November 4, 2025: When friends agree on where to go, any trip is pleasant. When they don’t, it is not.
ASEAN is that group of friends planning their biggest-ever vacation. One has joined BRICS (Indonesia), and a few more (Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam) have shown interest. The others are more uncertain.
ASEAN’s behind-the-scenes consensus seems to be that America, the key pillar of the world’s economic order that member countries are living in, is far from stable now, with the dollar being besieged by gargantuan US national debts, the trade war with China impacting key American industries, and Washington’s declining image affecting global acceptance and its own economy.
The general, albeit unspoken, agreement ends there. BRICS is an attractive alternative destination but that’s it. Some of the ASEAN “friends” are saying it might rain cats and dogs over there, that although the group’s regular, familiar destination (America-led world order) is not as beautiful as before, they are guaranteed accommodations and will know exactly where to eat.
Ambivalence is getting palpable. Singapore, usually the most outspoken supporter of the world status quo, has its prime minister virtually admit in his latest major interview that significant changes are definitely around the corner and the ASEAN grouping must be ready for a multipolar world, which might be economically volatile.
“We are certainly in the midst of a great transition to a multipolar world – a post American order and a multipolar world,” Lawrence Wong told Financial Times late last month. “Nobody can tell how the transition will unfold but there is no doubt it will be messy and unpredictable, because America is stepping back from its role as global insurer. But there is no other country that is able to or willing to fill the vacuum. So, we are in an uncomfortable position where the old rules do not apply anymore, but the new ones have not been written, and we must brace ourselves for more turbulence ahead.”
It was a long interview, with pro-West Financial Times trying to probe what he actually thinks about ASEAN’s future direction and the Singaporean prime minister beating around the bush. He alternated between appreciating the current world order and stressing the importance of being prepared for a new multipolar one.
“The actions of the tariffs have certainly impacted America's standing in Southeast Asia, there is no doubt. But I would say all Southeast Asian countries still recognise that America remains the largest investor in the region, not China. China is the largest trading partner but as far as FDI flows are concerned, America remains the largest investor. America still has significant stakes in Asia, and all of us in Southeast Asia want to maintain good links with America, and that is why many countries have had extensive negotiations with the US, and eventually they have landed on slightly lower tariffs,” he said.
Then he said: “We have to contend with and accept the reality that China is not just a rising power. It is a risen power and the moves that it has made in recent years I think just demonstrate that China itself recognises its growing weight and is thinking about what responsibilities it might exercise as a leader in the global system.”
To sum up ASEAN’s situation, it’s a group of friends unsure about two potential destinations. Or it’s a woman torn between her long-time husband who provides security and stability but the two things are getting more and more questionable, and a new man who seems understanding, attractive and is charming her with all the mystique.
Not one, not two, but three?
November 3, 2025: Multiple mistakes in one go are understandable. Not when there is a substantial break.
Malaysia’s Communications Ministry is doing the right thing by investigating why its public broadcaster, RTM, incorrectly identified three ASEAN leaders, including Thailand’s, during its live broadcast of the ASEAN Summit’s opening ceremony late last month.
If all of the mistakes happened simultaneously, they might be forgivable although still deplorable. But a repeated similar mistake after a considerable intermission from an earlier one? Of course, the people in power should look into it.
On October 26, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) misidentified Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong as his predecessor Lee Hsien Loong, and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul as Srettha Thavisin, who was removed from office last year.
That was embarrassing, but it would have been understandable if what happened earlier that day had not happened. In that incident, the broadcaster got the name of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto wrong, identifying him as Joko Widodo, his predecessor.
Journalistic mishaps happen all the time, and giving wrong names, using wrong mugshots and writing wrong dates are among the most common mistakes. But if one such mistake had happened and then was followed up with a similar one while the first wound was still fresh, questions, big and troubling, emerged.
Didn’t anybody notice the first mistake at all? Worse still, if someone noticed, why did the second mistake still happened?
Srettha and Anutin must be laughing, but several people in Malaysia must be crying.
“Thai ramen” takes Japan by storm
November 2, 2025: Imagine a Japanese duo sells somtam in Thailand and the shop is jammed because it’s yummy.
Now, the reality. Two Thai men, “Jo” and “Dew”, have opened a ramen restaurant in Yokohama and Japanese have been flocking to the place, not because it’s a strange thing, but because what they serve are delicious.
The “Shindo Ramen” restaurant in Thailand is said to be one of the hardest to make reservations, and the opening a few days ago of the Japanese branch at a so-called ramen museum in Yokohama made fans and curious tasters wait for 45 minutes because of long queues. The reviews are very positive. It was so phenomenal, in fact, that it became a TV news highlight.
Some of the secrets? Fish and ouster sauces. It’s a blend of conventional ramen taste with “Asian flavours”, some reviewers said.
It’s seemingly not just a hype that will go away quickly. “Jo” and “Dew” have received endorsement from a Japanese “ramen guru”, and a Shindo ramen cooking team had gone far in a ramen cooking contest last year, becoming the first foreign crew to have almost made it in any ramen competition held in Japan.
Jo (Chawapol Sripipatpaibul) used to study in Japan. He loved and relied on cheap ramen due to some budget constraints. Coming back to Thailand, he opened the Thai Shindo restaurant and did it with a passion. Diehard customers made the business grow, and Dew was one of them.
(Jo is on the right and Dew on the left. All photos from Shindo Ramen facebook.)
“They know about ramen more than many Japanese,” was one of the compliments in Japan praising the duo.
Talks about the subtle difference in taste becoming a powerful trend in Japan sound a bit premature, although they have really begun. Hundreds of ramen restaurants have sprouted up in Thailand and many of them have wowed Japanese tourists. World-renowned brands like KFC or McDonald’s have been wondering why their Thai branches impressed American visitors with “better” tastes than those in the United States.
Foreigners love Thai foods for a reason. Now is probably a good time for a little expansion.
She said it when she was alive
November 1, 2025: Whom would you believe, men in power or a woman about to “kill herself”?
Virginia Giuffre was one of the most prominent victims of late Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes. Like him, she “killed herself”. Found dead in an Australian home in April at the age of 41, she said in her posthumous memoir as reported by CNN that she was brutally beaten and raped by an unidentified prime minister and that she feared she might “die a sex slave.”
“In my years with them (the racketeers), they lent me out to scores of wealthy, powerful people. I was habitually used and humiliated – and in some instances, choked, beaten, and bloodied,” Giuffre wrote of Epstein and his circle. “I believed that I might die a sex slave.”
Six months after her death earlier this year in Australia, Giuffre’s memoir “Nobody’s Girl” was published and it contained harrowing details of the abuse she allegedly suffered as a teenager, and her years attempting to get justice for herself and her fellow victims, CNN said.
All of the following details and quotes were from CNN which had gone through the memoir of a woman whose “suicide” was never suspicious in the eyes of the police.
According to the network, there was a significant discrepancy. In the US version, Giuffre claimed she was raped by a man whom she had “taken pains to describe in my legal filings only as a ‘well-known Prime Minister.’” In the UK version, the passages are almost identical but refer to the man as a “former minister.” It was not clear what caused this subtle difference.
While on the sex offender’s Caribbean island, Giuffre described how Epstein “trafficked me to a man who raped me more savagely than anyone had before.” She wrote she was 18 at the time.
She died at the age of 41, with the Australian police saying the “suicide” was never suspicious.
“He repeatedly choked me until I lost consciousness and took pleasure in seeing me fear for my life. Horrifically, the Prime Minister laughed when he hurt me and got more aroused when I begged him to stop,” she wrote as quoted by CNN.
“Afterward, I tearfully begged Epstein not to send me back to him,” Giuffre said. “I got down on my knees and pleaded with him. I don’t know if Epstein feared the man or if he owed him a favor, but he wouldn’t make any promises, saying coldly of the politician’s brutality, ‘You’ll get that sometimes.’”
Said CNN in April this year: “The memoir will intensify a transatlantic scandal over the proximity of the rich and powerful to Epstein, which has claimed political scalps in Britain and for months wracked Congress in the United States. Its publication will heap fresh scrutiny on Prince Andrew, the disgraced British royal accused by Giuffre of sexually assaulting her while she was a teenager. Andrew, who’s King Charles’ brother, vehemently denies the accusations against him.”
Her account was shocking, not least because the alleged incidents took place in what is always promoted as the most civilised part of the world with equal justice that spares nobody.
This week, “Prince Andrew” has lost his royal status, an incident considered by the media as one of the biggest Epstein ramifications, colossal in the Buckingham Palace’s history. He has kept denying Giuffre’s allegations directed at him, however.
Said CNN: Despite claiming never to have met her, Andrew reportedly paid millions to settle the civil case in 2022. Writing of that settlement, Giuffre said: “After casting doubt on my credibility for so long – Prince Andrew’s team had even gone so far as to try to hire internet trolls to hassle me – the Duke of York owed me a meaningful apology as well.”
According to CNN, a British paper alleged that Andrew in 2011 used a police officer assigned to him as a bodyguard to dig up dirt on Giuffre. The seriousness of the allegations prompted the London’s Metropolitan Police to say it was “actively looking into” the report.
Said CNN: “Another damaging report found that Andrew had kept up his friendship with Epstein two months after he insisted he had broken it off. In a disastrous 2019 BBC interview, in which Andrew’s attempt to clear his name backfired spectacularly, the prince insisted he had broken off his friendship with Epstein during a walk in New York’s Central Park in December 2010.”
Giuffre was persistent in her claims against the former prince. She alleged that, having been trafficked by Epstein, she was forced to have sex with Andrew on three occasions, including when she was 17.
In April this year, emergency workers found Giuffre unresponsive in her home near Perth. She was pronounced dead at the scene after first aid was unsuccessful.
Her death was not being treated as suspicious, police said. “She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking,” her family said in the statement.
“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.”
In 2015, Giuffre, who had three children, founded Victims Refuse Silence, a U.S. non-profit organization dedicated to supporting survivors, according to Wikipedia.
(Photo by AFP)
Daily updates of, and opinions on, local and global events by Tulsathit Taptim
