Newsletter Archive

A road built on the world’s highest mountain pass links China to Pakistan. The Friendship Highway, which cost Beijing tens of billions of dollars, is a centerpiece of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious plan to rejuvenate ancient Silk Road trade routes by linking China with Africa and Europe. However, since the road opened, Pakistani exports to China have dropped while imports from China have increased, prompting concerns that Beijing’s new Silk Road could become a one-way street.

Known as the ‘Russian Paris Hilton,’ a popular TV anchor, socialite and ‘it girl’ is running for president of Russia. Critics say Ksenia Sobchak’s candidacy is a ploy to split the liberal opposition by planting a Kremlin-approved spoiler candidate.

The Trump administration’s revised South Asia strategy might still be in its infancy, but the curtain has silently fallen on the office of the special envoy tasked with leading Afghanistan reconciliation efforts. The State Department says efforts focused on Afghan reconciliation will eventually be integrated into an existing division. Some observers worry disbanding the policy team and losing crucial expertise increases risk at a time when the US is renewing its commitment to stabilize Afghanistan and promote reconciliation.

Hundreds of former Boko Haram hostages can’t go home because their villages are afraid to take them back. VOA went to the Cameroon-Nigeria border where some of the self-proclaimed ex-captives are living in limbo after admiting to being forced to join the jihadist group as fighters and have their children used as suicide bombers.

VIDEO: A Virginia winemaker is using an ancient Eurasian tradition to make hard cider. Castle Hill Cider is the first American company to use egg-shaped Georgian clay vessels called qvevri to ferment and age hard ciders. After reading about biomimicry — how natural shapes and materials best nurture and preserve life forms — the vineyard’s manager decided to take a chance on the ancient jugs and Georgian winemaking techniques.

VIDEO: Asma was married at 16 to a 40-year-old man who she says beat her regularly before divorcing her two years later. VOA met Asma in Lahore, Pakistan, as that nation continues its struggle against culture, tradition and poverty in the fight to enforces laws against child marriage.