Global

BANGKOK, Thailand -- President-elect Trump's blistering portrayal of illegal immigrants eating cats and dogs, plus his tough threats of steep tariffs against China, are expected to intimidate Asians hoping to move to the U.S. or profit from Chinese-U.S. trade.

Mr. Trump's victory however may bring some relief for the leaders of three authoritarian, pro-China, Southeast Asian nations -- Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia.

"In his first term, he [Trump] did not exhibit interest in the promotion of democracy or human rights," Kantathi Suphamongkhon, a Thai former foreign minister, said in an interview. "This tendency is expected to continue.

"Governments in Southeast Asia with human rights or democracy issues will feel less or no pressure on this front," Mr. Kantathi said.

Those leaders could expect a much less confrontational Washington responding to their countries' lack of fair elections, free speech, and other human rights which are often highlighted by Democratic administrations.

Asian leaders are also presumably adjusting their diplomatic behavior and style to respond to Mr. Trump's often erratic statements and get past the bluster.

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American soldiers found the Concentration Camps. The Holocaust. Everyone learned about the Holocaust for a reason. Our government built the United Nations, and the International Criminal Court. It prosecuted NAZI's at Nuremberg. Never again, we said. The word “antisemite” had meaning.

Since America and Europe still did not want Jews, the Western powers after WWII gave them land occupied by Palestinians. This resulted in Nakba, which was when the surviving Jews were sent to Palestine in 1947, supplied with weapons, in order to steal the land. This was based on claiming some bullshit about God or religion giving them the rights to steal the land, the homes, the olive trees. Jews labeled themselves as victims and granted themselves the privilege of victimizing others.

Israel denied two critically injured journalists to leave Gaza for life-saving treatments. Fadi Al-Wahidi and Ali Attar, two injured cameramen of Al-Jazeera TV, are fighting for their lives after they received serious injuries that required treatment outside Gaza. Israel refused repeated requests by Al-Jazeera and human rights groups to grant the journalists an urgent medical travel permit without offering a reason.

Francesca Albanese did not mince her words. In a strongly worded speech at the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee on October 29, the UN Special Rapporteur deviated from the typical line of other UN officials. She directed her statements to those in attendance. 

 “Is it possible that after 42,000 people killed, you cannot empathize with the Palestinians?” Albanese said in her statement about the need to “recognize (Israel’s war on Gaza) as a genocide”. “Those of you who have not uttered a word about what is happening in Gaza demonstrate that empathy has evaporated from this room,” she added. 

From 2020 to 2022, indigenous people infected with the COVID-19 virus died at a rate more than double that of Mexico’s general population, an epidemiological study revealed.

Epidemiologist Oswaldo Medina Gómez analyzed the statistics of the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Respiratory Diseases, finding that “clinical conditions and conditions of vulnerability due to social deficiencies” were the main causes for which 9.8% of indigenous people with positive cases died, “in contrast to 4.6% among the non-indigenous population.”

The impact among men was greater than among women, noted Dr. Medina Gómez and his co-author Jordi Josué Medina Vallegas in an article published on October 22 in Ciencia y Salud Colectiva titled Social Inequalities in COVID-19 Mortality among Indigenous Peoples of Mexico.