Opinion
We need climate adaptation now
The announcement made by the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) is a grim warning of record-high temperatures. The entire nation is bracing for scorching hot weather this month, with forecasters saying temperatures look set to reach 44.5 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country. For example, the mercury level in the Thoen district of the northern Lampang province reached 42C on Monday and...
Deliver riders work rights
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recently issued a praiseworthy landmark ruling regarding the status of hundreds of thousands of food delivery platform riders in Thailand, many of whom have been complaining of unfair treatment from the platform owners.
Economics, at its core, is irredeemably sexist
Economics has an intractable "women problem". High-school girls avoid it. Female undergraduates abandon it. And the problem runs deeper than the difficulty of attracting enough women to mathematics, science, and engineering. Even women who have reached the discipline's summit, like Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, consider economists "a tribal clique" and their models...
Russian moves block UN probe of North Korea
In a classic under-the-political radar ploy, Russia has vetoed a UN committee investigating North Korean nuclear missile and banking sanctions violations. The low-profile but highly significant sanctions committee regularly monitors illicit actions by Pyongyang to develop, improve and implement the regime's nuclear weapons and offensive missile programmes.
Democracies can win tech race
The world is on the precipice of a technological cold war. As authoritarian regimes develop new digital tools that endanger open societies and threaten democratic values, the West must decide whether to compete or concede. Today, the battle for freedom is being fought in Ukraine; but the frontline could one day be in Taiwan, a global technology hub, producing the world's most advanced microchips,...
Eye on police probes
The Criminal Court's move to issue an arrest warrant for Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn, who is accused of laundering money from online gambling, was a much-needed decision amid an ugly row between two high-ranking policemen.
2024 financial crisis may be a silent one
When an economy faces a financial crisis, it can create a big bang like the mass collapse of financial institutions such as during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Thai Tum Yum Kung crisis of 1997, the Japanese financial crisis in late 1997, and the US Hamburger crisis of 2008.
Democracy survives crucial test in Senegal
The crisis in Senegal, the one country in West Africa that has never had a military coup, has passed. Few people outside Africa were paying close attention to it, but I'm sure you will be pleased to know that democracy has survived.
People-to-people diplomacy a better fit
A large crowd gathered near the 2nd Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Mae Sot district on the morning of March 25 as the Thai government, through the Thai Red Cross Society and its Myanmar counterpart, released the first batch of humanitarian aid to those affected by fighting between Myanmar army and ethnic resistance forces.
How to save the pandemic treaty
Recent drafts of a global pandemic treaty have been widely criticised as "shameful and unjust". When the latest round of negotiations opened on March 18, it was clear that a key lesson of the Covid-19 pandemic was being ignored: public health and the health of the economy are interdependent.