The liberal Move Forward party and the populist Pheu Thai Party were far out in front with 99% of votes counted, but it was far from certain either will form the next government, with parliamentary rules written by the military after its 2014 coup skewed in its favour.To rule, the opposition parties will need to strike deals and muster support from multiple camps, including members of a junta-appointed Senate that has sided with military parties and gets to vote on who becomes prime minister and form the next administration.Sunday’s election was the latest bout in a long-running battle for power…
Author: Mike Harrison
By Reuters  May 15, 2023 | 09:12am GMT+7 Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is welcomed by France’s President Emmanuel Macron upon his arrival at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on May 14. Photo by AFP France will send to Ukraine in the coming weeks dozens of armored vehicles and light tanks, including the AMX-10RCs fighting vehicles, according to a joint statement issued after President Emmanuel Macron’s talks with Ukraine’s president. After a working dinner that lasted more than three hours between Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the French presidency indicated that Paris was also concentrating its efforts on supporting Kyiv’s air…
Opinion surveys pointed to a resounding defeat for ex-army chief and coup leader Prayut after a campaign that played out as a clash between a young generation yearning for change and the traditionalist, royalist establishment.The main opposition Pheu Thai party, fronted by the daughter of billionaire former prime Thaksin Shinawatra, was ahead in final opinion polls.But in a kingdom where victory at the ballot box has often been trumped by coups and court orders, there are fears the military could seek to cling on, raising the prospect of fresh instability.Polling stations closed at 5:00 pm (1000 GMT) after a smooth…
Some 400,000 people were evacuated in Myanmar and low-lying neighboring Bangladesh ahead of Cyclone Mocha making landfall, as authorities and aid agencies scrambled to avert heavy casualties from one of the strongest storms to hit the region in recent years.Parts of Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, were flooded and the ground floors of several buildings were under water, a video posted on social media by a witness in the city showed.Across Rakhine state and the north west of the country about 6 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance while 1.2 million have been displaced, according…
By Reuters  May 14, 2023 | 02:45pm GMT+7 Light illuminates Mount Everest (C) during sunset in Solukhumbu district, also known as the Everest region, November 30, 2015. Photo by Reuters A Nepali sherpa guide climbed Mount Everest for the 26th time on Sunday, hiking officials said, becoming the world’s second person to achieve the feat. Pasang Dawa Sherpa, 46, stood atop the 8,849-m (29,032-ft) peak, sharing the record number of summits with Kami Rita Sherpa, said Bigyan Koirala, a government tourism official. Kami Rita, who is also climbing on Everest now, could set another record if he makes it to…
Michelle Dee is crowned Miss Universe Philippines 2023 at a coronation night in Mall of Asia Arena on May 13 2023. Photo courtesy of Miss Universe Philippines’s website Michelle Dee from Makati, 28, surpassed 37 other candidates to become Miss Universe Philippines 2023 at a coronation night held in the Mall of Asia Arena on Saturday. She will represent the country at the 72nd Miss Universe pageant to be held later this year in El Salvador.The runners-up were Christine Opiaza from Zambales province and Angelique Manto from Pampanga province, Philstar reported.During the Q&A, Dee was asked about the high-income inequality…
About 52 million eligible voters are choosing among progressive opposition parties with a knack for winning elections and others allied with royalist generals keen to preserve the status quo after nine years of government led or backed by the army.Opinion polls indicate the opposition Pheu Thai and Move Forward parties will gain the most seats but with no guarantee either will govern because of parliamentary rules written by the military after its 2014 coup and skewed in its favor.The election again pits Pheu Thai’s driving force, the billionaire Shinawatra family, against a nexus of old money, military and conservatives with…
By AFP  May 14, 2023 | 07:52am GMT+7 People walk across Jubilee Bridge at Marina Bay in Singapore, April 24 2023. Photo by AFP Singapore reported its highest temperature in 40 years on Saturday, officials said, as a blistering heat wave burns through large parts of South and Southeast Asia. Saturday’s temperature of 37 degrees Celsius was the highest this year, and matches the record for a daily peak recorded in April 1983, the National Environment Agency said on Facebook. “The current warm and dry conditions are expected to continue tomorrow,” the agency said on Saturday. “Short-duration showers are expected…
I am an illegitimate child, and my mother gave birth to me when she was 41. I never knew who my father was, and my mother raised me all on her own.After graduating from college, I moved to the capital and worked myself to the bone there. My annual salary is now VND500 million ($21,260). I am an introvert, so I don’t have many relationships and had never dated anyone before meeting my now-husband when I was 33.He gave me a sense of peace and trust and was the first man in my life. He’s quite an amorous man and…
Kazuo Ueda, governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), Tokiko Shimizu, executive director at the BOJ, Joachim Nagel, president of Deutsche Bundesbank, Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England (BOE), Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, governor of the Bank of France, Ignazio Visco, governor of the Bank of Italy, prior to the central bank session of the Group of Seven (G-7) finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Niigata, Japan,…