THE WEEK AHEAD
MONDAY
A ritual fire will destroy 6,245 kilogrammes of illicit drugs to celebrate the massive success of the war on drugs. The prime minister visits French President Emmanuel Macron today, and will apparently go ahead with the possible purchase of a hugely expensive ($215 million; 6.9 billion baht in real money) THEOS 2 ground observation satellite from Airbus.
It’s the first weekday you can use your Mangmoom (Spider) transport card on the MRT. While the card will be for all public transportation after the Korat Winter Olympics, it is valid today to travel on Purple and Blue lines and nothing else for now.
The Asian American Club of Bridgeport, Florida, will honour Thailand today by singing songs from The King and I.
The Mekong Tourism Conference 2018 opens today at Nakhon Phanom which (if you believe the hype) will soon be a tourism hub. The show ends on Friday.
TUESDAY
In October, 2013, former Olympic shooter Jakkrit Panichpatikum was shot and killed. His widow Nitiwadee was convicted of hiring the killers, although her mother Surang later “confessed” that she was the mastermind. The Appeal Court is to rule on the case this morning.
The leader is to return tonight from a fabulously successful tour that went off without a hitch and cemented Thailand’s name in Europe’s annals.
China will host the first annual China-Africa Defence and Security Forum. CASEA 2018, the Civil Aviation Southeast Asia Summit opens today, ends tomorrow at Hotel Pullman Grande Sukhumvit. The three-day Connectech Asia opens in Singapore, to encourage and network start-ups.
WEDNESDAY
Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak will tour Foxconn’s vaunted smartphone factories as part of a government roadshow in Shenzhen, designed to convince the Taiwan firm to set up in his Eastern Economic Corridor project. The two-day International Conference on Teaching, Education and Learning opens today in Pattaya to discuss cross-national academics.
Closing arguments for defence and prosecution are scheduled today at the murder trial of the Vietnamese and Indonesian women charged with killing Kim Jong-un’s half-brother Jong Nam at Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur.
Qatar will launch its lawsuit against the UAE at the world court at The Hague, charging human rights violations over its Saudi-supported blockade.
THURSDAY
Rail Expansion Asia, today and tomorrow at the Tower Club at lebua, will focus government and industry experts on, well, expanding railways.
The country’s No 1 health and healthcare expo opens today at Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre. Visitors to the four-day exhibition get a free health check-up, and deals on hospital care. The FAST Auto Show will run from today through Sunday at Bitec Bangna, with new and used cars.
Tonight’s four matches at 9pm and 1am bring to an end the group stage of the World Cup. The tournament will dismiss half the 32 original teams, and begin the knockout rounds before the July 15 final. Not focused on the World Cup are half a dozen Thais who will join the rest of the top women’s golfers tonight to begin the four-day Women’s PGA Championship, a major, at Kildeer, Illinois.
FRIDAY
The development committee of the failed TCAS, or Thai University Central Admission System, will meet today to try to figure out how to keep firm control but make it work for next year’s high school graduates.
The animated feature 9 Satra: the Legend
of Muay Thai will open in an unreported number of Chinese cinemas today. Sales have been concluded in Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Advanced ticket sales for the Oct 28 Sam Smith show open today at 10am at ThaiTicketMajor.com.
The International Organisation for Migration elects a new director-general at a meeting in Geneva today.
SATURDAY
World Cup last-16 matches begin this evening. The Group A winner will play the runner-up in Group B at 9pm, while the Group C winner will face the second-place finisher at Group D at 1am. Games reverse tomorrow night, ie the winner of Group B will play the runner-up of Group A, etc. Match-ups of Groups E through H will be played Monday and Tuesday nights.
The annual Bayreuth Festival of Richard Wagner music opens tomorrow in Germany.
Also tomorrow, Austria takes over the presidency of the European Union to ramrod the last part of Britain exit. Mexico has nationwide elections tomorrow. No country with “T” in its name will vote.