Reporter Tiffany Wong is in Palau, where she sat down with President Surangel Whipps Jr. and is covering the Pacific Islands Forum. Assignment Editor Chia Chang walks us through the historical significance of Taiwan’s participation and why it matters for the region.  

Stacy Yang takes the assignment editor’s chair this week for the penultimate episode of Assignment Desk, unpacking the political wrangling behind next year’s government spending plans. Plus: cash handouts fueled by a booming tech sector, how AI is reshaping the choices students make about their futures, and a look at TaiwanPlus’s two new correspondents reporting from London and Sydney.

Yvonne Yang joins Charlie Storrar to look back on a week and a half’s coverage of the Han Kuang military exercises with a shout-out to our hardworking defense desk reporters. Taiwan’s digital affairs ministry responds to reports of a cyberattack in July by hackers using a publicly available AI model. A new US tariffs on drone imports spell bad news for Taiwan – or do they? And St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Godwin Friday is in Taiwan to celebrate 45 years of diplomatic relations.

Assignment editor Stacy Hsu joins Charlie Storrar to talk about the main focus of TaiwanPlus news coverage this week, the arrival of this year’s Han Kuang Exercise, Taiwan’s largest annual military drills. While this year’s drills have been touted as largely unscripted in order to better prepare the country’s armed forces for more realistic battle scenarios, Stacy discusses the challenges of sending out reporters to cover simulations that are only announced to the media the evening before. Plus, US congressman Michael McCaul, former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and long-term supporter of Taiwan, gives an exclusive interview to TaiwanPlus while in Taipei for this year’s Ketagalan Forum.

Yvonne Yang is back as this week’s assignment editor, with a look at how Taiwan has fared on the diplomatic rollercoaster this week; well, in terms of relations with Lithuania; with Papua New Guinea and Morocco…not so much. Plus, Taiwan gears up for this year’s edition of the Han Kuang military exercise, and could it be the end of the line for the pro-Beijing Chinese Unification Promotion Party?

Assignment editor Stacy Hsu talks Charlie Storrar through the main happenings of the week, from tensions at the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting following another clash between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea to the latest in Taiwan’s efforts to promote civil defense and reservist training. Plus the newest chapter in the long-running and often confusing US tariffs saga. And could a cooking oil scandal prove slippery for Taiwan’s ruling party in local elections later this year?

Stacy Hsu joins Andrew and Charlie on the Assignment Desk in what’s been a tricky week for Taiwan on the diplomatic front, with the new Lithuanian prime minister saying the 2021 decision to allow a Taiwanese trade office in Vilnius using the name Taiwan was “maybe too brave” and Papua New Guinea making a surprise announcement ordering the closure of Taiwan’s representative office there. Friday also saw Taiwan’s main stock index experience its largest single-day drop, of over 6%, on fears of overvaluation in the booming AI sector.

When a typhoon approaches Taiwan, how does a newsroom prepare? Assignment editor Yvonne Yang takes you behind the scenes of TaiwanPlus' coverage, from deciding where to deploy reporter Irene Lin for live reports to balancing the need to tell the story with keeping crews safe. Plus, a look at how people across Taiwan prepare before the storm arrives.

From China's new ethnic unity law and Taiwan's new workplace anti-bullying protections to contactless metro payments, July 1 brought several significant changes. It also marked the 20th anniversary of the Taiwan Broadcasting System, of which TaiwanPlus is a part. Assignment editor Stacy Hsu joins us to explain how our newsroom covered these stories and why they matter.

Assignment Editor Chia Chang takes us through coverage of the RIMPAC exercise now underway off Hawaii and Taiwan’s five-day combat readiness drills closer to home. Meanwhile, another kind of drill is being planned to help the public prepare for potentially deadly summer heat waves. And speaking of hot, Taiwan’s stock market continues to hit record highs, prompting concerns from regulators about the growing level of borrowing by investors eager to get a piece of the action.