Newsletter Archive

Americans increasingly say they believe that climate change is occurring and that humans are at least partly to blame. It’s a big issue for millennials, the country’s largest age group, which makes it a big issue for political parties looking to grow their voting ranks. Some Republican activists are defying the party’s many global-warming skeptics to back the handful of GOP lawmakers who support clean energy.

Mum’s the word. Neither South Korea nor China has commented on the reported defection of a North Korean national who’s allegedly seeking asylum in Seoul’s diplomatic mission in Hong Kong. Jong Yol Ri, 18, was seen publicly in mid-July at an international math competition in Hong Kong. Now, police presence around the consulate has intensified. South Korea isn’t expected to publicly ask Beijing, on humanitarian grounds, to let the young man leave for Seoul or a third country. An Amnesty International representative said quiet negotiations likely would be more effective. An estimated 100,000 undocumented North Koreans live in China.

Last month, Islamic State terrorists invaded Niaz Bibi’s home in a remote Afghan village and murdered six of her nine sons. Now, she tells VOA, she fears the militants will return to kill the rest, exacting retribution for some of the sons’ affiliation with the Afghan Local Police. The sons – some shot and beheaded – have left several widows and 30 orphans. “Only Allah knows what I am going through,” the grief-stricken matriarch says. “What can I do? It burns my heart.”

Turkey has sent a delegation of four lawmakers to Washington, pressing for the extradition of a former imam accused of organizing last month’s attempted coup of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in exile in Pennsylvania for years, once was the leader’s close ally. The four lawmakers are meeting with U.S. officials from Justice, Homeland Security and State departments, agitating for Gulen to be taken into custody at minimum. Without extradition, Ankara warns it may not play nice with the U.S. in fighting global terrorism.

It’s sweltering in much of the States, but refreshingly – OK, bracingly – cold near the South Pole. VOA’s Science World blogger, Refael Klein, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Commissioned Officer Corps, rhapsodizes about stars spangling the night sky during months of darkness. He and companions at the Atmospheric Research Observatory relish clear views of the Milky Way and Aurora Australis.