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Zelensky's NATO move could be considered a response to the fake referendum.

If this war continues as it's going now, Ukraine will have earned its place of honor at the NATO table. Will Hungary stand in the way?

NATO expansion is inconvenient for Putin since it is an obstacle to reestablishing the Soviet Empire.

Putin doesn't care about his own people and how many "volunteers" may die in his Ukraine adventure.

Sabotaging the pipelines is Putin's way of sending a message to threaten pipelines and other undersea infrastructure in Baltic and North Sea, Europipe 1 and Baltic Pipe, for example.

In light of what's happened to Ukraine, Poland and others are very happy that they could join NATO. Russia's autocratic habit and imperial tendencies are the problem.

US could sink the entire Black Sea fleet with conventional weapons.

Debt trap diplomacy has been a problem because China was charging near market rates while other big creditors charged low rates for development loans. The Chinese loan contracts typically contained clauses regarding confidentiality of terms and denying the borrower the possibility of renegotiating under the Paris Club arrangement with creditor nations or a similar setup for commercial loans through banks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Club Due to bad publicity the Chinese position seems to be softening. The rise of the US dollar will make default on development loans more likely, especially since the rising cost of imports (many priced in dollars) will add strain to budgets and the balance of payments. The real estate issue in China is so big because real estate was one of the few (previously) productive places to invest domestically. The stock market is still more like a casino. Now the central government is leaving it up to local authorities to resolve the unfinished construction, but it's a good question how this will work since land sales by local authorities have dried up, but were previously around 30% of revenues. Also, there is a lot of unofficial debt incurred by local and provincial entities. In the past, people had a $50,000 annual quota to obtain foreign exchange for use abroad. People would pool with relatives to buy real estate abroad, some in Thailand, no doubt. It's more difficult now with more questions about the purpose for sending cash abroad.

A nasal vaccine should be quite effective in preventing Covid infection. The latest WHO list of vaccine candidates has much more detail on vaccine projects than back in 2020. Now there are 172 vaccines on the clinical list, and number 38 is intranasal - Phase 3. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines

I saw a photo of the Chiang Mai gate which was demolished in 1967. It was clearly a defensive installation which required traffic to wind through an S-curve to enter.

Now we are in the 21st Century (but unfortunately have to live with the United Nations created in the last millenium). What some countries did in those previous centuries is no longer appropriate behaviour, i.e. slavery, wars of agression, bribery of foreign officials, and debt trap diplomacy. I wish that whataboutism would be outlawed on this forum.

For many years gold has not been a good investment. Lately it performed opposite of what is expected. When inflation arrived it should have gone up, but the propect of rising interest rates interfered.

The residential property market in China has not reached rigor mortis yet, but if the brilliant Xi Covid policy continues, anything is possible.

Yes, so it would be galawk pad pet or gaeng pet (spicy stir fried squirrel or spicy curry). If you like really spicy, you could do gaeng pa (jungle curry). As for preparation, I'm told that they sear/roast the squirrels, then skin, debone, eviscerate, and chop the meat to fry or put in the curry.

You can do a gaeng pet or pad pet. Do you want more details?

In addition to the passport fee, there is a fee for posting the old & new passports from the Embassy to you, unless you pick up the passport. Unfortunately, it is not possible to pay this fee online, so you have to go to the bank to get a draft. You might just do both payments by bank drafts and save yourself any annoyance with online payment.

One of my palms, similar to the last of the photos, was attacked by beetles years ago but recovered. These days the problem is gray squirrels.. They nibble on the new fronds which eventually yellow and drop prematurely. They killed a half dozen coco palms in the neighbor's garden. Now only one is left. The chewing damage is quite distinctive. We trap the squirrels using banana as bait.

That's true. What's happened is that migration from the mainland over several centuries led to intermarriage with indigenous people, many of whom self-identify as ethnic Chinese, as mentioned in the article which you cite. Today, ethnic Chinese people identify as Taiwanese, a political rather than ethnic question. Again from the article, the people coming from China in 1945-50 are known as "waishengren", possibly 1.2 mn or 15% of the island's population at the time. Among the other 85%, the locals, was a certain number who were not happy to be under KMT management. As a result, martial law continued for many years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Terror_(Taiwan).

Pelosi is for democracy. She admires the bravery of young HK people opposing oppressive rule BY law imposed by Beijing. Admittedly, trashing the Legislative Council was excessive, but that was but one incident in a long, mostly peaceful campaign. As for January 6th, 2021, she opposes self-described militias and hangers on invading the legislature to abort a democratic process to confirm the will of the people. People who are against democracy in HK typically characterize demonstrations as "riots", which are punishable under rule BY law by prison sentences. In contrast, rule OF law protects the individual from capricious edicts of the state.

Part of China's problem is Xi Jin Ping and his program to reassert CCP power. The biggest tech companies represent a potential threat to his power exercised through the CCP. His solution has been to clip their wings, and for other private companies to install party functionaries in their management. Vietnam is more laissez faire.

But people in Taiwan increasingly identify as Taiwanese. When Chiang Kai Shek occupied Taiwan, a lot of local people were unhappy and had to be suppressed. Taiwan was only ruled by Chinese at the end of the Ming Dynasty (1644) and then again after Chiang's defeat. Only after his death could democratization take hold by degrees as the Kuomintang mentality recedes.

That economy claim is based on an historical trend continuing, but as brokers say, "past performance is not an indicator of future results". China is more likely to remain a regional power for some time to come, and may decline thereafter.

The boosters for China in this thread evidently use a common tactic called "whataboutism".

For a long time, the local party apparatus would have Chinese women aborted if pregnant with a second child.

It's not that simple. Just look at the current volatility in the US markets. Some continue to buy the dip, even discredited meme stocks. Others are happy to use these rallies to prune their portfolios. As for China, there have been major busts in the last decade, but that did not get attantion from the general public abroad since only foreign institutions have access.