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The [Vaccine Passport] bill, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, passed the Senate 30 to 0 on April 8 and the House 76 to 16 on May 17. Orr's legislation does not include an enforcement mechanism.

The bill says public entities "may not issue vaccine or immunization passports, vaccine or immunization passes, or any other standardized documentation for the purpose of certifying the immunization status of an individual, or otherwise require the publication or sharing of immunization records or similar health information for an individual" outside of already-required school vaccinations.

It also bans public entities and private businesses from requiring proof of vaccination to provide goods or services to individuals, outside of existing school vaccinations. But the bill limits those requirements to vaccines approved as of Jan. 1, 2021. A future legislature may have to revisit that provision to allow the use of vaccines developed in the future.

COVID-19 IN ALABAMA: Alabama House agrees to ban on 'vaccine passports'

Alabama's COVID-19 caseload, like the rest of the country's, has eased in the last few months. According to BamaTracker, which collects data on the outbreak in the state, the 7-day daily average of cases was 200, the lowest number reported since April 8, 2020, near the dawn of the pandemic.

The state still trails the rest of the country in COVID-19 vaccinations, despite pushed by Ivey and other officials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 36% of Alabamians 18 and older have received at least one shot, compared to 49% nationwide. About 76% of adults 65 and older have received one shot, compared to 85% nationwide.

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European Union leaders have agreed on a set of sanctions to be laid against Belarus, including banning its airlines from using the bloc's airspace and airports, after a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk and a Belarusian journalist on board was detained.

EU leaders also demanded the immediate release of the journalist, Raman Pratasevich, a key foe of authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"We won't tolerate that one can try to play Russian roulette with the lives of innocent civilians,'' said EU Council chief Charles Michel, who presided over the EU meeting.

EU leaders came to the decision at an emergency summit held on Monday and are expected to enforce the sanctions as soon as legal proceedings will allow.

Hamas Denies Making Fake Bomb Threat That Caused Ryanair Plane to Land in Minsk

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum denied on Monday the group's involvement in the Ryanair plane emergency landing in Minsk over a false bomb threat.

Earlier on Monday, the Belarusian foreign ministry claimed that the plane was diverted to Minsk after the National Minsk Airport received a letter with a bomb alert written in the name of the Palestinian-based militant group Hamas. Allegedly, the Hamas soldiers demanded that the EU stop supporting Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip and warned that they will otherwise detonate an explosive device over Vilnius.

"We don't resort to these methods, which could be the doing of some suspicious parties that aim to demonise Hamas and foil the state of world sympathy with our Palestinian people and their legitimate resistance," the Hamas spokesman was cited as saying by Reuters.

• He was a journalist for the Polish-Lithuanian-funded Euroradio, as well as Radio Liberty.
• Protasevich was part of the Maidan protests in Kiev 2013/2014, as a picture on Facebook shows, where, clad in a Belarusian People's State flag, he is taking part in the destruction of a Lenin statue.
• Protasevich has a neo-Nazi and anti-communist background. He is a sympathizer of the Pahonia Detachment, a Belarusian militia that has fought alongside the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine's post-Maidan civil war.
• In February and March 2017, Belarus was swept by a series of demonstrations throughout the country, which Protasevich eagerly "documented," always just a step away from the neo-Nazi black block.
• On March 4 he took part at the installment of a temporary nationalist memorial, going along with a symbolic book burning.
• He posted a picture of himself inside the US State Department, stating "Never had so many important and interesting encounters in my life. Tired but very pleased." In DC he met with fellow regime change swamp creature, the Ukrainian-American Gleb Zhavoronkov.