Newsletter Archive

The Orlando nightclub shooter bragged about having ties to terrorist groups, talked of becoming a martyr, and was the subject of two FBI investigations. Yet Omar Mateen walked into a Florida gun store and legally purchased the weapons he later used to kill 49 people. Is there a terror loophole in U.S. gun laws?

The threat of terrorism takes center stage in the U.S. presidential campaign after Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s renewed his previous call to ban Muslim migration, rekindling fears among some Republicans that he’ll be a divisive general election candidate.

VIDEO: The Orlando shooting victims, people who’d gone out to let loose on a Saturday night, ranged in age from 18 to 50. They were people who worked at the Pulse nightclub and patrons, including an accountant, a college student who wanted to be a firefighter, a young mother of two, and a restaurant manager, among many others. And it’s when looking at their faces, that one feels the full magnitude of the loss.

This week, for the first time, at least one U.S. Apache helicopter was used in combat in Iraq to strike an Islamic State target, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter. But while the U.S. knows how to take the fight to IS in the Middle East, the country faces a different kind of challenge when “lone wolves” bring the battle to American communities.

Islamic State used to attract up to 1,000 recruits a month by crowing about its battlefield victories on social media. However, with losses mounting in Iraq, Syria and Libya, that flow has slowed to a trickle. Here’s why any link between IS and the Orlando shooter is unlikely to change that.

As Trump renews his call to ban Muslim immigrants in the United States, we explore who American Muslims are. They tend to be higher educated and better assimilated than Muslims in Europe, thanks to the U.S. melting pot. 

After the collapse of communism in eastern Europe and Poland’s accession to the European Union, hundreds of thousands of Polish workers went to work in Britain. VOA spoke to Polish workers in London who fear the country’s June 23 referendum on whether it will leave European Union, threatens their hopes of achieving the ‘British Dream’.

Facebook helped nurture a sisterhood that put eight African-American women on track to earn their Ph.Ds from Indiana University this summer. With less than 8 percent of African Americans of either gender earning their doctorates, this graduation is a significant victory.