Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party pledges to give citizens digital currency handout with 6-month expiry date, must be spent within 4km of home

The proposed ~$280 handout has all the hallmarks of a programmable CBDC, including expiry dates & geolocation-based restrictions: perspective

Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party says that once it came to power, it would give all citizens 16 years and older a handout of approximately $280 that could only be spent within four kilometers of their homes and would expire after six months.

In a move intended to both stimulate the economy as well as lay the foundations for a digital economy, the 10,000 baht (~$280) programmable handout would be sent to the digital wallets of each eligible citizen that had the application on their smartphone.

For those without the smartphone app, Pheu Thai Party deputy secretary-general Paopoom Rojanasakul said, “There would be no problems […] as they could use their national ID card to get a personal code instead,” the Bangkok Post reported.

“Rojanasakul, who is also the spokesman for its economic committee, said that a Pheu Thai-led coalition government in the making would implement the promised policy once it comes to power,” according to The Nation.

The proposed handout was originally announced in April, but it was put on pause after the Pheu Thai Party came in second in the May 14 election, but the policy was revived last Friday.

“The Pheu Thai party, which won the second-highest number of seats, will lead a government”“Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party Takes Control—But at a Long Term Cost,” Joshua Kurlantzick, Council on Foreign Relations

Thailand’s prime ministerial vote is expected to take place sometime between August 18 and 22.

According to Reuters, “Pheu Thai will nominate for prime minister Srettha Thavisin, a former real estate mogul with no political experience up until the election.

“To succeed, Srettha needs support from more than half of the joint lower and upper houses, an outcome far from certain.”

The Pheu Thai Party was the runner-up to the Move Forward Party in the election last May, and the two parties formed a short-lived coalition before splitting in July.

“With Move Forward now consigned to the opposition, it is almost certain that Srettha will be confirmed as prime minister,” writes Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) senior fellow Joshua Kurlantzick.

Keep reading

Monkeys enslaved by cruel coconut farmers who make them work in chains to meet growing demand for trendy vegan milk

MONKEYS are still being enslaved by cruel coconut farmers who make them work in chains to meet the growing demand for trendy vegan milk.

The primates are forced to harvest hundreds of coconuts each day in Thailand, under the watchful eye of their handlers.

The monkeys are made to spend countless hours picking the fruit when they’re not chained to the floor, The Times reported.

The farmers reportedly pull on ropes that are tied around the animal to control them while they carry out their gruelling shifts in the treetops.

But despite a three-year-long campaign by animal rights charity Peta in 2019 – some farms in Thailand have continued to force the monkeys into labour.

The innocent animals are either bred in captivity or robbed from their mothers in the jungle when they are babies.

Past footage from the charity has revealed the dark secrets behind the monkey labour industry and has also highlighted the tortures they experience while in captivity.

Handlers have been seen using methods of intimidation and brutal punishment to train the macaques including whipping the animals and dangling them by their necks.

But the horrors don’t stop there – according to Peta, the creature’s sharp front teeth are often removed to stop them from biting themselves or the farmers.

And this nightmare continues to unfold for the monkeys as the demand for vegan milk climbs.

Keep reading

The CIA’s anal ‘feeding tube’ torture

Last week in a federal courtroom at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an American physician hired by the Pentagon testified about the CIA’s use of rectal “feeding” tubes on prisoners it detained and tortured in Thailand from 2001 to 2006.

The physician, Sondra S. Crosby, M.D., an expert on tortures and other trauma, described the painful repeated insertion of plastic tubes into the anal cavity of the defendant in the case, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, over a period of four years. Al-Nashiri is on trial for conspiracy to bomb the USS Cole in October 2000.

The hearing at which Dr. Crosby testified was ordered by the military judge when defense counsel told him the nature and extent of the torture visited upon their client by the CIA and its contractors. Dr. Crosby was given access to CIA raw notes and reports, some of which had not been seen by the investigators who produced the 2014 U.S. Senate 500-page documented study on CIA torture during the administration of President George W. Bush.

The site in Thailand at which al-Nashiri was tortured was run by Gina Haspel, the future CIA director, nicknamed by her colleagues “Bloody Gina.” The CIA infamously made videos of the torture of al-Nashiri and others, which Haspel destroyed.

Dr. Crosby, who was harshly critical of the CIA’s use of this internationally condemned interrogation technique, which is criminal under federal law, revealed that the CIA notes reflected that al-Nashiri and others who received this barbaric treatment were actually being fed nutrients via these anal tubes. She told the court that this must have been a subterfuge as there is simply no biological means to nourish a person via the person’s anal cavity.

Keep reading

Boy who survived 18 days in flooded Thai cave five years ago and died in Britain aged 17 after winning football academy scholarship had been found unconscious on the floor of his UK dormitory

The mystery of Thai cave rescue survivor Duangphet Promthep’s death deepened last night after it emerged he was found unconscious on the floor of his dormitory in the UK.

The 17-year-old nicknamed ‘Dom’, former captain of the Wild Boars football team, rescued in 2018 from the flooded Tham Luang cave system in northern Thailand by British divers, was reported to have suffered a ‘head injury’.

At the time of his death, Dom was studying at Brooke House College in Market Harborough, Leicestershire. 

Kiatisuk Senamuang, former Thai national football team coach and chairman of the Zico Foundation which sponsored the gifted young footballer, described himself as ‘shocked and stunned’ at the news of the young man’s sudden death.

He said Promthep was found laid down unconscious on the ground in his room in the academy’s dormitory and was immediately taken to hospital.

Keep reading

Thailand to become first country in the world to declare its Pfizer contracts null and void

A Thai government spokesperson told Professor Sucharit Bhakdi this week that his country could soon become the first in the world to nullify and make void its contracts with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

According to Bhakdi, the spokesperson said, in reference to the company’s experimental covid “vaccines,” that “we will see to it that Thailand is the first country in the world to declare this contract (with Pfizer) null.”

We are told that the Royal Family in Thailand was directly impacted by Pfizer’s covid injections, which reportedly harmed the king’s daughter, Princess Bajrakitiyabha. Because of this, Thai authorities are working towards ending the country’s relationship with Pfizer.

(Related: Thailand was among the many countries that were bullied by Pfizer into pushing covid jabs so the company could rake in billions of dollars in profits.)

Bhakdi says he met with top government advisors and explained to them how the entire premise behind the “vaccines” is built on a throne of lies. Pfizer fraud is the only thing backing the jabs as there is no safety data to show they work as claimed.

Upon hearing this, Thai government advisors were shocked and assured Bhakdi that they are making preparations to sever Pfizer’s contracts with the country.

Keep reading

Fitness YouTuber ‘Leo and Longevity’ Found Dead, Bloodied in Thailand at 34

Laith Abdallah Algaz, more commonly known as Leo Rex of the YouTube channel Leo and Longevity, was found dead in his apartment in Pattaya, Thailand.

The Colorado native and social media influencer promoted his unique blend of diet, exercise, mental conditioning, bodybuilding and nicotine to help people extend and live their best life.

His YouTube channel passed the 100,000 subscriber milestone last February and now boasts more than 123,000 subscribers. HITC news described the content on his channel as “typically…non-conventional” and focused on how people could “improve their mental and physical well-being.”

According to the Daily Mail, Charles Anthony alerted authorities on Jan 30 of a possible problem after multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact his friend Leo Rex.

As of Feb 1, authorities had not disclosed a cause of death, but officials have noted that Rex’s apartment was “unusually messy” and that the YouTuber appeared to have “multiple facial injuries.”

Keep reading

Millionaire couple found dead on Thailand’s notorious Death Island

This idyllic island in Thailand has long been popular with tourists for its pristine beaches, kaleidoscopic coral reefs and turquoise waters.

In recent years, however, the unexplained deaths and disappearances of many of those tourists have earned it a reputation as a death trap.

And it’s just claimed another two victims.

A millionaire hotel tycoon and his wife have been found dead in a luxury resort on Koh Tao, colloquially known as Death Island.

Their bodies were found floating in the resort’s pool last Friday, just hours after they checked in.

Disturbingly, police on the island have said CCTV cameras at luxury Jamahkiri Resort and Spa “weren’t working” on the day the couple died, fuelling mystery around what happened to the wealthy pair.

Keep reading