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Taipei Economic and Cultural Office representative Hsiao Bi-khim waits to be introduced during the opening ceremony of the first ever Taiwan Expo in Washington on Oct. 12, 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 16, 2023

Taiwan presidential frontrunner taps U.S. envoy as running mate

Born in Japan to a Taiwanese father and American mother, Hsiao Bi-khim has been Taiwan's de facto ambassador to the U.S. since 2020.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 16, 2023

Heart failure drugs may help prevent breast cancer relapse: Japanese study

The study, conducted by a team of Japanese researchers, could lead to the future development of a therapy for patients with triple-negative breast cancer.
A worker rides a scooter past an unfinished bridge near the center of the Qianhai new district in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 16, 2023

China's not-so-special economic zone embodies a harsh new reality

Qianhai is struggling to stand out among 2,500 other special zones across China.
Palestinians flee northern Gaza on Sunday as Israeli tanks roll deeper into the enclave amid the ongoing conflict. 
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2023

Where is outrage against Hamas over Gaza’s death toll?

Palestinian deaths weren’t a bug in Hamas' plan but an essential part of it.
Milk Talk members Yuqi Shinohara (left), who goes by the moniker Q.i, and Miles Ungar officially started their electro-boogie project in 2019.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2023

Milk Talk's deliciously funky mix of sweet and sour

The duo turns bottled-up feelings into electro-boogie delights on their debut album.
Bears doing yoga? If you’re in the city, why not?
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 16, 2023

Bear goes the neighborhood? Japanese wildlife is on the move.

This week, Alex K.T. Martin joins us to discuss why people are encountering bears, boars and other wildlife in the most unlikely of places.
Mika and Jesse say their landlady prefers a hands-off style of property management, leaving all matters, including maintenence and repairs, to the renting couple.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 18, 2023

Renting akiya: A backdoor into Japan's abandoned homes

“If the choice is between leaving (an akiya) empty or renting it out, please rent it out.”
Palestinians amongst the rubble of destroyed residential buildings following Israeli airstrikes in the Shejaiya district east of Gaza City, Gaza, on Nov. 9.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 17, 2023

U.S. and EU back U.N. force in postwar Gaza

U.S. and European officials concede big questions remain about such an operation and recognize that Israel remains highly skeptical of such a plan.
Weapons and equipment that Israel's army says were found at the Shifa hospital complex in the Gaza Strip, as seen in this screen grab from video released by the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 17, 2023

Gaza communications down as Israel searches main hospital

Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations in northern Gaza since soldiers raided the complex hunting for a Hamas command center.
Yoshiko Koide, a professor at Nagoya College, and 12 female students delved deep into otaku culture to create “Otaku Dictionary Daigenkai,” a dictionary of terms from all walks of fandom.
LIFE / Language
Nov 20, 2023

Test your otaku vocabulary, from 'oshi' to 'bacon lettuce'

“Otaku Dictionary Daigenkai” has gathered the language of fandom, from idols to games and anime.
A woman sits where her apartment once stood in Lahaina, Hawaii, after the city was devastated by a wildfire, on Aug. 11.
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 17, 2023

Nowhere is safe from worsening climate change, new U.S. report warns

The report comes at a time of record-shattering heat, with recent months ranking as the hottest on record across the world.
Overflowing trash next to a vending machine in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, which is popular with tourists, in March
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 18, 2023

Trash cans make techie comeback in Japan as tourists flood cities

This week, the tourist-heavy Dotonbori district in Osaka installed around 20 new technologically enabled garbage cans called SmaGO.
Petroleum pipelines and fuel storage tanks at a refinery near Manama, Bahrain, in 2017
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 18, 2023

To meet climate goals, Gulf countries will have to overhaul everything

The growing oil-rich region faces myriad challenges as the world pushes to decarbonize.
A Palestinian girl and her brother sit amidst the debris of a house following an Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 18, 2023

Hundreds flee as Israel orders Gaza's main hospital evacuated

Israel has been pressing military operations inside the hospital, searching for the Hamas operations center it says lies under the sprawling complex.
Smoke rises from Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 18, 2023

Forever war? Israel risks a long, bloody insurgency in Gaza

None of the ideas floated so far by Israel, the United States and Arab nations for the postwar administration of Gaza have managed to gain traction.
Sam Altman, then CEO of OpenAI, at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco in March
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 19, 2023

OpenAI board pressed by some investors to reinstate Sam Altman

Altman is open to returning. In one scenario under consideration, members of the current OpenAI board would step down as soon as this weekend.
Sam Altman, then the chief executive of OpenAI, in Redmond, Washington, in February
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 19, 2023

The perpetual rise of Sam Altman takes an unexpected turn

The former OpenAI CEO was the face of an AI-fueled future. He was the most Silicon Valley person alive. Then, on Friday, he was fired.
An Israeli armored vehicle rolls past Palestinians fleeing Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, on foot amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militants on Saturday in this image taken from video.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 19, 2023

Tentative Gaza deal reached to free hostages, pause fighting: report

However, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. officials said no deal had been reached yet.
Injured children at Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Oct. 12 following Israeli air strikes
WORLD
Nov 19, 2023

WHO says Gaza's Shifa hospital a 'death zone,' urges evacuation

The World Health Organization said Sunday it had led an assessment mission to Shifa hospital in Gaza City and determined it was a "death zone," urging a full evacuation.
A worker uses a vacuum cleaner inside a bullet train at Suseo Station in Seoul on Nov. 13. South Korea is launching a four-week campaign against bedbugs after multiple reports of infestations sparked widespread public anxiety.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Nov 19, 2023

Bedbug anxiety comes for Asia, and the pest killers are here for it

Outbreaks in France and South Korea have people across Asia on high alert for bedbugs. Exterminators in the region say business is booming.
Visitors stroll through a tunnel of autumn maple leaves at Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture on Nov. 4.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Nov 19, 2023

Fall is the new summer: Warming threatens Japan’s cultural calendar

Climate change is disrupting Japan’s autumn and seasonal experiences, and with it the rhythm of people’s lives.
Japan's culture of floor-sitting stretches back to ancient times. Only in the last 60 years has it faced off against a new lifestyle brought along by the rapid spread of chairs and other high furniture.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Nov 20, 2023

Has Japan mastered sitting?

Sitting is a deceptively simple act. But the story of sitting in Japan spans centuries of culture, politics and religion.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter dance at a White House Congressional Ball in Washington, on Dec. 13, 1978.
WORLD
Nov 20, 2023

Former U.S. first lady Rosalynn Carter dies at 96

Seen as unassuming and quiet before coming to Washington in 1977, Carter developed into an eloquent speaker, campaigner and activist.
A Palestinian medic cares for premature babies evacuated from Shifa hospital to the Emirates hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 20, 2023

Premature babies moved from Shifa hospital amid Gaza carnage

The World Health Organization has described the situation at Gaza's biggest hospital as a "death zone."
Taiwanese Vice President Lai Ching-te (left), presidential candidate from the Democratic Progressive Party, introduces Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan's de facto envoy to the United States, as his running mate in the 2024 election, during a news conference at Lai's campaign headquarters in Taipei on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 20, 2023

Taiwan presidential front-runner taps U.S. envoy as running mate

Lai Ching-te tapped Hsiao Bi-khim, a fluent English speaker who had been Taiwan's de facto ambassador to the U.S., to join him on the DPP ticket.
Smoke rises during fighting in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on May 3.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 20, 2023

'Libya scenario': war-torn Sudan could break apart, experts warn

By the end of October, fighting had killed over 10,000 and displaced another 6 million.
Children with their parents pray in a temporary church at a camp for internally displaced people in Demoso township in Myanmar's Kayah state.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 20, 2023

Myanmar's displaced pray and teach under deadly skies

The junta has battered Kayah with airstrikes from its Russian and Chinese-built jets, and more than 100,000 people are now displaced in the state.
Japan’s national bar exam was held on Nov. 8 with a pass rate of 45%. Though for decades the pass rate was much lower, this seeming improvement has come on the back of several regulatory blunders.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 20, 2023

The failure behind Japan’s bar exam pass rate

The pass rate for Japan's bar exam has fluctuated, with this year's level coming on the back of several misguided interventions.
Lai Ching-te (left), Taiwanese presidential candidate from the Democratic Progressive Party, introduces Hsiao Bi-khim (right), former Taiwan representative to the United States, as his running mate in the 2024 election, during a news conference at Lai's campaign headquarters in Taipei on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 21, 2023

Taiwan poll about whether to embrace China or not, front-runner says

Taiwan has to choose whether the island keeps moving forward on the road to democracy or "walks into the embrace of China," Lai Ching-te said.
Egyptian medics stand by with incubators to receive premature Palestinian babies evacuated from Gaza on Monday.
WORLD
Nov 21, 2023

Gaza babies evacuated as Hamas reports deadly hospital strike

Gaza's health ministry said the Israeli army's strike on the Indonesian Hospital in the Palestinian territory's north killed at least 12 people.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami