Newsletter Archive

Have US green card lottery hopefuls run out of luck? To millions around the world who envision a better life in the United States, the possibility of winning U.S. citizenship gives them hope. However, with a Republican-controlled Congress and a president intent on limiting immigration, the 22-year-old diversity visa is on the chopping block.

As a wave of new Republican staffers descends on the nation’s capital, Washington’s restaurants — from pubs to fine-dining spots — are beginning to get sense of the gastronomic difference between Republicans and Democrats.

More than six years after UN peacekeepers inadvertently carried cholera into Haiti, triggering a deadly outbreak, the United Nations has raised very little money to help fight the disease. More than 788,000 Haitians have been diagnosed with cholera and at least 9,000 have died.The new UN secretary general is pressuring member states to finance a $400 million aid package for the Caribbean nation.

Some U.S. lawmakers are calling for North Korea to be relisted as a state sponsor of terrorism following the apparent assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But experts are divided on whether Kim Jong Nam’s killing can be classified as a terrorist attack.

VIDEO: Hungary is recruiting thousands of so-called border hunters to crack down on refugees trying to sneak over the border from Serbia on their way to the European Union. VOA meets refugees at the Serbian-Hungarian border who say violence by border guards is mounting.

Fake news, like a gruesome story about four women who were burned alive after their babies were ripped from their bodies, horrified South Africans and was shared more than 25,000 times on social media. Fact checkers determined the story, a recent example of the misinformation that’s fueling xenophobic violence in South Africa, is false.

Pakistan’s largely symbolic decision to close the border with Afghanistan is wreaking havoc on people trapped at the crossing. Pakistan hopes the closure will force its neighbor to take action against extremist groups blamed for cross-border terror attacks. But the harsh reality is that families are divided, truckloads of food are rotting, and people in need of medical treatment are running out of time.