Newsletter Archive

Welcome home? Political unrest and violence prompted more than 400,000 people to flee Burundi and relocate to nearby countries, primarily Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. Despite appeals to leave their camps and repatriate, Burundian political refugees don’t feel they can go home again. In Rwanda’s Mahama camp – home to more than 54,000 refugees — VOA speaks with people about why they’d rather live in a refugee camp than return home.

President Trump says yesterday’s New York attacker is an Uzbek man who came to the United States on a diversity immigrant visa. The president says he wants to work with Congress to end the so-called ‘Green Card Lottery.’ Here’s the lowdown on the diversity visa program.

VIDEO EXPLAINER: Russia’s use of the internet to try and influence the US presidential election has landed executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter in the Congressional hot seat this week. Russian meddling in American politics has prompted speculation on why Congress might want to regulate the internet.

Hindus who fled to Bangladesh along with Rohingya Muslims say they want to return to home to live in Buddhist-majority parts of Myanmar and, if that can’t happen, they want to go to India. Immediately after arriving in Bangladesh, the Hindu refugees told local journalists that their loved ones had been killed by Myanmar security forces and armed local Rakhine Buddhist men. But now they’ve changed their stories.

Tourists used to swamp Kashmir in the fall, but this year business has been slow given recent unrest there. Last week the federal Hindu nationalist government took a step toward reconciliation in India’s most alienated region by appointing a representative, to lead a dialogue with all parties. But in the Muslim-majority region there’s widespread skepticism about whether the new representative will be able to temper anti-India sentiment.

VIDEO: Highly charged rhetoric has been exchanged between President Trump and North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, ahead of the president’s Asia trip. Mr. Trump will make North Korea’s rival, South Korea, the second stop on his upcoming visit to the region. From there, he’ll travel to China, North Korea’s ally. The goal of the trip is to work toward a denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but the question of how to achieve that is causing increasing anxiety on both sides of the Pacific.

‘Legitimate grievances.’ The charity that runs a South Sudan camp for displaced persons that was visited by UN Ambassador Nikki Hailey last week acknowledges that camp residents have reason to complain about living conditions. Hailey’s visit was cut short after a protest broke out at the camp and the charity’s offices were later trashed.