Newsletter Archive

The Friday after Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the biggest shopping days of the year. So-called Black Friday is viewed as the start of the holiday shopping season, a time when U.S. retailers rake in a significant portion of the year’s profits. Despite its growth, experts say online shopping hasn’t diminished Black Friday’s significance to the nation’s brick-and-mortar retailers.

As the 2020 campaign enters the crucial primary phase, Democratic candidates are being forced to disavow criminal justice policies they once championed, while Republican President Donald Trump, who signed the First Step Act, is touting himself as a leading reform candidate.

Moscow’s army of road sweepers keeps the Russian capital virtually spotless, but Muscovites hardly notice them. Most of the nearly 30,000 sweepers in the city appear to be Central Asian migrants who are underpaid, and the thankless drudgery offers few, if any, fringe benefits.

VIDEO: The Sedlec Ossuary, located in the Czech town of Kutna Hora, is a popular tourist destination for those who want to see the bones of more than 40,000 people, arranged in decorative patterns. Those decorations are now being dismantled so that the centuries-old bones can be cleaned.

The new U.S. ambassador to El Salvador says the United States is looking forward to reintegrating migrants there from other Central American nations who are seeking asylum in the United States. VOA has an exclusive interview with Ambassador Ronald Johnson.