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Forced and early marriages of teenage girls have increased across Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power and promptly closed secondary schools 15 months ago. Many parents marry off their adolescent daughters to avoid forced marriages to Taliban members.

Turkmen officials are holding pro-Kremlin propaganda events, accusing the West of provoking the war in Ukraine, and warning against "foreign agents" trying to destabilize Turkmenistan.

This week's Gandhara Briefing brings you our reporting on Afghans preparing for another brutal winter under Taliban rule, rising malnutrition among Afghan children, and Pakistan ranking first in a new index measuring Chinese influence.

A close examination of satellite images from Planet Labs displays the extent to which the occupied Crimean Peninsula has become a hub for Russia's military operations in Ukraine -- and a potential target for Kyiv's forces.

Russian-held Crimea has been a staging ground for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine from the beginning. In recent months, occupation authorities have ramped up efforts in recent months to direct all the peninsula's resources to the Russian military.

The small Donbas city of Bakhmut is currently the focus of a ferocious Russian assault, and some of the most intense fighting of the entire 10-month invasion. Experts can’t really figure out why.

As UN rights expert Mary Lawlor criticized “an intensifying climate of fear," Tajik courts continued to convict activists and lawyers on dubious grounds.

This week, I'm drilling down on two major issues: the content of the EU's ninth sanctions package on Russia and the future of the EU's Eastern Partnership program.

Izyum resident Inga describes how, under Russian occupation, there was no news of the outside world. That is, until she strung copper to her headphones and mobile phone and managed to access an RFE/RL radio station. "It gave us hope," she says.

President Vladimir Putin has called for the liquidation of Russia's disastrously substandard housing at least seven times in the past 15 years. Yet more than 1 million Russians still live in dilapidated buildings, battling problems like leaks, mold, rats, and collapsing walls every day.