China’s Trade Surplus Passes $1 Trillion at Record Pace

New York Times - Nov 10, 2026

China’s factories are finding eager buyers worldwide, but the export boom is raising concerns about its impact on trading partner nations.

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Chinese-run fish cages blamed for displaced Pangasinan fisherfolk

Nov 10, 2026

Chinese-run fish cages blamed for displaced Pangasinan fisherfolk

SUAL, PANGASINAN, Philippines — As Pangasinan and Zambales fishermen lose their fishing grounds in the West Philippine Sea, marginal fisherfolk in this coastal town face a similar problem with the reported encroachment of Chinese fish cage operators in their traditional fishing grounds. Local fishermen are demanding the removal of hundreds of fish cages they said

BARMM racing to pass 2027 regional budget

Nov 10, 2026

BARMM racing to pass 2027 regional budget

COTABATO CITY, BARMM, Philippines — Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua directed all new Cabinet members and heads of offices on Monday to speed up their proposed budget allocations as the Bangsamoro Parliament laid down its priority legislative agenda for its first 100 days in office. On top of the priorities is the passage of the

Accountability, aid for Leyte fishers urged after submarine cable oil leak

Nov 10, 2026

Accountability, aid for Leyte fishers urged after submarine cable oil leak

TACLOBAN CITY, LEYTE, Philippines — The Green Party of the Philippines Leyte chapter urged the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to address the effects of the mineral oil leak off Tabango town, Leyte, and provide compensation to affected fishing communities. The group said NGCP should take responsibility for the environmental damage and possible

16 short-form playwrights to face off in Seoul Players' 10-Minute Play Festival

Nov 10, 2026

16 short-form playwrights to face off in Seoul Players' 10-Minute Play Festival

Seoul's international theater community prepares for battle once again, as the 10-Minute Play Festival (10MPF) takes to the stage to find this year's top playwright. This will mark the 13th year of the contest, brought to the stage at Dulwich College in southern Seoul by Seoul Players, a not-for-profit, volunteer-run English-language theater group founded in 2001. For this year's contest, they received 410 submissions sent in March and April from 354 playwrights based all over the world. The number of submissions has exploded in recent years, peaking at more than 500 for last year's festival in just two weeks, before submissions had to be closed early. "Last year, one of the board [members] felt that many of the hundreds of plays we got were AI-generated," said Lorne Oliver, a producer for Seoul Players. He didn't disagree with the assessment, but he explained why it didn't affect their final decisions: "I just thought most of them were not up to snuff." He added, "We did not bother to run them through an AI check; we just went with the assessment results, since cream floats." This year, th

Korea's economy is booming. Why isn't President Lee's popularity?

Nov 10, 2026

Korea's economy is booming. Why isn't President Lee's popularity?

On paper, Korea's economy looks strong. Fueled by a semiconductor export boom, the country's annual exports are projected to top $1 trillion for the first time this year, making Korea only the fourth country to reach the milestone, after the United States, China and Germany. Forecasts from eight major investment banks put Korea's real gross domestic product growth at an average of 3.5 percent this year, with some expecting growth as high as 4 percent. Per capita gross national income is also expected to surpass $40,000 for the first time, potentially placing Korea sixth in the world by that measure. By those numbers, President Lee Jae Myung's approval ratings should be soaring. The economy, after all, is widely regarded as one of the biggest drivers of presidential popularity. Yet that is far from the case. A Realmeter survey of 2,528 adults nationwide, conducted from Nov. 2 to Friday for the Asia Business Daily, put Lee's approval rating at just 35.9 percent. His ratings have hovered between the high 30s and low 40s since October, a sharp decline from 67 percent seven months earlier. More

String of drug busts shatters Korea's drug-free myth

Nov 10, 2026

String of drug busts shatters Korea's drug-free myth

A string of recent drug cases is eroding Korea’s lingering reputation as a drug-free country, highlighting how both Koreans and foreign nationals are being increasingly drawn into narcotics crime. The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police said Monday that it referred 66 foreign nationals to the prosecution between March and October on charges including violating the Narcotics Control Act, with 30 of them being held in custody. Many of the suspects were Southeast Asian students who entered the country on D-2 student visas or D-4 language training visas. Of the seven separate cases, one involved drug manufacturing plans and another smuggling, while five involved distribution, purchase and use. One suspect set up equipment in a studio apartment to make ecstasy pills from powder and other materials smuggled into Korea, but was caught before obtaining them. Six others were arrested in succession after investigators found evidence that they had smuggled large amounts of ecstasy, ketamine and other drugs into Korea through international mail in March. They operated in isolated cells and took order

[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Poetry Commendation Award: To Unfold a Bird

Nov 10, 2026

[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Poetry Commendation Award: To Unfold a Bird

Written by Lee Su-myeong Translated by Noh Hye-yeon To Unfold a Bird A bird followed by hundreds of birds. I pass through the hundred-fold bird, without disturbance. The birds are seething. I move myself. I move a rock. The birds enter the rock, leave the rock. I move the rock against the direction of bird, while they watch How to Fall Under the Minari Family Every morning I wake minari. I hover as minari. I see a function f I do not understand. In theory, I follow the rhythms of minari standing still as exception. A lump of rhythms in the shape of minari Rhythm outside rhythm Rhythm is no abode Rhythm is most of me blended into it, therefore I push myself aside Pulled apart, blade by blade I break into today’s minari and try to repair minari, but a machine only wants a larger machine to smash itself, rather than become the machine itself. Minari leaps into the minari family The minari family grows smaller And smells foul on occasion. Into the hollow leaf Fly the great bundles of minari I wake minari. In the mechanical arrangement, most minari are nothing beyond minari Muddled, it looms. I Have Y

[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Poetry Commendation Award: There Was a Fire

Nov 10, 2026

[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Poetry Commendation Award: There Was a Fire

Written by An Hee-yeon Translated by Park Se-yeon There Was a Fire He figured the day had turned chill, and also felt a bit alone. Today, I'll light a fire, he thought. He laid dry sticks together and lit them. Fire, rise, fire— he hummed a song, he dreamed of a fire that would not hurt, not a fire that devours but the one that allows, not a fire that scorches but the one that allows. Even here, he said, there was a home, and people arrived one by one. Once the cold hands came out from their pockets, that's how stories began— palm lines crisscrossing, without our noticing. The sun and the moon tenderly exchanged goodbye, beyond the fence, the weeds were growing, a stray dog retrieved its soul, returning home, while not-yet-born me— the self that died inside, I lulled and fell asleep. The fire—extinguished long ago— but certain things did not cease. The fire hadn't hushed, not even a little. Fuss Covered head to toe in flour, I stepped into the square to bring my sorrow into view. Yesterday, I hid my umbrella in my bag and took the rain on, to proclaim: I do not shatter. I do not disintegr

[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Kevin O'Rourke Award: Giraffe Is the Name of the World

Nov 10, 2026

[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Kevin O'Rourke Award: Giraffe Is the Name of the World

Written by Danyao Translated by Ku Bon-seung Excerpt from 'Giraffe Is the Name of the World' The story I am about to tell is of the Giraffe, and also of myself. If I were asked to name the animals familiar to me, would name the meerkat that swivels its head this way and that from behind a rock, and the hyena whose eyes curve into a grin when it opens its mouth to tear at its prey, and the jackal whose ears and face and thighs and tail and every part of its body are triangles. And if I were to name the animals unfamiliar to me, I would recite the memory of slipping quietly past the shadows of lion and rhinoceros and hippopotamus. As for the plants, I would call to mind the acacia that spreads its branches like the cap of a mushroom, and the ebony blacker than the night sky, and the gloriosa flower that soars as though aflame. Should you wish for something more amusing, I would tell you that the baobab's branches are stunted, as though a great weight had pressed them down, because the tree grew its thick trunk upward without knowing how low the sky hung and realized only too late that ther

[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Fiction Grand Prize: How to Get Your Deposit Back

Nov 10, 2026

[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Fiction Grand Prize: How to Get Your Deposit Back

Written by Cho Ye-eun Translated by Breanna Hundley Excerpt from 'How to Get Your Deposit Back' Security deposit: 30 million won Monthly rent: 550,000 won Maintenance fee: 150,000 won (not included in rent) There were just under two months left until Seongah’s lease ended. She had given the landlord notice about two weeks before, which legally, was more than enough time to prepare for the vacancy. So there wasn’t anything in the way of getting her deposit back. At least, there shouldn’t have been. That’s for sure. * * * Seongah had received a call from her family in the countryside the day before. Her mom informed her that her little brother needed to be enrolled in cram school and asked her to send 5 million won as soon as her deposit was returned. That was how much she had borrowed from her mother, so she couldn’t really say no. Seongah just replied, “Okay,” before ending the call. The deposit budget for her next place was now down to 25 million won, which meant an increased chance of moving into an apartment with mold on the wallpaper or warped windows that had been illegall

[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Poetry Commendation Award winner Noh Hye-yeon

Nov 10, 2026

[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Poetry Commendation Award winner Noh Hye-yeon

For Noh Hye-yeon, returning to poetry began with opening old files and rediscovering a pleasure that corporate work and anxiety over artificial intelligence had pushed aside. An in-house translator at an automotive company, Noh spent this summer revisiting poems by Lee Su-myeong that she had first translated in graduate school. Revising them brought her back to the literary ambitions she had struggled to sustain. “Flipping through my Roget’s Thesaurus again, I realized just how much I was enjoying translation and how much I’d missed it,” Noh said in a written interview with The Korea Times. “For the first time in a long while, I was doing something that genuinely brought me joy.” Her translations of 10 poems by Lee won the poetry Commendation Award in this year’s Korea Times Literature Translation Awards. The recognition follows her fiction Grand Prize in the competition in 2023. In the intervening years, however, her confidence in a future as a literary translator had faltered. “The arrival of GPT felt like a natural disaster to me as a translator,” she said. Noh continu

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