Newsletter Archive

Hopes are dimming among Russians eager for a quick pivot in US-Russian relations. Where there was once effusive coverage of President Donald Trump on Russian state media, there are now rising doubts about whether Trump will keep his pledge to ‘do deals’ with Vladimir Putin. VOA is in Moscow getting a sense of whether ‘Trumpomania’ is cooling in Russia.

America’s library: the Library of Congress houses more than 160 million items, including a 1400s Gutenberg Bible and the world’s largest comic book collection. None of these materials can be checked out, but the Library’s first woman director, as well as the first African-American, plans to harness technology to make this unparalleled collection available to people everywhere.

A woman’s place is on the rugby field. That’s what two all-girls teams are out to prove in northern Nigeria’s Kano state, a predominantly Muslim area, where girls rarely play the rough-and-tumble sport. VOA reports from Kano, where these hijab-wearing athletes tackle some of their biggest challenges off the field.

Afghan immigrant Faisal Razmal thought he had it made after leaving the bloodshed in his native country behind for a new life in America. But after a violent altercation left him blind in one eye, Razmal finds the land of opportunity is now fraught with challenges.

Muslims and Christians lived as neighbors in Iraq for centuries before Islamic State — which targeted minority Christians — wreaked havoc on the country’s societal fabric. Now, the  rebirth of the Christian community in Qaraqosh, and the rest of Iraq, is uncertain. Most Christians who fled the town refuse to return and are instead looking to settle abroad.

No way out. The fight for western Mosul grows fiercer than ever now that Islamic State fighters have nowhere left to run. VOA is in Mosul, where the terror group is lacing civilian cars with bombs, making it impossible to distinguish suicide bombers from fleeing families, and the group’s best weaponry and most elite fighters are now on the front lines.