Newsletter Archive

President Trump is expected to give his most important speech of the year — his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress — tonight. Trump is looking to shore up public support after a controversial first year in office that saw a victory on tax cuts but also included numerous distractions and historically low poll ratings for a new president. However, the State of the Union speech gives presidents a chance to reintroduce themselves to voters.

Presidents typically invite certain guests to the State of the Union, using the opportunity to drive home particular issues or points. Fifteen guests will sit alongside first lady Melania Trump as President Trump delivers his first State of the Union. This evening’s guests include an Ohio welder, small business owners, and parents who lost children to gang violence. 

‘A rat has entered into the house and is stealing.’ Those words are part of a rap song that have a Zambian hip-hop artist running for his life. In Johannesburg, South Africa, VOA speaks by phone with Fumba Chama, who won’t say where he is, or who he’s referring to in the song. But the dance track has upset Zambia’s ruling class, and the mounting number of death threats against him convinced Chama to leave the country at a time when political intolerance and politically motivated arrests are increasing.

VIDEO: The Green Card Lottery is one of the immigration programs President Trump wants to ax. The program gives 50,000 randomly selected people a chance at permanent residency in the United States. Sahin Vural of Turkey, then 22, was one of the lucky winners in 2011. Today, he lives in Texas, where he worked hard to make his dream of owning a restaurant come true.

VIDEO: Mumbai’s largest slum is emerging as an unlikely stop for foreign tourists. VOA visits the Dharavi slum district, home to one million people stuffed into about two square kilometers of land. The draw is not the squalor and poverty in India’s largest city, but to see firsthand how thriving entrepreneurship shatters slum stereotypes by producing goods worth $1 billion.

Any trade war between the United States and China could leave foreign companies caught in the crossfire. President Trump has been ratcheting up trade pressure on China and officials there could be preparing to retaliate. Reporting from Beijing, VOA learns that while no one wants a trade war, a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China finds that more than 60 percent of its members do want the US government to take action to correct trade imbalances.