Thailand’s disbanded opposition regroups under new anti-establishment party

Thailand’s disbanded opposition regroups under new anti-establishment party
Members of the now-dissolved Move Forward Party attend a meeting to discuss the formation of a new political party and vote for a new leader in Bangkok on Aug. 9, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 09 August 2024
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Thailand’s disbanded opposition regroups under new anti-establishment party

Thailand’s disbanded opposition regroups under new anti-establishment party
  • Anti-establishment Move Forward was dissolved by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday
  • All 143 surviving Move Forward lawmakers have joined the new party

BANGKOK: Thailand’s disbanded opposition Move Forward unveiled a new leadership and political vehicle on Friday that will become the biggest party in parliament, naming it People’s Party, and promising to advance its predecessor’s progressive platform.
The anti-establishment Move Forward, which won most seats in the last election but was blocked from forming a government, was dissolved by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday, which ruled its plan to amend a law that shields the royal family from criticism risked undermining democracy and the constitutional monarchy.
All 143 surviving Move Forward lawmakers have joined the new party to be led by 37-year-old Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, a former executive of a cloud software company who joined Move Forward in 2019.
“We will carry on Move Forward’s ideology. The mission for me and the party is to create a government for change in 2027,” Natthaphong told a press conference.
The dissolution, which was criticized by the United States, Britain and European Union, was the latest salvo in a two-decade battle for power in Thailand that broadly pits its conservative establishment and royalist military against popularly elected parties.
Move Forward’s liberal agenda has won massive support from young and urban voters, but earned it some powerful enemies, with plans that include reforming the military and dismantling business monopolies worth billions of dollars each year.
Its bid to amend a law on royal insults was its undoing, riling influential generals and royalists with far-reaching connections, who see the monarchy as sacrosanct.
Though the court in a January ruling ordered Move Forward to drop its campaign, Natthaphong said the new party would continue the push to change the law, known as article 112, though with caution.
Thailand’s lese majeste law one of the world’s strictest of its kind, with punishments of up to 15 years for each perceived insult of the crown. The palace typically does not comment on the law.
“We have said we propose to amend article 112 to ensure that this law is not a political tool used to abuse others, but we won’t be careless,” Natthaphong said.
“I think we will continue to push for the improvement and fixing of this law, which is still problematic.”
Nattapong is a graduate in computer engineering and was Move Forward’s deputy secretary-general, working on the party’s digital policies, which were key to its election win.
The People’s Party is the third incarnation of the Future Forward, which was dissolved for a campaign financing violation in 2020, triggering nationwide anti-government protests.
The English name People’s Party was commonly used by the Khana Ratsadon, which launched a 1932 revolution that ended the country’s absolute monarchy.


Trump pledges 10,000 extra border agents in fight with Harris over immigration

Trump pledges 10,000 extra border agents in fight with Harris over immigration
Updated 10 sec ago
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Trump pledges 10,000 extra border agents in fight with Harris over immigration

Trump pledges 10,000 extra border agents in fight with Harris over immigration
  • Illegal immigration is a top voter concern, and Trump is seen by a majority of voters as the person best able to address it, opinion polls show

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump pledged on Sunday to hire an extra 10,000 border patrol agents if he is reelected as president, as he intensifies his attacks on Kamala Harris on the issue of immigration.
The Republican presidential candidate said he would meet the goal by asking the US Congress to fund a 10 percent pay rise for border patrol agents and a $10,000 retention and signing bonus, at a rally in the border state of Arizona, an election battleground.
Flanked on stage by leaders of the Border Patrol union, who have endorsed Trump, the former president said: “This will ensure that we can hire and keep the Border Patrol agents that we need.”
Trump is locked in a close race with Democratic Vice President Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Illegal immigration is a top voter concern, and Trump is seen by a majority of voters as the person best able to address it, opinion polls show.
Trump helped kill a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year that would have funded the hiring of 1,500 extra customs and border patrol agents, and an additional 1,600 asylum officers.
There are currently roughly 20,000 US border patrol officers.
Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, and President Joe Biden have both blasted Trump for his role in pressuring congressional Republicans to kill the bipartisan border security bill, accusing him of sabotaging it for political gain.
Some 7 million migrants have been arrested crossing the US-Mexico border illegally during Biden’s administration, according to government data, a record high number that has fueled criticism of Harris and Biden from Trump and fellow Republicans.
Harris has outlined her plans to fix “our broken immigration system” while accusing Trump of “fanning the flames of fear and division” over the impact of immigrants on American life.
Harris has also called for tighter asylum restrictions and vowed to make a “top priority” of stopping the deadly opioid fentanyl from entering the United States.
On Friday Trump called for the death penalty for “any migrant” who kills a US citizen.
Trump has noticeably hardened his anti-immigration rhetoric in the final weeks of the campaign. Last month he called immigrants in the US illegally who commit violent crimes “monsters,” “stone-cold killers” and “vile animals.” Studies generally find there is no evidence immigrants commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans and critics say Trump’s rhetoric reinforces racist tropes.


US to send anti-missile system and troops to Israel, Pentagon says

US to send anti-missile system and troops to Israel, Pentagon says
Updated 14 October 2024
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US to send anti-missile system and troops to Israel, Pentagon says

US to send anti-missile system and troops to Israel, Pentagon says
  • The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, is a critical part of the US military’s layered air defense systems and adds to Israel’s already formidable anti-missile defenses

WASHINGTON: The United States said on Sunday it will send US troops to Israel along with an advanced US anti-missile system, in a highly unusual deployment meant to bolster the country’s air defenses following missile attacks by Iran. US President Joe Biden said the move was meant “to defend Israel,” which is weighing an expected retaliation against Iran after Tehran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel on Oct 1.
The United States has been privately urging Israel to calibrate its response to avoid triggering a broader war in the Middle East, officials say, with Biden publicly voicing his opposition to an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites and his concerns about a strike on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder described the deployment as part of “the broader adjustments the US military has made in recent months” to support Israel and defend US personnel from attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed groups.
But a US military deployment to Israel is rare outside of drills, given Israel’s own military capabilities. US troops in recent months have aided Israel’s defense from warships and fighter jets in the Middle East when it came under Iranian attack.
But they were based outside of Israel.
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, is a critical part of the US military’s layered air defense systems and adds to Israel’s already formidable anti-missile defenses.
A THAAD battery usually requires about 100 troops to operate. It counts six truck mounted launchers, with eight interceptors on each launcher, and a powerful radar.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned earlier on Sunday that the United States was putting the lives of its troops “at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel.”
“While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” Araqchi posted on X. Still, experts say Iran has sought to avoid a direct war with the United States, making deployment of US forces to Israel another factor in its calculus going forward.
Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel in April. Then on Oct. 1, Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel amid another escalation in fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Many were intercepted in flight but some penetrated missile defenses. US officials did not say how quickly the system would be deployed to Israel.
The Pentagon said a THAAD was deployed to southern Israel for drills in 2019, the last and only time it was known to be there.
Lockheed Martin, the biggest US arms maker, builds and integrates the THAAD system, which is designed to shoot down short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Raytheon, under RTX, builds its advanced radar.


UN chief says any attacks on Lebanon peacekeepers could be a war crime

UN chief says any attacks on Lebanon peacekeepers could be a war crime
Updated 14 October 2024
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UN chief says any attacks on Lebanon peacekeepers could be a war crime

UN chief says any attacks on Lebanon peacekeepers could be a war crime
  • “UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement

NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Sunday that any attacks against peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime,” his spokesperson said after Israeli tanks burst through the gates of a peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon.
It was the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks against the UN peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, in recent days.
“UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“The Secretary-General reiterates that UNIFIL personnel and its premises must never be targeted. Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime,” he said.


World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006

World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006
Updated 13 October 2024
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World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006

World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006
  • IDA normally is replenished every three years with contributions from World Bank shareholding countries

WASHINGTON: The world’s 26 poorest countries, home to 40 percent of the most poverty-stricken people, are more in debt than at any time since 2006 and increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and other shocks, a new World Bank report showed on Sunday.
The report finds that these economies are poorer today on average than they were on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the rest of the world has largely recovered from COVID and resumed its growth trajectory.
Released a week before World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings get underway in Washington, the report confirms a major setback to efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and underscores the World Bank’s efforts this year to raise $100 billion to replenish its financing fund for the world’s poorest countries, the International Development Association (IDA).
The 26 poorest economies studied, which have annual per-capita incomes of less than $1,145, are increasingly reliant on IDA grants and near-zero interest rate loans as market financing has largely dried up, the World Bank said. Their average debt-to-GDP ratio of 72 percent is at an 18-year high and half of the group are either in debt distress or at high risk of it.
Two thirds of the 26 poorest countries are either in armed conflicts or have difficulty maintaining order because of institutional and social fragility, which inhibit foreign investment, and nearly all export commodities, exposing them to frequent boom-and-bust cycles, the report said.
“At a time when much of the world simply backed away from the poorest countries, IDA has been their lifeline,” World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill said in a statement. “Over the past five years, it has poured most of its financial resources into the 26 low-income economies, keeping them afloat through the historic setbacks they suffered.”
IDA normally is replenished every three years with contributions from World Bank shareholding countries. It raised a record $93 billion in 2021 and World Bank President Ajay Banga is aiming to exceed that with over $100 billion in pledges by Dec. 6.
Natural disasters also have taken a greater toll on these countries over the past decade. Between 2011 and 2023, natural disasters were associated with average annual losses of 2 percent of GDP, five times the average among lower-middle-income countries, pointing up the need for much higher investment, the World Bank said.
The report also recommended that these economies, which have large informal sectors operating outside their tax systems, do more to help themselves. This includes improving tax collections by simplifying taxpayer registration and tax administration and improving the efficiency of public spending.


Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM

Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM
Updated 13 October 2024
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Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM

Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM
  • Sweden’s Sapo intelligence agency has accused Iran of recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden, a claim Iran has denied

STOCKHOLM: Sweden wants the European Union to officially deem Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization after several attacks on Israeli targets in Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sunday.
Sweden’s Sapo intelligence agency has accused Iran of recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden, a claim Iran has denied.
Three attacks have been carried out against the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in the past year, and two attacks have targeted an Israeli military technology firm in the past six months.
“We want Sweden to seriously address, with other EU countries, the incredibly problematic connection between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their destructive role in the (Middle East) region, but also their escalating actions around various European countries, including Sweden,” Kristersson told the Expressen newspaper.
“The only reasonable consequence ... is that we get a joint terror classification, so that we can act more broadly than (we can with) the sanctions that already exist,” he said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is a special branch of the Iranian armed forces whose officers hold key positions in Iran’s establishment
In May, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter cited documents from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad as saying that the head of the Swedish criminal network Foxtrot, Rawa Majid, and his archrival Ismail Abdo, head of the Rumba gang, had both been recruited by Iran.
Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported in early October that two recent attacks on the Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen had been ordered by Foxtrot at the behest of Iran.