Italy Judge Rules to Free Captain of Migrant Rescue Boat

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3 July 2019, 10:56

Sea-Watch 3 captain Carola Rackete is seen on board the vessel at sea in the Mediterranean, just off the coasts of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, Thursday, June 27, 2019. The captain of the humanitarian rescue ship says that Italian law enforcement officials have told them that a resolution is near for 42 migrants rescued at sea that Italy’s populist government has so far refused to allow to disembark. Photo: ANSA/Matteo Guidelli via AP

ROME — The sea captain who rammed a police boat while bringing 40 rescued migrants to an Italian port she’d been warned to stay out of must be freed from house arrest, a judge ruled Tuesday in a decision that angered the Italian government minister who had declared the defiant mariner an outlaw.

Carola Rackete, 31, was arrested after she docked the rescue ship of German nonprofit group Sea-Watch at Italy’s tiny Lampedusa island early Saturday, 17 days after taking the migrant passengers aboard off Libya.

Rackete was “doing her duty saving lives,” Judge Alessandra Vella concluded in denying prosecutors’ request to keep the German captain under house arrest, Italian state broadcaster RAI reported Tuesday night.

Italy’s virulently anti-migrant interior minister, Matteo Salvini, banned ships conducting humanitarian rescue missions from Italian waters and ports, contending they boats encourage human trafficking.

Italian port authorities had repeatedly denied Rackete’s request to enter the port. After deciding her passengers could remain at sea no longer, she steered into the Lampedusa port without authorization.

Salvini expressed vexation over the court’s decision on social media. Speaking on Facebook live, he said it “goes against Italy and the law” and described the Italian people as “good, yes, fools, no.”

“Ignoring the law and ramming a motorboat of border police officers aren’t enough motives to go to jail,” he tweeted with sarcasm.

While depicted by Salvini as a dangerous delinquent, Rackete quickly became the cause celebre in her homeland, Italy and elsewhere in Europe.

Supporters in Italy and Germany pledged over 1.3 million euros ($1.48 million) after a pair of German TV personalities started an online fundraiser for her and for Sea-Watch.

Earlier Tuesday, several impromptu street rallies were held in her support in Italy, including in Palermo, Sicily, and Pescara, a port town on the Adriatic Sea.

Agrigento Prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio said he argued in court that Rackete deliberately rammed Sea-Watch 3 into the much smaller border police motorboat blocking her path to the dock.

He also contended that Rackete should have waited for permission to port since it appeared to investigators the migrants on board were not in a desperate state of need, as the captain had claimed.

But the judge concluded that Italian laws targeting migrant smugglers didn’t apply to Rackete case because hers was a “rescue” action, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

“We are relieved our captain is free!” Sea-Watch tweeted Tuesday night. “There were no grounds to keep her arrested, as her only ‘wrongdoing’ was to enforce human rights on the Mediterranean and to take responsibility where none of the European governments did.”

Salvini renewed his resolve to send “the criminal captain Carola Rackete” back to Germany “because (she’s) dangerous to national security,” ANSA quoted him as saying.

But an immediate expulsion appeared unlikely. Prosecutors in Sicily want to interrogate Rackete on July 9 for a related probe of allegedly abetting illegal immigration.

Rackete’s lawyer was not immediately available to comment. The Agrigento courthouse where the judge issued the ruling was closed Tuesday night.

Prosecutor Patronaggio said the judge’s denial of his request to keep the captain under house arrest reflected “strong political tensions,” ANSA said.

Given the climate on the migration issue in Italy, “whatever decision one takes, there’s always the fear to make a mistake,” he said.

Briefing lawmakers in Rome earlier, Patronaggio said investigators found no evidence the rescue boats of nonprofit organizations were in cahoots with people smugglers.

In the days before Sea-Watch 3’s dramatic docking, Italy allowed 13 migrants to be taken off for medical reasons. On the eve of the disembarking, five European Union countries, including Germany, had agreed to take in the migrants, clearing the way for Italy to authorize its docking.

Sea-Watch said the captain acting in accordance with international law when she forced her way into port in Lampedusa with the rescued migrants on board.

In Germany, Sea-Watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer said Rackete informed Italian port authorities of her plan to dock after 60 hours after she declared an emergency. He compared the situation to a police vehicle preventing an ambulance from reaching a hospital.

Story: Frances D’Emilio. Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

Don’t Recall Apollo 11? Global Festivities Have You Covered

By

Associated Press

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3 July 2019, 10:54

In this June 4, 2019 file photo, Washington Nationals senior vice president Gregory McCarthy, from left, Ellen Stofan of the National Air and Space Museum, statue donor Allan Holt and Nationals owner Mark Lerner unveil a statue of Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 spacesuit before an interleague baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Nationals in Washington. It was unveiled as part of the "Apollo at the Park" program, which will place statues of Armstrong's spacesuit at ballparks across the country to commemorate the moon landing's 50th anniversary. Photo: Patrick Semansky / AP

You can run a race, hit a museum, shoot off a rocket or count down to the moment 50 years ago that Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon.

There’s no shortage of events and exhibits celebrating the historic moon landing. Museums, galleries, concert halls, movie theaters and towns with an Apollo 11 connection will be marking the anniversary over the next few weeks, particularly for the July 16 launch, July 20 moon landing and July 24 splashdown.

In downtown Wapakoneta, Ohio — Armstrong’s birthplace — the festivities include the Moon Festival Pageant, a Run to the Moon race and a “Wink at the Moon” concert, a nod to his family’s request after Armstrong died in 2012.

In Huntsville, Alabama, where the Saturn V rocket was developed, there’ll be dancing in the streets. Residents will moonwalk down the roads of “Rocket City,” reliving the day they danced in the streets in 1969.

The U.S. Space and Rocket Center is also going for a world record. On July 16 at 8:32 a.m. local time, exactly 50 years after Apollo 11 astronauts blasted off for the moon, the museum will attempt to set a Guinness World Record by launching 5,000 model rockets simultaneously.

“It’s going to be epic,” said Pat Ammons, spokeswoman for the museum and its popular space camp. The cardboard rockets will be set up in circles representing the five F-1 engines that propelled Saturn V into space.

The museum has also invited space fans around the world to launch their own rockets that day. So far, people from 29 countries have joined, including Argentina, Vietnam and China, Ammons said.

NASA will mark the occasion on the eve of the landing anniversary with a live, 1 ½-hour broadcast on NASA TV from several sites, including Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the launch site for Apollo 11 crew of Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation is throwing an astronaut golf tournament, astronaut parade and astronaut pub crawl in Florida. And there’s nowhere better to learn about the moon landing than the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum’s weeklong “Apollopalooza ” in Denver.

Peanuts character Snoopy will make appearances in his astronaut regalia at Comic Con in San Diego and at Space City in Toulouse, France for the countdown to man’s first steps.

Can’t join Snoopy? NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Armstrong Museum in Wapakoneta will do public countdowns as well. And as part of their weeklong celebrations on the National Mall, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum will host “The Eagle Has Landed,” a free late-night celebration with scavenger hunts, stargazing and a countdown.

Some of the world’s famous art galleries are also joining in the fun. Iconic and some rare drawings, paintings, films, astronomical instruments, photographs and even cameras that were flown in space will go on display.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will open five galleries bedecked with images of the moon dating from the dawn of photography in the 1830s. And the National Gallery of Art in Washington is putting together an exhibit celebrating a century of lunar photographs including the earliest lunar images by Warren de la Rue and Lewis M. Rutherford.

“It’s just extraordinary how magical these photographs are,” said art historian and exhibit curator Diane Waggoner.

For a history crash course, theaters and museums are bringing the Apollo 11 mission back to life.

The new IMAX film “Apollo 11: First Steps” combines never-before-seen footage and audio recordings. Starting on July 8, PBS will air its “Chasing the Moon” documentary series. And the Hollywood film “First Man” is available to stream.

The National Air and Space Museum will have Armstrong’s refurbished spacesuit out for the first time since 2003. It also put statues of his spacesuit in baseball stadiums around the country. A Smithsonian exhibit featuring the Apollo 11 command module that flew astronauts to the moon is now on display at Seattle’s Museum of Flight and travels to Cincinnati this fall.

Beginning Monday, the public can visit NASA’s Apollo-era Mission Control in Houston that was recently restored to the way it looked 50 years ago.

“I think it conveys a great history of what humans have been able to accomplish,” said Tracy Lamm of Space Center Houston.

Story: Jeremy Rehm

Scholars Save ‘Red Gate,’ the Backdrop to Oct. 1976 Massacre

By

Khaosod English

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3 July 2019, 10:51

By Pravit Rojanaphruk and Sunantha Buabmee

BANGKOK — After 42 years, an iconic symbol of the brutalities which led to the 1976 massacre is finally under preservation.

Last month, a group of academics and activists secured “the Red Gate”, a rusty metal sliding gate of a semi-rural residence in Nakhon Pathom province, where two activists were lynched in 1976 – an event that later spiralled into what many historians consider the darkest chapter of Thai political history.

“No one thought the gate was still standing,” political scientist Puangthong Pawakakapan, who coordinates an effort to preserve evidence related to the massacre, said in an interview. “Everyone thought the owner must have dismantled the gate.”

12112440 873242509456583 5322450125015749107 n — A mock hanging at Thammasat University on Oct. 4, 1976, that protests murders of Vichai Kaetsripongsa and Chumporn Thumthai

It was on this gate that two employees of the state electrical authority, Vichai Kaetsripongsa and Chumporn Thumthai, were found hanged on Sept. 24, 1976. Just before their deaths, they had put up posters denouncing a former military dictator’s return to Thailand from his overseas exile.

Two weeks later, student activists at Thammasat University staged a mock hanging to condemn the murders. But the play ended up enraging rightwing militias after one of the students seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to then-Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn.

More murders and more lynchings broke out on Oct. 6, when police commandos and paramilitaries stormed the university, partly to avenge the perceived royal insult in the mock hanging. Official records say 46 people died, though some experts believe the actual toll was much higher.

The backdrop to that bloody chains of events then slipped away from history, until Puangthong and her team managed to track it down earlier this year. In June, researchers finally removed the gate for future museum display. The owner, Nitinai Kanuenghet, 67, agreed to swap the gate in exchange for a new one.

Thailand Massacre Ann Cham 1 — A member of a Thai political faction strikes at the lifeless body of a hanged student outside Thammasat University in Bangkok on Oct. 6, 1976. Photo: Neal Ulevich / Associated Press

“It’s a historical relic … Thai society often does not preserve such objects, however. It tells a story of violence,” Puangthong said. “Seeing the gate elicits more of a reaction than merely reading a document. It can be installed to display and retell the story of Oct. 6.”

Puangthong, who teaches at Chulalongkorn University and helps run an online archive about the massacre, added that her organization still lacks the funds to establish a museum of human rights to put the gate on permanent display.

Nevertheless, they are looking to hold an exhibition with the Red Gate as a headline item this October to mark the massacre’s 43rd anniversary.

‘I Don’t Want to See It’

Nitinai, the owner of the gate and the three-rai compound it stood on, is not so sentimental about the red gate.

The property belonged to his late father and Nitinai wasn’t around when the bodies were discovered hung from the gate in 1976. Nitinai said he had no problem “befriending the spirits” of the two and never saw a need to replace the originally greyish-blue gate, which turned reddish from rust over the years.

Nitinai is satisfied that the red gate has found a new home where it can serve as a reminder of what occurred four decades ago.

Nitinai Kanuenghet poses with a new metal gate that replaces the now-iconic Red Gate

“Thais are forgetful. Even my forty-year-old gate was forgotten,” he said.

Most of his neighbors have no clue about the gate’s importance.

“Once an era is over, people forget … Then it’s over,” Nitinai said. “It’s like a cycle, like being in a loop.”

But a relative of one of the two lynched activists said he has never forgotten the memories.

31298102718 4efa6095b2 o — Bodies of Vichai Kaetsripongsa and Chumporn Thumthai found hanged on the gate

“It’s good that they took it. But I don’t really want to see it because it reminds me of the [newspaper] photos,” said Prayoon Kaetsripongsa, a 77-year-old retired school teacher from Buriram province, referring to postmortem photos of his late younger brother, Vichai.

“The pictures showed protruding tongues … It must have been really excruciating,” he recalled in a recent interview.

The brother of the other murdered campaigner, Chomporn, said he is delighted that a piece of that painful history has been saved as a reminder of state atrocities. Five policemen were arrested in the aftermath of the hangings but none were sentenced to prison. Today, archivists have failed to locate any of them.

“Privately, I feel sadness and sorrow, but let it be put on display,” Chumpol Thumthai said by phone. Chumpol himself is a retired police officer now living in his home province of Ubon Ratchathani.

Although it’s been over forty years since the massacre, Chumpol said he can’t help noting that a similar cycle of political violence is making a return to Thailand today, citing last week’s brutal assault on pro-democracy activist Sirawith “Ja New” Seritiwat.

Critics of the junta believe the attack was part of a campaign by the regime to terrorize its enemies – some compared it to the street thuggery that targeted activists in 1976 – but the military government vehemently denies any involvement.

“They tried to kill him. I am worried about the military,” Chumpol said.

S011 81 — Anti-Communist paramilitary members lynched a student activist in front of his friends inside Thammasat University, Oct. 6, 1976.

Survivors Recount 1976 Thammasat Massacre 40 Years Later

Soldiers to Monitor Abstract Play Recognizing 1976 Massacre

Airstrike Hits Migrant Detention Center in Libya, 40 Killed

By

Associated Press

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3 July 2019, 10:49

Libyan Red Crescent workers recover migrants bodies after an airstrike at a detention center in Tajoura, east of Tripoli Wednesday, July 3, 2019. An airstrike hit the detention center for migrants early Wednesday in the Libyan capital. Photo: Hazem Ahmed / AP

BENGHAZI — An airstrike hit a detention center for migrants early Wednesday in the Libyan capital, killing at least 40 people, a health official in the country’s U.N.-supported government said.

The airstrike targeting the detention center in Tripoli’s Tajoura neighborhood also wounded 80 migrants, said Malek Merset, a spokesman for the health ministry. Merset posted photos of migrants who were being taken in ambulances to hospitals.

Footage circulating online and said to be from inside the migrant detention center showed blood and body parts mixed with rubble and migrants’ belongings.

The U.N. refugee agency in Libya condemned the airstrike on the detention center, which houses 616 migrants and refugees.

The Tripoli-based government blamed the self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Khalifa Hifter, for the airstrike and called for the U.N. support mission in Libya to establish a fact-finding committee to investigate.

A spokesman for Hifter’s forces did not immediately answer phone calls and messages seeking comment. Local media reported LNA had launched airstrikes against a militia camp near the detention center.

The LNA launched an offensive against the weak Tripoli-based government in April. Hifter’s forces control much of the country’s east and south but were dealt a significant blow last week when militias allied with the Tripoli government reclaimed the strategic town of Gharyan, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the capital. Gharyan had been a key supply route for the LNA forces.

Many camps for militias loosely allied with the U.N.-supported government are in Tajoura, east of the city center, and Hifter forces have targeted such camps with airstrikes in the past weeks. The LNA said on Monday it had begun an air campaign on rival forces in Tripoli after it lost control of Gharyan.

The fighting for Tripoli has threatened to plunge Libya into another bout of violence on the scale of the 2011 conflict that ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and led to his death.

Hifter says he is determined to restore stability to the North African country. He is backed by Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia while his rivals, mainly Islamists, in Tripoli are supported by Turkey and Qatar.

His campaign against Islamic militants across Libya since 2014 won him growing international support from world leaders who say they are concerned that Libya has turned into a haven for armed groups, and a major conduit for migrants bound for Europe.

His opponents however view him as an aspiring autocrat and fear a return to one-man rule.

At least 6,000 migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and other nations are locked in dozens of detention facilities in Libya that are run by militias accused of torture and other human rights abuses. Most of the migrants were apprehended by European Union-funded and -trained Libyan coast guards while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe.

The detention centers have limited food and other supplies for the migrants, who made often-arduous journeys at the mercy of abusive traffickers who hold them for ransom money from families back home.

The U.N. refugee agency has said that more than 3,000 migrants are in danger because they are held in detention centers close to the front lines between Hifter’s forces and the militias allied with the Tripoli government.

Libya became a major crossing point for migrants to Europe after the 2011 ouster and killing of Gadhafi, when the North African nation was thrown into chaos, armed militias proliferated and central authority fell apart.

Story: Rami Musa and Samy Magdy.

Nessun Dorma! Operas, Ballets, and More Coming to Bangkok This September

By

Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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2 July 2019, 17:09

Zoya Tsererina of the Ekaterinburg Opera troupe in “Turandot.” Photo: Olga Kerelyuk / Courtesy

BANGKOK — None shall sleep this September, when foreign opera, ballet, and orchestral troupes march into the kingdom for Bangkok’s 21st International Festival of Dance and Music.

Set to run from Sept. 11 to Oct. 23, the festival’s 13 performances feature acts from Russia, China, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, and even legendary Spanish tenor Jose Carreras.

Headlining the festival is “Turandot,” a Puccini opera about a coldhearted (read: tsundere) Chinese princess and a suitor who needs to solve riddles to win her hand. If she guesses his name before he succeeds, he will be executed. The Ekaterinburg Opera Theater will perform this rendition on Wednesday Sept. 11 at 7:30. When else are you going to see an Italian opera set in ancient China, played by Russians, staged in Thailand?

"Rusalka." Photo: Elena Lekhova Photography/ Courtesy — “Rusalka.” Photo: Elena Lekhova Photography / Courtesy

The same troupe is performing the three act “Rusalka” – a Slavic twist on “The Little Mermaid” – on Friday Sept. 13 at the same time.

Li Yugang, one of China’s biggest names in Beijing opera – known as ngiew in Thailand – will take to the stage as “Lady Zhaojun” on Oct. 5 and 6.

The Kremlin Ballet will perform a whopping three ballets: “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (Oct. 15), “A Thousand and One Nights” (Oct. 17), and of course, “Swan Lake” (Oct 19).

See all-male New York drag ballet troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo on Sept. 16 and 17, or surrealism acrobatics by Switzerland’s Compagnia Finzi Pasca in “La Verita” on Sept. 21 and 22. The Netherlands’ Introdans will perform contemporary ballet on Oct. 11 as well.

The UK’s Imperial Ice Stars will skate “Swan Lake” on Sept. 26 and 27, and “Cinderella” on Sept. 28 and 29. The Budapest Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andras Keller, will play Liszt and Tchaikovsky for classical music enthusiasts on Oct. 13.

Jose Carreras will close out the festival with a performance, part of his Farewell tour, on Oct. 23.

Book tickets, which can cost anywhere from 1,200 to 12,000 baht depending on seating and the performance, at Thai Ticket Major. Performances will take place at the Thailand Cultural Centre, reachable from exit No. 1 of the MRT station of the same name. There is a shuttle bus from the station to the venue on performance nights.

World of Dance, Music And Magic Returns to Bangkok

‘Fast and Furious 9’ Filming Begins in Krabi

By

Tappanai Boonbandit, Staff Reporter

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2 July 2019, 13:52

Site of filming on June 27. Insert: Vin Diesel in “Fast Five” / Universal Pictures

KRABI — Can you hear the engines roaring? Filming for the next “Fast and Furious” movie began in Thailand’s South on Monday.

The first day of filming in the 340-million baht production for the Hollywood action flick “Fast and Furious 9” began at a palm plantation in Khao Thong, Krabi.

The site was cordoned off from the public, with security guards patrolling to catch anyone looking to have a sneak peak of what Dom and his friends are up to after they prevented nuclear war in the last instalment.

Locals reportedly went about life as usual as they had been notified of the filming.

“Although I wanted to see what was going on, the crew asked us not to enter the filming site,” local Winai Kan-ngen told a Khaosod reporter. “I complied as the filming has brought income to our village. Locals were hired to remove grass and flatten the land.”

The production is set to span across the Southern provinces of Krabi, Phang Nga, Phuket, and Surat Thani until July 27, according to local production manager Peston Films.

However, the head of the filming permit commission Narisroj Fuangrabil took to Facebook on Wednesday to confirm that lead actors including Vin Diesel and Jason Statham were not in Thailand but shooting in the UK and US. A stuntman will perform their chase scenes instead.

Earlier in June, photos of cars on Thai streets reportedly to be used in “Fast and Furious” went viral on social media, prompting speculation that the next instalment in the series would be filmed in Thailand.

The release date is expected to be on May 22, 2020.

Correction: An earlier version of this article contained errors regarding the presence of lead actors in Thailand. The error has been corrected.

Opposition Alarmed by Prayuth’s ‘Coup Threat’

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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2 July 2019, 13:37

Junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha on July 2, 2019.

BANGKOK — Junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha’s hint at staging another coup prompted outcries from opposition politicos on Tuesday.

After Prayuth warned politicians not to force him to resort to “the old method that no one wants to see happen” in a statement yesterday, the anti-junta faction condemned the remark as a thinly-veiled threat to revisit the option of a putsch – as the general did in May 2014.

“This is no longer an apology, but a threat,” Chaturon Chaisang, a leader of the now-defunct Thai Raksa Chart Party, wrote online. “This threat cannot be interpreted as anything other than a reference to the military coup that he performed five years ago.”

“Did he mean what he said?” Pheu Thai spokeswoman Sunisa Lertpakawat asked. “Is he threatening the people that he will order the armed forces to seize power if he cannot endure the political unrest?”

She added that Prayuth should be held responsible for the remark.

“His words are unconstructive and illegal, because they can be seen as preparation for an insurrection,” Sunisa said.

The warning from the junta leader came in a letter released to the media on Monday, in which Prayuth apologised for an ongoing fight among coalition parties to secure key cabinet posts.

When asked to explain his message at Government House today, Gen. Prayuth replied, “There’s nothing,” before walking past the crowd of reporters.

Transparency activist Srisuwan Janya joined the chorus of condemnation against the alleged reference to a coup. In a statement, Srisuwan faulted Prayuth for failing to unite his own coalition and form a stable government despite three months passing since the election.

“This is an expression of power to threaten politicians, which in turn threatens the people of the whole country,” said the activist, who recently filed legal challenges against both pro- and anti-junta politicians. “Does he expect us to only behave meekly?”

It was not the first time that members of the regime implied a future coup might be possible. In October 2018, a newly appointed army chief said a putsch will not happen as long as there is peace in the country.

High Court Dismisses Insurrection Case Against Prayuth

Chip ‘N’ Dale’s Thai Song Paddles Into Nation’s Ears

By

Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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2 July 2019, 13:08

Chip ‘n’ Dale are two brothers, selling stuff in the khlong. Image: Mickey Mouse / YouTube

BANGKOK — A song about selling nuts sung in Thai by Chip ‘n’ Dale in a Mickey Mouse cartoon has become the nation’s latest earworm.

In the Disney short “Our Floating Dreams” released on June 22, Mickey and Minnie Mouse fight in Thai for a spot to hawk their wares at a floating market. Mickey sells pineapples and Minnie fried rice until (SPOILER ALERT!) they decide to sell pineapple fried together. Enter chipmunk brothers Chip ‘n’ Dale, who paddle into the floating market with a stock of nuts. The short has already clocked more than 4.5 million views.

“Chip and Dale are brothers, selling stuff in the khlong. There’s only good nuts in the pile, freshly picked. Come eat them all!” (ชิพกะเดล นี่สองพี่น้อง ขายของในคลอง ในกองเรามีแต่ถั่วดีๆ เพิ่งเด็ดสดๆ มากินให้หมด) the pair sing in Thai at the 1:46 mark.

The simple lyrics have turned into an unshakeable earworm for Thais, spawning remakes, memes, hour-long loops, and shitposts.

Political cartoon page Kai Maew drew a satirical cartoon modeling Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha and his brother Gen. Preecha Chan-ocha on the chipmunk brothers. But Preecha is depicted as a photo, rather than physically present – a jab at his reputation for collecting government salaries despite not showing up to meetings.

Followers responded by penning new lyrics for the song with a political twist: “Tuu [Prayuth] and Pom [Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan] are brothers, backing down into a khlong. In the pile they’ve got all these taxes, freshly picked. How depressing!” wrote user Kherkpon Phayakka.

Meanwhile the song spawned a live-action remake posted Tuesday noon on the Plangsia Facebook page. The admin sings the song while riding in a boat on a floating market.

Satire page Aunnism even wrote an entire mock essay suggesting that the pineapple vs. fried rice fight represents tension between Western and Eastern values, while Chip ‘n’ Dale’s cooperation signifies Thai culture and cooperation to create a “floating dream” for the nation…and so on and so forth cultural studies mumbo-jumbo.

“Everywhere I go, I see his face,” says Spiderman in the meme of the same name. But instead of looking at the deceased Iron Man, he’s singing Chip ‘n’ Dale’s song.

In another shitpost, the Quality Posting page replaced the song’s audio with “Long Rua Dood Maa,” a song about taking drugs on a boat.

“Teacher: The five senses are sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch.
Me: I can hear this picture.
Teacher: No one can do that.
Me: I can hear the entire song.”

A one-hour loop of Chip ‘n’ Dale’s short song made by YouTube user BNK48Lyrics has been viewed more than 740,000 times since Friday.

Disney seems to be making an effort to incorporate Thai culture into its cartoons. “Our Floating Heels” comes hot on the heels of its release of “Amphibia” in early June, a series which stars a Thai-American girl as its lead.

Celebrate Tanabata in Ayutthaya’s Historic Japanese Village

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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2 July 2019, 12:25

20180711_180712_0001-e1531381292652 — Image: Tourism Authority of Thailand

BANGKOK — Dress in yukata and celebrate Japan’s Star Festival without even leaving Thailand by heading to a centuries-old Japanese settlement in the old capital this weekend.

The Japanese Village in Ayutthaya province will be transformed into a traditional Japanese fair this Saturday and Sunday to observe Tanabata, which marks the reunion between a mythical cowherd boy and weaver girl in the sky according to Japanese folklore.

Activities will include an origami workshop, yukata rentals, a food market, and a chance to write wishes on prayer papers before hanging them on bamboo trees – just as the Japanese do for Tanabata.

Organizers say there will also be Japanese cultural shows featuring kendo swordplay, koto harp performances, yasakoi dances, and taiko drum music.

The Japanese Village, where the fair will be held, is a historical site where Japanese settlers lived during the 16th century, when Ayutthaya was still the capital city of the Thai kingdom.

“Tanabata Star Festival 2019” runs from 10am to 6pm on July 6-7 at the Japanese Village in Ayutthaya, which is about an hour and a half drive from Bangkok. The entry fee is 50 baht.

Trump Pushing for July Fourth Tank Parade

By

Associated Press

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2 July 2019, 10:41

800 — Military police walk near Abrams tanks on a flat car in a rail yard, Monday, July 1, 2019, in Washington, ahead of a Fourth of July celebration that President Donald Trump says will include military hardware. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump isn’t taking “no tanks” for an answer on the Fourth of July.

He said Monday that a display of U.S. military tanks will be part of a special event he’s headlining July 4 in Washington — and an Associated Press photographer saw at least two M1A1 Abrams tanks and two Bradley Fighting Vehicles on flatcars in a railyard at the southeastern edge of Washington.

Military police were guarding the vehicles, which were visible to passersby on nearby paths.

A U.S. official told the AP that the military vehicles to be used in the July 4 event were being stored at the railyard.

Trump had wanted a military parade of tanks and other equipment in the District of Columbia after he witnessed a similar parade on Bastille Day in Paris in 2017. That plan eventually was scuttled, partly because of cost, though Trump apparently held on to the idea.

Local officials had also objected because of the damage the heavy armored tanks could do to city streets.

“We’re going to have some tanks stationed outside,” Trump said Monday from the Oval Office, appearing to acknowledge local officials’ earlier concerns. He offered no specifics on where the vehicles would be located.

800 2 — Military police walk near Abrams tanks on a flat car in a rail yard, Monday, July 1, 2019, in Washington, ahead of a Fourth of July celebration that President Donald Trump says will include military hardware. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

“You’ve got to be pretty careful with the tanks because the roads have a tendency not to like to carry heavy tanks,” he said. “So we have to put them in certain areas, but we have the brand new Sherman tanks and we have the brand new Abrams tanks.”

Sherman tanks were the tank most widely used by the U.S. during World War II, but they have been out of service for decades. The M1A1 Abrams tank is currently the main U.S. battle tank.

Two M1A1 Abrams tanks and two Bradley Fighting Vehicles will be on display as part of Trump’s “Salute to America” event, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the exhibits have not been made public.

The Abrams tanks weigh more than 60 tons apiece and were been shipped on railroad freight cars, from Fort Stewart, Georgia, the nearest Army base that has them. The White House declined to release more specific information.

Trump recalled his visit earlier this year to a plant in Lima, Ohio, where M1A1 Abrams tanks are refurbished. The plant had been at risk for closure but remained online due to Trump’s investments in defense spending.

“We have some incredible equipment, military equipment on display — brand new,” Trump said. “And we’re very proud of it. You know we’re making a lot of new tanks right now. We’re building a lot of new tanks in Lima, Ohio — our great tank factory that people wanted to close down until I got elected and I stopped it from being closed down, and now it’s a very productive facility.”

Thursday’s events are also expected to include a military demonstration by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and other aircraft.

“We’re going to have a great Fourth of July in Washington, D.C. It’ll be like no other,” Trump said. “It’ll be special and I hope a lot of people come. And it’s going to be about this country and it’s a salute to America.”

“I’m going to say a few words and we’re going to have planes going overhead, the best fighter jets in the world and other planes, too,” he said.

Trump plans to deliver a speech at the Lincoln Memorial during his “Salute to America,” which has been added to the regular schedule of Independence Day events in the nation’s capital. The annual fireworks display will go off closer to the Lincoln Memorial instead of the Washington Monument, as has been the long-standing tradition.

The event is open to the public and free of charge, but a ticket-only area in front of the memorial is being set aside for VIPs, including members of Trump’s family, friends and members of the military, the White House said.

Last year, Trump and his wife, first lady Melania Trump, hosted service members and their families at a picnic on the White House lawn and the president addressed guests from the balcony. No similar event is being planned this year.

Federal lawmakers, local officials and others have voiced concerns that Trump could alter the tone of what traditionally is a nonpartisan celebration of America’s independence from the British by delivering a political speech. Trump formally announced his bid for re-election in June.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who oversees the National Mall and has helped orchestrate the president’s vision, and other officials have said Trump’s remarks will be patriotic.

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Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor and Associated Press photographer Patrick Semansky in Washington contributed to this report.

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