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☆ These are the 3 patterns of the ‘chronically single,’ says breakup expert
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-20 | by ( Ernestine Siu | In Ernestinesiu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The term "chronically single" has gone viral on TikTok with some videos reaching more than 10 million viewers globally. There are two types of single people: single people who are happy being single, and single people who are not happy being single, Amy Chan told CNBC Make It. After experiencing a gut-wrenching breakup in her 20s, Chan set off to change the breakup and dating experience for people everywhere. Today, she works as a relationship and breakup coach, and runs two weekend retreats, called "The Breakup Bootcamp" and "The Dating Bootcamp." They sabotage their relationshipsAnother pattern of the "chronically single" is that they tend to sabotage their relationships, said Chan.

Persons: Amy Chan, you've, Chan, —, They've Organizations: CNBC Locations: TikTok

Hezbollah fighters at the funeral of a commander in August, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon. By 2000, Israel had withdrawn from Lebanon, making Hezbollah a hero to many Lebanese. In that war, Israel rained bombs on southern Lebanon and Beirut, the capital; the fighting killed more than 1,000 Lebanese. Even some of Hezbollah’s traditionally loyal Shiite Muslim constituents in southern Lebanon are questioning the price of the current fighting. Estimates vary about just how many missiles Hezbollah has and just how sophisticated its systems are.

Persons: Israel hasn’t, Israel, Hassan Nasrallah, Nasrallah, Diego Ibarra Sánchez, Bashar al, Assad, Euan Ward Organizations: Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestine Liberation Organization, Credit, The New York Times, Central Intelligence Locations: Beirut, Lebanon, Gaza, Israel, Iran, Lebanese, United States, Syria

Typhoon Gaemi was weakening as it churned toward mainland China on Thursday, hours after the storm’s powerful winds and heavy rains submerged roads and forced the suspension of hundreds of flights in nearby Taiwan. The tropical cyclone made landfall on Taiwan on Wednesday night with wind speeds equivalent to those of a Category 3 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, a U.S. Navy forecasting organization. As of Thursday the storm had killed at least six people in Taiwan and the Philippines. Gaemi was moving across the Taiwan Strait early Thursday afternoon. It was expected to make landfall in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian in the late afternoon or evening with the force of a Category 1 hurricane.

Persons: Gaemi Organizations: Typhoon, U.S . Navy Locations: China, Taiwan, U.S, Philippines, Taiwan Strait, Chinese, Fujian

☆ Typhoon Gaemi Heads for Taiwan With Category 4 Strength
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-24 | by ( Amy Chang Chien | More About Amy Chang Chien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Typhoon Gaemi was approaching Taiwan with heavy rains and powerful winds on Wednesday, after officials on the island said that they had closed schools and canceled planned military exercises. Gaemi had maximum sustained winds of 138 miles per hour on Wednesday morning, according to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center. That would make it a Category 4 hurricane on the five-tier scale that is used to measure tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean. Gaemi was forecast to make landfall on Taiwan’s northeastern coast on Wednesday night in a slightly weakened state, the island’s Central Weather Administration said. After moving away from the island on Friday, it was expected to continue heading northwest toward the coast of southeastern China.

Persons: Gaemi Organizations: Navy’s, Warning, Weather Administration Locations: Taiwan, China

☆ Taiwan’s Blunt-Talking Leader Faces China’s Backlash
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-16 | by ( Chris Buckley | Amy Chang Chien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Chinese Coast Guard ships have sailed near Taiwan’s outer islands. When Lai Ching-te became Taiwan’s president in May, he vowed to stick with the China policies of his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen. Ms. Tsai sought to avoid confrontation even as she defended Taiwan’s right to self-rule and rejected Beijing’s assertion of sovereignty. Yet Mr. Lai, while keeping Taiwan’s basic policy toward China unchanged, has been blunter in rebuffing its demands. Mr. Lai, who rose as a more plain-spoken politician, sees a need to more sharply lay out Taiwan’s separate status.

Persons: Lai Ching, Tsai Ing, Tsai, Lai, Ms . Tsai, “, ”, David Sacks Organizations: Coast Guard, Council, Foreign Relations Locations: China, Taiwan, Beijing, Taiwan’s, rebuffing, Asia

☆ Cooking Oil in Dirty Fuel Tankers? Report Raises Alarms in China.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( Tiffany May | Amy Chang Chien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Chinese government said it would start a food-safety investigation after public outrage followed a news report that a tanker truck carried liquefied coal and was then immediately used to transport cooking oil. Last week, The Beijing News, which has a reputation as one of mainland China’s boldest newspapers, reported that it had witnessed a tanker truck previously used to transport industrial coal oil being loaded with soybean oil. The tanker was not sterilized between the loads, according to the newspaper, which said the episode took place in late May in Yanjiao, in Hebei, near Beijing. Several truckers interviewed for the piece said that often tankers were not cleaned before being loaded with cooking oil, sugar or other substances to be taken to wholesalers and other businesses. In the past two decades, China has repeatedly dealt with food safety concerns, including infant formula laced with melamine and cooking oil being recycled for continued use, a practice commonly known as using “gutter oil.”

Organizations: Beijing Locations: Yanjiao, Hebei, Beijing, China

☆ How to turn your passion into a career, says 42-year-old who quit marketing to become a breakup coach
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-29 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Along the way, "I had this idea for the breakup bootcamp," she says, a place where people who'd recently gone through a breakup could find solace and comfort together. Despite writing out the vision for breakup bootcamp in 2015, "I was too scared" to make it happen immediately, she says. That's why, now, her best advice for turning your passion into a career is "whatever it is," she says, "just launch it." Finally, in February 2017, she launched the first breakup bootcamp. They laid out a potential career path as a breakup coach and, in August 2017, she finally left her job in marketing to launch into her relationship-oriented career full-time.

Persons: Amy Chan, Chan, I'm Organizations: Huffington, CNBC Locations: New York

☆ As China’s Pressure on Taiwan Rises, Departing U.S. Envoy Urges Steady Hand
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-17 | by ( Chris Buckley | Amy Chang Chien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Near the end of three years as the United States’ chief representative in Taiwan, Sandra Oudkirk has some parting advice: Avoid panic about China’s combative language and moves, but don’t grow numb to the risks. Ms. Oudkirk has been Washington’s de facto ambassador to Taiwan over a time when the island democracy has become a crucible of tensions between Washington and Beijing. China claims that Taiwan is its territory and must accept unification, by armed force if leaders in Beijing decide that is necessary. At times, debate among Taiwanese and American politicians, officials and experts has taken on some tension as well, over which mix of tactics — what military purchases, what reassuring or unyielding words to Beijing, what steps with fellow democracies — could best reduce the risks of war. Ms. Oudkirk, who leaves her post in Taipei early next month, suggested that Taiwan and its partners needed to find a steady path, avoiding both hysteria and complacency.

Persons: Sandra Oudkirk, Oudkirk, — Organizations: United States ’ Locations: United States, Taiwan, Washington, Beijing, China, Taipei

☆ 42-year-old left her job in marketing to become a 'breakup coach'—her first book deal was worth 6 figures
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The 42-year-old Vancouver native started sharing her relationship experience at 25 when she wrote a Myspace post about a recent breakup. Chan now leads multiple relationship bootcamps per year, is working on her second relationship book and has various online brand deals. "And they basically say, like, 'look, no one owns the breakup space,'" Chan says. It took one final push for her to finally dive into the relationship space full time. Her mom emphatically said yes, and Chan left her job in August 2017.

Persons: Amy Chan, —, Chan, Amy Fabulous, …, Nick Jonas, Ali Wong Organizations: Vancouver, Simon Fraser University, Hours Vancouver, Heart Hackers, Post, Fortune, United Talent Agency, UTA Locations: Vancouver, Canada, San Diego, New York

☆ Why Lawmakers Are Brawling and People Are Protesting in Taiwan
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Amy Chang Chien | Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The legislation proposed by Mr. Lai’s opponents gained passage only a little over a week after he took office, highlighting the challenges he will face in pursuing his agenda without a legislative majority. In elections in January, the opposition Nationalist Party and Taiwan People’s Party together secured more seats in the 113-seat legislature than Mr. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party. Mr. Lai’s supporters have accused the opposition of overreach and of serving the interests of the Chinese Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as its territory. Nationalist and Taiwan People’s Party legislators have rejected those accusations, and Mr. Lai’s officials have not offered proof of allegations that Beijing orchestrated the legislation. Politicians jostled and fought, and members of Mr. Lai’s party covered the floor and walls of the chamber with protest placards.

Persons: Lai Ching, Lai’s, jostled Organizations: Nationalist Party, Taiwan People’s Party, Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party, Chinese Communist Party, Nationalist Locations: Taiwan, Beijing

China launched two days of military drills starting Thursday surrounding Taiwan in what it called a “strong punishment” to its opponents on the self-governing island, after Taiwan’s new president pledged to defend its sovereignty as he took office. The drills were the first substantive response by China to the swearing in of President Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing dislikes, in Taipei on Monday. Mr. Lai’s party asserts Taiwan’s separate status from China, and in a high-profile inaugural speech on Monday, he vowed to keep Taiwan’s democracy safe from Chinese pressure. China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has mainly responded to Mr. Lai’s speech with sharply worded criticisms. China did not say how many planes and ships it was deploying in the exercise, but the last major drill in multiple locations around Taiwan that China has conducted was in April of last year in response to the visit to Taiwan by the former House speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

Persons: Lai Ching, Kevin McCarthy Locations: China, Taiwan, Beijing, Taipei, Kinmen, Taiwan Strait

Taiwan’s incoming president, Lai Ching-te, is poised to take office on Monday, facing hard choices about how to secure the island democracy’s future in turbulent times — with wars flaring abroad, rifts in the United States over American global security priorities, and political divisions in Taiwan over how to preserve the brittle peace with China. Mr. Lai has promised to steer Taiwan on a safe course through these hazards, a theme that he is likely to highlight in his inaugural speech on a public plaza in Taipei. He has said that he will keep strengthening ties with Washington and other Western partners while resisting Beijing’s threats and enhancing Taiwan’s defenses. Yet he may also extend a tentative olive branch to Beijing, welcoming renewed talks if China’s leader, Xi Jinping, sets aside his key precondition: that Taiwan accept that it is a part of China. “We’ll see an emphasis on continuity in national security, cross-strait issues and foreign policy,” said Lii Wen, the international director for Mr. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party and an incoming spokesman for the new leader.

Persons: Lai Ching, Lai, Xi Jinping, “, ”, Lii Wen, Lai’s Organizations: Washington, Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party Locations: United States, Taiwan, China, Taipei, Beijing

☆ Taiwan, on China’s Doorstep, Is Dealing With TikTok Its Own Way
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Meaghan Tobin | Amy Chang Chien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As it is in the United States, TikTok is popular in Taiwan, used by a quarter of the island’s 23 million residents. People post videos of themselves shopping for trendy clothes, dressing up as video game characters and playing pranks on their roommates. Influencers share their choreographed dances and debate whether the sticky rice dumplings are better in Taiwan’s north or south. Taiwanese users of TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese internet giant ByteDance, are also served the kind of pro-China content that the U.S. Congress cited as a reason it passed a law that could result in a ban of TikTok in America. The video was flagged as fake by a fact-checking organization, and TikTok took it down.

Persons: Influencers, Rob Wittman, stoking, TikTok Organizations: U.S, Republican Locations: United States, Taiwan, China, America, Virginia, Taiwan’s

☆ Some millennial and Gen X parents are leaving it all behind to spend 6 figures on a family gap year. Here's how they budget and 'worldschool' their kids.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Hillary Hoffower | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Some white-collar parents are leaving their jobs to take family gap years. It's sticking around as the world somewhat normalizes; Reddit is littered with threads looking for family gap year advice, which posters can easily find in various blogs. She now offers a family gap year and extended travel planning service for $80 to $100 an hour. "It could expand into a big business," she said, adding that her family gap year clients typically have disposable income and kids around 8 to 11 years old. AdvertisementWorld lessons, no classroom requiredNo family gap year is complete without immersive travel.

Persons: —, Claire Williams, Matt, they'd, Claire, It's, Jennifer Spatz, itineraries, Amy Chang, Chang, Allen, they've, Spatz, Marisa Vitale, it's, She's, hadn't, what's Organizations: Service, Area, Federal, Global, United Nations Sustainable Locations: Sri Lanka, Sahara, worldschooling, COVID, Massachusetts, Asia, Europe, Venice, Italy, Airbnbs, Greece, Nepal, Sydney, Australia, Santiago, Chile, Spanish, Guatemala, Vietnam, Argentine, Jordan, Patagonia, Los Angeles, California, Salt Lake City, U.S

☆ Beijing Deplores Taiwan’s Next President, but Welcomes an Old One
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-31 | by ( Chris Buckley | Amy Chang Chien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As tensions fester between China and Taiwan, one elder politician from the island democracy is getting an effusive welcome on the mainland: Ma Ying-jeou, a former president. Mr. Ma’s 11-day trip across China, which was set to begin on Monday, comes at a fraught time. Beijing and Taipei have been in dispute over two Chinese fishermen who died while trying to flee a Taiwanese coast guard vessel in February, and China has sent its own coast guard ships close to a Taiwanese-controlled island near where the men died. Taiwanese officials expect China to intensify its military intimidation once the island’s next president, Lai Ching-te, takes office on May 20. His Democratic Progressive Party rejects Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is part of China, and Chinese officials particularly dislike Mr. Lai, often citing his 2017 description of himself as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan’s independence.”On the other hand, China’s warm treatment of Mr. Ma, 73, Taiwan’s president from 2008 to 2016, seems a way to emphasize that Beijing will keep an open door for politicians who favor closer ties and accept its conditions for talks.

Persons: Ma Ying, Ma’s, Lai Ching, Lai, ”, Ma Organizations: Democratic Progressive Party Locations: China, Taiwan, Beijing, Taipei, Taiwanese

But ship collision barriers are standard around the support piers of bridges over major waterways like the entrance to Baltimore’s harbor. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York City, for example, has massive barriers of concrete and rocks around the bases of the piers that support it. It was not immediately clear how old the barriers are around the piers that supported the bridge in Baltimore. The bridge there was being fitted with devices designed to protect the piers in case of any ship crash. The bridge has massive barriers of concrete and rocks around the bases of the piers that support it and protect it from ship crashes.

Persons: Spencer Platt, Basil M, ”, “, Mr, Karatzas, Amy Chang Chien Organizations: Officials, China Central Television, Getty, Karatzas Marine Advisors Locations: Guangzhou, China, Baltimore, Baltimore’s, New York City, New York

☆ China’s Dispute With Taiwan Is Playing Out Near This Frontline Island
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Chris Buckley | Amy Chang Chien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A small island controlled by Taiwan a few miles off China’s coast lived for decades in constant readiness for war. At one point in 1958, troops there hunkered in bunkers as Communist forces rained hundreds of thousands of shells on them. These days, the island, Kinmen, has become a hub of Taiwan’s commerce with China and its abandoned, weatherworn fortifications are tourist sites. Eight ferries a day take Taiwanese businesspeople and visitors from Kinmen to mainland China. But the sea around Kinmen has again turned tense after two Chinese men onboard a speedboat died in the area last month while trying to flee a Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel.

Organizations: Coast Guard Locations: Taiwan, Kinmen, China

Snow and freezing rain in China were disrupting travel on Monday and had already caused hundreds of rail and flight cancellations, as millions of people traveled across the country before lunar new year holiday begins this weekend. For many years, heavy travel within and into China ahead of the holiday, known as Spring Festival in Chinese, produced the world’s largest annual migration. During the coronavirus pandemic, fear of lockdowns, quarantines and other rules deterred many from traveling. Last year, the authorities abruptly lifted those rules weeks before lunar new year after facing widespread protests, but many would-be travelers stayed put because they were anxious about spreading the virus. This year was supposed to mark a return to normal levels of holiday travel.

Locations: China

An Australian writer and businessman who has been detained in China since 2019 has been declared guilty of espionage and was given a death sentence with two years’ probation on Monday, in a blow to warming relations between Australia and China. If Mr. Yang does not commit any crimes in those probationary two years, the sentence can be commuted to life imprisonment, Penny Wong, the Australian foreign minister, said in a statement. She described the verdict as “harrowing.”The long detention of Mr. Yang — who is also known by his legal name, Yang Jun — has been one of the sources of tensions between Australia and China. Now the severe sentence may again weigh on relations, which had been improving after the election of a new, center-left Labor government in Australia in 2022. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, visited Beijing late last year and has pressed for Mr. Yang’s release.

Persons: Yang Hengjun, Yang, Penny Wong, Yang —, Yang Jun —, Anthony Albanese Organizations: China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Labor Locations: Australian, China, Australia, Beijing

☆ Shih Ming-teh, Defiant Activist for a Democratic Taiwan, Dies at 83
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Chris Buckley | Amy Chang Chien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Shih Ming-teh, a lifelong campaigner for democracy in Taiwan who spent over two decades in prison for his cause and later started a protest movement against a president from his former party, died on Jan. 15, his 83rd birthday, in Taipei, the island’s capital. The cause was complications of an operation to remove a liver tumor, said his wife, Chia-chiun Chen Shih. Mr. Shih helped lead a pro-democracy protest in 1979 that was brutally broken up by the police and that is now viewed as a turning point in Taiwan’s journey from authoritarianism to democracy. “I was imprisoned for 25 years, and I faced the possibility of the death penalty twice, but each time I came out, I instantly plunged back into the whole effort to overthrow the Chiang family dictatorship,” Mr. Shih said in an interview with The New York Times in 2022. “I’m someone who never had a youth.”

Persons: Shih Ming, Chia, Chen Shih, Shih, Chiang Kai, shek, Chiang Ching, Chiang, ” Mr, “, ” Organizations: The New York Times Locations: Taiwan, Taipei, China

The collection of American memorabilia, vast and well-lit in a busy area of City Hall in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan, reflected decades of eager courtship. Maps highlighted sister cities in Ohio and Arizona. There was a celebration of baseball, an American flag laid out on a table. And in the middle of it all, a card sent to the United States that seemed to reveal the thinking of Tainan, a metropolis of 1.8 million, and nearly all of Taiwan. “Solidarity conquers all.”The message was aspirational — a graphic illustration of profound insecurity.

Organizations: City Hall, Solidarity Locations: City, Tainan, Ohio, Arizona, American, United States, Taiwan, China

☆ Walt Disney Nominates 12 to Board of Directors, Says CEO Iger’s Compensation Doubled in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Sabela Ojea | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: PHIL MCCARTEN/REUTERSWalt Disney recommended shareholders vote for its 12 nominees to the company’s board of directors and said Chief Executive Robert Iger ’s total compensation doubled in fiscal 2023. The company nominated Chairman Mark Parker to the board, as well as Mary Barra , Safra Catz , Amy Chang , Jeremy Darroch , Carolyn Everson, Michael Froman , James Gorman, Robert Iger, Maria Elena Lagomasino , Calvin McDonald , and Derica Rice.

Persons: PHIL MCCARTEN, REUTERS Walt, Robert Iger ’, Mark Parker, Mary Barra, Safra Catz, Amy Chang, Jeremy Darroch, Carolyn Everson, Michael Froman, James Gorman, Robert Iger, Maria Elena Lagomasino, Calvin McDonald, Derica Rice Organizations: REUTERS, REUTERS Walt Disney

In 2014, when Lai Ching-te was a rising political star in Taiwan, he visited China and was quizzed in public about the most incendiary issue for leaders in Beijing: his party’s stance on the island’s independence. His polite but firm response, people who know him say, was characteristic of the man who was on Saturday elected president and is now set to lead Taiwan for the next four years. Mr. Lai was addressing professors at the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai, an audience whose members, like many mainland Chinese, almost certainly believed that the island of Taiwan belongs to China. Mr. Lai said that while his Democratic Progressive Party had historically argued for Taiwan’s independence — a position that China opposes — the party also believed that any change in the island’s status had to be decided by all its people. The party’s position “had been arrived at through a consensus in Taiwanese society,” Mr. Lai said.

Persons: Lai Ching, Lai, “, ” Mr Organizations: Saturday, Fudan University, Democratic Progressive Party Locations: Taiwan, China, Beijing, Shanghai

The Taiwanese presidential candidate Lai Ching-te has for years been reviled by China’s Communist Party as a dangerous foe who, by its account, could drag the two sides into a war by pressing for full independence for his island democracy. Right up to Saturday, when millions of Taiwanese voted for their next president, an official Beijing news outlet warned that Mr. Lai could take Taiwan “on a path of no return.”Yet, despite China’s months of menacing warnings of a “war or peace” choice for Taiwan’s voters, Mr. Lai was victorious. Mr. Lai, currently Taiwan’s vice president, secured 40 percent of the votes in the election, giving his Democratic Progressive Party, or D.P.P., a third term in a row in the presidential office. No party has achieved more than two successive terms since Taiwan began holding direct, democratic elections for its president in 1996. gathering outside its headquarters in Taipei, thousands of supporters, many waving pink and green flags, cheered as Mr. Lai’s lead grew during the counting of the votes, which was displayed on a large screen on an outdoor stage.

Persons: Lai Ching, Lai, Lai’s Organizations: China’s Communist Party, Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan Locations: Beijing, Taiwan, Taipei

In the months leading up to a pivotal presidential election for Taiwan, candidates have focused on who can best handle the island democracy’s volatile relationship with China, with its worries about the risks of war. But at a recent forum in Taipei, younger voters instead peppered two of the candidates with questions about everyday issues like rent, telecom scams and the voting age. It was a telling distillation of the race, the outcome of which will have far-reaching implications for Taiwan. The island is a potential flashpoint between the United States and China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and has signaled that it could escalate military threats if the Democratic Progressive Party wins. A considerable number expressed disillusionment with Taiwan’s two dominant parties, the governing Democratic Progressive Party and the opposition Nationalist Party.

Organizations: Democratic Progressive Party, Nationalist Party Locations: Taiwan, China, Taipei, United States

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