A tree pangolin (Manis tricuspis) seen here in 2009 in central Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: Valerius Tygart / Wikimedia Commons
JOHANNESBURG — A conservation group says the seizure of seven tons of pangolin scales in Hong Kong this week indicates that the heavily poached creature “could soon vanish for good” if urgent steps are not taken to protect it.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare said Wednesday that the size of the seized shipment from Nigeria was 10 times bigger than a confiscation of pangolin scales in Malaysia three weeks earlier. In February, conservationists said almost three tons of scales were seized in Thailand.
IFAW wants China and other countries to take steps to curb the demand for pangolins, whose scales are used in traditional medicine in parts of Asia.
A U.N. wildlife conference last year approved a ban on trade in all eight species of Asian and African pangolins.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office on Wednesday at the White House in Washington. Photo: Andrew Harnik / Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Covfefe (cuv-fey-fey) noun: A sure sign that President Donald Trump has regained control of his Twitter account.
For more than a week, the tweets from @realDonaldTrump were, well, boring.
Throughout his first big foreign trip last week, Trump’s tweets had the vibe of a garden-variety politician: statements of solidarity with world leaders, retweets of his wife’s visits with students and sick children, video clips from arrival statements and formal ceremonies, photos of official dinners.
Yawn.
Well, Twitterverse, he’s back.
This screen grab shows a tweet from President Donald Trump which has social media trying to find a meaning in the mysterious term “covfefe.” Image: Associated Press
Starting with a wee-hours tweet that contained the mystifying nonword “covfefe,” Trump on Wednesday unleashed a string of tweets that showed the president was holding nothing back, on matters both trivial and consequential.
He lashed out at the government’s Russia investigation as a “Witch Hunt!”
He scolded celebrity Kathy Griffin for a video that showed what looked like Trump’s severed head: “My children, especially my 11-year-old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”
He stoked suspense about whether he’ll pull the U.S. out of an international climate change agreement: “I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!””I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
And he resumed his attacks on his 2016 presidential rival, tweeting, “Crooked Hillary Clinton now blames everybody but herself, refuses to say she was a terrible candidate.”
But the internet flipped out over this baffling post-midnight tweet (later deleted): “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”
With that, Trump’s twitter feed went silent for the next five and half hours.
Was it tweetus incompletus? Did the tweeter-in-chief fall asleep at the keyboard?
Former Obama White House videographer Arun Chaudhary tweeted this theory: “As a human with sleeping issues and a former WH staffer I can safely say Ambien is the source of #covfefe.”
And what was Trump trying to say, anyway?
Was it the start of a rant against “negative press coverage” that somehow went awry?
At 6:09 a.m., Trump’s twitter feed came alive again with this playful challenge: “Who can figure out the true meaning of “covfefe” ??? Enjoy!”
Team Twitter already had gone into overdrive trying to fill in the blanks, floating both silly and serious scenarios.
One user tweeted that New York’s hottest nightclub is #Covfefe. “It has everything: Russian entanglements, spray tans, creepy handshakes, surprise trade wars.”
New York's hottest nightclub is #Covfefe. It has everything: Russian entanglements, spray tans, creepy handshakes, surprise trade wars. pic.twitter.com/aldqPBQvKw
Another suggested “covfefe” was becoming a popular name for babies in states that voted for Trump. Silicon Valley executive Andrew Crow went so far as to change his last name on Twitter to “Covfefe.” Jimmy Kimmel lamented that he’ll never write anything funnier than the term.
Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham had a pointed political theory: “It’s so bad–the collusion b/t the Dems & the press, the establ vs the ppl, that we needed a new word to describe it all. #Covfefe!”
Even Clinton weighed in. “It was a hidden message to the Russians,” she joked at a technology conference Wednesday in Los Angeles.
And later, she responded to Trump’s “Crooked Hillary” jab by tweeting, “People in covfefe houses shouldn’t throw covfefe.”
Republican strategist Liz Mair, by contrast, saw it as a way for the White House to create a distraction from negative stories about the president.
“The #covfefe stuff is funny, but everyone gets that this is one way Trump will detract from some really bad news for him last night, yes?” she tweeted.
Whatever the back story, there was no disputing that with “covfefe,” the presidential tweeter was back in full.
After all, Trump did once say he had “the best words.”
Ittirit Chulalaksiriboon and Sarinee Chulalaksiriboon with their two sons. Facebook: Dad Mom and Kids
BANGKOK — Did your husband bring home a PlayStation 4? To prevent your 3-month-old baby from getting addicted to games, two doctors have this advice: Don’t have anymore children with him and save money for a divorce.
That’s one example of the parenting advice doctors Ittirit Chulalaksiriboon and Sarinee Chulalaksiriboon share on their Facebook advice page, “Dad Mom and Kids.”
After months of sparking outrage with controversial parenting advice, the advice-spooling couple announced Tuesday that they would take a break from handing out parenting advice on their page.
Ittirit Chulalaksiriboon and Sarinee Chulalaksiriboon in one of many images they posted with their two sons. Facebook: Dad Mom and Kids
“My wife and I apologize to everyone who felt we disrespected them or didn’t listen to their opinions, as well as the people we banned and deleted,” read the announcement.
They focused on objections raised to their regular game-shaming advice in the announcement.
“Dad Mom and Kids won’t post anymore about games, and to show our responsibility to society, we won’t post on the page for at least a month starting today,” it said.
Someone responding to messages sent to the page declined to answer questions Wednesday.
The page has offered its advice in long posts about parenting, married life and personal finance which usually include plugs for their parenting books. The posts also routinely include angry legal threats over comments that have been deleted and their uses blocked.
Ittirit is a family physician at Phramongkutklao Hospital, while Sarinee is a child psychiatrist at Central General Hospital. The husband-and-wife team’s advice page has won more than 100,000 followers since 2015.
While some fans revered them and swore by the doctors’ helpful life tips, they increasingly drew derision from those who said they were leveraging their professional authority to exploit their own children on social media and offer questionable parenting advice.
“I feel sorry for your children, who are viewed as ‘products’ for you to put on the market and return profit to you. Do you even love your children, or do you just love the profits they bring you?” user Teeraponi Pumchuang wrote.
The backlash began with their strident stance on entertainment: Absolutely no games should be allowed in the home. Gamer spouses should be immediately divorced.
That led many to more of the page’s tough-love advice: Teens shouldn’t date because they’ll fall behind. Parents should push their kids to become doctors at a young age. Even “uneducated and stupid” parents can follow their tips and raise academically successful children.
Aswin Nakpongpan, a Chiang Mai University psychiatry professor, said that though some of the advice might be useful for hyper-competitive children, it should be labeled as such and not be taken as a general approach to parenting.
“There are many ways to raise children successfully,” Aswin said, adding that its patronizing tone didn’t help.
A Change.org petition calling for the The Medical Council of Thailand to investigate the couple’s medical ethics had gained over 15,000 signatures by Wednesday.
The two Chulalaksiriboon sons holding up a parenting book penned by their doctor parents. Facebook: Dad Mom and Kids
A parody comic by Kai Maew illustrating advice that went viral from the Dad Mom and Kids page about not having children with a PS4-buying husband.
Ittirit Chulalaksiriboon and Sarinee Chulalaksiriboon in a talk show appearance last year with their boys, 5 and 8.
BANGKOK — Based in London and New York, an indie rock group is bringing its fuzzy guitar, grunge-garage, experimental synth-based electronica sound to Bangkok.
Alternative rock quartet Splashh will perform in Bangkok in June and play some of their songs “All I Wanna Do” and “Waiting A Lifetime.”
The concert starts at 9pm on July 14 at Play Yard on Lad Prao Soi 8 Yaek 3. Early-bird tickets are 900 baht and will go on sale Thursday.
The concert is organized by party organizer Dudesweet.
Splashh was formed in 2012 by long-time friends Sasha Carlson and Toto Vivian in London. Their debut album Comfort was recorded in a London flat before the duo expanded the band to a quartet. They relocated to New York in 2013.
Guards and a canine unit patrol an entrance to a MRT’s Purple Line station during the Songkran holidays. Photo: Matichon
BANGKOK — Bangkok’s subway system raised security measures Wednesday following the discovery of a pipe bomb found near one of its stations.
Security guards, EOD personnel and K-9 units will be on patrol 24 hours a day while bag checks at entrances will be more strictly enforced, Thiraphan Techasirinukul, acting head of system operator Metropolitan Rapid Transit, said today.
Vehicles parked in lots near MRT stations will be searched. Drivers must cooperate with officers if they are asked to open their trunks.
At about 3pm on Tuesday, a thick black pipe and rusty nails were found in a green basket wrapped in black-colored plastic in an empty lot near MRT Thailand Cultural Centre.
Police said they no longer think two men seen by a witness placed at the scene were involved.
Bangkok police chief Sanit Mahathavorn said today he believes the explosives-packed pipe was dumped there many weeks ago. The perpetrators, according to Sanit, didn’t intend to harm anyone since the object was found in an area not frequented by people.
He added that the pipe bomb was different from the one which exploded May 22 in the waiting room of a Bangkok hospital, injuring 21 people.
The then United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres speaks in 2015 during a news conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo: Salvatore Di Nolfi / Associated Press
NEW YORK — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made an impassioned appeal Tuesday for the world to intensify action to combat climate change and implement the Paris Agreement to limit carbon emissions as President Donald Trump debates whether the U.S. will withdraw from the accord.
Gutteres never mentioned the American leader by name in his speech at New York University’s Stern School of Business, his first major address on climate change since taking the reins of the United Nations on Jan. 1. But he said in response to a question afterward that the United Nations believes “it would be important for the U.S. not to leave the Paris agreement.”
Even if Trump withdraws, Guterres said, “it’s very important for U.S. society as a whole – the cities, the states, the companies, the businesses – to remain engaged.”
Trump, who was critical of the deal during his campaign for the presidency, is expected to make an announcement this week on whether the United States will remain a party to the climate accord that his predecessor, Barack Obama, strongly supported and signed.
Nearly 200 nations agreed in 2015 to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As of Tuesday, 147 nations had ratified the Paris Agreement, representing more than 82 percent of global emissions, the U.N. chief said.
Guterres said their pledges to limit the global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius “are historic – but still do not go nearly far enough to limit temperature rise.”
“Commitments so far could still see temperatures rise by 3 degrees or more,” he warned. “So we must do our utmost to increase ambition and action until we can bend the emissions curve and slow down global warming.”
First, Guterres said he will immediately press for ratification of the Kigali Amendment agreed to in October by nearly 200 nations on limiting the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – greenhouse gases far more powerful than carbon dioxide that are depleting the ozone layer.
Unlike the Paris Agreement, the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is legally binding.
It caps and reduces the use of HFCs in a gradual process starting with action by developed countries in 2019, including the United States, the world’s second-worst polluter, and then by over 100 developing countries starting in 2024, including China, the world’s top carbon emitter.
Guterres said he will also rally countries to raise the bar on efforts to limit temperature rise and the United Nations system to promote climate action.
“Eighty percent of the world’s energy still comes from fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal,” Guterres said. “We cannot phase out fossil fuels overnight. We have to engage the energy industry and governments to use fossil fuels as cleanly, sparingly and responsibly as possible, while transforming our energy systems.”
He said solar power grew 50 percent last year, with China and the United States in the lead, and in both those countries “new renewable energy jobs now outstrip those created in the oil and gas industries.” Major oil producers are also looking to the future and diversifying their economies and even Saudi Arabia has announced plans to install 700 megawatts of solar and wind power, he said.
Guterres also pledged to work with developing countries to mobilize resources to tackle the impact of climate change and strengthen efforts by small island states against “the existential threat” that global warming poses.
He said he will strengthen North-South, South-South and other partnerships to implement the Paris Agreement.
“The climate conversation should cease to be a shouting match,” Guterres said. “My door is open to all who wish to discuss the way forward, even those who might hold divergent perspectives.”
The secretary-general announced that he intends to hold a climate summit in 2019 to review implementation of the Paris Agreement.
“The journey from Paris is well underway,” Guterres said. “The support across all sectors of society is profound. The transition in the real economy is a fact. There will be bumps along the path … but with everyone’s participation, the world can bring the Paris Agreement fully to life.”
Preeyanuch ‘Preaw’ Nonwangchai, at left, and Warissara “Amm” Klinjui, at right.
KHON KAEN — A woman accused of murder told her sister she only meant to hurt her victim as an act of revenge – at least until the woman threatened to kill her if she survived the attack. That’s when she allegedly sawed her in half.
That’s the story police said they got from Prapasiri Somsri on Wednesday, whose sister Preeyanuch “Preaw” Nonwangchai remains on the run along with two others for the gruesome May 23 murder.
“She said she and her friends only planned to lure her somewhere to assault her in revenge,” Prapasiri, 34, said, recounting a Monday night phone call in which her sister allegedly described the murder. “But then the woman said, ‘If I survive, then you die,’ so she became enraged.”
As police hunted for 24-year-old Preeyanuch and the other two suspects, they led a fourth suspect already in their custody through “re-enacting” the grisly crime today.
Wasin Namphrom, 22, showed police the spot in Khon Kaen province where he and the other suspects allegedly buried Warissara “Amm” Klinjui, a 22-year-old employee at a local karaoke joint, after sawing her body in half.
Wasin Namphrom shows police Wednesday the spot they allegedly buried Warissara Klinjui in Khon Kaen province.
The murder case emerged Thursday, when Warissara’s remains were discovered.
The case has gripped headlines not just for the grisly details of the murder but also tabloid-ready imagery available from social media of the young, attractive suspects.
Police have since named five suspects in the case – three of whom have fled to Myanmar.
Wasin was arrested Tuesday in Vientiane, Laos. He told police he and three female friends lured Warissara into a car in the early hours of May 23.
He said they had planned to carry out a revenge plot on behalf of one of their group members, 24-year-old Preeyanuch “Preaw” Nonwangchai. Preeyanuch believed Warissara had snitched on her boyfriend who was then arrested on a drug-related charge.
After luring Warissara into a rented car, Wasin said Preeyanuch was the only one to assault her – and ultimately, strangle her to death in the vehicle.
The four drove to rent a room at a resort in Khon Kaen city, stopping along the way to buy supplies, including plastic bags and a saw. That’s where Preeyanuch sawed the body in half, placing each half into two large plastic buckets, Wasin said.
They later drove to bury the buckets in Khao Suan Kwang district, approximately 60 kilometers away.
Resort employee Korakot Thathongboon, 20, said Preeyanuch and company rented a room on Thursday and left without paying. She said they left a strong odor in the room.
Police said they are looking for Preeyanuch and the other two suspects, 28-year-old Apiwan Sattayabundit and Kawita Ratchada, 25. Police said all three escaped into Myanmar and were last seen Tuesday in the Burmese border town of Tachileik.
A fifth suspect, Wasin’s girlfriend Jidarat Phromkhun, was also arrested but has denied involvement in the murder.
Jidarat, 21, reportedly told police she met the four suspects in Bangkok on the night of May 23, at which point they went to sell Warissara’s mobile phone.
A day after the murder, Preaw posted a photo to Facebook showing four people holding hands with a caption reading “On the day I fall, I still have you guys giving me support. Thank you for trusting and believing in me #Wewillbeholdinghandslikethisforever #Loveyouguys”
Photos in Harit’s ‘Whitewash’ series. Photo: Harit Srikhao
BANGKOK — The political violence of seven years ago is the subject of a young photographer’s confession of guilt for his ignorance through an exhibition he’s dedicated to the protesters killed.
After traveling the world picking up awards, Whitewash, which features dozens of images revisiting Thailand’s political ruptures since 2010 by 22-year-old photographer Harit Srikhao, will show for the first time in Thailand this weekend.
Harit said that back in 2010, during the military crackdown when he was a schoolboy, he and his friends sided with the military, “feverishly cursing the protesters and watching them get beat up with great satisfaction.”
The 2014 coup led Harit to revisit his own memories and research what had happened, learning along the way that 90 people were killed in the May 19 crackdown.
He’d gone four years without knowing that, and it left him questioning:
“Where have I been for four years that I know nothing about those protesters?” he said.
Harit began revisiting the places he’d been since 2010 – from the Sanam Luang and Grand Palace to military bases – on a mission to capture and develop the images through his own visual technique and style.
“This work was driven by the cold-blooded responses that I and other people around me had toward the protesters back then.” Harit wrote of his change of heart. “The fact that people in the country remained ignorant, indifferent, and even satisfied toward the protesters’ deaths reflects the chilling darkness of nationalism.”
Harit first picked up a camera when he was 13. At the age of 16, he was selected to join the Angkor Photo Workshop by French photographer Antoine D’Agata.
Whitewash won numerous awards overseas including the Juror’s Prize from the Filter Photo Festival in Chicago, second place at the Gomma Grant in London and a Special Mention award at the Dusseldorf Portfolio Review in Germany.
The exhibition kicks off at 6:30pm on Saturday and runs through June 22 at Gallery VER. The contemporary art venue is located in the Sathorn area on Soi Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra 22. It can be reached by foot from BRT Thanon Chan or by taxi from BTS Chong Nonsi.
Original image: A farmer irrigates his rice fields in a 2013 photo. Photo: Chris Graham / Flickr
BANGKOK — Millions of Thais are at risk of losing their jobs in the coming years – and it’s not “illegal immigrants” or “outsourcing” to blame. Yes, the robots are coming to steal jobs.
Thanks to rapid improvements in automation and artificial intelligence, up to 9.2 million Thais are at a high risk of being replaced by machines, while 8 millions of other jobs are on the line in the next two decades, affecting nearly half of the country’s entire employment, U.N. officials said at a media briefing Tuesday.
If the International Labour Organization’s, or ILO, forecast proves true, it will not only shake up the current economy – which has long bragged of an unemployment rate of nearly zero percent – but could also spark new social strains as the chasm of inequality slips even wider.
“Thailand’s inequality has been among one of the highest in ASEAN,” economist Phu Huynh said at a media briefing on an appropriately dark and ominous day in downtown Bangkok. “It might make the situation even worse, because a lot of people will be left behind.”
Huynh based his briefing on an ILO research published in July. The report identified the professions most vulnerable to automation in the next 20 years in five ASEAN member states – Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.
While the theme is the same everywhere – low-skill jobs that can easily be done by machines – different sectors are at risk in different countries. In Cambodia, it’s market vendors and garment factory workers facing the rise of the machines, while farmhands and shop assistants are vulnerable in the Philippines.
Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha visits an exhibition that promotes innovation in Thai economy in Bangkok, Sept. 18, 2014.
In Thailand, up to 98 percent of workers could be replaced in what it said are the most at-risk professions: Subsistence farmers; farm laborers; retail sales assistants; stall and market salespeople; livestock and dairy producers; food counter attendants; cooks; construction workers; office clerks; and junior accounting professionals.
That adds up to about 9.2 million jobs, according to the ILO.
And that’s just the 10-most vulnerable jobs. Three in four of auto-industry workers – a major manufacturing sector – are potential victims of automation.
All told, the ILO warned, up to 44 percent of all jobs in Thailand are at risk.
More Human Than Human
Thailand left behind its past as an agricultural economy decades ago. Out of an employed workforce of 37 million people, about 26 million now work in unrelated industries such as manufacturing and service, according to January data from the National Statistics Office.
It’s those factory jobs the robots are coming for.
“The predominant occupation in the computer and electronics industry are electronic equipment assemblers, accounting for nearly 58 per cent and 70 per cent of all salaried employment in the sector in Thailand and the Philippines, respectively,” the report reads. “These jobs face an extremely high probability of automation (92 per cent) given the rapid penetration and advancements in robotic technologies.”
A 2014 file photo of a metal materials plant in Thailand. Photo: Matichon
While technology pushing humans out of the way is nothing new, the ILO’s Gary Rynhart said the coming changes may happen faster than many expect.
“In these sectors, adaptation of technology has been slow because labor cost is low, but it has sped up,” Rynhart said. “The technology to replace the jobs is there. The question about a tipping point is not if – but when.”
He referenced the rapid rise of social media which has changed Thailand so much in the past five years. As his colleague Huynh noted in a separate report, it took 75 years for telephones and 38 years for radio to reach 50 million users.
Also worrisome was Rynhart’s assertion that middle-tier management jobs could be replaced by artificial intelligence.
“The AI can do what we thought impossible,” Rynhart said. “Just imagine what it will be like five years from now.”
Judgment Day
Asked what the government can do to alleviate the impending doom, both Huynh and Rynhart suggested investing more in infrastructure and education reform that encourage creativity and analytical thinking.
In fact, the reason they believe Thailand is so vulnerable is because its education system does not teach enough STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – skill sets to students.
“In my own view, there are needs for these skills … and they lack that,” Rynhart said.
He also warned women are more likely to be adversely affected by automation than men, yet high level skills in some of industry sectors, such as car manufacturing, are still dominated by men.
Huynh, the economist, said if the Thai workforce fails to adapt and develop skills that cannot be replaced by robots – such as analysis, problem-solving and mediating – its gains over the decades could be reversed, with severe implications both economically and socially.
“Otherwise, you will fall down the wage ladder,” he said.
Corrections: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said automation is a threat to one in three auto industry jobs. In fact, three out of four are at risk. The article also mistakenly said the ILO report launched at Tuesday’s news conference. In fact, it was published in July.
Kittikorn Wikaha, 26, and Supattanachai Chansri, 25, did not get reduced sentences despite confessing to stabbing Vasin Lueangcham, 26, on a January night in northern Bangkok, an attack that prompted national revulsion when footage of it was widely watched.
In the security camera footage, Kittikorn and Supattanachai were seen arriving on a motorcycle. Kittikorn stabbed Vasin several times before escaping on the bike.
Upon his arrest, Kittikorn said he killed his victim because he put up a fight.
That translated into increased support for tougher jail terms and sentencing, as Kittikorn had already served eight jail terms in 13 years for previous offenses, including violent crimes. His latest term had ended three weeks before he killed Vasin.
In its ruling today, the court said the punishment was not reduced because the two defendants behavior posed a danger to society, and they were serial recidivists.
It was yet unclear whether the two would appeal.
Capital punishment has become uncommon after its regular use effectively ended 14 years ago. The last execution took place in 2009, when two drug traffickers were killed by lethal injection. Before that, the previous execution was carried out in 2003.
