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After two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, officials say Ukraine is one of the most mined countries in the world. As Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv, besides threatening human lives, mines also affect the environment. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets.

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelming passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill this past Saturday. The measure now heads to the Senate, which is expected to take up a vote early this week. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said called for faster processes to approve aid to enable the defense of his nation. While many people think this will get Ukraine back on track – some do not. VOA's Scott Walterman talked with Daniel L. Davis, a senior fellow and military expert at Defense Priorities . Plus, While Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine, coordinated efforts to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed during Moscow’s invasion. Lori Lundin speaks with Ambassador Clint Williamson, lead adviser of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine. Artificial intelligence continues playing a role in modern information warfare, revolutionizing the way data is processed, analyzed, and disseminated. As technology advances, understanding the intersection of AI and information warfare becomes increasingly crucial in safeguarding the integrity of information ecosystems. To take a closer look at how the United States, China, and Russia use AI in their respective information warfare operations, VOA's Steve Miller is joined by Augusta University professors Lance Hunter and Craig Albert, two of the authors of a recent study on this topic. And, A Ukrainian version of the famous video game Minecraft features Canadian actress Katheryn Winnick, U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and many other celebrities from around the globe. The new game, called Minesalt, is based on Ukraine's famous Soledar salt mines.

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Russian media say the country plans to deploy ballistic missiles close to its border with Finland. Analysts say it’s the latest in a series of military and hybrid threats that Russia has made against Finland since it joined NATO last year in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Henry Ridgwell reports.

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 — Marijuana use is a rare consensus issue in politically divided America, with polls showing that 88% of Americans support at least partial legalization. But neither of the two main presidential contenders are capitalizing on this, advocates say, with both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump landing far behind where most Americans are on the issue. VOA spoke to cannabis advocates on the sidelines of a rare, recent policy summit on the issue, held annually in Washington as a preview to a weekend-long music festival. “One thing [both candidates] have in common is that their track records on cannabis have been inconsistent and incremental,” said Caroline Phillips, organizer of the National Cannabis Policy Summit. “We've heard promises from both administrations, neither of which have panned out in full.” Biden in 2022 directed the Department of Health and Human Services to take a key step toward legalization by ordering a review of its classification of marijuana as a dangerous controlled substance, on par with heroin and LSD. Nearly a year later, the body recommended moving marijuana to a lighter classification, alongside prescription drugs. That ruling now sits with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which has the power to act. But, Phillips said, many advocates seek the full removal – or “de-scheduling” – of the substance from the DEA’s Controlled Substances Act. “They have given us great signals that they're willing to shift towards de-scheduling, but most likely re-scheduling,” she said of the Biden administration. “However, we haven't quite seen the action to back up their words.” Re-scheduling puts marijuana on par with prescription drugs and regulates users’ access to it; de-scheduling removes it from the list of controlled substances entirely. Neera Tanden, director of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, said the administration sees a need to learn more – something that re-scheduling the substance would enable by making it more readily available to scientific researchers. “There's been a lot of change on this issue for several years,” she told VOA. “It's important for us to be able to research it more effectively.” A small but vocal group of anti-cannabis legislators in Congress have also expressed concerns about changing the status of marijuana. Last year, 14 of them – all Republicans – sent a letter opposing the effort to loosen its classification. In their letter, the group pointed to the potential for addiction and the increased potency of today’s cannabis, saying “facts indicate that marijuana has a high potential for abuse and that the risk is only increasing.” Trump’s position on marijuana, advocates say, is hazy. The pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project says he “never brought the issue up proactively” as president. Since leaving office, Phillips said, “we've heard him both say that people who sell drugs in the illicit market should be jailed and even put to death.” On the campaign trail, Trump has largely avoided the issue, said Morgan Fox, political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, known as NORML. “We haven't heard too much from the Republican nominee so far,” he said. The personal becomes political The candidates’ attitudes, Fox said, are out of step with those of many Americans, and lean on old tropes about marijuana that paint users as prone to mania – like in the 1936 film “Reefer Madness” – or use fear as a tool, like the 1980s-era Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. "Luckily, with the advent of the internet and the development of a lot more communication around these issues, people have not only been able to see that the policy of prohibiting cannabis and criminalizing cannabis consumers is nonsensical, but they've also been able to really see the human impact that it has had,” he said. For entrepreneur William Davis, this is personal. With his pressed jeans, alligator-skin boots, crisp white cowboy hat and penchant for replying to questions with “yes, ma’am,” he knows he does not cut the figure of a stereotypical cannabis user. “It's a lot of people that you would never think,” he said. For years, the Iraq war veteran struggled with PTSD and opioid addiction. He was reluctant to accept a friend’s recommendation that he try cannabis, he said, because to him it evoked a wildly popular 1980s ad that showed a frying egg, and a stern admonition: “This is your brain on drugs.” “Like in a hot pan with the egg, I thought, ‘Nah, I don’t wanna try drugs, I’m gonna fry my brains,’” Davis said. Instead, he said, marijuana produced a revelation. Davis says he uses CBD, the non-psychoactive compound found in marijuana, to soothe his anxiety during the day, and the active component, THC, for relaxation after work. Six years ago, he founded a company, Euphoria Eats, that sells infused hot sauce and barbecue sauce. Davis, who is from Houston but now lives in solidly Republican Louisiana, said he supports legalization for business reasons. “Until this will be decriminalized and legal everywhere, there will always be hesitant individuals who are afraid to put their money into a lucrative business that they see is making money, that they see is making an impact on the community,” he told VOA. 'My vote influences cannabis laws' Polls show that the greatest pro-cannabis momentum comes from younger Americans. Community organizer Scotty Smart spoke to VOA about his position as a young progressive, which was summarized neatly on his moss-green T-shirt that read: “MY VOTE INFLUENCES CANNABIS LAWS.” “I think cannabis is an issue that ignites and excites young people to pay attention,” said Smart, who works with the nonpartisan New Georgia Project and with a pro-marijuana education and awareness movement called We Want all the Smoke. A key factor that young voters are watching for, he said, is whether the Biden administration moves forward with the process of downgrading cannabis. “Hopefully that takes place before the election so we can really see, have something to go off of and not just have election speeches giving us hope,” he said. Maya Tatum, former chair of the national grassroots group Students for Sensible Drug Policy, agreed that the candidates’ actions matter more than their words. Neither man, she said, is a clear winner here. “A lot of the young voters that I'm around are wanting to hold Joe Biden accountable for what he said,” in support of cannabis, she said. “I don't personally feel like there's a lot that Trump is offering as it relates to cannabis.” Fox said NORML would like to see political aspirants be more open about cannabis on the campaign trail. “Any candidate that actually wants to get ahead – whether it's in the presidential election in Congress or state legislatures or local legislators – if they ignore this issue, it's going to be at their peril,” he said. Veronica Balderas Iglesias contributed to this report from Washington.

BANGKOK — Myanmar’s Vice President Henry Van Thio, who served in the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and then continued in the position after the military ousted her to seize power in 2021, is stepping down for unspecified health reasons, state media said Monday. State television MRTV announced Monday night that 65-year-old Van Thio had been allowed to retire from his post for health reasons in accordance with the constitution but did not provide any details of his health or say who, if anyone, will replace him. Van Thio, a member of Myanmar’s Chin ethnic minority and a former army officer, was named second vice president in 2016 when Suu Kyi’s party started its first term after winning the 2015 general election in a landslide. Her National League for Democracy party governed Myanmar with overwhelming majorities in Parliament from 2015 to 2021, before being overthrown by the military. Van Thio was the only member of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party to stay on as a member of the National Defense and Security Council after the military seized power from the elected government of Suu Kyi in February 2021. The council, established under a previous military government, is the highest constitutional government body responsible for security and defense affairs and is nominally led by the president. However, in practice, it is controlled by the military. Its membership is made up of the top military chiefs and cooperative politicians. It played a key role in the February 2021 military takeover when the president in Suu Kyi’s government, Win Myint, was detained with her, and First Vice President Myint Swe, a member of a pro-military party became acting president. The move allowed the council to be convened, declare a state of emergency and hand over power to military chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. Although the army claims it took power constitutionally, legal scholars generally describe its action as illegal. It has renewed the state of emergency several times. Van Thio has played no apparent active role in the military government aside from helping to provide it with the veneer of constitutional rule. He almost completely disappeared from public view until his first known attendance at the National Defense and Security Council meeting in July last year, when the state of emergency was extended for the fourth time. He was absent from the council’s earlier meetings to extend emergency rule, with bad health cited as the reason. He was reportedly treated in hospital in January last year because he suffered a serious head injury in a fall at his residence in the capital, Naypyitaw. A few days after last July’s council meeting, the National League for Democracy announced it had expelled him from the party because of his attendance at the meeting. The party in March last year was dissolved by the military government, whose legitimacy it doesn’t recognize, for failing to meet a registration deadline. Suu Kyi’s party boosted its majority in the November 2020 election, but in February 2021, the army blocked all elected lawmakers from taking their seats in Parliament and seized power, detaining top members of Suu Kyi’s government and party, except Van Thio and Myint Swe. The army said it staged its 2021 takeover because of massive poll fraud, though independent election observers did not find any major irregularities. The army takeover was met with widespread popular opposition. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and large parts of the country are now embroiled in conflict.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi is on a three-day visit to neighboring Pakistan. The visit — the first by an Iranian president to Pakistan in eight years — comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East. It is also the first meeting between the head of governments of both countries since the two sides exchanged cross-border strikes in January. VOA Pakistan Bureau Chief Sarah Zaman reports from Islamabad. VOA footage by Wajid Asad. Video editing by Malik Waqar Ahmed.

United Nations — An external review of the neutrality of the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees has concluded that the agency has a number of procedures and mechanisms in place to ensure its neutrality, but there is room for improvement. “There is always room for improvement and some issues related to neutrality persist; this is why this mission was created,” Catherine Colonna, the commission’s chair, told reporters at a briefing at the United Nations in New York. Of the agency known as UNRWA, she cited instances of staff publicly taking sides, school books that had some “problematic content,” and a politicized staff union that she said made operational disruptions and threatened management. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commissioned the former French foreign minister to head up an external review of UNRWA in early February, following accusations from Israeli officials that a dozen of the agency’s staffers was involved in the deadly October 7 terror attacks inside Israel. Nine of the staffers were immediately fired, one was confirmed dead, and officials were clarifying the identity of two others. Colonna worked with experts from three Scandinavian research groups -- the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Christian Michelsen Institute in Norway, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights. She handed over her report to Guterres on Saturday, along with a list of about 50 recommendations. “I am confident that implementing these recommendations will help UNRWA fulfill its mandate and restore confidence where needed,” Colonna told reporters. There was no immediate reaction from Israeli officials, however, in advance of the report’s release, U.N. Watch, a pro-Israel NGO, put out a press release saying it was “exposing the extreme bias of the review group,” challenging Colonna’s impartiality and saying the three Scandinavian research groups have anti-Israel bias. Conclusions The commission concluded that while the agency has made changes and improvements since 2017, more could be done, including strengthening its internal oversight capacity, better vetting of staff, building trust with donors and improving neutrality in its education system. While Israel verbally informed UNRWA leadership of the allegations against the 12 staffers, the commission found that while UNRWA shares the names of its staffers with Israel, Israel had not relayed any concerns to UNRWA about any staffers since 2011. The commission also said that while Israel has since made claims about a “significant number” of UNRWA employees being members of terrorist organizations, it “has yet to provide supporting evidence of this.” Colonna was clear that her team’s mandate did not involve the allegations involving the dozen staffers – that is being handled by an internal U.N. investigation. Israel for many years has accused UNRWA of allowing its premises to be misused for political or military purposes, including by Hamas. The commission concluded that the operating procedures for regular inspections of premises “appear to be appropriate,” but recommended that they happen more frequently than the current four times per year. On allegations that UNRWA schools use textbooks containing anti-Semitic or anti-Israel language, the commission said the most recent review of school books from the Palestinian Authority from 2022-2023, found that 3.85% of all pages contained “issues of concern to “U.N. values, guidance, or U.N. positions on the conflict.” “Even if marginal, these issues constitute a grave violation of neutrality,” the commission’s report said, adding more work needs to be done between UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority to avoid promotion of discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence and the spreading of anti-Semitic views. “The Secretary-General accepts the recommendations contained in Ms. Colonna's report,” Guterres’ spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said. “He has agreed with Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini that UNRWA, with the Secretary-General’s support, will establish an action plan to implement the recommendations contained in the Final Report.” Guterres urged donors, staff and UNRWA host countries to fully cooperate in the implementation of the recommendations. “Moving forward, the Secretary-General appeals to all stakeholders to actively support UNRWA, as it is a lifeline for Palestine refugees in the region,” Dujarric said.    Following the allegations against the staffers, 16 donors, including top contributor the United States, suspended contributions totaling around $450 million. Since then, some have resumed, and some new donors have contributed. Last week, the agency’s chief said they have funding to cover operations through June.

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.

JERUSALEM — Satellite photos taken Monday suggest an apparent Israeli retaliatory strike targeting Iran's central city of Isfahan hit a radar system for a Russian-made air defense battery, contradicting repeated denials by officials in Tehran of any damage in the assault. The strike on an S-300 radar in what appears to have been a very limited strike by the Israelis would represent far more damage done than in the massive drone-and-missile attack Iran unleashed against Israel on April 13. That may be why Iranian officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been trying to dismiss discussing what the attack actually did on Iranian soil. Analysts believe both Iran and Israel, regional archrivals locked in a shadow war for years, now are trying to dial back tensions following a series of escalatory attacks between them as the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip still rages and inflames the wider region. But a strike on the most advanced air defense system Iran possesses and uses to protect its nuclear sites sends a message, experts say. "This strike shows Israel has the ability to penetrate Iran's air defense systems," said Nicole Grajewski, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment's nuclear policy program who wrote a forthcoming book on Russia and Iran. "The precision of it was quite remarkable." The satellite images by Planet Labs PBC taken Monday morning near Isfahan's dual-use airport and air base, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) south of Tehran, showed an area nearby that served as a deployment point for the air defense system. Burn marks sit around what analysts including Chris Biggers, a consultant former government imagery analyst, previously had identified as a "flap-lid" radar system used for the S-300. Less-detailed satellite images taken after Friday showed similar burn marks around the area, though it wasn't clear what was at the site. Biggers said other components of the missile system appeared to have been removed from the site before the attack — even though they provide defensive cover for Iran's underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. "That's a powerful statement, given the system, the location, and how they use it," Biggers wrote. On Friday, air defenses opened fire and Iran grounded commercial flights across much of the country. Officials in the aftermath sought to downplay the attack, trying to describe it as just a series of small drones flying through the sky. "What happened ... was not a strike," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian claimed in an interview with NBC News. "They were more like toys that our children play with – not drones." In the attack's aftermath, however, Iraqis found what appeared to be remnants of surface-to-air missiles south of Baghdad. That, coupled with a suspected Israeli strike on a radar station in Syria the same day, suggests Israeli fighter jets flew over Syria into Iraq, then fired so-called "standoff missiles" into Iran for the Isfahan attack. Small, shorter-range drones may have been launched as well — Israel has been able to launch sabotage attacks and other missions inside of Iran. Still, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani repeated Tehran's denial Monday. "Relevant authorities have announced that this harassment attack has caused no damage whatsoever and Iran's defensive system have carried out their duties," Kanaani told journalists at a briefing. "Therefore in our opinion this issue is not worthy of addressing." The S-300 and their years-delayed delivery to Iran show the challenge Tehran faces in getting any foreign-made advance weapon systems into the country. Russia and Iran initially struck a $800 million deal in 2007, but Moscow suspended their delivery three years later because of strong objections from the United States and Israel. After Iran reached its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Russia unfroze the deal and is believed to have given Iran four sets of an export variant of the S-300. The relationship between Iran and Russia has deepened in recent years. Moscow relies heavily on Iran's bomb-carrying Shahed drones to target sites across Ukraine as part of its war on the country. Those same drones featured in the Islamic Republic's attack on Israel. Tehran meanwhile has made repeated comments over recent years about trying to obtain Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets from Russia to improve its decades-old fighter fleet. In September, a Russian-made YAK-130 combat trainer aircraft entered service in Iran. That model can be used to train pilots for the Su-35. Russia now has the S-400, but the S-300 which has a range of up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) and the capability to track down and strike multiple targets simultaneously, remains one of the most-potent air defense weapons in the world. The batteries can be used to shoot down missiles as well as aircraft. Iran likely needs Russian assistance to repair the damaged radar — and will seek newer weapons as well as time goes on, Grajewski said. "Iran wants new weapons from Russia all the time – to try to show that it's not so isolated," she said.

Reaction from Kyiv, Jerusalem and Washington after the House of Representatives passes long-awaited foreign aid bills. The top Israeli military intelligence official resigns and Passover begins at sundown. Plus, in Pakistan, mangrove forests are making millions in carbon offsets.

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.

Before the creation of engines, the ocean was full of low-emission vessels — they were called sailboats. Now a next-generation zero-emissions laboratory vessel called the Energy Observer recently docked in New York City to show off what this team hopes is the next generation of earth-friendly boats. Elena Wolf has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Max Avloshenko