Thailand’s energy minister said the flood crisis in Bangkok is likely to drag on for another month, as authorities issued another evacuation advisory in a northern neighborhood and floodwaters inched further into the city’s heart.
Thai Minister of Energy Pichai Naripthaphan said, however, that floods may finally begin to subside in the capital by the middle of this month, a government statement said late on Monday. Yesterday, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced she would not be attending the upcoming APEC summit in the US due to the floods.
Top officials and experts have given varying estimates of how much Bangkok would flood and how long the threat would loom over the city, with some claiming several weeks ago the biggest window of danger to the metropolis of 9 million people had already passed.
Instead, the flood threat has only intensified, straining sandbag-stacking residents as more and more neighborhoods are swamped each day. The seemingly unstoppable floodwaters have overwhelmed canals, seeped up through drains and poured down condominium-lined highways. The water has now begun surrounding the city’s northernmost subway stops.
Evacuations have been ordered in 12 of Bangkok’s 50 districts, with residents of the northern district of Khlong Sam Wa told to leave on Monday. The evacuations, which also affect parts of several other districts, are not mandatory, and many people are staying to protect homes and businesses.
Some provinces to the north of Bangkok have been inundated for more than a month and waters have started to recede in recent days as massive pools of runoff flow south.
In Nakorn Sawan Province, Anan Dirath was forced to live on the second floor of his home for two months. However, now that the water has receded to knee level, he has begun to clean up.
In nearby Nakorn Sawan town center, where the water has dried completely, the government sponsored a cleanup day last week when roads were scrubbed down to get rid of the oily mud left from the floods. Backhoes were used to carry garbage away.
The cleanup also has begun in some parts of the ancient capital of Ayutthaya. Yingluck planned to visit the province later yesterday to witness recovery efforts.
The prime minister, facing the first crisis of her fledgling leadership, had been planning to brief leaders at the APEC summit about the crisis and boost investor confidence in the country.
However, Yingluck said she would send Thai Deputy Prime Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong, who is also the commerce minister, on her behalf.
The APEC meeting on Saturday and Sunday would have been the first international summit for Yingluck, a political novice who only came to power three months ago.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS