November 21, 2025: Any newsroom’s sports desk is usually not vocal, but its ethical standard is always second to none.
Khmer Times’ treatment of SEA Games is fairly neutral so far, although the big event will be taking place in Thailand amid its high border tensions with Cambodia.
Even the security issue has been addressed without bias or emotions. The men and women football draws that pitted the national teams against Thailand’s have been reported rather straightforwardly. Only one word, “interestingly”, can be arguably considered a commentary in the football draw reporting, referring to the fact that both men and women teams have been drawn to play Thailand in the group stages.
SEA Games headlines are written matter-of-factly. Stories focus on practices and preparations, not politicisation.
Observers will say long may that kind of sports coverage continue. After all, other desks, which often use words like “invasion” or “betrayal” when it comes to Thailand, will certainly take over when the SEA Games are in full swing.
Suphajee new focus of Thai politics
November 20, 2025: Whether she will be officially one of Bhumjaithai’s prime ministerial candidates is the talk of the town.
On the one hand, Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun being on the same nomination list as Anutin Charnvirakul cannot give her realistic hope for the top spot. On the other hand, it may boost the hope of a party seeking to close the gaps between itself and the two biggest political camps.
Suphajee, far under the political radar just months ago, is getting increasingly popular, receiving general praises at a time when the country’s international trade is rocked by the Trump tariffs and requires all related ministers to be fully committed and devoted, not representing “indispensable” power groups as is normally the case.
Prime Minister Anutin has complimented her publicly several times. Online comments are largely in her favour. Newspaper analyses agree that her presence in Bhumjaithai’s prime ministerial nomination list will definitely boost the party’s electoral chances.
“I haven’t talked (formally) with her yet,” Anutin has just said. That’s the most he can say at the moment about her future, but he has smilingly acknowledged that she was among Cabinet members helping generate good perceptions of his Cabinet.
From online posts admiring her, she seems very passionate about Thai foods, saying their growing popularity internationally is really Thailand’s “soft power” that shall be treated on a specific case-by-case basis and used to counter the American tariffs.
But she is popular because short-term political governance is easy. It remains to be seen if, when it has to think long-term, Bhumjaithai will go back to the unhealthy tradition of putting the wrong men on the wrong jobs if they control powerful factions, a tradition that has spared no coalition ruler and is always tragically defended as an unavoidable political "reality".
For her profile, read here.
Khmer Times weighs into Thailand-US-China love triangle
November 19, 2025: One attractive woman. Two male suitors who are rivals. And another woman who is bitter.
That’s how things are going among Thailand, Cambodia, the United States and China as the Bangkok-Phnom Penh border dispute keeps snowballing into a global spectacular.
This is the intro of the Khmer Times editorial dated November 17: "Thailand is being observed as taking dangerous moves between the US and China, and to that end, Cambodia is treated as a disposable or playable pawn (for Thailand) to deceive (its) own constituents as well as the US and China."
The article is headlined “Thailand’s dangerous and manipulative dancing between US and China”.
The editorial addresses rare earths, Thailand’s “distrust toward the US” which Bangkok perceived as an “opportunist”, and American think tanks’ presumed perception of “a growing estrangement between Bangkok and Washington due to the 2014 coup, numerous anti-democratic behaviours, and Thailand’s increased rapprochement with Beijing, including the submarine deal.”
This is also interesting: “The Cambodian people still remember how Thailand boasted of its asymmetric air superiority over Cambodia.
While Cambodia and China are ironclad friends, China’s air force drill with Thailand put pain in the hearts of Cambodian people who are suffering from Thailand’s illegal invasion.”
Well, before they came up with the phrase "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned", they forgot to look at Southeast Asia.
Court, again, deals with crux of Thai divide
November 18, 2025: It’s a court order that goes straight to the very heart of why Thais are so split politically.
Thailand has been grappling with tax evasions, or alleged tax evasions, at the highest levels, particularly those concerning political officeholders. The Yellow-Red showdown some two decades ago focused on that, with alleged corruption in government policies or projects added to the conflict.
How much tax should the Shinawatras pay? That simple legal question which could have been easily answered by every junior student of tax law turned into a very serious political issue debated not just in Thailand but also globally. Then it morphed into a full-blown ideological issue with the authority and origin of Thai judges becoming a constitutional focus, not the basic thing of tax equality whether you are rich or poor.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on Thaksin Shinawatra this week touches upon the tax issue yet again. As we know, the simple issue of taxation stopped being simple a long time ago and there are no signs things will change.
When BBC “scrutiny” is scrutinised
November 17, 2025: Media integrity is hard to maintain nowadays, and this applies to even the most-respected names.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is learning that the hard way. Its current legal showdown against US President Donald Trump has come hot on the heels of a controversial docuseries questioning Thailand’s tourism-related image. The Thai case had much to do with the foreign social media users who had visited Thailand and found BBC’s coverage to be too lopsided, whereas the Trump issue is wreaking business, political and administrative havoc affecting the very top of the network.
Trump is threatening to sue the BBC in the next few days for as much as $5 billion. This follows the network’s admission that it had wrongly edited a video of a speech he gave before the “January capitol riot” during which his overzealous supporters stormed Parliament. The edited speech was aired during a programme before America's presidential election. The programme practically asked viewers if Trump should be given a second chance.
“We will sue them for anywhere between a billion and five billion dollars, probably sometime next week. I think I have to do it. They have even admitted that they cheated. They changed the (arrangement of) words coming out of my mouth,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
Compared BBC-edited and original versions of Trump’s speech have flooded YouTube, with some big-name commentators saying it did not look like an “honest mistake” made when broadcast journalists want to make their clips as short and precise as possible. The BBC work appeared biased with an intent to make Trump sound absolutely like a pro-violence rabble-rouser, the critics charge. In other words, they say, it was not “wrongly edited” (which was understandable and forgivable), but intentionally wrongfully and unethically done.
The BBC has admitted the speech had been incorrectly edited, but insisted it was not intentional. The Daily Telegraph reported earlier this month that an internal memo raised concerns about the BBC's editing of the speech, which was made by Trump on January 6, 2021, just before a mob rioted.
Following a snowballing uproar, both BBC director-general Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness resigned from their roles.
Several Thai news clips have been made on the BBC setback, with quite a few comments referring to “Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise” docuseries that sympathizers of Thailand charged was biased and intended to paint a bad picture of a country rivalling England as a tourist destination. Many Thais pointed out intriguing similarities like involvement of outsourcing, misrepresented quotes that changed the original contexts substantially, and affected parties' claims of obvious prejudices.
Thailand didn’t sue, however. In fact, many Thais were sarcastically thankful that BBC inadvertently helped promote the Thai charms with that “Dark Side” report.
Trump may be hoping for a similar reverse effect. Many doubt it, though.
Thai-Cambodian conflict morphing into something bigger
November 16, 2025: All of a sudden, it’s a huge love triangle internationally.
And one key player, China, is just watching, not doing anything else at the moment.
What Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has reportedly told US President Donald Trump and what the Thai Foreign Ministry has announced will have significant global diplomatic ramifications, particularly when America’s political and economic statuses are unprecedentedly shaky, when Beijing is spreading its wings, and when Thailand is torn between BRICS and the old economic order.
To sum latest developments up, the tariffs issue is generally perceived as being used by Washington to force Thai hands on the “peace” agreement with Cambodia following renewed border tension, and Thailand has virtually told the world that Bangkok is not happy about that.
Anutin reportedly told Trump the peace agreement had to be backed up by total sincerity, and that without a Cambodian apology concerning a recent landmine explosion, Bangkok would find it hard to implement the Kuala Lumpur accord commitments. It appears that Trump wants Thailand to carry on no matter what, and Thailand is getting the feeling that the tariff future with America depends on it.
The Thai Foreign Ministry has backed Anutin up by saying Thailand has been “disappointed” with the current tariff talk with Washington grinding to a halt.
Epstien Pandora’s box
November 15, 2025: No, it’s not washing dirty linen in public. US politicians are pointing trigger-sensitive guns at each other.
Everyone knows that American politics would be better off if Jeffrey Epstein’s soul was left in peace, regardless of what he had allegedly done as a human being, but the Republicans and Democrats can’t just do that. President Donald Trump is planning to ask the attorney general to investigate late Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to many other high-profile figures, including some of his political opponents, in response to the Democrats’ threat to use his ties to the late sex offender against him.
Epstein’s name was strongly linked with sexual and pedophiliac abuses on a grand scale, and many of who’s who in America’s elite political circle have had their names tainted by accusations or rumours that they were suspiciously associated with the alleged provider of illegal sex involving human trafficking and sex-with-minors practices. Those bombshell accusations are nonpartisan and go very high up.
The Pandora’s box situation was the reason why the political rivals in the United States had refrained from weaponising Epstein, at least totally, although there were enough effective issues to bring down a government or political party. But Trump has to be stopped, and he is thinking likewise about his opponents.
This explains why they have decided to open it. To say that what’s inside isn’t pretty is a cliché, but that may be the mildest yet most proper way to say it.
Let’s put it this way: The Monica Lewinsky scandal that destroyed Bill Clinton would sound like a rom-com compared to what possibly comes next.
Old or new? The answer will make big difference
November 14, 2025: Militarily speaking, when a landmine is planted is not that important.
Politically speaking, the question of when is deadly serious. Which is the case of the landmine that went off recently at the disputed Thai-Cambodian border, making a Thai soldier lose one foot and injuring a few others.
Thailand insists it was planted only recently. Cambodia has countered that it was not only old, but “very old”. An official news report from Malaysia, which helped facilitate a peace deal that is hanging in the balance, initially quoted that country’s foreign minister as saying that international observers presumed that it was old, but Bernama has hours ago admitted that it was a serious misquote.
In other words, it could have just been planted according to the observers based on both sides of the border.
The question of when is a big deal. It can make or break peace attempts. The tense semblance of calm at the border is at stake.
‘Peace deal’ hangs on by a thread
November 13, 2025: The smiles and handshakes in Kuala Lumpur recently looked as forced as they come.
The feeling that it was anything but sincere and long-lasting came at that time, days before things started to really go south this week.
Over the past few days, Thailand has highlighted a landmine explosion severing a Thai soldier’s foot whereas Cambodia has decried an “unprovoked shooting” by Thai soldiers which allegedly killed a Cambodian villager and injured three others.
The “peace accord” that US President Donald Trump had a hand in is sputtering on. Global media outlets are giving more attention to recent developments than during the border clashes between both countries weeks ago.
The home page of Khmer Times today has about 20 stories and commentaries about Thailand’s “betrayal of peace” and how Phnom Penh has tried to “stand firm” on the agreement despite “horrors at the border”.
“Let us make this clear: Cambodia did nothing wrong,” said one of the Khmer Times opinion pieces. “Cambodian forces have not planted new mines. The recent mine explosion that injured Thai soldiers occurred in areas with mines left from past conflicts. Yet Thailand has demanded that Cambodia apologize for their own soldiers’ carelessness. This is not merely unreasonable — it is an affront to justice, fairness, and the principles of international law. Asking Cambodia to apologize for an incident it did not cause is a brazen attempt to rewrite reality and distort the truth.”
Thailand strongly denies all that. The article was published with the right picture, though. It was a photo of the famous signing ceremony with Anutin Charnvirakul and Hun Manet smilingly displaying their accords and Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim flanking them, applauding.
People’s Party: Scammers are “their bread and butter”
November 12, 2025: Landmines are diverting attention from what can really hurt Cambodia, the biggest Thai opposition party said.
According to Rangsiman Rome, a deputy People’s Party leader serving in the House committee on national security related to the border, is saying what you have to read between the lines.
What he said can arguably be interpreted as an implicit warning that Thailand suspending the peace deal would make it harder to suppress scamming originating from Cambodia, and that could be what Phnom Penh wants.
In-depth and strategic information sharing as well as significantly-enhanced cooperation to fight transnational crimes are a big part of the peace deal signed very recently in Kuala Lumpur and jeopardized by a recent landmine explosion that severed the lower part of a Thai soldier’s leg.
“We must not let Cambodia divert the attention,”he said. “They are facing great pressure regarding the scammers and to them, it doesn’t matter how many troops they lose (in fighting against Thailand). Border troop casualties are not a problem for them. If we do want to go after their jugular vein, we must go after the scammers.”
He has made a great point (although if read carefully, his statement that Thailand should not walk into a trap also confirmed the Thai government stand that Cambodia intended to hit Thai soldiers with landmines despite the peace accord).
Why they killed so many Gazans
November 11, 2025: Shocking Israeli soldiers’ accounts explain the massive destructions and high death toll in Gaza.
A British TV documentary interviewed a few Israeli soldiers and has uncovered what The Guardian called “the evaporation of the official code of conduct” concerning how to treat civilians.
According to The Guardian, which had prior access to the TV content, there were many incidents that were tragic even in the eyes of many troops in Gaza receiving orders from their superiors.
In one incident, a man hanging laundry on a rooftop was deemed a spy, prompting an order to bomb. He had no binocular and nearest Israeli bases could not be seen unless ones had “eagle eyes.” He was just a man doing an everyday household chore.
“A man was standing on the roof, hanging laundry, and the (commanding) officer decided that he was a spotter. He’s not a spotter. He’s hanging his laundry. You can see that he’s hanging laundry,” a soldier wanting to be identified only as Eli told the documentary, Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War, as reported by The Guardian.
One commander of a tank unit was quoted as saying “If you want to shoot without restraint, you can.”
Another Eli account tragically beggared belief. “If they’re walking too fast, they’re suspicious. If they’re walking too slow, they’re suspicious. They’re plotting something. If three men are walking and one of them lags behind, it’s a two-to-one infantry formation – it’s a military formation,” The Guardian quoted him as telling the documentary.
“Means, Intent and Ability” is an Israeli military code of conduct for engagement. It basically requires soldiers to establish before shooting or bombing that their targets have ways or methods to fight, show intention to attack, and are capable of carrying out attacks.
Said an armoured corps officer: “In basic training for the army, we all chanted ‘means, intent and ability’. There’s no such thing as ‘means, intent and ability’ in Gaza. No soldier ever mentions ‘means, intent, and ability’. It’s just: a suspicion of walking where it’s not allowed.”
Wrote The Guardian: “Some of the soldiers interviewed in the Breaking Ranks programme said they were influenced by the language of Israeli politicians and religious leaders suggesting that after the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed, every Palestinian was a legitimate target.”
A result of that? “I feel like they’ve destroyed all my pride in being an Israeli – in being an IDF officer. All that’s left is shame,” one soldier told the programme.
It will happen again
November 10, 2025: A possible Republican-Democrat deal to end the government shutdown will sweep everything back under the rug.
Ending the long government shutdown is definitely much better than prolonging it, but the good news will certainly obscure the bad one, which is that the political obscenity in which rival politicians hold tax-paying American citizens hostage should not have happened in the first place but will happen again.
Thousands of flights have been cancelled or delayed due to the absence of air-traffic controllers. Government employees have to work without salaries. People have missed their own weddings or funerals of their loved ones. Logistic and economic transports have been in disarray, sending domino-effect shockwaves rattling a lot of industries. None of that could be blamed on terrorists striking the airports or hacking crucial economic data. All that happened because, would you believe it, the Republicans and Democrats “disagreed” over what the best form of social welfare was. It was a direct result of the country’s two political parties which always vow to protect American public interest being engaged in an ego showdown.
Any deal between them, even if it happens tomorrow, cannot repair the massive damage that has already been inflicted on the economy and poor Americans’ lives.
Families are starving. The rich may not feel the impact, but the poor are increasing in numbers in America, and this shutdown is not the same as the previous ones which took place when the United States’ economic strengths ensured comfortable public survival.
This is not to mention the declining global confidence in a dominating economic system and “fair” politics that purportedly gives utmost importance to the wellbeing of the people.
A recent poll showing the majority of Americans thinking that their political system is “on the wrong track” was surely influenced by the devastating shutdown.
Here’s more or less an optimistic path to end the current misery: A compromise legislation was passed on Sunday but it only funds most government operations until the end of January – just enough to let Americans scrape through the holiday season.
After that, the elected politicians could go back to where they are now, meaning the government funding could run out again. Hope is that both parties will come to their senses and a similar shutdown might not happen. With the political divide worsening each day, that hope is not high.
But it has to be first thing first. The current shutdown must end. Sunday's developments pave the way for reopening, but there is still more to do. While the Senate is less divided, the House will make everyone hold his or her breath, and it will have to approve the compromise before it is sent to Donald Trump who will have to give the final greenlight for implementation.
No, it’s not World Cup final
November 9, 2025: Nobody was ready for it on Saturday.
The players, the coaching staffs, the commentators, the hosts, the guests of honour, the stadium officials, the vendors, the referees, and even the fans themselves. None of them had been prepared. Everyone’s jaws dropped to the ground. Well, what was left of the Supachalasai ground to be exact.
For the general Thai public, they could not believe what they saw on YouTube, live or not live.
It was a kid football game. It was a title match, all right, but it was still kid football that didn’t even feature 11 players a side, and each half lasted just 25 minutes.
It turned out to be a world record. It must be. We don’t know for sure but we can say with almost absolute certainty that no other seven-a-side kid football match could fill up a national stadium like that, with thousands (or more) of spectators having to sit on the ground leaving just the pitch open so the game could take place.
“To say that the number of spectators has exceeded our expectations is an understatement,” a commentator said. “This is beyond our wildest dreams by a lot.”
To those who did not know how jammed the stadium was, spectators had to move so players could take corner kicks. This is not a British-style stadium where seating is close to the pitch. This is a stadium where the pitch is surrounded by running tracks and there are normally wider spaces between players and the watchers behind the goals.
It doesn’t matter which team won. The only things matching the unbelievable size of the crowds are both teams’ skills, grits, composure and determination. But most of all, to be so young yet manage to play football in front of so many people is a blessing that shall be cherished forever.
More than just birthday visit
November 8, 2025: “Keep your enemy closer” is a timeless piece of advice.
To be fair to Pheu Thai, though, the mystique surrounding Sondhi Limthongkul is that nobody knows for sure whose enemy he has been. Which is why its leaders’ visit to the man the other day to wish him a happy birthday is sparking all kind of speculation and theories.
The first theory: It was just a normal visit. Even in The Godfather, rival gangsters go to the funeral of Don Corleone, so don’t read too much into Pheu Thai’s new executive team standing politely before Sondhi on his birthday anniversary.
The second theory: It was anything but normal, because the visitors looked too humble for comfort while in front of him. (Pictures show that while they all were standing, he had his hands crossed behind his back whereas theirs were folded respectfully in front of their bodies, just like when the boss is reprimanding you.)
Theory 2.1: They wanted his help. They wanted him to do or not do something, especially when a general election is just a few months away.
Theory 2.2: There was no direct request as to what they wanted him to do or not do, but it was an olive branch demonstrated out of hope that whatever happens next, he would keep the birthday flowers in mind.
Theory 3: It’s exactly what Pheu Thai’s deputy leader Kokaew Pikulthong told you. Befriending a conservative flagbearer is better than aggravating the man. Being Sondhi’s outstanding enemy has not done anybody any good, because the “democracy” camp was not going anywhere in its battle against the conservatives regardless of election results. Peace is better than war, so to speak.
Theory 4: Sondhi is not as ideological as we think. He used to support Thaksin Shinawatra, remember? You can make him do as you wish. You just have to know how.
Theory 5: Sondhi is ideological but he is being confused, so Pheu Thai must take advantage of that. He’s attacking every political leader left, right and centre. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has not been spared. Sondhi has had to talk critically about the 14th Floor but who was not doing so? The man does not seem to like Abhisit Vejjajiva, either. The only one Sondhi has been going easy on is the one standing respectfully before him during the visit, new Pheu Thai leader Julapan Amornvivat.
Quip of the day: Pheu Thai under Julapan has come up with a metaphorical promise that it will “Take Thai people to the Moon.” Since Sondhi’s residence and office is known as “Baan Phra Arthit” (Home of the Sun), the social media have updated the Pheu Thai slogan. “Forget the Moon. We will take all Thais to the Sun.”
Abhisit, Ratchaprasong and Pheu Thai
November 7, 2025: Old wounds are always reopened whenever an election is near, although they shouldn't be.
The Ratchaprasong bloodshed shall not be forgotten, but it shall never be politicised, either. It’s a dark chapter of the Thai political history that is always badly divisive whenever “Who’s the culprit?” debate takes place.
What happened over a decade and a half ago has been negatively influencing Thai politics already, so reviving it now, when the country remains very divided, with some new factors thrown in, is a very disastrous idea.
Pheu Thai might want to do it because attacking former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva over Ratchaprasong is their only chance of restoring some old ideological perceptions after they joined hands with the conservatives after the 2023 election.
(Funny enough. The Red Shirts’ claims that Abhisit took unfair advantage to become prime minister at the expense of Pheu Thai, which was actually bigger than his party at the time, were exactly what it did to Move Forward two years ago.)
What’s happening today is basically pro-Pheu Thai extremists saying “We have been hurt too. Don’t forget that.” Abhisit, who has decided to resume an active role in politics, has to become a target.
The Ratchaprasong “uprising” was big news. Everyone knows what happened. There is no need to revisit the tragic event, because different people think about it drastically differently. Let voters decide what it should lead to.
Anutin’s “Fly’s open” incident may be useful
November 6, 2025: Haters must be cursing the fact that it didn’t happen at the ASEAN or APEC summit. Admirers must be relieved.
It doesn’t matter much where it happened, though, because, according to Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s own words, “nothing definitely came out to roam.”
His Facebook statement followed arguably the most un-prime ministerial incident (alleged or else). Well, it’s every man’s nightmare, actually.
On the Loy Krathong night and seen by a lot of people near a canal by the Government House, he apparently forgot to zip up. (“Apparently” or “allegedly” is used here because some did not totally rule out the possibility of it being part of a weird fashion showoff. The majority, however, believed that what they saw was a simple male oversight.)
Whatever it was, the incident went straight into record books because many news outlets and social media posts, instead of showing his face, straight, or brooding, or smiling, are focusing on his pants, with some even circling the suspicious spot.
It can be an election slogan, though. His strategists can enlarge such a picture and put such lines as “Although he forgets ‘this’, he will never forget you.”
That would blend nicely with another unprecedented Government House incident related to him. Also this week, Anutin took his father to his office, made the old man sit on his chair as a blessing for his political future, and let him taste governmental food.
Anutin's censure pre-emption plan
November 5, 2025: The prime minister has confirmed a pre-emptive House dissolution in case of a censure plot.
If the opposition has no such a plan, he will dissolve the House of Representatives at the end of January as promised, Anutin Charnvirakul said.
An earlier-than-expected House dissolution has been a subject of speculation because his is a “minority government” susceptible to an overwhelming opposition vote. However, such a government demise is deemed unlikely by many analysts who consider the facts that it was the opposition People’s Party itself that voted him into office, and the Pheu Thai Party, while harbouring grudge, would benefit very little or not at all from a snap election taking place just a few weeks sooner.
Pheu Thai, the opposition party likeliest to initiate a censure, is also in the process of rebuilding itself following big political wounds suffered by Thaksin and Paetongtarn Shinawatra, so the sooner a snap election, the more it negatively affects its preparations.
But Anutin has said loud and clear that any sniff of a censure would prompt him to nip it in the bud.
Speaking at the Paragon Hall where he gave an economic speech, he told reporters that he would honour an agreement with the People’s Party, which wanted him to dissolve the House within four months. The agreement, he said, came amid constitutional doubts related to a caretaker prime minister’s authority following Paetongtarn’s political demise.
Anutin confirmed that if opposition politicians want to, they could submit a no-confidence motion for a no-confidence debate in December.
“Obviously I wouldn’t want anyone to scold me for free and for fun, would I?” Anutin said when asked if he would dissolve the House even before the deadline agreed with the People’s Party. “I already intend to do it in January, so a month earlier than that wouldn’t make any big difference.”
Since he can’t dissolve the House once a censure motion is officially submitted, government spies will have to be busy. Any opposition meeting or any opposition scheduled appointment with parliamentary authorities will have to be closely monitored. Pheu Thai, if it doesn’t want him to launch the pre-emptive strike, must also refrain from activities that could create rumours.
Forget Thailand and Cambodia, BRICS is ASEAN’s biggest issue
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 global 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
