EU Demands Belarus Explain Diversion of Plane, Detention of Journalist
Voice of America
European Union governments are demanding an immediate explanation from Belarus about the diversion of a Lithuanian-bound flight to Minsk, where authorities arrested one of its passengers, opposition activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said the commercial flight was directed to land "by force," while Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the event a "reprehensible act of state terrorism." Nauseda slammed the arrest of Pratasevich and said the international community “must take immediate steps that this does not repeat." His reaction came in an e-mailed statement quoted by Reuters that followed his initial reaction to the incident on Twitter. Mateusz said on Twitter that he has asked the European Council's president to discuss immediate sanctions against Belarus during a meeting scheduled for May 24.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, right, and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, left, leave a podium after marking Independence Day in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024. Demonstrators with Georgian national and EU flags rally during an opposition protest against a foreign influence bill as they mark their country's Independence Day, in the center of in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024.