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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/us-canada/40021301

U.S. House panel issues subpoena to Trump over Capitol riot

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2022

Xinhua

The subpoena to Trump requires the production of documents to the committee by Nov. 4 and to appear for deposition testimony beginning on or about Nov. 14.

The U.S. House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot issued a subpoena on Friday to former U.S. President Donald Trump.
 

The move came more than a week after the panel voted unanimously to seek testimony and documents relevant to the investigation into the incident on Jan. 6, 2021 and its causes.

The subpoena to Trump requires the production of documents to the committee by Nov. 4 and to appear for deposition testimony beginning on or about Nov. 14.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, in a letter, accused Trump of personally orchestrating and overseeing “a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the committee and its members. He has also questioned the timing of the panel’s vote to subpoena him.
 

On Jan. 6, 2021, a large crowd of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and disrupted a joint session of Congress to affirm the 2020 presidential election results.

Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted. Authorities have linked at least five deaths to the mayhem.

It was the worst attack on the U.S. Congress in more than 200 years, which led to Trump’s second impeachment by the House of Representatives shortly before his term officially ended.

Xinhua

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U.S. CDC concerned for new Omicron subvariants

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2022

Xinhua

CDC data show that BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 seem to be spreading relatively quickly so far, but they are still a small proportion of overall variants.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is closely tracking a wide range of Omicron sublineages, including three drawing recent attention, the agency said on Friday.
 

The three new subvariants are BQ.1, BQ.1.1 and XBB. BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are offshoots of the BA.5 subvariant, which has been dominant in the United States for months, according to the CDC.

CDC data show that BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 seem to be spreading relatively quickly so far, but they are still a small proportion of overall variants.

The CDC is also keeping a close eye on XBB based on international reports, although it is still very rare in the United States.

Numerous variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have been tracked in the United States and globally during the pandemic.

Sometimes new variants emerge and disappear. Other times, they persist and continue to circulate in communities. As the virus spreads, it has new opportunities to change in ways that can make emerging variants more difficult to stop because the effectiveness of vaccinations or treatments may be reduced, according to the CDC.

Xinhua

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https://www.nationthailand.com/pr-news/world/europe/40021279

Eurasia cannot decide its own world order

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2022

The Ukrainian war reminds me of the American geopolitical classic, “America’s Strategy in World Politics: The United States and the Balance of Power” (1942) by Yale Professor Nicholas Spykman (1893–1943). In that, he wrote, “whoever rules the Rimland commands Eurasia, and whoever rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world”.

The Rimland is the coastal land covering Western Europe, Arabian-Middle East and Asian monsoon land that surrounds the Eurasian land mass. Anyone who wants to understand American foreign policy with respect to Europe has to read former US National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski’s 1997 Foreign Affairs article on “A Geostrategy for Eurasia”.

Brzezinski understood that “Eurasia accounts for 75 per cent of the world’s population, 60 per cent of its GNP, and 75 per cent of its energy resources. Collectively, Eurasia’s potential power overshadows even America’s.”

Even though America is protected on the East by the Atlantic Ocean and on the West by the Pacific Ocean, the mainstream realist American view followed the Spykman line that control of the Rimland would command Eurasia.

This explains why the American leadership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) is so focused on Ukraine. The Russian decision to invade Ukraine was the US cold warrior’s dream outcome. Prior to that, Western Europe was drifting away from American influence as it depended more and more on cheap Russian energy.

The Ukraine war and severance of the Nord Stream gas pipelines meant that Europe once again depended solely on the American defence umbrella and therefore subject to US strategic direction.

Spending time in Europe last week made me realise how emotions are clouding logic in the current debate over the Ukraine War.

First, there is no European exit strategy on how to achieve peace negotiations over the Ukraine war, which is being flattened by battles, assaults and retreats that destroy lives and infrastructure every day it lasts. After Switzerland gave up its neutral stance, there is no neutral European agent to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table. The odd middle-man is Turkey, a member of Nato, but it has its own differences with Europe.

Second, the economic sanctions against Russia have backfired, with European households paying higher energy prices and therefore facing higher inflation, while Russia has increased exports with much less economic damage than expected. The IMF’s latest forecasts think that the Russian economy will only shrink 3.4 per cent this year, compared with a 35 per cent drop for Ukraine.

Third, the more Nato gives Ukraine in terms of advanced military equipment to hit Russia, the greater the brutal reactions and the higher risks of nuclear outcomes. Both sides think that it would be suicidal to use nuclear weapons, admit that accidents are possible, but claim that the other side would not dare to use them. This irresponsible drift to escalation is like the physicist Richard Feynman’s report on the space shuttle Challenger fiasco, where he found that the engineers’ estimates of the chance of failure were about one in 100, whereas Nasa officials claimed the chance of failure was about one in 100,000.

Eurasia

Fourth, as costs begin to mount in terms of a looming recession and higher inflation, more thoughtful European leaders are waking up to the uncomfortable dilemma of a protracted war in Europe with no end in sight, and a helpless situation in which final decision-making on their own security is already passed to Washington DC. In effect, in defending the sovereignty of a non-Nato member (Ukraine), their own sovereignty to decide on whether to end the war lies outside of European members.

Fifth, the biggest economic loser is Germany as the largest manufacturing and surplus economy in Europe, since the war has cut off her cheap sources of energy as well as loss of markets to Russia and potentially to China from sanctions. Germany’s decision to re-arm at the same time wakens fear in other Europeans who remember how the whole project of the European Union was to bind Germany into peaceful co-existence.

The Ukraine war, therefore, is a war fought inside Eurasia that will decide whether Eurasia itself can ever decide its own security. The whole purpose of the European Union project was to bind Europe through economic interests to avoid the catastrophes of two world wars. Eurasia as a continental mass has enough food and energy for all, except that the resources are not divided equally. Geographical space becomes complicated by emotional space, as neighbours fight over religion, race or tribal reasons that often defy logic. Continental Europeans remember how Britain as an offshore island kept playing divide and rule so that no European power could challenge the British empire. History seems to be rhyming when America is playing the same game.

All these raise the question of whether any nation-state can be totally sovereign in an interrelated world. All members of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) know that when they get into trouble financially, they have to cede sovereign decisions to the IMF in order to get financial aid. Small countries that have powerful neighbours know that they cannot act against the neighbour’s interests without costs. Realistically, no country is totally independent in sovereignty in an overcrowded and interdependent world.

Ukraine’s fate today is to fight to the last man. When that happens, there will be no principle to defend. If we take that logic to nuclear war, what is the moral principle to defend one’s sovereignty when everything disappears in all-out nuclear annihilation?

As long as emotions run high, the war will continue. Cold logic for peace can only come when everyone pays the ultimate price for the foolishness of senseless slaughter.

Andrew Sheng

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/asean/40021274

Vietnamese cuisine voted among best in the world

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2022

Vietnam has been named among the top 10 countries in the world with the best food, according to readers of the Canadian magazine The Travel.

Having distinctive cuisine with flavours that are particularly popular internationally, Vietnam has been ranked fifth on the list.

“Seafood is a popular food in Vietnam as the country contains so many fishing villages, but Vietnam is not all about seafood,” the magazine wrote.

“In fact, the wide variety of food in the country will leave visitors perplexed.”

It recommends tourists try pho the country’s iconic noodle soup with either beef or chicken.

Pho is made and served across the country though it originated in Hanoi and was taken to the south, where other distinct touches were added.

The magazine also suggests visitors should sample snacks such as spring rolls and banh mi, a type of Vietnamese baguette.

“There are different types of rice dishes to also try out and while some consist of chicken, others consist of beef or pork,” it added.

Thailand and the Philippines are the other two Southeast Asian nations on the list of the best food as chosen by readers of The Travel.

The US, meanwhile, tops the list, which also mentions Germany, Italy, Greece, Mexico, Spain and India.

Vietnamese cuisine has been praised by many international chefs and prestigious food magazines in recent years.

The oldest and largest French TV channel – TF1 – broadcast a report on the success of world cuisine in France over the past 10 years, in which Vietnamese cuisine was honoured as one of the three most loved by the French. The report was screened during the channel’s prime time on February 7.

According to TF1, there are about 3,000 products from 24 different countries being sold in retail distribution systems throughout France. Among them, Vietnamese traditional fried spring rolls ranked third in the list of foreign cuisines most loved by French consumers. The US peanut butter, popcorn and macaroni came in second while Japanese sushi was the most popular.

Vietnam was also honoured as Asia’s Leading Culinary Destination at the prestigious World Travel Awards (WTA) 2020. That was the second year in a row that Vietnam ranks first in Asia in the category.

Viet Nam News

Asia News Network