News avatars are proliferating on social media and experts say they will spread as the technology becomes more accessible

The news presenter has a deeply uncanny air as he delivers a partisan and pejorative message in Mandarin: Taiwan’s outgoing president, Tsai Ing-wen, is as effective as limp spinach, her period in office beset by economic under performance, social problems and protests.

“Water spinach looks at water spinach. Turns out that water spinach isn’t just a name,” says the presenter, in an extended metaphor about Tsai being “Hollow Tsai” – a pun related to the Mandarin word for water spinach.

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© Photograph: Storm-1376

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© Photograph: Storm-1376

Yonaguni is a tourist hotspot – but its location just 100km from Taiwan means residents must wrestle with the creeping militarisation of their home

In the minds of many Japanese people, Yonaguni is a sleepy paradise of crystal-clear sea and pristine beaches, where miniature horses graze on clifftops and empty roads dissect fields of sugar cane; where tourists dive with hammerhead sharks and marvel at the Ayamihabiru – the world’s largest Atlas moth.

But this tiny island, located far closer to Taipei than Tokyo, now finds itself at the centre of regional tensions triggered by a new round of Chinese aggression towards Taiwan.

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© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

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© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

The island democracy was early to ban TikTok on government phones, and the ruling party refuses to use it. But a U.S.-style ban is not under consideration.

© An Rong Xu for The New York Times

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

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© Photograph: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for ABA

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© Photograph: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for ABA

ICS and OT security startup TXOne Networks secures $51 million in a Series B extension and adds new investors from Taiwan.

The post TXOne Networks Scores $51M Series B Extension appeared first on SecurityWeek.

A new study bolsters existing research suggesting that exercise can protect against anxiety, depression and attention challenges.

© Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plans to build an additional factory and upgrade another planned facility in Phoenix with the federal grants.

© T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times