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- Typhoon Yagi kills 14 in Vietnam as Officials Warn of Heavy Rain that Can Cause Flooding
At least 14 people have died and 176 others injured in Vietnam after Typhoon Yagi slammed the country's north, state media said Sunday,
The post Typhoon Yagi kills 14 in Vietnam as Officials Warn of Heavy Rain that Can Cause Flooding appeared first on Khaosod English.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — At least 14 people have died and 176 others injured in Vietnam after Typhoon Yagi slammed the country’s north, state media said Sunday, as officials warned of heavy downpours despite its waning power.
Described by Vietnamese officials as one of the most powerful typhoons to hit the region over the last decade, Yagi left more than 3 million people without electricity in northern Vietnam. It also damaged vital agricultural land, nearly 116,192 hectares where rice and fruits are mostly grown. Hundreds of flights were canceled after four airports were closed.
Houses are submerged in flood after typhoon Yagi hit Yen Bai province, northwestern Vietnam on Sunday, Sep. 8, 2024. (Do Tuan Anh/ VNA via AP) The typhoon made landfall in Vietnam’s northern coastal provinces of Quang Ninh and Haiphong with wind speeds of up to 149 kilometers per hour (92 miles per hour) on Saturday afternoon. It raged for roughly 15 hours before gradually weakening into a tropical depression early Sunday morning. Vietnam’s meteorological department predicted heavy rain in northern and central provinces and warned of floods in low-lying areas, flash floods in streams and landslides on steep slopes.
Municipal workers along with army and police forces were busy in the capital, Hanoi, clearing uprooted trees, fallen billboards, toppled electricity poles and rooftops that were swept away, while assessing damaged buildings.
Yagi was still a storm when it blew out of the northwestern Philippines into the South China Sea on Wednesday, leaving at least 20 people dead and 26 others missing mostly in landslides and widespread flooding in the acrchipelago nation. It then made its way to China, killing three people and injuring nearly a hundred others, before landing in Vietnam.
A car is crushed underneath a broken tree after typhoon Yagi hit the city in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. (Tran Quoc Viet/ VNA via AP) Storms like Typhoon Yagi were “getting stronger due to climate change, primarily because warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel the storms, leading to increased wind speeds and heavier rainfall,” said Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore.
Horton said that protecting natural systems ranging from reefs to rivers while building structures that were more resilient to strong winds and flying debris and improving existing infrastructure were all measures that could help countries better deal with strong typhoons.
On Friday afternoon, Yagi struck the Chinese city of Wenchang in Hainan province with wind speeds of up to about 245 kph (152 mph) near its center. Authorities said the typhoon left three people dead and nearly a hundred others injured in the province. It has affected over 1.2 million people as of noon Saturday, according to the local Global Times newspaper.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an advertisement billboard lands on a road following the landfall of typhoon Yagi in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (Yang Guanyu/Xinhua via AP) Some 420,000 Hainan residents were relocated before the typhoon’s landfall. Another half a million people in Guangdong province were evacuated before Yagi made a second landfall in the province’s Xuwen County on Friday night.
Meanwhile, the meteorological observatory of the city of Haikou downgraded its typhoon signal from red to orange on Saturday, as it moved further away.
Before leaving Hong Kong, Yagi forced more than 270 people to seek refuge at temporary government shelters on Friday, and over 100 flights in the city were canceled due to the typhoon. Heavy rain and strong winds felled dozens of trees, and trading on the stock market, bank services and schools were halted.
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8 September 08 2024Internationalhttps://www.khaosodenglish.com/?p=1464913972 - International Schools in Thailand Thrive, Reaching $2.5 Billion in 2024
International schools in Thailand continue to grow, contrary to the overall declining number of students and schools in Thailand due to falling birth rates
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BANGKOK — International schools in Thailand continue to grow, contrary to the overall declining number of students and schools in Thailand due to falling birth rates, according to a leading Thai research center.
Kasikorn Research Center stated this growth is attributed to the increasing popularity of foreign education curricula and the rising number of parents with high educational investment potential.
The overall number of students in Thailand has been steadily decreasing, with a 1.7% drop in 2024 compared to the previous year. In contrast, the number of students in international schools increased by 10.2%.
Looking at birth statistics, which have been consistently declining, the number of students is expected to decrease. Between 2012-2024, the average annual birth rate declined by 4.5%, while the overall number of students in the system decreased by 0.9%. However, the number of students in international schools grew at an average rate of 6.9% per year.
Kasikorn Research Center The increasing trend of students in international schools in Thailand is due to several factors. One of these is the rise in foreign students, which corresponds with the number of foreign executives working in Thailand, growing at an average of 0.6% annually over the past 10 years.
Additionally, the growing popularity of foreign education curricula, which are constantly updated and modernized compared to Thai curricula, along with parents’ increased investment potential in education, contributes to this trend. This is reflected in the projected 24% increase in the number of people with assets over $1 million in Thailand between 2023-2028.
In 2024, the overall number of schools decreased by 0.5% from the previous year, reaching 33,098 schools. Compared to the 2012 academic year, this represents a 6.6% contraction or about 2,355 schools.
Due to the continued decline in the overall number of students, there has been a gradual closure of schools between the 2012-2024 academic years. Government schools have an average decline rate of 0.6% per year, and private schools with Thai curricula have also been declining at an average of 0.7% per year.
In contrast, the number of international schools has grown by an average of 5.0% per year, opposite to other types of schools. This reflects the trend of shifting school businesses towards foreign education curricula.
Harrow International School Bangkok The trend of international school businesses shows that competition is expanding more into areas outside Bangkok. Between 2012-2024, the average annual growth rate of students and international schools in other regions was 4.3% and 6.3% higher than in Bangkok, respectively.
Increased competition in the international school business and limited space in Bangkok have led to the exploration of new markets in major cities such as Chiang Mai, Rayong, and Phuket in recent years.
The economies of 21 major cities have grown at a higher rate than Bangkok. In 2022, the GDP per capita growth rate of these 21 major cities was 2% higher than Bangkok, making markets outside Bangkok more attractive.
This trend shows opportunities for expanding international school businesses to areas outside Bangkok, especially in the central and eastern regions. These are likely to be potential markets because they have the second-highest number of households with incomes over 100,000 baht ($2,960) per month, after Bangkok and its vicinity.
However, since the number of target households in each region is less than in Bangkok, operators may need to adjust tuition fees to match the different parental incomes in each area.
Regent’s International School Bangkok It is expected that in 2024, the market value of Thai international schools will grow by about 13% from 2023, reaching 87 billion baht ($2.5 Billion). This growth is driven by increasing popularity in international curricula and expansion into new markets, resulting in a high 10.2% expansion in the number of students from the previous year. It is also supported by an average 3.8% increase in tuition fees from the 2023 academic year.
The risks for international school businesses include the increasing tuition fees, which may lead parents to consider sending their children to study abroad instead, as the gap between tuition fees is narrowing.
In the 2024 academic year, the average annual tuition fee for international schools in Thailand is 764,484 baht ($22,655), while the average annual tuition fee for boarding schools in New Zealand is about 1,150,208 baht ($34,085).
Moreover, international schools may face challenges from competition with private Thai curriculum schools that are improving quality and have lower costs. Parents may decide to switch to private Thai curriculum schools that offer English language programs and teach multiple languages such as Thai, English, and Chinese, challenging the language strengths of international schools.
Additionally, technological advancements have made homeschooling easier. Since homeschooling costs are lower than attending international schools, this could affect the number of students in international schools. The cost of taking the GED (U.S. high school equivalency) exam along with 100 hours of one-on-one tutoring is approximately 160,800 baht ($4,765).
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8 September 08 2024Businesshttps://www.khaosodenglish.com/?p=1464914009 - Just How Rare Is a Rare-Colored Lobster? Scientists Say Answer Could Be Under the Shell
Orange, blue, calico, two-toned and ... cotton-candy colored? Those are all the hues of lobsters that have showed up in fishers' traps, supermarket seafood tanks and scientists' laboratories over the last year.
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BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — Orange, blue, calico, two-toned and … cotton-candy colored?
Those are all the hues of lobsters that have showed up in fishers’ traps, supermarket seafood tanks and scientists’ laboratories over the last year. The funky-colored crustaceans inspire headlines that trumpet their rarity, with particularly uncommon baby blue-tinted critters described by some as “cotton-candy colored” often estimated at 1 in 100 million.
A recent wave of these curious colored lobsters in Maine, New York, Colorado and beyond has scientists asking just how atypical the discolored arthropods really are. As is often the case in science, it’s complicated.
Lobsters’ color can vary due to genetic and dietary differences, and estimates about how rare certain colors are should be taken with a grain of salt, said Andrew Goode, lead administrative scientist for the American Lobster Settlement Index at the University of Maine. There is also no definitive source on the occurrence of lobster coloration abnormalities, scientists said.
“Anecdotally, they don’t taste any different either,” Goode said.
A two-toned lobster is seen in a marine sciences lab at the University of New England, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Biddeford, Maine. The rare color scheme is the result of two eggs fusing together to create a one-in-50 million lobster.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) In the wild, lobsters typically have a mottled brown appearance, and they turn an orange-red color after they are boiled for eating. Lobsters can have color abnormalities due to mutation of genes that affect the proteins that bind to their shell pigments, Goode said.
The best available estimates about lobster coloration abnormalities are based on data from fisheries sources, said marine sciences professor Markus Frederich of the University of New England in Maine. However, he said, “no one really tracks them.”
Frederich and other scientists said that commonly cited estimates such as 1 in 1 million for blue lobsters and 1 in 30 million for orange lobsters should not be treated as rock-solid figures. However, he and his students are working to change that.
Frederich is working on noninvasive ways to extract genetic samples from lobsters to try to better understand the molecular basis for rare shell coloration. Frederich maintains a collection of strange-colored lobsters at the university’s labs and has been documenting the progress of the offspring of an orange lobster named Peaches who is housed at the university.
Marine sciences professor Markus Frederich holds Tamarind, a two-toned lobster he is studying at the University of New England, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Peaches had thousands of offspring this year, which is typical for lobsters. About half were orange, which is not, Frederich said. Of the baby lobsters that survived, a slight majority were regular colored ones, Frederich said.
Studying the DNA of atypically colored lobsters will give scientists a better understanding of their underlying genetics, Frederich said.
“Lobsters are those iconic animals here in Maine, and I find them beautiful. Especially when you see those rare ones, which are just looking spectacular. And then the scientist in me simply says I want to know how that works. What’s the mechanism?” Frederich said.
He does eat lobster but “never any of those colorful ones,” he said.
The tail of a calico lobster is inspected the University of New England, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) One of Frederich’s lobsters, Tamarind, is the typical color on one side and orange on the other. That is because two lobster eggs fused and grew as one animal, Frederich said. He said that’s thought to be as rare as 1 in 50 million.
Rare lobsters have been in the news lately, with an orange lobster turning up in a Long Island, New York, Stop & Shop last month, and another appearing in a shipment being delivered to a Red Lobster in Colorado in July.
The odd-looking lobsters will likely continue to come to shore because of the size of the U.S. lobster fishery, said Richard Wahle, a longtime University of Maine lobster researcher who is now retired. U.S. fishers have brought more than 90 million pounds (40,820 metric tons) of lobster to the docks in every year since 2009 after only previously reaching that volume twice, according to federal records that go back to 1950.
“In an annual catch consisting of hundreds of millions of lobster, it shouldn’t be surprising that we see a few of the weird ones every year, even if they are 1 in a million or 1 in 30 million,” Wahle said.
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8 September 08 2024Internationalhttps://www.khaosodenglish.com/?p=1464914001 - South Korean Gamer, Kkokkoma, Goes Viral with Hong Thai Inhaler
Kim Mu-jong, also known as Kkokkoma, a South Korean esports athlete from team NaVi, has gone viral across Thailand after he was seen inhaling a Thai herbal inhaler brand Hong Thai
The post South Korean Gamer, Kkokkoma, Goes Viral with Hong Thai Inhaler appeared first on Khaosod English.
BANGKOK — Kim Moo-jong, also known as Kkokkoma, a South Korean esports athlete from team NaVi, has gone viral across Thailand after he was seen inhaling a Thai herbal inhaler brand Hong Thai before winning the Tekken 8 championship.
Kkokkoma recently won the Tekken 8 championship at the Emirates Showdown 2024 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in the grand finals on September 1, 2024.
What made him a widely discussed topic in Thailand was undoubtedly the moment when he picked up a Thai brand inhaler, Hong Thai, to boost his energy during the competition. This moment was so notable that separate clips of him using the inhaler were created and shared.
Previously, the Thai brand inhaler Hong Thai gained international fame when it was used by global superstars such as Lisa of Blackpink, Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth, and British rapper Central Cee. It has also become a source of relaxation for Thailand’s Olympic athletes in Paris 2024.
Khaosod Esports reported on an interview with Natus Vincere (NAVI) team and this South Korean player about the background of his fondness for the Hong Thai inhaler.
“I didn’t expect it would be a big issue in Thailand cause I’m using Hong Thai, haha,” Kkokkoma stated with a chuckle.
For him, the benefits of using Hong Thai during competitions are clear. “It makes my mind wake up,” he states, adding that “even the smell is super good.” This simple yet effective tool has become an integral part of his pre-game ritual, helping him maintain alertness and focus during intense matches.
Kkokkoma’s use of Hong Thai during tournaments has unexpectedly resonated with his Thai fans. This connection has further endeared him to the Thai gaming community, bridging cultures through a shared appreciation for both esports and local products.
HONG THAI Traditional Aromatherapy Nasal Inhaler 
Kkokkoma, a South Korean esports athlete from team NAVI, will visit Thailand in October 2024. His affection for Thailand extends beyond the gaming world. He expresses a particular fondness for Thai cuisine, reminiscing about a pork soup with dark-colored broth and noodles, though he struggles to recall its exact name. This appreciation for Thai food is part of his broader love for Asian cuisine, including Korean and Japanese.
Having competed against Thai players multiple times, Kkokkoma recognized the potential in the Thai gaming community. He believed that a larger community could foster stronger players, though he notes that currently, the scene seems limited. This observation highlights the importance of community support in developing competitive talent.
With an upcoming trip to Thailand in October, Kkokkoma is eager to explore more of what the country has to offer. “So… I need recommendations for good restaurants and drink places. Please let me know!!!!!” he said.
“Thanks to everyone who likes and cheers for me.” His playful addition that “Hong Thai sponsorship is always welcome for me and NAVI” not only shows his business acumen but also his genuine appreciation for the product that has become an unexpected part of his success story.
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Related article: Scent of Success: Hong Thai Inhaler’s Path from Streets to Stars
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8 September 08 2024Lifestylehttps://www.khaosodenglish.com/?p=1464913995 - Like Her (and Her Dad, Thaksin) or Not, We Need to Give Paetongtarn Government a Chance
Less than 24 hours after the new Paetongtarn Shinawatra was sworn into office in front of the King, anti-government protesters decided to demonstrate in Bangkok yesterday.
The post Like Her (and Her Dad, Thaksin) or Not, We Need to Give Paetongtarn Government a Chance appeared first on Khaosod English.
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ess than 24 hours after the new Paetongtarn Shinawatra was sworn into office in front of the King, anti-government protesters decided to demonstrate in Bangkok yesterday. They vow to take to the street outside the PM’s office, the Government House, in less than 10 days from now, on Sept 17.
The key slogan this time is they are against the “Shinawatra Regime” a reference to the belief that the new government is not exactly run by the 38-year-old Paetongtarn, but ultimate by the head of the Shinawatra family, headed by ex-convict-cum-ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. They call it a “Family Cabinet”, a “Hereditary Cabinet” and seek to yet again, create chaos and pave a way for another military coup.
One can partly understand their frustrations, for it appears the most important qualification Paetongtarn possesses to secure the top job of the executive branch is the fact that she is a daughter of Thaksin, arguably the most influential de facto politician alive in Thailand today. Having your children or siblings running the political show on your behalf because you are somehow constrained by certain legal limitations makes people feel as if politics is not just a family business but a family monopoly. Paetongtarn is not the only one.
Just two or three days before the new Deputy Interior Minister was supposed to be sworn in, the name of Chada Thaised was dropped from the list of the new Cabinet lineup due to concerns that he may lack ethical qualifications to continue to become a Cabinet minister under the new government. Chada then announced to the public that he will relinquish his post to his daughter, Ms Sabeeda Thaised, 39, a political novice. Again, Sabeeda’s chief qualification is not her law degree but the fact that she’s daddy’s daughter and that daddy trusts her.
There’s more. Another blatant reminder that politics is a family business is the fact that former Agriculture Minister Thamanat Prompow’s younger brother was field in as new Deputy Agriculture Minister as Thamanat, being a former convicted heroin smuggler, conspiring to import heroin to Australia, was sentenced to 6 years in prison by an Australian Court back in 1994.
In light of PM Srettha Thavisin being removed in August by the Constitutional Court for having appointed Pichit Chuenban as PM Office Minister despite Pichit having been charged for attempted bribery of a court official, the Paetongtarn government is taking no chance. Thus Thamanat has become too risky post-Srettha ruling. Nevertheless, Thamanat, who insists he didn’t know who decided to appoint his younger brother, can now count on his younger bro, Akara Prompao to be his ears and eyes, and representative at the ministry.
These are just some of the legacy Cabinet members and heriditary politicians and the list will indeed be long if we continue. It’s understandable why some Thais, particularly those against the current administration, feel frustrated, if not furious. Many feel it’s an insult to their intelligence and become alienated by electoral politics. Some wish the army could again stage another military coup.
Such sentiment is egregious and will do even more harm to Thailand, however. Thailand has been making too many political detours as a result of one military coup after another. The nine decades of “parliamentary democracy” saw at least 13 “successful coups” which literally slowed down development if not grounded the kingdom into a halt.
Some Thais need to learn to be patient, and allow this imperfect system to correct itself and refrain from calling and supporting another military intervention which would amount to stalling Thailand, ensuring political and economic uncertainties, and regress in fundamental political rights.
Whether one likes the new Paetongtarn Shinawatra government, or Thaksin, or not, one should look at the bigger picture and recognize that military intervention is not the solution. Thailand has lost 9 years under junta leader Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha. As much as this writer may have many reservations about the Shinawatra government, another rogue general taking over the country is definitely not the answer.
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8 September 08 2024Opinionhttps://www.khaosodenglish.com/?p=1464913986