YouTube Blocks Rap Song Critical of Thai Monarchy

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4 January 2021, 21:20

1000 (2) — Screenshot of “Reform” by Rap Against Dictatorship

BANGKOK — A music video by Thailand’s foremost dissent rap group was blocked by YouTube as of Monday night.

The video hosting platform said it restricted access to Rap Against Dictatorship’s “Reform”, which discussed the ongoing campaign to reform the royal institution, due to a complaint from the Thai government.

“This content is not available on this country domain due to a legal complaint from the government,” an error message shows when attempting to access the video from Thailand.

The music video, which has English subtitles, can still be viewed with the use of a VPN. The song is still streamable on Spotify, where it has been played more than 786,000 times.

“Reform” has been viewed 9.7 million times since its release Nov. 13. The video features artists rapping at the pro-democracy protests in 2020, which also called for monarchy reforms.

Rap Against Dictatorship came to fame for their activist rap song “My Country’s Got” in 2018, which remains unblocked in Thailand as of publication time.

2 Mil. Doses of Chinese Vaccine Will Go to Frontline Health Workers

By

Khaosod English

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4 January 2021, 17:45

Health workers talk to migrant workers who are being quarantined at the field hospital inside the shrimp market in Samut Sakhon province on Dec. 25, 2020.

BANGKOK — Thailand will receive its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine from China by the end of next month, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha said as the country logged a new virus death and the highest-ever spike in case number on Monday.

The country reported record-breaking 745 cases of COVID-19 on Monday, though most of the patients were reportedly found during active case-finding operations in Samut Sakhon. PM Prayut also told reporters that the government has secured 2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech.

Public health workers like doctors and nurses will be prioritized in the first round of vaccination, Prayut said, while the general public will have to wait until May for vaccines developed by British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

“I have laid out plans for vaccine procurement,” Prayut said at Government House on Monday morning. “I believe they will arrive within one to two months.”

Supakit Sirilak, chief of the Medical Sciences Department, said the first 200,000 doses of Sinovac Biotech’s vaccines will be shipped to Thailand by the end of February. The remaining 800,000 shots will be delivered in March, and the rest, or 1 million, in April.

“There’s only a few vaccines available out there,” Supakit said “We will not buy vaccines from substandard producers or vaccines that have not passed Phase 3 trial.”

450603 2 — *Medical workers are seen inside a COVID-19 recovery ward in Yala province on April 1, 2020.*

“Private firms who wish to import the vaccines to Thailand must have them registered with the Food and Drug Administration,” he went on. “This is to ensure that Thais will have quick and safe access to vaccines.”

The vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech was just approved for general public use by the Chinese government on the New Year’s Eve. The state-owned company said the vaccine is 79.34 percent effective, citing preliminary results from Phase 3 clinical trials – compared to AstraZeneca’s reported efficacy of 70 percent.

The government is aiming to vaccinate at least half of its population with the vaccines developed by AstraZeneca, a task that would require at least 70 million doses, Supakit said. He did not specify the time frame.

Supakit also said the vaccines will be available for free for Thai citizens. They will be produced by Siam Bioscience – a Thai firm wholly owned by the Crown Property Bureau – under a technology sharing deal that was struck in November. The formal signing ceremony was attended by representatives from the palace.

Both vaccines, from Sinovac and AstraZeneca, are yet to be approved by the Thai Food and Drug Administration, though the regulatory body said it is ready to validate any vaccines within 30 days.

“The process usually takes 6 months, but we have mobilized our efforts to make it possible,” FDA public affairs director Lertchai Lertvut said. “Once the vaccines arrive in Thailand, we can start the process right away. This applies to every vaccine, no matter who imported it.”

450601 2 — *Doctors and nurses at Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok pose for photos with a man who has recovered from COVID-19 on Feb. 18, 2020.*

The hope for vaccines appears more desperate each day as health officials continue to log an ever larger number of coronavirus infections across the country.

About 500 of the new infections reported today were migrant workers, coronavirus response center spokesman Taweesin said. A new fatality is also reported, raising the total virus death toll to 65.

The spokesman said the rate of infection remains high due to overcrowded lodgings.

“This isn’t beyond our expectation,” Taweesin said. “We’re conducting investigation among the foreign workers who’re residing at crowded dormitories and factories. We’re not letting them out because there’s a lot of them. Therefore, we have to split testing into phases. That’s why we saw that figure.”

At least 400 families of migrant workers from Myanmar are being quarantined in their dormitories close to a shrimp market, according to civil rights groups.

“We will certainly find more as we continue the search,” Taweesin said. “The numbers will be high at first, but it will gradually drop. I ask those who consider themselves at risk to come in and take a test.”

Police are Enforcing Islamic Law in Yala, Targeting Couples

By

Khaosod English

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4 January 2021, 15:55

A group of Muslim women are seen in Yaha district, Yala province, on Jan. 3, 2021.

YALA — Muslim clerics and the local police force in the southern province of Yala are teaming up to crack down on ‘inappropriate’ public display of affections among unmarried couples.

Violators face both civil and criminal punishments – unmarried couples caught in the act could be made to marry immediately by the Islamic authorities and then charged with public obscenities, which carries a prison term. It is still unclear what offenses fall under the ban, which is being enforced in one of Yala’s districts, but a senior cleric said they include a conversation between a man and a woman.

“We’re not preventing people from communicating or talking. But if they are talking, then there should be a third party,” Sutimat Mahamad, imam of the Yaha Central Mosque said Sunday. “If there is a third party, we will not get involved at all. But if they’re talking one-on-one, the police will arrest them.”

Read: Thai Muslims Debate Push for Same Sex Marriage Law

Sutimat said police have already apprehended a couple talking on a road overpass and brought them to the mosque for religious sermons that berate their actions.

“They were talking on the balcony there, just whispering between the two of them. We told them not to do it again,” the imam said.

An interview with imam Sutimat Mahamad.

The rule was implemented by the mosque in Dec. 2019. It states that unmarried men and women who “display actions of being a couple or adulterous acts, either in public or private spaces” would be punished by the police and the religious authorities in the district.

The offending couple would also be married at the local mosque, with their parents and local imam summoned first for a discussion, according to the order. The local police in Yaha would then be brought to prosecute the couple for sexual obscenity, which carries a maximum penalty of five to 20 years.

A committee member of the Yaha Mosque said restrictions on physical contact between unmarried couples is for their own good.

“Our objective is to teach youths to act within religious traditions and rules, far away from drugs, and decrease their risk from being led by those with bad intentions,” Anucha Waedayi said.

450601 1 — *Photo released by Yaha Police Station reportedly shows security officers patrolling at night to look for unmarried couples who behave inappropriately in public. Image: Sayutee Kateh / Facebook*

Yaha police station superintendent Col. Sayuti Kateh confirmed by phone on Monday that police were cooperating with religious leaders in the district to implement their rules, due to illegal activity by youths in the community.

“Teenagers have been gathering for unlawful purposes, taking drugs and drinking kratom. They got drunk and pulled out their knives. There was even a shooting at a gas station,” Sayuti said. “The religious leaders asked for our cooperation to push their rule. Since the rule was announced, teenagers have scattered and are hiding.”

‘It’s Really Not a Big Deal’

The peculiar law was first brought to the public’s attention by human rights activist Angkhana Neelapaijit, who said it puts young women in the district at risk by forcing them into undesirable marriages.

“Forced marriage to restore the honor of the family or community, or to deal with the sexual needs of the youths, is a worrisome situation since it puts the woman or child in a lifetime of pain,” Angkhana, who is a Muslim herself, wrote online Saturday.

But imam Sutimat of Yaha Mosque said that the rule was created because of complaints about behavior of young people in the community.

“Residents have been complaining that the young men and women, and teenagers are committing wrongful acts that make religious leaders and local leaders worried,” he said. “We will apply sharia first. If sharia does not work, then we will use the law.”

Screenshot 20210103 173130 LINE copy — *Yaha District Central Mosque on Jan. 3, 2021.*

Sutimat said the rules only apply to Muslims, but if one of the couple’s involved is not Muslim then their parents will still be summoned for a discussion about marriage. In cases that “sexual acts” were committed, then the couple must marry, he said.

But Col. Sayuti of Yaha police station said no marriage took place under the new rule so far.

The Sheikhul Islam Office, which is recognized by the law as the national governing body of Muslims, has not intervened or condemned the restriction issued by Yaha Mosque. Sheikhul Islam Office secretary Sutham Boonmalert said local clerics have the right to issue orders tailored for their community.

450603 — *Photo released by Yaha Police Station reportedly shows security officers patrolling at night to look for unmarried couples who behave inappropriately in public.*

“It’s really not a big deal,” Sutham said. “The rule isn’t even used in all of Yala. It’s made by and for a small community so they can have a framework for their children and grandchildren to abide by.”

“Their rules are made for their own community, and local religious leaders, soldiers, and police all agreed to it.”

He added, “It’s only related to religion in the fact that men and women mingling about like that is wrong according to religious rules.”

Yaha district is located in the north of Yala province. It has a population of about 63,455, most of them Muslims.

Thailand Adds 745 Virus Cases, New Business Restrictions

By

Associated Press

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4 January 2021, 13:50

BANGKOK — Thailand registered 745 new coronavirus cases in two days on Monday with a new death reported in Bangkok, where a semi-lockdown went into effect, the government said.

The Centre of COVID-19 Situation Administration said the new infections bring the total number since last January to 8,439, while the death toll stands at 65 since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The agency said the number included 152 Thais and 577 migrant workers in Samut Sakhon, the province next to Bangkok that is the epicenter of the new outbreak. An additional 13 were found in special quarantine hotels for incoming travelers.

Nearly all the infected workers were employed in fish markets and factories and are all housed in dormitories, which have since the outbreak been closed off to the public. Since the initial surge in late December, the virus has now been found in 54 of Thailand’s 73 provinces.

The government has ordered all schools closed from Monday and had taken earlier other steps to try and restrict the spread of the virus, including closing bars, massage parlors, playgrounds and banned all public gatherings.

It has not yet closed down shopping malls and stores while restaurants are still allowed to operate but cannot serve alcoholic beverages.

Provincial governors can also order their own, tougher, measures and Bangkok authorities have decreed that all eateries can only do take away service from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. starting Monday evening.

The government has been considering tougher measures if the spread of the virus does not slow down around the country.

No Virus Found On MPs Who Attended Meeting with Infected Gambler

By

Khaosod English

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4 January 2021, 13:40

Workers disinfect reception area inside the Parliament building on Feb. 27, 2020.

BANGKOK — No coronavirus case was found among lawmakers who had attended the same meeting at Parliament with an infected gambler from Rayong, officials said Monday.

The Parliament was put on alert after it was discovered that the man attended a hearing on online gambling on Dec. 21.

Jakkaphon Tangsuthitham, deputy chairman of the House’s subcommittee on online gambling prevention, said all of the attendees tested negative and were placed under self-isolation.

“It has been confirmed that the man caught the virus after the meeting,” Jakkaphon, who is also an MP for Pheu Thai Party, said on phone Monday. “He contracted the virus from aunt in Rayong. All of the attendees were cleared of infection, but we will not hold any meetings until the outbreak situation has settled down.”

The gambler was also reportedly part of an MP’s working group but has since been struck off the list following the embarrassing revelation that he was a son of an illegal casino owner, whose operation was reportedly responsible for a large cluster of coronavirus outbreak in the eastern region.

The gambler tested positive on Dec. 25 and is currently being treated at a hospital, according to health officials.

Deputy house speaker Suchart Tancharoen told reporters last week that he appointed the man, who remains unnamed, as his aide before he was aware of his background. Suchart said the man was fired in the wake of the scandal.

Jakkaphon, the deputy chairman of the subcommittee on gambling, maintained that the man was merely invited to give his knowledge about gambling rings, and that he was not part of the subcommittee itself.

“I didn’t know him before,” Jakkaphon said. “He’s not on the name list. He’s only a follower of a person invited by the subcommittee to give testimony. Our work is about gambling, so it’s inevitable that those in the industry may be invited.”

The lawmaker said the subcommittee will be more careful about inviting guests at the moment, given that the country’s rate of infection is still rocketing.

“We didn’t think it through that he might have been to crowded places,” Jakkaphon said.

Sukit Atthopakorn, adviser to House Speaker Chuan Leekpai, said the Parliament will also deliberate on whether to resume its session amid the ongoing outbreak, as several parliamentarians have expressed their concern for risk of infection if meetings are to be held.

One of the concerned lawmakers is Phalang Pracharath MP Sira Jenjaka, who said that he worried for the wellbeing of his colleagues.

“House Speaker Chuan must consider who will be responsible if there’s a transmission of COVID-19 inside the Parliament,” he said. “I’m saying that not because I’m afraid of death or just being lazy, but I heard from my fellow MPs, staffers, and members of the press that they’re all concerned about the virus.”

The country logged 745 new cases of infection on Monday – a record number – prompting the government to urge the public to consider working from home.

Bangkok to Ban Dine-In Services From 9pm to 6am

By

Khaosod English

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4 January 2021, 12:35

450601 — A file photo of a sukiyaki restaurant in Bangkok on May 2, 2020.

Update: PM Prayut Chan-o-cha on Monday afternoon said he has repealed the Bangkok City Hall’s order to ban dining in restaurants from 7pm to 6am. Prayut said dine-in services will be banned from 9pm to 6am instead.

BANGKOK — Starting from tomorrow, restaurants in the capital will be banned from offering a dine-in service to customers at certain hours in a bid to curb the coronavirus epidemic, the City Hall announced on Monday.

Only take-aways will be allowed in all restaurants during the hours of 7pm to 6am, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration spokesman Pongsakorn Kwanmuang said. The order will come into effect at 6am on Tuesday and also apply to street food carts.

Customers may still dine at restaurants outside of those hours, but sales and consumption of alcohol inside the venues will be prohibited, Pongsakorn said.

The order stops short of imposing a total ban on dining in restaurants, which has been suggested by some officials in recent days.

In an open letter released to the media, Thai Restaurant Association president Thaniwan Kulamongkol warned the Prime Minister that banning customers from eating at restaurants will cost the industry at least 100 billion baht in lost revenues.

“We feel very bitter about what happened, since the COVID-19 outbreak is caused by gambling dens and entertainment venues, not restaurants that strictly comply with public health standards,” Thaniwan wrote to PM Prayut Chan-o-cha.

Opas Karnkawinpong, director of the Department of Disease Control, also urged office workers not to share a meal with their colleagues for the sake of social distancing.

“I’d like to ask for cooperation from the public. If possible, please stay home, work from home, and avoid dining together with people in your office,” Opas said.

Bangkok and 27 other provinces are now under the “Red Zone,” an area designated by health authorities as having the highest risk of coronavirus outbreak. Provincial Governors in the Red Zone are empowered to enact stringent measures to stop the spread of the virus.

AP Fact Check: Trump’s Made-up Claims of Fake Georgia Votes

By

Associated Press

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4 January 2021, 09:02

1000 — President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump step off Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

President Donald Trump put forth a dizzying array of fuzzy accounting and outright false claims in an extraordinary phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state seeking a reversal of his election defeat, fabricating a slew of votes that he said should’ve been counted in his favor.

In the hourlong conversation Saturday with Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, Trump suggested that the Republican “find” enough votes to hand Trump the victory.

The Associated Press obtained the full audio of Trump’s conversation with Georgia officials from a person on the call. The AP has a policy of not amplifying disinformation and unproven allegations. The AP plans to post the full audio as it annotates a transcript with fact check material.

A look at Trump’s claims on the call and how they compare with reality:

TRUMP: “If we can go over some of the numbers, I think it’s pretty clear we won, we won very substantially in Georgia.”

THE FACTS: No, Trump lost Georgia in an election the state has certified for Democrat Joe Biden. Republican election officials have affirmed the election was conducted and counted fairly.

With ballots counted three times, including once by hand, Georgia’s certified totals show Trump lost to Biden by 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million cast. Raffensperger certified the totals with officials saying they’ve found no evidence that Trump won.

No credible claims of fraud or systemic errors have been sustained. Judges have turned away legal challenges to the results, although at least one is still pending in state court.

___

TRUMP: “People should be happy to have an accurate count… We have other states I believe will be flipping to us shortly.”

THE FACTS: No reversal of the election outcome is in the offing, in Georgia or other states.

Biden defeated Trump by some 7 million popular votes nationwide and by a tally of 306-232 in the Electoral College, achieving victory in other key states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona.

Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, found no evidence of widespread election fraud. Trump’s allegations of massive voting fraud have been dismissed by a succession of judges and refuted by state election officials and an arm of his own administration’s Homeland Security Department.

A group of Senate Republicans, led by Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, say they plan to object to the election results when Congress meets on Wednesday to tally Biden’s Electoral College victory over Trump.

The objections will force votes in both the House and Senate, but none are expected to prevail.

___

TRUMP: “The other thing, dead people. So dead people voted. And I think the number is in the — close to 5,000 people. And they went to obituaries. They went to all sorts of methods to come up with an accurate number. And a minimum is close to about 5,000 voters.”

THE FACTS: Not true. Georgia officials have debunked previous claims by the Trump campaign in November that three particular people had voted illegally, finding that other people with similar names had voted. At the time, a local district attorney announced an investigation into whether a ballot had illegally been cast in the name of a northwest Georgia man who died in 2015.

On Saturday, Raffensperger said two illegal votes on behalf of dead people have been confirmed, not thousands as Trump alleged. “The actual number were two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted. And so that’s wrong,” Raffensperger said.

___

TRUMP: “We have anywhere from 250 (thousand) to 300,000 ballots were dropped mysteriously into the rolls, much of that had to do with Fulton County, which hasn’t been checked.”

THE FACTS: There’s nothing mysterious or suspect about it. He is describing a legitimate vote counting process, not a sudden surge of malfeasance.

Trump appears to be referring to large numbers of votes that were tabulated in the early hours of Wednesday morning after Election Day and later. The arrival of those votes was not mysterious, but expected, because many of Georgia’s 159 counties had large stacks of mail-in ballots that had to be tabulated after polls closed and in-person ballots were counted.

Indeed, news organizations and officials had warned in the days leading up to the election that the results would likely come in just as they did: In-person votes, which tend to be counted more quickly, would likely favor the president, who had spent months warning his supporters to avoid mail-in voting and to vote in person either early or on Election Day.

And mail-in-ballots, which take longer to count since they must be removed from envelopes and verified before they are counted, would favor Biden. States tend to count mail-in ballots at the end of the process.

___

TRUMP: “We think … if (there is) a real check of signatures going back in Fulton County, you’ll find at least a couple of hundred thousand of forged signatures.”

THE FACTS: That has no basis in reality.

It would be impossible for anyone to have forged hundreds of thousands of signatures on mail-in ballots in Fulton County because there were only about 147,000 mail-in ballots in Georgia’s most populous county, with about 116,000 of them going to Biden.

___

TRUMP, claiming thousands of voters moved out of Georgia, registered in another state, and then improperly cast ballots in Georgia: “They came back in, and they voted. That was a large number.”

THE FACTS: Not so. Trump supporters are working from a list of questionable accuracy, according to Ryan Germany, the general counsel for Raffensperger’s office. He told Trump during the call that the claims have been investigated and that in many cases, voters “moved back years ago. It’s not like it happened just before the election. There’s something about that data that it’s just not accurate.”

___

TRUMP: “It doesn’t pass the smell test, because we hear they’re shredding thousands and thousands of ballots and now what they’re saying (is) ‘Oh, we’re just cleaning up the office.’”

THE FACTS: The shredding in question was taking place in suburban Cobb County, not in Fulton County as Trump claimed. Cobb County elections officials said Nov. 24 that none of the items shredded by a contractor were “relevant to the election or the re-tally” and instead were things like old mailing labels, other papers with voter information, old emails and duplicates of absentee ballot applications.

___

TRUMP, claiming that a Fulton County election worker fed ballots through a machine three times instead of only once, saying his campaign would release a video proving it: “It can’t be disputed. We have a version that you haven’t seen, but it’s magnified. It’s magnified and you can see everything. For some reason, they put it in three times each ballot. And I don’t know why, I don’t know why three times and not five times, right?”

THE FACTS: There was no double or triple tallying of ballots. Raffensperger noted that ballots in Georgia have been counted and then recounted twice more for accuracy, including once by hand, and no discrepancy showed up in the Fulton County ballots, as it would have if someone improperly counted votes multiple times. “We did an audit of that,” Raffensperger told Trump. “It was proved conclusively that they were not scanned three times.”

___

TRUMP, attacking a legal settlement that Georgia signed with the state Democratic Party over how signatures on absentee ballot applications and absentee ballots are verified. “You can’t check signatures, you can’t do that… You’re allowed to do harvesting, I guess, in that agreement. That agreement is a disaster for this country.”

THE FACTS: There is nothing in the March 6 consent decree that prevents Georgia’s election clerks from scrutinizing signatures. The legal settlement addresses accusations about a lack of statewide standards for judging signatures on absentee ballot envelopes. Raffensperger has said that not only is it entirely possible to match signatures, but that the state requires it.

Ballot harvesting, the practice of collecting numbers of absentee ballots and delivering them back to elections officials, remains illegal in Georgia.

___

TRUMP, referring to investigations into his baseless claims of voter fraud: “You have your never-Trumper U.S. attorney there.”

THE FACTS: The U.S. attorney in Atlanta is a actually a Trump appointee. Byung J. “BJay” Pak is a longtime Republican who also served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2011 until 2017. He was nominated by Trump to become the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia in 2017. In announcing his nomination, the White House said that Pak and five other nominees for U.S. attorney’s posts “share the president’s vision for ‘Making America Safe Again.’” Pak had previously also worked as an assistant U.S. attorney.

___

TRUMP, citing 18,000 “suspicious” votes: “The tape that’s been shown all over the world … they said very clearly there was a major water main break. Everybody fled the area and then they came back … there were no Republican poll watchers … and there was no law enforcement … It was stuffed with votes. They weren’t in an official voter box, they were in what looked to be in suitcases or trunks. … The minimum number it could be … was 18,000 ballots, all for Biden.”

THE FACTS: That’s a gross distortion of what actually happened.

State and Fulton County election officials say surveillance video that Trump refers shows no improper behavior, but normal ballot processing using not suitcases, but ballot containers on wheels. Officials said that the entire video showed the same workers had earlier packed the ballot containers with valid, uncounted ballots.

Republicans have contended that their observers were told to leave Fulton County’s vote counting center, but elections officials said they actually left after confusion that arose because election workers thought they were done for the night.

An independent monitor and an investigator in fact oversaw the vote count, according to state and county officials. Trump also refers to a fake confession attributed by a woman allegedly involved in the incident that was posted on social media.

___

TRUMP: “In other states we think we found tremendous corruption with Dominion machines, but we’ll have to see.”

THE FACTS: No “tremendous corruption” has been found.

There’s “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised,” said the federal agency that oversees election security, in a statement joined by state and electoral-industry officials.

___

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.

Worry, Criticism Abound as Suga Hints at Emergency for Tokyo

By

Kyodo News

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4 January 2021, 09:01

ครม.แถลง พรก.ร้ายแรง.. — Kyodo file photo of Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Reactions were mixed following Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s suggestion Monday that the government may soon declare a state of emergency over the coronavirus in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures, following an unabated rise in infections over the New Year holidays.

Some criticized the government for being too slow, while others worried that the second such declaration would bring further economic loss.

Continue reading the story here.

Trump, on Tape, Presses GA. Official To ‘Find’ Him Votes

By

Associated Press

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4 January 2021, 09:00

1000 (6) — President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of “criminal offense” if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation.

The phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost. The president, who has refused to accept his loss to Democratic president-elect Biden, repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results.

“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said. “Because we won the state.”

Georgia counted its votes three times before certifying Biden’s win by a 11,779 margin, Raffensperger noted: “President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. We don’t agree that you have won.”

Audio snippets of the conversation were first posted online by The Washington Post. The Associated Press obtained the full audio of Trump’s conversation with Georgia officials from a person on the call. The AP has a policy of not amplifying disinformation and unproven allegations. The AP will be posting the full audio as it annotates a transcript with fact check material.

Trump’s renewed intervention and the persistent and unfounded claims of fraud come nearly two weeks before he leaves office and two days before twin runoff elections in Georgia that will determine political control of the U.S. Senate.

The president used the hourlong conversation to tick through a list of claims about the election in Georgia, including that hundreds of thousands of ballots mysteriously appeared in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta. Officials have said there is no evidence of that happening.

The Georgia officials on the call are heard repeatedly pushing back against the president’s assertions, telling him that he’s relying on debunked theories and, in one case, selectively edited video.

At another point in the conversation, Trump appeared to threaten Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s legal counsel, by suggesting both could be criminally liable if they failed to find that thousands of ballots in Fulton County had been illegally destroyed. There is no evidence to support Trump’s claim.

“That’s a criminal offense,” Trump says. “And you can’t let that happen.”

Others on the call included Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and attorneys assisting Trump, including Washington lawyer Cleta Mitchell.

Democrats and a few Republicans condemned Trump’s actions, while at least one Democrat urged a criminal investigation. Legal experts said Trump’s behavior raised questions about possible election law violations.

Biden senior adviser Bob Bauer called the recording “irrefutable proof” of Trump pressuring and threatening an official in his own party to “rescind a state’s lawful, certified vote count and fabricate another in its place.”

“It captures the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy,” Bauer said.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in that chamber, said Trump’s conduct “merits nothing less than a criminal investigation.”

Trump confirmed in a tweet Sunday that he had spoken with Raffensperger. The White House referred questions to Trump’s reelection campaign, which did not respond Sunday to an emailed request for comment. Raffensperger’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump has repeatedly attacked how Raffensperger conducted Georgia’s elections, claiming without evidence that the state’s 16 electoral votes were wrongly given to Biden.

“He has no clue!” Trump tweeted of Raffensperger, saying the state official “was unwilling, or unable” to answer questions.

Raffensperger’s Twitter response: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.”

Various election officials across the country and Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have said there was no widespread fraud in the election. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden’s victory, have also vouched for the integrity of their state elections. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices.

In Georgia, the ballots were counted three times, including a mandatory hand count and a Trump-requested recount.

Still, Trump has publicly disparaged the election, worrying Republicans that may discourage GOP voters from participating in Tuesday’s runoffs pitting Sen. Kelly Loeffler against Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican David Perdue against Democrat Jon Ossoff.

Rebecca Green, who helps direct the election law program at William and Mary Law School, said that while it is appropriate for a candidate to question the outcome of an election, the processes for doing so for the presidential election have run their course. States have certified their votes.

Green said Trump had raised “lots of questions” about whether he violated any election laws.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said Trump is guilty of “reprehensible and, possibly illegal, conduct.”

Trump noted on the call that he intended to repeat his claims about fraud at a Monday night rally in Dalton, a heavily Republican area in north Georgia.

“The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry,” he says on the recording.

Biden is also due to campaign in Georgia on Monday, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris stumped in Garden City, Georgia, on Sunday, slamming Trump for the call.

“It was a bald, bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States,” she said.

Loeffler and Perdue have largely backed Trump in his attempts to overturn election results. But on Sunday, Loeffler said she hadn’t decided whether to join Republican colleagues in challenging the legitimacy of Biden’s victory over Trump when Congress meets Wednesday to affirm Biden’s 306-232 vote win in the Electoral College.

Perdue, who was quarantining after being exposed to a staff member with the coronavirus, said he supports the challenge, although he will not be a sitting senator when the vote happens because his term has expired. Still, he told Fox News Channel he was encouraging his colleagues to object, saying it’s “something that the American people demand right now.”

His rival, Ossoff, speaking at the Garden City rally, attacked Perdue and Loeffler for failing to stand up for Georgia’s voters, specifically saying that the state’s Black voters were being targeted.

“When the president of the United States calls up Georgia’s election officials and tries to intimidate them to change the result of the election, to disenfranchise Georgia voters, to disenfranchise Black voters in Georgia who delivered this state for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, that is a direct attack on our democracy,” he said.

___

Superville reported from Washington and Brumback from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Russ Bynum in Garden City, Georgia, contributed to this report.

Thailand to Get Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccines by May

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Khaosod English

-

3 January 2021, 20:50

BANGKOK — A senior health official said the first batch of a coronavirus vaccine developed by a British pharmaceutical company and Oxford University will be available four months from now.

The vaccine, which has been approved by British regulatory authorities for emergency uses, is being produced by a Thai firm per a technology sharing agreement with AstraZeneca, Medical Sciences Department director Supakit Sirilak told reporters.

He estimated that the medication will be distributed to the public by May, though he hinted that it would take considerable time before a full-fledged vaccination campaign can take place.

“Even in countries where vaccination already began, they cannot take vaccination all at once,” Supakit said at the news conference Sunday. “It’s not a product that can be bought anywhere in the market.”

“What’s also important is there must be a system to ensure quality and safety. We will not buy a vaccine from any substandard factory or any vaccine that is not backed by Phase 3 experiment results.”

It is unclear whether the Thai Food and Drug Administration has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in Thailand. The agency simply said on Dec. 30 that it was capable and willing to start a validation process for any vaccine, but made no reference to any particular brand. In late December, the Thai FDA already shot down a bid by a hospital in Bangkok to import vaccines made by U.S.-based Moderna, citing insufficient data needed for approval.

Supakit also did not mention how many doses will be available in May, but a representative of the firm that secured a manufacturing license from AstraZeneca said up to 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccine can be made per month, once the production starts in earnest.

“The production capacity is 200 million doses per year, or 15 to 20 million doses per month,” Siam Bioscience Co., Ltd. director Songpon Deechongkit said.

Siam Bioscience began its first production in mid-December after securing a deal with AstraZeneca in October, Songpon said. However, the doses must be tested and formally approved by the Thai FDA before they can be shipped.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine, developed in collaboration with Oxford University, was greenlit by a British regulatory body just days ago, on Dec. 30.

The vaccine is reported to be easier to store and distribute, as it can be kept at normal fridge temperature, unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech jab that has to be kept at the subzero temperature of -70C.

Supakit, the Medical Sciences Department director, said the health ministry is also ordering 2 million doses of coronavirus vaccine from a Chinese manufacturer, the first shipment of which is expected to arrive by February.

But unlike AstraZeneca’s doses, the vaccine made by China-based Sinovac has not yet won the coveted “Phase 3” status – a prerequisite for domestic approvals – raising questions of when the Chinese jab will actually be put to use.

“Thailand will only recognize a Phase 3 registration that has clear results,” National Vaccine Institute director Nakorn Premsri said at today’s news conference. “There are only three types of vaccines that are registered and recognized as such: the ones made by Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca.”

The health authorities are seemingly racing against time to obtain a vaccine for the coronavirus amid a renewed outbreak that is far more serious than the first wave witnessed in early 2020.

At least 290 new domestic infections were logged on Sunday, with several clusters of outbreak identified across Thailand.

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