https://www.dw.com/en/thailands-king-can-be-expelled-if-he-rules-from-germany-parliament/a-55690987 https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3107847/thai-political-crisis-can-king-vajiralongkorn-and-monarchy Upon first glance, the King of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn, is a deeply comical and absurd person. However, to many of the people of Thailand, the King’s escapades of excess and luxury in the Bavarian alps thousands of miles away from Thailand is far from a laughing matter. As the successor to his revered father, Bhumibol, who had the… Read more »
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/13/aung-san-suu-kyis-party-returns-to-power-in-myanmar In the second election cycle since the creation of Myanmar’s New Democratic system in 2015, the ruling party of President Aung San Suu Kyi has won enough votes to “form a new government”. The Myanmar president, a Nobel laureate who has built a complicated global reputation, has gained incredible popularity among the country’s Bamar (Burmese) majority ever since her… Read more »
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/06/north-korea-congress-kim-jong-un-economic-plan-failure-mistake-biden In a very rare congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un gave a speech about the nation’s five-year economic plan. In a rather candid confession of self-failure (an occurrence which is becoming less and less rare from the ‘dear leader’), Kim Jong Un claimed that the plan was an unequivocal failure which did not… Read more »
https://www.chinanews.net/news/267465207/prominent-hong-kong-student-activist-charged-with-subversion Chinese authorities in Hong Kong have arrested the prominent pro-democracy, anti-Beijing organizer and activist, Joshua Wong, following the previous day’s arrests of at least 53 other Hong Kong protestors. This crackdown represents the harshest measures the Chinese authorities have taken against protestors in Hong Kong since Beijing passed new domestic security legislation in July, which states that anyone even… Read more »
https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-tanker-boarded-iran-guard-bbb977f8756fb4967c2e1f9756d94212 A South Korean tanker was seized by Iranian armed forces near the Strait of Hormuz and directed into Iran. This comes ahead of negotiations over 7 billion dollars of Iranian assets frozen in South Korean banks. While the official Iranian government response has refused to acknowledge any connection between the two events, government spokesman Ali Raibei directly confronted the… Read more »
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-southkorea/south-korea-bans-anti-north-leaflets-defector-says-he-wont-stop-idUSKBN28O1OI In an effort to improve inter-border relations, the South Korean parliament had voted to ban the movement of anti-North leaflets into North Korea. This comes after the North Korean government ramped up its condemnation of the leaflets, which are mostly carried over the border by balloon or by river, along with other items including money, medicine, food, and USB… Read more »
The Rakhine state of Myanmar, which was the scene for 2017’s brutal military crackdown against Rohingya Muslims, seems to be inevitably heading towards more armed ethnic conflict, but this time involving the state’s nationalistic insurgents and the ruling Myanmar government. After the country’s recent November elections (the second since the creation of the new democratic government in 2015), there has… Read more »
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-election/thai-youth-party-fails-to-make-gains-in-local-poll-idUSKBN28V1B0 With Thailand’s most recent provincial elections in the books, the youth-led Progressive Movement party failed to win in any of the 41 Thai provinces. The party is the successor to the Future Forward party that was banned due to its radical anti-royalist views. These new results follow after many months of anti-royalist and pro-democracy protests from Thai youth, which… Read more »
