Britons on Monday said they hoped their new prime minister Liz Truss will enforce policy changes that will tackle the surging cost of living driven by soaring energy bills, industrial unrest, a looming recession and war in Ukraine.
Truss defeated former finance minister Rishi Sunak earlier on Monday, in a vote of Conservative Party members, winning by 81,326 votes to 60,399.
She takes the helm at a time when wholesale gas prices, driven higher by the Ukraine war, are hitting countries across Europe but Britain is particularly dependent on gas for electricity and heating, pushing its inflation rate above all other major economies.
During her campaign, Truss vowed to press ahead with promises of tax cuts and to deal with the growing energy crisis.
“In the north, we really need the help, I think. And she just says she’s going to help all that. Like she’s said she’s going to help with energy costs and living costs. And that’s what we really need,” said a waitress from Barnsley, Chelsea Duffy.
The announcement triggers the start of a handover from Boris Johnson, who was forced to announce his resignation in July after months of scandal saw support for his administration drain away.
He will travel to Scotland to meet Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday to officially tender his resignation. Truss will follow him and be asked to form a government by the monarch.
K-pop girl group Blackpink has made YouTube history by becoming the first music act with 80 million subscribers. They were also the first music act to amass 70 million subscribers in November 2021.
Already the top music act on the platform, the quartet started their channel six years ago, when they made their debut. On Monday, they reached 80 million milestones.
Last month, fellow K-pop mega band BTS crossed the 70-million subscriber mark, overtaking Canadian singer Justin Bieber, who is inching towards the mark with 69.9 million subscribers currently.
Fourth on the list is American DJ and producer Marshmello, followed by American rapper Eminem, British singer Ed Sheeran and American singers Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Katy Perry.
Blackpink will release their second album, Born Pink, on Sept 16 and embark on their world tour at the end of the year.
The first single from it, Pink Venom, dropped on Aug 19 and its music video also broke records on YouTube by receiving 90.4 million views within 24 hours. It is currently tagged “#1 On Trending For Music” on YouTube, with close to 255 million views and counting.
The Straits Times
Asia News Network
Asia News Network: The Nation (Thailand), The Korea Herald, The Straits Times (Singapore), China Daily, Jakarta Post, The Star and Sin Chew Daily (Malaysia), The Statesman (India), Philippine Daily Inquirer, Yomiuri Shimbun and The Japan News, Gogo Mongolia, Dawn (Pakistan), The Island (Sri Lanka), Kuensel (Bhutan), Kathmandu Post (Nepal), Daily Star (Bangladesh), Eleven Media (Myanmar), The Phnom Penh Post and Rasmei Kampuchea (Cambodia), The Borneo Bulletin (Brunei), Vietnam News, and Vientiane Times (Laos).
Champions Thailand will face the Philippines in the opening match of the second women’s Asean Grand Prix Volleyball tournament in Nakhon Ratchasima on Friday.
The tournament will be held Friday to Sunday (September 9-11) at Korat Chatchai Hall in the Northeast city. World No 14 Thailand will also use the event as a tune-up for the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship in Poland and the Netherlands from September 23 to October 16.
The two other teams competing in Nakhon Ratchasima are Indonesia and Vietnam.
Match schedule:
Friday 3pm: Indonesia vs Vietnam 6pm: Thailand vs Philippines
Saturday 3pm: Vietnam vs Philippines 6pm: Indonesia vs Thailand
Sunday 3pm: Philippines vs Indonesia 6pm Thailand vs Vietnam
Thai sports fans can watch every match live on One 31 channel, the oneD application, or at http://www.oneD.net.
Tournament updates are also available on One 31’s social media accounts.
In an effort to introduce Israeli entertainment to Thai audiences, the Embassy of Israel hosted a special film night on August 30 to entertain audiences with the comedy “Forgiveness” (Mechila).
Explaining why this comedy was chosen, Ambassador Orna Sagiv said: “We were looking for a film that is interesting globally. Something that speaks to the Israeli audience and one that we feel can also speak to the Thai audience. I think ‘forgiveness’ is universal.”
The film played to a full house at SF Cinema in Bangkok’s CentralWorld shopping mall.
The comedy tells the story of two buddies Shual and Nissan, played by actors Guy Amir and Hanan Savyon, who had also written and directed the film.
The two try to rob a postal bank but things go horribly wrong, with Shaul being collared by police and Nissan escaping with the loot.
Set in southern Israel on the Gaza border, the sound of incoming bombs and sirens add to the drama.
Three years later, on his release from prison, Shaul is greeted by a newly religious Nissan who seeks his forgiveness, especially in light of the upcoming “10 Days of Awe” – Judaism’s most important holiday that focuses on repentance and forgiveness ending with Yom Kippur.
The uneasy duo then launch a comedic journey hunting for the hidden stash but everything goes wrong, leaving the audience hoping they can find the money and eventually makeup.
The film was released in 2019, selling more than 300,000 tickets in Israel over five weeks in theatre. It was dubbed a resounding success by the Jerusalem Post, which pointed out that most local films barely sell more than 100,000 tickets despite spending several months in theatre.
The ambassador, however, believes Israeli films will do better in Thailand.
“I think not only movies, but also TV series have become very popular, with Netflix offering a big bag of choices. I’m looking forward to Thai audiences enjoying more Israeli series that tell the story of Israel from the ground – something you don’t see in the news,” she said. “Israel has a lot of offer and I really hope the Thai audience gets exposure to that.”
“Why should I enter this process? Who will want to reconcile with the rogues who killed my husband?” a woman said resentfully. With her life turned upside down in the wake of her husband’s death, this widow could not understand why she should embrace restorative justice and forgive offenders. When she was invited to enter the process, she was full of doubts and resentment.
Her reactions were woven into a short documentary film, “Missing Stone”, alongside knowledge, produced by Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ). The film was first screened in July 2022 at the online academic seminar marking the 20th anniversary of the United Nations’ resolution on basic principles on the use of restorative justice programs in criminal matters.
Missing Stone ranks among materials used by TIJ to promote understanding and benefits of restorative justice in Thailand.
This short film is based on a true story of gangsters hurling a stone at a van and killing its driver. The crime took place in 2004. But resulting legal proceedings concluded in 2018 with offenders admitting their crime, offering compensation, showing remorse, and asking for forgiveness. Both sides (teenagers who committed the crime and the victim’s wife) have finally turned forgiving, becoming a good example of how what seemed impossible could be possible. The lawyer said in the film that, “Who could ever forgive the persons causing her husband’s death? The chance of forgiving was almost zero”. Yet, the film finally shows how restorative-justice process has made forgiveness “possible”.
Restorative justice, which complements conventional justice systems, encourages offenders’ repentance and offerings of recompense. Compensation does not necessarily have to be in the form of money. It may materialize in the forms of giving up unacceptable behaviors and reintegrating into society as quality citizens too. Restorative justice also focuses on healing the emotional wound of victims and compensating them. Moreover, restorative justice seeks corrections that both the wrongdoers and victims have agreed to. Most important of all, restorative justice shall be carried out with the consent of both sides only.
“Missing Stone” presents well-rounded perspectives towards the equal treatments of humans. As the deceased men could not come back alive, the focus was on deep rehabilitation for his wife. Offenders, meanwhile, were given opportunities to pay for the crime and restore their human potential through restorative justice. At the heart of restorative justice are the all-encompassing rehabilitation of offenders (criminals) and “admission of guilt, repentance, apology, and forgiveness” as restorative justice aims to enable everyone to live peacefully in society.
Restorative justice can materialize through collaboration and contributions of both parties in the conflict, specialists, relevant officials such as police, lawyers, judicial officials, probations officials, and psychologists, as well as locals. Officials in charge of restorative justice therefore must understand and be able to reach out to communities involved as well.
The academic seminar marking the 20th anniversary of the United Nations’ resolution on basic principles on the use of restorative justice programs in criminal matters, a part of efforts to promote restorative justice, provided a forum to promote works and activities from TIJ collaborations with relevant partners in the field of restorative-justice promotion in Thailand.
“This short documentary film aims to widely promote understanding in restorative-justice arrangements among officials and the audience. TIJ also seeks to advance the policy-based campaign on restorative justice for youth by organizing camps to listen to and reflect youth’s views on the application of restorative justice to Thai educational institutes,” Dr. Phiset Sa-ardyen, executive director of TIJ, said at the opening of the academic seminar.
“The Faculty of Learning Sciences and Education of the Thammasat University and the Saint Gabriel’s Foundation of Thailand have collaborated with TIJ in the pilot phase of RJ in School. This collaboration is crucial to promote knowledge and understanding among youth and teachers of how to resolve conflicts in their educational institutes,” Prof. Dr. Kittipong Kittayarak, an advisor to TIJ, added.
The seminar also featured presentations on restorative justice and criminal justice by Prof. Yvon Dandurand, a professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of Fraser Valley, Canada; Mrs. Prakairatana Thontiravong, a former chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission; Mr. Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee, an advisor to TIJ and a former deputy secretary-general of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community; and Mrs. Ticha na Nakorn, Director of Ban Kanchanapisek Juvenile Vocational Training Center.
At the seminar, panelists addressing restorative-justice promotion were:
Director of “Missing Stone” short documentary film
Dean of Faculty of Learning Sciences and Education, the Thammasat University or representative
Chair for education of Saint Gabriel’s Foundation of Thailand or representative
Dean of Faculty of Laws, the Chiang Mai University or representative
Director-general of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department, the Ministry of Justice or representative
Moderator and presenter of research findings: Mr. Ukrit Sornprohm, Project Manager – Rule of Law and Criminal Justice) at TIJ
TIJ is determined to propel the application of restorative justice in every judicial stage in Thailand, and also to promote public awareness and understanding of the issue.
“Missing Stone” was available for viewing not just at the academic seminar but also over YouTube via “TIJ Just Right Channel” channel. TIJ hopes that this moving film, which is based on a true story, will empower all relevant parties in driving and applying “restorative justice” to resolve legal disputes and other disputes in judicial process or other sectors of society.
Facial recognition is an AI-powered tech advancement that provokes a range of opinions. This artificial-intelligence-enabled technology has significantly changed the game for security and surveillance; including helping in the finding of missing persons, capturing culprits, and preventing crimes. Meanwhile, privacy concerns are increasing globally, and the risk and vulnerabilities of systems if misused are leading causes in the criticism of facial tracking artificial intelligence. While acknowledging these concerns, what makes facial recognition security worthy of consideration?
To grasp the implications of the technology, it is essential to understand its applications. Facial recognition can be applied to diverse industries, but the two main reasons for its consideration are:
– Recognizing and ensuring that the correct face is identified for biometric security implementations in mobile phones, banking facilities, and residential spaces. – Identifying and tracking people for surveillance and security purposes, which is facilitated by CCTV cameras, airport security alarms, etc.–usually used to prevent or catch crimes.
Installing facial recognition systems can effectively transform day-to-day activities, simplifying and speeding up tasks that can change the way we live. On one end, this can mean ensuring easy and safe access to your residential building, but–in regards to saving lives–hospitals and municipalities can install these systems to allow ambulances and first respondents to gain access in the least time consuming manner. For example, NtechLab, a leading face recognition software company and the creators of the highest biometric matching accuracy, according to Biometric Update, demonstrate how their technology goes beyond single-object analysis to secure vehicle number plates as well as performing facial identification that can save many lives by speeding up entry verification processes.
A natural question is whether facial technology can lead to surveillance misuse and invasion of privacy? It’s worth taking into account that most technologies today, such as GPS systems, microphones and microchips in phones, cars, and smart watches, are equally capable of gathering and disseminating data. The reason these are generally well accepted is because of the laws that regulate them and features that require user permissions. In order to obtain data, a signed user consent or a police or court order might be required. While facial recognition technology is a relatively new advancement, wariness of the technology itself can halt innovation, while in cases where it is deployed, the technology can provide benefits. For instance, according to NtechLab, across various use cases, its technology has helped solve 50,000 crimes, find more than 5,000 missing people, recover a stolen million-dollar painting in under 24 hours, and decrease burglaries and car thefts by 85%. NtechLab also says that implementing its facial recognition softwares in physical stores has led to the prevention of 100,000 shoplifting cases, protecting more than an estimated $10 million. When implemented in retail and e-commerce, facial recognition payment systems are a boon for protection, as biometrics provide top tier security. They can also be used to gather data to better understand target markets, such as collecting the average age and numbers of men and women who enter a store.
“NtechLab’s face recognition system delivers nearly absolute precision in ideal conditions, reaching 99.99% accuracy at 0.1 seconds detection speed. The software’s algorithms can find faces and provide highly accurate results, even if there are significant age-related changes, a beard, mustache, glasses, a medical mask, or any other means of partial face concealment,” Liana Meliksetyan, Chief Commercial Officer at NtechLab shared at the Techsauce Global Summit 2022 in Thailand. The technology can work with data from real-time video streams or large photo and video archives, supporting an unlimited number of video streams and face database entries.
NtechLab’s CEO Alex Minin told The Verge, “When carefully orchestrated, the system is not only harmless to regular people, it helps a lot in catching terrorists, criminals, pedophiles and pickpockets by aiding police to identify them in seconds and locate and capture them in hours instead of days and weeks… The software itself doesn’t break any laws or do any harm.”
SET-listed UAC Global says it is confident it can start producing crude oil and natural gas from two oil fields in Sukhothai province this month.
UAC Global CEO Chatchaphol Prasopchoke said the company had received concessions for the L10/43 and L11/43 blocks of the Arunothai and Burapha oil fields. The concessions run until 2033.
Chatchaphol said work to install machines and equipment on the oil fields is over 60 per cent completed and production could start within this month.
UAC Global expects to produce about 300 barrels of crude oil a day from the concessions. The oil would be sold to domestic refineries, Chatchaphol said.
Meanwhile, the natural gas from the fields will be distributed to the UAC’s gas separation facility and two power plants – Saothin and Pradu Thao.
The company expects to start realising revenue from the two fields in the third quarter of this year. It forecasts earnings of about 250 million baht per year from the two concessions based on current crude oil prices and the dollar exchange rate.
On September 4, 2022, Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s committees, and executives from Phayathai, Phatumwan and Nong Khaem district offices have mutually launched the project called “Mai Te Ruam” or “Do not randomly mix food wastes” in order to raise Bangkok citizen’s awareness toward the proper food waste separation and to promote the consistent collaboration among the government, private, and civil sectors.
On this occasion, brand-new waste sorting trucks specifically designed for food waste storage were also officially launched in 3 initiative areas of Phayathai, Pathumwan and Nong Khaem districts. Anna Sueangam-iam, Miss Universe Thailand 2022, was appointed to be the ambassador of this project.
Event attendees included several honored guests from various sectors, such as Piyaporn Sankosik, Managing Director of TPN Global Co., Ltd, and a license holder of Miss Universe Thailand, management team of Miss Universe Thailand, and Supaluck Umpujh, Chairwoman of The Mall Group Co., Ltd.
Mr Jirayut Srupsrisopa, Founder & Group CEO Bitkub Capital Group Holdings Co., Ltd. also attended the “Mai Te Ruam” project opening event as one of the important policy-driven parties.
Mr Jirayut said “Bitkub Capital Group Holdings Co., Ltd. and subsidiary are delightfully appreciated to be one of the initiative partners of this project. Bitkub is ready to advocate this policy so as to sustainably solve the waste management issue and to help raise the appropriate waste management consciousness for a better and livable society. Concerning the aforementioned statement, we would like to internally respond to the policy by helping strengthen everyone’s awareness toward the appropriate means of food waste and recyclable waste management including the proper practice on waste sorting process, not only in our organizations but also spreading awareness to our partners. Most importantly, we also use innovations like NFTs to persuade people to join our project in order to create sustainable and efficient outcomes.”
The Cabinet on Tuesday gave the green light to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) to boost its liquidity by borrowing 85 billion baht, as Egat has had to shoulder the burden of power tariff subsidies for maintaining the current power rates.
Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow said the Cabinet meeting, chaired by acting Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, agreed to let Egat take the loan with the Finance Ministry being its guarantor.
Supattanapong said Egat needed the loan to boost its liquidity after the Cabinet asked it to repeatedly postpone hiking its FT or float time rate. The FT covers floating costs beyond the control of Egat, including rising oil prices, rising inflation and exchange rates. It is used to calculate monthly power bills.
He added that the Cabinet would next week consider measures proposed by Energy Policy Administration Committee for providing subsidies to low-income people.
Next week, the Cabinet would also be asked to consider a proposal of the committee to continue to subsidise the cost of rising FT rates for two vulnerable groups. If approved, the subsidy would be enforced in time for the September power bill, the minister added.
He said the ministry would also promote installation of solar rooftops for households and industries, which would allow people and businesses to save on power bills.
Supattanapong said his ministry, Egat, the Provincial Electricity Authority, and the Metropolitan Electricity Authority would cooperate to speed up approval of licences for solar rooftops.
Thailand’s total rice exports in 2022 should meet the target of 7.5 million tonnes after successful negotiations with Singapore to increase its imports from Thailand in the rest of the year, the Department of Foreign Trade said on Tuesday.
Department director-general Pitak Udomwichaiwat said recent negotiations between the department, the Singapore General Rice Importers Association, and the Rice Exporters Association of Thailand held in Singapore had been successful and Singapore had agreed to import more rice from Thailand in the rest of the year.
Pitak said Singapore’s demand for rice is starting to climb up after the country’s reopening due to the improving Covid-19 situation, as can be seen from a 2 per cent bump in July’s rice imports compared to the same period last year.
“Singapore also imports rice from other countries, and they tend to use price as a factor in choosing the exporter,” he said. “Fortunately, this year Thailand has seen increased rice output due to abundant rainfall, which has resulted in a lower price, making our product more competitive than some rice producers. Furthermore, Singaporean consumers already have a long-established confidence in the quality of Thai rice.”
The department reported that from January 1 to August 31 this year, Thailand exported 4.92 million tonnes of rice, valued at US$2.53 billion (86.06 billion baht), up 51.37 and 30.47 per cent year on year, respectively. The department estimated that total rice exports this year would reach 7.5 million tonnes.
The department also said that currently the price of Thai rice has a tendency to drop following the weakening of baht, although it is still more expensive than rice from other countries. As of August 31, the price of Thai white rice with 5 per cent humidity was $428 per tonne, while the same rice from Vietnam cost $397, $382 from Pakistan and $342 from India.
Thailand’s steamed rice is sold at $442 per tonne, while Pakistan and India are selling theirs at $402 and $382 US dollar per tonne, respectively.
