FirstFT: Today’s top stories | Financial Times

European leaders have called for an immediate international response after Belarus forced a Ryanair flight bound for Lithuania to land in Minsk and arrested one of its passengers, a top opposition activist.

State media said online activist Roman Protasevich, resident in Lithuania, had been detained in the Belarusian capital on Sunday, after Ryanair flight FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius was unexpectedly diverted to Minsk shortly before it was due to leave Belarusian airspace.

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus personally gave an “irrevocable command to turn the plane around and land it”, according to a post on a semi-official presidential channel on messaging app Telegram.

The news sparked furious responses from across Europe, with officials pledging to discuss “possible sanctions” at a previously scheduled EU meeting on Monday, and demanding that Protasevich be released. Nato branded the incident “serious and dangerous”, while Dominic Raab, the British foreign secretary, accused Lukashenko of “outlandish” behaviour.

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Coronavirus digest

• New variants and persistent vaccine hesitancy are causing problems for governments’ plans to reopen economies and bring some normality back to life.

• China vaccinated more people against coronavirus in 10 days this month than it did in the first quarter, catapulting it into the top five countries for daily delivered doses on a per capita basis.

• India faces a major stress test for the global services industry, as companies work to keep back-office operations running. Many companies have reported as many as 10 per cent of employees are off with Covid-19.

• French Phize with your shake? Bribing citizens to get jabbed is not stupid — it’s just depressing to see it reduced to the level of a discount item, writes Robert Shrimsley.

Do you think governments should give out incentives — from lottery tickets, to free beers and a courtesy marijuana joints — to those who get a Covid-19 vaccine? Take our poll.

In the news

Member countries push back against IEA’s net zero road map Japan and Australia have disputed the findings of the International Energy Agency’s report on reaching net zero emissions by 2050, indicating they will continue fossil fuel investment despite the watchdog’s advice.

Bitcoin turmoil seeps into traditional financial markets A huge drop and snap back in cryptocurrency prices last week rippled into traditional asset classes, potentially offering a taste of what could happen in the event of a more severe shake-up. The digital currency’s volatility expended into the weekend and bitcoin’s price fell 13 per cent on Sunday. (FT, Reuters)

Deutsche Bank sets implicit quota of 50% women for senior hires The German lender will have to appoint women to about 50 per cent of vacant senior management positions to meet its new 2025 gender target, a Financial Times calculation shows. The bank pledged to raise the share of women among its most senior executives by 6 per cent in four years.

Beijing rebuffs Pentagon requests for high-level military talks Lloyd Austin, US defence secretary, has made three requests to speak to General Xu Qiliang, vice-chair of the Central Military Commission and a politburo member who is China’s most senior military officer. But China has refused to engage, according to three people briefed on the impasse.

SoftBank management shake-up Two SoftBank directors, one the company’s first female board member and the other an advocate of its disastrous WeWork investment, are leaving the Japanese company’s board in a major management shake-up.

US proposes global corporate tax rate of at least 15% The Biden administration has signalled that it will accept a 15 per cent global minimum tax on large multinational companies, in international talks aimed at increasing revenues from corporations that operate across borders.

The day ahead

China’s leading diplomat to visit Russia Yang Jiechi, who leads China’s central committee for foreign affairs, will be in Russia until Wednesday for a strategic and security consultation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday. Yang will also visit Croatia and Slovenia before returning to China.

European climate summit The two-day summit is expected to be dominated by discussions about how to decarbonise the bloc’s economy so it can meet its goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 55 per cent by 2030. (Irish Times)

What else we’re reading

We know what you did during lockdown We gave up our privacy to fight Covid-19, can we get it back? In this FT Film written by playwright James Graham, a suspected Covid-19 super spreader played by Lydia West is interrogated by a data analyst played by Arthur Darvill.

Cryptocurrency holders take on central banks at their peril The Fed, European Central Bank and Bank of England are scathing about the speculative risks of modish digital tokens. Central banks’ messages have been clear: if the digital currency market falls over, they see no reason to step in and prop it back up. Cryptocurrency buyers are on their own.

Beware the ketchup-bottle economy There are reasons to think inflationary pressures could give way to disinflationary ones, writes Martin Sandbu. The notion of a “bottleneck economy” nicely captures how markets for products and labour are currently gummed up. For more from Martin, subscribe to his global economic policy newsletter Free Lunch.

You’ll never guess where I’m working from now! As the hybrid work model evolves, the office of the very near future could be in a museum or sports venue, writes Pilita Clark. One company that has decided to ditch its fancy downtown offices and see if it can find new workplaces that capture the best of the off-site away day, every day.

Contradictory versions of Ghosn It is Greg Kelly, a lawyer who worked at Nissan for 30 years before his 2018 arrest on charges of conspiring to conceal the true scale of Carlos Ghosn’s pay, who is on trial — but Ghosn’s presence looms over his lieutenant’s case. Ghosn has been depicted as both a feared autocrat and an essential executive.

Are ageing populations really bad for the economy? Don’t believe the myth that an ageing population means economic decline, writes Merryn Somerset Webb. While fewer people on the planet could be good for the environment, it will also force societal adjustments. (FT, NYT)

Podcast of the day

Tackling the Indian coronavirus variant The UK’s easing out of lockdown was put under threat by a new strain of coronavirus that originated in India. Can the race between inoculations and infections be won? Will the June 21 easing go ahead? Sebastian Payne discusses on the Payne’s Politics podcast. Listen here.