1,200 workers bound for IsraelThe Department of Employment will send 1,200 Thai workers to Israel after it was given a quota to send 5,000 agricultural workers to the Middle Eastern country in the second half of the year. Department director-general Somchai Morakotsriwan yesterday announced the decision to lift the moratorium on sending Thai workers to Israel due to the ongoing conflict there. As of yesterday, 30,186 Thai workers have expressed their interest to work in Israel, with 25,585 currently awaiting placement under the Thailand-Israel Cooperation (TIC) agreement on the placement of workers. The first group to depart will comprise 1,200 workers who were supposed to leave for Israel late last year. Recruitment agencies sending workers to Israel will also be briefed on safety protocols, he said.

Russia practised electronic missile launches during nuclear drillsUkrainian publisher and businessman Sergii Polituchyi shows one of craters next to his printing house, which appeared after a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on May 26, 2024. MOSCOW - Russia practised the electronic launch of missiles as part of a second stage of drills on how to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, the defence ministry said. "As part of the second stage of the exercises of non-strategic nuclear forces, the personnel of a Leningrad Military District missile unit worked out combat training tasks for covertly advancing to the designated positional area and carried out electronic missile launches against conditional enemy targets," the ministry said. President Vladimir Putin ordered the drills after what Russia said were threats from the West, including signals from Western officials that they would allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western weapons. Video released by the defence ministry showed Russian sailors focusing on a dummy target and then counting down to launch, including pressing the "launch" button.

With backing from China-based Geely, first battery models expected to debut in 2025The battery base of an electric vehicle is displayed on a screen during the launch of the Proton EV brand e.MAS — for “Electrifying Malaysia” — in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. (Photo: Bloomberg)Proton, the Malaysian carmaker backed by the Chinese automaker Geely, has unveiled the country’s first homemade electric vehicle brand. Proton announced the e.MAS brand — for “Electrifying Malaysia” — on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, with the first cars expected to roll off the production line by the end of 2025. Geely’s fully owned Zeekr EV brand will also be introduced in Malaysia later this year, according to reports from China. Proton has already appointed 17 dealers for its e.MAS brand, and expects to have a total of 20 by the end of the year.

Finance permanent secretary Lavaron Sangsnit said the amended version of the land and building tax law will represent a major reform of the country's property tax laws. The land and building tax replaced the house and land tax and the local maintenance tax. These previous property tax laws had several problems, such as excessive discretionary power for tax assessors, multiple tax rates and lack of fairness. Under the new property tax, the store's tax burden dropped to 1.08 million baht, a tenfold decrease, said Mr Chadchart. Mr Lavaron insisted the tax law is modern because it allows local governments to adjust tax rates as appropriate.

(Photo: Bloomberg)The Bank of Thailand left its key interest rate unchanged for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as widely expected, despite repeated calls by the government to lower borrowing costs to help revive the economy. The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 6-1 to hold the one-day repurchase rate at 2.50%, the highest in more than a decade. At the last meeting on April 10, the vote was 5-2 in favour of leaving the rate unchanged. All but three of 27 economists in a Reuters poll had expected no change in the benchmark rate this week. The Bank of Thailand has maintained that lower interest rates will do little to improve an economy that needs deep structural reforms.

Some 185,000 metric tonnes of deforestation-free soybean meal are on their way to Thailand to test the firms' joint digital blockchain traceability solution for sustainable soy. Bunge, a leading global agribusiness and food company, and Bangkok Produce Merchandising Plc, a subsidiary of Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc (CPF), are jointly testing a traceability platform for sustainable soy using blockchain technology. Three more ships carrying an additional 180,000 metric tonnes of soybean meal are expected to be transported to Thailand by July 2024. Rossano de Angelis Jr, vice-president of agribusiness in South America for Bunge, said: "Adding a layer of blockchain technology improves the transparency in end-to-end traceability that Bunge has used for some years. The agreement involves oilseeds and their byproducts sourced by Bunge in Brazil destined for several countries in Asia, where Bangkok Produce Merchandising and CPF produce and sell feed and food.

Thailand to ​seal loophole in drug combat work. The draft regulation will now be sent to the Council of State, the government’s legal arm, for vetting. The minister said that there is a condition attached to the one-tablet rehab rule: the person must prove they acquired the drug for their own consumption and not for selling. The proposed one-tablet cut-off was intended to separate addicts from drug dealers and traffickers, he added. The ministry has proposed tightening the definition of a drug user by limiting the legally permissible number of methamphetamine tablets from the current threshold of five pills to one to seal a loophole that benefits drug dealers./.

Stricter lending criteria have been cited as a major cause behind sluggish local car sales, potentially causing the country to miss its car manufacturing target for 2024. Low car sales are forecast to persist this year, with the loan rejection rate believed to be 30 - 40% of applications. The Automotive Industry Club said last year, sales of pure pickups in Thailand plunged by 31.8% year-on-year to 264,738 units. Responsible lending is meant to enhance the quality of household debt and reduce the debt ratio over the long term. FTI acknowledged that without government assistance to address the debt problem, car and auto parts businesses will suffer from declining sales and related industries will also bear the brunt./.

Fishing guide Amilton Brandao said the Pantanal wetlands in Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul state should be flooded at this time of year. Instead, they're being ravaged by fires, part of a startling and dramatic increase from the previous year.

Illustrative image (Photo: https://www.bangkokpost.com/)Bangkok (VNA) – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is seeking partnerships with at least 11 international airlines in a bid to bolster rising and mature markets in the second half of this year. Siripakorn Cheawsamoot, TAT deputy governor for Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas, said the agency plans to reinforce potential markets by using airlines in those regions that operate flights to Thailand. The long-haul market projected to generate at least 770 billion THB (over 20.9 billion USD) this year from 10.8 million foreign arrivals, he noted. He said TAT’s marketing in the second half of the year will focus on two potential groups - rising and mature markets. The five mature markets that recorded gains during the same period that need to be maintained comprise France (38.7%), Germany (32%), the UK (22.6%), Russia (14.8%), and the US (14.3%).

Thailand approves first spot Bitcoin ETF for wealthy investorsThailand has approved its inaugural spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), marking its entry into the growing list of nations that support regulated Bitcoin investment vehicles. The ONE Bitcoin ETF Fund is scheduled to be available to investors from May 31 to June 6. The ETF will cater exclusively to wealthy and institutional investors, following regulatory adjustments in April that allowed Bitcoin ETFs aimed at professional investors. Additionally, jurisdictions like Hong Kong, Australia, and the UK have launched spot Bitcoin ETFs or comparable products. Thailand has previously adopted crypto-friendly policies, such as exempting crypto trading gains from the 7% value-added tax and permitting local investment in U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs.

More Indian tourists, especially those of Gen Y and Gen Z, are visiting Thailand. (Photo: bangkokpost.com)Bangkok (VNA) – More Indian tourists, especially those of Gen Y and Gen Z, are visiting Thailand. He said Gen Y and Gen Z people formed 80% of the Indian travellers booking accommodations in Thailand through Airbnb. Small groups of three to five visitors and medium-sized groups of five people and more showed the fastest growth among the Indian visitors to Thailand, up by 67% and 68% respectively from last year. The Thai government extended its visa-free scheme for Indian visitors for six months from May 11 to Nov 11./.

Military personnel stand guard as hundreds of refugees crossed over the river frontier between Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, following the fall of a strategic border town to rebels fighting Myanmar's military junta, in Mae Sot, Tak province, Thailand, on April 13, 2024. (Photo: Reuters)NAYPYIDAW - Myanmar's ruling junta has lost control over vast tracts of territory, including access to much of its international borders, allowing ethnic armed groups to expand and consolidate regions under their control, two reports assessing the conflict said on Thursday. The street demonstrations, which were met with a brutal crackdown, morphed into an armed resistance movement that has combined with many of Myanmar's ethnic rebel armies to pose the most significant challenge to the military in decades. "The junta has abandoned significant territory and has been forced into a defensive posture in most parts of the country where it remains present." Operation 1027, a coordinated offensive last October led by three ethnic armies, marked a key moment that exposed a weakened military, which ceded swathes of borderlands in Myanmar's north.

Thailand intensifies AI policy to transform economy (Photo: bangkokpost.com)Bangkok (VNA) - Thailand’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) is introducing its "MHESI for AI" policy, aiming to empower Thais to use artificial intelligence for national development. The second is AI workforce development by developing AI professionals and establishing AI infrastructure for Thai education and the labour market. The aim is to provide AI professionals, AI engineers, and IT professionals or other vocations with AI tool skills -- covering 30,000 people within three years. The third is on AI innovation to drive the economy by providing the full support of AI innovation. The third involves AI workforce development, aimed at producing 30,000 AI professionals.

Koh Yao Yai, Phang Nga (Photo: https://www.bangkokpost.com/)Bangkok (VNA) - The Thai Cabinet has approved three ministerial notifications about measures to protect the environment in the three Andaman coastal provinces of Phangnga, Krabi, and Ranong. Deputy Prime Minister and Natural Resources and Environment Minister Phatcharavat Wongsuwan said on May 29 that two notifications from his agency were approved during the meeting the day earlier. He stressed these measures will prohibit activities that are harmful to local ecosystems. The cabinet meeting also approved another notification by the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry regarding measures to protect marine and coastal resources in the area of the Mu Ko Phayam Islands in Ranong's Muang district, Phatcharavat said. The measures will prohibit people in the area from leaving litter, releasing wastewater, snorkelling and diving, feeding sea creatures, fishing, reclaiming land and dropping anchors into the sea, he added./.