UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Islamic State extremist group remains resilient in Afghanistan despite “a high pace” of operations against it by government and international forces — and is urging all armed groups not to interfere in the upcoming presidential election.

The U.N. chief said in a report to the Security Council circulated Monday that between mid-June and early September 183 incidents were attributed to Islamic State fighters — nearly double the 93 incidents during the same period in 2018.

Guterres’ report was written before U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly ended a nearly yearlong effort to reach a political settlement with the Taliban on Saturday. Trump said Monday that U.S. peace talks with the Taliban were now “dead.”

In the report, the secretary-general says the U.S.-Taliban talks, a dialogue between Afghan parties in Qatar and strengthened efforts “to build a regional consensus on peace have given rise to cautious optimism that ..

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — Thousands of hurricane survivors are filing off boats and planes in the capital of the Bahamas, facing the need to start new lives after Hurricane Dorian but with little ideas on how or where to begin.

Some sat in hotel lobbies as they debated their next steps. Others were bused to shelters jammed to capacity. Some got rides from friends or family who offered a temporary place to stay on New Providence, an island of some 13,000 residents that has never seen so many people arrive on its shores in recent history.

Carla Ferguson, a 51-year-old resident of Treasure Cay, walked out of a small airport in Nassau with her daughter and other relatives late Monday afternoon and looked around as the sun set.

“We don’t know where we’re going to stay,” she said. “We don’t know.”

Ferguson and her family had one large duffel bag and three plastic storage boxes, most of them stuffed with donated clothes they received before leaving their tiny, devastated island.

“No one des..

Hong Kong’s protestors want greater autonomy from mainland China, a grievance they’re expressing through a song some are calling their new “national anthem.”

“Glory to Hong Kong” has spread like wildfire: on a quiet Monday night, hundreds of people spread out across four floors of a suburban shopping mall to sing it. The song has been watched on YouTube nearly 800,000 times, and at least half a dozen English translations, and a Japanese iteration, have surfaced.

The composer is Thomas, a full-time musician in his mid-twenties who asked to be identified only by his first name. He says he recruited performers, as well as people to help with the mixing and arrangement, on Hong Kong’s Reddit-like forum LIHKG, after sharing a demo version last month.

“Music is a tool for unity,” he tells TIME. “I really felt like we needed a song to unite us and boost our morale.”

While he wrote the first draft of the lyrics, LIHKG users contributed suggestions in a thread that was upvoted more than a t..

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Monday it is willing to resume nuclear diplomacy with the United States in late September but that Washington must come to the negotiating table with acceptable new proposals.

If the proposals don’t satisfy North Korea, dealings between the two countries may come to an end, First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said.

Choe’s statement was apparently aimed at pressuring the United States to make concessions when the North Korea-U.S. talks restart.

North Korea is widely believed to want the United States to provide it with security guarantees and extensive relief from U.S.-led sanctions in return for limited denuclearization steps.

U.S. President Donald Trump called North Korea’s announcement “interesting.”

“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “In the meantime, we have our hostages back, we’re getting the remains of our great heroes back and we’ve had no nuclear testing for a long time.”

In the late-night statement carried by state media, Ch..

Dozens of Bahamians trying to evacuate from the hurricane-wrecked islands were told to get off a ferry headed towards Florida last weekend, and were told that was because they did not have U.S. visas. But the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said on Monday afternoon at a White House press briefing that they would grant entry into the U.S. to anyone from the Bahamas on “humanitarian reasons.”

“We will accept anyone on humanitarian reasons that needs to come here,” said Mark Morgan, Acting Commissioner of CBP on the subject of Bahamians seeking refuge from the islands hit by Hurricane Dorian. “We’re not (…) telling a cruise line that you cannot allow anyone without documents,” he added. “That’s just not being done. There’s just some confusion there.”

Morgan said that, in Dorian’s aftermath, the agency has already processed people from the Bahamas who have travel documents and those who do not — but added that individuals still need to be vetted “to make sure we’re not letting ..

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched two projectiles toward the sea on Tuesday, South Korea’s military said, hours after the North offered to resume nuclear diplomacy with the United States but warned its dealings with Washington may end without new U.S. proposals.

The launches and demand for new proposals were apparently aimed at pressuring the United States to make concessions when the North Korea-U.S. talks restart. North Korea is widely believed to want the United States to provide security guarantees and extensive relief from U.S.-led sanctions in return for limited denuclearization steps.

The North Korean projectiles fired from its South Phyongan province, which surrounds its capital city of Pyongyang, flew about 330 kilometers (205 miles) across the country and in the direction of the waters off its east coast, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Ministry.

The military said South Korea will monitor possible additional launches. The JCS said ..