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With artillery ammunition in short supply, Ukrainian fighters improvised and started using first-person view drones, or F-P-Vs, to target Russian troops. These camera-equipped drones pack less punch but can be much more precise in their targeting. Now a special training center for operators of these drones has opened in Kyiv. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. Camera and edit: Pavel Suhodolskiy    

The United Nations is pledging to help Malawi recover from a widespread drought linked to the El Nino climate pattern. Government officials say the crisis has created a food shortage for nearly half of the country’s population. The pledge comes after U.N. officials visited Malawi to see the damage firsthand and identify ways to offer support. Lameck Masina has more from southern Malawi.

In the United States, each year there are fewer news organizations covering local communities, even near the nation’s capital. Some high school journalists are trying to help make up for the shortage. Robin Guess reports from Montgomery County, just outside Washington. Camera: Nazir Afzali.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled a bundle of steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports including electric vehicles, computer chips and medical products, risking an election-year standoff with Beijing in a bid to woo voters who give his economic policies low marks. Biden will keep tariffs put in place by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump while ratcheting up others, including a quadrupling of EV duties to over 100%, the White House said in a statement. It cited "unacceptable risks" to U.S. economic security posed by what it considers unfair Chinese practices that are flooding global markets with cheap goods. The new measures impact $18 billion in Chinese imported goods including steel and aluminum, semiconductors, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells and cranes, the White House said. The announcement confirmed earlier Reuters reporting. The United States imported $427 billion in goods from China in 2023 and exported $148 billion to the world's No. 2 economy, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a trade gap that has persisted for decades and become an ever more sensitive subject in Washington. "China's using the same playbook it has before to power its own growth at the expense of others by continuing to invest, despite excess Chinese capacity and flooding global markets with exports that are underpriced due to unfair practices," White House National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard told reporters on a conference call. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the revised tariffs were justified because China was continuing to steal U.S. intellectual property and in some cases had become "more aggressive" in cyber intrusions targeting American technology. She said prior "Section 301" tariffs had minimal impact on U.S. economy-wide prices and employment, but had been effective in reducing U.S. imports of Chinese goods, while increasing imports from other countries. But Tai recommended tariff exclusions for dozens of industrial machinery import categories from China, including 19 for solar product manufacturing equipment. Even as Biden's steps fell in line with Trump's premise that tougher trade measures are warranted, the Democrat took aim at his opponent in November's election. The White House said Trump's 2020 trade deal with China did not increase American exports or boost American manufacturing jobs, and it said the 10% across-the-board tariffs on goods from all points of origin that Trump has proposed would frustrate U.S. allies and raise prices. Trump has floated tariffs of 60% or higher on all Chinese goods. Administration officials said their measures are "carefully targeted," combined with domestic investment, plotted with close allies and unlikely to worsen a bout of inflation that has already angered U.S. voters and imperiled Biden's re-election bid. They also downplayed the risk of retaliation from Beijing. Biden has struggled to convince voters of the efficacy of his economic policies despite a backdrop of low unemployment and above-trend economic growth. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed Trump had a 7 percentage-point edge over Biden on the economy. Analysts have warned that a trade tiff could raise costs for EVs overall, hurting Biden's climate goals and his aim to create manufacturing jobs. Biden has said he wants to win this era of competition with China but not to launch a trade war that could hurt the mutually dependent economies. He has worked in recent months to ease tensions in one-on-one talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Both 2024 U.S. presidential candidates have sharply departed from the free-trade consensus that once reigned in Washington, a period capped by China's joining the World Trade Organization in 2001. China has said the tariffs are counterproductive and risk inflaming tensions. Trump's broader imposition of tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency kicked off a tariff war with China. As part of the long-awaited tariff update, Biden will increase tariffs this year under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 from 25% to 100% on EVs, bringing total duties to 102.5%, from 7.5% to 25% on lithium-ion EV batteries and other battery parts and from 25% to 50% on photovoltaic cells used to make solar panels. "Certain" critical minerals will have their tariffs raised from nothing to 25%. The tariffs on ship-to-shore cranes will rise to 25% from zero, those on syringes and needles will rise to 50% from nothing now and some personal protective equipment (PPE) used in medical facilities will rise to 25% from as little as 0% now. Shortages in PPE made largely in China hampered the United States' COVID-19 response. More tariffs will follow in 2025 and 2026 on semiconductors, whose tariff rate will double to 50%, as well as lithium-ion batteries that are not used in elective vehicles, graphite and permanent magnets as well as rubber medical and surgical gloves. A step Biden previously announced to raise tariffs on some steel and aluminum products will take effect this year, the White House said.   A number of lawmakers have called for massive hikes on Chinese vehicle tariffs. There are relatively few Chinese-made light-duty vehicles being imported now. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown wants the Biden administration to ban Chinese EVs outright, over concerns they pose risks to Americans' personal data. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who warned China in April that its excess production of EVs and solar products was unacceptable, said that such concerns were widely shared by U.S. allies and the actions were "motivated not by anti-China policy but by a desire to prevent damaging economic dislocation from unfair economic practices." 

Yaounde — Cameroon’s military has moved over 300 civilians rescued from Boko Haram terrorist captivity along the central African states border with Nigeria and Chad this week to a northern Cameroon military post. The country's army says scores of militants of the Nigeria-based insurgent group were neutralized in a border operation called Alpha. Oumar Fatime, 37, tells Cameroon military and senior government officials that she was a successful vegetable farmer in Ngouboua village, until April 17 when heavily armed Boko Haram fighters abducted her and three of her family members. Ngouboua is a village in Chad located near the northeastern shore of Lake Chad, a water body shared by Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Fatime said the abductors took her and several dozen civilians to a bush area near Lake Chad and threatened to kill them if their families failed to pay ransom. Fatime is one of over 300 civilians Cameroon’s military says were rescued from Boko Haram captivity in several villages along the central African states border with Chad and Nigeria within the past seven days. Cameroon state TV showed video of the rescued civilians brought in military trucks to a military camp in Dabanga district near the border with Chad and Nigeria Monday. The Cameroon military said most of the freed hostages are women and children. About 200 government troops carried out the rescue operation, the Cameroon military said. Midjiyawa Bakari is the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region that shares a border with Chad and Nigeria. Bakari says Cameroon President Paul Biya dispatched him to Dabanga Monday to congratulate the troops that carried out the very successful rescue operation called Alpha. He says government troops seized several hundred weapons including rifles and explosives along with motorcycles and bicycles militants were using to attack communities and kidnap civilians for ransom. Cameroon’s military says it was assisted in assaults on some Boko Haram strongholds in border localities by government troops from Chad and Nigeria. Scores of militants were killed and several dozens wounded in the operation that lasted one week according to Cameroon officials. Cameroon says militants who surrendered are helping troops in investigations but gave no further details. VOA could not independently verify if Cameroon carried out joint border military operations with troops from Nigeria and Chad. But in April troops from Chad and Cameroon said they freed scores of civilians who were kidnapped for ransom or to fight with jihadist groups on both sides of the two central African states’ border. Cameroon says it is in negotiations with its neighbors to allow the rescued civilians who are Chadians and Nigerians to return to their countries voluntarily. Cameroon military says while waiting, the freed hostages will be taken to the center for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, or DDR, in Meri, a northern town near the border with Chad and Nigeria but did not say when. Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria report that Boko Haram militants have been returning to towns and villages where government troops had withdrawn after claiming that fighters' firepower had greatly reduced, indicating a return to peace. The three countries say Boko Haram is recruiting new militants and attacking villages for supplies. At least 36,000 people have been killed and 3 million have fled their homes since 2009, when fighting between Nigerian government troops and Boko Haram militants spread to Cameroon, Niger and Chad according to the United Nations.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

SYDNEY — Australia says it will impose limits on the number of international students coming into the country to ease stress on housing and to reduce immigration.   The government in Canberra has said that international education programs, under which foreign students come to study in Australia, were fertile ground for immigration and visa fraud. In 2023, official figures show that 787,000 international students studied in Australia, exceeding levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canberra government plans to cap the number of overseas students to ease stress on rental accommodation and to curb levels of immigration. Senior government ministers have said caps for education would be part of a broader plan to manage migration, increase the availability of housing and to address skills shortages in the economy. However, the university sector has insisted the proposals would damage Australia's global reputation as a welcoming, safe and world-class destination for students from other countries. Education has been one of Australia’s most lucrative exports, but the left-leaning government in Canberra has said the international education sector, which includes many smaller private English language colleges, vocational and training institutions as well as larger universities, has been used as a way for unskilled migrants to stay in Australia. Michael Wesley, the deputy vice chancellor at the University of Melbourne, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Tuesday that he hopes the government will target unscrupulous education providers. “We welcome the crackdown on non-genuine education providers, which provide a backdoor into permanent residency for people who are not genuine students," Wesley said. "We are confident that all of our international students are genuine students and, so, we would hope that the impact of these visa caps will be at the non-genuine end of the education sector.” Rental accommodation in many of Australia’s larger cities is often expensive and in short supply.   Analysts have said that surging prices are the result of years of underinvestment in affordable housing. Education institutions would be required to build accommodations for their students if they wanted to exceed limits of the caps.  Specific quotas for international students have not yet been made public. The government in Canberra said it will change Australia’s Education Services for Overseas Students Act to give the education minister the authority to set limits on student enrolments for each education establishment, including specific courses or locations. The majority of overseas students in Australia come from five countries: China, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Vietnam, according to government data.  They contribute billions of dollars to the Australian economy.

New Delhi — India and Iran have signed a 10-year contract to develop and operate the Iranian port of Chabahar, which New Delhi envisages as a strategic trade route to landlocked Central Asian republics, allowing it to bypass rival Pakistan. India said the deal has unlocked new avenues for trade. But the United States, whose ties with Iran have worsened, has warned of the potential risk of sanctions on anyone considering business deals with Tehran. Analysts in New Delhi say the threat of sanctions could dampen hopes of turning the port into a trading hub. The agreement was signed Monday in Iran’s Chabahar town by India’s Shipping Minister, Sarbananda Sonawal and Iran’s urban development minister Mehrdad Bazrpash. "Chabahar Port’s significance transcends its role as a mere conduit between India and Iran. it serves as a vital trade artery connecting India with Afghanistan and Central Asian countries,” Sonawal said after the signing. The agreement gives India 10-year access to use the port. "We are pleased with this agreement, and we have full trust in India," Iranian minister Bazrpash said. India began helping to develop Chabahar port by building new cargo berths and terminals in 2016 after Washington eased sanctions on Iran – they were reimposed by the Trump administration in 2018. After India and Iran signed the 10-year deal, U.S. State Department spokesperson, Vedant Patel, told reporters that U.S. sanctions on Iran remain in place, and that Washington will continue to enforce them. "Any entity, anyone considering business deals with Iran, they need to be aware of the potential risk that they are opening themselves up to and the potential risk of sanctions," he said. Chabahar is India’s first major overseas port venture and for New Delhi, it is an important part of its strategy to improve links with resource-rich Central Asian republics and Afghanistan, access to which has been hampered due to the decades long hostile relations between India and Pakistan. But Indian analysts say U.S. sanctions on Iran have long cast a shadow on the project and hampered New Delhi from realizing the port’s potential. While the Trump administration had exempted the Chabahar project due to the role India was playing in Afghanistan’s reconstruction, Washington's ties with Iran have again worsened due to Tehran’s support for Hamas since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last October. “Chabahar has long-term potential. But due to U.S. sanctions on Iran, it has not turned out to be the gamechanger that India had hoped because private Indian companies have been and will be reluctant to use the port,” according to Manoj Joshi, Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. “There has been no real sharp rise in India’s trade with Central Asia.” However, Indian stakes in Chabahar have strategic significance — they are part of India’s outreach to Iran. “Where India is concerned, good ties with Iran are a pushback against Pakistan, which has a land blockade where India is concerned,” said Joshi. Chabahar is also seen as a counter to China’s development of the Gwadar port in Pakistan. Located close to Iran’s southeastern border with Pakistan, the deep water Chabahar port is less than 100 kilometers from Gwadar. Beijing’s investments in ports and infrastructure in India’s neighborhood as part of its Belt and Road Initiative have raised concerns in New Delhi and prompted it to expand its maritime footprint. Indian officials expressed optimism about the ten-year deal that India and Iran have inked. "It will clear the pathway for bigger investments to be made in the port,” foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told reporters Monday. India will invest $120 million in infrastructure development and extend a $250 million line of credit to Iran. The "long-term contract symbolizes the enduring trust and effective partnership between India and Iran," Indian minister Sonawal said.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Tbilisi, Georgia — Georgia was set to adopt a "foreign influence" bill on Tuesday despite mass protests against a law criticized for mirroring repressive Russian legislation. Thousands of Georgians, mainly youths, have rallied outside parliament for three straight nights and have promised to be back when MPs are due to arrive Tuesday to pass the contentious legislation. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze vowed Monday to push it through in a third reading. "Tomorrow the parliament of Georgia will act on the will of the majority of the population and pass the law," he said. He warned that if authorities backed down, Georgia would lose its sovereignty and "easily share the fate of Ukraine", although it was not immediately clear what he meant by that. The bill requires non-governmental organizations and media outlets that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as bodies "pursuing the interests of a foreign power." Russia has used a similar law to crack down on dissent. Protesters are expected to stage fresh rallies Tuesday in the capital Tbilisi. "They will pass this law and we have to demonstrate our protest," said 57-year-old Levan Avalishvili, who left the parliament area before midnight on Monday, promising to be back the next day. Many fear violence, with tensions running high and police beating a group of protesters detained at dawn on Monday. The Caucasus country has witnessed more than a month of sweeping protests since the ruling Georgian Dream party re-introduced the bill in a shock move, a year after shelving due to a huge backlash. Opponents of the bill fear it will take Tbilisi off its track of joining the European Union and hugely erode democracy in the tiny country. They also accuse the ruling party of trying to move the Black Sea nation closer to Moscow. The ruling party, in power since 2012, has defended the law as necessary for the country's sovereignty. Its billionaire backer Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, has accused NGOs of plotting a revolution and being foreign puppets. He has been accused of leaning towards Moscow and has not publicly condemned the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine