C M Y K Nxxx,2021-05-25,A,001,Bs-4C,E1 Late Edition Today, partly cloudy, high 73. To- night, partly cloudy, low 64. Tomor- row, some sunshine, breezy, hotter, humid, thunderstorms late, high 90. Weather map appears on Page B12. VOL. CLXX . ...No. 59,069 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2021 $3.00 E.U. Squeezes NEW YORK BARS Belarus Leader ONLINE LEARNING For ‘Hijacking’ FOR FALL CLASSES Putin Backs Regime — West to Ban Flights BIG STEP TO RECOVERY By ANTON TROIANOVSKI One of First Major Cities MOSCOW — The tray tables were being raised and the seat to Act in Absence of backs returned to their upright positions as passengers on U.S. Guidance Ryanair Flight 4978 prepared for the scheduled landing in the Lith- uanian capital, Vilnius. Then the By ELIZA SHAPIRO plane made an abrupt U-turn. New York City will no longer For many passengers, it ini- have a remote schooling option tially seemed like one of those un- come fall, Mayor Bill de Blasio expected delays in airline travel. said Monday, a major step toward But after the pilot announced the fully reopening the nation’s larg- plane had been diverted to Minsk, est school system and a crucial the capital of Belarus, one pas- marker in the city’s economic re- senger — Roman Protasevich, a covery after more than a year of prominent Belarusian opposition disruptions caused by the pan- journalist who had been living in demic. exile since 2019 — grew terrified, The announcement represents certain that he faced arrest. the single most important deci- “He panicked because we were sion the city was facing on school about to land in Minsk,” Marius reopening, and means that all stu- Rutkauskas, who was sitting one dents and staff members will be row ahead of Mr. Protasevich, told back in buildings full time. Many the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT parents will also be able to return upon arrival in Vilnius. BENJAMIN NORMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES to work without supervising their Sunday’s ordeal — described by New York’s pledge of in-person classes was deemed essential. “We’ve got to understand we’re leaving Covid behind,” the mayor said. children’s online classes, which many European officials as an ex- could prompt the revitalization of traordinary, state-sponsored hi- entire industries and neighbor- jacking by Belarus to seize Mr. hoods. Protasevich — quickly led to one “You can’t have a full recovery of the most severe East-West Israel Grows New Worry Over State Revenues: They’re Soaring without full-strength schools,” Mr. flare-ups in recent years. de Blasio said during an appear- Meeting Monday evening in Less Reliant Some economists and budget ance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Brussels, European Union leaders By JIM TANKERSLEY G.O.P. Presses Biden to experts support that push, argu- New York is one of the first big called on all airlines based in the and ALAN RAPPEPORT ing that the money could be better cities in the country to remove the bloc to stop flying over Belarus On U.S. Aid Redirect Aid Toward spent elsewhere and that states’ option of remote learning alto- and began the process of banning WASHINGTON — From Cali- spending plans could add to a risk gether for the next school year. Belarusian airlines from flying fornia to Virginia, many states of rapid inflation breaking out Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on that faced devastating shortfalls Infrastructure over the bloc’s airspace or landing across the country. Other re- Monday that he expected all in the depths of the pandemic re- in its airports — effectively sever- Israel, a small country sur- searchers and local budget offi- schools in the state to reopen full- cession now find themselves flush ing the country’s direct air con- rounded by adversaries and cials say that the federal aid is res- time in the fall. with tax revenues because of a re- nections to Western Europe. locked in conflict with the Pales- dollars of federal aid approved cuing harder-hit cities and states, As virus cases drop across the tinians, depends absolutely on bounding economy and a soaring The measures represented a this year, in order to help fund a like New York City and Hawaii, country, and with no uniform fed- American diplomatic and mili- stock market. Lawmakers who harsh Western broadside against potential bipartisan infrastruc- from a cascade of layoffs and eral guidance on the issue, offi- tary support. By worried about budget cuts are Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, Bela- ture deal. spending cuts. cials in each state are weighing giving it, the now proposing lucrative in- rus’s authoritarian president, who THE Last week, Senator Mitt Rom- Biden administration officials their options. United States creases in school spending, tax is already under E.U. sanctions for ney, Republican of Utah, sug- say they continue to support dis- Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New rights violations over his brutal INTERPRETER safeguards Israel cuts and direct payments to their Jersey announced last week that and wields signif- residents. gested that Mr. Biden and Repub- tributing the full $350 billion in repression of protests last year. MAX FISHER the state would no longer have re- icant leverage That turnaround is partly the lican negotiators look to “some of state, local and tribal aid that was There was no indication, however, the funding that’s been sent to contained in the $1.9 trillion eco- mote classes come fall. Leaders in over its actions. product of strong income tax re- Massachusetts and Illinois, along that the intensified squeeze would states already under the last few nomic assistance package that alter Mr. Lukashenko’s resolve — That’s the conventional wis- ceipts, particularly in states that with San Antonio, have said there bills” to help pay for that agree- Mr. Biden signed in March. They especially with President Vladi- dom, anyway. For decades, it was heavily tax high earners and the will be extremely limited remote true: Israeli leaders and voters wealthy, whose finances have ment. “They don’t know how to say the aid will help ensure that mir V. Putin of Russia steadfast in the economic rebound does not re- options. alike treated Washington as fared well in the crisis. The unex- use it,” Mr. Romney said. “They Education officials in Florida Continued on Page A11 peat the years of state and local essential to their country’s sur- pectedly rosy picture is raising could use that money to finance have indicated they will signifi- budget cutting that followed the vival. pressure on President Biden to re- part of the infrastructure relating cantly reduce or even eliminate But that dependence may be purpose hundreds of billions of to roads and bridges and transit.” Continued on Page A17 online classes next school year. ending. While Israel still benefits Gov. Gavin Newsom of California greatly from American assist- has said districts will have to offer ance, security experts and politi- in-person classes this fall, but can cal analysts say that the country also provide remote instruction. has quietly cultivated, and may Houston, one of the largest dis- have achieved, effective autono- tricts in the country, will keep a re- my from the United States. mote option for fall, as will Phila- “We’re seeing much more delphia. Israeli independence,” said Vipin While Mr. de Blasio’s announce- Narang, a Massachusetts Insti- ment eliminated the largest logis- tute of Technology political scien- tical obstacle to fully reopening tist who has studied Israeli strat- the school system, he still has to OMAR MARQUES/GETTY IMAGES egy. convince hesitant families and Wielding paper airplanes in Israel no longer needs Ameri- staff that it’s safe for schools to re- Warsaw in protest of Belarus. can security guarantees to pro- turn to normal. tect it from neighboring states, This school year, the majority of with which it has mostly made the city’s roughly one million stu- FALLOUT The E.U. and Britain peace. Nor does it see itself as dents — about 600,000 — stayed have moved to impede Belarus’s needing American mediation in home for classes. A disproportion- access to air travel. PAGE B1 Continued on Page A10 ate number of the families who chose online learning were non- white, a reflection of the harsh health outcomes suffered by Black and Latino families in par- Poets Risk Their Lives to Save ticular when the city became a global epicenter of the virus last spring. Myanmar’s Soul Against Junta The mayor also said that teach- ers and school staff members, who have been eligible for the vac- By HANNAH BEECH cine since January, will no longer DUSTIN CHAMBERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES be granted medical waivers to After the first and second poets ons are being used to fight a mili- work from home. Nearly a third of were killed, the third poet wrote a tary that has killed more than 800 An Immovable Monument city teachers are working re- poem. people since it staged a coup on A Georgia park’s plan to put the Civil War into fuller context frustrates critics on all sides. Page A12. Continued on Page A7 Feb. 1 and ousted an elected gov- They shoot at heads ernment. For some democracy ac- But they do not know tivists, their politics cannot be That revolution lives in the separated from their poetry. heart. Sensing the power of carefully A Texas Retreat’s Tranquillity Is Rattled by a SpaceX ‘Ball of Fire’ After the third poet was killed, chosen words, the generals have the fourth poet wrote a poem.