Newsletter Archive

Don’t expect Donald Trump to stop tweeting once he is sworn in as president of the United States. His spokesman says Trump’s use of social media ‘is going to be something that’s never been seen before.’ With nearly 18 million Twitter followers, 17.3 million-plus followers on Facebook and 4.4 million on Instagram, Trump has already created a huge social media footprint.

Are terrorist operatives headed to Europe to recruit followers from among the growing number of migrants and refugees there? Western security officials worry Islamic State will try to ‘turn’ refugees after they clear stringent vetting processes and reach the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the collapse of the Soviet Union the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. And while some Russians do pine for the ‘glory days’ of the Soviet Union, one man who was involved in the USSR’s demise has no regrets. In Moscow, VOA speaks with Stanislav Shushkevich, who became the first leader and head of state of independent Belarus, and who remains convinced that breaking up the Soviet Union prevented a civil war on the territory that once made up the USSR.

While President-elect Donald Trump talks tough on China, the Philippines shows signs of strengthening an alliance with China and weakening ties with its old friend, the United States. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte led the shift toward China shortly after taking office June 30, in an attempt to diversify his country’s foreign policy away from the United States.

A new high for pets? Medical marijuana is now legal in more than half of U.S. states, while another eight have greenlighted the use of recreational marijuana. If pot is O.K. for people, is it also good for pets? In Washington state, where pot is legal for medical and recreational use, a growing number of animal owners are giving cannabis to their aging pets.

Men usually live and die with the same name, but the same cannot be said for women. For the ‘fairer’ sex, a marriage proposal can trigger questions about identity, especially once a woman starts contemplating whether to take her husband’s name. It turns out that a vast majority of American women do adopt their husband’s surname, but that’s not the case for women in other parts of the world.