Good Monday morning,
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Belarus Air Piracy
Aleksander Lukashenko, is a highjacker. The President of Belarus highjacked his democracy after the fall of the Soviet Union, by outlawing opposition leaders, and then he upped the anti this summer, when he was clearly defeated in an August vote and denied the election results. Since then he has jailed thousands of his own people and hundreds of cases of beatings and tortures have been documented by human rights groups.
Opposition leaders had fled the Country to places like Lithuanian, where democracy is strong and Lukashenko is considered a thug and Russian President Putin’s puppet dictator.
But, this weekend Lukashenko became an actual highjacker when on his orders Belarus scrambled a Mig-29 fighter jet and forced down a Ryan Air jet traveling through Belarus’ air space from Greece to Lithuania. On board KGB agents who had been in Greece, arrested an opposition blogger, Roman Protasevich and held him in Belarus before the plane was released.
Belarus’ officials claimed they were responding to a bomb threat on the plane, and had reason to search the aircraft, but clearly this act of air piracy is a criminal interception of European aircraft and has enraged the EU which now demands Protasevich be released. He could be executed under Belarus’ laws.
The EU could suspend all aircraft flights through, and in and out of Belarus, and take more sanctions. It needs to act and not just talk, or Lukashenko and Putin will think this is normal behaviour they can get away with in Europe and the dangers only increase. Lukashenko’s press service said he personally gave the order the Mig intercept and forced landing of the Ryanair flight.
The government of Lithuania issued its own statement, saying, “It is an unprecedented attack against the international community: A civilian plane and its passengers have been hijacked by military force.”
India Variant
There are different ways to headline this new data so be careful reading it and thats why you have Back Story Newsletter.
I prefer to think there is more rubber on the road in the second interpretation and it leads me to believe the British Government is not being 100% truthful with the public now on vaccines, and the spread of the India variant.
The first is how the BBC wrote it on likely based on Government guidance;
-Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are both found to be highly effective against the India variant according to a new study by public health England, and that’s a huge RELIEF as the variant is spreading rapidly. (Moderna is essentially the same as Pfizer)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57214596
*****The second and more concerning headline should read this way******
AstraZeneca vaccine now found to be dramatically lower in effectiveness at fighting the new India variant according to a new study and that’s a huge CONCERN in Britain where two-thirds of vaccines are AZ.
If you have a choice of vaccines, even a second vaccine, why wouldn’t you take Pfizer or Moderna over AstraZeneca which also has increased risk of bloodclots?
I had my second dose of AstaZeneca late last week, but now feel based on this data I will need a booster in the coming months as India variant spreads rapidly.
UK Hides Data on Schools- Covid
And now scientists in England are raising red flags, over the fact the Government has hid data on the spread of Covid in schools, and the rapid increase in India variant found among young people.
Scientists, union officials and teachers said that the lack of transparency was “deeply worrying” after the pre-print of a Public Health England report that included a page of data on the spread of the India Covid-19 variant in schools, was EDITED by the Prime Ministers office. One page had been removed dealing with the new variant spread in schools, and likely because the Government ignored scientific advice on continued mask wearing, and ordered guidance on masking to be dropped.
164 cases of the new variant were linked to schools up to 12 May, or 13% of a total of 2,111 cases. Since then, the number of total cases of the new variant has risen to 3,424 cases, a rise of 160%. The number of cases now linked to schools is unknown.
My teenager has been told by his schools masks are no longer necessary, and it seems to be based on Government advice which is dangerous and ignoring science.
Germany and UK Travel Ban
As of Monday no UK Citizens may enter Germany because of the spread of variants in the Britain, and rising concerns over vaccine effectiveness. Speaking about the latest quarantine rules, a German government spokesman said
“We want to play it safe. In this important phase of the vaccination campaign, the entry of problematic mutations must be avoided as far as possible”.
GAZA
The cease fire between Hamas and Israel appears to be holding. Coming up on Back Story with Dana Lewis podcast, an in depth interview with Yossi Beilin, the architect of the OSLO peace accords.
Check it out:
https://backstorywithdanalewis.buzzsprout.com
That’s a quick look at the news this morning. Have a good day everyone.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57214596
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/22/no-10-tried-to-block-data-on-spread-of-new-covid-variant-in-english-schools
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9607117/Germany-BANS-Britons-midnight-TOMORROW-branding-UK-Covid-variant-hotspot.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/23/world/europe/ryanair-belarus.html