Newsletter Archive

Taken by Islamic State at the age of 9, Zahid Suhail became a ‘cub of the caliphate.’ He is one of thousands of young people, including Yazidi children, influenced or brainwashed by Islamic State ideology, according to estimates. IS trained most of the boys to engage in militancy, while many girls were sexually abused. Many died in the war, but those who survived are receiving psychological help. At a refugee camp in Duhok, in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, VOA meets Zahid as well as two Yazidi girls who spoke of the horrors they suffered as IS sex slaves.

2018 promises to be a year of both challenge and opportunity for President Donald Trump. Despite being historically unpopular for a first-year president, he hopes to build on last year’s victory on tax reform. But in the lead up to the November midterm congressional elections, the president and his Republican allies in Congress will likely face strong political headwinds.

Muslims fear they’ve been purposely left off a citizenship registry in the Indian state of Assam despite having been in the country for almost half a century. In 1971, hundreds of thousands of Hindus and Muslims took refuge in India during Pakistan’s crackdown in what is now Bangladesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has made it easier for non-Muslim immigrants to gain citizenship. India is a secular nation but Muslims who’ve been left off the citizenship roster accuse the government of being biased against them.

Social robots could soon become the newest member of your family. If the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week is any indication, the robot revolution has arrived. Several robotic social companions that interact with people will be available for sale this year, including some with unique personalities that can entertain children, patrol your home or play Scrabble against human opponents. Is a robot buddy the next step after Amazon Echo and Google Home?

VIDEO: While the world will never know what could have been achieved by the millions of Jews who died in Nazi concentration camps, Roald Hoffman is one person who lived to fulfill his destiny. After escaping from a concentration camp with his mother at the age of five, the Jewish boy and his mother found shelter in the attic of a nearby schoolhouse with a Ukrainian family that hid them for the next 15 months. After surviving the war, the family eventually settled in the United States, where Hoffman excelled academically and grew up to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

It’s been eight years since rapper and musician Wyclef Jean released an album. He’s been too busy trying to do some good in the world, particularly in his native Haiti, after realizing ‘you can’t spend a lifetime just doing music.’ In an exclusive interview with VOA, the one-time refugee blasts the Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the US, saying that they’re being sent back to face death and famine.