Attackers set fire to Bangladesh party headquarters that backed ousted Hasina
As the attack was underway, a prominent leader of a student protest movement that led to Hasina’s ouster in August said the Jatiya Party should be “destroyed” for its support of her government. Hasnat Abdullah, the student leader, claimed in a Facebook post that the Jatiya party was “a nationalContinue Reading
North Korea fires ICBM as US, Seoul slam Russia deployment
DIVERTING ATTENTION? North Korea’s missile launch “seems to have been carried out to divert attention from international criticism of its troop deployment”, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP. Seoul has long accused the nuclear-armed North of sending weapons to help Moscow fightContinue Reading
SIA, Scoot flights affected as Typhoon Kong-rey lashes Taiwan
SINGAPORE: Typhoon Kong-rey, one of the biggest storms to hit Taiwan in decades, caused the cancellation of several Singapore Airlines and Scoot flights on Thursday (Oct 31).
One flight originally bound for Taipei was also diverted to Hong Kong due to weather conditions caused by the typhoon, said a Singapore Airlines (SIA) spokesperson.
Flight SQ878 was carrying 309 passengers and 14 crew members.
The Boeing 787-10 landed “uneventfully” at Hong Kong International Airport at around 5.10pm local time, said the spokesperson.
“SIA provided meals and issued meal vouchers to the affected customers on the ground.”
“SQ878 will be renumbered to SQ9875 and will depart Hong Kong for Singapore at 7pm on Oct 31. Hotel accommodation will be arranged for the affected customers in Singapore.”
A relief flight to fly affected passengers to Taipei after weather conditions have improved will also be arranged.
Another SIA flight, SQ879, was cancelled. It had been scheduled to depart Taipei for Singapore on Thursday evening.
The SIA spokesperson encouraged customers to update their contact details via the “manage booking” function on its website or subscribe to a mobile notification service to receive updates to their flight status.
Typhoon Kong-rey also prompted Scoot, SIA’s low-cost subsidiary, to cancel three flights between Singapore and Japan that transit in Taipei.
The flights are TR893, TR874 and TR875.
“Scoot is contacting affected customers to re-accommodate them onto alternative flights, where available. Affected customers may also request for a full refund if they choose not to continue with their travel,” said a spokesperson in response to queries from CNA.
The airline is monitoring the situation and will adjust its flight schedules as necessary, added the spokesperson.
Typhoon Kong-rey made landfall on Taiwan’s east coast on Thursday, causing its airports to cancel more than 300 international flights as well as all domestic flights.
It is forecast to graze along the coast of China’s Fujian province on Friday.
One death in Taiwan has been reported in relation to the typhoon.
Hopes dim for new constitution before 2027
Lawmakers still haggling over referendum rules, next election will likely be held under 2017 charter
PUBLISHED : 31 Oct 2024 at 20:23
A new constitution is unlikely to be completed before the government’s term ends in less than three years, meaning it will not be in place by the next general election, says the secretary of the joint House-Senate panel on the charter referendum bill.
Nikorn Chamnong, also chief strategist of the coalition Chartthaipattana Party, said that based on the current timeline, it is not possible to rush the process so that the new charter is ready before April 2027, when the next general election is due, assuming the current MPs stay in office until then.
He also said this does not include the time needed to pass the organic laws essential for holding elections. Consequently, the next polls will be organised under the current charter that was drafted under a coup-installed government and took effect in 2017.
The main hurdle to the charter-rewriting process is the difference in opinion between the House of Representatives and the Senate over the size of the majority needed to pass a referendum on amending the constitution.
The House stands by its position that a simple majority vote is sufficient for it to pass. The Senate insists on a so-called double majority: over 50% of voters must participate in the referendum, and the majority of those who take part must support it. The two chambers have set up a joint committee in an attempt to resolve their differences.
Mr Nikorn said the panel’s next meeting is scheduled for Nov 6 and that it plans to meet every Wednesday. However, there is currently no timeline for when the issue will be resolved because parliament is now in recess until mid-December.
“So [the panel] will spend this period carefully looking into the matter. There is no need to rush because the referendum will not take place as initially planned,” he said.
The government initially planned to hold the referendum alongside nationwide local elections in February next year to save costs. In all, three referendums would need to be held, each estimated to cost 2-3 billion baht.
The first referendum would ask voters whether they agree with writing a new charter. If the majority agrees, the second will ask if Section 256 of the current constitution should be amended to allow for the drafting of a new charter. Once a new constitution has been produced, the government will hold a third referendum, asking voters to decide whether it should be adopted.
On Wednesday, the joint committee selected Pol Maj Gen Chattawat Saengpet, a senator, as its chairman, with a plan to reach a conclusion on the referendum before parliament reconvenes in December.
At the next meeting, the committee will gather opinions from all members and will invite agencies, including the Election Commission, to provide input at the following meeting.
The final meeting, scheduled for early December, will conclude the discussions.
In case the joint committee ends up being unable to reach any agreement, the bill will have to be shelved for 180 days. The House will have the final say on the bill and will be able to have it promulgated.
Nikorn Chamnong, chief strategist of the coalition Chartthaipattana Party, serves as the secretary of the joint House-Senate panel on the charter referendum bill. (Photo: Government House)
Cooler weather a few more days away
Rain still lingering in Bangkok, Lower Central Plains and eastern regions
PUBLISHED : 31 Oct 2024 at 20:09
The cool season is forecast to start in much of the country after Nov 9, when the mercury is expected to drop by 1–2 degrees Celsius in Bangkok, according to the Thai Meteorological Department.
Nov 1–9 marks a transition to the cool season, when rainfall and thunderstorms are in the forecast, although they will taper off, giving away to cooler weather in most parts of the country, with temperatures on mountain peaks plummeting to single digits, the department said on Thursday.
The Lower Central Plains and the Eastern region, as well as Bangkok and adjacent provinces, have been experiencing the last storms of the rainy season, it said.
The weather would have been cooler by this time of year had it not been for lingering low pressure over the South China Sea and the influence of Typhoon Kong-rey, which is barrelling through Taiwan and is impacting the weather pattern in the region, it said.
From Nov 1-9, a relatively strong cold air mass is expected to move over upper Thailand, bringing strong winds, rain and thunderstorms in the Northeast, East and the Central Plains region, including Bangkok.
Farmers are advised to prepare for the impact of unstable weather on their crops.
During the period, temperatures will start to drop, first in the Northeast (by 2-4C on Saturday morning, then in the North (by 2-4C), and the Central Plains region (by 1-3C).
In Bangkok and adjacent provinces, temperatures are expected to drop by 1-2C.
Meanwhile, residents along the Gulf of Thailand are bracing for heavy rain, strong waves, flash floods and runoff. They are asked to monitor weather updates for alerts.
In Chiang Mai, meanwhile, the lowest temperature on Doi Inthanon, the country’s highest summit, was 9C on Thursday, said Kriangkrai Chaipiset, head of Doi Inthanon National Park.
At the popular Kew Mae Pan nature trail near the summit, it was 10C while the park headquarters saw the mercury drop to 14C, he said.
No fine dust pollution was reported in the park, he added.
On Wednesday, the park received 1,822 visitors, 1,135 of whom were foreign nationals.
Poll body to seek senator’s dismissal
Somchai Lenglak convicted of vote-buying while running for MP’s position
PUBLISHED : 31 Oct 2024 at 19:52
The Election Commission (EC) will ask the Constitutional Court to disqualify Somchai Lenglak as a senator after a court barred him from taking part in elections for 10 years for an earlier vote-buying offence, a source said on Thursday.
The poll body is in the process of drafting its petition, the source added.
The move follows a Supreme Court ruling on Sept 23, which found Mr Somchai had committed election fraud while running as an MP candidate for Constituency 9 in Songkhla in the 2023 general election. The court banned him from taking part in elections for 10 years.
The source said the EC believes Mr Somchai should be barred from holding public office because he was aware of and actively engaged in vote-buying.
Meanwhile, the EC is expected to reach a final decision next week on Senator Keskamol Pleansamai, who is facing disqualification over questions surrounding her educational background.
The commission is considering whether Ms Keskamol’s claim that she had graduated from California University with a PhD constituted deception to win votes, a violation of Section 77 of the 2018 Senate election law.
California University Foreign Credentials Evaluation Institution, as it is known officially, issues certificates “equivalent” to degrees based on an applicant’s educational and work achievements, not degrees.
Lee Hsien Yang turning ‘personal vendetta’ into international smear campaign: Singapore government
SINGAPORE: Mr Lee Hsien Yang is turning a “personal vendetta” into an international smear campaign “against his father, his family and his country”, said the Singapore government on Thursday (Oct 31) after the son of the country’s founding prime minister gave another media interview – the second in slightly over a week – criticising it.
In an interview with The Associated Press (AP), he made a range of claims including saying that Singapore has become much more repressive.
The article published earlier on Thursday – titled Singapore’s affluent veneer hides repression and corruption, says son of its modern-day founder – also quoted him as saying that corruption has worsened in the decade since the death of his father and founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
In response to media queries from AP, the Singapore government said that Mr Lee Hsien Yang was a “major beneficiary of the Singapore system”.
But having been found by the court and a Disciplinary Tribunal to have misled his father, he has “decided to turn his personal vendetta into an international smear campaign against his father, his family and his country”.
The Singapore government said in its response that AP should consider the facts and conclusions from the Disciplinary Tribunal when assessing the credibility of the claims made by Mr Lee Hsien Yang.
First, the tribunal found that he and his wife Mrs Lee Suet Fern presented “an elaborate edifice of lies” on the execution of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s last will.
Both the Disciplinary Tribunal and later the Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body dealing with lawyers’ misconduct, found Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his wife misled Mr Lee Kuan Yew in the execution of his last will.
They were also found to have lied under oath.
The findings of the Court of Three Judges and the Disciplinary Tribunal are available online, said the government.
“I trust that you will also make these available to your readers, so that they can judge for themselves the credibility of the claims now made by Lee Hsien Yang,” it said.
SINGAPORE’S FIRM STANCE AGAINST CORRUPTION
In his interview, Mr Lee Hsien Yang also cited examples of alleged corruption including the billion-dollar money laundering case and the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal.
“All the examples of alleged corruption that Lee Hsien Yang cites have been thoroughly addressed, either through the courts or in parliament,” said the government.
“Singapore has always acted firmly and decisively against those who break our laws. Recently, a former minister was sentenced to a year in prison for accepting gifts. If he had been a minister elsewhere he would not have been charged for accepting such gifts, let alone sentenced to a year in prison,” said the government, referring to former transport minister S Iswaran.
“Just as Mr Lee Kuan Yew acted when he was prime minister, neither Mr Lee Hsien Loong nor his successor Mr Lawrence Wong prevented their former colleague from being investigated, prosecuted and convicted.”
The government said that Singapore takes a firm stance against corruption and other serious financial crimes.
“This was the case when Mr Lee Kuan Yew was in Cabinet. And it has remained so even after his passing in 2015, as evidenced by global rankings.”
Singapore was ranked seventh in the 2015 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index when Mr Lee Kuan Yew was alive, and third in the 2015 World Justice Project’s index for the absence of corruption in its legal and law enforcement systems.
As of 2023, eight years after Mr Lee’s passing, Singapore was ranked fifth and third on these indices respectively, said the government.
“Singapore was also ranked as the least corrupt country in the 2024 Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Report on Perceptions of Corruption in Asia, the US and Australia, a position Singapore has held since 1995.
“Our system is consistent with the international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force. In 2024, we ranked fourth in the Global Financial Centres Index 2024, after New York, London, and Hong Kong.”
“NOT BASED ON PRINCIPLES”
Another example of how Mr Lee Hsien Yang has turned his personal vendetta into an international smear campaign is an allegation he made in his asylum application, said the government.
“Tellingly, he seems to have alleged in his asylum application in the UK that one reason why he and his family are being persecuted by the Singapore government is to prevent his son, Li Shengwu, from being prime minister. That he would go so far as to allege this – though his son has repeatedly said he has no such ambition – shows his campaign against Singapore is not based on principles.”
Mr Lee Hsien Yang said on Oct 22 that he was now a political refugee in the United Kingdom after seeking asylum protection in 2022. Citing the Singapore government’s “attacks” against him, he said he sought asylum protection “as a last resort”.
Mr Lee and his wife have been out of Singapore since 2022 after deciding not to attend a scheduled police interview over potential offences of giving false evidence in judicial proceedings regarding the will of his father.
The government statement also referenced a recent interview Mr Lee Hsien Yang gave to The Guardian, a UK-based newspaper.
He claimed that Singapore retains repressive measures that originated when his father Mr Lee Kuan Yew was prime minister.
“However, after being called unfilial by Singaporeans for criticising his father thus, Lee Hsien Yang now asserts instead that Singapore’s laws have become much more politically repressive since Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s death.”
The government said that Singapore is the only Southeast Asian country that has held regular elections, without fail and without ever suspending its Constitution or imposing martial law once, in its post-independence history.
“Singaporeans are free to vote for whichever party they think can better serve Singapore and Singaporeans. About 40 per cent of Singaporeans vote for opposition parties,” said the government, adding that there are now more opposition MPs in parliament than ever before in the history of independent Singapore.
The government added that Mr Lee himself freely participated in politics.
“He joined an opposition party before the 2020 General Election; considered contesting only to back off at the last minute; and continues to fund and support the opposition from afar.
“Lee Hsien Yang is not a victim of persecution. He and his wife remain citizens. They are and have always been free to return to Singapore.”
Trump leads key swing state while Biden a drag on Harris – Asia Times
The United States presidential election will be held next Tuesday, with results coming in Wednesday AEDT. In analyst Nate Silver’s aggregate of national polls, Democrat Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump by 48.6–47.5, a slight gain for Trump since Monday, when Harris led by 48.6–47.4. Harris’ national lead peaked on October 2, when she led by 49.4–45.9.
The US president isn’t elected by the national popular vote, but by the Electoral College, in which each state receives electoral votes equal to its federal House seats (population based) and senators (always two). Almost all states award their electoral votes as winner-takes-all, and it takes 270 electoral votes to win (out of 538 total).
Relative to the national popular vote, the Electoral College is biased to Trump, with Harris needing at least a two-point popular vote win to be the narrow Electoral College favourite in Silver’s model.
In Silver’s averages, Trump has a 0.6-point lead in Pennsylvania (19 electoral votes), up from 0.3 on Monday. Trump has slightly larger leads of one to two points in North Carolina (16), Georgia (16) and Arizona (11). Harris is narrowly ahead by 0.1 point in Nevada (six) and about one point ahead in Michigan (15) and Wisconsin (ten).
If current polls are exactly right, Trump wins the Electoral College by 281–257. Not making Pennsylvania’s popular governor Josh Shapiro her running mate could be Harris’ biggest mistake.
In Silver’s model, Trump has a 54% chance to win the Electoral College, slightly higher than 53% on Monday. There’s a 29% chance that Harris wins the popular vote but loses the Electoral College. The FiveThirtyEight forecast gives Trump a 51% win probability.
Without a major event, there isn’t likely to be much change in the polls before the election, but a polling error where one candidate overperforms their polls could still occur. Silver’s model gives Trump a 22% probability of sweeping the seven swing states and Harris a 12.5% probability.
I wrote about the US election for The Poll Bludger yesterday, and also covered three Canadian provincial elections and Japan’s conservative LDP, which has governed almost continuously since 1955, losing its majority at an election last Sunday.
Biden a drag on Harris and favorability ratings
Joe Biden remains unpopular with a net -16.5 approval in the FiveThirtyEight national aggregate, with 55.8% disapproving and 39.3% approving. As Harris is the incumbent party’s candidate, an unpopular president is a key reason for Trump’s edge.
Biden’s remarks on Tuesday, in which he seemed to call Trump supporters “garbage”, resembled Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” in the 2016 presidential campaign. This won’t help Harris.
Biden is almost 82, Trump is 78 and Harris is 60. Trump’s age should be a factor in this election that favors Harris, but Silver said on October 19 that Democrats spent so much time defending Biden before he withdrew on July 21 that it’s now difficult for them to attack Trump’s age without seeming hypocritical.
Harris’ net favourability in the FiveThirtyEight national aggregate is -1.5, with 47.8% unfavorable and 46.3% favorable. Her net favourability peaked at +1 in late September. Trump’s net favourability is -8.5, with 52.1% unfavorable and 43.6% favorable; his ratings have improved a little in the last two weeks.
While Harris is more likeable than Trump, that’s not reflected in head-to-head polls. Silver said on October 23 that Trump’s campaign is promoting him as not-nice but on your side and as someone who will get things done. They argue that Harris’ campaign lacks clear policies.
Harris’ running mate Tim Walz is at +2.6 net favourable, while Trump’s running mate J D Vance is at -6.9 net favourable. In the past few weeks, Vance’s ratings have improved slightly while Walz’s have dropped back.
Congressional elections
I last wrote about the elections for the House of Representatives and Senate that will be held concurrently with the presidential election on October 14. The House has 435 single-member seats that are apportioned to states on a population basis, while there are two senators for each of the 50 states.
The House only has a two-year term, so the last House election was at the 2022 midterm elections, when Republicans won the House by 222–213 over Democrats. The FiveThirtyEight aggregate of polls of the national House race gives Democrats a 46.2–46.1 lead over Republicans, a drop for Democrats from a 47.1–45.9 Democratic lead on October 14.
Senators have six-year terms, with one-third up for election every two years. Democrats and aligned independents currently have a 51–49 Senate majority, but they are defending 23 of the 33 regular seats up, including seats in three states Trump won easily in both 2016 and 2020: West Virginia, Montana and Ohio.
West Virginia is a certain Republican gain after the retirement of former Democratic (now independent) Senator Joe Manchin at this election. Republicans have taken a 5.4-point lead in Montana in the FiveThirtyEight poll aggregate, while Democrats are just 1.6 points ahead in Ohio.
Republicans are being challenged by independent Dan Osborn in Nebraska, and he trails Republican Deb Fischer by 2.3 points. Democrats did not contest to avoid splitting the vote. In Democratic-held Wisconsin, Democrats lead by 2.1 points, while other incumbents are ahead by at least three points.
If Republicans gain West Virginia and Montana, but lose Nebraska to Osborn, and no other seats change hands, Republicans would have a 50–49 lead in the Senate. If Harris wins the presidency, Osborn would be the decisive vote as a Senate tie can be broken by the vice president, who would be Walz. This is the rosiest plausible scenario for Democrats.
The FiveThirtyEight congressional forecasts give Republicans a 53% chance of retaining control of the House, so it’s effectively a toss-up like the presidency. But Republicans have an 89% chance to gain control of the Senate.
Adrian Beaumont is election analyst (psephologist) at The Conversation; and honorary associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Bhumjaithai seeks to preserve local positions
Village and sub-district heads face job losses when municipalities are upgraded
PUBLISHED : 31 Oct 2024 at 17:52
The Bhumjaithai Party has submitted two bills aimed at preserving the positions of village and sub-district headmen in municipalities, saying they are needed to facilitate effective work with residents.
Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul, who is also the interior minister, said a recent Administrative Court ruling could affect the positions of village headmen, known as phuyai ban, and sub-district headmen, known as kamnan.
The court ordered the elimination of the two positions if a municipality is upgraded to either a town, known as thesaban muang, governing 10,000 people, or a city, known as thesaban nakhon, with 50,000 people or more.
Under the Local Administration Act, the positions of the affected village headmen and kamnans must be eliminated within one year of a change in a municipality’s status.
“We still want the positions of phuyai ban and kamnan to be retained in their municipal areas because we believe that they can help take care of people’s well-being,” Mr Anutin said on Wednesday.
“They can also assist in coordinating efforts with the municipality to make things easier for residents.”
Mr Anutin said he had discussed the issue with the opposition and coalition parties and they agreed that amending the law would benefit the people.
He said he hoped that all political parties would support the amendment in the next parliamentary session, which starts on Dec 12.
The move by the Bhumjaithai Party followed the submission of a letter on Oct 29 by the Village Headmen Association, which called for the preservation of the positions.
Korawee Prissananantakul, a member of the party’s executive committee and an MP for Ang Thong, said on Thursday that when the party’s leadership learned of the matter, they brought it up during a meeting on Oct 30 and resolved to proceed with the bills.
He said Bhumjaithai wanted to assure the village and sub-district headmen that they play an important role in local administration.
South Korean officials block bid to send balloons carrying leaflets into North
A group of police officers was involved in blocking the balloon launch, Choi told reporters, adding that he would seek permission for another launch. Authorities in Paju, the city near the site of the incident, said entry had been barred for people linked to efforts to distribute the leaflets criticalContinue Reading