The government of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was hanging by a thread on Thursday following the withdrawal of major coalition partner Bhumjaithai, building pressure on her to resign after just 10 months in power.

The Bhumjaithai Party withdrew from the coalition late Wednesday, citing damage caused to Thailand’s integrity, sovereignty and army after an embarrassing leak of a phone call between the premier and former Cambodian PM Hun Sen.

“I would like to apologise for the leaked audio of my conversation with a Cambodian leader which has caused public resentment,” Ms Paetongtarn told reporters at a news conference on Thursday morning, where she was joined by top defence and military officials.

“We don’t have time for infighting. We have to protect our sovereignty. The government is ready to support the military in all ways,” she said.

The premier has not commented on Bhumjaithai’s exit from the coalition led by her Pheu Thai Party. 

In the leaked June 15 call, Ms Paetongtarn is heard pressing Hun Sen for a peaceful resolution to the current border dispute, and urging him not to listen to “the other side” in Thailand, including an outspoken army general who she said “just wants to look cool”.

She later told reporters that was a negotiation tactic and she had no issues with the military.

“They’re in serious trouble,” said Kevin Hewison, emeritus professor of Asian Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, referring to Pheu Thai. “The ultra-royalists have been handed this gift by Hun Sen, which makes the prime minister’s position really difficult.”

Bhumjaithai’s exit threatens the government’s stability, weakening the fragile coalition formed in 2023 through a deal between royalist conservatives and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the de facto leader of Pheu Thai.

Without Bhumjaithai, the coalition holds only a slim majority, potentially complicating the passage of key legislation, including a controversial casino legalisation bill and the next fiscal budget, when the House resumes sitting in early July.

With the exit of Bhumjaithai, the government has 261 MPs, to 234 for the opposition. The loss of another medium-sized party, such as United Thai Nation or the Democrats, would leave Ms Paetongtarn with a minority government, potentially forcing her to resign or call an election.

Both the Democrats and UTN are planning to meet later on Thursday.

If Ms Paetongtarn were to resign, parliament would need to convene to choose a new prime minister to form the next government, from a pool of only five remaining eligible candidates nominated before the 2023 election.

Another option would be to dissolve parliament and call an election, a move that could favour the opposition People’s Party, the largest force in parliament and the country’s most popular party according to opinion polls. (Story continues below)

Stocks tumble

The political turmoil will weigh on foreign investors who have dumped a net 78 billion baht ($2.5 billion) worth of Thai stocks this year.

The benchmark Stock Exchange of Thailand index has slumped 23% — among the worst performers globally — so far this year, deepened by concerns that US threats of a 36% tariff would further worsen the outlook.

The index closed down 25 points (2.2%) on Thursday at 1,068.73. At this rate, it is headed for its lowest closing since March 2020, analysts noted.

“The index has been under intense pressure due to a cocktail of factors” and “the latest development could worsen the pressure,” Nirgunan Tiruchelvam, an analyst at Aletheia Capital, said prior to the market opening. “However, discerning investors should see through the crisis.”

Pheu Thai stresses unity 

The Pheu Thai Party has urged Thais to support the government and stay united. “In situations like this, no force is greater than the unity of the Thai people,” it said in a statement on Wednesday night. 

Krystal Tan, an economist at ANZ Group Holdings, said the political uncertainty “will further weigh on business investment, and could complicate the implementation of key economic policies at a time when the economic landscape is already very fragile and private sector growth drivers are lacking”.

Meanwhile, an anti-government group has begun to rally near Government House on Thursday to pressure Ms Paetongtarn to resign following calls by several opposition political parties to do so.

Pro-royalist activists also plan to file complaints with authorities, including police and the Election Commission, alleging violations of ethical or national security laws.

Thaksin will be seeking to shore up support for his daughter’s administration among some of the smaller opposition groups in parliament, said Hewison. 

“Now she looks bad, and she can be made to look bad, and this ultra-nationalist stuff is easy to stir up,” he said.

from the pre-crime dept

Back in May, we talked about a change that Nintendo made to its EULA that essentially amounted to “We’ll brick your console if we don’t like how you use it.” Now, Nintendo will tell you that the changes were done to protect the company from the threat of piracy. The problem is that’s not what the EULA actually says. Instead, it lists out a series of actions it is prohibiting, despite most of those actions having perfectly legal and legitimate use-cases that have nothing to do with piracy. Here’s what PC Gamer had to say about it at the time:

The sections I most take issue with are the prohibitions on copying, modifying, or decompiling software—particularly as it no longer accounts for it being “expressly permitted by applicable law”—as well as hardware/software modifications “that would cause the Nintendo Account Services to operate other than in accordance with its documentation and intended use.”

No game or hardware modding, no extracting ROMs⁠—something Nintendo continuously asserts we cannot do, even though it is a legally protected consumer right⁠—and no dual booting to another OS.

When it comes to extracting ROMs, that is perfectly legal in America. Threats to render a $500 console functionally destroyed because someone engaged in legal activity isn’t just absurd, it should itself be illegal. As is often the case, Nintendo is asserting rights it simply doesn’t have here, with overly broad restrictions on a console that the buyer, in theory at least, owns.

Well, we have yet to see Nintendo go that nuclear route of bricking devices, but it is already exacting punishments on owners of the Switch 2 for the use of a MIG Switch.

The device in question is called the MIG Switch and it’s a cartridge that users can load up with games—either ones backed up from legally purchased copies or files pirated online. Nintendo started suing people who sell the MIG Switch last year and designed the Switch 2 so the carts wouldn’t work with it. The makers of MIG Switch, however, recently released a firmware update that made it possible to use the devices to load Switch 1 games on the Switch 2.

Nintendo has responded by banning any Switch 2 that it’s seemingly found to have run one of the illicit flash cartridges at some point. “My NS2 has been console banned and I have absolutely no idea why!” wrote SquareSphere on the Switch 2 subreddit earlier today. “The only thing I can think what has happened is that I tried my Mig switch in my NS2 once.”

There are a lot more of these reports out in the wild, but essentially Nintendo is cutting these consoles off from all online services. And, again, the offense leading to this punishment is the use of a device that can be, but is not strictly, used for piracy. Other uses include backing up your game library, loading your ROMs from games you absolutely purchased so they can be ported over to your new Switch 2 on one cartridge. In fact, for their piracy concerns, Nintendo has a bunch of other methods for policing that sort of thing.

That being said, it isn’t as simple as dumping pirated copies on a MIG-Switch and calling it a day since Nintendo has robust anti-piracy measures in place, often through unique cartridge identifiers. If two users attempt to play the same game online simultaneously using a single copy, Nintendo can flag this as piracy. As you can expect, this likely has led to many false positives, especially in the case of used cartridges.

It appears the Switch 2 is even stricter on this front, as there are now widespread reports of users being banned even when using what they purport as their own legitimately dumped game ROMs on the MIG-Switch. While users’ Nintendo accounts reportedly remain unaffected, their consoles are now blocked from accessing Nintendo’s online services. That means saying goodbye to Mario Kart World, the eShop, YouTube, cloud saves, and the list goes on.

Now, why it’s allowed to do all of this without any confrontation from any sort of consumer rights organization or, hell, civil litigation lawyers is possibly just a matter of time. The console is new and perhaps we’ll see some of that activity in the near future. We certainly should, after all, given how wildly anti-consumer this all is.

Filed Under: mig switch, piracy, roms
Companies: nintendo

Traffic may still be clogging Los Angeles freeways during rush hour, but in many sections of the city, daily life as it once was has come to a jolting halt.

In the wake of widespread immigration raids across the region, fear and panic have settled across many communities in L.A., where one-third of residents are immigrants. For almost two weeks, social media has spilled over with videos capturing immigration agents at shopping centers and markets and on neighborhood streets, and federal agents making arrests at swap meets, car washes and other businesses.

“People are staying home from Mass and work, parks and stores are empty, the streets in many neighborhoods are silent,” Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said in an opinion piece for Angelus, a local Catholic news outlet. “Families are staying behind locked doors, out of fear.”

Businesses and workers are starting to feel the effects of these quieter streets — and it’s unclear how long the situation could last as the Trump administration vows to continue stepping up deportation efforts.

The Times on Wednesday visited several areas of Los Angeles that are typically bustling, only to find noticeably empty sidewalks and the owners and workers at food trucks, restaurants and clothing shops worried and struggling.

◆◆◆

At the 7th Street Produce Market in downtown L.A. on Wednesday morning, far fewer people than normal walked among the shops filling up plastic bags with vegetables and fruits. Several shops that are usually open were shuttered, and parking was plentiful.

In the nearby Garment District — where a dramatic raid almost two weeks ago preceded a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations across Southern California, sparking volatile protests — the streets were empty except for a handful of customers peeking into stores. Workers said there had been almost no business since the immigration raids began.

“It affecting everything; it’s affecting all of us,” said Eva Ibrahim, 48, the owner of a shop that sells dresses and suits.

For a few days after the initial raids, several shops closed because workers and customers seemed afraid to venture out. This week, many reopened, but workers lamented the lack of customers.

“It’s like everything was paralyzed,” Ibrahim said. “A lot of people don’t want to come for fear they’ll get nabbed.”

Nearby, a new quinceñera and bridal shop was also quiet. The store’s owner, Vilma, who declined to give her last name for fear of being targeted by federal agents, said it had been that way since the raids began.

“Everyone is scared,” she said.

“The way that ICE is going about these sweeps is terrifying people,” L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn said Wednesday of what appeared to be an immigration operation at a Pasadena bus stop involving agents in unmarked vehicles. “We have already seen kids not going to school, people avoiding shopping, church, and even going to work. I wouldn’t be surprised if after people read about this incident that we see more people avoid taking Metro.

“This isn’t right,” she said. “The fear they are spreading is doing profound harm in our communities.”

◆◆◆

It’s not just undocumented workers and shoppers who say they are afraid to go to work or shop downtown.

Legal migrants with pending court proceedings are afraid of being detained by federal agents and having their immigration status ignored. People with valid student or work visas worry they could face deportation. Shop owners and workers said even legal residents and citizens had opted not to show up in recent days, worried that the Garment District, popular with migrants looking for deals, could be targeted again — or that they would be unfairly profiled based on their skin color.

On Santee Street downtown, Jessica Flores cut onions at her food truck while waiting for customers. Usually, she said, she’d be taking orders nonstop on what has been a busy street for the last decade she’s worked there.

Instead, she’s had to cut back her hours.

“I was left without people, and I still have to pay my bills and rent,” Flores said. “It’s sad.”

A worker at a nearby shop echoed those concerns. The woman, who asked not to be named for fear of being targeted by immigration officials, said her hours and pay had been cut amid the downturn, but rent still needed to be paid and groceries bought.

“It’s a risk to come to work, it’s a risk not to come,” she said.

By late Wednesday morning, she hadn’t gotten a single customer.

◆◆◆

A taco vendor who typically sets up his stand near MacArthur Park said he shut down his stand last week as a precaution when he saw people were being detained across the city — and he remains closed.

He asked that he not be identified because he’s concerned he’ll be targeted by immigration officials and has a 1-year-old son who needs him.

But he’s not the only one afraid, he said. Foot traffic where he usually sets up has been down for weeks, and on some days he’s had to toss away pounds of food because there just aren’t many folks around.

In Boyle Heights, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass visited Mariachi Plaza earlier this week and found the area shockingly deserted.

Arturo Aguilar said everything was still noticeably quiet.

“We’re really slow, nobody’s out in the street,” said the co-owner of Street Tacos and Grill near the plaza. Aguilar said a nearby restaurant had to close Wednesday because so many employees failed to show up.

“It is pretty profound to walk up and down the streets and to see the empty streets, it reminded me of COVID,” Bass told The Times on Sunday afternoon.

But Aguilar said, for him, the dip in business was even worse than during the pandemic; at least then people were coming for takeout, ordering to go.

“They weren’t scared to come out,” he said of 2020.

But now?

“Everybody’s just scared to come out, period,” Aguilar said.

· Hot!

Back in March earlier this year, a new redesigned Microsoft Account sign-in was released with the intention to make it "more modern, simple, and secure." Microsoft also probably hopes that the revamp will help win some hearts since many dislike the Microsoft Account (MSA) quite a bit as they are forced to use the service during Windows 11 installation.

Yes, signing in to the MSA is one of the several system requirements for Windows 11, and it is also the recommended way and it clearly does not like it when users opt for a Local account instead.

Microsoft often highlights the benefits of an MSA as it points out the unified access users get across devices and services like Windows, Office, OneDrive, and Xbox, which can help in synchronization of files and settings for convenience.

A Microsoft Account also stores the BitLocker encryption key which is crucial thing that all users who have encryption need to store securely.

Back in May this year, we covered reports of users losing their data as a consequence of BitLocker key loss, and this is a real danger for many, given that Microsoft now enables automatic BitLocker encryption on Windows 11 24H2, that most users won't even be aware of.

So in the case of loss of access to a Microsoft Account, an affected user can suddenly find that they have lost all their data and there may be no way to recover it according to Microsoft's terms.

Such account lock-outs can happen as a Reddit user deus03690 found out. The frustrated user claims that Microsoft apparently "randomly" locked their account when they were dealing with multiple data drives. They explain:

"Microsoft randomly locked my account after I moved 30 years' worth of irreplaceable photos and work to OneDrive. I was consolidating data from multiple old drives before a major move—drives I had to discard due to space and relocation constraints. The plan was simple: upload to OneDrive, then transfer to a new drive later.

Instead, Microsoft suspended my account without warning, reason, or any legitimate recourse. I've submitted the compliance form 18 times—eighteen—and each time I get an automated response that leads nowhere. No human contact. No actual help. Just canned emails and radio silence."

The user has good reason to be annoyed and frustrated at this, Microsoft's own official guidance about the Account lock says: "If you tried to sign in to your account and received a message that it's been locked, it's because activity associated with your account might violate our Terms of Use."

The Terms of Use for MSA explain how Microsoft deals with a closed account. It states:

If your Microsoft account is closed (whether by you or us), a few things happen. First, your right to use the Microsoft account to access the Services stops immediately.

Second, we’ll delete Data or Your Content associated with your Microsoft account or will otherwise disassociate it from you and your Microsoft account (unless we are required by law to keep it, return it, or transfer it to you or a third party identified by you). You should have a regular backup plan as Microsoft won’t be able to retrieve Your Content or Data once your account is closed.

Third, you may lose access to products you’ve acquired.

Thus, this shows how users can be pretty much helpless if they get locked out of MSA or lose access to it if they (unknowingly) end up violating Microsoft's terms. It also shows how over-reliance on cloud services on Windows 11, something which LibreOffice recently pointed out, can lead to additional data nightmares like losing all of your data due to forced BitLocker encryption that you may not even be aware of was there in the first place.

The solution? Consider keeping your important data backed up locally on internal or external HDDs and SSDs or NAS solution, as only cloud storage is probably not the best decision.