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Thailand’s disbanded opposition party relaunches under new name, leader

Thailand’s disbanded opposition party relaunches under new name, leader

Move Forward Party has been renamed the People’s Party, the largest in parliament, and has promised to advance reforms. Thailand’s main opposition Move Forward Party (MFP) has relaunched with a new name and leader after being forced to disband by a court this week. The new party will be led by tech entrepreneur Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut and known as Prachachon, party representative Parit Wacharasindhu told journalists in the capital, Bangkok, on Friday. It will be referred to as the People’s Party in English. “The reason for this name is because we would like to be a party by the people, from the people, for the people, to move Thailand forward so that people can be the supreme power,” Parit said. MFP, which won the most seats in last year’s election, was blocked from forming a government and was ordered to dissolve in a unanimous ruling by the constitutional court on Wednesday. Its executive board members were banned from politics for 10 years. While 10 MFP members have been banned, 143 of the party’s politicians who kept their seats in parliament have joined the new party. The court said it violated the constitution when it pledged to amend the country’s strict royal defamation law. The European Union, United States, United Nations and human rights groups blasted the court’s decision, which the EU said harmed democratic openness in Thailand. Natthaphong, 37, told a news conference that Prachachon will carry on MFP’s ideology. “The mission for me and the party is to create a government for change in 2027,” he said, referring to Thailand’s next national election. MFP’s liberal agenda won significant support from young and urban voters – but also earned it some powerful enemies – with plans that include reforming the military and dismantling business monopolies worth billions of dollars each year. Its bid to amend a law on royal insults riled influential generals and royalists with far-reaching connections, who see the monarchy as sacrosanct. Thailand’s lese-majeste law is one of the world’s strictest, with punishments of up to 15 years for each perceived insult of the crown. Although the court in a January ruling ordered MFP to drop its campaign, Natthaphong said the new party would continue the push to change the law, known as Article 112. “We have said we propose to amend Article 112 to ensure that this law is not a political tool used to abuse others, but we won’t be careless,” Natthaphong said. The People’s Party is the third incarnation of the Future Forward Party, which was dissolved for a campaign financing violation in 2020, triggering nationwide antigovernment protests. Adblock test (Why?)

‘Never say goodbye’: Can AI bring the dead back to life?

‘Never say goodbye’: Can AI bring the dead back to life?

In a world where artificial intelligence can resurrect the dead, grief takes on a new dimension. From Canadian singer Drake’s use of AI-generated Tupac Shakur vocals to Indian politicians addressing crowds years after their passing, technology is blurring the lines between life and death. But beyond their uncanny pull in entertainment and politics, AI “zombies” might soon become a reality for people reeling from the loss of loved ones, through a series of pathbreaking, but potentially controversial, initiatives. So how do AI “resurrections” work, and are they as dystopian as we might imagine? What are AI ‘resurrections’ of people? Over the past few years, AI projects around the world have created digital “resurrections” of individuals who have passed away, allowing friends and relatives to converse with them. Typically, users provide the AI tool with information about the deceased. This could include text messages and emails or simply be answers to personality-based questions. The AI tool then processes that data to talk to the user as if it were the deceased. One of the most popular projects in this space is Replika – a chatbot that can mimic people’s texting styles. Other companies, however, now also allow you to see a video of the dead person as you talk to them. For example, Los Angeles-based StoryFile uses AI to allow people to talk at their own funerals. Before passing, a person can record a video sharing their life story and thoughts. During the funeral, attendees can ask questions and AI technology will select relevant responses from the prerecorded video. In June, US-based Eternos also made headlines for creating an AI-powered digital afterlife of a person. Initiated just earlier this year, this project allowed 83-year-old Michael Bommer to leave behind a digital version of himself that his family could continue to interact with. Do these projects help people? When a South Korean mother reunited with an AI recreation of her dead daughter in virtual reality, a video of the emotional encounter in 2020 sparked an intense debate online about whether such technology helps or hurts its users. Developers of such projects point to the users’ agency, and say that it addresses a deeper suffering. Jason Rohrer, founder of Project December, which also uses AI to stimulate conversations with the dead, said that most users are typically going through an “unusual level of trauma and grief” and see the tool as a way to help cope. “A lot of these people who want to use Project December in this way are willing to try anything because their grief is so insurmountable and so painful to them.” The project allows users to chat with AI recreations of known public figures and also with individuals that users may know personally. People who choose to use the service for stimulating conversation with the dead often discover that it helps them find closure, Rohrer said. The bots allow them to express words left unsaid to loved ones who died unexpectedly, he added. Eternos’s founder, Robert LoCasio, said that he developed the company to capture people’s life stories and allow their loved ones to move forward. Bommer, his former colleague who passed away in June, wanted to leave behind a digital legacy exclusively for his family, said LoCasio. “I spoke with [Bommer] just days before he passed away and he said, just remember, this was for me. I don’t know if they’d use this in the future, but this was important to me,” said LoCasio. What are the pitfalls of this technology? Some experts and observers are more wary of AI resurrections, questioning whether deeply grieving people can really make the informed decision to use it, and warning about its adverse psychological effects. “The biggest concern that I have as a clinician is that mourning is actually very important. It’s an important part of development that we are able to acknowledge the missing of another person,” said Alessandra Lemma, consultant at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families. Prolonged use could keep people from coming to terms with the absence of the other person, leaving them in a state of “limbo”, Lemma warned. Indeed, one AI service has marketed a perpetual connection with the deceased person as a key feature. “Welcome to YOV (You, Only Virtual), the AI startup pioneering advanced digital communications so that we Never Have to Say Goodbye to those we love,” read the company’s website, before it was recently updated. Rohrer said that his grief bot has an “in-built” limiting factor: users pay $10 for a limited conversation. The fee buys time on a supercomputer, with each response varying in computational cost. This means $10 doesn’t guarantee a fixed number of responses, but can allow for one to two hours of conversation. As the time is about to lapse, users are sent a notification and can say their final goodbyes. Several other AI-generated conversational services also charge a fee for use. Lemma, who has researched the psychological impact of grief bots, says that while she worries about the prospects of them being used outside a therapeutic context, it could be used safely as an adjunct to therapy with a trained professional. Studies around the world are also observing the potential for AI to deliver mental health counselling, particularly through individualised conversational tools. These services may appear to be straight out of a Black Mirror episode. But supporters of this technology argue that the digital age is simply ushering in new ways of preserving life stories, and potentially filling a void left by the erosion of traditional family storytelling practices. “In the olden days, if a parent knew they were dying, they would leave boxes full of things that they might want to pass on to a child or a book,” said Lemma. “So, this might be the 21st-century version of that, which is then passed on and is created by the parents in anticipation of their passing.” LoCasio at Eternos agrees. “The ability for a human to tell the stories of

Progressive women’s groups silent on second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s affair

Progressive women’s groups silent on second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s affair

Several progressive women’s groups were silent when asked by Fox News Digital about how second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s affair when he was married to his ex-wife could affect his image as a leader championing their cause. Fox News Digital sent an inquiry for comment to EMILYs List, the League of Women Voters, the Progressive Women’s Alliance of West Michigan, the National Organization for Women, the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the Women’s Liberation Front and the International Center for Research on Women. None of the groups returned a request for comment about whether Emhoff should face heightened scrutiny as potentially the next first gentleman by press deadline. 13 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS NOT HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE As the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer husband, Emhoff has been involved in a number of left-wing causes and has encouraged men to advocate for abortion in the aftermath of the summer 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Earlier this year, he teamed up with Men4Choice to tour Florida, Arizona and North Carolina to campaign for abortion rights. Meanwhile, his wife was making press stops at abortion clinics. “This is an issue of fairness to women. Women are dying,” Emhoff said in an NBC interview in May. “It’s affecting man’s ability to plan their lives. And it’s also an issue of what’s next, what other freedoms are at risk. And these freedoms are affecting all Americans, not just women.” Emhoff, Vice President Harris’ husband, admitted to having an affair with a nanny shortly after the Daily Mail published a report last week that the second gentleman had an affair with his daughter’s nanny and got her pregnant. The nanny’s close friend told the outlet that she did not keep the baby but did not elaborate further. “During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions. I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side,” Emhoff told CNN last week of the affair. KAMALA HARRIS’ HUSBAND DOUG EMHOFF ADMITS TO EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIR THAT LED TO BREAKUP OF FIRST MARRIAGE Emhoff and his first wife were married from 1992 to 2008 and share two adult children. Harris married Emhoff in 2014 and helped co-parent his children, who call their stepmother “Mommala.” The divorce cited “irreconcilable differences” as the motivation behind parting ways, the New York Post reported.  Harris knew about the affair before they married, and the Biden 2020 campaign knew about it when it was vetting her for Biden’s vice presidential pick, CNN reported.  KAMALA HARRIS’ HUSBAND DOUG EMHOFF RESPONDS TO TRUMP’S ATTACKS ON HER: ‘THAT’S ALL HE’S GOT?’ Kerstin Emhoff defended her ex in a statement to the Washington Post on Saturday.  “Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a variety of reasons, many years ago,” she wrote. “He is a great father to our kids, continues to be a great friend to me and I am really proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala, and I have built together.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Despite the affair and divorce, Kerstin Emhoff has posted supportive messages about her ex-husband’s second wife and has endorsed Harris on social media. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub. Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

Minnesota riots continued after Walz took ‘responsibility to ensure’ there wouldn’t be chaos

Minnesota riots continued after Walz took ‘responsibility to ensure’ there wouldn’t be chaos

Vice President Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, claimed responsibility for preventing riots in Minneapolis in the spring of 2020 as the city spiraled into chaos and destruction, recently unearthed comments show.  “The responsibility to ensure it doesn’t happen falls upon me, and I will do everything in my power to do that,” Walz told the media on May 29, 2020, when asked if “we’re not going to see a repeat of the unrest last night, tonight or for the rest of the weekend.” Walz noted that he couldn’t “assure” the media that riots wouldn’t continue to unfold, but he highlighted that it was his personal responsibility to work to prevent destruction. “As I said, I spent, myself, 24 years in the National Guard. I’m surrounded by good people. We’re pulling the assets, and I’m going to need the help of Minnesotans, like we do on a lot of this. I’m going to need folks to cooperate to get this through. I want to acknowledge, again, that pain that people are feeling, the need to get justice,” he continued. TIM WALZ’S BLM RIOTS RESPONSE LEFT MINNESOTA HUSBAND, DAD OF 2 ‘DISGUSTED’: ‘CAN’T BELIEVE’ PEOPLE SUPPORT HIM Minneapolis was the epicenter of the 2020 riots, which were sparked when George Floyd, a Black man, died at the hands of a White officer during a police encounter in the city. Floyd’s death was followed by social justice protests and riots across the nation, which came at a time when COVID-19 cases and government-mandated lockdown measures meant to control the pandemic upended society in unprecedented ways ahead of the 2020 election. After Walz’s comments on May 29, 2020, Minneapolis was again rocked by riots that evening, according to local media reports.  “Protesters blanketed the area near the Fifth Precinct, heavily damaging at least seven buildings – including a U.S. Post Office, a Wells Fargo branch, a staffing agency and a Subway in a nearby strip mall,” the Star Tribune reported at the time. The outlet in a separate article described the evening of May 29 into the following morning as “perhaps the worst night in [Minneapolis’] history” as residents of an apartment building recalled jumping out of bed at 4 a.m. while a neighboring building that housed an O’Reilly Auto Parts store and a Family Dollar burned. More than 1,500 buildings in the city were damaged or destroyed due to the riots, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. TRUMP PRAISED WALZ’S GEORGE FLOYD RIOT RESPONSE IN 2020, AUDIO SHOWS: ‘VERY HAPPY’ “Where I live now, people are disgusted by Tim Walz. But where I live now doesn’t represent a large swath of Minnesota’s population,” Max Rymer, who moved with his wife and two children from a neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis to a suburb about 45 minutes north of the city in 2020, told Fox News Digital in a previous comment this week. Rymer is running as a Republican for the Minnesota House of Representatives and said he “still can’t believe there are people in the state who support the guy after” what residents “have been through the last four years.” Walz deployed the Minnesota National Guard on May 30, with the state’s National Guard saying at the time that it was “‘all-in’ to restore order.” The riots plaguing the Twin Cities were “no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” said Walz at the time. WALZ SLAMMED FOR ‘HESITATING’ TO SEND IN GUARD AS HIS DAUGHTER TIPPED OFF RIOTERS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA “Our great cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are under assault,” Walz said. “The situation in Minneapolis is now about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great city.” The move earned praise from then-President Trump, who lauded Walz in a phone call with governors. “What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately,” Trump told Walz and the others on the call. His comments came as other cities, stretching from Seattle to New York City, saw riots that police departments alone were hard-pressed to handle. Portland, Oregon, for example, saw at least 100 nights of rioting and protests that summer.  Though Walz did mobilize the state’s National Guard just days after the riots began, locals have said the Democrat governor acted slowly to curb the destruction. “I called the White House after [four] days of unbridled rioting with the Governor frozen on what to do,” Republican state Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka wrote on X on July 28. “I know that Gov[.] Walz and Pres[ident] Trump talked. I know Walz finally brought the Guard out in full for the next night. But Walz was [three] days too late. Pressure may have made him move.” Minnesota’s first lady, Gwen Walz, set social media ablaze this week after an unearthed clip of her describing how she handled the riots went viral. WIFE OF HARRIS’ VP PICK SETS SOCIAL MEDIA ABLAZE WITH ‘BIZARRE’ ADMISSION ABOUT 2020 RIOTS “Again we had more sleepless nights during the riots,” Walz’s wife told KSTP in July 2020. “I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing. And I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening.” 5 CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE TIM WALZ, FROM DUI TO COVID FRAUD Critics and conservatives slammed the remarks as “bizarre” on social media. “What might you call this? Bizarre? Abnormal? Peculiar? Eccentric? Offbeat? Quirky?” wrote Noah Rothman, a senior writer at the National Review Online. “Gotta be a word that describes reveling in the catharsis represented by the torching of other people’s property.” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk described the comments as “weird.” Harris named Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, with the Minnesota Democrat winning the ticket spot against other reported contenders such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. Harris rose to the top of the ticket after President

Walz pick does little to persuade Dearborn’s anti-Biden/Harris voters

Walz pick does little to persuade Dearborn’s anti-Biden/Harris voters

Voters in Dearborn, Michigan, who led a movement against President Biden’s bid for re-election, are unlikely to support Vice President Harris even after she tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. “Nope,” Mike Hachem, a Dearborn leader of the Abandon Biden movement, told Fox News Digital when asked if the choice of Walz might move the needle toward Harris in the community. “He means nothing for the Arab and Muslim community, especially in Michigan. He’s just a younger Joe Biden.” The plain answer comes as some have speculated that Harris’ decision to choose Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, the only Jewish candidate under consideration, was done in an effort to appease far-left members of the Democratic Party more sympathetic to Gazans and thousands of voters in Dearborn, who could hold the key to a victory in the critical swing state of Michigan. HARRIS SNUBBING SHAPIRO MAKES LIBERAL JEWS IN HOLLYWOOD FEEL ‘NOT WELCOME’ AMONG DEMOCRATS: REPORT Leaders of the National Uncommitted Movement, which was inspired by the Listen to Michigan campaign and Abandon Biden movements, had the chance to briefly speak with Harris before her campaign event in Detroit on Wednesday. According to a New York Times report about the conversation, the leaders stressed their demand that the U.S. place an arms embargo on Israel and also asked for a meeting with the vice president to discuss the demand, something she told them she was open to. Reports of the meeting quickly sparked fears among supporters of Israel that Harris was open to the idea of an embargo, an idea her national security adviser sought to clarify. “[Harris] has been clear: she will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups,” the adviser, Phil Gordon, said in a post on X. “She does not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.” Nevertheless, the moment demonstrated the fine line Harris will have to walk to win Michigan: expressing sympathy and understanding for those most upset about the carnage in Gaza while maintaining support for Israel. Hachem said there is nothing Harris can do to gain the support of much of the Dearborn community, noting the vice president actually moved in the wrong direction when she shouted down protesters who disrupted her remarks at the Detroit rally. COMIC MICHAEL RAPAPORT SAYS HARRIS LOST HIS VOTE OVER ISRAEL: ‘CAN’T SUPPORT PARTY THAT IS FOR THIS BULLS—‘ “She alienated the Arab and Muslim community even further,” he said, noting that many members of the community are “ready to support” former President Trump over the Harris ticket. But Abed Ayoub, the national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, signaled a more optimistic tone, telling Fox News Digital that while choosing Walz didn’t help Harris gain support from within the Muslim community, the choice did at least leave the door open. “He can connect with people, he seems like an overall nice guy, but that doesn’t win, that’s not going to be enough to win votes and to win the support of the community back,” Ayoub said.  Instead, Ayoub argued that the choice at the very least gave a lifeline to Harris, whereas a choice of Shapiro likely would have shut the door on any chance the vice president had to pick up supporters in the Arab community. “His opposition to student encampments, things he said in the past, the way he has degraded Arabs and Palestinians,” Ayoub cited as a few of the reasons Shapiro on the ticket would close the door on support. “He has a record of being anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian through his career and most of his adult life.” With Walz on the ticket instead, Ayoub said Harris now must focus on policy changes that would potentially help her pick up support going forward. He cited a potential arms embargo of Israel as a step that would help her gain traction within the community. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “They should take immediately clear policy positions,” Ayoub said. “Give their immediate commitment early on rather than waiting.” The Harris campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.