And in the United States concerns mount over mail in voting for novembers election President Trump has cast doubt on the process and hes blocking extra funds for for the Postal Service to help handle the ballot. A michael thanks for joining us in bellerose protests against president Alexander Lukashenko are growing thousands of factory workers have walked off the job as demonstrations against sundays disputed election result continue for a 6 day workers from state run plants once the voting base of look ashamed go or downing their tools and joining the protests across the country theyre calling for new elections and an end to the violent crackdown against the opposition. Who is facing the biggest challenge she has ruled in years as dismissed the protests as a foreign backed plot. Were now joined from minsk by journalist. Hanna weve been seeing images of protesters in front of Parliament Whats the situation in minsk right now. Well. Some people are protesting right now at me and dont think of the parliament in minsk thats a peaceful protest people are sitting on the ground they are sunni they are laughing they are so that was a situation where in the beginning. And their best some soldiers internal troops guarding the end they started hiding those the soldiers and so this is think it absolutely peaceful also people are gathering in some other they go hoods across the city and basically not the towns and cities across the whole country the reason huge amounts station in drug which is a city in western illinois there are some tens of thousands people apparently this service rallies the bigger bigger the capsule so in the cache army of the parliament of the building of the parliament there are also all different completely different social groups professional groups different people medical workers and also workers sometimes factories and while there are thousands of people there you know in the live pictures that were showing right now you can see many protesters holding flags holding all kinds of objects including flowers in fact earlier we noticed some protesters literally offering flowers to the soldiers armed guard there do you think this a curator forces or all loyal to look at. Whats very hard to say reverence lines indeed predestiny so that Security Forces or Law EnforcementAgency Leader wants to be violent they dont want these troops all suppression i bear though well there are different signs as well a couple people who i mean the police and riot police and specially in the forces attacking protesters. And random citizens so i think its so. If they were is this opinions and reactions other interests there where cases before when they make Police Officers or a soldiers or. Lets say agents of the. Security services they have refused to work they more those very high so also concerned as for sure i know they have a case says they. Used to work and they just seems their profession because they didnt want to participate in this brutal sense suppression and thank you very much thank you today e. U. Foreign ministers discuss possible sanctions on bail use in a Video Conference our brussels correspondent georg mathis has been following this story for us greetings so did they agree on sanctions. Michael they have at least started the process of imposing sanctions and that means that the european institutions now if the task to set select a list of individuals in bella ruse to groups that were looking at one croupiers of people who have committed fraud in the elections who are responsible for the electoral procedures taking place and the other group being individuals who are responsible against violence against innocent pro and Peaceful Protesters and that group at the end of the day will have to be approved by Foreign Ministers at the next meeting but the green light to put the list together has been given today ok so so give us some perspective here what is at stake for the e. U. In trying to reach a resolution to this and does it appear that any resolution that they might be able to iron out at this point will have any real teeth. Well for the e. U. It was today absolutely crucial to send a political message of solidarity to the people on the streets in balad ruz it was just not enough to say that we closely monitor the situation or that were gravely concerned about whats happening on the ground things weve heard throughout the course of the week and a so in particular German Foreign minister for instance asked to increase the political pressure so that is what happened today when it comes to how effective these sanctions will actually be it depends entirely on on how brought the list will be if its a narrow list it will be in favor of the regime but it will also be in favor of countries like hungary you are rather skeptical about slapping fresh sanctions on the roofs so at the end of the day you need a list that can be carried by all 27 you need to unite unanimous decision. Off of people off your Member States to support the list of sanctions. Matters on top of this story in brussels for us thank you gail. Now look at some of the other stories making news around the world at this hour authorities in afghanistan have begun freeing 400 taliban prisoners there among a final group of inmates whose release has been a key taliban demand for beginning peace talks with the Afghan Government the prisoners include insurgents convicted of attacks on afghans and foreigners. Germany has declared most of spain a high risk coronavirus zone including the island of majorca which is popular of course with German Tourists only the Canary Islands are exempt from the warning travelers to high risk areas face compulsory coronavirus testing when they returned to germany or a large fine. Thousands of british citizens on holiday in france are rushing to get home before new quarantine rules go into effect overnight some 160000 residents are believed to be vacationing in france the country has seen a rise in krona virus infections prompting london to add france to its list for mandatory 14 day quarantine on arrival. Guidelines have brought dramatic changes to the way the 2020 president ial campaign is playing out in the United States garneau the large scale rallies and close up encounters of 2016 physical distancing also poses a logistical headache for polling day one reason voting by mail is in focus but the mail in vote has critics including President Trump. As poll look at how the process is playing out in one state connecticut ahead of the november election. Over 2 thirds of the u. S. Voters will be able to make their choice by either mail in or absentee ballot in the 2020 election more than ever before in the history of the United States this is what this years election battlefield looks like sounds ridiculous well donald trump has politicized mail in voting in absentee voting because he fears that this might lead to a great awarded her knowledge among democrats according to President Trump made in voting is more susceptible to voter fraud even though theres little to no evidence for this he has already announced that he might not accept the outcome of the 2020 election undermining the most crucial tool of democracy the right to vote. He is unfortunately turning into an authoritarian figure and. He doesnt like democracy so much anymore it seems like so i think its really important for all of us to exercise our right to go and im teaching that to my children to know. How people want to exercise their right to wode looks different from many in this years election due to the coronal 5. 1000000 of us a professor at crimson Pac University of connecticut and he has been teaching constitutional and criminal for decades id rather vote in person im used to doing that ive been doing it for 50 years but because of the pandemic i just dont want to go into a polling place where people are standing in line where im dealing with people who could be in fact where i have to cut your Voting Machines other people may have touched so im very much in favor of the absentee voting this year at least. The academic has a very different take from the republican President Trump has been sowing doubt about the reliability of this years Election Results from the beginning of his tenure. The biggest risk that we have is mail in ballots because with the mail in ballots called universal mail in ballots its much it it is a much easier thing for a foreign power its much easier for them to forge ballots and send a man its much easier for them to cheat. The president s statements raise concerns that he might not accept a defeat and might try to remain in the white are concerns about even if the president doesnt refuse to leave it remains to be seen how its followers are going to take this they have already been primed to believe that if he loses this was an unfair alexion and that could easily lead to mass resistance even to violence in the street. With endemic damages many aspects of life even the integrity of the democratic process itself. From politics to sports now and you might have noticed that the Champions League quarter finals are underway leipsic stunned the experts and beat the favorite Athletico Madrid to do want to advance to the semifinals they opened up in the 2nd half leipzig danny almost put the bulls ahead with a header in front of the goal 20 minutes later a hard foul by klosterman provided athletico a chance which felix converted to even the school like 6 winner came minutes before the end of the game substitute tyler out to speak aim the 1st u. S. Mens player to score in a Champions League quarter final leipsic advance of the semis to face p. S. G. And many football fans would prefer to see by in munich and barcelona battle it out in the final and not in the quarter final but such was the luck of the draw the match takes place in lisbon tonight and is also close to the public because of the pandemic of course but with the cream of the crop on the pitch there is still plenty of buzz in the city. Its not like there arent any fans in lisbon welcoming their favorites some were camped outside the Hotel Barcelona players are staying at supposedly the next best thing if you cant get into the stadium. Byron munich vs barcelona should be a celebration of soccer instead its a muted classic to be played behind closed doors it pits not just 2 great squads against each other but its also a meeting of superstars such as arguably the worlds greatest player barcelonas leonel messi purses the deadliest striker in europe this season byrons robert levin dosti with 53. 00 goals to his credit including many of those scored in the Champions League. Half this level i dont think there are favorites. Yes we can count on having the best player in the world. But live and off city has 13 goals in the Champions League this year. While he is so high on both teams that either one can wind up with it on the bus going of it can always all will approach barcelona with the necessary respect well analyze them as we do with any other team we know our strengths and we will try to use them as much as we can limit the office who is all in this be alliance of putting it all comes down to this winning the coveted Champions League title this is a giant version of the cup which is set up in downtown lisbon where fans view as they are can come together and also watch the games on t. V. Set up by local restaurants. But this is where theyd really rather be at the study or deleuze inside. This is news live from berlin heres a reminder of our top story at this hour thousands of factory workers in bellerose have joined demonstrations on the streets of the capital minutes theyre demanding new elections and an end to the violent crackdown on the opposition. Up next d. W. s covert special focusing on the start of the school year weve got more on our website of course t w dot com as well as our twitter and instagram feed stay handle is f. T. W. News im Michael Okuda for me in the whole team here thanks for watching ill see you later. Combating the corona pandemic. Where does research stand. What are scientists learning. Background information and news. Hour carona update. Coated 19 special next on d w. A tough it is for me. Is for. Me to go for it is for. Me to