Newsletter Archive

Chrifa Nimri is a woman who’s made it in a man’s profession. The 69-year-old Tunisian fisherwoman is one of a small female minority in the male-dominated commercial fishing trade. But, around the globe, there’s more to it than meets the eye with increasing numbers of women joining the ‘boys club.’

President Donald Trump’s desire to cut refugees is also costing US jobs. Since the president signed a related executive order in late January, at least 300 workers have been laid off in the US nonprofit sector and more than 500 positions abroad have been eliminated as people involved in resettling the newcomers find themselves out of a job.

VIDEO: Ambassadors are normally political appointees who are replaced under each new administration. But the process is moving more slowly than usual under the Trump Administration. President Donald Trump has yet to nominate candidates to fill a large number of senior State Department positions in Washington and to serve as ambassadors at US embassies around the world. Only two new ambassadors have been confirmed, while five others have been nominated, leaving 181 of 188 ambassadorships still unfilled.

American colleges have long been bastions of free speech. Campuses have a rich tradition of providing fertile ground for the open exchange of ideas as a means for furthering education. But recent protests that have erupted ahead of scheduled speeches by conservative political pundits raise questions about whether today’s college students value free speech.

Thirty years after disaster, Chernobyl is about to power up again. The site of the world’s worst nuclear accident is being transformed into a solar farm. More than 50 investors from around the world have applied to build the farm to generate electricity in the Exclusion Zone.

An Ecuadoran journalist who hid out with an Amazon tribe before shifting from safe house to safe house in order to elude authorities is now seeking asylum in Peru. Fernando Villavicencio, convicted of defaming President Rafael Correa under the country’s harsh communications law, has spent much of the past few years in hiding, paying a hefty price for exposing information others want to suppress.

PHOTO GALLERY: The Rwandan government recognizes the LGBT community’s right to live openly and safely, but prohibits gay marriage. VOA visits Kigali, where more members of the LGBT community are coming out of the shadows after dark days of attacks and harassment early this year.