Hey, you're busy! We know rferl.org isn't the only website you read. And that it's just possible you may have missed some of our most compelling journalism this week. To make sure you're up-to-date, here are some of the highlights produced by RFE/RL's team of correspondents, multimedia editors, and visual journalists over the past seven days.
Given the ongoing developments in Kabul, we are also including content here from Gandhara, an RFE/RL website focusing on Afghanistan and Pakistan that is the go-to source for English-language reporting by our network of local journalists across the two countries.
On Poland's Border With Belarus, A Syrian Refugee's Desperate Battle To Save His Family
While he made frantic calls from a hotel near the Belarusian border, his family hid in a frigid forest ditch, desperate to evade Polish patrols. A Syrian family's struggle to survive is a microcosm of a migrant crisis that Angela Merkel said was a result of "state-backed human trafficking" by Minsk. By Matthew Luxmoore
Meet Diana Sosoaca, One Of Romania's Most Influential Anti-Vaxxers And Also A Member Of Parliament
Romania is at the forefront of a wave of COVID-19 sweeping across Central and Eastern Europe, with one of the world's highest mortality rates. But instead of urging citizens to get vaccinated and remain vigilant, some politicians continue to spew disinformation about the deadly virus. By Oana Despa and Tony Wesolowski
Crisis Intensifies As Migrants Mass On Belarusian-Polish Border
The diplomatic tensions caused by masses of migrants seeking to cross the border from Belarus into Poland increased on November 9, with the European Union and the Kremlin weighing in on opposite sides of the dispute. There were also more signs of a growing humanitarian crisis. By Ray Furlong
How Will Bulgaria Vaccinate A Skeptical Public When It Can't Even Convince Its Doctors To Get The Shot?
Bulgaria is enduring one of the world's deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks thanks in part to its failure to vaccinate. Doctors, nurses, and other caregivers are part of the problem. By Nikolay Lachiev and Andy Heil
Video Shows Taliban Using Remnants Of Bamiyan Buddhas For Target Practice
Fresh destruction at the site of the Bamiyan Buddhas comes despite a Taliban vow to protect all of Afghanistan's historical relics. By Ron Synovitz and RFE/RL's Radio Azadi
The Monk, The Billionaire's Daughter, And The City Of Peter
The story of how a former monk at a famous Russian monastery became the owner of a major construction company -- and the apparent son-in-law of a Kremlin-connected billionaire oligarch -- is a mystery. RFE/RL tried to sort it out. By Mark Krutov and Sergei Dobrynin
Armenian Activists Say Police 'Intimidation' Shatters Promises Of 2018 Revolution
After police searched the apartment of a woman protesting a Yerevan property development, locals say hopes of change after the 2018 revolution are fading. By Amos Chapple and Robert Zargarian
Graffiti War: Battle In The Streets Over Ratko Mladic Mural
A spray-painted image of wartime Bosnian Serb leader and convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic has been put under police guard after ultranationalists objected to efforts to erase the divisive image from a wall in Serbia's capital. By Nevena Bogdanovic, Predrag Urosevic, and Andy Heil
'I Didn't Believe This Disease Existed': Unvaccinated Patients' Regrets In Ukrainian COVID Ward
A COVID hospital in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is close to running out of beds with oxygen. Doctors say nearly all the patients need oxygen and 90 percent of them are not vaccinated. RFE/RL spoke to some of the patients, with many regretting their decision not to be inoculated. Around 20 percent of the country's 44 million people have been fully vaccinated so far, according to estimates. By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Neil Bowdller
'I Had No Idea What Was To Come': Iran's Former Empress Opens Up About Prerevolutionary Memoir
The first memoirs of Iran's former empress, Farah Diba Pahlavi, are being republished in English, shedding renewed light on royal life just three years before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. By Golnaz Esfandiari and Hossein Ghavimi
