The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is accusing Chinese companies of “exploitative practices” in the Mekong River region after a new partnership has been launched to combat “transnational crimes”. Pompeo named the China Communications Construction Company as one of the big offenders and says the Chinese Communist Party is responsible for the increase in human, wildlife and drug trafficking in the region. He says the new partnership will also strengthen water security for partner countries where China has added to a drought in the region as an upstream damming by China has been carried out in “a completely non-transparent […]

Prosecutors in Thailand have seemingly taken an about face as they have officially indicted Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya, the heir of the Red Bull empire, on “reckless driving causing death” and drugs charges. The latest moves in the cases follow intense public backlash after the cases was being dropped altogether 2 months ago by the deputy attorney general. The indictment comes 8 years after the incident where Boss allegedly crashed his silver Ferrari into the motorbike of a 47 year old policeman, dragging him along Sukhumvit Road for 100 metres, killing him. Since the dropping of the case, Thailand’s judiciary system […]

Residents in Phuket, particularly those living in and around the west coast townships, are reportedly going hungry as the government’s municipal budget to provide food has been depleted. Despite efforts to revive tourism in the area, thousands of people are still in need of donated food to survive and continue to queue up for donated food every day. A public relations staff member at the Patong municipality says, sadly, there is no budget to do any more food handouts in the near future and that there is no word on when or if there will be any more handouts. The […]