The Masters of Understatement
G'day all. Happy Thursday, July 28, from the nearly world-famous Nong Bon headquarters of the Daily Fishwrap, where our upstanding big-iron internet server has assumed the TU position.
 The time that's required to fix it is a deep mystery, not least because it's a national all-provinces holiday - first of four in a row.
 Today's Daily Fishwrap is a condensed version.
Born to be King.
Today is the 70th birthday of King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun.
He was the second child and only male born to the late King Bhumibol and Queen (now Queen Mother) Sirikit. They had two additional children, both girls.
EXCERPTS from foreign newspapers on the day that the prince was named, in September, 1952.
PHOTO: Click to embiggen.
NOTE: The country was still called 'Siam' by most people including the MSM.
So for all of today, and probably for the entire weekend, approximately about roughly 100 percent of websites in Thailand will open with this, in English or Thai.
On this day in 1945
a U.S. Army Air Force B-25 bomber on a 'routine test flight' crashed into the Empire State Building in New York City. The crash killed 14 people.
 Witness Therese Fortier described the scene in an interview for National Public Radio:
 In the other side of the office, all I could see was flames. Mr. Fountain was walking through the office when the plane hit the building and he was on fire - I mean, his clothes were on fire, his head was on fire. Six of us managed to get into this one office that seemed to be untouched by the fire and close the door before it engulfed us. There was no doubt that the other people must have been killed.
THAILAND CORONAVIRUS
The numbers keep going up and down. But mostly up.
One day, Wednesday.
• new cases in hospital
•   34 deaths
•   24,219 active cases
•   911 serious cases
•   2,099 recovered
The art of understatement
After four years of investigating the well-known case of Rolls-Royce's big-time bribery high-ranking Thai government memers, the Thai junta's  National Anti-Corruption Commission issued a statement.
Procedures in this case were unlawful.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/
The Secretary of State of the U.S.A. disclosed Wednesday that he wants to trade arms dealer Viktor Blunt for Russian prisoners women's basketball player Brittney Griner and corporate executive Paul Whelan.
NOTABLE BECAUSE Viktor "Merchant of Death" Bout was arrested in a 2008 U.S.-Thailand sting inside Siam Square and hasn't seen the sun since.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/us-made-substantial-proposal-russia-release-griner-whelan-blinken-says-rcna40322
U.S.A. CIVIL RIGHTS
CHANGE: AR-15 and AK-47 style rifle sales surge to 24 million, more than Ford F-150s.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/ar-15-ak-47-rifle-sales-surge-to-24-million
The current Thai case of government purchase and use of Pegasus spyware is small, compared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. [Arstechnica.com]
DHS bought a "shocking amount" of warrantless phone-tracking data.
A lot of info to absorb and ruminate at
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/dhs-bought-shocking-amount-of-warrantless-phone-tracking-data-aclu-says/
palus delenda est
