Newsletter Archive

China hopes to transform a sleepy Pakistani village into its gateway to the Middle East. Machines are dredging the Arabian Sea and cranes are setting up shipping berths in what is projected to become Pakistan’s biggest international port. China hopes use of the Gwadar peninsula will shorten its trade route to the Persian Gulf’s rich oil reserves. The village’s evolution is also evident in the mini-Chinatown that has popped up.

Chinese investors are pouring money into Silicon Valley. But this wave of Chinese investment raises questions whether advanced technologies that could be critical to US strategic interests are instead going to a foreign power.

Most French people think politicians are ‘disgusting as human beings.’ From small villages to big cities, voters in France are fed up with corruption, cronyism, and immigration policies that some believe threaten French native culture and national security. VOA talks to people in the multicultural city of Paris about whether this anti-establishment fervor is leading up to a political shakeup at the polls.

Islamic State is a ‘tool’ of the United States, says former Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The US invasion of Afghanistan to root out terrorists paved the way for Karzai’s rise to power and he enjoyed close ties with Washington during most of his presidency. But Karzai has changed his tune, and now says he sees no difference between the United States and the terror group.

He came out of the shadows dressed in black almost 3 years ago to claim dominion over the world’s 1 billion Muslims. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s declared an Islamic State and proceeded to deal out ‘Caliphate justice,’ a tactic to instill fear, beginning a reign of terror in Mosul.

Allegations of land grabbing, war-mongering and contaminated food exports. Cambodians have a long-standing fear and suspicion of Vietnam, which is being exploited by the opposition party in Cambodia ahead of elections there. Centered around the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in late 1978 and Hanoi’s decade-long occupation, the fear-mongering is being passed down from one generation to the next.

Play it again, Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has lifted a days-old ban on a beloved anti-war song. Popular musician Trinh Con Son managed to irritate both the South and North, with songs both sides felt sapped the fighting will of their soldiers. The government had squelched five other love songs popular in the South during the war, but banning Trinh’s ‘The Great Circle of Vietnam’ hit a particularly sour note.