Newsletter Archive

Honoring the five Dallas officers gunned down during an anti-police brutality protest, President Obama urged the nation to speak “honestly and openly” about race, while asserting most police officers is “worthy of our respect, not our scorn.” But in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where one shootiing sparked nation-wide protests, some question the “military tactics” police are using to put down unrest. A researcher told VOA police shootings should be better counted and treated as a public health issue.

New rules of engagement for U.S. troops in Afghanistan are allowing them to go on offensive against the Taliban, rather than a more reactive role.  VOA was in Afghanistan with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter  to hear from the top U.S. general there how the almost daily engagement with insurgents is changing the situation on the ground.

There could be a lot of contention at the Republican convention next week in Cleveland.  While Donald Trump won more votes than any other GOP primary candidate in history, his unpopularity with many in the party makes calling him the presumptive nominee a tad presumptuous. Meanwhile, the Libertarians have already nominated their candidate, and he wants to be included in presidential debates this fall.

Need to escape?  You will if you try one of the hottest U.S. entertainment trends.  Teams of players pay to be locked in a room with a limited amount of time to figure out how to escape using clues they find inside.  The number of Escape Rooms is exploding across the U.S., including in the nation’s capital, where one room even mimics the Oval Office.

The U.S. Supreme Court isn’t in session, but one of its justices rendered her decision about Republican candidate Donald Trump.  Breaking with tradition that keeps court members muzzled on such matters, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg questioned Trump’s fitness for the presidency and called him “a faker.”  Never shy about engaging in a war of words, Trump fired back on Twitter, saying Ginsburg’s “mind is shot” and urging her to resign.

Going home would be a death sentence, Iraqi refugees in Dresden, Germany told VOA.  The news from Iraq grows more and more grim, with bombings and other violence becoming common, even in urban areas.  So young Iraqis, like Safaa and Omar, continue to show up for a seemingly endless series of interviews as they await a decision on their asylum status.

While calling the UN arbitration court that rejected its claims to most of the South China Sea a “farce,” China signaled it might be willing “to resume negotiation and dialogue” in the decades-old maritime dispute.  Yet, on Tuesday China’s ambassador to the U.S. said the ruling would “intensify conflict and even confrontation” so it’s too early to say it will be smooth sailing from here on out.

A fragile truce in South Sudan appears to be holding after days of violence left hundreds dead, but shopkeepers returning to their stores said looting was rampant.  A merchant in Juba told VOA the soldiers assigned to protect his shop shot the locks off the doors and took the merchandise themselves.