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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.

The Israeli army said it struck hundreds of targets in Lebanon on Thursday as fears of full-scale war soared following deadly explosions of hand-held devices belonging to Hezbollah operatives. Early voting for the 2024 U.S. presidential election starts Friday in Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz's home state of Minnesota. And Tunisia's beekeeping industry is feeling the sting of climate change.

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.

Brussels — The EU's trade chief, Valdis Dombrovskis, said Thursday he had held "constructive" talks with China's commerce minister, Wang Wentao, as Beijing seeks a deal with Brussels to avoid steep tariffs on imported electric vehicles. The meeting was held as divisions grow in Europe over the proposed tariffs, after Spain urged the EU last week to "reconsider" plans for duties of up to 36% on Chinese electric cars, joining Germany in opposition. "Constructive meeting with Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao. Both sides agreed to intensify efforts to find an effective, enforceable and WTO (World Trade Organization) compatible solution," Dombrovskis said on X. Wang also spoke to businesses in the EV sector on Wednesday in Brussels after which he said China "will certainly persevere until the final moments of the consultations," as quoted in a statement by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU. The European Commission in July announced plans to levy import duties on electric vehicles imported from China after an anti-subsidy investigation started last year found they were unfairly undermining European rivals. The EU wants to protect its automobile industry, a jewel in Europe's industrial crown, providing jobs to around 14 million people. The commission is in charge of trade policy for the 27-country bloc. The tariffs are currently provisional and will only become definitive for five years after a vote by member states that is expected before the end of October. China has angrily responded to the EU's plans, warning it would unleash a trade war. Last month China also filed an appeal with the WTO over the tariffs. Beijing has already launched its own investigations into European brandy and some dairy and pork products imported into China. Dombrovskis told Wang that the probes were "unwarranted, are based on questionable allegations, and lack sufficient evidence," the EU's trade spokesperson, Olof Gill, said. "(He) thus called for these investigations to be terminated and informed the Chinese side that the EU will do its utmost to defend the interests of its industries," Gill added in a statement. 

lima, peru — Peruvian authorities scrambled to roll out a plan to fight fires raging out of control across the nation, razing crops, damaging archaeological treasures, and leaving several regions in a state of disaster on Thursday.  Firefighters said battling the blazes has grown increasingly difficult.  "We're tired," said a volunteer firefighter in the forests of the northern Amazonas region who declined to give his name. "We put the fire out, it lights back up. We put it out, the fire breaks out again."  Firefighters in the area retreated from the flames on Thursday. "They're out of control," said Arturo Morales, another volunteer firefighter. "We need help."  President Dina Boluarte on Wednesday declared a 60-day state of emergency in the San Martin, Amazonas and Ucayali regions, allocating extra resources to stop the fires from spreading.  "We're rolling out everything we have," Boluarte said in a speech. She called on farmers to stop burning grasslands, which she said caused flames to spread out of control.   Forest fires in Peru are frequent from August to November, either caused by farmers or those who are looking to illegally take over land, according to the government.  Around 240 fires have broken out this season in 22 of the country's 25 regions, though more than 80% had been controlled by Wednesday.   Some, however, are threatening to spark up again with dry weather, winds and their remote locations making them difficult to access.  The flames have reached seven archaeological sites, according to the culture ministry, and are threatening the Indigenous Shipibo-Konibo community in the Amazon.  In total, nearly 2,300 hectares of farmland have burned and 140 people have been injured, according to official data through Wednesday.  South America is being ravaged by fire from Brazil's Amazon rainforest through the world's largest wetlands to dry forests in Bolivia, breaking a previous record for the number of blazes seen in a year. 

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.

World leaders gather for their annual meetings at the United Nations starting Sunday, and the wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine will be center stage. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer 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.

LOS ANGELES — The University of California board of regents approved Thursday additional non-lethal weapons requested by UCLA police, which handled some of the nation's largest student protests against the Israel-Hamas war. Clashes between protestors and counter-protestors earlier this year on the campus led to more than a dozen injuries, and more than 200 people were arrested at a demonstration the next day. The equipment UCLA police requested and the board approved included pepper balls and sponge rounds, projectile launchers and new drones. The board also signed off on equipment purchase requests for the nine other police departments on UC campuses. Student protesters at the regents meeting were cleared from the room after yelling broke out when the agenda item was presented. Faculty and students have criticized UCLA police for their use of non-lethal weapons in campus demonstrations, during which some protesters suffered injuries. During public comment, UCLA student association representative Tommy Contreras said the equipment was used against peaceful protestors and demonstrators. "I am outraged that the University of California is prioritizing funding for military equipment while slashing resources for education," Contreras said. "Students, staff and faculty have been hurt by this very equipment used not for safety but to suppress voices." California law enforcement agencies are required by state law to submit an annual report on the acquisition and use of weapons characterized as "military equipment." A UC spokesperson called it a "routine" agenda item not related to any particular incidents. "The University's use of this equipment provides UC police officers with non-lethal alternatives to standard-issue firearms, enabling them to de-escalate situations and respond without the use of deadly force," spokesperson Stett Holbrook said. Many of the requests are replacements for training equipment, and the drones are for assisting with search and rescue missions, according to Holbrook. The equipment is "not military surplus, nor is it military-grade or designed for military use," Holbrook said. UCLA police are requesting 3,000 more pepper balls to add to their inventory of 1,600; 400 more sponge and foam rounds to their inventory of 200; eight more "less lethal" projectile launchers; and three new drones. The report to the regents said there were no complaints or violations of policy found related to the use of the military equipment in 2023. History professor Robin D.G. Kelley said he spent an evening with a student in the emergency room after the student was shot in the chest during a June 11 demonstration. "The trauma center was so concerned about the condition of his heart that they kept him overnight to the next afternoon after running two echocardiograms," Kelley said the day after the student was injured. "The student was very traumatized." UC's systemwide director of community safety Jody Stiger told the board the weapons were not to be used for crowd control or peaceful protests but "life-threatening circumstances" or violent protests where "campus leadership have deemed the need for law enforcement to utilize force to defend themselves or others."

washington — The White House this week reported a significant decrease in migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border since President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at bolstering immigration enforcement.   Migrant encounters in August were significantly lower than last year, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández wrote in a statement Monday. Since Biden's June 4 executive order there has been a 50% drop in encounters at the border.    According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in August there were about 58,000 migrant encounters between ports of entry along the southern border, nearly a 68% decline from the 181,000 in August 2023.  The total number of southern border encounters was about 63,000. That figure includes about 5,000 migrants who came to ports of entry without a CBP One registration.  CBP One is a mobile app that allows migrants to schedule appointments at ports of entry rather than cross illegally. U.S. border officials said the app has played a crucial role in streamlining border processes. In August, about 44,700 individuals were processed using CBP One. Since its introduction in January 2023, more than 813,000 people have scheduled appointments.  U.S. border officials also said the June executive actions led to an increase in migrant removals, with more than 131,000 people deported to over 140 countries since June. About 400 international repatriation flights have taken place during this time.   But even with the latest numbers, some Republican lawmakers criticized the Biden administration during a hearing Thursday to discuss potential terrorist threats and homeland security issues related to illegal immigration.  The lawmakers argued that the perception of border officers as welcoming, rather than focused on law enforcement, is contributing to the number of migrants coming to the U.S.  "Our border patrol, law enforcement agents were transitioned from their national security role, their law enforcement role [of] repelling illegal entry and capturing those that crossed illegally as much as possible to transition to sort of reception roles and caring for and transporting, feeding, etc.," Congressman Clay Higgins, a Republican from Alabama, said as he expressed concern about migrants who crossed illegally and evaded Border Patrol.  There is no indication the Biden administration officially changed border patrol officers' law enforcement role.  Alex Nowrasteh, the vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, testified during the hearing that the primary reason migrants come the U.S. — legally or illegally — is to work.  "It's still the economy. That's what's pulling people in, and the rapid economic recovery after COVID can explain more than any other factor," he 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.

South Africa is exhuming remains of citizens who fought the apartheid regime but died in exile in Zimbabwe. Families of Zimbabweans killed in the same area by security forces are hoping their loved ones can be removed from mass graves and given proper burials, too. Columbus Mavhunga reports.

brasilia, brazil — Elon Musk's social media platform X will present a Brazil legal representative to the local Supreme Court "very soon," the firm's lawyers said Thursday, as the company battles a ruling that sought to shut down its operation in the country.  The move would be the biggest step taken by X toward complying with the demands of Brazil's Supreme Court, which issued an order in late August suspending the social media platform over concerns about the spread of hate speech.   Andre Zonaro and Sergio Rosenthal, who were recently appointed as X's lawyers in Brazil, told Reuters the firm had already sent a document to the Supreme Court saying a legal representative would be named.  They added that the representative was still being chosen.   In August, after a monthslong dispute between Musk and Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court ordered Brazil's mobile and internet service providers to block the platform, cutting users off within hours.  Despite the ban, X became accessible to many users in Brazil on Wednesday after an update to its communications network bypassed the court-ordered block.  The Supreme Court ordered X on Wednesday not to circumvent its ruling, saying it was at risk of a daily fine of nearly $922,000 (5 million reais).  "There is no doubt that X, under Elon Musk's direct command, again intends to disrespect Brazil's Judiciary," Moraes wrote in his latest order, saying the platform had a "strategy" to circumvent the ban.  X said Wednesday that a switch in network providers had resulted in "an inadvertent and temporary service restoration" in Brazil, adding that it was maintaining efforts to work with the Brazilian government to resume service there "very soon."  The lawyers on Thursday called the event a "technical flaw" that allowed users to access the social media platform in the country.  Courts have previously blocked accounts implicated in probes of allegedly spreading misinformation and hate, which Musk has denounced as censorship.  They also ordered X to name a local legal representative as required by Brazilian law after X had closed its offices in Brazil in mid-August.   The lawyers representing X in Brazil said the firm had also started to comply with the orders on removing content. 

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.