drags

‘Not now and not anytime soon’: Ukraine’s 18–22 exit rule sends a wave of young men to Poland and beyond On a gray December morning in Warsaw, Vadym, a 22-year-old from Chernihiv, stepped off a bus, opened his phone and started calling. Within days, he had a job with a Ukrainian logistics firm operating in Poland. Within weeks, he had a plan. “As for returning to Ukraine, in my view, not now and not anytime soon after the war ends,” he said. “Now I can only think about what lies beyond its borders.” Vadym is part of a new,…

Anti-government chants filled Tehran as protesters pressed the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical leadership in more than three years, defying a deadly crackdown and a sweeping internet blackout that rights monitors say has masked rising casualties. Demonstrations now stretching into a second week have tested the theocratic establishment that has ruled since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has struck a defiant tone, denouncing protesters as “vandals” and accusing the United States of…