BANGKOK: Thailand’s disbanded opposition Move Forward unveiled a new leadership and political vehicle on Friday that will become the biggest party in parliament, naming it People’s Party, and promising to advance its predecessor’s progressive platform.
The anti-establishment Move Forward, which won most seats in the last election but was blocked from forming a government, was dissolved by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday, which ruled its plan to amend a law that shields the royal family from criticism risked undermining democracy and the constitutional monarchy.
All 143 surviving Move Forward lawmakers have joined the new party to be led by 37-year-old Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, a former executive of a cloud software company who joined Move Forward in 2019.
“We will carry on Move Forward’s ideology. The mission for me and the party is to create a government for change in 2027,” Natthaphong told a press conference.
The dissolution, which was criticized by the United States, Britain and European Union, was the latest salvo in a two-decade battle for power in Thailand that broadly pits its conservative establishment and royalist military against popularly elected parties.
Move Forward’s liberal agenda has won massive support from young and urban voters, but earned it some powerful enemies, with plans that include reforming the military and dismantling business monopolies worth billions of dollars each year.
Its bid to amend a law on royal insults was its undoing, riling influential generals and royalists with far-reaching connections, who see the monarchy as sacrosanct.
Though the court in a January ruling ordered Move Forward to drop its campaign, Natthaphong said the new party would continue the push to change the law, known as article 112, though with caution.
Thailand’s lese majeste law one of the world’s strictest of its kind, with punishments of up to 15 years for each perceived insult of the crown. The palace typically does not comment on the law.
“We have said we propose to amend article 112 to ensure that this law is not a political tool used to abuse others, but we won’t be careless,” Natthaphong said.
“I think we will continue to push for the improvement and fixing of this law, which is still problematic.”
Nattapong is a graduate in computer engineering and was Move Forward’s deputy secretary-general, working on the party’s digital policies, which were key to its election win.
The People’s Party is the third incarnation of the Future Forward, which was dissolved for a campaign financing violation in 2020, triggering nationwide anti-government protests.
The English name People’s Party was commonly used by the Khana Ratsadon, which launched a 1932 revolution that ended the country’s absolute monarchy.
Thailand’s disbanded opposition regroups under new anti-establishment party
https://arab.news/p5dww
Thailand’s disbanded opposition regroups under new anti-establishment party
- Anti-establishment Move Forward was dissolved by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday
- All 143 surviving Move Forward lawmakers have joined the new party
UK Labour MPs ‘scared’ to challenge Starmer on Gaza, Lebanon
- MP Zarah Sultana tells BBC ex-colleagues who disagree with PM risk losing their jobs
- Labour leader has drawn criticism over failure to do more against Israel
LONDON: A former Labour MP has said colleagues are “scared for their jobs” over disagreeing with the party’s leader, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, on Israel’s war in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon.
Starmer has called for immediate ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon, saying at the UN General Assembly last week that “escalation serves no one.”
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy also announced a review into arms export licenses to Israel in July, amid fears that items sold to the country could be used to commit war crimes in Gaza. Thirty licenses were suspended in September.
However, Starmer has found himself at odds with many in his party, with some believing that he has not done enough to facilitate an end to the fighting in the Middle East, or that he has been slow to act. Currently, 320 arms exports licenses from the UK to Israel remain valid.
MP Zarah Sultana, who was suspended by the party earlier this year, told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program: “Many (disagree with Starmer) because we’re seeing (the) deaths of 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza. We’re seeing death in Lebanon, and we know the UK government could take a different route where it prioritized lives, treated them all equally and ended all arms sales.
“I think it’s deeply concerning that people aren’t willing to be public about that because they’re scared for their jobs.”
One of the program’s hosts, Nick Robinson, told listeners that he had contacted six Labour MPs to ask them to comment on Sultana’s claims, but said: “None would come on the program as they said, and I quote one of the MPs we contacted, ‘it would cost us our jobs.’”
Sultana was one of seven Labour MPs suspended by the party in July after voting for a Scottish National Party motion to amend the King’s Speech, which is the UK government’s policy platform for the coming year. She currently sits as an independent MP in the House of Commons.
UN releases $5 million for flood victims in Nigeria
- The flooding has affected more than 1.2 million people in at least 31 out of Nigeria’s 36 states
- Several Nigerian states hit by flooding have seen rises in the cases of cholera
LAGOS: The United Nations Wednesday said it had released $5 million to help flood victims in Nigeria, where the rainy season has killed more than 300 people and caused widespread damage.
The money from its Central Emergency Relief Fund will help “scale up the flood response and address critical needs in three of the most flood affected states in Nigeria,” the UN said in a statement. They are Borno and Bauchi in the northeast, and Sokoto in the northwest.
The flooding has affected more than 1.2 million people in at least 31 out of Nigeria’s 36 states in the West African country, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Around 127,500 hectares of farmland has also been affected.
“Floods across Nigeria have created a crisis within a crisis,” said Mohamed Malick Fall, the UN coordinator in Nigeria.
“Millions of people were already facing critical levels of food insecurity before the floods because of economic hardships that have made it exceedingly difficult for the most vulnerable to feed themselves and their families.
“The floods have compounded people’s suffering.”
The latest emergency aid is in addition to the $6 million already released by the Nigerian Humanitarian Fund.
Several Nigerian states hit by flooding have seen rises in the cases of cholera.
Last month, severe flooding disaster killed at least 31 people and forced around 400,000 out of their homes in northeastern city of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.
In 2022, more than 500 people died and 1.4 million were displaced in the country’s worst floods in a decade.
More UK charter flights to evacuate nationals from Lebanon
- More than 150 British nationals and their dependents were evacuated on Wednesday
- Many commercial airlines have suspended flights to and from Beirut
LONDON: Britain will charter more flights to help citizens and dependents leave Lebanon, the foreign office said on Thursday as Israel continued to strike Beirut overnight.
More than 150 British nationals and their dependents were evacuated from the Lebanese capital on a UK government chartered flight that arrived in Birmingham, central England, on Wednesday, the ministry said.
“A limited number” of flights will depart from Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport on Thursday, and “will continue for as long as the security situation allows,” it added.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was ready to support “hundreds” more to leave Lebanon in the coming days.
The statement came a day after Defense Secretary John Healey visited Cyprus, where 700 British troops and staff are stationed to prepare for the possible evacuations.
Many commercial airlines have suspended flights to and from Beirut.
“Recent events have demonstrated the volatility of the situation in Lebanon,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Thursday, reiterating his message for nationals to “leave the country immediately.”
As of last week, there were around 5,000 British nationals, dual nationals and dependents in Lebanon, according to government estimates.
Israel has intensified its bombing of southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut, saying it aims to secure its northern border after nearly a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The fighting has cost more than 1,000 lives in Lebanon so far.
The British government has confirmed that two of its fighter jets and a tanker were involved in responding to Iran’s firing of a barrage of missiles at Israel on Tuesday, although they “did not engage any targets.”
Russian man jailed for burning Qur’an charged with treason
- Russia’s prosecutor general’s office said that 20-year-old Nikita Zhuravel was accused of sending footage of a freight train carrying warplanes
MOSCOW: A Russian man jailed in February for burning the Qur’an has been charged with treason by prosecutors who accuse him of passing video footage of military movements to Ukraine.
In a statement, Russia’s prosecutor general’s office said that 20-year-old Nikita Zhuravel was accused of sending footage of a freight train carrying warplanes, and information about the movements of a car linked to a Russian military base to a representative of Ukrainian intelligence.
It said Zhuravel had volunteered himself to send the Ukrainian intelligence officer the data.
Reuters was not immediately able to identify a lawyer representing Zhuravel in the treason case.
Zhuravel is serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence after being convicted under Russia’s law against offending religious believers, for publicly burning a Qur’an in his home city of Volgograd.
His case drew international attention last year when Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov published a video in which his son Adam was shown beating and kicking the defendant while he was in prison awaiting trial.
Russian investigators had earlier transferred his case to Chechnya. The Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, said this was because they received many messages from residents of the heavily Muslim region asking to be designated injured parties.
Armed assailants kill four in attack on Mexico rehab center
- The attack took place in Salamanca in the central state of Guanajuato on Tuesday night
- Guanajuato is Mexico’s most violent state, according to official homicide statistics
CELAYA, Mexico: Armed assailants attacked a drug rehabilitation center in Mexico, killing four people and wounding five others, local authorities said Wednesday.
The attack took place in Salamanca in the central state of Guanajuato on Tuesday night, the municipal government said in a statement.
Police and the National Guard “initiated a chase to find those responsible,” but the attackers escaped by throwing down metal spikes to puncture the tires of security forces in pursuit, it said.
Police said three bodies of those killed were found inside the rehab center while a fourth was found in the street.
No suspects have been arrested yet.
Disputes between drug gangs have led to rehab centers being targeted in several attacks in Mexico.
Authorities say some rehab centers are used as safe havens by suspected members of criminal groups, who are attacked by their rivals when found.
Guanajuato is Mexico’s most violent state, according to official homicide statistics, due to fighting between the local Santa Rosa de Lima cartel and the powerful Jalisco New Generation.
Mexico has recorded more than 450,000 murders since December 2006, when a controversial military anti-drug operation was launched.
