Newsletter Archive

‘It was one of those days when you could feel the world changing.’ Sixteen years ago, al-Qaida-linked hijackers crashed a commercial airliner into the Pentagon just outside Washington, DC, killing all passengers aboard the plane and 125 people working in the building. VOA takes you to the unique memorial for the victims near the point of impact where designers strove to ‘create a place like no other because 9/11 was a day like no other,’ and we hear from two men who were forever impacted by the Attack on America.

US veterans are among those joining volunteers to mark the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. In the Washington area, they’re helping to refurbish a veterans service center, local clinic and housing facility which helps veterans who’ve fallen on hard times.

The repeal of DACA could benefit unemployed American workers, according to the White House. The Trump administration plans to end the program that protects undocumented young people who were brought to the US as children from deportation, although Congress could agree on a plan to save it.  The White House points to the 4 million unemployed Americans — including African Americans and Latinos — in the same age group as DACA recipients, who could potentially fill DACA jobs. But economists and immigration analysts who don’t agree with that one-for-one assessment, worry ending DACA could cost the US economy billions of dollars.

American Nancy Dupree had two major loves in her life: her adopted home of Afghanistan and her late husband, a renowned archaeologist and scholar of Afghan culture and history. Dupree spent decades collecting and preserving the war-shattered country’s cultural heritage. The 90-year-old, who died yesterday after a brief illness, was so respected, that even the Taliban didn’t get in her way.

Mogadishu is often called the world’s most dangerous capital, plagued by terrorist suicide bombings and widespread anarchy. So it was a pretty big deal when thousands of people gathered there recently to watch a nighttime soccer match for the first time in more than 30 years.

A courtship is apparently underway between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The two countries are rethinking their rivalry, according to analysts. Here’s why the timing might be right for Iran and Saudi Arabia to overcome their enmity and end a decades-long battle for influence across the Middle East.