Newsletter Archive

Miami, Florida escaped the worst of Hurricane Irma, but in ‘Little Haiti’ — home to a low-income African-American and diaspora community from across Haiti, the Caribbean, and Latin America — residents still lack electricity. That makes for long days in sweltering heat, with no power or no back-up generators, for frustrated residents who wonder when they will be made a priority.

The outgoing US ambassador to Russia tells VOA he personally believes there was Russian cyber involvement in the US elections. John Tefft, a career foreign service officer, says he saw convincing evidence of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Not really, but still. Russia has been funneling troops and armor into Belarus for several weeks now, ahead of a Kremlin order to attack neighboring NATO countries. It’s all fictional, part of the largest exercises mounted by Moscow since the Cold War. But you might see why Russia’s neighbors view the massive military drill, known as Zapad 2017 — ‘Zapad’ is a Russian word for ‘West —as an example of Russian intimidation.

In a state best known for its dairy, beer and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Wisconsin ginseng growers are out to make sure the bitter root gets its due. The vast majority of Wisconsin’s ginseng crop goes to China and Hong Kong, where it has been used for centuries to reduce stress, boost energy, focus attention and even treat male sexual dysfunction. Armed with a Harvard MBA, one Wisconsin grower,  whose family ginseng farm is among the country’s largest, is reaching out to a broader consumer base, hoping to whet America’s appetite for premium Wisconsin ginseng.

‘Drone strikes alone can’t win a war of ideology.’ When it comes to the 16-year-old War on Terror, the US is still struggling to counter narratives that help fuel groups like al-Qaida and Islamic State. As extremist ideology continues to spread, experts and officials worry the US may be losing the battle of ideas.

Thirteen years after the 2004 tsunami, VOA travels to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, which is dotted with Saudi donations, including schools, orphanages, mosques. However, while large swaths of Indonesia have eagerly absorbed the Saudi spread of fundamentalist Salafi Islam — along with generous disaster relief funds — Aceh seems to have drawn a line in the sand to protect its own traditionalist Islamic culture against a puritanical Gulf ideology.