(SEOUL, South Korea) — South Korea said some North Korean officials returned to an inter-Korean liaison office on Monday, three days after the North abruptly withdrew its entire staff citing unspecified instructions from “higher-level authorities.”

It wasn’t immediately clear why North Korea sent some workers back to the office or whether it would restore a full staff. The North’s decision to withdraw its staff on Friday came a week after its vice foreign minister threatened to pull out of nuclear negotiations with the United States following the collapse of a nuclear summit last month between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in Vietnam.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, said in a statement that four to five North Korean officials showed up for work Monday at the liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong and told South Korean officials they came to work their usual shifts.

The ministry said the North had still not provi..

China is actively attempting to influence the global media to deter criticism and spread propaganda, according to a new report released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Monday.

The report, China’s Pursuit of a New World Media Order says Beijing is using a variety of strategies including ramping up international broadcasting, undertaking extensive advertising campaigns, and infiltrating foreign media outlets to spread its world view.

“You can see that what is at stake is not only the Chinese authorities trying to spread their own propaganda…what is at stake is journalism as we know it,” Cédric Alviani, East Asia Bureau Director of RSF told TIME.

According to the report, the Chinese government is investing as much as $1.3 billion annually to increase the global presence of Chinese media. With this investment, Chinese state-run television and radio shows have been able drastically expanded their international reach in recent years. China Global Television Network is televised in 1..

For years, Saudi Arabian sisters Reem and Rawan plotted their escape, dreaming of the moment they would leave their cloistered existence in the Gulf State and begin independent lives overseas. Rawan, 18, imagined it would start with a victory dance on the tarmac, while Reem, 20, hoped to play her anthem, Sia’s “Bird Set Free.”

Last week, after six months of being stranded in Hong Kong, the sisters finally got their first, long-deferred taste of freedom, becoming the latest women to slip beyond the grasp of the ultraconservative Kingdom.

As they touched down in the country from which they have obtained emergency visas, effectively securing asylum, the sisters were at last free to sing, dance and celebrate. “It’s like… finally,” Rawan said.

Speaking to TIME in a hotel room before their departure, the sisters, who are using aliases and declined to reveal their new domicile for fear of their family finding them, gushed about the possibilities that lie ahead.

“When I think about the thi..