Newsletter Archive

They’re picture perfect. Members of North Korea’s cheerleader squad are chosen for their good looks. The criteria is to be young, attractive, tall — and loyal to the state. Behind their cheerful displays are ever-present security agents tasked with ensuring the young women don’t try to defect. In Seoul, VOA learns what it’s like to be part of the elite group from a North Korean defector who once belonged to Kim Jong Un’s ‘army of beauties.’

More than two dozen Boko Haram fighters emerged from their forest hideout and surrendered to Nigerian authorities earlier this month. While lasting peace has been elusive in the fight against Boko Haram, officials believe more defections will follow. After receiving food, water, clothing and medical attention, one relieved Boko Haram defector tells VOA, ‘We were just suffering in the bush.’

Earning your way in. President Trump wants to shift from an immigration system based largely on family reunification to one that is point-based. Merit immigration isn’t new. Britain does it and Germany is starting a pilot immigration program based on points. The two oldest points-based systems are in Canada and Australia. Here’s how point-based immigration works.

Going soft. By sending North Korean athletes and his only sister to the Olympics in South Korea, Kim Jong Un is trying to execute a diplomatic victory in a nuclear standoff with the United States, according to experts. Kim seems to be following his father’s playbook. Kim Jong Il tried to soften North Korea’s image with basketball diplomacy.

VIDEO: Americans send 190 million Valentine’s Day cards and spend around $100 per person on gifts. Some couples stick with flowers and chocolates, but one of Washington’s fanciest hotels has some interesting fix-it-yourself options for couples looking for something special on Valentine’s Day.

VIDEO: The superhero movie Black Panther premiered in Africa this week. VOA attended the film screening in the Kenyan hometown of one of the film’s stars, actress Lupita Nyong’o. Based on a Marvel comic, Black Panther is set in a fictional, futuristic African nation that has never been colonized. The film is being hailed as an example of Afrofuturism, which blends science fiction with African tradition.