Russian forces are seeking further advances after capturing Avdiyivka, and the $60 million U.S. aid package is still stuck in Congress. Dara Massicot, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, joins the host to discuss a crucial juncture in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

With an eye on Afghanistan’s resource wealth, Beijing is slowly deepening its ties with the Taliban, but is the relationship built to last? Kabul-based journalist Ali Latifi and the German Marshall Fund’s Andrew Small join host Reid Standish to explore Beijing’s complicated history with the group.

Tamuna Chkareuli, a photojournalist working with RFE/RL’s Georgia Service, joins host Reid Standish for a special episode from their reporting trip across Georgia about how a $1 billion Chinese-built highway is transforming the country and bringing hope and scandal in the process.

The Belarusian state has provided plenty of support for Russia's war on Ukraine but has resisted sending troops. What's behind that reluctance – and why has the death of the country's longtime foreign minister sparked so much speculation? Katia Glod, a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, joins host Steve Gutterman to discuss.

As Chinese leader Xi Jinping stepped back out onto the world stage at the G20 summit in Bali, it was another litmus test for his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Beijing has continued to send signals that it is becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Russia’s war in Ukraine and ongoing nuclear saber-rattling. Western leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have also called for China to play a larger mediating role.

How should these developments be interpreted? How close are Xi and Putin in reality? Is this a sign of a new direction for Chinese diplomacy or just the latest phase of its ongoing balancing act? Raffaello Pantucci, senior fellow at London’s Royal United Services Institute and at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, joins host Reid Standish to discuss.

Flights have resumed, borders have reopened, and COVID-19 restrictions have eased. But the tourism industry in Central Asia doesn't seem to be fully back on its feet yet.

In a live discussion, we spoke with Asem Zhapisheva, founder of Masa Media, an independent news website in Kazakhstan, and Nikita Makarenko, a freelance journalist from Uzbekistan, to talk about their difficult work conditions, the line between journalism and activism, and the future of journalism.

Over the past five years, Central Asian countries have already seen some of the worst droughts, which has led to shortages of water for irrigation and hydropower. This, in turn, pushed prices for food up and caused electricity shortages. And in 2021, the deadliest border conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in years started as a water dispute between local residents, although other factors played a role too.

In Central Asia, power and wealth are often kept and passed down in a family. But the concept of blood ties goes beyond immediate or extended family members. Political alliances and influential clans are also organized around tribal or regional kinship that goes back centuries to the times when today’s Central Asian nations were a group of separate tribes.