Thailand’s red-shirted protesters, loyal to ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said they would hold a parade today that would eclipse last week’s street events that drew 65,000 people.
The “Red Shirts” said that, to avoid any attempt to halt their action, they will not announce the parade’s route in advance and instead allow the assembled protesters to decide where to march.
“We ask all Red Shirt people to come here ... and leaders will ask our people on what our next move will be,” Reds leader Nattawut Saikua told reporters at the main rally ground in the government quarter yesterday.
“We have to make a move in order to show our power, because staying put would not be a forceful protest,” he said, adding that the street demonstrations which began on March 14 would remain peaceful.
Thaksin’s supporters were buoyed by last Saturday’s parade which saw a colorful convoy of trucks, cars and motorcycles snake through Bangkok’s teeming streets.
Nattawut said this weekend’s gathering would be bigger but, with grumbles emerging over disruption caused by the rallies, did not repeat organizers’ earlier promises to mount an event that would “shut down” Bangkok.
The Reds, largely from poor northern areas, are pushing for elections to replace the government, which came to power with army backing in a 2008 parliamentary vote after a controversial court ruling removed Thaksin’s allies.
Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and lives in exile to avoid a jail sentence for corruption, regularly addresses his supporters by videolink and on Thursday urged them to intensify pressure on the government.
“I pledge all of you to come out in force and fight peacefully. If they won’t listen to us then we will begin civil disobedience as Gandhi did to win against Britain,” he said.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
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MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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