BANGKOK — 1 October 2026, Several people were injured after an electric car lost control and crashed into the Kuan Yin Shrine at the Tian Fah Foundation on Yaowarat Road in Bangkok’s Samphanthawong district.
The accident was reported at 13:13 on 1 October 2026. The electric sedan reportedly veered off the road and crashed into the shrine premises.
Initial reports said several people were injured. Further details, including the number and severity of the injuries, were still being verified.
The incident occurred in the area under the jurisdiction of Phlapphla Chai 2 Police Station.
(Left) Christa Pike on Jan. 12, 2023. (TDOC via AP)
(Right) May Martinez shows her daughter, Colleen Slemmer, who was murdered in 1995 in Tennessee. (May Martinez via AP)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee officials were unable to put Christa Gail Pike to death Wednesday for a 1995 murder after administering two doses of a lethal drug. A death penalty expert said it was an unprecedented failure, and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted the remaining execution for the rest of the year.
Pike, 50, was alive and loudly snoring after the attempted lethal injection and taken by ambulance from the prison, her attorneys said. She was being treated at a hospital, but they said they hadn’t been told about her condition.
She had been scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. Wednesday for the killing she committed at age 18 and would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. An appeals court stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start and hours later the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that stay.
Officials gave Pike two doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys said in court filings late Wednesday.
This photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Christa Pike on Jan. 12, 2023. (TDOC via AP)
Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement that he has ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred” and that the remaining scheduled execution will not take place this year.
“Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,” he said.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that they “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.”
The state’s execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered “if the inmate is not deceased” after the first set. It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.
Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said what Pike experienced is “singular and unparalleled.”
Seven other people have survived medical problems due to an execution team’s failure to access a vein to administer lethal injection drugs, but no one has stayed alive after receiving the drugs used in such executions, she said.
Emergency vehicles arrive at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the execution of Christa Pike was halted Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Media witnesses detail the execution process
Media witnesses observing from a separate room said officials raised curtains to the execution chamber at 7:27 p.m., showing Pike strapped to a gurney.
“I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life and that is in love,” she said in her “last” words. She described herself as at peace.
But Pike remained awake and at one point raised her head and asked prison officials if her arm was supposed to feel that way. It was not clear what she was referencing.
By 8:26 p.m., execution witnesses reported that the second dose of pentobarbital had been administered.
Pike continued to be heard snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at 8:53 p.m. At that time there was an announcement to escort media witnesses out of the area.
Lawyers for Pike filed an emergency motion late Wednesday to the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking to immediately halt and stay the execution, saying she was in “unnecessary agony” and it was violating her right to be executed free of cruel and unusual punishment. They also filed motions in the Sixth Circuit court and a district court.
It was the second time this year that Tennessee has been unable to carry out an execution: In May state officials called off the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing three people in 1994, after executioners tried and failed for over an hour to place an IV to administer pentobarbital.
Pike and her boyfriend were convicted of the fatal stabbing and beating in 1995 of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. The case garnered widespread attention in part because of a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer’s body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s.
May Martinez, left, mother of murder victim Colleen Slemmer, walks out of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution during a stay of the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Stay of execution was swiftly appealed
Pike was initially scheduled to be put to death in the morning, and witnesses had gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay. That court said a delay was needed to consider whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered at her sentencing.
The attorney general’s office appealed to the Supreme Court, saying that halting the execution at the last moment traumatized Slemmer’s family and rewarded “abusive delay tactics” by Pike’s attorneys.
Later in the day, the high court cleared the way for the execution to proceed. The conservative majority did not explain their order, while the three liberal members signed a dissent that said Pike’s claims deserved a closer look.
Pike did not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argued that the state should consider her age at the time, her mental illness and her allegations of severe sexual abuse.
Case renewed debate on the death penalty for teens
As the execution date drew near, debate renewed over the death penalty for young offenders.
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds in Tennessee have had such sentences vacated.
After the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. In her clemency petition, she said she only wanted to fight Slemmer but killed her in a frenzied attack when she couldn’t “put the brakes on.”
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done,” Pike said in a statement.
Kathleen Walter prays in the area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Victim’s mother says she is waiting for death sentence
Slemmer’s mother had traveled to Nashville in the hopes of witnessing the execution of her daughter’s killer. She told The Associated Press on Saturday that she had waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” May Martinez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Saturday.
Martinez could not be immediately reached by telephone for comment after the execution was halted.
The killing rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area on Jan. 12, 1995. Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satan, into her body.
Shipp was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.
This undated photo provided by May Martinez shows her daughter, Colleen Slemmer, who was murdered in 1995 in Tennessee. (May Martinez via AP)
Executions of women are rare in the US
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 18 women have been put to death, representing about 1% of all executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Pike would have been the 30th person executed in the U.S. this year after Florida carried out an execution on Tuesday.
Tennessee announced in 2024 that it was switching from a three-drug series for lethal injections to the single drug pentobarbital. That came more than two years after the state abruptly halted the execution of Oscar Smith and acknowledged that it had failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were tested properly.
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This story has been updated to correct that Pike had been scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. local time, not 11 a.m. and that the lawyers filed an emergency motion to the Tennessee Supreme Court, not U.S.
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Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, Ed White in Detroit, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed.
Chongqing has begun trialling Thai-language announcements at three stations on its urban rail network, as the southwestern Chinese city seeks to make travel more convenient for Thai and other foreign visitors.
The pilot service began on 29 September at Chaotianmen, Xiaoshizi and Liziba stations, according to Xinhua.
Thai was selected as the pilot foreign language for the upgraded service, with the three stations chosen because they are popular tourist destinations among international visitors.
Liziba Station has become a major tourist attraction because trains appear to pass through a residential building. Chaotianmen and Xiaoshizi stations are located near major commercial areas and riverside scenic spots and serve as connections between multiple transport routes.
The move comes as the number of Thai visitors staying overnight in Chongqing rose 154.1% year on year through July, according to the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism. Thailand remains one of the city’s leading sources of inbound tourists.
Chongqing’s metro stations already provide announcements in Chinese and English, while frontline staff regularly receive training to provide bilingual services.
The city’s public transport authorities will continue to assess feedback from the pilot programme and improve services for foreign visitors, according to Xinhua.
China and Laos have officially opened a joint support and training centre at Ban Keun Airport in Vientiane Province, alongside the China-Laos Friendship Aviation Academy.
The China-Laos Joint Support and Training Center and the aviation academy officially went into operation on 29 September, according to China’s Ministry of National Defense.
Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Khamlieng attended the inauguration ceremony, while a delegation from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) also participated.
The centre will be jointly maintained and operated by China and Laos and is aimed at helping Laos strengthen training for its air force pilots, the ministry said.
The ministry said the construction and use of the centre reflect “mutual respect and equal consultation” between China and Laos and comply with the domestic laws of both countries, relevant international law and common practice.
It said the facility is not directed against any third party and will contribute to strengthening practical military cooperation and promoting regional peace and stability.
NAGOYA, Japan — 1 October 2026, Thai canoeist Piyanat Koetsuk won the bronze medal in the canoe slalom event at the 20th Asian Games, Aichi-Nagoya 2026.
The competition was held at the Yahagi River Canoe Slalom Course.
Piyanat finished eighth in the semifinal, securing the final qualifying spot. He then produced a stronger performance in the final, clocking 121.68 seconds to claim bronze.
China’s Zhang Zhicheng won gold, finishing 23.59 seconds ahead of Piyanat, while Taiwan’s Cheng Wu-Chung took silver with a time of 119.09 seconds.
Piyanat, a SEA Games gold medalist, is set to receive a 500,000-baht reward from Thailand’s National Sports Development Fund for his Asian Games bronze medal.
NAGOYA, Japan — 1 October 2026, Thailand’s women’s four-player sepak takraw team defeated the Philippines 2-0, keeping their hopes of reaching the semifinals alive at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya 2026.
Thailand won the match 15-7, 15-6 at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Gymnasium.
The Thai team, comprising Waratsamee Thongsod, Somrudee Prueprak, Wipada Jitpornawan and Ratchaneekorn Sae-heng, bounced back after losing to longtime rivals Vietnam in their previous match.
The 2-0 victory leaves Thailand with one win and one loss in the group stage.
Thailand will play India in their final group match at 07:00 on 2 October. A victory would put Thailand second in the group and send the team directly into the semifinals.
CHAI NAT — The Chao Phraya Dam has increased its discharge to 2,300 cubic metres per second to accommodate rising northern runoff, with authorities urging riverside residents in Ayutthaya, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani to move belongings to higher ground and prepare to evacuate if ordered.
Government spokesperson Ekkaphop Pianpises said on Thursday that Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul had instructed agencies to prioritise assistance for flood-hit communities, particularly areas difficult to reach because of deep water.
Teams have been told to ensure food, drinking water and medicine reach affected residents, while provinces prepare for another round of rain forecast for 4–6 October using satellite data from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency.
Provincial governors along both banks of the Chao Phraya and Tha Chin rivers, as well as Bangkok authorities, have been instructed to issue warnings, remain in their areas and continue pumping water from places where flooding has begun to recede.
The National Water Command has approved a gradual increase in Chao Phraya Dam discharge, in increments of 100 cubic metres per second. If conditions allow, the release could rise further but will not exceed 2,500 cubic metres per second.
Water currently near Nakhon Sawan is expected to reach the dam within a day, then move downstream to Ayutthaya on 3 October. Authorities said the water level upstream of the dam may rise slightly but should remain below flood-protection barriers.
With Pa Sak Dam holding more than 100% of its storage capacity, residents along the river and in low-lying areas of Ayutthaya have been urged to prepare to move belongings and evacuate. Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani are also expected to receive the flow.
Water released from Pa Sak Dam has been reduced to 100 cubic metres per second and will be kept below 300 cubic metres per second, officials said. The flows are expected to meet at Ayutthaya, where the combined volume should remain below 3,000 cubic metres per second before moving through Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi, Bangkok and Samut Prakan into the Gulf of Thailand.
Authorities said water levels in Bangkok are expected to remain about 40 centimetres below flood barriers.
In the west, Vajiralongkorn Dam in Kanchanaburi will begin releasing water at 500 cubic metres per second on Thursday after recent rainfall eased. Mae Klong Dam is discharging 2,200 cubic metres per second, with riverside residents in Ratchaburi and Samut Songkhram advised to move possessions to higher ground and monitor conditions closely.
In the east, floodwaters in Prachin Buri, which receives runoff from Nakhon Nayok, have passed their peak. Low-lying areas in Bang Khla and Bang Nam Priao districts are next in the water’s path before it reaches the Bang Pakong River. Residents have been advised to move belongings, patients and vulnerable people to designated shelters.
The Finance Ministry has set up a flood-assistance coordination centre on hotline 1689 to provide information on low-interest repair loans, personal loans, debt-relief measures and insurance claims.
CHACHOENGSAO — 1 October 2026, A Giant crocodile spotted in floodwaters in Chachoengsao’s Sanam Chai Khet district has died after authorities and an operations team captured it, according to local reports.
The area was flooded, with the water connected to local waterways. The sighting raised concerns among residents who feared the crocodile could move closer to homes and populated areas.
Authorities and an operations team subsequently entered the area to track and capture the crocodile. They successfully brought the large reptile out of the floodwaters while local residents watched the operation.
The crocodile was later found dead and was placed beside the road. Images showed a large crocodile measuring several meters in length, drawing the attention of people in the area.
The incident occurred as several parts of Chachoengsao continued to face flooding. Residents were advised to remain cautious, as reptiles and aquatic animals may move away from their natural habitats as water levels rise.
People in flood-affected areas are advised to avoid entering the water or approaching areas where dangerous animals have been spotted. Anyone who encounters an unusual or potentially dangerous animal should not attempt to capture or approach it and should instead contact authorities for assistance.
President Donald Trump listens to a question from a reporter in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
OAKLAND, California — 1 Oct 2026, A second federal judge on Wednesday blocked an unprecedented US$100,000 fee imposed by President Donald Trump on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers.
US District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland ruled that US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department had failed to follow required rule-making procedures before implementing the fee.
Gilliam, appointed by former President Barack Obama, granted a request by a coalition of unions, employers and nonprofit groups to bar the agencies from enforcing the fee while a lawsuit filed in October proceeds.
The fee was temporarily blocked in June by a federal judge in Boston in a separate case brought by 20 states. A Boston-based appeals court declined in July to pause that ruling.
The Department of Homeland Security moved in August to establish a permanent fee of about US$103,000. Once finalised, it is likely to face legal challenges, though those would raise different questions from the current lawsuits, which focus on whether Trump had authority to impose the fee unilaterally.
The US$100,000 fee had been due to expire on 21 September, but Trump recently extended it for another year.
Democracy Forward, a left-leaning legal group representing the plaintiffs, welcomed the ruling.
“Today’s decision protects a system that was thrown into chaos overnight,” said Steve Bressler, a lawyer for the group.
The US Chamber of Commerce, the country’s largest business lobbying group, has filed a third lawsuit challenging the fee. It is appealing a ruling rejecting its argument that Trump lacked authority to impose it.
The H-1B programme allows US employers to hire foreign workers trained in specialised fields and is heavily used by technology companies. It provides 65,000 visas a year, plus 20,000 for workers with advanced degrees. Visas are generally approved for three to six years.
Before Trump’s order, H-1B visa fees typically ranged from US$2,000 to US$5,000, depending on the application.
Trump invoked presidential powers under federal immigration law, arguing that companies had abused the programme by replacing American workers with cheaper foreign labour. His administration has also ordered tougher screening of H-1B applicants and proposed a selection process favouring higher-skilled and better-paid workers.
CHACHOENGSAO — 1 October 2026, A giant crocodile measuring more than 2 meters was reportedly spotted along an irrigation canal road in Bang Phaniang village, Moo 2, Khu Yai Mi subdistrict, Sanam Chai Khet district, Chachoengsao, prompting an urgent warning to local residents.
On the morning of 1 October, Udon Thepwathee, former president of the Chachoengsao Provincial Administrative Organization Council, posted a warning on his personal Facebook account after residents reported seeing the large crocodile on the roadside beside the irrigation canal.
Udon urged people, particularly those fishing in the area, to exercise extreme caution as the crocodile could pose a danger to residents using the road.
He also asked local media to help spread the warning while relevant authorities were being contacted to inspect the area.
The road where the crocodile was reportedly spotted is a detour route currently being used to access three flood-surrounded subdistricts — Tha Kradan, Khu Yai Mi and Thung Phraya.
Further updates will be reported as they become available.
