Protesters Rally in Thai Capital to Demand Premier's Resignation
(Bloomberg) -- Thai protesters began to rally in Bangkok on Saturday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, as the fallout continued from her controversial phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen.
Demonstrators gathered at the Victory Monument junction, a key intersection in the capital, waving flags as monks prayed and chanted on a stage. Organizers brought the rally forward by six hours, with crowds expected to become larger as the day progresses.
Paetongtarn has resisted calls to step down after a leaked call with Hun Sen was released in which she criticized her army, prompting a key coalition ally to defect and her government to nearly collapse this month. The political turmoil compounds woes of Southeast Asia's third-biggest economy, which has been hurt by US tariff threats, a tourism downswing and a consumption slump.
The crisis has also weighed on international investors, who have dumped a net $2.3 billion of Thai stocks this year. Thailand's benchmark stock index has slid 21% this year — among the worst performers globally — largely on concerns that US threats of a 36% tariff will worsen the economic slowdown and hurt company earnings.
The gauge tumbled 2.2% on Friday as some investors cut their exposure of domestic stocks ahead of the weekend street protest.
'Domestic politics have returned to trigger extreme volatility in the stock market again,' said Nariporn Klangpremchitt, an analyst at Thanachart Securities Co. Investors are selling off Thai stocks on concern the protest and political uncertainty 'will affect the government's stability and economic policy implementation,' she said.
A coalition without Bhumjaithai Party, formerly the alliance's second-biggest group, commands a very slim majority. That could complicate passage of key bills in July, including a controversial proposal to legalize casinos and the next fiscal year's budget.
The rest of Paetongtarn's coalition allies have pledged to remain for now.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
You Should Be Able to Tell Who's an ICE Agent
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Back in March, when masked, hoodie-clad federal immigration agents were caught on camera grabbing a Tufts University student off a sidewalk and forcing her into an unmarked vehicle, it was shocking. 'Why are you hiding your faces?' a bystander can be heard asking. It hasn't taken long for such aggressive tactics to become the norm in many US cities. But perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in and around Los Angeles, where President Donald Trump has decided to focus his administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants, going so far as to bring in the National Guard and Marines over the objections of California officials. LA is full of agents, from Border Patrol and Immigration to Customs Enforcement to Homeland Security Investigations, many of whom aren't easy to identify. In the resulting confusion, police officers are getting mistaken for those agents. The trust that's so critical for local law enforcement to persuade people to report crimes, regardless of their immigration status, is eroding. And fear and paranoia are high that some of the masked people walking around with guns and chasing people aren't federal agents at all, but criminals pretending to be law enforcement. There's a real worry about the overall impact on public safety. California state Senator Sasha Renee Perez, who is sponsoring a bill to make federal agents display identification, told me police chiefs recognize the 'very dangerous' situation the Trump administration has created with its raids. She says she introduced her bill because she didn't know what to tell constituents after masked agents caused a panic in her district by pulling a high-powered rifle from the trunk of a car in a busy parking lot. 'They were asking, 'How will we be able to identify whether or not somebody's actually an ICE agent?' And 'I'm just supposed to get in a car with any masked person with a gun who claims that they're ICE?'' Numerous elected officials have been asking the same questions, given that criminals have been known to impersonate ICE agents. Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger is convinced that a staffer's Latino godson was approached by two impersonators in an unmarked car. They told him he had a 'nice truck for someone with that surname' and tried to open the door. Lately, not a day seems to pass without a new viral video showing armed men in ski masks or neck gaiters climbing out of unmarked vehicles with out-of-state plates. Sometimes they wear tactical vests that say 'POLICE,' but almost never with name tags or badge numbers. And when bystanders ask whether they are federal agents, which agency they work for and whether they have a warrant, the men – and it's mostly men – typically refuse to answer. There are many reasons these tactics are problematic, including the basic affront to civil liberties. Americans, after all, are accustomed to seeing the faces of law enforcement and being able to demand identification. That transparency goes a long way toward creating the conditions for public safety. What's required is not just trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, but also some level of communication and coordination among government agencies. Little of the latter is happening though, California Democrats continue to say. The Trump administration would likely blame the state's 'sanctuary' law for that. But nothing prohibits notifications to city or state officials about upcoming operations. Nevertheless, in that vacuum of information, tension and confusion have been allowed to build between the public and federal immigration agents. In suburban Pasadena, for example, elected officials have been left to guess about the identity of a man in a 'POLICE' vest who aimed a gun at a group of pedestrians. They assume he was a federal agent because he turned on the car's red and blue emergency lights before driving away. But local police weren't told of any operations. 'One question is this a law enforcement agent or someone pretending to be a law enforcement agent, and there is no good answer here,' Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo told the Los Angeles Times. Elsewhere, protesters have confronted undercover police detectives, thinking they were federal agents. 'It is not safe for our officers, or for others involved in any active police operations if misrepresentations or misunderstandings lead to inappropriate engagement,' Michael Dorsey, police chief of the city of Fontana, wrote on Facebook. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department reported that its fleet of unmarked vehicles has been targeted, too. 'All white vehicles are NOT ICE,' it posted -- and then deleted – on X. And the mayor of Huntington Park has gone so far as to propose directing his city's police to make federal agents identify themselves before raids, which he called 'state-sanctioned intimidation.' California state Senator Scott Wiener, who has introduced a bill to prohibit federal agents from covering their faces, called the situation 'combustible.' (If enacted, such a bill, much like Perez's, would probably be impossible to enforce.) Why the secrecy? Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, insists it's not about 'intimidation.' It's 'because they've been doxxed by the thousands,' he recently told the New York Times podcast The Daily. 'Their families have been doxxed. ICE officers' pictures have shown up on trees and telephone poles. Death threats are sky high.' That is probably true, and if so, it's a problem. Nevertheless, letting law enforcement operate in masked secrecy, chasing down people without having to provide warrants or identification, is not a viable solution. 'Who are these people?' Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass asked at a recent press conference. 'And frankly, the vests that they have on look like they ordered them from Amazon. Are they bounty hunters? Are they vigilantes? If they're federal officials, why is it that they do not identify themselves?' These are questions that deserve answers. That there are none forthcoming from the Trump administration is just further evidence that despite what Trump says about upholding 'law and order,' the administration's deportations of random dishwashers, day laborers and landscapers has nothing to do with public safety. More From Bloomberg Opinion: This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Erika D. Smith is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She is a former Los Angeles Times columnist and Sacramento Bee editorial board member. More stories like this are available on
Economic Times
2 hours ago
- Economic Times
AI doing up to 50% of work at Salesforce: CEO Marc Benioff
Reuters Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, in an interview with Bloomberg, said that the company is using artificial intelligence (AI) to do 30% to 50% of the statements have been made by other tech leaders, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google chief Sundar Pichai, who have said that AI does a significant portion of work like coding in their companies. Benioff continued, 'All of us have to get our heads around this idea that AI can do things that before, you know, we were doing, and we can move on to do higher-value work.' When the interviewer Emily Chang asked if AI could replace him one day, Benioff joked, 'I hope so. I mean, of course, I'm partially kidding. You know that, but we're becoming more automated.'According to Bloomberg, Salesforce has already let go of over 1,000 employees this year. While some may be moved into new roles, large-scale job cuts like these are becoming more common with the growing adoption of month, Salesforce acknowledged that its adoption of AI tools has enabled the company to scale back on recruitment. During an analyst call, chief financial and operations officer Robin Washington said the company is reducing hiring, with 500 customer service staff to be moved into other roles, an adjustment expected to save $50 million.A few months ago, Benioff went so far as to say that the company wouldn't be hiring any more engineers this year due to significant productivity gains from it is worth noting that despite the slowdown in technical hiring, the company is expanding its sales of January 31, Salesforce had a workforce of around 76,500. Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. The bike taxi dreams of Rapido, Uber, and Ola just got a jolt. But they're winning public favour Second only to L&T, but controversies may weaken this infra powerhouse's growth story Punit Goenka reloads Zee with Bullet and OTT focus. Can he beat mighty rivals? 3 critical hurdles in India's quest for rare earth independence HDB Financial may be cheaper than Bajaj Fin, but what about returns? Why Sebi must give up veto power over market infra institutions These large- and mid-cap stocks can give more than 23% return in 1 year, according to analysts Are short-term headwinds from China an opportunity? 8 auto stocks: Time to be contrarian? Buy, Sell or Hold: Motilal Oswal initiates coverage on Supreme Industries; UBS initiates coverage on PNB Housing
Mint
4 hours ago
- Mint
Goldman ICBC Wealth JV CEO Leaves Amid Growth Pains, Competition
(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s top executive at its wealth venture with China's biggest bank has resigned, people familiar with the matter said, as foreign firms struggle to gain a foothold in the country's asset management market amid deepening economic strains. Alex Wang, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs ICBC Wealth Management, is leaving after almost 15 years at Goldman's asset management affiliate in China, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter isn't public. He is in discussions to join Nomura Holdings Inc. with a similar title to run its securities business, the people said, asking not to be identified. Goldman will replace Wang with Zhang Yumeng, who took up a job as managing director at investment research firm Morningstar Inc. in January, one of the people said. He was formerly head of China at Legal & General Group, having also worked at Ping An Asset Management and Mercer International. Goldman Sachs' spokeswoman in Hong Kong declined to comment. Wang, who was also previously head of private wealth management in China onshore at Gao Hua Securities Co., didn't respond to requests for comment. Zhang and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. couldn't be reached for comment outside business hours. Wang's departure comes three years after Goldman's 51%-owned venture was allowed to roll out wealth management services in 2022. Although the tie-up with ICBC will aid product distribution on the mainland, it remains unclear how much it will overlap or compete with the Chinese lender's own wealth management unit, one of the people said. Global firms have launched wholly-owned fund management units in China, but scaling up has proved difficult amid a sluggish stock market and intense competition from powerful domestic players that offer tailored, lower-cost products. Western firms may find it challenging to match the deep-rooted networks and regulatory rapport that the local incumbents have enjoyed, while a regulatory push to lower management fees has further squeezed margins. New York-based Goldman's China wealth push was built on expectations of rising demand from a growing affluent class. It previously estimated Chinese households will have 450 trillion yuan ($63 trillion) in investable assets by 2030, with around 60% flowing into non-deposit products such as securities, mutual funds, and bank wealth management, according to a 2021 announcement when it established the venture with ICBC. But demand has waned as consumers hoard cash amid a prolonged property slump and mounting US–China tensions, sharply curbing investment appetite. Meanwhile, Nomura has scaled back its original focus on China wealth, cutting staffing by about two-thirds in the business over the past two years to prioritize an expansion in brokerage and asset management in the world's second largest economy, people familiar said earlier. The Tokyo-based firm has been seeking a new chief executive officer for its securities business in China for months as its joint venture faces pressure to revive its performance after posting losses every year since it was formed in 2019. While it was confident that its expertise of catering to rich Japanese would help give it an edge in China, its wealth business push has teetered under President Xi Jinping's 'common prosperity' drive, a slowing economy and stiff competition. Rival UBS Group AG last year also postponed plans to build its own mutual fund business in China due to the large capital commitment and a dim profit outlook, people familiar with the matter have said. The bank had been contemplating a stand-alone fund platform after China lifted foreign ownership restrictions in 2020. More stories like this are available on
