Newsletter Archive

Until recently, Javier, a 60-year-old line cook, couldn’t afford a smartphone. But now he has one of Samsung’s high-end smartphones, thanks to a pay-as-you-go model aimed at customers with little or bad credit histories. Javier says he now relies on his device for everything. Once a month, he walks into a mobile phone store near San Francisco and makes a cash payment. If he misses a payment, the phone locks remotely. 

History shows the sitting president’s party loses seats in Congress during the midterm elections. This November, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 Senate seats are up for grabs. President Trump is urging his supporters to defy history again — like they did in 2016 by sending him to the White House.

IS is down, but is it out for good? The president’s point man in the fight against Islamic State says certain shifts are occurring in the Middle East that will help ensure that the defeat of ISIS lasts. In a VOA Interview, Brett McGurk discusses whether the same strategy that worked in Iraq and Syria will work in places like Libya, West Africa, and Afghanistan, and also outlines what makes IS different from other terrorist organizations.

SUVs are back. Automakers at the 2018 Chicago Auto Show want to give customers what they want and at the moment that’s sport utility vehicles. High gas prices and poor fuel economy led to a decline in SUV sales in the US during the mid 2000s. Here’s why SUVs are hot again.

It’s a whole new world for Marise Laguerre of Haiti. The 60-year-old has finally mastered a skill many of us take for granted — she can now read and write. The literacy rate for women in Haiti is just over 57 percent, far below Latin American and other Caribbean countries. Laguerre is part of the graduating class of a program designed to improve Haiti’s literacy rate and she’s proud that instead of giving a thumb print, she can now sign her name.