While many Japanese adults are fully vaccinated, few have gotten a booster shot, which has been a vital protection from the highly contagious omicron variant.
As athletes make final preparations for the Winter Olympics, human rights advocates are ramping up their criticism of host country China's alleged violations, particularly against its Uyghur minority.
In the Philippine capital Manila, people without proof of full vaccination or a work exemption can't take public transportation. Human rights activists say the policy discriminates against the poor.
Thomas Gibbons-Neff served two tours in Afghanistan, and is now a New York Times reporter. He recently interviewed a high-level Taliban commander about a battle they had both been engaged in.
The Biden administration hopes to make deeper inroads in Southeast Asia but lags far behind China, which has already built up major trade ties, as well as roads and a high-speed rail.
NPR's A Martinez talks to John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction, about a declassified report that warned the Afghan air force would collapse without U.S. support.
The devastating typhoon that ripped through the Philippines before Christmas left a path of destruction. One month on, conditions on a fabled tourist destination are bleak.
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Filipe Ribeiro, the Afghanistan representative for Doctors Without Borders, to hear about the severe lack of food the country is facing.
The southern specialty — snail broth, pickled bamboo, slippery rice noodles — has taken off. "A lot of people were looking for crazy, ridiculous things to eat," says food blogger Mei Shanshan.
Monday's test was North Korea's fourth launch in under two weeks. By contrast, it took the North 10 months to conduct that many ballistic missile tests last year.