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Sponsored Long-term life in Thailand? 5 reasons private health insurance pays off in the long run
Thailand is a great place for expats and retirees, offering a warm climate, affordable living, and rich culture. However, healthcare can be tricky for foreigners since they aren’t eligible for public health coverage, and private care can be expensive. Private...
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Government defends lèse majesté law against UN criticism
Following criticism from a number of United Nations member states, the Thai government has defended the country’s controversial lèse majesté law. The law, or section 112 of the Criminal Code, prohibits insulting, defaming, or criticising the Thai monarchy and carries a penalty of up to 15 years in jail. Reuters reports that yesterday, a number of UN member countries voiced…
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Thursday Covid Update: 7,496 new cases and 57 deaths
7,496 new Covid-19 cases and 57 coronavirus-related deaths were reported today by the CCSA. In the 24-hour since the last count, the CCSA has recorded 7,452 recoveries. There are now 96,450 people in Thailand being treated for Covid-19. In the latest and most severe wave of the virus, first recorded on April 1, the CCSA has recorded 1,968,106 confirmed Covid-19…
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Air Asia boss: Recovery in 3 months if countries ditch quarantine, testing
The chief executive of the Air Asia Group says the aviation sector could return to normal in about 3 months, if governments ditch quarantine and PCR testing. Tony Fernandes says if countries can re-open without such requirements, demand will rise significantly. According to a Bangkok Post report, Air Asia has sold over 300,000 tickets to Langkawi since the island re-opened.…
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US parents split over COVID vaccines for young children
Louise*, mother of a first-grader in Washington DC, was so keen on getting her daughter vaccinated against COVID-19 that she didn’t mind going a bit out of her way. Friday around lunchtime she found out that a rec center across town had around 300 open spots for kids aged 5 to 11 the following day. She immediately signed up ―…
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Belarus border residents rattled by migrant crisis on their doorstep
The Kamenets district near the well-known national park Belovezhskaya Pushcha is a rather deserted area on the Belarusian-Polish border. There’s only one border crossing here to get to neighboring Poland legally. But, the Pestschatka checkpoint hardly sees any traffic nowadays due to coronavirus restrictions in Belarus. Residents of the surrounding Belarusian villages, however, have been watching their country’s western border…
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Benin liberalizes abortion law
Claudia can still remember when her mother forbade her to ever consider having an abortion. She was a 16-year-old school student in Cotonou, Benin’s economic hub. “She said, ‘If you get pregnant, you have to have the child’. She would never have allowed me to get an abortion,” Claudia, who is now 28, told DW. Claudia says that for many…
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Court: activists’ speeches illegally advocated government overthrow
Today the Constitutional Court ruled that activists and the speeches of 3 activist leaders are advocating for the overthrow of the government and the monarchy. They ordered Arnon Nampa, Panupong “Mike” Jadnok, and Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul and all their followers to cease all action against the kingdom and state. According to the court, the demands in speeches by the 3…
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What does India want to achieve through Afghanistan talks?
India on Wednesday hosted senior diplomats and security officials from Afghanistan’s neighbors, with the notable exceptions of China and Pakistan, to discuss how to deal with the Taliban. The Delhi Regional Security Dialogue for Afghanistan was attended by representatives from India, Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Afghan representatives were not invited. Officials from Pakistan and China declined…
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North Korea teeters on the brink of famine as winter approaches
The last of the harvest was gathered shortly before the first snow fell in North Korea this year, but the yield was significantly less than the amount needed to feed the isolated nation’s 26 million people. This June, a report issued by the South Korea-based Korea Development Institute estimated that the North gathered just over 4.4 million tons of crops…
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Thammasat University vs. Foreign Affairs Ministry: 1.5 million vaccines lost
It seems that the dust is still settling on the back and forth that pitted Thammasat University Hospital against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a struggle to import 1.5 million free Moderna vaccines donated by Poland. Each side argues that it was the other’s failure that prevented the vaccine from being received in Thailand. The university had coordinated a…
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Palang Pracharath MP fights to keep seat on panel
An MP accused of committing a serious ethical violation said that she will fight to keep her committee seat, even if she’s asked to give it up. The lawyer for MP Pareena Kraikupt of the ruling Palang Pracharath Party told the Bangkok Post that if the National Anti-Corruption Commission tells Pareena to vacate her seat, she will seek an official ruling…
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Wednesday Covid Update: 6,978 new cases; provincial totals
62 coronavirus-related deaths were reported by the CCSA today, raising the pandemic’s death toll in Thailand to 19,826 with 19,732 of those fatalities during the latest wave, which was first recorded on April 1. In the 24-hour period since the last count, the CCSA recorded 6,978 new Covid-19 cases and 7,697 recoveries. There are now 96,463 people in Thailand being…
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US journalist Fenster faces charges of terrorism and sedition
Danny Fenster, the American journalist that was taken into custody as he attempted to leave Myanmar in May, has had additional charges of terrorism and sedition levied against him today. He is now facing a maximum sentence of life in prison for those charges, a grave turn from the original 6 years he was facing for the accusation of promoting…
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Opposition wants to look into ‘misuse of law’ to silence protesters
An opposition party is backing a motion to form a panel to looking misuses of laws they say are used to silence political dissent, including Thailand’s draconian lese majeste law, which carries an up to 15 year prison sentence for insulting the royal family. With the rise of the youth-led pro-democracy movement over the past year, where many have raised…
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Germans launch fundraiser to rescue stranded Afghans
The German civil society organization Mission Lifeline — known for its role in helping rescue refugees from drowning in the Mediterranean — has launched a fundraiser aimed at assisting vulnerable Afghans obtain passports to facilitate their emigration. Citing German government sources, the German Press Agency (dpa) reported that in early October about 25,000 people in possession of German visas were…
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AirAsia flights from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket return for Sandbox scheme
AirAsia has announced that it will resume its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket. This comes in the wake of Thailand’s reopening to international travelers on November 1. This flight will allow visitors to enter the country through the Phuket sandbox programme. The first flight was an Airbus A320 that took off from Kuala Lumpur at 11:15am. The route is currently…
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Pattaya Beach fight over an affair on TikTok results in 5 arrests
A fistfight that broke out and gathered a crowd on Central Pattaya Beach near the mall resulted in 5 people being arrested. Pattaya City Police were alerted of a fight at around 10:30 in the evening on Monday night and went to the scene to investigate. In the patrol unit arrived, they found a few fights on and around the…
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Thai Cabinet gives the green light for procurement of Molnupiravir
The Thai Cabinet has given the go-ahead for the Public Health Ministry to purchase 50,000 treatment courses of the antiviral pill, Molnupiravir. The drug, from US manufacturer Merck, is the world’s first oral treatment for Covid-19 and has been shown to cut the risk of hospitalisation if administered within days of symptoms developing. According to a Bangkok Post report, Health…
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FDA warns against smuggled Johnson & Johnson vaccines
In Sa Kaeo province in Eastern Thailand, the Food and Drug Administration is warning people to avoid offers of Johnson & Johnson vaccines that were illegally smuggled into Thailand after a patient apparently brought in a vaccine to a private clinic and paid to have medical staff administer it. The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been approved for use…
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Thai government defends sale of antigen test kits banned in the EU
They’ve been banned in the EU, but the Thai government says the cheap antigen test kits from NovaGen can be used here because they’ve been approved by the Thai Food and Drug Administration. Sirikul Methivirangsan from the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation says the reason they’re banned in the EU is due to the bloc requiring some additional paperwork. According to a…
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Wednesday Covid Update: 6,978 new cases and 62 deaths
6,978 new Covid-19 cases and 62 coronavirus-related deaths were reported by the CCSA. In the 24-hour period since the last count, the CCSA has recorded 7,697 recoveries. There are now 96,463 people in Thailand receiving medical treatment for Covid-19. In the latest and most severe wave of Covid-19 in Thailand, which was first recorded on April 1, the CCSA has reported 1,960,610…
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Singapore delays intellectually disabled drug trafficker’s execution due to Covid infection
A highly-controversial case involving an intellectually disabled, Malaysian drug trafficker has captivated Singapore and the world, as the court has delayed carrying out the death penalty due to Covid-19. Singapore has normally been a society that doesn’t protest the use of the death penalty, but since the drug trafficker, Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, has an IQ of just 69, the case…
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Officials to get tough on people smugglers, use MoUs to bring workers in legally
The labour minister says people smugglers face arrest and having their assets seized as part of a crackdown on migrant workers being brought into Thailand illegally. Since Thailand’s re-opening to international tourists, border officials have seen an increase in the number of illegal migrants attempting to cross into Thailand to secure work. Suchart Chomklin says the criminals running people-smuggling operations…
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The UN says more than 3 million people in Myanmar need life-saving aid
The UN is urging Myanmar’s military leaders to allow unimpeded access to more than 3 million people who need life-saving aid. Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian chief, says since the February 1 coup, the numbers of those at-risk of losing their lives will only rise. The ongoing violence has not showed signs of slowing, and Griffiths says if a peaceful…
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Interview: UN genocide advisor says Ethiopia’s warring parties must talk
Alice Wairimu Nderitu of Kenya is the United Nations special adviser on the prevention of genocide. She is also an experienced mediator in the field of peacebuilding and violence prevention, having led as mediator and senior adviser in reconciliation processes. DW: The situation in Ethiopia is deteriorating at an alarming rate and there have been calls for action from the…
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After assassination attempt, what next for Iraq?
Early Sunday morning, a booby-trapped drone exploded very near the Baghdad residence of Iraq’s prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi. A car outside the residence was badly damaged and doors and windows blown out, as seen on footage posted by Washington Post reporter Mustafa Salim on Twitter. Al-Kadhimi himself appeared to have been only slightly hurt. Shortly afterwards, he appeared on television…
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Miao Po-ya: Meet Taiwan’s first-ever openly LGBTQ council member
Miao Po-ya is the first-ever openly LGBTQ member to join a local council in Taiwan. She is breaking barriers by winning the support of young people as well as the older generation, which tends to favor traditional gender norms. SOURCE: DW News
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South Korean elections marred by corruption allegations and mudslinging
Four months ahead of the South Korea’s presidential elections, accusations of scandal, abuse of power and corruption are dominating the debate, instead of discussions on policies and plans for the future. President Moon Jae-in must step down at the end of his single, five-year term in March, and clearly hopes to pass the baton on to Lee Jae-myung, a former…
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Tuesday Covid Update: 6,904 new cases; provincial totals
61 coronavirus-related deaths were reported by the CCSA today, raising the pandemic’s death toll in Thailand to 19,764 with 19,670 of those fatalities during the latest wave, which was first recorded on April 1. In the 24-hour period since the last count, the CCSA recorded 6,904 new Covid-19 cases and 8,024 recoveries. There are now 97,244 people in Thailand being…
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How a Syrian refugee went searching for his parents along Poland-Belarus border
Syrian refugee Haval Rojava* has not seen his parents in 12 years. The 33-year-old Kurdish man has been living in Austria since 2009, working as a self-employed hairstylist and creating a new life for himself. His brother lives in Austria as well, and they have two sisters living in Germany. But Rojava has been hit by anxiety attacks since losing…
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