<p>President Trump has just been to China.</p> <p>Just before he arrived, the trial of Taiwanese NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh was streamed online from Yueyang City Intermediate People’s Court in Hunan province. Lee had been arrested on 19 March when he crossed the border from Macau.&nbsp; He then disappeared into the gulag that is the Chinese judicial system. He had not been seen for 6 months before his trial for “subverting state power” under a new Foreign NGO Management Law.</p>

<p>Two weeks before he was unleashed on the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump gave a speech in Bismarck, North Dakota, supposedly to outline his plans on tax reform.&nbsp;</p> <p>(<em>A quick aside for the historically-minded</em>: Bismarck is named after the Iron Chancellor who invented realpolitik and Germany.&nbsp; Could there be a starker contrast?)</p>

<p>A bomb goes off at Phramongkutklao Hospital and 25 are injured.&nbsp; The Prime Minister next day says that if such things go on, the election (in the most optimistic scenario at least 18 months away) may have to be delayed.</p>

<p>The new President of the United States believes that ‘torture works.’&nbsp; Or rather, with his unremitting bombast, ‘absolutely torture works.’</p> <p>He bases this not on any empirical evidence (which all points the other way) but on the same kind of fact-free ugly-gut faux-hard-man reaction that has led him to claim that climate change is a Chinese hoax, that his election victory would have been more impressive if millions had not voted illegally, and that his inauguration attracted the biggest audience ever.&nbsp; Period.&nbsp; Ever.</p>

<div> <div>The leader of Thailand’s junta has congratulated US President-elect Donald Trump on being elected, saying the junta would accept anyone elected by the people.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 9 November 2016, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, Thailand’s Prime Minister, said the Thai government would have accepted whoever emerged as victor in the 2016 US election since either would have had the mandate of the people, <a href="http://www.tnamcot.com/content/591450">reported</a> the Thai News Agency.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Prayut heads Thailand’s junta, the National Council for Peace and Order (N </div></div>

<div> <div>In the long run, Donald Trump’s protectionist policies may put an end to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, resulting in what could be a huge drop in Thai exports, says Thailand’s Commerce Minister.</div> </div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><img alt="" src="http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/a.000.jpg" /></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div> <div>On 9 November 2016, Apiradi Tantraporn, Thailand’s Minister of Commerce, congratulated the new US President-elect Donald J. Trump on his victory. </div></div>