THE WEEK AHEAD
MONDAY
Thai, US and Canadian police will brag this morning about how they brought down darknet drug website AlphaBay, run from a Phuttamonthon home by a Quebecois.
A million and a half illegal migrants have two weeks, starting this morning, to bring a lot of money along to 99 government offices and try to register and become legal.
The Appeal Court will try again to read the verdicts in the case of the top six members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy convicted of illegally trespassing and occupying Government House from Aug 26 to Dec 3, 2008. Current Greybar Hotel resident Sonthi Limthongkul and Chamlong “Maha” Srimuang lead the parade.
A large delegation of Thai small business owners begin a fun-filled week in Tehran today, trying to sell Thai goods to Iran — mostly food and snacks but also come cosmetics.
In Manila, President Rodrigo Duterte is to deliver the annual state of the nation address to parliament. His current obsession is martial law.
Japan marks its first annual Day of Telework to encourage people to work from home, at least until 10.30am. The reason is that the 2020 Olympics are to open on July 24 and the government needs the streets.
TUESDAY
Bangkok City Hall is to kick off “Big Cleaning Day” to get trash and weeds out of every klong, drain and Chao Phraya River. The “day” will actually last three days. All 76 other provinces will do the same from Saturday through July 31 or tell the general prime minister why not. The Criminal Court is to announce today whether it will accept a citizen’s lawsuit against King Power International and Airports of Thailand. Charnchai Issarasenarak, who holds AoT stock, maintains there was a conspiracy to let King Power to keep 14 billion baht in sales income it was supposed to pay to AoT. Five discrete Thai companies are expected to bid to supply the Philippines with 250,000 tonnes of rice.
The six-day Thailand Industry 4.0 Expo begins today at Challenger Hall, Muang Thong, and you should expect it to be mobbed by 300,000 visitors willing to spend 500 million baht on products from industry and communities alike.
WEDNESDAY
City Hall will begin paying riverside residents it kicked out to make way for the promenade.
The winner of the Bangkok Post Sun
day’s Weird Acronym of the Week Award (WAWA) has been announced. The Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum 2017 is known as (applause please) APrIGF. Hosted at Chulalongkorn University and sponsored by the always interesting National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, around 300 APrIGF delegates will try to explain to NBTC the harm it is doing with its jihad against internet streaming and other forms of high-profile censorship. The European Court of Justice will rule this evening on whether the Palestinian group Hamas should be removed from the EU’s list of terrorist groups. Hamas is the latter-day version of Black September, the terrorist group that attacked the Israeli embassy in Bangkok on the day of the investiture of His Majesty the King as crown prince in 1972.
THURSDAY
Real bidding is to begin today by firms who want the 7.3-billion baht contract to build the 84km railway between Hua Hin and Prachuap Khiri Khan town. Thirteen firms will take part in the e-bidding. The awards for the 5th Thailand International Film Destination Festival will be held this evening at Siam Pawalai Grand Theater, Siam Paragon. Details at www. thailandfilmdestination.com.
The Organic and Natural Expo 2017 will run from today through Sunday at the Sirikit Centre. Organic Trade Association president Peerachot Charanwong says Thai growers and sellers reaped 2.7 billion baht from organic products last year, but 64% of that was from domestic buyers.
The annual Baby & Kids Fair supply expo runs from today through Sunday at Bitec Bang Na.
A seemingly strange pair of shows from today through Sunday at Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre: Power Buy mega sale — everything IT and powered utilities for the home — alongside the annual Organic and Natural Expo.
FRIDAY
The 18-ring, 17th Thailand Cat Show will run Friday to Sunday at CentralPlaza WestGate which is (obviously) north of Bangkok at Bang Yai on the Purple Line. Today’s main event is a show for Thai cats only, of which only five breeds are left — registration 200 baht, first prize for each breed 3,000 baht.
The Indonesian and Vietnamese women conned into assassinating the brother of North Korea’s Dear Leader Kim Jong-un will begin pre-trial procedures in the Malaysian high court in Kuala Lumpur. The national flag must be raised at all state offices and recognised private organisations today and tomorrow to celebrate the birth of His Majesty the King and National Flag Day.
SATURDAY
Today is also Thai Language Day, krap pom. Air Force and Ministry of Defence officers are in Seoul today to sign the contract to purchase four more T-50 jet fighter-trainers from Korea Aerospace Industries for a mere 8.8 billion baht, or two-thirds of a submarine.
Pretty maids all in a row tonight at Miss Universe Thailand, from 7pm to 9pm at Royal Paragon Hall and Channel 3. The winner will go to the international pageant in Manila.
All tweens in Bangkok require tickets to the first world tour of Monsta X tomorrow at 6pm at Thunder Dome, Muang Thong. Yes, old people, it’s a K-pop boys’ band.