Rot Fai Park on Dec. 2, 2020. Photo: Bangkok Metropolitan Administration
BANGKOK — Frolic among tropical blooms throughout December and deep into 2021 at Bangkok’s public parks.
The Bangkok Flora Festival was inaugurated by junta-appointed Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang on Wednesday.The opening ceremony was held at Wachirabenchatat Park, also known as Rot Fai Park, which features the festival’s highlight of a 4 rai (0.64 hectares) field filled with 30,000 sunflowers.
The sunflowers are expected to bloom until Dec. 20. They are of the Vincent’s Choice variety, which is suitable for those with allergies. Zinnias, lotuses, and rice plants are also on display in the park. Fifty new metal benches were donated to the park by a private company for this occasion.
Rot Fai Park on Dec. 2, 2020. Photo: Bangkok Metropolitan Administration
Other parks in the city are ready for the selfie crowds as well. Queen Sirikit Park, just steps away from Rot Fai Park, has planted Siam tulips and hollyhocks in a Valentine’s-themed garden.
The 60th Anniversary of Queen Sirikit Park in Lat Krabang has a cactus garden, while the HM King’s 80th Anniversary Parkin Sathorn, boasts a variety of lotuses in its ponds. Lumpini Park in downtown Bangkok is also hosting a variety of flowers.
The festival’s other blooms are expected to run through 2021:
Wanapirom Romklao Park will have a display of Madagascar Periwinkles from Jan 12 to 31.
Later in the summer, Mahakan Fort Park will have a display of cosmos plants from Apr. 10 to 20, and Chatuchak Park in June and July will have marigolds, cosmos flowers, and asters.
Lumpini Park from September to October will have cockscombs, Chinese wool flowers, and Madagascar Periwinkles.
Rot Fai Park on Dec. 2, 2020. Photo: Bangkok Metropolitan Administration
Christian worshippers light candles in the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — The coronavirus has cast a pall over Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, all but shutting down the biblical town revered as Jesus’ birthplace at the height of the normally cheery holiday season.
Missing are the thousands of international pilgrims who normally descend upon the town. Restaurants, hotels and souvenir shops are closed. The renowned Christmas tree lighting service will be limited to a small group of authorized people, as will church services on Christmas Eve.
“Bethlehem is dead,” said Maryana al-Arja, owner of the 120-room Angel Hotel on the outskirts of Bethlehem.
The hotel was the site of the West Bank’s first coronavirus outbreak — when a group of Greek tourists came down with the virus last March.
Christians take photos inside the Grotto of the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
She kept her 25 workers on staff for several months but ultimately couldn’t continue to pay them. Al-Arja, who herself was infected with the virus, said she has been forced to close the hotel and lay off the entire staff because there is no sign of the pandemic ending or tourists visiting anytime soon.
“We had 351 tourist groups booked in our hotel this year, each one 150 people,” she said. “But they all canceled.”
Elyas al-Arja, the head of the city’s hotel association, said Bethlehem received some 3 million tourists in 2019. With Israel, the main entry point for international visitors to the region, banning tourists because of the coronavirus crisis, and the West Bank’s border crossing with Jordan closed to foreigners, that number is close to zero this year, he said.
“Sixty percent of the city relies on tourism, and their income disappeared when the tourists disappeared,” said al-Arja, a cousin of the Angel Hotel owner.
The Ambassador Hotel, which is located near the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born, has reopened one floor in hopes that some local visitors may want to come celebrate in the coming weeks.
A Palestinian vendor stands in front of his shop near the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank City of Bethlehem, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Mahmoud Tarman, the hotel’s receptionist, said the Ambassador has brought back eight of its 60 workers to serve local guests. But with the West Bank’s economy devastated by repeated lockdowns, it remains unclear how many people will come.
“At this time of the year, this empty hotel would be bustling with life. But as you see, there is no life, not even a Christmas tree yet,” he said as he pointed at the empty lobby.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, this week imposed a new nighttime lockdown to help contain a spike in coronavirus cases. People must remain indoors from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m., and Bethlehem is included in the lockdown.
Officials say the lockdown could be extended through Christmas and into the new year if the infection levels don’t come down. The Health Ministry has reported a total of about 65,000 coronavirus cases in the West Bank, and over 620 deaths.
A Palestinian vendor sits in front of his shop near the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank City of Bethlehem, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Bethlehem’s mayor, Anton Salman, said the city had planned to receive 3,000 invited guests, including local scout troops and musical bands from around the world that normally entertain visitors during Christmas Eve festivities.
He said the famed Christmas tree lighting, scheduled on Thursday, will be limited to just 15 guests, including local mayors, the district governor and the Latin Patriarch and other clergy. The 85-year-old Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who usually joins the celebration, has been invited but has not said whether he will attend.
Midnight Mass, a solemn event led by the Latin Patriarch that is usually attended by religious leaders, local VIPs and hundreds of pilgrims from around the world, has also been scaled back, Salman said. He said officials are still working on the guest list, but it is expected to include religious leaders and some foreign diplomats. The event will be closed to the general public but broadcast live for people to watch.
“No one can hold the responsibility of inviting large numbers of people to Christmas events,” he said. “Nothing will be the same during the pandemic.”
President Donald Trump participates in a video teleconference call with members of the military on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020, at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Disputing President Donald Trump’s persistent, baseless claims, Attorney General William Barr declared Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.
Barr’s comments, in an interview with the The Associated Press, contradict the concerted effort by Trump, his boss, to subvert the results of last month’s voting and block President-elect Joe Biden from taking his place in the White House.
Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
The comments, which drew immediate criticism from Trump attorneys, were especially notable coming from Barr, who has been one of the president’s most ardent allies. Before the election, he had repeatedly raised the notionthat mail-in voting could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls and instead chose to vote by mail.
More to Trump’s liking, Barr revealed in the AP interview that in October he had appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as a special counsel, giving the prosecutor the authority to continue to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe after Biden takes over and making it difficult to fire him. Biden hasn’t said what he might do with the investigation, and his transition team didn’t comment Tuesday.
Trump has long railed against the investigation into whether his 2016 campaign was coordinating with Russia, but he and Republican allies had hoped the results would be delivered before the 2020 election and would help sway voters. So far, there has been only one criminal case, a guilty plea from a former FBI lawyer to a single false statement charge.
Under federal regulations, a special counsel can be fired only by the attorney general and for specific reasons such as misconduct, dereliction of duty or conflict of interest. An attorney general must document such reasons in writing.
Barr went to the White House Tuesday for a previously scheduled meeting that lasted about three hours.
Trump didn’t directly comment on the attorney general’s remarks on the election. But his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and his political campaign issued a scathing statement claiming that, “with all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn’t been any semblance” of an investigation into the president’s complaints.
Other administration officials who have come out forcefully against Trump’s allegations of voter-fraud evidence have been fired. But it’s not clear whether Barr might suffer the same fate. He maintains a lofty position with Trump, and despite their differences the two see eye-to-eye on quite a lot.
Still, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer quipped: “I guess he’s the next one to be fired.”
Last month, Barr issued a directive to U.S. attorneys across the country allowing them to pursue any “substantial allegations” of voting irregularitiesbefore the 2020 presidential election was certified, despite no evidence at that time of widespread fraud.
That memorandum gave prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election was certified. Soon after it was issued, the department’s top elections crime official announced he would step aside from that position because of the memo.
The Trump campaign team led by Giuliani has been alleging a widespread conspiracy by Democrats to dump millions of illegal votes into the system with no evidence. They have filed multiple lawsuits in battleground states alleging that partisan poll watchers didn’t have a clear enough view at polling sites in some locations and therefore something illegal must have happened. The claims have been repeatedly dismissed including by Republican judges who have ruled the suits lacked evidence.
But local Republicans in some battleground states have followed Trump in making unsupported claims, prompting grave concernsover potential damage to American democracy.
Trump himself continues to rail against the election in tweets and in interviews though his own administration has said the 2020 election was the most secure ever. He recently allowed his administration to begin the transition over to Biden, but he still refuses to admit he lost.
The issues they’ve have pointed to are typical in every election: Problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost.
But they’ve gone further. Attorney Sidney Powell has spun fictional tales of election systems flipping votes, German servers storing U.S. voting information and election software created in Venezuela “at the direction of Hugo Chavez,” – the late Venezuelan president who died in 2013. Powell has since been removed from the legal team after an interview she gave where she threatened to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” court filing.
Barr didn’t name Powell specifically but said: “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that.”
In the campaign statement, Giuliani claimed there was “ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states, which they have not examined.”
“We have many witnesses swearing under oath they saw crimes being committed in connection with voter fraud. As far as we know, not a single one has been interviewed by the DOJ. The Justice Department also hasn’t audited any voting machines or used their subpoena powers to determine the truth,” he said.
However, Barr said earlier that people were confusing the use of the federal criminal justice system with allegations that should be made in civil lawsuits. He said a remedy for many complaints would be a top-down audit by state or local officials, not the U.S. Justice Department.
“There’s a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as sort of a default fix-all,” he said, but first there must be a basis to believe there is a crime to investigate.
“Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. … And those have been run down; they are being run down,” Barr said. “Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.”
___
Associated Press Writers Lisa Mascaro and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
An injured person is carried away from clashes between pro-monarchy and pro-reform protesters at Kiakkai Intersection on Nov. 17, 2020.
BANGKOK — Police said Tuesday they have yet to identify the individuals who fired shots at protesters during skirmishes between two rival groups near the parliament last month, injuring six people.
Tao Poon police superintendent Krit Kanchana said investigators are still waiting on forensic test results before naming any suspects. Although an ultraroyalist demonstrator at the scene was later arrested with possession of a .357 revolver, Col. Krit said he believes the man was not responsible for the shooting.
“We believe it’s not him who fired the shots since he was at a different location than the wounded persons,” Col. Krit said. “We’re analyzing evidence and reviewing CCTV footage, but we have yet to identify the gunman at the moment.”
The man was identified by police as Kasidit Leelamuktanun, 35. Kasidit was reportedly apprehended by soldiers from a nearby military base while he was trying to hide his firearm in the bush during the protest near the parliament on Nov. 17. He was charged with illegal firearm possession and later released on bail.
The demonstrations on Nov. 17 escalated into clashes between protesters seeking reforms and pro-establishment supporters who were gathering close by. Hundreds of police officers deployed around the parliament did not move to separate the two sides.
Series of gunshots were heard at Kiakkai Intersection while the rival protesters were throwing projectiles at each other. Six people suffered gunshot wounds that night, according to the City Hall’s emergency response department.
Although deputy metro police commander Piya Tawichai had said earlier that the gunman is likely to be one of the guards of the pro-democracy movement, the Tao Poon station’s superintendent said it is too early to tell which side the gunman belonged to.
Pro-democracy protesters take cover as police fire water cannons and tear gas during an anti-government rally near the Parliament in Bangkok, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020.
Krit did confirm the news that all of the victims wounded by gunfire on Nov. 17 were members of the pro-democracy movement.
“The locations where wounded persons were shot scattered across different spots,” Krit said. “However, all the six were People’s Party demonstrators.”
Internal Conflict?
Another shooting broke out at a pro-democracy rally close to the Siam Commercial Bank’s main office just a week later, on Nov. 26.
Two people were reportedly injured during the incident, which police described as an “internal conflict” among different groups of protesters’ volunteer security guards. One of the assailants was sent to hospital after protesters caught and beat him as he was trying to flee the scene.
Police said they are preparing to issue arrest warrants for two more individuals involved in the shooting, which took place just as the demonstrators were leaving the protest.
Phahonyothin police superintendent Atthawut Niwatsophon said investigators have already identified the two suspects, though he refused to reveal their names, citing an ongoing investigation.
“We’re tracking them at the moment,” Col. Atthawut said in an interview. “However, I can’t divulge the details right now since it may alert the suspects.”
Protesters had also refused police’s assessment, made in less than 24 hours after the incident, that blamed rivalry among the groups for the shooting.
Members of the volunteer guards told the media they believe the attack was carried out by agent provocateurs who infiltrated their rank to incite violence and disunity among the protesters.
Triam Udom Suksa School students on Dec. 1, 2020. Images are blurred to comply with media regulations on underage individuals.
BANGKOK — Hundreds of school students in Bangkok on Tuesday ditched their uniforms in favor of casual outfits in solidarity with calls to reform the education system – prompting outrage from some school administrators.
Videos posted online show teachers and school officials banning students who participated in the uniform boycott from entering classrooms. Some were also seen berating the pupils for not complying with the tradition, which started under military autocrats back in the Cold War era.
“Get out, go home. We don’t need this. You don’t get to study. Look at the state of you,” said one teacher at all-girls Assumption Suksa School in a video. Dozens of students were reportedly barred from entering the school campus.
“If you want to act according to rules from outside of the campus go ahead. But the school has our rules,” said the teacher at the privately-owned Catholic school. The [administrators] did not announce any rule changes …You’re submitting to outside influence.”
Some other schools in Bangkok grounds also threatened students with disciplinary action for not wearing uniforms and closed the gates on those wearing casual outfits, known in Thai as “privates.”
A website run by student activist group Bad Students has real-time updates of complaints sent in by students.
As of publication time, the top-four schools with the most number of reported incidents were St. Joseph Convent School, Si Racha School, Assumption Convent School, and Suranari Witthaya School.
Dec. 1 marks the first day of semester for many campuses.
The campaign by students to put on the clothes of their own choice even got a response from the military. A Twitter account run by the 1st Army Area command proclaimed that only “0.1 percent” of students at Horwang School failed to show up in their uniforms, and that their parents were summoned for questioning.
Twitter users were left scratching their heads by the announcement.
“What’s the job of the military? We don’t even know if this is real or fake news. There’s no source. Did you do a survey in front of the school?” user thnunpron tweeted.
Bad Student’s sign at the Democracy Monument on Dec. 1, 2020 reads, “My nails, my hair, my body, my business. How come it’s the teachers’ burden?”
The bid to do away with school uniforms were spearheaded by Bad Students, who opposes school regulations seen as authoritarian and unnecessary. The activists put up banners saying “My nails, my hair, my body, my business. How come it’s the teachers’ burden?” at several landmarks in Bangkok on Monday, including Democracy Monument.
Most practices in Thai schools, namely dress codes and military-styled haircuts, were introduced under ruling juntas in the 1960s to instill patriotism and a sense of discipline. The regulations come under scrutiny in recent years from students who believe they represent a backward mentality.
But education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan, who has been the subject of ongoing student protests against the education system, wrote online on Monday night that he was still in favor of uniforms.
“School uniforms create equality. No matter where you’re from or your status, you are within that school’s rules and administration equally,” he wrote.
A student wears a Slytherin cloak to Triam Udom Suksa School on Dec. 1, 2020. Images are blurred to comply with media regulations on underage individuals.
Uniform Debate
Despite the noise on social media, not every teacher and administrator is taking up arms against students who think differently.
Office of Basic Education Commission sec-gen Amporn Pinasa said Monday that students wearing non-uniform clothes to school were merely exercising their rights.
“I think all children have the ability to differentiate between right and wrong,” Amporn said. “If on the first day of term on Dec. 1, students wear non-uniform clothes, it’s not a big deal. But we must see what the students’ motivations are.”
He added, “I think that kids coming to school to learn is a good thing already.”
Udonpittayanukoon School, the main school of Udon Thani province, saw many students wearing casual clothes, with some even holding up the anti-government three-finger salute during the flag raising ceremony. School director Tawat Tommontri said he did not intervene.
“The more we ban it, the more it will become an issue that we might not be able to handle,” Tawat said. “They are all our children. We have to give them a chance, and listen to them.”
An administrator at Triam Udom School interviewed Tuesday morning said there would be no disciplinary action against students wearing casual outfits.
Triam Udom Suksa School students on Dec. 1, 2020. Images are blurred to comply with media regulations on underage individuals.
“Students can come to school,” he said. “Today’s the first day of term, so it’s their right.”
A Triam Udom high school student who wore her uniform to school today said that she agreed with diminishing the role of uniforms in education, but she was not confident enough to wear her own clothes today.
“One of the main reasons is the cost. From my head to my toes, all the belts and pins, it’s at least 2,000 baht,” the Matthayom 5 student from Triam Udom said.
Calls for education reforms appear to be intertwined with a wave of near-daily protests being carried out against the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, which many students feel came to power undemocratically.
The government is struggling to suppress the protests through promises of a compromise and legal retaliation.
A student at Horwang School wears regular clothes to school on Dec. 1, 2020. Images are blurred to comply with media regulations on underage individuals.
Yuletide will be slightly less merry and bright this year in Thailand, with all the anti-coronavirus measures and their grievous tolls on the economy.
As a result, some of the popular annual Christmas events have been scaled down or cancelled altogether. People are expected to shop and go out less. Border shutdowns remain in place, with very few exceptions, meaning that holiday reunions will not be possible for many families and friends.
But we tried our best to gather the remaining twinkles of traditional joyful events for 2020 Christmas. (Final update on Dec. 15)
(You Wish You’re) Driving Home for Christmas
Thai school students participate in a Nativity play in 2019. Image: Assumption College Ubonratchathani / Facebook.
For homesick expats, here’s a few themed events that may ease that heartache just a bit.
The Irish Cultural Fair Bangkok will hold an Irish Christmas Concert on Wednesday Dec. 16 starting at 6:30pm. Headlining the concert is famed Irish musician and folklorist Mick Moloney, winner of the National Heritage Fellowship lifetime award in 1999 – the US’s highest honor for traditional artists.
Also performing are the Asian Institute of Technology’s Catholic Community Choir and the music and dance ensemble from the Mercy Centre.Tickets are 850 baht for adults, 450 for students and children.
Antique Cafe will hold a cozy evening of caroling on Dec. 23 starting at 7pm. The 300 baht ticket price (350 baht at the door, 200 baht for kids under 10) includes an assortment of holiday snacks.
Mini-cafe Glück will hold a cozy German Christmas Marketon Dec. 6 from 8:30am to 5pm. Cafe owner Cristina Grawe promises homemade gluhwein (German version of mulled wine), Christmas cake, cookies, and other goodies along with a small selection of Christmas gifts.
“We realized no one is going home, all the expats and Germans are staying in Thailand. Everyone is a bit homesick,” Grawe said. “So we will try to recreate a little bit of the feeling of the Christmas market in Germany.”
For those needing even more of a German Christmas, the German school RIS Swiss Section is holding a Swiss/German Christmas party on Dec. 17 at their campus in far eastern Bangkok.
The Danish Women’s Network and Danish Church in Thailand will hold the Danish Christmas Bazaar for the second year, on Sunday from 11am to 6pm at the Gaysorn Urban Resort. Cozy up with some festive snacks, watch a children’s Santa Lucia parade, and indulge in hygge.
If watching Bruce Willis spread the Christmas joy in “Die Hard” is part of your holiday tradition, The Rice Paddy Irish pub near Rama IV Road is throwing a shindig to send off 2020 with free food and a drink starting at 5pm on Dec. 12.
I’m Dreaming of A Green Christmas
Christmas carol singers at a shopping mall in Bangkok, November 2020. Image: CentralPlaza Salaya / Facebook.
Love the festivities, but hate the commercialism? The Yard Bangkok is holding a “Less Waste Christmas Party” on Dec. 24 from 6pm onwards. Bring a pre-owned item still in good condition for zero waste lucky draw – your trash could be someone else’s treasure! No need to wrap your present.
The 250 baht entrance fee includes a BBQ skewer and an alcoholic beverage. Sip a beer under a decorated orange tree while listening to swing music. Reservations needed.
For those wanting some pre-loved treasures: The Made by Legacy flea market will take place on Dec. 25 to 27 at the Sermsuk Warehouse at the Pepsi Pier. Find that antique globe you’ve always wanted! Entry 100 baht.
The Bangkok Farmer’s Market edition on 10am to 6pm on Dec. 26 to 27 at Gateway Ekamai will also include the annual Bangkok Yard Sale. The market does not allow resellers, and free rental space for small farmers selling their own produce.
And there’s the Green Christmas Marketon Dec. 18 to Dec. 20 from 11am to 8pm at the Pullman Bangkok Hotel G. It will feature booths by sustainable brands, as well as burgers and live music.
Star of Wonder, Star of Night
Top: The 2019 Hae Dao parade in Sakon Nakhon.
The Sakon Nakhon annual hae dao parade will be from Dec. 21 to Dec. 25 at St. Michael’s Cathedral in the province’s Tha Rae district.
The Dec. 23 parade will have more than 200 floats, while the Christmas eve parade will include a choir, church service and a lucky draw. Christmas Day will begin with morning mass at 7am and the large parade starting at 6pm.
Tha Rae district in Sakon Nakhon has the highest number of Catholics in Thailand, many ancestors of whom came from Vietnam.
Mix and a-Mingle in the Jinglin’ Feet
A woman poses for photos with Christmas decorations at a cafe in Samut Songkram. Image: Amphawa-Sri Cafe / Facebook.
Sadly, the famed Christmas fair at Catholic school Assumption College will only last for half a day this year, from 8am until noon on Dec. 23. The fair will also do away with concerts, which have been its crowd magnet for years.
Social distancing practices will be observed at the school. The annual soi dao lucky draw will still make its appearance, though.
St. Louis Church in Silom will also hold their annual Christmas fair on Dec. 24, starting at 6pm onwards and featuring their soi dao lucky draw. Be warned: there may be fewer prizes than last year “due to the bad economy,” a woman answering the phone at the church said. Entrance is free.
The Olive Kitchen will have a Christmas Buffet on Dec. 26; 799 baht for adults and 450 baht for kids. Not only will there be a chocolate fondue foundation, but Santa will be there to greet visitors as they take selfies inside of a giant snowglobe.
The Blue Parrot will have a family-friendly Christmas party from 2pm to 7pm Saturday. Kids will be busy with Christmas-themed activities and crafts, while adults can cool off at the bar.
Raintree International School will hold a Christmas Fair 3pm to 6pm on Dec. 12, complete with pony rides, a raffle, carols, and Santa to greet the kids. Kids free entry, adults 100 baht.
Here We Come a-Carolling
Photo: Oonrak Home / Facebook
Six international school choirs will be singing carols to bring Christmas cheer to all from 6pm to 9pm Dec. 9 at the front lawn at The British Club. Save some stomach space for mince pies and mulled wine. Entrance free, but reservations preferred at [email protected].
For something a little more contemporary, Oonrak Super Band will play at Lido Connect Hall 3 on Christmas Day. Dress code: Christmas party costumes. Tickets cost 800 baht at the door.
O Night Divine
A Christmas celebration at Bangkok’s Santa Cruz Church in 2018. Image: วัดซางตาครู้ส โบสถ์ซางตาครู้ส กุฎีจีน / Facebook.
On Dec. 13, sing along to Christmas carols by candlelight and sip on mulled wine at the 6pm English-language service at Christ Church Bangkok on Sathorn Road.
At 11:30pm on Christmas Eve there will be a midnight holy communion. Christmas Day communion begins at 10am.
Santa Cruz Church on Thonburi side will have a Christmas festival starting at 6:30pm on Dec. 24 complete with dances and choir performances before the evening mass at 10pm, although the usual scale of festivities will be smaller, with no soi dao festival. Christmas Day mass is at 9am.
The Holy Rosary Church will not hold a Christmas festival this year, but will still have an 8pm mass on Dec. 24 and a 10am Christmas Day mass in Chinese.
Assumption Cathedral in the Charoenkrung neighborhood will have a Christmas Eve concert and service starting at 8:30pm. Christmas Day mass in Thai will be held at 9am and in English at 10:30am.
Cathedral of Immaculate Conception, also known simply as Chanthaburi Cathedral, will hold a pre-Christmas mass on Dec. 12 at 10:30am. Follow their Facebook page for updates. The cathedral’s fairs in previous years saw 3D lighting decorations, music shows, and firework performances.
Top: Christmas fair at Chathaburi Cathedral in 2019.
Join In Any Reindeer Games
A Christmas present giveaway event in Sa Kaeo, 2019. Image: Khoksung Church / Facebook.
If Christmas isn’t about settling down in one chair and eating yourself into the holiday weight guilt zone (or if you swore to yourself that it wouldn’t be), here’s some activities that will get you on your feet like a happy elf.
Dive into the Christmas Pool Carnival at the Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park on Dec. 19 from noon until midnight, with food, carnival games, and a DJ to provide some remixed carols for the whole family. Kids below 6 enter free, and adults 499 baht per person.
Bangkok Roller Derby, Bangkok’s first and only roller derby team is holding a Christmas charity event to roll forward the giving spirit at their “Christmas On Wheels” roller disco on Dec. 4 at the Roller Dome at Emporium. Skate to Christmas tunes in a festive costume by a Christmas tree! Proceeds will be donated to a charity that provides meals and donations to poverty-stricken communities in Khlong Toey.
“We haven’t had an event all year due to COVID, so we want to give back,” said Karina Patterson, one of the team’s skate coaches.
The 300 baht entrance fee (150 baht for kids under 12) includes rental fee for skates and safety gear as well as a beer for adults. Like a newborn reindeer on skates? No worries, the team will teach beginners as well.
The Hop swing dance group will hold a Christmas Potluck on Saturday Dec. 26 starting at 8pm. First timers will be treated to a beginner class. Swing dance to Christmas tunes all night after that!
I Don’t Want A Lot for Christmas
K-Village Christmas Market in 2019.
Holiday cards and gifts made by local Thai artists will be on sale at the Glowfish Market from Dec. 18 to 20 from 12pm to 8pm, featuring 28 food booths and 55 brands. Glowfish Sathorn is reachable from BTS Chong Nonsi Exit 2.
If you need to grab some last-minute gifts, K-Village will host a Christmas-market themed pop-up market with more than 150 vendors from 11am to 10pm Dec. 23 to 27.
Pick some items for that cousin, let the kids loose at the mini-fair, and listen to a mini-concert from artists such as Scrubb and Superbaker while taking in the Bangkok winter breeze.
Snap a selfie with Santa while rabidly buying up Christmas gifts at the X’Mas Holly Jolly Celebration market from 8am to 11pm at The Helix lawn on the 5th floor of EmQuartier from Dec. 5 to 6.
Shop for handmade gifts by local creators at the Creators Christmas Fair market from 11am to 6pm on Dec. 11 to 12 at EmQuartier. The Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit will hold a European Christmas Market from 11am to 8pm on Dec. 12, 13, 19, 20, 24, and 25.
A relax with a mini concert, themed photo opportunities, and art workshops at Winter Market Fest at Sansiri Town Sukhumvit 77 from 3 to 10pm from Dec. 19 to 20.
Would rather make your own gifts? Make reindeer ornaments, santa hats, and brownies at festive workshops at the Open House bookshop in Central Embassy on the weekends. Check their page for the full schedule. Each workshop is limited to 30; and a purchase at Open House is necessary for participation.
‘Christmas isn’t just a day. It’s a frame of mind.’
“Miracle on 34th Street” (1947).
Heartwarming Christmas classics “Miracle on 34th Street” and “It’s A Wonderful Life,” will be screened Christmas week at the Bangkok Screening Room, from Dec. 24 to 27, and Dec. 24 to 26, respectively, just in time to restore your faith in humanity before 2020 ends.
Sugarplum fairies will dance before your eyes at the Dec. 17 to Dec. 30 screenings of Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker (2014). And oh, throw a little Maria in there too – “The Sound of Music” screens from Dec. 10 to Dec. 27.
Films are screened in English with Thai subtitles. Tickets cost 200 baht for children under 12, 240 baht for members, 250 baht for students, and 300 baht for adults.
Could you be any more alone for Christmas? For nerds of the ‘90s hit sitcom “Friends,” Bangkok Comedy Club is holding a Friends Christmas Trivia Brunch on Dec. 6 at 1pm at Aesop Restaurant. Go rewatch the one where Ross dresses up as a Holiday Armadillo!
Advance tickets only. A single ticket is 600 baht, 2,500 baht for a group of five.
BANGKOK (Xinhua) — The Thai central bank on Monday released a report indicating that exports fell 5.6 percent in October from a year earlier after September’s 4.2 percent drop.
Thailand recorded a current account surplus of 0.99 billion U.S. dollars in October after a surplus of 1.31 billion U.S. dollars the previous month, the Bank of Thailand (BoT) said in a Monday press conference.
The BoT added that October’s imports declined 12.1 percent from a year earlier, resulting in a trade surplus of 3.17 billion U.S. dollars in the month.
In this October, Thailand’s economy contracted at a higher rate compared to the previous month due mainly to the fading of temporary factors and last year’s high base effect, explained Chayawadee Chai-Anant, senior director at BoT’s Economic and Policy Department.
She further added that private consumption indicators contracted after experiencing a marginal expansion in September, as the temporary factor of special long holidays came to an end.
In regards to the tourism sector, severe contraction continued due to travel restrictions on foreign arrivals, Chayawadee said.
The number of tourist arrivals contracted 100 percent year on year as travel restrictions remained in place. Although the government began to allow foreigners holding the Special Tourists Visa (STV) to visit Thailand, the number of foreign arrivals was still small, Chayawadee said.
However the BoT said that overall private consumption continued on a recovery path, consistent with a gradual improvement of factors supporting consumer purchasing power including employment, farming and non-farming income as well as consumer confidence, together with new economic stimulus packages launched by the government.
Princess Aiko poses with her dog at Akasaka Estate in Tokyo on Nov. 22, 2020. (Photo courtesy of the Imperial Household Agency)(Kyodo)
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Princess Aiko, the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, turned 19 on Tuesday while attending online classes at her university as a first-year student amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The princess, enrolled in Gakushuin University in Tokyo, has been taking part in virtual lectures since the start of the academic year in April. In October, she visited the school and met her professors and classmates face to face for the first time, according to the Imperial Household Agency.
President-elect Joe Biden, joined by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, speaks at The Queen theater, Monday, Nov. 9, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Joe Biden has had his first look as president-elect at the President’s Daily Brief, a top secret summary of U.S. intelligence and world events — a document former first lady Michelle Obama has called “The Death, Destruction, and Horrible Things Book.”
Biden has already had eyes on different iterations of the so-called PDB, which is tailored to the way each president likes to absorb information.
More than a decade ago, Biden read President George W. Bush’s PDB during Biden’s transition into the vice presidency. After that, he read President Barack Obama’s PDB for eight years. Beginning Monday, after a four-year break, he’s reading President Donald Trump’s PDB.
“The briefers almost certainly will be asking Biden what he prefers in terms of format and style,” said David Priess, author of “The President’s Book of Secrets,” a history of the PDB. “At a minimum, they’re seeing what seems to resonate most with him so that when they make the book his book, they can tailor it to him.”
Obama’s PDB was a 10- to 15-page document tucked in a leather binder, which he found waiting for him on the breakfast table. Later in his presidency, he liked reading the ultra-secret intelligence brief on a secured iPad.
“Michelle called it “The Death, Destruction, and Horrible Things Book,” Obama wrote in his recently released book, ”A Promised Land.”
“On a given day, I might read about terrorist cells in Somalia or unrest in Iraq or the fact that the Chinese or Russians were developing new weapons systems,” Obama wrote. “Nearly always, there was mention of potential terrorist plots, no matter how vague, thinly sourced, or unactionable — a form of due diligence on the part of the intelligence community, meant to avoid the kind of second-guessing that had transpired after 9/11.”
From now until Inauguration Day, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be reading the PDB crafted for Trump, who had delayed giving Biden and Harris access to it as he contests the outcome of the election.
Trump, who prefers absorbing information in visual ways, likes short texts and graphics.
“Trump himself said during his campaign and during the transition in 2016 that he did not like reading long documents — that he preferred bullet points,” said Priess, who has not seen any of Trump’s PDBs. “It probably has charts, tables, graphs — things like that. Not the parody that people make that it’s like a cartoon book … but something that is more visual. But we don’t know for sure.”
The written brief, which Trump doesn’t always read, often is followed by a verbal briefing with an intelligence official, although those oral briefings stopped at least for a time in October. Priess said he didn’t know why they stopped or if they had resumed, but that they stopped at a time when Trump was spending much of his time on the campaign trail.
Before Trump authorized Biden to get the PDB as president-elect, Biden was given some intelligence background briefings as a candidate. But they were more general and did not include the nation’s top secrets.
The other thing that a president-elect gets is a briefing “on CIA’s covert actions,” former acting CIA director Mike Morell said at an event hosted by the Center for Presidential Transition based in Washington. “It’s important for the president-elect to get this briefing … because on Inauguration Day, these covert actions will become the new president’s.”
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy read his first brief while sitting on the diving board of a swimming pool at his retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. President Lyndon Johnson liked to read his brief in the afternoon. President Richard Nixon relied on his national security adviser Henry Kissinger to peruse the briefs and tell him what he thought the president should know.
As the laborious recount of ballots dragged on in 2000, President Bill Clinton decided that then-Gov. George W. Bush should get access to his PDB just in case he was the winner. Bush became was the first incoming president to read it before he was president-elect.
Biden is getting the PDB later than usual because of Trump’s ongoing protest of the election results. Trump approved the briefings for Biden last Tuesday, a day after his administration approved the formal transition process to his successor.
When Biden walks into the Oval Office, he’ll be inheriting nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, changing political dynamics in the Middle East, the winding down of America’s presence in Afghanistan and rising competition from China.
Biden had access to the PDB in Wilmington, Delaware. Harris received it in a secure room at the Commerce Department, where the presidential transition offices are located.
Even Biden, who has decades of experience in foreign policy, could be the victim of an old political adage that no matter how informed he thinks he is, he could learn otherwise from the PDB.
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden wrote in his book that revelations and new insight found in the PDB are known as “aw s—” moments. As in: “Aw s—,” he wrote, “wish we hadn’t said that during that campaign stop in Buffalo.”
Pro-reform activists report to police to hear charges of royal defamation on Nov. 30, 2020.
BANGKOK — Leaders of protests calling for reform of the monarchy on Monday visited a police station to hear their charges on insulting His Majesty the King, which could land them in prison for up to 15 years.
The five activists were charged with Article 112 of the Criminal Codes, known more commonly as lese majeste, for allegedly defaming the king during their protest at Sanam Luang in September. The protest leaders denounced the return of lese majeste charges as a step backward for Thailand.
“The monarchy should be eligible for scrutiny and criticism,” activist Panupong Jadnok told reporters outside Chanasongkram Police Station. “Lord Buddha didn’t need this law, yet people still respect him to this day.”
Other protest leaders who reported themselves to the police today include Arnon Nampha, Parit Chiwarak, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, and Patiwat Saraiyaem.
Pro-reform activists report to police to hear charges of royal defamation on Nov. 30, 2020.
Parit said he believes the charges will only encourage more people to support the movement, which seeks to limit the monarchy’s influence in politics and abolish laws that censor discussions about the institution.
“People will feel there is no justice in our country,” Parit told reporters.
Panusaya also said her group only wants to reform the monarchy, and not abolish it, while Arnon said he will keep pursuing the pro-reform campaigns in spite of the serious charges.
The activists were reporting to the police as per a summons warrant, which accused them of slandering and threatening His Majesty the King throughout the protests over the weekend of Sept. 19 and 20. The rallies took place in Thammasat University and Sanam Luang, a large field close to the Grand Palace.
Police Col. Atthawit Saisueb, who observes today’s questioning, said all of the activists were set free without having to post any bail.
The move also confirmed media reports in recent weeks that police were preparing to charge leaders of the pro-reform demonstrations with lese majeste. PM Prayut Chan-o-cha said last week that the authorities would look into “every law” in the books to prosecute the protest leaders.
The Prime Minister said back in June that His Majesty the King had requested the government to refrain from charging monarchy critics with lese majeste. The law carries a penalty of three to 15 years’ imprisonment.
Arnon, Panusaya, Parit and other protest leaders believe that the monarch holds more power and influence than is appropriate under a constitutional monarchy. They have made that demand the centerpiece of their campaigning in recent weeks, along with calling for PM Prayut’s resignation and charter rewrites.
