Newsletter Archive

America’s can-do spirit is alive and well in Matthew Burnett. When the American businessman couldn’t find a U.S. manufacturer to produce his designs, he took matters into his own hands by co-founding Maker’s Row, an online marketplace that connects entrepreneurs with American manufacturers.

100 never looked so good. Happy birthday to the U.S. National Park Service, which is celebrating a century of protecting and preserving the nation’s treasures. More than 300 million people visit America’s wonders each year.

Please pass the kimchi. Evidence of America’s melting pot is tastefully apparent to a Korean-American filmmaker who traveled the country to explore how American food reflects an evolving Asian Pacific America.

Facebook is the latest battleground in the American presidential race. The less-than-civil tone of the campaign is leaking onto the social media website. But is the rhetoric bad enough to ‘unfriend’ someone over?

QUICK TAKE VIDEO: Stonings. Being drowned in cages. VOA is there, as residents escape the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul to take refuge in Kurdish-controlled areas. They recount horrific stories of life under IS control.

‘Shut up or get locked up’ seems to be the message an increasing number of African governments is telling people who criticize them on social media. The list of African countries trying to cut or control social media keeps growing, particularly during elections or periods of unrest.

While most elite swimmers were training hard last year for the Rio Olympics, Syrian swimmer Rami Anis was on the Mediterranean Sea escaping the bombs and bloodshed at home. After making it to Belgium, he still managed to get to the Olympic games.

In the 1940s, people objected to the bikini, saying it showed too much skin. Now, the burkini, which covers just about every part of a woman’s body, is criticized for covering too much, especially in France, where one official called the Islamic swimwear ‘a form of enslavement.’ Others see the burkini as liberating.