Political detainees in Belarus granted amnesty
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, center, holds a portrait of her jailed husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, at a protest outside the Belarus Embassy, in Vilnius, Lithuania, on March 8, 2024, demanding freedom for political prisoners.
Authorities in Belarus have granted amnesty to several dozen political detainees in recent weeks. These are opposition figures, part of the movement that protested the reelection in 2020 of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko over his authoritarian domestic policies. We hear from a political adviser to the opposition about the prisoner releases, and the reaction in opposition communities in Belarus and in the diaspora. Also, a severe drought in southern Namibia has led to food shortages. So, the country’s Ministry of Environment announced a controversial plan: to cull wildlife in order to feed people in urgent need of sustenance. Plus, an influential pastor in the Philippines was just arrested after a two-week standoff between police and his supporters. And, a bicyclist has broken a world record. Lael Wilcox just became the fastest woman to circumnavigate the globe by bike.
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