World News
World news, global politics, business, technology, and culture—stay updated with breaking stories, international trends, and major events. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted source for global news.
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Sponsored Could bitcoin serve as a hedge against US Tariffs?
If you hold a certain amount of bitcoin or whether you’re planning to buy some soon, you must be wondering what impact the US tariffs have on the coveted crypto’s price. A market analysis by Inky Cho, Financial Markets Strategist...
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Bali’s Mount Agung erupts again
PHOTO: Twitter/Phoebs A week after flights were cancelled in and out of Bali’s airport, Mount Agung has burst into life again today at 11:42am sending plumes of ash into the Balinese sky. Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center said the eruption lasted for 8 minutes Despite the renewed activity, Mount Agung remains on level alert level three, or “standby”…
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Travel’s dynamic changes – A personal perspective
by Andrew J Wood – President SKÅL International Bangkok With the dramatic announcement of the sale of retail travel giant Thomas Cook following the loss of £1.5 billion brings the blight of the travel agent community into the news once more. Last week Wall Street bank Citigroup advised investors to sell shares in the travel company. Confidence that travel agents…
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ASEAN group calls for end of judicial ‘harassment’ of Thai MPs
The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, based in Jakarta, is calling on Thai authorities to end what they describe as harassment of the Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit. They’ve also asked the ruling Junta to stop their efforts to undermine anti-military parties in the new Thai parliament. Charles Santiago, Chair of APHR and a Member of Parliament in Malaysia…
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Lee Kuan Yew’s grandson marries same sex partner in South Africa
by The Star – Asia News Network The grandson of the late Singapore PM Lee Kuan Yew, Li Huanwu, has married his “soul mate” in Cape Town, South Africa. This was revealed by Li’s partner, Heng Yirui, who made the announcement on his personal Instagram account. “Today I marry my soul mate. Looking forward to a lifetime of moments like this with…
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Watch out Thailand, here comes Vietnam
“Vietnam is poised to take advantage of the next wave of digital technologies such as blockchain, AI (artificial intelligence), internet of things and cloud-based services to become Asia’s next high-performing economy and improve the living standards of its residents.” Dr Lucy Cameron, from Australia, lead author of the report “Vietnam’s Future Digital Economy Towards 2030 and 2045”, says the country…
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Chinese, Taiwanese and Singaporeans dominate Asia’s cruise market
Chinese travellers continue to dominate Asia’s passenger cruise market, but Taiwanese and Singaporeans aren’t far behind. This according to the 2018 Asia Cruise Industry Ocean Source Market Report. Commissioned by the Cruise Lines International Association, the report looks at the growth, demographics and trends of the top source markets in Asia. While China continues to dominate the passenger share of…
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“Very dangerous” Huawei could be part of a US-China trade deal
President Donald Trump has reiterated his complaints against China’s Huawei Technologies but conceded that they could be resolved as part of a negotiated US-China trade deal. Without providing evidence, he went on to call the Chinese telecommunications giant “very dangerous.” The US has virtually banned firms from conducting business with Huawei, the world’s largest telecom manufacturer, citing unspecified national security…
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Second night of violence over election results – Jakarta
Indonesian police have again fired water cannon and rubber bullets at protesters who were setting fires and trying to breach barbed wire barricades yesterday as demonstrations over the results of the presidential election hit the capital for a second night. The riots followed the announcement by the General Election Commission confirming that President Joko Widodo had had won the election…
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Game of Thrones: Thirsty actors leave water bottle in shot
Oh my GOT. They’ve done it again. For the second time this season Game of Thrones fans, with eagle-eyes and a trigger finger on the pause button, have spotted another out-of-place-and-time item on screen. This time, a plastic water bottle tucked in behind the leg of ‘Samwell Tarly’ has been spotted on the series, now concluded. Actually you’ve got to…
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‘Game of Thrones’ finale rates high, fails the landing
WARNING: GOT Spoiler alerts!! “This final season has obviously been divisive, and a good deal of the criticism, especially of the penultimate episode, was justified.” by Brian Lowry After eight seasons, 73 episodes and a much-debated flurry of plot developments, that signature first-season line proved the key to unraveling the “Game of Thrones” finale, which, after a season that was…
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Google cut off Huawei’s access to some Android apps and services
In a surprise response to the ongoing Huawei vs Trump administration spat, Google has halted its business operations with Huawei. Huawei is one of the leading mobile phone manufacturers in the world. The Google ‘pull out’ is effective immediately, according to a report from Reuters. The halted business streams include anything in relation to the transfer of hardware and software…
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Conservative Liberal coalition wins Australian election
(For US readers, ‘Liberal’ is the name of the main conservative party in Australian, not to be confused with the way the term ‘liberal’ is used in American politics) Australia’s ruling Liberal conservative party coalition has defied polls to hold onto power in the Australian national election yesterday. While it remains unclear if PM ScottMorrison’s Liberal party and their country-based…
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Dozens of Rohingya saved from being trafficked to Malaysia
PHOTO: Desperate Rohingyas try to flee Bangladesh on flimsy rafts – UNHCR Bangladeshi police say that they’ve stopped dozens of Rohingya Muslims from being trafficked to Malaysia by boat. Most of the ‘boat people’ were women according to the Reuters report. Human traffickers had convinced at least 69 Rohingya to leave the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. The camps had…
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Now you can ‘Grab’ a hotel as well
If you’ve used Grab you’ll realise what a big announcement this is. It immerses yet another service within their intuitive App. Grab, already a leading App in Southeast Asia, has announced the launch of its ‘Hotels’ booking service. The company says customers will now be able to book hotels and other accommodation from Agoda and soon, Booking.com directly from their Grab…
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Urgent meetings to consider impact of US-China trade war on Thai exports
The Thai government is reacting quickly to perceived threats to the Thai export business by the ongoing US-China trade wars which have been ramped up in the past week by, firstly, US President Donald Trump rising the tariffs on a raft of additional Chinese items. Then China announced yesterday that it will impose tariffs on US$60 billion of US goods from June…
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US-China trade tensions reverberate around the world
New global diplomatic and economic fault lines are appearing, with new and untested consequences emerging. ‘Volatile’ does’t even start to describe the current situation. US President Donald Trump’s combative stance, made clear with a new round of import tariffs imposed, continues to upend decades of trade diplomacy and cautious negotiations as he tries to coax China to change their trading…
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33 injured after Biman Air flight skids off Yangon Airport runway
A Biman Air aircraft has skidded off the runway in Yangon, Myanmar and broken into pieces. The Biman Airlines flight was carrying a reported 33 people. Biman is the flag carrier of Bangladesh. At least five women and 12 men were being taken by ambulance to North Okkalapa Hospital at around 9pm last night with more serious injuries. The Bombardier…
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Vietjet reports strong revenue for Q1 2019
Vietjet has reported revenue is up by nearly 28% during the first quarter of 2019. In its Q1 (first quarter) financial report the Vietnamese budget airline says international route revenue surpassed domestic revenue reaching 55% of total revenue. In the first quarter Vietjet launched four new international and two domestic routes, a total of 111 routes in its network. Vietjet…
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Brunei backs down on gay sex death penalty
Brunei’s sultan now says that death by stoning for gay sex and adultery will not be enforced after a global backlash, but critics are still calling for harsh sharia laws to be completely abandoned in the tiny ASEAN country. The code, also punishing theft with amputation of hands and feet, came into force in April in the sultanate on the…
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New Disneyland ‘Star Wars’ park opens May 31
May the forward sales be with you. Fans have raced to be the first to experience the new Disneyland Star Wars theme park, based on the iconic film series. The park is being opened at the original Disneyland site in Annaheim, California. The new theme park began accepting requests on Thursday to visit “Galaxy’s Edge” during the first three weeks…
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Huawei grows 41%, Apple tanks in China
PHOTO: Huawei remains a popular brand in Thailand with models at both ends of the price spectrum Huawei has dominated the Chinese smartphone market in Q1 2019, taking a record 34% share as rivals Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Apple all struggled. Huawei may feeling the heat from a US-led campaign against the Chinese tech company, but in China its smartphones are outselling…
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Boeing 737 Max ‘sensor’ issues flagged 216 times to the US FAA
A small sensor, sitting just outside the cockpit of the Boeing 737 Max jets, was previously flagged in more than 200 incident reports submitted to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). But Boeing admits it did not flight-test the scenario which may have caused the crashes of two of its brand new jets – one in Ethiopia and one in…
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