NanLaew

With Russia STILL the world's second biggest oil exporter, where everything is paid in Benjamins, the rubles forex correction means absolutely nothing. Despite the Nordstream outage and so-called embargos, Europe is still buying loads of Russian gas, it just comes the 'long way round' to get there. If not via southern Europe and Turkish pipelines, there's at least two, huge, Russian-owned but Hong Kong flagged, icebreaker-hulled LNG carriers traversing the Baltic to discharge gas into import pipelines in Zeebrugge. The Vladimir Rusanov departed there about ten days ago, and sailing back to Yamal for another load. Earlier this year, they started regular deliveries to Jiangsu in China. One of the deals that was signed on the cusp of COP 29 in Baku was the 'rebranding' of Russian oil as Azerbajani oil so that the European importers can avoid those nasty sanctions for buying the stuff, something that India's Modi has absolutely no qualms about.

None. Because the BBC, quite rightly, are not saying dicky bird as it is up to the employees who are TUC or NUK members to do what they've been told, or otherwise.

It was initially reported in The Times. Now, pay attention!

It's the TUC that's asking union members employed by the BBC to dress up for Hamas at work, not the BBC. Hopr this helps.

It's taken some time to catch up with the lodgers but my son confirms that the 5 GHz wi-fi connection on his laptop is fast enough for watching movies and gaming in his room in the annex. So, I reckon the full capabilities and benefits of having mesh on the new main router and the relocated mesh extender are being realised. My next project will be to check if my Imou CCTV wi-fi will cover the furthest camera over the new back gate to the property after it gets installed. The host NVR is in my shed at the front of the lot. Since this runs on 2.4 GHz, and the camera will be mounted about 5 meters high, I am assuming wi-fi range (not more than 3 meters beyond the annex) won't be an issue. If the system supports camera repeater capability, no worries. Otherwise I will be exploring repeaters for that as well.

Ah yes, the old but irrelevant, "if it's dodgy for me at Heathrow, then it's going to be apocalyptically rubbish for everyone else at Suvarnabhumi" argument again. The Aussies were too right about the whingeing Poms.

The picture accompanying the OP shows immigration staff and the facial recognition and biometrics scanners at inbound immigration. Outbound immigration has these scanners. If your passport is machine readable with a chip, you use these gates with no interaction with an immigration person required. If there's an issue and passing through is declined, the passenger will be referred to the few manned immigration booths that still exist. For info, the chip embedded in my passport doesn't work, so the scan was refused and I used the old fashioned way. From my observations yesterday mid-afternoon, the self-scan is very fast and trouble-free with few referrals to the manned kiosk. There was only a couple or three people queueing there. With regard to the check-in, bag-drop to boarding system mentioned by AoT in the OP, this system is separate but runs in parallel with the immigration self-scan system. The airline self-service kiosks are capable of taking your picture as part of this process. It is not fully implemented yet but when it is, the facial picture will be linked to the boarding pass QR code. When the passenger scans their boarding pass to go "air side", their face will be scanned and compared with the check-in picture. Once though immigration (as above), and while boarding at the gate, the QR code and face will be checked a final time for a match. Earlier news articles talked about eventually eliminating boarding passes but since a lot of passengers can't even find their assigned seat while having a boarding pass let alone the correct gate, I don't see facial recognition as ever being the ONLY way to pass through airports.

I was specifically addressing the misunderstanding and misuse of the term expat. I am not interested in debating other people's tax status, just how they describe themselves. Note that the term "expat" isn't used to define a person's income tax status in any jurisdiction. I'm not dismissive of anyone's argument or opinion. I'm just clarifying the meaning if the word expat and how it has no bearing with regard to tax.

Yes, very true. I have signed the disclaimer forms at immigration despite being unable to read the text. But that's part of a specific procedure that's completed while you wait. A blank tax form that needs to be completed and sent to head office by other staff after you've left the bank doesn't have the same sense of being completed. If I was dealing with KB on this issue, I would still submit via email in addition to letting branch staff complete things for me, just in case someone stuffs up. And I wouldn't rush either. I think too many are reading too much into the date that KB says it needs to be completed by. Since KB seem to be the only bank chasing up customers at this time, I see this as an internal deadline rather than an international compliance deadline.

You signed a 'blank' form? Interesting (if you did).

Semantics Expat is from the Latin 'ex-patria' and you live outside (ex) your birth country (patria). It has nothing to do with residence or permanent home. When you are repatriated, you are returning to your birth country. Nomad is a catchy modern distortion of the original meaning of nomadic which infers travelling people of no fixed abode. They are still expatriates if they are outside their birth country.

How were they "barmy"? To me, it appears the UK's civilization and society in the 1980's forsook them. You claim you used to write to one of them. Was that insightful or did you simply let it confirm what appears to be the norms of society with regard to what was acceptable about forty years ago? As my late sister would say, "There's no need to be afraid of things you don't understand."

To me, "hassle free" is downloading the forms as requested, completing them as applicable, and emailing them back to the bank, as they have instructed. More so if one is currently out of the country. By February, they may require something else. Despite several members reporting quick and efficient service as a walk-in at certain branches, this success cannot be guaranteed at ALL branches.

And I am exceedingly happy for you. But back on topic, it's up to the customer to ensure that whatever bank they use, they keep their personal AND CONTACT information current. With the burgeoning implementation of updated tax rules it's the customer's responsibility to make sure they don't have any unpleasant surprises. Thanks.

Edward is the child's father who's been incarcerated since 2022. https://news.sky.com/story/ed-linse-man-attacked-parents-for-sending-him-to-boarding-school-40-years-ago-12767192 He is estranged from his Thai wife who has pleaded guilty to manslaughter of her 7 year-old son. He wasn't involved with the child's death. There's also no suggestion that the dead child needed therapy. There is mention of children (plural) but no mention of what has happened to the other(s). There is also no mention that social services were ever involved, but that's not unusual. When they do intervene, it's usually too little or too late.

Maybe this is the scam! Sounds more like the "FAB 103" guy has no idea who is using his email address. Then there are the many members who say, "I have an account but haven't received this email, so it's a scam... but I don't know if the bank actually has my email address." Who ties your shoes in the morning?

The people who suggest they have a Harley ride their girlfriend's Scoopy in Thailand.

They have a collective what now? You don't know Russians.

My mate, and his dad, who worked damn hard "all their lives" have got decent pensions. They can afford at least two overseas holidays a year.

My second home is in east Lancs. I am there 3 to 5 times a year. The ethnicity and faith of the majority of the local, UK-born citizens living there doesn't bother me or impact my quality of life there. Nor does it rent huge space in the head of my mate who worked there most of his life and has now retired. Or his dad who worked down the mines. When we get tired of the weekend boutique gastropub set in their Audi SUV's and Porsche's invading our locals, we go for a reality check now and again and visit some of the less-salubrious pubs and rub shoulders at the spitoon with the welfare spongers, pikeys and other marginalized types.

Calm it Janet. Ricky Jones has been arrested and charged, just like Connoly. His Labour party membership has also been suspended. He will have his day in court in January, just like Connoly had hers.

That's because politicians, serious politcians of either colour, realize that stopping immigration, even illegal immigration, is the faster-track to economic decline and societal suicide. They also lie to their teeth.

I accept your views, but I believe that if one is going to live (and die) here, it is far, far easier to learn Thai and use it rather than play lucky-dip with the 'shy' locals. Life's to short for linguistic proselytism.

For the OP, the kids aren't his. He can divorce and leave. This situation didn't suddenly happen. If there was no full disclosure from his wife about supporting her deadbeat progeny, then he's not obliged to fork out for it or even hang around. Life's too short for this sh*t.

Maybe you understand people like Lucy Connolly better? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/lucy-connolly-sentence-tory-councillor-husband-twitter-post-b2630930.html Hopefully, the short jail sentence is just the slap up the side of the head she so obviously needed.