I'm just a simple Canadian, so forgive my ignorance. But aren't the national guard all volunteers? Are they calling up car salesmen and accountants in West Texas to invade Illinois? Do I have that right?

Gym bros, monks, retirees: thousands descend on Taiwan town to clean up after devastating flood

The profile I wrote of Takaichi last year: open.substack.com/pub/observin...

BREAKING: Sanae Takaichi, a hardline conservative security hawk, is set to become Japan’s new — and first female — prime minister. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Fascinating watch on an individual that manages China’s relationship with Paraguay—including efforts to convince Paraguay to switch ties from Taiwan to China—but is involved in bribery, stealing power for crypto mining, human trafficking, the works

Apple did something very similar to the people of Hong Kong in 2019, removing an app that allowed protesters to track police movements via crowdsourced information: gizmodo.com/apple-sells-...

Most Taiwanese detained in China seem to be for fraud but it is concerning either way if this is pretext for political charges or if they are held in an unaccountable manner

The Bytown Museum is the oldest stone building in Ottawa, with a history dating back to 1827 and the construction of the Rideau Canal. With that history comes stories of ghosts that inhabit the building to make it a very haunted place. This is the story! 🧵 1/7

#OtD 30 Sep 2014 Xu Lizhi, a poet and rural migrant who worked at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, died by suicide at the age of 24. Learn more about Xu and other Chinese migrant worker poets in our podcast: workingclasshistory.com/podcast/wcl-...

AI is reshaping childhood in China Government support and tech companies’ drive for profit fuel a rush to integrate AI tools, from robot tutors to chatbots, in education and caretaking. restofworld.org/2025/ai-chin...

“Many voices pointed to deep-seated challenges faced by young jobseekers in China, where youth unemployment hovers close to 19% and a record 12.2 million new college graduates are competing for jobs in a tough economy.“

1 October 2014, eleven years ago today, Occupy Central and the Umbrella Movement protesters in photos. It had rained the previous night. 1- Apple Daily, with the cheeky headline “Stand up! Those who are unwilling to become slaves!” 2- Reuters

Satellite images from @planet.com show the level of damage in Guangfu in the aftermath of the breach of the Matai'an landslide dam in Taiwan in typhoon #Ragasa. It is clear that a very large part of the community suffered inundation. In total, 18 people were killed and seven are still missing.

▼ Helping Mata'an landslide #survivors: 1. SWIFT CODE: LBOTTWTP102 2. NAME: Taiwan Foundation for #Disaster Relief 3. ACCOUNT: 102-005-201-966 4. BANK: LAND BANK OF #TAIWAN CHANGCHUEN BRANCH 5. ADDRESS: No. 156, Changchun Rd., Zhongshan District, Taipei City 10459, Taiwan 6. CALL: 02-7702-8028

"Facebook video of CN Tower on fire should have AI-generated content label, experts say. No fire happened and video is a deepfake, CN Tower says." www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

A HK mother and her son have been in critical condition after they were swept into the sea during Super Typhoon Ragasa, according to the city's authorities. In full: buff.ly/sLLcCs7

This excellent website by 東華大學 has a detailed account of yesterday's devastating flood in Guangfu village, Hualien County. (h/t: @kerim.one for sharing)

A huge sinkhole over 50 meters deep has occurred in front of Vajira Hospital in Bangkok...

Another storm surge video, this time from restaurant Bistro La Baie in Tseung Kwan O at 6.08am Wednesday.

🌀Ragasa ✚10, GovHK situation report (Sep 24 13:20HKT) 🛏️ 816 people attending one of 50 temporary shelters 🪾 437 reports of fallen trees 🪨 1 report of landslide 🌊 15 reports of flooding 🏥 62 injuries reported (37 male 25 female) www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/...

Professor Jerome Cohen – widely respected as the world’s top China law expert – has died at the age of 95. HKFP revisits our exclusive 2020 interview with the first American to practice law in China. buff.ly/zPJGtUK

Taiwan isn’t as susceptible to invasion as one would think www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2...

🇹🇼 🌀Ragasa Max accumulated rainfall today, by district, to 15:10 1 Xinmajia/Pingtung 360mm 2 Tianxiang/Hualien 342 3 Lijialindao/Taitung 300 4 Nantianchi/Kaohsiung City 244 5 Cuifenghu/Yilan 217.5 6 Sidu/New Taipei City 161 7 Xiaoqilai/Nantou 158 8 Maokong/Taipei 134.5 www.cwa.gov.tw/V8/E/P/Rainf...

A high-altitude stunt in the Tibetan foothills of the Himalayas was intended to promote mountaineering brand Arc’teryx's commitment to exploring nature. Instead, the fireworks sparked outrage over the apparent risk it posed to the Himalayan ecosystem.

I wrote about how Facebook (née Meta) destroys everything a while back - based in part on my experiences in the early 2010s as a reporter in Southeast Asia - and each month, each day, they somehow manage to find new ways to become more evil. little-flying-robots.ghost.io/facebook-des...

I do think about this a lot

Make it stop please

This is yet another story about authoritarianism — but one that hits a little different. Phurba is resilience incarnate, a person born for these times. And his tale is bonkers. I hope you enjoy reading it as much we did reporting it. Gift link: www.wsj.com/world/asia/t...

Hong Kong migrants must not become collateral damage in the UK government’s attempts to appear tough on immigration and beat back the threat of the populist right

Curiosity got the better of me. I wandered over to Twitter (X) to see what the TL looks like now and I regret everything

not the first to say this but ta-nahesi coates is a truly exceptional writer www.vanityfair.com/news/story/c...

I repeat: This is WILDLY illegal. Trump is just outright, explicitly, egregiously ignoring the law. The fact that NONE of these words in the Times post say so is a failure of journalism.

As part of a consortium of researchers and journalists, I spent the better part of a year digging into leaked documents from Chinese security company Geedge, which plays a pivotal role exporting the Great Firewall around the world: www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/15c699a...

A lot of times the authorities show they’re incredibly dumb and incompetent. Like, arresting people over wearing a t-shirt, or - this was before 2019 - arguing boobs are weapons. But the dumbness and incompetence don’t stop them doing stuff like this to chill dissent because they can’t jail everyone

Cool.

Looked at my data collections for state-backed activity. If the report were a picture:

RIP Jumbo, immortalised in delicious gingerbread

Which work? Calling for gay people to be stoned to death? Blaming airplane crashes on black pilots? Anti-vax bullshit? Election denialism? Pushing Great Replacement Theory? Kirk’s murder is awful and ominous for this country. But no, we don’t need to honor him or “continue his work.”

The HK government's proposed bill to recognise same-sex partnerships has failed to pass in the Legislative Council (LegCo), with just 14 out of 86 lawmakers voting in favour. In full: buff.ly/WjX1Xeg

1/ Hong Kong Marriage Equality expressed disappointment and "profound regret" at the rejection of the same-sex partnership bill by the city's "patriots-only" legislature on Wednesday.

"Prosecutors said that soon after Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on Monday, he violated the bail terms by contacting two witnesses in the corruption case -- his aide Chen Chih-han (陳智菡) and TPP Taipei City Councilor Chen You-cheng (陳宥丞)."

This was 4 days ago btw.

Rereading this othermeans.io/p/theres-no-...

Just gonna drop this here tonight wapo.st/3VKVNT2

Please report this website:

So grateful to write for @dissentmag.bsky.social's Fall 2025 issue "Authoritarianism and Resistance." I drafted the piece in June with the new school year in mind, as an immigrant scholar severed from her homeland: What can we teach the young about how to exist and persist at this historic juncture?

So I'm protecting my peace and (mostly) ignoring politics to get back to my happy place: maritime history. In a new 3-part series for Zolima, I look at the incredible story of Seawise Giant, the Hong Kong-owned tanker that — even decades after she was scrapped — remains the largest ship ever built.

Follow up: Taiwan accuses China of breaching international law over drilling www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

WOW. China is drilling for oil and gas inside Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone, a move that analysts believe is likely part of Beijing’s unilateral grab for disputed territory. Great scoop from @heldavidson.bsky.social and @thejamestownfdn.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...