At its peak in the 1980s, the USSR’s so-called Leningrad Rock Club was ground zero for a generation of Russians who chafed at Soviet-era restrictions and wanted change. From Russia’s modern-day St. Petersburg, Charles Maynes revisits the club’s legend, and whether the independent spirit that fueled it remains today.Camera: Ricardo Marquina-Montanana.
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The European Union took AstraZeneca to a Belgian court Wednesday over the drug company’s failure to deliver tens of millions of COVID-19 doses it promised — slowing the EU’s efforts to kickstart its vaccine campaign.After weeks of souring relations and tough rhetoric against AstraZeneca, Europe is now turning to the legal system to force the Anglo-Swedish company to deliver the 180 million COVID-19 vaccine doses it has promised by July. Right now, reports say it is on track to deliver less than half that amount. Stefan De Keersmaecker, spokesman for the European Commission — the EU’s executive arm charged with procuring COVID-19 vaccines for the bloc — outlined its argument.  “We believe that the company has not respected the terms and obligations of the contract, which is a violation which we ask the courts to recognize as such,’ said De Keersmaecker. “In any case, in the context of the emergency procedures, we have claimed, indeed, that we want the court to order the company to deliver 90 million additional doses, in addition to the 30 million already delivered in the first quarter.”The EU initially planned to use AstraZeneca as a linchpin in its vaccination campaign. Delivery delays were a key reason for its much-criticized slow start.  Added to that were concerns about rare blood clots associated with the vaccine, leading some member states to limit or scrap its use altogether. South Sudan Stops Using Doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine Over Expiration FearsSouth Sudan health officials have stopped administering 60,000 AstraZeneca doses because of the COVID vaccine’s expiration date, even though the drugmaker and the WHO say the vaccine has a shelf life of 6 monthsThe EU has now turned to other COVID-19 vaccines, especially the more expensive Pfizer-BioNTech, to supply hundreds of millions of doses in the months to come. But that is not stopping the bloc from wanting AstraZeneca to deliver on its contract. It also accuses the manufacturer of favoring Britain, where it claims it has delivered most of its promised doses. AstraZeneca’s lawyer Hakim Boularbah told reporters the drug company deeply regretted the European Commission’s decision to go to court and hoped the dispute would be resolved as soon as possible. The company says its contract with the EU binds it only to ‘best reasonable efforts’ in delivering doses on time — although the Commission says there’s more to it. “The contract itself makes it fairly clear that the doses that were to be delivered under best reasonable efforts… the contract also specifically says that the parties won’t sue one another. So it’s a little strange the Commission is going this route in the first place,” said Scott Marcus, senior fellow at the Bruegel economic thinktank in Brussels.He fears this court case could have repercussions for the EU’s business with other vaccine makers.  “I really think a lot of the cases have to do more with political damage control than with doses actually being needed,’ said Marcus.Meanwhile, the bloc’s vaccination campaign is picking up steam. The European Commission says it’s on track to meet its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of adults this summer. 
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A former chief aide to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a parliamentary committee Wednesday the government failed the British people in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a statement Johnson rejects.  
Dominic Cummings, who left the government in December, explained to a select committee investigating the government’s pandemic response how Johnson failed to take the pandemic seriously early on, dismissing it as a “scare story.”  He said ministers and officials literally went on vacation in February of 2020.
Cummings said, “When the public needed us most the government failed. And I’d like to say to all the families of those who have died unnecessarily how sorry I am for the mistakes that were made and my own mistakes of that.”
The former aide said Johnson had been told Britain needed to be locked down on March 14, 2020, but there was no plan to do so.  He said the prime minister had been advised the peak of the pandemic would be in June, when, in fact, the National Health Service was already in danger of being overwhelmed.
Cummings had been a chief strategist behind the 2016 Brexit campaign and Johnson’s landslide election win in 2019. Since leaving Johnson’s team late last year, Cummings has become one of his former boss’s most vocal critics over how the prime minister led his team in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, describing it as “disastrous.”
Johnson responded to his former aide’s testimony from the floor of the lower house of parliament Wednesday, saying he takes full responsibility for the government’s response to the pandemic. He rejected Cummings claim the government had been complacent in its response to the pandemic at any point.  
He said, “I maintain my point that the government acted throughout with the intention to save life and protect the NHS [National Health Service] and in accordance with the best scientific advice. That’s exactly what we did.”
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Police arrested three people Wednesday in the cable car disaster that killed 14 people in northern Italy, saying an investigation showed a clamp, intentionally placed on the brake as a patchwork repair, prevented the brake from engaging after the lead cable snapped. Carabinieri Lt. Col. Alberto Cicognani said at least one of the three people questioned overnight admitted to what happened. He said the fork-shaped clamp had been placed on the emergency brake to deactivate it because the brake was engaging spontaneously and preventing the funicular from working. The clamp was put on several weeks ago as a temporary fix to prevent further service interruptions in the cable car line bringing sightseers to the top of the Mottarone peak overlooking Lake Maggiore. It was still in place on Sunday morning, Cicognani told Sky TG24.After the lead cable snapped Sunday, the cabin reeled back down the line until it pulled off entirely, crashed to the ground and rolled over down the mountainside until it came to rest against some trees. Fourteen people were killed; the lone survivor, a 5-year-old boy, remains hospitalized. “Because of a malfunction, the brake was continuing to engage even when it wasn’t supposed to,” Cicognani told Sky. “To prevent the cabin from halting during the transport of passengers, they chose to not remove the dispositive that blocked the emergency brake.” “In this way, the brake couldn’t function, and this brought about the fact that when the cable broke, the cabin fell backwards,” he said. Sky and the LaPresse news agency identified the three people arrested as the owner of the cable car service, the company’s director and the service chief. Verbania Prosecutor Olimpia Bossi said the deactivation of the brake was clearly designed as a stop-gap measure to allow the funicular to continue operating. The more extensive, “radical” repair operation that was needed would have likely taken it out of service, she said. Bossi told reporters that investigators believed the stop-gap measure was used with “the full knowledge” of the cable car company owners. As a result, the arrests turned the horror of Sunday’s disaster into outrage, given it appeared to have been an entirely preventable tragedy. Already, the mayor of the hometown of one of the victims, Serena Cosentino, announced that the city would pursue legal action against those responsible, saying it would present itself as an injured party in the civil portion of any possible prosecution. “The news unfortunately is showing a broad plane of responsibility and omissive guilt,” Diamonte Mayor Ernesto Magorno said in a statement. 
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The White House announced Tuesday that President Joe Biden will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva next month, as the administration seeks to restore stability amid worsening bilateral tensions. Some Republican lawmakers have criticized the decision, raising concerns about recent moves by Moscow and its ally Belarus. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.  
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The European Union pledged to deliver at least 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries by year’s end, and develop vaccine production capacity in poorer nations, as it wrapped up a two-day summit in Brussels.After being criticized for a slow vaccination start, European leaders say they are steaming ahead on COVID-19 inoculations, securing 1.8 billion doses to cover the next two years — enough to export to needy countries outside the 27-member bloc. The bloc says it’s also on track to surpass goals of exporting 100 million doses to developing countries. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, “We are working on an initiative to invest one billion euros from Team Europe to develop vaccine manufacturing in Africa — the capacity itself in Africa — it’s a specific initiative with our African partners. An initiative not only for the production, so to build up the manufacturing capacities, but also for skills development, for the management of the supply train of, for example, the necessary regulatory framework through the African Medicines Agency.” FILE – Women receive the Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus disease at the Music Auditorium in Rome, Italy, April 14, 2021.In Europe, where many countries are emerging from lockdowns and hospitalizations are dropping, von der Leyen said the EU was on track to inoculate 70 percent of its adults by the end of July. Europe’s Medicines Agency is now considering whether to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds.Meanwhile, special COVID-19 digital travel passes aim to open up summer travel for EU citizens who are either vaccinated, immune from having contracted the virus, or have tested negative for it.  Together, says analyst Scott Marcus, a senior fellow at the Brussels-based Bruegel economic research group, the developments are shaping a more favorable tourism outlook for Europe. “I think things are looking more promising,” he said. “I still think that late summer will look better than early summer. But I think we’re on track to have a summer at least as good as last summer, and probably better.”  Other topicsOn Monday, EU leaders announced a flight ban and other toughened sanctions against Belarus, after the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk and the arrest of a dissident journalist.  But speaking from Brussels, French President Emmanuel Macron said progressive sanctions had their limits and the EU needed to profoundly redefine its relationship with both Belarus and Russia. Member states also discussed the thorny issue of national emissions targets to meet the bloc’s overall goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 55 percent by 2030, and becoming climate neutral by 2050.
 
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Airlines re-routed flights to avoid Belarusian airspace Tuesday in the aftermath of the Minsk government forcing down a passenger jet and arresting an opposition blogger critical of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.Lufthansa, KLM, SAS, Air France, LOT and Singapore Airlines were among carriers that stopped flying over Belarus along a major Europe-to-Asia corridor that generates hard currency payments to the Minsk government, $300 to $940 per flight.Belgium’s Charles Michel, who chairs European Union summits, called the flight bans, “Europe in action,” tweeting a picture of a flight tracker map showing no planes flying over Belarus.Belarusian planes also faced a possible ban from flying to European Union cities, which could leave landlocked Belarus only able to reach its territory via its eastern border with its close ally Russia.A still image shows a flight path of Ryanair FR4978 on May 23, 2021 on its way from Athens, Greece to Lithuanian capital Vilnius and diverted to Minsk, Belarus. (Courtesy: FLIGHTRADAR24.COM/Handout)Lukashenko used the purported threat of a bomb Sunday aboard a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, to force the jetliner to land in Minsk. Belarusian authorities then arrested blogger Raman Pratasevich, accusing him of inciting massive rallies last summer against Lukashenko’s assertion of a landslide victory in last August’s election, in which he won a sixth term as the country’s leader with a claimed 80% of the vote.A video released overnight showed the 26-year-old Pratasevich confessing to having organized anti-government demonstrations.”I can state that I don’t have any health issues, including diseases of the heart or any other organs. Police officers are treating me properly and according to the law,” he says, adding that he had “confessed to organizing mass protests in Minsk.”German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the video “concerning” and described the forced landing of the passenger jet as “an unprecedented and unacceptable act.”NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, among other world leaders, called the incident “state hijacking,” and France and Ireland have described it as piracy.”If we let this go, tomorrow Alexander Lukashenko will go further and do something even more arrogant, more cruel,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement.Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said the video of Pratasevich showed he had been tortured.”He said that he was treated lawfully, but he’s clearly beaten and under pressure. There is no doubt that he was tortured. He was taken hostage,” she told a news conference in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 18 MB720p | 33 MB1080p | 74 MBOriginal | 110 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioBelarus did not immediately comment on her allegation but has consistently denied abusing the thousands of people it has detained.Human rights groups have cited hundreds of instances of what they contend are abuse and forced confessions resulting from a crackdown on pro-democracy opponents of Lukashenko since last year.”The events of Sunday are just another escalation in the strategy of blind repression led by the regime of Mr. Lukashenko,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told the French parliament.The EU, as well as the United States, called on Lukashenko’s government to immediately release Pratasevich.
 
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Talks between Iran and the world powers still adhering to the 2015 nuclear deal resumed Tuesday in Vienna with the goal of bringing the United States back into the agreement.The fifth round of talks began a day after Iran and the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency agreed to extend a deal for monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities for one month.  While the U.S. is not directly participating in the talks, the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Rob Malley, has been in Vienna for previous rounds and is in touch with representatives from participants Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China.After a Tuesday meeting of the Joint Commission on the Plan of Action, the Russian delegate, Mikhail Ulyanov, said that a resolution was visible and these are “probably the final round of the Vienna talks.””The participants expressed readiness to do their best to resolve the remaining outstanding issues and to complete negotiations successfully as soon as possible,” he tweeted.Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian delegate to the talks, told Iran state TV that “good progress” has been made in the previous four rounds and that he hoped the fifth would be the last.”There are still important issues that need to be fixed,” he said. “We hope that we will be able to reach a final solution during these several days of negotiations.”Malley said the previous round was “constructive and saw meaningful progress.””But much work still needs to be done,” the U.S. envoy wrote Monday. “On our way to Vienna for a fifth round where we hope we can further advance toward a mutual return to compliance.”Through diplomats from other countries, Iran has been in indirect talks with the United States about reshaping the 2015 international nuclear deal to restrain Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran has said its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.  Former president Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the pact in 2018, imposing new sanctions on Iran’s oil, banking and shipping sectors. But U.S. President Joe Biden is looking to rejoin the pact.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last week that the United States was ready to lift trade sanctions, although a senior Iranian official later contradicted him. European diplomats said difficult issues remained in the negotiations.  Iran has maintained that for it to return to the deal, the U.S. must first lift its sanctions, while the U.S. says Iran must first return to compliance with the deal’s terms.  Iran has consistently breached the 2015 pact’s restrictions on uranium enrichment, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN if both sides can return to the original deal, “we can use that as a foundation both to look at how to make the deal itself potentially longer and stronger — and also engage on these other issues, whether it’s Iran’s support for terrorism … its destabilizing support for different proxies throughout the Middle East.”  But he told ABC News, “The first thing that we need to do is put the nuclear problem back in the box.”   
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The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says the seizure by Belarus of a journalist traveling on a plane is tantamount to extraordinary rendition – a state-sponsored abduction.  
 
Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich was arrested after a Ryanair plane traveling from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, was diverted by a Belarusian fighter jet and forced to land in Belarus’s capital, Minsk, on Sunday. Human rights officials say they are shocked by the manner in which the journalist was detained.Raman Pratasevich, detained when a Ryanair plane was forced to land in Minsk, is said to be seen in a pre-trial detention facility in Minsk, Belarus May 24, 2021, in this still image taken from video. (Telegram@Zheltyeslivy/Reuters TV)Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner, criticized the threat of military force to divert the plane from its flight path.
 
“Such abuse of state power against a journalist for exercising functions that are protected under international law is receiving, and deserves, the strongest condemnation…. We fear for Raman Pratasevich’s safety and wish to seek assurances that he is treated humanely and is not subjected to ill treatment or torture,” he said.
 
Colville said Pratasevich’s appearance on state TV Monday evening with bruising on his face is not reassuring. He said Pratasevich’s so-called confession to serious crimes apparently was forced under torture, which is prohibited under international law.  
 
The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists says it is unable to verify the time or circumstances under which the video was recorded. The CPJ has called for Pratasevich’s immediate and unconditional release.
 
Pratasevich is co-founder of the opposition Nexta channels, which helped mobilize street protests after Belarus’s August 9 presidential election. President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in that election, which has been widely viewed as rigged.
 
The Minsk government has accused Pratasevich of terrorism and provoking riots after the Nexta channels became one of the main conduits for organizing last year’s anti-Lukashenko protests over alleged election fraud.
 
Colville said the arbitrary arrest of Pratasevich and manner of his seizure is a sign of an extremely worrying escalation in the government’s crackdown on dissenting voices.“This astonishing episode constitutes a new phase in the Belarusian authorities’ campaign of repression against journalists and civil society in general…. In addition to the issues relating to Mr. Pratasevich, the forced landing of the passenger plane in Minsk terrorized passengers on board and exposed them to unnecessary danger, in violation of their human rights,” he said.Colville said he was also concerned about Pratasevich’s friend, Sofia Sapaga, who reportedly also has been arbitrarily detained. His office is calling for their immediate release and says both should be allowed to continue on to Vilnius, their intended destination. 
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Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said Tuesday it is clear that Raman Pratasevich, the journalist arrested Sunday after the passenger jet he was traveling on was diverted and forced to land in Minsk, has been beaten in detention.  
 
Pratasevich appeared in a video posted online Monday, apparently filmed by Belarusian security services. He confessed to organizing anti-government protests. His supporters say marks on his face show he has been beaten.
 
Speaking from Vilnius Tuesday, where she lives in exile, Tsikhanouskaya said that lawyers had not been allowed to see Pratasevich.“I think many have already watched the video with imprisoned Raman. He said that that he is being treated lawfully but he is clearly beaten and under pressure. There is no doubt that he may be tortured,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “He was taken hostage like 421 political prisoners, and thousands of people who have not yet been recognized as political prisoners but are behind bars.”
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The incident has been described as “state-sponsored hijacking” by Western leaders, and many European airlines are now avoiding Belarusian airspace, a key route from Europe to Asia.  
 
Twenty-six-year old Pratasevich was detained Sunday, after the Ryanair Boeing 737 passenger jet he was traveling on was forced to land in Belarus as it flew over the country en route from Greece to Lithuania. There were 171 passengers and crew on board. Pratasevich was visiting Athens at the same time as Tsikhanouskaya, who met several Greek government officials.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 1 MB480p | 2 MB540p | 3 MB720p | 4 MB1080p | 6 MBOriginal | 28 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioBelarusian state media have reported that President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered the flight to be intercepted. The United Nations’ aviation agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has said the incident may have violated the foundational treaty governing international civil aviation, the 1944 Chicago Convention.
 
Pratasevich and his Russian companion Sofia Sapega were arrested on the ground in Minsk. At least three other passengers also disembarked the plane and are believed to be security agents who were tracking Pratasevich.Security use a sniffer dog to check the luggage of passengers on the Ryanair plane, carrying opposition figure Raman Pratasevich, in Minsk International airport, May 23, 2021, in this photo provided by ONLINER.BY.European Union leaders expressed outrage over the incident following a summit in Brussels Monday evening. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, outlined the bloc’s initial response.
 
“This is an attack on freedom of expression and this is an attack on European sovereignty. This outrageous behavior needs a strong answer, therefore the European Council decided that there will be additional sanctions on individuals that are involved in the hijacking but this time also on businesses and economic entities that are financing this regime,” von der Leyen said at a press conference in Brussels Monday evening.
 
The former British ambassador to Belarus, Nigel Gould-Davies, welcomed the ratcheting up of sanctions against the Belarus government. “I think given the escalation of Belarus’ outrageous activities, the point is now to correspondingly escalate the sanctions and move from a situation where we’re just imposing restrictions on individuals to a broader approach to putting pressure on the regime,” Gould-Davies told the Associated Press.  
 
“And that means, among other things, going after the financial flows, the various ways in which Belarusian state companies are dependent on access to Western finance and Western markets. These are the money flows that help sustain the regime,” he added.FILE – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends a meeting with top officials in Minsk, Jan. 26, 2021.The European Union urged airlines to re-route around Belarus. Lufthansa, KLM, SAS, Air France, LOT and Singapore Airlines were among carriers that announced they would stop flying over the country Tuesday. Belarusian airlines will also be banned from EU airspace and airports.
 
However, Europe has limited options in seeking to retaliate, says analyst Alex Titov of Queen’s University Belfast. “Ultimately, that’s not going to move Lukashenko, because he’s got his man now,” Titov told VOA. “The European Union in particular, but the United States as well, don’t really want to completely antagonize Belarus or lose it altogether and push it into Moscow’s arms.”
 
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg echoed the condemnation Tuesday. “The forced landing of a passenger flight by Belarus was dangerous and unacceptable,” Stoltenberg told reporters. “This is a state hijacking and demonstrates how the regime in Minsk attacks basic democratic rights and cracks down on freedom of expression and independent media. I welcome the additional measures agreed by the European Union. There must be an urgent international investigation. And journalist Pratasevich and his companion Sofia Sapega must be immediately released.”
 
Bill Browder, the financier and political activist who has campaigned for sanctions against human rights abusers in Russia and elsewhere, said it is critical that the West responds forcefully.
 
“I think it sends a horrific message to every enemy of every dictatorship around the world – that you can literally be plucked out of the sky no matter where you are. And it’s unprecedented, this type of thing, you have an internal EU flight that was basically grounded with fighter jets by a dictator. And there has to be harsh and serious consequences,” Browder said Tuesday.
 
Pratasevich fled to Poland in 2019 and claimed political asylum. He ran the popular Nexta and Nexta Live channels on Telegram but recently switched to an alternative opposition social media platform.  
 
Since the protests began in August 2020 after a disputed election, Belarusian authorities have arrested an estimated 35,000 people. There is widespread evidence of torture.  
 
The operation to arrest Pratasevich was likely personally ordered by President Lukashenko, says analyst Alex Titov.
 
“The thing about the Belarusian protests is that there was very little structure and clear leaders and organization around them. So, the Telegram channel by two very young journalists in exile in Poland already suddenly became that sort of lynchpin seemingly, which was directing all the protests,” Titov said.
 
U.S. President Joe Biden has asked his advisers to come up with options to hold those responsible for the forced landing of the Ryanair plane to be held to account. The United Nations called for ‘a full, transparent and independent investigation.’ 
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The European Union is urging member nations to close their airspace and airports to all Belarusian airlines after Belarus forced a commercial jetliner to make an emergency landing Sunday in Minsk and arrested an opposition blogger critical of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Conclusions on Belarus journalist Raman Pratasevich stands in an airport bus in the international airport outside Minsk, Belarus, May 23, 2021, in this photo released by telegram Chanel t.me/motolkohelp.Pratasevich, a former editor of the influential Telegram channels Nexta and Nexta Live, was detained by police when Belarusian authorities searched the plane. The Minsk government said Lukashenko ordered his military to scramble a MiG-29 fighter to escort the plane to the Minsk airport. In a video released on Belarusian state TV Monday, Pratasevich is seen “confessing” to charges of responsibility in civil disturbances. “I can say that I have no health problems. … I continue cooperating with investigators and am confessing to having organized mass unrest in the city of Minsk,” he said. But just before he and his girlfriend were led off a diverted plane by police, a trembling Pratasevich reportedly told a fellow passenger, “I’m facing the death penalty here.” Ryanair Flight FR4978, originating in Athens, was diverted in Belarusian airspace about 10 kilometers from Vilnius, Lithuania — its planned destination — because of an alleged bomb threat. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Security use a sniffer dog to check the luggage of passengers on the Ryanair plane, carrying opposition figure Raman Pratasevich, in Minsk International airport, May 23, 2021, in this photo provided by ONLINER.BY.The Minsk government has accused Pratasevich of terrorism and provoking riots after the Nexta channels became one of the main conduits for organizing last year’s anti-Lukashenko protests over election fraud. Lukashenko won his sixth term in the August election, claiming 80% of the votes, although many in the country accused him of rigging the vote. During the months of protests that followed, more than 34,000 people were arrested in Belarus, and thousands were brutally beaten. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the U.S. “strongly condemns the forced diversion of a flight between two EU member states and the subsequent removal and arrest of journalist Raman Pratasevich in Minsk. We demand his immediate release. “This shocking act perpetrated by the Lukashenko regime endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including U.S. citizens,” Blinken said in his statement. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists on Sunday said it was “shocked” by the incident, saying the Lukashenko government “has increasingly strangled the press in Belarus for the past year, detaining, fining and expelling journalists, and sentencing them to longer and longer prison terms.” The CPJ called for Pratasevich’s immediate release.  Pratasevich had been in Athens covering a visit by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a former Belarusian presidential candidate who has declared herself the country’s leader-in-exile because of the alleged widespread fraud during last year’s elections. She called on the International Civil Aviation Organization to investigate the Sunday incident and the diversion of the Ryanair jet.  She tweeted that Lukashenko’s “regime endangered the lives of passengers onboard the plane. From now — no one flying over Belarus — can be secure. International reaction needed!” 
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The European Union is urging member nations to close their airspace and airports to all Belarusian airlines after Belarus forced a commercial jetliner to make an emergency landing Sunday in Minsk and arrested an opposition blogger critical of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Conclusions on Belarus journalist Raman Pratasevich stands in an airport bus in the international airport outside Minsk, Belarus, May 23, 2021, in this photo released by telegram Chanel t.me/motolkohelp.Pratasevich, a former editor of the influential Telegram channels Nexta and Nexta Live, was detained by police when Belarusian authorities searched the plane. The Minsk government said Lukashenko ordered his military to scramble a MiG-29 fighter to escort the plane to the Minsk airport. In a video released on Belarusian state TV Monday, Pratasevich is seen “confessing” to charges of responsibility in civil disturbances. “I can say that I have no health problems. … I continue cooperating with investigators and am confessing to having organized mass unrest in the city of Minsk,” he said. But just before he and his girlfriend were led off a diverted plane by police, a trembling Pratasevich reportedly told a fellow passenger, “I’m facing the death penalty here.” Ryanair Flight FR4978, originating in Athens, was diverted in Belarusian airspace about 10 kilometers from Vilnius, Lithuania — its planned destination — because of an alleged bomb threat. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Security use a sniffer dog to check the luggage of passengers on the Ryanair plane, carrying opposition figure Raman Pratasevich, in Minsk International airport, May 23, 2021, in this photo provided by ONLINER.BY.The Minsk government has accused Pratasevich of terrorism and provoking riots after the Nexta channels became one of the main conduits for organizing last year’s anti-Lukashenko protests over election fraud. Lukashenko won his sixth term in the August election, claiming 80% of the votes, although many in the country accused him of rigging the vote. During the months of protests that followed, more than 34,000 people were arrested in Belarus, and thousands were brutally beaten. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the U.S. “strongly condemns the forced diversion of a flight between two EU member states and the subsequent removal and arrest of journalist Raman Pratasevich in Minsk. We demand his immediate release. “This shocking act perpetrated by the Lukashenko regime endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including U.S. citizens,” Blinken said in his statement. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists on Sunday said it was “shocked” by the incident, saying the Lukashenko government “has increasingly strangled the press in Belarus for the past year, detaining, fining and expelling journalists, and sentencing them to longer and longer prison terms.” The CPJ called for Pratasevich’s immediate release.  Pratasevich had been in Athens covering a visit by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a former Belarusian presidential candidate who has declared herself the country’s leader-in-exile because of the alleged widespread fraud during last year’s elections. She called on the International Civil Aviation Organization to investigate the Sunday incident and the diversion of the Ryanair jet.  She tweeted that Lukashenko’s “regime endangered the lives of passengers onboard the plane. From now — no one flying over Belarus — can be secure. International reaction needed!” 
 
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Turkey and Poland have signed a deal for the sale of Turkish-made combat drones, making Poland the first NATO and European Union member country to purchase Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday. The agreement was signed during Polish President Andrzej Duda’s three-day visit to Turkey. Under the deal, Poland is set to receive 24 armed drones, ground control stations and data terminals, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The first drone is expected to be delivered next year. “We are one of the best countries regarding unmanned aerial vehicles,” Erdogan said during a joint news conference. “We feel great pleasure in sharing our experience, capability and potential with our NATO ally, Poland.” Erdogan said: “With the document that was just signed, Turkey will, for the first time in its history, be exporting UAVs to a country that is a member of NATO and the EU.” Turkey previously sold drones to Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Qatar. The Bayraktar TB2 drones played a prominent role in Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia during the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh last year. Turkey is known to have used the drones in its cross-border operations against Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq. 
 
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An investigation into the cable car crash that left 14 people dead in Italy will focus on why a cable broke and the emergency brakes did not work, a prosecutor said Monday.“The brakes of the security system didn’t work. Otherwise, the cabin would have stopped,” Olimpia Bossi, the lead prosecutor in Verbania, told reporters Monday. “Why that happened is naturally under investigation.”Fourteen people, including two children under the age of 10, were killed when the Stresa-Mottarone cable car, which travels between the resort town of Stresa to the top of Mottarone mountain in Italy’s Piedmont region, crashed to the ground Sunday.A 2-year-old child died instantly, and a 9-year-old died in the hospital after suffering two cardiac arrests.Another child, 5, was seriously injured but conscious and speaking. He is being treated at a children’s hospital in Turin.Authorities have identified the lone survivor as an Israeli boy living in Italy. The child’s parents, younger brother and two great-grandparents were among the dead, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.Italian media have identified all other victims as residents of Italy. The Italian ANSA news agency has published the names of the victims.A crashed cable car is seen after it collapsed in Stresa, near Lake Maggiore, Italy, May 23, 2021. (Alpine Rescue Service/Handout)Images from the scene showed a crumpled cable car on a slope overlooking the lake.Stresa Mayor Marcella Severino called it a “terrible, terrible scene,” and said the accident may have been caused by a ruptured cable and that the emergency brake failed.Severino said the car turned over two or three times after crashing to the ground before being stopped by some trees. Some passengers were stuck inside the cabin, while others were thrown out during the crash.Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi offered his condolences to the victims “with a particular thought about the seriously injured children and their families.”The Stresa-Mottarone funicular was closed for repairs between 2014 and 2016. It only recently began operating after a hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. A single cable car can carry about 40 passengers. 
 
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A law student from European Humanities University (EHU) was detained along with a Belarusian blogger after Belarus forced their commercial flight to land in Minsk rather than Lithuania.  “As a result of a cover operation by the Belarusian authorities,” student Sofia Sapega “was detained by the administration of the Investigative Committee for the city of Minsk on groundless and made-up conditions,” according to the university website.  “Sapega is a Russian citizen studying International Law and European Union Law program at EHU,” the university wrote on its website. “While returning with boyfriend [Raman Pratasevich] from vacation, Sofia was getting prepared for the defense of her master’s thesis in Vilnius,” the FILE – Student Sofia Sapega poses for a picture in Gothenburg, Sweden, in this photo taken in 2019.Sapega “is well regarded due to her academic performance and reputation in EHU’s community” by groupmates and faculty members, the website states.  Pratasevich, 26, has been critical of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in his online blogs. The United States and European governments are accusing Belarus of engaging in an act of state terrorism. They have called on Lukashenko’s government to immediately release Pratasevich.US, EU Accuse Belarus of Terrorism After Plane Diverted to Arrest JournalistOpposition blogger Raman Pratasevich, 26, faces death penalty for criticizing Lukashenko government Pratasevich and Sapega were flying from Athens to Vilnius on Sunday when their Ryanair flight was diverted by the Belarusian regime because of an alleged bomb threat. European Humanities University was founded in Minsk in 1992 but forced by Belarusian authorities to relocate in 2004 to neighboring Lithuania, according to its website. Pratasevich was a key administrator of the Telegram channel NEXTA Live, which has been covering the protests that broke out in Belarus following the country’s disputed presidential election last August. Belarusian authorities in November 2020 launched investigations into Pratasevich and a colleague on suspicion of the organization of mass disorder, disruption of the social order, and inciting social hatred.Some information for this report came from RFE/RL. 
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European leaders are vowing to punish Belarus for illegally diverting to Minsk Sunday a Lithuanian-bound Ryanair flight carrying a fugitive critic of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. Their fury was fueled as more details emerged Monday of the dramatic events leading up to the diversion of the plane. The Ryanair Boeing 737 was carrying 171 passengers and crew had taken off from Athens and was flying over Belarus. It was just moments from leaving Belarusian air space when the captain was signaled by the pilot of a Belarus MiG-29 jet to land in the Belarus capital and not to proceed to the scheduled destination, Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital.   Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 1 MB480p | 2 MB540p | 3 MB720p | 4 MB1080p | 6 MBOriginal | 28 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioWhen the plane landed in Minsk, Belarusian security service officers detained 26-year-old opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich, who could face a death sentence on charges of helping to organize protests against President Lukashenko. Just before the aircraft landed, he gave his laptop and cell phone to a friend for safekeeping, passengers told reporters in Vilnius.    Pratasevich’s girlfriend, Sofia, was also detained. And reports emerged Monday of another detainee.    The plan to seize Pratasevich, who has lived in exile since 2019, also appears to have involved the participation of Belarusian KGB agents, who were present at the departure airport at Athens and boarded the jet, according to opposition activists. WATCH:  RFE/RL Interview with father of detained Belarus journalist The Greek Foreign Ministry released a statement Sunday describing the forced landing as a “state hijacking” which “put the lives of all the passengers on board in danger.” That view was echoed by US. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who dubbed the illegal diversion in a statement as “a shocking act.”    Blinken said the “regime endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including US citizens. Initial reports suggesting the involvement of the Belarusian security services and the use of Belarusian military aircraft to escort the plane are deeply concerning and require full investigation,” he added.   Fight onboard 
In an online post before leaving Athens, Pratasevich said he was being trailed by KGB agents. “This was some suspicious crap,” he wrote. “When the plane entered Belarus airspace KGB officers initiated a fight with the Ryanair crew, insisting that there was an improvised explosive device onboard,” Tadeusz Giczan, an editor at the activist Telegram site Nexta, tweeted.  “Eventually the crew was forced to send out an SOS, literally moments before the plane would have left Belarusian airspace. A MiG-29 took off and escorted it to Minsk,” he said. There were also local reports that an Mi-24 helicopter gunship was used in the operation. FILE – Opposition blogger and activist Raman Pratasevich, who is accused of participating in an unsanctioned protest at the Kuropaty preserve, arrives for a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus, Apr. 10, 2017.Ryanair said in a statement that the crew was also told by Belarus aviation authorities of a “potential security threat on board” and ordered the plane to Minsk, even though Vilnius was nearer.  On landing, all the passengers were searched and the flight was allowed to resume its journey five hours later. Rynair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, also said he believes that Belarus KGB agents were on board the flight. In an interview Monday with a British radio broadcaster, he said: “It appears the intent of the authorities was to remove a journalist and his traveling companion. We believe there were some KGB agents offloaded at the airport as well.” On Monday, it also emerged that along with Pratasevich and his girlfriend, a Russian citizen studying at the European Humanities University, EHU, in Lithuania, was forced off the flight, too. EHU has demanded her release, saying she was detained by the Minsk Investigative Committee on “groundless and made-up conditions.”  EU response 
EU leaders will discuss the case at a summit Monday, European Council President Charles Michel. “The incident will not remain without consequences,” he added in a statement.  “Possible sanctions” would be on the table, his spokesperson said. They could include barring Belarusian airlines from over-flying EU states or landing at the bloc’s airports and suspending all flights of EU airlines through Belarusian airspace. Ground transit from Belarus into the EU could also be prohibited, say EU officials. FILE – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko takes his oath of office during his inauguration ceremony at the Palace of the Independence in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 23, 2020.Since the August 2020 presidential election in Belarus, which was officially won by Lukashenko but were widely condemned as rigged and sparked huge protests across Belarus, the EU has imposed a series of sanctions on the country.Lithuanian prosecutors say they are launching a criminal investigation into the hijacking and are considering filing terrorism charges. Lithuania’s prime minister told reporters that the prosecutors interviewed passengers and crew on their arrival in Vilnius. “The unprecedented situation will have to be investigated very thoroughly,” Ingrida Simonyte said. Belarus public broadcasters said security officials only discovered Pratasevich was on the flight after his girlfriend sent a photo of him to another activist blogger. Pratasevich, who used to work for the Telegram channel Nexta but switched to another opposition messaging app recently, was in Athens to cover a visit to Greece by Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.  FILE – Belarus exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya poses during an interview with AFP on the sideline of her visit to the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in Geneva, Switzerland, March 7, 2021.“It is absolutely obvious that this is an operation by the special services to hijack an aircraft in order to detain activist and blogger Raman Pratasevich,” she said. “Not a single person who flies over Belarus can be sure of his safety,” she added in a statement. Of the 171 people who boarded in Athens, only 165 landed in Vilnius, according to Lithuanian authorities. Pratasevich, his girlfriend and the EHU students account for three of the six who did not proceed to Vilnius.   The other three are likely Belarus KGB agents, say Lithuanian officials, but there are also local reports that at least two were Russians, prompting speculation in the Belarus opposition media that they may have been Russian intelligence officers.   
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At least 14 people, including two children, were killed Sunday in northern Italy when a cable car popular among tourists fell 20 meters to the ground. A two-year-old child died instantly, and one nine-year-old died in the hospital after suffering two cardiac arrests. Another child, a five-year-old was seriously injured but conscious and speaking. He is being treated at the Regina Margherita children’s hospital in Turin.   Some passengers were stuck inside the cabin while others were thrown out during the crash. About half the passengers were foreign nationals, Italian authorities said. The Italian ANSA news agency has published the names of the victims.  The Stresa-Mottarone funicular travels between the resort town of Stresa on the shores of Lake Maggiore to the top of Mottarone mountain of Italy’s Piedmont region. The trip takes roughly 20 minutes.  Images from the scene showed a crumped cable car on a slope overlooking the lake. Stresa Mayor Marcella Severino called it a “terrible, terrible scene,” and said the accident may have been caused by a ruptured cable and the emergency brake failed. Severino said the car overturned two or three times after crashing to the ground before being stopped by some trees. Some passengers were stuck inside the cabin while others were thrown out during the crash. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi offered his condolences to the victims “with a particular thought about the seriously injured children and their families.” The Italian government announced later Sunday that it would begin an investigation into the accident. The Stresa-Mottarone cable car was closed for repairs between 2014 and 2016. It only recently began operating after a hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. The cable car can typically carry about 40 passengers. 
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The singer for Italy’s Eurovision Song Contest winning rockers Maneskin will take a voluntary drug test after denying speculation that he was snorting cocaine during the broadcast, organizers said Sunday. Red lederhosen-clad vocalist Damiano David will be tested after going back to Italy, following viral footage of him leaning over a table in the hospitality area of the competition in Rotterdam.  “We are aware of the speculation surrounding the video clip of the Italian winners of the Eurovision Song Contest in the Green Room last night,” the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said in a statement.  “The band have strongly refuted the allegations of drug use and the singer in question will take a voluntary drug test after arriving home,” it added.  “This was requested by them last night but could not be immediately organized by the EBU.”  The Maneskin singer was asked about the footage during the winners’ press conference early on Sunday, and said he had been looking down because guitarist Thomas Raggi had broken a glass.  “I don’t use drugs. Please, guys. Don’t say that really, no cocaine. Please, don’t say that,” David said.  The band later said on their Instagram stories that they were “ready to get tested because we have nothing to hide.”   “We are really shocked about what some people are saying about Damiano doing drugs. We really are AGAINST drugs and we never used cocaine,” they said. The EBU said evidence at the scene backed up David’s account about the glass smashing.  “The band, their management and head of delegation have informed us that no drugs were present in the Green Room and explained that a glass was broken at their table and it was being cleared by the singer,” its statement said.  “The EBU can confirm broken glass was found after an on site check. We are still looking at footage carefully and will update with further information in due course.”  Maneskin fought off stiff competition from France and Switzerland, surging to victory on the back of the public vote to win with 524 points. 
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A Belarusian journalist wanted by the government of Alexander Lukashenko was arrested after the plane he was traveling on made an unscheduled landing in Minsk on May 23 after what appears to have been a false bomb threat.Raman Pratasevich was taken away by police shortly after the Ryanair flight, which was on a scheduled route from Athens to Vilnius, landed in the Belarusian capital.No bomb was found, according to Belarussian media reports. No further details were immediately available. It was unclear who had reported the bomb threat. The headquarters of Belarusian opposition leader Svaitlana Tsikhanouskaya reported that the Ryanair flight crew received a message about a bomb on board the plane and that a MiG-29 military fighter was dispatched to escort the passenger jet to the airport in Minsk.Tsikhanouskaya’s office said the flight was near the border with Lithuania when the message was received. It was closer to the airport in Vilnius but instead it headed to Minsk.Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said it was an “unprecedented event” that a civilian passenger plane flying to Vilnius was forced to land in Minsk.”Flag of Belarus regime is behind the abhorrent action. I demand to free Roman Protasevic urgently!” Nauseda said on Twitter.Pratasevich was a key administrator of the Telegram channel NEXTA Live, which has been covering the protests that broke out in Belarus following the country’s disputed presidential election last August.In November, Belarusian authorities announced that Pratasevich, along with Stsyapan Putsila — also a NEXTA Live administrator — were being investigated on suspicions of organizing mass disorder, disrupting the social order, and inciting social hatred.Belarus has been rocked by protests since Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared the landslide winner of the poll amid allegations of vote-rigging. Since then, more than 30,000 people have been detained, hundreds beaten or tortured, and journalists targeted in the crackdown by Lukashenka, whose government has been hit by Western sanctions.In October, a court in Minsk designated the NEXTA Live channel and its logo as extremist and instructed the Information Ministry to restrict access to information resources using the name and logo of the Telegram channel, as well as their distribution in the Belarusian segment of the Internet.NEXTA Live then changed its name and logo, switching from the Latin transliteration of its name to a Cyrillic one.Fearing prosecution, Pratasevich and Putsila fled the country and their whereabouts have not been known.In October, Putsila, along with several Belarusian activists, received the European Parliament’s 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.Media in Belarus have been targeted by the Lukashenka government in the ongoing crackdown. The watchdog Reporters Without Borders has designated Belarus as the most dangerous spot in Europe for journalists.On May 21, Belarusian security forces raided a Minsk studio used by a Polish-based TV station that has produced investigations critical of Lukashenka and his associates.Belsat said uniformed officers broke into a studio on May 21 used for producing a talk show, detaining six people, including four cameramen.In April, the channel published an investigation into the business dealings of Lukashenka’s daughter-in-law and others associated with him.Earlier this year, two journalists for Belsat were handed what their lawyers called an “absurd” sentence of two years in prison each for reporting live from a rally in Minsk in November.Earlier this week, police launched a probe of the country’s largest independent online media outlet, Tut.by, searching the homes of several of its editors and blocking its website.Meanwhile, a Minsk court on May 21 sentenced another reporter who covered the police raid on Tut.by to a 15-day prison sentence, a media advocacy group said.The Belarusian Association of Journalists said 27 media workers are currently behind bars, either awaiting trial or serving sentences. 
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Move over sequins, disco beats and power ballads. A four-piece band of Italian rockers won the Eurovision Song Contest in the early hours of Sunday.Maneskin’s win was only the third victory for Italy in the immensely popular contest and the first since Toto Cutugno took the honor in 1990.Italy, the bookmakers’ favorite, trailed Switzerland, France and Malta after the national juries delivered their votes but were propelled to victory by votes from the viewing public.Ahead of the show, crowds gathered outside the Ahoy arena in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Drag queens mingled with families as a man in a gold suit waited to get into the venue.The hugely popular music festival that oozes flamboyance is seen as a significant step toward a post-pandemic return to live entertainment, but not everybody managed to avoid the virus.The popular Icelandic band Dadi og Gagnamagnid, known for its kitsch dance moves and green leisurewear costumes, is in the final, but can’t perform live because one member tested positive for the virus earlier in the week. Instead, viewers will see a recording of one of the band’s dress rehearsals.”The point was to go and actually experience how it was to compete in Eurovision, and that’s just really not happening,” lead singer Dadi Freyr said from isolation in Rotterdam.While the entertainment world has changed in the pandemic, the Eurovision final formula familiar to its worldwide legion of fans has not. The event is being hosted as usual by the last winner, the Netherlands, except that it won in 2019.After acts from 26 countries perform their songs Saturday night, they are awarded points by panels of music industry experts and by members of the public voting by phone, text message or via the contest’s app. The winner takes home a glass microphone trophy and a potential career boost.For the fans, there is still plenty of the over-the-top spectacle that has become Eurovision’s trademark.Norwegian singer Andreas Haukeland, whose stage name TIX is a reference to growing up with Tourette syndrome, sings his song “Fallen Angel” in a pair of giant white wings while chained to four prancing devils.Cyprus’ Elena Tsagrinou is flanked by four dancers in skintight red costumes as she performs “El Diablo,” a song that ignited protests among Orthodox Christians in the Mediterranean island nation who claim it glorifies satanic worship. Tsagrinou says it’s about an abusive relationship.San Marino has enlisted the help of U.S. rapper Flo Rida to join performer Senhit in her bid to win the title for the first time for the tiny city-state surrounded by Italy.
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Tony Hall, who was director of BBC news and current affairs at the time of the public broadcaster’s explosive 1995 interview with Princess Diana, resigned Saturday as board chairman of Britain’s National Gallery.Hall, who subsequently rose to the top job at the BBC, was heavily criticized in a report this week for a botched inquiry into how journalist Martin Bashir obtained the blockbuster interview.In a statement, the 70-year-old said his continued presence at the gallery would be a “distraction to an institution I care deeply about.”“As I said two days ago, I am very sorry for the events of 25 years ago and I believe leadership means taking responsibility,” said Hall, who served as the BBC’s director-general from 2013 until 2020.John Kingman, the deputy chair of the National Gallery’s board of trustees, will assume Hall’s role for the time being. He said the gallery is “extremely sorry” to lose Hall but that “we entirely understand and respect his decision.”The 126-page report by retired Judge John Dyson, published Thursday, found the internal BBC investigation had covered up “deceitful behavior” by Bashir, who was little-known as a journalist when he interviewed Diana.The BBC also has faced questions about why Bashir was rehired in 2016 as the broadcaster’s religious affairs correspondent.Diana’s sons, Princes William and Harry, have excoriated the BBC since the report’s publication, saying there was a direct link between the 1995 interview and their mother’s death in a traffic accident two years later as she and a companion were being pursued by paparazzi.The BBC commissioned the report after Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, complained that Bashir used false documents and other dishonest tactics to persuade Diana to grant the interview.In the interview, Diana said her marriage to Prince Charles had failed because he was still in love with former lover Camilla Parker Bowles, whom Charles would go on to marry a decade later.Diana, then 34, said she was devastated when she found out in 1986 — five years after her marriage — that Charles had renewed his relationship with Camilla. Diana said she was so depressed that she deliberately hurt herself in a desperate bid for help.“There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” Diana famously remarked.The fallout from the report has raised serious doubts about the BBC’s integrity, while the British government has said it would review the rules governing the oversight of the editorially independent national broadcaster.The BBC, which was founded in 1922, is funded by a license fee payable by everyone. The rules governing its operations are set out in a royal charter that requires the corporation to be impartial, act in the public interest and be open, transparent and accountable. A mid-term review of the BBC’s governance is scheduled to begin next year.
 
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The United States formally blacklisted more than a dozen Russian ships involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, days after exempting the pipeline’s Russian operator and CEO.The widely expected move, announced late on May 21 by the U.S. Treasury Department, came amid vehement criticism from congressional Republicans about the White House’s earlier announcement that it would not include the pipeline’s Russian-owned operator in the new sanctions.Nearly complete, the Baltic Sea pipeline will bring Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing land routes through Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries.Critics said it will increase German dependence on Russian energy supplies and make Berlin more susceptible to Russian politics. It will also deprive Ukraine and other countries of lucrative transit fees.However, the pipeline has been backed by the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Political observers said President Joe Biden appeared to not want to pick a fight with a U.S. ally over the issue.The State Department earlier this week announced the intention not to sanction the pipeline’s Russian-owned operator, Nord Stream 2 AG, or its CEO, Matthias Warnig, who is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.Republican senators say they will introduce legislation to reinstate the sanctions.”I don’t understand. Do they not want to make Putin mad? I don’t get that. Do they not want to get Germany mad?” Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters on May 20.Some information for this report came from Reuters.
 
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The sanctioning of Albania’s former leader for “significant corruption” is being cast as part of a drive by the new U.S. administration to fight corruption and promote democracy worldwide. But some analysts are questioning the wisdom of punishing a foreign politician for actions not directly affecting the United States. In announcing the sanctions on Sali Berisha and members of his family this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Berisha “was involved in corrupt acts” during his term as prime minister of Albania, including “misappropriation of public funds and interfering with public processes.” FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, May 20, 2021.Blinken added that Berisha had used power “for his own benefit and to enrich his political allies and his family members at the expense of the Albanian public’s confidence in their government institutions and public officials.”   Under the sanctions, Berisha, his wife, Liri Berisha, his son, Shkëlzen Berisha, and his daughter, Argita Berisha Malltezi, are barred from travel to the United States.   Berisha, who resigned as leader of his conservative party but remained in Parliament after being defeated as prime minister in 2013, rejected the allegations during a press conference Thursday. “There is no one in Albania or the world that can say that I am implicated in any corrupt affair,” he said. Dominant figure  Berisha has been Albania’s dominant political figure since the end of more than four decades of Stalinist rule in 1991. He is the historical leader of the right-wing Democratic Party, which emerged from a popular revolt in Albania that brought the era of pluralism to the country.   Berisha served as president from 1992 to 1997, after the fall of communism in Albania, and as prime minister from 2005 to 2013. He was credited with taking Albania into NATO in 2009 and onto the first rung of EU membership.  Berisha’s opponents, however, accused him of undermining democracy and allowing graft and organized crime to flourish.   Differing opinions  The U.S. designation comes on the heels of the ruling left-wing Socialist Party’s third win in parliamentary elections and a time of reckoning for the Democratic Party. Berisha’s successor, Lulzim Basha, has been under pressure to resign from within the party, and some have called on him to cut ties with Berisha, who has retreated from leading roles since 2013.  Some American analysts are questioning the decision to act against Berisha eight years after he left high office. “The timing is not good,” said Janusz Bugajski of the Jamestown Foundation, a defense policy research group.   “I don’t understand why a former political leader who’s no longer in office is being singled out. I mean, this should be something that needs to be done domestically at home. If there’s hard evidence, they should push for some sort of trial for some sort of investigations and so on and so forth,” he told VOA Albanian.   FILE – Matthew Palmer, U.S. special representative for the Western Balkans, attends a press conference in Belgrade, Nov. 4, 2019.But Matthew Palmer, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, with responsibility for the Western Balkans, said one should not “read too much into the timing of this.”  “What I would do is, is underscore the seriousness with which the United States takes the issue of public corruption,” he told VOA. “This is a demonstration of our commitment to using those instruments that we have available, including sanctions, as appropriate, in order to reinforce the fight against public corruption and to ensure that there is accountability for those who abuse the public trust.” Thomas Countryman, a former senior State Department official who held Palmer’s position in 2010-2011, said the administration has used the authority given it by the U.S. Congress to deny entry visas “in hundreds of cases.”   FILE – Thomas Countryman, then-assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Dec. 17, 2015.”Certainly not just in southeast Europe, but from Ukraine, from Russia, from Latin America, from Africa,” he said.   The United States has barred three other top Albanian officials from entering the United States on the ground of corruption, but Berisha is the highest-profile one.  Countryman sees the move as reflecting new foreign policy priorities for the United States under President Joe Biden. “I think the Biden administration has made clear that fighting global corruption is going to be a priority and it has already made several designations similar to that affecting Mr. Berisha in other cases,” he said. He said the news did not surprise him.  “I don’t think that the audience in Albania is unaware of the degree of public corruption that has affected politicians from multiple parties, so there is a factual basis for the designation,” Countryman said.  Bugajski, however, worries that Washington will be seen as taking sides in Albania’s domestic politics. “Is this now going to include other political leaders? I mean, there’s been a lot of discussion actually about the current Albanian government, the prime minister, the president. What are their positions going to be? What about neighboring countries?” Bugajski asked.   But Countryman maintains that the action against Berisha “is not a partisan step” by the United States. “It should be seen as a clear signal that continued corruption by any party in Albania, by any party in other countries, has consequences that go beyond the immediate local consequences that affect the relationship with the United States as well,” he said.  A 2020 report on human rights by the U.S. State Department said corruption in Albania is “pervasive in all branches of government.” The latest Nations in Transit report issued last month by Freedom House ranks the country as a transitional or hybrid regime and registered declines in its overall democracy score.     Ilir Ikonomi and Milena Durdic contributed to this report.
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Desperate teenagers and jobless men from Morocco’s coastal towns, its mountainous east or even farther away converged on the border town of Fnideq this week, part of an extraordinary mass effort to swim or scale barbed-wire fences to get into Spain for a chance at a new life.More than 8,000 migrants made it into the city of Ceuta, an enclave in North Africa that is separated from the rest of Spain by the Mediterranean — but for most of them, it was a short-lived success.The extraordinary surge of migrants crossing from Morocco into Spain came amid the chaos of a diplomatic spat between the two countries.Spanish troops forced over half of them back to Fnideq, putting additional strain on the Moroccan town whose limited resources are overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.”We will keep trying. We will find one way or another, even if the ocean turns into ice!” said  Badreddine, 27.He and his fellow Moroccans — Salah, 22, and  Hosam, 24 — all have diplomas but no jobs. Like most seeking to get into Spain, they spoke on condition their last names not be published for fear of their security because they are risking illegal migration.Being stuck in Morocco “is like being dead, so why not risk your life anyway? We’re currently living on streets, sleeping in the cold. Our parents know that we’re here, they pray for us. They told us, ‘Go, may Gold help you,’ ” Salah said.Sleeping outside, eating handoutsThey and others sleep in Fnideq’s parks, on benches and outside mosques. Some hang out near hotels and restaurants, begging for food and whatever people can spare. Volunteers hand out bread and sandwiches.Some have fled the impoverished countries of sub-Saharan Africa, but most are from Morocco, generally seen as one of the continent’s economic engines that has made strides in lowering poverty in recent years.Still, inequality is rife, the pandemic has worsened unemployment and average incomes are a small fraction of those in Europe, which sits tantalizingly close — just across the Fnideq-Ceuta fence.Minors who crossed into Spain take shelter inside an abandoned building in Ceuta, May 21, 2021.Amid tighter security by Spain in recent years, some would-be migrants have abandoned the effort, but others are determined to find a way around the security checkpoints or battle bad weather at sea.”We want to leave [Morocco] because there is nothing left for us in the country, nothing to do, no future. We go to school but don’t want to stay here,” said Khalid, 15.This week, many of them saw an opportunity as word spread quickly in Morocco about the tensions with Spain.When the government in Madrid gave medical treatment to a Western Saharan independence fighter that Morocco considers a terrorist, the decision led to chaos in Ceuta. The port city has always drawn those seeking to cross into Europe, but thousands were seen streaming toward Fnideq on highways and through forests and hills.On the march”Spain, here we come!” a group of Moroccans cried as they marched, singing soccer chants and hurling expletives at their native country. In central Fnideq, thousands lined the corniche that looks toward Ceuta, and they ended up swimming or taking small boats around breakwaters separating the countries.While Moroccan security forces normally are spread out on the beach and in nearby hills patrolling a wide perimeter, there seemed to be fewer guards earlier this week. As large groups of youths scaled the fence and wrapped clothes on their hands to get over the barbed wire, Associated Press reporters saw border police standing by idly.While Morocco has said little about the relaxed border controls, it was widely seen as retaliation for Madrid’s allowing militant leader Brahim Ghali to receive medical treatment inside Spain. Two Moroccan officials made that link in comments Wednesday.Mattresses and belongings of migrants sit atop a hill in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, near the border of Morocco and Spain, May 21, 2021.Spain eventually sent in military forces and pushed most of the migrants back to Morocco. The Red Cross says one young man died and dozens were treated for hypothermia.Khalid, 15, and Amin, 16, came to Fnideq on Sunday in a bus with about 40 others from Temara, a coastal town outside the capital, Rabat. They said they crossed into Spain three times, but were pushed back. The last time, they were forced to swim back along the shore back to Morocco.Back on dutyBy Thursday, Moroccan border guards seemed to be back in their positions, but hundreds of youths have remained, and the men and boys in Fnideq haven’t lost hope of crossing over.”I am the eldest of my brothers. My mother sells vegetables in the market” and can’t afford to support them, said Ayoub, in his early 20s, who arrived Thursday from the inland city of Meknes. “I had to try and help my mother.”While Morocco’s government has focused on the Western Sahara in its limited public statements this week, it hasn’t addressed the poverty and despair that is driving so many to want to leave the country.Fnideq, meanwhile, is suffering under the sudden influx of would-be migrants.The town relied heavily on trade with Ceuta before the pandemic, but Morocco’s strict border closure since March 2020 has deprived residents of livelihoods and access to Spain. Protests broke out earlier this year by residents demanding government aid or an open border.Human rights groups and opposition lawmakers accused the Moroccan government of using migrants as pawns instead of solving their problems. The opposition Istiqlal party urged “an economic alternative that guarantees the population their constitutional right to the necessities of a decent living.”Despite the scenes of tear gas and troops on the border this week, the dream of getting out of Morocco remains strong for many struggling youths, even in the relatively prosperous capital.”If you ask anyone in Rabat … that person will tell you that he wants to go to Europe,” said street vendor Mohammed Ouhaddou. “…Politicians are not doing anything. They are asleep and no one listens to us.”
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