Russian President Vladimir Putin Will Not Attend G-20 Summit

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10 November 2022, 11:00

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech at a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of Russian Federal Medical-Biological Agency in Moscow, Russia on Nov. 9, 2022. Photo: Sergei Bobylev / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool Photo via AP File

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia next week, an Indonesian government official said Thursday, avoiding a possible confrontation with the United States and its allies over his war in Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders are to attend the two-day summit in Bali that starts Nov. 15. The summit was to have been the first time Biden and Putin would have been together at a gathering since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the Chief of Support for G-20 events told reporters in Denpasar, Indonesia, that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will lead the Russian delegation.

“The Indonesian government respects the decision of the Russian government, which President Putin himself previously explained to President Joko Widodo in a very friendly telephone conversation,” said Pandjaitan, who is also the Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment.

Widodo, who is hosting the G-20 and Pandjaitan, said that “we hope that the good communication between the two leaders can reduce tensions between Russia and Ukraine.”

The G-20 is the biggest of three summits being held in Southeast Asia this week and next, and it remained unclear if Lavrov will represent Russia at all of them. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit began Thursday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, followed by the G-20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok, Thailand.

Biden will attend ASEAN and the G-20 while Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to APEC.

Biden had ruled out meeting with Putin if he had attended the summit, and said the only conversation he could have possibly had with the Russian leader would be to discuss a deal to free Americans imprisoned in Russia.

Biden administration officials said they had been coordinating with global counterparts to isolate Putin if he had decided to participate either in person or virtually. They have discussed boycotts or other displays of condemnation.

Putin’s decision not to attend the G-20 comes as Russia’s forces in Ukraine have suffered significant setbacks. Russia’s military said it will withdraw from Kherson, which is the only Ukrainian regional capital it captured and a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.

Russia’s announced retreat from Kherson along with a potential stalemate in fighting over the winter could provide both countries an opportunity to negotiate peace, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.

He said as many as 40,000 Ukrainian civilians and “well over” 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war, now in its ninth month. “Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side,” Milley added.

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Story: Niniek Karmiri.

CP Foods received UN Women 2022 Thailand WEPs Awards in Gender-inclusive Workplace

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Contributor

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10 November 2022, 10:41

Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CP Foods) received the second runner-up award in the Gender-Inclusive Workplace category from the “UN Women 2022 Thailand WEPs Awards”. The award, hosted by UN Women, demonstrates the company’s outstanding efforts to advance gender equality throughout the organization.

Pimonrat Reephattanavijitkul, Chief People Officer at CP Foods, said the award recognizes a company’s commitment to promote organizational diversity and inclusion at workplace. CP Foods has the policy to synergize the work force and bring together people with different gender, generation, culture, backgrounds, experience, perspective, and practices, giving them an equal opportunity to lead the organization towards sustainable growth.

“CP Foods is very proud to receive this prestigious award as it reflects the success of the company in driving change in gender equality and women empowerment,” she said, adding that CP Foods believes that differences will create value and be a key driving force that enables the organization to be a truly inclusive workplace and achieve its goal of being the “Kitchen of the World”. The gender-inclusive business model is also in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The company has made significant progress to promote diversity and inclusion within the organization in recent years such as offering equal career advancement opportunity, flexible welfare improvements based on employee diversity background, developing a new generation of leaders, setting up a mom room in the operations nationwide, establishing employee’s clubs including LGBTQ+ club, etc.

These efforts help create a happy working environment and accelerate organization culture. Apart Thailand, CP Foods has applied this principle to overseas operations, business partners and farmers in the supply chain to build up its supply chain on the basis of equality and tolerance, which is socially and internationally accepted.

The UN Women 2022 Thailand WEPs Awards was participated by more than 500 leading organizations from 19 countries across the Asia-Pacific region.

This year, CP Foods also received multiple awards in human rights and human resources categories included Human Rights Award 2022 from Thailand’s Ministry of Justice and the HR Asia Best Companies to work for in Asia 2022 award, from HR Asia magazine and Gold medal in Human Rights at the Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards 2021.

PBIC Thammasat and Matichon Will Host a Symposium on APEC, Thailand, Its Challenges and Achievement.

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Contributor

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10 November 2022, 03:15

Matichon, the sister daily of Khaosod English, will host an academic symposium on Tuesday Nov 15 on the topic, “APEC-Thailand 2022: Challenges and Achievement” together with PBIC Thammasat or Pridi Banomyong International College, Thammasat University, at the university, from 9.30am to half past noon.

Speakers are : Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat, Anusorn Tamajai, economist and committee member of Pridi Banomyong International College, Kobsak Chutikul, advisor to the Senate’s Foreign Committe, Climate Watch Thailand’s Wanun Permpibul and Li Zhijie, a student at the College’s Thai Studies Programme.

Thammasat University rector Assoc Prof Gesinee Witoonchart will give an opening remark on “APEC Chellenges in Women’s Empowerment.”

The programme will be conducted in Thai and English. Free Admission. See the poster for registration details.

Blatter Says Picking Qatar as World Cup Host Was a ‘Mistake’

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Associated Press

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9 November 2022, 09:30

FILE - FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter announces that Qatar will be hosting the 2022 Soccer World Cup, on Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010, during the FIFA 2018 and 2022 World Cup Bid Announcement in Zurich, Switzerland. Photo: Keystone / Walter Bieri / AP File

GENEVA (AP) — Picking Qatar to host the World Cup was a mistake 12 years ago, FIFA’s president at the time Sepp Blatter said Tuesday, again citing a meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and Michel Platini for swaying key votes.

The 86-year-old Blatter spoke with the Swiss newspaper group Tamedia in his first major interview since being acquitted with Platini in July of financial misconduct at FIFA after a trial at federal criminal court.

“It’s a country that’s too small,” Blatter said of Qatar, the smallest host by size since the 1954 tournament in Switzerland. “Football and the World Cup are too big for that.”

The 32 teams will play 64 games in eight stadiums in and around the city of Doha which has been transformed since 2010 by massive construction projects to prepare for the World Cup.

Games start on Nov. 20 with about 1.2 million international visitors expected to arrive in Qatar during the World Cup. With limited places to stay in the host nation, some will commute in from neighboring states.

“It was a bad choice. And I was responsible for that as president at the time,” said Blatter, who has long said he voted for the United States. Its bid was beaten by Qatar in the final round of a five-candidate contest to be 2022 host.

It became part of FIFA lore that an expected U.S. victory swung toward Qatar at a meeting Sarkozy hosted in Paris in the week before the Dec. 2, 2010 vote by FIFA’s executive committee.

French soccer great Platini, then president of European soccer body UEFA and a vice president of FIFA, was invited by then-state president Sarkozy to his official residence. The crown prince of Qatar, now the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, was also there.

Blatter on Tuesday repeated his claim that Sarkozy put pressure on Platini, and again gave his version of a telephone call Platini made to him after the Paris meeting that the World Cup voting plan had changed.

“Thanks to the four votes of Platini and his (UEFA) team, the World Cup went to Qatar rather than the United States. It’s the truth,” Blatter said of the 14-8 voting result.

In comments to the Associated Press in 2015, Platini broadly confirmed the significance of that meeting in Paris.

“Sarkozy never asked me to vote for Qatar, but I knew what would be good,” Platini told an AP reporter in Zurich seven years ago. He acknowledged that he “might have told” American officials that he would be voting for their 2022 bid.

Blatter did not specifically refer to criticism of Qatar on labor and human rights issues since 2010.

However, he did question why his successor as FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, has moved to live in Qatar for at least the past year.

Blatter noted growing calls, by rights groups and several FIFA member federations including the U.S. and England, to create a compensation fund for families of workers who died or were injured. Qatar’s government has resisted the calls and described them as a “publicity stunt.”

“What can FIFA say if its president is in the same boat as Qatar?” Blatter said of Infantino choosing to live in Doha.

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the interview.

Blatter, who went to Moscow during the 2018 World Cup as a guest of Russia while he and Platini were suspended by FIFA from soccer, told the Swiss newspaper reporters he would watch games in the coming weeks on television at his apartment in Zurich.

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Story: Graham Dunbar.

Myanmar Tops ASEAN Summit’s Agenda as Global Issues Loom

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Associated Press

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9 November 2022, 09:00

A recycler pulls her cart past a billboard advertising the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summits in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. Photo: Heng Sinith / AP

BANGKOK (AP) — Southeast Asian leaders convene in the Cambodian capital Thursday, faced with the challenge of trying to curtail escalating violence in Myanmar while the country’s military-led government shows no signs of complying with the group’s peace plan.

U.S. President Joe Biden will be on hand for the Phnom Penh summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which comes as Washington and Beijing are increasingly jockeying for influence in the Asia-Pacific region. It sets the stage for the Group of 20 meetings in Bali, Indonesia, that immediately follow and are expected to include Chinese President Xi Jinping and possibly Russian President Vladimir Putin, then the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Bangkok.

In addition to Myanmar, the four-day meetings are expected to focus on ongoing disputes in the South China Sea, pandemic recovery issues, regional trade and climate change.

Neither Xi nor Putin is expected to attend the ASEAN talks or the parallel East Asia Summit, though both China and Russia are thought to be sending high-level delegations headed by Prime Minister Li Keqiang and possibly Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Looming large over ASEAN, the G-20 and APEC are the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Russia’s consequent search for new markets for its energy resources, as well as resulting supply chain and food security issues, China’s increasingly aggressive saber-rattling over Taiwan, and rising tension in the Korean Peninsula.

By attending the ASEAN summit in person, Biden will be able to push American interests and also visibly demonstrate Washington’s renewed commitment to the region, said Thomas Daniel, an expert with Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic and International Studies.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump skipped the summits after 2017 and left the 2017 meetings early, before the plenary session of the East Asia Summit, a key regional strategic dialogue, leaving then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to stand in for him.

“For Southeast Asia it’s really important to physically show up, and I think the Americans are very aware of this,” Daniel said. “I cannot emphasize how much damage was done by the Trump administration not showing up — and it’s not just not showing up, it’s sending representatives that are seen as just further downgrades.”

ASEAN this year is elevating the U.S. to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” status — a largely symbolic enhancement of their relationship but one that puts Washington on the same level as China, which was granted the distinction last year.

Ahead of the summit, Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said the talks would be an opportunity to work on a “broad range of diplomatic priorities across the region” and to focus on “carrying out everything we’ve promised rather than coming forward with another long list of new initiatives.”

“A high-level U.S. presence at these summits will demonstrate our strong and enduring commitment to the region,” he said at a late October roundtable hosted by Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“From the president to the secretary of state, throughout the entire U.S. government, we know that America’s future security and prosperity are entirely dependent on what happens in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not mention the U.S. when outlining details of Li Keqiang’s upcoming appearance, saying only that the country is “committed to its foreign policy of maintaining world peace and promoting common developments.”

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose country has the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, has invited Ukraine to participate in the summit and its foreign minister is expected to attend, though it has not yet been officially announced.

Hun Sen’s office said he spoke with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone at the start of the month, and that the Ukrainian leader had requested to address the summit by video, but it was not immediately clear if that had been approved.

Kritenbrink applauded the inclusion of Ukraine, and said the U.S. was working with its ASEAN friends to “ensure that Ukraine meaningfully participates and that the (East Asia Summit) partners send a strong message that big countries cannot simply take what they want from smaller neighbors.”

He added that the U.S. would talk with ASEAN nations about additional steps to put pressure on Myanmar’s regime to push it to stop the killings and move toward a democratic path.

“We are not going to sit idly by while this violence continues,” Kritenbrink said.

ASEAN, which includes Myanmar, has tried to play a peacemaking role since shortly after the country’s military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power in February 2021.

At a special meeting at the end of October, the foreign ministers of ASEAN’s other members — Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei — acknowledged their efforts to bring peace hadn’t succeeded and called for “concrete, practical and time-bound actions” to support the implementation of its five-point peace plan.

It calls for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid and a visit to Myanmar by the special envoy to meet all sides.

Myanmar’s government initially agreed to it but has made little effort to implement it, aside from seeking humanitarian aid and allowing ASEAN’s envoy, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, to visit. But it refused to allow him to meet with Suu Kyi, who was arrested and is being tried on a variety of charges that critics say are meant to sideline her from politics.

In response, ASEAN has not allowed Myanmar’s leaders to participate in its official meetings, and Myanmar has rejected the idea of sending non-political representation to the summit, though working-level officials have joined some pre-summit meetings.

ASEAN foreign ministers in August concluded a meeting with a joint statement criticizing Myanmar for its lack of progress, but little more, deciding to instead leave the issue for the leaders to decide in Phnom Penh.

It could be, however, that the leaders also choose to wait until Indonesia, which has taken a tougher stand on Myanmar, takes the chair of the bloc in 2023, before taking more decisive action.

“There is every chance that they might choose to delay and kick this down the road again,” Daniel, the analyst, said.

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Story: David Rising.

N. Korea Denies US Claims It Sent Artillery Shells to Russia

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Associated Press

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8 November 2022, 10:30

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un shake hands during their meeting in Vladivostok, Russia on April 25, 2019. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / Pool / AP File

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has denied American claims that it’s shipping artillery shells and ammunition to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine, and on Tuesday accused the United States of lying.

The denial follows dozens of weapons tests by North Korea, including short-range missiles that are likely nuclear-capable and an intercontinental ballistic missile that could target the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang said it was testing the missiles and artillery so it could “mercilessly” strike key South Korean and U.S. targets if it chose to.

North Korea has been cozying up to traditional ally Russia in recent years and even hinted at sending workers to help rebuild Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. The United States has accused North Korea, one of the most weaponized countries in the world, of supplying Soviet-era ammunition such as artillery shells, to replenish Russian stockpiles that have been depleted in the Ukraine.

Last week, Russia sent North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a trainload of 30 thoroughbred horses, opening the border with its neighbor for the first time in 2 1/2 years. Kim is an avid horseman and state media have often pictured him galloping on snowy mountain trails astride a white charger. The horses, Orlov trotters, are prized in Russia.

Spokespeople of Russia’s Far Eastern Railway told the state-run news agency Nov. 2 that the first resumed train headed to North Korea with the 30 horses and said the next train was to carry medicine.

Experts say North Korea may be seeking Russian fuel and also technology transfers and supplies needed to advance its military capabilities as it pursues more sophisticated weapons systems.

In September, North Korea restarted its freight train service with China, its biggest trading partner, ending a five-month hiatus.

Last week, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby accused North Korea of covertly supplying a “significant number” of ammunition shipments to Russia. He said the United States believes North Korea was trying to obscure the transfer route by making it appear the weapons were being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa.

“We regard such moves of the U.S. as part of its hostile attempt to tarnish the image of (North Korea) in the international arena,” an unidentified vice director at the North Korean ministry’s military foreign affairs office said in a statement carried by state media.

“We once again make clear that we have never had ‘arms dealings’ with Russia and that we have no plan to do so in the future,” the vice director said.

In September, U.S. officials confirmed a newly declassified U.S. intelligence finding that Russia was in the process of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea. North Korea later dismissed that report, calling on Washington to stop making “reckless remarks” and to “keep its mouth shut.”

On Nov. 2, Kirby said the U.S. has “an idea” of which country or countries the North may funnel the weapons through but wouldn’t specify. He said the North Korean shipments are “not going to change the course of the war,” citing Western efforts to resupply the Ukrainian military.

Slapped by international sanctions and export controls, Russia in August bought Iranian-made drones that U.S. officials said had technical problems. For Russia, experts say North Korea is likely another good option for its ammunitions supply, because the North keeps a significant stockpile of shells, many of them copies of Soviet-era ones.

Even as most of Europe and the West has pulled away, North Korea has pushed to boost relations with Russia, blaming the U.S. for the crisis and decrying the West’s “hegemonic policy” as justifying military action by Russia in Ukraine to protect itself. In July, North Korea became the only nation aside from Russia and Syria to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk territories as independent.

North Korea’s possible arms supply to Russia would be a violation of U.N. resolutions that ban the North from trading weapons with other countries. But it’s unlikely for North Korea to receive fresh sanctions for that because of a division at the U.N. Security Council over America’s confrontations with Russia regarding its war in Ukraine and its separate strategic competitions with China.

Earlier this year, Russia and China already vetoed a U.S.-led attempt to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its series of ballistic missile tests that are banned by multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Some observers say North Korea has also been using the Russian aggression in Ukraine as a window to ramp up weapons testing activity and dial up pressure on the United States and South Korea. Last week, the North test-fired dozens of missiles in response to large-scale U.S.-South Korea aerial drills that Pyongyang views as a rehearsal for a potential invasion.

In a separate statement published Tuesday by state media, a senior North Korean diplomat criticized U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ recent condemnation of North Korea’s missile launch barrage, calling him a “mouthpiece” of the U.S. government.

“The U.N. secretary general is echoing what the White House and the State Department say as if he were their mouthpiece, which is deplorable,” said Kim Son Gyong, vice minister for international organizations at the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

Kim said that Guterres’ “unfair and prejudiced behavior” has contributed to the worsening tensions in the region.

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Story: Hyung-jin Kim and Kim Tong-hyung.

Dems, GOP Make Urgent Final Pitches as Election Season Wraps

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Associated Press

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8 November 2022, 10:00

President Joe Biden poses for photos with Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore during a campaign rally at Bowie State University in Bowie, Md., Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. Photo: Susan Walsh / AP

COATESVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Coast to coast, candidates and big-name backers made final appeals to voters Monday in the last hours of a fraught midterm election season, with Republicans excited about the prospect of winning back Congress and President Joe Biden insisting his party would “surprise the living devil out of a lot of people.”

Democrats contend Republican victories could profoundly and adversely reshape the country, eliminating abortion rights nationwide and unleashing broad threats to the very future of American democracy. Republicans say the public is tired of Biden policies amid high inflation and concerns about crime.

“We know in our bones that our democracy is at risk,” Biden said during an evening rally in Maryland, where Democrats have one of their best opportunities to reclaim a Republican-held governor’s seat. “I want you know, we’ll meet this moment.”

Arriving back at the White House a short time later, Biden was franker, saying: “I think we’ll win the Senate. I think the House is tougher.” Asked what the reality of governing will be like, he responded, ”More difficult.”

The Maryland event followed Biden’s late-campaign strategy of sticking largely to his party’s strongholds rather than stumping in more competitive territory, where control of Congress may ultimately be decided. Biden won Maryland with more than 65% of the vote in 2020 and appeared with Wes Moore, the 44-year-old Rhodes Scholar who could become the state’s first Black governor.

The president said at an earlier virtual event, “Imagine what we can do in a second term if we maintain control.”

Most political prognosticators don’t think the Democrats will — and predict that Tuesday’s results will have a major impact on the next two years of Biden’s presidency, shaping policy on everything from government spending to military support for Ukraine.

In the first national election since the violent Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, the Democrats have tried to focus key races on fundamental questions about the nation’s political values.

The man at the center of most Jan. 6 debate, former President Donald Trump, was in Ohio for his final rally of the 2022 campaign — and already thinking about his own future in 2024. He had teased that he might formally launch a third presidential run at Monday night’s rally with Senate candidate JD Vance — which Trump concluded by promising a “big announcement” next week at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Trump’s backing of Vance in Ohio this year was crucial in helping the author and venture capitalist — and onetime Trump critic — secure the GOP’s nomination for a Senate seat. He’s now facing Democrat Tim Ryan.

“When I think about tomorrow, it is to ensure the American dream survives into the next generation,” Vance declared to thousands of cheering supporters, some sporting Trump 2024 hats and T-shirts, at Dayton International Airport.

While the GOP likes its chances of flipping the House, control of the Senate could come down to a handful of crucial races. Those include Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania, where Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman was locked in a close race against Republican celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz.

“This is one of the most important races in America,” Fetterman told a crowd of about 100 Monday outside a union hall near a steel plate mill in Coatesville, about 40 miles west of Philadelphia. “Dr. Oz has spent over $27 million of his own money. But this seat isn’t for sale.”

At a nighttime rally at a suburban Philadelphia estate, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley introduced Oz to a crowd of about 1,500.

“There’s too many extreme positions in Washington, too much out there pulling us away from where the real answers lie,” Oz said. “I will bring balance to Washington. But John Fetterman? He’ll bring more extreme.”

Fetterman’s campaign noted that, in the final days, Oz has campaigned with Trump, at a wedding venue that refuses same-sex marriages and at a fitness center whose owner organized buses for Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, rally in Washington.

In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who was in a nail-bitter with Republican Herschel Walker, tried to cast himself as pragmatic — capable of succeeding in Washington even if the GOP has more power. Warnock promised Monday to “do whatever I need to do and work with whomever I need to work with in order to get good things done.”

Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly also tried to strike a moderate tone. He praised the state’s late Republican senator, John McCain, while noting that he didn’t ask Biden to campaign with him but would “welcome the president to come here at any point.”

Kelly’s Republican rival, Blake Masters, called the senator “just a rubber stamp vote for Joe Biden’s failed agenda.”

“You look at what Biden and Mark Kelly are doing. It’s like, are they that incompetent, or are they trying to destroy the country?” Masters said. “I think it’s both.”

Elon Musk, whose purchase of Twitter has roiled the social media world, used that platform Monday to endorse the GOP, writing, “I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic.”

That came too late for more than 41 million Americans who had already cast early ballots. Biden, meanwhile, wasn’t exclusively positive on the final day of campaigning. He’s spent weeks warning of extremism and also said Monday, “We’re up against some of the darkest forces we’ve ever seen in our history.”

“These MAGA Republicans are a different breed of cat,” he said, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan. Biden also raised concerns about voter intimidation during the midterms, even suggesting that some people were outside voting stations with automatic rifles.

The president was expected to watch Tuesday night’s returns from the White House.

Trump has long falsely claimed he lost the 2020 election only because Democrats cheated, and he has begun raising the possibility of election fraud this year. Many Republican candidates across the country continue to adhere to his election denialism, even as federal intelligence agencies are warning of the possibility of political violence from far-right extremists.

Threats could also come from abroad, as they have in past races. Kremlin-connected Russian entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted Monday that he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue to do so.

“If you want to stop the destruction of our country and save the American dream, then tomorrow you must vote Republican in a giant red wave that we’ve all been hearing about,” Trump said at Monday night’s rally in Ohio. He also went after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying, “I think she’s an animal” mere days after her husband, Paul, was severely beaten by an attacker at the couple’s San Francisco home.

First lady Jill Biden appeared with her husband in Maryland but also campaigned earlier Monday for Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton in northern Virginia. It could be an early indicator of GOP midterm strength if Wexton’s seat flips to her Republican challenger, Hung Cao.

The first lady told about 100 people outside a home in Ashburn, about 30 miles from Washington, that the race could come down to a tiny margin of votes. And she warned that, in Congress, a “Republican majority will attack women’s rights and health care.”

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Story: Will Weissert and Marc Levy. Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Bill Barrow in Macon, Georgia, Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix, Josh Boak in Bowie, Maryland, Julie Carr Smyth in Vandalia, Ohio, Matt Rourke in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, and Jill Colvin, Colleen Long and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.

Japan PM Vows To Strengthen Military at Int’l Naval Review

By

Associated Press

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7 November 2022, 10:30

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, center, visits the USS Ronald Reagan, in Sagami Bay, southwest of Tokyo, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022. Photo: Kyodo News via AP

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at an international fleet review Sunday that his country urgently needs to strengthen its military capabilities as security risks increase including threats from North Korea’s nuclear and missile advancement and Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Eighteen warships from 12 countries participated in the review, including the United States, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea, while the U.S. and France also sent warplanes.

South Korea joined for the first time in seven years, in the latest sign of improvement in badly strained ties between Tokyo and Seoul over Japan’s wartime atrocities.

“The security environment in the East and South China seas, especially around Japan, is increasingly becoming more severe,” Kishida said, noting North Korea’s increased missile firings, including one that flew over Japan last month, and growing concern about the impact in Asia of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Avoiding disputes and seeking dialogue is important, Kishida said, but it is also necessary to be prepared for provocations and threats to peace and stability. He repeated his pledge to significantly reinforce Japan’s military capability within five years.

Kishida said Japan urgently needs to build more warships, strengthen anti-missile capability and improve working conditions for troops.

“We have no time to waste,” Kishida said after his review aboard the JS Izumo, where naval officers from the participating countries gathered to review a demonstration of the frigates, submarines, supply ships and warplanes in Sagami Bay southwest of Tokyo.

The 248-meter- (813-foot) long Izumo has been retrofitted so that it can carry F-35Bs, stealth fighters capable of short take-offs and vertical landings, as Japan increasingly works side-by-side with the U.S. military.

Kishida said Japan will further strengthen the deterrence and response capability of the Japan-U.S. alliance.

Later Sunday, Kishida and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel visited the USS Ronald Reagan, the U.S. Navy’s only aircraft career based outside the U.S. mainland, off the U.S. naval base of Yokosuka.

Emanuel stressed the importance of cooperation among U.S. allies. “Every time we do things in either a bilateral capacity, trilateral capacity of any other type of exercises that also brings in others, that puts China on their back heels because they realize that’s the one thing they do not have is the one thing America has in abundance and we work at it extensively.”

The U.S. military, which had just finished a joint exercise with South Korea that prompted missile barrages and other warnings from North Korea, is set to hold major drills with Japan later this month in southwestern Japan. Australia, Canada and Britain will join part of the drills, while France, India, New Zealand, the Philippines and South Korea are expected to take part as observers.

Japan has steadily stepped up its international defense role and military spending over the past decade, and plans to double its military budget in the next five to 10 years to about 2% of its GDP, citing a NATO standard, amid threats from North Korea and China’s growing assertiveness.

China has reinforced its claims to virtually the entire South China Sea by constructing artificial islands equipped with military installations and airfields. Beijing also claims a string of islands that are controlled by Japan in the East China Sea, and has stepped up military harassment of self-ruled Taiwan, which it says is part of China to be annexed by force if necessary.

Kishida’s government is currently working on a revision to its national security strategy and mid- to long-term defense policies, and is considering allowing the use of preemptive strikes in a major shift to Japan’s self-defense-only postwar principle. Critics say preemptive strikes could violate Japan’s pacifist constitution.

Apparently addressing concerns from Asian neighbors, Kishida said Japan will stick to its postwar pledge as a “pacifist nation” and continue to explain its security policy to gain understanding while asking other countries to do the same.

Many of its neighbors, including South Korea, were victims of Japanese aggression in the first half of the 1900s, and an attempt by Japan to increase its military role and spending could be a sensitive issue.

Sunday’s international fleet review marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of Japan’s postwar navy, called the Maritime Self-Defense Force, seven years after Japan was demilitarized after its World War II defeat. The naval ships and warplanes were to participate in joint exercises later on Sunday and Monday.

It was the first time Japan hosted an international fleet review in 20 years. China did not take part but was expected to participate in the two-day Western Pacific Naval Symposium in Yokohama starting Monday with officers from about 30 countries discussing maritime security.

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Story: Mari Yamaguchi. Associated Press video journalist Jérémie Chanteraud in Yokosuka, Japan, contributed to this report.

Apple Says iPhone Supplies Hurt by Anti-virus Curbs in China

By

Associated Press

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7 November 2022, 10:00

FILE - Customers shop at an Apple Store on the first day of sale for the Apple iPhone 14 in Beijing, China on Sept. 16, 2022. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein / AP File

BEIJING (AP) — Apple Inc. is warning customers they’ll have to wait longer to get its latest iPhone models after anti-virus restrictions were imposed on a contractor’s factory in central China.

The company announcement Sunday gave no details but said the factory operated by Foxconn in the central city of Zhengzhou is “operating at significantly reduced capacity.”

“We now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated,” the company said. “Customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products.”

Foxconn Technology Group said earlier it imposed anti-virus measures on the factory in Zhengzhou following virus outbreaks. Apple and Foxconn previously hadn’t responded to questions about how iPhone production might be affected.

Last week, access to the industrial zone where the factory is located was suspended for one week following a surge in infections in Zhengzhou and the departure of workers from the factory.

“We are working closely with our supplier to return to normal production levels while ensuring the health and safety of every worker,” Apple said.

Opinion: Miss Universe, Miss Grand Pageants and Thailand’s New Soft Power

By

Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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6 November 2022, 13:00

Chakrapong "Anne" Chakrajutathib, CEO of JKN Global Group, poses during a press conference on Oct. 27, 2022.

Thailand has become a beauty-pageant organizing superpower over the past few years and decidedly with late last month’s purchase of Miss Universe brand by a tycoon and transgender activist Chakrapong “Anne” Chakrajutathip. Chakrapong paid 20 million U.S. dollars and is now in control of Miss Universe Organization (MU), which was partly and formerly owned by Donald Trump.

In an alternative ‘universe,’ the past 10 years saw another Thai tycoon, Nawat Itsaragrisil, built a Bangkok-based international beauty contest, known as Miss Grand International (MGI), into a rival international beauty contest brand and Mr. Nawat remains MGI President today.

The two brands alone, not to mention godzillian other local Thai competitions at all levels (Thailand even boasts an ‘Miss Elephant Daughter Beauty Contest,’ where very overweight women compete for a crown. And although there is yet to be a Ministry of Beauty Pageant, there are legions of websites and Facebook pages which discuss various beauty competitions year-round. One is aptly named in Thai, the “Ministry of Beauty Pageant of Thailand” for example, has nearly 200K Likes on Facebook and are influential.

All this means beauty pageant is now Thailand’s soft power and people like Nawat and Chakrapong are well-placed to direct the future course of international beauty contests.

Chakrapong did not wait long after the acquisition, she announced on social media that she wants to see Miss Universe competition to include married women, divorcees, transgenders, and the maximum age limits set at 27. We shall see how receptive the universe will be in the weeks and months ahead in her attempt to broaden the term “Miss.” That in itself had led to a healthy debate about the definition of “miss” and the notion of beauty and this is how Thailand’s soft power is being exerted.

Nawat on the other hand, positioned his Miss Grand International with a heavy tilt towards promoting local tourism and ensuring that shortlisted and finalist contestants at both national and international levels will have to answer questions related to politics and international politics.

This year’s just-concluded Miss Grand International 2022 competition in Indonesia highlighted the issue of war and it was inevitable to mention Russia and Ukraine, for example.

Thai fans wanting to see more crowns, be it Miss University or Miss Grand International being given to a Thai candidate may be disappointed as Thai ownership means Thai candidates will face greater and closer scrutiny by beauty pageant fans from other nations due to the obvious ownership issue.

MGI, for example, has been around for 10 years but no Thai candidate has so far been able to succeed as being crowned Miss Grand International. Despite that, this year’s first runner up Engfa Woraha was a subject of rigging accusation by Vietnamese MGI fans who believe their candidates deserved to score higher and as a result unfollowed MGI Instagram account in droves, driving the number of followers from 6 million down to 4.2 million within hours.

It is here where we see the nationalism side of international beauty queen contests, which is in a way not just a big entertainment business, but a surrogate war among nations not unlike that of the World Cup or the Olympic Competitions.

It is here that people like Nawat and Chakrapong can exercise their influence to shape the course of not just the future of both international beauty contests but also how nations should healthily compete and how nationalism can be channeled constructively at international arenas.

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