigation said they were unaware of how to report instances of sexual exploitation or abuse.  Half a dozen senior U.N. officials and NGO workers confirmed that sex-for-jobs schemes were rampant in the DRC during relief efforts. Officials also confirmed that several strategies implemented to target sexual exploitation in the area largely failed.  Aid sector experts say the male-dominated Ebola response team, along with vast income and power imbalances and a failure to win locals’ trust, were to blame for the years of abuse during the crisis. Approximately 81% of Ebola responders working for WHO were men, according to a 2019 report.Experts say that involving more women in the emergency response system is an important first step in changing the power dynamics of aid delivery.  Previous investigations into similar problems in emergency response efforts found that such abuses also occurred in places such as Bosnia, Haiti and the Central African Republic.  Several agencies deployed thousands of aid workers into the eastern Congo in 2018 when Ebola erupted in the area, costing some $700 million. A network to prevent sex abuse was not set up until 14 months into the crisis, according to an internal report by the interagency Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Network.  A WHO spokeswoman told investigators it was reviewing a “small number” of sexual abuse or exploitation reports in the Congo and encouraged the women involved to contact the organization directly.Women alleging instances of abuse said that there was little hope for justice. Many say they could not come forward out of fear of retribution by employers or being stigmatized by family or their communities.    
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Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations Tuesday of firing on each other across a shared border, the latest sign of a conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh that is threatening to erupt into war.Both countries reported firing to the west of the region, where intense fighting broke out Sunday between ethnic Armenian and Azeri forces, killing dozens of people and wounding hundreds of others.Speaking on Russian state television, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan both rejected the possibility of talks, despite urgent appeals from Russia and the United States to end the violence.In this photo provided by the Azerbaijan’s Presidential Press Office provided on Sept. 27, 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev gestures as he addresses the nation in Baku, Azerbaijan.The United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss the escalating fighting in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh later Tuesday. The closed-door meeting was requested by five European nations — Britain, Belgium, Estonia, France and Germany — as the fighting intensified Monday between forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the enclave.   FILE – Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends the Eurasian Economic Council in Yerevan, Armenia, on Oct. 1, 2019.A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to both Aliyev and Pashinian and called for “an immediate stop to the fighting, a de-escalation of tension and a return to meaningful negotiations without preconditions or delay,” according to the Associated Press. The United States had called on Sunday for the hostilities to end. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus issued a statement saying the U.S. “condemns in the strongest terms this escalation of violence.” The statement urged both sides to work with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs “to return to substantive negotiations as soon as possible.”      The OSCE is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.  The OSCE Minsk Group is tasked with finding a peaceful solution to the conflict.  The U.S., France and Russia co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which issued a joint statement Sunday concerning the “large scale military actions along the Line of Contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.”       “We strongly condemn the use of force and regret the senseless loss of life, including civilians,” the co-chairs said. They appealed “to the sides to cease hostilities immediately and to resume negotiations to find a sustainable resolution of the conflict.”     They called on the parties in conflict to take “necessary measures to stabilize the situation on the ground,” adding that there is no alternative to a peaceful negotiated solution of the conflict.    Armenia and Azerbaijan declared martial law and troop mobilizations on Sunday amid fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan’s borders but is governed by ethnic Armenians and supported by the Armenian government. The enclave seceded from Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh War that ended in 1994 but has not been recognized by any country as an independent republic.A war between the two former Soviet republics could also involve regional powers Turkey and Russia, which has a defense agreement with Armenia. The Turkish government supports its own ethnic Turkic kin in Azerbaijan. 
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Kentucky’s attorney general has acknowledged that he never asked the grand jury to consider homicide charges against police in the killing of Breonna Taylor.
Amid outrage over the long-awaited charging decision, Attorney General Daniel Cameron said he would agree with a judge’s order to make public a recording of the proceedings, and that he wouldn’t object if members of the panel want to speak publicly about their grand jury experience.
In his statement Monday night, Cameron also revealed that the only charge he recommended to the jury was wanton endangerment. He had previously declined to provide details on what charges prosecutors brought to the grand jury to consider when it met last week.
Cameron said the grand jury is meant to be a “secretive body,” but “It’s apparent that the public interest in this case isn’t going to allow that to happen.”
Cameron said a recording of the grand jury proceedings would be released Wednesday.
“Once the public listens to the recording, they will see that over the course of two-and-a-half days, our team presented a thorough and complete case to the grand jury,” Cameron said.
But the public deserves to know if any other criminal charges were explored by the grand jury aside from Cameron’s recommendation, said attorney Kevin Glogower, who is representing a grand juror who sued to have the recordings released.
“We still don’t know what charges, if any, were presented outside of that recommendation,” Glogower told reporters Tuesday morning. Cameron has “yet to answer what was actually presented as far as the charges and the individual they were directed to. I think that’s important to know and my client feels the same.”
Cameron said at a news conference last week that prosecutors “walked them (the grand jury) through every homicide offense and also presented all of the information that was available to the grand jury.”
The grand jury in Louisville issued charges against one officer, Brett Hankison, for endangering three of Taylor’s neighbors by firing through her home, into an adjacent unit where bullets missed people. None of the the officers were indicted in the killing of Taylor, who was shot five times after officers knocked down her door to serve a narcotics warrant on March 13.
Cameron said last week that two of the officers, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, were justified in firing their weapons because Taylor’s boyfriend had fired at them. Mattingly was struck by a bullet in the leg. There was no conclusive evidence that any of Hankison’s bullets hit Taylor, Cameron said.
A coroner’s report says Taylor was shot five times and died of multiple gunshot wounds. It says she was hit in the torso, her upper left extremity and both lower extremities. She tested negative for drugs and alcohol.
“Our prosecutors presented all of the evidence, even though the evidence supported that Sgt. Mattingly and Detective Cosgrove were justified in their use of force after having been fired upon by Kenneth Walker,” Cameron said in the statement. “For that reason, the only charge recommended was wanton endangerment.”
Hankison, who was fired from the force for his actions during the raid, pleaded not guilty on Monday.
Also Monday, an unidentified grand juror filed a court motion asking a judge to release the record of the proceedings, and to allow the panel’s members to talk publicly about their experiences.
Cameron suggested that his office would not stand in their way: “We have no concerns with grand jurors sharing their thoughts on our presentation because we are confident in the case we presented.”
The motion also said there was a “compelling public interest” to have the grand jury record released. The filing accused Cameron of “using the grand jury to deflect accountability and responsibility for (the indictment) decisions…”
Such a public disclosure of grand jury minutes is rare. Most states have laws that would make it impossible. Other states, such as California, allow it under very specific circumstances, and some places require a judge’s order.
Grand jury transcripts were released in the police shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri. But a judge refused to release the minutes of the grand jury that decided not to indict New York City officers in Eric Garner’s death in 2014, citing in part concerns over secrecy. In Georgia, 11th Circuit this year ruled against releasing grand jury records in the 1946 lynching of two Black couples.
 
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Britain and Canada have imposed sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, his son and other top officials for allegedly rigging the country’s presidential election and committing acts of violence against protesters.The sanctions are the first imposed by major Western powers against Belarusian government officials and subject them to an immediate travel ban and asset freeze.Lukashenko’s post-election crackdown has resulted in the arrest of more than 12,000 people who participated in mass demonstrations that erupted after he claimed victory in an election that opponents allege was stolen. Lukashenko has denied the election was fixed.British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab speaks at a press conference with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department, Sept. 16, 2020, in Washington.“Today the U.K. and Canada have sent a clear message by imposing sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s violent and fraudulent regime,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement.“We don’t accept the results of the election,” the statement added. “We will hold those responsible for the thuggery deployed against the Belarusian people to account and we will stand up for our values of democracy and human rights.”In an interview with Reuters, Raab also mentioned Lukashenko ally Vladimir Putin, although the sanctions did not target the Russian president.Canadian Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne said, “Canada will not stand by silently as the government of Belarus continues to commit systematic human rights violations and shows no indication of being genuinely committed to finding a negotiated solution with opposition groups.”In addition to Lukashenko and his son, Viktor, who is his chief-of-staff, Britain’s sanctions target the interior minister and two deputy interior ministers. Canada has sanctioned Lukashenko and 10 others.Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya meets with French President Emmanuel Macron in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sept. 29, 2020.Earlier Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged European support for the people of Belarus after he met with opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.The talks took place in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, where Tsikhanouskaya fled after the August presidential election in Belarus sparked a political crisis.Many in Belarus reject the official results of the election that gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office, and thousands have protested in the weeks following the vote.The European Union said last week it does not recognize Lukashenko as president, and Macron has said he must step down.
 
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