Thailand seatbelt rules changed again
Wakey-wakey girls. And also men. This is your 135th Monday morning of the lockdown.
THAILAND POLITICS
The Thai media are starting to notice, and to report...
Later today, Thailand's junta including token 'prime minister' Prayut will be targets of criticism at a street rally at Bangkok's City Hall.
Demonstrators demand that Prayut and "government" loyalists get out of town by Wednesday.
Prayut has issued a hard "Nah" to that demand.
A new and confusing Seatbelt Law goes into effect on September 5.
And contrary to early, first reports, enforcement will be purposely lenient.
The chief of the Department of Land Transport tried to explain to the media and public:
If your car or pickup doesn't have seatbelts for the back seat, then, well, it doesn't. Carry on.
And those passengers riding in the bed of a pickup - only three, no more. And don't worry about seatbelts.
ASEAN G20 INDONESIA
The Bloomberg agency won an exclusive interview with Joko Widodo, president of Indonesia and host of the G20 group, which will meet in Bali on November 15-16.
On China, you are one of the few people to have met President Xi [Jinping] recently. Has he accepted your invitation to attend the G-20 summit in person?
Xi Jinping will come.
What about Vladimir Putin?
President Putin has also told me he will come.
The G20 summit is better than having open conflict.
It is better to have a forum for dialogue like the G20.
If there is a space for discussion, we can discuss and hopefully come up with solutions.
This is what we want. This is why we have a space for dialogue.
The firm that runs the Bankok Skytrain, better known to riders as BTS, tried to explain that:
Too many passengers entered the Surasak Station at 6:38 p.m. on Saturday evening.
Heavy rain caused slippery floors and (obviously) escalators. But wait for the good news:
Most of the fallen people had minor injuries,
ADDITIONAL NEWS
Many/most of the victims were students who had attended an afternoon concert at nearby Bangkok Christian College.
The accident occurred when "too many" of the students rushed to get on the UP escalator.
Grotty Rona
During the 24 hours of Sunday, the SARS Covid-2 novel coronavirus in Thailand...
• infected and put into hospital: 1,968 {overall total: 4,634,180}
• killed another 29; [32,030]
The only positive news: 4,582,529 of those infected have recovered and are back in society, and with their families.
We're not out of it. Not by any means.
Face masks mandatory on all flights in India
You can refuse. And the airlines and burly security men will deboard you.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has made masks mandatory in flight and at the airports in India. This is to be followed in all flights, across all airlines.
New Covid cases reached a record 5,233 on Saturday night/Sunday morniing.
Times of India: https://bityl.co/DwJk
The ruling Thailand junta's 'minister of tourism and sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn is a misinformed elderly gentleman, spreading дезинформация, dezinformatsiya, disinformation.
Their token 'minister' of tourism and sports is taking pointed media editorials and comments like this:
OPINION: Minister Phiphat should do more homework before looking to open bars till 4 a.m. as Khao San Road is not even a bar zone.
PHOTO shows Khao San Road at 2 a.m. on Saturday. Part of the ruling junta is pressing for a 4 a.m. closing "for the good of foreign tourists", which is ray-ciss.
https://www.thaienquirer.com/43073/opinion-minister-phiphat-should-do-more-homework-before-looking-to-open-bars-till-4-am-as-khao-san-is-not-a-bar-zone/
Doctors turned their attention from Covid to warn against the plan to keep pubs and bars open until 4 a.m. There could be more road accidents. And also there's the risk of further Covid-19 infections inside the bars.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2372608/
PHOTO: Prohibitionist groups are out in force to oppose the junta's 4 a.m. plan.
EUROPE POLITICS FINLAND
Huh? Say What? The knife-loving nation of Finland turns into prissy pantywaists overnight.
Finnish media ask: Does a prime minister have a right to party?
[The first Scandinavian joke]
A Dane will talk to you before he drinks, a Norwegian will talk after he drinks, a Swede will just say "Cheers!" and the Finn will look at the Swede scornfully and say "are we here to drink, or chatter?"
Floods inundate 5 districts in Ayutthaya province.
Flash floods force national park in Phitsanulok to close - "until the situation returns to normal."
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2373443/
Germany is in the grip of a political storm. Even The New York Times says so.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany has had better days but the past week was nightmarish.
His most recent travails come on top of a rocky start to his chancellorship.
He failed to immediately contradict the Palestinian leader who accused Israel of "50 Holocausts" as they stood together in Berlin.
Then he was heckled by discontented voters calling him a "liar" and "traitor." And on Friday, he was summoned to testify in the case of a major tax scam that took place when he was mayor of Hamburg.
Bild headline: Shame in the chancellery!
Spiegel: Scholz is silent.
Prominent German podcast The Pioneer: A horrific week.
Since coming into office in December, Scholzx has struggled to find his footing as the head of Europe's biggest democracy and as the successor of Angela Merkel, his former boss, Germany's iconic chancellor for 16 years, a leader he likes to emulate.
Germany’s Scholz faces critics on nearly every side
https://www.omanobserver.om/article/1123933/opinion/germanys-stony-faced-chancellor-faces-critics-on-nearly-every-side
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/20/world/europe/olaf-scholz-germany-mahmoud-abbas.html
Related
GUT UND HART, DEUTSCHLAND
German economy minister rules out keeping nuclear plants running to save gas.
Minister Robert Habeck ruled out on Sunday extending the lifespan of the country’s three remaining nuclear power plants in order to save gas, saying it would save at most 2 percent of gas use.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/german-minister-rules-out-keeping-nuclear-plants-running-save-gas-2022-08-21/
TECHNOLOGY
Speaking of Apple, the company is looking to Vietnam to make MacBooks and Watches. (Nikkei Asia)
On the one hand, nominal commies. On the other hand, not China. Also, not Thailand.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Vietnam-to-make-Apple-Watch-and-MacBook-for-first-time-ever
Samsung is building a $15 billion chip R&D facility in South Korea. Not Thailand. (AnandTech)
That's in addition to the $200 billion they're spending on new and expanded factories. I think they might be serious about this stuff.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/17538/samsungs-15-billion-rd-complex-to-overcome-limits-of-semiconductor-scaling
Hey Wendy, can I get some lettuce on this?
Definitely not! Our lettuce has E.coli.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08-wendy-lettuce-sandwiches-coli-outbreak.html
U.S.A. SEGREGATION
In the words of the Great George Wallace: Segregation today, Segregation tomorrow, Segregation forever!
This is just sad.
A poll by the Generation Lab/NBC News specialists... their latest poll... showed that half of students attending college/university/whatever in the U.S.A. would not, ever, under any circumstance agree to room or live with anyone who did not not exactly the same way they voted in the last election for U.S. president.
Expected, unsurprising
62 percent of students who identify or voted Democrat firmly insistent they could not even be in the same dorm room, house or what-not identified and voted Democrat, meaning Biden. In no way, at no time would they marry or even date such a person.
71 percent of students whoi identify and/or voted Republian said, sure, why not?
https://bityl.co/Dvqf
Much, Much more news of such snowflakes at
[PDF] https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/22140614/generation-lab-nbc-poll.pdf
TECHNOLOGY
Word on the street: Apple iPhone 14 is almost ready [mashable.com]
Mark your calendars. Apple's signature iPhone launch event is expected to take place on September 7.
https://sea.mashable.com/tech/21173/apples-iphone-14-event-could-be-set-for-sept-7
Well, Google...
Google Maps shows Sabah landmarks as Philippines [mashable.com]
How to piss off a Malaysian in one easy lesson.
https://r-log.dable.io/s/sea.mashable.com/u/86776647.1661045774505/click_redirect?source=10289&pick=21184&rm=50.1.1&cm=50.1.1&channel=PC_ArticleBottom.Grid3x2&reco_type=hot-items&cid=86776647.1661045774505&widget_id=GokzzqEX&request_id=Z8W349v9Nu5RMWZM&reco_list_lz=NobwRAlgJmBcYCYCMSDsAWMAaMBbApgC4AWA9jPAKwAMAdEvWAL5bjRyIoAcC2eRZCmBr1GLNkORIAbJT4ES5DiIZJmrSJJSVMOBYOV1V6iRymUAzPIFKqRsRvbxzcvTaEqHp5ygu83ih72auKaZty6-IGGoiGOktQAnJSuUQZ2sSZhPkgIqNbRGcahTpwyXAXpwsHMALpAA&gdpr=0&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsea.mashable.com%2Flife%2F21184%2Fsabah-landmarks-on-google-maps-get-placed-under-the-philippines-malaysians-get-pissed&body_length=5159&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F
This is how two years of crazy memes began the stan culture of Kim Yo-jong.
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