The Cabinet has approved extending the legal lifespan of taxis from nine to 12 years.
Deputy government spokesperson Rachada Dhnadirek said Tuesday’s Cabinet agreed to expand the period to help 80,000 taxi drivers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, vehicles in use for more than nine years must be serviced four times per year to prevent air pollution from exhaust emissions.
More than 5,000 Thai-Muslims showed up at Central Islamic Council of Thailand on Tuesday in yellow to express their loyalty to the monarch.
Chula Ratchamontri Aziz Pitakkumpol, who presided over the ceremony at the council’s headquarters in Bangkok’s Nong Chik district, had invited devotees to pray for peace in the country and to mark the royal grace granted to people following the Islamic faith in Thailand.
Health authorities say the Hungarian diplomat who was among four new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday probably caught the disease when he greeted Hungary’s visiting foreign minister in Bangkok last week.
Dr Sopon Iamsirithaworn, director of the Division of Communicable Diseases, said on Tuesday that the 53-year-old unnamed Hungarian diplomat had tested positive after meeting Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto last Tuesday (November 3).
After arriving in Bangkok from Cambodia, Szijjarto spent 30 minutes talking and eating with the diplomat and other embassy staff, before testing positive on November 4 and leaving the country.
On November 5-8, the diplomat self-quarantined at home. He tested positive on November 9 and was transferred for treatment at Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute.
Sixteen high-risk contacts who were exposed to the Hungarian minister have all since tested negative for Covid-19. Tests on the diplomat’s close contacts have also come back negative.
In Cambodia, four people linked with Szijjarto’s visit have tested positive. They are the Hungarian ambassador, a Cambodian bodyguard, a lawmaker from Cambodian PM Hun Sen’s ruling party and a senior Agriculture Ministry official.
A drug addict in Uttaradit province was caught soon after he slashed his father to death on Monday night. The motive of this gruesome murder was a quarrel.
On Tuesday, Charim sub-district’s acting mayor Rachan Mahawan said he learned of the case on Monday night and arrived at the scene with police officers.
The father, Jamrong Teekawong, 54, had been killed in his house in Tha Pla’s Charim sub-district. The blood-covered body’s position showed that he had been made to kneel, while his face, hands and the back of his head were covered with slash wounds.
Initial investigation showed that just two people lived in this house: the dead man and his 20-year-old son Chakrit.
Neighbours said the two had been caught in a quarrel before it came to a tragic end.
The son apparently first went into hiding before surrendering to the village chief. Chakrit later confessed that he killed his father with a 20-inch knife.
Rachan said the young man was a drug addict and often fought with his father, who wanted him to stop taking narcotics.
An accident involving two big bikes in Bangkok’s Lat Phrao district on Tuesday morning killed one person and severely injured another.
Two big motorcycles driven by Thanatthakorn Chareonsuk, 32, and Kritsada Wanpen, 25, collided into each other at a curve, causing one of them flip and another to explode.
Thanatthakorn was found dead in the scene, while Kritsada suffered severe injuries and a broken leg in the crash.
Police are studying CCTV footage and will question Kritsada to find the true cause of the tragedy.
Thai-Swedish model and former beauty queen Maria Lynn Ehren, also known as Maria Poonlertlarp, filed a report with the Police Technology Crime Suppression Division on Tuesday against the person who doctored her photograph as well as those who shared it online.
A photograph taken at the October 17 political rally of Maria holding a sign reading “Justice for All” was doctored to read “I Will Not Work Until the King is Removed”.
Maria said the sharing of the edited photo has had a negative effect on her, and she wants to take legal action against the editor and the eight individuals who shared it.
Police said the suspects had violated the Computer Crime Act’s Article 16 and can face up to three years in prison and fines of up to Bt200,000 each.
Social media was heaving with criticism after a Twitter user posted a photograph of the three-finger symbol spray painted on the wall of a BTS train.
BKKTrains, an independent social-media account on trains and transport, tweeted: “The train in the picture is a new train from CRRC Changchun [No 75-98] with CCTV installed in every bogey. It will not be difficult to find who did it.”
However, the BTS Group has not reacted or made any announcements.
At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha dismissed speculation that using golf courses as alternative state quarantine sites for foreigners would be a conflict of interest as some courses are owned by ministers.
Prayut said people should be given the option of quarantining at a golf course, because then they will have access to open areas but will be isolated as well.
Also, he said, some steps should be taken to improve business, adding that the matter needs to be considered by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) first.
A seminar in Bangkok highlighted four key measures to promote a circular economy for sustainability by creating a water system to deal with drought, support agriculture to add Bt25 billion value per year, raising waste management to the national agenda and make changes in the construction industry.
Sumet Tantivejkul, chairman of Utokapat Foundation under the Royal Patronage of HM the King, spoke at the SD Symposium Bangkok 2020 seminar on “Circular Economy: Actions for a Sustainable Future” organised by SCG Group.
More than 200 network partners made four proposals to drive the circular economy and create sustainability in Thai society:
1. Building a recirculating water management system to deal with the water crisis and water shortage that will occur in 2021, as current water reserves are insufficient for use during the dry season next year. Demand for water in 2021 is estimated at 1.2 to 1.5 hundred billion cubic metres but the maximum water storage will be able to reach only 80 billion cubic metres. Therefore, the government should adopt the guidelines of HM King Rama IX by allowing people to participate in water management by increasing water storage areas in communities across the country.
2. Promoting value addition in the agricultural sector. The government should focus on solving the problem of burning of farmlands to prepare for cultivation. Farmers have to embrace modern agriculture by bringing agricultural knowledge and technology into the fields, which will help solve the problem of dust and PM2.5 pollution, and also help farmers to increase income from agriculture, adding not less than Bt25 billion in value per year. In addition, a fund should be established to support agricultural innovations and tools for farmers.
3. Promoting proper waste management to be a national agenda, especially plastic waste that needs to be added to be recycled. Recycling and reuse will require tax mechanisms to incentivise investment in plastics processing and commercial development of businesses. This will create businesses that support privatisation. At the same time, knowledge must continue to be given to the public to reduce the use of plastics, or promote a reuse model for the most benefit to reduce waste and environmental pollution.
4. Driving a circular economy in the construction industry. There are considerable residual waste and operational wastes, accounting for 25 per cent of the total waste. It is necessary to promote both the reduction of material waste from the design stage while government procurement has to support the procurement of environmentally friendly materials, using both taxes, legal and funding mechanisms.
Thossaporn Sirisamphan, former secretary-general of the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, said that on the matter of supporting a green economy, the government now focuses on the “BCG Model”, which is holistic economic development.
Covid-19 will be a catalyst for Thailand to turn to internally strengthening the national economy and create more sustainability from the original focus on the external economy — both exports and tourism — resulting in income disappearing due to the virus. Thailand has to come back to the country’s strengths in terms of agriculture and food, which has to focus on creating added value to get a higher selling price rather than the export of unprocessed products, he said.
Jacob Duer, president and chief executive of Alliance to End Plastic Waste, said plastic waste is a huge problem that would destroy the global ecosystem, with more than 11 million tonnes of plastic falling into the ocean every year. By 2040, without proper management, there will be as many as 29 million tonnes of plastic waste in the oceans and seas a year, affecting marine life and the environment as a whole. Thailand is one of the countries that generates a lot of plastic waste in the sea, hence the state should take measures seriously as well, he said.
The Meteorological Department has warned people in the lower Northeast and East to prepare for another storm to hit on Wednesday (November 11).
On Tuesday, Tropical Storm Etau storm was moving west over central Vietnam, where five airports in its path have been closed.
Winds of up to 65kph are expected to weaken to a tropical depression once the storm reaches Cambodia and Thailand, but farmers in lower Isaan have been warned to prepare for crop damage.
The department said 36 provinces have suffered flash floods and landslides since October 7, damaging a total of 92,085 households in 2,493 villages.
Photos by Korbphuk Phromrekha 
