This year the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Belarus 30th out of 144 countries in its Global Gender Gap Index. According to its indicators, Belarus surpassed highly developed countries such as Canada (35) and the United States (45). However, unlike...
In the first six months of 2016, according to the Ministry of Interior 4,076 Chinese labour migrants entered Belarus. They now outnumber all other nationalities, including Ukrainians, who peaked at 3,334. The Belarusian government maintains a firm grip on the...
On 10 July 2016 there was an incident at the construction site of the new Astraviec Nuclear Power Plant. According to local whistle-blower Mikalai Ulasevich, a crane dropped the 330-tonne reactor from a height of 2-4 metres during a test...
On 20 July 2016 at 7:45 am a bomb went off in a car in Kiev. The explosion killed Pavel Sheremet, a prominent Belarusian journalist working in Ukraine. Pavel was 44 years old and was killed in a car of...
In mid-June 2016 Belarus hosted a regional forum on oncology for the second time since 2004. It brought together leading regional cancer specialists from 25 countries. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) 14 million people annually get diagnosed with...
On 1 July 2016 a new law on alternative civilian service comes into effect in Belarus. This coming fall,10, 000 young Belarusian conscripts will start their compulsory military service. According to tut.by 20 of these would like to exercise...
On 16 June the new building of the Belarusian Children’s Hospice (BCH) will open its doors in Baraulyany, just 20 minutes outside of Minsk. First of a kind in the country, it has been helping terminally ill children and...
In March 2016 the Belarusian government approved the new national programme The National Health and Demographic Security of Belarus for the upcoming period 2016-2020. It aims "to stabilise population density and extend life expectancy". To achieve these admirable goals the...
If you happened to be in Minsk on 4 April, you should have picked up your free ticket to the public reading of the play “Seven”. The acclaimed documentary play tells the true stories of seven brave women from around...
In 1905 his grandmother Ida left the village of Novy Svierzhan, about 60 km (46 miles) to the southwest of Minsk. At the age of 13 she set out to travel with her family to the United States of...
If you live outside the realm of the former Soviet Union, chances are you never celebrate 8 March, International Women's Day. However, for Belarusian men this holiday brings an eternal conundrum of how to celebrate the women in their lives...
In February 2016 Belarusian national air carrier Belavia announced that the first female pilot had joined its ranks since the company’s creation in 1996. Her name is Svetlana Yeryomenko, and she comes to Belarus from crisis-hit Russia, with strong...
In January 2016 Kiril Rudy, an Economic Advisor to President Alexander Lukashenka, said that the Belarusian economy was in need of more gender equality. Namely, structural gender inequalities and cultural stereotypes disproportionately affect the female labour force and...