Newsletter Archive

Donald Trump first hired senior Pennsylvania state advisors in July, while Hillary Clinton is running a more traditional campaign, building a widespread network of campaign offices across the important battleground state. Still, the Trump campaign insists there’s a surplus of voter enthusiasm for the GOP presidential candidate that can’t be measured. Now it remains to be seen whether a businessman more accustomed to running the tables in Atlantic City, can triumph with an unorthodox ground game in a key swing state.

Voting might be a privilege but many young Americans can’t be bothered to vote. While college educated millennials vote more often than those who haven’t pursued a higher degree, many young people regard voting as an old and outdated practice that has no relevance or impact in their lives.

Ready for their close-up. Entertainment professionals from Africa are getting a chance to learn all of Hollywood’s secrets. They’re also being told not to sit by the phone and wait for that call, but to innovate and become an independent voice.

Can direct electrical brain stimulation bolster the athleticism of elite American troops? Some Olympic athletes already have tried the treatment and the Pentagon is partnering with a company that produces the devices to see if they can take American soldiers to the next level.

Female genital mutilation. You might not expect to find it in France, but FGM affects up to 60,000 women and girls there. Some discover it’s been done to them only after visiting a clinic outside of Paris that offers holistic treatment for female circumcision. Many of the victims arrived in France already cut, while others are circumcised during visits back to the ‘home’ country, or elsewhere in Europe.

QUICK TAKE VIDEO: The Birqash Camel Market outside of Cairo is bustling ahead of September’s Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday. VOA was on hand as thousands of camels imported from Sudan and Somalia were auctioned off. Some Egyptians prefer camel meat because they believe the animals never get sick, but the camels are beaten before being sold.

A former child beggar is detemined to end a ‘culture’ of begging in Nigeria. The almajiri system goes back centuries, when every boy from the age of about five was expected to attend a traditional Islamic school known as a tsangaya. The community is expected to take care of the almajiris, who beg for food and money once the day’s religious lessons are over.

At a refugee camp in northern Uganda, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees was greeted with song and dance, as well as with tales of food shortages and poor living conditions. VOA spoke with some of the refugees about life in the camp.