Newsletter Archive

Within minutes of Sunday’s massacre at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, a Snapchat video that accidentally captured the first moments of gunfire inside the club, quickly went viral, breaking the news even before major outlets began reporting on the attack. The incident highlights how social media now plays a key role during times of crisis and tragedy.

There are seven openly gay, lesbian or bisexual members of the U.S. Congress — more than ever before. They, too, took to social media to express their feelings of horror and reaffirmation.

When does a person go from radical thought to actual action?  After the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, VOA asked the experts how to tell when somebody’s just spouting their mouth off and when they’re actually going to take that violent leap to murder.

Are some young Americans drawn to Islamic State ideology because it offers an escape from their troubles? Social media lends credibility to the IS movement, helping the group draw vulnerable people to its cause.

He must be crazy is what many of us think when a killer like Omar Mateen murders dozens of people, but it turns out that people with mental illness are not any more likely to pick up a gun and slaughter people than anyone else.

Sadly, these kinds of attacks are no longer as alien to Americans as they used to be. Here’s a list of the most prominent mass shootings in the United States.

The once-strong friendship between Israel and Turkey was severely strained after Israeli forces killed nine Turkish activists in a flotilla seeking to break Israel’s economic blockade of Gaza in 2010. In Istanbul, VOA explores why a deal between the two loneliest states in the Middle East is more critical than ever.

Robel Asrat’s most painful childhood memory is the time he pointed out his home to security officers dressed in civilian clothes who came to arrest his journalist brother. A celebrated poet whose work has been translated into 15 languages, Amanuel Asrat hasn’t been heard from in 15 years. He is one of Eritrea’s vanished journalists.

Disability is not inability, according to a soldier who lost a leg in the Second Sudanese Civil War in 2000. While disabled people in South Sudan face discrimination, high rates of substance abuse and unemployment, VOA visited with an inspiring group of men in Juba, who show what else is possible through wheelchair basketball.