Newsletter Archive

A Russian woman arrested in Washington over the weekend on charges of working as an illegal foreign agent in the United States “appears” to have ties to Russia’s intelligence services, prosecutors revealed in court documents on Wednesday.

While the row over Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election continues, NATO recently held a “live-fire cyber exercise” aimed at boosting members’ abilities to detect and defeat large scale cyber-attacks.  This year the annual drills included a new facet: the growing problem of disinformation and other efforts to use the web to disrupt democracies.

VIDEO – The Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum is getting its T-Rex back.  After a four year absence the fossilized skeleton of a ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur will be on exhibit next year in the museum’s new fossil hall. VOA’s Debby Block got a sneak peek at the exhibit.

South Africans engaged in charity events Wednesday to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela, the nation’s first black president. Yesterday, Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, delivered this year’s Nelson Mandela memorial lecture, contrasting the progress and equality brought about by leaders like Mandela with what he called today’s “strange and uncertain” politics.

President Trump’s criticisms of German leader Angela Merkel may prompt consternation in Berlin and with other NATO allies, but there’s quiet approval of Trump’s targeting of Germany by Europe’s so-called “awkward squad” of central European states led by populist nationalists. They see themselves as ideological bedfellows of Trump, favoring a curtailing of multilateralism, which they say is undermining the sovereign rights of nation states.

Meet Pepper, one of several humanoid robots who greets guests and answers questions at Smithsonian museums in Washington. While guests might enjoy posing for selfies with the machine, officials say it’s not a gimmick.  Pepper and her electronic colleagues are showing young people museums aren’t just collections of old stuff.