Newsletter Archive

Chief thief? It’s the end of an era in Cambodia with the closure of an independent newspaper the government slapped with a $6.3 million tax bill and Prime Minister Hun Sen labeled a ‘chief thief’ for its alleged tax evasion. The move is seen by many as the ruling party’s attempt to silence critical voices ahead of next year’s national elections. VOA picked up the final issue of the English-language Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh, where the paper went out swinging by suggesting that Cambodia is descending into ‘outright dictatorship.’

‘This is the black fist of our century, of our generation.’ Sudanese cartoonist Khalid Albaih isn’t a fan of American football, but he was inspired by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem in protest of racial injustice and police brutality. What Albaih didn’t expect was for the cartoon he drew — of a kneeling Kaepernick with a huge afro in the shape of a fist — to go viral.

Some business and technology leaders are taking up the fight to protect employees who are DACA beneficiaries. The Trump administration has announced that the program — which allows undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children to live, work and go to school without fear of deportation – will be phased out by March 2018 unless Congress can pass legislation preserving it. Meanwhile, some tech executives have pledged not to fire employees who are DACA beneficiaries, even if they lose the legal right to work in the US.

‘Hydrogen bomb’ and ‘North Korea’ top the list of blocked online topics in China, where people are expressing concern about heightened tensions in the region and the possibility of ‘any radioactivity being cast on our country.’ VOA is in Beijing, where the government has ordered Chinese media organizations and websites to close comment sections on North Korea’s nuclear test and to ‘not hype’ the story.

VIDEO: One of the oldest theaters in Washington decided to clean out its closets. The Arena Stage put a decade’s worth of costumes up for sale, including vintage and designer pieces. There were hundreds of things to choose — from the morbid to the fantastical — just in time for Halloween. 

Indiana Jones has nothing on Mark Fairchild. Fascinated that most of the New Testament takes place in Turkey, the biblical historian became a self-taught archeologist and spends all his free time in Turkey. On one of those trips, he discovered the oldest synagogue in the world. And now, like Indiana Jones, the Indiana professor is going Hollywood — sort of.

VIDEO: Rwanda’s first large-scale commercial solar field also empowers local orphans. The solar panels are located on land owned by the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, which VOA recently visited. The choice of the site was no accident. The rent paid for the solar field helps vulnerable youth left parentless by Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.