Belarus
An insane story developing today. A Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land in Belarus, where security agents boarded it and arrested Belarusian journalist Raman Protasevich. Protasevich - who co-founded a Telegram channel popular with opponents of President Aleksandr Lukashenko, which was used to organize anti-government protests last year - had been living in exile in Lithuania. Early reports suggest Belarusian air traffic control contacted the plane when it entered Belarusian airspace and said there was a security threat onboard, possibly a bomb. A Belarusian fighter jet then escorted the plane to Minsk. The 26-year-old journalist now faces terrorism charges and there have been reports the death penalty is a possibility. This is extraordinary stuff. Essentially, we are looking at this: An authoritarian regime has hijacked an EU airline flying between two EU capitals to kidnap a critical journalist and, possibly, kill him. All eyes should now be on the EU to see how it reacts.
Politico Europe here.
Deutsche Welle here.
BBC here.
And some tweets and threads.
Iran
There’s been a bump in the road on talks to have the US reenter the nuclear deal between Iran and other world powers.
More from the Associated Press here.
Gaza
After all the terrible imagery from Gaza that was shared in recent newsletters, I thought these images of resiliency and a life-goes-on spirit were worth sharing today.