Asia

Squid Game's creepy "red light, green light" doll.

Arts

Feel like you're missing something in 'Squid Game'? Here's a rundown

2:36pm October 16, 2021

by Janet W. Lee

Everyone's talking about the Netflix series Squid Game, about debt-ridden South Koreans playing deadly kids' games for cash — and if you feel like you're missing some cultural context, we can help.

Afghans inspect damage of the Ahmadi family house after a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29. The strike, which the Pentagon originally deemed a success in striking an ISIS-K target, killed 10 civilians, none of whom were associated with

U.S. will provide condolence payments to families of Kabul drone strike victims

11:11am October 16, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

The Aug. 29 U.S. drone strike was supposed to target ISIS-K members, but the attack killed 10 Afghan civilians. Now those victims' families will get unspecified condolence payments.

A Kandahar mosque attack exposes the Taliban's security challenges

4:37pm October 15, 2021

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with George Washington University's Andrew Mines on what the suicide blast at a mosque in Afghanistan which killed dozens says about the Taliban's ability to maintain security.

A Wakhi man looks out at the mountains in the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan. Uyghurs leaving China have trekked through the region. Now many Uyghurs in Afghanistan fear the Taliban could deport them to China.

World News

Afghan Uyghurs whose families fled China now fear the Taliban could deport them

2:35pm October 15, 2021

by Emily Feng

Many Uyghurs living in Afghanistan want to leave now that the Taliban are back in control. They fear that the Chinese government could push the Taliban to deport them to China.

Wang Yaping is one of three astronauts aboard the Shenzhou 13 spaceflight mission. She will be the first female astronaut to visit the latest Chinese space station, but she has the most space experience of the three.

World News

China has sent a female astronaut for a 6-month stay on its new space station

1:54pm October 15, 2021

by Scott Neuman

Wang Yaping, 41, will become China's first female spacewalker. She and two male colleagues successfully launched aboard Shenzhou 13 to spend six months aboard the Tiangong station.

People gather at the scene after a bomb blast hits a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Friday.

World News

Suicide bombers kill nearly 50 at a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan

1:29pm October 15, 2021

by Scott Neuman

The attack, reportedly by four people, took place during Friday prayers in the southern Kandahar province. It is the second in a week targeting a Shiite mosque.

Afghanistan mosque blast kills dozens

11:11am October 15, 2021

by Peter Kenyon

A suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 37 people. This follows a similar attack last week. What does it mean for Afghan security?

Sharmistha Chaudhuri (center, wearing pink), 35, at her wedding in Kolkata, India, in January 2020. Chaudhuri found some Indian wedding traditions retrograde, so she hired four feminist priestesses to officiate at hers. They performed a multilingual, egal

Hindu priestesses fight the patriarchy, one Indian wedding at a time

9:20am October 15, 2021

by Lauren Frayer

The priestesses are part of a feminist push to make Hinduism more inclusive. Some have begun officiating at Indian weddings stripped of patriarchal traditions: No more "donating" brides to in-laws.

A burnt building is pictured in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan on Friday. Dozens were killed and dozens more injured after a fire broke out early Thursday in a decades-old mixed commercial and residential building in the Taiwanese port city of Kaohsiung, of

World News

Taiwan officials set up commission to investigate a building fire that killed 46

6:02am October 15, 2021

by The Associated Press

An independent commission was set up Friday to investigate the conditions at the run-down building in the port city of Kaohsiung that caught fire.

Microsoft to end LinkedIn in China due to 'challenging' environment

5:43pm October 14, 2021

by John Ruwitch

Microsoft says it's pulling the plug on LinkedIn in China. The decision concludes a seven-year run, at the end of which it became too tough an environment for the networking service to keep operating.