Putin Announces Tactical Nuclear Weapons to Be Stationed in Belarus

Welcome to today’s Morning Brief, where we’re looking at Russia putting nuclear weapons in Belarus, time changes and ensuing confusion in Lebanon, French police clashing with protesters, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of his defense minister.

If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this weekend that he will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Putin said he made this decision because the United Kingdom agreed to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds that contain depleted uranium. He did not specify how many would be kept in Belarus. Putin also said he was following the lead of the United States, which has nuclear weapons based in places such as Germany and Turkey.

“We are doing what they have been doing for decades, stationing them in certain allied countries, preparing the launch platforms and training their crews. We are going to do the same thing,” he said.

NATO, in turn, criticized Putin for what it described as “dangerous” rhetoric.

“Russia’s reference to NATO’s nuclear sharing is totally misleading. NATO allies act with full respect of their international commitments,” NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu told Reuters. Ukraine’s foreign ministry asked the international community to “take decisive measures,” and the European Union threatened additional sanctions.

Tuesday, March 28: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken chairs a virtual event on Ukraine with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Wednesday, March 29: U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager meet.

Wednesday, March 29: King Charles visits Berlin. (His France trip was canceled.)

Thursday, March 30: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visits China.

Friday, March 31: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visits the United Arab Emirates.

Partial clock change confusion in Lebanon. A dispute between religious and political leaders about when daylight savings time should start meant that people in Lebanon awoke Sunday to two different time zones. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced it would be at the end of Ramadan, thus allowing Muslims to break their daily fast earlier. However, Christian authorities wanted it to take place the last Sunday in March. Many businesses followed the latter, as this is what happens most years and some suspect Mikati of trying to boost his own political popularity. National plane carrier Middle East Airlines settled on a compromise, keeping clocks set but moving flight times ahead.

French police clash with protesters. The French police have been accused of using excessive force with protesters, who once again took to the streets to push back against French President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply unpopular planned pension reform. Dunja Mijatovic, human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, said peaceful protesters had a right to assemble without “police brutality” and called the state of affairs “worrying.”

Netanyahu fires defense minister. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, a day after Gallant spoke out against the proposed reforms to Israel’s judiciary, which he said threatened to undermine Israel’s national security. The firing prompted mass protests in Tel Aviv, and a call from Israeli President Isaac Herzog for an immediate halt to the reforms.

Gallant was hardly the first prominent figure to speak out against the reforms—former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned that Netanyahu was destroying Israeli democracy to Foreign Policy just last week—but Gallant is a member of Netanyahu’s own Likud party and warned that pushing ahead with the reforms could lead to protests among reservists and the regular army. “The security of the state of Israel has always been and will always be my life’s mission,” Gallant said after he was fired. Israel’s consul general in New York, Asaf Zamir, resigned in protest Sunday, writing in his resignation letter, “I am very concerned about the legal reform that the government is promoting, which undermines the democratic institutions in Israel and the rule of law in the country.” Israel’s largest trade union announced a strike on Monday, shutting down universities, transportation, restaurants, and stores in response to the proposed judicial reforms.

Hong Kongers hold their first protest in years. For the first time since 2020, when mainland China imposed sharp restrictions on rights, a small rally was held in Hong Kong. Only 100 people were allowed to attend, and they had to wear number tags and have their banners examined ahead of time. Police closely monitored the rally.

•It’s Time to Bring Back the Polish-Lithuanian Union by Dalibor Rohac

•What America’s Civil War Can Teach Us About Israel’s by Ian S. Lustick

•America’s Zero-Sum Economics Doesn’t Add Up by Adam Posen 

Deep-sea wiggling. A new species of deep-sea worm has been named after a marine scientist from Trinidad and Tobago. The worm can live in extremely hot or extremely cold climates. Its name is the Judiworm, formally Lamellibrachia judigobini, after marine ecologist Judith Gobin at the University of the West Indies, who called the naming “a crowning point of my extensive marine career.”