Giovana Faria is a visual journalist with RFE/RL's Central Newsroom.
Despite claims by the Taliban that women would not be discriminated against by its new government, the rights and freedoms of women and girls have been dramatically curtailed in Afghanistan, raising alarm among international human rights organizations.
With a long list of crimes punishable by death, Iran put at least 314 prisoners to death last year, second only to China, which recorded more than 1,000 executions. The Iran Human Rights organization actually puts the figure at 333. That’s up from 267 executions in Iran in 2020.
In addition to thousands of deaths and the destruction of crucial infrastructure, another, more invisible, crisis tied to Russia’s invasion could haunt Ukraine for years: environmental damage.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is creating a food shortage that has worldwide repercussions. Russia and Ukraine are key agricultural suppliers, and the conflict has only served to highlight the fragility of the global food-supply chain when two major players are essentially taken off the market.
In addition to its military might, Russia wields a big political weapon: energy supplies to the EU. In response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, EU leaders are implementing tough sanctions on Moscow. They are also talking about becoming less dependent on Russia's gas imports -- a challenging task.
What have NATO members done to support Ukraine and how much public support do they have at home?