More Afghan Children Are Out of School, Reversing a Trend

Afghan children outside their school in Kunduz Province last July. A Unicef study finds that the number of out-of-school children has risen for the first time since 2002.CreditJim Huylebroek for The New York Times

Even with all the rising measures of mayhem in Afghanistan’s long war — civilian casualties, suicide bombings and refugees, to name a few — the number of children out of school had been falling. Until now.

North Korea Says Syria’s Assad Will Visit With Kim

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, left, was visited by North Korea’s newly appointed ambassador to Damascus, Mun Jong-nam, on Wednesday.CreditSyrian Arab News Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria plans to visit North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, the North’s state-run news media said on Sunday, suggesting that Mr. Kim is continuing his outreach to American adversaries even as he courts President Trump.

Deep in the Desert, Iran Quietly Advances Missile Technology

An Iranian facility 25 miles from Shahrud, Iran, where missiles testing is believed to be taking place.CreditDavid Schmerler/Center for Nonproliferation Studies; Imagery via Planet Labs Inc.

When an explosion nearly razed Iran’s long-range missile research facility in 2011 — and killed the military scientist who ran it — many Western intelligence analysts viewed it as devastating to Tehran’s technological ambitions.

Israelis Reflect on Gaza: ‘I Hope at Least That Each Bullet Was Justified’

A view of Gaza on Tuesday from the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz. As the protests wound down, kibbutz residents grappled with the killings the day before.CreditJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Daniel Rahamim, 63, had four Palestinians from nearby Gaza at his wedding in 1983. He remembers sunbathing on Gaza’s beaches, and drinking tea at a friend’s antique shop there.

But that was long ago — before Hamas, and the wars that traumatized his children, and the security barrier that now fences off the Gaza Strip like an open-air prison.

On Monday, as gunfire echoed across the wheat, sunflower and jojoba fields stretching several hundred yards to the fence, Mr. Rahamim felt conflicting emotions. “When we hear of the dead, it pains us,” he said the next afternoon. “I hope at least that each bullet was justified.”

From the agricultural hamlets with their backs up against Gaza to the busy sidewalks of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and all the way to Israel’s northern borderlands, Israelis grappled in different ways with the staggering casualty reports from the Gaza protest on Monday: 60 killed, more than 1,700 hospitalized, according to Palestinian officials. It was the worst one-day total since the 2014 Gaza war. Israel said that only a small number of those shot had been armed.

Via: New York Times