Former Australian ambassador on TPP, China and Japan Relations with N. Korea

A Netflix-funded anime academy in Tokyo trains the next generation of cartoon artists as global demand for the genre soars. Japan is facing a shortage of skilled animators, in part because most face years toiling in low-paying jobs to learn the ropes, meaning much of the painstaking frame-by-frame drawing work is outsourced overseas.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces a much-delayed pledge to meet 2050 net-zero emissions target ahead of a landmark UN climate summit. Widely seen as a climate laggard, Australia is one of the world's largest coal and gas exporters and its conservative government has resisted climate action for most of its eight-year term.

Japan is holding a parliamentary election, which is the first big test for the new prime minister. A poor showing for the ruling party could threaten a return to the country's history of revolving-door premiership.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Liberal Demorats are expected to retain enough seats to keep power, but the new administration will need to get the economy back on track while navigating regional security challenges.

Australia reopened its borders Monday, permitting citizens to return and exit the country. Foreign workers in Australia remain unable to do so though.

India's Narendra Modi has spoken in Glasgow on Monday and Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was en route. But President Xi Jinping of China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, skipped attendance.

The two countries join the ASEAN nations, China, South Korea, and Japan. The pact will cover 30% of the world's population and 53% of last year's exports.

A British woman has won her case after she paid significantly higher taxes than Australian locals while employed as a waitress on a working holiday visa.

A day earlier, police announced that the 4-year-old girl Cleo had been found "alive and well," prompting nationwide relief.

Cricket Australia (CA) confirmed on Friday (November 5) it has postponed the Afghanistan test in Hobart scheduled for Nov. 27 until the situation regarding the women's game in the South Asian nation becomes clearer. CA had said in September it would scrap the test if the Taliban government, which took power in August, did not allow women and girls to play the sport.

Google will spend A$1 billion ($736 million) in Australia over five years, the internet giant said on Tuesday, resetting ties months after a threat to pull its services to avoid tougher government regulation.

In 2015, Shiori Ito was a young journalist who went to meet a would-be mentor for drinks, only for the night to end in him raping her. She won a civil case against him in 2019, but only after years of fighting a judicial system that seemed determined to look the other way. Ito's memoir "Black Box" is the story of one young woman's quest for justice in a country where talking about sexual assault, and even sex education, is still very much taboo. She joined us for Perspective and told us that things are gradually moving in the right direction, but that she still receives "threatening emails every day" for speaking out.