Last week, my husband and I awoke to messages from my stepson about how he was tear-gassed by riot police during protests in Tbilisi, Georgia.

He, and many others, have been in the streets every night for two weeks, peacefully expressing their opposition to a new foreign agents law being crammed through parliament by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, as opposition MPs have been forced out of the committee considering the draft.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suffered a major blow on Sunday, with initial results showing the country’s main opposition party notched up regional election victories around the country.

The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) held onto or captured the country’s five biggest cities in Sunday’s vote, which had been seen as a make-or-break moment for a movement still reeling from Erdoğan’s victory in the Turkish presidential contest in May 2023.

Turkey's main opposition party has claimed big election victories in the main cities of Istanbul and Ankara.

The results are a significant blow for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had hoped to regain control of the cities less than a year after he claimed a third term as president.

He led the campaign to win in Istanbul, where he grew up and became mayor.

But Ekrem Imamoglu, who first won the city in 2019, scored a second victory for the secular opposition CHP.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party suffered their biggest upset in more than two decades on Sunday as the opposition swept municipal elections in Istanbul and other major cities.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) retained mayoral seats in two key cities – Istanbul and the capital, Ankara.

The CHP also gained 15 new mayoral seats in cities across the country, advancing in locales that were previously strongholds of the Turkish president and his AK Party (AKP), marking the worst defeat since the latter came to power 21 years ago.

Russia's foreign minister accused Armenia, a former ally, of "distorting history" in an effort to "break off" relations with Moscow.

Armenia recently stepped up its criticism of Russia. Last month, it said it had "frozen our participation" in the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

The Collective Security Treaty Organization is considered Russia's equivalent to NATO, and Russian President Vladimir Putin hoped it could rival the Western military alliance.

In Loyob, they do not believe anyone from their village was capable of taking part in the jihadist massacre at Moscow's Crocus City Hall.

But Faridun Shamsiddin is now one of four Tajik citizens held in a Moscow jail suspected of murdering at least 143 people last week. The 25-year-old is also accused of recruiting two other men to help the gunmen.

He left Loyob, about 40km north-west of the capital Dushanbe, several months ago in search of work in Russia.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Tuesday that Armenia would soon need to demarcate its borders with neighboring Azerbaijan or else "a war could erupt by the end of the week."

Pashinyan spoke to residents at the border village of Voskepar about the importance of demarcation efforts, saying, "We shouldn't allow the war to start."

Armenia is considering applying to join the European Union, its Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on Friday.

In a television interview with Turkish channel TRT on the sidelines of a diplomatic gathering in Antalya, Turkey, Mirzoyan said Armenia is seeking to get closer to the West amid worsening relations with Russia.

“New opportunities are largely being discussed in Armenia nowadays,” Mirzoyan said. “That includes membership in the European Union.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin was caught off guard by Armenia's suspending its membership of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a crucial military alliance for Moscow.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during an interview with France 24 on Friday that Armenia would leave CSTO, viewed as Putin's response to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a Western military alliance. CSTO is an alliance in which member nations pledge to support one another in the event of an attack and has frequently been referred to as Putin's "mini NATO."

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets, his political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said in a statement Tuesday.

“Former prime minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi have been sentenced 10 years each in a sham case with no access to media or public in Cypher Case,” PTI said.

It added that their legal team “will challenge the decision in a higher court” as they hope to get the sentence suspended.