Page 68 - Features Blogs News Today

The future of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization; Prague's new line on China; a Pakistani bombing; and how Beijing is hunting Uyghurs abroad.

Stanislau Shushkevich, the first leader of independent Belarus, a signatory of the agreement that effectively dissolved the Soviet Union, and a staunch foe of the autocratic leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, has died at 87.

Turkmenistan is enforcing new restrictions on women, banning them from wearing certain cosmetics, riding in a car with men who are not relatives, or having plastic surgery. Many women have lost their jobs or paid fines after breaking the new rules, which some believe could lead to public protests.

When Russian troops entered the village of Stariy Bykiv, they took Viktoria Vovk's son and son-in-law for "questioning," promising to release them later in the day. It was the last time she saw them alive.

Iranian authorities appear determined to suppress teachers’ protests that have hit dozens of cities across the country. The demonstrators have complained of “unprecedented” state pressure designed to stop the rallies.

Ever since democracy supporters in Belarus rose up after Alyaksandr Lukashenka extended his rule in a 2020 election that millions say he stole, journalists have been in the regime's sights. Now at least 24 journalists are behind bars, while others struggle to reach their audiences from abroad.

Russia’s ongoing attack in the Donbas is anything but a blitzkrieg offensive that will decisively defeat Ukrainian forces. Why that is -- and what it means for the course of the war-- is the subject of intense speculation.

The European Union says it can drastically cut Russian natural gas imports this year and end them “well before” the decade is out. How realistic is that? And what if Russia moves to create economic havoc by cutting the EU off even earlier?

In March, Ukrainian journalist Oleh Baturin was abducted in the Russia-occupied Kherson region and held prisoner for eight days. He told RFE/RL about the beatings, interrogations, and mistreatment he endured as retaliation for his reporting.

The verdict in a three-year-long legal battle marks the first time a court in one of the Balkans' more religiously conservative countries has called out discrimination targeting sexual orientation under a decade-old law.