Newsletter Archive

Donald Trump’s public approval ratings continue to hover at around 40 percent, still a low mark for a US president fast closing in on his first 100 days in office. Trump’s rating on foreign policy has improved slightly after military strikes in Syria and Afghanistan. But is his domestic agenda stuck in neutral because President Trump is too focused on his base to govern effectively?

VIDEO:  A haunting exhibit in New York showcases undocumented immigrants and the everyday items they left behind in their bid to cross illegally from Mexico into the United States. Not all of those people made it. Some died in the desert. But the objects they took with them on their journey — things like backpacks, glasses and toothbrushes — help tell their story.

Facebook is hosting a technical gabfest that its executives are using to unveil new features and talk about the firm’s future. The company wants to find more users and give them more to do, at a time the social network giant is facing more global competition than ever.

Star Trek, the old iconic science fiction TV show and current film franchise set in the distant future, features a medical device called a ‘tricorder.’ In the show and movies, the doctor uses his handheld device to diagnose illness. What was once imagined is now a reality.

Democracy appears to be on shakier ground in Turkey after Sunday’s referendum giving expansive new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Voters narrowly approved a plan to eliminate parliament and give most of its powers to the presidency. But will this reorganization of the Turkish state nudge the country closer to authoritarian rule?

It could take years to find all of the kidnapped Chibok school girls, Nigeria’s defense minister tells VOA. Three years ago after Boko Haram kidnapped 276 students from a secondary school, 195 girls are still missing. Gen. Manir Dan Ali points out that it took the United States years to find 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The show won’t go on. Russia’s leading state broadcaster says it will boycott the Eurovision 2017 song contest because Ukraine, the host country, barred Russia’s wheelchair-bound contestant from entering the country. The decision, which is related to Russia’s controversial annexation of Crimea, shows that politics and entertainment are intertwined.