Newsletter Archive

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Donald Trump jets off Friday on his first foreign trip as president, leaving behind a storm of controversy over his firing of FBI Director James Comey, sharing classified intelligence with Russian officials, and reports that he pressed Comey to end the investigation into his former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia. But at the heart of the domestic baggage that will accompany the president to the Middle East are questions about his credibility.

A measles outbreak in Minnesota highlights the Somali community’s aversion to vaccinating their children. Out of 63 reported measles cases, 53 are Minnesotans of Somali origin. Public health officials blame fears of autism and other health problems for the high rate of unvaccinated children in the Somali community.

Murdered journalist: Before his fatal shooting Monday on a Mexican city street, journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas acknowledged that he was often afraid while covering drug trafficking and crime stories. In one of several interviews with VOA’s Spanish Service over the years, Valdez said, ‘I have never felt safe.’

Trump country: Illinois farmer Marion Eden lives in one of the rural areas of the United States that helped Donald Trump win the presidency. Most of his family has moved away to the city, but Eden and others like him are hanging onto a fading way of life even as they voted for change.

North Korea has been making a lot of noise and the US intelligence community has noticed. Top officials once described Pyongyang as a ‘second tier’ adversary with more intent than capability. But these days, in a subtle but significant shift, North Korea is seen as an ‘increasingly grave threat.’

‘Comfort women’ were among the 200,000 women in Asia forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II. South Korea and Japan reached an apology and compensation deal on the matter back in 2015, but South Korea’s new president wants a fuller acknowledgement that the Japanese government accepts responsibility for the wartime atrocities.

‘Break the silence’ has become the rallying cry for an effort to fight child sex abuse in India. Child sex abuse is rampant in the country, but there is a general silence on the issue since the abusers are usually people who are close to the victim — parents, relatives, teachers or neighbors. A 2007 government survey found that more than half of India’s children have faced some sort of sexual abuse, which has been called an ‘epidemic.’