Newsletter Archive

How do you bridge the gap between a Chinese company and a US community? Some Americans who work for one of China’s biggest glass manufacturers think the answer is to unionize, which is exactly what they’re trying to organize at their Ohio factory. However, their employer’s approach focuses on American self-reliance, not organized labor.

Nathalie Haddadi wired her son $3,300 after he asked her to send help to cover basic needs like food or medical costs. The problem is that her son was a jihadist en route from Malaysia to Syria to join Islamic State. VOA reports from Paris, where the French mother ended up in court and was convicted of financing terrorism. Haddadi’s case illustrates the tough choice relatives of foreign fighters can face — abandon their child or risk supporting terrorist activities.

What’s Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, without fireworks? New Delhi residents are about to find out after India’s supreme court temporarily banned the sale of pyrotechnics in order to combat deadly air pollution. VOA is in the capital city where critics compare the order to banning Christmas trees at Christmas time.

Changing into shorts on the school bus. Living at home instead of in a dorm. Eating a packed school lunch of grape leaves instead of PB&J. First-generation Americans — the US children of foreign-born parents or those who immigrated as young children — navigate life with one foot in their parents’ culture and the other in America’s youth culture. Every day they grapple with balancing their past with their present as ‘international Americans.’

Finding a bathroom is one of the biggest problems facing the more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims taking refuge in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar. VOA visits the refugee camps where aid agencies have installed 4,600 new latrines so that people don’t have to wander into the fields to take care of their business. Each toilet serves hundreds of people, creating long lines in the morning, but it’s better than nothing.

Common ground. The US-Thailand relationship has been strained since 2014, when a former general ousted a democratically elected government in a military coup. Prayut Chan-o-cha argues the coup was necessary to stabilize the country. In an interview with VOA’s Thai Service, Prayut, who met with President Trump this month in Washington, sees ties improving between the two nations and says both he and the US president are ‘change leaders.’