BANGKOK: An anti-corruption watchdog had flagged irregularities in the construction of a Bangkok skyscraper that collapsed in an earthquake last week and killed at least 11 people, the head of the monitoring group said.
The government had threatened to cancel the project earlier this year because of delays, Mana Nimitmongkol, president of the Anti-Corruption Organization of Thailand, said on Sunday.
The government has announced an investigation into the cause of the collapse of the tower, which was being built by a Chinese company and a long-established Thai construction firm.
Rescuers were still desperately searching on Monday for 76 more people feared trapped under the rubble of the unfinished 30-storey tower for Thailand’s State Audit Office.
The unfinished tower was the only Bangkok building that completely crumbled when a 7.7 magnitude quake struck central Myanmar on Friday and rattled neighboring countries.
Construction of the building, which began in 2020, is being carried out by a joint venture between Italian Thai Development PCL and a local subsidiary of China’s state-owned China Railway Group, the China Railway Number 10 (Thailand) Ltd.
Italian Thai Development and China Railway Group did not immediately comment when contacted by Reuters.
The audit office has said that it will investigate the cause of the building collapse. It did not answer emailed questions from Reuters whether it had threatened to cancel the construction contract.
The tower was originally slated for completion by 2026 but was behind schedule. The deputy auditor general, Sutthipong Boonnithi, told reporters on Saturday that construction was only “30 percent completed” before it collapsed.
Site visits to the project during construction by the anti-corruption group had raised concerns about delays, worker shortages and possible corner-cutting, Mana said.
“Sometimes the number of workers on site were much fewer than there should be, causing delays,” he said. “Potentially there was a rush to complete the project toward the end, which could cause a drop in the standard of work.”
Mana, whose organization scrutinizes some 170 government projects around the country, said the construction delay was so severe that the audit office had threatened to cancel the contract with the two construction companies in January.
Share prices of ITD tumbled 30 percent when markets opened on Monday against a benchmark drop of one percent.
No other building collapsed
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra ordered government agencies on Saturday to investigate the root cause of the building collapse within one week.
The official Thai investigation is looking into the construction plan, the standard of the material used as well as possible unsafe action during the construction of the building.
Han Zhinqiang, China’s ambassador to Thailand, said on Sunday that China would cooperate in the investigation.
Thai Industry Minister Akanat Promphan said that he was concerned sub-standard steel may have been used in the construction of the building as he led the team collecting samples from the rubble on Sunday.
The material gathered was being tested at the site, and results were expected to be announced on Monday afternoon.
The ministry has been cracking down on companies that have produced sub-standard steel over the past six months, shutting down seven factories and seizing 360 million baht (about $10 million) worth of assets from these steel companies, he said.
“Many of these factories used an old production process and equipment relocated from China,” Akanat said, adding: “This has led to sub-standard steel.”
Experts from the council of engineers that is assisting the government in surveying buildings around the Thai capital for earthquake damages speculated that the skyscraper could have collapsed due to unsafe material or poor planning in the building process.
“It is strange that no other buildings suffered like this,” Anek Siripanichgorn, a board member of the Council of Engineers Thailand said.
“Even other tall buildings under construction, they did not collapse,” he said.
Thai watchdog had flagged concerns on building that collapsed in earthquake
https://arab.news/g7rxr
Thai watchdog had flagged concerns on building that collapsed in earthquake
- The government had threatened to cancel the project earlier this year because of delays
- The government has announced an investigation into the cause of the collapse of the tower
Trump signs executive orders to boost coal, a reliable but polluting energy source
- “Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy,” Trump says
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a series of executive orders aimed at boosting the struggling coal industry, a reliable but polluting energy source that’s long been in decline.
Under the four orders, Trump uses his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity to meet rising US power demand amid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars.
Trump also directed federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining and prioritize coal leasing on US lands.
Trump, a Republican, has long promised to boost what he calls “beautiful” coal to fire power plants and for other uses, but the industry has been in decline for decades.
“I call it beautiful, clean coal. I told my people, never use the word coal unless you put beautiful, clean before it,” Trump said at the White House signing ceremony where he was flanked by coal miners in hard hats. Several wore patches on their work jackets that said “coal.”
“Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy,” Trump said. “It’s cheap, incredibly efficient, high density, and it’s almost indestructible.”
Trump’s orders also direct Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “acknowledge the end” of an Obama-era moratorium that paused coal leasing on federal lands and require federal agencies to rescind policies transitioning the nation away from coal production. And they seek to promote coal and coal technology exports, and accelerate development of coal technologies.
Trump has long championed coal
Trump, who has pushed for US “energy dominance” in the global market, has long suggested that coal can help meet surging electricity demand from manufacturing and the massive data centers needed for artificial intelligence.
“We’re ending Joe Biden’s war on beautiful, clean coal once and for all,” he said Tuesday. “All those plants that have been closed are going to be opened, if they’re modern enough, (or) they’ll be ripped down and brand new ones will be built. And we’re going to put the miners back to work.”
In 2018, during his first term, Trump directed then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take “immediate steps” to bolster struggling coal-fired and nuclear power plants, calling it a matter of national and economic security.
At that time, Trump also considered but didn’t approve a plan to order grid operators to buy electricity from coal and nuclear plants to keep them open. Energy industry groups — including oil, natural gas, solar and wind power — condemned the proposal, saying it would raise energy prices and distort markets.
The national decline of coal
Energy experts say any bump for coal under Trump is likely to be temporary because natural gas is cheaper, and there’s a durable market for renewable energy such as wind and solar power no matter who holds the White House.
Trump’s administration has targeted regulations under the Biden administration that could hasten closures of heavily polluting coal power plants and the mines that supply them.
Coal once provided more than half of US electricity production, but its share dropped to about 16 percent in 2023, down from about 45 percent as recently as 2010. Natural gas provides about 43 percent of US electricity, with the remainder from nuclear energy and renewables such as wind, solar and hydropower.
The front line in what Republicans call the “war on coal” is in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana, a sparsely populated section of the Great Plains with the nation’s largest coal mines. It’s also home to a massive power plant in Colstrip, Montana, that emits more toxic air pollutants such as lead and arsenic than any other US facility of its kind, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA rules finalized last year could force the Colstrip Generating Station to shut down or spend an estimated $400 million to clean up its emissions within the next several years. Another Biden-era proposal, from the Interior Department, would end new leasing of taxpayer-owned coal reserves in the Powder River Basin.
Changes and promises under Trump
Trump vowed to reverse those actions and has named Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright to lead a new National Energy Dominance Council. The panel is tasked with driving up already record-setting domestic oil and gas production, as well as coal and other traditional energy sources.
The council has been granted sweeping authority over federal agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation. It has a mandate to cut bureaucratic red tape, enhance private sector investments and focus on innovation instead of “unnecessary regulation,” Trump said.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, meanwhile, has announced a series of actions to roll back environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants.
In all, Zeldin said he’s moving to roll back 31 environmental rules, including a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for US action against climate change.
Coal industry applauds, but environmental groups warn of problems
Industry groups praised Trump’s focus on coal.
“Despite countless warnings from the nation’s grid operators and energy regulators that we are facing an electricity supply crisis, the last administration’s energy policies were built on hostility to fossil fuels, directly targeting coal,” said Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association.
Trump’s executive actions “clearly prioritize how to responsibly keep the lights on, recognize the enormous strategic value of American-mined coal and embrace the economic opportunity that comes from American energy abundance,” Nolan said.
But environmental groups said Trump’s actions were more of the same tactics he tried during his first term in an unsuccessful bid to revive coal.
“What’s next, a mandate that Americans must commute by horse and buggy?” asked Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Coal plants are old and dirty, uncompetitive and unreliable,” Kennedy said, accusing Trump and his administration of remaining “stuck in the past, trying to make utility customers pay more for yesterday’s energy.”
Instead, she said, the US should do all it can to build the power grid of the future, including tax credits and other support for renewable energy such as wind and solar power.
EU Commission to discuss trade, US tariff strategy with industries
BRUSSELS: The European Commission has invited the sectors most impacted by US tariffs to an in-person meeting on Thursday, an invitation letter seen by Reuters showed, as the commission weighs new trade partnerships and further countermeasures.
The meeting led by the Commission industry chief Stephane Sejourne will include participants from the steel and autos industries. The meeting follows calls held by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with executives in the metals, pharmaceutical and auto industries.
The meeting is meant to find out what impact EU companies are already seeing in the “short and medium term” and the best responses in terms of “sector-specific policies as well as counter-tariffs and non-tariff counter measures,” the invitation letter said.
On top of reciprocal tariffs, Washington has introduced sector-specific duties on steel, aluminum and vehicles.
The Commission is concerned about the forthcoming measures on “pharmaceuticals, copper, semiconductors, lumber, energy products, and certain minerals” and knock-on effects across supply chains. The Commission pointed to possible extra tariffs that may hit some EU companies that still use Venezuelan oil “directly or indirectly.”
As the Commission looks to diversify its trade away from the US, it is seeking input from industry on the best tools to use whether they be free trade or partnerships.
“The two-hour meeting will be an opportunity to share views on the impact of the tariffs on various industrial sectors as well as the measures the EU could take to mitigate their effect,” the letter said.
US scholar in Thailand jailed pending trial on charges of insulting the monarchy
- Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Naresuan University in northern Thailand, has specialized in studying the power and influence of the military
- Insulting the monarchy in Thailand is an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison
BANGKOK: A US political science scholar accused by the Thai military of insulting the Southeast Asian nation’s monarchy — an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison — was jailed on Tuesday pending trial.
Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Naresuan University in the northern province of Phitsanulok, was first summoned by police last week to hear the charges against him, including violating the Computer Crime Act, which covers online activity.
Chambers, a 58-year-old Oklahoma native with a doctorate in political science from Northern Illinois University, has studied the power and influence of the Thai military, which plays a major role in politics. It has staged 13 coups since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, most recently 11 years ago.
Chambers reported to the police on Tuesday to formally acknowledge the charges and was then taken to a provincial court for a pretrial detention hearing, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a legal advocacy group.
The court denied Chambers release on bail, allegedly because of “the severity of potential punishment,” his status as a foreigner and the police’s objection to granting it, the lawyers group said.
The group said another request to allow bail would be filed to an appeals court on Wednesday. No trial date has been set.
The officer who answered the phone at the police station handling the case said he could not comment, and referred the matter to his chief, who did not answer a call to his phone.
It is not unusual for Thai courts to deny bail in cases of insulting the monarchy, popularly known as “112” after its article number in the criminal code.
The US-based academic freedom project Scholars at Risk said in a statement that Chambers in late 2024 made comments in a webinar about a restructuring of the military that could have been the cause of the complaint made against him by the 3rd Army Area, covering Thailand’s northern region.
However, Chambers’ wife, Napisa Waitoolkiat, dean of the faculty of social sciences at Naresuan University, said the evidence presented by the authorities was not the words of her husband but came from the website operated by ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, a think tank in Singapore that broadcast the webinar.
Thai Lawyers for Human Right said the charges stemmed from the text of the invitation to the October 2024 webinar, titled “Thailand’s 2024 Military and Police Reshuffles: What Do They Mean?” and that the charge sheet contained the Thai translation of the invitation’s description of the event.
Napisa also said her husband was not summoned for questioning by police before he was presented with the warrant for his arrest, as is typical in such cases.
“It just feels like they wanted to deter Paul from doing his work and research, which often touches on topics like the economics of the Thai army,” she told The Associated Press over the phone.
Thai law envisages 3-15 years imprisonment for anyone who defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir apparent or the regent. Critics say it is among the harshest such laws anywhere and has also been used to punish critics of the government and the military.
The monarchy has long been considered a pillar of Thai society and criticizing it used to be strictly taboo. Conservative Thais, especially in the military and courts, still consider it untouchable.
However, public debate on the topic has in the past decade grown louder, particularly among young people, and student-led pro-democracy protests starting in 2020, began openly criticizing the institution. That led to vigorous prosecutions under the previously little-used law.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights has said that since early 2020, more than 270 people — many of them student activists — have been charged with violating the law.
US, Russia to meet Thursday in Istanbul on restoring embassy operations
- State Department says the two sides will hold talks on Thursday in Istanbul
WASHINGTON: The United States and Russia will hold talks on Thursday in Istanbul on restoring some of their embassy operations that have been drastically scaled back following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the US State Department said.
The talks, the second of their kind, come after President Donald Trump reached out to Russia following the start of his second term and offered better ties if it winds down fighting in Ukraine.
The two sides will “try to make progress on further stabilizing the operations of our bilateral missions,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday.
“There are no political or security issues on the agenda, and Ukraine is not — absolutely not — on the agenda,” she said.
“These talks are solely focused on our embassy operations, not on normalizing a bilateral relationship.”
The talks are going ahead despite Russia rejecting a Ukraine-backed US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday lamented the lack of a US response.
Trump a day later told reporters that he was not happy that Russia was “bombing like crazy right now.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has previously said that it is important for both the United States and Russia to resume higher staffing at their respective embassies to improve contacts, regardless of the situation in Ukraine.
Why aid agencies are forecasting a sharp rise in forced displacement by 2026
- Conflicts worldwide will forcibly displace a further 6.7 million people over the next two years, according to an AI forecast
- Sudan alone will account for 2.1 million new displacements, adding to the 12.6 million already uprooted since April 2023
DUBAI: Ongoing conflicts will force an additional 6.7 million people worldwide from their homes by the end of 2026, with Sudan alone accounting for nearly a third of the new displacements, according to the Danish Refugee Council’s latest predictions.
The agency’s Global Displacement Forecast Report 2025 revealed a massive spike in the number of expected forced displacements this year to 4.2 million, the highest such prediction since 2021. Another 2.5 million are expected to be forced to flee violence in 2026.
“We live in an age of war and impunity, and civilians are paying the heaviest price,” said Charlotte Slente, secretary-general of the Danish Refugee Council.
“Our AI-driven modeling paints a tragic picture: 6.7 million people displaced over the next two years. These are not cold statistics. These are families forced to flee their homes, carrying next to nothing and searching for water, food and shelter.”
DRC’s Foresight model, developed in partnership with IBM, predicts displacement trends by analyzing 148 indicators based on economic, security, political, environmental and societal factors, across 27 countries that represent 93 percent of all global displacement.
It is a machine-learning model created to predict forced displacement at the national level over the next one-to-three years. It is built on open-source data from a variety of sources, including the World Bank, UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and academic institutions.
According to DRC, more than half of the forecasts produced by the model for displacements in a coming year have been less than 10 percent off the actual figures.
Sudan is experiencing the biggest displacement and hunger crisis in the world, and DRC projections suggest it will continue to represent the most urgent humanitarian crisis. By the end of 2026, another 2.1 million people there are expected be displaced, adding to the 12.6 million already forced to move within the country or to neighboring nations including Chad, Egypt and South Sudan.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been locked in a brutal conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Their power struggle began in Khartoum and rapidly escalated into an all-out war that engulfed major cities and cut off humanitarian corridors, sparking the world’s worst displacement crisis. Entire urban areas have been emptied, and civilians caught in the crossfire face hunger, violence and sexual assault.
The DRC report warns that the internal dynamics of the war — fragmented front lines, shifting alliances and a lack of viable negotiations — make any resolution unlikely in the short term. Insecurity is rampant and basic services have collapsed in large parts of the country.
The effects of the conflict on civilians are staggering. Once-bustling cities such as Khartoum and Nyala have become battlefields from which residents have been forced to flee several times. In Darfur, reports of ethnic cleansing have resurfaced, raising the specter of the genocide that occurred there two decades ago.
“The situation in Sudan is quite intense and tragic,” Massimo Marghinotti, a DRC logistician stationed in Port Sudan since September 2024, said in a first-person report filed from the field.
“The fighting has spread across various regions, and civilians are caught in the crossfire. We see how bombings and fighting and targeting of civilians lead to severe displacement and famine.
“Millions have fled their homes, and they literally have nothing. No shelter, no water, no access to food or basic health. I have been working in this field for more than 25 years and seen a lot, but this humanitarian crisis is severe, and the suffering in Sudan is heartbreaking.”
Yet despite the scale of the suffering, international attention, and funding, has been minimal. According to the UN, more than 24 million people in Sudan, about half of the population, are in need of humanitarian assistance. But as of March this year, aid organizations had received less than 5 percent of the funds they need to respond. Most agencies are forced to operate with limited access, risk attacks and face bureaucratic obstacles.
While war remains the single largest driver of forced displacements, the DRC’s report also highlights the role of economic and climate-related factors. In countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, millions have been uprooted by a combination of droughts, floods and political turmoil.
In Sudan, climate change acts as a threat multiplier. The country has experienced recurring floods and failed harvests, exacerbating food insecurity and causing intercommunal tensions to rise. Many of the people displaced by war are now living in fragile areas already struggling with environmental shocks.
The effects of the crisis in Sudan extend far beyond its own borders. According to figures released in February by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, Egypt has received more than 1.5 million Sudanese refugees, straining urban infrastructure and pushing thousands into destitution.
Meanwhile, about 759,058 people from Sudan have fled across the border to Chad, 240,000 to Libya, 67,189 to Uganda, and 42,490 to Ethiopia. South Sudan, itself fragile, has absorbed more than 718,453 people, although the majority of those are returnees who had been living in camps in Sudan.
Host countries, many of them facing their own economic and political challenges, struggle to keep pace with the needs of the displaced. In Chad, for example, water and food shortages are acute. In South Sudan, many returnees face ethnic tensions and limited shelter. Across the region, humanitarian operations are underfunded.
Displacement is no longer a short-term phenomenon. For millions of Sudanese, in common with others caught up in protracted crises, the reality is now one of long-term exile, instability and marginalization.
INNUMBERS
• 6.7m Additional displaced people by end of 2026.
• 33% Sudan alone will account for nearly a third.
In Sudan, many internally displaced persons are now trapped in limbo, unable to return home but lacking the resources or legal status to settle elsewhere. Refugees who do reach neighboring countries often end up in overcrowded camps with limited mobility. Children miss years of school. Families are separated indefinitely.
While Sudan represents the largest and most acute displacement crisis, it is far from the only one. The DRC’s 2025 forecast also highlights hot spots such as Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria, the Sahel, Venezuela and Yemen.
The organization called for a three-pronged approach to address the crisis: stronger political engagement to help resolve conflicts; greater investment in climate adaptation and resilience efforts; and a humanitarian system that is more predictable and better funded.
The US, formerly the world’s largest donor nation, recently terminated 83 percent of USAID contracts. Other major donors, including the UK and Germany, are also cutting back on aid they provide. These withdrawals come at a time when humanitarian needs are at an all-time high.
“Millions are facing starvation and displacement, and just as they need us most, wealthy nations are slashing aid. It’s a betrayal of the most vulnerable,” said Slente.
“We’re in the middle of a global ‘perfect storm:’ record displacement, surging needs and devastating funding cuts. Major donors are abandoning their duty, leaving millions to suffer. This is more than a crisis. It is a moral failure.”
