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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran's supreme leader and representatives of militia groups he backs in the Middle East prayed Wednesday over the coffins of the country's late president, foreign minister and other officials killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week. Hundreds of thousands of people later followed a procession honoring the dead down Tehran's main boulevard.  Iran's Shiite theocracy views mass demonstrations as crucial evidence of its legitimacy and the people's support.  Still, Wednesday's funeral service for President Ebrahim Raisi and others saw a turnout that onlookers described as noticeably lower than the 2020 procession honoring Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.  Many of the participants said they came to Tehran for the ceremony from other cities and towns across the Islamic Republic, an indication of how those in Iran's capital viewed Raisi, who won the presidency in a record low turnout and later oversaw repeated crackdowns on dissent — including in the wake of the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, which sparked street protests over Iran's mandatory hijab, or headscarf.  Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had openly wept for Soleimani, also remained composed while reciting the standard prayer for the dead.  "Oh Allah, we didn't see anything but good from him," Khamenei said in Arabic, the language of Islam's holy book, the Quran. Iran's acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, stood nearby and openly cried.  The death of Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six others in the crash on Sunday comes at a politically sensitive moment for Iran, both at home and abroad.  Raisi, who was 63, had been discussed as a possible successor to Iran's supreme leader, the 85-year-old Khamenei. None of Iran's living past presidents — other than Khamenei, who was president from 1981 until 1989 — could be seen in state television footage of Wednesday's prayers. The authorities gave no explanation for their apparent absence.  Following the deadly helicopter crash, Iran set June 28 as the next presidential election. For now, there's no clear favorite for the position among Iran's political elite — particularly no one who is a Shiite cleric, as Raisi was.  During Raisi's term in office, Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel last month as its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip continued. Iran has supported Hamas throughout the war and provided weaponry to the militants.  Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh attended the prayers Wednesday morning, just two days after the International Criminal Court's prosecutor said he would seek an arrest warrant for him and others over the October 7 attack that sparked the latest Israel-Hamas war. In the unprecedented assault on southern Israel, Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and seized 250 hostages.  The ICC prosecutor is also seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for their conduct in the war, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and hundreds in the West Bank.  Haniyeh recounted Raisi telling him this year that the October 7 attack was an "earthquake in the heart of the Zionist entity." In a later meeting with Khamenei, the supreme leader told Haniyeh that the "destruction of the Zionist regime is feasible and, God willing, the day in which Palestine will be created from the sea to river will arrive."  Haniyeh's presence likely signaled Khamenei intends to continue his policy of arming militant groups in the wider Mideast — including Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels — to pressure adversaries such as Israel and the United States. Mourners at the ceremony chanted: "Death to Israel!"  Hezbollah and Houthi representatives were also in attendance.  Statesmen from the Mideast and beyond, including Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Tunisian President Kais Saied, attended a later memorial service.  Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was there. Cairo and Tehran have been discussing reestablishing ties severed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  A single black turban was placed over Raisi's casket during the morning service, which signifies he was considered a direct descendent of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. People then carried the coffins out on their shoulders as chants of "Death to America!" erupted outside.  People openly wept during the procession and beat their chests, a common sign of grief in the Shiite culture. They tossed scarves and other possessions up to the semitruck driving the caskets through Tehran, with coffin attendants brushing the items against the caskets in a gesture of blessing.  One man said he and his friends took a nearly seven-hour bus trip to attend the procession. Many expressed their sympathies for the dead, including Raisi.  "He was our president, the others were pilots and a minister, how can I be indifferent about their loss?" asked Sima Rahmani, a 27-year-old Tehran woman wearing a loose headscarf despite the risk of detention by police.  Prosecutors have warned people against showing any public signs of celebrating Raisi's death, and a heavy security force presence has been seen in Tehran since the crash. Many shops and stores noticeably remained open while some took off early for a long weekend despite bulk text messages and state TV broadcasting times for the procession.  "I did not vote for Raisi in 2021 election, but he was the president of all people," said Morteza Nemati, a 28-year-old physics student at Tehran Azad University. "My presence is a way of paying tribute to him."  Meanwhile, an Iranian official offered a new accounting of Sunday's crash, further fueling the theory that bad weather had led to it. Gholamhossein Esmaili, who traveled in one of the two other helicopters in Raisi's entourage, told state TV that weather had been fine when the aircraft took off. But Raisi's helicopter disappeared into heavy clouds, and the others couldn't reach the aircraft by radio.  The Friday prayer leader from the city of Tabriz, Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, who was also on board, somehow answered two mobile phone calls after the crash, saying he was hurt, Esmaili said.  It wasn't clear why Iran could not at that point track the phone signal. A Turkish drone helped find the crash site. Tehran had even asked the United States, its longtime foe, for help.  "The conditions of the bodies found showed that they [died] immediately after the incident," Esmaili said. "But Ayatollah Ale-Hashem [died] a few hours after the incident."

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Taipei, Taiwan — In a newly released report, Human Rights Watch says China has been accelerating the forced relocation of Tibetan villagers and herders in the name of “poverty alleviation” and environmental protection since 2016. While Chinese authorities describe the relocations as voluntary, the New York-based international rights organization’s report cites more than 1,000 Chinese state media reports and government publications that it says contradict that assertion. “The news articles indicate that participation in whole-village relocation programs in Tibet is in effect compulsory,” the report said, adding that many Tibetans asked to relocate express “high levels of reluctance.” China’s official data suggests that more than 930,000 Tibetans in rural areas have been relocated since 2000, and around 76% of these relocations happened since 2016, the report said. Of that total, at least 140,000 rural Tibetans were moved as part of what authorities called “whole-village relocation.” In some cases, rural Tibetans are relocated to places hundreds of kilometers from their homes. And while some Tibetan villagers are reluctant to take part in the government’s relocation program initially, state media reports show how local authorities have used coercive measures, including repeated home visits, threats of punishment or the banning of criticism, to push these Tibetans to comply, the report said. “In some cases, officials of increasing seniority visit families to gain their ‘consent’ [while] some official reports show [local authorities] telling residents that essential services would be cut to their current homes if they didn’t move,” the report wrote. Human Rights Watch also found that higher-level authorities would routinely pressure local officials to use coercive measures to achieve the goal of relocating rural Tibetans. The higher-level authorities would “routinely characterize the relocation program as a non-negotiable policy coming straight from the national capital, Beijing, or from Lhasa, the regional capital,” the report said. Maya Wang, the interim director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA that the forced relocations are part of the Chinese government’s efforts to “assimilate” Tibetans into the majority Han Chinese society. “The whole project has an impact of transforming Tibetans’ way of life,” Wang said, adding that the relocations “undermine the Tibetan language, culture and religion.” During a press conference in 2020, China’s State Council Information Office said 266,000 rural Tibetans had been relocated to 965 areas established by the Chinese government as part of its efforts to “alleviate poverty” in Tibet. Misleading promises In addition to the “whole-village relocation,” the report said around 567,000 rural Tibetans may have been relocated as part of the government’s “individual household relocation” program since 2016. While individual household relocation involves less coercive measures, Human Rights Watch found that officials would try to gain Tibetan families’ consent by providing misleading information about the economic benefits of moving to a new place. “Surveys carried out by official scholars at relocation sites in Tibet concluded that many of those relocated ‘cannot find suitable jobs to support their families’ and ‘satisfaction with relocation is low,’” the report said. These Tibetans “have to leave their animals and move to an area near a town where they can’t farm,” Robert Barnett, an expert on Tibet at King's College London, told VOA by phone. He said in other cases, rural Tibetans are relocated to areas they are not familiar with culturally, and one of the requirements for them to find jobs in urban centers is to acquire Chinese language skills. “There are lots of question marks about whether the Chinese government thought through this strategy,” Barnett said. To help Tibetans find jobs, Barnett said the Chinese government has tried to set up industries and projects for them to work on. “I’m not sure it’s a very satisfying form of income for the Tibetans, as they’ve spent their entire lives being their own bosses,” he told VOA. In response to the report, the Chinese embassy in the United States said the assertion that Tibetans have been forcefully relocated is “entirely groundless.” “No one has been forced to become ‘transferred laborers’ in Xizang [China’s official name for Tibet] and workers of all ethnic groups in Xizang choose their professions according to their own will,” Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in the U.S., told VOA in a written response. Violation of international law Despite the Chinese government’s defense of its relocation program in Tibet, Human Rights Watch said the two relocation programs and other government programs that require rural Tibetans to rebuild houses or adopt “a sedentary way of life” if they are nomads have affected most of the 4.55 million Tibetan population in rural areas. “While such mass relocations of residents have been occurring elsewhere in poor rural areas in China, these drives risk causing a devastating impact on Tibetan communities,” the report wrote. Maya Wang told VOA that the involuntary nature of these relocations constitutes forced eviction, which is prohibited by international law. “This is a classic Chinese development behavior towards minorities that in many ways violates international human rights law,” she said. Some Tibetan activists worry that the mass relocation or displacement of Tibetan communities may eventually “eradicate the Tibetan identity.” “It takes many years for [a community] to flourish in one land, and you can’t easily build that in a place where you are not willing to go,” Tenzin Choekyi, a senior researcher at Tibet Watch, told VOA by phone. In her view, the implementation of the relocation policies hasn’t taken the Tibetan community’s opinions and thoughts into consideration. “The Tibetan identity is in the hands of the Chinese party-state and is being eradicated under different policy directives,” she said.

Effective May 22, 2024, we are updating guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual on family-based immigrant visa petitions (including Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative and, in limited situations, family-based Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant), including explaining how we handle correcting approval notice errors, requests for consular processing or adjustment of status on the beneficiary’s behalf, and routing procedures for approved petitions.

New Delhi — From deep fake videos created by artificial intelligence to social media influencers who hold sway with young people, political parties in India are using all the tools of the digital age to expand their outreach to voters as the country holds its mammoth general election. AI-generated images, audio and videos have helped politicians connect directly with tens of thousands of voters. Stalwart political leaders who have died have been resurrected to cash in on their popularity. Deepfake videos of Bollywood stars criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi have gone viral before being taken down. “It’s the first time that AI has been disseminated on such a large scale,” said Divyendra Singh Jadoun, who calls himself the Indian Deepfaker and has had a packed schedule in recent months, creating synthetic content for political parties. In a country where more than 800 million people are on the internet, how will it impact democracy? “Are these uses significant enough to actually change someone’s vote? That is still an unanswered question,” says Prateek Waghre, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights group based in New Delhi. “In the Indian context, you already have political parties relying heavily on pushing certain narratives, misleading messages, etc. Over and above that, how much difference is synthetic content making is a question mark.” In a country where each parliamentary constituency has about two million voters, Jadoun and his team have created AI avatars that address voters by name to deliver personalized messages to seek their support. Then there are AI-powered chatbots that call constituents in the voices of political leaders. Plummeting costs have made it possible to do it on a mass scale. “Four years ago, it used to take us several days to create a one-minute AI video. Now anybody, even if they don’t have knowledge of coding, can take one single image of a person and an audio track to create one,” said Jadoun. During the election campaign in the southern state of Tamil Nadu where voting has now concluded, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, a tall leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam regional party who died in 2018, was seen in videos wearing his trademark dark glasses praising the leadership of his son, M.K. Stalin, the state’s current chief minister. The idea was to enthuse the party cadres. Disinformation remains the biggest challenge. Days after India’s phased election got underway last month, two videos that went viral showed Bollywood stars Ranveer Singh and Aamir Khan criticizing the government and seeking votes for the opposition Congress Party. Both were deepfakes. Another video alleging that opposition Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi had resigned from the party took social media by storm last month — his AI-generated cloned voice was used to support the claim. Jadoun said that among the enquiries he receives but turns down are requests to create deep fake videos of political opponents to tarnish their reputations. “A common way is to swap the face of the opponent leader and paste it on to a controversial comment he never made. The second is to clone his voice and make him say something he has never said to discredit him,” he said. India’s Election Commission has warned political parties against using AI to spread misinformation, but there is little regulation in place. “You can only create awareness among people,” said Jadoun. “If a video is escalating their emotions, they should pause before sharing it.” He says he labels his videos “A.I. generated,” and chatbots announce that they are A.I.-generated voices. AI is also being put to softer uses. In Tamil Nadu, where Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to establish its footprint in a state far away from the Hindi heartland that the Hindu nationalists dominate, AI generated versions of Modi singing popular Tamil songs helped expand his reach, according to Muralikrishnan Chinnadurai, a fact-checker based in the state. “These were widely shared. It made people see him as a more approachable, softer leader. While it may not influence older, more politically savvy people, such content has the power to impact young voters,” he said. AI is not the only new factor in India’s election. In the country with the world’s largest number of people on both YouTube and Instagram, political parties have also mobilized influencers in a campaign to woo voters. The BJP, a party that was always savvy in its use of social media, is seen as being ahead of others. In March, just about five weeks before the election got underway, Modi handed out awards to 24 prominent social media influencers at the country’s first-ever National Creators Award ceremony to promote "storytellers of a confident, assertive New India." Critics saw it as an effort to coopt them in the election campaign and create an incentive for them to endorse the government. State units of the BJP have been holding influencer meetings to persuade them to spread the message about the work the government has done. In the past year, prominent politicians and ministers have sat down with influencers for interviews. “It’s a fuzzy and pretty concerning development. The challenge is that these interactions are very different from what you would expect with a journalist,” said Waghre. “It is going to be a very soft conversation where the politician is unlikely to be challenged on claims they make and then that message is being carried to the influencer’s audience exactly as the politician wants it to go.” He says this tactic is going to be hard to regulate and over time one could result in less reliance on traditional media.

Washington, DC and Taipei, Taiwan — Former President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen left office May 20, passing the baton to her Democratic Progress Party’s (DPP) successor, Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai.  Analysts say her time as leader of self-ruled Taiwan saw it gain international support for a peaceful Taiwan Strait despite an increasingly assertive China – a legacy they hope President Lai can maintain.  Tsai was Taiwan’s first female leader and one of the few top female leaders in Asia and she ushered in some of the region’s most liberal laws on LGBTQ rights. Yet analysts say her foremost legacy will be the international attention and support she brought to Taiwan.  Hung-Jen Wang, a professor of politics at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University, tells VOA that Tsai's biggest achievement was her effectiveness in getting major nations to consider and confront the possibility of China using force against Taiwan and the global impact that would be caused by conflict in the Taiwan Strait.   "President Tsai has made it clearer to everyone that the stability of the Taiwan Strait issue is not Taiwan's issue, nor is it an issue of internal affairs between Taiwan and China, but (relevant to) everyone's national interests," Wang said.  Since the 2021 Summit of the Group of Seven (G7) publicly used the phrase "the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait" for the first time, the phrase has become an indispensable part of the joint communiqués of the G7 group of economically advanced democracies. The group is Britain, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States.  Beijing claims Taiwan is a breakaway province that must one day reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary.  Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin has similarly claimed as part of Russia, and Moscow’s close ties with Beijing, have further underscored concerns that China could follow Russia’s lead in seizing territory by force.  China has in the past couple years increased its cross-straits threats, including military exercises, sending scores of suspected spy balloons over Taiwan, and interfering in its election with threats. Tsai increased military spending and submarine development to better defend Taiwan if China attacks.  Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, tells VOA history will be kind to Tsai, who took Beijing’s saber-rattling in stride.  “I think that she has been stable, steady, pragmatic, (and) principled. She has helped create conditions that have allowed Taiwan to attract more support from the rest of the international community than at any previous time. And really sort of pushed back against the notion that Taiwan can be isolated and intimidated by Beijing,” Hass said, adding that he hopes that Tsai’s successor “will carry forward the legacy of what she has left off.” Tsai and Lai both support Taiwan’s status quo. Though Lai has in the past been an outspoken supporter of Taiwan independence, he has in the last few years softened his tone.  But Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Monday still denounced Lai as a “worker for Taiwan independence."  Michael Cunningham, a research fellow in The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, said China didn’t see Tsai as moderate, either. “China has refused to engage officially in talks, but she has been very pragmatic,” Cunningham told VOA. “In fact, all parties essentially have the same general approach to China now, which is to preserve stability, preserve de facto sovereignty. Don't rock the boat, which is very important."  China has, however, engaged in talks with leaders of Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, who blame Tsai and Lai for stoking cross-straits tensions with Beijing.  During Tsai’s eight years in office, China convinced almost half of the nations that were recognizing Taiwan as a country to switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing. Only 11, mainly small island nations and the Vatican, recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation.  Despite the lost recognition, analysts say Tsai successfully pushed trade and unofficial relationships that garnered more support for Taiwan’s status quo as a self-governing democracy.  Cunningham told VOA Tsai managed to make Taiwan well-known on the international stage. “...And in that way, she's done a great job for Taiwan diplomatically,” he said. “However, I hope President-elect Lai and his administration will be able to do a better job of holding on to the official diplomatic partners." Lai inherits a politically divided Taiwan with the KMT wanting to engage with China and weaken his presidency. Despite the tensions, Yao-Yuan Yeh, a professor at the University of St. Thomas, told VOA in a phone interview that Taiwan has already chosen its future.  "Tsai Ing-wen's biggest effort in the past eight years has been to help Taiwan choose the side of the United States in the environment of confrontation between the United States and China,” Yeh said. “That is, Taiwan will stand on the same front as democratic countries in the future." Lai inherits an unprecedented third term in a row for the DPP, coming off of high ratings for his predecessor.  The latest survey released by Taiwan's TVBS Polling Center last week showed that Tsai's policy satisfaction before leaving office was 42%, 19 percentage points higher than former KMT President Ma Ying-jeou's 23% and 29 percentage points higher than previous DPP President Chen Shui-bian's 13%.  As for Tsai’s role after the presidency, Taiwanese media reports say she plans to organize an international think tank to continue advocating for Taiwan. Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.  

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s military said Wednesday that its operations against a recent surge in terrorist attacks from Afghanistan, and cross-border militant infiltration attempts, have resulted in the killings of nearly 30 “terrorists" in the last month. The announcement came a day after a U.S. research group said in a report that "Afghanistan has become a breeding ground for terrorist activities” since the Taliban regained power in 2021.  While sharing details of its ongoing counterterrorism actions, the Pakistani military said it was focused on parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan border provinces. It noted that one of the operations a week ago also led to the death of an army major. “Of late, Pakistan has witnessed a surge in terrorist incidents orchestrated from Afghan soil, wherein terrorists from Afghanistan attempt to infiltrate through the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and target security forces as well as innocent civilians,” the statement said.  Islamabad renewed its call for Kabul “to ensure effective border management” on the Afghan side, saying the Taliban government “is expected to fulfill its obligations and deny the use of Afghan soil by terrorists for perpetuating acts of terrorism against Pakistan.” There was no immediate reaction from de facto Afghan authorities to Pakistan’s assertions. The Taliban have rejected previous such allegations, saying they are not allowing anyone to use Afghan territory to threaten neighboring countries or beyond. Pakistan maintains that fugitive commanders and combatants of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a designated global terrorist group, are using havens in Afghanistan to launch deadly cross-border attacks against Pakistanis, including security forces.  The Washington-based Center for a New American Security released its report Tuesday, saying the TTP and other regional militant groups “are active and face few constraints on their activities from the Taliban—with whom they share core ideological beliefs.” The study warned that terrorist threats emanating from Afghanistan “are intensifying and an Afghan-based Islamic State affiliate, the Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, “constitutes the main international concern.” It also cited a recent United Nations report that highlighted the Taliban’s close ties to al-Qaida operatives in Afghanistan, noting that “al-Qaida leaders are now part of the Taliban’s administrative structure and are constructing their own training camps in the country.” On May 10, the United States hosted a bilateral counterterrorism dialogue with Pakistan, where the two sides agreed to intensify collaboration in the fight against the TTP and IS-K. A post-meeting joint statement said the two countries “recognize that a partnership to counter” the TTP and IS-K and other regional terrorist groups “will advance security in the region and help “address transnational terrorism threats.” 

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.

Washington — Russia has launched a likely space weapon and deployed it in the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite, the Pentagon said. "Russia launched a satellite into low Earth orbit that we assess is likely a counter-space weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit," Pentagon spokesman Air Force Major General Pat Ryder told a press briefing late Tuesday. The Russian "counter-space weapon" launched on May 16 was deployed "into the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite," he said. Ryder added that Washington would continue to monitor the situation and was ready to protect its interests. "We have a responsibility to be ready to protect and defend the domain, the space domain, and ensure continuous and uninterrupted support to the Joint and Combined Force," he said. Earlier Tuesday, Moscow accused the United States of seeking to place weapons in space after Washington vetoed a Russian non-proliferation motion at the United Nations. "They have once again demonstrated that their true priorities in the area of outer space are aimed not at keeping space free from weapons of any kind, but at placing weapons in space and turning it into an arena for military confrontation," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. The world powers have traded multiple accusations of seeking to weaponize space in recent months. They have proposed rival non-proliferation motions at the United Nations as part of the spat. Russia vetoed the U.S. initiative last month, while Moscow's proposal was blocked by the United States, Britain and France in a vote on Monday. U.S. envoy Robert Wood said Russia's proposal, which called on all countries to "take urgent measures to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space," was a distraction and accused Moscow of "diplomatic gaslighting." He said that Russia's "likely" counter-space weapon was "presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit." "Russia deployed this new counter-space weapon into the same orbit as a US government satellite," he said in remarks ahead of Monday's vote. "Russia's May 16 launch follows prior Russian satellite launches likely of counter-space systems to low Earth orbit in 2019 and 2022." In February, the White House said Russia was developing an anti-satellite weapon, the existence of which was confirmed after lawmakers warned of an unspecified but serious threat to national security.

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SYDNEY — A device that absorbs water from air to produce drinkable water was officially launched in Australia Wednesday. Researchers say the so-called Hydro Harvester, capable of producing up to 1,000 liters of drinkable water a day, could be “lifesaving during drought or emergencies.” The device absorbs water from the atmosphere. Solar energy or heat that is harnessed from, for example, industrial processes are used to generate hot, humid air. That is then allowed to cool, producing water for drinking or irrigation. The Australian team said that unlike other commercially available atmospheric water generators, their invention works by heating air instead of cooling it. Laureate Professor Behdad Moghtaderi, a chemical engineer and director of the University of Newcastle’s Centre for Innovative Energy Technologies, told VOA how the technology operates.   “Hydro Harvester uses an absorbing material to absorb and dissolve moisture from air. So essentially, we use renewable energy, let’s say, for instance, solar energy or waste heat. We basically produce super saturated, hot, humid air out of the system," Moghtaderi said. "When you condense water contained in that air you would have the drinking water at your disposal.” The researchers say the device can produce enough drinking water each day to sustain a small rural town of up to 400 people. It could also help farmers keep livestock alive during droughts. Moghtaderi says the technology could be used in parts of the world where water is scarce. Researchers were motivated by the fact that Australia is an arid and dry country. "More than 2 billion people around the world, they are in a similar situation where they do not have access to, sort of, high-quality water and they deal with water scarcity,” Moghtaderi said Trials of the technology will be conducted in several remote Australian communities this year. The World Economic Forum, an international research organization, says “water scarcity continues to be a pervasive global challenge.” It believes that atmospheric water generation technology is a “promising emergency solution that can immediately generate drinkable water using moisture in the air.” However, it cautions that generally the technology is not cheap, and estimates that one mid-sized commercial unit can cost between $30,000 and $50,000.  

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.