Update: Never take a break!

PPT should know better than to take a break. So much has happened since we decided to try to catch up on our listing of pending and convicted 112 cases:

• On 1 July 2025, the Constitutional Court ruled to suspend Paetongtarn Shinawatra from her official duties as prime minister. The decision was no surprise as the Court has sunk several prime ministers associated with Thaksin Shinwatra. The suspension followed a petition from 36 senators who accused her of dishonesty and unethical activities. That’s the kettle calling the pot black given that virtually the whole Senate is under investigation for vote rigging to gain their positions.
• This followed on from a (re-)developing border argument that soon became a shooting war on the disputed border between Thailand and Cambodia. No simple dispute, with Thaksin having a public yelling match with former buddy Hun Sen. In that, Hun Sen released a recording of Paetongtarn talking with him that torpedoed her premiership and gave the Bhum Jai Thai party an excuse to leave the shaky coalition. It also saw the Puea Thai-led government hand the military control of the disputed border, fearing that the coalition might collapse if it didn’t kowtow to the men in green.
• Then the border dispute collapsed into a senseless shooting war, that resulted in hyper-nationalist fervor being unleashed on both sides. This is not unexpected in Thailand, where ultra-nationalist training and “education” is provided to everyone. On the Cambodian side, Hun Sen’s authoritarianism has been skilled at playing the  nationalist card. All good sense is thrown away. Believing the propaganda from either side is more or less impossible but ultra-nationalists only believe their own guff.
• Not unrelated, the Thai side has been having huge problems dealing with US President Donald Trump’s gangster-lke tariff “negotiations”. The Thai side seems unwilling to do the deal that gives Trump his 0% tariff for US goods and 15-20% on Thai imports to the US. Then the border dispute gave Trump an opportunity to play a kind of bully peacemaker by declaring no negotiations with either country until they stop shooting. Both sides say they want a ceasefire but they keep shooting.
• And then Andrew MacGregor Marshall posted at Facebook that the old queen, Sirikit, is dead, just a few days before her son’s birthday. He’s usually pretty accurate in reporting such events. Exactly what this passing means is yet to play out.

Update: There are now several reports of ASEAN mediation with Hun Samet and Phumtham Wechayachai to meet in Malaysia. No doubt both will be reporting back to their respective big bosses. We can only hope that sense may return to leaders in both countries. By the way, as now always happens with every single event, there is a conspiracy narrative about the US engineering the dispute. So far, there’s no evidence for such a claim. Whenever “conspiracy” is mentioned, we now get suspicious. There are plenty of other “causes” for these events.