Ruth Morris is a reporter based in Shanghai.
War is getting sneakier. And mercenaries could be changing war in ways that the US might not be prepared for.
Diplomacy is often awkward, stymied by translators, late nights and unsecured yurt communication (yes, that really happened). But diplomacy can also stop a war, as years of secret and not-so-secret negotiations between the US and Iran proved when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was reached in 2015.
It's been a year since the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal ad some experts warn that the threat of a worldwide meltdown is the worst its been since the darkest, most dangerous days of the Cold War.
When Rana Abdelhamid was 15, a man tried to rip off her hijab. Now she teaches self-defense classes for Muslim women like her.
Casa Nemo Beach Resort and Spa sits on the island of Pulau Weh in Aceh, Indonesia. While the rest of Aceh has its own version of Sharia law, restricting the behavior of women and gay men, things are a little freer at Casa Nemo. The resort's owner says she wants it to be a refuge, but she's not sure how long it will be able to survive as one.
New anti-gay laws that just took effect in Indonesia's Aceh province mandate 100 strokes from the cane for people engaging in gay sex.
People in Aceh, Indonesia, are giving a welcome to Rohingya refugees chased out of Myanmar. But the refugees have their eye on another destination.
Officially atheist, the Communist Party these days is more tolerant of religion, though it generally demands that people worship in state-controlled settings. And that state control can manifest in weirdly capitalistic ways.
The unions, known as cooperative marriages, are seen as a way around intense parental pressure to get hitched and to produce a grandchild. They also seem to be gaining in popularity.
White actors playing "experts" regularly appear in Chinese commercials. But now, as Chinese consumers grow more sophisticated, more and more Chinese actors are taking over the lab coats and boss roles in TV ads.
You may not expect to find government versus opposition debates among school kids in a one-party state. But these debate contests are part of a plan to instill independent thinking in young Chinese who will have to compete in a global market.