We know you're busy and probably don't have the time to read all of our coverage each and every day. That's why we've put together The Week's Best. Here are some of the highlights produced in English by RFE/RL's vast team of correspondents, multimedia editors, and visual journalists over the past seven days.
Football For Freedom: Scoring A Victory For Kids In Wartime Ukraine
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine hasn't been able to break the spirit of the Vinnytsya Wolves, an American football club based some 250 kilometers southwest of Kyiv. With many adult players defending the country on the front line, player and coach Yevhen Khomyn is teaching the sport to children, some of whom have football-playing fathers fighting in the Donbas region. His practices not only show local boys and girls a new game -- flag football -- but also give them a brief reprieve from daily wartime hardships. By Austin Malloy
Champagne In Samarkand: When Frenchmen Explored Central Asia, 120 Years Ago
A 1906-1908 journey through Russia and Central Asia by French explorers was documented by a skilled photographer whose work was recently compiled by a Museum in Paris. By Amos Chapple
Is Armenia Turning To The West?
A series of demonstrative anti-Russian statements, and the hosting of an unprecedented military exercise with U.S. troops, has raised speculation that Armenia's slow drift away from Russia may be reaching a breaking point. By Joshua Kucera
Interactive: 'Naked' And Defiant: Diary Of An Iranian Protester
In our special interactive report, an Iranian woman, Nesa, writes her thoughts on the hijab, Iran’s brutal crackdown against protesters, and life for women in the capital ahead of the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death. By Hannah Kaviani and Michael Scollon
The Taste Of Testosterone: In Serbia, Eating Testicles Is More Than Just A Joke
It is the first Saturday in September and the sun is beaming down as a few thousand gourmands, locals, and chefs gather in a field in Serbia's heartland for what might be Europe's most unusual food festival: the World Testicle Cooking Championship. By Jack Adamovic Davies
Fire-Person Firepower: Ukrainian Drone Unit Hunts Down Russian Armor
Remotely piloting fast, light FPV (or First-Person View) drones, a Ukrainian aerial attack unit has become adept at chasing down Russian targets. RFE/RL's Maryan Kushnir travels to the front with the operators who are hunting down enemy targets with increasing accuracy. By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Maryan Kushnir, and Will Tizard
Hunting For Artyom: One Russian Family's Search For A Soldier's Body
Since they learned of his death in May, Artyom Ponomaryov's widow and mother-in-law have been hunting for information of where his remains are kept and often joined forces with other families from their home village that are also trying to locate their loved ones' bodies. By RFE/RL's North.Realities
'Moscow Is Not Russia': A Schoolteacher Reflects On Her Year Living In Siberia
Nastya Subbotina, a 24-year-old woman from Moscow, spent a year teaching in Siberia, where she photographed her students and the austere landscapes of Yevsino. In her own words, Subbotina explains how the place and the people resonated deeply with her. You can read the original report in Russian here. By RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities
'Their Freedoms Have Been Taken Away': Afghanistan Witnesses Surge In Female Suicides Under Taliban Rule
Afghanistan has seen a surge in the number of female suicides since the Taliban takeover in 2021, making the country one of the few in the world where more women take their own lives than men. The spike comes amid the Taliban’s severe restrictions on women’s lives, including their right to education and employment. By Ahmad Hanayesh and Abubakar Siddique
Deep Trenches 'Allow You To Walk Straight': Ukrainian Amputee Soldier Returns To Front Lines
Ukrainian soldier Artem Kholodkevych says he had no interest in taking a safe desk job far from the front after losing his leg to a Russian mine. After five months of walking with a prosthetic limb, he can move around the defensive trenches his fellow soldiers live in. His only request: digging deeper trenches -- both to keep fit and to make the temporary shelters safer for Ukrainian troops fighting off Russia's full-scale invasion. By Current Time, Oleksiy Prodayvoda, and Will Tizard
The Human Toll Of Corruption In Macedonian Cancer Care
Macedonian anger boiled over when prosecutors finally took action four months after damning reports of mismanagement and wrongdoing at the country's premier state-run cancer center, including the serial theft of expensive, badly needed cancer drugs for sale on the black market. By Pelagija Stojanchova and Andy Heil
