Newsletter Archive

A museum dedicated to the world’s bestselling book is opening in Washington, DC. The $500 million, privately funded Bible Museum was founded by a member of the evangelical family that owns Hobby Lobby. In 2014, the arts and crafts retailer won a Supreme Court case allowing family-owned businesses to deny contraceptive coverage to workers for religious reasons. Founder Steve Green says the museum presents the facts about the Bible in a journalistic way but some believe the museum has a clear social and political agenda.

EXPLAINER: Machines are talking on Twitter. These ‘bots’ are sometimes out to make trouble by spreading false information, inflating follower counts or rigging surveys. Here’s how bothersome bots can be.

With both sides spending big money on firms that mine data, Kenya’s annulled 2017 presidential election was one of Africa’s most expensive. The involvement of these companies is raising questions about whether they’re undermining the democratic process by giving their clients an unfair advantage and manipulating the public. It also signals a new era during which high-tech campaigning is bound to play a greater role in future elections across the continent.

At least 28 percent of Texas’ construction laborers are undocumented, but this is the workforce that’s rebuilding Houston after Hurricane Harvey caused severe flooding. VOA goes to a Houston parking lot where undocumented, mostly Latino men wait to find work. Picking up jobs has been more consistent since the storm, but so have the risks of exploitation and workplace dangers.

President Trump might be ready to shift from sweet to sour when it comes to trade with China. Fresh off his Asia trip where he was all smiles with President Xi Jinping, Mr. Trump is now likely to get tough with Beijing over unfair trade practices, according to analysts. In cracking down on China, the president would be delivering on a promise he made to the people who elected him.

More than 20 years ago, Haiti’s leader disbanded the country’s military, which had a history of violent coups. Now the military is making a comeback under the guidance of President Jovenel Moïse, who took office in February. In Cap-Haïtien, VOA finds there’s mixed reaction to the new Haitian National Army that Moïse promises will be a professional army rather than an agent of suppression.

Barbecue. Avocado. Cashew. Think you don’t know any Native American words? Think again. When explorers, fortune seekers and settlers arrived in the Americas, they came across plants, animals, places and cultural objects that they’d never seen before. They adopted many of the names for these things and places — including half of the US states — from the hundreds of different native tribes. Today, those native words are thoroughly incorporated into American English.