Newsletter Archive

The horrors endured by child soldiers return to them in nightmares. Thousands of children in the troubled Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been used as combatants over the last two years amid fighting between local militia and government forces. In the last few months, about 1,000 of these children have trickled into rehabilitation centers run by aid agencies, which is where VOA met five former child soldiers. Not a single one could describe the cause their lives were risked for.

Tensions between the US and Russia are not out of this world. The two countries actually have a long history of cooperation in outer space. Even when things get nasty between the two countries, experts say the space program rarely suffers. In fact, America has depended entirely on Russia to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station since 2011.

Jubilant families welcomed back almost all 110 schoolgirls recently kidnapped by Boko Haram from the northeastern Nigerian town of Dapchi. The government says the girls, who were taken from a boarding school on February 19, were freed through ‘back channel efforts and with the help of some friends of the country.’ VOA spoke with overjoyed parents of some of the returned schoolgirls.

‘Hanged by the neck until dead.’ Foreign wives of Islamic State fighters are being sentenced to death in Iraq. At a recent sentencing attended by VOA in Baghdad, a few of the women smiled as the judge handed down their sentences, perhaps believing they’ll be martyred to paradise. The condemned women are among 560 foreign wives of Islamic State fighters in Iraq and questions linger about what to do with the 900 children with the women in detention.

VIDEO EXPLAINER: The White House is considering new tariffs aimed at China worth at least $30 billion in addition to the steel and aluminum tariffs President Trump has already announced. Here’s why governments sometimes impose an additional tax on imported goods.

Once she got tired of reading books about male heroes who save the day, teenager Maryam Durrani decided to write her own stories featuring powerful women who drive the action. ​​Her parents are proud of Durrani’s accomplishments as a writer, but they are especially proud that their daughter, who wears a Muslim headscarf, has become a role model for young girls, including those like her who wear the hijab.