Newsletter Archive

‘I’m like your uncle,’ an old man in Greece reassures two young Afghan brothers, before giving them a 20 euro note. The boys had just arrived in Athens after fleeing Afghanistan and their father’s Taliban murderers, but they had not fully escaped danger. As vulnerable youth fall through the cracks in Greece’s asylum system, some desperate young refugee men and boys are turning to prostitution to survive.

Deal or no deal? Amid reports of Russian hacking during the presidential election, Donald Trump denied Russia had any leverage over him, tweeting he had no deals or loans in that country. In fact, Trump has doggedly pursued business deals in Russia, going back decades to the twilight of the Soviet Union. Why Trump, the consummate dealmaker who survived multiple bankruptcies and built a global brand, failed to secure any major deals in Russia remains a mystery.

Alleging that that up to 5 million non-citizens may have voted illegally, costing him the popular vote in the November 2016 election, President Trump is calling for a ‘major investigation.’ His comments have set off a flurry of debate among analysts on both sides of the political spectrum. Is the problem of voter fraud widespread enough to warrant a costly investigation?

Life under Islamic State was a lot like walking a tightrope. At 14 years old, Ali is a family breadwinner in an area of Mosul recently captured from the terror group by Iraqi forces. In Iraq, VOA talks with the teenager and his mother, as they describe how they were able to keep Ali from being forced to join the terror group, and how his fearful mother kept her children from playing with the children of IS fighters who lived in their building.

The U.S.-led operation to oust Islamic State from Mosul will not eliminate the terror group’s presence in Iraq, warns the prime minister of northern Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government. In an interview with VOA, Nechirvan Barzani says IS will remain as an ideology and organization. He believes the continuing sectarian divide in Iraq will allow IS to thrive, but the question is: in what form?

There’s a safe haven in Kenya for young girls in danger of being forced to endure female genital mutilation. VOA visits the boarding school for at-risk girls in Kajiado, where the deputy head teacher says more than 100 girls have been rescued and sheltered. FGM survivors experience intense pain during the ritual cut. It’s a common practice among the Maasai community, which means rescuers sometimes face the wrath of families of rescued girls.

Mastercard has launched a new digital marketplace for East African farmers to sell their crops and receive payment via their mobile telephones. The program is intended to increase farmers’ earnings by giving them access to a wider network of buyers and faster transactions. Right now, smallholder farmers are often dependent on others — agents, buyers and sellers — resulting in unpredictable returns. But this new venture cuts out the middleman.

Play on. Once a popular instrument in Africa’s Great Lakes region, the eight-stringed nyatiti fell out of favor as old players died and young people turned to rock and hip hop. In Nairobi, VOA meets a Kenyan master who is teaming up with a young virtuoso trying to revive the musical tradition by giving it a modern twist.