Traffic police man a checkpoint on Dec. 19, 2016, in Sakon Nakhon province.
BANGKOK — If you’re stopped by traffic police, don’t whip out your phone and show them a digital driver’s license touted by transport officials just yet.
Police said Tuesday they would not recognize digital driver’s licenses until a legal amendment is in place. Failing to show physical licenses will result in a fine as per current laws, Maj. Gen. Ekkalak Limsankart told reporters.
“The Royal Thai Police has already notified the Department of Land Transport and asked them to delay the use of digital driver’s licenses until legal amendments are completed,” Ekkalak said.
Ekkalak said legal backing for the digital ID is included in drafts of a pending amendment to current traffic laws to be deliberated Thursday by the interim parliament.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May delivers a speech Monday during a visit to the Portmeirion pottery factory in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Photo: Ben Birchall / Associated Press
LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May made a frantic last push Monday to swing lawmakers’ support behind her seemingly doomed Brexit deal, warning that its defeat risked scuttling the U.K.’s departure from the European Union and “betraying the vote of the British people.”
May claimed to have gotten reassurances with “legal force” on key issues from the EU, and said history books would judge Parliament harshly if lawmakers did not back Britain’s orderly exit from the EU when they vote on the agreement Tuesday.
“Over these next 24 hours, give this deal a second look,” May implored skeptical lawmakers in the House of Commons.
“With just 74 days to go until (Brexit day) the 29th of March, the consequences of voting against this deal tomorrow are becoming ever clearer,” she said.
May said rejecting her deal would lead either to a reversal of Brexit – overturning voters’ decision in a 2016 referendum – or to Britain leaving the bloc without a deal, a course that would damage the country’s economy, security and unity.
But the British leader had few concrete measures up her sleeve, and opposition to her deal remains dauntingly strong. A defeat on Tuesday would throw Brexit plans into disarray just weeks before the U.K. is due to withdraw from the bloc.
Britain and the EU reached a hard-won divorce deal in November, a milestone that should have set the U.K. on the road to an orderly exit.
But the compromise deal has been rejected by both sides of Britain’s EU divide. Many Brexit-backing lawmakers say it will leave the U.K. tethered to the bloc’s rules and unable to forge an independent trade policy. Pro-Europeans argue it is inferior to the frictionless economic relationship Britain currently enjoys as an EU member.
May postponed a vote on the deal in December to avoid a resounding defeat, and there are few signs sentiment has changed significantly since then. A handful of previously opposed legislators have swung behind May’s agreement in the last few days, but they remain outnumbered by those determined to vote against it.
In a bid to win support, May sought reassurances from EU leaders about the deal’s most contentious measure – an insurance policy known as the “backstop” that would keep Britain in an EU customs union to maintain an open border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland after Brexit.
Pro-Brexit lawmakers worry that Britain could be trapped indefinitely in the arrangement, bound to EU trade rules and unable to strike new deals around the world.
In a letter to May published Monday, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker offered an assurance that the backstop “would only be in place for as long as strictly necessary.”
They promised that the EU would work quickly to strike a permanent new trade deal with Britain that would render the backstop unnecessary.
But the letter also reiterated the bloc’s refusal to renegotiate the divorce deal. The two men said “we are not in a position to agree to anything that changes or is inconsistent with the Withdrawal Agreement.”
Lawmaker Nigel Dodds of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which fiercely opposes the Irish backstop, said “nothing has fundamentally changed.”
Facing opposition from pro-Brexit members of her Conservative Party and its DUP allies, May sought to win opposition Labour Party lawmakers’ support by promising that the government won’t try to water down environmental standards and workers’ rights after Brexit.
Some opposition lawmakers’ suspect that the government plans to reduce the protections in a bid to boost the economy after Britain leaves the EU.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was unmoved, condemning May’s deal as a “damaging shambles” and calling for a general election if the agreement is rejected on Tuesday.
If Parliament votes down the deal, May has until the following Monday to come up with a new proposal. So far, May has refused publicly to speculate on a possible “Plan B.”
Some members of Parliament from both government and opposition parties are exploring ways to use parliamentary procedures to wrest control of the Brexit process away from the government, so that lawmakers by majority vote could specify a new plan for Britain’s EU exit.
But with no clear majority in Parliament for any single alternate course, there is a growing chance that Britain may seek to postpone its departure date while politicians work on a new plan.
Without a Brexit deal, Britain faces an abrupt break from the EU, a scenario that economists warn could batter the British economy and bring chaotic scenes at borders, ports and airports.
Conservative lawmaker Dominic Grieve, who is spearheading efforts to unite Parliament to prevent a no-deal Brexit, said a cliff-edge exit from the EU would be “national suicide.”
“The economic damage which it will do to us will be immense, so that the most vulnerable in our society will be those who suffer most as a consequence,” Grieve said.
“I’m not prepared to see that happening,” he added.
Britain's Andy Murray reacts Monday during his first round match against Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press
MELBOURNE, Australia — If this was it for Andy Murray, if this truly was it, he gave himself – and an appreciative, raucous crowd that included his mother and brother – quite a gutsy goodbye, the type of never-give-in performance he’s famous for.
What Murray could not quite do Monday at the Australian Open was finish off a stirring comeback and prolong what might just be the final tournament of his career.
Playing on a surgically repaired right hip so painful that pulling on socks is a chore, he summoned the strength and strokes to erase a big deficit and force a fifth set before eventually succumbing to 22nd-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-2, Murray’s first opening-round loss at a Grand Slam tournament in 11 years.
“If today was my last match, look, it was a brilliant way to finish,” Murray said. “I literally gave everything that I had on the court, fought as best as I could, and performed a lot better than what I should have done with the amount I’ve been able to practice and train.”
Murray, just 31, is a year removed from his operation, and he said that he will decide in the next week or so whether to have a second one. If he opts to avoid another procedure, he might be able to play in July at Wimbledon, where he won two of his three major titles, including the first for a British man in 77 years. If he decides for further surgery, then Monday’s match might have been his last.
Even with a hitch in his gait, even as he leaned forward to rest his hands on his knees between points, Murray summoned the strength and the strokes to push the match beyond the 4-hour mark.
And the fans tried to will him past Bautista Agut, who had lost in straight sets all three previous matches the two men had played.
They roared when Murray managed to break back to 2-all on the way to taking the third set, with his mom, Judy, smiling widely as she stood alongside other spectators.
They chanted his name when he grabbed the fourth set.
They rose when the compelling contest ended.
“Andy deserves this atmosphere. Andy deserves (that) all the people came to watch him,” Bautista Agut said. “He’s a tough, tough fighter. A tough opponent. He gives everything until the last point. I want to congratulate him for all he did for tennis.”
Afterward, a video was shown in the stadium with tributes to Murray from various players, including rivals Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, along with Nick Kyrgios, Caroline Wozniacki, Karolina Pliskova and Sloane Stephens.
“Amazing career. Congratulations, buddy,” Federer said. “I’m your biggest fan.”
Federer opened his bid for a third consecutive Australian Open championship, and record seventh overall, with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Denis Istomin at Rod Laver Arena. Nadal, whose 17 career majors are second among men only to Federer’s 20, overpowered Australian wild-card entry James Duckworth 6-4, 6-3, 7-5earlier.
Nadal, who had surgery on his right ankle in November, hadn’t competed since stopping during his U.S. Open semifinal in September because of a bad knee.
“It’s very difficult to start (again) after an injury,” Nadal said. “I know it very well.”
Other major title winners who advanced on Day 1, when the temperature approached 90 degrees (33 Celsius), included defending champion Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova – who beat Harriet Dart 6-0, 6-0 – Angelique Kerber, Sloane Stephens and Petra Kvitova.
The most attention, though, was drawn by Murray, who is as popular for his success on the court as his attitude away from it.
The stands were dotted with British and Scottish flags and with signs of support. When Bautista Agut entered, he was greeted by a smattering of polite applause. When Murray was introduced, there were full-throated screams, followed by chants of his first name.
As play began, Murray delighted his well-wishers every so often with terrific shots on a full sprint and his trademark, quick-reflex returns. When he flubbed a shot or otherwise let a point slide by, Murray displayed the muttering and leg-slapping self-contempt the world has come to know and expect – and, let’s face it, love – from the guy.
For all that Murray accomplished over the years, including reaching No. 1 in the rankings and a pair of Olympic singles gold medals, he never was able to leave Melbourne with the trophy, finishing as the runner-up five times.
When Murray eventually succumbed to his weariness – not to mention Bautista Agut – the arena speakers blared Queen’s “We are the Champions,” with its fitting line: “And we’ll keep on fighting ’til the end.”
If this was, indeed, the end, Murray did just that.
“I’d be OK,” he said, “with that being my last match.”
An undated photo of Thai Teachers for the People Party members.
BANGKOK — Mocking the military regime, which issues welfare cards for poor people, a new little-known party said Monday it would issue “good person” cards if elected.
Krue Thai Phue Prachachon Party, or Thai Teachers for the People Party, held a meeting Monday in Loei province and vowed to issue such cards to good doers if it wins elections slated for Feb. 24.
Without detailing how to measure good deeds, party leader Prida Boonpleung said points would be collected in the cards and used to reduce card holders’ debt.
Prida, a school teacher in Khon Kaen province, said the party’s proposal was better than the current welfare card issued to poor people by the military regime, adding that a number of recipients had used the 300 baht to 500 baht funds to buy cigarettes or alcohol instead.
The party said that if elected, it would also launch a four-year debt moratorium for school teachers, with the state shouldering the interest rates for the duration.
An Iranian rescue works Monday at the site of a Boeing 707 cargo plane crash, at Fath Airport about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Tehran, Iran. Photo: Hasan Shirvani / Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran — A decades-old Iranian Boeing 707 military cargo plane reportedly carrying meat from Kyrgyzstan crashed on Monday while trying to land west of Iran’s capital, killing 15 people on board and leaving a sole survivor, authorities said.
The crash of the jetliner marked just the latest aviation disaster for Iran, which hoped to replace its aging fleet under terms of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
But instead, President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the accord in May scuttled billions of dollars in planned sales by Airbus and Boeing Co. to the Islamic Republic, only increasing the danger for passengers in Iran planes.
The aircraft, which bore the paint scheme of the Iranian air force’s Saha civilian airline, was making emergency landing around 8:30 a.m. Monday at Fath Airport, an airfield controlled by Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The plane skidded off the runway, crashed through a perimeter fence and into a residential neighborhood.
Iranian state television aired images of smoke-charred homes and the fuselage of the aircraft lying on the ground in the neighborhood. Nearby was one of its land gear, torn away. Small fires burned around it.
The plane was meant to land at the nearby Payam International Airport, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Tehran, the Iranian capital.
Authorities did not immediately offer a reason for the crew’s decision to land there. Fath is some 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) southwest of Payam. Its runway is some 1,100-meters (3,600-feet) long, compared to Payam’s 3,600 meters (11,800 feet). In November, a commercial airline reportedly mistook Fath for Payam, but was able to abort its landing.
Pirhossein Koulivand, the head of the country’s emergency medical services, said that of the 16 people on board the plane, only the flight engineer was known to have survived. Iranian media reported nine bodies from the crash had already been recovered.
Iran’s air force said in a statement that the fate of the crew, including their possible “martyrdom,” is under investigation. It wasn’t immediately clear who owns the plane, though Gen. Shahin Taghikhani, an army spokesman, told state TV that the plane and its crew were Iranian.
Iranians often use the word “martyrdom” for those who die in war or national service.
The plane reportedly was carrying a cargo of meat from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital, to Iran. Since 2016, Iran has been importing meat from Kyrgyzstan, usually via Saha. It imported 150 tons in 2016 and 350 tons in 2017.
Saha Airlines operated one of the world’s last commercial flights of the Boeing 707, which was first manufactured in 1958 and helped usher in the jet age. The four-engine, narrow-body aircraft were built until 1979.
Maintenance information regarding the Boeing 707 that crashed Monday was not immediately available. However, Iran has struggled obtaining parts for its aging fleet of airlines, nearly all purchased during the time of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Saha Airlines’ Boeing 707s suffered a previous fatal crash in April 2005, when a flight coming from the Kish island crash-landed at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, killing three passengers.
A screencap of Thaksin Shinawatra taken from his Facebook video in July 2016.
BANGKOK — Ousted and fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra plays the role of a business, life and development coach in a new podcast that debuted today.
Thaksin, mostly based in Dubai since he was ousted in the 2007 coup, said the program called “Good Monday” will seek to be a weekly or bimonthly chat.
Thaksin mostly avoided politics but weighed in on the world economy, the future of the job market and human longevity.
Aired before noon Monday, his first 12-minute episode had been retweeted more than 2,300 times by 2pm and met a warm response from his followers.
In the tweet, Thaksin made a swipe at what he perceived to be lost opportunities for Thailand, however.
“I feel sorry for the 12 years that I spent abroad and saw much progress, as well as the backsliding of many countries so I would like to talk to Thai brothers and sisters every Monday,” Thaksin tweeted from his account @ThaksinLive which has 619,000 followers.
Thaksin predicted a possible global economic slowdown in 2019 and 2020 that may start in Europe’s former Eastern Bloc countries, calling on Thais to improve their labor skills to cope with new robot automation. He predicted that new medical technology – particularly the abilities to produce and transplant organs other than the brain – will see humans living until they’re 120.
The podcast comes as various parties are busy campaigning amid a likely fifth election delay.
The post attracted more than 110 comments on Thaksin’s Twitter, some mocking junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha in comparison.
“What Thaksin said in 12 minutes makes what Prayuth has said over the past four or five years look stupid…,” wrote Twitter user @Nookiiiya on Monday.
Most of the comments were from fans.
“Much better than listening to the dumb uncle speaking every Friday,” Twitter user @knoate wrote in a reference to Prayuth’s weekly Friday monologue broadcasted on all free TV since 2014.
Not all were impressed, such as Twitter user @Akchaturon:
“You may be good at thinking, but for everything you think there must be money going into your pocket…. How many people who think like you, Thaksin, are in prison now?”
Correction: The earlier version of this article misspelled Thaksin’s podcast name.
A woman on Monday wears a protective mask while waiting for a bus during smoggy conditions in Bangkok. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / Associated Press
BANGKOK — Unusually high levels of smog worsened by weather patterns are raising alarm across Asia, with authorities in Thailand’s hazy capital Bangkok opting to hand out face masks and step up enforcement of pollution controls.
A combination of construction dust, auto exhaust and other pollutants, lingering over Bangkok due to prevailing weather patterns, has taken air quality to unhealthy levels in recent days.
“I admit these are temporary solutions but we have to do it. Other long term measures will also be implemented, Pol Gen Aswin Kwanmuang told a meeting of army, police, pollution control and other officials on Monday.
The city was handing out some 10,000 face masks, spraying water to help settle dust and tightening controls on when big trucks can use city streets — the Thai Pollution Control Department said that about half of the high levels of PM 2.5, tiny particulate matter that can dangerously clog lungs, was due to diesel engine emissions.
In South Korea, unusually high PM 2.5 levels prompted emergency measures to reduce the health hazard. The country’s National Institute of Environmental Research said the daily average of 120 micrograms per cubic meter as of late Monday afternoon was the worst since it began monitoring for PM 2.5 in 2015.
Over the years, South Korea has suffered repeated spells when silt and pollution-laden winds have swept over from northern China. But vehicle emissions are also a problem.
A visitor on Monday wearing a mask rides a bicycle along the Han river at a park in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Lee Jin-man / Associated Press
South Korea has been fighting an acute rise in air pollution that experts link to emission from the country’s increasing number of cars and also to China’s massive industrial activity.
Thailand’s air pollution problem tends to wax and wane partly depending on the season. As in much of the rest of Asia, burning of fields after harvests can cause severe smog at certain times of the year.
The spring smog has come early to this tropical city.
“There are a lot of factories and now that the pollution score is higher we have to be more careful,” said Oranart Phongpreecha, 55, a housewife who lives just outside of Bangkok.
“It’s not that I get sick more often. But when I go outside, I have a sore throat and I can’t see clearly. … I’m afraid that polluted air is going into my lungs so I have to protect myself.”
Bangkok road crews on Monday spray water in hopes to control heavy smog in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / Associated Press
Pralong Dumrongthai, head of the Thai Pollution Control Department, said long term solutions would include switching to use of electric vehicles and better quality gasoline.
He said the weather patterns suggest Bangkok might be stuck with bad air for up to three months.
“I ask for public understanding when your vehicles are being checked, especially those that emit black smoke or big trucks,” he said. “We need your cooperation.”
Pollution generally is out of control by the time countries take action. India’s cities are among the world’s smoggiest and it is just starting to tackle the problem.
The Indian government on Sunday announced a five-year program to cut air pollution by up to 30 percent from 2017 levels in the country’s 102 worst-affected cities.
Key targets include reducing burning of field waste, firewood and charcoal, cleaning up thermal power and auto emissions and heavily polluting brick production and controlling dust from construction.
Critics said the plan lacked details on enforcement and funding.
A boat on Monday crosses the Chao Phraya river with the cityscape covered smog in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / Associated PressOn Monday, police officers wearing a mask stand guard in heavy smog in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Lee Jin-man / Associated Press
This Sunday photo shows swallows perched atop electric cables in Krabi.
KRABI — Residents were lighting firecrackers Sunday in their latest attempt to disperse thousands of swallows that swarmed into a southern town, hanging on electric cables and defecating onto the road below.
Fifty households at an Ao Luek district intersection in Krabi province have reportedly been affected by the mass of birds of unknown origin, which villagers said spent the night perched on electricity cables at the intersection. They said they were concerned about the smell of the excrements and that those with allergies or respiratory problems complained, but authorities have not taken action so far.
The birds, estimated to be 10,000 at times, have lingered in the area for about three months now. Residents of the commercial town said the birds arrive at about 6:30pm and leave at 5am.
Attempts to make noise and chase the swallows away – including lighting firecrackers – have failed so far, with residents urging related authorities to find a way to solve the problem.
Ruab Bangkram, 63, runs a toy shop in the affected area and said the sky darkened when the birds arrived in the afternoon. She added that her 9-year-old grandson is developing respiratory problems and had to seek medical help several times.
KANCHANABURI — Fields of burned-out sugarcane husks wrapped in flames are one of the major sources of smog, environmental activists say.
Looking over fields of burnt sugarcane Monday in Isaan, gadfly petitioner Srisuwan Janya said the junta must do more to stop farmers’ practice of burning sugarcane for easy transport.
“So many farmers are burning sugarcane here today,” Srisuwan said. “It’s more convenient for them to transport, and saves money. Farmers don’t care about smog.”
Srisuwan said he’s also received reports of smog as far north as Kamphaeng Phet, and has officially complained to the Ministry of Industry to demand they ban factories from purchasing burnt sugarcane.
“Many point to auto emissions as the source of smog, construction and burning trash…but fixing this smog problem is misguided. Smog doesn’t just occur in Bangkok and the surrounding areas,” Srisuwan said.
Greenpeace Thailand country director Tara Buakamsri said in a Monday interview that smoke from burnt sugarcane in Kanchanaburi and provinces west of the capital would be swept westward to Phetchaburi and Myanmar by seasonal monsoon winds, but not Bangkok.
However, burning crops east of Bangkok will contribute to the capital’s smog – one factor is haze pollution in Cambodia from crop burning being swept to Thailand. Tara says northern Cambodia is burning crops, clearing forests and burning single-crop farm fields during this season.
“Open-field burning, especially of agricultural waste, is a source of dust. It creates different sizes of dust, including PM2.5,” Tara said.
Srisuwan added that smog containing PM2.5 particles – the smallest and most harmful – is plentiful even in the rural central, eastern and western provinces, where sugarcane crops are grown.
The Ministry of Industry’s Office of Cane and Sugar Board officially designated the beginning of sugarcane pressing season Dec. 1 until the end of February. During this season, agros practice residue crop burning to quickly and easily transport sugarcane.
Srisuwan said the board as well as local farmer associations have not denounced the “sloppy and haphazard” practice by banning sales of burnt sugarcane stalks.
“If factories refuse to buy it, them the farmers will be to afraid to burn it,” he said.
Srisuwan Janya is a prominent activist known for filing complaints against governmental injustices and is also the founder of the Stop Global Warming Association.
WARSAW, Poland — A convicted criminal with a knife rushed on to the stage during the finale of a charity event Sunday night and stabbed a Polish mayor in the heart and abdomen before shouting that he did it for political revenge, in an attack that left doctors fighting to save the politician’s life.
Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz grabbed his belly and collapsed in front of the audience at the “Lights to Heaven” fundraiser organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, the country’s most important charity.
Doctors revived Adamowicz on the spot and then transported him to Medical University of Gdansk, where he underwent five hours of surgery, said Dr. Tomasz Stefaniak, one of the doctors treating Adamowicz.
Almost seven hours after the assault, Stefaniak told reporters early Monday that “the patient is alive,” triggering applause, but added that the mayor remained “in a very serious condition.”
“The next hours will decide everything,” Stefaniak said, appealing for thoughts and prayers for the popular mayor.
Polish media reported that a number of political officials and Gdansk Archbishop Slawoj Leszek Glod went to the hospital during the operation.
After the knife attack, the assailant shouted from the stage that he had been wrongly imprisoned under a previous national government led by Civic Platform, a party to which the mayor formerly belonged. He said his name was Stefan and that “I was jailed but innocent. … Civic Platform tortured me. That’s why Adamowicz just died.”
Police said the suspect was a 27-year-old with a criminal record and had carried out bank robberies. A police spokesman, Mariusz Ciarka, said the attacker appeared to have mental problems and gained access to the area with a media badge.
He was arrested and is under investigation.
TVN footage showed Adamowicz on stage with a sparkler in hand telling the audience that it had been a “wonderful day” and then the attacker came toward him. The mayor had been on the streets of his Baltic port city earlier in the day collecting money for the charity, along with volunteers around the country.
European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who co-founded Civil Platform and is from Gdansk, wrote on Twitter: “Let’s all pray for Mayor Adamowicz. Pawel, we are with you.”
The head of the charity, Jerzy Owsiak, is a liberal critic of Poland’s current right-wing government. He blamed what he described as an atmosphere of hate under the ruling Law and Justice party for the attack on the mayor.
Adamowicz, 53, has been mayor of Gdansk since 1998. He was part of the democratic opposition born in that city under the leadership of Lech Walesa during the 1980s. After leaving Civic Platform, he was re-elected to a sixth term as an independent candidate in the fall.
As mayor, he has been a progressive voice, supporting LGBT rights and tolerance for minorities. He marched in last year’s gay pride parade, a rare action for a mayor in Poland.
He also showed solidarity with the Jewish community when the city’s synagogue had its windows broken last year, strongly denouncing the vandalism.
“Horrified by the brutal attack on Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz,” said Frans Timmermans, a Dutch politician and leading European Union official. “Hope and pray he will recover. A great leader of his city and a true humanitarian.”
The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity raises money to buy state-of-the-art medical equipment for Poland’s cash-strapped state hospitals, mostly for children.
The last attack on a politician in Poland was in 2010 in Lodz. A man shouting that he wanted to kill Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski fatally shot an aide to one of the party’s lawmakers to the European Parliament. A second man was stabbed and injured.
At the time Law and Justice was in the opposition and Kaczynski blamed the attack at an “atmosphere of hate” under the rival party, Civic Platform.
