Newsletter Archive

President Donald Trump is expected to sign a bill that eliminates Obama-era regulations requiring internet service providers to get permission before collecting or selling sensitive user data, such as your internet browsing history. Supporters say the move levels the playing field for providers but critics argue the change will hurt consumers.

The battle to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appears to be over — at least as far as the Trump administration is concerned. Analysts says Assad’s survival after a brutal 6-year-long conflict seems to be assured. President Donald Trump’s administration might be inching closer to a shift in US policy toward the Syrian government, which was bolstered when Russia’s military intervened to back Assad more than a year ago.

For the first time in years, the Nigerian Army conducted military drills in the Sambisa Forest, which previously had been a stronghold for Boko Haram. VOA was given rare access to the exercises.

China’s about to have a little more muscle to keep other countries out of the widely disputed South China Sea. Beijing claims more than 90 percent of the resource-rich sea that extends from Taiwan southwest to Singapore. Analysts tell VOA that China’s near completion of artificial islets and combat aircraft facilities in the Spratly Islands will give Beijing an ‘around-the-clock presence’ to enforce its claim to the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea.

Hundreds of ships are switching off their tracking devices and taking unexplained routes, raising concern the trafficking of arms, migrants and drugs is going undetected. Every vessel has an identification number, but crews can change the digital identity of their ship, making it possible to conceal previous journeys. Security experts fear traffickers use this method to hide in plain sight as they transport drugs, weapons, and even people, but new technology could be a game-changer.

A Vietnamese blogger missed meeting First Lady Melania Trump because she’s stuck in jail. The blogger known as Mẹ Nam, or Mother Mushroom, was supposed to pick up her International Women of Courage Award in Washington last week. Instead, she spent a day in Khanh Hoa Province prison, after being accused of ‘spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.’

The leader of Bosnia’s Muslim community is vowing to continue fighting radicalization via education and sustained pressure on extremist offshoots within the small Balkan nation. In an exclusive interview, Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic tells VOA he believes the Trump administration supports the Balkan nation’s efforts against radicalization abroad.