TallGuyJohninBKK

I'm not a military type... But, in thinking a bit, I do think I seem to remember something in the past about the U.S. having one version of such aircraft that they use for their own U.S. forces and then a somewhat lower-tech version that's sold for export. So either some or all "allies" might not get exactly the same plane as the U.S. forces are using... Any U.S. military/Air Force types here have any sense of that?

If you notice in the charts I posted above, the second column in on the top chart shows the ATK test positives as a separate tally, and those too have been dropping in recent days. As has the combined total of official RT-PCR confirmed COVID cases and the unofficial ATK-derived ones. It's just the deaths and serious hospitalizations that, at least for now, are continuing to rise in terms of the official stats. However, it's worth pointing out, a person can think they've caught COVID, do their own ATK test at home, have it show positive, and then just stay home to hopefully ride it out. And that's never going to get reported even as an ATK case in the government's tally. And there probably are a lot of those these days. But still, the officially reported case numbers that were going up steadily before lately now have started dropping -- for who knows what reasons...

Perhaps a sneaky way for the Chinese to get their mitts on the F-35 up close and personal?

The date of the arbitration ruling (2011) in the OP report indicates this one has been dragging along for more than 10 years already. I'll put a wake up note in my calendar for another 10 years down the road. The story behind this whole case is a textbook example of Thailand public corruption at its finest.

Thailand official new COVID daily cases declining, but COVID death and serious hospitalization numbers rose again today, as reported earlier by the Ministry of Public Health. New record daily highs for COVID deaths and serious hospitalizations for the year, yet again. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

Thanks for the serious, thoughtful perspective on the current situation. It sounds like a realistic assessment of the situation in Russia, as opposed to some other posters here parroting the Russian government propaganda playbook.

Thailand right now is running about 1 COVID death per day per million population. For a country of about 70 million people, that means about 70 COVID deaths per day, and that rate is rising. Which of those 70 folks per day are you suggesting deserve to be written off?

Yes, BA1 was the original, and now BA2 is becoming dominant in Thailand. Somewhat more contagious than the original Omicron version, according to the research thus far. And yes, in general, Omicron has been more contagious but typically less severe than Delta that preceded it.

Thanks for your correction above.

Nothing I said above was taking anyone's illness lightly or expressing sarcasm about that. In fact, I've consistently posted information here on the forum with the facts of how serious the pandemic is, despite many here claiming it's "over" and that only people already sick are getting sick and dying (which isn't true). However, it is a fact that overall, Omicron tends to cause less severe health issues than Delta that preceded it. That doesn't mean that no one gets seriously sick with Omicron. Obviously some do. But my comment above simply said I hadn't seen any science or medical reporting that the latest BA2 version of Omicron caused more serious health issues that the original BA1 version, based on the overall statistics.

Despite officially reported new COVID cases falling for a fourth consecutive day to 18,943, new COVID deaths, serious cases in hospital and COVID patients needing intubation to breathe all rose again Tuesday to set new record highs for the year. With Tuesday's update by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, daily COVID deaths now at 69 are almost six times their number at the start of the year. Serious COVID cases in hospital, now at 1,189, have more than doubled their level since the start of the year, and the same with COVID patients (400) requiring intubation to breathe. With Tuesday's update, the daily number of COVID deaths has risen for three consecutive days, and four consecutive days for the number of serious COVID cases in hospital. The number of COVID patients requiring intubation to breath has risen daily for the past week. And that's even with the rising numbers of daily COVID deaths. Tuesday's update, though, marked the first time in the past week that Thailand's new officially reported daily COVID cases dropped below the 19,000 mark. That was a positive sign as the recent dropoff in new officially reported cases and also unofficial ATK positive cases continued into this week, even though daily deaths and the numbers of serious COVID hospitalizations are continuing to rise. Thailand's seven-day-average positivity rate for COVID testing, after peaking at more than 30% in recent days, has lately declined somewhat and has been hovering around 27%, which still is extremely high. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main For added context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's daily COVID case count topped out at 23,418, but the numbers of serious hospital cases and intubated patients peaked above 5,600 and 1,100 respectively, and daily deaths topped 300 for a brief period.

The confusion is the result of their imprecision in using terms... The govt HAS vaccinated more than 70% of the population, if by that they mean having received two shots, which has often been called "fully vaccinated." But thus far, they've only been able to get about 30% of the population "boosted," meaning a third vaccine shot. And it's that third shot that the science says is necessary to most effectively combat Omicron, because it's a more resistant variant from the earlier ones, and because the effectiveness of the original shots tends to decline over time, particularly in terms of preventing infection. (The far right column below shows the cumulative vax rates for 1, 2, and 3 shots). Then, if you want to talk about the most vulnerable senior citizen population, those over age 60, right now, almost 80% of them have gotten two shots, but only about 31% have gotten three. And that latter stat leaves a very big vulnerability to Omicron COVID among the older folks living here. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos

Some New Steps the West Might Try in Ukraine The Wall Street Journal As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears its two-week mark, a grim story in three parts is emerging: Russia’s brutality is escalating, Ukraine’s resistance remains inspiring—and the West’s ability to steer events is proving frustratingly limited. Perhaps Ukraine is somehow, miraculously, winning its battle—or perhaps it’s simply losing more slowly than Russian President Vladimir Putin once imagined. Either way, the U.S. and its allies, after responding with surprising speed and unity to impose economic sanctions on Russia, now find themselves trapped between a desire to help Ukraine more on the one hand and a fear of setting off a global conflict with a nuclear-armed tyrant on the other. (more) https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/some-new-steps-the-west-might-try-in-ukraine/ar-AAUJpCG

Quite an endorsement in that article: "Local lawmakers largely ignored activists’ pleas, and police spending has tripled over the last 40 years, helping to make the US a world leader in incarceration and police killings. Even as cities have faced financial shortfalls, local governments consistently spent an increasing share of their general funds on police (despite repeated research showing that increasing police funding does not correlate to reduced crime)."

How do you say "de-platformed" in Russian? Russian State Media Shuts Down RT America as Services Cut Propaganda Outlet In the days following the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, nearly all entertainment companies in the United States and around the world have cutoff operations in, and with, Russia. ... It has also been reported that RT America — the American arm of Russia’s state-sponsored network RT — has ceased operations, effective immediately. According to CNN, in a memo to employees, Misha Solodovnikov, the general manager of T&R Productions — the network’s content supplier — said that it was shutting down production at all of its U.S. locations due to the network being dropped from practically all of its distribution platforms. The vast majority of the company’s employees were let go on Thursday. (more) https://thestreamable.com/news/russian-state-media-shuts-down-rt-america-as-services-cut-propaganda-outlet

Tell that to the 65 people in Thailand who died of COVID yesterday, and the more than 1,100 COVID cases hospitalized in serious condition right now.... with both numbers rising almost daily and at record highs for 2022. It may be "over" for the dead, but not for everyone else.

Putin and his assorted friends here?

In your case, that definitely can be arranged! ????

Omicron, the original BA1 version, became the dominant strain in Thailand around the beginning of the year, eclipsing last year's Delta. Now, the newer BA2 strain of Omicron is headed toward eclipsing the original BA1 Omicron strain. BA2 is more contagious than BA1. Just as BA1 is/was more contagious than Delta. But I haven't heard that the newer BA2 causes worse health problems...

There was a news post here just the other day regarding an attempt by Russian forces in one captured city to stage a propaganda film by bussing in loads of Russian sympathizers from separatist regions, and then have them happily greet Russian troops. But the local Ukrainian residents staged a protest in large numbers that forced the Russians to abandon that effort...at least for that day.

Russian news anchor says millions of Russians feel invasion is a catastrophe Russian news director and anchor, Ekaterina Kotrikadze, speaks to CNN's Fareed Zakaria about the state of the country's news media after her station, TV Rain, shut down due to the Russian government's crackdown on local media over unfavorable coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine says Russian escape routes lead only to Russia and Belarus Ukraine has rejected a Russian proposal for humanitarian corridors. Ukraine's deputy prime minister said it was not an acceptable option, because the planned routes out of several Ukrainian cities only led to Russia or its ally Belarus. Kyiv also accuses the Kremlin of continuing to shell civilians during previously agreed ceasefires to help people escape. (more)

Ukraine War: 'This is not a war against Ukraine. This is a war against our values' - Poroshenko Sky's Special Correspondent Alex Crawford speaks to former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who said 'don't trust Putin' over reports of humanitarian corridors.

What do anti-war protests in Russia mean for Putin? Security forces in Russia have detained over 4,000 anti-war protesters across the country. The figure is from an independent protest monitor. Police have arrested people in several Russian cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg. They warned that organizers and participants in demonstrations will face charges. Authorities have imposed restrictions on protests citing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hope it's not too little, too late... U.S., Poland, Ukraine plan fighter jet swap as Russia warns against foreign interference "The U.S., Poland and Ukraine are working out plans for a fighter jet swap that would see Poland provide jets to Ukraine, while U.S. jets would backfill the Polish airfleet. Russia has warned that even the use of neighbouring airfields would be seen as direct military involvement." AND Blinken says NATO countries have "green light" to send fighter jets to Ukraine "[U.S.] Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. is considering replacing Polish fighter jets if the Polish government decides to send aircraft to Ukraine."