North Korean leader Kim Jong Un renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter U.S.-led threats in comments reported Monday that were his first direct criticism toward Washington since Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential election.

Taiwan, Philippines have taken quite a severe pounding from several major typhoons since mid- to late-October.

A powerful typhoon wrecked houses, caused towering tidal surges and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to emergency shelters as it cut across the northern Philippines on Sunday in the sixth major storm to hit the country in less than a month.

For a half-century, Philippine soldiers deployed on the southwestern edge of the country have been dedicated to squashing separatist movements led by Islamist rebels. Now, the troops here are being retrained to confront what their leaders see as a different and urgent threat: China.

China’s leader Xi Jinping met for the last time with U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday but was already looking ahead to President-elect Donald Trump and his “America first” policies, saying Beijing “is ready to work with a new U.S. administration.”

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 540 people, including 109 children, have been killed by the army’s airstrikes across the country between January and October this year.

North Korea tested exploding drones designed to crash into targets and leader Kim Jong Un called for accelerating mass production of the weapons, state media said Friday.

The Philippine delivery of supplies and military personnel to the Second Thomas Shoal was the third such trip that did not lead to any confrontation since July, when both sides signed a rare deal to stop an alarming spike in violent confrontations. It’s the first known agreement of its kind by China.

President Joe Biden on Friday praised the cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the U.S. at countering what he described as North Korea’s “dangerous and destabilizing cooperation with Russia.”

A group of Marines on a weekend snorkeling trip last month used their training and teamwork to save a Japanese woman from rough seas.