North Korea on Saturday extended a recent streak of weapons displays by firing what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, according to South Korea’s military.

The fifth round of launches in less than three weeks was likely another protest at the slow pace of nuclear negotiations with the United States and the continuance of U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises that the North says are aimed at a northward invasion.

The South’s military alerted reporters to the launches hours after President Donald Trump said he received a “beautiful” three-page letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and predicted that they will have more talks to try resolving the nuclear standoff. Trump reiterated that he was not bothered by the flurry of short-range weapons Kim has launched despite the growing threat they pose to U.S. allies in the region, saying Pyongyang has never broken its pledge to pause nuclear tests.

Hours after the latest launches, Trump tweeted that Kim spent much of his letter complaining about “the ridiculous and expensive” U.S.-South Korea military exercises. He said that Kim offered him “a small apology” for the flurry of missile tests, and that he assured him they would stop when the exercises end.

Trump said that Kim wants to meet once again to “start negotiations” after the drills conclude, and that he’s looking “forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future!”

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the presumed ballistic missiles were fired from the North’s east coast and flew about 400 kilometers (248 miles) on an apogee of 48 kilometers (30 miles), before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Seoul’s presidential Blue House said the tests were likely aimed at verifying the reliability of the North’s newly developed weapons and also demonstrating displeasure over the military drills.

Hours after Saturday’s launches, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency released a statement denouncing South Korea’s recent acquisition of U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets and other plans to expand its military capabilities, saying that the moves deteriorate trust between the Koreas and increase risk of war on the peninsula. The agency said the South will gain “nothing but destruction if it treats (a nation of the same race) with hostility and pursues a contest of strength.”

North Korea has unleashed a series of test firings of short-range weapons in recent weeks while saying that the joint military drills between the allies compel it to “develop, test and deploy the powerful physical means essential for national defense.”

The North did not immediately comment on the launches. South Korea has said the weapons tests don’t help efforts to stabilize peace and called for Pyongyang to uphold an inter-Korean agreement reached last year to form a joint military committee to discuss reducing military tensions.

The missile tests come amid stalled talks on the North’s nuclear program. So far, North Korea has stuck by its unilateral suspension of nuclear and long-range missile tests, which came during a diplomatic outreach to Washington last year.

Experts say Trump’s downplaying of the North’s launches allowed the country more room to intensify its testing activity while it seeks to build leverage ahead of negotiations, which could possibly resume sometime after the end of the U.S.-South Korea drills later this month.

Leif-Eric Easley, an expert at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, said North Korea is also looking to exploit Trump’s preoccupation with getting South Korea to pay more for U.S. troop deployment in the country as well as Seoul’s worsening relations with Tokyo over an escalating trade war that’s spilling over to security issues. South Korea has threatened to end a military intelligence sharing agreement with Japan in what’s seen as an attempt to pressure the United States into mediating the dispute.

“Kim appeals to Trump directly about the exercises, trying to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul,” Easley said. “Meanwhile, North Korean propaganda supports rising anti-Japan sentiment in South Korea, calculating that a diplomatically isolated Seoul will be more subject to Pyongyang’s coercion.”

The North described recent test-firings as a new rocket artillery system and short-range ballistic missile launches. The North’s state media said that Kim, while supervising a live-fire demonstration of newly developed, short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday, said the launches were intended to send a warning to Washington and Seoul over their military drills.

The allies have scaled down their major military exercises since the first summit between Kim and Trump in June 2018 in Singapore created space for diplomacy. But the North insists even the downsized drills violate agreements between Kim and Trump.

The North’s recent tests have dampened the optimism that followed the third and latest meeting between Trump and Kim on June 30 at the inter-Korean border. The leaders agreed to resume working-level nuclear talks, but there have been no known meetings between the two sides since then.

In the 4½ months since U.S.-backed forces declared victory over the Islamic State terror group’s last shred of territory in Syria, there has been a steady drumbeat of doubt.

One by one, military leaders, diplomats and experts began raising concerns, aiming to convince policymakers that for all of the success in rolling back IS’s self-declared caliphate, the group was far from dead.

“This is not the end of the fight,” U.S. Special Representative for Syria Ambassador James Jeffrey warned, just days after the victory celebrations in Syria in late March.

“That will go on,” he said. “It is a different type of fight.”

A series of new reports, citing intelligence from United Nations member states, the U.S. military and other sources, now indicate it is a fight that IS is increasingly well-positioned to win.

“As long as it can gain revenue, it will remain a danger,” the Rand Corp. declared Thursday in “Return and Expand?” a report on the terror group’s finances and prospects following the collapse of its caliphate.

IS assets

The Rand report estimates IS had perhaps in excess of $400 million in assets by early 2019.

Intelligence from U.N. member states, included in another recent report, indicates even after the fall of the caliphate, IS may still have up to $300 million at its disposal.

But even if the actual figure is lower, there are no indications that efforts to defeat IS has left the terror group wanting.

“It still has certainly more than enough money to survive for quite a while,” Rand senior economist Howard Shatz, one of the authors of the Rand report, told VOA.

“It’s a cash organization. Its expenses had to match its revenues,” he said. “We haven’t seen evidence of drawing from reserves or expenses outstripping revenues.”

And despite repeated strikes targeting senior IS leaders in Syria and Iraq, the group’s infrastructure and financial leadership has remained solid.

“It is possible to lower their level of effort, to lower their competency,” Shatz said. “But if there’s any let up, they do have people who are in the organization, come up through the organization, and take over.”

“Some of those people will be better. Some of those people will be worse. But the people are there,” he said.

Estimated number of fighters

The best U.S. estimates indicate an IS pool of anywhere from 14,000 to 18,000 so-called members across Syria and Iraq, many of whom are thought to be fighters.

While many of those fighters have gone underground, others remain active, targeting key community leaders in Syria and Iraq for assassinations, and burning crops to create turmoil.

Officials with Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led military operation to counter IS, also warn the terror group has solidified in capabilities, enhancing its command and control and logistics infrastructure in Iraq.

Military and diplomatic officials say IS also has retained support in rural parts of Iraq, especially in areas extending south of Mosul all the way to Baghdad, the capital.

In Syria, where military officials describe IS as “resurgent,” the group is using large displaced persons camps, like the one at al-Hol, to its advantage.

Despite efforts by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to provide security for al-Hol, coalition officials warned the U.S. Defense Department inspector general that thousands of IS supporters have been able to spread the group’s ideology “uncontested.”

“We have been clear that there is work left to do,” Pentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said.

“ISIS has prepared its resources to operate underground,” he said, adding that in the face of the terror groups’ resurgence, “we continue to work with allies and partners to enable stabilization efforts.”

In some ways, this is what U.S. military officials have been worried about since last year, when the Pentagon warned that despite mounting territorial losses,

In the past few months, IS has also ramped up its video messaging, showing fighters from Africa, East Asia, the Caucuses and elsewhere renewing their pledge of allegiance to al-Baghdadi.

“The so-called ISIS caliphate has been destroyed,” State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator Nathan Sales said while briefing reporters earlier this month. “But the ISIS brand lives on around the world.”

Researchers, though, fear IS has one more card to play as the group seeks to reassert itself — its detailed record-keeping for the areas it once ruled.

“We know during the time of the caliphate, the Islamic State was recording financial details about individuals living in its territory,” said Shatz, the Rand economist.

“I don’t think that information goes away,” he said, adding when the time is right, the group knows whom to squeeze. “There are a lot of people now who are known to the Islamic State who the Islamic State could come to and try to get money from.”

A fuel tanker exploded in Tanzania on Saturday, killing 57 people and injuring 65, many of whom were siphoning petrol from the vehicle, which had crashed, state broadcaster TBC Taifa said.

The explosion occurred around 200 km (120 miles) west of the capital Dar es Salaam.

“We have been saddened by reports of an accident involving a fuel truck in Morogoro, which caught fire and burnt several people,” government spokesman Hassan Abbasi said on Twitter.

Thirteen people were killed and 16 were missing in eastern China Saturday in a landslide triggered by a major typhoon, which caused widespread transportation disruptions and the evacuation of more than 1 million people, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Typhoon Lekima made landfall early Saturday in the eastern province of Zhejiang with maximum winds of 187 km (116 miles) per hour, although it had weakened from its earlier designation as a “super” typhoon, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Thousands of flights were canceled in eastern China, according to the country’s aviation regulator, with most flights into and out of Shanghai’s two major airports canceled Saturday afternoon, their websites showed.

China’s weather bureau Saturday issued an orange alert, its second highest, after posting a red alert Friday, when the storm forced flight cancellations in Taiwan and shut markets and businesses on the island.

The deadly landslide occurred about 130 km north of the coastal city of Wenzhou, when a natural dam collapsed in an area deluged with 160 millimeters (6.3 inches) of rain in three hours, CCTV reported.

The storm was moving northward at 15 kph and was gradually weakening, Xinhua reported, citing the weather bureau.

High winds and heavy rains battered the financial hub of Shanghai Saturday afternoon, and Shanghai Disneyland was shut for the day.

Nearly 200 trains through the city of Jinan in Shandong province had been suspended until Monday, Xinhua reported.

More than 250,000 residents in Shanghai and 800,000 in Zhejiang province had been evacuated because of the typhoon, and 2.72 million households in Zhejiang had power blackouts as strong wind and rain downed electricity transmission lines, state media reported.

About 200 houses in six cities in Zhejiang had collapsed, and 66,300 hectares (163,830 acres) of farmland had been destroyed, CCTV said.

The storm was predicted to reach Jiangsu province by the early hours of Sunday and veer over the Yellow Sea before continuing north and making landfall again in Shandong province, CCTV said.

Coastal businesses in Zhejiang were shut, and the Ministry of Emergency Management warned of potential risk of fire, explosions and toxic gas leaks at chemical parks and oil refineries.
 

U.S.-based nuclear experts said Friday they suspected an accidental blast and radiation release in northern Russia this week occurred during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile vaunted by President Vladimir Putin last year.

The Russian Ministry of Defense, quoted by state-run news outlets, said that two people died and six were injured Thursday in an explosion of what it called a liquid propellant rocket engine. No dangerous substances were released, it said.

Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom said early Saturday that five of its staff members died.

A spokeswoman for Severodvinsk, a city of 185,000 near the test site in the Arkhangelsk region, was quoted in a statement on the municipal website as saying that a “short-term” spike in background radiation was recorded at noon Thursday.

The statement was not on the site Friday.

The Russian Embassy did not immediately respond for comment.

Liquid fuel engines don’t give off radiation

Two experts said in separate interviews with Reuters that a liquid rocket propellant explosion would not release radiation.

They said that they suspected the explosion and the radiation release resulted from a mishap during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile at a facility outside the village of Nyonoksa.

“Liquid fuel missile engines exploding do not give off radiation, and we know that the Russians are working on some kind of nuclear propulsion for a cruise missile,” said Ankit Panda, an adjunct senior fellow with the Federation of American Scientists.

Russia calls the missile the 9M730 Buresvestnik. The NATO alliance has designated it the SSC-X-9 Skyfall.

Kremlin priorities

A senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he would not confirm or deny that a mishap involving a nuclear-powered cruise missile occurred. But he expressed deep skepticism over Moscow’s explanation.

“We continue to monitor the events in the Russian far north but Moscow’s assurances that ‘everything is normal’ ring hollow to us,” the official said.

“This reminds us of a string of incidents dating back to Chernobyl that call into question whether the Kremlin prioritizes the welfare of the Russian people above maintaining its own grip on power and its control over weak corruption streams.”

The official was referring to the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, which released radioactive airborne contamination for about nine days. Moscow delayed revealing the extent of what is regarded as the worst nuclear accident in history.

Putin boasted about the nuclear-powered cruise missile in a March 2018 speech to the Russian parliament in which he hailed the development of a raft of fearsome new strategic weapons.

The missile, he said, was successfully tested in late 2017, had “unlimited range” and was “invincible against all existing and prospective missile defense and counter-air defense systems.”

‘Not there by accident’

Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Non-Proliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said he believed that a mishap occurred during the testing of the nuclear-powered cruise missile based on commercial satellite pictures and other data.

Using satellite photos, he and his team determined that the Russians last year appeared to have disassembled a facility for test-launching the missile at a site in Novaya Zemlya and moved it to the base near Nyonoksa.

The photos showed that a blue environmental shelter, under which the missiles are stored before launching at Nyonoksa and rails on which the structure is rolled back appear to be the same as those removed from Novaya Zemlya.

Lewis and his team also examined Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals from ships off the coast on the same day as the explosion. They identified one ship as the Serebryanka, a nuclear fuel carrier that they had tracked last year off Novaya Zemlya.

“You don’t need this ship for conventional missile tests,” Lewis said. “You need it when you recover a nuclear propulsion unit from the sea floor.”

He noted that the AIS signals showed that the Serebryanka was inside an “exclusion zone” established off the coast a month before the test, to keep unauthorized ships from entering.

“What’s important is that the Serebryanka is inside that exclusion zone. It’s there. It’s inside the ocean perimeter that they set up. It’s not there by accident,” he said. “I think they were probably there to pick up a propulsion unit off the ocean floor.”

Lewis said he didn’t know what kind of radiation hazard the Russian system poses because he did was unaware of the technical details, such as the size of the nuclear reactor.

But he noted that the United States sought to develop a nuclear-powered missile engine in the 1950s that spewed radiation.

“It represented a health hazard to anyone underneath it,” he said.

The suspect accused of carrying out last week’s mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, told police after the shooting that he had been targeting Mexicans, according to authorities.

A police affidavit released Friday said the suspect, Patrick Crusius, confessed to the shooting after getting out of his car and surrendering to police, saying, “I’m the shooter.”

The affidavit from Detective Adrian Garcia said Crusius waived his right to remain silent and, after being taken into police custody, “The defendant stated his target (was) Mexicans.”

Crusius is accused of shooting and killing 22 people and wounding two dozen others last Saturday.

Online post

Shortly before the attack, authorities believe Crusius posted online, expressing anger about a “Hispanic invasion” of the United States.

Authorities said Crusius drove more than 10 hours from his hometown near Dallas, Texas, to the predominantly Hispanic border city of El Paso to carry out the shootings. Eight of the dead were Mexican nationals.

Family members of the victims gathered at funerals on either side of the border Friday to remember their loved ones.

Also Friday, top Trump administration officials met with social media giants, including Facebook, Twitter and Google to discuss ways to reduce online extremism and try to prevent mass shootings.

“The conversation focused on how technology can be leveraged to identify potential threats, to provide help to individuals exhibiting potentially violent behavior and to combat domestic terror,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

Trump did not attend the meeting, and the White House declined to say which administration officials took part in the closed-door session.

The Washington Post reported that tech leaders expressed doubts about how much it was possible to use technology to identify potential attacks before they occur, raising concerns about privacy risks, according to sources at the meeting.

Two mass shootings

The El Paso attack came hours before another mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, that left nine people dead.

The two mass shootings have led gun control activists to renew their calls for Congress to take up action to reduce gun violence.

Trump said Friday that he believes he can influence the powerful gun rights group, the National Rifle Association, to allow stronger federal background checks. However, he said he also assured the group that its gun rights views would be “fully represented and respected.”

NEW YORK — Confronted with allegations that he orchestrated a sex-trafficking ring that delivered girls to him and his high-profile acquaintances, financier Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly refused to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself, according to court records released Friday. 
 
Epstein’s responses emerged in a partial transcript of a September 2016 deposition stemming from a defamation lawsuit. The transcript was included in hundreds of pages of documents placed in a public file by a federal appeals court in New York. 
 
The deposition happened almost three years before Epstein’s July 6 arrest on sex-trafficking charges in a case that has brought down a Cabinet secretary and launched fresh investigations into how authorities dealt with Epstein over the years. The 66-year-old has pleaded not guilty. 
 
Epstein was asked in the videotaped deposition whether it was standard operating procedure for his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, to bring underage girls to him to sexually abuse. 
 
Epstein replied “Fifth,” as he did to numerous other questions, citing the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment that protects people against incriminating themselves. 
 
He also was asked whether Maxwell was “one of the main women” he used to procure underage girls for sexual activities. 

“Fifth,” he replied. 

Mar-a-Lago question

And he was asked whether Maxwell met one of the females she recruited for massages at the Mar-a-Lago resort owned by President Donald Trump in Palm Beach. 
 
“Fifth,” he replied. 
 
Asked if he was a member of Mar-a-Lago in 2000, he replied again, “Fifth,” according to the transcript. 
 
After Epstein’s arrest, Trump acknowledged that he knew Epstein but said he “had a falling out with him a long time ago.” 
 
Over 2,000 pages of documents made public by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pertained to a since-settled lawsuit against Maxwell filed by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers. 
 
Giuffre filed the complaint in 2015, saying Maxwell subjected her to “public ridicule, contempt and disgrace” by calling her a liar in published statements “with the malicious intent of discrediting and further damaging Giuffre worldwide.” The lawsuit sought unspecified damages. 
 
In a deposition included in the newly released papers, Giuffre said that her father, who worked at Mar-a-Lago as a maintenance manager, got her a job there in summer 2000 as a locker room attendant at the club’s spa when she was 16. 

‘We can train you’
 
She said she was reading a book on massage therapy one day when she was approached by Maxwell, who noticed the book and told her she knew someone seeking a traveling masseuse. When Giuffre said she had no experience or credentials, she recalled Maxwell said: “We can train you. We can get you educated.” 
 
The court records contain graphic allegations against Epstein, who is accused in Manhattan federal court of trafficking young girls internationally to have sex with prominent American politicians, business executives and world leaders. The papers portray Epstein as a sex slave-driver with an insatiable appetite for underage girls. 
 
“My whole life revolved around just pleasing these men and keeping Ghislaine and Jeffrey happy,” Giuffre said. “Their whole entire lives revolved around sex.” 
 
Giuffre said Maxwell instructed her to take off her clothes and give oral sex to Epstein the first time she met him after taking her to Epstein’s Florida home near Mar-a-Lago with the expectation she would be trained as a masseuse. 
 
Prosecutors have not accused Maxwell of any wrongdoing. They say they continue to investigate. 
 
In her own deposition, Maxwell called the claims another one of Giuffre’s “many fictitious lies and stories to make this a salacious event to get interest and press. It’s absolute rubbish.” She also claimed that Giuffre was 17 when she met her. 
 
Neither Maxwell’s attorney nor a public relations firm she hired responded Friday to emails from The Associated Press. 
 

Epstein’s lawyers say the federal charges that accuse Epstein of recruiting and abusing dozens of underage girls in New York and Florida in the early 2000s should never have been brought. They say Epstein is protected by an agreement he reached with federal prosecutors in Florida a dozen years ago. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned last month after coming under fire for overseeing that deal when he was U.S. attorney in Miami. 
 
Attorney Martin Weinberg said Epstein has not committed crimes since pleading guilty to charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida in 2008. 

Photos found
 
At the time of Epstein’s arrest, prosecutors said they found a trove of pictures of nude and seminude young women and girls at his $77 million Manhattan mansion. They also say additional victims have come forward since the arrest. 
 
Epstein’s lawyers did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday. 

Anjana Pasricha contributed to this report.

India eased restrictions Friday in Kashmir to allow the Muslim-majority population to attend Friday prayers, but protests still broke out in the disputed region. 
 
Kashmir has been in an unprecedented five-day lockdown, depriving the region of any communications access, since India’s government announced it was revoking Kashmir’s special constitutional status. 
 
Officials in Kashmir said residents in Srinagar were allowed to pray Friday at area-specific mosques.  

Witnesses in the city’s Soura area said a large group of people tried to start a protest but were pushed back by security forces who used tear gas and pellets.  
 
A police officer, who requested anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to reporters, told the Reuters news agency that 12 people were taken to a hospital with pellet injuries. He put the number of people trying to protest at 10,000. 

Mosque off limits
 
Authorities in Kashmir did not allow residents to congregate at Srinagar’s historic Jama Masjid mosque, which usually draws thousands of people each week and is a longtime focus for separatist protests. 
 

In Islamabad, Pakistan, thousands of protesters marched against India’s move to scrap Kashmir’s special status and bring it under tighter control by New Delhi. 
 
Also Friday, China said it was “seriously concerned” about India’s decision as Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi met in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, over the issue.  
 
“China will continue to firmly support the Pakistan side in safeguarding its legitimate rights,” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement issued after the meeting. 

‘New era’
 
On Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised Kashmiris the beginning of a “new era.” In an address on television and radio, Modi defended revoking the constitutional provision under which Kashmir could make its own laws, saying it had impeded its progress, given rise to terrorism and was used as a weapon by rival Pakistan to “instigate some people.” India would now rid the region of “terrorism and terrorists,” he said. 
 
Pakistan, which also claims Kashmir, has protested the move, downgrading its diplomatic ties with India and suspending trade. 
 
Rebels in Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule in the region for decades, and most Kashmiri residents want either independence or a merger with Pakistan. 
 
New Delhi blames Islamabad for fomenting a violent three-decade separatist insurgency in the Himalayan region. 

Updated: Aug. 9, 2019, 6:05 p.m.

SEOUL — North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea off its eastern coast on Saturday, South Korea’s military said.

The latest launch comes shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had received a “very beautiful letter” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump said Kim had said he was “not happy” about the missile tests, which the North Korean leader has said were a response to U.S.-South Korean military drills being held this month.

The projectiles were fired at dawn Saturday from the area around the northeastern city of Hamhung, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Hamhung is known to have a solid-fuel rocket engine production site.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff could not be immediately reached for comment.

Updates to this story will be posted as they develop.

For many teens, the last year of high school is a time of excitement filled with studies, athletics and dances. But young Eritreans spend the year at a military camp preparing for mandatory conscription and indefinite national service, where they face physical and mental abuse. 
 
A new report by Human Rights Watch offers the most detailed look to date at Eritrea’s conscription system, which forces young people to complete their final year of high school in the desert town of Sawa at a facility that’s part school, part boot camp. 
 
The report, They Are Making Us Into Slaves, Not Educating Us, draws on interviews with 73 former secondary school students and national service teachers to provide details on what happens in the camp. 
 
HRW found that authorities at Sawa keep students under military command throughout the year, beat them for minor infractions and force them to perform labor. Teachers at the camp are not much older than the students. Since they are compelled to serve at the camp, they are often indifferent or absent. 

Impossible ‘to be a student’
 
In an interview with VOA, Laetitia Bader, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the system makes young people feel helpless.  
 
“There was this sense that not only were young people not given really any control over their destiny,” Bader said, “but it was also the sense that, in the year at Sawa in particular, it was impossible, really, to be a student, to think like a student in such a militarized environment.” 
 
Officials have required young people to complete 12th grade in Sawa since 2003. Each year, between 11,000 and 15,000 students arrive at the camp, according to HRW, a facility the group compares to “a large prison” surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. 
 
HRW also discovered that young people are dropping out of school in 11th grade to avoid being sent to the camp.  
 
Students and teachers alike are risking their lives in large numbers to flee the country, the advocacy group said. 
 

In the report, former Sawa students describe training that began before daybreak, harsh drills, survivalist exercises requiring them to sleep outdoors in extreme heat, and food and water deprivation. 
 
“Sawa is hell; they do everything to make you want to leave,” a 19-year-old told HRW. “From the first month, the alarm rings at 5 a.m., they make you run to the toilet, you had five minutes to wash — if we had water, which wasn’t always the case. Five minutes to put your uniform on. You get punished if you don’t manage.” 
 
The minister of information, Yemane Gebremeskel, defended his government’s tactics on Twitter, suggesting the national defense strategy contributed to stability within the country and peace across the region.
 
Earlier this month, the government held a three-day-long celebration in Sawa commemorating national service with parades, songs and speeches. In an interview at the celebration with journalists dressed in military attire who belong to state media, President Isaias Afwerki emphasized that national service is a continuation of Eritrea’s 30-year struggle for independence. 
 
“Maybe when you’re comparing it with the struggle for independence, the sacrifice might be different, but to develop a country is more difficult,” he said. 

Teachers feel trapped
 
HRW found that teachers felt as trapped as students and take great risks to escape. One teacher interviewed in the report said, “If you are sent with the national service to teach physics, you will be a physics teacher for life.” 
 
Bader said the interviewees were desperate: “We also spoke to people who had been teachers for decades and who had, on multiple occasions, tried to be discharged from the national service jobs. But it came across very clearly in the research that being discharged is very arbitrary.” 
 
A recent peace agreement with Ethiopia removes the justification for the current system to continue, HRW said. The group urged the Eritrean government to set a timetable for demobilizing national service conscripts and allowing students to complete their education at non-military institutions. 

The death of the Khmer Rouge’s top ideologue may end criminal proceedings against him even though his appeal against convictions for genocide and other crimes is still pending, a spokesman for Cambodia’s U.N.-assisted tribunal trying leaders of the defunct communist group said Friday.

Nuon Chea, the second-highest official after Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot when the group held power in the late 1970s, died Sunday at age 93. He was cremated Friday at a Buddhist temple in Pailin in northwestern Cambodia, which was a Khmer Rouge stronghold as it fought a guerrilla war after being ousted from power in 1979. Their movement collapsed entirely in 1998.

Spokesman Neth Pheaktra said under Cambodian law, judicial action is terminated on the death of the accused, and the tribunal’s Supreme Court chamber would rule on its application.

It will not be clear until the court rules whether the convictions under appeal will stand or be vacated, leaving them legally undecided.

The death leaves a single former top Khmer Rouge leader to proceed with an appeal against his convictions for genocide and other crimes: Khieu Samphan, 88, who was the regime’s head of state.

Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were also convicted in an earlier trial of crimes against humanity and other offenses, and their life sentences in that case were upheld after appeal.

The tribunal, which has cost hundreds of millions of dollars, has convicted only one other defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, who as head of the Khmer Rouge prison system ran the infamous Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh.

The tribunal, formally known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC, was set up as a hybrid court, meaning every international prosecutor and judge was paired with a Cambodian counterpart. While the international prosecutors have worked to indict more suspects, the rules of the tribunal have allowed their Cambodian counterparts to block further action.

Australian Doreen Chen, who was the internationally appointed lawyer for Nuon Chea, said her team believes that according to law, their late client “is presumed innocent until a final appeal judgment is delivered.”

“Since the Supreme Court Chamber hasn’t issued the appeal judgment, he is now considered innocent and that trial judgment against him is effectively vacated. We have asked the Supreme Court Chamber to confirm this view and let us know what should happen next,” she said in an interview over the internet.

She also said they are seeking to have his appeal continue despite his death “so that there can be a final judgment and confirmation of the truth, not only for Nuon Chea but for the Cambodian people.”

Chen said she understood that the Supreme Court Chamber is currently considering the issue, but that on Friday, the tribunal administration informed her and her colleagues that their team have all been fired, even while awaiting a court ruling.

“Unfortunately, it appears that the budget may be more important than the law and the ECCC’s ultimate legacy,” she said.

Liv Sovanna, a Cambodian lawyer for Nuon Chea’s defense, said by telephone from the cremation site that about 200 people attended the ceremony, with 50 monks chanting as family members and friends paid their last respects.  

Nuon Chea is survived by his 85-year-old wife and three daughters, he said. He and his wife lived in a small wooden house very close to the border with Thailand from his 1998 surrender until his 2007 arrest by the tribunal.

Many former Khmer Rouge also live in the area. By one estimate, almost 70% of the area’s older men were fighters for the communist group.

The government of Prime Minister Hun Sen has repeatedly insisted that the tribunal’s work would cease with the convictions of its last two surviving leaders.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote to all government employees on Friday to tell them that preparing for a no-deal exit from the European Union is his and their top priority, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters.

Johnson has promised voters Britain will leave the EU on Oct. 31 with or without an exit deal, demanding that Brussels drop parts of the existing proposed deal relating to the Irish border and negotiate a fresh exit arrangement.

But the EU is adamant that the legal terms of the deal cannot be rewritten, raising expectations among politicians and financial markets that Britain is headed for an unmanaged divorce from the bloc in less than three months’ time.

“I would very much prefer to leave with a deal — one that must abolish the anti-democratic Irish backstop, which has unacceptable consequences for our country,” Johnson said in the email.

“But I recognize this may not happen. That is why preparing urgently and rapidly for the possibility of an exit without a deal will be my top priority, and it will be the top priority for the Civil Service too.”

Previously, pro-Brexit campaigners have criticized the ranks of Britain’s civil service, which adopts a politically neutral stance while working to enact government policy, saying they were biased towards remaining in the EU and trying to obstruct the exit process.

Many investors say a no-deal Brexit would send shock waves through the world economy, tip Britain into a recession, roil financial markets and weaken London’s position as the pre-eminent international financial center.

“I know many of you have already done a great deal of hard work in mobilizing to prepare for a No Deal scenario, so that we can leave on 31 October come what may,” Johnson wrote in the email, first reported by Sky News.

“Between now and then, we must engage and communicate clearly with the British people about what our plans for taking back control mean, what people and businesses need to do, and the support we will provide.”

Although advocates of a no-deal exit say that Britain would swiftly recover from any disruption and benefit over the long term from improved economic flexibility, sterling and other economic indicators reflect a broadly pessimistic outlook.

Data on Friday showed the British economy shrank unexpectedly for the first time since 2012 in the second quarter, dragged down by a slump in manufacturing.

Johnson, however praised the work of government employees in the 650-word bulletin issued on Friday afternoon, and promised a reforming agenda beyond Brexit, highlighting plans for improved public services.

“The Government I lead is fully committed to leaving the European Union by 31 October 2019 and getting a grip of the vital issues that affect people’s lives: the NHS, education and crime,” he wrote.

“While there are no grounds for complacency, there is every reason for optimism.”

At least 37 people have been killed in fresh fighting this week between rival ethnic groups in Chad, President Idriss Deby said on Friday.

The violence broke out over three days in the eastern province of Ouaddie, a strategic area on the border with Sudan, he said.

“The intercommunal conflict has become a national concern,” Deby told a press conference to mark the country’s independence day. “We are witnessing a terrible phenomenon.”

Eastern Chad is in the grip of a cycle of violence between nomadic camel herders — many from the Zaghawa ethnic group from which Deby hails — and sedentary farmers from the Ouaddian community.

The latest fighting erupted on Monday in the village of Hamra after a rancher was killed, according to a local charity.

The violence continued on Tuesday in the Chakoya locality, a local tribal official told AFP.

One hospital source told AFP the death toll was as high as 44.

Describing the clashes, Deby said that police sent to the scene came under fire.

“Gun owners do not hesitate to shoot the police. It is a total war… we must engage against those who carry weapons and killing people,” he said.

Deby said he would visit the area in the future, without giving any timeframe.

Last month Deby, who has been in power for almost three decades, hinted that military courts may be reintroduced in a bid to curb the unrest, a suggestion denounced by the country’s opposition.

More than 2 million Muslims are in Saudi Arabia at Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, for the yearly Hajj pilgrimage.

The Hajj is one of the world’s largest religious gatherings.

The faithful began the annual five-day ritual Friday by walking counterclockwise seven times around the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure at the center of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, which Muslims believe is the spot where the Prophet Abraham built his first temple.

Observant Muslims around the world face toward the Kaaba during their five daily prayers.

During the Hajj, devoted Muslims perform a series of religious rituals. In addition to walking around the Kaaba, they also drink the alkaline water from the Well of Zamzam, believed to have healing qualities. They also perform a symbolic stoning of the devil.

The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all able-bodied Muslims who can afford to do so are expected to take part in the Hajj at least once in their lifetimes.

This year 200 survivors and relatives of the victims of the March mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 people are attending as guests of the king of Saudi Arabia.

King Salman bin Abdulaziz is paying for the group’s airfare and accommodations. The total bill is expected to be more than $1 million.

Abfulrahman Al Suhaibani, the Saudi ambassador to New Zealand, told the Associated Press that the king was shocked by the shootings carried out by an Australian white supremacist.

Other white supremacists have been inspired by the New Zealand shootings, most recently in an attack at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, where 22 people were shot dead.
 

Updated Aug. 9, 6:09 a.m.

HONG KONG — Thousands of protesters returned to Hong Kong International Airport for the second time in as many weeks Friday to raise global attention to their fight against the local government and a controversial extradition bill.

The airport’s vast arrivals hall was filled with drumbeats and chants of “Free Hong Kong” and “Add Oil,” a Cantonese slogan of encouragement, as protesters sat on the floor of the arrival hall, careful to create channels for passengers to exit the airport.

Dozens handed out pamphlets, stickers, and tote bags in English and simplified Mandarin to inform tourists about the protest movement, which is entering its 10th week Sunday. Others wore photos of violent clashes with police and a number of people held signs condemning police brutality.

Protesters say they plan to occupy the airport for three consecutive days this weekend in an attempt to reach tens of thousands of international travelers. More than 74 million people transited through Hong Kong International Airport in 2018, according to government figures, which has connections to 220 destinations.

“I think [visitors] are not aware when they come to Hong Kong, this is why we are handing out materials so they can understand what is happening,” said protester Lucinda Leung as she handed out an eight-page pamphlet on the protest movement. “We just want to let international arrivals to know what is happening in Hong Kong.”

Protest gear absent

The usual protest gear of helmets and gas masks were noticeably absent, however, as the last airport demonstration July 26 ended peacefully without police clearances. Security was also minimal although airport staff appeared to be monitoring the protests.

Protest demands remain much the same since the protest movement began June 9. They have asked for the local government to permanently withdraw a controversial legislative bill that would allow for criminal extradition to China, an independent commission into police brutality, and universal suffrage in the direct election of Hong Kong’s leader.

Save your energy

While many visitors were reluctant to speak to VOA, tourist Crystal Ling, a Chinese citizen who lives in Japan and has read about the protests on Facebook, said the airport demonstrations were “impressive,” but remained skeptical.

“To be honest the politics around the world in every country is almost the same, so I don’t stand for any government, I don’t stand for any side,” she said. “I think if I were them, I would prefer to save my energy to make more money and make my life better, and not just sit here and waste my time.”

Both the United States and Australia have issued travel warnings for nationals visiting Hong Kong because of the dozens of protests staged since June 9, many of which have expanded into popular tourist districts.

The Hong Kong government said Friday that Hong Kong “remains a welcoming city for tourists and investors, a safe place for travelers from around the world” despite the unrest.

Authorities plan to relax curbs in India’s Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir to allow people to offer Friday prayers, media said, as a five-day lockdown damped protests over the withdrawal of the Himalayan region’s special status.

Seeking to tighten its grip on the contested region, the Indian government this week withdrew the state’s right to frame its own laws and allowed non-residents to buy property there.

Since Sunday mobile networks and internet services have been suspended, at least 300 leaders detained and public gatherings banned, effectively confining residents to their homes to stop protests in the revolt-torn region.

There will be “some relaxation” for Friday prayers, K. Vijay Kumar, an adviser to the state’s governor, told the Indian Express newspaper.

The prayers are likely to be held in neighborhood mosques, and not the main mosque in the region’s main city of Srinagar, media said.

“The forces have been given flexibility to impose prohibitory orders with minimum force and maximum compassion,” Kumar said, adding there had been only a few cases of stone pelting in parts of Srinagar.

Television showed footage of paramilitary soldiers patrolling empty streets in the city, a hotbed of the 30-year revolt in which more than 50,000 people have died.

Thousands of additional paramilitary troops flooded into Kashmir, already one of the world’s most militarized regions, ahead of Monday’s announcement of the change in the region’s constitutional status.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government also broke the state into two federal territories, a step regional leaders decried as a further humiliation.

With a near-total telecoms blackout, there is very little news trickling out of Kashmir, regional leaders said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was concerned over reports of restrictions in the Indian side of Kashmir, and warned that such action could “exacerbate the human rights situation in region,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement Thursday.

Hundreds of immigrant workers detained in Mississippi were released Thursday, a day after federal agents arrested 680 undocumented migrants in raids on food-processing plants, the largest such operation in the United States in 10 years.

At a news conference, officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi said more than 300 people, including pregnant women and juveniles, had been released on humanitarian grounds.

Those released on their own recognizance were served with notices and at some point will have to appear before immigration judges. Others were transported to detention facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Nearly all of the 680 migrants picked up were from Latin America.

According to officials, the operation, which had been in the planning stage for about a year, was executed when a judge agreed that law enforcement officers had “sufficient probable cause” to get search warrants and execute them. 

Expedited guidelines

Immigration officials said no one arrested was processed under new expedited removal guidelines that ICE issued in July, because agents are “still in the process of doing the training.”

The new interpretation of the expedited removal guidelines accelerates the deportation of undocumented immigrants anywhere in the United States who are not able to prove they have been in the country continuously for two years. The potential result is deportation before the undocumented immigrant is given a chance to see an immigration judge.

Federal officials said those detained Wednesday were asked if they had children at school or at child care who needed to be picked up. Detainees were offered cellphones so they could make the necessary arrangements for their children.

ICE agents said migrants were initially taken to a military base for processing. Some were given electronic ankle monitors to wear as they wait for court dates.

About 600 ICE agents were involved in the operation. They raided chicken- processing plants owned by five different companies in Bay Springs, Canton, Carthage, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastopol, all in Mississippi.

Companies quiet

None of the food companies involved in Wednesday’s raids have yet commented.

Many migrants, including those found to be in illegal status, are hired by companies of all sizes because they are considered willing to take jobs many U.S. workers do not want. Immigration advocates say such employment is essential for the economy.

U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst told reporters that those who want to come to the United States “have to follow our laws. … They have to come here legally, or they shouldn’t come here at all.”

Hurst also had a strong message for companies that he says knowingly hire undocumented immigrants “for competitive advantage or to make a quick buck.”

“If we find that you have violated federal criminal law, we’re coming after you,” he said.

Immigrant advocates

Also Thursday, immigration advocates were joined by pastors and civil rights attorneys calling for an end to ICE raids like the one in Mississippi.

Luis Espinoza, an organizer with Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, said those affected need legal assistance. An emotional Espinoza, who has been visiting the communities where people have been detained, urged people to help.

“I don’t see illegals. I don’t see bad people. It is only families — fathers, mothers who want something better for their kids. So, they come here and just work. They are not criminals,” he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, the Mississippi Center for Justice and a coalition of groups across the state have come together to help those in detention. Attorneys are monitoring the situation and exploring options to assist those affected by the raids.

Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center, said what happened Wednesday was not the response of Mississippians.

“This doesn’t come from the people. It doesn’t even come from those people who on the larger scale might chant, ‘Build that wall.’ Because in Mississippi, we know each other. … We’ve got our problems. We’re a hot mess at times, but this is not our choice,” he said.

VOA’s Afghanistan Service contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, the country’s intelligence agency, released a new video showing its special forces attacking Islamic State sleeper cells in rural areas of Kabul Wednesday.

The agency also said it arrested this week a key member of the terror group accused of coordinating suicide attacks and managing suicide bombers in the capital.

The agency said in a statement that it acted on prior intelligence about three locations around the capital, killing two IS suicide bombers and seizing a large amount of explosives and ammunitions.

“We have killed two IS suicide bombers and seized heavy weaponry, suicide vests, explosives and materials used to improvise vehicular bombs,” the statement said.

At least two members of the Afghan security forces also died in the operation.

A U.S. judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot withhold millions of dollars in law enforcement grants from Oregon to force the nation’s first sanctuary state to cooperate with U.S. immigration enforcement.

U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane in Eugene said in his ruling late Wednesday that the Trump administration lacks the authority to impose conditions on the grants that were provided by Congress.

Gov. Kate Brown and Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum had sued President Donald Trump in November to get a total of $4 million in grants from fiscal years 2017 and 2018 restored to the state, saying Oregon was “unlawfully deprived” of the money. 

Funding for public safety purposes

Rosenblum welcomed the judge’s ruling.

“We look forward to having these moneys we have relied upon continue to be available for critical public safety purposes,” Rosenblum said in an email.

A Veterans Treatment Court in Eugene and 40 other specialty courts, including mental health and civilian drug programs, risked losing all or part of their budgets if the money was withheld.

The Trump administration in 2017 threatened to withhold law enforcement grants from 29 cities, counties or states it viewed as having sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration agents. Other courts also have ruled against the administration. By March, all those jurisdictions had received or been cleared to get the money, except Oregon. 

“The U.S. government’s decision to withhold public safety dollars on account of our status as a sanctuary state was just simply wrongheaded,” Rosenblum said. “I remain committed to supporting our law enforcement officers’ ability to protect and serve all residents of Oregon regardless of where they were born or their immigration status.”

McShane indicated the administration’s policy put Oregon into the difficult position of either adopting stricter immigration policies or forgoing “critical law enforcement funds” and facing federal sanctions.

“Plaintiffs would, under any of these circumstances, risk public safety by eroding trust with immigrant communities or abandoning critical law enforcement initiatives funded by the Byrne JAG Program,” the judge wrote.

Byrne grants

The Byrne grants, named for a New York City policeman killed by gang members in 1988, are the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions, supporting law enforcement, prosecution, indigent defense, courts, crime prevention and education. 

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Oregon’s 1987 sanctuary state law, the nation’s first, prevents law enforcement from detaining people who are in the U.S. illegally but have not broken any other law. Authorities in the state won’t hold in custody those who committed crimes and have finished their sentences to be picked up by federal immigration agents, unless they have a warrant signed by a judge.

10th Amendment

The federal judge in Oregon ruled that the Trump administration’s attempt to put conditions on the grants violated the 10th Amendment, which says any power not expressly given to the federal government falls to the states or their people.

Portland also received the grants every year until 2017, using the money to buy bulletproof vests and special-threat plates for officers, acquire tactical medical kits, install GPS systems in its cars and add two victim advocates to the Police Bureau’s sex crimes unit. 

The city had expected to receive $780,000 for the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years.

McShane ordered the federal government to give the grants for fiscal 2017 and 2018 that it withheld, with no conditions or penalties.

The S&P 500 registered its largest one-day percentage gain in about two months Thursday, with technology shares providing the biggest boost as equities continued to rebound along with bond yields.

All major sectors advanced at least 1%, and the S&P 500 technology index, which was at the heart of the recent sell-off, climbed 2.4%.

The benchmark S&P 500 extended a rebound that began Wednesday and closed near its high of the day. The index gained 4% from Wednesday’s intraday bottom to Thursday’s close.

Strategists said stock market futures strengthened heading into the day, and bargain hunters stepped in to snap up beaten-down shares.

“The overnight action was positive. That, along with the bounce back yesterday, gave us a nice tailwind coming into the market today, both for high-frequency traders who were buying the trend and also for bargain hunters who had seen stocks that were on the watchlist come down to a level that looked attractive,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.

“So we’ve seen a lot of the tech names pop after they got hammered.”

Advanced Micro Devices Inc gained 16.2% after the chipmaker launched its second generation of processor chip and said that it had landed Alphabet Inc’s Google and Twitter Inc as customers.

Symantec Corp jumped 12.3% after sources said chipmaker Broadcom Inc was in advanced talks to buy the cybersecurity company’s enterprise business. After the bell, Symantec confirmed the sale.

Labor market

U.S. economic data pointed to a robust labor market as the number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, allaying some worries about the potential for a recession and helping U.S. Treasury yields rise.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 371.12 points, or 1.43%, to 26,378.19, the S&P 500 gained 54.11 points, or 1.88%, to 2,938.09 and the Nasdaq Composite added 176.33 points, or 2.24%, to 8,039.16.

Better-than-expected export numbers out of China also helped offset recent U.S.-China trade war worries, while there was also some improvement in the country’s yuan currency, whose slide over the weekend led to Wall Street’s worst day so far this year on Monday.
On the down side, Kraft Heinz sank after it pulled its full-year forecast and wrote down the value of several business units by over $1 billion.

Lyft, Uber

Lyft Inc advanced 3.0% after the ride-hailing service raised its annual outlook and hinted at the end of its price war with Uber Technologies Inc.

Uber, which reported earnings after the bell and has been a high-profile loser since its market launch this year, rose 8.2% during the session. The company reported revenue that missed analysts’ estimates, sending its shares down 6.9% after the close.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 4.47-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.69-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 42 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 80 new highs and 96 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 8.08 billion shares, compared with the 7.2 billion-share average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.