Minsk, Belarus
Brutal crackdown: Riot police beat unarmed demonstrators and shoved elderly rallygoers into police vans in one of the largest crackdowns yet on the ongoing mass protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. More than 1,000 people were arrested in a single day, and two British diplomats were expelled from the country after they witnessed the brutality. The violence came just days after the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe put out a report documenting “massive and systematic” human rights abuses by Lukashenko’s security apparatus—including the torture of protesters—following the country’s rigged Aug. 9 presidential election. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden last month pledged to “significantly expand” sanctions on Lukashenko’s “henchmen.”