Thai anti-piracy police shut down and shutter SiamBit, the huge software pirates

Good morning world.
This is the Early Edition of Fishwrap of Friday 15 March. Repeat, today is the infamous dangerous Ides of March, so keep your eyes on a swivel.
 Friday, and the weekend will see more scorchers in and around Nong Bon, Thailand
 but with a touch of afternoon rain: Daily High 34, Low 28
Ramadan hours for Nong Bon Thailand: Fajr 0513, Sunrise 0623, Break Fast (Iftar) 1827.
  

What's orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot.
  

In war surgery, doctors would sometimes be forced to make heartbreaking choices. They operate on patients without anesthesia, wounds are left open to monitor for infection, scalpels are sanitised as best we can, and then reused.
-- Kunlawat "Note" Chittarat International Red Cross (scroll down for story)

Election Commissioners demand 'death to MFP'
Just when we hoped we had seen the backs of the military dictatorship's not especially competent Election Commission, the old men's group emerged yesterday with their newest demand.
Photo shows the progressive Move Forward Party's election winner Pita Limjaroenrat, left, and the current, official head of the party, former leader of the Move Forward Party, Chaithawat Tulathon.
This is not surprising in the least. If anything, this decision had seemed inevitable.
https://www.thaienquirer.com/51894/a-post-move-forward-political-landscape/
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2757334/

Because there have been so many party dissolutions in the past, and particularly since the beginning of the new millennium, we know exactly how things will play out.
First, a new party will be set up -- slightly changed name, identical policies.
 Move Forward spokesperson Parit Watcharasindhu has already told the media that "There will be a new vehicle to continue driving our set of ideas in Thai politics."
Thus, the damage, while limited, will also be real.
Below, the election victory parade last May, Pita in white shirt and Democracy Monument in the out-of-focus background.

No, Stop the confusion, he is NOT Man of the Year but anyhows,
Srettha makes the cover of Time

Here are 5 key Takeaways from a wide-ranging interview.
First, Neutrality on Russia's war on Ukraine; he defended his decision to invite President Vladimir Putin to visit Thailand.
Second, he will defend the lese majeste law, or Article 112 of the criminal code, no question, no compunction. Quote:
 All laws are respected and enforced equally in Thailand. This also goes for the Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code. (No one dared to laugh; he's the prime minister.)
Third, Thailand has to step up and lead efforts to resolve the Myanmar mess.
Fourth, he's not stepping aside.

 I'm sure one day Thaksin's daughter Paethongtarn will be running for the premiership. But for the next four years, the premiership is mine.

Fifth, about his beloved Liverpool soccer team.
 Jurgen Klopp is right to quit after this season.

It's Hell On Earth
Prime Minister Srettha has ordered all Thai workers who were abducted by Hamas terrorists on the night of October 7to shut up -- say nothing.
But stories will always emerge.
Kunlawat "Note" Chittarat, an aid worker of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has recently returned from his mission in Gaza, and he has stories to relate.

Just for a starter, Note commutes to work in Gaza the Mediterranean Sea on one side, and the billowing smoke and rubble of Gaza buildings on the other.
Thai Enquirer: https://t.ly/Kga8u

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has bucketed U.S. President Joseph Biden's warning that Israel must not cross the Biden-declared Red Line.
No way.
Netanyahu has specifically counter-stated that he will specifically cross that Red Line and send IDF troops into Rafah in southern Gaza.
MxM News exclusive: https://mxmnews.com/article/356efa11-d7b7-409b-abcd-f9c7bbfd0201
https://twitter.com/netanyahu/status/1766864754499350832

and therefore

Biden is "thinking" about imposing conditions on military aid to Israel if Bibi does that.
But 'Bibi' Netanyahu is firm: "We will finish the job." https://t.ly/s4gdB

Preparing for a l-o-o-ng Songkran
All Thai airlines adding flights, cutting (some) fares for the month-long Songkran holiday beginning next month.
Thai media and resident-foreign reporters have been 'requested' and not politely
 to publish and broadcast government-churned 'news' of a huge influx of Chinese tourists, which has not yet materialised.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2756874/

Related, from The Nation https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40036276
Extra flights scheduled for passenger convenience during Songkran
Civil Aviation Control reported that tickets for additional flights are already on sale. They amount to an additional 104 in-country flights, providing an extra 17,874 seats.

Who had 2-metre hissing dragon in Crutchley's garden on the Bingo card?

ASEAN ECONOMY SINGAPORE
Credit Tay Tay for raising the forecast for Singapore's economic growth.
Why Thailand is sputtering jealousy:
More than 300,000 tickets were sold for her six shows at Singapore's National Stadium, with many fans traveling from other countries.
TheStar of Malaysia https://t.ly/ZSlmP

The website is Hollywoodesque but this review of the Morning After the Oscars is entertaining as all get-out.
Biggest Oscar Snubs, Reactions, & Memes

Above: How America's most-organised group delayed broadcast of the Oscars.
https://deadline.com/2024/03/the-2024-oscars-biggest-moments-snubs-and-surprises-1235852728/

USA CANADA ENTERTAINMENT
Joe Rogan 1 - 0 Neil Young
Neil Young Waves White Flag, Crawls Back to Spotify.
 The 78-year-old Canuckistanian announced his music is returning to Spotify two years after he yanked it in order to protest against the rival content of The Joe Rogan Experience.
CNBC: https://shorturl.at/qFNQ8

USA POLITICS

Biden clinches Democratic Party nomination for November's presidential election.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-presumptive-nominee-election-president-democrat-63b66006d4bc45354343228e323e3baa
Trump is close to clinching for the Republican Party
https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-primary-georgia-washington-mississippi-hawaii-15bb0084ad656903ffef14cfae822abd
Neither Biden nor Trump faces significant opposition to become their party's standard bearer for the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday, November 5 -- 236 days from today.

Confirmed update from those updates:
Don "DJ" Trump clinches the Republican Party's nomination as presidential candidate, the day after Biden did the same for the Democratic Party.
CNN: https://t.ly/f8eIg

USA POLITICS
Speaking with A Well-Meaning Elderly Man With A Poor Memory -- The Transcripts
Report: https://t.ly/L-R_8
Most Embarrassing Moments: https://t.ly/USS68
https://twitter.com/AndrewKerrNC/status/1767659996278325575

Full report: https://t.ly/51Vbx
The X-Version https://twitter.com/AndrewKerrNC/status/1767659996278325575

More visa-free travel, this time from China
Beijing announced it is dropping the requirements for visas in passports held by citizens of Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Visa-free travel to China for those Europeans begins today.
https://shorturl.at/deSTU

GLOBAL WARMING and SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY

So all we need do to wipe out Sleeping Sickness is to Follow the Science and let Global Warming do it for us?
 Tsetse fly fertility damaged after just one heat wave, study finds.
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-tsetse-fly-fertility.html

Why won't someone teach Americans how to make 'Si Racha' sauce?
Even if it has to use fake red jalapenos that aren't Thai and aren't Si Racha?
https://thetakeout.com/huy-fong-sriracha-new-recipe-vs-underwood-hot-review-1851318284

Story includes references to 'milder' Si Racha. Sure.

U.S. House of Representatives Passes the TikTok Divestiture Bill by a Huge, Bipartisan Margin (thedrum.com)
The bill does not outlaw TikTok or shut it down. What it does is, require the ChiCom owner of TikTok, a state-controlled entity called ByteDance, to sell the US part of the operation (I believe) to some non-China-controlled entity within (I think) six months or so.
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2024/03/13/us-senate-will-kill-divest-or-ban-tiktok-bill-despite-house-backing-experts-predict

Thai Anti-piracy pooyai claimed credit for shutting down 18-year-old piracy site SiamBit, the oldest and most likely the largest torrent site in Thailand. (torrentfreak)
Four people were arrested on suspicion of running the site include the suspected ringleader, a professional racing driver in his late thirties.
https://torrentfreak.com/racing-driver-arrested-as-police-target-thailands-largest-oldest-torrent-site-240220/

Photo: Police at the (literally) underground SiamBit operations hub.

This is useful, also TheVerge
How to find (and delete) your TikTok history
https://www.theverge.com/23289267/tiktok-history-find-delete-how-to

"CHIPS ACT" in Mandarin but without all the poisonous DEI stuff (Reuters.com)
 China prepares US$27 billion chip fund to counter growing U.S. restrictions.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/china-prepares-27-bln-chip-fund-counter-growing-us-restrictions-bloomberg-2024-03-08/

Top 5 Most-Pirated Movies of The Past Week (torrentfreak)
1 Argylle
2 Poor Things
3 Dune: Part Two
4 Damsel
5 Ricky Stanicky
More at: https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-torrented-pirated-movies/

British monarchy rocked by bad Photoshop job (theverge.com)
 Oh, c'mon the future queen of (formerly Great) Britain already said she only 'edited' the photo a teensy-weensy bit.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/10/24096762/kate-middleton-edited-photo-royal-family-possible-fake

The 'C' stands for Catherine.

The image is unsettling at first glance. Everyone is smiling so brightly they look like a Snapchat filter. Middleton is seated in the image — understandable given she had some sort of undisclosed abdominal procedure in January — but the perspective seems wrong. Are her arms really that long?

Currently TV Bingeing
It's 1963, 20 years after The Maltese Falcon and the war has ended.

The toughest detective of San Francisco has retired in the small town of Bozouls in southern France when the kidnapping of a child breaks out and a villain from the past suddenly appears.
6 episodes, 6 hours. Neo-noir, plot-driven.
https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/monsieur-spade-tv-review