LONDON — Buckingham Palace says Prince Philip has been admitted to a hospital for treatment of an infection and will not be attending the queen’s speech.
The palace says Philip, Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, was admitted as a precautionary measure and is in good spirits.
Philip is 96 and recently said he was stepping down from public events.
He has suffered heart ailments in the past.
The queen is due to outline the government’s legislative agenda in her speech Wednesday.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — In a hidden room in a house near Argentina’s capital, police believe they have found the biggest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country’s history, including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler and magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas.
Some 75 objects were found in a collector’s home in Beccar, a suburb north of Buenos Aires, and authorities say they suspect they are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II.
“Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces,” Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told The Associated Press on Monday, saying that some pieces were accompanied by old photographs. “This is a way to commercialize them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects.”
Among the disturbing items were toys that Bullrich said would have been used to indoctrinate children, a large statue of the Nazi Eagle above a swastika, a Nazi hourglass and a box of harmonicas.
Police say one of the most-compelling pieces of evidence of the historical importance of the find is a photo negative of Hitler holding a magnifying glass similar to those found in the boxes.
“We have turned to historians and they’ve told us it is the original magnifying glass” that Hitler was using, said Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina’s federal police. “We are reaching out to international experts to deepen” the investigation.
The photograph was not released to the public, but was shown to The Associated Press on the condition that it not be published.
The investigation that culminated in the discovery of the collection began when authorities found artworks of illicit origin in a gallery in north Buenos Aires.
Agents with the international police force Interpol began following the collector and with a judicial order raided the house on June 8. A large bookshelf caught their attention and behind it agents found a hidden passageway to a room filled with Nazi imagery.
Authorities did not identify the collector who remains free but under investigation by a federal judge.
“There are no precedents for a find like this. Pieces are stolen or are imitations. But this is original and we have to get to the bottom of it,” said Roncaglia.
Police are trying to determine how the artifacts entered Argentina.
The main hypothesis among investigators and member of Argentina’s Jewish community is that they were brought to Argentina by a high-ranking Nazi or Nazis after World War II, when the South American country became a refuge for fleeing war criminals, including some of the best known.
As leading members of Hitler’s Third Reich were put on trial for war crimes, Josef Mengele fled to Argentina and lived in Buenos Aires for a decade. He moved to Paraguay after Israeli Mossad agents captured Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who was also living in Buenos Aires. Mengele later died in Brazil in 1979 while swimming in a beach in the town of Bertioga.
Police in Argentina did not name any high-ranking Nazis to whom the objects might have originally belonged.
Ariel Cohen Sabban, president of the DAIA, a political umbrella for Argentina’s Jewish institutes, called the find “unheard of” in Argentina.
“Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany,” Cohen told the AP.
Story: Debora Rey
A concussed serenity sets in somewhere in the middle of the ceaseless ballet of metal and machismo in Michael Bay’s “Transformers: The Last Knight.” Freed of concerns like plausibility or story, you can simply gape in wonder at the ruthlessly thunderous images in front of you.
Maybe that’s the feeling of brain cells dying a painful, anguished death. It’s a sensation I imagine cornered boxers sometimes experience while blow after blow rains down upon them. Dazed by the unrelenting digital demolition on screen, thoughts go through your head such as: “Can this movie literally crush me?” “Is death by Dolby possible?” and “You know, it’s really time to get the car washed.”
By the time you’ve scraped yourself off the floor after all 149 minutes of the 3-D “The Last Knight,” you feel the need to compensate for the sheer gluttony of destruction, of unrelenting bigness. Maybe fast for a little while, you think, or just sit quietly in a corner. Bay might be spinning another tale of Autobot v. Decepticon in which the fate of the planet hangs in the balance, but his real battle is conquering you, the moviegoer. And make no mistake about it. He’s gonna win.
“Transformers: The Last Knight, is, if nothing else, a pummeling. The fifth in the franchise and second in the “Wahlberg Years” (Mark Wahlberg replaced Shia LaBeouf as lead in the last installment), “The Last Knight” continues the Hasbro toy adaptations and expands further into the alien machines’ mythology.
The script by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway and Ken Nolan ropes in a backstory involving Arthurian legend, suggesting the magic of Merlin was nothing but Transformer technology. Centuries later, the continual arrival of Transformers on Earth connects to these ancient events. There are crucial objects — Merlin’s staff, a talisman that attaches itself to Wahlberg’s Autobot-defending Cade Yeager — that bring constantly arriving Transformers, plummeting in space ships from the sky, and eventually, the vengeful leader of their home planet, Cybertron.
With Optimus Prime away on holiday (or searching for something or other back on Cyberton), the human population has turned against the Transformers. One can see why. They’re swaggering, bickering bags of bolts who eschew their best parlor trick (transforming into cars and trucks) for avalanches of ammo. There is, for a moment, a touch of metaphor for immigrant empathy in their unfortunate status, but it quickly gets buried in the mounting debris.
That is, at any rate, what I could make out. Stonehenge has something to do with the plot, too, as does Anthony Hopkins, who plays the latest in a long line of guardians to these mysteries. There’s also an Oxford scholar (Laura Haddock) skeptical of Round Table legend, and, briefly, an elite scientist (Tony Hale) whose insistence on solving intergalactic problems with silly things like physics is, here, a joke. “Transformers” is like the anti-“Martian”: brawn over brains.
“This here’s a big boy zone,” announces the Autobot commando Hound (John Goodman) in a junkyard. But he might as well be providing the movie’s ethos.
Later there’s a submarine chase and a planetary battle in the air as “The Last Knight” — an exercise in enormity — insatiably hurtles toward feats of greater and greater grandiosity. It’s an empty pursuit; there’s no explosion big enough to give Bay the fix he needs.
But what makes the “Transformers” movies different from other blockbuster colossuses is Bay. Whatever his deficiencies in other areas (coherence, emotions, women), he remains the most proficient master of big-screen rock ’em sock ’em mayhem. His manipulation of scale is unsurpassed, as is his ability to synthesize obscene amounts of visual effects into an astonishingly fluid choreography of color and chaos.
After two and half hours of pulverizing action, there’s nothing to do but raise the white flag, admit defeat, and shudder as you pass the theater for the latest “Cars” movie. No more, please.
“Transformers: The Last Knight,” a Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor and language.” Running time: 149 minutes. Two stars out of four.
Story: Jake Coyle
BANGKOK — The military government on Tuesday sought to reassure the public that its deal to construct a high-speed railway did not give China the upper hand.
Following public discontent after the junta chief used his self-granted absolute power to exempt China from a number of laws for the 179 billion baht project, Prayuth affirmed its construction will use domestic materials and see expertise transferred to Thai workers.
Prayuth said the government has yet to settle on borrowing from China as the public believes. He insisted the decision was well-considered after 18 meetings between the two countries and said Thailand was not being taken advantage of.
“They have been talking in detail. But it got stuck at these four or five issues,” he said Tuesday. “We fixed it, so negotiations can continue.”
The order issued last week removed all legal hurdles to the project by exempting Chinese architects and engineers from obtaining Thai professional licenses and skipping the obligatory bidding and procurement process.
Read: Junta to Sidestep 5 Laws to Move Stalled Railway Project
The 252.5-kilometer railway will link Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima province, the gateway to the northeastern region. It will eventually extend up to the border town of Nong Khai and connect to Laos. Work is expected to begin on its first, 3.5-kilometer stretch as soon as August.
Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said Tuesday the project will go to the interim cabinet for approval next month.
Arkhom insisted China will not be granted concessions to the land along the tracks as the public has worried.
All materials for railway construction will be produced domestically, and Arkhom said China had already inspected and approved that the sources meet their standards.
“Materials for construction will come from Thailand, 100 percent,” he said. “The rails, signaling system and trains will be imported from China.”
The Engineering Institute of Thailand raised the issue of Thailand’s ability to maintain the railroad, as China will oversee all construction steps including laying the tracks, installing the electrical and mechanical systems and training staff. It noted the construction plans are in Chinese.
Arkhom said he had arranged an urgent meeting with China’s representatives Monday to make sure regulations about expertise and technical knowledge transfer will be included in all three contracts to be written.
BANGKOK — Head to BTS Sanam Pao this Wednesday when a Bangkok art space nearby transforms into a tropical electronic dancefloor.
Manila-born and Los-Angeles-based DJ-producer Mark Redito, formerly known as Spazzkid, will perform on a live set for one night, bringing his J-pop-inspired hyper dance and electronic music to the venue.
Tickets are 600 baht. The event starts at 8pm on June 28 at Future Factory. The art space can be reached by a five-minute walk from BTS Sanam Pao’s Exit 3.
Redito gained his fame under the name Spazzkid when he released his 2013 debut album Desire and following EP called Promise. He expects to release a new album this year.
KHON KAEN — Members of a civil rights group in Khon Kaen province woke up Wednesday morning to find security forces searching their headquarters without a court warrant.
A group of uniformed soldiers and policemen showed up at the building – also used as a residence – at about 6am. While a junta spokesman said the regime did not order the raid on the Dao Din group, it coincided with junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha’s trip to the northeastern province, which has long been a hotbed for anti-coup activities.
Dao Din activist Arkom Sributta said he and others were woken by the sound of “about 30” security officers entering their communal home. Arkom said he did not give consent to the search and repeatedly asked for a court warrant, but the officers declined.
“They kept evading our questions,” Arkom said by phone.
In a live video of the incident, security officers were seen inspecting several pamphlets seized from the group and refusing to answer questions. After about an hour of confrontation, they left the residence without identifying themselves.
Junta spokesman Winthai Suvaree said the military government did not order the raid.
“It was not ordered by the central authorities,” Col. Winthai said. “As far as I’ve seen from the news, it was an issue managed by regional security forces.”
Arkom said Lt. Col. Phitakphon “Seh Pete” Chusri, an army officer responsible for sending one Dao Din member to jail on suspicion of royal defamation, was at the scene instructing the soldiers and policemen. Some were armed with handguns, he added.
The incident came the same day Prayuth visited Khon Kaen province – long known as base of Redshirt and anti-coup movements – to give public speeches and inspect several state agencies.
Two women seeking to petition Prayuth about their debt problems were also detained by police as they tried to enter the venue where he was giving a speech. Police took the two women, who remain unidentified, to a government complaint center and instructed them to file their petitions there.
According to Arkom, the raid followed an uptick in surveillance by the authorities. He said officials from the Internal Security Operation Command, a counter-insurgency force answering to Prayuth, phoned him and fellow activists yesterday to ask if they were planning to stage any protest during Prayuth’s visit. He said no.
Police patrol cars also cruised past the Dao Din headquarters several times on Tuesday, and one police vehicle was parked at the entrance to their soi today, Arkom said.
“I expected that the authorities will keep their eyes on us, but I didn’t think they would go as far as invading our home like this,” the activist said.
Originally a land rights group that later took up pro-democracy activism in the wake of the 2014 military coup, Dao Din has made headlines for its defiance of the junta’s ban on protests.
They are perhaps most famous for crashing Prayuth’s speech in Khon Kaen in November 2014 and flashing the forbidden “three-finger salute,” an anti-coup gesture Thai activists adopted from the Hunger Games film franchise.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated when the group crashed a speech Prayuth was giving in Khon Kaen. It was November 2014, not 2015.
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BANGKOK — Head to northwest Bangkok this weekend to check out an eccentric fashionista’s sprawling arts and culture space laid out around a 54-meter jet fuselage.
Located on the 11 rai (1.8 hectare) of land in Bang Phlat district, Changchui will celebrate its “soft” opening with three days of art, movie, music, performances, a flea market and more.
Friday through Sunday, visitors can browse around and shop at stalls of food, drinks, clothing, handicrafts and more at Chui Supermarket. Make calligraphy with coffee ink at the “Callicoffee” workshop on Friday, while Saturday and Sunday will offer the chance to paint skulls on ceramic ware, dye fabric with coffee and make drip coffee.
Read: Behold ‘Changchui,’ Fashionista’s ‘Careless’ Dream
Concerts will take place all the three days. The lineup includes Thai folk sensation The Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band, glam-rock trio Chanudom, singer-songwriter Nop Ponchamni and more.
In Changchui’s theater, see two documentaries which show all three days: “We Are X,” about glam rock Japanese band X Japan, and “Oasis: Supersonic,” which takes an in-depth look at the life and struggle of ‘90s British rock band Oasis. Tickets are 100 baht.
Sunday will see alt-rockers Int-apalum play at 8pm and DJs from Dudesweet on the decks.
Check the full schedule online. Admission is free. Doors open 4pm to 11pm, Friday through Sunday at Changchui.
Changchui is a labor of love by Somchai “Lim” Songwattana, the owner of fashion brand Flynow. The new collaborative art space is located near the Bang Bamru Railway Station on Sirindhorn Road in Bang Phlat district.
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Behold ‘Changchui,’ Fashionista’s ‘Careless’ Dream
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Wednesday appointed his 31-year-old son Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince, placing him firmly as first-in-line to the throne and removing the country’s counterterrorism czar and a figure well-known to Washington from the royal line of succession.
In a series of royal decrees carried on the state-run Saudi Press Agency, the monarch stripped Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who had been positioned to inherit the throne, from his title as crown prince and from his powerful position as the country’s interior minister overseeing security.
The newly announced Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman already oversees a vast portfolio as defense minister and head of an economic council tasked with overhauling the country’s economy. He had previously been the second-in-line to the throne as deputy crown prince, though royal watchers had long suspected his rise to power under his father’s reign might also accelerate his ascension to the throne.
The young prince was little known to Saudis and outsiders before Salman became king in January 2015. He had previously been in charge of his father’s royal court when Salman was the crown prince.
The Saudi monarch, who holds near absolute powers, quickly awarded his son expansive powers to the surprise of many within the royal family who are more senior and more experienced than Mohammed bin Salman, also known by his initials MBS.
The royal decree issued Wednesday stated that “a majority” of senior royal members from the so-called Allegiance Council supported the recasting of the line of succession. Saudi Arabia’s state TV said 31 out of 34 of the council’s members voted in favor of the changes.
The Allegiance Council is a body made up of the sons and prominent grandsons of the founder of the Saudi state, the late King Abdul-Aziz, who vote to pick the king and crown prince from among themselves.
Over the weekend, the king had issued a decree restructuring Saudi Arabia’s system for prosecutions that stripped Mohammed bin Nayef of longstanding powers overseeing criminal investigations, and instead ordered that a newly-named Office of Public Prosecution and prosecutor report directly to the monarch.
Mohammed bin Nayef was not believed to have played a significant role in Saudi and Emirati-led efforts to isolate Qatar for its support of Islamist groups and ties with Iran.
The prince had appeared to be slipping from public eye as his nephew, Mohammed bin Salman, embarked on major overseas visits, including a trip to the White House to meet President Donald Trump in March. That visit to Washington helped lay the foundation for Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May, which marked the president’s first overseas visit and which was promoted heavily by the kingdom as proof of its weight in the region and wider Muslim world.
Saudi-U.S. relations had cooled under the Obama administration after Washington pursued a nuclear accord with Shiite-ruled Iran that the Sunni-ruled kingdom strongly opposed.
The warm ties forged between Riyadh and Washington under the Trump administration may have helped accelerate Mohammed bin Salman’s ascension as crown prince.
Despite his ambitions, which include overhauling the kingdom’s economy away from its reliance on oil, the prince has faced failures and strong criticism for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which he oversees as defense minister.
The war, launched more than two years ago, has failed to dislodge Iranian-allied rebels known as Houthis from the capital, Sanaa, and has had devastating effects on the impoverished country. Rights groups say Saudi forces have killed scores of civilians and have called on the U.S., as well as the UK and France, to halt the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia that could be used in the Yemen war.
The U.S. already is helping the Saudis with intelligence and logistical support for the bombing campaign in Yemen, and the Trump administration has signaled it could assist with greater intelligence support to counter Iranian influence there.
The newly-minted crown prince also raised eyebrows when he ruled out any chance of dialogue with Iran. In remarks aired on Saudi TV in May, Mohammed bin Salman framed the tensions with Iran in sectarian terms, and said it is Iran’s goal “to control the Islamic world” and to spread its Shiite doctrine. He also vowed to take “the battle” to Iran.
Iran and Saudi Arabia’s rivalry has played out in proxy wars across the region. They back opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen and they support political rivals in Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq. The conflicts have deepened Sunni-Shiite enmity between hard-liners on both sides.
Story: Abdullah Al-Shihri
BANGKOK — Considered a major milestone for many luk thung stage singers, Lumyai Hai Thongkam – the teen singer criticized recently for her sexual dance moves and stage costume – released a music video Tuesday in which she reveled in her status.
In the video she emerges from a van in a very Lumyai, steel-blue bustier and shorts, at which point she is joined by other women from different professions, who are then replaced by women in halter tops, shorts and pink chokers. Much of the video is shot in a standard community market, playing up her modest credentials.
Lumyai does none of the twerking that caught the eye of junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha in her new video, “Fierce Girl,” opting to perform other feats such as bending over backward. At one point, a Prayuth look-alike gives her act a solid thumbs-up.
“These days, I’m so fierce. Look for yourself and compare me to her, who’s fiercer? If I’m not fierce enough, don’t need to press Love or Like,” Lumyai sings confidently in a voice which buzzes at lower-than-usual registers yet remains youthful. “If you check out my Facebook or warp on over to me, you’ll see that I’ve changed.” 
This month Prayuth has repeatedly panned the 18-year-old singer’s dance moves for their suggestiveness – especially her “Nine Floors” routine in which she twerks upward from the ground nine times – blaming “farang influence.” Such was was the magnitude of the general’s frustration, that police were sent to her concerts to demand she cover up and insure she only twerked three times as promised – as opposed to nine.
Read: LumyaiGate: Teen’s Golden Hot Pants Overheat Culture Wars
Catalyzed by the prime minister’s preoccupation with her signature gold hot pants, people discussed, debated and defended Lumyai and Prayuth’s criticism online and off in the continuing conflict over who gets to define the culture. While critics described her as cultural “trash” and damaging to “Thainess,” fans kept watching her “Party Girl” video until it hit 251 million views on YouTube.
Lumyai Hai Thongkam, whose real name is Supansa Wetkama, grew up in a poor family who immigrated from Roi Et province to Bangkok. She started singing in the fourth grade, enrolled into the Salaya Performing Arts school after sixth grade and started working as a luk thung singer to support her family before she was discovered by her current manager, Prachakchai Navarat, owner of Hai Thongkam Records.
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BANGKOK — Officials are hoping that an all-girl Japanese J-pop band will inspire more women and young people from that nation to visit Thailand.
Nogizaka46 – an official “rival” band of the more prominent girl group AKB48 – was appointed Monday to be a tourism ambassador by the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s office in Tokyo. The agency’s director hopes the appointment will even the current gender ratio of Japanese tourists to the Kingdom, which is lopsided toward men.
“We want to change the image of Thailand to draw newer generations and women,” Yuthasak Supasorn said by phone Tuesday. “More than 70 percent of visitors from Japan are men.”
He added that women tend to spend more than men during their vacations in Thailand, making them a prime target group.
As of Monday a website had been created with video content featuring members of Nogizaka46 sightseeing in Thailand. In the videos, the group is seen shopping, riding elephants and tasting Thai delicacies.
Consisting of 34 members and 12 kenkyuusei, or trainees, Nogizaka46 was founded in 2011 by the same company behind girl group AKB48 to be its “official rival.” While members of the AKB48 are marketed as innocent, childlike ingenues, Nogizaka46 members are depicted as more mature, refined idols.
Yuthasak said Monday’s appointment was not meant to pit the fans of either group against each other. He said the decision was made by the tourism department’s office in Tokyo, and the rationale was to promote Thailand through the online music industry.
“Last year we had about 1.4 million visitors from Japan,” Yuthasak said. “We made it our goal that by 2020 that number would be 2 million.”
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