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WASHINGTON — The United States announced regulatory changes on Tuesday to increase support for the Cuban people and independent private sector entrepreneurs. The changes will enable more U.S. financial support for small private businesses in Cuba, enhance internet-based services on the island and broaden access to financial services. The new U.S. measures come as the communist-run island faces a social and economic crisis, including severe shortages of food, fuel, electricity and medicine. A senior administration official stated that the new authorization allows Cuba’s independent private sector entrepreneurs to open and remotely access U.S. bank accounts, including through U.S. online payment platforms. As of 2021, Cuban entrepreneurs can establish small and medium private enterprises under Cuban law. By the latest count, there are over 11,000 registered private businesses in Cuba. “It’s important to note that the new definition for independent private sector entrepreneurship excludes prohibited officials of the Cuban government, such as National Assembly members, Cuban military officers, certain ministry staff, regime propagandists and prohibited members of the Cuban Communist Party,” the senior official told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday. New U.S. regulatory measures will benefit the Cuban people while continuing to minimize resources to the Cuban government, said another senior official in President Joe Biden’s administration. “We believe that the growth of an independent entrepreneurial private sector in Cuba is fully aligned with our values and is the best hope for generating economic development and employment in Cuba,” said the senior official. The Treasury Department said that Tuesday’s regulatory changes will allow Cuban nationals to open, maintain and remotely use U.S. bank accounts, including through online payment platforms, to conduct authorized or exempt transactions, whether the independent private sector entrepreneur is physically located in the United States, Cuba or another country. Earlier this month, the U.S. removed Cuba from its list of countries "not cooperating fully" in the fight against terrorism. However, Cuba remains on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. The cooperation against terrorism list, which the State Department is required by law to provide to Congress, is not the same as the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. U.S. officials declined to comment on whether the State Department has begun a formal review of Cuba's presence on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. U.S. sanctions against the Cuban government, its military intelligence and security services remain in place.

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.

TOKYO — The operator of Japan's destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant demonstrated Tuesday how a remote-controlled robot would retrieve tiny bits of melted fuel debris from one of three damaged reactors later this year for the first time since the 2011 meltdown. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings plans to deploy a "telesco-style" extendable pipe robot into Fukushima Daiichi No. 2 reactor to test the removal of debris from its primary containment vessel by October. That work is more than two years behind schedule. The removal of melted fuel was supposed to begin in late 2021 but has been plagued with delays, underscoring the difficulty of recovering from the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in 2011. During the demonstration at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' shipyard in Kobe, western Japan, where the robot has been developed, a device equipped with tongs slowly descended from the telescopic pipe to a heap of gravel and picked up a granule. TEPCO plans to remove less than 3 grams (0.1 ounce) of debris in the test at the Fukushima plant. "We believe the upcoming test removal of fuel debris from Unit 2 is an extremely important step to steadily carry out future decommissioning work," said Yusuke Nakagawa, a TEPCO group manager for the fuel debris retrieval program. "It is important to proceed with the test removal safely and steadily." About 880 tons of highly radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the three damaged reactors. Critics say the 30- to 40-year cleanup target set by the government and TEPCO for Fukushima Daiichi is overly optimistic. The damage in each reactor is different, and plans must accommodate their conditions. Better understanding the melted fuel debris from inside the reactors is key to their decommissioning. TEPCO deployed four mini drones into the No. 1 reactor's primary containment vessel earlier this year to capture images from the areas where robots had not reached.

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.

America’s oldest Chinatown sustains traditions even as members of the Chinese diaspora continue to spread out and evolve. Matt Dibble has the story from San Francisco, California.

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.

Artificial intelligence image generators can mimic artists' styles, threatening their livelihood. In this edition of LogOn, Matt Dibble looks at how artists are fighting back, using tools designed to disrupt AI systems. 

Yaounde — Cameroon is observing World Menstrual Hygiene Day (May 28) with caravans visiting schools and public spaces to educate people about social taboos that women should not be seen in public during their menstrual periods. Organizations are also donating menstrual kits to girls displaced by terrorism and political tensions in the central African state. Scores of youths, a majority of them girls, are told that menstruation is a natural part of the reproductive cycle. Officials in Cameroon’s social affairs and health ministries say the monthly flows are not a curse and girls and women should never be isolated from markets, schools, churches and other public places because of their menstrual cycle. The government of the central African state says it invited boys to menstrual health day activities because boys often mock girls in schools when they see blood dripping on their legs or skirts. Tabe Edwan is the spokesperson of Haven of Rebirth Cameroon, an association that takes care of victims of sexual and gender-based violence. She says she participates in in activities to mark World Menstrual Health Day to battle taboos about menstruation that persist in Cameroon. "We are looking at instances of stigmatization such as prohibition from cooking, prohibition from attending religious ceremonies or visiting such spaces," she said. "Most often a young girl who is having her menstrual flow is considered to be unclean and so anything that she touches becomes unclean or it also becomes contaminated." Cameroon’s government says World Menstrual Day activities took place in many towns and villages, especially in the northwest and southwest regions, where a separatist conflict, now in its seventh year, has displaced about 750,000 people. The country’s Social Affairs Ministry says displaced women and girls have lost nearly everything and lack even the $2 needed to buy sanitary pads each time they are on their monthly cycle. Mirabelle Sonkey is founder of the Network for Solidarity Hope and Empowerment, a founding member of the International Menstrual Hygiene Coalition. Sonkey says she is disheartened when women and girls use rags, papers and tree leaves or just anything unhealthy to stop blood flow because they cannot afford sanitary pads. "We usually give about 1,000 dignity kits which include buckets, soap, pants and reusable, washable menstrual pads," she said. "We are still advocating for pads to be free. Our mission is to have an environment where pads will be accessible, that is why we are opening pad banks now where vulnerable women and girls can go there and have pads." Sonkey pleaded with donors to provide sanitary pads to give to several thousand northern Cameroonian girls and women displaced by Boko Haram terrorism. Cameroon’s government says 70% of menstruating women and girls lack access to regular basic sanitation products but it has not reacted to pleas from NGOs to distribute sanitary pads free of charge. The central African state’s officials say families and communities should help put an end to stigmas by openly discussing menstrual flow and letting everyone know that menstruation is a normal and natural biological function.

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.

New Delhi — Scorching daytime temperatures due to the intense heat wave sweeping large parts of India and Pakistan are not the only problem facing tens of millions of people in cities. A new study warns that hotter nights and rising humidity levels are worsening heat stress on tens of millions of people, posing a growing health hazard. The study by the New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment (CSE) points out that cities are not cooling down at night as much as they used to. It looked at six of India’s megacities, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru over 23 years. “The temperature difference from morning to night used to be about 12 degrees Celsius or more two decades ago. That is not happening anymore in cities,” according to Avikal Somvanshi at the Center for Science and Environment. “If you see Delhi for example, the city does not cool down more than six to seven degrees Celsius in the peak summer season.” Somvanshi says hot nights are as dangerous as midday peak temperatures because people get little chance to recover from day-time heat. “This is a public health crisis, especially for the elderly and those who work outdoors.” In the Indian capital, rising nighttime temperatures are a double whammy for thousands of street vendors who brave the sizzling sun to ply their trade. Atma Prakash Singh, who sells rice and a lentil curry on a city pavement, takes care to park his cart under the shade of a tree. Still he says he gets frequent headaches and his feet ache at night. “Even standing here on this road is a problem. What to do? I have to survive the heat to earn a living,” he says. A study by Lancet Planetary Health has warned that the mortality risk on days with hot nights could be 50% higher than on days when nights are not so hot. Sunday, more than 30 cities recorded temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius, mostly in northern, central and western India. That included parts of the capital New Delhi. Ice cream vendor, Jai Singh, does not need studies to tell him it has been a sizzling summer. He works from about noon to midnight on the roadside. “I get skin rashes. I keep eating cucumber and drinking water to stay cool,” he says. The nights provide little respite, he says. Pointing out that the sun is not the only source of heat in cities, experts cite many reasons for rising nighttime temperatures. Concrete spaces, emissions from air conditioners and cars generate heat. When the sun sets, polluted air traps the heat instead of letting it radiate out. Rising humidity in cities is also exacerbating the impact of heatwaves — for example Delhi, located in the dry northern plains, has been 8% more humid in the last ten years compared to the previous decade according to the study. It blames it on “uncontrolled urban sprawl.” Many Indian cities have seen green spaces shrink as they race to build new homes and offices to accommodate a growing population and an expanding economy. The study cites the case of the southern city of Chennai where the green cover has shrunk by nearly 14% in the last two decades, while what it calls “concretization” has doubled. Experts say even if global warming stops below 1.5 degrees Celsius, climate induced heatwaves are here to stay. “There has been a shift in seasons. Summers have become extended,” points out Abinash Mohanty, Sector Head, Climate Change and Sustainability at research firm IPE Global. “Earlier the onset of the monsoon in June or July calmed the weather. Now the summer persists into the post monsoon season also, with high temperatures and high humidity.” The extreme temperatures in northern and central India have coincided with a six-week-long general election that concludes this week. However, the impact of the intensifying heat and the need for cities to adapt to it in a hot, tropical country of 1.4 billion people did not figure as an issue on the campaign. “Talk on the need for climate adaptation has not really started in India because of poor understanding of what is happening, whether it is in political circles or the wider public,” points out Somvanshi. “While there is some talk about climate change, there is no recognition that even if we control global warming, heat waves will not go away. They are the new reality.” It may not be talked about, but the heat did leave its mark on the election. A month ago, Nitin Gadkari, minister of Road Transport and Highways, fainted on stage at a campaign rally. He blamed the episode on the high temperature. Questions are also being asked whether a lower voter turnout compared to 2019 elections can be blamed on the intense heat or on voter apathy.

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.