Newsletter Archive

Winter is coming, and that prospect sends shivers through Greek refugee camps. In some camps, tents provide thin insulation from the cold and rain. The government and aid groups have been moving people into sturdier cabins, warehouses and other facilities, but at least 10,000 are likely to remain in tents for the season. An Afghan father of four hopes to soon move his family into a shipping container at Schisto camp, fearing the approaching cold: “Here, we are dying slowly.”

With his inauguration just two months away, President-elect Donald Trump already faces major challenges: balancing commitments made to his supporters with efforts to calm apprehensions raised in a divisive, often nasty campaign. Not far from the Trump Tower transition headquarters, others in New York are trying to de-escalate tensions – through “subway therapy.” Colorful Post-It notes mass on a wall at the underground Union Station, bearing expressions of support for immigrants, religious and ethnic minorities, and the LGBT community. Some notes offer simple encouragement, such as “American humanity will prevail.”

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is using his anti-corruption campaign to mask efforts to target his political opponents, some observers contend. One of those foes appeared in court Wednesday on money-laundering charges. Colonel Sambo Dasuki, who served under Buhari’s predecessor, is among several high-profile Nigerians to be arrested but not indicted this year.

Some of the few residents who returned to the Iraqi town of Sinjar after it was liberated from Islamic State militants told VOA’s Heather Murdock they don’t know if the town can ever be rebuilt after the destruction wrought by years of fighting.

More than 1 million Afghan refugees have been deported or voluntarily returned to their country from neighboring Pakistan and Iran this year in the largest influx since the Taliban regime’s 2002 collapse, the International Organization for Migration reports. A reinvigorated Taliban insurgency put people on the move again.

The internet wants to be free, but governments increasingly want to constrain it. For the sixth year in a row, authorities around the world have ramped up efforts to limit free expression, ban encryption technologies and punish users for posting or sharing material deemed unacceptable. So says a new report from Freedom House, a pro-democracy think tank in Washington that surveyed 65 nations.