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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/china/40021321

New bistro offers diners in Beijing a break from big city hustle and bustle

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2022

The new One More Day Bistro in Beijing’s Sanlitun area provides diners with an immersive camping experience, so they can leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind.

The decor of the restaurant, designed by renowned interior architect Zou Zonghe, uses red as the main tone and presents subtle colour combinations with different materials like cement and fabric.

From canopies and tents to plants and camping lights, outdoor elements fill each corner of the restaurant, which Zou says he hopes will make diners feel like they are walking into a real outdoors campsite.

The menu, created in collaboration with cellist Ouyang Nana, presents a collection of fusion dishes from many places across China including Guangdong, Shanghai, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan and Yunnan.

The black truffle mushroom fried rice, deemed to be the best ever by Ouyang, is definitely a must-try. The combination of black truffle from Yunnan and mushroom together with house-made beef and chilli sauce give the rice a complex, rich flavour.

The stewed razor clam with eggplant, potato and vermicelli as well as the stew beef with dried orange peel are also other highlights on the menu.

China Daily

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/asia-pacific/40021315

Rape survivor seeks Indian president’s permission to die by euthanasia

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2022

An Uttar Pradesh woman who says she was raped by her stepson and husband’s friends for months has written to President Draupadi Murmu seeking permission to die by euthanasia.

The 30-year-old said in her letter she had lost all hope of justice in the case.

She said police had deliberately failed to arrest any of the accused despite a report filed at Puranpur Kotwali police station on October 9, and even after court orders.

She added that she was receiving frequent death threats from the accused, warning her to stay silent.

“I have struggled enough and don’t think I will get any justice. So, I want to end my life with your permission,” she wrote in the letter addressed to the president.

The woman said she married a 55-year-old divorced farmer from Chandigarh, three years ago.

She alleges that her stepson approached her in April and she had been sexually assaulted, repeatedly, ever since.

The stepson threatened her with “consequences”, which initially forced her to remain quiet.

She said that when she became pregnant, the accused mercilessly beat her in the stomach when she wanted to go for a DNA test. She was then forced to get an abortion at a private hospital in Puranpur.

The victim said that on July 18, she was taken to a farm belonging to her husband’s friend, where she was raped by one of his relatives and two associates. Her written complaints to local police and senior officials fell on deaf ears.

Left with no choice, she went to a court, which ordered the police to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) on the case.

The FIR was recently registered by Puranpur Kotwali police station, and five men including her husband and stepson were booked under IPC sections 376-D (gang-rape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

However, no arrests were made.

The woman has fled to Bareilly city, 90 kilometres east of Puranpur, and taken refuge with her mother, brother and six-year-old son from her earlier marriage.

Superintendent of police, Dinesh Kumar Prabhu, said, “This is a complicated case with layers of facts and evidence. We are holding a fair investigation and it will be completed soon. Thereafter, action will be taken accordingly.”

The Statesman

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/china/40021314

China’s Xi takes helm for 3rd term, backed by leadership team stacked with allies

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2022

President Xi Jinping has further consolidated his power in China by stacking his leadership team with his political allies.

The new Politburo Standing Committee, made up of seven men, includes four newcomers, all Xi loyalists.

A shocking exclusion is vice-premier Hu Chunhua, who had been tipped to be promoted.

Another surprise is the elevation of Shanghai party chief Li Qiang to No 2. He is set to be the next premier. Li came under flak for his handling of the Shanghai Covid-19 outbreak.

The new team in order of rank: Xi, 69; Li Qiang, 63; Zhao Leji, 65; Wang Huning, 67; Cai Qi, 66; Xi’s top aide Ding Xuexiang, 60; and Guangdong party chief Li Xi, 66.

Li Xi will likely be the next anti-corruption czar, after emerging as the top-ranking official among 133 members newly elected to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Saturday.

The four new seats were vacated by Premier Li Keqiang, 67; third-ranked Li Zhanshu, 72; fourth-ranked Wang Yang, 67; and seventh-ranked Han Zheng, 68, who will retire.

The exclusion of Hu Chunhua, a protege of former leader Hu Jintao and a member of the Communist Youth League faction, is an indication that Xi has consolidated enough power to dispense with the balance of factional power.

The wider Politburo and Central Military Commission leaders will also be made known on Sunday.

China’s President Xi Jinping (left) and the members of the new Politburo Standing Committee – Li Xi, Cai Qi, Zhao Leji, Li Qiang, Wang Huning and Ding Xuexiang

After the unveiling of the top leadership on Sunday, Xi told the press that he and his new team will continue to lead the world’s second-largest economy to “even greater success” after achieving the twin economic miracles of growing rapidly while maintaining strong fundamentals.

“China will be opening its doors ever more widely,” Xi said.

The Straits Times

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/asean/40021310

Carpocalypse Now? Vietnam’s soaring car ownership threatens to clog roads and air

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2022

Though a relatively new phenomenon, car ownership in Vietnam is becoming more and more common as the country’s middle-class expands. However, as the four-wheeled traffic jams grow, so do concerns over the consequences of many more cars on our roads.

In 2020, just 5.7 per cent of Vietnamese households owned a car. Asia Perspective forecasts this figure will reach 9 per cent by 2025, and a whopping 30 per cent by 2030 – equivalent to the current level of India and the Philippines.

As well as a growing middle-class, favourable policies have helped drive this growth. For example, in December 2021, the Ministry of Finance announced a 50 per cent reduction in registration fees for domestically-assembled cars, and 100 per cent for electric cars.

The ministry forecasts that car sales will rise by 22.6 per cent each year from now until 2025, and by 18.5 per cent after that.

All of this seems like a net positive, indicators of a country on the up.

However, the explosion in car ownership may bring serious downsides.

Simply put, I am not convinced that the road infrastructure in Vietnam is ready to cope with the rapidly increasing number of four-wheeled vehicles on the road – at least not without major congestion.

Of course, Vietnamese cities aren’t alone in facing this problem.

In a bid to reduce traffic, in 1982 Athens imposed the Dactylius (ring) around its city centre. Cars can only enter the ring on certain days, dictated by the last digits of their number plate, limiting the number of cars in the city centre.

Similar policies have since been adopted by Bogota, Jakarta, Mexico City, San Jose, Santiago and Sao Paulo as a means to reduce both congestion and pollution.

Introducing a “road space rationing” policy in cities in Vietnam would undoubtedly be controversial. It may reduce the appeal of owning a car in the first place if it can only be used to enter certain parts of the city on certain days.

To get around this problem, Vietnam could exempt electric vehicles from congestion regulations. VinFast is Vietnam’s largest domestic car producer, and their recent pivot towards electric vehicles would complement this policy.

Vietnam is known around the world as the country of 100 million motorbikes. However, the country cannot become the country of 100 million, or even 50 million combustion-engine cars – not without congestion and pollution getting a lot worse.

Seán Nolan

Viet Nam News

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/europe/40021309

Zelenskiy vows to down Russian missiles as strikes destroy 40% of energy grid

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Russia had launched strikes on infrastructure on a “very wide” scale and pledged that his military would improve on an already good record of downing missiles with help from its partners.

“The geography of this latest mass strike is very wide,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, citing regions in western, central and southern Ukraine.

“Of course, we do not yet have the technical ability to shoot down 100 per cent of Russian missiles and attack drones. We will gradually come to this – with the help of our partners, I’m sure. But we are already shooting down most of the cruise missiles, most of the drones,” he said.

More than a dozen Russian missiles pounded critical infrastructure across Ukraine on Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said, with several regions reporting strikes on energy facilities and power outages.

The air force command earlier had said 33 missiles had been fired at Ukraine on Saturday morning, adding that 18 of them had been shot down.

Since October 10, Russia has launched devastating salvos at Ukraine’s power infrastructure, which have hit at least half of its thermal power generation and up to 40 per cent of the entire system.

Shortly after daybreak on Saturday, officials in regions across Ukraine began reporting strikes on energy facilities and power outages as engineers scrambled to restore the network. Governors advised residents to stock up on water.

Parts of Kyiv suffered power cuts into the early evening. In one central area of the capital, shops were closed and traffic lights were off.

Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/europe/40021307

Reclusive billionaire who founded Red Bull with Thai recipe dies aged 78

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2022

Dietrich Mateschitz, the Austrian billionaire founder and owner of energy drink company Red Bull, died on Saturday at the age 78 after a serious illness with cancer.

His death was confirmed by the championship-leading Red Bull Formula One team.

The Styrian-born entrepreneur built a global empire around the energy drink Red Bull and was considered the richest man in Austria. Mateschitz’s fortune is estimated at around 25 billion euros ($24.65 billion/936.5 billion baht). This puts him in 51st place on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people.

The self-made billionaire was considered a marketing genius. After graduating from the University of World Trade in Vienna, he worked as a marketing specialist for various companies in the 1970s.

On his business trips to Asia, he got to know the market of energy and stimulant drinks. At that time, these drinks were still completely unknown in Europe and the United States. In 1983, he acquired the licence for such a drink in Asia. One year later, together with the Thai entrepreneurial family Yoovidhya, he founded Red Bull GmbH, in which he held a 49 per cent stake.

After modifying the recipe of a Thai energy drink and developing a marketing concept, Red Bull was introduced to the market in 1987. The bubbly, carbonated, sweet drink, whose taste is described as similar to that of gummy bears, rose to become the global market leader after a difficult market entry. The group achieved a turnover of 7.8 billion euros in 2021 and sold 9.8 billion Red Bull cans worldwide.

The Fuschl am See, Salzburg-based company is also known for its creative advertising with the world-famous slogan “Red Bull gives you wings“. An important milestone for Mateschitz was the entry into the US market at the end of the 1990s. Today, every third can is sold in the United States.

The entrepreneur paid a lot of attention to the image of the drink. He associated the Red Bull brand with adventure sports like surfing, mountain biking and cliff diving with the company eventually involved as a sponsor in a lot of them.

Mateschitz was also the founder and owner of Red Bull Racing, a Formula 1 racing team based in Milton Keynes, Britain. He had taken over the football club SV Austria Salzburg, now known as “Red Bull Salzburg“.

Little is known about Mateschitz’s private life. He was publicity shy and rarely gave interviews. He lived in Salzburg with his long-term girlfriend and once said years ago that he drank 10 to 12 cans of Red Bull a day himself.

It is not clear what consequences the Red Bull empire will face after his death. His only son Mark, 30, who most recently acted as managing director of one of his father’s investment companies is seen as a possible successor.

Reuters