Well, here it is! We made a new thing! It's an interview show like you've never heard before. First episode drops Thursday. Listen and subscribe! npr.org/about-npr/1245…

What a powerful interview, reflecting on South African democracy 30 years later (indeed a good convo on democracy everywhere).

'You are special because you come from South Africa, but you are not absolved of your responsibility to build a just world.'
npr.org/2024/04/28/124…

An eight-person State Department team has begun advising the Philippines on how to counter Chinese economic coercion

The team has worked with around a dozen nations since it began helping Lithuania during its 2021 dispute with Beijing

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Blinken on NPR shortly after meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing last week: '...they can't be doing that while at the same time helping to fuel what is the biggest threat to Europe's security since the end of the Cold War.' npr.org/2024/04/26/124…

China launched another manned mission to its Tiangong space station last week. My colleague John Ruwitch went to watch at the zany space town in the Gobi desert where it happened!
npr.org/2024/04/28/124…

This website shows that for the past 7 days, Taiwan was the earthquakiest place in the world. By a LOT.

Taiwan Numbah One!

A key part of the genocide in Xinjiang is the erasure of Uyghur culture and the targeting of the people who study and preserve it. This profile of Rahile Dawut, a famous Uyghur academic, is well worth your time.
A disappearance in Xinjiang via Financial Times
on.ft.com/4aIsfLP

Evan gave a thumbs-up when asked by the press how he was. And later shared this moment with his lawyers after the judge announced the decision. The legal team said they held out hope the next hearing would be the last.

Excellent, at times amusing, article on the ongoing development of the Arizona TSMC plant

🚨 WE URGE ALL USERS TO UPDATE THEIR KEYBOARD APPS IMMEDIATELY 🚨

🆕 New Citizen Lab report finds vulnerabilities in the security of cloud-based #pinyin #keyboard apps from vendors Baidu, Honor, iFlytek, OPPO, Samsung, Tencent, Vivo, and Xiaomi that could be exploited to reveal…

Please no.

A term I'm adding to my vocabulary now after this last (very shaky) 24 hours in Taiwan: a 'seismic swarm'

usgs.gov/faqs/what-diff…

China gets a lot of flak for expelling/denying/harassing journalists. Less covered - how India does the same.

Another huge quake now that set every door shaking in their frames and lights swaying in the middle of the night. Second night in a row. Taiwan let me sleep!!!

There have been more than 20 earthquakes with magnitudes between 3.3 and 5.3 in eastern Taiwan in the last 120 minutes

As Blinken heads to Beijing, I'm still trying to puzzle through Scholz's trip last week.

This vg piece from Martin Sandbu gives the best account i've found on the political economy underpinnings of Germany's approach.

'Germany’s doomed China strategy'
ft.com/content/2ff22d…

The security and intelligence Party apparatus has always been powerful but it’s seen a marked resurgence and self-publicity in the last years

one.npr.org/i/1245972833:1…

I've signed up ... excited to learn from y'all!