Newsletter Archive

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VIDEO: Somalia’s children are the most at risk from a severe drought that’s left 6 million people in the country in need of food and medical assistance. VOA visits a classroom in Baidoa, where children are so malnourished, they can’t remember what’s taught in class.

A prominent Azeri dissident and journalist who vanished in Georgia this week has turned up in custody in Azerbaijan. Efqan Muxtarli, a fierce critic of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, is charged with illegally crossing from Georgia into his native Azerbaijan. The journalist’s attorney says his client was abducted and shared Muxtarli’s dramatic account of being snatched off the street with VOA’s Azeri Service.

It’s anything but business as usual for fruit and vegetable growers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This time of year, Afghanistan sells a significant portion of its grapes and pomegranates to its neighbor, while Pakistan sends mangoes and vegetables in the opposite direction. But recent cross-border fighting has left hundreds of trucks loaded with fruits and vegetables stranded and at risk of spoiling.

Could the computer algorithms that power much of modern life help end hunger in Africa? A new early warning system is designed catch the subtle signs of a brewing hunger crisis in Africa up to a year before catastrophe actually hits. The system relies on massive amounts of diverse data to identify hunger risks faster than traditional methods.

You’ve probably heard of Bitcoin, the controversial digital currency, but it’s blockchain, the technology that supports it, that’s creating a buzz. Bitcoin uses blockchain to enable anonymous, peer-to-peer payments, but developers are realizing the same technology might also be useful in traditional, commercial applications.

China is going soft. Instead of exerting ‘hard power’ — military might — Beijing is using ‘soft’ power on Americans through a number of cultural and educational programs. For example, China invests in educating Americans in Chinese language and culture through its numerous US-based Confucius Institutes. That might sound harmless, but critics don’t think so.

QUICK TAKE VIDEO: Islamic State might be gone, but the memories remain. Residents in the northern Syrian town of Tabqa are trying to get back to normal, which is a challenge for those who pass the town center where IS staged its executions and forced the townspeople to watch.