European Union leaders are considering sanctions against Belarus (FT) after a Ryanair plane was forced to land in Minsk, where dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, a passenger, was arrested. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the incident a “hijacking.”   

The flight was en route to Lithuania from Greece when it was diverted, purportedly because of a bomb threat, though Belarusian media said President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered the plane to land. Protasevich, a former editor for a media outlet that shared anti-government content, could face more than twelve years in prison; Belarus put him on a terrorist watch list (Reuters) for allegedly helping organize anti-Lukashenko protests in 2020. EU and U.S. officials said they will coordinate responses (State Dept.) on Belarus. Belarus’s foreign ministry defended the grounding of the plane, and Russia called the EU reaction “shocking.”

Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat, began a three-day visit (FT) to Moscow to discuss security and strategic affairs. Russian President Vladimir Putin said relations between China and Russia are at “the best level in history” during a virtual meeting last week that marked the launch of a joint project on nuclear energy.
 
Samoa: Prime Minister–Elect Fiame Naomi Mata’afa’s opponents locked her out (AP) of her swearing-in ceremony in an attempt to block her from taking over from the outgoing prime minister, who has been in office for twenty-two years. Both claim to be the rightful leader of parliament.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved Nepal’s legislature (PTI) for the second time in five months after neither the incumbent prime minister nor the opposition could form a government. New elections will be held in November.
 
Afghanistan: Government forces conducted operations this weekend that aimed to retake four districts in central and eastern Afghanistan from the Taliban, TOLOnews reported. The defense ministry said at least ninety Taliban fighters were killed across eleven provinces in a twenty-four-hour period.
 
This Backgrounder looks at the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Iran agreed to a one-month extension (AP) on an agreement that places cameras from the United Nations’ nuclear agency at its atomic sites. Separately, negotiations are underway in Vienna that aim to bring the United States and Iran back to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
 
Morocco: The country’s foreign minister called for Spain to investigate (Al Jazeera) how Western Saharan independence leader Brahim Ghali was allowed into the country under a false identity for medical treatment. Last year, Ghali’s Algeria-backed group, the Polisario Front, said it would resume an armed struggle with Morocco over the disputed Western Sahara.

Ethiopia awarded an $850 million contract (WSJ) for its 5G-capable telecommunications network to a consortium backed by a U.S. government agency that does not allow its financing to be spent on equipment from the Chinese manufacturers Huawei and ZTE. The Vodafone-led consortium defeated a bid that was partly backed by a Chinese investor.
 
CFR’s David Sacks explains how the United States should respond to Huawei’s success in the 5G race.
 
DRC: An eruption of the Mount Nyiragongo volcano near the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo displaced (UN News) more than twenty-five thousand people and killed at least fifteen (AP). Nyiragongo is one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

A British public health agency found that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines are 88 percent and 60 percent effective (BBC), respectively, against the B.1.617.2 virus variant first identified in India. Some experts believe the variant is already the dominant virus strain (Guardian) in the United Kingdom.

Conservative former banker Guillermo Lasso takes office as Ecuador’s president today. A U.S. delegation that includes UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield is in Quito (U.S. Mission to UN) for the ceremonies and to meet with several South American officials.
 
Brazil: President Jair Bolsonaro led a motorbike rally (AFP) through Rio de Janeiro yesterday in an attempt to galvanize support. His approval rating reached the lowest point of his presidency earlier this month, at 24 percent (Folha de Sao Paulo).

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that as of May 21, Haitians inside the United States have temporary protected status (TPS), allowing them to live and work without risk of deportation (DHS) for eighteen months due to unrest and security concerns in Haiti. The United States has deported (NBC 6) nearly two thousand Haitian immigrants since February.
 
This In Brief explains TPS and other immigration-related acronyms.