An increasing number of women are joining the Ukrainian military, with thousands serving in front-line roles, as Russia's war on Ukraine nears its fourth year — with no peace in sight.

A Turkish military cargo plane has crashed in Georgia near the Azerbaijan border, according to Turkish and Georgian authorities.

This was during C5+1 meeting tonight.

At least 1,076 Cuban nationals have fought or are fighting for Russia in Ukraine, Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 15. Ninety-six are known to have died or gone missing in action.

And even though he was lucky, and stumbled on an entire continent no one knew about, he still persisted in his idiotic delusion he had made it to India… which was still 9000 miles away. Worst. Navigator. Ever.

My semi-regular Columbus Day message: Columbus wasn’t called crazy because he thought the world was round. That had been known for 1000 years. He was called crazy because he thought it was so small he could reach India by going west. And they were right! He was a delusional fool! But lucky.

While traveling through Uzbekistan this summer, I became curious about the history of the Bukharan Jews and decided to examine how tourism is shaping what remains of the community, for my latest in @meduza.io's The Beet. meduza.io/en/feature/2...

Our next RUTA will focus on the role of embodied and rooted knowledges as catalysts of change and drivers of shifts in power. Deadline for submissions is on Nov 15. We welcome a wide range of presentation and art formats, while prioritising transregional and global panels, discussion and dialogues

Putin turns 73 on October 7. He was 46 when he first became Prime Minister in August 1999. Since that time he has been either Prime Minister or President for more than 26 years, more than 1/3 of his life. In 2004, he said "one could go crazy" working as president for 7 years.

Eventually you have to accept that no matter how many different notebooks you buy, they won’t make you a better writer. For that, you need to spend a lot of money on the right pen.

My feed today

Moldovan voters have (yet again!) thwarted Ru’s efforts to intimidate, buy, and manipulate them into abandoning their pro-EU course.

BREAKING: Moldovans are heading to the polls to cast ballots in a tense parliamentary election plagued by claims of Russian interference, a vote seen as a choice between integration with the European Union or a drift back into Moscow’s fold.

Boeing Gets Order From Uzbekistan Airways The companies said Uzbekistan Airways would buy 14 of Boeing’s 787-9 Dreamliner jets, with options for eight more gift article www.wsj.com/business/air...

Russian strategic bombers have taken off and likely heading to bomb Ukraine. We’re in for yet another hellish night. Once more. Keep us in your thoughts.

Genocide or Not? The 1931–1933 Famine in the Collective Memories of Kazakhstan’s Post-Independence Generations by Berikbol Dukeyev www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Latest from @niginakhon.bsky.social: The number of Uzbek nationals fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war remains significant, and the price of returning home has become little more than a grounding. thediplomat.com/2025/09/uzbe...

Speaking to a standup comedian Nurzhamal from Almaty, did Conan O’Brien just promise to visit Kazakhstan? 😁 open.spotify.com/episode/1Gts...

Excited to see this book by Shoirakhon Nurdinova, out in January 2026! 🤩 link.springer.com/book/9789819...

Can’t wait to get started in 2026! 🤩

This is amazing. (Is there a precedent?) The Ukrainian Embassy in DC becomes THE welcome place for some of the world’s most powerful leaders. European unity is on display and Ukraine is the host and unifer. United for just and sustainable peace. Video c/o President Zelensky’s Official Telegram

Awesome dispatch from @meduza.io's The Beet on how Wikipedia's Central Asian-language pages are being built up/translated/grown: mailchi.mp/meduza.io/wi...

just realized that Ivan the terrible, Peter the Great, and (indirectly) Stalin all killed their own sons. in russia today these three are considered the country's greatest rulers. almost like a metaphor for russian history or something

During a missile strike on Kyiv, two schoolgirls and their mother were killed. Their school announced that Alina and Anastasia Humeniuk died along with their mother. They were internally displaced people from Donbas who had sought refuge in the capital. Russia found them and killed them there.

I needed this today

Guys

Oh the bottomless western sympathy for Russians willing to kill Ukrainians to pay off utility bills www.wsj.com/world/europe...

A russian strike hit the entrance of a metro station in Kyiv packed with people sheltering from the ongoing attack.

Gift link: What a fantastic piece on an ancient matrilineal society. "these women stayed within their clans, while men often married into the groups, a contrast to the modern tradition of women marrying into the families of men." www.wsj.com/science/arch...

Google’s Russian version of AI is exclusively fed by Kremlin’s colonial content

Kyiv Independent - Russia launched what seems to be its largest missile and drone attack against multiple Ukrainian cities overnight with the far-western city of Lutsk coming under the heaviest attack of the war. kyivindependent.com/7-9-attack-d...

New pub: Central Asian migrants at the US-Mexico border: An exploration of causes Great piece analyzing spike in Central Asian migrants in 2021-2022. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

1. BREAKING The White House has confirmed to Nick Schifrin that it has halted weapons that were set to go to Ukraine. The weapons include: PAC3 Patriots, 155mm artillery rounds, GMLRS, Stinger, AIM-7, and Hellfire missiles.

The russians executed a Ukrainian soldier by tying him to a motorcycle and dragging him along the road. There's a video of it circulating online, which I will not share. There are hundreds of such cases. Happen over and over again because russians never face consequences for their actions

Priscilla Chan’s decision to stop funding the school she opened to help struggling families shows the risks for communities reliant on wealthy private donors.

"Quietly, America will abandon the fight against global famine. Most Americans won’t notice." www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/o...

Every bit of this is vital. On a deeply personal level, cancer is especially so.

For the first time in this war, I wrote in the first person. Here is what it's like to experience an air raid in Kyiv, to negotiate between bombs and normality, and to come out of shelter into the smoky aftermath. Free to read: www.wsj.com/world/gaming...

BREAKING “A plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was thwarted at Rzeszów Airport in southeastern Poland, Ukraine’s top security official said on Monday.” www.polskieradio.pl/395/9766/art...

Yes, Ukraine needs weapons but also the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for Ukrainian civilian deaths via its support for Putin. So the statement is inspired by a few things.

Update: More than a dozen VOA Farsi journalists who were emailed termination notices from Kari Lake on Friday have been ordered to return to work Monday. (They're still set to lose their jobs Sept. 1.)

Our collective message in @theguardian.com We, UK-based or British-educated experts in matters pertaining to Russia and the region - agree … there is only ONE warmonger in Europe Putin’s Russia. www.theguardian.com/politics/202... @pravda.ua @kyivindependent.com @tyzhden-fr.bsky.social

This statement by Pu should surprise absolutely no one. It’s consistent w his rhetoric for years and w his actions in 2014 and in 2022 which aimed to take control of Ukr’s central govt and establish Ru as the ultimate sovereign of Ukraine.

Another way to put this: Russia, bogged down in Ukraine, is unable to help its partners www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/w...

⚡️ 'Do me a favor Vladimir, mediate Russia first' — Trump roasts Putin over Israel, Iran offer. "I said, Vladimir, let's mediate Russia first. You can worry about this later," U.S. President Donald Trump said.

An Odessa family who traveled to Israel for their critically ill child's treatment was killed during an Iranian missile attack. On the night of June 14, one of Iran's ballistic missiles struck a residential building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv.

Now Kyrgyzstan is in this list apnews.com/article/trav...

In some lighter news and for something wholesome for the timeline….here’s Steve Carrell yesterday at Northwestern University's class of 2025 commencement 🤣

BREAKING: Trump says the U.S. knows where Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei is hiding but doesn't want him killed "for now," urging an unconditional surrender.