Newsletter Archive

Kurds voted overwhelmingly for independence from Iraq in a referendum held this week. There were fears the vote could lead to violence in areas claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil — places like Kirkuk, which is partially governed by Baghdad, but secured primarily by Kurdish Peshmerga forces. In Kirkuk, VOA finds that competing claims to the city are being negotiated with flags.

Somali teens are on the run after Al-Shabab launched what seems like a forced recruitment campaign in the southwestern part of the country. The militant group is pressuring local village leaders to deliver a specific number of recruits. A regional lawmaker tells VOA that dozens of children between the ages of 9 and 18 have run away to avoid being forced to join the ruthless group.

House Democrats and Republicans have very different timelines when it comes to DACA and resolving the fate of 800,000 undocumented young people brought to the US as children. Democrats are trying to force a vote to create a permanent legislative solution for these so-called Dreamers, but so far no Republicans have signed on.

The image of a happy clown is largely an American creation, according to a man who literally wrote the book on bad clowns. Benjamin Radford says clowns aren’t necessarily good in other cultures. They are trickster figures that were originally meant to entertain grownups, not children, as critiques of society or projections of adult fears and concerns. The idea of scary clowns became a thing in the US in the 1970s, when a professional clown turned out to be a serial killer.

VIDEO EXPLAINER: Having trouble keeping up with all of President Trump’s travel bans? Two new, non-Muslim countries were added to the ban this week, but critics accuse the Trump administration of continuing to use religion as a basis for deciding who to keep out of the US. Here’s a timeline that lays it all out.

Indonesia is warning the country’s millennials against the evils of communism by resurrecting an old propaganda film. The movie became a favorite of the country’s late, longtime dictator, General Suharto, after a 1965 attempt coup attempt by Indonesian communists. VOA is in Jakarta, where the country’s current president appears to support the move, saying children need movies to learn about history.