BANGKOK: Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has recovered from COVID-19, he said on Wednesday, as he prepares to face trial on charges of insulting the monarchy.
The 74-year-old two-time premier ousted in a 2006 coup is expected in court on June 18 for prosecution under the kingdom’s strict lese-majeste laws.
Prosecutors announced the charges last week but were unable to summon Thaksin because he was sick with COVID-19.
“I am recovered,” Thaksin said after a visit to a salon in central Bangkok.
The encounter with AFP journalists in the Thai capital put paid to rumors circulating in Thailand that Thaksin had left the country.
He declined to comment on his upcoming case, which relates to comments he made in 2015 to South Korean media.
“I’d rather not say anything now,” he said.
Billionaire tycoon Thaksin spent 15 years in self-imposed exile before returning to the kingdom last August and immediately being jailed on historic graft and abuse-of-power charges.
The timing of his return — on the day his Pheu Thai party came to power in coalition with pro-military parties — led many to conclude a deal had been done to cut his jail time.
The rumors grew when the king soon cut Thaksin’s sentence from eight years to one, and he was freed on parole in February.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, of Pheu Thai, said on Tuesday he did not believe talk of Thaksin quitting the country again.
“I believe he is ready to fight. He had been abroad for a long time so I think he has already entered the judicial system,” Srettha told reporters.
Thaksin insists he has retired, but he has made numerous public appearances since his release and still casts a long shadow over the kingdom’s politics.
Former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra says recovered from COVID-19
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Former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra says recovered from COVID-19
- Prosecutors announced the charges against former PM last week but were unable to summon him because he was sick with COVID-19
- Billionaire tycoon Thaksin spent 15 years in self-imposed exile before returning to the kingdom last August
A woman is arrested in vandalism at museum officials’ homes during pro-Palestinian protests
- Taylor Pelton, 28, was arrested Wednesday on charges of criminal mischief and criminal mischief as a hate crime, police said
- Pelton was arraigned Wednesday night and released with court supervision, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said
NEW YORK: A woman who police say helped vandalize the homes of the Brooklyn Museum’s leaders with red paint during a wave of pro-Palestinian protests has been arrested on hate crimes charges.
Taylor Pelton, 28, was arrested Wednesday on charges of criminal mischief and criminal mischief as a hate crime, police said.
Police say Pelton was one of six people seen on surveillance video vandalizing the homes of Brooklyn Museum Director Anne Pasternak and museum President and Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Trueblood on June 12.
Pelton was arraigned Wednesday night and released with court supervision, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.
In an email, Pelton’s attorney, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, criticized “the increasing trend of characterizing Palestine solidarity actions as hate crimes.”
According to court papers, Pelton was part of a group of people seen on surveillance video spray-painting red paint the homes of Pasternak and Trueblood and hanging banners that with slogans like “BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS” AND “WHITE SUPREMACIST, FUNDS GENOCIDE.”
An inverted red triangle that authorities say is a symbol used by Hamas to identify Israeli military targets was sprayed onto Pasternak’s door, according to court papers.
The other people seen in the videos are still being sought, the district attorney said.
The vandalism targeting Pasternak, who is Jewish, was denounced by Mayor Eric Adams and other officials.
“This is not peaceful protest or free speech,” Adams said on X. “This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable antisemitism.”
The vandalism happened days after hundreds of pro-Palestinians protesters marched to the museum and occupied the lobby.
Meltzer-Cohen said in her email that the willingness of prosecutors “to endorse the rhetorical collapse of Zionist ideology and protected religious identity, in order to criminalize criticism of Israel, signals a troubling departure from the principles on which our legal and political systems rest.”
Museum officials said in a statement that “it is crucial to distinguish between peaceful protest and criminal acts.”
The officials said the museum’s vision “remains rooted in the belief that art fosters dialogue and mutual understanding among people with diverse experiences and perspectives.”
Rector removed from 2 positions at Scottish university St Andrews over email accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza
- Email said country was practicing ‘apartheid, siege, illegal occupation, collective punishment’ against Palestinians
LONDON: A rector at the University of St Andrews in Scotland has criticized a decision to remove her from two roles at the institution over an email she sent in which she accused Israel of genocide.
Stella Maris was removed from the university’s governing body and as a trustee following the email, which was sent to all students in November and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
In the email she also accused Israel of practicing “apartheid, siege, illegal occupation and collective punishment” against Palestinians.
She also acknowledged and denounced Hamas’ “war crimes,” which she said included “the taking of hostages and deliberately targeting civilians.”
The university, in a statement issued on Thursday, said: “The Court of the University of St Andrews has informed the university rector Ms Stella Maris that she is to be discharged from the role of president of court and as a charity trustee.
“The court’s determination was made after the rector repeatedly declined to accept the conclusion of an independent investigation which found that she had made some St Andrews students ‘fear for their safety,’ and by her actions and activities breached her responsibilities and legal obligations as a court member and charity trustee.”
It added that it had “no choice but to discharge” Maris from the positions, but that she would retain her post as rector until her term finished in October 2026.
The statement also said: “(The) court wishes to stress that this decision has no bearing on Ms Maris’ freedom of speech, to which she is entitled and for which, like everyone else, she is personally accountable. We recognize that parts of the rector’s statement were an important source of comfort to students affected by the conflict in Gaza.”
Maris said she was disappointed by the decision, which she claimed showed a “lack of respect” for the rector’s role in speaking up for students and set a “dangerous precedent for freedom of speech” in British higher education, The Guardian newspaper reported.
“It is clear that I have been removed from university court because I called for an end to Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians, and I will not apologize for doing so,” Maris said.
“As a young, neurodiverse Black woman with limited financial resources, I have faced the full force of the university, including a KC investigation, all because I made a statement supported by the overwhelming majority of students, calling for an end to a genocide.”
Ex-Russian lawmaker says he was hurt in Russian drone attack outside Kyiv
- Ilya Ponomaryov later wrote on Facebook that a drone exploded outside his front door, inflicting shrapnel wounds and causing a fire
- He published a photograph of himself looking into a camera, his face and upper chest spattered with blood
KYIV: Ukraine said on Thursday it had repelled a Russian drone attack on the region outside Kyiv overnight, but that debris injured two people, one of whom was identified by media reports as a onetime Russian lawmaker turned Kremlin critic.
Ilya Ponomaryov, who has lived in Ukraine for years and has Ukrainian citizenship, later wrote on Facebook that a drone exploded outside his front door, inflicting shrapnel wounds and causing a fire.
He published a photograph of himself looking into a camera, his face and upper chest spattered with blood.
Kyiv’s regional authorities said the drone strike was the second on the area in as many nights. Two privately-held residential buildings were damaged, but there were no direct hits to residential or critical infrastructure, it said.
The air force said it had shot down all seven Shahed-type drones used for the attack. Ponomaryov portrayed the attack as a deliberate Russian attack on him, an interpretation that clashed with the air force’s account that the drones were shot down.
On Wednesday, Ukraine said Russia used 87 drones in one of its largest such attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The governor of the central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region said the air force had also shot down one drone there and no casualties were reported.
Russia also launched Iskander-M ballistic missiles at the battered northeastern region of Kharkiv overnight, injuring one more person, its governor said.
Ukraine’s national railways Ukrzaliznytsia said the Russian missile attack on the region damaged its tracks and power supply facilities, in addition to two locomotives, freight and passenger cars.
Russia frees US reporter in major prisoner swap with West
- Turkiye’s presidency says swap ‘carried out’ by its intelligence service
ANKARA: US journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan were released Thursday, the Turkish government announced, in one of the biggest East-West prisoner swaps since the Cold War.
Prisoners from the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Belarus and Russia were involved in the swap “carried out” by Turkiye’s MIT intelligence service, Turkiye’s presidency said.
There was no immediate confirmation from US officials, although the swap was widely reported by US television networks. The Kremlin declined to comment on any exchange.
Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 and convicted in July on spying charges in a fast-track trial denounced as a sham by the United States.
Signs of an imminent prisoner swap had picked up momentum earlier Thursday, amid reports a plane used in a previous exchange deal had landed in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Hopes had also risen in recent days after a number of high-profile prisoners in Russia, including Whelan, went missing from prisons where they were serving long terms, fueling speculation they were being moved ahead of a swap.
As a rule, swaps can only happen after a conviction in Russia, and the disappearance of several high-profile political prisoners at once is extremely rare.
Among those expected to be returned to Russia in exchange is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian citizen imprisoned in Germany for killing a former Chechen rebel commander in a brazen assassination.
The exchange would be a victory for President Joe Biden, whose vice president, Kamala Harris, faces Republican Donald Trump in the November election.
This would be the first prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since star US basketball player Brittney Griner was swapped in return for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.
It would also be the biggest exchange since 2010, when 14 alleged spies were exchanged between Russia and the West. They included double agent Sergei Skripal, who was sent by Moscow to Britain and undercover Russian agent Anna Chapman, sent by Washington to Russia.
Before then, major swaps involving more than a dozen people had only taken place during the Cold War, with Soviet and Western powers carrying out exchanges in 1985 and 1986.
Thousands of Afghans brought to UK in secret operation
- Move to resettle 5,000 people who worked for British forces implemented in October
- Scale of Operation Lazurite kept secret by previous govt over immigration concerns
LONDON: The UK has secretly brought more than 5,000 Afghans to Britain since last October, The Times reported.
Dubbed Operation Lazurite, the mission involved moving former military personnel, intelligence assets and their families out of Afghanistan and offering them accommodation at military sites across the UK. Those evacuated include 150 Afghans who worked directly for the intelligence services.
A Whitehall source told The Times that the number of those resettled had been hushed up by the previous Conservative government as it wished to appear strong on lowering immigration figures.
Around 4,000 of those moved to the UK were stuck in hotels in Pakistan paid for by London, with another 1,000 having to travel to Pakistan on passports issued by the Taliban shortly after the operation began.
Many of those who reached the UK left their homeland because of Taliban threats against them.
They joined the roughly 27,000 Afghans who had already been brought to the UK after the Taliban takeover in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US-led coalition troops earlier that year.
The Whitehall source said security checks are being conducted quickly before accommodation is offered to evacuees, with 700 homes having been allocated so far.
