Newsletter Archive

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When José de Jesús López arrived in southwest Detroit as an illegal immigrant in 1981, he says the area was a drug-infested dump. Today, it’s a vibrant neighborhood called ‘Mexicantown’ that draws both locals and tourists. Detroit was hit hard by the Great Recession, but the Midwestern rust belt city might have found a key ingredient to its economic revitalization: immigrants.

Canadian police have filled in a ditch so asylum seekers won’t hurt themselves while crossing illegally from upstate New York into Quebec. The government has also set up processing tents and is feeding the newcomers. The crowds include Haitian migrants, who’ve listened to social media messages that suggest Canada would be more receptive to them than the US. However, despite Canada’s welcoming gestures, Haitian asylum seekers shouldn’t get too comfortable.

Satellite photos suggest there could be more to China’s new military base in Djibouti than Beijing is letting on. China says the military and logistical base will be used to resupply ships moving through the area and to support humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts. But the August 1 opening of the base in the tiny African nation has other foreign powers worried about a shift in the region’s balance of power.

Continued jolts following last year’s earthquake rattle the picturesque hilltop Italian towns that are still struggling to rise from the rubble. VOA is in Italy, where survivors of the central Italy quake, which hit August 24, 2016, are frustrated by the slow pace of reconstruction. While the elderly worry they’ll die before they can return home, the young consider abandoning the area for good.

Private war? President Trump is reportedly considering privatizing a large portion of the US war in Afghanistan. The plan is being pushed by Erik Prince, the man who founded the controversial Blackwater private, for-profit military company. Even though the proposal has met with criticism in both Kabul and Washington, Prince tells VOA’s Afghan service that he’s optimistic about getting enough support to push it through.

Shoot people who start forest fires. That’s the solution of one official in Indonesia where forest fires are a perpetual problem. Hundreds of hot spots have been detected in the archipelago recently. As VOA learns in Jakarta, the fires cloak parts of the country in a thick haze.