A total of 103 public schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) have cancelled classes for periods ranging from one to five days, depending on their locations, as the capital grapples with worsening PM2.5 air pollution. Some schools began cancelling classes on Monday, while many others are set to close starting Thursday. BMA Governor Chadchart Sittipunt stated that he has authorised school directors to independently decide whether air quality in their areas poses a hazard to students. If school directors determine that air quality in their vicinity is unsafe, they may close schools for up to three days at a…
Author: Asia News Network
January 23, 2025, will mark a historic moment for Thailand with the enforcement of the Marriage Equality law, Traisulee Traisoranakul, Secretary to the Minister of the Interior, said. This milestone signifies the implementation of the Civil and Commercial Code Amendment Act (No. 24) 2024, expanding marriage rights to all couples regardless of gender. Following the law’s publication in the Royal Gazette on September 24, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul directed agencies, particularly the Department of Provincial Administration, to ensure readiness. Preparations have been completed, including updating rules, testing registration systems, and producing marriage and divorce certificates.…
K-pop’s once-unyielding growth is showing signs of faltering, raising concerns about the lack of globally dominant groups that can sustain the genre’s popularity after BTS and Blackpink. Industry experts suggest that the surge in concerts by K-pop groups post-COVID-19 may have led to strong export and sales figures in recent years. However, they warn against relying on these metrics as the sole indicators of growth. Rather, there is a consensus that the emergence of a new big-name group is crucial for the long-term stability and success of the industry. Data from the Korea Customs Service released Sunday showed that K-pop’s…
ASEAN launched an expanded ASEAN Guide on AI Governance and Ethics for generative AI on Friday. The updated guide, published at the ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting 2025, provides a policy-driven recommendation to manage risks and promote responsible use of generative artificial intelligence, which is built upon the previous edition of the guide in 2024. The last version highlighted six major risks posed by the technology, including mistakes and anthropomorphism, factual inaccuracies, deepfakes, intellectual property (IP) infringements, privacy and confidentiality, as well as embedded biases. The document now also delves into frontier and systemic risks linked to the long-term evolution of…
A man was arrested Monday after he allegedly hijacked an ambulance that he had called to his own home. According to police in Kuki, Saitama Prefecture, the 46-year-old man made an emergency call complaining of stomach pain. When ambulance staff arrived at his home, however, he burst into anger, took out a knife and brandished it at the staff. The ambulance staff fled the home, after which the man allegedly drove away in the ambulance at about 7:25 p.m. He has been arrested on suspicion of theft. The suspect, whose occupation is unknown, has told investigators at the Kuki Police…
On his first day back in the White House, President Donald Trump announced the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and from the World Health Organization (WHO)—an executive action he made during his first term but which his successor, Joe Biden, reversed. Trump’s move taking back the United States’ commitment to the Paris climate accord is seen as a defiant rejection of global efforts to combat planetary warming as catastrophic weather events intensify worldwide. The Republican leader also declared a “national energy emergency” to expand drilling in the world’s top oil and gas producer, said he would scrap…
Thailand’s tourism sector has suffered a significant setback as thousands of Chinese tourists cancel their travel plans amid growing safety concerns. The cancellations, affecting both chartered flights and hotel bookings, come in the wake of recent incidents involving Chinese nationals in the region. Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool reports that around 10,000 Chinese tourists have cancelled their visits, primarily affecting chartered flights from second-tier Chinese cities. The situation has been exacerbated by negative social-media coverage in China, particularly regarding cases of human trafficking and fraudulent activities. Thapanee remains optimistic about achieving the annual target of 8 million…
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck a mountainous, rural area of Taiwan’s south on Jan 21, the island’s weather administration said, injuring 27 people and causing ceilings of homes to cave in according to the local authorities. The quake had a depth of 9.4km with its epicentre in Dapu township in Chiayi county, the weather administration said. The US Geological Survey, meanwhile, put the magnitude at 6.0. The shallow quake caused buildings in the capital Taipei to shake as it struck at 12.17am local time, 12km north of Yujing, a mango-growing district in southern Taiwan. Video posted on Facebook and verified by…
Dusk in wintry Davos is a lovely thing. The sun dips behind the alpine town’s mountains, and the glare of the daylight bouncing off the snow fades into a gentle sheen. And that was how it was here, before 5.43pm in Switzerland on Jan 20, as a smiling Mr Donald Trump walked into the Capitol Rotunda in Washington to take his oath to become the United States’ 47th president. As the sky darkened, some people gathered in a tiny room at Hotel Meierhof. There was historian Niall Ferguson, Financial Times commentator Martin Wolf, King’s College provost Gillian Tett, and Dr…