Newsletter Archive

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As president, Barack Obama dropped Cuba from the list of terrorist sponsors, reopened the US embassy in Havana, and eased restrictions on trade and travel. As a candidate, Donald Trump promised to undo parts of the historic US-Cuba agreement, and now the president is expected to tighten some of the trade and travel loosened under Obama in a move aimed at changing the behavior of the regime in Cuba and its treatment of people.

A college fraternity where drinking is banned. That’s the deal with Alpha Lambda Mu, a Muslim-oriented fraternity that’s active at seven US universities. The Muslim students are following in the tradition of other groups, including African Americans, Catholics and Jews, in forming their own fraternity — partly because they don’t feel accepted at others.

QUICK TAKE VIDEO: It’s been several months since Islamic State was driven out of the Shahba region in northern Aleppo, but most residents have not returned home yet. It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s because of what IS left behind. VOA follows the trail of land mines. 

For most US students, life as a refugee is unimaginable. But some 5th graders in Colorado now have a better idea of what it must be like thanks to a pen pal program that connects them with children in a Kenya refugee camp. The students have exchanged drawings and even challenged each other to a dance-off, swapping recorded videos. It’s an experience that might stick with all of the students longer than traditional classroom lessons.

Imagine being deaf or blind or both in a country that doesn’t have programs for children with disabilities.That’s the reality for 6 million children around the world. In the US, the Perkins School for the Blind is launching an initiative to close this gap by training 1 million teachers worldwide by 2030 to educate children with multiple disabilities.

Goal! Russian soccer gained global acclaim during the 1966 World Cup when the Soviet Union took fourth place. Half-a-century later, Russia still hasn’t managed to get back to the top four. Now, Russia is hosting world soccer’s Confederations Cup this summer, followed by the World Cup championship in 2018. As host, Russia’s national team automatically qualifies to compete, which is reigniting the hopes of die-hard Russian soccer fans.