Newsletter Archive

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Living under Islamic State rule has left its mark even in the most remote Syrian villages. IS beat husbands and fathers of women who refused to cover their faces, while some locals were imprisoned or killed for smoking cigarettes. But when IS demanded that 100-year-old Tamam Shaheen cover her face, she balked.

The grass is greener. Decades of sustained overgrazing and rising human populations, means the top soil has is gone in many areas of Kenya. Add in drought conditions and there are few places for the large numbers of goats and cattle to graze. That’s why pastoralists directed their herds anywhere they could find grass and water — including onto private land.

Chairman Xi? A powerful title retired after Mao Zedong’s death may be resurrected by China’s current leader. Mao was chairman of the central committee of the Communist Party of China, a position so absolutely powerful that party leaders retired it within years of his death in 1976. But President Xi Jinping may be angling to resurrect it.

This year, the trans-Alaska pipeline celebrated 40 years of service. VOA went to Alaska to look at the history of North America’s largest oil field.

Evacuation drills are being conducted in communities all along the Japan Sea coast. The Japanese government believes the exercises could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the event of an attack. But for those taking part, it is a sobering experience.