Newsletter Archive

It’s not going to be as convenient to cast an early vote for president in North Carolina as it was four years ago. The state’s Board of Elections has generally ruled in favor of Republican proposals limiting the casting of ballots before November 8. Voting hours are reduced in 23 counties. Sunday voting — when African-Americans often participate in mass early voting drives after church services — was allowed in 21 counties four years ago, but that’s not happening this year.

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are rolling out long lists of former generals who endorse them. This show of support bolsters a candidate’s national security credentials and helps create the perception that the nation’s military leaders support the candidate. But this blurring of the line between the military and politics might pose a problem.

Islamic State continues to expand its online presence, using the web to recruit members and spread its violent ideology. The Obama administration’s latest approach to combating the terror group’s extremist message on social media and the internet involves disrupting IS’s online recruiting efforts by targeted advertising algorithms and using YouTube to keep potential recruits from joining the terror group.

QUICK TAKE VIDEO: Eid ul Adha, one of the holiest festivals for Muslims, will be celebrated in the next few days. The signature ritual of the festival is sacrificing animals, in memory of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son at God’s command, according to Muslim belief. In the days leading up to the festival, huge cattle markets spring up in many Muslim countries, including Karachi, Pakistan.

When Vietnam’s government served imported Australian wine at this week’s welcome banquet for French President Francois Hollande, Australian diplomats in Hanoi hailed Vietnam officials for their excellent taste. However, the Vietnamese wine industry wasn’t so thrilled.

VIDEO: President Barack Obama is the first sitting U.S. president ever to visit Laos and he used the opportunity to address the two nations’ painful past. Decades ago, as Laos fell into civil war and conflict raged in neighboring Vietnam, the United States dropped more bombs on Laos, than on Japan and Germany combined during World War II, actions that continue to have a lasting impact.

Tigers, orangutans, elephants and rhinos coexist in the wild at the Leuser Ecosystem, located in Indonesia’s westernmost Aceh. But a plan to allow geothermal — heat from the earth — exploration there could be the beginning of the end for the last of Sumatra’s richest forests.