No-one should be surprised that Thailand’s former prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, has been impeached by the military-appointed National Legislative Assembly. This was one more act in a political tragedy…
The latest Hunger Games film, Mockingjay – Part 1, is topping the international box office. Although it’s a Hollywood blockbuster aimed at young adults, it presents potentially quite subversive ideas of…
District Thai: A pro-democracy Thai student protests using the salute from the film.
Rungroj Yongrit/EPA
Thailand’s prime minister, General Prayut Chan-ocha, has a problem on his hands. You may be surprised to learn that this problem is in the form of a teen fantasy film – The Hunger Games. Imagine Obama…
Thai coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha is consolidating power but playing his cards close to his chest, giving few if any signs of a return to democratic rule.
EPA/Azhar Rahim
Thailand is an increasingly edgy place six months after a coup removed its elected government. Protagonists on the side of the curtailment of democracy fear the elaborated military regime will stuff up…
Thailand’s military coup in May is a sign of political malaise without an obvious cure in the absence of a new social contract.
EPA/Pongmanat Tasiri
Rather than a new dawn for democracy, political and social reform in the region has led to less representation and more contestation. This has potentially far-reaching consequences. What does the May coup…
Legislating for commercial surrogacy would enable Australia to overcome concerns about poorly regulated clinics overseas, such as this one in Thailand.
EPA/Rungroj Yongrit
Often emphasised in discussions about children’s best interests is the idea that certain ways of having and raising children are “natural”. For example, this word appears frequently in reference to how…
Thais pray at Bangkok’s Siriraj hospital for the king who has reigned over them for 69 years.
EPA/Narong Sangnak
Late last Friday the King of Thailand was rushed from his seaside palace in Hua Hin to Siriraj hospital in Bangkok. The Palace issued an announcement that the King was suffering from a fever and a rapid…
Thai police keep watch at a shopping centre in Bangkok where authorities remain on guard for any protests against military rule.
EPA/Narong Sangnak
Six weeks ago, Thai army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha announced a military takeover. The constitution was set aside, while leaving the monarchy in place. The army soon reconsidered, though, and retained much…
It’s hard to pin down the supply chain for prawns.
EPA/Daniel Munoz
The use of slave labour in the global chain that supplies prawns to supermarkets in the US and the UK has been highlighted by a report in The Guardian. Following a six-month investigation, it was revealed…
This Vietnamese school girl is growing up in a new era: by the time she is middle-aged, 60% of the world’s children will be living in a tropical region.
UN Photo/Mark Garten
Our Tropical Future: A new report on the State of the Tropics has revealed rapid changes in human and environmental health in the Earth’s tropical regions. This is the first in a four-part series about…
So it’s Day 21 in Channel 5’s Big Brother household. It would also have been George Orwell’s 111th birthday. And this month marks 65 years since his landmark novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was first published…
Ostensibly, the May 22 coup was just the latest instalment in Thailand’s decade-long political conflict. On one side are the forces loyal to tycoon-turned-politician Thaksin Shinawatra: some business elites…
The 1981 coup leaders claimed to be defending the Spanish monarchy, but King Juan Carlos ensured they did not succeed.
Manuel Perez Barriopedro/Wordpress
I clearly remember the BBC news on February 23, 1981. The second item concerned an attempted coup in Spain in which armed soldiers marched into the Cortes (parliament) and took its members hostage. Their…
Not all Thais have reacted with anger and dismay to the military takeover of their country. In fact, for those on the anti-government side, these are welcome developments. But that is no reason not to…
ASEAN’s principle of non-interference ensures minimal response to the coup that removed Yingluck Shinawatra from its leaders’ ranks.
EPA/Rungroj Yongrit
Events on either side of the Bay of Bengal illustrate the contrasting fortunes of democracy in Asia. Notwithstanding questions about his role in anti-Muslim violence, Narendra Modi stormed to a huge victory…
Protesters are defying the military’s ban on gatherings to demonstrate in Bangkok against the coup.
EPA/Narong Sangnak
Thailand’s army commander, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, took his unilateral declaration of martial law one step further on May 22, grabbing power for a military junta. The two-step coup caught some observers…
For more than 80 years, Thailand has been struggling to build a stable and functioning democracy. On the afternoon of Thursday May 22, that process was set back again with the country’s 12th military coup…
The military’s failure to consult the government before declaring martial law casts doubt on its denial that a creeping coup has begun.
EPA/Rungroj Yongrit
In the dead of night, Thailand’s military has used a 100-year-old law to declare martial law across the country. General Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army’s commander, has said it did not overthrow the government…
For just over an hour, as Bangkok slept, the Thai military’s declaration of martial law went largely unnoticed. The announcement was stage-managed. Made in the early hours of Tuesday May 20, the first…
Thailand’s ‘red shirts’ are getting ready to confront their opponents if a new government is installed without fresh elections.
EPA/Narong Sangnak
It is just possible to discern signs pointing to agreement among Thailand’s protagonists other than the hardline street protesters that lower house elections tentatively set for July 20 will go ahead then…