Quote (dro94 @ 18 May 2021 00:12)

Putting pseudoscience to one side, Astrazeneca is actually the only vaccine we currently know is effective against the Indian variant because it's the one they've been using en-masse in India, and not Pfizer. Plus, it's increased transmissibility that is concerning about the variant, rather than an ability to bypass vaccine protection

Quote

Belarus arrests opposition figure after flight diverted
Exiled opposition activist Roman Protasevich detained after his flight from Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Minsk.

A founder of a messaging app channel that has been a key information conduit for opponents of Belarus’s authoritarian president has been arrested after an airliner on which he was travelling was diverted to the capital, Minsk, because of a bomb threat.

The presidential press service said President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered that a MiG-29 fighter jet accompany the Ryanair plane – travelling on Sunday from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania – to the Minsk airport.

The Belarusian Interior Ministry said Raman Pratasevich was arrested at the airport. Pratasevich is a co-founder of the Telegram messaging app’s Nexta channel, which Belarus last year declared as “extremist” after it was used to help organise large protests against Lukashenko.

Pratasevich, who had fled the country for Poland, faces charges that could carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

The presidential press service said the bomb threat was received while the plane was over Belarusian territory; officials later said no explosives were found on board.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda demanded that Belarus release Protasevich.

“Unprecedented event! A civilian passenger plane flying to Vilnius was forcibly landed in #Minsk,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Twitter.

“Belarusian political activist & founder of @NEXTA_EN was on the plane. He is arrested. Regime is behind the abhorrent action. I demand to free Roman Protasevic urgently!”, Nauseda added.

He also urged NATO and the European Union to “immediately react to the threat posed by the Belarusian regime to international civil aviation” in a separate statement issued by his office.

“I will talk about it at the EU summit in Brussels tomorrow,” Nauseda said.

The European Union said on Sunday that all passengers on board the Ryanair plane must be allowed to resume their journeys immediately.

“ALL passengers must be able to continue their travel to Vilnius immediately and their safety ensured,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter.

“Any violation of international air transport rules must bear consequences,” she added.

Exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called on the International Civil Aviation Organization to begin an investigation.

“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 in a statement. “Not a single person who flies over Belarus can be sure of his safety.”

Ryanair said the plane’s crew were notified by Belarus of a potential security threat on board and were instructed to divert to the nearest airport, Minsk.

The plane landed safely, passengers were offloaded and security checks were made by local authorities, it said.

Quote (JohnnyMcCoy @ May 24 2021 04:10pm)

the belarus incident shows how weak europe and the EU are, the dictator of a completely insignificant shithole shouldnt even dare to do something like that

and lukaschenko knows he will get away with this, all he gets are some "we condemn this" videos and social media posts and travel bans, when they dont even leave the country anymore (except allies like russia)

the mighty EU took another L

Quote (dro94 @ May 24 2021 06:58pm)

What could the EU have pre-emptively done? Any government could tell a crew there has been a bomb threat or some story to deceive them into landing the plane

Whether he did it with a plane from the US or Ireland is irrelevant as the end result would be the same - sanctions. Freezing the foreign assets of all the government cronies and anyone that has transacted with that regime is better to blanket sanctions IMO - no need to take it out on the people of Belarus

Quote (Saucisson6000 @ May 17 2021 07:16pm)

India is trying pfizer.
Nice blood clotting lottery btw.

Quote (JohnnyMcCoy @ May 24 2021 01:10pm)

we both know that these guys dont hold their assets in places where the west can freeze them, an amount that they dont care about at best

the EU needs to enforce actually crippling sanctions that hit the people of belarus as well, there is a need to take it out on them to cause the spark to get rid of this dictator, he clearly has still enough support

otherwise we will continue to be in this exact situation for years to come

this scandal has given us cause to make a big move, but i doubt it will happen

Quote (JohnnyMcCoy @ May 24 2021 06:10pm)

we both know that these guys dont hold their assets in places where the west can freeze them, an amount that they dont care about at best

the EU needs to enforce actually crippling sanctions that hit the people of belarus as well, there is a need to take it out on them to cause the spark to get rid of this dictator, he clearly has still enough support

otherwise we will continue to be in this exact situation for years to come

this scandal has given us cause to make a big move, but i doubt it will happen