The EU’s interest in and engagement with North East Asia has grown massively over the last three decades, the shaping and implementation of its policy influenced heavily by the UK and its historical links with East Asia. Brexit therefore raises questions about the future of this engagement and comes against a background of wider threats to the liberal world order, especially rising tensions between the USA and China. Worried that they may be forced to choose sides in their hitherto carefully managed relationships with the two, China’s neighbours are therefore watching with interest to see how the EU and the UK respond and manage their future relations with the region. This book goes beyond the traditional trade links to consider diplomatic and security perspectives, as well as wider issues such as the possible impact on educational and research links. It will be of interest to diplomats, scholars, and economists.

From life in his war-torn homeland to his quest for the American dream, Alfred Langer's determination and faith helped him surmount overwhelming obstacles and hardships to reach A New Beginning.

A startup executive and investor draws on expertise developed at the premier venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and as an executive at Uber to address how tech’s most successful products have solved the dreaded "cold start problem”—by leveraging network effects to launch and scale toward billions of users. Although software has become easier to build, launching and scaling new products and services remains difficult. Startups face daunting challenges entering the technology ecosystem, including stiff competition, copycats, and ineffective marketing channels. Teams launching new products must consider the advantages of “the network effect,” where a product or service’s value increases as more users engage with it. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants utilize network effects, and most tech products incorporate them, whether they’re messaging apps, workplace collaboration tools, or marketplaces. Network effects provide a path for fledgling products to break through, attracting new users through viral growth and word of mouth. Yet most entrepreneurs lack the vocabulary and context to describe them—much less understand the fundamental principles that drive the effect. What exactly are network effects? How do teams create and build them into their products? How do products compete in a market where every player has them? Andrew Chen draws on his experience and on interviews with the CEOs and founding teams of LinkedIn, Twitch, Zoom, Dropbox, Tinder, Uber, Airbnb, and Pinterest to offer unique insights in answering these questions. Chen also provides practical frameworks and principles that can be applied across products and industries. The Cold Start Problem reveals what makes winning networks thrive, why some startups fail to successfully scale, and, most crucially, why products that create and compete using the network effect are vitally important today.

Every Ending Has A New Beginning is a book of nine fiction short stories that were inspired by real life experiences. The book is filled with interesting, funny, shocking, chilling, touching, honest and wild stories. It will definitely ignite a familiarity to someone you know. It touches on all aspects of life-prayer, rape, child abuse, relationship drama, family drama, drugs, happiness, sadness, illness, encouragement and love. Every story shows some type of strength that these characters had to have in order to conquer their problems. The book also shows how people can get caught-up and postpone happiness and lose his or her way. Instead, they end up settling for less. It also shows how you can be in a rut, yet you can always pull yourself back up again. In addition, it shows 1) that sometimes we're just a victim or innocent bystander and unbeknownst to us trouble finds us wherever we go; 2) that we can be anything we want to be; 3) that life is what we make it; and 4) that we do have choices. Too often we make the wrong choices and no matter what Every Ending Has A New Beginning. It's up to us to change and grow. If there's no room for change, then there's no room for growth. You can expect to feel a lot of emotions. I basically stretched and twisted the truth to enhance your reading and entertainment pleasure, while making the best of my writing talent and creativity. Enjoy!

From #1 New York Times bestselling author John Flanagan comes the story that brings the Ranger's Apprentice series full-circle and ushers in a brand new arc starring Maddie, the Royal Ranger! Will Treaty has come a long way from the small boy with dreams of knighthood. Life had other plans for him, and as an apprentice Ranger under Halt, he grew into a legend—the finest Ranger the kingdom has ever known. Yet Will is facing a tragic battle that has left him grim and alone. To add to his problems, the time has come to take on an apprentice of his own, and it’s the last person he ever would have expected: Princess Madelyn, the daughter of Princess Cassandra. Will has to win the trust and respect of his difficult new companion—a task that at times seems almost impossible. John Flanagan returns to conclude the series that has conquered millions of readers worldwide with this pulse-pounding adventure that brings one era to a close, ushers in the next, starting the series anew starring Maddie, the Royal Ranger. For fans of Tolkien, Redwall, Game of Thrones, and T.H. White, Ranger's Apprentice delivers fantasy-adventure thrills with real-world historical details. Praise for John Flanagan: “The last few years have seen the publication of many fantasies, but few have the appeal of this original story.” —Booklist, starred review, on The Ruins of Gorlan “Fans of the series will eagerly devour this one and wait impatiently for the next . . . A sure bet for fantasy fans.” —School Library Journal “Flanagan's deft character portrayals and well-paced story will engage readers, and the ending will leave them clamoring for the next volume.” —Booklist, on The Icebound Land

“Sarah Stewart Johnson interweaves her own coming-of-age story as a planetary scientist with a vivid history of the exploration of Mars in this celebration of human curiosity, passion, and perseverance.”—Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams WINNER OF THE PHI BETA KAPPA AWARD FOR SCIENCE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Times (UK) • Library Journal “Lovely . . . Johnson’s prose swirls with lyrical wonder, as varied and multihued as the apricot deserts, butterscotch skies and blue sunsets of Mars.”—Anthony Doerr, The New York Times Book Review Mars was once similar to Earth, but today there are no rivers, no lakes, no oceans. Coated in red dust, the terrain is bewilderingly empty. And yet multiple spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium, and Mare Sirenum—on the brink, perhaps, of a staggering find, one that would inspire humankind as much as any discovery in the history of modern science. In this beautifully observed, deeply personal book, Georgetown scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson tells the story of how she and other researchers have scoured Mars for signs of life, transforming the planet from a distant point of light into a world of its own. Johnson’s fascination with Mars began as a child in Kentucky, turning over rocks with her father and looking at planets in the night sky. She now conducts fieldwork in some of Earth’s most hostile environments, such as the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and the salt flats of Western Australia, developing methods for detecting life on other worlds. Here, with poetic precision, she interlaces her own personal journey—as a female scientist and a mother—with tales of other seekers, from Percival Lowell, who was convinced that a utopian society existed on Mars, to Audouin Dollfus, who tried to carry out astronomical observations from a stratospheric balloon. In the process, she shows how the story of Mars is also a story about Earth: This other world has been our mirror, our foil, a telltale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings. Empathetic and evocative, The Sirens of Mars offers an unlikely natural history of a place where no human has ever set foot, while providing a vivid portrait of our quest to defy our isolation in the cosmos.