JERUSALEM – The Israeli military said Saturday that three rockets had been fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip into southern Israel.    Israeli aerial defense batteries intercepted two of the missiles, the military said.    Israeli media reported that shrapnel from the Iron Dome defense system landed on the patio of a house. There were no immediate reports of injuries.    It was the second incident of rocket fire from Gaza in the past 24 hours.    Early on Saturday, Israeli aircraft hit two underground Hamas targets.    Israel blames the Islamic militant group for any attack originating from the Palestinian enclave.  …

The U.N. human rights office is condemning a crackdown Friday in Zimbabwe by riot police on peaceful protesters in the capital, Harare.  The agency is calling for an investigation into excessive use of force by security forces. U.N. Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville says there are better ways to deal with the population’s legitimate grievances on the economic situation in the country than by cracking down on peaceful protestors. “We are deeply concerned by the socio-economic crisis that continues to unfold in Zimbabwe.  While acknowledging efforts made by the government, the international community and the U.N. in Zimbabwe to mitigate the effects of the crisis and reform process, the dire economic situation is now impacting negatively on the realization of economic and social rights of millions of Zimbabweans,” Colville said. Zimbabwe’s citizens are struggling with hyperinflation, which has sent prices soaring for essential commodities such as fuel, food, transportation and health care.  Compounding the problems is the ongoing impact of cyclone Idai that hit Zimbabwe in March and a severe drought. The United Nations says one third of Zimbabwe’s population of 16 million people is in need of humanitarian aid.   The fallout in terms of casualties and possible arrests from …

Italy’s hard-line interior minister appeared to buckle under pressure Saturday to ease the political standoff over a migrant rescue ship with 134 people aboard, saying he would allow minors to disembark after being at sea for two weeks. Premier Giuseppe Conte had written a second letter to Interior Minister Matteo Salvini demanding that minors be allowed off the boat. Salvini wrote back Saturday with a three-page missive of his own saying he would do so but made clear it was Conte’s choice and that it didn’t set a precedent. It wasn’t clear how many youngsters were aboard, or when the disembarkation might begin. The standoff laid bare the split between Salvini’s anti-migrant League and the 5-Star Movement, which together govern Italy. Salvini is seeking to end Conte’s populist coalition with a no-confidence vote and early election that Salvini hopes will give him the premiership. Spanish aid group Open Arms had rescued the migrants in the Mediterranean near Libya two weeks ago, and won a legal battle to enter Italy’s territorial waters despite a ban by Salvini preventing humanitarian aid groups from docking. The ship has been off Italy’s coast waiting to disembark after Spain and five other European Union nations …

Conflicting demonstrations were expected to draw hundreds of protesters Saturday to the city of Portland, Oregon, where police were positioning in the downtown area to keep the peace. Far-right protesters are expected to march in the same part of town where local anti-fascist groups intend to conduct a counter-demonstration. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joined leaders of the city’s religious, and business to warn those “who plan on using Portland on August 17th as a platform to spread your hate. Those groups are not welcome here.” community FILE – Joey Gibson, left, founder of the Patriot Prayer group, argues with a bystander at right as Gibson’s group marched following a rally supporting gun rights, Aug. 18, 2018, at City Hall in Seattle. Friday police arrested Joey Gibson, the leader of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer’s, prompting him to urge his followers on social media to “show up ten-fold, one hundred-fold” for Saturday’s protests. Gibson, who was not involved in organizing this weekend’s event but has planned similar rallies in the past, surrendered Friday on an outstanding warrant for a fight that broke out in May between his right-wing supporters and left-wing adversaries. Mayor Wheeler said all of Portland’s nearly 1,000 police …

New York City police say they’ve apprehended a man suspected of placing two devices that looked like pressure cookers in a subway station.   Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea tweeted Saturday morning that a man seen holding one of the rice cookers in surveillance video was taken into custody.   The discovery of the cookers Friday led to an evacuation and roiled the morning commute.   Police said cameras near the World Trade Center captured a man with a cart putting cookers in two locations in the subway station.   A third cooker of the same type was later discovered 2 miles (3 kilometers) away on a sidewalk.   Authorities determined they were not explosives. Pressure cookers can be turned into bombs.   Police say they didn’t have details on the man’s apprehension. No charges have been announced. …

About 4,000 people have held a rally in Moscow to demand fairness in upcoming city council elections, and solo pickets protesting the exclusion of some opposition and independent candidates are taking place at prominent monuments. The actions Saturday have been much smaller and less heated than recent weekend protests over the issue. Two unauthorized demonstrations were previously harshly broken up by police, with more than 2,000 people detained altogether; a sanctioned demonstration last week attracted as many as 60,000 people, the largest protest in several years.   The authorized rally on Saturday was organized by the Communist Party. The solo pickets are following a law that demonstrations by a single person do not require official permission.   No detentions have been reported. …

Saudi state TV says a fire has been controlled at a massive oil and gas field after a drone attack claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. State TV said the fire struck the Shaybah oil field, which produces some 1 million barrels of crude oil a day.   Aramco and Saudi officials did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.   The oil field at Shaybah is in the Arabian Peninsula’s Empty Quarter, a sea of sand where temperatures routinely hit 50 degrees Celsius (122 degree Fahrenheit).   The site is also just a few kilometers (miles) from the border of the United Arab Emirates and some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from rebel-held territory in Yemen, demonstrating the range of the Houthis’ drones.   …

Officials in India-controlled Kashmir began restoring telephone service Saturday to the Himalayan region. The Indian-controlled section of disputed Kashmir has been under lockdown since early August, when New Delhi deployed tens of thousands of additional troops to the region as it cut off landlines, mobile phones and the internet and stripped the Muslim-majority region of its autonomy. The U.N. Security Council held a private meeting Friday to discuss India’s decision to revoke Kashmir’s special status which has escalated tensions with neighboring Pakistan.   Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, but is claimed in full by both.   Kashmir has been a regional flashpoint for decades.  Nuclear powers India and Pakistan have fought several wars over Kashmir since they both gained independence from Britain in 1947. …

Thousands of schoolteachers in Hong Kong marched to the official residence of the city’s leader Saturday as another weekend of protests got underway in the Chinese territory. An overflow crowd rallied at a nearby public square before setting off on streets that had been closed to traffic, carrying signs that read “Protect the next generation” and umbrellas to ward off intermittent downpours. The teachers tied white ribbons to a metal fence near Government House to show their support for the protesters, who have taken to the streets since early June and include many students. They said the government of leader Carrie Lam should answer the protesters’ demands and stop using what they called police violence to disperse demonstrators who have taken over streets and besieged and defaced government buildings. “We want to protect our students, our youngsters, so teachers are willing to come out and speak for the youngsters, and also, to stand by them so they are not alone,” said Fung Wai-wah, president of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union, which organized the march. People take part in the “Reclaim Hung Hom and To Kwa Wan, Restore Tranquility to Our Homeland” demonstration against the extradition bill in To Kwa …

DENALI NATIONAL PARK, Alaska  – Road crews have cleared one lane in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve, and buses are beginning to return about 300 stranded tourists back to the park entrance. The tourists became stranded Friday after heavy rains triggered mudslides and caused excess water from a culvert to damage a road. A shuttle bus carrying tourists makes its way along the park road with North America’s tallest peak, Denali, in the background, in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Aug. 26, 2016. Park spokesman Paul Ollig told The Associated Press that all the stranded passengers are expected back at the park entrance Friday night, but he didn’t have an exact time of when they would arrive. “Our team did an outstanding job responding to multiple debris slides along a pretty remote section of road,’’ said Erika Jostad, Denali’s chief ranger. “The geohazard team monitored conditions while the road crew was clearing debris. It was a great example of teamwork.’’ Earlier Friday, Denali’s superintendent closed Denali Park Road to all traffic at mile 30. The road is the only one inside the vast park. Similar debris flows led to daylong traffic restrictions last week. Continued heavy rains since …

Media organizations say Australia has become a secretive state that is actively restricting the press. The leaders of the country’s major newspapers and broadcasters have made the claims at the first public hearing of a parliamentary inquiry investigating Australia’s security laws and their impact on journalism. Australia’s media bosses say journalists must be able to do their jobs without fear. The inquiry in Sydney was told that reporters who published stories based on leaked government documents were being treated as though they had received “stolen goods.” The Australian parliament’s powerful intelligence and security committee is investigating the impact national security laws have on press freedom. FILE – Craig McMurtie, editorial director of the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC), speaks to members of the media outside the ABC building in Sydney, June 5, 2019. The probe was launched after the Australian Federal Police raided a newspaper journalist’s home in Canberra and the headquarters of the national broadcaster, the ABC, in June, over stories based on leaked confidential documents. The raids were widely condemned as heavy-handed and an “utter violation” of a free media. The ABC was targeted for publishing allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan. They …

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar has rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertions that she and fellow lawmaker Rashida Tlaib had no intention of meeting with Israeli officials before Netanyahu barred them from visiting Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank next week. Omar posted her Israeli itinerary on Twitter Friday, which included meeting with Jewish and Arab members of Israel’s parliament and Israeli security officials. Let’s be clear: the goal of our trip was to witness firsthand what is happening on the ground in Palestine and hear from stakeholders —our job as Members of Congress. But since we were unable to fulfill our role as legislators, I am sharing what we would have seen. (THREAD) — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019 Israeli military veterans had planned to give the lawmakers a tour of Hebron where “settlement expansion has resulted in a two-tiered city, with Palestinians under military occupation forced to walk on the opposite side of the street from Israelis.” She said Israeli military veterans would have conducted the tour and talked about “their experiences with the occupation.” The U.S. lawmaker said her delegation had also scheduled a briefing on the Bedouin community in East Jerusalem, while the United Nations …

SINGAPORE/WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to extend a reprieve given to Huawei Technologies that permits the Chinese firm to buy supplies from U.S. companies so that it can service existing customers, two sources familiar with the situation said. The “temporary general license” will be extended for Huawei for 90 days, the sources said. Commerce initially allowed Huawei to purchase some American-made goods in May shortly after blacklisting the company in a move aimed at minimizing disruption for its customers, many of which operate networks in rural America. An extension will renew an agreement set to lapse Aug. 19, continuing the Chinese company’s ability to maintain existing telecommunications networks and provide software updates to Huawei handsets. The situation surrounding the license, which has become a key bargaining chip for the United States in its trade negotiations with China, remains fluid and the decision to continue the Huawei reprieve could change ahead of the Monday deadline, the sources said. FILE – President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected …

President Donald Trump is warning U.S. voters that the economy could crash if he is turned out of office next year. His warning came this week as he sought to reassure supporters in New Hampshire about the state of economy amid signs of a possible recession on the horizon, something analysts say could cripple his re-election hopes next year. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.   …

As Hong Kong braces for more mass protests, Trump administration officials are watching events carefully, but also sending mixed messages to China about fears of a potential violent crackdown by Beijing. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.   …

Lawmakers in the United States have long been wary of Chinese telecom giant Huawei. They say the corporation is unlike most tech companies because it effectively acts as a spying tool for Beijing. Recently, Huawei installed security cameras around Uganda’s capital, Kampala.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more in this report narrated by Jeff Custer.   …

Beto O’Rourke on Friday became the first Democratic presidential candidate to visit one of the Mississippi towns where federal immigration agents raided chicken processing plants and arrested nearly 700 people, kicking off a new phase of his campaign he says will focus on President Donald Trump’s damaging policies. It was the former Texas congressman’s first campaign stop since he suspended his White House bid for nearly two weeks to stay in his hometown of El Paso, where a mass shooting killed 22 people Aug. 3.  The gunman drove more than 600 miles to open fire near the U.S.-Mexico border after posting an anti-immigrant screed online. O’Rourke argues that Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric helped inspire the attack. He still plans to visit Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, which kick off presidential primary voting, but has now vowed also to travel the country to highlight the stories of some of those people who, in his view, have been most hurt by Trump administration policies. Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke speaks in Spanish to Guatemalan immigrant Agusto Lopez Coronado in Canton, Miss., Aug. 16, 2019. Coronado initially declined to give his name to journalists after the immigration raids at the chicken plants. Food …

Members of China’s paramilitary People’s Armed Police marched and practiced crowd control tactics at a sports complex in Shenzhen across from Hong Kong in what some interpreted as a threat against pro-democracy protesters in the semi-autonomous territory. The sound of marching boots and synchronized shouts echoed from the grounds Friday. Officers in green camouflage stood guard at closed entrances. A stadium security guard said “it wasn’t clear” when the paramilitary police would leave the grounds. Chinese state media have said only that the Shenzhen exercises were planned earlier and were not directly related to the unrest in Hong Kong, though they came shortly after the central government in Beijing said the protests were beginning to show the “sprouts of terrorism.” Protesters attend a “Stand With Hong Kong, Power to the People Rally” at the Chater Garden, in Hong Kong, Aug. 16, 2019. From a distance, police could be seen conducting drills in military fatigues, using shields, poles and other riot-control gear. In one exercise, two groups marched in formation with those in front raising shields as if to protect themselves from projectiles. Others behind held red flags and banners. The words “the law” and “prosecuted” could be seen on one. …

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the U.S.-Israel relationship can withstand the “weakness” of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who shook diplomatic norms this week in barring two members of Congress from visiting the country. Pelosi told The Associated Press that the “weakness of Netanyahu and the weakness of Donald Trump combined” into a policy that’s “a no.” “We have a deep relationship and long-standing relationship with Israel that can withstand Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu,” Pelosi said. “We cannot let their weaknesses stand in the way of our ongoing relationship.” She said the U.S. commitment to Israel isn’t dependent on either leader, a sign there may not be lasting fallout from this week’s incident, particularly in terms of foreign aid, which must be approved by Congress. In an extraordinary move, Netanyahu, with a push from Trump, barred entry for Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota ahead of their planned visit. Tlaib was later granted a humanitarian exception to visit her grandmother in the West Bank, but ultimately decided against the trip . Trump views the freshmen congresswomen as among his chief opponents — part of the “squad” of newly elected liberal …

The Los Angeles Opera declined Friday to release any details of its promised investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against opera legend Placido Domingo, the company’s longtime general director, including whether it has begun. Also Friday, the union that represents opera singers said it plans a meeting in Los Angeles next week to address its members’ concerns ahead of the LA company’s season opener Sept. 14. Len Egert, the executive director of the American Guild of Musical Artists, told The Associated Press that the union has been receiving its own reports from members since an AP story earlier this week detailing accusations against the 78-year-old singing star. Hours after the AP story was released Tuesday detailing the allegations, the LA Opera announced it would engage outside counsel to investigate the “concerning allegations.” An open secret Three of the nine women who accused the singer of harassment and abuse of power described encounters they said took place while working with Domingo at the LA organization. The nine women and dozens of others interviewed said Domingo’s behavior was an open secret in the industry and that he pursued younger women with impunity. LA Opera would not disclose who would be conducting the …

Thousands of travelers entering the United States experienced delays Friday because of a technology outage affecting Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) processing systems.  Reuters reported that in a tweet at 6:37 p.m. EDT, CBP said that the affected systems were “coming back online” and that travelers were being processed. The agency said there was “no indication” that the disruption was “malicious in nature.”  Earlier, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York said via Twitter that CPB agents were manually processing travelers.   Travelers posted images and video on social media showing long lines at airports.   The outage affected only inbound U.S. international flights, not departures. The delays affected both foreign visitors to the United States as well as U.S. citizens arriving from abroad.   But the Federal Aviation Administration, Reuters reported, said the outage caused no changes in flights.  On an average day, CBP processes around 358,000 air passengers and crew.  This was not the CPB system’s first outage. It was out of service for four hours on Jan. 2, 2017, Reuters said. A Homeland Security inspector general’s office report issued in November of that year found “inadequate CBP software capacity testing, leaving the potential for recurrence of processing errors.”  …

HASLET, TEXAS — Acrid gun smoke clouded the sunny entrance of a Texas church on a recent Sunday. Seven men wearing heavy vests and carrying pistols loaded with blanks ran toward the sound of the shots, stopping at the end of a long hallway. As one peeked into the foyer, the “bad guy” raised the muzzle of an AR-15, took aim and squeezed the trigger. The simulated gunfight at the church in Haslet was part of a niche industry that trains civilians to protect their churches using the techniques and equipment of law enforcement. Rather than a bullet, the rifle fired a laser that hit Stephen Hatherley’s vest, triggering an electric shock the 60-year-old Navy veteran later described as a “tingle.” Shootings this month killed more than 30 people at an El Paso Walmart and Dayton, Ohio, entertainment district. But gunmen have also targeted houses of worships in recent years, including a church in rural Sutherland Springs, Texas, where more than two dozen people were killed in 2017.  Police officers David Riggall, left, and Nick Guadarrama, center, show students Stephen Hatherley, center rear, and Chris Scott, right rear, how to clear a hallway intersection during a security training session at Fellowship …

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has informed Congress it plans to sell F-16 fighters worth $8 billion to Taiwan in a move that will increase already high tensions with China.    Two U.S. officials and a congressional aide said the administration informally notified lawmakers of the proposed sale late Thursday. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.    The F-16 deal is highly controversial because China fiercely opposes all arms sales to Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province, but has specifically objected to advanced fighter jets. The notification also came as U.S. trade talks with China are stalled and amid unrest in Hong Kong that many fear could prompt Beijing to move militarily against the former British colony.    The State Department, which would ultimately authorize the sale, declined to comment, but members of Congress from both parties welcomed the proposal.    FILE – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., left, speaks with ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, during a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing in Washington, Feb. 13, 2019. The chairman and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, …

Over the past few days, VOA Mandarin service reporter Suli Yi has spoken to Hong Kong residents at peaceful protests. Any one of them could be your neighbor — law-abiding, family-focused, worried about the future of their community. …