Newsletter Archive

France’s Rust Belt is proving to be fertile ground for anti-immigration nationalist candidate Marine Le Pen. VOA takes a walk through the once-booming town of Hayange, past the rusted ruins of the shuttered old plant that once sustained the town. Hayange’s collapsed economy has triggered discontent that’s made it one of Le Pen’s biggest strongholds.

The first DACA-protected immigrant to be deported under the Trump administration is suing the federal government. The 23-year-old man was sent back to Mexico in February. The DACA program protects young adults who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children from deportation. Juan Manuel Montes is demanding the government explain the legal basis for sending him back to Mexico.

VIDEO EXPLAINER: President Trump is promising to reform the visa program for foreign technical workers. The government admits 85,000 foreign workers annually under the H-1B program. Most of those workers have an advanced degree in the high-tech, medical or science fields. The president has slammed the program, saying it steals jobs from Americans. Here’s a quick outline of the H-1B program, that’s been the subject of so much debate.

You might call it a march against ‘alternative facts,’ a turn of phrase that seemed to take on a life of its own after White House adviser Kellyanne Conway used it. Scientists who devote their professional lives to proving objective realities will be among those joining the March for Science in hundreds of cities around the world to support science’s role in government policy and decision making. While President Trump has been dismissive of scientific consensus, scientists say their frustration has been building for decades.

Disappearing island. Half of the Bangladesh island of Kutubdia has been swallowed up by rising tides, while cyclones have driven more than 100,000 people from its shores. Experts say climate change is accelerating what’s happening in Kutubdia. As the rainy reason approaches, islanders tell VOA they are bracing for the worst.

Three times the size of New York City. That’s how big China plans to make an ambitious technologically advanced economic zone in a massive underdeveloped area southwest of the capital. The Xiongan New Area is expected to become the next Shenzhen, China’s southern high-tech hub that serves as a bridge between Hong Kong and the mainland. It’s part of an effort to reshape the capital.

His wife remembers a peaceful man, but Cambodian environmental activist Chut Wutty died a violent death — shot in the driver’s seat of his red Jeep. At the time, Wutty was headed deep in the forest to track reports of illegal logging and land grabs. Five years after his death, Wutty’s activism and heroism continue to inspire young Cambodians.