Newsletter Archive

At a clinic in Beirut, an elderly Palestinian man wonders what will happen now that the US has withheld millions in aid to the UN agency he depends upon. The UN Relief Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees, is now looking for alternate funding. Since UNRWA was created in 1949, a year after the conflict that drove an estimated 700,000 Palestinians from their lands following the creation of the Israel, the agency has relied heavily on US funding. Two-thirds of Palestinians in Lebanon live in poverty. State-backed discrimination bars them from a wide range of professions and from owning property. One refugee told VOA, if President Trump ‘saw how we lived here, he would change his mind.’

In a wide-ranging interview, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley spoke with VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren this week in New York. They hit on a variety of topics including North Korea (‘we’ve got options’), Afghanistan (‘working extremely well’), the Palestinians (‘very hostile’), the Rohingya crisis (‘ethnic cleansing’) and Iran (‘incredibly dangerous’). Here’s the full VOA interview with Ambassador Haley.

For generations, the US government pursued a policy of forced assimilation when it came to Native Americans. In the 1950s, as many as 35 percent of Indian youth in some states were adopted into white families before Congress set limits on removing Indian children. That came too late for Conrad Eagle Feather, who was taken from his family on a North Dakota Reservation at the age of three and spent much of his life trying to find his way home.

The premiere of a movie made by a well-known Haitian filmmaker took on added meaning in the wake of the disparaging remarks President Trump reportedly made about the Caribbean nation. Trump’s alleged comments inflamed the Haitian-American community, but people who attended the film showing in Miami had high hopes the movie and other similar endeavors will show the world the real face of Haiti.

South Koreans are generally supportive of North Korea participating in the upcoming Olympics, but they’re divided on the decision to field a joint women’s hockey team. North Korean players will join the South’s women’s hockey team, which has already qualified for the games, but many see that as unfair to the players who earned their positions, by placing politics over competitive fairness.

VIDEO: There’s no fear of heights when it comes to a blind rock climber in Pakistan who refuses to let his disability get in his way. VOA meets college student Haider Ali in Islamabad, where he tackles a variety of adventure sports. His instructor hopes Ali’s athletic success will help him to accomplish his goals in all aspects of his life.