Good morning,
BELARUS
Alexander Lukashenko ordered a Mig-29 fighter jet intercepted a Ryanair passenger jet enroute from Athens to Vilnius and was forced to land in Minsk, Belarus. State highjacking, clear and simple.
Arrested was a journalist who has helped organized anti Lukashenko protests in Belarus, Roman Protasevich. He has used social media to evade Government crackdowns on free press, and helped light a fire of demands for a real democracy. He was the main editor for Nexta-Live, the Telegram channel which played a key role last year in organising protests against Belarus’s vengeful president Alexander Lukashenko.
At its peak Nexta had two million subscribers, making it the largest channel of its kind in eastern Europe.
Protasevich is likely being tortured, like many others who have simply participated in demands for Lukashenko to step down after he cheated the election last August. And, he is also in grave danger.
What’s notable is the EU finally has taken serious action against Belarus, grounding its planes from flying to Europe and barring European airlines from crossing Belarus’ airspace.
There will be more sanctions. There need to be. And Lukashenko will seek shielding for Russia’s Putin who has been strangely quiet. Does Russia see Lukashenko as such a costly ally, the Kremlin may move to pull the rug on his regime?
Canada
Meantime, Canadian P.M. Trudeau condemned Belarus’ interception of the aircraft and the arrest of Protasevich as “outrageous, illegal and completely unacceptable,” Trudeau said. “This was a clear attack on democracy and on the freedom of the press”.
Belarus announced it will close it’s Embassy in Ottawa as of Sept.1 (that is of course it Lukashenko is still in power by then).
Putin/ Biden Summit
In the days of the cold war summits between American and Russia leaders were held to mainly discuss nuclear issues. What will President’s Biden and Putin have as ‘deliverables’ when they meet in Geneva June 16th?
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “The leaders will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the U.S.-Russia relationship.”
Generally these meetings are choreographed for the press, so they only discuss what they can easily agree on. But Putin is a wild card, as he may attack U.S. policies on many fronts, while Biden is no wilting flower when it comes to calling Putin out on jailing of Alexei Navalny, or interference in American elections, or computer hacking.
The Future of Palestinian Israeli Peace
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged tens of millions of dollars in additional development assistance to the Palestinians Tuesday during his trip to the Middle East. He also said the United States would reopen its consulate in Jerusalem, reversing a Trump administration decision.
On this Back Story with Dana Lewis, we talk to Yossi Beilin, the architect of the OSLO Peace accords on where does Israel go from here?
Beilin predicts either peace or a unilateral Israeli withdrawl from the West Bank.
And, Jerusalem Post Military Affairs reporter Anna Ahronheim who talks about military goals in Gaza and was it a victory over Hamas?
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/8576551
Nasrallah and War Threat
The leader of the Iranian backed Hezbollah in Lebanon has broken his silence over the recent Palestinian Israeli conflict, and warned if Israel violates holy sites in Jerusalem in the future it risks a regional war and destruction.
"We won't substitute Palestinians, but stand behind and next to them," said Hassan Nasrallah, calling for the creation of a "new equation" in which any violation of Jerusalem would lead to a regional war and would result in "Israel's destruction."
Nasrallah says he was silent during the recent fighting, because he had been sick.
Serious concerns would be raised in Israeli defense circles by Nasrallah’s threat, and questions on what would happen if the Hezbollah joined with Hamas in the future and fired rockets together at Israeli City’s.
Other News
-Prosecutors in New York have convened a grand jury to decide whether to indict former US President Donald Trump on criminal charges, local media report.
-American troops are set to be out of Afghanistan by early to mid-July, well ahead of President Biden’s Sept. 11 deadline.
-Dominic Cummings, once the closest aid of the British P.M. ramped up his attacks on Boris Johnson on the eve of the former aide’s testimony to a Government Committee on Covid, accusing the prime minister of having no “serious plan” to protect society’s most vulnerable people from Covid.
-The US, UK, France, Germany and Italy released a statement characterizing Syria's upcoming elections on Wednesday as neither "free nor fair."
-Three researchers at the Wuhan lab became so ill in November of 2019 that they sought hospital treatment. Though it is not clear whether the workers contracted coronavirus, their hospitalization coincides with the period when most experts believe the virus was spreading through the city of Wuhan.
https://www.ft.com/content/c4e719d1-f01f-45eb-be3c-b10cfd4214f1
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/trudeau-calls-arrest-of-belarusian-journalist-a-clear-attack-on-democracy-threatens-to-impose-further-sanctions?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1621967392-1
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/lebanon-hezbollah-chief-says-attacks-on-jerusalem-mean-regional-war-669149
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/grand-jury-to-consider-donald-trump-charges/ar-AAKnVFN?ocid=uxbndlbing