Qatar's Foreign Ministry said no high-level meeting between US and Iranian officials is scheduled in Doha in the coming days, after US President Donald Trump said Iran had requested talks and the White House announced senior US envoys would travel to Qatar for negotiations.

As Iran's wave of political executions continues, 75 French lawmakers took the unusual step of formally adopting individual death-row political prisoners on June 29 as part of a new National Assembly campaign organized by the Iran Freedom Congress (IFC).

The disruptions to Russia's energy sector due to its war with Ukraine are having a ripple effect in Central Asia, with fuel prices rising across the region and governments scrambling to find alternative sources to meet demand.

The United States and Iran have agreed to halt tit-for-tat attacks, meet again for talks, and allow shipping to flow safely through the Strait of Hormuz, a US official told RFE/RL, with one media report saying the talks will take place in Qatar.

Service members embraced their relatives as they returned home to Ukraine on June 26 in the latest prisoner exchange with Russia. Many of the 160 freed Ukrainians had been held captive since 2022, including soldiers who defended the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol during a lengthy siege.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he will resign in the near future, announcing early presidential and parliamentary elections days after a student-led protest in the city of Novi Sad demanded snap general elections.

Ukraine struck a Russian military plant in Volgograd overnight with FP-5 “Flamingo” missiles, as Russia launched another major drone attack against Ukraine. The strikes came as Russian authorities declared a state of emergency in Crimea due to ongoing Ukrainian attacks and damage to infrastructure.

Since 2023, Moscow has built up an extensive range of fortifications around the Crimea Bridge linking the occupied Ukrainian Peninsula with mainland Russia. Russian authorities have also reportedly mulled replacing the span with an undersea tunnel.

In a suburb near Zaporizhzhya, in Ukraine's southeast, residents say civilian areas previously considered safe are now being targeted by Russian drones. City officials have restricted public transit routes and installed anti-drone nets in high-traffic areas in an effort to protect residents.

Moscow is building a new missile defense complex near a research institute linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin's daughter, in what appears to be the latest effort to bolster the capital's defenses against potential Ukrainian missile attacks.

As Moscow increasingly invokes the “spirit of Anchorage” to claim a framework for ending the war in Ukraine already exists, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has flatly pushed back, opening a fierce diplomatic battle over what actually occurred during last year’s high-stakes summit.

Consumers in Iran report they are struggling to afford a staple foodstuff: bread. One listener to RFE/RL's Radio Farda calls prices "horrific," while a baker explains he is trying to shield his customers from his own rocketing expenses for rent and utilities.

The debate over Iran's potential agreement with the United States has spilled beyond the country's political class and into the religious establishments and street gatherings that have long served as the Islamic republic's most loyal base of support.

The doubling of bread prices in Iran is yet another indicator of the deteriorating state of the economy as ordinary Iranians describe cutting meat, skipping meals out, and struggling to buy their children toys.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrapped up a three-day swing through the Persian Gulf on June 25 with messages aimed at reassuring Washington's allies in the region, reaffirming an intention to pursue diplomacy with Iran, and insisting on freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko once predicted a quick Russian victory in Ukraine. Now, after Zelenskyy delivered an ultimatum to switch off signal repeaters in Belarus for Moscow's drones, he is walking a fine line aimed at making sure his country doesn’t get dragged into that war.

Amid an ongoing row between Washington and Tehran over whether international monitors can verify Iranian compliance with its nuclear nonproliferation commitments, former officials have told RFE/RL that the scale, scope, and degree of access are crucial to the success of inspections.

• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a new round of US-Iran technical negotiations will resume in Switzerland at the end of June, as he wrapped the second day of a high-stakes Persian Gulf tour aimed at calming regional concerns over Washington’s tentative accord with Tehran.

Ukrainian film artists are determined to build back the loss of 100,000 costumes, used in dozens of historic films, that burned in a Russian air attack on the Dovzhenko National Film Studios on June 15. Current Time's Yulia Zhukova spoke with studio staff about their commitment to cinema heritage.

A Ukrainian photojournalist captured life near the front lines as the Russian invasion into eastern Ukraine persists despite Kyiv's successful drone strikes deep inside Russia.

The Taliban’s morality police have intensified the enforcement of the hijab, or Islamic head scarf, in western Afghanistan. In the city of Herat, women told RFE/RL that the Taliban routinely stops and inspects women in the streets.

Russia is reportedly developing new military infrastructure near its border with NATO member Finland that will be able to house thousands of Russian soldiers. The new base lies some 170 kilometers from Russia's frontier with NATO.

Since the onset of the all-out invasion in 2022, Ukraine has repeatedly poked at Russian forces -- and Russian tourists -- in occupied Crimea. In recent months, Kyiv’s efforts have become much more deliberate. They appear to be working.

Ukraine's military says it struck oil facilities near the Crimea Bridge and at other sites on the Russian-occupied peninsula on June 23 amid a severe gasoline shortage in Crimea due to escalating attacks.

Officials from Afghanistan's Taliban rulers held talks in Brussels for the first time on the repatriation of Afghans despite sharp criticism from rights groups that the European Union was legitimizing the hard-liners amid continued signs they are cracking down further on women.

You are listening to the audio version of the Wider Europe newsletter, published on June 23, 2026, read by an AI-generated voice of RFE/RL Europe Editor Rikard Jozwiak.

In this week's briefing, RFE/RL Europe Editor Rikard Jozwiak drills down on one issue: EU enlargement as Ireland takes over the EU presidency.

Iran sentenced singer Parastoo Ahmadi to 74 lashes for a song without a hijab, but the punishment may only make women’s voices harder to silence, according to a fellow performer, Hana Kamkar.

Iran and the United States cited progress in talks toward reaching a final peace deal, though comments from both sides highlighted the fragile state of negotiations.

After recent Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow’s main oil refinery, Russian media are downplaying the impact of the dramatic attacks. As Current Time's Andrey Cherkasov explains, authorities and pro-Kremlin pundits are calling for a crackdown on people who post videos of burning ruins online.