Newsletter Archive

The danger of a military confrontation between Russia and NATO nations is growing, analysts warn. Since Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014, both Moscow and NATO have deployed troops and weapons along old lines and tensions are at their highest since the Cold War. Adding to the uncertainty is President-elect Donald Trump, who has questioned the U.S. commitment to NATO. Will that stance embolden Russia to test NATO boundaries and unity?

A community-based program is helping transform attitudes about female genital mutilation in Ethiopia. In 1999, almost 97 percent of the people in Kembatta-Tembaro, an area of about 680,000 people, favored FGM. By 2008, less than 5 percent supported the practice. On a visit to Kembatta-Tembaro, VOA learns this sweeping change began with community elders.

QUICK TAKE VIDEO: The effort to drive Islamic State out of Mosul continues in Iraq, where soldiers say they’re meeting less resistance from IS fighters. VOA is on the ground in Mosul where thousands of civilians, who opted not to leave, try to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

One day, tiny robots might fight superbugs inside our bodies. It takes years to develop traditional biologically based antibiotics to fight superbugs. To get around that problem, scientists at the University of Colorado are looking beyond biology to develop a system that can adapt at least as fast as microbes do. They’re doing that by using quantum dots — tiny semiconductor particles — that would go to work inside the body.

The future is now. Some people like to stand out, but there’s a student at Stanford University in California who just wants to fit in. Jackrabbot is a robot that’s been roaming the campus to learn social skills from humans. Its developers eventually hope to see robots doing all sorts of things, like helping elderly and blind people move around, assisting with the shopping, and serving drinks at a party. In other words, make robots more human.

For one California professor, skateboarding is more than a sport. Neftalie Williams sees the activity as a tool for cultural diplomacy. Williams, the first professor in the United States to teach the sport, recently became the U.S. State Department’s first skateboarding and academic sports envoy in U.S. history.