Thailand’s Pita fails in PM bid after losing parliament vote

Thai MPs attend the house speaker nomination at Parliament in Bangkok on July 4, 2023. Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat is running unopposed for new prime minister in what will be a critical test of his political clout. (AFP)
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Updated 13 July 2023
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Thailand’s Pita fails in PM bid after losing parliament vote

  • US-educated liberal faces a big challenge in securing the required backing of more than half of the 749-member bicameral parliament
  • Many lawmakers are opposed to his party’s anti-establishment agenda, including a controversial plan to amend a law that prohibits insults of the monarchy

BANGKOK: Thailand’s Pita Limjaroenrat failed on Thursday in his initial bid to become Thailand’s next prime minister, after he was unable to secure the required endorsement of more than half of the bicameral parliament.

Pita, leader of election winners Move Forward, was unopposed in the contest but could not muster the required support, with a host of abstentions and votes against him. Parliament is expected to hold another vote next week, which Pita can contest if nominated again.

Move Forward and its alliance partner, Pheu Thai, thrashed conservative pro-military parties in the May 14 election, seen widely as a resounding rejection of nearly a decade of government led or backed by the royalist military.

But Pita’s determination to pursue Move Forward’s agenda puts him at odds with a powerful nexus of conservatives and old-money families that have loomed large over Thai politics for decades, and will be almost certain to try to thwart him on Thursday.

His alliance controls 312 seats, but to get the required 375 votes he needs support from some of the 249 members of the conservative-leaning upper house Senate, which was appointed by the military after a 2014 coup. There were 676 lawmakers in attendance for the vote.

“I will do my best to match the hope and encouragement from the people,” Pita told reporters as he arrived at parliament.

“I’ll use this opportunity to find a consensus.”


Mass shooting in gang-plagued Mexican state leaves 12 dead and more injured

Updated 57 min 22 sec ago
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Mass shooting in gang-plagued Mexican state leaves 12 dead and more injured

  • The attorney general’s office in Guanajuato said some 20 others were hospitalized
  • Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the victims included children

MEXICO CITY: At least 12 people were killed, including a teenager, and more wounded in a Tuesday night shooting in the central Mexican city of Irapuato, authorities said on Wednesday.

The attorney general’s office in Guanajuato, the violence-plagued state where Irapuato is located, said some 20 others were hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier on Wednesday that the victims included children, although the attorney general’s office later confirmed only one casualty was a minor, aged 17.

“It is very unfortunate what happened. An investigation is under way,” Sheinbaum said.

Local media reported the shooting happened during an evening party celebrating a Catholic holiday, the Nativity of John the Baptist.

A video circulating on social media showed people dancing in the patio of a housing complex while a band played in the background, before gunfire erupted. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the video.

Guanajuato has been for many years one of the most violent regions in the country.

On Tuesday, five other people were killed in other parts of the state, according to the attorney general’s office.


29 pupils taking high school exams killed in Central Africa crush

Updated 26 June 2025
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29 pupils taking high school exams killed in Central Africa crush

  • In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school
  • “I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” Touadera said

BANGUI: Twenty-nine students taking their high school exams in the Central African Republic died in a stampede sparked by an exploding power transformer, the health ministry told AFP Thursday.

Just over 5,300 students were sitting the second day of the baccalaureate exams at the time of the explosion early Wednesday afternoon in Bangui, the capital of the deeply poor nation.

In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school.

The injured were transported by ambulance, on the back of pickup trucks or by motorbike taxi, AFP journalists saw.

“I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” President Faustin Archange Touadera said in a video published on his party’s Facebook page.

Touadera, who is attending a summit of the Gavi vaccine alliance in Brussels, also announced three days of national mourning.

According to a document circulating on social media and authenticated by the health ministry, 29 deaths were registered by hospitals in the city.

“The hospital was overwhelmed by people to the point of obstructing caregivers and ambulances, a health ministry source stated.

UN peacekeepers, police and other security were seen around the Barthelemy Boganda high school and hospitals.

Education Minister Aurelien-Simplice Kongbelet-Zingas said in a statement Wednesday that “measures will be taken quickly to shed light on the circumstances of this incident.”

The minister added that a further statement would follow regarding selection of a date for the students to resume their exams program.

The Republican Bloc for the Defense of the Constitution (BRDC), a coalition of opposition parties, condemned what it termed “the irresponsibility of the authorities in place, who have failed in their duty to ensure the safety of students and school infrastructure.”

The CAR is among the poorest countries in the world and, since independence from France in 1960, has endured a succession of coups, authoritarian rulers and civil wars.

The latest civil war started more than a decade ago. The government has secured the main cities and violence has subsided in recent years.

But fighting occasionally erupts in remote regions between rebels and the national army, which is backed by Wagner mercenaries and Rwandan troops.

Municipal, legislative, and presidential elections are scheduled for August and December of this year but UN experts are calling for urgent institutional reform of the electoral authority before the polls and for “transparent internal governance,” as tensions between the government and the opposition intensify.


Kremlin says no date yet for next round of Ukraine peace talks

Updated 26 June 2025
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Kremlin says no date yet for next round of Ukraine peace talks

  • Peskov said Russia was in favor of continued US efforts to mediate
  • They have made no progress toward a ceasefire

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Thursday there was no progress yet toward setting a date for the next round of peace talks with Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported.

Another agency, TASS, quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Russia was in favor of continued US efforts to mediate.

Resuming negotiations after a gap of more than three years, Russia and Ukraine held face-to-face talks in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2 that led to a series of prisoner exchanges and the return of the bodies of dead soldiers.

But they have made no progress toward a ceasefire which Ukraine, with Western backing, has been pressing for.


16 dead, thousands of businesses destroyed after Kenya protests

Updated 26 June 2025
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16 dead, thousands of businesses destroyed after Kenya protests

  • The marches had been called to mark one year since anti-tax demonstrations
  • “What unfolded yesterday was not a protest. It was terrorism disguised as dissent,” Kipchumba Murkomen, interior cabinet secretary, said

NAIROBI: At least 16 people died in protests across Kenya on Wednesday, Amnesty International said Thursday, as businesses and residents were left to clean up the devastation in the capital and beyond.

The marches had been called to mark one year since anti-tax demonstrations that peaked when a huge crowd stormed parliament and dozens were killed by security forces.

The anniversary marches began peacefully Wednesday but descended into chaos as young men held running battles with police, lit fires, and ripped up pavements to use as projectiles.

“What unfolded yesterday was not a protest. It was terrorism disguised as dissent,” Kipchumba Murkomen, interior cabinet secretary, said in a televised speech.

“We condemn the criminal anarchists who in the name of peaceful demonstrations unleashed a wave of violence, looting, sexual assault and destruction upon our people,” he added.

In Nairobi’s business district, the epicenter of the unrest, AFP journalists found entire shopping centers and thousands of businesses destroyed, many still smoldering.

At least two banks had been broken into, while businesses ranging from supermarkets to small electronics and clothing stores were reduced to ashes or ransacked by looters.

“When we came we found the whole premise burnt down,” said Raphael Omondi, 36, owner of a print shop, adding that he had lost machines worth $150,000.

“There were guys stealing, and after stealing they set the whole premises on fire... If this is what protest is, it is not worth it.”

“They looted everything... I do not know where to start,” said Maureen Chepkemoi, 32, owner of a perfume store.

“To protest is not bad but why are you coming to protest inside my shop? It is wicked,” she added.

Several business owners told AFP that looting had started in the afternoon after the government ordered TV and radio stations to stop broadcasting live images of the protests.

Amnesty International’s Kenya director Irungu Houghton said the death toll had risen to 16.

Rights group Vocal Africa, which was documenting the deaths and helping affected families at a Nairobi morgue, said at least four bodies had been brought there so far.

“All of them had signs of gunshots, so we suspect they all died of gunshot wounds,” its head Hussein Khalid told AFP.

“We condemn this excessive use of force,” he said. “We believe that the police could have handled themselves with restraint.”

“You come out to protest police killings, and they kill even more.”

A coalition of rights groups had earlier said at least 400 people were wounded, with 83 in serious condition in hospital. It recorded protests in 23 counties around Kenya.

Emergency responders reported multiple gunshot wounds, and there were unconfirmed local media reports that police had opened fire on protesters, particularly in towns outside the capital.

There is deep resentment against President William Ruto, who came to power in 2022 promising rapid economic progress.

Many are disillusioned by continued economic stagnation, corruption and high taxes, as well as police brutality after a teacher was killed in custody earlier this month.


Vehicle hits pedestrians near school in Beijing: Chinese police

Updated 26 June 2025
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Vehicle hits pedestrians near school in Beijing: Chinese police

  • A grey SUV wedged against a tree as several people and clothing were seen in the road
  • “On June 26, 2025, at around 13:00, a traffic accident occurred near the intersection of Yucai Road and Dongmen Street in Miyun district,” local police wrote

BEIJING: A vehicle crashed into pedestrians in an “accident” near a school in Beijing on Thursday, Chinese police said, with footage shared online appearing to show young people lying injured in the street.

Videos geolocated by AFP to an intersection in Miyun district in the northeast of the capital showed a grey SUV wedged against a tree as several people and clothing were seen in the road.

In one clip a bloodied young person was seen being given first aid by somebody in white overalls.

“On June 26, 2025, at around 13:00, a traffic accident occurred near the intersection of Yucai Road and Dongmen Street in Miyun district,” local police wrote in an online statement.

A 35-year-old man surnamed Han “collided” with people “due to an improper operation,” it said, adding those injured were taken to hospital.

It did not give the number of injured.

“The accident is under further investigation,” the statement said.

China has seen a string of mass casualty incidents — from stabbings to car attacks — challenging its reputation for good public security.

Last year a man who plowed his car into a crowd of mostly school children in central China was handed a suspended death sentence with a two-year reprieve.

In November 2024 the attacker named as Huang Wen repeatedly rammed his car into a crowd outside a primary school in Hunan province.

When the vehicle malfunctioned and stopped, Huang got out and attacked bystanders with a weapon before being apprehended.

Thirty people, including 18 pupils, sustained minor injuries.

Some analysts have linked the incidents to growing anger and desperation at the country’s slowing economy and a sense that society is becoming more stratified.

In November last year, a man killed 35 people and wounded more than 40 when he rammed his car into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai, the country’s deadliest attack in a decade.

And in the same month, eight people were killed and 17 wounded in a knife attack at a vocational school in the eastern Chinese city of Yixing.