Thai government ready for first major reshuffle

The first Big Thing Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin plans for this new year, Buddhist Era 2568 is to shuffle the Thai government cabinet. This (below) was the first ministers that he appointed to be sworn in just 9 months ago, but he has decided it's not the best one, not at all.

Key posts are going to change, most of them involving his ruling Pheu Thai Party. First and foremost Srettha is going to lose his position as minister of finance and controller of the 10,000-baht giveaway programme that he has failed to bring in.
Next: Sutin Klungsang, minister of defence out; Srettha himself will take over that position. This is not unprecedented; even Yingluck was defence minister until Prayut and the army deposed her in 2014.
As part of intra-party bargaining, Srettha plans to promote army General Gen Natthapol Nakpanich, once head of the National Security Council, to become his deputy minister of defence.

The convicted (in Australia) heroin smuggler and minister of agriculture Thammanat Prompow will remain where he is. His exremely powerful mentor and designer of the Prayut coup, retired General Prawit Wongsuwon, has too much power in the "negotiations" for Srettha to demote or replace him.
Many more details at https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2777614/

PHOTO: Srettha (second left, laughing) made Thailand's pitch to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development at the OECD headquarters in Paris, which is a town in France.
Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara  underscored Thailand’s readiness and strong determination to become an OECD member, noting that Thailand shared common values and goals with OECD members including democracy, rule of law, human rights, an open and free market economy.
https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/economy/40037300

THAILAND MYANMAR MYSTERY PLANE
The Burmese military dictatorship sent an ATR 72-600 commercial airliner to Tak province in the Thailand North on Sunday night. It was billed as a 'rescue flight' to pick up 600 refugees who fled the fighting at Myawaddy in Myanmar, but things didn't work out.
The aircraft waited on the ground for an hour. Nothing happened, and it took off again to fly back to Nay Pyi Daw.
Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-nukara said the plane was carrying a diplomatic pouch, which it dropped off at the airport at Mae Sot district. He told Thai media that the flight carried no weapons, no Myanmar coup officials and no bags of cash.
https://www.nationthailand.com/world/asean/40037118

TOURISM AVIATION AIRLINES
In the very disappointing 'recovery' after the pandemic panic, one of the industries hardest hit was passenger aviation. Now, that business is predicting a full recovery to 2020 levels -- but not before next year.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand targets almost 40 million arrivals this year -- but the TAT has been wrong, before. The only country in the region with higher airline traffic than 2019, is Vietnam.
And Sarun Benjanirat, deputy chief of Thailand's Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) points out a serious problem:
 Regional airlines, definitely including Thailand, have fewer than 80 percent (80%) of 2019-level airplanes than five years ago.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2777864/

ECONOMY CURRENCY EXCHANGE
Emerging market currencies drop to 2024 low. The U.S. dollar extended gains for a fifth day.
The Thai baht was trading at 36.71 to the dollar in offshore markets -- close to its 2024 low.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2776930/

TECHNOLOGY ASEAN CHINA
Buh-bye China, Hello Vietnam.

Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook goes to Vietnam, and confirms that Apple wants to greatly increase its investment in Vietnam.

Cook said he is 'seriously considering' building an Apple factory in Vietnam. Weirdly, while in the country, Cook flashed the old "V" peace sign more often than Penn Gillette.

Heavy rain in Dubai
How heavy was it?
Heaviest in 75 years. So heavy they had to stop passenger-airline traffic, because the airport was flooded out. https://t.ly/QhzHK

USA CENSORSHIP NPR
Hardly surprising; barely newsworthy
Longtime NPR editor Uri Berliner, who was suspended after blowing the whistle on liberal bias at the organisation, has announced he has resigned.
 An 'open-minded spirit no longer exists at NPR.'
https://apple.news/AZ9m48n8vRmeZimG_FYgDkQ

SPORTS CANADA STANLEY CUP

Spare a sigh for Cabbagetown. Hockey Night in Canada for At Least One Week

Last-week commotion and frenzy in the NHL team standings caused the one sole unique Stanley Cup playoffs that Toronto Maple Leafs and fans really, really didn't want.
 Round One of the 16-team Cup playoffs will be Leafs vs. Boston.
Toronto has not beat Bruins in a Cup playoff series since [consults History 101] Frank Mahovolich and Tim Horton which was in [fingers fly over battery powered calculator]
 It was in 1958. https://shorturl.at/yzCW6
Another excellent preview, Rangers vs. Washington Capitals via NHL.com https://t.ly/ZvFw-

One other note: Leafs played Boston four times this season, lost them all.
But hey, Leafs won the Cup in 1966-67 and that's only 57 years ago.
 When Leafs fans first began chanting 'Wait 'til Next Year!'
The only one thing that Leafs need is a goalie: https://sports.yahoo.com/bruins-vs-leafs-first-round-122915977.html

The first game, best of seven, is Sunday morning, 7 o'clock. Equivalent to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Toronto time. On TBS, truTV, MAX, SN, CBC, TVAS.
ESPN will handle the Rangers-Caps series, beginning the following day.
 
Speaking of Timmy's, they're losing customers so they're going to start selling that all-Canadian dish: pizza.
2-min VIDEO CBC https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.7175974

ALSO SPORTS (kind of)
Girls' Basketball
You Know Who Isn't Complaining About Caitlin Clark's Salary? Caitlin Clark. https://t.ly/zarz8

Paris made quite a big deal out of lighting the 2024 Olympics flame.
The whole thing, by CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.7174881

USA EDUCATION
OOPSIE! Hey, it could happen to anyone, right?

https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1780676367299866903

Read It All: CLOGGED ARTERIES: The unseen cost of road-blocking protests.
While this seems to have been an effective strategy by protesters across the political spectrum to draw attention to a variety of issues in recent years — including racial injustice, climate change, and pandemic restrictions — these protests raise an important question:
 At what cost do these disruptions come?
https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/19/clogged-arteries-the-unseen-cost-of-road-blocking-protests/

Learning from COVID (AmThinker)
Here's a radical idea. No censorship unless it's an actual war and our boys are fighting and dying at the front.
 What we learned from the start of Covid, as the two weeks to slow the spread grew into years, was that the government had six ways from Sunday to censor anyone that didn't support the narrative of lockdowns and masks and vaxxes.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/04/learning_from_covid_with_tucker_and_naomi.html

Covering America's top, most important stories, such as
The Dangers Of Urban Chickens:
 Parents with backyard poultry can transmit salmonella to infants.
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2024/04/11/parents-poultry-transmit-salmonella-infants/9641712865511/

This is kind of an in-joke but it's a really good one.