Newsletter Archive

Welcome to the South China Sea, home to one-third of global maritime traffic, lucrative fisheries and supply routes that carry 80 percent of China’s crude imports. China claims more than 95 percent of the region, but that assertion is contested by several other nations in the area. Here’s everything you need to know about what just might be the most strategically important waterway of the 21st century.

Any successful fight against Islamic State must last for a generation, according to former Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq. In a one-on-one interview with VOA’s Kurdish service in New York, the former CIA director says both the physical leadership, as well as the mindset that the terror group creates, must be eliminated.

Capturing carbon could be key to keeping global warming in check, but high costs are a key concern. VOA goes to a factory in southern India that has found a way around that problem, capturing carbon dioxide emissions from its own coal boiler and using it to make soda ash – a base chemical with uses that include the manufacture of glass, sweeteners, detergents and paper products.

New efforts are underway to extinguish cigarette smoking on American college campuses and in public housing. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States, accounting for 480,000 deaths every year. A smokers rights group is calling on President-elect Donald Trump to stop the ban once he becomes president, because officials are going too far in trying to stop people from using a legal product.

Immigrants in the United States often take menial jobs working for others, but a new generation of Cambodian-Americans is reaching for more. There are more than 10,000 Cambodian-Americans living in the southern U.S. state, most of them in the Atlanta area. VOA’s Khmer service checks in with some who’ve started their own small businesses instead of seeking employment with others.