Newsletter Archive

Left to rot: Residents are jubilant in parts of Mosul that have been liberated from Islamic State control. But the terror group’s retreat has left the city with a malodorous problem that poses a threat to public health. In Mosul, VOA discovers that, with municipal services in chaos, residents must contend with growing heaps of garbage.

Have Palestinian officials developed a plan to establish a transitional Palestinian state until negotiations on permanent status can be launched a year from now? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and leaders from 70 other countries meet next week in Paris in an attempt to salvage a two-state solution. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians will attend, but the Palestinians might present a new peace plan from the sidelines.

Islamic State is urging sympathizers in the West to mount attacks there, even going so far as to post detailed ways for supporters to manufacture crude chemical weapons online. The terror group’s aim is to force Western powers to focus on their own security needs instead of pursuing the fight against IS in the terror group’s self-declared caliphate. IS also hopes the attacks will exhaust the economies of its enemies.

Washington, D.C. is gearing up for the presidential inauguration. Hotels are prepping pricey VIP packages for their wealthiest guests. Catering more to the average person are the souvenir shops shops, where the hottest seller is an iconic item from the campaign trail.

Jakarta is one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world. Forty percent of the Indonesian capital is below sea-level. Both rising seas and groundwater extraction are contributing toward Jakarta becoming the world’s fastest-sinking major city. But the government has a plan to drain the harbor, and protect the bay from rising tides, with an enormous, bird-shaped sea wall.