Following is a summary of current world news briefs. New protests in Belarus as opposition squabbles, U.S. weighs sanctions

Thousands of students boycotted the start of the school year in Belarus on Tuesday and signs of a possible rift appeared in an opposition alliance that has led weeks of rallies and protests against veteran President Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko faces the biggest challenge of his 26-year rule since claiming victory in an election last month that opponents say was rigged. Lukashenko denies electoral fraud and shows no sign of backing down despite the threat of Western sanctions. Pompeo hopeful China’s Confucius Institutes will be gone from U.S. by year-end

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday he was hopeful that Chinese Confucius Institute cultural centers on U.S. university campuses would all be shut down by the end of the year. “I think everyone’s coming to see the risk associated with them,” Pompeo told Lou Dobbs on the Fox Business Network, accusing the Chinese-government funded institutes of working to recruit “spies and collaborators” at U.S. colleges. Venezuela opposition leaders in talks to join parliament vote, Turkey official says

Two high-profile Venezuelan opposition leaders are in talks with the government of President Nicolas Maduro to participate in the upcoming legislative elections despite a planned boycott, a Turkish official involved in the talks said on Tuesday. Opposition parties had agreed to sit out the parliamentary vote slated for December, arguing the poll was tainted by supreme court meddling in political parties and an arbitrary expansion of the number of legislators. Exclusive: U.S. considers sanctions on Belarusians for election fraud, violence against protesters

The United States is considering imposing sanctions on seven Belarusians it believes were involved in falsifying the results of the Aug. 9 election and in violence against peaceful protesters, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States could consider imposing sanctions on Russia if it were to intervene overtly with force in Belarus, where protests erupted after an Aug. 9 election that the opposition says was rigged to prolong President Alexander Lukashenko’s 26-year rule. Charlie Hebdo attack accomplices face trial five years on

The Islamist gunmen who struck the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish store, killing 17, are dead but on Wednesday, five years after the attack that marked the onset of a wave of Islamist violence in France, their alleged accomplices face trial. Fourteen defendants, three of whom will be tried in absentia and may be dead, face charges including financing terrorism, membership in a terrorist organisation and supplying weapons to the perpetrators: Said and Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly. Facebook says Russian influence campaign targeted left-wing voters in U.S., UK

A Russian influence operation posed as an independent news outlet to target left-wing voters in the United States and Britain, including by recruiting freelance journalists to write about domestic politics, Facebook said on Tuesday. Facebook Inc said the operation – which partly focused on U.S. politics and racial tensions in the run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential election – centred around a pseudo media organisation called Peace Data. Macron to Lebanese leaders: reform swiftly or face consequences

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday gave Lebanese politicians until the end of October to start delivering on reforms, saying financial aid would be withheld and sanctions imposed further down the line if corruption gets in the way. Macron told a news conference in Beirut that political leaders had agreed to form a government of experts in the next two weeks to help chart a new course for the Middle East nation collapsing under the weight of an economic meltdown. Owners of Iranian fuel seized by U.S. assert rights to cargoes

The owners of four Iranian fuel cargoes that were confiscated by U.S. authorities last month mounted a challenge to the seizure, asserting their rights to control the cargo, according to a court filing on Tuesday. The U.S. Justice Department last month announced the seizure of 1.116 million barrels of fuel it said was destined for Venezuela. The oil industries of Venezuela and Iran, both OPEC nations, are under U.S. sanctions, and Iran earlier this year irked Washington by sending gasoline cargoes to Venezuela. Colombia confirmed COVID-19 deaths top 20,000

Confirmed deaths in Colombia due to COVID-19 topped 20,000 on Tuesday as cases surpassed 624,000, the health ministry said in its daily update. The Andean country has so far reported 20,052 deaths and 624,069 cases of the novel coronavirus. Active cases stand at 133,155. After UAE-Israel breakthrough, Kushner pushes other Arabs to go next

After accompanying an Israeli delegation to the UAE for historic normalisation talks, White House adviser Jared Kushner set off on a tour of other Gulf capitals on Tuesday, looking for more Arab support. Israel and the United Arab Emirates set up a joint committee to cooperate on financial services at the talks in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi. Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, accompanied the Israeli delegation on Monday on what was billed as the first Israeli commercial flight to the influential Gulf monarchy, which agreed in August to normalise relations.